Ten23 the outcome

Three weeks ago Annalise and I downed an entire bottle of homeopathic Belladonna and Arsenic as part of a nationwide stunt to expose homeopathy for the quackery that it is. Today two things happened - coincidence? I think not.

• Firstly, the House of Commons select committee on science and technology released their report into Homeopathy and it was scathing. They advised on the closing of homeopathy hospitals and against the funding for any more more research into homeopathy.
• Secondly the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) issued guidance that there is "no scientific or pharmacological basis for homeopathy".

I believe most users of homeopathy users its practioners mean well and many sincerely believe that homeopathy has worked for them but we humans are deluded creatures and see cause and effect when there are none. This is where science and random, controlled trials are used to measure objectively the efficacy of treatments.

There are also those who advocate homeopathy for the treatment of AIDS, malaria, cancer and other serious conditions - these people are at best naive and at worst evil.

Today was a small victory for science against 18th century superstition but it could be made all the sweeter if only the accusations of being in the pay of "Big Pharma" were true - I could do with the money.

The full report can be read here

Homeopathy and the 10:23 Campaign

On January 30th, 2010, at exactly 10:23am, large groups of skeptics will gather in the town centres of around a dozen cities in the UK and consume a full bottle of homeopathic pills, in order to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of homeopathy. Marsh explains why…

Homeopathy in the UK is alarmingly pervasive – setting aside the fact that the industry is worth an estimated £40million per year, the National Health Service actually plows £4million per year of taxpayers’ money into providing sugar pills as a Complementary Alternative Medicine – much of which goes into the upkeep of the four government-run homeopathic hospitals. That figure doesn’t even take into account the £20 million spent on the redevelopment of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. According to the British Homeopathy Association, more than 400 GPs regularly refer patients to homeopaths. Homeopathy is everywhere. And then we have the UK’s leading pharmacy, Boots…

Boots are as much a British national institution as the Royal family, the BBC and the sense of quiet superiority over our former colonies. Yet this well-respected and trusted organisation lends its well-earned reputation to quackery in the sale of homeopathic remedies (including it’s own-brand range) alongside real medicine. What’s more, their decision to stock these sugar pills is compounded by the fact that they have no real belief in their effectiveness, as became clear in the laugh-a-minute evidence check session, where Boots’ Professional Stand-up Com… sorry, Professional Standards Director Paul Bennett admitted the company’s policy of selling homeopathic remedies was based not on a belief that they work, but in a belief that they sell, and sell well. And that’s before we even take a look inside the Pandora’s box that is the Boots Learning Store – Alternative Medicine module (sample statement: ‘Foxglove (Digitalis) extract is used in the treatment of heart failure’).

Fortunately, homeopathy hasn’t been without its detractors and skeptical voices here in the UK – with David Colquhoun, Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst, James Randi (of course) and a whole range of other science writers and bloggers confronting homeopathy with sanity. Still, it’s not the science writers who have had the most success in getting information to the public of late – while having real science to hand is essential in helping dispense with the pseudoscience, it’s perhaps been the contributions of comedians and satirists that have had most success in spreading real information to the man on the street. For every Edzard Ernst picking apart the latest meta-analysis, we need a Dara Ó Briain telling the world ‘It’s just fecking water’; for every Quackometer showing where regulation is failing to keep homeopathy in check, we need a Mitchell & Webb to show us how ludicrous homeopathic healthcare actually is; for every Tim Farley answering the question ‘What’s The Harm?‘, we need a Tim Minchin asking the question ‘if water can remember a long lost drop of onion juice, how come it forgets all the poo it’s had in it?’ (the best answer to this, by the way, came from a satirist who claimed it was due to succussion: ‘As you beat the memory into the water, you beat the shit out of it’).

In short, the fight to raise awareness of homeopathy is best fought when everyone can bring what they have to the table, whether they’re ‘experts’ or otherwise. And this, essentially, was the inspiration behind the 10:23 campaign.

At the Merseyside Skeptics Society, we took inspiration from the success of the Australian Skeptics campaigning against ear candles via the publishing of an open letter, stealing the idea outright to pen An Open Letter To Alliance Boots appealing to them to remove homeopathic remedies from their shelves. From there, the 10:23 campaign grew – a website was launched with the aim to have a resource where people can go for basic information on homeopathy in simple, accessible English.

The goals of the 10:23 campaign are equally simple and accessible – to help raise awareness of what homeopathy is (and what it very much isn’t); to give individual writers and bloggers a banner and brand name to use when doing their day-to-day homeopathy-debunking, helping make their work easier to find and promote (do a quick search for #ten23 on Twitter and you’ll see what I mean); and to promote critical thinking to a wider audience.

