There are many scientific and skeptical objections to astrology, including the fact that the constellations have shifted since astrology was devised, that many real-world tests have failed to find statistically meaningful patterns in the lives of people born under...
Psychology
Squaring the Strange episode ‘Sin Numero’: Social Media Fallacies
Squaring the Strange time! This started off as a little bonus mini-episode where we have a little roundtable about some frustrating patterns of thought we have spotted on social media and other types of public discourse; some have actual fallacy names, some don't...
The Trump ‘Distraction’ Quasi-Conspiracy
One common claim about Donald Trump is that he often says and does things not only for effect, but with the specific goal of distracting the public and news media from something else he wants to keep hidden. The claims have circulated for years, especially on social...
Who Are Mass Shooters? Mass Shooter Demographics
This is part two of a three-part series. You can read the rest of the series here. With the recent tragic attacks in El Paso and Dayton, the world once again turned its attention to mass shootings. It’s a subject that has captivated America for years with little...
The Pseudoscience of Personalysis
Speaking at the Center for Inquiry, Buffalo New York. Corporate America is ripe for scams, half-baked twaddle masquerading as insightful business advice, and dressed-up children’s books about misplaced cheese. One needs only to peruse the Business section of a local...
Misleading Memes As Cloaked Propaganda
Soon after a university cheating scandal recently broke, a meme declared that “White privilege is REAL,” and gave three examples presumably illustrating that premise. The first shows a photo of actress Felicity Huffman and states that “Feds will seek 4 months jail...
Squaring the Strange: Psychics and Holly Bobo
In 2011 I had just written an article for Discovery News about a bogus psychic in Long Island when a young woman named Holly Bobo went missing in Tennessee. Her abduction made national news, and I decided to monitor psychic predictions and information about her...
Who Are Mass Shooters?
My new CFI media literacy article examines the demographics of American mass shooters. Many people believe that most mass shooters are white males, but in fact it varies by type of shooting; there is no single representative or predictive demographic, other than being...
Squaring the Strange: Episode 87: Momo & Part 2 of Enter the Warren-verse!
This week we take a quick look at the Momo challenge's resurgence and surprisingly mainstream fall; then for our main segment we dive back into the strange, sketchy world of Ed & Lorraine Warren. These opportunistic and not-exactly-truthful storytellers are a big...
Art Project Unknowingly Promotes Urban Legend
I saw this meme recently, it’s a Cuban art project about exploited children. However one of the photos, bottom left, is based on an urban legend. The artist is trying to raise awareness of child organ trafficking, but it doesn’t actually happen. I’ve researched,...