Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science by Richard Dawkins My rating: 4 of 5 stars I feel this book helped me understand Dawkins considerably more than I […]
Year: 2015
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 […]
The stupidiocy of Ancient Aliens for kids (Book Review)
There are few good skeptical books for kids. But there are a shit-ton of terrible books promoting mystery and pseudoscientific nonsense aimed at kids or those getting started exploring a paranormal […]
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 […]
Miscellaneous book review quickies Fall 2015
The Paranormal by Kenneth PartridgeMy rating: 1 of 5 stars Mostly poor choice of selections for this collection. It’s a book marketed to university libraries as a “resource” but not […]
Parapsychology continues to fail to impress reviewers
A correspondent clued me in to what he called a “devastating commentary on parapsychology.” I agree. The review on the Magonia Review of Books meshes with what I had written in June 2014 when […]
“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 […]
If you think Bigfoot is an interdimensional being, you’ve lost your footing
A person making an extraordinary claim may feel very special. A couple that I met recently who do paranormal research described some acquaintances’ behavior during an investigation of a supposedly haunted place […]
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 5: Which came first – the monster or the myth?
This is the fifth and final post in a series examining cryptids (“hidden” animals said to exist based on local testimony), namely lake monsters, in terms of the folklore, tradition, and […]
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 […]
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 4: Crypto-zoologizing the natives’ magic monster
This is the fourth post in a series examining cryptids (“hidden” animals said to exist based on local testimony), namely lake monsters, in terms of the folklore, tradition, and native tales […]
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 3: Hiding in the cold, dark water until Judgment Day
This is the third in a series of posts examining cryptids (“hidden” animals said to exist based on local testimony), namely lake monsters, in terms of the folklore, tradition, and native […]
Sciencey: People get it
In the course of writing, there are times when you have to either create a new word because there isn’t just the right one coined yet or you adopt a […]
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 […]
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 2: Lake Monster Tropes
This is the second in a series of posts examining cryptids (“hidden” animals said to exist based on local testimony), namely lake monsters, in terms of the folklore, tradition, and […]
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 1: The Illusion of Facticity in Unknown Animal Reports
What can we make of folklore tales that cryptozoologists use to support claims that an unknown animal has been historically reported and remains to be identified? Cryptid researchers say that […]
Is the snowflake to blame for the avalanche? (Book review)
Jon Ronson is someone with whom you could sit down and just start up a conversation like you have known him for years. In fact that happened to me a […]
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.” – […]
Stone-throwing wall-thumpers: Review of Australian Poltergeists
Paul Cropper sent me a copy of his new book with co-author Tony Healy, Australian Poltergeist: The Stone-throwing Spook of Humpty Doo and Many Other Cases. He must have known […]
Storm and the devil: Book review
I like reading historical books when the narrative flows and the information is new and intriguing. I really liked A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience […]