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While a grant deadline distracts Orac, create your own Insolence! Open thread time!

For the last few days, real life concerns over keeping his lab funded have shockingly interfered with Orac’s blogging. Being the benevolent blogmaster that he is, Orac has decided to open the floodgates with an open thread. Create your own Insolence. And, hey, let’s be careful out there. And don’t push each other’s buttons (too much).

Regular readers used to a daily helping of Insolence, both of the Respectful and not-so-Respectful variety, might have wondered where Orac’s been this week. After all, sharp readers might have recognized that Monday’s post was a retooled version of a post that recently appeared at his not-so-secret other blog. The answer is simple: Grant deadline Friday for the resubmission of my NIH R01. (Actually, the formal deadline is Monday, but I need to have this in at least a day or two before, because the grants office at the university has to upload everything. I’m actually cutting it close here.) So basically I’ve had no time to put together the pearls of Insolence you all love (or love to hate, if you’re a quack or quackery advocate).

Basically, I’ll be out until Monday, as I will need the weekend to recover from late nights, lots of caffeine, and higher levels of stress than usual even for a major grant deadline. Let’s just say that never in my career have I had so little done so close to the deadline. Fortunately, a 72 hour binge of massive rewriting and begging for letters of support to arrive on time has things almost together. I should have this thing done tonight.

So, while you’re waiting for this deadline to pass, I’ll do something I haven’t done in a very long time and haven’t done since I moved the blog over to this new platform. Yes, it’s open thread time. You can create your own Insolence. Just remember to abide by the comment policy.

Then join me back here on Monday.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

140 replies on “While a grant deadline distracts Orac, create your own Insolence! Open thread time!”

I miss Krebiozen. He last commented here on the 28th February 2016, two years and a day ago.Unfortunately, his last comment was one of the ones lost in the transfer from Scienceblogs to here.

I’m hoping that a certain sock puppet master did not follow Orac here, but in case he did and is lurking, please don’t give him ideas.

In anticipation of the open thread, I’ve been searching and searching the woo-sphere for tasty treats for Orac’s minions to devour but Alas! to no avail.

HOWEVER I did come across a post ( yesterday at Green Med Info) by Richard Gale: although he doesn’t identify himself as such, he is a longtime producer, assistant film maker and woo-fraught enabler at prn.fm- leaving this information out is important as much of the article supports Null. The post is about “Quackbusters” including that “unlicensed” Dr Barrett ( as if Gale has anything other than a driver’s license) , DG and his pharma shills at SBM and the “anonymous faux medical” blog RI as well as other sources.

Unfortunately, you have to read through 13 or 14 paragraphs of Gale’s so-called prose to get to the parts about us.

But it is nice to be noticed even if it is by a woo-meister’s second-in-command.

I should mention that these dudes despise ( and fear) wiki-p because it doesn’t allow them to change what is written there to suit their own fantasy lives.

“Well I’ll be buggered, there’s a shark in my boat!”

When there’s a shark in your boat buggery is not what you should be fearing.

Ever seen the Global Shark attack File? It’s a collection of all known shark attacks, going back a few hundred years. They look at how many victims, type of shark, activity at time of attack, injuries, was it provoked… My favorite for activity at time of attack “Stuffing shark into automobile.”

The best line, I think, is “a first aid kit he kept in his vehicle for pig hunts.”

This is Northern New South Wales you are talking about. Pig shooting is the national sport due to the large numbers of feral pigs prowling about in the bush.

In the quackosphere, apparently there is a “movie” showing how all pro-vaxxers are great big meanies and hate our children and live for our shillbux. Sadly, it hasn’t been able to play in a few locations due to lack of ticket sales. Are we all sad yet?

In Iltaly there have been protests against mandatory vaccines, alas the sites who bring this news in English, are mostly the usual suspects, who are against vaccinations themselves.

The other day, John Oliver presented a piece about the upcoming Italian elections focusing upon various unsavory parties/ gentlemen in the running for the top spot ( is it PM, president, premier?): amongst them are an anti-vax contingent. I’m not sure if it was the far rightists or that which might in the future sponsor Signore Berlusconi who is now forbidden to run (until 2019) because of his previous activities.

I’ll try to look further. Believe it or not, I can sometimes decipher Italian.

The Five Star Movement has a lot of antivaxxers (including the vaccines-cause-homosexuality loon). Beppo Grillo used to be best buddies with Montanari and Gatti (the nanoparticle grifters) before it all went pear-shaped. Though he is stepping aside from the Movement, complaining that politics has become unserious and personality-driven.

Yeah, but you left out the best part –

http://time.com/5175069/john-oliver-italy-last-week-tonight/

The site has a video of the Italian segment, but the best news is at the end –

While Oliver isn’t an Italian citizen, he is alarmed by the slate of candidates and the possible repercussions for the world. In fact, Oliver is so concerned that he has jumped into action and consulted lawyers. Turns out that under Italian law the government coalition can pick a non-politician to run. In fact, they can pick “a random jackass that Italy has never heard of.” Specifically, they could pick Oliver himself. It’s what Oliver calls Air Bud rules, where the rules didn’t definitely say that a dog couldn’t play basketball so “alley oop motherf—-ers.”

