July 22, 2005

Meters Galore, Quackery Clearly Demonstrated, Remedied Omission, More Ammunition, Guest Contribution, Jacob Chimes In, Interesting Fact, Holy Water & Red String Again, And DECADES-OLD Phone Directories?, And Not Only Failed Prophecies, Old Hag Revisited, She Ain't Gonna Budge, Useful Knowledge, and Our Electrifying Man in London....


Table of Contents:


METERS GALORE

In our display of weird stuff here at the JREF, we have a Scientology "e-meter," the "Mark V" model. We've now come upon a site that provides us with far more about e-meters than we ever wanted to know, which is not much to start with. Go to www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/medical/religious-gadget-thursday-the-emeter-109772.php and be bored.


QUACKERY CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED

Reader Dr. Randall L. Detra alerted me to this item.

EcoQuest, a company which espouses an evangelical Christian approach to business, makes a box-like device — the Infinity2 — which they say makes "indoor air fresh and clean-smelling day and night." It's really just an ozone- and ion-generator with a small fan and a UV light, an expensive, unproven, and highly questionable device that deliberately emits ozone, which is a toxic gas. It doesn't clean the air, it's a waste of money, and it's dangerous. EcoQuest has now expanded into water filters, nutritional supplements and skin-care products, all sold through a network of about 150,000 commission-only distributors. But judge for yourself how reputable these people are by examining what follows.

Here, from a "scientific" presentation" offered by the quacks, we have two microscope photos of blood samples, which they say were taken from the same person 30 minutes apart, and showing red blood cells after the quackery had been applied. The left-hand photo in each pair is the original; on the right-hand one I've added red marks to indicate image-counts, and just above the yellow "B" in each photo, you'll see the horizontal banding I refer to up ahead, marked for emphasis. The upper photo appears to show crowded cells, and the lower photo more spaced-out cells. Referring to the lower photo, the sellers ask:

Do you think you might feel and function better if your red blood cells had all this room to carry your nutrients and oxygenate your body?

Here's the truth of the matter. The upper photo is a series of overlapped video frames — I count at least 12, marked by the red crescents — taken while the corpuscles are moving. Each "train" of images is actually just one cell moving and registering as a chain image.

The lower photo is much lighter, because it shows just 1.76 frames — one complete scan frame, plus .76 of another frame superimposed from the top down. Note: six of the cells in the upper section of this photo moved in the time interval between the two frames, producing doubled images — marked by crescents and letters "d" in yellow — but the lower quarter of this photo — the much lighter section — shows single images, none of them doubled, because a part of only one frame is shown in that portion.

As further evidence, notice the faint horizontal banding effects in the background. In the lower photo, these bands are twice as far apart as in the upper photo; this is consistent with multiple frames overlying one another, resulting in an eventual "blending" of the banding effect as more frames are added. Also, the upper image is much denser than the lower one, which is consistent with frames being added together to make a darker background. In my opinion, and if my analysis is correct, this is a direct, purposeful misrepresentation of those offering the "evidence" for the "Infinity 2" products. It's a lie, a sham, a swindle that purports to offer scientific proof, but uses blatant trickery to do so. It's advertised as "live blood cell analysis," "dark-field video analysis," and "nutritional blood analysis." Sounds just great, so it must be legitimate, right?

Now, this is only the analysis of an amateur — I'm hardly a hematologist — but I'm sure there are experienced persons out there who can relieve my ignorance if I'm wrong.... Please do.

Take a look at www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/livecell.html for an in-depth discussion by Dr. Stephen Barrett on this subject.


REMEDIED OMISSION

Reader Mis-nagig notes that in writing recently about Christian and Muslim populations, I've left others unmentioned:

Don't forget us Jews! There are lots of atheist and agnostic Jews. There are even several branches of Judaism that are specifically non-supernatural, for example Secular Humanistic Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism. In fact, despite Christians being an American majority, I'd guess that there are more atheists who also identify as Jews than there are those who would also call themselves Christians.

My apologies....


MORE AMMUNITION

Reader Denis OLeary, in Ireland, expands on the items that we could offer to fundamentalists as "something complex forming from basic materials found on Earth without help from intelligent beings." (See http://www.randi.org/jr/071505on.html#13) Examples:

My examples: rainbows, clouds (several different types, some of them rare), ant hills, moss that only grows on a particular side of a tree, beehives, volcanic glass, thundereggs [geodes], crystals, etc. I'm sure there are dozens more.


GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Concluding my opening piece last week, I announced that the soap-box is now available. It was immediately mounted by reader Ross Sargent via "The View From Number 80," a rather fearsome site at www.eighty.btinternet.co.uk. Ross cautions us that this commentary predates the recent London bombings and was triggered by a segment of the popular Today show on BBC Radio 4 called "Thought For the Day."

March 23rd 2005

A while back Number 80 said that religion was to be tolerated, but respect was out of the question. Now even the tolerance is looking endangered. This feeling has been triggered by no one thing in particular but is a consequence of the steady day-by-day, drip-drip assault by religious fantasists on everything we have gained in the last 300 years. They are doing their damnedest to snuff out the Enlightenment.

What right has a self-righteous, celibate, middle-aged man, his head stuffed full of impossible nonsense, have to dictate what is admissible in a sex education class? What is it with religion and sex? Why does God keep poking his nose into people's genitalia? It's downright weird. What right does some misogynist mullah, his head stuffed full of slightly different impossible nonsense, have to dictate to women what to wear because he and his bearded followers cannot restrain their lust at the sight of a well-turned ankle. Leave the women alone and go have a cold shower — you are the problem, not they.

There has been a deal too much tolerance in the name of inclusivity and multiculturalism. If someone is talking irrational crap they need to be told so, regardless of whether they wear a clerical collar, a mitre or any of the other badges and odd costumes that identify many religionists. If a group of bigots decides to foist its tight-assed views on the rest of the community as to what is deemed acceptable in movies, the theatre, or in print, they should be told to shove it, in no uncertain terms. Just because someone harbours an assortment of irrational and contradictory beliefs between their ears does not mean they are necessarily worthy of a hearing. Let them explain on their own behalf and not keep claiming holy endorsement for their own particular hangups, prejudices and phobias.

Governments such as Tony Blair's should stop soliciting the opinions of these unrepresentative know-alls on legislation, for the chances are they actually know even less than the average politician. Anyone who claims certain knowledge of the mind of a supernatural being does not need respect — they need psychiatric help to stand on their own two feet and stop appealing to a dubious authority to give weight to what are no more than personal opinions. Just because you believe that there is something beyond the physical world — which is all our instruments and senses can detect — it does not make you special in any way. If anything, you are to be pitied for being unable to appreciate our amazing Universe without your religious crutch.

A single image of countless galaxies captured by the Hubble conveys more awe and mystery than any Iron Age tribal god, even if these days the old boy is tricked out as the universal creator. Irrational beliefs are not admirable, they are a threat to the future of humankind and the rest of the biosphere. You only have one life, this is not a rehearsal, there is no heaven with angels serenading, nor is there a paradise with 72 willing virgins waiting to reward acts of murder. No one is getting raptured out of here, you are not "chosen." Deluded, perhaps, but not chosen. You do not need the promise of a reward after death to live a good and kind life — nor do you need threats of hellfire. Sympathy for others, charity and kindness are possible without religion — the so-called Golden Rule is not solely a religious command; it is a humane way of living, common to many cultures. No one religion or faith has the answers, in fact none of them have, and the sooner we realize that we are all in this together, groping our way towards a better life for everyone on this planet and not just a chosen few, the better for humankind and the creatures with whom we share this planet.


JACOB CHIMES IN

Every now and then I get to flaunt my friends and interns before you. This is such an opportunity. Go to http://writingsofjacobspinney.com/outcrowd.htm and take a good look around that site to see what influence the JREF has had on encouraging freethought and skepticism. Jacob's exchange with the staunch believer has been seen here previously, but there are more nuggets to be found.

Way to go, Jacob!


INTERESTING FACT

From a reader and professor of physics at Lakehead University, Canada, William Sears:

I must respond to your "normal" body temperature comment. It is useful to know the history of the 98.6 F value, since it is not what it seems. The original measurement of normal body temperature was done by averaging a number of tests on a group of people. The result was then "rounded off" to 37 Celsius, given the variation seen. Translated to Fahrenheit, exactly 37 C is exactly 98.6 F, a spurious increase in accuracy. It would be better to round this off to 99 F, although not 100 F, but old habits die hard.

