Money For Old Rope
As a very occasional feature here is The View from Number 80's Business
Section
Coral Con - Amongst the spam offers that clog up 80's inbox along with all the usual
claptrap there seems to be an increase in those that plug "coral calcium"
(CC). Taking regular calcium as a constituent of diet or supplements can be
beneficial and helps protect against osteoporosis, for example. So what is
CC and what are the claims for it - is it more effective than the more
familiar kind? In a search on the internet one name appears frequently
connected with this substance - Robert Barefoot, who is identified as the
discoverer. A look at his
website shows some interesting and familiar features. Claims
are made for the efficacy of CC in combating a wide variety of ills - from
cancer to Alzheimer's - which Barefoot states are caused by acidosis,
acidification of the body which is reversed by use of CC. One link is in red
to catch the attention -
I'm Sick I Need Help. When one clicks
through instead of say, a responsible suggestion to see your doctor or
health care professional the reader is presented with a page of more dubious
claims and a blatant sales pitch -
"If you are sick, I implore you to read "The Calcium
Factor" and "Death By Diet". Also, inexpensive health test kits, audiotapes,
and an audio version of the book "The Calcium Factor" and the video tape
"The Calcium Factor" can be purchased from ......."
Scroll down to read Barefoot's advice for those suffering from terminal
cancer - two words that spring to mind instantly are unscrupulous and
callous. Barefoot's pages have all the hallmarks of quackery - claims to
cure a very wide range of health problems, although to avoid legal action
Barefoot likes to say his CC merely "helps the body to
cure itself". Also no results from properly conducted studies are
shown but there are plenty of appeals to anecdotal evidence....
"The scientific evidence that calcium is the key to
good and long health is overwhelming. One does not have to be a rocket
scientist to read simple articles in reputable newspapers, magazines and the
doctor’s own journals that are all saying that disease can be cured by diet."
And of course the endless plugging of the various materials that Barefoot is
peddling. Quackwatch
takes a
withering look at Barefoot's brand of hogwash, demolishing his claims,
his questionable credentials and much else. This page from the
Wellness Guide puts things nicely when it says "Bottom
Line: There is no evidence that coral calcium cures or treats any disease,
or that it is better than a basic, inexpensive calcium carbonate pill."
Most tellingly the article from Wellness is entitled -
How to Sell a 5¢ Supplement for $1. This is the essence of things -
Barefoot and others like him are not out to cure anyone, they want one thing
and that is your money. The fact that the advice these charlatans give may
lead someone to die from a condition that could have been treated by real
medical science seems to bother them not one bit. It is merely a lucrative
business to them. They deserve nothing but contempt.
Alien Loot -
Roswell, what does that name conjure up? Crashed saucers, tiny alien bodies,
government cover-up, excitement and mystery? More like the rustle of dollar
bills. It is reported that now the inhabitants of this otherwise
unremarkable town can now celebrate "Extraterrestrial Culture
Day". Never
mind the fact that the whole Roswell myth has been
thoroughly debunked, what
we have here is business pure and simple. Roswell has little if anything to
attract tourists and their cash barring the saucer myth and so the local
businesses and lawmakers will keep plugging the story. If it has worked in
Scotland with Nessie since the early part of the last century then there is
no reason why Roswell's attraction should not help to lighten visitor's
pocketbooks for a long time to come. Talking of Scotland a local politician
has decided his town too wants to jump on the gullible tourist bandwagon by
proclaiming
the town of Bonnybridge "UFO Capital of the World" and proposing
"twinning" with Roswell. Again the truth of the matter has little to do with
extraterrestrials and a lot to do with money. This
gazetteer for Scotland
lists the two main features of the town thus "its industrial estate lies to
the south, and to the west is a sand and gravel quarry." With
attractions like these it would seem that UFO tourism would be an upward
step. Yet somehow "Bonnybridge" the sci-fi TV show still seems a long way
away..........
(To be honest 80 is a little unfair to Bonnybridge as it does have a
Roman fort nearby. Whether the legionaries were ever buzzed by a flying
saucer is not
recorded.)
Feng Shxx
-
80 looked at the oriental gobbledegook of Feng Shui a
while back but a recent email brought this
little gem to notice.
Feng Shui Made Really Easy has a distinctly non-harmonious bilious
yellow background color and text that is almost as grating. Written by the
self-styled Master Joseph Yu to explain the theory behind FS, here is an
explanation offered regarding Qi
"There is something called Qi (or Chi) that is
fundamental in this study. We know the existence of Qi, we know what it is
but we cannot give it a definition. We do not need a definition because
this is something fundamental. That is how we build up a scientific
system. Although Feng Shui is not a science by itself, we still like to
employ as much rigor as we possibly can."
