Skeptical Digest 21.3 (Autumn 2008)

CONTENTS

Dubious News - In this Issue - Little Atoms Podcast - Events - Administrivia


Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Plait

In recent times, the qualifications required for US politicians and
political
candidates have notoriously come under question. Certainly, with airtime
given to
Barack Obama's breakfast preferences and whether those expensive Italian
shoes
really make John McCain any less 'American', popular political discussion
seems to
be increasingly vacuous.

There is little doubt, however, that a certain newly elected President is
actually
very well suited to his new role, despite a penchant for t-shirts and
baseball caps.
At least one online (admittedly spoof) news portal declared the "Phil Plait
Phenomenon" in full swing, and it only seems fitting to recognise the latest
appointment to the ranks of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF).

Since JREF's foundation in 1994, James Randi has been at its helm in the
role of
President, figurehead, and general sceptical icon. The JREF press release
issued on
the 4th August, however, marked an end to this reign and a movement
"up-and-sideways" for Randi, to the position of "Founder and Chairman of
the
Board".
Meanwhile, Phil Plait adopts the vacated presidential position. Plait (a
familiar
name to many sceptics) runs the website Bad Astronomy, founded the blog of
the same
title in 2005, and recently rose to interstellar notoriety with an asteroid
bearing
his name.

Randi stated that the changes to the JREF structure would provide "the time
and
opportunity to finish my next two books: A Magician in the Laboratory, and
Wrong!",
though in the edition of SWIFT on March 19th 2004, he wrote: "I lose no
opportunity
to get to my keyboard and record my thoughts before the inevitability of
time
catches up with me. I estimate that I have two more books in me. Perhaps
quantity
will substitute for scholarship". Thankfully, with these latest offerings
following
a publication in 2005, that estimate is already Wrong! and I hope this paves
the way
for many further publications from Randi's hand.


Denver, the most inviting place on Earth

We now know that aliens not only exist, but are also exempt from criminal
prosecution in America, or at least those are the implications of an article
in the
Denver Post. The reported story rests on an alleged alien visitation to
Denver, in
which a stereotypically grey, inverted pear-shape head, appeared at the
window of a
man who coincidentally happened to have a video camera pointing in the same
direction with the belief that local deviants had been peering into his
house at his
young daughters.

Obviously it is easy to mistake a pervert for an alien, but the resulting
worldwide
attention given to the videotape goes to show precisely how frenzied the
media can
become when armed with a poorly taken video, an endorsement of authenticity,
and a
healthy imagination.

Validated by a film editor also from Denver, a reconstruction of the
videotape was
looped over and over on news channels while its owner, Stan Romanek,
described his
thoughts of the images. Details of the preliminary investigation and
precisely how
the tape was proven to be authentic are seemingly unreleased, but more
interesting
hoaxes have been uncovered in the past.

The Cottingley Fairies, for instance, started life in 1917, long before
international media. They were a private joke between relatives but photos
were soon
endorsed and validated by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harold Snelling (an
expert in
20th century fake photography) rendering them as a unique mystery. After
debate
lasting for 64 years, four of the five photos were eventually revealed as
fakes
through a confession from their creators. They were made using paper
cut-outs and
hatpins, though the authenticity of the fifth photo was always maintained.

In the Denver case, however, the story becomes wonderfully farcical with
Romanek's
claim that he has encountered aliens on over 100 other occasions. To keep
allegedly
authentic video evidence of an extraterrestrial visitation hidden for years
is
implausible for so many reasons, but to remain silent about countless other
incidents including abductions and torture, suggests a completely different
motivation than the promotion of public awareness, especially when the
incidents are
later revealed to the media.

A news conference was organised for Romanek and the Mutual UFO Network
(MUFON) by
Jeff Packman, a local resident. Around 30 journalists attended with at least
12
further TV cameras present. At the conference, Packman suggested that the
city
develop an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission that would handle alien
encounters.

What seems evident from the Denver case, the Cottingley Fairies, and
countless other
examples, is the impressively low threshold of evidence required for a
vaguely
inventive hoax to gain international awareness and become part of our
culture. The
perpetuation of poorly supported claims in the face of common sense and
fundamental
questioning paves the way for future dubious thought.