As the campaign’s progressed, two questions have come up time and time again, and it’s probably a good idea to answer them now: ‘What’s next for the 10:23 campaign?’ and ‘Why is it called the 10:23 campaign anyway?’ I’ll answer the latter first… Yes, it is partly to do with the Avogadro constant. There are those that may think using this as the name for the campaign is something of an exclusive, scientific in-joke that would put off the non-science-savvy – here, I must disagree. Instead I believe it gives an opportunity to talk about the levels of dilution involved in homeopathy, and what effect they have on the ingredients of the sugar pills. What’s more, there’s more to the name than simply Avogadro, which leads me to the second questions…

On January 30th, 2010, at exactly 10:23am, large groups of skeptics will gather in the town centres of around a dozen cities in the UK and consume a full bottle of homeopathic pills, in order to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of homeopathy. Similar events will be taking place in the US, Canada and Australia. While the scientific evidence is there for people to find, we’re hoping this very public demonstration will help give people the motivation to go look for it.

Contact your nearest Skeptics in the Pub group for information about how to get involved. Organisers of local skeptical groups can email contact@1023.org.uk for more information. See you on January 30th!

Keeping the faith in vitamin c

Recently Annalise brought home some vitamin c solvable tables from college. These were handled out with the intent to help protect the staff from colds.

Linus Pauling's made the claim in 1970 that taking large doses could both protect against colds and reduce their severity. The direct benefits of vitamin c supplements for this purpose have long since been discredited however the credibility of the Nobel Prize winning Linus Pauling has meant that this myth has largely persisted 40 years later.

Numerous controlled studies have shown that that those taking a placebo have feared no worse that those taking vitamin c supplements with regards the common cold. Despite the fact that there is so much evidence against vitamin c why does the false promise of efficacy still persist? There is large industry that makes a great deal of money out of vitamin c and it is in their interests to maintain the link between vitamin c supplements and healthy living.

I suspect that there is placebo effect at the college that may work to it's benefit. Those believing in the efficacy of the vitamin c and taking the tablets may be less likely to "give in" to cold symptoms and stay at home than those not taking the tablets, even though both groups suffer equally.

Even so, isn't it time we focuses on scientific methods of prevention like hand washing and general hygiene rather than advocating quack remedies like vitamin c.

Fire, Fire! Laptop computer catches fire

Stephen unplugged his laptop charger to bring it down stairs for Annalise to use. When he returned to his room 20 seconds later he heard a pop and a fizzing sound. When he opened the door smoke was coming from the computer sitting on the corner of his bed and this had filled the room.

When I got there 5 seconds later it was well on fire and the flames were about 30cm high as was the bedding. I grabbed it by the corner and carried it outside to the driveway. There it burnt until we poured a bowl of water over it. The bed also required water thrown over it and then a wet towel thrown over the mattress. The smoke was horrible. One of the battery cells had fallen out of computer and we scraped this into a bowl of water before taking this outside.






I called PC World's The Tech Guys to report the fire, We have two other laptops of the same make. This is a E Systems 4213 laptop. All three were bought 8 Dec 2007 making them exactly one month out of their 12 month warranty period. They refused to cover it, assess the safety of the other two computers or have anything to do with the incident.



Shame on you PC World. It is one thing for a device to stop working outside of its warranty period but quite another for it to self destruct by bursting into flame. We are very lucky that we were not asleep or out at the time. Oddly while our smoke detectors go off frequently due to burning toast or bacon they were never triggered by the battery smoke.

Reading

I returned to work on Monday and then was back off sick today and now also tomorrow. It is now officially a "virus" - wow medical science has progressed so far since blood letting and vapours. Where is the smart anti-virus with genetic material targeted specifically for this virus and my body ? Instead I get some symptomatic relief and the suggestion to "wait it out".

The silver lining is that I have undertaken to catch up on some the books given to me over Xmas. This list includes

• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  

I am only half way down the list so I am unlikely to complete it before returning to work.

Also while waiting for the Doctor I had half an hour to kill, Annalise had the car, so sat down and had my hair cut. It is short, very short. My head is now very light and very cold. I think I should have waited for the summer.

This evening Stephen and I watched Oceans Thirteen . I am not sure how this got onto our DVD rental list but it was rubbish. I don't make a habit of watching rubbish all the way through but I think I went a little catatonic on the sofa.

Theory of tiling and everything

While attempting to arrange the jigsaw constituted by the tiles on the bathroom floor I came to the realization that none of the truly great works of human endeavor have been tiled. Not the pyramids of Egypt, not Stonehenge, not the giant cathedrals of the middle ages.

There is a reason, it is almost an impossible task. Didn't tiles fall from the space shuttle - the modern equivalent of these historical feats. How arrogant NASA was to believe that they could succeed where everyone else has failed.

