Dr Frederick Charles Schwarz, 1913 - 2009

By my brother, John William Wilson; an obituary on our esteemed uncle:

From the early 1950s to the late 1990s, an Australian medical doctor-turned-political activist rubbed shoulders with US film stars and music celebrities, captains of industry and US congressmen. He was involved in some of the earliest live television broadcasts in the US, delivered to audiences numbering in the millions. He influenced US policy and politicians, all the way to the White House.

As founder and Director of the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, he was one of the most influential Australians in the United States during the 1950s and 60s.

Yet, Dr Frederick Charles Schwarz, who died on January 24 this year, remains relatively unknown in his home country.

Fred Schwarz (born on January 15, 1913) described himself as an "aggressive Christian evangelist". At his graduation from the University of Queensland in 1943, the student audience reportedly broke into a rendition of the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers', no doubt as a good-natured but ironic and slightly barbed acknowledgment of Schwarz’s evangelical activism on campus. Schwarz, in typically thick-skinned manner, chose to take it as a compliment.

Schwarz, who was raised as one of eleven children in Queensland, graduated with a science degree and worked as a school teacher, then returned to university to study arts and medicine.

During his medical internship Schwarz came to realise that many of his fellow interns could not live adequately on their meagre remuneration. In response, Schwarz took the unusual step of leading the formation of a trade union, which successfully applied through the courts for a medical intern award, to the unbounded gratitude of those interns.

In confronting the establishment head-on in order to rectify what he saw as an injustice, Schwarz heralded both a forthrightness and a willingness to take a principled stand that would feature throughout his career.

He moved to Sydney in 1946 to take over a medical practice in suburban North Strathfield. The practice grew to become one of the busiest in Sydney's western suburbs.

A comfortable career and happy family life beckoned, but there were clouds on the horizon. With a conviction equivalent to his evangelical zeal, and, as he saw it, as a logical extension of his beliefs, Schwarz developed a deep concern about the atheistic values and ambitions of Marxism-Leninism and the Communist states, in particular, the Soviet Union.

Schwarz made a close study of the works of the leading Communist theorists, Marx, Engels and Lenin.

"Communism is not a good idea that did not work in practice"
His reading led him to challenge the popular notion that Communism was a good idea that did not work in practice. He insisted that it was a very bad idea that did work in practice, "unrestrained by law or conscience", leading to tyranny, misery and the deaths of millions.

He felt impelled to take action in the ways he knew best – careful analysis, reasoning and debate.

Schwarz eventually closed his medical practice and moved to the US, where he found an audience ready to listen to his methodical analysis of dialectical materialism and the dangers that he believed it posed to the world in general and the US in particular.

Schwarz's intriguing, tone-deaf Queensland accent and straight-talking yet penetrative analytical style struck a chord in the US. In just a few years his Christian Anti-Communism Crusade was running 'Anti-Communism Schools' attended by thousands, culminating in rallies at a packed Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in 1961, with nightly attendances of 16,000 and a live, prime-time television audience in the millions.

Schwarz shared his stage with celebrities of the day - Pat Boone, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Ronald Reagan amongst them. Years later, as President, Reagan engaged several of Schwarz’s former Anti-Communism School students as speechwriters. Their work included the famous 'Evil Empire' speech, which heralded a new era in US political engagement with the Soviet Union.

Later, on the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, Reagan wrote a personal message to Schwarz acknowledging his life’s work and congratulating him, "Fred, you’re to be commended for your tireless dedication in trying to ensure the protection of freedom and human rights, and I know you join me in special satisfaction in the recent events in Eastern Europe. Of course, [Schwarz’s wife] Lillian is also to be commended for being supportive of your lifelong efforts."

Media savvy
Through his time in the US, Schwarz proved media-savvy, with frequent appearances on US television, on film and in the newspapers. He also wrote prolifically, with his 1961 Prentice Hall-published, You Can Trust the Communists (To Be Communists), selling well over a million copies worldwide. Other books included The Three Faces of Revolution and Beating the Unbeatable Foe, complementing his fortnightly newsletters to Crusade subscribers.

Schwarz was always ready for a debate, whether on the topic of Marxism-Leninism before a hostile corps of journalists on the US Meet the Press, or on the merits of alternative fishing spots on his annual return from the US for holidays in Terrigal, New South Wales.

His anti-Communist views put him deeply at odds with many in the liberal left through the 1960s and 1970s and his sometimes unfashionable stance saw him take many insults in debate. He was often labelled with tags that incorrectly and unfairly positioned him with extremists. Throughout these difficult times his positive disposition never seemed to waver. As he put it, "If you are handed a lemon, make lemonade".

He was as sharp in intellect as he could be blunt in his critique of opposing views, always delivered without a trace of bitterness and with a sunny Queensland twinkle in the eye.

Long-time friend and fellow anti-Communism activist, Dr Elton Wilson, remarked at his funeral that Fred reminded him of the computer interface term WYSIWYG – "What you see is what you get – candid but without cant, without hatred and without hypocrisy".

Schwarz had an extraordinarily retentive memory and could quote verbatim, for hours on end, the political works of Lenin alongside favourite poetic works from the likes of C J Dennis, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, John Masefield and Edward Lear.
Dr Schwarz retired from his Christian Anti-Communism Crusade in 1998 and permanently returned to Australia, living a quiet life in Camden, south-west of Sydney, with his beloved wife Lillian. He died on January 24, 2009, aged 96.

Consistent with his contrarian wit, Schwarz attributed his longevity to his complete lack of exercise, his high stress lifestyle and his high fat, high salt, high sugar diet. He was even known to sprinkle salt on his Big Macs.

Although Schwarz spent much of his life working in a foreign land, he was sustained on his remarkable crusade both by the strength of his personal convictions and the unwavering support of a large and adoring extended family, often from afar as the children and grandchildren were raised and educated in Australia.

He is survived by wife Lillian, three children – John (a general practitioner), Rosemary (a psychiatrist) and David (a commercial airline pilot); an adopted son, John Whitehall (a well-known paediatrician and political activist); and some dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who knew him by the affectionate name 'Nandi'.

Categories: communism, activism, christianity

B Traven, mysterious author

1882 (allegedly; March 5 is also given by some sources) B Traven (d. March 26, 1969?), author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This is just a guess, as his identity and date of birth are still unknown.

His other novels were ignored for many years in North America, while his work was being acclaimed internationally and translated into numerous languages.

Traven wrote numerous other novels, which include The Death Ship and the epic Jungle Novel series, which is a description of Government corruption, and an Indian uprising set at the birth of the Mexican revolution. The Jungle novels include Government, The Carreta, March to the Monteria, Trozas, The Rebellion of the Hanged, and The General from the Jungle and powerfully portray the human basis of the Mexican revolution. As of 2005, some works are still awaiting translation from German to English.

Until recently, very little was known about the man himself; it was not even clear whether he was German or merely wrote in the language. It is clear from the descriptions in his novels that he must have at least travelled extensively (if not lived) in Europe, the United States and Mexico.

On the basis of comparing writing styles, it has been suggested that Traven was a pseudonym for the German anarchist Ret Marut, who published an underground magazine in the last years of the Weimar Republic ...

Categories: literature, mexico, american-literature

Knavish in its private Practice, and Treason in its Publick

In 1719, the same year that he wrote 'Robinson Crusoe', English author and journalist Daniel Defoe wrote a pamphlet that could apply to today's stock exchanges of the world and the damage done by the market.

Defoe's pamphlet had a wonderful title: "The Anatomy of Exchange Alley; or a System of Stock-Jobbing; proving that Scandalous Trade, as it is now carried on, to be knavish in its private Practice, and Treason in its Publick. Being a Clear Detection. I. Of the private Cheats, used to deceive one another. II. Of their Arts to draw Innocent Families into their Snare, understood by their new Term of Art, viz., being let into the Secret. III. Of their Raising and Spreading false News, to ground the Rise or Fall of Stocks upon. IV. Of the Dangerous Consequences of their Practices, and the necessity there is to Regulate or Suppress them. To which is added some Characters of the most Eminent Persons concern'd now, and for some Years past, in carrying on this pernicious Trade."

Categories: economy, stock-market, recession

Is this Atlantis, a fake photo, or what?

"This is the amazing image which could show the fabled sunken city of Atlantis.

"It shows a perfect rectangle the size of Wales lying on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean nearly 3½ miles down.

"A host of criss-crossing lines, looking like a map of a vast metropolis, are enclosed by the boundary ..."
Source

I dips me lid to Nora from Extra! Extra! for this one.

Meanwhile, we expect much more fascinating stuff to come in coming years from Google Ocean.

Categories: mystery, archaeology

What next for American's Abu Ghraib torture prison?

"Iraqi authorities are reopening the Baghdad prison that became notorious for the abuse of detainees by US troops.

"The Abu Ghraib prison has been handed back by the US and has undergone extensive renovation.

"It will become the city's main jail with room eventually for 12,000 inmates."
Source

Controversial Abu Ghraib prison reopens
With New Name and Mission, the Infamous Abu Ghraib Prison Is to Reopen
Shooting blindfolded and handcuffed Iraqi prisoners

Categories: abu-ghraib, torture, usa, iraq, human-rights, law, legal

Jeanne was the world's oldest person

1875 Jeanne Calment (d. August 4, 1997), who lived for 122 years and 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history, and the only person to have undisputedly lived for at least 120 years.



Jeanne Calment lived through France's Third and Fourth Republics, and into its Fifth. Born in Arles to a prosperous family, she met Vincent van Gogh in 1888 when he came to her uncle's shop to buy paints, and later remembered him as "dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable". Mme Calment was 14 when the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889. She also reported attending the funeral of Victor Hugo. Her husband, Fernand Calment (1896 - 1942) died at about 46 years of age and she survived him by some 55 years.

Calment took up fencing at the age of 85 and gave up smoking in 1995, aged 120; her doctor said her abstinence was due to pride rather than health – she was too blind to light a cigarette herself, and hated asking others to do it for her ...

Read about other late starters and late achievers, at Wilson's Almanac

Categories: france, longevity

Rocky Road by 8 Ball Aitken

My mate 8 Ball Aitken is now touring the USA with his manager and co-performer, Bird Jensen ... I got an email today and they're in LA. I'll keep readers informed about their tour, as 8 Ball and Bird keep me up to date.

Check out the Grass Roots Music Festival '08 - the song Rocky Road - by 8 Ball Aitken, musician 8 Ball Aitken & His Band, James Grehan, Chris Pickering, Adam James, The Bobkatz, Susanna Carman, Jord Allen, The Long Green Beans, The Jimmy Watts Band & Tichawona Mashawa. Music video directed by Michael Leo. A cool song as always from 8 Ball.

The festival site is www.grassrootsmusicfestival.com.au -- enjoy.

Categories: music, australia

Scalping begins in America ... possibly

1725 Possibly the first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans took place in New Hampshire colony.

Ten sleeping Indians were scalped by Captain Lovewell and troops at Wakefield (in what became New Hampshire, USA) for scalp bounty. This is widely believed to be the first recorded instance of scalping, which some authorities insist was introduced to the Americas by Europeans. In 1820, an Allegheny Seneca chieftain named Cornplanter claimed that the natives were peaceful until Europeans came. However, other authorities show evidence that scalping existed in the Americas centuries before European colonization ...

Tagged: usa, indigenous, history

The Donner Party and cannibalism

1847 The first rescue party reached the Donner Party.

On April 15 [qv], 1846, the families of James F Reed and George and Jacob Donner, 31 people in nine wagons, left Springfield, Illinois, USA. It was the commencement of the Donner Party, the most famous group of American emigrants ever to attempt the cross-country wagon journey to California. Almost ninety wagon train emigrants were unable to cross the Sierra Nevada before winter, and almost one-half starved to death.

However, it was noted that some of the survivors seemed to be remarkably well fed, considering their ordeal. In 2003 near the modern city of Truckee, California by Lake Tahoe, near Alder Creek, archaeologists found a campfire pit and solid evidence that cannibalism took place.

Tagged: usa, history

What is globalization?

Stephen Whale sent me this one:

Question: What is a good example of globalization?

Answer: Princess Diana's death.

Question: How come?

Answer: An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, in a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scotch whisky, followed closely by Italian paparazzi on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.

This is sent to you by an Australian, using Bill Gates's USA technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian truck-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Maltese wharfies, and trucked to you by Kiwis.

That, my friends, is globalization!

Categories: globalization, humour, humor

Smiley orchids

These beautiful orchids smile at you!

Categories: nature, flickr, flower, photo

Eastern Europe is about to blow

Interesting article: Eastern Europe is about to blow

Categories: russia, imf, recession, economics

Day of Spenta Armaiti, ancient Persia (Zoroastrianism)

Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

" … due reverence for the divine, verecundia, spoken of as daughter of Ormazd and regarded as having her abode upon the earth." Wikipedia

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

Today is a festival of women, dedicated to the earth and fertility goddess Spenta Armaiti (Spandarmat; Spandarmad; pictured), the fourth Amesha Spenta created.

Zoroastrianism recognizes various classes of spiritual beings besides the Supreme Being Ahura Mazda (literally: 'the Wise Lord' like the Sanskrit 'Asura Medha'; later transcription: Ohrmazd, Ormazd or Ormus).

These beings, or 'Emanations', include the Amesha Spentas (Amahraspands), 'Bounteous Immortals', each of which personifies an attribute of Ahura Mazda as well as a human virtue. In early Zoroastrianism they were spirits of light and may be considered divine aspects of Ahura Mazda. Later they attained status as independent deities ...

Categories: goddess, deity, religion

Submerged Lavenders Bridge, Bellingen, video

Submerged Lavenders Bridge, Bellingen, video
Originally uploaded by Pip_Wilson

This is near where I live, but my house is above the flood level. Across the river you can just make out people with unmbrellas standing on the road that leads to the bridge.

Here you will find pictures of the Bellinger River and Bellingen under normal circumstances.

Still raining here, and still watching this page at the Weather Bureau.

I'm a member of the Rainbow Region flickr group for North-eastern New South Wales.

Categories: bellingen, bellinger, weather

Garbage bins afloat, Black St Bellingen

Garbage bins afloat, Black St Bellingen
Originally uploaded by Pip_Wilson.

I've been keeping my eyes on the Bureau of Meteorology website www.bom.gov.au/ and the tide charts. The rain is very localized, not up the whole coast. "Lucky Bello" copped it again and it's the highest I've personally seen the flood since 1974. The water was two feet below the floorboards of 2BBB community radio station. More photos.

This morning, the river has receded, but it is still raining and more rain is forecast.

I'm a member of the Rainbow Region flickr group for North-eastern New South Wales.

Categories: bellingen, bellinger, water

Reduce immigration to Australia but increase refugee intake

A friend recently suggested to me that I must find it hard to reconcile my views on refugees* (ie, increase the intake to Australia) and immigration to Australia (reduce it) -- but I don't find it hard at all, for the following reasons:

In rough figures, Australia brings in 135,000 immigrants per annum, of which about 10 per cent are refugees fleeing for their lives. Of the remaining 90 per cent, the immigration criteria tend to be family reunion, or the skills and/or money the applicants can bring to Australia. A Singapore or New York millionaire stock trader stands a far greater chance of being given a new life in Australia than a mother in Somalia or Afghanistan whose husband has been boiled to death by police.

I'm not in favour of diluting traditional Australian culture by waves of immigration, but I am in favour of human rights and giving refuge to those suffering persecution. So, if I had the opportunity, I would reduce immigration to about 100,000 and increase the rate of refugees to about 75 per cent of the total. Furthermore, I would allow the family-reunion component of immigration to favour the families of those who have fled persecution.

Human compassion aside, one of the reasons for my favouring refugees is that they are inclined to have superior personal attributes by which Australia would benefit. To become a refugee, usually a person has already proved incredible integrity and courage (firstly by standing up to oppressive regimes), character and resilience (by surviving persecution and torture, and often the murder of loved ones), and resourcefulness (by escaping the borders of those regimes, and taking many chances, such as fleeing across unknown waters in leaky boats). I believe Australia would benefit more by increasing its intake of people of integrity, courage, character, resilience and resourcefulness, than people with other characteristics, such as personal wealth or having wealthy relatives who are already in this country.

* According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.

Read more about the plight of the world's refugees

Austcare - 40 Years of Australians Caring for the World

Categories: australia, immigration, refugee, human-rights

British, French nuclear subs collide in Atlantic

"Nuclear submarines from Britain and France collided deep in the Atlantic Ocean this month, authorities said Monday in the first acknowledgment of a highly unusual accident that one expert called the gravest in nearly a decade.

"Officials said the low-speed crash did not damage the vessels' nuclear reactors or missiles or cause radiation to leak. But anti-nuclear groups said it was still a frightening reminder of the risks posed by submarines prowling the oceans powered by radioactive material and bristling with nuclear weapons ..."
Source

How close did crash submarines packed with nuclear missiles come to disaster?

Backgrounder: major nuclear submarine incidents since 1960s

Categories: nuclear, military, nautical, france, uk

Happy Louisa Lawson Day!

If you know a woman anywhere in the world who has the right to vote, light a birthday candle today for Aussie poet Henry Lawson's mother. http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/henry_and_louisa_lawson.html

1848 Louisa Lawson (d. August 12, 1920), Australian feminist, inventor, poet, founder/editor of the Republican and (for 17 years) founder/publisher/editor of Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women; mother of Australian poet, Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922).



When female Australian British subjects won the vote with the Uniform Franchise Act (June 16, 1902), Louisa Lawson was hailed by her political sisters as "The Mother of Womanhood Suffrage". (Women in South Australia were the first in the world to win the right to vote and stand for election.)

Lawson was a poor, Mudgee-born bush battler, forced by marital breakdown, economic depression and drought to move with her four surviving children to the city. She was an idiosyncratic but indomitable woman, a prodigious worker, powerful writer and fine poet, a spiritualist, farmer, inventor, postmistress and shopkeeper.

Lawson spent thirty-five years of her hard life fighting for women’s rights. She founded the Association of Women, and with Henry, in 1887 - 88 she published the journal, The Republican. Louisa Lawson then became founder, owner, publisher and editor of The Dawn, the new nation’s foremost women’s political magazine, announcing that it would battle for women’s rights, and the vote. "Why should one half of the world govern the other half?" was Lawson’s rallying cry.

While she supported her children in a little house at 138 Phillip Street near Sydney's docks, she had to teach herself the difficult trade of setting lead type, because of a black-ban by the New South Wales Typographical Association. The Postmaster-General’s Department refused to register The Dawn for sending through the post. In 1891, Lawson helped launch (with Maybanke Anderson, Rose Scott, and Dora Montefiore) the Womanhood Suffrage League of NSW. She also founded the Dawn Club, which met in various locations in Sydney, including the tea rooms of the remarkable Quong Tart ...

Categories: louisa-lawson, suffragette, australia, women, women's-history, women's-rights, henry-lawson, radical-history, biography, feminism, australia, australian-history

Bob Winspear

1859 William Robert Winspear (d. February 20, 1944), English-born Australian journalist, poet and socialist. He immigrated in 1874 and formed his radical ideas while working as a coal-miner at New Lambton, NSW. In March, 1887, with his wife Alice, he founded the newspaper Radical, which became the mouthpiece of the Australian Socialist League.

In the 1890s, destitute in Sydney, he was arrested for burglary; Alice hanged herself on October 30, 1898 in an apparent attempt to gain government support for their five children. From 1912 - '16, 'Bob' Winspear worked as Treasurer of the Australian Socialist Party, often editing and writing for its newspaper, International Socialist. A fervent anti-conscriptionist in WWI, and fly in the ointment of the Australian Labor Party, Winspear, with Harry Holland, wrote the party's 'Open Letter to the Conscript Boys of Australia' ...

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

Categories: australia, history, radical-history, labor-history, anarchism, henry-lawson, socialism, biography

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Things I'm Wrong About (Skeptoid #101) - A look back correcting some of the facts and figures that Skeptoid has gotten wrong. Read | Listen (11:20) | Discuss (18 comments)

Is Peak Oil the End of Civilization? (Skeptoid #100) - Doomsayers claim that peak oil will produce worldwide panic and disaster, but the lessons of history make a very different prediction. Read | Listen (10:17) | Discuss (41 comments)

Reassembling TWA Flight 800 (Skeptoid #99) - Was TWA Flight 800 brought down by US friendly fire? Read | Listen (11:22) | Discuss (13 comments)

The Crystal Skull: Mystical, or Modern? (Skeptoid #98) - Is the crystal skull truly an ancient Mayan artifact with mysterious powers? Read | Listen (8:53) | Discuss (17 comments)

The Face on Mars Revealed (Skeptoid #97) - Is the face on Mars an artificial sculpture made by alien hands, or merely a natural hill? Read | Listen (9:30) | Discuss (35 comments)

What's Wrong with The Secret (Skeptoid #96) - The Secret teaches that victims are always to blame, and that anyone can have anything simply by wishing. Read | Listen (10:26) | Discuss (33 comments)

Bend Over and Own Your Own Business (Skeptoid #95) - Are business opportunities offered for sale truly worth it? Read | Listen (10:49) | Discuss (22 comments)

Fire in the Sky: A Real UFO Abduction? (Skeptoid #94) - What evidence is there that Travis Walton was abducted for 5 days from an Arizona forest in 1975? Read | Listen (11:00) | Discuss (16 comments)

Apocalypse 2012 (Skeptoid #93) - Tall tales that the End of Days is coming in 2012. Read | Listen (11:15) | Discuss (247 comments)

The Terror of Nuclear Power (Skeptoid #92) - Are modern nuclear reactors as bad for us as the environmentalists have painted them? Read | Listen (12:03) | Discuss (58 comments)

More Outrageous Listener Feedback (Skeptoid #91) - My responses to some of the more "out there" feedback I've received. Read | Listen (10:38) | Discuss (11 comments)

Can You Hear the Hum? (Skeptoid #90) - An exploration of the mysterious rumble that some people hear all over the world. Read | Listen (11:35) | Discuss (71 comments)

Despicable Vulture Scumbags (Skeptoid #89) - My thoughts on a company that sells useless pseudoscientific hardware to an ALS victim. Read | Listen (10:31) | Discuss (25 comments)

Super Sized Fast Food Phobia (Skeptoid #88) - Unlike what's said in highly dramatized Hollywood documentaries, fast food is not especially unhealthy. Read | Listen (10:32) | Discuss (100 comments)

Water: Alternative Fuel of the Future? (Skeptoid #87) - Can simple water really be burned to solve our energy problems? Read | Listen (10:02) | Discuss (39 comments)

MonaVie and Other "Superfruit" Juices (Skeptoid #86) - Are superfruit juices anything more than super ripoffs? Read | Listen (12:14) | Discuss (750 comments)

World Trade Center 7: The Lies Come Crashing Down (Skeptoid #85) - Was the collapse of 7 World Trade Center actually a controlled demolition? Read | Listen (10:17) | Discuss (237 comments)

Magic Jewelry (Skeptoid #84) - All sorts of marvelous health claims are made for jewelry such as the Q-Ray bracelet. Read | Listen (11:10) | Discuss (9 comments)

The Detoxification Myth (Skeptoid #83) - Everyone wants to "detoxify" their bodies. Is this for real? Read | Listen (11:41) | Discuss (207 comments)

Skeptoid Book Is Now Available! - Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena is now available in book form from Amazon.com Listen (1:22)

What Do Creationists Really Believe? (Skeptoid #82) - Creationism is not one set of beliefs - it is a battleground of dramatically conflicting world views. Read | Listen (11:19) | Discuss (331 comments)

Ghost Hunting Tools of the Trade (Skeptoid #81) - Why the use of electronic equipment by TV ghost hunters is so stupid. Read | Listen (11:50) | Discuss (63 comments)

Death in Your Kitchen: Microwave Ovens (Skeptoid #80) - An examination of the various claims that microwaved food and water are poisonous. Read | Listen (11:01) | Discuss (12 comments)

Aliens in Roswell (Skeptoid #79) - What was actually recovered from the Roswell desert in New Mexico in 1947? Read | Listen (12:48) | Discuss (11 comments)

Medical Myths in Movies and Culture (Skeptoid #78) - Do doctors ever really stab people in the heart with a syringe? Does chocolate really cause acne? Read | Listen (9:19) | Discuss (26 comments)

Orang Pendek: Forest Hobbit of Sumatra (Skeptoid #77) - A description of Sumatra's own little miniature Bigfoot legend. Read | Listen (10:53) | Discuss (10 comments)

Who Kills More, Religion or Atheism? (Skeptoid #76) - Has religion or atheism been responsible for the greater death toll throughout human history? Read | Listen (9:00) | Discuss (122 comments)

How to See Your Aura (Skeptoid #75) - Is aura photography actually possible, and does it tell us anything useful about the person? Read | Listen (10:33) | Discuss (16 comments)

A Magical Journey through the Land of Logical Fallacies - Part 2 (Skeptoid #74) - The second part of our exploration of logical fallacies. Read | Listen (11:54) | Discuss (14 comments)

A Magical Journey through the Land of Logical Fallacies - Part 1 (Skeptoid #73) - An examination of many of the most common logical fallacies. Read | Listen (13:14) | Discuss (13 comments)

Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: Real or Imagined? (Skeptoid #72) - Are sufferers of electrosensitivity reacting to electromagnetism, or just to simple stress? Read | Listen (16:19) | Discuss (17 comments)

How to Drink Gnarly Breast Milk (Skeptoid #71) - Proponents of colostrum supplements believe that it has a whole range of benefits. Read | Listen (9:08) | Discuss (7 comments)

Raging (Bioidentical) Hormones (Skeptoid #70) - An examination of the popular trend in women's health, bioidentical hormone therapy. Read | Listen (7:35) | Discuss (6 comments)

Ann Coulter, Scientist (Skeptoid #69) - Conservative pundit Ann Coulter should stick to politics; her science is too screwed up for words. Read | Listen (7:36) | Discuss (26 comments)

More Wet & Wild Listener Feedback (Skeptoid #68) - Another round of listener feedback from the past several months. Read | Listen (14:17) | Discuss (11 comments)

Do Your Body Features Measure Up? (Skeptoid #67) - An examination of phrenology, physiognomy, palmistry, and iridology. Read | Listen (11:39) | Discuss (10 comments)

The Greatest Secret of Nostradamus (Skeptoid #66) - How much of the pop-culture information about Nostradamus is true? Read | Listen (14:38) | Discuss (26 comments)

How to Argue with a Creationist (Skeptoid #65) - Learn the basic arguments against science made by creationists, and how to rebut them. Read | Listen (15:35) | Discuss (142 comments)

The Attack of Spring Heeled Jack (Skeptoid #64) - Spring Heeled Jack terrorized England in the early 1800's ... or did he? Read | Listen (9:06) | Discuss (6 comments)

Subliminal Seduction (Skeptoid #63) - How true is Wilson Key's magnum opus work about subliminal advertising? Read | Listen (9:11) | Discuss (6 comments)

Crop Circle Jerks (Skeptoid #62) - Crop circles are finally commonly known to be man made. Why do some people maintain that they're not? Read | Listen (12:49) | Discuss (7 comments)

Irradiation: Is Your Food Toxic? (Skeptoid #61) - How concerned should we be about the popular reasons against irradiated food? Read | Listen (8:32) | Discuss (9 comments)

Will Drinking from Plastic Bottles Kill You? (Skeptoid #60) - A recent fad states that plastic water bottles leech toxic chemicals. Is it true? Read | Listen (8:01) | Discuss (39 comments)

Who Are the Raelians, and Why Are They Naked? (Skeptoid #59) - The Raelians are naked and they worship space aliens. Read | Listen (10:43) | Discuss (28 comments)

Fluoridation: Death from the Faucet! (Skeptoid #58) - A few fringe activists claim that fluoridation of water carries more danger than benefit. Read | Listen (9:20) | Discuss (47 comments)

Email Myths (Skeptoid #57) - A look at some of those persistent hoax emails that you receive almost every day. Read | Listen (12:28) | Discuss (7 comments)

Bizarre Places I'd Like to Go (Skeptoid #56) - California is home to a wealth of places rich with mystery and intrigue. Read | Listen (11:56) | Discuss (13 comments)

Mercury, Autism, and Chelation: A Recipe for Risk (Skeptoid #55) - An examination of the lethal pop-culture fad of chelating autistic children. Read | Listen (10:36) | Discuss (22 comments)

The Twin Towers: Fire Melting Steel (Skeptoid #54) - Was the Oakland freeway collapse corroborating evidence for the official version of the World Trade Center failure, or was it another government lie? Read | Listen (9:35) | Discuss (182 comments)

Inside the World's Most Haunted House (Skeptoid #53) - Were the events at Borley Rectory a real haunting, or the product of a hoaxster? Read | Listen (12:05) | Discuss (24 comments)

Science Magazines Violating Their Own Missions (Skeptoid #52) - Do science magazines undermine themselves by publishing ads for pseudoscientific products? Read | Listen (7:19) | Discuss (6 comments)

The Miracle of Ethanol (Skeptoid #51) - Is ethanol really nature's wonder fuel? Is corn really going to save us? Read | Listen (7:58) | Discuss (16 comments)

How to Identify a "Good" Scientific Journal (Skeptoid #50) - Everyone says their scientific journal is more reputable than your scientific journal. Who's right? Read | Listen (10:05) | Discuss (8 comments)

Unconscious Research of Global Consciousness (Skeptoid #49) - Some say that the collective emotions of humans can influence electronic hardware. Read | Listen (11:56) | Discuss (14 comments)

The Bible Code: Enigmas for Dummies (Skeptoid #48) - Do messages hidden within the Bible really predict the future? Read | Listen (10:20) | Discuss (20 comments)

How Skeptoid Can Help You Win $1 Million - Skeptoid is now a qualifying media outlet for the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. Listen (5:48)

Free Range Chicken and Farm Raised Fish (Skeptoid #47) - Do free range chickens and farm raised fish truly have the pros and cons that popular culture believes? Read | Listen (9:51) | Discuss (41 comments)

Support Your Local Reptoid (Skeptoid #46) - What started the conspiracy theory that reptilians beings control our governments? Read | Listen (9:52) | Discuss (46 comments)

The Importance of Teaching Critical Thinking (Skeptoid #45) - There is perhaps no more importance task before us than teaching critical thinking to young people. Read | Listen (7:33) | Discuss (9 comments)

The Truth About Remote Viewing (Skeptoid #44) - The psychic technique of remote viewing is consistent with simple, well known magic tricks. Read | Listen (11:05) | Discuss (10 comments)

A Mormon History of the Americas (Skeptoid #43) - Can the history of the American continent as presented in the Book of Mormon be true? Read | Listen (9:32) | Discuss (45 comments)

Whacking, Cracking, and Chiropracting (Skeptoid #42) - Defined in 1895, chiropractic treats imaginary conditions with dangerous manipulations. Read | Listen (10:20) | Discuss (80 comments)

The Alien Invasion of Phoenix, Arizona (Skeptoid #41) - Yet another rehash of the infamous Phoenix Lights episode. Read | Listen (11:25) | Discuss (22 comments)

Neanderthals in Present Day Asia (Skeptoid #40) - Does the legendary Almas represent a population of relic Neanderthals? Read | Listen (8:30) | Discuss (10 comments)

Heating Up to Global Warming (Skeptoid #39) - Do we really understand how much power we have to address global warming? Read | Listen (11:21) | Discuss (24 comments)

The Marfa Lights: A Real American Mystery (Skeptoid #38) - What is the cause of the mysterious ghost lights outside Marfa, Texas? Read | Listen (8:25) | Discuss (2 comments)

How to Spot Pseudoscience (Skeptoid #37) - This 15-point checklist will help you tell science from pseudoscience. Read | Listen (11:45) | Discuss (19 comments)

Mercury Fillings: A Mouthful of Death! (Skeptoid #36) - Do mercury amalgam fillings release toxic levels of mercury into the body? Read | Listen (10:34) | Discuss (25 comments)

Revisionist Darwinism: The Theory That Couldn't Sit Still (Skeptoid #35) - Some creationists claim that evolution is invalid because it is frequently improved and enlarged as research and knowledge are improved. Read | Listen (8:27) | Discuss (29 comments)

Homeopathy: Pure Water or Pure Nonsense? (Skeptoid #34) - Most homeopathy users believe that it's some kind of herbal remedy. Is it? Read | Listen (12:28) | Discuss (26 comments)

Best of Listener Feedback (Skeptoid #33) - The best of listener feedback from the first 32 Skeptoid episodes. Read | Listen (15:28) | Discuss (15 comments)

Blood for Oil (Skeptoid #32) - Is the war in the Middle East really being waged for oil? Read | Listen (8:23) | Discuss (57 comments)

The Devil Walked in Devon (Skeptoid #31) - Was the devil responsible for a set of 100-mile footprints in 1855? Read | Listen (6:51) | Discuss (12 comments)

Raw Food - Raw Deal? (Skeptoid #30) - Raw food is well and good, but is cooked food as terrible as raw foodists make it out to be? Read | Listen (11:50) | Discuss (18 comments)

Orbs: The Ghost in the Camera (Skeptoid #29) - Are orbs really ghosts, or a common artifact of photography? Read | Listen (8:08) | Discuss (22 comments)

Natural Hygiene: Health Without Medicine (or Wisdom) (Skeptoid #28) - Can Natural Hygiene really lead to a longer life? Read | Listen (5:40) | Discuss (15 comments)

Special Announcement from Skeptoid - The Skeptalk Email Discussion List is now active at Skeptoid.com. Listen (1:45)

Chemtrails - Death from the Heavens! (Skeptoid #27) - What you always thought were simply contrails are really dangerous chemicals being sprayed. Read | Listen (9:06) | Discuss (40 comments)

The Magic of Biodynamics (Skeptoid #26) - Is biodynamic agriculture a modern innovation, or a throwback to the Dark Ages? Read | Listen (9:08) | Discuss (7 comments)

Scientists Are Not Created Equal (Skeptoid #25) - Does calling someone a "scientist" mean that he knows anything at all? Read | Listen (6:51) | Discuss (15 comments)

Reflexology: Only Dangerous If You Use It (Skeptoid #24) - Reflexology is really no more than a foot massage - so why might it be dangerous? Here's why. Read | Listen (10:22) | Discuss (32 comments)

Paganism: A Naked Rebellion (Skeptoid #23) - What is paganism, and how is different from regular religions? Read | Listen (6:44) | Discuss (15 comments)

Skepticism and Flight 93 (Skeptoid #22) - What thought process led you to your conclusion about the cause of Flight 93's crash? Read | Listen (8:13) | Discuss (9 comments)

Living Stones of Death Valley (Skeptoid #21) - An examination of the mysterious stones that move by themselves across the desert floor. Read | Listen (3:46) | Discuss (12 comments)

The Real Amityville Horror (Skeptoid #20) - America's most popular true ghost story was a hoax. Read | Listen (7:38) | Discuss (37 comments)

Organic Food Myths (Skeptoid #19) - Is it a revolution in health and the environment, or a counterproductive fad? Read | Listen (10:18) | Discuss (111 comments)

The "New" Bill of Rights (Skeptoid #18) - An amended Bill of Rights to better reflect modern American values. Read | Listen (4:37) | Discuss (9 comments)

Internet Paranoia (Skeptoid #17) - Are Internet viruses and trojan horses really as dangerous as we've been led to believe? Read | Listen (8:25) | Discuss (13 comments)

The Real Philadelphia Experiment (Skeptoid #16) - Did a US Navy warship completely disappear in 1943? Read | Listen (6:50) | Discuss (26 comments)

SUV Phobia (Skeptoid #15) - Are SUVs truly as evil as we're supposed to think? Read | Listen (8:00) | Discuss (28 comments)

Cell Phones on Airplanes (Skeptoid #14) - Cell phones are perfectly safe on airplanes. So why can't we use them? Read | Listen (6:35) | Discuss (52 comments)

A Primer on Scientific Testing (Skeptoid #13) - Understand the basics of scientific testing. Read | Listen (7:15) | Discuss (9 comments)

Killing Faith: Deconstructionist Christians (Skeptoid #12) - Is proving the Bible really doing the work of God? Read | Listen (5:31) | Discuss (177 comments)

Killing Bigfoot with Bad Science (Skeptoid #11) - Is anyone doing any justice to the Bigfoot claim? Read | Listen (7:47) | Discuss (19 comments)

An Evolution Primer for Creationists (Skeptoid #10) - Evolution 101 for Creationists who want to know better. Read | Listen (8:11) | Discuss (767 comments)

Sin: What's It Good For? (Skeptoid #09) - What's the point? Read | Listen (7:30) | Discuss (75 comments)

Nocturnal Assaults: Aliens in the Dark (Skeptoid #08) - Alien abductions and Old Hags - things that go bump in the night. Read | Listen (6:22) | Discuss (12 comments)

Pond Magnet Foolishness (Skeptoid #07) - Do magnets really have a mystical positive effect on pond water chemistry? Read | Listen (6:13) | Discuss (7 comments)

Wheatgrass Juice (Skeptoid #06) - Is the magical mystery juice all it's blended up to be? Read | Listen (6:49) | Discuss (107 comments)

Sustainable Sustainability (Skeptoid #05) - Focus on the year's undisputed overused buzzword: "Sustainable" Read | Listen (6:08) | Discuss (20 comments)

Ethics of Peddling the Paranormal (Skeptoid #04) - Is it OK for non-believers to sell the paranormal? Read | Listen (6:45) | Discuss (32 comments)

Rods: Flying Absurdities (Skeptoid #03) - Do these invisible flying creatures really exist? Read | Listen (5:10) | Discuss (22 comments)

Religion as a Moral Center (Skeptoid #02) - Is religion necessary to a good moral center? Read | Listen (4:31) | Discuss (152 comments)

New Age Energy (Skeptoid #01) - An examination of energy, as new agers use the term. Read | Listen (6:07) | Discuss (26 comments)

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