Altmed in NSW Health

I sent the following to the NSW Department of Health in May 2008 and have had no response. It appears to be strong evidence of links between the alternative medicine industry and the NSW Department of Health:

Ms Deborah Picone

Director General

NSW Department of Health

Dear Ms Picone

This email is about 2 issues:

1. Links between the Department of Health and the Australasian College of Natural Therapies (ACNT)

2. Lack of DOH action on a matter of public health (promotion of homeopathy for reversing diabetes)

At about 3.35pm Friday 2 May I phoned NSW Health 9391 9000 with a complaint about homeopathy and was transferred to an outside agency, the Australasian College of Natural Therapies (ACNT) which promotes homeopathy. I was astounded and disturbed by this.

I phoned 9391 9000 again and asked to speak to you or your PA and was told by switch operator Susie neither of you was available.

The switch operators gave me the runaround. Susie (~3.37pm) transferred me to Rita (~3.39) who told me the that the College of Natural Therapies was often very helpful and offered to transfer me to them again. Rita said another switchboard operator had transferred me to the College earlier. Rita wouldn’t give me the name of that operator. She then said Mary Crum was the NSW Health officer normally dealing with natural therapies but she was on leave and her number was 9391 9000 and I could ring later. I asked Rita (3.42pm) to tell me the name of her supervisor. She wouldn’t and made me wait for about seven minutes. At 3.49 I was finally transferred to Bill Hiler (9391 9459) who said he was in Policy and part of his role was advising on the clinical aspects of homeopathy.

I explained to Mr Hiler that I had two issues now. First the fact that I was transferred out of the Department to ACNT. He said he couldn’t deal with that. I then outlined the first reason for my call – Tweed Shire Council advertising homeopathy. The Council newsletter, distributed to all letterboxes and available on the web, had just advertised talks at two local libraries by a homeopath Jenny Carlan. The ad on page 2 of the Tweed Link newsletter indicated homeopathy may reverse Type 2 diabetes and other illnesses.

http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/linkweb/TweedlinkDetail.aspx

Mr Hiler said he would do nothing about the second issue either and told me I had to make a complaint to the Department of Fair Trading. He said DOH had no power to intervene or suggest to the TSC that it cancel the proposed talk.

I asked Mr Hiler for Val Johnson’s phone number. He asked his assistant Rebecca for it but he wouldn’t give it to me. After another wait he then transferred me to Val.

I’d appreciate a call or written response from you on these 2 issues.

Kevin McCready

MAOA

Monoamine oxidase-A (MAOA) is a brain enzyme which helps mop up neurotransmitters after they’ve done their job.

If they don’ get mopped up, they slosh around in your wet matter and make you crazy.

The trouble (I’ll retract that in a minute) is that there are two types of mopper uppers, depending on your genetics. One type mops up pretty well, the other …. well, it seems you will be prone to violence, fear and probably conservative thinking.

If you have the violent MAOA gene that leaves too many neurotransmitters sloshing around and were abused as a child, your chances of developing anti-social or violent behaviour are a whopping 85%. If you have the gene that is good at mopping up and were also abused as a child, you are nine times less likely to be anti-social or violent. Our courts and jails should take account of this science. They don’t, yet.

Further details at an ABC Radio National talk I gave.

And now the retraction. It’s not “trouble.” It’s part of the wonderful biodiversity of humans. If we were all the same our species wouldn’t stand much of a chance in evolution. The science is still young and the above may prove to be too simplistic.  There are millions of biochemical and genetic interactions in our bodies and tracing the network could be impossible (my guess is that the network will be NP-Hard mathematically).

It could also be that the violent gene is closely related to the curiosity gene – Serotonin Reuptake Transporter Polymorphism (5HTTLPR)  – sorry I just had to get that in. We certainly need both copies of this gene in the human population. Too curious and you’re dead. Not curious enough and you site fearfully in the corner all day like a chiropractor or Ayn Rand devotee.

Oh, and the child rearing evidence cited above is a bloody good reason why the wimpish Kevin Rudd ALP government should fund parental leave and more parenting support services.

Kevin McCready

Short url for this post =

http://is.gd/vf25

Lazy Journalist’s Twitter Guide

So you’re going to write a story on Twitter?

Easy. Say Twitter is rubbish. Hunt around for a couple of examples of nutters tweeting rubbish and that will prove your case. Best are the altmed nutters and chiropractors trying to drum up business.

Don’t bother to find any good tweets. Don’t try to use the Advanced Search function to weed out the rubbish. Just write the story that you think will sell your stuff, usually for your dying paper based affair owned by Rupert Murdoch. After all that’s what the readers want, isn’t it?

Make sure you tell your readers Twitter is all unbalanced rubbish, just like your forebears told us the internet was, probably just like your forebears’ forebears said the Guttenberg press was. Don’t tell your readers there are ways to navigate twitter, that would be like pointing a child to the library catalogue.

