Archive for category Quacks
Why We Should Avoid Ubisoft Products
Posted by Mike in Media, Pseudoscience, Public Health, Quacks, Skepticism, vaccination on January 5, 2010
In 1994, my friend Russel called me raving about a new playable demo he’d got from the cover disc of a PC magazine. The game was a reasonably early example of a real-time strategy game, in which the player was required to harvest resources, construct buildings and raise an army with which to crush the opposition; lest they do the same. It was called Warcraft: Orcs and Humans; you may have heard of its descendants. The playable demo came with four levels, which I devoured. I quickly bought the full game shortly thereafter and its sequel, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the following year. I had developed a taste for real-time strategy games and wanted more.
In 1995, another phone call from Russel introduced me to Westwood Studios new RTS game – Command & Conquer – which I came to love more than I loved Warcraft. One of its distinguishing features, setting it apart from the Warcraft series was the inclusion of full-motion video sequences (with real actors!) introducing each mission. After making free with Russel’s copy of C&C, I bought my own copy in early 1996, followed by its sequels as they were released, including the games from the C&C spin-off series Red Alert.
That was until 2008, and the publication of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. By then Westwood Studios had been bought up by gaming giants Electronic Arts, and with more money behind them (and much more money in the video game market than in 1995), EA were able to cast Hollywood stars for Red Alert 3‘s full motion video segments. The cast included Tim Curry as Soviet Premier Antony Cherdenko; J. K. Simmons as US President Howard T. Ackerman; Jonathan Pryce as Field Marshall Robert Bingham; George Takei as Japanese Emperor Yoshiro; and one Jenny McCarthy as Special Agent Tanya.
Jessica Simpson: Ear-Candling So YOU Don’t Have To!
Posted by Marsh in Ear Candles, Pseudomedicine, Quacks on December 23, 2009
As regular, sporadic or even accidental listeners to our podcast might know, our very own Mike recently discovered ear candles lurking in the murky, unforgiving depths of Chester town centre. Dragged away from the peddler of this particular brand of dangerous crazy before he’d had a chance to a) ask why ear candles are on sale when they’re proven to be ineffective and ludicrously dangerous and b) stop the stupid burning his brain, Mike was left with only one option – rant about it on Skeptics With A K. I suspect being on the show is actually far more beneficial to Mike’s mental health than it is to our listeners’ entertainment levels.
Still, it got me wondering – how many people actually know anything about ear candles? How many people know what they are, what they’re meant to do, what they actually do, and why they’re crazy crazy crazy? Canvassing opinion around colleagues and friends, it seemed to my (entirely un-scientifically-small) survey that the number of people who’d even heard of them was pretty low, and amongst those it was a mixed response on whether ear candles are any good or not. Which is a bit disturbing, because – as I mentioned – they’re actually crazy crazy crazy. So I found myself trying to explain to these lovely folk what an ear candle is, and the potential for harm that it can do. ‘If only’, thought I at the time, ‘I had some kind of video where a well-known yet annoying-enough-not-to-mind-seeing-them-in-discomfort celebrity had filmed themselves using an ear candle, so I could show people how woo this crap really is (and how crap this woo really is), and they could be in equal parts informed and grossed-out’.
Well, this is Christmas after all – the time of the year that wishes really do come true. They do. Ask anyone that’s been on Noel’s Christmas Presents and they’ll tell you. Oh, plus I can tell you they do, because lo and indeed behold what the intertubes have presented us with:
The Aids Denialist And The Homeopath
Posted by Andy in 10:23, Homeopathy, Pseudomedicine, Quacks, Skepticism on December 22, 2009
Associated Press writes:
“South Africa’s former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who gained notoriety for her dogged promotion of lemons, garlic and olive oil to treat AIDS, has died. She was 69.” - Source: AP
This woman leaves a mixed legacy. Despite being applauded for driving reform to get basic healthcare out to rural townships and her involvement in global anti-tobacco actions, she also was derided for her attitudes toward HIV/AIDS.
She denied the link between HIV and AIDS also resisting the use of antiretrovirals, famously culminating in the following quote at a 2005 media conference
“All I am bombarded about is antiretrovirals, antiretrovirals. There are other things we can be assisted in doing to respond to HIV/AIDS in this country.” Read the rest of this entry »
Horse Placenta Therapy: Foal Play?
Posted by Marsh in Media, Pseudomedicine, Quacks, Skepticism on November 30, 2009
Robin Van Persie - Placenta Forward
Footballers, by and large, and by largely stereotypically-derived reputation, are not widely perceived to be among humanity’s great critical thinkers. Arsenal player Kolo Toure was yellow carded last season for refusing to enter the field of play before every other member of his team had crossed the line ahead of him. In the 1998 World Cup, Fabian Barthez iconically received a good-luck kiss on his bald head from compatriot Laurent Blanc. To this day French manager Raymond Domenech adheres strictly to horoscopes, stating his distrust of Leos: “When I have got a Leo in defence, I’ve always got my gun ready, as I know he’s going to want to show off at one moment or another and cost us.” It’s fair to say, they can be a somewhat credulous bunch.
