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Biologist Expelled from Expelled “Two evolutionary biologists — P. Z. Myers of the University of Minnesota, Morris, and Richard Dawkins of Oxford — tried to go to the movies at the Mall of America in Minneapolis Thursday evening. Dr. Dawkins got in. Dr. Myers did not,” wrote Corenelia Dean in the New York Time of March 21, 2008.
There is no argument that Ben Stein’s acerbic wit is a big draw for anyone who appreciates humor. His show, “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” had many fans among intellectuals, not so much for the questions, but for the running commentary by Stein and his sidekick, Jimmy Kimmel. Stein, the narrator the film, has taken the stance that academia is silencing anyone who questions evolution, and especially those promoting the so-called “intelligent design.” “Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, said she and other supporters of the teaching of evolution have been having ‘a horselaugh’ over the events as Dr. Myers recounted them, immediately, on his blog, Pharyngula,” Dean wrote. “Dr. Dawkins said the hoopla has been ‘a gift’ to those who oppose creationism. ‘We could not ask for anything better,’ he said.” Genie Scott has set up a web site for those who want to follow the controversy. “I don’t think it’s inappropriate for us to have a good laugh at the creationists’ expense,” she was quoted as saying. Her site currently hosts links to reviews of Expelled, but on April 15, it will provide a full critique of the movie. The URL for the site is www.expelledexposed.com.  Veterans Administration Recognizes Wiccan Symbol (Posted April 24, 2007) The VA, which had refused to recognize the five pointed star in a circle of the Wiccan religion as a grave marker, has relented, according to the New York Times of April 24, 2007.
"The settlement, which was reached on Friday, was announced on Monday by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which represented the plaintiffs in the case." A Washington Post article by Alan Cooperman had this to say on April 24th, "During his first campaign for president, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush told ABC's 'Good Morning America' in 1999 that he was opposed to Wiccan soldiers practicing their faith at Fort Hood, Tex. 'I don't think witchcraft is a religion, and I wish the military would take another look at this and decide against it,' he said. "[Barry W.] Lynn, of Americans United, said references to Bush's remarks appeared in memos and e-mails within the VA." Lynn was quoted the previous day in the Post as saying, "This settlement has forced the Bush Administration into acknowledging that there are no second class religions in America, including among our nation's veterans." See our original article  Homeopathy: Demonstrators In Belgium Resort To Mass Suicide (posted May 22,2004) A Special Report in the current issue of Skeptical Inquirer looks into the ultimate protest by a group of skeptics. They objected to a decision by the major health insurance companies in Belgium to begin covering the costs of homeopathy in response to popular demand. Depressed by the willingness of the insurance companies to encourage quackery, the 23 skeptics resigned themselves to committing mass suicide by drinking a cocktail of lethal poisons including arsenic, snake venom and deadly nightshade. To the horror of the homeopathists, they even increased the potency in true homeopathic fashion by preparing a 30C solution of the cocktail. That means the cocktail was diluted one part per hundred and shaken, which was then repeated sequentially, 30 times. All newspapers and TV stations were invited to watch the death agonies of the 23 deranged suicides, who included a number of prominent citizens and professors of medicine, "and a few normal people armed only with common sense." The media coverage was excellent, but the suicide attempt was a failure. from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
 Evolution: it's a Natural Law, and it's In Texas Schoolbooks (posted Nov. 7, 2003) By a vote of 11 - 4, the Texas State Board of Education yesterday rejected efforts of religious groups, the Discovery Institute in particular, to get science textbooks adopted that conform to the religious tenets of "intelligent design." A letter bearing the names of 550 scientists and teachers who live and work in Texas was sent to members of the Board a few days before the vote urging them to support "high standards of science." The American Physical Society assisted Texas physicists wishing to be part of this overwhelming display of support for science. Before the vote, a Dallas Morning News editorial was troubled by "scientists in thrall to their own dogmas," but a science reporter exulted in the outcome, quoting a biology professor who said it, "sent a strong message that Texas does have high standards in science." from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Infinite Energy: Revolutionary Aircraft is Powered by Gravity An ad in the Wall Street Journal last week sought investors for a fuel-less aircraft. The idea is refreshing; unlike free-energy scams that tap the zero-point energy, or shield gravity, Hunt Aircraft Corp. proposes to do it the old-fashioned way, i.e., violate Conservation of Energy. Helium bags lift the winged craft vertically, whereupon the helium is compressed to make the craft heavier than air. It then glides downward. At low altitude, the cycle is repeated. Aha!, you say, compressing the gas takes work. These guys aren't that dumb. As it glides, a wind-turbine will generate the power. The inventor has applied for a patent, but our research uncovered the shocking similarity to Tom Swift's "Black Hawk" airship described in Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1911). from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
 Crystal-ball Crackdown (posted July 20, 2003) In a move designed to crack down on fraud, fortune-tellers working in San Francisco will have to obtain business licenses according to the San Francisco Chronicle (July 17, 2003). The Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to okay the new law, making the S.F. one of a handful of cities in the nation to have such a requirement. According to reporter Joe Garofoli, fortune-tellers will have to post a rate schedule, get fingerprinted and offer customers a receipt for their services. “Crafting this crystal-ball crackdown became a journey through the city's political minefield of cultural sensitivities, constitutional rights, the emotionally vulnerable and chicken embryos [a reference to one of the scams mentioned in the testimony before the Board].” In a concession to the Romany (gypsy) community, which is estimated to number 4,000 in San Francisco, and whose members account for most of the estimated 130 fortune-tellers in the city, social security numbers will not be required to apply for the $357 license. Apparently, many members of the Romany community don’t have one. Police were quoted as saying that in the past decade, about 60 people came forward to complain about losing thousands of dollars to various scams attributed to fortune-tellers. “Scammers leave town after making a big score, and it's not uncommon for fortune-tellers to make $100,000 a year, said Greg Ovanessian, a San Francisco police inspector with the department's fraud unit.” "You want to put a mark on us," Jimmy Mitchell, a Romany, told the board's finance committee last week. "If you pass this legislation, it will be just like what Hitler did to us [Nazis exterminated hundreds of thousands of gypsies]." Supervisor Joe Hall, who opposed the measure, called the legislation, “ethnic profiling.” The ordinance defines fortune-telling in 45 ways, including reading coffee grounds and talking to dead people. Complete Story from the S.F. Chronicle
