Simon Singh fights back (once again)

pH

It's about the alternative medicine series shown recently on BBC2.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1739354,00.html

The article speaks for itself, but this bit is my favourite:

If your programme undermines rationality in that unfortunate way, it does an enormous disfavour far beyond healthcare and promotes US-style anti-science.

And Ben Goldacre continues the brave fight also in today's Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,,1739365,00.html

Brain Gym last week. To recap: Brain Gym is an incredibly popular technique, in at least hundreds of British state schools, promoted all over government websites, and with a scientific explanatory framework that is barkingly out to lunch.

They teach that there is no water in processed food. They teach that rubbing your ribcage will stimulate the carotid arteries beneath and increase blood to the brain and "activate the brain for an increased flow of electromagnetic energy".

lostexpectation

so the problem is pseudo-business then?

pH

lostexpectation wrote:

so the problem is pseudo-business then?

I cannot understand the question!

Is that a 'get home from pub on Saturday night' post?

torinoblue

I think its obvious what he means.

Yes it is a pseudo-business, i.e. one which professes to have some truth/science behind but is in reality a scam. It is usually known to be a scam by the people selling the products, although some sellers can convince themselves of its truth, or some have mental problems.

And of course as always caveat emptor applies as in most transactions, but it is a problem when governments and trusted sources of information start giving credence to the dubious [in some cases], the debunked [in most cases] and the downright crazy[in other cases].

davros

I hadn't come across Brain Gym before but I was wondering if it had infiltrated Irish schools yet.

According to Brain Gym Ireland, yes, it has:

Educational Kinesiology/Brain Gym® is now being used in a large number of schools throughout Ireland.

Hundreds of teachers, classroom assistants, resource teachers, physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, nurses and parents have attended courses, seminars and workshops on Brain Gym over the past few years.

This would be a good topic to raise with the speaker the next ISS lecture.

lostexpectation

Pádraig King (MA. BEd. KAI. EKUKF. BGI.)

masters|?|kinesiology - Ireland |Educational Kinesiology Foundation| Brian Gym ireland

http://www.king.ie/home.htm
http://www.clarefm.ie/main/who_we_are/megan.html ?

torinoblue

that is one god awful website.

pH

More controversy following a letter of support for the program in the Guardian on April 1st.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bbc3