Get a degree in seconds, free!
Brian Dunning of Skeptoid tweeted this link this morning. It’s to an online diploma mill, Thunderwood College, where you can choose a degree and get an instant diploma, just like mine below.
Of course, I was compelled to chose one from the Alternative Medicine School in the discipline of “Holistics”, even though I don’t really know what this means. But you might like a Doctor of Science in cryptozoology, or therapeutic touch, divinity, magnetic therapy, parapsychology or podcast production. They also offer more mainstream qualifications such as accounting and mathematics, but it’s much more fum to have a diploma in Feng Shui or acupuncture and acupressure, don’t you think?
By the way, a big fat clue that this site does not take itself seriously appears in the splash on the home page*;
Click on the image for better resolution. The text says; “At Thunderwood College, you’ll find no attractive women on benches, Neither will you find an exciting dance program or other fine arts. Thunderwood College lacks a diverse teaching staff. This picture represents college life in some way. Other institutions waste money on frivolous pursuits like “fun”.
He he.
*And also the fact that Brian Dunning appears to sign the diplomas might be a small give-away
An open letter to the parents of Australia about immunisation
The Australian Skeptics have produced an open letter to the parents of Australia, warning them about the dangers of taking vaccination advice from The Australian Vaccination Network.
To download a high resolution pdf version, click here . We encourage you to distribute this widely; perhaps drop off a copy at your local child care centre or pin one of the community notice board. We need as many parents as possible to see this information to warn them about the dangers and consequences of listening to misinformation spread by scaremongering groups such as the AVN.
More bad publicity for the anti-vaxers
An article, written by Catherine Bennett, appeared in the Guardian UK today, suggesting that special schools should be set-up for MMR non-compliers. In what appears to be a rising trend in the world media, the anti-vaxers have once again taken a battering.
“Defiant mummies, whom one pictures at the helm of their 4x4s, trailing clouds of particulates and rubella, declare that they don’t care what anyone thinks about their lifestyle choice. It’s not their fault if their unvaccinated children should chance to infect babies, pregnant women or anyone with a weakened immune system”.
She goes on to say that if they can’t be convinced by science and evidence then “…I can only suggest that vaccine-dodgers have their principles fully tested, but in a really non-authoritarian way” by giving schools the power to rule whether they will accept unvaccinated kids.
“…most schools would probably support the MMR as a condition of enrolment, leaving dodgers to send their children to schools tolerant of the unjabbed, where their diverse immune systems can be challenged in a truly diseased environment. Admittedly, these MMR-free academies may be unfair on the children. But so, when they could have been eradicated, are measles epidemics”.
Hear, hear.
An open letter to Australian parents about vaccination
The Australian Skeptics have produced an open letter to the parents of Australia, warning them about the dangers of taking vaccination advice from The Australian Vaccination Network.
To download a high resolution pdf version, click here. We encourage you to distribute this widely; drop off a copy at your local child care centre or pin one of the community notice board.
We need as many parents as possible to see this information to warn them about the dangers and consequences of taking advice about vaccines from scaremongering groups such as the AVN.
Ministry of Skepticism
A new skeptical website from my brother-in-law and some friends. If you’re coming to TAM7, they’ll be there too. Given the vaccination focus around here recently, you might especially be interested in reading the poignant article by Roald Dahl linked from this post.
* NB: they are bona fide Americans and so perfectly entitled to spell it with a “k”!
Has the world gone topsy-turvy?
Today represented another big WIN for responsible scientific journalism in Australia.
First there was Rebecca Letourneau’s accurate report on the dangers of not vaccinating on Channel 7s Sunday night programme. You can hear my interviews with her on The Skeptic Zone episode 28 and 29.
Further, an update on my most recent post about the ABC Immunisation Fact Files. This was brought to my attention by my blogging colleague, Fuzztwin, who wrote to the ABC to ask them why, on a page purporting to offer sensible advice about vaccination, they had hyper-linked to the Australian Vaccination Network. Testament to the power of Twitter, and the tenacity of those who think the anti-vaxers are doing harm, the following paragraph was modified today. The original appearing below;
“The internet has become a popular source for those seeking further information on vaccination. But be warned, studies have shown that when you type immunisation into a search engine, you will get a disproportionate number of sites that carry an anti-immunisation message.”
has now been modified to say the following;
“The internet has become a popular source for those seeking further information on vaccination. But be warned studies have shown that when you type immunisation into a search engine you will get a disproportionate number of sites that carry an anti-immunisation message. The Australian Vaccination Network is one such anti-vaccination site.”
