BPSDB - The Skeptics' Aggregator

The Natural History Museum is one of the most amazing attractions in London. That's not opinion, its evidence-based fact. The science made available to the public in the NHM is outstanding and world-class - I haven't seen the new Darwin Exhibition but if past exhibitions are anything to go by, it will be top notch historical science.Why, then, is the NHM dedicating valuable research time and effort to create a homeopathic database of the various plants, fungi, lichens and algae used by quacks to make useless sugar pills?From the website:The homeopathy database is a standard reference ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

Proof that anti-vaxxers really are slowly slipping off the fringes of reality, Suba is now trying to tell parents who've been scared by the MMR hoax that everything wrong with the body is down to it being too acidic. Does it need saying that this is just utter, utter bollocks?We were all taught in human biology that immunity comes from white blood cells protecting us from some invading germ or virus. White blood cells provide NO immunity. White blood cells do not destroy germs. White blood cells are glorified janitors that swim around in our blood and lymphatic plasma picking up the ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB] The Daily Mail carries news of an astonishing tea that helps to whittle down waistlines and reduce blood pressure. It is six paragraphs before you discover that the research in question is about rats rather than people and is about to be presented in a conference, it has not as yet been subjected to scrutiny in a peer-reviewed journal. More worryingly, without any context, the journalist makes a throw-away comment about anti-inflammatory and anti-obeseogenic findings for ibuprofen without indicating that people should not self-experiment and that there are many contraindications.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

Cybertiger makes no secret of his loathing of Prof Sir Roy Meadow and other "expert witnesses" in "shaken baby" cases - preferring to blame those child deaths on vaccines. As we've seen, that appears to be down to defending the family honour. However, he seems to be taking this support for child killers to the extreme:Imagine your baby dying and the struggle to save him. Imagine being arrested for shaking him to death. Imagine going to prison for life without possibility of parole for a murder you did not commit, for a crime that hadn't happened. Remember Alan Yurko? That nightmare ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

One common tactic of the JABS crowd is to ascribe ill-effects to vaccines, when there is no evidence to show the connection. Here's a prime example from that egregious bastard Truth Seeker:And yet it seems if your pre disposed to warts Gardasil may make the problem worse. In the links in my post above some comlained about this, following the vaccine."One of the most startling findings is 78 cases of outbreaks of wartsfollowing the vaccine in women already infected without knowing it. Besidesgenital warts, some patients experienced massive outbreaks on the face,hands, or feet, sometimes ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB] The Daily Mail has published two articles about fish oil supplements in two weeks. Unfortunately, they contradict each other concerning value for money. This is very unhelpful as the Daily Mail fails to provide an evidence base for some of the advice that it dispenses concerning recommended doses of fish oil supplements and I'd like to think that they can redeem themselves in some way by commenting on value for money or actual efficacy.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

I’ve recently stumbled upon the Royal College of Nursing’s “Complementary approaches to menopausal symptoms” and I’m not overly impressed.  So I’ve decided to review it in two posts.  This post looks at some of its introductory sections and then focuses on what it has to say about herbs and the menopause.  Part two will look at its inadequate treatment of the remaining complementary therapies (acupuncture and acupressure, aromatherapy, reflexology and homeopathy) Don’t get me wrong, the document has its strengths: a good discussion of the placebo ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

From time to time, I get asked why I bother putting the screw on various complementary therapies - my usual first response is as someone who finds science interesting, overwhelming, incredible and at times barely believable (but always based on rigorous experiment), I get frustrated at people inventing non-sensical waffle that is often demonstrably wrong, and passing it off as science (usually to make money). Further on in the conversation, the phrase "well, it's fine as long as you don't take it too seriously" rears its fence-sitting little head. If that's the case, why no just ditch it ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

[BPSDB] "Healing therapist" Russell Jenkins tragically died after a minor injury to his foot became gangrenous when he refused to seek medical attention, an inquest has heard. read more
Read more [The Lay Scientist] 

[BPSDB] Patrick Holford and Food for the Brain think that a profile of Holford in the National Health Executive shows him in a good light despite some extraordinary questions. The piece is so odd that it really doesn't do anything except raise questions about why this piece was published. However, NHE advertises that it is an effective outlet for marketing campaigns so perhaps the publication of this article isn't so odd.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

"The outcome I would be really happy with is a better understanding of healthy eating", said teacher Paul Whitaker, from Auckland's Wellsford School, according to TV.NZ.What I assume he meant is "The outcome I would be really happy with is a better understanding of the scientific method, placebos and possibly the Hawthorne Effect".It appears that after watching a BBC documentary on Omega 3 fish oils, Mr Whitaker decided to run a trial of his own: 42 pupils, 21 with a fish oil pill and 21 without, otherwise, everything was the same. The story was also picked up (slightly, but only slightly ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

[BPSDB] I want to tell you a story. It's a story about oil. It's a story about (obliquely) climate change. It's a story about corruption and murder, and it's a story about poverty in Africa. But most of all, it's about a government official who was sacked after failing to get the money he stole to pay his witchdocter refunded. Welcome to the Niger Delta. read more
Read more [The Lay Scientist] 

[BPSDB] It is with great sorrow and yet some amusement that we report the identity of the writer responsible for the recent, lamentable, credulous write-up about the Food for the Brain conference in The Economist. The article lauded nutritional approaches to the treatment of addiction. When you learn the identity of the author, you may think that there is a conflict of interest, we couldn't possibly comment.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

Holland and Barrett have recently taken the opportunity to pitch me the idea, via an e-mail, that Ginkgo Biloba “helps the maintenance of good cognitive function.”   Their web page contains a more detailed and specific claim:  “Today nutritionists are taking a closer look at this wonderful herb because it has been used for many years throughout Europe. Supports the maintenance of good cognitive function and healthy circulation which helps to maintain memory with age decline.” Interestingly the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) tells me that they ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

Aobbard is pushing the Budwig Flax Oil Diet as a cure for cancer. Frankly, if she wanted to take it herself, I'd not want to stop her. However, this is what she posts…I do know of someone with young children who's wife is in late stage cancer who is having chemo. I mentioned this on the Yahoo Iodine Forum I belong to and someone very kindly emailed me to suggest I passed this information on. It is rather a dilemma for me and as yet I have not done so but it is really playing on my mind.I know its unlikely but could it be that this could possibly save her life?I can see that in UK ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB] Troubled by the incidence of constipation amongst young children, there is a campaign in schools in Japan to teach children how to have healthy bowel movements and eliminate constipation. Japan seems to have a remarkable obsession with bathroom gadgetry that co-exists with social reticence about using the bathroom in earshot of others. In the UK, we have our own bowel obsessions.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

