Skeptic: fraud, quackery, James Randi (TED)

James Randi, TED Talks, 4/20/10; Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Homeopathy, quackery, and fraud | rabid skeptic James Randi

(TED) Legendary skeptic James Randi takes a "fatal" dose of homeopathic sleeping pills onstage, kicking off a searing 18-minute indictment of beliefs he finds "irrational." He throws out a [phony] challenge to the world's psychics: Prove what you do is real, and I'll give you a million dollars. (No takers yet). [Takers need not apply because he isn't going to give anything because no proof would ever be good enough because his whole worldview and all the meaning in his life would have to go out the window. But he's a showman as bad as the real and phony people he's criticizing, so a million dollar offer sounds serious and irresistible to people who are not looking for fame trouble.]

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. TED stands for "Technology, Entertainment, and Design." TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development, and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at ted.com/index.php/talks/top10. Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/tednews. Checkout Facebook page for TED exclusives facebook.com/TED.

Cures: What about radiation risks?

Wisdom Quarterly

How to Cure Radiation Toxicity

LONG BEACH, California - Cary Harrison (KPFK's Go Harrison! Facebook Japan updates) appeared at this year's Health Freedom Expo to moderate a panel on radiation exposure. He is currently on his way to Japan to help in any way he can. He's traveling by boat as an ersatz worker and plans to become a Merchant Marine, experiencing a typhoon near Hawaii. But his KPFK radio show is still on the air (Mondays, 2:00 pm). One of the panelists offers insight into what radiation levels if any are safe. Unfortunately, according to the Petkau effect, chronic low exposure is worse than be massive irradiation levels. This counterintuitive finding was discovered by accident in previous disasters. Listen to a recording of this weekend's panel discussion which talks about detoxification from radiation sickness and prevention through good immunity and low-stress levels, at the KPFK Audio Archives (March 28, 2011 at 2:00 PM). The Japan Mercy Fund (win an electric scooter) NOTE: Eat seaweed (kombu has more iodine than kelp), strawberries, and miso soup. Avoid iodine pills, which are toxic.

Richard Knox (NPR) Japanese Buddhist monk Tanaka Tokuun, who was evacuated from Fukushima prefecture, looks over an instrument measuring radiation levels (Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images).

Why We May Not Learn Much New About Radiation Risks

When it comes to health effects from low radiation doses, scientists don't know beans. To be more precise, doses below 100 millisieverts are in a gray zone. Safety standards -- such as the one that limits drinking water exposure for infants to less than about 2 millisieverts -- are based on extrapolation from the best data scientists have.

Those figures come mainly from a 60-year study of health effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. That was a unique research opportunity, and one hopes it remains that way. But some scientists think the Fukushima power plant disaster -- the second-worst nuclear power accident in history -- offers another precious opportunity to learn more about what happens to people exposed to radioactivity in the millisievert range.

An article posted Wednesday by The New Scientist quotes experts who say there's no time to lose in setting up a study that would map radiation doses and monitor the health of those who've been exposed in the Japanese incident. One of those experts points to the Hiroshima-based Radiation Effects Research Foundation as the obvious candidate to do the work. It has conducted the six-decade-long project following atomic-bomb survivors. More

Christ meet Bigfoot: Irreverent Atheist Ads

Don't forget to pray as multi-billionaires race toward the eye of the needle on camels.

(Gothamist) Atheists have been trying to get out their message, from city bus ads to the recent billboard displayed at the Lincoln Tunnel, which prompted a counter-billboard from the Catholic League.

The latest pitch: Co-opting rich billionaires into the act. Recently, the Illini Secular Student Alliance (ISSA) [coincidentally, "Issa" is Jesus' name in Arabic, Islam, Buddhism, and India], at the University of Illinois, launched a bus ad campaign to set the record straight when it comes to the charitable atheists of our world.

ISSA explains, "A consequence of the centuries-spanning PR campaign conflating theism (and especially Christianity) with the impulse to charity has largely duped Americans into believing that Christians are the major givers and that non-believers are selfish, angry loners unconcerned with the struggles of the less fortunate... Not only is the stereotype untrue, it is perversely untrue." The bus campaign ads feature high profile philanthropists including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who are "Good without god." More>>

Canadian Atheists Join the Campaign

(Vancouver Sun) The group of atheists behind the controversial ads that suggest God "probably doesn't exist" will be splashing a new set of posters on buses across Canada -- like last year's ads suggesting "there's probably no God."

The provocative new set of posters are being rolled out aross the country, placing Allah beside Bigfoot and Christ beside psychics.

The new posters bear the slogan: "Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence" with "Allah, Bigfoot, UFOs, Homeopathy, Zeus, Psychics, Christ" listed below. Pending approval they will hit Toronto streetcars in January, followed by plans to post the ads on buses in Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa, Saskatoon, and Montreal.

"Why is belief in Bigfoot dismissed as delusional while belief in Allah and Christ is respected and revered? All of these claims are equally extraordinary and demand critical examination," says the campaign's website, extraordinary-claims.com. More>>

Medicine Timeline

Medical Timeline (interactive) -- various forms to treatment (thenewmedicine.org)

Title: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) book published

Time: circa 2697 BCE to 2nd century BCE
Event: The first Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, is said to be the author of the first classic work on Traditional Chinese Medicine (c. 2697). The text itself is compiled by unknown authors in 200 BC. The first herbal medicine and acupuncture needles appear around 2500 BCE.

Based on Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, TCM sees health as harmony within the body as well as between the body and the universe. The main disciplines in TCM are acupuncture, herbology, tui na (massage and manipulation), diet therapy and therapeutic exercises like Tai Qi and Qi Gong.

Title: Ayurvedic forms of healing are developed

Time: 1200 BCE
Event: Ayurvedic Medicine sees health as happiness and harmony in the soul, mind and senses, as well as a balance of body processes. By the time it is documented in philosophical texts called the Vedas, Ayurvedic Medicine is an already-practiced ancient health care tradition of India. Literally, it means life (ayur) knowledge (veda). This “life knowledge” was discovered and taught by many Hindu Rishis or sages who meditated on the meaning of life and health.

Time: Early to mid 1800s-1900s
Title: [Western] Allopathic medicine emerges as the primary Western medical model
Event: Allopathy is the type of medicine most familiar to westerners today. Allopathy is a biologically based approach to healing. For instance, if a patient has high blood pressure, an allopathic physician might give him/her a drug that lowers blood pressure.

In 1848, the allopathic rationalists create the American Medical Association (AMA) and gain a strong organizational edge. Even though many American clinics once relied on homeopathy and naturopathy, allopathic medicine quickly rises to dominance. Allopathy’s popularity is due to successful scientific progress including the production of certain vaccines and development of specific drugs that treat disease.

During this same era, the discovery of antibiotics triggers rapid growth of the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmacy evolves as an enabling discipline to allopathic medicine, helping it to achieve and maintain its dominance through many successful treatments and cures. More>>