All you need is Ecuador

The government of Ecuador is spending $18 million dollars in a bold tourism campaign called "All you need is Ecuador", featuring a famous Beatles song. You can see the ad in here:



http://ift.tt/1o8FifM



They expect a return of $1.6 billion dollars in tourism related revenue. I kind of like the theme, but I'm skeptical it would have such a big impact.



What do you think? Money well spent?

Francis Hunter MRCVS dies, aged 83

Francis Edgar Hunter: 27th May 1930–30th September 2013

Francis Hunter, UK veterinary homeopath, died on 30th September last year. A short obituary (which I missed) appeared in Veterinary Record on October 5th 2013 but another (which I did spot) has just appeared in the Homeopath Journal (http://ift.tt/1s3oZjT), written by his colleague, homeopath and radionics practitioner, John Saxton.



Most UK vets will have read his contributions to the debate on veterinary homeopathy in the veterinary press over the years. A leading light in the British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons, his attitude to colleagues who declined to embrace his preferred mode of treatment or - worse still - criticised it, was probably best described as bemused contempt.



His defense of homeopathy seemed predicated on unrelenting optimism - he used it and thought it worked, thousands of people all over the world believed in it therefore, in his eyes, it had to be effective. One of his more notorious phrases in defence of homeopathy was "treatments will either stand or fall depending on how successful they are".



He was still writing up to recently, suggesting critics should "get a life" (Veterinary Times 1/4/13) and seemed increasingly out of touch with the modern profession, waxing nostalgically about the days when he believed vets "practised more 'the art' rather than 'the science' of veterinary surgery" (Veterinary Times 1/4/13). He was inclined too, to critise colleagues for charging for conventional treatments when, by using cheaper homeopathy, in his opionion, "the results will be just as beneficial" (Veterinary Times 11/2/13).



Some of his opinions on the subject can be read here: http://ift.tt/1i06uVr



Yuri

StopSylvia email: "Sylvia"

I received the following email at StopSylvia.com, with the subject "Sylvia":

Quote:

Sir, I have been reading your site for a number of years. I have commented a few times, knowing a little more about some situations than you do. I have read a good number of Sylvia Browne's books. I find them interesting. She can call it "Gnosticism" if she wants as these days Gnosticism is a catch-all religious term for anything that is not orthodoxy. Fact is her "philosophy" is classic Spiritualism. I cannot speak to the deceased Ms. Browne's clairvoyance but I do believe that some clairvoyance does exist, though not in the quantity a lot of people think it does.I do not think she was very good at it from what I have read. I wonder why it is you do what you do. Earlier in my life,before I became a Christian (not anymore) I used to be a "skeptic" and I associated with many skeptics. What I eventually found out was that even though skeptics think they know everything, they really just know what they don't know (and can't prove) and usually do not take any steps to find out. Now, I have more respect for someone who will take a stand on one belief or another rather than just criticize everyone who does. I notice you have taken after this woman with a vengeance and yet I never see you taking after, say, the Christian religion. Where is your "Stop Jesus Christ" site. Where is your "Stop the Rabbis" site or your "Stop the Imams" site. And I am willing to bet you hold in contempt holocaust skeptics and global warming skeptics. Should we all be skeptical only about the things you are skeptical about? Perhaps I am mistaken. I don't think so. But the real question is:who are you to take away people's comfort? Who hired you to do this? Who appointed you chief truth speaker? Was it an elected position or an appointed one?Or perhaps it is an anointed one? Were you anointed by some higher power to destroy people's faith in...whatever. I used to be a devout, Bible thumping Christian, for thirty-five years I believed the Bible was the inerrant word of the Jewish god. When I discovered my beliefs were wrong, although tempted, I did not go around telling all my Christian friends all the myriad of reasons that their belief was false and ply them with proofs that they were false beliefs. Yes, I actually have positive proofs, all you have is negative proofs. All you can talk about is what you don't know, not what you do know, at least when it comes to the deceased Sylvia Browne. Is it the money issue? Believe me, sir, I put more money into the tithing plate in the churches I was in than anyone will ever spend on Sylvia Browne in ten lifetimes. I do not know if Sylvia Browne had psychic ability or not but I have known several who do and who have proven it. Scientists (and James Randi) demand 100% accuracy and if you fail once then they call your claim falsified. There are things you cannot do that with and things of the mind and spirit are two of those. Do you know any psychiatrist who can predict with 100% accuracy what his schizophrenic patient will do or hear next. Of course you don't. They can't. Does that make the person any less schizophrenic or the psychiatrist any less a psychiatrist.I had a psychiatrist almost misdiagnose someone I love and almost put her on some very dangerous medicines. He was dead wrong on his diagnosis. He failed! Does that make him not a psychiatrist. Sometimes we see as through a glass darkly, sir. You can document Ms. Browne's failures, easy enough to do. Have you checked to see if there were successes? You did allow people to write of their support for her but only so that they themselves could be held up to ridicule. Regardless of her ability or lack thereof, Ms. Browne wrote a wonderful series of books, explaining in laymen's terms, the tenets of Spiritualism and Spiritism. Whether her guide, Francine, was real or not, is irrelevant, just as whether Jesus of Nazareth was real or not does not lessen the value of the lessons contained in the Gospel myths. She gave a great many people comfort, people who can find comfort nowhere else, in a country where only the material matters, amongst a people who have decided that if they can't touch, see, smell, hear, or taste it, it does not exist. Yet, I bet you believe in quarks and black holes, right? String theory? Everyone is entitled to their opinion in America. That does not mean everyone has a right to steal people's beliefs or their world view. The longer your site was up, the more hatred I detected, to the point where you used Novus people who had a personal problem with Sylvia to destroy the now deceased author. It is bad enough to hate, but when you let others join their hate to yours, then we are sinking into a special kind of abyss. Well, she is dead now.She has gone to her much awaited "other side." There are a ton of other self acclaimed psychics out there. I will be interested to see if you go after them, or if you go after the Pope, or Franklin Graham, or Islam or the Jewish book of myths known as the Tanakh, which this nation actually bases foreign policy on,...now that would be interesting to see you spend your skeptical dollars on that. That said, I hope you recover from what ails you. I bear you no malice. People like you just confuse me. And every time I feel I need to go degrade other people's belief systems with all my wonderful knowledge, I just remind myself that no-one appointed me the messiah. Sincerely [name] former Christian and former skeptic

