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Skeptic Summary #243

Popularity, divine existence, exorcism, a meeting to get to, science tidbits and more!

Argumentum ad populum - The newest poll shows an increase of science acceptance, contra Dembski.

God exists - As something undefined and undefinable.

Scattershots: exorcism - Another awesome upload from filthy.

Editor’s Choice: I don’t think I can make it to this… - If you’ll be near Northern Kentucky on August 7th, 2009, you can meet filthy in person at Ken Ham’s Creation Museum. Oh, you can meet PZ Myers, too, but meeting filthy would be really cool!

“50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities” — From the blog Science News Review comes this list of science trivia and fun facts. For example, did you know that most of your body’s cells aren’t yours? Did you know that if a piece of a neutron star the size of a dime landed on earth, it would weigh about 100 million tons? Or how about this: did you know that more humans are killed every year by falling coconuts than by shark attacks? Now you do. And even if you did know those things, I’m willing to bet that there are plenty of fun facts on the list that you don’t know. A list sure to please the science geek that you know you are, or you probably wouldn’t be reading this Summary.

SkeptiQuote: I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. — Stephen Roberts

Wednesday: Chat started with cooking, the recent wave of celebrity deaths, and The Ghoul Pool. After a brief attempt at trouble-shooting some computer problems, much of chat was focused on religion. It started with a continuation of this thread on the NCSE and their Faith project. Much of the discussion, however, was focused on how the new atheists and framers reacted to it, as well as what our own reactions should be. There was also the question of if having a big public debate about it was a good thing at this point in time. Michael Shermer also entered the conversation with his piece, “I want to believe.” TAM7 also came up, but quickly turned into a discussion on homeopathy and how humans can fall for such ridiculous beliefs.

Come chat with us.

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Ban the burka

Hidden Costs of Obama’s Energy Bill

Medical examiner: ‘I have never seen anything like that’

Oh, no! Orac the “Scientific Fundamentalist” has been too insolent!

PR and prejudice: why rape story erred

The Skeptic’s Dictionary Newsletter #105

Skepticality #104 — Skeptics Mix Tape & Jenny McCarthy

Where in the world was Middle Earth?

Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them.

Don’t Swallow Your Gum!: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health, by Aaron Carroll, MD, and Rachel Vreeman, MD.



“Myths, half-truths and wives’ tales persist in medicine. Sometimes doctors and nurses even believe things that aren’t true or at least are unproven. That’s the focus of a new book, Don’t Swallow Your Gum! Myths, Half-Truths and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health.…

[The book] offers a fun collection of numerous medical myths that are likely familiar to most of us. The book is organized to focus on various types of myths, including myths about your body (you should poop at least once a day), myths about disease and illness (cold weather makes you sick), myths about sex and pregnancy (twins skip a generation) and myths about what we eat and drink (gum stays in your stomach for seven years.)

It’s a fun read, and chances are you will stumble across several medical myths you’ve always believed.”

— Tara Parker-Hope, New York Times

Forum Topics:

1. The Supper
2. Crabby Catholic curses, well, everything in sight
3. Stop laughing, dammit! This is serious shit!
4. New World Order happening right now!
5. Possum on the half shell
6. God exists
7. The shallow end of the gene pool…
8. PZ expelled from Expelled — Dawkins slips in!
9. Beelzebufo ampinga
10. Michael Jackson dead

Articles:

1. Evolving a Venom or Two
2. Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark
3. Skeptic Summary #152
4. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle
5. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony!
6. The Bible’s Bad Fruits
7. Paradigm Paralysis
8. Mesmer, Casino Monkey, and Video Sex
9. Miracle Thaw Tray
10. Skeptic Summary #242

There were 11,295 daily visitors this week.

Forum Topics:

1. The Supper
2. Stop laughing, dammit! This is serious shit!
3. New World Order happening right now!
4. The shallow end of the gene pool…
5. Possum on the half shell
6. PZ expelled from Expelled — Dawkins slips in!
7. Beelzebufo ampinga
8. Funny FAILS
9. A half of a wing & a piece of a prayer
10. Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
11. Spider bite cures paralyzed man?
12. Quote Mine warning propaganda poster
13. Well, this sucks…
14. Hello
15. We’d invite Hitler to speak, says Columbia dean
16. Crop circles again…
17. Dracorex hogwartsia
18. I wear boys underwear
19. Is there a slugologist in the house?
20. How’s the economy?

Articles:

1. Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark
2. Evolving a Venom or Two
3. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle
4. Skeptic Summary #152
5. The Bible’s Bad Fruits
6. Mesmer, Casino Monkey, and Video Sex
7. Miracle Thaw Tray
8. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony!
9. Come & Receive your Miracle: A Sunday Afternoon at a Robert Tilton Crusade
10. Cold Reading
11. Scientific Truth
12. Is the Speed of Light Slowing Down?
13. Quantum Age Water
14. Evolution is a Lie
15. Evidence Cited as Hard Proof of the Existence of Satanic Cults
16. Paradigm Paralysis
17. N. 6, January 2001: Split brains, paradigm shifts, and why it is so difficult to be a skeptic
18. TAM4
19. Skeptic Summary #211
20. The Biblical support for a Flat Earth and Geocentricism

There were 57,777 daily visitors in June, 2009.