The Second Sight

Journalistic balance: a case study

2011-01-15T15:13:00.001+08:00

The West Australian, Saturday 15th January 2011.

Number of pages devoted to Queensland floods (current death toll 16): 10.5.

Number of pages devoted to Brazil floods (current death toll 540): 0.5.

Number of pages devoted to Phillipines floods (current death toll 40): 0.

Number of pages devoted to Sri Lanka floods (current death toll 27): 0.

To be fair, these last stories may have been dropped in order to free the 2 inches devoted to "Rodent Bites Genitals".

Q: How many denialists does it take to change a light bulb?

2011-01-15T12:34:00.001+08:00

A: Light comes from the Sun. Duh.

A: We should wait until it gets dark to see whether the bulb is really broken.

A: The Great Light Bulb Swindle is a scam by Big Light Bulb to sell more light bulbs.

A: The Darkenists don’t even understand basic science. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, therefore darkness is impossible.

A: Nazi!

A: It’s OK – it has been much darker than this in the past. During the Medieval Dark Ages, there were Vikings in Greenland!

A: If the light bulb needed changing, the market would have changed it by now.

A: Fascist!

A: Darkness is beneficial — it will increase mushroom yields and make life better for owls.

A: There is a natural 24-hour cycle of light and dark which humans have a negligible impact on. Anyway, we are just about to enter a natural darkening period.

A: Genesis 1:3 tells us “Let there be light”. The power of prayer will fix the light bulb.

A: Ad Hominem!

Via Larvatus Prodeo

Thistle thoughts

2011-01-14T11:28:00.001+08:00

EoR, having accidentally sat on some thistles, ponders the State of Things...

Why do alties spend all their time getting colonic irrigation to remove the nasty stuff from their gut, when real doctors spend time putting them back?

Guest blogger

2011-01-12T11:23:00.002+08:00

Today's guest blogger is A A Milne, on how not to be fooled by the seeming expert.

THE ARRIVAL OF BLACKMAN'S WARBLER

I am become an Authority on Birds. It happened in this way.

The other day we heard the Cuckoo in Hampshire. (The next morning the papers announced that the Cuckoo had been heard in Devonshire—possibly a different one, but in no way superior to ours except in the matter of its Press agent.) Well, everybody in the house said, "Did you hear the Cuckoo?" to everybody else, until I began to get rather tired of it; and, having told everybody several times that I had heard it, I tried to make the conversation more interesting. So, after my tenth "Yes," I added quite casually:

"But I haven't heard the Tufted Pipit yet. It's funny why it should be so late this year."

"Is that the same as the Tree Pipit?" said my hostess, who seemed to know more about birds than I had hoped.

"Oh, no," I said quickly.

"What's the difference exactly?"

"Well, one is tufted," I said, doing my best, "and the other—er—climbs trees."

"Oh, I see."

"And of course the eggs are more speckled," I added, gradually acquiring confidence.

"I often wish I knew more about birds," she said regretfully. "You must tell us something about them now we've got you here."

And all this because of one miserable Cuckoo!

"By all means," I said, wondering how long it would take to get a book about birds down from London.

However, it was easier than I thought. We had tea in the garden that afternoon, and a bird of some kind struck up in the plane-tree.

"There, now," said my hostess, "what's that?"

I listened with my head on one side. The bird said it again.

"That's the Lesser Bunting," I said hopefully.

"The Lesser Bunting," said an earnest-looking girl; "I shall always remember that."

I hoped she wouldn't, but I could hardly say so. Fortunately the bird lesser-bunted again, and I seized the opportunity of playing for safety.

"Or is it the Sardinian White-throat?" I wondered. "They have very much the same note during the breeding season. But of course the eggs are more speckled," I added casually.

And so on for the rest of the evening. You see how easy it is.

However, the next afternoon a more unfortunate occurrence occurred. A real Bird Authority came to tea. As soon as the information leaked out, I sent up a hasty prayer for bird-silence until we had got him safely out of the place; but it was not granted. Our feathered songster in the plane-tree broke into his little piece.

"There," said my hostess—"there's that bird again." She turned to me.
"What did you say it was?"

I hoped that the Authority would speak first, and that the others would then accept my assurance that they had misunderstood me the day before; but he was entangled at that moment in a watercress sandwich, the loose ends of which were still waiting to be tucked away.

I looked anxiously at the girl who had promised to remember, in case she wanted to say something, but she also was silent. Everybody was silent except that miserable bird.

Well, I had to have another go at it. "Blackman's Warbler," I said firmly.

"Oh, yes," said my hostess.

"Blackman's Warbler; I shall always remember that," lied the earnest-looking girl.

The Authority, who was free by this time, looked at me indignantly.

"Nonsense," he said; "it's the Chiff-chaff."

Everybody else looked at me reproachfully. I was about to say that "Blackman's Warbler" was the local name for the Chiff-chaff in our part of Somerset, when the Authority spoke again.

"The Chiff-chaff," he said to our hostess with an insufferable air of knowledge.

I wasn't going to stand that.

"So I thought when I heard it first," I said, giving him a gentle smile. It was now the Authority's turn to get the reproachful looks.

"Are they very much alike?" my hostess asked me, much impressed.

"Very much. Blackmail's Warbler is often mistaken for the Chiff-chaff, even by so-called experts"—and I turned to the Authority and added, "Have another sandwich, won't you?"—"particularly so, of course, during the breeding season. It is true that the eggs are more speckled, but—"

"Bless my soul," said the Authority, but it was easy to see that he was shaken, "I should think I know a Chiff-chaff when I hear one."

"Ah, but do you know a Blackman's Warbler? One doesn't often hear them in this country. Now in Algiers—"

The bird said "Chiff-chaff" again with an almost indecent plainness of speech.

"There you are!" I said triumphantly. "Listen," and I held up a finger.
"You notice the difference? Obviously a Blackman's Warbler."

Everybody looked at the Authority. He was wondering how long it would take to get a book about birds down from London, and deciding that it couldn't be done that afternoon. Meanwhile he did not dare to repudiate me. For all he had caught of our mumbled introduction I might have been Blackman myself.

"Possibly you're right," he said reluctantly.

Another bird said "Chiff-chaff" from another tree and I thought it wise to be generous. "There," I said, "now that was a Chiff-chaff."

The earnest-looking girl remarked (silly creature) that it sounded just like the other one, but nobody took any notice of her. They were all busy admiring me.

Of course I mustn't meet the Authority again, because you may be pretty sure that when he got back to his books he looked up Blackman's Warbler and found that there was no such animal. But if you mix in the right society, and only see the wrong people once, it is really quite easy to be an authority on birds—or, I imagine, on anything else.

from: A A Milne: The Sunny Side (1922)

A Plimer footnote

2011-01-10T10:19:00.003+08:00

Professor Ian Plimer has not been averse in the past to pontificating on areas in which he is not qualified, such as economics in 1985:

Inflation is not expected to disappear and hence gold will remain and important component of investment portfolios. Any rapid increase in price would cause gold to be dishoarded and adversely affect industrial demand. As a result, the price would stabilise. Therefore, gold mines look good business in the coming uncertain years.

He also predicted:

Some projections suggest by the period 1995 to 2000, the USSR will produce more gold than South Africa South Africa is the biggest world producer of gold, chromium, vanadium, diamonds and platinoids, with the USSR being the seconde biggest producer for each of these essential commodities.

How wrong can you be? In 2000 Russia (not the USSR) was a distant sixth in world production, producing only 5.5% of the world's gold. In 2010 China was the largest producer, a country not even mentioned by Professor Plimer.

Meryl Dorey pwned

2011-01-08T10:58:00.003+08:00

The SkeptVet comments on an Irish study looking at how the mother's use of complementary and alternative medicine is associated with a lower uptake of MMR vaccine. As the study notes in its introduction, these mothers aren't making a decision for their own child, they are actively affecting the health of other children who (along with their parents) have had no say in such delusional decisions since they're too young to be vaccinated, but old enough to be infected with diseases.

Since August 2009 there has been a large outbreak of measles in Ireland, with 320 cases of whom 206 were unvaccinated, 36% of the cases were hospitalised, but no deaths were reported up to February 2010. Fifty-six cases were aged under 1 year and so not eligible for vaccination, showing that in communities were vaccination uptake is low, younger children are vulnerable to infection.

It also shows how it only takes a minority to have these beliefs and, even if those vaccinating are in the majority, herd immunity becomes ineffective:

This linkage cohort study showed that most children aged 5 years had received their first MMR immunisation, but below the recommended threshold for population protection.

So how many children died because of one man's fraudulent science?

And why aren't there more people in the media giving delusional nutter Meryl Dorey the treatment she deserves?

WA Creationists Skeptics

2011-01-07T10:21:00.003+08:00

C J O'Brien has an excellent post at Northstate Science discussing the pelvis of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) and how creationists attempt to use this to disprove paleontological arguments about it. The introductory discussion, however, could be applied verbatim to the WA Skeptics. Simply replace 'creationists' with 'climate deniers'.

Creationists go to great lengths to discredit the discovery and its implications, which is not a problem as far as it goes, but the total lack of any kind of intellectual honesty used in doing so just emphasizes how much of a scientific and philosophical corner these people are backed into. I mentioned in a previous post how infuriating it is to constantly correct the distortions, misinterpretation, quote mining and outright falsehoods regurgitated ad nausem by creationist proponents. It’s not that it’s difficult. Creationists rely on an audience that refuses to look critically at the information they are being presented and ask some simple questions: Is this true? Did the author really mean that? What evidence is not being presented? Most of us who have any claim to intellectual thought processes actually work at understanding an issue. We spend the (often considerable) time reading, reasearching and thinking about the issue. That includes reading creationist literature (we’re often accused of not reading the “other side” of the issue, but I can tell that’s one reason I don’t a lot of creationist argument in my Anthropology class – students learn really quickly I know the creationist literature much better they do!). I see no evidence that creationists actually make an honest effort to look at the information being presented. Instead, Creationist arguments have to be made by pimping the scientific data for the creationist cause: misquoting exports, cherry-picking information, ignoring information that doesn’t fit, using out-of-date information, and frequently just making stuff up!

Meanwhile, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has released its Annual Australian Climate Statement for 2010. It's certainly been a roller coaster year, with record breaking floods in the North and East, but with record breaking drought here in the Southwest.

Its been the coolest year since 2001, which is a rather unfortunate headline since it's still above the longterm average, and the decade has been the hottest on record. EoR expects the deniers to seize on that first point only, as they try to convince themselves that if they argue hard enough they can pull the planet into a new Ice Age. Alarmingly, sea surface temperatures also continue to rise.

Unlike the deniers, EoR urges readers to consider the full statement, all the facts and, if you care to, download the Bureau data yourself.

WA Skeptics Deniers (2)

2011-01-06T10:54:00.002+08:00

Just a little more about the anti-skeptical WA Skeptics and their recent anti-science conversion. On their edited conspiracy diatribe (editted in the sense that when an error is pointed out the error is not corrected, but further errors are piled on top to confuse and obscure) the following claim is made:

Even more recently the total of dissenting international scientists exceeded 1000, among them 46 climate specialists who once worked for the IPCC but have now resigned or become dissenters. Here are six examples of their views:

[Out of context quotes snipped by EoR]

Remember these are not crackpot deniers but climate specialists who once worked for the IPCC. Nor are they the only group of informed scientists who are criticising the IPCC's findings, there are at least a dozen others such as The Heidelberg Appeal with 4000 signatures including 62 Nobel prizewinners

The Heidelberg Appeal? Well, EoR followed the WA Skeptics' own advice and used the two most important recommended resources to find Teh Truth About Global Warming: Google and Wikipedia.

The top two hits for "Heidelberg Appeal" are Wikipedia (clearly because it's a reputable source according to the WA Skeptics) and SourceWatch (clearly because Google is another trustworthy source).

Wikipedia says:

Parts of the Heidelberg Appeal endorse environmental concerns, such as a sentence that states, "We fully subscribe to the objectives of a scientific ecology for a universe whose resources must be taken stock of, monitored and preserved." Its 72 Nobel laureates include 49 who also signed the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity", which was circulated that same year by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and attracted the majority of the world's living Nobel laureates in science along with some 1,700 other leading scientists. In contrast with the vagueness of the Heidelberg Appeal, the "World Scientists' Warning" is a very explicit environmental manifesto, stating that "human beings and the natural world are on a collision course" and citing ozone depletion, global climate change, air pollution, groundwater depletion, deforestation, overfishing, and species extinction among the trends that threaten to "so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know." Moreover the Heidelberg Appeal has been, if not specifically misrepresented, at least broadly interpreted out of context, for example, by The National Center for Public Policy which asserts "The appeal warns industrialized nations that no compelling scientific consensus exists to justify mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cuts." Although the Heidelberg Appeal may be open to such an interpretation, as the text below shows it is not what the document said.

So, not only does it not criticise the IPCC (it doesn't even mention it), but it doesn't even explicitly deny (or even implicitly) the reality of human caused global warming.

SourceWatch describes the document as:

a scam perpetrated by the asbestos and tobacco industries in support of the GCC [Global Climate Coalition]. It was later funded and controlled by a coalition which included coal, oil and energy interests, so the two denial strands merged. The Appeal document and the conferences which gave it life were organized by S. Fred Singer and his Science and Environmental Policy Project

As such, the Appeal finds its rightful place at Tobacco Documents Online (documents which the tobacco industry were legally forced to make publicly available, detailing their efforts to subvert science and cover up the truth).

So it seems that the WA Skeptics (or their anonymous author who is using the Appeal to Authority of posting on their website) either:
a) Haven't read the document they support, or
b) Cite the document for propaganda purposes, knowing they're misrepresenting the truth.

But what does Wikipedia, that font of wisdom have to say about the bigger issue? The WA Skeptics' article isn't explicit about whether Wikipedia should be consulted for climate change or global warming but, in the former case it says:

In the context of climate variation, anthropogenic factors are human activities that change the environment. In some cases the chain of causality of human influence on the climate is direct and unambiguous (for example, the effects of irrigation on local humidity), while in other instances it is less clear. Various hypotheses for human-induced climate change have been argued for many years. Presently the scientific consensus on climate change is that human activity is very likely the cause for the rapid increase in global average temperatures over the past several decades. Consequently, the debate has largely shifted onto ways to reduce further human impact and to find ways to adapt to change that has already occurred.

and in the latter:

Most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century has been caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, which result from human activity such as the burning of fossil fuel and deforestation.

EoR could go through all the other 'facts' offered but really, the group has consistently shown that they either don't read or understand their sources, or their sources are misquoted. They fail to correct false information, simply adding more errors to hide the original error. They make emotive, politically charged statements free of science. To deal with all their assertions would only cause them to offer more distractions (apparently sourced mainly from Watts Up With That — a blog the WA Skeptics consider "arguably the most informative climate website" — rather than the peer reviewed press) and would only give the group unwarranted attention and bore EoR's readers.

Elsewhere, to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society the Guardian asks a number of people what scientific problems they'd like to see solved. Physicist Brian Cox ponders:

Can we make a scientific way of thinking all pervasive?

This would be the greatest achievement for science over the coming centuries. I say this because I do not believe that we currently run our world according to evidence-based principles. If we did, we would be investing in an energy Manhattan project to quickly develop and deploy clean energy technologies. We would be investing far larger amounts of our GDP in the eradication of diseases such as malaria, and we would be learning to live and work in space – not as an interesting and extravagant sideline, but as an essential part of our long-term survival strategy.

One only has to look at the so-called controversies in areas such as climate science or the vaccination of our children to see that the rationalist project is far from triumphant at the turn of the 21st century – indeed, it is possible to argue that it is under threat. I believe that we will only be able to build a safer, fairer, more prosperous and more peaceful world when a majority of the population understand the methods of science and accept the guidance offered by an evidence-based investigation of the challenges ahead. Scientific education must therefore be the foundation upon which our future rests.

Of course, it would be nice — for a start — if so-called skeptic groups engaged in a scientific way of thinking.

Something to chew on

2011-01-05T10:41:00.003+08:00

Well, there's been a little bit of to-and-fro lately about some ancient teeth found in Israel. What species of homo are they? Do they completely rewrite the narrative of human expansion? The media, as always, are prepared to leap to conclusions before all the evidence is in.

Of much more pressing concern to EoR, however, is the fact that an archaeologist behind this paper is nominatively deterministically called Avi Gopher.

There is no freewill, only predetermination.

Back to the future

2011-01-04T09:41:00.002+08:00

California Uber Alles

I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president...

Carter Power will soon go away
I will be Fuhrer one day
I will command all of you
Your kids will meditate in school
Your kids will meditate in school!

[Chorus:]
California Uber Alles
California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California
Uber Alles California

Zen fascists will control you
100% natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face

Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big Bro' on white horse is near
The hippies won't come back you say
Mellow out or you will pay
Mellow out or you will pay!

[Chorus]

Now it is 1984
Knock-knock at your front door
It's the suede/denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece

Come quietly to the camp
You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp
Don't you worry, it's only a shower
For your clothes here's a pretty flower.

DIE on organic poison gas
Serpent's egg's already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown
When you mess with President Brown

[Chorus]

WA Skeptics Deniers

2011-01-03T10:28:00.004+08:00

EoR has been trying to ignore the WA Skeptics' descent into climate denialism (and wondering why they are still listed on the Australian Skeptics website as a WA affiliate when they have clearly become an agenda driven organisation), but he feels it's time to have another look at their recent rant against the world of corrupt science.

The original web page has quietly been changed without noting the amendments.

Rather than correcting the record, it's just a Gish gallop of further irrelevancies (it's ironic that a once skeptical organisation is using a technique pioneered by creationists). A list of books damning science by various people has been added, including those by "scientists who really know the field". EoR isn't sure what criteria is used to determine that accolade, but if there's any doubt, he's urged to Google their names. Because Google is, you know, all sciency and true. The first really-knowing scientist is Ian Plimer. He of the numerous scientific errors. And who refuses to correct his errors when they're pointed out to him. Repeatedly. In fact, EoR is quite shocked that Plimer would even be mentioned. Especially since Wikipedia notes that Plimer's claim about volcanoes "has no factual basis". And Wikipedia is the Truth, according to the anonymous author of this page. Or is the author just cherry picking claims that suit his (apparently political) agenda?

Cherry picking, regardless of truth, seems to be the main argumentative method employed here. The citing of a Scientific American poll to prove the author's case has been slightly amended also. There's now a note that the poll was seriously biased by anti-science interests, "in which case why did Scientific American publish the results in the first place?" Oh, now we're down to cheap innuendo as well.

Well, Scientific American probably published it because they thought it would be interesting to see what their readers thought. Doing which, they clearly showed how ignorant they were of the applicability of internet poll data. Why did the anonymous WA Skeptic, on the other hand, think that an internet poll was in any sense at all scientific? Why is the corrupt data still there on his page? Is it simply to show how an interest group can skew the data to misrepresent the science? Is it, in fact, some subtle double play by the author to show the dissimulation employed by deniers? If it is, it's too subtle for EoR.

The author also goes on at some length about various petitions from real scientists who have proved climate science corrupt and wrong (the latest of which has been labelled elsewhere as a fraud). Sort of a slightly more official sounding internet poll form of evidence. Of course, if you doubt it, you can always go to that most scientific source of truth, Wikipedia (yes, Anonymous Author apparently uses this to form his scientific views). EoR almost hurt himself laughing.

Of course, you can also find petitions of scientists who don't believe in evolution. Real scientists. Who know evolution is a scientific fraud. And it's only a theory anyway.

EoR presumes Anonymous Author (and, by implication, the WA Skeptics) dismisses evolution, on the same evidentiary basis that he dismisses climate science. Or does he maintain the amazing ability to hold two contradictory views simultaneously? Either way, it must be terribly uncomfortable.

The WA Skeptics claim

we insist on accuracy and anti-sensationalism

Personally, EoR is skeptical of that claim (and won't believe it until it's on Wikipedia).

A skeptic.

Not a skeptic.

Australian Academy of Science: The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers

Only 0.73% of climate scientists think that humans are affecting the climate!!1!

2011-01-01T11:16:00.007+08:00

Polymath Andrew Bolt helpfully points to an article by Dennis Ambler demolishing the belief that there's any consensus (how the deniers detest that word, even as they promote petitions to prove an anti-consensus) that the world is warming. In fact, only "0.73% of climate scientists think that humans are affecting the climate".

The article, published by the right wing SPPI, disputes the truth of Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change (Doran, P.T., & Zimmerman, M.K. 2009. Examining the scientific consensus on climate change. EOS 90(3): 21-22.).

Doran and Zimmerman received 3146 responses to a survey asking Earth scientists various questions, including whether they thought temperatures had risen, fallen or stayed the same; and whether they thought humans were contributing to changing temperatures.

What they found was that the more active the scientists were in publishing, and the greater their specialisation in climate science, they more likely they were to consider that humans had caused temperatures to rise (EoR's emphasis):

Results show that overall, 90% of participants answered “risen” to question 1 and 82% answered yes to question 2. In general, as the level of active research and specialization in climate science increases, so does agreement with the two primary questions (Figure 1). In our survey, the most specialized and knowledgeable respondents (with regard to climate change) are those who listed climate science as their area of expertise and who also have published more than 50% of their recent peer-reviewed papers on the subject of climate change (79 individuals in total). Of these specialists, 96.2% (76 of 79) answered “risen” to question 1 and 97.4% (75 of 77) answered yes to question 2.

After various marginal arguments, the contrarian article comes to its damning point (author's emphasis):

It is disingenuous to now use the “climate scientists” as a new population sample size. The response figure of 3,146 is the figure against which the 75 out of 77 should be compared and in this case we get not 97% but just 2.38%.

That's right: the responses of all the other scientists are magically reset by Ambler to a dissenting view, even though the Doran and Zimmerman paper clearly show that 82% believe humans are increasing temperatures. Now that's disingenuous!

Denialism: when the facts don't fit, make your own.

But it gets even better. Ambler's amazing statistical insight enables him to know that a sample doesn't extrapolate to a population. If someone didn't respond, then obviously they don't believe in human caused warming. Thus you can take the non-responders to the survey as well in order to twist your statistics (author's emphasis again).

The original number contacted was 10,157 and of those, 69% decided they didn’t want any part of it, but they were the original target population. When the figure of 75 believers is set against that number, we get a mere 0.73% of the scientists they contacted who agreed with their loaded questions.

Ambler concludes:

What a gross travesty of the truth, and such appalling reporting, but these are the messages fed to acquiescent politicians who do not bother to check the facts, and criticise those who do. How low has science sunk, that scientists will dispense this sort of disinformation to promote their own agenda?

He's directing his vitriol at climate scientists when, in reality, it describes his own article exactly.

Of course, he probably doesn't care how bad his mathematics is, he just wants to have that "Only 0.73% of climate scientists think that humans are affecting the climate" quote sent around the denialosphere as a meme, to be uncritically picked up by the numerically illiterate. Which Andrew Bolt dutifully has done (and why EoR keeps quoting it as well, in the hope that some people searching for it might actually find this post instead and realise how wrong the claim is).

It's snowing! It's snowing! The world's going to freeze!

2010-12-31T12:32:00.006+08:00

On January 23rd 2010 Anthony Watts, fearless independent climatologist, posted this graph from the Danish Meteorological Institute, chortling over just how low and how rapidly Arctic temperatures were dropping. Clearly that's all deniers need to disprove the multiple lines of proof of climate science: three weeks worth of data. Note that Watts described the green line as 'normal' — a meaningless statement without some sort of context, and a strange term to use when the deniers claim that 'climate is always changing'.

Even as the gloating amongst his followers commenced, the data started moving back up again. Watts then posted this updated version:

What did his remarkable insight, his knowledge of climate, atmospherics, geology and politics suggest as a hypothesis that might explain this? What would follow? Watts didn't know, merely asking rather hopefully "will it oscillate back?" Comments on the post ceased on January 28th.

EoR decided to check to see whether it had 'oscillated' back or not. Here is the full graph for 2010 (the green line, rather than being 'normal' represents daily mean temperatures for the period 1958-2002).

Not only did it not 'oscillate' back, it was for most of the year above the averaged mean, and the greatest variations were also largely in the warmer rather than the colder range.

Arctic sea ice extent, as graphed by the National Snow and Ice Data Center is also low.

While the average monthly Arctic sea ice extent continues its inexorable decline.

But surely we're entering a new Ice Age? Isn't the world currently being blanketed by unprecedented amounts of snow? James Hansen at NASA notes

Back to the cold air in Europe: is it possible that reduced Arctic sea ice is affecting weather patterns? Because Hudson Bay (and Baffin Bay, west of Greenland) are at significantly lower latitudes than most of the Arctic Ocean, global warming may cause them to remain ice free into early winter after the Arctic Ocean has become frozen insulating the atmosphere from the ocean. The fixed location of the Hudson-Baffin heat source could plausibly affect weather patterns, in a deterministic way — Europe being half a Rossby wavelength downstream, thus producing a cold European anomaly in the trans-Atlantic seesaw. Several ideas about possible effects of the loss of Arctic sea ice on weather patterns are discussed in papers referenced by Overland, Wang and Walsh.

However, we note in our Reviews of Geophysics paper that the few years just prior to 2009-2010, with low Arctic sea ice, did not produce cold winters in Europe. The cold winter of 2009-2010 was associated with the most extreme Arctic Oscillation in the period of record. Figure 3, from our paper, shows that 7 of the last 10 European winters were warmer than the 1951-1980 average winter, and 10 of the past 10 summers were warmer than climatology. The average warming of European winters is at least as large as the average warming of summers, but it is less noticeable because of the much greater variability in winter.

