chiropractic
sciencepunk | June 9, 2009
Le Canard Noir reports on a dramatic turn in the ongoing ruckus between chiropractors and supporters of Simon Singh: the McTimoney Association, an organisation of chiropractors, has ordered its members to remove their websites with immediate effect.
Date: 8 June 2009 09:12:18 BDTSubject: FURTHER URGENT ACTION REQUIRED!Dear MemberIf you are reading this, we assume you have also read the urgent email we sent you last Friday. If you did not read it, READ IT VERY CAREFULLY NOW and - this is most important - ACT ON IT. This is not scaremongering. We judge this to be a real threat to you and…
sciencepunk | June 4, 2009
Simon Singh has announced that he intends to appeal Judge Eady's ruling:
The article was about an issue of public interest, namely childhood health and the effectiveness of particular treatments for some serious conditions. Hence, I was not prepared to apologise for an article that I still believed was important for parents to read, and which I believed was accurate and legally defensible.The final reason for fighting on was that I knew that I was able to devote the time, money and energy required for a long legal battle. Most journalists would have been forced to back down and settle under…
sciencepunk | May 31, 2009Nick Cohen has a great article in the Observer discussing the British Chiropractic Association's legal action against science writer and producer Simon Singh:
Reputable medical authorities could test the evidence and decide whether the treatments work or not. Instead of arguing before the court of informed opinion, however, the BCA went to the libel courts and secured a ruling from Mr Justice Eady that made Singh's desire to test chiropractors' claims next to impossible. Because Singh used the word "bogus", the judge said he had to prove that chiropractors knew they were worthless but "…
sciencepunk | May 13, 2009
David Green says:
I understand that Simon Singh will announce whether he will appeal on Monday 18 May 2009 at a public support meeting to take place in London at 6.30pm.The venue will be the Penderels Oak, the usual meeting place of London Skeptics in the Pub. As well as Simon Singh, the leading UK journalist Nick Cohen will be speaking. Other speakers are currently being confirmed. For more, see Jack of Kent's blog.I also have an article in this week's New Scientist, see here.Many thanks for your support!
Sadly I'll be in London a day too late to attend, but if you're in the area you should…
oracknows | May 9, 2009...because they blog under the shadow of the United Kingdom's insane libel laws.
Witness this travesty of a ruling on the libel case against Simon Singh by the British Chiropractic Association, as related by Jack of Kent.
I first learned about the UK's exceedingly plaintiff-friendly libel laws when, shortly after I became interested in Holocaust denial, I followed the libel case against Holocaust historian Professor Deborah Lipstadt brought by Holocaust denier David Irving for, well, quite properly calling him a Holocaust denier in one of her books. What makes British libel laws so plaintiff-…
sciencepunk | May 6, 2009
If you're free in the capital today, head to the Royal Courts of Justice for the preliminary hearing of the British Chiropractic Association's libel case against science writer, journalist and broadcaster Simon Singh. The hearing will clear up some legal grey areas and decide what the judge requires as a valid defence for the full trial in autumn.
The case stems from comments made by Simon in his book Trick or Treatment, and an article published in Guardian entitled "Beware the spinal trap" (mirror). The BCA seem to consider it defamatory to tell people there is no evidence that the…
palmd | April 29, 2009Here at ScienceBlogs we have a (very) informal agreement to try to avoid profanity-laden titles. Personally, they don't bother me at all, but I can see the point---there are lots of folks who probably don't want their feed reader to pop up with what I'm about to say.
What the FUCK hath swine flu wrought????
I warned you that swine flu would bring out the charlatans. In the course of hours to days, a virtual zombie army of immoral, idiotic, evil fucking quacks has risen to fan your fears and take you cash.
It's really hard to overstate this, but the people who engage in this fact- and…
tsmith | April 28, 2009I was introduced to snake oil salesmen at a young age. My mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was in kindergarten, and while she has mostly followed the advice of her neurologists, she's also looked into "alternate" therapies, ranging from the relatively harmless (massages, oils, etc.) to more invasive methods (chelation, all sorts of expensive but worthless supplements). Some of these I've been able to talk her out of (and I personally think her current doctor--NOT a neurologist--is a total quack), but others she's taken because, hey, "what's the harm?" It's frustrating to…
palmd | April 13, 2009One of the common themes in biology and medicine is the feeling that somehow there must be more. Creationist cults simply know that life must be more than matter, and mind-body dualists (which includes most alternative medicine advocates) are certain that humans are more than an "ugly bag of mostly water" (sorry for the geek reference). If you can stick with me here, I'll explain to you a bit of the history surrounding this fallacy.
Most of us intuitively feel that we are both a body and a person. In every day life, it makes a certain operational sense to think of our "mind" as being…