tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78797672024-03-07T20:40:48.529+02:00Anne's Anti-Quackery & Science Blog A Skeptical View of Alternative Treatments and Medical Misinformation, Pseudoscience, Myth, Conspiracy, Intelligent Design, Religion, Critical Thinking, Science and the Scientific Method.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comBlogger285125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1166041238957900952006-12-13T22:02:00.000+02:002006-12-13T22:20:38.973+02:00Complementary medicines are useless and dangerousComplementary medicine is anecdotally-based medicine, not supported by scientific fact. <br /><br />From the Dayli Mail, I found this article:<br /><br /><blockquote>A lot of complementary medicine is ineffective, and some positively dangerous. Meanwhile, alternative treatments that promise to cure cancer 'are downright irresponsible, if not criminal'. <br /><br />These are the views not of an old-school doctor dismissive of alternative therapies, but of Professor Edzard Ernst, Britain's first professor of complementary medicine and, you would have assumed, its greatest champion. <br /><br />There is a booming market for complementary medicine, and it's not only the public who are turning to alternative remedies. Last week it was revealed that 60 per cent of Scottish doctors prescribe their patients homeopathic or herbal remedies.</blockquote> Read the rest <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=422017&in_page_id=1774&in_a_source=">here</a>.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1163627949278760442006-11-15T23:43:00.000+02:002006-11-15T23:59:09.300+02:00Quackery ExposedCancer is not caused by bacteria. <br /><br />A little bit of common sense can help us see through the fraudulent claims of Hulda Clark. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/whD99VbsxGg"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/whD99VbsxGg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1162830862986839092006-11-06T18:30:00.000+02:002006-11-06T21:20:14.866+02:00Clairvoyant led Americans to Saddam<a href="http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20713794-1702,00.html">Article November 06 from News.com.au</a> tels us it was a clairvoyant who led Americans to Saddam.......<br /><br /><blockquote>DID a clairvoyant help US commandos ferret Saddam Hussein out of his hiding place in Iraq three years ago?<br /><br />Israeli-born celebrity psychic Uri Geller, best known for his spoon-bending antics, says the power of the paranormal led US troops to the fugitive Iraqi ex-dictator.<br /><br />"You remember when they found Saddam Hussein in Iraq? A soldier walked over to a rock, lifted it and then found a trap-door and found him in there," Geller said.<br /><br />"Well, I know that that soldier walked over to that rock because he got information from a 'remote viewer' from the United States."<br /><br />Geller, who says he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Cold War, said his information came from a high-level source involved in US paranormal programs.<br /><br />A US military spokesman in Iraq had no immediate comment.<br /><br />At the time of his capture, US commanders said a source close to the fugitive had given him up under interrogation.<br /><br />A Brazilian psychic tried last year to claim a $US25 million ($A32.53 million) bounty offered for Saddam's capture, saying he had described the hiding place in letters to the US Government.</blockquote>Do you believe the incredible?Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1155156050033075212006-08-09T23:07:00.000+03:002006-08-09T23:40:50.166+03:00How does stress influence your health?Barry Spencer wrote an interesting article <a href="http://www.batnet.com/spencer/stress2.html">The unbearable bunkness of stress</a>.<br /><br />Everybody says they have stress and everybody "knows" stress is bad for your health. <br /><br />In the article it says:<br /><br /><blockquote>Stress is a concept invented in the 1930s by Dr. Hans Selye. Dr. Selye died in 1983. Dr. Selye admitted that stress is an abstract concept, and he admitted that stress has never been adaquately defined. Dr. Selye's own definition of stress is the non-specific response of the body to any demand. <br /><br />To most people, however, stress is not an abstract concept but is something you feel. The feeling that many people call stress boils down to anxiety and frustration. So the word stress refers to two different things: (1) an abstract concept ("The non-specific response of the body to any demand") and (2) anxiety and frustration. </blockquote>The problem with the stress-theory is<br /><br /><blockquote>First of all, it ignores everything we know about the causes of disease, such as dietary deficiencies, genetic abnormalities, and infectious agents. Second, it makes society — civilization itself — responsible for our personal ills, and it strongly implies that work — not anything in particular that happens at work but rather work in and of itself — causes disease. How then to explain illness in people who do not work? The stress of unemployment! Or maybe family stress: very unhealthy. No family? The stress of being alone! In short, according to the stress theory, stress is inescapable. We are all just laboratory rats trapped in the big electrified cage of life.</blockquote>I have come to the conclusion that stress is an inescapable part of life. <br /><br />But does that mean stress is bad for your health?Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1152219230992131082006-07-06T23:39:00.000+03:002006-07-06T23:53:51.086+03:00The 38th Skeptics' Circle is posted<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/1600/extraBottles.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/320/extraBottles.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> It looks like some homeopathic remedy, but really it's called Skeptic Cola. <br /><br />Try them over at <a href="http://skepticrant.blogspot.com/2006/07/thirsty-for-truth-try-skeptic-cola.html">Skepticrant</a> and enjoy.