In Canada, "the Hudson Bay region of Canada had monthly mean anomalies greater than +10°C." It's interesting that this isn't receiving the same amount of coverage that the snowstorms in Europe and the US are. Or the flooding in the Balkans, Central America and Australia (unless you happen to be in one of those areas). And the World Meterological Organisation reports:

The year 2010 is almost certain to rank in the top 3 warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2010 (January–October) is currently estimated at 0.55°C ± 0.11°C1 (0.99°F ± 0.20°F) above the 1961–1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.2°F. At present, 2010’s nominal value is the highest on record, just ahead of 1998 (January-October anomaly +0.53°C) and 2005 (0.52°C)2. The ERA-Interim3 reanalysis data are also indicating that January-October 2010 temperatures are near record levels. The final ranking of 2010 will not become clear until November and December data are analysed in early 2011.

In which an advertisement is found

2010-12-28T10:08:00.003+08:00

While EoR was doing some research on anti-global warming science he was forced to read the IPA Review, the house publication of a right wing think tank called the Institute of Public Affairs. IPA Review is the favoured home of Bob Carter and Ian Plimer. In the December 2006 issue, however, EoR discovered this amusing advertisement.

The message is rather droll: don't give your money to the parasitic state, give it to the parasitic conservatives instead!

It also demonstrates the lack of scientific understanding of the right, since EoR can't see any parasites in the image (unless the human has a tapeworm).

It also seems remarkably strange that the social(ist) ants appear to be helping our fearless Libertarian Hero.

Free pr0n for asylum seekers

2010-12-27T10:10:00.003+08:00

Spiegel Online reports how the Czech Republic tests whether applicants for asylum are telling the truth or not when they claim they would be persecuted for being gay. It seems the report may have been written by Benny Hill, since it notes that

the only way to obtain hard evidence was to administer a test using a phallometric device.

People who make such puns should be given a stiff dressing down. EoR just won't stand for it.

Furthermore, the person administering these tests is a physician and sex therapist called Dr. Ondrej Trojan. More proof of Nominative Determinism.

It also seems that Dr Trojan has difficulty determining patient/doctor boundaries:

A former patient claims that he offered to masturbate in front of her while she was under his treatment, and she says that she intends to produce video recordings as evidence. Trojan insists that he was merely applying a method known as "demonstration therapy," which even he admits is "controversial."

EoR doesn't know which is worse. That a sex therapist offered to masturbate in front of a patient, or that the patient was videotaping the whole thing.

Merry Cthulumas!

2010-12-25T11:05:00.003+08:00

Merry Cthulhumas! It's that special day of the year when the Elder Gods wake at R'lyeh, and travel the world visiting all the good little boys and girls delivering fear and terror and tentacles and unspeakable horrors!

Homeopathy: proudly advancing science into the 1800s

2010-12-24T11:05:00.002+08:00

EoR has been browsing through Homeopathy: Medicine for the New Millennium (1985, 26th edition copyrighted 2000) by George Vithoulkas in which he "Describes the foundations upon which this seemingly miraculous method is built". As the cover proudly declaims, Vithoulkas was:

Awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize for Health 1996.

His biography inside also emphasises this achievement:

In 1996 his untiring endeavours to spread classical homeopathy were acknowledged internationally when he received the Alternative Nobel Prize for Health in the Swedish Parliament for his 'Outstanding contribution to the revival of classical homeopathy.'

This just demonstrates how homeopaths like to skew results to claim any thin legitimacy they desperately crave. The Right Livelihood Awards are, indeed, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, but that is not their official designation and it seems like desperation to splash the 'Nobel' word across the front of a homeopathic book. The claim that it was awarded in the category of 'Health' also seems spurious:

Unlike the Nobel Prizes (for Physics, Physiology/Medicine, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace), the Right Livelihood Award has no categories. It recognises that, in striving to meet the human challenges of today's world, the most inspiring and remarkable work often defies any standard classification. For example, people who start out with an environmental goal frequently find themselves drawn into issues of health, human rights and/or social justice. Their work becomes a holistic response to community needs, so that sectoral categories lose their meaning.

Regardless of its millennial claims, the book is replete with phrases such as "we must look back again to the days of Hahnemann". Perhaps EoR misread, and the millennium referred to was the previous one? Like any good text on homeopathy, there are invocations equally to God and Einstein so that those who believe in religious cures are catered for, as well as those who demand science (even if it's magical science). Quoting nineteenth century homeopath J T Kent (who features prominently throughout the book as an authority for the New Millennium):

They will tell you that the bacillus is the cause of tuberculosis. But if man had not been susceptible to the bacillus he could not have been affected by it... The bacteria are results of the disease... the microscopical little fellows are not the disease cause, but they come after... They are the outcome of the disease, are present wherever the disease is, and by the microscope it has been discovered that every pathological result has its corresponding bacteria. The Old School considered these the cause...but the cause is much more subtle than
anything that can be shown by a microscope.

There's also a lot about vital forces and miasms. And the true believer will, of course, not use any real drugs at all (not least because it seems homeopathy is so fickle and weak, almost anything can interfere with it):

Allopathic drugs are among the most powerful interfering factors. An occasional aspirin for temporary aches or pains is generally no problem, but consistent use of analgesics, tranquillizers, antibiotics, contraceptive pills and especially cortisone can completely counteract the action of homeopathic remedies. In some instances, even dental work can produce the same effect. Therefore, homeopathic patients should refrain from all other therapies except for true emergencies and, if possible, only after consulting the homeopath.

Of course, the anecdote is required evidence (indeed, the only evidence), and there are plenty of them, many involving cancer cures. The best is this one, about a woman with serious metastasised lung cancer who Vithoulkas initially refuses to treat (because he considered the case too 'serious'!). The tale is long, but EoR felt that any editing would reduce the overwhelming crescendo of madness and improbability:

She then started pleading with me to at least listen to her symptoms. Seeing my insistence in refusing to take her case, she told us a story which made me change my mind. She said "One night I prayed to God to help me with my health, and then I heard the voice of God telling me, 'Go to Vithoulkas, he will cure you'" and this was the reason why she was insisting so much to see me. I said to her again: "I do not know what God told you, but what I do know is that with homeopathy it is impossible to cure such a case". She kept on pleading so much that I finally agreed to listen to her case. As it came out it was one of the strangest stories I have ever heard in my whole career. She was a 43 year old woman from a very rich family in Australia. Her father had died several years before but the strange thing was that her mother had developed a really vicious hatred for her, to the extent that in one of their fights she had wished openly that her daughter, the patient, would die from cancer. Two years after the mother's vicious wish, the daughter actually developed cancer of the lungs, which was soon metastasized to the bones and then to the brain. The patient had also developed an equally strong hatred for the mother, to the extent that she also wished her dead. The complication for the patient was that in spite of the fact that the family was very rich, the wealth was controlled totally by the mother in Australia, who provided very little to the daughter. She, in turn, mixed with the high society of London, borrowed money from her affluent friends to cope with living in the style of the rich and in the hope that when the mother died - she was already approaching her eighties - she would be able to pay them back. As I progressed with the taking of her case, listening to all the symptoms, I found out that the indicated remedy - strangely enough - was clear in this case, something that happens very rarely and indicates that there is really hope for the patient. Homeopathy has different ways of evaluating the strength of the defence mechanism which is actually stimulated and brings about the cure. Therefore, after 3 hours of taking her case, I had come to the conclusion that there was actually a possibility for an improvement in this woman. I then told her this but the problem was that she was taking many strong painkillers and the homeopathic remedy would not work together with them. I explained the situation to her, to which she answered immediately that this was not a problem, she could stop the painkillers right now! I said that this would be impossible as the pains on the bones would be so intensely aggravated before the homeopathic remedy could act that she would not be able to stand them even for a few days. She left for London the next day. After a week I received a telephone call from her. Her first words were: 'I am well.' I asked what she meant, had she really stopped the painkillers? She said, "Yes, the same day I started your medicine". "And there was no pain?" She said none! I could not believe my ears. Anyhow I gave further instructions and forgot about the case. In three months she telephoned to say that she had been back in the hospital in London where they monitored her case and she told them how well she was. She said, "I danced in front of them in order for them to believe that I could walk again without pain". I still could not believe my ears, but anyhow I gave further instructions for the medication. A month later I received a telephone call in my house, very early in the morning, about 3 a.m. in London and 5 a.m. in Athens. She was on the phone screaming that she most probably broke her ribs during her sleep in the night and the pain was excruciating, unbearable. She could hardly speak from the pain. I told her that these pains were a relapse from the metastasis and not from a broken rib! I thought that's it, I could never control the pain again, but all the same I instructed her to try a remedy and to phone me in the evening. Sure enough she telephoned to say that there was no more pain any more! These relapses happened another three times in the 11 months of treatment, and were always controlled by the homeopathic remedy. One day she telephoned in a panic saying that the right eye was bulging out and could not see. There was also a severe pain in the head. Again the homeopathic remedy controlled the symptoms. After a year she considered herself cured and stopped telephoning. Three years later I inquired from the lady in charge of the clinic in London who had initially phoned me about the patient to know what had happened with this case. And she told me the most amazing story I could have heard. The mother in Australia had died but before her death, she gave all her property to a foundation in Australia, leaving the daughter with all her debts. The patient despaired so much that she went to an expensive restaurant in London, ordered a luxurious meal and took with it enough pills to kill herself. I mention this case here though I cannot know to what extent the improvement really was, whether after a year or two the cancer would have come back and killed her, as the case was monitored from the London hospital and I had no access to their findings. But this case really shows the extent to which homeopathy can be effective if it is practised properly. For many decades, homeopathy was practiced in a very bad manner. Instead of trying to find the indicated remedy for each individual case, which requires a lot of time, doctors would prefer to give ten, fifteen or even twenty remedies together hoping that the right one would be within these twenty. With such a practice results were very poor and people got the impression that this method was good only for simple ailments like common colds and headaches.

You can't make this sort of stuff up.

Santa's just an old pervert

2010-12-23T10:26:00.002+08:00

The festive season is all about fun and celebrating traditional values.

Like smoking. And surprising your loved one under the Cthulhumas tree with a new Prince Albert (link very much NSFW).

The adventures of Christopher Monckton in the real world (Episode two)

2010-12-22T11:42:00.003+08:00

The Telegraph have replaced the blatantly warmist propaganda piece that was so horribly out of place on their website which insinuated that the Lord of the ~~Dance~~ Climate Skeptics agreed climate was warming due to anthropogenic causes, with a much cosier rant from the man himself, in which the Loony Lord, who so detests the vile ad hominens thrown at him by the alarmist brigade in lieu of any actual science, refers in the first line to a "bearded, staring enviro-zomb with the regrettable T-shirt". EoR doesn't know why the T-shirt was 'regrettable' since the Illogical Lord fails to give a reason.

Monckton laments the loss of:

Perspective, the Olympian capacity to see events as they affect not just us and our mates but everyone, and not just in the excitement of the present but sub specie aeternitatis, in the long, calm, kindly shadow of eternity: this has gone from what passes for education in the West.

Are we, then, to assume that Monckton considers himself one of the Olympians, possessing, as he does, a transcendent vision of humanity, the world and existence that far outstrips the average mortal schmuck? Monckton has always evidenced a grandiosity complex, but it grows worse every day.

The global warming scam has been so successful, he claims, for three reasons.

The climate bugaboo, the strangest intellectual aberration of our age, rampages because in the me and now we have cast aside three once-universal [sic] forms of learning that gave us perspective: a Classical education, to remind us that in reason and logic there is a difference between true and false; a scientific education, to show us which is which; and a religious education, to teach us why the distinction matters.

Which does rather expose the real agenda of the deniers: godlessness and atheism are the heathen evils to be fought. If we were only more godly (presumably, worshipping Olympians like Monckton himself) then we wouldn't be so stupid. And the Flying Spaghetti Monster could just magic away global warming.

Monckton also neglects to mention that part of a Classical education was the art of rhetoric. EoR does agree that a classical education would be helpful, since it would make more people knowledgeable about the Sophists, those who would argue a cause whether it was true or false, or whether they believed in it or not. Indeed, the description of Sophists could be applied directly to Monckton without any difficulty at all:

[The Sophists] wandered about Greece from place to place, gave lectures, took pupils, and entered into disputations. For these services they exacted large fees, and were, in fact, the first in Greece to take fees for teaching wisdom.

[,,,]

The most popular career of a Greek of ability at the time was politics; hence the sophists largely concentrated on teaching rhetoric. The aims of the young politicians whom they trained were to persuade the multitude of whatever they wished them to believed. The search for truth was not top priority. Consequently the sophists undertook to provide a stock of arguments on any subject, or to prove any position. They boasted of their ability to make the worse appear the better reason, to prove that black is white. Some, like Gorgias, asserted that it was not necessary to have any knowledge of a subject to give satisfactory replies as regards it. Thus, Gorgias ostentatiously answered any question on any subject instantly and without consideration. To attain these ends mere quibbling, and the scoring of verbal points were employed. In this way, the sophists tried to entangle, entrap, and confuse their opponents, and even, if this were not possible, to beat them down by mere violence and noise. They sought also to dazzle by means of strange or flowery metaphors, by unusual figures of speech, by epigrams and paradoxes, and in general by being clever and smart, rather than earnest and truthful. Hence our word “sophistry”: the use of fallacious arguments knowing them to be such.

Monckton's education in grammar and debate also seem to be failing. At times, he refers to himself in the article in the third person, and at others in the first person. It seems he is dissociated from himself in an almost Freudian way.

Monckton attacks "another headline last week [that] shrieked" he had admitted global warming was real and human caused. Monckton (in whatever person) doesn't mention it was in the same paper. His argument that the claim is wrong? He admitted four years ago that global warming was real and it was human caused. So much for your "Classical" logic and reason.

Would someone please tuck the good Lord into bed, give him a warm drink, turn the lights out, and gently steal away.

Meanwhile, for those with an interest in the actual science, rather than schoolboy rhetorical exercises, Miloslav Nic has created a wonderful online searchable database for the IPCC Fourth Assessement Report.

The adventures of Christopher Monckton in the real world

2010-12-21T10:26:00.004+08:00

EoR is a little disappointed with the rather poor efforts of climate change deniers of late. Andrew Bolt used to post monthly temperature graphs to 'prove' there was no global warming. Then he posted monthly temperature graphs to 'prove' there was no global warming because there was only a slight increase. Now he doesn't bother at all. There's only the occasional post claiming sea levels aren't rising quite as fast as some people claim. Though they are still rising.

The Lord Clown of Deniers, Christopher Monckton, also seems to have been quiet lately, but maybe that's just because the media have become bored with his repetitive schtick. And the fact that you can't really be a Lord High Denier and All Round Genius to the conspiracy set when you admit that global warming is happening, and it's caused by humans (the Telegraph, for whatever ulterior reason, has deleted the relevant article — it is, however, still available on the internet). Oh dear. EoR bets all the cardigan-wearing set have torn his posters from the wall in a fit of right wing pique.

Lord Monckton admitted the world is warming as a result of mankind’s activities.

“Some warming is to be accepted as a result of our activities but on balance not very much,” he said.

In a bizarre press conference attended by a handful of journalists and a ‘climate sceptic activist’ dressed in a polar bear suit with a sign reading ‘I am fine’, Lord Monckton spoke out about his theories on climate change.

His theories? How many does he have?

Monckton was introduced as the 'Lord of the climate skeptics'. It reminds EoR of when tours of insane asylums were undertaken, and people would be introduced as 'Napoleon'.

John Vidal at the Guardian reports how the man who was incensed at 'Hitler youth' at Copenhagen is now employing the same tactics.

But it seems that the man who in Copenhagen last year compared young protesters to Hitler Youth because they gatecrashed a meeting of climate sceptics, had not actually been invited to the largest business conference of the summit that featured Lord Stern, Richard Branson and several Mexican billionaires.

After an hour of tolerating Monckton, the patience of the organisers wore thin. "Who is this man?" asked one American green venture capitalist. "These are weird views," said another. A few minutes later he was asked to leave.

You can listen to a 7 minute interview with Monckton at the conference. Monckton argues that modelling is wrong, and when he was taught science "measurement and observation were the appropriate processes". This is a line taken by Ian Plimer in Climate changing: How global warming lost its science and support (IPA Review, March 2010). EoR wonders who's copying their argument from whom?

My scientific critics are decades younger, had a postmodernist education, are scientifically narrow, play with computer models and lack the ability to argue logically. This is probably why ad hominem attacks had spelling errors and poor English.

Of course, the irony of Plimer calling his opponents 'illogical', 'scientifically narrow', 'bad spellers' and users of 'poor English' and then crying about ad hominen attacks against him is hilarious.

In the audio interview, Monckton also refers to a question in the House of Lords, which he had to get a sitting member to put. But isn't Monckton a member of the House of Lords? If that particular lie was true, he could have asked the question himself.

Monckton is not a climatologist (nor any sort of scientist, in fact) but a rhetorician, as a post by Gideon Rachman demonstrates. Rachman, who was about to take part in a (non climate related) Oxford debate with Monckton, spoke to him. Or was spoken at.

I began to think that Viscount Monckton might be a formidable opponent during the debate. Then he told me that he has discovered a new drug that is a complete cure for two-thirds of known diseases - and that he expects it to go into clinical trials soon. I asked him whether his miracle cure was chiefly effective against viruses or bacterial diseases? “Both”, he said, “and prions”. At this point I felt a little more relaxed about the forthcoming debate.

Monckton disputes this account, and has written a rebuttal which Rachman has published:

Lord Monckton has pointed out an inadvertent inaccuracy and unfairness in my account of the medical invention on which he is working. Though there is a substantial body of theoretical and empirical evidence that his invention may prove efficacious against multiple infectious and auto-immune diseases, he did not and does not make any claim that the invention will prove efficacious. That is precisely why, as he told me when we met at Oxford, a series of appropriately sceptical clinical trials will commence shortly in the United States.

Personally, EoR thinks Monckton is just hiding the decline in his intellectual abilities, which has been occurring since at least 1998.

The forgotten genius of Henry Hoke

2010-12-20T10:21:00.006+08:00

It's always good to see a forgotten genius finally being recognised, especially when he's Australian. Henry Hoke is the Australian Einstein or Alexander Graham Bell (both of whom he knew — he corresponded on a first name basis with Einstein) and was the subject earlier this year of a long overdue exhibition at the South Australian Maritime Museum.

Hoke, of Hoke's Tool Company, was a neglected but wide ranging inventor, producing myriad ideas. Sadly, he is now mostly forgotten, though (like Tesla) many of his inventions were stolen by others and have become well known in these copies. There's the Quack of Doom (so powerful and dangerous the US military decided to go with the atom bomb instead). He was also a pioneer of alternative energy, developing a clockwork car (this is now lost, though the key — Hoke's Giant Wind-Up — still exists). Some of his other prescient inventions include:

Refined Bulldust, so beloved of alties. Similar to Philip Pullman's Dust, it is everywhere.

Willing's Suspension of Disbelief, another altie favourite, most effectively employed with the Bulldust.

And Dehydrated Water Pills ("Instructions for use: Add alcohol, preferably gin"). Today, these incredible pills are to be found in pharmacies everywhere with, criminally, no recognition of Hoke at all.

Flickr gallery of the exhibition

Thistle thoughts (12)

2010-12-19T11:12:00.001+08:00

EoR, having accidentally sat on some thistles, ponders the State of Things...

It's all very well UFOs abducting people and anally probing them, but why do they have to keep returning them?

Sandy Craw

2010-12-18T11:31:00.002+08:00

'Tis the season for those old familiar standards, such as Santa Claus is Coming to Town, as unforgettably performed by Joseph Spence. This is simply the most brilliant postmodernist critique of the consumerist devotion to affluenza EoR has ever heard. And if Spence influenced Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, how can he be all bad?

After this, no other Christmas songs satisfy. Except, just possibly, John Cage's 4'33".

National Broadband Network will kill us all!

2010-12-17T10:32:00.003+08:00

Maybe EoR just imagined all this but, listening to Howard Sattler's radio show on Wednesday he heard MP Dr Dennis Jensen apparently prophesying the end of the world due to the National Broadband Network. EoR didn't hear the whole thing, so he may have totally misinterpreted Dr Jensen's alarmist ranting, but it seems the terminating nodes for the NBN which were originally to be placed outside buildings will now be placed inside them. The terrible outcome is that these release chlorine gas when they burn. And chlorine gas is what the Germans used!!!

EoR may be unusual but, if his house was burning, he wouldn't be hanging around to breathe in any fumes, toxic or otherwise. And what gases are released by burning televisions? Computers? Carpets? Plastics? Treated wood? Stored pool chemicals?

Will Dr Jensen also call for the banning of wood fires?

Dennis Jensen, though he's a legitimate scientist (his specialty is materials engineering on ceramics) doesn't seem to cope with technology well. His webpage, for instance, still includes a call to "Oppose the Government's Emissions Trading Scheme". He also seems to release a media statement every six months or so. Which is probably considered value for taxpayers' money these days. But nothing about the NBN or chlorine gas is evident there. There's no mention of it on the 6PR website. And Google also seems ignorant of these claims (whether made by Jensen or anyone else).

Dr Jensen is on Facebook but EoR didn't have the strength to become his friend. He does, however, note that Dr Jensen 'likes' Carl Sagan and Climate-gate (sic). And his favourite movie is "Not Evil Just Wrong".

Then there's his Twitter account with its regular tweets (averaging about one a month). The most recent:

No reputable scientist would claim 100% certainty that humans are causing climate change, but govt advisor Prof Will Steffen does!

Any reputable conservative politician, however, would claim that global warming is fake 100% of the time! Also, isn't that statement defamatory, since it clearly implies that Professor Will Steffen (Executive Director ANU Climate Change Institute, BSc, MSc, PhD) is not a reputable scientist? But, again, nothing about the NBN and how it's going to kill everyone.

On the 24th February he tweeted:

Rudd is totally lacking human feeling. 4 deaths from his insulation disaster, and he cannot even express sympathy

Well, Rudd is probably just as inhuman as Dr Jensen:

Dr Jensen boycotted Parliament on the day that the formal apology to the Stolen Generations was made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Perhaps EoR was having a really strange dream? Or is this just the stalking horse for an 'NBN is the new Insulation debacle' initiative by the opposition?

Why Andrew Bolt is so gay

2010-12-16T10:17:00.003+08:00

The sky is falling! We're all doomed to slide down the slippery slope of faulty logic to an incestuous fate!!

According to psychic Andrew Bolt ("Two years ago I warned") the result of allowing godless gays to marry will not only destroy our wonderful conservative, capitalist, Bible-sanctioned lifestyle, but next thing you know, incest will be legal!!! Before you know it men will be kissing. In public!

This is obvious, since Switzerland already has registered partnerships which — as if you couldn't guess — are supported by the Green Party of Switzerland. Being one of Australia's top journalists, Bolt links to a Wikipedia entry. Knowing his audience, he's probably certain none of them will even go there and read the article, which shows that, regardless of his random sniping at the Greens, the Swiss partnerships are far from the same as marriage, and 58% of the Swiss people approved the change. But the evil Greens want full marriage equivalence!

But now the Swiss government has drafted laws decriminalising sex between consenting family members (Bolt is more nuanced here, linking to the rightwing Telegraph). If Bolt's Believers follow the link, they'd see that the law relates to adults only. Whether you consider sex between related individuals right or wrong, it's not about all family members:

Switzerland, which recently held a referendum passing a draconian law that will boot out foreigners convicted of committing the smallest of crimes, insists that children within families will continue to be protected by laws governing abuse and paedophilia.

If the left commie pinko green unionists are running the political agenda, how did that draconian law get through? The article also notes that there have only been three cases of incest since 1984.

But what about China, France, Israel, the Ivory Coast, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain and Turkey? All countries which have no prohibitions on "consensual incest between adults". Why does Bolt single out a possible new law in Switzerland and ignore all these countries which already allow consensual incest?

Bolt also fails to explain why his argument that allowing gay marriage will lead to incestuous marriage. Switzerland made registered partnerships legal in 2003, but changing the incest law has been around much longer:

In fact, the issue’s popped up periodically since the 1980s. Each time though uproar among the cantons or among the population has derailed the plan.

Perhaps Bolt doesn't believe in democracy?

As always, the best part of Bolt's outrage is the wonderful comments from his literate, well informed (informed by Bolt's posts) readers. The very first comment invokes GOD (yes, in CAPITALS). Nonna, demonstrating that she (?) likes to think through issues and not rely on steretypes, comments

I blame the holes in Swiss cheese and too much jodelling [sic] across the alpine valleys. Maybe the resonating sound of Swiss horns has an effect on the human brain.

Sonnshine says

Hey gay couples, it’s not about you being discriminated against for any reason whatsoever when I say this -it is simply a Christian tradition that says Man and Woman. Been going on since Adam was a boy - you can’t change it to suit yourself.

Actually, all the children of Adam and Eve were related. Talk about rampant incest!

Of course, there's the usual mish-mash of anti-Muslim sentiment as well, mixed in with suicide bombers, 'refugees' (in Boltland there are no real refugees — the word must therefore always be in quotes), and impending Sharia law in Australia (even though that would, presumably, outlaw homosexuality and incest).

Next thing you know, there'll be offspring with two fathers and Conservatives sleeping with the Greens. Now that sort of thing must really scare Bolt.

And please, don't anyone tell him that those evil scientists think incest may actually lower sexual violence.

Or that people have fulminated on exactly where (and where not) to place genitalia for many centuries (readers of a nervous disposition should be advised that the following poem contains strong language):

Oh what damned age do we live in

Oh what damned age do we live in
Since there is no Christian soul
But old Father Patrick and Griffin
Dare put their pricks in the right hole.

Oh, why do we keep such a bustle
'Bout putting a prick in an arse,
Since Harvey's long-cunted muscle
Serves Stuart instead of a tarse.

Since fucking is not as 'twas wont
The ladies have got a new trick:
As an arsehole serves for a cunt.
So a clitoris serves for a prick.

Besides, the damned tailors of France
To Great Britain's defamation
Have made better pintles by chance
Than the gods of the English nation.

But now there's nothing will do,
Their cunts are grown so wide,
Except with a French leather dildo
They get on each other and ride.
attrib. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680)

Henry Thoreau, climate scientist

2010-12-15T10:05:00.004+08:00

EoR enjoys rereading Walden every few years, but now Thoreau has moved on from being a Transcendentalist to revealing the changes being brought about by climate change.