That’s right, Oliver is running for prime minister of Italy, telling its citizens, “Incredibly, I am far from your worst option.”

Over at AoA it’s been said Dr Gatti (remember the “nanocontamination” of vaccines study?) had her office raided and computers seized by Italian police. It was apparently due to not paying for a microscope but of course to them it’s the global vaccine conspiracy thing.

apparently due to not paying for a microscope

My understanding is that Montanari and Dr Gatti don’t own the ESEMicroscope at issue (and they don’t pay for its maintenance), and the problem revolves around them using it for their profit-making Nanodiagnostics Laboratory, when the plan was — when donations were sought for the microscope’s acquisition — for them to use it pro bono, for disinterested and altruistic advocacy.

At any rate, although Montanari originally stated that it was all about the microscope affair when the Nanodiagnostics Lab PCs were seized by the Fraud office, he later retracted that explanation. Apparently it was made in the heat of the moment, in a fraught mental state, no longer operative, the computers were seized for non-microscopy-related reasons which he is not at liberty to divulge.

John Stone thinks this was all a plot to prove Gatti and Montanari correct.

I saw Stone’s column at AoA. He linked to the SaneVax FB report, but aiming for plausible deniability — “Very concerning if true”… if it’s not true, he was Just Asking Questions. Understandably unwilling to put his own credibility on the line.

The SaneVax version of events is all DeepState Conspiracy, and reads like a parody of tinfoil-hat conspiratorial cognition… including “The absence of evidence for a conspiracy shows how powerful the the conspiracy is, and how determined they are to conceal their existence”. I’m guessing that this trope was intended as a knowing wink to any other professional grifters who might be reading.

Understandably unwilling to put his own credibility on the line.

Surely you jesr. This pig-eyed sack of shit has such a track record of self-aggrandizing error that nobody in his minuscule circle of glancers would even notice.

I have a friend who is considering going to DO school but is concerned about the stigma and being taken seriously. Any advice I might be able to offer him? He knows about the quackademic medicine and is prepared for dealing with it.

My favorite cardiologist was a DO as well as a section chief at the local university hospital. Is there really that much stigma?

At least in the United States, DO’s are pretty mainsteam, and I don’t think your friend would have too many issues. My kids last pediatrician was a DO and she was great (pro-vaccine and science/evidence based)

But it’s pot luck. I’ve run across DO’s who embrace the osteopathic part of their training pretty vigorously. Their offices have brochures about “treating the whole patient and such.

I realize that there are plenty of MD’s embracing woo, but I avoid DO’s just to lower the potential of running into woo. Also, one has to wonder if someone is “considering going to DO school” beause he hasn’t been able to get into regular medical school. Not saying that’s an automatic red flag, but….I guess my bottom line would be, WHY does this fellow want to go to DO school?

Some of the best pediatricians I know are DO’s. Not at all certain that woo-ery runs any stronger in the DO schools than in MD schools. Considering the actions of certain California-based peds in the vaccine wars, not sure us MD’s have any higher ground here.

Well, I don’t really have any insolence to offer today, so I’ll offer the opportunity for pure speculation instead. I’m getting very excited for NECSS 2018 (especially since I convinced my husband to come along this year and finding a babysitter for a full week was no easy feat!). I can’t wait to find out the speaker line-up and I’m hoping that our favorite box of lights will make an appearance this year as well!

I’m never going again unless I know for sure that the morning sessions will be held somewhere that you can bring in a covered cup of coffee! Mr Toad, who had to be “groomed” for ages to go along, was not impressed. A couple of goonish types confiscated our lattes at the door. So much for the sophistication of NYC.

Some of you might have noticed that the blog was down for about an hour. The hosting service was having problems with the server cluster that this blog is hosted on. It’s resolved now (I hope).

By Post Author

I had a limerick in my head,
But this web site had gone dead.
..I couldn’t type it in,
..Which surely counts as a sin.
So I’ll offer this one instead.

Here’s one thing I’ve wanted to declare for a while.
In science, it’s true that you can’t prove a negative. But in practical terms, there comes a point where we must consider a negative proven.
The question of whether or not vaccines cause autism has been looked at in numerous studies. Enough studies have been done for a meta-analysis of over 1.4 million children to be done. The results are in. There is no difference between the proportions of vaccinated and unvaccinated autistics.
When well-designed experiments and properly done large scale studies come back with no evidence for a hypothesis, absence of evidence must be regarded as evidence of absence.

Apparently Andrew Wakefield is getting involved in politics. He is supporting Susanna Dokupil in her run in the Republican Primary in Houston. Dokupil is a fervent libertarian and hence seriously anti-vaccine. Turns out she also thinks Government should interfere in people’s private lives and is anti-abortion.