Well, I say respond, but they don't really say anything.The original petition is here with the following wording:We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Immediately ban NHS funding of homoeopathy and redirect the resources to proven medicine. to which the DoH replied:Although the Department of Health provides strategic leadership to the NHS and social care organisations in England, it is for local NHS organisations to plan, develop and improve services for local people. These bodies are best placed to respond to patients’ concerns and needs, so it is their responsibility to ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

[BPSDB] The Journal of the American Medical Association has recently published a good quality, placebo-controlled, randomised, double-blind trial looking at whether vitamin C and E supplementation can reduce cardiovascular events. It ran for 10 years, and included “14 641 US male physicians enrolled, who were initially aged 50 years or older, including 754 men (5.1%) [...]
Read more [Holford Watch] 

... so ends a pretty good section from BBC's Inside Out SouthWest program, which on 12th Nov ran a piece on The College of Natural Nutrition.For those of you in the UK, the BBC iPlayer has the program here, it runs from about 1min 7secs to 11 mins 38 secs. (Unless some kind bod pops it onto YouTube, I'm afraid non-Brits will have access issues).(As an aside, it was also BBCs Inside Out Southwest program that confronted Neal's Yard about selling homeopathic products for malaria and, along with a complaint from this site, managed to get the products withdrawn.)The main villain in the piece ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

Paul Dacre, Editor of The Daily Mail, addressed the Society of Editors in Bristol this week, and his speech was printed in Monday's MediaGuardian. Throughout the week, various commentators have responded to Dacre's uncharacteristically public outburst, including Max Mosely and Polly Toynbee.His main gripe was that the "British press is having a privacy law imposed on it" by one man, Justice David Eady who has used the privacy clause of the Human Rights Act to stop various sordid details of famous private lives making it into the public domain. Dacre uses the case of Max Mosely who famously ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

Suba seems to be convinced of the importance of JABS in the grand scheme of things, and flings out one of those regular accusations of "Big Pharma" trolling. But this time (s)he goes a bit further:Thomas P, the very fact you hog these boards more diligently than any parent with vaccine damaged kid's is proof enough that MMR is damaging our kids. And you get paid to do it that is for sure. You are part of a massive PR campaign of misinformation, lies and deceit of which you think you are some sort of master. Pharmaceuticals spend 60% of their budget on marketing products, you are part of a ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

The BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit (ECU) has just let me know that their adjudication on the “Britain’s happiest places mapped” debacle (previously covered here and here) has been published on the BBC Complaints website.  As ever, these tend to be less detailed than the private responses given to complainants; but they provide a useful public record.  Ultimately they get distilled further into a summary document, so the link won’t be live indefinitely. So, has the article actually changed as a result of this complaint?  Yes, but some of the changes actually ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

…but Cybertiger is still posting the exchange from OnMedica.com. I have no idea why - it just makes him look like a complete twat. Judge for yourself…http://jabs.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1379&whichpage=4 (not a clickable link, as ever)[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

(By Guest Blogger, Sceptical Rogue)Wow. What a great morning to wake up to! The Daily Mail is telling me all about the new statin drug that slashes the risk of heart attacks and strokes for EVERYONE by up to 44 per cent. I can't believe it. How happy I am. Even BBC Breakfast is having a go, promising that 'rarely have we seen such clear and dramatic results'.But before we all rush to the doctor demanding prescriptions of Crestor to crush up and put in our morning cereal, I thought I'd take a slightly closer look.So, this story is about the The JUPITER Study which was published online in ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

Truth Seeker uses the "burden of proof" argument fairly frequently. His (her?) argument goes like this:The onus to prove vaccinations do not suppress immunity and do not make one more suscetable to chronic diseases such as autoimmune diseases lies with the makers, the DOH and people who licence them which they have not done.Actually, Truth Seeker, all the available evidence does suggest that vaccinations do not suppress immunity, and don't make one more susceptible to chronic diseases. The problem lies with cretins like you who have an agenda to pursue, and are well aware that it's ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Two weeks ago today I had an open hip debridement on my right hip. At 31, I was about half the age of most of the other people having similar operations, but I guess that's not too surprising. Cam impingement and subsequent treatment seems to be a reasonably new area of medicine and as such the techniques are still being developed. (Given the nature of this blog, I thought CAM Impingement was quite an ironic pathology for me to have)Nonetheless, the above will explain the lack of blog activity over the past while, and indeed may explain the (anticipated) blog over-activity in the next few ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

Cybertiger has a new favourite phrase, which he's using to insult any medical professional who doesn't agree with his potty views of the world, or who he doesn't like. (So - pretty much everyone). It's "scientifically incurious".Dr Michael Fitzpatrick has rubbished that idiot John Briffa's (who Cybertiger worships) support of a hypothesis that rain causes autism.Dr Fitzpatrick doesn't know the cause of autism or why its prevalence has increased: he seems not to care. He doesn't understand how genetic vulnerability might interact with a variety of possible environmental triggers, ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Matthias Rath, the deeply odious and murderous quack nutritionist, is collaborating with representatives of the alternative health industry to campaign for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and other EU legal decisions.  This alliance incorporates minor political parties in Germany and the Netherlands - AGFG and Partij voor Mens en Spirit respectively, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), the National Health Federation (NHF), La Leva di Archimede and the Zeus Information Service, all organised and brought together by the Dr. Rath Health Foundation.   I do not have the Dutch or German ...
Read more [Gimpy's Blog] 

Another Week, another charitable day to target, and another set of dubious promotional claims from Holland and Barrett.  This time they have been piggy-backing (somewhat belatedly) on World Menopause Day.  That an event designed to bring some reliable advice to women facing this natural, and unavoidable, transition is used to advertise products of no clear worth seems distasteful to me. A mail shot improbably entitled, “Beat menopause naturally - save up to 50% on menopause supplements” implies that a range of products can beat the menopause.  The menopause, of course, ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

