VOLUME 23, NO2 WINTER 2003 A JOURNAL OF FACT AND OPINION

P ANDEMONIUM the Skeptic Contents Vol 23, No 2 Regulars Winter 2003 ISSN 0726-9897 ■ 3 – Editorial — Don’t Panic — Barry Williams ■ 4 – Around the Traps — Bunyip Editor ■ 64 – Letters Barry Williams ■ 69 – Notices

Contributing Editors Tim Mendham Steve Roberts Features ■ 6 – Pan: The Reaction — Peter Bowditch Technology Consultant ■ 8 – Lessons Still Unlearnt — Stephen Colgan Richard Saunders ■ 11 – The Lead Balloon — Pan, Pan, Pan — Richard Lead ■ 14 – If it Sounds Like a Duck... — Peter Bowditch Chief Investigator ■ 18 – Nutrition Myths — Life in the Raw — Glenn Cardwell Bob Nixon ■ 20 – Agricultural Alternatives — David Conley ■ 24 – Skepticism and Psychotherapy — Jill Gordon All correspondence to: ■ Australian Skeptics Inc 30 – Microwaves, etc — David Vernon PO Box 268 ■ 35 – Hairy Diagnosis — Cholm Williams Roseville NSW 2069 ■ 36 – Homeopathetic — Borek Puza Australia ■ 38 – Hair Today ... — Karen Stollznow (ABN 90 613 095 379 ) ■ 40 – Smoke and Reflections — Martin Hadley Contact Details ■ 43 – Nigerian Letters — Leo Igwe Tel: (02) 9417 2071 ■ 44 – Interview — A Man for all Ages Pt2 — Richard and Geoff Saunders Fax: (02) 9417 7930 ■ 48 – Good Word: A Sea of Words — Mark Newbrook e-mail: [email protected] ■ 53 – Forum: The Doctor is In ■ 55 – Review: A Sober Appraisal — Chris Guest Web Pages ■ Australian Skeptics 56 – Junior Skeptic — Reviews — Belinda Bowditch & Gillian Brown www.skeptics.com.au ■ 58 – Forum: Three More Doors No Answers in Genesis ■ 61 – Getting Involved — Branch Activities http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/default.htm ■ 63 – News: Science TV in Sydney the Skeptic is a journal of fact and opinion, published four times per year by Australian Skeptics Inc. Views and opinions expressed in articles and letters in the Skeptic are those of the authors, and are not necessarily those of Australian Skeptics Inc. Articles may be reprinted with permission and with due Cover art by Charles Rose of Cogency acknowledgement to the Skeptic. Editorial consultants: Skeptics around Australia Dr Stephen Basser (medicine) Dr Richard Gordon (medicine) Dr William Grey (philosophy) New South Wales Queensland Western Australia Australian Skeptics Inc Australian Skeptics (Qld) WA Skeptics Prof Colin Groves (anthropology) PO Box 268 PO Box 6454 22 Esperance Street Mr Martin Hadley (law) Roseville NSW 2069 Fairfield Gardens QLD 4103 East Victoria Park WA 6101 Dr Colin Keay (astronomy) Tel: (02) 9417 2071 Tel: (07) 3255 0499 Tel: (08) 9448 8458 Fax: (02) 9417 7930 [email protected] [email protected] Dr Mark Newbrook (linguistics) [email protected] Qskeptics eGroup Dr Andrew Parle (physics) (To subscribe send blank message to: Tasmania Prof Ian Plimer (geology) Hunter Skeptics [email protected]) Australian Skeptics in Tasmania Dr James Popple (law/computer sci) PO Box 166 PO Box 582 Waratah NSW 2298 Gold Coast Skeptics North Hobart TAS 7000. Dr Alex Ritchie (palaeontology) Tel: (02) 4957 8666. PO Box 8348 Tel: (03) 6234 1458 Dr Steve Roberts (chemistry) Fax: (02) 4952 6442 GCMC Bundall QLD 4217 [email protected] Mr Roland Seidel (mathematics) Tel: (07) 5593 1882 Victoria Fax: (07) 5593 2776 Northern Territory Branch correspondents: Australian Skeptics (Vic) Inc [email protected] Darwin Skeptics ACT: Mr Peter Barrett GPO Box 5166AA PO Box 809 Darwin: Mr Simon Potter Melbourne VIC 3001 South Australia Sanderson NT 0812 Gold Coast: Mr John Stear Tel: 1 800 666 996 Skeptics SA Tel: (08) 8932 2194 Fax: 03 9531 6705 PO Box 377 Fax: (08) 8932 7553 Hunter: Mr Michael Creech [email protected] Rundle Mall SA 5000 [email protected] Qld: Mr Bob Bruce Tel: (08) 8272 5881 SA: Mr Allan Lang ACT Fax: (08) 8272 5881 Borderline Skeptics Tas: Mr Fred Thornett Canberra Skeptics [email protected] PO Box 17 PO Box 555 Mitta Mitta VIC 3701 Vic: Mr Grant Stevenson Civic Square ACT 2608 Tel: (02) 6072 3632 WA: Dr John Happs [email protected] [email protected]

Page 2 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Editorial Don’t Panic

Can there be anyone who is unaware medicines, with very large financial wrote to its MP strongly opposing of the recent scandal concerning Pan penalties for non-compliance. Fur- this request. It seems it was denied. Pharmaceuticals Ltd and its failure ther, it has announced an inquiry “Many studies have shown ...” to comply with proper manufactur- into the entire alternative medicine Some studies have given some (often ing procedures, which led the Thera- industry, to report to Parliament marginal) support for some benefits peutic Goods Administration to insti- within three months. Although be- accruing from some alternative nos- tute the compulsory product recall of lated, that is not a bad start and is trums, but far more, larger and bet- well over 1,600 (and counting) prod- something that Australian Skeptics ter conducted studies have shown ucts? This is by far the largest recall has been advocating for many years. the bulk of them to be worthless. For of health-related (or any other) prod- example, a recent five-year Oxford ucts in the nation’s history. Spinning like Shane on steroids University study, costing £21m There is some irony in the fact Given that AltMed is a multi-billion found: "Over five years we saw abso- that, although the product that trig- dollar industry, it is hardly surpris- lutely no effect. Vitamin pills are a gered the investigation, Travacalm, ing that spokesmen took to the me- waste of time. There was no evidence was a Registered "pharmacy only" dia in droves, seeking to lay blame at of any protective effect against heart medication, Pan was predominantly the feet of anyone who they thought disease, cancer or any other out- a manufacturer of Listed alternative might take the heat off their own come. They are safe but they are or complementary medicines and problems. An alert observer would useless." There are many other such supplements. Most of the recalled have noticed that they all seemed to reports. items fall within those descriptions be singing from the same hymn book “People want to take charge of and consequently the AltMed indus- as they spun the story to make it their own health.” This is one of the try is now being called to account as look less disastrous for the industry. most common claims made both by never before in its history. Among their largely spurious purveyors and consumers of alterna- With the media interest at its claims are: tives. It sounds supremely demo- height, NSW Premier Bob Carr, ap- “We have the most regulated in- cratic, but it is actually profoundly peared on TV saying, accurately, “... dustry in the world.” Untrue, as idiotic. Most people (even editors) it appears that most of these prod- there was very little regulation of know very little of human physiol- ucts give no more benefit than col- Listed products under the previous ogy, disease, pharmacology or any- oured water”; Catalyst (ABCTV) TGA regime, though new legislation thing else that goes to make up reported on their investigation into might (at last) change this. Some medical science. Rather, we (over herbal remedies, which showed wide European countries already regulate 50% of us) have been led to believe, variations in the amount of active AltMed and pharmaceuticals under often by an uncritical and compliant ingredient and lack of uniformity in the same standards. media, that anecdote and antiquity many preparations from many “We are a small industry and the are the equal of clinical evidence in manufacturers; Chairman of the Government doesn’t give us any fi- deciding the worth of treatments. Australian Olympic Committee, nancial support to do proper testing Thus we cheerfully self-prescribe John Coates, (alert to the threat for efficacy”. True, but the govern- medications for self-diagnosed ills posed to athletes by inadvertent ment doesn’t give any money to and succeed only in creating very ingestion of proscribed substances) pharmaceutical companies either, expensive sewage. called for much stricter regulation of and nor should they. Pan was a Look at it another way. Many of the labelling of supplements and highly profitable company which us are concerned about airline flying; dietitians bemoaned the waste of could well have afforded proper test- do we then, if we wish to travel in- money on expensive and unneces- ing of their products — so can others terstate, design and build our own sary vitamin supplements, when in the industry. aeroplanes, thereby “taking charge sufficient of the real thing was read- In a display of sheer effrontery, of our own safety and security”? Lu- ily available in a normal diet. the Complementary Healthcare dicrous, isn’t it? As a result, the Commonwealth Council approached the Federal Gov- The following pages carry excel- Government has now introduced ernment seeking a grant of $11 mil- lent feature articles addressing dif- legislation requiring a much higher lion to fund “public education on the ferent facets of this story in more degree of compliance, evidence of benefits of complementary health detail. I commend them to you. efficacy, and accuracy in labelling for supplements”. Australian Skeptics manufacturers of complementary Barry Williams

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 3 Notes on the News Around the Traps

The right message Simple but effective messages that cut right to the heart of “alternative” Among the hectares of print devoted medical industry claims to represent to the scandal surrounding Pan Phar- “natural” alternatives to orthodox maceuticals (much more of which in medicine. In fact this industry relies this issue) and that cataloguing the very largely on misuse of the term spin* emanating from a complemen- “natural” to give a respectable cachet tary medicine industry desperately to pills and potions that are often far seeking to dissociate itself from Pan, from natural. What, after all, could be some gems stood out. more natural than an apple? Notably, our attention was drawn Our congratulations go to all in- to an advertisement in the Sydney volved Morning Herald which received a nod of approbation from this normally cynical columnist. It showed a shiny Get on the Disc Red Delicious apple under the simple We have said it before in these pages (but astute) heading “An alternative to but, as we firmly believe that if some- alternative medicine”. This was fol- thing is worth iterating, it is well lowed by the invitation to readers worth reiterating, we will say it again: wanting more information about ap- Skeptics really should read the novels ples to contact the Batlow Fruit Co- pleased that the ad had attracted the of Terry Pratchett. operative. notice of Australian Skeptics and Pratchett has invented, and sets his So taken were we with the idea that pointed out that it was part of an on- stories in, a fantasy world — Discworld we approached Lachlan Moore, Mar- going campaign for the Australian — and in the process has deservedly keting Manager of Batlow Co-op, seek- Apple and Pear Limited division of become one of the best selling authors ing permission to reproduce the adver- Horticulture Australia, a body sup- in this world (Roundworld). The rea- tisement in the Skeptic. Lachlan porting Australian fresh produce grow- sons for this are not too hard to find graciously gave us permission and also ers in R & D and marketing. She also and they are also why we think the put us in touch with Penny Smith from alerted us to similar examples of pub- novels are so appropriate for Skeptics. their advertising agency, Morris & lished advertisements supporting fruit Discworld is a fantasy world which Partners in North Sydney. Penny was growers that have appeared in the runs on magic, but it is also very much media in recent weeks. All show the a real world; far more real than those * Our in-house electrical engineer has familiar Delicious, but with a selection inhabited by the quacks, creationists, calculated that if, during the Pan affair, of cogent captions, including: psychics and other cranks who are the all the spinning apologists for the AltMed industry were to be enclosed in a strong “The sun. The soil. The rain. A fac- banes of every Skeptic’s existence. In- magnetic field, sufficient energy would be tory you can trust” ; “For vitamins go cidentally, the books are also very well generated to power a city the size of Ad- to your greengrocer” ; “The only time written and extremely funny. elaide**. our products are pulled is off the tree”; Here is an example of Pratchett’s ** This footnote might not be factual, but “The only recall is how great they approach to life, taken from an inter- it is true. taste”. view published in the recently released

Page 4 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 The New Discworld Companion (Terry Perils of research II However, from interviews he has Pratchett & Stephen Briggs; Gollancz, given, it seems that Dr McCleary will It can’t be every day that one of our London, 2003). Addressing a question be pushing these claims in a proposed major learning institutions threatens about how the encroachment of book and he did strongly defend astrol- to irritate almost the entire commu- Roundworld technology such as guns ogy in those interviews, which gives nity, but recently the University of and steam engines might affect future support to the case that education Queensland must have come very novels, he referred to a landing on alone is not a sufficient prophylactic close. Discworld’s moon in one of his earlier against gullible belief in utter tripe. stories: In May it awarded a PhD to a stu- dent, Rollan McCleary, who had ob- [S]uppose I wrote a book saying that tained a grant of $51,000 of public April conspiracy within thirty years of the moon land- funding over three years, for a thesis ing millions of people would be duped on “Gay Spirituality”. Nothing much Apropos which, is there anything that by bad science and endless hectoring wrong with that — so far. However, in conspiracy theorists will not accept as into believing that it didn’t happen ... the publicity resulting from the award, proof of their fantasies? nah, can’t do that, too unbelievable in it emerged that this candidate had On April 1, SBS showed a clever fantasy novel, right? formed the conclusion that Jesus French “documentary” on a conspiracy Dead right Christ and up to three or four of his associated with the Moon landings. It disciples were homosexuals. The tab- started quite soberly, with few embed- loid media and talk-back radio went ded clues, but by the halfway mark it Perils of research I into a frenzy, citing the waste of tax- became clear it was a spoof and im- probability piled on impossibility to- Researchers at Plymouth University payers’ money on such an exercise, wards the end — it was April 1, after in England recently had a good idea. while the Christian community was all. They decided to subject the old saw, outraged by this perceived slur on This did not stop the station receiv- “Give an infinite number of monkeys their Messiah. No surprises there; ing hundreds of calls asking if the an infinite number of typewriters and they are hardly unexpected reactions show was genuine, and the ‘net almost they will eventually produce the works from those quarters. melted down with cries of “At Last The of Shakespeare” to a scientific test. However, it seemed from reports, Truth Is Out” or the like. They tried it out by giving six mon- that the claims made were not simply keys one computer for a month, and based on researching the various Gos- Identity crisis all the primates made was mess. Ac- pels and other arguably legitimate cording to press reports, six Sulawesi sources, the candidate went one bet- Strange thoughts come to one in hard- crested macaques from Paignton Zoo ter and cast a horoscope for Jesus ware stores. The other week Bunyip bashed the computer, occasionally which, he said, supported his belief. had occasion to enter one such Aladin’s typed a single letter (often S), def- This is an extraordinary claim for any Cave of DIY delight (the one that used ecated and urinated on it, and gener- number of reasons. Not even the most to be called BBC, where one was al- ally behaved like any other students. hidebound creationist (let alone any- ways felt curiously let-down when the Now readers of this column will one who knows what they are talking staff did not speak in upper crust Brit- immediately see some obvious prob- about) would claim to know the exact ish accents) to be greeted at the pay- lems with the design of this experi- date and time of the birth of Jesus, not out desk by a sign reading “Positive ment for testing the maxim — for a to mention those of any of the disci- Identification Required by Patrons start it is hardly scientific at all. The ples — yet this knowledge is alleged Paying by Cheque”. fact is, given infinite numbers of mon- to be of crucial importance in casting Fair enough from a commercial per- keys, typewriters and time it is inevi- a horoscope. Furthermore, the middle spective, no doubt, but it did raise the table that not only will they produce ages, just when universities were com- question of what exactly would consti- the works of the Bard, but also every- ing into their own as centres of learn- tute “Negative Identification”? Images thing else that has ever been written ing, was about the last era in which leapt unbidden to the Bunyipian im- (including this story) — as well as pro- the study of astrology could have been agination of official looking cards pro- ducing an infinite amount of rubbish. even remotely considered as a legiti- claiming the legend, “This is to certify It will probably come as no surprise mate intellectual exercise. Since then that the bearer is NOT the Duchess to our scientifically literate readers it has clearly been shown to be noth- of York, Pope John Paul II or Shane that the research (which was funded ing but a vacuous popular fad. Warne.” But the University has since stated by the British Arts Council) was car- Before we go ried out students in the university’s that the thesis contained nothing media program. Not so much a scien- about astrology, nor any conclusions Did anyone notice whether or not the tific experiment, then, as an explana- about the sexuality of Jesus, so the world ended on May 15? tion of the all crap one finds in the criticism of the University (including media. several nominations for the Skeptics Bent Spoon Award) was unwarranted. Bunyip

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 5 Feature Pan: The Reaction

If truth is the first casualty of It’s “Good News” week! classification and you can find tab- lets in the one package which con- Someone’s dropped a bomb somewhere, war, then the alternative tain between zero and 700% of the medicine industry must Contaminating atmosphere, stated active ingredient (overdosing And blackening the sky. of which chemical can cause tempo- feel that it is at war. rary psychosis and hallucinations), Do you remember Hedgehoppers you have to wonder what was going Anonymous? Neither does anyone into the many hundreds of placebos else, but everyone remembers their and snake-oil pills that Pan was one big hit record. It really was a making for their clients and which good news week when someone in had a lesser classification that did the shape of the Therapeutic Goods not require any proof of efficacy. Administration (TGA) dropped a One of the diversionary tactics bomb on Pan Pharmaceuticals, Aus- used by the alternative supporters tralia’s largest contract packager of was to concentrate on Travacalm as “alternative medicines” (and one of if this was the only problem found at the largest in the world), and sus- Pan, and then to try to either prove pended their manufacturing licence that it wasn’t anything alternative for six months. Everything manufac- or that there was no real problem tured by them for the previous sev- anyway and the whole affair was eral months was ordered to be re- just a smoke screen to allow the de- called from stores because the struction of the supplement industry. quality control at Pan was found to Truth was not a necessary compo- be, well, non-existent. In their de- nent of much that was said, and fence, I suppose you don’t need to neither, as it happens, was knowl- check the quality of the manufactur- edge about herbs and “natural” ing process when you can put any medicines needed. I found it ironic old ingredients into bottles and pills that I should be placed in the posi- and do your product and material tion of telling alternative believers testing by just typing numbers into a which plants were used to produce computer which natural drugs. As an example Predictably, the response of the of this, one person who claimed to be alternative medicine community has knowledgeable in such matters com- been to attack the messenger. The mented that there was no mention of TGA, which oversees the quality of the active ingredient, hyoscine medical devices and pharmaceuticals hydrobromide, in her herbal refer- in Australia, has been criticised for ence books. Perhaps she wasn’t look- acting both too hastily and too slowly ing under “henbane” for the name of and even for existing at all. The final the plant it comes from, or under spark which blew the Pan fuse at the “scopolamine” for the name that it TGA was a product called sometimes goes by. Travacalm, used for motion sickness. One particularly egregious piece It has been pointed out to me that of lying was by someone who sent a this was not any alternative product, Peter Bowditch, a Vice President of message to a US-based web site say- but was a pharmacy-only product Australian Skeptics, maintains both the rage ing that Travacalm was only avail- with the highest level of registration against quackery, and a website, able on prescription (it has the words at the TGA. Yes it was, but when you ratbags.com.au dedicated to that aim. “Pharmacy Medicine” printed on the look at something with the highest box), that Pan made 50% of all pre-

Page 6 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 scription drugs in Australia, and Ham? The TGA ordered some ham gram of active ingredient is spread that only the alternative medicines recalled? I immediately checked the across five million tablets. made by Pan had been recalled. I ham I had bought for my lunchtime One good thing that might come imagine that the writer believed that sandwich to see if had an AUST L or out of this debacle is that the public nobody outside Australia could check AUST R number (I refrained from might start to realise that TGA ap- on the facts, which are that “Phar- making jokes about “curing”), but proval to sell something does not macy Medicine” does not imply pre- there was nothing there. This “jour- imply that the product or device does scription only (it means that sales nalist” was so stupid (or so careless) anything useful, or even anything at are restricted to pharmacies only, that she couldn’t tell the difference all. There are two levels of approval - not supermarkets and other outlets), between the TGA and the federal “registration”, which requires evi- Pan made very few prescription Health Department. Still, what are dence of safety, quality, and efficacy, drugs, and almost everything that facts when there’s quackery to be and “listing”, which only requires they made was recalled. Suggestions defended? For the record, the last quality and safety. Both are required were made in several places that three recalls ordered by the TGA at to have truthful labelling. I was there had been no complaints about the time of writing were Difflam - C taken to task because I stated in a any of the supplements made by Pan Alcohol Free Solution (February 4), radio interview that there was no so they must have been perfect, but Pan (April 28) and Kotex U tampons requirement for “complementary” the facts were that the rot of poor (May 30). No ham. medicines to have any effectiveness manufacturing practice was endemic The press release went on to talk at all, and I was sarcastically asked at Pan. There were also claims made about how the Pan recall was part of if I had bothered to read the TGA that Pan were totally unaware of the great UN/Illuminati worldwide web site before I went on air. Just for any concerns that the TGA had until Codex conspiracy to destroy alterna- reference, I will quote what the TGA the recall was ordered, and it came tive medicine. Evidence of the con- says. You will see that most comple- as a surprise. The truth is that the spiracy was that the Geneva office of mentary medicines can be sold with- TGA had been at Pan since January the World Health Organization had out any proof that they work. and had had to seize computer been notified of the Pan recall. (Did I Products assessed as having a equipment to stop records being de- mention that some of the alternative higher level of risk (prescription stroyed. supporters are nuts? It doesn’t seem medicines, some non-prescription A strange aspect of much of the to worry many of them.) medicines and medical devices) are opposition to real medicine is that Another claim was that the TGA evaluated for quality, safety and people make statements which are had to be lying about the problems efficacy. Once approved for market- either ridiculous or can be disproved at Pan because it was not possible to ing in Australia these products are in minutes, much like the example have a single packet of medication included in the ARTG as ‘registered’ above about the Travacalm labelling. with the range of ingredient propor- products and are identified by an I am not sure whether this is just tions that had been claimed (0-700% AUST R number. contempt for the audience or patho- in the one package). I was told that there was no way this could happen logical lying, where the truth simply Products assessed as being lower because the tablets would fall apart does not matter. An example came risk (many non-prescription medi- and have holes in them if the mixing from a regular spokesperson for the cines including most complementary was that bad. I asked someone at a alternative industry, who claims to be medicines and low risk medical company which sells packaging ma- a journalist and a professional writer devices) are assessed for quality and chinery for food and pharmaceuticals on health matters. In a press release, safety. Once approved for marketing and his reply was that Pan was “like this person said that the recall was in Australia, these products are the Keystone Kops”, and that it was announced on the April 29 (it was the included in the ARTG as ‘listed’ very easy to have this sort of range if 28th, and the wrong date was used products and are identified by an you didn’t care about quality, only twice so it wasn’t a typo), that Pan’s AUST L number. “stocks plummeted” in the second the time and cost of manufacture. week after the recall and other com- There are two stages where time and Australia is about to embark on a panies’ shares rose (Pan shares were money can be saved in this sort of great experiment where many people suspended from trade on the day the manufacturing process — machine are not going to be able to get their recall was announced so they went downtime and ingredient blending. snake-oil supplies for some months. I neither up nor down in the following We already know that Pan was ig- can confidently predict that we will week. The writer forgot to mention noring correct cleaning procedures not see the return of the days when that the company whose shares ben- when switching machines between people went through the streets call- efited most was Blackmore’s.), and products, so it is not too hard to im- ing “Bring out your dead”, like they that on the same day as the Pan re- agine that saving a bit of time in the did in the heyday of “natural” medi- call, the TGA had ordered a recall of mixing stage might cause some vari- cine. some packaged ham. ability in a product where one kilo-

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 7 Feature Lessons Still Unlearnt

Following the Pan scandal, it In an article entitled “Good lessons safety of many hundreds of natural to be learnt from the Pan debacle” therapeutics. Public figures mind- is now time to take stock of recently published on ABC News lessly stating the opposite are ill the claims made by the Online as part of their coverage of informed and unscientific, relying proponents of “natural” the Pan Pharmaceuticals recall on outdated belief systems rather (http://www.abc.net.au/public/ than facts therapies. s850921.htm), Christopher Dean, (Dean, 2003). chairman of TP Health Limited, manufacturer of Thursday Planta- Historic herbalism tion, Greenridge and Nature’s Rem- An underlying tenet of natural edy products, in a statement claimed therapies in general and herbalism that: in particular, is a dogmatic belief When natural therapeutics are well that naturally occurring chemicals in made, and delivered in high potency plants are superior to those pro- dosages they produce outstanding duced by the pharmaceutical indus- results. And they do so more safely try, even when the active ingredient than many pharmaceuticals which in both products is the same (Tyler, consist of isolated synthetic mol- 1993). Herbal remedies that use ecules that can easily cause many whole plants, leaves, roots or seeds toxic side-effects. A good example is are believed to have physiological … Travacalm … the active ingredi- properties that somehow mystically ent of Travacalm is hyoscine combine to lessen the possibility of hydrobromide, a synthetic pharma- overdose or harm to living creatures ceutical, not a natural product, (Tyler, 1993). which incorrectly dosed rapidly led This tenet can be traced back to to serious side effects. This is almost biblical references about the medici- never the case with properly pre- nal use of herbs and a belief that a pared herbal medicine (Dean, 2003). beneficent creator would not create Stephen Colgan is a registered nurse with a diseases without supplying a herb or And that: honours degree from Monash, in which he combination of herbs that could cure did a meta-analysis of the evidence base of Today thousands of scientific studies these diseases (Dubick, 1986; Therapeutic Touch. He is currently doing a in published scientific journals Huxtable, 1992). Cures that could be PhD with the School of Population Health clearly support the efficacy and easily identified by some similarity, at Melbourne University.

Page 8 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 or “signature” between the plant and alkaloids can occur due to synthetic cized by herbalists at the time illness (Huxtable, 1992). On this anticholinergic drugs as well as the (Abbott, 1988). basis, plants with heart shaped plants from which these drugs were Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) extracts leaves could be used to treat heart first derived, such as Atropa bella- are advocated for the treatment of disease and plants with red flowers donna (Deadly nightshade) and D. Alzheimer’s disease, peripheral vas- could “cleanse the blood”. This “Doc- stramonium (Jimson weed or cular diseases and neurosensory trine of Signatures”, or “like cures Stinkweed) (Craig & Stizel, 1990). problems such as tinnitus. Evidence like” underlies the common names The symptoms are the same no mat- of efficacy from clinical trials for its and uses of many plants used in ter what the source of the alkaloid, use remains inconclusive at best and herbal medicine (Huxtable, 1992). as seen in cases of anticholinergic at worst no better than placebo (De For example, Adders Tongue poisoning due to the ingestion of Smet, 2002). Adverse reactions asso- (Ophioglossum ciated with its use Vulgatum) a small range from range from plant with a single wide headache, nausea and tongue shaped leaf is allergic skin reactions, listed in Culpeper’s to seizures and life Herbal (first published threatening bleeding in the early 1600s) as (De Smet, 2002; Ernst, useful for treating dis- 2002). eases of the tongue St John’s Wort (Hy- (Leyel, 1971). pericum perforatum) is A frequent claim widely used for the made by proponents of treatment of depres- “natural therapies“ is sion, anxiety; sleep that they are intrinsi- disorders and viral cally safe and that their infections (Conover, use rarely results in 2002; De Smet, 2002). serious side effects (De Adverse events associ- Smet, 2002). This claim ated with its use in- has been used by propo- Comfrey — not as nice as it looks clude gastro-intestinal nents of these therapies distress, dizziness, in attempts to escape regulation and herbal teas containing these plants confusion and restlessness. There control of the therapies (Dixon, (Tyler, 1993; MMWR 1995a; 1995b). have also been reports of mania, 1986). There is abundant evidence Comfrey, a plant with a long his- psychotic relapse in patients with that “natural therapies”, such as tory of human use as a herbal rem- schizophrenia and cardiovascular herbal remedies, even when well edy, contains hepatotoxic and carci- collapse during the administration of manufactured and used as directed, nogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and anaesthesia (De Smet, 2002). pose serious health risks both di- adverse effects resulting from its St John’s Wort is known to de- rectly and indirectly, either by inter- ingestion in herbal teas and in tablet crease the plasma level of a large acting with conventional drugs or by form are documented (Hirono, Mori range of prescribed drugs, such as delaying effective and appropriate & Haga, 1978; Culvenor, Clarke, anticoagulants, oral contraceptives medical treatment (De Smet, 2002). Edgar, Frahn, Jago, Peterson & and anti-viral agents (De Smet & To claim otherwise is to be either Smith, 1979; Huxtable, Luthy & Touw, 2000; Yue, Bergquist, & blissfully ignorant of the facts or Zweifel, 1986; Weston, Cooper, Gerden, 2000; Ernst, 2002). It is also unwilling to accept any evidence Davies & Levine, 1987; Bach, Thung known to interact with narcotics and that contradicts a set of beliefs based & Schaffner, 1989; Ridker & anti-depressants (Conover, 2002). on a myth of the beneficence of na- McDermott, 1989). Pyrrolizidine There is increasing evidence that St ture. alkaloids are a group of over 1000 John’s Wort induces a broad range of naturally occurring compounds esti- drug-metabolising enzymes, decreas- Not-so-benevolent Nature mated to occur in 3% of all flowering ing plasma levels of corticosteroids Hyoscine hydrobromide is a bella- plants. Plants have evolved these and digoxin (Yue, Berguist, & donna alkaloid with strong central compounds as a deterrent against Gerden, 2000). A list of these and nervous system anticholinergic ef- grazing by herbivores (Ridker & other adverse effects associated with fects that acts to mediate responses McDermott, 1989; Huxtable, 1990). the use of St John’s Wort and other to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter Based on a consideration of the toxi- “natural therapies” can be found on (Craig & Stizel, 1990; Mims Annual, cological data on comfrey, in 1984 it the Therapeutic Goods Administra- 2002). Anticholinergic poisoning due was listed as a Schedule 1 poison in tion website at: to excessive doses of Belladonna Australia, a decision widely criti- http://www.tga.gov.au/cm/cm.htm

