181-463: Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British writer who promotes pseudoscientific speculations about ancient civilizations and hypothetical lost lands . Hancock proposes that an advanced civilization with spiritual technology existed during the last Ice Age until it was destroyed following comet impacts around 12,000 years ago. He speculates that survivors of this cataclysm passed on their knowledge to primitive hunter-gatherers around
362-523: A Marehan father and Ogaden mother of the greater Darod clan. The colonial powers prevented ethnic Somalis born outside the two protectorates (Italian and British) from conscribing into their respective territorial forces. By concealing his unofficial birthplace like many others, it enabled him to be eligible for the Italian colonial police force and military in Somalia. Barre's father and brother died when he
543-432: A Somali National Movement (SNM) stronghold, among the targeted areas in 1988. The bombardment was led by General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan , Barre's son-in-law, and resulted in the deaths of 50,000 people in the north. After fallout from the unsuccessful Ogaden campaign, Barre's administration began arresting government and military officials under suspicion of participation in the 1978 coup d'état attempt . Most of
724-497: A "clannism" ideology and abandoned his "socialist facade" to hold onto power. A 120,000 strong army was built for internal repression of the public and to encourage rural clan based conflicts in addition to urban clan directed massacres by specialised armed forces. Barre also singled out the Isaaq clan for a "neo-fascist" type punishment resulting in a "semi-colonial" type subjugation which fuelled collective self assertion to supporters of
905-546: A "global-sea based society comparable with the late pre-industrial British Empire" with knowledge "that would seem like magic even today". Hancock suggests that the teachings of Atlanteans to later civilisations were "geometric, astronomical and spiritual" in nature, which were faciltated by the use of psychotropic plants used to access the Otherworld, allowing them to commune with souls and otherworldly beings. He also proposed that they were able to move and shape large stones with
1086-614: A 2008 piece for The Telegraph referencing Talisman , Damian Thompson described Hancock and Bauval as fantasists. Hancock's Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind , was published in the UK in October 2005 and in the US in 2006. In it, Hancock examines paleolithic cave art in the light of David Lewis-Williams ' neuropsychological model, exploring its relation to the development of
1267-427: A 2022 documentary series produced by Netflix , where Hancock's son Sean is "senior manager of unscripted originals". In the series, Hancock outlines his long-held belief that there was an advanced civilization during the last ice age , that it was destroyed following comet impacts around 12,000 years ago, and that its survivors introduced agriculture , monumental architecture and astronomy to hunter-gatherers around
1448-547: A 27,000 year old Atlantean structure. ...in my view the science of the lost civilization was primarily focused upon what we now call psi capacities that deployed the enhanced and focused power of human consciousness to channel energies and to manipulate matter. Hancock believes that the technology his lost Ice Age civilization possessed was primarily spiritual. According to anthropologist Jeb Card, in America Before (2019) Hancock describes his advanced Ice Age civilisation as
1629-614: A body of knowledge, method, or practice is scientific. Experimental results should be reproducible and verified by other researchers. These principles are intended to ensure experiments can be reproduced measurably given the same conditions, allowing further investigation to determine whether a hypothesis or theory related to given phenomena is valid and reliable. Standards require the scientific method to be applied throughout, and bias to be controlled for or eliminated through randomization , fair sampling procedures, blinding of studies, and other methods. All gathered data, including
1810-410: A book, an advertisement or the testimony of others are the basis of pseudoscience beliefs. It is assumed that illusions are not unusual, and given the right conditions, illusions are able to occur systematically even in normal emotional situations. One of the things pseudoscience believers quibble most about is that academic science usually treats them as fools. Minimizing these illusions in the real world
1991-605: A branch of science, to have been a pseudo-science, composed merely of so-called facts, connected together by misapprehensions under the disguise of principles. An earlier use of the term was in 1843 by the French physiologist François Magendie , that refers to phrenology as " a pseudo-science of the present day ". During the 20th century, the word was used pejoratively to describe explanations of phenomena which were claimed to be scientific, but which were not in fact supported by reliable experimental evidence. From time to time, however,
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#17328694622872172-479: A century of study by philosophers of science and scientists , and despite some basic agreements on the fundamentals of the scientific method. The concept of pseudoscience rests on an understanding that the scientific method has been misrepresented or misapplied with respect to a given theory, but many philosophers of science maintain that different kinds of methods are held as appropriate across different fields and different eras of human history. According to Lakatos,
2353-644: A child and orphan by the age of 10, attended the elementary school in the town of Lugh (Luuq) in the Gedo Region, formally known as the Upper Jubba Region. He acquired the usual grounding in Islam at a qur'anic school there. In 1941, Mohammed, aged twenty, joined the police force which was then under the authority of the British military, who occupied it since the initiation of World War II hostilities. Mohammed's career in
2534-411: A company to publish government-approved coffee table books about Somalia as a multi-racial paradise") as well as having links to then dictator of Ethiopia Mengistu Haile Mariam , which caused controversy when Hancock wrote a favourable profile of Barre for The Independent , as, by his own admission, "various aspects of my trip were facilitated by the [Barre] regime". He admitted that he "definitely made
2715-538: A contorted position, electric shocks, rape of woman prisoners, simulated executions and death threats." In September 1970, the government introduced the National Security Law No. 54, which granted the NSS the power to arrest and detain indefinitely those who expressed critical views of the government, without ever being brought to trial. It further gave the NSS the power to arrest without a warrant anyone suspected of
2896-511: A crime involving "national security". Article 1 of the law prohibited "acts against the independence, unity or security of the State", and capital punishment was mandatory for anyone convicted of such acts. From the late 1970s, and onwards Barre faced a shrinking popularity and increased domestic resistance. In response, Barre's elite unit, the Red Berets ( Duub Cas ), and the paramilitary unit called
3077-551: A culture hero who fights the 'dogmatism' of academics, presenting his work as more valid than professional archaeology. He has not submitted his writings for scholarly peer review and they have not been published in academic journals . Born in Edinburgh , Hancock studied sociology at Durham University before working as a journalist, writing for a number of British newspapers and magazines. His first three books dealt with international development , including Lords of Poverty (1989),
3258-422: A different set of rules compared to rational thinking, experiential thinking regards an explanation as valid if the explanation is "personally functional, satisfying and sufficient", offering a description of the world that may be more personal than can be provided by science and reducing the amount of potential work involved in understanding complex events and outcomes. Anyone searching for psychological help that
3439-473: A forward-minded species pursuing greater avenues of happiness and satisfaction, but we are all too frequently willing to grasp at unrealistic promises of a better life. Psychology has much to discuss about pseudoscience thinking, as it is the illusory perceptions of causality and effectiveness of numerous individuals that needs to be illuminated. Research suggests that illusionary thinking happens in most people when exposed to certain circumstances such as reading
3620-399: A given field can be tested experimentally and standards are upheld, it is not pseudoscience, regardless of how odd, astonishing, or counterintuitive those claims are. If claims made are inconsistent with existing experimental results or established theory, but the method is sound, caution should be used, since science consists of testing hypotheses which may turn out to be false. In such a case,
3801-431: A halt to this apparent degeneration. The majority were hopeful to see these rumours bear fruit, as the support they had for the venal government was diminishing by the hour. In the early hours of 21 October 1969, when the members of the parliament finally decided to present the presidency to the highest bidder, Haji Muse Bogor, military troops aided by armored cars in the major cities of Somalia to occupy key positions. Before
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#17328694622873982-423: A hundred parties in Somalia and a parliament of not even two hundred members, served solely to demonstrate in the most convincing of manner that the models of colonial countries transferred to Africa serve only the new-colonial purposes of said countries, and not certainly to develop forms of democracy in keeping with African realities." (Barre, 1971) On 24 October, in a broadcast speech, General Siad Barre explained
4163-526: A life-threatening automobile collision near Mogadishu, when the car that was transporting him smashed into the back of a bus during a heavy rainstorm. He was treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for head injuries, broken ribs and shock over a period of a month. Lieutenant General Mohammad Ali Samatar , then vice-president , subsequently served as de facto head of state for the next several months. Although Barre managed to recover enough to present himself as
