WARNING: REEDING BAD FUR IQ

I am learning about my complementary and alternative government.

Conventional medicine is medicine as practiced by holders of M.D. (medical doctor) or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) degrees and by their allied health professionals, such as physical therapists, psychologists, and registered nurses.

And there you have it: Conventional medicine is what doctors do. Doctors are practitioners of conventional medicine.

CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine.

Thus we see that CAM and conventional medicine are different. You can tell because they are in different piles.

The list of what is considered to be CAM changes continually, as those therapies that are proven to be safe and effective become adopted into conventional health care and as new approaches to health care emerge... [my bold]

Integrative medicine combines treatments from conventional medicine and CAM for which there is some high-quality evidence of safety and effectiveness.

Wait. You just said that CAM therapies proven safe and effective become part of conventional medicine. Now you're defining a hybrid category that mixes conventional medicine and CAM, but only the CAM bits shown to be safe and effective.

WAI MAI HEAD HURTZ?!!!?!

There are four types of CAM practices:

1. Mind-Body Medicine (meditation, prayer, mental healing)
2. Biologically Based Practices (herbs, foods, vitamins)
3. Manipulative and Body-Based Practices (chiropractic, massage)
4. Energy Medicine (biofield therapies, bioelectromagnetic-based therapies)

That last one may need some 'splainin':

Biofield therapies are intended to affect energy fields that purportedly surround and penetrate the human body. The existence of such fields has not yet been scientifically proven.

Hope that's clear: biofielders manipulate something that is not there, apparently.

NCCAM's mission is to explore complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science, train CAM researchers, and disseminate authoritative information to the public and professionals.

AARRGGHH!!!

INVIZIBUL ENERGY FEELDZ???!!!

DAT NO EXIST???

SCIENCE NO CAN HAZ!!!11!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shade Grown Coffee

From the Smithsonian:

"Shade-grown" refers to the way coffee has been traditionally farmed. For generations, coffee shrubs have been planted in the shade of tall trees, making these traditional coffee plantations excellent homes for birds and other forest-dwelling wildlife.

Over the past 30 years, more than half of the traditional shade-grown coffee farms in Latin America have been converted to "sun-coffee" farms to increase production. This newer method entails clearing or thinning the shade trees and growing coffee plants under full or nearly full sun conditions. These changes also demand the use of agrochemicals like synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides to counter the effects of eliminating the shaded agroforestry system. "

The Smithsonian site has some interactive pages that crash Internet Explorer on my puter. Chrome works fine.

Google around and find out where you can buy bird-friendly coffee in your area. The songbirds will thank you.

Integrative Reporting to Keep News Interesting

Statement by Senator Tom Harkin.

"Gentlemen:

"I welcome you to this gathering of the Committee for Serious Business. As you are aware, President Obama has challenged us to draft a bill that might transform the world of journalism. This we shall do, and before the year's close.

"I must thank our committee chair, Senator Kennedy, for allowing me a turn in the comfy seat. Of course we all look forward to his speedy return to the Senate, thanks to our capacity for near-delusional wishful belief.

"I am pleased to co-chair this morning’s hearing with Senator Mikulski. And I am eager to hear our distinguished witnesses’ ideas on using integrative reporting to improve news quality and to reduce journalism costs.

"It is fashionable these days to quote stuff from famous people. And so I remind you now of the seminal words of Big Brother as recorded in 1984:

'The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. To save our country we must disenthrall ourselves, think anew and speak anew, in doublethink and newspeak thusly:

Ignorance is strength.
Unproven is proven.
Fiction is fact.'

"Clearly, the time has come to 'think anew' and to 'disenthrall ourselves' from the dogmas and biases of our present system of journalism. For too long, reporters have suffered under the limitations imposed by mainstream standards of objective investigation. Discrimination against alternative methods of reporting can be seen in the way conventional rules of evidence seem to always favor 'facts' above other parts of a story, such as hearsay, conjecture, rumor, or those little amusing embellishments that can make a dull piece really pop!

"It is time to end the discrimination against alternative reporting.

"It is time for America’s news agencies to emphasize coordination between the dissemination of information and top-notch creative writing.

"And it is time to adopt an integrative approach that takes advantage of the very best reporting, whether of the conventional form with its tedious emphasis on 'reality' or the newer, more inventive style that often feels truer in the reader's heart.

