Critical Cactus Podcast

Episode 11 - Circumcision is it good or bad -why do we do it, should we.

We take a critical dive into Circumcision, discuss wind energy, Solar Eclipse.  Tom trys to get Dman to be interested, Adam takes over and he's still not budging.  And NASA gives us some alternative medicine, or is it.

 

 

My research for the topic that we are going to critically think and discuss today has revealed something interesting. You know how on the show always bring up the idea that we all build this house in our minds, that it is built by constructing our belief systems into a world-view?  How sometimes someone has a belief on a topic that is important to that house.   Well, today's topic is one of the bearing walls for one of the members of the Critical Cactus here, and this belief holds up a lot of the house.  MRI studies show that when you contradict someone's belief, parts of the brain related to fight/flight light up and they can sometimes dig their heals in and argue from an emotional place.  I think we are going to put that to the test today as we talk about Circumcision. The topic is fascinating, and we get to show our audience how we dig into emotional topics from a critical thinking perspective and hope they see how it can be different from what they find in a typical argument.  I’ll be counting the fallacies on both sides of this one, but who's keeping score.

 

Adam news:

Video Games and the Brain

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/video-games-and-the-brain/

 

Thanks Nasa: Light Therapy ( A real thing, taken way out of context is bad for cancer patients that aren't thinking critically).

 

 

 

Reference notes:

Started: first ancient Egyptian mummies of considerable vintage, around 2300 BC. Egyptian paintings date circumcision to centuries prior, depicting ritual circumcision as prerequisite to entering the priesthood

by 1800 BC the Jews were practicing circumcision for religious reasons

Premature babies have to wait, waiting requires anesthesia.

 

Circumcision does significantly decrease the chance of a UTI.  Which used to be a deadly problem.  10 times greater in uncircumcised

 

Circumcision may lower risk of penile cancer (rare either way).

 

Circumcision lowers HIV and other STD chances. 50 - 60%

 

Circumcision lowers chance of inflammation, irritation, infections.

 

It may lessen the sensation.

 

Medical associations recommending circumcision:
American Urological Association,  http://www.auanet.org/guidelines/circumcision

the AUA recommends that circumcision should be presented as an option for health benefits

 

The CDC Conspiracy:
The idea that it’s a Billion Dollar industry so there is incentive for the CDC to continue allowing it.

 

Mutual masturbation when two men dock their penises together under mutual forskin. -Awesome.

 

Getting it back with specially designed weights.

 

Arguments against circumcision

• “Nature makes no mistakes.”
• It’s genital mutilation and a violation of human rights.
• Doctors just do it to earn more money.
• It’s cruel; babies suffer terrible pain.
• Babies remember the pain.
• There are permanent physiologic consequences: boys who were circumcised at birth are more sensitive to pain later in life.
• The uncovered glans becomes less sensitive.
• Circumcised men don’t get as much pleasure from sex.
• Circumcised men are psychologically damaged.
• Some men mourn their lost foreskin; some miss it so much that they try to reconstruct it.
• The foreskin is required for the homosexual practice of “docking.”
• An intact foreskin provides more scope for body art like piercings and tattoos.
• There are complications from the surgery including hemorrhage, infection and even death (in one famous case a boy’s penis was accidentally burned off by an electrocautery device and they elected to raise him as a girl).
• Other complications include poor cosmetic results and meatal stenosis.
• If reconstructive surgery is needed later in life, an intact foreskin can provide tissue.
• It’s elective surgery and the patient doesn’t get a choice in the matter.

Arguments FOR:  https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/circumcision-what-does-science-say/

 

Conclusion:

I see no arguments for or against neonatal circumcision that sway me, if anything the HIV argument is persuasive for.

Doctors are not “pro” circumcision, but they’re not “con” either. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ official policy states:

“Existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision; however, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision. In circumstances in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child’s current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child.”

