Homeopathy for Ebola virus disease: Too quacky even for Mike Adams!

Natural News does not condone any member of the public attempting to interact with Ebola

What, there’s no way to simply communicate with it? What is this, Radio Tirana?

Maybe we could broker a deal with Marburg.

“Natural News was made aware of a blog post that seemed to recommend a highly questionable method related to Ebola prevention. The blog post has been removed pending further investigation, and the blogger is under review….”

Maybe Mikey should have checked up on the author Ken Oftedal last year, when he posted three articles on Natural News (two articles August 2013 and one article September 2013)

http://blogs.naturalnews.com/?s=ken+oftedal

Hold the bottle and strike it hard against a solid surface, such as a large book, 40 times.

As someone who recently broke a tomato pasta glass jar by accidentally making it fall down about 3 inches, I’m not exactly keen on smacking repeatedly an Ebola virus-filled bottle.

Avoid touching a pill with your fingers as your energy field can neutralize the information carried.

But isn’t your tongue touching the pill when you pop it in your mouth?
So your energy field is stronger around your hands compared to around your head, where your brain is encased?
Oh. So homeopathy only works for the brain dead.

@ Bags

I wouldn’t put too much hope in this. These people may have been put off by the idea of having to acquire themselves some live Ebola virus to make the potion. Gross and very risky.
They want a risk-free, ready-to-use solution.
To be fair, I am not very optimistic on the risk assessment of this homeopathic recipe, either. I have some training in pathogen handling, but not enough to feel confident in messing around with some Ebola virus-laced sputum.

I also wonder how much of Mike’s reaction is due to the “do it yourself and give it for free to the whole world” angle.
For free, for Pete’s sake. Clearly this Ken dude has no business acumen.

Hospital grade Lysol is about 50% ethanol (http://www.co.vermilion.il.us/MSDS/Tech%20Services/LysolPro-4650.pdf), but I don’t recall seeing their labeling saying it is approved to disinfect for Ebola. However, 10% whiskey as directed by the homeopaths seems extremely unlikely to work against Ebola given that whiskey is ~ 80-100 proof (40-50% alcohol) and then only 10% of the initial volume,–that takes it down to 5%. Not something I’d even want to think about betting my life upon.

Of course, when Mike Adams disparages anyone/anything, it is done strictly for the monetary profit of Mike Adams. The demented squirrel on the treadmill in his cranium is no doubt furiously spinning the rusty exercise wheel to generate his latest scam.

My immediate thought was: Oh, Zeus, somebody is going to try this with polystyrene and end up with Ebola non-specific adhesion to the plastic surfaces. Polystyrene carries enough of a residual charge to non-specifically bind negatively charged substances like phospholipids, proteins and DNA. Add 10% alcohol, and the virus isn’t inactivated, but you could neutralize the charge on the plastic, releasing the virus into solution.

“Criminy, who would have thought that homeopaths would be so ignorant of chemistry”, he said, with a deep sense of irony and sarcasm.

@ chris hickie

10% whiskey as directed by the homeopaths seems extremely unlikely to work against Ebola

Completely agree.
Ethanol kills germs by coagulating their proteins and dissolving lipids, but to work, it needs to be in the 50-70% range. The presence of detergents is a big help, too.
Trivia: if higher than 90% (IIRC), ethanol is actually a preservative, it just dries germs. Remove alcohol, add water, instant bug.
Lower ethanol concentrations won’t have much effect. A bit of alcohol in a liquid used to clean surfaces will hasten the evaporation of water, and some virus types (like the HIV) are very sensitive to desiccation, but that’s about it. I really wouldn’t count on it.
Obviously, dehydration won’t happen to viruses in a bottle of water, even with a splash of whiskey in it.

So, have the makers of this homeopathic cure infected themselves with Ebola? Have they cured themselves? They should really try it on themselves first. FOR SCIENCE!

To emphasize: don’t try this home, kids.

There is a reason why BSL4 facilities exist, and a reason why anybody who needs to deal with Ebola in a lab setting does so in one of those. If you know what you are doing (and unless you have a specific background in infectious disease, you almost certainly don’t) and have a BSL4 facility to play with, then go ahead. But don’t be surprised when the zoning board denies your variance to build a BSL4 lab in your basement. And for $DEITY’s sake, don’t pour your waste products down the sink–it’s a biohazard, and needs special handling.

The Dunning-Kruger is strong in this one (Oftedal).

alt med would have us go back to the ‘good old days’ prior to modern medication

This joke, from The Watchmen (via Brad DeLong), captures what the alt-med types seem to be advocating here:

Man goes to doctor. Says he’s depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, “Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up.” Man bursts into tears. Says “But Doctor… I am Pagliacci.”

@ Guy Chapman:

But if it were homeopathic, the merde would be watered down.

An Ebola sample: some spit or other disease product, such as blood, from a person infected with Ebola, or who is suspected sick with it. Any small quantity will do, even a pinhead.

So the cure works even if the patient providing the cure is only suspected of having the disease which the cure is intended to, um, cure. Why not just cut out all the hassle and imagine there’s a cure, then take it?

Nah, no-one could be that stupid.

“A person suffering from a heavy malaria attack was restored to normal after listening 100 times in succession to this mp3.”

At best, a confusion of correlation and causation.

But I haven’t listened to the mp3 in question, so it may be a case of “the cure is worse than the disease”. I have encountered sound recordings that I can only listen to so many times, where by “so many times” I mean, if I’m in a generous mood, once. Even the better ones are unlikely to hold up under 100 consecutive listenings.

The “hospital grade” Lysol would get most, though not all, of its bactericidal and viricidal properties from the quaternary ammonium compound (“quat”), rather than the alcohol. The alcohol is probably there mostly to promote wetting of surfaces, especially if they might be contaminated with anything oily. Quats are surfactants, but not all that great.
It is worth noting that soaps or other anionic surfactants (detergents) will virtually completely destroy the effectiveness of quats, which are cationic detergents. Its effectiveness is also compromised if there is a lot of organic goop (but that is true even of chlorine bleach).

Ethyl alcohol is my favorite alcohol, superior in every important way to benzyl alcohol.

Well, if you are talking about internal use, then yes, ethanol is my preferred alcohol. There are other applications for which other alcohols deliver superior performance. That’s why you can get isopropyl alcohol at the drugstore. I don’t know as much about benzyl alcohol.

@Helanthus:
“So your energy field is stronger around your hands compared to around your head, where your brain is encased?” Well, yeah. Because Reiki! That’s probably why NN took down the DIY Ebola cure. It only works if the preparer is trained in using their energy field to give the mixture an activating charge! Perhaps Mike doesn’t want to go there himself, but he might take commissions on referrals to those homeopaths who are holistically woo-ic, (and charge accordingly). 🙂

But seriously. Follow the Related News link: Adams is using his “don’t try this at home” warning to draw clicks over to a page summarized as “Dont’ get vaccinated for Ebola. Because Big Pharma!” So what to do about the disease? Well, perhaps the only “highly questionable” aspect of Oftedal’s post from Adam’s POV IS the suggestion that the public might ‘interact’ with the virus, and instead the public should be told to wait for the properly-handled-by-experts homeopathic cures and preventative supplements that are in the pipeline (no doubt coming soon to store.naturalnews.com).