"This is about giving people the pragmatic alternatives they want while ending discrimination against unconventional reporters. It is about improving the output of our news agencies, which, frankly, can be way too boring. And, yes, it is about reducing the cost of journalism. Generally speaking, alternative, fictional accounts of current events are less expensive and less intrusive - and we need to take advantage of that.

"The United States currently spends more than any other nation on news reporting, yet we know less about current affairs than most other developed nations and even some developing countries. We need a paradigm shift that places a much greater emphasis on building an audience rather than merely providing facts to people who'd like to know things. Integrative journalism can help us achieve this goal.

"This has been a priority of mine going back many years. In 1992, at my urging, Congress passed legislation creating the Office of Made-up News. In 1998, I sponsored legislation to elevate that Office to what, today, is the less silly-sounding National Center for Complementary and Alternative Journalism. That Center is sponsoring extraordinarily important reporting. And by 'important' I mean very nearly plausible.

"Since 1992 the field has evolved and matured. Today, we are not just talking about alternative practices but also the integration between conventional and alternative reporting in order to achieve truly integrative journalism. We need old-school journalists and newer, more creative writers talking with each other, collaborating to tell the whole story, including the juicy, made-up parts the public loves to hear. And this is the model we intend to build into our Journalism Reform Bill.

"On several occasions, I have laid down a public marker, saying that if we pass a bill that greatly extends news coverage but does nothing to create eye-popping drama, then we will have failed the American people, many of whom recently dropped a small fortune on Hi-Def TVs.

"Well, this morning, I want to lay down a second marker: If we fail to seize this unique opportunity to adopt a kick-ass, surround-sound enhanced, Blu-ray enabled, drama-llama approach to American journalism, then FAIL CONGRESS HAZ FAIL!!!1!

"...and America... *sigh*... has a sad."

Autism Quackery

Through the Looking Glass: My Involvement with Autism Quackery, James R. Laidler, MD.

Bumped into this nice article I may print for a couple of parents. Excerpt:

The final step in my awakening came during a Disneyland vacation. My younger son was still on a gluten- and casein-free diet, which we both swore had been a significant factor in his improvement. We had lugged at least 40 pounds of special food on the plane with us. In an unwatched moment, he snatched a waffle and ate it. We watched with horror and awaited the dramatic deterioration of his condition that the “experts” told us would inevitably occur. The results were astounding—absolutely nothing happened. I began to suspect that I had been very foolish.

In the following months, we stopped every treatment except speech and occupational therapy for both boys. They did not deteriorate and, in fact, continued to improve at the same rate as before—or faster. Our bank balance improved, and the circles under our eyes started to fade. And quite frankly, I began to get mad at myself for being so gullible and for misleading other parents of autistic children.

Looking back on my experiences with "alternate" autism therapies, they seem almost unreal, like Alice's adventures in Wonderland. Utter nonsense treated like scientific data, people nodding in sage agreement with blatant contradictions, and theories made out of thin air and unrelated facts—and all of it happening happening right here and now, not in some book. Real people are being deceived and hurt, and there won't be a happy ending unless enough of us get together and write one.

My personal journey through the looking glass has ended. I stepped into “alternative” medicine up to my neck and waded out again, poorer but wiser. I now realize that the thing the “alternative” practitioners are really selling is hope—usually false hope—and hope is a very seductive thing to those who have lost it. It is really not surprising that people will buy it even when their better judgment tells them not to do so.

Pertussis

2001:

2005:

Here's the sound of whooping cough.

More info at www.pertussis.com

We need to immunize against pertussis until the disease is eradicated, then we can stop.

Hyperwhatifitis? Polymaybeosis?

The Last Psychiatrist notes, MMR Vaccine Finally Cleared Of Assault:

Listen carefully, medicos. It's the sound of your approaching irrelevance...

He has a point. If physicians can't collectively and effectively assert, "this is science; that's quackery," then some other social authority --perhaps less informed-- will be called in to do that.

There are doctors who write books, join research networks, hold board certifications, who say:

- What if there's some link between autism and an inflammatory bowel condition?
- What if that bowel problem allows toxins to leak into the blood stream?
- What if there's a subset of autistics who can't excrete mercury or other heavy metals/toxins?
- What if those toxins or the body's reaction to the toxins cause brain damage?
- What if the damage results in autism symptoms specifically?
- What if the mercury build-up plus MMR vaccine plus leaky gut causes a chronic, vaccine-type measles infection of the brain and/or gut?
- What if chelation gets rid of the toxins?
- What if the body can fight off the virus once the toxins are gone?
- What if BigPharma is suppressing evidence in support of these what-ifs?