4344-633: A major drought referred to as the Abaartii Dabadheer ("The Lingering Drought") occurred in the northern regions of Somalia. The Soviet Union, which at the time maintained strategic relations with the Barre government, airlifted some 90,000 people from the devastated regions of Hobyo and Aynaba . New settlements of small villages were created in the Jubbada Hoose ( Lower Juba ) and Jubbada Dhexe ( Middle Juba ) regions, with these new settlements known as
4525-486: A man who pushes a child into the water with the intention of drowning it; and that of a man who sacrifices his life in an attempt to save the child." From Freud's perspective, the first man would have suffered from psychological repression , probably originating from an Oedipus complex , whereas the second man had attained sublimation . From Adler's perspective, the first and second man suffered from feelings of inferiority and had to prove himself, which drove him to commit
4706-579: A meta-bias called the bias blind spot , or the tendency to recognize the power of cognitive biases in other people but to be blind to their influence on our own beliefs". Lindeman states that social motives (i.e., "to comprehend self and the world, to have a sense of control over outcomes, to belong, to find the world benevolent and to maintain one's self-esteem") are often "more easily" fulfilled by pseudoscience than by scientific information. Furthermore, pseudoscientific explanations are generally not analyzed rationally, but instead experientially. Operating within
4887-557: A mistake" by establishing links to Mengistu. Since 1990, Hancock's works have focused mainly on speculative connections he makes between various archaeological, historical, and cross-cultural phenomena. He has stated that from about 1987 he was "pretty much permanently stoned ... and I felt that it helped me with my work as a writer, and perhaps at some point it did", while an article published in The Independent in 1995 claims that in 1989 he shifted from working for Barre to investigating
5068-407: A new successor. Several members of the parliament recommended that a candidate belonging to the same sub-clan as the assassinated president should inherit the post. It was suggested that Haji Muse Bogor, a Mogadishu businessman and close relative of the assassinated president, be elected, methodology that opposed the very constitution of the newly founded state. Others members simply sold their votes to
5249-506: A non-aggression pact between Tanzania and Uganda . For his actions, a road in Kampala was named after Barre. On 17 and 18 October 1977, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) group hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 to Mogadishu, holding 86 hostages. West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Barre negotiated a deal to allow a GSG 9 anti-terrorist unit into Mogadishu to free
5430-697: A platform of Somali nationalism and pan-Somalism . Barre's popularity was highest during the seven months between September 1977 and March 1978 when Barre captured virtually the entirety of the Somali region. It declined from the late-1970s following Somalia's defeat in the Ogaden War, triggering the Somali Rebellion and severing ties with the Soviet Union. Somalia then allied itself with the Western powers and especially
5611-474: A professor of archeology at Cardiff University . Hancock failed to produce positive evidence of his theory, and even conceded that no such evidence currently exists. Both Hancock and Dibble agreed that continuing archeological research would be a great benefit to humanity. In 2009, Roland Emmerich released his blockbuster disaster movie 2012 , citing Fingerprints of the Gods in the credits as an inspiration for
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5792-437: A programme could evolve, driven by its heuristic to make predictions that can be supported by evidence. Feyerabend claimed that Lakatos was selective in his examples, and the whole history of science shows there is no universal rule of scientific method, and imposing one on the scientific community impedes progress. Laudan maintained that the demarcation between science and non-science was a pseudo-problem, preferring to focus on
5973-423: A reputation for excellence under the exceptional leadership of Brigadier Generals Barre and Daud Abdulle. A remarkable impact was the successful integration of the former British and Italian-trained units, thereby outpacing the civilian attempts to integrate. Both the police and the military, especially the military, engaged in self-help schemes, something the civilian authorities did not attain. Considerably important
6154-454: A scientific field. Karl Popper stated it is insufficient to distinguish science from pseudoscience, or from metaphysics (such as the philosophical question of what existence means), by the criterion of rigorous adherence to the empirical method , which is essentially inductive, based on observation or experimentation. He proposed a method to distinguish between genuine empirical, nonempirical or even pseudoempirical methods. The latter case
6335-659: A second agreement were both cancelled by the mid-1980s, as the Somali army refused to accept a proposed 60 percent cut in military spending. New agreements were made with the Paris Club , the International Development Association and the IMF during the second half of the 1980s. This ultimately failed to improve the economy which deteriorated rapidly in 1989 and 1990, and resulted in nationwide commodity shortages. In May 1986, President Barre suffered serious injuries in
6516-422: A statement may be pseudoscientific even if it is eminently 'plausible' and everybody believes in it, and it may be scientifically valuable even if it is unbelievable and nobody believes in it. A theory may even be of supreme scientific value even if no one understands it, let alone believes in it. The boundary between science and pseudoscience is disputed and difficult to determine analytically, even after more than
6697-469: A third of adult Americans consider astrology to be scientific. In Russia, in the late 20th and early 21st century, significant budgetary funds were spent on programs for the experimental study of " torsion fields ", the extraction of energy from granite, the study of " cold nuclear fusion ", and astrological and extrasensory "research" by the Ministry of Defense , the Ministry of Emergency Situations ,
6878-459: A well-received critique of corruption in the aid system . Beginning with The Sign and the Seal in 1992, he shifted focus to speculative accounts of human prehistory and ancient civilizations, on which he has written a dozen books, most notably Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods . He has also written two fantasy novels and in 2013 delivered a controversial TEDx talk promoting
7059-520: Is Frank Collin , a self-proclaimed Nazi who goes by Frank Joseph in his writings. The majority of his works include the topics of Atlantis , extraterrestrial encounters, and Lemuria as well as other ancient civilizations, often with white supremacist undertones. For example, he posited that European peoples migrated to North America before Columbus , and that all Native American civilizations were initiated by descendants of white people . The Alt-Right using pseudoscience to base their ideologies on
7240-470: Is a form of hyperdiffusionism based on Ignatius Donnelly 's book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882), an influence Hancock has cited. The idea lacks concrete evidence, is biased towards western civilization , and oversimplifies complex cultural developments. To explain the disappearance of his ice age civilization, Hancock embraces the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis , which has little support in
7421-645: Is based in science should seek a licensed therapist whose techniques are not based in pseudoscience. Hupp and Santa Maria provide a complete explanation of what that person should look for. There is a trend to believe in pseudoscience more than scientific evidence . Some people believe the prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs is due to widespread scientific illiteracy . Individuals lacking scientific literacy are more susceptible to wishful thinking, since they are likely to turn to immediate gratification powered by System 1, our default operating system which requires little to no effort. This system encourages one to accept
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7602-620: Is based on cherry picked information, and strident opposition to "mainstream archaeology". It superficially resembles investigative journalism, but is neither accurate, consistent or impartial. His ideas are built with references to myths, pseudoscience, outdated scientific models, and cutting-edge science depending on what suits his claims. Hancock aims to erode trust in known facts and archaeological expertise, and responds to criticism with accusations of censorship. Many of his supporters echo his rhetoric and label critics as disinformation agents. [I]t’s not my job to be “balanced” or “objective”. On
7783-401: Is doomed to failure, as his goals are outside the goals of the materialist practice of scientific archaeology", describing the goals of Hancock as mythic and paranormal in nature. Archaeologists and skeptical writers have accused Hancock of reinforcing white supremacist ideas, due to the origins of some of Hancock's claims being drawn from racist sources. For instance, Hancock draws from
7964-418: Is driven by the belief that the brain is essentially a "belief engine" which scans data perceived by the senses and looks for patterns and meaning. There is also the tendency for the brain to create cognitive biases , as a result of inferences and assumptions made without logic and based on instinct – usually resulting in patterns in cognition. These tendencies of patternicity and agenticity are also driven "by
8145-479: Is from this difficult childhood that Barre developed a complex sense of cunning, sadism, insecurity, and vengeance. These behavioural traits were exacerbated and solidified under the Italian fascist colonial rule. He was given the childhood nickname Barre , referring to extrovertedness . Barre later on participated as a Zaptié in the southern theatre of the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in 1936. In 1946, Barre supported
