Shock Revelation. Drug Trials Funded By Drug Companies Show Positive Bias! Take Pill. End Shock.

Drug trials conducted by the very pharmaceutical company with an obvious vested interest in a positive result are far more likely to yield a... positive result! Perhaps not earth-shattering news to anybody with a gram of cynicism in their body but is still an orchestrated effort to undermine the credibility of science as anything higher than the distortion of data in the name of money.

All the double-blind protocols in the world cannot reveal whether raw data and published data have anything in common save for both being in base 10. Revealingly, both the drug companies' internal trials and those supposedly external trials that were actually conducted by scientists in corporate bondage yielded a positive outcome in 85% of cases. This compares with a success rate of 50-60% from trials that are seemingly free from corrupting influences.

With much of the science community ablog about how some sugar-laden carbonated fizz could corrupt your sense of healthy well-being, it is good to be reminded that your friendly, smiling, drug-peddling multinational pharmacorps are involved in a more covert and more insidious undermining of scientific integrity. But as everyone in the wheel of deceit is making money, the only real drug trials are those let loose on a public with an ever-shrinking number of alternative options.

So much for evidence-based medicine.



Source:

Drug trials funded by industry are more likely to publish favorable results

Philip Pullman on the Freedom to be Offensive

At the 2010 Oxford Literature Festival, on the early afternoon of Palm Sunday, March 28th, in Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre, Philip Pullman gave a talk on his book "The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ".

The last Questioner of the session quietly asked (paraphrased) :

"To call the son of god a scoundrel is an awful & offensive thing to say"

To which, the author calmly replied :

"Yes it was a shocking thing to say, and I knew it was a shocking thing to say.
But no one has the right to live without being shocked.
No one has the right to spend their lives without being offended.
Nobody has to read this book.
Nobody has to pick it up.
Nobody has to open it.


And if they open it and read it, they don't have to like it.
And if you read it and dislike it, you don't have to remain silent about it.
You can write to me.
You can complain about it.
You can write to the publishers, to the papers,
You can write your own book.
You can do all those things.


But there your rights stop.
No one has the right to stop me writing this book.
No one has the right to stop it being published, sold, or bought, or read.
And that's all I have to say on that subject."


And there was much applause.

www.philip-pullman.com/

Thanks to BRFUK blog.

Hypnotherapy cures irritable bowel syndrome symptoms

Hypnotherapy seems to be very effective for easing the distressing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and in a goodly proportion of cases, clears up symptoms altogether, reveal experts during a wide ranging discussion of the condition in a Frontline Gastroenterology podcast.

Excluding certain foodstuffs may help alleviate symptoms, but usually only for a while, says Professor Roland Valori, editor of Frontline Gastroenterology. That's because dietary measures don't tackle the root cause of the symptoms - an overly sensitised gut. One of the best ways to do that is to use hypnotherapy, he says.

His experience of using hypnotherapy in the first 100 IBS patients treated with it showed that it significantly improved symptoms in nine out of 10 of them. It stopped symptoms altogether in four out of 10, while the remainder said they felt more in control of their symptoms. "To be frank, I have never looked back," he says.

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A strange brain-gut interaction that warrants some more invstigating. Even the prof was shocked, but go with it!

CIA report into propaganda techniques to gain Afghan war support in Western Europe

This classified CIA analysis from March, outlines possible PR-strategies to shore up public support in Germany and France for a continued war in Afghanistan. After the dutch government fell on the issue of dutch troops in Afghanistan last month, the CIA became worried that similar events could happen in the countries that post the third and fourth largest troop contingents to the ISAF-mission. The proposed PR strategies focus on pressure points that have been identified within these countries. For France it is the sympathy of the public for Afghan refugees and women. For Germany it is the fear of the consequences of defeat (drugs, more refugees, terrorism) as well as for Germany's standing in the NATO. The memo is a recipe for the targeted manipulation of public opinion in two NATO ally countries, written by the CIA. It is classified as Confidential / No Foreign Nationals.