Now, I’m no fan of Big Pharma, and the Health Ranger (er, Health Danger) CAN cite GlaxoSmithKline’s involvement in some nasty business. But even a die-hard anti-corporatist like myself can see that GSK’s sin’s in marketing and distribution have nothing to do with it’s development and testing of an Ebola vaccine.

Hmm, what did GSK do? “two count of introducing misbranded drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin, into interstate commerce and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).” Then Mick Danger (Turd Eye)* drops this: “all this deception has generated tens of billions of dollars in profits for GSK over the years, while thousands of patients who used the drug products involved have suffered horrific side effects and even death.”

I’m like: hunh? Wellbutrin and Paxil? WTF is he talking about? So I Google, and discover that indeed thousands of patients have suffered horrific consequences from the use of Avandia, numerous lawsuits are in progress, and this certainly appears to be very nasty business indeed.

BUT, Adams wrote “patients who used the drug productS involved,” emphasis on the plural. So it turns out that his superficially ‘responsibe’ note on the excesses of Oftedal is just another excuse to take a pot-shot at anti-depressants, (and how convenient that this appears on the day Robin Williams commits suicide, though I don’t know whether Adams’ post went up before or after the news of Williams’ death broke…)

Well, Mike, I take that kind of personally since I might well have been pushing up daisies for the last 20 years were it not for the availablity of effective anti-depressants, and I still have to constantly deal with the fact that psych meds are socially stigmatized, as the general public has no idea what SSRIs actually do (they don’t make you ‘happy’, they just threshold the lows to the point where don’t want to plunge your dinner fork through your hand), and so Fuck You Very Much.

* For the young-uns, that’s Firesign Theater reference.

EVERYONE:

You MUST listen to the .mp3s on Oftedal’s page! RobRN didn’t mention that above the malaria clip is a “Cancer treatment mp3”. “Reduce the effects of your cancer by listening to this mp3.”

The cancer clip is 23 seconds, and at least ends on the bar at the completion of a musical phrase. The malaria clip is 17 seconds and cuts out in mid-note. They’re the same musical genre, which I won’t spoil. Apparently the agitating effects of malignant tumors is pacified by a bit of musical closure, while Plasmodium protozoa are shocked into death by the frustration of tonus interruptis repeated 100 times.

The existence of this is the facepalm to end all facepalms, and funny as all hell.

Can anyone identify the artists or song titles?

**Personally, if I was going to try to kill Malaria with music, I’d go with Motorhead, though I suppose the efficacy of any relief produced would need to go through a double-blind clinical trial to isolate the effects of the music vs. those of the head-banging. But the fact that Lemmy’s still alive is some kind of medical miracle that science might want to investigate. 🙂 **

@ sadmar:

And thank you for your honesty and somewhat-less-than-totally-enthusiastic endorsement of SSRIs. I know quite a few who might say the same. More or less. I’m dysthymic myself.

Mikey and Gary Null are responsible for helping increase the stigma surrounding mental illness and meds as if it wasn’t bad enough already. Pseudo-science like theirs replaces common sense with uncommon nonsense so many of us work hard in order to counter it because it HURTS people.

Here’s an interesting question to ask an anti-vaxer. “If you had to travel to West Africa, and a vaccine against Ebola had just developed, would you take the vaccine?” or “Would you be in favor of a vaccine for Ebola?”

I don’t believe that asking someone with anti-vax views about an Ebola vaccine would produce an interesting result, or even cause that person a moment’s discomfort.

Eric, when I lived in the Panama Canal Zone many many years ago (before the age of disco!), we had to remember to carry our shot records when we went into the Republic.

After there were a couple of cases of yellow fever in the interior we were told that if the Guardia Nacional found you did not have proof of a yellow fever vaccine, they would literally take you to the local clinic and force one on you. I sincerely do not know it that is true, but it would not surprise me. (these were the same people who several years later murdered Mr. Dragseth, my high school chemistry teacher).

Just wanted to add my “f*** you too” to sadmar’s #29 comment. It saddens me to think that at the age of 63, with so much opportunity to recieve help, Williams still felt death was the only otion. It makes me *very* fearful for my own prospects – half the age, with no support, and so much less to live for. People who promote woo for psychiatry only make it harder for people like us to find a home in this world. It is despicable.

It gets worse: https://www.facebook.com/656716804343725/photos/a.692729370742468.1073741828.656716804343725/904658059549597/

And now this…Rife therapy for ebola.
http://insidesurgery.com/2014/07/rife-treatment-stop-ebola-disease/

@Denice

Thanks. My reply is a bit long and personal, would you mind if I responded via email?

@Reality

That wouldn’t work, because free speech.

Even the better ones are unlikely to hold up under 100 consecutive listenings.

It’s only a test to see if you are autistic (at least, some other neurodiverse might also do it). At work, I listened to Extreme Ways from John Powell and Moby for close to a week when I needed a royal lot of focus. this song calm me down the most.

Alain

Darn, my comment is in moderation. I must have used a bad word.. 🙁

What, no YouTube video how-to from Ken?

dingo199,

And now this…Rife therapy for ebola.

I looked into Rife therapy some years ago, out of curiosity (and, to be honest, desperation). The central idea is that each pathogen has a resonant frequency (or frequencies), like a wineglass does. So if you apply those frequencies to a pathogen with enough power, it should shatter, just like the Memorex wineglass.

There are a number of problems I see with this (combining my knowledge of cell physiology and my somewhat limited A Level Physics):

1. Traditional Rife machines use a radiotransmitter putting out an RF carrier, amplitude-modulated with the required resonant frequency – the article you linked to suggests frequencies between 0.03 and 10,000 Hz. I’m skeptical about radio waves affecting microorganisms in this way. I know microwaves can induce vibrations in water molecules, but can RF make a bacterium or a virus, or any of its organelles, vibrate?

2. Even if the pathogen or its innards were persuaded to vibrate, they are made of flexible cell membranes and proteins, not rigid, brittle glass. I don’t think cell lysis and a wineglass shattering are analogous. I can’t imagine what power would be required to vibrate a pathogen to death, and what effects that might have on the rest of the patient.

3. The article mentions the effects of magnets on pathogens. There is some evidence that pulsed oscillating electromagnetic fields can kill or inhibit pathogens, here, for example (look at the studies using oscillating fields at the bottom of the page, not the standing fields ones at the top). However, a pulsed alternating magnetic field is not at all the same as the radio waves emitted by a traditional Rife gadget.

I do think more research into pulsed oscillating magnetic fields would be interesting, though whether these can penetrate tissue to have the same effects in vivo as they do in a petri dish is questionable. Equally questionable is whether the frequency used is important; the FDA research suggests that any frequency over 5 kHz works, which contradicts the Rife claims that very specific frequencies are necessary. I wonder how this works – perhaps microcurrents induced in the microorganisms? Resonance seems unlikely.

If, and it’s a big if, pathogens could be persuaded to vibrate themselves to death, I would have thought using ultrasound would be more effective. Ultrasound could, I think, theoretically transfer enough energy into a pathogen to kill it. So could microwaves, but I imagine the frequencies required would heat up a number of organic molecules in the patient.

Some years ago you might have found me staring down a microscope at a sample of a pathogenic fungus on a microscope slide with an ultrasonic transducer glued to it. I used a frequency generator to work my way through various frequencies that allegedly kill fungae, in the hope that I would see the fungal hyphae or spores suddenly explode when I got to the right one. The results? I got a bad headache, the fungae were unaffected and I felt somewhat foolish (still do, a little).

