The Round-up w/e 09/09/2012

Hello and welcome to this week’s gleaning of the Internet where, like a skeptical blue whale, we filter the plankton of reason from the seas of superstition. I really need to get more sleep. Nonetheless, on with the show.

You know how you wait ages for something on the placebo effect and then three pieces come along at once? For those that have time here’s a lecture by Harriet Hall on Fairy Tale Medicine and the Placebo Effect. Next we have a scholarly article by Andy Lewis on Chekov, Homeopathy and the Placebo effect.  And we’ll finish our triumvirate of articles with this look at an evolutionary explanation of this palliative phenomenon.

We’ll stay in the realms of alt med for a while as a new centre offering all kinds of CAM opens with the blessing of one of her majesty’s children, but not the usual suspect this time. I wonder if they’ll be offering didgeridoos there?

Hey look, Michael Marshall from the Merseyside Skeptics has only gone and got into the Guardian on the subject of Powerbands! I don’t care what he says there is nothing that is going to deprive me of my Jedpower. OMG!!!

A few stats on creationism  here. If some people had their way the figures might be even worse. They should take a cue from the Koreans.

The next couple of links come with a yuck warning. First off is a parasite that could make you blush. After reading this next one I felt that I had learned a lot, and learning is good, isn’t it?

An experimental approach to test quantum mechanics gets reported over at the BBC.

Our old friends over at the Mail are taken to task for the way they report about computer games. I’ll stick to board games, definitely less geeky, right?

Nasa test out a planetary lander that is just very cool. If you should ever venture into space don’t forget for cases of emergency you should always take your towel, an inanimate carbon rod and your toothbrush.

A couple of sad and serious stories next. Skeptical Humanities give us a good summary of the story about the young girl arrested for blasphemy in Islamabad with an interesting twist about the alleged actions of her accuser. Bigotry and belief seems to be behind the disgusting actions of this former medic too.

There are lots of great places to visit in London, I haven’t made it to the Grant Museum yet, but after looking at this it’s going top of my list.

A brief account of the appointment of the new health minister with the conveniently rhyming name can be found over at Stuff and Nonsense.

Tony Ortega takes an interesting angle on the pitfalls of Scientology’s investment in fame.  It mentions in that article that their drug rehabilitation centre in Quebec was closed down, but that’s not going to stop them offering their services out in Vietnam.

Coronation Street veteran Bill Roache does an Icke

All that’s left is to remind you all that Wednesday 12th of September is our open mic night with six wonderful speakers for your pleasure. If you’ve never made it to a SitP you should, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy yourself and meet some interesting people. Find your nearest one here and if there isn’t one why not start one?

We video some of our talks at Brum Skeptics for those that can’t make it or just want the chance ot go over the great talks at their leisure. Keep checking back here to see what we’ve got available and I’ll leave you with this teaser for our video of the amazing Colin Wright.

This week’s round-up was put together by Patrick Redmond with help from the very much appreciated Roy Beddowes.

Skepticism – the pioneers

A blog post by Adrian Bailey

I’m not an expert on this subject but I’m putting pen to paper in response to a question about the history of Skepticism. In a sense, there isn’t that much to tell. Until the formation of CSICOP in 1976 there appears to have been very little of it about. In the 19th and 20th centuries there was plenty of paranormal research, but it was instigated by believers. And the power of cognitive dissonance was very strong. Famous figures like Charles Fort and Harry Price discovered many charlatans, but this seems to have only stengthened their resolve to find the real evidence. It was left to people on the fringes, like Walter Pitkin and Paul Tabori (Price’s biographer), to see clearly what the others could not: you can’t find any evidence because these phenomena do not exist. To be fair to Price, by the end of his life (he died in 1948) he had become a Skeptic.

