. . SOCIETY

Vol 39, No 2. June 2019

TheCost of Free Speech

+50th Anniversary of The Landing

Australian Skeptics . www.skeptics.com.au

Skeptic_Cover_Mar19.indd 1 3/06/2019 9:50 pm The Skeptic June 19

Skeptical Groups in NSW VIC Inc – Eran Segev Australian Skeptics (Victorian Branch) Inc – Chris Guest www.skeptics.com.au PO Box 5166, VIC 3001 PO Box 20, Beecroft, NSW 2119 Tel: 0403 837 339 [email protected] Tel: 02 8094 1894; Mob: 0432 713 195; Fax: (02) 8088 4735 [email protected] Skeptics’ Café – third Monday of every month, with guest speaker, at the Dan O’Connell Hotel, 225 Canning St, Carlton. Sydney Skeptics in the Pub – 6pm first Thursday of each Meal from 6pm, speaker at 8pm sharp. month at the Occidental Hotel, York Street in the city, near More details on our web site www.skeptics.com.au/vic Wynyard Park (meeting second floor) Dinner meetings are held on a regular basis. Ballarat Skeptics in the Pub http://facebook.com/groups/3978112230309544 Hunter Skeptics – John Turner Tel: (02) 4959 6286 [email protected] Gippsland Skeptics in the Pub Occasional social meetings at the Cricketers Arms Hotel, Cooks Interested parties contact Mark Guerin or Martin Christian Power Hill. Those on the contact list will be sent details in advance. via the Gippsland Skeptics page: https://www.facebook.com/ Currently meeting at 12.30 on third Sunday of each odd-numbered groups/291929110900396/?ref=bookmarks month. Melbourne Eastern Hills Skeptics in the Pub Blue Mountains Skeptics Contact: Andrew Rawlings [email protected] See Facebook for details. Tel: 0438 043 050 hyyp://groupspaces.com/meh-sitp https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Eastern-Hills Coffs Coast Skeptics & Freethinkers See Facebook for details. Skeptics-in-the-Pub/19241290737690 Meets second Monday of each month at The Knox Club, Wantirna South. ACT Canberra Skeptics – Lauren Kelly PO Box 555, Civic Square ACT 2608 Melbourne Skeptics in the Pub www.canberraskeptics.org.au Tel: 0410 382 306 See Facebook for details. [email protected] (general inquiries), Meets on the fourth Monday of every month from 6 pm at the [email protected] (Canberra Skeptics in the Pub). Mt View Hotel in Richmond. A free monthly talk, open to the public - check website for details Skeptics in the Pub gather at 1pm on the third Sunday of each Mordi Skeptics in the Pub month at King O’Malleys Pub in Civic. For up-to-date details: http://www.meetup.com/Mordi-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/ www.meetup.com/ SocialSkepticsCanberra/ Meets at 7.30pm on the first Tuesday of each month at the Mordialloc Sporting Club. ($4 to cover website costs)

For details on Skeptical groups in other states and territories, see inside back cover Volume 39 • No 2 June 19 Contents FEATURES Fighting Words 12 Tim Mendham 16 It’s Only Academic 16 Tim Mendham

Eggs are for Eating 21 Martin Hadley 12 Drawing a Line 22 Phillipa Smith 22 21

ARTICLES 28 Message from the Moon 24 Geoff Allshorn 24 36 Life & Times of Moon Hoax 28

Tidal Wave of Planets 36 Martin Bridgstock

Ghost in a Box 40 Ari Moore

Military Myths 42 Win Fowles 46 UFOs Won’t Go Away 46 Keith Kloor 42 40 REGULARS Editorial 4 Around the Traps 5 Them! 10 57 Logical place 23 Puzzles page 27 Book review 57 What goes around 58 Letters 60 Quotable Quotes 62 58 EDITORIAL

Sticks and stones ticks and stones will break my bones, what they can say. But misinformation S but words will never hurt me. about science, misleading information, This is obviously untrue, as every or outright lies can be just as bullied child knows. The childhood damaging to individuals and society as rhyme is a defensive move, almost a hate-filled information, and should be plea, for their tormentor not to hurt treated accordingly. ISSN 0726-9897 them. Yes, sticks and stones are painful, In this issue of The Skeptic we look Quarterly Journal of but anyone who’s been on the butt end at the concept of free speech from a Australian Skeptics Inc of invective is aware of the power of a number of perspectives. We look at (ABN 90 613 095 379) well-targeted verbal assault. the changing historical notion of what Editor In an age of cyber-bullying leading free speech entails, and how or even Tim Mendham to potentially tragic results, especially if it can be exercised. We look at the but not only among the young, the difficult responsibility of knowing how Editorial Board unbridled use of harmful words is to treat hate speech online – to pull Steve Roberts destructive and dangerous, and is in the switch on “free expression” when Eran Segev need of close attention and, at the very that expression is overtly designed to Martin Hadley least, moderation. encourage physical and mental hurt Design Services But it goes further than that. Those to others. We look at the legal status Nova Consulting P/L wielding the hurtful words often claim of free speech in Australia. And we the notion of “free speech” or “freedom look at the situation where Australian All correspondence to: of expression” as a right to use any universities hide behind “academic Australian Skeptics Inc words they care to. free speech” to avoid uncomfortable PO Box 20 Now, everyone should be aware decisions when their staff, researchers, Beecroft NSW 2119 that “free speech” comes with a cost, and lecturers use misinformation to Australia and apart from the considerable hurt spread a false-based polemic under Contact details it may cause, the cost is that “free the banner and imprimatur of those Tel: +61 (0)2 8094 1894 speech” is not free at all. institutions of learning. Mob: +61 (0)432 713 195 The standard refrain is that you can’t Freedom of speech used recklessly Fax: +61 (0)2 8088 4735 yell “Fire!” in a crowded theatre when and dishonestly is not about learning there is no fire. That particular concept but about persuading and inculcating [email protected] arose from a US Supreme Court beliefs with style over substance. www.skeptics.com.au decision in 1919 when the Court ruled Freedom of speech is regularly thrown unanimously that the First Amendment, at skeptics with the suggestion that The Skeptic is published four times though it protects freedom of we are limiting the natural right of per year by Australian Skeptics Inc. expression, does not protect dangerous individual to express themselves. Views and opinions expressed in articles speech. In the decision, Oliver Wendell But it is not that simple right that and letters in The Skeptic are those of Holmes wrote that no free speech skeptics object to. It is the misuse of the authors, and are not necessarily safeguard would cover someone “falsely that right that is of concern. Those who those of Australian Skeptics Inc. shouting fire in a theatre and causing say that limiting free speech is limiting Articles may be reprinted with a panic”. (The case in question did not freedom of thought are wrong. You permission and with due acknowledge- actually involve fires, theatres or general are entitled to your thoughts. You are ment to The Skeptic. panic. It instead concerned a man’s entitled to express your thoughts. But All effort is made to ensure correct conviction for protesting the First World you are not entitled to say whatever you acknowledgement of all contributions. War’s military draft.) like without consequence or rebuttal or We are happy to update credit when so Purveyors of misinformation of all criticism. And you are not entitled to informed. sorts regularly use the notion of free be heard or to be taken seriously. speech to justify their actions. Anti- Freedom of speech should be Editorial submission deadline vaccination proponents in particular protected, but it should not be outside for the next issue: cry foul whenever a proponent of that of debate or control. . August 1, 2019 dangerous position is restricted in 4 - Tim Mendham, editor NEWS The Skeptic June 19 Around the traps ... SGU, Gerbic for 2019

AUS: The Vic Skeptics have announced Universe: How to Know What’s Really that the entire team from the acclaimed Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake. international podcast The Skeptics’ ’s current focus is Guide to the Universe (SGU), and working to expose people claiming Susan Gerbic, founder of Guerrilla to be clairvoyant mediums. She has Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW), will organised and participated in a number be a featured presenters at Skepticon of stings that reveal how so-called 2019, Skeptics National source their information. Convention, in Melbourne this As founder and leader of GSoW, December. she has brought together more than opening event on the evening of SGU is one of the most respected 120 editors from around the world December 6. The convention itself podcasts on skepticism, , – including Australia - to improve runs over the weekend December reason and the public understanding of skeptical content on Wikipedia. 7-8, with the gala dinner on Saturday, science. The first episode of the SGU Skepticon will be held at the December 7. podcast went online on May 4, 2005 and University of Melbourne from Full details are available from is today one of the most popular science December 6-8. the convention website (Skepticon. podcasts on iTunes. There will be a casual trivia night org). Tickets are now available from the The SGU members are also authors of prior to the convention on Thursday, website, with special earlybird tickets the bestselling The Skeptics’ Guide to the December 5, followed by the official available before June 30. .

Wilyman anti-vax PhD incomplete, biased and flawed

AUS: A recent study by four researchers touch with global communities and it is of achieving PhD status, and was more in has raised serious concerns over the controlled by the interests of corporations line with a Master’s degree level. notorious PhD thesis by leading anti- and the World Bank”. That examiner expressed “serious vaxxer Judy Wilyman, which earned her a The researchers describe the thesis as concerns about a lack of engagement PhD from the based on “incomplete, flawed technical with existing literature and the lack of an in 2015. assertions”. appropriate theoretical framework”. They Called “A critical analysis of the “This thesis is notable for its lack of also felt that the thesis showed no evidence Australian government’s rationale for its evidence of systematic literature review. that Wilyman conducted original research, ”, Wilyman’s thesis Despite its extensive claims, there is no nor that it demonstrated that she had described what she calls “the political primary research, but there is abundant made “a significant contribution to the framework in which policy is affected by evidence of strong bias in selecting the knowledge of the subject”. biased science or undone [underfunded] literature cited and sometimes outright The study authors say that “The quality science” and claims “the existence of misrepresentation of facts.” of the writing and presentation of the thesis institutional barriers to carrying out The thesis’s journey to final PhD status is such that many of its arguments could independent research, including on topics was not smooth. Based on documents seem plausible to an examiner without unwelcome to groups released by the specific content knowledge, despite sound with vested interests”. University under a academic credentials. Our combined She included GIPA freedom of expertise (vaccinology, epidemiology, the collusion between information request, history and practice of immunisation policy industry and health one of two unnamed development globally and in Australia, authorities, particularly examiners who social science) and as PhD examiners, both that the World Health reviewed the thesis gives us detailed knowledge of the sources Organisation “is suggested that it was cited by the thesis, and allows us to identify perceived to be out of definitely not worthy key deficiencies.” . 5 23 NEWS

Disciplinary action for spreading ASI statement on anti-vax messages climate change

AUS: As Australia experiences an earlier investigate and protect others.” AUS: In 2010, Australian Skeptics Inc than usual influenza outbreak combined However, some have been less than released a statement about the troubling with a five-year high in measles cases, convinced. use of the term “Skeptics” or “Sceptics” health regulators have warned that Ken McLeod, a regular campaigner in the context of climate science. We’ve health professionals who spread anti- against pseudomedicine, along with now expanded our position on so-called vaccination messages will be disciplined. other members of the Friends of “climate change scepticism”. The Australian Health Practitioner Science in Medicine, have reported After more than 60 years of research, Regulation Authority (AHPRA),along hundreds of chiropractors, along with the agreement among scientists is that with 16 national health boards, several doctors and nurses, to AHPRA the climate is changing and that this has released a statement warning over the past decade for spreading anti- change is mostly human-induced. practitioners that they had a responsi- vaccination messages. The agreement is as strong as those bility to the public to promote evidence “The response from the regulators concerning evolution and the safety that vaccines are safe and effective. has invariably been a slap with a and efficacy of vaccines. Scientists AHPRA chief executive Martin damp lettuce, just warning them to treat climate change as a real and Fletcher said he was concerned that fix their advertising, or a warning not serious threat, but it’s not just them. some health practitioners, including to mention vaccination to their clients,” Organisations around the world, from doctors, nurses and chiropractors, were McLeod said. militaries to food manufacturers and promoting anti-vaccination views on “If AHPRA and other regulators insurance companies, not to mention or in their practices. While had responded properly to our the Reserve Bank, are factoring much of the measles outbreak has been notifications, today’s picture would be the scientific predictions into their due to unknowingly under-vaccinated different. Because this is more than just planning. people travelling overseas and returning false-advertising. I consider it medical From a practical perspective, we can with the virus, rather than due to malpractice.” – indeed we must – take climate change deliberate anti-vaccination, Fletcher said Board of Australia and its human causes as fact. medical professionals must not spread chairman Dr Wayne Minter said The full statement is available on the false information. patients seeking vaccination advice ASI website at tinyurl.com/y6qn55pf. . “We take seriously any case of should speak with a medical practitioners spreading dangerous and practitioner in the first instance, before misleading anti-vaccination information seeking advice from a chiropractor. Teen who sued over including on social media,” he said. “We expect practitioners to vaccine gets chickenpox “They will face regulatory action or provide patients with evidence-based prosecution. We are asking the public to information in accordance with tell us if their practitioner is doing this. established guidelines for vaccinations,” USA: A teenager who took legal action If you raise your concerns with us we can he said. . against his school after he was banned for refusing the chickenpox vaccination now has the virus, his lawyer says. Indian army reports yeti footprints Jerome Kunkel, 18, made headlines recently after he unsuccessfully sued his Kentucky school for barring INDIA: The Indian army has reported wrote. Others were unimmunised students amid an that a mountaineering expedition simply confused, outbreak. He had opposed the vaccine team had stumbled upon a set of Yeti asking: “Is this on religious grounds. footprints in Nepal. some prank?” “These are deeply held religious The army tweeted from its official The detail that most undercut the beliefs, they’re sincerely held beliefs,” account that an expedition team had come army’s claim was that the footprint Kunkel’s lawyer said. “From their across “Mysterious footprints of mythical photos seemed to suggest that the alleged perspective, they always recognised beast ‘yeti’ measuring 32×15 inches close to yeti is one-legged, which skeptics were they were running the risk of getting [a Makalu Base Camp on 09 April 2019.” quick to point out. One asked whether disease], and they were OK with it.” Many of the army’s 6 million Twitter the beast “travels by jumping.” The Northern Kentucky Health followers were less than impressed. The army said that the videos and Department excluded unvaccinated “Couldn’t you guys call a single animal photographic evidence had been handed students from classes and extracurricular expert before posting this?” one person over to subject matter experts. . activities from 14 March. . 6 The Skeptic June 19

Vale–Stanton Friedman Vale–Mike Willesee

USA: Famed UFO researcher Stanton AUS: Journalist Mike Willesee Friedman died last month. He was died in March after a long battle with credited with bringing the Roswell throat . As the ABC relates, Incident to mainstream conversation. “Willesee became a household name He was a nuclear physicist by training, after fronting Friedman had devoted his life to the ABC’s Four researching and investigating UFOs Corners program since the late 1960s. for two years from 1969 and was described as a ‘trailblazer’ Uni defence of questioned of Australian journalism. He AUS: Southern Cross University many natural therapies. then left the ABC, researchers say a new “world-first” study However, Prof of UNSW, joining Channel proves the benefits of naturopathy, but and former president of Friends of Science Nine in 1971 for critics are questioning the institution’s in Medicine, has questioned the study’s his own nightly credibility. definition of naturopathy. Dwyer said: program, A A study says that there is a “body of “They tell readers what naturopathy Current Affair.” He evidence” supporting naturopathic therapy. is and the first point is ‘good clinical had a long, largely positive, relationship The University’s Professor Stephen Myers nutrition, diet modification when with the Skeptics during the 1980s, but says its research involved analysis of 33 necessary, counselling, lifestyle counselling, less positive during the 1990s. international studies. He said the study hydrotherapy’. In 1980, the Willesee program ran was motivated by a review chaired by the “That’s hardly a unique set of criteria a short piece on water divining tests former Commonwealth Chief Medical - most doctors and health professionals featuring and Dick Smith. Officer that found there was no clear would embrace that. At the heart of this It was this program and the way the evidence demonstrating the efficacy of is the credibility of Southern Cross.” . tests were carried out and then exposed to the public that was the inspiration for the launch of Australian Skeptics in Belle Gibson questioned on failure to pay fine Melbourne and Sydney in 1981. Willesee is noted as the only person to win both positive and negative AUS: Fake wellness Gibson made awards from Australian Skeptics. In blogger Belle Gibson $420,000 after building 1987, Willesee’s company TransMedia told the Federal Court a social media empire Productions won the Skeptical last month that she does and releasing The Whole Journalism Award for a program on not have the capacity to Pantry cookbook and Uri Geller, but in 1999 Willesee won pay a $410,000 fine for an app based on the the Bent Spoon for the documentary conning consumers as she claims. It was later Signs From God. . faced questioning about revealed she never had her income, investments the disease. She also told and assets. her followers she had donated a portion Gibson appeared in court to a of her profits to charities. summons pursued by Consumer Affairs She told the court she no longer had after she failed to appear at past the money, and “On the rare occasion I hearings. She faced a possible arrest order sold some of my things in my home to if she had not turned up last month. make ends meet.” This is despite recent The Federal Court previously ordered holidays overseas, new clothes bought Gibson to pay the fine by mid-October especially for the court case, and large 2017 after she was found guilty of bets placed on gambling site Sportsbet. misleading and deceptive conduct for The matter will return to court on claiming she had brain cancer cured by June 6, so printing schedules mean we alternative therapies and nutrition. cannot report on the result this issue. . 7 23 NEWS

World’s first malaria vaccine to go to 360,000 African children

AFRICA: Some 360,000 children potential to save tens of thousands of a year in three African countries will children’s lives.” receive the world’s first malaria vaccine Malaria is a parasitic disease as part of a large-scale pilot project, the transmitted through the bite of World Health Organisation said recently. female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is Malawi has started vaccinating both preventable and treatable, yet an children under two years of age, and estimated 435,000 people die of it each Kenya and Ghana will begin using the year, including 250,000 children in vaccine in coming weeks, with health Africa. ministries in these countries deciding Alena Pance, senior staff scientist at where it will be used, WHO said. the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said The vaccine - RTS,S, also known as control malaria in the last 15 years, the vaccine was not “overwhelmingly Mosquirix - was created by scientists but progress has stalled and even effective, but it is very important to bear at the British pharmaceutical company reversed in some areas. We need new in mind that 40 per cent protection GSK in 1987. It offers partial protection solutions to get the malaria response in the most endemic part of the world, from the disease, with clinical trials back on track, and this vaccine gives us Africa, is better than no protection at all. finding that it prevented approximately 4 a promising tool to get there,” WHO Ultimately, this is the only vaccine that in 10 malaria cases, according to WHO. Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom has some efficacy that we currently have “We have seen tremendous gains Ghebreyesus said in a statement. and has taken decades to develop. This is from bed nets and other measures to “The malaria vaccine has the in itself good news”, Pance told CNN. .

Frog poison Church offers bleach miracle cure healers banned

USA: A group calling itself Genesis both on textiles and in the industrial AUS: Two healers who use an II Church of Health and Healing is treatment of water. It has been banned in Amazonian tree frog poison, which promoting a “miracle cure” that claims several countries around the world for use is under investigation following a to cure 95 per cent of all diseases in the as a medical treatment. woman’s death, have been banned world by making adults and children, In the US, the chemical cannot be from operating in Victoria and South including infants, drink industrial bleach. sold for human consumption. In 2010, Australia while an inquiry is underway. The group invited members of the US Food and Drug Administration South Australians Carlie Angel the public to attend what they called put out a public warning after it was and Brad Williams, who trade as Two their “effective alternative healing” at notified of many injuries to consumers Wolves - One Body, have been ordered Washington State Resort. from drinking the fluid, with symptoms to immediately stop providing their The church was asking attendants that included nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, ‘kambo’ based treatments. of the meeting to “donate” $450 each, severe dehydration and one person who Kambo is a name for the skin or $800 per couple, in exchange for had a life-threatening reaction. secretion of the giant green monkey receiving membership to the organisation The FDA issued the blunt advice: tree frog, which is found in South as well as packages of the bleach, which “Consumers who have MMS should stop America’s Amazon rainforest. It is used they call “sacraments”. The chemical using it immediately and throw it away.” in “cleansing rituals” and has become is referred to as MMS, or “miracle This is not the first time that popular as an , mineral solution or supplement”, and Washington State has grappled with a spawning a growing underground participants are promised they will group touting MMS. In 2015 Louis community of users. acquire “the knowledge to help heal Smith from Spokane was convicted in the . many people of this world’s terrible Eastern District of Washington for selling diseases”. misbranded drugs and defrauding the Diseases and conditions mentioned US. He had sold MMS through a website include malaria, ebola, dengue fever, all called Project GreenLife, having obtained types of cancer, diabetes, , HIV sodium chlorite fraudulently by creating a and multiple sclerosis. phony “water purification” business. MMS actually consists of chlorine He was sentenced to four years in 8 dioxide, a powerful bleach that is used prison. .

THEM Readers’ indigestible Tim Mendham looks at those online places of note, where skepticism is not such a dirty word.

nswering questions from those who believe, who see something that needs Aexplaining, or who just need to know, sometimes requires a bit of help that goes beyond suggesting Wikipedia. Here are some sites to help you out, and hopefully give you the answer you both need.

What’s your question?

