Category Archives: Skepticism

France knows how to deal with anti-vaxxers.

An anti-vaccination couple in France have been charged and convicted of neglecting their child’s health by refusing to vaccinate.

MARC and Samia Larere thought they were doing the right thing by their children, aged three and 15 months, when they refused to vaccinate them against polio, tetanus and diphtheria.

In a sentence handed down in a criminal court on Thursday, the pair received a two-month suspended jail sentence. They have been given time to appeal, but it could’ve been much worse.

They were originally charged with neglecting their children’s health, an offence that could’ve landed them two years in prison and a hefty fine. News.com.au

Since you aren’t allowed to neglect children by refusing to feed them it stands to reason that a person should not be permitted to neglect a child by refusing important medications. I can only hope that one day Australia will follow the French example by punishing anti-vaxxers for being negligent douchebags.

Nurofen busted for swindling consumers then lies about it.

A drug company that intentionally swindles the public by selling a common over the counter drug in different packages to fool consumers has been dealt with by the Federal Court. For years the UK based company Reckitt Benckiser has been selling the drug Ibuprofen Lysine under the brand name Nurofen.

Same drug different box. 

Although Nurofen is available in many different packages each with a different price tag. Every one of them contains exactly the same drug. If you don’t believe me just read the boxes at your local supermarket. The only difference between these Nurofen products is the box and price tag. The Period Pain and Migrane Pain tend to be the more expensive boxes because Reckitt Benckiser know that consumers with those pains will be more eager to treat them quickly and so will pay the price without question.

An Australian court has ordered products in the Nurofen pain relief range off the shelves, saying the UK-based manufacturer misled consumers.

The court said products marketed to treat specific pains, such as migraines, were identical to one another.

Research also found the products were sold for almost double the price of Nurofen’s standard product. BBC News

Instead of behaving honourably Nurofen spokeswoman Montse Pena tells the most ridiculous lie in a failed attempt to justify the companies actions..

Nurofen spokeswoman Montse Pena said the company had not set out to mislead consumers.

“The Nurofen specific-pain range was launched with an intention to help consumers navigate their pain relief options, particularly within the grocery environment where there is no healthcare professional to assist decision making,” she said. Sydney Morning Herald

If this were true as opposed to a blatant lie it does not explain why a single packaging doesn’t simply list the “specific-pain” that Nurofen can alleviate. After all there are only four of them. Nor does this sorry excuse explain the price different between the identical products in different boxes.

Didn’t mean to mislead? More like “didn’t mean to be called out”.

Environmentalists need to embrace Nuclear.

Without a doubt one of the most frustrating pseudo-science movements in modern society is the Environmentalist movement. People who oppose Nuclear Power have no place calling themselves “environmentalists” and groups like Greenpeace who peddle nothing but psedo-science fear mongering are best placed in the same basket as Anti-vaccination, Flatearthers and 9/11 Truthers.

Not only do nuclear reactors produce zero carbon emissions during their operation making them one of the cleanest energy sources we’ve ever had. The nuclear power industry also has an unmatched safety record with fewer deaths per Trillion KilloWatt Hours than all other sources.

Energy Source Mortality Rate % of Energy
Coal  170000 50
Natural Gas 4000 20
Biofuel/Biomass 24000 24000
Solar (rooftop)˙ 440 1
Wind  150 1
Hydro 1400 15
Nuclear 90 17

Source: Forbes – How Deadly Is Your Kilowatt? We Rank The Killer Energy Sources

It’s easy to see on the pie chart just how bad coal is, but this numbers this large it’s hard to see Nuclear, Solar and Wind. So here it is again without coal.


However this has already been argued to death by the scientific community it is a scientific fact that Nuclear Energy is both clean and extremely safe. Arguing against the use of nuclear power is akin to arguing against vaccination because you believe they contain government microchips.

Now in Paris the worlds leading scientists have come out in overwhelming favor of nuclear power. 

COP21: World must embrace nuclear power to save planet from climate change, claim leading scientists

The world has no little or no chance of escaping dangerous climate change if political leaders and environmental groups fail to embrace nuclear power as a source of low-carbon energy, leading scientists have told the climate conference in Paris.

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power offer too little, too late, and the anti-nuclear stance of some countries and almost all environmentalists will only drive many nations towards burning more coal, oil and gas, they warned. The Independent

 

The Battle to Save the Planet May Come Down to Nuclear Advocates vs. Environmentalists

PARIS—How frustrated would you be if you had a practical solution for a climate crisis that threatens to ravage the planet and unleash social conflict that will make World War II look like child’s play, but nobody would listen?
Meet the lonely advocates for nuclear power. Here at the Paris climate summit, where the 50,000 attendees, split roughly into half official representatives and half activists, the politics have split pretty much down the middle, too. You have the government folks who are dragging their heels, and you’ve got the climate activists who are focused on using the crisis, Shock Doctrine style, to make the world a better place. The holy word of the activists has become “renewables”—never mind that renewables are still only two percent of the international energy needs and can’t possibly scale up fast enough to solve the problem. Esquire.com

 

Academics at Paris talks make plea for nuclear power.

