Harriet Hall, MD (aka the SkepDoc), shares her wit and wisdom about alternative medicine including: chiropractic, the placebo effect, homeopathy, acupuncture, and the questionable benefits of organic food, detoxification, and ‘natural’ remedies.

DOWNLOAD the free PDF

see more: http://www.skeptic.com/

It has just released confidential documents that shed light on the war in Afghanistan, but how has Wikileaks become one of the most important whistle-blowing sites on the web?

The news that the largest leak in American military history came via the website Wikileaks will not surprise long-term watchers of the controversial, multi-award-winning site. Despite a recent period of near-bankruptcy, it has consistently released information that major corporations and governments wanted to conceal – the Abu Ghraib “torture manual”, footage from American jets allegedly committing war crimes, the secrets of Scientology and even Sarah Palin’s private emails have all been published by the site.

Founded by secretive Australian Julian Assange, Wikileaks was originally based in Sweden and garnered 1.2 million leaked documents in time for its launch in January 2007. It taps in to the world’s web users’ desire either for justice or revenge on former employers or acquaintances, but its most significant stories have been held up as largely in the public interest. The Abu Ghraib revelations resulted in international condemnation of American methods and arguably contributed to political commitments from Barack Obama to close down the detention centre. Assange claims that by using the global community of internet users, his site is able to promote accuracy, scrutiny and discussion of sensitive information.

Anybody with web access can submit a story to Wikileaks. The site, however, states that its “primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, sub-saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations.” Wikileaks has now evolved an editorial policy by which only documents “of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical interest” are in fact published, and it has recently ceased to permit users to comment directly on stories. Earlier this year, Assange said that submissions are vetted by five reviewers, and that the background of the “leaker” is also checked.

A number of countries and companies, notably Australia, China and Bank Julius Baer have tried to censor the site or have it taken offline, but its complex method of web-hosting has ensured that it is very difficult for its servers to be identified. Wikileaks has also used a Swedish company called PRQ, which specialises in “bulletproof hosting”, asking no questions and maintaining few records of its clients so that it cannot be accused of promoting material that could be illegal.

The site has been heavily criticised in the past for endangering the lives of individuals, just as American and Pakistani representatives have said this latest leak of American military logs will too. But only last weak Assange told America’s Wired magazine that Wikileaks was “getting an enormous quantity of whistle-blower disclosures of high calibre”. The only reason more has not been released was a lack of volunteer journalists to verify the submissions, he said, adding that BP was set to be one of his site’s future subjects.

see more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/7910117/What-is-Wikileaks.html

When the dotcom bubble burst, hotelier Chip Conley went in search of a business model based on happiness. In an old friendship with an employee and in the wisdom of a Buddhist king, he learned that success comes from what you count.

Watch Now:

http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_measuring_what_makes_life_worthwhile.html

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.” In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.

Watch now: http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

The controversial website WikiLeaks collects and posts highly classified documents and video. Founder Julian Assange, who’s reportedly being sought for questioning by US authorities, talks to TED’s Chris Anderson about how the site operates, what it has accomplished — and what drives him. The interview includes graphic footage of a recent US airstrike in Baghdad.

Watch Now: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/julian_assange_why_the_world_needs_wikileaks.html

As this hoax spreads, many more doomsday scenarios are being suggested, mostly unrelated to Nibiru. These include a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field, severe solar storms associated with the 11-year solar cycle (which may peak in 2012), a reversal of Earth’s rotation axis, a 90- degree flip of the rotation axis, bombardment by large comets or asteroids, bombardment by gamma rays, or various unspecified lethal rays coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy or the “dark rift” seen in a nearby galactic spiral arm. A major theme has become celestial alignments: supposedly the Sun will align with the galactic center (or maybe with the Milky Way Dark Rift) on December 21, 2012, subjecting us to mysterious and potentially deadly forces.