The internet is chock full of photos As the site explains it, “Metabunk. of fields, but keep in mind that these are and videos of supposedly org is dedicated to the art and pastime forum entries, which means that you phenomena and lectures presented of honest, polite, scientific investigating do get a mixture of views. For instance, by earnest proponents of conspiracy and debunking. It is primarily a one thread on links between chemtrails theories. These are regularly shared discussion forum, however the focus is conspiracy believers and anti-vaxxers (yes, between other sites, particularly on on providing concise useful resources, they do exist and yes, Meryl Dorey of YouTube, so that the same phenomena and attempting to avoid repetitive the Australian Vaccination skeptics/risk and theories keep popping up all over debate and arguments.” Association has shown her belief in the the place. Each time it does, you will It’s run by , a retired video former) includes posts by anti-vaxxers find someone seeing or hearing it for game programmer who co-founded themselves. the first time, and they then share it Entertainment (think Tony Readers of these entries rate posts with with others with an excited “Have you Hawk Pro-Skater and later Guitar Hero agree or disagree, informative, funny etc, seen this?!” And on it goes. games). He’s also written a book and so the anti-vaxxers’ views are rated as When this happens, eventually now a podcast titled Escaping the Rabbit unreliable. someone will come to you and digitally Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories You will have to do some digging to throw it in your face with a “What Using Facts, Logic, and Respect. find the specific subject you’re interested about this one? Debunk this one; I bet Metabunk started as a spin-off from in - the posts are organised by topics and you can’t.” West’s earlier Contrail Science site based around what is of interest to those Now, if you’re lucky, you will have (contrailscience.com), primarily because who make posts. Some of the themes are seen it or something similar before. If “the regular posters needed a more quite specific, and some posts do wander you’re at all interested in responding, flexible forum for discussing a wider off into tangents, especially via embedded you’ll then spend time researching range of topics”. links, so the search function will be an explanations and going back to Apparently the contrails and invaluable friend. your original correspondent with a chemtrails forum is the most popular, But as a source of analyses of suggested solution. along with other threads covering a selection of theories and claims But as the saying goes, it takes a conspiracy theories such as 9/11, false (especially of videos) this site is highly minute to start a bushfire and a week flags, modern manifestations of the New recommended. Just make sure that you to put it out. World Order and, and the perennial, look at all of the posts on a topic, and try UFOs. West says that “The focus is and avoid going down those rabbit holes. THE not so much about the paranormal, Finding the best responses to the cryptozoology or religion - unless there is THE REAL SCIENCE myriad of (often repetitive) claims is some interesting new claim of evidence.” As a nominal complement to Metabunk time-consuming and frustrating. What West also likes to discuss debunking is Metafact (metafact.io). would be great is a single source to as a topic itself, which he covers in a Metafact is a science-based fact- cover all of those pesky claims. forum titled “Practical Debunking”. checking platform. Without going Enter Metabunk.org. The site’s forums cover a wide range into the definition of meta-facts and

10 The Skeptic June 17

meta-analysis and statistical statements, consider fundamental do not bring up a alternative medicine, evolution, climate it is basically designed so that the public result … yet. change, astrology, etc. can ask questions that affect their own Australian Skeptics Inc is a supporter Of course, just having a question lives and independent scientific experts of the project, and we wish it all the best doesn’t guarantee there will be an then share their answers and knowledge in achieving its aim. answer. Metafact waits for a quorum collectively, “allowing the established Metafact.io should not be confused of experts before giving a consensus consensus to be published openly and with an India-based site with the same score; Stack Exchange relies on anyone/ freely for all to learn from”. name – Metafact.org. This is a Snopes- someone contributing a response. Topics currently covered are health, style site run by a handful of journalists They’re not necessarily an expert, medicine, the mind, environment and that fact-checks claims made in news although the responses that are there , and technology and society. items drawn largely from social media. are generally intelligent. So you may Only verified PhDs, researchers very well have to come back to see if a and medical specialists – the “Metafact THE QUESTIONABLE SCIENCE question has been answered. Academy” – can answer questions. In Another Q&A site with at least some sort A further downside is that, unlike response to a question, they give a score of skeptical content is Stack Exchange. Metafact, you don’t have a convenient on a likely/unlikely scale. That score is This is actually a network of sites on aggregated score of the experts’ view, aggregated with those of other experts, topics in diverse fields – 175 of them, which means you have to read through giving a percentage positive or negative in fact. It originally started as Stack the responses just to see if the question result. The site indicates when “not Overflow, a Q&A site for computer is supported by the evidence or not. enough experts” have submitted responses programming questions. New sites can One thing the three sites do have to give a consensus view. be established, defined and eventually – in common is that they tend to throw Some of the featured questions include if found relevant – brought to creation you in at the deep end – the first thing whether mammograms save lives (78 per by registered users through a special site you get is a list of questions. You will cent of experts say affirmative), is malaria named … wait for it … Area 51. also have to use the search function becoming more drug resistant (97 per There is a site called “skeptics” a lot; even within the large number cent affirmative), is gluten unhealthy (94 (skeptics.stackexchange.com) which itself of specified topics, there is a lot of per cent negative), and are worldwide sea is divided into more than 200 sub-topics. information stretched across a lot of levels rising (100 per cent affirmative). While that could keep you going for at pages to digest. Metafact is a far tidier While some experts only give a score, least a few years, you’ll find that most site and its consensus score is very useful many of them justify their answers by aren’t typical Skeptics-with-a capital-S – Metabunk and Stack Exchange are sharing more details, insights, latest type topics. For instance, a question like nothing if not busy. evidence or data. “On average in the US, is there a mass We would suggest you add Metafact The founders have a modest aim – to shooting 9 out of every 10 days?” doesn’t to your bookmarks – as it develops and be the premier go-to site in the world for crop up very often in the pages of this gathers more content (not that there science-based information; which is not journal, even though the discussion isn’t a lot already) you will find you will bad for a project founded in Australia, might be interesting and it does link to go to it on a regular basis. The other and now rapidly spreading across the an Australian video extolling the virtues two are fun and interesting for that globe. But it is a work in progress, so of Australia versus the US, ie you won’t odd query about a UFO video or the searches on some topics that you might get shot. But there are questions on appalling state of US gun control. .

11 FEATURE Free Speech

Yes you can, no you can’t! Tim Mendham takes a brief trip through the history of free speech. Fighting Words

veryone knows the famous state- Like the famous love-and peace prose Ement on free speech by the 18th poem Desiderata (“Go placidly amid the century French philosopher Voltaire: noise and haste etc”) that first appeared “I disapprove of what you say, but I in the 1920s but achieved fame in the will defend to the death your right to 1960s and 70s when proposed by some Voltaire say it.” to be a document from the 17th century, It’s an oft-cited quote that is the Voltaire ‘quote’ has the imprimatur used to justify the liberalisation of of a history that it does not deserve. THE OLDEN DAYS expression, and a view that is typical of And like Desiderata, reality is a lot more Older civilisations have often taken a Enlightenment thinking. complicated than that. simplistic view of human rights and Only, like a lot of our understanding As is the notion of “free speech”. free speech: don’t rubbish the ruler and of free speech, it’s wrong. The Oxford Dictionary defines you’ll be OK. The statement was actually written “free speech” as “The right to express According to the New by Evelyn Beatrice Hall (aka SG any opinions without censorship or Internationalist, “China did not Tallentyre) in 1906. She coined the restraint”, and Macquarie Dictionary develop an idea of rights that were sentence in a book called The Friends as the less absolute “The right to express inherent and natural to the individual of Voltaire, an anecdotal biography oneself and impart one’s opinions in as had arisen in Western Europe. telling the stories of ten men who were speech or writing or any form of public However, the ideally organised contemporaries and friends of the media.” Confucian society was supposed philosopher. The sentence appeared Of course, dictionaries don’t always to provide social welfare and just in a chapter entitled Helvetius the live in the real world, and it would be treatment. People were expected to Contradiction – about Claude Adrien unlikely that any society would give know their place. … The powerful Helvétius, author of De l’Esprit (On free rein to any and every statement by were expected to behave with Mind) – and was supposed to indicate any and every member, regardless of benevolence, and failure to do so could the sort of approach Voltaire may have content, intent or impact. Free speech result in forfeiture of power.” had, not what he actually ever said. comes at cost. On the other side of the world, 12 The Skeptic June 19

Republican Rome was witness to several cases where political speech was suppressed by violence. The most infamous case was the murder of the reformer Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BCE by the leaders of the Senate. However, the killing was not done legally or by the Roman state - it was essentially aristocratic mob violence. The Republican state never created the legal tools to formally censor political speech. This changed with the arrival in Rome of the Emperors, beginning with Caesar Augustus in 27 BCE. When supreme power is invested in a single person, they tend to be more sensitive to criticism from their subjects. Libel – and by which we mean libel against the Emperor or his government – was Clockwise from top left: Venice’s bocce di prosecuted as treason under Augustus, leone for posting accusatory notes; and by all following Emperors. Book 1758 edition of the Catholic Churhc’s List of burning – or people burning – was par Prohibited Books; and John Stuart Mill for the course and continued well into (1806-73) reading his favourite book. the Middle Ages. For instance, as the ‘menace’ of printing spread, more governments the term “imbroglio” refers to a part of attempted to centralise control. The the Piazetta off St Mark’s Square where French crown repressed printing and people gathered to elect their leaders the printer Etienne Dolet was burned and where they could share the latest at the stake in 1546. dirty laundry. If they weren’t gossiping, A few years earlier, the first they were accusing others of crimes by editions of the Catholic Church’s dropping notes into the bocce di leone, Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“List sort of post boxes that were scattered of Prohibited Books”) appeared, not around the city with a slot in the in Rome but in Catholic Netherlands mouth for the accusatory notes. (1529); Venice (1543) and Paris (1551). The Church continued 19TH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS to publish the list until it was In the 19th century there began a more discontinued in 1966. nuanced approach to free speech and At the peak of its empire, Venice the responsibilities that that entailed. had rules that punished anyone who The concept extended beyond criticism criticised not the government but of the powers-that-be, whether Not to say he always felt that way - his the city state itself, such was the monarch, government, or church, to concern for liberty did not extend to pride the citizens showed towards “la statements that impact on the broader all individuals and all societies. He Serenissima”, no doubt amplified by community. stated that “Despotism is a legitimate the city’s tenuous hold on existence One of the most influential figures mode of government in dealing with both geopolitically and geologically. on personal liberties was the English barbarians.” Foreigners who maligned the state were philosopher John Stuart Mill. His Nonetheless, for the non-barbarians, exiled; locals were imprisoned, if not book On Liberty (1859) addresses the Mill opened up a landscape of liberties murdered. nature and limits of the power that of expression: “There ought to exist But while free speech against the can be legitimately exercised by society the fullest liberty of professing and Venetian state was outlawed, free over the individual. His conception discussing, as a matter of ethical speech against individuals of the of liberty justified the freedom of conviction, any doctrine, however public was not. Gossip, innuendo and the individual in opposition to immoral it may be considered.” scheming were a currency in Venice – unlimited state and social control. (Chapter 2) 0313 FEATURE Free Speech

Fighting words Eleanor Roosevelt, UN Human Rights Continued... Commissioner, wrote part of the Declaration

He adds: “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” He is talking about “absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects, practical or speculative, scientific, moral or theological”. If liberty of expression is stifled, the price paid is “a sort of intellectual pacification” that sacrifices “the entire moral courage of the human mind”. But he then raises an issue which has resounded through philosophical and practical debate on freedom of speech THE TRANS-GLOBAL ERA in writing or in print, in the form of ever since – the “harm principle”. As politics and nationhood developed art, or through any other media of his Mill suggests that we need some rules in the 20th century, in the times choice”. of conduct to regulate the actions of between and post wars, the era of In December 1966, the ICCPR was members of a political community. The international ‘interference’ in nations’ adopted as a multilateral treaty by the limitation he places on free expression is social programs began – first with United Nations General Assembly. “one very simple principle” which states the League of Nations, and then with It initially came into force from that “the only purpose for which power that harbinger of the One World March 1976 – as of August 2017, can be rightfully exercised over any Government, the United Nations and the Covenant has 172 parties and six member of a civilised community, against its various offshoots. more signatories without ratification; his will, is to prevent harm to others”. Freedom of expression is recognised Australia signed it in December 1972, “[The member’s] own good, either as a human right under Article 19 of and it came into force in November physical or moral, is not a sufficient the Universal Declaration of Human 1980. warrant. He cannot rightfully be Rights (UDHR) and recognised in The covenant commits its parties to compelled to do or forbear because it international human rights law in the respect the civil and political rights of will be better for him to do so, because International Covenant on Civil and individuals, including the right to life, it will make him happier, because, in Political Rights (ICCPR). freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the opinion of others, to do so would The UDHR was adopted by the freedom of assembly, electoral rights be wise, or even right. ... The only part United Nations General Assembly and rights to due process and a fair trial. of the conduct of anyone, for which on 10 December 1948 as Resolution However, the version of Article 19 he is amenable to society, is that which 217. Of the then 58 members of the in the ICCPR amends that from the concerns others. In the part which merely UN, 48 voted in favour (including UDHR by stating that the exercise of concerns himself, his independence is, Australia), none against, eight these rights carries “special duties and of right, absolute. Over himself, over his abstained, and two did not vote. responsibilities” and may “therefore be own body and mind, the individual is Article 19 states that “everyone subject to certain restrictions” when sovereign.” shall have the right to hold opinions necessary “for respect of the rights In other words, free speech is not an without interference” and “everyone or reputation of others” or “for the invitation to, as the OED says, “The shall have the right to freedom of protection of national security or of right to express any opinions without expression; this right shall include public order, or of public health or censorship or restraint” – other members freedom to seek, receive and impart morals”. of society are involved and consideration information and ideas of all kinds, Freedom of speech and expression, must be given to them. regardless of frontiers, either orally, therefore, may not be recognized 14 The Skeptic June 19

as being absolute, and common member states and, in particular, Venice Commission does not support limitations or boundaries to freedom to help states wishing to bring their absolute liberalism. While there is no of speech relate to (as Wikipedia legal and institutional structures into doubt that in a democracy all ideas, puts it) libel, slander, obscenity, line with European standards and even though shocking or disturbing, pornography, sedition, incitement, international experience in the fields of should in principle be protected … it fighting words, classified information, democracy, human rights and the rule is equally true that not all ideas deserve copyright violation, trade secrets, food of law. to be circulated. Since the exercise of labelling, non-disclosure agreements, In 2006 the EU’s Parliamentary freedom of expression carries duties the right to privacy, the right to be Assembly of the Council and responsibilities, it forgotten, public security, and perjury. of Europe passed is legitimate to expect Justifications for these limitations Resolution 1510 on If you believe in from every member of include the harm principle proposed by freedom of expression “ a democratic society John Stuart Mill. and respect for religious Freedom of Speech, to avoid as far as These limitations – certainly those beliefs, particularly the you believe in possible expressions pertaining to incitement and fighting question of whether and freedom for views that express scorn words – did not seem to be an issue to what extent respect or are gratuitously for noted social critic Noam Chomsky, for religious beliefs you don’t like. offensive to others who said in a 1992 documentary based should limit freedom of ” and infringe their on his book Manufacturing Consent, expression. It expressed rights.” that: “If you believe in freedom the view that freedom of expression What it comes down to is, yes you of speech, you believe in freedom should not be further restricted to have freedom of speech, but no, you of speech for views you don’t like. meet increasing sensitivities of certain can’t necessarily use it. Yes, you have Dictators such as Stalin and Hitler religious groups, but underlined that the right to your own ideas, but you were in favour of freedom of speech hate speech against any religious group can’t necessarily express them. And if for views they liked only. If you’re was incompatible with the European you express them, others have the right in favour of freedom of speech, that Convention on Human Rights. to criticise your ideas (if not actually means you’re in favour of freedom of In 2016 the Venice Commission vilify you). And most of all, and speech precisely for views you despise.” noted that “A democracy should not despite any regulation or legislation or It is hard to tell whether he was fear debate, even on the most shocking philosophising or Imperial decree, no- being critical of freedom of speech or anti-democratic ideas. It is through one has to take you seriously, and that’s itself, or those who would want to open discussion that these ideas should their freedom. . restrict it. be countered and the supremacy of These restrictions were discussed democratic values be demonstrated. … earlier this century by the European Persuasion through open public debate, Commission for Democracy through as opposed to ban or repression, is the Law - better known as the Venice most democratic means of preserving Commission as it meets in Venice (that fundamental values.” About the author: home of gossip and accusation). But, as always seems to happen Tim Mendham is executive The role of the Venice Commission in debate on free speech since the officer and editor with is to provide legal advice to EU days of Mill, there was a caveat: “The Australian Skeptics Inc.

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15 FEATURE Free Speech

It’s Only Academic ack in 2011, we ran some articles* Hiding behind “academic freedom” and “free speech”, Bin The Skeptic on the teaching of pseudoscience in Australian universities. where do universities draw the line about Our investigations had revealed that there pseudoscience among their researchers and staff? was hardly a tertiary education institution in Australia that did not have some form Tim Mendham reports on recent examples. of ‘unnatural’ science on their books. These were not courses that were pure research into the history and precepts methodology that is evidence-based”. articles tried to expose. of the subjects - there would be no There was no specific mention of complaint with that. Rather these were “academic freedom”, though it would JUDY WILYMAN - WOLLONGONG UNI practical courses in how to become a be surprising if the Vice-Chancellors’ Perhaps the best known recent example naturopath, acupuncturist, homeopath, offices were aware of all of the courses, of universities not only failing to take energy healer, etc. studies and research that were undertaken action against overt pseudoscience but We asked the universities how they on campus. Presumably someone at actually seeming to endorse it is that of could justify running such professionally- a higher level had to approve of these Judy Wilyman’s 2015 conspiracy-based based courses when the methodologies non-science-based activities; finding the PhD on vaccination policy, undertaken lacked supporting scientific evidence person responsible would prove elusive, at the School of Humanities at the and, in fact, were often shown to be especially if university management University of Wollongong in New unscientific nonsense. brushed off inquiries with a “none of South Wales. Of those few that responded, most your business; just trust us”. Wilyman has been a leading anti- were of the “Thank you for your letter But recent highly-publicised examples vaccination campaigner for some time, - we’ll waste no time in considering indicate that academic standards are including presenting at anti-vaccination it” style, while a few were along the sometimes at half-mast, that there is rallies and offering support for the lines of “all our courses meet high teaching and promotion of nonsense on Australian Vaccination Network (in its academic standards” or “our academic campus of which university management various guises). staff, whether conducting research or washes their hands under the banner of Her PhD thesis is called “A critical learning and teaching, operate within a academic freedom and free speech. analysis of the Australian government’s The following are just some of those rationale for its vaccination policy”. In * The Skeptic, Vol 31 No 1, March examples. We fear there are many more it, Wilyman describes what she calls “the 2011, “Degrees of Woo”; Vol 31, No 2, that go under the radar of both the political framework in which policy is June 2011, “The Curiosity Shock” management and the public, as our affected by biased science or undone 16 The Skeptic June 19

[underfunded] science” and claims individual views of its academics or “the existence of institutional barriers students. It recognises the importance to carrying out independent research, of open and respectful public policy including on topics unwelcome to groups debate to the preservation of a free and with vested interests”. democratic society. She includes collusion between “All UoW PhD theses are assessed industry and health authorities, by at least two examiners who are particularly that the World Health external to UoW, have unchallengeable Organisation “is perceived to be out knowledge in the field of study, have no of touch with global communities conflicts of interest that would impede and it is controlled by the interests of their examination.” corporations and the World Bank”. There is no mention that claims made “Powerful pro-vaccination lobby in PhD theses need to be accurate and groups such as the Australian Skeptics supported by evidence. and Stop the Australian Vaccination That process of approval, at least in A revised thesis was presented by Network (SAVN) influence politicians this case, was questioned when it was Wilyman, and only one examiner was and the media. They also use social revealed that at least one of the examiners asked for their views. The examiner who blogs to ridicule and abuse individuals, had expressed “serious concerns” and passed the original thesis without change including academics and professionals, raised “very critical” comments about the was regarded as a given. Presumably who are questioning the safety and thesis. They indicated that they thought the revised version was sent to the third efficacy of vaccines (Martin 2015). it was definitely not worthy of achieving examiner, and that the examiner who had There is evidence that lobby groups PhD status, and was more in line with a “serious concerns” was not asked to look at in many countries are being funded Master’s degree level. the revised version, which was approved by by industry to promote industry A second examiner, however, “praised the third examiner. interests. These groups discredit people’s the thesis and recommends awarding McGivern told Wilyman’s PhD reputations and promote disinformation a PhD without revision”. A University supervisor that this was “a welcome to suppress scientific debate.” summary of the opinions suggests that result!”, perhaps indicating relief that the Conspiracy theories are supplemented the second examiner said it represented process was apparently behind them. with numerous claims about the efficacy “meticulous study”. John Cunningham, orthopaedic and safety of vaccines - claims that have Considering these stark differences, surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital been debunked many times before. the University decided to ask a third and a member of SAVN told The Medical The reference to Martin above is to examiner to review the thesis. Observer that “The University has stated Professor Brian Martin, her primary That third examiner judged that, that her thesis has been assessed to their supervisor at the University. Martin while the thesis as high standards. This himself has been a supporter of the assessed showed Wilyman Highly publicised obviously does not AVN’s right to “freedom of speech”, conducted original “ include having it publishing a paper in 2015 titled “On the research, it did not make a recent examples that assessed by someone Suppression of Vaccination Dissent”. significant contribution to academic standards with a working The awarding of the doctorate meant knowledge of the subject, knowledge of medicine that the University suddenly found itself had no indication of a are sometimes at or vaccination, which faced with criticism from academics both broad understanding of the half-mast. serves as the basis of her within the University and elsewhere, discipline within which the ” argument.” members of the public and the media. work was conducted, and Professor Peter This criticism continues to this day. that it was not suitable for publication. McIntyre, director of the National Centre The University responded defended They recommended that the thesis be for Immunisation Research & Surveillance the approval of the PhD: “UoW ensures resubmitted, and gave “extensive and and an advisor to the WHO, told The research is undertaken according to detailed comments on areas that need to Australian that he had offered to advise strict ethical and quality standards and be improved”. Wilyman but withdrew his offer as she was supports researchers’ academic freedom Detailed comments by the third “not willing to entertain” evidence which of thought and expression. examiner have not been released, but contradicted her beliefs. “UoW does not restrict the subjects their assessment was described as “very The PhD was accepted via the School into which research may be undertaken critical” by Patrick McGivern, senior of Humanities. McIntyre observed that just because they involve public lecturer in philosophy and Head “No doubt the examiners selected have controversy or because individuals or of Postgraduate Studies, School of credentials within that area of study but groups oppose the topic or the findings. Humanities and Social Inquiry at the they are likely to lack necessary credentials “UoW does not endorse the University. in health that would enable them 17 FEATURE Free Speech

epidemiological studies and clinical trial to detect and manipulate what they say is It’s only Academic reports, all of which are interpreted to the patient’s ‘energy field’. It is similar to Continued... support conclusions which appear pre- and just as scientific (ie, not) as and determined.” the ‘laying on of hands’ practices of faith “This thesis is notable for its lack of healers. to be aware of the full picture here.” evidence of systematic literature review. The Healing Touch Clinic was set up The University has defended its Despite its extensive claims, there is no on the university grounds by a private decision on the grounds of “academic primary research, but there is abundant company Healing Touch Townsville, but freedom”, despite serious errors and evidence of strong bias in selecting the its presence was supported by Dr Kristin misrepresentations highlighted in literature cited and sometimes outright Wicking, a Senior Lecturer within the the thesis. But the issue took another misrepresentation of facts. We agree JCU College of Healthcare Sciences, turn against the University with that critique of immunisation policy is a Centre for Nursing and Midwifery the publication this year of a study valid academic exercise that goes beyond Research. that described the thesis as based on technical knowledge, but equally it cannot Wicking said several Australian “incomplete, flawed technical assertions”. be based on incomplete, hospitals have healing Published in the Vaccine Journal in flawed technical assertions.” touch clinics and services, March 2019, three researchers from The University has not, “ Healing touch, but JCU would be the Faculty of Medicine and Health at as yet, given any public as it is promoted, Australia’s first university Sydney University and Prof McIntyre indication that it would to host a clinic. said “This thesis is notable for its lack of look any further into the is a pseudoscience Wicking, who evidence of systematic literature review. awarding of the doctorate. through and completed her postd- Despite its extensive claims, there is no In an ironic note, in June octoral studies on healing primary research, but there is abundant 2016 Wilyman wrote an through.” touch, said the therapy evidence of strong bias in selecting the open letter to Paul Wellings, was well-researched and literature cited and sometimes outright the Vice Chancellor of the University, proven to be effective on stress-related misrepresentation of facts.” asking it to correct alleged inaccuracies in conditions. They say that “The quality of the the Wikipedia article about her research, The University said the clinic had writing and presentation of the thesis asserting that criticism of her thesis in nothing to do with them. However, some is such that many of its arguments the media and by individual scientists of the issues raised included that the clinic could seem plausible to an examiner was not “a proper scientific debate (but) was located in a university building on without specific content knowledge, suppression of the literature using political campus that they leased out to various despite sound academic credentials. strategies”. She also criticised Alison Jones, organisations, a Senior Lecturer in JCU’s Our combined expertise (vaccinology, a Wollongong academic, for using the College of Healthcare Sciences, Centre for epidemiology, the history and practice University’s website to publicise “personal Nursing and Midwifery Research was a of immunisation policy development opinions of vaccination”. The University supporter, and a practitioner at the clinic globally and in Australia, social science) responded by saying that they do not had been photographed wearing a JCU and as PhD examiners, both gives us endorse or otherwise the views of students shirt. detailed knowledge of the sources cited or academic staff, and do not curate Professor Lee Stewart, Dean of the by the thesis, and allows us to identify Wikipedia. College of Healthcare Sciences, told key deficiencies.” Wilyman, Martin, and the Faculty Australian Skeptics that “While a JCU “The thesis is presented as ‘A critical of Social Sciences at the University of staff member is associated with the clinic, analysis of the Australian government’s Wollongong were awarded the Australian she does this in a private capacity and not rationale for its vaccination policy’. A Skeptics’ Bent Spoon in 2016. as a representative of JCU.” critical analysis should consider the merits and faults of an issue and be HEALING TOUCH - JAMES COOK UNI conducted in a way that is not designed In a case of “It’s not our fault - to find only evidence for the writer’s pre- nothing to see here”, James Cook determined conclusions. University management issued an “This thesis does not include “it’s nothing to do with us” defence methods for assessing the literature, when a healing touch clinic opened does not discuss aspects of identified on campus in February 2017. studies which may contradict one Healing (or therapeutic) touch, another, or attempt to establish the as it is promoted, is a pseudoscience quality of relevant studies. Rather, the through and through. It involves references used are highly selective, only someone waving their hands over citing a small number of the available a patient, enabling the practitioner 18 The Skeptic June 19

