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GNED 1515 Assignment 1: Elizabeth Wildman, working individually 

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GNED 1515 Assignment 1: Elizabeth Wildman, working individually 

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4) This claim is a total bias clouded with emotion. Minaj ignored the positive scientific evidence of the vaccine and posted a tweet with misinformation to her 23 million followers. She assumed her cousin to be correct regarding his friend's impotence and physical side-effects of the vaccine without proof. This bias can be dangerous as it was a publicly published tweet. Less than 250 characters could change the minds of people who may have wanted to get the vaccine but were unsure due to the unknown. Seeing an authority figure stating a potential side-effect of the vaccine could have swayed them to choose not to get vaccinated. This would naturally cause a ripple effect, either they get sick or they get someone else sick. All because Minaj decided to use her platform for misinformation that was later disproven by Trinidad and Tobago health officials.
5) An alternative solution was Minaj following up her claim with scientifically proven evidence, however, there is none. She could have also kept this story to herself and researched it on her own instead of scaring millions of people.
6) It would have been better if Nicki Minaj did not tweet such a bold claim without evidence. As Trinidad officials said, it was a waste of time. It also could have led to dire consequences since we do not know how many people it affected by those choosing not to get vaccinated based on Minaj's claim.

Reference: Elliott, Josh. Nicki Minaj claim about vaccine and testicles 'a waste of time,' Trinidad says. 16 September 2021. Retrieved on 10 October 2021 from https://globalnews.ca/news/8195142/nicki-minaj-vaccine-swollen-testicles-covid-19-trinidad/

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A doctor smiling while looking at a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes.

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Definition: Using an authority figure's influence as fact.

Connection: This image of a doctor promoting Lucky Strike cigarettes can influence people to smoke cigarettes. This ad specifically promotes Lucky Strike cigarettes as the best cigarette to prevent throat irritation. Although we know today that cigarettes are not good for the body and can cause an abundance of health issues, the science was not as evident when these types of advertisements existed. People trust the opinion of authority figures because they are viewed on a pedestal. Cigarette companies exploited doctors to make people think cigarettes are healthy. If a doctor says something is true, then it must be true.

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A drawing of two people attempting a drowning to see if a woman is a witch. 

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Definition: Certain explanations, traditions, or treatments must be true because they are old.

Connection: This image of two people doing a water test with a woman circa 1600s to see if she is a witch is an example of ancient wisdom because this practice was used hundreds of years prior to witch trials for criminals and sorcerers to leave their fate to higher powers. (Andrews 2018) The practice was to tie a rope around the woman's waist and throw her into the water. Two people would have the rope on either side of the water. If the woman sank, she was not a witch, if she floated, a witch she is. This practice led to many drownings of innocent women, however, those who practiced water tests believed it was a true way to determine the woman's fate because of their ancestral practices.

Reference:
Andrews, Evan. 7 Bizarre Witch Trial Tests. 1 September 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2021 from https://www.history.com/news/7-bizarre-witch-trial-tests

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Definition: The word energy is a scientific term used to determine the capacity of what something can do. In spiritual terms, there is no measurable substance to determine the capacity of something.

Connection: People who use crystals believe each crystal holds the capacity to give them energy, whether it is positive energy, manifestation, healing, or more. However, there is no measurable substance behind these claims, they are all subjective. A person could be sick but believe their crystals can heal them, once they feel better, their subjective opinion will attest to the crystals being responsible for healing them. However, there is no scientific proof to be able to determine whether that to be true.

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Definition: Attempting to define something that cannot be explained at the moment with our own process of thoughts.

Connection: On November 7, 2015, a giant cloud of light lit up the sky of Los Angeles. To the public, it was unexplained. Many resorted to aliens being the cause of the lights. This is a prime example of unexplained. The public thought aliens were in the sky because they could not provide a factual explanation. In reality, however, it was the U.S Navy conducting missile tests over the second-largest city in the United States. (Rubin, 2015) Like a magic trick, we see the magic whereas the magician sees the facts behind the trick.

Reference: Rubin, Joel. UFO scares are the price we pay for missile tests, experts says. 8 November 2015. Retrieved on 10 October 2021 from https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-missile-test-20151108-story.html

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Missile tests like the one the Navy performed off the coast of Southern California on Saturday night present military officials with something of a conundrum.

On the one hand, said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute, the military needs to give local aviation officials enough information as to the time and place of an upcoming test to ensure no planes are in the area.

But at the same time, the military is determined to keep tests shrouded in secrecy in order to thwart any efforts by potential adversaries - namely Russia and China - to monitor the missile launch and flight, Thompson said.

