The alarm went off. What does that mean? Recently, a friend who is learning English couldn’t quite figure it out. Isn’t the alarm going on, not off, he asked. Comprehending such phrases is often one of the more difficult steps in learning a language. These idiomatic expressions are collections of words that mean something different than each word’s dictionary definition. For example, “that barking dog next door is driving me up the wall,” if taken literally, could mean that the neighbor’s poodle has recently earned a driver’s license and is using a car to accelerate up the ... Read More
The Brain-Focusing Power of the Lab Coat
February 28, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Schoolchildren grappling with a tough assignment are encouraged to “put your thinking cap on.” But parents and teachers offering this advice may be focusing on the wrong garment. Perhaps students should instead slip into their thinking jackets. That’s the implication of a newly published study, which found wearing a white lab coat — a piece of clothing associated with care and attentiveness — improved performance on tests requiring close and sustained attention. Importantly, the effect was not found when the garment in question was identified as a visual artist’s ... Read More
Numerology Doesn’t Know the Score
January 26, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
We entered the new year with all sorts of expectations and excitement, but I’m sure none compared to the chills from realizing 2012 will see the last major numerical date event — using the Gregorian calendar — for almost another century: December 12, 2012 — better represented as 12/12/12. I know, just a few months ago, we achieved 11/11/11. But not until 2101 will we be able to write 01/01/01, just as we did on that numerically glorious day of January 1, 2001. Disappointing I know, but should we celebrate or cower? Is this the end of the world, as the Mayans sort-of predicted? No, ... Read More
No Debate: Kids Can Learn By Arguing
January 19, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Let’s not “agree to disagree,” says Deanna Kuhn. The Columbia University professor of psychology and education wants to bring back serious debate in America — in sixth grade, if not sooner. Kuhn is tired of hearing that people have a right to their own opinion. It’s too easy to fall into thinking that all opinions are equal, she says, and “so why bother?” The country needs citizens who can make logical arguments “based on substantive claims, sound reasoning, and relevant evidence,” she writes. That’s language from the new educational standards for middle school, adopted ... Read More
Critical Thinker Explains Skepticism vs. Cynicism
October 13, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Several Skeptic’s Café columns have invoked the work of MacArthur Foundation “genius” James Randi and his James Randi Educational Foundation, or JREF. This nonprofit “promotes critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas,” and is one of the key players in the world of skeptical and critical thinking. In honor of International Skeptics Day (October 13), we turn the tables on the president of JREF, D.J. Grothe, who routinely interviews skeptical thinkers for his podcast series “For Good Reason,” by ... Read More
Conversion Therapy Fails to ‘Pray Away the Gay’
September 30, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
"Pray away the gay" joins other notable catchphrases in our popular culture and comedians' repertoires, (perhaps like "wide stance" did just a few years ago.) This time it's due to the efforts of Michele and Marcus Bachmann, who run a Christian counseling center practicing what is called "reparative therapy." Skeptical thinkers may ask how a simple prayer could change people's core sexual orientation. Could heterosexual-oriented people "pray to be gay"? More seriously, why is there a treatment for something that is not an illness? A critical investigation into the practice of conversion ... Read More
Psychic Detectives Have a Perfect Record
August 27, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The afternoon of June 7, The New York Times sent out a news alert: “Up to 30 Dismembered Bodies Found Near Houston, Reuters Reports.” CNN also reported that the home near Houston involved “at least 20 bodies, including those of children.” The Liberty County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant for the house in Hardin, Texas, and despite some conflicting information related to blood found on a door and strange odors, Texas Rangers were unable to locate any bodies or graves on the site. While all this makes fine fodder for castigating reputable news organization like the ... Read More
Analyzing Culture with Google Books: Is It Social Science?
August 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
For more stories about all things Google, see the links at the end of this article. Earlier this year, a group of scientists — mostly in mathematics and evolutionary psychology — published an article in Science titled “Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books.” The authors' technique, called “culturomics,” would, they said, “extend the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities.” The authors employed a “corpus” of more than 5 million books — 500 billion words — ... Read More
Understanding Popular Uses of Percentages
April 30, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Four New Jersey women in March accused the Campbell Soup Company of misleading customers with claims of lower sodium levels in its "25% Less Sodium Tomato Soup." Whether the soup has more or less sodium than regular versions is not for me to investigate. I want to focus on the "25% less" phrase — a type of claim we see regularly in ads and new product labels — and in the process provide some numerical literacy skills to our arsenal of skeptical thinking tools. In an age when quantitative thinking is at a premium and "innumeracy," as cognitive scientist Douglas R. Hofstadter termed it, ... Read More
Homeopathy Not All It’s Quacked Up to Be
March 31, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
In February, magician James Randi offered $1 million in a challenge to the manufacturers of homeopathic products to prove their claims. He also asked major drugstore retailers to discontinue carrying these "fake medicines." Randi, the recipient of a prestigious MacArthur "genius" grant, is the founder/chair of the James Randi Educational Foundation, which promotes critical thinking by investigating paranormal and supernatural claims. For many years, another million dollars has also been available "to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, ... Read More