Four leading climate scientists called for a major expansion of nuclear power as an essential measure to avoid dangerous man-made climate change over the next century. Speaking at the COP21 climate conference in Paris yesterday, James Hansen, Tom Wigley, Ken Caldeira and Kerry Emanuel urged world leaders to ensure that nuclear power is deployed alongside renewables. World Nuclear News

 

Nuclear Power Must Make a Comeback for Climate’s Sake

James Hansen, former NASA climate scientist, and three other prominent climate scientists are calling for an enlarged focus on nuclear energy in the ongoing Paris climate negotiations.

“Nuclear, especially next-generation nuclear, has tremendous potential to be part of the solution to climate change,” Hansen said during a panel discussion yesterday. “The dangers of fossil fuels are staring us in the face. So for us to say we won’t use all the tools [such as nuclear energy] to solve the problem is crazy.” Scientific American

The science is in and has been for decades. Will the environmentalists finally allow us to address this issue, or will they continue to hold us back with their brainless fear mongering? I think it’ll be the latter, but if enough rational people can be convinced not to listen to green fear mongering we could still win this and potentially save the planet.

Is HomeopathyPlus planning to ditch Australia?

Just over a month ago Homeopathy Plus an outfit selling fake medicine was punished by the Federal Court of Australia and ordered to pay  $115,000 in fines plus the legal costs of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, in addition to Fran Sheffield owner of Hompeopathy Plus being personally fined $23,000.

It recently came to my attention that Homeopathy Plus has quietly migrated its website from the Australian .com.au domain to the international .com I don’t know the exact reason for this, but in my experience a common way for shonks to try and evade government regulators is by moving or at least pretending (often poorly) to move beyond the jurisdiction of their perceived foe. Unlike a .com.au which must be tied to the registrant by either an ABN or Trademark a .com can be registered to anybody, including a third party who acts as a proxy to hide the identity of the real owner.

Given that the court order was worded as

The First Respondent and the Second Respondent cease publishing and remove from
the website www.homeopathyplus.com.au permanently
I can only infer that this is the reason for the domain name switch to HomeopathyPlus.com is a means to try and circumvent the law.

Over the past 5 years that I’ve been writing this blog I have seen many creative and imaginative tactics for cheating and scamming the public, harassing critics into silence, dodging legal obligations and deceiving the media. Never underestimate the creativity of imaginative assholes.

Homeopathy Plus gets spanked by the Federal Court

Homeopathy Plus, a sham operation that promotes fake medicine has been trying to fend off the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) since 2013. The ACCC took legal action against HomeopathyPlus for making fraudulent claims on its website about the ‘benefits’ of Homeopathy.

After a lengthy court battle the verdict is finally out and it’s bad news for the fraudsters at HomeopathyPlus. Not only have they been ordered to permanently remove articles from their website:

But they have also been fined $115,000 to be paid within 30 days of the order while Fran Sheffield the owner of HomeopathyPlus has been fined $23,000 to be paid within 90 days. Additionally the respondents/frauds must also pay the ACCCs legal costs which are unlikely to be a small sum.

However the real win from this case will be the aftermath. Now that the Federal Court has examined claims about the effectiveness of Homeopathy and found the evidence lacking it will set a precedent for future action against scammers who try and peddle this fake medicine.

The First Respondent and Second Respondent be restrained, whether by themselves, their agents, servants or howsoever otherwise, for a period of five years from making any statements or representations, in trade or commerce, in connection with the supply or possible supply of Homeopathic Treatments or in connection with the promotion of the supply of Homeopathic Treatments, to the effect that Homeopathic Treatments are a safe and effective alternative to the Vaccine for the prevention of whooping cough, for so long as:

A: there is no reasonable basis, in the sense of an adequate foundation, in medical science to enable the First Respondent and the Second Respondent to state that Homeopathic Treatments are safe and effective as an alternative to the Vaccine for the prevention of whooping cough; and
B: the Vaccine is the only treatment approved for use by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for inclusion on the National Immunisation Program for the prevention of whooping cough.
-Federal Court of Australia

So although this case focused specifically on the Whooping Cough Vaccine the fact that there is now a finding like this in a court of law combined with the ACCCs ability to recover their costs, means that it is both economically and legally viable for regulators to begin cracking down on this type of sham operation.

I look forward to the fallout from this ruling. It should give the pseudo-science community the shakeup it deserves.