On The Count of Two (posted June 14, 2003) Intelligent Design? No Sign of it in Louisiana's Legislature. A resolution before the Louisiana House Education Committee opposes the use of "textbooks that do not present a balanced view of the various theories relative to the origin of life but rather refer to one theory as a proven fact." Why is it they don't say what they have in mind? It's because the Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that public schools may not include creationism in a science curriculum. Intelligent design is creationism that has evolved protective coloring, and its proponents now resort to this sort of "equal time" proposal. The Louisiana resolution follows a failed attempt earlier in the legislative session to censor textbooks outright if they teach only evolution. The legislature goes home June 23, so we'll know by then if science education in Louisiana will survive to fight another day...stay tuned. Public Television: "Unlocking the Mystery of Life." Tuesday, Maryland Public Television aired a high image-quality documentary that pretended to be science. The program, produced by Illustra Media, marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery by Watson and Crick, but the Nobelists won't be pleased. The blurb in the MPT schedule sums it up: "A growing number of scientists now think that DNA and the complexity of life point to purpose and design in nature." The Discovery Institute, which distributes the documentary, is committed to replacing evolution with intelligent design and is extremely well-funded. This is Phase II, the "publicity" phase of what the Discovery Institute calls the "Wedge Project." The idea is to use "intelligent design" as a wedge to get religion into science education, and evolution out: Phase I was research, Phase III will be legal challenges and a focus on the terrible social implications of evolution. "Unlocking the Mystery of Life" was shown earlier in Michigan and Texas. It may turn up on Public Television near you. from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Polygraph: Department of Energy Decides to Simply Reissue its Old Policy.(Posted April 18, 2003) The National Academy of Sciences completed its review of scientific evidence on the polygraph (WN 15 Dec 00). The NAS report, "The Polygraph and Lie Detection" (NAS Press, 2003), found polygraph tests to be unacceptable for DOE employee security screening because of the high rate of false positives and susceptibility to countermeasures. Congress instructed the Department of Energy to reevaluate its policies on the use of the polygraph in light of the NAS report. DOE carefully reevaluated its policies and reissued them without change, arguing that a high rate of false positives must mean the threshold for detecting lies is very low. Therefore, the test must also nab a lot of true positives. Since that's the goal, the DOE position seems to be that the polygraph tests are working fine and false positives are just unavoidable collateral damage. But there is still a countermeasures problem: anyone can be trained to fool the polygraph in just five minutes. WN therefore recommends replacing the polygraph with a coin toss. If a little collateral damage is not a problem, coins will catch fully half of all spies, a vast improvement over the polygraph, which has never caught even one. Moreover, coins are notoriously difficult to train, making them impervious to countermeasures. from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Diversity: State representative in New Mexico reaches out (Posted March 21, 2003) State Rep. Daniel R. Foley (R), whose district includes Roswell, introduced a bill in the New Mexico Legislature to designate an annual Extraterrestrial Culture Day to recognize contributions of space aliens to the culture and economy of Roswell. from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Alternative Science: Insights from the Harvard Medical School (Posted Dec. 2, 2002) The cover story in the Dec 2 issue of Newsweek is The Science of Alternative Medicine. That's an oxymoron. If these alternatives had a basis in science, they would just be medicine. Newsweek calls it "The New Science." Only the new science turns out to be the old medicine thousands of years old in some cases, long before it was known that blood circulates or germs cause disease. The alternatives can be put on a scale that ranges from plausible to preposterous. The treatments discussed in Newsweek tend to be at the plausible end of the spectrum. They include such things as music therapy, as though anything that makes us feel better is now medicine. There is no mention of such absurd and fraudulent treatments as magnet therapy, homeopathy and touch therapy, which are among the most widely used alternatives. The report also talks about herbs and vitamins. Vitamins are alternative? The discovery of these essential molecules was a major advance in scientific medicine. Vitamins become alternative only when taken in wild excess. The report has boxes on alternative treatments for cancer, osteoarthritis, cardiac disease, back pain, etc. To give it credibility, each box is prominently labeled "Insights from Harvard Medical School." Is that where this stuff comes from? This insight comes from the Maryland Physics Department. from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
NASA: Book Will Claim American Astronauts Landed on the Moon (Posted Nov. 8, 2002) While half the population is convinced Earth is being visited by space aliens who have mastered faster-than light travel, others are equally convinced that we humans never even made it as far as the moon. The problem, if it is a problem, got a lot worse after the Fox television network aired "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" last year. Maybe it was put together by the same people who fabricated "Alien Autopsy" (WN 11 Dec 98). NASA revealed its incredibly thin skin, hiring aeronautics engineer James Oberg to write a monograph that will say we really did land on the moon. Well that should settle it. What a headline it will make: "NASA Finds Astronauts Landed on the Moon in 1969."