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 9 Lesson

Regulation medicines. It is worth noting that develop gradually, or reactions that the majority of complementary medi- have prolonged periods of latency Complementary medicines in Aus- cines sold in Australia are Listed (Culvenor et al, 1979; De Smet, tralia are regulated under the medicines (Briggs, 2002). In 1997 1995). The perception of low-risk Therapeutic Goods act of 1989 and a there were 4500 Listed complemen- associated with many complimen- set of reforms introduced in 1999. tary medicines in the ARTG and less tary medicines may instead reflect The act is administered by the than five Registered complimentary an incomplete understanding of the Therapeutic Goods Administration medicines (Drew & Myers, 1997). actions of these drugs (Ernst, 1999). which maintains a database of all Given the “… thousands of scien- In Germany, post marketing follow- therapeutic goods imported into, tific studies … [that] clearly support up of more than 4,800 herbal medi- supplied in, or exported from Aus- the efficacy and safety of many hun- cines led to many of them being tralia, the Australian Registry of dreds of natural therapeutics” withdrawn from sale, or their use Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). Unless (Dean, 2003) why are there so few restricted due to safety concerns specifically exempt or excluded, all Registered complementary medi- (Benzi & Ceci, 1997). To claim that therapeutic goods must be included cines listed in the ARTG? In refer- “natural therapeutics” are well sup- in this database before they can be ence to the data used to support the ported by evidence of efficacy and supplied in Australia. The extent of evaluation of a new complementary safety, is to demonstrate a knowl- evaluation of therapeutic products in therapy for inclusion in the ARTG, edge of these therapies that to quote the ARTG, prior to their release, Dr. David Briggs, the Manager of Dean (2003), is “ … ill informed and depends on the product, its recom- Scientific Programs in the Office of unscientific, relying on outdated mended uses and the claims made Complementary Therapies at the belief patterns rather than facts”. about its efficacy (Briggs, 2002). TGA, stated that, a “… complete, Based on an evaluation of risk, high quality data package including medicines in Australia are entered animal and human studies is rarely References into the ARTG as either Listed or available (Briggs, 2002, p. 568). Registered goods. Listed goods, are (1995a). Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 4(31), January 27. ones for which the toxicity of the Big business ingredients, the proposed use of the (1995b). Morbidity and mortality weekly product and evidence of significant In Australia in 2000, it was esti- report, 4(11), March 24. side effects or adverse effects from mated that approximately $A 2.3 (2002). Mims Annual 2002. St Leonards: prolonged use are believed to present billion was spent on complementary Medimedia Australia. a low level of risk. The ingredients medicines, in the form of either vis- Abbott, P.J. (1988). Comfrey: Assessing used to make Listed products are its to a practitioner or use of a com- the low-dose health risk. The Medical assessed for safety and quality prior plementary medicine (MacLennan, Journal of Australia, 149(11-12), 678-682. to market release but the efficacy of Wilson & Taylor, 2002). In 1994, in Bach, N., Thung, S.N., & Schaffner, F. these products is not evaluated. A Europe, an estimated $US6 billion (1989). Comfrey herb tea-induced hepatic manufacturer of a Listed product, was spent on herbal medicines in veno-occlusive disease. The American prior to listing, must provide evi- general (Benzi & Ceci, 1997). In Journal of Medicine, 87(1), 97-99. dence of safety, at least in the form 1998, it was estimated that in Eu- Benzi, G., & Ceci, A. (1997). Herbal of a history of traditional use. The rope alone, sales of St John’s Wort, medicines in European Regulation. Phar- macological Research, 35(5), 355-362. TGA maintains a list of herbal ingre- for use as an antidepressant, ac- dients and dosages that are permit- counted for sales of approximately Briggs, D.R. (2002). The regulation of herbal medicines in Australia. Toxicology, ted for use in Listed medicines. $US6 billion (Ernst, 1999). An indus- 181-182, 565-570. Listed medicines, as low risk prod- try of this size has sufficient re- ucts, are limited to only claiming the sources of its own to fund research Conover, E.A. (2002). Over-the-counter products: Nonprescription medications, ability to symptomatically relieve into the efficacy and long term safety of its products (Ernst, 1999; De nutraceuticals and herbal agents. Clinical non-serious illnesses or maintain or Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 45(1), 89-98. enhance health or reduce the risk of Smet, 2002). Culvenor, C.C.J., Clarke, M., Edgar, J.A., disease (Briggs, 2002). So who is ill-informed? Frahn, J.L., Jago, M.V., Peterson, J.E., & Complementary medicines that Smith, L.W. (1979). Structure and toxicity include restricted herbal ingredients, Given the examples of Comfrey and of the alkaloids of Russian Comfrey or are considered to be of sufficient St John’s Wort, a history of tradi- (Symphytum x uplandicum Nyman), a risk or claim to be effective in the tional use may be of limited value in medicinal herb and item of human diet. treatment, management or cure of assessing the pre-market safety of Experientia, 36(4), 377-502. specific diseases or conditions must complementary medicines. Acute Craig, C.R. & Stitzel, R.E. (1990). Mod- undergo pre-market evaluation for adverse reactions may be more eas- ern Pharmacology (3rd Ed.). Boston: safety, quality and efficacy and may ily recognized and likely to be re- Little, Brown and Company. be eligible for listing as Registered ported than adverse reactions that Continued p 13

Page 10 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 The Lead Balloon Pan Pan Pan

Searching through One of our more agreeable tasks The tipster’s recommendations here at Skeptics Central is to store are, of course, covering Pan Pharma- the entrails of the predictions of psychics, and to ceuticals Limited. The title of this a scandal subsequently compare such predic- piece is a play on the distress signal tions with unfolding events. No, the pan pan pan, which readers who are Sydney Olympics were not destroyed pilots or yachties will recognise as by a tidal wave, as predicted on na- the second highest distress call (after tional television. the more famous triple Mayday). The writer, a keen observer of the I have combed through the compa- world of finance, collects the predic- ny’s 2002 audited annual accounts as tions of stockbrokers. Nothing lodged with the Australian Securi- brightens a dismal winter’s Sunday ties and Investments Commission. I afternoon quite like browsing the can see why the pundits gave Pan a year-old tip sheets and reviewing ‘buy’ recommendation — without with hindsight the ‘buy’ recommen- knowing the industry, I would have dations for HIH, Harris Scarfe, and given Pan the thumbs up as well. other corporate corpses (I have The accounts reveal Pan to have vowed to get out a bit more often). been a solid and profitable company. So the following recommendations Sales to 30 June 2002 were $101.5 from a prominent stock research million, up 17.6% from 2001. Costs of house (prudence demands it remain sales were $68 million, but no break nameless) give a sense of up of this into ingredients and Schadenfreude: manufacturing costs is provided. I

21/3/2002 Another buying opportunity!

30/5/2002 Value improving.

05/09/2002 Investing for future growth generates disappointing result.

27/02/2003 Recommendation upgrade as new capacity poised to generate sales growth.

01/05/2003 Manufacturing licence suspended, products recalled, Richard Lead, Accountant and Treasurer of share holders’ investment destroyed . Australian Skeptics, reads balance sheets for fun — poor chap.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 11 Pan, Pan, Pan

expect the cost of ingredients in nesses received a lousy $200 voucher registration to supply those services Pan’s ‘complementary’ products to assist them with the costs of es- in that State or Territory, or would not be high. The balance sheet tablishing GST accounting systems, • if no such State or Territory law is very strong, with $171.7 million in while at the same time, five AltMed exists, the person is a member of a assets, and not one cent of debt. associations received $100,000 each professional association that has Pan was a cash cow. to help them establish ‘uniform na- uniform national registration re- The share register reveals all of tional registration requirements.’ quirements relating to the provision the major banks, insurance compa- Please indulge me in the following of those services. nies, and superannuation funds (in- rant — BHP, the Commonwealth cluding public-sector superannuation Bank, and the Australian Skeptics Victoria is the only State requir- funds) were among Pan’s 2,879 hap- each received $200 to help them im- ing practitioners to be registered less shareholders. plement the GST, while at the same (Chinese Medicine Registration Act Advocates of the AltMed industry time the National Herbalist Associa- 2000) when supplying acupuncture frequently attack the real pharma- tion of Australia, the Australian Tra- or Chinese herbal medicine services! ceutical industry, claiming it is just ditional Medicine Society Limited, It is open season everywhere else in ‘big business.’ And of course, we con- the Australian Natural Therapists this clever country. But not even sumers are told real doctors write Association Limited, the Federation Victoria requires naturopaths to be unnecessary prescriptions to boost of Natural and Traditional Thera- registered. the profits of these greedy multina- pists, and last but not least, the Aus- The Fact Sheet states: tionals. Pan’s accounts show the tralian Acupuncture and Chinese A member of a professional associa- alternative/complementary industry Medicine Association Limited each tion would normally need to meet to be very big business itself. The received $100,000 of your taxes, gen- specified admission criteria and: accounts also show the critical differ- tle reader, to help their members ence between real medicine and woo implement the GST. • have access to a published range of woo medicine. Whenever I analyse a These woo woo merchants were materials (for example journals, company’s accounts, I scrutinise the able to provide GST-free supplies newsletters or technical updates) income tax reconciliation. The corpo- during a transitional period to 30 • be allowed to take part in making rate tax rate is 30% but few compa- June 2003, but after that date, un- decisions that affect their profession nies pay this rate, and the tax recon- less they become ‘registered profes- (ie that are designed to promote, ciliation reveals why. In 2002 Pan sionals,’ their services will lose their encourage and develop the profes- received a $340,000 tax benefit for GST-free status. sion) research & development expendi- The ATO has the unenviable task ture. Because of changes made to the of administering government rev- • have the right to vote at meetings R&D tax concession in 2001 it is enue policies, and I don’t blame the of the association, and impossible to calculate how much ATO for its May 2003 Fact Sheet. • have the right to be recognised as Pan spent on R&D in 2002, but it Many ATO announcements cross my being a member of that professional had to be in the $650,000 to desk each day: most are greeted with association. $907,000 range, well under 1% of bored indifference, some produce a The term ‘professional association’ is sales. But it is simple to calculate wry chuckle, and very occasionally not defined in the GST legislation. the company’s R&D expenditure in they produce anger. Permit me to However, a professional association 2001 with precision — it was exactly share my rage with you. would normally have the following $nil. Such is the reality of ‘comple- From 1 July 2003 acupuncture, characteristics: mentary’ therapies. naturopathy or herbal medicine Pan was placed in Voluntary Ad- services will only be GST-free when • its members are practising the ministration in May, and lawsuits they are: listed profession claiming damages for the world’s • provided by a ‘recognised profes- • it sets its own admittance require- largest product recall in history are sional’, and ments, including acceptable qualifi- flying. The house of cards has discov- cations ered that gravity will not be mocked. • generally accepted in the relevant health profession as being necessary • it sets standards of practice and Your tax system at work for the appropriate treatment for ethical conduct the recipient. A year ago, in the winter 2002 edi- • it aims to maintain the standing tion (22/2, at page 5) of the Skeptic, A ‘recognised professional’ is a person who is either: of the profession as a whole and Bunyip reported my whinge about often prescribes requirements to the special GST treatment given to • subject to a State or Territory law maintain their professional skills alternative medicine in the introduc- requiring permission, approval or and knowledge through continuing tion of the GST. Registered busi- professional development

Page 12 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 • it has sufficient membership to be association to ensure that only naturopathy or herbal profession. considered representative, but not suitably qualified people gain Therefore, it is the acupuncture, necessarily solely representative, of practitioner status. (emphasis naturopathy or herbal profession that listed profession added) that ultimately determines which • it is a non-profit making body services are generally accepted as If you consider all that to be appropriate treatment. • it has articles of association, by- weird, read the final bit: laws or codes of conduct for its mem- The above paragraphs are com- bers, and A recognised professional provides pletely self-referencing and mean- ‘treatment’ when that person as- ingless. At no stage do these associa- • it has the ability to impose sanc- sesses the recipient’s state of health tions have to provide any evidence of tions on members who break the and determines what is needed to the efficacy of their treatments to association’s rules. preserve, restore or improve the enjoy GST-free status. If a group of The ‘uniform national registration physical or psychological wellbeing Skeptics gathered together (inevita- requirements’ relate to the profes- of that recipient as far as that recog- bly, in a friendly pub) and claimed to sional association and not across the nised professional’s training allows. be able to cure headaches by stand- profession as a whole. The phrase ing our patients victims in a bucket ‘uniform national’ means that the The treatment is considered to be of rancid custard, we need no qualifi- professional association’s registra- ‘appropriate’ when it would gener- cations to form a ‘ professional asso- tion requirements must be the same ally be accepted by the relevant pro- ciation that has uniform national in all States and Territories. The fession as appropriate for the registration requirements relating to GST legislation does not specify the recipient. For a treatment to be ‘gen- the provision of those services.’ registration requirements that are erally accepted’, the particular serv- Thanks for the $100,000 Mr Costello. required for acupuncture, naturopa- ice and the circumstances in which thy or herbal medicine. This is the it is provided, must be generally responsibility of each professional accepted by the acupuncture,

Lesson Still Unlearnt

...from p 10 Dean, C. (2003). Good lessons to be Ernst, E. (1999). Second thoughts about MacLennan, A.H., Wilson, D.H., & learnt from Pan debacle. [Online], re- the safety of St John’s Wort. The Lancet, Taylor, A.W. (2002). The escalating cost trieved 11/5/2003 from the World Wide 354(9195), 2014-2016. and prevalence of alternative medicine. Web; Ernst, E. (2002). The risk-benefit profile Preventative Medicine, 35(2), 166-173. http://www.abc.net.au/public/s850921.htm of commonly use herbal therapies: Ginkgo, Ridker, P.M., & McDermott, W.V. (1989). De Smet, P.A.G.M. (1995). Should herbal St. John’s Wort, Ginseng, Echinacea, Saw Comfrey herb tea and hepatic veno-occlu- medicine-like products be licensed as Palmetto and Kava. Annals of Internal sive disease. The Lancet, 1(8639), 657-658. medicines. British Medical Journal, Medicine, 136(1), 42-53. Tyler, V.E. (1993). The Honest Herbal: A 310(3986), 1023-1024. Leyel, C.F. (1971). Culpeper’s English sensible guide to the use of herbs and De Smet, P.A.G.M. (2002). Drug therapy: physician and complete herbal: Arranged related remedies (3rd Ed.). New York: Herbal remedies. The New England for use as a first aid herbal. Hollywood: Pharmaceutical Products Press. Journal of Medicine, 347(25), 2046-2056. Wilshire Book Company. Weston, C.F.M., Cooper, B.T., Davies, De Smet, P.A.G.M. & Touw, D.J. (2000). Hirono, I., Mori, H., & Haga, M. (1978). J.D., & Levine, D.F. (1987). Veno-occlu- Safety of St John’s Wort (Hypericum Carcinogenic activity of symphytum sive disease of the liver secondary to perforatum). The Lancet, 355(9203), 575-576. officinale. Journal National Cancer Insti- ingestion of comfrey. British Medical tute, 61(3), 865-868. Journal (Clinical research edition), Dixon, J. (1986). Parliament of Victoria: 295(6591), 183. Social Development Committee: Inquiry Huxtable, R.J. (1990). Pyrrolizine into alternative medicine and the health Poisoning. The American Journal of Yue, Q, Bergquist, C, & Gerden, B (2000). food industry, vol 1. Melbourne: Gov’t of Medicine, 89(4), 547). Safety of St John’s Wort (Hypericum Victoria. Huxtable, R.J. (1992). The myth of be- perforatum). The Lancet, 355(9203), 576-577. Drew, A.K. & Myers, S.P. (1997). Safety neficent nature: The risk of herbal prepa- issues in herbal medicine: implications rations. Annals of Internal Medicine, for the health professions. Medical Jour- 117(2), 165-166. nal of Australia, 166(10), 538-541. Huxtable, R.J., Luthy, J. & Zweifel, U. Dubick, M.A. (1986). Historical perspec- (1986). Toxicity of comfrey-pepsin prepa- tives on the use of herbal preparations to rations. The New England Journal of promote health. Journal of Nutrition, Medicine, 315(17), 1095. 116(7), 1348-1354.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 13 Feature If it Sounds Like a Duck ...

The alternative to medicine This is the text of a presentation Defining terms given by Peter Bowditch to the I am going to talk tonight about al- sounds very much NSW Skeptics Dinner Meeting on ternative medicine, but before I start February 22. like a duck. I would like to point out that I don’t like the term, because what I will be I am not a doctor. At least, I am not a talking about is neither medicine nor medical doctor — I have a PhD from an alternative. The word “alterna- a fake American university — but I tive” suggests that a choice can be have been called a doctor. Appar- made from a selection of options ently this is a derogatory term in which have similar outcomes. When certain circles. you came here tonight you had the I was continually harassed late alternatives of coming by car, motor- last year by people demanding too bike, pushbike, train, bus, or even know my qualifications to talk about walking if you live close enough. If alternative medicine, as apparently you came by car you had alternatives you have to use it to talk about it. when you bought it. For example, My answer was: you can buy cars with four, five, six, My qualifications are that I am a eight, ten or twelve cylinders (or a scientifically-literate, concerned second-hand Mazda RX7 with no citizen with a particular interest in cylinders); you can get diesel or pet- medical quackery. I am sick of see- rol engines, automatic or manual ing liars and thieves get away with gearboxes (or combinations of the their lying and thieving. I am sick of two) with different numbers of gears. hearing stories about families being All these are alternatives which impoverished in order to pay for would cause no questions if you said useless medical treatments for their you used them to get here tonight. sick children. I am sick of hearing Some alternatives are a bit less about desperate people being robbed likely. If you said that you came by of their life savings by charlatans boat, that is certainly possible be- who only care about money. I am cause you can get boats of a certain sick of hearing that murderers are size up the Lane Cove River to Full- heroes and heroes are murderers. Or, ers Bridge, although it is a bit of a Peter Bowditch, a Vice President of Australian as Sir Edmund Hillary said: “Be- walk up the hill from there. If you Skeptics, maintains both the rage against cause it’s there”. said that you came by helicopter it’s quackery, and a website, ratbags.com.au still believable but you might be dedicated to that aim.

Page 14 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 asked where you parked it. If you a legitimate medical procedure in sponse is often that the wonderful said that you didn’t park it any- cases of true heavy metal poisoning.) results achieved in anecdote land where because you were winched One very common way of getting rid come from the amazingly powerful down from it outside in Help Street of toxins is colonic irrigation, which placebo effect, where the mind tells and the pilot then flew it away peo- your grandmother would have called you to get better. ple might be a bit doubtful, but I an enema except that she was too happen to know the man who runs polite to talk about such things. Clinical trials the CareFlight helicopter service and An apparently contradictory but In the research area, a principle is they have winches on all their ma- still universal principle is that the that clinical trials of alternative chines, so if he said that that was body contains all that it needs to treatments are not necessary, be- how he got here I would have to be- cure itself and is self-regulating but cause all you have to know is that lieve him. it just needs some help occasionally. things work. Personal experience, If someone said, however, that Chiropractors call this “innate intel- that which scientists call “anec- they got to Chatswood in a 747 or by ligence”. This principle means that dotes”, is all the evidence needed. A ocean liner or in an FA18 fighter or you just have to get everything in sub-clause of this principle is that in a Formula 1 car that they bought balance, preferably by using “natu- there is no money anyway to do re- from the Ferrari team after Michael ral” methods. Traditional Chinese search. (Total sales of alternative Schumacher won his last World Medicine adjusts the hot and cold medicine in the US are about $30 Championship you wouldn’t even winds that flow through us, and acu- billion per year, which is about 50% consider that it was possible. Some puncture aligns the qi in the merid- greater than the cosmetics industry, things simply cannot be true. ians when it gets a bit out of kilter, about 4 times the sales of movie tick- The types of alternative medicine but these are just ways of helping ets and about equal to the entire that I’m going to talk about tonight the body heal itself. world market for recorded music. In aren’t vitamins and massage and The next principle is that conven- Australia the expenditure is about meditation and raw food diets and tional medicine is just driven by the $2.3 billion, which is almost the driving here in your family car. In obscene, massive profits that can be same figure as that for our wine ex- fact, I’m not going to talk about made, with a common example being ports. AltMed supporters like to say medicine at all. I am going to talk the $5.4 billion spent on vaccines that this is four times the sales of about lies and theft and deceit and throughout the world in 2001. This OTC drugs, but it isn’t really that fraud and quackery. I’m going to talk is contrasted with the related princi- bad. The Pharmaceutical Benefits about people who claim to be able to ple that the $17 billion spent on Scheme spends about $7 billion, so cure cancer and AIDS and asthma herbal supplements in the US alone alternatives only account for about a and autism and MS and arthritis in that year is evidence that people quarter of the medication spend.) and diabetes and any number of are voting with their wallets for the Some principles are not so di- other diseases and ailments. I will altruistic, profitless alternative al- chotomous. One is that the immune just use the term “alternative medi- ternative. system is under constant attack and cine” as a convenient kind of short- In alternative medicine there is no needs boosting all the time. Another hand. such thing as mental illness or soma- is what George Orwell called tization or anxiety disorders. It is “doublethink”, which is the ability to Principles of “alternative medicine” not possible for the mind to make hold more than one contradictory There are some principles of alterna- someone sick and there must be an idea at a time and believe them all to tive medicine that you might like to external cause. If you point out to an be true. An example of this is that keep in mind throughout this talk altmed supporter that Multiple iridology, reflexology, acupuncture and the demonstrations of devices Chemical Sensitivity looks a lot like and chiropractic all assume the body and potions. One is that the body is agoraphobia or Obsessive Compul- to be filled with meridians or chan- incapable of regulating itself and sive Disorder the reply usually goes nels of information but alts have no consequently becomes polluted with along the lines of “You are saying problem in believing all of them at many toxins. Some of these toxins that it is not real. You are saying once. Another example is the collec- are environmental, like mercury in that it is all in the head”. Trying to tion of guaranteed cures for cancer fillings and vaccines, and some are say that things can be very real, very which each offer a unique cause and just by-products of normal living. To debilitating and still only in the head cure. Another principle is the exist- get rid of these toxins you need to just attracts more abuse. Lying com- ence of energy fields (sometimes take things to flush certain organs fortably beside this principle is the associated with the meridians and like the liver, or to have chelation. one that says that the mind is a pow- channels I just mentioned) which (This is a process where chemicals erful curer of disease and can, by cannot be measured but which can are introduced into the bloodstream itself, work miracles. When the sci- be adjusted with machines and mag- to capture certain molecules and entific absurdity of homeopathy is nets. Allied with energy fields are remove them through the urine. It is pointed out, for example, the re- vibrations, both in the energy fields

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 15 Sounds Like a Duck and in physical objects such as para- 1999, and she owns the publishing kinds including health food varie- sites and cells. company so she gets to keep more of ties. I presume wood alcohol is used A very important principle, of the money than most authors. The to wash equipment used in manufac- course, is that natural is better. Any- Cure for All Diseases is in its 17th turing. If your child has diabetes, thing natural will be good and artifi- edition, and was ranked at position use nothing out of a can, package or cial things are bad. Artificial things 1,494 in sales at Amazon.com on the bottle except regular milk, and no contains chemicals. This nice bunch day this article was sent off for pub- processed foods. of flowers that I have here is an ex- lication in the Skeptic. This is big ample. I picked these this afternoon business. The US Federal Trade By killing this parasite and remov- from the creek that runs between my Commission has recently taken ac- ing wood alcohol from the diet, the house and the local high school. It is tion against Clark, but she has pro- need for insulin can be cut in half in a castor oil plant and the seeds con- tected herself well. Her son distrib- three weeks (or sooner!). tain ricin, which is one of the most utes her products in the USA, her toxic substances known to man. The brother does Canada, her web site is Be vigilant with your blood sugar seeds don’t have very much poison in hosted in Ohio but run by a man in checks. The pancreas with its tiny them, so each seed can only kill Switzerland. She has another site islets that produce insulin recovers about three people. It’s very natural, which says that all of these are inde- very quickly. Even if 90% of them very available, and very deadly pendent of her. She employs a PR were destroyed, requiring daily insu- The one overarching principle of man and a lawyer to abuse and de- lin shots, half of them can recover or alternative medicine, however, is fame people, but she can throw any regenerate so insulin is no longer that science is unnecessary, closed of of these people overboard at any necessary. The insulin shot itself mind, knows nothing and wants to time. Her son is already claiming may be polluted with wood alcohol know nothing. Science does not rec- that the web site named Dr Clark (this is an especially cruel irony — ognize the reality of the universe we Research Association (the name of the treatment itself is worsening the live in but instead tries to force real- one of her businesses) has nothing to condition). Test it yourself, using the ity into a set of man-made rules. do with her and the man who runs it wood alcohol in automotive fluids Science is also highly fallible, as can swing in the wind. (windshield washer) or from a paint evidenced by the way that scientists I have spent some time on Clark store, as a test substance. Try differ- can disagree with each other and because she epitomises quackery. ent brands of insulin until you find even change what is believed to be She has no science, she gouges one that is free of methanol. true. money, she runs from any request for evidence and her only responses to Artificial sweeteners are polluted Specific examples. criticism are ad hominem attacks with wood alcohol! Instead of help- Let’s get on to some specific exam- and lawsuits. ing you cope with your diabetes, they ples. Here’s something from her book are actually promoting it! Do not use I have here a book called The Cure that might be of interest to anyone them. for All Diseases, by Hulda Regehr with diabetes. Clark, PhD, ND. The same author Drugs that stimulate the pancreas to Diabetes Can be Cured has followed this up with books make more insulin may also carry called The Cure for All Cancers, The solvent pollution; test them for wood All diabetics have a common fluke alcohol and switch brands and bot- Cure for All Advanced Cancers and parasite, Eurytrema pancreaticum, The Cure for HIV/AIDS. The author tles until you find a pure one. You the pancreatic fluke of cattle, in their may not need them much longer, so has a legitimate PhD degree earned own pancreas. It seems likely that in 1958 for physiology. The “ND” the extra expense now may soon we get it from cattle, repeatedly, by reward you. stands for Doctor of Naturopathy, a eating their meat or dairy products degree she obtained from a mail- in a raw state. It is not hard to kill Copyright (c) 1993 by Hulda Regehr order place called Clayton Univer- with a zapper but because of its in- Clark, PhD, ND. sity. (Americans have difficulty un- fective stages in our food supply we derstanding why Australians find can immediately be reinfected. And what about cancer this so funny.) Someone once sug- Eurytrema will not settle and multi- The Cause gested in a public forum that the ply in our pancreas without the pres- “ND” stood for “not doctor” and at- ence of wood alcohol (methanol). For many years we have all believed tributed this witticism to me. I was Methanol pollution pervades our that cancer is different from other flattered but I had to admit that I food supply — it is found in proc- diseases. We believed that cancer hadn’t thought of it, although I wish essed food including bottled water, behaves like a fire, in that you can’t I had. It’s been estimated that Clark artificial sweetener, soda pop, baby stop it once it has started. Therefore, sold $7 million worth of books in formula and powdered drinks of all you have to cut it out or radiate it to

Page 16 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 death or chemically destroy every Devices assimilated into medicine and no cancerous cell in the body since it Several devices, potions, techniques longer be an alternative. What can never become normal again. and alternative ideas were then makes it work can be identified and NOTHING COULD BE MORE demonstrated and discussed, includ- isolated, and may even be synthe- WRONG! And we have believed that ing: sised so that it can be produced in a cancers of different types such as reliable fashion (aspirin is an exam- • Zappers using electricity, sound leukemia or breast cancer have dif- ple). Much of what is called “alterna- and magnetism, following the theo- ferent causes. Wrong again! tive medicine” has the same relation- ries of Hulda Clark, Royal Rife and ship to real medicine as pornography Robert Beck; In this book you will see that all has to love making. Actually, porn is cancers are alike. They are all • A water-powered device to in- more honest because the partici- caused by a parasite. A single para- crease breast size; pants aren’t pretending to be doing site! It is the human intestinal fluke. anything else. • A hand-held microscope used to And if you kill this parasite, the I never blame the people who are determine a woman’s fertility; cancer stops immediately. The tissue sucked in by the quacks and frauds. becomes normal again. In order to • Applied Kinesiology, demonstrat- If you are desperate with a terminal get cancer, you must have this para- ing the difference in strength when or chronic condition it is only natural site. someone is holding sugar or to look for answers anywhere. Some aspartame; medical interventions are unpleas- How can the human intestinal fluke ant, and doctors are rushed and har- • Perkins Tractors and their de- cause cancer? This parasite typically assed at times. Sometimes there is scendant, Therapeutic Touch, used lives in the intestine where it might no answer. The average person to ease the pain of arthritis (the do little harm, causing only colitis, doesn’t understand science and may patient said that it hurt more after- Crohn’s disease, or irritable bowel even distrust it, so they are easy wards, but he was told that this was syndrome, or perhaps nothing at all. prey for scamsters who abuse science a healing crisis); But if it invades a different organ, (in both meanings of the word like the uterus or the kidneys or • Homeopathic vaccines (see more “abuse”). The bottom line is that the liver, it does a great deal of harm. If about this in the Skeptic 22:3); frauds steal not only the money of it establishes itself in the liver, it • A faith healing in the Benny Hinn their victims, but their hopes and causes cancer! It only establishes tradition (This was performed be- their lives. itself in the liver in some people. fore the main show); None of this is new. The following These people have isopropyl alcohol words come from a publication called in their bodies. • A chiropractic adjustment (this Pseudodoxia Epidemica, written by was done on a soft toy — no humans Sir Thomas Browne in 1646. In be- All cancer patients have both isopro- or animals were harmed in the mak- tween paragraphs ridiculing urine pyl alcohol and the intestinal fluke ing of this speech); therapy and astrology (both unfortu- in their livers. The solvent, isopropyl • Could I leave out the anti- nately still with us), he had this to alcohol, is responsible for letting the vaccinators? Of course not! say about “Saltimbancoes, fluke establish itself in the liver. In Quacksalvers, and Charlatans”: order to get cancer, you must have both the parasite and isopropyl alco- No alternative For their Impostures are full of cru- hol in your body. There is no alternative medicine. elty, and worse than any other; de- There is medicine that works and luding not only unto pecuniary Copyright (c) 1993 by Hulda Regehr there is something else that doesn’t. defraudations, but the irreparable Clark, PhD, ND. If some folk remedy can be proved to deceit of death” be effective and safe then it will be National Convention Canberra August 22-24 See insert for more details

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 17 Nutrition Myths Life in the Raw

Do not believe everything Raw vegetables are always better have improved palatability after than cooked cooking. you hear about raw food. OK, so the proponents of raw cui- There is a mixture of sheer pleasure sine don’t really mean legumes, root and envy when you hear for the first vegetables and others. They are re- time a quote that you wished you ferring more to the salad vegetable, had furnished yourself. US econo- the carrot, broccoli and tomato. They mist Roger Brinner said “The plural are also highlighting the errors of of anecdote is not data.” If only the cooking vegetables for extended peri- pop-nutritionist would take note. In ods. It is well established that many nutrition, there are many ingrained vitamins eg vitamin C, are easily beliefs that appear to hold veracity destroyed by heat and light, hence by virtue of being repeated many the recommendation to quickly cook times. Last edition we examined the vegetables in minimal water, such as view that you must drink 6-8 glasses micro-waving. Mineral losses are low of water daily. Another is that raw during normal cooking. vegetables are better for you than cooked. This one just makes sense More beta-carotene? doesn’t it? How could this not be Back to the raw vegetables. Are they true? Surely cooking kills the nutri- always a better choice? Many studies ents? have revealed that beta-carotene and Cooking antioxidant phenolic compounds are actually more bio-available from Well, let’s get the bleeding obvious cooked vegetables compared with out of the road first. Some vegetables raw. This is probably due to cooking need to be cooked before they become breaking down the tough cell walls, remotely edible. Raw potato, pump- releasing the nutrient content for kin, turnip and swede, for example, easier absorption from the small will not be found in the gourmet intestine. restaurant. The entire legume group Dr Sue Southon, Institute of Food needs to be soaked and cooked before Research in the UK, says that the Glenn Cardwell, a dietitian specialising in being considered a food. Of course, body is able to absorb around 3-4% of sports nutrition, is a regular columnist for there is a large cohort of children the carotenoids (beta-carotene is an the Skeptic. who do not believe such plant foods example) in raw carrots, but the

