Monterey County Skeptics

Creation Museum Visit

2012-01-19T12:18:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for 2012 is to put more effort in understanding and empathizing with others, especially those I disagree with. When I told Robert Sheaffer that I needed a picture for his Wikipedia page, and was going to get it even if I had to drive to San Diego to take it myself, he told me that if I came down to visit he would take me to the nearby creationist museum, The Institute for Creation Research.

Never heard of the place, I went to their website and enrolled in their scientific blog. I'm not a science major, I'm a photographer by trade and my college degrees are in social history. I'm a bit overwhelmed with understanding where the logic leaves their articles when I read them. But with Stirling around and also having such smart Facebook friends, I'm able to have other people look over their blog and help me understand the flaws.

I told Robert that I thought I might be uncomfortable going to a creationist museum, giving them money and trying not to giggle throughout the exhibits. He explained that they are a free museum, and I could take all the pictures I wanted so I could hide my giggling behind my camera. When he told me they had a display of Noah's ark complete with a stegosaurus in a stall, I knew I had to go.

So yesterday, Stirling and I drove the 2 1/2 hours to Santee, CA (which is very near San Diego) Mark was at work, so we had the day to ourselves. Robert was very interesting and I quickly managed to get the Wikipedia picture I wanted and he took us to lunch and then the museum.

The building is located right on the freeway, very clean and attractive looking with a large T-Rex in the front "smiling" at passing cars. (I parked my car past the museum as I have many Darwin related emblems on the back) As Robert said, they are a free museum and allowed me to take all the pictures I wanted. They have a pretty good sized bookstore full of tracks and books on creationism. I must also add they had a conference area and one of the nicest women's bathrooms I've seen in awhile.

It is a self guided tour where the days of creation pass quickly being only a few feet away from each other on the walls. We were just about the only people other than employees in the museum. Later we were joined by 3 teenagers who were rushing through the exhibits, the few comments we overheard were them talking about ancient civilizations.

The museum had videos and free pamphlets explaining their reasons why creationism is supported in the Bible throughout the exhibits. From what I could gather it looked like they found pretty much anything that vaguely sounded like science and used that as evidence.

We did listen to one short video about animals that disproved evolution. The giraffe. Now think about this for a minute before I give their reasoning. Apparently giraffes have very long necks that require a big heart to pump the blood into their heads. The giraffe's head will explode if it didn't have some kind of shut-off valve stopping the blood (maybe it was slowing the blood down?) They believe that the giraffe had to be created as it is now with the special valve intact, otherwise the earlier giraffe's would have just died out each time they bowed over to drink from a stream. I couldn't help visualizing a stream littered with dead giraffe bodies, and one smart giraffe with its head up drinking from rain that is falling.

Do you see why I have such a problem understanding their logic? They think that everything had to be created as-is otherwise the animal could not have survived to become modern animals. They completely ignore the stages in between a modern giraffe and a ancient one. What do they say about all the transition fossils? That there are still gaps?

We were fairly puzzled about a wing devoted to medical science. Very light exhibits (the creation area was very dark) explaining the kidney, heart, cells and that kind of thing. Wikipedia was on black-out that day so we couldn't check facts, but everything seemed to be correct. We weren't sure but think they might have been trying to show how complex the human body is and therefore could only be designed by God. It is also possible that the museum was trying to show itself as being scientific in more areas than just creation. There were videos running above these exhibits as well with 2 men talking, we didn't stay to listen but it is possible they were explaining anatomy from a creationist viewpoint.

We were there on a Wednesday afternoon and don't know how much busier it would have been on MLK day when were had visited the Natural History Museum in LA which was very crowded. But the donation box at ICR only had a couple dollars in it. There were a few people in the bookstore and sadly we saw a mom drive up with her two boy scouts going inside. Possibly exposing your children to the creation arguments might actually start thinking in the opposite direction? I don't know but would be an interesting discussion.

My thoughts after reading the ICR science blog, visiting their website and now their museum has really given me something to think about. If I were a Christian who didn't have an interest in science, nor friends/family that exposed me to good science, I think I could be easily swayed into thinking the ICR is doing real science. If you just gloss over the museum and Internet info it does look really scientific. They have pictures of children looking through microscopes on their website, and models of DNA all over the place. The blog writers and the authors of the books even have letters after their names, surely that means something to a person who doesn't know better. And I might add, doesn't care to try to learn more.

For someone who is just trying to do God's work, and raise obedient God fearing children, while eating dinner all together every night and watching them play soccer, defending creationism is the way to go. It is easy, brain numbing, lazy thinking. When science starts confusing things by changing its mind about how things happen, creationists don't have to think much about the answer. God Did It is always the correct answer.

A comforting picture.

Human anatomy wing at ICR

This was one of my biggest problems with the Bible as a teenager. How could humans threaten God by building a temple to the sky? How could God allow families be split apart by forcing them to speak different languages and making them move to other parts of the world? Couldn't they just learn the new language and stay with their family? Questions like these help understand the flaws in the stories.

The best proof they have is that there wasn't a body? Wait a minute, his enemies could not produce his body? Isn't that like trying to disprove a negative?

Not sure why they had this display, guess they just wanted to address the controversy and provide balance in their museum?

This took me a few minutes to understand their point. I finally realized that they are saying that the phrase "men are created" means that the Founding Fathers believe men were "created" and not evolved.

After Noah's ark this is what happened to Noah's sons. They changed color and features too which explains why people look different in these countries.

The Ice Age. Love that polar cap.

Stirling loved this one. Don't use science, only use the Bible.

There were dinosaurs all over the museum. I thought maybe they were trying to be funny, then I realize they are serious.

Here is Stirling and Robert at the Grand Canyon. Created in days from the flood waters.

This is the picture I went to the museum to take. Can you see the stegosaurus? Right next to the ostrich, would make sense if the ostrich had its head buried in a hole. I think there is a smiling bear next to them also.

Stirling as made a friend.

ICR's Fossils


Natural History Museum's fossils

I guess they are trying to show the scale of the ark, not what Noah would drive if he lived today.

What? No worms? Guess they just floated in the water, cause I know I have them living in my compost piles at home.

600 years of his life? Stirling has a problem with this. I did when I was a teenager, I asked my mom and she explained that they kept track of time differently than we do now. The 6 days of creation was explained the same way.

Robert pointing to the stegosaurus.

Would I be considered picky if I point out that no one proof read this sign before ordering it?

Rock and Roll, maps of Europe, and pans cause Universal Disorder.

The real reason our pets don't live forever.

Love this guy! 42 duh.

We learned at the National History Museum that we know that T-Rex did not drag his/her tail on the ground when walking. We have footprints that do not show tail marks. Scientists believe that the tail was held up and helped the T-Rex balance.

Looks like a fun-time road side attraction.

Looks like science is performed here. Natural History Museum of LA

Lots of visitors here taking science seriously.

SOPA even pisses off Hitler.

2012-01-18T13:50:00.001-08:00

Weird or What? The Scole Experiments

2011-09-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

Mark Edward, Brian Dunning and I were hired by the Discovery Channel to film a recreation of the Scole Seance experiences. I have told a few people about the events of that day, but not released everything as the show just premiered in Canada Sept 16, 2011. Now that it was released they sent us a DVD of the show. I assume it will show in America eventually.

Here is some of the backstory with pictures. I must say that I was really nervous about messing up, but in the end it was some of the best fun I have every had.

It all started with this Skeptoid episode from November 10, 2007. The Discovery Channel found it and decided it would be a great part of the show they were filming about life after death.

Mark Edward was hired to do the seance as that is one of his many talents. See his website and Wikipedia page for more info. Mark wanted to do a "dark seance" which means that there is no light at all, can't see your hand in front of your face kind of dark. But when he found out that the camera crew would be using infra-red cameras, Mark was concerned about revealing magician tricks on camera. He has had some bad experiences with TV producers promising one thing but doing something else. Originally he planed on having his hands tied down to the chair and then using one of many magician tricks to remove the rope/chain so that he could preform the tricks happening around the table. He decided to use me all in black instead.

I had never done this kind of thing before (but now I'm hooked, it was such a rush!) He made me dress all in black (the infra-red shows me in white) and I only had little pin holes to look through in the mask. It was impossible to see for the sitters but for me even less so. We put little glow in the dark bugs (that was all the producer could find) on the backs of the chairs and on the legs on the floor. Mark's chair was much bigger than the other chairs and we knew they would not be looking on the back of his chair so we glued a bunch of bugs on the back of his. This was important because I needed to know where I was when I enter the area.

I would approach off camera once he blew out the candle and lean on his chair. I tapped his shoulder so he would know that I was in position to begin. Mark first set the mood by telling a story. See it in detail here. He also has some old props that he uses for seances, including an oil that smells like a graveyard (I'm not kidding). Mark explains that this is a really important part of the seance, the mood. He also requested that the three sitters would be "skeptic", "unsure" and "believer" which makes for a real mix. We did two seances that day (over 10 hours we were there in that cold warehouse in East L.A.) the show only shows the people from the second sitting. They interviewed each group afterward and the woman was the total believer, she said that things happen around her, and was terrified when the seance was over. The other two men by the time they interviewed them were settled down and the last man interviewed (on Mark's right) was starting to see things more clearly and was thinking that there might have been someone in the room with them.

Mark had it all choreographed according to the story he was telling. (see the above video). I first come in the room and give a quick spray of roses. One of the people in the story has a rose garden and eventually someone will mention that they smell roses (which happened at both seances) very subtle. They are all holding hands at this point and Mark reminds them many times that they can not release their hands as harm might happen to the medium. (actually they might start moving around an find me, remember I can't see anything but some very small glow in the dark bugs).

I first find Mark and lean on the back of his chair. I reach over his right shoulder and grab the bell and give it a really good ring. Then drop it on the table. Then over his left shoulder I pick up the tambourine, clank it around and then throw it against the cloth wall, where it makes a lot of noise as it falls. I have a little LED wispy light in my pocket and pull it out and quickly leave "fairy lights". Only one person noticed it but it was quite effective.

The tube I have hidden under the wall of curtains so I have to leave the area to go find it. Then carefully lift it over everyones head and breath heavily and say things. The voice appears to be floating about their heads and was really cool. While this is all going on during the first seance I was thinking "how hoaky, just like Disneyland" but then I tapped someone (by accident or on purpose?) and Mark says "what's wrong?" to one of the sitters. She said "someone touched me" and Mark said "don't let go of my hand, but relax a little of the pressure as I think my hand is turning blue". Thats when I knew we were effective.

I then crawled around on all fours and got under the table (really heavy table) and found a leg (remember I had to be really careful to not bump into anyone, and hope they didn't have their feet spread out. I got on my belly and grabbed the table leg and shook it like crazy. Mark had just been telling them that his "friendly" spirit guide Francine (yes this is Sylvia Browne's spirit guide) had left them and he felt that someone evil had entered the room and he wanted them to leave. They stayed holding hands the entire time the table is shaking.

During the second seance Mark tried something else, he slowly stood up, pulling the arms of the people up. He said that he was being possessed and was floating upwards. He yelled at them "DON'T LET GO! PULL ME DOWN!" and the people were screaming and trying to pull his arms back down to the table. I couldn't see anything and was busy getting the last prop away from the table. I heard about this later, but it didn't get in the show. That must have been amazing to experience!

Then at the end Mark starts telling them that he wants another sign, and I take the French Horn and raise it way up and drop it on the table with a thud.

Then Mark passes out and the film crew turns on some of the lights. Everyone is looking at him to see if he is okay, he slowly comes out of it and sees the French Horn. Then he says "I'm gone" and leaves the table. The other sitters just sit there not knowing what to do, no one talks to them. They were really scared and some of the things they experienced that we didn't intend to happen were the best.

The second sitting apparently a spider came down to the table and they noticed it when the lights came on. The woman said that she has dreams about spiders and they haunt her. Just perfect!

The first sitting noticed some straw that was in the box that Mark had brought the props in, they announced that the straw had materialized during the seance as Mark talked about a field of grass. That group also saw the face of the evil person he brought back in some candle wax that had split over when I dropped the French Horn.

The woman in the second sitting (in the pictures on Mark's left) was so frightened that when they were leaving Mark went over to her and talked to her quietly. I think she was going to go home and have her family pray over her.

After everyone left they brought Brian Dunning (who had only seen the very end of everything) in and interviewed him. He was really knowledgeable and I'm sad to say that they cut out most of what he said. He talked about the Scole Experiments and how the locked box on the table that contained the unexposed film was actually in a magician's box that could be opened. (that didn't make it on the show). He was really knowledgeable and Mark Edward was really impressed with all he knew about the history of seances (which Mark is an expert).

All the pictures are located on my Facebook page with captions. Also on picasa without captions.

Jesse Ventura - Fake Phone Calls Claim Debunked!!!

2011-02-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

Jesse Ventura's show Conspiracy Theory attempts to prove that the world is run by some nefarious cabal, evil geniuses who will stop at nothing to maintain the vice grip of power they hold on the masses. They control the banks, government and media.

But somehow with all that power they not only let him live they let him expose them on TV.

Could it be that he is full of crap? Why yes, as the following video revels.

CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 2 of 2

2011-02-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

‘Real’ 2011 Psychic Predictions and What to Watch | The Moderate Voice

2011-01-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

‘Real’ 2011 Psychic Predictions and What to Watch | The Moderate Voice

Highlights for the coming year include:

President Barack Obama will be faced with situations “never faced by previous Presidents.”

Obama is re-election toast or he’ll hang in there politically

Justin Bieber will be involved in a three way with an older woman

Charlie Sheen will get drunk

I'll wager on the last one.

Joy Colangelo; As it turns out: Knows Very Little about Economics.

2010-12-21T18:25:00.000-08:00

Why am I not surprised.

Anyone following this blog knows that I really really love to jump all over Joy Colangelo. The reason I have not in recent months is that I simply stopped reading her. It is not hard to do and it feels really good. Anyway, I noticed an increase in activity on some of my old Joy Colangelo posts. People are starving for a Joy bashing, so here it goes:

Joy is black, I am blue.

Quantitative easing is something America's Ben Bernanke is trying, not that it's worked before. The Bank of Japan tried, only to realize that it added new assets and new liabilities without subtracting anything (it's called "failing to sterilize")

Really? Failing to Sterilize? A very small part of the big picture, you can read about it on Wikipedia

.Then the United Kingdom gave it a go and called it "a haircut" ( reduction in the principal amount and interest payments on bonds) as if money was trying on a new look. Cute. But it turns out that haircuts are sometimes false advertising.

Joy misses the significance of this concept, she is trying to be cute. Fail...

Here's how quantitative easing works...

Sigh, I save you her silliness, please refer to the Wiki article.

Now comes the fun bit, ants.

There is a culture that pulls this type of thing off all the time. Actually, it's the most successful culture on earth and they call themselves ants. They use it when looking for a new home, which is their version of money.

Ants use homes like money? Why that is astounding. Seems like it would be hard to carry an ant hill in your pocket, silly me ants don't got no pockets.

Difference is, they are reliable reporters. When a scout ant finds a potential new nest, she assesses the quality of the crevice based on the size of the interior, the number of openings and the absence of dead ants. The worker returns to the destroyed nest, where it will wait for a short period before recruiting other workers to follow her to the nest she found using tandem running.

The waiting period signals the reliability of the site, with a worker that has found a poor site waiting longer than a worker that encountered a good site. As the new recruits visit the potential nest site and make their own assessment of its quality, the number of ants visiting the crevice increases. During this stage ants may be visiting many different potential nests. Eventually, the ants in the best nest will sense that the rate at which they encounter other ants has exceeded a particular threshold, indicating that the quorum number has been reached. That's how the new currency is established. Quorum sensing is thus tied to real resources.

Should I address the above? She is right you say? OK, I won't bore you with facts about ant swarming and budding and how ants actually find new nest. She is completely wrong. No ant's don't vote, ant quorum is not reached. Lets just say the Queen is dictator and decider. They do not wait around, they fly to the queen. I am still struggling on how one analogizes an ant colony to money.

Honey bees also use quorum sensing to make decisions about new nest sites. They signal the reliability of the new plan for a hive by using the waggle dance (take note Bernanke). Wrong again. The dance of the bee is used mainly to tell the rest of the hive where the good plants are that need pollination. To establish a hive they swarm, following the queen to a new nesting site.

This is what it looks like.

This was a swarm that invaded my back yard in 1997, believe me they were not voting, they followed the queen to my pick -nick bench.

Bacteria are so expert at it that antibiotics are unable to quorum quench 70 percent of the time. Thus bacterial counts increase, but instead of calling it inflation, as if it's money, we call it infection.

So a bacteria colony multiplying is the same as congressmen quenching a quorum. Hum-mm she just may have a point. Still lost on how that has anything to do with money. Bribery?

Bacteria assess their resources and if there is enough, they signal other bacteria, protozoa or viruses to come to the wound site. Once there are not enough resources, they cease signaling new recruits. In other words, they stop spending. They create a perfect economy. Or they die, well when bacteria run out of recourses yep they die. Never heard the meal call of a bacterium. wonder how that sounds. (come to me virus...come to me protozoa....I wanna share my good fortune in this here wound). Wait, wouldn't they want others to stay away, so they could colonize? You know like reproduce and procreate the hell out of the wound?

Bacteria that don't even have a brain are more reliable economists than Bernanke. An unreliable ant, bee or bacteria has a name. They call them cooperative cheaters.

Alright then, why didn't she save lots of type and time by just saying the following.

Bernanke is pond scum.
Simple and a point is made.
Oh Joy I have missed you.

<----- Please Joy.

Apollo Moon Hoax and Cleavage

2010-12-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

I was sitting at the dealership waiting for my car to finish it's servicing. The waiting room is very well appointed, it includes an office area with a computer, in addition to free wifi. This is the perfect set up for a sometime work at home nerd like myself. The other part of the waiting area has a couple of large and comfortable couches and a 42" flat screen. This is also where the snack machines are located. I happened to be in the outer area, getting a soda, when a report came on the TV having to do with the Apollo moon landings.

What happed next is a typical story of skeptic meets conspiracy theorists, except this time I had an edge. The Bad Astronomer himself Phil Plait.

The host of the show, mentioned a story about the Moon Landings and some recently rediscovered recording of the words spoken by Niel Armstrong as he first set foot on the moon.

"Yeah right" She smirked, "like we really went to the moon".

I had noticed her when I first walked into the waiting lounge. Her shoulder length hair, which framed her pretty face with bangs, was way too red with streaks of blue. Black boots, a long skirt and a top which showed how proud she was of her cleavage, gave me the impression that this thirty something young lady was dressed the same as she had in high-school.

My hand froze as she uttered those words, I reached into my pocked and fished out some more bills. I was going to needed something stronger than Coke, I was going for a Red Bull and a confrontation.

I have wanted to confront a moon hoax conspiracy person ever sense I heard the debate between  Phil Plait
and Joe Rogan on Penn Jullette's radio show. I expected Phil to whip Joe completely, a one sided slaughter that would go down in history. Unfortunately Joe turned out to be a tough opponent, well versed in the Gish gallop.    Phil did not have a chance, he was destroyed. I, on the other hand had pictures.

From the RationalWiki:

The Gish Gallop is an informal name for a rhetorical technique in debates that involves drowning the opponent in half-truths, lies, straw men, and bullshit to such a degree that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood that has been raised, usually resulting in many involuntary twitches in frustration as the opponent struggles to decide where to start. It is named after creationism activist and professional debater Duane Gish.

I turned away from the soda machine, popped the cap of my Red Bull, and asked her,

"So you do not believe that we went to the moon?"

She leaned forwarded rolling her eyes up towards the ceiling. As she did I lost control of my eyes, her cleavage was like a magnet and I peeked. Her eyes were back on mine and I could tell that I had been caught, her smile told me that I had already lost the debate. Her tone and body language when she answered also let me know under no uncertain terms that there would be no further discussion.