from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Feng Shui a Sausalito Voter Issue The San Francisco Chronicle reported in a story by Peter Fimrite, Wednesday, February 27, 2002, that the 7,300 people in this normally peaceful waterfront town are "going apoplectic for and against plans to build a $7.8 million, 22,500-square-foot police and fire building at the foot of Caledonia Street" in Sausalito, California. The Sausalito police force has been working out of portable trailers on the waterfront for seven years after being flooded out of their building and the Fire Department building is seismically unsafe. Nancy Bennett, an expert called in by opponents of the plan to testify before the City Council said, "it will be bad feng shui!" Feng shuim is the ancient Chinese art of placing things so there is a harmonious flow of energy."They are cutting off the mouth of Qi," Bennett declared, adding that the "arrows of sha" are also looking a bit shaky. "It will have a deleterious effect." The stucco building with Mediterranean touches would incorporate the sites of the old police and fire buildings -- and extend 242 feet across the entire street according to the Chronicle. It is the subject of Measure B, in the upcoming March 5th election. If it passes, the city fathers of this Marin County town will know they have the go-ahead of its residents.
Followup
Irish Voodoo: Reuters Bites On The Latest Free-energy Claim. (Posted: Jan. 25, 2002) I got a call this week from a Reuters correspondent in Dublin who had witnessed a demonstration of the Jasker Power System, a motor that is said to replenish its own energy source. All he could tell me about it was that it's the "size of a dishwasher," and it kept three 100-watt light bulbs lit for two hours without running down the "starting batteries." To prevent the idea from being stolen, everything else was secret. It was developed in Ireland to keep the U.S. government from suppressing it. What did I think? I think he was a damned fool for covering it. The first warning sign of voodoo science is that it's pitched directly to the media. Second, details of how it works are withheld. Third, a powerful establishment is said to be attempting to suppress it.
from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Good Advise about the Latest Banking Scam from Our British Cousins
Question
Answer About 1 per cent of people approached fall for it, at an average loss of £30,000 - or £150 million a year across Britain. The fraudsters offer large cash sums and guarantee a '100 per cent risk-free' transaction in return for getting the money out of their country. All they ask is that you become a limited company in Nigeria, paying legal fees in advance to do so. So it appears that for an outlay of £2,000 you will get £15 million. Then the problems start. To get the money out of the bank, bribes of £2,000 to £5,000 have to be paid. 'Goodwill gifts' such as laptops and jewellery are requested. Finally, they claim tax is outstanding, and you must contribute one per cent - up to £25,000. If you pay up, they insist on meeting you to deliver the money - in Europe, the U.S. or southern Africa. You have to pay their first-class travel as well as your own. When you meet, you receive a bogus cheque or a suitcase of black paper (supposedly your cash dyed black for anonymity). Some are kidnapped and murdered at this point. Some, realising they have been defrauded, commit suicide. Do not reply to these emails. Instead, forward them to your police fraud squad (via your local police station) for analysis.