As to pi, all values used are approximations. It was common in junior high school, pre-calculator days, to use 22/7 and to work out all answers as fractions. The most extreme approximation for pi that I encountered was at a seminar in theoretical physics, where the speaker let pi=1. This is somewhat of an inside joke, based on the tendency in general relativity to set c (the speed of light) equal to one to simplify the equations. All this really means is that you are not using metric units.

Those giddy physicists!


HOLY WATER AND RED STRING AGAIN

Reader Mike McCarron writes:

I came upon this page from The Huffington Post and thought you might sigh heavily along with me. The whole thing is pretty painful to slog through, but here's a few "highlights." "Billy" is the moderator and is explaining Kabbalah's special water and its properties. It can help cure cancer!:

Rainey: Would you explain in more detail what Kabbalah water is?

Billy: The cell is immortal. It is merely the fluid in which it floats that degenerates. Renew this fluid at regular intervals, give the cells what they require for nutrition, and as far as we know, the pulsation of life can go on forever.

Billy quotes Dr. Alexis Carrell, [the distinctly unhappy-looking Nobel prize winner shown here]:

Kabbalah water is a unique water that has been reverted back to a primordial state and fractal structure using various Kabbalistic techniques. The fractal design found in Kabbalah Water is the basic structure of life, since the growth of every living organism follows this blueprint. While it is possible to artificially structure water by using mechanical or biochemical devices, none of the artificially structured water on the market remain [sic] stable enough to be biologically useful.

I love how "Billy" quotes Alexis Carrel, who, by the way, won his Nobel prize for "work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs," to prove his ludicrous point of their special water being in a "primordial state" and having "fractal structure," whatever the hell that is.

Randi comments: This is the same doctor I referred to at www.randi.org/jr/040105capitalizing.html#1 who kept tissue from a chicken heart alive for 34 years. His views of reality were somewhat strange; he accepted every nut idea that came along, including the claimed miracles at Lourdes.... Mike continues:

This next short exchange is a personal favorite:

Rainey: What are the dates of the next Hebrew month? Should we be doing something extra during this month to keep disease away?

Billy: The next Hebrew month (cancer) begins next Monday night. You should behave extra-nice, extra-kind, lot's [sic] of uncomfortable sharing actions and positive deeds. And meditate upon the hebrew [sic] letters Chet & Tuff.

So to hold cancer at bay, just be nice! Keep up that "uncomfortable" sharing stuff! Just to reiterate, he says to the next question (asking the same basic thing):

Billy: Super kind. Super gentle. Ultra-tolerant towards others. Lot's [sic] sharing. Meditating. Repentence [sic]. Commitment [sic] to spiritual transformation.

Now it's "ultra-tolerant"! These kabbalah people must be so generous and sharing and tolerant. Speaking of tolerant, check this bit out from only a few lines farther down regarding cancer in children:

Tinti: Cancer is produced because of our actions, so when really young kids get cancer, does it mean they didn't live enough in their previous life so they could get sick?

Billy: Yes. Or it can also mean they did live long, but their negative actions were directed towards children and thus they pay back their karmic debts as children. Or, in other cases, a soul comes into this world knowing ahead of time that they are choosing a body that is destined to contract the disease. This soul also knows that the family he is being born into also has spiritual lessons to learn and corrections to make involving the ailment of a small child.

So even when a kid gets horribly sick with deadly cancer, we should blame him or her for their bad habits lived in a "past life" they can't even remember. You know, it's either that or those wacky "spirit kids" are knowingly putting a family through a tremendously painful ordeal to "teach them a lesson." How very kind. "Ultra" kind! I may have to move to the United States to battle these people with my rapier wit and rugged good looks.

I suspect that reader Mis-nagig — above — does not subscribe to Billy's philosophical ramblings....


AND Decades-Old PHONE DIRECTORIES?

Reader Matthew Copping of Rochester, UK, notes:

Your recent commentary on the comet and the unfortunate astrologer reminded me of a related topic. Considering the inability of various psychics, fortune-tellers, sages, soothsayers, etc., to predict anything accurately (at least not until after it has happened), I was pleased to note that the following book is still available for sale in the UK (via Amazon).

Or did I miss something really big during the Athens Olympics?

This brings up an interesting point, Matthew. Every year, dozens of these books come out, their predictions fail, and the authors simply put the money in the bank and start work on another. No one has to account for failures, no one pays up, no one asks any questions. Am I in the wrong business?

See www.randi.org/jr/082004nonsense.html#2


AND NOT ONLY FAILED PROPHECIES!

