Author Archive for badchemist

Ridiculous security check

Published
by
badchemist
on February 7, 2008
in Geek Stuff
. 2 Comments

I’m currently running no antivirus software on my computer (I’m installing some later) but decided to try out the Symantec Security Check. Unfortunately my scan couldn’t complete because:

The following checks did not run due to an error on the server. Please try again later.

* Hacker Exposure Check
* Windows Vulnerability Check
* Trojan Horse Check

Please note that the following checks were not able to complete because they require Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher with ActiveX and Scripting enabled:

* Antivirus Product Check
* Virus Protection Update Check

Why these checks did not complete for you:
You are not using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or newer.

So, in order to run a security check I need to use an insecure browser with activeX and scripting enabled further reducing my security. Muppets,

Bloody Spammers Again

Published
by
badchemist
on February 4, 2008
in Housekeeping and Spam
. 0 Comments

I’m suddenly getting a torrent of spam in the pingbacks. In an attempt to keep them at bay I have reintroduced Askimet on top of reCaptcha. Sorry if this results in some comments being held up in moderation - I’ll get to them when I can - it’s surely preferable to 40 links to casinos/drugs/porn.

Also found a couple of comments caught up in Askimet from months ago despite me switching it off. Hmm. Apologies to those who were unnecessarily censored.

I can’t help but be amused…

Published
by
badchemist
on February 1, 2008
in Good Science and Random
. 0 Comments

…by animals with big noses.

Giant Elephant Shrew

A new mammal has been discovered that is like a rather large elephant shrew. Brilliant

Unfortunately the paper doesn’t appear to be published yet. Shame.

While I’m here did you know that elephant shrews are more closely related to elephants than other shrews. Blooming marvellous

Who says that Christian TV is shit?

Published
by
badchemist
on February 1, 2008
in Chasers War on Everything, Religion and video
. 0 Comments

More Chaser’s War on Everything

Joseph Chikelue Obi Update 2

Published
by
badchemist
on January 28, 2008
in Barking, Libel and Medicine and Health
. 0 Comments

According to this all us bloggers who decided to defend another’s freedom of speech are shills for the GMC. We are sponsored by them apparently, as were the journalists who wrote the articles referenced by Quackometer, and others, about Obi previously.

When I was told that the Enemies of Alternative Medicine had recruited 5000 (Five Thousand) Bloggers to write rubbish about me 24 hours a day , ( every single day of the year ) , I said OK . . . Let’s wait and see precisely what they will say . . . (Because in my view , it is a perfectly Good Military Tactic to sit back and watch them all come creeping out of the woodwork , so that I know precisely what their capabilities are).

…Now , after speedreading almost everything that they have written , and also carefully analyzing their strategies , I have reached the simple conclusion that their plan has massively backfired ; as all that their 5000 Blogposts have done is provide me with even more ammunition for my Multiple Lawsuits . . . both against the Hosting Company of the Defamatory Blog Itself and the General Medical Council.

Maybe Obi should go and read up about libel and defamation. If those earlier articles are defamatory as stated he’s had several years to take legal action; and should have won if they were. British libel law is renowned for putting the emphasis on the defendant to prove their innocence rather than the complainant to prove their guilt. All the Quackometer and other commentators have done is take those articles in good faith, backed up with information provided on Obi’s own websites. He appears to have provided himself with no ammunition at all, particularly against the GMC who seem completely unrelated other than be the target of one of his campaigns. Being struck off obviously makes you bitter.

I have absolutely no criminal record or criminal convictions whatsover . . . and anyone who implies otherwise should be firmly made to pay the supreme price for their actions. . . and that is why they are all so worried that my Legal Team is going after them all ; because they know that when we do eventually catch them , they will certainly not escape their due punishment.

When has anyone implied that Obi had any prior convictions? To reiterate, Quackometer wrote:

He was being investigated by the police for taking thousands of pounds of a 58 year old woman to in order to cure a long standing illness.

