February 6, 2004

New Director, Catalog Quackery, Polygraphy Again, Hajj Havoc, "Life Coach" Bombed, Feng Shui for You?, Poisoned Doctors, Scientific Proof for Homeopathy, Startling New Form of Matter & Theory of Sight Discovered, Dowsers Flunk Again, Karen: "Leggo My Lego!", Natasha/Natalia/Natalya, and Another French Revolution, Spinney Exults, and A REAL Scientific Breakthrough...!


Table of Contents:


New Director

It is with great delight that we officially announce that Lt. Col. Dr. Hal Bidlack, who has so well shown himself to be a supporter of the JREF by his many voluntary services — most recently as the official host of the Amaz!ng Meeting 2 — has accepted our invitation to become a director of this Foundation. We felt that it would be advantageous to us to have him "on board" officially, and though I feel that the amount of effort that he has been accustomed to contribute to the JREF will not change appreciably, this new standing will bring us even closer to this remarkable gentleman.

Mind you, Hal and I had a long talk about certain matters that came to light over the past few years, as we discovered one another and learn to adapt to certain eccentricities. As you might guess, my eccentricities go with the territory — as they say — some of Hal's have had to be corrected. For example, he has agreed to eschew poetry, to give up puns — both good and bad — and to surrender his Don Rickles impersonations. I'm sure we'll all agree that these are moves in the right direction...

Seriously, we're very pleased to have such a fine gentleman working with us officially. The money isn't great, the appropriate thanks are often more implied than stated, and directors can be called upon at almost any time of day to provide decisions and opinions on how the JREF should be run. I have an idea that that sort of existence is right up Hal's alley.

Welcome aboard, Colonel, and full speed ahead!


Catalog Quackery

Reader Bob DeMers tells us:

As one of your readers noted last week, airline shopping catalogs are stuffed with all manner of "alternative devices". In a brief scan I spotted: Dual frequency electronic acupressure massage to cure sleeplessness; the ExerCHIzer, maintains proper CHI balance by wobbling your hips back and forth; No-Jet-Lag, proven effective for all symptoms of jet lag; 32 pleasant-tasting homeopathic tablets; Cold Sore Eliminator, a widget with two prongs that you touch to your lips; the Neru patch that pulls toxins out through the bottoms of your feet; Metabolife starch buster, reduces the absorption of calories from starchy foods; Acculife magnetic pulse acupressure probe, works on the palm or the ear; the Magnassager, magnetic steel ball massager; the Dermaseptic, another battery-operated thing for cold sores, warts, herpes, etc.

I have never seen such a concentration of this stuff before.

I'll only add that the American Airlines in-flight magazine, American Way, still runs astrologer Michael Lutin's horoscope page. I scared them silly a couple years back when I wrote that AA also schedules aircraft maintenance and assigns crews by astrology. They hastened to inform me that they did not... Why not, I wonder?

Polygraphy Again

Reader George W. Maschke tells us, concerning a subject we've often discussed here:

As you know, reliance on pseudoscience can have significant adverse effects on people's lives. One such pseudoscience is polygraph "testing" — a technique that the National Academy of Sciences has judged to be without scientific basis, but that the U.S. Government continues to swear by. Some years ago, I applied to become an FBI special agent. All was going well until, in the space of three hours, a polygraph operator concluded that I was a spy, drug dealer, and drug user. (I am not! But how does one prove a negative?)

I've written an article about the life-changing consequences that wrongly failing an FBI polygraph examination (and daring to speak publicly about it) has had on me. See, "Too Hot of a Potato: A Citizen Soldier's Encounter With the Polygraph": http://antipolygraph.org/statements/statement-003.shtml


Hajj Havoc

An Islamic ritual known as the "hajj" took 251 lives at the beginning of February in Mina, Saudi Arabia, when a crowd stampeded while "stoning the devil." But this isn't the only time this same event has brought tragedy; it seems to be part of the hysteria and uncontrolled behavior that haunts this religious event. In March of 2001, 35 people were killed in the same devil-stoning ritual, in April of 1998, some 180 pilgrims were trampled to death when they fell off an overpass during the stoning ritual. In April, 1997, another 343 people died when they were trapped in tents as fire ripped through the tent city of Mina, and 1,500 were injured. Another stampede in May, 1994, produced 270 deaths, and in July of 1990, in the worst-ever hajj-related tragedy, 1,426 pilgrims were killed in a stampede in a pedestrian tunnel in Mecca.

