Nonsense!
(and Why It's So Popular)

Welcome to your First-Year Seminar course (officially known as Interdepartmental 101-34). There is a deep well of irrationality in the world, and there always has been. Best-selling authors today describe elaborate conspiracies behind such diverse phenomena as UFOs, the origin of AIDS, the 9/11 attacks, and prominent assassinations. Historical accounts are often “revised” to fit particular prejudices, hopes and fears. Psychics communicate with the dead to ease our grief, creationists battle evolution to maintain a special view of God, and astrologers claim to plot our destinies in the stars. Billions of dollars are spent every year on worthless treatments for disease, even when effective medicines are easily available. Why is such nonsense so popular? What are the dangers to society when irrationality is common? Do we have logical tools to sort bad ideas from good? In this seminar we will examine numerous conspiracy theories and many examples of crank science, quack medicine, and revisionist history. We will use original literature, skeptical and credulous accounts, websites, and films to explore the lure of these ideas and their social origins.

The reason why you are enrolled in a First-Year Seminar, though, goes well beyond any topic. Since this is one of your first courses at the College, it is explicitly designed to introduce you to "critical thinking", written and oral expression, and research techniques. We are investigating ideas -- where they come from, how they are supported, and whether they are worth considering, let alone adopting. The specific conclusions we draw about particular ideas will be less important than the tools we employ in making such decisions.

This course syllabus is also our website. Each week I will add text and links related to our topics, along with editorial comments (which I can't seem to suppress). This is a "living syllabus" which will change often following course directions, news items, and your interests. It is a regular syllabus in the sense that you have scheduled here the weekly discussion topics, readings, and other course requirements, yet I am writing the main text only a week ahead so that it is fresh. (Here is an example of such a syllabus at the end of last semester.) If you have relevant links you would like to add, please send them to me. This is your website as well as mine.

Mark A. Wilson

Department of Geology

The College of Wooster

Wooster, OH 44691 USA

Scovel Room 120; Telephone Extension 2247

mwilson@wooster.edu

Seminar Schedule

(With Weekly Links to Other Web Resources)

Seminars are in Scovel Hall Room 100 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 - 10:50 a.m.

August 29 & 31

Web Resources for Week #1:

I want to begin our links and discussion section with a disclaimer. I call this a course on "nonsense" for a reason; I am a skeptic by personality and my scientific profession. I support explanations of natural and historical events that are the simplest and best fit the available evidence (using the principle of Ockham's Razor). I encourage full and robust discussions on all topics of interest, and I am quite open to being shown I am wrong. (As a working scientist, I have become quite accustomed to being told exactly how and why I am wrong!) In this course and in the following web text, I will pose many provocative questions and refer you to the broadest range of literature I can find. Please keep in mind, though, my own position and its inherent biases. For example, I am convinced that the modern theory of evolution is the best explanation for life's diversity, that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald alone, that the Holocaust was an attempted extermination of the Jews in which six million were murdered, that crop circles are produced by people not aliens, and that on September 11, 2001, radical Islamist Arab terrorists hijacked American passenger jets and flew them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. I will entertain any alternative ideas, debating them on their merits, and student work will always be evaluated on the rigor of its analysis, not its conclusions. This is a course in critical thinking, not indoctrination.

That said, off we go into the world of nonsense!

Let's start our links with a few general resources you will want to use throughout the semester. The homepage of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP has many useful sections, including articles and an index from their magazine (Skeptical Inquirer -- I have many years of back issues), hundreds of articles, the "Skeptiseum" (an online museum of things to be skeptical about), links, and much more.

The Skeptics Society, founded and directed by our author Michael Shermer, is also a spectacular resource for sorting out sense and nonsense. They publish Skeptic magazine, host the biweekly podcast Skepticality, have an extraordinary online library, and the newsletter eSkeptic.

There are dozens of other major websites which take a skeptical viewpoint on popular topics. We will cite most of them as we cover particular topics. For now, though, you might want to briefly visit the National Center for Science Education ("defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools"), Crank Dot Net ("cranks, crackpots, kooks & loons on the net"), The Holocaust History Project ("dedicated to fighting Holocaust-denial"), and 911myths.com ("reading between the lies" of 9/11 conspiracy theories). You will also find The Skeptic's Dictionary very useful this semester.

