William K. Wolfrum

Are you a Skeptic? Or someone who thinks science trumps the supernatural? Well, we have a show for you -The Skeptologists, which just finished shooting its first pilot

Hosted by Brian Dunning, the Skeptologists will be a skeptic-reality show which will include Skeptics Guide to the Universe host Dr. Steven Novella, Michael Shermer, Phil Plait (The Bad Astronomer) and Mark Edward.

Oh yeah, Yau-Man Chan, one of Survivors’ most popular players, is also a regular on the show. You can listen to an interview with Yau-Man on Skeptics Guide by clicking here.

“There was this general optimistic feeling that this would happen. It still could not get picked up, but if any hardcore skeptical show can make it on the air, it will be this one,” said Novella.

The hour-long pilot will include looks at the Wheat grass craze, as well as looking at the instruments that ghost hunters use.

The Web site for Skeptologists is here. They also have a page on Facebook here.

Want to see The Skeptologists? Send an e-mail to skeptologists(at)newrule(dot)com and tell them you can’t wait to see some serious skepticism. They’ll be taking the e-mails to producers to show that this is a program that people want. Plus, you’ll be doing Plait a favor, as he’s already done 275 different pilots and hasn’t seen one get picked up. The Skeptologists may be the one. I’ll definitely be sending an e-mail.

–WKW

While Jenny McCarthy will go on and on about her “mommy instinct” and tell everyone that her son has autism because he was victimized by being vaccinated (she claims to actually have seen the change in him the moment he got the shot), the fact is, her Mommy Instinct is nonsense, but sadly, she’s selling books propagating lies about Autism anyway.

“I’m really coming out on my own and saying things that no one has been able to say: Autism is treatable.”

McCarthy is not worried that there’s no scientific evidence that nutrition can help autism or that there’s been no scientific data to prove it curavle. She’s using her Mommy Gut, after all.

But “Mommy Guts” don’t trump science:

“Study Finds Vaccine Preservative Is Not Linked to Risks of Autism”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Autism cases in California continued to climb even after a mercury-based vaccine preservative that some people blame for the neurological disorder was removed from routine childhood shots, a study has found.

Researchers from the State Public Health Department found that the autism rate in children rose continuously in the study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative, thimerosal, has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, except for some flu shots.

Doctors said that the latest study added to the evidence against a link between thimerosal exposure and the risk of autism and that it should reassure parents that vaccinations do not cause autism. If there was a risk, the doctors said, autism rates should have dropped from 2004 to 2007.

Dr. Daniel Geschwind, a neurologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the focus should be on exploring possible causes of autism, including genetic links.

Really, Jenny, I’m sorry about your son’s condition and appreciate your work. But can you keep your Mommy Gut and pseudoscience out of it and just go back to being heartbreakingly unfunny?

–WKW

Happy International Cephalopod Awareness Day, everyone. Because two arms are good, but eight arms are better. Read more here.

–WKW

It’s getting increasingly difficult to read about national politics in the U.S. and not come to the conclusion that full-blown anarchy sounds more and more appealing. Sure, it will be hard to find anyone to take out the trash, but that stink would likely be less than the stink that currently permeates Washington.

Just one look at the current Presidential campaign is enough to make one wish for a government-less society. While the public overwhelmingly wants the U.S. to stop occupying Irag and not take over any new countries, the candidates are busily paying homage to the industrial military complex and neocon dream machine by amping up their war rhetoric and talking about staying in Iraq through their terms. Even more, the Democratic party is making no effort to protect the civil liberties of the public from a Republican party that has proven itself to be little more than a front for an authoritarian regime.

It’s frustrating, to say the least. And sure, maybe I’m coming off as a touch radical here, but let me just say …

Um, hold on. Got a call I have to take.

Honey! How are you? I miss you, too. Yes I love you very much. Ooh yes I do. I’m just a little busy right now with a blog post. Is everything ok? Great? What? Yeah, maybe they think I’m a little radical, but, hey, I’m the guy who wrote “The Swiftboating of Jesus H. Christ: A look back,” right? Remember that? How brave I was? Yeah, I am something, aren’t I? Ok, I have to run. I’m writing a blog post, remember? Yes, I love you. Oooh yes I do. Vewwy much. I’ll see you tonight. Be safe.

Wow, that was embarrassing and unplanned. What can you do, though. Blogging is a big commitment, but my wife is a priority. I’m sure you understand. Anyway, this next election cycle is very likely the most important many of us will ever live through. The stakes couldn’t be higher. But in the end, will it really even matter who wins? Because …

Crap, hold on.

