Critical Thinking

Beware The Logic of Sherlock Holmes

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While in a debate recently, one chap justified his assertion by deploying the following quote … “When you dismiss the impossible, whatever you have left, however improbable, is the answer.” Recognise it? Yep, Sherlock Holmes (or Spock if you prefer), well the precise quote is this … “You will not apply my precept,” he said, … Read more

Do you believe in Magic? … a religious cleric claims he does not, and that non-believers do.

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Giles Fraser has been writing in the Guardian again, and yes, this is the C of E cleric who was once Cannon of St Paul’s but quit because he stuck to his principles and refused to eject protesters outside the cathedral. Anyway, he is arguing against magic, and uses that term to describe an irrational … Read more

Andrew Wakefield handed award for …. ‘lifetime achievement in quackery’ … it is well deserved.

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The Guardian reports that … Andrew Wakefield, the doctor struck off the medical register for his discredited research that claimed to find a link between autism and theMMR vaccine, can add another honour to his list this Christmas: the inaugural Golden Duck award for lifetime achievement in quackery, set up by the science writer Simon Singh. It is … Read more

Witchcraft and magic cures

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Being critical of daft ideas matters … it really does. Every now and then somebody who is stupid enough to believe gets into a position of power where they then proceed to do real harm on an almost industrial scale. I have an example for you, Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh truly believes that witchcraft is real, as reported … Read more

A bit of fun …Messing about with Gravity

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There exists a very strange place on planet earth, so weird that gravity as we know it does not appear to work as we expect.

Here is a clip by well-known skeptic, Brian Dunning, illustrating this weird anomaly. It is located within Death Valley deep inside one of the hidden canyons (Mosaic Canyon) and caught my attention because I was in that exact spot a couple of months ago myself and was quite amazed by it. Anyway, here is Brian explaining …

OK, so what is going on here, is this credible or is there something else happening? Does gravity really behave like this?

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