fun | Skeptical Humanities

This Week in Conspiracy (3 Sept 2012)

September 3, 2012

The summer has almost ended. In the morning, I teach my first class in Wisconsin. I’m teaching two different syllabi this semester, the first time I’ve done that in a while. I’m teaching 2 sections of “Conspiracy Theory” and a section of “Extraordinary Claims.” The extraordinary claims course will be for more developmental writers, but it is still a seminar class, which is fun.

As you might imagine, I have been rather busy over the last few days, getting things together for the class and so on. Add to that the fact that my smart phone (where I first pick up most of my leads for this feature) committed suicide this week, and you will see that my offerings are somewhat limited. Nevertheless we persevere!

News flash: Joseph Farah is still a creep. This time he calls the Southern Poverty Law Center a hate group. Ah, the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” defense. How…piquant. Of course, he shouldn’t have linked to the article he was talking about, since the SPLC article is far more nuanced that Farah acknowledges and shows that Farah in fact declined an interview. Sue them or shut up, Joe.
When Obama did an AMA on reddit, which clogged the site, people accused the White House of sockpuppetting. The person who posted the so-called softball question has come out.
It looks like the Republican National Convention platform committee did in fact adopt the Agenda 21 conspiracy theory.
Sigh. “West Nile Virus ‘Outbreak’ Justifies Spraying Toxic Chemicals onto Citizens.” It’s tiresome to endlessly have to explain that toxicity depends in part on dosage. I would say, however, that 41 people dying counts as an “outbreak” in my book, and not an ” ‘outbreak’ “.
Veterans are disappearing into Nazi-like psychiatric centers!
WAL-MART IS THE LAW!
You want to know why returning to the gold standard is such a colossally bad idea? The Atlantic wants to tell you.
Is Ron Paul a Masonic Jew? The Red Pill Factory (not connected to “Big Pharma”) wants to know.
It’s hard to believe that Ron Paul wasn’t just handed the keys to the White House outright, amirite? Take the following article from the Daily Paul, which was so frantic that they ran out of title: “Expected Mass Arrests Of Banksters And Affiliated Government Officials by Military, Sheriffs, Militia For Committing Treason And.” (To be fair, this was voted WAY down by users.)
At David Icke’s site, the lunatics have taken over the asylum. No, that’s the real name of the post.
Why in the World Are They Spraying is now out. I saw the world premier of “What in the World Are They Spraying” in Atlanta a few years ago, but I’m pretty sure you can watch the sequel without knowing what happened in the first one. I saw the first one and had no idea what was going on.
Breathtaking bigot Laurie Roth: Obama and Islam Taking Over America–Just as Planned.
Al-Jazeera reports on the conspiracy theories that have dogged Obama.
I don’t know who Bill Whittle is, but I instantly dislike him (dude, look up FERPA). Take his coverage of Barack Obama, and then look at what the Daily Show did to the premise of this weird screed:

Joe Paterno conspiracy theories.
It seems there is a new academic paper out on the type of people who deny climate change…but in the news coverage I do not see “genuinely misinformed,” which gives me pause. Guess I must read this sucker myself.
Popeye at Federal Jack, who once “called me out,” argues, NYC was not hit by a hurricane on 9/11, therefore 9/11 was an inside job. Of course, no hurricanes at all hit the STATE of New York that year, but the important thing was that NYC was not hit on September 11th. Because that’s how evidence works. (My reply to Plopeye is here.)
The Romney campaign threatened “to drop a PR A-Bomb on Ron Paul’s name and legacy.” Why they’d do that after Ron Paul already has is beyond me.
Jonathan Kay: France’s investigation into Arafat’s death is catnip for conspiracy theorists.
Rep. Allen West showed a film at the RNC that claims that the so-called “Ground Zero mega-mosque” is part of a plan to impose Sharia on the US.
NO. This is not how you do it, Ruth Manuel-Logan. You don’t get to recite a litany of debunkings of the “CIA created crack” conspiracy theory and end your article with: “What do I say? The U.S. government is pretty proficient at covering up what they don’t want us to know, so the jury is still out as far as I’m concerned.” You’re essentially saying, “I have no evidence. But fuck that.” Try thinking, please. It’s soooo satisfying.
Salon and SPLC join forces in reporting on the claim that Hurricane Isaac was brewed up by the Dems. Of course, Alex Jones thinks it’s being used to acclimatize us to having the military in our streets.
I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of this case of militia members in Georgia killing one of their own.
Arizona, I’m pretty sure you are why Canada is scared of us. Arizona GOP happy to say they don’t want American baby-killing Middle Eastern Moooslims in the state, like, at all. Not even legally. The rationale seems to be that if they put on big sombreros you can’t tell the difference between them and Mexicans.
Ha ha! Robert Scheaffer (whose book I picked up at TAM) lays bare the CSI-CIA connection!
The award for the classiest comment of the week goes to Jason Bermas, who twot upon hearing that Arlen Specter’s cancer had reappeared:

Is this the end of cover up establishment Warren Commission Puppet Arlen Specter? http://t.co/XACbCEkx – Jason Bermas (@JasonBermas)

Headline of the Week:

A Bald Woman In A Red Dress Wants The Alleged Aurora Shooter Released Into Her Custody

That gem was closely followed by this one from the Village Voice blog:

Donald Trump Makes An Ass Of Himself In Florida, Surprises No One

Twits of the Week:

Not only does Obama’s birth certificate not exist, OBAMA DOESN’T EVEN EXIST. #eastwooding — Paul Fidalgo (@PaulFidalgo)

Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox)
8/30/12 5:33 PM
Uh, the Ron Paul people are putting on black armbands.

(Unfortunately, it was later reported that Ron Paul was in fact still alive and healthy.)

That’s all for now, people! Now, where do I pick up my big government shill check?

FYI, we have another edition of the Virtual Skeptics coming up this Wednesday at 8:00PM Eastern in our Google+ On Air hangout. As far as stories go, we’ve scooped the most popular skeptic podcast two weeks in a row. We’re going for a three-fer!

RJB

4 Comments | 9/11 conspiracy theories, conspiracy theory, critical thinking, fun, mass media, politics, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Bob

This Week in Conspiracy (19 February 2012)

February 19, 2012

Just got back from Alabama (no banjo on my knee), where Eve was giving a talk about creationist interpretations of Beowulf to the Alabama Freethinkers. It was a rollicking good time prefaced by a spicy sausage potluck.

It was a rather slow week for conspiracy, truth be told. I saw a lot of leftover speculation about Whitney Houston’s death, all of which was as dull as it was predictable. Don’t try to confuse us, conspiracy theorists. We know that she is living in Bahrain with Michael Jackson, away from the prying eyes of the world.