The confusion and social media uproar that erupted Saturday night as a mysterious white cone of light coursed across the night sky is an unfortunate but necessary tradeoff, Thompson added.

The need for secrecy was all the more important given the type of weapon the Navy launched Saturday from a submarine, according to Thompson.
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The Trident II (D5) missile is a centerpiece of the U.S. military's ability to deter a nuclear attack and modernizing the weapon is a top priority, he said.

Knowing in advance that a Trident was going to be tested would give prying eyes, for example sailors on a Russian submarine positioned in the Pacific, the ability to gather valuable information, Thompson said.

Tracking its trajectory, speed, electromagnetic emissions and other characteristics in real time could provide insights into potential vulnerabilities, Thompson said.

This is especially true during the first stage of flight, the "boost phase," when the missile's rockets are firing and the weapon is most susceptible to attack, Thompson added.

"The Russians and Chinese would have great interest in finding ways to defeat this type of missile," he said.

Witnesses across Southern California and Arizona posted video and reported seeing the light. Many used hashtags such as #ufo and #comet as they speculated about its source.

Video blogger Julien Solomita was on a rooftop parking lot in Van Nuys shooting traffic and sunset scenes when he looked up and saw a bright circle of light in the sky. He followed it with his camera and at one point, he said, it looked like it was exploding.

"For a brief moment, when the cloud got bigger, I was wondering, 'Should we run?' It looked so close," he said.

Since it was posted, his YouTube video has gotten nearly 1.5 million views and has been widely circulated on social media, helping to set off a furious round of speculation - was it a UFO? A missile? A comet?

Solomita says he's still not satisfied with the official explanation.

"I'm not 100% convinced I know what happened no matter what news channels are saying. I'm kind of remaining skeptical because we were there, and it was crazy," he said.

If it was a missile test, he said, the public should have been better informed.

"Why do a missile test over the second largest city in the U.S. and not tell anyone? That's pretty wild," he said.

The missile test, first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, was part of a scheduled, ongoing system evaluation, a Pentagon spokesman told The Times.

Launches are conducted on a frequent, recurring basis to ensure the continued reliability of the system, the spokesman said.
Times Staff Writer W.J. Hennigan contributed to this story. joel.rubin@latimes.com Find me on Twitter: @joelrubin ALSO Cold front could bring wind and light rain to L.A. area Detectives say dead youth in East L.A. may have accidentally shot himself Mystery light above L.A. brings fear, anger and questions

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UFO scares are the price we pay for secret missile tests, expert says

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Missile tests like the one the Navy performed off the coast of Southern California on Saturday night present military officials with something of a conundrum. On the one hand, said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute, the military needs to give local aviation officials enough information as to the time and place of an upcoming test to ensure no planes are in the area.

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In season 2 episode 3 of Glee, Finn makes a grilled cheese and sees Jesus, he then dubs the sandwich "grilled Chessus."

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Definition: It is human nature to find patterns and assign meaning.

Connection: Finn, a non-believer of Jesus, sees Jesus in his grilled cheese. He keeps this "grilled Cheesus" with him and consults it to help him with his decisions during the episode. His mind saw a pattern in the sandwich and assigned meaning to it to help him through his existential crisis. He changed his way of thinking by using prayer to help him through his experiences for the duration of the episode. The toaster just toasted the bread, Finn saw the pattern of Jesus and used it to better his life by changing his way of thought.

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Reason for Belief #2: Emotional Connection

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Reason for Belief #2: Emotional Connection

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Definition: Our emotions can make us see things irrationally. We use our emotions to perceive things differently when facts could prove otherwise.

Connection: In September of 2012, a family put their faith in the hands of a psychic to find their missing college-aged son. The psychic assured the family he was still alive, giving them hope. The parents experienced an emotional connection because they believed someone contacted by their family that he was still alive. Unfortunately, the missing student's body was found the day after being told "He's alive, don't worry." (Radford 2012) The police said he was dead for a week prior to being found. Taking away the credibility from the psychic who told the family he was still alive. The parents' emotional connection blurred reality, giving them false hope.

Reference:
Radford, Benjamin. Psychic Devastates Student's Family, Live Science. 15 October 2012. Retrieved on 10 October 2021 from https://www.livescience.com/23993-psychic-devastates-dead-student-family.html

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(Image credit: © Benjamin Haas | Dreamstime.com)

Harsha Maddula, a Northwestern University pre-medical student from Long Island, N.Y., went missing Sept. 22, last seen leaving an off-campus party in Illinois. Police and volunteer searchers were unable to find him, but Maddula's family said reassuring words from psychics had raised their spirits.

