In about an hour, I am heading to the airport for a month long journey. 2 weeks in Cambridge, UK with my daughter and her boyfriend, then a week in France and a week in Spain.
So, I’ll be off visiting and sampling the beers and wines of Europe (well, I might take in an occasional museum or historical site). That means no blogging until sometime last in July.
So, have a great summer all.
Barcelona Spain was recently the home of the inaugural International Homeopathy Research Conference, hosted by The Homeopathy Research Institute (HRI). The purpose of the conference, as in many conferences, was to share new knowledge in the field. However, what new is to be learned from a field such as homoeopathy where the effects are as difficult to find as the active ingredients.
A blogger describes his experiences:
Scientists and researchers from all over the world presented their findings and theories, some of which – if true – could truly revolutionize our concepts of medicine and physics.
Our writer’s initial observation is spot on. For homoeopathy to have any validity at all, many other sciences would need to be totally revised. Medicine and physics are constantly being updated and refined, but the chances of homoeopathy as the driving force behind the rewriting of the germ theory of disease and the molecular laws of physics and chemistry are about as likely as finding an active ingredient in a 100X solution of Oscillum.
The next big discovery is called Transference, and we’re not talking about falling in love with your therapist.
What is that you ask? Well more than one person claimed that remedies seem to affect living organisms from a distance. And to top of the Freaky voodoo-like effect, water placed next to a homeopathic remedy seems to take on the characteristics of the remedy. And guess what, it’s been observed repeatedly in laboratory situations.
Keynote speaker Dr. Stephan Baumgartner, a physicist from the university of Bern, presented a simple experiment he conducted on wheat seedlings. He placed wheat seedlings linearly next to a vial of homeopathic remedy, arsenicum album 45X which he potentised by hand in his lab. He discovered that the seedlings closest to the remedy showed a decrease in growth, and were affected to a greater extent than those furthest away from the remedy. This force could affect clinical and laboratory outcomes in relation to homeopathic research. The implications are that since physical contact with a remedy may not be required to feel its affects. So presumably, individuals in a placebo or control group could still be affected by the action of a remedy.
Dr. Gustavo Bracho, an immunologist from Cuba, presented a study about homeopathic dilutions of a plant extract with anti-tumoral properties. He discovered completely by accident,that if he stored water (for his control / placebo group) next to a homeopathic dilution of the extract, the water would take on the same properties as the remedy. He found that at specific potencies or dilutions, the homeopathic remedy would have a toxic effect on tumor cells. If the water was kept at a distance from the remedy it would not demonstrate the same effects. Hmm I wonder if this could be affecting homeopathic research by contaminating placebo and control groups.
So, you don’t need to ingest a homoeopathic remedy, you only need proximity to these infinitesimally diluted solutions for the effect to be manifested. Or, if it doesn’t work, as none of them do, it can be blamed on storing the solution too close to another infinitesimally diluted solution. If that’s not belief in magic, I don’t know what is.
Can you imagine going to your physician with a serious infection and being told that you don’t need to take these antibiotics, just keep them close and the cure will happen. Oh, and if you get low, just keep them in a cabinet next to a bottle of sterilized water and presto! you’ll have a new bottle of antibiotics. Should also work for anti-depressants, anti-hypertensives, and all sorts of other treatments. What a saving on medications. Big Pharma must be suppressing this full time. But then, Big Nature must be as well, since one purchase from Boiron can last a lifetime.
Before you laugh this off entirely, remember that Naturopaths study and practice homoeopathy as well. So, when these groups look for integration into real medicine remember that they don’t believe in medicine, they believe in magic.
Some people see women as having one or another set of characteristics. According to this image there is a fundamental gulf between two very distinct types of women.
The characteristics listed on the left are obviously not really feminine traits at all, at least that’s my interpretation of the punctuation marks following the words Femininity.?, Leadership??, Discipline??, Logical??, Responsibility??, and Competitive??. And then we have the words Protect and Provide crossed out. The creator of this image has a pretty narrow view of appropriate traits for both men and women.
It seems to me that the two lists encompass many HUMAN characteristics than may be found in any combination in any individual, regardless of gender.
I found the image on Twitter, without a source, so I can’t credit the image or criticize directly the person or people responsible for such a harmful piece of shit image.
Dr Paul Offit is one of the most public voices of the pro-science, pro-vaccine community. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and popular books. Of course, he is vilified by the anti-vaccine people, who desperately cling to anything to shore up their belief system.
Today he has in The Guardian UK titled Vitamins: stop taking the pills. Here are some excerpts:
The problem with most vitamins is that they aren’t made inside the body; they’re available only in foods or supplements. So the question isn’t, “Do people need vitamins?” They do. The real questions are: “How much do they need?” and “Do they get enough in foods?” Nutrition experts and vitamin manufacturers are split on the answers to these questions. Nutrition experts argue that all people need is the recommended daily allowance (RDA), typically found in a routine diet. Industry representatives argue that foods don’t contain enough vitamins and that larger quantities are needed.
In other words, the people selling manufacturers and sellers of vitamin supplements recommend that you need them. Just ask any naturopath, they’ll be happy to sell you many supplements from their shop. Continue reading
Fairy tales will always be with us, but it never hurts to put a practical spin on an old myth.
Hitler is angry at bother George RR Martin and HBO. The smug entitled pricks tell him he should have read the books. It doesn’t help his mood any.
For those who prefer their weddings white:
Before we get into this, I must qualify my comments by stating I am a straight white male who raised three children to adulthood while going through a divorce from an emotionally abuse women and a subsequent 8 year relationship. Through that I have suffered both physical and mental health issues. Despite that, my children are now all well adjusted adults.
Proponents of same-sex marriage believe the only thing children really need is love. Based on that supposition, they conclude it’s just as good for children to be raised by loving parents of the same sex, as it is to be raised by loving parents of the opposite sex. Unfortunately, that basic assumption—and all that flows from it—is false. Because love isn’t enough! Continue reading
Bill C-309 An Act to amend the Criminal Code (concealment of identity), also known as The Preventing Persons from Concealing Their Identity during Riots and Unlawful Assemblies Act, has completed third reading in the Senate and will soon be signed, sealed, and delivered.
1. This Act may be cited as the Preventing Persons from Concealing Their Identity during Riots and Unlawful Assemblies Act. Continue reading
I recently wrote about the El Savadoran women, known only as Beatriz, who had been denied an abortion, despite the facts that the foetus was non-viable and her life was endangered is the pregnancy was continued. Monday, her life was saved some semantic manipulation and a cesarean section. Of course the foetus did not survive.
After debating Beatriz’s petition for a therapeutic abortion — a request supported by her doctors, the Salvadorian health ministry and international human rights groups — for seven weeks, the court ruled against the procedure, but determined that doctors “could proceed with interventions” if Beatriz’s health continued to deteriorate due to her kidney failure and lupus. Continue reading
Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia is something that each and every one of us has experienced, even if we have no idea how to pronounce it. Research has shown that sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia occurs more commonly in people who inhabit temperate zones during the summer months, as attempts are made to moderate the body’s internal temperature. Continue reading
