This Week In Doubtful News
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- Written by Sharon Hill
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Here is a rundown of the top cringeworthy stories in pseudoscience, superstition and the paranormal from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.
Let's start with the psychic fails for this week.
This woman won an uncritical psychic challenge but didn't foresee she wouldn't get the prize money.
Numerology figured in this case of fraud. And once again, don't open the bag, you've been conned.Child Witch Killings and Africans
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- Written by Leo Igwe
- Category: Swift
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Many reasons have been proffered for the recent upsurge in witchcraft accusation in Africa. 
They include: envy, jealousy, poverty, hatred, rivalry, vengance, misunderstanding or lack of information, lack of rule of law and human rights protection. In Congo DRC and Angola, scholars attribute the rise in child witchcraft accusation to political instability, armed conflicts and civil disobedience, health crises particularly the HIV/AIDS pandemic, environmental disaster, food shortages and unemployment. This west Africa nation is rather widely known for its witch camps, where mainly old women who are accused of occult crimes and subsequently banished from their communities, seek refuge to avoid being killed by their family and community memebers.
In the village of Sang, off Tamale-Yendi Road, in the northern region of Ghana there is a care center for vulnerable children. This orphanage, built in a typical northern Ghanaian style of a ring of small rooms linked by short fences has around 32 children. These children were rescued, picked up or brought to the care center by family and community members. The center, which is managed by catholic nuns, can as well be called Ghana’s ‘child witch camp’. It was established few years ago and now serves as a ‘safety zone’ or ‘refuge space’ for these vulnerable kids. According to the managers of the orphanage, at least half of the children were abandoned due to witchcraft accusation. In Northern Ghana, belief in witchcraft and magic is very strong. Witchcraft accusation and persecution is widespread. Witches and wizards are blamed for all kinds of misfortunes such as sickness, barrenness, accidents and loss/destruction of properties according to a report called: The State and Condition of Alleged Witches in the Northern Region of Ghana, published by ActionAid Ghana.
TAGAWAY – ANOTHER MEDICAL FARCE…
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- Written by James Randi
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Lo! Yet one more product has appeared on the US market to befuddle unwary buyers. We now have a small bottle with magical drops that are said – in glowing testimonials – to eliminate those small “skin tags” that so often appear in obscure parts of the aging human body, minor benign “flaps” or “bumps” that are technically tumors, but in most cases only annoy the owners. I remember my paternal grandmother as being host to a wide variety of these malfunctions, tiny examples of “intelligent design” that have so far escaped the notice of anti-evolutionists…
This “medicine” is called TagAway, which a gushing review from “SBWIRE” – look it up – says is “jam-packed with organic active ingredients that are derived from pure plant essences.” Wow! And “research analyst” Cindy Walters is quoted as saying:
Instead of risking your health and appearance with skin tag removal formulas that feature harsh, lab-created chemicals, why not enjoy smoother skin by accessing the power of holistic TagAway?
The Coming Apocalypse
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- Written by Dr. Steven Novella
- Category: Swift
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People worry about many things, but generally not the right things. We tend to spend more time thinking and worrying about risks that are dramatic and scary, or that have been made popular in the media, but unlikely. We fret more over shark attacks, terrorists, our children being abducted, or crashing in a commercial jet when these are all very unlikely occurrences.
Beyond individual harm, people also worry about the collapse of civilization – the coming apocalypse. These threats are mostly real (zombies and rapture aside), just like the ones above, but we should be clear about the relative risk. We will one day be hit by a large asteroid, but probably not anytime soon. We should keep an eye on the bird flu, but I wouldn’t panic just yet. It seems reasonable to take prudent measures to mitigate global climate change. There are also some problems that I think we will likely deal with in due course, like “peak oil.” And some threats never materialize – remember the “killer bees?”
[VIDEO] An Honest Liar: The Amazing Randi Story
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- Written by JREF Staff
- Category: Latest JREF News
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An Honest Liar is a feature-length documentary film about the extraordinary and inspiring life of James Randi. Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom, two of the creative forces behind the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Being Elmo and Sons of Perdition, have been traveling with Randi all over the world to make this film. They have interviewed some of Randi’s most notable friends and admirers, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, MythBusters’ Adam Savage, and Alice Cooper. Now they are asking for your help to finish An Honest Liar so that they can release it worldwide.
Through this Kickstarter campaign, you can donate to help the filmmakers capture crucial footage, pay for expensive post-production work, and add the additional polish that a major film like An Honest Liar deserves. The campaign has already enjoyed coverage from around the web (find just a couple of notable features here and here), and you can watch just some of the footage embedded below.
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