8326-604: Is generally agreed that he was born to pastoral parents circa 1910. His unofficial birthplace is said to be in Las Ga'al, which is a district of the El-Gab region, presently known as Shilavo (Shilabo) in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia. His official birthplace is recorded to be the city of Garbahare , which is a part of the provincial capital of the Gedo region of Somalia. Mohammed was born to
8507-419: Is mathematics a formal science that is closer to the empirical ones, or is pure mathematics closer to the philosophical study of logic and therefore not a science? – but all agree that all of the ideas that are not scientific are non-scientific. The large category of non-science includes all matters outside the natural and social sciences, such as the study of history , metaphysics , religion , art , and
8688-653: Is no credible efficacy or scientific basis of any of these forms of treatment. In his book The Demon-Haunted World , Carl Sagan discusses the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party 's concern about Western pseudoscience developments and certain ancient Chinese practices in China. He sees pseudoscience occurring in the United States as part of a worldwide trend and suggests its causes, dangers, diagnosis and treatment may be universal. A large percentage of
8869-491: Is not a new issue. The entire foundation of anti-semitism is based on pseudoscience, or scientific racism . In an article from Newsweek by Sander Gilman, Gilman describes the pseudoscience community's anti-semitic views. "Jews as they appear in this world of pseudoscience are an invented group of ill, stupid or stupidly smart people who use science to their own nefarious ends. Other groups, too, are painted similarly in 'race science', as it used to call itself: African-Americans,
9050-426: Is not simple. To this aim, designing evidence-based educational programs can be effective to help people identify and reduce their own illusions. Philosophers classify types of knowledge . In English, the word science is used to indicate specifically the natural sciences and related fields, which are called the social sciences . Different philosophers of science may disagree on the exact limits – for example,
9231-554: Is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims ; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to evaluation by other experts ; absence of systematic practices when developing hypotheses ; and continued adherence long after the pseudoscientific hypotheses have been experimentally discredited. It is not the same as junk science . The demarcation between science and pseudoscience has scientific , philosophical , and political implications. Philosophers debate
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#17328694622879412-582: Is often considered pejorative , particularly by its purveyors, because it suggests something is being presented as science inaccurately or even deceptively. Therefore, practitioners and advocates of pseudoscience frequently dispute the characterization. The word pseudoscience is derived from the Greek root pseudo meaning "false" and the English word science , from the Latin word scientia , meaning "knowledge". Although
9593-609: Is part of science education and developing scientific literacy. Pseudoscience can have dangerous effects. For example, pseudoscientific anti-vaccine activism and promotion of homeopathic remedies as alternative disease treatments can result in people forgoing important medical treatments with demonstrable health benefits, leading to ill-health and deaths. Furthermore, people who refuse legitimate medical treatments for contagious diseases may put others at risk. Pseudoscientific theories about racial and ethnic classifications have led to racism and genocide . The term pseudoscience
9774-737: Is subset of non-science. Science is also distinguishable from revelation, theology, or spirituality in that it offers insight into the physical world obtained by empirical research and testing. The most notable disputes concern the evolution of living organisms, the idea of common descent, the geologic history of the Earth, the formation of the Solar System , and the origin of the universe. Systems of belief that derive from divine or inspired knowledge are not considered pseudoscience if they do not claim either to be scientific or to overturn well-established science. Moreover, some specific religious claims, such as
9955-404: Is the most powerful theory science has yet produced, but Newton himself never believed that bodies attract each other at a distance. So no degree of commitment to beliefs makes them knowledge. Indeed, the hallmark of scientific behaviour is a certain scepticism even towards one's most cherished theories. Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime. Thus
10136-407: Is the study of pseudoscientific theories over time. A pseudoscience is a set of ideas that presents itself as science, while it does not meet the criteria to be properly called such. Distinguishing between proper science and pseudoscience is sometimes difficult. One proposal for demarcation between the two is the falsification criterion, attributed most notably to the philosopher Karl Popper . In
10317-435: Is what determines the scientific status of a theory. Taking a historical approach, Kuhn observed that scientists did not follow Popper's rule, and might ignore falsifying data, unless overwhelming. To Kuhn, puzzle-solving within a paradigm is science. Lakatos attempted to resolve this debate, by suggesting history shows that science occurs in research programmes, competing according to how progressive they are. The leading idea of
10498-512: Is your evidence?" For philosophers Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz "pseudo-science may be defined as one where the uncertainty of its inputs must be suppressed, lest they render its outputs totally indeterminate". The definition, in the book Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy , alludes to the loss of craft skills in handling quantitative information, and to the bad practice of achieving precision in prediction (inference) only at
10679-629: The Ark of the Covenant (on which he wasn't able to enter due to being blocked by Ethiopian guards), which resulted in his 1992 book, The Sign and the Seal . Other books include Fingerprints of the Gods , Keeper of Genesis (released in the US as Message of the Sphinx ), The Mars Mystery , Heaven's Mirror (with wife Santha Faiia), Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization , and Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (with co-author Robert Bauval ). In
10860-625: The Broadcasting Standards Commission , but the commission found that "the programme makers acted in good faith in their examination of the theories". One complaint was upheld: that the programme unfairly omitted one of their arguments in rebuttal of astronomer Edwin Krupp . The following year the BBC broadcast a revised version of the episode, Atlantis Reborn Again , in which Hancock and Bauval provided further rebuttals to Krupp. The Message of
11041-586: The Danwadaagaha or "Collective Settlements". The transplanted families were introduced to farming and fishing, a change from their traditional pastoralist lifestyle of livestock herding. Other such resettlement programs were also introduced as part of Barre's effort to undercut clan solidarity by dispersing nomads and moving them away from clan-controlled land. As part of Barre's socialist policies, major industries and farms were nationalised, including banks , insurance companies and oil distribution farms. By
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#173286946228711222-621: The Eastern Bloc and the Second World (except China and Romania ). The United States stepped in and until 1989, was a strong supporter of the Barre government for whom it provided approximately US$ 100 million per year in economic and military aid, meeting in 1982 with Ronald Reagan to announce the new relationship between the US and Somalia. In September 1972 Tanzanian -sponsored rebels attacked Uganda . Ugandan president Idi Amin requested Barre's assistance, and he subsequently mediated
11403-610: The Immigration Act of 1924 in the United States, which sought to prevent immigration from Asia and parts of Europe. In a 1981 report Singer and Benassi wrote that pseudoscientific beliefs have their origin from at least four sources. A 1990 study by Eve and Dunn supported the findings of Singer and Benassi and found pseudoscientific belief being promoted by high school life science and biology teachers. The psychology of pseudoscience attempts to explore and analyze pseudoscientific thinking by means of thorough clarification on making
11584-703: The Ministry of Internal Affairs , and the State Duma (see Military Unit 10003 ). In 2006, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Spassky published an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta , where among the priority areas for the development of the Russian energy sector , the task of extracting energy from a vacuum was in the first place. The Clean Water project
11765-569: The Ogaden War broke out after the Barre's government sought to incorporate the various Somali-inhabited territories of the region into a Greater Somalia, beginning with the Ogaden. The Somali national army invaded Ethiopia, which was then under communist rule of the Soviet-backed Derg , and was successful at first, capturing most of the territory of the Ogaden. The invasion reached an abrupt end with
11946-743: The Somali Democratic Movement (SDM), the Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA) and the Somali Manifesto Group (SMG). Siad Barre escaped from his palace towards the Kenyan border in a tank. Many of the opposition groups subsequently began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed the ousting of Barre's regime. In the south in particular, armed factions led by USC commanders General Mohamed Farah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed clashed as each sought to exert authority over
12127-482: The Somali National Movement . By the mid-1980s, more resistance movements supported by Ethiopia's communist Derg administration had sprung up across the country. Barre responded by ordering punitive measures against those he perceived as locally supporting the guerrillas, especially in the northern regions. The clampdown included bombing of cities, with the northwestern administrative center of Hargeisa ,
12308-627: The Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), a one-party government based on scientific socialism and Islamic tenets . The SRSP was an attempt to reconcile the official state ideology with the official state religion . Emphasis was placed on the Muslim principles of social progress, equality and justice, which the government argued formed the core of scientific socialism and its own accent on self-sufficiency, public participation and popular control, as well as direct ownership of
