Short answer responses to common Truther Claims
CLAIM: Jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel
Steel needn't be melted for it to bend and twist. The temperatures reported by NIST were more than sufficient to weaken the steel to the point of critical failure.
CLAIM: Molten steel was photographed pouring out of the twin towers
A Molten material was photographed pouring out of the twin towers. Probably it was aluminum from the hull of the aircraft. Aluminum melts at a much lower temperature.
CLAIM: Aluminum doesn't glow when it is in liquid form.
Yes, it does.
CLAIM: The Twin Towers were designed to withstand the impact of an aircraft.
Yes, a smaller aircraft with less fuel, moving at a much slower speed. Moreover, the towers DID survive the impact. It was the resulting fires that ultimately did them in. Or more precisely a combination of the two factors.
CLAIM: Black smoke indicates a lack of oxygen or lower temperature.
The only thing you can reliably determine from the blackness of smoke is the presence of hydrocarbons.
CLAIM: The twin towers fell at 'freefall speed'.
Free-fall isn't a speed it's a rate of acceleration. Nor did the towers fall at freefall, as evidenced by the fact that the debris accelerated towards the ground faster than the rest of the building.
CLAIM: Photographs of the wreckage show beams that were cut at 45 degree angle.
They were, by the clean up crews clearing the debris from ground zero. We have photographs of them doing this during the clean up.
CLAIM: Larry Silverstein said "Pull it"
After lamenting the terrible loss of life to the fire chief, Larry Silverstein, asked him to "Pull it" to which he responded by evacuating all of the firemen from WTC7. In the broader context, it is clear he wasn't talking about the building but rather the people in it.
CLAIM: 'Pull' is a controlled demolition term
Not by explosives it's not. It refers to the act of pulling a building down by way of hooks and ropes attached to heavy machinery. WTC7 didn't come down by hooks and ropes.
CLAIM: Building 7 wasn't hit by a plane.
No, it was hit by falling debris, not the least of which was a falling perimeter column.
CLAIM: Steel-framed structures have never collapsed before due to fire.
Yes they have. Ex: Kader toy factory, Mumbai Oil Platform, I-580, etc..
CLAIM: Steel-framed high-rise skyscraper have never collapsed due to fire before.
If steel-framed structures can collapse due to fire, it holds that steel-framed high-rise structures can as well. There is no tenable reason to assume that making them taller suddenly makes them immune to fire. That it hasn't happened before is no argument that it can't or hasn't.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Illuminati Warning from Rev. G.W. Snyder
The Claim: George Washington was warned of the Illuminati of the New World Order conspiracy fame
The Reality: The
Illuminati was a secret society founded in Bavaria in 1776, by Adam
Weishaupt. This was group of intellectuals that espoused the ideals of
the enlightenment. In fact Illuminati is the Latin plural of
illuminatus, meaning "enlightened". In particular the illuminati
espoused the enlightenment concept of Deism which had gained
popularity among intellectuals of the time, which drew criticism and
often resulted in vilification of them by religious leaders, and thus
why it should come as no surprise that this correspondence to Washington
was penned by a revered. The revered in his letter which you can find
here:
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0435
...alleges that the Illuminati and the Jacobin (A group of French Revolutionaries) had infiltrated the Free Masons, a group that Washington himself was a member of, based on an account by John Robinson. Rev. Synder also warns that the tenets of the Illuminati, and of the Jacobin had spread into the U.S.
In response to this warning, Washington agrees that the Bavarian secret society of Illuminati and the Jacobin have harmful convictions, and that these convictions have spread to the United States, writing:
"It was not my intention to doubt that, the Doctrines of the Iluminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more fully satisfied of this fact than I am."
However Washington denies the claim that the Free Masons had been infiltrated by Bavarian Illuminati or French Jacobins or their ideas, retorting that the Free Masons would never propagate the ideals of either group, writing:
"The idea I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the Lodges of Free Masons in this Country had, as Societies, endeavoured to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first {The Illuminati}, or the pernicious principles of the latter{The Jacobin}."
The main emphasis here being that the Illuminati, were not only a real group of real people, with a known set of beliefs, but was disbanded in 1787
Sources:
http://www.livescience.com/40048-what-is-the-illuminati.html
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0435
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0435
...alleges that the Illuminati and the Jacobin (A group of French Revolutionaries) had infiltrated the Free Masons, a group that Washington himself was a member of, based on an account by John Robinson. Rev. Synder also warns that the tenets of the Illuminati, and of the Jacobin had spread into the U.S.
