Okay, I admit it – it’s the new features on my host provider, they came with extra cat… but let this not
distract you from the fine Australian bloggers who stepped up to the challenge and have provided a wonderful round-up of skeptically-minded reading!
Blog circles are well-known and enjoyable for getting messages out to similar groups. They inspire further research, garner knowledge from experts and enthusiasts and generally help out with blog audience numbers.
Skeptics of Carlos wants to take it a step further, by encouraging writers to also consider submitting to the Australian Skeptics site (which openly states: ‘Write stuff. Get Published’) and to local street press and tertiary magazines – even school magazines!
All of this is just a part of taking the blogging experience and feedback a little further – certainly we encourage comments and constructive criticism of all entries you come across.
Firstly, Skepticon with ‘What is a Theory’, an educational investigation of how language is misused and for what purposes -
It’s been the catch cry of pseudo-scientists and the ideologically driven who attempt to undermine the public’s perception of scientific evidence and push their own pet alternative. To give them credit, it has worked, in the mind of the general public a scientific concept labeled “Just a Theory” instantly becomes less convincing and a target of misunderstanding… While suitable for everyday conversation this is not what is meant when scientists use the word to describe an aspect of our knowledge of the natural world. So, what is this thing called a Theory?
An excellent introduction to the writings of a neighborly New Zealand skeptic and well worth adding to your blogroll for more!
Speaking of introductions, there have been several entries by a very keen and perspicuous author at the blog home of Thinking Real - who took on the challenge VERY recently after the screening of the TV show ‘The One’. This particular entry is more about the lure of the claims made by star-readers and predictors – and the question that challenges many when faced with odd reasonings:
Is it possible to be both rational and deluded, at the same time?
Karen of Skepbitch kicks it like it should be – with her blog entry on ‘Too Skeptical And Yet Not Skeptical Enough’, as always, raising the big issues and questioning strategies:
Sound bites, editing with an agenda, and yes/no questions can portray a skeptic as a naysayer.
However, we don’t want to be gratuitous skeptics either. That doesn’t help our objectives, or our profile.
It seems that skeptics can be too skeptical, or not skeptical enough.
How can we find a happy (non-paranormal) medium of skepticism?
One of my own entries this month focused upon how aghast I felt about a popular Australian health-provider bringing out a portrayal of “Chinese Medicine As Emergency Care” in cinemas and TV advertising… when I have known people to have been seriously hurt when neglecting their health in favor of untested claims.
The ever-enjoyable blog-readings of Homologous Legs (and so damned thorough! Someone give this man a scholarship, stat!) brings us Common Creationist Claims No.1 – Evolution Is Not Happening Now; ‘This claim is built upon a fundamental misunderstanding of evolutionary theory that evolution is simply lifeforms changing to other predefined lifeforms, such as dogs evolving into cats and visa versa. Any knowledge about the mechanisms of evolutionary change are enough to dispell this fallacy’
The Outer Hoard, a new member of the blog-circle, has started writing at a furiously intellectual pace, with several entries that are designed to garner feedback from Australian readers – such as the personal entry on Religion and me, and how it relates to developing skepticism. This is an excellent example of a blogger working towards writing for both the local and general audience (and as I said – Australian Skeptics journal submission details are found here!) – although playing Australian Skeptics material backwards probably wasn’t what they reckoned on happening, with this great entry on Scepticism in reverse!
Note, the site now features a game called ‘Elemental’ which is seeking feedback – if I wasn’t working on the blog this weekend, I think I would have had quite some fun with this… click on in!
Finally, we do have space for overseas authors (like New Zealand, as previously shown) – and here is an entry swimming in, that waxes lyrical on another international issue – The Digital Cuttlefish on PZ Myers and that darned uneaten wafer… ‘Ritual Cannibalism’ has never before rhymed so well…
REMEMBER! Email future entries into skepticsofcarlos@gmail.com! Highlight which entry you want to have profiled! Put yourself forward as a host for the next round on August 13th!
And as always – keep reading, writing and consider submitting!
![[Valid RSS]](http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/9879/validrsscf0.png "Validate my RSS feed")
{ 4 trackbacks }
{ 2 comments }
Perspicuous? Moi?
Thanks for the welcome and the kind word(s). Now, if only my fingers shared my perpiscuity. I’m shifting the blog because I typed the darned URL wrong! I’ll leave the existing one in place until I’m satisfied my fingers and keyboard are getting on together.
Time for a cup of tea and a read!
Comments on this entry are closed.