Robert Duncan Quoted in the Daily Mail Friday January 18 2002
Divine Publishing Pro Facto Newsletter Spring 1998 (Vol.4 No.2) Against The Grain, November 1997, reported recent rulings in the Urantia Foundation v. Maaherra case. A threshold issue was whether the written words of celestial beings are copyrightable. Maaherra, who had copied and distributed the Urantia Book on computer disk, argued the book was not copyrightable “because it lacked the requisite ingredient of human creativity.” Both parties believe the book was authored by celestial beings and transcribed, copied and collected by mere mortals. “Copyright laws do not expressly require ‘human’ authorship,” the article states. “Although the Second Circuit agreed with Maaherra that the copyright laws were not intended to protect divine beings,” the court ruled in the Foundation’s favor, stating “some element of human creativity must have occurred...” A Tip of the Hat to Oregonians for Rationality
Bioterrorism: Alternative (Medicine) Responses To Exposure (posted 11-19-01) The chair of the House Government Reform Committee, Dan Burton (R-IN), held a hearing Wednesday on how to respond to bio-terrorist attacks. Burton can't understand why we don't just treat this stuff with alternative medicine (WN 19 Oct 01). For Burton, this is nothing new; in a 1999 hearing on Alternative Medicine his lead witness was Jane Seymour, who played Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman on TV (WN 12 Feb 99). This time, however, Stephen Straus, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was testifying, and it wasn't what Burton wanted to hear. Straus questioned "whether the measures that some are promoting do anything more than prey upon people's fears and distract them from taking more prudent steps to protect themselves...It may not even be prudent to combine such natural products with antibiotics because of the possibility that they would interfere with proper action of the drugs." Perhaps fearing a backlash, many in the alternative medicine industry have issued unprecedented warnings to the public not to use their products to treat or cure anthrax.
from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Psychics join the manhunt according to psychics US intelligence agencies are recruiting psychic "remote viewers" to help predict future attacks and to find Osama Bin Laden, according to the Sunday Times of London of November 11, 2001. "The US government established a remote viewing programme, known as Stargate, in the 1970s in an attempt to utilise the skills claimed by psychics to combat communism. The programme, at the Stanford Research Institute in California, was shut down in 1995 after the end of the cold war," the paper went on to say. Now, however, US intelligence agencies are allegedly reactivating some of their old paranormal spies. Prudence Calabrese, whose Transdimensional Systems is said to employ 14 remote viewers, claimed that the FBI had asked the company to predict likely targets of future terrorist attacks. Angela Thompson-Smith and Lyn Buchanan, claim to be former members of the Stargate, said they too had had been approached. "Our reports suggest a sports stadium could be a likely target," Calabresa said. The FBI and CIA are said to have refused to comment.
John Edward scraps terrorist victims seance plan "The one thing John Edward definitely crossed over was the line and the 'psychic' has shelved plans for a series of Crossing Over With John Edward episodes focusing on people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks," wrote Susan Ault of Broadcasting & Cable on October 25th. Studios USA Domestic Television announced Thursday that it canceled plans to air the segment on broadcast syndication and cable’s Sci Fi Channel. The company's president, Steve Rosenberg, cited "a reaction that none of us expected," as the reason. The shows were tentatively scheduled for November sweeps. Edward purports to communicate with the dead. Ault went on to report that after the story broke in Broadcasting & Cable Wednesday night, Edward got a new vision, one of reporters flooding Studios USA with inquiries. Thanks to Ernie Ernissee for the tip.
Local Paper Uncritically Accepts Firewalking The Oakland Tribune, on Oct 23, 2001, published an egregious article on the first page of the Bay Area Living section uncritically accepting the firewalking claims of one Bill Bastian, a johnny-come-lately firewalker. "A lot of people want to dissect the workshop and try to find a physical reason peole don't get burned," Bastian says. "The truth is, no one knows why it works. There is something about tapping into an experience and an energy and overcoming your fears." The article, by Jennifer Baldwin, went on to paraphrase Bastian that people don't just show up, take off their shoes, and walk across burning embers. The firewalk is as much about the motivational speaking and personal reflection that occurs while the fire burns into coals as it is about the actual walk. No one in the piece was quoted who might take an opposing view. [The webmaster did a search for "firewalking" using Google and found literally hundreds of sites, both pro and con, on the subject. A good history of firewalking can be found at http://www.pitt.edu/~dwilley/fire.html -- by no means does this site exhaust the subject.] Thanks to BAS Board member Eugenie C. Scott for the tip.
Site Down: Who could have guessed!
Monthly Global Predictions for September 2001
Burger King workers burn feet at company retreat The Associated Press reported, October 6, 2001, that about a dozen Burger King marketing-department workers, gathered in Key Largo, Florida, suffered first- and second-degree burns on their feet when they walked over white-hot coals at a meeting intended to promote bonding. "One woman was taken to a hospital emergency room, and Burger King brought in a doctor to treat others whose feet were blistered. Some workers used wheelchairs the next day when they went to the airport to leave for another company retreat," the report went on to say. "You're walking over hot coals, and something can happen," said Robert Kallen, owner of The Achievement Group, which ran the event. Dana Frydman, vice president of product marketing for Burger King, was injured but had no regrets about the event she helped organize. "It made you feel a sense of empowerment and that you can accomplish anything."
