The 35th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: An imposter breaks in

It's been an interesting week for this week's host of the Skeptics' Circle, Skeptico. He had a creationist appropriate his name, create a Blogspot blog, and actually post comments on other people's blogs under the name "Skeptico." Not good. Fortunately, no one was fooled, and it was the False Skeptico's posting creationist tripe on other blogs that brought him to the attention of Skeptico himself, then to me, and then to PZ.

Fortunately, for the 35th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, Skeptico has decided to have a little fun with his doppleganger, and the result is yet another fine edition of the Skeptics' Circle for your edification:

This Skeptics’ Circle is a little different this time from the ones you’ve seen before. Readers of this blog on Monday will know that a creationist called Kennesaw Williams has started a new blog with the handle “Skeptico” and the url of http://skeptico.blogspot.com/ He’s even leaving creationist comments on other blogs as Skeptico. Since I posted that link on Monday his blog has received several comments from fellow skeptics (none favorable to him – thanks for the support by the way), and he doesn’t seem to have posted anything on his blog since.

Well, Orac suggested that since this guy so clearly wants to be Skeptico, I should give him the opportunity to be post on the real Skeptico site – so I asked him to guest blog the Skeptics’ Circle this time. The result is below.

Now, I did explain to Mr. Kennesaw that to avoid confusion, he couldn’t call himself “Skeptico” on this blog. He reluctantly agreed, although he didn’t like my original suggestion of Jackass (too rude). He agreed to the more polite Donkey, which is close enough. Remember, Donkey is a creationist, and so his views may seem a little strange to anyone who is used to the regular Skeptics’ Circle. But give him a chance - the actual featured skeptics’ posts are better than ever, I promise you.

Next up to host is that medblogger and all around carnival maven himself, Dr. Charles, two weeks hence on June 8. Get your skeptical entries ready to give Dr. C. the raw material to try to top Skeptico. And, as always, if you're a blogger and are interested in hosting a Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, drop me a line at oracknows@gmail.com. The schedule and guidelines are here.

The 34th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: Critical Thinking Crystallized

This time around, the latest meeting of the Skeptics' Circle comes to us from down under. EoR, who, despite being "rather sad and boggy," always perks up when it's time to debunk the claims of pseudoscience or New Age woo, brings us the 34th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle via the Wonderful World of Crystals:

Eor surveys the Wonderful World of Crystals, and receives some interesting etheric vibrations as a result. By applying the higher vibrational properties of these gems to his chakras he received contact with various arcane and occult information previously only held in the Akashic archives. As the world moves into a new quantum consciousness paradigm, where science has now conclusively proven the existence of qi, water memory, ghosts and fluffy blue rectal fairies, this information can now be released publicly. Om.

As usual, there's a lot of great stuff there, but somehow I ended up being rhodochrosite.

Next up is a stalwart supporter of the Skeptics' Circle since the very beginning and an influence on my blogging since I first became aware of him, Skeptico. He was not blogging much for a while, but now he's back and, to my delight, taking on the charlatan John Edwards again. So, start thinking of suitable subjects that deserve a healthy application of skepticism and critical thinking, send your entries to skeptico@skeptico.net by May 24, and then join Skeptico for the 35th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle on Thursday, May 25. The schedule for future Circles and the guidelines for submissions can be found here.