Too Good To Be True

Taking a break from politics, here’s a neat news item: Prayer does not help you get pregnant after all.

It was a miracle that created headlines around the world. Doctors at one of the world’s top medical schools claimed to have scientifically proved the power of prayer.

Many Americans took the Columbia University research – announced in October 2001 after the terror attacks on New York and Washington – as a sign from God. It seemed to prove that praying helped infertile women to conceive.

But The Observer can reveal a story of fraud and cover-up behind the research. One of the study’s authors is a conman obsessed with the paranormal who has admitted to a multi-million-dollar scam.

Now, I am not even remotely a scientist, but there does seem to be something slightly hinky with the numbers in the study. If you look at Table II, the NIP group (not prayed for), had 28 preembryos implanted, of which 21 resulted in successful pregnancies. This is a success rate of 75%. The IP group (prayed for) had 62 preembryos implanted, of which 44 resulted in successful pregnancies. This is a success rate of 70% – a figure lower than the not prayed for group. So how did the authors come up with the original claim of a 100% improvement in implantation success? Or am I just a moron that can’t read the numbers correctly?

The Journal of Reproductive Medicine is apparently a reputable organization. Why they decided to publish this in the first place is a mystery to me. My guess is they didn’t know how to vet pseudo-science like the power of prayer and didn’t want to seem politically incorrect by outright refusing to print the study. Less likely – perhaps some misguided believers on the staff were so thrilled to see a study ‘proving’ their beliefs that the standard review procedure was skipped.

Either way, it’s another example of the pervasive influence of religion in America today and why it’s a problem.

Schadefreude anyone?

To follow up to my earlier post on more Administration lies and how the Washington Post is calling them on it, blogger Joel Carris deconstructs the responding spin.

Bush’s campaign released this statement on Monday rebutting the Washington Post article. It’s absolutely brilliant. What the campaign does here is they take multiple assertions from the article and meticulously show through a series of quotes and references how the Washington Post was exactly right in calling the statements misleading.

Hang on to your aspirin bottle, because there’s a torrent of minutia involved in the deconstruction. The long and the short of it is, the Post was right. The Administration lied their butts off and not even a mountain of spin can get them out of it.

No More Clies

According to Brighthand, Sony is getting out of the PDA business.

I had trouble understanding why Sony felt the need to push so many new Clie models out the door so quickly, so I’m not surprised by the rumors of flat profitability. I’m sure there’s lessons to be learned for other PDA manufacturers. But it’s tough to spin this as even remotely a Good Thing for
the Palm Economy.

It’s also a bummer for me & Scott. We’ve owned 3 Clie models over the past few years, and I loved my 760C so much that I bought a second one when the original was stolen.

Smells Like Spirit

I have to think long and hard about whether the new “Spirit of America” program is one worth supporting. On the face of it, the idea has merit. Ordinary Americans set aside their differences on the war’s merits and send Iraqis things to help rebuild their lives – items such as laptop computers, baseballs, and power tools. What’s not to like? Iraqis learn that Americans are not all evil and Americans get to help the Iraqi society rebuild.

The problem is, nothing is ever that simple.

If the issue was sending food to people who were starving – life and death issues – that would be different. Jewish law requires that you help people in genuine need. But someone whose main need is a toy is not someone in danger of starving to death. In cases like that, other considerations can come into play.

Here’s a what-if for you: What if ‘Spirit of America’ manages to make a significant improvement in Iraq between now and November? Enough so that swing voters who have been soured on Bush due to the war decide that they can still comfortably vote for Bush? We get 4 more years of liars who think laws don’t apply to them running our country and ruining our economy.

Is 4 more years of Bush a price worth paying to send Iraqis 2 tons of Frisbees?

Maybe I’m selfish. Maybe I’m cynical. But I am not going to join the chorus on this one just yet.

I See a Picture And I Want to Paint It Negative

It’s been pretty well covered in the blogosphere already but I can’t resist the Washington Post article on the Bush team’s amazing run of negative campaign ads.

Three-quarters of the ads aired by Bush’s campaign have been attacks on Kerry. Bush so far has aired 49,050 negative ads in the top 100 markets, or 75 percent of his advertising. Kerry has run 13,336 negative ads — or 27 percent of his total. The figures were compiled by The Washington Post using data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group of the top 100 U.S. markets. Both campaigns said the figures are accurate.

Pandagon does the math for us (emphasis added):

An interesting thing about that number – if 13,336 is the number of negative ads Kerry has run and it’s 27% of his total, then Bush has run about as many negative ads (49,050) as Kerry has ads total (49,392). By any standard, that’s just ridiculous.

And it’s only Memorial Day. What’s the picture going to look like in September?

Snarky Monday To You Too

Morning tip of the hat to Rude Pundit for this followup on Bush’s Saddam firearm:

Exactly how may laws, federal and D.C., might the President be breaking with his possession of that firearm? Did he receive a background check for the transfer of ownership? Is Bush licensed to possess a firearm in a federal facility? The District of Columbia prohibits firearms to be gifts. How many people are implicated in Bush’s firearm possession?

It’s like they think the laws don’t apply to them.