Category
Pseudoscience
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05.24.10Quantum Mechanics for skepticsAt the last BASS meeting, I made a presentation called "Quantum Mechanics for the skeptic: How to recognize quantum nonsense without being a physicist". Quantum Mechanics for the skeptic Featuring appearances by: Professor Farnsworth, Professor X, the Great A'Tuin, Richard Feynman, and Deepak Chopra.
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11.02.09Alternative Medicine in the Daily BruinOn October 21st, the Daily Bruin featured two articles in its Science and Health section which were sympathetic to Integrative Medicine. "Integrative," if you weren't aware, is one of those buzzwords of alternative medicine. Wellness remedies can work best in tandem UCLA Center for East-West Medicine fuses integrates alternative, conventional medicine for better treatment Fellow BASS member Daniel sent a letter to the Daily Bruin in reply, and it appeared today. Alternative medicine requires scrutiny (scroll down to second letter) Congratulations to Daniel for getting it published! Writing letters like these is one of the easiest ways to be an effective activist. Let's do it ...
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03.09.09Meeting Minutes: Meeting IXLast Friday, someone asked me what had happened in the last few meetings. Aren't you glad that all the meeting minutes from the last quarter have been made public? I heard a rumor that next Friday, March 13, there will be pizza at our meeting. But you're all skeptical, so you probably want to verify this for yourself by coming to our next meeting. Ackerman 2408, 5:00-6:50 PM. Meeting discussion Our official discussion topic this meeting was SETI vs UFOlogy: why is one science and the other not? SETI, if you didn’t know, is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence by searching for transmissions ...
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02.18.09Meeting minutes: Meeting VIDid you all attend the event with Dan Barker today? It was fun, with lots of good questions, though unfortunately we didn't get to hear him play piano. Meeting minutes! The following discussion is from last week's meeting on February, Friday the 13th. Please note that this week's meeting is not in the usual room of Ackerman 2408. Looking carefully, we instead have the room Kerckhoff 152 reserved. I'll let you all in a little secret. If you stick around after meetings, you'll find that we often have social activities, like eating out and watching movies. It is a Friday night after ...
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07.03.08Derren Brown, magician skepticIt should come as no surprise that many great magicians are also skeptics. Harry Houdini was a skeptic. James Randi is a skeptic. Penn and Teller are skeptics. And a more recent and popular example is Criss Angel Mindfreak. Magicians tend to be skeptical because they know how easily it is to fool people. (Similarly, psychologists tend to be skeptical because they know how easily people can fool themselves.) To them, a psychic is simply a dishonest magician. Derren Brown is an English magician and mentalist, and he is part of the great tradition of skeptical magicians. Watch: he's really good. I ...