Thoreau's records and subsequent observations up to the present of bird arrival times around Walden Pond are being used to study the effects of global climate change. In a soon to be published article in the journal Condor, Primack and Ellwood show that some birds, such as the Yellow-rumped Warbler and Chipping Sparrow, are arriving earlier in warmer years and later in cold years. This study is particularly significant as it represents the longest time span over which bird arrival times have been scientifically observed.

The study indicates that Concord birds are not responding to warming temperatures as fast as plants, and that they may miss the peak abundance of insect food in the spring, if insects are also responding as rapidly as plants. The concern here is that birds may not find enough insects to feed their hungry nestlings, and the baby birds will starve to death. "Insect are the missing link between plants and birds and this is the next area of focus in our lab," said Ellwood.

Some Thoreau quotes:

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

It is not worthwhile to go around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.

Forgive us our warez

2010-12-14T10:41:00.002+08:00

What do you do when your software license is posted on warez groups? You sit back and observe, noting how it spreads and who uses it.

It seems that, while condoms may be evil, homosexuals to be abhorred and stem cell research the work of the devil, software piracy is okay:

A single licence for Avast security software has been used by 774,651 people after it went viral on a file-sharing site, according to the company.

Avast noticed that a license for its paid-for security software, sold to a 14-user firm in Arizona, was being distributed online. Rather than shut down the piracy, the company decided to see how far the software would spread.

The Avast Pro licence showed up on file-sharing sites, and a year and a half later it had topped three-quarters of a million active users.

“We found our licence code at a number of warez sites around the globe,” said Vince Steckler, chief executive of Avast Software. “There is a paradox in computer users looking for ‘free’ antivirus programs at locations with a known reputation for spreading malware.”

The licence is being used in 200 countries – and has even been installed on two computers in the Vatican City, Avast added.

Avast is now pushing popups to users of the pirated software to urge them to buy the product. This also seems aimed at the Vatican City users:

While Frink had no data about exactly how many pirates had chosen to go legitimate, he said there had already been “some conversions”.

Meanwhile, PZ Myers discusses the difference between the Vatican and the Mafia (hint: not much).

Boost your immune system for improved illnesses

2010-12-13T10:18:00.001+08:00

It appears that a boosted immune system was a cause of deaths from H1N1 flu. Professor Polack looked at recent deaths from the influenza virus, but also had a number of samples from deaths caused by the 1957 Hong Kong flu assessed.

"C4d is part of the inflammatory cascade, and while it's really good at killing organisms and protecting us, it's sort of the slash and burn approach, capable of causing lots of tissue damage," Johnson said.

But why did infants and the frail elderly escape this mechanism of death in the H1N1 pandemic?

"We found in 2009, the elderly had good immunity because they had seen a very similar virus sometime before 1957. Babies hadn't seen many viruses at all so there was no trigger. It came down to the young adults – primed with an ineffective response. Their bodies already had defenses against previous influenza viruses that look like this one but weren't close enough," Polack said.

Professor Polack also notes the effectiveness of the H1N1 vaccine in preventing deaths.

An overactive immune system also has a role to play in macular degeneration (as observed in rats).

“Our results suggest that the response works as a vicious cycle, with white blood cells the major culprit,” Matt [Rutar, PhD student] says. “Upon inflammation or damage to the eyes, the immune system kicks in and white blood cells, particularly macrophages, are recruited to clean up the debris or dead cells.”

“Under healthy conditions, the white blood cells finish their task and leave the macula. However, in cases of MD, the macrophages call in other inflammatory proteins and combine with them. This then triggers a fresh cycle in which they attack healthy vision cells.”

Matt Rutar also suggests some preventative measures people can take: wearing sunglasses, limiting exposure to bright light, eating a healthy diet, exercising, and avoiding smoking. EoR is shocked to see these. Surely he knows that he should only be recommending expensive and death-dealing drugs? Perhaps he hasn't yet signed his secret pact with ~~the Devil~~ Big Pharma? Or could it be that the alties' constant harping on about the need to take a holistic approach, and not go straight for the drugs, is just lies and propaganda?

Compare and contrast

2010-12-12T11:13:00.002+08:00

The Australian (anti-)Vaccination Network:

Polio is caused by a virus, and symptoms of the disease can take between 3 and 21 days after infection to show.
The polio virus spreads between people through contact with infected faeces and throat secretions.

Poliovirus infection occurs in the gastrointestinal tract (stomach and gut). In 90 per cent of cases, the illness has no symptoms.

Where symptoms do occur they include:
headache; nausea and vomiting; tiredness; neck and back stiffness; and severe muscle pain.
Polio can cause meningitis (brain infection) and paralysis.

[...]

Both [polio] vaccines are cultured on animal tissue and are known to be contaminated with many monkey and other viruses. Only 3 of these - SV-40, SIV and Simian Foamy Virus, have been studied. SV-40 and Simian Foamy Virus are both associated with the development of cancer in humans and laboratory animals. SIV (Simian Immuodeficiency Virus) is thought to be the cause of HIV infections in humans, leading to AIDS infections.

The BBC:

An outbreak of polio in Congo-Brazzaville has killed more than 100 people and paralysed hundreds more, the authorities say.

Congo-Brazzaville had previously recorded its last case of indigenous polio in 2000.

The government said the vast majority of deaths had occurred in the coastal city of Pointe-Noire.

Polio damages the nervous system, causing paralysis or death if untreated.

[...]

Congo's director-general of health, Alexis Elira Dokekias, said the victims had either not been sufficiently immunized or not immunized at all.

Homeopathic study reveals client satisfaction survey not best assessment tool

2010-12-11T11:02:00.003+08:00

Another day, another customer satisfaction survey presented by Homeopaths as 'evidence'.

"Homeopathic prescribing for chronic conditions in feline and canine veterinary practice" involved 21 homeopathic veterinary surgeons collecting data on 400 cats and 1504 dogs over a twelve month period. Owners were asked to assess the clinical outcome on a 7 point scale (from -3, major deterioration, to +3, major improvement). Strangely, homeopathic prophylaxis, or 'immunisation' (the paper uses the word in quotes, presumably because it's not immunisation at all) were not included.

Conditions assessed in cats were dermatitis, renal failure, overgrooming, arthritis, hyperthyroidism and 'all others'. If you were a disbelieving skeptic, you'd probably hypothesize that something as serious as renal failure would not respond particularly well to a few drops of water. It is, in fact, this condition that stands out with a whopping 14.4% in the -3 and -2 rating. You would also expect other conditions that are variable in nature to score more highly. Again, arthritis is the stand out here with an 80% +2 or +3 rating of treatment.

In dogs arthritis also rated highly (beaten only slightly by spondylosis). Even lymphoma scored 40% in the +2 or +3 rating (though 53.3% rated the treatment -1, 0 or +1 — effectively no change). 'Fear' is an interesting result, scoring a stand out 68.4% in the middle range. EoR would have thought that a holistic treatment like homeopathy, which (purportedly) works on a whole body energetic level, would have been an ideal treatment for an emotional condition. Perhaps not, after all.

The paper notes that homeopathy was not the single variable in the survey. Many animals received multiple CAM treatments. Specialist referral and conventional treatment was high for lymphoma.

The authors note the limitations to their study:

Positive bias in outcomes data is an inevitable consequence of study design that is neither controlled nor randomised, and our overall 63.3% (cats) and 68.9% (dogs) with +2/+3 outcomes require further comment. These findings are in line with the 50 - 68% recorded in equivalent observations in humans.

Nevertheless, we have no intention of overstating the conclusions from this type of study. Because of the deliberate absence of a control group, we are unable to take into account many possible confounding factors such as waxing and waning of symptoms over time or regression to the mean. In addition, about 25% of cases overall did not receive FU [follow up] during the period of data collection; owner-assessed change in these animals is therefore unknown. Moreover, ‘desire to please’ is a normal facet of clinical information obtained directly from a client, and each owner will have differing views as to what constitutes moderate or major change in their pet’s state of health. As in all our other systematic observational studies, including that in horses, a causal relationship between homeopathy and clinical outcome is not an inference from this investigation.

EoR wonders if other homeopaths will be as cautious in their reporting of this study.

As an aside, EoR was fascinated to read that the study was supported, in part, by a donation from the Psionic Medical Society. EoR had never heard of them before, but they appear to be a UK charity that has been in existence since 1969 with the aim

To promote the study and improvement of the science and practice of psionic medicine for the relief of suffering and to promote understanding of its methods and application.

Mathie, RT, Baitson, ES, Hansen, L, Elliott, MF, and Hoare, J (2010). Homeopathic prescribing for chronic conditions in feline and canine veterinary practice. Homeopathy (2010) 99, 243-248. doi:10.1016/j.homp.2010.05.010.

Not the Walkleys

2010-12-10T09:59:00.005+08:00

Well, the Walkley awards for 2010, recognising excellence in journalism, have been handed out. If you needed any more proof that they're a mates’ club run by the union the commie-socialist-bleeding-heart-greenie-stalinist-lockstep-pinko-ABC-groupthinkers gave not one, but two awards to Red Kerry, while totally ignoring the excellent, well-researched and fiercely independent journalism of Andrew Bolt.

This sort of thing is just not on. In order to redress this criminal imbalance, EoR has decided to create a special award, recognising Bolt's contributions to exposing the evil hoax that is Science (except, of course, for any science that agrees with his views) with also a special acknowledgement of his advancing the science of racial types and eugenics.

Congratualions Andrew. You deserve it.

Online poll proves global warming just a giant hoax

2010-12-09T10:10:00.006+08:00

In June EoR looked at the sorry state of the WA Skeptics and its seemingly relentless parade of climate change denialists as guests. Things almost seemed to improve for a while, with the last couple of meetings being devoted to a discussion of miracles, and whether magnets can improve the taste of wine, but Dr John Happs's views are more than persistent.

Dr Happs yet again pushes the line that 'the science is not settled', that global warming is "a possibly imaginary threat" (those are classic weasel words, implying much, saying nothing) and

The [Royal] Society duly appointed a panel to rewrite its official position on global warming, and in October 2010 the panel published a new guide that indicates the areas where the science is well established, and the many areas where there are still major uncertainties. In short, the debate is nowhere near over. To claim otherwise is to ignore science in favour of ulterior political objectives.

Dr Happs seems strangely reluctant to cite his sources directly, the only source he provides being a denialist blog report about a Scientific American survey. The link from that page to Scientific American is broken, but this page explains the matter:

Ignore for the moment that this poll was not scientific (nor was it meant to be) and that it was open to all who have access to the Internet, not just to our subscribers, as Gilder implied.

Rather, the big problem was that the poll was skewed by visitors who clicked over from the well-known climate denier site, Watts Up With That? Run by Anthony Watts, the site created a web page urging users to take the poll.

It sure worked. Our traffic statistics from October 25, when the poll went live, to November 1 (the latest for which we have data on referrals) indicate that 30.5 percent of page views (about 4,000) of the poll came from Watts Up. The next highest referrer at 16 percent was a Canadian blog site smalldeadanimals.com; it consists of an eclectic mix of posts and comments, and if I had to guess, I would say its users leaned toward the climate denier side based on a few comments I saw. Meanwhile, on the other side of the climate debate, Joe Romm's Climate Progress drove just 2.9 percent and was the third highest referrer.

So we were horrified alright---by the co-opting of the poll by Watts Up users, who probably voted along the denier plank. In fact, having just two sites drive nearly half the traffic to the poll assuredly means that the numbers do not reflect the attitudes of Scientific American readers.

This does rather prompt EoR to ask Dr Happs: "what are the ulterior political motives in skewing an online poll?". It would also be interesting to know in what way Dr Happs thinks an online poll is trustworthy in any sense whatsoever. Furthermore, "what are the ulterior political motives in citing a skewed online poll as evidence against global warming?"

The line Dr Happs takes on the Royal Society statement (see how easy it is to link to the source document? Dr Happs could have so easily done the same if he wanted people to assess the evidence directly) is remarkably similar to that espoused in the Coalition propaganda rag, The Australian. A line that prompted Professor John Pethica, Vice-President of the Royal Society to write to The Australian correcting their errors (EoR's emphasis):

IN your coverage of our newly published Climate change: a summary of the science ("Top science body cools on global warming", 2/10) your correspondents suggest that the society has changed its position on climate change. This is simply not true.

There is no greater uncertainty about future temperature increases now than the Royal Society had previously indicated.

The science remains the same, as do the uncertainties.

Indeed, the purpose of the new guide is to help people understand what is well established and what is still uncertain.

There is strong evidence that changes in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activity are the main cause of the global warming that has taken place over the past half century.

The warming trend is expected to continue but the sizes of future temperature increases are still subject to uncertainty.

To their credit, at least The Australian published the letter. Dr Happs appears uninterested in views that differ from his own.

Dr Happs, as a scientist, should understand that science is never settled and that there is always uncertainty. This is, as Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway point out in Merchants of Doubt, precisely the point deniers latch on to in order to unculcate doubt in the media. Evolution is not settled (it might interest Dr Happs to know that there are actually scientists out there still studying evolution and its mechanisms). Gravity has hardly any evidence base at all. And don't even start on Dark Matter. Medicine has many things that it doesn't understand, and many things still to learn. Again, there are actually real scientists who are studying medicine in order to discover what causes diseases and how to cure them. So much still unknown. So many uncertainties.

EoR imagines that Dr Happs is just as convinced that evolution, gravity and medicine are huge hoaxes perpetrated in order to assemble massive grants funding and to make scientists famous. He also presumes Dr Happs takes the line that creationism, a gravity-free world, and homeopathy are valid (non-political) truths that have been suppressed by the World Communist Government Conspiracy. Or that the Bible really does reveal the terrible truth that Osama bin Laden has nuclear weapons.

Like the denial movements that attacked smoking, acid rain, and CFCs the scientists have beeen saying the same thing for a long time: the evidence tells us that the globe is warming. As The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism puts it:

Scientific skepticism is healthy. In fact, science by its very nature is skeptical. Genuine skepticism means considering the full body of evidence before coming to a conclusion. However, when you take a close look at arguments expressing climate ‘skepticism’, what you often observe is cherry picking of pieces of evidence while rejecting any data that don’t fit the desired picture. This isn’t skepticism. It is ignoring facts and the science.

Dr Happs has been president of the WA Skeptics for 25 years. Perhaps it's time for some fresh blood.

A short primer on journalism

2010-12-08T10:16:00.004+08:00

Today's print edition of The West Australian has a front page devoted completely to one major story, with the headline blaring 'WORLD'S MOST WANTED MAN ARRESTED'. EoR is glad to learn that Osama bin Laden has finally been arrested. Oh, hang on. It isn't him, or even any of the other five most wanted, it's some other bloke.

While the online report is slightly less inflammatory, it still notes

US politicians have called for Assange to be treated as a terrorist.

Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin described him as an "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands".

Elsewhere at The West, Paul Murray confuses leaks that confirmed things we suspected for leaks that "confirmed things we knew" (he mentions a little later Kevin Rudd's comments about China — something we didn't previously know, but that inconsistency seems unimportant to Murray). Leaks such as 'Climategate' seem acceptable though:

So, having conceded there was little available research material, the report relies on computer modelling of the small amount that is known. Sounds like a version of Climategate.

Crikey also points out the hypocrisy of the rightwing blogotariat in this matter. To summarise:

Hacked and leaked emails: good (if exposing Teh Evil Scientistz)
Hacked and leaked emails: bad (if exposing the good and wonderful politicians)
Hacked and leaked emails: good (if exposing Kevin Rudd — not a good or wonderful politician)

While one definition of consistency is "a degree of density, firmness, viscosity, etc", this essay notes:

We might say that while consistency is surely not sufficient for ethics, it is at least necessary for ethics. Ethics requires that there be consistency among our moral standards and in how we apply these standards. Ethics also requires a consistency between our ethical standards and our actions, as well as among our inner desires. Finally, ethics requires that there be consistency between how we treat ourselves and how we treat others.

Never let it be said that ethics got in the way of journalism.

It's upside down, Miss Pat!

2010-12-07T10:29:00.001+08:00

Norman "Mr Squiggle" Hetherington, 1921-2010

In 2000: "Mr Squiggle, like so many other Australians, loves his ABC and is most unhappy with the direction it is taking these days. Things are much better organised on the moon."

“Here’s Mr Squiggle with lots of fun for everyone” was the signature tune for the children’s ABC television program, Mr Squiggle. Mr Squiggle, a marionette with a pencil for a nose, lived on the moon and created clever upside-down drawings from ’squiggles’ sent in by children from around Australia.

Things your altie health practitioner won't tell you

2010-12-06T11:18:00.001+08:00

EoR has noted how independent, balanced, knowledgeable health researcher Dr Peter Dingle has exposed the biased, corrupt, evil Big Pharma running of the scientific medical press.

Since Dr Dingle clearly loathes how Big Pharma cherry picks data, ignores and suppresses unwanted results, and is solely interested in its own business interests, he looks forward to him noting the following news.

Dr Dingle detests statins. They're part of the Big Pharma plot to kill us all. But now it seems that statins actually help the immune system.

Widely prescribed for their cholesterol-lowering properties, recent clinical research indicates that statins can produce a second, significant health benefit: lowering the risk of severe bacterial infections such as pneumonia and sepsis. A new explanation for these findings has been discovered by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, who describe for the first time how statins activate the bacterial killing properties of white blood cells.

The research is published in the November 18, 2010 issue of Cell Host & Microbe.

This would seem to be wholly in line with the altie need to constantly 'boost' the immune system.

Elsewhere, Associate Professor Michael Gard has a new book out, arguing that the 'obesity epidemic' has been greatly distorted.

“The book will inform those who are interested in the way Western countries tend to breed health panics,” he said. “While there was an element of truth about the obesity ‘epidemic’, it never was, and is not now, nearly as serious as declared by some. The book is a case study in how and why health panics - as scientific, political and cultural issues - grow and spread.”

[...]

“The point of this book is that in their attempts to raise awareness about obesity, many interest groups completely exaggerated the problem. As far as health resources are concerned, a huge amount of wasteful and ineffective policy has been enacted. This is why hysterias like the ‘obesity epidemic’ matter; they divert our attention away from the important challenges that face us,” he said.

Since Dr Dingle believes that his dog eats better than you, and that our children are doomed to die at a younger age than their parents, he should welcome such news and let his devoted followers know about this as well.

Of course, if you do believe there's an 'obesity epidemic', then you also need to explain why it's affecting pets, laboratory animals and feral rats.

There are several theories as to why animals and humans might be getting fatter even without the help of fast food and desk-jockey jobs, Allison said. Pathogens could be to blame: A virus called adenovirus 36 has been linked to obesity in both humans and animals. Hormone-disrupting compounds, or endocrine disruptors, have been shown to trigger obesity in mice exposed to the compounds in utero.

The change could be something as simple as our increasingly artificial environments, Allison said. Light pollution and sleep disruption have been linked to obesity. It's even possible that air conditioning and central heat are to blame.

Personally, EoR thinks wi-fi is to blame (which must be true because the Dutch government are trying to cover up the awful truth).

Then there's the terrible deficiencies of Vitamin D in the population? According to the Institute of Medicine (considering only the US and Canada):

Based on the committee's analysis, the number of people in North America declared to have vitamin D deficiency has been overestimated. The error stems in part from the fact that there is no standard for determining whether someone is deficient. In fact, a person might be told they have deficient or sufficient levels depending on the laboratory that conducts their blood test, the researchers said.

And while studies based on dietary intake show the majority of North Americans don't get enough vitamin D from the food they eat, other findings reveal that most people do have sufficient vitamin D in their blood. The missing piece of the puzzle is the sun — sunlight triggers the production of vitamin D from other compounds in the body. The report indicates that for many individuals, the sun is an important contributor to a person's overall vitamin D levels.

And, just like all those superfoods and magical supplements, too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing:

The committee also weighed in on the upper limits for vitamin D and calcium intake. Getting too much calcium could put people at risk for kidney stones, and too much vitamin D could damage the heart and kidneys and may increase the risk of death, the researchers said.

And what about the news that fruit and vegetables aren't really that important in preventing cancer?

Eating lots of fruit and vegetables will do little to reduce your risk of developing cancer, according to a review of a decade of research involving more than a million people. It concluded that maintaining a healthy weight and cutting down on smoking and drinking are far better ways to ward off the disease.

The study was large and published in a reputable journal (not Nova):

In an article published today in the British Journal of Cancer, Key summarised the epidemiological evidence from more than a million people taking part in several dozen long-term research projects looking at the amount of fruit and vegetables people eat and their overall cancer risk. He also studied specific cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, lung and breast.

Key found little, if any, connection between eating lots of fruits and vegetables and the likelihood of developing cancer. "The conclusion implies that, at least in relatively well-nourished westernised populations, a general increase in total fruit and vegetable intake will not have a large impact on cancer rates," he wrote. "A certain level of intake is necessary to prevent nutrient deficiencies, but intakes above that level do not make the relavant tissues 'super healthy'."

Holistic neo-colonialism

2010-12-04T11:02:00.003+08:00

Here's another fascinating article from the latest issue of Nova: EarthSky. In this article Jeremy Ball relates a mysterious and spooky tale. He accompanies a Central Arrente elder and shaman and is told a tale of a cave that collapsed on "22 spiritual adepts" sheltering from a storm and who, understandably enough, were quite grumpy about this and thus became "wrathful protector spirits".

In my heart I knew I had been brought here to lead a soul release ceremony (one helping disincarnate beings move on to another realm, the realm intended for them at the time of their physical death and for disincarnate spirits that have lodged themselves in places the Great Spirit did not intend for them).

The Aboriginal elder attempts to light a fire unsuccessfully, but Jeremy steps in to help:

I knew in my heart that for some reason this time it needed to done in a different way. So I gently whispered in Frank's ear telling him of the process I had used in several places around the world, to good effect, to assist spirits in leaving this plane. I felt Frank take into his heart what I had said and he walked forward, calling out to the spirits to let them know we had arrived. He bent down to make a small fire from twigs and kindling to burn the herbs he had picked, but try as he might, the fire would not light. Two or three of us helped bring more dry kindling but, although there was no wind, the fire would not light at all - the spirits were resisting.

Frank and I have developed an almost telepathic connection and we could both feel on this occasion we needed to try something else. After several attempts to light the fire, Frank looked at me and nodded for me to use internal means. This demonstrates his humility, wisdom and connectedness - used to performing near miracle healings on a daily basis, he knew on this occasion a combination of techniques was required.

I explained the process to the group present and we formed a circle and, using our imagination, created specific geometric and colour templates within the psychic sphere. Once these were in place, I called on Archangel Sandalphon, Archangel Uriel and, of course, Archangel Michael to be present and perform the process.

Jeremy Ball explains why his method worked, but EoR is still trying to understand his explanation. Essentially, it seems that indigenous peoples' spiritual path "descends" into the earth, but Jesus taught us that the better spiritual path "ascends" into the heavens, and Mr Ball teaches us that "the time has come for us to embrace the two together, to unite the polarities".

For all his Newage words, Mr Ball is reiterating here the same beliefs that drove the Colonialist era. He may not be using the language of "primitives" needing "education" to raise them to the higher standards of white Europeans, but his neo-Colonialism is the same ideology. It takes the wise(r) white man to show the less capable indigenous race how to resolve their spiritual problems. He isn't teaching them to be good Protestants, but his rambling about a baker's dozen of newage angels is just as alien and just as inappropriate.

While the beliefs of Aboriginal people can be quite charming, they're incomplete and it's up to the spiritually better to show them how it should be done.

A concluding note from the editor warns, chillingly:

Jeremy urges caution in undertaking these practices as, if handled incorrectly, the outcome can be negative

Deck the halls with swathes of woo

2010-12-03T10:06:00.004+08:00

The latest issue of independent science journal¹ Nova includes some timely help with the top eight Feng Shui remedies for Christmas². Leaving aside the fact that the ancient Chinese apparently had the foresight to develop helpful hints for a Western religious celebration, these may well make your Christmas a joy instead of a trial:

Place metal wind chimes in the south of your house, or hang a metal ball around your door knob, or put six coins or a five element pagoda in a bowl of salted water. "Whichever works best for you". EoR presumes you might get through quite a few Christmas celebrations before you determine which is 'best'.

Put six metal coins, or a Calabash, in the northwest. Well, just because.

Put the colour red in the west. This will stop the 'energy of arguments'. Presumably while your relatives wonder why you've painted everything red, and whether it's safe to remain in the house with you.

Avoid the Christmas rush by making a gift list in November. EoR may have missed something, but he can't quite see what this has to do with feng shui. Nor why Nova have waited until December to publish it.

Budget the spending on your gifts. Yet another feng shui tip that seems remarkably unrelated to feng shui. And which is clearly wrong since The Secret (or The Power (or whatever marketing name they're using this year)) says you can have everything now!

Have a Christmas card list. Because ancient Chinese sages said so, presumably.

Put your Christmas tree in "an area where the family often comes together". So no more placing it in the spare room, or the garage.

"Lastly, look after your 'inner chi'" by exercising and not drinking too much. EoR had never realised feng shui had some helpful lifestyle tips as well.

EoR's Advertisement of the Month award this issue goes to the seller of the oxymoronic "New Age Party Plan".

1: Based on the publication of science-based health advice from Dr Dingle.
2: Which rather implies that 'Christmas' is a 'dis-ease' that needs treating. Perhaps it's an imbalance in the gift chakras?

Ants on crucifix. Civilisation doomed.

2010-12-02T10:08:00.004+08:00

Christians are demonstrating solidarity with Muslims by making us join them in paying obeisance to their own particular strange beliefs. The (US) National Portrait Gallery has pulled a video because of horribly offensive depictions that have upset and humiliated Christians, belittling their deeply held beliefs and confronting them with things they just don't want to know about, labelling it "hate speech". The offending image? A crucifix with ants crawling over it.

