31 January 2012 by Karl Mamer
After about an hour of bringing us up to speed on who King was and the beliefs of the Aetherius Society, Jaggard got into the “irrefutable evidence”. Alas, it was nothing like an alien body or parts of a saucer. Jaggard admits he believes the existence of alien-piloted UFOs is a given. Me, I’m [...]
Posted in Astronomy, Ontario, Skepticism0 Comments
30 January 2012 by Karl Mamer
My best friend Terry has, for the want of something to occupy his time, decided to become the leading expert on the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction case. I keep promising the listeners of my Conspiracy Skeptic podcast that I’m going to have him on as a guest and blow the lid off the [...]
Posted in Astronomy, Ontario, Skepticism1 Comment
27 January 2012 by Richelle McCullough
While doing some digging into the quackery of a local acupuncturist, I came across a sentiment that I found more than usually appalling. In her story of why she became an acupuncturist, she tells a melodramatic tale about a positive Pap smear test result that changed her life*. There’s all the usual makings of an [...]
Posted in Alberta, Alternative Medicine, Health, Medicine, Skepticism, Vaccines20 Comments
10 January 2012 by Ethan Clow
A few weeks ago I talked about a strange hockey-skepticism convergence on Radio Freethinker. That convergence of course is about the goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens in particular. Carry Price, the BC born goalie who currently plays for the Montreal Canadiens is a spokesperson for the homeopathic product Oscillococcinum produced by the Boiron company in [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Health, Media, Medicinal Advertising, Quebec, Skepticism6 Comments
03 January 2012 by Marion Kilgour
I think that because water is so ubiquitous, and, let’s face it, pretty awesome all by itself (it expands as it freezes!) people like to use it as the basis for their made up chemistry. An ad for a co-worker selling his unused ScaleHammer recently appeared on the company classifieds. So, I looked up the [...]
Posted in Canada, Pseudoscience, Skepticism8 Comments
14 December 2011 by Michael Kruse
*this post first appeared on the Swift blog at www.randi.org on December 5th 2011 Over the past several weeks promotion of the newly licensed Cuban anti-cancer medication Vidatox has been evident. The venom from the Cuban scorpion Rhopalurus junceus is the base for this supposed cancer treatment, and the manufacturer has received permission from the [...]
Posted in Skepticism9 Comments
13 December 2011 by Sara E. Mayhew
Are you a skeptic, humanist, or atheist and worried about how to deal with the very controversial subject of celebrating Christmas? Do you need an excuse to eat, drink, and be merry but want to do so in a secular fashion? Well, here are some secular-friendly alternatives to be aware of! TREKMAS Trekmas is a [...]
Posted in Skepticism9 Comments
12 December 2011 by Michael Kruse
The process of skepticism and scientific inquiry, it has become very apparent to me, requires constant learning and re-evaluation of one’s unfounded beliefs. My own personal journey has been one that came from a position of simplistic certainly about the world and has resulted in a necessary embrace of uncertainty and a probabilistic understanding of [...]
Posted in Medicine, Skepticism15 Comments
09 December 2011 by Marion Kilgour
Most of the cell phone / Wi-Fi hysteria seems to me like it’s been coming from the eastern provinces, although Edmonton has had some short-lived and ineffective campaigns to get Wi-Fi out of schools. But, this summer I got my first taste of local activism about cell towers. Initially, I was on board with the [...]
Posted in Alberta, Health Policy, Pseudoscience, Skepticism15 Comments
09 December 2011 by Michael Kruse
On November 29th, 2011, the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons voted to accept their new revision of the policy on Complementary/Alternative Medicine, a policy that has undergone revision with community consultation over the past two years. Skeptics at the Centre For Inquiry’s Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism, after celebrating a win described here, [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Health Policy, Medicine, Ontario, Skepticism0 Comments