One thing is certain: if aliens genuinely were peering into Denver homes, no
prosecutions would be brought for breach of privacy or trespassing. Their
existence
would become a worldwide news story and justifiably so. Rather than media
sensationalism and willing liberal acceptance as a default position, what is
perhaps
required is a little reflection on the nature of claims and the suspension
of belief
until the discovery of robust evidence.


The end of the world is pretty

With this issue of Hits and Misses taking a decidedly extraterrestrial turn,
it
seems an appropriate time to mention developments with the Large Hadron
Collider
(LHC) at the Conseil Europ?en pour la Recherche Nucl?aire (CERN).

Crudely explained, the LHC is a ring of evacuated piping, buried 100 metres
under
the Franco-Swiss border and surrounded by 9300 powerful, superconducting
magnets,
forming the world's largest cryogenic facility. Inside the 'beam pipes',
protons are
accelerated to speeds approaching that of light, travelling 11,245 times
around the
26.6 km ring every second before intentional collisions between the
particles are
created. The energy and particles created as a result of the collisions are
under
study in an attempt to better understand high energy events and
interactions.

Presuming the current tentative schedule is met, the LHC is due to begin
testing and
collecting data this September. It will be six to seven years, however,
before any
results can be analysed. The reason for this is that the particle events
under
investigation will only occur in a minority of the interactions and, even
then,
their presence will be masked by 'noise' generated from other interactions.
The
events are also very short-lived, lasting only for fractions of a second. As
a
result, data of sufficient statistical power will take the best part of a
decade to
collect.

At its core, it is hoped that the data from the LHC will support the
existence of
the Higgs boson, the only particle identified within the most accurate
theoretical
physical model (Standard Model) which has not yet been observed.
Consequently,
without the Higgs boson, our current understanding of physics would need
revising.

Throughout the development of the LHC, controversy has existed about its
safety, not
least due to the fact that it is the most powerful particle accelerator ever
developed. While physicists would likely consider the annihilation of Earth
to be
resounding proof of their hypotheses, such an event, though unlikely, would
inevitably cause difficulties disseminating results in a peer-reviewed
format. Trips
to the CERN complex can be booked at its website, through which a
frightening array
of quite colourful equipment can be seen, so if nothing else, the end of the
world
is pretty.


Little Atoms

The Skeptic now has an official podcast; Little Atoms is "a show about
ideas", and
its hosts, Neil Denny, Padraig Reidy, and Anthony Burn, converse weekly with
a guest
about "freedom of expression, free inquiry, empirical rationalism,
skepticism, the
scientific method, secular humanism and liberal democracy". With past guests
such as
Christopher Hitchens, Jon Ronson, and James Randi, you can be guaranteed
there is
never a dull moment on-air! The Little Atoms podcasts can be accessed via
our
website and also on iTunes.


The Skeptic Vol 21, No 3 Autumn 2008

Features:

Making UFOlogy History
David Clarke reviews three books on classic UFO cases published 60 years
after the
birth of UFOlogy

The recovered memory debate:
False memories of the memory literature?
James Ost analyzes and critiques a body of false memory literature

Profits of the New Age
Jon Cohen reports on a sceptical day spent at The Mystic Arts Exhibition,
2008

Humour:
Sprite, by Donald Rooum
Cartoons by Tim Pearce
Pictures from Hilary Evans' Paranormal Picture Gallery

Skeptical Stats:
A column based on the observation that sometimes statistics don't lie
- they're just plain crazy...

Hits and Misses:
Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Plait
Denver, the most inviting place on Earth
The end of the world is pretty
Little Atoms

Columns:
Editorial (Lindsay Kallis and Chris French)
Skeptic at Large (Wendy M. Grossman)
Philosopher's Corner (Julian Baggini)
Sprite (Donald Rooum)
Through a Glass Darkly (Michael Heap)

Reviews:
Science and Religions: A Very Short Introducion by Thomas Dixon
The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore
In God We Doubt: Confessions of a  Failed Atheist by John Humphrys
How to Be a Good Atheist by Nick Harding


Events:
A complete list of upcoming events at Skeptics in the Pub in the UK, at the
Center
for Inquiry, London (http://cfilondon.org) and at the Anomalistic Psychology
Research Unit at Goldsmiths (http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/apru/lectures) are
at
http://skeptic.org.uk/events


Skeptical Digest is written by Mark Williams and e-mailed quarterly
alongside
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