Skeptic (Altadena, CA) articles from June 2004

Skeptic (Altadena, CA) archives from June 2004

What is a skeptic?
June 22, 2004... What does it mean to be a skeptic? Some people believe that skepticism is rejection of new ideas, or worse, they confuse "skeptic" with "cynic" and think that skeptics are a bunch of grumpy curmudgeons unwilling to accept any claim that...

The wizards of OZ: the skeptics at the Observatoire Zetetique conduct an exemplar investigation of a paranormal phenomenon.('Twas Brillig ...)
June 22, 2004... A GROUP IN FRANCE KNOWN AS THE Observatoire Zetetique (Skeptical Observatory, shortened to "OZ" as an inside joke) has just published the detailed results of a comprehensive experiment designed to test the claims of "Therapeutic Touch" made by...

Alien committee pulls plug on abduction research.(Demon haunted times: all the news that's not fit to print!)
June 22, 2004... VEGA SOLAR SYSTEM--The Appropriations Committee of the Intergalactic Confederation voted yesterday not to renew a 13-trillion-dollar grant for human abduction research routinely awarded to Zenron Corporation. The decision was based on a recent...

The politicization of science in the Bush administration: science-as-public relations.
June 22, 2004... THERE'S A WAR GOING ON--and not just the one in Iraq. This conflict may not get as much media play, but it could have just as great an impact on our safety, national prestige, and long-term economic health. It is a war over the integrity of...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 22, 2004... In SKEPTIC Vol. 11, No. 2 (pp. 18-20), in the article "Texas Textbook Wars" by Kirk Hagen and Lisa Morano, in the discussion on melanism in peppered moths, the reference to lower C[O.sup.2] levels should have been lower S[O.sup.2] levels. SO is...

Catholic Church says weeping statues fake.(News)(Brief Article)
June 22, 2004... ON JULY 29, 2004, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH announced that the bleeding and weeping of statues, crucifixes, and rosary beads they investigated in the Vietnamese Community Church in Brisbane (Australia) was a hoax, not a miracle. Judicial vicar...

Mexican Air Force UFO affair: aliens, ball lightning, or flares?(News)
June 22, 2004... ON FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2004, a Mexican Air Force flight crew filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state, but the public was not notified of the sightings until Mexico's Defense Department issued a statement on...

An astonishing mind Francis Crick 1916-2004.(Obituary)
June 22, 2004... SCIENCE LOST one of its brightest luminaries on Wednesday, July 28, when Francis Crick died at age 88 after a long battle with colon cancer. Crick was co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, a pioneering researcher on the neural correlates of...

Dogon mystery still unsolved.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... I wonder if perhaps SKEPTIC may have stubbed its toe regarding Liam McDaid's article on the Dogon tribe's astronomy skills (Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 40). About two decades ago the PBS television series NOVA addressed the same story in a good overall...

God not disproven by science.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... In his letter to the Forum in SKEPTIC Vol. 11, No. 1, "Thanks From a Christian," home schooler Scott Carrell reveals his incompetence to teach science. He does not understand that science, seeking only to discover the most parsimonious...

Science Literacy v. Scientific Reasoning Ability.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... I would like to respond to the article in SKEPTIC Vol. 10, No. 4, "Science Literacy and Belief in the Paranormal: An Empirical Test," by Ryan, et al. The reported study measured the Science Literacy (SL) of college students and compared it to...

Diagnosing role models.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... I do not agree with the letter that followed mine in SKEPTIC (Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 27). People with ADHD and other developmental disabilities do not experience role models as the writer supposes. If a black child is taught about Harriet Tubman,...

The reason creationism won't go away.(Evolution/Creation Issues Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... David Eller's piece, "Macroevolution and Microcreationism: Another Flaw in Intelligent Design" (SKEPTIC Vol.10, No. 3), while logical and well-written, is flawed. It reads like a sermon to the anti-Christian choir. The premise is stated in...

Fair and biased.(Evolution/Creation Issues Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... In Paul Gross's book review of Mark Perakh's Unintelligent Design in SKEPTIC, Vol. 11, No. 1., it is amazing that Gross cannot see his own bias as he accuses the people in the ID (Intelligent Design) camp of becoming biased. I pick this...

Evolutionists are politically left of center.(Evolution/Creation Issues Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... In "The Texas Textbook Wars," L. Kirk Hagen and Lisa Moreno discuss the creationist Discovery Institute, whose stated mission is to promote "representative government, the free market and individual liberty." "What evolutionist would ever argue...

Towards a theology of evolution?(Evolution/Creation Issues Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... In response to the excerpt and review of Simon Conway Morris' new book, Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe, and his chapter title question, "Towards A Theology Of Evolution: Humans Were Inevitable On Earth But We Are Alone...

A whale of a sound.(Environmental issues forum: whales and sonar, pesticides)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... In response to Jennifer Linn Jacquet's article on the ban on sonar (SKEPTIC, Vol. 10, No. 4 p. 14), Caltech's Dr. Fritz Zwicky complained about researchers who threw sand in the eyes of others, making it more difficult for them to make progress...

Pesticides and cancer: the dialogue continues.(Environmental issues forum: whales and sonar, pesticides)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... In a 2002 letter to SKEPTIC (Vol. 9, No. 3), I attempted to show how Bjorn Lomborg erred in conclusions on one issue discussed at his Caltech lecture and his book The skeptical Environmentalist. Lomborg claimed that society need not be...