These people were performing a ritual which is considered a holy act, one that brings great virtue and blessings to those involved. And death to at least 2,500 of them in 14 years...?


"Life Coach" Bombed

Victoria Hiley writes us from the UK:

UK television is currently showing a "reality" program, following eight overweight celebrities in their bid to get healthy. There have been three episodes so far. They are assisted by dieticians, a US Marine drill instructor, and a "Life Coach." This "Life Coach" is supposed to help the celebrities by hypnosis, positive thinking, and "Neuro-Linguistic Therapy," and she informed them at the start of the series, "I am going to be in charge of your brain." I assumed that the celebrities who had agreed to take part would go along with her claims and was fully prepared to find the show irritating — in fact, I wasn't intending to watch it at all because of the "Life Coach" aspect.

However, the coach is coming unstuck because one of the celebrities appears to be a skeptic. James Whittaker, a Royal correspondent for a popular UK tabloid newspaper, faced her down in the first episode. He informed her that he had been friends with Princess Diana, a fan of spiritual assistance, life coaches, and many forms of alternative therapy — and that none of these people had helped the troubled Diana in the slightest, although they had taken substantial amounts of her money.

She looked distinctly put out at this. The other celebrities had nodded and smiled, and had allowed themselves to be hypnotized. James Whittaker then informed her that if she could hypnotize him, he would give her a bottle of champagne.

The life coach refused the offer (!), saying that she didn't have anything to prove, but it seems her bubble has been burst. The following episode showed footage of a talk she gave. She told the celebrities that they were overweight because they could not see themselves as thin people, a concept dragged out over two hours. Three of the celebrities were shown to have fallen asleep during this lecture.

When Whittaker was weighed, and shown to have done well, she wanted to take credit for his progress. "Do you still think I'm talking mumbo-jumbo?", she asked, to which he replied: "No, you've now switched to gobbledegook."

James Whittaker has lost about 12 pounds, and is way ahead of the other celebrities in achieving his target weight. I hope he wins.

Hey, Mr. Whittaker, you tell 'em! This "hypnosis/hypnotism" nonsense needs to be put into its proper place, along with witchcraft, vampires, flying-by-broom, and rune-casting.


Feng Shui for You?

Vern Rieck, of Merrimack, New Hampshire, went book shopping:

It must have been reported already, but on the off chance it hasn't, I have to relate this. Even a short stroll through a bookstore will take you past at least one title in the "...For Dummies" series. I first knew them as books associated with personal computing, but they've more recently widened their scope to include other disciplines like investing, cooking, etc. As a regular and grateful reader, I took huge delight when I spied one of their latest titles, "Feng Shui For Dummies." Evidently the publishers possess no sense of irony.

Or, Vern, they failed to see that the "For Dummies" was so obviously implied that they needn't have specified it...?


Poisoned Doctors

Reader David Meredith relates that some MDs have adopted a stunt I often do, and did back a few years ago for an assembly of members of the US Congress, in Washington, DC. It's very effective. Then David takes me back 46 years to yet another event....

Last week in Belgium a group of 30 doctors, incensed at the decision of a major medical insurance company to pay some of the cost of homeopathic medicines, publicly swallowed diluted solutions of snake venom and arsenic in a well publicized "suicide attempt." Needless to say, they're all still fit and well, and the quack's answer was that of course the venom and poison had no effect, because homeopathic medicines have to be tailored to the specific individual, or they won't work. If that's the case, why do the homeopathic companies sell over-the-counter medicines? I guess it's because they can't resist selling distilled water at $400 a liter.

The homeopaths are currently offering the "it wasn’t custom-designed" alibi for the miserable failure of the tests that were outlined on "20/20" last week, tests that were conducted for the BBC last year. In view of this excuse, Mr. Meredith’s observation here about over-the-counter homeopathic "remedies" is a very valid point!

I have in front of me a book called "Curious Moments," a collection of 20th-century press photos. Here's the caption to one of the photos, taken in 1958. "Recently the United States atomic submarine broke the record by staying submerged for 60 days. Yesterday at the West Ham swimming baths, the Amazing Randi broke his own record by staying underwater in a steel coffin for two hours."