Download: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission vs Homeopathy Plus

Australian Vaccination Network crashes and burns.

The infamous public health menace Australian Vaccination-sceptics Network more commonly known as the Australian Vaccination Network has just submitted financial reports to the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading and the news is fantastic, at least for those of us who value the health and wellbeing of the community.

See: Documents Held by Fair Trading 7 September 2015

In 2009 a small but dedicated group of concerned citizens formed a Facebook group called “Stop the Australian Vaccination Network” after the organisation embarked on a campaign of abuse and vilification against a family who had just lost lost their four week old daughter to whooping cough.

See: The Australian Vaccination Network, abuses and vilifies grieving families. 

For the past six years Stop the AVN and its supporters have fought a relentless campaign to hold the AVN accountable for the lies and fear mongering used to scare parents away from vaccinating their children. The responses from the AVN and its supporters has been highly aggressive with abuse, harassment, stalking and death-threats being standard modis operandi of the anti-vaccination movement. We have even witnessed anti-vaxxers plotting to visit the home address of a young woman who criticised a prominent member of the Anti-vaccination movement. The AVN has also filed lawsuits against critics and filed official complains with the press-council against journalists who report on the organisation in an unfavorable light.

However despite such aggressive opposition we are continuing to win or campaign to shut down the AVN. The lastest figures show they are effectivly on life support. From an annual income of $350,000 in 2007 to just $21,000 today. They have been reduced from a registered charity that the media used to turn to as an authoritative source on vaccination information to a paranoid group of fringe lunatics on Facebook who the media now vocally condemns as such.

Graph by Dr Matthew Berryman

Not only have the AVN taken the financial hit but their membership is also in rapid decline.

Graph by Dr Matthew Berryman

Download: Excel Spreadsheet of Income Expenses and Donations here.

So although the organisation still exists, and its likely that we will never totally eradicate it the small group of concerned citizens (Now 15,724 people on Facebook) has made a heavy impact against what was once a David and Goliath battle to bring down the nations most formidable health menace.

More documents relating the the AVNs finance can be found: here.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead

Anti-vaccination political party loses Domain Name.

In recent weeks a group of anti-vaccination campaigners have attempted to start their own political party called the Involuntary Medication Objectors Party whose goal is to undermine public health initiatives. 

Recent so called No Jab, No Play, No Pay laws discriminating against parents who choose not to vaccinate their children have far reaching effects for the basic freedoms that we have enjoyed.
We object to the our elected representatives making and supporting laws that use financial coercion to compel struggling, loving, caring parents to vaccinate their children with questionable medication.
The injustice of the recent No Jab, No Pay law has motivated us to form a political party that will aggressively agitate for rescission of this undemocratic law. -Involuntary Medication Objectors Party

This party is a response to the Abbot Government “No Jab, No Pay” laws which closed a loophole that people have been using to claim benefits they aren’t entitled to. Under this new law if parents want to claim a payment that has an immunisation criteria they must ensure that their children are vaccinated before they can receive the handout.

The party did have a website setup at IMOP.com.au until auDA the government organisation that administers the .au namespace received the following complaint.

The domain imop.com.au is registered to Misty Mountain Health and Institute Ltd, ABN 61097939672, so the domain name is clearly not (as required) an exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant’s names:
* Better Life Productions
* Misty Mountain Health Retreat, or
* Misty Mountain Aboriginal Healing Place.

Given it is being used to host a political party’s web site, I fail to see how it’s being used for domain monetisation, or otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant under the rules for that use in the guidelines. -Complainant

The registry is now reporting status: pendingDelete (Client requested policy delete)

As we have seen in the past Anti-vaccination campaigners have a psychotic determination to undermine public health. I have no doubt they will return after this setback, and we will be waiting when they do. Every victory against the Anti-vaccination movement is a victory for public health, and we are winning this fight.

Former Queensland Police Officer calls for murder of medical workers.

Chris Savage is a prominent anti-vaccination campaigner and former sergeant in the Queensland Police Force prior to being thrown out for reasons Qld Police have not disclosed. I will however speculate that they probably didn’t want someone who thinks it’s ok to randomly shoot people at your own leisure.

Of course this is not the first time Anti-vaccination campaigner have praised murder as a legitimate tactic. Back in Febuary United States based anti-vaxxers openly praised the murder of medical personnel.

In September of last year a leading anti-vaccination campaign tried to convince a woman to kill her own husband via deliberate dissemination of false medical advise.

Way back in 2011 calls to “String the Bastards Up” where made by anti-vaxxers advocating the lynching of medical personnel. Then there is the unforgettable Frankie Vazquez who issues both bomb threats, death threats and more.

So while we are used to anti-vaxxers engaging in threatening and criminal activity it is not often that we have Former Police Offices engaged in such activities. Chris Savage actively promotes himself as a former police sergeant to garner credibility within anti-vax circles.

