FAKE REVIEWS

      Many of us rely on Internet product reviews for making purchase decisions.  However, some of the reviews just don't sound right.  They are either unrealistically negative or positive.  Do you ignore that input?  The website FAKESPOT.COM provides a second look at some of these product comments and provide some perspective on its potential legitimacy.  Here is what they claim.

Fakespot, launched in 2015, analyzes reviews intelligently and calculates a grade based on the authenticity of reviews involving the selected product. Fakespot identifies fake reviews, currently supporting Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com.au.

TELEMEDICINE

Been to your doctor lately?  Often you get 15 minutes while s/he reads your history from a stack of notes and talks minimally with you.  With hundreds of patients and seeing as many as 40 in a day, how much more personal is your visit than what you might get via Telemedicine?  Do we imagine more personal care than we really get?  With the baby-boomers population, this problem is only going to worsen.

Does your doctor actually consult with the Internet?  With medicine advancing so rapidly, how does a medical practitioner keep up? Maybe the best doctors are those who know how to use the Internet effectively.

The Wall Street Journal: How Telemedicine Is Transforming Health Care -- "After years of big promises, telemedicine is finally living up to its potential. 

CNBC: CVS teams with telehealth trio to boost access to MD care — Pharmacy giant CVS Health announced it will work with three leading telehealth companies 

Forbes: Will Telemedicine Change Healthcare Or Prove To Be Another Venture Fad? — "Telemedicine is booming, but it’s also controversial

SEA LEVEL MONOGRAM

This short monograph describes and explains sea-level change and discuss the implications for coastal management. Intended for policy makers, it is instructive for the educated reader. It examines causes and measurement of sea-level change over the past 100 to 150 years. They note that sea-level change is a local phenomenon, with high variability and multiple causes and rebut alarmist propaganda. 

http://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2014/05/Sea-level-report.pdf

Nobel Laureates Letter Supports GMOs

To the Leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and Governments around the world. The United Nations Food & Agriculture Program has noted that global production of food, feed and fiber will need approximately to double by 2050 to meet the demands of a growing global population. Organizations opposed to modern plant breeding, with Greenpeace at their lead, have repeatedly denied these facts and opposed biotechnological innovations in agriculture. They have misrepresented their risks, benefits, and impacts, and supported the criminal destruction of approved field trials and research projects. 
http://supportprecisionagriculture.org/nobel-laureate-gmo-letter_rjr.html 

Why Losing Weight and Keeping It Off Is Such a Pain

      You're trying to lose some recently acquired "baby-fat."  The first few pounds come off okay, but then the rate of weight loss slows down, stops, and often weight starts back up again, even if you are still following the recommended regimes. You think, “There must be something wrong with me. I need to cut back more in order to lose or maintain the weight loss or why bother trying any more?”  Dr. Donna Ciliaka suggests in her recent publication that you may be doomed. Your body has a weight Set-Point.

http://nedic.ca/set-point-what-your-body-trying-tell-you

FACEBOOK Pushes Political Biases?

GIZMODO reports that FACEBOOK intentionally biased its Trending News reports toward non-conservative stories.

Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential “trending” news section, according to a former journalist who worked on the project. This individual says that workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site’s users.

http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006 

FACEBOOK executives vehemently deny the allegations. 

Studies Masquerading as Science

      Time and time again I hear, "Often the scientists tell us studies prove one thing and then, a little bit later, they say another study proves just the opposite."  The problem is neither claim may actually be science, but all too often only brainless media hype.

      John Oliver does a GREAT job explain what's happening in the following "must watch" video

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/05/09/john_oliver_explains_how_reported_scientific_studies_can_be_misleading_and.html

The Purpose for Creation

      Fundamental to all religions is the belief in human exceptionalism.  The universe was created with humankind as the ultimate product.  This belief leads to the cosmological fine-tuning argument in which numerous physical constants critical to human existence had to be fine tuned by a super intelligent agent.  Even the slightest change in any one of them would have produced an forever lifeless, barren cosmos. The argument continues that the probability of the universal constants taking on the exact values needed to sustain life is so low that they could only have been tuned.

     Jérémie Harris & Edouard Harris challenge this argument in their essay The Non-Fine-Tuned Universe: The Astronomical Failure of the Cosmological Argument for Thesis. http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/non-fine-tuned-universe/.  

     One of the commenters shares our opinion of the essay as

Nice article and great writing. It makes a clear point in showing the weakness in any theistic anthropocentric fine tuning argument. In a nutshell: we do not know: there are today too many unknowns .It is a great question, it has a scientific possible answer, and for sure it is part of the scientific domain of inquiry. 

      The authors effectively dismantle the common religious thinking.  However, one might consider "what if humans are not the ultimate objective of the creation experiment, but just a intermediate stepping stone along the way, such as the jelly fish seems intermediate to mammals."  No evidence or argument substantiates the human intent.  As the authors demonstrate, humans are such a infinitesimal part of creation that one must conclude they are most certainly NOT its purpose.

Check the Science Behind Biomedical Research

It's an unfortunate reality -- many biomedical research findings are ultimately proven to be illusory. 

 As a matter of fact, findings in medical research may be only slightly more reliable than Donald Trump's facts and only about as good as sport pundit expert picks against the spread.

http://journals.lww.com/em-news/Fulltext/2016/04261/Medically_Clear__Discovering_the_Truth_in_Science.1.aspx 

Be skeptical about the value of biomedical research:

* Size matters: Small numbers of observations or study subjects are more likely to produce spurious and nonreplicable results. Studies need thousands of subjects to be credible.