It is interesting here in Thailand where there is a alt-med place everywhere, there is one a couple houses away from me (she does give a good message). However, when something serious happens or when it comes to vaccines, Thai’s want real medicine.

The only problem is that vaccines have to be paid for, and what is very cheap to most of us, is not affordable for many people.

As a former Environmental Health Specialist the difference in how food is treated is so different. We visited an open air market earlier today that various meats, fish, shellfish on display that weren’t even on ice and had someone waving a fan to keep flies off the items. The wonder is that I haven’t been sick once since I moved here. I am trying to eat mainly Thai but have slipped a few times.

Hi, first time posting but I have been a fan for a while. Recently I took the step of contacting the ACCME about all the valid clinical content violations I found at AutismOne’s CME activities last year. I wasn’t sure if anyone had done that but since this year they have someone presenting a CME activity on hyperbaric therapy I figured it couldn’t hurt to bring it to their attention!

On the DO issue:

Marian University, here in Indianapolis, now has a medical school (definitely not in competition with Indiana University School of Medicine (also in Indianapolis) no, never, nunhunh) It’s osteopathic and it’s also very much science based. I checked.

When I was with a medical device firm, 30 years ago, the DO radiologists we worked with were some of the more astute diagnosticians.

fusilier

James 2:24

I have a couple. First off, you know how AVers love to say, tetanus-smetanus? Get a wound, just let it bleed, that’ll wash the narsty tetanus right out? Nope.

After a quick and dirty search of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, this is not the most recent (that’s 2000-2008) but it’s the one that has the most complete coverage of “condition leading to tetanus”

Tetanus Surveillance — United States, 1998–2000

Among 129 patients with information provided on the condition leading to tetanus, acute trauma was reported for 73% (94/129) of patients; no acute injury (i.e., patients with abscesses, ulcers, or gangrene) was reported for 26% (34/129); and one case (1%, 1/129) was reported in a neonate (Table 2). A puncture wound was the most frequent type of acute trauma (50%), followed by lacerations (33%) and abrasions (9%). Puncture wounds included stepping on a nail (15 cases), splinter (five cases), injury from barbed wire (five cases), a tattoo (one case), and a spider bite (one case).* The acute injury was located on the lower extremity in 48 (51%) patients, the upper extremity in 34 (36%) patients, the head or trunk in nine (10%) patients, and not specified in three patients. The environment in which the acute injury occurred was reported for 83 (88%) patients. Thirty-seven (45%) patients were injured at home or indoors; 26 (31%) were injured while farming or gardening; 19 (23%) were injured while engaging in other outdoor activities; and one (1%) was injured in an automobile accident.

[clip]

The 20 reported deaths occurred among patients aged 33–88 years. Seventy-five percent (15/20) of the patients who died were aged >60 years. The case-fatality ratio among patients with known outcome aged >60 years was 40% (15/38), compared with 8% (5/63) among patients with known outcome aged 20–59 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5203a1.htm

I usually just read and don’t often weigh in here, but I just saw something on STAT news that nearly caused the destruction of my keyboard with some spilt coffee. Check out: https://www.statnews.com/2018/03/02/young-blood-anti-aging-study/

We’ve got dreams of living forever, lousy clinical trial design, dodgy marketing, unproven medical hypotheses and the other usual stuff here–even a Nazi allusion. Enjoy.

In the ‘Diseases Are an Airplane Ride Away’ department –

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/02/25/did-you-visit-new-york-city-this-month-health-officials-would-like-a-word/?utm_term=.5983b4b43688&wpisrc=nl_tyh&wpmm=1

The New York State Department of Health wants people in the New York City area to know that an Australian tourist confirmed to have measles visited numerous hotels and the Metropolitan Museum of Art from Feb. 16 to 21.

That is fricken’ terrifying!! The population density in that area is custom made for rapid spread of infectious agents.

Fricken’ terrifying? Measles? When I was young my experience of measles was like this:

@soubresants, leaving aside your argumentum ad Brady Bunchum, for a lot of people, Measles WAS terrifying. In 1962 Olivia Dahl, the then seven year old daughter of Roald Dahl, died from Measles Encephalitis. Just because you suffered no long term negative effects doesn’t mean everybody was as fortunate.

I have a friend who works at the Met and she is furious about this. And I don’t blame her.

Hi Folks,

I’m doing battle with the Virginia Board of Medicine. I’m basically contending that many, if not most chiropractors are using BS treatments such as putting your feet in a pan and sucking the toxins out through your feet, Reiki, and…well, all the rest.

The Board does not seem all that concerned.

Here’s quote from one the chiropractor’s website.

“Please do not leave the kids at home. They need to be checked as well. Infants with any problems – please bring them in!” YES. INFANTS WITH ANY PROBLEMS!

Here’s a link with my letters and the responses from the Board.

https://bluehighwaysofvirginia.blogspot.com/2018/02/my-what-seems-to-be-battle-with.html

Regards,

George

Great new study, ably summarized by Skeptical Raptor.

