Sometimes I love Twitter — like a few days ago, when notorious anti-vaccine hype artist and “The View” co-host Jenny McCarthy asked her followers, “What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate?” The Daily Beast took note of some of the responses the Twitterverse posted in response: My ideal mate […]
Few things annoy me more than people who make bad decisions based on bad information (or the lack thereof) — and we live in a world where misinformation is not only prevalent, but also easy to access, thanks to the internet. Case in point: parents who don’t have their kids vaccinated because they’ve “heard” something […]
Every year, prominent psychics made predictions about what will happen in the next 12 months. These are the con artists who lie about being able to foresee the future, yet make money every year from media outlets and victims who don’t bother checking to see how accurate they’ve been in the past. That’s why I’m […]
Carl Sagan died 17 years ago today. In one of his last interviews, with Charlie Rose, he spoke about skepticism and the impact of scientific ignorance on public policy — words that are even more true today…
I wrote this summer about meeting Sanal Edamaruku, an Indian skeptic and founder of Rationalist International. I had the honor of speaking with him at length during a reception at The Amazing Meeting, the annual event presented by The James Randi Educational Foundation, where Sanal was one of the featured speakers. While many of us […]
I was going to write something about the death of the evil Sylvia Browne, who has been the subject of so many posts here over the last decade. But a few minutes ago, I watched this video by Rebecca Watson (of SkepChick), who hits the exact points I was going to make about Browne’s legacy […]