Posted in Uncategorized on April 13th, 2009 by daverich
Just a reminder about Brian Dunning’s big 150th Skeptoid podcast party coming up this Saturday. There are still tickets left, and in fact it looks like our friend Brian will be left holding the bag for some serious expenses unless more people buy tickets. If you are a fan of Skeptoid, how about buying a ticket? The price is still $75, but will be going up another $10 soon, perhaps tomorrow. So if you’ve been waiting to get your tickets, wait no longer!
http://skeptoid.com/party.php
I bought an extra ticket that I’ll be giving to a student, and I’d like to issue a challenge to anyone who is currently gainfully employed to buy an extra ticket for a student, or someone else who may not be able to afford to go.
California Nursing Board Battles The Pro-Science Independent Investigations Group
Tags: education, nursing, pseudoscience health, science, skep
Posted in Pseudoscience on April 3rd, 2009 by derekcbart
Nurses Revoke The Independent Investigations Group’s Continuing Education License Before Feng Shui Class Happening This Sunday.
Hollywood, CA April 4, 2009 — On March 27, 2009 the California Board of Registered Nursing (CBRN) revoked the Continuing Education License that the Board had previously granted to a subcommittee of the Independent Investigations Group (IIG). This revocation is because of the presentation that the IIG is performing this Sunday, April 5, 2009 which will demonstrate all of the forms of pseudo-science that the CBRN originally certified for the continuing education of nurses.
Last August, the Independent Investigations Group (IIG) at the Center for Inquiry received certification from the California Board of Registered Nursing (CBRN) to teach a Continuing Education class that includes “Chinese shéyou” (literally, “snake-oil”), anthropomancy (telling the future by reading human entrails), and “canupiary” (a made-up word) flexibility.
When the CBRN recently heard about the skeptics’ plan to teach this certified class on Sunday and publicize it, they rescinded the group’s certification citing “an error.”
The California Board of Registered Nursing is the state agency that licenses nurses and certifies nurse Continuing Education Providers (CEPs). Nurses in California must complete 30 hours of continuing education credit every two years to maintain their licenses.
Four years ago, the IIG lobbied the Nursing Board several times to stop giving credit for the teaching of “Therapeutic Touch” - a technique long discredited by skeptic organizations such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and the James Randi Educational Foundation. This procedure involves a practitioner manipulating a mysterious energy field around the patient. No actual physical contact is made with the patient.
When the Board ignored the IIG proposal to only teach science-based medicine, the IIG decided to submit its own supernatural-based nursing course for certification. The Feng Shui course containing other techniques outside the purview of modern medicine (see paragraph #1) won the Board’s approval last August. But the Board rescinded its own certification on March 27, 2009 — only after the IIG issued publicity criticizing the Board for letting such an unscientific course be approved in the first place.
IIG Chair and CFI-Los Angeles Executive Director Jim Underdown put this into perspective:
“The Board ignored our pleas for years to reexamine their poor standards for continuing education. Now that this Sunday’s preposterous class threatens to embarrass them, they suddenly leap into action by claiming we shouldn’t have been certified in the first place.”
Underdown continued:
“California residents deserve the best health care science can offer. The CBRN is simply not meeting that standard.”
The IIG’s nurse education subcommittee - the California Foundation for Institutional Care (CFI-Care) - was (until a few days ago) Continuing Education Provider #15166, and still plans to teach the outrageous course Sunday with an explanation at the end about the critical thinking lacking in the CBRN’s process. The course promises to be both educational and hilarious. Nurses will still get in for free, and the press is also invited. “It’ll be a hell of a show,” claims Underdown.
Information about the Feng Shui for Home Providers Class follows…
Feng Shui for Home Care Providers - A Course for California Nurses
Sunday, April 5th, 11AM - 1PM
Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles
4773 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90027
Free Parking in the CFI lot on Berendo (2 blocks east of Vermont Ave.)
(Enter the Berendo St. lot from Franklin Ave.)
All press, nurses and nursing students get in free and will receive free coffee.
For more information contact:
James Underdown
Executive Director, Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles
Chair, Independent Investigations Group
Office 323-666-9797 x 101
Mobile 213-434-1545
The Independent Investigations Group at the Center for Inquiry is the West Coast’s premiere skeptical organization. The IIG has a standing offer of $50,000 to anyone who can prove paranormal abilities under scientific testing conditions. The IIG works with the James Randi Educational Foundation by screening applicants for its $1 Million Paranormal Challenge. Visit our website at http://www.iigwest.org, or e-mail us at info@iigwest.org.
The Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles is the west coast home to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Visit our website at http://www.cfiwest.org, or call (323) 666-9797 x101.
NIH and pseudoscience
Tags: pseudoscience health
Posted in Uncategorized on April 2nd, 2009 by Alleracsum
Interesting article about NIH and possible new directives re: pseudoscience
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031602139.html
The Press Mistakes Ghost Vision Magic Trick For A “Real” Ghost
Tags: ghost, magic
Posted in Uncategorized on March 12th, 2009 by derekcbart
The Sun Newspaper [snark]always a bastion of journalistic integrity[/snark] published a “news” report on February 12, 2009 about a video that 12 year old Reece Pitman took on his cell phone. Here is the video:
As you can see, it does appear that a shadowy spirit crosses the path of the video. Well, here’s the catch. It is actually the magic trick “Ghost Vision” created by Andrew Mayne. Here is Andrew Mayne’s promotional video on the trick:
Andrew discusses the Sun Newspaper article on his blog. Oh, and you can purchase the trick for $15 from this site.