Tangentially, I recall some odd similarities between Rife’s work and Wilhelm Reich’s. IIRC both claimed to have discovered some sort of cancer bacillus that can arise spontaneously from dead matter – Rife called his “Bacillus X” and Reich called his version “T-Bacillus”. They both reported pleomorphism (bacteria transmuting into viruses, for example) too. I’m reminded of Robert O. Young, who also makes claims of pleomorphism. Perhaps it’s all about misinterpreting what they see under a microscope – when you are looking at living things swimming about, you sometimes get very weird effects when they move in and out of the focal plane.

Pah – you naysayers know nothing about homeopathy. It works. I’ve been taking prophylactic doses of Crotalus Horridus (100c) for the last couple of weeks, and I’m completely Ebola free. As a bonus, it’s also kept away crocodiles and rogue elephants.

It doesn’t surprise me that Rife machine treatments for Ebola infection are being promoted. What was a bit eyebrow-raising was to find an (allegedly) board-certified surgeon suggesting such therapy..

L. “Skip” Marcucci thinks we should try just about anything to counter the Ebola threat:

“Do we as physicians, health care providers, and fellow human beings owe it to those afflicted and in agony to at least be open and willing to consider an unproven, untested, “kitchen sink”, people-dying-gotta-try-everything treatment that might get them to the other side of this terrible disease?”

Other kitchen-sinkoid treatments for Ebola that Marcucci
discusses involve herbs and acupuncture.

(Marcucci, described in his bio as board certified in general and trauma surgery and critical care medicine, thoughtfully lists a set of antiviral Rife frequencies that people can try if they catch Ebola).

http://insidesurgery.com/2014/07/rife-treatment-stop-ebola-disease/

Marcucci is, as you might guess, heavily into “integrative medicine”, promoting acupuncture and studying herbalism under someone named Dr. Tieraona Low Dog. Curiously (coincidentally) there is another trauma surgeon named Lisa Marcucci, who Orac took to task a few years ago for defending “battlefield acupuncture. She practices in Pennsylvania, a state where “Skip” studied (I can’t find out his current location).

I wonder if these two are related….

I wonder exactly how big that kitchen sink Marcucci thinks we should throw at Ebola is? Rife? Check. Acupuncture? Check. How about homeopathy? Reiki? The “Secret’? Shamanic drumming? Sacrificing goats and chickens to the Orishas?

The problem with the ‘ people-dying-gotta-try-everything” approach is there’s a whole lot of everything out there to try and no rational basis o which to discriminate many of them from the others.

And, quite frankly, I’d say your odds of survving after sacrificing a goat to Chango are ijust as good as your odds after trying Homeopathy or acupuncture.

We don’t have the luxury of trying everything: we have an oligation instead to try those which are most likely to produce results–and unfortunately for the Reiki masters, homeopaths, and Rife energy advocates that means the interventions with the greatest prior plausibiity.

I wonder if these two are related….

One and the same.

Thanks Todd, that was interesting. Those methods use brute force to lyse cells, breaking down cell membranes. Sadly, the sort of discriminatory killing of pathogens Rife thought he had achieved seems utterly implausible.

Have you seen the lists of “mortal oscillatory frequencies” available out there? For example this one? It’s extraordinary how such entirely delusional bodies of ‘information’ are built up like this.

Lo Nilsson – as there is no plausible explanation for how such a homeopathic cure could have any benefit, no evidence to date that it has, and no real justification for the formula, why is it worth the expense and considerable risk to investigate?

As good a place as any, I suppose.

“Between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., Xavier would exchange a few words with each of the attendees in the queue. After 6 p.m., Xavier would go to a small room at the back of the spiritist center with two assistants.” …

“He would stay there until approximately 12 midnight writing homeopathic prescriptions along with brief spiritual advice, which were then handed to the attendees. These prescriptions and messages were allegedly authored by the spirits of physicians who communicated via Xavier’s ‘psychography’.”

Robert O Young weighed in last week on his blog about Ebola.

I strongly suspect that the transmission of the Constipation Letters from San Quentin* aren’t going to provide much scrip.

* Yah, I know.

According Wikiwel there are several cures for Ebola : Garcinia Kola, Colloiodal silver, Yu Ping Feng Pian,…

Most great inventions and discoveries happened to take place through coincidences or by some misstakes in normal procedures.

Not really, no. Those are just the ones that make the best stories.

So one should not limit the possiblilities in any way.

Really? In any way? So we shouldn’t, for example, let these “investigations” you’re calling for be limited by a little thing like the ethics of testing a treatment that’s extremely unlikely to work on people who have a potentially fatal illness?

@Denise – Jake seems to not have liked my last post (it vanished from moderation) calling out one of his regular commenters (whiterose) for her accusations of genocide and blatant misunderstanding of things like biology, history and public health.

@ Lawrence:

I thought he frowned upon AoA’s policy of moderating critics out of the conversations?

@Denise – I guess “how dare I question a person who routinely compares the vaccine program to the holocaust & genocide?”

Jake seems to have developed quite a following among the “reality-challenged.”

New readers of RI may not know but – believe it or not- several years ago, yours truly attempted to talk sense to Jake by questioning his belief in conspiracy theories that required a Rube Goldberg conglomeration of studied malfeasance by thousands of cheaters rather than one guy who massaged data AND about how his anti-vax activities on the internet ( then, he was AoA) were like painting himself into a corner when he entered the real life world of professionalism and employment because most people would not either accept his stance or his manner of exposition.

What I didn’t mention is that because of his writing, his abilities ( or lack thereof) would be on public display to potential employers and university administrators.

Needless to say, my several days of effort for his benefit bore no fruit. However I do not, because of my failure in that instance, doubt my powers to assist students. He is the exception to the rule that we all encounter from time to time.

Rima Laibow has written to the heads of a number of African nations to tell them all about her wonderful nano-silver for Ebola. Can somebody just pull her license?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TWWTM/permalink/10152451820667779/

The FB leads to this link with the same letter
http://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/producer-of-possible-ebola-cure-nano-silver-writes-to-president-jonathan.88398/

Rima Laibow has written to the heads of a number of African nations to tell them all about her wonderful nano-silver for Ebola.

The Pravda story linked by Brook is hilarious:

“Dr. Laibow could not be reached for comment. On Friday afternoon, after The New York Times emailed her a series of questions, two of her websites briefly became unavailable, then reappeared with headlines saying they were ‘under attack’ and directing readers to other sites selling a different product, Silver Solution.”

Hey, that reminds me of something…. YES! Jim Stone was on this nonsense over two weeks ago:

“MY COMMENT: I may not be a doctor, but I am awful good with medical topics, and this rings 100 percent true, IT IS THE MOA which if combined with some of my medical knowledge, such as the fact that Broccoli is absolutely excellent for assisting the clotting of blood, that the active component of Noni (which is in pineapple juice) is strongly anti viral, and that cures such as colloidal silver, while good for bacterial infections does nothing for viruses, combine some real knowledge with what this doctor says and it is highly probable that Ebola can be shrugged off as a mild case of scurvy.

“Beware the current Colloidal Silver psy op, the actual cure for Ebola has been given to this web site.”

