When someone says “Kennedy Assassination” you probably think of US President John F. Kennedy.   If someone says “The Other Kennedy Assassination”, you might think of his brother Robert F. Kennedy.   But what about the other other Kennedy Assassination?

Well, if you’re nutty enough, you might think there is one, his son John F. Kennedy Junior, the playboy and publisher of a failing magazine apparently was important enough to murder.    At least that’s what some think.

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In the past I’ve made a number of posts and videos mentioning the fact that uranium is a rather common mineral and that it’s been used in a number of consumer products.   Indeed, thousands of kitchen cabinets contain uranium-glazed dinnerware, some of which was mass produced as recently as the 1980’s.

This has been met with a curious response on numerous occasions.   Many concede that uranium is not all that harmful when touched or even ingested but then say “but what about the nano-particles.”   The dust, or “nanoparticles” resulting from uranium combustion are one thing that seems to come up again and again.  They are often credited with nearly magical properties, like the ability to stay suspended in the air indefinitely or to cause horrible health problems even in those far from the location where the uranium projectile was fired.

Indeed uranium tends to be more hazardous when inhaled than when exposure is by other routes, but that’s the extent of the truth to these statements.  Uranium is hardly unique in this respect.  Exposure to dust in general can cause respiratory problems, and certain metallic particles, such as beryllium, are well known to be especially hazardous if inhaled.   By comparison, uranium less dangerous, though it can be a hazard in high concentrations.

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What can I say?   This is absolutely sickening.  Granted that those who oppose vaccination and spread lies in an attempt to stop vaccination of children takes a very perverted and unethical kind of person.   Still, the very idea that they could be so committed to trying to further their own agenda that they would actually confront and harass the parents of a child who had just died of an infectious disease takes things to a new level of cruelty.

Perhaps the leadership of the AVN really is insane enough to believe what they are saying.   However, even if that is so, it in no way justifies attacking people who have just gone through the kind of loss and pain most of us could never even imagine.   Their motive is clear and could not be more callous or self-serving – to try to preserve any credibility they think they still have by going after their opponents, regardless of who they are or how much they have suffered already.

This kind of behavior transcended the issue of bad science and incorrect medical advice.  It shocks and offends the conscious of any person with a sense of decency.  It offends the values of humanity and sympathy.   This is intolerable and just plain wrong. No person who engages in such actions should ever be seem as anything other than a sociopath and a self-serving, callous fraud.

There can be no doubt that this is simply a very dishonest operation run by a very dishonest woman who does not care what she says or does to promote herself. And all this comes from a group which touts itself as being a sympathetic, pro-family and pro-health organization.

It’s revolting.   It does, however, remind me of another post on here a while ago.

Having returned from Las Vegas and The Amazing Meeting, an annual conference on skepticism hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundaton, I’ve been very eager to start posting about my experiences at the meeting.   Unfortunately, I’ve been fairly busy, as apparently going to Las Vegas for a week tends to result in a lot of work piling up.   In general, the meeting was attended by mainstream skeptics, who may not agree on everything but tended to agree on well proven things, like the fact that the US Apollo program did indeed send men to the moon and back.

This was not quite 100%, however, as at least one conspiracy-obsessed heckler did attend, and attempted repeatedly to heckle Phil Plait and Adam Savage.   Jarrah White is about as committed to the belief that the Apollo moon landings were faked as one can be.   He’s already produced (at last count) 393 Youtube videos on the subject – all of them absolutely stunning in their lack of technical and scientific knowledge.

I recognized White’s voice from the videos as soon as he got up to question Adam Savage. That snooty, nasal, sharp whine with an Australian accent was hard not to recognize, especially as I’ve seen plenty of his videos before. Apparently he came all the way from Australia to try to get up in the face of those who he considers the conspirators behind the faked moon landing

His behavior was about as strange as one might expect. I was concerned initially that he might try to rush the stage or do something else completely crazy – after all, Apollo conspiracy theorists have been known to physically threaten astronauts and do all manner of other crazy things. I alerted the staff and security to his background to be on the safe side, but luckily he didn’t try anything too violent.

Instead, he repeatedly insisted that he get a sit-down interview with Phil Plait. Phil was quite civil, and informed him that to get scheduled interview time he would need to register as press. The Amazing Meeting does not have very exclusive standards for who is given press status – bloggers and podcasters can easily get it. When he was asked for his information on this topic, he repeatedly made a scene about not wanting to reveal his background. I’m not sure how things worked out, but eventually he got a press pass and thus could get his interview. Unfortunately for him, Phil Plait decided to decline the request. After rudely interrupting Phil, who was trying to converse with others at the conference, the Little Dude from the Moon finally started yelling at Phil that he thought his answers were dishonest and he was a liar. Phil said something about how he didn’t believe he could say anything that would change the Little Dude’s mind and that if the Little Dude felt that way, he was not interested in sitting down for an interview.