I stammered out that I had pictures, but to no avail. She was not interested.

I was ready for the debate, loaded for bear, but could not overcome a bare décolletage.

The picture above is of a lunar landing site taken by the LRO, More at NASA.

And while we are on the subject check this out: We choose the moon.

For further information visit here.

Screwing with History

2010-11-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

It looks as though Stephen Spielberg will finally make Lincoln. His long planned film on the life of perhaps the greatest president we will ever hope to have. Danial Day-Luis son of the great sock puppet interpreter Sherry Luis with play the lead. As a history buff I am looking forward to this film. Hollywood has a great and noble history of screwing up history, Spielberg has a history of screwing up great stories. Put them together you get a recipe for a film with laugh a minute screw ups and or a slate of academy awards. If the film is historically accurate, over long and boring, it will most likely sweep the awards, and Spielberg will be called a genius. However if it goes completely fictional, it may achieve box office numbers and change the way history is perceived. Just like Oliver Stone's JFK. Which I mistook for a comedy at first.

So far the project sounds promising. In addition to Luis, the movie has some other fine talent behind it. Tony Kushner will write the screen play and adaption of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, Team of Rivals. Add Spielberg at his finest and you could have a film that is historically accurate and entertaining..

We may also be in for a Hollywood version of:

Just as Stone's JFK, quickly became de facto truth in the minds of many. It also became a nightmare for skeptics and historians alike. How Spielberg treats Lincoln may rewrite the way we think of Lincoln. Lets all hope he gets it right, even if it is boring.

Touch MY Junk!

2010-11-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you have all heard about the guy who refused a full-body scan in airport security and then also refused the pat down stating "if you touch my junk I'll have you arrested". Great catch phrase BTW. He then missed the flight and caught the whole thing on his camera phone (which makes me a bit suspicious that he was not caught off guard and hoping for a confrontation, but then that's just my skeptical nature).

My good friend Maria Myrback who writes Fledgling Skeptic Blog writes about this topic today. She raised a few concerns that I hadn't originally considered which is why the Internet is a wonderful tool. She mentions how traumatizing a pat-down can be for someone who has been sexually assaulted. She also states "People fear that if the images, that are not automatically deleted, they can be inverted and there will be instant images available of them naked. See here

for more information and an example of before and after inversion. Aside from privacy, here are also health concerns

. These enhanced scanners are not as simple as an X-ray. According to sources, one full body scan is the equivalent of two minutes exposure to radiation. It is also possible that exposure to these scanners could exacerbate certain types of cancers."

Pat-downs equal sexual assault

Not in my book. I'm a 48 year old woman, sadly I know what sexual assault is. I'm sure some people may be traumatized by being touched in the "bathing suit area" and I am very sorry for them. I think we are putting too much thought into this, there isn't anything sexual about it. Personally I'm not excited about this option any more than I am about getting a physical at the doctor's office, but I would still do it. NPR just reported yesterday that India has been doing this for years and they don't bat an eye, is it just us?

Personally I don't think the female TSA agent is getting any more thrill out of feeling my breasts than my male OBGYN is when he gives me a breast examination or a pap. Its business, its for my protection and I authorized it. If I want to think the TSA agent is getting a thrill over it, then that is my problem.

Full Body Scans

Reading over Maria Myrback's excellent blog I note that she sites newspaper articles who cite scientists that have concerns about radiation. Well there might be concerns, I just don't see any evidence that it generates more radiation than say the Sun does when I'm working in the garden. I KNOW that can give me skin cancer. Lets just say I spend a lot more time working in the garden than I do standing in front of a full body scanner at the airport.

I'm a bit jaded when these topics come up, I lived through the "cell-phone tower" scare (which apparently still is around). It seems that the stories of "things giving you cancer" far out reaches the evidence if it actually happening. Maybe I'm naive but lets see the evidence.

My teenage son Stirling told me when discussing this topic (anyone who has ever been a teenager or lived with one knows that they are at the most brilliant at this age) that he can't see the government putting out a controversial product into an airport if it is going to give people cancer. "They have scientists that check this sort of thing".

What about a machine that virtually strips off your clothes? Hey, I can't imagine the extra pay that the TSA employee is getting to see Americans naked, yikes! The example given in Myrback's blog showing of a well built female's image being inverted is suspicious, why would that author use that example if he weren't trying to equate it with porn? (again I'm skeptical of his intentions) Show an example of a typical airport traveler why don't you. The TSA has its own scanning methods of its employees, and if someone was saving your image and inverting it for their own pleasure then that is some sick puppy and they will deal with that person.

What's wrong with being naked anyway? If God had wanted us to wear clothes we would have been born with them!

I'm worried about our TSA workers

The TSA are people too. Why are we dehumanizing them? Is it possible that maybe the anti body-scanner people want the TSA to look like thugs, maybe they have an agenda also? How do you think the TSA felt when they learned that pat-d0wns were now apart of their job description? They would have to practice on each other in training....yuck. But in time they desensitized themselves against seeing it as being sexual, and for what it is, trying to keep passengers safe.

I might be wrong but I don't think the average male TSA worker is comfortable patting down another bloke whose sporting a woody and then gives you that knowing puppy dog look. I bet there are people who each day buy an airline ticket so they can go through security in the hopes they will get patted down.

The last time I flew I was returning to Monterey, CA from LAX. The security line was moving quickly and I was assigned to stand in a big machine. They told me to face the wall and put my arms over my head. I stood there for maybe 10 seconds and then I was done and looking for my shoes. I didn't give it two seconds of thought.

I have no idea how safe these security measures make us. I don't know if there are better/faster/cheaper ways of doing this. All I know is that I fly a lot and when I purchase that ticket to fly I have authorized the TSA to search me and my belongings. If it gets to a point that I am uncomfortable with security measures then I can "opt out" and exercise my freedom and stop flying.

Crop Circles at Asilomar

2010-11-06T23:04:00.001-07:00

When I first heard this I got excited, really excited. Being a skeptic here in Monterey county can be pretty dull. Oh sure we have our share of haunted houses, psychic fairs and all around woo. But some times I envy the Santa Cruz Skeptics Without a Cause; they have the Mystery Spot, The Big Foot Museum and you can hardly cross the street in Santa Cruz without stepping in woo. But crop circles, now were talking big league.

Alas, it is not to be. Instead of an actual circle in the artichoke field, or exotic designs springing up amongst the brusselsprouts, what we have a conference where people will pay money to hear about crop circles. Pretty good money to boot.

A.R.E. Tuition By Sept 5 After Sept 5
Regular Price $159 $189
ARE Member $139 $159
Two Adults Together $264 $294
Senior Price (62 and up) $119 $139
Youth (18-24) $49 $69

This is for tuition, room and board is extra, between $333-420. For a conference where people will be discussing crop circles, orbs and what not.

Sigh: Dear reader I can pretty much tell you everything you will ever need know about crop circles. Just send me a check for a mere .02 cents and I let you in on the secret. What a bargain, no travel, no having to sit in a room, listening to some new age guru ramble on about musty old secrets and karma. On second thought, we need all the tourest dollars one can spend, down Monterey way. Come on by anyway, go to the Aquarium, hang out on Old Fisherman's wharf or go meet these guys

And as part of the .02 cents I'll tell you where you can get the best Clam Chowder, where the coolest Jazz is played, where to go for a rejuvenating couples Massage. Talk about your spiritual awakening.

But still with all that the Monterey Peninsula has to offer, some people will be at the Asilomar conference grounds being educated about such things as:

THE CODING OF THE EARTH: CROP CIRCLES, SACRED SITES AND THE COMING HUMAN EVOLUTION

Heavy stuff here, I got you covered on the crop circles, have no clue what sacred sites have to do with evolution. I can say evolution will take a long time and will happen everywhere not just at some sites.

SACRED SPACE AND THE HEALING POWER OF RESONANCE

This reminds me of the 80's, you know when people put their fruit under pyramids because of the healing power and said you know all the time you know... OK I am trying to forget that also, you know?.

ORBS, CROP CIRCLES AND SACRED SPACES: THE MANIFESTATION OF SOUL?

Orbs? Seriously they are going to discuss dust? Why? Are they going to manifest a soul? Apparently not, just going to talk about them. You want soul? Jazz.

FINISHING UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN A SACRED WAY

Ah this is about talking to your departed pets. Sorry too busy walking my live ones, I'll pass on this. Want to know what beach you can walk your dog on? Where they can finish business in peace? Just remember to clean up after them.

DREAM DISCOVERY TOOLS - EXPLORE YOUR DREAMS

If your going to come to Monterey, make memories.

THE SACRED GEOMETRY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

This I do not understand. The Pyramids are a marvel of human ingenuity, but lets face it the Egyptian civilization died out over 2000 years ago. If they really had some knowledge, the rest of us do not have, don't ya think they would still be around? If the Egyptians who lived, during the time the great pyramids were constructed, are the people with all the sacred knowledge then the ones that came before then must have been supermen. Do these people really believe that the older the civilization the wiser?

Isn't this the canard that ancient wisdom is the best wisdom?

Well, that seems to be a bit misleading, the earliest pyramids were not so great. Just as the later pyramid builders discarded what did not work and adapted what did, we should look to the Egyptians for that part of their civilization which worked. We have come a long ways, lets not disregard all the human knowledge that has taken place in the intervening years.

I also wanted to know just who was putting on this gigantic waste of time, an organization called: Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc.®

(A.R.E.) is the international headquarters for the work of Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), considered to be the best-documented psychic of the twentieth century. Founded in 1931, the A.R.E. consists of a community of people from all walks of life and spiritual traditions, who have found meaningful and life-transforming insights from the readings of Edgar Cayce. 2006 was the 75th anniversary of the A.R.E and was celebrated at many events around the Region..

Wow, Edgar Cayce is the most documented psychic, which means all his guesses were written down, someone ought to publish his hits and misses.

I bet Cayce would rather watch wales then listen to a bunch of yahoos jabber on about pyramids and such. So be like Edgar, and fill up on Clam Chowder.

Lunch with an Raelian (ex)

2010-10-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things about being in the skeptic movement is all the really fascinating people you get to know, the hell with “people watching”, I'm getting to have lunch with the cream of the crop of interesting. This is one fun life I'm having right now.

At Saturdays monthly IIG meeting one member Spencer Marks brought in a friend for “show-n-tell” that he had met while he was under-cover in the local Raelian group a few years ago. She arrived after the introductions and sat next to me, her young son Alexander sat across the room in the remaining empty seat. I was completely surprised to find out that this intelligent looking woman, had been a part of the Ralien religion for 11 years. Anja Schoenwald, is a pleasant looking redhead from Germany, she worked in marketing for IBM for many years and has lived in the US for 15 years.

I knew at lunch-time after the meeting I would very much like to sit and talk to her, I know a bit about this group but not enough to write confidently here what they are all about. For more info I'm sure you can read all about them on Wikipedia and she offered a critical site her friend has founded http://raelian.com/en/ that she often sends people to.

While it was a very loud room and Anja has a strong German accent I propose to tell you what I remember about our conversation.

I was first interested in finding out how she became involved in this group, was it in Germany or in the US. She explained that she was baptized a Lutheran in Germany and they don't have a separation of church and state there, 10% of your income goes to that church when you become of age. The only way to stop this is to write to the church and tell them you no longer want to be part of their organization. Anja made this sound like it is a difficult task that very few people actually do, she said she also got a pleading letter from them asking for her to change her mind and come back to the church, this all happened when she was 21.

Once she came to San Diego to live she met a very nice man who lived in her neighborhood, their discussions about the Raelian's began slowly, then moved to lunch and then finally with her going to meetings with him. She says she was attracted to their meditation techniques and eating habits. Also everyone is very nice, no smoking and no drugs or alcohol. As Anja was raising a small child alone she felt that this might be a great group of people to associate with.

Over time she learned that she had been recruited partly because she is female. Raelian men greatly outnumber Raelian women, and females are needed to lure and retain this mostly male membership. Very loose sexual attitudes are common, Rael teaches you must become comfortable with yourself before you can become comfortable with others, which apparently used to include topless women. Anja stressed that she did not participate in this part of the religion and in America topless women only happened in special plays that were held at conferences. I asked her if men were encouraged to run around pant-less to encourage confidence? She said she only knew of one time at an event where men were running around outdoors naked in order to commune with nature.

She said that she wasn't able to spend as much time involved in all the events they had, but managed to become well versed in their literature which is said to have been given directly from their God to their leader Rael. Sometime in the last couple years someone who was leaving the group leaked to Anja that Rael had plagiarized most of his divinely inspired book from a French author. She used Internet software to confirm this and that was the beginning of the end for her.

As she was questioning the Raelian's motivation at this time she also started to look into their membership database she explained that Rael claims to have over 60K members all over the world, but for some reason they allow all Raelians access to the membership database. Anja downloaded and counted all the members and came up with 2,700 in total.

Anja firmly believes in marketing, and felt that she would be able to reach out to more people by coming out to the Raelian community using Facebook's social networking features. She used keywords that drew people to her page and joined groups that would also inspire friend requests. Within months she no longer had to network, people flooded her page with requests. Now a year later she is maxed out with Facebook Friends (5K) and has a backlog of 700 requests waiting for someone to drop out of her list. She strongly feels that skeptics could use this technique to better network and spread the skeptical message to the Internet.

What really inspired me to write this blog about lunch with Anja was the ever growing need for skeptics to talk to these people, really sit down eye to eye with them and listen. They aren't all nutcases. And the more we understand why they believe what they do the better we will be able to communicate with them and design strategies to help them see the world with a critical eye. Throughout the lunch whenever Anja tried to describe something she now sees as crazy, she would get a girly embarrassed look and say “Now I just can't believe I thought all this was true”. Yes, Anja most of us have been there too.

SoCalParaCon

2010-10-03T16:13:00.002-07:00

One of the main goals for the IIG was for us to get out and mingle with the believers. Skeptics can become isolated, only associating with other skeptics socially (or at family functions, you know what I'm talking about) the only contact with believers coming from the Internet, print, TV or radio. At the SoCalParaCon we thought we might be thrown in the thick of things, personally I was surprised and pleased at how receptive people were to our skeptic group.

Firstly when we signed up we used our own name and website, we didn't parade it around exactly, but we didn't try to cover it up either. The sponsors were very helpful and did whatever they could to make us comfortable, before and during the event. There were people at the loading dock (wearing Para Whore shirts) to help us unload and find our table, very friendly people.

We were placed in amongst the other Team Showcase groups, a really great location except that the workshops happened right in front of us making it difficult to record audio whenever anyone was speaking at the podium. But the easy access to the bathrooms almost made up for that.

One thing that really struck us throughout the event was how low the security was, no one checked us at the door, we walked right in even through there were only supposed to be two tickets for the Vendor table and we had 6 in our first group. When we went to will-call to have our names crossed off the list and to leave names for others arriving later, they seemed confused that we even bothered to do so. There were several entrances/exits right next to our table (and across the room) that were unguarded and we used it often as a short cut to the bathrooms. We could have brought in a dozen people through that door and no one would have noticed.

With this in mind throughout the day I couldn't help but think how they could be so trusting? By the end of the day and after hearing so many stories it hit me that this ran trait was common amongst the believers, Trust. If you could have asked someone “Is it more likely that a shadow person touched you in the dark or that someone in your group touched you?” the answer would always be “the shadow person”. Skeptics find this so hard to understand, we want proof that shadow people exist, and that there is life after death. To these people they would answer, “but my buddies wouldn't do that so it must have been a shadow person.”

The event was supposed to run until 9pm but the crowd trickled down to almost no one again, and the vendors were sitting around staring at each other. The food court closed up and the only thing you could eat was out of vending machines (at double normal prices). We spent our time trying to give away all the remaining candy to the nearby booths.

Then they dimmed the lights and showed a movie preview called “The Terminator and the Psychic” which is just about what you think it is, Tiffany reads Tarot cards to some slouchy teenager and discovers that he is supposed to save the world, as the reading progresses the Terminator slowly walks through the office building shooting everyone and every security camera he can find. Tiffany tells the teenager “we have to get you out of here because the cards say you are going to save the world, lets get you home before something happens to your family.” (Yes, it is just that bad). We started folding everything up at this point, Mark Edward said, “anyone who wants to stay and see the end of this movie is clearly NOT someone we want to talk to, lets go”.

As we said goodbye to our ParaCon hosts we could see Tiffany and the slouchy teen in a kitchen, the teen is shaking his clearly dead mother on the floor saying “Mom get up” while trying to hide his smile. I think in some way that teen and the IIG had something in common. Trying to remain professional during ridiculous situations was our goal for the day.

The Martin Family

The first persons we talked to were two sisters from the “Martin Family: Their Secret Legacy” I chatted with them for a bit before telling them about our $50K challenge and asked them if they knew anyone who had a testable paranormal claim. They said that their mother sees numbers when she meditates and maybe she would come over and talk to us, they were very interested in the $5K finders fee. According to the daughters the mother would meditate (started getting busy with work and does not do this anymore but is starting to get back into it) and one day she got a bunch of numbers and wrote them down, the next day they were winning lottery numbers (but she didn't buy the ticket). Not understanding why a mother with 2 college age daughters wouldn't want to win the lottery, but I just guess its too much work doing all that meditating.

The daughters were delightful but the mother was guarded (she came over a few minutes later without her daughters). Jim Underdown and Jim Newman talked to her the most and Ms. Martin stated that she had “no need for $50,000” Jim asked her if she had a charity that could use the money she said “my charities are my business”. Apparently, her reason for being at SoCalParaCon was to promote her book chronicling several generations of alien abductions from her family home. It was later explained that her brother is being visited 4 times a week by aliens in the second floor of the house. Ms. Martin stayed the night there (with one of her daughters) and saw the aliens also. The brother has pictures of the aliens but will not release the photos because he thinks the aliens will take his wife (who is Chinese and speaks very little English) and then the husband will be arrested for getting rid of his wife.

The Chinese wife without knowing anything about what is going on in the house said that they keep having earthquakes in the house. Ms. Martin and her brother think that proves the odd things that are happening, because the wife is clueless. The IIG kept trying to get a copy of the pictures from Ms. Martin and said we would not reveal how we obtained the photos, but she kept evading the question. I very much doubt that we will be hearing from Ms. Martin, though the daughters were excited about the test and the money and may pressure their mother or possibly loose respect for their mother's claims.

Their “flyer” does not list a website but says “get the new edition available now on Amazon.com!” but I can't find the book there “The Martin Family: Their Secret Legacy” no matter how I break up the title for searching. According to the literature this is the “true story of one Mexican family's multiple encounters with extra-terrestrials and the unknown...beginning with the mysterious appearance of their first known relative”

My Ghost Story

The woman on the left is from "Your Ghost Story" which is a TV program that tells your ghost story. We had a bit of conflict with her Jim Underdown asked how they evaluate the stories, and she said that they have a team that looks at each story in detail. I asked what kind of evidence do they accept and when she told us photographic I asked, "you mean like orbs and such"? she smiled and said "yes". I asked how do you tell a piece of dust from a ghost? She told us that professionals and experts review all the "evidence" people present them. Uh Huh

We talked to a member of this team later on for more on this story.....later....

Jim Newman asked her "lets just pretend that you really believe these stories....What kind of evidence would you need to show them as credible?" She didn't like that, apparently she really does believe the stories that she hears.

Margaret Downey

A very engaging woman with nice dimples who was alone at the event, she had just arrived when she found our table. I engaged her by asking questions about what she came to see at the event and questions about herself, then I explained that we were looking for claimants for our $50,000 challenge. Margaret had never heard of us and said she had never thought about being tested for her claim, but she was eager to show me photos on her iPhone that were fueling her belief in there being “something out there”.