“While this clinic is conducted for a Level One masterclass” was promoted on few hours per fortnight in a building on the university’s website. The course had JCU’s Townsville campus, JCU has no the description: “During this Healing contractual or financial relationship with Touch Level 1 course you will be invited it. JCU staff are not employed to work at to explore bio energetic healing to the clinic.” enhance your own and others’ wellness. While JCU may not have any direct The course includes both theory and contractual relationship with the clinic, practical components with hands-on it does own the building and leases it to exercises to gain practical experience of “various organisations”. The question the techniques.” arose as to whether JCU can specify what The masterclass course description sorts of organisations can use its facilities. said that it was “hosted by James Cook When asked whether the existence of University”, it was run on the JCU a healing touch clinic on grounds within Douglas campus (Building DB-043) by a the university meant that JCU would Senior Lecturer within the JCU College VAXXED - AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNI be associated in the public mind with of Healthcare Sciences, and with further In another case of “nothing to see here”, a pseudoscientific practice, thus giving information offered on a JCU Alumni in August 2017 the Australian National that practice an undeserved imprimatur, site. University’s science department played Stewart said that “JCU’s reputation is Stewart said that: “Reference to host to a screening of the controversial one of solid science-based teaching and previous activities undertaken by anti-vaccination film Vaxxed. research and we will continue with this the Healing Touch group have been Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe crucial endeavour as we have always misrepresented as being JCU activities. is a 2016 film that alleges a cover-up done.” This will not occur in the future.” by the US Centers for Disease Control “JCU does not promote nor teach In fact, a few days later the University and Prevention (CDC) of a purported healing touch in its science-based nursing issued a short statement saying that it had link between the MMR vaccine and programs.” “decided that the clinic will no longer autism. It is directed by the discredited This last point is challenged by the operate on its campus.” anti-vaccine activist , fact that, in October 2016, a course run The revelations about the clinic’s whose licence to practise medicine in the by Wicking and taught by Dr Rosalie association with the University – however UK was revoked due to ethical violations Van Aken RN, titled the “Healing Touch tenuous – obviously hurt. related to his fraudulent research into

hange of limate private emails led to A C C other academics, not ne example of a university not breaching the University’s necessarily siding with Oturning a blind eye but perhaps code of conduct. Among JCU’s Ridd, to reportedly going too far in stamping down upon grievances were that Ridd had stop using emails and ‘free speech’ is that concerning James publicly criticised the work of turning to other forms Cook University and Dr Peter Ridd. colleagues, including telling Sky of social media. Ridd is a marine physicist who News in 2017 that “scientific Ridd took the pioneered research techniques for organisations like the Australian Institute of University to the Federal Circuit Court studying marine sedimentology, Marine Science and the ARC Centre can no of Australia claiming unfair dismissal. and has published widely on coastal longer be trusted”. He was also said to have Judge Salvatore Vasta ruled in his favour, oceanography and the effects of sent disrespectful emails about colleagues stating that the University’s sacking of sediments on coral reefs. using his university account. Ridd was unlawful, and that JCU had More controversially he has publically JCU argues the sacking of Peter Ridd had “not understood the whole concept of said that poor water quality and climate nothing to do with his questioning of the intellectual freedom” in respect to their change aren’t significant threats to the science of climate change or the decline enterprise bargaining agreement. His future of the Great Barrier Reef, that the of the Great Barrier Reef, but rather the supporters claimed this as a victory for Reef is healthy, and that studies published manner in which he made his arguments. academic freedom and freedom of speech, by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral This did not stop those who held similar and some equated it as a win for climate Reef Studies about coral bleaching are attitudes about climate change to Rudd change denial. However, the decision was inaccurate. claiming that he was being martyred for his confined to Ridd’s industrial rights and the In 2018 he was sacked by JCU dissenting views. judge made no comment on the validity of after being censured for allegedly The University’s subsequent checking of his climate views. . 19 FEATURE Free Speech

“omissions … related to full declarations It’s only Academic of potential conflicts of interest [and] Continued... inadvertent errors including statistical miscalculations”. Esther Rockett said she was “stunned” the claimed negative role of vaccines in by the outcome and accused UQ of autism. “downplaying this whole scandal”. Details of how the booking was made “If a Supreme Court’s findings don’t were not made clear, but the University convince the University that there is a stated that: “The event was a private suspect associations with children. problem - that this is an organisation booking. It was not an ANU event. It The NSW Supreme Court jury and research that they should definitely was not in any way endorsed by the found largely in favour of Rockett, distance themselves from - I don’t know University. Any claim made by the hirers and that Benhayon was a “charlatan” what will.” that claims ANU endorsement is false.” who made “bogus healing claims” and In summary, the result of all of these The film was screened on campus in exploited cancer victims for money. incidences is that “academic freedom” the Leonard Huxley Lecture Theatre. They also described Universal Medicine becomes “academic licence” - licence The Australian Vaccination-Skeptics as a “socially harmful cult” and said to report and support any form of Network (as it was then called) uploaded Benhayon himself “has an indecent pseudoscientific and conspiratorial videos of the event. It clearly shows interest in young girls as young as 10, nonsense under the banner of learned ANU’s name and logo in the foyer of the whom he causes to stay at his house institutions. The universities have turned building where the video was screened, unaccompanied” and that he “is guilty of a blind eye to the fundamentally hollow implying that it had the imprimatur, inappropriate behaviour with children”. underpinnings of the research and however unwitting, of the University. What this would mean for his hundreds activities that they overtly endorse with Former AVSN president Meryl of mainly women followers is anyone’s the awarding of qualifications and the lack Dorey was a speaker at the ANU event, guess, although reports by the ABC of disciplinary action of the practitioners. alongside anti-vax proponents Brian suggested that their numbers at the hear- This is not a case of what researchers Hooker, Suzanne Humphries and film ing were dwindling as the days went on. and students do in their spare time. producer Polly Tommey. But it was some of those followers These are activities undertaken within the At the completion of the film’s tour, that dragged in a leading Australia universities on what is university business Tommey (from the UK) and Humphries university. - employment, degrees, etc - that are (from the US) were banned by the Several researchers and lecturers at overtly nonsense. Federal Government from returning to the School of Medicine of the University If a researcher had written papers or Australia for three years, apparently for of had submitted papers theses declaring that the Royal family visa breaches. to scientific journals in support of UM were shape-shifting lizards and that and its activities. What was not revealed aliens had infiltrated the highest levels UNIVERSAL MEDICINE – QUEENSLAND UNI was that they had been promoters if not of academe, would the universities do Serge Benhayon’s Universal Medicine is adherents of UM, in some cases for years. something to counter those claims, to a multi-million dollar spiritual enterprise One of the journals, the Canadian- at least say they had no foundation in based on the NSW north coast that based Journal of Medical Internet science, let alone common sense? offers such healing techniques as “esoteric Research issued a statement expressing In the cases discussed here, university breast massage”, “chakra puncture” and “serious concerns over conflicts of management has, at least initially, denied “ovarian reading”. Benhayon himself is interest” over researchers whose “level of any responsibility for what happens a former tennis coach turned self-styled passion for UM and their involvement on campus or within its only academic guru who, it turned out, believes he is a may affect the authors’ scientific corridors. reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci. judgment”. Apparently quality and truth are not All of this would have proceeded This lead to the University launching criteria in at least some universities in as normal had not Benhayon sued an investigation into its staff for Australia. . acupuncturist and former client Esther undeclared conflicts of interest and Rockett for defamation over a series ethical violations, though not into the of blog posts and tweets she posted cult itself nor the damning report of the beginning in November 2014. NSW jury. The suit backfired spectacularly. After a 10-month investigation, Not only did the admissions about his the University cleared the staff of About the author: past lives and strange pseudomedical academic misconduct, despite UQ Pro Tim Mendham is executive practices come out, but also claims of Vice Chancellor Mark Blows telling officer and editor with financial manipulation of donors and the ABC that the studies contained Australian Skeptics Inc. 20 FEATURE Free Speech The Skeptic June 19

Eggs are for Eating Milkshakes are for rinking t a time when we have more Martin Hadley checks on the legal status of A avenues of expression than ever D before, something is wrong when egg- free speech in Australia wielders and milkshake-chuckers are regarded as anything better than halfwits guilty of assault. Perhaps they can’t ARTICLE 20 says they are to be “directly chosen by string a sentence together and think that 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold the people of the State”. Likewise, thanks throwing things might be persuasive. opinions without interference. to Section 24, Members of the House How free are we to use words instead? 2. Everyone shall have the right to of Reps shall be “directly chosen by the Apart from one or two despots, no freedom of expression; this right people of the Commonwealth”. one anywhere has an absolute right of shall include freedom to seek, receive Our High Court Judges realised that free expression, but we Aussies do pretty and impart information and ideas if we are to do the direct choosing, there well. You can even wear a mullet if you of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, needs to be a flow of information about want. Our history is free from theocrats either orally, in writing or in print, in the issues and candidates. Again the controlling what we could say, on pain the form of art, or through any other freedom is qualified. It applies to political of a roasting or beheading. A degree of media of his choice. communications. That concept is broad tolerance began while the First Fleet was 3. The exercise of the rights provided but not universal. Laws can be passed on its way here. Arthur Phillip realised that for in paragraph 2 of this article that “burden” the flow but they have to survival depended on getting the best out carries with it special duties and be reasonable and for a good purpose. of a lot of people who had chosen crime responsibilities. It may therefore be Every case is a balancing exercise. In the in preference to working for a living. On subject to certain restrictions, but most recent judgement* on this subject board and later on land, convicts fared these shall only be such as are you’ll find the word “proportionality” 150 better than those they had left behind to provided by law and are necessary: times. It is ironic that theists who criticise reside at His Majesty’s pleasure. Since the (a) For respect of the rights or everybody else for being “moral relativists” invasion, then there has been a generally reputations of others; don’t seem to realise that Courts must high level of freedom of expression in (b) For the protection of national conduct these balancing exercises every Australia, though somewhat curtailed security or of public order, or of working day. when we were at war or anxious about the public health or morals. Our freedom of expression is no spread of communism. There is also Article 4 which allows a accident. Use it and help protect it. And There is no specific free speech government to ‘derogate from’ any part remember: we are free to state facts or legislation in Australia but it emerges of the Covenant in times of national express opinions but we are not free to from our Constitution in two ways. emergency. There are rules about that. make false defamatory statements. That Firstly our governments are allowed to Our second constitutional source is includes on social media, which is now agree to international treaties. Article the Sections that describe how parliamen- the source of most defamation cases. . 20 of the International Covenant on tarians will be elected. Speaking in what Civil and Political Rights is a reminder he called “the representative chamber” in * Clubb v Edwards; Preston that freedom of thought can be absolute 1989, Paul Keating famously referred to v Avery [2019] HCA 11 but any useful definition of freedom of the Senators in their “unrepresentative (10 April 2019) expression needs qualifying words. You chamber” as “unrepresentative swill over About the author: can think whatever you want but once there”. The telecast shows John Howard Martin Hadley is a barrister, you start communicating, you can affect laughing, perhaps because 34 of the swilly and treasurer of Australian other people. Ask Izzy Folau. Senators were Labor. Anyway, Section7 Skeptics inc. 21 FEATURE Free Speech Drawing Line

Philippa Smith asks how you differentiate between hate speech and freedom of expression online

’hen it comes to debates about to come to any consensus on what The European Commissioner, Věra Wfree speech that needs to be is, and what is not, acceptable online Jourová, stated last year that the line protected and hate speech that needs behaviour. between prohibiting hate speech and to be legislated, the idiom of “drawing The academic world demonstrates censorship on the internet was “very the line” is constantly referenced by the diversity of negative online thin”. politicians, journalists and academics. behaviours through the many Tech companies have also taken up It has surfaced again as New descriptors that are emerging in the idiom, as YouTube’s harassment Zealanders struggle to comprehend the scholarly works. Research has focused and cyber bullying policy at one stage abhorrence of the Christchurch terror on topics such as dangerous speech, appealed to users to “[r]espect people’s attack and the issues surrounding excitable speech, offensive speech, opinions online but know when it the online publication of the alleged extremist discourse, cyber bullying, crosses the line”. perpetrator’s manifesto, now declared trolling, doxing and flaming. These examples highlight a key issue objectionable by New Zealand’s chief These negative online behaviours of the online hate speech/free speech censor. offer potential outlets for online debate. Actually knowing when this When it comes to drawing a line hate and abuse that can be amplified figurative line has been crossed has between hate speech and matters through wide dissemination via become far more complex to interpret of public interest, several country- the internet. More subtle ways and even more challenging to manage. specific laws apply. Some legislation, of distributing hateful language such as Ireland’s 1989 Prohibition have surfaced through deliberate WHO GETS TO PUSH DELETE of Incitement To Hatred Act is very disinformation, fake news and Historically, tech companies have been particular. In other countries, hate information laundering. It is no reluctant to take responsibility for user- speech is covered more broadly surprise that the so-called “line” generated content that appears on their under criminal or penal codes or between hate speech and free speech is platforms. They argued their point in human rights laws such as those held problematic. favour of freedom of expression. by Denmark, Germany and New Some governments have clearly Zealand. A THIN, GREY LINE had enough of online toxicity and Following the Christchurch terror The task force on internet hate, under called on companies such as Facebook, attack, there have been calls for New the auspices of the Interparliamentary Google and Twitter to intervene and Zealand to introduce specific hate Coalition for Combating take down offensive material. These speech laws. But in a digital age, with Antisemitism, notes that when it include Germany and the network its blurring of national boundaries in comes to hate speech “the line is enforcement law (NetzDG) its virtual spaces, it is proving a challenge very grey and difficult to interpret”. government implemented in 2018. It 22 The Skeptic June 19

is the most rigorous legislation so far. prevent sword fights.

Companies risk a fine if they fail to We need to pay greater attention the Logical Place take down offending material. to educating the public on how to The UK government has been counter negative online behaviour. Appeal to Ignorance preparing a white paper to support Empowering people to take up he scope of the Appeal to its intention to legislate to improve effective counter-speech initiatives T Ignorance fallacy (Argumentum ad online safety, and in France President would be a first step in the battle Ignorantiam in Latin) is more limited Emmanuel Macron last year called against hate. than its title would suggest. In the for the larger internet platforms to be A number of academics, specific context of this fallacy, the liable for publishing “hate content”. including myself, are developing word ignorance represents “a lack New Zealand is the most recent nation various taxonomies of counter- of contrary evidence” rather than a to lambast Facebook speech initiatives lack of education or knowledge. The Philippa Smith asks for enabling the to see what might fallacy title was likely coined by the livestreaming of Internet interference be most effective. how you differentiate “ philosopher John Locke in the late the Christchurch - the potential Susan Benesch, 17th century. massacre – though the director of the between hate speech sanitising of the world In informal logic, this fallacy asserts it has little power to Dangerous Speech that a proposition is true because it and freedom of enforce any action. once the ‘bad stuff’ has Project, says that has not yet been shown to be false, Free speech critiquing a poster expression online been taken down. or a proposition is false because it has advocates are ” of inflammatory not yet been shown to be true. This wary about any material in a “civil represents a type of false dichotomy, moves that dictate who controls the and productive” way can work and, in that it excludes the possibility that delete button. Whether it relies on in some cases, lead an offender to there may have been an insufficient government legislation or the humans apologise. Certainly, presenting investigation to determine whether and algorithms employed by tech counter arguments through the proposition is either true or false. companies, the decision-making discussion groups or websites can In other words, “absence of evidence is process as to what content classifies serve to delegitimise those arguments not evidence of absence”. as “extremist, hateful and illegal” is that express hateful ideologies. When In rhetorical debates, appeals to problematic and may impinge on free this occurs in a public online space it ignorance are sometimes used in an speech. also exposes counter arguments to a attempt to shift the burden of proof. Other concerns about internet wider audience. A typical example is as follows: ‘In spite interference prevail. This includes Meanwhile a number of of all the talk, not a single flying saucer the potential sanitising of the world organisations such as the Anti- report has been authenticated. We once all the “bad stuff” has been taken defamation League in the US, the may assume, therefore, there are down, or the “chilling effect” where Online Hate Institute in Australia no such things as flying saucers.” people are reluctant to have their and the No Hate Speech movement An absurd but logically equivalent voices heard online because of speech- in Europe have developed various example is: “Although NASA has restricting laws that may result in their tools and educational resources, shown that the surface of the moon prosecution. including training sessions for is not made of green cheese, it has bloggers, journalists and activists. COUNTERING HATE not conclusively demonstrated that These aim to educate people of the Moon’s core is not made of it; Deciding where to draw the line all ages to apply critical skills to therefore, the moon’s core is made of between internet hate and free speech counteract online hate. . green cheese.” will be an ongoing exercise because This fallacy is a potential trap that Note: online hate can take so many forms Reprinted from The Conversation, we skeptics need to be wary of falling and be interpreted in different ways. March 29, 2019, theconversation.com into. We cannot prove the non- Perhaps it is time to broaden our existence of anything, so the burden thinking when it comes to responding of proof lies with those who claim the to hate speech. existence of something, rather than It may be that this “drawing the those who doubt it. So, we should About the author: line” idiom needs to be reconsidered. always remain open to the possibility Dr Philippa Smith After all, it dates back to the late of new evidence in support of a claim, is a senior lecturer in 1700s and relates to the actual even if no such evidence has ever English and New Media, drawing of boundaries in the game been found. Auckland University of of tennis or to the separation of - by Tim Harding opposition parties in parliament to Technology. 23 ARTICLE Science

On the fiftieth anniversary of the first Moon landing, Geoff Allshorn says

the space program challenges us to reassert enlightenment and science NASA

against the culture of science denialism and conspiracy theories. Photos:

n 21 July 1969 (Australia technologies and pushed scientific Otime), Neil Armstrong and boundaries. Buzz Aldrin stepped out of the Except, of course, none of this really Apollo 11 “Eagle” lunar module happened - at least, if you listen to and became the first men to walk on Moon hoax conspiracy theorists. Like the Moon. Their small steps were so many others who deny aspects of the culmination of dreams that had science or modern life, they display been shared by millions of humans a form of cognitive dissonance that across time immemorial - dreamers ignores the evidence of science and and philosophers and ordinary technology which has enriched their people alike, who had lived with feet own lives and the world around them. planted on the ground, but whose imaginations had soared into the skies. CULTURAL RESPONSE: DENIAL Altogether, some nine Apollo The Washington Post reminds us that missions went to the Moon, and six the Moon hoax theory was one of Apollo missions landed astronauts on the earliest in the modern trend of things happen that are fearful or the lunar surface. All returned safely conspiracy theories, and quotes social unexpected”. to Earth. These missions - and the psychologist Jan-Willem van Prooijen Psychologists Douglas, Sutton and space program generally - spearheaded in asserting that such theories provide Cichocka expand on this understanding a scientific, aerospace and engineering comfort because they “help us to by asserting that conspiracy theories revolution that developed new understand the unknown whenever may provide comfort to “vulnerable 24 The Skeptic June 19

Far left: Apollo 11 lunar module ascent stage, photographed from command module. Left: Going to the Moon - for real. One small step, and one giant leap, photo of Buzz Aldrin taken by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 (July 21 in Australia). Right: Wernher von Braun, President Kennedy and Vice-President Johnson at NASA.

has become a truism that the average modern mobile phone has greater computing power than the old Apollo spacecraft, people nowadays have fingertip access to more information than any other generation in history. However, we appear to lack the necessary wisdom to adequately process that data, giving rise to Moon hoax conspiracies, climate science denialism, flat earth cosmology, and a host of other pseudoscientific ideologies. Scientist Carl Sagan infers why science illiteracy may arise in a scientific world. In Cosmos, he propounds a cultural disconnection which may have contributed to the downfall of the Great Library of Alexandria: “The vast population ... Above: “We choose to go to the Moon in this had not the vaguest notion of the decade and do the other things, not because great discoveries taking place within they are easy but because they are hard.” JFK at the Library. New findings were not Rice Universdity, 1962. explained or popularised. The research and disadvantaged populations that benefited them little... There was have been identified as most likely no counterbalance to stagnation, utterance for which he will be forever to benefit from them”. They explain to pessimism, to the most abject remembered. that conspiracy theories may fulfil surrenders to mysticism. When, at long For Moon hoax advocates who psychological needs which can be last, the mob came to burn the Library claim to examine evidence from defined as epistemic, existential and down, there was nobody to stop them.” within the Moon missions themselves, social; that is, they provide answers for Sagan’s words are as relevant today Armstrong’s mistake should mitigate those seeking understanding, personal as they may have been in ancient against the likelihood of fakery. For control or security, or a supportive Alexandria. the rest of us, it provides us with a network of like-minded peers. truism that we should keep in mind as This suggests that the Moon landings IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS we battle conspiracy theorists: we are, - one of history’s greatest scientific As long as our species survives, after all, only human. achievements - may have become the we will undoubtedly record Neil For example, it may be scapegoat for those who seek to allay Armstrong’s first words after setting understandable that some of those their fears about scientific advancement. foot on the lunar surface: “That’s one who are too young to remember Other science-denying conspiracies may small step for man, one giant leap Apollo may doubt its reality - we have plug into the same insecurities. for mankind.” He later claimed that not returned to the Moon in their There is an irony here that equates to he intended to say, ‘a man’ instead lifetime, and due to political lethargy, the contradiction within Buzz Aldrin’s of ‘man’ which would eliminate a we lack the technical capacity to do description of the lunar landscape as problem in his syntax. This apparent so today. In 1969, men walked on the comprising “magnificent desolation”. slip of the tongue is a very human Moon; fifty years later, we can barely In our post-Apollo world, where it nervous mistake within the historic achieve Earth orbit. What can we offer 25 ARTICLE Science

