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Feminism
Sam Harris Doesn’t Understand Bell Curves
It’s Thursday and that means it’s time for another round of Bad Chart Thursday. This week, rather than make fun of a bad chart, I was inspired to write a bit about bell curves and more specifically Sam Harris’ complete lack of understanding as to how bell curves work. You see, the internet blew up this week after a Washington…
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Skepticism
So You Want to Understand Bayes’ Theorem and/or Look at Photos of Cats
Back in 2010, researcher Daniel Daryl Bem at Cornell University supposedly proved that psychic precognition exists. He did a variety of tests on college students in which he reversed some common psychological tests and found that the students were able to predict something that had not yet happened. For example, he put pornographic photos behind one of two curtains. The students had…
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Events
Your Well-Written Anti-Harassment Policy is Insufficient
Last Memorial Day weekend, I headed up to Wisconsin to attend my very first WisCon. WisCon is a feminist sci-fi convention held each year in Madison, WI. I cannot even begin to tell you how mind opening my first WisCon was. The panels at WisCon went far beyond Feminism 101. It challenged the way I think about certain types of…
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Featured
The Economics of Our Robot Future
On Sunday morning of SkepchickCON I was one of the panelists on the faux award winning Cities of the Future panel along with Ryan Consell, Desiree Schell and Shawn Otto. We discussed a whole bunch of issues and problems that may come up in a future society such as global warming, resource constraints, and increased urbanization, but by far my favorite…
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Events
Cosplay SkepchickCON-Style
Another SkepchickCON has come to a close and this year was one of the best ever. As usual, our merry band of Skepchick Network contributors walked the halls of CONvergence in some top notch cosplay. Mad Art Lab‘s Beth realized two nights before SkepchickCON that she had not put together a cosplay yet. She made a Target run and ended up…
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Skepticism
The Takedown of the NYT Chart on Student Loan Debt Isn’t All it’s Cracked Up to Be
It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for articles pointing out why some giant study being reported on in the media is actually bunk. In fact, that’s pretty much the only thing I ever write about here at Skepchick. So, this week when I saw everyone on my facebook feed sharing an article from the Awl entitled “Gaslighting Millenials: That…
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Feminism
Some Questions about the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby Decision Explained
Yesterday when the SCOTUS decision came down siding with Hobby Lobby in their case to be allowed to opt-out of the ACA contraception mandate based on their sincerely held religious beliefs, I was just as dumbfounded as the rest of you. Like others, I worried about the breadth of the decision. Does this mean that any corporation could opt-out of…
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Random Asides
Bad Chart Thursday: Useful Tips for Making a Bad Infographic
Today, over at Skepchick HQ, we got a special message from reader Ali that is definitely not spam: We’re trying to get the word out about a new eating disorder that is on the rise called pica. Pica is an addiction to eating things that aren’t food. I wanted to pass along this link to the infographic we just published…
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