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1151002185392153412006-06-22T21:46:00.000+03:002006-06-22T22:01:32.736+03:00Skeptics' Circle is up at Autism Diva blogThe <a href="http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2006/06/triangle-circle-meeting.html ">37th Skeptics' Circle</a> has been posted to Autism Diva blog and it looks great.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1149622365337027112006-06-07T22:17:00.000+03:002006-06-06T22:50:43.850+03:00The road from foolishness too healthfraudPenn and Teller are looking for "bullshit" and takes a look at chiropractic medicine, reflexology, magnet therapy and alternative medicine<br /><br /><strong>Penn and Teller: Bullshit - Alternative Medicine (part 1)</strong><br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EHCMfIYXZkQ"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EHCMfIYXZkQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br /><strong>Penn and Teller: Bullshit - Alternative Medicine (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/k7gHhCBuoFk">part 2</a>)</strong><br /><br /><strong>Penn and Teller: Bullshit - Alternative Medicine (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_6m_r0Udyvw">part 3</a>)</strong><br /><br />The power of suggestion is wonderfull and expensive too...Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1149545250403004802006-06-06T00:23:00.000+03:002006-06-06T01:08:35.866+03:00Watch the video about Chiropractic neck manipulation<blockquote>Dr. William Kinsinger's video presentation at Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City in April 2004 focuses on the real dangers of highest neck manipulation. Interviews with the parents, and survivors of this technique that has no therapeutic value tell the terrible tale of what can happen if your chiropactor performs this procedure</blockquote>Deadly quacks: <a href="http://www.chirowatch.com/Articles-critical/np050217kinsinger.html">Neurologists have long protested the practice of 'highest neck manipulation,' which in some cases has resulted in lethal strokes</a> <br /><br />Dr. William Kinsinger is an American physician, and a member of a professional group monitoring government support for alternative medicine.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1149514676621820512006-06-05T16:31:00.000+03:002006-06-05T22:56:20.530+03:00If it quacks like an alien ...Interestingly an <a href="http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060601185009990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001">alien</a> has now been found in the stomach of a duck. <br /><br />The good thing is that we obviously have nothing to fear from an alien invasion.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/1600/alienbird.1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/400/alienbird.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="400"/></a>Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1149447775407234502006-06-04T21:43:00.000+03:002006-06-04T23:04:55.706+03:00Migraine suffers would be victims of health fraud<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/1600/headache.0.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/400/headache.0.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>It seems that migraine (headache) sufferers would be likely victims of health fraud in that the cause is poorly understood, unpredictable and often triggered by unknown factors, and can be difficult to treat. <br /><br />As with me, my doctor told me to visit a chiropractor to get relief. As I think massage and relaxation does wonders for headaches of all kinds, I would rather find a good PT or massage therapist.<br /><br />I have discovered that several PT's have fallen for the latest new-age treatments: <a href="http://www.iahe.com/html/therapies/cst.jsp">Cranio Sacral Therapy</a>. An osteopath started CST and the method are used by many chiros. <br /><br />CST is just another weird belief without any therapeutic value:<br /><br /><blockquote>In 2002, two basic science professors at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine concluded:<br /><br />Our own and previously published findings suggest that the proposed mechanism for cranial osteopathy is invalid and that interexaminer (and, therefore, diagnostic) reliability is approximately zero. Since no properly randomized, blinded, and placebo-controlled outcome studies have been published, we conclude that cranial osteopathy should be removed from curricula of colleges of osteopathic medicine and from osteopathic licensing examinations [10].</blockquote> (Source: Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine <a href="http://faculty.une.edu/com/shartman/sram.pdf">Interexaminer Reliability And Cranial Osteopathy</a>)<br /><br />Migraine suffers have to be careful to find a clinic or an individual therapist who they can trust, a theraphist who does not fall for this <a href="http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.html">so-called therapy</a>.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1148920336440905632006-05-29T19:16:00.000+03:002006-05-29T19:32:19.400+03:00Now chiropractors have a real pain in the neck...A rhetorical question (<a href="http://wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?s=4941190">Injured by a chiropractor?</a>) on a bus have got chiropractors more than just a little upset. The ad is sponsored by the Chiropractic Stroke Awareness Group and Chirobase has a <a href="http://www.chirobase.org/08Legal/bus_ad.html">detailed article</a> with a picture of the bus.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1148811462340288292006-05-28T13:06:00.000+03:002006-05-29T19:13:10.620+03:00Should the NHS fund complementary medicine?A group of doctors has tried to stop NHS resources being spent on quackery. <br /><br /><a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sue_blackmore/2006/05/lets_not_fund_quacks_in_our_nh.html">Let</a>'s rather spend money on real medicine that actually works than use them on unproven and disproved treatments. <br /><br />Let us give it to real nurses and doctors who use real medicine that actually works. <br /><br />Reasons?