ColdZyme
I just saw an advert on television for Boots promoting ColdZyme, the spray that fights off the common cold. Somehow. When all other attempts to ward it off have failed for decades. My skeptisense tingled. I searched online… Pop along to Coldzyme: a result of real science being left out in the cold for a look at ColdZyme and its apparent ability to perform a feat no medicine can perform (not “no other medicine” because it claims not to be a medicine for probably legal reasons (remember kids, always treat your illnesses and afflictions with things worded to get around legalities to stick it to the man)). The article takes a look at the science behind ColdZyme (so it’s not a terribly long read, obviously) and finds its claims lacking, as I’m sure you’ve already surmised, you not being a moron and all that. What is this breakthrough, miracle product that will powerfully break down viruses? Well, an enzyme called trypsin. An enzyme that merrily and plentifully kicks about in your digestive system, breaking down proteins. An enzyme which, for the purposes of this product, is inexplicabl[y] being derived from cod (which has meant that I have had to resist the urge to refer to it as somewhat fishy.) An enzyme which should be stored at temperatures of between -20 and -80 degrees Celsius, to prevent autolysis. Now, I’ve seen some fancy medicine packaging in my time, but never a simple mouth spray bottle that can manage such storage feats. So, if trypsin really is present in this product, then it seems fairly likely that it’s going to be inactive, unless the manufacturers have found a way of warping room temperature. Okay. The “fishy” pun has been taken but I think I can still use the word “codswallop” to feast upon a free boost of the smugness hormone in my body, right? Take that cold virus! Tissue box photo courtesy of David...
Christadelphians
Through the letterbox popped something from Portsmouth Christadelphians… Scepticism about the Bible? I was intrigued. Could this be a local group with a rational outlook when it comes to religious matters? I took a look at their website The Evidence – You Decide. The answer to my question was no. I’ll explain. The website starts with a challenge: The Bible is either a great hoax or a message of great relevance and help. Immediately, they’re removing other options so that they perform a little trick: if they can subsequently remove one of the two choices you’ll be more likely to fall for the message that whatever remains must be the truth. This is a con. Over the rest of the website all they need to do is produce enough weak or anecdotal evidence to support eliminating the hoax option and that will leave them with the “message of great relevance and help” and, by extension, reinforcing the “it must all be true” mantra. Where are the other options? That it’s just a bunch of stories told by superstitious shepherds that morphed into a religion? That it’s a collection of appropriations from other religious tales and in no way the word of a sky pixie? That it’s a means to control people used throughout history by whoever is in charge? That it undergoes changes in interpretation over the centuries to fit the facts of the time? The next section is “accurate predictions” and included are a handful of different types of predictions: vague ones that can mean anything, obvious ones that anyone could see would happen, and potentially specific ones. The problem is that the predictions almost universally come from the portion of the Bible that was passed down by word of mouth and not written until long after the events. Further, the accurate predictions all refer to things that already happened absolutely ages ago, conveniently enough. Where’s the prediction about Islamic State? Where’s the prediction about Americans and Russians almost starting nuclear war? Where’s the prediction about what’s going to happen in the next hundred years? This is not evidence of anything other than the gullibility of humans. Many of the techniques used in these sorts of predictions are used these days too by the scam artists who go around calling themselves psychics and mediums (people that the Catholic church itself says are charlatans because a) it’s true and b) they don’t want anyone else muscling in on their territory). Moreover, this section is a great example of cherry picking data. Why doesn’t the site present the “predictions” that didn’t come true? Skipping over to the “Science & The...
Witchcraft In Tanzania
Yet again we’ve got poor education and superstitions (or convenient excuses) leading to the brutal deaths of mostly women, this time occurring in Tanzania. Horribly, there are two examples within a few weeks of one another. Firstly, from Seven Suspected of Witchcraft Burned to Death: Seven people accused of witchcraft have been burned alive in Tanzania, police said Friday, adding they have arrested 23 people in connection with the crimes. “They were attacked and burnt to death by a mob of villagers who accused them of engaging in witchcraft,” the police chief for the western Kigoma region which borders Burundi, Jafari Mohamed, told AFP. “Five of those killed were aged over 60, while the other two were aged over 40,” he added. Elderly women are the highest risk group and the brutal attacks are usually justified as responses to bad luck, infertility, accidents, etc. The logic of assuming that the elderly woman must be responsible is completely nonexistent as surely the “witch” would have cast her spells of misfortune earlier in her life but logic doesn’t get much room in the irrational brain. A possible factor in the late-in-life blaming of women is offered up in that article as some women start to get red eyes, a side effect of the cooking style employed. Differences are scary. In a similar vein albinos are often the targets of attacks in this and other parts of Africa. The second article, Two Women Accused of Witchcraft Hacked To Death, has this to say: Two Tanzanian women were hacked to death by men who accused them of casting spells that made them sexually impotent, police said on Friday, in the latest killings of alleged “witches”. The women, one aged in her 80s and her 45-year old daughter, were killed in the village of Ihugi in Tanzania’s northern Shinyanga province late on Tuesday. Three men slit their throats and then chopped their bodies up, local police chief Justus Kamugisha said, adding that their neighbour was suspected of carrying out the attack after he believed they had made him unable to have sex. Burned alive or a slit throat? Either way, until there’s reduced poverty and better education – which would ideally include a reduction in strong beliefs in any superstitious crap (including religion) – and a shift away from very dominant male-driven societal groups these sorts of gruesome murders will continue. So that’s Tanzania off the visit list...
