The Virtual Skeptics

This week on the “Virtual Skeptics”…

- Bob gives antivaxxers a couple of well-deserved jabs;
- Eve dishes on Ke$ha and Casper, the very friendly ghost
- Sharon virtually visits California, the land of woo, and some surprisingly good laws
- and Tim wants you to punish the pundits.

The panel:

• Brian Gregory – Host and creator of Virtual Drinking Skeptically
• Eve Siebert – Editor and blogger at Skeptical Humanities
• Bob Blaskiewicz – Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s Conspiracy Guy web columnist, JREF Swift Blog contributor, and blogger for Skeptical Humanities
• Sharon Hill – Editor of Doubtful News and author of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s Sounds Sciencey web column
• Tim Farley – JREF Research Fellow, creator of What’s The Harm and and blogger at Skeptical Software Tools.

Announcements/updates

• Sharon spoke this past weekend at an atheist conference about skepticism. And Doubtful News hit 1 million page views.
• Eve has an article up at the Swift Blog about the Bermuda Triangle
• Simon Singh has been threatened with libel action over that magazine version of the horrible What Your Doctors Don’t Tell You website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/03/health-magazine-sue-simon-singh-twitter?CMP=twt_gu

Bob’s Links
The Original WIN Broadcast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbBd9vGmIY4
Media Watch story:
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3601416.htm
WIN Network response to a complaint: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/1235_win.pdf

Eve’s Links
Ke$ha and Casper Hovering in a Tree:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/kesha-sex-with-ghost_n_1919320.html
“Experts” doubt Ke$ha’s story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/29/keshas-ghost-sex-claim-_n_1924336.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
Vatican’s response to “Jesus’s wife” papyrus:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/world/europe/vatican-says-papyrus-referring-to-jesus-wife-is-probably-fake.html?_r=0
Smithsonian Channel postpones documentary on Gospel of Jesus’s Wife:
http://news.yahoo.com/doc-papyrus-fragment-purporting-jesus-had-wife-delayed-214312152.html

Sharon’s Links
Paranormal Paramours
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/paranormal_paramours
Healing your house: Call the energy-clearing practitioner (UPDATED: JREF open letter)
http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/09/healing-your-house-call-the-energy-clearing-practitioner/
California bill toughens up vaccine waivers
http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/10/california-bill-toughens-up-vaccine-waivers/
AB 2109, Pan. Communicable disease: immunization exemption.
http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/billtrack/text.html?bvid=20110AB210994CHP
Governor Jerry Brown signs California Bill AB 2109, but tries to water it down in a sop to religion
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/10/01/governor-jerry-brown-signs-california-bill-ab-2109-but-tries-to-water-it-down-in-a-sop-to-religion/
Rob,the anti-vaxxanator, making nonsense comments
http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/07/rob-the-anti-vaxxanator-making-nonsense-comments/
California bans (?) ‘gay cure’ therapy for children
http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/09/california-bans-gay-cure-therapy-for-children/
Psychiatrist who championed ‘gay cure’ admits he was wrong
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/19/psychiatrist-admits-gay-cure-study-flawed
The Convoluted Legal Case For Reparative Therapy
http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2012/10/30091/
SB-1172 Sexual orientation change efforts. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB1172

Tim’s Links
Skeptic webmasters should be familar with Google’s updated webmaster guidelines
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/10/google-webmaster-guidelines-updated.html
Balancer is a browser plug-in that tries to break you out of your bubble on political articles
http://www.washington.edu/news/2012/09/27/browser-plugin-helps-people-balance-their-political-news-reading-habits/
Pundit Tracker launched last week, it rates sports, finance and political pundits on accuracy
http://pundittracker.com/

Brian’s Links
Calif. Greenlights Self-Driving Cars, But Legal Kinks Linger
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/10/03/162187419/calif-green-lights-self-driving-cars-but-legal-kinks-linger

The Virtual Skeptics is an independent production of Doubtful News, WhatsTheHarm.net, Skeptical Humanities, and Brian Gregory. Our logo was designed by Sara Mayhew at SaraMayhew.com. Our theme music is by Tremor and is used with permission.