I barely remember doing that... But David is sending me a copy of that photo, which I'll put up here so you folks can see what I had to do to make ends meet, 'way back then...


Scientific Proof for Homeopathy?

I'm always getting excited messages from readers who ask about "official" reports that various paranormal or quack matters have just been validated. I've recently heard from more than one person about a claimed proof of homeopathy that involves high-tech methods; this is a typical message on the subject, received from Janis Jansons, Dr. Chem. (Bioorganic chemistry):

Have been reading Commentaries on your website for quite a while. While I consider myself a skeptic, sometimes I still have a feeling that you tend to unconditionally disregard many things about which our knowledge is incomplete. Sure, there's plenty of various charlatans around making wild claims — I have fought them myself (even gave a link to your website when arguing the "benefits" of electrolytic body purification), but — it's equally dangerous to declare that this or that effect does not exist just because we can't (or don't know how to) measure it.

Please doctor, show me where I've stated that "this or that effect does not exist just because we can't (or don't know how to) measure it." Hello? You still there? Janis gives an example that he believes proves his complaint, at: http://www.chemweb.com/alchem/articles/1066208767628.html, then he continues:

I freely admit I didn't think much of homeopathy so far — perhaps I'll have to reconsider now.

This is the response I've issued:

I'm familiar with the thermoluminescence work cited. There is no indication that the work was done double-blind; this is unforgivable, in such a context. Why was it not done that way? This is only one of almost a hundred similar papers published with the same message: there appears to be evidence for the validity of homeopathy – or of a myriad of other similarly doubtful claims. But note: NOT ONE OF THESE "BREAKTHROUGHS" EVER GOES BEYOND THE FIRST PUBLICATION. None are replicated. None EVER has ANY impact on our state of knowledge, nor on science. If any were valid, science would have been turned on its ear by now; that has not happened. All and any other major paradigm shifts — in theory or in technology — have turned science about, radically. These "breakthroughs" have not. Why not?

The JREF has for years offered the homeopathic community a simple challenge — one that we also made to Benveniste: simply show us that you are able to differentiate between homeopathic and non-homeopathic preparations, by any means, and you win the million-dollar prize. By "any means," we mean chemical (qualitative or quantitative analysis), biological (in vivo or in vitro), physical (polarization, spectroanalysis, microanalysis), or metaphysical (Tarot cards, intuition, vibrations, auras, Kirlian, I Ching, guessing, spirit communication), or any other means. None of the homeopathic community has accepted the challenge. There's a message in there, somewhere.

I believe that those involved in the current excitement over homeopathy will ignore the JREF challenge. Ask yourself, "Why?"


Startling New Form of Matter & Theory of Sight Discovered

Dr. Klaus Volkamer in Frankenthal, Germany, has written me about two discoveries of his, under the confident heading, "Proof of paranormal powers." I've made a few forgivable spelling corrections to his letter; I wish I could write half as well in his language:

I found your JREF-Randi-Paranormal-Challenge on the Internet and wanted to draw your attention to the following: Even though I myself have (fortunately) no paranormal powers, I have scientifically proven that such phenomena exist. After proving the existence of a so-far scientifically unknown form of quantized and field-like (i.e. space-like) matter (or soft-matter) with real mass content (such as normal time-like matter) but no electromagnetic interaction which makes this form of matter invisible (yet omnipresent), the further scientific characterization revealed that all biological systems interact with this form of matter, due to a so-far unknown form of physical interaction), generating far-ranging soft-matter fields around every person or living system (aura).

I could prove furthermore that this form of matter is necessary for our sensory perception, in addition to the known electromagnetic phenomena. Our vision, for example, works simultaneously on two levels: Electromagnetic light is necessary, as is well known, but in addition our eyes radiate a so-far unknown form of soft-matter radiation which is reflected from the object of vision, without which we would see nothing. Only when in our brain physiology both forms of radiation which are transmitted to the brain through the eyes work together, things become visible for us. In the normal seeing process the electromagnetic light form dominates the process and the soft-matter radiation works unconsciously. In special cases (special persons), however, our brain can be trained so that the soft-matter radiation dominates over the electromagnetic processes. In these cases, persons show a kind of vision based on the conscious use of soft-matter radiation which normally is called "paranormal" because they can see hidden things or are able to do remote viewing or more unusual things.

