Excellent skeptical websites, while you wait for the upcoming Skeptics Circle

I will give you some links that are very much on the subject of skepticism and the consequences of rejecting it.

Here"s an article Mike Combs wrote in the midst of witnessing a homeopath"s attempt to claim the Randi Challenge prize. No matter how different the claims may be of those who say they want to be tested by Randi, it seems they all use the same rhetoric, objections, and dodges. If you"ve seen one claimant, you"ve pretty much seen them all. His summary is titled "Anatomy of a Claimant".

This article also appeared in the February 2000 issue of The North Texas Skeptic

Mike Combs also examined a future world where the skeptics have lost. It"s called "Condemned to Repeat It".

Curtis Wolf from Skeptically Thinking did an original research that he called Better Living through Sound and Light. He attended a lecture on meditation that turned out to be the New Age movement at its zaniest. Go read the interesting article and you will know why you don"t need to waste a Saturday afternoon the way Curtis did.

Curtis also has previous quarterly issues. Read about how he experienced The Amazing Randi in Jacksonville!, when he gave a rousing call to arms for skeptics to fight pseudoscience and promote reason. For more information about James Randi, take a look at his website.

Skeptics Circle will be up tomorrow.

Dangers of radiation in the home

The best Swedish site for news on technology, in my opinion, is www.idg.se. Today they have an article on radiation in the home. The article is based on an interview with Maria Feychting professor in epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet. The article discusses the danger of the radiation associated with products that are becomming increasingly common in ordinary homes. I am speaking of mobile phones, routers, wireless keyboards and mice, bluetooth headsets and dect phones.

The conclusion of the article, briefly put, is that there are no scientific evidence that this radiation causes any harm. It is a fact that studies showing potential dangers of radiation get much more attention than studies which show zero effects, even though the latter type are much more common. Furthermore, most of the studies which have shown slight biological effects of radiation have subsequently been replicated with contrasting results i.e. the latter studies did not find any effects.

I think that one of the reasons why some people are so afraid of these things is the fact that they radiate, and we all know that radiation is bad right? No, not necessarily so. Radiation can be your friend to. If it were not for the radiation from the sun we would not be alive. Similarly, seeing involves the capture of radiation by photoreceptors in the back of your retina. In fact we are all rich sources of radiation which you can see for yourself if you have a camera that pick up infrared wavelength.


But isn"t that different? Sure some sorts of radiation are more dangerous than others. Cosmic rays which arive from outer space are extremely rich in energy, and alot of that type of radiation would be bad for you. Similarly, X-rays will slightly increase the risk of cancers because it is rich in energy. But what about the radiation from all those home devices? This radiation is lower in energy than normal visual light, so you are very unlikely to get cancer from this type of radiation. These devices actually emit microwaves, just like your microwave oven. The difference is that the radiation is not contained within a box, and also the power is 10,000 smaller than in an ordinary microwave oven (for a dect phone it is 100,000 times smaller). If you want a different point of view on these issues, you can visit this page.

The article also gives some quick answers to the following questions:

1. Does radiation from mobile phones cause cancer: False

2. Will using a bluetooth headset reduce the amount of radiation you are exposed to: True (because a bluetooth headset has a much lower effect than the mobile phone)

3. A dect phone emits more radiation than a mobile phone: False

4. A 3G phone radiates more than a GSM mobile phone: False

5. More wireless devices in the home will make it more dangerous: False

6. A new router radiates more than an old router: False

7. It is dangerous to have your mobile lying next to you when you are sleeping: False

8. The mobile will emit less radiation if you hold your hand over it: False (actually it will radiate more becuase that is necessary in order to communicate the station.

9. Even the good old cable hardware emits radiation: True (anything with a current in it, a cable for instance, will generate a magnetic field which is also basically a form of radiation.


I want to end with a personal reflection on an issue which I think is highly relevant yet often forgotten. Mobile phones, which as mentioned is the device which has the highest effect and thus the highest radiation, has been around for about two decades now. In spite of their popularity, there has not been any increase in cancers in this timeperiod. This "natural experiment" shows that if mobile phones have any effect at all on the human body, that effect have to be very subtle. Pretend for a moment that there has been a slight increase in some obscure form of cancer, or other type of disease, that is a result of mobile phone radiation. Even such a necessarily slight effect would pale in comparison to the enourmous benefits of being able to call ambulances, fire fighters and the police from almost anywhere on this planet. Hurray for mobile phones!

I am the monkey king

Yesterday, I was sitting down to eat breakfast, and turned on C-SPAN as I occasionally do. This should tell you two things about me. One, I am such a television addict that I don"t even eat breakfast without it on, and, two, I"m really a nerd.

The topic for the last hour or so of Washington Journal was Intellegent Design. The first guest was a reporter who talked a bit about ID in general and Kansas"s recent decent back into the Middle Ages. The next guest was the scientific laughingstock Michael Behe, which is when I turned the set off in disgust. Watching the archive on the C-SPAN website (yes, really, I"m a nerd) there was a third guest, Matthew Chapman, a descendant of Charles Darwin who wrote Trials of the Monkey. There are, apparently, no actual scientists in Washington.