I am a big fan of podcasts (mp3 files), all of which I download from iTunes (although I'll link you below to their host webpages). Along with news and general science podcasts, I enjoy the above-mentioned Skepticality, Point of Inquiry, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, and Truth-Driven Thinking. My guilty pleasures include: Mysterious Universe, Strange Days ... Indeed, Cryptic Universe, Peering Into the Darkness, and the always entertaining Answers In Genesis. If you have favorites, please let me know.

We will begin to highlight general "nonskeptical" (credulous?) webpages next week. You've probably already found plenty on your own!

Online Registration -- The Registrar's Office has this useful PowerPoint slide show on how to register online. I've converted it to webpages for your easy reference.

Nonsense in the News:

September 5 & 7

Web Resources for Week #2:

This week we develop the philosophical framework for our discussions and research. How do we know what we know, or better, how do we make decisions as to which ideas are worth pursuing and which are not? One popular if crude approach is to make sure you have an operating baloney detector, in the words of the late Carl Sagan. We will start with an exploration of logical fallacies, which are false or inadequately constructed arguments. Another excellent site for studying an almost unending set of examples of bad arguments is the webpage of The Fallacy Files. Most of these logical fallacies look very straightforward, but as you can see in the many examples on the web, they are sometimes difficult to ferret out.

Now, try your new logical fallacy kit on this page defending a hilariously indefensible series of UFO photos. (I warned you that I can't keep my opinions to myself on some of these things.)

Illusions are quite different. Optical illusions (drive yourself crazy with this excellent page!) work as a function of our visual physiology and our expectations, not necessarily a flaw in our logic. They are a reminder that our information receptors are faulty and not completely efficient. We simply cannot always believe what we see or hear. We must continually question even our senses when we attempt to understand the reality surrounding us.

Nonsense in the News:

September 12 & 14

Web Resources for Week #3:

This week we complete our exploration of the philosophical issues at the root of our seminar topic. Our two guides, Shermer and Whyte, have led us through social analyses of the phenomenon of irrational thinking (pointing out, of course, that we all partake in it) and have each given us their views on the most prominent logical fallacies in the arguments we will soon face. This week we will discuss, among other things, cultural relativism, exploring Jamie Whyte's strong critique of it, perhaps softened by the more nuanced views in the linked article. After Elissa found that Whyte is also a newspaper columnist, I looked up some of his popular writing. I liked this recent editorial on homeopathy and his final sentence: "We live at the historical high point of human civilisation. It is neither a fluke nor a miracle. Our liberty and prosperity flow from of our commitment to Enlightenment values. Our leaders should never forget it." Indeed, and "Enlightenment values" include rational thought.

Michael Shermer gives us much to think about this week. He begins with his story of walking across hot coals ("firewalking"), which I hope by now you know is not a paranormal experience. (But those people at the "Firewalking Institute of Research and Education" -- check out that acronym! -- will charge you plenty for this demonstration of physics.) He also mentions as examples of irrationality the "Brain/Mind Expansion Intensive" ("Begin vibrating at a higher level where all things fall into place naturally, easily and without effort." And you thought subliminal messages were bunk!) and Jach Pursel (here's an article about this guy and his buddy Lazaris which will lead you to many others through the links). More importantly, Shermer gives us his specific reasons for why people believe weird things, and most prominent on his list is credo consolans (or better, "credo quia consolans").

Elissa gave us the link to Infohio, noting that the button for the "core collection" is very useful for finding reviews and other materials.

Remember that your "Letter to Your Future" and associated materials are due for our time capsule on Tuesday morning (or Thursday morning for a few). We will also start choosing research paper topics, so start thinking now about what idea or phenomenon you would like to study in detail. We will talk about your ideas on Thursday.

This just in! Donna Jacobs at the Timken Science Library on campus has just completed your very own Wilson FYS Library Research Webpage. This is a very useful resource for all of us. Thank you, Donna.

Nonsense in the News:

September 19 & 21

Web Resources for Week #4:

This is a difficult topic for all of us. You know I'm not holding my views back from you, and I have demonstrated that I think the 9/11 conspiracists are fountains of nonsense. However, you are encouraged to openly debate the issues, and we will attempt to give the "alternative explanations" a fair hearing in this course.

