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By Blair Bittorf, working individually

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Post #2 Red Flag: Mystical Energy (Video)

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Post #2 Red Flag: Mystical Energy (Video)

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Definition:
Mystical energy is the false energy which is made up to sound scientific. Example of this could be crystals which people believe to have powers to calm, heal, balance, energy and various others. Another example is peoples' belief that a Reiki Master is able to heal and treat illnesses by touch and waving the hands over the client feeling their energy.

Connection:
This video touches upon how crystals are used to connect people to the healing powers and believing in them. Discusses scientific findings, psychological benefits and different stones for different ailments or needs. There is also a connection for there is "real life" stories on experiences.

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How Healing Crystals Became a Cultural Phenomenon | Annals of Obsession | The New Yorker

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Post #8 Reason to Believe: Idealogical Support (Article)

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Post #8 Reason to Believe: Idealogical Support (Article)

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Definition:
It's a body of ideas that people believe and support it by take the idealogical stand to support it. Things people could stand for can be protests, marches or even political.

Connection:
This article is an example of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who wants all world leader to step up and pull together to make sure that every country receives the vaccine, not just the wealthy ones. Trudeau believes that if a vaccine is made and that everyone who can be vaccinated gets vaccinated in the belief that it will slow or stop transmission of the disease even though those results have not been founded.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged all world leaders to pull together in the global fight for a vaccine for COVID-19 during an online pledging "marathon" today, as the United States steered clear of the conference.

World leaders are holding the event to raise at least 7.5 billion euros ($11.6 billion Cdn) for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus.

Trudeau, the fifth leader to speak during the online conference, called it "truly a moment for global leadership."

"We can't just have the wealthiest countries, the most successful scientific countries, have this success and not share it with the world, because we will not be safer until we're able to share it with the world," he said.

Canada is among the organizers, which include the European Union, non-EU European states Britain and Norway, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

They aim to raise funds over several weeks or months, building on efforts by the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and wealthy benefactors supporting the effort.

A list of world leaders due to speak seen by Reuters did not include any U.S. officials, and EU diplomats said the United States was not taking part, although it is a major donor of the United Nations and UN bodies. The U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment.

Trudeau pledged $850 million to the global fund, which will go toward diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, the European Commission said in a press release last week. That sum is part of previously announced funding.

Trudeau said there will be no return to "full normal" until there is a vaccine.

"When a storm comes, people tend to want to hunker down with their friends, with their families, and wait until it blows over," he said.

"But we cannot isolate ourselves. We cannot hope that everyone else does well while we take care of ourselves. We need to take care of ourselves and take care of the rest of the world as well."
Watch: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he's encouraging all countries to pull together to fight the pandemic

The event is being streamed on the European Union's Coronavirus Global Response website.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on April 15 he would halt funding to the World Health Organization over its handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The WHO's director general is scheduled to address the conference.

During his daily news conference, Trudeau was asked to comment on countries that are not contributing to the global pledge.

"It is a global pandemic and what happens outside our borders, no matter how well we handle what's going on inside our borders, will have an impact on us directly, with potential further spread of COVID-19, or indirectly with disrupted supply chains and a weakened global economy upon which we all depend," he said.

"We know that Canadians have always stepped up and will continue to step up because we recognize that our role within the world does matter, and I would encourage all countries to see that the only way we're going to get through this is if we get through this together."

COVID-19 in Canada

As organizers, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are among those on the speakers' lineup.

China's Premier Li Keqiang is also expected to speak and make a pledge, according to the protocol list, although China is not leading the conference.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last month called the online pledging conference "a real marathon," saying a vaccine to the respiratory disease COVID-19 was needed "in every corner of the world ... at affordable prices."

Donation figures may not be known immediately. It is unclear how much of the money to be pledged represents new funding, as financial commitments made earlier this year will also be included.

Saudi Arabia, the current chair of the Group of 20 industrialized countries, has pledged $500 million. Norway, Turkey and Israel are also expected to pledge sums.

Some EU officials have raised concerns about countries counting in money already pledged earlier this year.

Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, warned that although the initial wave of transmissions of the coronavirus had passed its peak in most countries in Europe, "this is not going to end anytime soon."

She told EU lawmakers on Monday that there were still four countries - Poland, Romania, Sweden and Britain - where there had been "no substantial changes in the last 14 days" in terms of a possible fall in infection rates.

The 7.5 billion euro target is an initial figure. Von der Leyen has said countries will need more money over time.

Britain will hold another online donor summit on June 4.

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Trudeau urges world leaders to pull together as U.S. steers clear of COVID-19 vaccine pledging conference | CBC News

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged all world leaders to pull together in the global fight for a vaccine for COVID-19 during an online pledging "marathon" today, as the United States steered clear of the conference. World leaders are holding the event to raise at least 7.5 billion euros ($11.6 billion Cdn) for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus.