<br /><br />1. NHS money are being given away from good working medicine which would otherwise be available. They give false information to patients who should be receiving conventional medical treatment.<br /><br />2. Public are best served by using the available funds for treatments that are based on solid evidence<br /><br />3. "Alternative" medicine does not work, because if it did it would become part of the conventional medicine and it would be very easy to prove it in a double-blinded controlled trial. Results have not published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and it is a fair bet that they are not very reproducible. <br /><br />4. The "Scientific" basis of "alternative" medicine is not consistent with known science (eg. homeopathy, energy therapies). <a href=”http://www.vetpath.co.uk/voodoo/meta.html”>We knows that homeopathy does not work</a>. Experiments of this kind have been done repeatedly. The people given the wrong homeopathic solution get better just as often as the people given the "homeopathic remedy" (i.e. water). There is nothing that is evidence-based to support homeopathy and it deserves no more place in science than horoscopes.<br /><br />5. The NHS Direct website includes links to sources containing misleading information about CAM. Furthermore, they allow NHS Alliance and NHS Trust Association to use their logo and style on their website, both websites seems to exist solely to promote CAM. Why support Them?<br /><br />Why don't we accept <strong>that the standard of evidence-based medicine is the only standard</strong>? Moreover, that unproven or disproved treatments should be replaced with good evidence and clear information.<br /><br />Should the NHS fund complementary medicine? <a href="http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5007118.stm">Give your vote!</a> <br /><br />Relevant links:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-2192360,00.html">NHS told to abandon alternative medicine</a><br /><br /><a href="http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5008034.stm">Doctors' letter: In full</a><br />The open letter from some of the UK's leading doctors urging NHS trusts to stop using complementary therapies.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/1600/princecharles.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/320/princecharles.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5007118.stm">Links to video of Prince's comments...</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ironictimes.com/0298-p2.html">Prince Charles</a> first advocated the use of complementary medicines more than 20 years ago, and has established the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=43972&nfid=crss">Complementary Medical Association Response to Dr. Baum and Colleagues</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html">The IMPROBABLE SCIENCE page</a>Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1146843071089862282006-05-05T18:21:00.000+03:002006-05-30T07:31:07.153+03:00What kind of atheist are you?<TD align=middle><FONT size=5><B>The Ardent Atheist</B></FONT><BR>The results are in, and it appears that you have scored 61%... </TD></TR><br /><TR><br /><TD>You are an atheist, pure and simple. You think God is just one big lie, and consider religious people to be both annoying and beneath you. <B>Ardent atheists</B> will argue tooth and claw for their position, and have no truck with people that won't listen. You think being an atheist is the only way to lead an honest life, and see no reason to accept the pleas of faith. <B>Ardent atheists</B> are the backbone of atheism. Be proud. </TD></TR><br /><TR><br /><TD align=middle><IMG src="http://is2.okcupid.com/mt_pics/124/12443842228033852525/5362248772198978087-3.jpg"> </TD></TR></TBODY><br /><TABLE cellPadding=2><br />Link: <a href='http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=5362248772198978087'>The Atheist Test</a> written by <a href='http://www.okcupid.com/profile?tuid=12443842228033852525'>chi_the_cynic</a> on <a href='http://www.okcupid.com'>Ok Cupid</a>, home of the <a href='http://www.okcupid.com/oktest3'>32-Type Dating Test</a></td></tr></table><br />(Hat tip: <a href="http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/2006/05/what-kind-of-atheist-are-you.html">Science & Politics</a>)Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1144925464526818022006-04-13T13:15:00.000+03:002006-04-13T14:30:26.973+03:00the 32nd meeting of the Skeptics' CircleIf you are devoted to skepticism the 32nd meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is live over at <a href="http://pooflingers.blogspot.com">Pooflingers Anonymous</a>.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1144003916872922472006-04-08T21:41:00.000+03:002006-04-09T19:37:30.123+03:00Well known chiropractic problemsChiropractic is widely accepted by the government, and it isn't hard to see why people would confuse chiropractors with MDs and why people wouldn't even realize there is a <a href="http://www.chirobase.org/01General/controversy.html">controversy</a>. <br /><br />The problem is that <a href="http://www.geocities.com/healthbase/chirolinks.html">Chiropractic medicine</a> as a whole makes unsubstantiated claims and they are <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=P8&xml=/health/2006/03/23/hosteo21.xml">still unproven</a>.<br /><br />It is demonstrated with <a href="http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chirosub.html">X-rays</a>, that <a href="http://www.chirocolleges.org/paradigm_scopet.html ">subluxation</a> is a fantasy. <br /><br /><blockquote>The only problem is that most subluxations that are claimed to exist by chiropractic analysis can not be found when examined by radiologists or other chiropractors. In blinded studies chiropractors have not been able to find subluxations claimed by other chiropractors.</blockquote>Source: <a href="http://your-doctor.com/patient_info/alternative_remedies/various_therapy/fraud_topics/bogus_tests_tx/xray_chiro.html">XRays (Inappropriate Use)</a><br /><br />There is no known benefit for a chiropractor <a href="http://your-doctor.com/patient_info/alternative_remedies/various_therapy/chiropractic.html#9b">cracking a person's neck</a>, and it is known to cause occasional stroke.