Cases dropped against malaria homeopaths
“Officials have dropped charges against pharmacies alleged to have advised people to take homeopathic remedies to protect them against malaria instead of anti-malarial drugs. The General Pharmaceutical Council’s decision has been described as “shabby and irresponsible” by some who helped bring the case against the pharmacies. Charges were bought after an undercover investigation by campaigning group Sense about Science and BBC Newsnight. Experts advocate anti-malaria drugs.
Speaking about the latest decision, Tracey Brown, director of Sense about Science said “we may as well have no regulation of pharmacists at all”. It comes days after the Royal Pharmaceutical Society said they were “shocked” that one of the pharmacies involved, Ainsworths in London, is still suggesting taking homoeopathic remedies to prevent serious diseases such as typhoid, polio and malaria instead of proven drugs and vaccinations.
“I am shocked that a regulatory body would ignore its responsibility to protect patients”
Dr Simon Singh
Science writer and broadcaster
The 2006 undercover investigation showed that homeopathic pharmacies were recommending sugar pills which include no active ingredients instead of drugs and vaccinations for travellers to countries where malaria is endemic. At the time the head of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital Dr Peter Fisher told Newsnight “there is absolutely no reason to think that homeopathy works to prevent malaria… people may even die of malaria if they follow this advice”.”
Read more at BBC News (Thanks Katie)
Can you help?
A friend has had her car and two gorgeous dogs stolen in Worcester: can you help?
“CAN YOU HELP FIND 2 MISSING PUPPIES?
LARGE CASH REWARD, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!
A chocolate and red coloured smooth hair miniature daschund 7 months old, male dog, wearing a chocolate brown leather and brass collar,
and a brindle coloured wired hair miniature daschund, also 7 months old, male dog are missing… Can you help return them to their family?
The puppies were in the back of a blue Land Rover Defender, registration number: 888 DAX, which was stolen from outside St Peter’s Church, Worcester Road, Bromsgrove on Thursday 6th January 2011, whilst the owner was attending a funeral. It’s likely the thieves didn’t know the dogs were in the back of the car.
The puppies were in a white wire dog carrier, approximately 28″ x 28″, with a pillow and dog blankets.
The dogs are well looked after and from a very loving home, and are desperately missed by their family.
LARGE CASH REWARD is offered for information leading to the return of the dogs. NO QUESTIONS asked about the theft of the car or other contents, the family just want their dogs to come back home.
If you have ANY information about these two puppies, or the white wire dog carrier please send a facebook message or post on the wall of this page.
Or if you don’t want to leave your name and details, please contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or the RSPCA national hotline on 0300 1234999.”
Derren Brown Night ch4 – 8 Jan 2011
Thank you all for your lovely comments and emails, they are so nice – the team are answering as many as possible. We’ve had literally hundreds of people who didn’t realise that Derren was also a talented portrait painter. For those of you who want to see his work head on over to the Derren Brown Art Site here.
Tickets for the new live show Svengali are still available here (click the venue name to link to sales point) but they’re going rather fast and many venues are now sold out. Otherwise feel free to leave your comments below and thank you all for watching.
Derren Brown Night – Tonight 9pm
Derren Brown Night starts tonight at 9pm with ‘Derren Brown: Behind the Mischief’ (see trailer below), followed by ‘Derren Brown: Viewers’ Choice’ which is a classic Derren Brown show as voted for by fans, then finished by another showing of Enigma, filmed last year at Wimbledon.
For those of you who haven’t seen it yet here’s the CH4 Trailer.
Romanian witches to cast anti-government spell
Double, double toil and trouble: witches in Romania are planning to cast a spell on the country’s rulers because of laws that will force them to pay tax for the first time. Cat excrement and dead dogs, rather than eye of newt and toe of frog, will go into their cauldron – but they are hoping to put a Macbeth-style hex on the country’s president, Traian Basescu, and his government after the imposition of a tax regime aimed at tackling the recession.
Witches will gather on Romania’s southern plains and the banks of the Danube to protest against the laws and cast spells on the politicians who implemented them. A dozen witches will hurl the poisonous mandrake plant into the river “so evil will befall them”, a witch named Alisia said.
The threatened curse is not being taken lightly in a country with a long tradition of superstition. Basescu and his aides have been known to wear purple on certain days in an attempt to ward off evil.
The new law is part of the government’s drive to collect more revenue and crack down on tax evasion. It will force the likes of witches, astrologers and fortune tellers to register their professions and become liable for 16% tax in line with other self-employed Romanians.