First, a heap of irony from Joe Mercola, who plays doctor on the Internet, and not in a fun way: “This Revolting Practice Targets Poor Unsuspecting People First – And You Next.” Do you mean suggesting that Dow and Monsanto are trying to poison your food with Agent Orange? Selling people sham veterinary advice about persistently undefined “toxins”? Or suggesting that root canals cause cancer, which, like you actually did this week, with the headline: “97% of Terminal Cancer Patients Previously Had This Dental Procedure…“? (By your logic, because 100% of cancer patients have had haircuts, haircuts are linked to cancer.) Or is it the completely cynical statement at the bottom of your page that you think will somehow cover you when someone you hurt sues you: “The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice.” How could anyone mistake a “how to” article for advice? You people make me so sad.
From the awful to the awfully funny: Alfred Lambremont Webre at Exopolitics turns the goof up to eleven week: “Four U.S. exotic black ops used in 9/11: Tesla time travel, antigravity UFO, directed energy weapons, mini-nukes.”
A river in Beirut, says Before It’s News, has mysteriously turned red. This, of course, means that Pharaoh is in for heap of hurtin’ or that a company dumped a large amount of dye into the river.
Why don’t THEY want you to know about Nikola Tesla’s accomplishments? Well, it’s clearly just the greatest conspiracy of all time.
“Are HAARP’s high frequency waves driving people crazy?” asks BIN. “Not unless you can hear microwaves, ding-a-ling,” reply scientists.
Homeopath declares a war on the “war on cancer cures”. Fight fire with water, eh wot?
Henry Makow (Satanic-Illuminati-feminist media guy) goes after Jeff “I Already Believe It” Rense. Scraps of flesh go flying like a ticker tape parade when the claws come out! (From Raymond Wiley.)
Sherrif Joe Arpaio: Total embarrassment. I can’t believe this little tough is still a public servant.
Ed Asner has been briefed by SEALs about the upcoming false flag attack to get into a war with Iran. Did he see Victoria Jackson there?
Immortals walk among us!
This was a fun one, “ET mummy found in Egypt,” reads the headline, but the first picture you see is of Zahi Hawass! Yeah, the dude’s from another planet, but c’mon! (Actually, the images that they have are lovely examples of pareidolia, which I may use in future classes.
Oh, Intel Hub. They sort of freaked out when they read that 9/11 Truthers were to be considered possible terrorists, as did most alternate-reality media. Let me explain. No one weird belief, like 9/11 Trutherism, is enough to put anyone on a watch list. However, large clusters of strange, prosecutorial beliefs in individuals or groups can indicate that something is in fact wrong. You will never be rounded up, guys. Really. You are totally safe. If that happens, I’ll be the first to try to get you out. But I’m not worried.
Here is Kitty Werthmann’s own little Valentine’s day love letter to America: “25 Signs That The Nazification Of America Is Almost Complete.”
The Daily Paul links Rick Santorum to the Penn State scandal. Ach. A pox on both your houses. And don’t you make me defend that former senator.
I’m filing this one under “O” for “Oh, Jeez.” Rick Santorum: Member of the Knights of Malta.
Researchers link Morgellons (delusional parasitosis by any other name would itch as much!) to a slime mold, says guy on Internet. A few weeks ago, by the way, the CDC released a comprehensive study of this “unexplained dermopathy” and found bupkis.
From TPM comes, “A ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Sues Prosecutors For Grammar-Based Conspiracy.” (Does the lusting for power of English teachers know no end?!?) This sounded familiar, and, yes, this is the same conspiracy that Jared Loughner, who shot Gabrielle Giffords, endorsed.
From Mike Adams’ site, with its usual lack of nuance and comprehension, comes the “Arrogant doctors refusing to provide health care services to parents who refuse vaccines.” You know, doctors agonize over this, but the problem comes with inviting someone who may be sick with a highly communicable disease, like measles, to sit in their waiting room with other patients who may have weakened immune systems.
Speaking of antivaccine cranks, Meryl Dorey, according to Reasonable Hank, Godwinned herself pretty hard this week. I loved her defense: “I wasn’t comparing myself to the freedom fighters–I was comparing you to the Nazis and Brownshirts.”
Also, in antivax news, Jenny McCarthy is going to get a show on VH1. Here’s who you contact to let them know that 96 million households deserve better:

VH1
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Tel. 212-258-7800
Fax 212-846-1753

FoxNews: Left’s preoccupation with contraception (?) is about getting rid of the poor. It’s a variation on a theme.
Rick Santorum says that Satan has infiltrated academia.
This week, contraceptive was on the agenda as well. Of course, now some daft GOPper is saying that the pill has been linked to prostate cancer.
Alex Jones’s fill-in takes it up a notch, claiming that Bohemian Grove is a secret gay resort.
Contrary to what many conspiracy theorists seem to believe, it is very difficult to know what is going on inside someone else’s head. Sometimes, intent to cause harm can only be indicated indirectly, which is why the Intel Hub’s report on how the FBI routinely sets up patsies…for some reason…rings as false as vows of celibacy in the French marriage rite. (With apologies to Blackadder.)

Conspiracy theory item of the week:
This is more of a conspiracy than theory, but the documents leaked from the Heartland Institute suggest that they are actively seeking to discredit the science of global warming, over which there has long since ceased to be debate among knowledgeable experts. I thought this might get picked up by Science Friday this week, but alas! Maybe next week, because this is important.