I just published my research work from the past 25 years in a book, in German, 660 pages, more than 90 graphics, with the title: "Feinstoffliche Erweiterung der Naturwissenschaften" by Weissensee Publishing, Berlin. In English translation: "Subtle Matter Extension of Natural Sciences." Paranormal phenomena are only a quite small sideline in the content of the book, in which a completely new and extended physics is presented in which the present-day paradigm (Special Theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics) is contained as a limited approach. If you would like to obtain a copy of the book please keep me informed.

I replied to Dr. Volkamer:

Theories do not interest me, only evidence.

To which he promptly responded:

You underestimate my findings. I have proven experimentally (experimentally!) the existence of a so-far unknown form of matter as the basis of a cosmological, yet real, field, as a basis of parapsychology which is so-far not known in physics. This is two steps above individual abilities.

I answered, equally promptly:

You misunderstand my stance. If you have a method whereby you can demonstrate or establish the existence of any parapsychological power, ability, sense, or modality, I am interested, and will offer my endorsement as well as the JREF million-dollar prize, upon the presentation of such evidence. The "existence of a so-far unknown form of matter" is of interest to physicists, not to the JREF; we are only concerned with anything that is a "basis of [the claims of] parapsychology" and can be shown to be that.

The parapsychologists themselves are the first to agree that their "science" has not been demonstrated to have a proven-by-evidence basis, only a theoretical one.

In addition: you write that ". . . our eyes radiate a so-far unknown form of soft-matter radiation which is reflected from the object of vision without which we would see nothing." The JREF prize is awardable for evidence supporting this claim. Do you have such evidence?

Dr. Volkamer's idea of the eye sending out some sort of radiation or signal — like radar — to scan the perceived object, is a very old and very wrong notion which first showed up about the time of Plato, who was the first to articulate this theory, or at least to write about it. It was called "extromission," as opposed to "intromission." Vision was actually called "touching with the eyes" because of this misconception. Euclid accepted it, as did Ptolemy, and anatomist/physician Galen knew of both theories but chose to accept the wrong one. Mathematician Alhazen first got it right around 1000 C.E., but since he was an Arab rather than a white male European, that doesn't count.

Leonardo Da Vinci started out as an extromission supporter but later switched to intromission. Very wise decision. Astronomer Kepler got it right in 1604, in Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena and it was confirmed experimentally in 1625 by Christopher Scheiner (1575-1650), a prominent German astronomer who invented the pantograph and independently discovered the existence of sunspots.

Let me suggest possible — and very probable — reasons for Dr. Volkamer's acceptance or invention of this strange idea. I propose that he has seen demos of "blindfold vision" and/or other mentalist's stunts — perhaps by one of the many juvenile performers out there such as Natalia Lulova — and not being able to accept either that he couldn't figure out the trick, or that the performer could and would lie to him, he had to invent this notion to explain what he witnessed. I'll keep you informed of the correspondence between us.

Presently, this correspondence has come to a halt — no response in several weeks...


Dowsers Flunk Again

Reader Kevin Wang offers:

In the January 2nd issue of Swift, Donald Novey's book mentions "...the American Society of Dowsers at the University of California in Santa Cruz."

I'm guessing that Novey mentions UCSC simply to make it sound like the university is in some way affiliated with the dowsers, but that's far from the truth. The campus of UCSC is pleasantly wooded and quite large, and during the summer months bits of it are rented out for various groups. I worked in one of the dining halls during the summer of 1988 when a group of dowsers was there. I had three particular interactions with them that I thought might amuse you.

The first was when one of the dowsers asked "Where's the water?" I pointed him to the ice water dispenser, but I really wanted to say, "I dunno, why don't you tell me?" The second was when the soft-serve ice cream machine started to freeze up. It makes unpleasant noises and stops dispensing ice cream when that happens. As one of the employees went to fix it, a dowser stopped her, pressed both hands and his body against the machine, and tried to "heal" the machine. Unsurprisingly it didn't work; the employee still had to disassemble and defrost the mechanism.