Let's start with some standard websites presenting the mainstream, conventional perspective on what happened before, during and after the attacks on September 11, 2001. The September 11 Digital Archive is a large and growing collection of stories and images of that day from many sources. (You can, in fact, contribute your own story.) The September11News.Com website is another archive with touching accounts and photographs, but it also has too many highlighted "mysteries" for my non-mystical tastes (the crosses at Ground Zero, faces in the smoke, September 11 in history, etc.). You are unlikely to read it all, but you should at least know that the National Commission On Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States (otherwise known as the "9/11 Commission") has its long report available online. You may also be interested in the website detailing legislation related to the 9/11 attacks created by the Library of Congress. There are now over 30,000 websites related to the 9/11 events and their aftermath, and the Library of Congress has an excellent September 11 Web Archive with a searchable database to help you navigate through the crowd. (We definitely get our tax money's worth from those fine library folks in Washington!) The 11 September War on Terror Portal is a private website designed to remind Americans just why we are at war today.

Now for the "alternative perspective" on the 9/11 attacks. Certainly the largest website of all is that of the "Scholars for 9/11 Truth". You'll find plenty of advanced degrees in that crowd, for what they're worth. There is also the 9/11 Truth website, and 9/11 share-the-truth, and 9.11 Truth New York City. (Clearly a run on domain names with "truth" in them.) The Wikipedia article on the "9/11 Truth Movement" is a battleground for these groups, if you want a glimpse into their underlying politics. An example of such internecine warfare would be the fight between Professor Steven Jones and his critics over who has the most correct conspiracy rhetoric (and whether Jones is "following through with his role to help the perpetrators cover up their unspeakable crimes"). There are hundreds of 9/11 conspiracy sites now, so this survey will have to do for this week. Let's end with a one-page version called "9/11 Proof".

The most popular film among the "9/11 Truthers" is "Loose Change". It has now been downloaded from the Internet over 10 million times. It is an hour and a half long. I'd like you all to watch it before our class meeting on Tuesday. The advantage here is that you can watch it when and where you want. There is also the online "Screw Loose Change" video version (with overprinted subtitles) we'll talk about later, but you can look at it now as well.

Donna Jacobs at the Timken Science Library on campus has completed your very own Wilson FYS Library Research Webpage. This is a very useful resource for all of us.

Nonsense in the News:

September 26 & 28

Web Resources for Week #5:

Excellent discussions last week on the complicated 9/11 conspiracies. Indeed, the conventional 9/11 story is complex enough! I appreciate very much your honesty in these conversations, and your hard work in sorting through the many conflicting accounts and hypotheses.

This week we turn to the skeptics of the September 11th conspiracies, at last. The primary "debunking" websites are 911myths.com, the Popular Mechanics March 2005 issue on the conspiracies (a famous set of articles, now the basis of a book), 9-11 Conspiracy Fact & Fiction, Debunking 9/11, and the Screw Loose Change video (and many more short documentaries). You will recognize at least parts of the online report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology on the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. This is just a sample of the hundreds of anti-conspiracy websites and blogs which have appeared in the last two years. Note that many are not just disputing the interpretations of the conspiracists, but also the "facts" used in most of the fanciful stories.

I want you all to watch the computer simulation of the attack on the Pentagon. I believe you will find it revealing. For one, you'll see the many conspiracist statements about "no engine parts", missiles and so on are complete nonsense. The invaluable snopes.com has a detailed page on the Pentagon attack as well. A very good page on just why the demolition theories for the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings are bad science can be found here. Please read this bit of a blog statement on why the 9/11 planes were not shot down, contra conspiracy, which is a follow-up on a class discussion. And finally, if you still are impressed by the Loose Change video, take a look at the very detailed (if sometimes amateurish) criticism of the film from the Internet Detectives.

I like the last statement from the Debunking 9/11 website: "This is the kind of thing the "scholars" want us to pay millions more investigating. Personally, I could think of a few other pressing issues to spend millions on. Like research into the collapse of critical thinking skills in American and UK universities." We are at least doing our duty in this course!

Here is an updated link to The Skeptic's Dictionary. The link I gave you earlier in a handout was outdated.

Please remember that Donna Jacobs at the Timken Science Library on campus has completed your very own Wilson FYS Library Research Webpage. This is a very useful resource for all of us.

