A Letter to David Bellamy

30th August, 2011 14

Dear Professor Bellamy, I am writing to you to ask for your help as Patron of the British Homeopathic Association. But first I must say that I am somewhat surprised that you have taken this position. You were one of the people that inspired me to be interested in the natural world and to take a career in science. Your enthusiasm for botany, wildlife and the environment will be remembered [read more…]

Help With Quackometer: Geek needed

27th August, 2011 3

At present, the ‘Am I a Quack?’ function is not working.http://www.quackometer.net/?page=quackometerPart of how this function works is by using a Yahoo Pipe. You can see the pipe here… http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=a77fae13005513c4a… [read more…]

Jeremy Sherr: Daktari wa mchawi na dawa yake mbaya

24th August, 2011 32

The Society of Homeopaths in the UK has constantly refused to engage in any meaningful way about how western homeopaths are travelling to Africa and setting up clinics that use homeopathic sugar pills to treat and prevent dangerous diseases, such as TB, malaria and HIV. This is a murderous practice. People will die if they are told that homeopathy is a ‘side-effect free’ way of treating or preventing these diseases. [read more…]

Dr Peter Fisher and “Plausibility Bias”

15th August, 2011 33

In this season’s newsletter from the Homeopathy Research Institute, Dr Peter Fisher, Clinical Director of the NHS Hospital, the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, writes an essay on how homeopathy research may be being unfairly appraised due to the ‘plausibility bias’ of scientists. Fisher makes a case that “Negative plausibility bias obstructs a fair evaluation of the evidence around homeopathy”. That is, that views that homeopathy appears to be [read more…]

Margaret Coats to join Zombie Regulator, Ofquack.

9th August, 2011 8

I first wrote about Ofquack, or the Complementary and Natural Health Council, during its formation in early 2008. I predicted it would not survive – and I was wrong. Ofquack was set up by the now defunct quackery lobby group founded by Prince Charles, the Foundation for Integrated Health. The aim was to provide voluntary ‘regulation’ for practitioners of superstitious and pseudoscientific therapies. I predicted it would fail as such [read more…]

Quacks Denounce ASA as Incompetent and Threatening

3rd August, 2011 28

Last week I reported that a top quack delegation was visiting the Advertising Standards Authority to tell them that they were being very mean to quacks by asking them not to make unsubstantiated claims in their websites. Well, once more, a leaked email landed in my inbox. And we also have an ‘official’ press release. And it shows a profession, if I can call it that, that is immature, confused [read more…]