Special Articles
Web exclusives from CSI contributors
The Downloadable Revelation
by Austin Dacey
Circumnavigations
May 21, 2012
How do you treat your iPhone when it contains the iQuran?
Out of Mind? Out of Sight!
by Robert Blaskiewicz
The Conspiracy Guy
May 17, 2012
The source of the dread, foreboding, or control that conspiracy theorists sense is often outside the range of the normal experience of everyday life, which in no way diminishes the sense of a real threat. Therefore, they locate the locus of power just beyond the normal citizen's perceptual range. . . .
Mythbusting Makeup: Skepticism and Cosmetic Claims
by Kylie Sturgess
Curiouser and Curiouser
May 9, 2012
There’s two things the general public are guaranteed to be concerned about: their health and the contents of their wallets. Yet somehow we are drawn to claims that you can make your thighs thin via a tube of goop and eagerly purchase promises of perfect complexions through using gunk best slapped on with a spatula.
SkeptiCal 2012
by LaRae Meadows
May 4, 2012
SkeptiCal, a one day conference billed as Northern California's science and skepticism conference, was host to more than 260 skeptics at the DoubleTree Hotel in Berkeley, California on April 21, 2012.
“You are Not Entitled to Your Own Bigfoot Facts”
by Sharon Hill
Sounds Sciencey
April 25, 2012
Once upon a time, not so long ago, I came across a website that provided “Bigfoot Facts” for kids. The site didn't say from where these facts were derived but they were commonly circulated in various books and all over the web.
The Denver International Airport Conspiracy
by Robert Blaskiewicz
The Conspiracy Guy
April 11, 2012
Somehow, the conspiratorial world has convinced itself that, to use Richard Dreyfus’s phrase as he sculpts his mashed potatoes into a replica of the Devil’s Tower, the Denver International Airport “means something.” What exactly it means is unclear, but conspiracy theorists know its meaning is sinister.
Black(water) Market: Digging Up the Dirt about Slick Designer Beverages
by Sharon Hill
Sounds Sciencey
April 2, 2012
On my regular stop to see the newest beverages one day, I noticed a slick, thin black bottle. The label read “Spring water enriched with Fulvic Acid.” Intrigued, I bought the 16.9 ounce bottle for $1.89.
James Randi: An Honest Liar
by Kylie Sturgess
Curiouser and Curiouser
March 21, 2012
Interview with Documentary Filmmakers Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom
A Deviant Plot: Resisting Gay Rights at the UN, Islamic States Mangle Psychiatric Consensus, English
by Austin Dacey
Circumnavigations
March 16, 2012
Does the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders propose that there are twenty-two forms of “sexual orientation”? The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (and Focus on the Family) want you to think so.
Apocalyptic January and the Portents of Doom
by Sharon Hill
Sounds Sciencey
March 7, 2012
They were science-based Doomsday agents, effective in scaring the bejeezus out of generally rational people. And the arrival of 2012—heavily weighted with (very commercially exploited) “End of the World” overtones—serves to popularize these stories even more.