CIA memo.

BOINC

BOINC stands for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. For scientists it allows data intensive projects to be distributed to volunteers who allow access to their idle computing time. For you, the volunteer, it means participating in scientific research on astronomy, medicine, global warming and even searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. All you need to do is sign up, download the software and it operates behind the scenes using up spare computing capacity when you're busy doing something else.

Cool or what!!

Brain Stimulation Can Alter Our Moral Judgments, Research Suggests

A team of neuroscientists claim it is possible to influence people's moral judgments by disrupting a specific brain region called the the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ).

The study offers "striking evidence" that the right TPJ, located at the brain's surface above and behind the right ear, is critical for making moral judgments, the authors say.

Previous studies have shown that the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) is highly active when we think about other people's intentions, thoughts and beliefs. In the new study, researchers disrupted activity in the right TPJ by inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp. They found that the subjects' ability to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people's intentions — for example, a failed murder attempt — was impaired.

Brain Stimulation Can Alter Our Moral Judgments, Study Suggests

"You think of morality as being a really high-level behavior," says lead author Liane Young, a postdoctoral associate in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. "To be able to apply (a magnetic field) to a specific brain region and change people's moral judgments is really astonishing."

Actually, I am far less surprised than the researcher. Our brain is not just a network of neurons, it is also a complex electromagnetic system. I don't know how long it will take for this idea to really sink in - I guess slowly... but surely.

Is Religion Natural? ESSSAT Conference

IS RELIGION NATURAL?

The European Society for the Study of Science And Theology (ESSSAT)
& The Science Religion Forum (SRF)
present the
XIIIth European Conference on Science and Theology, Edinburgh, UK,
April 7-11, 2010


The conference is hosted by The School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh



Under the title Is Religion Natural?, this conference will explore the drives underlying the religious attitude of mind. In five invited lectures, theologians from different backgrounds, and scientific researchers at the forefront of 21st century studies of the religious mind, will jointly engage with that question. Justin Barrett (Cognitive Psychology, Oxford), author of Why would anyone believe in God?, and Ilkka Pyysiäinen (Comparative Religion, Helsinki), author of Magic, Miracles and Religion and How Religion Works, will present cutting-edge scientific viewpoints on the nature of religious thinking. Mona Siddiqui (Islamic Studies, Glasgow) (How to Read the Qur’an) and Christoph Schwöbel (Systematic Theology, Tübingen) (God: Action and Revelation and Persons, Divine and Human, together with several books in German) will consider the conference theme from their contrasting theological perspectives. And Lluis Oviedo (Theological Anthropology, Rome), whose writings in Spanish and Italian include La fe cristiana ante los nuevos desafios sociales ("Christian Faith confronting the New Social Challenges"), will ask whether - or in what way - it is appropriate to try to naturalise religion. There will also be ample opportunity during the meeting for the presentation of short papers by conference participants.

Biologist And Former Dominican Wins £1 Million Templeton Prize For Science And Religion

"Francisco J. Ayala, an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist who has vigorously opposed the entanglement of science and religion while also calling for mutual respect between the two, has won the 2010 Templeton Prize." Yet again the prize has gone to a scientist who says nice things about religion.

In a statement prepared for the news conference, Ayala forcefully denied that science contradicts religion. “If they are properly understood,” he said, “they cannot be in contradiction because science and religion concern different matters, and each is essential to human understanding.” Referring to Picasso’s Guernica, he noted that while science can assess the painting’s massive dimensions and pigments, only a spiritual view imparts the horror of the subject matter. Together, he explained, these two separate analyses reveal the totality of the masterpiece."

