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HuckleB
HuckleB's Journal
HuckleB's Journal
April 22, 2016
"Katrl, a Pacific white-sided dolphin living at Chicago’s Shedd aquarium, recently gave birth to a baby, a sight that has never been observed in the wild. The labor itself took three hours and 12 minutes, and it increases the relatively small population of this species at accredited North American zoos and aquariums to 16.
Pacific white-sided dolphins reach a length of more than 7 feet and weigh over 300 pounds, and are found in temperate and cool waters from the U.S. West Coast to Japan. The new baby (still unnamed) measures approximately 3 feet long and weighs about 25 pounds, according to Shedd.
“To watch a dolphin be born is beautiful, but to also see its natural instincts fully take over in a matter of seconds as it kicks its tail to propel its little body to the surface to take its first breath is overwhelmingly emotional,” said Lisa Takaki, senior director of marine mammals at the aquarium, in a statement.
After the baby is born, the mother can be seen guiding the calf back to the surface. Mom and baby will spend the next weeks bonding and nursing, and to facilitate this, the aquarium will keep the exhibit closed until further notice."
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WATCH A DOLPHIN BABY BEING BORN AT CHICAGO’S SHEDD AQUARIUM
http://www.newsweek.com/watch-dolphin-baby-being-born-chicagos-shedd-aquarium-451594"Katrl, a Pacific white-sided dolphin living at Chicago’s Shedd aquarium, recently gave birth to a baby, a sight that has never been observed in the wild. The labor itself took three hours and 12 minutes, and it increases the relatively small population of this species at accredited North American zoos and aquariums to 16.
Pacific white-sided dolphins reach a length of more than 7 feet and weigh over 300 pounds, and are found in temperate and cool waters from the U.S. West Coast to Japan. The new baby (still unnamed) measures approximately 3 feet long and weighs about 25 pounds, according to Shedd.
“To watch a dolphin be born is beautiful, but to also see its natural instincts fully take over in a matter of seconds as it kicks its tail to propel its little body to the surface to take its first breath is overwhelmingly emotional,” said Lisa Takaki, senior director of marine mammals at the aquarium, in a statement.
After the baby is born, the mother can be seen guiding the calf back to the surface. Mom and baby will spend the next weeks bonding and nursing, and to facilitate this, the aquarium will keep the exhibit closed until further notice."
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April 22, 2016
"We tend to think of alternative medicine as a colourful array of therapeutic methods. However, this ignores the fact that alternative practitioners also use a range of diagnostic tools which would bewilder every conventional physician. These alternative diagnostic methods have grown out of the different traditions of alternative medicine and are therefore are extremely diverse. Yet they have in common that they have either not been validated or, in case they have been tested, they have been found to be invalid.
Non-validated diagnostic methods run an unacceptably high risk of producing false positive or false negative diagnoses; with invalid methods, the risk turns into certainty. A false positive diagnosis is a diagnosis that the patient in question is, in fact, not suffering from. Such a scenario is, of course, a most welcome ‘carte blanche’ for every charlatan; it enables him or her to cash in on treating something that is not even there. A false negative diagnosis is much more dangerous; it means missing an existing disease, and that might even threaten the patient’s life.
In addition to false positive and false negative diagnoses, we also encounter invented diagnoses. By this term I mean conditions that are pure fantasy and have been invented by practitioners mostly in order to keep the cash flowing into their bank accounts. Chiropractors, for instance, go on about ‘subluxations’ which are a complete myth, and acupuncturists speak of yin or yang deficiencies which have no basis in reality.
More than 20 years ago, I published a review evaluating the evidence for or against alternative diagnostic techniques entitled ‘Which craft is witchcraft?’. Its conclusions are as true today as they were then: ‘…alternative’ diagnostic methods may seriously threaten the safety and health of patients submitted to them. Orthodox doctors should be aware of the problem and inform their patients accordingly.
..."
----------------------------------------------------
Prince Charles’s ideas about medicine may seriously harm your health
http://health.spectator.co.uk/prince-charless-ideas-about-medicine-may-seriously-harm-your-health/"We tend to think of alternative medicine as a colourful array of therapeutic methods. However, this ignores the fact that alternative practitioners also use a range of diagnostic tools which would bewilder every conventional physician. These alternative diagnostic methods have grown out of the different traditions of alternative medicine and are therefore are extremely diverse. Yet they have in common that they have either not been validated or, in case they have been tested, they have been found to be invalid.