I’m just glad that no punches were thrown. As he came from Australia, it seemed a reasonable concern that he would not want to make such a trip without getting in at least one dramatic moment or big confrontation. I did challenge him openly to a debate. He never responded to this. Surprised? In fact, I only saw him around on the first day of the three-day event. No word on whether he left early or went into hiding or what.
He has also already posted at least one video from the event:

It should be noted that Adam Savage is not an absolute expert on this topic. There is actually a greater context to this. Phil Plait may have been able to answer this, but Jarrah managed to burn that bridge a long time ago.

Debunking his ridiculous claim:

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The Active Denial System is a non-lethal crowd control device that has recently gotten a great deal of press.  It is produced by Raytheon, primarily for the US military but with versions under development for law enforcement.

It has also become the subject of a huge number of conspiracy theories. Here are just a few:

Uncovering the Truth #4: Active Denial System
The Pentagon’s People Zapper
Man made earth quakes – Active Denial System Weapon
The Pentagon’s Pain Compliance and Mind Control Weapons
Depleted Uranium, HAARP and ADS – The Ultimate Weapon
US torture weapons used against civilians
Stop Canadian Complicity in Torture – The Active Denial Torture Ray
Michael Jackson Assassinated By CIA Using ADS Microwaves
Bio-electromagnetic weapons can kill, torture, enslave and escape detection
American Mass Murder Weapon?
DEW EMF ILLEGALLY TARGETED SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Air Force Plan: Hack Your Nervous System

The rational for the Active Denial System:

The US military, like many militarizes around the world has found itself engaged in more and more complex peacekeeping and policing actions.   In areas like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, military activity is not limited to traditional battlefields, but rather involves security and policing of urban areas with large civilian populations.   Some of the greatest dangers and most difficult situations arise when crowds of civilians are involved.

A suicide bomber could easily hide in a mob of otherwise unarmed persons and even an unarmed crowd can potentially block movement of vehicles or endanger soldiers and civilians.  A heated protest can easily erupt into a riot.  Maintaining order in these type of situations has always been an extreme challenge.  The use of deadly force would undoubtedly work, but would be considered unacceptable in all but the most extreme situations.   Even well armed soldiers can find themselves cornered by a large group of angry civilians, and in such situations, they are faced with the limited options of doing nothing or using deadly force.

This problem has existed for both the military and police forces for decades and to this end, a number of non-lethal methods of dispersing crowds or suppressing entry to areas have been developed.   Some of the most common ones include the following:

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Lets face it, the world of conspiracy theories is pretty male dominated.   Perhaps it’s time that some hip young ladies get out there and show they can be every bit as crazy as men.

Well that’s what truthergirls is all about!   You might think from the look of this young lady that she’s a smart, well connected, cultured and educated woman.   After all, she lives in the hip and happening city of Montreal, she speaks at least two languages fluently, drinks boutique-quality coffee, posts on youtube and she’s fairly attractive.   These would all seem to indicate a hip young woman of the world.

However, looks can be deceiving and stereotypes are often wrong.   It turns out, she’s a complete nutball and has about as much going on upstairs as any overweight 40 year old guy who lives in his mother’s basement and wears an aluminum foil hat.

I really wish I could encounter someone like this on the street.  My god, it’s just so lame! Sure, I’ve seen my share of “end is near” guys and religious fanatics handing out signs in Times Square, but never someone quite like this…

The disappearance  of Harold Holt has come up at least twice in recent weeks on comments in this blog.   Thus it may be worth mentioning for those who do not know about it.   The event is well known in Australia and has spawned its own conspiracy theory subculture, in some ways paralleling the Kennedy Assassination in the US.

Harold Holt was the prime minister of Australia from 26 January 1966 until 17 December 1967, when he went out for a swim in the surf of Cheviot Beach and never came out. No body was ever found, despite the largest land, sea and air search in Australian history. Of course, this was a huge event, as the death of any sitting high ranking elected office holder who acts in a leadership capacity of a major country is. The search effort and the lack of any final resolution to the fate of Holt only contributed to the story. As is often the case with such events, it called into question the effectiveness of the protection measures taken to assure the safety of important government officials.

In fact, while the disappearance of Holt was a shocking story, the incident appears to be a mundane but tragically straightforward accident. The area where Holt was swimming was well known for strong riptides and heavy surf, and the day when Holt vanished was especially rough. Holt himself was not in the best shape to take on such currents. At 59 years old, Holt had been fairly athletic for most of his life and was an experienced skindiver, but at the time, he was far from being in prime health. Holt had collapsed a year earlier and was suspected of having a heart condition. He also had recently been treated for a shoulder injury and was receiving opiate pain killers for the condition. His doctors advised him no to swim until the shoulder had a chance to heal up, but he did anyway.