This all harks back to the fragile idea of non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA) as espoused by Stephen Jay Gould. If science and religion really did not overlap then we wouldn't even be discussing this topic. For religious (or even scientific) apologists to claim that the two magisteria ask different questions is merely a linguistic sleight of hand - at least Aquinas was more consistent, if doubly wrong. Alaya's work defending the teaching of evolution can be commended without agreeing with his overall vision.

Another scientist gets £1 million for saying nice things about religion. read the whole article...

Biologist And Former Dominican Wins £1 Million Templeton Prize For Science And Religion



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WikiLeaks Editorial - US must stop spying on us!

The editorial below is on the current homepage of WikiLeaks but has no other URL so may be taken down at some point in the future. Please go to WikiLeaks for any further updates.

EDITORIAL:U.S. must stop spying on WikiLeaks

Fri Mar 26 08:44:46 UTC 2010

Over the last few years, WikiLeaks has been the subject of hostile acts by security organizations. In the developing world, these range from the appalling assassination of two related human rights lawyers in Nairobi last March (an armed attack on my compound there in 2007 is still unattributed) to an unsuccessful mass attack by Chinese computers on our servers in Stockholm, after we published photos of murders in Tibet. In the West this has ranged from the overt, the head of Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, threatening to prosecute us unless we removed a report on CIA activity in Kosovo, to the covert, to an ambush by a "James Bond" character in a Luxembourg car park, an event that ended with a mere "we think it would be in your interest to...".

Developing world violence aside, we've become used to the level of security service interest in us and have established procedures to ignore that interest.

But the increase in surveillance activities this last month, in a time when we are barely publishing due to fundraising, are excessive. Some of the new interest is related to a film exposing a U.S. massacre we will release at the U.S. National Press Club on April 5.

The spying includes attempted covert following, photographng, filming and the overt detention & questioning of a WikiLeaks' volunteer in Iceland on Monday night.

I, and others were in Iceland to advise Icelandic parliamentarians on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a new package of laws designed to protect investigative journalists and internet services from spying and censorship. As such, the spying has an extra poignancy.

The possible triggers:

• our ongoing work on a classified film revealing civilian casualties occurring under the command of the U.S, general, David Petraeus.
• our release of a classified 32 page US intelligence report on how to fatally marginalize WikiLeaks (expose our sources, destroy our reputation for integrity, hack us).
• our release of a classified cable from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik reporting on contact between the U.S. and the U.K. over billions of euros in claimed loan guarantees.
• pending releases related to the collapse of the Icelandic banks and Icelandic "oligarchs".

We have discovered half a dozen attempts at covert surveillance in Reykjavik both by native English speakers and Icelanders. On the occasions where these individuals were approached, they ran away. One had marked police equipment and the license plates for another suspicious vehicle track back to the Icelandic private VIP bodyguard firm Terr. What does that mean? We don't know. But as you will see, other events are clear.

U.S. sources told Icelandic state media's deputy head of news, that the State Department was aggressively investigating a leak from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik. I was seen at a private U.S Embassy party at the Ambassador's residence, late last year and it is known I had contact with Embassay staff, after.

On Thursday March 18, 2010, I took the 2.15 PM flight out of Reykjavik to Copenhagen--on the way to speak at the SKUP investigative journalism conference in Norway. After receiving a tip, we obtained airline records for the flght concerned. Two individuals, recorded as brandishing diplomatic credentials checked in for my flight at 12:03 and 12:06 under the name of "US State Department". The two are not recorded as having any luggage.

Iceland doesn't have a separate security service. It folds its intelligence function into its police forces, leading to an uneasy overlap of policing and intelligence functions and values.

On Monday 22, March, at approximately 8.30pm, a WikiLeaks volunteer, a minor, was detained by Icelandic police on a wholly insignificant matter. Police then took the opportunity to hold the youth over night, without charge--a highly unusual act in Iceland. The next day, during the course of interrogation, the volunteer was shown covert photos of me outside the Reykjavik restaurant "Icelandic Fish & Chips", where a WikiLeaks production meeting took place on Wednesday March 17--the day before individuals operating under the name of the U.S. State Department boarded my flight to Copenhagen.

