Do Hedgehogs Give My Cat Acupuncture?

31st July, 2006 3

I thought my post on Reiki Healing for Hedgehogs was going to be a one-off. But a recent trip to the garden centre has opened up a whole new compost heap of prickles. Now, I live in hedgehog country. I have a hedgehog hospital within feather spitting distance of my pond, and I see them around me all the time. I am fond of them. My prickly, vespertine friends come [read more…]

The Quest For The Perfect Quack!

13th July, 2006 5

Well, I’ve had a bit of time to put some effort into the Quackometer, and now it has a few new features and improvements. 1. First – ‘Am I a Quack or Not?’ will allow you to type in a name and see how Quacky that person is. More on this later… 2. Secondly, we have some tables ranking web sites and suspect quacks to give some highlights for the [read more…]

Trademarked Science Trade-Offs

10th July, 2006 43

I have written before about my assertion that if you find someone saying that you cannot get all the nutrients you need through food, then you have also found someone selling food supplements. This is the basic scam behind so many nutritionists – they make the process of eating a healthy diet look so formidable and fraught that you had better hedge your bets and scoff a lot of pills [read more…]

Can I See Your Working, Please?

5th July, 2006 3

I promise I will write about something else other than nonsense in the Daily Mail, but today’s story requires a comment or two. Their headline story on the on-line edition proclaims: Early cannabis abuse ‘does lead to heroin addiction’. Now a headline like that is crying out for some investigation. Taking cannabis as a teenager really does pave the way to heroin addiction in later life, say scientists.Researchers have found [read more…]

Magnetic Migraine Miracle Madness?

22nd June, 2006 14

In today’s Daily Mail, Brendan Montague brings us the sensational story that Migraine suffers need not suffer much longer thanks to a wonder device about to be launched in the US and available for a paltry £1,000 (with a further £15 for each treatment). Millions of migraine sufferers have been given hope of a cure with the invention of a magnetic pain “zapper”… The handheld device is placed at the [read more…]

The Quackery of Torture

20th June, 2006 0

As you can see, I have signed up this blog to the Bloggers Against Torture campaign as part of the torture awareness month. I will keep this short. To compare the act of torture to the banalities of quackery will do the victims a dishonour. However, I would venture that both the justification of torture and various quackeries are based on the same misguided logic: What we wish to be [read more…]

“Hands-off” Healing of Hedgehogs

18th June, 2006 6

Quackery is often accompanied with grand associations with complex science, the harder the better. Usually, quantum theory is the science of choice: it has plenty of counter-intuitive results, is riddled with deep mysteries, and most importantly, you (the quack’s target) are very unlike to understand it. The recipe is simple. My quack theory is mysterious; quantum theory is mysterious, therefore quantum theory helps back up my own theory. In addition, [read more…]

The Mineral-Depleted Food Scandal

20th April, 2006 34

The news (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) has been full of reports about how our food in Britain is becoming less nutritious and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain a full set of minerals and vitamins through the food we buy in supermarkets. I have been told by several people that this is the reason why it is so important to take supplements. Can this be true? If [read more…]

UK Hospital HR Manager in ‘Near Death Experience’

12th April, 2006 5

Let’s recap – ‘Cellular Memory’ – the alleged ability for every cell to retain some sort of energy memory about us that can get passed on through organ transplants to the recipients. We saw how Dr Gary Schwartz was showing off his latest art prodigy who had acquired the ability to crayon-in after a heart transplant from an artist. Then we saw that these theories were being backed-up by the [read more…]

‘Cellular Memory’ Fails Memory Test

11th April, 2006 11

After having an argument on a message board about whether Cellular Memory could really exist (see last post), I was offered that the following expert would back up these strange theories of Dr Gary Schwartz. His name is Dr Paul Pearsall and you can see his impressive home page here. Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychoneuroimmunologist. Try saying that drunk. Now, the quackometer gives this result to Dr [read more…]

1 52 53 54 55