Category: Skeptical Article – vic skeptics

September 12, 2011

The “Stop The AVN” Campaign

by Ken McLeod

The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN)

The Australian Vaccination Network is based on the New South Wales north coast wedged between Australian’s largest population of aging hippies and younger new-age alternative lifestylers. The first thing that is necessary to understand about the AVN is that the title is totally misleading. It claims to be a discussion forum about the pros and cons of vaccination. In fact the focussed message emanating from the group is simply and unequivocally that Vaccination is Evil. It is led by American citizen Meryl Dorey. Her claims of membership numbers range from 300 to 2,500 depending on what day it is and the phase of the moon. For many years the AVN had a free ticket to disseminate their propaganda. For this we must thank a scientifically illiterate and lazy Australian media, who in the mindless pursuit of “balance” always turned to Dorey for a quote whenever vaccination or disease was mentioned.

Stop The AVN (SAVN)

Strangely enough, SAVN began life as an immunisation awareness campaign. In 2009, baby Dana McCaffery died from Pertussis (Whooping Cough). Pertussis had become very rare in Australia, due to a long-term efficient vaccination program against the disease. Dana McCaffery was too young to have been immunised against Pertussis; however, the local community’s vulnerability to the disease had been seriously compromised by recent low immunisation rates. The NSW Health Dept asked the parents if they could use Dana’s story to promote immunisation. The parents agreed, the story went public, and they were pelted with vile abuse from AVN supporters. That led to a Channel 7 TV debate led by Mike Munro, a leading Australian journalist. View More The “Stop The AVN” Campaign

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September 8, 2011

Leo Igwe, Interviews and Photos

by Mal Vickers

I had the rare privilege of meeting Leo Igwe during the Melbourne stage of his speaking tour around Australia. Leo is one of my personal skeptical heroes.

There really is no easy or fun way to deal with the issue of witch hunting in Africa.  It’s awful on every level. Mostly the targets are older women and young children.  Being labelled a witch often means a death sentence if you’re the unlucky one.  At the very least, you’ll become ostracised from your family and community.

Whilst being an outspoken skeptic here in Australia can be difficult (just ask Dr Ken Harvey), Leo has been beaten up and put in jail for speaking out against something we’d regard as a ridiculous and monstrous superstition. View More Leo Igwe, Interviews and Photos

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September 1, 2011

Flogging a Dodgy Cancer “Cure”? Say What You Like, the TGA Won’t Stop You

by Dr Mick Vagg, Clinical Senior Lecturer at Deakin University School of Medicine & Pain Specialist at Barwon Health

This article has been reprinted from The Conversation website where it appeared on 1/9/2001.

If a manufacturer claimed its product was “clinically proven” and could relieve your symptoms of bloating and fatigue, would you believe it? What about if you were chronically or terminally ill and had tried almost everything else?

The latest audit of complementary therapies found as many as nine out of ten companies made misleading claims about their weight loss products, vitamins, lotions, pills and gadgets.

The release on Tuesday of the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) report on the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA)
performance as regulator of complementary medicine products makes for alarming reading. View More Flogging a Dodgy Cancer “Cure”? Say What You Like, the TGA Won’t Stop You

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August 17, 2011

Previous Product Reviews

or,

Blasts from the Past

Given that many of our readers have only recently become acquainted with us, we thought we’d revisit some of the more entertaining product reviews that Vic Skeptics has performed in past years.

The Electrostatic Gravitator

Our mate Barrie Johnson combines his two greatest loves, electronics and fossicking: and he knows a bit about electronics – most of his working life was spent as electronics maintenance officer in a major Melbourne hospital.

Barrie Johnson with gold nuggets

In semi-retirement in the early 2000s, Barrie opened a business in the heart of the Victorian goldfields,  servicing and repairing  detection equipment. One day a friend brought in a flash-looking device called The Electrostatic Gravitator.

He’d been so impressed by a prominent advertisement in a glossy American fossicker’s magazine that he bought one, notwithstanding its considerable expense. Unfortunately, once unpacked it failed to live up to expectations.

Barrie promised to look into it (literally). What he discovered was a maze of components and wires. The weird thing was that most of the circuits were open. Things weren’t connected to other things.

Barrie concluded that not only could the Gravitator not work, it was never designed to work. He reported back to his disappointed customer, then went to the trouble of posting a warning to the magazine that it was hosting ads for a dubious product, including technical details. That, he thought, was that.

View More Previous Product Reviews

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August 10, 2011

A Skeptic’s Guide to Free Energy Machines

This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet. It was written several years ago by our good friend Peter Barrett of Canberra Skeptics, but it’s up to date: from time to time these machines still get promoted in niche magazines and websites. 
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.

Imagine you have an ordinary one litre jug. Two things which I’m sure you’d agree with are that you couldn’t pour more than a litre of water into it or empty more than one litre out of it.

Now imagine you had two such jugs, one full to the brim with water and the other empty. Pour the water from one jug to the other and back again. Repeat this process as often as you like. Is there any way you could imagine that you’d end up with more than one litre of water split between the two jugs?