Looking at the titles of three early Skeptic anthologies, Paul Tabori’s History of the Science of Stupidity (1959), Walter Pitkin’s Short Introduction to the History of Human Stupidity (1934) and Max Kemmerich’s From the History of Human Stupidity (1912), you can see they all leant heavily on the classic of the (surprisingly small) genre, Adelung’s History of Human Stupidity. This mammoth work was written over several years at the end of the 18th century, and fits in with other works of that enlightened age like Bayle’s Dictionary and Diderot’s Encyclopedia. Adelung exposed all sorts of mystics and charlatans, but did this from the perspective of a Christian for whom all of these pseudosciences were a form of heresy. There is a lesson for me here that although I consider religious people to be misguided, their faith ironically puts them in a good position to be critical of other misguided beliefs.

It interests me that, despite the danger of imprisonment or even death, religious heresy grew spectacularly from that period on, but scientific skepticism stalled. This didn’t matter too much, since the growth of science was sweeping various misbeliefs away, but it was clearly doing so despite the intransigence of many people who called themselves scientists. The story of Semmelweis’s failure to get doctors to wash their hands is a good example.

When I think of the practical Skepticism of Simon Perry, Andy Lewis and co, I’m reminded of the Carlills, who gave us the memorable case of the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company (1893). But, considering the tens of thousands of panaceas on the market then and afterwards, it had almost no effect on the mismarketing of placebos. Even today lawmakers are loath to stem the tide.

Magicians are perhaps better placed than most of us to spot what’s going on, and Harry Houdini was probably the leading Skeptic of his era, his Magician Among the Spirits (pdf) (1924) relating his encounters with Arthur Conan Doyle and the charlatans the latter patronised. When J B Rhine decided to rechristen psychical research as parapsychology in the 1930’s it sounded more scientific and looked more scientific, but Rhine wasn’t a Skeptic and simply falsified many of his results to avoid coming to the obvious conclusions.

Through the 19th and 20th centuries the freethought movement grew, through Unitarianism, the Quakers, Ethical Culture, through to the foundation of modern Humanism in the 1950’s. But it was only later, in the 1970’s and 80’s, that the first true Skeptical organisations were founded, namely CSICOP in the US and ASSAP in the UK. Two books which really gave impetus to this were Martin Gardner’s Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (1952) and Donald Menzel’s UFOs: Flying Saucers - Myth - Truth - History (1953). The publication of such books made rather more enemies than friends for their authors, and Skeptics still risk ostracism today.

Adrian organised the original Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub events and is currently the Chair of Birmingham Humanists.

Round-Up w/e 2nd September 2012.

Raindrops on spiders and skylights that glisten
Bright uranium sculptures and Newton momentum
Dodgy prescriptions with not one active thing…
These are a few of our favourite - stories included in this week’s Skeptics in the Pub Round-up.

First off, a plug for our forthcoming event, and this is one we’re extremely proud of; our first open-mic night, now rescheduled to the more usual second Wednesday of the month slot (September 12th). There will be a few familiar faces, special guests and some songs about science. Come along. It’ll be fun.

A song about Science? What a great idea! Dig out your old cheesecloth shirt, love-beads and flares, and then go swing your pants.

How many times does one hear someone make the mistake of assuming that because something is natural it must be good and also be safe? Edzard Ernst at the British Medical Journal Science Blogs: The natural equals safe fallacy.

Steven Novella at Science Based Medicine rips into The Huffington Post  for consistently publishing anti-science and anti-vaccination blogs, then pops up again as producer of this riotous Skeptics Guide to The Universe video Passing Away. Who needs sneaky headphones when you can play spirit charades?

The Huff Po redeems itself with this piece on Homeopathy from Cara Santa Maria at Huff Post Science, with some additional input from Ben Goldacre. Leave the video running for more familiar faces and interesting articles. Ben’s new book Bad Pharma is released later this month too. Let’s hope it’s as good as BadScience, his brilliant exposé of quacks and hacks.

More homeopathy news as Andy Lewis at The Quackometer poses questions to Boots the Chemists over the FDA’s decision to put Nelsons, UK manufacturers of such products as Bach Rescue Remedies, onto their red list; Boots, initially, unconcerned.

Some fascinating Tetrapod Zoology of a fictional entity: The science of Godzilla.