The third was a woman who came through the food line, looked at the various choices of food that I could dish onto her plate, and pulled out a crystal pendulum. She stood there a while, swinging her crystal on a string, and eventually left the line without food. After the line had diminished she came back and swung her little pendulum again. After a long while, she said "I just can't be sure which dish to get," and again left without anything. I was amazed. Most people can choose between various types of dining hall slop, but this woman, by employing her mystical decision making powers, had ended up going hungry.

I suppose that last one is more sad than funny, but I'm pretty sure she didn't starve to death. I'm positive she eventually got hungry enough that her crystal started telling her what food to eat, which probably was whatever food she first set eyes on.

Thanks for being such an outspoken voice of sanity and rationality, and keep up the good work.

Kevin, be assured that no failure ever discourages a dowser. They're the unsinkable-rubber-ducks of the lunatic world we deal with. They persist in their delusions no matter what evidence emerges, and relish the refuge in which they hide.


Karen: "Leggo My Lego!"

Reader Mogens Winther, in Denmark, tells us of the latest adventures of a remarkable Dane who persists in being very wrong, but I have to admit that she does so with great pride and a persistance that invokes both admiration and incredulity:

Forbes Magazine is now entering Chinese astrology — the year of the Monkey: http://www.forbes.com/2004/01/21/cz_lg_0122chinesenewyear.html If this superstition-friendly magazine (29 articles on astrology) has abandoned traditional Western astrology, that is understandable. An example of Western astrologers' amazingly bad performance was given recently by Karen Boesen, president of the International Society of Business Astrologers, to be seen at: http://www.businessastrologers.com.

Almost two years ago (March 2002), Ms. Boesen was invited to give a speech in front of "international business people and ambassadors" — within the International Business Club gathered at the honourable Niels Brock Business College in Copenhagen. Here, she presented astrological forecasts concerning selected companies. The companies "investigated" do not neccesarily use astrology themselves, but this does not prevent Karen offering her awful public advisories on what should be done, how, and when.

As she once warned: "People have their own free will, but if they do not use their common sense and listen to the astrologer, then they have to take the consequences."

One company described by Karen during her lecture, was LEGO — a well-known Danish toy factory. She claimed that the LEGO company did indeed have a "superhoroscope" — really good relations between Venus and Saturn, and in particular, a very positive Venus. However, recently the news about a nearly $200 million deficit came as a shock to everyone. The very same day this bad news appeared in the press, Karen's astrological estimate of what had been a "superhoroscope" did a 180-degree turn!

Suddenly, she declared that she'd actually had no doubt that dark clouds had been in sight for this international company, due to

. . . the progressive Sun in square to Saturn, which is an extremely strong and stressfull aspect, which in a very noble way describes the situation, and which people in this company experience as at present. Inertia, low growth, elimination of everything, which in no way is giving profit, cutdowns on all the line, limitations . . . in the development sector, etc., etc.

Bad, very bad — so she (now!) claims: "according to experience . . . these stress aspects HAVE to work." Only one question left, as Richard Dawkins once asked — "Why, actually, are professional astrologers not jailed for fraud?"


Natasha/Natalia/Natalya

I received some 40 notices from readers about this young Russian girl, Natasha. No, not the Brooklyn Natalya who sees while blindfoIded, a new one. I'll print just one of the messages here, sent in by Karl Nair of the UK, who describes himself as a "Geoscience undergraduate and Bright," to provide you with the story and with a few of my observations:

I am writing to bring to your attention (yet) a(nother) grave threat to the JREF Million. Coming to you from Saransk, east of Moscow, is a 17-year-old wunderkind, Natasha Demkina. This lass can allegedly see inside you (but not through you), and diagnose illness! She charges nothing for her simple services and aspires to be a doctor (ah! Bless her!).

Why is she a threat? Well, not only does she come endorsed by Dr. X of Unknown University, (YOU know — he co-wrote that paper with that guy for that journal that time?), but our beloved UK tabloid, the Sun (Scottish edition — candidate for paper-most-likely-to-wrap-fish-and-chips), has flown her to the UK and tested her ability, with typically "amazing" results and glowing praise.