In response to this warning, Washington agrees that the Bavarian secret society of Illuminati and the Jacobin have harmful convictions, and that these convictions have spread to the United States, writing:
"It was not my intention to doubt that, the Doctrines of the Iluminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more fully satisfied of this fact than I am."
However Washington denies the claim that the Free Masons had been infiltrated by Bavarian Illuminati or French Jacobins or their ideas, retorting that the Free Masons would never propagate the ideals of either group, writing:
"The idea I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the Lodges of Free Masons in this Country had, as Societies, endeavoured to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first {The Illuminati}, or the pernicious principles of the latter{The Jacobin}."
The main emphasis here being that the Illuminati, were not only a real group of real people, with a known set of beliefs, but was disbanded in 1787
Sources:
http://www.livescience.com/40048-what-is-the-illuminati.html
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0435
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Do Dino Cells Prove Young Earth Creationism?
THE CLAIM: The discovery of dino blood cells proves dinosaurs lived very recentlyTHE REALITY: The discovery of what appear to be Osteocalcin and Hemoglobin fragments in a dinosaur fossil are an astounding discovery to be sure.
However, some Young Earth Creationists have heralded this find as evidence of ~ 6,000 year old dinosaurs, however there are a number of problems with this interpretation. First, there are roughly 3,000 complete dinosaur skeletons and innumerable more incomplete sets, If dinosaur fossils were really as young as many creationists would like to believe, we'd expect to find surviving proteins in many of them. Yet most dinosaur fossils are fully permineralized. This find is significant insofar as it is literally the only example of what appear to be fragments of dinosaur proteins being preserved. It's clear that whatever process or set of conditions is responsible for preserving these organic compounds are exceptionally rare. The second problem is that the Schweitzer specimen (MOR 1125) was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation which consists of strata from the Upper Cretaceous and lower Paleocene. This indicates rather decisively that it is not the fossil that is young, but rather the organic fragments which are old.
Sources:
http://www.nature.com/news/molecular-analysis-supports-controversial-claim-for-dinosaur-cells-1.11637
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0016574
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/08/bone_dry.html
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pciesiel/gly3603c/fossils.html
http://www.fossilmuseum.net/fossilrecord/fossilization/fossilization.htm
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/paleo/fossils/permin.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/260238/Hell-Creek-Formation
-The Debunkist
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Aluminum in Vaccines?
THE CLAIM: Vaccines contain aluminum which poses a health risk
THE REALITY: Trace metals occur naturally within the environment and and absorbed through the food we eat. The body contains dozens of different trace elements, the most well known of which are iron and zinc. Zinc aids cellular metabolism, and iron is used in blood hemoglobin. Likewise aluminum occurs naturally, and can be found in foods like spinach and potatoes. Most adults consume 1-10 mg aluminum daily from natural sources alone. Unlike Iron and zinc, aluminum doesn't serve any essential function in the body, however it isn't necessarily harmful either unless it accumulates to dangerous levels in the body which is generally true of almost any substance including iron or zinc. The body eliminates excess aluminum through urination.
Aluminum has been used in vaccinations for nearly 70 years to stimulate immune response, and there have been no reports of aluminum toxicity from vaccines. The quantity of aluminum is much too small, and the elimination of aluminum via urination too frequent to pose any significant health risk. In medical science there is a saying "The dosage makes the poison", and groups that wish to stoke the fires of fear and paranoia often fail to distinguish safe and unsafe levels of various substances.
Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11259180
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1490425
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Health+Myths+Unmasking+sources+aluminum+diets/8090675/story.html
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/adjuvants.html
-The Debunkist
THE REALITY: Trace metals occur naturally within the environment and and absorbed through the food we eat. The body contains dozens of different trace elements, the most well known of which are iron and zinc. Zinc aids cellular metabolism, and iron is used in blood hemoglobin. Likewise aluminum occurs naturally, and can be found in foods like spinach and potatoes. Most adults consume 1-10 mg aluminum daily from natural sources alone. Unlike Iron and zinc, aluminum doesn't serve any essential function in the body, however it isn't necessarily harmful either unless it accumulates to dangerous levels in the body which is generally true of almost any substance including iron or zinc. The body eliminates excess aluminum through urination.
Aluminum has been used in vaccinations for nearly 70 years to stimulate immune response, and there have been no reports of aluminum toxicity from vaccines. The quantity of aluminum is much too small, and the elimination of aluminum via urination too frequent to pose any significant health risk. In medical science there is a saying "The dosage makes the poison", and groups that wish to stoke the fires of fear and paranoia often fail to distinguish safe and unsafe levels of various substances.
Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11259180
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1490425
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Health+Myths+Unmasking+sources+aluminum+diets/8090675/story.html
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/adjuvants.html
-The Debunkist
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Food Craving Myth
Some of you may have come across this image recently from Stepintomygreenworld.com or other similar claims made on other websites.