Nonsense in the News:

October 3 & 5

Web Resources for Week #6:

As you might imagine, there are thousands if not tens of thousands of webpages devoted to Creationism, most of them from enthusiastic proponents. This week I want you to become acquainted with some of the primary Creationist sites, many of which we will return to several times this semester. You may want to start with the two largest and slickest organizations, Answers in Genesis and the Institute of Creation Research. The first (AiG) will be the most useful website for us because it is detailed and continually updated by energetic people; the second (ICR) is not nearly as well crafted, representing the slowly fading giant of the movement. The Creation Science Association For Mid-America (CSAMA) maintains a website. It is difficult to deduce just how large this organization is, but it does provide many issues to discuss. The Creation Research Society (CRS) is based in Missouri. They started in the 1960s as a group of scientists who believed they were discriminated against by "mainstream journals". They operate the Van Andel Creation Research Center in northern Arizona. The Young Earth Creation Club is a site apparently run by a single family in Columbus, Ohio; it is loaded with links and other information. They even posted a page for Wooster students! You certainly do not want to miss the Creation Evidence Museum for all sorts of "geological anomalies" supporting a literal Noah's Flood. You will also want to see the Christian Geology Ministry site with its convoluted science and full-color diagrams (they are Old Earth Creationists). Probably the best list of Creationist, Anti-Creationist, Pro-Evolution, and just plain information links can be found on the Talk-Origins Archive. You can also visit my own small webpage called "The New Creationists" for a brief summary of the many Creationist concepts we will be working with, along with numerous links.

"Intelligent Design" (ID) is the latest and possibly the most successful version of creationism, at least in terms of wedging its way into school curricula (and thus courtrooms). The Intelligent Design Network is a large website with many resources devoted to this movement. The Center for Science & Culture of the Discovery Institute is the best known national advocate of ID. Their logo states that they are "Challenging Darwin's theory of evolution", although they've yet to do it in the scientific realm. You can see the down-market Ohio ID advocates at the Orwellian "Science Excellence for All Ohioans" website. They seem a bit angry, having lost numerous battles large and small lately. (Full disclosure! I am a member of the rival group Ohio Citizens for Science.) The Intelligent Design Undergraduate Research Center is, well, designed just for you.

When the Creationism becomes tedious, take a break and visit the excellent evolution websites maintained by the National Center for Science Education, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. (This section is modified from my "Geology Confronts Creationism" course website.)

Nonsense in the News:

October 10 & 12

Web Resources for Week #7:

The John F. Kennedy assassination is one of the most popular topics on the Web. There are thousands of websites devoted to conspiracies, theories, analyses, and debunking. An advantage of this abundance is that there are also several meta-websites which summarize and categorize these links. One of the best is the "academic JFK assassination web site" maintained by Kenneth Rahn at the University of Rhode Island. (Recognize his name?) I suggest that you start your exploration there. I also like the Kennedy Assassination Website by John McAdams. (He includes a skeptical assessment of Oliver Stone's movie "JFK", which we will see as a class, and a list of the "best" assassination websites.) You must visit the "Virtual Visitor" interactive 360-degree photograph of Dealey Plaza from near the spot where President Kennedy was shot. The Warren Commission Report is also a document everyone with an opinion on the assassination should read (but few do).

You can bet, of course, that there are those who tie together the Kennedy Assassination and 9/11 conspiracies in excruciating detail (or virtually none at all). The logic-challenged Professor James Fetzer, a prominent found of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, is not surprisingly a JFK conspiracist as well. (I love to hear him rant on "Black Op Radio" podcasts. These are tedious, but they will give you a flavor of the level of intellectualism in these fringe movements.) You can even speculate that President Kennedy himself predicted a 9/11 conspiracy with one of his doodles!

Nonsense in the News:

"Yet no civilization can be healthy which nurtures such delusions, for they strike at the very heart of a society's core institutions - family, religion, schools, political institutions, and so forth - and replace the (sometimes critical) allegiance we should feel for them with a corrosive skepticism. Conspiracy theories are only the most extreme symptom of this disease. Less dramatic, but in the long run more dangerous, is the relentless tendency of the Western intelligentsia to denigrate the Western past and present, massively exaggerating the vices of their own civilization and the virtues of its competitors, and putting the worst possible spin on the motives and policies of its current leaders while minimizing or excusing the crimes of its enemies. This would be dangerous under the best of circumstances. It is doubly so while we are at war with enemies who know no such self-doubt and self-hatred." (Edward Feser, September 20, 2006)

October 19

Web Resources for Week #8:

It is difficult to add to the range of JFK assassination websites I listed last week, so you may want to return to the larger ones and explore further corners and alleyways in JFK cyberspace. (Always reminding yourself just how popular JFK conspiracy theories are with the American public.) Here's another thorough JFK website, this one by a self-described "conspirator" who may be based in Germany. He quotes one of the authors we've mentioned, Jim Marrs, at the top of his "intentions" page. By the way, have you seen that other book which Jim Marrs has authored? "Alien Agenda". A quote from a review of this book: "Marrs provides compelling evidence of past and present alien visitations and gives readers a fresh take on Roswell and the U.S. government's role in keeping the incident secret, alien abductions, Apollo astronauts' accounts of their UFO sightings, and the aliens' plans for our planet." Does that effect his credibility on the JFK assassination? Am I just indulging an ad hominem argument? while we're at it, let's read what he has to say about cattle mutilations, remote viewing, and all sorts of other crackpot fantasies. (Oh, I'm revealing my feelings again.) It gets even crazier when you look at websites like this one (complete with mpeg movie clips) which claim the Zapruder film is an elaborate hoax (and they endlessly show the most horrible scenes). JFK Assassination conventions must be wild places to visit when they all get together.

You should at some point visit the Wikipedia webpage on the JFK assassination, if only for the many links. (Remember that Wikipedia pages can be edited by people with significant biases. I notice now they sometimes post a disclaimer: "The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed.".) There is also a separate page on JFK assassination theories.

Remember that brief discussion we had on that idea that presidents elected in years ending in zero will die in office? Apparently that is called "Tecumseh's Curse". Hasn't worked out since 1980, though.

The South Park 9/11 conspiracy episode! Priceless. Three parts here on this blog. We will still watch it in class if Meret can get it for us. Here is a blogger's smirking analysis of "9/11 truther" reaction. A shorter clip is on the Hot Air blog.

Nonsense in the News:

October 24 & 26

Web Resources for Week #9:

For our final meeting on the Kennedy Assassination, we will summarize the primary arguments and then discuss your views on the events. Be prepared to support your conclusions in class with specific evidence, much like you are doing in your third essay. I've run out of new links on this topic because I've given you all the best JFK website addresses in the previous week. Maybe you need to find some more for the class!

Nonsense in the News:

Oct 31 & Nov 2

Web Resources for Week #10:

Our topic this week is very difficult. As your textbook author Michael Shermer has pointed out, the "Holocaust Revisionists" share some similarities with creationists, especially the ability to sound reasonable and to claim that they are intellectually persecuted for presenting a truth unpopular to the established authorities. There are so many varieties of revisionists and deniers. The Institute for Historical Review, a revisionist group, has numerous links to other revisionist websites. Note that they always place "Holocaust" in quotation marks (sometimes called "sneer quotes"). Ernst Zündel is a creepy little German filled with malice towards Jews, as seen in his large Holocaust denial website. (He is currently in prison.) The "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust" makes the same argument (and they also have an ongoing obsession with Michael Shermer). How about the bow-tied Michael A. Hoffman II? He is particularly anti-semitic in an open way we don't often see these days. Ahmed Rami runs the odd "Radio Islam", which is another bin of paranoia and pseudo-history. (And pseudo-news. Check out the Wikipedia page on Radio Islam.) You'll also find plenty of revisionist history at the Historical Review Press, including the "testimony" of Fred A. Leuchter, aka "Mr. Death". Here's an archive of German propaganda from inoffensive Calvin College that is linked from numerous anti-semitic websites (like "Stormfront", a group which advocates belief in "Jewish ritual murders", among other slanders) to get their fix of official hate. Even aerial photos are used to supposedly show none of the expected evidence that German concentration camps were death camps (unless you look hard enough -- or think it through). And can you believe there is a vile group called "Jew Watch"? (They can be found at www.jewwatch.com. I won't reward them with a hyperlink.) I suppose by now we are not surprised at the naked hatred and willful ignorance.

Time now for the antidotes to this nonsense. (I don't do a good job hiding my feelings on this topic.) Start with the Anti-Defamation League website, which has a superb page on the Holocaust, and then move to the Simon Wiesenthal Center homepage You can also feel real Holocaust history at Remember.Org. Be sure to also visit the Holocaust introductory page of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Nizkor Project is probably the most systematic answer on the web to the Holocaust revisionists and deniers. The Jewish Virtual Library has a good page on Holocaust Denial, including a link to the estimated number of Jews killed from each country. The Shamash Holocaust Homepage will link you to dozens of other sites discussing the historical roots of and evidence for the Holocaust.