Non-validated diagnostic methods run an unacceptably high risk of producing false positive or false negative diagnoses; with invalid methods, the risk turns into certainty. A false positive diagnosis is a diagnosis that the patient in question is, in fact, not suffering from. Such a scenario is, of course, a most welcome ‘carte blanche’ for every charlatan; it enables him or her to cash in on treating something that is not even there. A false negative diagnosis is much more dangerous; it means missing an existing disease, and that might even threaten the patient’s life.
In addition to false positive and false negative diagnoses, we also encounter invented diagnoses. By this term I mean conditions that are pure fantasy and have been invented by practitioners mostly in order to keep the cash flowing into their bank accounts. Chiropractors, for instance, go on about ‘subluxations’ which are a complete myth, and acupuncturists speak of yin or yang deficiencies which have no basis in reality.
More than 20 years ago, I published a review evaluating the evidence for or against alternative diagnostic techniques entitled ‘Which craft is witchcraft?’. Its conclusions are as true today as they were then: ‘…alternative’ diagnostic methods may seriously threaten the safety and health of patients submitted to them. Orthodox doctors should be aware of the problem and inform their patients accordingly.
..."
----------------------------------------------------
April 22, 2016
"...
On the basis of these considerations, integrated medicine cannot be much more than a superfluous, misleading and counterproductive distraction. But the most powerful argument against integrated medicine originates from the bogus and often dangerous things that are happening every day in its name.
If we look around us, go on the internet, read the relevant literature, or walk into an integrated medicine clinic, we are sure to find that behind all these politically correct slogans of holism and ‘best of all worlds’ there lurks the face of pure quackery.
...
The message here seems all too obvious: integrated medicine clinics offer a bizarre array of therapies, most of which are not based on anything that might remotely resemble sound evidence.
...
Integrated medicine is little more than a front designed to appear attractive and convincing to consumers, healthcare professionals and policy makers. Anyone looking behind the façade will find boundless amounts of quackery being promoted by a spectrum of people ranging from naïve charlatans, unable to think critically, to irresponsible entrepreneurs, out to make a fast buck."
‘Integrated medicine’ is quackery hitting the mainstream
http://health.spectator.co.uk/integrated-medicine-is-quackery-hitting-the-mainstream/"...
On the basis of these considerations, integrated medicine cannot be much more than a superfluous, misleading and counterproductive distraction. But the most powerful argument against integrated medicine originates from the bogus and often dangerous things that are happening every day in its name.
If we look around us, go on the internet, read the relevant literature, or walk into an integrated medicine clinic, we are sure to find that behind all these politically correct slogans of holism and ‘best of all worlds’ there lurks the face of pure quackery.
...
The message here seems all too obvious: integrated medicine clinics offer a bizarre array of therapies, most of which are not based on anything that might remotely resemble sound evidence.
...
Integrated medicine is little more than a front designed to appear attractive and convincing to consumers, healthcare professionals and policy makers. Anyone looking behind the façade will find boundless amounts of quackery being promoted by a spectrum of people ranging from naïve charlatans, unable to think critically, to irresponsible entrepreneurs, out to make a fast buck."
April 22, 2016
"...
On the basis of these considerations, integrated medicine cannot be much more than a superfluous, misleading and counterproductive distraction. But the most powerful argument against integrated medicine originates from the bogus and often dangerous things that are happening every day in its name.
If we look around us, go on the internet, read the relevant literature, or walk into an integrated medicine clinic, we are sure to find that behind all these politically correct slogans of holism and ‘best of all worlds’ there lurks the face of pure quackery.
...
The message here seems all too obvious: integrated medicine clinics offer a bizarre array of therapies, most of which are not based on anything that might remotely resemble sound evidence.
...
Integrated medicine is little more than a front designed to appear attractive and convincing to consumers, healthcare professionals and policy makers. Anyone looking behind the façade will find boundless amounts of quackery being promoted by a spectrum of people ranging from naïve charlatans, unable to think critically, to irresponsible entrepreneurs, out to make a fast buck."
‘Integrated medicine’ is quackery hitting the mainstream
http://health.spectator.co.uk/integrated-medicine-is-quackery-hitting-the-mainstream/"...
