The full edition of the 119th Skeptics’ Circle should be located mere pixels up-screen from these very words you are now reading. You should really go and read that, instead of this. But because I’ve sorta kinda maybe gone a little overboard in terms of creative embellishment, I thought it’d be handy to just briefly summarise the posts I’ve linked to up there, and more succinctly round up this edition’s participants.
This itself is actually pretty lengthy, though, so it’s going under a cut.
So, in order of appearance, we have:
Can chiropractic help your child’s asthma? Edzard Ernst says ‘nope’, posted at Blue Genes. A useful description of a pair of systematic reviews recently published by the Professor of Complementary Medicine.
Rusty Feet, posted at Negative Entropy. A detailed, hands-on experimental debunking of a detox foot bath, with pictures detailing the process and a slightly unbalanced chemical equation. (Pretty sure it should be 6H2O on the left, but otherwise excellent work.)
Before you trust that blog…, posted at the white coat underground. A look at some medical quackery appearing on the blog of one Doug Bremner.
Starving Sarah, posted at Providentia. A look at the history of inedia, focusing on one particular life tragically lost to this barmy idea.
Birthiness, posted at Anthropologist Underground. Man, some people take the whole “having babies” thing really seriously.
Yoder’s Good Health Recipe, posted at Action Skeptics. A comprehensive and thorough analysis of some good old-fashioned snake oil, just like yer grandpappy used ta fall for.
Herbal Pseudoscience for Sale at Costco, posted at the evolving mind. More on “supplements” weaselling their way toward medical credibility.
Is There More To What We See?, posted at a Nadder! A critical look at Marge Simpson’s philosophy of life. It might be trivial if millions of people didn’t share it.
Atheist or agnostic? Both, posted at Radical Atheist. A useful clarification of some of the terms that get thrown around a lot.
Faith, posted right here. Yeah, so I gave myself a ticket to my own party. Is that bad form? Eh.
Evil is Proof of God’s Existence, posted at Chaoskeptic. That tacky story has pissed me off for a long time too, so it’s good to see someone smacking it down.
HJHOP Podcast 13 – SkepTrack collage!, posted at Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes. Quite the collection of chatter from something called Dragon*Con, which apparently happened not long ago. TV ghost hunter Patrick Burns going on record that ghost hunting does not stand up to scientific evidence is one of the highlights.
An Account of the Lund University Creationism Debate, posted at Aardvarchaeology. Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Are Skeptics Immune?, posted at Effort Sisyphus. Can critical thinkers still be suckered into scams which, from the outside, appear unbelievably dumb?
your pricey ticket to immortality, posted at weird things. Turns out the Singularity’s pretty overrated.
Why ID advocates need proof of a Designer, posted at Life, The Universe, And One Brow. Even if a Darwinian explanation were insufficient, there might be other options to explore before invoking an intelligent designer.
The Indisputable Evidence Box, posted at Neosprockets. Would you open it? Or take what’s behind Door Number 3?
The Word of Dog #1: “I Do Not Know”, posted at The Bronze Blog. Pointing out how useful and important are uncertainty and ignorance in science.
And a couple that came in too late to be included in the main narrative:
Anecdotal Medicine Lives – This Patient May Not Be So Lucky, posted at Rogue Medic. A straightforward rant on a worthy topic.
Skepticism & Science at Dragon*Con 2009, posted at The Skeptical Teacher. Another look at what went on at this mythical beast-themed gathering, and its relevance to the skeptical community at large.
Quite a haul. Well done guys and gals, thanks to everyone who submitted stuff. I had fun trying to actually write some fiction to a deadline for once. Go read the full post to see how that turned out.
Thanks for including my Rusty Feet article in the Skeptic’s Circle. You are very right it should be 6H20. I went ahead and fixed it. It’s one of those things where you look at it so long you miss the most obvious problem. Thanks for pointing that out!
Thank you for including my post. I shall work at avoiding a style that could be described as straightforward, but ranting is my mantra. I might use alchemy to combine subtlety and ranting. :-)
Thanks for the double-barelled edition! The good, not confusing stuff in the Happy Jihad post starts at about 44 min.
HJ