The Smug Baldy Speaks

In this article, I’ll outline a proposal to utilize a well known conceptual framework to increase our ability to rigorously and dispassionately examine the accuracy of psychic predictions of future events. In part one, I propose two sets of guidelines related to data recoding and validation, as well as data analysis. In later parts, I [...]

In part of one True Believer’s drive by on my Sylvia Browne piece, in which the commenter admitted that I amaze her, she said: Of course, I’m one that doesn’t believe the human race ever had a tail or gills too. Although she went on to say how she wasn’t, “so closed minded that I [...]

The news out of Frankfort, KY is that Park Rangers in the state are increasingly challenged by visitors who had also visited the Creation Museum: The Creation Museum, which presents the Bible’s creation story as fact supported by science, was opened in late May in Petersburg by the Answers in Genesis Christian ministry. And there [...]

Someone posted a stupid comment yesterday in my post about comedian Sylvia Browne’s horrible accuracy for her 2006 predictions, and I wondered why it was that my claims were treated with such disdain, while Sylvia’s wrong predictions (like the one that Arnold Schwarzenegger would lose his re-election bid) were glossed over. Then it occurred to [...]

My wife gets kudos for this one: The Foundation for Critical Thinking has posted a list of critiques in the news, titled Police States or Critical Societies? Critical Thinking and the Forces Arrayed Against It. The list starts with a brief introduction that asserts: There are two opposing social tendencies relevant to critical thinking, each [...]

In the good old days, the blind led the blind, and even so, snake-oil salesmen were relatively easy to spot. Now the snake-oil is well marketed by cool-looking websites like Overwhelming Evidence, where kids are encouraged to, “communicate their views on intelligent design and evolution”. Indeed, OE puts the power in student’s hands” We believe [...]

I love my local newspaper, the Mobile Press-Register. There’s a section of the paper that changes each day, one day it’s the Senior Living section, the next it might be Neighbors section. On Saturdays it becomes the Religion section (because we need to justify the salary of our local Religion editor) and on Sundays, it’s [...]

According to CBS News, a recent Gallup Survey shows that 68% of Republicans “Disbelieve Scientific Explanation of Creation”: A Gallup poll released Monday said that while the country is about evenly split over whether the theory of evolution is true, Republicans disbelieve it by more than 2-to-1. Republicans saying they don’t believe in evolution outnumbered [...]

In today’s issue of the eSkeptic, Stephen Asma reviews New Creation Museum that recently opened in Kentucky. If you recall, I wrote a bit about this museum a while back, and at the time I thought that the most interesting thing would be how they managed to deal with dinosaurs. It turns out that explaining [...]

Inventor Joseph Newman appeared in today’s Mobile Press-Register, demonstrating his amazing new “Alternative Energy Machine” at the Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds. Among claims that Newman makes are the following: The device will rid the world of pollution and our dependence on oil The government has tried to stop his invention because officials are controlled by [...]