Here is my reply:

Quote:

Mr. [lastname]: Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. I will address some of your points below. You say that you have been reading my site for a number of years, but you have apparently no read the site's FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, as it answers some of your questions: http://ift.tt/1gl1TvV You ask when I will create sites about the Pope, or Rabbis, or Imams. From my site's FAQ Page: Q: Aren't there more important issues? A: Certainly. World hunger, the environment, the economy, finding cures for cancer, AIDS and many other diseases... the list goes on and on. But I think you'll find that there are already many web sites out there devoted to those issues. This was an issue which had not been aggressively addressed, and I decided to fill that void. We all "pick our battles." If you wish to put together a web site on what you feel is a more important topic, I would encourage you to do so. But I think we fight best on behalf of causes for which we feel a passion. And making the evidence about Sylvia Browne available to those who need it is a cause for which I feel very passionately indeed. You ask if/when I will be creating web sites for other psychics. Well, I had registered the domain names StopJohnEdward.com and StopJamesVanPraagh.com, and spent a few months on VanPraagh's web site doing research, but other priorities(such as my health) kept those projects from getting off the ground, just as they have prevented me from expanding StopSylvia for a few years now. Also from the FAQ Page: Q: Why Sylvia Browne instead of some other psychic? A: Because examining the claims of a well-known psychic will help far more people than say, examining the claims of my neighborhood palm-reader. Also, due to her books and her many television appearances, there is a wealth of material to use when researching her claims. Finally, I found her work with missing children to be incredibly offensive. That was the last straw which made me choose her as the focus of this site. ...and: Q: What about (some other psychic)? I am asked this often, about various psychics, such as John Edward, Lisa Williams and others. A: Again, I have seen no convincing proof of anyone having psychic abilities. But here is a further comment, regarding TV/Celebrity psychics in general: It is important to remember that the producers of a TV show which claims to be about a "true psychic" have a financial interest in making you believe that person is psychic. Because of this, you should never assume that what you see on the show is an accurate and unbiased representation of facts and events. And, your comment that James Randi insists on 100% accuracy from a purported psychic is flat out wrong. But he DOES insist that they - or anyone with a claim of "paranormal abilities" of ANY kind - demonstrate that ability in a way which would, statistically, rule out simple chance. And, in the case of someone taking his "Million Dollar Challenge", both he and the claimant must both agree, in writing, to what would constitute a successful percentage. Best regards, Robert S. Lancaster Founder & webmaster, www.StopSylvia.com

If I receive a reply - and I would imagine that I will - I will post it here.

