Anytime there’s an exodus of talent from a major player like Disney (Pixar, Dreamworks), or in this case, Google, it gets a lot of attention because it usually means someone’s going to make something good. The internet story du jour (and discussed during a picnic at work today, too) is the new search engine Cuil, pronounced cool. After checking it out, I have decided that although it has a few nifty features, it seems almost useless compared to the Big G. Read More…

I believe.

That skepticism can be popularized.

Or are you skeptical?

The month of March began just like any other month. I submitted my latest progress report to my advisor, I flew back from Washington D.C., well, ok not every month starts with me flying back from Washington DC. Actually, this was the only month where this was true. Anyway, March began like any other month, but then something odd happened. Call it a feeling that something was not right about my website statistics. A post of mine, called Return of the Science Guy, written two years ago, suddenly had 100 hits and climbing. In terms of a whole month, that’s not too significant for your average recent post, but 100 hits already on the 4th of March, and an old post like that that never got too much attention? Had to be a referral. But from where?

At the same time, there was a similar rise in people linking over from one page, a forum called The Magic Cafe. It would seem that a magician took notice of my take-down of Mentalist Adrian Saint, a stage magician who claimed that he predicted the Super Bowl two years ago using statistics, when it was all just a trick stereo. Intrigued, I took a look at the forum page in question, titled, Why We Should Be Careful.

The forum topic was discussing whether or not they thought open magic forums were a good idea, given that people can look up how tricks are done. It started when one magician did a google search and my website popped up. They talked about code words to use to fool people who aren’t “in the know,” suggested that I’m a boring writer, or defended online magic forums. But then, someone named magicman02 swoops in to attack me personally. They claim they are a friend of Adrian Saint, and that they know something about me:

Hey guys, I know this performer who the article is about. He did a great job with the publicity of this event. This guy who wrote the article is an a**hole and stalked the poor guy. He told numerous times that he didn’t have any supernatural powers, but this guy keep stalking him over and over again. Some people are just a**holes

Hey readers, I know this commenter. The handle, magicman02, belongs to Amir Ghasri, Mentalist Adrian Saint himself. Oh no! He called me a stalker! It’s time for some Monday Madness. Read More…

The Skeptic’s Circle #80 is up at Bug Girl’s Blog. It’s the Valentines Day edition! Show us how much you love skepticism and check it out.

How do we measure the smarts of the cities we live in? By percentages, by sheer numbers?

Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy points out that Boulder, CO made Forbes magazine’s top spot in their America’s Smartest Cities article. It even managed to maintain this spot since last year despite the fact that Phil moved out there! (J/K) My new home of Madison, however, was way down in slot #21. I find this interesting, because Middleton (an extended suburb of Madison) made it as the #1 place to live in the U.S. according to Money Magazine last year (Madison had this spot in 1996, and still ranks high), UW-Madison consistently maintains its spot as the fourth-largest research university in the country, (where’s the University of Colorado at Boulder, hmm?), and Mad City is also known as the Miracle in the Midwest for its growing biotech industry. (Here are more cool stats)

I thought it was interesting to note that what Forbes was measuring was not a weighted calculation of different factors that may be used to determine the overall brainpower of the city, but instead merely the percentages of bachelors degrees. They threw in the percentages of Ph.D’s and professional degrees for reference, along with the high school graduation rates. Read More…

Last Monday, Ariela and I went to see Michael Pollan present his new book, In Defense of Food, in Milwaukee. I brought along my handy-dandy iRiver MP3 recorder, and for your enjoyment, here’s his talk. Funny and interesting, passionate and accusatory, that’s Michael Pollan.

Milwaukee Talk

I’ve only taken a look at a few snippets of In Defense of Food, Ariela’s reading it right now. I’ll read it when I’m finished reviewing Hugh Ross’s book here. There’s no rush, because it won’t be until March that I’ll be interviewing him on the Mindcast. Yep, I renewed our previous interview agreement, so you can look to a fun-filled interview right here in a couple months. Read More…

(via Bad Astronomy)

There’s a new blog I’d like everyone to check out, the first few posts are really good. Homeopathy, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), Plants versus Pharmaceuticals. There are many problems with medicine, you see, many things we don’t yet know how to treat, or what is the underlying cause, but there are also countless problems with how some people view medicine. As something to replace with a vacuous would-be infallible philosophy (Homeopathy). As something that needs additions that aren’t backed up by evidence, and rely on mere “belief” to promote themselves. (CAM) Or what about how people often hold up plants and put down pharmaceuticals, when many pharmaceuticals come from plants, but have been purified, studied, and have been shown to help in fighting disease or alleviating suffering.

There are only two kinds of medicines. Those that work and those that don’t. Science is the way to discovering those things that work, and knowing how they work. And this new blog, written by several MDs, looks to be a great way to find out those crucial details about a field that is crucial to survival, and has some very culturally intriguing issues. Check out Science Based Medicine.

It’s on my blogroll.

Steven Milloy. Science. Two things that are immiscible. One of his latest essays on Fox News.com, It’s the Sun, Stupid. It’s time for some Monday Madness.

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Late at night, Ariela and I might be thumbing through a magazine in bed together. No, silly - not that kind of magazine! A magazine to make fun of. You see, there are certain publications out there that lend themselves easily to ridicule. Sometimes it was Vogue with their whacked out poses (a friend supplied some of these), but today we find magazines with plenty of ads to make fun of. I would like to share a doozy with everyone today. One that just about blew the bed covers off - it was so flatulent. It said: Rebuild your DNA! Oh yeah, it’s time for some Monday Madness. Read More…

The internet is a wonderful thing - it puts information at everyone’s fingertips. What it also does is enable complete idiots to put out information and make a whole lot of people think that it is true. Have you seen the video about how to charge an iPod with just Gatorade and an onion? Well, sit down my friends, watch a couple quick videos, and get ready for some Monday Madness.

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