The Singh thing: law being an ass

Disclaimery bobbins: I kno o about law. This post is my opinion based on a bit of cursory reading and if you want 100% reliable truefacts the legal bloggers are a much better place to look.

The blogs are all over this story, but it's not in the papers yet. Physicist Simon Singh followed up his successful pop-sci book Fermat's Last Theorem with a new one called Trick or Treatment? on alternative medicine. In it, he called out* the British Chiropractic Association for promoting bogus treatments. The BCA, as is usual for a pore ole downtrodden group of penniless but well-meaning practitioners who just want a chance to debate the evidence, sent in the legal team.

The libel court's preliminary ruling, which lawblogger Jack of Kent describes as astonishing, was that to defend himself, Singh will have to prove that the BCA are deliberately and knowingly lying to patients. This is going to be almost impossible, because they are probably not doing so, which is why Singh never said they were in the first place. He was saying the treatments don't work, which they don't, and that the BCA promotes them, which it does.

I wish Simon all the best with the case and will for deffo buy his book now.

*In the present-day American meaning of "publicly challenged them", not the Regency "slapped them in the face with a glove, dashed a glass of Burgundy over their small-clothes and demanded single combat." Although that would be much cooler.

I fear change

but I signed up for one of them there twitter accounts anyway. I used my real name, so if you know it, you can find out what I had for lunch without all that tedious mucking about with blogs. Interweb friends who don't know my real name are welcome to email me and ask!

Also, sorry I didn't join in Blog Against Disablism Day like I said I would. Blogger wouldn't let me post because some lagging mongrel of a 'bot thought it was spam. It's true: my blog ate my homework.

Good.

Commons defeats are nearly always good news.
Gurkha soldiers, who have for many years done the UK's most dangerous dirty work for a pittance, have now earned the right to come and live here if they so wish. Immigration minister Phil Woolas is wailing that up to 100,000 Nepalese will immediately swarm over to enjoy our renowned cuisine, fine weather and welcoming disposition, but as Monty Python so elegantly put it, this statement is quite meaningless as the phrase 'up to' clearly includes the number 'nought'.

I suppose I should grudgingly thank my otherwise fuckwitted MP for supporting the Gurkhas. It's also nice to see the Lib Dems getting off their arses for once, although it'll take a few more examples before I forgive them for being such a pathetic bunch of milquetoasts over the Iraq war.

I bin to London Zoo again

However, this here potto is from Quebec zoo.


Nocturnal House Triolet
If I only had a potto!
They're my favourite sort of lorid.
I would keep it in a grotto,
if I only had a potto,
and I'd feed it on risotto -
all those grubs and gum sound horrid.
If I only had a potto!
They're my favourite sort of lorid.

Addendum
A potoroo
Could live there too,
Inside the potto grotto zoo.

HOOOOOOO!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

How many did you get right?

Tuesday Evo-Psych Bollocks from the Institute of Pissing About

I think I'll make this a regular feature. Everyone else does.


When cave-ladies ground up roots and seeds to make pies for their cave-husbands, a white colour indicated the food was free of toxic contaminants. Cave-ladies accordingly evolved to value white above all other colours, which is why women today all long for a white wedding dress!
However, cave-ladies also needed to be able to tell when their cave-pie was cooked to a delicious golden brown. Women's visual systems therefore make a far more acute distinction between white and brown than those of men, who in our evolutionary past only saw the pies in their cooked state. For this reason, men can't see dirt and should never do laundry.

Thanks to Pandagon and Physioprof for inspiration.

MMM PIE #2

Behold our Sunday lunch! Cromagnon did the steak and mushroom filling, and I made flaky pastry using the recipe from Huge Furry-Witteringfool's MEAT cookbook. The result was even more yumscrumpshytastic than Pie #1 (a hot water crust pork pie), and all the rolling and folding of the pastry was jolly good fun in a playing-with-plasticene sort of a way.

It makes me want to rap about the pie.