As Blake Gopnik points out though:

Of course, it's pretty clear that this has almost nothing to do with religion. Eleven seconds of an ant-covered crucifix? Come on.

This fuss is about the larger topic of the show: Gay love, and images of it. The headline that ran over coverage of the matter on the right-wing Web site CNSnews.com mentioned the crucifix - but as only one item in a list of the exhibition's "shockers" that included "naked brothers kissing, genitalia and Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts." (Through a bra, one might note, in an image that's less shocking than many moves by Lady Gaga.) The same site decries "a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as 'homoerotic'. "

Ladies: don't ever touch your own breasts. God will smite you.

And 'homoerotic'? Isn't that in the eye of the beholder? There's something in the Bibble about motes and beams...

Meanwhile, in Australia politicians have been forced by a vote in Parliament to determine what their constituents want in relation to gay marriage. As if it isn't already the fundamental requirement of politicians to act on behalf of their electorates. EoR's own particularly right wing member has, so far, failed to contact him. Given that he's obviously doing his best to take over Wilson Tuckey's role as Chief Lunatic in the Parliament, EoR isn't expecting him to come calling anytime soon.

Thanks to Liz Ditz for pointing out that today is Cthulhu Day, part of the celebrations of which include "Pin the Tail on the Lurking Fear" and "Summonings of temporarily defunct deities". It's good to see that the Catholic League and Don Randall are getting into the spirit of things.

How would a World Refugee Year go today?

2010-12-01T10:24:00.004+08:00

EoR always suspected Superman was a bleeding heart liberal supporter of queue jumpers and illegals.

(Click to enlarge)

Thistle thoughts (11)

2010-11-30T10:47:00.000+08:00

EoR, having accidentally sat on some thistles, ponders the State of Things...

Has anyone studied which produces more heat: global warming, or the misinformation promulgated by industry and political interest groups in the furtherance of ideological buttressing?

Psychic continues to maintain accuracy level by failing to find missing person

2010-11-29T10:22:00.002+08:00

Back in May and June EoR looked at the efforts by Chris Roubis to psychically locate missing person Hayley Dodd. In summary, Mr Roubis "saw":

She was buried under an oak tree near a creek within a 20 mile radius of where she was picked up

There are other young girls buried in the area

The culprit is 40+ (but looks young for his age) with dark brown or black hair and a moustache, big, 5.7 - 5.9", Aboriginal, has a scar on his face, is also White and with tattoos on his arms

He has also killed 3-6 other girls

He has killed 3 girls and 1 boy

He lives in the area in a duplex and probably has mental problems

The oak tree could be a "huge" tree

Astute readers will note that these guesses are either self-contradictory, or so vague as to be useless (since Hayley Dodd disappeared in 1999, it would be safe to assume that anyone who killed her would be around 40+ now, for example). Other psychics are called upon, muddying the waters even further, suggesting it was an Aboriginal in his forties at the time, or two people, and names are known (but not, of course, named). After the relevant thread was commented on by another sceptical blogger, various threats were made, the psychic believers turned on each other, and the thread was eventually closed to the public.

Mr Roubis has now started up another thread which, if the subject matter wasn't so serious, and the random guesses probably so painful for the family of Hayley Dodd, would be the stuff of farce.

Margaret Dodd has been played with over the years by fakes and opportunists, but that is no excuse to be playing with us....

Even when, no matter how deludedly you believe you are 'psychic', you are one of the fakes and opportunists?

A poster claiming to be Margaret Dodd (and quite possibly is) asked for some information known only to her and Hayley in order to gauge the self-titled psychic's truth. Sceptics will realise this is the one thing psychics can't provide, unless the person first gives it to them so that it can be stated back as a 'fact' revealed by 'spirits'.

And as for your negative comments towards me i feel you are being unjust. Rember when you first started the forum on Hayley and the information was so far from the truth? You said sorry deleated the post and said that you had been misslead by fake psychic's and you should have trusted in yourself. Are you supprised that i am a sceptic when you are also misslead by other psychic. I am sorry that people on your forum are bickering and because of this i agree the best thing you can do is close it down because it is not helping to find Hayley.

Far from newage hoslistc caring-and-sharing people, psychics are the most self-centred individuals around it would seem. Mr Roubis calls in a psychic from the US who, like all the other psychics, clearly fails to make any progress, and then storms off in a huff:

Now this lady from USA is so annoyed by peoples lack of respect.. that she will never ever help anyone regarding this missing case...

Yes, she can solve this case. But she won't now! She's taking her crystal ball, and she's going home! You see: farce and tragedy combined, in the person of a psychic throwing a tantrum that would make a two year old proud.

As if the failures, invective and bitterness weren't enough to prove how useless and timewasting 'psychics' are, Mr Roubis unfortunately posts a chat transcript with a "lovely US Psychic that i brought in to help with the case.."* There is an amusing (and lengthy) passage where Mr Roubis and Lovely Psychic attempt to use Google Earth. Mr Roubis keeps sending her links to the relevant page, but she can't seem to get Google Earth to work for her... Why a psychic needs to use Google Earth in the first place is beyond EoR, especially since she's in 'contact' with Hayley Dodd, but then why she can't get it to work stuns him (aren't there any geek spirits around to provide guidance for her on how to use a web browser?). Later she has to take a break to go to the shop for "fags & choc". This really is one classy and professional psychic.

Lovely Psychic is clearly a proponent of cold reading (ask questions, and hope the suckers give you confirmatory information that you can parrot back at them) since she keeps complaining that "see i need her mother for this" and at one point asking for "pics whatever she can provide or the cops" to help her. At one stage (while she's 'communicating' on the ethereal planes with Hayley) she asks Mr Roubis if Hayley has a sister. Doesn't Hayley know this herself? The scamming is so blatant how can anyone fall for it? She also has "some kind of stepfather or uncle" and, when this isn't confirmed, "a male role model." So, the guesses become vaguer and vaguer, in the desperate attempt to try and match something, even if it might apply to virtually the whole human race. Hayley shows "a small dog". There's nothing to say she owns it, or her family owns it, or she had a dog once, or someone she knew had a dog once, or maybe she saw a dog once. Who knows? Who cares? What's the relevance? As far as EoR can determine, the only true statement she ever makes is:

this is just wastin time

Out of the mouths of babes and charlatans...

She claims that Hayley Dodd is buried in bush 10 feet from a gravel road. And there are buildings and signs. There are lots of gravel roads in the country. And buildings. And signs. And her 'guesses' confict completely with the other guesses made earlier by the other brilliant psychics (and this time, we're back to only one culprit, and he has "some kind of pitchfork in his hand" — could it be the Devil?).

None of the psychics seem to have foreseen that a prisoner would claim to be the murderer (though at this stage it is only hearsay, and there is no proof that he wasn't just confabulating to other prisoners).

EoR waits with baited breath to see how long the current revelatory thread lasts.

*True to form, Mr Roubis has edited the thread, removing the transcript of the chat session between himself and the "lovely" psychic. In the interests of proving that you can never delete anything once it has been placed on the internet, and in the belief that psychics should be exposed for their rambling inaccuracies, EoR preserves here the full transcript (and, yes, the original was in blue):

marymagdolane1: i can locate this girl can see the rd an area of bushes she is passed love
marymagdolane1: strangulation
GraFix: ok
GraFix: ty
marymagdolane1: I am not going to tell the mother that immediately
marymagdolane1: i see a sign further back also this is a gravel rd
GraFix: the mother cannot view the private forum
GraFix: so u can put it in there
marymagdolane1: im worried about others confusing love at this point im not reading theres right now till i focus
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: this girls been gone a while love hu
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: they've searched this area with dogs but missed it
marymagdolane1: damn wish it was over here nto gonna be able to walk there bit too far for me to go love
GraFix: that would be cool
marymagdolane1: i can see the rd i can see the bushes she's like 10feet in
GraFix: wow
marymagdolane1: this is what i do i walk it in my mind remote view
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: connect to the person & it just falls one after the other like a puzzle
GraFix: there are maps in the forum if u want to see
marymagdolane1: man , friend, pic ,road, Bush, sign<
marymagdolane1: now a map i can look at just not worded info
marymagdolane1: & her pic
marymagdolane1: i keep seeing this young man with some kind of pitch fork looking thing
marymagdolane1: chatting to her
marymagdolane1: friendly at this point
marymagdolane1: like "hey how r yu"
GraFix: map is in the forums and u can also use google earth
marymagdolane1: she's a bit shy
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: see diff scenarios leading up coming in now
marymagdolane1: whats the place called just the name of the nearest town
marymagdolane1: no specifics though just place
GraFix: hang on
marymagdolane1: i will look at it on google
GraFix: Badjingara township, Brand highway & North West Road.
marymagdolane1: whooaa north west rd
marymagdolane1: hold up
GraFix: in Western Australia
marymagdolane1: ffs
marymagdolane1: wont bring it up as typed
GraFix: do u have google earth?
marymagdolane1: whooa
marymagdolane1: dense area
GraFix: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&rl ... a=N&tab=wl
marymagdolane1: yeah lookin at brand highway but want that rd
GraFix: focus in more it will show the names
marymagdolane1: kk
marymagdolane1: here we go
marymagdolane1: im on satillite
GraFix: great
GraFix: clik on earth
GraFix: u will see everything
marymagdolane1: k downloading
marymagdolane1: yep thats what i want specific area
marymagdolane1: like im walkin there
GraFix: ye
marymagdolane1: i feel her in spirit hon in the distance here she's startin to connect
GraFix: great
marymagdolane1: her mothers had a llot a bs thrown at her from cops also they dont know wtf there doin
marymagdolane1: so much confusion
marymagdolane1: from get go
marymagdolane1: & they did not move fast enough
GraFix: yep
marymagdolane1: this man is still out there he knows it is one man
marymagdolane1: but others know some details
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: he has told at least two people
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: seh did not suffer allot dear
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: it was frustration on his part
marymagdolane1: like a snap
GraFix: ok
GraFix: did he work on the farm with the others?
GraFix: was it the one hayley was visiting?
marymagdolane1: mm sorta kinda he was different though
GraFix: going to
marymagdolane1: fromt he others
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: they may have questioned this man i feel hes very quiet unnassuming
marymagdolane1: young though
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: teens to 20s
marymagdolane1: early
GraFix: so the guy she liked was the one that did this?
marymagdolane1: they had chatted would'nt like to say it was "the" one
marymagdolane1: as of yet
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: depends if this guy fits the description of the dark hair 5'8 i can see him in my mind
GraFix: so he met her on the road?
marymagdolane1: yes
marymagdolane1: she was walking
GraFix: he gave her a lift?
marymagdolane1: no he had no vehicle
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: he has some kind of pitchfork in his hand like hes working
GraFix: so he just dragged her to the bushes?
marymagdolane1: stop love lol
marymagdolane1: i have to let it comet hrough as is
GraFix: sorry
marymagdolane1: dont put shit in my head hahahah
marymagdolane1: bless ya
GraFix: hehe
marymagdolane1: he was walking chatting as far as i can see it was a snap thing
GraFix: oh
marymagdolane1: fffs this is takin forever to unload
marymagdolane1: im gonna run out & get some fags
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: this has got me gripped now babe
GraFix: can i post this text in the forums if u like?
marymagdolane1: hold up first i dont want anyone puttin there ore in yet lol i really want to speak to this mother so i hope she emails me i dont think she'd want this out there till i speak to her it would be bad for her
GraFix: its a private forum
marymagdolane1: plus the cops are stillinvestigating they have not closed the case yet right
GraFix: she cannot see it
marymagdolane1: no its a few of the folks in there love one specifically not yu baby i trust yu totally
marymagdolane1: someone could get to her
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: on face book iven if the innocentely mentioned it elsewhere
marymagdolane1: yu get my meaning love
marymagdolane1: its not about me not about them its about the family & the girl
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: & she can then choose to share the info witht he cops or not
marymagdolane1: this is how i work i tell them this innitially yu can choose to use what i give yu or not
marymagdolane1: out of respect for them i never go around them to the cops
marymagdolane1: or to others
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: kk babe be right back this things takin forever to download anyway
marymagdolane1: oh & definately yu save the text if yu can
GraFix: ok i will
GraFix: ty
marymagdolane1: cause sometimes i will forget things i have received
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: well just been to store got fags & choc i eat allot when i do this cause of the energy drain love, still this has not downloaded
marymagdolane1: i asked haley to try & come through clearer, she is disturbed ont he other side love, I've asked her to come through for her mum & tell me does she have a sister
marymagdolane1: sorry askin yu that does she have a sister?
GraFix: yes
marymagdolane1: kk
marymagdolane1: she gives this to me
marymagdolane1: while i was int he car she was distressed somewhat its her passing they can stay like this sometimes for many of our yrs
GraFix: ok
GraFix: poor thing
marymagdolane1: but she definately needs help there & her family need help here desperately
marymagdolane1: & I will try my damdest to clear this
GraFix: ty
marymagdolane1: this has gone on way to long
GraFix: yes
marymagdolane1: tell me also i sense some kind of stepfather earthbound or uncle close to her
GraFix: probably
marymagdolane1: a male role model
marymagdolane1: see i need her mother for this
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: the more i connect with others earthbound around her the clearer she will respond
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: she is untrusting
marymagdolane1: she's a wee girl
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: small in stature
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: shy but friendly
marymagdolane1: she's also showing me a small dog
marymagdolane1: earthbound
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: here again i need her mother
marymagdolane1: have yu ever spoken with the mother
marymagdolane1: this momans had enuff of bs
marymagdolane1: w
GraFix: i just messaged her to email u on her facebook
marymagdolane1: so many want something from her
marymagdolane1: want to get in on the act so to speak or have done
marymagdolane1: that pisses me off
GraFix: ye
marymagdolane1: thats why i will give her others to email so she can trust me first
marymagdolane1: i have two in australia she can talk to
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: is this supposed to take this long to download
marymagdolane1: on the phone with one of my clients brb
GraFix: no not that long, go back to satellite
marymagdolane1: kk
marymagdolane1: k off phone i have saved google earth instead of opened now i dont know where it is hahaha
marymagdolane1: aahh s my firewall
GraFix: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&rl ... adgingarra township, Brand highway & North West Road.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
marymagdolane1: ok earth is downloading properly now
marymagdolane1: bless ya lol
GraFix: lol no bless you my darling girl
marymagdolane1: see i have to work two seperate areas i have the remote viewing psychic end & the spirit end with her personal info & then conjoin them
marymagdolane1: the circle narrows as i go
GraFix: awesome ty
marymagdolane1: it is no accident yu told me about this ya know love
GraFix: oh i bet it wasnt
marymagdolane1: & yu are an intricut part of this procedure
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: person connects with another 7 another etc
marymagdolane1: &
GraFix: agreed
marymagdolane1: i promise yu i will not give up on this for this family
GraFix: ty
marymagdolane1: noone should have to deal with this for so long
GraFix: true
marymagdolane1: k now i dont know how much yu know about the police but was there a mother of a young man questioned yu may not know this
marymagdolane1: im on earth now about to start roaming
GraFix: probably was mary
marymagdolane1: yep get the mother of this young man
marymagdolane1: but haleys mother probably can answer these
marymagdolane1: there are two national parks in this vacinity but not feeling there
marymagdolane1: caravan park
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: i cant get the rds its this rd i want
GraFix: focus in more, u may see it on the map
marymagdolane1: do yu have this rd pinpointed on yur map on yur site
GraFix: yes
GraFix: have a look at the pics in therte
GraFix: or let me show u
marymagdolane1: yeah i gotta get to that rd
marymagdolane1: this is just wastin time
marymagdolane1: the terrain is so large
marymagdolane1: allot a small towns
marymagdolane1: theres a building to the right of where she's walking but in the distance
marymagdolane1: im surrised none of these psychics have pulled to this place
marymagdolane1: this rd
marymagdolane1: p
GraFix: ok hang on
marymagdolane1: kk babe sorry love
marymagdolane1: damn if i could just go there sucks donnit
GraFix: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=coocle ... =en&tab=wl
GraFix: true
GraFix: Badgingarra
GraFix: follow north west road
GraFix: in western australia
marymagdolane1: this is just not close enuff
marymagdolane1: i can see this singular small rd
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: like a side rd
marymagdolane1: do ya get my meaning
marymagdolane1: off the beaten track
marymagdolane1: thats teh problem
marymagdolane1: i have to span out
marymagdolane1: if i were in the area i could see with my own eyes & recognise it
marymagdolane1: i have to focus more on the situation that incurred the family the girl
marymagdolane1: i do know that right close to this spot there is a large building that does'nt look like it belongs in the terraine
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: this young man no longer is in this area
marymagdolane1: but so much shit surrounding it he says she says confusion
marymagdolane1: in the end the cops lost there focus
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: see i had one once where the child was near a lake problem was there were two lakesi felt swamp land & the body on top of the water wetness she was inbetween the two lakes in bogged area i got confused between under water & above water
GraFix: oh ok
marymagdolane1: its the same with anything singular we get a spot sometimes we can see the exact spot its pinpointing the surrounding area for people to look, when im at a place i get a body pull like magnetics
GraFix: wow awesome
marymagdolane1: i see buildings signs etc
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: when from a distance
marymagdolane1: i also have had a few where im the person being murdered or the murderer in there thoughts, or standing outside of them looking in
marymagdolane1: its like snap shots click click click
GraFix: cool
marymagdolane1: how do yu do this
marymagdolane1: i find psychics do this in different ways
marymagdolane1: & some are just psychics & not mediums
GraFix: i just get images
marymagdolane1: can yu focus on the individuals moving
GraFix: not yet
marymagdolane1: yu need to yu can do this graf
marymagdolane1: yu have studied metaphysics the physics of this
GraFix: im not going to push, i always blok myself
marymagdolane1: yeah thats common early on love just relax let it flow in collect yur thoughts on paper if yu have to & put them together
GraFix: ty i'll try
marymagdolane1: see this is why i like to have a family member cause the more connection i have to them the clearer it becomes
GraFix: understandable
marymagdolane1: i had an australian lady come through on my facebook i did not add her she did not add me we were like who r yu? turns out her son had died a yr earlier he came through right here in my room, she had never heard of mediums so i had to explain why this had happened & her son then prodeded to give me info, she sent me a huge package of ausy stuff a few weeks ago to thank me bless her we are close friends now
marymagdolane1: see how spirit connects us
GraFix: awww
marymagdolane1: i also sent her to anothe rmedium friend of mine in the uk for her healing partwe must all share it is important to bring all of us in
marymagdolane1: accept for the wannabees that harm lol
GraFix: true
marymagdolane1: i am going to focus on this later love she is with me haley just in the distance I will be able to bring her in eventually, but cant emphasis enuff the mother input this is her keyhopefully she will email me.
GraFix: ok ty
marymagdolane1: oh ic
marymagdolane1: yu should send her what yu saved yesterday
marymagdolane1: but i will also email her
GraFix: ok
GraFix: so she maybe 10 feet from the road?
marymagdolane1: so she can check with others before she speaks with me i want her to feel comfortable otherwise she will block me
marymagdolane1: theres no maybe its which section of rd
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: thats where im having the issue i need to see the actual place surrounding area
marymagdolane1: pics whatever she can provide or the cops
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: i can see it in my mind clearly & this building to the right of where she was walking
marymagdolane1: i can see the man
GraFix: wow
marymagdolane1: i just have to have verification of some things
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: now her body is clearly gonna be mostely gone
marymagdolane1: but there are fragments
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: yu have animals there also digging
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: sorry to be blunt but these are the facts
GraFix: yep
marymagdolane1: it is actually better for me to discuss these things with the cops directely the mother is too emmotional of course
GraFix: true
marymagdolane1: but i will not do that with out her go ahead
GraFix: ok
marymagdolane1: the family is the most important part of this as i said yesterday

marymagdolane1: & as for the haley case the mother is very quiet love im not sure if she wants to deal witht his
GraFix: oh ok ty for trying
marymagdolane1: her trust is destroyed seemingly
marymagdolane1: I sent her an email back & said I will give her or yu any info I get & she can do with it what she will
GraFix: ok ty
GraFix: ty for trying
marymagdolane1: It almost feels like & I may be wrong, that she does'nt want to know yu get my meaning
marymagdolane1: like it would be too hard for her the reality
GraFix: i understand

How not to run an online store

2010-11-28T10:56:00.003+08:00

So, EoR was browsing online for a new television antenna...

Click to enlarge.

The madness of altie practitioners (again)

2010-11-27T11:31:00.004+08:00

If you wanted to make a horror-thriller, you couldn't do better than a mad scientist who had been debarred from practising medicine, but continued his arcane experiments in some remote location, killing innocent victims in his insane search to perfect a cure for cancer.

Sadly, it's not a film script and it's not a thriller, it's terrifyingly real.

The WA Coroner has recently been considering the deaths of five people receiving an alternative cancer 'cure' promoted by Hellfried Sartori, aka Abdul-Haqq Sartori. Local doctor, Alexandra Boyd, is also under investigation for making her home available to have the treatment administered (involving intravenous administration of various substances including cesium chloride, magnesium and potassium, as well as coffee enemas). Perhaps wisely, she chose not to actually be present during the treatments.

Some of Sartori's 'alternative' views are that cancer drugs kill people, not cancer, and that giving a patient a diagnosis of cancer is one of the most dangerous things a GP can do.

He said the majority of cancers were caused by "acute shock experiences" and when doctors told patients they had cancer, the shock of the news could cause the body to develop secondary cancers.

Under questioning, Dr Sartori confirmed he believed anti-cancer drugs were the major cause of death in cancer patients and he totally opposed chemotherapy.
"Nature wants to heal itself and you have to provide the proper conditions. This is the art here," he said.

In fact, he 'knows' that cancers are caused by traumatic events:

According to Sartori, almost all cancers are caused by an acute shock after a traumatic event, and he says that if this event involves a son or daughter, breast cancer tumours will grow on the left breast, as was the case with his mother.

"All of these tumours have a biological sense; for the child, this tumour grows as long as the conflict is active; after she [the mother] sees the child has recovered, the tumour stops growing.

"Then there is certain bacteria, they remove this cancer from the breast and all is gone."

His treatments cost his clients thousands of dollars — one of those who died paid $35,000, others paid up to $40,000.

Claiming to have cured "up to 10,000" patients, EoR can't decide whether Sartori has a grandiose personality disorder or not. Of course "up to" also includes numbers such as zero. He is certainly not above lying to gain his ends, failing to reveal a US criminal record when seeking Australian registration.

Dr Sartori spent three years in jail in the US for practising medicine after his licence was revoked. When asked whether he had lied when filling out the Australian forms, Dr Sartori shrugged and said: "Well, I did".

He said he did not consider writing vitamin prescriptions for patients were grounds for his convictions in the US.

Dr Kemp read out a 1984 report from medical authorities in the US state of Maryland saying Dr Sartori was "seriously deficient in medical knowledge and judgment" and below the standard of a competent family practitioner.

Sartori has also been jailed in Thailand for fraud and practising without a license.

Those who failed to recover from his unorthodox treatments (the Coroner raised the matter of 24 Australian deaths in a two year period) receive the usual altie total lack of compassion, with the patients variously being blamed for not thinking positively enough, "eating pizza and getting drunk", or the patient's partner being to blame. Or, in the 20th November edition of The West Australian, that classic altie excuse for utter failure, "a homeopathic healing crisis" (which seems most bizarre of all, since these patients weren't even receiving homeopathic treatments, though he makes the same claim in his marketing material*). Also, like other alties facing the Coroner, he seems very ready to blame everyone else except himself.

Sartori described the proceedings as "more than a witch-hunt". Well, given that Sartori was peddling witchcraft, it seems entirely appropriate to EoR for the chief witch to answer for his actions.

The case is currently in recess and resumes later next year, when Dr Boyd will appear. It will be interesting to see who she blames.

*His method is so mad that it's almost funny that he charges his treatment for large tumours by the kilogram of tumour.

Next thing you know they'll be playing croquet

2010-11-26T10:41:00.004+08:00

Photoshopped, or real? A flock of flamingos gather into a giant avian group form. Is this the ornithological equivalent of crop circles? Were they responding to strange geomagnetic energies in an attempt to communicate with passing UFOs? Or are they simply saying "So long and thanks for all the fish"?

Bigger versions available here.

Robin Day (1915-2010)

2010-11-25T10:25:00.001+08:00

Sit down and take a moment to consider this man's effect on your life.

Rare is the human backside that hasn’t found solace and support in Mr. Day’s most famous creation, a molded polypropylene shell fastened to an enameled bent tubular steel base that has become familiar seating in schools, churches, offices, auditoriums, home patios, kitchens, dens, bedrooms and basements around the world.

Positively swishing forward fast to desired energy

2010-11-24T10:19:00.004+08:00

EoR has been aware of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) for decades, but never really thought much of it other than some sort of wacky fringe mind programming cult. It has been brought to his attention, however, by the constant advertising from the local bonecracker who, regardless of his constant claims that the 'body has the power to heal' and chiropractic's miracle cures, still feels the need to pile on improbable therapy on top of improbable therapy, including trigger point therapy and kinesiology (the applied — fake — kind). Not only that, but his advertising also includes a Christian ichthos so, presumably, prayer helps as well. Now NLP is included in the package:

NLP life coach Terri Messenger said she offers NLP studied by Bandler & Professor Grinder to move people forward fast and effectively. "It's the study of human excellence and how people think on a neuro-synaptic level," she said. "It models Milton Erickson, Fritz Pearls [sic] and Virginia Satir. It is successeful in the fast phobia cure and swish pattern. These are some techniques used to beat depressive, anxious, fearful and addictive states. People can expect to reach desired states of energy, motivation and positivity very quickly."

Now, perhaps EoR is alone in seeing that as gibberish, but he'd never realised just how deeply mad NLP is. Even though its practitioners seem to be heavily skewed towards the holistic kind where the preference is for the deeply mad.

While there are seemingly millions of sites on the internet explaining NLP, Wikipedia provides a good single-source summary.