I have a theory, not yet provable but I'm sure it is just a matter to time before others find supporting evident that Qin Shi Huangdi actually commissioned a large area tiled in terracotta tiles but his subjects pleaded with him, "no anything but tiles, give us another task". And so they ended up building an entire army of Terracotta warriors, a much easier feat and something his enemies probably mocked him for afterwards

Also during the construction of Stonehenge the Druids originally asked for a paved area, made with Italian tiles - as even in these times the best tiles came from Italy, with good drainage where they could relax, read and catch up on the latest advances in herbal medicine. Again the impossibility of the task would have soon led to them giving up and instead dragging lumps of rock from hundreds of miles away.

I call this the theory of "Anything but not tiling". I believe this has been a great shaper of our history. Entire populations have fled when rulers have required them to tile and foolish kings and queens been overthrown over this issue.

It will likely be the tiling of the White house lawns that is the downfall of George Bush, not the fiasco of Iraq, his stupidity or his arrogance. Although who except the arrogant would commission such a thing in the first place.

I've been thinking a tiles a lot recently ...

Three dead squirrels

Cyclists tend to be pushed to the margins of the road. It seems that we share this thin, precarious sliver of road surface with squirrels who no longer scurry, gamble and play - largely, in fact entirely, because they are very dead.

Today I came across three such individuals, two while heading north and one while heading south. Time of deaths - sometime between Friday afternoon and this morning. I could be more precise but I'd have to enroll on a course in pathology and then perform multiple autopsies - so let's just leave it as sometime this weekend.

What is up ? Is there inter cine gang warfare amongst these squirrels ? Is it the blue tongue disease getting into the squirrel population ? Perhaps the foot and mouth from the Surrey area has jumped species ? Bird flu ? Or is it simply a case of panic pre-winter nut collection leading to reckless and careless behavior,

Inquiring minds want to know!

Further evidence for lack of testosterone

On Sunday Annalise and I visited the bridge where Winnie the Pooh played Pooh sticks.

This is the bridge

No I felt no desire to race, let along win, by dropping said Pooh sticks in slow moving current - how sad is that.

Looking for Testosterone

Strange things have been happening to me

1. The other day on riding home from work I decided to take "the scenic route", along the north down through some National Trust property. What is more - I lingered, taking in the view of Surrey country side enjoying the solitude and feeling the wind wiping up the hill-side. I noticed the birds, greeted the odd dog walker and otherwise behaved in a totally uncharacteristic manner. Typically my trips to and from work are competitive affairs, either improving on my own time, beating the bus or luring unsuspecting cars into a wedge opportunity in a narrow lane around an old church.
2. I have a heightened sense of smell. The other day I could smell the odorless moisturizer Annalise was wearing. This in addition the almost constant smell of "what might be coffee." (See my post regarding pending insanity)
3. I am sick and tired of the upstairs tiling - I honesty think I would sooner be part of a sewing circle.
4. If I shut my eyes during my shower each morning, after my cycle into work, I can believe that I am washing my hair in the Amazon rain-forest, in the purest of water surrounded by butterflies and orchids.
   

This all begs the questions:

1. Do I have an Estrogen/Testosterone imbalance ?
2. Am I turning into a collaborative woman and eschewing mindless competitiveness ?
3. Will I be wearing roses and perfume shortly ?
4. Should any of this worry me ?
5. If I am turning into a woman - will I be a lesbian ?
6. Who does one turn to for help and will they take "excuse me but I can now smell things and I don't compete with buses" seriously.
   

Fighting insanity

My olfactory hallucinations are back ...

They started about 7 years ago on a trip to San Francisco. I could smell this smell that can best be described as "almost but not quite like coffee". They returned on a handful of occasions since then and most recently returned two days ago and are still with me.

The smell is not unpleasant, or worrying, just weird.

I can't really explain it any better than "coffee" although it is more of a sensation of smelling coffee. When I smell real coffee it doesn't compare very well. I have done smell tests on my skin, my clothes, at home and at work, no one else smells it - am I going insane ? Perhaps the part of my brain responsible for smell is slowly decaying.

Oh well, there must be worse way to go than along with the smell of coffee.

Sleep always gets in the way

There is something wrong with me - each night between 1 and 2 am in the morning I get so tired that I am just literally falling asleep.

Now usually this wouldn't be to much of a problem but my last several nights have consisted of radio control (r/c) airplane construction until after midnight followed some time with Harry Potter. Everyone else in the family has now finished the book and moved on. I haven't seen a TV or surfed the net since the weekend.

With the kids and Annalise on holiday we were woken by the plumber this morning. He arrived to fix a leak caused by the loft alterations - we have a noticable wet patch on the kitchen ceiling.

The plane is now complete and ready for crashing. I tried a r/c flight simulator with it today - first flight 3 seconds working up to a good 30 seconds. Not very promising.

I can't focus at work - to tired, I am wearing a wider and wider range of clothes as the laundry backs up. Something has to give and I think it should be work. We are still planning our trip to the Lake district in a couple of weeks but have identified several climbs and will find a campsite close by.