So, the takeaway message from Jim Stone is, don’t listen to the crazy doctor and her nano silver Ebola virus prevention/cure…listen to me…the wacky pretend doctor.

Reading that sh!t on the internet will rot your brain.

Making fun of the quackery surrounding Ebola virus prevention and transmission, is, IMO, a public service, so that those who reside in those countries which have outbreaks, might think twice before they try bogus medicines to prevent transmission. We are still dealing with folk medicine and tradition, where family members prepare their dead kinfolk for burial following a death from any cause.

People can be incredibly cruel about suicidal deaths, which I have a hard time accepting. I wasn’t a huge fan of Robin Williams, but rehashing the circumstances of his death strikes me as cold and unfeeling…especially for his close friends and for his family.

@ lilady:

Reading woo-drenched tripe wiil not “rot your brain”. Trust me.
HOWEVER it will often cause you to explode into gales of laughter and uninformed observers might think you mad.

“… it is highly probable that Ebola can be shrugged off as a mild case of scurvy.”

Someone seriously said that? When hundreds have died and are dying of Ebola?

Words fail me.

Cancerkiller,

Your miracle obviously hasn’t cured your mental illness and delusions. You are a certified lunatic.

Stop spamming these science blogs comments with your idiotic bullsh!t. Do you think anyone reading this blog believes you?

Better still, just drop dead, idiot. I’m sick of dealing with a$$holes like you who pretend to have a “cure” if the price is right.

On a lighter note, I read both of the blog entries cited, and I’ve never seen such profound misunderstandings of the way the world works.

To disclose the incredible Virus and Cancer Killer (the greatest discovery in more than 2 million years of humankind on the planet) to everybody, the world leaders gotta pay me 2,25 trillion bucks – the amount of money can be negotiated with each country in the world.

Cancerkiller, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable price at all for all you say you can do. However, as a show of good faith and a demonstration of efficacy, would you first cure Ebola? I have no doubt that global leaders will write cheques to you immediately upon accomplishing this small task.

Is Kevin Worldsaviour / Cancerkiller just another waste-of-skin sh1tweasel spammer? Google says Yes!

Dear Cancerkiller,

Get help. Please. Or at least provide verifiable evidence that what you are selling actually works.

Everybody should know that only the Personal Virus and Cancer Killer can save the human civilization.

So what you are saying then is that these are one in the same product and we can’t have a demonstration of just one aspect? Shucks.

Look, everyone, if you buy my discovery, you will stay absolutely healthy all the time, you will not feel cold like you did before you started doing it (for just a minute a day), you will be able to wear significantly less clothes, at winter time you will not have to switch on the heating of your home, you will never again buy drugs, see a doctor or hospital, undergo any surgery for tens of thousands of bucks, etc. You will possess the Iron Constitution, that’s been just a dream of everybody for more than 2 million years of humankind on Earth.

“Chris, you can rest assured – The Personal Virus and Cancer Killer works 100%”

Prove it.

I have stated my proofs clear enough.

“I have stated my proofs clear enough.”

Not to our satisfaction. You posted nothing but boasts and requests for cash, not evidence. Until we see verifiable evidence you can do has you say, you have nothing. So just go away…

… and get real help to deal with your delusions.

By the way, Galileo Galilei was not sent to a “stake.” He was put under house arrest for what he actually published. So what have you published? Some promises and demands for cash? That is literally nothing

So get some real psychiatric help.

“I have stated my proofs clear enough.”

In fact you have provided nothing but assertion. Your claim is so silly that I simple do not believe it.

More useless assertions and some abuse. Abuse is the last resort of those with no arguments.

CK: You mixed up ebola and AIDs, bub. You also don’t understand what hospitals are- they’re places to get well, not sicker.

@Cancerkiller,

Can we get a double your money back guarantee on the 2.5 trillion.

First person that gets cancer or any infectious disease after doing your exercise every day for a month and you pay it all back 2X over.

I mean if it is such a sure shot you aren’t taking any risks.

All of you are like the members of the Inquisition who sent Galileo Galiley to the stake when he discovered that the Earth is rotating.

Are you actually trolling? Because that’s the wrongest version of the Galileo Gambit that I’ve ever heard.

1) Galileo was never sent to the stake. He ultimately got house arrest for “vehement suspicion of heresy”, and died of natural causes at the age of 77. He was allowed to continue his work while in confinement, but the specific work that got him trouble was banned.

2) His arrest was more political than anything else; he managed to piss off powerful people within the church who had been debating various points pertaining to astronomy, and the last straw was some very unwise (and maybe unintentional) slandering of the Pope in his book debating the heliocentric versus geocentric world views. Notably, his contemporary Johannes Kepler faced no difficulties when he proposed his heliocentric solution (which, BTW, Galileo had rejected; Kepler solved the problem by working out that orbits are elliptical, which Galileo found aesthetically unpleasing — this left Galileo with no proof of his conjecture).

3) The church didn’t really have a problem with heliocentrism. They just wanted proof before accepting it, which is actually pretty reasonable, considering. Debate on the topic was widespread and accepted. The problem was when the pride of various individuals was pricked.

4) He didn’t prove that the Earth rotates. Everybody already knew that, actually. The argument was about its *position* relative to the center of the universe. He also advanced the idea that the fixed stars were not truly fixed to a vast celestial sphere but were instead sprinkled through space, moving too slowly to be noticed, but his equipment did not have sufficient precision to prove this. He tried very hard, though.

Ebola virus destroys the immune system, but the Virus and Cancer Killer does not admit it into the body, for the virus is killed the moment it touches the human body

There you go, the basis of a simple and reliable clinical trial, one that could actually be ethically conducted because it would not place anyone at risk.

Three cohorts, one of which deos your cancer killer exercise for one minute a day, one of which does a sham cancer killer exercise for one minute a day, and one of which does not exercise. After 30 days we apply a solution of an attenuated virus to their skin, wait 30 minutes, then swab the application spot and attempt to recover live virus in vitro.

If no live virus is recovered from any member of the genuine cancer killer cohort but is recovered from every member of the sham-exercise cohort you’ve proven efficacy.

Of course, there’d have to be appropriate blinds–neither the subjects not those applying/reculturing the virus would know which cohort the subjects were part of.

I’d say a small sample size would do for start–say 50 subjects in each cohort?

Get back to us when ths ahs been done and credibly documented. Hey–it’s a very small bar to meet when you’re looking at a trillion dollar pay-off.

Delusional loon: “Look, Chris, your disbelief is your problem ”

Then prove us wrong, post your evidence.

Look, all of you, I can see you don’t believe what I am saying, but in fact the Virus/Cancer Killer kills any pathogens of which the viruses are the most infectious and bacteria and germs are much weaker, you should know that. The Virus/Cancer Killer prevents you 100% from getting sick of any infections, any cancers, diabetes and strokes – the major and most dangerous diseases known on Earth, but I can see you don’t pay any attention to that and just jabber shucks.

FYI I cannot test positive for any viruses, for my body kills any infectious critters the moment they touch me – you should have understood that already, chump.

” for my body kills any infectious critters the moment they touch me –”

Prove it.

My conclusion about you is that you just want to remain walking hospitals and by no means to become absolutely healthy all the time, all your extended lives – extended, because bodies that don’t fight any diseases at all live much longer. Suit yourself.