To sort out some of those names Ms Messenger rattles off: Bandler and Grinder were the originators of NLP back in the seventies. Fritz Perls was a gestalt therapist, and Virginia Satir was another therapist, both of whom inspired the creation of NLP. They were not, however, part of NLP.

NLP does not appear to have any sort of scientific validation of any kind. Instead, its practitioners seem to rely on the double edged sword of "it works for me" and "it can't be tested scientifically". Long term skeptics will recognise the cri de coeur favoured of homeopathic practitioners in the face of all evidence that their preferred form of magic is, in reality, a placebo.

Perhaps the single most telling condemnation of how brilliant NLP is in increasing energy, motivation and 'positivity' is the protracted and acrimonious breakup of Bandler and Grinder, and the subsequent court cases. If it doesn't work for the creators, what hope for the rest of the world?

Furthermore, like cults that break up into increasingly more isolated subcults, NLP has a plethora of forms. Wikipedia notes that you can become an NLP practitioner in Europe with only 2-3 days of training. For the truly dedicated, those prepared to devote themselves longterm to the hard slog, you can become a professional in a wearying 35-40 days. In Australia, the average seems to be around a week to become a fully qualified practitioner, though you could opt for the incredibly lengthier 13 day training course (though that does, of course, give you "3 international certificates"). That last site offers scientific proof of all the claimed miracles that NLP delivers ("Click here to find out what the latest research has shown about NLP Practitioner Training in Australia"). Unfortunately, that link only takes you to a solitary recommendation from a fellow coach.

I know all this to be true because I've worked with Wilbert before on various projects and I've also had him as my coach...and he's brilliant! One of the best.

In the context of "lastest research" it's worth less than nothing.

But what is that bizarre 'swish pattern'? Apparently it is

The process of taking a behaviour or state and changing the submodalities to enhance a new behaviour or state, sometimes accompanied by a noise like swwwwishhhh at the time of changing them.

It involves two (imaginary) pictures, one showing the desired behaviour and one the negative behaviour which are swapped around faster and faster — the 'swishing'. It basically seems to be a method of distracting yourself from an unwanted or negative behaviour. Whether it works or not is another question. But if the next public speaker you see stands on stage sweating nervously, and making 'swish' noises over and over, at least now you'll know why.

What's that noise? Swwwwiiiissshhhh.... Oh, it's the sound of evidence disappearing...

Nature knows best

2010-11-23T10:29:00.001+08:00

We all know that "[m]ost animals are natural herbalists, often seeking out particular herbs when needed". So how does it happen that 40 horses have died from eating a poisonous plant?

Were these a particularly stupid herd of horses? Or was it a mass suicide pact?

Experiencing magical courses

2010-11-22T10:25:00.001+08:00

There is so much wrong with this...

The Australian reports on an Australian Universities Quality Audit report into the Endeavour College of Natural Health (report available here).

The Australian doesn't list the full "13 recommendations, four commendations and two affirmations" in the report, but notes that students

were largely cynical towards the college's management and were "not impressed" with the state of facilities, "particularly as they are paying what they perceive to be large fees".

Students were critical of the College's "student experience" and the report also noted the College's "cultural challenges".

EoR has no idea what these marketing weasel words have to do with education. Are the ~~students~~ ~~customers~~ ~~clients~~ stakeholders attending College for the "experience" rather than an education? And what sort of "experience"? Relevant, accurate knowledge? Intellectual debate? Examinations? Rigorous tutors? The student bar? The night life?

Of course, the glaring omission here, as in the UK, is that the Australian authorities will license any sort of course if it meets certain management and regulatory provisions. The actual content of that course can be as wacky, unproven or magical as you like. What, for instance, is the real world basis for teaching units such as Chakra Meridian Interface or Acupuncture Channel Theory?

Thistle thoughts (11)

2010-11-20T10:57:00.001+08:00

EoR, having accidentally sat on some thistles, ponders the State of Things...

How much formaldehyde does it take to choke a horse?

Toy stores promoting paedophilia!

2010-11-19T10:21:00.003+08:00

According to the trashier end of the media spectrum the new Barbie doll (which also contains a camera in it) is the latest moral panic that will destroy our society.

EXPERTS have slammed a new Barbie doll incorporating a hidden video camera, as a potential paedophile's paradise.

Barbie Video Girl encourages children to get creative and film themselves playing.

A tiny camera is built into the doll's necklace.

The report fails to justify its rabid claim that paedophiles will be using this as their new 'paradise'. They get a quote from a clinical psychologist who says

"I am calling for all Australians to boycott this product and to refuse to shop in any store that justifies selling this potentially pornographic tool."

which is not quite the same thing, and a spokeswoman from the Australian Council on Children and the Media who describes the doll as "disturbing".

EoR wonders just how many girls already have mobile phones. With cameras in them. The horror.

Or how many potential paedophiles lurking right near your daughters have laptops. With cameras in them. The horror.

And how much of this is simple technophobia from adults who aren't digital natives and who feel threatened by the younger generations' ease of use with these devices?

The New York Times provides a more sober account of the new toy.

“Creepy!” said nearly every boy I showed her to; “Cool!” said the girls, who immediately got the idea of the toy — to make movies from Barbie’s point of view.

It's interesting to note that the "creepy" response in the Herald Sun was from a boy journalist. Rather than focusing on how technology might be abused (Shut down the internetz! There's pr0n on it!) shouldn't the fact that this toy seems to have a specifically female-oriented attraction, and is designed to provide an outlet for girls' creativity be celebrated?

Or perhaps we should only be giving girls toys that prepare them for their proper place in the world: pregnant, in the kitchen, and definitely not competing with men?

Actually, the only thing that EoR finds truly creepy about this toy is the New York Times' x-ray photo of it...

Ill winds

2010-11-18T10:08:00.002+08:00

We're already well aware of the significant negative health effects caused by random electromagnetic frequencies (seemingly, only from high tension power lines and mobile phones — all other sources such as television signals, microwaves, computers, wall cabling and so on do not cause problems) but what about the terrible and hidden health costs of renewable energy sources?

Dr Sarah Laurie has raised the terrible spectre of "wind farm sickness".

Dr Sarah Laurie, medical director of the newly formed Waubra Foundation, has forwarded to executives of Hepburn Wind a letter she wrote to Premier John Brumby, in which she says she's shocked at the extent and severity of symptoms in patients she has encountered with "wind farm sickness".

[...]

Symptoms included a sudden acute severe headache, nausea, a sensation of "their heart leaping out of their chest", and they feel extremely unwell.

"This pattern of symptoms is associated with a dangerously high blood pressure, and warrants immediate medical attention," Dr Laurie said.

A Wind Farm Director interviewed for the report notes that Dr Laurie is discussing "very small numbers of patients" but the exact number is not given. The claims Dr Laurie makes also come from interviews, not any sort of study, and there appears to be no effort to match and compare with any sort of control group. Her letter to the Victorian Premier mentions five people (and another two who, it is not clear, may or may not be included in the five) who have suffered health problems, though she doesn't specify the total population this sample comes from. Nonetheless, Dr Laurie wants a 10 km buffer zone around wind farms.

The symptoms she describes sound eerily similar to those of EMF poisoning:

Commonly reported symptoms of EMF poisoning include sleep disorders, headaches, vision problems, sensitive skin, dizziness, chest pain and nausea.

It has been noted that people experiencing such symptoms have them only when they know that EMF radiation is present. However, if they are unaware of whether the radiation is present or not, there is no correlation between symptoms and EMF. It would be very interesting to know whether the same situation exists with wind farms.

EoR would also be interested in learning whether a Q Link pendant is equally effective for the new malaise as for EMF poisoning?

The Yorkshire Post is equally concerned, noting

a possible link between low-frequency noise of the type transmitted by wind farms and a rare condition called vibroacoustic disease – a complex illness that can lead to epilepsy and cancer.

Vibroacoustic disease appears to have mainly been studied by N Castelo Branco, who describes it thus:

Vibroacoustic disease (VAD) is a whole-body, systemic pathology, characterized by the abnormal proliferation of extra-cellular matrices, and caused by excessive exposure to low frequency noise (LFN). VAD has been observed in LFN-exposed professionals, such as, aircraft technicians, commercial and military pilots and cabin crewmembers, ship machinists, restaurant workers, and disk-jockeys.

Different frequencies are given, but the dangerous levels appear to be 500Hz or less, with lower frequencies being more dangerous. The authors state that decibel levels are not important:

Hence, two situations arise: a) it is not scientifically sound to compare the results of noise-related studies that describe their acoustical environments merely in terms of a dBlevel measurement (i.e., without a frequency spectrum analysis), and b) the results of noiserelated studies that do not report the frequency distribution of their acoustical environments cannot be compared to those that do.

The Clean Energy Council states:

[H]ealth problems stemming from wind farms might be related to the anxiety and stress a person might feel about living near turbines which is then “exacerbated by rhetoric, fears and negative publicity” in the media.

[...]

Australian guidelines for wind farm acoustics were among the most stringent in the world and noise levels were improving with advancement in turbine and blade technology and anti-wind farm campaigners could be responsible for creating their own health problems.

Of course, this sort of possible issue is manna from heaven for the climate change deniers. The Australian Environment Foundation has joined in the protest, calling for windfarm development to cease until all its concerns are addressed. Finding independent information about these matters has been some trouble for EoR, with interest groups on both sides putting their points of view, but any organisation with "environment" and "foundation" in its title these days is automatically suspect for being a duplicitous front for climate denial interest groups. Which the AEF, of course, is.

The Australian Environment Foundation is a front group founded by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a conservative Melbourne-based think tank.

The director of the environment unit of the IPA, Jennifer Marohasy was the founding Chairwoman and is listed as a Director in the organisation's documents with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). Mahorasy is also the listed registrant of the group's website, although the address and phone number for the website registration are identical to the address and phone number for the Victorian office of the logging industry front group, Timber Communities Australia.

Presumably, "Australian environment" means exploiting the Australian environment, and not sustainability. If the AEF truly believed in the precautionary principle, it would also be advocating action on climate change.

Dr Anthony L Rogers at the University of Massachusetts provides a powerpoint presentation offering some relevant information on noise and infrasound in relation to wind turbines. He notes (p.28)

No reliable evidence that infrasound below the hearing threshold produces physiological or psychological effects.

He also provides some intersting graphs (pp. 46-47) showing that annoyance levels increase faster for wind turbines than for comparable industrial noise, and also when people held negative attitudes towards turbines. These concerns were also related directly to audible noise, rather than infrasound.

Dr Laurie's letter of concern is now being quoted by politicians as a "study" in order to stop windfarm development.

[Bass MLA Ken] Smith said a study by a South Australian GP Dr Sarah Laurie, had shown that noise disturbance, sleep deprivation, headaches, increased blood pressure, body vibrations and tachycardia (fast or irregular heart beat) could all be symptoms of wind turbine syndrome.

Perhaps these people would also support shutting down Manhattan?

Noise in 98 percent of Manhattan's public space exceeds healthy levels, says a study co-authored by Columbia University researchers to be released today.

To summarise: there may be a possible link to windfarm turbines and vibroacoustic disease. VAD has, however, never been studied in this situation, nor is it clear that VAD itself exists. Evidence that much of the health issues experienced around windfarms may actually be psychosomatic is clearer.

Ask the vet redux

2010-11-17T10:33:00.000+08:00

This would be funny if it wasn't so true to life...

Clearly, this is not the vet EoR mentioned yesterday.

Ask the vet

2010-11-16T10:56:00.002+08:00

While reading Dr Dingle's latest proclamation in Nova, EoR also came across the following Q&A: A WORRYING LUMP - Animal Healing Q & A with Dr Clare Middle, BVMS CVA Cert1AVH.

A woman writes to holistic vet Dr Middle about her Pomeranian dog which has a tumour that she, as a pensioner, cannot afford to have treated with chemotherapy. That was two years ago, and now the lump is "40 or 50 cm in size".

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Pomeranians average 13-28cm high. If Nova is to be believed, the tumour has now grown to twice the size of the dog. Even if the dimensions are taken as 40-50mm it's still a large tumour, and the implication is that in the two years it has been growing its owner has not been back to the vet.

Dr Middle advises (EoR's emphasis):

It does sound as if the lump on Snowy's leg is a nasty one if the vet has recommended chemo. If it is a tumour of the bone, or an osteosarcoma, then it may have spread to other parts of the body, but small dogs rarely get this type of tumour. It is more likely to be a fibrosarcoma, which is unlikely to have spread. So if the vet has done a biopsy and knows it is this type of tumour, then this might sound drastic, but amputating the hind leg may be the best and most cost effective option if the lump is causing him pain. This would be easier and more successful than trying to remove the tumour, according to the information you have given me. Small breed dogs do not carry much weight on a hind leg and usually do well after an amputation.

However, if the lump is not causing him pain, that is, if he is using the leg without much of a limp, then it may be best to do nothing about it, or use herbs to reduce its growth rate. You can buy these herbs cheaply from a herbalist or health food shop which sells herbs, in either a dry herb or liquid tincture form. The herbs are, Burdock, Slippery Elm Bark, Sheep Sorrel, Red Clover, Indian or Turkish Rhubarb Root and Blessed Thistle.

Call EoR old fashioned and alarmist, but his recommendation would be for a vet to examine the dog urgently to determine the nature of the growth and how it has progressed. A fibrosarcoma is less likely to have spread, but is also extremely rare in comparison to osteosarcoma in dogs. How Dr Middle can differentiate based on a brief letter is an amazing demonstration of her skills.

Sadly, at 11 years old, and this advanced, it may well be that nothing can be done. Sitting back and seeing whether a hodge podge of herbs and doing nothing will effect a cure, however, are the sort of actions that kill people suffering from cancer.

Dr Middle also warns most strongly:

do NOT feed him dried commercial food, as the carbohydrate will weaken his immune system

because, you know, processed carbohydrates are all different from any other carbohydrates, with a completely different chemical structure, and they go straight for the immune system.

A pot and a kettle walk into a bar...

2010-11-15T10:27:00.003+08:00

Dr Peter Dingle's latest 'health advice from a non-health qualified person' in that esteemed journal of well researched information, Nova, is on the subject of published research on pharmaceuticals (EoR's emphasis):

An interesting dimension of pharmaceutical companies’ practices is that the same drug companies that reap money from drugs conduct the research, pay the researchers and control the research - including what is, and is not, published. Drug companies engage in censorship, bribery, corruption, fraud, suppression of negative studies and all varieties of unscrupulous tactics to sell their products; there are literally hundreds of studies that demonstrate this situation. At the simplest level, most medical research is financed by pharmaceutical companies seeking support for drugs that are either on the market or in development.

Big Pharma, we are informed, are nefarious, devious, malevolent and all powerful.

The influences employed include participant bias, ghost writing, pressure on researchers or, even worse, financial incentives for researchers, fake journals and just about any underhanded means by which a pharmaceutical company can achieve the outcomes it desires, including pressure on or removal of dissenting academics.

Strangely, Dr Dingle, as a dissenting academic, still has his job. Perhaps his powers of resistance are more powerful than the average academic?

Dr Dingle's argument is effectively the same one promoted by climate change deniers: scientists are corrupt, papers are faked, the science is made up. Don't believe it. They're only in it for the money!

To sum it up, the studies are rigged from the beginning, and still the doctors trust the research and the drug companies? If it were any other business, these companies would be out of business and no one would believe the information. So why do we do it here?

Of course, there are genuine concerns about industry influence on studies, but a more balanced and nuanced view of the issues involved would be better found at Bad Science than the Nova Journal of Fearmongering.

What is interesting, however, is not what Dr Dingle mentions but what he doesn't, since his arguments are so often selective presentations. There is, for instance, no discussion of Big Altie. What funding do they do? How do they influence the various studies they conduct (when they conduct them)? What funding does Dr Dingle receive, if any? His website includes a link to Nova on the front page, while Nova includes a link on its front page to Dr Dingle's site. Are these funded? What influence (whether stated or implied) might there be in this relationship? What other Doctors, naturopaths or organisations does Dr Dingle recommend? Do these, in return, recommend him? Is there any financial incentive, whether directly or indirectly? Does the fact that Dr Dingle is married to a naturopath influence his health recommendations? Is the fact that he has a conflict of interest from running a business promoting his unqualified health advice relevant? Is it more relevant for not being mentioned? EoR doesn't know, since there is no disclosure.

A serious question of ethics arises as a result of the strong link between the authors of most of the studies, at least the ones showing positive results, and the pharmaceutical companies. The disclosure of the associations reads like a Who’s Who of the pharmaceutical industry.

Is this also applicable to the altie world? Or do they play a purer game?

Thistle thoughts (10)

2010-11-14T11:38:00.001+08:00

EoR, having accidentally sat on some thistles, ponders the State of Things...

Since The Secret is an irrefutable Law of Science, it follows that every single individual in the entire universe can each have more than the sum total of all the wealth in the entire universe. Does that seem even slightly improbable?

Fearful symmetry

2010-11-13T12:08:00.005+08:00

A tiger is a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage and when he is exterminated – as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support – India will be the poorer by having lost the finest of her fauna
— Colonel Jim Corbett, 1944

The Guardian reports on the parlous state of tigers in the wild:

There are now just 3,200 tigers left in the wild. Three of the nine subspecies (the Bali, Javan and Caspian tigers) are extinct; a fourth, the South China, is also lost to the wild, with a few dozen specimens surviving in captivity.

Altie organisations argue that tigers are no longer used for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Andrew Lam has a bizarre argument that TCM never endorsed using tiger parts for enhancing virility. In fact:

Many doctors and practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine are angered by the suggestion by some environmentalists that tiger parts are prescribed as aphrodisiacs in TCM. Tiger parts, and tiger derived medicines -- especially tiger bone, tiger bone plaster, and tiger bone pills -- have indeed been constituents of the official pharmacopoeia of TCM, even appearing in textbooks used at Universities in Beijing as late as the early nineties and unfortunately, continue to be used to this day. However, tiger bone derivatives are principally used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other bone and joint related illnesses, and have never been used as aphrodisiacs within TCM.

So killing tigers because of a magical belief that their bones cure arthritis is different from killing tigers because of a magical belief that their bones cure impotence is relevant exactly how? The American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, on the other hand, believes that tiger parts are no longer used in TCM, at least in China.

Tiger trade bans have helped wild tigers, and alternatives to tiger bone are effective and plentiful. Why waste 14 years of progress by TCM, China and the world in reducing the market for tiger products?

The 'alternative' proposed is the dead parts of mole rats which, in an apparently powerful conjunction of TCM and homeopathy (since less mole rate is more powerful than more tiger), are even better than tiger bits.

In May 2007, the prestigious, state-owned laboratories at Tanggula Pharmaceutical Company, which is supported by China’s Northwest Institute of Biology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published results of 10 years of research showing that sailong (mole rat) bone “can completely substitute tiger bone for the effective treatment of rheumatism. Although sailong bone is smaller than tiger bone… its strength is obviously higher than tiger.”

China Daily reported in 2007

More than 20 years ago, Professor Zhang Baochen from the institute began to research the Sailong. He was amazed to find during his dissection of the rats that no cases of arthritis or other bone diseases had ever been identified in this species although the rats live in areas of low temperatures and high humidity.

Zhang said he realized that this rat's unique ability to fight rheumatism could hold hope for human beings afflicted with this disease.

Perhaps they die before arthritis shows itself? Certainly, dissection of an unspecified number of rats without arthritis doesn't automatically prove that they have some mysterious anti-arthritis powers. Despite more than 20 years of research, EoR was unable to locate any published evidence of these claims.

While mole rat bones may cure rheumatism (or, very probably, may not) the fact is that TCM continues to insist on killing animals in the name of a primitive belief system.

The facts about this remarkable turnaround in the killing of tigers shows the propaganda of TCM proponents for the empty arguments they are:

Tiger experts are agreed on the prime, simple cause of its disappearance: it is being massacred for a lucrative illegal trade in traditional Chinese medicine. Shocking new figures released this week show that parts of between 1,069 and 1,220 tigers were seized between 2000 and April this year – an average of at least 104 animals per year. The vast majority of seizures of parts from illegally killed tigers, including skeletons, claws and skins, were in India, China and Nepal, according to Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network. "With parts of potentially more than 100 wild tigers actually seized each year, one can only speculate what the true numbers of animals are being plundered," says Pauline Verheij of Traffic and WWF.

And the view that the ground up parts of almost extinct animals have magical properties is not confined solely to 'primitive' or 'superstitious' peoples. Westerners are equally prone to trusting in sympathetic magic. Just ask Elle MacPherson. Or all the sharks being killed because of a magical belief that dead sharks cure cancer.

And Australians, of course, are not unfamiliar with the principle of needlessly slaughtering a species to extinction (and, yes, EoR is well aware this is a different sort of tiger hunted to extinction for a different, but equally pointless, reason).

In a strange twist of synchronicity and quantum entanglement, Andy posted about rhinos while EoR was working on this post.

When facts meet merchandising

2010-11-12T10:16:00.003+08:00

What is it about altie promoters and their (first and second) wives?

Ian Gawler is well known in Australia for his miraculous recovery from osteosarcoma by foregoing conventional treatment in favour of diet and meditation, and his subsequent Foundation, books, tours, retreats and other merchandising.

The Gawler Foundation provides a range of internationally renowned cancer healing retreats and programs that embrace an integrated approach to health, healing and wellbeing that includes the body, emotions, mind and spirit.

Our cancer programs and healing retreats work within an integrative medical framework to provide access to the best possible instruction and support for the implementation of self-help techniques for people experiencing cancer, Multiple Sclerosis and other serious illnesses, and those seeking a preventative approach to health and wellbeing.

In 2008 the Medical Journal of Australia published an article detailing a case of recovery from osteosarcoma. Dr Gawler's first wife, Grace, wrote to the Journal last year (but the letter has only now been published) disputing a number of claims in that article, and identifying the patient as her previous husband and asserting that he did not, in fact, use a vegan diet prior to his cancer cure.

An appraisal of the patient’s symptoms, combined with an accurate clinical history, reveals a more plausible scientific hypothesis for his remission than the effects of diet and meditation. Although diet and meditation may be adjuncts to a patient’s wellbeing, it is unlikely in this case that they were curative, and certainly veganism was not a relevant factor. Immunotherapy with BCG vaccine treatments, the timing of symptoms and the patient’s eventual diagnosis of tuberculosis could be associated with his remission, as postulated by his radiation oncologist in 1978. There is extensive scientific literature about remission of cancer, including osteosarcoma, associated with febrile conditions.

The patient’s sporadic visits to doctors meant that metastases were not diagnosed histologically and much of the information reported on his case is anecdotal. Clearly, in this and other cases, unbiased investigative scientific research needs to be undertaken before reporting anecdotes and extrapolations as if they were fact. Teasing apart the errors in Jelinek and Gawler’s story, now on the public record and almost medical myth, is an enormous task, but one that must be done, because correctly reporting the patient’s clinical timeline is crucial in any discussion about the causes of his remission and the flow-on effect to cancer patients and their treating doctors.

George Jelinek and (Dr Gawler's current wife) Ruth Gawler also respond in the same issue, disputing Grace Gawler's claims, though noting that their report was written 30 years after the fact, and concluding

The case history is certainly complex and compelling. The message is clear: unexpected recovery from disseminated cancer remains a possibility, and is likely to be influenced by lifestyle factors.

"A possibility" and "likely" seem to emphasise the weakness of the argument. It hardly seems the basis for the marketing of a whole lifestyle business. EoR is also confused about how this claimed recovery is also applicable to Multiple Scelerosis which Dr Gawler also runs retreats for.

The Australian, in reporting this issue, notes

Dr Gawler said he believed it was "inappropriate" of the MJA to allow him to be identified, and that the journal had breached medical ethics by publishing the letter.

MJA editor Martin Van Der Weyden rejected the accusation, saying Dr Gawler had already "capitalised on this 'spontaneous cure' " through his foundation and biography, where the events had also been recorded.

Grace Gawler also has a blog where she discusses this matter, and notes a number of deaths of people seeking alternative cures to cancer (including a number of deaths currently before the WA Coroner).

It should be noted that Grace Gawler also promotes "integrated" cancer treatments, including the completely spurious reiki.

Psi-porn

2010-11-11T10:33:00.002+08:00

Sceptics can rest easy, now that psychic powers have been scientifically proven. Even better, the magic powers are enhanced when porn is involved.

The suitably science-fictionally named Professor Daryl Bem of Cornell University has had a paper accepted by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology which h+ claims

presents some rather compelling empirical evidence that in some cases — and with weak but highly statistically significant accuracy – many human beings can directly perceive the future. Not just predict it based on the past.

EoR isn't sure what "weak but highly statistically significant" means. That the psi powers are really tiny (but that we're certain they're really tiny)?

h+ does, however, include some interesting graphs showing, among other things, that Christians are more likely to believe in ESP than any other group.

The paper has led to some trippy postmodernist 'reality is what you make it' because quantum physics is all weird and hard to understand and lets you claim anything you want is possible style musing, also repeated at Psychology Today (and which Bem also argues for in his paper).

So if we accept that these psi phenomena are real, how then can we explain them without throwing out our entire understanding of time and physics? Well, the truth is that these effects are actually pretty consistent with modern physics' take on time and space. For example, Einstein believed that the mere act of observing something here could affect something there, a phenomenon he called "spooky action at a distance."

Personally, EoR never crosses a road, precisely because of the uncertainty of just where exactly that truck is, and whether it's about to pass him, or has already passed.

Quantum physics: it works at the quantum level, so it must work at the macro level. In which case, it would be called just physics.

io9 also report on the experiments:

For instance, in one experiment Bem gathered 100 subjects, half male and half female. Using a computerized system, they then played a game in which two curtains were displayed on the screen and the subjects had to choose which one had a picture hiding behind it. Some of these pictures were neutral in content. Others were chosen at random by the computer from a database of semi-erotic and erotic photos (hey, looks like science isn't boring after all).