I will be interested to see what Queensland Police have to say about this. They kicked him out, but he still uses their brand/reputation to promote himself.

De-anonymised Luke O'Hehir of Elegant Logic loses the plot.

For sometime now an Internet Troll by the name of Luke E Lawless has been hassling skeptical blogger Peter Tierney aka Reasonable Hank, winner of last years Skeptic Of The Year Award. 

Message sent to Peter; from Luke.

Like much of the harassment that members of this community face it was done behind the veil of anonymity as Luke E Lawless is clearly a fake name, this is also confirmed by the fact that this individuals identity has since been revealed. Due to a comment he made on Peters Blog.

Normally an IP address alone is not enough to identify an individual and most people have nothing to be concerned about. However the anonymous Luke E Lawless certainly wasn’t happy and immediately accuses Peter of promoting criminal activity. 

So concerned was Luke E Lawless that he found a question on Stack Exchange about IP Addresses and posted it to his Facebook wall in order to reassure himself that everything would be alright.

Actually when a person engages in a campaign of harassment getting their IP address is often the first stage in identifying the culprit. People like Luke O’Hehir owner of Elegant Logic in Melbourne who believe  they can engage in abusive behavior behind the veil of anonymity will always slip up eventually and allow us to build their profile.

Luke O’Hehir was de-anonymised using more traditional investigative methods but a court order against his Internet Service Provider would also have worked to identify him via his IP Address. It wasn’t used this time but yes, once we have your IP we can potentially identify you with it.

Since being identified Luke O’Hehir has been posting even more batshit crazy things to Peter. Here’s a classic.

This is the old “I have a lawyer and you better believe it” tactic. It’s a beyond pathetic attempt to curb criticism. I have yet to meet a Lawyer who uses Facebook to communicate with clients. Luke O’Hehir is simply upset that he was caught.

Equally funny (and Pathetic) is the “I have a cop” tactic.

Keep going Luke O’Hehir. As someone who presents themselves as an IT Professional you seem to have a poor understanding of both the Internet and the law. I look forward to the headline “De-anonymised Internet Troll sues harassment victim for whambulance fees.” 

Anti-vaxxers never ending stalking and threats.

One of the drawbacks to combating anti-vaccination campaigners is the never ending barrage of abuse and harassment that you are subjected to. Sometimes these attacks simply come in the form of verbal (actually typed) abuse over Twitter or Facebook, which is easy enough to ignore/block but some times harassment takes a more direct approach.

Back in 2012 myself and Peter Bowditch were subjected to lawsuits designed to shut us up and intimidate anyone else who might criticise the Australian Vaccination Network, a hard line anti-vaccination “charity”. The president of the AVN, Meryl Dorey dragged the court proceeding out for close to a year. Such vexatious litigation is nothing short of harassment. Of course we did win our cases in the end, but it still occupied a huge amount of time.

More recently a person whom I presume is an AVN supporter has been regularly spamming and stalking this blog. Today they began issuing what I can only interpret as a threat. Given the history of anti-vaxxer behaviour.

Clearly this person located in Perth, Western Australia thinks they are anonymous. So far they have used the following IP Addresses:

May 24 6:55 PM 106.68.217.66 106-68-217-66.dyn.iinet.net.au
May 23 8:07 PM 124.148.233.247 124-148-233-247.dyn.iinet.net.au
May 15 7:46 PM 124.148.64.228 124-148-64-228.dyn.iinet.net.au
May 14 2:24 PM 58.7.73.220 58-7-73-220.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 25 7:33PM 124.148.230.218 124-148-230-218.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 25 3:13pm 106.68.22.127 106-68-22-127.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 25 10:05am 58.7.132.151 58-7-132-151.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 23 10:47am 58.7.76.53 58-7-76-53.dyn.iinet.net.au

The following is known about their system.

They are using Firefox running on Ubuntu Linux and have a VNC client installed on port 5900. Ports 1863 and 5190 are open but I don’t know what for. Their gateway is a Linksys WRV200 wireless broadband router and their network may contain a HP 4200 PSA (Print Server Appliance) model J4117A.

If anyone else has issues or information about this person I can be contacted at: Dan@danscomp.net this isn’t a normal drive-by internet spammer. This appears to be an individual with a score to settle, and I will identify them.

Update on Friday, May 29, 2015 at 8:20PM

It seems this person has returned to my blog on the 28th at 07:26:03 PM only to read this post and shit their pants. Because at 11:47:24 PM that very same day they returned except this time they used the Tor network to try and mask their location.

Here’s some professional advice “Tor will not save you!” if you think for one minute that you can come here to post threats and then hide behind an anonymous proxy server, THINK AGAIN!