A Photograph Of A Ghost Girl
Via the Metro website we learn that Thomas Beavis may have taken a photograph of a ghost of a girl in an apparently “notorious haunted mansion in Ireland.” I can see what the photographer of the “ghost” and the “reporter” Ollie McAteer are getting at because that picture of a person against glass certainly looks quite ethereal. You know what else is ethereal? A reflection. It’s glass, there are people outside, it’s brighter out than in, and there’s a woman immediately to the left of the one in pink the same height as the spectre, wearing apparently similar clothing to the spirit, and angled in a mirror image way to the apparition. Is this a picture of a ghost girl? Don’t be so bloody...
Tsikamutandas
This is a new word for me: tsikamutanda. A tsikamutanda is a witch hunter in Zimbabwe or, to put it another way, a scam artist preying on the poorly-educated in Zimbabwe. Not everyone in Zimbabwe is taken in by these fraudsters but it’s a battle between those trying to help victims out and those who truly believe they need help to fight off the supernatural. Take this account from Harare 24 three years ago: [T]his new breed of “society cleansers” is often noted for the youthfulness of its members and the flashy cars and wealth they display. While many question the authenticity of these tsikamutandas, most people, it seems are more than ready to welcome them in their society and take their pronouncements as gospel. This is despite repeated warnings from the police that some of these so-called healers take people for a ride and are nothing more than conmen in sheep’s clothing. Some? Hmmm. That same article goes on to describe a confrontation between villagers waiting for tsikamutandas to cleanse their village of evil and the police who stepped in to prevent it happening. after the police had moved in, villagers had already gathered, eagerly awaiting the ceremony. Most seemed angry that the police had prevented the tsikamutandas from conducting a session in their village. […] Another elderly woman shouted at a police officer who was addressing the highly agitated crowd, […] “There is too much witchcraft here, we are always troubled. When it rains, we become afraid because lightning bolts are being sent to injure people. Our daughters are becoming pregnant outside wedlock and goblins are making our lives unbearable. This law that the police are talking about makes things difficult and witchcraft acts will become even worse. All we want is peace.” Strangely, there are accounts of people who believe in tsikamutandas and can spot a fake one. From the Zimbabwe Mail earlier this year: It is alleged that before the healing and cleansing act, Chinyama had charged $300 and a goat for his services and was given a goat, with the balance to be paid after the cleansing act. He led the brothers to the grave and along the way, one of the brothers noticed that the tsikamutanda had something concealed under his armpit and he tipped his elder brother. When they got to the grave, he started performing his acts and again got into a trance, jumping all over the grave and said the spirit had shown him that there was something evil buried by the side of the grave. As he dug, he dropped the unidentified object into the pit he had dug,...
Genetically Modified Organisms
Everyone knows that genetically modified foods are bad for you, right? I mean, they must be because non-governmental organisations such as Friends of the Earth say so and just look at their name! They’re “friends” of the Earth for flip’s sake and “friends” never get things wrong or lie, do they? It’s very easy to believe “friends” and other NGOs, and it’s very easy to disbelieve the government. However, just believing something doesn’t make it right. Putting beliefs aside for the moment if you want to actually know whether GM crops are safe to eat it’s best to consult scientific bodies as they won’t (generally) have any ulterior motive in disseminating falsehoods. An article titled Why NGOs Can’t Be Trusted On GMOs explains more, pointing out as well how some NGOs use wordplay to spin the message away from the facts and towards a biased, unscientific, unsupported standpoint. Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm wrote on the Just Label It website that “all the research conducted around the safety of genetically engineered crops has been funded by the GMO patent holders themselves.” […] Hirshberg’s claim is wrong. […] The European Commission spent more than 200m euros of public funds on GMO research between 2001 and 2010. The EU summarizes about 50 studies in this 264-page report, which is easily found online. The article is concise, balanced, and most likely will be completely ignored by those who have already made up their minds that genetically modified food is dangerous. But that’s probably a build up of pesticides on apples forming a knowledge shield around their brains if I had to hazard a...
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