Debunking the claim that vaccines kill people using real scientific evidence

TL;DR version
*Study looked at deaths after 8.5 million vaccinations in the VSD.
*Only 76 deaths were found with 30 days of the vaccination, the biologically plausible cutoff date for a temporal causal relationship.
*Of those 76 deaths, 17 lacked medical records (so the cause of death was indeterminate), 33 were attributed to external causes (homicide, suicide, and accidents), 26 were attributed to non-external causes. Only three warranted further examination as to causality – of those one was found to not be related, and the other two lacked evidence to establish causality.
*The overall risk of death post-vaccination is lower than the general population.
*To quote the authors, “Risk of death was not increased during the 30 days after vaccination, and no deaths were found to be causally associated with vaccination.”

This was a thorough examination of a population of vaccinated individuals with detailed medical records that allowed neutral observers to deduce whether the vaccine(s) were related to mortality. And what they found was that there was no relationship.

So the hypothesis that “vaccines kill” is rejected. And the hypothesis that “vaccines save lives” is supported.

https://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/vaccination-mortality-risk-nothing-there/

I remember one time when I was starting to recover from a really severe depression but hadn’t gotten manic yet, I had an appointment with my old UM psychiatrist. He asked me if I’d been suicidal and I said, “I mean, sometimes I think ‘Gee, I wish I’d just get hit by a bus.'”

He laughed really hard and told me not to worry, everybody has those thoughts. Maybe everybody doesn’t, Dr. Hong. Maybe we both just happen to.

Actually, I said that – “everybody thinks about suicide” – to “Dr. Joseph” (nobody liked him) at the psych ward in Yakima and he looked at me and said “not everybody.” So there’s my answer, I guess.

(I might come back and rant about Joseph and that psych ward in a minute. Since this is an open thread.)

He laughed really hard and told me not to worry, everybody has those thoughts.

Holy fuck. Even the semikooks at The Only Blog You’ll Ever Need’s shoutbox expressed alarm at my voicing such ideas.

In other news, low-dose Remeron is a promptly effective appetite stimulant in ailing cats. But the vet just tries to cut 15 mg tabs into eights, whichic I could have done better and for free.

Dr. Hong is an odd one himself, I believe. According to everybody he is a demigod in the ER, and he has a very keen appreciation of dark humor. You’ve got to get through the days and nights somehow, I guess.

Main thing I was going to rant about regarding “Dr. Joseph” was that he would talk up my intelligence to me in a way that derided all the other inmates patients there, which I did not appreciate.

They also made us wear these, which were, no joke, from an actual prison supplier. (I know this because there were a couple guys there who had been to prison.) Prison food (literally), prison soap and toothpaste and toothbrushes, too.

^ I was going to mention the orange sandals in reference to the reflexology slippers. About as comfortable, I imagine.

They were those exact sandals. I have no idea what those ridges on the upper part of the sole are for other than to be punitive.

It’s funny, I started thinking about all that stuff and I started a thread in the Anarcho-communist Kitchen over on FB (great group, lots of good recipes, especially for cheap but good stuff) and a whole bunch of people chimed in with memories of institutional food (“Oh yes, I remember that from being in the VA center psych ward in 2005”).

Makes me wonder if certain institutions have a way of radicalizing people. (Lots of comrades with mental illnesses and so on. We also have lots of ex military, I have noticed.)

One last psych ward memory:

There was a guy there, Jose, who was an amazing artist. He gave me a photo-realistic picture of a ride that I still have that he drew with just one of the crappy psych ward pens.

We were all trying to get him to go to art school, but he can’t get any FAFSA money because of his criminal record (petty crime, grew up very poor and obviously has a mental illness.)

He had this whole big portfolio of art he’d done in the joint. He was younger than me by at least a few years.

All that talent and no opportunities. This society is messed up.

@JP
If those things didn’t have ridges they’d stick to your food and you wouldn’t be able to walk in them. 🙂

After reading about the “young blood for anti-aging” fundraiser, perhaps Orac should consider a nice $250-a-plate dinner instead of spending his time writing old-fashioned grant proposals. It would be more tasty at least. Hopefully his research doesn’t make one think of vampires.

“The New York State Department of Health wants people in the New York City area to know that an Australian tourist confirmed to have measles visited numerous hotels and the Metropolitan Museum of Art from Feb. 16 to 21.”

I’m reminded of Berton Roueche’s classic story “A Man From Mexico”, about the last smallpox outbreak in New York City (and the U.S.) in 1947, in which the index case wandered around Manhattan for a time before winding up in the hospital and infecting others – 12 cases, two deaths, and the largest vaccination campaign in history – at least, up until that time.

*a plug here for Roueche’s medical detection stories, some of which have been published in book form, and which are wonderful. Also check out “Eleven Blue Men” and “A Pig From Jersey”.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106164.The_Medical_Detectives

Apparently you shouldn’t graft tomato plants onto Datura rootstocks. Just one of the many useful life lessons I learned from Roueche’s books.

“A Pig From Jersey”
Please tell me that this is the origin of your nym.