Thank you to the ABC for listening, considering what we said and making changes for the benefit of the community. Also, thank you to Fuzztwin for alerting me to this and to all who commented, especially David McCaffery.
“..Well done sceptics! Keep working hard to save and protect our babies and community”.
Following on from an equally damning article by Adele Horin from the Sydney Morning Herald in January 2009, the Sydney tabloid newspaper, the Daily telegraph published an article written by Joe Hildebrand about the irresponsible anti-vax movement today.
It has not been a good day for the anti-vax movement in this country. To add insult to injury, the Stop the AVN Facebook page reached over 500 members today, and this has occurred shortly after the AVN Facebook Fan page (can’t show you the link, because I quite simply can’t find it!) has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.
Fear not readers, we have many other irons in the fire, which I hope to reveal to you very soon. In the meantime, keep up the fight by signing the Stop the AVN petition and leaving a message of support at Dana McCaffery’s Facebook page.
Also, don’t forget my report from Dr Rachie that started my campaign against this group of scaremongers. Or listen to the audio from Episode 19 of The Skeptic Zone.
The world really has gone topsy-turvy and I couldn’t be any happier!
The ABC neglects to take its own advice
In a classic case of the ABC neglecting to take their own advice, their “Immunisation Fact Files” website offers readers the following;
(Click on the image for better resolution)
The last paragraph says the following; “The internet has become a popular source for those seeking further information on vaccination. But be warned, studies have shown that when you type immunisation into a search engine, you will get a disproportionate number of sites that carry an anti-immunisation message.”
Following on from this, they provide links to the
- Australian Childhood Immunisation Register
- The Australian Vaccination Network
- National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance
- Immunise Australia Program
The Australian Vaccination Network? Isn’t this precisely what they warned us about in the previous paragraph?
We wrote to the ABC to point this out to them and they have advised us they will remove the link. We await their actions.
Tip o’the hat to Bastard Sheep
Also, Pluto? Not a planet.
This is a tale which involves some of my favourite/least favourite things: rugby league, astrology, media fail at numbers/science and the obsession with trash and trivia of my town’s supposedly quality broadsheet, the Sydney Morning Herald. The online version of the SMH nakedly chases page hits with whatever celebrity frippery, mass murder in some random place in the world and/or salacious scandal it can find, splashed across the top of the page. It is a daily consternation.
So this is what confronted me this arvo, in the prime real estate of the top left hand corner of the page:
Image: Picture Cronulla Sharks CEO Tony Zappia outside Cronulla Leagues Club. Link to story headline: “One club, so many problems: time to call ET? Mathematicians foxed by the probability of the Sharks’ scandals but astrologer blames Pluto.” Link to another story called “Star signs.”
(Note: The ET refered to is not the alien, but the nick name of Andrew Ettinghausen, a club legend.)
The headline is “Sharks’ Horror Streak Confounds Maths.” Confounds maths??? CONFOUNDS MATHS????
The relevant part of the main article is at the start:
What are the chances of one organisation being battered by such a run of appalling scandals as has beset the Cronulla Sharks?
Threat of extinction, sex scandals, players failing drug tests, former players being convicted in court, financial turmoil, a female employee getting a black eye, sex toys being given to the players, and just one win all season.
Mathematicians today could not hazard a guess at the probability of a single club enduring so many scandals in such a short time.
“You might have expected in the life of clubs that each of these sort of things happen every 10 years or so, but the fact that so many things have happened simultaneously is highly unlikely,” said Professor Joe Gani, from Australian National University’s Mathematical Sciences Institute.
But astrologer Dadhichi Toth said the presence of Pluto, the “subversive” planet, explained why the club was in turmoil.
This is truly terrible “journalism” by Arjun Ramachandran. Even if we ignore the flipping astrologer, it is still facepalmingly lazy. I do not blame the poor maths prof. You get bailed up by some joker on the phone, you got to say something. I’ll return to the unsights (as opposed to insights) of Mr Toth later, but let’s look at the “unlikely run of scandals.”
