Random Tangent

My previous blog post was the story of how I set off on my skeptical journey. Here are some resources to help you along yours:

These are some organizations whose websites you should explore:

• The James Randi Education Foundation (JREF)
• Australian Skeptics
• The New England Skeptical Society

Here are some good blogs to read:

• The multi-author Skepticblog
• Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog
• The official SGU blog, The Rogue’s Gallery
• The New England Skeptical Society’s Neurologica blog
• The Science-Based Medicine blog
• Michael Shermer’s Scientific American articles
• Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science blog
• PZ Myer’s Pharyngula blog
• Richard Wiseman’s blog
• The Skepchick blog
• Karen Stollznow’s Skepbitch blog
• Kylie Sturgess’ Podblack Cat
• Rachael Dunlop’s The Skeptics’ Book of Pooh-Pooh
• The Young Australian Skeptics blog
• The UK Skeptic’s articles and commentary section

There are many, many more out there and they’re very easy to find.

You need to listen to the following podcasts:

• Skeptoid
• The Skeptics Guide to the Universe (SGU) and the SGU 5×5
• The Skeptic Zone

Also check out Hunting Humbug, Skepticality, and the Pseudo Scientists.

The following are excellent resources on critical thinking and logical fallacies:

• Here be Dragons: An Introduction to Critical Thinking by Brian Dunning
• Episodes 73 and 74 of the Skeptoid podcast
• The SGU 5×5 and Hunting Humbug podcasts
• Humbug! The Skeptics Field Guide by Theo Clark and Jef Clark
• Wikipedia’s articles on logical fallacies and cognitive biases

Here are some excellent general resources on skepticism:

• The New England Skeptical Society’s list of articles
• The UK Skeptic’s list of articles
• The Cleveland Skeptics’ Critical Thinking 101 resources
• The list of links and resources listed on Wikipedia’s skeptics page
• The Skeptic’s Dictionary
• What’s the Harm?
• Information on Skeptical Activism
• Kylie Sturgess’ list of educational resources (also check out her tips and tricks on how to avoid scams and her list of essays)

These are a few good YouTube channels to subscribe to:

• James Randi Foundation
• Michael Shermer
• The Bad Astronomer
• The Skeptics Guide
• Philosophers and Critical Thinkers in Senior Schools (PACTISS)

Here are some magazines worth subscribing to:

• The Australian Skeptic’s The Skeptic magazine
• The US-based Skeptic magazine
• The US-based Skeptical Inquirer magazine

And, finally, here are a list of books worth reading (all but one as suggested by Dunning in Here be Dragons):

• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
• Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions by James Randi
• Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena and Skeptoid 2: More Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena by Brian Dunning
• Humbug! The Skeptic’s Field Guide to Spotting Fallacies in Thinking by Theo Clark and Jef Clark (eBook version that you can also download as a PDF)
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (also available as an eBook from Project Gutenberg)
• Also check out Kylie Sturgess’ excellent reading lists for skepticism

If you can think of any other resources that are worth adding to this list, please let me know. Thanks.

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