JP wonders if ” certain institutions have a way of radicalizing people”

I don’t know. I was going to say that those with more restrictions and which focus upon maintaining a particular status quo but then wouldn’t the Military or the Church be number one?

I think that perhaps radical groups appeal to more creative people and those who have a bone to pick with Society for different reasons some of which are TOTALLY feasible. Maybe the increased regulation ( which may have had a functional basis at one point) makes the issues more clear. Education is another factor.

Much was made of the concept of sub-cultures and deviancy as opposed to conformity in the 1970s-1980s. At what point a minority view is problematic or “deviant” is debatable. Perhaps in the 1950s many civil rights issues were looked upon as being wrong/ immoral whereas the majority view has changed profoundly over the years.

Although it’s not exactly relevant here, a psychologist divided moral judgments into category groups- pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. I think that we can look at other problems similarly: does a person not fit in because they can’t ( don’t have the skills) or because they reject the whole system as being unfair or unrealistic?

Fitting in with whatever is average may be an abysmal choice. Look at how people vote dependent on where their live, their race, age, SES. Look at women’s vote in 2016 as well. During the election, two reporters I followed interviewed red voters ( as opposed to Red voters): I saw middle-aged and older white people ( from the Villages, Florida and NC) with whom I could not identify. Watching this made me upset. Now it is possible that the reporters ( who were not awful generally) picked out extreme examples when they assembled their videos ( their reports were independent of each other). These people saw Mr Obama as a threat to the their way of life: “I want my country back”, one exclaimed. Perhaps voters like these had backgrounds that inculcated certain values AND something about them themselves led them to adhere to these rather than questioning them or becoming a critic. If someone is age 40-70, they’ve witnessed much social change. They may feel threatened by the transformation rather than embracing it.

There was a shibboleth-like question investigated elsewhere that predicted voting choice well: would you rather ( assuming your age would be the same as it is now) live in 1960 or now? Backward-glancers chose Trump.
Recently I asked that question to true liberal guy: he said, if you asked me BEFORE Trump, I would have said NOW but after him, I don’t know.

Perhaps in the 1950s many civil rights issues were looked upon as being wrong/ immoral whereas the majority view has changed profoundly over the years.

Perhaps? In the 1950s? Certainly, actually, and still. The support for Black Lives Matter is about the same among white Americans as civil rights protests were when they took place, which is to say slim.

If you don’t support BLM now, you probably didn’t/wouldn’t have supported the civil Rights movement, whatever you might claim.

Good commentary; yeah, it was circulating among lefties recently, usually with commentary along the lines of “What a surprise.”

I had a great teacher in third and fourth grade who actually taught us about slavery, including the auctions, the divisions of families, the slave ships, the whippings and beatings. Jim Crow, too. And we learned about Native Americans and the theft of their land and about their culture and traditions and the suppression of them, and about movements like the Ghost Dance. I kind of wonder how she got away with it, to be quite honest.

Other than that, it was just brief mentions it MLK Jr. in February as if everything is just fine now.

The last counterfactual might be fairer if it said ‘If you don’t support the general aims of BLM now…’. Depends on the place, but there’s no way I’m going to a BLM-lead demo in Toronto. The leadership seem more interested in being angry than in actually reducing police violence.

Depends on the place, but there’s no way I’m going to a BLM-lead demo in Toronto. The leadership seem more interested in being angry than in actually reducing police violence.

Funny, it’s almost as if Black people are legitimately angry and that bothers whites. … Just like during the Civil Rights movement.

Much was made of the concept of sub-cultures and deviancy as opposed to conformity in the 1970s-1980s.

And the next thing you know, it’s R.D. Laing (Asylum</> is a pretty good movie, as I recall) and… Szasz.

from the Villages, Florida

For those who aren’t familiar with this reference, it’s a gigantic gated retirement community in central Florida. It even appears on the TV weather maps instead of Leesburg. Imagine traffic signs for golf carts.

“Lyme literate” legislative alert in Illinois!

The Illinois legislature is considering a bill that, according to the synopsis, would “Exempt[] physicians from disciplinary action by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation based solely upon the licensee’s recommendation or provision of a treatment method for Lyme disease or other tick-borne disease if specified criteria are met.” There are five criteria, but none of them have any teeth. The text of the bill will show up if you look for “Full Text of HB4515 100th General Assembly”

As most of you here will know, there’s a clique of quacks who believe that the nonexistent “chronic Lyme Disease” and other supposedly tick-borne diseases can be cured by intense treatment, notably long term IV antibiotic treatment. Despite the fecklessness of most professional regulation, these quacks have managed to go to such outlandish and risky lengths that they’ve gotten themselves disciplined in several states. They’ve fought back by seeking legislative exemption from normal professional self-regulation. Illinois is the latest target.

I’d encourage Illinoisans to call their State Senators and Reps to urge a “no” vote. (The House sponsors are Reps. Daniel Swanson, Linda Chapa LaVia, Mark Batinick, Steven A. Andersson and Michael Halpin, but even they may be worth calling.) This looks as though it’s flying under the radar, and it’s very had to explain to people without any background why it’s a bad idea.