Idaho Public Television forced Under pressure from fundamentalist legislators Idaho Public Television has been forced to show two creationist programs during the same week as the PBS series Evolution. By showing these nonsensical programs IPTV received its funding for this year. Not only is this a sad day for public broadcasting when what can only be described as blackmail is used to force fundamentalist dogma onto unsuspecting Idaho viewers, but it is also a sad day for science when what can only be described as crap is passed off as science. During the showing of Part 1 of Evolution on 24 September, IPTV heavily advertised the two creationist programs both before and after Evolution. Of course, IPTV also showed the disclaimer that the Idaho Legislature first required them to broadcast. One wonders if IPTV will air that disclaimer before and after the two creationist programs because showing those two fundamentalist programs violates the Idaho Constitution which mandates a strict separation of church and state. IPTV management is trying to put a positive spin on this debacle by saying they're just showing alternative viewpoints. Following IPTV logic presumably the next time IPTV shows a program on astronomy we can look forward to a program on astrology. No doubt, programs showing how the allies won World War II will be "balanced" by Nazi propaganda films. The Two IPTV Programs on Creationism That Were Shown
Voices for Creation Two scientists, a biologist and a biochemist, with the Institute for Creation Research in California explain why they support the concept of creation rather than evolution. They discuss why they and others are rejecting the theory of evolution for the concept of creation. Duane T. Gish, Ph.D., vice president of the institute, is a biologist and Richard Lumsden, Ph.D., is a biochemist. The Young Age of the Earth The creation model of Earth history proposes that sedimentary layers such as those in the Grand Canyon, granite rocks, coal and oil deposits, all happened rapidly rather than slowly. The creationist model of earth's history is one of thousands of years rather than millions. People working with this model propose there is evidence to say earth's granite rocks, oil and coal, Grand Canyon sediments all formed rapidly rather than slowly. NOTE by G.B.: From IPTV advertising this appears to be a program produced by Robert Gentry, the physicist who claims that polonium halos show granite rocks are very young. Gentry has been rebutted many times but he persists in his unscientific fundamentalist religious dogma while falsely claiming that the scientific community has never answered his assertions. [Gary L. Bennett is a physicist, now retired, who worked on the space program.]
Sunshine Magnified by Crystal Ball Sparks Big House Fire "Fortune teller Brenda Rose should have seen it coming when she left her crystal ball on a sunny window sill," reported Ross Kaniuk of the British tabloid, Daily Star, June 1, 2001. But instead she was fast asleep when her lounge went up in smoke. "I'm devastated," the fortune teller is reported to have said. "But at the same time I know I'm lucky to be alive. The firemen said I could have died in the smoke." Brenda, 56, is a member of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers. Thanks to John Atkinson for passing it on.
Cold Reading of Cold Corpses Leon Jaroff of Time Magazine reported on March 26, 2001 that the highest rated TV show on the Sci Fi network, "Crossing Over" with John Edward, may involve chicanery. Edward's critics claim that he "relies heavily on a technique known in the trade as 'cold reading.' It involves posing a series of questions and suggestions, each shaped by the subject's previous response." Edward, in claiming to contact the dead, is reported to have edited the tapes from the show so that affirmative answers are substituted for negative answers from subjects, and that he has used strategically placed microphones to gather information before a show after it was delayed an hour due to "technical" difficulties. This technique is known as a "hot reading." According to the Time Magazine piece, a spokesperson for "Crossing Over" would say only that Edward does not respond to criticism. Meanwhile, the Amazing Randi is scheduled to appear on Inside Edition to demonstrate the cold-reading technique used by magicians to entertain and mediums to hoodwink an unsuspecting public. As ever, a nod to Brian Siano for the tip.
Kansas Puts Evolution Back Into Public Schools The New York Times reported, Feb. 15, 2001, that the Kansas State Board of Education voted 7 to 3 to reverse its decision two years (6 to 4) to remove evolution as the sole explanation of the origin of man from the state's public school curriculum. This effectively reinstates it with the adoption of new state science standards and mandates that evolution be taught in public schools throughout the Kansas. Last August, Republican primary voters defeated three conservative members of the school board who had supported the earlier decision. The document the board adopted says, "`Understand' does not mandate `belief.' While students may be required to understand some concepts that researchers use to conduct research and solve practical problems, they may accept or reject the scientific concepts presented. This applies particularly where students' and/or parents' beliefs may be at odds with the current scientific theories or concepts." Kansas education commissioner, Andy Tompkins, said, "I think there's some resolve right now. But I think the issue, in terms of people talking about it, and what's going to happen, is probably going to continue, not only in our state, but probably in other states also."