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Definition:
The error of seeing something that really isn't there or tendency to see meaningful patterns in meaningless noise.

Connection:
The blog is from TED Blog talks about seeing things in clouds and shows pictures of clouds that allow one to see patterns or images the clouds make. This is something that parents have done with their kids, "Look at the clouds, what do you see?" People look at clouds and believe they can see various images which may be seen by others or others may see totally different shapes, depending on what they think they see. Are we conditioned to look for patterns that aren't there or are we just simply looking for a reason to explain something that can't be explained. What do you see in the clouds of the article?

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A "cloud on the horizon" means that something bad is about to happen. Meanwhile, someone with their "head in the clouds" is thoroughly out to lunch. As Gavin Pretor-Pinney points out in today's talk, clouds get a bad rep when it comes to language.

Gavin Pretor-Pinney: Cloudy with a chance of joy"But I think they're beautiful, don't you?" he says. "It's just that their beauty is missed because they're so omnipresent, so commonplace that people don't notice them ... unless they get in the way of the sun."

Pretor-Pinney is the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and, in this talk, he asks each of us to do something we excelled at when we were kids - looking up at the clouds and letting our imaginations run wild. He shows many evocative cloud formations - some created by specific, named types of clouds - and calls on us all to take part in this global Rorschach test. To that end, the Cloud Appreciation Society (which has 32,000+ members) last week released a CloudSpotter iPhone app that allows people to capture and share their own cloud images. Bonus: NASA will use anonymous data from the app to help calibrate its cloud-observing satellites.

Below, Pretor-Pinney (and a few guests) shares a few cloud images with the TED Blog.

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The joy of cloudspotting: 10 incredible visions in clouds

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A "cloud on the horizon" means that something bad is about to happen. Meanwhile, someone with their "head in the clouds" is thoroughly out to lunch. As Gavin Pretor-Pinney points out in today's talk, clouds get a bad rep when it comes to language.

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Post #9 Reason to Believe: Ancient Wisdom

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Post #9 Reason to Believe: Ancient Wisdom

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Definition:
Even if it was passed down from generation to generation, decade after decade, does it mean that it is right? Not everything is what it seems nor do they always work. Since Ancient Wisdom discusses Chinese Medicine and their belief it works, lets touch upon how Chinese Medicine works in the modern world.

Connection:
This video discusses how Traditional Chinese Medicine is being tested and used to treat Covid-19. China is using anti-viral herbs to come up with a working treatment for Covid-19. US stated they need to come p with one or two herbs that show promise and do the research to back up claims and show ingredients. If China can find the right herb(s) and mix then you can say Traditional Chinese Medicine meets modern world with modern world problems.

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U.S. experts say traditional Chinese medicine shows promise in treating COVID-19

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Definition:
It is the belief in pre-christian knowledge, philosophy and beliefs. An example of this is Chinese medicine and how they use their herbs to treat ailments, illnesses, aches and pains.

Connection:
Regarding Covid-19, the China is encouraging herbal remedies to treat it. The article states that Tradition Chinese Medicine mixtures can be toxic to the patients and give a false sense of security causing them to not seek out medications or therapies that are proven. The results of this could be deadly if not from the medication itself, then from Covid-19.

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As China appears to emerge from the worst of its coronavirus outbreak, government officials are encouraging the use of traditional medicine for treatment and prevention - a practice experts warned could give the public a false sense of security amid the pandemic.

China's National Health Commission reported last month that of the more than 80,000 people infected with COVID-19 since the outbreak began in December, 90 percent took some form of traditional Chinese medicine to treat their symptoms.

According to Yu Yanhong, secretary of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, speaking at a March 23 press conference in Wuhan, traditional remedies have alleviated symptoms, reduced the severity of the virus, improved recovery rates and reduced mortality rate.

But herbal remedies - which China is exporting as part of its efforts to combat the coronavirus around the world - pose both direct and indirect risks to patients, Dr. Edzard Ernst, a professor emeritus of complementary medicine at the United Kingdom's University of Exeter, said in an email.

"TCM mixtures can be toxic, contaminated or adulterated with prescription drugs; they can also interact with prescription drugs," Ernst said. It can also give patients a false sense of security, leading them to neglect proven medications or therapies.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been around for more than 3,000 years and includes a variety of diagnostic approaches, such as the physical examination of a patient's pulse and tongue, and a range of treatments, including ingesting herbs such as ginseng, and acupuncture.

It accounts for up to half of all medicines consumed in China, according to the World Health Organization. More than 7,000 herbal drugs available through pharmacies are regulated by the National Medical Products Administration.

