lvc@cbscc.UUCP (Larry Cipriani) (02/07/84)
The Skeptical Inquirer is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paramormal. (whew!) Subscriptions should be addressed to: THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Box 229 Central Park Station, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215. TSI is published quarterly. Price is $16.50. I have found The Skeptical Inquirer very useful in debunking the assorted nonsense that is held up to be science. I just don't have the time to investigate each and every claim of the paranormal. Among the topics that appear(ed) in TSI are creationism, parapsycholgy, PSI, iridology, palmistry (it's not completely bunk), dowsing, Uri Geller, and intelligent animals (apes, elephants, and horses for example). Some of the authors that write for TSI are Martin Gardner (my favorite), James Randi (a professional magician), Isaac Asimov, and Paul Kurtz (philosopher at SUNY Buffalo). Sometimes, something very unusual has a suprising explanation. For, example the patrons of a bar in Ireland claimed to have heard the voices of ghosts. They were ignored for several years until a scientist heard about this and went to the bar. He discovered that some of the walls in the bar were over 500 years old. The material in these walls was rich in magnetic material, and under the right conditions it was able to record and play back the sounds in the room. The ghosts were speaking a dialect of Irish that died several hundred years ago! It only comes quarterly which is about all I want. I'd get pretty tired of it if it were a monthly. It's a bit expensive but there are no advertisements. Larry Cipriani cbosgd!cbscc!lvc