Geller Sues Nintendo for Evil Monster character The Associated Press reported, November 2, 2000, that Uri Geller sued Nintendo for hundreds of millions of dollars Wednesday, saying that the Japanese game maker turned him into an "evil, occult Pokemon character" by naming a monster in the highly successful cartoon series after him. Geller, it will be remembered, once sued long-time advisor to Bay Area Skeptics, author, lecturer and world famous magician James Randi, and lost. "Geller, a former Israeli paratrooper famous for using mysterious mental powers to bend spoons, said that Nintendo Co. 'debased' his name with the Pokemon character, a monster named 'Yun Geller' who carries a spoon and uses psychic mind-waves to give his victims bad headaches," the AP wrote. A spokesman for Nintendo of America Inc., would not immediately comment on the pending lawsuit. "Nintendo turned me into an evil, occult Pokemon character," Geller was reported to have said. Another nod to Brian Siano for the tip.
Florsheim is Sued over Magnetic Health Claims The Denver Post, in an article by Jenny Deam, reported on Sept. 3, 2000, that Florsheim Shoes was being sued by a public action group, the nonprofit group called Consumer Justice Center, over its claims that its shoe, tradenamed MagneForce, had any medical benefits. The MagneForce shoe is equipped with magnets sewed into the insoles to "emit a magnetic field that encircles the foot." Florsheim has said that this magnetic force penetrates the foot, offering such therapeutic benefits as increased circulation, boosted energy levels and even "natural pain relief." They are suddenly silent because of the lawsuit. John Renner, a Kansas City physician who is president of the National Council for Reliable Health Information said, "They made a dumb, dumb marketing mistake." While it might be tempting to hitch a product to consumer demand for health products, Renner added, "once you start making health claims you enter a whole other world of ethics, science, and levels of evidence." See CSICOP's press release for even more. Thanks to Linda Rosa again...
Yogi Runs for President - August 11, 2000 John Hagelin, a self-described physicist and the presidential candidate of the "breakaway" Reform Party, (the "regular" Reform Party having been taken over by Pat Buchanan), is a 1994 Ig Nobel Prize winner. The party that he merged into the Reform Party, The Natural Law Party, is closely associated with Maharishi University, of Transcendental Meditation fame. Ross Perot is said to be quietly staying at his ranch. Not for the first time are we thanking Linda Rosa for bringing items to our attention.
Sagan and Firmage: Not So Perfect Together? The Washington Post reported on July 12, 2000 that Ann Druyan, head of Carl Sagan Productions, and his widow, is to start a new company that will have a Web portal and produce science-based entertainment with Joe Firmage, a Silicon Valley millionaire who became a highbrow UFO guru. "Sagan said aliens probably aren't here. Firmage says they probably are. It's not a trivial philosophical distinction," according to the unsigned "rough draft" Post piece. Ann Druyan said that she'll walk if Sagan's legacy is in any way threatened. "It unequivocably states that if I feel that Carl's legacy has in any way been besmirched by any statement made in the name of our company, then I walk and I'll take everything with me. Nothing less than that can protect the legacy." $23 million is going into the venture. "Will I use this media company to inequitably promote my view? No," Frimage said. But he said it would "absolutely" deal, responsibly, with "science anomalies." In the meanwhile, the SETI Institute has turned down offers of funding from Frimage. Frank Drake, the head of the SETI Institute, told the Washington Post that a deal with Firmage's firm could have meant sizable streams of revenue coming into his organization. But it wasn't the right thing to do. A tip of the hat to Brian Siano for the tip.
Domestic Partnership (June 8, 2000) James Randi reports that a family of foxes has moved into the James Randi Educational Foundation compound and taken up housekeeping. The rat population has subsequently diminished although there was no apparent change in the amount of kookiness that pervades the country. Mother and pups were doing fine at last report.
Polygraph: You Can Sue If They Make You Do The Voodoo. The use of polygraphs in pre-employment screening by the Secret Service, FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency, is being challenged by a group of rejected applicants. Their attorney described the polygraph as "voodoo science." By coincidence, the truth about polygraph testing was the subject of one of the talks in a session titled "Voodoo Science" at the March Meeting of the APS in Minneapolis (Session G8.FPS). In 1988, Congress passed legislation prohibiting the use of polygraph testing in pre-employment screening by private industry, but the federal government was specifically exempted from the ban, as though federal employees, including scientists, deserve less protection.
from Bob Park of the American Physical Society.
Pseudoscience Kills Kid The Denver Post reported, May 19, 2000, in a story by Staff Writer Marilyn Robinson that three people have been arrested and that a fourth is wanted in the death of a 10-year old girl undergoing an unconventional "rebirthing" therapy session. The treatment, which was done at an Evergreen home office and cost $7,000, was supposed to help the 10 year-old bond with her adoptive mother. Instead, she suffocated to death, according to doctors. It was also reported that the girl had cried out for help during the session. Three adults were arrested immediately on suspicion of "child abuse resulting in death." A warrant was issued for the fourth, who was out of state.
During the April 18 [attachment] therapy session, the fourth-grader was placed in a fetal position, wrapped "from head to toe" in a flannel blanket and surrounded by pillows.