Poor CancerKiller. His body kills all bacteria the moment they come into contact. He must have a terrible time with his digestive tract, in that case, robbed as it would be of all its commensal bacteria. I presume also that he has a crippling vitamin B12 deficiency, given that he has none of the bacteria that normally manufacture it for us. I wonder if this absence of gut flora has caused his digestive tract to completely shut down; it might explain why he appears to be completely full of feces.

3.5 trillion should buy a lot of sharks with lasers on their heads.

Cancerkiller, why would anybody pay you so much money when I’m offering anyone the exact same treatment as you for only $100! Don’t think it’s the same as yours? Just give me the cash and I’ll tell you what it is, then you’ll see!

Suit yourself.

Country garland in the wind and the rain
Wherever he goes the people all complain

“my discovery is so effective that it is light years ahead of any ancient and modern medical achievements ”

Prove it.

Chris, I myself am the proof – I cannot get sick of any infections, any cancers, diabetes and strokes – no way – I am the healthiest person on the planet – not for nothing the Virus/Cancer Killer is the greatest discovery in more than 2 million years of humankind on the planet.

“Chris, I myself am the proof ”

Except we don’t believe you, because there is more proof that you are either a liar or delusional.

Virus/Cancer Killer is the greatest discovery in more than 2 million years of humankind on the planet.

See, this is your problem: You just plain don’t understand numbers. It’s no surprise that you’ll never succeed in business.

Note that this a hard currency offer!

I suspect Zeus is rather pleased he never got sick of a flue, although being a god he could just turn into a swan and fly away.

I do like the argument that because an imaginary being never got sick, this magic must work. It is one of the stronger arguments I have seen to date.

I’ll get in on the fun.

Cancerkiller, you are doing the whole thing wrong. No one here has any power to pay you the money. You need to go to national TV with that, secure a spot on a talkshow or two. Than throw down the challenge to all those stupid unbelivers – have them bring you ebola virus and inject it into your body. Think how much egg will they have on their faces when you remain perfectly healthy! And all of this watched live by people around the globe.

Afterwards you’ll get the money easily. Because lets be honest, how much could we give you collectively here, on RI? I’d say being the deadbeats we are we probably could cough up about 2.50$. Not very impressive.

And I stress – you need not reveal how you achieved that before getting money. But you need better marketing strategy, to go out there and knock people off their legs with your godlike immunity. Just posting about it is not spectacular enough.

How sure are we that CK isn’t a Poe?

I’d say “pretty damn sure.”

In any case, becoming equal to Gods (at least never getting sick of any diseases known on the planet all the time, all life long) has its price.

Well then I guess my Poe-detector needs calibrated, because it went off for that over-the-top first post of its at 98. I mean, guaranteeing that the airline industry will run on time? That can’t be done short of a pact with Satan.

Woo Fighter, I cannot drop down to your stupid level of reasoning, for you are simply a nit.

I must say I’m amused by someone accusing those who refuse to believe his extraordinary claims without a shred of evidence of being stupid. However, I always feel a little uncomfortable when someone with apparent serious mental health issues lands here.

not a single date, not a single day at work, if you are a singer you will never postpone your concerts and shows, etc. What do you think about that?

I’m married, like to miss work and don’t sing.

Seems like you are a great individualist, Science Mom.

you will be the second healthiest person on the planet for the rest your extended life.

Wait, i’m confused! Wouldn’t you two be tied for healthiest person? Or does one have to pay double for the full version, which will make us as healthy as you?

Also, if people aren’t immortal after your method, what exactly do they die of?

No Todd, such information is normally shared in private.

@CancerKiller

I can find plenty of online purveyors of goods and services that provide their information online so that interested customers can buy said goods and services. Unless, of course, you’re not a legitimate business, in which case I can understand your not wanting to divulge that information.

AdamG, I will of course die of what everybody normally dies – of age

Old age is not an actual cause of death. People become more likely to succumb to illnesses as they age but death doesn’t just suddenly happen with no proximate cause.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_causes

So again, since you’re not immortal, what specific diseases or conditions are likely cause your death at the advanced age of >160?

When I am 160 probably I will know and I will tell you, if you are still alive.

By cleaning the body of any viruses that the immune system constantly kills, the oxygen content of the blood increases and every cell of the human body receives more oxygen that prevents cancer as well as being very useful for the heart muscle cells, so no heart disease will develop at all. Apart from that, doing the Virus/Cancer Killer you will not have to switch on the heating of your home in winter at all, for you will not feel any cold even at outside air temperatures rather much below the zero. And if everybody does not heat his home, imagine how much energy will be spared – billions of tons of fuels (and the air we breathe will stay much cleaner), billions of megawatts of electricity, etc. You see, the discovery will be more useful to all of us than we can imagine.

…the oxygen content of the blood increases and every cell of the human body receives more oxygen that prevents cancer as well…

It seems to me that if there is more O2, there will be more oxidative stress, which is well known to cause cancer, hence the guidelines to increase intake of anti-oxidants.

exactly the lack of oxygen in the cells is the major cause of cancer

Do you have any sources to confirm this? Because most of the actual science says the opposite, that oxidative stress (high levels of Reactive Oxygen Species) actually causes cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990475/

I’m beginning to be concerned that you don’t understand any cancer biology, cancerkiller. Or really any biology, actually. In your own words, what’s the difference between a cancer cell and a normal cell?

Alright, mind your own business, if I was talking to walls, they would understand me better than you do.

I have decided to do the Mashed Potato rather than the Cancerkiller because it is a) more fun and b) tasty with gravy.

STUPIDS ARE INVINCIBLE!

I’d say this is accurate, given your claim of invincibility.

Cancerkiller,

Since viral infections, bacterial infections and cancer have very different modes of operation, there is no simple way of evading them. No one has a perfect immune system, or perfect DNA repair mechanisms, and there is no exercise that could possibly make them so. If you are exposed to a pathogen that you are not immune to, you will get sick just like anyone else. If the right bits of your DNA are damaged and not perfectly repaired, you will develop cancer.

You should seriously consider the possibility that your apparent invulnerability to disease and inability to feel the cold may be symptoms of a serious illness. Bipolar disorder springs to mind as one possibility – I have known people with this condition who have disrobed in freezing conditions, with no apparent discomfort. Some thyroid disorders can cause similar symptoms – both cold tolerance and delusions. Do you find you require less sleep too?

I strongly advise you to see a doctor and explain to them your beliefs about your discovery. At the very least let them check you over to see if you are really as healthy as you think you are. Please seek help before you hurt yourself or someone else.

Cancerkiller has to be a poe surely?

Science Mom, when you go to a shop, you first pay the money and only after that you can take the commodity. I cannot apply the Personal Virus and Cancer Killer, for being just an easy exercise it will spread around the world like the explosion of a nuke. And nobody will pay me any money – I cannot trust the politicians. Everybody should know that only the Personal Virus and Cancer Killer can save the human civilization.

