Still Teasing Investors, That Old Farce is Back, More On the South Africa Situation, God Sought After, Marked Cards, A Quack Workshop, In Closing.
Reader Jurij Dreo, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, refers to our previous mentions of the Steorn perpetual-motion/free-energy fiasco at randi.org/jr/2006-08/082506yet.html#i1 and randi.org/jr/2006-09/092206bad.html#i6 and brings us up-to-date on the situation:
It seems that the benefits of the physical law-breaking achievements at Steorn (steorn.com) you have already written about twice will need to be postponed for a while, for Steorn is having "technical difficulties" with their "working" model of the free energy device they dubbed "Orbo." Here are current comments:
4th of July, 6pm London Time:
The world (well, at least those of us who feel amused at watching such "car crashes") tuned in to watch a live webcast presentation of Orbo that was set to begin at 6pm in London's Kinetica museum (kinetica-museum.org). Alas, we were disappointed, since at 6pm London Time all was quiet in the land of Steorn. Then a new hope – we might still be able to cancel our monthly gas, oil, and electricity subscriptions for good: the time on Steorn's website was reset to "6pm Eastern Time," which seemed to indicate a US East Coast time zone. Since this time delay translates into midnight for the Central European Timezone, I decided to stick around for a couple more hours to witness this wonder with my own two eyes.
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STILL TEASING INVESTORSReader Jurij Dreo, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, refers to our previous mentions of the Steorn perpetual-motion/free-energy fiasco at randi.org/jr/2006-08/082506 and randi.org/jr/2006-09/092206 and brings us up-to-date on the situation: It seems that the benefits of the physical law-breaking achievements at Steorn (steorn.com) you have already written about twice will need to be postponed for a while, for Steorn is having "technical difficulties" with their "working" model of the free energy device they dubbed "Orbo." Here are current comments: Those ferociously powerful lights appear to be simple gallery lights, not anything at all unusual. Or maybe Steorn has been hit by the light of Reason? No, I guess not. We will of course keep our readers abreast of these exciting developments, and we have to wonder whether Steorn CEO McCarthy will hasten to accept the JREF's generous offer of our one-million-dollar prize to finance this setback... Click here for his latest response: [Comment] |
THAT OLD FARCE IS BACKReader Dr. Terry Polevoy, at healthwatcher.net, informs us: The people at Canada's INCAM Research Group are at it again. Now they want someone to research IRIDOLOGY as an assessment tool for the early predisposition of cancer. My guess is that their next project will be the study of tea leaves, palms, and belly button lint as a means to predict which patients will develop an addiction to reading Weekly World News, or who might join the Paris Hilton fan club. See randi.org/jr/092801.html for an explanation of this weird and totally bogus idea… |
MORE ON THE SOUTH AFRICA SITUATIONI will spend somewhat more space and time here on the ongoing state of affairs in South Africa that I have recently referred to, because readers have pointed out to me that (see randi.org/jr/2007-06/062207.html#i4) it’s just as bad as I’d perceived it to be. This needs to be addressed by citizens of S.A., and acted upon. Reader Martin Delaney, the Founding Director of Project Inform, one of the earliest US (1985) AIDS treatment information and advocacy organizations (website projectinform.org) has battled with the "AIDS/HIV denialists” – and other medical quacks – and is currently part of a group that fights denialism in the US and South Africa. Martin points us to a book written by his friend Dr. Nicoli Nattrass, "Mortal Combat – AIDS Denialism and the Struggle for Antiretrovirals in South Africa." It tells the story of the enormous effort that was required trying to overcome the harm done in South Africa by its president, by its Health Minister, and a collection of Western-based con artists and quacks. That struggle continues today. Martin offers this, suggested by last week’s item at randi.org/jr/2007-06/062907.html#i6: I for one would like to express some support for your recent comments about the rationalism of South Africa. You're right on target talking about the HIV issues. I am in daily contact with researchers and activists there and have seen first hand the terrible damage done by Mbeki's HIV denialism and the "seeds and twigs" approach to medicine favored by the Health Minister. A new book chronicles the battles over these issues in the last few years. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is still widespread belief that AIDS can be "cured" by having sex with a virginal child, as well as by a number of bogus remedies that are openly sold and promoted without opposition. South Africa's problem is that despite the end of apartheid, it is still a country of widely disparate populations, some of which are firmly planted in the 21st century and others which are still living in a distant and superstitious past. There is a pervasive political correctness, however, which prevents anyone from challenging even the most primitive and destructive beliefs. Martin Delaney’s friend Greg Folkers supplied media write-ups that further express just how pervasive the official acceptance of woo-woo is in South Africa. In summary, one press article asks: Got a cure for AIDS? Maybe you're convinced that large doses of vitamins can do the trick or that you have found the answer scores of scientists over the last 25 years could not. If you live in South Africa there is little to prevent you from packaging your "wonder product" in an old coke bottle or a fancy pill container, depending on your means, and selling it for whatever price you can get. Pharmacies in Johannesburg's chaotic inner city stack their shelves high with immune boosters, herbal remedies and health tonics. Most items are not explicitly advertised as effective against HIV, but street hawkers outside are less shy about making such claims. They offer products with names like "Life Extension" and "Ozone Rectal Treatment" for prices that equate to a sizeable chunk of the average South African's monthly income. Despite selling untested concoctions that make unproven claims about their effectiveness in treating AIDS, they are rarely disturbed by the authorities. There’s the problem. As here in the USA, authorities have to be forced into taking action against quackery, or they do nothing, sitting back and relying on “faith-based” forces to sort out the mess. As the report says: A lack of enforcement of the regulations that cover all medicines, and the delay in adopting new legislation that would focus specifically on complementary medicines, has allowed the growth of a rampant industry in untested remedies for AIDS and other serious illnesses. According to Nathan Geffen of the AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the government's reluctance to crack down on the sale of untested remedies is in line with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's history of endorsing such products. "All of this sends a signal to people that it's open season to sell untested medicines," he said. "There's no enforcement, and even active support of quackery." And, doesn’t this sound just like the situation here in the USA, where we seem to pride ourselves on having such high standards of medical care – and caring? The article continues: In practice, labeling a medicine "complementary" appears to exempt it from this process: “registration” simply involves submitting a dossier listing the product's contents and the claims for its efficacy to the Medicines Control Council (MCC), the regulatory authority. According to Alan Tomlinson, chairman of the Health Products Association of South Africa (HPA), an umbrella body for the complementary medicines industry, once the dossier has been submitted, a receipt from the MCC is sufficient to begin trading. And here’s where the tired old “science-can’t-be-applied-to-our superstitions” ploy is brought into play by South African authorities – though that last word takes on new and unintended meaning, when so applied: [Health Minister] Tshabalala-Msimang referred to the draft legislation in a 2005 editorial published in The Star, a local newspaper: "We cannot transplant models designed for scientific validation of allopathic [conventional] medicine and apply it to other remedies. There is a need for creativity to come up with relevant and pragmatic models to prove safety, quality and efficacy of complementary, alternative and African traditional medicines." Total nonsense. Medicines and medical procedures can be definitively tested, using established means. One test is to simply try them; this has been done in South Africa, and the results have been deadly and disastrous. Now the Health Minister of that country is blaming that failure on the methods used to investigate, not on the process itself! If it doesn’t work, throw it out and grow up! Is that philosophy too difficult for a 67-year-old politician to understand? I knew about that when I was only 14 or so! There’s much more to this frightening discussion, to be seen more completely at plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73039, but I’ll just add this: A recent World Health Organization report noted that if South Africa is to meet its AIDS treatment goals, "It is necessary to address issues related to stigma, the fear of treatment side-effects, and quackery." If this doesn’t convince the world that South Africa needs to get its act together, I don’t know what will. That country is in deep trouble, as I previously commented. Mr. Delaney also asks us if …there's anything we can or should be doing to counter the nonsense being spread world-wide by George Noory on the Coast to Coast radio show. Normally I wouldn't care but it's now one of the most widely-heard radio shows in the entire world, and since Noory took it over from Art Bell, it has gotten worse with each passing month. It seems that any idiot claiming any bit of nonsense gets a featured slot on the show, while anyone with real credentials or scientific training is never heard. I really believe the show is doing harm to the American public, encouraging the modestly educated to return to the superstitions of past years. Ghosts, "shadow people," witches spells, Sylvia