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
24 October 2010 by Steve Thoms
Since moving to my adopted city of Kitchener, Ontario last month, I’ve come to love the park lands, downtown market, and rich German culture. I love this city a great deal, but I’ve not had a lot of time to learn the political culture, and what level of pseudo-science is prevalent around here. So I [...]
Posted in Cognition, Conspiracy Theories, Critical Thinking, Economics, Health, Health Policy, Ontario, Skepticism42 Comments
26 August 2010 by Mitchell Gerskup
Economics: it’s really complicated and difficult to write about from a skeptical perspective. It inhabits a weird no man’s land between the “real” sciences and the social sciences. On the one hand, economists study very real social phenomena, using detailed and complex mathematical models. On the other hand, the field is still rife with opinion [...]
Posted in Critical Thinking, Economics4 Comments
24 August 2010 by Marion Kilgour
In the past three months, the Harper government has said some things about statistics that are blatantly wrong and received some media attention, which is a bit unusual. What things did the government say, and were they actually correct? First, in June the government announced that it would be replacing the mandatory long form census [...]
Posted in Canada, Critical Thinking, Economics, Probability and Statistics8 Comments
21 April 2010 by Mitchell Gerskup
I’d like to draw attention to an article that I think everybody concerned with global climate change should read. Paul Krugman is an economist who (among many other things) writes for the New York Times. To date, I don’t think I have come across a person who can communicate economic principles as clearly as he [...]
Posted in Critical Thinking, Economics, MediaComments Off
09 March 2010 by Steve Thoms
I don’t often tread into the heady waters of economics, but a recent conversation (on Facebook) got me thinking about a topic that I’m sure many of you have noticed: Tim Horton’s not take debit or credit cards! I’m told that in British Columbia and Alberta, Tim Horton’s does accept debit cards, so the rest [...]
Posted in Critical Thinking, Economics, Ontario1 Comment
22 February 2010 by Mitchell Gerskup
This article, published by the Ottawa citizen, is the closest to economic pseudo-science I’ve come across to date. Granted, other articles may exist, but I haven’t been looking too hard. Now, I understand that most people don’t view economics as a science, and I won’t claim that it is in the sense that physics and [...]
Posted in Economics, Ontario, SkepticismComments Off
13 November 2009 by Mitchell Gerskup
It’s easy to overlook skeptical issues that don’t involve the paranormal or scientific. However, political rhetoric (be it on the left or the right) is full of wacky claims and credulous belief when it comes to issues in economics. This quasi-rant was inspired by a flyer that I received recently, handed to me by a [...]
Posted in Critical Thinking, Economics, OntarioComments Off
Crack Your Back instead of a Vial of Vaccine?
Toronto Media, false balance, and the lack of evidence for claims about MIA vet John Hartley Robertson
How Western journalists in Vietnam and POW NGOs were not fooled by tales of MIA Vet back from the dead
Did a Canadian filmmaker find a left behind Vietnam vet or did credulous Toronto media give new life to an old scam?
How I cured my gout without medication
