The 124th Meeting Of The Skeptics’ Circle

Hello all, and welcome to the 124th meeting of the longest running skeptical blog carnival!

We have so many good submissions this edition, rather than attempt to couch this carnival in a story frame, we’re going naked! Not literally! Put your pants back on!

First off, Blake Stacey talks to us about Ray Comfort’s crappy introduction to his take on Origin. Comfort is an easy target, but Blake Stacey is always a good read!
http://scienceblogs.com/sunclipse/2009/11/score.php

One Brow’s submission is his final installment of his review of “The last Submission.”
http://lifetheuniverseandonebrow.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-of-tls-just-cause-or-just-cause.html

Lord Runolfr rips apart Discovery’s lame rip off of Ghost Hunters
http://runolfr.blogspot.com/2009/11/ghost-lab-its-lame.html

Podblack Cat tells us all about critical thinking education in australia.
http://podblack.com/2009/11/philosophy-and-ethics-teaching-critical-thinking-in-australia

We’ve got three submissions from The Skeptical Teacher:
Some of you may already know that Jay Leno is a skeptic, but it’s nice to see it in action. Here’s Jay Leno tripping up Sylvia Brown on live tv.
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/jay-leno-sticks-it-to-sylvia-browne-on-live-tv/
Karate is physics. No woo involved. I promise! At least, The Skeptical Teacher promises.
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/physics-of-karate-no-woo-required/
As a skeptic, it’s always nice to have a little Schadenfreude at the denialists expense, so here is Skeptical Teacher, discussing some recent defeats the Global Warming denialists have suffered
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/global-warming-deniers-get-a-double-dose-of-pwnage/

Karen Stollznow shows us her bona fides as a ghost hunter!
http://skepbitch.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/paranormal-superstar/
Dr Stollznow double dips this edition, and also talks to us about the ethics of ghost hunting!
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/ethics_of_ghost_hunting/

Leon Stander tells us all about the fallacies of “Brain Profiling.”
http://www.occamsdonkey.com/2008/09/mind-myth-5-brain-profiles.html

Michael Simpson – one of my favorite health bloggers, talks to us about how pseudoscience fools the rest of the world.
http://blog.insighthealthcaresolutions.com/files/how_pseudoscience_makes_its_case_part_1.php
http://blog.insighthealthcaresolutions.com/files/How_pseudoscience_makes_its_case_Part_2.php
http://blog.insighthealthcaresolutions.com/files/denialism_and_pseudoscience.php

Riayn gives us a varied trio of posts.
First up, on how ridiculous it is that NASA is making official statements about Nibiru and 2010. Don’t know what Nibiru is? Get reading!
Nibiru http://rainbowofchaos.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/nasa-and-the-nibiru-myths/
What is skepticism? Find out here: http://rainbowofchaos.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/what-is-skepticism/

Endcycle gives us an impassioned post on vaccination.
http://endcycle.blogspot.com/2009/11/burning-bridges.html

In a similar vein, Techskeptic shows us how vaccines actually improve intelligence!
http://techskeptic.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-vaccinated-our-daughter-and-have.html

Scott Gavura compares naturopaths to magicians, and points out how ridiculous it is that Ontario is considering giving naturopaths prescribing  powers.
http://www.skepticnorth.com/2009/11/magician-prescriptions-ontario-poised.html

Jonathan Abrams puts How Stuff Works to shame – a normally very scientific website has a whole section devoted to conspiracy gibberish. The full story below
http://www.skepticnorth.com/2009/11/shame-on-howstuffworks.html

Neosprockets tells us all about false cause and confirmation bias. How? By proving that the internet causes autism!
http://www.neosprockets.com/index.php/2009/11/the-internet-causes-autism/

Tessera, at Lay Scientist, gives us the low down on psychic detectives in the UK
http://layscience.net/node/765

Martin, also at Lay Scientist, shows the mainstream media bite on a clearly fake “science” article. What’s the article about? The connection between “Big boobs” and IQ.
http://layscience.net/node/784

Marilyn Mann gives us some meat and potatoes medicine. Or maybe it’s some medicine for those who eat meat and potatoes? Either way, she Marilyn teaches us all about a recent study showing Zetia and Vytorin aren’t such great stuff after all.
http://www.gooznews.com/node/3171

Andrew Bernardin puts a study out of the University of Michigan that asks “Is giving up hope is positive?”
http://evolvingmind.info/blog/2009/11/can-giving-up-hope-be-a-good-thing/

Greta Christina asks us, why do atheists spend so much time and energy on what they don’t believe in? Then She answers us: atheists care about reality!
http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2009/11/caring-about-reality.html

Dr Charlie Glickman tells us about the real risks of “herbal” erection pills, again alerting us to the dangers of essentially unregulated products.
http://magazine.goodvibes.com/2009/11/09/the-risks-of-erection-pills/

Romeo Vitelli highlights a really interesting case of hysteria, the religious kind!
http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2009/11/when-the-devil-came-to-morzine.html

Finally, we’re ending on my favorite post. I know it’s bad to show favoritism but still… We’re ending with Cubik’s Rube, discussing spoon bending. Why is this my favorite post? It contains video of House, bending a spoon. Well, it contains videos of Hugh Laurie bending spoons anyway.
http://cubiksrube.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/spoon-bending/

Thanks for stopping by everyone, make sure to give everything a good read. Also make sure to get ready for the next Skeptics’ Circle, to be hosted by Techskeptic at Effort Sisyphus, on December 3rd!

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