Quickies
Skepchick Quickies, 10.19

- The social conformity effect: how friends ruin memory. (From cerberus40.)
- Digging deeper into skeptical claims about who wrote Shakespeare.
- The criminal nature of penguins. (From Donnie.)
- Church HIV prayer cure claims ’cause three deaths’. (From a few of you.)
I’m pretty sure in the US that preacher would be up on charges of practicing medicine without a license and, hopefully, manslaughter. He certainly deserves it.
Of course that penguin was a criminal; if you look closely you can see his umbrella.
Ever since I heard the theory that Mary Sidley was the author of the plays, I’ve liked it. (http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Swan-Avon-Woman-Shakespeare/dp/0321426401). That said, she was interesting enough without having written the plays.
The latest Skeptical Inquirer, Nov/ Dec 2011, has a good article on the shakespeare question, too.
The important thing is to look at the evidence that can be found at the beginning of any good Shakespeare anthology (The Norton or Riverside have great sources): the contemporary accounts, legal documents, etc. that suggest that Shakespeare really was THAT Shakespeare.
Thanks for the link, Jen!
Bob