On the basis of these considerations, integrated medicine cannot be much more than a superfluous, misleading and counterproductive distraction. But the most powerful argument against integrated medicine originates from the bogus and often dangerous things that are happening every day in its name.
If we look around us, go on the internet, read the relevant literature, or walk into an integrated medicine clinic, we are sure to find that behind all these politically correct slogans of holism and ‘best of all worlds’ there lurks the face of pure quackery.
...
The message here seems all too obvious: integrated medicine clinics offer a bizarre array of therapies, most of which are not based on anything that might remotely resemble sound evidence.
...
Integrated medicine is little more than a front designed to appear attractive and convincing to consumers, healthcare professionals and policy makers. Anyone looking behind the façade will find boundless amounts of quackery being promoted by a spectrum of people ranging from naïve charlatans, unable to think critically, to irresponsible entrepreneurs, out to make a fast buck."
April 22, 2016
https://theconversation.com/why-research-beats-anecdote-in-our-search-for-knowledge-30654
"...
Certainty is seductive, so we tend to cling to it. We hunt for evidence that buttresses it, while ignoring or rejecting evidence that threatens to undermine it.
We seek out friends and media commentators who share our certainty, and then reinforce that certainty in their company. We use certainty as a bulwark in our conversations with others and we use it to thump tables when we bump up against someone else’s convictions.
...
It took rigorous scrutiny of the available facts, acknowledgement of subtle inconsistencies and irregularities in the prevailing theories, as well as careful experimentation and detailed observation in order to reveal the true cause of disease.
It also took a few brave people to embrace uncertainty. It took them to admit their ignorance and decide to follow the facts wherever they took them, even if that path was long and arduous, and raised more questions than it answered.
..."
---------------------------------------------------------
A good read, indeed.
Why research beats anecdote in our search for knowledge
UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH: What do we actually mean by research and how does it help inform our understanding of things? We begin today by looking at the origins of research.https://theconversation.com/why-research-beats-anecdote-in-our-search-for-knowledge-30654
"...
Certainty is seductive, so we tend to cling to it. We hunt for evidence that buttresses it, while ignoring or rejecting evidence that threatens to undermine it.
We seek out friends and media commentators who share our certainty, and then reinforce that certainty in their company. We use certainty as a bulwark in our conversations with others and we use it to thump tables when we bump up against someone else’s convictions.
...
It took rigorous scrutiny of the available facts, acknowledgement of subtle inconsistencies and irregularities in the prevailing theories, as well as careful experimentation and detailed observation in order to reveal the true cause of disease.
It also took a few brave people to embrace uncertainty. It took them to admit their ignorance and decide to follow the facts wherever they took them, even if that path was long and arduous, and raised more questions than it answered.
..."
---------------------------------------------------------
A good read, indeed.
April 21, 2016
All the "Prince is Dead" announcements.
What do they say about us as a culture, at places like DU, Facebook, Twitter, etc... ?
Do that many of us fail to realize that everyone else already know? And, if so, does that mean we are really not paying attention at all?
Something is amiss No?
How do we help each other pay attention to each other?
Or are we just too dang narcissistic?
I have to wonder.
April 21, 2016
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2016/0418/Ecuador-earthquake-How-to-help
Please do what you can to help the beautiful of this amazing country.
Ecuador earthquake: How to help?
After a devastating quake 16 times more powerful than one that hit Japan Saturday night, relief organizations list ways to help.http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2016/0418/Ecuador-earthquake-How-to-help
Please do what you can to help the beautiful of this amazing country.
April 20, 2016
http://www.nature.com/news/gene-editing-hack-yields-pinpoint-precision-1.19773
"A painstaking re-engineering of the CRISPR gene-editing system has given researchers the ability to alter individual DNA letters efficiently in a given gene. The advance boosts the success of such edits, and could boost scientists’ ability to model human diseases and develop treatments for them.
Researchers have been quick to embrace a gene-editing tool called CRISPR–Cas9, which lets them modify targeted genes with unprecedented ease. But although it is easy to use the tool to wipe out a gene’s function, it has been difficult to fix a ‘point mutation’ — caused by a change in a single DNA letter in a given gene — by correcting just the letter affected.