12489-521: The Somali army from the majority of the African armies that had become a personal machine available to the power struggles. Another factor that contributed to the detachment of what was raging in the political arena was the national awareness they developed after independence, which was basically the unity of the Somali country as its hinterland. This awareness gained strength by the evident corruption perpetrated by
12670-619: The United States for the remainder of the Cold War , although it maintained its Marxist–Leninist regime and also drew close to China . Opposition grew in the 1980s due to his increasingly dictatorial rule, growth of tribal politics, abuses of the National Security Service including the Isaaq genocide , and the sharp decline of Somalia's economy. In 1991, Barre's government collapsed as
12851-761: The Victory Pioneers carried out systematic terror against the Majeerteen , Hawiye , and Isaaq clans. The Red Berets systematically smashed water reservoirs to deny water to the Majeerteen and Isaaq clans and their herds. More than 2,000 members of the Majeerteen clan died of thirst, and an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 Isaaq were killed by the government. Members of the Victory Pioneers also raped large numbers of Majeerteen and Isaaq women, and more than 500,000 Isaaq members fled to Ethiopia. In January 1979 Barre ordered
13032-486: The history of science and the history of pseudoscience it can be especially difficult to separate the two, because some sciences developed from pseudosciences. An example of this transformation is the science of chemistry , which traces its origins to the pseudoscientific or pre-scientific study of alchemy . The vast diversity in pseudosciences further complicates the history of science. Some modern pseudosciences, such as astrology and acupuncture , originated before
13213-444: The humanities . Dividing the category again, unscientific claims are a subset of the large category of non-scientific claims. This category specifically includes all matters that are directly opposed to good science. Un-science includes both "bad science" (such as an error made in a good-faith attempt at learning something about the natural world) and pseudoscience. Thus pseudoscience is a subset of un-science, and un-science, in turn,
13394-421: The last Ice Age , which was destroyed as a result of a widespread natural disaster, causing the small number of survivors to travel the world, spreading their knowledge and giving rise to the earliest known civilizations . He does not accept that these civilizations could have arisen independently or that faraway peoples developed the same ideas, arguing that they all came from one advanced ice age civilization. It
13575-456: The means of production . While the SRSP encouraged private investment on a limited scale, the administration's overall direction was proclaimed to be Communist . A new constitution was promulgated in 1979 under which elections for a People's Assembly were held. However, the politburo of Barre's Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party continued to rule. In October 1980, the SRSP was disbanded, and
13756-676: The precession of equinoxes in astronomy. Third, alternative theories of personality and behavior have grown progressively to encompass explanations of phenomena which astrology statically attributes to heavenly forces. Fourth, astrologers have remained uninterested in furthering the theory to deal with outstanding problems or in critically evaluating the theory in relation to other theories. Thagard intended this criterion to be extended to areas other than astrology. He believed it would delineate as pseudoscientific such practices as witchcraft and pyramidology , while leaving physics , chemistry , astronomy , geoscience , biology , and archaeology in
13937-520: The "First Time", often referred to in the hieroglyphic record. They state that the initiation rites of the Egyptian pharaohs replicate on Earth the sun's journey through the stars in this remote era, and they suggest that the "Hall of Records" of a lost civilisation may be located by treating the Giza Plateau as a template of these same ancient skies. Hancock's theories are the basis of Ancient Apocalypse ,
14118-521: The 10 commonly believed examples of paranormal phenomena listed in the poll were "pseudoscientific beliefs". The items were "extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted , ghosts , telepathy , clairvoyance , astrology, that people can mentally communicate with the dead , witches , reincarnation , and channelling ". Such beliefs in pseudoscience represent a lack of knowledge of how science works. The scientific community may attempt to communicate information about science out of concern for
14299-533: The 1997 book The Mars Mystery Hancock speculated based on the low-resolution Viking lander images, that the supposed face on the Cydonia region of Mars , along with a purported "five sided pyramid" may have been the work of an advanced civilisation on Mars that was later destroyed by a cataclysm. In Hancock's book Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith , co-authored with Robert Bauval, the two put forward what sociologist of religion David V. Barrett called "a version of
14480-461: The 19th century, which they say are insulting to the ancestors of indigenous peoples who built the monuments. A Maltese archaeologist who appeared in an episode said her interview had been manipulated. The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) objected to the classification of the series as a documentary and requested that Netflix reclassify it as science fiction . The SAA also stated: the series repeatedly and vigorously dismisses archaeologists and
14661-656: The Atlanteans as indigenous Americans, he stated in Fingerprints of the Gods that Atlanteans were "white [and] auburn-haired". Hancock has based some of his work on outdated race science and has argued for the presence of indigenous " Caucasoids " and " Negroids " in the Americas prior to 1492, which he claims are depicted in indigenous American art and mythology. The Maya were described by Hancock as only "semi-civilized" and their achievements as "generally unremarkable" to support
14842-518: The Atlanteans were remembered as "magicians and gods". Hancock has accepted the fringe theories of other Atlantis proponents regarding several historic sites. For example that of Robert M. Schoch , who contests that the Great Sphinx of Giza was carved over 11,500 years ago, based on claims of the Sphinx having been eroded by water or that of Danny Hilman Natawidjaja , who believes Gunung Padang to be
15023-496: The British and Italian segments of Somalia, forming a minority in each. He was worried that the country could split in two and in either case, his clan, as a minority, would be shut out of power. He became an inspector of police and later went to Italy to attend a military academy. On his return, he rose through the ranks quickly to become Commander. Author Mohamed Diiriye in his book Culture and Customs of Somalia, writes: Many who knew Barre from his boyhood and during his stint in
15204-612: The Ethiopian side of the border; however did this not materialise since the SNM relocated to Northern Somalia in response to this agreement. During the first five years, Barre's government set up several cooperative farms and factories of mass production such as mills, sugar cane processing facilities in Jowhar and Afgooye , and a meat processing house in Kismayo . Another public project initiated by
15385-637: The Ice Age (2002) and Quest for the Lost Civilisation (1998). In 2022 he presented Ancient Apocalypse , a Netflix documentary series that was widely viewed but panned by critics and academics. His first novel, Entangled: The Eater of Souls , the first in a fantasy series, was published in 2010. The novel makes use of Hancock's prior research interests. He has noted: "What was there to lose, I asked myself, when my critics already described my factual books as fiction?" Hancock's pseudoarchaeological work
15566-573: The Irish, the Chinese and, well, any and all groups that you want to prove inferior to yourself". Neo-Nazis and white supremacist often try to support their claims with studies that "prove" that their claims are more than just harmful stereotypes. For example Bret Stephens published a column in The New York Times where he claimed that Ashkenazi Jews had the highest IQ among any ethnic group. However,
15747-708: The Ogaden. Control of Somalia was of great interest to both the Soviet Union and the United States due to the country's strategic location at the mouth of the Red Sea . After the Soviets broke with Somalia in the late 1970s, Barre subsequently expelled all Soviet advisors, tore up his friendship treaty with the Soviet Union, and switched allegiance to the West , announcing this in a televised speech in English . Somalia also broke all ties with
15928-633: The SRSP was disbanded, and the Supreme Revolutionary Council was re-established in its place. By that time, the moral authority of Barre's ruling Supreme Revolutionary Council had begun to weaken. Many Somalis were becoming disillusioned with life under military dictatorship. The regime was further weakened in the 1980s as the Cold War drew to a close and Somalia's strategic importance was diminished. The government became increasingly totalitarian , and resistance movements , supported by Ethiopia's communist Derg administration, sprang up across
16109-778: The Somali Conference ( Italian : Conferenza Somala ), a political group of parties and clan associations that were hostile to the Somali Youth League and were supported by the local Italian settlers. The group presented a petition to the "Four Powers" Investigation Commission in order to allow that the administration of the United Nations Trust Territory could be entrusted for thirty years to Italy . Throughout much of his life, Mohammed Siad Barre dedicated himself to both formal and self-taught education whilst gradually advancing his prospective career. Mohammed, as
16290-609: The Somali Rebellion successfully ejected him from power, leading to the Somali Civil War and a massive power vacuum in its wake. Barre was forced into exile in Nigeria , where he died in 1995 on the way to the hospital after suffering a heart attack. Mohamed Siad Barre was born at a time when birth records were unknown in Somalia. Speculations have been cast upon his exact birth year ranging from 1909 to 1921; nevertheless, it