The result: In cases where an erotic photo was lurking behind the curtain the subjects were able to accurately identify which curtain it was behind with 53.4 percent accuracy – not a huge statistical spike but significantly better than the 50 percent accuracy rate that could be expected by chance. The accuracy rates were not as high for non-stimulating images, which fell more or less in line with raw statistical chance. This suggests that the subjects could somehow sense the erotic stimuli that awaited them before it happened.

To get an idea of how close the differences are that are being claimed here, Experiment 5: Retroactive Habituation I (p.31) of Bem's paper notes, for example (EoR's emphasis):

Women achieved a significant hit rate on the negative pictures, 53.6%, t(62) = 2.25, p = .014, d = 0.28; but men did not, 52.4%, t(36) = 0.89, p = .19, d = 0.15. This sex difference is not statistically significant

Experiment 7 used 200 undergraduates and found (p.37):

Across all 200 sessions, the hit rate was in the predicted direction but not significantly different from chance, 49.1%, t(199) = -1.31, p = .096, d = 0.09. (I now wish I had simply continued to use subliminal exposures.) Nevertheless, stimulus seeking was again positively correlated with psi performance (lower hit rates)

Other experiments had either 150 undergraduates (in two experiments) or 100 (in the rest). Occam's Razor would seem to indicate that, like any truly random process, greater numbers approximate more closely to statistically expected outcomes, rather than psychically altered differences, which appears to be what is happening here.

EoR, meanwhile, is off to randomly click on interweb links, now that he knows they'll very likely be pr0n.

In which EoR calls for a new holiday

2010-11-10T10:14:00.002+08:00

One of the best things about Firefly is the use of profanity, creatively presented in Mandarin to get by the censors. Is there any occasion in which "Holy Mother of God and All Her Wacky Nephews" (我的媽和她的瘋狂的外甥都) isn't appropriate? And shouldn't Holy Testicle Tuesday (神聖的睾丸) be a real holiday? And there are also a few people EoR feels would qualify as a "Frog-Humping Son of a Bitch" (青蛙操的流氓).

In case you need to be told, that page (and the comments) are very probably NSFW (depending on where you work, of course).

More fan translations.

A fat load of marketing

2010-11-09T10:18:00.002+08:00

EoR was casually switching through radio stations the other day, when he heard a woman scarily telling everyone how they were deficient in all sorts of nutrients, and it was almost essential that everyone in Australia supplement iodine, vitamin D, selenium and so on. She also informed the listeners of the dangers of a fatty liver.

By this stage EoR was getting rather worried. It turns out that the woman was Dr Sandra Cabot. Well known worldwide for her bestselling book The Liver Cleansing Diet. True to form, like all self-help books, regardless of the amazing results promised by the original book it has now apparently been superseded by a new volume, Fatty Liver — You Can Reverse It.

Well known American doctor, Thomas Eanelli, meets an Aussie doctor, Dr. Cabot, through her little green book The Liver Cleansing Diet. After searching through university medical libraries and visiting numerous liver specialists and surgeons and finding no real answers, Dr. Eanelli discovered that the liver could be healed without drugs or surgery - luckily the information in this little green book was the catalyst that would inspire him to go on and heal himself thus avoiding potentially dangerous surgery.
Dr. Sandra Cabot has devoted her career to helping people heal themselves from this potentially fatal yet still under reported disease.
Dr. Thomas Eanelli's courage has enabled him to "come out of the refrigerator" to share his tale so others may be saved.

What sets this book apart from others is that rather than bravado and bragging by a set of new age gurus, Cabot and Eanelli instead forge an instant connection with their readers by their honesty and empathy when confronting the imperfections of dieting, especially where food addictions are concerned.
This book may become one of the most timely and important health narratives in years.

Like other fringe health advisers, Dr Cabot seems to spend a lot of time scaring people, with her reports of how cancer is increasing, interspersed with promoting her seminars. Fear, of course, is one of the great advertising motivators (are you too fat? too undesirable? too unfashionable? do you have bad breath? are you going to get cancer?) and it's unsurprising that the altie health vendors use this since it seems Australians fear cancer more than any other nation on Earth*.

Her modality is, however, scientific (why, she says so herself!). In fact, disagreement with her claims is so rare as to be noteworthy.

There has been the occasional person who did not understand my theories on the liver, and in particular one reader thought it was impossible to cleanse the liver, believing that this was unscientific! However, it is vitally important to cleanse the liver regularly because, like any filter, it can become overloaded and blocked with excessive waste products.

Yes, your liver is really just a fancy kitchen sink filter.

Possibly the singular person who refuses to accept this miracle is Dr Joe Proietto.

No doubt, the diet is good because it involves low-fat and more vegetables and more fruit. None of us would argue with that. The problem I have is the claims made for this diet are based on no scientific evidence and the simplistic blaming of the liver for a multitude of different ailments. I will quote again Dr Cabot’s own words?—?“How can anyone know the benefits of a particular diet or therapy without evaluating its effects upon patients first”. On this we agree. What we clearly don’t agree on is what constitutes proper evaluation. There is overwhelming acceptance in the medical and scientific community that any new therapy or any new claim for an old therapy must be tested in a controlled trial, preferably in a double blind fashion. The words “controlled trial” do not appear anywhere in the book.

Dr Proietto also details the various expensive supplements, memberships, powders, tonics, books and creams that you need to buy to ensure your health the Cabot way.

*The newspaper report makes the world-encompassing claim, based on a survey conducted in only eight nations. No, EoR can't see how the extrapolation has been made, but it's not alone in its statistical exaggeration.

Favourite 19th Century German art music works

2010-11-08T10:07:00.004+08:00

ABC Classic FM have been revisiting their listener-voted Top 100 Classical Works which they originally compiled in 2001. Described as The Classic 100 Ten Years On even though it's only been nine years (EoR expects the next one will be in eight years time) it's interesting to see what people prefer in classical music (or what they don't by the ommissions). The two lists are not directly comparable, since listeners could nominate ten works this time, but only one last time.

EoR's favourite composer, Jean Sibelius is there with four (non challenging — where's the Fourth Symphony or Tapiola?) works compared to only one last time. No Webern, no John Dowland (but no change from last time there).

Nine composers make up over half the chosen works: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, Mahler, Mendelssohn and Bizet. That's not too bad: nearly half of them aren't German. Nearly.

Three musical forms account for almost half the works: concerto, symphony and opera.

Selections are seriously skewed towards the late nineteenth century. They drop off dramatically for the second half of the twentieth century (and those few are works like Gorecki's Symphony 3 and the Giazotti arrangement of Albinoni's Adagio — not exactly challenging listening), and there are no works from the last decade.

There are no women composers in the list.

Homeopathy serially diluted

2010-11-07T14:05:00.003+08:00

According to Google Trends homeopathy is on a steady decline of interest. If the current trend continues, it should disappear from view around 2016. Of course, what happens then is anyone's guess. By the Law of Infinitesimals, if homeopathy disappears it will become infinitely powerful. EoR expects the universe will implode into a singularity (but at least it will have a boosted immune system and all its chakras correctly aligned).

It's also well worth noting that the majority of times when interest in homeopathy has peaked has been for all the wrong reasons if you happen to be selling this impossible magical therapy. In fact, the only time people seem to show a renewed interest in homeopathy is when they appear to be wondering "People really fall for this???"

Northam is doomed!

2010-11-06T11:03:00.005+08:00

The Federal Government is setting up two new detention camps for asylum seekers, one of which is in Northam, northeast of Perth. EoR is deeply concerned about this matter and is glad he doesn't live anywhere near the town, given the volatile nature of the residents and what might happen. And he doesn't mean the asylum seekers.

Howard Sattler, well aware of his audience demographic, has been pushing this issue for weeks now, including a three hour broadcast from Northam with a live audience full of redneck racists (actually, one person spoke up for moderation but was quickly shouted down). Continually claiming that he's not trying to stir things up, Sattler consistently warns of riots, escapes, lack of health services and violence because of the asylum seekers. He even tried to push the line that the army camp they are to be housed in is some kind of national historical site.

Still not trying to stir things up, he allows callers to make accusations that Serco (the security company that will be operating at the Northam camp) are "playing both sides of the fence" by supervising the asylum seekers and somehow funding the people smugglers as well. While Sattler declared that he had "no evidence" to support that claim he nonetheless allowed the caller to go on at length and, at the same time, apparently had no idea where the dump button was or what its use was.

The West Australian reports on the meeting that followed Sattler's rabble-rousing rally.

Belinda McKinnon, who wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words Bomb Their Boat, said anyone who tried to arrive in Australia without permission committed an illegal act.

[...]

One Nation State vice-president Lyn Vickery said: "They will slit your throat in a second."

Another Northam resident, John Edwards, claimed 3m-high fences would not be enough to stop detainees from escaping. "The first thing they are going to do when they jump the fence is steal my car and drive to Perth to blend in with their own kind," he said.

EoR can already hear Duelling Banjos.

And how Lyn Vickery can get to be vice-president of a political party (admittedly, a fringe, loony, racist, conspiracy-mongering party) is bizarre. Described as a sad little fantasist, his website uses the symbolism of a bomb and states

We will change the world by informing the people. By showing them how they have been lied to, conned, robbed and how what they see as "the real world" is a cunningly manufactured hell designed to reward the psychopaths who control it while at the same time milking everyone else until death! The slaves will be set free. And when that day comes "I see wars, horrid wars, the Tiber foaming with much blood"

There's extremism for you. Mr Vickery lives in a world where Bolshevism is still a threat, and Adolf Hitler a paragon of virtue to be emulated by all right-thinking, pure-race eugenicist thugs. What would the Australian media's response be to inflammatory statements made by a Muslim in the same vein, and using the bomb symbolism? Would it be the same as it is for Vickery?

Sattler has stirred the situation so successfully that the right-wing Premier of WA, Colin Barnett, is actually sounding reasonable:

Premier Colin Barnett has accused some Northam residents of prejudice after angry scenes at a crowded town meeting last night over a proposed immigration detention centre.

[...]

Mr Barnett today said he was concerned by some of the extreme statements made at the meeting, which he said were not appropriate.

“It just shows on a sensitive issue like asylum seekers, on what many will see as illegal immigration, this flares the tempers and maybe some of the prejudices that in Australian society,” he said.

“That's why issues like this need to be handled carefully, even slowly if that's what it takes, and sensitively.”

Racial vilification is not unknown to journalism, of course, nor to politicians who seek to exploit an easy and simple polarisation of views in order to increase their votes (or readers). Wayside Signals reports on a UK politician who tried that stunt and, surprisingly, has been called to task and his victory overturned. If only Australian politicians (and journalists) had the same sort of accountability. News with nipples reports how the media aided and abetted the politicians.

We – the public and the media – have been pwned by the Howard, Rudd and Gillard Governments. They wanted us to hate asylum seekers, and now we hate asylum seekers. They wanted us to think that 692 people a year is a massive problem, and now we think that 692 people a year is a MASSIVE PROBLEM. John Howard must have soiled his pants a little when he (or, more likely, an adviser) came up with “we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come” – a sentence that’s almost nine years old to the day, and one I’ve heard trotted out constantly since then. Even my own mother (an immigrant) has used it.

To date, Howard Sattler has not come out in opposition to Hakea Prison, situated in suburban Perth, housing over 900 male prisoners, even though this is just as much a clear (and already existing) threat to god-fearing, law-abiding white Australians, nor has he organised public protests against it, or devoted hours and hours of his mean-spirited radio show to it.

Lazarus dissembling

2010-11-05T10:14:00.003+08:00

Does anyone understand what this man is talking about? Former PM John Howard, on the book-selling trail now, featured on Counterpoint delivering a marketing talk to an audience organised by Quadrant magazine so he could be assured there'd be none of the nasty shoe-throwing brigade but only The Faithful (many of whom he seems to know on a first name basis).

In discussing the reasons his government was reelected in 2001, he states this was not because of the MV Tampa or the World Trade Center attack:

The truth is that the government had recovered its political fortunes by the time of the Astin by-election held on Bastille Day in 2001 and then also for those who follow political programmes as fanatics the night before the inaugural programme of Insiders on the ABC. I remember it very well because I'd gone to watch the Wallabies the night before um, ah, defeat the er, the er, British Lions in the last test and retain whatever trophy ah, ah, was then available in relation to that and was very hoarse and could hardly reply to Barry Cassidy but I was feeling very happy because we'd won the Astin by-election.

So that's all clear, then?

Answering questions from the audience, he clarifies those pesky Weapons of Mass Destruction that Saddam Hussein had. There were, apparently, two possibilities. Either the WMDs would be found (which would be clear evidence that Saddam possessed them) or they would not (which would be clear evidence that Saddam had possessed them but had hidden them).

The truth about people's attitudes in 2003 on the eve of the operation is that there was really no argument amongst most people that Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction. My successor as prime minister, Kevin Rudd, told a meeting of the Zionist Council in Victoria that it was an empirical fact that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

I detail in the book a meeting I had with the then head of MI6 at the High Commissioner's residence in London late in February of 2003 in which I was shown some of the most compelling intelligence material imaginable. And the detail I've got in the book is I cleared its use with the person in question, Sir Richard Dearlove, who is now the master of Pembroke College at Cambridge University, and the truth is that there was widespread material strongly suggesting Iraq did have weapons. There is a view that the actual weapons themselves that did exist were deliberately dismantled or taken elsewhere, and there are a number of countries that qualify as a possible destination. It was established after the military operation by the Iraq survey group that there were plenty of weapons programs.

So the argument that is now being used and was used for a long time that we somehow or other made it all up and it was all a pack of lies, it was anything but. The actual weapons themselves, stockpiles, were not found, and there are a number of explanations possibly for that, I don't know what the real truth is. But there can be no argument that there was a widespread view at the time that they certainly did exist.

As the bastion of truth and reality at the ABC, regularly exposing the lies and frauds of the Left and Science (especially Climate Science) EoR is, however, bemused at the fact that the transcript of the question and answer section has been doctored. Surely the impeccable and incorruptible hosts of that outstanding show would never stoop so low?

One questioner addresses Howard as "Prime Minister" (the one who poses "The current government by its composition has been forecast by some to have a very short-looking vision") but this is excised from the transcript. Other salutations are there in full, but only this one is missing. Is it because revealing the time warp these people live in, where John Howard is still Prime Minister, is too embarassing?

If this calendar doesn't exist, it would be necessary to invent it

2010-11-04T10:15:00.003+08:00

Via the Skeptvet, EoR learns of a new nudie calendar, celebrating the world of holistic veterinary therapies (probably NSFW, since there's a photo of a nude female vet fondling a cock while she ponders the Joy of Aromatherapy). Sadly, unlike other efforts in this genre, it doesn't appear to be for charitable purposes but simply to generate income. Nonetheless, EoR can't see why the idea can't be extended. There's a whole altie network in Western Australia. Surely they could work together not just to recommend one another, but to produce a charity calendar demonstrating their particular skills.

Such as non-medical doctors producing meals that will allow you to live as long as you want to.

Or psychics communicating with the dear departed (who have, let's face it, already seen the psychic in the shower countless times).

In which EoR finds himself confused

2010-11-03T10:38:00.002+08:00

Even if you disagree with my own view - that we should instead emphasise our common humanity - I suspect that public declarations of a racial “us” and “them” isn’t very effective in getting the them to help the us.
— Andrew Bolt, October 25 2010

Fewer of us and more of them
Let’s breed ourselves out and hand the country to someone more deserving
— Andrew Bolt, October 27 2010

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

Of course, sometimes a foolish inconsistency is the consistency of the little mind.

Gene patenting

2010-11-02T10:11:00.003+08:00

It appears the US is reversing (or at least heavily modifying) its stance on the patentability of genes.

Reversing a longstanding policy, the federal government said on Friday that human and other genes should not be eligible for patents because they are part of nature. The new position could have a huge impact on medicine and on the biotechnology industry. The new position was declared in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Department of Justice late Friday in a case involving two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

There has been a long argument about whether genes can be patented like other inventions, or whether they are a natural thing and cannot be patented, or maybe they're something else altogether where the science (as usual) is outstripping the cumbersome and ancient legal statutes.

“The chemical structure of native human genes is a product of nature, and it is no less a product of nature when that structure is ‘isolated’ from its natural environment than are cotton fibers that have been separated from cotton seeds or coal that has been extracted from the earth,” the brief said.

Analogical arguments are slippery beasts at the best of times, especially since genes are not cotton fibres, nor are they coal. It seems to EoR, however, that it is logically intuitive that genes are not 'inventions' but rather natural products.

Biotech companies (especially Myriad Technologies which has been at the centre of this debate) are not happy, but EoR wonders why they can't patent the tests to determine the presence of various genes. Surely this is the intention of patent law? Build a better mousetrap, and you are entitled to the income from that invention. If someone else builds an even better mousetrap, then that's the free market system at work. Patent the idea of a mousetrap however, and no one else can build another mousetrap. Or, instead of patenting your new lightbulb or method of generating electricity, why not patent electricity instead?

The new stance, the article notes, does not prevent modified genes from being patented and, again, that would seem sensible since they are much more clearly 'inventions'.

Myriad Technologies is appealing the new stance and EoR expects that the matter will not be definitively decided for some decades to come.

Frankenjournalism

2010-11-01T10:37:00.003+08:00

EoR gave up subscribing to Hoofbeats magazine a long time ago when he had trouble distinguishing it from Nexus magazine. It appears things have not improved. Their latest issue covers the horror that is GM food. It sounds like the same line Nexus takes on the subject. EoR also suspects that Hoofbeats relies on the mad claims of Dr Mercola for information as well.

Major health concerns have arisen, we are told in the first paragraph of the Hoofbeats article, from industry and independent testing of GM products, even though testing is 'restricted' by the patent owners. Nonetheless, the apparent lack of evidence doesn't stop the author from listing the harmful side effects of GM feeds:

Past test findings of animals fed GM crops have included; damaged immune systems and increased allergies, development of lesions and/or pre-cancerous growths, unusually enlarged or damaged organs, temporary infertility and unexplained death.

Of even more serious concern is the findings in developing animals fed GM or in the offspring of animals fed GM. These include; immune system damage and metabolic change, smaller brain, liver and testicles, organ damage, abnormal anxiety and aggression, pre-cancerous tumor findings, up to 100% infertility in offspring and abnormally high death rates.

Numerous stock owners feeding GM feed have reported infertility and problems in stock fed GM and compensation has been paid for unexplained stock deaths in the past. Statistically, there has been a global increase in allergies and more recently, evidence of unexplained smaller birth rate averages in the USA.

Even though these damning results are clear for all to see, the Australian Government is licensing GM crops in Australia.

There were no feeding trials on the oil and Monsanto’s animal testing on the GM meal revealed an additional increase in liver weights of around 16% after only a few weeks feeding. This significant finding, indicating an increase in toxins, was ignored as the regulatory body FSANZ does not have authority over stockfeed.

Why would the government do this? Because they're in a conspiracy with Monsanto, of course! And the CSIRO (who are also at the forefront of lying about climate change — they must be so busy maintaining all their cover-ups) are involved as well.

One of the reasons governments are supporting GM crops is because they have alliances with companies such as Monsanto and plan on capitalising on their investments in biotechnology through these corporate partnerships. As early as 1992, the head of CSIRO stated it was best to get into bed with these companies.

The Illuminati plan is to force famers into a monoculture, reducing our freedom of choice.

EoR wonders how a government will increase profits by forcing the population to eat food that results in "up to 100% infertility"? Though this may possibly be a backup plan if the human culling to be introduced under the guise of climate change mitigation is a failure.

It would seem that Hoofbeats gets its information from reliable sources like the Mail Online:

Dr Seralini concluded that rats which ate the GM maize had 'statistically significant' signs of liver and kidney damage. Each strain was linked to unusual concentrations of hormones in the blood and urine of rats fed the maize for three months, compared to rats given a non-GM diet.

The study was rather more cautious:

The quantity of some sugars, ions, salts, and pesticide residues, do in fact differ from line to line, for example in the non-GM reference groups. This not only introduced unnecessary sources of variability but also increased considerably the number of rats fed a normal non-GM diet (320) compared to the GM-fed groups (80) per transformation event, which considerably unbalances the experimental design. A group consisting of the same number of animals fed a mixture of these test diets would have been a better and more appropriate control. In addition, no data is shown to demonstrate that the diets fed to the control and reference groups were indeed free of GM feed.

[...]

If a “sign of toxicity” may only provoke a reaction, pathology or a poisoning, a so-called “toxic effect” is without doubt deleterious on a short or a long term. Clearly, the statistically significant effects observed here for all three GM maize varieties investigated are signs of toxicity rather than proofs of toxicity, and this is essentially for three reasons. Firstly, the feeding trials in each case have been conducted only once, and with only one mammalian species. The experiments clearly need to be repeated preferably with more than one species of animal. Secondly, the length of feeding was at most only three months, and thus only relatively acute and medium-term effects can be observed if any similar to what can be derived in a process such as carcinogenesis or after endocrine disruption in adults. Proof of toxicity is hard to decide on the basis of these conditions. Longer-term (up to 2 years) feeding experiments are clearly justified and indeed necessary. This requirement is supported by the fact that cancer, nervous and immune system diseases, and even reproductive disorders for examples can become apparent only after one or two years of a given intervention treatment under investigation, but they will not be evident in all cases after three months of administration when first signs of toxicity may be observed. In addition, large effects (e.g. 40% increase in triglycerides) in all likelihood will be missed with the protocol of the current studies, since they are limited by the number of animals used in each feeding group and by the nature of the parameters studied. Thirdly, the statistical power of the tests conducted is low (30%) because the experimental design of Monsanto (see Materials and Methods). However, it is important to note that these short-term (3-month) rat feeding trials are the only tests conducted on the basis of which regulators determine whether these GM crop/food varieties are as safe to eat as conventional types. Given that these GM crops are potentially eaten by billions of people and animals world-wide, it is important to discuss whether the experimental design, the statistical analyses and interpretations originally undertaken are appropriate and sufficient.

Wikipedia has an interesting page on GM controversies, particularly on the issue of allergies (any GM foods that show allergy-inducing properties have been withdrawn immediately) and suggestions that they compromise the immune system (the Pusztai paper failed to include this assertion which he had made on television, and was based on a sample size of six, but this has not stopped the anti-GM campaigners promoting it as a scientific 'fact').

GM foods are certainly a contentious issue, not least the matter of patents and global corporate ownership of crop seeds. That's no reason to promote fallacious arguments and conspiracy theories. The Science Show recently interviewed Lord Sainsbury, president of the British Science Association.

David Sainsbury: Yes, I suppose that's the other consideration. We now have 30 million acres of arable land which is about 10% of it in the world producing genetically modified crops. You've got all the Indian cotton I think is Bt cotton, similar in China, you've got genetically modified soya widely grown and used in America, and there have been basically no problems from a health or an environmental point of view which, when you think about it, it's a new technology, new technology in America, no lawsuits saying 'well, I died as a result of eating genetically modified...', that is amazing. And one way of thinking is that this is the biggest clinical trial we've ever had, and it has proved a safe technology.

Like climate change deniers, the GM-Frankenfood deniers also love repeating the same old, debunked, arguments. Such as the commenter on the Science Show story who raises the case of the Indian farmers who are being forced to commit suicide as a result of GM crops. Which is not true. As the Guardian article notes, scaremongers also fail to consider the health improvements from reduced pesticide use.

Like the mobile-phones-cause-cancer scare that won't die even in the face of lack of evidence, GM scares are easy to make, but harder to prove. There may well be legitimate concerns that require study and testing, but simply repeating overhyped propaganda claims only polarises people.

The WHO provide a much more balanced consideration of the evidence, the threats, the concerns and the facts.

Different GM organisms include different genes inserted in different ways. This means that individual GM foods and their safety should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and that it is not possible to make general statements on the safety of all GM foods.

Unless you're an altie, conspiracy-theory loving, journalist.

Interestingly, EoR's local newsagency magazine filing algorithm (which places UFO and astrology magazines amongst New Scientist and Scientific American) places Hoofbeats next to Nexus.

Halloween

2010-10-31T06:38:00.004+08:00

It's Halloween or, as EoR prefers to call it, Samhain (though it's definitely not the end of Summer in this hemisphere). Of course, here at the Second Sight spirits, psychics, ghosts, homeopaths and spiritually psychic ghost homeopaths are an everyday occurrence.

Some of you may be confused about the various entities stalking the streets. Bits & Pieces has provided a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to help you.

You may also want to familiarise yourself with the art of 1920s Photoshopping ghost photographs before gasping at those modern ghost photos (if a woman can use a mobile phone in 1928, then Photoshop a few years earlier hardly needs any explanation at all).

Actually, there might be something in it after all. EoR downloaded a photo from Mr Grzelka's site but, when he opened it on his computer it gave clear and irrefutable evidence that it had been touched by spirit presences in its interweb transmission!

The future is homeopathic

2010-10-30T11:21:00.008+08:00

EoR has been succumbing to nostalgia and watching Blakes 7 again after the thirty odd year since it first aired here and has been awed by the changes that the future will bring...

As the show's title indicates, the debate over just where the possessive apostrophe goes will be over and done with.

The control centres of spaceships will be illuminated with flashing disco lights.

Epaulettes will not only be in, but only the gauche will be seen without them.

Bondage gear will also be an option. Especially for anti-hero Avon.

And especially Federation troopers.

The problems of overly complex computer operating systems will be realised, and all computers will operate on a much simplified OS based, apparently, on a Sinclair ZX80 ("smeti wen" indeed).

And then, of course, there's the uber-Thatcherite Servalan.

And homeopathy will be accepted.

FORBUS: Pylene-50 used homeopathically, is simply a muscle relaxant. Sleer discovered that hundred times normal dosage totally subverts the will, tried to force me to part with the formula. I refused. I didn't understand Sleer's nature then. Totally callous savage ambition. There is a poison called Tincture of Pyrellic. Perhaps you've heard of it?

Oh, and Servalan. And how Mary Whitehouse let the BBC get away with this shot is anyone's guess...

(Click to reveal the full power of Servalan's galaxy conquering nipple.)

