Olivia Newton-John recently asked a priest to perform an exorcism on her home in Jupiter, Fla., in hopes of selling it. Following the suicide of a contractor in the home last month, the actress and singer is concerned about the social and spiritual stigma now...
Psychology
Ohio Mother Arrested For Faking Son’s Cancer
A mother in Utica, Ohio, has been charged with faking cancer in her 4-year-old son and profiting from the scam. Emily Creno, also known as Emily King, told friends, family and others she met via Facebook and other social media sites that her son JJ had a type of...
“Nothing But Bad News…”
Sometimes when discussing current events I will hear someone say "Oh, I hate the news... I don't follow the news anymore, it's nothing but bad news." It's just a depressing laundry list of death and war and problems, a daily documentation of the world's progress on...
My Discovery News Article on 13 Superstitions
I wrote a piece for Discovery News about superstitions-- Thirteen of them, of course! You can read it HERE.
BMI and the Argument from Antiquity Fallacy
Last year I wrote an article about widespread criticisms of the BMI measurement, and in that piece I included the following paragraph: Another criticism is that the BMI was developed over 150 years ago, and its longevity somehow discredits it. What would become the...
My appearance on new H2 show: “Your Bleeped Up Brain”
Did you see the miniseries "Your Bleeped Up Brain" with me, Richard Wiseman, and Jeff Wise? Very entertaining and well worth your time to watch (4 episodes, 45 minutes each). And still available to watch commercial free from the History Channel HERE. Check it out!
What are the effects of the full moon?
I'm quoted in a new story about the effects of the full moon on human behavior: No werewolves, but there is some effect on human behavior. You can read it HERE.
My new column on the pseudoscience of gender prediction
As you probably heard, Duchess Kate Middleton gave birth to a baby boy recently. But for the past weeks and months there have been countless predictions about the regal infant’s gender — much of it based on folklore and superstition. HERE's my look at the subject, on...
New Issue: Book Plagiarism and Whether Psychics Could Have Stopped the Boston Bombing!
If you haven't seen the new issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, you're missing out! I have a feature article on plagiarism I found in a book about vampires from a famous publisher, and a column about whether accurate psychic information could have stopped the Boston...
Mysterious Mummy Statue Spins on Its Own: Ghost, Curse, or Physics?
An ancient statue in a British museum was caught on camera turning in its locked display case last week, and it’s unnerving many people. My in-depth analysis of the strange case is HERE.