Ha ha ha!

Mike Adams is carrying on because You Tube has shut down his account ( 1700 videos) just as it has Alex Jones’.

He gives “examples” of his videos- chickens and donkeys home, home on the ranch.
What he carefully omits is that political rants and bad medical advice probably form the bulk of his channel.

His fans shouldn’t worry though: earlier in the week he announced his own video channel that will join his other attempts at replacing g–gle, facebook. wikip— and other standards. As Orac’s post earlier this week mentioned, Mikey is trying to take over the Iron Throne.. I mean.. RULE the internetz keeping his followers away from other sources of information just like a good cult leader should.

I have yet to check out other quacks on You Tube but I surmise that the political nonsense is what done him in not the bad medical advice.

Yep, it seems to be down ( Health Ranger channel/ I did get some videos for Natural News though)

Gary Null’s channel seems to be up and running. Funny, I though that the anti-vaxx crap/ hiv /aids denialism would get him.

What he carefully omits is that political rants and bad medical advice probably form the bulk of his channel.

That “it’s like Christmas in Harlem” bit is a classic.

My medicine cabinet is about to expand dramatically, since I’ve just started seeds of Oroxylum indicum, which has an enormous range of healing properties:

“The various parts of the plant are rich in flavonoids and glycosides and trials have shown various activities in the body. In particular, dichloromethane extracts of the stem bark and root have been shown to have antimicrobial activities against a range of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and also the yeast Candida albicans…
The isolated flavonoid baicalin has shown inhibitory effects against the human T cell leukaemia virus type 1, and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1)…
The bitter bark of the root is astringent, blood purifier and tonic. It is used in the treatment of stomach complaints, diarrhoea and dysentery.
An alcoholic maceration of the fresh bark is externally applied on allergic dermatitis. When mixed with turmeric, the bark is used for healing sores of animals.
The root is credited with antirheumatic, antidysenteric and diuretic properties.
The seeds and bark are used medicinally for alleviating body pain, especially during fevers and as an antiphlogistic medicine.
It is also applied to burns and wounds.
The juice of the bark is taken internally to treat diarrhoea and dysentery. A decoction of the bark is refrigerant, used in the treatment of fevers and jaundice. A decoction of the leaves is drunk as a treatment for stomach-ache
Applied externally the leaves are employed in the treatment of cholera, fever, childbirth and rheumatic swellings. The boiled leaves are used as a poultice during and after childbirth, and in dysentery as well as for an enlarged spleen. Leaf poultices may be further applied for toothache and headache. The seed is expectorant and laxative. A decoction is used in treating coughs, bronchitis and gastritis[310
The seeds are applied externally to ulcers.”

http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Oroxylum+indicum

Once the crop comes in, no more We$tern medicine for me. I’ll be able to treat the root causes of phlogistic ailments.

Well, my cat just died while I was trying to give him his mirtazapine. I don’t know how I could have fucked this up. I initially thought the labored breathing was just his trying to spit the thing out. I’m worse than useless.

No you are not useless, how much longer has your cat lived because you took the trouble all too many don’t to actually treat him?

Narad,

I’m so sorry to hear that.
Don’t beat yourself up.
You were most likely dealing with a seriously ill cat and you probably helped it to live longer than it would have if anyone else were doing the caring. Despite limited means, you sought out professional help and meds as well as administering them, which can be a trial. Sometimes, we can’t tell how sick they are ( or how well they are). They are mysterious creatures. Occasionally, they may just die suddenly because of cardiac problems despite having little to no signs of a worsening situation. Or we may imagine that they are at death’s door and they bounce back despite advanced kidney disease. I’ve seen both of these events.
My mother had a Siamese cat with ( probably ) leukaemia that lasted for a long time despite hardly eating/ drinking and weighing virtually nothing.
You were with it in its last moments. You are a hero to cats.

Sorry about your cat. It’s never easy to loose a companion, but don’t put the blame on yourself. You tried to handle in the best interest of the animal. Our first cat died at the vet, when she was spayed, because she couldn’t handle the narcotics.
I love cats and also take care of other peoples cats and other pets (no dogs) when they are away. Last week I took care of 4 cats (in two homes) and 4 chickens.

I agree with both Denice and JP, Narad. Do not beat yourself up. I’ve lived long enough to lose several cats and dogs. I know that right now, you’re wondering “what if?” But Denice’s assessment is virtually certain to be correct. Your medicating him prolonged his lifespan.

Narad,
I clicked on “videos” at the top of the Natural News page and Lo! and Behold! it links to Vimeo including a recent screed about the Parkland shooting as well as other fear mongering/ hate

He’ll find a way to get his BS/ hate across no matter what.

It’s pretty laughable that “tv-dot-naturalnews-com” is just a redirect to Vimeo.

Sorry that my link didn’t come through intact. Just search for “Carcinoma Angels” by Norman Spinrad. You can find it quickly with a search. The full text is online.

