Wine at the Edinburgh Science Festival

They appear to have been having a bit of fun at the Edinburgh Science Festival. As a side note, thats running from 8-22 April, so if you are in the area, then you might like to check it out, details can be found here.

Anyway, so what happens when you get a bunch of science folks together? Well, they came up with an idea for a blind test to see if Wine costing less than £5 a bottle can have the same effect on the palate as those priced up to six times as much. Now since this is a psychological taste challenge you just know that Professor Richard Wiseman has got to be in the mix somewhere, and sure enough he is, his students ran the test and he announced the results. [As another side note, Richard is not only a truly cool bloke, and a leading skeptic in the UK, but also has some very well-written books you might like to check out, I’ll give you a few links later].

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Why do atheists exist?

A question some often ask is “Why do rational sane people believe utterly irrational things?”. However, a far more interesting question to ask is to wonder why skeptics and non-believers exist. Think about it now, every culture we know has embraced some form of belief in the supernatural, so why do we have non-believers? There … Read more

Good Science Journalism – “The Tevatron goes bump” by Jon Butterworth

Jon Butterworth has written an article in today’s Guardian that is truly a fabulous piece. I applaud it, not simply because of the pure facts, but also because he has demonstrated scientific integrity at its very best. First, the core of the story itself is this … This week the CDF experiment at the Tevatron … Read more

We are not being told the truth about Libya

How much of the mainstream media do you believe to be credible? (I’m talking Time, Post, etc, I’m not thinking about the stuff that pretends to be factual such as Fox News, but never is). Personally, I’ve accepted much, but there is a question I’ve been challenged over, specifically:

  • What is the real reason for our involvement in Libya?

If you believe the media and popular opinion, then its  because we can’t tolerate the slaughter of innocent people by a tyrant. Up until now, I’ve foolishly accepted this without giving it too much thought. The problem is that if I had applied a bit of critical thinking, I’d have quickly realised that there was something wrong with that statement. What has enabled me to change my mind is an article written by Johann Hari. In it he quite rightly points out …

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Power band Scam

Was just in a sports shop about 10 minutes ago … and guess what? There sitting next to the till, was a rack full of Power bands. Yes indeed, a piece of plastic with a hologram on it can be yours for just £30 This will apparently make your sports performance magically improve. Well, OK, … Read more