Americans did it’, everywhere, they Message from said, ‘We did it. We - humankind. the Moon We - the human race. We - people - did it’... and I thought that was Continued... a wonderful thing. Ephemeral but wonderful.” That one small step can still become a giant leap. . Moon hoax apologists today? Only their whole world. Our NASA

modern life is full of space spinoffs that Photo: are hidden in plain sight. We should encourage our friends to appreciate the Rice University Stadium in 1962 About the author: technical and sociological outcomes of included an aspirational motivation Geoff Allshorn is a science the space program, and to understand beyond politics: “We choose to go to fiction and space enthusiast, their place as empowered citizens in the Moon. We choose to go to the and author of articles on the that new world. Moon in this decade and do the other space program. things, not because they are easy, but HOW TO RESPOND? because they are hard, because that It is too easy to simply dismiss Moon goal will serve to organise and measure REFERENCES hoax conspiracists and other science the best of our energies and skills, Peter Ryan, The Invasion of the Moon deniers as crackpots or regressives. We because that challenge is one that 1969: The Story of Apollo 11, Penguin should remember, however, that they we are willing to accept, one we are Books Australia, Ringwood, 1969; 7, 8 & are not ‘the enemy’ or ‘the other’. They unwilling to postpone, and one which 122. are our family members and friends, we intend to win.” Elizabeth Svoboda, ‘Why do people our neighbours and workmates, our Such lofty idealism cut through believe the moon landing hoax or other shopkeepers and students. Their the cynicism and frustration of the conspiracy theories?’ Washington Post, daily contact with science (as they contemporaneous Vietnam War 20 July 2018, at tinyurl.com/y598em5z understand it) may comprise the and Cold War. It gave meaning and Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton, and astrology column in purpose to the deaths Aleksandra Cichocka, ’The Psychology the local newspaper, of cosmonauts and of Conspiracy Theories’ in Current or a pseudoscientific “Appreciate the astronauts during Directions in Psychological Science, debate on their technical & sociological the space race. It Association for Psychological Science, favourite reality bespoke of the 2017, Vol 26 (6), 538 - 542. television program. outcomes of the space esteem explored in Computer Weekly staff, ‘The Apollo In seeking to address program. cultural imperatives 11 mission’s computers were less science denialism, ” including the civil powerful than today’s mobile phones’, we must offer them rights movement and Computerweekly, 15 July 2009, at tinyurl. empowering real-life alternatives. the rise of utopian science fiction such com/y6zjq4620. Behavioural scientist Craig A Foster as Thunderbirds and Star Trek, wherein Sagan, Carl. ‘Chapter XIII: Who Speaks for recently observed and affirmed a people strove for a better world Earth? in Cosmos . Macdonald Futura growing trend, within the skeptical through hard work and humanist Publishers, London, 1980, 335. community, for more respectfully magnanimity. It is no coincidence Professor Craig A Foster, ‘Respectful addressing pseudoscience. He that Star Trek creator, humanist Gene Skepticism’ in , asserts that ‘respectful skepticism’ is Roddenberry, summarised the spirit Committee for Skeptical Inquiry & Center more likely to win over our friends, of the era via slogans which later for Inquiry, March-April 2019, 51 - 55, see workmates and loved ones. Jessica became somewhat viral: “The human 51. Stillman adds that a way to stop adventure is just beginning” and, Jessica Stillman, ‘A New Study Has Found people believing in conspiracy theories “Make it so”. A Way to Stop a People from Believing in is “to build people up rather than tear In the 2007 documentary In Conspiracy Theories’, Inc.com, 9 August them down”. the Shadow of the Moon, Apollo 11 2018, at tinyurl.com/y6ec2w69. astronaut Michael Collins recalls: John F. Kennedy Moon Speech - Rice REACHING FOR THE STARS “After the flight of Apollo 11, the Stadium, 12 September 1962, at https:// While announcing his political three of us went on an around- er.jsc..gov/seh/ricetalk.htm decision to send men to the Moon, the-world trip. Wherever we went, ‘In the Shadow of the Moon’, DOX President John Kennedy’s words at people, instead of saying, ‘Well, you Productions, 2007. 26 PUZZLES The Skeptic June 19

ACROSS Brain testers 1. The mythical saviour battled with the king. (5,6) CRYPTIC CROSSWORD no 42 5. A politician is a little devil. (3) 7. Drugged hippie musical has a punkish characteristic. 1 2 3 4 5 6 (4,6) M 10. Asian neckwear? (4) 7 E 8 9 10 12. Bad reputation that most of a child belongs to me. 11 (6) I 14. Murky output from Ms Farrow’s little audio device. 12 13 14 C (7) 15 T Y 16. & 18. Fantastic peer of Telstra? (4,2,3,5) 16 17 S 18 19. Below the hub of a mainframe (5) 21. Expedient vet is same, but different. (5,4) N A 23. 19 20 21 22 Hide when heard to trick a sea mammal. (7) A 25. Slid around to become detached. (6) P E 27. Whaler surprised by a sailor. (4) 23 24L 25 28. Play acting like a cameo. (10) V 26 31. English conservative loses the right to be a 27 28 29 plaything. (3) J 32. Kid lit hero exhorts us to harass and tinker about. 30 W (5,6) 31 32 A

Tim Mendham + Steve Roberts DOWN 1. Yearn for leaders when intense storm hits (4) DR BOB’S QUIZ 2. he honourable backer of a Japanese play. (3) 3. Tale telling siblings have the edge in genetic 1. Which movie director supposedly made the fake Moon landing modification. (5) film? 4. Patent protection for thulium. (2) 2. What happened to the flag placed on the Moon by Apollo 11’s 5. Cruel is not one of us but is among our kind. (7) Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin? 6. Regal ladies seem to be sincere PSs. (10) 3. What was the first food eaten on the Moon? 8. Central pub queen? (5) 9. A lobe not classed as embellished. (10) 4. Which Russians travelled to the Moon with the Apollo 11 11. Forty Syria characters make up an unlikely story. crew? (5,5) 5. How far off the planned landing site did the Lunar module 13. Abominable snowmen still exists. (5) finally touch down? 15. Nullarbor mantra sung in unison? (10) 6. What does the Moon smell like? 17. Little people who could have been king with minor vowel surgery. (5) 20. Any fast arrangement will do for make believe. (7) 22. I’m a twit, I do it wrongly (5) Answers on page 62 24. Solitary figure can’t enrol. (5) 26. Remnant of a wound caused by smashing cars. (4) 29. Cheerful in Georgia, yes? (3) 30. A gaseous exclamation. (2) 0327 ARTICLE Conspiracy

It’s 50 years, and Brian Dunning takes an epic look back at an epic journey, and the not-so-epic claims that it never happened. NASA Photos: Photos:

o those who follow science, the in common is that no men actually responses to their claims a hundred Tclaims that we never went to the landed on the Moon. Some believe the times, and rejected them a hundred Moon are the most tiresome and foolish Apollo missions orbited the Moon but times. Their minds are riveted shut to of the conspiracy theories; but to those did not land; some believe they never anything but their preferred narrative. who believe them, they are absolute went further than Earth orbit; some We’ll not be changing any of their religion, and the ultimate token of their believe the Apollo spacecraft flew but minds here. And the rest of us aren’t in conviction that anything coming from were unmanned; some believe they denial, and aren’t asking these made-up, official sources is a lie. With this article, never launched anything at all. The shoehorned questions that try to raise we’re going to take an in-depth analysis astronauts performed their Moonwalks doubt where none exists. So who is this of the Moon Landing Conspiracy, of on a movie set, and fake transmissions article for? Nobody? those who believe in it, and a survey of were provided to Well, maybe for the facts and figures of the basic narrative. the TV networks for somebody. Polling We’ll look at the history and cultural broadcast. “ Beating the Soviets data has, for decades, impact of the claim; the most popular The reasons consistently shown that evidentiary claims said to prove that given for why the to the moon was a some 6-7 per cent of we never went to the Moon (hopefully government would victory of capitalism Americans believe the including some you haven’t heard have gone to all this over communism. Moon landings were before); and finally the hard physical trouble range from ” faked; and even scarier, proof that we did go. simply distracting about four times as Americans’ attention many Europeans agree HISTORY AND CULTURE from the unpopular war in Vietnam, with them. That’s a lot more people The basic narrative of the Moon Truth to fooling the Soviets into thinking than the hardcore YouTube-obsessed , as you probably they lost the Cold War, to protecting serial conspiracists; it includes tens know, is that NASA faked the Apollo NASA’s budget by appearing to spend of millions of ordinary folks who are missions and nobody ever actually went it on something supremely impressive. otherwise as rational as you or I. It to the Moon. As with most conspiracy A big question we have to answer seems there must be something deeply theories, there are all sorts of variations is what’s the point of even talking compelling about this odd belief. on the claims of what actually did about this? The people who believe it American Moon Truthers differ happen, while the only thing they have have already heard the science-based from most other conspiracy theorists 28 The Skeptic June 19

Clockwise from left: The real lunar landscape; the fake lunar landscape complete with film crew; and the movie made by the man who made the fake lunar landing movie, complete with people on the fake lunar landscape.

proposed “Landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”. Whether the missiles would fly or not, this war was to be fought on the in one fascinating metric: political propaganda front as well. Moon Truthers affiliation. Most anti-government have long drawn upon the importance of conspiracy theorists skew heavily the propaganda war as support for their conservative, which is not surprising; belief that the would have the fundamental ideology of such done anything to at least make it appear conspiracy theories is distrust of the they were winning it. government, and one basic difference Neither the United States nor the between the left and the right is that the Soviet Union was above deception in left tends to favour larger government the war to convince the world their and the right tends to favour smaller side was the stronger. The Soviets took government. We’d expect those who the Absolute World Air Speed Record distrust the government to gravitate in 1962 with a plane they called the toward any ideology that minimises Ye-166, which it turned out didn’t it, and that’s the basic reason those So now when we look at the conspiracy exist; it was a modified Ye-152 fighter conspiracy theorists tend conservative. theory community in its totality, many plane, but they didn’t want us to know But Moon Truthers are different. of the pro-capitalism conservatives tend it could go that fast. The United States Most of them skew liberal, according to to drop out of Moon Truthing, leaving responded in 1965 by taking the record the survey data. To understand why, we a liberal majority. Therein lies the back using the YF-12A (an early version can look at what the difference. of the famous SR-71), but the plane was represented. The Moon landings were a The Apollo program was started in de-powered so much — in order to fly great American triumph; in particular, 1961, during the height of the United only just fast enough to break the record beating the Soviets to the Moon was States’ Cold War with the Soviet — that the pilots reported difficulty the quintessential victory of capitalism Union. Tensions were rising sharply. in controlling it at speeds as ‘slow’ as over communism. Ideologically, The United States had just failed with Mach 3. They set six different records, capitalism beating communism is its Bay of Pigs attempt to overthrow all for propaganda purposes; every more appealing to the conservative Cuba’s Fidel Castro using proxy troops, one of them deceptive in that none than to the liberal. Thus, a conspiracy and the Soviet Union prepared to move revealed the aircraft’s true capability. theory doubting such a victory is more nuclear missiles into Cuba. In May It was a response to the Soviets’ own ideologically appealing to the liberal. of 1961, President John F. Kennedy deceptive record. No doubt, neither side 29 ARTICLE Conspiracy

had been proposed. Other less famous that Kubrick co-wrote 2001 with The Life & Times conspiracy theorists had been floating Johnson’s suspect Arthur C. Clarke. of the Moon Hoax similar premises for years. Most likely, Twenty years after the satire, we see Hyams and Kaysing were inspired by the butterfly effect it had. The 2013 Continued... the same folklore film Room that predated both 237 portrayed of their works. what I call Much of that the “Kubrick hesitated to hoodwink in the name of folklore had been conjecture”, propaganda. around since the and in those Changing the model number of Gemini program, intervening a plane or pulling back on a throttle and it came from years it has come are one thing, but faking a manned Samuel Shenton, to not only be Moon landing? And then successfully leader of the tiny taken seriously, maintaining the fraud for 50 years? Flat Earth Society, but has grown It’s this exploration of the scope of who had his hands into a tapestry the required cover-up that’s one of the full arguing for a of staggering strongest arguments supporting the flat Earth in the face proportions. fact that we did go — outside of the of increasing proof It is 100 per physical proof, of course, which we’ll against him that cent evidence talk about later. was coming from free, yet fills It’s been estimated that 400,000 the space program, volumes with its people were part of the Apollo program, particularly the intricacies and including NASA personnel and the photos of Earth constructs. many subcontractors. Only one of taken from space. As one of the them has ever stepped forward to claim Upon Shenton’s most famous it was a hoax: Bill Kaysing, who was death in 1971, the Society was taken directors in the world, just about a publications analyst at over by Charles and Marjory Johnson everything about Kubrick’s life and for a couple years in the early 1960s. of the Covenant People’s Church, work from those years is documented, Kaysing’s belief was not based on who continued charging NASA with and he doesn’t seem to have ever evidence; he said himself it was “a hoaxing the Apollo program, based on disappeared for 16 months. But forget hunch, an intuition.” In 1976 Kaysing their Christian Fundamentalist belief about that. Landing on the Moon self-published a pamphlet titled We that the Earth must be flat. Charles once would have been enough to win Never Went to the Moon: America’s Johnson claimed in their Flat Earth the propaganda war with the Soviets, Thirty Billion Dollar Swindlein which News newsletter that he had personal and there would have been no need he claimed the rocket was knowledge — as did Shenton — that to sextuple the risk of the hoax being discovered to be too weak to make it to author Arthur C. Clarke (whom he discovered by repeating the feat five the Moon; and so, on launch day, the described as “the English creep”) “wrote, more times. But forget about that astronauts secretly slipped out of the directed, and narrated the Moon too. 3500 journalists from all over capsule and transferred to a mock-up at landing”. the world investigated, researched, a safe location, from where they made It was twenty years before another reported, and actually watched every the television broadcasts. Then at the famous name — this time from moment of Apollo 11 from beginning end of the mission, the men got into a Hollywood — became attached to the to end, and nobody uncovered the duplicate capsule which was dropped Moon hoax, and it came in the form of slightest indication that everything into the ocean by a transport plane. a satirical post to a UseNet newsgroup was not as it seemed, but let’s even It’s nearly exactly the same plot as titled “Stanley Kubrick and the Moon forget about that. The Moon Truther Peter Hyams’ 1977 movie Capricorn Hoax”. It claimed that NASA recruited movement is not about likelihood or One which was about a fake Mars Kubrick (who had just finished 2001: A plausibility or even facts, but about mission. Kaysing sued for copyright Space Odyssey) and special effects guru conspiratorial ideology. infringement but the case was Douglas Trumbull to spend 16 months dismissed, and Kaysing said it was on a sound stage in Huntsville, Alabama THE EVIDENCE WE NEVER WENT because the powerful government faked filming the Moon landing footage. The part of the conspiracy that you’ve the movie script’s copyright date. There It was an obvious put-on, including probably heard most about are the may be a simpler explanation. Kaysing references to a non-existent brother. various claims of glitches and errors that may have written this narrative into his The anonymous author of this post supposedly suggest the Apollo program book, but it was hardly the first time it may have been inspired by the fact was a hoax that never happened. 30 The Skeptic June 19

Let’s launch right into these, starting In any case, their microphones so on. To fly, the rocket only needs with the first major problem that the were inside their insulating helmets, the reaction. It does not require things Moon Truthers say the astronauts could mounted close to their mouths, with on the ground getting blown around, have never overcome: audio patterns designed to pick up and if there’s no air or wind to do it, it only extremely close sounds. There is won’t happen. It’s impossible for humans to leave low no reason to expect their voices would Gas from the rocket nozzles expands Earth orbit, due to the lethal radiation in have been drowned out by rocket very quickly in the vacuum of space, the Earth’s Van Allen Radiation Belts. noise. and the descent motor had a wide The Van Allen Radiation Belts are rings dispersal pattern. You probably could around the Earth’s magnetic pole, tall All photos of the Lunar Module on the have sat in a beach chair a few meters and thin rather than flat like Saturn’s surface must be fake, because the blast from the Lunar Module as it landed, ring. They consist of charged particles crater created by its landing rocket is and not felt much. magnetically trapped in place. While missing. it’s true that the Van Allen Belts are a No blast crater would be expected, The astronauts’ footprints are so deep that high-radiation zone and a dangerous although this seems admittedly the heavy Lunar Module must have sunk in place to loiter, astronauts can go counterintuitive. When the Lunar much deeper. through them in about an hour. Even Module came in to land, it came in The footprints weren’t all that deep; without any special radiation shielding, with horizontal velocity as the pilot a centimetre or two at most. And this trip exposes astronauts to about searched for a place to land. Once he although the various Lunar Modules 1 rem, about the same as 100 chest found one, he descended, throttled did weigh some 17 to 19 metric tons X-rays. This is about 20 times what a back, and a probe extending over a when fully loaded on Earth, on the US nuclear plant worker is allowed to meter below the landing pads touched Moon that was down to about 1200kg receive in a year, so it’s the ground and shut off after burning off fuel. That weight was above normal safety levels. the rocket motor. It was distributed on four 1-metre round But not catastrophically “ No need to risk only a very brief moment footpads. The pressure exerted on so. You would need to the hoax being that the rocket nozzle was the surface by the footpads was only get 100 times that much actually directed at the about half again as much as by the to develop the first signs discovered by landing site, and only at astronaut’s boot soles. So the Lunar of radiation sickness. repeating the feat reduced power. Modules would be expected to push The astronauts were all five more times. Even so, the Moon’s a little bit deeper into the surface well aware of this, and ” surface is not very prone than an astronaut, but probably not a considered the trip well to disruption. Although noticeable amount. worth the risk. we see astronaut footprints in a dusty surface, that surface dust is The American flag they planted is flapping We should not have been able to hear the quite thin. Below that, the regolith is in a supposedly-nonexistent breeze. astronauts talking during the Lunar Module much firmer. Probably a small amount By now we’ve all heard that the flag descent, because of how loud the rocket of surface dust was displaced below the was held by a rigid metal rod to motor would have been. lander, but not very much. compensate for the lack of wind on Seemingly true; rocket motors are insanely loud, and if you’re sitting just The Lunar Module’s a meter or two away from one it would landing rocket also be pretty hard to hear yourself think. Yet would have blasted all the Apollo astronauts calmly narrated the dust away from the their descent over the radio to mission area, so the astronauts control, with no interfering roar. wouldn’t have left any Obviously there’s no air and thus footprints. no sound outside the craft, and on There’s no air on Earth, almost all of a rocket’s noise the Moon and no comes from shearing action between shockwaves. Nearly the exhaust jet and the surrounding all of the wind and atmosphere. With that taken out turbulent clouds you of the equation, rockets are much see at a rocket launch more peaceful. Significant vibration are the result of air did transfer through the structure to being pushed by the NASA

the astronauts during descent, but rocket exhaust, and Photo: comparatively little noise. pushing other air, and 31 ARTICLE Conspiracy

range. Imagine, NASA actually thought source just outside the frame, in this The Life & Times of this before the conspiracy theorists case, the sun. of the Moon Hoax did. The studio lights cause hot spots on the The light source in the photos is not the surface of the Moon. Continued... distant sun, because there are non-parallel In some photos where the shadows. photographer’s shadow is visible in The photos did show non-parallel the frame, there are unusually bright shadows, because of a little thing we spots on the Moon surface around the the Moon, but it’s worth mentioning call perspective. Look at a fence with shadow, suggesting that a studio light that in some of the video footage, the the sun behind you, and the shadows of must have been focused on that spot. illusion of air movement can be quite the fence posts will appear to converge; Proof of a conspiracy? Nope. These remarkable, and it’s worth watching. look at the fence with the sun behind it hot spots are called Heiligenscheins, a But the cause is embarrassingly obvious: and the shadows will appear to diverge. German word meaning halo. You can in all such shots, an astronaut is either No mystery here. see it any time you look at the shadow actively twisting the flagpole to get it set of your own head, sometimes more up, or he bumps it. This is one Some shadows are long while dramatically than others, and often claim that really needs to others are short, again better from a greater distance. You’ve just die already. proving the distant sun is seen it from a plane when you look not the light source. down and see the plane’s shadow with a Sometimes you’ll This claim is mainly strangely bright area around it. see a photo of one based on a couple of Heiligenscheins are caused by two astronaut with the photos of astronauts different effects. Looking at the shadow other reflected in where their shadows of your own head, the light source his helmet visor, and extend to the top is directly behind you. Everything neither one of them of the same mound, directly outside that shadow — blades has a camera up to his even though one is of grass, pebbles, whatever — has the face taking a picture. closer to it than the light hitting it from an angle very close Proof that a conspiring other. The reason is simply to your viewing angle, so shadows are studio photographer was that the ground undulates. foreshortened almost to zero. Objects present on the set taking these pictures? The length of a shadow depends on the farther from your shadow are less No, proof that the cameras were angle of the sun relative to the angle foreshortened, so there is more and mounted to the astronauts’ chests. of the ground, and on an undulating more shadowed area visible in your field surface, we absolutely expect objects of view. Thus the overall light level is Stars would be visible in all the photos if of the same height to have shadows of always going to be highest closer to your they’d really been taken from the Moon. different lengths. shadow, and progressively darker the No they wouldn’t, because the cameras’ farther away you look. exposure settings were adjusted for Studio lights are visible The second bright daylight, giving a very small in the background of effect causing aperture. To capture stars, you need a some photos. Heiligenscheins very large aperture. Test it for yourself: There are indeed happens when the Set your aperture, ISO, and exposure so bright spots in surface is reflective; that you’re taking great pictures in the the sky that look Moon regolith would daylight. Then with the same settings, exactly like lights in be one example, dewy try to photograph anything at all at some of the photos. grass another. It’s night. Blackness. Photographers know called backscatter. A what they are: they’re greater proportion It’s impossible to take any photos on the called lens flares, of light (and other Moon with a film camera, since film would which can appear radiation) is always have melted in the 120°C/250°F surface when bright light bounced back in the temperature. reflects between the same direction from Regular cameras and regular film, yes. lens surfaces inside which it came, which But the Apollo astronauts used cameras the camera. The type is why radar works. and film specially made by Eastman of lens flares in the When you look at the Kodak. The cameras were heavily Apollo photographs shadow of your head, insulated against temperature, and the form in a line leading backscatter sends film had a much higher temperature toward a bright light more light toward 32 The Skeptic June 19

