Green, but not green

We are keen on green issues, organic food, recycling, saving energy, etc. Somehow, in the green media, these issues get conflated with everything else alternative as if they all have equal merit. I was recently reading Green Parent magazine which is generally pretty good. However, there is a section on children's health. In the section, they were discussing croup. Croup is pretty unpleasant (I suffered from it when I was young).  The resident 'health adviser' gives the following advice for parents "Constitutional homeopathy is one of the most effective ways of preventing reoccuring croup so I would suggest seeing a local homeopath if possible".

Obviously, I needed to call them out on this, so I sent the following email

Hi,
I read your magazine regularly and generally I agree with the ideas and philosophies contained in it. The one area I've always been a bit concerned with is that of alternative therapies. In my reading of the subject, there have never been any conclusive well run scientific trials that show that any of these therapies actually work.

The Ask Auromina section of the Children's Health section normally starts well enough with general advice on improving diet, reducing stress levels, etc, but then often suggests a particular therapy for a given disorder. For example, in the most recent issue it states "Constitutional homeopathy is one of the most effective ways of preventing reoccuring croup so I would suggest seeing a local homeopath if possible". This is presented as a fact, but there are no references to back up this claim. Is it possible for you to provide any evidence of any clinical trials that show that homeopathy is effective for preventing croup?

I'm still waiting for an answer.

Priest attached to party balloons vanishes in Brazil

Some headlines do just make you read on...

Here's the full story

It's that man again

The face of Jesus has appeared in a hospital prayer garden. Full story here. Maybe story should be in quotes. The headline adds the extra information '...prompts emails'. Wow. I think the word they are looking for is pareidolia.

When someone claims to see the face of Jesus or Mary in a cloud or piece of toast, I think 'How do you know what they looked like?'. (Setting their fictional status aside for a moment)

I wonder when our current collective image of this 'Jesus' person first appeared. I've always guessed that it probably first appeared in medieval times. In the same way that our image of Santa is really the 1930's Coca Cola advert, the standard Jesus is probably just some generic long-haired bearded hippy as sketched by Leonardo da Vinci or one of his friends.

Captain Scarlet wins the Masters!

It took me until the 4th round to see the resemblance, but I think it's quite clear...

 

Lies, damned lies and numerology

Just when I thought I couldn't be any more suprised at the rubbish people believe, I heard an article about numerology on the Radio podcast More or Less. There's a follow-up article on the BBC website. I had heard a bit about numerology in the past, but it hadn't occured to me that people were using it to make decisions in the same way that other poor fools use astrology.

In the article, it mentions that Anita Roddick's daughter, Samantha used numerology in organising her business and that her 'consultant' numerologist Sonia Ducie also gets called in by companies to use her 'skills' to help with recruitment.

I just can't comprehend what goes on in people's heads that would make them see anything in these bizarre ideas.

There's a sucker born every minute

I was forwarded an email by a friend today...

Hello All
The Ericsson Company is distributing free computer lap tops in an attempt to match what Nokia has already done. Ericsson hopes to increase its popularity this way. For this reason, they are giving away the WAP Laptops.
All you need to qualify is to send this email to 8 people you know. Within 2 weeks, you will receive Ericsson T18. But if you can send it to 20 people or more, you will receive Ericsson R320.There are people within our building who have received their laptops so I thought I would share this information with you in hopes that you get one before they give them all out.
Make sure you send a copy to anna.swelung@ericsson.com
Cheers and enjoy your laptop when it arrives.
 

My first thought was "That sounds unlikely". My second thought was 'Google'

I Googled 'Ericsson free laptop' and got a page of results like this one describing this old hoax. A sceptical frame of mind and a decent search engine can save you lots of wasted time and potential embarrassment. All the time you save can then be wasted blogging about how much time you have saved.

You shouldn't mock the afflicted...

There was a story in the Times today about the leader of a Doomsday cult who attempted suicide after realising his world-ending prediction may not be correct. In the report it says that members of his religious group have been hiding in a cave since November, believing that the world would end in May. I'm not sure why he decided to get out now, rather than wait the extra month. Perhaps he couldn't face the potential embarrassment...

While it's unkind to mock those with an obvious mental problem, his method of attempted suicide was interesting. He was found with his head on a tree stump, bashing himself on the head with a log. The images this conjures up are like something from a Monty Python sketch.

The article goes on to say that members of the sect were provided with a cow for milk, as they refused to drink from a carton that had a bar code on it. I found another report on Reuters that explains this. Apparently, food packaging barcodes (and credit cards) are "satanic". It's weird enough that one person can come up with these wacky ideas, but how would you manage to convince others?