Conspiracy Theory of the Week:

This week’s winner came from Weird Al Yankovic, who I know from going to one of his shows can totally rock a peacock outfit:

Al Yankovic @alyankovic:
Why do they not make urinal PIES? #CakeConspiracy

Please sign the Weird Al at the Superbowl Half-Time Show Petition. I would actually watch the Superbowl again. The NFL needs to make this happen. I don’t do a lot of advocacy, but this is the defining issue of my generation.

That’s it for now. I’m working on a write-up about a pretty nifty little topic. I hope to have it ready in the next week or so.

RJB

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Posted by Bob

This Week in Conspiracy (11 February 2012)

February 13, 2012

In the beginning, it was a dark and stormy night, so you can call me Ishmael. Or Al. Doesn’t matter.

Lemme tell you, as I start this post, it’s unpleasant in Atlanta, kids. The wind was pretty impressive this evening, as was, not coincidentally, the amount a certain tree near my apartment can bend without breaking and my sudden desire to purchase renter’s insurance. But not even 2 tons of wood accelerating at 9.8 m/s/s through my roommate’s bedroom would stop me from bringing you the week in conspiracy.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.

So, let’s get some of the goofier stuff out of the way. Apparently, UFOs are dropping “ominous” care packages to earthlings. At least, that’s the takeaway from this BIN post. Oddly, according to BIN’s online polls, fewer people think that the boxes washing up on shore is likely to be true than those who believe the pyramids at Giza are beaming energy to a strange space cloud. I don’t understand you earthlings.
Now, let’s visit the Amateur Geology Corner. This week, conspiracists revisited the Japanese earthquake. First, in a post by some guy on the Internet that will scandalize “Big Geology” into squirting milk from its nose comes the hypothesis that there was no 9.0 earthquake in Japan last year. At the same time, the conspiracy theory-o-sphere reported that the number of large earthquakes in 2000 is 10 times less than those in the last year. If their data is correct, I don’t know if the spike represents better data 10 years on or the fact that most of the increased activity surrounds one of the greatest releases of energy on the planet in recorded memory (which, of course, never happened). Of course, you should never have a sample size of “two non-continuous years.”
The GOP and CPAC yielded their own rather fetid load of donkey’s kidneys this week. Let’s start with Rick Santorum’s assertion that global warming is a “hoax.” The suspiciously French-sounding Wayne LaPierre, President of the NRA, tried to scare the crap out of his supporters (again) by asserting that Obama was out to destroy the Second Amendment. Of course gun control legislation hasn’t been on the President’s radar, so nobody would take that seriously, right?…”Obama Vows to Outlaw Guns if Reelected.” Now, the funniest/scariest thing to come out of the CPAC was Iowa Rep. King’s contention, to use Prairie Weather’s epic headline: “Weird Lightbulbs in Republican Offices on Capitol Hill Were Put There by Communist German Janitors.” I mean, wow.
Lastly, Ron Paul is going to speak to Sovereign Citizens, the scariest sumbitches I know of. In fact they are one of the groups the FBI is most concerned about. I know that Crooks and Liars is biased, so I check up on the conference, and, yep, t hey are out there. I notice that they are hosting Susan Lindauer, who was brought up on charges of espionage for Iraq, but was found to be so delusional as to be incapable of contributing to her own defense. Here’s the indictment. From the trial summary: “Dr. Goldstein, the defense psychiatrist, was somewhat less tentative, dismissing as ‘classic examples of the grandiose variety’ her claims that she was ‘a preeminent government operative who was not sufficiently appreciated’ and had contact with high-level government figures, and was possessed of psychic powers. (Goldstein Report 5/20/06 at 3) He reported also that ‘many of Ms. Lindauer’s delusions are classic examples of the persecutory type.’ (Id.)” Ron Paul will fit right in.
How does the left help goofiness on the right spread?
I’ve been beating up on the right. Here’s one about the left being batty. Monsanto does not allow its employees to eat GMOs.
From Natural News, the worst site in the universe, comes the headline “Arrogant scientists say NY students’ neurological symptoms caused by mass hysteria, not chemicals”. If by “scientists” they mean “neurologists who have examined the girls directly and know what poisoning looks like and decided this ain’t it,” then why “arrogant”? It’s their job to make these decisions. Epidemiologists would likely tell you that if it were poisoning from the environment (like the superfund site hypothesis I’ve heard lately), we wouldn’t expect a sudden spike in twitchy teenagers; instead the teens in that area (and probably not just the girls) would have always been more twitchy. So, yeah, this is an outbreak of contagious mental illness. My favorite mass psychogenic illness outbreak was in 1962 in Africa, when a laughing epidemic broke out. Although the meowing nuns come close. I love my job. Have I mentioned that?
Here’s a video of the entrance to the hollow earth. The guy who posts it says that if it’s real it’s “some crazy shit.” I’d say it continues to be “some crazy shit” if it is not real.
Wow. Veterans Today. Wow.
The ever-classy Alex Jones opines about Whitney Houston’s death. For more expert analysis, see Mark Dice’s video. He’s this week’s worst person ever. (He’s made it on here twice now. Hm.) And not to be left in the playpen all alone, Vigilant Citizen comes out with the shocking–shocking!–revelation that Houston’s death confirms everything that he has ever believed about the music industry. Twit of Ages Mike Adams finds that Houston is a victim of the pharmaceutical industry, not you know, a lifetime of alcoholism and drug dependency. Thanks for waiting for the coroner’s report, you ghoul. Jason Bermas, of 9/11 Truth’s Loose Change: Beyond Thunderdome Director’s Revised Cut Reloaded fame, claims that Fox fingers the pharmaceutical industry as the culprit, though this seems to be a reading comprehension problem. And at the Grammys, Nicki Minaj, who I never heard of until the Super Bowl, was signaling who killed Whitney through the Illuminati-approved medium of Versace clothing. (The update on this one is pretty hilarious.)
Also from Mike Adams’ site, pharmaceutical runoff makes shrimp “commit suicide.”
From Mother Jones, a list of 109 separate things Republicans think Obama has declared war on.
Black Helicopters have landed in Chicago “in Mass,” according to Intel Hub. I bet the priest was annoyed!
Tesla, the Elvis of impossible technology enthusiasts, was MuRdErEd!
Oh, no! Anonymous has gotten hold of dangerous Xtranormal technology! In the “Protocols of the Illuminati” video, the speaker claims that the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is the Illuminati’s playbook, the fact that they were debunked as a word for word forgery of a couple of different sources almost immediately notwithstanding. You know, replace “Illuminati” with “lizard people” and you are David Icke. Something tells me that Anonymous’ B-team is putting together the Xtranormal vids.
File this under “forgotten/forbidden knowledge”–Ancient nuclear blasts and flying machines:

I don’t know what this is…but I like the idea…Space Nazis!:

Oh dear. this weekend I’m going to a talk about maafa and abortion, I think. This is this is related to this guy’s interview.
DHS released a study (which they funded, but did not carry out) about terrorism and various forms of extremism over the last few decades which is meant to illuminate characteristics of threats. This was, of course misrepresented in conspiracy theory land: “According To A New DHS Report, If You Love ‘Individual Liberty’ Of If You ‘Believe In Conspiracy Theories’ You Are A Potential Terrorist.” Of course no one of these characteristics alone makes you more likely to carry out a terrorist attack. Only in clusters and with increased intensity do otherwise non-indicative signals correlate with a capacity for violence. You know, like members of the Hutari militia, who wanted to take out the Feds and whose trial starts very soon.
Is the US Government hiding evidence of Egyptian expeditions to the Grand Canyon?
Dude in Missouri: “US public schools are a Klan conspiracy.“
“Exo-scientists” confirmed that humans have alien DNA this week. I looked for the link to the peer-reviewed science journal, but could not find one. Go figure.
Intel Hub reports: “Going Rogue: Giant Wave Damages Cargo Ship, Is Electromagnetic Experimentation To Blame?” Oh, that’s easy. No. You’re welcome.
The Atlantic turned its attention to conspiracy theory this week. The first article is about “Agenda 21,” or as the Atlantic puts it, “Is the UN Using Bike Paths to Achieve World Domination?” Also, ooh! an excerpt from a new book about conspiracy and rightist rage. Want! Want!
Oh, jeez. ABC is going to create a show about an editor of a skeptical magazine who uncovers a conspiracy theory. Page Ben Radford!

