First off, the idea that vaccines are causing autism – an oldie but goodie – is once again worked over on Science Based Medicine. Here you can also find an experiment, where a researcher who tried to reproduce Andrew Wakefields results – using the same techniques – failed to do so.

And of course, should you be one of those people who are terrified of all the generic “toxins” in the world, then this Skeptoid is not for you. Perhaps you should go and get an dangerous treatment applied for all the wrong reasons.

Wrong reasons? Surely there’s some sort of study proving the efficacy of Chelation Therapy for something other than it’s intended uses?

Well, there are, but they suck. The author has a great quote on this study:

n fact, if I were to try to design a study that couldn’t show any results, I would be hard-pressed to do better than this one. The fact that the authors are so convinced that the DMSA did work is a testament to their pre-conceived notions.

One of my favorite services that Photon in the Darkness has provided is the indictment of low-quality lab testing that finds the all-purpose “toxins” when you want them to. Great for worried mothers who think their children are strange because of lead or mercury, and not because their kids are just weird, these labs are the basis of many a person asking for the ole high-dollar health-store detox.

But maybe you’re tired of all the medical woo. Maybe you want to try a relaxing trip to Iraq, where you can be safe in the knowledge that no bombs are getting through military checkpoints, since the police have the best possible detection technology – no, not bomb-sniffing dogs – those are unclean!

I’m talking about dowsing rods. Sure, they’re fancy, dressed up dowsing rods, but they’re dowsing rods nonetheless.

For those of you unfamiliar with dowsing I present first a wikipedia article and then my own account.

Dowsing is holding a stick, forked or otherwise – or just standing around (most people use a stick) and then claiming that the stick points towards water – or electrical conduits, precious metals, treasure, buried bodies, whatever you’re looking for, really.

The reason it works when you’re not under controlled conditions is the ideomotor effect (if you ask me, which you didn’t explicitly do, I know, but still) combined, probably, with some ideas about where water (or buried whatever) might be. I imagine that many of the old-time water witches were actually people who knew where to dig a well. You can charge a lot more, however, if you run around with a stick and claim magic.

So while this bomb-dowser does find bombs, I imagine that’s got a lot more to do with the operator seeing the bomber panic at the sight of a “magic wand” ready to catch him than any sort of “Ion like-charged fluctuation.”

You may have heard recently that goddamn Deepak Chopra is ticked at us skeptics (quick, change your mind before he actualizes our potential to suffer!) for pissing on his ideas.

My favorite just all-out wrong part is this:

It never occurs to skeptics that a sense of wonder is paramount, even for scientists. Especially for scientists. Einstein insisted, in fact, that no great discovery can be made without a sense of awe before the mysteries of the universe.

Apparently not a big fan of Phil Plait. Or Carl Sagan. Or – ah, hell, we all know what’s quantum-entangled with Chopra. Cash money.

But if you want to see a much better dissection of this wrongness, Novella does a good turn at it. A commenter includes this wonderful quote I think I may start using:

“Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.” [Miguel de Unamuno, "Essays and Soliloquies," 1924]

.

So Mr. Plait is leaving the presidency of the JREF to the equally wonderful (but not as bizarre, and I say bizarre is what the kids want!) D.J. Grothe. If you were to remix Point of Inquiry podcasts, would you be DJ DJ Grothe?

Still, getting kids involved in science is a good thing, and it’s easy when you’ve got a series like The 300 Million Year War.

Of course, if you’re feeling like you need more evil in your life than antivaccination creationists you can always get on eBay and find this ring.

And if you’re going travelling on the holidays (like maybe to our last meeting of the year?) be careful. Keep your eyes on the road and don’t just blindly stare at your GPS.

Since you gotta love the family (to their face, at least) why not vent a little bit of your woo-caused frustrations and pony up to the bar for the final JSS meeting of 2009 – our first year is down the hatch already!

There’s been a lot in the news of skeptical and scientific interest; from the Pope hunting Martians, Coma-Man, the H1N1, 2012 – you need to catch up!