Page 18 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 absorption increases fivefold if they cooked for 25 minutes. The total Hunt by Martin Jones (Penguin are cooked and mashed. antioxidant activity of the cooked 2001) and The Ice Man by Brenda Carotenoids are present in corn was 44% higher than the raw Fowler (Pan Books 2002) you will chloroplasts in the leaves of dark- form. appreciate that humans have been green leafy vegetables, which are not It must be noted that the vitamin cooking for thousands of years. It readily digested in the body. In car- C level dropped as expected when makes food taste better, it is an ex- rots they are in a crystalline form, cooked as the vitamin C was oxidised cellent manner to kill many food- which dissolve very slowly. It is be- to inactive components, but as we borne bacteria, and as we have seen lieved that the fibre of vegetables don’t have a vitamin C problem (sup- for some nutrients, it makes them also entraps the beta-carotene, re- plement company hype notwith- more bioavailable. ducing its availability to be incorpo- standing) then you just might be rated into micelles prior to absorp- better off with the extra ferulic acid My tip tion from the intestines. By and getting your vitamin C from If you cook your vegetables, cook comparison, beta-carotene in fruits fruit and salad vegetables. them quickly (eg microwave) and in is contained within the readily di- minimal water, such that they retain gestible cell wall. More sulphoraphanes? their crispness. Eat a mixture of Carotenoids enjoy a lipid environ- In a paper presented to the Ameri- cooked and raw vegetables to get a ment, so they are generally easier to can Chemical Society in March this full range of those wonderful antioxi- absorb if present with some oil or year was evidence that if you chew dant compounds that vegetables fat. That’s right – a low fat diet your broccoli well, the cells rupture provide. This makes scientific sense means less access to the 600 releasing an enzyme that encourages as well as good food enjoyment. With carotenoids in the food chain. Adding the production of sulphoraphanes. only one in 10 people eating enough a bit of oil to your cooking, or to your There are two types of vegetables to be good for them, salad dressing can improve caroten- sulphoraphane, a sulphur-rich and a there’s a good chance we could all oid absorption. sulphur-poor version, with the sul- add more to our plate. For best nu- phur-rich type having the most po- trient retention, keep your fruit and More lycopene? tent cancer fighting properties. An- veg cool and away from sunlight. Lycopene is the red pigment in toma- other enzyme they called ESP tips toes, watermelon, guava and pink the balance to the sulphur-poor ver- References: grapefruit. It is from the family of sion. Mann J & Truswell AS. Essentials of carotenoids and has a strong antioxi- As you can imagine, cooking dena- human nutrition 2nd edition. Oxford dant activity. It has been linked to a tures protein/enzymes such that University Press 2002 reduced risk of prostate cancer in they can no longer do their job, so Shils ME, Olson JA, Shike M, Ross AC. men and heart disease. Researchers cooking stops ESP. Unfortunately, Modern Nutrition in Health & Disease have found that cooking tomatoes cooking also kills the enzyme that 9th edition. Lippincott Williams & can double the amount of lycopene catalyses the formation of the Wilkins 1999 that we can access. Being from the sulporaphanes in the first place. New Scientist 5 April 2003, p 25 “Knock- carotenoid family, it too will be bet- Genetic engineering may be able to out broccoli fights cancer” ter absorbed if cooked with a little reduce ESP levels such that well- De Pee S, West CE, Permaesih D, oil. This is good news for the pizza chewed low-ESP raw broccoli is Martuti S, Muhilal, Hautvast JG. Orange lover. The lycopene in the tomato anticarcinogenic. I mention this be- fruit is more effective than are dark- paste will be easy to absorb, so you cause it shows us another example green, leafy vegetables in increasing won’t get prostate cancer (but only that nature is more complex than a serum concentrations of retinol and beta because the saturated fats will clog simple cooked v raw debate. carotene in school children in Indonesia. your arteries first!). Am J Clin Nut 1998; 68: 1058-1067 It’s sad really Dewanto V, Wu X, Liu RH. Processed More ferulic acid? sweet corn has higher antioxidant activ- After one of my “here’s the common ity. J Agric Food Chem 2002; 50: 4959- A recent study showed that cooked sense you never seem to hear about 4964 sweet corn has a higher antioxidant nutrition” presentations, a gentle- Dewanto V, Wu X, Adom KK, Liu RH. activity than the same corn before man came up and told me that elec- Thermal processing enhances the nutri- cooking. The corn was cooked accord- tricity was to blame for many ill- tional value of tomatoes by increasing ing to the normal canning process nesses that have befallen mankind. total antioxidant activity. J Agric Food (115o Celsius for 25 mins) resulting With electricity came cooking and Chem 2002; 50: 3010-3014 in a 25% reduction in the vitamin C the destruction of nutrients leading content. One antioxidant chemical, to heart disease and cancer, the two ferulic acid found in the cell wall of main causes of death in western grains, oats and corn, quintupled in society. Poor man. Should you take a bioavailability when the corn was look at, for example, The Molecule

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 19 Feature Agricultural Alternatives

It is not only in medicine and In the area of medicine the fight is • living microbial preparations; and healthcare that unscientific always between users of scientific, • strange preparations that trans- evidence-based practices and those mute in cow horns. alternatives are widely individuals and companies promot- We have also seen uncritical tel- ing quackery. Perhaps a less well- promoted evision shows on the national broad- known saga, but just as long-run- caster, and on its web sites, provid- ning, deals with the controversies in ing de facto advertising and agriculture. On the one hand are promotions for various products. those promoting or practising the This is, of course, not purely an conventional approaches involving Australian phenomenon; it is equally fertiliser, pesticides, animal vaccina- common around the globe. A number tions, in line with scientifically vali- of sites on the internet promoting a dated and recommended best prac- diverse range of alternatives now tices from government researchers spread the messages far and wide. and agricultural advisers. On the Alternatives can incorporate vari- other there are those promoting a ous husbandry systems but gener- whole variety of “alternatives” — ally feature a predisposition towards sometimes derided as the ‘muck and organic practices, or new testing mystery’ approaches. There are clear services for soil or plant samples. parallels here between agriculture The latter enterprises often do uti- and medicine, and they are equally lise the latest in equipment, how- important, given the continuum be- ever, they also often import interpre- tween agriculture, food and indi- tations from overseas that sharply vidual health. vary from those developed within Alternatives on offer Australia. Those practising such alternatives are often characterised Over the past thirty or more years by strong and rigid ideologies, in- we have seen: cluding vehement opposition to con- • dolomite promoted as a great al- ventional agriculture and new tech- ternative to superphosphate ferti- nologies, such as genetic liser; modification of plants, quasi-reli- gious zeal, and a propensity to sus- David Conley is an agricultural scientist • the promotion of seaweed-based pend critical thought. from Melbourne. products as fertilisers or growth stimulants;

Page 20 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Again, similar to alternative Nor do I question in any way the country’s history, with the judgement medical therapies (and some legitimacy of soil and plant testing. running to 333 pages. fundamentalist religions), the propo- I merely question the appropriate- Justice Ellis concluded: nents of the alternatives seek to ness of certain groups’ chosen tests, ... that Maxicrop did not work… and claim scientific validity for their the validity of the interpretation and on the balance of probabilities… this approach but, alas, the scientific the resulting product recommenda- applied to all varieties of Maxicrop evidence typically remains lacking. tions. marketed in NZ. Public sector research institutions in The focus here is on the ‘magic Australia have committed significant bullets’ sold to the community on the The defence of justification was resources to investigating various basis of anecdotal evidence (at best), therefore successful. He also consid- claims without finding the elusive cobbled together with science and ered that: ‘alternative’ to conventional agricul- pseudoscience and mixed with a an assertion that the scientific evi- ture. strong dose of an appealing ideology. dence clearly established that The lack of scientific validation, This mixture of fact and fiction Maxicrop did not work would be fair however, has not been reflected by a also causes problems for farmer con- comment on a matter of public inter- withdrawal of products or modifica- sumers, and agriculture profession- est that would be protected by this tion of claims, although company als alike, as the underlying scientific defence… structures, ownership, strategies, basis for product claims can range branding, claims and value proposi- from very little to 95% of the story. But of course seaweed fertilisers tion can be somewhat dynamic. Gen- The skill is in picking where the remain on the market and quick erally, as with alternative medicine, facts finish and the fiction begins. visits to several web sites makes for negative results are ignored while enlightening reading for the scien- neutral or supportive evidence is A celebrated case tifically minded. One site mentions cited. Since the 1970s Australian and New that over 70 micro-elements are con- Zealand agriculture has seen a range tained within its products but fails Organic means what? of ‘magic’ products and their associ- to mention that plants only require We also see some very astute mar- ated controversies. Of particular sixteen elements to grow. Growth keting whereby ‘organic’ is no longer relevance is a major court case* in hormones are being claimed as ben- a carbon containing compound in New Zealand that validated a scien- eficial, notwithstanding the negative chemistry, but an approach eschew- tific approach to assessment but, as findings of the earlier judgement on ing the ‘conventional, technological subsequent events showed, exposed these very claims. and chemical’ for the ‘natural, un- the unwillingness of a bureaucracy Another site quotes trial results adulterated, and traditional.’ We to uphold scientific principles over for its products and concludes from have certification schemes and political compromise. Needless to say the data presented that sodium and trademarks adding brand value to the products are still out there in the chloride levels are lower in plants products. We have literature and marketplace. receiving its treatments, however, advertising that seeks to increase In 1986, the Bell Booth Group in the marked differences in the key uncertainty and fear amongst con- NZ, marketers and distributors of nutrient levels (nitrogen, phospho- sumers in relation to basic food Maxicrop (a seaweed extract) initi- rus, potassium) between treatments resources. In agriculture we com- ated litigation against the Ministry are not commented on at all. Nor is monly see, as a key part of the value of Agriculture and Fisheries and the design explained and nor are the proposition, products offering sav- Television New Zealand following treatments described in relation to ings in one of the major operating comment about the product on an amounts per unit area of crop. But cost areas on farm — the costs of investigative television program, the Before and After photos are im- fertilisers. Fair Go. This court case became the pressive. I should explain here that this then longest running civil case in the So not even the full majesty of the article does not seek to deride or- law can daunt the seaweed purvey- ganic farming, as such. Good hus- ors, nor has the evidence shamed bandry techniques for soils, plants * In an entertaining book on the court them into amending their claims. and animals always make sense. For case and subsequent events, Dr Doug Edmeades describes not only the case but example, appropriate crop rotations Biodynamics the machinations of a bureaucracy he break soil disease cycles and in- recounts as sadly lacking in support for An unquestioning article on ABC crease plant yields. Paddock rota- its scientific staff and scientific principle TV’s, Gardening Australia website tions for stock can reduce parasite in general. describes Biodynamics as a: burdens. Increasing organic matter Science Friction: The Maxicrop Case and sophisticated form of organic agri- to the soil will assist soil structure the Aftermath by D C Edmeades. Pub- culture which uses specific prepara- and soil nutrient levels in many lished by Fertiliser Information Services, tions and techniques to enhance soils. PO Box 9147 Hamilton, NZ

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 21 Agricultural

plant growth and maximise the way for one hour. The container essential for plant and animal quality and flavour of produce. must be copper, stainless steel or growth (eg, zinc, selenium, copper), earthenware, never plastic. The solu- cannot be reliably interpreted in In another web article, and with a tion is then sprayed onto the garden. relation to either animal or plant touch more American hyperbole, 500 is said to stimulate root activity, needs. This reflects that nutrients in Sherry Wildfeuer describes biody- microbial activity and contribute to soil exist in various ‘pools’ of varying namics as: humus building. availability, that plant requirements a science of life-forces, a recognition for certain nutrients varies over of the basic principles at time, as does the abil- work in nature, and an ity of plants to extract approach to agriculture the nutrients, and which takes these princi- that animal require- ples into account to ments vary according bring about balance and to the type of animal, healing. In a very real its age, reproductive way, then, Biodynamics state, and the nature is an ongoing path of and condition of the knowledge rather than feed in a paddock. an assemblage of meth- In the 1980s and ods and techniques. 90s it was not uncom- (www.angelicorganics.com) mon for new ‘consult- The credit for biody- ants’ to appear offer- namics lies with Dr ing multi-element Rudolf Steiner in Ger- tests (major elements many in the 1920s. Alex and various trace Podolinsky, a student of elements) and predi- Steiner, migrated to Australia in the Soil testing and self-styled consultants cating fertiliser application on the late 40s and has successfully pro- basis of the tests. Some such consult- Soil testing to determine soil pH (a ants sold soil testing services and moted the approach over a long pe- measure of the acidity or alkalinity), their advice, while others also on- riod, so much so that I have read salinity levels, and macronutrient sold various products from conven- that Australia leads the world in levels for phosphorus (P) and potas- tional fertilisers and trace element biodynamic agriculture. Our beloved sium (K) is commonly used across all additives to alternative fertilisers. ABC has also been instrumental in agricultural regions of Australia. The important thing for any new promoting the approach with a very The tests are interpreted in relation consultant was to have a selling an- popular A Big Country story some to liming requirement (pH), possible gle. years ago and more recently, an epi- salinity problems, superphosphate sode of Australian Story. You know fertiliser requirement (P) and potash Dangling the hook the sort of program: rural idyll, con- fertiliser requirement (K). The inter- In the mid-80s I wrote an article on tented cows, background classical pretations are generally based on soil testing in which I recounted music, and no critical analysis. accumulated trial or experimental some points made in the USA, about Central to the belief system of data, calibrating different responses claims that the soil ameliorant, dolo- biodynamics are “the preparations.” in plant growth according to level of mite, could replace superphosphate. One example — again it is all on the fertiliser applied and level of soil At the time a major controversy web — will suffice: nutrient. about the topic was relatively raging Notwithstanding serious and pro- A preparation known as ‘500’ is across SA and western Victoria (as I longed attempts, the list of nutrients claimed to be the most powerful said, these issues are not new). that can be measured in soils and substance for increasing soil fertility. These points identified a recognised reliably interpreted for management To make this preparation, cow horns promotion pattern for alternative purposes remains surprisingly short. are filled with fresh cow manure products and services. Having Well short of the 16 elements re- and buried over winter. They are checked the web sites for several of quired for plant growth, and very dug up several months later by the products the points clearly re- much short of the “70 which time the manure has been main as relevant today, and of micronutrients” in the seaweed prod- converted to colloidal humus - a course, not only for agriculture. concentration of aerobic bacteria. A ucts. Modern technology allows for • The product contains a secret or fistful of 500 is enough for a one- precise measurement, but it is in the unknown ingredient; acre garden. It is mixed with warm area of useful interpretation that the rain water and stirred in a special testing of numerous elements fails. •its remarkable results are due to a The soil levels of trace elements,

Page 22 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 newly-discovered “secret principle,” only successful marketing and qual- those wonderful quirks of regulation, or is a new approach to soil chemis- ity management tools but they may it has been historically possible to try or soil fertility; also provide a badly needed value- obtain registration for a fertiliser or added proposition to producers. Most •the discovery is so new that most ameliorant that didn’t work. Efficacy producers working within such sys- scientists haven’t heard of it yet; or was not an aim of the regulation tems can ill afford to lose certifica- system. Again the parallel with al- • there is a conspiracy amongst tion. ternative medicine is glaringly obvi- government and university scien- ous. tists to ignore results; or Regulation Modern agriculture is increasingly • they refuse to undertake trials; The role of government in dealing triple bottom line focused with em- with all these alternative approaches phasis on not only economic benefit • tests under controlled conditions is, not unlike areas such as alterna- but also social and environmental (experiments) don’t show the ben- tive medicines, a curious one to say gains. No doubt the converts to alter- efits obtained in practical situa- the least. Agriculture Departments native approaches receive social and tions; with strong scientific heritages have environmental gains that outweigh • testimonials support the claims, not infrequently been put in the po- potentially negative economic conse- and converts supply the testimoni- sition of supporting the development quences, and we can accept that als (check out the “before” and “af- of organic agriculture, given the al- lifestyle choices often reflect more of ter” photos); lure of growing export or domestic one’s faith and values than an un- markets for the products, but, sadly, derstanding of science. However, the • there is often some good science it is increasingly apparent that sci- rights of the evangelists to rely on and sound management advice in entific rigour must give way to mar- pseudoscience, fear, and downright “the package”. ket forces. Scientists are no longer lies to peddle their products is some- On this latter point, I raised ear- encouraged to challenge organisa- thing to which the agricultural com- lier that the accuracy of the science tional support for the unscientific. munity should not acquiesce. Agri- could range from low to 95% making Nor are they encouraged to adopt culture is a tough business at the it difficult to ‘winnow the chaff from any sort of advocacy role on behalf of best of times. the wheat.’ There is no easy answer the agricultural consumer. The But if it gets too tough in agricul- to this difficulty in product or prac- threat of litigation saps institutional ture, there is always the home gar- tice assessment. It is also difficult for courage relatively easily. den market and I suspect the mark- individuals to commit to only part of The use of regulation to control ups are better as well. I’ll just put a package, particularly where some the sale of unproven agricultural some seaweed extract in the water- of the alternative ideologies are very products might be thought to be one ing can, add water and spruce up the much all-or-nothing approaches. avenue of consumer protection, how- daisies with all those micronutrients Certification schemes in organic ever, what limited capacity that ex- and growth stimulants. agriculture, for example, are not ists is rarely used. In another of

Whither the Weather?

Some sage once said, “Everyone from passing NOAA weather satel- images, which show low cloud and talks about the weather but no one lites, and then promptly places the vegetation distribution, can sometimes does anything about it”. Now Skeptic images at: look quite stunning. But at our house subscriber, Andre Phillips, an as- we find the greatest use of this website tronomer at Siding Spring Observa- www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~map/weather is taking a punt on whether to put the tory near Coonabarrabran, has washing out or not. changed all that, as his note below This website has proved to be very use- Readers with keen memories explains. ful for Siding Spring astronomers, but might recall that Andre’s previous Recently, for the benefit of the remote also anyone interested in forecasting mention in these pages chronicled observers using our Automated Patrol the weather in south eastern Australia his marriage to Claire, whom he first Telescope, I put together a weather and Tasmania. These images are met at a Skeptics function. satellite receiving station here at Sid- somewhat clearer and more detailed ing Spring Observatory. This receiv- than the pictures seen on TV and ing station gathers weather images newspaper weather reports. Daytime

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 23 Feature Skepticism and Psychotherapy

Unhelpful approaches to The following is the text of a talk 3. Unorthodox, empirically tested and mental and emotional presented by Prof Jill Gordon to persistent despite their failure the NSW Skeptics Dinner Meet- Most of the unorthodox approaches disorders ing at the Chatswood Club on look attractive at first, but end up April 12. failing scientific testing — eg, rapid eye movement desensitisation. (Suc- What do we mean by psychotherapy? cessful therapies eventually become Psychotherapy can be defined simply the orthodoxy.) as the treatment of mental or emotional disorders. Pychotherapies 4. Unorthodox and not empirically tested can be classified as: “The crazy therapies”, according to Singer and Lalich. 1. Orthodox and empirically tested An interesting feature of this Supportive psychotherapy — provid- group is the profound lack of interest ing an open and non-judgemental in truth or accuracy — or at least a opportunity to discuss problems. “post-modern” aura that makes the Cognitive behaviour therapy — truth whatever you want it to be. challenging and changing negative These therapies include way-out thoughts and beliefs. methods for way-out diagnoses such Pharmacotherapy — using mind- as repressed memory syndrome and altering medication. multiple personality disorder (disso- ciative identity disorder). 2. Orthodox and not empirically tested Intersecting with the psychologi- The most famous example of ortho- cal disorders are numerous appar- Jill Gordon is Associate Dean for Medical dox psychotherapy that was never ently physical disorders, for which Education at the University of Sydney. She tested in any meaningful scientific psychotherapy may be more appro- also practises as a pychotherapist on way is psychoanalytic psycho- priate than orthodox medical Sydney's North Shore. therapy. therapy. This is the group of syn-

Page 24 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 dromes, most recently Gulf War syn- chotherapy. After some five decades care rebate for a visit to a doctor, drome, but including chronic fatigue of its advocacy as the preferred whether qualified in psychological syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome method for the treatment of emo- medicine or not. Doctors have also and multiple chemical sensitivity. tional disorders . . . . we have no managed to keep tight control over These syndromes are almost cer- evidence that any one way of doing it the right to prescribe medications, tainly more closely connected to the is better than any other or that long- another factor that has ensured anxiety disorders, including post- term is superior to brief psycho- medical dominance in the treatment traumatic stress disorder in veterans therapy. (Frank 1961). of psychiatric conditions. of war, than to any other cause. It is interesting to speculate on We also need to why psychoanalysis per- remember that Therapies Orthodox Unorthodox sisted in the US long while the principle Can Be after it had been largely of Ockham’s razor eg, cognitive be- eg, rapid eye movement dropped in the UK and in advocates that we Tested haviour therapy desensitisation (failed Australia. The reason for prefer the simpler to but flourishing) this is almost certainly the more complex traceable to the Second explanation of any Untested eg, psychoanalysis eg, primal screaming, World War and the fact condition or event, repressed memory that three quarters of the sometimes a less syndrome mainly Jewish psycho- obvious explanation, analysts who fled Europe or even two explana- in the 1930s travelled to Therapists Scientific Unscientific tions may be re- the US. In Madness on Can Be quired and they are the couch: blaming the most often a combi- victim in the heyday of Caring The ideal therapist The quack nation of physical psychoanalysis, Edward and emotional fac- Dolnick speculates that Uncaring The technician The psychopath & guru tors in any illness the appeal of psychoa- experience. nalysis from the analysts’ perspective at this time, Psychoanalysis Confronted with this distressing was its reliance on nurture as an Among the orthodox psychotherapies state of affairs, some ... reply that explanation of psychopathology, we tend to think of psychoanalysis psychoanalysis was never really rather than nature, so vilely ex- as the prime example, with famously intended as a method of treatment ploited by the Nazi regime. It may narcissistic figures such as Woody but as a research tool for the investi- have seemed more acceptable to ex- Allen having daily psychotherapy for gation of the personality. But this is plore elements of the environment, decades and still finding the seduc- hardly any more credible, since the such as the family, that could be tion of Mia Farrow’s adopted daugh- ‘research’ method seems to follow changed, and to reject genetics or ter OK. Woody Allen’s approach is none of the accepted scientific princi- neuro-chemical disturbances or any “I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t ples of prediction, design, control other explanations that seemed to want to be there when it happens.” I and quantification . . . The history of offer a narrow reductionist account heard recently that Woody had given science . . . is replete with instances of psychopathology, less amenable to up on psychoanalysis, which must be in which an initially liberating intervention. devastating for his therapist. (Can conceptualisation, once institution- you think of any other job in which alised, becomes a barrier to progress. Despite the bunkum, psychological you only need to persuade anything What is most amazing about psy- disorders are real and important from ten to twenty people to pay choanalysis is that it survived for so There is no doubt that psychological money to talk to you for an hour long, while in the field of clinical disorders are common and may be twice or more each week, in order to psychology, real scientific progress incapacitating. I put aside for the make a large amount of money?) was occurring, while failing to be moment some of the most serious Psychoanalysis has been amaz- adopted in routine medical practice. psychiatric conditions such as ingly resistant to skeptical assaults. This reflects the dominance of the schizophrenia and manic-depressive Forty years ago, Leon Eisenberg, an medical profession as much as any- disorder, where the neuro-chemical academic psychiatrist in the US ob- thing else. In Australia today, pa- disturbance behind the disease is served: tients cannot obtain Medicare rebate becoming more and more clear and From any scientific vantage point, from a registered clinical psycholo- more and more susceptible to effec- what is remarkable is the preoccupa- gist with many years of clinical expe- tive treatment using antipsychotic tion with intensive individual psy- rience, but they can obtain a Medi- drugs. For psychiatrists who are old

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 25 Psychotherapy

enough to remember what psychiat- Quack psychotherapy There are no licensing requirements ric hospitals were like before these for training, and no professional Next door to our old practice, Satur- drugs were invented, this 20th cen- organisation to which therapists are day morning surgery was regularly tury advance is by far the most mi- accountable. You can be a real estate interrupted by strange and disturb- raculous of all in the practice of psy- agent, a graphic artist, an English ing noises coming from the alterna- chiatry. teacher or a hairdresser, and still tive medicine practice across a However, even relatively mild call yourself a hypnotherapist by laneway. This proved to be due to disorders can significantly damage hanging a certificate on your wall “primal scream” therapy being con- quality of life. In contrast to the that took as few as 18 hours of ducted there. Woody Allen view of navel-gaz- courses in hypnosis. ing self indulgence, think of the There are also many adver- damage done, in particular by tised ways of obtaining relief severe depressive disorders from psychological problems, including postnatal depression, including motivational work- post-traumatic stress disorder shops and the employment of life and even personality disorders. coaches who have about as much The depressive disorders in training as the hypnotherapists. particular can be fatal because People do not know what they of the danger of self-harm. The are getting and therapists do not eating disorders likewise carry necessarily know what people a risk of death. Personality dis- want. orders such as borderline per- sonality can involve significant The unconscious mind self-mutilation. Less serious, Scientific research does not sup- but also distressing and the port the psychoanalytic concept anxiety disorders — OCD, pho- of the unconscious mind as the bias, generalised anxiety disor- reservoir of repressed sexual and der. Some of these prevent peo- traumatic memories. There is ple from participating in life, however, ample evidence that developing relationships or there is a type of memory of working. which we are not consciously So here we sail between aware, yet which is remembered. Scylla and Charybdis — not This type of memory has been over-inflating the importance of called implicit memory. A famous psychological disorders but not example concerns a patient who denying them. had brain damage resulting in In depression alone, we know partial memory loss. She was that many suffer in silence, that unable to remember recent there is still shame attached to the Arthur Janov is the name associ- events and every time the treating diagnosis and that it may well be the ated with so-called primal therapy. neurologist saw her in the hospital, price of a creative mind — famous According to Janov the patient frees she could not remember having seen sufferers include Michelangelo, Van himself of primal pain by learning him before. One morning he intro- Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dar- the proper way to scream. Variations duced himself for the hundredth win, Abraham Lincoln, Schumann, , on the theme abound; Daniel Casriel time. He held out his hand with a Handel, Milton, Coleridge, Byron, uses New Identity Process (NIP) to pin hidden in his palm, and as they and Winston Churchill. unblock whatever is blocked and shook hands, the pin pricked the In post-traumatic stress disorder, Nolan Saltzman practises Bio palm of her hand. The next day, she we are only just coming to grips with Scream Psychotherapy. (His scream- again could not remember him, and how to counteract the effects of war, ing is said to be better than Casriels met him as if for the first time. terrorism and torture on psychologi- or Janov’s because it has more When he held out his hand she re- cal well being. Unfortunately we “Love” in it!) fused to shake it, and felt a fear that seem to be incapable of avoiding war, There are many advertised ways she could not explain. This story and all too ready to bury not only the of acquiring qualifications in psycho- illustrates the existence of two kinds dead, but the terrible after-effects on therapy — from university degrees of memory. those who have been involved in to weekend courses. For hypno- In order to have memories we conflict. therapy, Singer and Lalich note: need extensive development of the frontal lobes, which infants and

Page 26 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 young children lack. Memories must made in the field of neurochemistry The application of the scientific be encoded to be lasting. If encoding and neurophysiology. He said: is absent, amnesia will follow, as in method. the case of many of our dreams. If All our provisional ideas will some New methodology to combine the encoding is weak, fragmented and day be based on an organic sub- results of scientific studies to arrive implicit memories may be all that structure … We take this possibility at the best available evidence for the remain of the original experience. into account when we substitute efficacy of any kind of treatment. There is no possibility of recalling special forces in the mind for special abuse or anything else in prenatal, chemical substances. 1. Evidence from imaging early postnatal life or infancy. As you know, ordinary X- We simply don’t have that ca- rays do a great job of show- pacity in the frontal lobes until ing up bones and picking the early stages of develop- out organs which contrast ment are complete. with air, as the heart con- Implicit memories of abuse trasts with the lungs, but do occur, but not under the ordinary X-rays do not pick conditions assumed to be the up the brain inside the basis of repressed memory human skull. syndrome. Implicit memories Positron emission tom- of abuse occur when a person ography (PET) scans detect is rendered unconscious during decay of radioactive tracers an attack and cannot encode in the bloodstream to form the memory very deeply. This active images. PET can be can happen for example, dur- used to diagnose changes ing a vicious attack such as a in brain activity due to rape. A woman may lack ex- mental illness, drug use, or plicit memory, because she was disease such as Alzheimer’s unable to deeply encode the disease and Parkinson’s trauma due to the viciousness disease. of an attack, in which she lost CAT scans are a step consciousness. She may still forward from X-rays be- suffer terribly from the implicit cause in a CAT scanner the memory, lacking the capacity rays pass through the to recall exactly what it is that brain in a narrow beam. causes her such deep distress The X-rays travel through and anxiety. Not only is this the body at various angles, person likely to suffer at the allowing cross-sectional hands of the law, as women images to be obtained by X- have done for countless centu- ray detectors arranged in ries, but she is in danger of an arc. They feed informa- further abuse if an untrained tion to a computer that therapist creates a false memory in If Freud is right, then we should generates the scan image. the victim, abusing her yet again. expect to reach a time when psycho- MRI scans are similar to CAT The completely unsubstantiated therapy will be based on a much scans in some ways, but produce arguments are that all psychological more advanced understanding of the clearer and more detailed pictures. problems arise from experiences in way the mind/brain actually works. What happens in an MRI scan is early childhood. We know that some This is becoming a reality and the that radio waves are used to excite children suffer terribly, but manage application of scientific thinking is atoms in the brain. This produces to become well-adjusted adults and occurring in three different ways, magnetic changes, which are de- that some people with relatively one of which is of the type that tected by a huge magnet surround- happy experiences in childhood suf- Freud predicted. ing the patient. These changes are fer from psychological problems. The diagnostic capacity of modern again interpreted by a computer and There must be better explanations medical imaging techniques many of turned into a very precise three- that some of the crazy notions being which have been made possible by dimensional picture. MRI scans can peddled today. the development of powerful comput- be used to detect very small brain Freud himself believed that the ers to create images in a variety of tumours, for example. most significant advances would be ways. MRI scans provide more detailed information about the brain than

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 27 Psychotherapy

CAT scans. MRI scans can be ob- that are activated by erotic films are This may seem self evident, but it tained from numerous different an- the same as those involved in addic- is interesting to note the vigorous gles, whereas CAT scans can only be tion to drugs such as cocaine — the opposition that has come from some obtained in the horizontal plane. visual areas / limbic areas / orbito- doctors, who should welcome EBM However, MRI scans share with CAT frontal cortex and amygdala. with open arms. One of the reasons scans the limitation of telling us behind the opposition is almost cer- 2. Research in psychotherapy about the structure of the brain tainly the fact that this is a revolu- rather than about its functions. The difficulties of undertaking re- tion of Copernican proportions. The The MRI technology has been search in psychotherapy help to ex- doctor is no longer the sun, in the applied to the measurement of brain plain some but not all of the slow middle of the health care system. activity to provide functional MRI progress we have made. She or he has been displaced by a (fMRI). This approach provides Problems new solar system — the sun is now three-dimensional images of the the best available evidence at any brain with areas of high activity • Meaningful control groups given time and the doctor is just one clearly indicated, so one has a pic- • Uniformity of treatment of the planets in the system. ture of the brain while it is function- The evidence that this new sun ing. Functional MRI provides more • Ethics of randomisation represents is most easily accessed by precise spatial information than PET • Double blindness doctors with the training to under- scans, and it also shows changes stand the evidence, but it is not lim- over much shorter periods of time. • Measuring long term psycho- ited to doctors. They no longer have You may be familiar with pixels therapy. completely privileged access to which an abbreviation for “picture knowledge, and in fact, a determined element”. It is the smallest graphic 3. Evidence-based medicine lawyer, for example, should be able unit of display on a screen. Now a Even when good scientific research to obtain the best available evidence, “voxel” is a 3D pixel, and represents is carried out, as it has been, there independent of the expert medical the activity of several thousand neu- are serious challenges in combining witness in a law suit. rones. One day it is predicted that the results of different studies that we will be able to measure activity in may use different methods. This is What do we know about individual neurones. In the future it another area where the power of psychotherapy that works? will be possible to directly observe computers to manage huge amounts The personality of the therapist him- the chemical action of medication in of data has enabled us to move to- self or herself probably makes a the body, and make precise diag- ward a firmer base for medical prac- greater difference than the discipline noses of conditions such as ADHD. tice, now called EBM. Evidence in which they trained. The evidence We can now examine brain devel- based medicine (EBM) emphasises of the dynamic nature of the brain opment in ways never thought possi- the need to move beyond clinical suggests that we can make signifi- ble. We now know that schizophrenic experience and physiological princi- cant changes to the wiring of the patients have activity in the part of ples to rigorous evaluations of the brain through practice — giving the brain that registers sounds in consequences of clinical actions. more credibility to the claims of CBT. the same way, whether they are Just because something seems to Factors in the patient are impor- hearing actual voices or reporting make sense, it doesn’t mean that it tant, including the pre-morbid per- hearing voices. (fMRI) will work. Eating the brain of a sonality, early environment, intelli- We know that the prefrontal cor- dead tribe member does not confer gence and the social circumstances tex (the part of the brain that helps the characteristics of that person to of the individual – family, friends, us to assess social relationships and the consumer. housing, etc. to plan control of social behaviours) In medicine, it was thought for The first 18 months of life are thickens just before puberty, then many years, that premature new- vital — and the growing brain does slowly returns to prior state. Sur- born babies would benefit from be- not need the stimulation of kindy- prised? ing giving a little extra oxygen in jimbaroo etc etc, but the gratification We know that a person learning the air in their humidicribs. It took of basic sensory and other physical Braille for the first time will experi- some time before the connection was needs, such as any loving adult can ence development of the cortical area made between the oxygen level and supply. that represents the finger tips. When the damage caused to the developing the Braille practice stops, the area retina. Even when the research was Basic trust in the personal and reverts to its original size. conclusive, this practice persisted, physical world that surrounds him We can now see that certain areas causing needless blindness in hun- is the air that the child must breathe of the brain are involved with experi- dreds of vulnerable premature ba- if he is to have roots for his own ences such as pleasure. There is bies, as if they did not have enough sense of identity and for the related evidence that the pleasure areas to contend with.