But if you change your mind. Try this search for example on the H1N1 (swine flu) scare.

h1n1  -maps -map filter:links -USDA

or

swine -maps -map filter:links -USDA

That will give you results minus “map” and “maps”, since we’ve all seen the googlemap by now. And it will only give results which include a link (tweeters who want you to understand why they make the claim). And it will weed out all the pig lovers who want advice from the US Department of Agriculture.

You might also be surprised at the different results swine versus H1N1 gives. Maybe the H1N1 tweets are more accurate, maybe not.  You be the judge, that’s what you’re paid for.

Keep reading for a while and before long you might find tweets striving for accuracy, not like you do. Oh yes, and try following @CDCemergency, then tell your readers Twitter is crap. But don’t think too hard or you’ll spoil your story.

Kevin McCready

1401GMT

H1N1 (swine flu) Roundup

I could be wrong but evidence does not yet show we need to declare pandemic.

Good roundups on Australian TV (SBS, ABC 7.30 Report)

Twenty confirmed cases in US have not been shown to be the same as the Mexican variant. I haven’t had it confirmed by reliable sources but the alleged 81 deaths in Mexico might only be 22 attributable to the new variant. There is much misinformation (including in traditional media). The prize for the most disgusting goes to the Daily Telegraph, as usual. Its front page was wrong “Deadly Pig Virus Hits NSW.”

Both cases tested in Australia have proved negative (we are one of the four sites in the world with WHO labs to do final testing).  Stats should emerge shortly on rate of false alarms.

Best broad information is here which shows 6% mortality in Mexico and at US Centre for Disease Control (CDC), though I’ve blogged today about problems on their website.  World Health Organisation site is disappointing.

On Twitter there are pockets of good info, but as time goes on the wrong or badly sourced information is swamping the good info. The altmed nutters (chiropractors, wellness kooks etc who don’t understand evidence based medicine) are trying to bump up business from the uneducated, as are the click harvesters (get paid a few cents to get people to click on their silly links promoting whatever).

It was interesting to see the twitter community diverge. Better information was coming via #H1N1 rather than #swine. A fact that many critics overlooked. As a group mind like this evolves on emerging issues you may get people generating new tags to sort out better info. There was even discussion about the best hash tags. The maths of it will probably follow that of bird flocking and fish shoaling. Great stuff.

Depending on news tomorrow I’ll be riding my pushbike down the hill to go shopping, despite urging my wife not to today. Let’s keep our fingers crossed but be aware it could still get bad now or the next time around.

Kevin McCready

Googlemaps H1N1 WAS wrong

Updated

You’ve probably landed on this article via the Guardian story or a repost of it.

When I last checked, the googlemap by Henry Niman had been updated and was correct.

If you’ve got time, please look at my blog on why some of us are violent.

——————

For the record, this is what I wrote which the Guardian referred to:

Why is googlemaps H1N1 (swine flu) wrong?

It’s simple to confirm for yourself.

They are reporting a confirmed case in New Zealand. Find me a reliable source (not scum click harvesters or altmed nutters and chiropractors on Twitter) which says NZ has a confirmed case.

Googlemaps is also reporting suspect cases in Australia which have been confirmed NOT H1N1.

You can probably find other errors.

Pink markers = suspect

Purple markers = confirmed

Deaths have no dot in marker

Googlemaps have NO marker for confirmed NOT to be H1N1.

Kevin McCready a090531GMT (we should all use GMT)

CDC A/H1N1 Swine Flu

The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is at least better than the World Health Organisation (WHO) in providing info on A/H1N1 (swine flu). But there are problems with the CDC website.

Here are 5 examples, and a bouquet (sorry wordpress doesn’t automatically format url’s and I’m busy) .

Eg 1

From newswroom at

http://www.cdc.gov/media/

Clicking on swine flu box at top takes you to outdated

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/investigation.htm

Eg 2

27 Apr 2009 0241GMT

http://www.cdc.gov/media/archives.htm

latest is April 23!

Eg 3

CDC asks you to register for chrissakes to get info

http://www.videonewswire.com/cdc/58393/reg.html

and there is no podcast on that page

Eg 4

A090249GMT

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/whatsnew.htm

links to transcript of 23 April 2009

Eg 5

http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts

Don’t know diff between podcast and vidcast

Examples of good CDC practice

http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2009/a090426.htm

url states date and GMT

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/investigation.htm.

CDC say this page will be updated daily at 3 p.m. ET until further notice.

Kevin McCready

I Have Found a Flaw

“I Have Found a Flaw.”

Not my words but those of Alan Greenspan quoted in an article by Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Stiglitz.

Greenspan was talking after the Global Financial Crisis about markets being self-regulating and the role of government minimal.

