Welcome to The Skeptic Magazine (UK)

The Skeptic Magazine Awards 2011

At the beginning of December 2011, and for the first time ever, The Skeptic announced that it would be issuing awards for efforts in scepticism during 2011.

We are exceptionally lucky to have the help of both QEDcon who will host the event, and MC Richard Wiseman. We’re equally lucky to have had the help of our distinguished judges (see below).

But we’re also lucky to have had you, Skeptic readers and sceptics everwhere. We made announcements on the website and Twitter because we wanted your input about the candidates the judges should be considering: your response was better than we could have imagined.

Read more: The Skeptic Magazine Awards 2011

Volume 23 Issue 2: Jon Ronson

Features

Nelson Jones on the religious exhibition at The British Museum
Dean Burnett on a homeopathic cure for homosexuality
Hayley Stevens on paranormal conferences and impartiality
Sam Harris interviewed by Deborah Hyde
Chris French remembers Hilary Evans of the Mary Evans Picture Library
Lynette Nusbacher on narrative and social constructionism
Kylie Sturgess and Tessa Kendall on sceptical activism and the abortion debate
Chris French interviews Jon Ronson
Crispian Jago with an Alternative Medicine flowchart.

Also

Editorial; Deborah Hyde
Hits and Misses; Mark Williams on prison sentences for miscarriage, prayer technology for nuns, breed specific legislation in Germany, spontaneous human combustion in Ireland, and why we should not dismiss psychic claims without evidence.
Skeptical Stats; Mark Williams with the observation that sometimes statistics don’t lie - they’re just plain crazy
Skeptic at Large; Wendy Grossman on futurists Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey de Grey and Susan Jacoby
Philosopher's Corner; Julian Baggini on high and low redefinition
Reasonable Doubt; Chris French on ten years of editing The Skeptic
Through a Looking Glass Darkly; Mike Heap on econimics in plain language
Cover art from Neil Davies, Crispian Jago and Chris Fix

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 Andrew Endersby
Pictures from Hilary Evans’ Paranormal Picture Gallery
Bible Stories illustrated by Barbara Griffiths

Reviews

Bosnian Pyramids: The Biggest Hoax In History?; reviewed by Mark Newbrook
Donald Rooum's Wildcat Keeps Going; reviewed by Deborah Hyde
Ghost-Hunting Toolkit app; reviewed by Hayley Stevens

Letters

Tim Turner on Mahlon W Wagner's essay on Therapeutic Touch
Max Hammerton on race differences in cognitive ability
Mark Williams replies to Max Hammerton

Skeptics on the Fringe 2011: review

Written by Gerard Phillips. Published by The Skeptic online on 25th October 2011.
Gerard is Vice President of the National Secular Society.

What do the following have in common: Joseph Lister, Robert Adam, Adam Smith, David Hume, James Hutton, Charles Darwin...well you’ve probably got the answer already - Edinburgh. (Hutton by the way is credited as the founder of modern geology.) James Buchan lauded the city’s contribution to Enlightenment thought: “In just 50 years Edinburgh had more impact on our ideas than any town of its size since the Athens of Socrates.” (Capital of the Mind, 2004.) More surprising then, given this heritage, that “Skeptics on the Fringe” has only been put on at the Edinburgh Festival since 2010.

Read more: Skeptics on the Fringe 2011: review

Chris French remembers Hilary Evans, 1929-2011

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Hilary Evans, who passed away on 27 July 2011. As readers of The Skeptic will know, Hilary was the co-proprietor of the Mary Evans Picture Library in Blackheath which he founded with his wife, Mary, in 1964. Mary, a long-time sufferer from Alzheimer’s disease, died on 29 June 2010, shortly after The Skeptic ran an essay competition in her honour on the topic of religious belief and delusion.

As well as running the internationally renowned Mary Evans Picture Library, Hilary also found time to write 16 critically acclaimed (and often beautifully illustrated) books on UFOs, visions and other apparitional encounters as well as three novels, 15 books on art, illustration, and picture librarianship, and seven books on social history. His 2009 book, Outbreak, co-written with sociologist Robert Bartholomew,  looks set to become the definitive reference work of our age on bizarre collective delusions and mass hysteria. His final book, Sliders, published in 2010, looked at the phenomenon of street light interference.

Hilary was always a generous friend to The Skeptic. Readers cannot fail to have noticed that many of the images in the magazine are supplied by the Mary Evans Picture Library. As from our July issue back in 1992, his Paranormal Picture Gallery has graced the second page of every single issue with a striking image from the picture library along with a paragraph of commentary from Hilary. The only exception is the issue that is currently being printed for which I acted as a guest contributor as Hilary’s health was failing.

On a personal note, I would like to add that Hilary Evans was also quite simply a very nice man. I feel honoured to have known him.

Read more: Chris French remembers Hilary Evans, 1929-2011