Impostures, mythes & charlatans
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La raison prend l’eau au conseil général des Côtes d’Armor, par
L’éleveur nous explique : « Comme d'autres autour de nous, nous avions des bêtes qui devenaient agressives, ne voulaient plus rentrer à l'étable et retenaient leur lait. C'est tout juste si les truies ne mangeaient pas leurs porcelets. Nous avions aussi des problèmes de colibacilles, les maladies se faisaient plus fréquentes. Une spirale infernale! »
Creationism & intelligent design
Les médecines alternatives ne fonctionnent pas mieux que l'effet placébo
Le gouvernement américain a dépensé 2,5 milliards de dollars (c'est-à-dire 2500000000$!) pour tester l'efficacité des médecines prétendument alternatives. Le résultat est globalement négatif. Selon l'article "$2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found - Big, government-funded studies show most work no better than placebos" (je cite):
$2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found - Health - Alternative medicine - msnbc.com
BETHESDA, Md. — Ten years ago the government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do. Echinacea for colds. Ginkgo biloba for memory.After a decade of research, and 2.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money, government funded research into so-called “alternative” medicine has little to show for it. The AP has put out a fairly insightful review of this research, which echos many of the points I have been making over the years. They report: Echinacea for colds. Ginkgo biloba for memory.
CAM Research – Much Ado About Nothing
Homeopathy: There's nothing in it | The 10:23 Campaign | #ten23
What is homeopathy? Ask many people what they think homeopathy is and you'll be told "it's herbal medicine" or "it's all-natural". Actually, it is neither of these. Few people realise that homeopathy involves diluting substances so much that there's literally nothing left in them . Homeopathy is an absurd pseudoscience, which survives today as a "complementary" or "alternative" medicine, despite there being no reliable scientific evidence that it works. The 10:23 Campaign"Proving" est une méthodologie propre à l'homéopathie. Elle consiste à donner à des individus sains (surnommé "provers" en anglais) le remède, et a observer quels symptômes ils vont développer. Ces individus notent tous les effets que le produit génère prétendument sur eux, et ce sont ces symptômes que le remède est supposé traiter par la suite chez les sujets malades. En tout cas si on en croit Samuel Hanneman...
Homéopathie "proving"
En effet au cours de mon activité chirurgicale, je suis régulièrement confronté à cette discipline et suis obligé bien souvent d'en circonscrire les conséquences. Les patients s'interrogent, les parents sont encouragés à consulter les ostéopathes, les internautes sont "submergés d'informations, d'affirmations, de promotions mais ne savent pas toujours en analyser tous les termes, ni la validité. En tant que chirurgien pédiatre et professionnel de santé, j'ai décidé qu'il était temps de soumettre l'“ostéopathie” aux critères d'analyse scientifique imposés à la Médecine et reconnus par la communauté internationale. Ces quelques pages sont censées apporter en langage clair une vision actuelle conforme aux principes de la médecine du XXIème siècle (Evidence Based Medicine) sur ce phénomène de mode importé des Etats-Unis que représente l'“ostéopathie”.
Osteo-Stop : Pour en finir avec l'ostéopathie...
Iraqis Love Their Bomb-Detecting Magic Wand | Danger Room | Wire
The U.S. military has invested heavily in teaching Iraqis to fight roadside bombs, training ordnance disposal teams and passing on post-blast analysis techniques . But Iraqi security forces also swear by a device that the U.S. military refuses to touch: the ADE651 . According to U.S. experts, the ADE651-style detector — which is supposed to sniff out explosive traces at long distance — is little more than a fancy divining rod . (Click here to see a training video.)Iraqi Military Still Hearts Bomb-Detecting Magic Wand | Danger R
Today’s award for suckiest job on the planet goes to a luckless Iraqi army lieutenant, assigned to search for deadly bombs with a fancy divining rod. On assignment in Baghdad, Agence France-Presse correspondent Arthur MacMillan met the unnamed lieutenant , assigned to hunt for bombs in crowded traffic with the ADE651 , a.k.a. the bomb-detecting “magic wand.” The ADE651, made by U.K. firm ATSC , is supposed to sniff out explosives at a distance, using little more than a handheld antenna rigged up with interchangeable, credit-card sized paper cards. The U.S. military won’t touch the device, which critics say is little more than a dowsing rod . But the New York Times reported last year , that didn’t stop the Iraqi government from buying a boatload of them.
Too Good to Be True - DielectroKinetic Laboratories LifeGuard -
It seems that the Quadro Tracker , which you have included in your Dictionary, has reincarnated (if not, then we have proof here that great minds think alike). A company named DielectroKinetic Laboratories has manufactured 3 versions of a remote heartbeat detector, the DKL Lifeguard, and is trying to sell them to various government agencies for the purpose of detecting the presence of humans up to 500 yards away. The cheapest model, at $6000, doesn't even require batteries or any power source! [Note: the most expensive model costs $14,000.]
The Iraqi government has spent $85m on the ADE-651 and there are concerns that they have failed to stop bomb attacks that have killed hundreds of people. There is nothing to program in these cards. There is no memory.
Export ban for useless 'bomb detector'
Elizabeth Teissier et sa "thèse" de sociologie
Les frères Bogdanov
Il y a de nombreux problèmes épistémologiques liés à la parapsychologie, mais celui qui, personnellement, me convainc le plus que nous sommes face à une science pathologique est la rhétorique du "Pile je gagne, face tu perds" . Je m'explique. En science, on utilise pour évaluer l'existence d'un phénomène une balance virtuelle. D'un côté, on met les résultats expérimentaux qui vont dans le sens de l'existence de celui-ci, de l'autre ceux qui vont dans le sens contraire.
Pile je gagne, face tu perds - La rhétorique de la parapsychologie
Parapsychologists have tended to view positive results as supportive of the psi hypothesis while ensuring that null results don’t count as evidence against it. Here’s how this self-deceptive process works and four suggestions to overcome it. After more than sixty years of experimentation, researchers have failed to reach a consensus about the existence of psi (psychic ability).
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose’: How Parapsychologists Nullify Null Results
They call it the Nobel disease. Linus Pauling is the prototypical example. A brilliant chemist who won two Nobel Prizes, one for chemistry and the Nobel Peace Prize, in his later years Pauling became convinced that high dose vitamin C was a highly effective treatment for cancer and the common cold and, expanding upon that, came to believe in the quackery that is orthomolecular medicine. As a result, Pauling's reputation was tainted for all time, and he became known more for his crankery than his successes. Since his death, Pauling's successors have continued to chase his dream with minimal success because even massive doses of vitamin C have little or no effect on cancer and may even interfere with some chemotherapy regimens .
[2010] The Nobel disease strikes again : Respectful Insolence
Martine Fallon - Le magazine SecondSexe - La culture du plaisir féminin
On pourrait aisément faire un bullshit-bingo sur les nouveaux charlatans du naturel et de l'alimentation avec cette interview... by Jul 10