Here is her site so you can understand this fully www.itcdeadpeople.com According to her site she “Now, I'll be the first to admit, I have many more questions than answers. All I know is, there's something curious going on! Voices manifesting on audio recorders and images on video that can't be easily explained. The more I explore, the more I wonder. I have no proof of anything, yet I've come to believe some (not all) of these unexplained appearances are forms of communication from those I think of as being "in Spirit" or "on The Other Side."

The pictures she showed me on her phone were side by side, one a picture of a person (or animal) and then a “whirly” image that matched the photo. It is clearly paradolia, but Excellent paradolia. The best image is a b/w image of her friends son who had died, then right next to it was an image made in the water that was almost exactly the same image. Very eerie. When asked she said she was thinking about the person and that she sent the image to her friend who then supplied her with the picture that matched the image. If that is true then it is double eerie!

Margaret says that she takes lots and lots of video and looks through every image and throws out almost all of them, only once in a great while will she find something. Then she matches it up with a picture (note story changing). She has one of her great grandfather and one of her dead dog, and a horse (guess she was thinking of a specific horse?). I asked her if she believed that animals had souls and could appear as ghosts she looked at me and said “of course”.

She also talked about EVP's and the “work” she does with that, she uses something like a Frank's Box but where she turns the dial herself, she says she gets really clear answers that is a single voice, not a mixture of voices. Also she does not do what the other investigators do and ask a question and minutes later get a response to the question, her's come right away or she does not count it. She said she and her partner (Lisa Huston) are able to “help people” to know that their family member is doing okay on the “other side”. Anyone who knows me knows this is a hot button topic for me, but I understood that this woman really believes what she is doing is helping, and I had promised myself that I would stay professional at this event, I did and responded nicely with something about “I've heard of people not being able to 'let go' once they hear they can communicate with their loved ones on this box, do you have this issue?” She said, “no, most people are okay with just knowing that Mom is okay on the other side and don't come back for more”. (Wonder how much belief they have in her abilities if they can walk away that easily?)

Margaret was really eager to talk to me, wanted to know if I was on Facebook (I said no but the IIG was). She said that other paranormal groups look down on her results as they have never heard of anyone doing this. She wondered why they can claim to get results some “crazy” way and ask her to believe in that but then knock down her way of doing it? Good point Margaret, I wonder the same thing?

Rebecca Mendoza

Adorable blond woman who was at ParaCon with her husband Joe Mendoza who founded and is lead investigator of 3am Paranormal. Looking at their website it looks like they have done a lot of investigations and only the husband and wife are the crew. http://web.me.com/ufojoe/3amparanormal/Home.html

Despite what she says on her website about being a “sensitive” she was pretty skeptical of most things, she said that her husband had been a big believer in Sylvia Browne but she herself could not stand her. I asked if she had ever seen www.stopsylvia.com and she said she hadn't so I gave her the website. She rolled her eyes and alluded to her husband's gullibility, she said he is improving but still believes too much. She herself did not believe in psychics as she has seen so many of them “help” them on investigations and they were not for real. But she does support Mark Nelson who helps them from time to time on a case. She says that she tests him all the time and he usually gets things right (because he couldn't be right 100% of the time).

One reason she said she did trust him was because he didn't charge a lot for his readings, and he didn't take money from people with missing family members. (Oh give him time) After watching his “show” there is no wonder why he doesn’t charge a lot.

He knows things that he could not possibly have known (wish I could remember examples). Though she still does not completely trust his skills she told Mark Edward, who responded “then there is probably a reason why you don't trust him”, she just smiled and said she would love to see him tested by us. She would talk to him and can't see any reason why he wouldn't want to. Mark Nelson and his wife have become really good friends of her family and thinks he will be glad to do it.

She mentioned that Mark Nelson felt that she had powers and he wanted to take her “under his wing” to help her develop her skills. She kinda wavered on that, she said she wasn't interested in doing that, she felt that it would be too much trouble, and I felt from the way she talked that she didn't really trust that she had anything special, and also tended to doubt his own powers.

Rebecca was very excited to hear that we are scientific and thinks that more groups should follow this approach as there is way too much unscience going on in groups.

Later on in the event I asked her if she had spoken to Mark Nelson about taking the challenge. She said she had talked to him and he was going to do it. She said he had also come over and talked to us about it. (Note: several of us were waiting for him to come and talk to us, but no one can figure out who he "talked to).

Mark Nelson

A speaker at ParaCon we watched him do his thing in Psychometry with an audience. with an audience. He asked people to leave a piece of jewelry or some such on a table and he picked an object and gave the person a reading. First me made some kind of comment about the object and then asked who the object belonged to. The readings were really general, talking about celebrations, children and health problems. One reading he picked up a large leather bracelet and said that the person who this belonged to had a very rough life (duh just look at it) and had heath issues or someone close to that person and was pretty stressed out about it. (the wrist size was very large so you could tell it belonged to a large man) He went over to the man who said it was his and continued with a vague reading about it.

Mark Edward talked to this man afterward and asked him about his reading, the man said that it was really right on and incredible. Paula and I talked to his wife at our table a bit later and she told us that her husband was a really big tough guy and he was nearly in tears when Mark Nelson touched him (big guys don't cry I guess). She said that Nelson was right on about the health issues, I told her that it was really general and Paula said that the comments could have applied to her and most everyone in the room. The wife said, “no way, you have no idea how close he was, he has health issues”. We tried to explain again that Nelson said that the holder of the bracelet had health issues or someone close to him and was stressed out about it could apply to most everyone in the room. The wife just nodded “no, you have no idea how right on he was, my husband nearly cried”.

Skylaire Alfvegren

This is the wife to the man mentioned above, she is a very highly strung agitated fast-speaking woman that seems to be a journalist at http://www.skylaire.com/ . She knows someone who does the booking at the Steve Allen Theater at CFI West and thought it would be funny if she got a job there (apparently there is some kind of job opening there). When she found out that we were affiliated with CFI she told us a story about how much they hate her.

She tells the story about how she wrote an article about James Randi a few years ago and that Penn Jillette wanted to punch her in the face about it. She said that Randi had once done horoscopes and psychic stuff until he saw that there was more money in skepticism and switched sides. She said that the article came out at the same time that RandiCon was going on in Vegas, and after reading her article he had a heart attack.

When Paula asked her when this all happened about Randi being on the other side she responded, "sometime in the 70's". Paula said that is no big deal, lots of people switch sides and mentioned Mark Edward, I mentioned Houdini doing the same kind of thing. She said, “read my article it is somewhere on the internet still”. Here it is http://skylaire.com/questionsforskeptics.htm

Skylaire says that she investigates the paranormal in the West and also is a follower of someone called Furtean. Here is the website she gave me www.furteanswest.com.

10-year old girl

Don't forget the kids. We had a know-it-all young lady come up to us (probably because of the candy) and just kind of hung around. She was there because her parents were there, she was disinterested but enjoyed looking at the UFO pictures. I know almost nothing about what the IIG has been doing in this area (just know what I overheard others tell people) and started asking her what she thought those objects were in the sky. She said UFO's and I asked if she knew what that meant. She nodded and told me, so I tried to joke around a bit about if I tell her what they are then they won't be unidentified. She didn't quite see where I was going with that so I changed tactics a bit.

I think I asked her if she thought they were “real or not” she didn't think they were so I asked how she would make a fake UFO photo. She was a pretty clever girl and we talked about that for a bit. I pointed to a couple in one of the pictures and said, “but these people are pointing at the UFO could they be lying?” She seemed to enjoy the little discussion we had and finally moved on when her parents called her. I could tell that she was the one that needed to make the discovery, lecturing to that type of kid would have just turned her off.

The Rock Energy Lady and her Half-Alien Friend

Probably my favorite discussion. These two ladies wandered up to our table as they had just arrived and were curious about ghost hunting and the like. I started on my usual conversation that had nothing to do with the IIG and our Challenge and what kinds of things interested them. When we had laughed about a few things I asked if they had ever heard of us. Neither of them had nor I think had heard of skeptics before. I explained our Challenge as I would many times that day and asked if they had any paranormal claims we could test. They laughed with each other quite a bit and the blond one said she didn't think she could be tested as her claim was so unusual. Besides she couldn't do much with it and it wasn't so developed as other people's.

Jarrett explained that almost all paranormal claims could be tested, we would work with the claimant to try and find a way to work out a test. He did a really good job explaining that we don't expect every person to get 100% every time, the analogy he used was that even the greatest basketball player won't make a basket every time they try. Skills and development vary and we would just work out a test that would make it unlikely that anyone was guessing.

So after a few minutes she explained that she could feel energy, and some rocks she touched at another table gave off some “heat”. She said she did a lot better when it was something personal to the person she was holding and metal worked best. Jim Newman gave it a name I had never heard before but heard many times that day, Psychometry. After thinking about it a minute I asked her to try a test when she got home, take three personal items (Newman suggested keys) and look at them and see if you can tell who they belong to. Then place a piece of paper over the top, “can you still feel them?” If so then try having someone remove one of the sets of keys, “can you feel which one is missing?” Test yourself this way try and find a way to see what your limits might be. Once you have done this a bunch of times and feel like you still have something paranormal to test then go to our website and fill out our application.

The two women looked at each other and it was like a light bulb going off over her head, they laughed and said “I've never thought of testing myself before”. It was so simple, she just assumed that she had an undeveloped power, and could never prove it. She said, if I find I don't have that power I won't be as special anymore (WOW), we told her you will just have to find a new way to be special.

These same women were fascinated with the ghost EVP thingy we kept on the table to engage people in conversations. They wanted to know what the meters meant and how to correctly read the blinking lights. The blond said she was getting a feeling about a “Don or Donna” somewhere near. She asked us all our names and if we had any ties to someone with that name. We just shrugged and she kinda just ended that conversation asking the “ghost” questions about silly things.

Her friend told me that her whole family was into the UFO stuff but she never believed any of it, she even made the crazy sign describing them. The grandmother told her that she was a quarter space alien, when she was pregnant a alien touched her stomach and said “your baby will be half-Alien.” I said, “great story, can I shake your hand I've never touched an alien even a quarter alien before.” We laughed and talked about how you would test that claim. We thought maybe with DNA or something, but then they could just say that aliens have a way of hiding their DNA or faking it. Anyway that was a productive conversation that made them think about claims and proof in a non-judgmental way.

Tuesday Miles

I didn't get to hear all of this conversation as I entered it when Jarrett and Jim Underdown were “testing” her with the ESP cards. She was one of the guest speakers who was going to be talking about her experiences as a psychic. She told us that she had scored 23 (?) out of a high run and the results were on the Internet. When I got involved I found everyone a bit frustrated as she would claim she could “see through the cards” and when they turned over a card she would say “turn the next one” and then if that was correct she would say, “there it is”. Or she would say she got it right but not tell anyone what card she was choosing. This got way out of hand as we used the word “guessing” and she got upset because she was “NOT Guessing, I Know!”

She got called away to the podium to do her lecture about this time and I said “I'm not sure what happened, but maybe we should have shuffled the deck and laid out 5 single cards face down that way nothing would be underneath them. Have her point to the card she was “seeing” and clearly state which card she saw. She was arrogant and confrontational, maybe we should have not engaged her but just talked about the challenge? When we start doing other types of events that are more confrontational we will need to work on how we will be talking to these type of believers.

Long Haired Ghost Story Guy

Another person I didn't get to talk to but whom spent a lot of time talking to others at our booth was this young man that works on the “My Ghost Story” show. He told us that he once had a medical reading from a psychic and thought at the time it was 100% correct, but once he thought about it later it was so vague to be pertinent to just about everyone. Not sure if that is what made him tell us that he knows that all psychics are fakes or not, but he says they won't have them on their show because they try to go off in all kinds of directions and take the focus off the story they are supposed to be telling. He was asked about the “evidence” they get for their show that the other director (?) said that is carefully examined by experts, we were told that they don't really look at it at all, just take whatever so they can tell the story.

Nice Looking Man Wearing Brown

Towards the end of the event I talked with this man who didn't want to give me any feedback on why he was there, but still seemed to want to know about us. So I blindly just gave him my general talk about the IIG and our challenge. I asked him what he did for a living and he told me he was a science technician working in the medical field. I asked him “when what are you doing here?” that relaxed him and he laughed and then he said he was “just curious”. I started to tell him a bit about the nurses investigation we had done, he said “that was you guys?” revealing that he already knew something about it. I told him how we had applied to teach a class and some of the things we said we were going to be able to do (he loved the fortune telling with entrails part) and said he would look us up. He was leaving for dinner with his friend so he had to leave but he was very interested in the IIG. Look for him to hopefully turn up at a meeting someday soon.

So that was it, my recollections of the event. I think we achieved our goals and should attempt to streamline the process so we can do these events often, at functions of all kinds.

Here are my pictures from the event

http://picasaweb.google.com/sgerbic/09SoCalParaCon#

Videos from event (I'm not a videographer BTW)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy_t91xjkhk Mark Edward being interviewed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXWcKp907p0 Gian Temperilli & Don Staggs questions from audience parts one and two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SFDw4A8mmA

I get Stripped!!!!

2010-08-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

An Ode To Incriminating Evidence, Part I

An Ode to Incriminating Evidence, Part I by Horatius

An Ode To Incriminating Evidence, Part II

An Ode To Incriminating Evidence, Part II by Horatius

Voodoo You Trust? Psychics cash in as public dumps bankers

2010-08-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

Fortune Tellers pocket $8 Billion...

Pictures from TAM8

2010-07-28T15:15:00.001-07:00

Just a quick mention that 4 of my photos from TAM8 are featured on this article by CFI

http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/the_amazing_meeting/

Oh yeah there are some words scattered around the pictures too that might be interesting to read after you've admired the photos.

Susan

Critically Thinking About Critical Thinking

2010-07-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

Lately I’ve been thinking more about critical thinking and how valuable it would be to teach it as part of regular elementary and secondary school curriculum. As a skeptic, I don’t believe it is wise or appropriate to denounce or attack religions or other organizations that are based on magic, mysticism or any other fantastical noun of your choice unless they are harmful in some way. Doing so creates defensiveness and nobody on either side gains any foothold or makes any progress. Teaching young people basic critical thinking concepts instead of just piling on information to memorize would give a future generation the tools to make their own life decisions rather than live by blind faith. We wouldn’t have to try to convince as many people to stop using phony alternative medicine practices or stop giving ten percent of their salary to their church. They would have the ability to analyze and reason and hopefully make better and more educated decisions.

I am not a researcher and I’m not going to spend months doing interviews and meta-research, so I am basing my opinion on my atypical but not unusual childhood and adolescence.

From as far back as I can remember, the household motto was “do as I say, not as I do.” Since the time I could comprehend my surroundings, I remember always being told exactly what to do and how to behave. I was never encouraged to think about what I was doing. Obviously I didn’t feel this way at the time, but looking back, I was a drone like most other kids. I don’t even blame the adults in my life because they were just teaching me the best way they knew how.

By the time I went to school it wasn’t much different. Teachers told me to do as I was told and I was always under the impression that whatever teachers said was factual. I took every lesson at face value and never asked “why” or “how” because I didn’t know that I even could. I even had textbooks that I took as cover to cover facts but never thought about why the data inside changes every year.

Then came the big “Just Say No” campaign while I was in my latter years of elementary school. I know Mrs. Reagan had good intentions, but come on. What do children and teens do when they are told something is forbidden? They get inquisitive, they experiment and they rebel. Children want to think critically but they do not know what it means and they do not know how to apply the concepts. There sure were a lot of stoners at my high school. I’m certain they were all present during the zero tolerance drug awareness classes too. Why not tell teens what drugs are, what the effects of drugs are in graphic detail, and give them the tools to make a rational decision? Telling teens what to say at a time when they are beginning to value independence does not work. But giving them critical thinking skills so they can make an educated decision and retain their independence would work. But giving them rules at a time when they hate rules is counter-productive. Leading them to doing the right thing by teaching them to use their heads just makes much more sense to me. Maybe I’m just a wackaloon.

I won’t even get started on religion. My relatives had good intentions when they tried to make me a good little Catholic, but asking “why” and “huh?” does not go over any better in church than it did in high school.

Until my mid twenties I thought I would actually catch a cold if I went outside and “caught a chill”. I was told that by people I respected so I did not question it. If I had a basic understanding of critical thinking I could have said “okay, wearing a jacket in the cold is more comfortable than being cold, but how does the temperature cause a virus to infect my body?” I had no internet and no decent public library where I could research anything. I had to take things at face value. So I followed a life of not thinking out loud because people that did so were called nerds and geeks. I kept my thoughts to myself until I became an adult and just assumed I would follow the societal norm of a life.

In 2000 I finally attended college, 8 years after I graduated from high-school. For the first time in my life I took a critical thinking class. I soon realized that the concepts of critical thinking were easy enough for elementary school children to grasp. I also realized I had been practicing most of the concepts for a decade and did not even realize it. Why was this not taught to me in second grade? More effort was spent teaching me to play kickball than teaching me to think for myself.

If children learn in elementary school from their teachers and parents that it is not only good to ask “why” or “how” but it is also encouraged, those children will grow up understanding the world around them, not just taking for granted that the world around them exists. A single generation of children learning critical thinking will become a generation of parents using critical thinking skills with their future children. I don’t advocate children outright disobeying their parents willy-nilly. Without structure there is chaos. Chaos makes me anxious. But, children will understand the reasoning behind what they are being told and go into adulthood with valuable lessons instead of blind orders.

If people learn the basic concepts of rational thought instead of being a mass of drones, and they still choose to have faith in a religion or participate in a practice like homeopathy or some other sham, then so be it. At least they were able to think about what they were doing and make a rational decision to do so.

Zero Point Energy

2010-06-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

At the 6/9/2010 meetup, I told the group about an experience I had with a believer of nonsense while waiting in an airport. Susan asked me post the story so everyone can enjoy.

About a month ago I was on a layover at the L.A. airport for a couple hours. My wife and I sat down in one of those restaurant bars that are in every airport. Two tables over I saw a woman sitting at a table alone. She was holding what looked like a stainless steel pen in her hand while she was talking on her cell phone. It turns out it was no ordinary pen. It was a magic wand. The woman was twirling the divine instrument around her face and upper body for the entire time she was on the phone.

My wife and I were just staring and trying to boggle what the woman was doing. The woman then started playing with a large stainless steel pendant that was around her neck. She was rubbing it on her face and neck.

Finally I had to ask the woman what she was doing with the pen. She said she was in Los Angeles because she just attended a seminar where she purchased the magic wand and magic pendant, and she was waiting for her flight back to Atlanta. She said they had “highfalutin magic.” She was eager to show me how they work and began telling me about them.

The woman said cell phones and computers disrupt our bodies’ energy and make us weak. The magic in the pen and the pendant equalize the energy, negating the damage from our phones. The magic items also cure pain and increase muscle strength. I was 4 hours into a vacation so I already had a few cocktails. Under other circumstances I would probably recognize a lost cause and not try to investigate any further. But, this was weird and entertaining so I started asking her how these things worked.

She told me she had no idea how they worked but she had not felt any pain since she began using them. Keep in mind she purchased the magic devices the day prior. She then asked if she could demonstrate on me how they work. I agreed and even told her I was a skeptic. She said it didn’t matter if I believed or not because it would work.

She told me to hold my cell phone up to my ear and extend my other arm out. She pushed down on my arm and told me to try to keep my arm extended. Of course when she pushed down, my arm dipped down a little. I immediately recognized what she was doing as the same crap applied kinesiology practitioners do to scam people into buying snake oil. Then she had me put the phone down and hold the magic wand in my phone hand. I extended my arm and she pushed down on it again. Two things happened. I could feel that she was not pressing down as hard as she did the first time and I knew what to expect. My arm dipped down a little but not as much as when I had the phone up to my ear. She said the magic wand made my arm stronger. I told her she wasn’t pressing as hard. She laughed in a condescending manner as if I was a foolish non-believer.

