Friday 18 December 2009

Crank magnetism revisited

Not so long ago I wrote about crank magnetism, the origin of the word, and its meaning. In short it refers to the propensity of cranks in one area to support cranks spouting unrelated nonsense. Their shared dislike of science appears to instill a mutual attraction, which was recently coined vindication of all kooks. Or, put differently, if science can be proven wrong in case of evolution, that alone proves it is also wrong on global warming. Needless to say there is some sort of logical fallacy hiding in there. Today I realised another meaning of the concept: being a crank renders the most notorious sceptics impotent in repelling hogwash and, like moths to a flame, turns them into their disciples.

That is, the "climate sceptics" have converted Randy. Because he was previously being regarded The Master of the Known Universe of Scepsis, Orac notes that Randy's recent adoption of a less sceptical worldview is already being used by the anti-science movement to discredit the current scientific consensus.

Should you still need more information showing why there is no real scientific debate on this topic just read, and study, the following articles: How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic, Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense, 50 reasons why global warming isn't natural, The Global Warming Skeptics vs. The Scientific Consensus.

Update. Clearly the "controversy" surrounding global warming is linked to scientists refusing to "teach the controversy" regarding evolution. Yet another incarnation of the classic form of crank magnetism.

Thursday 17 December 2009

Happiness and prosperity vs. religion: not a match made in heaven

The Library Grape cites a study which establishes that:
countries with the highest levels of happiness and prosperity are also the least religious and most secular:
Oddly enough, people still insist that being an atheist makes you immoral and will invoke the end of days, the Wrath of Khan, or whatever fictitious punishment.

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Homeopathy

Just read this post, by Orac, making minced meat of the plausability of the new homeopathy for the 21st century.

Update: apparently the W.H.O. also has a point of view.

Update II: Sandwalk plugs a new website, "Homeopathy: There's nothing in it," which offers arguments for why homeopathy is just a placebo.

Denialism

Confronted with a cornu copiae of disinformation, and a scientifically-challenged public, Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, by Michael Specter, is mandatory reading. In the words of The New York Skeptic:
To me, this is a great book to show to a non-skeptical friend.  It lays out our views, even quotes a lot of our guys, without coming across as condescending or arrogant.  It lays out the case for science in a clear and compassionate way, forming a wonderful bridge between the skeptical mindset and a non-skeptical audience.
In case you were looking for that intelligent Christmas gift: this is it.

Don't forget The Age of Stupid, among others, which I consider to be complementary to this book.

Monday 14 December 2009

Multimedia

Yet another post for you with some advise. Previously I suggested several programs enhanceing security on your computer, today free multimedia recources are the topic. These are my personal favourites, so in no way should this be considered a comment on the quality of others that are not mentioned.

Audio
Foobar: can be used as audio player, I just use it to convert music files.
KMPlayer: see below under video.
MediaMonkey: great for updating tags for your musicfiles, capable of converting to other formats (i.e. flac, wav to mp3 ) more details here.
VLC Player: see below under video.
Windows Media Player: can update your tags but cannot play all formats, nor can it convert files.

Video
DivX Player: do not use it for playing video, merely its codec function should you insist on using Windows Media Player.
KMPLayer: easy to use, has numerous internal codecs and as such capable of playing all the videofiles I have. Added benefit, subtitles for those pesky foreign films!
VLC Media Player: most consider this the best available, although less userfriendly than the KMPlayer. Has numerous internal codecs and as such capable of playing all the videofiles I have. Added benefit, subtitles for those pesky foreign films!
Windows Media Player: since I discovered the KMPlayer, and the VLC Media Player, I no longer use this for video files.

Subtitles
Open Subtitles: when you are looking for subtitles for those unintelligible languages. How to use them is explained here.

