Some days it appears the whole world is against you -- I have a cold and I’m writing this away from home, as internet access is still fairly sporadic. Ah well.
None of the following may help your mood either, so you have been warned…
John Edward. In Australia. Gah. You may recall this ambush via Ghostbusters, which I discussed with The Chasers’ Julian Morrow:
Appears that there’s a few others in the media making comments too? After a few nasty reports in the press by Edward, calling him ‘arrogant’, the journalist Jon Faine responded:
ABC 774 presenter Jon Faine has hit back after television psychic John Edward described him as “arrogant” and “dripping with cynicism”.
Edward’s comments, published in The Age’s Green Guide, follow a heated on-air exchange between the pair last November.
…During the course of his 25-year career, Edward has been accused of using cheap tricks and simple cold-reading techniques to exploit vulnerable people. His sensitivity and taste have been questioned, perhaps most vocally when the network aired his September 11 special featuring relatives of the victims, two months after the event.
There’s also a radio interview 3AW /693: Listen to Neil Mitchell and TV critic Nicole Brady have their say on Edward and the psychic ‘profession’. Do you think there are genuine psychics out there?
Christopher Hitchens in Slate, addresses Prince Charles and his claims:
…the speech made by Prince Charles at Oxford last week might bear a little scrutiny. Discussing one of his favorite topics, the “environment,” he announced that the main problem arose from a “deep, inner crisis of the soul” and that the “de-souling” of humanity probably went back as far as Galileo. In his view, materialism and consumerism represented an imbalance, “where mechanistic thinking is so predominant,” and which “goes back at least to Galileo’s assertion that there is nothing in nature but quantity and motion.” He described the scientific worldview as an affront to all the world’s “sacred traditions.”
On a much more positive note? The wonderful Skeptical Review site, which checks out podcasts -- they’ve reviewed the latest episode of the Token Skeptic, on Big Pharma!
The Token Skeptic featured a discussion between Dr. Leslie Cannold and Michael McRae moderated by your very own Kylie Sturgess on (cue dramatic music) BIG PHARMA! Actually, what ensued was not what I was expecting, which would be something more of a defense of corporate free enterprise pharmaceutical companies with a few criticisms.
Instead, it was more of a very honest discussion of the many real issues that face modern medicine and how drugs are tested and marketed. This is not to denote that this was a Meryl Dorey-style big pharma is out to cause your kid autism clap trap. Rather, it was a frank discussion with an ethicist and Mike McRae, science communicator and educator, on some of the real problems with how big pharma operates and its shortfalls.
They also liked my interview for the Skeptic Zone (which is an extended version of the one I did for the ‘365 Days of Astronomy‘ podcast). Wahoo! So, go download and you can expect more episodes this week -- particularly since I appeared to have missed one due to bloomin’ technical hiccups once again.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Fabulous article, as always, Kylie.
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