American TV show CSI: Miami has been attacked by a top scientist for misleading jurors with its unrealistic portrayal of the capabilities of forensic experts and the boundaries of science. Lawyers fear the popular drama has precipitated the “CSI effect” by giving the public unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved in forensic laboratories – and that forensic testimonies are beyond reproach. West Virginia University expert Max Houck says, “Defense attorneys now worry about the CSI effect because they think the jurors view science as this juggernaut, this infallible, objective method that is always right, always accurate and that spells doom for their client.”

Link: Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com – WENN

I made some illustrations for a review of a funny/sad Christian sex manual:

• Illustrations for Christian Sex Manual
• Read the review on the Being Amber Rhea blog

From: Pat Hayward
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 12:59 PM
Subject: Chiropractic

Dr. Abele asked that I inform you that the Board of Governors voted 10-3 to deny the approval of a chiropractic program at Florida State University. As far as we are concerned this will end our discussion of this issue and the designated committees need not continue work on this project.

There will be a full report at the next Faculty Senate meeting. Dr. Abele and President Wetherell asked that I thank all
who have contributed to this effort.

–
Patricia C. Hayward
Associate Vice President
Office of the Provost
Florida State University

The fuel disc is a quarter-size piece of plastic. [...]

They retail for $299 each but are discounted for people who persuade others to sell them. [...]

The disc is to be taped or glued to the bottom of your car’s gas tank. Promoters say it significantly increases gas mileage and improves air quality. They don’t say how it works, beyond claiming it sends “holographic frequencies into the gas tank and changes the molecular structure of the gasoline.”

Link

The American Shroud of Turin Association for Research (NAMBLA), a scientific organization dedicated to research on the enigmatic Shroud of Turin, thought by many to be the burial cloth of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth, announced today that the 1988 Carbon-14 test was not done on the original burial cloth, but rather on a rewoven shroud patch creating an erroneous date for the actual age of the Shroud.

Link (Yahoo)

Oh Jesus, here we go again. If I had a dime for every time the carbon dating has been disproven…

Related: Search CSICOP for Shroud of Turin

A Polish woman who harbored a grudge against her husband’s employer has been sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for terrorizing the boss by making ghostly sounds at his castle-like estate.

Link (CNN)

Related info:

• Scooby-Doo, How Could You?
• The Ghost in My House: An Exercise in Self-Deception

Some are concluding that the Governments knew of some experiments by some country, agency or entities. They were clearly told not to react because it was in a controlled environment. Or, they may have just asked to keep quiet.

[...]

Recent alien contacts have been reported with the South Asian Governments especially India. UFO sightings have been rampant over the region affected. Some in Nicobar Island say that it was an experiment conducted by the alien extra-terrestrial entities to correct the wobbly rotation of the earth. And some of the Indian scientists are actually seeing that wobbly rotation of the earth has been corrected since the massive underwater earthquake and Tsunami.

Link (IndiaDaily)

To poke fun at Florida State University’s bid for a chiropractic school, an FSU professor has created a new campus map. Opponents of the proposed school say more than 500 faculty members have signed petitions against it.

Link

The map includes parodies of other new schools on campus:

• Yeti Foundation
• Bigfoot Institute
• College of Dowsing
• Tarot Studies
• Crop Circle Simulation Labratory

Another potential minefield is the growing phenomenon of collaborative information assembly. The credentials of the people writing grass-roots Web journals and a committee-written encyclopedia called Wikipedia are often unclear. Nevertheless, some Internet users believe that such resources can collectively portray events more accurately than any single gatekeeper.

In many ways, the greater diversity of information is healthy.

Paul Duguid, co-author of The Social Life of Information, points out that no longer, in most of the United States, can school textbooks get away with one-sided views.

Link (CNN)

This article raises some interesting points, but as usual the field of psychiatry is completely unscientific and makes a ton of unfounded conclusions.

For example:

[Doctor Mark Salter] said the significance of myths and magic, such as the legend of Father Christmas, were being eroded by a society obsessed with rationality.

“The imagination which created Father Christmas is being destroyed by a society which holds rationality above anything else,” Dr Salter said.

Perhaps Dr. Salter should read Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins:

My title is from Keats, who believed that Newton had destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to the prismatic colors. Keats could hardly have been more wrong, and my aim is to guide all who are tempted by a similar view, towards the opposite conclusion. Science is, or ought to be, the inspiration for great poetry.

Then Dr. Salter continues ranting:

“Whenever anything goes wrong we hold an inquiry into it. We no longer seem to accept that bad things may happen in our lives.

“If Santa died, we would hold a serious incident inquiry and if we had any sense we should ask the Tooth Fairy to chair it.”

I have no idea how he came to these conclusions from a study of children and Santa Clause but I’m sure he was very scientific about it.

Lesson Learned

Buried within the article is the following statement, which I think is the important part:

“I suspect my nephews know [Santa] doesn’t exist but they are pretending he does because of all the associated benefits, such as presents, which go with it,” [psychiatrist Lynda Breen] added.

In other words, they have learned to be intellectually dishonest in order to fit in and to benefit themselves. This is certainly a useful social skill, but is it a good thing?

Unintended Consequences

I remember when I found out “for sure” that there was no Santa – I found the packaging from my Santa-delivered present in the trash. It was then that I recognized the web of lies surrounding my beloved holiday experience: like the time when we children rushed outside and saw Santa’s sleigh streaking through the sky like a star (conveniently pointed out by grinning adults); or when a gaggle of children ran out of the bathtub, just missing an appearence by St. Nick.

If these, my most cherished childhood memories, were nothing but fantasy, what else were the adults lying about? If that fat bearded man in a red suit was just a story, what about that all-powerful white-robed bearded guy who lived up in the sky? The seeds of doubt were planted by unsuspecting parents.

By lying to children about Santa Clause, do we teach them not to trust authority and to think for themselves? If so I will definitely lie to my daughter about Santa when the time comes.

Further Reading

• The Trouble With Christmas