 Followup letter to the Denver Rocky Mountain News, printed June 11, 2000 (p 8B) Quacks allowed to wreak their havoc unchallenged Along with most educators, I am apalled by the attempt to have the criminal charges against the "rebirthing" therapists and adoptive mother of Candace Newmaker dropped, along with the claim that the death of this innocent child was an "accident" (May 31 article, "Web site supports therapists charged in death"). In my opinion, her mother was ignorant, surrendering her common sense to the current acceptance of quackery as a legitimate approach to relieving physical and/or mental disorders-real or imaginary. The therapists promoted a treatment that has been established merely by anecdotal accounts, but is unproven beyond that, and profited from the resulting ignorance. We cannot remedy this sort of witchcraft because of the pervasive attitude of politicians and the media to be "politically correct" and accept everything without demanding supporting evidence. The medical profession has given in to this notion, as well as allowing such notions as chiropractic, "facilitated communication," "therapeutic touch" and homeopathy to wreak their damage unchallenged. It is particularly tragic that is coercive, totally pseudoscientific "therapy" is so often used on defenseless children. Candace Newmaker was killed with good but totally misdirected intentions. And her mother paid the quacks $7,000 for the job. It's time the medical profession began cleaning house.
James Randi Linda Rosa brought these items to our attention.
"Battlefield Earth" starts Battle on the Internet According to an article by Rick Lyman in the New York Times of May 11, 2000, anticult groups are "kicking up a fuss. Discussion on Internet movie sites is picking over the potentially sinister implications. Anonymous e-mails are whizzing around the country charging that, among other things, subliminal messages are being used to recruit unsuspecting moviegoers [to Scientology]." John Travolta, long a defender of Scientology, plays the nine-foot alien dictator of Earth. The book on which the movie, "Battlefield Earth," is based was written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. "...[S]everal anticult Web sites have posted warnings about the film in recent months that contain numerous charges. For example Cultwatch and Factnet say that the film carries subliminal messages meant to lure people into Scientology, that the film was secretly financed by Scientology, and that Scientology plans recruiting efforts to coincide with the movie's release." The distributor, Warner Brothers, denies any of this. And Scientology officials maintain that they have nothing to do with the making of the film. But the final word must go to film critic Roger Ebert...
"Battlefield Earth" is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It's not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile way. The visuals are grubby and drab. The characters are unkempt and have rotten teeth. Breathing tubes hang from their noses like ropes of snot. The soundtrack sounds like the boom mike is being slammed against the inside of a 55-gallon drum. Oh, what the hell! Here's the U.K. Sunday Times quoting the Washington Post...
Critics have called Battlefield Earth's plot implausible and its dialogue clichéd. "A million monkeys with 1m crayons would be hard pressed in 1m years to create anything as cretinous as this," said The Washington Post, which concluded: "This is a contender for the worst film of the century." See also "The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion," Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1992. By Anthony R. Pratkanis
Biotech Firm's Mix-Up on Fly Genome Creates a Stir Paul Jacobs and Peter G. Gosselin of the LA Times reported on April 21, 2000 "In a scientific mix-up that has become the talk of gene researchers, the biotechnology company that deciphered the genetic code of the fruit fly inadvertently included stretches of human genetic material in data it posted on a public Web site. "The error by Maryland-based Celera Genomics was discovered by federal officials who monitor GenBank, the database where the codes of the fly and other creatures are freely available. The company retracted the information a few days ago, soon after being told of the error. "The mix-up, which is unlikely to cause any lasting scientific damage, has become another issue dividing the scientific community at a time when Celera and a consortium of public genome centers are racing to complete and publish a working draft of the human genetic code." Good thing they caught that mistake before they tried out that Matter Transporter they were working on.... Brought to our attention (with the ending comment) by Brian Siano Thursday April 13, 5:56 AM Reuters reported that tomato growers hoped an experiment with feng-shui would produce bigger and juicier crops. Two workers, both Baptists, Martin Kelly and his son Paul quit their jobs, saying the ancient oriental art of channelling energy flows was against their religious beliefs. "I'm not working for a farm that openly claims it relies on a power other than God," Martin told the BBC on Thursday. "It put me in conflict with my faith. I would not be able to sleep at night." The article went on to say that the British Tomato Growers' Association is encouraging members to try feng-shui and has called in experts to advise on the siting of hives for bumblebees to pollinate crops. Last year, the association persuaded some growers to play rock and roll music to their tomatoes on the basis that it could create "good vibrations" that would encourage pollination. "We saw production rise by nearly five percent last year and, while we don't put it entirely down to the introduction of rock and roll music, where sound waves help with the pollination process, it has encouraged us to think laterally and not be afraid to try new ideas," said the association's chairman Peter Lansdale.
