Skeptic Society Magazine

Is the US abandoning Ukraine?

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. You can’t quite say that President Donald Trump is “turning” on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, because he never truly seemed to have Zelenskyy’s back.  There was that time Trump panned Zelenskyy as a “modestly successful comedian.” Or that excruciating meeting where Trump and...

This Giant Waterlily Species Was Discovered Via Instagram

Say what you will about Instagram, but the social media platform has undeniably contributed to the furthering of scientific research. The latest case-in-point: A new species of giant waterlily has been discovered thanks to a selfie. The photo, taken by botanist Jeremiah Harris, featured a huge waterlily that Harris himself identified as Victoria amazonica. However, the location in which it was taken—along the Inírida...

Winners of the 2026 Epson International Pano Awards

© Xuecheng Liu / The 17th Epson International Pano Awards Center of the Cosmos. Winner, Open-Built Environment. Times Square, New York City. Liu: “Times Square is one of the most photographed places in the world, so my challenge was to find a perspective that could make such a familiar place feel unfamiliar again. From above, the dense architecture, streets, and illuminated billboards seem to...

Coraline by Neil Gaiman – A Book Review by The Bookish Elf

On the first wet day in the new flat, a girl with nothing to do takes a pen and paper and counts the house. One hundred and fifty-three blue things. Twenty-one windows. Fourteen doors, and thirteen of them open and close the way doors should. The fourteenth is carved, brown and locked, in the corner of a drawing room nobody uses. Her mother finds...

Is This Viral Basics Brand…a Cult?

Tank Air is one of those brands you’ve seen…around. It operates according to the dated ’50s notion of how children are supposed to function in the nuclear family, except for wardrobe essentials: seen, but not heard. We see the cool girls and their TikTok testimonials and hear the raves about the quality and snatchability of their hero products (which are, you guessed it, tank...