Sceptic Schism | Issue 17

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 26th July 2015

Vani Hari, known to her millions of followers as The Food Babe, is an American author and activist who criticises the American food industry. Huge companies, including Kraft, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks and Subway, have changed or reconsidered ingredients in their products as a Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 14

Posted 2:41pm Sunday 5th July 2015

Acupuncture is a practice in ancient Chinese medicine that involves sticking needles into the skin along the body’s natural “meridian lines” where “qi”, or “life-force”, is traditionally said to flow. The qi flow is redirected to improve the health of the Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 13

Posted 1:54pm Sunday 24th May 2015

Lies can be deadly. Last month a story broke in the world of alternative medicine about Belle Gibson, an Australian woman who had made a living from her account of having cured herself of supposed terminal brain cancer with healthy eating. She said the cancer had spread to her liver and kidneys, and Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 12

Posted 2:40pm Sunday 17th May 2015

David Icke has convinced hundreds of thousands of people that the world is run by something called the “Babylonian Brotherhood”, a race of seven-foot-tall reptilian aliens who squeeze into human-sized suits and rule the world. They have brainwashed humans into believing they are human in Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 11

Posted 2:27pm Sunday 10th May 2015

“Detox” diets make out the liver is like a dirty old sponge that needs to go through the washing machine. Actually, the liver is an organ that filters harmful or unneeded substances from the blood to be excreted as urine. It is self-regulating and will replenish its own cells at the same Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 10

Posted 2:20pm Sunday 3rd May 2015

You are the kind of person who can go to a party and feel great, have fun and talk to lots of people. But when you get home and you go over the things that you said, you suddenly regret how you were behaving. You keep people a little bit at bay when you are first getting to know them, but if you Read more...

Skeptic Schism | Issue 9

Posted 2:23pm Sunday 26th April 2015

In 1998 Andrew Wakefield, a British former surgeon and medical researcher, published a fraudulent research paper in support of the now-discredited claim that there was a link between the administration of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR), and the appearance of autism and bowel disease. Read more...

Skeptic Schism | Issue 8

Posted 3:40pm Sunday 19th April 2015

In 2006 a book was published that has gone on to sell 19 million copies worldwide by promising everybody literally everything they ever wanted. That book is The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. The “secret” is “The Law of Attraction” – the assertion that the atoms in your Read more...

Skeptic Schism | Issue 7

Posted 2:51pm Sunday 12th April 2015

The most controversial Facebook post I’ve ever written was one that said: “I can’t believe how many of my friends who would never judge someone based on their race, gender or sexuality are happy to make massive, sweeping, shameless assumptions about people based on the month they are born in.” This Read more...

Skeptic Schism | Issue 6

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 29th March 2015

Wake up and smell the wee! Would you drink your own piss for the sake of your health? Because doing it every day will, according to some, cure you of pretty much everything from acne to cancer. The first big wee in the morning is the most effective, with urine taken mid-stream and then drunk Read more...