Mom, how are you? Yeah, I’m good. Just writing a blog post to these fine, upstanding folks. … Yeah, I know Dad wouldn’t like it. Well, maybe someday I can convince him to see the light. Yeah, I know he didn’t much like the post “To Save America We Need the Black Death.” I know. But lots of other people seemed to like it, and honestly, I’m pretty sure it saved lives. I stood tall and proud. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. I will. Yeah. Ok, Mom, I gotta run. Writing a blog post and all. I love you, too. I’ll call this weekend. Bye bye. Love you.

Again, I’m really sorry. But, you know, that was my Mom, and who can turn down a phone call from their mom? Yeah, I know, it’s sappy, but really, that’s who I am. Just a normal guy who loves his wife and Mom. Let’s see if we can get back to the point.

This next election cycle is very likely…. Oh, I covered that? Sec … Ok, here we go. …

In the end, however, is anyone else catching on to the idea that having just a two-party system is for the birds? The fascist, fascist birds? We are a nation in need of change. Big change I tell you. Now, your knee-jerk reaction will be to call me a radical, but lets think this through - are we willing to make the changes needed so that we can be the country our founders wanted us to be. Are we willing to fight …

Sec. Phone again.

“Afonso! What’s up dog? …”

–WKW

Let me start this by saying that I have an extremely high regard for Oprah Winfrey. She is a rare talent, indeed, and has captivated audiences on her show for decades, and has also shown herself to be an accomplished actress and a willing and prodigious philanthropist. That she has risen to dizzying heights shows that she is not just talented, but also tenacious and with amazing business savvy. There’s a lot to respect and like about Oprah Winfrey.

Except for her penchant to glamorize pseudoscience.

Oprah has literally spent hours and hours telling her viewers about the wondrous abilities of such things as The Secret. What is the real Secret? How Rhonda Byrne managed to get Oprah Winfrey to hock her snake oil in front of 20 million viewers.

That “The Secret” is pseudoscientific nonsense goes without saying. At least it should. But with Oprah pushing it, Byrne and her band of new age profiteers are making money hand over fist while Joe and Jane Sucker are at home wondering why they can’t seem to be able to wish for that Ferrari. Luckily, there are literally thousands of Web sites that easily debunk “The Secret’s” nonsense, but all of them combined likely don’t get the viewership of one segment of Oprah.

Lately, Oprah has fallen in love with Dr. Mehmet Oz (”America’s doctor”). Much like “The Secret,” Dr. Oz is brimming with positivity as he talks about his intricate theories on losing weight (Buy his book “YOU: On a Diet”!). Through it all wildly cheerful Dr. Oz also happily dabbles in pseudoscience himself.

Dr. Oz’s book “Healing from the Heart” is dedicated to advancing beliefs in acupuncture and homeopathy, among other things.

At his NeuroLogica Blog, Dr. Steven Novella, a neurosurgeon and host of the popular podcast “Skeptics Guide to the Universe,” takes Dr. Oz to task for sounding exactly like every other pseudoscientist that has come around the bend:

[Dr. Oz] also says:

“It’s just that if we’re truly going to achieve maximum healing, maximum impact, we ought to take any tool that’s at our disposal, and that includes nonscientific approaches, as long as we have evidence that they don’t hurt the patients.”

The inherent self-contradiction was apparently not evident to Dr. Oz. How can you have evidence of safety if the approach is nonscientific? Evaluating evidence is a scientific endeavor. He is also assuming that at least some nonscientific approaches are effective, but again how will we know this without looking at the evidence? Once you are considering evidence, then you are doing science and the only question is - are you doing good science or bad science? Dr. Oz and other integrative proponents would have us rely upon bad science, as long as we call it something else (i.e. “alternative”).

This is the core insanity of the CAM/integrative movement. They make many flowery statements about spirituality, energy, being open, respecting other cultures, etc. but when it comes down to it the only thing that matters is this: does the treatment work and is it safe. The only way to know is to do careful observations under controlled conditions and systematically evaluate the results (by the way, we call that doing science). They either do not understand what science is or pretend not to, or they simply ignore the fact that a “nonscientific approach” means that you are making poor observations, using logical fallacies, cherry picking the evidence, or committing other intellectual errors. Science is not an aesthetic choice, a philosophy, or a cultural construct - it is simply using valid logic and careful and systematic observation to test claims and ideas. Therefore a nonscientific approach does not do those things.

So in the end, despite his compelling stories and feel-good philosophy, Dr. Oz is advocating that doctors use treatments based upon sloppy reasoning and poor evidence. It really comes down to that. Everything else is an elaborate distraction.

In the end, those like Dr. Oz and Rhonda Byrne can package up whatever nonsense they like and sell it to whomever they wish, for the most part (see: Trudeau, Kevin). There will always be such snake-oil sales people.