Two interesting things happened. The first interesting thing is that the 6-7 per cent of Americans who doubted that we went to the Moon before these images appeared continued to doubt that we went to the Moon. Predictably, in this age of computer generated imagery, the pictures changed nobody’s mind at all. The second interesting thing is that we finally have an answer to the question of why we never had these pictures before, with all our giant, powerful telescopes. The LRO images are fairly good, but its camera is pretty small. Let’s compare it to Hubble to see why the LRO was able to see what you from objects on the ground closest Let’s begin with a tidbit that’s been Hubble couldn’t. to the shadow. The farther away those among the most exciting in recent years: The LRO took its first set of pictures objects are, the less of their backscatter from a height of only 50km above the is going toward your eyes. Photographs of the Landing Sites Moon’s surface, and its second higher- Combine these two effects, and the For a long time, one of the most resolution set from a low orbit of only Heiligenscheins we see in the lunar significant (and convincing) arguments 21km. By contrast, at its closest, Hubble photographs are exactly what we’d that we never went to the Moon was gets 362,546km from the Moon. That’s expect to see if they were genuine. that there are no photos of the landing more than 17,000 times farther away sites. If there really are six lunar landers than the LRO was able to get. So just One rock was accidentally left showing the sitting up there, oughtn’t we be able to to get pictures of this LRO quality — letter C written on it, proving it was a prop. point any old telescope at the Moon and which are decent but not great — we No, it wasn’t. Photo analysts have see them? have to get 17,000 times closer to the concluded the most likely explanation Scientists always said no, our object than Hubble is. That gives you for this apparent letter C on a rock is a telescopes aren’t strong enough. But some idea of the scope of why Earth hair on the original photo print. To say that seemed ridiculously hard to believe. telescopes couldn’t see the landing sites. nothing of the fact that no Hollywood Imagine our giant telescopes on top The Moon seems close, but it’s still prop master ever heard of labelling of Mauna Kea — or even the Hubble pretty far; and those pieces of hardware inventory by boldly writing letters of space telescope that photographs the and footprints are very, very small. the alphabet on camera-facing surfaces. most distant objects in the universe Anyway, for presumed hoaxers to use — or even the numerous spy satellites Worldwide Monitoring a commercial Hollywood prop shop in orbit that are said to be able to read When the Apollo flights took place for a Moon landing set would have licence plates. Even I will readily admit — especially the early missions — a introduced another unnecessary risk: that it sounded absurd that telescopes lot of people paid very close attention, more outside people who would have like these couldn’t easily resolve landing known about it, and a paper trail for sites on something as close as the Moon. the prop rental. Smart conspirators That lack of proof, which seems like would have built the set themselves, it should have been so easy for NASA to with rocks they trucked in themselves. provide, was pretty worrisome for some Those are the basic answers, but who were on the fence about whether there are many more such claims and we actually ever went there. we would have had to make this a But as we all now know, in much longer article to cover them all. 2009, when we launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to orbit the THE SCIENTIFIC PROOF THAT WE WENT Moon and photograph it close-up, we We can wrap up our discussion of the got the first pictures of the landing sites. Moon landing conspiracy by looking They show all the hardware left behind, at how we know for a fact that human and even rover tyre tracks and astronaut beings from the Earth actually travelled footprint tracks. In 2011 the LRO sent to the Moon, and walked around, and back much sharper pictures, and we now made it back safely. finally have great images of the sites. 41 ARTICLE Conspiracy

The Life & Times of the Moon Hoax Continued...

all around the world, with telescopes, radios, and radar. The Soviets, desperate for an American failure, watched every second of every flight and tracked every spacecraft on its way to and from the Moon by telescope and by radar. NASA They never found the doubt they were looking for. Observatories worldwide, plus countless amateurs, reported sightings of most of the Apollo spacecraft. These Retroflectors - Photo: sightings included clouds from the disastrous explosion of Apollo 13’s satellites you can see in today’s night • The Apollo Moon rocks have been #2 oxygen tank, and also of stage sky. If this had been the case, there radiometrically dated using the separations for most flights. Astronomer would have been many sightings during rubidium-strontium method, and John Keel maintains a large web each Apollo mission. The fact that there are up to 4.46 billion years old (and database of sightings from Apollo were no sightings reported indicates that’s just among the very few rocks watchers worldwide (pages.astronomy. that this probably isn’t what happened. our guys happened to pick up). No ua.edu/keel/space/apollo.html). There rock on Earth is that old. There is no is little doubt that Apollo spacecraft did Moon Rocks known way to fake that. go to the Moon. About 382 kilograms of rocks were • The Apollo Moon rocks bear impact There is also another aspect to the brought back to Earth by Apollo craters, called zap pits, only 1mm monitoring. Had the Apollo spacecraft astronauts. They are unequivocally from across, created by impacts from remained in Earth orbit, as many Moon the Moon, they would be impossible to micrometeors traveling at speeds up Truthers claim, they would have been fake on the Earth, and they didn’t get to 80,000kph. This can’t happen on easy to spot with the naked eye, as they here naturally as meteorites. Let’s take a Earth because the atmosphere blocks were at least as large as many of the look at how we know these facts: them, and it can’t be faked because we don’t have anything that can accelerate small projectiles to that speed. Even our best railguns can only reach about 1/10 that velocity. • The Apollo Moon rocks have isotopes, called cosmogenic nuclides, that can only be created by bombardment from high-energy cosmic rays. This doesn’t happen to rocks on Earth because the atmosphere blocks these rays; and it couldn’t be faked using a particle accelerator because even our most powerful can’t come close to the energy level of cosmic rays. The same bombardment also caused crystal damage in the rocks, and even today, geochemists can’t even suggest a way NASA we could fake that.

Photos: Photos: • The Apollo Moon rocks have been studied by scientists all over the 34 The Skeptic June 19

landed on the Moon in 1969, they decided to land at the same place. Sure enough, they touched down within sight of Surveyor 3 (see left). The astronauts removed about 10kg of parts from it and brought them back to Earth, including the camera which is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Examination of its glass shows tracks from high-energy solar particles, including heavy ions emitted by solar flares. These are blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, so this had to happen NASA in space. This proves that the camera was in space, if not necessarily on the Moon; and its removal from Surveyor 3 required careful manual work that Retroflectors - Photo: Retroflectors - Photo: NASA 3 - Photo: Surveyor couldn’t have been done by a robot. So there’s proof that a man was world, including those from the from the Moon in some artificially somewhere in space at some point to former Soviet Union, and not one protected manner. do the work. has yet challenged their authenticity. I suppose it’s possible to draw out We wouldn’t expect the Soviets to Retroreflectors some alternative scenario in which challenge them, because they know These are panels with a surface mottled NASA could have accomplished all of better. In the 1970s, three Soviet with little right-angled cubical mirrors these things via some narrative that missions — Luna 16, Luna 20, and that reflect light out at the same angle differs from the historical one, but all Luna 24 — landed on the Moon and it came in, and are used in laser range the components of the story are proven returned 326 grams of Moon rocks finding. The Apollo astronauts placed and immovable. The alternative would to Earth. The Soviets knew exactly retroreflectors at their landing sites have to be absurdly more complex, what Moon rocks were made of, and (above left), and these are all regularly and thus even riskier than simply using the fact that they’ve never questioned detected by observatories worldwide. these components as intended, as all the authenticity of the Apollo rocks Some were detected from Earth the the evidence shows they did. should give the Moon Truthers pause very same day they were set up; some As I said before, I doubt this series — unless they say the Soviets were in were located within a few days. In of episodes will change the minds of on the Apollo conspiracy, which would addition, the unmanned Russian any hardcore Moon Truthers. But I do be in direct contradiction with Moon landers Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2 hope that, at a minimum, some of the Truthing’s fundamental claim. are both still sitting up there, and both science we’ve touched on will intrigue Any chance that both NASA and have retroreflectors. No nation has them enough to dig further on their the Soviets lied about bringing their ever reported being unable to detect own. What we know is less important rocks back, and simply picked up a and verify both American and Soviet than how we know it, and if we can bunch of lunar meteorites they found retroreflectors. develop a love for the learning process, right here on Earth? No, because all the Of course, this doesn’t prove eventually we’ll all end up with a better NASA and Soviet Moon rocks lack the humans were aboard the spacecraft that understanding of our world. . exterior melting, called a fusion crust, carried these retroreflectors, but the that all meteors receive when entering acknowledgement from every country, Note: Reprinted with permission from the Earth’s atmosphere. The only lunar both friendly and unfriendly, does Skeptoid #535-537, September 2016 – meteorites that lack a fusion crust are prove — at least to the satisfaction of skeptoid.com those on which it has weathered away. even our enemies — that the Apollo Such weathering is equally obvious, program successfully landed on the and is absent on all the rocks brought Moon. About the author: back from the Moon. Recall the Brian Dunning is host and unfakeable zap pits, for example. Surveyor 3 producer of the award- There truly isn’t any credible Surveyor 3 was an unmanned winning podcast, Skeptoid: narrative other than that these 382kg American probe that landed on the Critical Analysis of Pop of rocks were brought to the Earth Moon in 1967. When Apollo 12 Phenomena. 35 ARTICLE Astronomy TheTidal Wave of Planets Martin Bridgstock examines the new science of exoplanets, and is both fascinated and reassured by developments ES0/S. Brunier Credit:

ack in 1995, Carl Sagan hailed conclusion is that our Solar System has The Milky Way, our own galaxy, stretches across Bthe early discoveries of planets eight planets, with Pluto being demoted the sky above the La Silla telescope in Chile orbiting other stars, and promised to a “planetary object” (Tyson 2009). that: “Eventually we will have a list of The definition of an exoplanet is simply are over 2000 lightyears away, and planetary systems – each perhaps with a planet in orbit around another star Voyager would take about 35 million terrestrials and Jovians and maybe new (Tasker 2017:311). In addition, there years to get there. For obvious reasons, classes of planets. We will examine these are rogue planets not orbiting any star. astronauts will not be going there in worlds, spectroscopically and in other There may be huge numbers of these, the near future. How, though, can ways. We will be searching for new but they are extremely hard to detect. anything be detected at these distances Earths and other life.” (Sagan 1995: 148) and in the glare of nearby stars? It takes Sagan was right. Less than 25 years A SHORT PRIMER ON DISTANCES. extremely sensitive instrumentation, and later, we know of about 4000 planets The sheer distances involved in this equally smart astrophysicists, to detect outside the solar system (Exoplanet.eu field of science are beyond imagination. exoplanets. In many cases, too, they 2019). Yet the study of these exoplanets The closest exoplanet detected orbits have figured out quite a lot about the reveals strangeness beyond anyone’s the nearest star to us, Proxima Centauri nature of these worlds. expectations. I want to introduce some (apart from the sun, of course). It’s of the marvels which have been found. I about 4.24 light years away. Now a HOW ARE EXOPLANETS DETECTED? think they tell us a lot about the nature lightyear is the distance that light travels There are two main ways of detecting of science. It’s a logical time to take in a year, about 9.5 trillion kilometres. exoplanets (Stromberg 2014). One is stock, as the two great exoplanet-finding If our (immensely speedy) Voyager called, unhelpfully, the “radial method”. devices, Kepler and CoRoT, have ceased 1 spacecraft were heading in that Imagine a star, and a planet going round working (Carlisle 2013). direction, it would need about 75,000 it. Even if the star is much larger than Astronomers have been arguing years to arrive (Tasker 2017: 98). the planet, it oscillates a bit during the about what constitutes a planet. Their The furthest exoplanets detected orbit. Astronomers can detect the star’s 36 The Skeptic June 19

oscillation toward and away from us by can indicate a planet nearby. EXOPLANETS ARE ODD – analysing changes in its spectrum, and Strangely, the first exoplanets OR MAYBE IT’S US. so can work out the planet’s year, and detected, in 1991, did not orbit round What results have emerged from all this also get some idea of its mass. normal stars. They orbited a pulsar. new evidence? Well, the detection of How, you ask, can the mass of an A pulsar is a kind of dead star. When exoplanets is not a surprise. Astronomers unseen planet be computed? Well, a star collapses, it may become a tiny have suspected their existence for years. from the theory of star formation, object only a few tens of kilometres What is surprising is the nature of the astronomers can estimate the mass of a across. As it collapses, it spins faster planets discovered. They don’t fit the star from its spectrum and faster, eventually theories. (Kornreich 2019). rotating hundreds of For centuries, astronomers could only Given the duration of “ In a few cases - a times a second. This develop ideas about planet formation the orbit and the size affects the magnetic on the basis of exactly one solar system of star’s oscillation, very few - it is possible field controlling the – ours. Our system has eight objects it’s then possible to to see the exoplanets pulsar’s emissions, so recognised as planets. Those planets compute the planet’s themselves. that it sends out regular orbit around the sun in near-circular probable mass. ” fast-paced radio signals. orbits. The four innermost planets There is a problem If there is a planet (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are with this method. If orbiting the pulsar, it small stony objects and Earth is the the (unseen) planet’s orbit is at an angle, can affect the pulsar’s movement and largest of these. The four gas giants are the radial method can only estimate a allow detection (Tasker 2017: 153). much further from the sun. minimum value for the planet’s mass, Apparently, though, planets orbiting Over the years astronomers have because it only detects the component pulsars will receive little light and be developed sophisticated theories of the star’s movement which is directly doused in radiation. Don’t go there. about how the Solar System – and, towards the Earth.

Luckily, there is a second method Credit: NASA Ames/SETI/J.Rowe of detection which yields extra information. This is called the “transit Left: Exoplanet method”. Imagine a star in space. Now a discoveries up to planet moves in front of the star. Clearly, 2014 - black in right if astronomers have sensitive light- hand column is new measuring equipment, they can detect planets “verified by the (tiny) drop in the star’s light. There multiplicity”. can be complicating factors, like flares and sunspots, but a periodic dip in light strongly suggests a planet orbiting the star. What’s more, the size of the dip can Below: Artist’s ren- give you a good estimate of the planet’s dering of Kepler-11, size, and the length of the year can also a Sun-like star with be computed. six planets. Those aren’t the only two methods used to detect exoplanets. Once a planet is detected, and its orbit worked out, scientists can look for irregularities in the data. Sometimes these variations point to further planets, whose orbits can be calculated as well. In a few cases – a very few – it is possible to see the exoplanets themselves. Normally, these are planets orbiting stars close to us. In addition, using the general theory of relativity, if a big object passes in front of a possible planet, it can serve as a huge lens, enabling astronomers to see objects which are normally invisible. This is called “gravitational lensing”. Finally, just occasionally, a star’s lateral ‘wobble’

NASA /JPL-Caltech NASA Credit: 37 ARTICLE Astronomy

The Tidal Wave WHAT DOES ALL Thomas Kuhn (1922-96), philosopher of science, THIS TELL US introduced the term “paradigm shift”. of Planets ABOUT SCIENCE? It has been Continued... spectacular to watch a brand new science presumably, other planetary systems -- erupting in just a started as a rotating circular gas cloud. few decades. It is As it rotated, the central mass condensed also fascinating to to form the sun and began to shine. see how science Gradually the rest of the dust clumped actually works in together to form the planets, and finally this fast-moving debris was cleared from their orbits. field. One interesting question Careful modelling suggested that large, is, why did this torrent of new icy planets with thick atmospheres would science take place at this time? appear first, far out from the sun. These Years ago, an historian of would be followed by smaller, stony science, Derek de Solla Price, suggested As I see it, exoplanetary science is planets closer in (Tasker 2017: 31). that science was heavily influenced settling down into what the historian The new discoveries have up-ended by the development of technology of science Thomas Kuhn (1966) called this. Exoplanetary systems are really (Price 1984). For example, Galileo’s a “puzzle-solving” phase. In this sort of weird. There are gas giants orbiting discoveries stemmed from the fact science, experts are confident existing close to their stars. These are common, that he was able to make and use the ideas can account for the evidence, orbiting perhaps one per cent of all stars. first astronomical telescopes. This but a great deal of work is needed to Planets often move in highly eccentric generated a torrent of new observations, demonstrate this. Every strange result, orbits, nowhere near circular. In general, stimulating new thinking. every surprise, must be investigated to the stony planets are larger than Earth, Another example struck me as I see whether existing theories can explain suggesting much read Price’s argument. it. Astrophysicists seem quite confident greater gravity The theory of evolution that planetary systems can be explained than on our home. “ Every strange result comes at least partly by the condensation of stars and planets Maybe half of all must be investigated to from improvements in from a rotating disc of dust. However, stars like our sun navigational technology, many new results seem very strange, have these ‘super- see if existing theories so that people like and much work is needed to explain all Earths’ orbiting can explain it. Darwin, Thomas Huxley the phenomena. So ‘puzzles’ are solved them. Clearly, the ” and Joseph Banks were by referring to more general principles theories of planetary able to travel around the and processes. formation need an awful lot of revision, world on long information-gathering This emerging field of science also and astronomers are currently working trips. Then they needed new theories to illustrates what has been called the on getting them right. Tasker (2017) explain all the evidence they had. “theory-ladenness” of observation. gives a readable summary of these In the case of exoplanets a whole Nearly all scientific observation attempts. series of new instruments provided presupposes the truth of other theories: What sort of processes are causing astronomers with a tidal wave of we rarely see things directly. For these strange systems? Well, if substantial information. Probably the most example, if I look through a telescope amounts of dust are left in the system, important of these instruments is the or microscope I am assuming that the a gas giant might form far away from Kepler telescope, which was expressly laws of optics work as they are supposed the star. Then, interacting with the dust, designed to look for exoplanets. to. In collecting evidence on exoplanets, it can spiral inwards, perhaps ending Observing from space, this wonderful scientists assume that the laws of gravity up very close to the sun. The wild instrument is responsible for detecting and motion apply, so they can calculate eccentricity of some planetary orbits over 2000 new planets all on its own masses, velocities and distances. If can result from interaction with other (NASA 2019). The French orbiting they use gravitational lensing, they are bodies, be they stars or planets. The instrument CoRoT (Deleuil et al assuming Einstein’s general theory of picture is emerging of a weird, complex 2018) also discovered several dozen relativity is true. And using evidence population of star-systems. A great deal exoplanets. There’s little doubt that from radio telescopes assumes that they of work is needed on these questions, and space-based instrumentation plays a measure what scientists think they do. astrophysicists freely admit they don’t huge part in scientific advance. De Solla This does not in the least invalidate know everything. Price has a point. scientific findings. As Bogen (2019) 38 The Skeptic June 19

says, “It can be perfectly reasonable to stony or a gas planet. And the ‘habitable REFERENCES trust the evidence available at present zone’ is simply the region round a star Bogen, James, “Theory and Observation even though it is logically possible where water can exist in liquid form: in Science”, The Stanford Encyclopedia for epistemic troubles to arise in the no guarantee whatever that there is any of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), future.” This view paints a picture water, or that any life exists. Indeed Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = < tinyurl.com/ of science as a mass of interlocking Tasker (2017: 228) points out that five y29v6af8. Accessed April 11. theories, each ‘stiffened’ with evidence times as many gas giants as rocky worlds Carlisle, Camille M. (2013) CoRoT mission from different sources. It also suggests have been discovered in the so-called ends. Sky and Telescope. June 25. https:// that scientists are well advised to habitable zones around stars. So the www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy- understand all the different theories sizzle, to date, is a lot greater than the news/corot-mission-ends/ which are involved in the evidence they steak. Deleuil, M., S. Aigrain , C. Moutou, J. collect. The universe almost certainly Incredibly, it may be possible to Cabrera, F. Bouchy, H. J. Deeg, J.-M. has more surprises in store. detect life on other worlds. As a world Almenara, G. Hébrard, A. Santerne, Another interesting feature of passes in front of its sun, the spectrum R. Alonso, A. S. Bonomo, P. Bordé, Sz. the exoplanet phenomenon is that of the latter is affected, since some of Csizmadia, R. F. Dìaz, A. Erikson, M. – so far—there has been no denier the light passes through the planet’s Fridlund, D. Gandolfi, E. Guenther, phenomenon. Nobody has denounced atmosphere (if it has one). A sizeable T. Guillot, P. Guterman, S. Grziwa, A. the discovery of exoplanets as any sort amount of oxygen and methane would Hatzes, A. Léger, T. Mazeh, A. Ofir, M. of conspiracy or fake science. In view be a strong indicator of life. So far, the Ollivier, M. Pätzold, H. Parviainen, of the savage denial attacks which have science of exoplanets has not given a H. Rauer, D. Rouan. (2018). Planets, taken place against, say, climate change, clear indication of life anywhere else, candidates, and binaries from the CoRoT/ evolution and the dangers of smoking though that could change. Exoplanet programme The CoRoT transit (to say nothing of the Holocaust), this is In general, the evidence in this field catalogue. Astronomy & Astrophysics, reassuring. At least in this one area, the supports the statement that: “Not 619, A97. work of discovery is being allowed to only is the universe stranger than we Exoplanet.eu (2019). The Exoplanet proceed without disruption. imagine, it is stranger than we can Encyclopedia. http://exoplanet.eu/ imagine.” catalog/ Accessed March 10. THE SEARCH FOR LIFE. Stand by for more strangeness; the Kornreich, D. (2019). Ask an Astronomer. I have underplayed a prominent feature universe is waiting. . tinyurl.com/y2skokh2. Accessed March of the exoplanetary search. There is a 10. constant stress upon the search for life, Kuhn, Thomas S. (1966) The Structure of and for Earth-like planets which might Scientific Revolutions. : University support life. We hear about “super- About the author: of Chicago Press. Earths” and planets in the “habitable Martin Bridgstock is a NASA (2019) Exoplanet Archive. https:// zone” of a star (The latter is also called retired senior lecturer in the exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/ the Goldilocks zone). These terms can School of Biomolecular and counts_detail.html Accessed March 10. be deceptive. A super-earth is much Physical Sciences at Griffith Price, Derek J. de Solla. (1984). The science/ larger than our Earth, with greater University and the author of technology relationship, the craft of gravity: we often don’t know if it is Beyond Belief. experimental science and policy for the improvement of high technology innovation. Research Policy 13, 1: 3-20. Sagan, Carl. (1995). Pale Blue Dot. London: Headline Above: John Dal- Stromberg, Joseph. (2014) How do ton (1766 - 1844), astronomers actually find exoplanets? chemist, physicist Smithsonian.com. March 19. https:// and meteorologist www.smithsonianmag.com/science- nature/how-do-astronomers-actually- Below Antoine find-exoplanets-180950105/ Lavoisier (1743 Tasker, Elizabeth. (2017). The Planet Factory. - 1794), before los- Exoplanets and the Search for a Second ing his head Earth. London and New York. Bloomsbury in the French Sigma. Revolution Tyson, Neil Degrasse. (2009). The Pluto files. NASA NASA The rise and fall of America’s favorite planet.

