Currently Browsing: Skepticism
Aug 5, 2008
Charlatan: The Fraudulent Life of John Brinkley – Pope Brock
If someone casually mentioned to you that they had discovered the secret to eternal youth and vitality, would you sit up and listen? If they then told you that in order to achieve this, and the rampant sex drive which would naturally accompany it, you may have to undergo surgery, would you ask for more information? What, then, would you say if you were told that this secret required you to go under the... read more
Jul 22, 2008
The Demon-Haunted World – Carl Sagan
I am a podcast addict as any of you who know can attest. I listen to an awful lot of podcasts about an awful lot of things, but my particular favourites are podcasts dealing with science, scepticism (or skepticism depending on which side of the pond you are from), astronomy, rationalism, evolutionary biology and critical thinking. In all of them, I kept hearing mention one book – The Demon Haunted... read more
May 15, 2008
Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives – Richard Wiseman
Have you ever wondered whether a black cat crossing your path really brings you bad luck? How about what the funniest joke in the world is? Are you really connected to Sir Richard Branson by just six degrees? And how can you tell whether someone is actually lying? Richard Wiseman seems to spend his life cogitating over these kinds of questions, but unlike all the rest of us, he then decides he is going to... read more
Apr 11, 2008
SHAM: How the Gurus of the Self-Help Movement Make Us Helpless – Steve Salerno
I spent much of this book in a state of some confusion. I wasn’t confused because I didn’t understand the subject matter – rather my confusion came from my feelings towards it. Much of the book I agreed with strongly, but other parts I didn’t agree with at all. To be fair, this paradox lends the book its interest and ensures it is a success because it really drove my to think about... read more
Apr 1, 2008
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition and Other Confusions Of Our Time – Michael Shermer
During the Second World War, the Nazi’s orchestrated the systematic murder of millions of Jews in the gas chambers of concentration camps around Europe. This horror known as the Holocaust is remembered and studied by students and academics alike. But there are a few people out there who, for some reason, deny that it ever happened and try and suggest that the whole thing is a big conspiracy. In the... read more
