Skeptics' Circle 44

Skeptics' semicircle. Swedish newspaper man Hans Leander and his family in their Stockholm home, late 1920s.

Dear Reader, welcome to Salto sobrius and the 44th Skeptics' Circle! Salto is a blog about archaeology and skepticism and stuff, kept by a Swedish archaeologist. The Circle is a biweekly carnival for bloggers who apply critical thought to questionable stories. On Sunday 1 October I will be hosting the Carnival of the Godless as well, so you'll have to wait until then for entries skeptical about omnipotent entities in the stratosphere. (There will be a whole section on creationism.)

No hell below us, above us only sky. But today we're just going to be skeptical about earthbound issues. Well, planetary ones, to be exact. Here we go.

• Phil the Bad Astronomer hammers in the fact that There Is No F-ing Face On Mars. With great hi-res satellite pix of the non-face.
• Creative Anachronist Runolfr of The Saga of Runolfr reports on some skeptical research into intoxicating drinks that he has performed. Although implementing a highly stringent research design, there is a slight suspicion that he and the subjects may have become pretty drunk while performing the experiment.
• Tara at Aetiology does her part in an ongoing methodical group effort to debunk Jon Wells' The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design: chopping chapter 7 finely, frying it with ground beef and garlic, and drowning it in crushed tomatoes. Add Tabasco sauce to taste.
• Gadfly over at Socratic Gadfly has two posts bashing evolutionary psychology: here and here.
• Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock offers some analysis of how exactly people who argue nonsensical positions go about it: denialist rhetoric.
• Skeptico mercilessly mangles that pitiful old zombie of a thought system, astrology. If only the stinking thing would just lie down and be dead!
• Zeno the maths teacher at Halfway There has two entries (1 - 2) on urban legends and the hostile reactions of some believers when they're told they've been deceived.
• Stuart at Daily Irreverence debunks scare propaganda about teflon.
• EoR at The Second Sight reports on the activities of an alternative-medicine spammer. And self-abuser.
• Skeptical healthcare consultant Emily at the Antidote offers entries on a clinical study of green-tea drinkers, the abuse of the word "breakthrough" in science reporting and a study of the effects on health of harpistry performed in hospital wards.
• Orac at Respectful Insolence pisses off the anti-vaccination people with three entries (1 - 2 - 3) debunking their pet superstition.
• Barry at Staring At Empty Pages has an in-depth analysis of news about the computer security of Diebold voting machines. You know, the ones that may not have been entirely tamper-proof during recent US elections.
• Finally, here's my own contribution to the carnival: a review of Garrett G. Fagan's recent skeptical anthology Archaeological Fantasies.
  

Aaand that was our carnival, as Steve Eley of Escape Pod is fond of saying. I'm passing the baton on to Karl at The Inoculated Mind, who will host the 45th Skeptics' Circle on 12 October. Until then, remember to do your qi gong exercises, and don't take off your tinfoil hat! The Truth is Out There, you know.

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