--except they leave off the "what if" bit.

So what to do with colleagues who elevate supposition and personal experience to the level of established fact?

Perhaps it's a kind of mental disorder, this "polymaybeosis" or "hyperwhatifitis." A strict diet limiting what-ifs to no more than ONE per topic under discussion might help.

Revolutionary New Insoles Combine Five Forms Of Pseudoscience

Excerpt from an Onion golden oldie.

According to scientific-sounding literature trumpeting the new insoles, the Contour Points™ also take advantage of the semi-plausible medical technique known as reflexology. Practiced in the Occident for over 11 years, reflexology, the literature explains, establishes a correspondence between every point on the human foot and another part of the body, enabling your soles to heal your entire body as you walk.

But while other insoles have used magnets and reflexology as keys to their appearance of usefulness, MagnaSoles go several steps further. According to the product's website, "Only MagnaSoles utilize the healing power of crystals to re-stimulate dead foot cells with vibrational biofeedback... a process similar to that by which medicine makes people better."

In addition, MagnaSoles employ a brand-new, cutting-edge form of pseudoscience known as Terranometry, developed specially for Integrated Products by some of the nation's top pseudoscientists.

"The principles of Terranometry state that the Earth resonates on a very precise frequency, which it imparts to the surfaces it touches," said Dr. Wayne Frankel, the California State University biotrician who discovered Terranometry. "If the frequency of one's foot is out of alignment with the Earth, the entire body will suffer. Special resonator nodules implanted at key spots in MagnaSoles convert the wearer's own energy to match the Earth's natural vibrational rate of 32.805 kilofrankels. The resultant harmonic energy field rearranges the foot's naturally occurring atoms, converting the pain-nuclei into pleasing comfortrons."

There's probably no cake

F***ing Brits!

From The Times.

Allegations that a senior British diplomat launched into an anti-Semitic rant in a London gym while watching TV footage from Gaza will not upset the "treadmill of diplomacy", the Israeli Ambassador to London said today.

In a curiously tongue-in-cheek response to a case that has provoked concern within the Jewish community in Britain, Ron Prosor added that the tirade did not reflect "the health and fitness of our relations".

The diplomat, 47-year-old Rowan Laxton, allegedly shouted "f***ing Israelis, f***ing Jews" while watching television reports of the Israeli attack on Gaza last month.

He is also alleged to have said that Israeli soldiers should be "wiped off the face of the Earth" during the rant at the London Business School gym near Regents Park on January 27. The tirade reportedly continued even after other gym users asked him to stop.

Response from Language Log.

It takes a while for the US/UK constitutional and cultural difference to sink in, even for me. I moved back from the USA to the UK 18 months ago, and intellectually I was well aware of the facts. It still surprised me, after a couple of decades of watching unbelievably repellent public speech being protected by American, to see someone under arrest for mere speech, and on an emotional military/political issue.

The thing is that Britain has absolutely no analog of the American guarantee of freedom of speech in its legal system. There is no Bill of Rights saying that one can speak one's opinions freely, even in political matters. The government can directly control what appears in the newspapers if it wants to, and has often done so. The courts can also, quite separately, block news reports of various sorts and do so all the time ("who for legal reasons cannot be named", say the newspapers when mentioning someone who a judge doesn't want identified in news reports). And speech about other racial, ethnic, or religious groups can have serious consequences here. Iit's not all just golliwogs and white wine. You shout out your opinions of the "fucking Jews" here, and you can face years in prison.

Mr. Laxton sounds like a hot-headed jerk --not the sort one usually wants assigned to a diplomatic post. I'd expect him to be fired. I'd expect derisive articles in the papers. But I wouldn't expect him to be arrested and threatened with seven years in prison! What's wrong with you people?

How will you stand up to the Islamists without free speech?

What a difference 20 IQ points make

I'm watching President Obama's first press conference. He's thinking as he's talking. The last guy didn't really do that. Instead he'd pull out rehearsed arguments and talking points. Consequently, he came across as rather one-sided and smug.

LOL. Helen Thomas just asked, "Do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?" Looks like Obama's not gonna bite. He's making some general comments about non-proliferation.

Subordinate ideology to the need for civility and rational argument? Yeah, I can do that.