For those that missed our superb talk on Darwin’s Predecessors last month, there’s another chance to see Rebecca Stott fairly locally at Erasmus Darwin’s House in Lichfield on 18th October. Free entry to the museum until the end of this week too.

Allah cries if you eat a particular fruit: Tomatoes are Christian warns Egyptian religion. It all depends on the way you cut it.

Just putting my shopping list together: That’s one E. coli; a couple of tropical diseases; a petri dish full of acne pimples and a flesh eating Streptococcus. Diseases have never been so cute: Giant Microbes – pass them on.

Mars rover update: God built man, man built Mars rover. Therefore, intelligent design, global flood - gut methane panspermia – is true. Sometimes I sigh a little.

Richard Dawkins has a four page spread in Playboy Magazine this month. Thankfully it’s not a bellybutton stapled centrefold but actually quite a good interview and some questions of substance - damn those NSFW distracting sidebars. Maybe he should now have his own porno pseudonym. How about Rawhard Dickins?

Bill Nye (The Science Guy) has created a stir with an online video at Big Think in which he says adults who deny evolution and teach a literal biblical view are hurting America’s future. Hemant Mehta at The Friendly Atheist website picks up the story and assesses The Creation Museum’s response.

Tesla coils – Sweet Ohm Alabama. Bzzzzt!

A species of ape has been observed in captivity making and using flint tools , the first time this level of technological sophistication in tool use has been observed in non-humans. Only 99 more apes to go before critical mass is achieved. Meanwhile, over at Longleat…

Creativity comes from without, not within: From the excellent Brain Pickings site, Kirby Ferguson’s recent TED talk about his Everything is a Remix project, exploring remix culture, copyright and creativity. I’m having that Henry Ford picture for my work board.

As seen in Digbeth. Nice work there mystery artist.

Another example of faith trying to trump science: A California school district is teaching 39,000 students that a good night’s sleep can help prevent them from contracting HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases. Apart from being untrue it’s also against California state law. Bring on the Lawsuit.

Jesus plasters can heal a shotgun blast to the head, apparently, and they never run out. More excellent product reviews over at Amazon. All I need now is a packet of these, a bottle of this, and my first aid cabinet can handle any major catastrophe.

Nasa has announced that the landing site of Curiosity is now called Bradbury Landing, in honour of the science fiction author who died earlier this year. Click through for a similar story on Douglas Adams and THGTTG.

Do humans and gorillas both make the same cold stethoscope face during medical examinations? For some of you this will be just like looking in a mirror…

Under new reform legislation in Florida, services such as acupuncture and massage therapy will no longer be covered by car insurance. Chiropractors and acupuncturists fear victims of accidents will not receive adequate treatment after an accident go boo-hoo.

Egg yolks as bad as smoking? The conclusion isn’t supported by the data it presents says Skeptical Raptor.

Scientology blamed for deaths of three patients who underwent treatment at Narconon, the home of Scientology's drug treatment program.

Taking a swift break to wash and disinfect hands after handling a Daily Mail link – here’s one of my favourite places on YouTube: Qualia Soup. Take a look at Skewed views of Science to get you going.

From the exceptional Science Daily: Reliance on supernatural explanations for major life events, such as death and illness, often increases rather than declines with age, according to a new psychology study.

One of the many interesting articles at Freethinker: The view of two leading doctors from Great Ormond Street hospital is that Religious parents who believe that “divine intervention” will save their terminally ill children are subjecting them to torture by putting them through aggressive but futile treatments.

We have more fascinating talks lined up for you over the next few months as well as our usual socials. Make a note of these in your diary, we’d love to see you - Hypnosis without Hypnosis on October 10th and How Science is Redefining Sex on November 7th.

Signing off and rounding up with this magnificent and touching time-lapse video. Some great well I never moments in there.

See you on the 12th.

The Last Roll-Out from Philip Andrews on Vimeo.

This week’s Round-up was compiled by SitP regular Roy Beddowes.

Round-Up w/e 26th August 2012

Hello and welcome to the latest Round-Up.

