Author Archive

Hello my fellow skeptics, I’ve returned and apologize profusely for my long-held inactivity.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Mitchell for being an absolute champ in filling the void while I was AWOL.  Despite our obvious need for new contributors (whom we will ALWAYS be happy to hire), Mitchell did a good job keeping our site afloat with new content!

There are many things I’ve learnt throughout my absence per se, the first being that life can be unrelentingly unfair.  Theologians and apostles can often find comfort in the belief that our lives, and indeed the world itself is governed by some divine formula culminating in– by my understanding– an apocalypse somehow orchestrated for our benefit.  As an atheist, I find the image silly. As someone who has seen his sister undergo five separate cancer-related surgeries, I find it vulgar.  The overall point (and one which I’ll probably elaborate on in the not-so-distant future) stands that were human suffering part of an omnipotent being’s master plan, that realization alone would be reason to rebel (were it sane to rebel against an imaginary character).

Another thing I’ve learnt is that despite the overwhelming stress one can face in life, to back away or otherwise neglect one’s own projects (as I, admittedly, have), you end up losing your only source for normalcy.  This, above all else, is a mistake I’ve learnt never again to repeat.   While it certainly hasn’t held much time in the spotlight (yet), Lintbox is a pride and dedication of mine I’m not soon planning to turn my back on.

To avoid any more fluff, I’m back, and back I shall stay…  But that’s not all there is to say.

While updates haven’t necessarily been flooding in over the past several months, the aim to expand Lintbox is as strong as ever, which brings me to an announcement:

We’ve recently provided new special features for the site, namely the Panel Discussions (which, though delayed, will receive a new submission tomorrow), there’s an entirely new, exciting special feature to keep an eye out for:  Skepticles.

“But what is/are Skepticles” you may ask?  Skepticles is an idea I’ve been toying with since Lintbox’s conception; A weekly/biweekly-updated comic strip featuring a Skepticism and/or Scientific focus.  Though I’ve already spoilt the surprise, I won’t divulge any more details until the coming updates!

And so, be on the lookout for updates as they should now be much more frequent, and thanks for sticking around throughout the dark patches!

-Paul

CNN and CBS have recently presented another “hard-hitting” series of reports on pareidolia with its piece on Jesus found in the water stains of a weight-loss centre’s ceiling.  The patrons and staff alike confide that they’ve since watched their language, avoid lying, and generally act civil while face-to-ceiling with the water stain Jesus.

Link.

As is typical with stories concerning seeing images in random patterns or artifacts, I don’t see Jesus.  In fact, I see Gorn.  It then becomes a surprise to me that patrons of the centre chose to pacify themselves rather than fashion a cannon out of a hollowed-out bamboo shoot.

So what’s appeared on the ceiling, then?  A) Jesus or B) Gorn?

The answer is neither.  It’s a [Gorn-shaped] water stain.  That’s pretty much it.

In what is certifiably a rare occurrence, I’ve found myself reasonably impressed by the skepticism found in a special news article.  Specifically, by the piece 9/11 Conspiracy Files, which aired on CBC Newsworld this week.

The hour-long program focuses on perhaps the largest foundation of the 9/11 “Truthers’” conspiracy theory, the collapse of WTC7.  In it, while true douchebags like Dylan Avery of Loose Change are given time to have their say, it’s the engineers, firefighters and the families of the victims who have the final word.  What’s more, the program makes no hesitation to refute conspiracy theory claims surrounding the collapse of the third tower with real science, reason, and at times just plain common sense.

For those unfamiliar with the Truthers’ nonsense, the meat of the 9/11 conspiracy theory surrounds the collapse of WTC7, which they say is a “smoking gun” for the government’s supposed involvement in the attacks, as it had not appeared to have sustained significant damage and must therefore have been destroyed in a controlled demolition through the use of explosives.  The program’s response to this argument, based on official research into the collapse of the tower, leaves no stone unturned, as it picks apart every conspiracy theory claim neatly thoroughly.

First and foremost, the argument that WTC7 suffered no damage prior to its collapse is debunked by foorage from all angles of broken windows as well as fire and smoke pluming from all sides.  On the claim that the fire left raging in the building could not be hot enough to melt the steel foundations of the structure, a team of engineers explain that the melting of the steel isn’t necessary to produce a collapse.  Instead, the steel needs merely to be weakened by the intense temperatures of the fire to the point where it can no longer support the weight of the structure (This is accomplished long before the steel is at its melting point).  Conspiracy theorists even argue that the sight and sound of the building’s collapse indicate that explosives were present in the building to initiated its destruction.  The program offers two explanations for this.

One is practical:  Those “hearing” and “seeing” explosions have little to no experience on what real-life explosions sound and look like, and thus cannot be relied on to provide a realistic assessment.  The other explanation is more technical.  The “explosion” seen by observers is itself a result of the collapse.  As the structure’s foundations fails and it begins to collapse, air within the building is trapped, much like in a balloon.  The pressure builds until the air is finally able to escape, which it does very violently.  Indeed, this may be called an explosion, but not as a result of explosives.  It is, rather, a result of the physics of the building’s collapse, and nothing more.

We here at Lintbox have yet to write an extensive piece on 9/11 conspiracy theories, which we should sometime in the future (at the risk of facing the often very harsh responses from Truthers.)  Nevertheless, CBC/BBC managed to produce one very satisfying, scientific approach to the conspiracy theory, and for that I’m left impressed.  Maybe there’s hope for the media, after all!

Has the Large Hadron Collider Destroyed the World Yet?

This should prove a handy tool for those worried over the nonsensical doomsday claims regarding the LHC.