"It is a legal health system in China which is parallel with Western medicine, and of course, there is also integration between traditional medicine and Western medicine," Dr. Jianping Liu, professor of clinical epidemiology at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, told NBC News.

"It's a holistic approach."

The main herbal formulas recommended for treatment of COVID-19 are jinhua qinggan capsules, lianhua qingwen capsules and shufeng jiedu capsules, according to Liu.

These remedies consist of a combination of dozens of herbs and a clear breakdown isn't widely available, Liu said.

The lack of detail about the remedies contributes to doubts over their efficacy, Dan Larhammar, a molecular cell biologist and president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said in a phone interview.

"We need to know which specific product is claimed to work and what is the evidence," he said, before going on to cite the importance of understanding different variations of penicillin.

Recent reports in the Japanese journal BioScience Trends and the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine support the various COVID-19 traditional treatments, but Larhammar said these studies and others like them lack scientific rigor - not having adequate sample sizes, using vague terms and nonpharmacological concepts or testing too many combinations of herbs to parse out their specific effects.

"They are like parodies. Nobody can take this seriously," he said in an email.

Yet, traditional Chinese medicine is being championed not only in China, but also overseas.

Since the rate of cases and deaths in Hubei province began to plateau, the Chinese government has offered aid to other countries overwhelmed by the spread - help that according to the state media ranges from test kits to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and products.

The country sent 100,000 boxes of a remedy called lianhuaqingwen to Italy this month, according to the Chinese broadcaster CGTN. A 12-member team of physicians also sent to support the outbreak in Milan included two traditional Chinese medicine specialists, the Global Times state newspaper reported.

In the United Kingdom, growing numbers of patients of traditional Chinese medicine have been asking for remedies to prevent and treat COVID-19 since the outbreak began in December, said Qikan Yin, general manager of the Institute of Chinese Medicine in London.

Although closed due to the ongoing U.K. lockdown, Yin said practitioners were still doing remote consultations and prescribing appropriate remedies to patients, including one London-based couple in their 50s who were confirmed to have the virus.

Addressing doubts surrounding the treatments, Yin said, "The argument is always there, not only for this disease.

"Clinical trials are very difficult to show the actual benefit of traditional herbs, not just Chinese but also traditional Western herbs," he said.

"It would be fine if the method reduced the symptoms a little bit, and more the better, of course, but if that makes the person take more risks, then we are in deep trouble," Larhammar of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

People with the virus may prematurely resume interacting with others thinking they're no longer infectious by taking traditional Chinese medicine, he explained. Others may take it thinking it prevents them from getting the disease, putting themselves and others at risk.

Until there is more evidence to suggest any effectiveness of such traditional Chinese medicine, it should be treated as a "nonissue," Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the SOAS University of London, said.

"It's causing distraction from questions that could be embarrassing for the Chinese government," he explained of the political posturing.

China's alleged mishandling of the first few cases of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus should be the focus of attention, he said, whether that involves asking whether China could have shared its data earlier, and the quantity and quality of supplies it's now exporting to other countries hit by the disease.

Instead, against the backdrop of President Donald Trump's comments referring to COVID-19 as a "Chinese virus," the Chinese Communist Party can champion traditional medicine while dismissing its critics as being racist and play favorably to people's emotions, Tsang said.

"You love the party because the party is the one that defends your traditional medicine, your national honor, your heritage," he said.

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China is encouraging herbal remedies to treat COVID-19. But scientists warn against it.

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As China appears to emerge from the worst of its coronavirus outbreak, government officials are encouraging the use of traditional medicine for treatment and prevention - a practice experts warned could give the public a false sense of security amid the pandemic.

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Post #4 Red Flag: Supressed by Authority

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Post #4 Red Flag: Supressed by Authority

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Definition:
To suppress information from the public for the benefit of the government. This could be found in coverups that are done by the government, or agencies of the government such as the military and Area 51 known for UFO's and experiments that happened and supposedly still happening.

Connection:
This video discusses UK's biggest military cover up of a UFO encounter with interviews of witnesses and documentation and the cover up to say it did not happen. Documentation was not accurate and a cover story was made up to explain the events.

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The UK's Biggest Military Cover-Up Of An Alien Encounter?! | Conspiracy | Channel 5

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Post #5 Red Flag: Appeal to Authority (video)

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Post #5 Red Flag: Appeal to Authority (video)

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Definition:
Distractions that point to the impressiveness of a product or the claimant, not the truth of the claim by endorsement from celebrities, certificate, degrees or the white lab coats.

