28 September 2011 by Steve Thoms
Concerns about the safety of WiFi, particularly around school children, has continued to be a contentious issue in small towns across Canada, and Ontario especially. Supporters of the technology have mountains of scientific data on their side, opponents have screaming, hysteria, and the precautionary principle. Even Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May unwittingly [...]
Posted in Canada, Featured, Logic and Fallacies, Media, Ontario, Skepticism28 Comments
16 June 2011 by Erik Davis
It must be true. A little bird told me. That little bird of course was Cosmo the Amazon Parrot of the Vancouver Aquarium, who went on CBC and Global a few weeks back to predict a quick win by Vancouver. Watch: A Strong Track Record? At the time, it seemed reasonable to trust Cosmo – [...]
Posted in Canada, Cognition, Critical Thinking, Culture, Logic and Fallacies, Media, Probability and Statistics, Skepticism1 Comment
20 April 2011 by Jason Tetro
Now that we’ve reached the halfway point of the election in Canada, and witnessed two Leader’s debates, I find that there has been much said to woo Canadians to vote one way or another. It’s been interesting to see the differing styles and content from all five Leaders and how each of them has aimed [...]
Posted in Canada, Cognition, Critical Thinking, Logic and Fallacies, Skepticism0 Comments
08 November 2010 by Erik Davis
By now, I’m sure most of you have caught Steve’s piece last week on the Ontario wifi debate. It turned out to be quite the tempest in a teapot, driving about 10x the traffic of the average post on Skeptic North, and generating dozens of comments, including one from Rodney Palmer himself. One comment in [...]
Posted in Canada, Critical Thinking, Featured, Health, Health Policy, Logic and Fallacies, Media, Ontario, Skepticism13 Comments
29 October 2010 by Steve Thoms
This ridiculous farce of an invented controversy got way out of hand way too fast. My apologies for sleeping on this one. I thought that sanity would prevail, and everyone would surely see the perpetrators for the fools they are. It seems that I over estimated the Canadian media’s ability to be dedicated to journalistic [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Cognition, Critical Thinking, Health, Logic and Fallacies, Media, Ontario, Pseudoscience271 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
03 September 2010 by Chris Hebbern
The bed bug resurgence Bed bugs, Cimex lectularius, have been infesting human habitations for thousands of years. About the size of an apple seed, the bugs can hide in electronics, such as radios, in drawers, in and under furniture, behind baseboards, under loose wallpaper, behind paintings and posters, in small cracks and in the curtains. They [...]
Posted in Canada, Critical Thinking, Health, Logic and Fallacies, Media, Medical Conditions, Ontario, Probability and Statistics, Science, Skepticism10 Comments
26 August 2010 by Steve Thoms
This is going to be a long post, folks. But I promise you, it’s worth it. Last week I wrote a post about the WiFi manufactroversey going on in my home county of Simcoe. As a quick reminder: An ad-hoc parents committee was formed to petition the Simcoe County School Board for the removal of [...]
Posted in Canada, Critical Thinking, Logic and Fallacies, Ontario, Skepticism71 Comments
17 August 2010 by Steve Thoms
*update: 08/26, 20:15 EST* Unbeknownst to me when I wrote this, a part 2 to this post would later need to be made. The linkages in this story go pretty deep. Click here for the new post. Despite my old stomping grounds AND my old University being directly involved, I was going to steer clear [...]
Posted in Cognition, Health, Health Policy, Logic and Fallacies, Ontario, Skepticism22 Comments
24 June 2010 by Erik Davis
Recently, I filed a post about food allergies in the schoolyard, which was driven by catching myself in several common logical fallacies. You see, before writing the article, I had a general sense that school policies designed to protect allergic kids from peanut exposure were getting out of hand. After all, back when I was [...]
Posted in Cognition, Critical Thinking, History, Logic and Fallacies, Probability and Statistics, Science, Skepticism12 Comments
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