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Storm
SFN Regular
USA
708 Posts |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2012 : 22:44:10 [Permalink]
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What you have there, Storm, is a fringe science site. I recognize a couple of the scientists. One of them is whack-a-loon Henry H. Bauer. AID's denial, homophobe and a chaser of the Loc Ness Monster.
Interestingly, there is one paper that talks about altered memory with regard to strange animal sightings (cryptozoology) and UFO abduction, that lists Elizabeth Loftus as one of the authors. Hmmm... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2012 : 22:48:37 [Permalink]
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When I talk about something being scientific, I mean it's shiny, sterile (unless it involves living things, in which case it smells like a monkey cage), and it employs flashing lights. The overall effect must be awesome. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2012 : 23:02:24 [Permalink]
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This, from Skeptical Inquirer:
News & Comment, Robert Sheaffer Volume 22.5, September / October 1998
Uncritical Publicity for Supposed ‘Independent UFO Investigation’ Demonstrates Media Gullibility
However, what virtually every major news organization completely overlooked is that this was far from an “independent” review of UFOs. The Society for Scientific Exploration, sponsor of the panel, is not a “mainstream” scientific organization. Instead, it is a group inclined toward belief in paranormal phenomena, albeit one with many scientists among its membership. This could have been easily determined by any reporter who would have taken the trouble to peruse their Web site, or to interview them meaningfully. For the past eleven years, the Journal of Scientific Exploration been publishing articles suggesting that at least some paranormal claims are true, and have been verified scientifically. On the SSE Web site are found papers purporting to demonstrate that dowsing has been verified, that young chicks have psychokinetic powers, and that reincarnation is not only verified, but that past lives are often indicated by the presence of birthmarks. The Web site proclaims the journal’s intention to publish supposedly scientific papers on “UFO and related phenomena, clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis, out-of-body and near-death experiences, cryptozoology, evidence suggestive of reincarnation, alternative medical practices, astrological claims, ball lightning, crop circles, apparent chemical or biological transmutation (alchemy), etc.” Despite the impressive jargon and in some cases the impressive academic degrees of the authors, these papers have been absolutely unconvincing to mainstream scientific journals and organizations, and, far from pointing the way to further research, they have been quite deliberately ignored. |
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 04/19/2012 : 03:49:22 [Permalink]
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The paper Storm is referring to is, 'What do we mean by "scientific?"' Yes, by H.H. Bauer.
The paper, Storm, is mightily confused. Nowhere does Bauer refer to any dictionary definition of science (and indeed, the abstract opens by denying that there is one), yet he does provide satisfactory operational descriptions of it, only to suggest that those are merely the publicly perceived virtues of science and that his fellow pseudoscientists should strive to emulate them. Not so that they might actually do science, but so they can gain credibility. He criticizes use of the word "science" (often in scare-quotes) by ineptly comparing it to vague moral concepts like "justice," and even declares that it's wrong for scientists to refer to the scientific fact of evolution. It is not at all a rational argument he's putting forth. But then, he describes himself as a contrarian, which his HIV/AIDS denialism surely is. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail) Evidently, I rock! Why not question something for a change? Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
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