Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience

Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience PDF Author: Martin Gardner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393322386
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Gardner muses on topics as diverse as numerology, the late Senator Clairborne Pell's paranormal passions, Freud's flawed dream theory, the Heaven's Gate suicides, and the inexhaustible American appetite for third-rate science.

Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience

Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience PDF Author: Martin Gardner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393322386
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Gardner muses on topics as diverse as numerology, the late Senator Clairborne Pell's paranormal passions, Freud's flawed dream theory, the Heaven's Gate suicides, and the inexhaustible American appetite for third-rate science.

Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience

Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience PDF Author: Martin Gardner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393245039
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
"[Gardner] zaps his targets with laserlike precision and wit."—Entertainment Weekly Martin Gardner is perhaps the wittiest, most devastating unmasker of scientific fraud and intellectual chicanery of our time. Here he muses on topics as diverse as numerology, New Age anthropology, and the late Senator Claiborne Pell's obsession with UFOs, as he mines Americans' seemingly inexhaustible appetite for bad science. Gardner's funny, brilliantly unsettling exposés of reflexology and urine therapy should be required reading for anyone interested in "alternative" medicine. In a world increasingly tilted toward superstition, Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? will give those of us who prize logic and common sense immense solace and inspiration. "Gardner is a national treasure...I wish [this] could be made compulsory reading in every high school—and in Congress."—Arthur C. Clarke "Nobody alive has done more than Gardner to spread the understanding and appreciation of mathematics, and to dispel superstition."— The New Criterion, John Derbyshire

Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience

Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience PDF Author: Martin Gardner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393322385
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Gardner muses on topics as diverse as numerology, the late Senator Clairborne Pell's paranormal passions, Freud's flawed dream theory, the Heaven's Gate suicides, and the inexhaustible American appetite for third-rate science.

Debunk It!

Debunk It! PDF Author: John Grant
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 1936976684
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Uses modern headline examples to explain how to identify bad evidence and poor arguments, summarizing the rhetorical tricks people use to sway public opinion in a range of fields.

Debunk It! Fake News Edition

Debunk It! Fake News Edition PDF Author: John Grant
Publisher: Zest Books ™
ISBN: 1541578686
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
We live in an era of misinformation, much of it spread by authority figures, including politicians, religious leaders, broadcasters, and, of course, apps and websites. In this second edition, author John Grant uses ripped-from-the-headlines examples to clearly explain how to identify bad evidence and poor arguments. He also points out the rhetorical tricks people use when attempting to pull the wool over our eyes, and offers advice about how to take these unscrupulous pundits down. Updated to include a chapter on fake news, Debunk It serves as a guide to critical thinking for young readers looking to find some clarity in a confusing world.

Ancestors and Relatives

Ancestors and Relatives PDF Author: Eviatar Zerubavel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199912319
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Genealogy has long been one of humanity's greatest obsessions. But with the rise of genetics, and increasing media attention to it through programs like Who Do You Think You Are? and Faces of America, we are now told that genetic markers can definitively tell us who we are and where we came from. The problem, writes Eviatar Zerubavel, is that biology does not provide us with the full picture. After all, he asks, why do we consider Barack Obama black even though his mother was white? Why did the Nazis believe that unions of Germans and Jews would produce Jews rather than Germans? In this provocative book, he offers a fresh understanding of relatedness, showing that its social logic sometimes overrides the biological reality it supposedly reflects. In fact, rather than just biological facts, social traditions of remembering and classifying shape the way we trace our ancestors, identify our relatives, and delineate families, ethnic groups, nations, and species. Furthermore, genealogies are more than mere records of history. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Zerubavel introduces such concepts as braiding, clipping, pasting, lumping, splitting, stretching, and pruning to shed light on how we manipulate genealogies to accommodate personal and collective agendas of inclusion and exclusion. Rather than simply find out who our ancestors were and identify our relatives, we actually construct the genealogical narratives that make them our ancestors and relatives. An eye-opening re-examination of our very notion of relatedness, Ancestors and Relatives offers a new way of understanding family, ethnicity, nationhood, race, and humanity.