Page 28 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 sense of his place in the world stand to make huge profits from just hard slog alleviated by the joy of Lynd, 1958. psycho-active drugs. The most amaz- understanding the nature of things. ing thing about modern drugs is that It is true that the early months of they should be less appealing than 3. Laziness life are vital, as demonstrated so the mood-altering drugs that pre- This leads us to the last reason why tragically by the children institution- ceded them: A century ago, so many crazy psychotherapies prosper, and alised during the Ceausescu regime medicines were laced with opium that is laziness. If you can make in Romania. However, the simplistic that the US imported the equivalent loads of money and have loads of explanations of the links between of 15 doses to every man, woman, prestige with so little effort, then childhood experiences that may not and child in the country each year. why worry about the harm you have even happened, and the per- No sooner had opium been curbed might be doing? Even the patients sonal characteristics of the adult than cocaine became popular. In the you harm will be grateful, although patients who accept the validity of 1930s barbiturates became the drug victims’ families and friends may crazy therapies is another matter of choice and the 1950s ushered in not. altogether. Just as there are four the amphetamines, which were pre- types of psychotherapy, there are scribed for everything from depres- The essence of a valid therapeutic four varieties of psychotherapist. sion to weight loss. This was fol- experience The therapies may be orthodox or lowed by benzodiazepines such as The goal of mental health treatment unorthodox, tested or untested. The Valium in the tranquillizer decade. therapists may be caring or uncar- is to help an individual to grow in Prozac and other anti-depres- terms of their personal maturity and ing, and their approach may be sci- sants now rank among the best-sell- entific or unscientific. coping skills. Outcomes should in- ing drugs of any kind. But these clude improved quality of life and Why does non-evidence-based drugs are much less effective than improved interaction in significant many consumers and doctors believe. psychotherapy prevail? social settings, such as within the The newer antidepressant drugs family, or with friends and co-work- Three reasons are apparent: the post only marginal advantages over ers. money, the prestige and laziness. placebos in clinical trials for major People can gain significant help depression, and cause frequent and 1. Money from relatively objective, evidence- unpleasant side effects. based therapy in an environment Because psychological interventions Considering all of the evidence, where they can discuss emotionally are hard to evaluate, there is always including the evidence that cognitive challenging issues in safety. someone who can make a buck out of behaviour therapy is just as effective To give Freud his due, and despite them. Wherever there is a buck to be as pills for mild to moderate depres- the failings of classical psychoanaly- made, it is the investor as well as the sion, it is difficult not to conclude sis, the British psychiatrist Anthony supplier of services who stands to that the pharmaceutical companies Storr said in 1996: benefit. Here is an excerpt from a have pulled out all stops to mislead prospectus from Salomon Brothers (a the medical profession about the Freud’s technique of listening to Wall St brokerage firm) referring to efficacy of drug treatment for depres- distressed people over long periods, the way it works in the US: sion. rather than giving them orders or The psychiatric hospital industry is advice has formed the foundation of attractive for investors. In-patient 2. Prestige most modern forms of psycho- psychiatric care is widely insured, As has been shown repeatedly, the therapy, with benefits to both practi- occurs with predictable and increas- successful guru is one who can cre- tioners and patients. ing incidence and is complex enough ate a world in which all of his or her to render cost control efforts difficult predictions are fulfilled. The greatest References . . . human fears are fear of death, fear of loneliness, fear of making the Dolnick, Edward. Madness on the couch: blaming the victim in the heyday of psy- [Additional] advantages over gen- wrong decision and fear of failing to choanalysis. Simon and Schuster, 1998. eral hospitals include the wide- lead a meaningful life. Quacks suc- Singer, Margaret Thaler and Lalich, spread acceptance of two classes of ceed by offering a sure-fire remedy psychiatric care (high quality in Jania. “Crazy” Therapies 1996. Jossey- for one or more of these aspects of Bass. private psychiatric hospitals. . . the human condition. Religions suc- versus lower-quality care in govern- ceed by offering a sure-fire remedy ment-owned mental health centers). for all four. The associated prestige (advisory to clients: The Psychiatry makes it very hard to take the path Hospital Industry - Industry Over- of science, where the prestige is lim- view.) ited to a tiny number of award re- Pharmaceutical companies also cipients, and daily work is mainly

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 29 Investigation Microwave Ovens, John F. Kennedy, Anti-Semitism and Homophobia: Or, the safety of cooking a dinner in 3 minutes flat

Author learns that there’s a For more years than I can remem- The Treatise ber, some relatives of whom I am lot more to cooking than very fond have been attempting to Health Freedom Resources watching a TV chef. wean me from my addiction to cook- Public Awareness Bulletin #1 ing with microwave technology. 12 June 2000 They are concerned that the nutri- ents in my food will be destroyed by microwaves, that toxic materials will This excellent article was be produced by the radiation and, I written by Anthony Wayne and suppose by inference, that my over- Lawrence Newell. Reprinted weight 90 kg body will fade to a with the permission of The mere skeleton and I shall come down Christian Law Institute. with terminal cancer. Recently, I was handed a photo- Radiation Ovens copied treatise that ‘demonstrated’ that microwaving was bad for my The Proven Dangers of Microwaves health and that I would be well ad- vised to ‘stop it at once’ — although whether or not I would also go blind was not expressed. I decided to re- Is it possible that millions search the claims made in the trea- of people are ignorantly tise, and using this newly gained sacrificing their health in knowledge, either give up my micro- exchange for the convenience wave habit completely, or continue of microwave ovens? Why did with my culinary habits. the Soviet Union banned the Much to my surprise, my research use of Microwave ovens in led me down some very murky trails, 1976? Who invented microwave including into the cesspit of Ameri- ovens, and why? The answers can and European anti-Semitism, to these questions may shock David Vernon, who works at the Dep’t of the JFK conspiracy theories and Chris- you into throwing your mi- Environment, is a founding member of the tian fundamentalism — places that I crowave oven into the trash. Canberra Skeptics. normally avoid like the plague.

Page 30 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 So began the ten-page treatise #3 — Aspartame kills hosted by Lawgiver.org, whose pur- that would wean me off microwave #8 — Aluminium metal poison pose according to its ‘privacy state- ment’ is as follows: cookery. #14 — Dangers of vaccination The version of Public Awareness #15 — The olive oil scandal The Lawgiver.org network represents Announcement #1 (henceforth PAA1) an ecclesia - ekklesia - of Good and that I had been given had been writ- #23 — Bad MDs and Gun Control Lawful Christian Men and Women ten in Courier font and appeared to #57 — Children’s vaccination warning. assembled in the Liberty of Fellow- have been photocopied several times. ship and Freedom solely in and of Page numbers were written in by Not wanting to destroy three major Our Sovereign Lord and Savior hand. It was therefore unclear native forests in downloading all the Jesus, the Christ. This electronic whether this was a document that PABs, I chose one (PAB23) which means of bringing His Gospel to all had been transmitted via the Inter- seemed particularly incongruous. the world, including all the material net (where much pseudo-scientific PAB23 compares the number of acci- posted herein, is an exclusive Do- material resides these days) or dental deaths caused by physicians main of and in Christ Jesus as de- whether it had been typed and re- in the United States (apparently clared by His Authority as absolute typed and handed on. If it were an 120,000pa) with the number of acci- Sovereign King of Kings. All Inter- Internet publication then I would be dental deaths caused by gun owners net pages on the Lawgiver.org net- able to find some ‘context’ regarding (apparently 1,500pa). By dividing work are private Ecclesiastic the authors and publishers and this the number of deaths by physicians material reserved for the exclusive would help identify their approach to and by gun owners, Ron Radstrom use and viewing of those who are of the subject. states that “Statistically, doctors are the Tree of Life. A search on the Internet found at approximately 9000 times more dan- least fifty sites hosting the exact gerous to one’s health and life than Furthermore: treatise or a very close copy of it. gun owners.” He concludes his arti- The Lawgiver.org network is not a Not all had the heading ‘Health cle with: religious organization, not-for-profit Freedom Resources’ but all had the Please alert your friends and family corporation, IRS 501(c)3 tax exempt tagline that this very important to this alarming threat. We must status, or any other artificial or document was written by Anthony boycott the services of allopathic fictional organization or entity; nor Wayne and Lawrence Newell. physicians before this gets out of are we subject to any commercial laws, the UCC, codes, statutes, ad- ‘Health Freedom Resources’ hand. Fact is, ‘Guns don’t kill peo- ple, conventional medicine does!’ ministrative rules, UCMJ, martial My first task was to find out about law, or any other purported regula- ‘Health Freedom Resources.’ What Without even checking Ron’s sta- tions and laws that are not founded type of organization was it? Did it tistics, there are two simple points to of the Tree of Life. We are responsible have any scientific credibility? be made. Firstly, how many deaths and answerable only to the Laws of Health Freedom Resources Inc, are deliberately caused by physi- God, the Lex Ecclesia Domini. based in Florida, USA, appears to be cians (negligible) and compare this Finally: a organization run by a gentleman to how many deaths are deliberately called Rod Radstrom who sells caused by guns (28,663)? Secondly, We are not in any way associated herbs, homeopathic remedies, alter- if you had colon cancer, would you go with, nor do we approve of, any non- native-medical technologies etc. As a to a physician for help, or a gun Christian, non-ecclesiatic, fascist, or ‘free’ service to its members and cus- owner? racist group using the Name of tomers, it provides an: Discovering the nature of “Health Christ Jesus as a means for their Freedom Resources” did not con- promotion of non-Biblical and anti- ... on going series of informative demn the authors of PAB1 however. Christian beliefs and ideals. articles aimed at helping you im- More research was required. prove your life and the lives of oth- What this actually means is hard ers… the articles we will select are The Christian (Common) Law Institute to ascertain, but some quotes from intended to point out to our public and Anthony Wayne news articles on the website high- where the ‘land mines’ are located light the views of those who run it. and where the taped path really lies According to Ron, PAB1 was re- towards a harmony with life and printed with permission of the Chris- On women: nature on all its dynamics. tian Law Institute. A search on Google failed to identify such an To find a masculine president, one Among the fifty-seven Public institution. However, it did identify a has to go back to Ronald Reagan. Awareness Bulletins (PAB) on offer Christian Common Law Institute Before that, however, the vast major- were: run by Anthony Wayne (one of the ity of US presidents, Republican and #2 — Fluoride – Cure or curse authors of PAB1 ) among others. The Democrat, exuded masculinity and Christian Common Law Institute is manliness. Those days are over.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 31 Microwaves

Today, women must be appeased Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by How microwave ovens work and catered to. They are the heads of assassins employed by the United Microwave ovens work by firing non- businesses, the heads of churches, States Federal Reserve Bank. An ionising radiation at food. The radia- and the heads of their homes. In afterthought to the paper (possibly tion used is called non-ionising ra- politics, the women’s vote is usually not written by Anthony Wayne) con- diation because it does not detach the one that turns the election. cludes (in the author’s own words/ charged particles from atoms and Women serve on military ships and spelling and punctuation): hence produce radioactive in military operations. elements. Microwaves are They dictate their chil- found in the electromagnetic dren’s upbringing spectrum between radio (which explains why waves and visible light. Mi- most of them grow up crowaves used in ovens are undisciplined and electromagnetic waves with spoiled, by the way) and a frequency of 2.45 have the final word on gigahertz or 2,450,000,000 virtually all family cycles per second. When a decisions. Such a phe- microwave hits a water mol- nomenon is the sign of a ecule the chemical bonds nation in trouble. God’s vibrate. These vibrations prophet warned that one increase the heat in the of the marks of a nation water, causing the neigh- under divine judgment bouring non-water mol- is when “women rule ecules to warm up via con- over them.” (Isa. 3:12) The WMD in the kitchen? duction. Hence, unlike ‘conventional’ ovens where On the American Civil War: This is the real reason for the JFK the food is warmed up from the out- side (by convection) and relies on The alleged civil war was a war assassination! All the other reasons conduction to transfer the heat to between the southern Christian Con- are the jew/banker controlled CIA/ the inside of the food, a microwave stitutional Republic of America and Secret Service mis-direction propa- (depending on the consistency of the the northern foreign commerce mer- ganda… These jew bankers have food) heats the food reasonably well chants (mostly British) who sup- robbed White Christian Americans throughout. ported the central government and of TRILLIONS since at least 1913 ! Do you think they would hesitate to their military as an enforcement tool The effects of microwaving food of their desires. assassinate the US President or anybody, or any amount of people, or Now according to PAB1 microwaving do whatever they had to, to keep this has a range of effects on food: On social security: GIANT scam going ??? …Because of The friction causes substantial dam- this jew banking system, they have The Social Security systems also age to the surrounding molecules, financed ever war in the last cen- plays an important role in sealing often tearing them apart, or force- tury, & have killed over 100,000,000 the fate of a people … Social Secu- fully deforming them. The scientific White Christians world wide ! rity is both a Corban which Jesus name for this deformation is ‘struc- Spread this e-mail to everyone you warned against [see Mark 7:11] and tural isomerism’. a corvee system of statutory labor know & look it up for yourself… Stop believing the jew controlled [not unlike that slavery in Egypt] Structures of molecules are torn media. Follow the Scriptures, & where by a portion of your sweat, apart, molecules are forcefully de- search for the truth in everything. blood and tears becomes the property formed… and thus become impaired of the State in return for the security Just because Anthony Wayne in quality. and protection of that exclusive cor- writes conspiracy theories and may porate society. have colleagues who write gram- Because of the force involved, the cells are actually broken, thereby I could find no biography of matically bizarre anti-Semitic mate- neutralizing the electrical potentials, Anthony Wayne on the site, but I rial, does not mean that his argu- the very life of the cells, between the was able to find a link to another one ments within PAB1 on microwaves outer and inner side of the cell mem- of his research reports entitled JFK are incorrect. That leads us to our branes. Impaired cells become easy vs the Federal Reserve. This six next stop, an examination of ‘se- prey for viruses, fungi and other page paper clearly identifies lected’ facts within PAB1. micro-organisms. Anthony Wayne as the author. In summary, it explains that John Since people ingest this altered food,

Page 32 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 shouldn’t there be concern for how waves emitted by the atoms and PAB1 states: the same decayed molecules will molecules of a radioactive substance This tragedy makes it very apparent affect our own human biological cell as a result of nuclear decay.’ Radia- that there’s much more to ‘heating’ structure? tion causes ionization, which is what with microwaves than we’ve been led occurs when a neutral atom gains or Cooking, by definition alters foods to believe… It’s very obvious that loses electrons. In simpler terms, a whether by microwave or convection. this form of microwave radiation microwave oven decays and changes It breaks down molecules and makes ‘heating’ does something to the sub- the molecular structure of the food them easier for the body to consume. stance it heats. It’s also becoming by the process of radiation. That’s why we cook foods. These quite apparent that people who proc- ‘deformed’ molecules and the ‘cells Anthony Wayne has confused ion- ess food in a microwave oven are [that] are actually broken’ provide us izing radiation with non-ionizing also ingesting these ‘unknowns’. with the nutrients that we need to radiation. Ionizing radiation can As could be expected in the USA, live. Indeed, our entire digestive indeed alter molecules by adding or the unfortunate case of Ms Levitt system is set up to destroy cells into removing electrons from atoms. Mi- ended up in court. According to the their molecular components, and crowaves, coming from the non-ioniz- June 1997 edition of the Risk Man- break down molecules. PAB1 has set ing part of the electromagnetic spec- agement Foundation, Harvard Uni- up a straw argument. Although the trum have no such effect. There is no versity Legal Report, it was alleged words are emotive — ‘substantial radioactive decay of the food. that the “heating of the blood led to damage’, ‘tearing apart’, ‘forcefully haemolysis (break down of the red deforming’, ‘impaired in quality’, Microwaving and babies’ milk blood cells) and this released a large ‘decayed molecules’ — they are sim- Baby formula manufacturers often amount of potassium into the blood, ply a description of the function of warn parents not to warm the for- which proved fatal.” our digestive system. mula in the microwave oven. Some Like babies milk, blood heats un- PAA1 tells us that microwaved US agencies, according to Anthony evenly in microwave ovens, and it is food is toxic: Wayne, have stated that some nutri- quite likely that patches of blood Naturally occurring amino acids ents and other properties of milk (or overheated and the cells were dam- have been observed to undergo iso- formula) may be destroyed or dam- aged. Again, this is not because there meric changes (changes in shape aged by microwaving. He uses this are ‘unknowns’ in the blood, but be- morphing) as well as transformation as further evidence for microwave cause the heating of the blood was into toxic forms, under the impact of ovens being dangerous. done poorly. microwaves produced in ovens. Warnings are given to parents for one fundamental reason. Microwave The inventor of microwave ovens As microwave energy only heats ovens do not heat food evenly. That’s According to PAB1: water molecules, that in turn, via why turntables are used in ovens, to conduction and convection, heat the improve the distribution of the mi- The Nazis, for use in their mobile food, any changes in molecules crowaves. Liquid milk is notorious support operations, originally devel- would occur exactly in the same way for not heating evenly. As a parent I oped microwave… cooking ovens to that it does in conventional cookery am well aware that I must shake the be used for the invasion of Russia. (up to the boiling point of water). bottle before giving it to my baby, not By being able to utilize electronic There is less chemistry occurring in to do so risks dreadful burns to the equipment for preparation of meals microwaved food than occurs in con- child’s mouth and tongue. If the bot- on a mass scale, the logistical prob- ventional cooking. This can been tle is ‘over heated’ then these hot lem of cooking fuels would have been seen by the fact that microwaves do spots will destroy nutrients. Just in eliminated… not brown foods. The high tempera- the same way that milk heated in a tures required to do the browning Electricity grids after battles are saucepan, if over cooked, will destroy notoriously poor and usually nonex- (ie, — chemically modify the food nutrients. It has nothing to do with components to char and blacken istent (particularly in Russia where microwaving; it has everything to do there were very few powered villages them) are not reached in microwave with heating. ovens . Microwaves do less damage or towns in 1941) and therefore to food than boiling food in water Microwaved blood kills patient transporting a bulky electric micro- (nutrients tend to be retained by wave oven is impractical. Perhaps, In 1989 an unfortunate woman, scarce diesel was used to run elec- food cooked in a microwave owing to Norma Levitt, underwent a blood the shorter cooking time). tricity generators, rather than transfusion in Oklahoma, USA. The putting it in battle tanks, so that PAB1 also claims that microwaved nurse, who was in a hurry to ensure food is like irradiated food: troops could have hot cocoas? Link- that the blood was at the correct ing the Nazis with the allegedly evil Radiation as defined by physics body temperature, heated it in a microwave is a clever rhetorical de- terminology, is ‘the electromagnetic microwave. Ms Levitt died shortly vice, but completely incorrect. after the transfusion.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 33 Microwaves

Troops cooked their food over fires, there is merit in their arguments have drawn from everything that even at Battalion headquarters. against Dr Hertel’s study. has life. They have no right to exist. Cooking fuels were too hard to come SAMSHEA’s claims were based on They will find themselves starving by. Destroyed houses had lots of two main issues. Firstly, that Dr soon enough, even while taking the wood in them. Hertel’s sample size of eight people food from others, for they are spir- The microwave oven was invented could hardly be called a scientific itually on a trip to a hell of their in 1946 by Dr Percy LeBaron Spen- study and secondly, that Dr Hertel’s own creation whether they realize it cer, a scientist working for Raytheon collaborator, Professor Blanc disa- or not. Corporation in the USA on radar greed completely with the published applications. He walked past a findings, stating: On homosexuality: magnetron one day and discovered While the published figures and that a chocolate bar in his pocket Homosexuals are generally highly description of the preliminary ex- had melted. From small things come advanced people. They are as a periment are correct, I totally disas- great technologies. rule, fine of stature, beautiful and sociate myself from the presentation of noble appearance, friendly, pleas- and interpretation of the prelimi- Cults and microwave ovens ant, gentle and of a rather spiritual nary exploratory experiment carried nature and tend therefore often to PAB1 makes a big thing of ‘scientific out in 1989, which was published work in the muses and spiritual research’ by Dr Hans Ulrich Hertel, without my consent by the co-au- professions. In order to balance a retired Swiss scientist. Indeed, thor… The results obtained do not in their polarization - changed male- three of the ten pages of PAA1 are any circumstances justify drawing female status - most homosexuals devoted to the Hertel study. PAB1 any conclusions as to the harmful are left-handed. states: effects of food treated with micro- waves… Dr Hertel was the first scientist to Every honest and normal human conceive and carry out a quality PAB1 failed to note that Professor being must feel and suspect that clinical study on the effects Blanc, Dr Hertel’s collaborator, and such behaviour is abnormal and microwaved nutrients have on the arguably the more qualified member totally against morality, ethics, blood and physiology of the human of the team, completely repudiated decency, uprightness, and purity body. His small, but well controlled Dr Hertel’s findings. This intrigued and leads to depravity and decay. study showed the degenerative force me, so it was back to the Internet There has been nobody around up produced in microwave ovens and again. to the present time who could bring the food processed in them… Hertel’s Dr Hans Ulrich Hertel is not un- light into this highly disgusting scientific study was done along with known to the court system. As Presi- situation. Dr Bernard H Blanc of the Swiss dent of the World Foundation for And the World Foundation’s in- Federal Institute of Technology… Natural Science, he was convicted terest in microwaves? Apparently, and fined in 1999 for violating Swiss After the publication of the study the “cellular phone (which uses mi- anti-racism laws. in the Journal Franz Weber, No 19, crowave energy) is a strategy of Some illustrative quotes from the 1992, which sported a cover of a grim Zion.” Furthermore, “the secret World Foundation for Natural Sci- reaper holding out its hand towards world government is using mobile ence website give a feel for his views: a microwave oven, the Swiss Asso- telephones to strongly reduce the ciation of Manufacturers and Suppli- On the effect of electricity on the earth: world’s population in that the sig- ers of Household Electrical Appli- nals are said to make men infertile.” ances (SAMSHEA) sought, and was …the unnatural technologies of An objective assessment of Dr given, a court injunction against modern electricity and communica- Hertel’s writings and the views of Journal Franz Weber and Dr Hertel tion are increasingly affecting life’s his World Foundation, shed some to stop them claiming that micro- natural steering mechanisms. The doubt on the credibility of his micro- wave ovens were dangerous. This unnatural technical radiation is wave oven research. injunction was sought under Unfair perverting the sun’s natural radia- Competition laws. tion and is thereby directly causing Dinner time Dr Hertel appealed this decision physical and mental illness to life. Having looked at the facts of to the European Court of Human microwaving food and considered Rights and in 1998 he won, on the On Jews: the attributes of those who claim it grounds that ‘freedom of expression is dangerous, I must go now and is necessary in a democratic society.’ Zionist-jews consider themselves to cook my dinner. It should be hot While the manufacturers of a be something special and consider it within three minutes. product can be expected to have a their right to live at the expense of strong interest in rebutting claims mankind and suck the planet dry that microwave ovens are not safe, like vampires. For centuries they

Page 34 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Expose

A B Fruit Hairy Diagnosis Kiwifruit Pineapple Lychee Dates Condiments Chicken stock (Magi) MSG (621) Mixed herbs Tomato sauce (Fount’n) The nursing sister in question is in Early in 2003 I received a very im- Tomato paste (Leggos) pressive flyer from a company, fact not allergic to carrots, nor indeed BBQ sauce (Eta) Naturopathic Services, PO Box 3920 to anything else mentioned in either Worc. sauce Robina QLD 4230. It offered allergy of the reports. She considers herself testing by either probing [non- very allergic to most cheeses, but the Soy sauce invasively] an acupuncture point on three types of cheese in the report Horseradish sauce the thumb or by my simply sending a passed with flying colours. She was, Gravox sample of hair (plus money). however, devastated to realise that Vegemite They claimed to use “modern elec- she was allergic to Lindt chocolate! Promite tronic equipment” to test 260 sub- While the “test” results were to- Beef stock (Magi) stances, both generic and proprietary tally different, the advice contained Vegetables and that “medications will not affect in the covering letters was almost Carrots Carrots this test.” The brochure explicitly identical, suggesting mainly avoid- Nuts stated that “Colours and perms do ance of the highlighted items, and Pistachio Hazel not affect the testing”, and that “Hair that the naturopath be contacted Meats/Fats testing is just as accurate as testing after 4 weeks. The one difference Canola oil Olive oil on an acupuncture point”. This last between the two letters was, however, Grains/Cereals claim I would, perhaps, agree with. startling. The form that was re- Kidney beans White rice My theatre sister at the hospital turned to me carried the extra advice Baked beans (Heinz) Wheat bran occasionally has her hair streaked, so that I check the Yellow Pages for a Dairy Foods I asked her to provide two small, dif- Naturopath who specialises in preg- Margarine (Flora) Nuttalex Margarine ferent coloured, hair samples, which nancy! Vitasoy Aussie soy she wrapped in plastic wrap as per This little exercise cost me $190, Ice cream (Pauls vanil) since I was not able to take advan- the instructions, and which I did not Sugars tage of their “Start of the Year Spe- in any way directly handle myself. Honey I then sent off two copies of the cial” offer in time, but I believe it Carob application form for testing of each of would be $190 well spent if this could Chololate (Lindt) these two samples, one in my name at be brought to the attention of the my address, and one in her name at appropriate authorities in Queens- Drinks her address, and in each case simply land, in order to expunge a mail order Beer Port mentioned that the owner of the hair scam like this. Both the sister and I Tea Coffee had hay fever. would be happy to provide statutory Fanta (Orange) Green tea We each received the appropriate declarations as to the veracity of the Chemicals (and radically different) test results, details which I have provided in this Softly fabric softener Cold Power (blue) which are shown below. Although the article. Hair/Fibres two samples (albeit of different col- (Test Results, abstracted from the Silk ours) were from the head of the same forms received, are listed in the ta- Food Colours person, it would appear that only one ble. Column A contains those sent to Yellow substance, No 72 — carrot — was the sister and Column B those sent Others common to the two reports. to the doctor.) Cigarette smoke

The author of the above piece is Dr Cholm Williams, a prominent Sydney-based plastic surgeon, who will be guest speaker at the next NSW Skeptics Dinner Meeting at the Chatswood Club on July 5. Full details will be contained in the insert in this issue (NSW subscribers only). The title of his talk will be:

The Skeptical Plastic Surgeon: Ponce de Leon meets P T Barnum It will cover historical and current aspects of appearance manipulation, and the way charlatanry has always been an integral part of the scene.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 35 Report Homeopathetic: Martin Bland and the Horizon Dilution Experiment

Further insights into an At the monthly meeting of the Can- similar experiment by Madeleine berra Branch of the Statistical Soci- Ennis at Queens University, Belfast, important experiment ety of Australia on 29 April 2003, in 2001. The Horizon experiment in Professor Martin Bland of St 2002 was conducted in an attempt to George’s Hospital Medical School, reproduce Ennis’s findings. University of London, gave a talk on a homeopathic experiment which The experiment recently aired in the UK on the Hori- In the Horizon experiment, there zon program (Nathan Williams and were 5 tubes of histamine at each Rosie Schellenberg, BBC 2002) and dilution, 20 tubes in all, and 20 con- in Australia in two parts on Catalyst trol tubes. These were split and the (ABCTV). Martin, the statistician on halves of each tube’s contents sent to the project, presented some very two separate laboratories. The assay interesting detail which did not get used measured basophil activity in mentioned in the TV program. This human blood. In each laboratory, additional detail provides insight blood samples were taken from each into the way poor statistics can lead of 5 human volunteers. The propor- to wrong conclusions. tion of active basophils in each blood The experiment was conducted sample was measured after mixing according to the most rigorous scien- with the test dilutions. All measure- tific standards, under the auspices of ments were done blind and in ran- the Royal Society, and with dom order. The resulting 200 meas- randomisation and double blinding urements were then averaged over at every stage. First, a homeopathic the 5 subjects. The result was 40 treatment was created by diluting a observations, together with their 40 histamine with water one part in matching numerical labels (20 corre- 100, repeated 15, 16, 17 or 18 times, sponded to the homeopathic dilution so as to make it very unlikely that and 20 to the plain water). any molecules of the histamine re- The code which identified the ori- mained. The control substance was gin of the dilutions was broken on made by treating pure water in the camera. To make the presentation same way. The object of the experi- televisual, for each laboratory, the 40 ment was to see whether the homeo- labels were listed on a flipchart in pathic dilution is any different from two columns of 20, in order of the Borek Puza lectures in statistics at ANU, plain water in its effects on human observations’ size, awaiting a code when he not designing game shows blood. The hypothesized effects were which would match each label with revolving around doors. suggested by positive results in a either C (standing for control) or D

Page 36 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 (standing for dilution). If the homeo- observations for each subject, possi- Martin and the team of research- pathic dilution had some effect, it bly because of an ageing of the blood ers (including the famous James was reasonable to expect more D’s samples as they awaited processing. Randi who offered to pay than C’s in the first column, and vice In particular, the results from the US$1,000,000 in the event of a posi- versa in the second. It turned out first laboratory exhibited a roughly tive result) have written a paper on that for the first laboratory there cubic trend, with the first 20 values the Horizon experiment which has were 9 D’s and 11 C’s in the first for each subject generally smaller been turned down by Nature, where column, and 11 D’s and 9 C’s in the than the last 20. Thus if the treat- the controversy began, on the second column. This is almost ex- ment had been applied to the first grounds that the subject has moved actly what one would expect if the half of the blood samples and the on to the specialist literature. They homeopathic substance had no ef- control to the second half, it might are hoping for a better result else- fect. For the second laboratory there have been concluded that the homeo- where. were 11 D’s and 9 C’s in the first pathic dilution is different from column, and 9 D’s and 11 C’s in the plain water. For the Horizon experi- Editor’s Footnote: second column. ment a cubic regression was used to Many Skeptics who saw this Horizon Thus overall there resulted ex- adjust in each laboratory separately program covering the investigation actly what one would expect if the and the residuals averaged across of claims made for homeopathy, con- homeopathic substance had no ef- the laboratories to give the final tacted the Skeptic after the first half fect. Accordingly, Martin Bland said outcome variable. The mean ba- was aired by Catalyst on ABC TV. on the Horizon program: “There’s sophil activity was compared be- They were concerned that the teaser absolutely no evidence at all to say tween the dilutions, with no evi- for the second half left the impres- there is any difference between the dence for any effects. sion that we (Skeptics) might be in solutions that started as pure water This trend may partly explain for a shock. We confidently predicted and the solutions that started off why Madeleine Ennis’s experiment that the only people who stood to be with the histamine”. Also John in 2001 led her to a positive result shocked were the proponents of ho- Enderby (the adjudicator for the and that conclusion. The Horizon meopathy. Of course we were proven experiment from the Royal Society) experiment was protected against correct when the second part went to said: “What this has convinced me is this type of error by way of random- air, but we claim no psychic presci- that water does not have a memory.” isation. It was also guarded from ence, nor was it overconfidence. The other types of error by way of being fact was simply that, had our friend An important trend double blind. It is not clear whether James Randi paid out the million The above is the essence of what was Ennis’s experiment was double blind dollars in 2002, we would certainly shown on the Horizon program. or the order random-ised, both of have known about it before the pro- What the program did not show was which desirable practices are often gram went to air. that there was a time trend in the 40 absent in laboratory science.

