I really hope that this is the last post I write about the homeoprophylaxis campaign against Leptospirosis in Cuba during 2007 – 2008 (Bracho et al, 2010).  Deep down I know that this uncontrolled, un-randomised poorly-reported trial published in a terrible pseudojournal, dealing with a highly variable disease which is amenable to personal protective measures, a real vaccine and antibiotic treatment is going to get thrown at me again and again. Homeopathic propagandists will not worry that real medicines were also used in the treatment region, a media campaign raised awareness of the ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

The story of 15-year-old Rhys Morgan's experience on a forum when he posted an FDA press release urging people to stop using Jim Humble's Miracle Mineral Solution is well documented - amongst others there is Rhys' own blog of course, and LizDitz provides a timeline history. The interview I did with Rhys for The Pod Delusion, which sets out the story and some of the human interest can be found here.My minor involvement started fairly early on in media terms, but very late in Twitter terms! I had seen the hastag #bleachgate on Twitter and also references to 'MMS' and 'drinking bleach'.As a ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

These days scientific papers are often accompanied by a press release.  It gives the journal or institution at which the work was done a chance to highlight what they think the main message from the work is.  Some might even see it as applying some PR spin.  The recent paper on a trial of homeopathy on a Leptospirosis outbreak in Cuba (Bracho et al, 2010) has its own accompanying press release.  It’s from the Faculty of Homeopathy, the representative body for the UK’s medically qualified homeopaths, whose stated aim is to promote, “… the academic and scientific ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

So, the much-trailed* paper on the homeopathic intervention in an outbreak of Leptospirosis in Cuba during 2007 has finally been published (Bracho et al, 2010) along with a very useful companion editorial (Roniger and Jacobs, 2010). The editorial claims that, “the size of the population treated and the dramatic decrease in disease incidence compared to previous years make it difficult to dismiss these results as spurious or occurring by chance.” Before finding it quite easy to dismiss these results, some background information on Leptospirosis is in order. What is ...
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Neem [Azadirachta indica A. Juss] is a tree of the mahogany family.  Various claims have been made for its health-giving properties.  As the Abha Light organisation seems keen on neem as an anti-malarial, I decided to do a brief review of the literature.  What follows is a commentary based on searching PubMed for ‘neem and malaria’, and doing some additional searches. I don’t claim that this is exhaustive and I have not been able to locate any information on some of the papers cited*.  For articles behind paywalls, I have only been able to consult the abstract. A ...
Read more [A canna’ change the laws of physics] 

I recently stumbled across a paper describing the work of the Abha Light organisation – a group of particularly dangerous homeopaths treating malaria in Kenya with homeopathy, and disparaging proper medicine for good measure. It should go without saying that malaria is a serious, potentially fatal, disease that should not be treated with untested remedies – especially the sugar pills and magic water of homeopathy.  So committed are the homeopaths of Abha Light that they believe that their magic works and that it is superior to proven medicines. These themes shine through the paper ...
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[BPSDB]Numerous newspapers have carried the TaxPayers Alliance’s claim that speed cameras cause road deaths, so I thought I would take a closer look at the figures. They say: The road casualty rate has declined at a slower rate since speed cameras were introduced in the early 1990s,” the study explained. “Using the road casualty rate from 1978-1990 it can be estimated that 1,555,244 more road casualties have occurred from 1991-2007 than would have if the 1978-1990 trend had continued.” Such figures should see a continuous steady decline because advances in automotive technology ...
Read more [Letting Off Steam] 

Episode 5 of Just Skeptics can be downloaded from here - this is a relatively new offering from Greater Manchester Skeptics , and has yours truly as guest host, blethering away on this and that, but also getting a bee in my bonnet about dubious research, on the section they call The Soapbox.You are free to download the podcast from the link above, or in case you prefer your Soapbox in word form, here is the transcript:I have a number of soapboxes, which come out from time on time on different matters. In a way, that was why I started writing my blog, Thinking Is Dangerous. ( Shameless ...
Read more [Thinking is Dangerous] 

[BPSDB] Mike Adams, the self-styled ‘Health Ranger’ reports on yet another alleged health problem caused by electrical devices. It would appear they cause diabetes. He says: Most people are familiar with type-1 diabetes and type-2 diabetes, but did you know researchers have discovered a third type of diabetes? Type-3 diabetes, as they are calling it, affects people who are extra sensitive to electrical devices that emit “dirty” electricity. Type-3 diabetics actually experience spikes in blood sugar and an increased heart rate when exposed to electrical pollution ...
Read more [Letting Off Steam] 