According to laura_c_a, the only reason doctors and nurses are so keen on giving children the MMR jab is because they get paid for doing so:In my opinion, and don't take this as medical advice - I am not a qualified doctor - and if I were you, I would not take your daughter back.When the nurse said, "the individual injections she had as a baby didn't 'count'", I think the nurse meant in terms of staff bonuses.The GP surgery and its staff get ££,£££ of bonuses if they meet their immunisation targets, so of course, the nurse wants your daughter to return!That's obviously it. Nothing to do ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

John Stone likes to present himself as the reasonable face of anti-vax lunacy, but whenever anyone points out compelling evidence why he's wrong, he tends to turn into a shouty ranter, flinging ad-hom attacks left, right and centre.Cybertiger has been whinging that the majority of posters on OnMedica (other doctors - intelligent, thoughtful people mainly) think he's an arse. He even posts their comments to illustrate this. (I think he's hoping to convince people that he's outsmarting them all with his wit, but he just proves what a cock he is).It's a long post, so here's the address (I'm ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB] The Economist carried a particularly ill-judged piece about "new treatments for addiction" that were discussed at the recent Food for the Brain conference. The piece is the sort of shoddy scholarship that is more typically associated with other news outlets and it is distressing to see it in a publication as reputable as The Economist: a childhood illusion has been shattered.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

He's reposted something he posted on OnMedica:Few operations or investigative procedures are without risk and risks always have to be balanced with potential therapeutic and diagnostic benefit.Very true Dr Struthers. Why do you take a completely different view when it comes to vaccination?[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

This is a prime example of the "me me me" attitude of the JABS posters. Aquamarine smugly posts: Think I'll stick to the good old-fashioned things that have got humanity through the last hundred thousand years or so... good wholesome organic food, sunlight, clean water, exercise, hygiene. Somehow we survived that long without vaccines and without the toxic potions we smear all over ourselves every day, so I think I'll just fall back on our collective experience and take my chances.While wholesome food, clean water, hygiene etc are all extremely good ideas, and presumably things that ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

This is the funniest thing I've seen in ages. Anthony Cox, scourge of Cybertigger, points out that JABS, when it's down, actually gives you a useful error message.As he says: "However, one has to marvel at the insight that the forum's software has, even when it is broken"ADODB.Recordset error '800a0bb9' Arguments are of the wrong type, are out of acceptable range, or are in conflict with one another. /forum/forum.asp, line 330 Maybe you have to be a geek to find that funny…[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Aobbard, that darling of the mental asks; does anyone know the best safe home water treatment for spring water that may be contaminated with ecoli?!!!What this has to do with vaccination is beyond me, but maybe she thinks that anti-vaxxers have all the answers to her health issues (and believe me, she has a lot). I'd also want to ask what she's doing wanting to drink e-coli contaminated spring water, and how one earth does she know it's contaminated with e-coli in the first place. But then I remembered - she's mental. Occam48 provides a very sensible solution (as he is wont to do); boil ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

You may remember the British Association of Nutritional Therapists (BANT) as the nutritional therapists body that claims to regulate nutritionists yet is remarkably secretive about its code of ethics and disciplinary procedures, perhaps because it altered them after pressure from the nutrition industry to allow members to accept commission from companies for pushing company pills on to their patients. Despite this slippage on the ethical banana skin (Fairtrade no doubt) of financial exploitation BANT still maintains that it exists to: “[...] assist its members in attaining the ...
Read more [Gimpy's Blog] 

Continuing from the theme below, FionaS has made the perfect JABS post, a post which explains exactly why the site shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone looking for medical advice about vaccines.Most of the posters on the site claim to spend a lot of time "researching", with "open minds", "weighing up" the "evidence". All sounds very scientific and laudable so far. Most of this research is done on whack-job alt-health sites like "What Doctors Don't Tell You", yet as soon as they come across a piece from a reputable news source - in this case the BBC - which doesn't fit with their ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

I did. Palmistry (also known as Chiromancy) is the reading of people’s hands to discover their fortune and personality type.  This is not limited the lines on the palm, but the shape of the hand and its proportions including length of fingers, natural lumps or “mounts” on the palm and the colour and condition of the nails and skin. I got interested in this in my early teens after observing a fellow holidaymaker informally read people’s hands for entertainment at a social gathering. I got a few books on the subject and read the hands of my friends, most of whom were ...
Read more [Bridging Schisms] 

A post from Squib has had me laughing my arse off, for multiple reasons.Firstly; Looks like the BBC is spreading FUD againFor those of you not aware of the acronym, FUD stands for "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt". Precisely what the JABS crew, under the aegis of Dr Wakefield and his lackey, John Stone have been doing all these years. Let me put this in words of very few syllables. There is no evidence that the MMR jab causes autism. But JABS is there to make you think that there may be just the tiniest chance - and if they don't get you on MMR, they'll try with HPV vaccine - another ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Typical. As soon as I post that it's down, JABS gets a new lease of life, and carries on promoting its rubbish. Truth Seeker posts the following:Selenium, zinc, vitamin c, echinacea and elderberry syrup/extract/wine i feel would be far better prophylactics than the flu jab without any nasty side effects.This is just crap. Even Cybertiger has, in the past, advertised 'flu jabs for the elderly on his practice's website. (Of course he then goes onto JABS and denounces them as evil, but that's because he's a muddle-headed cretin.)[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

JABS has been down for the last couple of days, hence the reason I've not posted anything. I did wonder if it was just my IP address that had been banned, but it appears not.If it comes back up, I'll let a spider grab a copy of the site so I can always go and dig for idiocy in the archives.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[bpsdb] A number of people have reported issues with the RSS feed for the BPSDB aggregator. Specifically it seems to be causing problems in Google Reader. I'm massively snowed under until Friday, and I'm moving house on Saturday, but I'm going to try and spend some time fixing it on Sunday/Monday. At some point in the next month or two I'm going to start work on V2.0 of the BPSDB code, to give it some additional features and bring more of a database/search feel to it so that older posts are easily searchable from the main page. More on that when it happens. Martin
Read more [The Lay Scientist] 