More talking to animals

2010-10-29T10:47:00.005+08:00

Oh dear. Yet another magic woman who chats to animals. And heals.

She also regularly receives "planetary wisdom" from whales and rays. The exact nature of this wisdom is not specified, but it doesn't seem to be working:

Madeleine Walker uses her skills of holistic stress management and psycho-neuro-immunology to promote the concept of the healing power of the mind to communicate with the body and facilitate self healing. Madeleine also incorporates the healing potential of colour and imagery to release blocked emotions or irrational negative self-belief patterns.

Holistic stress management and psycho-neuro-immunology? Where's Hari Seldon when you need him? It can't be working though, because it clearly isn't removing the irrational self-belief patterns she espouses.

She can make up a story just by receiving a photograph, a hair sample and, most importantly, some money.

Upon forming a loving bond with your animals’ energy Madeleine opens a communication channel enabling your animal friend to describe past trauma’s, explain their past life connection with you through their reincarnation, advise on your health issues and issues within the home and family. Animals may also provide a link to loved ones in spirit.

Swoon at her heartbreaking dolphin story (heartbreaking especially because of the terrible colour scheme she uses — pink on pink? Really — which guinea pig or reincarnated gerbil suggested that would be a good idea?).

Having swum with wild dolphins I had not considering a visit to this or any resort which kept these marvelous creatures captive prior to receiving this message. the other dolphins there ’told’ me her name was Mani and that she was very sad and had trouble with her swim bladder.

[...]

Lo and behold the dolphin that came up to me was Mani! The keepers said her name was Serena, but I knew it was her! .

You just can't prove the truly delusional wrong! The keepers were wrong! Ms Walker knew the dolphin's real name! EoR imagines the keepers shaking their heads at the mad woman insisting she had the dolphin's real name, as they edge slowly towards the exit...

We left the resort feeling weighed down with melancholy and helplessness for the dolphins

EoR knows the feeling. He feels the same way about people who believe that

That night I awoke to feel Mani on my shoulder again. She told me that dolphins have twelve higher soul chakras and whales had twenty-one. These soul chakras were linked into the planetary grids - I was amazed at this information. She asked me to balance her chakras (physical and soul)

She's been to South Africa to chat to the White Lion Star Beings but, again, no secrets are revealed.

There's also a gallery but EoR has to confess he usually expects more than one image for a page to qualify as a 'gallery'. It's a black cat, without explanation for its presence, though EoR presumes this is the form Ms Walker adopts during full moons. Perhaps it's basking in its two hundred and seven soul chakras. Or however many cats have.

And, just to prove that anyone can fall for this sort of madness, she now has a book out with a testimonial from a vet:

“An Exchange of Love will appeal to a wide range of readers from animal enthusiasts to professionals in animal care. The book will complement the work of veterinary surgeons offering holistic treatment modalities as well as raising student awareness of the bit they don't get taught in college! It is a must for anyone interested in the often complex issues shared between animal and carer” Judith Webster MRCVS BSc Vet Med, Veterinary Surgeon who refers clients to Madeleine

EoR has always felt that the veterinary profession often fails its customers by neglecting to address past life issues, chakra balancing, and soul retrieval, and that colleges are neglecting their duties to the planetary grid by not devoting the bulk of their courses to these subjects.

Luckily, some psychics are much more honest about the whole scam...

The Red shoes

2010-10-28T10:25:00.002+08:00

EoR welcomes Bronze Dog's announcement to blog more frequently, and to cover such topics as cognitive dissonance — the ability for people to simultaneously hold contradictory views.

Andrew Bolt has found himself on something of a roll with the John Howard shoe throwing incident. His audience love this sort of stuff, proving the 'barbarity' and 'violence' of the Left (EoR isn't able to comment on how Timothy McVeigh proves the barbarity and violence of the Right, since Bolt hasn't mentioned it, and EoR can't form an opinion until Bolt tells him what to think).

Commenters ramble on about how Peter Gray (the thrower) shouldn't be allowed to breed (Bolt's commenters are very big on 'breeding' — who should be permitted to breed, who shouldn't, and how the purity of the race from infection by inferior races should be maintained), but some also comment on Gray's Degree in Classics. EoR would have thought that this showed his determination to improve himself, but not in the eyes of Bolt's Believers:

What is a university degree in classics?

Classic cars?

Classic catches?

Classic hits (105.9 BRock FM)?

Classic nutcases?

and

How frigging useful is a classics degree I ask you? So he doesn’t work in helping with the environment which he could do with a say civil engineering degree, he gets a degree in classics. Useless.

Bolt's Believers, of course, would not see the irony that one of their heroes, the increasingly marginalised Christopher Monckton, has a Degree in Classics. Indeed, when the contradiction is pointed out to them, a commenter responds that it's a Masters in Classics, not just a Degree. As if that was some sort of devastating distinction. Presumably, a Degree in Classics is "useless" but a Masters is an Object of Eternal Admiration. Of course, Bolt's Brigades detest the "elites" (probably because many of them wouldn't qualify as such) but other "elites" (hereditary aristocrats, for example) are a Good Thing. Indeed, a love of opera is not in any way at all 'elitist'. The only distinction being (and this is an important one in Boltland) a political one.

Personally, EoR is going with the conspiracy theorists who believe Howard organised the whole incident. The shoe throwing was very half-hearted (in fact, EoR would have called it a 'shoe tossing'), they were nowhere near Howard, and Howard never flinched, almost as if he was expecting it!!!! And then there was the tweet a short time before the incident*, suggesting someone throw their shoe at him!!!! It could only have come from a Howard staffer!!!1!! It's certainly much more likely than conspiracy theories about the death of Paul the Psychic Octopus.

*In the paranoid world of Andrew Bolt, even though this wasn't visible to Peter Gray (or because it wasn't visible) this proves the culpability and bias of the ABC.

Malcolm's Pretty Good Broadband

2010-10-27T10:13:00.002+08:00

While politician quibble, why are we being left in the broadband dust by the Isles of Scilly?

Malcolm Turnbull appears to be going into business in competition with Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery according to a recent speech:

[T]he FCC observes that speeds of less than eight megabits per second are sufficient to deal with most uses, including two-way videoconferencing. Again, where is the need, the applications, that will consume 100 megabits per second to the household?

"If you can't download it with Malcolm's Broadband you can probably get by pretty good without it."

The other evidence

2010-10-26T10:21:00.002+08:00

Things you probably won't read about on the 'natural' health sites...

Acupuncture kills

A review of patients who died soon after acupuncture found a history of punctured hearts and lungs, damaged arteries and livers, nerve problems, shock, infection and haemorrhage, largely caused by practitioners placing their needles incorrectly or failing to sterilise their equipment.

Many of the 86 patients, aged between 26 and 82 years old, died after being treated by acupuncturists in China or Japan, but a handful of fatalities were recorded in the US, Germany and Australia. The most recent death, of a 26-year-old woman in China, occurred last year.

EoR is a little doubtful about this claim, since surely the open channels would actually release blocked qi, remove stagnant heat and realign the five elements, leading to increased vigour and health?

Probiotic marketing claims unsupported

The [European Food Safety Authority] panel concluded that the evidence the industry had submitted to support its claims that various food additives could strengthen the body's defences, improve immune function and reduce gut problems were either so general as to be inadmissable, or could not be shown to have the claimed effect.

[...]

The opinions published today were the lastest in a series of rulings. The EFSA had already published five opinions on claims relating to probiotics, all negative, although a spokeswoman said EFSA scientists "avoid using the term probiotics", since it has no proper scientific meaning.

Sounds like more Illuminati-led suppression of alternative miracle cures to EoR.

No evidence for fish oil supplementation during pregnancy

Study leader, Professor Maria Makrides, says there was no significant difference in cases of post-natal depression or the developmental outcomes of children.

"What our study showed was that these supplements really had no effect of clinical importance to either post-natal depression or the cognitive or language development of children in early childhood," she said.

This is the most unbelievable of all. Fish oil, the wonder supplement, may be pointless? Surely all the marketing can't be wrong? The advertisers and the peddlers-of-supplements are only in it for the money? No!

Wikileaks reveals heartwarming truth about Iraq casualties

2010-10-25T10:38:00.003+08:00

You'd imagine it was some sort of lone rightwing libertarian crank blogger who'd claim that the recent Wikileaks publishing of documents concerning casualties in Iraq was proof that the number of deaths was wildly exaggerated by leftwing propagandists. Well, you'd be right. Australia's craziest rightwing conspiracy theorist, Andrew Bolt, believes that the Wikileaks documents prove scientists in the Lancet lied about the number of possible deaths in Iraq, inflating the figures by "at least 600 per cent" in an "infamous" paper. And those stupid scientists thought they could get away with it! Ha! Not with the keen scientific and investigatory skills of Andrew "I see no global warming" Bolt. And the ABC and the Fairfax press, being part of the global scientific conspiracy, danced right along with the fake figures.

Bolt's Brigade of the Desperately Deranged come up with the usual comments, referring to "Seppos" and "Frogs", claiming the Lancet also supports the false belief in human-caused global warming, and that this reveals "just how completely dysfunctional islamic society is". Of course, being invaded and subject to an insurgency would have nothing to do with it. It's Islam. Sorry, islam.

Even though the leftwing consistently lie about everything, Bolt fails to explain why his own employer has also apparently fallen for the same lie. Perhaps they're really secretly owned by the ABC as well?

And the infamously rightwing Australian.

What Bolt apparently fails to realise is, like other scaremongers, he is confusing two totally different data sets. The Lancet paper looked at excess mortality as a result of the war. Of these,

Deaths attributable to the coalition accounted for 31% (95% CI 26–37) of post-invasion violent deaths.

The Wikileaks documents are US Army reports of Significant Actions, and are thus a subset of total excess deaths. The original Lancet paper (which Bolt has presumably read, but either not understood, or simply ignored the parts he didn't like) was already aware of this discrepancy:

Our estimate of excess deaths is far higher than those reported in Iraq through passive surveillance measures. This discrepancy is not unexpected. Data from passive surveillance are rarely complete, even in stable circumstances, and are even less complete during conflict, when access is restricted and fatal events could be intentionally hidden. Aside from Bosnia, we can flnd no conflict situation where passive surveillance recorded more than 20% of the deaths measured by population-based methods. In several outbreaks, disease and death recorded by facility-based methods under estimated events by a factor of ten or more when compared with population-based estimates.

Luckily, one Australian paper still remains fiercely independent and can be relied on to tell the truth, and reveal the important stories that the other papers deliberately ignore (and, EoR has to ask himself, what are the real reasons they do that?). Yes, the NT News leads with a story of a man who stepped on a small crocodile and got a little bit of a fright. And a comedian who is hoping to see one of the innumerable NT UFOs, and who is promising to "cover the shapeshifting reptilian agenda to enslave humanity". Bolt probably imagines it's a factual lecture by a fiercely independent scientist putting his entire career at risk by daring to disagree with the status quo.

International readers might not be familiar with the term, but Australia has a term of praise for such people, reserved only for the few who achieve beyond the bounds of the average person: dickhead.

And remember, June 3rd is now officially National Andrew Bolt is a Dickhead Day across Australia.

Burnham, G., Lafta, R., Doocy, S., & Roberts, L. (2006). Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey. Lancet 368: 1421–28. DOI:10.1016/S01406736(06)69491-9.

Thistle thoughts (9)

2010-10-24T11:34:00.001+08:00

EoR, having accidentally sat on some thistles, ponders the State of Things...

If the body has such an amazing ability to heal itself, why does EoR have to pay for all these extra magic therapies?

One more dose of Dinglemania

2010-10-23T11:25:00.003+08:00

EoR promises that this is the last post in what has become a week of Celebration of Dinglemania...

Dr Peter Dingle's first ever newsletter no longer appears to be available on his informative, well-researched health advice website. Luckily, it can still be found here.

This is a valuable historical document, outlining the goals and aims of Dr Dingle's plans to change the world of health for the better of all ("my health and wellbeing programs" as he describes them).

All the familiar themes are there: the one dimensional health system ("The medical system needs to focus on preventative health rather than a 10 minute consultation for a drug 'solution'.") as well as the dubious factoids:

[W]e are seeing far too many children taking pharmaceuticals, both prescribed and over the counter. In Australia each month, 60,000 prescriptions for antidepressants are written out for people under 20 years of age.

No reference is provided, so the veracity of that figure can't be determined, but note how 'children' in one sentence becomes 'people under 20' in the next? EoR would hope that a first year university student would understand that comparing different populations is incorrect. A 19 year old would normally not be considered a child. Or an 18 year old. Where you draw the line between 'child' and 'adult' (or 'adolescent') is important, but not defined here, especially since it would be reasonable to presume that a lot of depression is diagnosed in the teenage years.

Back in 2005 things were also rather different (EoR's emphasis):

My research shows that many people don't become more active or eat more healthily because they think they don't have the time.

Contrast that to today, when Dr Dingle states he no longer has the time to do any sort of research. Also, like the previous factoid, he fails to mention where his 'research' has been published, or how it was conducted, or on what sample.

As an aside, it's also interesting to note that the metadata encoded in the Word document shows the author as Julie Eady, yet another unqualified person who regularly provides health advice to the media ("Consumer activist" and "housewife superstar" — note that Dr Dingle, even though not mentioned, has managed to get himself into the photo for that story). But what can you expect when Dr Dingle, Julie Eady and Dr Igor Tabrizian co-presented a Save Our Kids Seminar in 2006.

Presented by Dr Peter Dingle, Julie Eady & Dr Igor Tabrizian. A public seminar addressing the issues of “Averting the Child Health Crisis”. This is a must for anyone interested in the health of our future, our children. This includes invaluable information about prevention, food additives, biochemical causes and so much more.

Nope. No unqualified health advice being given there. He also provides a glowing testimonial for Julie Eady's book and is featured in the media together with her.

ASSOC PROFESSOR PETER DINGLE (MURDOCH UNIVERSITY): You know it's funny, all motivational texts will tell you what you focus on is what you get so we've focussed on calories, carbohydrates and fat and we now have the most overweight, obese and diabetic population ever.

So Dr Dingle bases his health claims on the authority of motivational texts? What sort of lunatic science is that?

The following year to his first newsletter (2006) Dr Dingle was warning us of the dangers of Vegemite. In a shockingly original finding, he claims that a Vegemite sandwich is not a "nutritious meal". That concept had probably never passed the mind of any Australian parent previously. But then, there are stupid and undeserving parents.

"If you don't have five minutes to cook a healthy breakfast for your kid and provide them with a healthy lunch and dinner, then you don't deserve to have kids,'' said Prof Dingle, associate professor in health and the environment at Murdoch University.

Dr Dingle: health expert and promoter of eugenics. Personally, EoR thinks if you don't have time to research improbable therapies like homeopathy, you don't deserve to act as a health expert.

Yesterday EoR noted Dr Dingle's promotion of Mindd but, of course, these woo-peddlers all promote one another. Indeed, in 2009, Dr Dingle was a presenter at the Mindd International Forum.

Renowned author, juggler, media personality and Murdoch University academic, Dr Peter Dingle PhD, explores the question of how the (mal)nutrition of our children sets the stage for childhood behavioural disorders including autism and ADHD, and how a healthy diet in childhood can provide a good alternative to Ritalin and amphetamine medications.

Well, he certainly wouldn't have been giving any health information there, would he?

So how is evil drug-peddling one-dimensional health failing us these days in relation to our childrens' health?

The South Australian and Western Australian Governments have been awarded a ‘Gold Medal’ for their action on obesity prevention at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the ANZOS in Sydney today.

[...]

“The South Australian and Western Australian Governments have made significant progress this year to topple Queensland, which has won the Gold Medal for the previous two years. What these three states share is strong leadership in policies to improve the food supplied in various important settings. They’ve gone beyond healthy food policies in schools, expanding into healthcare, government and sporting facilities. We would really like to see the other states and territories following this lead,” said Dr Peeters.

Dr Peeters also commends two Governments for initiating the implementation of progressive policies -Victoria’s kilojoule labelling in fast food outlets and the ACT’s legislation to increase competition between supermarkets in order to lower food prices. NSW is also recognised for its leadership in advocating for national restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

[...]

“Western Australia also has a strong bipartisan, whole of government approach, extending its influence through a range of initiatives such as its Premier’s Physical Activity Taskforce, monitoring and evaluation of population data and strong, evaluated social marketing campaigns such as ‘Draw the line’, ‘Go for 2 & 5’ and ‘Find 30 every day’,” said Dr Peeters.

ANZOS commends the Western Australian government’s excellent policy on food in public facilities, which it is now looking to be expanded to sporting venues, and its model of funding through the health promotion agency Healthway supporting reforms around sponsorship and food supply in sports settings.

So, while there is still a way to go, the multifactorial health approach seems to be working. Without the assistance of books from Dr Dingle, or homeopathy.

And here's a photograph of Dr Dingle in an extremely rare moment earlier this year (outside the Coroner's Court) when he wasn't giving health advice.

The self-reinforcing circle of improbable beliefs

2010-10-22T10:48:00.007+08:00

As a follow on to yesterday's post, there are a couple of other interesting things in Dr Peter Dingle's recent newsletter.

Dr Dingle also takes the oppotunity to promote his UWA extension courses on subjects such as how to cure diabetes — which is a strange topic for a non-medically qualified person to lecture on, as well as a seminar run by Mindd held, appropriately enough, at the Murdoch University School of Chiropractic ("Murdoch University — where too much magic is never enough").

While the history of Dr Peter Dingle's association with the University of WA Summer Schools appears to have been almost completely purged from the web, enough remains to show that in Autumn 2009 he was offering:

Dingle says do the DEAL and forget dying - until you're ready to do it. ...

Clearly the DEAL, and his beliefs, have failed to meet their exaggerated claims.

It would also seem that the University of WA have reconsidered the appropriateness of allowing the use of their institution to legitimate the offering of health advice by someone with no qualifications to do so.

But on to the even more disturbing stuff... Mindd (Metabolic, Immunologic, Neurologic, Digestive, Developmental) are one of those legitmate looking health organisations that promote ideas which, if not part of the lunatic fringe, are definitely sitting right next door to them. Why, then even have a link on their home page to a Professor who has cured her son's autism and won a Bent Spoon Award! Their home page states:

Our focus is on paediatric disorders such as Autism, ADHD, Asthma, allergies, chronic illness, learning and language delay, and digestive and behavioural disorders. Research is showing that these children are coming from families with a history of brain-immuno-gut disorders such as allergies, digestive disorders, anxiety and depression.

The rise in childhood disease signals a need for preventative healthcare that focuses on cellular health by optimising nutrient intake while minimising toxins.

This almost sounds sensible, but that last paragraph contains meaningless phrases so beloved of alties: 'cellular health' and the terrible effects of unspecified 'toxins'.

These people are still pursuing the autism/gut/mercury nexus that Andrew Wakefield so successfully, and on the basis of no evidence, promoted.

Many in the ASD community blame mercury in vaccines for causing autism. Note that the vaccines contain LPS or other toxins from microorganisms. It is possible that LPS and other microbial toxins also play a key role in the vaccine damage.

[...]

We are in total agreement, and offer as our own evidence, scientific articles and many positive results from using a diet that eliminates neurotoxin-producing bacteria and fosters intestinal healing.

In view of the research, we have to consider Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) a poison, as toxic as mercury and other heavy metals, LPS has drastic consequences for those in the ASD Community. Fortunately, dramatic improvements may result after its removal.

Toxins from the gut are apparently the cause of autism, ADHD, allergies, Coeliac Disease, childhood diabetes, schizophrenia, depression and epilepsy.

"The vast majority of epilepsy cases in children are due to toxin accumulation in the brain. When the amounts of toxins reach dangerous levels the brain sends an electric discharge to get rid of it all in one go. So, an epileptic fit is a safety valve for the brain, a cleansing procedure. In order to help the child we need to remove the toxins. In the majority of cases, these toxins come from the gut, so treatment has to concentrate on the child's digestive health." Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.

This process is so simple, and so well understood, that it can be illustrated by a simple graphic:

This leads to a range of symptoms. EoR isn't sure why a number of conditions are repeated over and over, but did find the number of times OCD appears amusing.

While they don't actually come out as anti-vaccination (presumably, they leave that to the chiropracters), they do provide inaccurate scare stories:

Mercury levels are steadily rising from industrial activity. Main sources include dental amalgams, fish, coal burning, and until recently the preservative used in childhood vaccines (thimerasol). Thimerosal contains 50% mercury and was used in MMR vaccinations in Australia until recently. Unsafe levels of mercury can cause speech and learning difficulties, poor concentration and can lead to autistic behaviour.The flu shot still contains mercury

Did you notice that quick slip from discussing mercury in vaccines, to the reference to "unsafe levels of mercury", almost as if they wanted you to believe that vaccines contained unsafe levels! Pretty classy misdirection indeed! The medical experts at Mindd seem to have a poor understanding of chemistry and also seem to be unaware that:

TThiomersal has been used in medical products and vaccines for more than 60 years and is the most commonly used preservative in multi-dose vials. It has a very long safety record. There is no evidence anywhere in the world that thiomersal in vaccines has caused any developmental or neurological abnormalities, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism or any other health problem. Thiomersal, which contains a small amount of mercury, was removed from vaccines given to young children in Australia simply as a precaution to reduce the theoretical risk of exposure to mercury in babies, particularly those of very low birth weight. Pre filled syringes, which do not require the preservative, are available for vaccination of children aged six months to 35 months.

The best way to deal with these issues is by broadly embracing every possible form of improbable therapy, including:

Complementary Medicine, cranial sacral therapy, nutrition, Chiropractic care, speech and neuro-developmental therapies, energy medicine, acupuncture, holistic dentistry, Functional neurology, Ayurvedic & Chinese medicine, yoga, meditation, osteopathy, naturopathy, and homeopathy.

And, of course, their true beliefs can be determined by their support of Generation Rescue (an autism cult), and the affilations of their WA practitioners also show how many have DAN! training. It is unsurprising to see Dr Igor Tabrizian listed there, given his links to Dr Peter Dingle.

And so the world of improbable beliefs comes full circle.

Cancer is a modern illness (2)

2010-10-21T10:00:00.002+08:00

Dr Peter Dingle, as he admits himself, is not a medically qualified doctor and has no time to research such matters. It is interesting, therefore, that his April/May newsletter has him providing health advice on cancer.

Perhaps the most dreaded of all diseases is cancer. It will kill around 1/3 of Australians. Unfortunately with our one dimensional health model we have continued to focus on the treatment rather than the prevention and as a result more people die. While cancer is largely untreatable, despite the miracle cures you hear about in the media, it is largely preventable. There is no miracle cure for cancer nor will there ever be. The rates of cancer and death from cancer continue to increase despite the billions of dollars injected into treating the illness. Only a few minor cancers are treated effectively with modern techniques yet we still keep doing it.

This is scary stuff. Cancer will kill you! It can't be treated! There will never be a cure! Doctors adopt a 'one dimensional health model'! The paragraph continues, in direct conflict with that claim:

One cancer however, is showing significant reductions in its occurrence and all future predictions show it reducing even further, lung cancer. The occurrence and the rates of deaths from lung cancer are on the decline, no because of treatment but because of education and prevention.

EoR expects that Dr Dingle's devoted readers will not notice that the 'one dimensional health model' includes not just treatment, but also education and prevention. Perhaps that is why we are seeing so much advice not to smoke, to drink less, to eat a healthy diet, and to exercise?

Despite the claims by specialists that say we don’t know why we are getting so many cancers it is obvious that it relates to our diet, environment, attitude and our lifestyle and there is abundant information to show that changing these parameters can dramatically reduce your risk of cancer.

If in doubt just look at the cancer statistics of countries that have different lifestyles and diets.

Most of the cancers of today were either rare or unheard of just 100 years ago and are still rare in many countries where people live on traditional diets. Breast cancer rates for example are around 1% of the woman in populations living on traditional foods in rural Japan and China and around 13% in Australia.

So there's that 'cancer is a modern illness' meme again.

EoR isn't sure why Dr Peter Dingle singles out Japan and China. Even Australia where, apparently, cancer is a modern, incurable epidemic, has lower rates in rural areas (but poorer outcomes due to lower access to those 'one dimensional' health care services), as noted by the Cancer Australia:

People living in very remote rural areas of Australia have lower incidence rates, but higher death rates, for all cancer types when compared to the community as a whole.

Dr Peter Dingle also fails to take into account that cancer is related to ageing. Since lifespans have been increasing, the number of cancers has also, but

Numbers of cancers diagnosed each year increased by 26 per cent from 1993 to 2003. Given the ageing of the Australian population, increases in population size and the fact that the risk of most cancers increases with age, annual numbers of new cancers are predicted to keep rising. However, while the number of people diagnosed with cancer is rising due to these factors, when we adjust rates to consider our ageing population, incidence rates were about the same for all cancers combined in 2003 as they were in 1993.

And, since Dr Peter Dingle isn't able to look at any of the research, he clearly remains unaware that

More than half of all cancers diagnosed in Australia are successfully treated, and survival rates for some common cancers have increased by more than 20 per cent in the past two decades. In general, Australian survival rates for cancer are high by world standards. Five-year survival rates for the most common cancers affecting men (prostate) and women (breast) are now more than 80 per cent.

So his claim that cancer is 'largely untreatable' is patently false and that 'Only a few minor cancers are treated effectively with modern techniques' is so wrong it would be funny if people weren't actually getting health 'advice' from this man.

Breast cancer survival rates have also steadily been increasing (p.127) so his claim that 'more people die' as a result of focusing on treatment is also patently false.

Of course, 'cancer' is not an illness, as Dr Peter Dingle seems to think, but a grouping of many illnesses of different types. Causes, etiologies, and treatments are multifactorial (and far from 'one dimensional').

Given the fact that breast cancer (to take only one, smaller, grouping of cancers) is more common amongst higher socioeconomic individuals, p116, (to take only one variable) shouldn't Dr Dingle actually be arguing that women's incomes should be lowered? Or is that too 'one dimensional'?