Not true. In many fields people are requested to pay a deposit with the remainder to be delivered on satisfactory completion of the task. This works well because if you are wary of not being paid, you have a financial incentive from the client to continue and they are more satisfied that you will deliver what is promised. I have no doubt people would be willing to pay a percentage of your asking price, say 10%, to cure the same percentage of affected people. If it works, they would gladly hand over the rest of the money for cures for everyone else. Heck, you wouldn’t even need to reveal *how* it works, just that it does. You don’t need to prove that it works at all before being paid, that’s the point of a deposit. Get some money upfront then just do what you say you can do and get the rest later. You could add in milestone payments so you’re not waiting until the end but getting a steady stream of money as you cure more and more people. You can even sneak in some stuff about no returns or refunds (common in cases where payment is for non-returnable things like digital items and knowledge, which is more legit than it sounds).

You could even add a non-disclosure clause to a payment contract so nobody reveals your secret – it’s a win/win. If someone breaks the disclosure clause you sue, you win, more money for you. You win again even if someone tells. Proprietary tech? Get a patent. Can’t get a patent, doesn’t matter you can still be known as the inventor and get a Nobel, be known as the saviour, the saint of good health – win again for you. Geez, imagine being rich, famous, righteous all at the same time. … All for a mere piddly down payment with the full fee on completion!

All you need is a lawyer to write up the contract and some way to present it, like a website or a phone call to the UN or something. In fact a lot of freelancers out there do it so all you’d need is the contract and a website and some marketing. No need to cure everyone at once and with that non-disclosure clause you can just cure individuals at a reasonably high rate, deposit on signing the agreement, full payment after you’ve taught them this exercise.

No Todd, such information is normally shared in private.

Tell that to the tens of thousands of people who sell online, especially freelancers. Um, this IS a poe, right? Nobody using blog comments can be that obtuse. Todd W is right only salespeople who are frauds hide their contact info. Write up a contract and sign it, post it to Todd to sign, have a copy each, send him an invoice, Todd pays a deposit, you teach him the cure, he pays the rest. Done. Easy. Use dropbox and paypal if you need to.

All of you are like the members of the Inquisition who sent Galileo Galiley to the stake when he discovered that the Earth is rotating.

Not only wrong about the stake but… You do know that earth rotation was figured out *long* before that, right? Like, in the 4th century BCE? Maybe you meant ‘revolve’, but even that would be wrong. See #127.

Nothing on Earth compares to my “assertion”, that is by far more powerful than the immune system itself, keeping it intact all the time.

Reminds of that old line about how if the lie is big enough people will believe it. I guess Cancerkiller thinks that if the claim is extraordinary enough, people shouldn’t demand evidence.

@PGP

Flip: I’ve been away, but I hope you’re feeling better.

I am a bit. It’s touch and go. Thank you for your concern, it means a lot to have people – even if they’re just fellow commenters – think of me.

I know it’s off topic but can I just say I hate public discussions about mental illness? Not a single one of them lead to anything concrete getting done and quite a few of them (see media prattle after every single mass shooting) actually increase the stigma of mental illness.

Actually I’ve found that a lot of the time it spurs rebuttals of the usual tropes. For one example there was a large argument on one news report after one religious person attempted to argue that Williams’ death was a “murder” because suicide is a sin and Williams’ wife ‘aided’ (through neglect). That’s pretty offensive and if argued here the commenter would have been royally kicked about with data about mental health issues. For myself, his death was a wake up call to seek more support from my family – which I have received since.

Maybe nothing gets done on a larger scale but there are plenty of people out there sharing and discussing and attempting to move the stigma away on a smaller more intimate level.

Actually the private conversations I have had with numerous people recently suggest to me that a far more worrying problem is the amount of people who: offer unsolicited armchair advice about a medical issue; run towards ‘natural’ ‘lifestyle’ suggestions for change; and accommodate woo (meditation seems to be a gateway point) for mental health treatment. From fellow sufferers to (to borrow a term) neurotypicals alike. More discussion is needed of the science behind psychology and proper treatments, not less.

Speaking of stigma…

Your miracle obviously hasn’t cured your mental illness and delusions. You are a certified lunatic.

Woo fighter, that doesn’t exactly help. You can be mentally ill and not believe in woo you know.

Better still, just drop dead, idiot. I’m sick of dealing with a$$holes like you who pretend to have a “cure” if the price is right.

No, really that doesn’t help.

Cancerkiller has to be a poe surely?
With all his new-found abilities and fully-potentiated metabolism, it is sad that he has nothing better to do than hang around trolling skeptic websites.

every cell of the human body receives more oxygen that prevents cancer as well as being very useful for the heart muscle cells, so no heart disease will develop at all
You would think that some evidence for this would have emerged from all the research with hyperbaric chambers.

Is. To. Consider. This. As. Prolegomenon.

Look, Krebiozy, I am untouchable for any diseases, known on Earth, because the Virus/Cancer Killer is by far more powerful than the human immune system, keeping it intact all the time. And the Great Killer that does the great job for me is ITS GREATNESS – THE OXYGEN – the greatest killer of any infectious critters in the Universe – that’s why I got the healthiest body in the Universe – regardless of your “esteemed knowledge” about everything – your “knowledge” is equal to merely nothing, but you feel very comfortable within its realm.

I guarantee 100% that everybody will forget about any diseases, drugs, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, etc.

What action will you take if people don’t forget abut any diseases, drugs, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, etc.? What backs up your guarantee? What prevents you from not answering the phone after you receive payment?

My offer of US$0.37 still stands, though if it proves out I may be able to scrape up another $0.37 later to pay for my wife’s share.

@210, Cancerkiller

I guess you missed the bit about non-disclosure clauses and upfront deposits. You clearly have no experience running a business, you can’t market let alone come up with a practical plan to sell your ‘cure’. My guess is if you’re not a poe, you have deliberately set the bar so high that nobody would ever be able to meet your terms.

All the better for your smug hubris, right?

@ Flip:

I’m glad you’re doing a little better. It’s not easy. I am certainly not immune and have had quite a few lows myself.

I’ve tried to build up a repetoire of actvities that seem to have helped in the past: exercise, talking to someone, not breaking my schedule, trying to fix things at home, pretending I’m all right even if I’m not ( sometimes you wind up feeling better), having recreational activities that involve a great expenditure of excess energy ( reading, art work).

I hope you continue to improve. It might be useful to try to figure out if there is a time element involved: do your lows last a month or more? Do they follow particular events in your life or not? Insight into patterns might help you through worse times.

Let everybody know that once and for all – I GOT NO LOWS, I AM IN PERFECT PHYSICAL CONDITION ALL THE TIME, I CANNOT GET SICK OF ANY DISEASES, KNOWN ON EARTH, YOUR THEORIZING ABOUT ME IS JUST AN IDIOTIC HELPLESSNESS, YOU ENVY ME TOO MUCH TO STAY QUIET, BECAUSE YOU DAMN WELL KNOW THAT I AM LIGHT YEARS AHEAD OF EVERYBODY ON THE PLANET, THANKS TO MY DISCOVERY THAT DESERVES 2,25 TRILLION BUCKS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO BE LIKE ME, BUT YOU DON’T DESERVE MY ATTENTION ANY MORE! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

I CANNOT GET SICK OF ANY DISEASES

If this is actually true, then you’re a terrible person, because you could easily travel to West Africa and prevent a lot of needless suffering. So you’re either delusional, a liar, or a monster. Take your pick!

