Weekly Round-up w/e 06/11/2011

So what’s been happening around the world of skepticism and science over the last seven days then? I suppose there is only one place to start and that’s with the testing (or not testing) of Psychic Sally. This generated a bit of discussion amongst skeptics and Kylie Sturgess gives a great overview of this and links to the main protagonist posts on her blog Token Skeptic

Ben Goldacre is taking a break from the Guardian to finish his book. He summarises his learning from the last eight years of interactions with nonsense in this concise final article for a while.

You can find a Facebook group for most everything these days, even the sharing of contagions via Pox Packages. More madness from the distrusters of vaccination.

It might seem a bit early but for busy parents such as myself tips on Christmas presents for the kids are always useful. Here’s a corker from Daniel Florien over at Unreasonable Faith.

I get a kick out of big science experiments and there aren’t many that come much bigger than this one, a laser that could tear apart the fabric of space!

We’ve written before on this very blog about the satirising and depiction of Mohammed and Islam. It’s always a controversial area and there are still people that respond with violence and intimidation.

Sex and ghosts over at the Huffington Post. Here is a fine example of non-skeptical reporting and researching of the paranormal.

Up until the end of November you can access the Scientific American archive for between the years 1845-1909 . It’s an incredible resource with documents presented in their original format but still fully searchable. There are around 75,000 articles for your amusement with some real gems hidden within.  Use them quick as they start to charge on November 30^th.

I’m sure I’ve seen it etched in stone somewhere that “Thou Shalt Not Defy the Law of Thermodynamics.” It doesn’t stop people trying though as Cold Fusion pops up once again.

Finally don’t forget it’s the excellent Michael Marshall this Wednesday with his talk on Bad News – How PR came to rule modern journalism.

This week’s round-up was compiled by Patrick Redmond (@paddyrex)