How To Light £18,000 On Fire

Is it a relief to see that fuzzy thinking and antiscience are not confined to the United States? No. No, it turns out to be only moderately less infuriating because my tax dollars were not wasted on this boondoggle. (They couldn’t even get “real” psychics to participate, if you notice in paragraphs 6 and 7 of the BBC report.) But our friends in the UK ought to be really pissed despite the relatively low amounts of money involved. (£18,000 is $(US) 35,324.94 using today’s currency rates.) As for me? I get to use two subject tags for this post that I never thought I’d have a chance to put together.

Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

2 Comments

  1. I think the reason “real” psychics declined to participate is that they would have been exposed as frauds. In that respect, the study reached the correct conclusion for a surprisingly small amount of investment. The same study in the US would have cost several orders of magnitude more, and reached no solid conclusions, except for needing more study, more money, etc.

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