August 2017

Here are the topics I chose to talk about on RadioLive for the month. Some of them may not have been mentioned on the radio due to a lack of time.

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Show Excerpt Categories Date

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• August 27, 2017

• Naturopath Implicated in Cancer Deaths

  Stuff has a great article about a Naturopath who has been involved in treating the cancer of two patients who have died recently. The patients have both spoken out about how they think they made a mistake in trusting the naturopath.

  3 min read, 588 words. Continue Reading...

  Categories: Pseudoscience, CAM , Tags: Naturopathy

• Satanic Panic

  It looks like the book has finally been closed on one of the most famous Satanic Panic cases in the US - that of the Kellers.

  4 min read, 644 words. Continue Reading...

  Categories: Skepticism , Tags: Religion, Satanism

• August 6, 2017

• Daughter conned into selling her possessions

  Lori Harris from the UK has sold all her belongings to pay for treatment for her mother, Lisa, who has stage 4 ovarian cancer. The Go Fund Me page for the fundraising effort for this treatment, which asks for £200,000, talks of needing money for immunotherapy in Germany, and links to a great article describing how this new therapy has the potential to allow us to treat some cancers in a novel way.

  2 min read, 340 words. Continue Reading...

  Categories: Pseudoscience, CAM , Tags: Cancer

• Haunted Doll "strikes" again

  Debbie Merrick bought a doll for £5 and then placed the doll on eBay, after making international news by talking about the doll being haunted. Apparently the doll scratched Debbie's husband, although the doll was not seen causing the scratches - the husband simply woke up with scratches on himself. The determination that the doll caused the scratches came from a psychic friend.

  3 min read, 415 words. Continue Reading...

  Categories: Skepticism , Tags: Pseudoscience, Ghost

• Jacinta Ardern Conspiracy!

  Vinny Eastwood has suggested that the new head of the Labour Party is in league with the Freemasons:

  2 min read, 252 words. Continue Reading...

  Categories: Skepticism , Tags: Conspiracy, Freemasons

• Finally, a skeptical story about Lotto

  There was a nice story about the 30th anniversary of the Lotto this week from Stuff. The article talked about how the fact some numbers come up more often than others is likely chance (Lotto take this seriously, and apparently regularly wash and weigh the balls to ensure there's no bias). The difference in frequency between the most drawn ball, number 1 (16.91%) and the least drawn ball number 34 (13.97%) is not huge, and I suspect the number frequency draws a bell curve.

  1 min read, 140 words. Continue Reading...

  Categories: Skepticism , Tags: Pseudoscience, Lottery