""Anti-Gravity Hills" (also known as "
Gravity Hills", "Spook Hills", or "
Magnetic Hills") are natural places where cars put into neutral are seen to move uphill on a slightly sloping road, apparently defying the law of gravity. Typically, the "spooky" stretch of road is rather short (50-90 m), only a few meters wide, and surrounded by a natural hill landscape, without nearby buildings. Such places are found in several countries all around the world, and have been tourist attractions for decades. They should not be confused with the "
Mystery Spots"
[previously] found in amusement parks. These are generally tilted cabins, purposely built as such; a person walking inside feels disoriented, getting a very strong impression of standing at an angle in a perfectly normal room."
CSICOP and
Discovery News explain the phenomenon, and here's
the paper on which the CSICOP article was based (PDF).
posted by cog_nate
on Oct 29, 2009 -
41 comments
The Baloney Detection Kit. "With a sea of information coming at us from all directions, how do we sift out the misinformation and bogus claims, and get to the truth? Michael Shermer, Publisher of
Skeptic magazine, lays out a 'Baloney Detection Kit' — ten questions we should ask when encountering a claim."
posted by homunculus
on Jun 25, 2009 -
52 comments
Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena was born in October, 2006 to help fight the good fight against the overwhelming majority of noise in the media supporting useless alternative medicine systems, psychics preying upon the vulnerable, the erosion of science education in the classroom, xenophobia of advanced energy and food production methods, and generally anything that distracts attention and public funding from scientific advancement. Episodes feature such prominent MeFi discussion material as
organic food myths, blood for oil, chiropractics, and
SUVs. Links are to podcast transcripts. Full
episode guide.
posted by arcticwoman
on May 24, 2007 -
38 comments
