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Skeptic Summary #137

Atheism, shilling, abductees, interview and more!

Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns - Vastly interesting.

CNN shills for Ken Ham’s ‘museum’ - A poor showing for the little network that could.

Speaking to Abductees

From Skepticality,

Interview: Dr. Michael Shermer talks to Professor Philip Zimbardo.

Skepticality is pleased to bring our listeners another great interview conducted by the founder of the Skeptic’s Society, Dr. Michael Shermer. In this nearly hour-long meeting of the minds, Dr. Shermer talks to author and Stanford emeritus Professor Philip G. Zimbardo on the release of his new book, The Lucifer Effect which ponders the question, what causes some people to commit acts of evil while others become unexpected heroes?

I highly recommend this one, or it wouldn’t be an evil pick.

Sunday: Ricky’s dream about chat; Mabuse’s dream about Farscape; movies; Guildwars; astronomical observations — Saturn was particularity nice tonight; booting MS Word for another word processor. Cats meowing in different languages; “show your support for something-or-other by turning off lights” causes grid problems. Siberia’s head hurts from studying for a job appilcation test; São Paulo 6th largest city (by population) in the world.

Wednesday: Kil’s indecision on what to have for dinner took a turn for the worse and started egg puns early off in the night. Luckily they didn’t last too long and the conversation switched over to cigars. For a while, it looked like we were in the clear, but then the knock-knock jokes started. Chat ended with a discussion of 419 scammers and using color blindness to see camouflaged objects.

Come chat with us.

amindformurder
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Bad Science

Chemtrails

Skepticality #049 — Interview: Dr. Michael Shermer talks to Philip Zimbardo

What’s New by Bob Park

Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.



“In a leisurely, lyrical meditation on the roughly four-million-year span since life dawned on Earth, Sagan and Druyan (Comet) argue that territoriality, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, occasional outbreeding and a preference for small, semi-isolated groups are elements in a survival strategy common to many species, including Homo sapiens. Yet society’s problems, they assert, increasingly demand global solutions and require a dramatic, strategic shift which the authors optimistically believe humankind is capable of achieving. This engaging, humane odyssey offers a stunning refutation of the behavioristic worldview with its mechanistic notion that animals (except for humans) lack conscious awareness. Writing with awe and a command of their material, the husband-wife team cover well-trod terrain while they discuss the evolution of Earth's atmosphere and life forms, the genetic code, the advantages of sexual reproduction…”

— Publishers Weekly

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