First up, a reminder that our next is event is our first Open Mic Night on Wednesday 12th September, 7.30pm at The Victoria. with 6 speakers (well, 5 speakers and a singer) encompassing mystery, conspiracy, cancer quackery, music and more. You can even tell us you're coming on our Facebook Page.

Few people will have missed the sad news announced on Saturday that Neil Armstrong, the first human being to set foot on the moon, had died aged 82. Rather than point to a broadsheet obituary here's Peter Harrison on the man rather than the hero.

His passing drove Martin Robbins to pen a wake-up call for the world while Alok Jha details the possible contenders in the new Space Race.

In happier news Voyager 2 is 35 years old and has just become the most long-lived active mission in space history and only two weeks after Curiosity landed on Mars NASA have announced a new mission, InSight, which will investigate the interior of the Red Planet. Speaking of Curiosity, here's a nice piece detailing why all of the “Why don't they just do that?” questions regarding the mission don't “just get done”.

Finally in our little space round-up I hope you have seen very few of the pictures like the one that heads this Round-Up. There are two reasons: firstly it's not Armstrong (as he had the camera most of the time) and secondly it's doctored. Charles Apple at the American Copy Editors Society tells us why there are no usable photos of Armstrong while he was on the moon's surface.

In religion news Todd Bentley, the supposed healer, who assaults people in the name of the lord has been refused entry to the UK. That must be a kick in the teeth.

After Cardinal Keith O'Brien pledged to stop repeating his bigotry to the Scottish government he has written a letter criticising it for its support of gay marriage. At least this time the only people who are forced to listen are the poor parishioners.  

And one last piece of religious news is that a man in Bali was forced to marry the cow he was besotted with.

A nice piece on Christopher Hitchens here. A pity it's in the Daily Mail.

On to health now and it is encouraging to see that ebay have banned Tarot readings, spells, curses and blessings from being sold on its site however there is no news yet of crosses or rosaries. After the US banned the import of Nelson's homeopathic products due to their dire production methods Andy Lewis reveals that big names on the British high street seem unconcerned.

The problems facing homeopathy in India rumble on as privately run homeopathic colleges are almost empty leading some to accuse proponents of the recent idea to allow alt-med practitioners to do a one year course to qualify to prescribe real medicine as an economic move. It is not explained why alt-med practitioners would need to prescribe real medicine though after all, it all works doesn't it? Unfortunately this fracas doesn't stop them from attempting to treat malnourishment with their little sugar pills.  

While we're on the subject it's worth revisiting Zeno's blog on that “neutral” Swiss homeopathic report.

Worrying news closer to home as Jennifer Keane reports that the Irish Times felt the need to tell it's readers the “Truth” about avoiding cancer and Keir Liddle reports at the 21^st Floor on a Guardian article on unproven cancer trials that led to almost universal howls of derision on publication.

Also reported this week is that cases of measles has doubled in a year in England and Wales and that North Tyneside Trading Standards is being farmed out to the private sector, Capita no less. Time will tell whether they will be happy to clamp down on public relations heavy, entrepreneurial incompetents in the alt-med industry.

The only light relief I've spotted in health this week is that you will now be able to find out what exactly your Doctor writes on your prescriptions.

Three little visual science bits to finish with. As it's gone viral I presume many will have seen the story of the Spanish octogenarian who in a stunning exemplification of the Dunning Kruger effect took it upon herself to retouch a fresco of Jeezy Chreezy donated to her church. If not it's well worth a look.  

Also we have a stunning TED video on technology which enables photographs to be reconstructed at 1,000,000,000,000 frames a second and lets you take photos round corners.

Finally I'll leave you with a nerdy a capella Adele parody about the Higgs Boson. Enjoy:-

This week's Round-Up was put together by @christheneck.

Round-Up w/e 19/8/12

Welcome one and all to the Birmingham Skeptics round-up.  Did you know that our next event is the open mic night?  You did, did you?  I bet you don't know who's going to be speaking there then.  We have an author and a singer amongst others, you can find out even more by clicking here.  Wednesday 12th September, 7.30pm at The Victoria.  Make sure you're there.  Anyway, on with the round-up

Massimo Pigliucci believe there's quite a bit of unreason within the community of reason.  To stop this unreason in its tracks, he has some practical suggestions in 'The Community of Reason, a self-assessment and a manifesto'.

