How many times, while reading a great debunking, do you find yourself wishing you could get that debunking in front of the people who are reading about the woo? To get them the information they need, right when it matters? Right when they start forming their opinions about the subject...

Imagine an Internet where debunkings and rebuttals are made available right where the claims are being made. An Internet where there is no corner for ignorance to hide and multiply itself with self-referential confirmation. An Internet where our ever-present confirmation bias filters receive constant cracks in them, forcing us to thoroughly check our own thoughts...

A new poll was just released by Public Policy Polling, concerning Americans’ belief (and disbelief) in conspiracy theories. This headline from MSN.com tells the story well, especially for skeptics.

True dat.

Among other results, the poll reports that:

21% of voters believe the government covered up a UFO crash at Roswell (27% of Romney voters believe in the cover-up as compared with 16% of Obama voters)

20% of voters believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism, 51% do not

13% think Obama is the Antichrist

 9% of voters think the government adds fluoride to our water supply for sinister reasons (not just dental health)

 7% of voters think the moon landing was faked

  5% of voters believe that Paul McCartney actually died in 1966

  4% believe that "shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies."

 14% of voters believe in Bigfoot

What’s a poor skeptic to do?

_{The Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh, continues to insist that he has a cure for HIV/AIDS. While people outside Gambia might think he is a lunatic and that his claims are bizzare and should be ignored, many sick people in Gambia take him seriously. They are trooping to the state house to receive ‘free treatment’ with no proof of efficacy or effectiveness from his ‘Excellency’.}

_{Shortly after he announced his cure for AIDS, Jammeh gave a journalist access to his ‘quack healing session’ at the government house in Banjul. In response to questions by the journalist, Jammeh revealed himself to be a ‘presidential health care disaster’, a bloated, ignorant, shameless charlatan who ‘toys’ with the health and lives of the people of his country.}

_{At a point during the interview, when the journalist showed some reluctance towards drinking the concoction he prepared, Jammeh laughed like a typical comedian, saying ‘This is Africa’.}

In August, I reported the details of a class that I was planning to teach at Arizona State University, examining psychology through the lens of magic and illusion (see The Culture of Psychology and Magic). I am pleased to report that the class was a major success. Fifty upper-division students from a variety of majors spent the semester immersing themselves in the psychology of magic. They were treated to guest lectures by many of the movers and shakers in the emerging “science of magic” field, including James “The Amaz!ng” Randi, himself, and D.J. Grothe, president of the JREF. Please enjoy this brief montage of some of the goings-on from the previous semester.