Why I love xkcd.
BTW, for those who use Firefox and find you can’t always see all of the hover over text (the title tag) try the Long Titles extension
Ridiculous security check
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 CheckPlease 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 CheckWhy 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,
Linzi Boyd – Lifestyle Consultant
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.