Obviously rigor means something very different to Master Yu than it does
to this reader. He goes on
"The fundamental properties of Qi are: [1] Qi can be
carried by the movement of air. [2] Strong winds will disperse Qi. [3] Qi
can be retained by water."
It is obvious that Yu likes to borrow terminology from science without any
idea of what it actually means. 80 is no expert but the idea of something
that is a "fundamental force" being blown around by wind or "retained by
water" seems odd and not applicable to the fundamental forces poor old
Western science has to get by with. The page itself is just a preamble to
the meat of the matter which is, surprise surprise, selling something, for
"Master Yu also offers the highest quality Feng Shui
Correspondence Course, Four Pillars Course, International Seminars,
moderates the Astro-Feng Shui on-line forum, and offers various Feng Shui
and Astrology services..." Click the
link provided and you will be
rewarded by the unsurprising information that Yu (with others) has written
a book fittingly called "The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Feng Shui". The praise for this book in the reviews on the
Amazon website is unstinting - and nonsensical. "this
American Masterpiece tops the lot - it peels away the layers of
superstition and myth permeating the modern practice." It is 80's
opinion that when you peel away the " layers of superstition and myth" you
will be left with zip, nada, nothing - three terms that also describe the
scientific content of this ridiculous and profitable little scam. (Thanks
to Ken True)
Dreaming of Cash
- The final part of the Business Section is about a scheme
dreamed up to make money from - dreams. The interpretation of dreams goes
back a very long way in human history - the biblical character Joseph
interpreted dreams for the pharaoh of Egypt. His correct readings brought
him power and great wealth from the royal coffers. Nowadays
The Dream Interpretation Center
has to rely upon Visa or Mastercard. The person behind the site is Layne
Dalfen whose "own interest in dreams stems from her
early experience in Freudian analysis where dream work was the primary
tool." Mentioning Freud
(and a bit further down the page,
Jung) does not engender great feelings of confidence in Dalfen's work
- nor does her certificate in "gestalt counselling".
The Theory page
opens with this sweeping and unsubstantiated declaration "All
great psychological thinkers agreed on one thing - that dreams are
expressions of our deeper selves and that understanding our dreams can
give us valuable insight that we can use in our waking lives." The
odor of pseudoscience already pervades - hold your figurative nostrils and
click through to "For
Some Basic Principles of Dream Interpretation". Here are excerpts from
Dalfen's book Dreams Do Come True - "Dream research
and analysis is one of the few scientific areas in which each of us can
become as knowledgeable as any professional" Particularly if you
shell out for the book which contains information to access the four
levels of dreaming so that you may "Tap into your
Spiritual Resources". Furthermore "Interpreting
your dreams not only helps you solve your immediate problems-whether
creative, work-related, or personal-but can lead you to a richer, happier
life." On this page is a nicely revealing quote - "A
dreamer is the only person who knows what a dream is about... One person
might say 'I'm dreaming about a cat because someone in my life is being
really independent and it's annoying me. Someone else will say 'I dreamed
about a cat because I'm having a really bad reaction to someone and I'm
allergic to cats." So, as far as 80 can make out, your dreams can
mean any old thing you like - after all it is your dream. Dalfen's book is
not very expensive but beware if you think you need a
private
consultation, for it will cost you a cool $80 for one hour. What is
known in some circles as a nice little earner.
Preparation YHWH
- Last month 80 took a look at an odd
little tale in Exodus 33 of the Christian Old Testament - the strange
story of God's backside - which was followed by a rumination on rumps and
remnants. This is another look at a little known cranny in the Good Book
and yes, it is bottoms again. The God of the OT was a great one for
punishments and plagues but He thought up something particularly nasty for
the Philistines who had taken the Ark of the Covenant into their
territory. Wherever the unfortunate Ark-stealers took it God's plague
followed them - close behind. It happened first in Ashdod and then in Gath
"the hand of the Lord was against the city with a
very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and
great, and they had emerods in their secret parts." (1 Samuel 5:9)
From Gath the Ark was taken to Ekron and finally to the land of the
Philistines and the plague followed. In despair the thieves asked what
could they do to stop their punishment. The priests came up with the
answer - a trespass offering to make amends. They were to make golden
images of their emerods, load them and the Ark on a cart and send them on
home.(1 Samuel 6:5) But what were these emerods that caused such distress?