Interesting letter to the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer today by bigwigs at the Cleveland Clinic, upset at a perceived slight to wellness programs. The CC execs (including Michael Roizen, Chief Wellness Person), made the claim that while their program didn’t have much initial impact on health care costs in its first four years, it saved the Cleveland Clinic $250 million dollars in the next four years.

That sounds like an awful lot of money from such activities as promoting exercise, smoking cessation and Jenny Craig diet plans.

The Rand Corporation did an analysis suggesting that significant savings of wellness programs come from targeting employees who already have chronic health disorders and trying to keep them out of the hospital. And even then, reduced costs don’t sound anywhere near as stupendous as CC is claiming.

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/RB9700/RB9744/RAND_RB9744

I wonder if that $250 million reflects actual dollar savings as opposed to optimistic projections.

My link got mangled. Just search for “Carcinoma Angels” by Norman Spinrad. The site I was trying to link to has the full text. Read it. You’ll enjoy it.

Since food talk is a tradition…

Some of us are brainstorming recipes for a comrade with Wilson’s Disease and who also shouldn’t have much saturated fat or salt. So as little copper as possible.

So far I’ve been in an Indian vein – Palaak Paneer, aloo masala for dosa with plain yogurt, plus obvious things like cottage cheese or oatmeal with fruit.

Cooks?

Thanks! I have a list of what she can’t have. The idea is also fairly inexpensive stuff, because she’s already struggling financially just to keep up with meds and care. (Of course we are doing our best to help a bit in that regard as well.)

It beats the hell out of the perfect-bound copy that I still have in storage with most of the rest of my stuff.

Hi All,

I posted a few questions and articles on SBM’s Facebook page but I haven’t been able to get a response. Can anyone help dumb these down for and/or shed some light on these?

1.
Have you seen this nonsense?

https://www.facebook.com/FloridaLymeDiseaseAssociation/posts/861853017322109

2.
Here we go again. Check this one out.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10204182143430129&id=1722931317

3.
Thoughts on this article?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/health/ovarian-cancer-immunotherapy.html

4.
Have you guys seen these following articles?

http://urhealthguide.com/researchers-identify-virus-two-ty…/

https://www.usatoday.com/…/could-cutting-asparag…/318887002/

What are your thoughts on the following Tulane article regarding Lyme being able to survive after antibiotic treatment?

http://news.tulane.edu/…/study-finds-lyme-bacteria-can-surv…

Also, any thoughts on the following article’s view on the “Development of a sensitive PCR-dot blot assay to supplement serological tests for diagnosing Lyme disease”?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29282568

And lastly, how would you consider Dr. Zhang’s views on Lyme Disease?

“Citing the work of Dr. Ying Zhang at Johns Hopkins Lyme Center, she said the most likely effective remedy will be a combination of several antibiotics. In a previous interview with The Times, Dr. Zhang said he has worked on an effective PTLDS treatment for six years, and that current Lyme disease treatments may not clear bacterial debris, or “persisters,” which may be one of the possible causes of PTLDS. Dr. Zhang said that his work on tuberculosis (TB) is his primary focus; however, advances in fighting TB, e.g. using new combinations of drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have yielded promising results in the fight against “persisters.”” – http://www.mvtimes.com/…/visiting-physician-sheds-new-ligh…/

Thank you for your time. Just wanting to arm myself with the appropriate information. There doesn’t seem to be much expertise offered regarding the disease around here in South Florida and don’t know who to turn to.

Did Kanner’s original subjects get taken to the movies every day?

On a side note, I babysat my 21 month old grandson for about 4 hours last week and didn’t show him any videos or tv.
We did old school stuff like rocking on a teeter totter and reading a board book.

I do all kinds of stuff with my nephews; origami with the nearly five year old while the two year old is sleeping, lots of reading, playing outside if the weather is at all decent.

I do let them watch some cartoons, though. Last time we watched a bit of Moana before their dad got home.

Good ideas. I’m not totally opposed to tv. On one visit, we wound up watching a YouTube video of roadrunner cartoons.

But I want him to get used to other activities as well. Lots of reading, of course. When his dad was that age, I used to read and sing in the evenings to get them to settle down.

I also made up a playlist to influence his musical tastes. It runs the gamut from the Weavers and Woody Guthrie to Odetta and Jerry Garcia to Raffi and, of course, Sesame Street.

On one visit, we wound up watching a YouTube video of roadrunner cartoons.

Something something The Shining something. I kept trying to hip my friend’s nine-year-old to Starman, but he was too interested in Minecraft and fucking “Hamilton.” Kid’s in front of a screen all day long, and he’s provided table service.

Am I the only one who’s finding that the “search and explore” thing is frequently unresponsive on actual computers?

I often have to go back to the front page to get it to work when I’m at the library, which is running Windows 7 Enterprise (don’t ask me) and Firefox 52, but I think I’ve said that before. Sadly, the coffee shop is closed during spring break.

