This is one of those pictures that just makes you go, “Aww. How cute is that?”

Youtube has suspended JREF’s account – let them know this is unacceptable.

Youtube is practicing ideological censorship. Yesterday, they suspended the James Randi Educational Foundation’s account. For those of you unfamiliar with the JREF, it is one of the leading skeptical organizations worldwide. James Randi, a former professional magician (“The Amazing Randi”), has authored numerous books exposing the hypocrisy, deceit, and harm of many paranormal practitioners (including, [...]

Why Scientific Thinking is Good For Everyone, Not Just Scientists – Part 3: What Does Science Say You Should Eat?

This blog entry is primarily aimed at my own people – the skeptical community. As skeptics, we claim that we try to govern our lives by reason, evidence, and science. And yet, I have found over the years that when it comes to the connection between diet, health, and disease, many of my fellow-skeptics resort [...]

The nose knows, er…I mean, you know noses

Okay here’s something just for fun from Scientific American Mind.
I KNOW THAT NOSE.
LOOK TO THE CENTER OF A FACE FOR FAMILIARITY.
By Kurt Kleiner
When you’re trying to recognize a face, the first thing
you look at is the nose–whether you know it or not. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, showed subjects faces on a [...]

Are you ready to meet your maker? Maybe not, if you’re a believer.

Have you heard about the study recently conducted at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston on the correlation between one’s degree of religiousness and the desire for aggressive, even traumatizing, measures to prolong one’s life when facing the end of a terminal illness. What would you expect to find? The actual results may surprise you. [...]

The Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds

This is a cool little video from Seed Magazine about the development of life on earth. It really does emphasize how small the part humans have played in earth’s long history. The text below the video is from the Seed website.

The Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds is an experiment in [...]

Good News! A Victory for Free Speech. But it’s not all good news…

I don’t know how many of you have been following the controversy in the UN concerning the upcoming Durban II conference on Human Rights to be held in Geneva in April.
Media Watch has a nice summary of the issue and the response of several western countries (including Canada – Yea!):
A so-called “racism conference” due to [...]

Another Example of Why I Think Dogma is Dangerous: The Pope Condemns Condoms as a Means For Combatting AIDS In Africa

I think dogma in all forms in dangerous. Here’s an example of how two thoroughly dogmatic stances (1. God does thinks using contraception during sex is sinful and deserving of his eternal punishment. 2. God thinks sex outside of heterosexual marriage is sinful and deserving of his eternal punishment) combine to put adults and children [...]

Witch-Hunt: The Hidden War on African Women

A couple of days ago, I read this article in the Huffington Post by Johann Hari, “The Hidden War on African Women.” My emotions varied between anger, sadness, outrage, and disbelief.
This is not an easy read, but the information it contains is important for us to know and to act on.
I am reproducing the first [...]

Monkey Revolt – Part Deux

If you read my blog about Santino, the monkey in a Swedish zoo who created stockpiles of rocks to throw at annoying voyeurs, you will see that we have a trend developing amongst our primate cousins when you read this story from the Telegraph.
______________________________________________

MONKEY ‘KILLS CRUEL OWNER WITH COCONUT THROWN FROM TREE’
A monkey who was [...]