P2P
eMule: not fast, but lots of music archives. 
Tribler: nice simple 
Vuze: great for video

Restoring seperate media tracks from one single file
A CD may be ripped into one single large copy, usually a flac or ape-file. Extracting individual tracks, or splitting, is easy using Foobar. You will need a so-called cue-file. This contains the relevant information telling Foobar, or some other program, where the tracks start and end, and also what their tags are. When you open it with Notepad, or any other text-editor, it looks somewhat like this:
TITLE "Album title"
PERFORMER "Name of artist"
FILE "filename.ape" APE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "First track title"
    PERFORMER "Name of artist"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Second track title"
    PERFORMER "Name of artist"
    INDEX 01 06:42:00
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "Third  track title"
    PERFORMER "Name of artist"
    INDEX 01 10:54:00
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "Fourth track title"
    PERFORMER "Name of artist"
    INDEX 01 17:04:00
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "Fifth track title"
    PERFORMER "Name of artist"
    INDEX 01 25:44:00
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "Sixth track title"
    PERFORMER "Name of artist"
    INDEX 01 30:50:00
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    TITLE "Seventh track title"
    PERFORMER "Name of artist"
    INDEX 01 38:24:00
(Note: the file in this example is an ape-file, make sure that the coloured words, in the above example ape and APE, are the same. Should the file, you are splitting, be a wav-file then change both into wav and WAV. Save the changed file. INDEX identifies the points in time the tracks are located in the single file, here "filename.ape".)
If you have no tags (in the above example TITLE and PERFORMER) just extract the tracks, and either add them manually or find them using MediaMonkey (I like it, but you can use others such as Windows Media Player too). What to do with those cue-files is explained here. (Note: the links I use, in this post, may discuss other software, ignore it and use either Foobar or MediaMonkey. They work the same way and are from sites I know and trust) In short, if you open the cue-file in Foobar it will show you the tracks. Select them and choose convert, i.e. into mp3.

With the above in mind you can listen to your expanded music library or start watching those great films. Have fun!

Saturday 12 December 2009

My collection of films

To share my current collection of DVD's with you, and as a record for myself, here is the list.

Dutch
Cloaca    
Loft   
De Eetclub
Spoorloos
Karakter
De Ontdekking van de Hemel 
Het Meisje met het Rode Haar
Soldaat van Oranje
Zwartboek  
Oorlogswinter
French
Être et Avoir   
Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis
Sous le Sable
5X2    
Avant L'Hiver    
L'Homme Qui Amait Les Femmes
Persécution    
Les Amant De Pont-Neuf         
Amélie
Le Hérisson 
La Tourneuse de Pages
Je Vais Bien, Ne T'En Fais Pas 
L'Empreinte de l'Ange
Il y a Longtemps Que Je T'Aime    
Les Âmes Grises
Le Temps Qui Reste
Code Inconnu
Mémoires Affectives
Voleurs de Cheveaux 
La Haine
Un Prophète
Caché
Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge    
Les vacances de M. Hulot    
Mon Oncle    
Spanish
Los Amantes del Círculo Polar
En la ciudad sin límites
La Noche de los Girasoles
Tesis  
Son de Mar 
La Ardilla Roja  
Lucia y el Sexo
Abre los Ojos
¡Átame!   
Amores Perros     
El Secreto de sus Ojos    
Todo Sobre Mi Madre    
Hable Con Ella    
Scandinavian
Insomnia   
DeUsynlige 
Kautokeino-Opprøret
Submarino 
Idioterne
Slipp Jimmy Fri     
Italian
Agata e la Tempesta
La Doppia Ora
Non Ti Muovere
Trilogy of life:     
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Other
Cidade de Deus    
Depuis qu'Otar est parti...  
Возвращение, Vozvrashcheniye      
Андрей Рублёв         
Tallinn pimeduses        
English
Oliver
The Merchant of Venice
Romeo and Juliette
Richard III
Hamlet
Macbeth
The Cook, The Thief, The Wife and Her Lover
Trainspotting
Wallstreet   
The Insider
Wild     
In The Name of the Father
Blow
The People vs. Larry Flint
Lenny
All the President's Men
Mississippi Burning
Infamous 
Capote
Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner
In the Heat of the Night
Cry Freedom    
Malcolm X  
Bird
Ghandi  
The Cotton Club 
Citizen Kane
Lawrence of Arabia  
The Elephant Man
Ole Bull
Mahler
Death in Venice
Amadeus
Papillon
The Mission
The Great Gatsby
Death of a Salesman
On the Waterfront
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The Manchurian Candidate
Apocalypse Now
Easy Rider
Back To The Future I-III
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
A Christmas Carol
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Silent Running
Flight of the Navigator
The Dark Crystal
Legend
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Lord of the Rings Trilogy I-III
Highlander
Lord Greystoke
The Last of the Mohicans  
Vidoq
The Dark Knight Trilogy 
V for Vendetta
2001: A Space Odyssey
Gravity 
Interstellar     
Alien I-IV  
Star Wars I-VI
Dune
AI
Ex Machina
Her  
Gattaca   
Blade Runner 
Terminator I-II  
Oblivion
The Matrix Trilogy I-III
The Thirteenth Floor
Inception          
91/2 Weeks
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Remains of the Day
Atonement
The English Patient
Clouds of Sils Maria     
When Harry Met Sally
As Good As It Gets
Chocolat
Don Juan De Marco
Before Trilogy:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sex, Lies and Videotape
Lantana
American Beauty
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Being There
The Machinist
Spider
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Donnie Darko
Angel Heart
The Weight of Water
Fight Club
Intacto
Sleepy Hollow
The Name of the Rose
Sineater
The Blair Witch Project
Fallen
Wisdom of Crocodiles
The Ninth Gate
Se7en
The Sixth Sense
12 Monkeys
Л
Memento
Duel
Taxidriver
12 Angry Men   
And Justice for All
Serpico
3 Days of the Condor
The Parallax View 
Bullit
Rumblefish
Gosford Park  
LA Confidential
The Usual Suspects
Scarface
The Godfather Trilogy I-III
Once Upon a Time in America
Goodfellas
Donnie Brasco
Léon
Ghost Dog
The Bourne Trilogy:
Ronin
Traffic
The Sting
The Italian Job   
Reservoir Dogs
Snatch
Pulp Fiction
Very Bad Things
Blue Ruin    
American Psycho
Natural Born Killers
Henry 1 & 2
Kiss Before Dying
Mystic River
The Life of David Gale
Cube
Hellraiser
Television
The Blackadder
Black Books   
Coupling
Gimme Gimme Gimme
Will & Grace
Married with Children
The Wonder Years    
Soap
St. Elsewhere
ER  
Scrubs   
Due South
The Wire   
White Collar   
The Power of Nightmares 

