Geoff Arnold's Blog

As reported in Nature, some British universituies are offering B.Sc. degrees in homeopathy and other alternative therapies. But…

Finding out exactly what is taught in the courses is not straightforward. Ben Goldacre, a London-based medical doctor, journalist and frequent critic of homeopathy, says that several universities have refused to let him see their course materials. “I can’t imagine what they’re teaching,” he says. “I can only imagine that they teach that it’s OK to cherry-pick evidence. That’s totally unacceptable.”
Pharmacologist David Colquhoun of University College London has had the same problem, and is now using freedom-of-information legislation to get access to course materials after having numerous requests refused. The University of Central Lancashire and the University of Salford both declined requests to talk to Nature or share details of their homeopathy degrees.

Now why would they do that? Surely homeopathy is going to be treated the same as other treatment regimes, with double-blind tests to avoid bias. Not exactly….

“Trying to do what I do in that context didn’t work very well,” says Clare Relton, a practising homeopath who is conducting research into homeopathy at the University of Sheffield and has taken part in a clinical trial designed to assess homeopathic treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome. “I found it difficult to build a therapeutic relationship,” she says. Relton argues that homeopathy is scientific, but that the problem of trust means that double-blind trials aren’t the best way to measure its effectiveness. Instead, she and other homeopaths prefer to rely on more qualitative methods, such as case studies and non-blinded comparisons of treatment options.

In other words, it’s just a placebo. Placebos have their place, but let’s not pretend that there’s anything more going on. And for goodness sake, don’t pretend that this is a science.

I finally got around to reading Garrison Keillor’s snide little piece on gay marriage at Salon.com. Clearly he believes that it’s more important to hide the real complexity of life than to deal with it, embrace it. So what if “gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated relatives”. My family loved Tom (my father’s partner, friend, and lover for over 20 years), and we’d have been happy to call him by a family name rather than the euphemistic “partner”.
Schmuck!

Another free wireless hotspot… this time it’s pie minster in the Covered Market in Oxford. I popped in for a “minty lamb pie” for lunch, and stayed for cappucino and wi-fi.
Yesterday evening I made the mistake of turning on the TV. (Lorna does have a small one, mostly to play back videotapes of documentaries she’s been involved in.) It was a surreal experience. On two channels, there were back-to-back programs about food and health, including segments about food addicts who weigh 30 to 60 stone (US: multiply by 14 to get pounds). And then over on BBC2 there seemed to be non-stop cookery programs. (BBC1 seemed to be doing a UK version of American Idol – equally inane.)
However there is no doubt whatsoever about what’s the best of the new (to me) TV shows. It is, of course Shaun the Sheep. Sheer brilliance from Aardman.