Those point mutations are important. “It turns out that the majority of disease-associated human genetic variants are point mutations,” says David Liu, a chemical biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “But current genome methods correct point mutations much less efficiently and much less cleanly than we can disrupt a gene.”
...
There are hundreds of other disease-associated mutations that could be corrected using a C to U switch, says Liu. But the team is now working to expand its reach to other point mutations, and to try the technique in animals. Liu hopes that his tricked-out enzymes will make it easier to create animal models that carry human mutations associated with disease. And eventually, after years of testing and refinement, the modified Cas9 could even be used to treat disease.
..."
----------------------------------------
Good news.
Gene-editing Hack Yields Pinpoint Precision (Nature)
Disabled CRISPR enzyme allows efficient single-letter DNA changes.http://www.nature.com/news/gene-editing-hack-yields-pinpoint-precision-1.19773
"A painstaking re-engineering of the CRISPR gene-editing system has given researchers the ability to alter individual DNA letters efficiently in a given gene. The advance boosts the success of such edits, and could boost scientists’ ability to model human diseases and develop treatments for them.
Researchers have been quick to embrace a gene-editing tool called CRISPR–Cas9, which lets them modify targeted genes with unprecedented ease. But although it is easy to use the tool to wipe out a gene’s function, it has been difficult to fix a ‘point mutation’ — caused by a change in a single DNA letter in a given gene — by correcting just the letter affected.
Those point mutations are important. “It turns out that the majority of disease-associated human genetic variants are point mutations,” says David Liu, a chemical biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “But current genome methods correct point mutations much less efficiently and much less cleanly than we can disrupt a gene.”
...
There are hundreds of other disease-associated mutations that could be corrected using a C to U switch, says Liu. But the team is now working to expand its reach to other point mutations, and to try the technique in animals. Liu hopes that his tricked-out enzymes will make it easier to create animal models that carry human mutations associated with disease. And eventually, after years of testing and refinement, the modified Cas9 could even be used to treat disease.
..."
----------------------------------------
Good news.
April 20, 2016
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/in-the-early-20th-century-america-was-awash-in-incredible-queer-nightlife
"In the Civic Ballroom of Hamilton Lodge of 1920s Harlem, satin heels beneath delicate gowns and feathers swept across smooth dance floors. Men who waited to take the stage adjusted their stockings, touched up their rouge. At tables nearby, women sitting together loosened their ties, drawing their hands and foreheads close. “Wigs, where necessary, were in evidence,” says The New York Age in March 1927. “From the garb of a biblical virgin...down to the very sparse attire only seen on burlesque stage of today, accentuated with feminine gesture and lingo, to say nothing of contortions of the hip, formed the make-up of these male masqueraders.”
It was only the last line that pointed at the radical nature of the event. “All’s well that ends well,” noted the Age, “The police did not find it necessary to raid.”
During the “Pansy Craze” from the 1920s until 1933, people in the lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer (LGBTQ) community were performing on stages in cities around the world, and New York City’s Greenwich Village, Times Square and Harlem held some of the most world-renowned drag performances of the time. While dominant American society disapproved of LGBTQ people, they were very fond of their parties. “It’s pretty amazing just how widespread these balls were,” says Chad Heap, a professor at George Washington University and author of Slumming, about the era. “Almost every newspaper article about them has a list of 20 to 30 well known people of the day who were in attendance as spectators. It was just a widely integrated part of life in the 1920s and 30s.”
All of this activity existed during cultural time that, as historian George Chauncey writes in his book Gay New York, many people believe “is not supposed to have existed.” Popular belief often holds that LGBTQ rights and acceptance was a forward-moving machine beginning with the Stonewall Riots in the 1960s, but when comparing Prohibition Era acceptance versus that of the 1950s, it isn’t so. “It’s not just that they were visible, but that popular culture and newspapers at the time remarked on their visibility—everyone knew that they were visible,” says Heap.
..."
------------------------------------------
A worthy read, IMO.
In the Early 20th Century, America Was Awash in Incredible Queer Nightlife
Then Prohibition ended, and the closet was born.http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/in-the-early-20th-century-america-was-awash-in-incredible-queer-nightlife
"In the Civic Ballroom of Hamilton Lodge of 1920s Harlem, satin heels beneath delicate gowns and feathers swept across smooth dance floors. Men who waited to take the stage adjusted their stockings, touched up their rouge. At tables nearby, women sitting together loosened their ties, drawing their hands and foreheads close. “Wigs, where necessary, were in evidence,” says The New York Age in March 1927. “From the garb of a biblical virgin...down to the very sparse attire only seen on burlesque stage of today, accentuated with feminine gesture and lingo, to say nothing of contortions of the hip, formed the make-up of these male masqueraders.”