[BPSDB] A number of news articles, such as this one in the Guardian have covered financial links between World Health Organisation advisors and pharmaceutical companies. Naturally, NaturalNews gets in on the act with a typically measured piece from Mike Adams: It is headlined WHO scandal exposed: Advisors received kickbacks from H1N1 vaccine manufacturers The generally accepted meaning of the term “kickback” is bribe – and usually one on commission at that; that is, the greater the income accruing to the briber, the bigger the sum payed to the bribee. So judging by the ...
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I had never come across the baffling concept of “reproductive reflexology” until a local practitioner had a leaflet popped through my letterbox.  They rather fetchingly style themselves “foothold reflexology”.  The leaflet’s major theme is to suggest that reflexology can help with pregnancy and sub-fertility. Given that a glorified foot massage is massively unlikely to offer help beyond relaxing someone and generally making them feel nice, I thought that this was worth a bit of investigation.  My main concern with this pitch is that issues around fertility ...
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[BPSDB] A drama, largely unnoticed in the rest of the world, has been going on in the Hunza valley, in the beautiful and terrible mountains of northern Pakistan. In January, a large landslide in January killed about 20 people, cut off the Karakoram Highway between Pakistan and China, and blocked the Hunza river, creating a [...]
Read more [Evening Person] 

[BPSDB]I do not recall hearing anything about Doctor Sarah Myhill until I read this thread on the Bad Science forum. In the opening post forum member Jonas expressed some concerns about information on Dr Myhill’s website and added that he had reported it to the General Medical Council. There was some discussion about it but the thread would probably have died a death after a few pages. However it was discovered by posters at Phoenix Rising, a forum for sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, who interpreted Jonas’ post as an attack on CFS/ME sufferers and proceeded to post some ...
Read more [Letting Off Steam] 

[BPSDB]The computer system at my workplace, a state secondary school, was down for three days last week. As a result, the usual practice of presenting lessons using interactive whiteboards had to be abandoned in favour of more traditional methods. Some teachers reckoned that student behaviour improved during these lessons. This got me thinking. First off, this is anecdotal data and as I am fond of saying, anecdote is not evidence, so there is no real evidence that more traditional teaching methods result in better behaviour. Equally, however, there is no evidence that using IT routinely in ...
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[BPSDB] In another of his rants about conventional medicine Mike Adams gives us ten supposed ‘A-Ha’ moments that should tell us that it does not work: #1) If mainstream medicine really worked, then drug companies wouldn’t have to commit scientific fraud to fake their clinical trials, would they? While there is unquestionably poor and possibly fraudulent research, this is by no means representative of pharmaceutical research as a whole. Another, more important point, is that he is conflating the practise of medicine with Big Pharma. Conventional medicine, aka known as ...
Read more [Letting Off Steam] 

[BPSDB] Iceland is one of my favourite countries- wish I could be there. This webcam is provided by Mila, a local telecoms company: http://mila.is/um-milu/vefmyndavelar/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/
Read more [Evening Person] 

[BPSDB] By Richard B Alley of Penn State University. This was the keynote lecture at the American Geophysical Union meeting (a vast conspiracy of scientists to find out all they can about how the Earth works) last year. It’s a good summary of what we know about the role of CO2 in the Earth’s climate, [...]
Read more [Evening Person] 

[BPSDB] In the wake of the latest outrageously dishonest headlines misquoting Phil Jones, the excellent  Open Mind blog presented a good account of the error, and also initiated a civilised and productive discussion on how to present the facts to the general public. I urge you to read it. I hope to post some thoughts [...]
Read more [Evening Person] 

[BPSDB] After threats from a couple of quacks, the blog For the Sake of Science was taken down by WordPress for ‘terms of service violations’. Pharyngula has several posts on the subject. Andreas Moritz is one of the quacks – he is clearly a vile person who exploits desperate people, and he would be up [...]
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[BPSDB]There’s only one word that describes July 17th feedback article from Ham’s idiot site– FAIL! The most dumbest explanation to why humans and dinosaurs are never found together in the fossil record is a total failure right from the start and Bodie Hodge knows it. He knows that what he believes about dinosaurs and humans living together thousands of years ago is completely false. But that’s not stopping him from making a fool of himself, explaining away why are there no humans and dinosaurs found together in the fossil record. To start the idiocy off, Hodge begins his explanation by ...
Read more [Stupid Dinosaur Lies]