Next she asked if she could show me how the pendant worked. I said “sure, why not” since this was getting entertaining. She told me to stand straight with my feet together. She had me hold my cell phone to my ear as she pulled straight down on my other hand. Since my feet were together, I tipped sideways a little. Then she put the pendant around my neck and put the phone down. She pulled down on my hand and I did not budge. She said the pendant made my balance better. What actually happened was I instinctively moved my feet apart to balance myself because my mind knew what to expect. I also had my opposite arm free as a counter-balance instead of having it up to my ear as it was the previous time.

I tried to explain to her the obvious explanation of how the magic devices appeared to work but she didn’t want to hear it. I then mentioned how this was a gimmick just like all the magnet jewelry people waste money on. Unbelievably, she agreed magnets don’t work. Then she showed me her anklet and said it had magnets but it was also infra-red. According to her infinite wisdom, magnets alone do not work. They need infra-red to make them effective. She thought that because the metal jewelry got warm as she wore it against her skin that it was emitting infra-red energy from some unknown magical source.

Fortunately we had to part ways but I wrote down the brand name of the wand before we left. I looked it up when we got home.

The wand and pendant are made by Amega and they are sold by various distributors on the internet. I found some for sale that were up to $400. At the last meet-up Sterling found some of the wands on Ebay for just a few bucks. The products are supposed to use Zero Point Energy to do all sorts of things. The following is a quote from www.reversedpain.com. I’m saying it is a quote because I don’t want anyone to think my grammar is this poor.

Amega Wand Plus Health and Fitness
Zero Point Energy

#1 Help our very own bodies to obtain homeostasis conditions

#2 Support our personal body Bio energetic location to reference point Zero Point Energy

#3 Reduces most all connected with pain, tenderness as well as assists restorative therapy.

#4 Encourages the harmful elements throughout the water and fluids most of us take in, as well as the food most of us consume.

# 5 Stimulates creams, essential oil for greater absorption of health supplements

# 6 Assists in addition to fortifies the blood circulation associated with energy in your whole entire body

#7 Unblocks and also strengthens the blood circulation regarding energy inside your whole body

# 8 Promotes actual physical abilities and also fortifies immunity protection.
# 9 Helps the body return to the point of homeostasis

You can also purchase the items directly from:

https://www.eamega.co...

I’m still stunned that someone can spend hundreds of dollars on worthless crap and the sales pitch is not even remotely realistic to anyone with a semi-functional brain. Physicists should probably take a look at their notes because they obviously don’t understand anything about zero point energy. But, who am I to judge?

Don't Worry, Ghosts Still Love You ~ Dear Abby

2010-06-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

Some days you start off you day with a smile, other days you start off with a face palm. Today was one of those dent in the forehead days.

Jeanne Phillips daughter of the original writer of Dear Abby has got my vote for the JREF Pigasus award as a spreader of woo. Here is the article...

DEAR ABBY: I am in my 40s and have never lost anyone close to me. Unfortunately, my darling mother-in-law has terminal cancer. I am now preoccupied that people’s spirits are near us after they die.

Please don’t laugh, but it gives me the creeps. I don’t want to think my mother-in-law will watch me making love with my husband, that my father will watch me in the bathroom.

Am I crazy to think I might not have any privacy after my loved ones die? — Spooked

DEAR SPOOKED: The departed sometimes “visit” those with whom their souls were intertwined, but usually it’s to offer strength, solace and reassurance during difficult times. If your mother-in-law’s spirit visits you while you’re intimate with her son, it will be only to wish you and her son many more years of happiness in your marriage.

Many happy returns

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/03/1988656/dear-abby-woman-fears-being-watched.html#ixzz0pwjgvTXJ

I'm not sure how to respond to this nonsense but will try.

Dear Abby, you are a wooster. That means you spread misinformation in a well meaning fashion with a smile. Because you have grown up in the world of advice giving does not mean that you can do no harm with your folksy writings. This is a woman who clearly is upset over the nonsense of ghosts, she raises a valid point, if ghosts exist and visit their loved ones how can you ever have privacy again? Your senseless answer....don't worry about it, spirits don't work that way. WHAT?

Who died and left you this tiny bit of knowledge? You have evidence of life after death? Does the science community know about this? Have you notified CNN yet? Have all the laws of nature just been overthrown and I missed it?

I understand it is possible that you don't have evidence in ghostly visits, maybe you don't even believe in them. Maybe you thought you were just acting to calm this woman down. Maybe just maybe you missed an opportunity to educate your readers to the fact that there has never NEVER ever been one case of the dead contacting the living. If you have evidence otherwise then the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation) might just have ONE MILLION dollars waiting for you.

The halls of academia are waiting to hear from you. Scientists all over the world have put down their slide rules and pencils to await the news that, sorry, everything we know about the psychical world is wrong. All that testing and retesting were all in vain, Jeanne Phillips who writes the Dear Abby column knows more than you all do. Throw your degrees in the trash, go back to selling carpet and grooming dogs cause everything you knew was wrong.

The Monkey Business Illusion

2010-05-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

Psi classes anyone?

2010-04-28T20:05:00.001-07:00

I stumbled across this site while I was researching astrology classes for a Wikipedia Article I'm "improving" on astrology. Can you believe it, the Wiki astrology page has never had a criticism topic? All those people searching the word 'astrology' get Wikipedia's site right off and there is Nothing there on that site that gives any balance! Amazing. But I digress.

I found a article in my bookshelf from 2001 about a Scottsdale astrology school gaining accreditation, which potentially would allow students to get federal grants and loans. This seems to be the first time a school of astrology has done this, I have been looking around to see if there is any update on this topic and can't seem to find anything showing that it got to keep its accreditation.

According to their website http://www.astrologicalinstitute.com/index.htm John Edward learned his trade here. In fact he seems to be their only claim to fame. Note how he is plugged on their site... (bolding mine) ...funny that AII is not mentioned on his Wiki site, wonder if John knows about this link?

~ Old Wisdom for the New Age ~
The Astrological Institute of Integrated Studies, or AIIS, was formed in 1983 with the goal of bringing interested students and instructors a well informed and affordable education in personal liberation, esoteric studies and dynamic truth. The Institute offers one session workshops as well as an intensive series workshops on CD and audio cassette in a multitude of metaphysical disciplines. The Astrological Institute was where John Edward received training in Psychic Development, Tarot and Numerology from two of his acknowledged three teachers in 1985 & 1986 which was, then, in Bayshore, NY. Starchild Books, the offspring of AIIS, was among the first places that John Edward held "gallery" sessions before the release of his first book "One Last Time" and the airing of "Crossing Over" on the Sci-Fi network.
The founders of A.I.I.S. have been careful to present a totally open and frank approach to learning assuring that you have the cleanest and clearest information available. This affords you the best potential and opportunity for developing your intuitive and personal ability as well as offering you the necessary understanding to design, advance and maintain your individual spiritual awareness and growth.

One of the links off AII's site that intrigued me is their Psychic Development page. For a fee (audio cassette or CD) you can learn how to develop your psychic self-defense. Now that really caught my eye for $14.95 can I learn how to throw people across the room using only the power of my mind? Or maybe I can kill just by staring at them long enough (like maybe a goat or something). Nope, turns out I can't do any of that cool things, here is what that $15 bucks will get me, PSYCHIC SELF DEFENSE - Do you feel drained after talking to certain people? Do you find it difficult to get off the phone or get away from some people? Do you feel exhausted after rush hour traffic? Learn the many ways in which we are "attacked" daily by people and situations that arise around us as well as techniques for dealing with them successfully. Heck that sounds useful, maybe I should look into this?

For another $15 this looks fantastic, ASTRAL PROJECTION - Leaving the body has been a tool for some, fantasy for others and a fearful problem for others yet. Learn how to control your out of body experiences WOW! There is a way to learn to control my astral projections, that is wonderful news, and here I have been all scared and stuff.

Or here is a refresher course we all need, SEEING THE AURA - Everyone has the ability from birth. It's just that we have forgotten. Learn the techniques to refresh your memory.

I would think that if the AII were still accredited it would be all over their website along with it mentions of their most famous student. Too bad, I've been thinking of going back to school.

Just in case your interested, the news article I found on my bookshelf did have a nice skeptical quote, here is my addition to the Wikipedia astrology page...

Criticism

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who heads the Hayden Planetarium noted "astrology was discredited 600 years ago with the birth of modern science. 'To teach it as though you are contributing to the fundamental knowledge of an informed electorate is astonishing in this, the 21st century'. Education should be about knowing how to think, 'And part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. Without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you'".[19] [20]

^ http://www.ntskeptics.org/news/news2001-09-02.htm

^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010827/aponline135357_000.htm

One more thing, here is a class John Edward must have missed...(bolding mine)

CHANNELING, SPIRIT COMMUNICATION & MEDIUMSHIP- Learn the ethics of channeling and mediumship, meditation and preparation styles, protection and opening techniques as well as how to channel and be a medium. Develop a language for interpreting the symbols you receive, recognizing whom you are "speaking" with and how to present your information.

James Randi Talks About Psychic Fraud At TED

2010-04-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

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In this 18 minute video James Randi takes an overdoes of sleeping pills. That is he commits suicide by homeopathy...

If you can prove what you do is real he will give you one million dollars.
Now think about that; how much good you could do with one million dollars, give it to charity give it directly to needy children. just for doing what you say you can do. But no takers. Why do you think that is?

Falsifying Anita Ikonen ~ Vision From Feeling

2010-04-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Sooooo have you heard of this Vision From Feeling woman, Anita Ikonen? Her name is all over the skeptical community, sometimes better known as VfF and/or the breatharian who claims she can "feel" if a kidney is missing. In November she was tested for this claim by the IIG and failed. The IIG currently has a $50K prize for anyone who can prove they have paranormal powers under testable conditions. The prize remains unclaimed.

Since her failed challenge, Anita claims to now be on the road to becoming a skeptic. She wants to join our cause and renounce her woo ways. She says that she just wants to be "falsified" a couple more times in order to be sure she does not have any powers. Besides the Breatharian thing, she also claims to be 300+ years old from some far away star and dead people contact her through the TV set. One of her interviews can be found here.

On the other hand, Anita is at the University of North Carolina in the science program working on two BS degrees. This isn't your typical woo. Mentalist and skeptical activist Mark Edward has written about her hopeful conversion to skepticism on his Skepticblog.

This weekend Mark Edward and I (along with a few other IIG members) had dinner with Anita in Hollywood. After dinner Anita asked Mark if she could "read" him, I whipped out the camcorder and 4 videos later Anita has failed to correctly find Mark's Type 2 diabetes or a eye that requires periodic injections. After scanning him for sometime she gave him a clean bill of health, she said "I can not detect any diseases". When he asked her why she didn't see the "life-threatening disease" he has, she said "she wasn't checking for that". She explained that the scan could go on for hours and she didn't have a check list with her. In her defense she said, "I did not fail, because I didn't say you had something that you did not have".

After this health scan, Mark asked her to take one more test. A woman who claims she can see if someone is missing a kidney or not should be able to see how many fingers (under a cloth napkin) are being held out straight.

So that is what Mark Edward proposed. He put a cloth napkin over his outstretched hand and Anita proceeded to stare at his hand and hem and haw. She kept describing what his fingers looked like "the thumb is tucked in and the index finger too..." It took awhile (again 4 videos) until she finally said she saw 2 fingers, the little finger and the ring finger. Mark did not ask her to describe which finger(s) he had outstretched, only HOW MANY FINGERS. She guessed two and the answer was one. The index finger. Her odds were one in five as Mark claimed that he did have at least one finger outstretched. (the odds would have been one in six if there was the possibility of NO fingers outstretched).

Whattya think? Should Anita continue being tested? She keeps telling the skeptical community that she wants to be falsified, that she will not be content until she knows that she has no powers.

HERE ARE THE VIDEOS

In my opinion, that's it. You are falsified. Go on with your college career. Let your star be the shinning light of critical thinking. Travel, have babies (or not) write poetry or music, adopt a cat, whatever makes you happy. Just move on.

Still can't get enough of Anita try these links...

Her site
A skeptical website about her
Mark Edward's Blog discussing her first test with the IIG
One of several discussions of her at the JREF forum

Amazing Adventure 5: Skeptics of the Caribbean

2010-03-07T23:17:00.000-08:00

Monterey County Skeptics and Santa Cruz Skeptics Without a Cause Set Sail

Not all of us will be there, for those of not on the Amazing Adventure 5: Skeptics of the Caribbean;

I hope you will join me at Lopez this coming Wednesday March 10.

Save the World My Ass

2010-02-11T23:36:00.000-08:00

When people say they want to save the world I just want to throttle them. The world has been happily going about it business for 4 billion years or so. Nothing we can do is going to make the slightest bit of difference. The world can damn well take care of it's self.

The tick it to keep the place habitable for human existence for as long as possible. I am not a climate expert, I have a hard enough time figuring out whether or not to wear a jacket, so how am I expected to know if global warming is anthropogenic or not? I can't, however what I can say with certainty, is, we do our selves a great service by behaving as if it were, acting as if it were not and being wrong, is simply too big a risk.

Also if we can all agree that dumping carbon into the atmosphere is a bad thing, then how are we going to stop the eight-tenths of the population from doing exactly what the western world has done. Does anyone actually expect that we will give up what we have and they will not want it? Going green sounds wonderful but its a drop in the bucket, and the technologies are simply not going to keep up or be cost effective, in time, to satisfy the insatiable demands of the greedy and predatory human creatures which inhabit this planet.

We have two options, we stop all development in the third world by unleashing our nuclear arsenal up on them. Or we start a massive program to develop nuclear power safely and efficiently. Our need for energy is imminent and real, we need to do something now and the only technology that is imminent is nuclear. We will at least 25 years to find an other solution, of course the next three or four generations of nuclear stations will most likely make another solution down right silly.

Skepticblog » Whack-A-Medium

2010-02-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

Skepticblog » Whack-A-Medium

Born Half Jewish Half Christian. Where Do We Split the Baby

2010-02-05T12:04:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine posted this link to an article. From that article is the following:

Just before Christmas, a judge issued a temporary restraining order specifically barring Reyes from exposing his daughter to any religion other than Judaism after Reyes had his daughter Baptized without the knowledge of his estranged Jewish wife.

In this case the Mother is Jewish and the Father A Christian. The mother being the custodial parent believes the child is Jewish the father believes he has the right to make his daughter a Christian. The daughter is unavailable for comment however she most likely thinks that the Cookie Monster is really funny.

In this country we have a Constitution with a guarantee of freedom of religion, which means the government cannot impose any specific religion for individuals, nor can it promote one above the other. In this case the Judge appears to be determining the religion for the child. However unless the Judge has the Judgment of Solomon how can he make the correct choice? Is there even a correct choice to make. Wouldn't it be simpler to chop the baby in half and bury one half in a Jewish cemetery and the other in a Christian one?

The real problem here is the ideal that someone is born Jewish or born Christian and that by some magic ritual they can change from one to the other. Babies are born agnostic atheists or babthiests. Babthiests do not know anything about religion they are a clean slate, and who is to say that one religious belief is the one that the child should learn. Richard Dawkins in his book "The God Disillusion" goes as far as to call religion a virus which infect children, and parents are willing spreaders of that virus. Although I personnel disagree with his characterization, I agree with the basic premises. Children are born Babthiests and through a process of indoctrination are taught the religion of their parents.

Why it this country where we have freedom of religion is that fair? Is it right to make anyone religious? Shouldn't all children be ether free of all religious teaching until they reach an age where they can decide for themselves?

The father in this case says that "I have the right to take my daughter to the Church of my choice". And the Mother says that the child is Jewish and should not be exposed to any other religion. They are both wrong. The child is a Babthiest and they sould both respect the childs right not to have religion forced on her but she should have the freedom to decide on her own when she is old enough to figure out which is the "True Religion" or graduate to a full blown atheist. It is not about them it is about her.

Perth Skeptics Commit suicide

2010-01-30T19:57:00.001-08:00

The Perth skeptics ingest massive amounts of homeopathic "drugs" and wait for it ....Nothing happens. Nothing Nada they all live. Who would have thought?

Hitler on chiropractic evidence mashup (adult content)

2010-01-26T16:11:00.001-08:00

Fairies are shy.

Storm Movie - Tim Minchin: The Official Trailer

2010-01-10T16:24:00.001-08:00

Sylvia Browne at the Gibson Amphitheatre gets a visitor

2010-01-03T21:43:00.001-08:00

The Fraud gets a visitor...

Historical Sites vs Ghost Tours

2009-11-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

The love for historical knowledge and preserving historical sites has been one of my passions my entire adult life. While most people are visiting Disneyland, sunny resorts and beaches I dragged my family through restored historical homes. I completely understand the financial struggles historical sites must contend with, volunteers and members are the life blood to keeping their doors open. Restoration as well as normal upkeep does not leave a lot of extra money for publicity and freebies.

I have been perplexed with the paradox of how a historical site balances trying to encourage visits with the desire for tourists to want to visit haunted places. Years ago I visited the Bowers Mansion in Carson City. The restoration is wonderful, volunteers dress in period costume at special events throughout the year and the price is cheap. In the last room of the tour there is a spirit photograph from the woman that lived in that time period. I have no argument with that photo as that was common for that era. What bothered me was the statement that the docent made, "this shows a picture of Eilley with her dead child, this picture was taken before double exposures were invented." Leaving the guest to believe that the picture is truly a spirit photo not the historical fact that this was a fraud common to the era. I have visited this site at least 3 times and each time the guide mentioned this. Why didn't I speak up? Lets just say I was a lot shyer back then.

Winchester Mystery House, who hasn't visited San Jose and been mesmerized by the stories of this strange woman and her home? I think this place is amazing, yet all through the tours the tour guides pepper the history with spooky tales. Halloween season is a big hit for the Mystery home with midnight flashlight tours through the rooms.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado spends an great deal of energy focusing on the ghost element of the hotel. They have a fabulous tour full of history of the Stanley Steamer car, amazing place and views.

All of these places fall into the ghost trap, focusing more on the ghosties and less on the history of the site. My friends Baxter and Bryan tell me that the Stanley Hotel "borrowed" the ghost stories from another building down the street when that place was knocked down. The main tour guide has hundreds of autographed postcards of himself in ghostlike styles in the gift shop. In fact one thing all these places have in common is that the gift shop always has one or two "Ghost Books from the area" for sale in the gift shop.

So what does this all have to do with today? Why am I writing about this tonight?

This weekend, Caspian, Stirling, Mark Edward and I drove around Monterey and stopped in the Point Pinos Lighthouse museum. Mark always thinking of ghosts and seances asked the volunteer if the lighthouse was haunted. The woman rolled her eyes and said, "are you are one of those people that is trying to find something I'm sure you will find something" Mark said later that he wished he had a camera when she said that cause her look was amazing, Caspian said that it was the "perfect rolling of the eyes expression" after that he didn't need to finish listening to the answer as he knew where she stood.

The woman, said that once a man came in all wooing and stated that he could see Francine standing "there". She told the man that the woman who lived here years ago might had been named Francine but she was never called that, everyone called her "Fanny" and if you could see her you would know that. She said that they are always getting people who are trying to make a name for themselves come in and see ghosts, hoping to land on the news.

Wonderful! The woman (who was also named Francine) gave us a nice tour of the oldest still working lighthouse on the west coast. No mention of ghosts or deaths, just hard working people who kept the light flashing saving lives.