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The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent failure of the blowout preventer is, admittedly, a pretty bad oil spill.   It’s certainly not the worst oil spill in world history, although it does rank fairly high.   The worst spill in history is likely the 1991 Gulf War Oil spill, which not only was at least a big as the Deepwater Horizon spill, but also occurred in a more contained and near-shore area, further increasing the impacts.

There’s no doubt that the Deepwater Horizon spill has and will continue to have major local and regional impacts in the Gulf region.   The ecology of the Gulf coast has already suffered and will continue to do so.   Businesses like fishing and shrimp as well as tourism will take a hit.   However, in a few years, most of the major effects will be gone.   There will still be some lingering effects, and in some areas, tar-drenched sands will remain just beneath the surface.   It will be decades before the evidence of the event is no longer visible.

The well itself will continue to be the subject of capture and containment efforts.  These efforts will likely contain most of the oil in the months to come, although there will surely be setbacks and failures, as the jury rigged system is used to contain as much of the oil as possible.   Thankfully these efforts are only temporary.  The leak will eventually be brought to a complete stop when relief wells are completed.    There are already two being drilled about as fast as possible.  A contingency plan is in place to utilize only one for complete containment if one of the two fails.

As for the oil, it will cause harm to the region but not to the global hydrosphere.   It will disperse and become more and more dilute with distance from the spill and as it does, it will break down chemically.  The churning action of the ocean combined with the action of bacteria and sunlight will decompose the thick oil into smaller and smaller hydrocarbons.   These will eventually oxidize either in the ocean or after evaporating into the atmosphere.   They won’t rain back down with normal precipitation and won’t enter the freshwater streams, reservoirs or aquifers of the world.

This spill, severe though it may be to the localized region is NOT the end of the world.  It’s not doomsday.  It’s not going to lead to the extinction of humanity or a large portion of mankind.   It won’t leave the earth sterile and devoid of life nor will it make the earth crash into the sun or cause the atmosphere to ignite.

HOWEVER, If you are convinced that this is the case, perhaps because you saw someone saying it on a poorly edited Youtube video or because you just like living in a world dominated by irrational fear, then this is the place to post about it. Now you have no excuse to post completely off-topic crap in other blog posts!

Recently someone sent me an email asking me “Do you really believe Oswald killed Kennedy?”   This is probably due to the recent post I made about the assassination.   I have to admit that I’m not really an expert on the topic, but I have always been fascinated by it, especially in the context of how the events mushroomed into what might be called the granddaddy of all conspiracy theory topics.   It is true that a huge number of people believe there was a conspiracy involving the government, mafia, Cubans, Soviets or others, and it has spawned its own kind of subculture and a veritable cottage industry of books, documentaries and websites.

The writer of the email asked me a few basic questions about the evidence against Oswald.   The questions are interesting in that they point to some very fundamental points of evidence in the case, which are often lost on many who have looked at the assassination.   In many ways, the public is most ignorant of just how compelling the case is against Oswald.

Question 1:   Was there any forensic evidence that tied Oswald to the assassination?

Yes, tons of it.   Very very compelling forensic evidence.   Here are just some of the more important pieces of evidence.

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There are many people who believe John F. Kennedy was killed as part of an elaborate conspiracy.   Some polls indicate most Americans don’t buy the lone gunman theory.  Many believe Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with the assassination and was just picked as a fall guy.   If there is anyone in the world who would benefit from such a conspiracy being true, it would be those closest to Oswald, who could hope to regain the good name and respect of Lee Harvey Oswald and restore the good family name.   Nobody could possibly be more motivated to believe Lee Harvey is not guilty than his brother Robert Oswald.

Yet Robert Oswald, who knew his brother so well and who has had nearly half a century to consider the circumstances and investigate the facts can come to only one conclusion.   He believes without doubt that his brother was the lone assassin.

Robert Oswald is still very much alive.   He is a private person who rarely makes appearances in the media.   In 1981 he fought to try to stop his brother Lee from being exhumed as part of an investigation by some who insisted that Oswald was replaced by a double from the Soviet Union.   Other than that, Robert Oswald has avoided attention, only occasionally granting interviews or commenting on issues relating to his brother.

In this remarkable interview, Robert Oswald and a few others who knew Lee very well go on the record for the ABC documentary “Kennedy Assassination – Beyond Conspiracy.” If you have not seen the whole thing, I highly recommend it.  It is an uncommonly rational, tasteful and thorough look at the events of November 22 1963.  It includes priceless footage of interviews with many who were there and who knew Oswald, Jack Ruby and others involved.   It’s a true example of television at its best.

If you can’t view the embedded video, click here for the full version