During hearings on Capitol Hill Alan Greenspan said, “I have found a flaw.”

Congressman Henry Waxman said, “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right; it was not working.”

“Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan said.

If you haven’t read Stiglitz make it your business to do so.  Here are some highlights.

“In 1987 the Reagan administration decided to remove Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and appoint Alan Greenspan in his place. Volcker had done what central bankers are supposed to do. On his watch, inflation had been brought down from more than 11 percent to under 4 percent. In the world of central banking, that should have earned him a grade of A+++ and assured his re-appointment. But Volcker also understood that financial markets need to be regulated. Reagan wanted someone who did not believe any such thing, and he found him in a devotee of the objectivist philosopher and free-market zealot Ayn Rand.”

“In November 1999, Congress repealed the Glass-Steagall Act—the culmination of a $300 million lobbying effort by the banking and financial-services industries, and spearheaded in Congress by Senator Phil Gramm. Glass-Steagall had long separated commercial banks (which lend money) and investment banks (which organize the sale of bonds and equities); it had been enacted in the aftermath of the Great Depression and was meant to curb the excesses of that era, including grave conflicts of interest. For instance, without separation, if a company whose shares had been issued by an investment bank, with its strong endorsement, got into trouble, wouldn’t its commercial arm, if it had one, feel pressure to lend it money, perhaps unwisely?”

“Self-regulation is preposterous, as even Alan Greenspan now concedes”

On the Bush tax cuts for rich “The cut in the tax rate on capital gains contributed to the crisis in another way. It was a decision that turned on values: those who speculated (read: gambled) and won were taxed more lightly than wage earners who simply worked hard. But more than that, the decision encouraged leveraging, because interest was tax-deductible.”

On stock options as pay for executives “they provide incentives for bad accounting: top management has every incentive to provide distorted information in order to pump up share prices.”

“The incentive structure of the rating agencies also proved perverse. Agencies such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are paid by the very people they are supposed to grade. As a result, they’ve had every reason to give companies high ratings”

“The bailout package was like a massive transfusion to a patient suffering from internal bleeding”

Kevin McCready

Dimmer Plimer

Update 28 April 2009

Ian Plimer and his supporters seems incapable of looking at the evidence on climate change.

Part of Stephen Luntz crikey.com.au article about Plimer says he:

“has never published anything in a peer reviewed journal relating to the vast bulk of the topics covered. He is happy to reference a graph so fraudulent even its author withdrew it as deceptive. He cites as evidence a writer for a UK tabloid who has a history of promoting fraud across numerous fields of science. He repeatedly understates the number of scientists involved in the work he criticises, and attributes qualifications that do not exist to those who support his case. Claims that have been thoroughly debunked are treated as gospel. Personal abuse is hurled at those who do not agree with him. Most of the peer reviewed references come from a single journal whose professional standing is so low it is not carried by the International Scientific Index.”

Update 27 April 2009

Part letter to crikey.com.au

Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe, School of Science, Griffith University, writes: Re. “Review: Ian Plimer’s Heaven and Earth” (Friday, item 17). I have debated climate change in public with Ian Plimer on two occasions. His position is a mixture of geological science which is sound but essentially irrelevant to the present debate, combined with misrepresentation of recent climate science. His book is being applauded by the usual suspects, desperate for some pseudo-scientific justification for their denial of the harsh reality: the risk of dangerous human interference to the Earth’s climate system is now so great that we need an urgent and concerted global response.

Repost from Ebono Institute  21 April 2009

Discredited Geologist, Ian Plimer, has received undue publicity for his latest regurgitation of the fossil fuel industry’s favourite arguments denying global warming. Despite the lack of any new evidence, the paid up lobbyist has received support from a range of vested interests including the current executive of the National Farmers Federation (NFF). That organisation is engaged in a high risk bid to sell membership to agribusiness companies, despite widespread opposition from small farmers. Backing Plimer would appear to be a way to indicate support for the multinational corporations and polarise the membership before the crucial vote at the national conference in Brisbane. It is a ploy that could backfire.

Despite having been discredited a number of times, geologist Ian Plimer is making media waves and lots of money from his dogged opposition of the basic facts on climate change. With no qualifications in meteorology, climatology or hydrology, Plimer trots out the regular arguments used by the fossil fuel lobby. They are that most carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes from geological events, that on a geological time frame we are due for a period of cooling rather than warming, and that on short term time frame trends in the last decade do not show consistent warming. In fact, until last year they showed distinct cooling, but the hottest summer on record in 2009 has blown that furphy and reduced its prominence in the denier’s standard spiel.

All these facts are true, but they have absolutely nothing to do with the evidence on global warming. The impact of human output of carbon dioxide is not significant compared to the swings in atomospheric concentrations of the gas over geological epochs, but it is remarkably significant over a time frame measured in centuries. Similarly, the galactic cycles that affect solar influence on the earth’s climate and the geological cycles that are measured in hundreds of thousands of years, may far outweigh the puny influence that living organisms have on the earth, but our life span and our influence is limited to the scale of individual centuries not thousands of them.