16471-407: The Soviet Union's shift of support to Ethiopia, followed by almost the entire communist world siding against Somalia. The Soviets halted their previous supplies to Barre's regime and increased the distribution of aid, weapons, and training to the Ethiopian government, and also brought in around 15,000 Cuban troops to assist the Ethiopian regime. In 1978, the Somali troops were ultimately pushed out of
16652-662: The Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind ( Keeper of Genesis in the United Kingdom) is a pseudoarchaeology book written by Hancock and Robert Bauval in 1996 which argues that the creation of the Sphinx and Pyramids occurred as far back as 10,500 BC using astronomical data. Working from the premise that the Giza pyramid complex encodes a message, the book begins with the fringe Sphinx water erosion hypothesis , evidence that
16833-604: The Sun), precisely as material bodies were attracted." Following from this, stars closer to the Sun would appear to have moved a small distance away from the Sun, and away from each other. This prediction was particularly striking to Popper because it involved considerable risk. The brightness of the Sun prevented this effect from being observed under normal circumstances, so photographs had to be taken during an eclipse and compared to photographs taken at night. Popper states, "If observation shows that
17014-508: The Supreme Revolutionary Council was re-established in its place. Barre advocated the concept of a Greater Somalia ( Soomaaliweyn ), which refers to those regions in the Horn of Africa in which ethnic Somalis reside and have historically represented the predominant population, encompassing Somalia, Djibouti , the Ogaden in Ethiopia , and Kenya 's former North Eastern Province . In July 1977,
17195-459: The United States population lacks scientific literacy, not adequately understanding scientific principles and method . In the Journal of College Science Teaching , Art Hobson writes, "Pseudoscientific beliefs are surprisingly widespread in our culture even among public school science teachers and newspaper editors, and are closely related to scientific illiteracy." However, a 10,000-student study in
17376-456: The authors believe suggests that deep erosion patterns on the flanks of the Sphinx were caused by thousands of years of heavy rain. The authors go on to suggest, using computer simulations of the sky, that the pyramids, representing the three stars of Orion's Belt , along with associated causeways and alignments, constitute a record in stone of the celestial array at the vernal equinox in 10,500 BC. This moment, they contend, represents Zep Tepi ,
17557-520: The book "aid is not bad ... because it is sometimes misused, corrupt or crass; rather, it is inherently bad, bad to the bone, and utterly beyond reform". Critics agreed that Hancock's work was a powerful critique of the international aid system, though a number disagreed with Hancock's thesis that aid was inherently bad. During his time as a journalist, he was criticized for being on what he described as "friendly personal terms" with dictator Siad Barre of Somalia (according to The Independent , "he set up
17738-489: The builders to reflect the three stars of Orion's Belt of the constellation Orion . The pyramids are aligned to the cardinal direction within a fraction of a degree, however they are mismatched with Orion's Belt exceeding five degrees, noted astronomer Tony Fairall. Hancock and Bauval's Orion correlation theory was the subject of Atlantis Reborn , an episode of the BBC documentary series Horizon broadcast in 1999. The programme
17919-582: The capital. After fleeing Mogadishu on 26 January 1991 with his son-in-law General Morgan , Barre temporarily remained in Burdhubo , in southwestern Somalia, his family's stronghold. The former dictator fled in a tank filled with reserves from the Somali central bank . This included gold and foreign currency estimated to have been worth $ 27 million. From there, he launched a military campaign to return to power. He twice attempted to retake Mogadishu, but in May 1991
18100-496: The colonial police under the Italians were not that surprised. Barre was not a normal person; he was a psychopath whose mercurial spirit vacillated between raving hatred in one moment and words of praise and reconciliation the next moment. He was said to have witnessed the murder of his own father when he was only ten years old during the turbulent year of 1921, when the clan conflicts instigated by Mohamed Abdulle Hassan were raging across
18281-700: The commander of the Somali National Army , became president of Somalia after the 1969 coup d'état that overthrew the Somali Republic following the assassination of President Abdirashid Shermarke . The Supreme Revolutionary Council military junta under Barre reconstituted Somalia as a one-party Marxist–Leninist communist state, renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic and adopted scientific socialism . Barre spoke three languages, English , Somali and Italian . Barre's early rule
18462-453: The conclusions they believe , and reject the ones they do not. Further analysis of complex pseudoscientific phenomena require System 2, which follows rules, compares objects along multiple dimensions and weighs options. These two systems have several other differences which are further discussed in the dual-process theory . The scientific and secular systems of morality and meaning are generally unsatisfying to most people. Humans are, by nature,
18643-451: The contrary, by providing a powerful, persuasive single-minded case for the existence of a lost civilisation, I believe that I am merely restoring a little balance and objectivity to a previously unbalanced situation.... [I]t’s my job—and a real responsibility to be taken seriously—to undermine and cast doubt on the orthodox theory of history in every way that I can and to make the most eloquent and persuasive case that I am capable of making for
18824-401: The country gained its independence in 1960 as the Somali Republic . In the early 1960s, after spending time with Soviet officers in joint training exercises, Barre became an advocate of Soviet-style Marxist-Leninist government, believing in a socialist government and a stronger sense of Somali nationalism . In the late 1960s, the only governmental institution that seemed free from
19005-568: The country. This eventually led in 1991 to the outbreak of the civil war, the toppling of Barre's regime and the disbandment of the Somali National Army (SNA). Among the militia groups that led the rebellion were the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), United Somali Congress (USC), Somali National Movement (SNM) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), together with the non-violent political oppositions of
19186-475: The countryside [were] subjected to summary killings, arbitrary arrest , detention in squalid conditions, torture, rape, crippling constraints on freedom of movement and expression and a pattern of psychological intimidation. The report estimates that 50,000 to 60,000 people were killed from 1988 to 1989." Amnesty International went on to report that torture methods committed by Barre's National Security Service (NSS) included executions and "beatings while tied in
19367-470: The crack of dawn, all the members of parliament, several politicians linked to tribal chiefs or foreign interests were arrested by the police, headed by General Jama Ali Korshel , backed the takeover and somehow played a subordinate role in the coup. The coup baffled many western observers who ignorantly saw Somalia as a remarkably stable and "democratic country". After all, the Somali armed forces, both in military and police had hardly ever tried to influence
19548-507: The crime or, in the second case, drove him to rescue the child. Popper was not able to find any counterexamples of human behavior in which the behavior could not be explained in the terms of Adler's or Freud's theory. Popper argued it was that the observation always fitted or confirmed the theory which, rather than being its strength, was actually its weakness. In contrast, Popper gave the example of Einstein's gravitational theory , which predicted "light must be attracted by heavy bodies (such as
19729-618: The criterion of falsifiability to distinguish science from non-science . Statements , hypotheses , or theories have falsifiability or refutability if there is the inherent possibility that they can be proven false , that is, if it is possible to conceive of an observation or an argument that negates them. Popper used astrology and psychoanalysis as examples of pseudoscience and Einstein's theory of relativity as an example of science. He subdivided non-science into philosophical, mathematical, mythological, religious and metaphysical formulations on one hand, and pseudoscientific formulations on
19910-523: The current regime shared by the local populace and provided reasons for a new political vision, which had the clear plan of a profound change of course in Somalia that would be automatically linked with the people and their needs. Questioned whether the Armed Forces were ready for a coup d'état, General Siad remarked that the Somali Army considered itself exclusively "In the service of the people, not only for
20091-562: The defense of the frontiers, but to help its political, economic and social progress." (Unita, 1966) He then added, "whoever wants to keep the people in poverty and in ignorance is our enemy," thereby referring to the nepotistic and severely corrupted SYL administration. It can thus be said that the Somali Armed Forces formed its own character until it reached a stage of having a force that had deep-rooted democratic and progressive convictions, which they could step in at any time to provide
20272-504: The distinction of what is considered scientific vs. pseudoscientific. The human proclivity for seeking confirmation rather than refutation ( confirmation bias ), the tendency to hold comforting beliefs, and the tendency to overgeneralize have been proposed as reasons for pseudoscientific thinking. According to Beyerstein, humans are prone to associations based on resemblances only, and often prone to misattribution in cause-effect thinking. Michael Shermer 's theory of belief-dependent realism