Which is the problem I have with Oprah. If there’s one person in the media that I truly believe has a fundamental caring for her viewers, it’s Oprah. No one is that good an actress, or could be one for so long. She really does care about people. Which makes her support of such wasteful nonsense as “The Secret” more upsetting. Or her support of doctors who will dabble in the non-scientific, which not only can hurt a person’s pocketbook, but a person’s person, as well.

In the end, it’s Oprah’s show and she can promote anyone she likes. But what she needs to do is to have skeptics on the show offering the other side. Because by glamorizing pseudoscience, Oprah Winfrey is not helping her viewers one bit, but doing the complete opposite, and helping form a society that is completely detached from reality.

–WKW

Six years ago, an industry arose when the Twin Towers fell. In less time than it took George W. Bush to react, conspiracy theorists had the attacks of 9/11 all figured out.

And that means the rest of us have had to listen to six years of conspiricists screaming at the world to “open your eyes!”

But while Alex Jones and his ilk spread their own flavor of fear to the masses, plenty of others have done the work necessary to make 9/11 conspiracies look like the flimsy nonsense that they are at their heart.

A perfect place to start is at Popular Mechanics, where they recently updated their debunking of all things 9/11 conspiracy. The Journal of Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories also appears to have plenty of info for those looking to educate themselves on the lies and half-truths spread by “9/11 Truthers.” In fact, a quick Google search shows that there are more than a million sites out there dedicated to debunking the conspiracy nonsense.

More than anything, the conspiricists occupied with 9/11 are an extremely trite bunch. Their fusion of rumors, lies, winks and nods are used in the exact same way as those that believe in Intelligent Design. Or that space aliens exist in New Mexico. Or that HIV is a lie. All use the exact same techniques, and all eventually collapse under the sheer weight of their own ridiculousness. At their very heart, conspiracy theories like the ones for 9/11 are little more than logical fallacy parades.

Not that this will change the mind of a true believer, mind you. Because for them, if you don’t believe, you are part of the conspiracy. And, as most of you are very well aware, any time you confront conspiricists with real facts, they just keep throwing the same questions and arguments at you, over and over and over again, in some strange belief that truth can be overcome by persistence or pure force of will.

We will be hearing these 9/11 conspiracies for eons and eons to come. But that won’t make them any more true. It will just make a few more money, while making many others more paranoid.

Don’t believe the conspiracies.

–WKW

Stuart Pivar, the New York businessman who sued science blogger PZ Myers for a Dr. Evil-esque 15 million dollars has dropped said lawsuit, which is good news for Myers, aka Pharyngula, and the rest of the science blogging world. A hearty round of applause to Seed Media Group, owner of ScienceBlogs.com, for standing behind Myers on this ridiculous matter.

Pivar’s suit, which was for a bad review by Myers on Pivar’s pseudoscientific book Lifecode, did have a couple interesting offshoots. The main one is this - Pivar has horrible taste in PR firms. The flacks he chose - Matthew Rich Group / Planet PR - jumped into the fray to try and build Pivar’s case by cut and pasting the same message in comments of just about any blog that mentioned the Pivar lawsuit, including at Shakesville:

As an attorney I can tell you Pivar has every right to sue PZ Meyer and he may well prevail. And by the way, shame on PZ for trying to censor an interesting, if unconventional theory, in science community. www.aninconvenienttheory.com shows part of the book in question and it seems of interest to this non-scientist.

Good work by Scientific American’s Christopher Mims for connecting on the dots to show that it was Matthew Rich himself who was spamming blog posts to try and lend credence to Pivar’s silly claims. So remember, when you absolutely, positively want a PR job done half-assed, give Matthew Rich and Planet PR a call.

Oh, and another offshoot of the lawsuit? Do a Google search on the term “Classic Crackpot” and find out.

Other Sunday reading

–WKW

Are we seeing the next step in the creationists battle against common sense and reality? Perhaps.

Stuart Pivar, author of the book “Lifecode” and it’s re-release “Lifecode: From egg to embryo by self-organization”, is suing noted science blogger PZ Myers aka Pharyngula for libel, after Myers reviewed said book.

Myers, a developmental biologist, was unimpressed with Pivar’s work, which supports an alternative to some of Darwin’s principles, namely in structuralism and self-organization:

This is not a scientific theory, and it isn’t even a collection of evidence: it’s a jumble of doodles. I read through it all this afternoon (there really isn’t that much to read), and I have to conclude it says nothing about the development or evolution of biological organisms, although it is relevant to something else.

and:

Pivar is a classic crackpot, and Lifecode isn’t a science book by any measure. There is no theory there, and no evidence or observation. I can’t believe any scientist would be taken in by it.

