Dan's Journal of Skepticism

I’ve just finished moving this blog and its 5+ years of posts over to a new service provider. In addition to a new service provider this blog has also been migrated to new new Content Management System (CMS), namely WordPress. The move to WordPress will provide the much needed flexibility for this blog/site to be expanded in the future. The security of the site has also been significantly upgraded in the process.

While great care was taken to avoid breaking things (especially the URL Structure) during the move it was inevitable that not everything would transition perfectly. As a result of the formatting style I previously used some of the embedded images used in blog posts aren’t aligned with the text correctly and a few “click to enlarge” images not longer function when clicked. I have checked all of the posts and all the content is here, some of it is just displayed oddly. These loose ends will be tied up over the next few weeks.

Judging by the emails I continue to receive it seems my absence from the Internet over the past 6 months has not gone un-noticed. It’s true that both this blog and my twitter have been very quiet over the past year and especially the previous 6 months.

Unfortunately I’ve had very little free time to maintain this site recently due to unrelated activities that have simply consumed most of my free time.

This should all change soon. I’m currently considering expanding this blog to include things outside of Pseudo-science. While this blog has never had a definitive topic, pseudo-science became the default as picking fights with frauds and charlatans was the thing that occupied most of my free-time 5 years ago. It’s still a hobby but spending less time on it these days means I have less things to write about.

So expanding the scope of the blog seems like the most sensible solution rather than keeping it quiet. At the moment I’m still deciding if this site should host two blogs, one for skepticism/pseudo-science (current blog) and one for other interests or just keep the one blog and separate posts by category (I already do this for ease of navigation). Which ever way it goes I’ll be keeping it all in the one website/domain, nothing that’s currently here will be going away.

Journalists are renowned for their failure to check facts. So it should come as no surprise that a journalist in Australia has mistaken a sewer vent for a war memorial.

I’m unable to find permanent employment as a journalist due to lack of qualifications (at least that’s what they tell me). Yet, I always check my facts before making stupid comments. Especially when a quick Google search is all you need to find the fact sheet on The Obelisk.

Anyone can make a mistake, but this is just laziness.

I have been to countless museums all over the world, but I have never once seen an interactive exhibit with a warning sign that says “This exhibit may be traumatic for young children or sensitive persons.” until I visited Ripley’s Believe It Or Not in London. When a museum exhibit comes with a content warning you know it’s going to be good.

Who would have thought pulling the lever on a museum attraction could be so fun? There where a few visitors who appeared unnerved by this exhibit, but they can’t say they weren’t warned.

I’m stepping out of the country for 3 weeks to go to Europe, and on the way over I will be stopping at Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It turns out that blasphemy is a crime in the UAE so I hope they don’t put my name into Google and find this site; even more so “The Muhammad Picture Gallery” not that I think they would really care much about a foreign site in the unlikely event that passengers were screened in this fashion.

Unfortunately this means I may not get the opportunity to update this blog for the month of July and my Twitter stream is also likely to be fairly silent as I am not sure what Internet access; if any will be available to me while I am away. But at least my 18hrs and 25mins of flights over there will give me an opportunity to catch up on some reading. I have Carl Sagans demon haunted world with me for the flight to London.

Are you good in blog? A calling for all Skeptical bloggers; this is my response to an idea put forward by SheThought.com.

How to start a blog? This question has replaced the old “what should my website be about?” and although it is easy to setup a blog with services such as Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Squarespace.com ect. Actually “starting” the blog is another thing all together. The truth is that blogging is not for everyone, it is a personal thing and you need to find a topic that you are interested in and be willing to state your opinion on them. If you are at the point where your seriously considering a blog then you already fill this prerequisite. If you want to write about something then the best advice I can give is to just do it, write something; anything. You don’t need to be perfect or even good because your can always improve in the future, however you can never succeed if you do not start.

Dealing with Trolls. There is an old Usenet saying “Please do not feed to trolls” and it still holds true to this day most trolls are seeking attention and will give up when they do not receive the attention they are seeking. The best thing to do is ignore them don’t take the bait they lay. If you must take on the trolls do so with reasoned debate and any onlookers can draw their own conclusions. The Troll will most likely show themselves up early on; especially if they are anonymous and too cowardly to stand behind what they say.

Why blog at all? As I said before, blogging is a personal thing and it is not for everyone. Some people prefer to spend their time in silent observation, for every blogger there are hundreds more people participating in discussion forums such as SGU-Forums and many thousands more silent observers. But the primary idea behind blogging is to voice an opinion and doing so has opened public debate in ways that where unimaginable only 10-15 years ago.

How has the recent UK libel case vs Simon Singh changed blogging? The recent victory of Simon Singh over the British Chiropractic Association has sent a strong message to suppressors of free-speech that criticism cannot be silenced with lawsuits. I find that when people go running to their lawyers rather than public debate it is because they nearly always have something to hide. Never trust anyone who chooses to file lawsuits rather than addressing their critics; they are hiding something. Fortunately the Streisand Effect ensures that it does not remain hidden for long.