Stuff that occurs to me

All of my 'how to' posts are tagged here. The most popular posts are about blocking and private accounts on Twitter, also the science communication jobs list. None of the science or medical information I might post to this blog should be taken as medical advice (I'm not medically trained).

Think of this blog as a sort of nursery for my half-baked ideas hence 'stuff that occurs to me'.

Contact: @JoBrodie Email: jo DOT brodie AT gmail DOT com

Science in London: The 2018/19 scientific society talks in London blog post

Saturday 23 January 2010

Strange case of the disappearing #homeopathy video? #ten23

Earlier today I watched a video which Debby Bruck posted to the #ten23 channel. It was very well presented, from a pleasant gentleman called Dr Bhatia - I thought he was quite a natural in front of the camera.

The video is no longer there however - the page has been deleted and a different video has been uploaded to YouTube - so I'm not able to prove any of the following comments, however I'm pretty sure that in the first few words that Dr Bhatia spoke, he referred to the 1023 campaigners / supporters as 'fools' and then went on to explain why he called them that.

Comments on that video were only possible if you are a member of the 'homeopathy world community' website, which I'm not - so I did the next best thing and added a comment via Google Sidewiki.

I remember writing that a part of the video, at 4 minutes in, was nonsense as it misdescribed diabetes. The copy of the video that is now circulating via YouTube mentions diabetes at the three minute point, and it also doesn't call skeptics fools. Did anyone download a copy of the earlier video?

Presumably, now that the video has been deleted it will have taken my comment with it - I don't think the deletion was anything to do with my sidewiki comment, perhaps someone just had a change of heart about calling people fools, tempting as that might be, or some other reason.

My original tweet (below) can be seen in context here
>>Nicely presented but I disagree, & have sidewikied #ten23 RT @DebbyBruck Dr Bhatia exposes absurdity in 10:23 campaign http://bit.ly/5J0IHf

The expanded version of that bit.ly tweet is http://www.homeopathyworldcommunity.com/video/masshomeopathicoverdoseflv-1 - however that now goes to a 'page not found' page.

Various tinkerings in Google confirms that the page did exist previously, however the new version of the video added to YouTube is called -mov not -flv, and advanced searching within the homeopathyworldcommunity site's cache doesn't yield the original flv vid.

Ah well... I don't think I'm losing my marbles ;)

I'm leaving the text that I Sidewikied to the YouTube video here, in white (sneaky) in case that too gets deleted and I need it again...

Campaign is not to do with disproving homeopathy

I am not aware of any good evidence showing that homeopathy works beyond placebo. The lack of evidence was made very clear at the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee's evidence check for homeopathy. The 1023 campaign is not really about disproving homeopathy further.

The campaign is raising awarenss that a pharmacy, which has already admitted that it has seen no evidence that homeopathy works (beyond placebo), is continuing to sell these products.

The part about diabetes is nonsense - people with diabetes are not in a hypersensitive state to sugar. They either lack the main glucose regulating hormone (insulin) or are less able to use it to regulate glucose. In a person without diabetes glucose will raise blood glucose levels but a series of regulatory mechanisms come into play quickly to regulate glucose, in someone with diabetes these mechanisms are less effective.

4 comments:

  1. That's the second page in two days they've deleted. The first was some idiot homeopath saying homosexuality was caused by vaccines.

    And these people expect to be taken as a serious medical profession? You've got to be joking.

    www.1023.org.uk

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you want to know more about Dr B, Jo, he has a rather posh website here.

    I enjoyed the splendidly modest profile page, which is the bit that reveals he is a member of the "Centre for Advanced Studies in Homeopathy", whose acronym he gives as C.A.S.H.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I did check his own website just in case he had posted the original video there...no luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's strange, but it almost seems like having rational folks shining a light on their more batshit insane claims is causing them to self-censor. :)

    ReplyDelete

Comment policy: I enthusiastically welcome corrections and I entertain polite disagreement ;) Because of the nature of this blog it attracts a LOT - 5 a day at the moment - of spam comments (I write about spam practices,misleading marketing and unevidenced quackery) and so I'm more likely to post a pasted version of your comment, removing any hyperlinks.

Comments written in ALL CAPS LOCK will be deleted and I won't publish any pro-homeopathy comments, that ship has sailed I'm afraid (it's nonsense).