That’s it for this week, folks. No conspiracy theory of the week. Oddly, nothing struck me as absurd enough. I hope that doesn’t mean that I am building up a tolerance. I’ve started working on a story about UFOs in the Renaissance. I may try to peddle it to, well, Ben Radford. We’ll see. Take it easy! Also, Eve, who has been a little AWOL lately, is working on something utterly hilarious. I hope that will be up soon.

RJB

12 Comments | conspiracy theory, fun, mass media, politics, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Bob

Skeptical Book Review: Reading Outside of Your Discipline, or A Psychologist, a Magician, and an Archaeologist Walk Into a Bookstore

February 8, 2012

If a very literate thief were to break into my apartment, I like to think he would take a moment to browse and appreciate my bookshelves. It’s a varied collection, which includes a massive collection of cheap paperbacks I picked up for my masters and doctoral exams, a huge number of obscure lit books by well known authors which are only ever read by professors, books of theory and poetry, a lot of science books, a collection of primary sources photocopied at cost from the finest archives around the world, a shelf of WWII memoirs and histories, a pony-load of anthologies, rhetorics piled out the wazoo, and a heap of books that can only be described as “flaky to the nth degree” (think of the ouvre of Jenny McCarthy). This ne’er-do-well, just before my cats mauled him beyond recognition, I like to think, would be slightly confused by my collection, which serves the bastard right for breaking into my apartment in the first place.

Our thief, as the cats flayed him alive with their razor-sharp, serrated tongues, would in his dying moments probably wish that I would come home from my vacation, but in all likelihood I’d be too busy playing tourist. I’m as pleased as punch to wear a stupid Hawaiian shirt and wander the streets of an unfamiliar city gawking. I also like to pick up souvenirs when I travel, specifically, I like to buy a book in each town I visit. It gives me something to do during downtime, and I can always recall what I was interested in at the time I was traveling. For instance, the last time I was in New Orleans (CSICon excluded), visiting the D-Day Museum with my grandmother, I bought the collected short fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald at the airport bookstore. That’s presumably when I started using the phrase “a _____ as big as the Ritz” in everyday conversation.

Anyway, my recent trip to CSICon in New Orleans was no exception. Not only was the solar-fusion yellow Hawaiian shirt in full effect, but I also returned with three more books than I arrived with. What struck me about this particular collection of reads was the variety of disciplines they touched on. At the CSICon book display, I picked up The Truth about Uri Geller, the classic work of flair-trousered debunkery by magician James Randi, and 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, Jon Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein. (Scott, I should mention, was my conspiracy theory session’s chair.) Down the street from the conference hotel, at Crescent City Books, I picked up Frauds, Myths and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 6th ed., by Kenneth L. Feder.

These books, together, only make sense on a skeptic’s bookshelf, which is one of the reasons I am so attracted to skepticism as a methodological framework for scholarship–it gives one a large set of tools that can be applied to widely divergent areas of study. While I have chops in a couple of disciplines, I also have the flexibility to begin to assess the contents of novel claims, even if I am not an authority in all areas.

The value of these books, to me at least, is how each contributes to my mental map of my own limitations, which is important to know if you want to avoid making unwarranted, unsupportable and silly claims. The subjects of these books span the range of topics from deliberate deception, in the case of Geller, to inadvertent yet pervasive misinformation, in the case of popular psychology.

James Randi’s The Truth About Uri Geller is a skeptical standard, as is anything written by James Randi. Besides being a magician, Randi also has to be a bit of an acrobat, one the one hand laying bare that Uri Geller, the 1970s spoon bending Israeli, was little more than a stage performer, all the while protecting the secrets of the craft and so forth.