Gus has been to the pub again!WHO!!! SAT him on the naughty step??W.Mitty..eh!! We believe Steve??Take a seat mate were all mates here mate ,now tell us all mate, your point is mate ,as CT asks mate ?eh! MARMATE YOUR MATE STEVES YUR MATE!!!!ha ha! AND IM ANT VACCINE TOO ..PIGS FLYING BYE 6 FLOORS UP STEVEIE BOY /TROLL/GIRL/IT??If anyone finds out what pub Gus drinks in, please let me know. They obviously serve something very special in there.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Aobbard appears to be trying to start a family feud. Her sister hasn't listened to her foaming at the mouth idiocy about vaccines. Crime of the century, obviously, in aobbard's book:I am so mad at my sister who has allowed my neice to have this vaccine without doing any research or listening to me.Let's look at the facts, shall we? Aobbard believes everything is bad for her: fluoride, vaccines and especially "electrosmog", the latter being so bad that she wears a special apron to sit in front of a computer. She also believes in Morgellon's Syndrome and chemtrails. She is, in fact, a ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

… metaphorically, I hope.Were I not banned at JABS, I'd obviously post this there, and politely point out why he's being a disingenuous cocksucker. As it's my blog, I'll do it here and point it out in no uncertain terms. Rudely.I am not sure I can see what the big story is with Cybertiger and his mother. They both disapprove of David Southall. This fact may not be without interest, but it is not in any way sensational. The big story, dickhead, is that Cybertiger, Dr Mark Struthers, who recently clumsily dodged the question as to whether or not he gives or recommends Meningitis ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

It seems to be full moon wherever Truth Seeker lives today. It's no wonder you don't have friends, you arse…I used to be quite open about our childrens non vaccinated status but am more wary these days as some parents are being brain washed into thinking we are dangerous and somehow putting their vaccinated child at riskOr, to put it another way, some parents are capable of rational thought, and don't just believe every half-baked idea they read on the internet. They also probably don't like the insinuation that they're being brainwashed, especially when it comes from a gibbering ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

The kind of foaming lunacy that Truth Seeker posts could come from the "rejected for being too mental" drawer at the Daily Mail… The first paragraph here could be straight from the Jabs-o-matic at the bottom of the page…Er dont start this in the first place, look at the big picture of new labour creating paranoia and scaremongering and assumption of guilty till proven innocent, this is just another step that is happening all around us.Plastic policeman in place of real policeNurses making desicions only doctors should.Terror laws used for trivial spying on innocent people by ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

In August, the BBC ran a story claiming that research had determined that some places in Britain were ‘happier’ than others.  You can see the nature of the claims in the TV news report, “Britain’s happiest places mapped“.  There was a big problem with this though: the research found no significant differences between places.  The only differences were accounted for by the socio-economic status of the people.  If you read through the on-line version of the story it even pointed this out, eventually.  A number of bloggers picked up on this facile churnalism (here, ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

While I appreciate that few people are likely to turn to JABS as an immediate source for AIDS treatment advice, I still find it disturbing that Rosemary is putting out this kind of unmitigated rubbish.Obviosly taking anti-retrovirals is Not a good idea if you are HIV+'Most common cause of deaths among HIV+ patients is LIVER FAILURE caused by taking TOXIC DRUGS'[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Gus The Fuss has gone up massively in my estimation. He appears to be a fan of avant-garde noise rock bands, punctuating his posts in the manner of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Trust me I’m! Not a doctor??[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

One of Cybertiger's personal bugbears is a chap by the name of Professor David Southall, a paediatrician who found notoriety in the Sally Clark case. That's often the reason Cybertiger states for his loathing of the man - but actually, he's not telling the whole truth.To give you a flavour of Cybertiger's fury whenever the name is mentioned, here are a few quotes:"They CANNOT be SERIOUS!!! The man is dangerous and a menace to society.""But Southall doesn't do apology, never, ever - the arrogant bas**rd!""I hear Southall (aka spotty Leopard) is now saving children's lives in Africa. Pity ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Truth Seeker and Janet have their say on a non-story about tradesmen being encouraged to report child abuse and to not just ignore it…Truth Seeker: …these people have secret courts to cover up vaccine damage and take children away from them with evidence that cannot be even heard by the parentsJanet: The new Child Protection Policy is devised to assist the covering up of medical negligence and vaccine damageI suspect these people never leave the house for fear their children may be abducted by the MenInBlack from the Department of Health.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

As I've pointed out before, Rosemary believes anything she reads on the internet regarding gene mutation. Now she's trying to convince the world that HIV is a genetic condition, after she's read "some research" that "proves" it. No link to the research of course, or any mention of its credentials…Just recently I was given access to some research which proves that this particular genetic mutation is also associated with and can result in a HIV infection.So I shall be providing the exact details of the function of this gene and mutated protein because as a parent of an affected ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB]While it’s been the holy grail, of sorts, to the Christian apologist, finding that definitive piece of proof that absolutely demonstrates that Jesus, even a purely human Jesus who may have had the mantle of divinity posthumously draped over him, was a real person has eluded theologians for centuries.  Certainly, there have been many claims made, from the writings of Josephus which turned out to be 4th century Christian forgeries, to the most recent, the 2001 discovery of an early Christian reliquary bearing an inscription that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of ...
Read more [BitchSpot] 

Ed. note: I’d planned this post for next week, but commentary urges otherwise. Until 2007, no state or federal entity could derogate the health of a pregnant woman in favor of that of an unborn “child.” Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. ___ (2007), changed all that. Today, against the great weight of medical evidence, the federal government has utterly banned, without exception, the use of the (admittedly grotesque) procedure known to the medical world as “intact dilation and extraction (D&X),” or, pejoratively “Partial Birth Abortion.” I ...
Read more [A Candid World] 

Well, I'm proud to say that I'll be starting a new job at the beginning of November. In the meantime, I'm currently busy trying to get my affairs in Cambridge in order, and hunting for a somewhere to stay in the Maidenhead/Windsor area, so apologies to my readership for the lack of posts this month. November looks like being a big month for TLS though. In particular, there are four big developments: 1) Praxis returns to its home blog for the first time on November 15th. 2) Due to a stroke of luck I'll be hosting the Carnival of the Liberals on U.S. Election night. 3) I can finally start ...
Read more [The Lay Scientist] 

