Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@AOL.COM>]

Be very afraid
by Ben Goldacre
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,928140,00.html

"It was the MMR story that finally made me crack. My friends had always 
seemed perfectly rational: now, suddenly, they were swallowing media 
hysteria, hook, line and sinker. All sensible scientific evidence was 
twisted to promote fear and panic. I tried to reason with them, but they 
turned upon me: I was another scientist trying to kill their baby."


The onslaught begins...
by Ben Goldacre
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,933047,00.html

"As I rush towards the hideous reality of my 30th birthday, I am very 
excited to read about Longevity, a new kind of anti-ageing tablet that 
"delivers 2-AEP directly to outer cell walls to strengthen, seal and 
protect them". The tablets have been awarded the National Council on 
Ageing's Silver Fleece award for "the product that makes the most 
outrageous or exaggerated claims about human ageing". Last year's winner 
was "Clustered Water", and their panel recently announced that "no 
effective anti-ageing intervention currently exists". The marketers of 
Longevity have fought back, however, and their website has listed happy 
customers: John Wayne, Yul Brenner, Anthony Quinn, Princess Caroline of 
Monaco." Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, at least three 
of those people are dead already."


Cloned human embryo reported
By Wendy Goldman Rohm
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/100/nation/Cloned_human_embryo_reported+.shtml

"A Kentucky fertility specialist says he has created a cloned human embryo 
that he plans to implant in a woman in the next month if genetic tests show 
that the embryo is healthy. Scientists say it could be the most credible 
human cloning experiment to date."


Human cloning 'flawed'
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2936401.stm

"Human cloning may never be possible because of a quirk of biology."


Cold fusion
by Mark Pilkington
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/farout/story/0,13028,933064,00.html

"On March 23 1989, two respected chemistry professors, Stanley Pons and 
Martin Fleischmann, made an announcement that looked, briefly, like it 
might change the world forever. They claimed to have achieved nuclear 
fusion - normally produced by the intense heat and pressure inside stars - 
in a glass jar, at room temperature. This was "cold fusion". What's more, 
their fuel cell was pumping out four times the energy that was going into 
it. As the University of Utah's press release stated, the pair may have 
discovered an "inexhaustible source of energy" - the Holy Grail of physics."


The battle for American science
by Oliver Burkeman and Alok Jha
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,933055,00.html

"One of the first signs that something was changing came in March last year 
in the suburbs of northern Atlanta, when people started talking, a little 
more frequently than might be expected, about mousetraps. It was hardly 
unprecedented in the US that a group of local parents should be lobbying 
for their children to be taught that evolution was a disputed theory, not a 
fact. But the way some of them were doing it was new, which is where the 
mousetraps came in."



Bills aim to alter mix of Medical Board
by KAREN GARLOCH
Charlotte Observer
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/5607998.htm

"Accusing the N.C. Medical Board of unfairness in its treatment of certain 
physicians, groups representing black physicians, alternative medicine 
practitioners and trial lawyers are pushing state legislators to change the 
way board members are selected."



Internet Ads Promising Cures and Protection
By MELODY PETERSEN
New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/14/science/sciencespecial/14SELL.html?ex=1050984000&en=8b47ed530cfb0885&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE>

"Type "SARS" into an Internet search engine and advertisements from a 
variety of companies pop up offering products as diverse as health 
supplements, disinfectants and special protective suits that marketers say 
will keep the new disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome, at bay."


Ghost soup? You haven't heard the rest of it ...
by Hector Mackenzie
Glasgow Herald
http://www.sundayherald.com/33083

"WHEN reports emerged in China last week about a 'ghost soup' made out of 
female skeletons, many people's reaction was total disbelief. But a few 
police sources maintained that bones, apparently dug up from caves near the 
tourist resort of Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, were being 
used to make a soup designed to cure a range of ailments."



Scientists seek answers to phenomenon
by Anchalee Kongrut
Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/14Apr2003_news17.html

"Scientists will launch a probe into the Naga fireballs phenomenon in Nong 
Khai province in May, said the deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry 
of Science and Technology."


No more Gulf War Syndromes
by MICHAEL FUMENTO
Scripps Howard News Service
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/opinions/story/851417p-5968640c.html

"The war is winding down, with remarkably few coalition casualties. Yet 
soon somebody will try to start another casualty list, that of a second 
Gulf War Syndrome (GWS). The only way to stop it is to finally acknowledge 
that, in any meaningful sense, no such thing as GWS exists."


Homicide ruled in death of man with missing organs
By ROSE DeWOLF & JIM NOLAN
Philadelphia Daily News
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/5608379.htm

"The bizarre death of Willie James Kent, a homeless man who was found with 
his internal organs mysteriously missing, was officially ruled a homicide 
yesterday by the Philadelphia medical examiner's office."


Believers Buy Tapes of 'Horse Talker'
Associated Press
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/5623369.htm

"She doesn't call herself a horse whisperer, but Sheila Ryan says she can 
communicate with the animals."


Royal fairytale bewitched by sex and vampires
By Lawrence Bartlett
South African Press Association
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=126&art_id=qw1049945944472B254&set_id=1

"A bizarre tale of a bewitched palace, sexual jealousy and the murder of a 
beautiful royal bride is holding Malaysians spellbound as it unfolds in a 
sombre courtroom."