'The fake butter used to flavour popcorn causes alzheimers!' screamed the press around the world.  The New York Post offered this in-depth article on the subject.  Unlike the world media, somebody actually took the time to read the study, you can read what they found here.

As one batshit apocalyptic prediction fails to materialise, another emerges.  This time the world is going to end at 11.11GMT 21/12/2012.  So, should you be worried about the impending apocalypse?  Matt Ridley says you shouldn't.

An 11 year-old Pakistani girl could face the death penalty after being accused of Qua'ran burning.  Burning a book = Wrong.  Killing a child = Right.

Nick Cohen's excellent article on an evil collusion between a tyrant and a man of God.

Dr Peter Wothers reckons that chemistry is too often taken for granted or dismissed as 'evil chemicals'.  He's going to show the naysayers 'what for' at Christmas as he'll be presenting the RI Christmas lectures as they focus on chemistry.

Arrrrghhh! There's a Flying Spaghetti Monster in the Sky!

American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.

Jen McCreight proposes a new wave of atheism, although Notung is sceptical.

Birmingham Skeptics organiser Patrick was interviewed by Adrian Goldberg on BBC Radio WM, you can hear him talking about our 'sceptical meat and 2 veg' as the recording is here.

Is it fair to circumcise new-born boys?

I leave you with a video featuring those lovely people from the Church of Scientology.  One of the stars of this video spoke to the hardcore rationalists at TruthJuice Birmingham this week, lucky them.

This week's round-up was put together by Birmingham Skeptics co-organiser Paul Bryant.

The Round-up w/e 12/8/2012

Greetings, sorry the round up is late this week, but we’ve been collecting up the best of the web for all you fine skeptics.

As our meetings are in the pub, it’s safe to say we like a drink, but the discovery of homeopathic vodka is probably not something we’ll be asking for (and thankfully not something the Vic will be serving any time soon).  But if we did ever fancy it then maybe we can couple it with a nice fruity mixer, as a church in Manchester has been found to be selling blackcurrant squash as a cure for cancer.  And if all that’s left you a bit peckish then the news archaeologists have found traces of 2,500 year old chocolate probably won’t help.

There’s further proof that climate change might, you know, actually be happening has caused a previous climate sceptic physicist to change his mind, after being surprised by the results.  But then again scientists have found evidence of palm trees at the Antarctic, so that might just confuse them a bit further.   Who knows?

Vaccination is a bit of a hot topic too as The Sydney Daily Telegraph looks into the muddy waters of vaccination, at the same time the BBC reports whooping cough outbreak spreading time to very young babies.  As if whooping cough and vaccinations aren’t enough for the little ‘uns to deal with, the news that chiropractors are“treating” newborn babies for having been cooped up in a cramped uterus might be the straw that…oh wait.

Religion is a popular source of conversation amongst a lot of us; it might not be such good news for our Celtic cousins as the Belfast Telegraph points out the Irish are abandoning religion faster than most  countries and news that spiritual encounters might all be in the head probably aren’t helping.  Still if they’re looking for something else Australia’s newest cult might not be the best place to look, although the news astrology is more like religion than science might be an alternative…or perhaps not.

And finally, seems summer might be making people (or at least reporters) a little frisky as this youtube video explored why sexy is sexy, whilst others are looking at the Catholic church’s supposed preoccupation with sex.  But it’s not all candlelight and romance, as NewScientist reports salmon sex is delayed because of global warming.

Don’t forget that we have our social coming up next week and that the sitp  this  month is our first ever open mic night featuring some of you lot that sit in our audience and a couple of guests. Put them in your diary now! And on that note we’ll leave you till next week!

This week's round-up was put together by Laura Creaven

The Round-up w/e 5/8/2012

We have to start this week with the winner of the 563 Billion Metre Dash, Mars rover Curiosity. (Joke unashamedly stolen from Twitter). There has been no end of coverage of this historic event, articles on the construction of the mobile laboratory with its many cameras and the first images came through almost instantaneously. But it was left to the Onion to provide us with some of the first in-depth analysis of those early pictures though!

