Author: Andy Doyle

For me, Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” represents the most inspirational and poetic statement of fact that’s been recorded on video. I’m sure most of our readers are familiar with it, if not take a few minutes to enjoy it.

What are some of your favorite inspirational factual videos? Please embed from YouTube or Vimeo if you can find them there.

I was just reading this weather article and wondering if the analysis was reasonable. The author states that:

“This will be a major winter weather onslaught and not just a drop in temperatures with a few local flurries.

This is like turning the eastern Atlantic into the Great Lakes, almost, when you have this much cold air rushing south this fast, it overcomes the normal tendencies of the Atlantic to modify air masses and turn streamers to mush. This setup could give blizzard like conditions even with winds somewhat west of due north, in many parts of Ireland. And we aren’t that confident that the setup is perfectly modelled yet, what’s probably equally likely at this point is that the polar low will drop into the North Sea and pull Siberian air across into the N-NE flow on following days. There is also a lot of super-cold air waiting to head west from central to northwest Russia and around Novaya Zemlya.

Skeptic Ireland is changing from a publication format to a community format. The purpose of this site is to help Irish skeptics to find like minded people and share information and news. Readers can now register, start new topics, and message other members. I’m sure there’ll be a few bugs while we break the system in, so please let us know if you find any.

Picking up on a suggestion from from one of our podcast listeners, I’ll be producing one convincing piece of evidence for something I don’t believe in every month. It’ll usually involve either a photograph, a video, or a piece of manipulated audio, or perhaps a mix of these.
I’ve got a few ideas to get started with. I’ve always wanted to fake a UFO video, so I’ll start there. If anyone knows of a piece of video or photography that’s been put forward as proof of something bogus, I’d like to have a go at figuring out how it was made, and perhaps re-creating the effect. If anyone has any fun ideas for fakery, please let me know in the comments.

We’re looking for between four and ten skeptics to commit to writing one article a month for skepticireland.com. The subjects of these articles are up to the author, so long as they encourage critical thinking in some way, and aren’t unduly offensive.

If you’re interested in writing for us, please email editor@skepticireland.com.

I found this video very inspiring. Two leading scientist in their fields discuss the vast possibilities of science.

“Two of science’s luminaries converse on the beauty of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and host of NOVA and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins will explore the wonders of the Cosmos and of Life, its origins, its inspirations, and why science is not just an option, it is the only reality we possess.”

The BBC recently reported how love can ease pain. Researchers caused fifteen students to experience small amounts of pain and observed the effect on their brain using an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanner. The test was then repeated while patients looked at photos of their loved ones. The results showed that looking at the photos reduced the students’ perceptions of pain.

Dr Jarred Younger, one of the researchers, said that looking at a photograph of a loved one involved more primitive brain functions and had a similar effect to taking opioid painkillers. [pullquote]Looking at a photograph of a loved one involved more primitive brain functions and had a similar effect to taking opioid painkillers.[/pullquote]