The Skeptics' Circle archive and schedule
The Skeptics' Circle is a biweekly carnival for bloggers who apply critical thought to questionable stories.
It is intended to be, as much as possible, apolitical. For purposes of the Circle that means not touching social causes mired in political action and for which multiple viewpoints can be reasonably supported by empiric data or for which the heart of the disagreement is primarily political or philosophical. That means no posts about how the war in Iraq is going to bankrupt our nation or how liberal activists are pushing “institutionalized racism,” malpractice caps, or anything about abortion, with only very rare exceptions. This is also not the place for personal causes. If you think personal light rail is a bad idea in your area, take that up with your local politicians and media. The Circle was created to clear up things rendered unnecessarily mysterious and fight frauds (paranormal, urban legends, etc.), pseudoscience (creationism, perpetual motion machines, for example), quackery (homeopathy, for example), and pseudohistory (Holocaust denial, for example), not to push anyone’s political agenda. Admittedly, there are times when the line between politics and skepticism may not be so clear, but most of the time it is fairly obvious.
Most importantly, the data used to debunk or make a case should be empirical, which is why hotly debated social issues where there really is no clear answer at present are outside the scope of this carnival. Posts discussing or arguing such issues should be submitted to one of the many political blog carnivals out there. On the other hand, a few specific issues that are unavoidably political are within the scope of this carnival. The most prominent examples come from creationism and intelligent design, because they are clearly not scientific concepts but, particularly in the case of intelligent design, are being represented as such for political and ideological, rather than scientific, reasons.
Appropriate Subjects
Here are the ideal topics for a Skeptics’ Circle submission:
Urban legends. Heard a story about a friend-of-a-friend repeated from other friends and want to find out whether or not it’s true? See a hoax you want to warn people about? Have a strange looking picture forwarded to your e-mail? Don’t leave it all to Snopes, do a little digging and see for yourself whether or not it’s true.
The paranormal. Want to prove how silly astrologists, psychics, ghosts, UFOs, or Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) are? You better believe we’ve got a place for you! All we ask is to keep it more scientific-based than snarky, although there’s nothing wrong with some sarcasm to keep it funny.
Quackery. Of all the subjects included in the Circle, this may be the most likely to save someone's life. There is a lot of potentially harmful questionable medical advice out there being pushed faster than researchers can debunk it.
Pseudoscience. You don’t need to be a professor to know something flat-out doesn’t make sense. If you hear a theory that makes everything you learned from your high school laboratory experiments sound wrong, odds are it’s wrong. Intelligent design fits into this category, because it’s less of a political issue than it is an attempt to superimpose beliefs over factsand the political connotations are side-issues at best.
Historical revision. If someone’s promoting a crooked timeline to try to deny or ignore a major event in history or forcing an incorrect view of the past, prove them wrong. Ideological reinterpretations have done too much harm to the world already.
Critical thinking. Posts dealing with the meta-analytical process behind sorting out the reason from the misinformation fit in this catch-all category.
SUBMISSIONS:
To have your writing included in an upcoming edition of the Skeptics' Circle, send an e-mail with the URL for your post along with a brief description to the host.
To host an upcoming circle, send an e-mail to oracknows@gmail.com. Additional guidelines can be found here.
SKEPTICS' CIRCLE ARCHIVE 2005
SKEPTICS' CIRCLE ARCHIVE 2006
SKEPTICS' CIRCLE ARCHIVE 2007
SKEPTICS' CIRCLE ARCHIVE AND SCHEDULE FOR 2008:
January 3, 2008
The 77th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Whitecoat Underground
January 17, 2008
The 78th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Skeptical Surfer
January 31, 2008
The 79th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Podblack Blog
Februrary 14, 2008
The 80th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Bug Girl's Blog
February 28, 2008
The 81st Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Conspiracy Factory
March 13, 2008
The 82nd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes
March 27, 2008
The 83rd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Mike's Weekly Skeptic Rant
April 10, 2008
The 84th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Archaeoporn
April 24, 2008
The 85th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Andrea's Buzzing About:
May 8, 2008
The 86th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Skepbitch
May 22, 2008
The 87th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Action Skeptics
June 5, 2008
The 88th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Jyunri Kankei
June 19, 2008
The 89th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Ionian Enchantment
July 3, 2008
The 90th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Millenium Project
July 17, 2008
The 91st Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Sorting Out Science
July 31, 2008
The 92nd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Lay Scientist
August 14, 2008
The 93rd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by City of Skeptics
August 28, 2008
The 94th Skeptics' Circle, to be hosted by Reduce to Common Sense
September 11, 2008
The 95th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Skeptimedia
September 25, 2008
The 96th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Endcycle
October 9, 2008
The 97th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Evolved and Rational
October 23, 2008
The 98th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Uncredible Hallq
November 6, 2008
The 99th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Ferret's Cage
November 20, 2008
The 100th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Respectful Insolence.
December 4, 2008
The 101st Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Ionian Enchantment
December 18, 2008
The 102nd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes
January 1, 2009
No Skeptics' Circle due to the Holiday. (Even skeptics need a holiday or two every now and then.)
January 15, 2009
The 103rd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Bug Girl's Blog
January 29, 2009
The 104th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Space City Skeptics
February 12, 2009
The 105th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by It's the Thought That Counts
February 26, 2009
The 106th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Disillusioned Words
March 12, 2009
The 107th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Skeptics' Field Guide
March 26, 2009
The 108th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Podblack Cat
April 9, 2009
The 109th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Lay Scientist
April 23, 2009
Cancelled, due to the illness of the host (Waffle)
May 7, 2009
The 110th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Ferret's Cage
May 21, 2009
The 111th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Action Skeptics
June 4, 2009
The 112th Skeptics' Circle, to be hosted by Chelshire
June 18, 2009
The 113th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Uncredible Hallq
July 2, 2009
The 114th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Homologous Legs
July 16, 2009
The 115th Skeptics' Circle, to be hosted by Effort Sisyphus
July 30, 2009
The 116th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Beyond the Short Coat
August 13, 2009
The 117th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Ionian Enchantment
August 27, 2009
The 118th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Evolving Mind
September 10, 2009
The 119th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Cubik's Rube
September 24, 2009
The 120th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Pro-Science
October 8, 2009
The 121st Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Mad Skeptic
October 22, 2009
The 122nd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Young Australian Skeptics
November 5, 2009
The 123rd Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Blue Genes
November 19, 2009
The 124th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Beyond the Short Coat
December 3, 2009
The 125th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Effort Sisyphus
December 17, 2009
The 126th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Weird Things
December 31, 2009
The 127th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Life, The Universe, and One Brow
January 14, 2010
The 128th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by Ionian Enchantment
January 28, 2010
The 129th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The SkeptVet
February 11, 2010
The 130th Skeptics' Circle, hosted by The Lay Scientist
Besides the holes in the schedule above, every other Thursday from May 20, 2010 onward is also OPEN FOR ANY SKEPTICAL BLOGGER WHO WANTS TO VOLUNTEER TO HOST!
ADD THIS BUTTON TO YOUR WEBSITE:
Copy this code and delete all the parentheses and any line breaks:
(<)a href=http://skepticscircle.blogspot.com/>(<)img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/ saint_nate/skeptics-circle_bloglink_grayscale.gif">(<)/a>
Labels: archive, Instructions, schedule
posted by Saint Nate @ 8:44 PM
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