A response to the criticisms of "The Skinny on Fat" by Patrick Johnson.(Low Carb Diet Forum)
June 22, 2004... I am writing this in response to criticisms that appeared in the low-carbohydrate forum (SKEPTIC, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 32-33.) about my article, "The Skinny on Fat" that appeared in the previous issue (SKEPTIC, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 66-74). I want...

The skinny on cholesterol.(Low Carb Diet Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... Patrick Johnson demonstrates appropriate skepticism (SKEPTIC Vol. 10, No. 4) toward claims that the Atkins and other low-carbohydrate diets will help one to lose weight and keep it off, but accepts without critical examination allegations that...

Cryonics revived: vitrification unjustly vilified.(Cryonics Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... I would like to respond to Kevin Miller's story in SKEPTIC, Vol. 11, No. 1, "Cryonics Redux," in which he discussed the work of fellow cryobiologist Dr. Kenneth Storey. I must respectfully disagree with Storey when he says that vitrification...

Vitrification unjustly vilified.(Cryonics Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
June 22, 2004... I object to Dr. Storey's implication that only single cells survive attempts at vitrification. Small organs and tissue blocks such as organ slices, embryos, corneas and blood vessels can be vitrified (stored in the solid state, without...

A frozen future? Cryonics as a gamble.(Skeptical Opinions)
June 22, 2004... FOR MANY, THE WEIRDEST NEWS of 2002 was the story that American baseball legend Ted Williams had been frozen. Williams' son had turned his fathers body over to a firm that suspends its "patients" in liquid nitrogen. A firestorm of media...

Historical Jesus forum: what can we know?(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)(Critical Essay)
June 22, 2004... Who Killed Jesus? In response to Tim Callahan's article "Who Really Killed Jesus?" (SKEPTIC, Vol. 11, No. 1), the controversy should actually be "What role, if any, did Jewish leaders and Jewish crowds play, in influencing the Romans to...

The almost blank slate: making a case for human nurture.
June 22, 2004... IN 2002, THE PSYCHOLOGIST STEVEN PINKER appeared on the New York Times bestseller list with The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, (1) a book that attempts to catapult the nature-nurture issue back into public debate, while...

The revival of human nature [not equal to] the denial of human nurture: toward a consilient science of human behavior.
June 22, 2004... When dealing with biological systems, understanding structure is crucial to understanding function--a view that is completely antithetical to the... black box approach to brain function. For example, consider how our understanding of the...

The tea leaves of sports talk: finding meaning in random sequences.
June 22, 2004... ALTHOUGH I ENJOY PLAYING BASKETBALL, I cannot claim to have ever experienced a "hot hand." Luke-warm, maybe. Nor have I ever found myself "in the zone." Even if equipped with a G.P.S. and a topological map, I don't know if I could even locate...

Confessions of a former alternative health journalist.
June 22, 2004... * Alternative medicine is effective and benign. * Alternative medicine is "natural, "so it must be good for you. * Alternative medicine can often cure disease when conventional medicine fails. * Doctors are keeping the benefits of...

Who lost the middle ages? What's behind the attempt to impose a "New Chronology" on history?(Critical Essay)
June 22, 2004... IN 1685, AN ENGLISH SCHOLAR BY THE NAME of Jean Hardouin published an edition of the Roman author Pliny's Natural History. Hardouin, however, had an unusual belief about its origins. He was convinced that all of the ancient records of Greece...

Spirit photography: how early spiritualists tried to save religion by using science.
June 22, 2004... "What served in the place of the photograph before the camera's invention? The expected answer is the engraving, the painting, the drawing. The mote revealing answer might be: memory."--John Berger (1) NOT LONG AFTER THE INVENTION of the...

Dembski, Darwin, and Devils.(The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design)(God, the Devil and Darwin)(Darwinism, Design and Public Education)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... The Design Revolution by William Dembski, interVarsity Press, Downer's Grove, II, 2004. 334 pp. $22.00 ISBN 0-8308-2375-1 God, the Devil and Darwin by Niall Shanks, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2004. 273 pp. $29.95 ISBN...

Intentional deception.(Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... A review of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross, Oxford University Press, 2004, 401 pp. $40.00 ISBN 0-19-515742-7 "Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not...

Is there really a 67% probability that God exists?(The Probability of God: A Simple Calculation That Proves the Ultimate Truth)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... A review of The Probability" of God: A Simple Calculation That Proves the Ultimate Truth by Stephen D. Unwin, Crown Forum, 2004, 259 pp, $22.95 ISBN 0-7615-2684-0 THE PROBABILITY OF GOD IS A wonderful yet deeply flawed book. Physicist and...

A stunning chronicle of unbelievers.(Doubt: A History)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht, Harper, San Francisco, 2003 576 pp. $30.00 ISBN 0-0600-9795-7 ALTHOUGH THERE EXISTS TODAY a flourishing skeptical movement that, if one includes the scientific, secular, and humanist communities,...

Did women's blood lead to men's blood lust?(Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution)(Book Review)
June 22, 2004... Sex, Time and Power: Haw Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution by Leonard Shlain. Viking, New York 2003. 420 pp. $25.95 ISBN 0-670-03233-6. WOMEN'S MENSTRUAL PERIODS, which were timed to lunar phases, gave them the concept of time, thus...

Bigfoot: part one: dawn of the sasquatch.
June 22, 2004... Deep in the forests and mountains of the West Coast of North America, giants are said to walk. The "Sasquatch" or "Bigfoot" is among the world's most enduring cryptozoological mysteries. In Part One of our special two-part look at the...