..................................................................................................................................


Update: added some titles in June 2010.

Update II: added more titles in February 2011.

Update III: added more titles in May 2011.

Update IV: added more titles in September 2015.

Nalden

Looking for the newest thing in town? Where do the trendy and cool girl and guy go? All you need is what can only be described as the Nalden experience. The creator of the site has this to say:
It's basically my creative outlet to share my interests on topics like music, design, art, fashion, advertising, and all kinds of creative and inspiring people. To put it in short, Nalden.net is a lifestyle blog with me, living the blog.

Thursday 10 December 2009

Christmas in Norway

Having planned a white christmas in Norway, following a wet summer there, I was pleased to see Santa, E.T., or some other fata morgana, reportedly already arrived.(h/t/ Greg Laden)

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Media do not check for false reporting

Deltoid shows us yet another example of the myriad of articles in the media that lack any fact-checking. The Washington Post dutifully, and uncritically, lets Sarah Palin spout erroneous statements without any caveats. That is: they fail to tell us Mrs. Palin has no idea what she is talking about eventhough their own article on climategate clearly contradicts her words. But hey, a journalist has to be objective and present both sides.

In light of that I am utterly not-surprised by what Library Grape discovered.

Update. Of course, Glenn is pointing out the same intellectual deficiency in the media.

Update II. Island of Doubt remarks:
Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of the journal Science, in an op-ed published in today's Washington Post, excoriates Sarah Palin for her illterate essay, published earlier this week, on the topic of climate change. (Amended citation slightly for style, PNN)
And
Why is that people like Leshner should be compelled to respond to people like Palin, when the latter is clearly not in a position to offer informed observations?
It must be the widespread notion that anybody is entitled to his opinion, and every opinion has to be treated as if qualifications, or lack thereof, on the topic in no way influence the validity of such an opinion.

Monday 7 December 2009

Andrew Wakefield's nonsense fails again

Yet another study refutes the claimed causal relationship between vaccination and autism. Science-Based Medicine has the details.

Update. Orac explains the ins and outs of this study with the same article. Maybe one under his real name and a copy using his pseudonym?

Friday 4 December 2009

New partnership promoting science

From ScienceBlogs:
It is our great pleasure to bring you news of an exciting new partnership, starting today, between ScienceBlogs and National Geographic
Looking forward to reading their articles.

