Am-Sci on Con-Skep

Our own Karl Mamer, writer of the Podcasting Without Pity column, hosts his own popular podcast, The Conspiracy Skeptic, and he was kind enough to interview me for the latest episode of the show. We discuss badmouthing Koreans, the origins of this very website, and the Illuminati. Give it a listen right here.

Shakin’ Station

Last month, the International Space Station made a rocket burn to nudge itself into a better position to receive incoming spacecraft. This is supposed to be a routine procedure that gently moves the station into another spot, but something went wrong. Due to a rocket malfunction, the station began shaking violently, up to five times more than what it’s supposed to handle. No one knows what caused the problem, but it looks like the thrusts modulated themselves to the station’s resonant frequency, which is why the shaking became so violent. For those who may not know, resonant frequency is the frequency at which an object oscillates at maximum amplitude. Just a small, periodic force at an object’s resonant frequency can amplify into quite a rattling. According to legend, madman inventor NiKola Tesla created a resonant frequency device that could topple a building. But the Mythbusters tested that, and it’s probably bunk. Anyway, I guess the point of all this is that you’ll probably have to reschedule your trip to the ISS until they figure out this problem. Sorry, vacationers. More details here.

HIV Gene Therapy

If I asked you what’s the most successful treatment for HIV, you’d probably say “homeopathic witchdoctoring”, right? Wrong. The answer is actually “modern medicine”. But even though actual science has developed highly effective treatments for HIV, there are still many infected patients who build a resistance to those treatments. And it’s these patients that will be participating in a clinical trial of a new HIV immunization treatment based on gene therapy. Scientists have discovered that people who are naturally immune to HIV have a mutated form of a common gene called CCR5. By cutting the CCR5 gene out of a person’s T-cells, they’ve been able to protect a tube full of human cells from HIV infection. The hope is that the same reaction will happen in the body, with the newly immune T-cells replicating and replacing those that still have the CCR5 gene. If so, this could potentially lead to a kind of gene therapy vaccine against HIV. And that would mean I could go back to what used to be my favorite hobby: sharing needles with performance artists in the back of Studio 54. More details here.

Coleman and God: BFFs

Soon-to-be (maybe) former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman appeared on the conservative Mike Gallagher radio show last week to keep his name in the news during his epic legal battle to keep Al Franken from taking his congressional seat. In addition to waxing hypothetical about all the incredibly conservative and Mike Gallagher-esque things he would be doing right now if he was in Washington, Coleman told Mike Gallagher, "God wants me to serve." This puts Coleman in the same camp as George W. Bush, Pat Robertson, and every other idiot who claims to be on God's friends list. In all fairness, Coleman went on to say that he's not the only person who could serve in his former position, but he didn't specify if any of those other people include Al Franken. He also failed to go into how God's will could possibly be thwarted by the elections commission of the great state of Minnesota. If I were Mike Gallagher, I'd have followed up on that. More details here.

Autism/Vaccine Fraud

You've probably read about this elsewhere by now, but just in case you haven't, I feel this is important enough to reiterate. Reporter Brian Deer, writing for The Sunday Times, has uncovered evidence that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the father of the "vaccines cause autism" boondoggle that's been sweeping the world's gullible, faked the data he used to back up that claim. The story is long and complicated, but Wakefield's original ten-year-old study forms the basis for many of the spurious claims about a non-existent vaccine/autism link that are still made today. But while this revelation is just another hole in the already leaky antivaccinationist boat, it's also true that even if Wakefield's claims weren't outright falsified, there's still plenty of evidence that they aren't true. There is no link between vaccines and autism, and it doesn't take the public disgrace of Andrew Wakefield to prove that. Still, the forces of unreason will no doubt keep moving on ahead. They'll find other causes for autism, other reasons to distrust vaccines, and otherwise keep their heads buried firmly in their asses. Read the whole article here.

Psychic Leeches

CNN.com has a predictably fluffy profile on self-proclaimed (aren't they all?) psychic and apparent plastic surgery victim Roxanne Usleman (pictured), who says her business has been booming due to the global economic apocalypse. At $135 a pop, she sees five or six clients a day who come to her seeking financial advice from her team of on-call "angels". One happy client quoted in the story brings up the fact that he was pleased Usleman wasn't the kind of hokey crystal ball-gazing, palm-reading hack he expected. But this isn't much of an endorsement considering he probably never would have gone to such a person in the first place and people like that only set up shop in carnivals and red light districts these days. But whether Usleman is gazing into a stack of tarot cards or a tasteful Tiffany bracelet, it doesn't matter if her predictions don't amount to anything. And despite the fluffiness of this profile, there's not a single mention of Usleman's predictions coming true. In fact, there's a pointed quote from non-psychic financial adviser Ryan Mack, who says, "Regardless of what the stars say, regardless of what the map says in terms of--if Pluto is lined up with Mars...You have the ability within yourself to save, to plan and to be diligent." And blowing what little cash you have left on psychic readings is doing none of those three things. Read the whole piece here.

AIDS Fraud

Nigeria has the second highest rate of AIDS infection in the world, but the vast majority of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. So it's understandable that many of them turn to cheaper alternatives to potentially expensive AIDS medications. This means local healers and medicine men are raking in the cash. The only problem with this is that none of these folk remedies have ever been proven to work against AIDS, whereas real medicine has progressed to the point that AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Obviously there's a crisis of education and access to inexpensive medicine here, but Nigeria's Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development seems to be fighting the wrong fight. Instead of more actively discouraging people to visit these huckster "healers", they're pursuing research into whether these folk remedies actually work. On the surface, this seems like a great idea. After all, many modern medications are synthesized and refined versions of chemicals originally derived from herbs and other organic sources. But there's still the fact that these medicine men are more interested in making money that making sure people don't die. There's no reason at all to think that their so-called treatments have any possibility of working, but by devoting time and resources into testing their shams, NIPRD are lending them an air of deferred legitimacy. Meanwhile, people are dying of a treatable (if currently incurable) disease. Maybe when all those Nigerian businessmen finally get their email money from people overseas, they can start pouring it into more worthwhile causes. What's that you say about a scam? More details here.