Happy Darwin Day, every one

I was going to write a bah-humbug post about how this Darwin Day stuff is getting on my wick a bit, and we should be cheering for all the thousands of people who've given us 150 years of cool science, rather than just one Founding Father. But today's Araucaria crossword got me in the spirit. I'll be making a traditional roast tortoise tonight, and following the old Darwinmas custom of hitting wildlife with a stick.

Edit: I just invented the Origin of Species drinking game. Each player has to read out a whole sentence from the book without stopping for breath. If they can't do it, they take a swig and try the next sentence instead. If they can, the book passes to the next player. It'll go like this:

Player 1: "Finally, then, I conclude that the greater variability of specific characters, or those which distinguish species from species, than of generic characters, or those which are possessed by all the species; that the frequent extreme variability of any part which is developed in a species in an extraordinary manner in comparison with the same part in its congeners; and the slight degree of variability in a part, however extraordinarily it may be developed, if it be common to a whole group of species; that the great variability of secondary sexual characters and their great difference in closely allied species; that secondary sexual and ordinary specific differences are generally displayed in the same parts of the organisation, are all..."
(Drink)
"All being mainly due to the species of the same group being the descendants of a common progenitor, from whom they have inherited much in common, to parts which have recently and largely varied being more likely still to go on varying than parts which have long been inherited and have not varied, to natural selection having more or less completely, according to the lapse of time, overmastered the tendency to reversion and to further variability, to sexual selection being less rigid than ordinary selection, and to variations in the same parts having been accumulated by natural and sexual selection, and thus having been adapted for secondary sexual, and.."
(Drink)

Let me know if you try it and survive.

Today's irresponsible tripe courtesy of Jeni Barnett

Global Radio and LBC, who employ actress Jeni Barnett, are threatening to sue Dr Ben Goldacre after he posted an excerpt from her radio show and pointed out what a dangerous spew of woo-crazed drivel it was. Ben's taken the mp3 down because he wants to keep his house, but some other naughty internet people have put it back up again elsewhere. Here's a transcript of part of it (minutes 20-22):

Jeni Barnett: So what would you say – I mean, it’s not my job to say to people don’t do it, it’s not my job to do any of that, but you’re allowed to have your say. What would you say to people – as a mum of eight little lives that you are deeply responsible for – what would you say to people who are in two minds about it?
Caller: Er… I would never recommend having children vaccinated, and people think I’m very strange, but all my younger children that haven’t been vaccinated have been very very healthy. The youngest had measles about three months ago and he was fine, he wasn’t very well for about a week, ten days, and then he was fine and none of my others picked it up. So I think they must have a certain amount of natural immunity and I’m far, far happier for them to have developed that natural immunity than to be constantly being filled with artificial substances.
Jeni Barnett: Well thank you so much, my darling. That’s Amanda in Hayward’s Heath. “Just was listening to your show. If people actually took the time to look at what’s in vaccines, they would think twice about giving them to their children. As well as not being 100% effective, they also have cancer-causing agents. Also, a child’s immune system takes approximately 2 to 3 months to fully get up and running from birth. Also, if we look at the countries who have the highest populated vaccinated, you will notice that they have the most allergies. I’m not totally against immunisations, but we should be giving children at least a year to develop their own immune system to deal with the onslaught.” I didn’t say that. I wish you’d given me your name.

Three things that really grind my gears about this are:
1. Babies are not epidemiology qualifications. (Tara, who has both, would no doubt agree.)
2. Blah blah all we want is a chance to debate the evidence blah blah big pharma has all the money blah blah take down that criticism or our team of highly-paid lawyers will kick your arse.
3.

I'm A Celebrity, Get Me A Job With The Tory Party

TV presenter Carol Vorderman has been appointed the Conservatives' "Maths Tsar" by David Cameron. No, really. She'll be touring schools and then delivering a report with suggestions for new education policies. Perhaps one day, thanks to her expert* guidance, British schoolchildren will be sufficiently numerate to work out that MMR is safe, "detox" is bollocks, and taking out a high-interest loan secured on your home is a very bad idea.

*Third class degree in engineering and knows her times tables.