Avid readers of this humble blog should know by now the sort of fodder that boils up a Thinking Is Dangerous blogpost - dodgy quack medicines being touted as wonderdrugs, newspapers taking no notice of integrity and printing anything that pops into their inbox, the rubber-toothed fight by the Advertising Standards Authority to keep things in check, that sort of thing.Once in a while, a story pops up which presses all the buttons, and with only a whisper of fat-fingered googling, I can sit in amazement watching the pieces of the story happily fall into place like a Christmas morning ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

Looks like Cybertiger and Gus are now regular drinking buddies. This man´s allegedly a DOCTOR for crying out loud! What on earth is he talking about?The pharmacovigilant operative, passionate about drug safety, knows nothing about statins … so defends them to the hilt by tying himself in the silliest of semantic knots. Guff like this can’t be made up: you are a weird creature, tom puff!PS. I thought you weren’t talking to me, so "contemptible" I be.It´s official - he´s a cock.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

In which Dr Aust again falls back on (semi-second hand) musical facetiousness. Regular readers will by now have noted my admiration for the immortal Tom Lehrer. Well, not literally immortal, but as he turned eighty earlier this year he is doing pretty well. “The Old Dope Peddler”, recorded in 1953 on the album Songs by Tom Lehrer, is one of Lehrer’s simpler songs. The other day it occurred to me that it was just the thing for a lyrical makeover in the Bad Science cause. You can listen to the song here, and I suggest you do before you read the adapted lyrics. I do apologise, by the way, ...
Read more [Dr Aust's Spleen] 

[BPSDB] The Advertising Standards Authority has issued another adjudication against Equazen for their advertising for their fish oil supplements. Specifically, it seems that Equazen's ad had "indirectly offered a treatment for a serious condition and was, therefore, in breach of the CAP Code". It is rather distressing that Equazen doesn't seem to be grasping this point, despite multiple corrections. Maybe the pills don't work on themselves?
Read more [Holford Watch] 

Has anyone else noticed this Google ad (right)? I can hardly imagine an image better calcuated to induce nausea than Ben Stein’s smug, sneering face trumpeting a creationist success. But wait — what success? “Expelled” was no success. It was roundly reviled by the responsible press, rated as one of the worst movies in RottenTomatoes history, made barely $7m, and quickly fizzled out. And if the claim is that it’s the “#1 documentary of 2008,” in a fair comparison, Bill Maher’s hit job “Religulous” blew “Expelled” ...
Read more [A Candid World] 

Holland & Barrett have very kindly sent me a special offer for ‘World Mental Health Day‘ inviting me to, “save 50% on brain supplements”.   It’s a very colourful e-mail, as you can see.  This seems wrong on two levels; first just piggy-backing on a charitable activity with no attempt to promote the aims of the event seems ethically suspect.  But, perhaps I’m just a sensitive type?  Second, I can’t for the life of me see what this selection of vitamins, minerals and an aromatherapy oil has to do with either the brain or good mental health!  Just to ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

Again - not sure what Gus is trying to say here:Cheap as chips Occam Ye ! another impartial FROM an impartial body,on the effacy of vaccines . I fell of mee seat when I opened that one LAAAARRFFING ..Try going into the butchers and asking about the benefits of being a vegetarian,but then again its coming up to Xmas and the butcher will be looking for that Xtra bit of dosh..sooo the answer jus might not be fair ,just like the Gp when you ask about vaccines like you I suppose??(Apologies if postings are a bit ad-hoc over the next few days - I´m away, and not sure how regular internet access ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

At the risk of invoking a variant of Dr*T's First Theory, I'd honestly like your opinion on the following:This week, I blogged about the GAIT trial, or Glucosamine/Chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial, which was a large randomized, placebo-controlled trial conducted at several sites across the USA comparing glucosamine & chondroitin with placebo and paracetomol for arthritis. We've got the trial out of the way and we know that the results, although interesting, really confirm what we already knew about glucosamine, in that it's not a magic pill. It's just a pill. A pill that us ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

A new poster has just turned up at JABS, and immediately announces that they're the kind of credulous moron who believes everything they read on the internet provided it's not backed up with any kind of evidence: Manyoaks writes:My apologies if this inappropriate. In my opinion MMR is involved with autism. My goal: To identify the cause of regressive autism, get it disseminated and end my research and go hiking in Yosemite.Background: I have no family members with autism. I know no autistic individuals. I found an Internet bulletin board were the posters reported that treating sleep apnea ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

OK - here's an "admin" type post I've been threatening for a while.Dr Mark Struthers, of the Flitwick Surgery has been posting on this blog, since its inception, as "Cybertiger".To date, he has yet to make a single comment that isn't simply abusive, aimed either at me personally, or at other commenters.Personal abuse directed at me doesn't worry me. It's abuse aimed at other commenters that annoys me. So, do I:a. Delete all the posts he's made and ban him from commenting in future?b. Keep the shit he's already written, but ban him from making future postings?c. Keep the stuff that he's ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Suba should really be locked up for his (or her) own safety - everything and everyone seems to be out to get him. This time, on the news that an Ebola vaccine is being developed in the Netherlands and the United States:Expect an Ebola outbreak in the US or the Netherlands in the next few years by accident or by designThat's right Suba - the New World Order is planning to massacre the world's population in one of the most horrible ways imaginable. Now - go and have a lie down.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

The Daily Politics show on BBC Two have broadcast an interview with, in their own words, “Psychologist Lucy Beresford [who] tells Daily Politics Gordon Brown is ‘deeply insecure’ and bringing Peter Mandelson back was “Freudian” bordering on “self-mutilating behaviour“.”.  Frankly I was stunned to see this as Psychologists are regulated by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and such public speculation about somebody the Psychologist in question has no personal knowledge of would be strongly frowned upon, in fact if the person was a ...
Read more [Gimpy's Blog] 

Again, not vaccine related, but funny. :-) I know my spelling isn't 100% - whose is? - but if you were typing this, you'd check, surely?Incidently, there is a difference between 'mistake' and 'negligence'. A mistake is, for example, spelling the word callender with an 'e' instead of an 'a'.Thank you laura_c_a. (I know a joke about C&A knickers…)[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