An Advance Abject Apology

It is not uncommon, in journals of far content with being mere pets, they in- lesser stature than this august publi- sist on earning their keep (incidentally, cation, to make corrections of errors, often taking on an aspect that is an usually weeks after the event and on anagram of pets). Were this to take the the same page that chronicles the ship- form of keeping down the rodent popu- ping news. At the Skeptic, we like to lation there would be no problem, but think we are above such shabby tricks, as each seems to imagine that she has so we hereby make journalistic history some rare computational skills, no by publishing an apology concurrently keyboard is safe from their attentions. with, or in advance of any such errors. We therefore take the opportunity The story is thus. In recent weeks, to warn readers that if any part of this Skeptics Central Office has become the issue appears to be in an obscure domicile of two adolescent females of Finno-Ugric dialect, it does not repre- the feline persuasion. As totally up- sent your columnist’s desire to play to-date and politically correct young Mark Newbrook at his own game, ladies, the Misses Xanthe and Xena rather it reflects a tragic feline inabil- (yes, the No 1 Official Skeptical Grand- ity to spell. son is going through a phase) are not Bunyip

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 37 Investigation Hair Today ... Healing and Hairdressing

When next you go for a Have you ever been at the hairdress- Secular employees of the monastery, ers, having a quick trim and thought, the barbers, who once assisted the trim, make sure you wouldn’t it be convenient to have my monks in their surgical tasks, were don’t get clipped. haemorrhoids healed too, all on the skilled in wielding blades and so same premises? No? Well, there’s a naturally assumed these duties. Bar- new craze in the sleepy town of ber-surgeons eventually established Yandina in the Sunshine Coast, their own guilds and competed for Queensland. A client may also be a respectability with apothecaries and patient in Angela’s salon-cum-sur- physicians. Surgery was perceived as gery, where one can have a shampoo, a menial task below that of a physi- cut, blow dry and session of healing cian, although many still engaged in all at once! ‘Healing Hair by Angela’ this work. George Washington was was advertised in the New Age Ora- bled to death by his physician in 1799. cle newsletter published in the Sun- Some barber-surgeons travelled shine Coast. At first I thought that between villages, offering their serv- Angela might be a trichologist or a ices at markets and fairs, while oth- hairdresser with a whacky, esoteric, ers operated (excuse the pun) from Sunshiny Coast name. A phone call their own shops. They advertised to Angela quickly revealed that she with a symbol that endures to this does both ‘healing’ and ‘hair’, I had day, a red and white striped pole. The uncovered a ‘healing hairdresser’! origin of this barber’s pole appears to be associated with bloodletting. The History original pole balanced in a brass ba- But is medicine and hair styling such sin, which was used to store leeches a unique coupling? Europe in the mid- or to receive blood, while the pole dle ages saw a new medical practi- itself represents the staff to which tioner emerge; the barber-surgeon. the patient held during the opera- The barber-surgeon engaged in tion. The red and white stripes repre- bloodletting and other minor proce- sent the bandages used during the dures, including leeching, enemas, procedure, red stripes signifying the setting fractures and lancing boils bloodstained bandages and white and many also extracted teeth, along stripes the clean bandages. After with their standard haircutting, styl- surgery the bandages were washed ing and shaving work. Some, more and wrapped around the pole to dry, skilled, undertook the more complex forming the spiral pattern similar to tasks of excising tumours, limb ampu- the modern day barber’s pole. tation, cataract removal and extrac- The practice of barber-surgery tion of kidney or bladder stones. Be- lasted for over 600 years in Europe, fore the emergence of the continuing until the mid-eighteenth barber-surgeon, monks had usually century. Angela has revived this performed this work until, in 1163 at practice, with a twist. She claims to Karen Stollznow, a postgraduate student the Council of Tours, Pope Alexander be able to diagnose and heal her in linguistics, regularly subjects herself to III banned monks from drawing blood patients, without invasion, unlike from humans, declaring it sacrilege. dubious health modalities for the Skeptic. the barber-surgeons who attempted

Page 38 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 to treat people with surgical proce- els and hair products. Taking up the to be a blend of reiki, spiritual heal- dures in a manner acceptable and greater part of the room was an ex- ing and psychic surgery, minus the orthodox in its time. However, like amination bed, as one would find in a paraphernalia. She mimicked the the barber-surgeon, Angela has no doctors surgery. Buddhist statues, extraction of diseased organs, then medical training. Barber-surgeons candles and crystals abounded. In- pretending to suture her incisions! were more craftsmen than medics, stead of doctor’s surgery muzak, New Without touching me this time, and Angela appears to be more hair- Age music was playing, pan pipes, Angela’s hands thrust down towards dresser than healer. rainforest noises, waves. Beauty my stomach and appeared to pluck magazines piled high beside stacks of an invisible object from that area, Setting the scene New Age books and magazines. The which she symbolically threw onto air was heady with the scent of lemon the floor. Then she would shake her I arrived at Angela’s home practice, aromatherapy oil and hair colour/ hands in the air, possibly to ‘cleanse’ where she conducted the consulta- perm chemicals. them or even shake off the invisible tion al fresco, in the rain. She told I was asked to remove my shoes me a little about herself; a hair- and lie upon the examination bed. ‘blood’! Then she exaggeratedly imi- dresser for twenty years, she had Angela wrapped me in a pink waffle tated the act of stitching up her been unwittingly ‘healing’ her clients blanket and proceeded to go to work, handiwork. Lastly, she performed for six years. “Without knowing it, I ‘laying on hands’. Her ‘hands on’ tech- crystal healing, laying several had been working on people’s ‘crown nique was unique, as most other heal- chunks of rose quartz crystal upon chakra’, healing them through their ers I have investigated do not directly various ‘chakras’ and left them there head. Healing them with love and touch their patients, and rightly so. for a few minutes, mumbling a light”. With clients reporting that Standing over me, she placed her mantra this time, rather than the not only their split ends but also hands directly on my forehead and garbled ‘speaking in tongues’. their symptoms were disappearing, applied a fair amount of pressure, Angela concluded this bizarre cer- Angela began offering her ‘healing’, followed by a display of glossolalia, emony in an appropriate fashion, by alongside her hairdressing services. otherwise known as ‘speaking in producing a set of ‘Tibetan bells’ She claims that hairdressing typi- tongues’ (or nonsensical gibberish). which she rang over the various cally involves counselling clients and [The term glossolalia is derived ‘chakras’ of my body… to cleanse the ‘negative energy’, of course! She rang that her move to offer healing serv- from the Greek glossa, ‘tongue’ and lalia, ‘to talk’. Glossolalia is a phe- them six times although I’d always ices was a natural corollary. nomenon which usually occurs in a been told there are seven supposed Granted, conversation is part of religious context, in which the be- chakras, so maybe she missed one! the experience of visiting the hair- liever, in a self-induced ecstatic state, We then had a ‘post-surgery’ con- dresser; they are places renowned vocalises unintelligible, language-like sultation. Throughout the appoint- for gossip and revelations, but any sounds that are apparently devoid of ment Angela had repeatedly offered advice offered is purely gratuitousl semantic meaning and syntax, yet me a glass of water, which I kept de- — and unrelated to medicine! are taken by believers to contain a clining. She now made a strange re- After a brief chat, Angela asked, divine message. It is mainly practised mark. It had been raining heavily all “who are you?” Affording her a by Charismatic religious denomina- day and after yet another refusal of glimpse into an analytical nature I tions such as Pentacostalists, water she said, “I suppose it’s raining responded, “In what respect? Do you Charismatics, Quakers, Latter-Day and there’s water all around anyway”. want to know my age, my gender, my Saints and Mormons. Early Method- I construed this as meaning that rain career, my beliefs or what?” Some ists and some Presbyterians in the water is a suitable substitute for wa- circumlocution later, a visibly irri- 19th century practiced glossolalia. It is ter imbibed? Angela recommended a tated Angela said, “I am love and also a favourite trick of many high daily intake of water and limited light, what are you?” After I mut- televangelists. Psychologists explain caffeine, claiming she once drank 30 tered a few references to anatomy the phenomenon as a hypnotic trance cups of coffee a day! and biology the questioning came to resultant of religious excitement. During the chat, Angela diagnosed an end. It appeared that Angela’s From a linguistic perspective glos- that I suffered from an unspecified beliefs were an eclectic mixture of solalia may be learned behaviour and gynaecological condition: “I feel that the most trendy aspects of Christian- appears to imitate other languages you have some problems ‘down there’ ity, Buddhism, Hinduism with facets known by the speaker.] or potential problems but I think it of Scientology and the New Age all Angela appeared to be in a self- should be okay now”. To aid in this thrown in together. induced trance during the ‘hands-on’ healing, I was instructed to lie down, session. She moved her hands place a rose quartz crystal on my The treatment around various points on my face chest each night before bed and call She ushered me into her salon/sur- and neck, then moved down to my upon my chosen ‘guardian angel’ to gery. It was quite a sight — at the feet and back up to my stomach. At heal me. It came as no surprise that back was the standard hairdresser’s this point, Angela went off on yet Angela ‘diagnosed’ a gynaecological equipment, a chair and basin, an- another paranormal tangent and other chair for styling, mirrors, tow- began to do something that seemed Continued P42 ...

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 39 History Smoke and Reflections: A clash between a consumer and the quacks

"...for there is wrath gone The spread of SARS in the rural of 1888-9 was a harsh one and people out from the Lord: the areas of China could be a grim dem- went short of food. Then came the onstration of the limitations of ‘tradi- fast of Ramadan which made many plague is begun." tional’ medicines. The prospects are even weaker. In May 1889 a nasty bug took hold and spread rapidly. worrying for those who live in prox- Numbers 16:46. Many locals died and it also hit the imity to animals and without good community of Russian ex-pat busi- water or sanitation. Meanwhile all is nessmen and diplomats. Just as not well in our sophisticated society. SARS is being spread by travelling We have made disconcerting discov- migrant workers in China today, eries about some of the people we these Russians returned home, some should be able to trust the most — carrying the disease, some falsely those who make the things that are believing they had recovered. The supposed to keep us healthy. We find ‘Russian Flu’ was soon well estab- facts swept under the carpet, and lished in St Petersburg and it was medicinal ingredients swept up from only a matter of time before it reached London. the floor. A few deaths from flu were a part of every London winter but epidemics History repeats hit occasionally. The last big one in As a demonstration that history re- London had been in 1847-8. As well peats, or at least rhymes, consider as killing 1,739 people, it temporarily the following story from 1892. The incapacitated a much greater basic facts are known to every law number. However, deaths from flu student who has grappled with the had tailed off to a record low by the principles of offer and acceptance in time the Russian Flu arrived in Octo- contract. The detail comes from a ber 1889. superbly researched paper by A W B After a slow start, the Russian Flu Simpson “Quackery and Contract killed 558 people in the first quarter Law: The Case of the Carbolic Smoke of 1890. Orthodox medicine recom- Ball” 1. mended good nursing but could not The story begins in the ancient cen- identify a cure. This did not fetter the tral Asian city of Bokhara. The winter Martin Hadley, Barrister at law and Secretary entrepreneurs who widely advertised an array of products including of Australian Skeptics, puts it to you that you Brown’s Bronchial Troches, R should read this. 1. Journal of Legal Studies, 1985.

Page 40 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Higgins’s Ozone Papers, Beecham’s good idea at the time. We will see inhalation of the smoke ball as Cough Pills and the patented Car- how it turned out to be a bit of a prescribed. In order to protect bolic Smoke Ball. tactical error. The Carbolic Smoke Ball consisted themselves against all of a rubber bulb, like the ones they £1000 fraudulent claims, the Carbolic used to squeeze on old car horns. Smoke Ball Company require Inside the bulb was powdered car- is deposited with the bolic acid. When the ball was ALLIANCE BANK, that the smoke ball be squeezed, some of the powder was REGENT STREET, administered, free of charge, forced through a fine nozzle, produc- at their office, to those who ing a ‘smoke’. The user was supposed showing our sincerity in the to squeeze the ball under their nose have already purchased it. and inhale the smoke. matter. Intending claimants must It was probably not a very pleasant We may never know whether that attend three times daily for experience. Even the makers ac- money was really there but the com- knowledged that it would cause pany certainly did not show much three weeks, and inhale the sneezing but it was less demanding of sincerity when a Mr Carlill put in a smoke ball under the directions the user than some of the other cures claim concerning his sick wife of the Smoke Ball Company. that the orthodox medicos had on Louisa. The Smoke Ballers turned offer, such as Dr Voight’s rectal injec- These visits will be specially tions of eucalyptus oil. out to be spankingly bad sports. So far, so good. The ball cost only They ignored Mr Carlill’s letter and recorded by the secretary in a ten shillings. It should not have done a second. After a third letter, they book. much harm when nothing else was published a Circular to sort things In my considered opinion, Mr Carlill going to work anyway. What got the out. It could hardly have been better had every legal entitlement to re- makers into hot water was a boldly designed to put a Court off side — to spond along the lines of: “Secretary’s confident newspaper ad: get up a Judge’s nostril, further than special book, my bollocks…” Instead could their smoke. A fine example of he patiently pointed out that he £100 REWARD the tendency people have to get could provide proof of purchase and themselves into a deeper and deeper a Doctor’s confirmation of the illness. will be paid by the mess, with scarcely a thought for the The company described that as “im- serenity of the lawyers who will have CARBOLIC SMOKE BALL CO. pertinent” so it was off to Court. to try to sort it out. The Ball had not been designed to to any person who contracts cure influenza. It had been around the Increasing Epidemic, Re reward of £100 for a while. Like many other prod- ucts, it became a cure for the flu INFLUENZA, The Carbolic Smoke Ball when the flu arrived. The product Company, seeing that claims stayed the same but the claims Colds or any diseases caused for the above reward have changed to address the new opportu- by taking cold, been made by persons who nity. Supported by aristocratic testi- AFTER HAVING USED the BALL monials too numerous to mention, have either not purchased the the Ball’s additional capabilities 3 times daily for two weeks smoke ball at all, or else have according to the printed included: directions supplied with each failed to use it as directed, SNORING Cured in 1 week Ball. consider it necessary that they SORE EYES Cured in 2 weeks should state the conditions in A hundred quid! Imagine what that INFLUENZA Cured in 24 hours was worth in 1892. But the makers which alone such reward were quietly confident: would be paid. HAY FEVER cured in every case During the last epidemic of They have such confidence in CROUP Relieved in 5 minutes Influenza many thousand the efficacy of the carbolic WHOOPING COUGH CARBOLIC SMOKE BALLS smoke ball, if used accordingto Relieved by first application… were sold as Preventatives the printed directions supplied Another ad promised to cure 19 ail- against this Disease, and in no to each person, that they made ments, including THROAT DEAF- ascertained case was the disease the aforesaid offer in entire NESS. contracted by those using the good faith, believing it You might be thinking that things CARBOLIC SMOKE BALL. do not look good for the company in impossible for the influenza to The next part must have felt like a facing Louisa Carlill’s claim. Unde- be taken during the daily terred, its Barristers came up with a

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 41 Smoke and Reflections fine assortment of arguments to be • And it was a contract contrary to The company had after all shown getting along with: public policy. (This telegraphs the £1000 worth of sincerity. It is a suc- • Mrs Carlill had not relied on the argument that the £100 was not cinct ten page judgement, including advertisement. genuine compensation but was an the facts and arguments for both sides. unenforceable PENALTY!) The company appealed and lost that • She had not used the Ball as di- At the risk of being hounded out of too. The reports tell us that the com- rected or caught the flu. pany was represented by the future the Skeptics by a mob wielding bro- • But if she had, the Defendant had Prime Minister Asquith, while Mrs ken bottles, may I say that most judi- not been notified until after she was Carlill’s QC was Charles Dickens’ son. sick. cial decisions demonstrate the best of common sense. This case was decided Epilogue • Therefore and because Mrs Carlill by Sir Henry Hawkins and we know had not bought the Ball direct from he was a sensible Judge because, as The Carbolic Smoke Ball Company the company, there could be no con- always, he sat with his fox terrier folded a few years after the trials. Jack tract between them. Jack beside him on the bench. passed away in 1894 and received an • But if there was, it was an illegal Sir Henry had no difficulty in decid- obituary in the Illustrated London gamble. ing that the company had made an News. Louisa Carlill died in 1942 aged • Or, it was an insurance contract offer, which Louisa Carlill had ac- 96. To the end she was steadfast in which did not satisfy certain statu- cepted by purchasing the Ball and having just the one glass of Bordeaux tory requirements – no one had paid following the instructions. He brush-ed with lunch. stamp duty; aside the idea that the ad was obvi- ously too extravagant to be believed.

Hair Today ...

... from p39 disorder, given the high percentage of size 16 to a size 8 in under a year on consciously or unconsciously. Beyond women who do, or will, suffer from this mental diet! In summing up, reassurance and compassion I doubt such illnesses, it seems to be the al- Angela said that “many illnesses are that her healing services can be of ternative therapist’s staple diagnosis from a past life” and that may be the any real benefit to the sick. Angela for their female patients — a sure source of any given condition! did not have any qualifications other bet. As I was leaving Angela said that I than the usual apprenticeship of a Angela told me that I am a ‘mes- might experience some residual heal- hairdresser. senger’ in life and have: ing manifested as a tingling sensa- Angela’s ‘Healing Hair’ practice tion. I could also expect some inexpli- a wonderful gift of intelligence but was unique, although at the same cable body pain in various areas, time, clichéd. Her beliefs encom- you think too much. Try to stop do- “don’t worry, it will go”. The session passed the most commercial tenets of ing and start being. You will be ended with that and Angela insisted of various faiths, ancient and mod- amazed at the difference this makes. on a “goodbye hug”. ern, as she would often state, “I am a If you don’t stop doing and start god” and “we are all gods”. Her being you can do harm to yourself The wash-up therapy was a hodgepodge of reiki, and cause cancer or other serious The appointment lasted for just over crystal healing, spiritual healing, problems to your body. an hour. Angela charges $50 an hour psychic surgery, chakra balancing, This cryptic advice/warning re- for her services, about what a hair- past lives therapy and glossolalia, minded me of the early 90s New Age dresser typically charges, without with assorted other techniques added catchphrase, “I’d rather be a human the included cost of hair products! for good measure. Her speech was being than a human doing” — a war She could not provide me with an peppered with New Age drivel, pop cry of motivational therapists and car official receipt but instead wrote psychology and buzz words. I can bumper stickers. I was also advised to down the service and charge on her imagine she attracts several kinds of quit smoking, not for the myriad of business card, which she signed. For patients, the desperate, the curious valid health reasons, but because this $50 the client is better off having a and those in need of hair styling! “creates holes in the aura”. Angela hairdressing service which would A trip to the hairdresser will never also offered a tip for weight loss that I provide obvious results! However, I be the same again. Perhaps, next will now share, for those wanting to cannot discount the sincere nature of time I visit my doctor, I will ask for a shed a few kilos. Find a photograph of Angela and her caring, sympathetic quick shampoo and blow wave! yourself at a size you were happy demeanour, which would undoubt- with and ask to be “let back into that edly be of benefit to a patient who body”. Angela claims she went from a sought no more than that, either

Page 42 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Article Nigerian Letters: Don’t get taken

Most of us have received so- From: Mr David Tonah (Jn) called Nigerian Letters, but here Abidjan - Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire Dear;Sir, is a letter from Nigeria with a My Dear, I am Mr GEORGE MBUAH, the difference. We commend the With utmost regards I crave your un- MANAGER in charge of auditing writer for his courage. derstanding of this proposal, I am and accounting section of Continen- David TONAH the son of late Dr tal Trust Bank Benin Cotonou, I have received quite a number of David G. TONAH the former Finan- Benin Republic ... my department mails from friends and colleagues cial Controller of Cote d’Ivoire Tel- came across a very huge sum of around the world about the so-called ecommunication ... your assistance for money belonging to a deceased per- Nigerian Letters. These mails I un- the Telegraphic Transfer of sixteen son ... The said amount is US derstand are from Nigerians and million United States Dollars to your $25.2M. I want you to collaborate they require recipients to send their account ... what I require ...your real with me to put a claim on this bank accounts to help transfer huge name and your private phone and fax money as the next of kin of the de- sums of money, often in millions of numbers ... On the successful conclu- ceased account holder, Mr Duckson dollars. Unfortunately some indi- sion of this transaction we will offer Fritz. ... indicate your interest and viduals have been reported to have you 7% of the total amount... willingness to assist us in this risk fallen victims, and have ended up free and highly confidential transac- tion. On your reply, we shall discuss losing their life savings to these Here is another one supposedly sent the sharing ratio for each party to scammers. Some have even been from Angola. murdered in the course of trying to this transaction. recover their money. In Nigeria these MRS CHRISTAINA KONE & SON I decided to reply Mr Mbuah indi- letters are not known — only those DEAR , cating interest in this deal. He wrote who enrich themselves through them MY NAME IS MRS CHRISTIANA back requesting for my fax number. are. There are other smart ways KONE A WIFE OF THE COL COKER Unfortunately I don’t have any fraudsters prey on people’s trust and KONE ... A VERY CONFIDENTIAL number. And again that will also let make them part with their money or DEAL ... USD 18 MILLION IN CASH me out. From my fax number Mr wealth. ... PROCEED OF DIAMOND AND Mbuah could discover where I was Recently I have been receiving GOLD SALES IN THE BLACK MAR- operating from [I’m told scammers mails — through my hotmail address KET ... I WANT YOU TO ASSIST US target foreigners or individuals liv- posted on the internet — which I RELOCATE FROM AFRICA. ... FOR- ing overseas, including Nigerians]. I suspect must be those Nigerian Let- WARD YOUR ACCOUNT DETAILS decided to discontinue the corre- ters. Right now I have around ten of ... WE ARE PREPARED TO SHARE spondence, but Mr Mbuah would not them in my mail box and I receive at 15 / 85 WITH YOU least one on every two days allow me rest. Every day he was sending me urgent mails to remind This one was supposedly sent One thing I noticed is that all the me about the fax number. After a from Ivory Coast. [The text of the mails have attractive and appealing while, I thought of writing some- letters, which will be familiar to most subjects like PLEASE CALL ME, A thing that could still let me know readers, has been edited to retain CRY FOR HELP, PLEASE TREAT more of what goes on in in the only certain details. Ed] VERY URGENTLY, etc. Again the crooked minds of scammers. So I mails are purportedly sent from dif- wrote Mr Mbuah to assure me that ferent African countries — Benin, this was a genuine business. But Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone guess what? My mail bounced back. Angola, etc and they are often about Why? I can’t explain at this date. the transfer of money of someone I understand efforts are under killed in an armed conflict or acci- way locally and internationally to dent. Most importantly they promise track down these conmen and bring individuals who can help 20-30% of them to justice. But for now what I the money. have to say is this: if you happen to Some time ago I got this mail from receive any mail similar to the ones one “George Mbuah”. Mind you this published above, please do not get is a fake name (everything about Leo Igwe is head of the Nigerian Skeptics taken. Kindly ignore it, delete it or these scammers is fake except their Society He can be contacted at fraud) The mail goes this way: [email protected]

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 43 Interview A Man For All Ages Pt2

More thoughts from one of Concluding an interview with G: There was recent research suggest- Australian Museum Director, ing the possibility that the speed of our most distinguished Mike Archer, conducted by Geoff light might be slowing, or has scientists and Richard Saunders. The first slowed. This must have given crea- part of this interview appeared in tionists a shot in the arm as the ‘di- Vol 23, No 1. minishing speed of light’ has been one of their hobby-horses. Creationism M: And it’s my alma mater, the Geoff. Speaking of creationism, UNSW, putting this out. I’m not go- would you go head-to-head with an- ing to be critical of the research — other creationist in a public debate? it’s fantastic — but isn’t it ironic that Mike: I do it regularly. I do it every we used to make fun of the creation- day at the University of NSW, as I ists and their view that this would interact with first-year biology stu- explain how it really is a young uni- dents. I have a whole lecture on verse appearing to look old. We said: scepticism, where I talk about the “Well if the speed of light has slowed concept of theistic evolution — why down by 200 million times since the couldn’t evolution be God’s method of creation of the Universe 10,000 creation? That just brings them out years ago, then e = mc2 and that from the woodwork. Every year I means a simple little bonfire in the survey the first-year biology stu- Garden of Eden is equivalent to a 9 dents and somewhere between12 megaton blast, because you know and 15% are creationists — funda- you can’t change one of these con- mentalist creationists. So now that stants without impacting on the we have the miracle of email, those other”. And yet here are the physi- people are immediately on the cists telling us (and I haven’t heard blower to me, saying, “But what the scale of the slowdown they’re about this, what about that?” So I talking about) that maybe there is spend a lot of time still doing ‘head- something to the slowing down of the to-heads’ with creationists. I must speed of light. say I tire of it a bit because it’s just recycling the same old arguments — G: No doubt nothing on a scale com- like ‘the second law of thermody- patible with the arguments of the namics prohibiting evolution’. You do creationists. (Mike interjects: Not the 10,000 Richard (video producer and Skeptics get tired of explaining why these year-old world.) President) and Geoff (writer) Saunders, arguments are spurious, but I’ll G: But the very fact that it is being bothers-in-arms in the battle for reason. never stop doing that, I guess.

