Anson's Skeptical Daily

Top of Anson's Skeptical Daily for February 18, 2018.

paper.li is a free service (with paid upgrade for additional features) which will automatically create a web "newspaper" every day based on user specified keywords or other criteria. It looks in Twitter, Facebook, Google+ LinkedIn and other sources specified by the user. It will optinally tweet or post to your Facebook account every time a paper is published.

I've had a paper on skeptical topics generated daily for a few years. I started it for personal use and haven't publicized it at all but decided to share the link to it now. A new edition is usually generated between 12:30 and 1:00 pm Eastern time.

I like it because it often pulls clips from sites and sources I wasn't aware of or don't read regularly. For example, today's edition has links to articles like Flat Earthers: Belief, Skepticism, and Denialism: When people reject facts, what do they really believe? by Joe Pierre in Psychology Today. Since I don't regularly ready Psychology Today I would have missed this one. It has an interesting comment on the difference between saying "I believe in..." and "I believe that..." Of course, today's edition also has a few howlers in it. Like It's Good for Christians to Be Skeptical, But to a Degree, a tweet by Faithfully Magazine about their article Five Potential Dangers Of Skepticism, by Jonathan Holmes. Holmes basically argues it's OK for Christians to be skeptical of some things, but being too skeptical could damage their faith. Indeed. Rationality, critical thinking and skepticism are crucial to a healthy democracy. One could argue our current slow-motion Constitutional crisis is due at least as much to a lack of skepticism and critical thinking as it is to Russian meddling. But that'a topic for a different time.

paper.li does have its detractors. Some think that being tweeted at by a bot is abusive. For example, here's the tweet for today's edition of Anson's BBQ Daily (I like smoked meat, what can I say?):

The latest Anson's BBQ Daily! https://t.co/hSy4fQSPle Thanks to @MistaMawz @KaluhisKitchen #bbq #recipe

— Anson Kennedy (@ansonkennedy) February 18, 2018

No one has ever complained about my BBQ daily tweets. In fact often the people mentioned will like or retweet. But if you create a paper and enable tweeting be aware not everyone will necessarily appreciate it.

Note: I am not associated with paper.li in any way other than as a user. paper.li in no way supported this post or bog.

Update 2/21/2018: Added link to Anson's Skeptical Daily for 2/19/2018.