Unlike most pseudoscience stories, there seems to be no factual core on which the Nibiru- 2012 hoax has been constructed. This is different from, for example, the claims of aliens and a crashed UFO at Roswell, New Mexico. The alien stories are a fabrication, but the core fact is that an instrumented balloon did crash in Roswell on July 7, 1947. There is no similar factual core to Nibiru—just dubious “predictions” from psychics, or the Mayans, or Nostradamus. The rest is pure fiction.

I answer questions from the public submitted online to a NASA website, and over the past two years the Nibiru-2012 doomsday has become the dominant topic people ask about. Many are curious about things they have seen on the Internet or TV, but many are also angry about supposed government cover-ups. As one wrote “Why are you lying about Nibiru? Everyone knows it is coming.” Others are genuinely frightened that the world will end just three years from now. My frustration in answering questions piecemeal motivates this “Twenty Questions” format to organize the facts and shine a skeptical light on this accumulation of myths and hoaxes.

see more: http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/2012-and-counting/

I guess movies really can change the world? One of the most talked about documentaries this year was one called The Cove directed by Louie Psihoyos (watch the trailer). The film documented a covert attempt spearheaded by Richard O’Barry (of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition) and a group of experts to infiltrate and capture on tape the mass killing of dolphins that occurs in a secret cove in Taiji, Japan. It was talked about not only for its filmmaking aspects and riveting story, but also because it was showing the world what happens in that secret cove in Japan. O’Barry just updated a blog with some apparently incredible news.

From the update on the TakePart blog yesterday written mainly by O’Barry, who is currently in Taiji with a number of major media outlets from countries like Germany, England, and most importantly, Japan:

O’Barry is currently in Taiji, Japan with European and Japanese journalists in anticipation of the annual dolphin slaughter that usually takes place the first week of September.
“Today is September 1st, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan. But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty. There were no dolphin killers in sight.”
Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch brings up comparisons to other documentaries like Super Size Me (which forced fast food restaurants to change the way they operate) and An Inconvenient Truth (”which injected global warming into the mainstream discussion in a big way”). If O’Barry and The Cove have effectively put an end to this, and not just caused them to move locations or change their timing, this is incredible news. It’s not often a film can come along, especially a little independent documentary like this one, and truly change the world. It brings a smile to my face to know they had such a powerful impact.

I embarrassingly haven’t seen The Cove yet, but plan on doing so as soon as I can in the near future. I still want to see it, especially knowing that they may have put an end to the dolphin slaughtering, and hope this news interests you in checking it out as well. Just goes to show how far a little documentary can really go.

Read more: http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/09/03/richard-obarrys-doc-the-cove-may-have-ended-dolphin-killing/#ixzz0uPqumgX6

Expanding circumcision services to 80 per cent of adult and newborn males in the region would also save $20.2 billion in HIV-related health costs between 2009 and 2025, they said.

“With global resources spread thin, we must focus on expanding proven and cost-effective methods like male circumcision to prevent HIV transmission,” Krishna Jafa, an HIV expert at health aid group Population Services International (PSI), said at an AIDS conference in Vienna.

Mr Jafa’s comments echoed former US President Bill Clinton and philanthropist Bill Gates, who both used speeches to the conference to call for rapid scale-up of male circumcision as a cost-effective way to prevent the spread of HIV.

Sub-Saharan Africa carries the greatest burden of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, accounting for 67 per cent of the 33.4 million people living with the virus worldwide. An estimated 1.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in the region in 2008.

Research cited by the World Health Organisation has shown that male circumcision can reduce a man’s risk of getting HIV by up to 60 per cent.

PSI presented results of a study from Zimbabwe, where researchers designed and tried out an efficiency model called MOVE, aimed at increasing the numbers of male circumcisions by using better techniques, training, equipment and staff.

In a pilot of the new system, a team of two doctors and three nurses was able to carry out four circumcisions at the same time and increase their rate from three operations per hour to 10, the results showed.

Over 12 months of the pilot, around 6,500 men were circumcised.
The findings also showed the quality of the procedure was not compromised and there were no increases in the percentage of men reporting bad side effects afterwards.

In March 2007, the WHO and United Nations UNAIDS group recommended male circumcision as an effective HIV prevention.