<br /><br />Everyone who wants to be a chiropractor learns that rubbing one part of the body can cure diseases and disorders elsewhere in the body. The claim is that all body organs are controlled through the spinal column, but then explain to me how transplanted organs work well without nerve connections to the host? <br /><br />Of course, a chiropractor can make your back feel better, but do not let the temptation of a good back rub lure you into <a href="http://www.pulstarfras.com/">supporting</a> the chiropractic educational and billings systems. <br /><br />It strikes me that if you doubt about a chiropractor it probably get people more upset than doubting of their God. <br /><br />I doubt about this <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TIME_TRAVELING_CHIROPRACTOR?SITE=MTBIL&SECTION=STRANGE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">chiropractor</a>.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1143066139315114882006-03-23T00:06:00.000+02:002006-03-23T00:24:36.190+02:00Chiropractic treatment with no benefit.....The BBC News of today has <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4824594.stm">this</a> interesting article about the benefit of spinal manipulation. One of the side effects is still strokes caused by damage to the vertebral artery in the back. <br /><br /><a href="http://skeptically.org/quackery/"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/1600/chiro-subluxation.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/400/chiro-subluxation.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Cartoons from <a href="http://skeptically.org/quackery">http://skeptically.org/quackery</a></a><blockquote><strong>Spinal manipulation - which is used by chiropractors and osteopaths in the UK to treat neck and back pain - is of little help, researchers have said. <br />Experts from Peninsula Medical School in Devon reviewed 26 studies carried out between 2000 and 2005. </strong><br /><br />Writing in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, they said the data gave "little evidence" of effectiveness. <br /><br />Chiropractors said the team had focused on negative studies which supported the researchers' views - a claim they deny. <br /><br />Chiropractors said the team had focused on negative studies which supported the researchers' views - a claim they deny. <br /><br />The researchers said they looked at all studies evaluating the benefits of spinal manipulation for period pain, colic, asthma, allergy and dizziness - as well as back and neck pain up to 2005. <br /><br />It was found the data did not show spinal manipulation was effective for any condition - except for back pain where it is superior to sham manipulation, but not better than conventional treatments. <br /><br />The researchers said that, as spinal manipulation had been linked to mild side effects in around half of patients, such as temporary stiffness, and - much more rarely - strokes brought on by damage to the vertebral artery in the back, it was not something which should be used instead of other therapies. <br /><br />They suggest existing guidelines need to be re-evaluated in the light of their conclusions. <br /><br /><strong>'Wake-up call' </strong><br />Professor Edzard Ernst, who led the review, said: "There is little evidence that spinal manipulation is effective in the treatment of any medical condition. <br /><br />"The findings are of concern because chiropractors and osteopaths are regulated by statute in the UK. <br /><br />"Patients and the public at large perceive regulation as proof of the usefulness of treatment. <br /><br />"Yet the findings presented here show a gap and contradiction between the effectiveness of intervention and the evidence." <br /><br />"We suggest that the guidelines be reconsidered in the light of the best available data." <br /><br />Professor Ernst said the findings should be seen as a "wake-up call" to the chiropractic profession. <br /><br />"One way forward is more rigorous clinical trials to test the efficacy of spinal manipulation," he added. <br /><br />"After all, the treatment is not without risk and chiropractors must demonstrate why it should be a recommendable medical treatment option." <br /><br />But in a statement, the British Chiropractic Association said it was disappointed by the study's conclusions, which it believed were based on "negative" research - other studies had come to the opposite conclusion. <br /><br />"The usefulness of manipulation is that it can be added, substituted or modified as part of a package of care that provides management, pain control, advice and recognises risks to a good recovery," it said. <br /><br />"Recent clinical trials funded by the Medical Research Council show that manipulation is effective and cost-effective within such a package for back pain." <br /><br />The National Council for Osteopathic Research accused Professor Ernst of working with out of date data. </blockquote>Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1142722069547596442006-03-19T00:37:00.000+02:002006-03-19T01:33:28.580+02:00Featured site(s) at Skeptic RingI have taken a break from regular blogging since January this year, but there's still a lot of good skeptical blogging and websites to read, and a lot of them is gathered together in the <a href="http://l.webring.com/hub?ring=skeptic">Skeptic Ring</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>The Skeptic Ring consists of sites that examine claims about paranormal phenomena and fringe science from a skeptical point of view. These sites believe that such claims should be examined rationally and objectively. Topics include UFOs, psychic powers, ghosts, crop circles, astrology, telepathy, repressed memories, creationism, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, hypnosis, homeopathy, Reiki, TFT, nonexistent chiropractic subluxations, dowsing, and conspiracy theories. It is not an atheism ring or an anti-religion ring, since some believers can, in other areas, be skeptics....;-) </blockquote>Anyone having a website with these topics have the possibility to join the webring by contacting the ringmaster Paul Lee. The ring have 162 active site(s) including Anne's Anti-Quackery & Science Blog. I am very flattered to find <a href="http://amr2you.blogspot.com/">AAQ&SB</a> in company with <a href="http://skeptico.blogs.com/">Skeptico</a> and <a href="http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/links/">The Skeptics Society and Skeptic Magazine</a> as one of the featured site(s) at the Skeptic Ring, and <a href="http://g.webring.com/hub?ring=antiquackerysite">here</a> too.