Skeptic News: Mass Media Funk - Psychic Dog Fails ESP Test; Spontaneous Human Combustion Explained

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I highly recommend this book for anyone who is about to embark on studying religion and atheism. Why do people enjoy music? Why do we like to socialize? Why do we sometimes become violent? Science has attempted to answer each of these questions. Dennett proposes that science attempt to answer another: Why are people religious? Even if one of the religions is true, that still means that billions of people believe religions that are not true. Why? What is it about our evolutionary past that makes us willing to believe? (*****)
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Richard P. Feynman: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character
Very entertaining and thought-provoking collection of anecdates from the life of perhaps the best-known physicist of the 20th century. (****)
Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack S. Cohen: The Science of Discworld
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August 29, 1998

Mass Media Funk - Psychic Dog Fails ESP Test; Spontaneous Human Combustion Explained

Mass Media Funk - Psychic Dog Fails ESP Test; Spontaneous Human Combustion Explained: The Skeptic's Refuge, in the Mass Media Funk column, briefly summarizes two recent news items. In the first, Jaytee, a "clairvoyant" terrier, is tested to see whether he knows when his owner is about to return home. (If Jaytee won Randi's million dollar challenge, how would he spend the money?) In the second, researchers test the "wick effect," in which a body's fat fuels the flames. How nice.

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August 29, 1998 in Miscellaneous | Permalink

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