This does not imply that Obi has any criminal convictions.

All Obi appears to have done with this article is further defame those who have criticised him as well as the GMC. Luckily my fellow bloggers and I don’t tend to go in for legal suits and prefer to respond to criticisms rather than try and silence them. For the record I have never had any dealings with the GMC. I am not in the medical profession. I am a research scientist and PhD student in chemistry, but as a scientist I know the difference between quackery and medicine. And I think that anyone will agree that throwing allegations of of racism and corruption can hardly be described as ethical.

Morality Quiz

Published
by
badchemist
on January 26, 2008
in Cults and Religion
. 0 Comments

Via pharyngula I’ve found this wonderful ’science project’ based around a questionnaire on morality. I thought I’d answer this quiz and see how I fair.

1. Have you ever spoke the name of our Lord in vain? No, I don’t believe in ‘our Lord’ and as such can’t take his name in vain. Damn it, I just have.
2. Have you ever killed another human being? Not that I’m aware of.
3. Have you every lied? Yes.
4. Have you ever had relations before marriage? Yes thankyou
5. Do you go to church every Sunday or once a week? I can’t remember the last time I went in a church or other religious building. It can’t have been that long ago as I do like the architecture
6. Do you wish you had more stuff? Yes, particularly more cheese.
7. Do you gossip? A bit yes
8. Do you give to charity? Yes, as long as it’s secular
9. Do you listen to rap or heavy metal music? Yes (by the way does Christian Metal count as moral or immoral?)
10. Have you ever had an abortion or been pro-choice? I’m male so no to the first, but yes to the pro-choice.
11. Have you ever read Harry Potter or Spiderwick Chronicles or the Golden Compass? No I haven’t not because of morality more because I don’t really like fantasy books. I once started ready Harry Potter and got bored very quickly
12. Do you see movies with unwholesome content? Hell Yeah!
13. Do you pray every day? Hmmmmm….only in the manner that any scientist prays to the lab gods that an experiment has worked
14. Do you believe that God is the creator of heaven and earth? Nope
15. Are you overweight because you eat too much? Nope, I’m underweight and eat/drink to much
16. Do you take pride in accomplishments other than service to God? Yes, getting through this questionnaire without swearing would make me immensely proud
17. Do you put God and Jesus first? Put them where?
18. Do you view pornography? When I feel like it.
19. Do you practice temperance in every thing you do? No
20. Are you quick to anger? Relatively

Unfortunately I don’t have the mark scheme for this. Apparently you would be considered immoral if you scored less than 15. I can only assume that you didn’t get a point for answering yes to question 2 but you’d probably get one if you said the same to question 5.

Site Upgrade

Published
by
badchemist
on January 26, 2008
in Housekeeping
. 0 Comments

I’ve just upgraded wordpress and the theme for this page. If anyone spots anything odd going on post a comment on this post or email me:

My Email admin[at]badchemist[dot]net

Joseph Chikelue Obi Update

Published
by
badchemist
on January 25, 2008
in Barking, Joseph Chikelue Obi and Libel
. 2 Comments

The attempt by Joseph Chikelue Obi to silence the Quackometer really hasn’t helped him much. As a consequence their is a considerable number of mirrors of the original posts and LCN has uncovered some interesting looking info on his business dealings. Joseph Chikelue Obi seems to have experience with defamation suits having previously had one of his (seemingly endless list of) sites removed on such grounds before.

Currently a google search for Joseph Chikelue Obi yields several of the mirror sites or related articles on the front page of hits. According to another of his websites, the whois info gives his name and one address mentioned in the quackometer post, this does not worry the good doctor.

Alternative Medicine Strongman , Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi , has today survived one of the Most Lethal Bloggers Assaults in Modern History , with almost Five Thousand Defamatory Bloggers woefully failing to sink him despite their use of the very latest Internet Spamming Technology.