Threat of extinction, sex scandals, players failing drug tests, former players being convicted in court, financial turmoil, a female employee getting a black eye, sex toys being given to the players, and just one win all season.
These are not discrete events, like the tosses of a coin. There is a web of relations between the various facts, the fact one happened made others more likely. To start with the “sex scandal”, which is really a “sexual assault scandal”, no need to go into the details here. In short, a major current affairs programme Four Corners did an hour long story on various incidents in rugby league of violence towards women, the culture which can feed that, and some education efforts to change it. The biggest story concerned allegations against Cronulla Sharks players from 2002. It’s been THE biggest media story for the last week and a half, at least in league playing areas. That’s what turned the spotlight on the club, and why these other not-illegal-but-unsavoury stories are in the papers today.
They did not take place this week, they made the papers this week. Big difference.
What are the chances that an organisation embroiled in scandal will attract journalists to dig up other scandals and people with stories to tell about that organisation will come forward knowing someone now wants to listen? I’m no mathematician but the answer is: 100%
What are the chances Reni Maitua (the player who failed the drug test) would get himself in trouble? Maybe not 100% but given the repeated misbehaviour which got him sacked from his last club, getting up there. Dreadful timing PR-wise, I admit. Only one win all year? Well someone has to lose and their form is down to injuries, a hard working but toothless attack and a defence prone to brainsnaps. And as famed coach Jack Gibson said years ago, “waiting for Cronulla to win a premiership is like leaving the porch light on for Harold Holt.” (Not really relevant, I just love the quote.)
Not content with this, the SMH give “face-reader” Toth his own article from which to Barnum to his heart’s content. Couched of course in “coulds” and “mays”, he does make a specific short-term prediction about “startling revelations between the May 30 and June 2 when Mercury moves into its forward motion.” I anxiously await to see what they are. The “hinting at a merger” at the end is just brazen, since this possibility has been a topic of conversation amongst league-fanciers all year. Head into any pub in Sydney at any time in the last three months and you’ll have heard the same thing.
So yes the Sharks have on their hands what celebrity PR flak Max Markson calls in the article “a category 5 PR disaster”, and I don’t know “what the chances are” in statistics but it is a cluster of mostly cause-and-effect that is hardly beyond the realms of science, or common sense. But this is an unserious journalist in an increasingly unserious newspaper uninterested in shedding any light on a newsworthy situation. He rang the maths guy not to get any answers, but to get him to say a few sentences from which he could mine a quote in order to justify the “confounds maths” heading. It’s working backwards, high-concept journalism which fails the most basic standards. The astrologer is more willing to bullshit off the top of his head, indeed that’s his profession, and so gets his babblings uncritically repeated verbatim.
Please note: This is not a thread for rehashing of the 2002 Sharks allegations or anything to do with it. Anything opining on motivations, rumours, characters etc will be deleted. Sorry, but had enough of it elsewhere.
Check this out…
Funny how this ad which first appeared in 1977, is suddenly relevant again. Still, I reckon it could work again. What do you think?
Watch the video here, which Richard found!
Thanks to @SkepticZone for this. From this website, which says “Copyright Information: This item is in the public domain.” So, go ahead and distribute it!
Episode 29, anti-vaxers, Mind Body Spirit festival and Adelaide Gaol tour
Anti-vaxers
You can join the Facebook page, Stop the AVN and sign the petition here. Dana McCaffery’s facebook page is here. A website dedicated to her memory is here.
Some good links which offer information about vaccination;
The Australian Government’s publication, Myths and Realities about Vaccination (pdf)
The Truth About the Evils of Vaccination
The Australian Immunisation handbook for health professionals
Vaccinate your baby
Mind Body Spirit
To see the Code of Conduct which was introduced by the NSW Department of Health in August 2008 click here (pdf file). I talked about this legislation on last week’s episode of Dr Rachie Reports.
Adelaide Gaol Ghost Tour
For more information about Alison O’Born, visit her website at paranormalfieldinvestigators.com which also has an interview with Richard Saunders.
To find more information about the Adelaide Gaol Torchlight tours, phone the gaol on (Adelaide) 8231 4062 or go to their webiste