My point, if there is one, is that we need to support our historical sites. And for the reasons that they are historical sites. Volunteer, Donate, Visit and tell others. Buy a postcard or two. Maybe if we support these sites for their historical value to society they can ease off the ghost stories and hauntings.

Oh, By the way...as I was buying my postcard at Point Pinos I noticed two books on Ghost Stories of Monterey Bay on the shelf. Oh well...

Brian Dunning

2009-11-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

Brian Dunning puts out the podcast and runs the companion web site Skeptoid He will be attending the

Click here to check out
The Santa Cruz Skeptics Without A Cause!

Meet up this Sunday Evening the 8th'at 7:00pm
Location 99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall Restaurant & Pub
110 Walnut Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 459-9999
How to find us
"Ask for SWAC or Matt"
Co-hosted by The Monterey County Skeptics.

Be sure to RSVP so we can fit everybody in.

9/11 2009 Debunking the Conspiracy Theories

2009-09-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

It's hard to say when the first conspiracy theory emerged from the horrors of 9/11. We do know that it was almost immediate. many of the current members of the so called "Truth Movement" claim that they knew our government was behind it at the moment the second plane hit. Imagine that for a moment, given this predisposition is it any wonder that many of these same people have been attempting to justify that belief ever since? They had little to go on at that time except for a gut feeling. And still despite what ever evidence to the contrary are not willing to budge from this point of view. This inability to modify conclusions in the face of evidence is the best way to identify the true conspiracy nut.

A brief history of the conspiracy theory. From my perspective.

TV news, is the biggest spreader of rumor that exists. The need to get the story now as opposed to right is how many misconceptions of what actually happened start. We in the debunker community have a rule called the 48 hour rule. It is quite simple, what you hear on TV is most likely a rumor if you do not get conformation within 48 hours. That does not mean nothing should be considered true for 48 hours, it is based on the fact that slow and accurate news may take time to develop.

The first rumor I heard, is one that is still circulating around. It is amazing considering how wrong it is, but is obvious why it still exists when you consider the sources.

There were no Jews in the towers. Somehow all Jews were warned by some mechanism yet undisclosed, to stay home on 9-11. The theory here is that 9-11 was a Jewish plot against the United States or more specifically an Israeli plot. Unless the Israelis were excited about the idea of going to war with the U.S. What would convince someone that this is untrue? You would think showing that jews did die in the towers would be enough. However, the conspericist has reached a conclusion, so the facts must met that conclusion. If you show that Jews did die, then it just proves how evil the Israels are, and are willing to sacrifice their own people. Other theories were developing however this is the one I was most exposed to and followed the most. In following it I noticed two groups of followers. The far radical left, and the far radical right. I followed the right wing of the movement, because this was the most vocal at the time. I wanted to find out why and who these people were. From 2001-3 I debated these people on public forms finaly on their own turf.

StoremFront.

I am on optimist, but I will have to admit after spending a week reading the postings and rantings on the StormFront Fourm was so depressing and eye opening, that I wanted to poke fork in my eye. These were the Neo-Nazis, the Neo-cons are pussycats, fluffy bunnies and chicks after you spend sometime with these people. And as this appeared to be the extent of it I dropped out of the argument, I felt dirty just thinking about it.

No Plane hit the Pentagon 2002-5

The Left wing had their own theories, it had to be Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield, jews were in there somewhere, but the US government was the key. A French author fueled the flames when he wrote a book with asserted that no plane hit the Pentagon. This was the big one for many years. It still persists to this day. It seemed so silly that I simply ignored it until:

Loose Change - 2005.

This is were the Conspiracy nuts found a voice, a mass audience. And a Mantra, "we are just asking questions". Even I after watching it had questions. I did what the they did not, looked for answers. They had the easy job, they said they were "just asking questions" when in reality they had drawn conclusions and disregard answers which did not agree with them.

The Skeptics Become the Bunkers. Or Gravy pours it on

Many skeptics were also skeptical of the official version, so we as a group refrained for drawing conclusions and followed the evidence. Skepticism as a philosophy is the antis is of the conspiracy believer. The skeptic is not inclined to draw a conclusion, rather peruse all avenues of inquiry until there is an answer which is most supported but the facts, logic and at times commonsense. This made the Skeptical community the natural enemies of what had become known as the "truth Movement". The truthers had one advantage over the skeptics, and that advantage is what keeps them around. Math is hard, asking questions is easy. In a debate, the truther will pepper the skeptic with questions, but it will often take a minimum of five minutes to fully answer any one question. The audience in this situation is left with a few answered questions but a long string of unanswered ones. Often these questions are new, to the skeptic, as new questions are easy to make up.

Screw Loose Change.

The great advantage that skeptics have is that the conspirators write down, make films and write blogs about their theories. The conspiracy nut knows asking questions is not enough, they need to have their conclusions public. This gives the Skeptic the upper hand. Point by point, they answer the questions, prove that what the theorist says is impossible is not only possible but likely. The Skeptics have been relentless, no question remains unanswered. If you can keep your mind free of conclusions, and truly want answers follow the link below.

Links to the truth

Dr. Gary Schwarts ~ Review

2009-08-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

I first met Dr. Gary Schwartz at the Eugene Skeptic Toolbox in 2001. Actually I didn't meet him but was introduced to his “research” by Ray Hyman who runs the Toolbox every August. Hyman had been invited to spar with Schwartz at his lab at the University of Arizona¹ where Schwartz is a tenured professor. Which means he can not easily be removed from the teaching staff. Schwartz and his wife, Dr. Linda Russek run the Human Energy Systems Laboratory (HESL) which is a fancy name for laboratory looking for mediums. A part of the Toolbox involves workshops that read and discuss themed assignments. That year the theme was Talking to the Dead & Other Transcendental Seductions, Hyman used the current published journal articles that Schwarts and Russek produced in 2001.

We spent many hours tearing though the papers and frankly were shocked at the naivety of the researchers. The mediums that were being tested were clearly in charge of the testing. Some lived with Schwartz, socializing with the sitters, and in full contact with the other mediums. The controls were anything but. It was a total embarrassment for the University of Arizona and for paranormal research.

Now fast forward to 2009 and I am introduced to more recent work by Schwartz and his assistant Dr. Beischel by a supporter called “MrEvidential” on Mark Edward's Skeptologist blog.² I was really pleased to see Hyman's nemesis is still healthy and active, enough so that his supporters are pasting his journal articles on skeptic blogs. I wondered if I might take a stab at understanding all the interest?

So before I read anything negative or positive about the publication I thought lets see if I can discover the problems that are sure to be inherent.³

ANOMALOUS INFORMATION RECEPTION BY RESEARCH MEDIUMS DEMONSTRATED USING A NOVEL TRIPLE-BLIND PROTOCOL⁴

Really cool title don't you think? I especially love this word that was used ad nauseum throughout the article, “discarnate”. Which seems to mean “dead person”⁵ This idea of “other fit” or “fit with interpretation” that seems to be a general catch-all. Here are a few things that jumped out at me...

Skeptics and non-believers were not allowed to participate as sitters, not sure why that would have any relevance, but it was included in the document.

Then there is the bigger problem of how this was supposed to work…let me just quickly explain how this experiment was done. They call it being triple-blinded…

16 sitters are selected (believers or semi-believers all undergrad students) half have had a parent die, the other half had a close friend die. The dead (called discarnates)were grouped together by gender.

The “medium” was at home on the phone.

The place-holding sitter is selected to just sit in the lab.

Everyone has no idea who anyone is or anything about the dead person who is trying to be reached. The people in charge are also blinded.

The medium calls the lab, is given the first name only of two dead people (one is a parent of the sitter the other a friend of the sitter) Remember the sitter is at home doing whatever (they could be cleaning the house or asleep that is not clear) The medium is “talking” to a place-holding sitter at the lab (the place-holder knows nothing about the dead persons except the first names). The medium gives a reading about both dead people.

The reading is transcribed and importing telling info is gleaned out (info that would give away age, location ect.) then both readings are given to the sitter. The sitter selects either reading A or reading B as being closest to their dead person.

The conclusion the researched is that more sitters selected the correct dead person’s reading than by chance.

————-

Here’s what I’m really having problems with, maybe you can help me here…

The medium is “reading” a name given to them that is the true name of someone dead, Mary or Alice or something. The sitter to which the dead person is connected is not on the other end of the phone, they are off somewhere else possibly bathing their dog. So explain how the medium is doing a reading without a subject and without an object or anything to latch on to? How are they not just doing a cold-reading? I just don’t get it.

Again, this study means nothing unless it can be replicated by other experimenters. I would also like to see how the transcripts were gleaned for info. It almost sounds like the sitter had a 50% chance to select their reading? Arn’t those pretty good odds?

Oh yeah, I’m not sure these comments are fitting of PhD's doing real science, “Moreover, given the controversial nature of mediumship and the survival of consciousness hypothesis as well as the unexplored biases of most traditional scientists regarding concepts that do not adhere to conventional theories, it is understandable why such studies are rarely reported in conventional journals.”⁶

So now there are my comments, not exactly amazing. But then again I'm not a scientist (nor do I play one on TV). There are more scientific minds out there, so with a few keystrokes I found a critique on the Skeptic's Dictionary.⁷ Carroll calls his review, A Novel Way to Make an Ass of Yourself: Gary Schwartz Rides Again. Touching I think.

Apparently Carroll knows something I don't about this experiment I don't know, “Schwartz avoids one common criticism of his past experiments: the mediums do not come in contact with the sitters. But the mediums, he says, feel comfortable with somebody on the other end of the phone line when they do their readings, so he incorporated "proxy sitters," namely himself and his assistant. The proxies ask questions of the mediums during the phone readings. What part of experimenters should not participate in their own experiments because they might bias the process doesn't he understand? “⁸

So as I mentioned earlier, “Interesting concept: a student who has lost a parent is given a pair of readings to rate, one for his parent and one for a "peer" and the one for the peer is a "control." Each student reviewing the readings given to them (count two readings) has a 50% chance of getting the correct reading. Hum. Carroll also points out that 1,600 students were gleaned for the the chance to be a sitter, only believers or sorta believers were allowed. Were these people biased towards psychics? Sounds like bias to me.

In conclusion, I don't know what to think. Sounds like the experimenters still don't have a sound protocol despite having done a triple-blind study (whatever that is supposed to mean). Carroll clearly has knowledge beyond what I read in the article as I didn't get that the “stand-in sitters” were actually Schwartz and Beischel. I must have missed something about the odds, the real sitters were only given two choices to pick from which is a 50% chance of getting it right or wrong. I can't imagine the Keystone Cops being that inept, feel free to point out the error of my ways....

Susan

1From what I understood then the University of Arizona is extremely embarrassed to have Dr. Schwartz on their campus and use a disclaimer on their website that they do not support his findings. I'm too lazy to see if this disclaimer still exists.

2http://skepticblog.org/2009/08/25/everbodys-an-expert/#comment-11974

3Yes, yes I know. I'm supposed to be open-minded about paranormal research. But based on Schwartz's track record and the added fact that CNN had not announced that science as we know it has not been overturned I felt that there would be problems somewhere.

4 http://www.windbridge.org/papers/BeischelEXPLORE2007vol3.pdf Beischel, J., & Schwartz, G. E. (2007). Anomalous information reception by research mediums demonstrated using a novel triple-blind protocol. Explore: The Journal of Science & Healing, 3, 23–27.

5Even this spell checker never heard of the word discarnate.

6How many studies would there have to be published to have rarely used?

7http://skepdic.com/essays/novelway.html

8My bolding

Where have All the Skeptics Gone?

2009-08-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

I am sure may of you are wondering if this group is still functioning, in fact you may well be skeptical that it exists. I can assure you that it does and we have some exciting activities planned for the months ahead. You will just have to continue your skepticism about that for a while longer; as things get a little more definite we will start sharing with the whole group.

I have a contact working for the Carmel Respiratory theater, I have been informed that the author of "The Secret" Rhonda Brine, or one of the co-authors is planning some type of a talk in Carmel. I have not been able to verify this or find out a date. However, this is the type of event that we may want to talk about attending, blogging about or just having a good old time making fun of. As soon as I receive verification I'll let you all know.

One thing I would like to start doing is to set up regular meetings. So for we have had some great dinners, and the discussions are lively and entertaining. What I am thinking of is setting of a regular meeting time at a local Pub, so everyone can set aside one day on the calendar for a "Skeptics in The Pub" type affair. I would like to propose the
second Tuesday of the month at 7:00 P.M. This is the time to have your voice heard on this. If Tuesdays do not work for you and another day is better. Also I would like to hear suggestions with regard to a venue, many of the "Skeptics in the Pub" feature speakers, and entertainment, so thinking to the future, we may want to find a place with at least a small stage of some sorts.

We are always interested in suggestions on how to make this group more interesting, fun and lively. It has been a busy summer and hard to keep up with everything else.

Thanks

Steve
(831) 275-0049

Ben Goldacre on The Now Show

2009-08-10T15:38:00.001-07:00

Tells the real story behind science journalism.

On Feminists and Burkas

2009-08-08T17:59:00.001-07:00

This reminds me of the woman who was sitting next to me on the Red eye to Hartford. She was wearing a friggen tent, looked uncomfortable as all hell.

The G hunters: Episode 1, part 1

2009-08-03T20:26:00.001-07:00

THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT THREATENS US ALL!

2009-07-17T22:19:00.001-07:00

Jesus has a mullet, well I am convinced by these guys. New age is wac!!!!

Shit man our crock of shit is better then your crock of shit.

Crazy Indian Video Just What does It Mean?

2009-07-13T22:16:00.001-07:00

Everyone has by now heard of the Cheetos shaped like Michael Jackson. And of course the stories that hit the news of Jesus being spotted on a slice of toast, or loaf of bread or even the Jesus Cheetos.

What does that have to do with the Crazy Indian Video by Buffalaxed? Well It is the same phenomenon, which we call pareidolia. Only in this case it is our ears which deceive us and not our eyes.

One example we here on the central coast can all see is Our Lady of Watsonville. I first saw this many years ago when I took my kids fishing some time around 1993. We had been going to Pinto Lake in Watsonville for years because they would stock the lake with trout every other week and the kids would have a great chance of catching something. Well one day the place was swamped. Where there were usually 50 people at most here were hundreds. All to see this:

It is tree bark and I used to fish under that very tree, not knowing that I was being watched over by an image of...well by bark. Anyway, the park was turned into a shrine in short order, and it was impossible to catch fish, much less find a parking spot. So many trout have been saved from my frying pan. Who knew.

I will have to grab my fishing pole and take a treck out there some day and see if the fish are still protected. After all these years there could be some good sized trout in that little lake.

Rethinking Autism: No Link

2009-07-10T16:42:00.001-07:00

As Featured @ Tam 7 Rethinking autism

Live Stream Of TAM

2009-07-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Godless Comedy from That Mitchell and Webb Look

2009-07-08T11:52:00.001-07:00

This is an great answer to the Michael Jackson Cheetos, or Jesus on a Loaf of bread, even Allah in a side of pork.

UFO from WW2 Documentary

2009-07-04T14:16:00.001-07:00

On the show Battlefields ''Battle for North Africa'' on the Military channel I saw this. At 1:15 something odd shows up. The Question is what is that flying in the back ground. Is this really a Korea War era clip? Or is that a time traveling chopper. this is all the info I have on this, it was supposed to be film form WW2. And everything else looks consistent.

NorCal Paranormal Investigators, Inc.

2009-07-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

BREAKING NEWS
Apparently this event is canceled. Did they realize no ghosts would actually show?

The Northern California ghost hunters have been in and are returning to Monterey. They will hosting at the:

NorCal Paranormal Conference, being held July 17-19 at the Monterey Marriott.

Brian Harnois and Donna LaCroix of the paranormal television shows "Ghost Hunters" and "Ghost Hunters International," will also be in attendance, along with other spooky guests.

Tickets start at $81.

For more info here is the article printed in the Herald.

Of course as a Skeptic Group The Monterey County Skeptics will make them selves available to answer any questions and to aid in any investigations upon request.

This appears to be a well seasoned group; I am sure they will all tell you that they; are or were skeptics. So I am sure they would want to convince a few current skeptics, right?

Two Joy Colangelo Slap Downs in One Week

2009-06-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

Joy is getting the attention she deserves. After another inane opinion piece

called Wrong path from farm to pharm

Joy asserts:

We have zombie farms, dead systems made to look alive with subsidized tax money. And who pays for health care that exists only to repair the damage done by our farming and eating practices?

Lucky we have a voice of reason:

Steve Fennimore is an extension specialist for weed control with the University of California-Davis in Salinas. He does research on weed management in conventional and organic crops throughout coastal California.

Human beings must eat every day, and agriculture is the most practical way to make food from photosynthesis. Conventional and organic crops require protection from diseases, insects and weeds. Agriculture keeps us from starvation, but this is easily forgotten in any supermarket. Hunting and gathering are the alternative to agriculture, and when hungry, humans will eat most anything, including snakes. We'll get back to snakes.

He takes on Joy HERE.

And here in a letter to the Ed we have:

The Joy Colangelo Flu, i.e., the issuance of dire health consequences without giving the reader any authoritative sources.

From HERE.

Of course she has been a fav of mine HERE and HERE

Doctor Mehmet Oz, Standing on the Sholders Of Giants

2009-06-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Or is he squatting?

I first came across Dr. Oz when he was involved in the ABC disaster on John of God, covered here.
Because of the way this program aired it is impossible to tell if Dr. Oz is full of woo or if ABC just made him sound that way. James Randi was not happy about how his interview was shown, who is to say if DR Oz was misrepresented. Well Dr Oz to my knowledge has not distanced himself from his statements. Such as:

"Crawfish regrow their nerves, right? Maybe there are things that we could harvest in our psyche that allows us to do it as well."

So it is pretty clear that Dr. Oz has some odd ideas.

The show came out in 2005 and I wanted to review it, to get exact quotes, I lost enough brain cells the first time I watched it, not nearly enough to make me want second go round at $29.95. which is what ABC wants for the DVD.

I have only come across Dr. Oz one other time, he appeared on Oprah. I have only seen Oprah three times, so I am not sure how typical this was. I was impressed with him, very personable he mostly gave good advice, although his roll was to make the audience of mostly women giggle.

He was talking about erectile dysfunction. He stayed away from causes, and cures, but stuck with ways a man could self diagnose. You see the man takes a roll of stamps and put them around his "thingy" before going to bed. If the roll is broken in the morning, than the man is able to achieve an erection. (giggle giggle, pan cam to Oprah).
I guess the audience would not have reacted favorably to the more common method, porn. But it gave Oprah a camera hugging moment that she seems to adore.

In looking for some other Dr. Oz gems, I came across an interview, he did on Speaking of Faith Radio.

So, Dr. Oz comes off as a man of faith. With the belief that all faith is equal and just as relevant as any other faith. Don't forget energy, chi...he does bring Einstein in at one point, but dose not use the Quantum comparison, although I felt he was itching to.

His Quote that got me was this:

Dr. Oz: I think there are many more opportunities for younger physicians to get that exposure. In part because the generation before us was still striving to figure out the basics of how to keep folks alive using science.

In 1955, you would not have had heart surgery because we couldn't do it. In 2005, I can do two operations in the morning and be on a radio show in the afternoon.

(you can just see the nurse as he leaves the OR below.)

OZ:So the game has gotten more complicated. And because we have the honor of standing on the shoulders of our forebears, at least in medicine, we can see further. I can see the mountain in the distance. I can dream about things that they didn't have the luxury of dreaming of because patients were dying in front of them for reasons that they thought they could easily fix. People don't die in front of us today for easily fixable reasons, and for that pushes us to look a little further for true healing.