[Gratuitous use of italics his]

5000 bloggers? The most comprehensive lists of mirrors I’ve seen only have about 1/100th of that many. He’ll also be disappointed to know that the `Internet Spamming Technology’ of which he speaks is simply the same technology he uses to create his site: ordinary blogging software, email and people writing. [Edit: I’ve just reread that quote - “one of the Most Lethal Bloggers Assaults in Modern History” - even if you take blogging back to the early days of Usenet you’re only in the 80s, still modern history. Were there `Bloggers Assaults’ before the beginning of the internet? Did Rome fall because of a very small minority of people sticking bits of papyrus on public notice boards?]

Apparently, from the comfort of Belfast, he is quoted:

” Let them drink Bile if they so wish : In the Interim , my Multiple Legal Actions have already started , and will maverickly proceed as planned . . . Come what may “

I’ll look forward to receiving my letter from Tanya then, even though we still have no evidence she is a solicitor.

Yesterday Joseph Chikelue Obi also declared victory over the GMC. His petitions (here and here) have 272 and 64 signatories at the moment, the former has now closed as well. That really is a HUGE crushing blow to the GMC especially considering the 1,000,000+ road-pricing petition was pretty much ignored by the government. He also seems to have made a rather large logical fallacy in his analysis of these petitions.

Preliminary Comparative Analysis of the separate Downing Street Petitions above clearly suggests that 4 out of every 5 people would rather have the General Medical Council comprehensively abolished altogether , instead of trying to patch it up with one particular Investigation or another.

Assuming no duplicates in the two petitions 336 people have signed to date, approximately 4:1 abolishion:investigation. So 4 out of every 5 people would rather have the GMC abolished than investigated in a sample size of <350.

But the profound beauty of the matter is that because we selflessly devoted one full year of Ear-Deafening Mayhem to our cause , over 200,000 Doctors in the United Kingdom will soon be enjoying the Profound Regulatory Benefits of an Absolutely Fabulous year”.

If over 200,000 doctors are going to `benefit’ from the abolition of the GMC you would think a few more would have signed up, especially as they are the people being regulated by this supposedly unethical and institutionally racist body.

Linzi Boyd - Lifestyle Consultant

Published
by
badchemist
on January 24, 2008
in Barking, Energy Healing, Geek Stuff, Medicine and Health and Nutribollocks
. 0 Comments

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that all celebrity `nutritionists’ walk hand in hand with quackery. Whilst perusing my RSS feeds earlier I came across some useful detox advice in the Torygraph. To be honest the article isn’t that bad, just some helpful advice for when you need feel like detoxing. Although, as any medical professional worth their salt could tell you, detoxing isn’t necessary as long as you eat a healthy balanced diet (read “eat less, mainly vegetables, exercise more”). All this article does is make the middle classes feel better about themselves if they spend a few weeks eating healthily every 6 months or so.

What interested me more was the link to the authors website Farm Living. This is a company that want to charge you extortionate amounts of money to give you basic nutritional advice and some other psuedoscientific BS.

Combining nutritional therapy and lifestyle coaching with a more holistic approach, she [Linzi Boyd] includes practices such as Yoga, Chi Gong, Meditation, Positive affirmations, Chakra clearing, Vision boards, Emotion Freedom Technic (E.F.T.) and Emo trance

Some of these practices are not without merit, especially if you ignore the crap about `energy’ and what have you, but some I’d never even heard of so I thought a little investigation was in order.

Emotional Freedom Technique

Only one hit in PubMed for this one, under the pseudonym Emotional Acupuncture (Jebus!) unfortunately it’s in Nursing Standard which I have no access to but google leads us to the exciting emofree.com* that tells us it can help with pretty much everything.

For proof, here is a sampling of our actual cases. They are written for you by everyday citizens, physicians and therapists: Pain Management, Addictions, Weight loss, Allergies, Children’s Issues, Animals, Vision, Headaches, Panic/Anxiety, Asthma, Trauma, PTSD, Abuse, Depression, Dyslexia, Carpal Tunnel, Anger, ADD-ADHD, Fears/phobias, Eating disorders, OCD, Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Neuropathy, Fear of Flying, Claustrophobia, Agoraphobia, Anorexia/Bulimia, Sports and other Performance

Not what you’d call evidence, more a list of anecdotes. A quick read of the What is EFT? page tells me all I need to know.