20453-477: The earnings from seventy-five years' worth of banana exports. By 1978, manufactured goods exports were almost non-existent, and with the lost support of the Soviet Union the Barre government signed a structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the early 1980s. This included the abolishment of some government monopolies and increased public investment. This and
20634-403: The execution of ten sheiks who were arrested for their religious beliefs. The religious community had begun to exhibit opposition to Barre's furthered attempt to secularize Somalia. This egregious violation of freedom of speech was condemned by Amnesty International. Many Somalis believe this event was the tipping point that led to the state's eventual failure. After the Ogaden War, Barre adopted
20815-455: The existence of a lost civilisation. Pseudoarchaeologists mislead their audience by misrepresenting the current state of knowledge, take quotes out of contexts, and withhold countervailing data. Garrett G. Fagan pointed out two typical examples in Hancock's book Fingerprints of the Gods (1995): Hancock's main thesis throughout most of his work is that there was an advanced civilization during
20996-525: The existence of an 'advanced, global Ice Age civilization'. Hancock gave a TEDx lecture titled "The War on Consciousness", in which he described his use of ayahuasca , an Amazonian brew containing a hallucinogenic compound DMT , and argued that adults should be allowed to responsibly use it for self-improvement and spiritual growth. He stated that for 24 years he was "pretty much permanently stoned" on cannabis, and that in 2011, six years after his first use of ayahuasca, it enabled him to stop using cannabis. At
21177-421: The expenses of ignoring uncertainty in the input which was used to formulate the prediction. This use of the term is common among practitioners of post-normal science . Understood in this way, pseudoscience can be fought using good practices to assess uncertainty in quantitative information, such as NUSAP and – in the case of mathematical modelling – sensitivity auditing . The history of pseudoscience
21358-410: The experimental or environmental conditions, are expected to be documented for scrutiny and made available for peer review , allowing further experiments or studies to be conducted to confirm or falsify results. Statistical quantification of significance , confidence , and error are also important tools for the scientific method. During the mid-20th century, the philosopher Karl Popper emphasized
21539-471: The film, stating: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods ." Pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs , or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method . Pseudoscience
21720-458: The following terms: a statement constitutes knowledge if sufficiently many people believe it sufficiently strongly. But the history of thought shows us that many people were totally committed to absurd beliefs. If the strengths of beliefs were a hallmark of knowledge, we should have to rank some tales about demons, angels, devils, and of heaven and hell as knowledge. Scientists, on the other hand, are very sceptical even of their best theories. Newton's
21901-417: The force of Kuhn's historical criticism of Popper – all important theories have been surrounded by an 'ocean of anomalies', which on a falsificationist view would require the rejection of the theory outright...Lakatos sought to reconcile the rationalism of Popperian falsificationism with what seemed to be its own refutation by history". Many philosophers have tried to solve the problem of demarcation in
22082-556: The fully modern human mind. In 2015, his Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilization was published by St. Martin's Press. In addition to writing Hancock has been involved in a number of television documentaries about his pseudoarchaeological theories. 1996, he appeared in The Mysterious Origins of Man . He also wrote and presented the documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of
22263-554: The government was the Shalanbood Sanddune Stoppage: from 1971 onwards, a massive tree-planting campaign on a nationwide scale was introduced by Barre's administration to halt the advance of thousands of acres of wind-driven sand dunes that threatened to engulf towns, roads, and farmland. By 1988, 265 hectares (650 acres) of a projected 336 ha (830 acres) had been treated, with 39 range reserve sites and 36 forestry plantation sites established. Between 1974 and 1975,
22444-525: The help of meditation and psychoactive plants, and asserted that granite blocks of the Great Pyramid of Giza were moved by "priests chanting", suggesting a form of acoustic levitation . Archaeologist John Hoopes has described Hancock's claims as effectively religious in nature and rooted in New Age beliefs. Jeb Card stated that attempts to critique Hancock's work "using the criteria of professional archaeology
22625-428: The highest bidder. As a result, a bidding war was initiated where corrupt candidates were bidding on the price of the presidency. Not surprisingly, Haji Muse Bogor was leading the group with a payment of 55,000 Somali shillings (approximately £4,000). In the eyes of the public, the subsequent days after the assassination of the president displayed total chaos. There were rumours that that the military would intervene to put
22806-542: The hostages. In January 1986, Barre and the Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam met in Djibouti to normalise relations between their respective countries. The Ethiopian-Somali agreement was signed by 1988 and Barre disbanded his clandestine anti-Ethiopian organisation the Western Somali Liberation Front . In return, Barre hoped that Mengistu would disarm Somali National Movement rebels active on
22987-410: The invisible dragon, so one can never prove that the initial claim is wrong. Sagan concludes; "Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?". He states that "your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true", once again explaining that even if such a claim were true, it would be outside
23168-414: The land.. Barre was reportedly forever after deeply marked by the murder of his father. He became sadistic.. In The History of Somalia Raphael Njoku says: According to his biographers, at the tender age of 10, young Muhammad first witnessed the murder of his own father...The shock and impact of this life experience and the difficult circumstances of life as an orphan put a very deep scar in his psyche. It
23349-670: The literacy rate. Barre began a program of nationalising industry and land, and the new regime's foreign policy placed an emphasis on Somalia's traditional and religious links with the Arab world , eventually joining the Arab League in 1974. That same year, Barre also served as chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union (AU). In July 1976, Barre's SRC disbanded itself and established in its place
23530-809: The major features of pseudoscience. Larry Laudan has suggested pseudoscience has no scientific meaning and is mostly used to describe human emotions: "If we would stand up and be counted on the side of reason, we ought to drop terms like 'pseudo-science' and 'unscientific' from our vocabulary; they are just hollow phrases which do only emotive work for us". Likewise, Richard McNally states, "The term 'pseudoscience' has become little more than an inflammatory buzzword for quickly dismissing one's opponents in media sound-bites" and "When therapeutic entrepreneurs make claims on behalf of their interventions, we should not waste our time trying to determine whether their interventions qualify as pseudoscientific. Rather, we should ask them: How do you know that your intervention works? What
23711-421: The mid- to late-1970s, public discontent with the Barre regime was increasing, largely due to corruption among government officials as well as poor economic performance. The Ogaden War had also weakened the Somali army substantially and military spending had crippled the economy. Foreign debt increased faster than export earnings, and by the end of the decade, Somalia's debt of 4 billion shillings equalled
23892-508: The minister of information. On 15 October 1969, President Abdirashid Shermake was assassinated in Las Anod by a policeman whilst touring a drought stricken area of northern Somalia. At the time, Prime Minister Egal was on a state visit to the United States, and was in Las Vegas when the assassination was conveyed to him. Fearing that he would lose his position, he returned to Somalia to nominate
24073-469: The monuments they built encode astronomical data to warn future humans. The narrative assumes that the advanced civilization lacked a writing system that enabled them to leave a less ambiguous message. Hancock does not explain why this warning is not uniform across different cultures and so hard to decode that generations of researchers missed it. Hancock believes that these events are preserved in various myths , such as Plato 's story of Atlantis , and that
24254-460: The more general distinction between reliable and unreliable knowledge. Siad Barre Mohammed Siad Barre ( Somali : Maxamed Siyaad Barre , Osmanya script : 𐒑𐒖𐒄𐒖𐒑𐒗𐒆 𐒈𐒘𐒕𐒛𐒆 𐒁𐒖𐒇𐒇𐒗 , Arabic : محمد زياد بري Muhammad Ziād Barīy ; c. 6 October 1909 – 2 January 1995) was a Somali military officer, politician and revolutionary who served as the third president of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 January 1991. Barre,
24435-430: The nature of science and the general criteria for drawing the line between scientific theories and pseudoscientific beliefs, but there is widespread agreement "that creationism , astrology , homeopathy , Kirlian photography , dowsing , ufology , ancient astronaut theory , Holocaust denialism , Velikovskian catastrophism , and climate change denialism are pseudosciences." There are implications for health care ,
24616-414: The necessary change. Several patriotic intellectuals, who denounced both the civilian regime and the ruling class, made several pleas for an intervention of the Armed Forces. Amongst them was a journalist and a politician, Ismail Jimale, who directed the socialist newspaper La Tribunal . However, Jimale, a vehement critic, gave in when Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal invited him to form part of his cabinet as
24797-720: The norms of scientific research, but it demonstrably fails to meet these norms. The Ministry of AYUSH in the Government of India is purposed with developing education, research and propagation of indigenous alternative medicine systems in India. The ministry has faced significant criticism for funding systems that lack biological plausibility and are either untested or conclusively proven as ineffective. Quality of research has been poor, and drugs have been launched without any rigorous pharmacological studies and meaningful clinical trials on Ayurveda or other alternative healthcare systems. There