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1137940310725415732006-01-22T16:18:00.000+02:002006-01-22T16:56:12.830+02:00Not all Christians need to lie about science<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10932031/">An</a> article appeared in the Vatican newspaper written by professor of evolutionary biology Fiorenzo Facchini:<br /><blockquote>VATICAN CITY - The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.</blockquote><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/1600/content.todayscartoons1.uclick.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4086/507/320/content.todayscartoons1.uclick.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>We live in the 21st century and I am glad that some Christians are able to recognize Intelligent Design as fraud and accept evolution as the key of history of life on earth. <br /><br />Advocates of ID claim without any evidence that a designer has created life, but evolution is the only explanation, which is consistent with the evidence.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1136657443996580962006-01-06T20:05:00.000+02:002006-01-07T22:35:58.890+02:00Skeptic Circle is up at The SagaEnjoy the excellent and creative 25th <a href="http://runolfr.blogspot.com/2006/01/skeptic-thing.html ">skeptic thing</a> over at The Saga of Runolfr. Some good skeptical blogging for you to read.<br /><br />I have submitted several articles to the circle and I hosted the <a href="http://amr2you.blogspot.com/2005/06/11th-meeting-of-skeptics-circle.html">11th issue of the Skeptic Circle</a> on 23 June last year. As I worried about enough submissions, I invited skeptic bloggers by mail to submit their best skeptical writing. <br /><br />Next circle will be published over at <a href="http://www.skepticrant.com/">Skeptic Rant</a> and I recommend anyone to submit his or her appropriating articles ASAP or even better host it yourself.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1135849332084460672005-12-29T11:41:00.000+02:002006-01-01T10:58:21.216+02:00Anne a Horse?Hmmm,.. <a href="http://www.haloscan.com/comments/amr2you/112128846334344924/">somebody</a> is wondering who I am? and like the testimonials they won't give their name.....<br /><br /><a href="http://quizilla.com/users/EmrysWolf/quizzes/What%20Is%20Your%20Animal%20Personality%3F/"><img src="http://images.quizilla.com/E/EmrysWolf/1043109600_stuffhorse.gif" border="0" alt="Horse"><br> What Is Your Animal Personality?</a><BR> <font size="-2">brought to you by <a href="http://quizilla.com">Quizilla</a> and <a href="http://oracknows.blogspot.com">Orac</a></font>Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1135191692122806722005-12-21T20:47:00.000+02:002005-12-21T21:01:32.196+02:00"Intelligent Design" Is Not ScienceExcellent article in today's latimes.com: "Intelligent Design" Is Not Science. <br /><br />It's religion!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-evolution21dec21,1,5054742,full.story?coll=la-headlines-nation">By Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writer</a><br /><br />A federal judge, saying "intelligent design" is "an interesting theological argument, but … not science," ruled Tuesday that a school board violated the Constitution by compelling biology teachers to present the concept as an alternative to evolution.<br /><br />The ruling came after U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III heard 21 days of testimony in a closely watched trial that pitted a group of parents against the school board in the town of Dover, Pa.<br /><br />In October 2004, the board had required school officials to read a statement to ninth-graders declaring that Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution were "a theory … not a fact," and that "gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence."<br /><br />"Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view," the statement said.<br /><br />Jones, a church-going conservative who was appointed to the federal bench by President Bush in 2002, said the statement was clearly designed to insert religious teachings into the classroom. He used much of his 139-page ruling to dissect arguments made for intelligent design.<br /><br />Legal experts described the ruling as a sharp defeat for the intelligent design movement — one likely to have considerable influence with other judges, although it is only legally binding in one area of Pennsylvania.<br /><br />The "overwhelming evidence" has established that intelligent design "is a religious view, a mere relabeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory," Jones wrote.<br /><br />Public remarks by school board members, he said, made clear that they adopted the statement to advance specific religious views.<br /><br />Testimony at the trial included remarks from a board meeting, where one of the backers of the intelligent design statement "said words to the effect of '2,000 years ago someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?' " the judge noted.<br /><br />Supporters of intelligent design argue that biological systems are so complex that they could not have arisen by a series of random changes. The complexity of life implies an intelligent designer, they say. Most of the movement's spokesmen take care not to publicly say whether the designer they have in mind is equivalent to the God in the Bible. On that basis, they argue that their concept is scientific, not religious.