Apparently, psychics contacted by the Maddula family's relatives in India said Harsha was okay and would be found: "He's still alive. Don't worry.'"

The next day, however, Maddula's body was found in Wilmette Harbor near his dormitory. He'd been dead for nearly a week, hidden from searchers in the water between two boats. There was no sign of struggle, robbery, or assault; though toxicology tests are still underway, police believe he was likely the victim of an accidental drowning.

This is only the latest of many cases where grieving families of missing persons have been given false hope by psychics. Despite the failure of psychic detectives to locate missing people, desperate families often turn to psychic and soothsayers. [ Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena]

It happens regularly: grieving families hoping psychics will recover their missing loved ones are always disappointed. Still, even if they don't believe in psychics, they conclude that nothing else has worked, so there's no harm in trying.

Indeed, as a news article on Michigan Live.com noted, the mother of a missing woman will be seeking advice from a nationally-known psychic next week: "The mother of Venus Stewart, who has been missing since April 2010 and is presumed to have been killed by her estranged husband, has been invited to appear on the syndicated talk show 'Dr. Phil,'" according to Live.com. The news article went on to say the mother Therese McComb of Colon, Mich., would fly to Los Angeles next week to tape the show, which will air in November. On the show, famed psychic John Edward will try to contact Stewart's spirit to possibly get information about the whereabouts of her body.

"I'm desperate' to find Stewart's body and have closure," McComb said. 'This is about a desperate mother. That's what it is," she added.

If Edward can lead police and the McComb family to where Venus Stewart is, dead or alive, it would be the first time it's happened. Instead of leading police to missing persons, psychics typically offer vague feelings and impressions, and contradictory, fruitless "information."

In high-profile cases, hundreds of different psychics often give hundreds of different opinions about where a person is; sadly none of the information leads to their recovery. As McComb said, these are the actions of desperate mothers, those who have nowhere else to turn. Yet, however well-intentioned the psychics are, grieving families deserve truth instead of misinformation and false hopes.

Those who listen to well-known psychics on daytime TV shows should note famous psychic Sylvia Browne's appearance on "The Montel Williams Show" in which she told the parents of missing child Shawn Hornbeck that their son was dead: kidnapped and killed by a very tall "dark-skinned man," his body would be found in a wooded area near two large boulders. In fact, Hornbeck and another boy were found very much alive January 16, 2007, in the home of Michael Devlin, the Caucasian man who'd kidnapped them. Every detail of Browne's psychic vision was wrong.

At least the anguish of being wrongly told their son was dead faded when Shawn Hornbeck was found alive. Sadly, the same did not happen for Harsha Maddula's family, told by psychics that he was alive when he was not.

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of six books including Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries. His Web site is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

Benjamin Radford is the Bad Science columnist for Live Science. He covers pseudoscience, psychology, urban legends and the science behind "unexplained" or mysterious phenomenon. Ben has a master's degree in education and a bachelor's degree in psychology. He is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and has written, edited or contributed to more than 20 books, including "Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries," "Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore" and "Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits," out in fall 2017. His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

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Psychic Devastates Dead Student's Family

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(Image credit: © Benjamin Haas | Dreamstime.com) Harsha Maddula, a Northwestern University pre-medical student from Long Island, N.Y., went missing Sept. 22, last seen leaving an off-campus party in Illinois. Police and volunteer searchers were unable to find him, but Maddula's family said reassuring words from psychics had raised their spirits.

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1) The problem is the extraordinary claim by Nicki Minaj that the COVID-19 vaccine caused her cousin's friend's impotence and swollen testicles.
2) The source is a tweet by Nicki Minaj on September 13, 2021, arguing the vaccine caused her cousin's friend's post-vaccination complication. Minaj provided no proof or evidence for this claim other than word of mouth.
3) Minaj's source is not credible. It was merely just a propagated claim. The Trinidad and Tobago health minister publically refuted Minaj's claim days after her tweet was published. They stated that they checked hospitals across the nation and found no evidence of anyone with the COVID-19 vaccine side-effects described by Minaj. Calling it "a waste of time," (Elliot 2021) Trinidad officials stated there are no proven side-effects of this nature and to continue to listen to health officials as opposed to rappers with second-hand stories. (Elliot 2021)

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Nicki Minaj's Tweet from 13 September 2021 regarding the vaccine. 