24978-549: The old Jewish-Masonic plot so beloved by ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorists." They suggest a connection between the pillars of Solomon's Temple and the Twin Towers , and between the Star of David and The Pentagon . A contemporary review of Talisman by David V. Barrett for The Independent pointed to a lack of originality as well as basic factual errors, concluding that it was "a mish-mash of badly-connected, half-argued theories". In
25159-462: The other. Another example which shows the distinct need for a claim to be falsifiable was stated in Carl Sagan 's publication The Demon-Haunted World when he discusses an invisible dragon that he has in his garage. The point is made that there is no physical test to refute the claim of the presence of this dragon. Whatever test one thinks can be devised, there is a reason why it does not apply to
25340-452: The people who had allegedly helped plot the putsch were summarily executed. However, several officials managed to escape abroad and started to form the first of various dissident groups dedicated to ousting Barre's regime by force. A new constitution was promulgated in 1979 under which elections for a People's Assembly were held. However, Barre and the politburo of his Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party continued to rule. In October 1980,
25521-821: The police force led him to the capital city, Mogadishu, to pursue his education both in the public and private sectors. In the 1940s he completed secondary school education. By 1950, when the British transferred their administration to Italy, Mohammed Siad had achieved the highest rank possible for an indigenous, that of chief police inspector. In 1952, he and several of his colleagues, including Hussein Kulmiye Afrah , Liiq-Liiqato, Shegow and Daud Abdulle , attended military academy in Italy where he chiefly studied politics and administration. Between 1950 and 1960, Mohammed Siad heavily pursued studies in languages, ultimately mastering Italian, English and Swahili. After finishing his course he
25702-414: The political class which increased their conviction that they were the only healthy and functioning force in the young Republic. The brief border war against Ethiopia in 1964 was fought under conditions of grave unpreparedness in where the army was cut off from its own lines whilst the government became more and more corrupt, which in turn provided food for resentment and hostility towards the regime that
25883-446: The politics of the post-independence governments. Nevertheless, when the military decided to step in, it was a response to the increasingly inept and corrupt regime, which not only aggravated the armed sector but the majority of the Somali population. Barre (June 1970) re-affirmed the sentiment of the masses when he described the very model of the post-independence regimes were based upon "the long period during which there have been over
26064-535: The power of intercessory prayer to heal the sick , although they may be based on untestable beliefs, can be tested by the scientific method. Some statements and common beliefs of popular science may not meet the criteria of science. "Pop" science may blur the divide between science and pseudoscience among the general public, and may also involve science fiction . Indeed, pop science is disseminated to, and can also easily emanate from, persons not accountable to scientific methodology and expert peer review. If claims of
26245-430: The practice of archaeology with aggressive rhetoric, willfully seeking to cause harm to our membership and our profession in the public eye; ... the theory it presents has a long-standing association with racist, white supremacist ideologies; does injustice to Indigenous peoples; and emboldens extremists. ... After more than a century of professional archaeological investigations, we find no archaeological evidence to support
26426-535: The predicted effect is definitely absent, then the theory is simply refuted." Popper summed up his criterion for the scientific status of a theory as depending on its falsifiability, refutability, or testability . Paul R. Thagard used astrology as a case study to distinguish science from pseudoscience and proposed principles and criteria to delineate them. First, astrology has not progressed in that it has not been updated nor added any explanatory power since Ptolemy . Second, it has ignored outstanding problems such as
26607-467: The public's susceptibility to unproven claims. The NSF stated that pseudoscientific beliefs in the U.S. became more widespread during the 1990s, peaked about 2001, and then decreased slightly since with pseudoscientific beliefs remaining common. According to the NSF report, there is a lack of knowledge of pseudoscientific issues in society and pseudoscientific practices are commonly followed. Surveys indicate about
26788-479: The realm of scientific inquiry . During 1942, Robert K. Merton identified a set of five "norms" which characterize real science. If any of the norms were violated, Merton considered the enterprise to be non-science. His norms were: In 1978, Paul Thagard proposed that pseudoscience is primarily distinguishable from science when it is less progressive than alternative theories over a long period of time, and its proponents fail to acknowledge or address problems with
26969-443: The realm of science. In the philosophy and history of science, Imre Lakatos stresses the social and political importance of the demarcation problem, the normative methodological problem of distinguishing between science and pseudoscience. His distinctive historical analysis of scientific methodology based on research programmes suggests: "scientists regard the successful theoretical prediction of stunning novel facts – such as
27150-654: The reason behind the take-over. Barre assumed the position of president of Somalia , styled the "Victorious Leader" ( Guulwade ), and fostered the growth of a personality cult with portraits of him in the company of Marx and Lenin lining the streets on public occasions. Barre advocated a form of scientific socialism based on the Qur'an and Marxism-Leninism, with heavy influences of Somali nationalism. The Supreme Revolutionary Council established large-scale public works programs and successfully implemented an urban and rural literacy campaign, which helped dramatically increase
27331-507: The recommendation of TED's Science Board, the lecture was removed from the TEDx YouTube channel and moved to TED's main website where it "can be framed to highlight both [Hancock's] provocative ideas and the factual problems with [his] arguments". Hancock has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast several times. In JRE episode #2136, uploaded in April 2024, Hancock debated Flint Dibble ,
27512-440: The report highlights the widespread violations of basic human rights in the northern regions of Somalia. The report includes testimonies about the killing and conflict in northern Somalia by newly arrived refugees in various countries around the world. Systematic human rights abuses against the dominant Isaaq clan in the north was described in the report as " state sponsored terrorism " "both the urban population and nomads living in
27693-599: The return of Halley's comet or the gravitational bending of light rays – as what demarcates good scientific theories from pseudo-scientific and degenerate theories, and in spite of all scientific theories being forever confronted by 'an ocean of counterexamples'". Lakatos offers a "novel fallibilist analysis of the development of Newton's celestial dynamics, [his] favourite historical example of his methodology" and argues in light of this historical turn, that his account answers for certain inadequacies in those of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. "Nonetheless, Lakatos did recognize
27874-420: The same journal concluded there was no strong correlation between science knowledge and belief in pseudoscience. During 2006, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) issued an executive summary of a paper on science and engineering which briefly discussed the prevalence of pseudoscience in modern times. It said, "belief in pseudoscience is widespread" and, referencing a Gallup Poll , stated that belief in
28055-551: The scientific community. He argues that the civilization was destroyed around 12,000 years ago by sudden climate change during the Younger Dryas cool period , which he attributes to an impact winter caused by a massive meteor bombardment. Hancock claims that the few survivors of the catastrophe arrived in places like Egypt , Mesopotamia , and Mesoamerica , where they shared their knowledge and superior technology with primitive hunter-gatherers ; introducing them to agriculture , monumental architecture, and astronomy. He believes
28236-423: The scientific era. Others developed as part of an ideology, such as Lysenkoism , or as a response to perceived threats to an ideology. Examples of this ideological process are creation science and intelligent design , which were developed in response to the scientific theory of evolution . A topic, practice, or body of knowledge might reasonably be termed pseudoscientific when it is presented as consistent with
28417-886: The scientific methodology and conclusions reached by the article Stephens cited has been called into question repeatedly since its publication. It has been found that at least one of that study's authors has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist. The journal Nature has published a number of editorials in the last few years warning researchers about extremists looking to abuse their work, particularly population geneticists and those working with ancient DNA . One article in Nature , titled "Racism in Science: The Taint That Lingers" notes that early-twentieth-century eugenic pseudoscience has been used to influence public policy, such as
28598-505: The sole presidential candidate for re-election over a term of seven years on 23 December 1986, his poor health and advanced age led to speculation about who would succeed him in power. Possible contenders included his son-in-law General Ahmed Suleiman Abdille, who was at the time the Minister of the Interior, in addition to Barre's vice-president Lt. Gen. Samatar. Part of Barre's time in power