NOT GOOD INFO--> The study, by researcher Dan Bollinger, concluded that approximately 117 neonatal deaths due directly or indirectly to circumcision occur annually in the United States, or one out of every 77 male neonatal deaths.
https://www.circinfo.org

This guy Dan Bollinger, has no study, referrs to nothing, just asserts his estimate of 117/year on bad data that doesn't account for base rate (males alwasy 6% higher infant mortality).
"Journal of boyhood studies" (presigious? gota pull out paypal $22 to see it)
A review of his study: http://circumcisionnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/fatally-flawed-bollingers-circumcision.html

Robert Baker estimated 229 deaths per year from circumcision in the United States. Bollinger estimated that approximately 119 infant boys die from circumcision-related each year in the U.S. (1.3% of all male neonatal deaths from all causes).
cirp.org
(I get .09 - .03%)

CDC info:
Number of infant deaths: 23,215
Deaths per 100,000 live births: 582.1
Leading causes of infant deaths
Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities
Disorders related to short gestation and low birthweight: not elsewhere classified
Newborn affected by maternal complications of pregnancy

Good stats:
http://www.cirp.org/library/statistics/USA//

History of this debate:
10,000 (?) BCE Aboriginal tribes in central and desert regions of Australia introduce circumcision of boys as puberty rite

3100 BCE Egypt invaded from the south, attackers bringing circumcision with them.

600 BCE First five books of Hebrew Bible (Torah) compiled, including Genesis with its reference to Yaweh’s command to Abraham to circumcise himself, his sons and his slaves and servants. Circumcision enforced by priests among Jewish people as sign of the Covenant.

ANNO DOMINI or Christian Era Jesus born and circumcised in accordance with Jewish practice.

132 Roman Emperor Hadrian (98-138 CE) extends a previous ban, by Emperors Domitian (81-96) and Nerva (96-98), on the castration of citizens or slaves throughout the Roman Empire, to include circumcision.

1955 (Australia) Australian routine circumcision rate peaks at 90 per cent.

1965 W.K.C. Morgan publishes "The rape of the phallus", the first criticism of circumcision’s murky psychology to appear in a US medical journal.
- peak of US rate at 80-90% 1950-1980

 

1999, 65.3 percent of all male newborns born in hospitals were circumcised
ranging from a low of 60.7 percent in 1988 to 67.8 percent in 1995

Episode 10- Cancer & Homeopathy (real vs pseudo-Science)

Our main topic is Homeopathy, diluted "medicine", alternative therapy.  We like to contrast pseudo-science against real science and see if you can pick-up on some of the differences when it comes to how evidence steers the ship in proper cancer research.

Can you find cancer in blood? Our guest can, and the world is a better place for it. Thanks Melanie O'Donahue for coming on and a shout out to the folks at flowjo.com for making huge strides in cancer research.

Do you believe in Homeopathy? The idea is simple, and we have all the details.

Reference:

http://web.randi.org/swift/2014-was-not-a-good-year-for-homeopathy

http://www.homeopathycenter.org/materia-medica-repertory-database

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

 

Lame transcript:

Episode 9 Are Sovereign Citizens smarter than everyone else?

We discuss what Sovereign Citizens believe and try to allign those beliefs with the real world. We find it difficult to do if you have a logical skeptical, critical thinking hat on. But we try.

We will post the audio later today:

Reference:
What it (Sovereign Citizens) is: https://www.adl.org/education/resources/backgrounders/sovereign-citizen-movement
Judge deals with a citizen who understands the laws wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrB2cHF9lVs
Americas top cop killers: http://www.thedailybeast.com/sovereign-citizens-are-americas-top-cop-killers

Intelligence as a Predictor of Cognitive Dissonance https://prezi.com/hozrai1ko2ra/intelligence-as-a-predictor-of-cognitive-dissonance/
https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/combating-hate/sovereign-citizen-incidents-by-state-2007-2010.pdf
The neurology view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59h4X8eKPVI
The neurology view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOQduoLgRw
Black Sovereign Citizens, moorish: https://www.facingsouth.org/2016/07/sovereign-citizens-leave-trail-anti-government-violence-across-south
Oregon occupiers: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/03/why-arent-we-calling-the-oregon-militia-terrorists/?utm_term=.d44bfa2957ac

Citizen Science: https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscientists
Planet Hunters: https://www.planethunters.org/

Episode 8 -Professional Gamer/streamer

When should we think critically?

Why don't we?

Welcome back,
Last week we introduced Jordan, a professional Gamer who streams and thinks critically -wait maybe he doesn't.
Either way, this intriguing conversation takes a lot of turns in great directions.
Here's part two, thanks for listening.