<br /><br />But Jones said the concept was inescapably religious.<br /><br />"Although proponents of the [intelligent design movement] occasionally suggest that the designer could be a space alien or a time-traveling cell biologist, no serious alternative to God as the designer has been proposed by members" of the movement, including expert witnesses who testified, Jones wrote.<br /><br />Remarks by board members that they had secular purposes in mind — to improve science teaching and to foster an open debate — were a "sham" and a "pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom," he wrote.<br /><br />Anticipating attacks, Jones said his ruling was not the "product of an activist judge."<br /><br />He said school board officials had lied in their testimony and excoriated them for not bothering to understand what intelligent design was about before making their decision. He rebuked what he called the "breathtaking inanity of the board's decision."<br /><br />"This case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case" on intelligent design, he wrote.<br /><br />The school district will not appeal the ruling, said Patricia Dapp, who was elected to the Dover board this year. The supporters of intelligent design have been voted out of office, and eight members of the board now oppose the concept, she said.<br /><br />The Dover trial, in which Jones heard testimony from leading advocates of intelligent design as well as experts on evolutionary theory, was one of several battlegrounds for intelligent design in the last year.<br /><br />In January, a U.S. district judge in Georgia ruled that the school system in Cobb County, near Atlanta, had violated the Constitution by requiring stickers to be placed on biology textbooks casting doubt on the theory of evolution.<br /><br />This month, a federal appeals court in Atlanta considered arguments in the case, with at least one judge expressing doubts about the lower court ruling.<br /><br />In Kansas, the state Board of Education has changed the definition of science to permit supernatural explanations.<br /><br />That reliance on the supernatural was key to Jones' rejection of the Dover school board's position.<br /><br />Intelligent design arguments "may be true, a proposition on which this court takes no position," he wrote, but it "is not science."<br /><br />"The centuries-old ground rules of science" make clear that a scientific theory must rely solely on natural explanations that can be tested, he wrote.<br /><br />That portion of the decision won praise from Kenneth R. Miller, a biology professor at Brown University in Providence, R.I. He was the lead expert witness for the parents in the case and is the author of biology textbooks used in college and high school classrooms.<br /><br />Miller testified that it was crucial that scientific propositions be able to be tested.<br /><br />To illustrate his point, Miller, an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox, testified that when his team beat the New York Yankees in the 2004 baseball playoffs, a fan might have believed "God was tired of [Yankee owner] George Steinbrenner and wanted to see the Red Sox win."<br /><br />"In my part of the country, you'd be surprised how many people think that's a perfectly reasonable explanation for what happened last year. And you know what? It might be true. But it certainly is not science … and it's certainly not something we can test," Miller said.<br /><br />Supporters of intelligent design denounced Jones' ruling along the lines the judge had predicted.<br /><br />"The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea … and it won't work," said John West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute. The institute, based in Seattle, is a major backer of the intelligent design movement.<br /><br />"Anyone who thinks a court ruling is going to kill off interest in intelligent design is living in another world," West said.<br /><br />Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center, the lead lawyer for the school board members, called the ruling an "ad hominem attack on scientists who happen to believe in God."<br /><br />"The founders of this country would be astonished at the thought that this simple curriculum change [was] in violation of the Constitution that they drafted," he said.<br /><br />But Lee Strang, a constitutional law professor at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich., which advocates a greater role for religion in public life, said that given Supreme Court precedents and the evidence that Dover school board members had religious goals in mind, Jones' ruling was inevitable.<br /><br />The Supreme Court in 1987 barred the teaching in public schools of what backers called creation science. The concept of intelligent design emerged after that ruling, Jones noted in his ruling.<br /><br />Douglas Laycock of the University of Texas School of Law said the ruling would probably have considerable influence because it came after a trial in which "both sides brought in their top guns" to testify.<br /><br />The judge's detailed ruling "will be quite persuasive to other judges and lawyers thinking about provoking a similar case elsewhere," he said.<br /><br />Marci Hamilton, a professor at Cardozo School of Law in New York, who is an expert on religious freedom issues, agreed that the ruling could have broad ramifications.<br /><br />"These are tough times to rule against a religious group," Hamilton said. "This decision sends a message to judges that it is not anti-religious to find things like intelligent design unconstitutional."<br /><br />Eric Rothschild, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, called the ruling "a real vindication of the courage [the parents] showed and the position they took."<br /><br />The testimony, he said, had demonstrated that "the emperor had no clothes. The judge concluded that intelligent design had no scientific merit" and could not "uncouple itself from religion."