by Brian Siano A shorter version of this article appeared in Skeptic magazine, Vol 4, No. 3., 1996 Introduction Charles McCay did not make an idle choice, in titling his classic study, by explicitly mentioning “popular delusions” and “the madness of crowds.” Panics and hysterias are always associated with screaming,… Continue reading
Most people I know who are fans of some kind or another collected stuff that kept getting more and more popular: Star Trek, Star Wars, comics, certain SF writers. Not so with the stuff I went for: Harlan Ellison’s still a cult writer, the Flashman books never made it big… Continue reading
Introduction for 2015 This was probably the most substantial piece I’d ever written. I can’t take complete credit, as it builds from the work of a lot of other writers, and if there’s any prescience here it’s mainly because I made a few connections between public relations and the compromising… Continue reading
This review of Hollywood vs. America by Michael Medved (Harper/Collins 1992) appeared in two magazines. The beginning sections discussing Medved’s treatment of movies appeared in Z Magazine (date forgotten). The later section, “The Statistics of Baron Munchausen,” was published in The Humanist, January-February 1993 under the title “Michael Medved Drowns by Numbers.” Continue reading
A book review by Brian Siano In Consilience E.O. Wilson, one of our most accomplished scientists, calls for the unification of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. He draws from a variety of disciplines, including population genetics, economics, aesthetics, cognitive science, developmental biology, history and politics. At… Continue reading