The best part of the show is the people who call in. It"s a strange combination of laughing at all nutty people out there, and being frightened that, really, there all these nutty people out there. Today was no exception. One caller:

It"s really frightening to see how far our country has fallen with this debate. There was a time in our country when the Bible was taught in schools... I"m thirty-five years old, and since I"ve graduated from high school, the public school system has become a war zone. And there"s nothing wrong with teaching Intelligent Design. In fact, if anything I think maybe it"s going to educate students and educate children to maybe look into the Bible, maybe look into some other form of religion and find a meaning. There"s too many children out there, they don"t know why they"re here. If you"ve got something like evolution they just assume, "Well i guess I"m just evolving. So-and-so is bad, i guess since we evolved from monkeys we"re just going to continue to go down that slippery slope."

That"s at 1:52:40 in the stream, if you want to hear it.

One of the things that the big name ID proponents always say is that ID isn"t a religion, since it doesn"t say anything about the designer. On the other hand, in every case I"ve seen, when cornered about who the Designer is, the ID proponent always says something like, "Well, in my opinion, it was the God of the Scriptures." It"s pretty clear that that "God of the Scriptures" line is code for "fundamentalist Christianity." Behe himself has said that the mysterious Intelligent Designer was God. So yet again, we see that ID is just fundamentalist Christianity wrapped up in sheep"s clothing.

But what I found interesting about the above caller"s rant was the fact that the problem with evolution isn"t that it"s wrong, but that believing in it will rob your life of "meaning." Yet again, we see that when these fundamentalists are confronted with an aspect of the material world, of reality, that contradicts their preferred interpretation of some aspect of the Bible, they actually disbelieve the reality, rather than their supernatural beliefs. That"s why you can"t have an intellectual debate on this topic with proponents of ID. Even if you present them with mountains of evidence supporting evolution, they won"t believe it. And that"s because mountains of evidence supporting evolution is exactly what we have.

New Matter At Kidney To Control Blood pressure

During more than 40 years, the researchers anticipates about existence of a natural hormone of is earning safely can release excess of sodium from body and can be exploited to arrange blood pressure or cures hypertension in more effective and safely. Now drugs reducing body sodium rate also has serious side effects because this drugs also lessens potassium rate. Recently the researchers from Cornell and the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research ( BTI) has developed a new tekhnik to detect a hormone from urine manusia-suatu derifat from acid xanthurenic-yang likely can control sodium rate without influencing body potassium rate. Acid xanthurenic is metabolite from degradation of tryptophan amino acid formed at cytoplasm and mitochondria. Based on invention done by this Frank Schroeder, the researchers knows that besides steroid hormone ; aldosterone activating kidney to did process reabsorpsi sodium and mengekresikan potassium surely there are other hormone triggering kidney to work on the contrary: mengekresikan sodium and imbibition of potassium. Many researchs which has been done to find hormone as in in urine but man urine consisted of mixture various hundred molecules and hardly difficult to be done insulation, because of probably because hormone intended hardly easy to broken at the time of chemical analysis process by the way of conventional.

At its(the research Schroeder develops its(the invention through approach of nuclear magnetic paramagnetic quadrupole ( NMR) spectroscopy through urine purified parsially. Till Now NMR only be applied to analyse from matter which has been purified. Through this tekhnik enables NMR to identify component without isolating them, its(the example at urine and result of his(its is found [by] 3 new component. Hereinafter each the component synthesis and hypodermic at mouse then this mouse urine monitored. Two of component identified is derifat from acid xanthurenic, capable to increase sodium rate at mouse urine ( increases its(the ekresi) but still take care of potassium rate remain to constant. Differs from aldosterone which is a hormone, this new component its(the structure more looking likely is acid amino-derifat neurotransmitter dopamin and serotonin so that possibility also has other role in body. Now the component in the process of further research what look like there is other function for body and whether they influence blood pressure directly.

Elderberry As Alternative Medicine

Elderberry As Alternative Medicine

Elderberry is an alternative medicine that has been used for centuries since the times of Hippocrates. This herb is derived from the fruit of the black elder plant to treat colds, influenza and sinus. In Israel elderberry is sold as Sambucol an herbal medicine for flu and colds symptoms.

1. It is an effective treatment for upper respiratory infections.
2. It is a laxative and cleanser for the intestines.
3. It is an immune system booster.
4. Its inner bark is a remedy for epilepsy.

Elderberry is available as capsules, tablets, extract, tea and tinctures. This herb is usually safe and has few known reactions with prescribed drugs. To make a tea from the flowers add 3 to 5 g of the petals to 250 ml of boiling water and steep for 15 minutes. Drinking this tea can ease twitching and eye inflammation. Very often this herb is used in combination with Echinacea to boost the body�s immunity.

