Karen Stollznow and Matt Baxter are two excellent skeptics, doing a great job of informing the public about subjects related to skepticism. Unfortunately they have fallen on hard times, and could use some support so if you have any money to spare, please consider helping them out.
I have listened to the Science Vs podcast for a while, but had somehow missed the fact that they had become exclusive to Spotify. This is not a good situation to be in for a podcast promoting the understanding of science, and the host/producer Wendy Zukerman and the editor Blythe Terrell have taken the consequences and are now limiting their output to shows that debunk stuff released on the Spotify platform
Zukerman, the host and executive producer for “Science Vs,” and Terrell, an editor for the science podcast, plan to limit their production on new episodes because they do not believe Spotify’s rules regarding misinformation go far enough.
“Until Spotify implements stronger methods to prevent the spread of misinformation on the platform, we will no longer be making new Science Vs episodes, except those intended to counteract misinformation being spread on Spotify,” they wrote in a letter to Ek, posted on Twitter on Monday.
“Science Vs,” which is exclusive to Spotify, looks at the science behind topics including pandemics.
They have already started doing this, with their latest episode Joe Rogan: The Malone Interview, which you can listen to here.
I applaud the principled stance that they have taken. You can find their twitter feed here.
Engadget have a few more details in Spotify’s ‘Science VS’ podcast will only fact-check misinformation being spread on Spotify
I don’t follow US sports, and especially not the commercial vehicle claiming to be a sport, that NFL is, so I don’t really know how big a name Kirk Cousins is, but being a quarterback on a NFL team does give you a certain reach, no matter how good you are. This is why it is rather bad that Kirk Cousins has been saying stuff that is clearly anti-vaccination. It turns out that one of his sponsors, the Holland Hospital in Michigan feels the same way.
Michigan hospital ends relationship with Kirk Cousins after anti-vaccination remarks
“While we acknowledge that each person is entitled to their own viewpoints, those who speak on our behalf must support messages that align with the hospital’s position on matters of vital importance to individual and community health,” the hospital’s statement on the matter read. “For this reason, Holland Hospital will discontinue using Kirk Cousins as our spokesperson for now. We are proud of our association with Kirk. He embodies many values we respect and share as part of our work culture. However, we must be certain that our communications about COVID vaccination are consistent and unequivocal.
“Evidence also indicates that vaccinated individuals may be less likely to carry and transmit the virus to others including children, family members and friends,” the statement said. “For these reasons, Holland Hospital has and will continue to strongly recommend the COVID vaccine to those who are eligible to receive it.”
It is a pity that they feel the need to sugarcoat the breakup, instead of just saying that having using Kirk Cousins as a spokesperson was a mistake, given his anti-science and anti-evidence stance on health care and disease prevention.
Kirk Cousins is not the only sportsperson who has made dangerous remarks about COVID-19 and vaccinations, and I hope more companies will take the lead from Holland Hospital, and distance themselves from people promoting dangerous views.
On the latest Skeptics with a K the hosts broke the news that the Skeptic magazine, the UK version, has made some changes. More precisely the Merseyside Skeptics Society has take over the production, and Michael Marshall has take the job as edition, while Dr. Alice Howarth takes the role as deputy edition. I am unsure if this is a new thing as well, but the magazine will be entirely online.
These changes bode well for the future of the Skeptics magazine in the UK. The Merseyside Skeptics Society hosts QED together with the Greater Manchester Skeptics Society, and have been one of the most effective skeptic groups in the world, especially while collaborating with the Good Thinking Society, in which Michael Marshall is the deputy director.
Go visit and read the Skeptic over at their website. If you want to support the online magazine, they have a Patreon.
I have started to listen to a new podcast In Research Of, which describes itself thus:
This is the homepage of the podcast “In reSearch Of…” a show where we go back and watch the TV show In Search Of… and consider some of the explanations the producers chose to ignore.
Hosted by:
Blake Smith (Monstertalk, The Horror Podcast) a writer, researcher, and podcaster.
Jeb Card, archaeologist and author of Spooky Archaeology.
Even if you haven’t seen the original In Search Of… (I haven’t) it is well worth a listen.
The excellent podcast Monster Talk, hosted by Blake Smith and Dr. Karen Stollznow, has gone independent.
It used to be connected to Skeptic, the magazine which is edited by Michael Shermer. Even though the podcast had no connection to Shermer, it still meant it was hard to promote the podcast, or even worse, support the podcast financially, without somehow benefiting Skeptic and Shermer.