Cancerkiller – I don’t understand the attitude. Based on my calculation of my net worth as a percentage of the total net worth of everyone on the plane, I figure that if the governments of the world gave you $2.25Trillion my fair share would be $0.37. Which I’m willing to give you in exchange for the secret. However, I cannot in good faith do this if I don’t know what your guarantee is worth – while I certainly would like to trust you, it would be silly to invest $0.37 like that without the ability to inspect the merchandise and get a refund it it doesn’t match the advertising or recourse if you don’t follow through.

Let everybody know that once and for all – I GOT NO LOWS, I AM IN PERFECT PHYSICAL CONDITION ALL THE TIME

Did anyone ask whether you had “lows”? Did you mention this in antonymy to something? Have you ever noticed that your poorly thought out supranational demands for various amounts of cash seem to appear in bursts?

Guineapig, please don’t be so sure about my winter experience. I wrote not for nothing that at winter air temperature of 5F I walk around town clad just in my summer shorts and T-shirt for hours and people are extremely surprised, they ask me how come I am not cold at all, while they are freezing in their very thick winter clothes, to which I just say that everybody is different. Many times they take pictures with me on the background of snow drifts and ice in the streets. I also swim in the winter sea at sea water temperature 41F for 10 – 15 minutes, but in both cases I simply cannot get sick, my body is kept warm enough by my doing the Virus/Cancer Killer for a minute a day. What is more, I was actually very easy to catch colds, sometimes flues, getting high body temperature, staying at home and in bed with the nasty running nose, etc., you know how it is when you are sick. Since I started doing this simple exercise for nearly 5 years now, I never got sick of the so called winter or summer flue – I have erased any diseases from my life once once for all. I can disclose my discovery to everybody, but first I guess I gotta be paid for this silver bullet, or Panacea (already not just a myth), maybe the aliens have this knowledge of mine, who knows, but already we, terrestrials, can be equal to the extraterrestrials, regarding the iron constitution.

Just go away CK

Wait, he already did:

YOU DON’T DESERVE MY ATTENTION ANY MORE! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

I guess the V/CK “iron constitution” doesn’t do anything about flabby willpower.

@Denice

I’m glad you’re doing a little better. It’s not easy. I am certainly not immune and have had quite a few lows myself.
I’ve tried to build up a repetoire of actvities that seem to have helped in the past: exercise, talking to someone, not breaking my schedule, trying to fix things at home, pretending I’m all right even if I’m not ( sometimes you wind up feeling better), having recreational activities that involve a great expenditure of excess energy ( reading, art work).

Yes normally I do have activities. At the moment though I am severely restrained financially, *extremely* bored, without friends (and therefore people to talk to or do things with) and career-wise am at a dead end. Part of the problem right now is not having any interest in anything and so on the financial/career front I am utterly stuck. One big thing is that I am pretty sure that I am undiagnosed schizoid/scizotypal, which is a new idea to me. I am really tired of having to try to figure out a way to be ‘here’ when I don’t want to be. Does that make sense?

I hope you continue to improve. It might be useful to try to figure out if there is a time element involved: do your lows last a month or more? Do they follow particular events in your life or not? Insight into patterns might help you through worse times.

Yes, mostly triggered by external events outside my control. Pattern matching is not something I have trouble with, I more have issues seeing a point to continuing when there is little to look forward to, a lack of support, and no activity that is ‘worth’ the effort. See above. In particular I am most frustrated with this ‘distract yourself’ idea, because all it does is push the problem further down the road – and my version of distracting myself is to isolate myself further.

I did try to get out and about this weekend but it only served to remind me that even among people like me, I am not comfortable or interested in what the world has to offer.

This ties in with a lot of my career stuff actually, which is why it is easier to talk privately as a lot of the details thread together in a way that makes some of my issues make more sense.

Thanks for listening 🙂

@ Flip:
What you’re doing- mostly alone- isn’t easy.

Whether you have symptoms more in line with a dx of schizotypal/ schizoid isn’t so important UNLESS if you are seeking more apropo meds or if you want purely to understand it more.

It is important at the moment because I find it very hard not to feel anxious in the ‘real world’. I call it a sense of disphoria; not a feeling that I don’t belong in my body, but that I don’t belong in this *life*. It makes it very hard to be motivated to go and do things when everything seems *wrong*. It’s a feeling I’ve always had but it’s harder to ignore now when I have so much less to look forward to. I am finding it *extremely* difficult to pull out of the imagined world, or at least find being in the RL not worth my time. Normally it’s not as bad as that but recently went through some stuff which kind of f***d up my thinking. Anyway the sum of it is that combined with below I feel I am stuck. That and the disphoria makes me feel crushingly lonely, even ignoring the current isolation from people and work.

Actually, did you ever think about getting help with additional education and/ or training in order to acquire more secure/ rewarding work? I don’t know about governmental programmes ( in NSW, is it?) but surely there must be something if you are not earning much and are living on your own ( or with minimal family assistance).

Sigh… This is again why talking on generalities doesn’t work. I am in a highly specialised area at the moment. This limits the opportunities I have, the training I can obtain, the money I can earn and the connections I can make. (It helps to mention I am in the arts, which is far less financially profitable than it is in the US as well as having far fewer full time paying jobs)

I gaveup on my dream job years ago for similar reasons and took ‘normal jobs’ which have severely sidetracked me into work which I am neither interested in nor trained for.

Re-education in another field or even the one I am in is difficult as I don’t have the money (government subsidies wouldn’t get me very far, I’d still need a job or financial support while I studied) and don’t particularly have any strong interest in anything to make a career out of it. It would also be my third attempt at changing careers, or at least having a ‘backup’. It’s really not as easy as saying “just change jobs” because that’s what I did and it only made me miserable. Going back to what I was doing isn’t easy as I struggled to obtain regular work in the first place. Working for myself has always been the most plausible possibility, but as I said, it’s very specialised and not easy to make money on it full time without further resources.

The issues for me have never been lack of skills. For whatever reason I just never make it past the door. It’s I guess that I don’t match up to other people’s experience or qualifications. That and I am not the most personable face-to-face. I assure you I have spent the last decade trying different things and different areas and different approaches to work. I have run out of ideas and most people can only suggest what I have already tried.

Like I said, if you knew what the specifics were, it would make more sense. It’s like saying I am only one of a hundred people who do figure skating full time. Something like that just doesn’t need magical educational upgrades or government support, it’s just a really small area to work in and so opportunities are limited. Filling my days with work just to get a pay check isn’t me, in fact it also makes me miserable. I can’t give myself emotionally to two jobs at once, I’ve tried. This isn’t someone who needs help continuing a career or changing one: I never had a career to begin with, and I’ve basically not had any kind of stable job (in any one area) for more than a year. My issues go far deeper than your average job hunter and that’s part of the frustration, that there’s been no one interested in tackling those underlying glass ceilings. Everyone sort of assumes that all you do is get some training and apply for a job, but for whatever reason that’s never been how it worked for me.

I know that AUS is often thought of as a socialist paradise but that in reality, social services aren’t especially wonderful. Ar any rate,I wish you better days ahead.

Thanks, I appreciate it. And yeah, I have stories about the crappy system. All bad.

PS. I know I sound all doom and gloom. The problem is that by the time I’ve thought about it, I feel like “why isn’t it done yet?” I can come up with a lot of ideas but it assumes that other people will help/hire/participate. I do have one idea for future plans but it’s a mountain in terms of making it happen and I just don’t know whether it’s right for me let alone practical or plausible. I can’t afford to spend money re-training or whatever only for it to fail. Financially and emotionally that’s too high a cost to take a chance on. I have to find the right fit first, not leap into whatever. So to sum: small hope, but not much of one.

