The Skeptics' Circle

After pouring my heart out yesterday in a long post about the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (the response to which, by the way, has been quite gratifying), I find it somewhat difficult to get back to the usual topics of this blog. In fact, I had considered not posting anything for a couple of days, (my usual topics seem rather mundane in comparison at the moment), but, given that I had already put today's topic off a day and it is one I'm quite enthusiastic about publicizing as well as my humble blog will permit me to, I didn't want to do that. So, here goes.

St. Nate has finally gone and done it. He's announced the first edition of the Skeptics' Circle. Quoth he (slightly edited by me for length):

And now my personal news: A week after announcing the idea, I have gotten my act together and am ready to start my own round-up.

The Skeptics' Circle will hold its first gathering here on Thursday, February 3, regardless of whether or not Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow the day before. My vision is to create a carnival for bloggers who'd rather think critically than criticize thinkers. More specifically, some of the things I'm looking for are posts about:

*Urban legends and hoaxes
*Pseudoscience
*Pseudohistory
*Hysteria.
*Quackery

So if you have a story you'd like to contribute to the premiere edition of the Skeptics' Circle, send it to me at saint_nate at hotmail dot com by 11:59 p.m. EST on February 2. Also, please let me know if you're interested in hosting a future Circle so I can set up a schedule.

I enthusiastically supported the idea when St. Nate first proposed it. It's a niche in the blogosphere that could definitely use some filling. I'd also encourage posts about the paranormal, in which it is shown that paranormal phenomena can be explained without resorting to, well, the paranormal. (I haven't decided yet if I'm going to submit one of my previous posts, or whether I'll compose something new before the deadline.)

So, folks, start filling! In fact, I'm hoping St. Nate will sign me up to host the second Skeptics' Circle. I'd also like to ask everyone to help publicize this.