Fri, 19 June 2009
Jennifer Ouellette
Comments[6]
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- Just a quick comment on Dr Rachie Reports, a segment which I love. (Yay Dr Rachie!) I was a little disturbed by your use of the accidental death of a toddler caught in a collapsed massage table as a lead in to a piece about a dodgy purveyor of woo. The child's death was not caused by the alternative therapy and could have equally occurred in a home or a qualified physiotherapist's office. You do such a great job of going after woo-purveyors, and this accidental and coincidental death adds nothing to the argument against them. It's a shame to dilute your strong message with extraneous accusations.
- @melody,
To some extent I agree. The mention of the toddlers death did not add much and I think the report may have been better without it.
I do take issue with the comment that the death could have just as easily occurred in a registered physio's office or in the home. I would like to await the coroners verdict to see if there was any contributory negligence on the behalf of the practitioner.
- Hi great show as usual. Something that came up during the tank was about how the "general public" or even other skeptics can find out for themselves what they should know. Generally I find that people are only as informed as they want to be but for those that want to inform themselves (like myself) it would be handy to know some of the techniques or resources that are availablle. For instance I don't think many people know about the google scholar search engine. Clearly searches entered in here are far better than into std google. Pub med was also mentioned. Maybe you guys could do a talk on some of these resources.
- I have a few comments on this one.
* So that's how you pronounce Oullette!
* Regarding House, I have to recommend the "House Medical Reviews" at http://www.politedissent.com/house_pd.html to anyone who isn't already familiar with it.
* Jennifer refers to the phrase "lie to children", which of course comes from the Science of Discworld books and from other books by the same authors. I myself have contributed a little to the lie-to-children article on Wikipedia.
* When I was at school but not yet in the senior classes, my mathematics teachers made calculus sound really mysterious and exciting but they wouldn't tell me what it was. So of course I had to go and read whatever books I could get my hands on and find out for myself.
* I often give myself a deep stomach massage while I'm lying in bed, using an empty coffee mug as a tool to press down with. It's useful as a treatment for insomnia (feeling my intestines squelch can be most relaxing) but it has never occured to me to think of it as a treatment for cancer.
* No comments on the Tank.
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