Page 44 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 talked about will no doubt give them about the nonsense about evolution’. simple explanations in the universe a boost. So you know they’re there and you to find root in people who think M: When I saw that, I sort of held know they’re visiting but, on the they’re open-minded, but they’re so my head and thought, okay, but this other hand, long ago this museum open-minded their brain falls out. is what distinguishes the skeptic made a decision that it was not pull- I don’t have an explanation for from the creationist. I’m not denying ing any punches in this area and, why the US is so severely afflicted the evidence because it’s inconven- while it was not going to go directly with this problem. My brother lives ient. I want to understand it and I do on the attack about creationism, it in California, where his wife is a want to know what the revised scale was not going to go softly about the school teacher. I discussed this with of the speed of light is. Given stars issue of evolution. It was going to be them and they looked at me in that are hypothesised to be x- out there, fully up-front about scien- stunned amazement. I mean, they’re number of light years away, what tific evidence for the reality of how living in the country that regularly does that tell us about the size of the the natural world has developed, and produces polls demonstrating that universe? I just wanted to see what if that goes up the noses of creation- this is a fair measure of the irra- the consequences of this are, but ists, so be it. tional beliefs in the United States. equally recognise just because some- I mean, in many ways, the won- Mind you the same people who tick body has said that they have evi- derful collaboration that we have off creationism are also there with dence that this is the case doesn’t with the Skeptics and the Chinese angels and flying saucers. So there mean that it necessarily is. This will dinosaurs is a demonstration of that. seems to be a lot of minds that are obviously be tested and I would im- I am absolutely delighted about it completely open to foggyspeak and agine the jury will be out on this for because in these feathered dinosaurs mush. But she amazed me because some time until we’ve really got a we have some of the best evidences she didn’t believe it; it’s a measure of clear picture of what’s going on. for evolution we could ask for, the fact that the US is not a uniform There were arguments that the elec- brought to Australia by the Skeptics, place; in California there has never tromagnetic forces in the universe and I think this is great. Creation- been a problem in recent years about were not constant. This came out ism is there, and if my estimates of evolution in the schools and they’re about two years ago and there has what’s going on with the UNSW biol- very proud of the quality of educa- been a lot of discussion about this as ogy students is indicative, the tion they’ve got. well. I think that’s exciting. It just number of creationists in the com- Mind you, in 1963, when I was in means all the neat, tidy worlds that munity is unlikely to change. But California on a National Science we presumably understood require a since 1986 it has pretty well floated Foundation sponsored summer great deal more understanding. around that12% level of the classes school in archaeology, I was staying that we’ve surveyed. Every single at a boarding house in La Hoya. The G: Well, it just shows what science is year sample is between 300 and 700, lady who managed the boarding really about, rather than the popular so I think we’re getting a fairly good house looked at me, her eyes popped perception that it’s all set in stone. measure of the fact that creationism and she ran her hands about half a M: I mean, where are the people leap- is not on the increase in Australia metre away from my head and said: ing out saying: “That’s ridiculous! but seems to be self-inoculating. “What an aura!” I didn’t know what Nobody could ever prove the speed of There seems to be a steady reinfest- she was on about; all I knew is she light has slowed down!” You don’t see ation of this frontal-lobotomised scared the hell out of me. I men- it. All you see from the scientific com- world view rolling from one genera- tioned this to my brother later and munity is intense interest in under- tion to the next. he said: “Oh yeah, some people say standing what the implications of this basically that God picked up the research are, and that’s healthy. G: And yet these figures are quite low eastern side of the United States and when you think about the situation tipped it up and everything loose G: Do you see the level of belief in in the USA. You obviously have a rolled into California”. But now at creationism amongst your students great deal of knowledge about the least in this area, creationism, they being translated into what goes on in situation in the States; why is it that seem to be able to laugh at the the museum with visitors? In par- in a country thatís so dependent on southern half of the US, which ticular I’m thinking of school groups, modern science and all the benefits seems to be continually involved in because of the growth of fundamen- that flow from it, this sort of belief these irrational beliefs. I don’t have talist Christian schools. They actu- has become so entrenched? an answer for this. Other people ally bring their kids here to look at M: I’d have to say this is one of the may, but to me it’s a mystery that a the museum? biggest mysteries to me in the whole country that can produce so many M: To be honest, I don’t know. We world. I’ve heard all the arguments bright and innovative solutions in often hear comments from the floor that it’s a pluralistic society, there’s technology can be so brain-dead. and see comments in the visitors’ no state religion, therefore there’s all And can you imagine an American book about ‘wonderful museum, pity this opportunity for these brain-dead, President who didn’t profess deep

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 45 Interview

religious beliefs? Many of them pro- “You know, Mike, on your American the natural world and how it came fess creationist beliefs. Can you im- Field Service form where it said ‘Re- into being. agine that happening in Australia? ligion’, you put None. You know But it’s the discovery part that is The laughter would just drown them America will never send anyone the fun. It’s serendipity, in a sense out. But not in the United States. overseas to represent it unless they the inability to make predictions have a religion”. I looked at him about what you’re likely to find. Richard: Do you see an analogy stunned and said, “Are you telling Time and time again, as we’ve had between the Deep South in the States me I have to put a religion in the volunteers on expeditions, you watch and Australia’s Deep North? box?” And he said, “Well, it’s really faces light up. It’s magic. They M: This inversion — of course you the only way that you’re going to get smack open a rock and there’s some- have Tasmania to stabilise this, but I to Germany”, and, being young and thing that everybody else is getting don’t think it’s quite so clear-cut stupid, I said “Bugger that!”. I left excited about, and they found it. You here. It’s the isolation at the periph- my ‘none’ in the box and that was it know, you made a bond, there’s a eries that seems to lead to this phe- — I never went to Germany. cemented commitment to the excite- nomenon. I grew up in Appalachia in The power of the religious mafia ment of science that those people the US so I was in the heartland of through the United States started to will have for the rest of their lives. ultra-conservative beliefs systems. sink into me at that point. Anyway I They made a discovery. I think Hence I was inoculated against the was happy to see the end of the U.S. you’re right — I think that the in- United States fairly early. I creasing awareness in the mean either you roll with it community about palaeon- or you find you recoil in hor- tology, the history of the ror from it. And that’s what continent, being proud happened to me, so by the about what is uniquely time I came back to Aus- Australian, instead of feel- tralia in 1967, I really never ing we have to apologise wanted to set foot in the US for it, is something that again. Apart from going has been steadily increas- back to see family and to go ing. Certainly since I be- to conferences, I avoid the came aware of these issues place like the plague. My in1967, there has been a sister-in-law is convinced major change in Australian the reason I’m concerned public attitudes. about creationism in the US Skeptics and science broadcaster, Robyn Williams at a Museum function is that I’m rationalising not G: Palaeontology is just living there. I think it’s actually is a Palaeontology such an intrinsically exciting field — little bit the other way around: reli- it seems to tap right into people’s gion which has been up my nose G: On the subject of palaeontology, almost childlike imagination. Just since I was about eleven years old, is Australians for a long time have been look at the queues around the block one of the things that drove me out grossly ignorant about their own pre- here when there’s any exhibition to do of the US. Australia was like a history. Ask them about prehistoric with dinosaurs. breath of fresh air when I came here. animals and they could probably M: Yes, Australia’s Lost Kingdoms They didn’t take religion that seri- rattle off half a dozen from North brought in crowds like mad, and now ously. America or Europe. look at the Chinese Dinosaurs exhi- The first time religion really went M: And they eternally confuse ar- bition. We were even competing with up my nose severely was in high chaeology with palaeontology. They the Olympics, and that points to school. I’d been selected on the have no idea about it. But mostly it’s another important factor — Austral- American Field Service to go to Ger- the media that does this. ians really are interested in science. many and I was so excited, you They just need an opportunity to get know, from Appalachia to suddenly G: Do you think this situation is involved in it and in this case, Chi- go to Germany! I was told that I was improving? nese Dinosaurs has had crowds selected about a week before I should M: Oh yes, immeasurably, because around the block. We have as high have gotten the formal notification. among other things it’s now in the attendances now as we’ve ever had A priest, who was a friend of mine, school curriculum. Teachers long ago in the museum and we’re coming off said “Oh, come on, I’ll take you some realised that palaeontology is an a low period. It has just skyrocketed. place (he could drive) and we’ll col- extremely powerful bridge between All of a sudden, everybody is feeling lect fossils”. He knew I was inter- science and people who haven’t had optimistic around the place, that the ested in fossils, so while we were out an interest in science. It’s an easy public really is interested in the mu- there looking for fossils, he said: way to get somebody excited about seum, and the lever was dinosaurs,

Page 46 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 was fossils. As you say, it sort of taps day, as Christopher Reeve has said, on shonky science and unsupported into an eternally receptive part of if anyone wants to argue against the and unrepeatable. the human mind. potential value of using stem cells to There is no evidence that there deal with seriously debilitating dis- has been a problem with these ge- Richard: There’s a strange attraction ease, come and spend a year in this netically modified foods, or that they between children and dinosaurs. I chair and then talk to me about it. have produced these horrors. There remember what it was like when I We need to understand that stem is evidence to the contrary; that they was a kid.What could it be? Monsters? cells are not human beings, there are have had extremely positive out- M: I guess they are monsters that no nerve cells, there is nothing that comes in countries that have other- are safe, in the sense that you can could conceivably be a human being wise had difficulty in growing crops stand in front of something that you in that little ball of cells. And yet and feeding their people. China was know could have breathed you up its with the potential of that ball of a classic case, where GM cotton has left nostril. But it won’t because cells to improve the quality of life for enabled something like 30% more there it is as a pile of bones. But people who are suffering unnecessar- Chinese farmers to actually grow here we have this very interesting ily and inexplicably, you’d have to be subsistence crops that keep them crossover, bringing it back to the a really evil person to stand in the alive. So I think we have to look at it thylacine. People are suddenly way of that research. in a global sense and say human thinking, at least within the context It’s a complicated area, I respect populations are not going to sud- of Steven Spielberg, that maybe other peoples’ views about it, I re- denly plummet. Feeding people is they’re not quite that safe. Is there spect the right of religious people going to become an ever-greater this possibility that science actually who have ethical qualms about these problem. To turn our back on GM will get us to the point where we can issues, but I think that when you foods for hypothetical reasons about bring these dinosaurs back? That realise that the size of the embryo what might go wrong when nothing adds a whole new dimension to peo- being talked about is smaller than a has been shown to have gone wrong, ples’ minds, you know, when they’re fullstop at the end of a sentence on a I think is an error. I think we need to looking at dinosaurs. page, the notion that this is a human see clear evidence that there are As I go into work every day now, being is really an absurdity. It problems before we need to worry my kids grab me by the pants and shouldn’t be something that would about this. And at the moment, those say, “Dad, are you going in to do the stop this tissue, which is otherwise problems haven’t been demon- thylacine again today?” And I say, going to be destroyed anyway, from strated. When they’ve been put to “Yeah, yeah”. “But remember, don’t being put to these very positive uses the test, they’ve been found to be bring back T-Rex.” And you can see that could have a major impact on spurious. there’s this little concern. We’ve dis- reducing, and even conceivably down cussed this a lot and I say, “Well, the road, eliminating awful degen- R: Finally, Mike, you were Skeptic of what if we were to bring back a little erative diseases that cripple lives the Year a couple of years back dinosaur, you know, with chickens’ and make people miserable. M: I’m very proud of that, I want to eyes?” And they say, “Oh, yeah, in tell you. I keep the picture in my Jurassic Park II there was a whole G: What’s your feeling about geneti- room. bunch of them that ate this little girl cally modified food products? R: Now, this year you have been on the beach.” M: I tend to be a supporter of the nominated for the Bent Spoon right to conduct experiments that Award. What are your thoughts Genetic research could have enormous beneficial im- about that? G: Do you have anywhere where you pact. But the cautionary principle is M: Oh well, life has the highs and draw the line on genetic research? relevant here. You need to first dem- low, ups and downs. I’d probably feel For example, at the moment, we have onstrate that there was a reasonable less proud of winning the Bent Spoon all the controversy about stem cell prospect of nothing going wrong, of Award than I would the Skeptic of research and so forth? the gene jumping into an organism the Year but, hey, life’s interesting*. M: No, I have no qualms about that you didn’t want it to jump into. But Geoff: You would have been a at all. The notion that these are like there’s a lot of scaremongering that skeptic and an antiskeptic. little orphans waiting to be adopted has been going on in the world about Mike: Exactly. A bit like having the is one of the most ridiculous things the so-called failures of genetically Bible and the antidote on the same I’ve ever heard. It just flies in the modified products, like maize in shelf. face of everything you understand Mexico or potatoes that were sup- about a stem cell. They are not peo- posed to produce tumours in rats Note: ple. Again it’s America largely inflict- that were being fed the genetically * The nomination of Mike for the Bent ing a value system on us about this. modified potatoes. Both of these Spoon was unsuccessful. I think it’s right to think about studies widely cited by critics of GM these issues. But at the end of the foods have been shown to be based

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 47 The Good Word A Sea of Words

Tales from the historical More of Wales – and Egypt! not endorse the Sabbahs’ views as strongly as he does. (See also below In articles in Fortean Times 167 and and linguistic fringes. on this kind of approach.) 168, Simon Young analyses those And Robert Schoch, who made a stories about Prince Madoc and his splash by endorsing very early dates Welshmen in the American Mid- for the Sphinx, has now published a West (the C12 version). He is critical diffusionist book on pyramids (arguably over-critical) of some around the world — with the usual mainstream objections but — in a amateur approach to historical lin- skeptical vein which has become guistic evidence once again! He cites increasingly common in FT — he is only those near-fringe linguists who even more critical of the fringeys support him (Foster, Manansala, themselves. One of his main themes Ruhlen, etc.), and does not tell his is the weakness of their linguistic readers that they are a tiny minority. arguments (which are of the usual In places he is just wildly wrong, for kind: superficial similarities between instance in deriving Latin words a few pairs of Welsh and Mandan from ‘Hindu’ (not a language at all)! words with similar meanings). And, And in any event his comments are although Young is not a professional too perfunctory to carry any weight. linguist, he is spot on here! Maybe Compare Wells (see below). our efforts to get our message through to the wider world are at A dictionary for those who can’t (yet) last bearing fruit. Congrats to him, in any case! spell On the other hand, David Barrett, Joe Thornton, who had struggled for reviewing the Sabbahs’ book on He- many years to become literate, pro- brew and Egyptian, Akhenaten as duced a dictionary of common Eng- Abraham, etc. in FT 165, does not lish words, listed under spellings get to grips with the linguistic issues which he believed would be those — though he acknowledges that they which would most naturally occur to are important to the overall argu- others with similar problems. Oppo- ment. If he does not know linguis- site, one finds the standard spell- Mark Newbrook, regular columnist and tics, this may be for the best; but in ings. The specifics were based on linguist, has returned to his native northern that case — given the importance of wide experience and the entries were England, where he will investigate the origins these matters — he should perhaps reportedly tested by means of an and causes of the trooble at t’ mill.

Page 48 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 informal survey of a range of suit- which petered out when no new in- ous to press arguments of this kind able people. The enterprise deserves formation emerged. too far in filling in gaps in the lin- much praise; but one or two queries Of course, genuinely ‘new’ tribal guistic record. may be permitted. groups are still located in areas such A related danger, for non-lin- Firstly: Thornton’s scheme as- as Irian Jaya, and some of them do guists, is that of accepting the stance sumes that phonemic spelling is display cultural traits which are — of extreme ‘lumpers’ such as Merritt natural. This is a common (and not or have become — unusual in the Ruhlen as if it were part of the lin- unnatural) assumption of reformers, world at large. But it is possible that guistic mainstream. Ruhlen is the as noted in earlier comment in this this particular story was simply a most ‘fringe’ of all formally qualified column, but it is by no means certain hoax or a mistake (one is reminded historical linguists, and not even the that it is correct. On the other hand, of the Tasaday). And the question Nostraticists agree with his coarse- phonemic spelling might indeed be must be asked: if these people only grained methods. more natural for those with a limited sign, how do we come by these oral In combination, these two errors learned vocabulary, as would be the names for their tribes? Naturally, have vitiated much work, notably an case for many such speakers; they sign languages do not normally en- often-cited passage in Spencer Wells’ would be less aware, or at least less code phonology or phonetics, except recent Journey Of Man in which he consciously aware, of alternations sometimes as a secondary phenom- blithely treats Dene (North America) such as divine-divinity or impugn- enon, for non-deaf names etc. On the as demonstrably related to Sino- pugnacious which are supported by other hand, these could be the Tibetan and as probably related to more abstract spellings. Even then, names in the oral language of a Caucasian (Caucasus). The case for however, there are inconsistencies: neighbouring group, rather like the genetic links may well be good, the same phoneme (even the same Olmec (we do not know what the but (like Schoch above) Wells can allophone, though this should not Olmec called themselves, nor indeed obtain no real support from linguis- matter for non-linguists) is spelt in anything else specific about their tics here. He is not uncritical of different ways in different words, language). Ruhlen’s broader claims but has and sometimes alternatives are Another suggestion on the web perhaps failed to appreciate the given. This may reflect the results of was that these groups did have oral weak grounding of many of this mav- the survey (only those variants languages but also made unusually erick scholar’s more specific ideas. which happened to be offered are extensive use of signing. I will see if listed); but with professional help I can dig out any more; but the trail How language began… generalisation would have been pos- seems to have gone cold. Linguists continue to work on this sible and helpful. complex and difficult topic; but every Secondly, an accent of a South- Genes and languages now and again an amateur has a East England/Australasian type is In this ‘Post-Cavalli-Sforza Period’, crack at it, usually coming up with a very clearly assumed. A Liverpudlian it has become fashionable to propose simplistic and/or off-target proposal. with spelling problems would not close parallels between the evolu- Now a correspondent in Fortean readily think of looking for grasp tionary cladistics of human genetics Times 170 has suggested imitation of under grahsp. Presumably the sur- on the one hand and language fami- musical hallucinations (a recognised vey had its own geographical bias. lies on the other. Well, these do often phenomenon which is coming to be The book is a few years old, but go hand in hand, not surprisingly; understood). Well, as I told them, maybe with suitable help a new edi- and this means that one can seek to this could perhaps be the origin of tion could be produced which would clarify obscurities in historical lin- the phonetics of speech; but it is dif- address these issues. guistics through ancient genetic in- ficult to see how such hallucinations formation, which is more readily would relate to grammatical and How do you sign Aukedate? accessed. This applies especially to other more abstract patterns in lan- I came upon an old (1998) report in the pre-literate period, where there guage. Speech, and even more so Fortean Times about two tribes in are no linguistic details at all apart phonetics alone, cannot be equated Irian Jaya called the Aukedate and from reconstructed ancestor-forms with language. the Vahudate who supposedly do not (inevitably uncertain). But there are speak but instead use sign lan- many cases like those of the Hungar- …and how it’s acquired guages. Some scholars believe that ians and the African Americans, In Skeptical Inquirer 27:2 (pp 37-41) in the remote past, before speech where genetically identifiable groups and in his books such as the recent developed, signing was the only have abandoned their languages, at The Blank Slate, the well known mode for language; but this would be least in some areas. Although the psychologist and post-Chomskyan altogether unique among modern latest discoveries suggest that there linguist Steven Pinker argues again humans (except for deaf sub-groups, are fewer such cases than might be that the latest scientific evidence of course). There was a web-based imagined, it is still clear (as I have supports a return to what he sees as discussion of the linguistic issues remarked before) that it is danger- a more balanced view of the signifi-

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 49 Sea of Words cance of ‘nature’ (genetics) and ‘nur- told me why not. And phoneticians (eg, the claim that for ture’ (environment) in the varied Phonosemantics went quiet — after one speaker violet light consistently development of individual human some further arguments from one reverses to I am the Lord; we say capabilities and personalities. He site-visitor supporting probabilistic that this is phonetically impossible has been accused of over-emphasis- treatment of accent differences. The and we challenge Gabriel to send us ing ‘nature’, but this may in part specific method proposed would not the relevant tapes). It is difficult to relate to something of an over-em- be satisfactory as it involves the know what to make of Gabriel’s phasis on ‘nurture’ in older analyses often false assumption that there claim that animals produce revers- and in some other recent traditions will be one dominant phonemic and als, or the claim of his associate of thought less informed by up-to- phonetic form in each key word, with Wilde to the effect that unconscious date scientific information. other forms constituting a small thought processes may operate back- Much of what Pinker says seems peripheral minority. My offer to as- wards in time. In some other cases altogether reasonable, and in the sist with dialectological information which might conceivably be more last few years his line has been was ignored. interesting, eg, that of a claim re- pushed in various general books and garding electroencephalogram tests sections of books dealing with issues Some more reversing! which allegedly offer some support to relating to the nature of humanity. David Oates sent Barry Williams a the theory of RS, no references to the However, it is important to bear in lengthy paper offered as a rather relevant reports are provided. mind that many important aspects of belated rejoinder to the 1997 article 2) Gabriel refers to eight or more this issue, as manifested in the vari- in which Jane Curtain and I re- ‘tonalities’ which yield different re- ous relevant disciplines, remain sub- hearsed some of the many objections versals for the same sequence, some ject to debate (as I am sure Pinker to Oates’ theory of Reverse Speech of which can be heard by some lis- would cheerfully admit). For in- (RS). This paper was prepared by a teners and others by others. This (a) stance, by no means all linguists RS training class in New South involves obscure/imprecise terminol- accept that the language faculty is Wales; the main author is Chris ogy (we do not know what Gabriel — as ‘hard-wired’ as has widely been Gabriel. It includes defence of the who, like most RS practitioners we proposed in the Chomskyan world. theory of RS, attacks on our criti- have encountered, clearly does not Geoffrey Sampson’s is perhaps the cisms, a report of a near-replication know phonetics — means by tonal- best known of a set of very different of our 1997 experiment carried out ity) and (b) reduces the testability of alternative interpretations of the by the class, and summaries of ear- the relevant claims (if this is true, linguistic evidence. lier experiments. The RS practition- one listener cannot reliably confirm ers sought publication in these or disconfirm another’s transcrip- And another thing… pages, but the paper is obviously too tion). In a similar vein, Gabriel Flenley & Bahn, in their new book long. In addition, it does not materi- naïvely suggests that lip-reading on Easter Island, imply that criti- ally strengthen Oates’ case. I will tests could prove RS genuine, but cisms of the Fischer ‘decipherment’ copy it on request to any interested here he again betrays his unfamili- of the rongorongo boards (for in- readers; but here I list its main arity with phonetics. And some of his stance, those of Jacques Guy?) are points and my further rejoinders, arguments are very weak, eg, where motivated by undue conservatism approved by Jane. (We also note that he suggests that ‘mirror image’ re- rather than by reasonable perception RS advocates continue to attribute versals prove that RS cannot depend of genuine problems, and that the our paper to Monash University it- solely on forward speech. The only documents can now be read at least self. We have to suspect that they ‘genuine’ — albeit non-significant — in part. And the blurb on the book’s simply do not understand the notion near-identical forward-reverse pairs inside jacket flap simply reports that of an academic address.) involve ‘phonological palindromes’ rongorongo is deciphered! Not so! 1) The first part of the rejoinder such as dad, which are of course Scholars moving outside their own consists mostly of repetitions of ear- unremarkable. It is phonetically fields should be more reserved and lier pro-RS claims, with a few new impossible for any other word to be should make it clear that they are claims added. As before, these claims its own reversal. attending to mainstream specialist are generally either speculative or 3) After all this, Gabriel turns to expertise. And, if they do reject the presented without adequate justifi- criticism of our 1997 article. We orthodox position, or peer criticism of cation. As far as this material is con- stand by the view that our own ex- novel proposals, they must explain cerned, the theory of RS must still be perimental results — while not fully why. (Compare Barrett on the judged implausible and not ad- explained — offer the theory of RS Sabbahs, as discussed above.) equately supported by the empirical no support. However, as we noted evidence. Some of the claims are and as we observe again below, there Further exchanges indeed so implausible that they must are other possible experiments Quadrant never printed my letter involve sheer error, in some cases which might be more revealing. We rebutting Gillin as promised, nor simply wrong transcriptions by non- might consider conducting these

Page 50 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 ourselves if we thought that the case 6) Gabriel cites in his support the erally lack the other expertise which for RS was stronger. As things are, psychological theories of Jung. While we would consider relevant. however, we consider that the main of great interest and in no way 7) We realise that if RS were onus to perform such experiments ‘fringe’, these theories are neverthe- genuine some training might well be lies with RS advocates. less of uncertain validity, and the needed in order for it to be under- 4) Gabriel’s accusation of bias on degree to which they might genu- stood or even heard. But we have our part (see also below) is ironic, inely be specifically relevant to RS is found that Oates’ own comments on given that he states that his own unclear. this are inconsistent. In addition, we study was aimed at supporting the note that training in mainstream theory of RS. One should not set out phonetics is useful because it is to support one’s prior beliefs, but clear what is present, whereas with rather to subject them to stern RS this is not so: at best, it is not scrutiny and if possible to discon- ... linguistic clear that any genuine linguistic firm them. We ourselves (as we items are present. have always made clear) did not 8) We also grant that RS ana- expect to find that the theory of RS structures are lysts may ‘find’ RS sequences with- was true (how could we?); but our out knowledge of the corresponding only bias is in favour of science and forward speech. This increases the rationality. We tried to free our not so chaotic independence (and possibly the study of any other bias, and we objectivity) of their claims about RS believe that we succeeded. We cer- and thus makes the claims more tainly did not give our subjects the that ‘anything interesting. It would be even more impression that we expected or interesting if several RS analysts hoped to obtain any specific type of agreed on their analyses in condi- result. And we note that Gabriel goes if it suits’. tions where genuinely independ- has not been able to cite any evi- ence obtained (this is one of the dence of the effect of bias on our possible further experiments to experiment. which we refer above). But, as one 5) Gabriel seems to think that of Gabriel’s own associates points linguists are naïve: eg, that we tend But, much more seriously, Gabriel out, even this would not itself show to assume a much higher degree of cites many writers who are clearly that the sequences ‘found’ really are uniformity across languages and ‘fringe’ to varying degrees. He places objectively present. Indeed, it is varieties of languages than we in much emphasis upon Neuro-Linguis- clear to us as phoneticians that the fact do, and in particular that we tic Programming; but this approach, alleged sequences in most of the tend to assume that all languages to the extent that its claims are examples which we have encoun- are similar to (known varieties of) novel, is not accepted as valid by tered are not in fact present. English. Naturally, no linguist would linguists, nor by most psychologists. In the few cases where the revers- take such views or adopt methods The linguistic and psycholinguistic als are phonetically present, this based thereon, and we did not. But claims of NLP advocates are at the involves only the chance existence of there are certain limits of linguistic very least much exaggerated. The ‘phonological palindromes’ or exact variation; linguistic structures are ‘New Age’ material invoked in sup- ‘mirror-image’ sequences which not so chaotic that ‘anything goes if port of RS is even more dubious. RS would apply regardless of the iden- it suits’. And our criticisms of the advocates’ qualifications in these tity of the speaker (as long as the theory of RS imply no such naïve areas are not generally recognised by accents involved were similar; see stances as Gabriel suggests. Gabriel psychologists or linguists, or re- below) and regardless of the truth or also suggests (repeatedly) that we garded as relevant to the serious falsehood of the forward messages might base our predictions and study of linguistic or (ie, ‘constants’). However, it is not at claims on written forms rather than psycholinguistic issues. In addition, all implausible to suppose that RS on spoken forms, even in a context there are various skills and bodies of analysts — who are after all striving such as this which involves spoken knowledge, both linguistic and psy- to hear reversals — might agree, to language. Again, no linguist would chological, which anyone working in some extent at least, in ‘finding’ adopt such naïve methods. Like this area definitely ought to have but those sequences which most closely many of his other comments, this which RS practitioners apparently resemble the actual reversed se- comment suggests that (again like lack; one very obvious example is the quences heard, even though these do most RS advocates) Gabriel is very set of skills and knowledge which is not actually display the phonological largely unfamiliar with the way in conferred by a good training in pho- sequences implied. Gabriel’s sugges- which linguistics is conducted. netics. We therefore stand by our tion that they would not ‘find’ any comment that RS practitioners gen-

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 51 Sea of Words reversals with clear boundaries un- it is necessary to use listeners who details on request. Little confidence less these were genuine is naïve. do not know the language in ques- can be had in the results of Gabriel’s 9) We stand by our view that the tion, because those who do know it experiment, as he (over-)interprets same forward sequences as spoken know where the divisions are — or, them. by different people can display only in the rare case of a sequence of un- 15) The paper also refers to the minor differences relating to familiar words, unconsciously know results of earlier ‘blind tests’, but paralinguistic features such as sighs the phonological patterns marking these are vitiated by his poor meth- and differences of voice-quality, ac- the divisions — and may therefore odology, and their results cannot be cent and such. It can easily be shown wrongly imagine that they can hear taken seriously. The impressive- by transcription that this is the case. gaps, etc. looking statistical conclusions drawn All testable claims which we have Gabriel is missing the point when by the associate consulted here sim- seen involving large differences be- he criticises our reference to non- ply do not apply, because the experi- tween RS sequences based on the speakers, and indeed he himself mental materials are so slanted as to same forward sequence are grounded appears to be falling prey to this almost guarantee the favoured out- in faulty transcription — and our very error. Given his lack of back- comes. The phonological sequences own experimentation in this respect ground in linguistics, he should not in the ‘bogus’ RS sequences are often confirms our position. (It is true that assume that he has any reliable very different indeed from those in a minor difference in forward speech knowledge of this kind about lan- the ‘correct’ sequence (ie, the se- may yield a slightly more salient guage. Later Gabriel gives a specific quence heard by the RS analyst), difference in RS, but this cannot be a example on another issue involving with different vowels, stress pat- major effect.) his criteria for identifying reversals, terns and even syllable-counts. In 10) Gabriel attacks our criticisms but this is partly vitiated by error addition some of the ‘bogus’ se- of Oates’ non-disclosure of figures arising from his lack of expertise. quences are again implausible or and analyses for his own experi- And his attempted defence of an worse as expressions in English, and ments, but our comments were based imprecise notion crucial to another are thus even less likely to be se- on all the material which we could criterion does not answer our objec- lected. obtain. What we saw was not suffi- tion. 16) The associate consulted here ciently clear or detailed to answer 13) Gabriel describes as ridiculous proposes another of the various pos- our queries. Again, in discussing our comment that it is hard to see sible experiments which would be syllable-counts, we isolated the exact how the vastly complex linguistic more revealing than any test con- forward sequences allegedly respon- and psychological systems needed for ducted so far (see above): an experi- sible for each reversal to the extent the production of RS could have gone ment aimed at determining whether that we could, given that Oates’ dis- unnoticed by scholars in the relevant or not any genuinely new and accu- cussion is itself frequently unclear. fields. He draws a strained analogy rate information (of a specific na- Any errors on our part relate to with theories of the shape of Earth. ture) ever comes to be known solely Oates’ own wording. Oates would not But our point stands. There is (a) no from examination of RS sequences. respond to our direct questions on good evidence that RS exists. There Indeed, we too suggest that RS advo- these matters. is no theory that suggests (b) how it cates conduct such an experiment, 11) We think that we were very can exist, or (c) why it should exist. with all suitable rigour. Skeptical probably right in suggesting that the If it existed, it would involve a large, organisations might be able to offer fact that the RS sequences in our centrally-located system, not other- some advice here. own study were not surrounded by wise required by the relevant proc- The theory of RS remains implau- gibberish would favour the hearing esses, which would almost certainly sible and inadequately supported. of the reversal — especially given involve one at least out of (a-c). Such Gabriel has not here strengthened that most alleged reversals do not in a system would have become famil- the case for RS as a genuine phe- fact stand out from the gibberish as iar by now. nomenon. Unless he can produce claimed. But we agree that this point 14) Gabriel’s criticisms of our 1997 better evidence (eg, along the lines could be tested. experiment are mostly ill founded, suggested above), his claims will 12) Contrary to what Gabriel sug- and there are also various problems neither warrant nor receive serious gests, there are typically no clear with his account of his new experi- scholarly attention. If Oates, Gabriel boundaries or gaps (even ‘tiny’ gaps) ment and with the conduct of the or anyone else still believes in RS, between words in forward speech at experiment itself. Most crucially, at they should address the problems normal speed. It can easily be shown least four and arguably more of which we have identified. that those who do not know the lan- Gabriel’s ‘bogus’ sequences are im- guage in question cannot identify plausible or worse as expressions in any such divisions, except in very English, and were thus unlikely to slow deliberate speech. In such tests, be selected. I will provide further

Page 52 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 History The Doctor is In

