Is the risk real or is it just an excuse to keep dog walkers off farmland ?
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- The BBC radio 4 Farming prog had a landowner saying cows can catch a parasite from faeces of carnivores like dogs Neospora caninum (Echinococcosis)
- Is the risk real or is it just an excuse to keep dog walkers off farmland ?
- The internet is not exactly full of scientific papers backing up so either the science is new or there's not much in it. I found this Queensland Oz Government report saying "
In some areas such as north coast NSW, Neospora caninum is thought to be responsible for over 30% of all abortions in cattle "
- "Neospora caninum, a microscopic protozoan parasite, was first described a little over a decade ago and has since been shown to be a major cause of bovine abortion throughout the world."
1. dogs not infected would pose no risk
2. Even if an infected dog shat in a field of 500 cows and 10 aborted it would be difficult to pin it on the dog, as the infection could have come to 1 cow from a wild carnivore like fox, dingo etc. and then spread crosswise through the cows. Are farmdogs routinely checked ? I can't imagine farmers running around after their own dogs with plastic bags ..it does seem like a scare story to me.
| Prog about Aging
- Dr Michio Kaku BBC4
- parrots have low free radical production so genes stay undamaged longer so they live longer than other small animals
- sea urchins live to 150
| Obsession with Living Longer is a Delusion
BBC TV documentary series Horizon about aging
- Seems there is a lot of funding for longevity research in the US as there are many successful business people who are worried about getting old.
- The progamme featured a lot of scientists researching longevity, but a lot of them seemed be driven by an obsession to stay young. They did unscientific stuff like taking there own untested medicines.
- The programme also featured a lot of obsessed people who are deluded. They'd say "I'm 60 but I feel 45", but I'm thinking they do look a fit 65, they definitely don't look 45.
- The prog also featured Israeli research : a 102 year old woman and others who have longevity , but don't have a healthy lifestyle, as they seem to have good genes. (BTW UK news yesterday was that 30% of people over 65 will suffer dementia)
| From Sleeping in the Park to Billionaire|
- I suppose if people enjoy life so they want to live longer. But for most of life is a hassle - so death isn't a great fear
- Also on BBC Radio Business Peter Day is doing 3 progs about longevity.
- Another incredible story about David Murdock who is a genius about business. He came from sleeping in the park to building up businesses and now is a billionaire and owner of thee famous fruit company Dole.
- But then after his wife died of cancer he started to get worried about health and he's got into an obsession of only eating vegetables (plus fresh water fish), which doesn't sound entirely rational.
- He has put money into 8 US universities for longevity research including a $1.5bn center (North Idaho)
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Skeptical Science goes mainstream|
Skeptical Science goes mainstream :
- From the Radio Times the main TV listings magazine for the UK in it's normal TV preview text..."experiment that's as likely to be peer reviewed as a year sevens chemistry homework" (when talking about A Jo Frost Super Nanny prog)
- Unfortunately they don't fully understand cos strictly speaking it might be pretty common for kids to check and copy each others homework., so their work is being reviewed by their peers isn't it ?
- But it very interesting that an understanding of scientific method is appearing in the mainstream media. And it is interesting to see that more media outlets are beginning to run stories exposing the made up stories that have appeared in MSM. Then on top of that look how the number of skeptical podcasts and blogs seem have increased in the last couple of years.
- Update the next week the producer wrote in to say that the item in the prog was based on peer reviewed experiments and that all the programme items are fundamentally based in science.
| I see that a blog documents the daily lies of tabloids.
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- http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com (Other places are also beginning to highlight the lies like McIntyres MUP feature (on radio 5 Live on Sunday evening)) It's kind of good, but one could go on with this forever and ever. I think one has to look that one has to reach for bigger fundamentals i.e. that most of the population get their picture of the world through the distorting lens of the TV and the newspapers.
- It's important to realise that Main Stream Media isn't about getting to the truth even if it pretends it is, rather it's about other things like making money and supporting a political agenda and that distortion is the nature of the media beast.
- Commercial realities cause distortion :
- Negative stories sell
- Lies are good cos they generate counterclaims and debate i.e. print a truth which everyone agrees with that's end of story. Print a lie and it provokes a growing story.
That's why on the letter pages they will always print the controversial letter even when they know the matter has already been settled., as they know it will provoke a reaction.
- Banging on about the same thing again and again : Fallacies of magnitude are common cos it's easer to fill space with simple stories rather than complex stories. By banging on about the same thing again and again it makes it appear things are worse than they are
- Saying something is a crisis - a couple of stories can be turned into a "crisis"
- "Thousands of people do charity work everyday, but they are not mentioned. Footballers are out helping people
The church publicises the saints the media the sinners"
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