Early 20th Century ‘Spirit’ Photographs
“These photographs of ’spirits’ are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of the Museum’s curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863-1933). Born in 1863 in Crewe, Hope started his working life as a carpenter. In about 1905 he became interested in spirit photography after capturing the supposed image of a ghost while photographing a friend. He went on to found the Crewe Circle – a group of six spirit photographers led by Hope. When Archbishop Thomas Colley joined the group they began to publicise their work. Following World War I support for the Crewe Circle grew as the grieving relatives of those lost to the war sought a means of contacting their loved ones. By 1922 Hope had moved to London where he became a professional medium. The work of the Crew Circle was investigated on various occasions. The most famous of these took place in 1922, when the Society for Psychical Research sent Harry Price to investigate the group. Price collected evidence that Hope was substituting glass plates bearing ghostly images in order to produce his spirit photographs. Later the same year Price published his findings, exposing Hope as a fraudster. However, many of Hope’s most ardent supporters spoke out on his behalf, the most famous being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Hope continued to practice, despite his exposure. He died in London on 7 March 1933.”
Read more at Moolf (thanks, SuZi)
Mars Hill Church Founder Mark Driscoll: “Avatar” Is the Most Satanic Film of All-Time
Mark Driscoll thinks so. In fact, the founder of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church told his congregation last Sunday that the highest grossing movie of all time is “the most demonic, satanic film I’ve ever seen.”
If you follow local theological circles, you know Driscoll is something of a superstar among national evangelical leaders. Or at least, he’s someone to watch.
Driscoll helped build the popular Mars Hill Church into one of the most talked about evangelical mega-churches in the country, despite its home at the heart of a secular stronghold. That distinction, combined with his church’s culturally savvy but socially and theologically conservative views, gives him significant weight in religious debate.
Though his “Avatar” comments made up just a fraction of the Feb. 14 sermon, Driscoll managed to condemn the film in both religious and nonreligious terms. He denounced its “demonic paganism,” but also a message that “primitive is good and advanced is bad.” He resented its portrayal of a “false Jesus” and a “false heaven,” but also the idea of “connecting, literally, with trees and animals and beasts and birds.”
Woman claims homeopathy cured her cancer
Via Ben Goldacre @ Bad Science
No Miracle As Brain-Damaged Patient Proved Unable To Communicate
“It seemed to be a medical miracle: the car crash victim assumed for 23 years to be in a coma who was suddenly found to be conscious and able to communicate by tapping on a computer.
The sceptics said it was impossible – and it was. The story of Rom Houben of Belgium, which made headlines worldwide last November when he was shown to be “talking”, was today revealed to have been nothing of the sort.
Dr Steven Laureys, one of the doctors treating him, acknowledged that his patient could not make himself understood after all. Facilitated communication, the technique said to have made Houben’s apparent contact with the outside world possible, did not work, Laureys declared.”
Read more at The Guardian
Homeopathic Society ‘Misled’ MPs In Inquiry
“The British Homeopathic Association has been accused of misrepresenting scientific evidence on alternative medicine in documents it gave to a parliamentary inquiry.
The organisation claimed several scientific reviews offered support for homeopathy in material submitted to the cross-party science and technology select committee, which is holding an investigation into the products. Robert Mathie, a researcher at the BHA, said the reviews found evidence for a difference between homeopathic remedies and sugar pills, which contain no active ingredients.
But the claim has dismayed some of the scientists who wrote the reviews and angered MPs on the committee who are in the final stages of writing their report.
One review cited was written by Edzard Ernst, a scientist who investigates complementary medicine at the Penisula Medical School in Exeter. He said the BHA’s interpretation of his study was “grossly misleading” because they failed to mention important caveats published in the study. Another review, by Jean-Pierre Boissel at the Hospitals of Lyon and University Claude Bernard in France, was quoted as evidence that homeopathic treatments differ to placebos. Boissel said his conclusion was that homeopathy tended to fare worse in the best-designed studies.
