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On Unsubstantiated Yet Prevalent Therapeutic Interventions for Autism [Part II]
***Editor’s note: See part 1 of this column here for an overview of the current body of knowledge on the range of conditions classified as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and to read about DAN!...
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A Closer Look
I wasn’t always a skeptical person. In the early 1990s, I believed that ghosts haunted people and places; there was a monster in Loch Ness, and Bigfoot lived in the woods of northern California. I...
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Critical Thinking in Modern Society
Critical thinking is important; most people agree with that statement. Research in cognitive science conceptualizes and measures (that is, operationalizes) critical thinking. There are myriad studies...
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A Report from the Inaugural NYC SpeedyCamp
On June 10, yours truly—someone who had never done a presentation anywhere as a skeptic with a capital “S”—was the very first speaker at the very first New York City Skeptics’ SpeedyCamp. So, of...
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GOOP, Netflix and Motion Sickness
Timothy Caulfield is a Canadian professor of law at the University of Alberta. He is an author of several books and writes about legal and ethical issues for various publications. In 2017, he was the...
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Ghost Crashes? Nope.
On July 4, 2018, a video titled “Ghost Crashes” was shared to a Facebook page called Video Feed, an entertainment website. The video shows a compilation of various car crashes involving a single car...
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Testicles and Paying Attention
Abby Hafer is a scientist, educator, public speaker, and author of The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not. Her scientific career...
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Vaccination
I recently came across Round the Red Lamp, a delightful volume of medical-themed short stories and other medical writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a medical doctor and the creator of Sherlock...
View ArticleResponse to Ken Ham and YouTube Comments by Andrew Snelling
After my article “Twenty-One Reasons Noah’s Worldwide Flood Never Happened” was published in the March/April 2018 Skeptical Inquirer, the creationist organization Answers in Genesis produced a YouTube...
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Autism Wars: Science Strikes Back
In the field of autism treatment, the forces for science and evidence have won a few battles, and lost a few. Unfortunately, some of the most recent victories have been on the side of pseudoscientific...
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Mitchell Lampert - A Interview with a Straw Vulcan
Susan Gerbic: Today I’m speaking to one of the old guard of attendees of skeptic conferences, Mitchell Lampert. He’s not “old” but someone that I’ve seen at most of the conferences I’ve attended, and...
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Secrets of ‘The Flying Friar’: Did St. Joseph of Copertino Really Levitate?
Secrets of ‘The Flying Friar’: Did St. Joseph of Copertino Really Levitate? Supported by records citing eyewitness testimony, St. Joseph of Copertino was a seventeenth-century religious marvel who...
View ArticleCell Phone Radiation and Cancer
The issue of cell phones and cancer is in the news again since the National Toxicology Program (NTP) study has released its results. Keeping track of the NTP results can be difficult. In 2016, they...
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Of Course, Qanon
Credit: dictionary.com The Qanon conspiracy theory is both an old and new conspiracy theory; the narrative elements of the conspiracy long predate this most recent assemblage. In the week since Qanon...
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Essential Considerations About Aromatherapy
The practice of administering plant-derived essential oils on the skin, via inhalation of vapors, or internally via ingestion for supposed healing power is commonly called aromatherapy. The oils for...
View ArticleSpeed Reading: Fact or Fiction
Several years ago, I came across the manual for a self-paced speed reading course. Intrigued by promises of reading thousands of words per minute, I worked my way through the book. To my...
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Wellington Paranormal – Clueless in Te Whanganui-a-Tara
Before I begin this review, a quick shout-out to the skeptic folk of New Zealand, who hosted a very fine (although a little shaky post-earthquake) conference in Wellington back in 2013. I recognized...
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NECSS 2018 Looks Ahead
Despite returning to its regular home at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, change was in the air for NECSS 2018, the tenth annual event coproduced by the New York City Skeptics and the...
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Skepticism Reloaded
Forty-two years have passed since the birth of CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, CSI), and its magazine,...
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Introducing Psychic-Busting Private Eye Bob Nygaard (Part 1)
In mid-February 2018, I was commuting home from the office listening to skeptical podcasts as usual, and I heard private eye Bob Nygaard’s interview on Episode 288 of Skepticality. It was absolutely...
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