Yah, I’ve just noticed that with Chrome 56 on Windoze. And my phone (running KitKat) seems to have to load the page three times to fully load.

Well, this is an odd one:

[Theodore] Malloch “is scheduled to testify in Washington D.C. on April 13th under Robert Mueller’s Grand Jury investigation,” Hector Carosso, a representative of Skyhorse Publishing, said in a separate email.

Is that thread still on?

Finally, I’m inching above water after causing me, and a bunch of medical doctors, some grey hair with depressive disorder, anxiety and a gamut of mixed emotions.

At the moment, I’m still unemployed, not at school and just taking care of myself (75 to 80% of my daytime chores) and a bit more (building my linux distribution, 20% of my awake time).

Some time ago, I decided to reorient myself from computer job to more conventional occupation, namely, machining techniques. The reason behind that is that if I spend a whole 8 hours working on the computer, my eyes get so strained out that I am unable to read a sheet, book or even recipes instruction; even if I take a lot of small breaks (from the ‘puter) every hour.

I have to limit computer time to ~3 hours per day and when I did a machining technics course back in 2001-2002, the one task I loved the most was to do the tasks necessary so that I could watch the turning or machining center build my desired piece out of a chunk of aluminum or stainless steel.

Nowaday, in a few months, I’ll design a (culinary grade) stainless steel beer brewing kit and do the necessary welding and machining steps to build it. Some electrically controlled valves along with a Raspberry pi with a touchscreen could be installed later on to control the brewing steps.

Alain

Forgot to say, I’ll be redoing a machining technics course starting on the 7th of May. 16 months in length and the course is fully paid out by one of our province governmental agency.

Alain

Hi Alain! Sounds like maybe you’re getting a little bit better?

I was doing great for a while, but then I had a little bout of bad depression and a big long bout of pain. I had a doctor’s appointment for Monday, but I didn’t want to wait at this point, so I went to a walk-in appointment at the clinic today.

Luckily it is neither a heart problem nor a gallbladder problem; it is costochondritis, the doc said, which means inflammation of the rib cage cartilage. He said just keep taking ibuprofen and resting and wait for it to go away.

It hurts like a motherf***er sometimes, though. Other times it is sore. It sucks because I haven’t been able to get anything done or make any money for a week.

Dear G-d, Michael Pollan has been allowed to babble on his new book, on psychedelics, on Quirks and Quarks. It’s just painful. I mean, “placebos on rocket boosters” painful. Dissolving the ego, etc.

Mescaline is now not toxic. I presume the vomiting is of the ego. He used a “guide.” My head is going to explode.

Plants don’t waste energy and nitrogen on manufacturing weird alkaloids unless they want to poison animals enough to encourage them to eat something else.

Thanks for letting us know how bad he’s gotten. I was skeptical, but now I’m sure I’d rather go read The Botany of Desire.

Does he blither on about how we should eat still? Or is he too busy having munchies?

Yeah, I heard a bit of an interview with him on NPR while I was getting a ride somewhere with my friend Chris in Ann Arbor. Firefox’s “Pocket” gizmo also keeps trying to recommend the subject. Ugh.

Color me ‘puzzled,’
.
I heard about the book but haven’t read it. I am not a great fan of his nutrition writing but have not seen anything on the latest work to automatically reject it out of hand. The interview on Science Friday was very interesting and seemed to be focused on the research in this area.
.
What am I missing?
.
This isn’t the place for such a discussion, so a link or two would suffice.

This isn’t the place for such a discussion, so a link or two would suffice.

Done, although I’m not sure whether this rescension includes the passage about what globular bloburalists “mean” by “getting rid of the ego” (a recipe for getting lost in bus stations, etc.). It’s prima facie dualism.

^ And hoarily trite. All the high-fat low-carb diets, to the best of my knowledge, stem from the book The Drinking Man’s Diet. At least Huxley had some talent (viz., Island).

^^ Oh, right The Temple of the True Inner Light. Altered States (John Lilly). Ya Ho Wha 13. It may as well be Christopher Kimball writing about psychedelics. You get elves. Feed Pollan 1000 mics and see what comes out at the end.

At least ketamine has shown some promise for refractory major depressive disorder.

^^^ Nothing personal, BTW. That segment just drove me bats. Heaven help me if he shows up with the execrable Terri Gross, whose program has just been dropped into my cat-shelter evening.

Narad, “Christopher Kimball writing about psychedelics” really made me blink.

But then I thought some more and isn’t he a huge Dead Head? He’s probably done it all (though I’m not sure I want to hear him describe it).

He’s probably done it all

That bowtie probably wouldn’t play well with “Plateau Sigma.” Hell, the towels were honking at me.

It looks like Right To Try is here for real.

Congress just passed the bill.

Oh, for the love of God. Obama would have vetoed it. Trump will sign it.

This will give carte blance to quacks, who will rush to make their quackery “clinical trials” to avoid government scrutiny. Real drugs will remain out of reach, as they should until they are approved.

A lot of damage is going to be done to people.

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