Nonsense in the News:

November 7 & 9

Web Resources for Week #11:

To follow up on last week's discussion and the video on David Irving's libel trial, you may want to visit the official David Irving website, noting how many people he manages to blame for his plight in the first few items. After this bath in self-righteous pathos, you'll find the David Irving sites at Nizkor and The Holocaust History Project interesting.

On Tuesday we will watch the film Mr. Death (1999) about the odd career of Fred A. Leuchter, "execution engineer" and an odd tool of the Holocaust deniers. Here is a website devoted to Leuchter by revisionists. Note their vain attempt to make him look like a hero. Another revisionist website has posted the entire Leuchter Report in all its pseudoscientific garb. If you do read this report, please also read The Chemistry of Auschwitz by Richard J. Green.

Please pay at least a virtual visit to the slave/death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. There are many photographs and online tours posted on the Web. The PBS program and website on Auschwitz is one of the best.

Finally on this grim topic, let's see how these issues play out on the most dangerous of the world's stages: the Middle East. Here is a set of pages from the Anti-Defamation League on Holocaust Denial in Arab countries. You can also find plenty of news articles on the outrageous and deadly views of Iran's president on the Holocaust.

Nonsense in the News:

November 14 & 16

Web Resources for Week #12:

Where to start on the topic of alien abductions? So much on the web. The first page I found is this one about an alien spaceship disguised as a cloud. All sorts of nasty things are visible inside the craft if you enhance the image just right, apparently justifying its designation as a "snake-lizard-satanic ship". Of course, you'll want to visit the aptly-named Iwasabducted.com. (You can join the Alien Private Messenger service.) You already know the large and link-filled Alien Abduction Experience and Research website. How about a first person account from a website called "Come and get me"? (I don't make this stuff up -- how could I?) Worried about alien mind control? Learn how to make an effective thought screen helmet! The same web author also has a site on aliens and children, as if we needed more foolishness and had to convince kids to wear "thought screen hats". Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense, but this is why we're here! (The hat/helmet idea is not new. For a long time you could make an "aluminum foil deflector beanie" on your own to shield yourself from "psychotronic radiation" and other forms of mind control. Be sure to keep the shiny side exposed! Note that the web author is getting a bit peeved at being "evaluated" by people like me. We're part of a conspiracy, unsurprisingly. Psychotronic waves through overhead projectors -- we've been caught!) Oh, the Alien Scalpel webpages ... yuck. I don't know what to make of the "Star-Esseenia Temple of the Ashtar Command Ascension Network sponsored by the Collective Christ: Lord Sananda, The Ashtar Command, The Galactic Command, The Intergalactic Command, The Ascended Masters and The Angels of Light" The site includes lots of discussion of aliens in various guises. Here's a webpage discussing the origin of aliens and why the abduct humans. Can they really be "evolved cetaceans"?

You can begin to examine the skeptical literature with the excellent Skeptic's Dictionary entry on alien abductions. Here is a set of ideas on alien abductions as "birth memories". This webpage from CSICOP assesses the work of psychiatrist John Mack with alien abductions. "Sleep paralysis" is the best explanation I've seen for illusions of alien visitations and other similar experiences. You can search for similar webpages on Skeptic Planet.

As for crop circles, you can't do better than the credulous Crop Circle Connector and the practical Circlemakers websites. (I've given you handouts in class from these sites.) There is also the Crop Circle Research website, the Crop Circular, the crop circle Wikipedia page, and the ever-useful Skeptic's Dictionary webpage on crop circles. Alas, we cannot make a crop circle as a class and observe the nonsense which would have followed.

Nonsense in the News:

November 21

Web Resources for Week #13:

Today we will have our first and only class debate with the proposition: "Extraterrestrial life forms have visited Earth in historic times and continue to visit Earth today." Our assignments --

Pro side: Maisie, Katie, Henry, Alex, Corey
Con side: Chris Walton, Kevin, Liz, Matt, Priscilla
Jury: Chris Weston, Ashley, Meret, Kenny, Elissa

Remember -- you were chosen randomly, not by what I think you would support! In your studies leading to this debate, you might want to visit the Wikipedia page on "ancient astronauts". It has many subsidiary links. It could use a link to the Skeptic's Dictionary page on ancient astronauts and the UFO phenomenon.