I have two reasons for cluttering your inbox with this: firstly, she has agreed to one test. Good grounds perhaps to offer another, particularly if the Sun were asked to foot the travel/accommodation bill. After a color article spanning the centre pages, they must be confident of backing a winner and the PR from sponsoring the first successful JREF applicant would be welcome, I'm sure. Secondly, is this use of media to endorse this "girl with x-ray eyes" a possible Bright concern? This could be a strategic opportunity for the JREF and the Bright movement to tackle media (ir)responsibility and gain some publicity for both. From avid reading of the Commentaries I would bet my house that it would be a cakewalk for the JREF to disprove this claim and if the Sun demurs, then a savaging of their professional standards gives the Brights a national tabloid scalp. The other tabloids will gleefully join in, in a frenzy of self-righteous hypocrisy.

Well, Karl, Natasha was tested by medical doctors — people not particularly known for their expertise in misdirection and/or psychological trickery. Let's read part of the account in the Sun, a section I selected out because it rang my alarm bells right away:

Natasha Demkina has stunned the medical world with what appears to be her incredible gift to spot illnesses with X-ray vision. Experts are baffled by the accuracy of Natasha's diagnoses — so The Sun put her to the test. We sent our Russian reporter to remote Saransk to meet the 17-year-old. He has only ever broken one bone — in childhood. Would Natasha spot the 37-year-old injury?

The reporter writes:

I was 11 when my holiday at a Russian Black Sea resort was ruined by a playground fall. My left wrist was broken but healed completely after a spell in [a] plaster [cast]. The 37-year-old injury would be undetectable, I thought, as I traveled 400 miles east to snowy Saransk to meet Natasha Demkina. I told Natasha only that I had once fractured a limb and added: "Please tell me where I had my accident."

Hold on! Why is the reporter telling her this? The proper question would be, "Have I ever had any fractures or other problems that you can see?" But read on:

Natasha sighed and said: "Oh, another test." But she accepted the challenge. She stared in silence then smiled: "It has healed very well but I see it." With two fingers she gripped her left wrist to show where the fracture was. My mouth dropped open. She was exactly right.

"Exactly right" about what? Did she say, "I'm holding the spot on my body where the fracture occurred on your body?" No, she simply held her left wrist. The reporter reacted by assuming that she was showing him where his fracture was! Now, until these people show some interest in the JREF prize, I'll assume that they're doing the same old stunt of prompting an eager reporter to fall into their suggestion-trap. I'm willing to be shown wrong, but so far I've seen zero evidence of the claim.

And, reader Jez Wood also sent me an account, mis-naming Natasha:

Yesterday, while watching our one of our glorious, non-biased, open-minded home-based TV stations, I was witness to a young girl from Russia, whose name, I believe, was Natalia. She spoke no English. However, her interpreter did....very well, but hey, that's what they're there for.....isn't it? I'll keep this short and sweet, as I can almost hear the yawns commence. Incidentally, Natalia is taking the medical world, indeed, the entire Western World (wasn't that a fantasy story also?) by storm. Natalia went on to astound the TV presenters, who, purely as a coincidence, had professed their beliefs in ghosties, fortune tellers, et al, in an earlier show. She was "fed" members of the public who suffered various ailments. She went on to describe (through her interpreter remember) the various injuries, operation scars, and in some cases problems that have yet to manifest.

It is to be pointed out that their house doctor (a self-confessed skeptic) was also diagnosed and indeed converted "live" on-air. Prepare to be astounded now: it became apparent that Natalia (and that man of many voices) had met all the participants in this display earlier, before broadcast. Oh dear, I'd better dig back out my antibiotics I guess! Just as I was wavering, too.....well....maybe not.

Evidence, yet again, that one must read between the lines. I had another inquiry about this wonder-worker from a "researcher" for Granada TV, in the UK, and I suggested that she call me. I also informed her that a number of my readers had said that they'd told her about the JREF prize. The researcher wanted the girl to try for the million-dollar prize, live, on TV. She, too, named Natasha "Natalia" and said she is:

. . . a girl who can a [tell] doctor that he has 2 hernia scars that he has forgotten about himself, having have the operation some 20 years ago. I do find that very impressive indeed. Which is why I am enquiring on behalf of Natalia. . . . I will speak to Natalia at length about this as I beleive [sic] at the moment there are not many people she trusts — understandably so — and the 30 or so people you say have mentioned your tests to her, are more than likely not [in] this the small circle of trust.