Tuesday 1 December 2009

The 50 best Christmas gifts for women

In case you are still looking for that special thing to surprise her with this Christmas: look no further. The Independent and The Times are there to save the day in your hour of need.

Countering this The Guardian shows us the worst Christmas presents, and in The Times we find the 10 best gadgets.

Monday 30 November 2009

Crank magnetism

Predictable as the sun rising we have a new non-controversy (a.k.a. manufactroversy) involving hacked e-mails from the Climate Research Unit. Denialists invoke carefully selected portions as evidence of a global conspiracy, among scientists, to pull the wool over our eyes regarding Global Warming.
                  (h/t Paryngula)
Aside from the hypocrisy of ignoring identical actions taken by reality refuting groups ("Criticism on the anti-warming side appears to be reserved only for environmentalists and mainstream researchers as their own side gets a free pass every time."),  it is evident this dumping of raw material to the general public is misrepresenting what science is about. In the words of Thoughts from Kansas:
In all honesty, there isn't that much more to be said about the substance of the emails. On their face and in their proper context, they demonstrate that there's no active conspiracy to promote global warming as a plot by Jews liberals to control the world economy. They demonstrate that these scientists are not a monolithic group, but have internal disagreements which they resolve using data. The evidence that the planet is getting hotter is unchanged, and the evidence that the change is mostly due to human activity is equally unchanged. So what's the big deal?
Notable is the response by denialists in other artificial controversies. They cling to this hype as evidence that their particular, and unrelated, anti-science stance is warranted. Prosaicly termed "crank magnetism," this shared mechanism stands for, as Orac reminds us:
... the tendency of cranks not to mind it when they see crankery in others. More specifically, it describes how cranks of one variety (for instance, HIV/AIDS denialists, will be attracted to another form of crankery (for instance, anti-vaccinationism or the 9/11 Truth movement) because ..... cranks and pseudoscientists see themselves as iconoclasts, brave mavericks opposed to orthodoxy, be it scientific, historical, or other disciplines. 
Aside from the elaborate exploration of this concept, yet again, he also introduces its corollary: the "vindication of all kooks." His explanation for this behaviour follows:
So why do denialists of all stripes cling to the "all kooks vindicated" corollary to the principle of crank magnetism. Let me finish by speculating on a possible reason. Above all else, cranks cling to beliefs that go against established science. They do this because they do not recognize bad science, either because they do not understand the scientific method and/or because ideology in the form of politics or religion interferes with their critical thinking. They thus come to view not just the science that refutes their crankery as the enemy, but rather all science. Thus, any black eye against science, be it in the form of leaked e-mails, problems with ghost writing, big pharma chicanery, or whatever, must be evidence that their distrust of science is justified. It becomes in their mind a vindication of their view that science is hopelessly corrupt or rigged against them and that they therefore must be on to something. Sadly for them, being on to something in science requires more than just misconduct, real, exaggerated, or imagined, in an area of science completely unrelated to theirs. It requires real data and experimental evidence of a quantity and quality sufficient to be in at least the same order of magnitude as the evidence supporting the current paradigm. Creationists are virtually guaranteed never to achieve this level of evidence, and neither are HIV/AIDS denialists or anti-vaccine kooks.
Another informative article on the way cranks operate can be found at Science-Based Medicine. It discusses "mathematical cranks" and something akin to "crank magnetism" is described:
Parallels are obvious between mathematical cranks and proponents of alternative medicine.
The latter are tediously incapable of evading logical fallacies in their quest to invalidate medical science. Needless to say, the scientific method is not the best way possible, but it is the best we got. Confronted with our inclination towards gullibility we should adhere to any technique that minimises its influence. Or, am I underestimating the nature and size of the conspiracy?

Update. The Independent highlights some traits common in AIDS denialists.

Update II. In the anti-vaccination camp they have come down with acute stupid. A serious condition which has no known cure. Resistent to rational thought, and scientific evidence, it is as if those infected are actually suffering from several types of delusional disorder.

