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Written by Dr. Romeo Vitelli
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Wednesday, 27 March 2013 09:00 |
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How dangerous can a prophecy be? And what happens to a prophet who turns out to be wrong? The story of Nongqawuse and the prophecy that led to the deaths of thousands of her fellow Xhosa in the mid-19th century is an important morality despite being so little known outside of South Africa.
Even in the early days of British colonialism in southern Africa, the various tribes that made up the Xhosa nation were one of the largest ethnic groups in what would eventually become the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. Though apartheid policies still lay in the future, the Xhosa were largely shut out of most businesses and depended on their cattle herds and crops for food and trade. Despite a major outbreak of cattle lung sickness that had struck the Xhosa cattle herds between 1855 and 1856, the economic disaster that would devastate Xhosa society came from another direction entirely.
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Swift
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Written by DJ Grothe
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Tuesday, 26 March 2013 11:00 |
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As readers of randi.org will know, a lot of great skeptical activism gets carried out by hard working volunteers on a regular basis. Sometimes it is as simple as challenging misinformation on the net, as JREF fellow Tim Farley has spoken about. An example of this sort of work is Susan Gerbic’s project over the last couple of years to organize volunteers to clean up Wikipedia when it comes to skeptical and paranormal topics.
She recently organized a cleanup of JREF fellow Leo Igwe’s page. She shares with randi.org a writeup of recent progress:
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Swift
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Written by Sharon Hill
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Tuesday, 26 March 2013 09:00 |
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Here is a rundown of the top stories in the paranormal, the mysterious and all sorts of questionable claims from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.
Some people had a really bad week. Dr. Oz finally gets called out for bad advice. But, honestly, this guy might have known better.
A chicken laid a huge and very weird egg. Ouch.
Even lawyers fall for the Nigerian scam.
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Swift
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Written by Dr. Harriet Hall
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Monday, 25 March 2013 09:00 |
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Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.
It’s a part of my paleo fantasy, it’s a part of my paleo dream (David Gorski) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/its-a-part-of-my-paleo-fantasy-its-a-part-of-my-paleo-dream/ It is a popular myth that our ancestors were healthy and that diseases like cardiovascular disease are a result of modern lifestyles and can be prevented by diet. A study of ancient mummies spanning 4000 years and 4 different geographic locations shows that atherosclerosis was prevalent in preindustrial populations. The evolutionary arguments for the paleo diet do not stand up to scrutiny.
Dr. Amen’s Love Affair with SPECT Scans (Harriet Hall) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/dr-amens-love-affair-with-spect-scans/ Dr. Daniel Amen is a psychiatrist (unfortunately featured on PBS) whose chain of Amen Clinics does SPECT scans on all patients, exposing them to radiation and charging them thousands of dollars for a test that has not been shown to contribute to diagnosis or improve treatment of the conditions he treats. An article he wrote to justify his approach is far from convincing.
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Swift
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Written by D.J. Grothe
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Sunday, 24 March 2013 14:30 |
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A couple days ago, JREF Senior Fellow Jamy Ian Swiss appeared on the talk show HuffPost Live to discuss the skeptical legacy of Harry Houdini, in honor of his 139th birthday. Other guests on the show, hosted by Josh Zepps, included Albert Cadabra from Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Times Square; Buck Wolf, Executive Editor of HuffPost Weird News; and Dorothy Dietrich, director of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA.
Watch the episode below.
D.J. Grothe is the President of the James Randi Educational Foundation |
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