Ongoing Skeptic Thread

[Knut]

^ hopefully she fades off into the sunset

[Fighting Banana Slug]

^^Fantastic. And please checkout the article noted in the following:
Most recently, a Gawker article entitled “The Food Babe Blogger is Full of Sh*t”, written by forensic chemist Yvette D'Entremont, explored some of Hari’s most outrageous claims and answers them with valid science.
Awesome response (and I apologize in advance as I can't seem to make the link work).
http://gawker.com/the-food-babe-blog...###-1694902226

[jammies]

I could never understand how anyone could take anything someone self-named as "Food Babe" says seriously in the first place. Would you take child-rearing advice from some guy named "BabbyMan"?

PS: Actually, I'm pretty sure there are some people out there that would.

[pylon]

I would defintely frigth any guy named babbyman. I pary I never have run into him. I would go instain.

[pylon]

My god! There is hope. Mother if seven who was anti-vaxx, has her entire brood of children come down with whooping cough, and denounces the anti-vaxx movement.

http://thescientificparent.org/learn...xx-to-science/

I really hope this sways some of the tin-foil hat wearing, child endangering members of this crazy Jenny McCarthy worshiping cult the other way.

[Thor]

Feels like we're getting somewhere finally with the attacks on Dr Oz, Food Babe, and Jenny McCarthy.

GLORIOUS TIMES FRIENDS

[troutman]

FDA and Homeopathy

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/i...nd-homeopathy/

The skeptical community is abuzz with the announcement by the FDA’s announcement that they are reviewing the “regulatory framework” of homeopathic products and are open to public input. We have written about this at Science-Based Medicine, and as you can imagine, this is a serious topic of discussion among the editors.

Homeopathy has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. I would argue it is a multi-billion dollar scam. Pharmacies sell homeopathic potions on the shelf right next to real medicines, with claims that they treat specific diseases. Most people don’t even know what homeopathy means, and may not look for the small print indicating that the cold remedy they are buying is homeopathic.

I hope that this move by the FDA is the historic opportunity it appears to be – meaning that the FDA is sincere and will listen to reason. Homeopathy is a scam that has been operating under the nose of the FDA for decades. They can end it with a stroke of the pen.

Now is the time to put the pressure on.

FDA – do the right thing.

[CaptainCrunch]

Bout time

[karl262]

The Disclosure Canada Tour is coming to Calgary this weekend!

http://www.modernknowledge.ca/disclosure-calgary.html

Date: Saturday, April 18th, 2015
Registration and Admission: 8:30 - 10:00am
Presentation: 10:00am - 5:00 pm

Location: University of Calgary
Alberta Room - The Dining Centre
2500 University Dr. NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4

On March 1st they wrote this letter to Jason Kenney

http://www.modernknowledge.ca/letter...of-canada.html

DISCLOSURE CANADA – March 1, 2015
Letter to the Hon. Jason Kenney
Minister of National Defence

Dear Minister,

It has come to our attention that there exists a multitude of instances and occurrences associated with the presence of aerial craft commonly referred to by NORAD and the Canadian Air Force as ‘non-correlated targets’, ‘unknowns’, or ‘Unknown Tracks’. (1) The general public and news media often refer to these craft as ‘unidentified flying objects’, UFOs or ‘craft of unknown origin’. (2)

Upon exploring this information, it has become apparent that there exists indisputable de-classified documentation originating from within the Canadian and US government archives on this subject matter. (3) This documentation proves beyond any doubt, that this phenomenon has been discussed, analyzed, assessed and sequestered at the highest levels of governance and military authority in both Canada and the United States of America, (4) as well as a host of other international governments including the Vatican. (5)

Since this de-classified documentation originates from within our own government’s archives, the question as to whether or not these ‘craft of unknown origin’ are ‘real’ is now immaterial.

What has become of material relevance is; Canadian and United States authorities have engaged in discussions about the existence of these unidentified craft, their origins and the national security implications of recurrent and well-documented unauthorized incursions into Canadian airspace. (6) Documents exist that also describe government measures to keep this information hidden from the public. (7) RCMP and military officers, pilots (8), police officers and citizens have also made reports of these incursions...

Pretty cool stuff, it would be neat to check this out.

[troutman]

As this is a skeptic thread, I am unaware of any credible evidence that earth has been visited by aliens.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...ent-conspiracy

http://skepdic.com/ufos_ets.html

"Choose the nearest star; decide how long you're willing to travel, how fast you will need to go to get there in that time, what you will have to take with you, and how many should be in the crew. Make it a one-way suicide mission if you wish. As a final step, calculate the kinetic energy that must be imparted to the spaceship to get you there in that time (one half the mass times the velocity squared.) I suggest you stay away from the relativistic limit; it complicates the calculation and won't help you anyway. The good news is that you will then sleep secure in the knowledge that UFOs from elsewhere in the galaxy are not subjecting humans to hideous experiments." --Bob Park

[karl262]

^^ Very good points, and I agree with you that there is no credible evidence that earth has been visited by aliens.

What the letter is putting forward, which I find interesting, is that there is credible evidence that there are repeated incursions into Canadian airspace by something that looks an awful lot like intelligently controlled aircraft of unknown (or secret) origin. I think this is something that deserves to be addressed.

That quote from Bob Park, well, he sounds a bit condescending to suggest believing that interstellar travel is possible means you believe humans are getting probed on the regular.

What would Bob have said 100 years ago if someone suggested humans can fly to the moon?
"Take our best bi-plane, and even if you could fit enough fuel in it for that long of a flight, it would be far too heavy to even lift off! Plus, where are you going to get the oxygen needed to keep the engines running? No sir, flight to the moon is quite impossible!"