Update III. Without knowing it, by calling the irrational responses from the anti-vaccination movement a spreading infection of delusional disorder I was not alone, Danielle Ofri in the New England Journal of Medicine notes a similar epidemic involving growing fears of a H1N1 influenza vaccine. (h/t The Gotham Skeptic) Initially people were eager for the vaccine to arrive. Then, after it finally did, they had become leery:
How to explain this dramatic shift in 6 short months? It certainly isn't related to logic or facts, since few new medical data became available during this period. It seems to reflect a sort of psychological contagion of myth and suspicion.
Just as there are patterns of infection, there seem to be patterns of emotional reaction ("emotional epidemiology") associated with new illnesses. When 2009 H1N1 influenza was first detected, it fit a classic pattern that Priscilla Wald recently outlined in her book Contagious1: It was novel and mysterious; it emerged from a teeming third-world city, and it was now making its insidious — and seemingly unstoppable — way toward the "civilized" world.
She concludes:
It is clear that there is a distinct emotional epidemiology and that it bears only a faint connection to the actual disease epidemiology of the virus.
Great minds think alike, he spoke modestly.

Update IV. The Island of Doubt notes that the "climategate virus" has infected The Globe and Mail too.

Update V. Some thoughts on the who and why can be found at Deep Climate.

Update VI. When even the Highpriest of Scepticism joins the denialist-movement being anti-science is dangerously contagious, i.e. a new infectious disease rears its ugly head.

Update VII. Added image.

Update VIII. At The Real MFG commenter Lurkella pointed to the origin of the image, which is here. It is made by Joel Pett for USA Today.

Sunday 29 November 2009

They Live

This weekend I was watching that old classic of the conspiracy theorists They Live. The quality is open to debate, for which I refer you to Roger Ebert or Rotten Tomatoes. Having an overly active imagination I see the film as a metaphore for what should be our main goal in life: get educated and stop being a mouton (act like sheep). As such I am inclined to think those paranoid themes are not entirely incorrect. Or to cite the sage: the fact you are paranoid does not mean they are not after you.

It is reminiscent of Brave New World, which details an equally constructed and manipulated society, where the protagonist John the Savage discovers his world is not as it seems. H.G. Wells warned us about such a world divided in haves and have nots. He also showed they are interdependent.

To me this film captures the basic premise behind denying scientific research in most current debates (Big Pharma, Evolution, Global warming, War on Terror): accept as article of faith what we say when we contradict most, if not all, of the experts involved, and never question what you are being told. The principal argument the anti-science movement has is keeping the facts from us. Or, at least, distorting them under the guise of being "Fair and Balanced." The Film Vituperatum nicely illustrates this point, regarding the hyped threat that supposedly will end the world if we do not spend more on the military, with this picture.


The actual chance of terrorism killing you compared to more commonplace, yet conspicuously ignored, things I outlined before. This War of Terror, instigated by the Politico-Media Complex, obscenely benefits the mythical Military-Industrial Complex, which in turn guarantees us that giving them even more money and privileges (read: abolishing civil liberties) will prevent the end of days.

In short, we can think of those pointing out the many incestuous relationships between the haves as cranks, or we can adopt a slightly sceptical view allowing for the existence of contemporary Cassandras.

Tolkien was right that the "hearts of men are easily mislead." To my surprise, and disappointment, we still fall for the "panem et circenses"-routine.

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Brave New World vs. 1984

Numerous dystopian worlds have been imagined, i.e. 1984, Brave New World, The Time Machine, V for Vendetta, Brazil, Gattaca, Den brysomme mannen, A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner, et cetera. They all show us what society might look like and as such it allows us to explore, as we may analyse a chessgame, the consequences of our choices.

Since 1984 is abundantly invoked to warn us against the evil forces du jour this cartoon is a nice illustration of the different threats Orwell and Huxley warned us about. (h/t Library Grape)

Monday 23 November 2009

The "vaccines are evil" gambit

As we all know for years people are trying to save our lifes by warning about the global conspiracy of doctors and the pharmaceutical industry, if not a government-run program to decimate and dominate. The medical community misleads us by selling expensive vaccines that cause more harm (i.e. cause autism: disproven) than they do good, they tell the world. Luckily these will-o'-the-wisps care so much about our health that they are willing to sell us cures that actually do work.

The entire history of this war on rational thought is discussed by Orac. He notices how the news media only now appear to be adequately informing us about the dangers of this fearmongering-industry. A must-read.

Update: Orac points out that a change in reporting on medical topics still has a long way to go.

Update II. In another post Orac elaborates on the ways scientific research is misconstrued and misrepresented by those opposing medical science. Pharyngula weighs in too.