The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.

There’s also mention of meridians and I really can’t be bothered with that, the final nail is hammered in when you see who the first testimonial comes from the legendary Deepak Chopra.

*Is it me or does emofree just sound like someone trying to get rid of kids wearing eyeliner and black.

Vision boards
This appears to be great for people with more money than sense. Visit their website and you too can learn from their truly awful video. For only $39 dollars you could own a piece of software that makes slideshows from pictures and add words to them as well. Apparently by watching this slideshow your life will improve beyond your wildest dreams. Seriously who buys this crap?

Emotrance

More energy healing, possibly crazier than EFT.

I really can’t take any more of this shit.

On a different note I would like to point out that although Linzi Boyd seems to want to help people, albeit for a princely sum, she obviously doesn’t care about those who have disabilities that require the use of screen readers etc. All of the text on her site is within image files with alt tags that are wholly inadequate and only give the name of the page. This really pisses me off - it is not hard write a compliant website and consider accessibility issues. Short alt tags are fine for images that don’t effect the overall meaning of the page, they are useless if all the information is contained within the image. Use the longdesc tag as well if need be. If everyone used compliant code the internets would be a better place, that also goes for people writing sites specifically for IE. Sorry, rant over.

Joseph Chikelue Obi - Links included now

Published
by
badchemist
on January 23, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

Quackometer is under fire again and the web host has forced them to remove a couple of pages. They are reproduced for your pleasure below. As with the last time quite a few people have jumped on this visit them here:
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Science and Progress
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Rich Speaks…
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ No Nonsense!
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Ambri-guous
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Thinking is Dangerous
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Rich Scopie
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Brain Duck
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Soberish
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Skeptico
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ A day at the pharmacy
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Fooeey
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ jdc325
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ FlammableFlower
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Sunclipse
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ NeuroLogica
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Paholaisen Asianajaja
Joseph Chikelue Obi @ Shpalman

I’ve updated the text for these pages from google’s cache so you now have all the links that were in the original posts.

Right Royal College of Pompous Quackery - Dublin
Thursday, September 28, 2006
I had to share this with you. Following on from my recent Quack Word ‘Doctor’ blog, I came across the Royal College of Alternative Medicine (RCAM) , a Dublin based - well, I’m not sure quite what it is…

What caught my eye was just the shameless aggrandisement of the site. It is quite hilarious, if not a little repetitive at times. Calling yourself ‘Doctor’ is somewhat pompous when all you have done is paid for some international postage. However, the man behind RCAM has absolutely no shame and titles himself as the:

Distinguished Provost of RCAM (Royal College of Alternative Medicine) Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi FRCAM(Dublin) FRIPH(UK) FACAM(USA) MICR(UK)

Wow! Probably, just Joe to his mates. Naturally, when you Google the qualification FRCAM(Dublin), there is only person who appears to revel in this achievement. I’ll leave the rest as an excercise for the reader.

The distinguished provost looks like he is just another pseudoscientific nutritionist, his spin being “Nutritional Immunomodulation”. This is obviously a lot more clever than Patrick Holfords mere ‘Optimum Nutrition’, but having only one ‘omnipill’ is probably a poorer commercial decision that Patrick’s vast range of supplements.

Obviously, Professor Obi has had a few problems with what probably amount to bewildering comments about his site as the legal threats and press releases concerning his ‘ethical’ responses to criticisms cover more space than anything else. ‘Ethical’ is a favourite word on the site.