The logical answer is “No.” In fact, due to spillage and evaporation, it’s more likely that you’d end up with less than one litre of water.

This is a fairly accurate representation of one of the most basic principles of physics, known as Conservation of Energy. This principle states that energy can change form, but can’t be destroyed or created. A good example of this is the production of household electricity in Australia. Most electricity in Australia is generated by burning coal. The coal has chemical energy. When it’s burned, it releases heat energy.

This energy heats water to steam, which turns a turbine (kinetic energy). The turbine drives a generator, producing electrical energy. We then use this electrical energy for heating, cooling, running the TV, and so on. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Free Energy Machines

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August 5, 2011

The Census and Question 19

Tuesday 9th of August is Census Night in Australia. Question 19 asks What Is the Person’s Religion? It’s the only optional question.

Skeptics generally do not get involved in mainstream religious matters, preferring to concentrate on pseudoscience, fraud and the paranormal. However, from time to time we react to perceived abuses; examples include teaching Creationism in Science classes, government spending taxpayer’s money on a papal visit, and arguably unconstitutional School Chaplaincy programs at the expense of secular ethics classes.

The Census Form’s Question 19 may well be considered such an abuse. Whether by design or accident, it is almost a text-book example of push-polling in favour of entrenched interest. Our advice, if you believe in the principle of enlightened self-interest, is to answer Question 19 honestly, for yourself and for every member of your household. View More The Census and Question 19

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July 19, 2011

Cleaning up the Medicine Cupboard

This post is a mixed bag of alternative medicine news featuring the TGA, Dr Ken Harvey, magic bracelets, magic pills and magic spray.

Do you recall our story about the health giving jewellery that could be purchased from Qantas duty free? Dr Ken Harvey put in a complaint to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)’s Complaints Resolution Panel (CRP) about the same. The complaint was upheld; the CRP asked for the withdrawal of advertising.

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A company called Alpha Flight Services Pty Ltd handles the sale of duty free items on Qantas flights.

Alpha Flight Services Pty Ltd also stated that, in response to the complaint, they had “acted promptly to withdraw all promotion of the products online” and had stopped selling the products.

In part the decision says:

The Panel was therefore satisfied that the advertisements contained many claims that had not been verified, were likely to arouse unwarranted expectations, and were misleading. These included the claims that the advertised products could improve heath, improve metabolism, improve or encourage blood circulation, expel toxins, reduce stress, improve sleep, lift alkaline levels in the body, neutralise acidic toxins, return the body to a natural state of balance, enhanced the immune system, reduce stress View More Cleaning up the Medicine Cupboard

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July 1, 2011

A Skeptic’s Guide to The Scientific Method

This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet. After our recent experiences with Power Balance, Optiderma Skin products, Negative Ion Balance  Jewellery and SensaSlim, it seemed like a timely moment to bring The Scientific Method  front-and-centre. This procedure has been standard now for about two hundred years. That’s why it’s appropriate to have a jaundiced view of anyone claiming remarkable scientific breakthroughs which are not supported by published data. 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.

“Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What’s left is magic.

And it doesn’t work.”

– James Randi

The term “Scientific Method” is used to describe the way scientific research is designed, performed and reviewed. Good science depends on rigour – strict and unfailing adherence to basic principles.

In simple terms, as a scientist,  you would:

1. Make some observation about something that is going on in the universe. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to The Scientific Method

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June 29, 2011

SensaSlim and the IRI’s Borrowed Photographs

An update on the Dr Ken Harvey libel case. Plus the removal of photographs from the web page of the institute that is said to have done research supporting the product.

Much has happened regarding the libel case against Dr Ken Harvey since writing the last post on this topic.

On the 14th of June, Dr Ken Harvey’s legal people found there were problems with the original statement of claim put forward by SensaSlim’s legal people.  Harvey’s legal people requested the libel action be struck out.  However the NSW Supreme court allowed SensaSlim’s legal people to withdraw the statement of claim and lodge an amended one, they have until 1st of July to do so.

On the 16th of June the ACCC began investigating SensaSlim. On the 23rd of June the ACCC applied to the federal court to put a freeze on SensaSlim’s Australian assets, which was granted. View More SensaSlim and the IRI’s Borrowed Photographs

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June 26, 2011

Jason and Dave in Melbourne

Photos from a hectic two days in Melbourne.

[slideshow]

It was great to have Jason Brown and Dave the Happy Singer in Melbourne.  On Monday the 20th of June Jason spoke about Skeptical Activism at our regular Skeptics Café. Jason showed how the internet could be used effectively to combat nonsense.  If I had to summarize the talk in a few words I’d say it was practical, informative and inspirational.

The following night (Tuesday the 21st) at The Clyde Hotel Carlton, Dave performed an excellent set of songs that made you think, laugh and sing along.  Later that, night both Jason and Dave did a live recording of their new podcast In Vino Veritas.  The new podcast is well worth a listen; find it here.

Mal.

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