The problem is that Dr. Oz is not really looking forward, he is looking back. Back to superstition, and ignorance. He says the most important thing is to not harm the patient, that what ever alternative treatment the patient wants is OK if it does no harm. So I guess it needs testing and all that science stuff first right? No, OK burn the witch, she is made of wood and will not feel a thing.

Not so much, standing on the shoulders of greatness he is squatting down to lose a great turd.

Oprah will give him a show soon, and we can all look forward to finding ways to play with our stamps.

Including his well-known coffee enema

2009-06-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

I was reading the letters to the editor in my local paper when I see this,

Mainstream medicine is No. 1 killer in U.S.

Strong stuff, must be backed up by facts. No simply a well debunked "study". More of the same.

No, it is a plea, a plea to the Herald not to print "Hit Pieces From Big Pharmacology"

The "Hit Peace was part of a serious of articles" which point out the horrific results of leaving mainstream Medicine for ALT Med. Which has not proven to do a thing.

patients leave for alt med.
============================================================================

With much of her lower body consumed by cancer, Leslee Flasch finally faced the truth: The herbal supplements and special diet were not working.
In this photo taken on April 29, 2008, Dr. Lodovico Balducci gestures during an interview at... Expand
In this photo taken on April 29, 2008, Dr. Lodovico Balducci gestures during an interview at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. He said one of his patients must have been in "excruciating pain" by the time she sought conventional treatment after supplements and a special diet failed to stop her cancer. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) Collapse
"I want this thing cut out from me. I want it out," she told her family.
But it was too late. Her rectal cancer — potentially curable earlier on — had invaded bones, tissue, muscle, skin. The 53-year-old Florida woman could barely sit, and constantly bled and soiled herself.
"It was terrible," one doctor said. "The pain must have been excruciating."
Flasch had sought a natural cure. Instead, a deadly disease ran its natural course. And the herb peddlers who sold her hope in a bottle?
===============================================================================
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0609/630074.html
===============================================================================
"I grew these giant mushrooms and made tea from them," Gaines said. "I soaked my feet in this solution that turned them purple," for which her sister and a friend paid $2,500. "They got it from a guy named Ralph in Cheyenne, Wyoming."

Her acupuncturist tried a therapy.

"She would just hit on a gong, basically, and I would lie there and just absorb the vibrations. The idea was that that functions on your immune system," Gaines said. "What I liked about it was being able to picture something that might be helping on a level that wasn't chemical."

She drew the line when, as she lay in the hospital, bald from chemotherapy and shaking from low blood-cell counts, "my friend came in and said I've got to swim with dolphins. I almost smacked her across the room."

=================================================================================
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_he_me/us_med_remedies_prostate_cancer_2
=================================================================================
didn't think they were medications. They're not prescription, they're not drugs. This is all natural substances, made from natural products," he explained.
But he told the dietitian the truth. She was alarmed, and at his next visit, "She had a file ready for me," Palella said. She said that some of his herbal pills could interfere with hormone treatments for his cancer, and showed him a recent medical study raising concern about that.
"It scared the hell out of me. I thought, 'I'm not helping things here,'" Palella said.
He cleaned out his medicine cabinet.
"I thought I was really doing a great thing and strengthening my immune system," he said. "I feel so stupid."

So who is Howard Straus?

He appears to be living quite well on ALT MED.

Dr. Max Gerson: Healing The Hopeless
by Howard Straus (the grandson of Max Gerson).

Book Description
Life story of controversial health care pioneer, Dr. Max Gerson,
including his dietary and detox therapies for treating cancer and
chronic disease, including his well-known coffee enema. (Snip) The
Gerson Institute in San Diego, CA, and the Gerson Clinic in Mexico, both
founded by his daughter, Charlotte Gerson, still thrive.

About the Author
Howard Straus is the grandson of Max Gerson. He lives in Carmel,
California.

So what does he Say?

"The AP article Monday on the potential risks of alternative medicine tells
such a one-sided story that it appears to be a "hit" piece from the competition: allopathic medicine." <---So you are now dropping the pretense of Complementary good, it only served to confuse. Here is something for you, Science does not have sides, Science is a process, by which we determine what is true. If An Alt cure is proven to work it becomes science. If an Alt Cure is proven not to work, someone tries harder to sell it. If A science based medicine is proven not to work or has unacceptable side effects, it is pulled from the market. We are often told that heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes are our top four killers. That is a deliberate distortion: They are our top four disease killers.<-- -Okay, they kill disease by killing the host? Huh? I do not think he is saying what he wants to say. By numbers gathered from mainstream medical journals and government databases, Carolyn Dean and Gary Null showed in a carefully researched article ("Death by Medicine") that our medical system kills more than 784,000 Americans annually. <-- -Try making head or tales of this study, big news, it is derivative, or should we say cherry picked? This number is not vague, nor is it speculation about possible consequences; this number represents actual deaths that have occurred, without question, and have been tabulated and published. <---right 3.14 that's a vague number, and I personally have had problems with 17, just way to vague. Yes real deaths, however they are derivative of studies from 1976 derived to work in 2001. Sorry, it does not work that way. Usually citing congress not medical journals. Because we know the government always get it right. Vioxx alone killed an estimated 144,000 people and caused injury to millions. Gardasil has killed at least 33 young women and permanently injured thousands more. <---and this would be significant if true but it's again not. if it were not for the fact that it was Science that made this conclusion and pulled the drug from the market. Science is all about learning and correcting mistakes. Unlike Alt Med which is about perpetuating myth. Unless you wish to be seen to be blatant propagandists for allopathic medicine, you should present the complete picture, not just press releases from pharmaceutical companies. <---In other words be fair and balanced. We are being denied the Voodoo side of the story, we are being denied the witchdoctors wisdom, we are being denied the faith healers perspective, we are being denied the Jon of God, stick a forceps in your nose to cure your cancer view. Yes Bias sucks. But science is not ruled by what "feels good" but by what is proven to work. Storm by Tim Minchin: "Alternative Medicine is be definition; medicine which has not been proven to work or has been proven not to work.
Do you know what they call Alternative Medicine which is proven to work? Medicine.
Storm.

$2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found

2009-06-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

$2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found
BETHESDA, Md. - Ten years ago the government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do.

I feel the need for a little Storm.

Beem Me Up Scotty

2009-06-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

I have seen it all, no more for me, time to declare victory. I am going to collect my cookies and go home. The Monterey County Herald Put a Skeptical Article on the Front page!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am in heaven Sort of. Alternative medicine goes mainstream

OK so they picked it up from the AP.

and yes ORAC tears is a new asshole.

But Please stop me before I kill my buzz...
BALTIMORE – At one of the nation's top trauma hospitals, a nurse circles a patient's bed, humming and waving her arms as if shooing evil spirits. Another woman rubs a quartz bowl with a wand, making tunes that mix with the beeping monitors and hissing respirator keeping the man alive.

Too late.

Paranoia Strikes Deep

2009-06-06T11:37:00.001-07:00

Are there no squirrels in D.C.? Why are the nut running loose?

Study find's chiropractor visits are not all they are cracked up to be.

2009-06-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest finding is that there is a serious lack of controlled studies on such a controversial practice. One would think that the profession would be lining up the prove the the world that what the do is real. It appears not to be the case. To gather data took a lot of digging. From Science-Based Medicine... Relax she does not say bogus so the British cannot sue.

Truthers Protest George Bush in Calgary!10/13

2009-05-30T16:59:00.001-07:00

And then we have this Oh my my Oh hell yes

Watch Expelled with subtitles correcting the lies!

2009-05-30T00:05:00.001-07:00

I can watch it now!!!!

combatting the oprah effect

2009-05-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Posted on: May 29, 2009 9:00 AM, by Orac

I don't much like Oprah Winfrey.

I know, I know, it's a huge surprise to anyone who reads this blog, but there you go. Over the last four years, I've had numerous reasons to be unhappy with her, mainly because, as savvy a media celebrity and businesswoman as she is, she has about as close to no critical thinking skills when it comes to science and medicine as I've ever seen. Arguably there is no single person in the world with more influence pushing woo than Oprah. Indeed, she puts Prince Charles to shame, and Kevin Trudeau's is a mere ant compared to the juggernaught that is Oprah's media empire. No one even comes close. No one, and I mean no one, brings pseudoscience, quackery, and antivaccine madness to more people than Oprah Winfrey does. Naturally, she doesn't see it that way and likely no one could ever convince her of the malign effect she has on the national zeitgeist when it comes to science and medicine, but that's exactly what she does.

READ ORAC HERE

Modern Day Jesus - Olivia Munn

2009-05-27T22:22:00.001-07:00

Jesus gets Lucky

Little Red Riding Hood

2009-05-26T11:38:00.001-07:00

I Promise No More Jenny Bashing But this is too good.

2009-05-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

I lie will bash as long as I can. And now to spread this Video.

Four Monterey County Students Going to Science Fair

2009-05-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Monterey County will be represented by four students at the upcoming
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The MontereyHearld chose to run this story on the opinion page. We thank the Herald for running the story, however be it sports, arts or science, when our kids achieve, we want more than a paragraph in the opinion section. See it here.

Best of luck to the four Monterey County students headed off this week to the world series of science fairs, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, this week in Reno, Nev. Raves, too, to their parents, teachers, principals, lab partners, etc., for their contributions. Already winners are Dylan Freedman of Carmel High School, Alyssa Dougherty from Santa Catalina and the team of Matthew Stanton and Matthew Heydemann of York School.

The Here After

2009-05-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

...
Suddenly everything changed, things started to look up, and I could feel Debbie relaxing; all because of what Bob said, next;”Did you know that the Bible is the perfect word of our God?" "It is true", he went on, "and we are going to see a man who will pay $5,000.00 dollars to anyone who can show him one single contradiction in the Bible."

I looked and Debbie, and saw that sweet smile on her face, the one that never failed to turn my knees to jelly. Jelly knees or not, I knew she was counting our money already. She after all she knew her Bible front and back, she was my version of The Skeptics Annotated Bible only in a sweeter package, and that my English teacher had recently assigned the short story "Espinoza on Market Street". She and I had been on a tear through philosophy, Kant, Descartes, Lock, Augustine, and of course Spinoza; these had replaced "The Lord of the Rings" as our favorite topic of discussion, we had discussed it all, we were stoked, loaded for bear, ready to rumble, at the cliché limit. For the rest of the ride, I ignored the inane patter coming from Bob and Lisa. Thinking where to start? So many contradictions to choose from and with Debbie to back me, how could we lose.

We arrived in Unionville and pulled into a movie theater, the parking lot was full, somewhat confused, Debbie and I extracted our self's from the back seat of the VW. Bob and Lisa led us inside and told us to grab seats in the back of the noisy and very full theater. They it seems had reserved seats in the front row and would see us when the "service" was over.

The lights went down, the music started, and it was magic time. A tall well dressed man appeared on stage, the curtain opened and a choir appeared. Suddenly the people around us went quiet then as if all reading from a script to which we were not privy, all hands went to the air, we could hear the preacher words which seemed to mesmerize the crowd, it was as if he were pulling strings in an great puppet show, people swayed to his commands, but he did not make commands, and we could hear hundreds of "Amen’s" and "praise be to God", "Jesus is the way" and the like. The Preachers words were meaningless recantations, but the puppet show went on, some went on to the stage only to fall and flail about. Others collapsed in place; the words of the preacher and the music ever so slowly were building in volume and intensity. Everyone around us seemed to be both in great pain and orgasmic pleasure at the same time...and the flailing became more widespread...and the music started to reach a peak...

Debbie slapped me hard, then pointed out a group of people, all dressed in white who appeared suddenly then took up positions at each row, all of them holding buckets, as the preachers voice started to rise I could make out the words more distinctly. It was urgent and demanding, we were to give whatever we had to the lord our God, God needed money and lots of it. I burst out laughing; Debbie grabbed my hand and pulled me outside.

"Goddamn" She said. "Fire up a joint".
...

The rest of the Story is here.

We used to protect our young. Vaccaniate or Or be a Killer.

2009-05-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have had whooping cough It's not a "bad cough".

Swine Flu Prevention

2009-05-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Stop Doing This Now!!!!

Alternitive Baggage Handlers

2009-05-02T23:26:00.001-07:00

Turk to DiamondBack

2009-05-02T19:43:00.001-07:00

Where's Waldo?

2009-04-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is an actual logo designed in 1973 for the Catholic Church's Archdiocesan Youth Commission. It even won an award from the Art Directors Club of Los Angeles."

From

Jenny McCarthy Body Count project

2009-04-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

In any discussion involving science or medicine--and especially vaccines--citing any material published by Generation Rescue or Age of Autism as a credible source loses you the argument immediately ...and gets you laughed right out of the room.

By Orac's law, I hereby declare that Dr. Healy should be laughed out of the room.

FDA List of Weight Loss Pills That May Work!!!

2009-04-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

The FDA has found a total of 69 weight loss supplements sold on the internet, health food stores and alt med practitioners, which can promote weight loss, death, and adverse reactions to other medications HERE.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expanding its nationwide alert to consumers about tainted weight loss pills that contain undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients. On December 22, 2008, FDA warned consumers not to purchase or consume 28 different products marketed for weight loss. Since that time, FDA analysis has identified 41 more tainted weight loss products that may put consumers’ health at risk.

Of course it is possible that the FDA is in the pocket of Big Pharma, and the reason that these active ingredients are not listed on the label is so the supplement industry can provide you with an alternative. Which is why they do not mention the sibutramine, rimonabant and the all time favorite phenolphthalein (a solution used in chemical experiments and a suspected cancer causing agent). Or it could be that the manufactures of these products know they are selling junk that does not work so they are spiking them with known medications?

I am going with; they are greedy bastards who will do anything for a buck.

Is Alternative Medicine Enough?

2009-03-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

Why stop with medicine? Anything that can be done can have an alternative:

Announcing:

Live NUDE Psychics!!!

2009-03-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

From The Boston Globe to the L.A.Times the message is clear

Psychics Are Hot in America's Age of Anxiety

Yes folks step up and see the new face of psychics. So they failed to see the economic collapse coming, or so you think. And thinking my be your problem.

So for a small fee they are willing to give up the secrets of being psychic!!!

But hold on just skeptical minute...
Why is it that all the hot psychics are only on the Phone?

Is it because psychics have such a difficult life? How would you like to go through live purposely and with great foresight not winning the lottery? Everyday is a struggle not warning the world about economic and natural disasters, can take a toll on the poor psychic.

Psychics are doomed to go through life not winning the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge, and between book deals telling everyone why you do not need the money.

Is it any surprise that if you did get a live NUDE psychic she would most you would get a Sylvia Browne?

So besides being a wrong no matter how you look, the term "psychics are hot" is more a sign of piss poor reporting.

Almost all the Articles have one thing in common, the only evidence that psychics are doing well, are the quotes from the psychics! And after all if the psychics had said two years ago that sub-prime mortgages were a really bad idea would you have believed them?

Ben against the nutters

2009-03-11T23:57:00.000-07:00

Ben Goldacre On talk in London Tonight About MMR

If you have not heard his Podcasts or read his Blog Bad Science

You are missing out. Big time.

Can We Just UnVaccinate the Anti-vaccination Gang?

2009-02-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

From Canada, once again showing us that they are more than big place holder keeping Wisconsin safe from Polar bears, and such. They remind us why we get our children Vaccinated.

Oric's Respectful Insolence Does a number on the Anti-vaccination movement.

I am working on a post about Psychics and the economic crisis, a hint:they see an upside.

Good News and lots of bandwidth on the vaccination front.

2009-02-14T02:56:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON(AP) - A special court has ruled against parents with autistic
children, saying that vaccines are not to blame for their children's
neurological disorder.

A win for the good guys!!!

Also the Doctor who started the entire Autism scare admitted, to an British court, he falsified the data. Of course the deniers are claiming foul, as they need the falsified data to be real.

And the biosphere has been burning up with the battle between, the Medical Journalist Ben Goldarce,
whose writes one of the best Blogs running Bad Science, and a vaccine denier by the name of Jeni Barnet. Read it here.

And finally a bizarre story from South America. Urine injection kills Bolivian woman

Ok what is wrong with people!

I really should not have to say this but if some one says, drink this Urine, Or I am going to inject you with urine...The correct answer is "NO WAY IN HELL" this is not something you need to be Skeptical of...I am telling you now, do not put Urine in your mouth unless your 1.Way kinky, in which case good luck with that. 2. Stuck on a raft in the middle of the ocean. And no matter how kinky or thirsty you are a urine injection is a bad idea.

Thank you this is the last time I want to hear about this, EVER.

Darwin and Lincon Celibration At Cabrillo College

2009-02-14T00:56:00.000-08:00

On February 12 two great men celebrated their Birthdays. Abraham Lincoln And Charles Darwin. Cabrillo Collaged hosted a round table discussion by three emanate scholars; historians Carlos Mujal, Michael Mangin, and biologist Robin McFarland from the University of California Monterey bay and Cabrillo College. Hosted by Cabrillos own Paul Harvell . Paul led off the discussion with the question which was on the minds of most of one hundred or so attendees: Aside from the accident of birth, what ties these two great men together?

For the next hour and half, we treated to three wonderful talks about the lives and passions of these two men, how they influenced history and our current place in the world. We also were treated to some other Historians and anthropologists, in the audience who had some very insightful questions and answers.

However, the question of what would bond these two men together was never broached. Towards the end of the talk Paul again attempted to find a bridge by asking the panel if there were a third person who would also, belong in the cerebration, birthday not withstanding, and they would hold in the same esteem. Two of panelists came up with Carl Marks, the third mentioned a Monk scientist, whose name I did not catch but who appeared to be a crowd favorite.

Unfortunately, the panel broke up at that point and I was not able to interject what I feel is the obvious choice , Mark Twain.

Although I cannot think of any of Twain's writing which directly mentions Darwin or Lincoln for that matter, he did expose the incorrect interpretation of Darwinism and champion the cause of not only the former slave in the US; he also humanized and championed the cause of people living under European imperialism. In the United States, "Social Darwinism", was used to justify win at any cost capitalism. In his Novel The Gilded Age And there is the courage to do what no one else had done and possibly never done as well, regenerating the forward motion of black Americans. He made it OK again to be a proponent of black Americans by the simple words Spoken by Huck Finn, "Alright then I'll go to hell". Which is the point of the story where Huck realizes the slave Jim is not just property, but a man and a friend. Lincoln may have freed the slaves, but "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" make us realize their humanity.

Darwin And Lincon Day

2009-02-09T22:35:00.000-08:00

Cabrillo College

Departments of Biology and History

Present

A Special Community Forum

Commemorating

the 200^th Birthdays of

Charles Darwin & Abraham Lincoln

Thursday, February 12, 2009

7:00-9:00 pm

Sesnon House, Aptos Campus

6500 Soquel Drive. Free parking available.

Join us for a round-table discussion of the lives, work, and extraordinary legacy of these two giants of modern history. The panel will include historians Carlos Mujal, Michael Mangin, and biologist Robin McFarland.

Weird Science

2009-02-02T14:39:00.001-08:00

by John Mount

The Monterey County Weekly's cover story this week, called Weird Science, is about some interesting new health care happenings in town. There is an excellent piece on CHOMP's hyperbaric chamber, including a welcome comment from Rehabilitation Director Alain Claudel. He responds to writer Jessica Lyon's question, "What about people wanting to breathe 100 percent oxygen to look younger and reverse signs of aging, à la Michael Jackson?" with “No, we don’t do that. If you want to talk about oxygen bars, that’s a different story. They don’t work.”