The most recent press release states,

7th September 2006 : The Distinguished RCAM Provost , Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi FRCAM(Dublin) FRIPH(UK) FACAM(USA) MICR(UK) has formally accepted appointment as Chief Professorial Examiner for the Doctor of Science (DSc) programme in Evidence Based , Alternative Medicine (EBAM) of a highly respected International University in one of the British Commonwealth Protectorates.

This new qualification is primarily aimed at Medical Graduates , Physicians, Surgeons, Pharmacists, Dentists , Osteopaths , Chiropractors , Opticians , Wellness Consultants , Herbalists , Acupuncturists , Naturopaths , Healers, Podiatrists , Chiropodists , Scientists , Healers ,Therapists, Homeopaths , Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Nurses wishing to ethically upgrade their current Qualifications in Alternative Medicine over an exceedingly intensive 12 - 36 month period of study.

British Commonwealth Protectorates? Could that be Dublin?

I really have no idea what this organisation is all about. But it looks like it could be getting quite big soon…

RCAM currently has International Vacancies for One Million (1,000,000) ‘Foundation Fellows’ (’Movers and Shakers’) ; who will independently play a highly pivotal role in diligently mentoring (and regulating) it’s future Global Membership.

So if you really think that you seriously have what it takes to become a ‘Leader’ in Alternative Medicine , then (perhaps) RCAM may definitely be exactly what the Doctor ordered for you.

One million. That’s a lot of quacks! And they are just to mentor (and regulate) the wider quack membership! This man has ambition.

The Big J really hates real doctors. This is his most recent press release…

RCAM would like to warmly commend the various Chieftans of the National Health Service of the United Kingdom for ethically and appropriately ignoring utterly misguided calls (from a rather amusing Group of thirteen Clinical Yestermen) to compel Hard-Working (and Tax-Paying) British Citizens to additionally pay for Life Enhancing Alternative Medicine Interventions out of their very own pockets - rather than get such treatments free via the NHS. RCAM would like to also categorically state that such exceedingly flawed ‘G-13′ demands that the National Health Service of the United Kingdom expediently abandon Alternative Medicine altogether (in total favour of Conventional Medicine) be diplomatically treated with the very utmost contempt which such unguarded verbal flippance duly deserves ; as none of these 13 ‘Eminent UK Scientists’ behind such calls has professionally attained Globally Acceptable Fellowship Qualifications in Alternative Medicine and as such cannot be deemed competent enough to make such sweeping ‘Shilly-Shally’ statements about the noble independent specialty of Alternative Medicine.

RCAM therefore publicly advises the General Public to lawfully go about their normal Wellness-Seeking Behaviour as usual - without any unwarranted prejudice or fear resulting from such highly self-serving, morally unethical , abjectly crude , totally unprofessional, utterly unstatesmanly, morbidly barbaric, wantonly uncivilized, profanely undemocratic and unspeakably sacrilegious perpetual affronts on the therapeutically formidable institution of Alternative Medicine.

Now, I do not have ‘Globally Acceptable Fellowship Qualifications’ in Santa Clause Studies to know he does not exist. But hey. I must be a morbidly barbaric and profanely undemocratic, unethical duck.

So, struggling around the acres of pomposity I find one place where Prof Joe might be making some money. You can call him to seek his wisdom, after pre-booking an hour’s slot (and handing over your credit card) for a mere 300 Euros. Alternatively, you can pay by the minute on the contact line for a trifling $10 per minute.

Its going to cost you $20 just for Joe to say Hello and to read out his numerous titles, qualifications and names. Not bad ‘ethical’ work

Ethical Quackery, the Monarchy and Kate Moss

No, this is not about our Defender of Quackery, our Quack-in-Chief His Royal Quackiness, Prince Charles, but about the Distinguished Provost of the Royal College of Alternative Medicine, Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi. And yes, it is just a rather lame story written solely to get a picture of Kate on my blog.

I’ve written a rather lazy blog on the distinguished professor before that was just a bit of a gawp at his quacktastic website and what looks like a health phone-line scam.