Update III. It appears anti-swine flu measures are harmful. Not the way the anti-science clan think, but still.

Update IV. A summary of the most recent Age of Autism crankery can be found at Weird Things.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

The 100 best books of the decade

The Times published a sequel to the 100 best films of the decade. They now discuss the 100 best books of the decade, and for those who need more suggestions they also have the 50 best winter reads.

Is science about protecting monetary interests?

An article in The Independent highlights how funding of scientific research seriously obstructs the notion that "a good scientist should follow the evidence wherever it leads."

This confirms my view, which I already discussed, that science is subservient to financial and political interests.

Update: it appears others share my comcern.

Update II. Also, medical guidelines can be refuted on non-scientific grounds, merely because they appear uncomfortable to certain individuals that may lose income according to Orac.

Monday 16 November 2009

Developing cancer treatments

The reason medicine lacks sufficient preventative interventions is mostly because of the scientific and ethical requirements. Hence manufacturers will likely take years, if ever, to get their research investment back. Peddlers of snake-oil are therefore having a field day promising the moon. Orac gives a detailed explanation of the mechanism involved, and current achievements, by the medical community combatting cancer.

Update. In a new post Orac points out the methods of detecting breast-cancer the scientifically-challenged are introducing.

Saturday 14 November 2009

Centre of gravity

For those unfamiliar with physics: you can get a feel of what centre of gravity means by touching your toes while simultaneously pressing your back and heels up against a wall. (h/t Starts With A Bang)

Friday 13 November 2009

The Matrix

Looking at The Matrix I was jealous at the technology with which the characters could upload new knowledge and skills into their brain. The plausibility of such an interface -"mind uploading"- is discussed on Weird Things. In short, very likely not to happen.

Then again, this article reports on some new advances in the memory department.

Thursday 12 November 2009

Gullible

Much of the "debates" questioning science are nothing more than elaborate hoaxes. Luckily, the media dutifully, and uncritically, report on them. Unfortunately we, as species, have a history of believing the improbable, if not impossible, because most of us are easily misled. Or, paraphrasing the words of Lenny Bruce, we want to believe.

And then there is alternative medicine: mandatory removal of rational thinking skills before reading..

Update. Could not resist sharing this picture from Bioephemera:


Wednesday 11 November 2009

Dinosauroid

Ever wondered
......what the descendants of the dinosaur Troodon would look like today if the theropod had survived the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.......


Laelaps forwards us to an interesting reincarnation of this thought experiment (and the above picture):
What are the odds that intelligent, technically advanced aliens would look anything like the ones in films, with an emaciated torso and limbs, spindly fingers and a bulbous, bald head with large, almond-shaped eyes? What are the odds that they would even be humanoid?
Is answered in one of those links.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Politics decides conclusions scientific research

Unsurprised as I am by yet another example of politicians dictating what scientist should conclude, never mind that it contradicts scientific research, it still makes me feel sick.

Update. As I noted earlier we can trust: the news to shape our views by overt erroneous (read politically slanted) statements which are never corrected.

Miracles do happen

Quoth The Guardian:

Search team finds teenager Jupi Nakoolak 'in decent shape' after drifting in -15C temperatures with polar bears.
Remarkable.

Monday 9 November 2009

What is "Fair and Balanced?"

During my life I developed the need to be adequately informed on many subjects. Therefore I read as much as I can on those topics. My main interests are broadly speaking biology, literature, medicine, politics and technology.  On top of that I try and visit blogs I consider highly sceptical towards manufactured controversies. Based on that, and on my personal experience, I cannot help but wonder whether those involved are insufficiently informed or willfully blind.

In later posts I will discuss violating the "we are all entitled to our own opinion but not to our own facts"-doctrine in more detail, as it relates to several so-called controversies. Some examples, as preview, are:

Medicine vs. Quackery:
It is not uncommon for people to adhere to all sorts of alternative medicine. In general I respect people's right to choose any therapy they feel best suits them. Unfortunately they are often "converted" by advocates that claim the most outlandish and inherently unscientific nonsense about -among other things- cancer, homeopathy and vaccinations. Much of that has already, and repeatedly, been disproven, but unfortunately that in itself is used as evidence of the global conspiracy to suppress those inconvenient facts that endanger the medical community's hegemony. Supporters of alternative medicine are so absorded in their beliefs, and so resistent to reality, that they behave like religious zealots. That is: being opposed to evidence based medicine is the new "True Faith."  Confronted with the possibility that spending time with fake "health care providers" may cause a belated diagnosis and therapy, or even result in withholding a required medical intervention, I have mixed feelings towards how to deal with this form of misinformation. Bottom line is: if it endangers the life of individuals it moves from deluded advise into criminal territory.
Evolution vs. Intelligent Design:
For decades evolution has been considered settled science, although it might conflict with religious dogma. The faithful have invented strategies, for ideological reasons alone, to get rid of this theory. Creationism was intended as "balance" but was soon replaced with Intelligent Design. Many supporting the "teach the controversy"-meme do not know (that information has escaped them) that at several levels ID cannot be considered science.
Roughly speaking to be science something has to have:  a) a theory: some sort of explanation for what we see -i.e. germ theory-, b) this theory has to be supported by experiment: through some sort of test we must be able show that our explanation is compatible with what we observe, c) we then subject ourselves to peer review: by writing down a "recipe" others are able to replicate our experiment and comment on it. After our theory cannot be falsified -i.e. shown to be false- d) this theory is accepted as "scientific fact." e) This scientific theory can only be refuted, or augmented, by a new theory that is required to also adhere to these points.
ID fails on all levels. First, it is not an explanation for the world around us. It merely states that science, at present, does not have all the answers. Ergo, a creator (god - who else) exists. Second, there is no known experiment in which this "intelligence" can be shown. Third, no peer review article has ever been published. Failing all this ID proponents argue that we should not judge it by the same standards as other forms of science. In other words: I am lousy at tennis and to compensate I should be allowed to use my hands and feet, and only for me no ball will be called "out." Of course, nobody would call this behaviour "playing tennis." By the same token we should not call actions that need a different book of rules science. By definition under the scientific method everybody, regardless of the topic, has to play by the same rules.
Also, ID proponents excell in debating tricks they use to muddy the water. Despite their vehement, and very vocal, objections a court of law has established that ID is religion posing as science.
Real Life Threatening Events vs. War on Terror Demagoguery:
We were told that the attacks of 9-11 were something new, there was a new kind of war and that if we did not intervene the world would be destroyed. Amazingly, hysteria took hold of our planet resulting in many silly and often counterproductive, if not previously illegal, actions that are known today as the "War on Terror." Strangely enough, were we to look in a more factual manner, leaving hyperbole and fearmongering behind us, we might discover much of the WoT is based upon non-existing, or by governments created, risks.
First, terrorism was not invented on 9-11. Many people had already died before that day because of the R.A.F., the I.R.A., F.A.R.C., E.T.A, to name but a few. Despite that knowledge people told us to forget about historical events and accept this attack as a novel concept: terrorism. Confronted with this we are told that terrorism itself is not new, but that as global organisation, operating like multinationals such as Shell and Microsoft, Al-Qaeda totally changed terrorism. This ignores the fact that Al Qaeda, before and after 9-11, never was a multinational-like organisation. At best it consists of a conglomerate of seperate entities with their own disputes and goals. The notion there exists an international movement with one goal, and one supreme leader (Osama bin Laden), has repeatedly been disproven by investigations: i.e. the attacks in London and Madrid.
Second, even accepting the premise, there is such a worldwide organisation, does not negate the fact that at best terrorism kills a few thousand people annually. If we look into the causes of death within the U.S. to ascertain the actual, as opposed to the perceived, risk for someone in the U.S. to die in 2006, in general terrorism presents a negligable threat. These figures show that a total of 2,426,264 people died in that year. Of these the following are the top killers in absolute numbers: heart disease 631,636, cancer 559,888, cerebrovascular diseases 137,119, accidents 121,599, diabetes 72,449, influenza and pneumonia 56,326, gun violence 30,000. To put this in perspective: terrorism has claimed about 3,000 lives in the U.S., including the christian anti-abortion killers, in the preceding ten years! Globally speaking the prevalence (total number of cases within the world population) of big preventable killers is: cardiovascular (17.5 million in 2005), hunger (9.7 million children < age 5 in 2006), injuries ( 2.6 million in people aged 10—24 in 2004), HIV/AIDS (2 million in 2007), tuberculosis (1.75 million in 2007), malaria (881,000 in 2006) measles (197,000 in 2007),  et cetera. Oddly enough, eventhough we could easily save millions of lifes each year if we tackled these conditions with the same vigour and hysteria, nobody sees the need to scare us by reporting on them, or by demanding new laws, or spending extra money.
Third, for whatever reason, even suggesting terrorism might not be haphazard but may be related to something else is by definition a no-go area. The best example is Israel. Regardless of how many times it is established Israel is violating international law, the mere fact their opponent (du jour) is doing the same absolves Israel from any responsibility to adhere to the law.
Fourth, more and more the use of the term terrorism is an example of doublespeak. it has an ever expanding, and never consistent, definition, that without exception conforms to our self-interests.