Once again, the Time will be 19:00 (7 PM for you 12 hour clockers)
The Date: December 22nd (a Tuesday).
The Location: The Ole Tavern on George Street (clicky)

So there ya go.

Be prepared to discuss Christmas myths, wear fun T-shirts, and everyone’s favorite skepticism topic: Do you tell kids about Santa?

Plus, tearful recollections about where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and a cheerful debunking of 2012. The phenomenon, not the movie. I’m pretty sure that, at least, exists.

I’ll see you there. Remember to ask about the free beer.

Amusing, well written, and full of meaningful metaphors.

Also, it had some numbers I was keenly interested in:

Don’t you love the uncertainty. That’s the problem. I have to deal with uncertainties and probabilities of complex systems. I know the estimates are that for every 1000 people who get H1N1, 40 may end up in the hospital and 1 may die. With 300,000,000 Americans, that’s 30,000 deaths (standard for flu) and 120,000 in the hospital. Compare to 598 cases of GBS and 25 deaths in 1976. About as many as are trampled by cattle each year, but no one is getting rid of steak.

Note: GBS is Guillain-Barré Syndrome the terror du’jour for your anti-vaccination enthusiasts.

Swine flu is one of those handy viruses that can only be spread by person-to-person transmission, via those handy-dandy globules of spit, mucous, and germ that spray from the mouth during coughing and sneezing. So you don’t get it from eating pigs, and it’s not in an airborne cloud surrounding the sick. Also, it has to get in your face to be effective – so if you can stop rubbing your eyes, nose, and mouth (difficult when you’re rubbing your goatee and gloating) you can help yourself out a lot, there. Oh, and of course, you can wash your hands. I always think it’s kinda amusing to see health care professionals admonishing people to wash their hands. Or eat their fruits and vegetables. Or exercise. You’d think that this sort of thing would have settled into the background of “general common sense.” Of course, common sense is neither.

One of the points that was stressed during the meeting was that the death toll, infection rate, spread, and mutability do not seem to be any greater than your average flu season. Of course, since your average flu season kills approximately 36 thousand people in the United States, it’s nothing to sneeze at. In fact, please don’t sneeze at it.

Something that IS different about this strain is the age of people who become infected. Usually, the flu strikes those in the 50+ age bracket. This flu, however, is more common in the 0-24 year old demographic. Students are highly susceptible, but we all know to stay away from students, don’t we?

Unfortunately, the highest death rate is amongst the youngest patients. And the virus is showing a remarkable resistance to the flu medication oseltamivir – aka “Tamiflu.” Most type-A flu does in fact show this resistance, according to Dr. Byers, the resistance in H1N1 types was nearing 100%. Does this mean you should panic, lock the house up, and start getting your shotgun shells ready for the inevitable zombie hordes?

No. Well, you should always be ready for zombie hordes, but they’re not going to be coming out of the flu. Dr. Byers isn’t the only one educating people on the flu (and doing a good job) but there’s certainly plenty of people out there who aren’t helping. Of course, in Mississippi, we may not be getting the discussions of the future, but we have done a slightly better job than some places when it comes to being a little bit common sense, and doubtlessly folks like Dr. Byers and all our skeptical readers are doing their bit to help.

Can we do more? Absolutely. After the talk, Dr. Byers had a few things to say about the anti-vaccine indignation, and thanked us for being realistic on this issue. Apparently, the folks at the health department feel it’s an issue somewhat akin to beating their heads against wall, and Dr. Byers said that the person I should talk to was the head epidemiologist, Dr. Mary Currier. So I did exactly that.

Dr. Currier was quite surprised to even receive a rational email about the vaccine mess. Apparently, most of the correspondence about this subject is less than knowledgeable. One of my favorite bits:

The self interest of the anti-vaccine gurus is
incredible, and it’s amazing that their self interest is not visible to
their followers… Thank you so much for writing – it is heartening to read a rational
email.

Well that’s what we’re here for – being rational.

P.S: This just in. There’s a great article on swine flu vaccine fearmongering just up on Science Based Medicine.