Comments on: "There is a plague of Jellyfish off the coast of Spain as reported in the Guardian this week. Ben, why not take a holiday there this year."

By: rugbycomont

rugbycomont — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:05:51 +0000

I’m confused. Why does he think your health would be improved by eating conkers for a month? iirc, they’re toxic. And I think if I’d been stung by jellyfish, I’d want an antidote, not an anecdote…

By: Bud82

Bud82 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:56:05 +0000

“One is sugar pills. Two is a dilution of Medusa 30c. If you can detect the effect from the dummy and the real pill as different you will have an anecdote, n=1.”

Which one is the dummy pill here?

By: Sili

Sili — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:48:03 +0000

As I understand it, Wyle_E, that’s what the special magical shakingsuccussion is for. It ‘resets’ the memory. Vewwy clever.

Let’s look at the bright side. At least they have enough moral fibre that they’re not publishing a bad review – obviously they must recognise that it’s a good book.

By: Wyle_E

Wyle_E — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:26:12 +0000

Has any homeopath remarked on the necessity of using only newly-synthesized water for preparing homeopathic remedies? After all, if water “remembers” everything it has ever been in contact with, water from any natural source will have “memories” of all sorts of shit, from heavy metals to every kind of _literal_ shit. Only by making new water from reagent-grade hydrogen and oxygen could one avoid this vast range of unintended, unpredictable side effects. This, of course, assumes that the elements don’t have “memories.”

The homeopaths may retreat from “water memory” to a psychic theory, arguing that it is the intent of the practitioner that produces the effect. That would have the advantage (for the quacks, that is) of being harder to test, because they could say that the mere presence of a skeptic is enough to spoil the magic.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:57:47 +0000

Why not encourage them to really go to town on your book and provide closely argued refutations of your main points? After all, you wouldn’t want a watered-down review, would you?

By: BobP

BobP — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:33:33 +0000

Hey Ben, Treuherz said “I have my own copy already”.
You are making a profit out of homeopaths!

By: Dr* T

Dr* T — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:50:25 +0000

Careful about those jellyfish, Ben, there are KILLER JELLYFISH on our very own shores!!!111!1! (A story the Mirror has been publishing since 2004)

By: DrJon

DrJon — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:49:00 +0000

I was very nicely sent a free copy of your book by the BMJ (for emailing them) and I must say I was surprised by how good it was – better than expected. After reading a disappointing (though not bad) book by Derren Brown I was worried I’d be disappointed again. Not so. Really very well done, and I’ll be annoying people by buying them copies for a while. Christmas is coming, and I imagine quite a few people will be getting a copy of this book in their stockings (though some of them may prefer coal, I hope they’ll give it a go – there’s diamond inside). Damn I hate writing gushing things.

By: NuclearChicken

NuclearChicken — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:13:28 +0000

Maybe Mr Treuherz should “put his money where his mouth is” and demonstrate the awesome curative power of Medusa 30c? A video on YouTube would be most welcome.

By: Seahorse

Seahorse — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:04:55 +0000

The best answer to his disingenuous question is presumably to suggest that he gives his review copy to a teenage family member or friend, or to the library of his local school.

By: pv

pv — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:09:59 +0000

some clear constructive suggestions of ways forward for building an evidence base

The last thing they’ll want is an evidence base of any kind. As you’ve observed in the past they are anti-evidence, and obsessively so, so I don’t think they’ll thank you for the suggestions.

By: stavros

stavros — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:09:27 +0000

Ben, I had no idea your book was doing so well! Congratulations! I got it last week and have found it very *very* informative and amusing so far (halfway through)!

I was very interested on the bit where you said you are constructing a summary with some colleagues on homeopathy research. I assume you will let us know when that happens, right?