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The Skeptical Blog Anthology: From Open Call To Awesome Book by the Young Australian Skeptics

Do you want to read the very first Skeptical Blog Anthology in existence? Here’s the blag behind the blog-pos.

Back in 2007 I was dancing around my office because of an email, one that informed me that a humble little blog-post on my PodBlack Cat site was deemed worthy of being included in a book.

My post was going to feature in the Open Laboratory: The Best of Science Writing On the Web, the brain-child of the awe-inspiring scientist and master of the science blogosphere, Bora Zivkovic. It’s a yearly anthology that gathers together fifty blog posts (including a cartoon and even poems), all crowd-sourced and drawing on the RSS-feed favourites of blog readers around the world.

Then it suddenly hit me: why can’t a skeptical blog anthology do exactly the same? The community-spirit is just as strong amongst skeptical bloggers, surely?

Thus with one dance, I began a journey over a number of years, drawing upon the rare and precious free time of the Young Australian Skeptics – a dream-team of Australian scientists, students, designers and computer-geniuses – in order to make the dream become reality.

Yes, it’s taken some time and it certainly wouldn’t have been possible without the patience and guidance of the Young Australian Skeptics team, especially the design expertise and classy tenacity of Catherine Donaldson and her studio at Faster Pussycat Productions. Without Joel Birch, Richard Hughes, Elliot Birch, Jack Scanlan, Jason Ball, Alastair Tait and Belinda Nicholson – and the much-appreciated keen eye and firm editing hand of Barbara Drescher – this book would never have reached its goal by 2011.

If you’re looking for diversity in terms of contributors to skepticism online – such as different ages, gender and points of view, with writers from all around the world? This anthology is a collection of reader-nominated blog posts, representing the best of a new wave of online skepticism and well worth checking out.

Collected over a year, it features a plethora of posts on topics ranging from the vaccination debate, paranormal claims, the ongoing creep of creationism into politics and education, conspiracy theories, homeopathy, outreach, all kinds of alternative medicine and even attempts to tackle the question “What is skepticism?”



The Skeptical Blog Anthology features essays by: Dr Phillip Plait of “Bad Astronomy”, Dr Karen Stollznow of the Point of Inquiry Podcast, Sharon Hill, Dr Petra Boynton, Brian Thompson of The Amateur Scientist podcast, Skeptic Blog’s Daniel Loxton and Yau-Man Chan, New York City Skeptics’ Lisa Bauer, UK Skeptic Dr Chris French, Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe’s Evan

Bernstein and many others.





I think that this is just the beginning of what can be a powerful trend for all of those online writers who put so much effort and brainpower into composing blog-posts and deserve some additional recognition for their work. Here’s your cue to not only dance at the news of The Skeptical Blog Anthology – but to buy your copy from Lulu now and support the Young Australian Skeptics, in time for the holiday season!

The Skeptical Blog Anthology is available in both print and online format at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/skeptical-blog-anthology/18755670

Kylie Sturgess is the host of the Token Skeptic podcast and regularly writes editorial for numerous publications and CSICOP’s Curiouser and Curiouser online column. She is the co-host for the Global Atheist Convention in 2010 and 2012. In addition, Kylie is a member of the James Randi Educational Foundation Education Advisory Panel and writes at The Token Skeptic at FreeThought Blogs.