Critical Cactus Podcast Adam Yax

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 FO

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:

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-movementJudge deals with a citizen who understands the laws wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrB2cHF9lVsAmericas 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.pdfThe neurology view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59h4X8eKPVIThe neurology view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOQduoLgRwBlack Sovereign Citizens, moorish: https://www.facingsouth.org/2016/07/sovereign-citizens-leave-trail-anti-government-violence-across-southOregon 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/citizenscientistsPlanet Hunters: https://www.planethunters.org/

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
 

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.

 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_elections_by_popular_vote_marginPrime Day http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.prime.num.htmlNew York Times breaks the email story for Trump Jr. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html?mcubz=2Gwyneth Paltrow Goop Stickers https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2017/06/26/gwyneths-school-of-witchcraft-and-wizardy-now-selling-stickers/#4657138745b6Water 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 feelingsConfirmation Bias http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/lord_death_pen.htmlDunn and Kruger https://psmag.com/social-justice/confident-idiots-92793f
Michael Shermer https://www.amazon.com/Believing-Brain-Conspiracies-How-Construct-Reinforce/dp/1250008808Happiness 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