This issue contains many items were prepared to tolerate the pain a told me he was concerned as he knew about health issues and the con- bit longer, to let me get a little more this man had arrived. His car was tinuing debate about whether sleep (Their wives had a baby every parked outside his shack, but no one there is anything of value in so- year to add to my sleeplessness — no had seen him for days and he was called alternative medicine. pill in that era). afraid that he might be dead. I went We are delighted to offer the fol- They usually drank only a cup of down to the shack, in an isolated lowing stories from two medical tea with their breakfast, a cup or two spot, and called. A weak voice an- practitioners, recounting their ex- with lunch (if they were home) and a swered so I opened the door, went in periences in general practice from similar amount with their evening and found him lying on a bed with different eras, to help put the is- meal. They ate mostly salted corned red, swollen gouty joints in feet, sues in perspective. beef smothered in tomato or Worces- hands and elbows. He said he had tershire sauce, and drank little or no been in agony for days, unable to water, as they firmly believed drink- even walk to get help and nobody ing water gave you cramps. These had come near him. I asked if he had Bush Doctoring men were working in the heat, any medication for gout? No, of ploughing, mustering or swinging an Following Glenn Cardwell’s article course not; to ease the pain he had axe. They usually sucked a pebble to ‘Water, Water Everywhere’ (23:1), been drinking OP rum and all he had prevent their mouth becoming dry. In might I recount some personal expe- to eat was mud crab! that heat their sweat-loss must have riences? If you can believe any person could been at least 5 litres or more in sum- In the 1950s I was a medical prac- be more stupid, it would have been mer, and I knew, even in my seden- titioner in Monto in the Upper my garage proprietor. This was in the tary occupation, I needed to drink at Burnett region of Queensland, when days when if you bought a new car it least 10 glasses of water per day to we had the highest birth rate per would be ferried from Brisbane to our produce a reasonable amount of capita in Australia (until displaced town by a driver who was paid £10 urine. They drank mostly bore or by the public servants of Canberra). (perhaps), the car was then cleaned well water with a high salt content, if The district was a primary producing up, serviced and delivered to the they drank any water at all. Our area having coal, gold and copper purchaser. town supply was provided by a sub- mines, five sawmills, and extensive Every time the garage proprietor artesian bore whose salt content forestry plantations in the surround- made the trip to Brisbane, after deal- would destroy a hot water system in ing mountains. In all, the district ing with his business transactions, one year. had a population in the vicinity of he would lunch at a seafood restau- It was even more serious when 5,000. rant, where he drank sparkling bur- they went to the coast on holidays The farmers, graziers and timber- gundy, and stay the night at the where they would drink copious getters used to worry me as they Bellevue Hotel where he again dined quantities of ale, eat oysters, prawns, drank little water even in summer on oysters, crabs, prawns and more fish and crabs and wonder why they and a considerable number developed sparkling burgundy. suddenly developed kidney stones. renal colic. In summer I always woke He would then lead the convoy of I had three gout sufferers in my at dawn, got up, put the kettle on to new cars out of Brisbane at about district, two stock and station agents boil and went out to the backyard 4am, but he never made it back to and a garage proprietor. I could dunny (our town was not sewered). Monto before he had an attack of never persuade them to take prophy- Often I would become aware of a either gout or renal colic. On most lactic medication and so they fre- number of cars outside my surgery occasions I would have to drive half- quently had attacks of renal colic or entrance and men walking up and way to our neighbouring town to gout. One of the men had a fishing down the street grunting with pain. I inject sufficient morphia for his fam- shack at Agnes Water. Often, after a would lean over the fence and ask (as ily to lift him out of that new car that cattle sale at Miriam Vale, he would if I didn’t know the answer) ‘What’s he was driving home. go to Agnes Water for a few days of the matter?’ ‘We’ve got the colic!’ was On another occasion at dawn my fishing or crabbing. On one occasion, the reply. bedside telephone rang. The switch when we were over for the weekend, Asked why they hadn’t rung my girls at the exchange always knew the owner of the property came and doorbell they answered that they when I had a busy night, and if I

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 53 Doctor

had, the phone would just about leap off the bedside table with a long Homeopathy and the Placebo Response blast, just to wake me, otherwise I might just go back to sleep again. This call was regarded as urgent as a mother from the Moonford dis- trict telephoned to say that her child As a doctor, 1 have always tried to prefer hot food or cold, spicy or was peeing blood. She was very posi- keep an open mind to new ideas, but bland, warm weather or cool etc.) as tive about it as she was an ‘Ex- not so open that my brains fall out. the homeopath searches for a profile Nurse’. I instructed her to bring the In the early 70s, I was the only to match the reported characteristics child and a sample of urine to see me medical doctor among a crowd of of a herb, drug or poison. Then sud- as soon as it was convenient, usually naturopaths to hear Dr Wong intro- denly, bingo — the penny drops, the mid morning after the milking. About duce acupuncture to Australia. To- patient sees a light go on in the prac- five minutes later another mother day I am among the minority of doc- titioner’s head and hears the certain (from the same district) phoned, and tors who do not practice it. Instead, I pronouncement that they are defi- almost immediately yet another, and sometimes inject local anaesthetic nitely a nux vomica, a belladonna or all the children were peeing blood. I into painful trigger points, with su- whatever. became very agitated and wondered perior results. Since the major factor in the pla- what disaster was causing this epi- In the late 80s, I attended one of cebo response is the practitioner’s demic. Fortunately these calls were the very first Metagenics seminars faith in their treatment, it is a sure followed by a further two calls from on Live Blood Cell Analysis, but winner. Because the failures seldom other agitated mothers, one whose quickly realised it was just a gim- return but the successes do, the child was peeing green, and the next mick to sell their products. My young homeopath’s faith in the healing caller’s child blue, urine. GP assistant did take it up, but soon power of the remedy is reinforced. It was fortunate that I didn’t burst abandoned it when he found it unre- And, unless the patient has lactose out laughing as I recalled the various liable and open to artefact. intolerance, there are no side effects initiation activities that freshers I had earlier explored homeopa- to the non-ingredients either. were subjected to at University Col- thy, thinking it might work similar Contrast this with the tentative leges. I tactfully asked what event to immunotherapy, but came to real- approach of an orthodox doctor: had taken place in the district the ise it was no more than placebo, I would like you to try this medica- previous day and was told the fa- whereupon it lost any beneficial ef- tion to see if it helps. It may make mous Moonford State School Sports. fect on my patients. The placebo you tired, dry in the mouth, nau- Had the children been given any power of homeopathy was brought seous and constipated. Stop it if it special treats? ‘Oh, yes’, was the re- home to me when a homeopath (and gives you a severe headache. ply ‘Special cordial drinks, ice-blocks RN) told me she was getting superior of all kinds (and colours) and those results with remedies ‘potentised’ by Hardly likely to engender confi- new colourful lollies on sticks, known an expensive machine. She would dence! Even if the doctor doesn’t tell as ‘Pick-a-Pops’ and ‘Chuppa Chups’. put a bottle of lactose pills in one the patient all the possible side ef- The epidemic was solved. I then had slot, the real stuff or just a special fects, the insert in the package is to ask the switch-girl on the ex- card in another slot, press a button sure to, often putting the patient off change to connect me to all those and presto — the instantaneously even trying the medication. Those mothers so that I could tell them the ‘potentised’ lactose pills worked just who do take it often get the dreaded cause of their children’s peculiar wonderfully. I just had to see inside side effects — even when it is a pla- urine and not to worry, and not to this magic black box that needed no cebo! Because patients in drug trials rush into town to visit the doctor. power source. Sure enough, there are warned of possible side effects, These ‘tales’ are extracts from my were two wires connecting a placebo side effects frequently mimic forthcoming book Death of a potentiometer to a switch, a few those of the real drug. Although the Slaughterman’ and other stories, by wires going nowhere and nothing size, shape and colour of the pills all “A doctor from the country”, a collec- else. When I told her I could manu- affect the placebo response, both for tion of true ‘yarns’ most of which are facture these machines for under good and harm, the dominant factor worthy fare for any Skeptic. $10, she didn’t know what to think! is the practitioner’s faith in it. No Finally, might I suggest that we Full marks to Cheryl Freeman for wonder we lose out to the charla- all eat less salt and sugar and drink the good work she is doing. tans. more water. Homeopathy has to be the ulti- Dr Wes Allen is in medical practice at mate placebo therapy. Their consul- Duranbah, Northern NSW Dr Brian O’Sullivan is a retired GP who tations are lengthy, every symptom now lives in Brisbane. and personal characteristic being explored in depth (does the patient

Page 54 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Review A Sober Appraisal

The OZ Files: the Australian UFO of meteorological and astronomical story, Bill Chalker; Duffy and ration of his source would be appre- explanations. What is absent from the Snelgrove, Sydney 1996. ISBN 1 ciated. book is an analysis of psychological 875989 04 8. Prior to the emergence of the ca- explanations such as mental illness, nonical form of the flying saucer, hallucinatory experiences and illu- The Oz Files is a brief compendium of encounters of flying arks, ghost ships sory effects. Australasian UFO sightings that and mysterious dirigibles were docu- A case in point is the 1959 Boianoi attempts to examine these phenom- mented. Between July and October sighting from Papua New Guinea. ena with an ‘open mind’. The author, 1909 there was a series of at least Thirty-eight witnesses reported see- Bill Chalker, has studied UFO ac- four localised reports of mysterious ing a disc with four legs projecting counts since the 1970s and now co- out of its base and several occupants ordinates an organisation called The on its deck. This object appeared to be UFO Investigation Centre. moving through the air at a height of Most of the sightings in the book 100 metres. A plausible explanation are referenced from local UFO litera- was that the observers witnessed a ture, like Australian UFO Bulletin, false horizon and interpreted a well and internal reports from The UFO lit fishing vessel as an aerial craft. Information Centre. The narrative Chalker is dissatisfied with this ex- follows a chronological progression planation because the principal wit- from aboriginal experiences and early ness ‘was sure that the object he saw settlement though to the UFO satu- was at a 30 degree elevation in the rated decades of the post-war era. sky’. This kind of circular reasoning In the chapter on aboriginal UFO suggests a poor understanding of encounters Chalker’s open mind is at perceptual psychology. its most porous. He draws the reader In the early 1980s, Bill Chalker through a succession of aboriginal gained access to various RAAF files tales that evoke the familiar pattern on UFO investigations. Overall, of alien visitation, abduction and im- Chalker eschews government and pregnation before coyly reminding the military conspiracy theories and char- reader not to uproot this lore from its acterises the RAAF’s prevailing atti- cultural context and impose on it our tude as one of overt disinterest which fascination with UFOs. After enthusi- led to investigations being conducted astically quoting an aboriginal abduc- airships in Australia and New Zea- in a cursory manner. tion account from Rex Gilroy, Austral- land, culminating in the Kelso air- Although Chalker states that his ia’s alternative archaeologist and ship encounter (which was later ad- aim is to apply scientific scrutiny to polymath of the improbable, the au- mitted to be a hoax by some of the the research of UFO phenomena, thor politely suggests further corrobo- ‘witnesses’). The inspiration for the there does seem to be a tacit approval hoax was a story called “The Perils of paranormal beliefs throughout the of the Motherland” in the boys peri- book. While he relegates conspiracy odical Chums. This is an intriguing theorists to the fringe of UFO enthu- prelude to later waves of sightings siasts, his occasional references to that coalesced with the contempo- paranormal explanations are made rary themes of popular culture, without a hint of disapproval. though Chalker takes little interest While The Oz Files is not a de- in this Zeitgeist effect. tached and dispassionate work of As a chemist, Chalker is comfort- scientific scholarship, it does provide able disputing the purported mate- an informative and referenced ac- rial evidence of UFO encounters, count of Australasian UFO reports such as Pinkney and Ryzman’s dis- without the fringe lunacy and con- covery of ‘alien honeycomb’ (later spiracy theories that characterise Chris Guest labours to distort public hospital revealed [by Skeptics patron, Dick much of this literature. statistics for a local health authority. He eagerly Smith] to be terrestrial fibreglass). awaits a better offer from the alt med industry. He also has a reasonable knowledge

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 55 Junior Skeptics

We invite younger, school-age, asked for one. He got it. Still, the Skeptics to contribute items, pub’s name held more truth than this reviews, etc to this new feature. book.) As we left the town, we saw a pattern on the hillside in different coloured grass. It said “TOBY”, so UFO SCI-file; Alan Watts, Scho- straight away we knew the name of lastic the alien who had been there. We have no evidence of the Crop Toby, I saw a UFO once. We were driving because, for some mysterious reason, in the country one night when a the camera wouldn’t work. Not that that matters, of course - this book bright green light raced across the proves that, to be believed, you only sky quickly, before disappearing. It aren’t these things facts, they’re not need to say you’ve seen something. was an object, it was flying, and I the worst ones you’ll find in this book. I got my hopes up when I read the couldn’t identify it (maybe because I The author certainly gets points heading for the last part of this book - was only about eight at the time), so for covering a wide range of topics - “On being a sceptic”. “Cool!”, I it was most definitely a UFO. Dad “UFOs do exist”, “What shape are thought - finally, we’re going to hear said something about rocks and ice UFOs?”, “When did UFOs start?”, some sense. and green lights, but he couldn’t “UFOs over Mexico”, “Famous UFO Or not. The short conclusion prove that it wasn’t a space ship. I’ve places”, “Contactees” and “What if I seemed to do nothing but confuse the been told that Thomas Jefferson see a UFO?”. But why doesn’t he give definitions of ‘sceptic’ and ‘cynic’. didn’t believe in rocks falling from the us the important information, things (Sceptic: one who questions the valid- sky, and he was a smart man. that would go under headings such as ity or authenticity of something pur- This book is beautifully laid out, as “What else could these things be?”, porting to be knowledge. Cynic: a most books published by Scholastic “Are some people nuts?”, “Can photos fault-finder). It says, “Unfortunately, are. I had some problems with it, be fake?”, or, in the words of a certain you will often find that sceptics have though. First of all, on the cover is gold Logie-winning TV presenter, never read the evidence. You should says “the truth behind Unidentified “What the..?” be a thinking sceptic, one who does Flying Objects”, and the word “truth” What I find most annoying about not believe or disbelieve until they is underlined. That leads the reader this book is that the information is have read the evidence”. Not only to believe that there is some actual presented in a way that makes one does he claim that people who don’t truth inside the book. On each page believe that there is concrete evi- believe in UFOs don’t look at the there are little “SCI-facts” (The Mac- dence proving that UFOs do exist. evidence before coming to a conclu- quarie Dictionary defines ‘fact’ as: Exact descriptions of aliens? Well, I’ll sion, he claims that he has looked at what has really happened or is the have to believe in aliens now, this guy it, which from this book seems to be case, and, something known to have seems so sure of himself! an obvious lie - he talks about the happened). The first “SCI-fact” is Greys” are described as being authenticity of photos that were “There have been millions of UFO “small - less than five feet - have grey proven hoaxes years ago. How could sightings worldwide in the last fifty skins, very large heads compared to anyone who seriously searched for years”. Okay, that still works as a their bodies, and enormous almond- the truth regarding UFOs not dis- “fact”. On the next page, it says shaped eyes. They only have holes for cover that? “UFOs can do things no plane or even ears and noses. Sometimes, they have I found this book very condescend- jump-jet could do”. Oh, dear. That only three or four fingers which may ing to children. It was written as if isn’t really the case. The next two be webbed like those of a frog. They the reader had an unimaginably low pages’ “facts” are about the sizes of may even have webbed feet. They IQ, and only gives evidence support- UFOs and something called “Mother have been described by the more hu- ing the existence of UFOs - not let- Craft”. The sad part is that not only man-looking ETs as ‘our soldiers’. ting the reader decide for themselves, Give me Triffids any day - At least as Mr Watts urges them to do in the John Wyndham wasn’t trying to pass conclusion. them off as real. This book is published by a com- They even talk about crop circles pany called Scholastic. The fact that (“SCI-fact: Crop designs are too big this normally very good publishing and complicated to be the work of company would print this upsets me, hoaxers”). As well as seeing a UFO, I and I find it sad that people who have seen a crop thing (I must be know the definition of “scholastic” (of very attuned to alien activity, or or pertaining to schools, scholars or something). We were on holidays and education) might believe that this had just had lunch at The Pub With would be a good book to be read in No Beer at Taylor’s Arm. (Dad, being schools. Toby would be insulted. the Skeptic that he is, sought the Belinda Bowditch and Gillian Brown evidence for there being no beer and Belinda Bowditch

Page 56 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Eyespy - Eye Files; Scholastic James Randi suggests that Nostrada- later described them as being human- mus might have worked this event oid, with large heads, dark slanted Eye Files is one of those books in- into his prediction, and that chance eyes, arms of different lengths and tended for children, published by made it seem fitting 111 years later, tentacle-like fingers with suction Scholastic. It’s 32 pages long, and in 1666 when the fire occurred. cups at the tips. each page contains an article of study Eye Files, which was published in The story then goes on to describe upon some kind of paranormal claim 1996, says that Nostradamus also how everything was hushed up by the or sighting. An interesting read, but predicted that a third world war government. The story is all very there are some aspects of the book would occur late last century, a dicta- well, but it was the “Official Explana- that I really, as a Junior Skeptic, did tor would emerge from China and a tion”‚ that caught my eye. This is not find very funny. horrible battle would take place in what it said: The book has two main types of the Northern Hemisphere. He says All the people who had the oppor- study: Dossiers and Reports (Official, that Russia and America would form tunity to observe the wreckage and Confidential, Field or Closed). Dossi- an alliance and fight against China, the bodies, including scientific ex- ers are studies on famous people, and that the Northern Hemisphere perts, came to the same conclusion: whose fame was attained from claims would experience a terrible famine as an alien ship crashed that night. To of psychic powers. The Reports are all a result of this war. this day, what happened in Roswell is on strange incidents or find- the strongest evidence we ings or sightings that have have of the existence of life in happened and are still outer space. The question (mainly) unsolved and open remains, however, why did the for inspection. government keep the informa- There were three dossiers tion a secret so long? in the book, but the one that And this is my incredibly caught my eye was on Nos- unofficial explanation to this tradamus. As many of you investigation: All the people know, Nostradamus is incred- who had the opportunity to ibly famous for being perhaps observe the wreckage and the the best fortune-teller in the bodies came to very different world. He apparently predicted conclusions: some of the people the rise and fall of Hitler and believed it was an alien ship, Napoleon, the bombing of Hiro- whereas others thought that shima and Nagasaki, and the this was probably either made Great Fire of London. I beg to up entirely, or some other object differ about the fire of London. had crashed. If the information Nostradamus would always from Roswell is the best evi- predict the future in quatrains, using Well, the dence the author can come up a bowl of water on a brass stand, like Americans are still as American as with, then he/she’s either losing her a crystal ball. The English transla- ever, the Chinese are still functioning touch, or didn’t have any touch to tion of the Great Fire Quatrain, No much as before and the entire north- begin with. The government probably 51, goes like this: ern hemisphere is as well-nourished kept it a secret because it wasn’t any- The blood of the just shall be want- as it was before, so I would proudly thing special. Thank you, and good ing in London, claim that Nostradamus was wrong. night! And also perhaps, in his life, he was I must say, though, this book was Burnt by thunderbolts of twenty- wrong more often then he was right, very entertaining: I laughed so much three the Six(es), like all those other fortune-tellers out that I cried. Anyway it’s only one of The ancient dame shall fall from there. many books that are out there, that (her) high place, Some of the reports in this book talk about these kinds of strange Of the same sect many shall be killed. are quite amusing, and there are happenings. More professional books James Randi took a look at this. about five of them I could have re- than this one sound very convincing. He says that it could indeed have ported on, however I decided to stick What gets me angry is that the au- been the prediction of the Great Fire, to one; the UFO crash at Roswell. thor, of this book and many others, but the Quatrain fits in a lot better Here are the claims. It happened claims that scientists could not run with something else that was actually on July 3, 1947, when a fella, William tests or anything like that; they could going on at the time. Queen Mary I Brazel, reported a crashed ship on his only conclude that this was an alien (Bloody Mary ) of England was burn- property. The craft was reported to spaceship. Scientists don’t do that. ing Protestants at the stake. The have been made of a type of material Perhaps the authors should research events in accordance to this time in the military had never seen before, more before trying to feed those kinds history fit very well into the quatrain. and inside the craft were the remains of stories to us. Better, in fact, then the event the of three bodies, badly damaged from quatrain is famous for predicting. the crash. People who saw the bodies Gillian Brown

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 57 Forum

Doors, Doors, Doors I teach a class in elementary prob- I, too, have used simulation to dem- Dr Robert Peard ability to BEd (primary) students at onstrate the solution to the problem QUT. Like many teachers, I have used with my own class. However, as stu- School of Mathematics, Science and this problem as an example of the dif- dents of probability they require more Technical Education ficulties associated with teaching prob- than just the answer. They want to Queensland University of Technology ability, and in particular the know why, and, as many of your read- unreliability of our intuition in this ers have already discovered, the result The interest generated by the original field. The correspondence you have is counter intuitive and very difficult article on Monty Hall’s dilemma, or the generated on this topic has demon- to explain. Students of more advanced Three Door Problem, and subsequent strated clearly what has been well probability can more easily recognise responses including Roland Seidel’s documented in the literature: the mis- the situation as one of conditional article (22:4) and Borek Puza’s analy- conception is counter intuitive, ex- probability and apply Bayes’ Rule to sis (23:1) have prompted me to write tremely resilient, and not confined to obtain a solution (This is the analysis a few words on the problem and the naïve subjects (See, for example given by Borek Puza in his Appendix issue of misconceptions in probability, Borovcnik & Peard, 1997, and 3). However, this option is not avail- the unreliability of our intuition in this Shaughnessy, 1992). able to my students of elementary field. probability, nor is it to many of your Simulation readers or the general public. Probability It was interesting to note that many Most people are surprised to learn, for of your correspondents resorted to Assumptions example, that in a group of 30 people simulation before accepting the solu- To understand the problem, we must the probability of two having the same tion. Simulation can lead to a correct first understand that there are num- birthday is about 70%, since this re- solution to many problems in probabil- bers of assumptions made. This is of- sult is counter intuitive. A recent ity; in some situations a simulated so- ten the case when attempting to ana- Ripley’s Believe it or Not cited the case lution is much easier to obtain than a lyse problems in probability. The of a baby girl born in the USA on 7 theoretical one. For example, to cal- assumption of assigning equal likeli- Dec, the same date as her mother and culate the probability of having an hood to the outcomes of an event is one grandmother, quoting the “incredible” opening hand in a game of bridge us- that is not always justified. This is, in odds of less than 1 in 48 million (math- ing theoretical probabilities would be many instances a misconception, and ematically correct). Clearly many an extremely complex problem. With with regard to the Three Door Prob- would think this an incredibly unlikely modern computers, though, or even lem, is really the crux of the issue. We occurrence. However, given the popu- with enough players playing the game, see this in its simplest form when, for lation of the USA, if we consider the a simulated solution is a relatively example, young children are asked: “In probability that somewhere some child easy matter. However, the process of a class there are 12 girls and 16 boys. will be born on the same date as a par- simulation does not necessarily lead The teacher puts the name of each ent and a grand parent, we find that to or improve any understanding of the child in a hat and draws one out at even over a relatively short period of situation. In The International Hand- random. What is the probability of the time, this is nearly certain to happen. book of Mathematics Education, name being a boy? Many children (and The only “believe it or not” situation (Borovcnik & Peard, 1997, p. 376) the adults) will answer 1/2, arguing that would be if this didn’t happen. The authors cite the simulated solution to it can be either a boy or girl and that misconception here is in not under- “Monty’s Dilemma” (The Three Door these are equally likely. standing what the problem is. Borek Paradox) as an example of where a A more subtle example is the situa- Puza makes the point admirably with correct solution is readily obtained tion where we ask a group of people to regard to the Three Door Problem that through simulation, but without this select a number from 0 to 9 ‘at ran- we must first understand the condi- resulting in any improved understand- dom’. There is a tendency to assume tions of the problem. ing of why. that each of the 10 digits is equally

Page 58 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 likely and that about 1/10 of the group a change of probabilities for the other The probability problem starts here will choose each. People are often sur- two doors, but cannot affect the 1/3 4. “Do you want to change your prised to learn that the numbers 7 and probability of your door. The new prob- choice?”. 3 are much more likely than any of the abilities then become 1/3 (yours), 0 (the others. Unlike drawing numbers from open door) and ? for the other. This The first three steps have no bear- a hat, people do not select at random. must be 2/3 since the sum of the three ing on the outcome of the problem. Even when we assign probabilities to is 1. I have found that not everyone After step three, your choice is from tossing coins or rolling dice, we make accepts this explanation immediately, two doors only. One has the prize and assumptions of equal likelihood based probably because the result is still the other hasn’t. At this point you also on the symmetry of the materials used, counter intuitive, but for many it does are able to change your mind on which which may not be correct. However, in provide an explanation that simula- door to choose, so the earlier choice has the absence of other information, in tion does not. nothing to do with the choice you will symmetrical situations, it is reason- make now. No matter what choices are able to accept equal likelihood. References made during steps 1 to 3, you will al- ways have a 50% chance of getting the Misconception Borovcnik, M. & Peard, R. (1997). Prob- prize at step 4. ability. In J. Kilpatrick (Ed.) Interna- The trick is in making you think The Three Door Paradox is in fact an tional Handbook of Mathematics Educa- example of the “equally likely” miscon- tion. (pp. 371-401). Dordrecht: Kluwer. that it is actually a three door prob- lem, when in reality it is only ever a ception. There is a natural tendency Shaughnessy, J. M. (1992). Research in when the two doors remain closed to probability and statistics: Reflections and two door problem. When you get to assign an equal probability to each, viz directions. In D. A. Grouws (Ed.), Hand- step four there are only ever two doors 1/3. There is no justification for doing book of research on mathematics teaching to choose from and your earlier choice this, it is simple the intuitive thing to and learning (pp. 465-494). New York: has no effect on the probabilities that do. We have seen that simulation pro- MacMillan. apply from this step as you are mak- duces a frequentist probability of 2/3, ing a totally independent choice at this time. This is where the probability and the mathematical analysis of the Where to start problem as stated yields a conditional problem truly starts. probability of 2/3, but can we explain So what do all those complicated this more simply? I have found the fol- Herbert Niesler probability calculations in previous issues tell us? You can spend a lot of lowing argument reasonably accept- Arana Hills, Qld able. time and effort on a problem, if you We know that the sum of the prob- don’t understand properly what it is When Roland Seidel introduced us to abilities of the outcomes of any event you are trying to analyse. I think there the three door problem, I was amazed must always add to unity. In the draw- is a message in that for us all. and convinced of his answer. With the ing of names from a hat, for example, ongoing discussions I have finally re- the probability of a boy plus that of a alised that this is a brilliant example girl must add to one whether or not Incentive of how the probability issues get they are equally likely. The probabili- caught up in, and confused by the pro- ties of the doors containing the prize Jean-Pierre Favre tocol of the experiment. It’s a classic for the contestant selecting at random magicians sleight of hand situation. Bungendore NSW might be 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3 for each door, Any answer that includes 1/3 or 2/3 is but for Monty they are 1, 0, and 0 (he wrong. I have read the profuse articles about knows where the prize is). The as- To explain my point I will break up the Monty Hall’s three doors problem sumption of 1/3 for the contestant the experimental protocol into steps and as usual with statistics can’t make might be incorrect. The host may have (based on the original article page 30 any sense of any of it. I’m sure the a preference for placing the prize in of 18:2) and show where the probabil- eminent writers are all correct but con- the centre box for example and the ity problem actually starts. sider this: probabilities could be 1/4, 1/2, 1/4. What I would like to ask is that, in However, again in the absence of other The probability problem has not started order to make the problem more in- information it is reasonable to assume teresting and possibly understand- 1. Game show players, you have equal probabilities and having se- able, you now use 1000 doors and put three doors to choose from, one lected a door at random to assign to a Ferrari behind only one of them. hides the prize. this selection a probability of 1/3. Now The player is then asked to select a we know that Monty will open one of 2. You choose a door. door behind which he/she thinks the the other two doors. He will never open Ferrari is located. Knowing where the 3. The host says, “just before we your door, he knows where the prize Ferrari is located, I will then proceed open that door I will show you one is and employs this knowledge in his to open 998 doors behind which there of the others”, opens a door showing action. This action will thus result in is nothing. no prize.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 59 Forum

Should you change your mind and or the wave of his wand; it is irrel- Now I can’t arm wrestle numbers switch or should you stick to your origi- evant. When given the opportunity to with Borek Puza, but unless my fin- nal choice? change the client is being given the gers need recharging, I make that 2 Also in the TV game ‘Who wants to opportunity to pick two doors rather wins out of 3 instead of the 1 win out be a millionaire’, if when presented than one so that over a large number of 3 I would have if I didn’t change. with a 4 choice question the answer to of trials the client will win about 2/3 The same reasoning would apply which you haven’t got the faintest, of the time if he or she changes. mutatis mutandis if the prize were could you try to pick one at random behind door 2 or door 3. and then take the 50/50. In the event that your selection is still on the board Yet more when two possible answers have been Editor’s Confession removed, should you then switch to the E. Hartley remaining one or stick to your origi- In this puzzle, I find that I always nal choice? (Personally I would go Rye VIC agree with the last person I hear from, through the whole list in a loud voice which probably makes me a and listen for the appropriate cough!). I’m no mathematician, but it seems to me that the outcome(s) can be de- probabalistic nincompoop. It certainly scribed as follows: confuses me. Apropos which, unless someone More doors The prize is behind door 1 and: comes up with an absolutely irrefuta- A. I choose door 1 ble, novel (and easily comprehensible) Fred Flatow answer to this problem, or can show I am shown door 2 (or 3) to be empty Monterey NSW the effect that closing and opening I change to door 3 (or 2) and lose. doors has on the way water runs down In the last issue, Borek Puza (Forum) B. I choose door 2 the plug hole at the South Pole, this spends four pages and 6 Appendices correspondence is closed. Future cor- trying to befuddle us with statistics. I I am shown door 3 to be empty respondence on this matter may be ad- have found it is often easier to com- I change to door 1 and win. dressed to the editors of Creation prehend what is happening by consid- Prayer News, Rugby League Week or ering an extreme example. C. I choose door 3 the Poultry Breeder’s Gazette, but Let’s assume there are 100 doors. I am shown door 2 to be empty PLEASE not to the Skeptic. Ed. The contestant chooses one door (a chance of 1/100). The host then opens I change to door I and win. 98 empty doors. Given a chance to change his mind and choose the other remaining door, the contestant obvi- ously increases his chance (by a factor of 99 in this case). In general, if the number of doors in “N”, the contestant, by changing his mind increases his chance by a factor of N-1. An open and shut case.

And more

John Turner Toronto NSW

Maybe a last word on the three door choice? Anyone given the option of choosing two doors rather than one would choose the two door option. There is 100% chance that one of the two doors will be empty so that the experimenter opening an empty door is like the magicians swirl of his cloak Skeptics getting involved. See stories on following pages.