EoR notes that TAM Australia is touting for business:

The audience of 600 highly science-literate and obviously highly enthusiastic people offers a perfect opportunity if you or anyone you know has relevant and appropriate products or services to promote.

EoR trusts that Dr Peter Dingle will take up this opportunity.

Cancer is a modern illness (1)

2010-10-20T10:05:00.002+08:00

Well, it appears all those alties were right, and cancer is a modern disease that was unknown in the ancient world. A paper in Nature Reviews Cancer (which is embargoed for a full year (!) for electronic access so only subscribers can access it) is reported in a University of Manchester press release. This finding is based on analysis of hundreds of Egyptian mummies, as well as reports in literature and earlier animal studies. Just exactly what was examined is unclear in the press release:

The team studied both mummified remains and literary evidence for ancient Egypt but only literary evidence for ancient Greece as there are no remains for this period, as well as medical studies of human and animal remains from earlier periods, going back to the age of the dinosaurs.

[...]

As the team moved through the ages, it was not until the 17th century that they found descriptions of operations for breast and other cancers and the first reports in scientific literature of distinctive tumours have only occurred in the past 200 years, such as scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps in 1775, nasal cancer in snuff users in 1761 and Hodgkin’s disease in 1832.

Presumably the full paper provides further information, especially since the body of literature, records, reports and papryi from early Egyptian to late nineteenth century would, presumably, be too large to examine in full. Their study gives a clear result (EoR's emphasis):

Professor Rosalie David, at the Faculty of Life Sciences, said: “In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare. There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle.”

But what about those ancient cases of cancer that clearly aren't modern?

Professor David – who was invited to present her paper to UK Cancer Czar Professor Mike Richards and other oncologists at this year’s UK Association of Cancer Registries and National Cancer Intelligence Network conference – said: “Where there are cases of cancer in ancient Egyptian remains, we are not sure what caused them. They did heat their homes with fires, which gave off smoke, and temples burned incense, but sometimes illnesses are just thrown up.”

She added: “The ancient Egyptian data offers both physical and literary evidence, giving a unique opportunity to look at the diseases they had and the treatments they tried. They were the fathers of pharmacology so some treatments did work

[...]

She concluded: “Yet again extensive ancient Egyptian data, along with other data from across the millennia, has given modern society a clear message – cancer is man-made and something that we can and should address.”

Finding cancers in ancient Egypt does rather seem to dispute the conclusion that cancer is 'man[sic]-made' and a 'modern' illness, while the dismissive "sometimes illnesses are just thrown up" is simply misdirection.

New Scientist examines these claims, noting that there are multiple natural and genetic causes of cancer, that many modern cancers are a result of lifestyle choices rather than a toxic environment, and that many modern cancers are due to increased longevity.

Cancer Research UK discuss the history of cancer, noting that dinosaurs probably suffered from it, and the earliest record of tumours (in the breast) is found in an ancient Egyptian papyrus. Hippocrates also wrote about cancer.

A homeopathic dilution of ethics

2010-10-19T10:09:00.004+08:00

Sadly, EoR was unable to attend the oxymoronically titled Australian Homeopathic Medicine Conference, but it is clear that recent events have had little or no impact. There is no discussion of legal or ethical issues, but topics included "Homœopathic Treatment of Uterine Fibroid and Ovarian Cyst", "Efficient Homœopathic Care of Critical Cases of Malignancy from an Overseas Perspective" and "Treating People with Cancer, is Homœopathy an Option ?".

Yes. Homeopathy is an option. Just not a very bright one.

The fun isn't quite all over though, since the public are invited to "Experience Homeopathy" at a public open day on the 12th of November.

Experience Homeopathy – Public Open Day 2010 is a free event for any member of the Victorian community who would like to learn more about the principles of the profession, practice of homeopathy and the scope of treatment.

The discussion of principles should be interesting, but EoR suspects it's not ethical principles, but only magical principles, especially since one of the speakers is

a world authority on homoeoprophylaxis - the use of homoeopathic medicines for specific infectious disease prevention. He has undertaken the world's largest long-term study of parents using such a program, completing a PhD research program at Swinburne University, Melbourne, in 2004 on this subject.

EoR is amazed that you can get a PhD for describing how minute doses of water prevents infectious diseases. A quick check at Swinburne University shows that it's a PhD from the Graduate School of Integrative Medicine which is now, apparently, defunct. And the paper doesn't prove homeoeoprophylaxis, but rather (EoR's emphasis):

The Potential Value of Homoeoprophylaxis in the Long-Term Prevention of Infectious Diseases, and the Maintenance of General Health in Recipients

Not only did it fail to prove homoeoprophylaxis works:

The effectiveness of the program could not be established with statistical certainty given the limited sample size and the low probability of acquiring an infectious disease. However, a possible level of effectiveness of 90.3% was identified subject to specified limitations. Further research to confirm the effectiveness of the program is justified.

but the author's conclusion is bizarre:

It also appeared possible that a national immunisation system where both vaccination and HP were available to parents would increase the national coverage against targeted infectious diseases, and reduce the incidence of some chronic health conditions, especially asthma.

In other words, homoeoprophylaxis has no discernable effect, but it works really well, as long as you use it with real vaccination.

While other homeopaths are forced to publish retractions for making similar claims, these homeopaths blithely continue to make these claims to the public, proving how homeopaths have so successfully diluted their principles until they have disappeared entirely.

EoR shakes his head in bemusement.

zn+1 = zn2 + c

2010-10-18T10:27:00.004+08:00

Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010

Fractals

"Being a language, mathematics may be used not only to inform but also, among other things, to seduce."
Quotations by Benoit Mandelbrot

Chaos theory tamed

Image source

Another small trial trumpeted by the media

2010-10-17T11:21:00.003+08:00

Yoga counteracts fibromyalgia (and many other places on the net):

According to new research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University, yoga exercises may have the power to combat fibromyalgia — a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain.

The study involved 53 women, had a control group, and was randomised and blinded.

Comparison of the data for the two groups revealed that yoga appears to assist in combating a number of serious fibromyalgia symptoms, including pain, fatigue, stiffness, poor sleep, depression, poor memory, anxiety and poor balance. All of these improvements were shown to be not only statistically but also clinically significant, meaning the changes were large enough to have a practical impact on daily functioning. For example, pain was reduced in the yoga group by an average of 24 percent, fatigue by 30 percent and depression by 42 percent.

Oh, so yoga doesn't counteract fibromyalgia, so much as reduce some of the symptoms? As some of the commenters on that report note, there was also no comparison with exercise per se.

The actual published study is a little less triumphant. The intervention group actually undertook a range of therapies since yoga doesn't just include the traditional exercise component:

Each Yoga of Awareness class included approximately 40 min of gentle stretching poses (see details below), 25 min of mindfulness meditation (e.g., awareness of breath, awareness of awareness itself), 10 min of breathing techniques (e.g., full yogic breath, breathing into sensation), 20 min of didactic presentations on the application of yogic principles to optimal coping, and 25 min of group discussions (e.g., experiences while practicing yoga at home).

EoR wonders whether it was a synergistc effect, so that 'yoga' provided the stated improvements, or might it have been any one (or combination) of exercise, meditation, breathing techniques, presentations or group discussions? The authors also note that, while there were strong beneficial outcomes from their study,

Major limitations of our study should be noted. The generalizability of these preliminary findings is restricted by the small sample, the absence of follow-up, and over-reliance on self-report data. Moreover, as stated above, any conclusions are especially limited by the lack of an attention placebo or active control condition

The same issue of Pain also includes a paper on psychological interventions for fibromyalgia, reported in a Commentary as:

Using meta-analytic strategies, the review by Glombiewski et al. [5] (in this issue) on treatments for fibromyalgia provided conclusive evidence for the efficacy of psychological interventions in managing this enigmatic pain problem. Specifically, the authors reported that psychological treatments yielded significant reductions in pain, sleep problems, depression, functional status, and catastrophizing.

The same Commentary also notes, however:

As in all reviews, however, the Glombiewski et al. paper raised a number of questions that only additional research could meaningfully address. One issue is the weak methodological quality of many of the studies reviewed. The treatment literature on fibromyalgia, unfortunately, is notable for its lack of adequate controls, limited follow-up, inconsistencies in defining clinical outcomes, and confusion over rationally integrating treatment approaches with key symptoms. These methodological limitations have raised questions about the efficacy of potentially effective treatments and their systematic use in clinical practice.

Carson, J.W., Carson, K.M., Jones, K.D., Bennett, R.M., Wright, C.L., & Mist, S.D. (2010). A pilot randomized controlled trial of the Yoga of Awareness program in the management of fibromyalgia. Pain 151 (2010) 530–539.

Glombiewski, J.A., Sawyer, A.T., Gutermann, J., Koenig, K., Rief, W., & Hofmann, S.G. (2010). Psychological treatments for fibromyalgia: A meta-analysis. Pain 151 (2010) 280–295

Nicassio, P.M. (2010). Commentary: Psychological approaches are effective for fibromyalgia: Remaining issues and challenges. Pain 151 (2010) 245–246.

More evidence 'natural' does not equal 'safe'

2010-10-16T11:10:00.002+08:00

Obesity is a major problem and, while there are drugs available that may assist with this problem, it's always better to go down the natural route isn't it? Natural is, after all, kinder, gentler and more effective if all the marketing speak is to be believed.

A recent paper on case studies observed in the Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong, begs to differ. Over the period between 2004 and 2009 sixty-six cases were observed (one of which was fatal) and eighty-one products were analysed and found to be adulterated, many with multiple contaminants.

Sibutramine was the most commonly encountered illicit agent in the current study. Consistent with previous reports [4, 7], cardiovascular effects were frequently observed. [...] Phenolphthalein, a laxative that was withdrawn due to potential carcinogenicity, was found in illicit weight-loss supplements both in the current as well as previous studies
[10]. Similarly, despite being banned, fenfluramine has been frequently encountered as adulterants. [...] Laxatives and diuretics were found in illicit proprietary weight-loss products, and are presumed to decrease body weight by loss of water and bowel contents. However, these compounds do not possess genuine or long-lasting weight-loss effect. Animal thyroid tissues were also detected, as has been reported previously.

As Science 2.0 notes, this is of concern not just for Hong Kong residents:

While the research concentrated on cases in Hong Kong, the work raises worldwide concerns. These slimming products are widely available over the counter not only in Hong Kong, but in other countries where drug regulation is relatively non-comprehensive. In addition, anyone can buy them over the Internet even if they live in regions with tighter regulatory control.

So it would seem those people seeking out the 'natural' alternative to avoid all those dangerous drugs and their nasty side-effects are often doing neither and, in fact, often utilising dangerous and withdrawn drugs to achieve their goals.

Tang, M.H.Y., Chen, S.P.L., Ng, S.W., Chan, A.Y.W., & Mak, T.W.L. (2010). Case series on a diversity of illicit weight-reducing agents: from the well known to the unexpected. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. “Accepted Article”; doi: 10.1111/1365-2125.2010.03822.x

The fault is not in our stars

2010-10-15T11:05:00.003+08:00

Remember those advertisements in comic books touting the power of hypnosis to make you masterful and powerful and irrestible? Well, they've not disappeared, but only moved on to the net. Cosmic Technologies (or CosmiTec as they prefer to be called) offer you Secret Astrology Seduction Techniques that sound more than a bit creepy but are probably perfectly acceptable if you're a stalker:

You can have the edge over so much other (secret) lovers. You will know things nobody ever will know or understand.

By astrology seduction techniques, you will learn how to attract your secret lover and how to handle her or him. You will know the likes and dislikes of your target. You will know what to do and what to avoid.

You will be in control.

So it's not like you might want a relationship or a partner. No, you want a target that you can control. You can entice a woman to your lair, you can conquer the person you have been hunting. Sometimes woo is just weird, but sometimes it gets distinctly disturbing.

Elsewhere on the site EoR discovered astro-homeopathy, boldly combining two nonsensical systems into one metawoo.

So, for example, it is found that Moon-Pluto connections (aspects or configurations) in a female horoscope may indicate problems to conceive a child due to 'blocked feelings'. A dose of Belladonna LM 18 (this remedy has a Moon-Pluto signature) weekly is able to free the woman of blockages so that a pregnancy can occur.

CosmiTec promise you can determine the gender of your child by simple astrological methods:

According to Dr. Eugen Jonas [psychiatrist and astrologer], this is also the moment of maximum fertility. If this moment also falls at the time of your estimate ovulation, we are pretty shure you will conceive, though there is anecdotal evidence that the lunar phase angle returns overpowers the menstrual cycle and that you CAN get pregnant by having intercourse during menses!

Practically, you have to look at your natal chart and count the distance between the Sun and Moon (also called the luminaries) in a counterclockwise direction and always starting from the position of the Sun.

CosmiTec are not foolish (regardless of the impression their website claims may give), and only promise a 70-75% success rate. Since any random guesses would average around 50-50, guessing the sex of a child is one of the easier psychic predictions to make, especially when only the ones they get right are going to be included in the testimonials.

And then there's sexual horoscopes. EoR had been expecting something about conjunctions with Uranus, but was disappointed.

Given that astrology gives equal influence to all astronomical bodies (in other words, there is no inverse square law of decreasing effect over distance such as with gravity) EoR wonders how long it takes to calculate an astrological chart these days, given the number of planets, comets, meteors, asteroids, Kuiper Belt objects, Oort Cloud objects, stars, nebulae, pulsars, black holes, dark matter and so on. And what about all the unkonwn billions of such objects throughout the universe? How can a chart be complete without taking into account all those as well? Or (gasp) could it be that astrology is just one more outdated magical belief system with no evidence base?

Religious extremists seeking to destroy fabric of Australian society

2010-10-14T10:48:00.005+08:00

Lines are being drawn. The burqa is a weapon against women. Ban the burqa! When three of the more alarming Islamist apologists cannot give a straight answer to even one simple question about the burqa, repeatedly turning it instead into an attack on the West, what hope of an honest discussion on, say, terrorism?

Burqas are Un-Australian. They oppress women. They are worn by terrorists. They are used to hide bombs. They are confonting. This evil must stop — even now a group of religious fundamentalists who believes in a religiously based legal system that is "all-encompassing of the human condition" is trying to promote their beliefs in an attempt to destroy the wonderful homogeneity of our Land, and pollute our precious bodily fluids by publicly worshipping this woman:

Is this the sort of Australia you want to see? This is what our streets will look like:

Is this the sort of thing our forefathers envisioned when they settled and developed this vacant country to create the wonderful society we have today?

Note: Yes, EoR realises that Bolt, and journalists in general, doesn't distinguish between the burqa, the hijab, the niqab and the chador.

The Great Intelligence is on the march

2010-10-13T10:27:00.004+08:00

Climate change is real, and it is already having profound effects on ecologies. Like that of the yetis which are suffering from Russia's recent record-breaking heatwave.

The yetis have become climate change refugees, forced to leave their traditional ranges, and this has brought them into conflict with bears.

Some (obviously unscientific) people confuse the yetis for wood goblins:

“Folk beliefs say that the wood goblin is the master of the woods. All animals, even bears, submit to him. The wood goblin has a strong hypnotic power, thus he is not afraid of any animal.”

The yetis are normally a gentle species, building pyramids (presumably in memory of their time as the Atlantean slave class that built the Egyptian pyramids) and chatting telepathically with all and sundry (but not, obviously, bears):

“They make strange pyramidal constructions of trunks and branches in the wood – sometimes 3 or 4 meters, sometimes only 30 cm high."

[...]

[I]t seems that local residents have already found a common language with the yetis – they leave candies for them and communicate with them mentally – yetis are believed to be telepathic. Igor Burtsev even claims that to a certain extent, yetis can imitate the human language. “I would, without doubt, call the yeti another species of man,” he says.

EoR does, however, wonder why no one has investigated the immediately obvious explanation: that these are the descendants of escaped or abandoned humanzees from Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov's experiments in the early twentieth century.

(The Great Intelligence)

Metatronical madness

2010-10-12T10:31:00.002+08:00

As EoR has previously noted, people performing improbable ethods of treating disease and who, largely, are dismissive if not completely antagonistic of conventional medicine still crave the legitimisation and authority of that same conventional medicine. Hence the Australian Medical Intuitives Association, Inc, a group of 'Professional Practitioners' of 'Medical' intuition. Without those code words, it would just be some people guessing what was wrong with you based on a completely wrong view of physiology. As an example, "Diabetes is often the result of feeling unloved".

One of these 'Professional Practitioners' is Carmel Bell, who promotes Metatronic Energy® and is also the founder of the College of Medical Intuition, as well as the founder and President of the previously mentioned AMIA (the easy way to give yourself 'professional' legitimisation — set up a couple of organisations yourself, and claim their imprimatur, rather than meeting the stringent requirements of an established authority like, for example, the Australian Medical Board). And, while

She has worked successfully with thousands of people, dealing with a wide variety of concerns, ranging from panic/anxiety disorder, systemic illness, cancer, traumatic injury, nerve injury and emotional problems, to name a few dysfunctions.

she also adds the usual disclaimer

Carmel Bell is not a Medical Practitioner and claims no training in Medicine, Alternative health Fields or Psychology. A consultation with a Medical Intuitive is not meant to take the place of advice or treatment by a qualified professional in these fields. Any condition requiring medical care should be attended to by your Health Care practitioner.

The information given on this website is a guide only and is not intended to replace any advice or guidance given to you by any health care practitioner or medical practitioner that you consult with. Carmel Bell accepts no responsibility for any choices or actions you may make to your health care routine based on your interpretation of the information provided on this website.

This is slightly different from the normal disclaimer, which admist the seller has no conventional medical knowledge, since it also adds that Ms Bell has no alternative medical knowledge. In effect, she has no idea at all, and accepts absolutely no responsibility for making guesses based on her total lack of knowledge.

Also, like others of her ilk, she runs seminars (though she at least has the originality to call them 'Funshops') at AU$450, as well as training ('Price on application'). And now she has a book: When All Else Fails. She includes the breathless review Nova gave to her book:

Not many people can claim to have visited the borders of death and live to tell the tale in fascinating detail. Carmel Bell has - (on three occasions. Of all the stoires I've reead over the years, hers is one of the most extraordinary.) (...) Carmel was four years old when she somehow set herself on fire and died, albeit briefly. She travelled down the tunnel, familiar to so many near death experiences and towardsa glowing light. At the gates of heaven, JEsus and an Archangel named Metatron gave Carmel a healing gift, Metatronic Energy, which she later used to heal her bruned body and her damaged kidneys.

Wow! All those burns and severe injuries cured solely by Metatronic Energy! Because, of course, if she'd actually gone to hospital and relied on modern medical treatment and the skills of a team of medical professionals she'd acknowledge that, wouldn't she? Presumably, Metatron also advised her to register his name as a trademark as well.

It's virtually impossible to explain away Carmel's near death experience on the the night of February 15th 2009 when she had a cardiac arrest, died for 47 minutes and suffered severe brain damage. She was placed in a coma for four days and then spent six weeks in intensive care. The medical prognosis was she would be dependant on care all her life. Of course, the doctors did not take into account Carmel's indefatigable spirit - or her access to Metatronic Energy. Carmel is today a walking, talking miracle. Never was there such a case of "physician heal thyself".

Some might argue that she did, in fact, suffer brain damage. Her third death must have been fairly uninteresting, since it's not mentioned in the review. And, clearly, it's not a case of 'phsician heal thyself' since she's stated she's not a physician, not even a pretend altie sort.

Such magic belief systems, in the face of lack of evidence, rely on the personal anecdote:

One of the most touching casr studies in this book involves a deparately ill woman named Carla, a mother and wife who had lived her life for her family. Carmel uncovered Carla's deep-seated feelings of disempowerment and being trapped in life, (she also continued her raditation therapy). About a year later, Carla was free from cancer and she was living a happier life.

So, which do you think cured Carla? Metatronic Energy®, or radiation therapy?

Sadly, no matter how often Ms Bell notes that Metatron is her personally trademarked and registered angel, he doesn't seem to be listening to her. He allows himself to be channelled by others:

Metatron: These you refer to as Yeti or those termed, Bigfoot, are earlier versions of the genetic experiment on Earth, primarily from the phase of Atlantis some 20,000 years ago. At that time there were many genetic experiments on your planet. These beings are intelligent, but genetically impaired. These massive forms were genetically created using human DNA with that of the ape to create a laboring humanoid beast, a beast with greater intelligence, human like intelligence, but with imposed genetic wiring or implants that ‘unplugged’ certain areas of the brain.

(...)

You see, the grid alignments, powernodes, and white holes that exist on your planet do not just exist on dry land, most of them exist, in fact on over and under waters. Dolphins, primarily, and in a few cases whales, align their energies to these sites in assisting to balance the energy of your planet.

Who would have thought that the wonderfully newagey Atlantis, and Stalin's Russia would have had so much in common?

Metatron even seems to have branched out, providing Pippa Merivale with Metatronic Healing® which is presumably totally different from Metatronic Energy®.

He is also, apparently, providing his multidimensional healing modality via the services of a stud alpaca.

Illusory circles

2010-10-11T10:49:00.003+08:00

Crop circles have long ago been debunked as artful pranks but, like the meme that mercury causes cancer, magical beliefs about them continue to persist.

So Jeremy Ball presents a mish-mash of spirituality and misinformation in the latest Nova under the heading of From Animal to Hu-Man.

Despite all of man's [sic] achievements in science, medicine and building and in reaching great spiritual heights, we all have animalistic tendencies, which have come out to devastating effects. [...] Well, if what prophecies tell us — and many of the signs around back them up — we are in the final days of the animal cycle. [...] Just like a spacecraft, turning at right angles before making a dimensional shift, we will lift out of the suit of base reactions, which served us well for this last cycle, leaving it behind for a new skin of lighter purer qualities. We are living in those days.

EoR has never seen a spacecraft make a dimensional jump, except in the realms of fantasy, which is pretty much where this article is based.

Crop circles are some sort of special sign from the "Great Spirit". But hang on, what about those tiresome naysayers?

I won't bother to address the doubters of crop circles because it is so obviously a true phenomenon that to cast out all crop circles as false is akin to arguing that the world is flat.

Take that, sceptics! So much for the new age when all will be lightness and fluffiness and inclusiveness. Anyway, EoR has never heard any sceptics claim crop circles are false. Where does Mr Ball get that idea from?

Crop circles, Mr Ball informs us, are some sort of chakra-energising glyphs that act in the way advertising "can program and affect our consciuosness". EoR wonders if crop circles are actually saying something like "Eat at Milliways"?

The South West of England has a hub of many energy channels and the Druidic culture that lived there performed many practices to keep the energy channels opening, flowing and evolving. They involved creating stone circles to augment the process, much like acupuncture can do for the qi meridians in your body. It is around these stone circles that many crop circles appear. The Druids worked in conjunction with extra terrestrial/higher dimensional beings to create the stone circles and it is these same beings who are involved in the crop circles.

EoR is getting rather tired by this stage of everything being "like" acupuncture.

Apart from having a flaky grasp of history (Druids flourished during the Iron Age while stone circles were built during the earlier Megalithic period, but EoR presumes if they had extraterrestrial engineering and project management assistance they may have also used those Super-Duper Acme™ Alien Time Travel Machines) this is the standard line pushed by von Daniken and his disciples: that humanity is basically stupid and incapable of anything. So much so that they can only create stone circles, pyramids, civilisation etc etc with alien help. This is a deeply depressing view of humanity when it is examined, and EoR much prefers the sense of wonder engendered from understanding that around 50 thousand years ago, humanity expanded its cognitive abilities and became capable of expressing itself in many ways, culturally, socially and mechanically.

Not for Mr Ball, though.

The crop circles in England this year have been astonishing in their intricacy and directness of message. Rather than being mere geometric expression, they are clearly pointing to an ascension process that the earth and us as cells in her body are going through.

What sort of circles do you see in this image? Wavy lines?

They are, in fact, perfect circles, but human perception distorts what you are seeing.

Interpretation requires caution.

Kicking against the pricks

2010-10-10T11:25:00.000+08:00

Apparently the only society in the history of humanity that doesn't accept acupuncture is the modern Western world. Acupuncture has been used everywhere and everywhen. There's Ötzi the Iceman. And now there's the mummy with the irrefutable evidence that ancient Peruvians also practiced acupuncture.

Mysterious circle tattoos on a Peruvian mummy have been identified as containing burned plant material. The finding sheds light on a possible ancient healing practice that may have been based on similar principles to acupuncture.

The 1000-year-old female mummy was found unwrapped in the sand of the desert at Chiribaya Alta in southern Peru in the early 1990s. She bears two distinct types of tattoos: emblems representing birds, apes, reptiles and other symbols cover her hands, arm and lower left leg, while an asymmetric pattern of overlapping circles is present on her neck.

Maria Anna Pabst of the Medical University of Graz in Austria has determined that these are a result of acupuncture. How does she know this?

Pabst points out that the circles are close to Chinese acupuncture points. She says that tattooing a person at these points could have worked in a similar way to how acupuncture is thought to work. The plants chosen as the staining material would presumably have had medicinal properties, she adds.

Leaving aside the fact that herbs in tattoos have absolutely nothing to do with acupuncture, why is it always that these tattoos are "near" acupuncture points? Every point on the body is "near" an acupuncture point! Tattoos cover a large amount of skin. If any tattoo, anywhere, ever, wasn't near an acupuncture point, EoR would be amazed.

But wait! There's more proof!

When she showed a drawing of the tattoos to a modern-day shamanic healer in Peru, he suggested that they might have been part of a strengthening ritual on an upper-class subject.

Oh. EoR's convinced. Though he doesn't quite understand what a shamanic healer (many of whom can be found by an internet search, and many of whom are not 'shamans' at all in the traditional sense but just newage scammers — EoR has no idea what sort was consulted in this case) would have to say about acupuncture. It's like consulting an environmental toxicologist about your cholesterol problems.

Interestingly, Dr Pabst has also been involved in analysing Ötzi's tattoos.