Being addicted to running/gaming/anything, how the planning is driven by our desires and how our life is molded by these, and why critically thinking can hack this plan -don't do it.  Wait, shoot, it matters, just listen.

Are video Games violent.

Is World of Warcraft a game for the mentally stable?

How much money does Leage of Legend make?

Why does this matter?

https://www.theverge.com/2013/11/19/5123724/league-of-legends-world-championship-32-million-viewers

 

Episode 7 -Critical Thinking and Professional Gamers/streamers

Part one of two.

We do a deep dive into what critical thinking is, why we don't do it, how to do it more, and how Professional Gamers do it more than most.

That might be a slight exageration but we do have a professional gamer/streamer on with us who gives us some insight into the gamming culture, and how critical thinking impacts the decisions that turn gaming into a multi-million dollar industry.  Or possibly how not-thinking critically is a multi-million dollar industry, depending on how you look at it.

We'v evolved from apes into gamers, so why not.

Get the critical thinking scoop on League of Legends, Overwatch, WOW and streaming.  How sponsorship and subscriptions make gaming a full time job.  

Next week we post the final half, it takes what we learn from the science, the papers showing the studies, and how it relates to gaming.

Thanks for listening.

Episode 6 -Feelings are not facts, and why it doesn't seem to matter.

 Do we need feelings in society, or should we just go with Evidence?

Are we as a society manipulated by our feelings at every level, or does it just feel that way.

How did people vote -Trump supporter thinking or feeling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elec
tions_by_popular_vote_margin
Prime Day http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.prime.num.html
New York Times breaks the email story for Trump Jr. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html?mcubz=2
Gwyneth Paltrow Goop Stickers https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2017/06/26/gwyneths-school-of-witchcraft-and-wizardy-now-selling-stickers/#4657138745b6
Water based fuel https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-cars-use-water-for-fuel/
King James Bible -Christians thinking or feeling https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/
How to get people to make decisions based on thinking instead feelings
Confirmation Bias http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/lord_death_pen.html
Dunn and Kruger https://psmag.com/social-justice/confident-idiots-92793f

Michael Shermer https://www.amazon.com/Believing-Brain-Conspiracies-How-Construct-Reinforce/dp/1250008808
Happiness Hypothesis https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028020

Thanks NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/postsecondary/features/F_At_the_Hostipal_with_NASA.html

 

Show 5 Depression, is it really that bad?

Turns out it is highly likley Depression is closer to you than you realize.  It was for us Critical Cacti, so join us for a critical/logical look at the subject.  

The team tries to look at depression from a critical thinking perspective, the guys crack open and pour out their hearts in a fantastic display of compassion.

What science knows about depression?  Who cares, it's real and we gotta talk about it.

 

Tom's struggles with it since he was 8, and Dman was around 10.  Serious look at the subject without holding back. 

Please get help, you probably need to talk to someone, it's important: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

 

Thanks for listening.

Episode 4 -How Homosexuality is Good for the Human Gene Pool

Reviewing the arguments that homosexuality is bad from a logical perspective, can it be done?

What science says about homosexuality.

With a special guest, Gary provides us with an LGBTQ perspective, and has a lifetime of stories to tell as a gay man in the US.

Gay swan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals

https://www.livescience.com/1125-homosexual-animals-closet.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LVunYzM5M

 

How does homosexuality contribute to the human gene pool?  And how is it considered a vitial contributor to our species?  Listen to find out more.

Episode 3 -A critical look at Rich people

How do you feel about rich people, some say they lie cheat and steal.   This study proves it, right?

We dive into the newly published pnas study: "Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior".

What we like, our biases, what we don't like, and why taking candy from a baby is totally ethical.

Episode #2 Cyber world view of infrastructure

Continuing with the theme of "What makes up our world view" we turn the lens to infrastructure, and specifically cyber security infrastructure.

We want to understand what people think, we want to so badly. Let's talk about that, as well as:

• Should you need an Internet License
• Online Voting
• Drone & TV Camera fear
• Identity Theft
• Whos watching
• WannaCry ransomware
• Wikileak -State Sponsored Cybercrime (US)
• The internet of things
• Script Kiddie
• Gun rights and how that relates to online security

An interview with Louis Grenzebach Great discussion, hope you get a chance to give us a listen.

Thanks.