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Category Archives: Debunking myths
The Quest for the Historical Harry Price
Yes, it’s been a while. I find writing about most things nowadays superfluous – people can become absurdly well informed by reading Wikipedia, and people like me belong to an irrelevant generation of people who hoarded books and knowledge the … Continue reading
Review: The Bermuda Triangle Mystery – Solved by Lawrence David Kusche
Book titles tend to be prone to hyperbole, but this 1975 book, one of my favourite books, does exactly what it says on the cover. It simply explains the Bermuda Triangle phenomena, and also teaches a few lessons in critical … Continue reading
The Day I Met Myself: or how I survived my death-omen doppleganger.
It was an overcast day, and I was walking through Bury St Edmunds with my best friend, Hugh. After lunch sometime, killing time before our scheduled afternoon classes. I don’t know the date or even the year — and Hugh … Continue reading
Libelling Sally Morgan: the Hitler Connection.
OK, today Sally Morgan won a reported £125,000 damages from The Daily Mail in an out of court settlement. Those people who have said “The UK courts have endorsed psychic powerz!” are more out of touch than the wackiest woo-filled … Continue reading
Posted in Debunking myths, Paranormal, Reviews and Past Events, Science
Tagged Hayley Stevens, Psychic Sally, Sally Morgan
5 Comments
Watching Most Haunted: Series 3, Ep. 1 East Kirkby Airfield
In this piece I am going to (after my rambling intro) look at one episode of Most Haunted: Series 3, episode 1, where the team visit East Kirkby airfield in Lincolnshire, a disused WW2 airbase now a museum. Continue reading
Is it time to give up on “Skepticism”?
Today I’m recovering from a rather unpleasant patch of illness that has left me drained, tired and at times irritable — and has prevented me posting the following thoughts for over a week. As I can’t see anyone caring anyway, … Continue reading
1953: The Great (Not So) East Anglian Flood
If you asked people what the worst natural disaster to befall Britain in the 20th century was, most people will look at you and probably have no idea. It was actually in 1953 when a Spring tide combined with low atmospheric pressure led to an incredible storm and flood, and left 30,000 people homeless, and 307 dead on land, and over 224 at sea in the UK. Where I grew up it was known as the Great East Anglian Flood; however in the Netherlands they call it the Watersnoodramp, and Wikipedia calls it the North Sea Flood of 1953. Closer, but even that does not really cover the scale of the disaster – 28 died in Scotland, and the MV Princess Victoria a ferry doing railway duty on the Stranraer to Larne crossing sank with loss of 133 lives, with just 44 saved. Across the Low Countries and UK, over 2000 people died. 13,000 cattle drowned: a thousand miles of coastline flooded, and in modern terms did £941,000,000 in damages – that is £50 million pounds in 1953 money converted by purchasing power. This was nothing compared the Netherlands – there around 1,800 people perished. Continue reading
Re-Investigating Un-Haunted Houses
Abstract Eight couples who had never experienced any ‘haunting’ activity in their houses and had no reason to expect they would experience ‘ghosts’ were asked by the author to keep a diary for one calendar month from 17th October – … Continue reading
The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
A fairly short piece today, on something I have mused over this week. I think it all started with a friend finally persuading me to watch the US comedy The Big Bang Theory: for the record I enjoyed it, and … Continue reading
Posted in atheism, Debunking myths, History religion and society, Science, Social commentary desecrated, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life
Tagged Ben Goldacre, Blakes 7, Bros, D&D, Economics, Father Ted, Geek Culture, Geek History, Geeks, Graham Linehan, Jarvis Cocker, Justin Sullivan, NEw Model Army, Richard Ayaode, Richard Dawkins, Richard Wiseman, Robin Ince, Robin of Sherwood, The Big Bang Theory, The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth, The IT Crowd, The Vicar of Dibley, UK Society, xkcd
2 Comments
Pokémon Take Back The Night in Cheltenham?
It was about 2.30pm yesterday and a beautiful sunny afternoon; I was walking along Cheltenham High Street when I first noticed the two elegantly dressed, seemingly normal women. They were in their 30’s I guess, and as they approached I … Continue reading →