The Queen witch Bratara Buzea said she would lead a chorus in casting a spell using a concoction of cat excrement and a dead dog. “They want to take the country out of this crisis using us? They should get us out of the crisis because they brought us into it,” she said.
Hundreds of NY Churchgoers Exposed to Hepatitis From Communion
Hundreds of people who attended Christmas Day Mass at one Long Island, New York church may have unknowingly been exposed to hepatitis A, the Nassau County Health Department has warned.
Parishioners who went to service at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Massapequa Park may have been exposed to the virus while taking Communion, health officials are warning.
“An individual tested positive for hepatitis A who is involved in the Communion process,” Nassau County health department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain told Newsday. Our Lady of Lourdes has a congregation of roughly 7,500. Both priests and lay eucharistic ministers assist with Communion services at Roman Catholic churches.
Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, told the newspaper that the investigation is ongoing. The health department is encouraging parishioners that attended Mass on Christmas Day to get vaccinated for the virus.
BBC Horizon – The Secret You
With the help of a hammer-wielding scientist, Jennifer Aniston and a general anaesthetic, Professor Marcus du Sautoy goes in search of answers to one of science’s greatest mysteries: how do we know who we are? While the thoughts that make us feel as though we know ourselves are easy to experience, they are notoriously difficult to explain. So, in order to find out where they come from, Marcus subjects himself to a series of probing experiments.
He learns at what age our self-awareness emerges and whether other species share this trait. Next, he has his mind scrambled by a cutting-edge experiment in anaesthesia. Having survived that ordeal, Marcus is given an out-of-body experience in a bid to locate his true self. And in Hollywood, he learns how celebrities are helping scientists understand the microscopic activities of our brain. Finally, he takes part in a mind-reading experiment that both helps explain and radically alters his understanding of who he is.
Also available shortly on BBC iPlayer
Enigma On TV Tonight! – 9.35pm CH4
Thursday 06 January
9:35pm – 11:10pm
Channel 4
This is his latest theatre show, recorded at the New Wimbledon Theatre in London in 2010.
Enigma is another jaw-dropping, show-stopping theatrical event that leaves the live audience and viewers in awe of Derren’s incredible abilities to control minds and manipulate thoughts. Derren is at his funniest and finest in this stunning theatrical event, which brought him more rave reviews up and down the country and “sees him climb to artistic heights rarely, if ever, achieved by any other legends of the magical arts” (Time Out). Filmed live in front of a sold-out crowd at the New Wimbledon Theatre, the show was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2010.
Enigma is also available to pre-order on DVD at Amazon (Released on January 17, 2011)
60 Minutes documentary on Superior Autobiographical Memory
There has been a discovery in the field of memory recently, so new you won’t find it in any textbook. It’s so hard to fathom, there are some who remain unconvinced.
For the moment, the scientists studying it are simply calling it “superior autobiographical memory.” And unless you happen to know one of the handful of people discovered so far who have it, get ready to be amazed.
Louise Owen is 37 years old and a professional violinist living in New York City. But she has another gift too, one that is far more rare.
When correspondent Lesley Stahl mentioned a date, Jan. 2, 1990, Owen told her, “Right now, I’m remembering the jogging class that I started that morning.”
To see the rest of this documentary click here.
Crematorium considers dissolving bodies
“Cambridge City Crematorium have proposed a set of gruesome after-death arrangements – which they claim are more environmentally-friendly than traditional funerals.
Bosses have called for a 21st century ”commercial approach” towards handling death and asked Cambridge City Council to let them use futuristic technologies. Plans include using liquid nitrogen to chill a body to -196C, in a process called ”promession” or ”cyromation”, when it is so brittle it can be fragmented and cleaned. The body is then freeze-dried to remove moisture and the dust is used as environmentally-friendly compost or buried in a biodegradable casket.
Crematorium chiefs also want to place bodies in silk bags and submerge them in a 160C alkaline solution – which would dissolve them in around three hours. The grisly procedure, called ”resomation”, dissolves all the organs and bones and leaves behind a green-brown liquid and white dust. The liquid can be disposed in a number of different ways, including being flushed into the sewerage system.
Bereavement services manager Tracy Lawrence said the ”greener” alternatives emit less pollution than traditional cremation. She said: ”The plans proposes improvements to the quality and value of services to customers and envisages a modern, forward-looking service delivering good value and offering improved returns to future investment.” The move is intended to tackle a lack of burial space and environmental concerns as 573lbs of carbon dioxide are released by each cremated corpse. Six states in America have passed legislation to allow resomation and the Scottish company Resomation Ltd says it is in talks to allow the process in the UK.”
Read more at The Telegraph