Nonsense in the News:

November 28 & 30

Web Resources for Week #14:

The first student presentations are on Thursday. Here is the order: Corey, Chris Walton, Kevin, Liz. Each student will have 15 minutes to present, including time allotted for questions. You want to think now about particular handouts or other props you want to use. Topics of the presentations will include the Jersey Devil, Area 51, conspiratorial ideas about the death of Kurt Cobain, and Scientology.

Nonsense in the News:

December 5 & 7

Web Resources for Week #15:

Schedule change! The second set of student presentations are on Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m.: Matt, Kenny, Priscilla, Chris Weston. The third set will be on Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m.: Ashley, Meret, Maisie, Katie. The fourth set is now on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m.: Henry, Alex, and Elissa.

Nonsense in the News:

Schedule.--The first part of this syllabus is our daily schedule of topics. Even though it appears quite specific, we will undoubtedly depart from it as some topics become more interesting or timely than others. We will try to be as flexible as possible and still follow our general outline. The schedule of assignments will not change.

Readings.--Each set of readings is to be completed before the week for which it is assigned. On most class days I will give you a set of questions or provocative points from the reading to stimulate discussion. Missing the reading in this class becomes painfully obvious in the discussions.

Attendance.--I expect you to be present for each class meeting and other required events. If you are to be absent because of illness or some other emergency, please let me know in advance. Attendance is considered part of your class participation grade. Of course, I hope you want to attend every day!

Short papers.--There will be four short (2-5 pages) paper assignments. They will usually be analyses of news items, readings, websites, or particular issues which appear in class discussions. They will be due at the beginning of class on the dates listed above. Each paper may be rewritten once after it has been graded and returned. Your final grade for this paper will be an average of the first and second grades. Some papers may be distributed in class for peer reviews.

Research paper.--This assignment is the centerpiece of your First-Year Seminar experience. Early in the semester you will choose a topic to study with detailed library work, original research, interviews, or whatever other methods are appropriate. (This will be a topic we do not cover in our scheduled discussions.) A complete bibliography for your topic will be due in class on October 31 so that I can see that you have enough material to write a paper. Your final document will be 15-20 pages long, with references and illustrations. Throughout the semester we will discuss research methods and ways to focus your investigation. Here is the Wilson FYS Library Research Webpage.

Oral presentations.--In the last two weeks of the semester, each of you will present the results of your research project to the class. This will be fun because your topics will be diverse and provocative. Each student will choose course readings appropriate for his or her topic, along with links to webpages posted on this syllabus.

Class participation.--First-Year Seminar emphasizes critical thinking through oral and written expression. You are expected to participate in class each day. Your participation grade will not depend on the quantity of your contributions to the conversations, but rather on their quality (creativity, insight, knowledge, and courtesy).

Preparation questions.--I will distribute a a page of questions before each class meeting to help direct your reading and stimulate discussions of the essential issues. Please provide written answers to each question before the class meets. I will occasionally collect these papers and evaluate them as part of your grade.

Teaching assistant.-We don't have one. If you need a peer tutor for some reason, I'll set you up with one.

Webpage.-This webpage is a critical part of the course. It will be updated every week with links and other information for our specific topics. I hope that you can contribute by giving me ideas for this page. This document will grow throughout the course.

Griffin, David Ray. 2004. The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11. Interlink, Olive Branch Press (Northampton, MA), 254 pages. ISBN 1566565529

Shermer, Michael & Grobman, Alex. 2002. Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? University of California Press (Berkeley, CA); 312 pages. ISBN 0520234693

Shermer, Michael. 2002. Why People Believe Weird Things. (Revised and expanded edition); W.H. Freeman and Company (New York), 349 pages. ISBN 0805070893

Sturdivan, Larry M. 2005. The JFK Myths: A Scientific Investigation of The Kennedy Assassination. Paragon House Publishers (St. Paul, MN), 334 pages. ISBN 1557788472

Whyte, Jamie. 2005. Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders. McGraw-Hill Publishers (New York), 157 pages. ISBN 0071446435

All written assignments are due at 9:30 a.m. on the date stated. Late papers will be subject to a serious grade penalty, but extensions will be considered if they are requested in advance (and only then). There is a rewriting policy (see above).

Again, welcome to your First-Year Seminar. I hope you have as much fun in it as I will!