* Conflicts of interest: Expect bias by studies published by entities with an interest in the results.

* Confirmation bias: Results expected from a study greatly affects the likelihood of a finding being actually true.

* Double blind? Were the findings from randomized studies and have they been INDEPENDENTLY replicated.

* Valid Statistics: Proof in medicine is based on a two sigma threshold or 95% confidence. In physics 99.99% confidence is required.

Don't fall to the latest trendy supplement or super food. Check the science.  Confirm that it was vigorous

Climate Hustle the Movie

http://www.climatehustlemovie.com/

The Cosmic Eye

This remarkable video was created by Danail Obreschkow at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at the University of Western Australia. A progression of increasingly accurate graphical representations of the scales of our Universe, it shows a combination of real photographs and renderings from state-of-the-art computer models. All scientists and sources have given permission and are fully credited in the app.

Another Trumpism or Worse?

       One of our arguments regarding Donald Trump is -- he is relatively ignorant of the matters that concern being POTUS.  So every time he makes one of his colossal misstatements, we just chalk it up to "this man does not understand the job."  
     With that argument in consideration, what about the recent support from Ben Carson.  Some have concluded "a deal was in the making."  That is the same thought behind a recent complaint filed by the American Democracy Legal Fund, a pro-Clinton watchdog group,with the Justice Department.  
     It alleges that Donald Trump may have promised former candidate Ben Carson a job in the administration in exchange for his endorsement last month.  However, that would be a criminal offense.

18 U.S. Code § 599 - Promise of appointment by candidate

      Whoever, being a candidate, directly or indirectly promises or pledges the appointment, or the use of his influence or support for the appointment of any person to any public or private position or employment, for the purpose of procuring support in his candidacy shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Is It a Lie or Just Ignorance?

      The latest YouGov poll finds Hillary Clinton of the five remaining POTUS candidates as the least honest in the OPINION of American. However, how reasonable is that opinion or is it just the result of an effective smear campaign?  She has been in the public eye and on the Republican radar longer than any of the other candidates. Also, the Republicans spent $70 Million of public funds in an attempt to destroy Clinton credibility.

      In order to judge the reliability of public opinion, consider statements of these candidates as they compete for POTUS. The analysis by Politifact shows a different story.

      We heard another argument regarding the truthfulness of the candidates. Maybe they weren’t lying when making false statements. Maybe they actually believed what they were saying was truthful. That could certainly be the case. It demonstrates which candidate is more knowledgeable of POTUS matters. The order of expertise is Clinton, Kasich, Sanders, Cruz, and Trump. That is reasonably consistent with the findings of Politifact.
     Here is the whole story

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B37Sbk8kmcPdOXVJSlJLNTlMY0E

Efficacy of Vitamin Supplements

     With billions of dollars spent annually, vitamin supplements are probably the con-game of the century, as scientific evidence continues to prove.  In most cases such indiscriminate use is probably useless and potentially harmful.  
     Not all vitamin and mineral supplements are useless. When used appropriately, based on scientific evidence, and a specific medical issue some help. Few debate that we need dietary vitamins to live. But the most common reason for taking vitamins -- our desire to “improve overall health” -- is generally a waste of money.  Quality testing doesn’t validate health claims.

For more information check out
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/more-evidence-that-routine-multivitamin-use-should-be-avoided/ 

Romney on Trump

      We normally try to avoid the "politics" of politics, but the situation with Donald Trump is serious and needs that attention. This speech by Romney needs to be taken to heart and mind by ALL Americans. He tells it "like it is" and not like too many people imagine it is.

John Oliver on Donald Trump

     So many people hate the “ruling class” so much they are either 
- willing to throw their country in the sh-t can in order to make a point or 
- they are too stupid to recognize the folly of their actions. 

     I have had so many debates with Republicans over the last decade that I think it is a lot of both. Facts don’t matter; what they “feel” does. This video has been viewed by over 8 million at 7AM and growing by a quarter million by the hour. 
     Several people have repeated, “I never left the Republican party; the Party left me.” Amen to that!

Brains Hardwired for Religion

Is belief in God a matter of choice, or is it a result of evolution.  

CINO?

Christian In Name Only.  Donald Trump is hardly the first to wear that badge.  Some say he can wear it next to his RINO badge.  The issue to which "the Donald" seems oblivious is - participation goes deeper than "claims".   It also involves "practice". Pope Francis seems to question Trump's sincerity. 
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/18/politics/pope-francis-trump-christian-wall/

Trump is hardly alone in his ignorance.  Nevertheless, we are surprised that Trump who claims expertise in everything, missed the following Bible entry

15"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17"So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.…
Matthew 7:16

Will this change the mind of any Trump supporter?  We doubt it.  As in our experience in most matters religious, cognitive dissonance will prevail.

How Presidential Candidates Get Science Wrong

Popular Science has distributed by email its analysis about "How Presidential Candidates Get Science Wrong."  http://www.popsci.com/primarytruth?cmpid=enews&spPodID=030&spMailingID=24699335&spUserID=MTEzNTgyOTYxMzQ4S0&spJobID=741915294&spReportId=NzQxOTE1Mjk0S0

This notice is kind of like "the pot calling the kettle black."  Without going into the all the details about how Popular Science has contributed to the discrediting of science through its frequently exaggerated expectations about potential impact of preliminary science discoveries, we focus on one claim in this latest "exclusive."

[Popular] Science says

Why People See Ghosts

Here is a brief primer on the science behind why people see ghosts, gods, angels, demons, and aliens plus some experiments in near-death and out-of-body experiences.

http://www.skeptic.com/downloads/why-people-see-ghosts.pdf