It's nice to hear about an exciting, legitimate new avenue of health care, and to hear a brilliant health care professional denounce faddish pseudoscience. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, the Weekly can't seem to resist including some wackiness in its story, as usual. One of the stories is about a PG facility that specializes in irrational, unscientific, wasteful health care quackery. So I have put together a bit of a primer on most of the specific methods and treatments mentioned in the article. It's too long for the Weekly site, so I am going to write a brief comment on their website and link to this blog post:

Weird Science

Certainly no one would like to be labeled a quack. However, neither credentials nor good intentions can make something true that is not. A quack isn’t necessarily someone who is out to deliberately hurt or defraud you. Dr. Stephen Barrett, a prominent expert on the subject, writes:

“All things considered, I find it most useful to define quackery as the promotion of unsubstantiated methods that lack a scientifically plausible rationale. Promotion usually involves a profit motive. Unsubstantiated means either unproven or disproven. Implausible means that it either clashes with well-established facts or makes so little sense that it is not worth testing.”

Unfortunately, virtually all of the so-called ‘holistic’ methods mentioned in this article qualify as medical quackery. The continued belief in them despite all scientific evidence to the contrary is illogical and irrational.

So let’s take a close look at some of the quack methods mentioned in this article. Of course, I can only offer a very brief glimpse at all the irrationality and the serious dangers associated with health care quackery in our community, but much more information is readily available – if you have the courage to challenge cherished but ridiculous beliefs.

(The following information was written by various authors, as identified in the links, and comes mainly from Quackwatch.org and Whatstheharm.net)

Ayurvedic Medicine

In 2003, a survey of Ayurvedic herbal products manufactured in South Asia and sold in Boston-area stores found that 14 of 70 products (20%) contained concentrations of lead, mercury, and/or arsenic that—if the products were taken according to directions—would exceed published regulatory standards. The authors also noted that Ayurvedic theory attributes important therapeutic roles to mercury and lead and that perhaps 35-40% of medicines in the Ayurvedic formulary contain at least one metal. The authors concluded that users of Ayurvedic medicine may be at risk for heavy metal toxicity, and testing of Ayurvedic HMPs for toxic heavy metals should be mandatory.

Several studies done in other countries have had similar findings. [Saper S and others. Heavy metal content of ayurvedic herbal medicine products. JAMA 292:2868-2873, 2004]

Because Ayurvedic medicine relies on nonsensical diagnostic concepts and involves many unproven products, using it would be senseless even if all of the products were safe.

http://quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/chopra.html

California. A woman aged 31 years visited an ED with nausea, vomiting, and lower abdominal pain 2 weeks after a spontaneous abortion. One week later, she was hospitalized for severe, persistent microcytic anemia with prominent basophilic stippling that was not improving with iron supplementation. A heavy metals screen revealed a BLL of 112 µg/dL; a repeat BLL 10 days later was 71 µg/dL, before initiation of oral chelation therapy. A ZPP measurement performed at that time was >400 µg/dL. Her husband's BLL was 6 µg/dL. No residential or occupational lead sources were identified, but the woman reported taking nine different ayurvedic medications prescribed by a practitioner in India for fertility during a 2-month period, including one pill four times daily. She discontinued the medications after an abnormal fetal ultrasound 1 month before her initial BLL. Analysis of her medications revealed 73,900 ppm lead in the pill taken four times daily and 21, 65, and 285 ppm lead in three other remedies. Her BLL was 22 µg/dL when she was tested 9.5 months after the initial BLL testing.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5326a3.htm

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Gerson Nutritional Therapy

Gerson Therapy is an absurd, long-since discredited cancer treatment that includes "detoxification" with coffee enemas, ozone enemas, massive quantities of juices made from fruits, vegetables, and raw calves' livers, and other arduous regimens. The treatment bears no relation to anything that is known about cancer or any other disease, and is itself toxic (Kimball C. Atwood, M.D.).

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Naturopathy/misrep.html)

In 1947, the NCI reviewed ten cases selected by Dr. Gerson and found his report unconvincing. That same year, a committee appointed by the New York County Medical Society reviewed records of 86 patients, examined ten patients, and found no evidence that the Gerson method had value in treating cancer. An NCI analysis of Dr. Gerson's book A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases concluded in 1959 that most of the cases failed to meet the criteria (such as histologic verification of cancer) for proper evaluation of a cancer case . A recent review of the Gerson treatment rationale concluded: (a) the "poisons" Gerson claimed to be present in processed foods have never been identified, (b) frequent coffee enemas have never been shown to mobilize and remove poisons from the liver and intestines of cancer patients, (c) there is no evidence that any such poisons are related to the onset of cancer, (d) there is no evidence that a "healing" inflammatory reaction exists that can seek out and kill cancer cells .

Between 1980 and 1986 at least 13 patients treated with Gerson therapy were admitted to San Diego area hospitals with Campylobacter fetus sepsis attributable to the liver injections . None of the patients was cancer-free, and one died of his malignancy within a week. Five were comatose due to low serum sodium levels, presumably as a result of the "no sodium" Gerson dietary regimen. As a result, Gerson personnel modified their techniques for handling raw liver products and biologicals. However, the Gerson approach still has considerable potential for harm. Deaths also have been attributed to the coffee enemas administered at the Tijuana clinic.

http://quackwatch.org/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&query=gerson

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Vitamin Infusions

The best way to avoid bad nutrition advice is to identify and avoid those who give it. I recommend steering clear of:

• Anyone who says that everyone needs vitamin supplements to be sure they get enough. Most people can get all the vitamins they need by eating sensibly.

• Anyone who suggests that most diseases are caused by faulty nutrition. Although some diseases are diet-related, most are not.

• Anyone who suggests that large doses of vitamins are effective against a large number of diseases and conditions. That is simply untrue.

• Anyone who suggests hair analysis as a basis for determining the body's nutritional state or for recommending vitamins and minerals. Hair analysis is not reliable for this purpose.

• Anyone who claims that a wide variety of symptoms and diseases are caused by "hidden food allergies"

• Anyone who uses a computer-scored "nutrient deficiency test" as the basis for prescribing vitamins. There are valid ways that computers can be used for dietary analysis. But those used for recommending vitamins are programmed to recommend them for everyone.

Any practitioner—licensed or not—who sells vitamins in his or her office. Scientific nutritionists do not sell vitamins. Unscientific practitioners often do—usually at a considerable profit.

http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/nutritionist.html

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Medical Acupuncture

The National Council Against Health Fraud has concluded:

• Acupuncture is an unproven modality of treatment.

• Its theory and practice are based on primitive and fanciful concepts of health and disease that bear no relationship to present scientific knowledge

• Research during the past 20 years has not demonstrated that acupuncture is effective against any disease.

• Perceived effects of acupuncture are probably due to a combination of expectation, suggestion, counter-irritation, conditioning, and other psychologic mechanisms.

• The use of acupuncture should be restricted to appropriate research settings,

• Insurance companies should not be required by law to cover acupuncture treatment,

• Licensure of lay acupuncturists should be phased out.

• Consumers who wish to try acupuncture should discuss their situation with a knowledgeable physician who has no commercial interest [21].

In 1990, the U.S. Secretary of Education recognized what is now called the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM) as an accrediting agency. However, such recognition is not based on the scientific validity of what is taught but upon other criteria [20]. Ulett has noted:

Certification of acupuncturists is a sham. While a few of those so accredited are naive physicians, most are nonmedical persons who only play at being doctor and use this certification as an umbrella for a host of unproven New Age hokum treatments. Unfortunately, a few HMOs, hospitals, and even medical schools are succumbing to the bait and exposing patients to such bogus treatments when they need real medical care.

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/acu.html

Acupuncture is one of the most popular complementary therapies in the world. Pneumothorax due to perforation of the lungs by needle insertion is one of the most common and serious complications of acupuncture treatment. Although there have been several case studies of pneumothorax induced by acupuncture, as far as we know there have been no reports on the pathological findings of autopsy cases.In this report, we describe the pathological findings of an autopsy case of bilateral tension pneumothorax after acupuncture.

The patient suffered dyspnea and chest pain soon the completion of an acupuncture treatment, and died 90 min later. Several ecchymoses were macroscopically observed on the parietal pleura in the left and right thoracic cavity, suggesting that needles were inserted into the thoracic cavity and that the lungs were perforated. The many black spots we observed on the parietal pleura along the vertebral column microscopically consisted of a number of dust-like black pigments and macrophages containing these pigments. These spots seemed to have appeared because of the previous insertion of needles.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14568778

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Holistic Approach

Misconception #2: Alt-care providers look at the whole person.

In reality, alt-care providers have a narrow view of disease and its treatment. Acupuncturists place needles on imaginary "points," chiropractors are obsessed with manipulating the spine which according to chiropractic theory is a near-panacea. Naturopaths overemphasize dietary supplements, herbal remedies, and tend to focus on the colon. Homeopaths are supposed to pay attention to emotional complaints, but prescribe medications in the same manner as do regular physicians. Alt-care providers focus more upon patient satisfaction than regular doctors, but much of this is contrived. Practice management seminars teach DCs how to trick their patients into unneeded care, how to rope them for a lifetime of useless "preventive" care, and how to make them believe that chiropractic care is "working." Patient deception has been intricately described by sociologists who worked as chiropractic assistants [17].

Misconception #5: Alt-care is more "holistic."

Acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, and some types of massage therapy are rooted in vitalism, the theory that biological activities are directed by a supernatural force. Supernaturalism is the opposite of the naturalism upon which evidence-based medicine is based. Although most of the alt-care systems named claim to be "holistic," vitalism represents dualism, not holism. Vitalists believe in a Life Force that can exist apart from the physical body. Acupuncturists call the alleged force "chi," chiropractors call it "The Innate," homeopaths call it "vital energy," and naturopaths call it "vis medicatrix naturae." Some vitalists even interpret herb-induced hallucinations as "out of body" experiences. Some have said that the failure of a patient to respond to treatment meant that "the spirit has decided it is time to leave the body." Modern science is truly holistic because it holds that the "mind" is a functioning brain that is inseparable from its anatomy, not a metaphysical entity.

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/altmed.html

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Chiropractic

A comprehensive critique of chiropractic's lack of scientific validity was published by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Province of Quebec in 1963 and remains relevant today. It stated:

Chiropractors claim that subluxations, or partial displacements, of the vertebrae cause a perturbation of the distribution of nervous impulses to tissues and cells. Neurophysiologists have developed methods of recording the passage of impulses in nerves. Exceptionally sensitive apparatus is available to anyone wishing to use it. No scientific study has ever been published on the subject by a chiropractor. No chiropractor ever defined, either quantitatively or qualitatively, what chiropractic means by perturbation of nervous impulses. Is it their number, their amplitude, their frequency, or their wave patterns which are affected? All of these qualities can be identified, recorded, and studied. It is no longer permissible to accept empirical statements. Proof should have preceded practical application. With the first point untenable, the rest crumbles [2].

Chiropractors claim to relieve obstructions by readjusting the vertebrae through manipulation. Once the vertebral column has been realigned, they instruct the patient in methods of preventing a recurrence. There is no denying that the vertebral column can be influenced by mechanical means; some means, however, have been shown to be quite dangerous. The issue revolves around the fact that no chiropractor has ever produced an original study of scientific value on the subject. There is surely no lack of scolioses, kyphoses, and lordoses -- frank deviations of the vertebral column -- in the population. It is astonishing to find that in precisely these conditions which might be dramatically helped if the manipulative technique were valid, chiropractors neither evince a special interest nor claim a special success.

One is forced to conclude that chiropractic has no scientific foundation. Invented empirically, it has developed in the same unbroken empiricism, taking no account of even the most minimal requirements of scientific proof. The same is true of its methods of application; it remains an unproven hypothesis which should not be risked in the treatment of ill persons.

http://www.chirobase.org/05RB/CPSQ/02.html

Kristi sought relief from sinus headaches from her chiropractor. A neck manipulation caused a brain stem stroke and she died three days later. The chiropractor later paid a $1000 fine. Read more

http://whatstheharm.net/chiropractic.html

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Aromatherapy

Pleasant odors can be enjoyable and may enhance people's efforts to relax. However, there is no evidence that aromatherapy products provide the health benefits claims by their proponents.

http://quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/aroma.html

Los Angeles attorney Morsé Mehrban has won a civil lawsuit against Aroma Vera, Inc., a leading manufacturer of aromatherapy supplies and other personal-care products. The suit, filed in 1997, charged that the company and its president Marcel Lavabre had violated California's Business and Professions Code by making advertising false claims about many products. Mehrban disputed that the products can promote health and well-being, relax the body, relax the mind, enhance mood, purify the air, are antidotes to air pollution, relieve fatigue, tone the body, nourish the skin, promote circulation, alleviate feminine cramps, or do various other things claimed by the company.

http://quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/News/mehrban.html

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Ear Candling

Why Candling Can't Work

Since wax is sticky, the negative pressure needed to pull wax from the canal would have to be so powerful that it would rupture the eardrum in the process. However, candling produces no vacuum. Researchers who measured the pressure during candling of ear models found that no negative pressure was created. The same investigators candled eight ears and found that no ear wax was removed and candle wax was actually deposited in some of them! [3]

The notion that the ear canal is connected to structures beyond the eardrum is false. A review of a good anatomy book should dispel this notion. The external ear canal, with an intact eardrum, is not connected to the brain, the sinuses targeted by the procedure (those above your eyes), or the Eustacean tubes (the passageways between the internal ear and the back of the throat). While some claim that the eardrum is porous and quickly allows impurities to pass through, this is untrue. The "impurities" that appear in the collected wax (usually on a paper plate or other collecting device) are nothing more than the ashes from the burnt wick and wax of the cone itself.

Dangers Reported

Candling poses several dangers, the most serious of which involve burning caused by the hot wax. Candle manufacturers claim that their candles will drip only down the outside of the ear, but shamefully few direct the user to hold the candle horizontally to prevent this. A 1996 survey of 144 ear, nose, and throat physicians, found that 14 had seen patients who had been harmed by ear candling, including at least 13 cases of external burns, 7 cases of ear canal obstruction with candle wax, and 1 perforated eardrum [3].

Another case was reported by The London Free Press, a Canadian newspaper. A woman who experienced stuffiness in the nose and ear pains while scuba diving went to a local health-food store and was referred to a "qualified" candler. During the "treatment," she felt an intense burning in her ear. At the emergency room, attempts to remove wax that had dripped from the candle onto her eardrum failed. Surgery was required, and a hole in her eardrum was discovered, which presumably was caused by the procedure. She recovered fully, and luckily her hearing was not affected. The practitioner apologized, compensated the woman, and stopped performing ear coning.

http://quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/candling.html

Burned ear canal & drum, tinnitis
Summer 1999

Diane paid $25 for an ear candle treatment. Things did not go well, and it took a specialist four months to fully remove the dripped wax from her ear. She now has ringing in her ears which may be permanent. Read more

http://whatstheharm.net/earcandling.html

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Reflexology

The pathways postulated by reflexologists have no anatomic basis; and no well designed study has demonstrated that reflexology is effective against any disease. Done gently, reflexology is a form of foot massage that may help people relax temporarily. Whether that is worth $35 to $100 per session or is more effective than ordinary (noncommercial) foot massage is a matter of individual choice.

http://quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/reflex.html

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Reiki

• Reiki practitioners claim to harness and transmit "universal life energy" by placing their hands in specific positions on or near the body; or they can visualize special symbols that supposedly enable them to send "healing energy," even from far away [1].

The existence of "universal life energy" has not been demonstrated.

http://quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/massage.html

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Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique

Proponents claim that testing saliva pH [degree of acidity or alkalinity] can determine whether a person's symptoms are nutritionally or emotionally based and indicates whether the most effective method of care should be nutritional supplementation and/or adjustive. According to Morter literature:

The two principal sources of physiological toxins affecting patients are: (1) Over-consumption of Protein and (2) Imbalance of the body's timing system, caused by stresses such as trauma, toxicity and [negative] thoughts.

The recommended supplements include Alka•Green (a 100% barley juice concentrate recommended as the best "overall body alkalizer"), Alka•Slim ("the only weight reduction formula designed to alkalize and energize at the same time"), Alka•Pan (a pancreatic enzyme formula "designed to reduce stress in the body and aid digestion"), and several other products [8]. For babies, a mixture of raw goat milk, carrot juice, and distilled water is said to be "an excellent replacement for infant formulas." [2] The supplement products are also marketed through Nutrition for Life, a multilevel company that lists Morter as a consultant.

The above ideas are nonsensical. There is no reason to be concerned about the "acidity" or "alkalinity" of either the diet or the body. In the absence of serious disease, digestive and metabolic mechanisms maintain the cells of the body at their appropriate pH regardless of which foods are eaten. Unfortunately for babies, raw (unpasteurized) goat milk is unsafe because it can harbor dangerous bacteria

http://www.chirobase.org/06DD/best.html

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Aquacranial

Aquacranial Therapy seems to be basically cranialsacral therapy, in water.

The Scientific Viewpoint

I do not believe that craniosacral therapy has any therapeutic value. Its underlying theory is false because the bones of the skull fuse by the end of adolescence and no research has ever demonstrated that manual manipulation can move the individual cranial bones [10]. Nor do I believe that "the rhythms of the craniosacral system can be felt as clearly as the rhythms of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems," as is claimed by another Upledger Institute brochure [11]. The brain does pulsate, but this is exclusively related to the cardiovascular system [12], and no relationship between brain pulsation and general health has been demonstrated.

A few years ago, three physical therapists who examined the same 12 patients diagnosed significantly different "craniosacral rates," which is the expected outcome of measuring a nonexistent phenomenon [13]. Another study compared the "craniosacral rate" measured at the head and feet of 28 adults by two examiners and found that the results were highly inconsistent [14].

In 1999, after doing a comprehensive review of published studies, the British Columbia Office of Health Technology Assessment (BCOHTA) concluded that the theory is invalid and that practitioners cannot reliably measure what they claim to be modifying. The 68-page report concludes that "there is insufficient evidence to recommend craniosacral therapy to patients, practitioners, or third party payers." [15]

http://quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.html

Soylent Green Is People And Homeopathy is Water?

2009-01-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

As A skeptics, should we play the spoiler? Do we tell let out the secret,as Burt Lancaster did in "Soylent Green", that the substance, which is keeping them alive, is remains of their dead friends and relatives?

If you have not seen Soylent Green you can watch it on Google Videos here:
what's the harm?

From What's the Harm website:there are at least 435 people who were harmed by homeopathy.

So just what is Homeopathy? Isn't it just a more natural medicine? Yes it is natural but medicine it is not.

If you want to believe then do not watch the following. Otherwise I think I am finished here.

James Randi has a great explanation of homeopathy as follows:

Skepticism 101 - What is a Skeptic & Why does it matter? by John Mount

2009-01-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

Hello there! Welcome to the Monterey County Skeptics blog. You’ve come here for any number of reasons - maybe you followed a link; maybe your kid spilled grape jelly in your keyboard (raspberry takes you to UFO World); perhaps you’re a kindred spirit, an experienced skepticisimologist searching the web for new bits of wisdom (or checking to see if we’re actually a 9/11 Truther front group); you might be a pre-employment background investigator (if so, the opinions contained herein, while written by me, do not necessarily reflect my actual opinions or beliefs, if that’s any kind of a problem for my application); or perhaps you’re an evil troll trolling the web for ammunition for your evil troll duties, in which case, go away.

And some of you are possibly here to find out what a skeptic is. You are perhaps asking yourselves, what is a skeptic anyway, and why do I care? And other questions, like, what’s wrong with you stick-in-the-mud kill-joy party-poopers, anyway? What do you care if I find meaning and joy and value in iridology or tarot cards or astrology or psychics? Why do you make fun of my chiropractor when I know I feel better after an adjustment? How dare you say my particular brand of silliness doesn’t work, when it clearly does work for me! How does it hurt you if I believe in a god? What’s the harm? Mind your own business!! You must be miserable, hate-filled, joyless, and close-minded, and your world is sad, dreary, and limited. If you could only see that there is more in the universe than what is ‘dreamed of in your philosophy’. Or something like that. And then some of you might be tempted to quote Einstein (or Oprah) at me.

