Month: March 2011

March 24, 2011

Steve Roberts on the Radio

Well-known Victorian Skeptic Dr Steve Roberts has been invited to comment on radio recently – on two separate occasions in fact.
The first sound bite below is about the world ending in 2012. (Please stop laughing).  I really don’t think Steve gets a fair go here.  What do you think?
[or download the MP3 file]
The second sound file is longer. It has to do with a psychic named Lisa bringing her  “speaking-to-dead-people” routine to Melbourne. Steve can be heard from the 19-minute point onwards.
[or download the MP3 file]

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March 19, 2011

ACA: Miracle Fruit or Fruity Marketing?


Another new miracle skin product suddenly appears on our retail shelves. Another uncritical product promotion gets a run on the ACA. There’s nothing new there, but this time ACA may have gone too far, by claiming that the product is TGA approved.
Sorry about all the acronyms in the opening splash. Just in case you’re not keeping up:
ACA = Channel Nine’s A Current Affair (It’s on between the news and Two and a Half Men.)
TGA = Therapeutic Goods Administration (Our thin line of government defense against medical quackery.)
I think we need to come up with a snappy name or acronym for that period of time between the introduction of a new miracle health product to our retail shelves, and the eventual release of data from clinical trials showing a distinct lack of the miraculous. View More ACA: Miracle Fruit or Fruity Marketing?

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March 13, 2011

Health-Giving Jewellery and Air Travel

The extraordinary claims of health giving jewellery and Australian’s best known airline.
Modern international jet travel is about the most technologically sophisticated thing that a person of modest means can experience. We  might gripe about the meals, the timetable or being squashed in with disagreeable people; in fact, we’re totally reliant on an almost incomprehensible mix of Applied Sciences to keep us alive and safe and to get us there very fast.
Sue, a Melbourne suburban mum took an international Qantas flight. Whilst feeling satisfactorily smug about the technology that surrounded her, Sue decided to peruse the bargains on offer in the Qantas duty free catalogue.
The plane wasn’t falling but Sue began to get an awful sinking feeling in her stomach when she spotted the jewellery shown below.
Thus the Australian Skeptics have once again been asked to look into fashion accessories marketed with health benefits.
Introducing these cringe-worthy items:
The OREGON i.Balance Negative Ion Necklace in Black, A$70 (Duty Free)

click full size

View More Health-Giving Jewellery and Air Travel

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March 8, 2011

The writings of Samuel Hahnemann

I admit to a certain curiosity about old homeopathy books. What do they contain? Is there any science in these books?  Exactly what did Samuel Hahnemann write that gained him such a dedicated following?
If you’re unfamiliar with Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, or the alternative medicine practice of homeopathy, you might like to read this introduction before reading any further with this post.
Generally, Hahnemann’s writings about homeopathy were translated into English not long after the publication of the original German versions. In all my reading about homeopathy, I’ve seen almost no comments taken from these translations of Samuel Hahnemann’s work.
My approach to this material will be: just because a book is old, that doesn’t mean I’ll ignore poor reasoning and throw away everything learnt in the last 200 years.  I’m looking for good evidence and logical reasoning to back up any claims.
Critics might suggest I’ve only looked into Hahnemann’s writings with the idea of cherry picking it and then dismissing it. Not so: if I find good science I’ll change my mind.  Hahnemann claimed to have done experiments. View More The writings of Samuel Hahnemann

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March 7, 2011

"Mixed Bag" March 2011 Answers

1. a) berates / rebates;  b) waste/sweat;  c) claimed/decimal
2. a) band;  b) will
3. Tamworth NSW
4. quire
5. Bugs Bunny
6.  Royal Routine Flush
7. Paris
8. C. 20th Century
9. Royal Coat of Arms
10. Four
11. Melanie Griffiths
12. Nepal
13. Anthropology
14. prayers
15. Aramaic
16. A butt (or barrel) of wine
17. Starlight Express
18. Rainy days and Mondays
19. Ronald Reagan
20. Indonesia
21. Jenny
22. 1992
23. He was a fictitious character – a hoax on the publisher
24. chicken
25. 24
26. So
27. saint
28. newspaper
29. pierces, precise
30. Tasmania

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March 7, 2011

Vic Department of Health's "Better Health Channel"

by Graeme Hanigan

This is the background to a petition addressed to The  Minister of Health, David Davis MLC, calling for a review of the Victorian Department of Health’s Better Health Channel. 

Penelope Dingle was 45 years old when she died of colorectal cancer on the 25th of August, 2005. Had her cancer been detected and treated when symptoms were first observed 4 years earlier, she may still be alive today.  Instead of seeking medical treatment, Penelope put her health into the incompetent hands of a deluded Homeopathic quack.
At the conclusion of the inquest into the sad death of Penelope Dingle, the W.A. State Coroner made two recommendations. View More Vic Department of Health's "Better Health Channel"

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March 4, 2011

A Skeptic's Guide to Bible Codes

This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets can be downloaded here: http://www.skeptics.com.au/resources/educational/
or by clicking on the “Useful Info” link at the top of this page.

 by Peter Barrett, Canberra Skeptics

In the late 1990s, a book called “The Bible Code” was published. Its author, Michael Drosnin, claimed that a high-powered computer program had uncovered a large number of secret messages in the Jewish Bible (the Christian Old Testament). The most amazing claim was that a few years before the book’s publication, this program had discovered that the then Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzakh Rabin, faced assassination. Several months after Drosnin and his partners warned him, Mr Rabin was assassinated. View More A Skeptic's Guide to Bible Codes

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