Skeptico

You Must Be Kidding

I refer to this morning’s post about the new alien video “proof” that aliens exist. The Denver Post reporter who actually saw the film today, saw:

A few minutes of grainy, black and white video show a shadowy creature with big eyes peeping over a windowsill. But does it show a puppet or an alien from outer space?

The video, purportedly capturing proof of alien life, was released this morning during a press conference at the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver.

Over the course of three minutes or so, the footage shows a white creature with a balloon-shaped head that keeps popping up and down in a windowsill that was 8 feet above ground. The face was white, with large black eyes that seemed to blink.

"If it was a puppet, it would be a very elaborate and sophisticated puppet," said Alejandro Rojas, education director of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, who spoke at the press conference.

Very elaborate and sophisticated? For a five year old, perhaps. See the above image taken from the video. Now admittedly, this is a still photograph, not the original video (which supposedly moves). But The Rocky Mountain News (that has the same picture) states that this is a “still image of the video, handed out by presenters” – so they presumably must think it is representative of the quality of the video. And really. Come on. What we have here is a film taken inside what looks like a fully lit room at night. It is dark outside. The image seen in the dark window could be anything – a simple model held outside the window, or even a reflection of something in the room held by someone just out of camera shot. Sophistication not needed. Now, I never expected to see anything especially convincing (and as Akusai commented this morning, even a good alien video wouldn’t prove anything), but even I expected something better than this.

Even more ridiculous (if that were possible), were the comments of the MUFON guy, Alejandro Rojas:

I don't believe they have the ability or the motivation to fabricate a hoax…

I think I already covered the “ability” part. (And read The Rocky Mountain News link for a description of how some skeptics made a better alien film in 6 hours for $90.  Edit - click here for video.) As for motivation – Peckman’s big deal is an initiative to require the city of Denver to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission to handle alien encounters. Yes, really. And during the press conference, Peckman frequently referenced this initiative and his petition (he needs 4,000 signatures to get it onto the ballot). And boy has he got plenty of free publicity for this today. I say again, an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission to handle alien encounters. Really.

Peckman is reportedly 54 years old, single, and lives with his parents. Yes ladies, he’s available!

Aliens to be Proven Today!

Yes you heard that right. That’s according to Jeff Peckman, anyway. Peckman, who is pushing a ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver, claims he is releasing a video today (Friday) which will show an actual living ET:

It shows an extraterrestrial's head popping up outside of a window at night, looking in the window, that's visible through an infrared camera," he said. The alien is about 4 feet tall and can be seen blinking…

I can’t wait. Finally, the proof skeptics have been asking for. Wow!

Oh, except there was this, one, small, technical, qualification:

No one will be allowed to film the segment with the extraterrestrial because there is an agreement in place limiting that kind of exposure during negotiations for the documentary

[…]

There is an open, public meeting in about a month in Colorado Springs," Peckman said. "We'll hope to do one in Denver at some point, and then in a few months, there will be the documentary that anybody can have, and it'll have the footage.

So there’s proof, and you can see it today er, soon, er, in a few months, er, yeah that’s it. Really.

I can’t wait.

Update – Read about the video – with a still picture!

Woo at Stanford

The San Francisco Chronicle has an uncritical article today about a supposed test of “energy healing” at Stanford University:

Anne Broderick believes she can use her hands to alter the energy fields of others to help them heal, taking away fatigue, stress and nausea.

A clinical trial at Stanford University aims to prove it.

And there, perhaps unknowingly, the writer demonstrates the problem with this test. A clinical trial should be designed to determine if something is true or not. A test that is designed to prove something true, will probably do so regardless of whether it is true or not. This is an un-blinded test, and so is uncontrolled for placebo. The allocation to treatment or placebo groups is non-randomized. Regardless of the result, this “clinical trial” will prove nothing except that Stanford supports quackery.

Let’s recap. Ten years ago a study published in JAMA demonstrated that Therapeutic Touch (TT) practitioners couldn’t even detect the energy field they claim they can manipulate, when they don’t know if a person is there or not. This was a true blind test – the (TT) practitioners didn’t know if the experimenter’s hand was there or not (see drawing). If they can’t even detect the energy field, how can they manipulate it to make people well? Or as the JAMA study concluded:

Twenty-one experienced TT practitioners were unable to detect the investigator's "energy field." Their failure to substantiate TT's most fundamental claim is unrefuted evidence that the claims of TT are groundless and that further professional use is unjustified.

Unjustified. But they keep doing it anyway.

This does not make it a blind study!

Skeptics’ Circle

The latest Skeptics Circle has just been posted at Action Skeptics.  It’s too early in the morning for me to think of a limerick, but there’s plenty at the link.

They Seized Control of Wikipedia

That’s according to attorney Clifford J. Shoemaker, in his response to the Order to Show Cause. He states that Kathleen Seidel’s “principal co-conspirator” (ie her husband), has “seized control” of Wikipedia. Apparently this eminent attorney is unaware that Wikipedia is written and updated collaboratively by more than 75,000 active volunteers from all around the world. Or, as Kathleen put it:

These documents offer a remarkable exposition of the grandiose, cartoonish conspiracy fantasies entertained by advocates of the concept of autism as toxicity and tort, and the arguments of those who seek to justify the perversion of legal processes in order to oppress their critics.

Kathleen has nine days to respond to Shoemaker, if she wishes.

Damned Aliens

So the Vatican’s chief astronomer thinks extraterrestrial life might exist:

Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.

[…]

Just as there are multiple forms of life on earth, so there could exist intelligent beings in outer space created by God. And some aliens could even be free from original sin, he speculates.

Um-Kay. But didn’t God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son? So all those aliens must be headed for hell, since they’ve never been given the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as their savior. Seems rather harsh. Not to mention bad planning – creating all those life forms for them all to be damned to an eternity of fire and brimstone. (Apart from those who are free from original sin, of course.  But surely that can't be all of them?) 

I can’t help thinking that God didn’t think this through very carefully.

Skeptics’ Circle

A real bitching edition of the  Skeptics Circle has just been posted at The Skepbitch. Don’t be put off by the name – she’s actually a friendly and polite person. Or so she says.