Skeptical reporter @ 2013-04-05

Skeptical Reporter for April 5th, 2013 TED, the nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, has revoked its prestigious TEDx licensing for an upcoming West Hollywood event. The goals of the TEDx event, titled Brother can you spare a paradigm?, were to "illuminate the urgent need to change our fundamental value system or worldview to one in which humanity pulls together rather than separately," the official website for the event states. The conversation the TED representative had with the organizers reveals the reason behind the decision: “When we look at your speaker line-up, we see several people who promote — as fact — theories that are well outside what most scientists would accept as credible. The problem is not the challenging of orthodox views. We believe in that. We've had numerous talks which do that. But we have rules about the presentation of science on the TEDx stage. We disallow speakers who use the language of science to claim they have proven the truth of ideas that are speculative and which have failed to gain significant scientific acceptance”. The Church of Scientology is planning a publicity drive in Australia to challenge what it calls “misconceptions” among the public and the media. The controversial religious group kicked off a PR drive with an appearance on Seven breakfast show Sunrise. The Sunrise interview followed the publication of a guide for journalists that outlined the areas where the organisation feels it has been wrongly represented in the past. The Church of Scientology plans to launch a localised version of a US-made TV ad that ran around the Super Bowl, use direct marketing activity to promote its videos and books, and encourage people to visit its churches to learn about Scientology for themselves. The TV ad bears similarities to Apple’s ‘Think different’ classic from 1997. Scientology has used PR agency Wells Haslem since 2009, the year that Scientology was branded a “criminal organisation” by South Australian senator Nick Xenophon. Measles is responsible for thousands of tragic (and preventable) deaths each year. Which is perhaps why there has been enormous backlash against a new (and apparently self-published) book by Stephanie Messenger, an Australian author and anti-vaccine activist. According to the author’s page, “Melanie’s Marvelous Measles” was written to: educate children on the benefits of having measles and how you can heal from them naturally and successfully. The description says: “Often today, we are being bombarded with messages from vested interests to fear all diseases in order for someone to sell some potion or vaccine, when, in fact, history shows that in industrialized countries, these diseases are quite benign and, according to natural health sources, beneficial to the body”. Amazon reviewers have not taken kindly to Messenger’s suggestion that measles can be an “adventure,” either. Australian Medical Association president Dr Steve Hambleton said the disease was still dangerous, potentially fatal, and that anyone promoting it should be ashamed of themselves. He said children with measles were very ill and at risk of death or brain damage. In Australia, the book has been removed from sale, by the largest online bookstore. Australian neuroscientists have attacked a taxpayer-funded brain-training and exercise program used in classrooms for making ''silly'' pseudo-scientific claims when explaining how it works. The Brain Gym program, created in the 1970s by an American educator and taught in more than 80 countries, is being used by teachers in all states in an attempt to improve students' learning. Practitioners usually charge $660 for the basic Brain Gym 101 course, aimed at teachers and students. But the program has generated controversy overseas, with the British Neuroscience Association in 2008 slamming the product for promoting neuromyths. Teachers can train with more than 60 Brain Gym practitioners in Australia outside school ho...