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Doubtful News Roundup for 28 November 2014

11/28/2014

 
Some shocking and some obviously nonsense claims in this week’s stories from Doubtful News.

Lawyer accused of sexually inappropriate behavior and attempted hypnosis
A lawyer dispensing legal advice has been accused of “hypnotizing” some of his female clients and became sexually explicit with them. This is not the only such story but as with usual media reporting,much left unclarified and questionable.

Anti-vaccination sentiment continues to kill workers in Pakistan
Four more polio workers were killed in Balochistan, Pakistan where religious extremist and deep distrust, along with anti-science sentiment, has resulted in scores of acts of violence against in health care workers trying to save lives.

Psychic hand waving taken seriously by airline
Brazilian psychic caused trouble for TAM airlines when he reportedly had a vision that on of their aircraft was going to crash. The airline changed the flight number in order to shake the omen. But self-proclaimed psychic, Jucelino Nobrega da Luz, isn’t taken so seriously by many others. 

Nessie: It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood
Poor Nessie, she is missing in action once again. A local nature conservancy group has proposed that runoff into the Loch Ness during the fall may spark reports of the mythical monster because people mistake logs for the creature. Does this explain some reported sighting? Probably many but not all.

Vanuatu lawmaker supports capital punishment for ‘sorcery’
Vanuatu MP and former finance minister Willie Jimmy is calling for witchcraft to be made a crime punishable by death. But his reasoning is simply not reasonable. He firmly believes black magic is real and is trying to stem the vigilante justice practiced by the traditional people of Melanesia.

Miracle showdown!
Celebrity “healer” John of God is visiting Australia. Local faith healer, John Mellor has challenged John of God to healing showdown.Mellor says he gets John of God’s former paid patients to heal after he failed them. 

Alternative advice leads to death in Norway
A 70-year-old self-confessed alternative medicine man has been jailed in Norway after he gave misleading and illegal advice to a terminally cancer patient. He advised a seriously ill cancer patient to stop chemotherapy for alternative treatment instead. She agreed but died.

Visit DoubtfulNews.com for more stories everyday. Pass our links on via social media to spread the world about dubious media claims and what to think about strange phenomena. 

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    SWIFT is named after Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. In the book, Gulliver encounters among other things a floating island inhabited by spaced-out scientists and philosophers who hardly deal with reality. Swift was among the first to launch well-designed critiques against the flummery - political, philosophical, and scientific - of his time, a tradition that we hope to maintain at The James Randi Foundation.

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