Volume 15 Number 1, Spring 2002

Features

Questioning Randi
Tony Youens provides us with an exclusive interview with James “the Amazing” Randi

The Missing Airmen
It is a small enigma in a world of unceasing strangeness, but there in Charles Fort’s Wild Talents, at the start of Chapter 17, is the bizarre case of the vanishing airmen. Paul Chambers investigates…

Mrs. Gaskell’s Elephant: The Story of a Hoax
by Chris Willis

Wild About Harry
Chris Willis takes a look at children’s fiction in the light of criticisms by religious fundamentalists

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

The Hunt For Zero Point by Nick Cook
Annie’s Box: Charles Darwin, his Daughter and Human Evolution by Randal Keynes
The Encyclopedia of Magic and Witchcraft by Susan Greenwood
The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead by Heather Pringle
The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness by J Allan Hobson
Final Séance: The Strange Friendship between Houdini and Conan Doyle by Massimo Polidoro
Inventing the Victorians by Matthew Sweet
Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations by John Diamond

News and comment

Editorial
Kate Holden and Chris French

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

Hits and Misses
Getcher cures here!
Stress busters
Magnetic moods
Decomposing
Silly science seasons

Skeptic at large: Nobel wars
Wendy M Grossman

Philosopher’s Corner
Julian Baggini

Rhyme and Reason: Parsnips and plugholes . . .
Steven Donnelly

From Michael Heap
Chairman of the Association for Skeptical Enquiry

Letters from our readers
Ball Lightning
Ball Lightning: A Reply
Press Release - The Science of Ball Lightning
Emergent Stupidity