How any of the JABS crowd expect to be taken seriously about vaccines when they post crap like this about AIDS is completely beyond me. Suba will be claiming the Moon Landings were faked and that the Loch Ness Monster lives next door soon. I can assure you that the creation of the AIDS virus by the WHO was not just a diabolical scientific exercise that got out of hand. It was a cold-blooded successful attempt to create a killer virus which was then used in a successful experiment in Africa. So successful in fact that most of central Africa may be wiped out, 75,000,000 dead within 3-5 ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Time for a break from the election!! Also, [bpsdb] I’ve often had the chance to laugh at, ridicule, and criticize Conservapedia: so often, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that the site is, tragically, much more than a near-parody of internet conservatism.  In fact, Conservapedia is affirmatively dangerous. Founder Andy Schlafly, son of Phyllis Schlafly, bills himself as a homeschooling organizer and tutor to high schoolers, which is fine in the abstract. I entertain the belief, until very firmly rebutted, that even my fiercest ideological opponents are, at heart, good ...
Read more [A Candid World] 

Not really an example of JABS poster stupidity, but it did make me laugh. From the Pope of JABS and all-round foaming-at-the-mouth-pompous-arsehole, John Stone:I am running out of friends and acquaintancesReally? Funny that.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

It's often said by advocates of homeopathy that homeopathy never killed anyone. Well, Hannah's son is a statistic waiting to happen. Having been prescribed an epipen to dispense emergency adrenaline in case of severe allergic reaction or anaphylactic shock, this is what Hannah does....there was an article in the BMJ 3-4 years ago about deaths following anaphylactic shock which was very interesting. There are (or were at the time) 20 deaths per year, but HALF of them were due to incorrect doses of adrenalin being administered. That really shocked me at the time, but doesn't surprise me ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

... and I wonder why that would be?The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence published a handy guide with its recommendations for health professionals - the information above is taken from it.The NHS on its NHS Direct page "Osteoarthritis - Self help" has this to say:...there is very little medical evidence to back up the effectiveness of supplements, such as chondroitin and glucosamine. Although there is little medical evidence to back up the effectiveness of glucosamine hydrochloride, recent research has shown that taking glucosamine sulphate (which is found in healthy ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

Several posters on JABS are worried (and quite reasonably so) about MRSA and other antibiotic resistant nasties. Obviously, they blame it on the big pharmaceutical companies, and doctors, for their over-eagerness to prescribe antibiotics. However, it's not going to help that you have morons like jennyr around:I had the most horrible cold recently which ended up being a potentially nasty chest infection. I think it was because I had been working with nursery aged children who had recently been jabbed. I have never had such a bad illness before. As I was worried about a serious secondary ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB] People usually cite american patent medicine entrepreneurs when they are discussing the origins of the supplements industry. However, we have some very entertaining, litigous and successful patent medicine, pill sellers in british history and we offer a selection of them: James Morison; Thomas Holloway; James Eno and Thomas Beecham.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

Rosemary is now invoking the bible, and claiming vaccination is against God's will. So, with no science to back up her wild claims, she tries claiming a giant invisible sky fairy is on her side.Basic guidelines were given to the children of Israel for the sake of their health. Deuteronomy 12:23 reminds us that our blood stream is our lifeline. When that lifeline is contaminated, disease/infection sets in until the body is rid of it. How does injecting the life line of our children with residual components of cell lines from aborted babies, animal DNA and the disease contaminants their ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB] Visiting Professor Patrick Holford has his own dedicated chapter in Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science: Chapter 9; pp 161-80. Both HolfordWatch and Holford Myths have commented that the CV which Holford submitted to the University of Teesside is riddled with a remarkable number of errors. Chronological errors undercut some of Holford’s implicit claims to have pursued [...]
Read more [Holford Watch] 

‘The plural of anecdote is not data’ is an aphorism often heard in sceptical circles.  This phrase is typically used to point out that subjective personal experiences do not become objective impartial evidence when collated.  The flaws and biases inherent in any subjective measurement do not cancel each other out when overlaid.  This is why anecdotes, or case reports, are of relatively little value compared to blinded randomised controlled trials when determining the effectiveness of a course of treatment for the purposes of evidence based medicine.  While an observant doctor ...
Read more [Gimpy's Blog] 

"We're MAD!" I was going to slow down a bit after yesterday's bumper crop of buffoonery, and do an "admin" kind of post. You know: "Thanks for reading, here's what's changed in the last couple of months… etc". I was going to. Then I read this, the latest installment in the "I want to be as mad as Gus The Fuss" wars, from Truth Seeker.My mistake its 0.5mg per dose of highly toxix reactive aluminium, not 0.5g.However as most kids have fluoride this will ensure it passes the blood brain barrier.At some point, Mr Seeker's brain appears to have leaked out of his ears, as he clearly ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

"Seonaid" has posted this rather splendid piece of crap - it may be a quote from some other cretin, but hey, as they're so fond of saying, "if an idiot claims the sun rises in the morning, is he an idiot for saying it"?I read your excellent article about Dr Moulden's work. He is right that vaccines cause microvascular strokes, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. They cause all allergies, autoimmune diseases, cancer, non-traumatic seizures, genetic defects, etc.I should point out that there are well understood mechanisms for many of these - and none of them involve vaccines. Is there ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

"Jacquia" has posted a remarkable rant about viruses, triggered, it seems, by her being quoted in that well known scientific journal, "The Brighton Evening Argus And Liar". Some of it seems to be unattributed quote, and some seems to be all her own work. It matters not - she's mental, and dangerous. A virus is simply a “poison” which provides the growth of microorganisms that are parasitic. “Virus” comes from a Latin word root meaning “poison,” hence viral infections are nothing but severe cases of “blood poisoning”…Viral infections like the Human Papillomavirus that manifest on ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB] Asbo kids have ‘mental illness’ Just another bland example of flaky overhyped unreferenced speculative reductionist comedy reporting. Spotted on the bad science mini blog. The reporting is dire - no references to published literature, no interviews with any of the “researchers” mentioned. Just some stock footage of young people drinking, riding bicycles, walking and being arrested. The sad thing is that this excuse for journalism refers to a paper published in Biological Psychiatry 2008, 64, 599-606 which was also covered by the BBC news website. To ...
Read more [Meaningful Occupation] 