Our production meeting used a discreet, closed, backroom, because we were working on the analysis of a classified U.S. military video showing civilian kills by U.S. pilots. During the interrogation, a specific reference was made by police to the video---which could not have been understood from that day's exterior surveillance alone. Another specific reference was made to "important", but unnamed Icelandic figures. References were also made to the names of two senior journalists at the production meeting.

Who are the Icelandic security services loyal to in their values? The new government of April 2009, the old pro-Iraq war government of the Independence party, or perhaps to their personal relationships with peers from another country who have them on a permanment intelligence information drip?

Only a few years ago, Icelandic airspace was used for CIA rendition flights. Why did the CIA think that this was acceptable? In a classified U.S. profile on the former Icelandic Ambassador to the United States, obtained by WikiLeaks, the Ambassador is praised for helping to quell publicity of the CIA's activities.

Often when a bold new government arises, bureaucratic institutions remain loyal to the old regime and it can take time to change the guard. Former regime loyalists must be discovered, dissuaded and removed. But for the security services, that first vital step, discovery, is awry. Congenitally scared of the light, such services hide their activities; if it is not known what security services are doing, then it is surely impossible to know who they are doing it for.

Our plans to release the video on April 5 proceed.

We have asked relevant authorities in the Unites States and Iceland to explain. If these countries are to be treated as legitmate states, they need to start obeying the rule of law. Now.

Sciencewise UK

The Sciencewise Expert Resource Centre for Public Dialogue In Science and Innovation (ERC) is funded by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS). It aims to help policy makers commission and use public dialogue to inform policy decisions in emerging areas of science and technology.

It consists of a comprehensive online resource of information, advice and guidance together with a wide range of support services aimed at policy makers and all the different stakeholders involved in science and technology policy making, including the public.

The Sciencewise-ERC also provides co-funding to Government departments and agencies to develop and commission public dialogue activities.

To find out in more detail about the Sciencewise-ERC and Public Dialogue please read The Government’s Approach to Public Dialogue on Science and Technology (Guiding Principles).

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The GovSpeak may be less than sexy but if you're in the UK and involved in science communication then there may be some work or money or free resources available.

A Quarter of Republicans Think Obama is the Anti-Christ

Americans have some extreme views of President Obama, with a new controversial survey suggesting that 40 percent of adults believe he is a socialist, and about a quarter of survey participants thinking the president is a racist, anti-American and even doing things Hitler did.

The whammy: 14 percent of Americans say President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. When split by political party, 24 percent of Republicans and 6 percent of Democrats viewed the nation's leader in this way.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/obama-anti-christ-100325.html

At some point, one has to stop being astonished, but even then, are these people a different species?

How is the Date for Easter Calculated? An Amusing Look at the Science.

Yeah, I know, it's coming round to Easter time, and Passover. This is the story of how the two are linked and how the ecclesiastical calendar is a fiction used to keep control over the biggest mystery of all: how is the date of Easter calculated?! This is mathematics in the service of obscurantist theology. Even if you don't care about Easter, enjoy this tongue-in-cheek look at the history of calendars.

How is the date for Easter calculated?

Why Men Show Off in Front of Attractive Women

Scientists in Australia have discovered that men do foolish things in the presence of attractive women. It's truly amazing the kind of research that gets funding. Before you consign this to the "tell me the obvious" dustbin, just bear with me, there's a neat video at the end that I'm sure you'll love.

Hey, if anybody wants to get lots of papers published just go into the social sciences!

Why Men Show Off in Front of Attractive Women

Your Religion is False - BIL2009 Video

About the Talk
In a humorous talk at BIL2009, Joel takes on the lofty goal of proving every religion false individually.

