14 Conspiracy Theories That The Media Now Admits Are Conspiracy Facts

Monty Burnz

Daithi 1 wrote: »

I wouldn't agree that it was a press conference.

Nah, you are right - I reread the thing you quoted and fixed my post because I wasn't sure myself as I wrote it. You must have been quick off the mark with your reply!

Daithi 1

Monty Burnz wrote: »

Nah, you are right - I reread the thing you quoted and fixed my post because I wasn't sure myself as I wrote it. You must have been quick off the mark with your reply!

Just quick enough. Wouldn't be much of a leak if it were said in a press conference :pac:

I suppose it's how one interprets it though. To me it doesn't appear as if he's talking about micro biological life. And they've Havant been to many planets.

How do you interpret it ?

Monty Burnz

Daithi 1 wrote: »

How do you interpret it ?

I usually go for the quick and easy route. Is it possible the the mayor of a city in Tajikistan has access to high-level secret info that hasn't managed to leak into the public domain? It's possible.

Is it possible the mayor of a city in Tajikistan is a bit of a weirdo, or has an obsession with alien life, or is a huge Star Trek fan? I'd say it's even more possible.

Without knowing more about the guy, I'd have to go with the second answer right now.

Jonny7

Daithi 1 wrote: »

The point that some folk in positions of apparent power, are aware of Et existance, it's was leaked in a cable and didn't make the news.

Its a Tajikistan mayor, why would it make news? There's a governor in the US who believes the sun revolves around the earth, that doesn't mean he has some inside knowledge.. its just something he believes in.

Daithi 1

Monty Burnz wrote: »

I usually go for the quick and easy route. Is it possible the the mayor of a city in Tajikistan has access to high-level secret info that hasn't managed to leak into the public domain? It's possible.

Is it possible the mayor of a city in Tajikistan is a bit of a weirdo, or has an obsession with alien life, or is a huge Star Trek fan? I'd say it's even more possible.

Without knowing more about the guy, I'd have to go with the second answer right now.

He must be a weirdo if he mentioned aliens. Some background..

Ubaidulloev, the second-most powerful politician in Tajikistan after President Emomali Rahmon, has served as speaker of the upper chamber since 2000, when the bicameral legislature was created.

The Majlisi Milli has 34 deputies, of whom 25 are elected by the regional parliaments of the country's five regions.

Eight members are appointed by the president and Qakhor Mahqamov -- the former first secretary of the Communist Party who served as Tajik president from 1990-91 -- is guaranteed a seat for life in the Majlisi Milli under the post-civil-war constitution adopted in 1998.

The Majlisi Milli speaker assumes the presidential duties in the absence of the president or in the event he is incapacitated.

Born in 1952, Ubaidulloev has been mayor of the Tajik capital for 13 years.

This is doing the rounds on the interweb, something will turn up soon.

hooradiation

Daithi 1 wrote: »

Well, there wasnt nothing.


http://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/01/10DUSHANBE82.html

CLASSIFIED BY: Ken Gross, Ambassador, EXEC, DoS. REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: In a platitude-ridden meeting, Dushanbe Mayor Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev said upcoming elections would be free and fair, that contributions to the Roghun Dam were voluntary, and that the losses suffered by the United States in Afghanistan were felt by Tajiks as their own. Ubaidulloev asked for help in getting Tajik students admitted to Harvard University, but effectively declined to help find a new location for an American Corner in Dushanbe. He asserted the existence of life on other planets, caveating this by noting that we should focus on solving our problems on Earth. End Summary.



AFGHANISTAN ¶2. (SBU) On January 13 Ambassador called on Dushanbe Mayor and Chairman of the upper house of Parliament Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev at his parliamentary office. The Mayor began the meeting with a lengthy discourse on Afghanistan, thanking the United States for its contributions and sacrifices there, and saying that U.S. activities there were very important "as we enter the third millennium and the 21st century." Ubaidulloev thought the main task there was to build a sense of national identity among ethnically disparate groups, and said the United States was an example for this. He noted that "war is very dangerous", and said "we know there is life on other planets, but we must make peace here first."

Never made the six-one news tho...

I'm with Johnny 7 - that's not news worthy.