THE CLAIM: Food cravings indicate a nutritional deficiency, that can be met by eating healthier alternatives.
THE REALITY: While this may seem at first glance to be a perfectly plausible claim, there are a few things that should raise suspicion. But first let's talk about what food cravings are and we will get back to that. A food craving is a spontaneous intense desire for a highly specific food. This is most commonly experienced by women, particularly during pregnancy, but can occur to anyone at any time.
The claim that a specific desire for a twixt candy bar at 2am, for instance, can be satiated by eating "fruits & Veggies", while it may be appealing to those wishing to live a healthier lifestyle, the notion that such a specific desire can be met with such non-specific categories as fruits and vegetables as if all had the same nutritional qualities should be met with a grain of salt (figuratively of course).
A 2005 article in Scientific American by Dr. Peter Pressman and Dr. Roger Clemens notes "These yearnings, and those associated with nonfoodstuffs such as pagophagia (the practice of consuming ice) and geophagia (literally, earth-eating), are not linked to any obvious nutrient insufficiency. In some individuals food cravings and dietary restriction may be related; however, these observations are inconsistent with the majority of published studies."
This raises the question, if not nutritional deficiency then what does cause cravings? Well? There may be an answer for this as well. The article continues "Researchers have employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the neural basis of cravings and the imaging data suggest that components of the amygdala, anterior cingulate, orbital frontal cortex, insula, hippocampus, caudate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are activated during periods of pining for food. It appears that there may be a network of neural regions that is involved with the emotion, memory and chemosensory stimuli of food craving."
The evidence points to a neurological rather than nutritional cause for cravings. These seem to be related to the hormones and stress levels that a person is experiencing which may go to explain why cravings are most common during pregnancy.
But for those who wish to combat these cravings, all hope is not lost. According to a 2010 press release from the Association for Psychological Science "Many research studies suggest that mental imagery may be a key component of food cravings — when people crave a specific food, they have vivid images of that food. Results of one study showed that the strength of participants’ cravings was linked to how vividly they imagined the food. Mental imagery (imagining food or anything else) takes up cognitive resources, or brain power. Studies have shown that when subjects are imagining something, they have a hard time completing various cognitive tasks."
...
"New research findings suggest that that this relationship may work in the opposite direction as well: It may be possible to use cognitive tasks to reduce food cravings. The results of one experiment revealed that volunteers who had been craving a food reported reduced food cravings after they formed images of common sights (for example, they were asked to imagine the appearance of a rainbow) or smells (they were asked to imagine the smell of eucalyptus). In another experiment, volunteers who were craving a food watched a flickering pattern of black and white dots on a monitor (similar to an untuned television set). After viewing the pattern, they reported a decrease in the vividness of their craved-food images as well as a reduction in their cravings."
Both links can be found below:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-food-cravings-the-bod/
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/the-psychology-of-food-cravings.html
-The Debunkist
THE CLAIM: Food cravings indicate a nutritional deficiency, that can be met by eating healthier alternatives.
THE REALITY: While this may seem at first glance to be a perfectly plausible claim, there are a few things that should raise suspicion. But first let's talk about what food cravings are and we will get back to that. A food craving is a spontaneous intense desire for a highly specific food. This is most commonly experienced by women, particularly during pregnancy, but can occur to anyone at any time.
The claim that a specific desire for a twixt candy bar at 2am, for instance, can be satiated by eating "fruits & Veggies", while it may be appealing to those wishing to live a healthier lifestyle, the notion that such a specific desire can be met with such non-specific categories as fruits and vegetables as if all had the same nutritional qualities should be met with a grain of salt (figuratively of course).
A 2005 article in Scientific American by Dr. Peter Pressman and Dr. Roger Clemens notes "These yearnings, and those associated with nonfoodstuffs such as pagophagia (the practice of consuming ice) and geophagia (literally, earth-eating), are not linked to any obvious nutrient insufficiency. In some individuals food cravings and dietary restriction may be related; however, these observations are inconsistent with the majority of published studies."
This raises the question, if not nutritional deficiency then what does cause cravings? Well? There may be an answer for this as well. The article continues "Researchers have employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the neural basis of cravings and the imaging data suggest that components of the amygdala, anterior cingulate, orbital frontal cortex, insula, hippocampus, caudate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are activated during periods of pining for food. It appears that there may be a network of neural regions that is involved with the emotion, memory and chemosensory stimuli of food craving."
The evidence points to a neurological rather than nutritional cause for cravings. These seem to be related to the hormones and stress levels that a person is experiencing which may go to explain why cravings are most common during pregnancy.
