Category: Skeptical Article – vic skeptics

June 11, 2011

The SensaSlim Libel Action Against Dr Ken Harvey. How Did it Happen?

Dr Ken Harvey
Dr Ken Harvey

After the last brief post about this issue, readers may be interested in the details, (as far as an amateur blog writer like myself can establish), as to what occurred between SensaSlim, the TGA and Dr Ken Harvey.
[Note: Links have been added to the end of this post to keep readers up to date with the legal case and to provide further reading.  Recently, this story has had significant coverage in the mainstream press.]
February 2008
A whois search shows that the Sensaslim dot com web site was registered in February 2008.
A Queensland manager of a SensaSlim distribution operation says the company is owned by a Peter O’Brien.
November 2009
The company was registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), on the 2nd of November 2009.
September 2010
SensaSlim, as a product, was listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) on the 20th of September 2010.  The ARTG product number is 176003. Only the sponsoring company is listed “SensaSlim Australia Pty Ltd” at a Sydney address, no individual’s names are shown.
As has been stated before on this site, listing on the ARTG simply means that the TGA considers the product not likely to be harmful. The TGA does not test whether the product is effective, whether supporting evidence for the claims made by the sponsor exists, or whether the claimed underlying scientific mechanisms are real.
The claims as shown on the register include:

….encourages the body’s natural fat burning processes.
….contains Camellia Sinensis (green tea) which is an antioxidant containing caffeine to assist with thermogenesis.

Thermogenesis being the nice technical View More The SensaSlim Libel Action Against Dr Ken Harvey. How Did it Happen?

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May 21, 2011

Enraptured?

The Rapture is ImminentMost people will now be aware that the Christian Rapture is predicted to take place today, May 21, 2011.
In fact, according to Harold Camping of Family Radio, this world-shaking event is due in just a few hours.
In the Skeptics we usually steer clear of religious topics. This is not because of any political correctness or an unwillingness to offend. It’s simply because we prefer to examine issues based on the evidence.
And if a religion makes no testable claims (which they usually don’t) then it’s not a question of evidence, but a question of faith.
The interesting thing about this particular religious prophecy, is that Harold Camping has made a testable claim.
View More Enraptured?

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May 5, 2011

Power Balance: the End of a Shonky Fad

What can we learn from the short history of the Power Balance wrist bands in Australia?  It was a pseudo science fad that the Australian Skeptics played a part in ending.
The recent ACCC threat to prosecute retailers who continued to sell them has had an immediate chill effect.
Sports shops, health shops and retailers of all kinds have now removed Power Balance wrist bands from shelves and counters all over Australia.
How did it happen?  Who’s behind it?  Can we do the same to (insert your favourite pseudo science product here)?
What follows is a potted history of the end of the Power Balance fad.  (If you disagree or have more to add please make a comment below.)
How did it all start?
2007 (USA)
Two young entrepreneurial brothers, in Orange County California, Troy Rodarmel and Josh Rodarmel started the company in early 2007.
The business model is quite straight forward: design colourful, stylish wrist bands that can be manufactured very cheaply in China and sell them locally at a much higher price.  Market the bands by making health and technology claims and View More Power Balance: the End of a Shonky Fad

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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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February 8, 2011

The 10:23 Event in Melbourne

On Saturday, the Victorian Skeptics joined forces with the Melbourne Skeptics and the Young Australian Skeptics to take part in the worldwide 10:23 Campaign.
The campaign was launched last year by the Merseyside Skeptics, as a public education stunt to demonstrate the ineffective nature of Homeopathy.
A video of the Melbourne event was posted a couple of days ago, and as I write this, it’s had over 1,000 views on YouTube.
(If you’re keen, there’s also a great video playlist of 10:23 events around the world).
We also had John, a good friend of the Victorian Skeptics, busily snapping some great stills while we were overdosing.
[slideshow]
Of course while it’s all fun and games in retrospect (and there’s a message in there somewhere too), it almost didn’t happen.
Torrential rain and flash flooding had hit View More The 10:23 Event in Melbourne

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January 6, 2011

Psychic Predictions For 2011

Crystal BallIt’s a new year, and we here at Vic Skeptics would like to celebrate this (somewhat arbitrary) milestone in the traditional skeptical fashion.
We’re going to shake up the tea leaves, gaze into the crystal ball, yank out the goat entrails and check out some psychic predictions for 2011.
Then, most importantly of course, we’ll revisit them at the end of the year and see how they did!
But we don’t want any of those annoying predictions that are infuriatingly general and non-specific.
And we definitely don’t want any silly prophecies about celebrity relationships. (Brad and Angelina are going to have a rough time? Oh noes!)
No, what we want are specific dates and detailed events.
Enter Australia’s own John Gold. Mr Gold goes out on a huge number of very impressive limbs with his 2011 forecasts.
I’ve reproduced a choice selection below the fold, or you can read the whole jaw-dropping lot here.
View More Psychic Predictions For 2011

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December 1, 2010

TAM Australia wrap up

The post conference high is beginning to wear off and life starts to get back to a normal routine again.
For those Victorian Skeptics lucky enough to go to The Amazing Meeting the experience was quite amazing – and as a skeptic; it’s not easy to say that.
(If you’d just like to see a nice slide show of photos from TAM Oz and you don’t much care to read a summary – skip to here)
Expectations were high: so many big name skeptics where on the bill. Would it work?  Such a lot happened it’s difficult to summarize.  I’ll just mention some highlights in no particular order.

My favorite session was one that had to be put together quickly to fill in for a speaker who couldn’t make it – the twitter quiz.  Rebecca Watson quickly researched some questions. A panel of experts, mainly from the SGU, were pitted against the audience in a race to give the correct answer first.  The panel had the advantage of being able to answer directly into the microphones whilst the audience had to post the answer to twitter using the #TAMQuiz hashtag.  Audience answers were displayed real-time on the big screens.  What ensued was glorious, hilarious mayhem that left the audience with sore stomach muscles from laughing.  For instance, in answer View More TAM Australia wrap up

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November 26, 2010

Religion and Science: a View

Earlier this year Terry Kelly was  interviewed by the RoyalAuto . It was a great opportunity to get the skeptical message out to the wider community.  However, with such a large readership the article was bound to have some detractors.
One letter took Terry to task for his views on religion and science, in particular the statement:

But really, science and faith are contradictory.

With due respect to the author of that letter, we’re not going to reproduce it.
We thought Terry’s response was worth posting.

President, Terry Kelly

Dear (RoyalAuto Reader),
Thank you for taking the time to write and I am pleased you read the article in RoyalAuto. While there were some hostile letters published afterwards, and a supportive one, I have to say that we have had a lot of formal and informal positive response. Several people I’ve spoken to expressed surprise that the article could be considered controversial at all. You may be alarmed to learn that a hell of a lot of people think like I do.
To address some of your points :  I know a lot of Scientists had/have religious and other superstitious beliefs. I think Newton believed View More Religion and Science: a View

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