<br /><br />Source: ReutersAnnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1134837431538736192005-12-17T18:23:00.000+02:002005-12-17T22:24:55.176+02:00Always be skepticalHave you ever visited the <a href="http://scienceblogs.blogspot.com/">Scientific Assessment</a>? <br /><br />I did today and <a href="http://scienceblogs.blogspot.com/2005/12/relativity-again.html">this post</a> directed me to <a href="http://skepsisfera.blogspot.com/2005/09/beware-of-revolutionary-theories.html">Skepsisfere</a>, where I found some interesting links and tips how to <blockquote>recognize when someone is making a serious critique to theories and when the person simply is a <a href="http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/~siegel/quack.html">quack</a>.</blockquote>As a layman it is hard to understand a scientific theory. <br /><br />The article gives you some quick tips to identify wrong knowledge and false theories.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1134580142851566722005-12-14T19:02:00.000+02:002005-12-14T21:11:39.486+02:00Susan Clancy on recovered memories, alien abductions, and how to believe weird thingsOver at Reason I found this <a href="http://www.reason.com/links/links120805.shtml">informal and fascinating interview</a> by Kerry Howley. <br /><br />It's about recovered memories and the increasing claims of alien abduction. <br /><br /><blockquote>Claims of alien abduction have become increasingly common over the past thirty years, Clancy reports, as has a general belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life. Recruiting people who truly believed they were abducted by extraterrestrials, <a href="http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/10.31/09-clancy.html">she</a> found a way to study memory creation without directly engaging the bitter debate over recovered memories of abuse. And <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005775">listening</a> to their grotesque and often sexually explicit accounts, she could be reasonably sure that the memories she was studying were not vivid recollections of traumatic abuse, but imaginative reconstructions of the latest Spielberg flick. </blockquote>Susan Clancy makes a serious attempt to understand how people come to believe in something that is obviously false and she found that recovered memories is only imagination.<br /><br /><blockquote>Reason: You are convinced that most people who believe they have been abducted by aliens are normal people, and that every one of them with vivid memories got them in therapy. How does that happen, exactly? <br /><br />Clancy: I do think these people are fundamentally normal. The belief in alien <a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/1/14038/46155">abduction</a> is much less weird when you consider the process by which the belief is acquired. It doesn't happen overnight. Nobody wakes up and says, "Holy shit, I was abducted last night, they took me, there were rotating vibrating devices and then they extracted my sperm." People say, "I have these weird experiences. I wonder what it could be?" They look for explanations and at some point they'll say, well, maybe I was abducted. I know it sounds weird but it's just like what Whitley Strieber wrote about, or it's just like what happened to Betty and Barney Hill. There are a lot of people out there who believe aliens are real and a lot of people who believe aliens have been on earth—look at the Roper polls and the Time/CNN polls—and it's not that weird that some people would say, maybe I've been abducted. </blockquote>Normal people truly believe they've been abducted by aliens because they've experienced intense and emotional memories. But it's all in their imagination. <br /><br />I also recommend visiting <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/CLAABD.html">How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens</a> and read the first <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/pdf/CLAABD_excerpt.pdf">chapter</a> (PDF).Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1132501328490579582005-11-20T17:35:00.000+02:002005-11-20T18:48:19.600+02:00The kids decided not to teach Intelligent Design in U.S. SchoolsI found this unintelligent piece over at <a href="http://www.konig.org/wc93.htm">fantasy world</a> – the author George Konig predicts science will remove from the schools within ten years. He does not mention any names of the scientists who have given up and any reasonable person would consider his claim to be nonsense.<br /><br />I propose his article to be something like this (short version):<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://amr2you.blogspot.com/2005/08/should-intelligent-design-be-teached.html">The kids decided</a> not to teach Intelligent Design in U.S. Schools</strong><br /><br />There <a href="http://amr2you.blogspot.com/2005/10/evolutionary-theory-is-holding-up-day.html">are</a> <a href="http://amr2you.blogspot.com/2005/09/central-tenets-of-evolution-theory.html">several</a> excellent articles on Evolution and Intelligent Design to mention like <a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/">evidence for evolution</a> and <a href="http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10624">Survival Of The Flimsiest</a>.<br /><br />Most creationists’ and believers of ID have already given up on the hypothesis of Intelligent Design because of lack of proof. Researchers did not know what to look for, and because the hypothesis was not testable, they made no research published ever. <br /><br />They finally had to accept <a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html">evolution as a fact</a> because of scientific findings in the last twenty years and because of evidence for historical evolution like genetic, fossils, anatomical etc. <br /><br />Due to the unwillingness of religious people in the education field to accept Evolution - for their own personal reasons - the debate have and will continue until the <a href="http://www2.ncseweb.org/wp/">court in Pennsylvania</a> put and end to all the nonsense. <br /><br />In fact, many <a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-god.html">people of faith accept evolution</a> as the scientific explanation for biodiversity.