My arm is in agony and despite now having completed the set of physio appointments it is worse than ever. Gotta nurse it better for the climbing.

All is well

Annalise is home - since lunch. All the tests have failed to find anything. As we have been watching the complete series of House M.D. the consensus opinion, at last between Stephen and me, is that it is either tape worm, they never explicitly checked for it, or her heart is a few sizes to small, this was the problem with the Grinch.

We are the owners of three copies of Harry Potter. One purchased at midnight and two more copies this morning. Stephen intends to complete one tonight - he is in the lounge with duvet and book. Annalise and Sophie are in bed together with the other two copies. Emily looses out because she has just got in from a movie and dinner out - nice that she can walk to these.

I am busy constructing a Radio Control Aeroplane that I bought this afternoon. After the noise and mayhem of last night it looks like the Cat-in-the-hat has cleaned up and it is like Christmas eve.

I am happy.

Worry and Fear

Annalise called me at work today - the doctor had referred her to the hospital for tests. I didn't have the car so she fetched me en route to the hospital. Turns out she is scheduled for a CT scan tonight and will be in hospital overnight - this in addition to the afternoon's chest X-rays and blood tests.

Tonight is also Sophie's birthday party and she has four loud, excitable friends over for a sleep-over - they are pretty much chocolated-out after a chocolate fondue. We didn't know all the phone numbers or we would have cancelled. Did I mention they are noisy and excitable. I am cowering in the kitchen.

I am thinking of trying to pick up a Harry Potter book at mid-night and smuggle it into the hospital to Annalise but this would mean leaving the monsters, sorry girls, by themselves. Perhaps I can convince them to all come with - that way we can get five books (one per customer).

Emily and Stephen are strangely united tonight - a combination of shared fear of the guests and their Mom being in hospital.

Croquet - the slippery slope to a wheel-chair

Until a month ago I had never ever lost a game of croquet. In fact I had never even played that game, except for one occasion several years ago when we accidental broke a hoop, by bashing it into hard ground, while on a rural retreat. We then had to secrete the equipment back into the shed so as to not incur the wrath of the surly games keeper.

I am not sure which of the following is the most disturbing:

1. That I am now routinely invited to play the game during lunch times
2. That I have on several occasions I have accepted said invitation
3. That when playing I have a strong desire not just to win but the thrash my opponents.
4. That I have now lost several games of croquet
5. That with my right arm crippled by a repetitive stress injury (mousing), I am now only invited for croquet games. No tennis, no lunch time swimming (as though I would drown), no lunch time run (do I run on my hands ?)
6. That this might be a slippery slope to joining the chess ladder or bridge club.

If only my arm would improve enough so I can push iron over in gym.

I have looked for, but not found, a version of Wii Croquet. It is probably much to dangerous - imagine what might have happened if these people had been playing croquet - Serious Wii Injury

Self mutilation

This is a follow up to My Computer is Crippling me and the recent Wii injury.

Today I had my first appointment with "my physio". I've never been able to say that before. "My dentist", "my solicitor", "my hair dresser", "my broker", "my gynae". Well one out of five is a start.

I have Repetitive Stress Injury, RSI in my right arm. A result of years of computer use and bad posture.

The cure apparently involves

• 90 degree angles between every body part and every other body part
• Frequent breaks, perhaps I should take up smoking.
• Raising my desk
• Raising my chair
• Moving one of my two LCD screens to the right
• Avoiding chicken wing arm movements while driving, sitting and riding the bike (pretty much any time I am NOT impersonating a chicken).
  
• Oh and if this wasn't enough I should mouse with the left hand and not the right.
• Notebook computers are bad
• Numeric key pads are bad (they make the keyboard wider)
  

Lastly it would be better if I could get a job without any repetitive movement - I'm thinking professional fighter - never hear them complaining about RSI. If you hear of any left hand only fights, nothing very violent or involving chickens, please put in a word for me.

I have a follow up appoinntment next week - I do so want to impress ....

A Wii Injury

I woke up on Friday morning with a back injury. The only explanation is a Wii injury from hitting home runs on the baseball game the night before. Surely they should provide a Wii warm up routine before letting one play.

I'm on some potent pain killers - at least strong enough to allow me to play Wii tennis without wincing. Guess I'll leave the baseball alone for a while.

My computer is crippling me

So how is it that I can pull myself up using my right arm without pain but an hour of mouse movement, while using the computer, or of picking up a kettle causes me intense pain. The pain is in my forearm.

The last few days at work work have been hell. I have one of those mouse pads with a wrist bump that I think contains a used and discarded silicon breast implant. (No I am not in a position to perform a real comparison). Using this is worse - at least it is more painful to use.

Perhaps I'll have to move into a career less demanding on my body. Damn, got to reach for the mouse to click publish for this post