Credit: New York: W. W. Norton. 39 ARTICLE Paranormal Ghost inaBox

Want to talk with dead people? Ari Moore says there’s an app for that.

t doesn’t take much time on YouTube modify it to continue scanning even evidence), and its capacity to manipulate Ibefore the video-hosting website’s when a station is successfully located. the material world via magnetising and algorithm will automatically recommend Playing the frequency of a radio station producing the effect of acceleration in the a video referring to the paranormal. for a fraction of a second, the slices of space surrounding the smart phone. Hundreds of paranormal investigation audio, static, white noise, and interference Curiously, the audio output of many channels promote their ‘research’ on the are then interpreted to contain intentional of the iPhone spirit box apps retain the platform, with larger channels reaching spirit communications. Due to the nature sounds produced by the radio-frequency upwards of 1 million subscribers. A of the rapidly-changing frequencies, EVPs scanners of traditional EVP research – recent trend in YouTube paranormal produced via the traditional radio method channel flicking, single words, white entertainment has content creators are typically limited to single words or noise, random musical interference – even using smartphone ‘spirit box’ apps to phrases of two to three words. though all recent iPhones do not contain communicate with whatever spirits and/ Smartphone EVP apps are known as FM radio chips or have antennas capable or demons are in the vicinity. Spirit Box or Ghost Box apps, and are of supporting FM signals. While smartphone apps put a new spin readily available for download on the While I have been unable to locate a on things, the use of modern technology Australian Apple and Google app stores. more satisfactory technical account of a to communicate with the dead is well- App developers claim spirit box spirit box app’s functionality, the technical established. Paranormal investigators use apps operate as follows. Randomisation problems arising from the functionality “instrumental trans communication” algorithms spontaneously generate of these apps are far from limited to what (ITC) to refer to the use of any electronic words from phonic databases. Spirits only an app developer could comprehend. equipment to communicate with are capable of manipulating this Paranormal investigators who use discarnate beings. When the devices can random sequence, by selecting words the radio-frequency scanner method log audio recordings of ‘spirit voices’ into to intentionally communicate with the have dismissed recording apps on their devices – such as tape recorders, questioner. This process of deliberate smartphones, as they cannot produce voice recorders, and now smartphones selection is conducted via manipulating high-quality recordings. In addition, – this paranormal event is known as the smartphone’s in-built compass, traditional investigators seek to produce electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). magnetometer and accelerometer, and EVP recordings in acoustically controlled Adhering to the traditional method, presupposes the spirit’s understanding circumstances, typically a recording paranormal researchers obtain radios of how to manipulate a hard-coded studio, to prevent contamination from with a frequency scanning function, and phoneme bank (for which there is no ambient background noise. YouTubers 40 The Skeptic June 19

famous for spirit box app investigations, terms “scientifically proven” liberally, data upon which the listener interprets however, frequently record in loud, public without reference to a single study, while according to their personal context. It is environments, such as churches located in later providing a legal disclaimer that not surprising, then, that according to populous suburban areas, and are satisfied the accuracy of the data and messages research only 13 per cent of people agreed that the iPhone recording capability in- produced by the software cannot be upon what exactly the voice in an EVP built into these spirit box apps is sufficient guaranteed. said.2 This agreement dropped to one per to capture convincing EVPs. Placing the onus on app users to cent when participants’ interpretations Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority produce convincing results is another were compared with that of paranormal of EVP investigations are conducted common technique. researchers.3 In addition, by amateur researchers without the Spirits can purportedly Descriptions and the mere suggestion that knowledge or resources to produce detect an app user’s “ the voices were recorded credible scientific research.1 skepticism or negativity, blogs tout that other as part of paranormal but this does not apps are fakes but research caused study SIMPLE TESTS prevent them from participants to be more Moving beyond technical problems, communicating as theirs is authentic.” likely to hear voices in the legitimacy of spirit box apps frequently and clearly ambiguous stimuli.4 could be dismissed via simple home as if to a die-hard Spirit box smartphone experimentation. Many international users believer; instead, the user will not be able apps are a great example of pseudoscience’s have rated apps poorly, complaining that to ‘connect’ with the statements, and constant adaptation to the latest while they are in a country of non-English as a result, the process will not ‘work’. technology: without considering the speakers, the multiple spirit voices coming As a result, if a user conducts a spirit numerous technical issues, believers cite through are all in English. In addition, box session while not persuaded that the ‘objectivity’ of the recorded sounds as app reviewers have noted that if two the app is legitimate and then receives evidence of the apps’ credibility, neglecting phones are placed side-by-side and made unconvincing results, it is their fault. that their interpretation of these sounds to run the same spirit box app at the same The Android app Ghost Box E1 Spirit as delivering intentional communications time, they will produce entirely different EVP goes so far as to directly request of from the dead is almost entirely subjective. EVPs, despite the immediate surrounding its users: “If you don’t understand it then Rather than endeavouring to produce area being ‘manipulated by the spirit’ please don’t rate it.” a scientifically-credible account of containing both phones. Why do spirit box apps perpetuate how discarnate spirits and/or demons It is also curious that while the deceased despite their glaring problems? Firstly, are capable of manipulating the person producing the EVPs may not have there is a strong financial incentive by sensory functions of smartphones to been tech-literate enough to turn on a app developers and YouTube content communicate, it is more realistic to computer, or lived during a time when creators who profit from video views and concede to Occam’s razor and conclude computers existed, in the afterlife they affiliate sales. The most visible spirit box that spirit box apps are a hoax – and not a have attained a complete understanding apps in the YouTube space, EchoVox and particularly complex of a smartphone’s inner workings. It seems Necrophonic, cost A$30.99 and A$14.99 one, at that. . that, upon death, we are spontaneously respectively. YouTube content creators granted – among consciousness, memory, are paid according to ad revenue on their and the ability to manipulate magnetic videos, with estimates that one million poles, radio frequencies, and the material views produces approximately US$2000 About the author: realm – full comprehension of the coding for the content creator. Given that many Ari Moore is a philosopher of smartphone apps, and how to control spirit box app videos have views in the and writer living in them. multiple millions, the content producers Melbourne. There are also considerable biases have clear financial incentive to behave as and a lack of information to support though the app is convincingly real. REFERENCES the claims made by spirit box app Secondly, a scientific explanation 1. Baruss, I. (2001) ‘Failure to replicate developers. Frequently the app description for why people may be convinced that electronic voice phenomenon’, Journal or blogs will tout that other apps are these apps are real is well-documented: of Scientific Exploration, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. fake, but theirs is authentic. One app auditory pareidolia, or false audio pattern 355-367. blog charges ‘fake’ spirit box apps with recognition. Throw enough randomised 2,3,4. Nees, M.A. & Phillips, C. (20151) using random word generators overlaid English-language phonemes together and ‘Auditory pareidolia: effects of contextual with static or white noises, coupled with an English speaker will automatically priming on perceptions of purportedly reverb to produce dramatic effect – but attempt to detect recognisable words paranormal and ambiguous auditory theirs, however, was “100 per cent real”, in the chaos. For this reason, EVP may stimuli’, Applied Cognitive Psychology, without any account as to why or how be considered an ‘auditory inkblot test’, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 129-135, doi: 10.1002/ it differed. Many descriptions use the a meaningless collection of sensory acp.3068. 0341 ARTICLE History

Win Fowles looks back at the winners’ versions that are not always correct. Military Myths

ilitary history is written by BRONZED ANZACS Australian 50th Infantry at Zonnebeke, Belgium Mthe winners. We usually see The image of bronzed ANZACs during world War I - a long way from the surf. good records of the winner’s successes riding down from the hills to join up – their hits – and the loser’s mistakes – and defeat the dreaded enemy has a their misses. That’s OK up to a point truthful if tenuous basis in Australia’s because the winners would not have early conflicts. Our nascent nation was won unless they made fewer misses significantly rural so the percentage and more hits than the losers. of young men with shooting and But every military conflict sees riding skills who signed up for, say, the hits and misses by both sides. And Boer War or the earlier New Zealand some myths as well. Lessons for Wars was much higher than for later future conflicts may or may not be conflicts including World War I. But learned from these historical hits, the early numbers were much smaller, misses and myths even if they are with only about 2,000 Australians unacknowledged or played down in serving overseas in the New Zealand the winner’s records. Wars and about 15,000 in the Boer This short article looks at a few War. By way of contrast, some 332,000 military hits, misses and myths that served overseas in World War I (from “The Skeptic” readers may not be a military of 422,000) and nearly aware of. But, as with all articles 400,000 in World War II. published in this esteemed journal, Volumes have been written on the don’t take the writer’s word at face bronzed ANZAC image so beloved value. Do your own research if you by writers of potboiler novels and read something you disagree with, makers of movies. Is the image merely avoiding the confirmation bias a myth? Historian Manning Clark monster as you do so. certainly thought so. He claimed that 42 The Skeptic June 19

one in ten World War I soldiers had venereal disease, others had indulged in sex orgies at Victoria’s Broadmeadows army camp, many were drunks, riots were not uncommon, and Australians boasted the Western Front’s highest desertion rate. But unlike some other historians he did not say much about combat successes or other military positives. Manning Clark’s views may well be true but it is also true that Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen and women were and are consistently good in combat in all our wars including today’s. Through other eyes, they are: “Normal people in harrowing circumstances achieving amazing things.” It is reasonable to claim that the bronzed ANZAC image has some early basis in fact, and that that basis has contributed to our national identity. Readers may disagree on the positives and negatives therein but it is demonstrable that the men and women of yesterday’s and today’s Australian Defence Force (ADF) are overwhelmingly good at what they do. That they are bronzed ANZACs may be a myth but the ADF is a hit. JAPANESE INVASION OF AUSTRALIA The view that Japan intended to invade and subjugate Australia during World War II is often fostered by breathless newspaper pieces published around ANZAC Day. The bombing of Darwin and elsewhere, and the so- PEARL HARBOR Top: Pearl Harbour under attack 1941 - photo called Line, are exhibited as The disastrous 7 December 1941 taken from Japanese plane. evidence. But the truth lies elsewhere. Japanese attack on Hawaii’s Pearl Above: Darwin Harbour under attack 1942 - oil It seems true that elements of the Harbor is well known as a hit for Japan tanks ablaze. Japanese Navy in early 1942 favoured against the powerful US Navy. Also invasion but cooler heads prevailed. well known, if less acknowledged, is virtually straight away. Had the fuel The army and Prime Minister Tojo that the attack was also a hit for Britain storages been targeted and the fuel lost, were not persuaded, with historians and its allies in bringing a galvanised it is conceivable that the limited fuel generally agreeing that the cost of some America into World War II. tankers in the US fleet could not have ten Japanese divisions for control only But the Japanese made a serious made up the shortfall in time for the of north-east and north-west Australia, and less well known targeting error crucial Midway battle six months later, supported by up to two million tons of on that fateful day. The unprotected let alone refuel reinforcement vessels shipping, was unacceptable. fuel storages around Pearl and the and aircraft in the shorter term. Japan’s strategic objective was to nearby Oahu airfields escaped almost The Japanese error in only targeting isolate Australia. There is no evidence unscathed, which meant that US vessels combat platforms and not the fuel they that it intended to invade in order to and aircraft dispatched to Hawaii after relied on was a major miss for Japan achieve that objective. The “invasion” is the attack could be refuelled on arrival and a hit, albeit an unplanned lucky a myth, albeit an enduring one. and, in turn, be ready for operations one, for the US. 43 ARTICLE History

Military Myths Continued...

ALLIED BOMBING – WORLD WAR II The intensive bombing of European targets by allied aircraft in World War II is well known. So is the high aircraft and crew loss rate over German factories, cities and communication links. The loss rate is not a surprise because the Germans expected these attacks and installed strong defences against them. Above: Despite being hit dozens of times by Allied German aircraft and crew losses over bombs, Cologne Cathedral survived the wars. Britain were high for the same reason. Right: Field Marshall Erwin Rommel Without wishing to oversimplify, (1892 - 1944), the Desert Fox briefing the troops. strategic bombing campaigns are conducted for two key reasons. One is to destroy the enemy’s physical ability to now. That alternative was more mines wage war by attacking factories, storage delivered by aircraft to German-held depots, infrastructure and the like. The harbours and, in particular, to rivers. second is to lower enemy civilian and Except at bridges and dams, rivers were military morale by demonstrating that usually undefended so aircraft losses nowhere is safe. The latter can be a two could be minimised. edged sword, given that the Blitz did One prime example was the blocking not lower British morale and that it can of the Danube. The river then and now be argued Allied bombing of German is a major highway between the Black cities did little in itself to affect German Sea and central Europe. Germany relied ROMMEL morale. on it for importing Romanian oil and The popular view of Nazi Germany’s An attacking air force wants to for dispatching supplies to its forces on Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is maximise its effectiveness against the Russian front. positive, even in the eyes of his physical targets while minimising losses From April to September 1944, five country’s World War II enemies. He to its own aircraft and crew. But the months, the Danube was blocked by a was certainly an inspiring leader, Allied bombing campaign in Europe few air-delivered mines for almost no particularly at company and battalion suffered enormous losses, while German aircraft losses. Apart from stopping the level, and his personal bravery seems armaments production grew threefold westward flow of oil, the Germans were beyond question. And the manner of between January 1942 and July 1944. unable to deliver supplies including his passing in October 1944 burnished Excluding the some 10,000 tonnes his reputation. Soviet Union, the He lost North Africa, of ammunition to But Rommel was not a winner. allies lost some “ their beleaguered and He lost North Africa and could 80,000 aircraft in didn’t prevent D-Day - starving forces in the not prevent the Allied landings in the European war, Rommel’s reputation is east. Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. and Britain’s Royal more myth than reality. By any measure, Apologists may argue that both were Air Force alone ” the Danube mines somebody else’s fault, and that is true lost 57,000 aircrew represented maximum in part, but Rommel’s reputation is killed (of 125,000 effectiveness for more myth than reality. – a 46 per cent death rate). Was there an minimum Allied losses but, to the Sponsored for high promotion alternative? writer’s knowledge, British official by Propaganda Minister Joseph The gift of hindsight is always useful histories make no mention of this major Goebbels against the wishes of the despite its abuse by some. But one hit. Why not? Would it draw attention German military hierarchy, Rommel’s alternative to the carnage over Europe, to the horrifying and perhaps not intellect and strategic competence were or more correctly a part-alternative, was completely necessary losses elsewhere questionable. But his popular image known during the war but not given in the European air war? One can but was exactly what Goebbels sought, so the attention it deserved either then or speculate. the powerful German General Staff was 44 The Skeptic June 19

how a military defeat can become a political victory – a miss can become a Left: Battle of hit – if managed well by one side and Kapyong - Australian B mismanaged by the other. And in most Company, 3RAR, with cases when nations are at war, it is the Chinese prisoners. political victory that matters. The best (but rubbery) figures available to the writer indicate that some 80-100,000 North Vietnamese Below: Viet Cong Army (NVA) and perhaps 200,000 VC guerrillas involved attacked around 100 targets in South in the Tet Offensive, Vietnam during the three 1968 “Tet” January 1968. phases. The US intelligence failure was profound but the US military reaction was swift and generally effective. Australian As much as casualty rates can Regiment (3RAR) measure military success or failure, the together with a calendar 1968 numbers (also rubbery) New Zealand are instructive. Perhaps 50-100,000+ artillery unit, a NVA/VC died at a cost of 16,500 US Canadian battalion dead, including 500+ during Tet. And, and a US tank significantly, the North did not achieve company stood its strategic objective of the overthrow their ground as the of South Vietnam’s government. It had mauled ROK forces to wait until its military conquest in retreated in the face 1975 after abrogating the 1973 peace of Chinese human treaty. wave attacks. The Also rarely recognised is the North’s UN defence was massacre of 3-6000 civilians in the overridden. Rommel became the Peter successful at great cost to the Chinese, city of Hue during Tet. Readers can Principle personified – a great battalion who were unable to dislodge the UN speculate as to why recognition of this level leader but an ineffective general. forces from the high ground around atrocity is lacking. Kapyong. The Spring Offensive A casual reader is unlikely to find BATTLE OF KAPYONG – KOREA was blunted on its central front and much evidence of NVA/VC losses in Kapyong is a little known battle elsewhere, and Seoul was saved. today’s records in 2019 Vietnam, nor in a little known war. Korean War The Battle of Kapyong was a major of the alternatives to Allied bombing in repercussions are still felt today and hit for the UN forces, including World War II in British records, nor of show no signs of an early resolution Australia. South Korea remained intact so many other facts and interpretations despite the Trump-Kim meetings. and the synergy benefits when working that may challenge received wisdom on The war started in June 1950. The with allies rather than in isolation were military matters. Chinese initiated their massive Spring again demonstrated. But that’s not surprising, because Offensive in April 1951 on multiple Although not directly linked to history is written by the winners. Be fronts with the objective of capturing Kapyong’s success, the ANZUS Treaty sceptical! . Seoul, the southern capital. On their signed a few months later was very central front, the Chinese advanced much in Australia’s interests (although Note: This article is loosely based on along the Kapyong River valley, which some readers of this esteemed journal presentations with the same title given to offered a clear approach through the may perhaps disagree). the Queensland Skeptics and to U3A. intervening mountains to Seoul, just 30km from the village of Kapyong. TET OFFENSIVE – VIETNAM Arrayed against the Chinese at The January 1968 Tet Offensive and its Kapyong were Republic of Korea later two phases during the Vietnam About the author: (ROK) and United Nations (UN) War were a catastrophic political defeat Win Fowles is a graduate forces including an Australian infantry for the US and its allies. But Tet was a of the Royal Military College, battalion. Australian naval and air rarely recognised military defeat for the Duntroon, with 28 years forces also served in the Korean War. North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong military service. The Third Battalion, Royal (VC). The outcome demonstrates He is now retired. 45 ARTICLE Conspiracies

They’re back! A community of believers in extraterrestrial visitations continues to push its story, and the media and Pentagon continue to listen. Keith Kloor asks who benefits from these tales of UFOs close encounters. Won’t Go Away n his annual performance evaluation Ifor his job at the US Department of Defense (DoD), Luis Elizondo, a career military intelligence officer now in his late 40s, was lauded in 2016 for his ability to manage a highly classified program “in a manner that protects US national security interests on a global scale”. The office Elizondo oversaw had, among other things, “identified and neutralised six insider threats” and “co-authored four national-level policies involving covert action”. His work performance was rated as “exemplary”. The evaluator gushed that it “cannot be overstated the importance of Mr Elizondo’s portfolio to national security”. So it must have come as a surprise to at least some of Elizondo’s superiors when he departed the Pentagon a year later on a sour note. On October 4, 2017, Elizondo submitted a resignation letter - that he later made public - addressed to then Defense Secretary James Mattis, which warned that “bureaucratic challenges and inflexible mindsets” had prevented “anomalous aerospace threats” from being taken seriously within DoD leadership. There was “overwhelming evidence” of these threats, Elizondo wrote, “at both the classified and unclassified levels”. He referred vaguely to “many instances” of “unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and 46 The Skeptic June 19

displaying beyond-next-generation sound like a crackpot who had capabilities”. The letter urged Mattis watched too many X-Files episodes. In “to ask the hard questions” about fact, during his media blitz Elizondo who else might know about these carefully avoided mentioning the “phenomena” and their “capabilities”. term “UFOs” or anything that Left to right: Denizens of To the Stars Academy of Days after exiting the Pentagon, might be construed as a reference to Arts and Science - Luis Elizondo, Chris Mellon, and Elizondo joined a new entertainment extraterrestrials. But in one instance founder Tom Delonge and research company cofounded by he deviated from his careful phrasing Tom Delonge, formerly the lead singer when he said on CNN, “My personal and guitarist of the band Blink-182 belief is that there is very compelling BEEN HERE BEFORE and a paranormal enthusiast, who evidence we may not be alone.” Most scientists with relevant was known for spending his time News of the Pentagon’s UFO expertise attribute UFO sightings between concert gigs on the hunt for program continued to generate to misperception of celestial or unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and headlines as more tidbits dribbled out meteorological phenomena. Distant Bigfoot. The for-profit venture was via Elizondo and the new company planets, comets, and clouds have often called To The Stars Academy of Arts & he worked for. Other high-powered been mistaken for alien spacecraft by Science and included former Pentagon members of the To The Stars Academy sophisticated observers. Even highly and CIA officials, as well as several also began airing their concerns about trained military and commercial airline scientists contracted over the years by unknown, physics-defying aircraft pilots have been known to confuse US intelligence agencies. showing up in US airspace. One atmospheric optical phenomena for In mid-December of 2017, several of these voices was Chris Mellon, mysterious flying objects. months after Elizondo left the DoD, who served as the Deputy Assistant Still, the disclosure of the Pentagon’s the New York Times reported that he Secretary of Defense for intelligence UFO program, which officially existed had recently overseen a “shadowy” in the Clinton and George W. Bush between 2008 and 2012, has stirred $22 million Pentagon program that administrations. (In this capacity, interest on Capitol Hill. Members of investigated UFOs buzzing US military Mellon oversaw the Pentagon’s the House and Senate Armed Services jets and installations. The aviation most sensitive and Committees have writer Stephen Pope called the article closely held “black” requested details on the “borderline-sensationalist”. The science programs.) On “ Mindsets had program; the latter has journalist Jeff Wise said it “gave free March 9, 2018, he prevented anomalous quietly interviewed a rein to claims that the [Pentagon] published an op-ed in aerospace threats number of the military program had found evidence of the aWashington Post pilots who claim to have strange aircraft that flew in seemingly titled, “The military taken seriously. witnessed UFOs while impossible ways”. keeps encountering ” on training missions. Regardless, the story was picked up UFOs. Why doesn’t Influential to this effort widely in the media. Elizondo, who the Pentagon care?” is Mellon, a Washington insider for had served as a primary source for the And so, in the span of a few decades, who left the Pentagon in the Times reporting, talked cryptically months, a topic long confined to early 2000s, did a stint as Democratic about the government’s UFO program the tabloids and fringe media had staff director for the Senate Intelligence on the major news channels. His become a “serious news story” as the Committee, and now works alongside credentialed background and earnest Post asserted in its coverage last year, Elizondo at the To The Stars Academy, bearing made people pay attention. shortly after it published Mellon’s which bills itself as an “initiative Notably, the Miami native did not op-ed. mobilising the brightest minds from 47 ARTICLE Conspiracies

True magazine UFOs Won’t published an in- depth investigation Go Away on the experiences Continued... of Capt Robert Adickes, First Offic- er Robert Manning, and the passenger- within the top-secret shadows of witnesses of TWA aerospace, science and the Department Flight 117, written of Defense”. That placard is at the top by Major Donald of a company website page that sells Keyhoe branded T-shirts, hoodies, and other merchandise. Several years ago, Mellon told one interviewer that there were “sufficiently well-documented” UFO cases that “warrant a scientific investigation of the phenomenon”. I have recently discussed with him the merits of this claim in phone and email conversations. In one such exchange in late 2018, I shared a comment I had received from a prominent astronomer who said he was “very skeptical about the alien interpretation of UFO reports” that had been circulating in the media. Mellon was indignant. “I did not claim the objects were alien,” he shot back in an email. “Merely real, at Penn State, was also taken aback IN THE BEGINNING intelligently-controlled and not ours - after seeing the flurry of attention to Historians trace the birth of the UFO hence the need to investigate further.” UFOs sparked by the Times story. Like phenomenon in the United States to an Then he added: “Off to Govt mtgs Dorsch, Eghigian studies the topic Associated Press dispatch in the early in DC today with people who are on through a sociocultural lens. “When all summer of 1947. The article stated that the front lines of this”. In a follow-up this new stuff broke, I got déjà vu,” he a private pilot named Kenneth Arnold exchange later that day, he mentioned says. reported seeing “nine bright saucer-like that the people he was working with To Eghigian and Dorsch, there are objects” while flying his small airplane felt “an urgency to engage Uncle Sam striking similarities between a central above the state of Washington – what and the public from a national security UFO narrative from the Cold War era headline writers described as “flying standpoint”. and the one getting mainstream media saucers,” thus coining a phrase that This was also the media’s recent take attention of late. The two scholars also would soon become lodged in the on the Pentagon’s UFO program: that see notable parallels between the cast of public’s imagination. military and intelligence professionals characters that drew public attention to Others reported seeing similar had come forward to speak of UFO UFOs in the 1950s and those doing so objects (also described as “flying discs”) incidents that they believed should be today. in the following weeks and months, treated as a national security matter. Which raises the question: Have prompting nationwide headlines and Several historians following this news alien-powered craft been stalking the an investigation by the US Air Force. heard an echo from the past. “What skies since the Truman presidency, It was an anxious time: the country is so striking is that the rhetoric hasn’t all the while remaining elusive and was still recovering from World War II changed since the late 1940s, in ways difficult to positively authenticate? And just as it was reckoning with the Soviet that are stunning to me,” says Kathryn if so, is the “deep state” suppressing Union’s nuclear ambitions. The flood Dorsch, a University of Pennsylvania that evidence? Or might there be a less of flying saucer reports spooked the historian whose research connects the extraordinary explanation for a UFO military. Were people hallucinating, rise of the UFO phenomenon to Cold narrative that has persisted for 70 years, or seeing something from Moscow or War anxieties. ever since the dawn of the advanced Mars? Experts grasped for answers. A Greg Eghigian, a history professor aerospace age? scientist interviewed by the New York 48 The Skeptic June 19