And it’s not just superstition that the players of the beautiful game have been guilty of – with the pressure to get fit and back to action increasing as stakes (not to mention financial factors) continue to rise, a whole range of alternative therapies have been trialled over the years, from the unusual-but-plausible to the downright quackish. Florent Malouda and Robert Pires have both found the cure for aching muscles can lie not in his limbs, but in the teeth – turning to a dentist to fix their fatiguing fangs. Michael Owen, Arjen Robben and Jurgen Klinsmann have all had goats’ blood and cockerel extract injected into troublesome hamstrings. Cristiano ‘pretty boy’ Ronaldo even tried turning to a local wizard when he was sidelined last month. It seems like almost anything goes. Which leads me on to Robin Van Persie – centre-forward for Arsenal and the Netherlands, and now poster-boy for a new treatment that’s causing a stir in treatment rooms, newspapers and quite likely stables across the country: horse placenta therapy.
The injury-prone Dutchman, who tore his ankle ligaments in a match against Italy, flew out to Serbia to meet with the proponent of the horse placenta therapy – Marijana Kovacevic – in order to trim his recovery time down from six weeks out of action. Van Persie, who has inevitably become the butt of a load of ‘Pla-Centa Forward’ gags, isn’t the first footballer to go in for the equine rub – with fellow Premiership stars Yossi Benayoun, Glen Johnson and Frank Lampard all putting their faith in Kovacevic’s hands. Read the rest of this entry »
Baby-Spinning – The Homeopathic Way
Posted by Marsh in 10:23, Homeopathy, Pseudomedicine, Quacks, Skepticism on November 27, 2009
Sometimes I wonder if there’s anything homeopathy CAN’T do. I mean, we all know it’s great for curing colds. And we all know it can cure back aches. And we all know it can help boost the immune system. And we all know it can help increase your energy. And we all know it can build your vitality. And we all know it’s a great alternative to vaccines. And we all know it can get rid of monsters under the bed. Those things are the obvious benefits to using tiny drops of substances diluted into levels equivalent to a body of water greater than the known universe while at every stage being tapped against a Bible. Despite it’s zero science, zero plausibility and zero active ingredients. Despite it’s pre-scientific belief in the causes of illness and disease, and it’s like-cures-like nonsense.
We all know homeopathy can do all that, tell us something new!
Well, just when you thought you knew the limitations of homeopathy (Avogadro’s number, for example) there it goes and surprises you all over again. Because those little sugar-pill drops of magic and nothingness can also help un-breech your foetus, according to Canadian homeopath Piper Martin, who features the following claim on her website:
Directions for Turning a Breech Baby
Pulsatilla is a homeopathic remedy made from the Windflower. I have had a high success rate of using this remedy to turn babies in the breech position within a 24-hour time period.
Now, for the non-foetus-savvy of you who can’t be bothered with the three or four clicks it would take to Wikipedia it, a baby is breech when the it’s upside down in the womb – rather than being born head first, breech births involve the child emerging feet first. Although relatively common at many stages of the pregnancy, obviously a breeched baby presents a real risk during labour, so it’s best to be avoided where possible. There are ways of turning a breech baby non-homeopathically, of course – a technique called external cephalic version (ECV), for example, involves no Pulsatilla and no diluted water, it turns out. Read the rest of this entry »
Homeopaths: Conducting The Laws Of Nature
Posted by Andy in 10:23, Homeopathy, Pseudomedicine, Pseudoscience, Quacks on November 23, 2009
I was thinking about succussion today. You know, shaking and striking a dilution during the preparation of a homeopathic remedy. If we take a 12c preparation, it goes through 11 steps of striking and shaking.
The homeopaths argue that this process energises, potentises, vitalises the water to claim an imprint of the original substance. So the water itself becomes imbued with “original substance-ness”. This conveniently means that they don’t actually need any of the original substance in there for it to still be effective, if you believe their bullshit law of infinitesimals.
Further to this, the homeopathy is meant to work by having a beneficial effect on the vital force. The vital force is an energy field that doesn’t exist but underpins many forms of woo. See meridiens, auras and so on.
Today I was reflecting on the arbitrariness of succussion, the shaking and striking bit. There is a company in the USA eponymously called “Hahnemann laboratories” - formed by a chap called Michael Quinn, now deceased but somehow living on, more of which later. You get the impression from the site that he was a nice chap. I think they’re genuine believers in their woo. They supply a variety of markets. The retail market can buy direct, stores can buy wholesale and practitioners can buy kits to combine and make their own remedies for their targets, sorry, patients. It’s a very helpful website where you can suspend your disbelief for quite some time browsing many sections of interesting information. Read the rest of this entry »
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