Category: The Thoughtful Conduit
Coronavirus and Cognitive Dissonance: A Personal Story
I don’t typically use Facebook for its intended purpose. If I want to start a political argument with someone, it’s going to be face-to-face so I can look that no-good America-hater straight in the eye. This is harder these days, even though we’re all more stressed out than usual, so I recently succumbed and argued …
The End of Ufology? The Information Age Is the Best and Worst Thing for Believers
The deeper I get into this wonderful critical thinking community of ours, the more I realize my “skeptical origin story” isn’t as uncommon as I’d first thought. Like many of us, I was way into weird stuff as a kid. It started with ghosts, but as you get older, you look for something a little …
NECSS 2019 Brings Something Different to the Scene
Cover Image Credit: Bruce F. Press Photography “SCIENCE SKEPTICISM ART” So reads the t-shirt for NECSS 2019, the eleventh annual Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, copresented by the New York City Skeptics, the New England Skeptical Society, and the Society for Science-Based Medicine, which took place July 11–14. The simple slogan is accompanied …
That Time a Raping Demon Appeared on Cartoon Network: The Popobawa
Cover Image Courtesy of Villains Wiki Be forewarned should you ever travel to the east African island of Zanzibar. There’s a monstrous, “bat-wing” demon there, itching to rape male skeptics. That’s the literal translation of popobawa, from the original Swahili, describing a fearsome creature that roams the countryside. Or not. The only time it’s …
Like a Bad Penny: More Superstitions We Can’t Shake
We recently showed that we skeptics can have blind spots all year long, just like everyone else. So by popular demand, here is another gathering of the superstitions that still plague our otherwise rational minds. Eat, drink, and be wary!
NECSS 2018 Looks Ahead
Despite returning to its regular home at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, change was in the air for NECSS 2018.