PPS. Thanks again for reading.

@shailendra

Then please provide the evidence, since homeopathy goes against many of the laws of chemistry and physics.

Angela A. Dockter must know what she’s talking about. I mean, her name sounds like Doctor!

/snark

@Catherine – since “nano-technology” has only existed for a couple of decades & is still very much an undeveloped area of research, how exactly did “homeopaths” make use of it 250 years ago?

And what did banging the dilution against a Bible have to do with it?

There is ZERO proof that homeopathy is anything but water….

c: “If those who believe homeopathy is quackery took the time to really study what it is all about ,they would understand that it is a valid science and needs proper training to produce successful results in treating either people or animals.”

Andre Saine says homeopathy works better for rabies than the modern vaccine. If it is a valid science then you can produce the PubMed indexed studies showing that it works in animal testing.

So prove Andre Saine’s contention, post the PubMed Identification Numbers to those studies.

@c – given that homeopathy violates a large number of physical laws, I’d say you are as full of crap as it is.

“there are reputable homeopathic labs in canada, usa, Germany, france, etc. that could make a viable homeopathic remedy(s) from the ebola virus(s).”

I’m sure they’re eager for the business. Why not drop them a line and ask where to send the specimens? 😉

Out of curiosity, how often are homeopaths struck off the register and disqualified for their lack of proper training (as shown by their failure “to produce successful results” ?

.

Well that is what I asked for…

I predict either:
a) crickets or
b) a gishgallop of references, none of which are remotely convincing individually, but that are supposed to impress through their sheer volume.

Krebiozen – I have 2 pounds on crickets (I’ve got 3 pounds 78 pence sitting on my desk right now).

do you know what happens when you are groggy and glutted on thanksgiving dinner? you go on your computer , read something that makes you grumpy, and unwisely post a comment on a blog that gets other people wanting to tear your every word apart or prove your beliefs. Is this how all blogs work? post a comment, everyone attack, try to defend, attack, so on and so on , never a good enough answer and scorned forever? you know what they say about a woman scorned, oops different connotation.
think i’m out my league with all your chem. and physics degrees, etc. when my only interests in high school were biology, history, boys and partying, not necessarily in that order. then somehow ended up in a business program in college. I may be full of crap but would really like to know how Lawrence knows I’ve been constipated for a couple
of days. Maybe someone will be kind enough to send me
some dark chocolate fudge brownies laced with exlax.
I am not a liar though. I believe homeopathy works from personal experience, and seeing family and friends health problems either cured or improved from using homeopathic remedies.
If people I trusted and respected informed me that a certain regular medical doctor did not know how to do his job
I would go to a doctor with good rep. instead. The same with
a homeopathic doctor. a homeopathic doctor would not need to be struck off the register, no positive results equals no patients because they very quickly move on to someone else who can do better-whether that is a regular doctor or another homeopathic one.
Sorry TBruce if you think I was insulting your chem.
knowledge, not intending to, have a much loved family
member who is a fourth year chem. major, who has taken homeop. rem.’s and knows they work,and could probably explain it better than I can. also was miffed when my computer (all on its own) capitalised Germany, honestly it just did it again-why??? does it keep putting caps. on that country!!
c is the first letter of my name.
If you took a selection of different drugs(allopathic) and made them all into pills or liquid that looked and smelled the same, etc., to the naked eye or other senses, could you tell them apart- wouldn’t you have to take them to a lab to be analyzed? Will admit I personally do not know what labs can analyze homeopathics, however I am not a doctor or a scientist. just used homeopathics with good results.
D. Bacon, said I believed homeopathic remedies work, but not 100% of the time on 100% of the people for whatever health problem/disease for various reasons, therefore as I do not have access to necessary precautions needed when dealing with any deadly virus ,I no more want to get near one than you do. If I was trained in dealing with biohazardous materals with the proper equipment and authority I would take a minute sample to a reputable lab, however I’m not totally crazy, I would not go to Africa right now where they have ebola. Hope and pray to GOD that I won’t need to test by taking which homeopathic remedies will work for it or have the expense of visiting a homeopath who does voll testing for it , not covered under health care now. okay, time to tear me apart again, sorry if I missed anyone’s question/comment and ahead of time for what you may feel are unsatisfactory answers.

c,

a homeopathic doctor would not need to be struck off the register, no positive results equals no patients because they very quickly move on to someone else who can do better-whether that is a regular doctor or another homeopathic one.

Sadly, the average patient doesn’t have the time or information to determine how good a doctor or homeopath is. These kinds of decisions are often made based on their manner, how they interact with their patients, how responsive they are, and those kinds of things rather than actual results. People will use the same doctor (or homeopath) for years even though that person may not be doing anything useful and the treatments are either not useful or actively harmful. You don’t see the totality of the person’s results, only your personal interactions (or the interactions with people you know). In the case of a doctor you have organizations that are supposed to pay attention and who will see issues that you cannot; for homeopaths, not so much.

This is not unique to the medical world, you can find examples all over. Bernard Madoff was able to maintain a Ponzi scheme for more than 10 years. There are astrologers and psychics who make a good living over a career, never once being able to actually talk to the dead or predict the future.

a homeopathic doctor would not need to be struck off the register, no positive results equals no patients because they very quickly move on to someone else who can do better-whether that is a regular doctor or another homeopathic one.

This also serves as a good argument against licensing or certifying homeopaths in the first place.

“…member who is a fourth year chem. major, who has taken homeop. rem.’s and knows they work,and could probably explain it better than I can …”

I call BS on this. No way any “fourth year chem. major” would believe in homeopathy. They could explain it, but it wouldn’t be an explanation in favour of homeopathy.

reputable homeopathic labs

That’s an oxymoron I haven’t seen before.

I believe homeopathy works from personal experience, and seeing family and friends health problems either cured or improved from using homeopathic remedies.

I don’t dispute that you believe this, c, but I dispute that you’re correct to do so.

Direct question; how exactly did you factually establish the improvement in your and your family and friends’ health problems was actually due to the use of homeopathic remedies, rather than some other mechanism (self-limiting illness, regression to the mean, confirmation bias, placebo effect, etc.)? It’s on some basis other than a post hoc ergo procter hoc logical fallacy, I trust.

reputable homeopathic labs

That’s an oxymoron I haven’t seen before.

You wouldn’t want to accidentally get something that they didn’t put the wrong ingredient in, would you? That’s the kind of thing you don’t want to mess around with!

And I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the shadier homeopathic labs cut corners by watering down their products. The really disreputable “homeopathic labs” just sell plain sugar pills, with no active ingredients not put in them!

C: do you know what happens when you are groggy and glutted on thanksgiving dinner?

Er, yes, but I’ve never timetraveled after a turkey dinner either. Perhaps that might be a cause of your grumpiness?

“There’s a few people in West Africa who could use some fearless assistance. What are you waiting for?

I know you jest, but fools who think “there is no fear of Ebola” are likely to turn out to be horrendous spreaders of disease. Were it up to me, they’d be banned from being within a megametre of known Ebola patient. I’d hose ’em down with 4% formaldehyde if they’d been near something relatively easy to cure, like a Y. pestis>/i> infection.