Archive for the ‘Pop Culture’ Category.
8th July 2008, 12:19 am
By Tammy Buchli, Science & Reason in Hampton Roads
Article ID: 1238
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When my local skeptic’s organization (Science & Reason in Hampton Roads) announced a field trip to Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, I was eager to attend. We planned a full afternoon at the A.R.E. First, an ESP demonstration, and then an educational film about Mr. Cayce, ending with a tour of the Association building. I knew very little about Mr. Cayce before our field trip, and I opted not to do any preparatory research, deciding instead to let the A.R.E. itself serve as Mr. Cayce’s monument.
Continue reading ‘A field trip to Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment’ »
29th June 2008, 11:23 pm
By Peter Booth
Article ID: 1235
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Mentalism is a form of performance magic that simulates the paranormal, most commonly mind-reading, predicting the future and psychokinesis. Magicians get involved in skepticism because much of the time the so-called real psychics are doing very standard magic tricks. But what makes the difference between appearing to be a magician and appearing to be the real deal? Here I present a few rules for any half-decent magicians who would like to throw away their morals, break all the mirrors in their houses so they don’t have to look at themselves anymore, and most importantly, start making some real money by making the jump to pseudo-miracle worker. Being a cold reader, for example, has an excellent profit margin! Think of it this way: you can charge the same prices per ticket as David Copperfield, or a world-famous rock band, and you don’t even have all that heavy stuff to carry around! It’s just you on a stage. That’s profit!
Continue reading ‘Psychic stagecraft: how to change from magician to miracle worker’ »
4th June 2008, 10:16 pm
By Andy Kaiser
Article ID: 1229
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In writing this article, I tried to use ten percent of my brain. I really did. But I got stuck pretty fast on the method of how to actually use only ten percent of my brain. There seem to be many ways to go about it. For example, I could just think this article in my head, and only write down every tenth word. But the results would be incomprehensible. I could decrease my writing quality to 10% of its usual stellar technique. But that would be annoying for any future readers. I could remove 90% of my writing tools, and type this article using only one finger. But that would just slow me down significantly, when I’d be getting the same final result. Wait: I could encode the characters in this article into their base-10 ASCII equivalents. I’d then take the resulting numeric string and increase its value by a factor of 10, then convert the results back from ASCII into plain text. Mathematical perfection. Granted, it would be unreadable mathematical perfection. That’s counterintuitive to the purpose of Digital Bits Skeptic, so maybe that’s not the best idea.
Continue reading ‘The ten percent of the brain myth: a fractional truth’ »
29th May 2008, 09:59 pm
By ScienceReasonRationality.blogspot.com
Article ID: 1228
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Do you want to learn how to knock out an opponent without touching them? How about learning the art of fighting ghosts with the power of “The Force“? Well, here’s your chance! Japan’s Yanagi Ryuken can teach you now. He holds a 10th degree black belt in five traditional martial arts, and his system is based on martial arts like Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu and spiritual paths like Qigong. Yanagi Ryuken supposedly won over 200 Vale Tudo competitions (these are “anything goes” fights, involving unarmed combat and minimal rules). According to the author of the video below, you need 500,000 yen (about $5,000 USD) in order to get a chance to fight with Yanagi Ryuken. However, if you win the fight, Yanagi Ryuken will pay you back double: 1,000,000 yen ($10,000 USD)! Good deal, right?
Continue reading ‘The “Bullshido” of martial arts and no-touch knockouts’ »
28th April 2008, 11:18 pm
by Andy Kaiser
Article ID: 1222
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Okay, Soda. You’ve made your points. We get it. We know how much you love yourself. You want us to worship you as The One True Carbonator. “I am the one true Soda. Pour no other refreshments before me.”
Continue reading ‘Sodascience - An open letter to the thirsty’ »
31st March 2008, 08:16 pm
Article ID: 1215
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Skepticism is a philosophical commitment to doubt. However, to doubt without end is of no use.
Committed skeptics include Harry Houdini, Penn and Teller, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, James Randi, Christopher Hitchens, and many other intellectual giants.
Continue reading ‘Punk skepticism: A perfect mix of skeptic and rebel’ »
16th March 2008, 12:57 am
11th March 2008, 12:22 pm
By ScienceReasonRationality.blogspot.com
Article ID: 129
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I think most people already know what astrology is. After all, it has been used by people everywhere since ancient times right up to the modern age. But how does astrology so successfully fool people into believing it’s real? The answer is quite simple. Astrology creates something many people are not really aware of. It is called “illusion”.
Continue reading ‘Astrology is The Forer Effect in action’ »
9th March 2008, 09:08 pm
By ScienceReasonRationality.blogspot.com
Article ID: 128
When I watched The Secret for the very first time, I couldn’t believe the things people do for money and how people in general would give up their ability to reason and simply accept every fantastic claim that comes along next, especially if it’s supported by some celebrity like Oprah.
Continue reading ‘“The Secret” movie delusion’ »
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