To jump from a scale of hundreds of thousands of years to a scale of individual years and then say, the long term picture and the short term picture, both show that climate science is wrong, is not only bad statistics, it is invalid science. The weather in individual years is almost useless in predicting trends and merely highlight the difference between the weather and the climate. Plimer has simply hunted for any evidence that runs counter to the overwhelming weight of evidence showing that human greenhouse emissions are damaging the earth.

It is always difficult, and dangerous, to attribute motives, but Plimer is not only receiving money and publicity directly from his denial of climate change, he is allied with the Canadian group, the Natural Resources Stewardship Project which refuses to confirm or deny whether its funding comes substantially from energy companies, but which has three directors who are executives of the High Park Advocacy Group, a lobby group working on behalf of energy companies. He is also an Associate of the Institute of Public Affairs, a right wing policy group with connections to the extreme dries in the Liberal Party that has published policy positions advocating privatisation, deregulation, reduction in the power of unions and denial of most significant environmental problems, including climate change.

The entire notion of balance in reporting has been abused by lobby groups from tobacco in the sixties, through star wars in the eighties to climate deniers now. If every extremist was given equal time to put their opinion on every item in the news, news bulletins would take hours and would be dominated by the rantings of extremists all demanding equal time. It is up to editors to decide what is fair on the basis of the evidence and community values, rather than let well backed publicists promote extreme views simply by demanding balance.

For the National Farmers Federation to promote Plimer’s contribution to the debate as a blow for balance is disingenuous at best and will be judged by most as deliberately misleading. Either way, it paints the organisation into a corner which is not in the best interests of its broadest membership base, farmers, from which it will be almost impossible to escape. Accepting the facts on global warming and working on new pasture and land management techniques to reduce methane production and biosequester carbon are what the world and the traditional membership of the NFF needs. To come out backing a lobbyist for the fossil fuel sector indicates the extreme positions that the current NFF leadership is prepared to adopt to court the agribusiness companies from which it hopes to get most of its money in the future. The fact that two state organisations have already deserted the once powerful lobby group on the basis of its support for agribusiness at the expense of the farmer on the land, indicates how thoroughly it has lost its way.

To back a discredited gun for hire who has been publicly shamed so many times indicates that it has lost its media savvy as well. The NFF could well lose the vote at next month’s national conference to alllow agribusiness companies in as paid up members. If it does, the current leadership will also be on the line. Backing Plimer is a high risk bid to polarise the membership. It might well backfire.

— ENDS —

Copyleft, Ebono Institute. www.ebono.org Feel free to publish in its entirety, unencumbered by further copyright restrictions.

Kevin McCready

Rudd the weasel

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The words “little weasel” apply as well to John Howard as they do to Kevin Rudd.

Rudd’s outrageous comment that people traffickers are scum and the lowest form of life is either stupid or deliberate dog whistling identical to Howard. In either case it pushes Rudd further up the little weasel scale. What do we prefer, a stupid Prime Minister or a dog whistling one?

Stupid because there are “worse” types of people that a child could name. Dog whistling because Rudd is pandering to racism and fear as we saw Howard do in the Tampa case. A third possibility is that his childish emotions actually got the better of him and caused his outburst. Again, not a good look.

The simple truth is that millions of dollars spent on sea patrols for boat people are a massive waste of our taxes. Much more serious threats are posed to Australian borders than a few hundred boat people per year. Tiny numbers.  Believing that people will risk their lives on overcrowded leaky boat to bypass normal immigration is ludicrous. Rudd’s subtext is the same as the Conservative and cruel queue jumper mantra. And he studiously avoids what he must know is the real threat via airports and normal travel routes. Dog whistling.

The greatest number of illegal migrants in Australia are American and British tourists who overstay. They bump our population numbers much higher than boat people.

My feeling is that most Australians will be disgusted by Rudd’s crude behaviour. Somehow I don’t think he will put the environmental argument or point to US and UK overstayers as a greater problem than refugees with a well founded fear of persecution.

Kevin McCready

Interesting graph

Graphs can give heaps of information at a glance.

The length of the line between the square and the triangle shows historical progress, or lack of it, in getting people into tertiary education.

The longer the line, the better the progress in improving access to tertiary education.

Some stunning results:

• Germany has gone backwards. Older people are better educated than young.
• The United States, with Estonia and Brazil, is lousy. Let’s hope Obama sees this.
• Korea has made a stunning effort to educate its people.

Percentage by age with tertiary education

The graph is from Education Today: The OECD Perspective (March 2009) (PDF).

WordPress software with the Blix theme makes it look small, but you can cut and paste to blow it up.

Kevin McCready