Articles tagged with "language"

Sara, one of our ex-committee members, messaged me last week, sending me a picture of a product she found in a shop in Wellington and saying “saw this and thought of you”. The picture was of a product called Pu$$y Power, by a company named MOOYAM. It's hard to read the label in the image, but the bottle describes the contents as “a crystal infused yoni and vaginal wash”, that contains “Rose quartz for the energy of love. Herbal & flower powered. Chemical free.” Underneath that it states: “Repeat after me: “My pussy is powderful”” (which I assume is a typo rather than a pun, as this is a liquid and not a powder):

Unorthodox claims about the origin of the Māori go way back. Co-founder of the Polynesian Society and erratic polymath Edward Tregear claimed in 1885 they were “Aryan”, based on such unlikely things as the similarity between waiū (milk: from wai, water and ū, the breast) and whey (Old English hwǣg). What follows is even less persuasive.

A while ago I was contacted by an older gentleman, Cedric, who told me over the phone that he'd heard me on the show and wanted to know if I was interested in a theory he has about the origins of the Māori race. Of course I was, I said, and after a while I received a self-published 32 page book about the theory.

By Graham Phillips. Pan, 1990. 168pp. $9.95 (paperback).

"Critical thinking" is the name given to a way of reasoning, in everyday language, which is a great benefit to everybody who uses it. It is a tool which can be used to improve our understanding of other people's arguments, to improve our own reasoning, to improve decision making, and to aid communication. It is especially useful for skeptics and debunkers. It is also a new idea, since in the past people have never been taught how to reason properly using everyday language, which is how most of us reason most of the time. Most of us could improve our thinking considerably by using critical thinking methods. I would like to see the Skeptics involved in the promotion of this subject.