Volume 14 Number 3, Autumn 2001

Features

Women are NOT from Gullibull
Lucy Sherriff demands to know why women’s magazines are so full of credulity about the paranormal

Trying to Detect God
Why are people still threatened by Darwinism? Dene Bebbington examines the creationist Intelligent Design movement

Reinventing the Past
Why rely on orthodox historical study when you can invent your own re-interpretation? Rachel Carthy looks at the burgeoning free-for-all she calls cryptohistory

Humour

Sprite, by Donald Rooum, the ongoing saga of an ethereal being who has the misfortune to fall for a confirmed skeptic.
Cartoons by Tim Pearce and The Parking Lot is Full
Pictures from Hilary Evans’ Paranormal Picture Gallery

Book reviews
Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination by Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi
Children of the Matrix by David Icke
The Queen’s Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr Dee by Benjamin Woolley
ParaScience Pack: An Interactive Exploration of Your Psi Powers by Uri Geller and Ron van der Meer
Seeds of Change: Six Plants that Changed the World by Henry Hobhouse
Hellish Nell: Last of Britain’s Witches by Malcolm Gaskill
Lucifer’s Legacy by Frank Close
The Private Life of the Brain by Susan Greenfield
Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends . . . and Pseudoscience Begins by Charles M. Wynn and Arthur W. Wiggins
Time Storms: Amazing Evidence for Time Warps, Space Rifts and Time Travel by Jenny Randle
Man, Beast and Zombie: What science can and cannot tell us about human nature by Kenen Malik
Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter
Gods of the New Millennium: Scientific Proof of Flesh & Blood Gods by Alan F Alford

News and comment

Skeptic in Chains: Ephemera
Wendy M. Grossman

Skeptical Stats
A column based on the observation that sometimes statistics don’t lie - they’re just plain crazy...

Hits and Misses
Mind over smell
Chinese tea, anyone?
Spontaneous Pop-Tart combustion
Celebrity corner
A fool and his stars…
Scandal on the Internet

Philosopher’s Corner: Applied Philosophy
Julian Baggini

Rhyme and Reason: Medium Rare
Steven Donnelly

Letters from our readers
More on Foo fighters
Searching for rural skeptics
Blind leading blind
Rationally mystic

The Skeptic Library Scheme - Dr Richard Wiseman