The PSI study found that in Zimbabwe alone, which has an adult HIV rate of 13.7 per cent and a male circumcision rate of just over 10 per cent, 750,000 new HIV infections could be prevented if 80 per cent of men were to be circumcised. It also found there was high demand for the procedure.

see more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/7901811/Call-for-80-per-cent-of-men-in-Africa-to-be-circumcised-to-prevent-spread-of-Aids.html

A devoted Filipina maid inherited $4 million (£2.6 million) from her late employer after more than 20 years of service at his Singapore home.

The maid refused to be named in public for fear of possible threats to her life in the impoverished Philippines, where wealthy people have been kidnapped for ransom and some killed by their abductors.

The windfall, including cash and a luxury apartment near the Orchard Road shopping belt, came from the estate of her employer Quek Kai Miew, a medical doctor and philanthropist who died last year at 66.

The maid had also taken care of the doctor’s late mother, and was told that she would be a beneficiary of her employer’s will when it was drawn up in 2008.

“I am the luckiest maid in Singapore, with or without the money,” the 47-year-old single woman – identified only by the pseudonym Christine.

“There were no secrets between us. I was not surprised at all when she told me how much I was going to get,” she said.

The woman was devastated when Dr Quek died a year ago, as the two were inseparable, and temporarily moved in with the doctor’s nephew for solace.

“It was heartbreaking for me as I saw more years with Dr Quek than with my own mother. I would break down every time I thought about her. I could not be by myself,” she said.

“I was always beside her. Wherever she went, I was with her.”

The maid, who is now applying for permanent residency in Singapore, said her new-found wealth had not changed her lifestyle.

“I do not really think much about the money I got. I just live my life as I did before, and not as a rich person,” the maid, dressed simply in a blouse and slacks with short-cropped hair, said.

“I am still who I was before. I cannot behave differently because I have money now. Even my Filipina maid friends here still treat me the same.”

Nearly 200,000 foreign maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, work in affluent Singapore, which has a population of five million.

see more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/singapore/7902122/Filipina-maid-inherits-4-million-from-employer.html

]]> http://www.studentsmart.ie/blog/2010/07/filipina-maid-inherits-4-million-from-employer/feed/ 0 http://www.studentsmart.ie/blog/2010/07/forty-ton-whale-lands-on-yacht-during-cape-town-sailing-trip/ http://www.studentsmart.ie/blog/2010/07/forty-ton-whale-lands-on-yacht-during-cape-town-sailing-trip/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:34:12 +0000 admin http://www.studentsmart.ie/blog/?p=6175

A couple who took a yacht for a quiet sailing trip were stunned when a 40-ton whale crash-landed on their boat off Cape Town.

The pair were enjoying calm seas off the South African coast when the animal flipped into the air and smashed into their mast.

Ralph Mothes, 59, and Paloma Werner, 50, were helpless as the beast thrashed around on their 33ft vessel before slipping back into the water.

Miss Werner said: “It really was quite incredible but very scary. The whale was about the same size as the boat.

“We’d spotted it about 100 metres away and thought that was the end of it. Then suddenly it was right up beside us.

“I assumed it would go underneath the boat but instead it sprang out of the sea. We were very lucky to get through it, as the sheer weight of the thing was huge.

“There were bits of skin and blubber left behind, and the mast was wrecked. It brought down the rigging too.

“Thank goodness the hull was made of steel and not fibreglass or we could have been ruined.”

Moments before the animal leapt it had pounded its tail on the surface of the water in a ‘lob-tailing’ ritual to communicate with other whales.

The shaken couple, who are experienced seafarers with the Cape Town Sailing Academy, used their engine to get back to shore in Table Bay.

Whales are a common sight in the Atlantic Ocean off the Western Cape coast at this time of year as they come near the shore to breed.

Thousands of tourists flock to the region’s seaside resorts every year to spot the mammals during the South African winter from June to November.

Hermanus, a popular destination around 80 miles east of Cape Town, employs a ‘whale crier’ to walk through the town announcing where whales have been seen.

see more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7901247/Forty-ton-whale-lands-on-yacht-during-Cape-Town-sailing-trip.html