According to a New York Times story of April 10th by Joel Brinkley, "The Microsoft Corporation has quietly hired Ralph Reed, a senior consultant to Gov. George W. Bush's presidential campaign, to lobby Mr. Bush in opposition to the government's antitrust case against the software giant." Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, is a senior advisor to the George W. Bush campaign, and the director of the Lobby firm Century Strategies. According to the story, "An accounting by the Center for Responsive Politics shows that, during the current election season, Microsoft and its employees have donated more than $727,000 to political parties -- 53 percent of it to the Republicans and 47 percent to Democrats. "One obvious goal, while the antitrust case drags through a year or more of appeals, is to convince the next president, Congress and the public that the case should be abandoned. But the current campaign by Mr. Reed's company is much more closely aimed at the Bush campaign."
The next day, the New York Times reported that Ralph Reed promised to stop lobbying the Bush campaign after the compaign expressed its irritation. "A campaign official said the governor had not known that Mr. Reed's organization was lobbying him."
ANNOUNCEMENT from the American Holistic Nurses' Association: The American Holistic Nurses' Association and The Colorado Center for Human Caring Invite you to join with us and all the nurses around the world in a World-Wide Commemorative Moment for Florence Nightingale and Nursing. May 12, 2000 12 Noon, Your Local Time. At that moment, every nurse around the world is invited to pause, take a moment of silence or create a healing ceremony or ritual in celebration and dedication of the heart and spirit of nursing. We will create a wave of healing consciousness as nurses world-wide observe this moment. Our Collective Goal is to reach every nurse in the world with this message. During this 24-hour period, nurses around the world will: honor Florence Nightingale and her legacy to modern nursing honor the strength and wisdom of our nursing mission reconnect with the fire and the soul, the sense of calling in nursing acknowledge the interconnections and oneness of nurses in the personal, political, social, and scientific domains relight the lamp and carry the vision of caring and healing into the new millennium (Passed on to us by James Randi, magician -- April 8, 2000)
On February 8, 2000, the New York Times reported in an article by William J. Broad, that "...two prominent scientists say that conventional wisdom is wrong." The Universe may not be teeming with life. The search for extraterrestrials is likely to fail. Drawing on new findings from astronomy, geology and paleontology, Drs. Peter D. Ward and Donald C. Brownlee, both of the University of Washington, argue in their book, "Rare Earth," that humans might indeed be alone because the conditions that make up the Earth are extremely rare. For one thing, they say, our sun is not typical of suns in the galaxy. For another, planets discovered outside our solar systems have thus far been gas giants. In contrast, Broad writes, Dr. Frank D. Drake, president of the SETI Institute, a private group in Mountain View, California, that is searching for alien civilizations with the huge dish antenna at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, "...said that the book's main failing was undue pessimism about life's tenacity. 'The basic flaw in all those arguments,' Dr. Drake said, 'is that they don't allow for the opportunistic nature of life, its ability to accomodate or alter itself to cope with environmental change.'" As a practical matter, private donations, $100 million to date, now coming from silicon moguls and other private donors, could be in danger if this heretical view is accepted.
Hats off to ABC's 20/20 for John Stossel's investigation of the organic foods industry (aired Friday, February 4, 2000). He discovered, among other things, that ...
Still, quoting from ABC's companion web site, "According to an ABCNEWS poll, 45 percent of the public thinks organic foods are more nutritious than those that are not raised organically, while 57 percent think that producing organic foods is better for the environment."
It seems that there were some errors in Stossel's report. Solid reporter that Stossel is, he issued an apology, which said, in part...
...I also made a comment about pesticides on produce. I said our tests found no pesticide residues on either conventional or organic produce. That was just wrong. The labs we used never tested the produce for pesticides. We thought they had, but they hadn’t. We misunderstood, and that was our fault. Thanks to Bill Bennetta of The Textbook League for pointing out the errors of our reporting! (August 11, 2000).
On January 28, 2000, the New York Times reported that New York City's welfare department has been recruiting welfare recipients to work at home as telephone psychics since last April. Reporter Nina Bernstein wrote that 15 people had been hired by a company called Psychic Network. Apparently, Clairvoyance was not among the qualifications listed in the city's recruitment flier. You need only a high school equivalency diploma. "A caring and compassionate personality" and the ability "to read, write and speak English" qualified for the Psychic Network's "minimum starting salary of $10 per hour." Training in Tarot card reading is supplied. Psychic Network joins 160 other companies in the program, which incidently qualifies them for federal and state tax credits and certain wage subsidies. The reporter was unable to contact Psychic Network, which is supposed to be headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. Their local Manhatten number was disconnected in July, 1999.
The following day, Jan. 29th, it was reported in the same New York Times, that the welfare department of New York City dropped Psychic Network from the program. Hot News |
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Much to his amusement, P. Z. Myers was spotted in line waiting to see a preview of the new independent Ben Stein film, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” Meyers didn’t resist being ousted. Much to the chagrin of the promoters of the film, they missed long-time critic of creationism in any form, Richard Dawkins.
"Though it has many forms, Wicca is a type of pre-Christian belief that reveres nature and its cycles," the article by Neela Banerjee said. "To settle a lawsuit, the Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.