Xocai, Norwegian Bloggers and the Streisand Effect

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have debunked the health claims made by some for xocai chocolate – and had run-ins with their marketeers as a result. However, my iss ues with them pale into significance when compared to the experiences of some Norwegian bloggers:

Warsi on Secular Society

Baroness Warsi has been complaining about the ‘militant secularisation’ of society and the ‘marginilisation of religion’. If she means that the views of the religious are not deferred to in policy making, she is probably right but does she really want to change that? As a Muslim, she should perhaps be careful what she wishes for.

A Fourth Year of Steam

It’s New Year’s Eve and time for my review of the year.

Professional Councils and the Chilling of Dissent

It is hard not to take the verdict of the Health Professions Council’s case against Stuart Jones as a warning to medical professionals not to raise criticisms. Even if it was not intended, it is bound to have a chilling effect on whistleblowers.

Deflecting Criticism 1 – Legal Threats

So you’ve got some sweet deal going – might be alternative medicine, might be hi-fi tweaks. Whatever it is, some twat of a journalist or blogger is pointing out holes in your scientific arguments and suggesting that your product is not as good as you say. This could be a threat to your income stream. What do you do?

Reprisal

There has been a complaint made about one Stuart Jones to the Health Professions Council alleging that he “Made disparaging and/or misleading comments on the website forum, ‘Bad Science’ about Dr XY*.” I understand that Stuart Jones post on the Bad Science forums as ‘Jonas’. I do not recall him making any “disparaging or misleading” comments about any doctor. However, he did raise some concerns with the GMC about some of the content of one Dr. Myhill’s website, and discussed this complaint on Bad Science.

Scare Story Supported by Dodgy Reasoning

I took exception to some dodgy reasoning in the letters page of the 12 October Evening Standard. I emailed a rebuttal but I suspect it will be cut if it appears at all, so here is the full text:-

Stuff Benedict XVI

I have been giving some thought to the Pope’s pronouncements while he was in the UK.

Getting Away With It

I am not a lawyer and this is just a rant.

The Metropolitan Police officer who struck Ian Tomlinson shortly before his death is to escape prosecution.

The Press and Public Health

[BPSDB]
What is driving the relentless antivax stance of Britain’s dead tree media and its onlone off-shoots? I ask because it seems to me that Fleet Street is becoming a menace to public health and I am assuming that spreading disease, misery and death does not appear on the mission statement of any newspaper. Although if it does they are complying with it brilliantly.