Much of the book is documentary, culled from sources reporting on Geller’s rise to prominence in the US. Randi spends a lot of time showing how the media was fooled, and how misremembering and misreporting fed into the Geller myth. Occasionally, Randi illustrates precisely how a trick was accomplished by publishing evidence of Geller’s mistakes. My favorite was Geller’s attempt to take a “psychic photograph” on a camera that still had its lens cap on. This “test” of Geller’s abilities was performed in a private residence, and illustrates how a patient and talented performer can multitask. In this case, he said that the photograph had been taken (it had not), but then later in the test, he had his test administrators leave the room to write something on a slip of paper. While they were out of the room, he removed the camera and snapped a photo. Randi can confidently assert this because Geller did not realize that the lens had an extra-wide field of view and caught his FACE in the shot, thoroughly debunking himself! Randi replicates effect, and the conclusion is undeniable.

You walk away from the book admiring Geller’s skill as a magician and manager of illusions, but with no respect for him as a person. Geller’s talent for peeks, distraction, and causing confusion is undeniable. But his trickery, which seems inexplicable to the untrained eye, withers under the scrutiny of his technical equals and moral betters.

Next is Kenneth Feder’s Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. I read the sixth edition. Feder provides a general guide to distinguishing good archaeology from not-as-great archaeology. Feder pays special attention to a number of hoaxes and sensational claims about civilizations past. In doing so, he builds up models of how archaeologists treat and interpret evidence.

Personally, I think that much pseudo-archaeology, including ancient alien hypotheses and so-called biblical archaeology (which seeks to establish that one’s own literal interpretation of the Bible is the correct one), do not meet nearly enough informed criticism in the popular press. Feder lays bare what we would expect to find if these extraordinary claims are found to be true and how news evidence fits into a much larger body of evidence about humanity’s past.

The most important warning that Feder delivers, it seems to me, is to be especially wary of those claims that give you exactly what you most expect or hope to find. Many of the hoaxes and instances of scientific fraud Feder takes the reader through, like Piltdown, succeeded because people embrace agreeable finds. While it may seem staggeringly obvious in hindsight, the satisfaction of expectations and justification of prejudices seems to be especially compelling to the public. At the same time, those most memorable, earth-shattering claims are the most likely to be repeated in the media and repeated. An understanding of the standards of practice and the process of archaeology is an important safeguard against embracing impossibilities. Critical thinking exercises at the end of each chapter drive home the important points and encourage readers to consider the implications of issues raised in the chapters.

As questions at the end of chapters usually do. (Sigh.)

The final book that I brought home from New Orleans was 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology by…a whole lot of psychologists. Fine, I’ll type them all out: Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, Jon Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein (abbreviated to “L.L. RuBe”). L.L. RuBe looks at a large number of popular popular misconceptions about how our minds work. The topics covered, from the idea that we use only 10% of our brains to the idea that people commonly repress traumatic memories, are those sorts of things that have seeped into the culture. Again, the explanations for why these ideas are popular vary, but often they seem to patch over gaps in actual knowledge, and L.L. Rube does an excellent job filling those in with solid science.

An interesting and unexpected feature is a list of topics that the authors, numerous as they were, simply did not have time to cover. At the end of each chapter, they remind you that they have only scratched the the tip of the volcano. Uhhh… That metaphor slipped away from me like a slippery thing. I can easily see using this book in my writing about science and pseudoscience class as an invention source for first-year research questions, for instance.

Review Questions:

1) Can you tell where Bob forced together two versions of this post? If not, check to see if you have a lobotomy scar.

2) At what point did Bob simply run out of steam?

RJB

3 Comments | critical thinking, fun, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Bob

Masala Skeptic Reviews Twilight, Readers Make Funnies

November 22, 2011

Yeah, I’m just going to let you read this one by Maria Walters, who specializes in searing critiques of Twilight. This one is “Twilight: Breaking Wind.” And please be sure to pay attention to the comments and the guy who really pierces the heart of literature. Repeatedly. With a machete.

Also, enjoy Buffy vs. Sparkle Tits: