• Religion

    Leo Traynor, Anti-Semitism, and the Sticky Problem of Facts

    When someone tells an extraordinary story, it is likely to be believed if it resonates with expectations and biases. Anti-Semitism exists (I outlined some of my own experiences here a while ago), and Twitter stalkers exist (indeed I’ve also had one of those). The extraordinary story that previously-unheard-of nice guy Leo Traynor told on his blog went viral overnight and has…

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  • Skepticism

    I’m Breaking Up With You

    Hi. It’s me. I didn’t want to say all this to your face so I’m writing it down, I hope that doesn’t seem cowardly but I don’t know how you’re going to react because frankly I feel like you’re obsessed, and it’s weird. Remember when we first met? A long long time ago, lol. Sorry. I’ll try and be serious.…

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  • Religion

    The Viking Conspiracy (Or, I’m Not Jew I’m Jew-ish)

    Chances are, if you’re British, you’re white. Chances are, if you’re white British, you’re a gentile. Chances are, if you’re white British and gentile, you don’t identify as descended from a particular ethnic group.Yet there is a chance, if you’re white British and gentile, you’re a Norman, Celt, Saxon, Viking or other tribe.You may be descended from a clan which…

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  • Anti-Science

    Top Five Hilarious Monarchy Facts

    It’s Jubilee weekend soon, celebrating 60 years of Elizabeth II’s reign (the second longest next to Victoria). To celebrate, I thought I’d give you my top five facts on the British Monarchy. Add your own in the comments! Prince Charles is an interfering wizard Like Dumbledore but on the wrong side, Prince Charles likes nothing better than to stick his…

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  • Meta Stuff

    The British Invasion

    How do you do? *doffs hat* As Rebecca recently announced, I have returned to Skepchick shores on some sort of colonial mission to British your faces off. Many of you will remember that I wrote for this site for many years, and the gap of a year or so that I’ve been gone has been traumatic and painful if not…

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  • Growing Up Poor

    I read with interest this story today about the Canadian couple who have donated the bulk of their $10.9million lottery winnings to charity. They are quoted as saying  “We haven’t bought one thing. That’s because there is nothing that we need,” and I love that. I love and respect it, and although I’m curious about why they did the lottery in…

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  • Fear of Flying

    Something funny happened to me on the way to Atlanta… …and boy are my arms tired! Many of you know from Twitter and elsewhere that I have a very silly fear of flying, to the point that I get extremely stressed in the few days before a flight and extremely crazy during (I’ve cried under a blanket during turbulence, and…

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  • What gives, BBC?

    I wrote about a story that was featured on the BBC news website a few days ago. The first thing I do when writing a blog post about an online story is check the published date. This is because old stories sometimes resurface, and there’s no point in writing about something, from, say 2006. The BBC story was definitely new.…

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