30 September 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
Last April, in the lead-up to the federal election, I posted visual representations of all of the platforms the major political parties of Canada. I thought of it as a quick and fun way to visualize some of the major themes that can be found in the platforms, as well as a way to give [...]
Posted in Ontario, Social Sciences3 Comments
09 August 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
Reading through the latest issue today, I almost did a spit-take when I saw these articles back-to-back: At least they haven’t lost their sense of irony. David Gorski has previously blogged about the first of the two articles over at Science-Based Medicine.
Posted in Alternative Medicine, HealthComments Off
14 June 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
In the market for a new car recently, I had to make (what I assume to be) the same decision facing other new car buyers: (strictly speaking from the perspective of a rational self-interested consumer) does it make sense for me to spend money on a hybrid car? Let’s look at two somewhat-comparable cars (in [...]
Posted in Critical Thinking16 Comments
13 May 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
(Originally published August 13, 2010) Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! Growing up, I always knew that Friday the 13th was an unlucky day. I don’t know where I heard it first, but I’ve known that for as long as I can remember. It’s a belief that seems to be ubiquitous, at least in North American [...]
Posted in Skepticism1 Comment
11 April 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
With all of Canada’s major political parties releasing platforms in anticipation of the upcoming federal election, there can be a lot to read through and process, to the point where most people probably don’t even read their preferred party’s platform all the way through, let alone all of them (I know I usually don’t). With [...]
Posted in Canada, Skepticism, Social Sciences8 Comments
08 April 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
We’re in the midst of an election campaign, which means all of the parties are putting out updated versions of their platforms. One of my friends was skimming through them, and pointed out some terrible science in the Green Party’s health care platform. You can find their full platform here. Full disclosure: I don’t consider [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Health Policy62 Comments
30 March 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
MoneySense recently released their list of Best Places to Live 2011, in which they provide rankings of the “livability” of Canadian cities. According to the list, Ottawa-Gatineau is the best place to live and, out of the 180 cities ranked, New Glasgow (Nova Scotia) is the worst. Of the “big three” Canadian cities, Vancouver was [...]
Posted in Canada, Critical Thinking, Social Sciences7 Comments
14 January 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
Tonight at 8pm, CBC Marketplace will air a review of homeopathic medicine entitled “Cure or Con?”. This hotly anticipated episode is expected to critically examine the practice of homeopathic medicine, in the name of consumer protection. As a skeptic, I know it can be dangerous to get my hopes up over stories of this nature [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Culture, Health Policy, Media, Pseudoscience, Skepticism15 Comments
29 November 2010 by Mitchell Gerskup
This will probably be my last year attending the Whole Life Expo. Last year, I had a lot of fun, took some great photos, tried some foods (some great; some not-so great) and learned a lot about the field of alternative health and its practitioners. This year, if I had to sum up my experience [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Diet and Nutrition, Events, Medicinal Advertising, Ontario, Pseudoscience6 Comments
29 October 2010 by Mitchell Gerskup
Joseph Heath is a philosophy professor with an interest, but no formal training in economics. I first heard of him while taking a course he was teaching on Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher of the Frankfurt School (a neo-Marxist view of social theory). A self-described skeptic of capitalism, Heath nevertheless believes that there is a big [...]
Posted in Critical Thinking, Economics, Logic and Fallacies, Reviews18 Comments
Mitchell Gerskup recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Economics and Philosophy. An avid atheist and skeptic, he has served as the President of the University of Toronto Secular Alliance, helping to promote science, reason and critical thinking around Toronto. He also volunteers with the Centre for Inquiry’s Ontario branch, and currently sits on the CFI’s Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism. Mitchell is also an accomplished competitive debater, having debated all across Canada. In addition to issues of economics and philosophy, Mitchell is interested in the fields of science and technology.
