Havering Homeopaths

Humankind’s worst natural enemy is the Anopheles mosquito; it carries the deadliest strain of malaria that kills more than 2 million humans a year. An increasing number of these deaths are occurring in people from Europe and the USA who visit Africa on trekking style holidays that take them through mosquito infested zones.

The general nonsensical trend towards so-called “alternative” medicines is making the problem worse. It seems that some backpacking woo-woo’s are ignoring medical advice by taking useless homeopathic placebos instead of real anti-malarial drugs.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine sent an investigator to visit several homeopaths to ask advice about malarial protection; in every case some form of homeopathic quackery was recommended; only one practitioner said that a doctor’s advice should also be sought. Despite the recent statements made in professional medical publications indicating the ineffectiveness of homeopathy, many people still cling to fallacies. They don’t appear to understand that malaria is not like catching a minor self-limiting ailment that they think was cured by homeopathy but that in fact had simply left of its own accord. Sadly, maybe that’s what it will take, a number of malarial deaths in the homeopathic woo-woo population to ram the point home.

HOMEOPATHY IS NONSENSE AND SHOWS NO EFFECT OVER PLACEBO, YOU MAY AS WELL SIP SOME WATER, WHICH IS OF COURSE, EXACTLY THE SAME THING!

The homeopaths themselves are the real danger in all this; perhaps a naïve few of these charlatans actually believe their own nonsense, but I suspect many of them know they’re peddling crap and don’t care if easily-duped people die in their care.

I herewith challenge any homeopath or woo-woo to provide me with evidence of a case where a homeopathic medicine was proven to work. Evidence mind you; don’t give me comments that are simply stories or tales of self-delusion, I won’t even bother verbally destroying such pathetic garbage.

P.S. If you’re not sure about being a woo-woo, you probably are!

Irene 01

This is for Irene, she knows the reason why.

Genome DVD

A few years back it was fashionable – perhaps it still is – among wealthy moribund egomaniacs, to make provision for their bodies to be stored cryogenically, in hope of a future time where science had advanced to the point that they could be thawed out and reanimated.

I wonder how long it will be before these expensive freezing facilities go out of business. Pretty quickly I think, and they’ll be replaced by much cheaper smaller establishments requiring almost no maintenance. They will still charge huge fees of course, spinning some bullshit about having to use gold or platinum DVD cases or something equally nonsensical. Now that I think of, it a DVD would be capable of storing a large family, an ordinary CD would be adequate for an individual.

I refer of course to data. It’s now possible to sequence a person’s DNA and store their entire genome as computer data. Sometime in the future it’s virtually certain that a machine capable of synthesizing DNA from data, will be built, this means today’s breed of egomaniac will pay to have their genome stored instead of all that messy flesh, blood, bones and guts. When the time comes someone like a DJ will take your CD, stick it in the machine and hit the “Go” button, a new “you” will pop (arghh) out the other end. I imagine they may even make a reality TV show of the process, perhaps titled “Weekly Resurrection”, “The Swinging Blue Genes” or something equally nauseating!

Yes, I’m having some fun here but the basics are true, indeed, if I had the capital I’d give some consideration to starting a genome storage business, you could charge half what the freezers do and still make a fortune.

Mark my words, someone will do it, just remember, you first saw the idea here!

Well Done Oz (Again)

A few months ago I wrote a short post praising the good sense shown by the Australian government, now I find myself having to do it again. If they keep going like this all sensible people will want to live there!

Prime Minister John Howard, Treasurer Peter Costello and Education Minister Brendan Nelson have dealt with rising religious fanaticism in a typical direct, in-your-face, down to earth Aussie manner. Apparently some Muslim clerics have been trying get Sharia law recognised and have been teaching that there are two laws, Australian law and Muslim law.

Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, said that radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made ONLY by parliament.

“If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said on national television.

Nelson told reporters:

"Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can basically clear off."

Howard angered Muslim clerics by voicing his support for monitoring of mosques to ensure extremist terrorism was not being planned. Here are some further quotes the Aussie politicians made.

“Immigrants, not australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it, I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture.”

“This is our country, our land and our lifstyle, we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining and griping, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, the right to leave!"

“If you aren't happy here then leave. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country you chose.”

Clearly both Bush and Blair could learn from these simple statements but I bet they won’t.

All I can say is:

“Well done Australia”

The World Cup

One more week and the World Cup will be over and a good thing too as far as I’m concerned. Everywhere you go football hype surrounds you, pundits and commentators spinning patriotic bullshit and extolling the virtues of the current heroes who are about to make sporting history.

Before the competition, the England team were touted as having a great chance of winning the cup, its’ star players spoken of with reverence. The largely inane crap was enough to make a sane person puke, use of the word “quality” seemed mandatory in all sentences.

As usual, the real world had a different plan.

England scraped their way through the early stages largely due to the luck of the draw, their performance was poor. When they eventually had to face stronger opposition their deficiencies were highlighted and they lost their match against Portugal. Rooney, one of their star players, disgraced himself and was sent off for kicking an opponent in the nuts in a very sportsman-like manner.  

Astute readers will have correctly guessed I’m not a football fan although I played the game as a schoolboy. At that time of course, sport was still sport, I lost my interest in it when it became what is today, simply business, just another way of making money. A very effective way also, it uses the primitive in-built tribal characteristics of human beings to automatically make them fans, and causes many of them to part with significant percentages of their income in loyal support of their heroes. Heroes, I might add, whose talents could perhaps be better employed in Hollywood or the theatres of London’s West End. I don’t just mean their feigning on the playing field, the post-match scenes of grown men sitting on the ground with tears running down their faces was terrific theatre. They looked like a bunch of babies who’d had their lollipops stolen; pictures guaranteed to endear them to the hearts of existing fans and perhaps even create some new ones.

When I was at school, sports were a mandatory activity but participation was based upon ongoing academic achievement, it was instilled into us that sport was good but meant nothing when compared to a good education. I may be wrong, but it certainly doesn’t look like that philosophy applies today.

Sport is beloved of all governments; they generally support it whole-heartedly because politicians are well aware of its power over the masses. Giving the public something of no importance to occupy their minds is a great tool in the ongoing government propaganda battle to control us and divert our attention from real issues they don’t want us to think about. Sadly, the majority of us fall for it hook, line and sinker.

I watched the World Cup mainly out of academic interest, to see if things had changed or if improvements had been made. I saw only that blatant cheating was still rife and true sportsmanship was almost gone; sorry, I think the term “beautiful game” is a complete misnomer.

I remain convinced that being a football fan is akin to being religious, to get anything out of it you have to throw your brain out the window.