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Definition: Using evidence that proves one's beliefs although there is evidence disproving it. Focusing on the proof of the belief and ignoring the proof that goes against one's belief to make their opinion stronger.

Connection: On September 13th, 2021, Nicki Minaj tweeted about her cousin's friend in Trinidad who got the vaccine and suffered from post-vaccination complications. She stated her cousin's friend's testicles swelled up and became impotent. Previous to this tweet, she stated she had to do more research about the vaccine to decide whether it is right for her. Although there are thousands of studies and evidence proving the safety of the vaccine, she used this story about her cousin's friend's testicles and impotence to prove her belief against the vaccine. This example of confirmation bias is quite concerning since the tweet is public to her 23 million Twitter followers. Nicki Minaj's confirmation bias tweet can influence her followers' decisions on the vaccine when there are many studies proving why the vaccine is a positive thing. Minaj ignored the scientific evidence and used someone's experience to decide her stance on the vaccine.

Reference:
Minaj, Nicki. Twitter. Posted 13 September 2021. Retrieved on 10 October 2021 from
https://twitter.com/nickiminaj/status/1437532566945341441

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Definition: Things that are natural must be good!

Connection: This news article discusses the negative effects of all-natural medicine. In 2013, a woman's son came down with a strep infection. Instead of taking her son to the doctor where he could be properly treated, she turned to holistic medicine. This decision led to her 7-year-old son dying 10 days later. The woman was put on trial for failure to provide necessities of life and criminal negligence causing death. (Graveland 2016) The mother provided her ill son with dandelion tea and oregano oil to treat his illness, she felt that because it was natural, it was good. However, this boy needed medical attention from people who have scientific evidence to support their decisions, as opposed to the mother who felt that because something was natural then it would cure him. Unfortunately, she suffered the consequences of her decision by losing her child.

Reference:
Graveland, Bill. Mother who used holistic medicine to treat fatally ill son heading to trial. CBC News. 28 November 2016. Retrieved on 10 October 2021 from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/tamara-lovett-holistic-medicine-trial-

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Experts say the trial of a woman who turned to holistic medicine before the death of her seven-year-old son is likely to reignite a debate over the use of natural and alternative treatments.

Tamara Lovett, 47, is charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life and with criminal negligence causing the death of Ryan Alexander Lovett.

Her trial is set to begin in Calgary on Monday.

Ryan died in March 2013 after getting a strep infection that kept him bedridden for 10 days. An autopsy revealed the boy died as a result of a Group A streptococcus infection.

Police say the Calgary woman called for help early in the morning on March 2, 2013, fearing her son was suffering a seizure. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

Herbal remedies

They have alleged Lovett chose to treat the bacterial infection with homeopathic herbal remedies instead of taking her son to a doctor.

"In the short term, these cases may polarize the debate and lead to a further entrenchment for the true believers," said Tim Caulfield, research director of the University of Alberta's Health Law and Science Policy Group.

"However, over the long term, I am hopeful they will help the broader public debate."

Police say there's no record of the boy ever being taken to a doctor for annual checkups or any treatment.

Investigators say the woman's friends were worried about the child's health and urged her to take him to a physician.

"The cases are a very dramatic and sad statement that we should not put personal beliefs about pseudo-science over the interests and welfare of children," said Caulfield.

Stephans trial

It's not the first time in 2016 the issue of natural medicine and the death of a child have been before the courts. In April, David and Collet Stephan were found guilty by a jury in Lethbridge, Alta., of failing to provide the necessaries of life for their 19-month-old son Ezekiel.

The couple treated Ezekiel with smoothies containing hot peppers, onions and horseradish when he became ill. He died of bacterial meningitis in hospital. A number of people, including a nurse who was a family friend, recommended the parents take Ezekiel to a doctor.

The Stephans, who are appealing, argued their conviction set a dangerous precedent in Canada, because if "we do not fall in line with parenting as seen fit by the government, we all stand in risk of criminal prosecution."

One step further

University of Calgary bioethicist Juliet Guichon said the law should go one step further and hold friends and family members accountable in a child's death.

"The legal system requires citizens to alert child welfare that a child is in danger. Citizens just have to call 911 and they can do so anonymously," she said.

"Perhaps the police will find evidence that someone had reasonable and probable grounds to believe that the child was in need of intervention and yet did not report this information. If so, then will charges be laid against that person for failing to report the child needed help?"

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Trial of mother who treated fatally ill son with herbal remedies set to start | CBC News

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Experts say the trial of a woman who turned to holistic medicine before the death of her seven-year-old son is likely to reignite a debate over the use of natural and alternative treatments.