Keeping with the space theme we’d like to pay our respects to physicist and astronomical pioneer Sir Bernard Lovell who died today aged 98. Founder and first director of the iconic Jodrell Bank which houses the telescope that bears his name amongst many other achievements

Another physicist honoured this week is good old Brian Cox who received his award from University Campus Oldham via the actor and sci- fi icon Patrick Stewart who made it so.

You wouldn’t think that water could be controversial, but then it depends on what you do or don’t put into it I suppose. Flouride is a good example, most people agree it strengthens the teeth, but does it lower your intelligence? Some think it does and some not.

In a sense water and intelligence are the theme of this amusing but sadly illuminating story too.

Homeopaths have been meeting increasing difficulties in acceptance within the NHS and the  MHRA framework, and now it seems that the private health insurers are following suit. Perhaps this is due to people finally accepting the evidence as laid out by the Rational Wiki. Simon Singh calls for a bit of praise for the BBC inSussex for making a stand on the subject.

If things get too difficult for the CAM merchants over here there are still some good positions going in the United States Army. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry sometimes.

The American Army isn’t the only one susceptible to a bit of hocus pocus. We’ve reported in recent round-ups on the declining fortunes of the magic bomb detectors company, but it seems that the Thai army are bucking that trend.

Don’t know about you but I’ve been having a great time watching the Olympics. Wired have been doing an excellent series on the science behind different events including pole vault, shot putt,  and many others.

There are less scientific aspects to the sporting arena though. We've had Power Balance bands then Kinesio tape questioned by scientists, and now protein and energy drinks come under scrutiny.

I remember proudly showing those Rorschach type images of the ultrasound scans of my children. “Is that an arm, is that a leg, where’s its head?” More accurate but also more disturbing is this alternative.

I love an interactive infographic me. I also love emergent technology. So I really love this.

It’s a good time in the UK to be watching the International Space Station at the moment. There are several ways to know when it’s coming over. I use an app on my phone, some people visit the website and this enterprising person created their own warning light.  New lights might be in order for the ISS itself to help the astronauts stay alert.

I really want to try this, superstitious investments for the lazy.

Bananas have great illustrative capabilities for science. Ray Comfort attempted to use it to show the creative power of God, but ended up showing his own scientific ignorance and Skeptical Raptor uses it to show some good skeptical processing.

Somebody has gone and built a to-scale Noah’s Ark. There is a bit of me that thinks this is very sad and another that it is very cool. You can make your own minds up. I’m not sure how they are going to get it moving but if they can fit the requisite number of species aboard then they are just as likely to be able to use this remarkable means of power.

Interesting article on the charitable (or not) status of some religious groups in the UK.

It’s a possible hit and run story that is millions of years old and had no witnesses. Scientists try to piece the clues together on how the moon was formed.

A bit of behavioural observation that us users of public transport will recognise here.

“Honour Killing”, only the latter of those words is in any way accurate in the terrible story of Shafilea Ahmed and its implications for the community.

Next an interesting article comparing climate change skeptics to conspiracy theorists. This first appeared on the Guardian site but I enjoyed the comments on this one more.

Whatever the state of the planet perhaps it is the neo-environmentalists that will save us all. If not them then it will have to be the superhero manatees.

The 8^th of August is the wonderful Rebecca Stott author of Darwin’s Ghosts and other books. This is a skeptics in the pub premiere with a truly fascinating topic. On top of that this month we have the return of our social, an informal gathering to chat and socialise. This has proven popular for people that find  the  talk nights too busy to meet people properly.

As gay protestors oppose food outlet Chick-fil-A’s position on same sex marriages other people show that they too can make a stand for their beliefs on this. This man embodies for me the full value of the opposition with his dramatic demonstration of Mr Bean style bravado.

This round-up was put together by @paddyrex with the help of stalwart contributor Roy Beddowes