Skeptic (Altadena, CA) articles from January 2005

Skeptic (Altadena, CA) archives from January 2005

Preparation 500, magnet man, and comet Nostradamus.(biodynamic practice)
January 1, 2005... Preparation 500 We've just heard of one of the more bizarre "biodynamic practices" known as "Preparation 500," not to be confused with "Preparation H." This consists of burying cow horns stuffed with manure in the earth at the Fall Equinox...

Homeopathic killer still on the loose.(Demond haunted times: all the news that's not fit to print!)
January 1, 2005... LOS ANGELES, CA -- No arrests have been made as police continue to search for the person responsible for putting homeopathic poison into people's drinks throughout the Los Angeles area. Residents have been living in fear as the number of...

Shakespeare's authorship and questions of evidence.(News)
January 1, 2005... Note from editors. In SKEPTIC Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 70- 75, we published an article by Scott McCrea entitled "Two Shakespeares: A Skeptical Analysis of Shakespeare and His Works Reveals the Real Author." McCrea sets the stage for his analysis:...

Noreen Renier and the Williston case on court TV's Psychic Detectives.(News)
January 1, 2005... NOREEN RENIER MAY NOT BE AS WELL KNOWN AS Sylvia Browne and some other psychics, but she is clearly emerging as the darling of Court TV's criminally credulous Psychic Detectives weekly series. Having already been featured twice on the show, her...

The truth about cholesterol: a response to Skeptic's issue on diets and health.(News)
January 1, 2005... In April 1991, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) issued its first press release (1) suggesting that steps be taken to lower the cholesterol level in the blood plasma of children. (The blood plasma is the liquid in which blood...

The obesity myth.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... I am writing because I just read the most recent issue of SKEPTIC (Vol. 11, No. 2) and in the low-carbohydrate forum it is pointed out in a response to my previous article that we should be skeptical of the severity of the obesity problem...

Hot hand in hoops.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... I'm just a humble sports handicapper, not a world-class mathematician, so help me out here. I have a problem with the relevance of the hot hand (or lack thereof) theory presented in SKEPTIC Vol. 11, No. 2. I submit, in fact, that the absence of...

A suburban legend.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... In the most recent issue of SKEPTIC magazine, Clare Bowerman confesses that she used to be a shill for the alternative health industry. She indicates she's seen the error of her ways and is now reformed. Yet, she cites a statistic the...

Comments about Hank Schlinger's article "The Almost Blank Slate.".(Nature-Nurture Forum)
January 1, 2005... Shooting Blanks at Steven Pinker Henry D. Schlinger's criticisms of Steven Pinker and his book The Blank Slate in SKEPTIC Vol. 11 No. 2 left me a little confused. The book and the ideas he addressed bear little resemblance to the book I...

Comments about Frank Miele's article "The Revival of Human Nature [not equal to] the Denial of Human Nurture."(Nature-Nurture Forum)
January 1, 2005... The Gene Illusion: A Critique of Frank Miele Of the many problems with Miele's article, I would like to focus my comments on his reliance on behavior genetic research, since a major portion of my recent book, The Gene Illusion: Genetic...

Audiophoolery: an audio engineer, musician, and skeptic reveals that the worlds of audio engineering and consumer electronics are filled with pseudoscience.
January 1, 2005... YOU MIGHT THINK THAT A SCIENCE-BASED FIELD LIKE AUDIO ENGINEERING WOULD BE IMMUNE to the kind of magical thinking we see in other fields. Unfortunately, you would be wrong. In my 35 years as a professional audio engineer and musician, I've seen...

Collapse: the dozen most serious environmental problems and what we can do about them.(Excerpt)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... Editors' note: The following excerpt comes from the final chapter of Collapse, Jared Diamond's sequel to his runaway bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel. In his previous volume, Diamond traced the history of civilization in an attempt to answer...

Catastrophe: the dozen most significant catastrophic risks and what we can do about them.(Excerpt)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... Editors' note: The following excerpt is from the first chapter of Richard Posner's latest book in which he reviews the most significant catastrophic risks facing humanity today. We have purposely left out of this excerpt his discussion of...

The double-blind gaze: how the double-blind experimental protocol changed science.(explanation of why the randomized double-blind placebo-controlled method is used in clinical research)
January 1, 2005... I AM A FORMER "HOLISTIC" M.D. WHO practiced alternative medicine for over a decade. What finally brought my practice to a halt was not lack of success but a close encounter with one of the most important and least noticed scientific...

Flashbulb memories: how psychological research shows that our most powerful memories may be untrustworthy.(false memories)
January 1, 2005... On arrival in New York we caught a cab and headed for the city. The cab had no radio on. As fate would have it, the cabby missed a turn somewhere and we were off the highway, somewhere in Astoria, Queens, I think. We were stopped for a red...

Sex and the brain.(Nigel Barber)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... A review of The Science of Romance: Secrets of the Sexual Brain, by Nigel Barber. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. 293 pp. ISBN 1-57392-970-0 SEXUAL ATTRACTION, DATING, love, sex, teen motherhood, marriage, infidelity, jealousy, sexual...

The skeptic in you.(The Psychic in You: Understand and Harness Your Natural Psychic Power)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... A review of The Psychic in You: Understand and Harness Your Natural Psychic Power by Jeffrey A. Wands with Tom Philbin. Atria Books, 288 pp. 0-7434-6995-X WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER, I was psychic. I would get an inexplicable urge to visit a...

The God question.(A Question of God)(Television Program Review)
January 1, 2005... A review of A Question of God, a film by Catherine Tatge and Dominique Lesseur Editor's note: The following review is of a two-part PBS documentary series entitled The Question of God, which aired on PBS stations nationally on successive...

Ramtha's school of quantum flapdoodle.(What the #S*! Do We Know?)(Movie Review)
January 1, 2005... A review of What the #S*! Do We Know?. A film by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, and Mark Vicente, starring Marlee Matlin What do you get when you combine bits of quantum physics, brain science and the channeled prophecies of a 35,000-year old...

Energy Medicine.(Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... A review of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis by James L. Oschman. London: Churchill Livingstone, an imprint of Harcourt Publishers Limited, 2000. 274 pp. ISBN 0-443-06261-7 "ENERGY MEDICINE" INCLUDES therapeutic touch, craniosacral...

Is that all there is?(What is Thought?)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... A Review of What is Thought? by Eric Baum, 2004, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2004, 478 pp. ISBN:0-26202-548-5 WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON in our brains when we think? Is the process of thought just the electrochemical activity of a mass of...

Connecting the dots to nowhere.(Civilization One: The World is not As You Thought it Was)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... A review of Civilization One: The World is not As You Thought it Was by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler, 2004, London: Watkins Publishing; 258 pp., illustrations, index. ISBN: 1842930958 CIVILIZATION ONE READS LIKE the notes for a much...

Bigfoot: Part Two: the case for the sasquatch.
January 1, 2005... In Part One of our special look at Bigfoot, we examined the history behind the legend's development. We discovered that hoaxes and the desire for fame may go a long way toward explaining the mystery. It's clear that the legend was gradually...