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Quacks & Pseudoscience

Also, KoT eradicated in this thread, since I called him King of tacos. Coincidence? Correlation? Causation?
 
Interesting article on the alleged link between vaccines and autism: http://www.factcheck.org/2017/02/has-autism-prevalence-increased/

sn-autismEMBED-599x355.jpg


Illustrates quite nicely how the "rise in autism" is at least partly explained by changing diagnostic criteria. Kids who would previously have gotten a intellectual disability diagnosis now ends up with an autism diagnosis instead. Similar findings for learning disabilities.

Will such facts influence the likes of Trump and the anti-vaccine deniers? I suppose not... I'm sure they will find alternative facts.
 
Vaccine credited with HPV virus reduction in Scotland

A campaign to vaccinate girls against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted infection has led to a dramatic drop in reported cases.

Researchers have found a 90% fall in levels of the human papilloma virus (HPV) in Scottish women since the vaccine was made available in 2008.

HPV virus types are thought to account for about 90% of cervical cancers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39493859

 
Great quick analogy from the latest Waking Up podcast. Could be useful if pseudoscience pops up in holiday conversations. AJ Jacobs Rotten Tomatoes analogy. Most of us will trust Rotten Tomatoes as a critic opinion when choosing a movie from Netflix or wherever. We wouldn't trust a lone reviewer over the aggregated views of many reviewers. Similarly for imdb over the view of a single person. It's the same for questions of science, a single article or even a selected collection of articles shouldn't be trusted over scientific consensus.
 
Existence of UFOs 'proved beyond reasonable doubt', says former Pentagon X-Files chief

Earth may well have been visited by UFOs from outer space, the former head of a secret US government programme has told The Telegraph.

Luis Elizondo said the existence of supremely advanced unidentified aircraft, using technology that did not belong to any nation, had been "proved beyond reasonable doubt".

Until two months ago, from his office on the fifth floor of The Pentagon, Mr Elizondo, a career intelligence officer, ran the innocuously named Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was funded with $22 million in "black ops money" from Congress.

The existence of the real-life X-Files department, which began in 2007, was revealed this week and confirmed by the Pentagon.

In an interview with the Telegraph Mr Elizondo said much of what he could discuss was still classified.

That included whether his team had examined UFO sightings in other countries including the UK,...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...beyond-reasonable-doubt-says-former-pentagon/
 
Existence of UFOs 'proved beyond reasonable doubt', says former Pentagon X-Files chief

Earth may well have been visited by UFOs from outer space, the former head of a secret US government programme has told The Telegraph.

Luis Elizondo said the existence of supremely advanced unidentified aircraft, using technology that did not belong to any nation, had been "proved beyond reasonable doubt".

Until two months ago, from his office on the fifth floor of The Pentagon, Mr Elizondo, a career intelligence officer, ran the innocuously named Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was funded with $22 million in "black ops money" from Congress.

The existence of the real-life X-Files department, which began in 2007, was revealed this week and confirmed by the Pentagon.

In an interview with the Telegraph Mr Elizondo said much of what he could discuss was still classified.

That included whether his team had examined UFO sightings in other countries including the UK,...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...beyond-reasonable-doubt-says-former-pentagon/
Reminds me of the rather lovely men who stare at goats.
 
Existence of UFOs 'proved beyond reasonable doubt', says former Pentagon X-Files chief

Earth may well have been visited by UFOs from outer space, the former head of a secret US government programme has told The Telegraph.

Luis Elizondo said the existence of supremely advanced unidentified aircraft, using technology that did not belong to any nation, had been "proved beyond reasonable doubt".

Until two months ago, from his office on the fifth floor of The Pentagon, Mr Elizondo, a career intelligence officer, ran the innocuously named Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was funded with $22 million in "black ops money" from Congress.

The existence of the real-life X-Files department, which began in 2007, was revealed this week and confirmed by the Pentagon.

In an interview with the Telegraph Mr Elizondo said much of what he could discuss was still classified.

That included whether his team had examined UFO sightings in other countries including the UK,...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...beyond-reasonable-doubt-says-former-pentagon/

I'm starting to believe some of this stuff, I'm afraid to say. Watching the Netflix documentary (by madman Steven Greer, admittedly) 'Unacknowledged' - only a lot of witness observations and accounts, but the massive amounts of them, from highly ranked people too. Would it be totally improbable that there are more advanced lifeforms and technologies out there? Certainly not, judging by what we know about the universe. Is it completely unheard of that these other lifeforms have used a more advanced technology to "visit" earth? How could you say a definite no? Is it probable that there are covert operations by governments out there to keep information about stuff like this hidden from the public? I guess you could argue fairly well for it.
 
I dont know that I believe we have been visited by aliens etc, but I think just looking at the numbers there has to be life out there somewhere.

It would be typical of humanity to assume we are the special only ones.

Yet we havent seen 0.0000001% of the cosmos, and are yet to explore further than our own doorstep. We know near fudge all.

What we do know is that there are potential other earths out there, circling distant suns. Just as we know there is a near infinite stars/planets/moons etc.

When you think about the scale of it all it seems impossible we are the only life out there.

And wouldnt that be disappointing as well? fudging Americans as the dominant life form in universe...
 
I dont know that I believe we have been visited by aliens etc, but I think just looking at the numbers there has to be life out there somewhere.

It would be typical of humanity to assume we are the special only ones.

Yet we havent seen 0.0000001% of the cosmos, and are yet to explore further than our own doorstep. We know near fudge all.

What we do know is that there are potential other earths out there, circling distant suns. Just as we know there is a near infinite stars/planets/moons etc.

When you think about the scale of it all it seems impossible we are the only life out there.

And wouldnt that be disappointing as well? fudging Americans as the dominant life form in universe...

I have no doubts that there is life elsewhere in the universe, and most likely intelligent life as well. I thought scientists more or less agreed on this already? If the universe really is infinite and expanding, how can there not be? Then of course, there's a long way from recognising that to thinking we've been visited. I'd recommend watching the documentary on Netflix, even if you don't believe any of it, it's quite fascinating. :)
 
While I enjoyed the first part of the 'Unacknowledged' movie, it gets into wooly conspiracy territory in part two - free energy and cars running on water, the government seizing new energy source patents etc. Kind of takes the juice out of the whole thing. I still find the UFO sightings quite fascinating though, but it might just be less of a cover operation than Greer will have you believe. :p
 
Cars can run on water, the cost of the battery (hydrogen cell?) is what is the problem.

I remember a Top Gear from years ago where May was test driving a car with it.
 
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