[Hemi-Cuda]

Proclaiming that interstellar travel is impossible or even extremely impractical using only our knowledge of physics as rational is quite short sighted. When you look at areas like quantum entanglement or bending the fabric of space-time that we have only started to scratch the surface of, it's really not hard to fathom that a more advanced civilization could have mastered the art of space travel

Not that I believe that Earth has been a beacon of alien visitation. I just think it's because of our utter insignificance on the cosmic scale instead of it being a physical impossibility

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Proclaiming that interstellar travel is impossible or even extremely impractical using only our knowledge of physics as rational is quite short sighted. When you look at areas like quantum entanglement or bending the fabric of space-time that we have only started to scratch the surface of, it's really not hard to fathom that a more advanced civilization could have mastered the art of space travel

Not that I believe that Earth has been a beacon of alien visitation. I just think it's because of our utter insignificance on the cosmic scale instead of it being a physical impossibility

I would never say impossible to interstellar travel but "human" physics say it is totally impossible. Quantum entanglement, Quantum physics, worm holes and bending the fabric of space time are nice dreams but even if one or more of them become a reality there's still a huge problem. the physical effects of traveling through anything faster than light speed would likely warp and destroy any matter and a human being would likely be just scattered atoms in the end.

Even if we can figure out how to travel at the speed of light it's still 4 years to our nearest star and a 100 thousand years across just our own galaxy. Humans need gravity, food and water to survive...are we bringing that with us or hoping to planet jump alone the way.

As far as Aliens visiting our planet, until I see one it's all a bunch of BS, personally I think it would be impossible to hide such an event.

[Thor]

Really excited, I have invited Harriet Hall the Skepdoc and Aron Ra to Iceland in May, I'll be hosting and showing them both around, at different times of course.

The great thing is we are doing this with skeptics in the pub and our humanist group, recently the anti vaxx stuff came up in the media and thankfully online polls showed 96% of about 800 people supported vaccinations so we are fine there, but this talk by Harriet on how to communicate with non skeptical thinkers is going to be great.

Even have people like Jón Gnarr coming and a bunch of members of parliament, so happy because I brought them here on my own and we are getting lots of attention for both their visits.

[Knut]

^ I have communicated with Harriet Hall over email numerous times. Very knowledgeable and accessible. Her bread and butter is analyzing studies and finding their flaws.

[troutman]

The Decline of Pseudoscience Now that "natural" living has gone mainstream, its days are numbered

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1...-pseudoscience

The pseudoscience that persists more generally in America is losing its cultural cachet.

“Healthy” living became associated with being upper class, and therefore glamorous. The pseudoscience embraced by the rich—a group who also have superior access to actual healthy living, as in proper medical care, safe places to exercise, and so forth—is now, in turn, marketed to the rest of the population.

But the backlash has begun. As Freeman noted, “a new genre of journalism has risen up in response to a growing trend,” consisting of articles “debunking quacky pseudoscience bloggers.”

Why the shift toward reason? The scientific evidence against quack theories is hardly new, after all. I suspect there are two related reasons for the decline of pseudoscience: an increase in awareness, and a decrease in trendiness.

Once “wellness” becomes a thing in suburban Middle America, it stops being so in, say, the L.A. yoga mom subculture. Once clean eating goes from Gwyneth to Pepsi, it’s lost its air of exclusivity. The committed quacks won't budge, but once pseudoscience isn't a way of signaling that one is on the cutting edge, it loses its allure among the elites—the ones whose cultural and financial clout led to its popularity in the first place.

[blueski]

He claims he can train most people to realize many of the same benefits. The study below only involved ten days of training and participants were able to influence their immune system.

Well, is this guy for real? Pretty interesting if it is possible.

"Wim Hof first caught the attention of scientists when he proved he was able to stay submerged in ice for one hour and 53 minutes without his core body temperature changing. Since then, he's climbed Mount Everest in his shorts, resisted altitude sickness, completed a marathon in the Namibian Desert with no water, and proven—under a laboratory setting—that he's able to influence his autonomic nervous system and immune system at will.

Almost everything Wim has done was previously thought to be impossible, but he's not a freak of nature; he's a master of meditation.

To demonstrate that any human can learn his methods, Wim offered to teach VICE hosts Matt Shea and Daisy-May Hudson how to climb a freezing cold mountain in their shorts without getting cold. But when Matt and Daisy signed up for the training, they had no idea that the so-called Iceman was planning to lead them on a psychedelic journey across Europe that circled the chasm between science and spirituality."

http://www.vice.com/video/iceman

Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous
system and attenuation of the innate immune
response in humans

[Thor]

Originally Posted by Hesla

^ I have communicated with Harriet Hall over email numerous times. Very knowledgeable and accessible. Her bread and butter is analyzing studies and finding their flaws.

She was a great speaker, very quiet lady but she brought her hot daughter a long so the sightseeing was great fun.

Aron Ra was quite the character, we had a lot of fun sightseeing.

If you guys want to see some pics:

https://www.facebook.com/thor.v.jons...3465873&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/thor.v.jons...3465873&type=3

[troutman]

QR 77 had a troubling show on Sunday night - At Home with Cheryll Gillespie. She had a doctor on as a guest claiming that the sun does not cause skin cancer, and people should not be wearing sunscreen.

I forget the Doctor's name, but he was making some outrageous claims (as far as I know). Should QR 77 be more careful about the health information offered on its shows?

http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-infor...ure/?region=on

http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-infor...ure/?region=on

When you google "sun does not cause cancer" you get a number of links to Mercola.

[Thor]

Are these the shows you can basically pay to be on and say pretty much anything you want?