Be sure to check the website frequently to make sure you haven’t been swallowed by a cloud of micro black holes, or engulfed by and converted into strange matter!

Well, these past few weeks have proven to be incredibly busy for all of us, and as a result our activity has lately been minimal.  This is, I assure you, a temporary circumstance and we should all be back in the game very soon.

In the meantime, as you can see from the navigation bar above, the Lintbox Forums are now up!   There you will be able to chat with the Lintbox staff and other readers alike, as it’s our goal to build up a good skeptic community!

So have at it, folks!  Sign up and begin posting today! (Just remember to give the forum rules a glance).

See you there!

As many may have noticed, activity recently here has been low.  No, we haven’t gone anywhere, but have instead been working on a fairly large website update.  Well, I’m now pleased to announce the introduction of our “Special Features” section, where you’ll find the usual slew of published articles as well as our newly-conceived Panel Discussions and Podcast, as explained below:

Panel Discussion – A biweekly feature published every other Saturday where Lintbox staff and contributors alike will each chime in on a single topic or controversy of note.  The first is slated to be published this coming Saturday.  Don’t miss it!

Podcast – Though still in the planning stages, we will occasionally publish a 30 minute-long feature where one author will have his/her chance to speak out on a particular topic of choice,  followed by a discussion by the Lintbox staff.  The layout has not yet been finalized however, so stayed tuned for related updates!

Finally, we are currently looking for new skeptics interested in writing or contributing to Lintbox!  Should this meet your fancy, be sure to send us an application via the Contact Us page!  Keep in mind, we will be keeping a close eye on all applications and may require a writing sample for consideration.

Stay tuned for more soon!

Yesterday, to my stern disapproval, the normally science-friendly Discovery Channel hosted the documentary: Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012 – The End of Days, a title which could have been a lot shorter, but I suppose they really needed to nail down that end-of-the-world feeling to it.  Anyway, while I typically love what’s aired on Discovery, The End of Days wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be; It was worse.

We haven’t yet really covered much on the 2012 nonsense, which I suppose we should sometime in the future (we do have more than four years to do so, after all!).

The gist of it, for those lucky enough to have not heard of the hysteria, is that the Ancient Mayans’ calendar ends in December of 2012, which has led many to speculate that the world must end by that date, and not that, you know, the Mayans didn’t want to waste their lives writing calendars for dates they probably wouldn’t still be around to experience.

In any case, the finite Mayan calendar is the core of the 2012 doomsday claims.  Once you sprinkle a few vaguely applicable lines from soothsayers of the past to support it, you’ve got an apocalypse-nowish theory compelling enough to get Hollywood’s attention. Read the rest of this entry »

If you thought conspiracy theories couldn’t get any crazier, dumber, or both…

It could be real, it could be fake, but it’s nevertheless great stuff.

Last year, noted “psychic” Uri Gellar began harassing Youtube user RationalResponse with the threat of a lawsuit for eight seconds of copyrighted footage used in a 13-minute video featuring James Randi.  Despite the case being a very clear example of fair-use, Uri and his corporation, Explorogists Ltd., claimed that the unauthorized use of the footage constituted copyright infringement and demanded that the video be taken down.  Youtube had the video suspended for a week.

Several frivolous lawsuits later, Explorogists and Brian Sapient (a.k.a. RationalResponse), with the help of the EFF, reached a settlement in which Explorogists must license the footage under a non-commercial Creative Commons license, thereby eliminating any claim of copyright infringement for the non-commercial use of its footage.

You can find more about the case here, and enjoy the video in question below:

And, in the spirit of debunking Uri’s nonsense, these videos:

The internet has gone nutty lately with pictures of the so-called “Montauk Monster,” a curious-looking corpse which washed ashore in Montauk, New York.

Excerpt:

The validity of the picture has been further established by the numerous eyewitnesses who saw the animal on the beach in front of Montauk’s Surfside Inn. Theories abound as to what the animal is and where it came from. Marci Caplis of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted that rare and unknown sea animals did surface after the Asian tsunami, and although the recent East Coast storms are not of comparable magnitude, the animal did wash up on a particularly stormy day in the Hamptons.

The question remains:  Just what the heck is that thing?  A monster? A mutated dog? An escaped experiment gone horribly wrong?

These are all the crazy theories I’ve heard so far over the thing’s origin.  Indeed, many have pointed out that the Plum Island Animal Disease Center is located near the location where the “monster” was found, and have concluded that the creature must have been a mutated experiment (or some such) which escaped its evil scientist captors.  I, on the other hand, have what I believe to be a much more reasonable conclusion:

We have way too much time on our hands.

It never ceases to both surprise and disappoint me at how willing we are to settle for the more outlandish explanations for phenomena.  Reason and rationality, it seems, are too mundane for many to be considered as valid approaches to mysteries.  Occam’s Razor is far from a scientific principle, but it’s a valid rule of thumb when approaching seemingly bizarre mysteries such as this one.  We can hypothesize that the creature is a horrible scientific experiment gone awry, a visiting alien which discovered too late that the Earth’s water would spell certain doom for its biology, or even a new species of mammal that has eluded zoologists for centuries, but the simple fact remains that we’re avoiding the more reasonable conclusions… that:

1. It’s the decaying, warped corpse of an already-identified animal.
2. It’s a hoax.

These certainly aren’t exciting answers to respond to, but they’re nevertheless far more likely than the sci-fi-themed ideas many have conjured up so far.

Oh, and some people have hypothesized that the creature is Satan, too.  Keep that in mind when choosing to avoid the simple answer.