Unthreaded
@Tomo that was a useful tweet someone had added to wheelybin's
That video is the old honest BBC
But doesn't suit the dieselsRpaedos narrative so is a bit suppressed.bet the maker's been wheeledin
stewgreen
@ST Yep that's the second time You and I have both called Alkhalili out for not picking up on his guests obvious flawed claims
I tweeted but got no reply
"@No2BS
Replying to @jimalkhalili
Graham MacGregor just said
"No mammal eats (extra) salt"
Salt Licks ?
And sea mammals must have high intake
@BbcRadio4 #LifeScientific
9:18 AM · Apr 25, 2017"
No one else commented. 30 praised the prog. Some calling it mythbusting.
stewgreen
Supertroll
I invoked Helen Caldicott there as the parallels are clear - the repeated promulgation of untruths which aren't challenged by the interviewer.
A pal of mine (mildly) challenged the unhinged lady at a Hinckley Point public meeting where she selectively quoted from a UN report - with the actual conclusions from that report - her response was irrational raving, inconsistent and wildly exaggerated "facts" and claims of a "UN conspiracy".
When activists are prodded / challenged this is an all too familiar experience. The activists are careful to frame their position as "reasonable" and arrange their evidence - but get quite agitated and even aggressive when subject to challenge.
tomo
tomo. Most of what Graham MacGregor had to say seemed reasonable with some of it backed by double-blind testing results. However, I couldn't unconditionally accept it because of the initial falsehood I previously mentioned. Crass stupidity on his part, all for a completely unnecessary (and easily demonstrably inaccurate) sound-bite.
Supertroll
Wikibias
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience
Yep they put "Climate Denial" in there
Clearly wrongly as skepticism isn't a theory.
stewgreen
More revelations about the antics of Leigh Day re: Iraq
Leigh Day paid an Iraqi fixer £2 million to trawl for "clients"
Makes Dale Vince's £5K or so funding Balcombe non fracking- anti fracking action look a bit lame eh?
Two partners at the firm, Martyn Day and Sapna Malik, and Anna Crowther, a solicitor, are accused of suppressing the evidence.It was estimated that the firm earned up to £10 million ($12.8 million) in fees from their work on Iraq
Question is .... where did that £10 million come from? - one has to assume that there are deeper and more unsettling questions to asked of the people who sanctioned that spend inside the MoJ no?
tomo
Mister Wheeliebin is tub thumping for his 'lerned frendz.
It looks like there might be some seeds of resistance sprouting actually inside the BBC though.... I do so hope that the blobbies nettle Andrew Neil into overt and active hostility ....
tomo
@Supertroll
Graham MacGregor is up there with Dr. Helen Caldicott among the MDs that have lost the plot. There seem to be enough of them that the media can wheel them out to support any particular PoV they choose to boost. I'm guessing that there wasn't much in the way of balance /challenge to be heard?
tomo
Stewgreen. In defence of Al-Khalili, his programmes don't appear to be scripted and so he probably did not anticipate the comment about mammals not eating salt ( a more complete quote was that most mammals live away from the sea and none eats salt). Al-Khalili is a physicist and may not have considered salt licks. Even if he had, I suspect he would have let it go, not wishing to sacrifice losing too much time on what he might have considered an unimportant inaccuracy.
Generally I find Al-Khalili's programme a must listen to. Last week's was excellent with Liz Socett on a predatory bacterium. I was fascinated by this and contacted her with a question. I got a most pleasant and detailed reply within a few hours.
One change to the Al-Khalili programme I regret. Early programmes spent most of their time following the career of the interviewee, but now some programmes are devoted entirely to the science conducted by them -as was the case this week.