It was only the last line that pointed at the radical nature of the event. “All’s well that ends well,” noted the Age, “The police did not find it necessary to raid.”
During the “Pansy Craze” from the 1920s until 1933, people in the lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer (LGBTQ) community were performing on stages in cities around the world, and New York City’s Greenwich Village, Times Square and Harlem held some of the most world-renowned drag performances of the time. While dominant American society disapproved of LGBTQ people, they were very fond of their parties. “It’s pretty amazing just how widespread these balls were,” says Chad Heap, a professor at George Washington University and author of Slumming, about the era. “Almost every newspaper article about them has a list of 20 to 30 well known people of the day who were in attendance as spectators. It was just a widely integrated part of life in the 1920s and 30s.”
All of this activity existed during cultural time that, as historian George Chauncey writes in his book Gay New York, many people believe “is not supposed to have existed.” Popular belief often holds that LGBTQ rights and acceptance was a forward-moving machine beginning with the Stonewall Riots in the 1960s, but when comparing Prohibition Era acceptance versus that of the 1950s, it isn’t so. “It’s not just that they were visible, but that popular culture and newspapers at the time remarked on their visibility—everyone knew that they were visible,” says Heap.
..."
------------------------------------------
A worthy read, IMO.
April 20, 2016
"It is almost inevitable that whenever we post an article critical of the claims being made for a particular treatment, alternative philosophy, or alternative profession, someone in the comments will counter a careful examination of published scientific evidence with an anecdote. Their arguments boils down to, “It worked for me, so all of your scientific evidence and plausibility is irrelevant.”
Both components of this argument are invalid. Even if we grant that a treatment worked for one individual, that does not counter the (carefully observed) experience of all the subjects in the clinical trials. They count too – I would argue they count more because we can verify all the important aspects of their story.
...
Placebo effects are largely an illusion of various well-known psychological factors and errors in perception, memory, and cognition – confirmation bias, regression to the mean, post-hoc fallacy, optimism bias, risk justification, suggestibility, expectation bias, and failure to account for multiple variables. There are also variable (depending on the symptoms being treated) and subjective effects from improved mood and outlook.
Concluding from all of this that a treatment “worked”, when a treatment appears to be followed by improved symptoms, is like concluding that an alleged psychic’s power “worked” whenever their random guessing hits. This is why anecdotal experience is as worthless in determining if a treatment works as is taking the subjective experience of a target of a cold reading in determining if a psychic’s power is genuine.
..."
----------------------------------------------
This is knowledge that can help everyone help themselves and others.
The “It Worked for Me” Gambit Explained
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-it-worked-for-me-gambit/"It is almost inevitable that whenever we post an article critical of the claims being made for a particular treatment, alternative philosophy, or alternative profession, someone in the comments will counter a careful examination of published scientific evidence with an anecdote. Their arguments boils down to, “It worked for me, so all of your scientific evidence and plausibility is irrelevant.”
Both components of this argument are invalid. Even if we grant that a treatment worked for one individual, that does not counter the (carefully observed) experience of all the subjects in the clinical trials. They count too – I would argue they count more because we can verify all the important aspects of their story.
...
Placebo effects are largely an illusion of various well-known psychological factors and errors in perception, memory, and cognition – confirmation bias, regression to the mean, post-hoc fallacy, optimism bias, risk justification, suggestibility, expectation bias, and failure to account for multiple variables. There are also variable (depending on the symptoms being treated) and subjective effects from improved mood and outlook.
Concluding from all of this that a treatment “worked”, when a treatment appears to be followed by improved symptoms, is like concluding that an alleged psychic’s power “worked” whenever their random guessing hits. This is why anecdotal experience is as worthless in determining if a treatment works as is taking the subjective experience of a target of a cold reading in determining if a psychic’s power is genuine.
..."
----------------------------------------------
This is knowledge that can help everyone help themselves and others.
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Member since: 2002Number of posts: 35,773