Times in July 1947 called it a “mild Close Encounters Man. By then, the Air then a jet interceptor is scrambled case of meteorological jitters” and “mass Force had reopened its examination to intercept the UFO and the pilot hypnosis”. into the sightings. The newly assigned also sees the light and gets a radar But the UFO sightings kept head of the investigation, Captain lock on only to have the UFO almost coming in waves over the next few Edward Ruppelt, brought a sombre, impudently outdistance him, there is years. Initially, Air Force investigators methodical approach to the effort. In no simple answer. We have no aircraft thought that the objects had been Air Force verbiage, he replaced “flying on this earth that can at will so handily “domestically launched devices such as saucer” with “Unidentified Flying outdistance our latest jets.” weather balloons, rockets, experimental Object”, which he is said to have When I read this passage in flying wing aircraft, or celestial considered more neutral and accurate. Ruppelt’s book, I was struck by how phenomenon”. Some investigators gave (Of course, in due time even the term much it resembled what Elizondo serious consideration to the possibility “UFO” would become shorthand for and Mellon have said publicly about of extraterrestrials. But by 1949, the alien spaceship.) Ruppelt oversaw what supposed latter-day UFO incidents official Air Force position was dismissive became known as Project Blue Book at involving the military. Both have also of that hypothesis and the military a period in the early 1950s when the emphasised in conversations with sought to downplay UFO sightings. US government was grappling with a me the importance of advanced 21st This angered a group of well- problem it didn’t fully understand. century spy radar systems that they say connected ex-military officers who Frustrated by bureaucratic issues have detected “anomalous” aircraft, would soon get the ear of the public. and lack of support, Ruppelt left aka UFOs. But getting the Pentagon Perhaps the most influential voice Project Blue Book after a few years and to acknowledge this has been another belonged to retired Marine Corps retired from the military. In a 1956 matter, they assert. More concerning, Major Donald Keyhoe, who in January book about his experience, called The they say, is the military’s apparent lack 1950 published a much-publicised Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, of interest in the matter. “We cannot article in True magazine titled “Flying he wrote: “I wouldn’t class myself as a afford to avert our eyes, given the risk Saucers are Real“. Keyhoe slammed ‘believer’, exactly, because I’ve seen too of strategic surprise,” Mellon writes in the military’s UFO investigation and many UFO reports that first appeared his 2018 Washington Post op-ed. “It proclaimed that Earth had “been under to be unexplainable fall to pieces when is time to set aside taboos regarding systematic close-range examination they were thoroughly investigated. But ‘UFOs’ and instead listen to our pilots by living, intelligent observers from every time I begin to get skeptical I and radar operators”. another planet”. think of the other reports, the many Perhaps the unknown objects being Keyhoe quickly expanded his popular reports made by experienced pilots and spotted by military radar are nothing article into a book with the same title. It radar operators, scientists, and other to worry about, Mellon and Elizondo sold more than half a million paperback people who know what they’re looking say, rhetorically, or maybe they are - copies. Several years later, he published at. These reports were thoroughly except there’s no way to know unless the another bestseller asserting that the investigated and they are still Pentagon spends money and manpower Air Force was suppressing evidence of unknowns. Of these reports, the radar to find out. encounters between the military and visual sightings are the most convincing. “That’s the same argument Ruppelt interstellar UFOs. “When a ground radar picks up a made back in 1955 and 1956,” after he The media seized on the public’s UFO target and a ground observer sees retired from the Air Force, says the Penn fascination with flying saucers. In 1952, a light where the radar target is located, historian Dorsch, who is writing her Life magazine published a lengthy article titled “Have We Visitors From Outer Space?” The article concluded that dozens of sightings examined by government investigators were “seemingly unexplainable”. It also contained this eye-popping quote from an unnamed military intelligence officer: “The higher you go in the Air Force, the more seriously they take the flying saucers.” The impact from Life’s story was “explosive” and “quickly led to a dramatic uptick in UFO sightings The US Government’s Project Blue Book ran from around the country,” writes Mark 1952 to 1970, while 1950s newspapers ran their O’Connell in his recent book, The own versions of UFO encounters. 49 ARTICLE Conspiracies

face. And he was a relentless, aggressive from headlines as the UFO epidemic UFOs Won’t crusader; his frequent accusations that spread across the country in the summer the military and CIA were hiding and fall of 1947. Roswell did not serve Go Away evidence of extraterrestrials planted the as gruel for breathless tales in the media. Continued... seeds of conspiracy that would grow In fact, it wound up being little more into a core UFO narrative that has since than a footnote in UFO annals for more become a theme of UFO conventions than 30 years. and a multitude of books, movies, and Then, in 1980, a book called The doctoral thesis on the birth of the UFO television shows. Roswell Incident, by Charles Berlitz and phenomenon. William L. Moore, was published. Mellon and Elizondo have also FROM ROSWELL WITH LIES Berlitz had previously written a said that they are frustrated by the This conspiracy narrative has its roots bestseller about the Bermuda Triangle, institutional secrecy that prevents a more in a true historical event involving a which was a hot topic in the 1970s. concerted government investigation classified military project initiated in The Roswell Incident claimed to find into the “phenomena,” as they call it. 1947, at the dawn of the Cold War, long-suppressed information about a This argument, too, is similar to what and just as the UFO bug was sweeping crashed flying saucer and alien body other media-savvy voices such as Keyhoe the United States. Amid the flurry that had been recovered in 1947 by were saying in the 1950s, when he was of sightings that year, one stood out: the military. A UFO myth was born. president of a non-profit organisation someone had found pieces of a “flying It would, as one science writer later called the National Investigations disc” on a ranch in Roswell, New observed, launch “the modern wave of Committee on Aerial Phenomena Mexico. A local newspaper was told by UFO crash/retrieval conspiracy beliefs”. (NICAP). Its leadership included retired an Air Force intelligence agent that a Today, Roswell is the mother of all military and intelligence officials, such nearby military base had “come into the UFO conspiracies. as a former chief of the Navy’s guided possession of a Flying Saucer”. The truth, however, was something missile program. Another prominent This was a deliberate falsehood. So called Project Mogul. Several member was Roscoe Hillenkoetter, who was the next official press release from decades ago, the US military finally had served as the first director of the the government a day later, which acknowledged that the object found at CIA, from 1947 to 1950. stated that the object was actually a Roswell in the summer of 1947 was, These high-profile individuals gave weather balloon. Despite this puzzling in fact, a spy balloon that contained NICAP credibility, but Keyhoe was its turnabout, the incident quickly faded an instrument used to monitor sonic booms from anticipated nuclear tests by the Soviet Union. Of course, Roswell, New Mexico - home of the saucer given that the military’s first words (though the actual ‘crash’ site is 120km away). about the Roswell incident really were lies (not to mention the Pentagon’s general reputation for duplicity, especially during the Vietnam War), it is understandable why many UFO believers are reluctant to let Project Mogul stand as the final word on Roswell. Then there is the matter of Area 51, a remote, highly-classified Air Force base in the Nevada desert that until recent years wasn’t even officially acknowledged to exist. In flying saucer lore, Area 51 represents an “underworld of aliens and captured UFOs”, as Annie Jacobsen puts it in her critically acclaimed 2011 book, Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base. But, as she writes, “The truth is that America’s most secret federal facility was set up to advance military science and technology faster and further than other foreign powers 50 The Skeptic June 19

in the world.” adversaries will want to know what it is, Life magazine’s April 7 1952 edition, with rising To understand those advances in because it could be used against us. So star and rising conspiracy. military science and technology - and there’s this huge effort try to figure out how they are cloaked in secrecy and what the other side has.” cunning misdirection - is to understand Evidently, there were security issues gathering, Elizondo was careful not to the enduring power of mythical UFO with the new UFO program that had do or say anything that would lump narratives. to be addressed. “I knew there were him in with the Elvis-on-Mars crowd. counter-intelligence problems that He was mindful of the stigma attached MIXED MOTIVES needed to be fixed,” Elizondo said. “I’m to a subject he wanted taken seriously When Luis Elizondo was at the kind of like the plumber that needs to by the Department of Defense. But now Pentagon in the late 2000s, he fix leaks.” He eventually took over the he was the headliner at a conference was asked to take over security for program and insists that he kept it afloat titled “UFOs, Extraterrestrials, and the the Advanced Aerospace Threat until he left in 2017, although funding Future of Humanity”. Why participate Identification Program (AATIP). officially dried up in 2012. in that? He had experience in technology Whatever Elizondo learned while “I’m trying to get the conversation protection, having previously worked running AATIP seems going,” Elizondo said with Boeing and its Apache Longbow to have convinced Roswell - little to me, during a wide- helicopter, and also with Raytheon and him that UFOs are “ ranging interview in some of its cruise missile technology. A real. And because he more than a footnote his hotel room several new aerospace-related assignment made wasn’t able to convey in UFO annals for more hours before his sense. this to higher-ups in scheduled talk. This But AATIP was different than the Pentagon’s chain of than 30 years. ” perplexed me. The anything he had worked on before. command, he decided hundreds of attendees It was created in 2007 to study to quit and let the world know about at this conference already believed in “anomalous aerospace threats”, a the program. “That was the only way UFOs. A number of the panels were euphemism for UFOs. His job, he to continue the mission,” he said to me geared for “experiencers”, people who explained to me, was “making sure just before he was scheduled to speak at thought they had been touched in the Russians, the Chinese, our foreign a symposium organised by the Mutual some way by space aliens. If Elizondo adversaries, weren’t penetrating UFO Network, an organisation of wanted UFOs to be treated as a national [AATIP] or developing some sort of UFO believers, in the summer of 2018. security matter, why come to venues deception campaign”. He cut himself He was the keynote speaker, part of a such as this? off at this point. “I have to be careful, featured line-up that included Travis I thought that perhaps he was because we can get into classified stuff Walton, a former logger whose story of looking to attract new investors for the pretty quick”. After a brief pause, he alien abduction was made into the 1993 To The Stars Academy, which was on continued: “Anytime you have a game- movie Fire in the Sky. its way to crowdfunding more than changing, advanced technology, your Until he showed up at the UFO two million dollars. There is, after all, 51 ARTICLE Conspiracies

wonder about that. Their suspicions to me in the hallways of the UFO UFOs Won’t about Elizondo have their roots in the conference he was headlining when story of Richard Doty, a former special we first met. “No, I am not running a Go Away agent for the US Air Force Office of government disinformation campaign,” Continued... Special Investigations. Some years ago, he said to me when I caught up with Doty came forward to say that he had him again at the end of the event. deliberately given false information to We talked over burgers and beers at numerous self-styled UFO researchers an airport bar. For someone who had a thriving UFO marketplace, fuelled when he was assigned to Kirtland been an interrogator at Guantanamo by conventions, podcasts, and popular Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Bay, Elizondo has a likable, disarming pseudo-documentary shows such as the Mexico, in the 1980s. Doty fed his presence, which is a handy trait to History Channel’s Ancient Aliens. unwitting stooges fake evidence of possess if your goal is to earn the trust Elizondo resented the suggestion captured aliens and flying saucers of those who might otherwise be (already made by others) that he was inside top secret military bases, which suspicious of you. in the UFO racket. “This is not a breathed life into the Roswell legend. We stayed in touch over the next few moneymaking endeavour for me,” he A fascinating 2013 documentary called weeks, while I was working on a story insisted, referring to his new company Mirage Men captures the extent of his about him for Newsweek. The suspicious and role as a public figure speaking deeds - in his own words and those of whispers in UFO circles were getting out about the threat posed by UFOs. the UFO researchers who interacted louder. “This is a very hard path I am (He said he refused to take a fee for his with him. on and sometimes I wish I could fade appearance at the conference.) Okay, Whether Doty is a fabulist or true off into the sunset and let someone then why did he come out from the confessor is impossible to verify and still else do this,” he texted me one day. “It shadows after a long, distinguished hotly debated in UFO circles; if he has really sucks being judged by people who career as an intelligence officer? Why misrepresented himself, he has never have never met you and question your go public about a Pentagon program been charged by the US government credibility and motivations every step of that had been deliberately shrouded in with any crimes. But as the science the way. I think I very much prefer the secrecy? writer and podcaster Brian Dunning shadows”. But Elizondo also resented the has noted: “Much of Doty’s story is suggestion that believable and dovetails TRUST US, WE’RE EXPERTS he was a whistle- very well into history. In 1966, Walter Cronkite (“the most blower, as some have “ It really sucks being The late 1970s and trusted man in America”) hosted an characterised him. judged by people who early 80s were the hour-long CBS special report titled He was speaking years when the F-117 UFO: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy. At the out, he said, because have never met you. Nighthawk stealth time, the UFO craze in the United he felt duty bound: - Luis Elizondo attack aircraft was still States showed no sign of ebbing. There “I’m doing this for ” a secret, but very much had been periodic waves of sightings the same reason I operational. Soviet for nearly 20 years, spawning flying hunted terrorists in Afghanistan, the spies desperately wanted information saucer cults, amateur groups of zealous same reason I caught spies in South about it. Armies of UFOlogists had researchers, and a lucrative genre of sci- America, for the same reason I left the been encamped around every Air fi movies and books. [Defense] Department - because there Force installation since the 1950s, For his show, Cronkite enlisted a is a problem. We have pilots, soldiers, documenting, filming and disclosing number of prominent experts, such [radar] operators, men and woman who their findings at conferences. The as a young astronomer named Carl have seen something and in some cases Air Force very astutely assumed that Sagan, to demystify UFOs. J. Allen are even being punished for reporting Soviets were likely to have infiltrated Hynek, another astronomer who was it. These are loyal Americans, people the UFOlogy community to see what a scientific adviser to the Pentagon’s who run multimillion-dollar weapons these legions of amateur investigators ongoing UFO investigation, also was platforms with live munitions over US had found, and sent Doty (and, we featured. “To this time, there is no cities and we don’t trust them to say, presume, others like him) to provide valid scientific proof that we have ‘There’s something there and I don’t stories of captured flying saucers and been visited by spaceships,” Hynek know what the hell it is.’” alien ambassadors working with the US told Cronkite. “The great majority [of “I did not do this for frills and government.” UFO sightings] are balloons, meteors, thrills,” he said coolly. “I did it to tell the Elizondo has heard the rumours satellites, aircraft seen with the sun truth.” about himself floated on the internet glistening off of them, and birds,” he Within the conspiratorial ranks of the - that he is a latter-day Richard Doty. explained. Hynek did allow that there UFO community, there are many who These suspicions were also whispered were a very small number of “most 52 The Skeptic June 19

interesting cases that intrigue me in may be useful, a study of UFOs in the same way that a good mystery general is not a promising way to story intrigues me.” (Indeed, Hynek expand scientific understanding of eventually did come to believe that the phenomena.” Pointing to these some extraterrestrial or otherworldly conclusions, the Pentagon announced presence might explain those unsolved that it would no longer investigate mysteries.) UFO reports. After Cronkite was done with the None of this seemed to reduce science portion of the show, he turned the allure of flying saucers. UFOs to other possible explanations, such remained a hot topic into the 1970s, as new military technology, “strange as a new wave of popular sci-fi films, looking crafts” that had been created such as Close Encounters of the Third by the budding aerospace industry for Kind and Alien, continued to stoke the Air Force. There were also other public fascination. By the late 1990s, unknown craft, he added, “probably other big UFO subthemes had being tested in secret”. been prominently introduced into Still, public interest in UFOs pop culture, such as the abduction could not be dimmed. Several years phenomenon and government after Cronkite’s broadcast, the Air conspiracy narrative, via best-selling Force contracted with the University books and, of course, The X-Files. of Colorado (CU) to convene a The continued attention was also distinguished panel of scientists on fed by new disclosures of previously the subject. Led by the CU physicist unknown government interest in UFOs Clockwise: J Allen Hynek (1910-86), astronomer, Edward Condon, the group concluded by US intelligence agencies. Using the professor, UFOlogist, classifier of UFO encounters in 1968 after an in-depth study that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), (there are seven of them) and a cameo role in there was no basis to the extraterrestrial dogged UFO crusaders successfully Close Encounters of the Third Kind. interpretation of UFO reports and sued the federal government to unearth “that nothing has come from the study documents that revealed that the CIA of UFOs in the past 21 years”. The had been periodically monitoring UFO UFO community that the spy agency panel’s voluminous report totalled reports and the active community of was hiding evidence of extraterrestrials. nearly 1000 pages and focused “almost believers since the 1950s. The agency, Perhaps hoping to defuse this entirely on the physical sciences”, it turned out, had even commissioned notion, the CIA in 1997 allowed its meaning it examined UFO sightings in its own classified study to determine official historian, Gerald Haines, to the context of explainable celestial and if there was any substance to any publish a report explaining how the meteorological phenomena. In 1969, of the UFO reports. (It reached the CIA’s U2 spy plane and other advanced a National Academy of Sciences panel same conclusion as the CU-led and reconnaissance projects, such as the reviewed the report and concurred National Academy of Sciences panels.) SR-71 Blackbird, had frequently with its finding, writing: “While Of course, the revelations of the been mistaken for UFOs from the further study of particular aspects of CIA’s longtime interest in UFOs only late 1950s through the 1960s. Haines the topic (eg atmospheric phenomena) reinforced the belief of many in the acknowledged that the Air Force’s 53 ARTICLE Conspiracies

screens - what the Navy then referred military email system. Then, according UFOs Won’t to as Anomalous Aircraft Vehicles. to three witnesses of the Tic Tac episode The F/A-18s were told by the interviewed by the paper’s authors: Go Away Princeton’s captain to intercept the “The communication logs, the radar Continued... closest anomalous vehicle, which was data, and other associated electronic located about 150 miles southwest of information was removed from the USS the San Diego coastline. When the Princeton and a copy of the video from pilots reached their coordinates, they the USS Nimitz.” UFO investigators during this period spotted from an altitude of 20,000 feet According to the paper, here’s had been made aware of the CIA’s a disturbance at the ocean’s surface. what happened: within 12 hours of ultra-secret spy projects, but were told One of the pilots, Commanding the incident, a helicopter carrying not to reveal the true cause of many Officer Dave Fravor, reported that he non-uniformed personnel landed of the flying saucer sightings. “This saw a white oval or “Tic Tac”-shaped on the Princeton. They approached led the Air Force to make misleading object about 50 to 60 feet in size Petty Officer Voorhis, who was in and deceptive statements to the public moving just above the churning water. charge of the ship’s Cooperative in order to allay public fears and to Fravor headed down for a closer Engagement Capability (CEC) protect an extraordinarily sensitive look. What happened next was “like system, and requested that he turn national security project,” Haines nothing I’ve ever seen,” he recounted in over all the ship’s radar data, electronic wrote. “While perhaps justified,” he 2018 in a video posted on the internet: information, data recordings. He asked added, “this deception did end up the object accelerated so fast that it for their identification, and when they adding fuel to the later conspiracy disappeared in a blink of an eye. A refused, he told them that he needed theories.” pilot in the other F/A-18 has described permission from the ship’s captain Such deception might also have the episode similarly; he also says he before complying. Shortly after that, his inadvertently contributed to the watched as the object zipped around captain gave him the order and Voorhis lingering distrust felt toward scientific Fravor’s plane before it darted off in a relinquished all the information, which experts by UFO believers. After all, flash. was stored on magnetic tapes. those blue-ribbon panels in the late Meanwhile, according to testimony The tapes contained crucial data 1960s dismissed most sightings as from Petty Officer Gary Voorhis, who that would easily shed light on the optical illusions. Since then, scientists was stationed on the Princeton at mysterious Tic Tac-shaped object. Said have become even more exasperated the time of the episode: “At a certain Voorhis to the paper’s authors: “You by the persistence of UFOs in the point there ended up being multiple could literally plot the entire course public mind. But we now know that a objects that we were tracking. That of the object, you could extract the good number of those strange aircraft was towards the end of the encounter densities, the speeds, the way it moved, sightings were likely real - just not and they all generally zoomed around the way it displaced the air, its radar extraterrestrial in origin. at ridiculous speeds, and angles, and cross-section, how much of the radar This larger, complex history of trajectories and then eventually they all itself was reflected off its surface. I mean the UFO phenomenon is especially bugged out faster than you could pretty problematic for professionals in the our radars.” Scientists are much recreate the military and intelligence community The entire episode, “ entire event with the who have come forward of late which lasted between exasperated by the CEC data.” with alarming stories of unknown five and seven minutes, persistence of UFOs After I read “anomalous” aircraft and plead to be was monitored on the in the public mind. this, I thought taken seriously. Princeton’s Command ” back to the gist of Information Center, Elizondo’s beef with THEY’RE BACK according to an unpublished paper the Defense Department, and Mellon’s On the afternoon of November 14, that analyses the incident, authored complaint in his Washington Post 2004, two F/A-18 Super Hornet by a group of longtime UFO op-ed, that such incidents (and others fighter jets were 30 minutes into a researchers, several of whom have like it) “remain largely ignored and training drill off the coast of Southern scientific backgrounds and careers unevaluated” by the military. California when they were redirected in the semiconductor and aerospace That does not seem to be the case by a Naval radio operator to a “real industries. with the Nimitz event, unless the world situation”. Earlier that day, the The paper reveals that in the former airmen and sailors who spoke USS Nimitz nuclear aircraft carrier immediate aftermath of the incident, a on the record to Robert Powell, the lead and the USS Princeton missile cruiser video of the encounter was shared and author of the paper, have concocted the had detected more than a dozen viewed widely by members aboard the aforementioned chain of events - and in unidentified objects on their radar Princeton and Nimitz via an internal coordination with one another to keep 54 The Skeptic June 19