Page 60 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Activities Getting Involved

In the past we have tried to bring ria), on the health of science educa- Recent NSW activities have included our readers information about tion in our fair state. Among the many the following. events organised by the various state cogent points he highlighted were: Skeptics groups — it was always an • science has an important place in Being There enterprise fraught with frustration the primary curriculum. It is neces- Notes on the Answers in Genesis for editors driven by deadlines and, sary to engage and satisfy the natu- meeting, advertised as a public sadly, it didn’t really work. The ral curiosity of the child from an meeting, held at Bonnet Bay Public Skeptics web site early age, and good teaching requires School on May 25. www.skeptics.com.au is now playing revisiting and reinforcement of con- • It was a religious service, with host to a number of branch home cepts as the child develops. prayer, a hymn and lots of time pages (and more are under construc- given over to why one should re- tion), which should help people keep • primary schools which give science pent, etc. Bad form for a public abreast of activities. Failing that, proper consideration in their curricu- school; and as there are always Skeptical lum are often highly successful, with activities going on, we urge readers children finding science fun and • In the agenda, there was no provi- contact their state bodies using the relevant. sion for question time (surprise, addresses shown on the title page of • scientific literacy remains low surprise); the Skeptic. among primary teachers, and there • There were no scientific aug- As a quarterly national journal is is a lack of initiative to remedy this ments, points or evidence adduced not necessarily an appropriate plat- situation, with confusion between for creationism, purely ones made form for items which are purely pa- astronomy and astrology being cited on religious grounds. For instance, rochial or topical, we urge the state as a common problem. when asked to give one bit of evi- movers and shakers to keep their dence for creationism, the AiG peo- home pages up-to-date, not only with Ken Greatorex, Secretary ple simply attacked evolution, notices of meetings to come, but also ignoring repeated requests for evi- with reports of what went on. We NSW dence for creationism. In the end are, of course, always delighted to NSW Skeptics has an established they held up the Bible; publish original presentations by and successful programme of Dinner speakers at various state functions. Meetings at the Chatswood Club. • AiG speakers have clearly been In the following columns we will The next meeting, featuring trained to pick holes in science in try to give a brief flavour of some of prominent plastic surgeon, Dr Cholm general and evolution in particular, what has been going on around the Williams speaking on dubious prac- but as they show little or no knowl- country, using abbreviated reports tices in cosmetic surgery, will be on edge of science, their arguments would only appeal to the scientifi- from what Skeptics have told us. Saturday, July 5 (see insert for fur- cally illiterate (sadly too large an ther details). Victoria audience); Vic Skeptics is undertak- • Science was attacked ing a number of activities repeatedly, using false in the near future, includ- and fraudulent data, eg, ing public meetings, The reiteration of the com- Great Australian Science mon (and blatantly false) Show, Science Talent mantra of creationists Search, STAVCON and that radioactive dating Primary Science Teacher’s processes are fatally Conference. flawed; We recently shifted our • Richard Dawkins was Public Meetings venue to attacked again and The Whitehorse Inn Hotel again. Although it was Hawthorn, where we long since comprehen- kicked off with an excellent sively exposed in the presentation by Chris Skeptic (18:3 and 18:4) Krishna-Pillay, Manager of as unscientific rubbish, CSIRO Education (Victo- Noah’s Ark: woodwork excellent; argument pathetic.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 61 Activities

the notorious Frog to a Prince video native medicine industry, we were the people, places, events and times was frequently cited as evidence as rather amused by one stand offering being described. to why evolution is wrong; various”non-chemical” shampoos and On the equinox in March 2003 the Things became more interesting the like, as shown in the photograph Liverpool Regional Museum held a when ABC Science reporter, Dr below. function called the Celestial Celebra- Paul Willis (himself a palaeon- tions and Autumn Equinox. It tologist), stood up and introduced featured palm readers, astrolo- himself. He pointed out the gers, tarot readers and other many half-truths and deceptive nonsenses associated with the statements in the presentation superstitions surrounding such and offered the use of an inde- significant days of the year. The pendent third-party science lab to day marked the culmination of test some of the claims about a an exhibition of occult nonsense young Earth. The speaker said called Stars Cards and Charms; that any lab that was not run by enter the Mystical Realms, and a creationist organization was at first I thought that the equi- not to be trusted. AiG seems to nox event might be a good-hu- have a persecution complex. moured way of highlighting the Richard Saunders; Malcolm Cluett silliness of all this and an appro- priate date had been chosen just Psychic for the purpose of the story. In fact, the museum seemed to be At the behest Today Tonight, I taking this seriously, and the attended a performance by “the event was promoted and run by most accurate psychic in the Keeping the evil chemicals at bay the Pagan Awareness Network world”, Talieha (I think). (She and the Astrology Association of might be, but that doesn’t say much, I end by making a plea. If you have NSW, both of whom had been in- and I had never heard of her before the chance, please make the effort to volved in the ongoing exhibition. the performance.) attend public meetings, gatherings A group from the Australian Skep- • Before the performance, I had time and performances from “the other tics thought that it might be fun to to wander through the waiting audi- side”. Reading about it is one thing, have a stall, where we could bend ence and eavesdrop many conversa- but living it gives you a far better some spoons, do some cold reading, a tions. People were chatting about understanding. bit of tarot, maybe dowse for some other clairvoyants they had seen, Richard Saunders underground torrents, and generally family matters, personal information practise our occult, “magical” skills. etc. Had I needed to, I could have Unfortunately we were rebuffed, and it was disturbing to be told that this stunned many of them later on with Musings on museums my impressive insights. was because the museum “would Museums are educational institu- prefer it if the day could just focus on • Talieha did a pretty good job with tions. They expose us to things that the mystical issues raised by the her version of cold-reading, but it would normally be impossible to see exhibition and provide a space where took a long time. She did readings without extensive travel or a time these ideas can be celebrated in a for about 2 hours, with each person machine. One thing we expect from supportive environment”. getting about 5 minutes. museums is a commitment to the It is not the purpose of a publicly- truth. We have the right to think funded museum to provide a “sup- • The brief TV report only showed that the stuffed animals in natural portive environment” for supersti- the positive reactions from the audi- history museums really are exam- tion and witchcraft. The museum ence: “That’s all true.” “She was re- ples of what these animals look like. may profit from this exercise, and ally accurate.” “Everything she said In a science museum, the science that is good because it will provide was right.”, but plenty of others gave should be based on real research and funds for future collections and exhi- negative reactions that were not knowledge except where examples of bitions, but this has to be balanced broadcast. pseudoscience are displayed to make against the harm done by allowing One further entertainment was a specific point. (Every time I go to people to infer that there is some our visit to the regular Mind, Body the Australian Museum I am pleased validity to superstition, simply be- and $pirit exhibition held at Darling to see a sign saying “Evolution is a cause it appears to have the impri- Harbour. These have been going on fact”, put there to answer anyone matur of an organisation which for years and the only changes seem who complains that the exhibit should be devoted to the spreading of to be in the New Age fads du jour about evolution is not “balanced”.) knowledge and truth. The objects and artefacts in histori- that feature. In the wake of the cata- cal museums are assumed to have a clysm that recently struck the alter- Peter Bowditch provenance that connects them to

Page 62 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Theories of Everything: Science TV in Sydney

Many people may not be aware of it, The Theories of Everything, science/ book in his mix of reading material. but there is another free to air TV philosophy program running on This idea was greeted with some Channel in most cities — Commu- Channel 31 Community TV Sydney, disdain but I persevered and eventu- nity Access TV on Channel 31. had its genesis in Bar Italia, ally was able to persuade him to I browsed it one night and was Leichhardt two years ago. read one or two general science surprised to see Mike Archer from I have been a regular customer in books about the cosmos. He then the Australian Museum being inter- Bar Italia, one of the original Italian asked for several more references — viewed on a science based show, coffee bars on the Norton Street Tom was hooked. Theories of Everything. strip, for over 10 years. I used, and He went on a science binge, read- I had only seen bits and pieces of still use, it as a combination office, ing at least a book a week and finally the show before, but it seemed that think space and social centre. It’s a insisted that I create a half hour it was worth emailing the presenter, laid back bar and a haunt for all science show for Ch 31, which I did. David Tow, to ask if he would like to types of eccentric characters, includ- I soon discovered that creating a interview Australian Skeptics. His ing myself. credible half hour of science on dif- response was enthusiastic and I had just completed my magnum ferent topics every week, mixed in within the week, David was at my opus, Meta-evolution: The Future of with interviews, when not IT con- house with cameras and lights to Life (now available on Amazon but sulting was not a simple task. Still, I tape a show. Along for the fun were also freely on www.future-of- was committed and began to evolve a Alynda Brown and Peter Bowditch. life.com) after 6 years on-and-off formula based on the big picture The Skeptics were given a great run hard labour. It’s a big picture and research I had originally completed and even managed to destroy a few fairly radical thesis about the ge- for my book. This included, for exam- spoons. After the show I offered my neric evolutionary process. ple, sometimes developing a theme services as producer and spent the At the time another eccentric such as the latest theories of the next 10 hours editing the interview. character, Tom Zelinka, previously a mind or life or cosmos over several Two weeks later, Ian Bryce was in producer on ABC JJ, was regularly programs, but always examining the the hot seat and Colin Keay has also reading history, particularly related implications of the science within a appeared. to the American Civil War. After social or philosophical context. In Sydney, tune in on Sunday some months we got to chatting and The current successful associa- nights to catch the show. You can get I discovered that he had transmuted tion with Australian Skeptics looks details on tuning your TV for Chan- to programming manager for the like being a very fruitful addition to nel 31 from www.channel31.org If nascent Ch 31. the scope and popularity of the pro- you would like to comment or offer One day I suggested that he gram, particularly in conjunction ideas, write in to should include the occasional science with the expert editing support of [email protected] Richard Saunders.

Richard Saunders David Tow

Other Activities Crossword No 16 Answers

Among other projects sponsored or supported by Skeptics groups are: We are still having trouble with the Crossword and there will not be one National in this issue — we hope to have it The Australian Skeptics Eureka sorted out by the next issue. We also Prize for Critical Thinking note with sadness the recent passing, at 87, of Lindsay Browne, the doyen For schools or school children of Australian crossword compilers. Science Talent Search (Vic) Winner of competition 16 is Ian Young Scientist Awards (NSW) Petersen of Berowra, NSW. We have Scientist in Residence (Qld) sent him his book prize. Oliphant Awards (SA) Questacon Mathematics Quest (SA)

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 63 Letters

Enviroskeptic must be of the kind that galvanised One of the most important state- Lomborg into writing the book in the ments Lomborg makes (and he makes first place. For example, in the third it a number of times, probably because Janetta McRae column on page 62, Lowe states that he was aware that he would be pillo- Kambah ACT at a recent conference “... over 1000 of ried for questioning current orthodoxy) the world’s leading scientists ...” is that the world is not an ideal place, Having just read The Skeptical Envi- painted a picture of unrelieved gloom, but it is improving. Why then do peo- ronmentalist, I was interested to ob- making such statements as “... the ple insist on painting pictures of serve lan Lowe’s criticism in the Skep- extinction rate of species is believed unrelieved gloom? Is it because they tic (22:4). After all, it is such a to be accelerating...”. Scary stuff. But believe that others will listen to them controversial approach to the subject where is the evidence? Using the same if they make things sound very much that I expected there would be a statistics available to the “world’s lead- worse than they are? Unfortunately, number of reasoned and informed re- ing scientists”, Lomborg comes up with this over-dramatisation is likely to buttals of some (at lest) of Lomborg’s an extinction rate of about 0.7 percent produce only negative outcomes. claims. Unfortunately, Professor Lowe in 50 years — unacceptable because it Firstly, panicky reactions to what ap- did not provide any. is higher than the normal background pears to be a serious problem often He begins with the cardinal sin of extinction, but much lower than the lead to expensive and ultimately un- attacking the writer rather than the oft repeated claim of “40,000 species a successful attempts at solutions. Sec- writer’s arguments. Now, economists year”, a figure hazarded by Myers in ondly, if you continue to cry ‘wolf’, peo- may be on a par with snake oil mer- 1979 and repeated unquestioningly ple will eventually stop listening to chants and would-be sellers of large, ever since. you, even if you finally do tell the metal bridges (although Richard Lead Professor Lowe derides Lomborg’s truth. Thirdly, faced with what seems might have some quaintly idiomatic claim that wealth leads to an improve- like a hopeless task, many people will remarks on that line), but attacking ment in environmental conditions. I simply give up and think, “To hell with your opponents credibility in order to don’t know why, since it is the wealthy the environment! The world’s coming undermine his arguments is not a nations who have the most to say to an end, I may as well enjoy myself seemly way to begin. about the environment and have done while I can!” Professor Lowe accuses economic the most to “clean up their acts”. (Mel- Lomborg’s claims have been fiercely models of being shaky, but praises cli- bourne is no longer known as attacked by many environmental sci- matic models for being “tested against “Smellbourne”, nor Edinburgh as entists. What disturbs me is that much the real world”. However, as Lomborg “Auld Reekie” and Sherlock Holmes of the criticism is highly emotive and points out, any computer model will probably wouldn’t recognise London not backed up by much in the way of only reflect the information put into without the fogs.) Our higher stand- evidence. There seems to be a deter- it, which is why, for example, most ard of living has led to better health, mined attempt to gag him, so that his computer models which assume a C02 longer lives, better education and more embarrassing claims will not be heard. increase of 1%, rather than the cur- leisure time, so we can rush around Yes, his critics have reputations to lose rent rate of 0.58%, are not actually re- telling the developing nations to “do — but if they wish to keep these repu- flecting the “real world” (Lomborg p what we say”, rather than “do what tations and retain the respect of the 279). Professor Lowe also fails to men- we did”. Your average third-world resi- general public, they will have to come tion that there is not just one model of dent is much too busy trying to stay up with some calm, rational argu- global warming, but many, each with alive to give much attention to the fact ments. Otherwise we will simply lose a different outcome depending on the that burning fossil fuel is likely to pol- faith in them and the environment will information fed into it. lute the atmosphere (and give them a probably be the loser. Many of Professor Lowe’s assertions fatal lung disease into the bargain).

Page 64 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Bible codes, etc your erudite linguist, Mark Newbrook, and behold! He discovered that the (whose extensive use of parenthesis group who had been prayed for had a frequently stresses my less-evolved (marginally) better survival rate and T W Allen neurones) is aware of this body of a significantly better morbidity — Duranbah NSW ‘scholarship’, and can enlighten us? spending about half the total time in hospital (which varied between 30-150 As a new subscriber, I would like to days) of the other group. He was un- make some comments. I greatly ap- Editor’s Note able to explain this result satisfacto- preciated Martin Hadley’s dissertation For the latter question, look at: rily, but reported it as an interesting on ‘Religion, Faith and Skepticism’ http://cs.anu.edu/-bdm/dilugim/ experiment. (22:4), but feel that he has taken the torah.html Well, I was raised a good Roman New Testament Gospels too much at the web site of Prof Brendan McKay Catholic, so I knew the answer. God is face value when he says “Pilate, with at ANU, who is widely recognised as omnipotent and omniscient, ie, he is typical Roman sensibility, was all for the leading scholarly investigator of all powerful and knows everything! letting Jesus go”. Modem historians the fallacies of the Bible Code. Ed (Just like an editor, then? Ed.) This seem to be in no doubt that Pontius means that, when these patients were Pilate was a brutal tyrant who seriously ill in the 1980s, He would wouldn’t hesitate for a moment before have known that they would be prayed crucifying any suspect leader of a re- Prayer for in the 1990s, so obviously he inter- bellion. The Gospel writers deliber- ceded on their behalf pre-facto. ately sanitised Pilate to curry favour Alan Moskwa What does bother me about this is with their potential Roman converts, the limit of His largesse. Why did He Kensington Park SA shifting blame for the crucifixion of not save more of them? The mortality Jesus onto the Jews, who had rejected rate was not significantly different, their message. For 2,000 years the Kevin McDonald writes an excellent even in the time spent in hospital was Jewish people (deemed ‘Christ-killers’) personal view of prayer in the Skeptic halved. have borne the catastrophic cost of this (23:1 p26-27). Agreeing with him com- Secondly, does it mean that the little diplomatic exercise! pletely, I too, “have yet to see a single Jews are truly God’s people? This Gary Bakker (Theology, Philosophy example of proof that praying has done study was carried out in Israel! What and Psychology (22:4 p61) wants to ‘do anything to change the inevitability of would happen if the study were to be away with philosophy’ and replace it various events in the lives of my fel- repeated in a Christian or Muslim set- with semantics, science and psychol- low humans.” But they are coming ting? Or even a Catholic or Protestant ogy. I wonder what he proposes to do close. setting? with all the PhD’s —would they all An interesting study I read a year It obviously needs more research. become SSPD’s? or so ago in the British Medical Jour- I was recently given the book The nal (which I have currently misplaced Truth Behind the Bible Code and so am unable to cite) demonstrates (Macmillan 1997) by Dr Jeffrey a remarkable outcome of More prayer Satinover, a Jewish child psychiatrist intercessionary prayer on the health before studying physics at Yale. He of patients in the Intensive Care Unit John Stear claims that many sceptical mathema- of a hospital. It was carried out in the ticians and statisticians at Harvard, late 1990s on the group of patients — Coombabah QLD Yale, etc have been at a loss to explain get this — retrospectively. The re- the remarkable decoded predictions, searchers obtained the records of sev- Reading Kevin McDonald’s excellent extending right down to modern times, eral dozen patients who had been article “Let Us Pray” (23:1) I’m re- in the Hebrew Torah. There is a treated there some ten years earlier! minded of a prominent Gold Coast City graphic prediction of the holocaust, for Without checking the outcome of councillor who, last year, joined the instance, even naming Auschwitz and their illness, he randomly assigned increasing calls for the Almighty to Eichman! The author, betraying gross them to two equal groups. He then intervene in the Gold Coast’s awful ignorance of how the Torah (a mish- gave a list of names of one group to a and prolonged drought. mash of at least five authors) came local church, and the congregation The good but gullible councillor about, attributes these miraculous prayed for these people to get better stipulated that prayers should be of- codes to single authorship by the leg- — without knowing that their illness fered within the precincts of the Gold endary Moses. Significantly, every pre- had occurred a decade earlier. The Coast’s principle water reservoir, the diction ‘discovered’ by this growing other half was not prayed for, and Hinze Dam, rather than generally up band of enthusiastic fundamentalist acted as a control group. and down the Gold Coast. To justify Jewish scholars is retrospective. The After the prayers, the researcher this requirement she referred to the book does not stick its neck out with a looked up the case notes to find out Gold Coast Bulletin of 11 July 2002 in single future prediction! I wonder if what had happened to the patients. Lo which it was reported that the faith-

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 65 Letters ful had gathered at the Mackay single compound that it has come in young when hatched find themselves showground to pray for rain. Follow- contact with? surrounded by fresh, living, food — ing their prayers the Almighty sent a If that is the case, and if the does the spider so victimised feel that downpour that flooded the memory of water worked, we would god loves him? Add to that the raft of showground and left the rest of surely expect to see the most diaboli- poisonous natural substances, animal Mackay dry as a bone. cal plethora of sequelae to its use as a venom, etc, and ubiquitous natural Perhaps H.L. Mencken was right, therapeutic agent in humans. hazards and diseases to which we are when he said, “The creator is a come- Given that all the water we drink prone, and the misery in which a large dian whose audience is afraid to comes from evaporation, and most of proportion of the world’s population laugh.” it from the oceans where the water is continue to exist, and we can only con- sucussed continually, we should all be clude that someone out there doesn’t thoroughly immune to any water care about human or other animal suf- borne diseases of any sort. fering or, more probably, doesn’t exist. Darwin

Sydney Bockner Atheist agenda Linguaskeptic Crafers SA

In Helen Lawrence’s very fine review Bob Entwistle, Mark Newbrook of Darwin by Desmond et al (23 :1) she Dunedin NZ Wirrall UK mentions Darwin’s psychosomatic ill- ness. Biographers, she states, portray Helen Lawrence (Skeptic, 22:4 p46-48) Comments on three letters in 23:1. him as a “weak willed hypochondriac”. has strange ideas about “an atheistic Darwin had multiple symptoms over agenda”. My position as an atheist is 1) Daniel Stewart (pp 65-66) many years, but his illness was perfectly secure and doesn’t require an Maybe Stewart works with a defini- misdiagnosed, and he was not a neu- agenda. My view, and, I suspect, the tion of ‘science’ which is considerably rotic. view of many atheists, is that every wider than any that I know. Some of It is now recognized that he suffered question concerning the structure and his remarks suggest this. But, if this from Chagas’ Disease. This is a para- origin of the physical world will yield is not the case, he will find that most sitic disease due to trypanosomiasis. to scientific study, if not this century philosophers and philosophically- The trypanosome parasite affects the then the next or the next. Even if aware scientists will continue to disa- heart, muscles, brain and liver, pro- progress in understanding slows to gree with Gerrand (22:3, p 66) and ducing recurrent fever, anaemia, en- zero at times it would be pointless to with him. In fact, as I have remarked larged liver, spleen and glands. The admit defeat and accept that things before, those who do proclaim that parasite is spread by reduviid insects are so because god made them that there is no realm outside science are, and mosquitos. Darwin probably way. The very fact that religion, as dis- as it seems, contradicting themselves. picked up the infection during some tinct from religious scientists, has If Stewart really disputes this, he of his tropical travels. made precious little if any contribu- should explain his case. tion to our understanding of the physi- Of course, ethics is not altogether cal world should be sufficient reason outside the scrutiny of science, and if for this. that is all that Stewart means to deny, Homeoskeptic The idea of a god who designed and his point is harmless. Scientists can built a universe and set it running is answer some important questions C W Williams more bizarre than any of the theories about the psychology of ethics and as- Hornsby NSW of the beginning of the universe which sociated matters; no one should dis- are currently keeping physicists off the pute this. But the core issues of both metaethics and ethics proper, which Having just seen the second of the streets. We are at once led to ask “who are also undoubtedly important, can- Catalyst programmes, with a thorough taught this guy to build universes?” not be answered in this way. And in debunking of the claims of Homeopa- Is there an even bigger operator be- fact Stewart, inconsistently, seems to thy by James Randi and others, a hind him? How irrelevant can you get? concede this himself (‘Scientific thought comes to mind. And when it comes to an all-loving god method cannot decide which ethical If water has such an extraordinary do we recall that, in Dawkins’ words, principles we should follow’). I suggest memory, why doesn’t every molecule “all creatures are dinners or diners”? that in fact he has no coherent objec- of water in the whole world, since the Some chefs are impervious to the suf- tion to my position. time it first was formed from atoms of fering of their material, eg, ichneumon wasps have the nasty habit of para- hydrogen and oxygen, remember every 2) Jack Hamm (pp 64-65) lysing their spider victims so that their As this otherwise useful letter shows,

Page 66 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 it is unwise to look in non-specialist A theist claims that a god exists. government department, a body of dictionaries for the senses of techni- An atheist says that there are no gods thought and so on. cal words. Anyone who wants to take and justifies his position on the 2. The entity has to be able to sustain part in this discussion but does not grounds that no evidence for a god is itself. If there are losses, those losses know what scientism or metaethics available. Such a common sense ap- can be made up for in some fashion. means needs to study the relevant part proach is used by everybody in their Animals reproduce, cults recruit new of philosophy. (Part of my complaint daily lives but for most of the time the members, a body of thought has new against Gerrand is that he presumes beliefs are acted upon without con- ideas added to it, and so on. to discuss philosophical issues with- sciously thinking about them. out having done just this.) I offer here I don’t believe there is life on other 3. The entity is responsive to its envi- rather rough definitions: planets but Mark claims not to know ronment. It changes to adapt to pres- Scientism: the view that science is the if life exists on other planets — I don’t sures applied to it, so as to maintain only legitimate way of studying any believe the Liver birds flap their wings itself. Cells and animals are well intellectual issue — and that any os- either, but that has nothing to do with known for biological adaptation, tensibly non-scientific issue must atheism! (Mark will appreciate that groups of animals adapt their behav- therefore be either recast as a scien- joke.) iours, cults change their beliefs to try tific one or treated as incoherent or In the Oxford Pocket Dictionary, to make themselves more survivable, illusory. 1966 edition, atheism is defined as languages change to remain useful, a “Belief that there is no God.” [Note body of thought discards ideas that are Metaethics: the theory of the status capital G.] considered useless and takes on ones (as opposed to the content) of ethical In correspondence with Oxford Uni- that are more useful. statements; metaethical issues include versity Press it was agreed that a bet- From a generalisation like this, the (a) whether or not (any) ethical state- ter definition of atheism is: “Without evolution of religions seems inevitable. ments are objectively true or false, (b) belief in a god or gods”, thus avoiding In fact, religion can also become a sub- whether such statements are logically the dictionary suggestion that atheists component of the evolution of how hu- grounded in more empirically testable have a belief and consequently, some- mans understand the world around us. statements about the world, in the will times, asked to prove it. No doubt (?) You have an evolutionary sequence of God, etc. the definition will be “corrected’ in the that takes us from superstition, next edition. through religion to modern scientific 3) Lorraine Delaney (p 65) My original letter on “ The impor- thought. Each step along the way giv- It is good that the writer has learned tance of ‘a.’ seems to have created es its possessors greater understand- some Greek, but she should be careful quite a stir, but that is good, eh? ing and control over the world around to get the details right. For instance, them, hence greater reproductive suc- agnosis is not a verb but a noun cess. With this generalisation of the con- Evolution cept of evolution I can almost convince myself that it may be easier to iden- The importance of ‘a’ Herbert Niesler tify the areas where evolution doesn’t Aran Hills, QLD apply, rather than list the area’s where P.L.Riley. it does. Blacksmiths NSW The concept of evolution has long been constrained by the environment it was In Letters (23:1) Mark Newbrook originally discovered in. Hence it has Conversion states that atheists do have a belief in been dominated by biology/ecology re- spite of the ‘a’. lated terminology which has stopped A theist is a person who believes in its identification as a much more gen- Gary Goldberg a god or gods. eral phenomenon. By identifying the Silver Spring, MD USA key general characteristics that lead An atheist is a person who is with- to evolution, it is possible to see that Tory Shepherd [23:1] either does not out belief in a god or gods. it may well be a very pervasive phe- regard Judaism as “a major world re- An agnostic does not believe in a nomenon. ligion” or has some evidence of which god or gods which makes him an The three characteristics that I see I am unaware that it engages in “co- atheist. If he did believe he would (there well may be more) are: erced conversion”. In fact, Judaism be a theist. 1. It applies to an identifiable entity. does not proselytize (except some Or- A person who is without belief in That entity can be a cell, an animal, a thodox sects which try to convince anything cannot be asked to provide group of animals, a language, a cult, a other less-religious Jews to become proof of his belief. more observant) and even discourages conversion.

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 67 Letters

Belief rilla warfare by the Aborigines, only had two hundred years of American some small gangs, led by two Aborigi- experience of looking after the indig- nal bushrangers from the Australian enous American Indians. John Wolczko mainland, attacking isolated white The British were also strongly in- Gold Coast, Qld. stockmen. fluenced by the Enlightenment that Windshuttle’s claims in his book of proclaimed the equality of all humans, I was very surprised to read Tory Shep- false facts and fabrications by so that governments formed in Aus- herd’s article on page 61 of the Au- Reynolds and others were not disputed tralia were committed to looking after tumn edition (23:1), in which she uses by Grimshaw (who claimed she was the indigenous Aborigines. the phrase “I don’t believe” a number not an expert on Tasmanian Aborigi- Today the best way to help Aborigi- of times. The phrase “I believe” is the nal history) nor have they been by nes is to help them receive an educa- greatest con ever devised by man be- Reynolds or other historians. tion such they can benefit from our cause if you believe you don’t have to Grimshaw’s main contention was that dominant modern culture. Presently prove anything. It has been used to the Aborigines had been dispossessed many Aborigine communities are go- hoodwink, confuse and terrify gulli- of their land by the white colonists. ing backwards with less education, ble people for millennia right to this Windschuttle pointed out that Aus- breeding alcoholism and male vio- day. As such it should not be used in tralian Aborigines had no concept of lence. our dictionary, for we always question possessing land (the Mabo decision the truth or soundness of any opinion was about Torres Strait Islanders who or accepted idea and require proof did have the concept of land tenure) upon which we either become con- and the British government, when vinced or not but never believe. they colonised Australia from 1788

History as science

James Gerrand Kew VIC

“History needs to be a science” was the concluding theme of Jarad Diamond in his renowned book Guns, Germs and Steel - A Short History of Every- body for the Last 13,000 years. This need was exemplified in a recent de- bate between Keith Windschuttle, au- thor of The Fabrication of Aboriginal History and Pat Grimshaw, Professor of History, before a packed audience on “White Settlement in Australia: vio- lent conquest or benign colonisation?” in Melbourne (5/3/03). Windschuttle reached the conclu- sions expressed in his book by seek- ing the facts from examining all the available evidence, a scientific ap- proach. Grimshaw and fellow non-sci- entific historians, such as Henry Reynolds, approached the subject with minds already convinced and then ei- ther selected or fabricated evidence to support their view. Windshuttle could only find 117 Tasmanian Aborigines killed in the early decades of Tasma- nian colonisation, versus 180 white settlers, not the many thousand Abo- rigines as claimed by Reynolds and others. He also said there was no gue-

Page 68 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003 Notice Flash! Divining Video/DVD Now Available

It was 1981 and a kid I use to know tralia, which was what was shown Stefan Sojka, is The Great Water (with the same name as mine) raced on Great Mysteries, but this posed Divining Video. to the TV to watch one of his favour- some unique problems. It was re- Although they probably did not ite shows on Ch 7, Great Mysteries of corded on 2 inch magnetic tape and realise it at the time, the 1981 Dick the World with Scott Lambert. This after much searching by Barry Wil- Smith/James Randi test was a mo- time the show featured a story about liams (another man with a white ment of historical importance. It led testing water divining and starred a beard) and I, we discovered that the directly to the formation of Austral- certain well-known Dick Smith. only company in Australia still with ian Skeptics and also began our long There was another man involved, a a machine capable of transcribing association with the phenomenon of man with a white beard and that old tape into a modern format water divining, which, of all the par- glasses, who jumped anormal claims that we have been about doing magic tricks asked to test, is by far the most and bending spoons. (It’s common. It is also prob- odd how little James ably the most widely Randi has changed over believed of all such the years — does he keep claims in Australia, an ever-ageing portrait in though our tests can the attic, perhaps?) find no validity for it. The scene moves for- The video takes a ward eight years and the fascinating look, over a TV is tuned to Ch 9 and A period of 23 years, into Current Affair. More wa- the world of the water ter diviners, more tests, a diviner. It is packed slightly older looking with observations and Dick Smith and a group insights from diviners calling themselves Aus- and Skeptics alike. See tralian Skeptics. Al- James Randi make one of though the diviners were his finest appeals to rea- not the same as the ones son and the skeptical on Great Mysteries, they point of view. See all sorts could have been! was in Melbourne. of diviners using all sorts of Another time, another place, and I What is more, they were about divining rods in hopes of find myself in 2002 watching yet to relocate and there was a possibil- winning the tests. Hear some more water divining tests, this time ity the machine would no longer be amazing excuses for failure. See ‘live’, at the Mighty Mitta Muster. in use. We got the tape there in time Dick Smith’s changing hair style! And this time I was behind the cam- (just), but then it was found that the Richard Saunders era making my first documentary. original tape was beyond repair — A final time jump lands us at disaster! However, I was able to dig- The Great Water Divining Video Crestwood High School (Sydney) in itally restore another copy, recorded and DVD are now available di- 2003 as Ian Bryce, Alynda and I by Barry as the program went to air rectly from PO Box 268, Roseville address a science class and video the all those years ago! The result, to- 2069 or our on-line shop at proceedings. The topic? Water Divin- gether with the Mitta documentary www.skeptics.com.au. ing! and an introduction including At $25 (Video) or $35 (DVD - The good news is that we have Crestwood High School and inter- with extra features, including been given kind permission by Dick views with Dick Smith, Barry Wil- scene selection and photo Smith and A Current Affair to use liams, Bob Nixon and others, plus albums), this is one collection no their videos. Dick had recorded the an original musical sound track by Skeptic can afford to miss. 1981 test as James Randi in Aus-

the Skeptic, Winter 2003 - Page 69 Notices DVD-Video-CD - Must-have Resources

We have distributed more than 800 copies of the Great Skeptic CD since it first became available a little over a year ago. However, we still have suffi- cient copies left to supply those who have not yet availed themselves of this vital Skeptical resource.

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Page 70 - the Skeptic, Winter 2003