I hope that you readers just might have anticipated my next question of the Granada researcher. It was simple: did the girl specifically state that this doctor had two hernia scars, or did she just mention "scars" — among other possibilities — and did the doctor then specify that he had scars that were hernial in nature?

That was a week ago. There has been no response, and I assume that Natalia has declined to be part of a try for the million...

Is this a characteristic of all Russian girls named Natalia/Natalya/Natasha, that they don't really want to be rich?


Another French Revolution

There was a news item in July of last year that got my attention. It appears to be a bold move en avant. The French government has published a list of some 650 "remedies" whose users will no longer be reimbursed by the federal health service, simply because the nostrums have little or no recognized effect. How refreshingly pragmatic! After six months of talks with healthcare professionals and a big battle with the pharmaceutical industry, the French health minister has issued a list of medicines routinely prescribed by French doctors but now shown to give "an insufficient medical return." Translation: they don't work.

The French have always delighted in liver cures; they imagine almost any and all ailments to originate in the malfunction of that important organ. They regularly come down with "crise de foie" — liver crisis — for which they take a wide spectrum of remedies. Outside of Gallic shores, this popular "crisis" is usually diagnosed as headache, constipation or simply over-eating. They snap up "hepatitic protectors," "veino tonics" for their circulation, "bronchial lubricants," "phytotherapeutics," "choleretics" to allow the secretion of appropriate supplies of bile, and a whole class of products known as "replacement intestinal flora," which owe their popularity to the notion that the human body has to be regularly re-infected with "natural" or "resident" bacteria — a process which occurs automatically and inevitably with almost every breath taken or glass of water imbibed, and needs no help from pharmacology.

But, monsieurs, how about the most popular quackery in France, homeopathy? That, I'm sure, will not be doubted? Ah, bien sûr!


Spinney Exults

We're still recovering from TAM2, and have already begun plans for TAM3. We've decided to go back to Las Vegas — though not to the same hotel — and the date is January 13th to January 16th, 2005. Michael Shermer will be back as our keynote speaker, a "fixture" of TAMs, it now appears. Very soon we'll be able to name others, and I just know you won't be able to miss the next one when those names appear.

One apology: I'd told young Jacob Spinney that I would formally introduce him to our attendees, and I failed to do that. However, he got around a lot, and was recognized by many persons there. He reports to me that when he got back home from TAM2:

I was astonished to find literally over a hundred emails in my inbox (for a kid that usually gets one email a week, that's a lot). I never could've predicted the amount of thanks, congratulations, and help that I got from the readers of that single commentary. I guess there actually are people out there wanting to learn a minority viewpoint.

If you haven't taken a look at Jacob's answer to a fundamentalist lecturer/preacher who failed to answer the questions that Jacob raised, go immediately to http://jacobandrews.com/tomshort.htm


In Closing...

I could hardly give you a better closing item than this one, as we "go to press." It involves a basic anthropological claim, and it is very satisfying, indeed:

Some very interesting and controversial human bones were found by two teenagers near Kennewick, Washington, in 1996. U.S. Department of the Interior scientists who were called in to examine the find, concluded that what became known as "Kennewick Man" is unlike any known modern Native Americans, although they did not rule out a distant biological connection. There were immediate outcries from Native Americans who invoked the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Nagpra), which calls for remains that are identified as Native American to be respected and returned to the original site without further interference, if they "bear some relationship to presently existing tribe or people or culture."

It appeared that until just now, these remarkable bones, which seem to be far from what scientists could expect to be found in that situation, would be taken away without further study being permitted; the remains were of such size and configuration that they strongly suggested unsuspected origins for the native people of North America. Now, appeal judges have ruled that it was impossible to establish a relationship between the Indian tribes and "Kennewick Man" with such short and suspended examination, so the bones will be submitted to further detailed examination. "We affirm the judgment of the district court barring the transfer of the skeleton for immediate burial and instead permitting scientific study of the skeleton," the court wrote.

This is a very important find, one that cannot be re-buried until and unless the claims made by the offended Americans prove correct, in which case the Nagpra agreement will and should be promptly followed. We applaud the action of the appeal judges.

Science moves on . . . !