Rationality 1 : Superstition 0

On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. Minutes turned to hours as the tantrik tried spell after spell against Sanal Edamaruku, attempting to kill or harm him. Live on TV (attempted murder in …

Tech support to random neighbours…

The door bell rang earlier – I answered it to one of the lesser seen neighbours carrying a laptop. “Hello, I’m Brian from number 18, I wondered if you could do me a favour, Tony says you are good with computers.” “Hello, Er, Ok. What’s the problem?” Brian had been using someone else’s WiFi connection …

Part of the conspiracy

One disadvantage of having a working email address listed on a university physics website is that you tend to get copied into all the 11-9 and 7-7 conspiracy theory messages. People expect you to be able to explain what ‘really’ happened (i.e, agree with everything they say).