Reporting one of those quack devices that can be shown not to work — theoretically or in reality — reader Dr. Mark S. Anthony, MD, of Elmira, New York, comments:

I often wonder how they can market a product that cannot work, even in theory. Then, I come visit your site, and read about all the other nonsense products being sold to an unsuspecting populace. Someday, perhaps, everyone will teach their children to be critical thinkers from birth, and the hunger to understand the world as it is, instead of how we would like it to be, will be commonplace. Until that happens, your site is a valuable resource for those trying to bring a little sanity into this demon haunted world.

Exactly, doctor, and what the JREF has been saying for years now. With the demons now in charge, we'll have to fight just a little harder....

The upcoming Amaz!ng Meeting 4 will address this problem, with such stalwarts as The MythBusters — Adam & Jamie — as well as Chip Denman and Phil Plait, establishing what's rot and what's not. Carolyn Porco and Nadine Strossen will join Richard Wiseman and Daniel Dennet in telling us about the science in politics, and the politics of science — which just happens to be the theme of the January 2006 conference in Las Vegas. Peerless communicator Murray Gell-Mann will be our keynote speaker....!

And look in at www.TAM4.com and you'll see that you can now register for TAM4! We're aiming for 750 persons this next January, so get in now!


AN OLD HAG REVISITED

We've discussed "sleep paralysis" — the "old hag" phenomenon — as at www.randi.org/jr/052104uk.html#7, and a discussion can now be seen at www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050709/bob9.asp. A most interesting psychological matter, with excellent possibilities that may explain so many "alien abduction" and "UFO" stories — not that the believers will ever abandon their delusions, of course....


SHE AIN'T GONNA BUDGE

Reader Shawn Bishop follows up:

As you may recall, I made an effort to engage a so-called "journalist" in a dialogue regarding an internet article she wrote espousing the credentials of "remote viewer" McMoneagle, and the SRI, Targ and Puthoff and the so-called "Operation Stargate" as legitimate and established scientific facts. I had forwarded you the initial emails of my exchange with her (one Judyth Piazza) on April 16, last month. I suggested that she contact the JREF, and you made the following prediction to me in response to her first reply, wherein she asked more about my bona fides and background credentials:

No, she did not contact me. Note that you see here the cautious approach — "What is your connection and or interest in regards to this topic or remote viewing? ..... If you [have the] time would you mind sending me a brief bio of yourself." If you don't present the right credentials, she won't go any further....

Well, James, your prediction was correct, it would seem. On April 21, in response to her aforementioned message, I replied to her with this message — which I forwarded to you shortly after originally sending it to her.

Dear Mrs. Piazza,

Please call me Shawn, I am more comfortable on a first name basis. I apologize for this late reply.

To answer the second section of your email, my brief bio is essentially as follows. I am originally from the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I attended McMaster University for my Honors bachelor's degree in physics (summa cum laude). From there I went to Canada's west coast to pursue my master's degree in high energy physics (Particle Physics) at the University of Victoria. Having completed that degree I then moved to Vancouver where I did my PhD at Canada's national nuclear and particle physics laboratory, TRIUMF (www.triumf.ca). There I did work in experimental nuclear astrophysics at the radioactive ion beam facility known as ISAC (http://www.triumf.info/public/about/isac.php). More layperson information of the research I did can be found at this website: http://dragon.triumf.ca/home.html. I am now in Japan working in the Heavy Ion Nuclear Physics group at the national laboratory name RIKEN. Now, enough of these boring personal details....

Mrs. Piazza, I have no connection to remote viewing except that, as a trained scientist and open-minded skeptic, I am not at all convinced of the claims made by the RV'rs. Their claims are fantastic and, if they were true, would turn every facet of the knowledge gleaned by the scientific community from the past 200 years of scientific work, on its head. Nobel Prizes would be immediately handed over to the researchers who verifiably demonstrate, under rigorously controlled conditions, that these powers exist. If true, our police agencies would be able to solve virtually all crimes, but alas they are not. Imagine the time saved by those who are forensic scientists if they could just RV their way to the crime scene and track down who the criminal is. There would be no need to labor long and hard in university to obtain a degree in forensic science. The UN would be using them to uncover the mass graves of those who were victims of war crimes and ethnic cleansing, but alas, the UN is not. The scientific community (NASA for example) could be using them to "travel" the surface of Mars, rather than spending the money and resources to two robotic rovers, but alas, NASA is not — ditto for Jupiter and Saturn. There would be no need to have UN inspectors in North Korea or Iran to verify if the N. Koreans/Iranians are making nuclear bombs, the US/UN could instead have RV'rs check this, but alas, they are not. And I could continue like this and fill several more of your computer screens with basic, common-sense, everyday examples of where/how these people could be used but, alas, are not. I'm sure you can think of examples of your own. Do none of these cause you to think, "If their powers were real, why aren't they being used?"