OK, fair questions, all. If you really want to know, well, I really want to tell you. This post is for those of you who want to know the basics about skepticism. If you’re here by mistake, then feel free to move along, no hard feelings. And don’t worry, I won’t be over here quietly working on secret legislation to empower the thought police to break down your doors and imprison you for drinking your Noni juice. Really. Don’t even think twice about that. You really don’t need to keep popping back in here to, you know, check.

One caveat - I am not an expert in any particular area of science or skepticism, or in anything else for that matter. There are people who know much more about everything than I do, and you can find them easily enough. This is my opinion, and my understanding of the things I profess to believe, and I think it’s a useful thing for our community to have a local blog resource . If you find an inaccurate sentence here or there, I’m totally blaming the editor. But one thing you’ll learn about skeptics is that they actually love it when you find out where they are wrong and tell them (nicely). We don’t just want to be right – we want to know the truth, even if that means we have to admit there really are bad things going on in those chemtrails. Or, contrails. Or even in the Kool Aid.

OK, first let’s define exactly what we’re talking about. What is a skeptic?

This is from the Skeptics Society website at skeptic.com:

Some people believe that skepticism is the rejection of new ideas, or worse, they confuse “skeptic” with “cynic” and think that skeptics are a bunch of grumpy curmudgeons unwilling to accept any claim that challenges the status quo. This is wrong. Skepticism is a provisional approach to claims. It is the application of reason to any and all ideas — no sacred cows allowed. In other words, skepticism is a method, not a position.

So when a skeptic is in active skeptic mode, he or she is not exactly making a claim. An astrologer will claim the ability to accurately divine information about a person by examining the movements of planets. A skeptic, on the other hand, does not claim outright that astrologers can’t. A skeptic merely says that he or she will only believe the claim when sufficient proof is offered. And that’s really it, in a nutshell.

To properly discuss what constitutes ‘sufficient proof’ will require a lot of study beyond anything you’re likely to find here. This is about what a skeptic is. Later, I’ll talk about why it matters. But I don’t want to entirely neglect such an important fundamental, so let’s go through it as quickly and painlessly as possible.

The scientific method is the best way we have of knowing what is most likely real and true. As humans, we easily and often arrive at conclusions that are not correct. There are a whole lot of reasons for this. A short list would include bias and prejudice, our biology, our pattern-seeking and meaning-needing nature, the profound effects of authority figures, and faulty reasoning and/or perception. Even our intelligence can get in the way, as when people are smart about defending – even to themselves – beliefs that they’ve arrived at for not so smart reasons. For these reasons and more, what is called ‘anecdotal’ evidence is not reliable evidence at all. You can read a hundred ‘testimonials’ from people who believe that Uri Geller can really bend spoons psychokinetically, but they are nevertheless all wrong. The scientific method is a way of eliminating all those factors, to get at the objective truth.

Now, some people will say that truth is subjective, and that every person experiences the world uniquely. Some go so far as to say that our thoughts can actually affect our reality. There is no doubt that our thoughts, our beliefs, and our behavior patterns affect the course and the quality of our lives, and certainly our choices have consequences. There is nothing weird or unusual about that, but there is nothing mysterious or magical about it either. Our experience of the world does not change the laws of nature, and our thoughts do not directly manipulate anything in the universe.

You and I may disagree about whether the sun revolves around the Earth, but the reality is not dependent on our unique perspectives on the matter, which is a really good thing when you think about it. Imagine the crazy universe we’d live in if everyone’s very different thoughts and perspectives actually affected reality. Fortunately, reality doesn’t depend on what you think about it. The sun does what it does, regardless.

Some people will point to quantum mechanics and modern physics to prove me wrong about truth. In fact, you’ll hear people throw the word ‘quantum’ around quite liberally, in defense of wacky ideas. Those people do not understand quantum mechanics comprehensively. People like to use terms they think sound scientific, and they get encouragement from authority figures they trust. Some of these authority figures are completely ignorant, while some may be, at least partially, legitimate. There is a difference between outright wackiness and legitimate scientific research in areas considered to be on the ‘borderlands’ of science, but most of the time you can safely disregard just about everything you hear people say about how quantum this or quantum that affects truth or reality.

A further misapplication of scientific terms occurs when people argue that some bit of knowledge isn’t reliable because ‘it’s only a theory’. Science uses the word in a very specific way. It does not mean, as some people seem to want you to believe, that it’s just some random idea and hasn’t been found to be scientifically true – just like lots of other random ideas that all kinds of people have every day. This is an attempt to equalize all ideas. But all ideas are not equal. Scientific knowledge is always considered tentative, because new information can always be discovered. That does not mean that scientists haven’t evaluated something exhaustively. A scientific theory is as reliable a bit of information as mankind can develop. Remember, the existence of a force called gravity is just theoretical, but if I drop a bowling ball over your big toe, I can reliably predict that it will hurt. (And that my next course of action should be to immediately run like a cheetah!)

This is the position of the skeptic. There is no better way of getting as close to objective truth as possible. The scientific method is it.

In a future post, I hope to get into the scientific method just a little bit more. But before I end this post, I want to address an important question you may be asking – why is it so important to get so darn close to the objective truth, anyway? Lots of people live full, happy, meaningful lives, while also believing in things that you skeptics say are not true. You can’t be absolutely certain of anything, according to your own rules, so why not just butt out and let people live their own lives? What’s the harm?

There are many good reasons to be an active skeptic. First of all, what’s wrong with questioning the things people tell you? Why should we just accept whatever people say? I’ve been told by at least one believer of psychic powers that my lack of credulity means I am ‘close-minded’, but that’s not true. Are you close-minded when you make sure your dentist actually went to medical school? You wouldn’t just let some random person who claimed they could fix your teeth work on you, without questioning that person first, would you? You wouldn’t turn the keys to your Hummer over to just anyone who claims they know how to fix it, would you? Of course not! You exercise good judgment when you put your trust in people. So why on Earth would you pay good money to a person who claims they have psychic powers, without making sure they really do? Why should psychics and chiropractors and astrologers or anyone else get a free pass? No, the default position – the responsible position – is skepticism. Being skeptical doesn’t mean you won’t ever turn over the keys; it doesn’t mean you can never be convinced, it only means that you require evidence for claims that are made.

There are a lot of people out there who want your money, and they are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get it. You already know that. But these people aren’t always so easy to spot. They aren’t travelling around in horse-drawn wagons selling snake oil anymore. They can look like legitimate business people. They can advertise in legitimate media. They can be members of the local chamber of commerce. They can look like real doctors. They have professional marketing and packaging. They work in beautiful offices, store fronts, and clinics. They have devoted followers, clients, or patients – people you may know and respect. The police are not after them. The District Attorney is not after them. Neither is the State Attorney General, the Department of Justice, the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, or anyone else (not at the moment, perhaps, and not that you know of, anyway). We’d all like to think we’re too smart to get taken by snake-oil salesmen, but it is happening every day, all around us, to perfectly intelligent people. How can you decrease the odds of becoming a victim? Be skeptical.

If you’ve followed the hyperlinks wherever you’ve seen the phrase ‘Where’s the harm’ you will have seen a very small sampling of the real damage that has been done by what we call ‘woo’. Woo is a catch-all (and usually derogatory) term, used to refer to things that skeptics suspect are not based in truth and reality. A woo-woo is a proponent of such things.

People right here in Monterey County are being hurt every day by the woo-woos. They are hurt when they spend their hard-earned money on things that have no logical basis and could never work. They are hurt when they don’t go to a real doctor for treatment, since they’ve been convinced – either by clever marketing or by the credulous testimonials of others – that doctors don’t treat the ‘whole person’, or that real medicine isn’t ‘holistic’, or that Big Pharma is only out to keep them sick, or that herbs and homeopathic pills are better for them, or some such nonsense. People today are still trying to sell us on silver supplements, despite the fact that people who use them are – literally – turning blue. Whole civilizations are hurt by wars that are based on fantasies (AKA – religion). Their children are hurt when they refuse them proper medical attention, in favor of ‘prayer’ or other religion-based interventions. Children are hurt when they are poorly educated by people who believe stupid things, or when they are taught to rely on supernaturalism and fantasy rather than on critical thinking. The lost potential of such an important part of our society hurts our community and our country.

Individuals are hurt when they’re told that they can magically ‘attract’ whatever they want to their lives just by thinking good thoughts, and that anything bad in their lives is, therefore, their own fault. People are hurt in a thousand ways, every day, everywhere. This is a complex and dangerous world, and we need properly educated citizens who can participate in and contribute to reality. We need real science, real medicine, real technological progress, and the advancement of real knowledge. We don’t need another hundred years of supernaturalism, magical thinking, and fantasies based on lazy credulity. A skeptic is someone who tries to do something about that, and I think that is an incredibly important and worthwhile thing to do.

Some woo-woos are not deliberately out to hurt or defraud anyone. They sincerely believe the things they claim. Some psychics really believe they have psychic powers, even though they don’t. Some chiropractors really believe there is such a thing as a ‘subluxation’, even though there isn’t. Peddlers of various juice, vitamin, or herb mixtures may really believe the over-blown claims for their over-priced products. But their sincerity doesn’t have any affect on the veracity of their claims, and it can’t diminish the real harm that they do. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how nice your woo-woo is or how much they want to ‘heal’ the world or spread joy or whatever, if the actual consequence is the devaluing of critical, reality-based thinking, and the unnecessary removal of your money from your wallet. That is damaging to the individual, the community, and the world.

I suppose I could go on, but you get the point. Skeptics don’t wake up in the morning determined to ruin everyone’s day. But there is real harm being done, there are terribly serious consequences, and every bit of woo contributes something to the decline of our civilization. So, you know, it matters.

Finally, for those of you who think all this means that skeptics live dreary, sad, close-minded lives, I want you to know that nothing be could less true. There are a million things about the real, actual world that are endlessly more fascinating, beautiful, and transcendent than the bizarre and silly world of woo.

Take a course in biology or genetics – the things going on in the human body all the time are nothing short of breathtaking. When I look at the sky, I see all kinds of beauty – and I’m not troubled worrying about what the chemtrails might be doing to me, because I know they’re not doing anything to me. When I hear my friends whisper about the ghosts, spirits, or aliens that scare them, I laugh happily because I sleep like a baby at night. When I listen to great music, I marvel at the earth-bound human genius that created it.

I marvel all the time at this amazing world, this fantastic universe, and I don’t need fairies in the garden or Akashic records or channeled masters or an invisible deity in the sky. I don’t need to be afraid of or soldier against demons or devils or ghosts or horrible conspiracy theories, just in order to feel like I can do something important in the world. I live in reality, and I’m as happy as can be.

Joy is Lost in Space Still

2009-01-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

Lost in Space, Or a trip trough Joy Colangelos mind

Here is Joy Colangelo's thought for the New year!

"Will the Unimaginable."

Danger Will Robertson! Danger. Joy is writing again!

Danger! Will Robertson Danger! It's Will the unimaginable!!!!

Danger! Will Robertson, Danger! it's "Will the unimaginable!!!!"

Yes, Joy's thought for the New Year is, Will the unimaginable.

But dear readers this is not the only Perl of wisdom Joy left us for the new year. As if it were not enough to channel "Will the unimaginable". She tells us "What can be imagined, believed or measured is not reality-based anyway. " Woo Woo at it's finest. What can be imagined. Like a toad stool. I can imagine that, believed Jennifer Aston, she seem honest,
so far so good, or measured, oh like my foot, measure my foot for new shoes! "Is not reality-based anyway" OK lost me here. A toad stool, my foot and Jennifer Aston are not reality based? According to Wikipedia Reality based is: " a popular term among liberal political commentators in the United States. In the fall of 2004, the phrase "proud member of the reality-based community" was first used to suggest the commentator's opinions are based more on observation than on faith, assumption, or ideology."

Well that does not seem to fit with what Joy is saying. The Herald should provide an Earth to Joy translator.

Even though her thoughts for a new year, are to say the least, bizarre the rest of her article is incomprehensible. The title is :

Reality a matter of perception

That is heady stuff, she starts out by telling us "statistics are all about averages, and that kind of measuring can skew reality. " Oh really? Statistics can skew reality? Joy did you forget about perception? After all reality is a word, with a real meaning reality is the state of things as they actually exist. Most people do not find this concept difficult, However Joy is not most people. Reality seems to escape her completely.

The rest of the article is just about as incomprehensible as this first bit. If she does manage to make an intelligent observation, she demolishes it by attempting humor.

However, as bad as this editorial of her's is, her previous article is not only horrendous it carries a bonus, a possible body count.

Yeah, Joy you may even put someone in the grave.

In:U.S. health care is like a sinking ship

Joy enplanes how U.S. health care is top heavy with technology. And other countries such as "Japan and the European Union (yes I know the European Union is not a country buy why be correct here?)" do better because they do not use technology. I expect that would be a surprise, to the medical communities in those regions. it seems to me they are pretty adapt at modern medicine.

Doctors in the U.S. are so confused by technology, that they simply do everything by rote, never thinking or evaluating, according to Joy it is all unnecessary . Joy believes health care professionals are confused by technology totally to the point of incompetence.

She explains in her infinite wisdom that most tests are unnecessary, her example; men getting tested for prostate cancer. To Joy, testing for prostrate cancer is unnecessary because; "most men will die with prostate cancer and not of prostate cancer. " Really? Most men will die with prostate cancer? This must be one of the statistics that skew reality. OK guys, no point in getting that high tech blood test, your prostate will out live you. With advice like that we can each save a couple of dollars a year and hope not to die.

Body count, go Joy go.

But what should we be doing? Well our greater life expectancy has nothing to do with modern medicine, so says the guru of lunacy Joy : The fact is, life expectancy has never had anything to do with advancing medical technology. Better nutrition, limiting exposure to infectious diseases through hygiene practices, and vaccinations along with meaningful social connections are the Trifecta of health. Scientifically indefensible medical practices, redundant testing, needless scanning and under-utilization of "low-tech" and inexpensive medications is sinking the ship. In our own harbor.

Wait...vacations are not modern medicine? Nutrition is not part of modern medicine? Antibiotics, and psychology are all arcane practices? I guess we should trash all the MRI machines, the heart pumps, and expensive medications. So what if they keep people alive Joy is confused. Why with her plan in place we can get our mortality rate to equal Bangladesh in no time.

Joy's articles reminds me of this jem of a parity of The Dark Night.

A Snarky Answer For All

2008-12-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes went I am tired of replying to Emails, you know the type, the ones that say, forward this to everyone in your contact list and Microsoft/AOL/ATT/JimmyTheGreek... will donate X numbers of cents for each email to little dying Sue/Larry/Shenp....

The first time I get one of these or there many variants I usually politely answer back to the sender the Snopes pages that explains
what this particular scam is all about.

The second time I send them to The End Of the Internet in the hopes that somehow they will get the point.

Finally someone has come up with the best answer in the world.

But not just Google but: Let Me Google That For You

Thank you guys for making my day.

Proof of My Psychic Abilities

2008-12-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

It is never easy to convince skeptics, of my psychic abilities, they give the usual baseless arguments. They Point out how I am not filthy rich, and have never won the Lottery. People who know me know that I never play the lottery so that make that argument moot. I did actually make quite a bit of money in the stock market, and well I just was not paying that close attention as it all disappeared in the recent melt down.

In any event the proof comes with the following revelation. Tires. No not radial tires but tires in general. OK, I do daydream occasionally of Rebecca but that is irreverent to this discussion.

This is the story of snow tires, traveling to the east coast, psychic ability and A Cadillac Esclade.

The story is as follows: I dropped my son off to pick up his car from the shop. And I know what your thinking, not rich, right, and his son is driving an Esclade...well stop right there, bad thinking bad. My son drives a 93 Honda accord. And he is planing to drive it back east in January. So like any concerned parent I was thinking about tires. No again I was not thinking about Radial Tires or Rebecca, but about snow tires.

My Son Ricky is planing to move back east to attend school in Connecticut, he has had enough of the winter beach, warm weather and California girls and he desires to see life from a new perspective.

So as I was driving home, ruminating on winters in Connecticut, I recalled how we had to change our tires, from standard tires to snow tires, every winter. It has been more than thirty years since I lived back New England way, so I was wondering if tire changing was the current SOP. Just then, I noticed a car driving in the opposite direction, and looked at his tires. The tire on the drivers side looked huge. I wondered, why does he have a huge tire on one side, and a normal one on the other.

I watched as he passed by and noticed, he appeared to be dragging, something under the car.

As soon as I had a chance, I spun around and followed him, honking and pointing for him to pull over. When he stopped we both got out of our cars. He was a very big elderly black gentleman who looked really pissed. Before he said anything I told him he was dragging something under his car. I smiled in an attempt convey that I was not some crazy nut, trying to harass him. At least that was what I hopped, the smile said.

He moved, with cat like grace, to the the back of the truck and looked down, then shot me a glance; which said, my smile was sending the message, I was a raving lunatic. I quickly pointed to the front tire and drawing his attention to the black tarp, which had wrapped itself around his front axle.

He Extend his hand, and gave me a warm thank you and introduced himself as Bill.

Bill and I exchanged pleasantries for a while and I helped him work the tarp out from under his truck . I explained how I was worried that if he got onto the freeway, with something dragging, it could cause a fire. We parted company both feeling good about humanity.

So it I had not been thinking about tires, I most likely would not have noticed the tarp, and Bill would be dead in a horrific car fire.

I am so Psychic.

So there skeptics.

Oh, by the way do you still need to buy snow tires?

The Strange Case of Norm Chomsky

2008-12-04T21:42:00.000-08:00

is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as the father of modern linguistics. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident, an anarchist, and a libertarian socialist intellectual. He is a great bat to bring to bear when battling Troffers. as seen in thesewho are on the left as in this clip,

Chomsky contends he does not agree with the Truth moment and thinks it is a waist for time, time better spent protesting the restrictions placed on people after 911.

Some may still believe Chomsky is a hero of the left, I think can only think of him as an appoligest for The Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge in the 70 came to power in Cambodia,
They had a dream of a perfect communist society,they abolished money, and property. The decided to empty the cities and even the hospitals and put the people to work in the fields.

To deserve death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, they only had to suspect your thoughts were against them. Millions died. Chomsky, overlooked the mass death and glorified the new communist regime, and blamed the United States for any brutality.

Chomsky was not over look killing during this period, he wrote stinging commentary against Pinochet in Chile for killing of a few thousand dissidents, who had come close to overthrowing his country. Do not get me wrong Pinochet was no angel. But when current events are so extreme it is inane to excuse the greater evil while condemning another simply because of your political bias.

Chomsky was great and able to do fantastically intricate analysis of complex subject. However once he lost his ability to be objective, he was able to overlook one of the most horrendous acts in our time.

I'll Still use him to shut up the truthers.

Read more on Chomski
http://jim.com/chomsdis.htm

The Skeptics Annotated Bible/Koran/book of Morman.

2008-11-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?.--Isaiah 36:12

I was in a discussion today with a co-worker, about a specific passage in the Koran. There is, or so I seem to remember a passage about Jews who hide behind trees. She did not think I had it right but I was sure of it. It is one of the passages that I had to read over and over again. And thought I had bookmarked.

So when I arrived home tonight I pulled out my Koran and tried to look it up. I did not find anything.

Then I went to the best bible site in the world The Skeptics Annotated Bible. Now what is not to love here. First they give you a cool random quote, such as the one above from Isaiah then all the cool stuff is in lists.

All the fun in the bible and a quick search function. The only problem with it is I could not find the passage I was looking for. Then again I could have been wrong. Naa