“It is extremely disappointing to be fed misrepresentations of science, whether it’s deliberate or incompetence,” said Evan Harris MP, science spokesman for the Lib Dems and a member of the parliamentary committee.
Homeopathic treatments are usually made by diluting a substance so much there are no molecules of the original ingredient left. In November the chief pharmacist at Boots, Paul Bennett, told the inquiry he had no evidence that homeopathy works. At the weekend, hundreds of people took part in a “mass overdose” of homeopathic pills outside branches of Boots to protest against the company selling the products.
The row emerged as a survey for the medical journal, Pulse, found 80% of GPs want the Health Department to stop funding homeopathy on the NHS. Only 14% were in favour of the health service continuing to provide the treatments.”
Read more at The Guardian (Thanks Tammy)
Dara O’Briain: Homeopathy, Nutritionists and real science
Someone linked this in the comments and I laughed so hard I had to post it.
Benevolent Hackers Poke Holes In E-Banking
“ONLINE banking fraud doesn’t just affect the naive. Last year, Robert Mueller, a director at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, admitted he’d come within a mouse-click of being a victim himself. Now the extent of the problem has been brought into sharp relief, with computer scientists warning that banking culture is increasing the likelihood that customers are using vulnerable systems.
The convenience of online banking and electronic money has led to a revolution in the way we save and spend our earnings. Banking websites and payment systems are relentlessly targeted by criminals, though, so continuous improvements in security are needed to prevent fraud. But as was revealed at this week’s Financial Cryptography and Data Security conference in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, some of the best-known security systems can still be compromised relatively easily.”
Read more at New Scientist
Seven Psychological Principles Of Scams
“Good hustlers are excellent intuitive psychologists. Just like magicians they understand enough about how the mind works to exploit its vulnerabilities. Our fascination with hustlers is insatiable and, despite being criminals, they are frequently portrayed by Hollywood in a flattering light, in films like The Sting, Catch Me If You Can and the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy.
Of course the reality is nowhere near as romantic, especially if you’ve fallen for one of the cons. Frank Stajano, a security expert at Cambridge University, has been working with Paul Wilson, a scam artist and author of BBC TV’s The Real Hustle to identify the 7 major psychological principles used in short cons to part people from their cash (Stajano & Wilson, 2009).”
Read more at Psyblog
Hindu Godman trampling on infants to “bless” them
WARNING: The following truly bizarre ritual is quite disturbing to watch.
Sanal Edamaruku speaks about a shocking and dangerous ritual in Bihar. A godman tramples on infants to bless them. Parents bring their children for this blessing. The parliament member from this area, a minister and a top priest defend the ritual in the name of religion and tradition. Two days after this TV interview, the godman was arrested and this ritual ended.
Via Atheist Media
What actually gets taught on a homeopathy course
“The purpose of this post is to reveal a few samples of things that are taught on a homeopathy ‘degree’ course. The course in question was the “BSc Hons homeopathy course at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). Entry to this course was closed in 2008 and, after an internal review, UCLAN closed almost all of the rest of its courses in alternative medicine too. The university is to be commended for this .
The purpose of making public some of what used to be taught is not to embarrass UCLAN, which has already done the sensible thing, but to make it clear that the sort of thing taught on such courses is both absurd and dangerous, in the hope of discouraging other courses.
There was a lecture on HP3002 called “A Homeopathic Approach to Cancer (Ramakrishnan methodology [sic])”.. Click the link below to see the 10 slides from that lecture. It is illegal to claim to be able to cure cancer under the Cancer Act 1939. If a homeopath were to make claims like these in public they’d be open to prosecution, not to mention in breach of the SoH’s code of ethics. If cancer is not a “named disease”, what is?
This lecture alone strikes me as a cruel (and possibly illegal) hoax perpetrated on desperate patients. Of course a true believer might get some solace from taking the sugar pills, but that is not sufficient justification.
Read the full article with more slides over at DCScience
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