Content Roundup for November and December 2012

You may have noticed a lack of activity on this blog. I’ve been taking a break over the holidays. It was sort of a “skeptic sabbatical” to recharge my batteries and come up with a game plan for 2013. Regular posts will resume here presently.

I wasn’t totally idle during the last two months.  Not only did the Mabus story leap back into the headlines, but I was still doing Virtual Skeptics and some other stuff.  So here’s a rundown of what I did post or create during my so-called sabbatical.

Below are links to the content I’ve been involved with in the last month. It includes this blog as well as the material I post on other blogs, my podcasting activities, my best posts on Twitter as well as key shout-outs or mentions elsewhere.

In an effort to practice what I preach, I also document on a monthly basis what my contributions are to several skeptic-relevant crowdsourcing projects.

Read on to see what you might have missed…

Blogging & other Writing

Here were my blog posts this month.

• November 1 – 9: Skeptools: 3 editions of Morning Toolbox
• November 20: Skeptools: Mabus Redux: Operation Archangel Gets Dennis Markuze Arrested
• November 25: Skeptical Inquirer: Skeptic Trumps: A Satirical Skeptic Card Game (from Volume 36 Issue 5, Sept/Oct 2012)

Mentions and links elsewhere:

• November 19: Montreal Gazette: Man charged with threatening people using social media — again – I’m quoted in this story about Markuze
• November 19: CCLA Rights Watch: Cyber troll “Mabus” faces new charges for social media threats – Another Mabus story
• November 19: Doubtful News: Dennis Markuze (aka David Mabus) arrested again (Updated)
• November 20: Great Plains Skeptic: What exactly is the harm? An interview with Tim Farley of WhatsTheHarm.net
• November 30: Agence Science Presse: Menacés de mort parce qu’ils défendent la science - Markuze follow-up in French. (In English here via Google)
• December 9: Skep-Tech announced they had invited me as a guest.
• December 15: The Next Web: Fake Twitter followers: An easy game, but not worth the risk – I’m quoted as an expert (see also Virtual Skeptics #3 and #13 and of course Doubtful News)

Podcasting & Video

I contributed segments to these episodes of Skepticality and Virtual Skeptics:

• November 7: Virtual Skeptics Episode #13 – I talked about Balancer and Pundit Tracker.
• November 13: Skepticality #195: Fake Science 101 – Fishbarrel, PunditTracker & TruthMarket
• November 14: Virtual Skeptics Episode #14 – I talked about my skeptic sabbatical.
• November 21: Virtual Skeptics Episode #15 – The second arrest of David Mabus.
• December 5: Virtual Skeptics Episode #17 – Using Lanyrd to find skeptic events in 2013.
• December 12: Virtual Skeptics Episode #18 – Dead people are liking things on Facebook.
• December 19: Virtual Skeptics Episode #19 – AVN must change it’s name, Skepticamps in 2013.

Mentions on other podcasts and webcasts:

• December 29: Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe #389: Year in Review – Very flattered to be named one of the best skeptics of 2012 by the panel.

Social Media

I posted on Twitter:

• 230 regular tweets, including:
  • 8 “What’s the harm in…?” stories
  • 62 daily skeptic history facts
  • 61 retweets of other people
• Plus 107 replies to other Twitter posts for a total of 337 tweets

Here are highlights, the tweets that were retweeted and favorited the most.

New #MABUS account to block is @oper443 Might as well do it now.—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 01, 2012

(9 retweets, 1 favorite)

UFO enthusiasts begin to come to the realization – the truth may NOT be out there after all. bit.ly/SlClnu via @4tis—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 04, 2012

(9 retweets, 4 favorites)

What's the harm in skipping a pertussis vaccination? 10 babies have died in UK. bit.ly/U6xs1m #vaxfax—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 06, 2012

(9 retweets)

I don’t do political comments, but on US Election Night I couldn’t resist this:

I've seen tons of science denial, but Karl Rove delved into MATH denial tonight on Fox News. #SilverBayes2016—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 07, 2012

(16 retweets, 1 favorites)

This one got the Penn Jillette boost:

You can see Amazing (James) Randi talk with @pennjillette on Penn's Sunday School right now here: bit.ly/SOfZvs—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 11, 2012

(16 retweets, 12 favorites)

"Watson, I believe we will find a traumatized nerd nearby!" "What led you to that, Holmes?" http://t.co/tQc8OikR—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 19, 2012

(8 retweets, 3 favorites)

A notable moment in November:

@SPVM Thank you for all your efforts! They are much appreciated. #MABUS—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 19, 2012

Many more details about the #MABUS case in my latest skeptools blog post here: bit.ly/MabusRedux—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 20, 2012

(13 retweets, 3 favorites)

Skeptic History: Charles Darwin's opus "On the Origin of Species" was published Nov. 24, 1859. bit.ly/7vR5c5—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 24, 2012

(15 retweets, 2 favorites)

Skeptic History: John Edward was declared "Biggest Douche in the Universe" by South Park on Nov. 27, 2002. bit.ly/54Wsx—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) November 27, 2012

(16 retweets, 1 favorite)

Skeptic History: Uri Geller's lawsuit against James Randi & CSICOP ended Dec. 9, 1994. Geller lost. bit.ly/HJmHvl—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) December 09, 2012

(8 retweets, 2 favorites)

Alt-medder on Facebook says she can tell my liver is "not functioning very well" from my "look". She's looking at my cartoon avatar. #DERP—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) December 10, 2012

(5 retweets, 6 favorites)

Skeptic History: On Dec 24, 1994 the Xenu story from Scientology was first made public on the Internet. bit.ly/6XT2RH—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) December 24, 2012

(8 retweets, 2 favorites)

This one didn’t make the normal required 9 clicks but it made me happy:

Many thanks to the @SkepticsGuide rogues for listing me as a top skeptic of 2012 this week: bit.ly/ViO6x0 (54 min in)—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) December 30, 2012

(5 retweets, 1 favorite)

You know you are a skeptic when you write "pareidolia", check the spelling, and realize you got it right the first time.—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) January 06, 2013

(9 retweets, 5 favorites)

James Randi has something important to tell you about cancer. Check out this video: youtu.be/WCnX4aqZTV0 #burzynski—
Tim Farley (@krelnik) January 11, 2013

(7 retweets, 2 favorites)

To get these as I post them, you should follow me on Twitter here.

Crowdsourcing Contributions

Here were my contributions to various projects in November and December:

I contributed 6 edits to Wikipedia.

I rated 3 sites on Web of Trust but left no new site scorecard comments.

I made 6 edits to the Skeptic History database. It now has 1,432 items in it.

I added no new rebuttals to RBUTR.

I made over 1,300 edits on Lanyrd - my guide to skeptic conferences (link in the sidebar at right) now contains 92 events, 24 coming up this year and 68 past events.  (The past events help complete speaker’s profiles with their past appearances, videos and so on).

And so begins 2013…

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