Nonsense on Stilts

Nonsense on Stilts PDF Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022649604X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
“This crash course in critical thinking . . . includes handy rules for evaluating the confused public discourse on climate change, evolution, and even UFOs.” —Discover Recent polls suggest that fewer than forty percent of Americans believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution, despite it being one of science’s best-established findings. Parents still refuse to vaccinate their children for fear it causes autism, though this link has been consistently disproved. And about forty percent of Americans believe that the threat of global warming is exaggerated, including many political leaders. In this era of fake news and alternative facts, there is more bunk than ever. But why do people believe in it? And what causes them to embrace such pseudoscientific beliefs and practices? In this fully revised second edition, noted skeptic Massimo Pigliucci sets out to separate the fact from the fantasy in an entertaining exploration of the nature of science, the borderlands of fringe science, and—borrowing a famous phrase from philosopher Jeremy Bentham—the nonsense on stilts. Presenting case studies on a number of controversial topics, Pigliucci cuts through the ambiguity surrounding science to look more closely at how science is conducted, how it is disseminated, how it is interpreted, and what it means to our society. The result is in many ways a “taxonomy of bunk” that explores the intersection of science and culture at large. Broad in scope and implication, Nonsense on Stilts is a captivating guide for the intelligent citizen who wishes to make up her own mind while navigating the perilous debates that will shape the future of our planet. “Brilliant . . . required reading for, well, everyone.” —New Scientist

Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics

Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics PDF Author: Matt Cardin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
This fascinating work provides a complete overview of paranormal phenomena, including the beliefs, attitudes, and notable figures who have attempted to explain, defend, or debunk the mysteries behind the unknown. Recent interest in the paranormal as pop culture fodder belies its historical status as an important subject of cultural, philosophical, and scientific significance. This book traces the trajectory of paranormal studies from its early role as a serious academic and scientific topic studied by mainstream scientists and eminent scholars to its current popularity in books, film, and TV. This compelling reference work details the experiences, encounters, and ideas that make up this controversial field of study. The contributed entries examine the broad phenomena of the paranormal, addressing the history of scientific investigations along with its contemporary media depictions to illustrate the evolution of cultural attitudes about the paranormal. A selection of primary documents provides real-life accounts and contributions from noted experts that explore the full scope of themes from spiritualism to poltergeists to astrology. Accompanying images, timelines, quotations, and sidebars make the content come to life and encourage alternative explanations of these events.

In Defense of Science

In Defense of Science PDF Author: Frank R. Spellman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1641432519
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
In an era when many in the science community feel that science is under attack, In Defense of Science explains why ordinary citizens need to have an understanding of science, its methods, and its discoveries. The authors debunk several misconceptions of science and scientists, and advocate that science is an integral part of society.

Controversial Therapies for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities

Controversial Therapies for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities PDF Author: Richard M. Foxx
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317623835
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 588

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Book Description
One of the largest and most complex human services systems in history has evolved to address the needs of people with autism and intellectual disabilities, yet important questions remain for many professionals, administrators, and parents. What approaches to early intervention, education, treatment, therapy, and remediation really help those with autism and other intellectual disabilities improve their functioning and adaptation? Alternatively, what approaches represent wastes of time, effort, and resources? Controversial Therapies for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities, 2nd Edition brings together leading behavioral scientists and practitioners to shed much-needed light on the major controversies surrounding these questions. Expert authors review the origins, perpetuation, and resistance to scrutiny of questionable practices, and offer a clear rationale for appraising the quality of various services. The second edition of Controversial Therapies for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities has been fully revised and updated and includes entirely new chapters on psychology fads, why applied behavioral analysis is not a fad, rapid prompting, relationship therapies, the gluten-free, casein-free diet, evidence based practices, state government regulation of behavioral treatment, teaching ethics, and a parents’ primer for autism treatments.