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
Applying Healthy Skepticism to Healthy Foods
July 26, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Summertime: outdoor concerts, beaches, barbecues. I don’t know about you, but my picnic basket is going to be filled with blueberries, pomegranates, açai, green tea, omega-3-laden fish and organic probiotic yogurts. This is the summer to start increasing my antioxidants and live longer. Or so I thought before I rediscovered my critical thinking skills hiding on the bottom of the grocery cart. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to improve the way we eat. In July 2011, for example, the Los Angeles Unified School District stopped serving chocolate or strawberry flavored milk, which has ... Read More
It’s the (Alleged) End of the World as We Know It
May 17, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
If you are reading this after May 21, congratulations. You have survived yet another doomsday prediction. For the past several months, Family Radio Worldwide has been spreading the message that Judgment Day is scheduled for May 21, 2011. This news probably comes as a surprise to those of you who thought the Mayan calendar picked the winter solstice of Dec. 21, 2012, for the big finish. Or at least a shock for those of you who sat through the 2009 disaster movie 2012 and thought it might be a documentary. What's going on now is a sort of "dueling apocalypses" between two dates, two ... Read More
What Do Osama bin Laden and Paul McCartney Have in Common?
May 4, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
To quote Mark Twain, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Is anyone expecting Osama bin Laden to send a tape with this message? Will Donald Trump demand a long-form original copy of the death certificate? Comedians aside, will people around the world really believe Osama is gone? Conspiracy theorists quickly voiced concerns about the terror leader's burial at sea, suggesting that the U.S. faked the raid for political purposes and that bin Laden might have already died years ago or might still be alive. Today, President Barack Obama announced he wouldn't release postmortem ... 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
An Anti-Science Mania Takes Over GOP
March 21, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
You’ve got to go back to the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 for a precedent to the anti-science mania that is currently sweeping the GOP. Then, the issue was teaching Darwin’s work on evolution in the schools. Today, the issue is global warming. Then, as now, large numbers of politicians tapped into the stratum of popular culture that simply rejects science as the basis for public or personal decisions. The chief prosecutor of high school teacher John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, gloated that literal interpretation of the Bible trumped scientific knowledge. This resonated with large masses ... Read More
Wording Change Softens Global Warming Skeptics
March 2, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Are you convinced climate change is real? What about global warming? Yes, that second question is redundant. But new research finds the two labels, which are widely used interchangeably, evoke remarkably different responses among self-described Republicans. Writing in the journal Public Opinion Quarterly, a research team led by University of Michigan psychologist Jonathon Schuldt reports Republicans are far more skeptical of “global warming” than of “climate change.” In an experiment conducted as part of a large survey, the researchers found 44 percent of Republicans endorsed the ... Read More
Is It Hot in Here? Or Is the Climate Changing?
January 27, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
How do you get people to understand that climate change is occurring? The question frustrates scientists and policymakers, who face a disbelieving public prone to discounting discomforting data. A newly published study suggests one answer is to set aside the charts and statistics in favor of a more visceral approach. To put it simply: If you want to convert a skeptic, turn up the thermostat. Jane Risen of the University of Chicago and Clayton Critcher of the University of California, Berkeley, provide evidence that belief in global warming increases along with the temperature one is ... Read More
All I Want for Christmas Is the Truth
December 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
By now, if you hear just one more elevator-version of "The Christmas Song," you may be ready to throw something other than those chestnuts on the open fire and bemoan the unending commercialization of the holiday season. Yet we should not throw our skeptical skills also on the Yule log and look uncritically at the stories and customs we may hold dear this time of year. When did Christmas become such a commercial event? Quite some time ago. Many holiday traditions are secular in origin and not religious at all. For example, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began as a promotional character ... Read More