Connection:
An example of this is a celebrity who promotes a product stating how good it tastes, how great it works to clear acne, how refreshing a pop is, how comfortable an article of clothing is and the list goes on. This video is a prime example of

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Cheetos Super Bowl Commercial 2021 Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Shaggy - It Wasn't Me

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Post #6 Red Flag: Confirmation Bias (image)

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Post #6 Red Flag: Confirmation Bias (image)

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Definition:
Is when people only favor information that confirms their beliefs. This happens when you're expected to write a paper regarding a topic and you only include information that supports our thoughts, ideas, feelings and beliefs.

Connection:
This Dilbert-bias is a prime example of confirmation bias. A person has a belief, and any information received is going to only confirm their beliefs for that is they way they will perceive that information. Anything that does not support their belief will be ignored and given a second thought.

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Confirmation Bias

A persons' bias only allows them to explore one side and does not leave them open to other ideas, solutions, being objective and the bias can include influence the decisions we make which can lead to poor and faulty decisions. This a choice or just programmed to look at things to only benefit us, and can we change how we look at information so it doesn't benefit our beliefs and allows us to see other options and views. Perhaps this we can only answer for ourselves based on our behaviour and choices.

There is a lot of information at our finger tips that allows people to easily find the information they seek to prove their beliefs. The internet is now the go to for anyone who is doing research, everything is at their finger tips and doesn't automatically question ones beliefs or give an alternate perspective, nor does it make you question yourself to come up with other answers to make decisions that may be better than originally found. Do we do this because we choose to or because that is our our brains work and is automatic response?

Some may say we do this because we choose to and want to be right, while others say we do this because we basically have a short circuit when processing information. As for me, I am not sure what to believe because we all want to be right and yet we don't know exactly how the brain works. Could it be a combination of both? Is it possible to be a combination of wanting to be right and being wired to do it?

An article from https://www.developgoodhabits.com/confirmation-bias/ states that we research information relating to what we believe because we want it to be true and that we don't do the research that goes against what we believe because we have a tendency to "stick to our guns." The article also a states two reasons for why we stick to our guns and they include 1) Challenge Avoidance and 2) Reinforcement Seeking. Challenge avoidance is when people don't want their beliefs to be wrong and proven to be wrong and reinforcement seeking is when people like to find out they have been right all along. Apparently, if people are shown evidence that goes against their belief, then they find a way to dismiss it, criticize, or even alter it to benefit them.

Another article from https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/confirmation-bias/ also states that our brain uses shortcuts called "heuristics" but also states that there is a debate if confirmation bias can be called a "heuristic". It does state the we do use it as a cognitive strategy for proof to prove our beliefs because we need make sense of everything quickly. This article also touches base that it by looking for information to prove our beliefs makes us feel good and protects our self-esteem. The article also talks about how confirmation bias can also work in a group setting. Someone may try to fit into a group by getting to know their beliefs and doing the research to prove it so they can fit into that group. This is also support by another source found at https://www.britannica.com/science/confirmation-bias.

There has been studies done that started back in 1960 by Peter Wason where people had to guess about a rule of number triples. It was found that the people in his study didn't try sequences that would make their beliefs wrong because they didn't want their beliefs to be wrong (https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/seeing-what-others-dont/201905/the-curious-case-confirmation-bias). In a blog it states that good scientific researchers don't try to confirm their hypothesis but falsify it. It also states that many scientists look at data in a biased manner or repeat the experiment until they get the results they desire to prove their beliefs. Scientist seem to also give their approval and a positive review for studies that prove their belief. At the end of the blog, it does state that these experiments are a waste of money and time ( https://fs.blog/2017/05/confirmation-bias/).

While reading the articles and blogs, I can see how this is relevant and how this would be the way people want to stay with what they believe and convince others that it is right. By only looking at information that proves ones beliefs, it will have a play in decisions that are made. The articles and blog clearly state that confirmation bias can cause poor decision making which can lead to unwanted consequences. By going against a belief and finding information that proves our beliefs wrong, we keep our self-esteem up, confidence up and continue to make ourselves feel good.

To keep ourselves from only researching what proves our belief is maybe we could do the research to falsify our beliefs instead so we are not just focused on being right. A second option is to remain open minded and listen to other people's thoughts and ideas and discuss them openly asking questions and gathering all kinds of information. We could always brainstorm ideas and think out of the box. Question people, make them accountable so they think critically. Encourage people to think about other possibilities and how their choices will affect their decision and how that decision could cause unwanted circumstances.

Everyone would have to figure out what would work best for them so they can do the research that doesn't just benefit them. For me, I think having someone question me and getting me to think or brainstorm different ideas and research different areas of at the topic would allow me to not focus on what proves what I believe. The only way I would know of what would work best is to try all ideas of opening my mind to new things and seeing things differently. Only by trying each one can I figure out what would work best for me.