One More Look at Iron-Rich Spheres

I am taking another very close look at the iron-rich spheres in the wtc dust and am looking for only the best-quality information available on the subject. There have been some surprises along the way... and the entire subject is so esoteric, most of the information available on it comes from either 9/11 Truth sources or here at JREF. I want independent sources.



A few questions:



1) How common are iron-rich microspheres really? I have sent out all kinds of emails to metallurgists, and one guy yesterday who also does forensics said he has never in his life seen iron-rich microspheres in the debris of an arson fire.

2) At what temperature does iron reduction happen (citations please) in small or even nano-sized flakes of rust?

3) At what temperature can iron-rich microspheres form (citations please)?

4) Harrit/Jones claim that even though their readings show both iron and oxygen, that their iron-rich spheres are actually pure iron with a very thin coating of iron oxide. Is there any data to support this, or are the spheres just a more homogenous partially-reduced mix of iron and iron oxide?

5) At what temperature can tiny flakes of iron oxide melt (Dave Thomas claims 900 C, and I have even heard 430 C)?

6) The consensus here seems to be that iron-rich spheres can happen in regular fires. I'm having a hell of a time finding independent verification of this. The best I have is Dave Thomas's experiment, finding iron-rich spheres after burning primer paint on steel in a barrel. Sadly, our friend Ivan passed away before testing his own possible iron-rich spheres in a similar experiment. Is there a textbook or any other source that an independently verify and quantify this phenomenon?

7) RJ Lee found vast quantities of iron-rich mirospheres in the dust inside the Deutsche Bank in the spring of 2002. He talks about melting iron but he also says this is to be expected in a fire as intense as the WTC fires. Tentative conclusion: his raw data is good, his explanations don't help either side much. I have another letter out to him to try to get more clarification.

8) The 9/11 Truth claim is that iron oxide spheres are created by coal burning/fly ash and other conventional means, but NOT elemental iron spheres. This appears to be true.

9) I went to WikiAnswers and found out that iron oxide can be reduced to iron with a regular fire surrounded by sand. Seems like no big deal. Of course, this explanatrion doesn;t show the iron-rich spheres one way or another, just iron reduction.



Be patient with me. In my Shakespeare classes in school we never studied this stuff.

Atheism equals terrorism in Saudi Arabia

Quote:

Atheism equals terrorism in Saudi Arabia Non-believers pose a threat to the state President Obama is due in Riyadh today in what is being portrayed as an effort to patch up US-Saudi relations. Hopefully, one item not on the agenda will be further cooperation in combating terrorism. Last month a new anti-terrorism law came into force which basically defines terrorism as any activity that the Saudi authorities don't approve of. Top of the list of new "terrorist" crimes in the kingdom is "calling for atheist thought in any form". CONTINUES

Freaking insanse place!:boxedin:

Glen Beck is being sued.

A Bostonian, Abdulrahman Alharbi, whom the right-wing loon Glen Beck singled out and accused of being involved in the terror bombings during the Boston Marathon last year, has filed a lawsuit against the aforementioned loon.



Peter Haley, Alharbi’s lawyer stated in his filing:

Quote:

On and after April 15, Beck broadcast repeated statements distributed and published to others…identifying Alharbi as an active participant in the crimes that were committed in Boston. Beck falsely accused Alharbi of being a criminal who had funded the attacks that took place at the Boston Marathon…the statements made by Beck were false.

Apparently accusing someone of being a member of Al Qaeda, being a murderer and terrorist and funding bombings, even after your "case" has been shown to be utter rubbish, has consequences.



Complaint.



Boston Magazine.

RWR

Washington Post

Senate Report on CIA Torture Program

CIA misled on interrogation program, Senate report says

Quote:

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that the CIA misled the government and the public about aspects of its brutal interrogation program for years — concealing details about the severity of its methods, overstating the significance of plots and prisoners, and taking credit for critical pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact surrendered before they were subjected to harsh techniques. The report, built around detailed chronologies of dozens of CIA detainees, documents a long-standing pattern of unsubstantiated claims as agency officials sought permission to use — and later tried to defend — excruciating interrogation methods that yielded little, if any, significant intelligence, according to U.S. officials who have reviewed the document.

Any thoughts? Shouldn't some heads roll over this at least? I don't think there is much appetite for prosecutions, but shouldn't there be some kind of accountability?

Quote:

Current and former U.S. officials who described the report spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue and because the document remains classified. The 6,300-page report includes what officials described as damning new disclosures about a sprawling network of secret detention facilities, or “black sites,” that was dismantled by President Obama in 2009.