Luckily, this is no longer the case. A few weeks ago, Smith and Stollznow went independent with the podcast, which is now produced by Blake Smith’s company Monster House, LLC.
If you want to support their new independence, Blake Smith has set up a fundraiser and they have a patreon
I haven’t been able to find a link to the actual podcast which isn’t under the Skeptic domain, but I am sure it is only a matter of time before they have a website I can link.
The Association to Protect the Sick of Pseudoscientific Therapies from Spain, and several other European organizations have gotten together to write a European manifesto against pseudo-therapies
It says, in part:
European directive 2001/83/CE has made –and still makes— possible the daily deceiving of thousands of hundreds of European citizens [10]. Influential lobbies have been given the opportunity to redefine what a medicine is, and now they are selling sugar to sick people and making them believe it can cure them or improve their health. This has caused deaths and will continue to do so until Europe admits an undeniable truth: scientific knowledge cannot yield under economic interests, especially when it means deceiving patients and violating their rights.
Europe is facing very serious problems regarding public health. Over-medicalization, multiresistant bacteria or the financial issues of the public systems are already grave enough, and there is no need to add to that gurus, fake doctors or even qualified doctors who claim they can cure any disease by manipulating chakras, making people eat sugar or employing “quantic frequencies”. Europe must not only stop the promotion of homeopathy but also actively fight to eradicate public health scams, which implicate more than 150 pseudo-therapies in our territory. Thousands of citizens lives depend on that. In fact, according to recent research, 25.9 % of Europeans have used pseudo-therapies last year. In other words, 192 million patients have been deceived [11].
…
Europe being concerned about the misinformation phenomena but at the same time protecting one the most dangerous types of it, health misinformation, is just not coherent. This is why the people signing this manifesto urge the governments of European countries to end a problem in which the name of science is being used falsely and has already costed the life of too many.
I do not fulfill the criteria for signing the manifesto, but I fully endorse it, and hope that any readers out there, who fulfill the criteria, will read the manifesto in full, and sign it.
It is about time that we got rid of pseudo-science in our health care in Europe.
When I was younger, I didn’t mind April 1st, and the April 1st jokes it brought with it, but that has changed since then – now I hate April 1st for all the fake news stories, the fake social media posts, and other nonsense it brings with it.
When I was a kid, newspapers and news broadcasts would have a fake story somewhere, which could be fun to figure out. This was before the internet though, so it was fairly limited what sort of harm it could do.
Now, the internet exist, and fake news can spread wide and far before they are debunked. People will share screenshots, headlines etc., which won’t be updated when the fake story is, keeping the fake news alive for months if not years.
Given how much fake stuff that already exists in the form of “satire” websites and outright fraudulent websites, there is absolutely no need for a special day to promote fake stories.
I already have to be critical of every new site I come across, so why would I want to also have to be overly skeptical of news stories from otherwise reliable sources, even if it is only for a day.
Let’s retire April’s Fool Day.
After having taken a break for a couple of months, Copenhagen Skeptics in the Pub is starting up again, and it already have a few events up. All of the events are in Danish, and it is free to participate, though the bar probably would appreciate it if you bought something to drink.
All links takes you to a facebook event.
Er vegansk kost skadelig for småbørns vækst og udvikling? happens on April 8th 19:30 at Heidis Bier Bar.
Myten om den hvide gud – Erobringen af Mexico happens on May 6th 19:30 at Heidis Bier Bar.
Bæredygtige byggematerialer i en global konkurrence – hvordan? happens on June 3rd 19:30 at Heidis Bier Bar.
More events are being planned.
Due to Facebook’s attempt to getting pages to pay for exposing their events, it seems like the events are seen by a lot less people, so if you are a Danish skeptic, please share the events, so other people might see them.
Hoaxes have been around forever, and most of the historic hoaxes have been forgotten by now – one historic hoax which is still remembered, however, is the Cottingley Fairies. One major reason for this, is probably because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got taken in, and defended the pictures.
Now it is possible to buy the historic hoax pictures. Or it is, if you have enought money.
Cottingley Fairies hoax pictures expected to fetch £2,000 at auction
Photographs of what is considered to be one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century are expected to fetch more than £2,000 when they are sold at auction.
The two images of the Cottingley Fairies were taken in July and September 1917 by 16-year-old Elsie Wright and her nine-year-old cousin Frances Griffiths, in the village of Cottingley, near Bingley in Yorkshire.
I would think that £2,000 is on the low end – I could easily see skeptics, Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle fans, and others go into a bidding war.