But I've been fighting this illness everyone else in Kitsap County seems to have - a combination of TB and Typhoid that renders you too disgusting for public but not quite sick enough to take more than a couple days off of work. Awesome.
Perhaps I should head to Super Supplements and procure a homeopathic remedy! OR maybe not, because there's nothing in it! Skeptic Wes suggested we further explore CAM, especially homeopathy and I'm fully on board with that cause there's nothing more disgusting than people charging a gazillion dollars for a bottle of purified water...I think many in the US think homeopathy is herbal medicine but I assure you it is NOT.
So here's a couple podcasts to pique your interest
http://parafort.com/ri/?p=563 the RI podcast detailing the 10^23 overdose and
http://parafort.com/ri/?p=541 our favorite UK skeptic Marsh in his dulcet tones, explaining the event.
Also Andy Wilson (of Merseyside Skeptics & InKredulous) was recently on Token Skeptic with the lovely Kylie Sturgess speaking of the next 10^23 stunt to be executed on Feb 5 - during qedcon which most of us will not likely be able to attend...which you can listen to here http://traffic.libsyn.com/tokenskeptic/Token_Skeptic_37_On_The_1023_Campaign_In_2011_An_Interview_With_Andy_Wilson.mp3 or read the transcript at http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/1023_campaign_in_2011_an_interview_with_andy_wilson/
I've contacted Andy and he's going to forward our info to DJ Grothe so we can take part in whatever is going on with the 10^23 campaign here in the states. Cheers, Andy!
Also you can visit the 10^23 website or look at the wikipedia entry on homeopathy for more info.
Looking forward to seeing you all on October 27th and also lets keep a mass Trick or Treating in mind for those of us with children of that age...I'm going as Christine O'Donnell...I'm not a witch - I'm you!
Amber K.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
CAM
For plant biologists, CAM is a super funky method of photosynthesis. Plants are much more interesting than people, folks! However, for the rest of us, CAM stands for "Complimentary and Alternative Medicine."
What is Complimentary and Alternative Medicine? It's a $34 BILLION industry (just in the US!) based on untested and unproven quackery to rival science-based medicine - often touted as better because conventional medicine is only "in it for the money." And it really pisses me off.
Many of you may be aware of the 10^23 campaign run by Michael Marshall and our friends at the Merseyside Skeptics Society - if you're not, read up on it, but even more importantly Marsh and Hayley Stevens of BARsoc did an interview with Rhys Morgan - a 15 year old that deals with the pain of Crohn's disease and noticed that someone on his Crohn's disease support forum was touting the "Miracle Mineral Solution" or MMS. He did some research and found the FDA warning on the substance (see it here) which he posted and was subsequently banned from the site. Since then he's been on quite a few podcasts and in the UK papers, warning people of the dangers of drinking what is touted as a cure all for AIDS, cancer, the flu, etc etc but is, in fact, industrial bleach.
For this week's discussion please listen to episode 67 of the Righteous Indignation podcast which can be found here or on Itunes. There's a special bit at the end of this podcast which has nothing to do with MMS, but if you don't listen to it I'll know about it. Special thanks to Marsh and Trystan Swale of Righteous Indignation. That's all I can say at this point.
Also if you have time, listen to episode 68 of the same podcast, the first part of an interview with the "inventor" of MMS, Jim Humble. It is well worth listening to. The second part will be posted forthwith. You have no idea how much I've wanted to use "forthwith" in a sentence since losing the 4th grade spelling bee over that word. Just kidding, I actually lost it over "necessary".
OK - there are a thousand other places to research CAM and there's a gazillion (that's a real word) different methods. Why should we believe evil Big Pharma and the FDA and not believe in CAM? Because we have a very useful tool on our side - science - which is not run by evil corporations (though it is abused by them) but by the good guys - scientists. We have peer review - a plodding, flawed system that makes mistakes but is the best tool we have to move things along. Once a method of CAM has been peer-reviewed and showed to be efficacious it loses it's CAM designation and we call it something different - medicine.
Can't wait to see you all on October 13th at Hales.
Amber K.
What is Complimentary and Alternative Medicine? It's a $34 BILLION industry (just in the US!) based on untested and unproven quackery to rival science-based medicine - often touted as better because conventional medicine is only "in it for the money." And it really pisses me off.
Many of you may be aware of the 10^23 campaign run by Michael Marshall and our friends at the Merseyside Skeptics Society - if you're not, read up on it, but even more importantly Marsh and Hayley Stevens of BARsoc did an interview with Rhys Morgan - a 15 year old that deals with the pain of Crohn's disease and noticed that someone on his Crohn's disease support forum was touting the "Miracle Mineral Solution" or MMS. He did some research and found the FDA warning on the substance (see it here) which he posted and was subsequently banned from the site. Since then he's been on quite a few podcasts and in the UK papers, warning people of the dangers of drinking what is touted as a cure all for AIDS, cancer, the flu, etc etc but is, in fact, industrial bleach.
For this week's discussion please listen to episode 67 of the Righteous Indignation podcast which can be found here or on Itunes. There's a special bit at the end of this podcast which has nothing to do with MMS, but if you don't listen to it I'll know about it. Special thanks to Marsh and Trystan Swale of Righteous Indignation. That's all I can say at this point.
Also if you have time, listen to episode 68 of the same podcast, the first part of an interview with the "inventor" of MMS, Jim Humble. It is well worth listening to. The second part will be posted forthwith. You have no idea how much I've wanted to use "forthwith" in a sentence since losing the 4th grade spelling bee over that word. Just kidding, I actually lost it over "necessary".
OK - there are a thousand other places to research CAM and there's a gazillion (that's a real word) different methods. Why should we believe evil Big Pharma and the FDA and not believe in CAM? Because we have a very useful tool on our side - science - which is not run by evil corporations (though it is abused by them) but by the good guys - scientists. We have peer review - a plodding, flawed system that makes mistakes but is the best tool we have to move things along. Once a method of CAM has been peer-reviewed and showed to be efficacious it loses it's CAM designation and we call it something different - medicine.
Can't wait to see you all on October 13th at Hales.
Amber K.
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