Books about fauxlore

Shermer argues that science is the best lens through which to view the world, but recognizes that it's often difficult to tell where valid science leaves off and borderland, or fuzzy science begins. He examines where real science, borderline science - and just plain nonsense collide.

Mickey Stone, the head of Stonecor, London's most powerful gangland organization, is out of prison. His trial is less than two weeks away and he has just executed a daring escape from custody. PIC is spearheading the operation to recapture him.

Airplane crashes. The AIDS epidemic. Presidential election polls and voting results. Global warming. The latest cancer scare. All these news stories require scientific savvy first, to report, and then - for news consumers - to understand. It Ain't Necessarily So cuts through the miasma surrounding media reporting of scientific studies, surveys, and statistics. Whether the problem is bad science, .

Presents an examination of the social, economic, and political forces that elicit or support flawed or fake science and sustain it in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence. This book includes pseudoscience, or irrational beliefs dressed up in scientific garb, the misuse of science to deliberately mislead, and pathological science.

A reference work that sifts through hundreds of misquotations, wrong attributions, and blatant fabrications to reveal the origins of famous quotes.

Jan Harold Brunvand has been collecting and studying modern folkore and presents the stories in their best retellings, with their latest variations, and examples of how they have changed.

Illustrates points with examples of good and bad statistics about such concerns as school shootings, hospital errors, bullying, teen suicides, college ratings, and racial profiling. This book encourages all of us to think in a sophisticated manner about how statistics are used to promote causes, create fear, and advance particular points of view.

This title offers lively, clear explanations of the most widely held astronomy myths and misperceptions, from why the sky is blue to the reasons we have seasons. It steers clear of the false astronomy that has been glamorized in the media, movies, and even in school.

Aims to expose the American right-wing agenda to put politics ahead of scientific truth. This book ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of the US government's increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.

With two additional chapters, this illustrated essay on the use and abuse of maps teaches how to evaluate maps critically, and promotes a healthy scepticism about these easy-to-manipulate models of reality. It shows that despite their immense value, maps do, and in fact need to, lie.