I mean, I'll go on the record right now and state that I'm fairly certain there is life on other planets.

Does this mean that
a] I know something substantial about ET's
or
b] I filled out the drake equation and came up with a non-zero number.

Monty Burnz

Daithi 1 wrote: »

He must be a weirdo if he mentioned aliens. Some background..

I'll go on the record too and say I'm pretty sure there is intelligent life on other worlds. But want I won't do is go into a meeting and say to somebody, "we know there is intelligent life on other worlds, but first we need to fix X" - because that would sound a bit weird.

Daithi 1

Monty Burnz wrote: »

I'll go on the record too and say I'm pretty sure there is intelligent life on other worlds. But want I won't do is go into a meeting and say to somebody, "we know there is intelligent life on other worlds, but first we need to fix X" - because that would sound a bit weird.

He obviously felt comfortable to say it to the embassador, perhaps it's common knowledge or a certainty in certain circles.

Anywho... this isnt the proof in the pudding for me so i'm not gonna harp on about it forever.

It is strange though. If we dont automatically assassinate the guys carachter or call him weird etc.. What are we left with?, reading between the lines like

Undergod

Daithi 1 wrote: »

If we dont automatically assassinate the guys carachter or call him weird etc.. What are we left with?, reading between the lines like

A Tajikistani guy who believes in alien life.


I don't mean to sound rude or curt, but really that's all we're left with. We can't get any data from this, except that he believes in aliens. The fact he's a mayor doesn't lend his belief any more weight, the fact he said it to someone else doesn't lend it any more weight.

Daithi 1

He didnt say "I believe", he said "I know there s life on other planets". And it was mentioned in a political arena to the American embassador, not over a pint in a pub.

So, as I said, it's not nothing. It's not a smoking gun, agreed. But it is something, it's unusual and strange and even a tad telling, depending on ones perspective.

hooradiation

Monty Burnz wrote: »

I'll go on the record too and say I'm pretty sure there is intelligent life on other worlds. But want I won't do is go into a meeting and say to somebody, "we know there is intelligent life on other worlds, but first we need to fix X" - because that would sound a bit weird.

That said, it's a variant on an line of thought comes up whenever NASA gets mentioned on some more mainstream fora.
The 'argument' runs like this "we oughtn't to be wasting money on exploring space when there are so many problems here on earth", which I believe is the case that Mr. Ubaidulloev was putting forward, though slightly modified obviously.

Note that the preceding bit about an "american corner" in Dushanbe.
Basically, he's saying "we have more important things to fix before we can do this".

Also I put the word argument in quote marks because it's an absurd false dichotomy - but that doesn't mean that an elected official would be beyond making such simplistic arguments.

Undergod

Daithi 1 wrote: »

He didnt say "I believe", he said "I know there s life on other planets". And it was mentioned in a political arena to the American embassador, not over a pint in a pub.

So, as I said, it's not nothing. It's not a smoking gun, agreed. But it is something, it's unusual and strange and even a tad telling, depending on ones perspective.

Saying "I know" is an indication of belief. He may consider it to be knowledge (as in, that which is both true and believed) but we have no reason to assume he's right, and we don't know what evidence he is basing it on, so surely we can only treat it as a belief that he himself is certain of. Again, it doesn't matter where he said it or who he said it to, the only thing it tells us is that he believes it and figured it was relevant or important to mention it in this scenario.

Maybe he does have convincing proof of alien lifeforms, or maybe he's somehow deluded, but the quote itself is not evidence for either of these positions.

A third possibility, that I forgot in my original post, was that he was joking, or misinterpreted, or the whole thing has been taken out of context.

Daithi 1

Lets leave it there then. Wikileaks are crap anyway.

ed2hands

jh79 wrote: »

@ed2hands

Alot to take in there,

Prozac is an SSRI, it has the in -vitro data to back that claim up. So I would say its integrity as an SSRI is not in question, but prescribed in error no benefit would be seen. You need distinguish between incorrect use and efficacy. You are suggesting a more holistic approach to mental health issues which is fine but SSRI's would still have a role to play. If someone comes to a doctor in distress ,prozac will calm them down ie adjust serotoin levels as it is supposed to. Then a more detailed look at root causes can be investigated. You can't look at root causes if the patient is in a high level of distress or depression you must control the symptoms before you look at the cure. How do you measure depression all you can do is take the patients word for it. Most people on prozac would be doing some cognitative therapy i'd say. OCD is treated quiet succesfully this way afaik.

