Posts

May 18, 2013

+

6:06 PM | ‘Is ‘cloning’ mad, bad and dangerous?’ – an argument revisited

Seven years ago, to mark the then tenth anniversary of the announcement of the birth of the folkloric Dolly the sheep, and in the still reverberating wake of the South Korean cloning scandal, I practiced my fledgling/intermittent/debatable/wanton science communication skills with the penning of an article on the issue of ‘cloning.’ It being an anniversary with a ’0′ on the end, combined with topical relevance, suggested I might be lucky enough to get it published. And I was thus very... […]

Tachibana, M., Amato, P., Sparman, M., Gutierrez, N., Tippner-Hedges, R., Ma, H., Kang, E., Fulati, A., Lee, H., Sritanaudomchai, H. & Masterson, K. (2013). Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.006

Citation

May 14, 2013

+

4:25 PM | Grammar and gender

This is the letter that landed 100 academics the inaugural Idler Academy Bad Grammar award. Well, we might pedantically recoil at a missing comma and a misplaced apostrophe in the very first sentence of the clunky first paragraph; and frown quizzically at the unlikelihood of 100 failed cursory proof-readings of an early draft (which suggests to me that most of the signatories did not see the final version). Feel free to pick me up on any grammatical slips here. But... Read more

May 07, 2013

+

8:20 PM | No such thing as ‘Allopathy’

Over at FreethoughtBlogs, an uncharacteristic petit faux pas in the prolifically excellent ‘A Million Gods‘ motivates me into publicly scratching an irritation. The first time I think I heard/read the term ‘allopathy’ was in the context of something discussing homeopathy. And it seemed quite reasonable to me at the time: homeopathy = ‘like cures like’; ‘allopathy’ = err, something other cures it; or it cures something other. Until I got wise on who coined this term, and why? One […]

April 24, 2013

+

7:29 PM | Another comment on BMC Cancer, WDDTY and homeopathy

Well, I don’t know what bugs are at play in the BMC Cancer system. Almost three weeks since submitting the latest re-worked version of my comment (which I append below so it may be read by somebody), not only has it not appeared under the paper in question, but the continued lack of response (excepting one message informing me that – again – my query has been forwarded to the Editorial team) to my interim e-mails to the relevant provided... Read more

April 23, 2013

+

11:21 AM | Libel reform – Lords Amendment 2 reinstated…?

Ping Pong today sees the Defamation Bill back with the Lords, who will hopefully extract the fascistic spanner hurled into its works last week. Scroll down here to Motion B Lords Amendment No. 2 to see the moves to (re-)insert reparative clauses/wording. But that wording… still includes ‘… or is/are likely to cause…’. Which I still find somewhat specious.

April 16, 2013

+

6:43 PM | Libel reform – Lords Amendment 2 rejected

MPs have just voted to reject Lords Amendment 2, which would have required corporate bodies to obtain court permission to bring libel cases against individuals (ie, that requiring that they first demonstrate proof of (likelihood of) financial loss; the only measure that would have prevented Simon Singh being sued by the British Chiropractic Association). The interests of corporations have today overridden individual freedom of speech.

April 05, 2013

+

3:08 PM | BMC Cancer, WDDTY and homeopathy: ‘new’ comment

It took (me) a month to get a comment posted on a paper on BMC Cancer’s site. My abbreviated version (which appeared five days after re-submitting it) has now sat there for three weeks alongside Kausik’s, both seemingly being roundly ignored. As is my query concerning the full text of my original blog post. What to do? Does it matter? Well, actually, as a QuackRag deems that the paper in question constitutes subject(ive) matter for (re-)citation, then yes, I think... Read more

March 18, 2013

+

2:36 PM | Libel reform – latest…

Please see here for update from The Libel Reform Campaign.

March 09, 2013

+

1:21 PM | Libel reform – Don’t kill the Bill!

http://www.libelreform.org/dontkillthebill?

March 08, 2013

+

2:27 PM | Libel reform – this concerns YOU!

Dear [MP], Thank you for your letter of 5 March 2013. As time is of the essence, I will respond by e-mail. I also here acknowledge your letter of 11 February 2013 in response to my query as to your reasoning for your vote following the recent same-sex marriage debate. In the latter (to which I will be replying separately), you confusingly apologised for potentially offending me. I can assure you I was not offended in the slightest. What I... Read more

March 04, 2013

+

9:32 PM | Libel reform – urgent!

For those not on the Libel Reform Campaign e-mail listing, I reproduce here the text of an e-mail I've just received from the campaign organisers. Your help is needed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Friends We need your urgent help this week to get the libel reform bill back to the House of Commons. There is the real risk that unless we act it will be dropped. We have all worked hard to win the case for reform – to show the chilling... Read more

February 28, 2013

+

7:50 PM | Comment on protracted moderation of a comment: BMC Cancer, ‘WDDTY’ and homeopathy

Concomitant with airing my recent take on QuackRag WDDTY's clumsy referencing, I proceeded (after previous attempt to contact the corresponding author via the e-mail address provided for the purpose proved fruitless) to post the following as a Reader comment on the cited paper at BMC Cancer: 'Without homeopathic remedies, is care 'homeopathic'? I came across this reference in an article entitled 'Homeopathy is more than placebo' in the latest issue of the magazine 'What Doctor's Don't Tell […]

February 25, 2013

+

4:51 PM | Libel Reform: Defamation Bill – Third reading: House of Lords… again

Dear [MP], Thank you for your e-mail of 20 February 2013, as provided by your Caseworker, XXX, in response to mine of 12 February. May I commence by stating that this response is disappointing? With the exception of the brief final paragraph, it is copy-pasted entirely from the text of a letter from Lord McNally of 18 July 2012, forwarded to me by yourself, following my previous communications (e-mails: 11 and 18 June 2012) to you on the Libel Reform... Read more

February 21, 2013

+

3:41 PM | ‘What Doctors Don’t Tell You’ cites paper that demonstrates there is no such thing as homeopathy

Back in that supermarket a few days ago, I again found myself driven to taking a thumb through the latest edition of QuackRag What Doctor’s Don’t Tell You, whose unscrupulously permissive advertising policy is being systematically exposed by The Nightingale Collaboration. Though I didn’t buy the rancid rubbish, I alighted on a small piece entitled ‘Homeopathy is more than placebo’, from which I noted the reference cited as voucher for that statement. From BMC Cancer, no less. I’ll […]

Rostock, M., Naumann, J., Guethlin, C., Guenther, L., Bartsch, H. & Walach, H. (2011). Classical homeopathy in the treatment of cancer patients - a prospective observational study of two independent cohorts, BMC Cancer, 11 (1) 19. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-11-19

Citation

February 08, 2013

+

11:58 AM | Junking ‘Junk Science?’

I've become aware of David Colquhoun's apology, posted on his DC's Improbable Science, to Chris Woollams, founder of CANCERactive. I am not up to speed with the detailed history of their dispute, a legal matter between them on which I am unable to comment. What I consider appropriate, however, is comment on some of the reaction to this: for example, the gloating, self-righteous opining at Junk Science?, whose editor, Sam Wilson '… openly detests the misleading or downright incorrect […]

January 24, 2013

+

12:06 PM | Haled comment

Traipsing to a(nother branch of that) supermarket just before Christmas, I passed an independent bookshop in the throes of its closing down sale, as is the way of this world. Re-approaching later from the opposite direction, laden with some unnecessary extra victuals, I decided to enter and see if an interesting bargain might be had. I managed to check any temptation to more spending until, taking another scan along on the 'Health' shelves, I put my bags down and took... Read more