Browne, creationists, quack therapies, perpetual motion machines, remote viewing – the list is endless and gets repeated and recycled almost every week. Tonight it's some goofy creationist babbling about how the Earth is just a few thousand years old. Martin, George Noory is doing very well without having to adopt any scruples, ethics, or responsibility. (George, look up those strange words in the dictionary.) He doesn’t need any of that baggage, which might slow him down. Creationists, Browne, ghost-hunters, all dote on the free run they’ll get because they know that Noory simply doesn’t care for anything but his ratings. Montel Williams, by his own admission, doesn’t believe in psychics, but features them because they bring in the audience, and thus the ratings. There’s no respect held for the listening/viewing audience, because they’re the cannon fodder that’s expendable. Sometimes I wish that people actually would be called to account for their lies, deceit, and callous indifference after they die. Fat chance… |
GOD SOUGHT AFTERFrom readers John and Jenelle McKenna, Brisbane, Australia, comes this news flash: It is our understanding that due to information provided to them by us, SETI (the Queensland branch of the "Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence") has commenced the first elements of a studious search for GOD in the Heavens above the Kameruka Street Miracles Site, in Queensland. (Come on world, give them some dollars to help them do it.) Can’t wait… |
MARKED CARDSFrom the UK, our friend Tony Youens writes: In November last year, five amateur magicians in the UK decided to create the ultimate signed deck of cards to auction off for charity. The idea was to get together a complete deck of 52 red-backed poker-sized Bicycle playing cards, each one autographed by a magician. About 6000 e-mails later, they now have a full deck… and more. Signatures from across the world include: Penn & Teller, Lance Burton, Jay Sankey, Banachek, Martin Gardner, Ali Bongo, Mac King, Geoffrey Durham, Simon Lovell, Cyril, the Pendragons, Wayne Dobson, Michael Ammar, Nathan Kranzo, Roger Crosthwaite, etc. And James Randi, of course. Our distinct pleasure, Tony, to assist a good cause…! |
A QUACK WORKSHOPReader Tim Williams, in Ardrishaig, Scotland, writes: …I attended a seminar arranged and paid for by my (Government) employer. The seminar was entitled “Lifestyle Management” and was pitched as, “A workshop to introduce you to a variety of options you can choose from which will help you to achieve a better work-life balance and reduce the risk of suffering from stress-related illness.” Tim, let me count the ways… Your employer has, I believe, not looked into this sufficiently. Bear in mind that if this Dr. Brown can – as he says he can – see auras, then he’s eligible for the JREF million dollars, which for his convenience I’ll state is just under £500,000, a sum that he could so easily win! Our friend Dr. Chris French at Goldsmith College is prepared to test Dr. Brown definitively and simply on his claim that he sees human auras, and is eagerly awaiting that opportunity. We so informed Dr. Brown recently, but strangely we’ve not had any interest! We sought him out at the “In Equilibrium” website and sent this invitation: Please inform Dr. David Mason Brown that this Foundation offers him our long-standing one-million-dollar prize if he can – as he advertises – detect a human aura. The terms are available at randi.org/research/index.html and we have asked that renowned researcher Professor Chris French at Goldsmiths College, University of London, conduct such a test at Dr. Brown’s convenience. We would send this message directly to Dr. Brown, but we see that according to your website, he cannot be contacted via e-mail. We await a response with interest... And we’re waiting patiently… |
IN CLOSING…Reader Rick Cortes, in Burbank, California, sends us this store sign: We now have 2,100 books in the overflowing JREF Isaac Asimov Library, and as soon as our faithful, hard-working intern Chris Cochran has it all organized and approved, we’ll be offering – for a modest fee to cover costs only – a complete “.xls” (Excel) file to interested parties, on a CD. That way, you can ask for the loan of any book for research. This is a rich source of data, folks, and we’re happy to have such a facility available for you. This should be ready by August 1st. On the 18th, I’ll be speaking to the Defense Science Research Council (DSRC) which is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the central research and development organization for the US Department of Defense (DoD), for whom I’ve spoken before. They manage and direct selected basic and applied research and development projects for DoD, and pursue research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high, and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions – as well as for civilian needs. I’ll be carrying on about various situations where some decisions to investigate and spend federal funds on quite obvious quack notions and frankly metaphysical fantasies, might have been avoided. I expect a fair amount of flak and flying metaphors to be encountered… And I’ll be speaking for Google at the beginning of August, and NYASK – New York Area Skeptics – in September… |