In terms of medical trials, the industry regulates itself to a certain degree. If a company is developing new SSRI's or whatever type of family of drugs it will use the current best drug as it s reference for comparison. If they can't reproduce the IC50's of a rivals product they will be very quick to highlight it.

Most whislteblowing comes from within the industry and I think the level of fraud you suggest would not be benefical to the companies in the long term (some big fines recently, common misconception about the profitability of big pharma, these fines hurt). I don't doubt that it doesn't go on but not to the extent you think (i mean that the benefits clinically are not exaggerated as high as you think), i'd say the %'s are quiet small otherwise the frontline line of doctors and nurses would spot the lack of clinical benefit quickly

Thanks for replying. The article below is not to counter what you said, in fact has nothing to do with SSRIs. It's a bit more on the current state of the pharma/doctor relationship. Will leave the link of full piece at the end; it's quite balanced with different views, but of course i've just printed out the bit i concur with.:o
CME stands for Continuing Medical Education.

Pennie Marchetti, MD


"After decades of dealing with third-party payers, there's one cliché that we physicians should know to be true: "He who pays the piper calls the tune." However, when asked whether the pharmaceutical industry should continue funding our CME instead of ourselves, we answer with a resounding "Yes!" Seven years ago, 73% of Medscape readers saw nothing wrong with pharmaceutical industry sponsorship of medical education. More recently, 66% said that they oppose a ban on pharmaceutical industry sponsorship. Although Internet surveys tend to be less reliable than conventional polling, most published studies show similar attitudes.[8-10]

The pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession have long been intertwined. However, times have changed, and it's time to reconsider the relationship. Today's pharmacopoeia is bulging with drugs that vie with one another for market share. Where we once had 2 or 3 drugs to treat 1 illness, each with a different mode of action, we now have 5 or 6 drugs with the same pharmacology. Which angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor is best? What form of insulin? Which beta-blocker? We all have our opinions, and chances are they were shaped not only from our experiences, but also from what was learned at a conference or lecture. We would like to think otherwise. The common refrain is that doctors are too smart, too sophisticated, too educated, and too professional to be influenced by drug company propaganda. We can spot the bias and sort through the information. If this is true, why do so many of us also believe that our colleagues are unduly influenced by drug company propaganda? Clearly, at some level, the majority of us understand that the pharmaceutical companies are buying influence with their sponsorship; we're just loathe to see ourselves as part of the problem.

Finally, who wants to give up the perks of drug company sponsorship? Without their generous donations (over a billion dollars/year since 2004),[11] we would have to foot the bill ourselves. That would mean higher professional society fees and higher attendance fees. We would also have to settle for less luxurious settings and say good-bye to our cheap, tax-free vacations. As a physician in a private solo practice, I understand the sting of forgoing these perks, but we're already paying a heavy price for our alliance with the drug companies: our integrity and our patients' best interests. The following excerpt comes from a drug industry insider's online blog on the future of online CME and the return on investment compared with traditional conferences:

As far as pharmaceutical marketers are concerned, the more physicians that get CME credits online, the less likely they are to attend live events where collateral marketing can easily occur... The bad news -- for pharma marketers -- is that pharma's return on online CME investment may be much less than for live events such as symposia at medical conferences. The good news is that it costs much less to deliver online CME than live CME. It could cost so little that physicians may actually be enticed to pay for it themselves rather than accept pharma's charity and possible influence over the content! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! If you think that will happen, please see www.brooklynbridgeforsale-cheap.com.[12]

That guy's got our number, and so does everyone else in his business. It's time for us to acknowledge our susceptibility to industry influence. We may see ourselves as wise sophisticates who are too clever to be tricked by marketing ploys, but everyone else sees us as cheap fools."


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/586181

Obelisk

<Snipped. Video is incredibly inappropriate.>

Penn

Obelisk banned for 2 weeks