Skeptic Society Magazine

My fight to save the novel from ‘progressive’ publishers

When Miguel de Cervantes published Don Quixote in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the modern novel was born. One of its defining features was the autonomous individual as the heart of the story. Through printed words on a page, the reader could do something miraculous: not only see life through the eyes of protagonist Sancho Panza, but also experience his consciousness clash with...

Paul Anthony Kelly on Finale

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from American Horror Story season 13 finale, “Devil of a Good Time.”] Just when you thought American Horror Story couldn’t get any crazier, the FX horror anthology delivered its season 13 finale — bringing its battle between the Coven and Satan to a close. Throughout the season, the witches have been doing everything in their power to defeat young...

What to Know About China’s Top-Secret Spaceplane

A winged Chinese spacecraft bearing a strong resemblance to the US military’s X-37B spaceplane was photographed in orbit by a passing US-owned commercial satellite in 2024, and we finally have the image. The Chinese spaceplane has delta wings, payload bay doors, a dark heat shield, and a rear-mounted service module with power-generating solar arrays. In other words, the design of the winged ship is,...

Kim Kardashian’s First Auction Purchase Was a Monet Painting

In Citizen Kim, Jonathan Van Meter’s biography of Kim Kardashian, the author reveals that the billionaire reality TV star and Skims founder owns a painting by Claude Monet. In an excerpt published by The Hollywood Reporter, Van Meter writes that Kardashian bought the Monet because of Clueless, the 1995 film starring Alicia Silverstone. “Kim bought a Monet not because she had visited the famous...

Japanese Artist Mariko Mori Predicted Our AI Future

“An artist’s work is to try and find things through ourselves. To visualize something people haven’t seen before,” explains Mariko Mori, beaming into a slightly fuzzy video call from Yuputira House, the pearlescent, almost alienlike architectural marvel that serves as her home and studio in Japan. Although Yuputira physically exists on the shores of Miyako Island, Mori appears to exist beyond any earthly plane.  ...