Risk Factor
In London, there is a digital mechanism that changes its display every minute. (Call it the Bell Prompt if you like.) When (and only when) the display shows the figures “00” (which is once every...
View ArticleHow Do They Do That?
When the British Medical Association published its first report on “Alternative Therapy,” it pointed out that “orthodox medicine will not exclude a treatment because its mode of action is not...
View ArticleSpoilsports?
Recently the BBC put out a series of television programs titled “The Human Body.” It made use of filming techniques that had never before been possible, to show some of the innermost workings of the...
View ArticleWhat Do You Think?
Mark Twain once described religion as “a set of things which the average man thinks he believes.” When I first came across those words, I remember how intrigued I was at the idea of replacing “What do...
View ArticleThe Book
The year 776 b.c. saw the first Olympiad, in which runners wore only a small loincloth. Then, in 720 b.c., an athlete named Orsippos discarded it and ran naked. (Incidentally, he won.) From then on,...
View ArticleA Walk on the Dark Side
It is not uncommon to hear someone express the opinion that irrational beliefs may be regrettable, but they are harmless. A favorite example is astrology: “Horoscopes? Just a bit of fun. Come on....
View ArticleScience Allah Carte
Muslim science? On the face of it, it seems as incongruous as Christian physics or Jewish oceanography. But can Islam plead a special case? A popular element along these lines has always been Islam’s...
View ArticleRandomness
In July of 1990, The Wall Street Journal began its famous dartboard contest. Every month, four investment professionals picked stocks that they believed to be winners. And members of the Journal’s...
View ArticleMr. Sludge, the Medium
“When one considers . . . the standing of the three eye-witnesses who have testified to this, one may well ask whether in ancient or modern times any preternatural event has been more clearly proved.”...
View ArticleHere’s Looking at You
If you hold this page up to a mirror, the mirrored image will display text that reads from right to left instead of left to right. Why? You may well consider this to be a naïve question scarcely worth...
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