My interest in this issue has more to do with how you, as a journalist, were able to write an article which treats this subject as though it is established fact. Your article presented no counter-views to the claims being made by the RV'rs. I can only presume that you had some sort of personal contact with Mr. McMoneagle (in person, phone, email) who claims to have fantastic RV'ing powers. So I can only wonder why, as a journalist, you couldn't ask McMoneagle to perform the most basic test of his abilities. A trivial test could have been something like the following: have a friend/colleague (Person A) take a random object and put it into a hidden location in your home/office (you don't know where it is, or what it is). Then, in your communications with McMoneagle, ask him to tell you where, and what, the object is that Person A hid. And if he were to provide an answer, you take that answer to Person A and determine if it is correct or not. Such a basic, simple, test to determine the veracity of his claims would have taken no more than 10 minutes of time to do. And I can only wonder why it wasn't done before a journalistic article was written promoting RV'ing as factual and verified.

By the way, you should also know that McMoneagle has declined to do simple tests to verify his abilities. The James Randi Educational Foundation (www.randi.org), as I described in my first email, has a standing $1,000,000 challenge to anyone who can demonstrate powers, such as those McMoneagle claims to have. I emailed James Randi to determine if McMoneagle has ever attempted the tests. My original email to James, and his reply are directly copied and pasted below.

Does not McMoneagle's rejection of winning an easy one-million dollars not make you wonder, "WHY?"

Compared to my usual abrasive and undiplomatic style in the face of someone's stupidity, I thought the wording of this message struck an open and honest willingness to engage in a serious, good faith, (albeit gently critical) dialogue with this "journalist." As of today, July 1st, Piazza has not in any way replied to this message I sent her on April 21. It would seem that the beckoning voices emanating from under that giant rock, which houses the likes of Jean Luis Naudin, Tom Bearden, Sylvia Browne, Brenda Dunne, Gary Schwartz and the rest of their ilk, were just too irresistible for this journalist. The siren song of unreason is obviously too sweetly sonorous for Mrs. Piazza, versus the ugly truths of reality and its impositions upon us when there is the wondrous magic of McMoneagle and the hodge-podge bric-a-brac research of SRI and its cohorts. Doubly ironic for me is that this journalist http://www.calder.net/jpiazza/ touts herself as a member of the Committee of Concerned Journalists (http://www.journalism.org/). It would seem that concern about the veracity of claims made in ones articles is not foremost on her literary mind.

Shawn, as long as she isn't compelled to answer, she won't. You've pointed out to her the basic duties expected of any journalist, and she has opted to ignore both you and them. No surprise.


USEFUL KNOWLEDGE

The "Useless Knowledge" site by Matt Dillahunty can be seen at www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/july/article170.html. An excerpt from a very good discussion about proving negative contentions:

People claim to talk to God. People claim to see angels, ghosts and devils. People claim to feel energy, heal with their hands and minds, leave their bodies and travel around the world, speak to the dead, see the future, find water with sticks, live without eating and heal themselves by a "yogic force." People can claim anything.

Anyone who could demonstrate any of these, could claim a quick million from the James Randi Education Foundation (www.randi.org) — yet no one ever has. No one has even passed the preliminary test. Why do you suppose that is? Are all of these people with supernatural abilities simply uninterested in a million dollars? Even to donate to their favorite charity? Have they no interest in enlightening the rest of us to the truths they claim to possess? Odd that they're willing to sell their books and trinkets or run a pay-by-the-minute telephone service to pass along their ideas.

Just what I've been preaching for decades now, Matt. Pass the collection plate, please....


OUR ELECTRIFYING MAN IN LONDON

Richard Wiseman's show in London is still wowing audiences, and we're happy for him and his partner-in-science, Simon Singh! We close this week with Richard being zapped at the close of the show.... (Click image to enlarge).

Go, Richard!