Journalism vs. Propaganda:
Most newsarticles, and programs I watch, appear to be suffering from the same shortcoming. The notion that to be "Fair and Balanced," i.e. truly objective, a journalist must only present both sides, with equal time, to any debate. Or, to use Glenn Greenwald's description, journalists function as stenographers. On the surface this sounds like responsible reporting. Looking into this principle more closely reveals a disturbing way of thinking that equates facts with opinion. Or, to put it differently, communis opinio on "objective reporting" is that confronted with facts and opinion it is not a journalist's job to determine what is what, "we report, you decide."  Also, pertinent information is not infrequently, yet always coincidentally, omitted and therefore absent from the story. Immediately the unsuspecting reader/viewer notices that this attitude deprives us of what should be the principal goal for any journalist: removing distractions, misrepresentations and propaganda in order to accurately report what happens in the world around us. To me it is neither fair, nor balanced, to report fabricated stories, or artificial controversies -i.e. evolution, global warming, vaccination, the shape of the earth, the holocaust, whether HIV causes AIDS, et cetera- as if there is any significant scientific debate between proponents and denialists of a certain subject. This way the newsmedia confuse us and, intentionally or not, legitimise refuting the scientific method, as principal mode of acquiring knowledge, while promoting crankscience.
With this in mind I feel less than optimistic towards our ability as species to rise above ideological constraints and start discussing in a more realistic (read: rational) way: i.e. based upon facts and adhering to the scientific principle.

A summary of the madness can be found on a flowchart from Lounge of the Lab Lemming:


The 100 best films of the decade

The Times helps us by listing their hundred best pictures of the past decade. This follows the previous selection of the fifty most exciting blockbuster films for 2009 and 2010. And, of course, the 50 biggest movies of 2008.

Update. Time Out has 101 Films of the Decade.
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Rapture

Should you subscribe to make-believe entities such as god and the bible, be afraid, very afraid. On 11-11-2009 rapture is upon us, again. That is, the shrewd conman makes the prediction into an if X then Y-formula. Effectively ensuring that should the world not end, something rational people know it will not, he can escape uncomfortable questions.

Friday 6 November 2009

Skiing

Just making a small overview of places I went to ski.

Together with a French friend I visited Valfréjus while I was starting my internship. It is a small village with about 60 km of pistes. For the more experienced I think just a weekend is enough to have seen everything. The aprés-ski is not bad if you don't mind spending time in just one or two spots. 

Went to Scotland and apparently they have got small stations for those that abhor long descents.

With nurses and doctors from the Intensive Care Unit I went to Briançon-Serre Chevalier. Clearly, this location is meant for those who detest doing more than ski since, aside from snow, they have little else..

Some friends and I rented an appartment in Val Thorens, which is part of Les Trois Vallées. It is a huge area (in excess of 600 km of pistes) where you can ski for days without going on the same piste twice. If you feel adventurous you can even go into the Italian Alps.

On of the hospitals I worked as resident Internal Medicine has an annual long weekend the first week of january in St. Christoph am Arlsberg, meant as team-building for the group of residents and specialists. Following a day in the snow, luncheon on the piste midday, we returned to the hotel for diner, copious wine and cocktails which were mandatory.

Eventhough my significant other is from Telemark, arguably the birthplace of Skiing, I have yet to try the Norwegian snow. Maybe this Christmas.

Thursday 5 November 2009

The medical community strikes a blow against woo-meisters

The Times reports that:
An Australian infant with a rare and usually fatal disease has been cured with treatment that has previously been used only on mice, in what doctors are claiming is the first medical procedure of its type in the world. 
 Nice.