I mentioned Rosemary a while ago, and her obsession with monkey viruses altering people's DNA while they sleep. Here's a perfect example. What, for JABS anyway, would seem to be a perfectly reasonable post - a cut and paste about the United Reformed Church in the USA questioning the need for mercury in vaccines - led, in eight posts, to this fine example of utter bonkersness.So benefits of vaccination?i don't know of any....mainly because I am aware how much damage is being caused by the vaccines, especially the vaccine viruses, and contaminants like the animal viruses [retroviruses] ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Truth Seeker is getting wilder and wilder in his claims. While discussing the HPV vaccines, he posts this:Its more like 20 deaths now bad commercial scientist,defender of iatrogenic death and junk science, unless proven otherwise i will assume occams razor. Then to back this wild claim up, he posts this:Across the clinical studies, 17 deaths were reported in 21,464 male and female subjects. The events reported were consistent with events expected in healthy adolescent and adult populations. The most common cause of death was motor vehicle accident (4 subjects who received GARDASIL and 3 ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

In which Dr Aust once again can’t think of anything useful to say, but muses randomly on a year of (not very regular) blogging. Amazingly, Dr Aust’s Spleen has now been in existence for a year. Well, a year and ten days, actually. The blog opened for business on Sept 22nd last year with Patrick Holford’s mentors and inspirations – but who are they exactly? and the obligatory “About me” entry Hello World – Dr Aust goes live. At the time I was quite pleased when the latter started attracting comments – proving that somebody appeared to be reading – although it turned out that almost all ...
Read more [Dr Aust's Spleen] 

This time from "jacquia", one of those morons who apparently researched her medical degree by reading the literature in Neals Yard. Here, she's exhorting people to avoid the HPV vaccine, and instead use the "natural remedy" Pau d'Arco.Researchers have used Pau d'Arco for AIDS, inflammation of all types, allergies, all types of cancer, as a blood builder, for liver disease, diabetes, warts, Hodgkins disease, lupus, malaria, polyps and many other diseases, so it's usefulness has long been established.Wouldn't it be wiser to use something that is all natural and more gentle on your ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

In 2006, laura_c_a complained that:When I questioned 24 medical staff, none admitted to having had the combined MMR themselves. But still advocated it for my family. mmmmmmm. Hypocrisy?Hardly. Combined MMR was introduced in the UK in 1988 and the first dose is generally given to babies at around 1 year old. So when Laura was asking her question, the oldest people who'd've had the combined MMR would be 19. So unless she was asking Doogie Howser MD, it's not really surprising.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

It's true. It's on their website, they even give a step-by-step guide (pdf) on how they should be done - and you know what? It's pretty good.Why is this of interest? (Or perhaps, why has your irony-meter gone up to eleven?)Equazen are the company behind the Durham Fish Oil "initiative". (I say 'initiative' because it used to be a 'trial' and then someone retrospectively changed the press release to read 'initiative')A great whirlwind of media announcing the scheme proclaimed that Durham County Council had teamed up with Equazen to provide their EYE Q product to 3000 school children to see ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

A recent article in The Times pointed out that while Andrew Wakefield is unlikely to ever practice in this country again, he's currently spreading his anti-vax hysteria in the USA. He lives in a £600,000 house, apparently. John "I don't do Ad Hom" Stone points out; Usual snivelling cowardice and bullying tactics from the Sunday Times. What is the relevance of the price of Andy Wakefield's house?The relevance, dickhead, is that he's paid for it with lies and deceit, and the donations of desperate parents, for whom he has nothing concrete to offer but falsehood, invention and bad science. ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

One thing that amuses me about some of the JABS idiots is that they just don't realise that they can be so close to the truth if you just change one word or phrase in some of their posts.Get a worried dad who is so easily manipulated by scaremongering and big pharma/Gov corruption and would not know how to research something himself to save his life to do the job for you via the media……a minority have been mind controlled into useless worry, they have been manipulated into being scared by the "problem" so "react" themselves and cry out for the "solution" big pharma/Gov had in ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

[BPSDB]NASA is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary, complete with all the fanfare and accolades you’d expect, yet with all of the amazing accomplishments of NASA over the years, there’s still one picture that stands out, even after all these years. On December 24, 1968, the crew of the Apollo 8 moon mission took this gorgeous photo, now called “Earthrise”, a photo that inspired a generation of eyes to look upward and consider what lies beyond our own small blue sphere. But wait, is it really a sphere at all?  Not according to flat-earthers who think the whole ...
Read more [BitchSpot] 

“I smell something iffy Quite distinctly fishy Durham’s special trial ishy* When nurr vote got done…” (With apologies to Alex Glasgow, David Fanshawe, and North-Easterners in general.) *”Initiative” In a strange bit of synergistic convergence, the very week that I found myself reading a Ph.D. transfer report dealing with fish oils (of which more later), the Durham Fish Oil Zombie rose from the dead to haunt the national press once more. The Fish Oil Zombie story (a.k.a. “Fishy Business at Durham Council”) is one of the things that first got me commenting on ...
Read more [Dr Aust's Spleen] 

I'm off to the west coast (of Michigan) for a few days, and if I don't blog, I shall die...or something. So I have a few posts from my old blog to share with you. Sure, we all have our biases about food and health. I think chicken soup is great when you're sick---but not because of any proven biologic benefit. It just tastes and feels good, which is about the best you can expect in treating a cold. But food claims are becoming more and more fanciful. There is a lot we do and don't know about nutrition. Many of these fanciful claims seem to be centered on "immunity". This is a ...
Read more [Denialism] 

…he's an incoherent dickhead. Here are Gus The Fuss's latest words of wisdom:ANTI-BIOTICS >Occam Ye! all faithful "cheap as chips " same PHARMA trolls that steal the lives of babies through vaccines..thats WHO has the loot!! the baby un-health business PHARMACan anyone tell me what the hell he's blathering on about? This man dispenses medical advice to concerned mothers who log on to JABS, worried about vaccines. How have the site administrators not banned him? Can someone not just take him down the vet for that "final visit" before sending him off to "live on a lovely farm ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

In recent weeks we’ve seen the beginning of the end for AIDS quackery in South Africa with Matthias Rath dropping his libel claims against The Guardian and Ben Goldacre and more recently the replacement of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, known as Dr Beetroot for her belief that healthy eating rather than ARVs is the best treatment for AIDS, with Barbara Hogan in the recent political upheaval.  Unfortunately this does not represent the end of the promotion of quackery within Africa. As I have argued previously toleration of the excesses of quackery within our society leads ...
Read more [Gimpy's Blog] 

