One more strike against a JFK conspiracy

Ever since John F. Kennedy was murdered there have been accusations of a conspiracy with Lee Oswald as the fall guy. At first it was just a small fringe group, but since then, these views have gained more foothold in the mainstream. A major reason for this was Oliver Stone's atrocious 1991 movie JFK, which contained numerous factual errors.

One of the earliest claims of evidence for a conspiracy, is the supposed fakeness of the photo of Lee Harvey Oswald standing in a backyard with the riffle used to kill President John F. Kennedy.

Now, throughout computer analysis of the photo, shows that it's not faked, but rather a real photo.

Iconic Photo Of JFK Assassin Oswald Was Not Faked, Professor Finds

Dartmouth computer scientist Hany Farid has new evidence regarding a photograph of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Farid, a pioneer in the field of digital forensics, digitally analyzed an iconic image of Oswald pictured in a backyard setting holding a rifle in one hand and Marxist newspapers in the other.

Oswald and others claimed that the incriminating photo was a fake, noting the seemingly inconsistent lighting and shadows. After analyzing the photo with modern-day forensic tools, Farid says the photo almost certainly was not altered.

Scientists are always careful to not speak in absolutes so "Almost certainly was not" is science-speech for "Was not".

I know that this new evidence will not convince the hardcore conspiracy theorists, since nothing will, but perhaps it can be used to counter their claims, allowing others to understand that there is absolutely no evidence of a broader conspiracy.

Now this is a real conspiracy

When debating a link between autism and vaccinations, people who believe in such a link always claim that there is a big conspiracy to hide the evidence for such a link. This is of course nonsense, as there is no proper scientific studies that shows such a link (there are a couple of very flawed studies that shows one, but those were financed by people with an economic interest in showing such a link).

Now, I noticed in PLoS Biology an article about a real such conspiracy, which wants to hide how some toxins can be linked to some diseases.

The Toxic Origins of Disease by Liza Gross.

As all skeptics, I am always weary of believing in conspiracies, but if you have a case where all industrial studies show one result and all independent scientific studies show a different result, there is something very wrong.

It is worth noticing that the people who are raising this issue is the scientists.

Make sure that you also read the box about "skeptics for hire", which explains how this isn't an unique case.