The ever reliable New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary tells us these
little pieces of the Almighty's handiwork are in fact hemorrhoids - the
Christian Answers page agrees but leaves out any discussion of golden
piles as a trespass offering. What an adventure movie that would
make - Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Hemorrhoids. A further couple
of interesting points arise from this little known biblical episode. Once
the Philistines did as they were told (you can hear their goldsmiths
saying "You want me to make a golden WHAT?") God would "lighten
his hand from off you, and from off your gods". Gods? Plural? Yes,
this is when Yahweh was just a local tribal god, one among many, before
his worshippers decided to foist their fantasies on everyone. And a
violent little god he was too "And he smote the men
of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he
smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men." (1
Samuel 6:19) None of that soppy forgiving and redeeming from this guy.
On a related note you may not be aware that the Roman Catholic church,
which has a saint for darn near everything, has piles covered. A little
known Portuguese
saint, one Goncalo, can apparently cure this unpleasant condition,
although how the congregation of the church at Murtosa, outside Lisbon,
react to sufferers baring their backsides to Goncarlo's statue is not
reported.
Ethical Excellence
- Many religionists, particularly those of a more
fundamentalist nature, would think the next title something of an
oxymoron. The Ethical
Atheist is a fine site dealing with such subjects as Atheism, Ethics,
Science and Education. (Yes, the first two are a bit obvious).
There are links leading to articles about many affairs of great concern
from the conflict in Iraq to faith-based funding, pushed by George Bush
Jnr and his fellow right-wing Christians, to the space program, cloning
and much more. Also available is a list of
Ten
Commandments - for ethical atheists - with a detailed look at the
ramifications, and a list of
Questions for God - each with a link to the responses received
(although not from the big G Himself sadly). These pages alone are worth a
look but there is also a link to the
Dark Side of
the Ethical Atheist. Disappointingly for fundies it is not a secret
link to Satan but a much harder hitting look at religious beliefs and also
a lot of humor. See the page of
Ridiculous Religious Merchandise (some will be familiar to regular 80
readers) and a page of angel pictures courtesy of
Victoria's Secret! For those of a zoological tendency the
Biblical Species
Not Known to Science is great stuff. Highly recommended.
Miscellany -
Here
is an interesting essay called
Does God
Exist? courtesy of the
Atheist
Foundation of Australia - when you visit do look at the
Humour Pages.
In reading any of the better skeptical literature a name that occurs
frequently associated with interesting and thoughtful writing is Dr.
Massimo Pigliucci - go here to find his
Skeptic and Humanist web
pages and take a look at his
Rationally
Speaking monthly e-magazine - highly recommended. For a reasoned view
of subjects that are currently dominating the news
The Federation of American Scientists is
a good source - here you will find the lowdown on Weapons of Mass
Destruction, Terrorism, Chemical and Biological Arms Control, Government
Security and many other topics. On CSICOP's
Doubt and About pages
there is the latest piece from Chris Mooney "The
Skeptic's Message Lab - Some thoughts on new ways to critique
alternative medicine." on how to approach the whole sorry business (and as
above, business it definitely is) of CAM - Complimentary and Alternative
Medicine. How about Japanese journalist, Shun Akiba, and his
tales of a conspiracy to silence him. Why? he claims to have found
evidence of various map anomalies that lead him to conclude there is a
secret network of tunnels underneath Tokyo. (80 could have told him about
that for nothing - read You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming and you will
learn the indomitable head of the Japanese secret service, one Tiger
Tanaka, has his own private subway train in just such a network of
tunnels.) Last in this short round-up are the
New Zealand Skeptics whose well laid
out site is a mine of information. They currently have a
Teaching Critical Thinking Competition with a prize of $1000 (for just
one page!) and notice of the Skeptics Conference 2003 to be held in
September at Victoria University in Wellington. More details can be had by
signing up for email alerts. 80 may be wrong but seemingly unique to this
site is a range of excellent
Information Flyers (pdf format so you will need the free
Adobe Acrobat
Reader) These cover a range of subjects from Acupuncture to Channeling to
UFOs and Aliens. If you need good well-presented information to hold your
own against the rising tide of irrationality then the NZ Skeptics site is
the place to visit - highly recommended.
Quotes
"The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning ... For by
doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at truth."
Peter Abelard
"The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an
islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our
business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land."
Thomas Henry
Huxley
"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor
all logic, it is somewhat beauty and poetry."
Maria
Mitchell
"One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in
contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of
scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and
dull, but also just stupid."
James Watson
"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success
is sure." Mark Twain
"The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out."
Anonymous Chinese proverb
"A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many
regrets."
Arthur
C. Clarke
"How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?"
Charles De Gaulle
"Oh, everything's too damned expensive these days. This Bible cost 15
bucks! And talk about a preachy book! Everybody's a sinner! Except this
guy."
Homer Simpson