[BPSDB] I thought that I had written the last about the Durham fish oil saga but there has been another bizarre emission from Durham County Council. You may recall that Durham County Council ran a trial that was not a trial that was intended to boost GCSE scores but not come to any conclusions about the validity of using fish oil capsules to improve academic performance. They have now published their conclusions - based on scrapping their original method of measuring the effect and replacing it with another one based on selected pairs of pupils (I believe this is what is known as ...
Read more [Letting Off Steam] 

...anc Cybertiger's a bitter man. Not content with the huge salary he earns as a GP, and more than likely four days a week on the golf course after making vast sums of loot pressing pensioners to have 'flu jabs, he's still deeply jealous that there might be more money out there. Money that will go to someone else other than him. In fact, because he can't actually come up with a scientific reason why the HPV jab is a bad idea, or any research showing it to be a bad idea, or even much in the way of "reputable" anecdote, he's falling on one of the last refuges of the wilfully incompetent - ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

…and Cybertiger's a bitter man. Not content with the huge salary he earns as a GP, and more than likely four days a week on the golf course after making vast sums of loot pressing pensioners to have 'flu jabs, he's still deeply jealous that there might be more money out there. Money that will go to someone else other than him. In fact, because he can't actually come up with a scientific reason why the HPV jab is a bad idea, or any research showing it to be a bad idea, or even much in the way of "reputable" anecdote, he's falling on one of the last refuges of the wilfully ...
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

A Christian friend of mine (No, not that one, another one) recently mentioned in his Facebook status that he’d witnessed miraculous healings at a Christian gathering. Ever the sceptic, I responded by posting a video of James Randi’s investigation of faith healing. In this video, Randi exposes US televangelists Peter Popoff and WV Grant. He responded to me by asking: “… Ever wondered what evidence you would need…” Which is a very sensible and reasonable question. If I couldn’t say what evidence would convince me that I’m wrong about faith ...
Read more [Bridging Schisms] 

[BPSDB] One of the creationist sites I find a total eyesore seeing, especially when searching for dinosaur sites on Google, Hotbot, Excite, and other search engine sites is Jesus, Dinosaurs, and More (JDM). A run-of-the-mill creationist website containing the usual treasure trove of drivels about dinosaurs living with humans, the earth being thousands of years old, Cro-magnon man being [sic] “Post-flood descendants of Noah,” Neanderthals being modern humans (Rebuttal) and much more. It has various types of dinosaur images taken from DK publishing, BBC Walking with Dinosaurs, ...
Read more [The Great Dino Mystery] 

[BPSDB] Durham Council has released the data from its Fish Oil Initiative for schools. Only kidding. They say that they have but they haven't really. It's all so self-referentially post-modern. The trial that was called a trial was really an initiative. The results that they have released aren't results.
Read more [Holford Watch] 

I sometimes wonder whether JABS posters are genuinely vicious, and *want* to see the return of dangerous, potentially lethal diseases, or whether they're just really stupid, and don't think what they're saying. Here, for example, is an exchange between Rosemary and Joan.Rosemary posts a news story, the first paragraph of which reads:Hundreds of thousands of American children, including thousands inFlorida, started school this fall without protection from deadlydiseases.Joan replies:Good, we have got our message across.I suspect "vicious".[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Yes, more musical entertainment (?). As I sat trying to compose something serious last night, this appeared instead… enjoy (?) Woo is All Around (The Alternative / Placebo Therapist’s song) (tune: ”Love is All Around” by The Troggs) I feel it in my fingers I feel it in my toes The Force is all around us And so my income grows It’s written on my website It’s ancient healing lore So if you all believe it Bring me any bit that’s sore ——————————————— You know I can help you, I most certainly ...
Read more [Dr Aust's Spleen] 

One thing that disgusts me about the JABS loons is that a lot of them are so proud about not vaccinating their children, thus endangering others. Lola even comes out and admits this:I have chosen not to give my baby son any vax's, please remember that when you talk about outbreaks & responsibility for the "herd" my child is in the front of the queue.Oh, they're such caring individuals, aren't they?[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

A favoured JABS tactic is to quote celebrities who claim that some aspect of vaccines causes autism. Obviously actors, newsreaders and Playboy centrefolds are uniquely qualified to speak on medical matters. Scotmum claims today:Jim Carey's son also became autistic after MMR. But of course it's just the long arm of co-incidence.Jim Carrey doesn't have a son.[BPSDB]
Read more [JABS Loonies] 

Dr *T and the Quackometer are reporting some superficial good news today - both Helios and Ainsworths, homeopathic remedy shops, appear to have stopped selling malaria nosodes - remedies claimed to prevent malaria.  These remedies, needless to say, are indistinguishable from blank water or sugar pill or indeed from any other homeopathic remedy except by the label.  You might think that this would represent the beginning of the end for the dangerous tendency of homeopaths to insist that their remedies can treat, cure or prevent malaria through homeoprophylaxis.  Sadly this is wishful ...
Read more [Gimpy's Blog] 

Back in Oct 2006, BBC's Newsnight broadcast an investigation by Simon Singh (in association with Sense About Science) into how some homeopaths were advising people to use homeopathic products for malaria instead of referring them to a GP or conventional travel clinics where proven effective medicines are available. Then in April this year, BBC's southwest regional program Inside Out broadcast a piece on how Neal's Yard were selling homeopathic remedies to prevent and treat serious diseases like malaria.The MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products regulatory Agency) were pretty quick in ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

If you spend some time on the creationist side of the internets (which I don’t necessarily advise), you will come to realize that for creationists, looking back at Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005), in which Judge Jones handed intelligent design its first major legal defeat, is sort of like King George III looking back on the American Revolutionary War. Namely, they don’t really know how they lost it - how the ID movement went from secret, deeply-planned “Wedge Strategy” to public disgrace so quickly - but they know ...
Read more [A Candid World] 

This is the most mental thing I've seen on JABS in ages. Thanks, "Carolb".Cybertiger, wish you were my GP, you don't often find such sane ones!Carol - listen carefully. Would you really want an AIDS denialist as your doctor? The. Man. Is. A. Nutter.[BPSDB]
Read more [