Elderberry can reduce the duration of a cold or flu. However, the leaves, bark, raw berries and seeds are highly toxic due to their cyanide content. Elderberry is a powerful alternative medicine but caution must be exercised.

Survival of genetic homosexual traits explained

Italian geneticists may have explained how genes apparently linked to male homosexuality survive, despite gay men seldom having children. Their findings also undermine the theory of a single �gay gene�.

From the newscientist:

The researchers discovered that women tend to have more children when they inherit the same - as yet unidentified - genetic factors linked to homosexuality in men. This fertility boost more than compensates for the lack of offspring fathered by gay men, and keeps the �gay� genetic factors in circulation.

The findings represent the best explanation yet for the Darwinian paradox presented by homosexuality: it is a genetic dead-end, yet the trait persists generation after generation.

�We have finally solved this paradox,� says Andrea Camperio-Ciani of the University of Padua. �The same factor that influences sexual orientation in males promotes higher fecundity in females.�

Relative differences
Camperio-Ciani"s team questioned 98 gay and 100 straight men about their closest relatives - 4600 people in total. They found that female relatives of gay men had more children on average than the female relatives of straight men. But the effect was only seen on their mother�s side of the family.

Mothers of gay men produced an average of 2.7 babies compared with 2.3 born to mothers of straight men. And maternal aunts of gay men had 2.0 babies compared with 1.5 born to the maternal aunts of straight men.

�This is a novel finding," says Simon LeVay, a neuroscientist and commentator on sexuality at Stanford University in California. �We think of it as genes for �male homosexuality�, but it might really be genes for sexual attraction to men. These could predispose men towards homosexuality and women towards �hyper-heterosexuality�, causing women to have more sex with men and thus have more offspring.�

Camperio-Ciani stresses that whatever the genetic factors are, there is no single gene accounting for his observations. And the tendency of the trait to be passed through the female line backs previous research suggesting that some of the factors involved are on the male �X� chromosome, the only sex chromosome passed down by women. �It�s a combination of something on the X chromosome with other genetic factors on the non-sex chromosomes,� he says.

Immune system
Helen Wallace, of the UK lobby group GeneWatch, welcomes the new research that moves away from the controversial single-gene theory for homosexuality. �But it�s worth noting that the data on the sexuality of family members may be unreliable, so more studies are likely to be needed to confirm these findings,� she says.

Even if the maternal factors identified by Camperio-Ciani�s team are linked with male homosexuality, the research team�s calculations suggest they account for only about 14% of the incidence.

Their findings also support earlier findings that when mothers have several sons, the younger ones are progressively more likely to be gay. This might be due to effects changes to the mother�s immune system with each son they carry.

But Camperio-Ciani calculates the contribution of this effect to male homosexuality at 7% at most. So together, he says, the �maternal� and �immune� effects only account for 21% of male homosexuality, leaving 79% of the causation still a mystery.

This leaves a major role for environmental factors, or perhaps more genetic factors. �Genes must develop in an environment, so if the environment changes, genes go in a new direction,� he says. �Our findings are only one piece in a much larger puzzle on the nature of human sexuality.�

Really Delayed Ambulance Chasing

A few months ago I was in a minor vehicular accident when traffic ahead of me slowed to a complete stop on the highway. A pickup truck swerved across three lanes and cut in front of me; my eye still on the truck, I failed to notice that the cars ahead had stopped, so I wound up rear-ending a fellow motorist at about five miles per hour as I failed to come to a complete stop. The total damage done was a slight scratch on my front bumper and a tiny imprint the shape of my car in the poor guy"s fender. Neither party was injured, so the police didn"t even file a full report, just a non-investigated accident form for the both of us as a way of formally exchanging information.

Fast-forward to today, nearly four months later.

When I got home from class, I was told that someone had called about my insurance. Since the other driver had (about a month after the accident) apparently smelled money and tried to claim an injury, I figured that this was about the resolution to that case.

Nope. It was a chiropractor"s office.

They were trying to convince me to schedule an appointment in the event that I was having "headaches, backaches, or other pain problems" as a result of the "accident." "It can take several weeks or months for problems to develop," noted the woman on the phone. "This is because at the time of the accident your body is full of all kinds of chemicals."

Right. It still is, as a matter of fact, and I bet I know more about them than she did. Moving on.

I was polite to her; there was no reason to be otherwise, and I declined her offer to make me an appointment for a chiropractic evaluation.

This is all just a story--an anecdote. But I"ve never seen any other "doctors" having to resort to cold-calling patients from accident records to solicit them as patients. Chiropractors have more in common with ambulance-chasing lawyers than with physicians; the only way most of them are going to get any business is with colorful advertising or by dubious phone-farming.

In retrospect, it might"ve been somewhat humorous to suggest that I had developed allergies or diabetes since the accident. I wonder what the representative on the phone would"ve told me if I asked what they could do about it at the office?