The Soup Analogy
Some years ago I watched an old interview with Jacqueline Susann, author of Valley of the Dolls. There was a literary reviewer in the audience, and he offered his opinion that he didn’t think much of...
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Roger Patterson’s Plagiarism
With the publication of Greg Long’s book The Making of Bigfoot in 2004, a great deal of damning information came out about Roger Patterson. A clear picture emerges of a swindler and a con man, one who...
View ArticleThe Origin of the Word Scoftic
I asked Roger Knights for permission to reprint this letter he submitted to Fate Magazine. His letter was printed in the September, 2005 issue. Knights had coined the word “scoftic” some years earlier...
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Creating a Polypropylene Wallet
You have probably heard of wallets made of duct tape. They certainly work well, but there are a few disadvantages. One is that many brands of duct tape are cheap, and deteriorate in short order. The...
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Dermal Ridges: Updated Review Material
Updated Response to Meldrum’s Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science One of the main pieces of evidence for the claim that Bigfoot tracks exhibit dermal ridges is the “Onion Mountain” footprint, a...
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Bigfoot’s Bending Fingers
There is a sort of “asymmetric warfare” that occurs with arguments in the world of pseudoscience. The idea is that there are stubborn facts that refute and therefore undermine the whole edifice of the...
View ArticleHow Sweet is Too Sweet?
Have you ever wondered how sweetness equivalence is measured? When we read that aspartame is “200 times as sweet as sucrose” what does that actually mean? Does that mean that 100mg of aspartame on the...
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Costco Curry Chicken
I like Costco. I buy most of my stuff there, including my food. This is a recipe for my current default lunch, which I think is healthy and is most certainly filling. I use an “Aroma” brand rice cooker...
View ArticleFishing for Pot
Some years ago I was driving into downtown Seattle with my girlfriend and her son to see a movie. Suddenly I see the flashing lights of a police car in my rear view mirror. I pulled over, and the...
View ArticleThe Notion of Unintentional Testing
We commonly believe that “testing” is an intentional process. In fact, we think of the most carefully designed tests as “scientific” tests. Within the commonplace notion of “scientific testing” there...
View ArticleMeditation and Free Will
Why should rationalists meditate? There are a number of good reasons, but the one I’d like to address is how it impacts our conception of free will. For many, the question of free will is both a...
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Two Spiritual Experiences
When I was a child my mother told me I had a “spiritual” experience. I think I was in the 8th grade or so when it occurred. I remember it happened during the winter, as I recall shoveling snow outside...
View ArticleCamping in Winter
I’ve only been camping a few times in my life. By “camping” I mean staying overnight outdoors, rather than just hiking and returning to sleep comfortably indoors. My first excursion camping was not the...
View ArticleBecoming an Atheist
I’ve been an atheist for many years now. I’m always curious to learn how other people have changed their minds and lost their belief in god or gods, so possibly my own story might have some resonance...
View ArticleSports Mode
I was never very much of a sports guy. By “sports guy” I mean someone who either follows organized sports passionately or participates directly. I’ve dabbled in lifting weights, skateboarding,...
View ArticleA Strange Creature From Time and Space
I remember reading John Keel’s book Strange Creatures from Time and Space when I was about nine or ten. I believe I was already familiar with Bigfoot, but Keel’s book introduced me to many more strange...
View ArticleIvan Sanderson the Charlatan
Previously on this website I’ve recounted how Ivan Sanderson investigated large anomalous tracks in Florida claiming they were made by a 15 foot tall penguin. Sanderson was also known as a proponent of...
View ArticleThe Shocking Discovery
Some time after my father died I held an estate sale. This was last summer, in 2014. Some people will tell you to not attend your own estate sale, but I chose to stay at home and sort of seclude myself...
View ArticleA Self Test for Free Will
People concerned about the existence, or non-existence, of free will usually acquaint themselves with the issue by reading philosophical literature. The literature on the subject goes back hundreds of...
View ArticleThe Wiretap
When I was a child our family experienced a strange series of events involving a telephone. I was probably about 10 when this happened so it must have taken place in the early 1970’s. One day I...
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