Always keen to hear about the latest “weird news”, I noticed a trend in 2020 where young women (typically) were reporting that their cars were moderately vandalized in busy parking […]
Category: Skepticism
Examining the Mentor ghost child video
A news article out of Mentor, Ohio attracted my attention this past week. The article claimed that local residents were observing strange, “mysterious” incidents and reporting them on their neighborhood […]
Fake tiger tales and other plush hoaxes
Police in the Steyning area of West Sussex, England, were called to a public park on the evening of July 23, 2020 to respond to a report of a big […]
Legitimizing ghost research: Scientism, sensitives, and cultural authority
As I wrote yesterday, sociologists and ethnographers are paying greater attention to paranormal communities. I commented on Bader’s analysis of Bigfoot seeking groups and their mix of naturalistic and paranormalist […]
Please don’t call me a Skeptic
Several people have asked me to explain why I now reject “Skeptic” to describe myself. In short, the label is limiting and is overwrought with mistaken assumptions of being elitist, […]
Reactions to the Darwin Awards post: Really? These are your responses?
A disappointing negative reaction came from my post on Why the Darwin Awards Must Die. Commenters were ignornant and cruel.
Human sacrifice at CERN? It’s not a joke when bizarre claims are taken seriously
Reaction has been varied regarding a video seemingly depicting a human sacrifice on the grounds of CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, the location of the Large Hadron Collider and cutting edge […]
Psychical Research President states scientific disbelief in psi is “pathological”
What a very strange “President’s Letter” is in Issue 77 of the Paranormal Review published by the Society of Psychical Research (Winter 2016). I read and re-read it trying to make heads […]
You (didn’t) WIN: Jackpot scams from the car dealer
I’m usually pretty good at spotting the “small print” on gimmick mailers and promotional contests. The latest one from a local car dealership was well-hidden. I looked and looked. Got […]
End of an era: the last Skeptic’s Dictionary newsletter
Dr. Robert T. Carroll created the Skeptic’s Dictionary – a source I have used for, oh gosh, over 10 years now. I was upset to hear of Bob’s serious illness. I […]
The State of the Science: Parapsychology (Book Review)
In October of last year I wrote a blog post about a review of a new parapsychology compendium. Finally, I’ve gotten to read the entire book referenced for myself, cover […]
Trust No One: All news is doubtful
My main project, Doubtful News is on hiatus right now. (Update 22-Jan-2016: We’re back.) Honestly, it’s because I don’t have the motivation to keep up with the onslaught of questionable […]
Media as ‘medium’: Review of Paranormal Media and the good and bad of ghost hunting
It’s not news that the paranormal is mainstream, which is ironic since we commonly understand the paranormal to be events that are NOT normal yet the discussion about it is […]
“True Jersey” NJ.com published a stinker of a story on the Jersey Devil
A paranormal investigator who writes a column called Paranormal Corner for NJ.com broke a story this weekend that was both a coup for web hits and an utter disaster for […]
Houdini. Skeptic. (Book Review)
Harry Houdini needs no introduction, but there are several facts that people do not know about this consummate skeptic. That makes this book a must for everyone interested in psychics […]
100 Things Popular Science Thinks Science Got Wrong, but Didn’t Quite
I was in the grocery checkout line a few weeks ago. I sometimes scan the magazine rack impulse grabs but never buy them. This week, the crop circle cover photo […]
Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see – Book review
Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News by A. Brad Schwartz, 2015 “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” – […]
Neutrality and the wood ape report
It’s very difficult to be truly neutral. In most situations, you can only get somewhere by taking a side and exploring it. Last week’s hubbub regarding the Wood Ape report […]
A ruse by any other name still stinks
As one who runs a website about weird news, it’s been a crazy start to the year. A number of hoaxes proliferating around the media the first week of this […]
Imagineering cryptids: The Cryptozoologicon (Book review)
It’s not been the best year for the fans of real live cryptids. Not only did we NOT find Bigfoot again, we had a better explanation for the Yeti, and […]