About the Presenter
According to his blog, “If you want to get technical, Joel Grus is actually an aspiring author, an aspiring speaker, and an aspiring provocateur. He is, however, an accomplished jerk. Joel lives in Seattle. He has no hobbies.”


Your Religion is False.

From BIL: like TED, but BIL.

Force Field Developed to Protect Armoured Vehicles

A space-age "force field" capable of protecting armoured vehicles and tanks by repelling incoming fire is being developed by British military scientists. The new type of armour will use pulses of electrical energy to repel rockets, shrapnel and other ammunition that might damage a vehicle.

Researchers at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), which is the research and development arm of the Ministry of Defence, claim it is possible to incorporate material known as supercapacitors into the armour of a vehicle to turn it into a kind of giant battery.

Sophisticated tracking systems will also need to be developed to work in conjunction with the new armour so that incoming threats can be identified and the electrical discharge timed correctly to repel the rocket. But on the plus side this will mean a much lighter vehicle meaning improved speed and manoeuvrability.
[Telegraph]

Dalai Lama to Visit University of Wisconsin-Madison Neurolab 15-16 May - Free Tickets Available

The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Center will welcome His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to its public grand-opening celebration Saturday-Sunday, May 15-16.

The Dalai Lama will join Davidson in a public dialogue at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, May 16, at Madison's Overture Center for the Arts. Daniel Goleman, best-selling author of "Emotional Intelligence" and "Ecological Intelligence" will moderate the conversation, "Investigating Healthy Minds." Gov. Jim Doyle will deliver opening remarks, followed by a special musical performance by Madison Youth Choirs.

Free tickets available soon.

Dalai Lama to Visit University of Wisconsin-Madison Neurolab 15-16 May.

Meditation and Healthy Minds, a Podcast with Richard Davidson

Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This is an interview of Richard Davidson on Shrink Rap Radio with David Van Nuys, discussing his research on meditation and the brain. Davidson tells that his research shows that meditation has a beneficial effects on the mind and quantitative effects on brain functions. Even novice meditators show immediate changes, with experienced long term meditators showing more pronounced changes. One thing he has noticed is that, given each individual starts with a slightly different brain structure, different meditation techniques have varying degrees of effects. One thing he would like to see in the future is a way to establish which technique is most suitable for each individual, without having to go through a trial and error phase.

His overall conclusion is that the brain is plastic, and therefore changes according to our experiences, and it is therefore up to each of us to ensure that we change ourselves in a positive way rather than leaving it to the vagaries of external experiences.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Can The Internet Really Win The Nobel Peace Prize?

Nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize have closed and, amongst a record 237 nomination, it includes "The Internet". All of it, apparently! Every computer, every server, every router that is part of the global phenomenon that is the Internet. But can it win?

 Can The Internet Really Win The Nobel Peace Prize?

CERN Liquid Containment Unit Leaks on Camera

One of CERN's liquid containment units - a coffee mug - is shown to leak profusely when an attempt is made to put it into commission. A hapless pair of PR gurus bought their mugs at CERN's gift shop and only discovered the faulty design once it was tested back home. Mercifully, CERN does not currently have an online shop so this isolated accident should not alarm the rest of the public.

Watch the video...

A Problem in the Philosophy of Neuroscience: Introspection

Neuroscience has a problem. It may appear to be a mere philosophical problem but has practical implications for the broader philosophy of science and the scientific method.

One of the big projects is the correlation between states of the brain and states of mind. It isn't the only project but it is an important one. On one side of the equation we have a battery of biological, chemical and physical data regarding neurological activity at the level of the neuron and brain plus possibly other physiological processes. This domain poses few problems in producing data that is acceptable as employing a scientific method. On the other side of this correlation we have what can variously be called states of mind, states of consciousness, cognitive experiences or just plain experiences. And more often than not, the only access the neuroscientist has to such experiences is to ask the person. Introspection is back as a scientific method!

A Problem in the Philosophy of Neuroscience: Introspection