Elizondo went on to insist that “disclosure has occurred” and that UFOs “are real”. Moreover, he added, “We have also established that fact from a national security perspective. You now have people at the highest levels of the United States government and international communities of their governments finally taking this seriously, applying real resources, real talent, real expertise to look at this and Fighter pilot Cmdr Dave Fravor, USS Nimitz, finally figure out what this is.” and the Tic Tac-shaped anomalous aerial Next he addressed the elephant in vehicle encountered in November 2004 - “Iike the room. “Am I a spy for the CIA nothing I’ve ever seen”. trying to fool people and do soft disclosure?” he asked rhetorically. “At the end of the day, who cares? You’re their stories straight. But here again, and build a coalition of like-minded getting the information that was Powell and his colleagues, despite scientists,” says Rich Hoffman, who squirreled away in these little secret their bias in favour of extraordinary does information systems work for the hidden compartments. It’s now coming explanations of what happened, also US military and was the lead organiser to light.” did their homework. They found a of the event. I approached Elizondo after his 2013 Facebook page for the Nimitz I attended the conference, curious to presentation to say hello and see if I that contains a conversation about see if science would really take centre could get another interview with him. the 2004 incident among various stage at a UFO event. To my surprise, He was cordial and open to talking, shipmates who served together at the panels were staid PowerPoint but said that it would have to be off the time. All those on duty that day presentations. No talk of abductions the record. I found that disappointing, recalled it vividly in their Facebook or Big Foot; just lots of mathematical but understandable. Since we first met comments; many said they were still formulas from physicists about nearly a year ago, he had not been befuddled by what they saw and why the challenges of interstellar travel pleased with critics on social media the data mysteriously disappeared. and space propulsion, and clinical and blogs who were scrutinising his examinations of several incidents every move and utterance. He and his HARD DATA, CREDIBLE WITNESSES involving supposed UFOs, such as the UFO company were under a sharp The paper that meticulously chronicles Nimitz case. microscope. For example, in late 2018, the Nimitz incident is titled “A The big draw, though, was Elizondo, Elizondo had travelled to Rome to give Forensic Analysis of Navy Carrier who gave a talk on the opening night. a presentation to European UFO buffs Strike Group Eleven’s Encounter with He didn’t offer anything new or that was videotaped and quickly posted an Anomalous Aerial Vehicle”. Two noteworthy about the UFO program to the internet. Skeptics found the talk of the primary authors, including he once led at the Pentagon, although littered with dubious historical claims, Powell, gave a detailed presentation he did say the “effort” was ongoing. (A including a reference he made to the at a conference in Huntsville, public affairs officer at the Pentagon 1947 Roswell incident that suggested Alabama, in mid-March of 2019, has said the program expired in 2012.) the real truth was still unknown. “I’m called the “Scientific Conference on Elizondo told the audience that he not going to speculate in this room Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena”. had remained in close touch with his what crashed at Roswell,” he told that The conference was organised by a successor. In fact, he said that earlier in audience, before proceeding to cast group of academics, engineers, and the week he had “received a call from doubt on the official explanation given scientists that calls itself the Scientific a friend of mine, a very dear colleague at the time, as if he was unaware of Coalition for UFOlogy (and includes of mine, who’s still at the Pentagon, Project Mogul’s disclosure. scientists from NASA, the European who works this effort, very closely”. Space Agency, and the North American Elizondo then paused briefly. “You can AN AMERICAN TRADITION Aerospace Defense Command). The read between the lines. When I say ‘is In his Rome talk, Elizondo also group says it endeavours to take a cold- working this effort’, I don’t mean the discussed a famous 1952 incident eyed approach to the UFO issue, and past, but actively working this. So it when flying saucers were reported over as such, examines only cases that have definitely continues. It’s still going. Washington, DC. There is no historical hard data and credible witnesses. That, too, will come out hopefully soon photo that captures the supposed “We’re looking to stay neutral in a very official way.” UFOs, but in his talk Elizondo showed 55 ARTICLE Conspiracies

in its 2017 article and claimed to to keep secret. UFOs Won’t have received from the Pentagon - For those unsure what to believe, was already bouncing around on the Elizondo offered these words of Go Away internet in 2007. wisdom to a suspicious questioner at Continued... Whatever its the 2018 International UFO Congress provenance, it is this in Phoenix: “I would say remain video and others like skeptical. Healthy skepticism is very it that Elizondo and important; in fact, it’s imperative. a slide that suggested Chris Mellon cite as In fact, in my job as an intelligence one existed. “It was compelling evidence officer, I was paid to be skeptical. I actually a still [image] of aerial wizardry by think you should always question all from a CGI [computer UFOs that pose a the information that comes before generated animation],” threat to US national you by anybody who says anything, says John Greenewald, a security. As one might and I think that’s true not just with longtime FOIA archivist expect, an online army people like me, I think it’s true with who writes about the of eyes with many government, religion, and everything Pentagon’s controversial years of aviation and in between.” UFO history in a newly aerospace experience For a journalist trying to make sense published book titled have minutely of it all, the skepticism comes naturally. Inside the Black Vault: examined the videos. If Elizondo, Mellon, and the To The The Government’s UFO The crowdsourcing Stars Academy seem to be working in Secrets Revealed. As soon as this was consensus, helpfully compiled into a the great American tradition of PT pointed out to Elizondo on the detailed rundown of the incident at Barnum, the irony remains that the internet, he apologised for the error a popular skeptic’s blog, is that the Pentagon may well have its own good on his company’s Facebook page. “anomalous phenomena” asserted by reason for keeping the UFO story alive. There are other discrepancies that Elizondo and Mellon are more likely Not that they’d ever admit it. . have put him on the hot seat. He explained as sightings of some sort of and his company have facilitated the classified missile or aircraft, perhaps a Note: Reprinted with permission from Issues release of video footage that show drone, being tested at the time. in Science and Technology (issues.org), Kloor, military pilots engaging with supposed That would make sense given the “UFOs won’t go away,” Spring 2019, p. UFOs. Several of these, including a mysterious scrubbing of electronic 49-56, by the University of Texas at Dallas, grainy 45-second video of the Nimitz data relating to the 2004 incident, as Richardson, TX. incident, have gone viral online, due reported by various crew members on in part to the recent media coverage the Nimitz and Princeton. Perhaps that he and Mellon have received. the aerial phenomena around which Elizondo has insisted that the videos Elizondo and Mellon seek to cast About the author: were declassified and released by such a veil of mystery can instead be Keith Kloor is a New York the Pentagon in 2017, which the chalked up to a familiar cause of UFO City-based freelance journalist Pentagon denies. Even odder, a video sightings over the past seven decades and an adjunct professor of the Nimitz incident - the same - advanced military aircraft and of journalism at New York one the New York Times embedded weaponry that the Pentagon is trying University.

The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe is a weekly Science podcast talkshow discussing the latest news and topics from the world of the paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims from a scientific point of view.

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56 REVIEWS Vaccination The Skeptic June 19

there have been and still are problems and challenges Needle work associated with the use of vaccines, and on occasion with the products themselves, albeit he does cite the ‘greater good’ when dealing with the sometimes Defeating the Ministers of Death: The compelling history serious side-effects. of vaccination The anti-immunisation movement comes in for particular opprobrium, especially regarding the impact By Prof David Isaacs its tactics have on the general population. Harper Collins A$34.99 Most skeptics would know Andrew Wakefield’s false and rightly vilified claims in the late 1990s (and repeated endlessly since) about a link between MMR sk any Skeptic about the most important issues vaccine and autism. Many may not remember an anti- Athey face, and the anti-vaccination movement vax scare before Wakefield that mirrored the more would regularly be in the top three, if not number one. recent shock tactics. Doctors from the Great Ormond Anti-vaxxers have been around since there was Street Children’s Hospital in London raised fears in vaccination. The earliest application of smallpox the early 1970s of a link between pertussis vaccine vaccination in the late 18th century was based on and encephalopathy (brain disease). A scientific paper the lesser disease cowpox. (“Vaccination” comes supporting this view was widely criticised, but that from “vacca”, the Latin for cow, though the word didn’t stop media coverage of the supposed ‘danger’, “vaccination” itself was coined by Louis Pasteur, 80 and immunisation rates dropping. Between 1977 years after Edward Jenner’s ground-breaking work on and 1979 over 100,000 people in the UK caught immunisation.) Cartoonists of the time took great whooping cough and at least 36 children died from pleasure in depicting those being vaccinated with it. Awareness of these appalling figures generated an smallpox turning into cows. In 1906, playwright increase in immunisation, and the outbreak receded. George Bernard Shaw described smallpox vaccination But the lessons weren’t learned, and Wakefield’s as “a particularly filthy piece of witchcraft”. claims had the same impact 20 years later, with the The level of sophistication and intellectual rigour of same results. Isaacs puts all of this in context. anti-vaxxers hasn’t improved much over the years. Isaacs is Clinical Professor of Paediatric Infectious But the “Ministers of Death” in the title of David Diseases at the University of Sydney, and while Isaacs’ book does not refer to anti-vaxxers, though the book is pitched at a global audience, it is not that would make sense. Rather the phrase comes from surprising that some of the references are to Australian English historian Lord Macauley who called smallpox case studies, though not always to Australian “the most terrible of all the ministers of death”. organisations and people. Prof Julie Leask, also of The book is a readable discussion of the history of Sydney Uni, rates a mention. However, while Jenny vaccine-preventable diseases, the treatments developed, McCarthy and the US anti-vax movement is covered, and the issues raised in the process. the leading anti-vax group in Australia, the Australian The diseases are well known – smallpox, polio, Vaccination-skeptics/risk Network, is not, and nor rabies, tetanus, diphtheria, tuberculosis, etc – and is its more activist local skeptical adversary, Stop the these are accompanied with profiles of AVN. In contrast, Isaacs gives a decent amount of key players and how they developed their space to an outbreak of diphtheria in Bundaberg in vaccines. the 1920s, and the subsequent immunisation which But it is the issues that Isaacs covers that itself caused a number of deaths. Most international are of great interest to skeptics, and these readers would not know where Bundaberg is, and take up roughly half of the book. many would not even know where Queensland Here we have discussions on the use is. Isaacs usefully explains that the town is near the of vaccine during pregnancy, claims of southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, but if he can go cancer-causing vaccines, problems and to this effort for one Australian element, then at least a tragedies (including such major disasters passing mention of key players in the Australian anti- as the ‘Cutter Incident’ polio treatment), vax scene would have been appreciated. missteps, medical ethics, treatments and But in the grand scheme of things these are not affordability in developing nations, safety great issues, and the overall reach of the book is broad and, of course, the anti-immunisation – even comprehensive - and covers the history and movement. issues associated with vaccination in enough detail and Isaacs treats all of these issues with in such a highly readable style to satisfy most readers. respect. While he is decidedly pro- Recommended as a good overview of the topic. vaccination, he does acknowledge that - Reviewed by Tim Mendham 57 REGULARS

The cycle of life THE LAW Mein Fuhrer to mine host. Godwin’s law (or Godwin’s rule of Hitler analogies) is an Internet adage that asserts that: And so it goes, the almost inevitable “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability realisation that all knowledge is of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1.” That is, sooner or later someone will compare someone or connected and connectable. something to Adolf Hitler or his deeds. There is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that, when a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever THE HOST debate is in progress. It is now applied to any threaded One participant in the Battle online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and of Madagascar – the first large scale comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other operation by the Allies of World War rhetoric where reductio ad Hitlerum occurs. II combining sea, land and air forces – was Donald Sinclair, an officer in the Royal Navy Reserve who saw action off Greenland, Madagascar, and North Africa. After the war, he was co–proprietor of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, England. Members of the cast of the TV comedy Monty Python’s Flying Circus stayed at the hotel while filming locally. For some reason, Sinclair (pictured left with his wife) thought one of the cast’s briefcases contained a bomb, and hid it behind a garden wall. He was the inspiration for the character Basil Fawlty, hotel owner, in Fawlty Towers, written by Python What goes around ... John Cleese. Fawlty’s most famous line in the show is “Don’t THE OTHERS THE PLACE mention the war.” Some notable but possibly less exciting Godwins Madagascar, previously known as the Malagasy (not necessarily related) include Mary Wollstonecraft, Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, who approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa. married into the Godwin family; her daughter Mary Wol- Because the island split from India more than 80 million years lstonecraft Godwin, author of Frankenstein, who married the ago, Madagascar’s native plants and animals have evolved in relative poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; former rock musician and drug addict isolation, with over 90% of its wildlife found nowhere else on Earth, Jeff Godwin turned fundamentalist Christian who now campaigns particularly its lemurs and many species of chameleons. In the 1930s, against rock music as the work of the Devil. Two Godwins have the Nazis developed the Madagascar Plan that identified the associations with Madagascar: Jeff Godwin (presumably not island as a potential site for the deportation of Europe’s Jews. related to the fundamentalist Godwin) is an expert on the During the Second World War, the island was the site software package known as Madagascar used for multidi- of the Battle of Madagascar (1942) between the mensional data analysis, and Alan Godwin is founder, The animals who look decideldy upset Vichy government and the British. owner and CEO of Reef & Rainforest which by mention of the man at the top, not runs tours of the island. to mention the loss of their habitat. Source: Wikipedia, except where noted.

58 The Skeptic June 19

THE MAN THE LAW Michael Wayne Godwin (born 1956, pictured Godwin’s law (or Godwin’s rule of Hitler below) is an American attorney and author. He was the analogies) is an Internet adage that asserts that: first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability From July 2007 to October 2010 he was general counsel for the of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1.” That Wikimedia Foundation, and was elected to the Open Source Initiative is, sooner or later someone will compare someone or board in March 2011. He has served as a contributing editor of Reason something to Adolf Hitler or his deeds. There is a tradition magazine since 1994, and is currently general counsel and director in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums of innovation policy at the R Street Institute. Godwin has stated that that, when a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is he introduced Godwin’s law as an experiment in memetics: “I seeded finished and whoever made the comparison loses whatever Godwin’s Law in any newsgroup or topic where I saw a gratuitous debate is in progress. It is now applied to any threaded Nazi reference. Soon, to my surprise, other people were citing A man whose very mention online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and it - the counter-meme was reproducing on its own!” causes great disruption to online Source: wired.com/1994/10/godwin-if-2/ comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other discussion forums (at least). rhetoric where reductio ad Hitlerum occurs.

THE NAME Godwin is an Old English word meaning “good friend”. Godwin of Wessex (d.1053) was one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish King Cnut the Great and his successors. In 1035, the throne of England was claimed by Alfred Ætheling - Godwin is reported to have either captured Alfred himself or to have deceived him by pretending to be his ally. Alfred was blinded and soon died. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Godwin had Alfred’s retainers executed, blinded, What goes around ... maimed, and scalped: “No more horrible deed was done in this country since the Danes came and made peace THE OTHERS here.” Following various political manoeuvrings, Some notable but possibly less exciting Godwins Godwin’s son Harold became King of England (not necessarily related) include Mary Wollstonecraft, but was overthrown and killed in the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, who Battle of Hastings in 1066. married into the Godwin family; her daughter Mary Wol- lstonecraft Godwin, author of Frankenstein, who married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; former rock musician and drug addict Jeff Godwin turned fundamentalist Christian who now campaigns The man who against rock music as the work of the Devil. Two Godwins have recognised associations with Madagascar: Jeff Godwin (presumably not the disruption related to the fundamentalist Godwin) is an expert on the caused by software package known as Madagascar used for multidi- mensional data analysis, and Alan Godwin is founder, mention of the owner and CEO of Reef & Rainforest which man above in runs tours of the island. online forums. Source: Wikipedia, except where noted.

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Send to: The Skeptic PO Box 20, Ph: (02) 8094 1894 —Mobile: 0432 713 195 Beecroft, NSW 2119 Fax: (02) 8088 4735—email: [email protected] LETTERS To the Editor The Skeptic June 19 What you think ... Skeptics & Religion

n his reply (The Skeptic, Vol 39 No • Stem cell therapy - the Church (+34%) following the debate. Prior I1) to my letter in The Skeptic (Vol opposes this promising new form of to the debate, 346 were undecided 38 No 4, December 2018), Anthony treatment for many incurable illnesses. but after the debate only 34 Barnett makes four main points: • Dying with dignity - it is mainly remained undecided (-14%). 1. He agrees with Barry Williams that those of faith who oppose the rights 4.After insisting that the Church is religion should not be a subject for of others to choose how or when they a force for good Barnett suggests debate in The Skeptic (Vol 38, No.1). should die. I read Michael Onfray’s book 2. He considers the Church, including • Taxation - all Australians are Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against the Catholic Church, to be a force for disadvantaged because religions are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Yet, good. exempt from this burden. in this book, Onfray discusses how 3. He reiterates his position that he can 2.Barnett’s contention that the church is the Abrahamic religions are not see no evidence that people change a force for good cannot be reconciled good! their minds about religion. with the well documented history of Barry Williams is right. Skeptics 4. He suggests I read Michael Onfray’s the church. An organisation that has need to discuss religion. In particular book The Atheist’s Manifesto. tortured and murdered millions of we must refute false claims made I will address these points separately. Christians, Muslims, Jews, people of by religions. Furthermore we must 1.Barnett has misinterpreted Barry other faiths and no faith cannot be not keep silent when religions abuse Williams. Williams makes clear regarded as good even if it donates human rights. that there is no point in discussing money to those in need. theological questions such as: “Is 3.Barnett reiterates that there is no Dr Michael Meyerson there a God?” He says this because evidence that people change their McMahons Point NSW such claims cannot be tested. Debate minds on religion. Yet Barnett ... on such matters is therefore futile also said: “Long time parishioners and possibly a cause of unnecessary are leaving the church in droves, animosity. Williams, however, particularly in Ireland.” This is true fail to find any support for Anthony emphasised that whenever a claim and must mean that these parishioners I Barnett in his defence of his reasons made on behalf of a religion can be have changed their mind about (The Skeptic, 39:1) for stating that shown to be false, then it is the duty religion. “religion should not be a topic of of Skeptics to investigate and discuss Futhermore, Barnett claims that on discussion in The Skeptic”. such claims. Williams mentioned Googling he cannot find the debate Surely skepticism involves the the Turin shroud, and during which Christopher Hitchens discussion of anything that is creationism. To this list can be added and Steven Fry change the minds contentious or leading to disagreement examples such as: vaccination - of a significant number of people about any and every belief held by Christian scientists are exempt from on religion. The debate is, however, some people but contested by others. vaccination; AIDS - the Catholic freely available on YouTube. Search Long-held beliefs and current scientific Church has asserted that condoms - Intelligence Squared Debate: The contradictions of such beliefs should have holes and therefore do not Catholic Church is a force for good be freely discussed. Especially in The protect against HIV; gay conversion in the World (eg https://tinyurl.com/ Skeptic which, after all, is an organ therapy - how is this reprehensible y5dzlwgw). dedicated to such discussion. “therapy” to be discussed without o T cut to the chase, here are the And surely religion is among the mentioning the Church? (There was results of the votes: longest-held of such beliefs. So, an article on this subject in the same Prior to the debate, 678 members of although The Skeptic steered clear of edition of The Skeptic as Barnett’s the audience voted that the Catholic such investigations and discussions letter). Church is a force for good but some decades ago, has not the time • The world’s population - the Catholic following the debate only 268 (-20%) come for us to do so now? I believe Church prohibits contraception. voted for the motion. Prior to the that it most certainly has. • Women’s rights to abortion - debate, there were 1102 votes against opposition to these rights is mainly the Catholic Church being a force for Alan Moskwa from religious groups. good. This number increased to 1876 Magill SA 61 QUOTES

What they said ... Marie Curie

“ Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” - Our Precarious Habitat (1973) by Melvin A. Benarde

“ I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.” - Madame Curie : A Biography (1937) by Eve Curie Labouisse

“ There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth.” - The Commodity Trader’s Almanac 2007 (2006) by Scott W. Barrie & Jeffrey A. Hirsch

“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” - Living Adventures in Science (1972), by Henry Thomas & Dana Lee Thomas

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD SOLUTION DR BOB’S QUIZ SOLUTIONS

R E T T O P Y R R A L Y O T

H 1. Stanley Kubrick, director of Dr Strangelove, and 2001: a Space

A A A E A S N

P Odyssey (which was released 15 months prior to the Apollo landing).

R

C I T P Y L G A N A O A H A B 2. As the astronauts departed the moon, Aldrin saw the flag knocked

S O R A O D T H over by the module’s thrusters. It has since probably disintegrated

under the moon’s harsh conditions.

N D I L O T S N L A E C N O

C 3. A few minutes after the landing, Aldrin, an elder in his local

S D T E P T A N Presbyterian Church, ate “a tiny communion Host” and some wine.

M I T S E V A S E A R F N I E 4. The Apollo 11 mission left behind a small collection of items,

including medallions honouring Russian cosmonauts Yuri

S O Y L I R G

A Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov, both of whom had died tragically

S G N I R B E H T F O D O L

R beforehand.

E A I K E B E P 5. The missed the landing site, and needing to

find an obstacle-free plain, Armstrong piloted the craft four miles C I M S A I M I Y A F N I R

M from the original landing site with less than a minute of descent fuel

N U F M I L N

H remaining.

I A H T H R I A H E K I P S D 6. When Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the Lunar Module,

they were able to smell the moon dust on their space suits. Aldrin N M R O N A R

I described it as “a pungent metallic smell, something like gunpowder,

P M I S T H G N K E T I H W I or the smell in the air after a firecracker has gone off”; Armstrong described it as “wet ashes in a fireplace.” 62 The Skeptic June 19

Local Skeptical Groups

QLD SA Queensland Skeptics Association Inc Skeptics SA – Laurie Eddie www.qskeptics.org.au 52B Miller St Unley, SA 5061 Email: [email protected] Tel: (08) 8272 5881 [email protected] Mobile: 0429 143 955 Thinking and Drinking - Skeptics in the Pub Join us for dinner on the last Monday of February - November, Contact: [email protected] Junction Hotel, cnr Ipswich & Annerley Rds, Annerley, from www.meetup.com/Thinking-and-Drinking-Skeptics-in-the- 6pm, guest speaker at 7.30pm Pub/ calendar/10205558 Brisbane Skeptics in the Pub or http://tinyurl.com/loqdrt http://Brisbanesitp.wordpress.com, follow links for Facebook, Meets on the third Friday of every month at The Benjamin on Twitter and email list Franklin pub, 233 Franklin St, Adelaide. Meets on the first Tuesday of each month from 6:30pm at the Plough Inn, Southbank WA WA Skeptics – Dr Geoffrey Dean Dr Paulie Gold Coast Skeptics – PO Box 466, Subiaco, WA 6904 www.gcskeptics.com www.undeceivingourselves.org Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gcskeptics Details of all our meetings and speakers are on our website. Twitter: @gcskeptics : @gcskeptics Skeptics – Tanya Marwood GC Skeptics in the Pub meet every third Monday at the Angler’s www.meetup.com/en-AU/Perth_Skeptics Arms Hotel, 50 Queen Street, Southport. See website and Meetings on third Wednesday if every month at 43 Below Facebook for details. Restaurant Lounge Bar, 43 Barrack St, Perth, 7-9pm

TAS NT Leyon Parker Hobart Skeptics – Darwin Skeptics – Michelle Franklin PO Box 84, Battery Point TAS 7004 PO Box2027 Humpty Doo NT 0836 Tel: 03 6225 3988 BH, 0418 128713 [email protected] Tel: 0408 783 145; www.facebook.com/group/darwinskeptics/ Skeptics in the Pub - 2nd Monday each month, [email protected] 6.30pm, Ball & Chain restaurant, Salamanca Place Meetings to be announced - see Facebook page for details Launceston Skeptics – Jin-oh Choi 0408 271 800 [email protected] www.launcestonskeptics.com Launceston: Skeptics in the Pub third Thursday of each month 5.30pm @ The Royal Oak Hotel Launceston: Skeptical Sunday, 2nd Sunday of each month 2.00pm @ Cube Cafe

NOTE: LISTINGS WELCOME We invite listings for any Skeptical groups based on local rather than regional areas. Email us at editor@ skeptics.com.au with details of your organisation’s name, contact details and any regular functions, eg Skeptics in the Pub, with time, day of the month, location etc. Because this is a quarterly journal and most local groups meet monthly, it is unlikely we will be able to include references to specific speakers or events. Skeptic_BackCover_JUN19.indd 64 3/06/2019 9:49 pm