Archive for October, 2009
The Most Unusual Creatures Under The Sun
Posted by Marsh in Cryptozoology, Media, paranormal on October 12, 2009
Sea Monster of Lake Killarny
Now, I must admit, cryptozoology does next to nothing for me. In the leagues of woo, it’s right down there at the bottom, just below Aliens and above Alectryomancy. I think the reason, largely, is that you’ve really got to try hard before you can get harmed by it. You’ve really got to right out there, on a limb, and fully invest before you can wind up getting hurt. It’s not like pseudomedicine, or psychics, or religion – it’s relatively harmless. Relatively.
However, that said, it’s also pretty prevalent in our media and culture, and for that reason alone it deserves attention. How many people would have heard of a certain large body of Scottish water unless there were a purported Beastie living in it? Not many I’d imagine. Which is why I wearily reached for the keyboard when I (foolishly) glanced through The Sun’s website and chanced upon the Lake Killarney Monster. Blahhhhh. But ok, here goes… Read the rest of this entry »
Question of the Week: Curing Sleep
Posted by Mike in Question of the Week on October 8, 2009
Sleeping is a waste of time. Seriously. Why would you want to spend a third of your life unconscious? It’s crazy! Think about all the extra stuff you’d get done if you weren’t biologically obliged to pass out once a day.
Something needs to be done. I say, we need to get scientists working on a cure for sleep. It’s a vile affliction and should be stamped out. Like polio. Or ingrown toe nails.
Do you think sleep should be cured? What would you do with the extra time? What weird and wonderful ways can you come up with to cure sleep? What would we do with all the spare bedrooms? How do you plan to stop Big Slumber from buying up the sleep-curing technology to protect their lucrative pillow profits?
Skeptics with a K – Episode #006
Posted by Mike in Podcast, Skeptics with a K on October 8, 2009
TAM London, the Revival Fellowship, curing sleep and Conservapedia. These things, and more, in episode 6 of Skeptics with a K!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
There’s Probably No Santa, So Stop Worrying and Forget About The Beard
Posted by Colin H in Atheism, Christmas, Religion, Skepticism on October 8, 2009
Next week we have the lovely Ariane Sherine coming up to Liverpool Skeptics In The Pub, when she will be talking about how she created the Atheist Bus Campaign, and about her new book The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas. The book is a great read, featuring essays by 42 famous atheists from different walks of life. Contributors include Richard Dawkins, Charlie Brooker, Simon Singh, Josie Long and many, many more. I thoroughly recommend it.
Anyway, in tribute to the book and Ariane’s upcoming talk (which will be fab, so please come along!), I thought I’d stick my oar in and have a bit of a blog about atheism myself. As far back as I can remember, I’ve never believed in a God. Lately, I’ve heard and read a lot of stories by people of their conversions to athiesm, or from atheism to theism, or of their struggle to ‘come out’ as an atheist, particularly in religious households; but I have no such story to tell. No-one in my family is religious or cares much either way about whether a God exists or not, and the friends I grew up with seem to have been in the same boat, so far as I know. It’s simply never been an issue for me, to the extent that I’ve never even really thought of myself as an atheist. It would be like giving myself a label based around the fact I have arms, or have never owned a chicken. Read the rest of this entry »
Geopathic Stress: Where EHS meets All-Natural
Posted by Mike in Divination, Pseudomedicine, Pseudoscience, Quacks on October 6, 2009
Debbie Rye, of www.alternativeways.co.uk, describes herself as a “natural health therapist”.
I’d be more readily able to comment upon her job description if I could make sense of it. A natural health therapist? What does that even mean? What is “health therapy”? What makes it “natural”? Is “natural” a good thing? Who knows.
Debbie was suffering from severe headaches.
I also experienced 2 miscarriages and developed pregnancy related diabetes during the subsequent successful pregnancy. The diabetes returned about 4 years after the birth of my son and gradually worsened from being treated by diet alone, to diet and tablets and eventually insulin.
Although she was being treated for diabetes by the NHS, Debbie decided to seek “alternatives” and was subsequently diagnosed with “candida”, by parties unknown.
I followed a herbal cleanse and build up programme which cleared the candida from my body and restored my health almost completely.
Candida albicans is a normal part of the human flora, often found in the gut and genitourinary tract. Occasionally, the growth of candida albicans can get out of control, causing a condition known as candida overgrowth, candidiasis, or (most commonly) thrush.
It’s very common, and very treatable. It’s odd though, don’t you think, that her doctors had somehow missed candidiasis, and were treating her instead for diabetes? Read the rest of this entry »
Take A Deep Breath: Yogic Cancer Therapy In Scotland
Posted by Marsh in Herbal Medicine, Pseudomedicine, Quacks, Religion, Self-Help on October 5, 2009
Baba Ramdev, left, in orange
This week, the BBC ran a report about the North Ayrshire island of Little Cumbra which is being converted into an international yoga camp after a blessing from India’s most popular lifestyle guru Baba Ramdev.
The island was bought by two devoted Glaswegian followers of the Swami, and will be renamed ‘Peace Island’ for the project which will build the camp – and if the claims Baba Ramdev makes are to be believed, the £2m paid for the island was a bargain. If his claims are to be believed. Which, it turns out, is quite a big ‘if’ – considering the wild claims he’s prone to making.
In fact, the BBC report itself puts some of his wild assertions out uncritically, specifically regarding the healing powers of the Swami’s practice of yoga and pranayama. Pranayama, in case you’ve not heard of it, is a Sanskrit word meaning “restraint of the prana or breath”. In Yoga, it’s used to denote the control of breathing practiced throughout the stretching. But, as the BBC reports, it has other properties too Read the rest of this entry »
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