But for those who wish to combat these cravings, all hope is not lost. According to a 2010 press release from the Association for Psychological Science "Many research studies suggest that mental imagery may be a key component of food cravings — when people crave a specific food, they have vivid images of that food. Results of one study showed that the strength of participants’ cravings was linked to how vividly they imagined the food. Mental imagery (imagining food or anything else) takes up cognitive resources, or brain power. Studies have shown that when subjects are imagining something, they have a hard time completing various cognitive tasks."
...
"New research findings suggest that that this relationship may work in the opposite direction as well: It may be possible to use cognitive tasks to reduce food cravings. The results of one experiment revealed that volunteers who had been craving a food reported reduced food cravings after they formed images of common sights (for example, they were asked to imagine the appearance of a rainbow) or smells (they were asked to imagine the smell of eucalyptus). In another experiment, volunteers who were craving a food watched a flickering pattern of black and white dots on a monitor (similar to an untuned television set). After viewing the pattern, they reported a decrease in the vividness of their craved-food images as well as a reduction in their cravings."
Both links can be found below:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-food-cravings-the-bod/
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/the-psychology-of-food-cravings.html
-The Debunkist
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Magnetic Bracelet Boasts False Health Benefits
THE CLAIM: Magnetic Bracelet Provides Numerous Health Benefits
THE REALITY: It's a $20 rubber band
Marketers of the magnetic bracelets such as the iRenew claim that their bracelet among other things, improves balance, relieves joint pain, and improves endurance. You should be skeptical of anyone telling you that they can improve your balance by wearing a bracelet. How does it work?That seems to be the mystery, but the explanations are sure to include improperly used scientific terms, to give the product the sense of legitimacy.
I'm happy that they decided to tell us this was an "actual demonstration", if they had shown us a reenactment of a demonstration or had simply drawn a picture of a demonstration then I would have to call BS. I'm convinced already. This image is deceptive. If you look closely you can see the tester on one side is pulling straight down and slightly to (our) right, while on the other side he is pulling down and slightly to (our) Left and thus away from the demonstrator's center of gravity. Obviously he is going to have better balance when the tester isn't pulling away from his center of gravity. What really makes this trick work is the demonstrator is asked to put his or her feet together so that it's even harder to keep your balance when pulled from the side. The effect is more pronounced the harder the tester pushes. It's nothing more than a simple parlor trick. Anybody can do it.
You can see a video demonstration of how this little trick works here , if you want to impress your friends.
What's strange is that the Power Bracelet asserts the same balancing improving affect that the iRenew promises, except the people behind the Power Bracelet say that their bracelet improves balance using a completely different technology: holographic stickers. No, that's not a joke. Over 2.5 million have been sold. Apparently a lot of people believe in the magical power of holographic stickers. I would have to imagine most of them now populate your local landfill.
Unsurprisingly, the Power Bracelet uses the same "demonstrations" that the iRenew folks use. I think I've been able to detect the smoking mirror in this equation. But Debunkist, even if the demonstrations are fake a lot of people say these bracelets work they can't all be wrong can they? Yes, yes they can all be wrong. Due to something called the placebo effect, the expectations a person has over whether or not a treatment will work will affect their ability to judge whether in fact the treatment is actually working. They will report to see an improvement when there is none. However I'm not convinced this is even the case.
Amazon reviews seem to indicate that people who have tried these products don't think they work and have generated very negative reviews. For the iRenew one of my favorite reviewers said this:
(Rating: 5 stars) I bought four of these bracelets and could not have made a better purchase.I put one on each wrist and ankle and after a few days was able to leviate. Two weeks later and with alot of experimentation I was able to transport anywhere I wanted to go by just thinking about the location. I have sold my gas guzzling car and since have traveled to 24 countries for free. I have thought about transporting into a bank or perhaps Fort Knox, but just can't get up the nerve. If you are really heavy you might need more than four, just make your best guess.
The reviews for these products are overwhelmingly negative, and for the few positive reviews the sarcasm is caked on pretty thick. As for the health claims, the Federal Trade Commission has already brought the case to court not only for making unsubstantiated claims but for failing to hold up to their money back Guarantee. It's important to recognize that claims that magnets have magical healing powers is not a new claim, people have been making this claim for thousands of years and in that time nobody have been able to provide concrete evidence that it works. Magnet therapy is a pseudo-science. The earth is essentially one big magnet, and we live within the earth's magnetic field everyday, not only that but we subject ourselves to electromagnetic fields everyday created by computers, televisions, and appliances and never have they relieved joint pain or increased endurance.
-The Debunkist
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