Not to be outdone. Now Sweden is getting in on the act:
This time the guy who made this video admitted that it was the trick. Here is what he had to say:
“Just to make everything clear! This is a video I made with Ghost Vision at my home in Sweden and sent off to Swedens largest magazine Aftonbladet after they pubished the video from The Sun. I sent it to them to verify that it is a trick video and that they might stop spreading this ghost thing to their readers. They never replied.”
When people mistake a $15 magic trick for a “real” ghost it goes to show how much work skeptics have to do to try and bring rationality to the world at large. As Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.“
Can Obama Handle Truth Of Billy Meier UFO Encounters?
Tags: Billy Meier
Posted in UFOs on February 3rd, 2009 by derekcbart
That ridiculous question is posed by Jeff Peckman in the February 2, 2009 edition of the Denver UFO Examiner.
You can go read what Mr. Peckman has to say if you want to, but it is basically an advertisement for Michael Horn’s DVD entitled The Silent Revolution Of Truth. The reason that I am linking to it here is because of the reader comments listed after the article. Many of the commenters take Mr. Peckman to task for promoting the Meier Case, and specifically Mr. Horn’s video, because so much has been done to expose the ridiculous nature of the Meier claims. One commenter by the name of “Siani” has even linked to the IIG’s Billy Meier Case Report which can be found here.
If you are interested in a good laugh please check out the above link.
UPDATE: Science Fiction entertainment blog io9 has picked up on the above story and the comments on that site are even funnier. Go check it out here.
Updated Billy Meier Case Report Is Now Online
Tags: Billy Meier
Posted in UFOs on January 5th, 2009 by derekcbart
Four sections of the IIG’s Billy Meier Case report have been recently updated: Asket and Nera Photo Deconstruction, Dinosaur Photo Deconstruction, Wedding Cake UFO Deconstruction, and WWIII Prophecy Deconstruction. Also, there are two new sections added to the report: Wandering Tree Deconstruction and Metal Analysis Deconstruction.
Please go to http://www.iigwest.org/investigations/meier/ to read the report.
2013: Year of the Skeptic
Tags: 13, 2012, 2013, Apocalypse, bible code, mayan, new year, triskaidekaphobia
Posted in Apocalypse, Future Predictions on January 4th, 2009 by rossblocher
Happy New Year, everyone! While I hope 2009 will bring you plenty of critical thinking and healthy skepticism, I want to gaze a little farther into the future. Four years into the future, to be exact. I hereby proclaim 2013 to be the Year of the Skeptic.
Why 2013? Well, for one reason, there are some not-so-skeptical individuals who believe the world will end in 2012. Of course, there are many ways the world might legitimately end at any given moment (if you can’t think of any, read Phil Plait’s Death From The Skies!, and you’ll be able to think of many), but there’s no reason to think this more likely to happen in 2012 than in any other year. So when January 1, 2013 rolls in, we Skeptics will grin and be glad that we’re all still here.
Who is it, you ask, predicting that we’ll go the way of Alderaan in 2012? The most oft-cited prediction is based on the Mayan calendar, which begins time on August 11, 3114 BCE and counts up in B’ak’tun cycles of 144,000 days. The Mayans never felt the need to extend their calendars past a far-off 13th B’ak’tun, which places the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21st, 2012. Of course, the alternate prediction is that the world will simply experience a major change, rather than complete obliteration, so we might just hear proponents claiming that some event of 2012 (perhaps an election result?) fulfills the prophecy.
Of course, there’s always more. In Michael Drosnin’s epic of data mining, The Bible Code, the author jumps on the 2012 bandwagon and says the Bible encrypts a message foretelling the Earth will be hit by an asteroid or comet. At least that’s a testable hypothesis - I guess we’ll find out in a few years how successful it was. Radio host and self-described alien contactee Riley Martin predicts Earth will be transformed in 2012, and the Biaviian aliens will grant us a trip on their great mother ship.
How prevalent is the notion that the world will end in 2012? I’m not quite sure, though many people I talk to (granted, a lot of my friends are Skeptics) are aware of 2012 being the foretold end of the planet. The idea is at least widespread enough to provide the basis for an upcoming motion picture, aptly named 2012. It is directed by Roland Emmerich, who brought you such apocalyptic films as The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, and Independence Day. The teaser trailer poses the question, “How would the governments of our planet prepare six billion people for the end of the world?” After a Buddhist monastery is destroyed by massive waters cresting the Himalayas, it ominously answers, “They wouldn’t”.
Another reason to proclaim 2013 Year of the Skeptic is for its connection to another lapse in critical thinking, triskaidekaphobia. That’s right - the fear that causes some individuals to stay home on Friday the 13th and avoid the 13th floors of buildings (or skip the number altogether and place the 14th floor directly atop the 12th). 2013 might prove a doozy for triskaidekaphobes, as it’s mighty difficult to avoid an entire year. Perhaps it will be a great time to introduce such people to the pleasures (and reduced stress) of a skeptical worldview in which cause and effect are not trumped by correlation or the power of suggestion.
Happy 2009 to you all, and let’s get busy planning our secret handshakes and advertising campaigns for the Year of the Skeptic.
Source for 2012 prediction information: Wikipedia
Welcome To The IIG Blog!
Tags: paranormal, science, skepticism, supernatural
Posted in Uncategorized on January 1st, 2009 by iigwest
Welcome to the new blog from The Independent Investigations Group (IIG). The IIG investigates fringe science, paranormal and extraordinary claims from a rational, scientific viewpoint, and disseminates factual information about such inquiries to the public. We are based out of CFI-Los Angeles in Southern California, and engage in many different areas of skepticism, from investigating haunted houses to testing the abilities of dowsers, healers, psychics and others with paranormal or pseudo-scientific claims. This blog is maintained by our members, and will keep you up-to-date on our own investigations, as well as providing news, links and commentary on what’s going on in the world of science and skepticism.