Pivar, who has been pointed to as trying to further a creationist agenda by EvolutionBlog’s Jason Rosenhouse, is a wealthy businessman who can afford to toss about lawsuits - he’s been named as a plaintiff in at least 25 cases according to the Scientific America blog.

But can ordinary scientists and the science minded afford such lawsuits. And is this what our legal system is based upon? To keep creationists and the non-scientific from being debunked? Because Myers’ criticism was harsh, but he backed it up. At the very least, this is part of the scientific method at its simplest form - scientists are notoriously brutal on work which they disagree.

“What if PZ didn’t work for Seed? If people start going after individual bloggers without the resources to defend themselves, that would have a chilling effect on the whole field,” wrote Scientific American’s Christopher Mims in a comment to a blog post by Wired’s Brandon Keim.

Pivar’s lawsuit needs to be thrown out, with malice. The suit appears to be little more than a scare tactic to shut up the scientific. We already live in a world where science news is handled by the distinctly non-scientific in the mainstream media. If the truly scientific amongst us are scared away from giving honest, blunt opinions, we will have taken yet another large step to being a nation where pseudoscience and creationism reigns.

–WKW

Like most of you, when I take a drink of water, I’m a little disconcerted that my water isn’t adding more to the experience. It just tends to sit there in its submissive wateriness, doing little more than just basking in its own wetness. Personally, I prefer water that’s actively making an effort to enhance my water-drinking experience.

Luckily for us all, now you can get “Water with Intention.” Yes, now on the market, proving once again that a fool and his money were likely brought together by fluke happenstance anyway, is H2Om (pronounced H2 - Ohhm, you know, like the chant).

According to the makers, H2Om has taken water to the next level of waterness:

H2Om water with intention has revolutionized the bottled water industry by creating the world’s first vibrationally charged, interactive bottled water.

The people who drink H2Om are individuals who care about health, love, and being positive. People who believe that intention is everything. People who believe in the power of positive thinking. People that understand that the universe is made up of vibrations, and that even the vibrations of a single thought can effect our world.

Does that sound like you? Are you the type of person who read “The Secret” and totally lost your mind at its new age brilliance? Well than H2Om is for you. But don’t just take my word for it. A literal bevy of celebrities, including Arianna Huffington, are sucking down H2Om like there’s no Mahāyāna.

When you drink ordinary water, do you get the overwhelming sensation of gratitude? Aside from when you’re literally dying of thirst? How about prosperity? Well, H2Om comes in seven fantastic infusions: Love, perfect health, prosperity, gratitude, will power, peace and joy.

Plus, as an added bonus, once they bottle the water, they play restorative compositions of music, frequencies, and spoken word to the water. H2Om will not just hydrate you in happiness, it will super hydrate you in happiness.

So this weekend, run out and rent “What The (Bleep) Do We Know!?”, buy a case of H2Om and get your zazen on.

Or just hurl your money straight down the toilet, totally bypassing the middle man. Either way, it will be a truly enlightening experience.

–WKW

Apparently Lance Armstrong; Margaret L. Kripke, and LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., didn’t get the memo - the Bush Administration doesn’t believe in regulations of any type on anything, be in mine safety or food safety or the tobacco industry. If the free market decides that people will die of cancer, than so be it. That’s what America is all about.

President’s Cancer Panel: Cut Risks
Trio Calls Tobacco, Food, Beverage Industries “Disease Vectors” And Urges Regulation

The President’s Cancer Panel calls for U.S. leaders to “summon the political will” to reduce Americans’ cancer risks — and slams the tobacco, food, and beverage industries as “disease vectors.”

Appointed by the President Bush, the panel’s three members are cancer survivor and cycling champion Lance Armstrong; Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D., chief academic officer at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and panel chairman LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., M.D., professor of surgery at Howard University in Washington.

It’s the panel’s job to tell the president how the nation’s war on cancer is going. According to this year’s report, it’s not going very well at all.

Research continues to move forward — but thwarting major progress is the unhealthy lifestyles of millions of Americans.

Individual responsibility is important, the panel notes. But the panel finds that cancer prevention efforts “are compromised by federal, state, and local policies that have decreased the availability and affordability of healthy foods, limited physical education in schools,” and created an “environment that discourages physical activity.”

Perhaps even more importantly, the panel says, are “ineffective policies” that fail to regulate the marketing practices of “disease vectors” — the tobacco, food, and beverage industries.

Mincing no words, the panel report singles out the tobacco industry as “a vector of disease and death that can no more be ignored in seeking solutions to the tobacco problem than mosquitoes can be ignored in seeking to eradicate malaria.”

The report by the Cancer Panel was immediately filed next to the Iraq Study Group’s report. The main thing this report will prove to the current batch of Republicans is this - stop sending people out to do reports.

–WKW