RIVER OUT OF EDEN: A DARWINIAN VIEW OF LIFE by Richard Dawkins. Weldenfeld & Nicalson, 172pp, $29.95.
Continue readingDark Nature
DARK NATURE — A NATURAL HISTORY OF EVIL, by Lyall Watson; Hodder & Stoughton, 1995; $19.95
Continue readingOn Experts and Walls
Surely the Kaimanawa Wall story was one of the great beat-ups of all time. Here was a natural rock outcrop, which experts immediately told us was of a kind common in the area, raised to status of “great mystery” and worthy of the other “X Files puzzles” of Easter Island, South America and so on.
Continue readingUS CSICOP Skeptics Library
CSICOP has been trying to have available, both to its staff and to anyone else who wishes to use it, the finest library of skeptical materials on the paranormal in the world. We have been gathering material for this collection as a part of the Center for Inquiry’s library, under the direction of Dr. Gordon Stein. He has been combing the used bookstores of the country for appropriate material.
Continue readingHow Thinking Goes Wrong Part II
Representativeness
Continue readingSokal’s Suckers
A physicist with hidden motives writes something unexpected for a “cultural studies” journal. Was it a churlish hoax or a valuable exposure of nonsense?
Continue readingIf at First You Don’t Succeed…
Yes, it is frustrating, even positively nauseating. There you are struggling day in day out, doing your best and striving for the real breakthrough in science. Yet the real breakthrough never comes. Lack of talent, originality, or just not the right friends? Who knows? And who cares?
Continue readingMysterious Origins Demystified
The Mysterious Origins of Man showed earlier this year on TV3 as a “documentary”. It is likely to be a contender for this year’s Bent Spoon Award. The following article is excerpted from a piece by Dave Thomas that ran in the March issue of Skeptical Briefs in response to the initial US airing of the show.
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