Well, I’ve done a little more digging with Google and it has revealed a few quack gems. It has been pretty hard work, since Google returns some 6,000 pages, the vast majority just appears to be Prof Obi’s self-promotion. However, if you persist in digging a few interesting facts turn up.

So, what has the little black duck found out about the “most Controversial Retired Physician and ‘A-List’ Medical Celebrity, Dr Joseph Chikelue Obi“?

Here we go…

1. The Irish Independent reports that his college does not exist at the Dublin address given on the web site. There’s a surprise! It’s just a front.

2. The Independent goes on. “In January 2003, he was suspended by for serious professional misconduct at South Tyneside District Hospital. Among the allegations made were that he failed to attend to patients, wrote strange notes about colleagues and at one point gave a dating agency phone number to a psychiatric patient.”

3. He was being investigated by the police for taking thousands of pounds of a 58 year old woman to in order to cure a long standing illness.

4. The GMC strike Dr Obi off their register for “serious professional misconduct”. So much for him being retired.

5. On another tack, Dr Obi has been involved in a little cyber-squatting. This looks as if it took place while he was a doctor - always after a few quid!

6. Since then, now self-titled Prof Obi, a few new avenues have been opened, including trying to entice Kate Moss away to one of his ’safe-houses’ in Ireland. Hat’s off!

He is quoted as saying:

“Under the European Convention on Human Rights, Miss Moss still has fundamental rights, just like anyone else out there, and as far as I am concerned, she is not guilty of anything until an Ethical Jury says so.”

(I mentioned before that ‘ethical’ was one of his favourite words.)

7. Prof Obi has been developing a Penis Enlarger (watch out Kate) that his own Royal College has now endorsed.

8. At least one person (out of the targeted million) has paid Prof Obi the fees for his college to accredit them. Dr Michael Keet (8 Canards) of the Central London College of Reflexology handed over ‘hundreds’. Do we feel sorry for out-quacked quacks? I guess we ought to.

9. For those of you wanting to see behind the grand titles and see the real human being, Joseph lists his interests as Comedy in London, Whole Food Nutrition and Christian Music. On this ‘Meetup’ site, he describes himself as “Just a very ordinary guy . . .”. That’s nice.

10. His name appears very often on the blog Abolish The General Medical Council (GMC), often reporting something he has got up to. The blog describes itself as:

An ethical blog for those who publicly feel that the General Medical Council (GMC) should be Statutorily Abolished in favour of a Medical Licensing Commission (MLC) to solely register and revalidate Doctors who practise Conventional Medicine in the UK. The Blog also recommends that the GMC/MLC hands all disciplinary functions over to an Independent Clinical Tribunal (ICT) in keeping with the EU Convention on Human Rights ; to avoid (both) Institutional Bias and Multiple Jeopardy.

Oooh. There is that word ‘ethical’ again. And ‘European Human Rights’. No name is given for the blog author but the avatar is a portrait of the queen. Another apparent obsession of Prof Obi - royalty. Could the author be none other than the Professor himself, a little agrieved for his ticking off? I hope you all click through to the blog. Maybe we will show up in his stats and whoever the writer is can get in contact and confirm one way or another.

I rather hope is is, as the final thing I turned up would just be fantastic…

11. Is the Distinguished Provost of the Royal College of Alternative Medicine, Professor Obi now selling ethical ring-tones? I do hope so.

Watch out Crazy Frog! Here comes the Crazy Provost…

PostscriptIt does look like Prof Obi has read this blog. He claims on the blog ‘Abolish The General Medical Council’ the following…

And now we have the GMC sending the ‘half-wit’ Quackometer Bloggers after me, who (by the way) don’t even know the very meaning of the word ‘Quack’.

Excellent. So I am a GMC Shill now to add to my credentials. Black ducks are not that clever, but half-witted is a bit harsh. And I don’t know the meaning of the word quack. As usual for a quack, not a shred of evidence to support his claims that I have anything to do with the GMC.

I have a feeling this story will re-appear. But first, I must download that ringtone…

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