28779-522: The term has been in use since at least the late 18th century (e.g., in 1796 by James Pettit Andrews in reference to alchemy ), the concept of pseudoscience as distinct from real or proper science seems to have become more widespread during the mid-19th century. Among the earliest uses of "pseudo-science" was in an 1844 article in the Northern Journal of Medicine , issue 387: That opposite kind of innovation which pronounces what has been recognized as
28960-466: The theory. In 1983, Mario Bunge suggested the categories of "belief fields" and "research fields" to help distinguish between pseudoscience and science, where the former is primarily personal and subjective and the latter involves a certain systematic method. The 2018 book about scientific skepticism by Steven Novella , et al. The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe lists hostility to criticism as one of
29141-438: The thesis that they inherited their calendar from a much older, far more advanced civilization. Hancock has denied that he is racist, and has expressed support for native rights. One of the many recurring themes in several of Hancock's works has been an exposition on Robert Bauval 's Orion correlation theory (OCT). OCT posits that the relative locations of the three largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex were chosen by
29322-405: The typical descriptive unit of great scientific achievements is not an isolated hypothesis but "a powerful problem-solving machinery, which, with the help of sophisticated mathematical techniques, digests anomalies and even turns them into positive evidence". To Popper, pseudoscience uses induction to generate theories, and only performs experiments to seek to verify them. To Popper, falsifiability
29503-557: The unabated corruption and nepotism was the armed forces. Ninety percent of the pre-independence army were members of the Somali Youth League and Somali National League. During the colonial administration, the Somali police force was the first institution be Somalised and full command was handed over to the indigenous officers several years prior to independence. During the first decade of the Republic of Somalia , armed forces already had
29684-519: The usage of the word occurred in a more formal, technical manner in response to a perceived threat to individual and institutional security in a social and cultural setting. Pseudoscience is differentiated from science because – although it usually claims to be science – pseudoscience does not adhere to scientific standards, such as the scientific method , falsifiability of claims , and Mertonian norms . A number of basic principles are accepted by scientists as standards for determining whether
29865-425: The use of expert testimony , and weighing environmental policies . Recent empirical research has shown that individuals who indulge in pseudoscientific beliefs generally show lower evidential criteria, meaning they often require significantly less evidence before coming to conclusions. This can be coined as a 'jump-to-conclusions' bias that can increase the spread of pseudoscientific beliefs. Addressing pseudoscience
30046-504: The use of the psychoactive drink ayahuasca . His ideas have been the subject of several films, as well as the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse (2022), Hancock makes regular appearances on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss his work. In April 2024 he debated archaeologist Flint Dibble on the show, who strongly rebuffed Hancock's unfounded ideas, leading even many of Hancock's backers to see Dibble – and orthodox science – as
30227-489: The victor. Graham Bruce Hancock was born in Edinburgh , Scotland in 1950. He moved to India with his parents at the age of three, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University with a degree in sociology in 1973. As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times , The Sunday Times , The Independent , and The Guardian . He co-edited New Internationalist magazine from 1976 to 1979, and
30408-423: The work may be better described as ideas that are "not yet generally accepted". Protoscience is a term sometimes used to describe a hypothesis that has not yet been tested adequately by the scientific method, but which is otherwise consistent with existing science or which, where inconsistent, offers reasonable account of the inconsistency. It may also describe the transition from a body of practical knowledge into
30589-519: The work of Donnelly , a proponent of the racist " mound builder myth " which insists that the Indigenous peoples were not capable of creating sophisticated structures, attributing them to white people or Atlanteans. Hancock has distanced himself from this claim, yet failed to explain how a fully competent local population could serve as evidence for a lost civilization that transferred superior science and technology to them. Although Hancock has identified
30770-575: The world, giving rise to all the earliest known civilizations (such as ancient Egypt , Sumeria , and Mesoamerica ). Hancock's investigations of archaeological evidence, myths and historical documents superficially resemble investigative journalism, but they lack accuracy, consistency and impartiality. Relevant experts define his work as pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory because it is biased towards preconceived conclusions by ignoring context, misrepresenting sources, cherry picking , and withholding critical counter-evidence. Hancock portrays himself as
30951-573: The world. He attempts to show how several ancient monuments and natural features are evidence of this, and repeatedly claims that archaeologists are ignoring or covering-up this alleged evidence. Archaeologists and other experts say that the series presents pseudoscientific claims that lack evidence, cherry picks , and fails to present the counter-evidence. Other commentators criticized the series for unfounded accusations that "mainstream archaeology" conspires against Hancock's ideas. Archaeologists linked Hancock's claims to "white supremacist" ideologies from
31132-401: Was adopted as a United Russia party project; in the version submitted to the government, the program budget for 2010–2017 exceeded $ 14 billion. There have been many connections between pseudoscientific writers and researchers and their anti-semitic, racist and neo-Nazi backgrounds. They often use pseudoscience to reinforce their beliefs. One of the most predominant pseudoscientific writers
31313-419: Was already incapable as well as impotent and dishonest. The conditions created for a political will to mature and expand were aimed at national renewal that was particularly aware of the sufferings and exploitation of the Somali population. In 1966, General Siad Barre, then head of the armed forces, gave an interview to the Italian newspaper L'Unità . During his interview, he outlined his dissatisfaction with
31494-433: Was characterised by attempts at widespread modernization , nationalization of banks and industry, promotion of cooperative farms , a new writing system for the Somali language , and anti- tribalism . In 1976, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party became the country's vanguard party. The following year Barre launched the Ogaden War against Ethiopia's Derg regime , supporting the Western Somali Liberation Front on
31675-595: Was characterized by oppressive dictatorial rule, including persecution, jailing and torture of political opponents and dissidents. The United Nations Development Programme stated that "the 21-year regime of Siyad Barre had one of the worst human rights records in Africa." In January 1990, the Africa Watch Committee, a branch of Human Rights Watch organizational released an extensive report titled " Somalia A Government At War with Its Own People " composing of 268 pages,
31856-486: Was critical of the theory, demonstrating that the constellation Leo could be found amongst famous landmarks in New York, and alleging that Hancock had selectively moved or ignored the locations of temples to support his argument. It concluded that "as long as you have enough points and you don't need to make every point fit, you can find virtually any pattern you want." Following the broadcast, Hancock and Bauval complained to
32037-490: Was exemplified by astrology, which appeals to observation and experimentation. While it had empirical evidence based on observation, on horoscopes and biographies , it crucially failed to use acceptable scientific standards. Popper proposed falsifiability as an important criterion in distinguishing science from pseudoscience. To demonstrate this point, Popper gave two cases of human behavior and typical explanations from Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler 's theories: "that of
32218-505: Was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. In 1955, a year after completing his course in Rome he was awarded he position of police chief and subsequently assigned to the capital city, Mogadishu. By 1958 he reached the rank of major whilst being the head of the security forces, including the executive director of the Italian police. He also eventually became vice-commander of the Somali Army when
32399-555: Was ten years old as a result of a raid by the Habr Yunis in the early 20th century, and this event is posited by some scholars to have deeply affected him. The Middle East monthly in their March 1991 issue stated: Barre came from a humble background, deeply rooted in the Marehan sub-clan of the Darod. He had seen his father killed by Isaqs and the impression never left him. His clan straddled
32580-474: Was the East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981 to 1983. Before 1990, his works dealt mainly with problems of economic and social development. His book Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, And Corruption Of The International Aid Business (1989) was based on his experience writing about international aid for The Economist . In the book, Hancock critiques the international aid system, stating in
32761-444: Was the fact that the armed forces were never detached from the public. Highly imaginative public relations staging of traditional dances and drama, poetry and music competitions, sports activities and so forth, did much to give them positive public image, plus a reputation for dedication. Therefore, the public had an anticipated confidence that they would step in if constitutional processes and public were to break down. This distinguished
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