<br /><br />End of article!<br /><br />Proponents say Intelligent Design provides scientific answers for gaps and inconsistencies in the theory of evolution. They think an unnamed "designer" or "Goddidit" fills in the "gaps" and "problems" in Darwin’s Theory of evolution. <br /><br />However, problem with science has always been that a new discovery will lead to thousands of new questions. <br /><br />With Intelligent Design, we do not need to find out and we could stop learning.<br /><br />On the other hand, we could accept that "Science is hard."<br /><br />The scientific community will not accept teaching pseudoscience in schools, and they will fight back unintelligent arguments like Goddidit with reasonable arguments, I think.Annehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7879767.post-1132426298416360502005-11-19T20:42:00.000+02:002005-11-19T21:55:16.240+02:00Side effects caused by Chinese medicineChinese medicine are promoted as natural and safe, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4252298.stm">but</a> some may contain harmful substances not declared on the label like <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/203725.html">sibutramine</a> and <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682188.html">methylphenidate</a>. <br /><br />There is a great article over at BBC about the potential side effects of using Chinese medicine:<br /><br /><blockquote>It is estimated that 6,000 stores across the country offer treatment for conditions ranging from eczema to the menopause. <br /><br />But the industry, although growing in popularity, is largely unregulated. <br /><br />At the Herb Garden store in Leigh on Sea, Essex, an undercover reporter from the Five Live Report was two weeks ago sold a herbal slimming pill and told it contained rhubarb and honeysuckle. <br /><br />Tests showed it contained fenfluarmine - an illegal pharmaceutical considered to be so dangerous that it is banned in most countries worldwide, including the UK. <br /><br />The owner of the store, Anna Yang, was prosecuted earlier this year for illegally selling the same drug. <br /><br />She was fined £30,000 with another £20,000 in court costs. <br /><br />The maximum sentence for selling an illegal medicine is two years imprisonment. <br /><br /><strong>Prescription-only </strong><br /><br />The BBC reporter was also sold two other prescription-only drugs - Danthron - a specialist laxative which has cancer causing properties and is only recommended for use with terminally ill patients, and Sibutramine - prescribed in cases of extreme obesity. <br /><br />Ms Yang said that she was concerned about the BBC's allegations. <br /><br />She said she was reliant on assurances from suppliers as to the contents of the products and had been in touch with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. <br /><br />She added that the products had now been withdrawn from sale. <br /><br />Danny Lee-Frost, head of enforcement at the MHRA, said: "There are huge amounts of money to be made in this area. <br /><br />"The main motivation is money." <br /><br />He said unscrupulous traders were putting patient's lives at risk. <br /><br />The BBC has learned that several practitioners are currently facing prosecution, and another 63 stores are being investigated. <br /><br />David Woods visited Ms Yang in 2000 for acupuncture on his painful knees. <br /><br />He said: "She said I should lose a bit of weight and it would help my knees. <br /><br />"She said she had these new pills, really good pills and would I like some? So I said yes. <br /><br />"It ended up to be the equivalent of a class A drug." <br /><br /><strong>Heart problems</strong> <br /><br />Since taking fenfluarmine David Woods has had a permanently damaged heart. <br /><br />"My heart used to slow down and speed up. I honestly thought I was dying. I have nothing to thank her for. Nothing." <br /><br />Dr Karl Metcalfe, a consultant physician at Southend hospital said he has treated nine of Anna Yang's former patients but fears there may be more as some people may not have reported symptoms to their GPs. <br /><br />"For a medically qualified person to be issuing these drugs would be reprehensible. <br /><br />"For a non medically qualified person to be doing it is well very alarming and quite clearly criminal." <br /><br /><strong>Kidneys removed</strong> <br /><br />In a separate case, Sandi Stay, of Hove, had to have both her kidneys removed after taking Aristochlia, a cancer causing herb which is banned across the UK. <br /><br />Mrs Stay said she went to a Chinese medicine store and was given the herb to treat her psoriasis. <br /><br />In her case the store which she claims sold her the drug was found not guilty because the jury accepted the store had taken measures to ensure its medicines did not contain Aristochlia. <br /><br />Dr Mark Thursz, a consultant physician at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington said he had seen a huge rise in the number of patients being referred to him with liver failure or hepatitis after taking Chinese herbal medicine. <br /><br />He said: "Many people believe herbal remedies are safe, but they should be seen in the light as conventional remedies in that they can adverse reactions. <br /><br />"When you get a box of pills you get a long list of potential side effects. <br /><br />"You don't get that with herbal remedies because practitioners try to make you believe they are safe." <br /><br />Under current regulations Chinese medics are treated as shop keepers rather than traders, so in the same way a butcher prosecuted for selling bad meat would be allowed to continue trading so are they. <br /><br />Dr Jidong Wu, of the Association of Traditional Chinese medicine is calling for tighter regulation. <br /><br />He said "dodgy and fake" practitioners were damaging the image of Chinese medicine.</blockquote>Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4429414.stmAnnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04377403176607105591noreply@blogger.com