Medical Quackery Down Under, Think of a Card, A Step in the Right Direction, Raining on Art Bell’s Parade, The big MEG Takes a Fall
The Fake Vaccine from Down Under
The Australian Daily Telegraph reports that a fake meningococcal “vaccine” has now been banned by the health authorities there. What makes this particularly interesting to us is that the medicine being offered is labeled “homeopathic.”
Potential and actual consumers were offered the “vaccine” for as little as $7.70 (U.S. $4.20) a course, and people may have relied on this product to protect them against the deadly virus, when it has no medicinal value at all.
The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has banned this quackery, and their federal government has announced that it will provide the real meningococcal vaccine free to one-year-old children and 15- to 17-year-olds, the most vulnerable age groups. It appears that there is a world-wide shortage of the real vaccine, though the fake stuff is of course widely available to the unwary. There are only 100,000 doses of the real vaccine presently in Australia, so the scammers seized upon a wonderful opportunity, again, to victimize desperate people. And they’ve been defeated!
As prominent Aussie Skeptic Barry Williams points out, assorted “spokesfolk” for homeopaths are bleating, “We don’t claim it’s a cure,” and “It’s a medicine, not a vaccine,” the latter clearly a lie. Says Williams, “I have bottles [of the fake product] clearly labeled ‘Vaccine.’” The photo by Australian Skeptic of the Year (1999) Cheryl Freeman of various bottles for “meningiococcal” [sic] hepatitis B, etc.—shown here—proves that point rather well. Williams also tells us that neither Cheryl nor the Australian Skeptics were mentioned or credited for their contribution in the news release. So what else is new …?
Think of a Card
It’s astonishing. Readers have been asking me for a solution to the old “think of a card” trick that’s been on the Internet for years now. I’ve just been notified that there’s even a Chinese version of it now available! That turns out to be a rip-off on the David Copperfield edition.
If you’re one who has been fooled by the trick, as found at http://www.mc.hik.se/~mid95wem/trams/magic/welcome.html, do some thinking. Then, if that doesn’t work, try choosing two cards, and wonder why it still works, then try choosing three cards …
A Step in the Right Direction
Every now and then we see someone getting turned around and coming back to The Light Side (as opposed to The Dark Side). Remember those silly “Magneforce” shoes that Florsheim offered to the gullible? It appears that the original owner of this renowned company has bought the firm back, and has announced that they will no longer carry the quack shoes. If I may be forgiven the pun, this is a step in the right direction. And a good thing too, considering how much more difficult it is now to board a flight with magnets in your shoes since 9/11. I can just hear the explanations: “But officer, Florsheim says in their literature that these magnets interact with the natural magnetic poles of the Earth to prevent me from spinning off into space!” Ever grateful for rationality in the real world, the JREF congratulates the Florsheim Shoe Company for this decision. But do those who purchased the imbedded magnets for an additional $25 get refunds, or a complimentary extraction of the magnets?
Think Rain, But Carry a Fire Extinguisher
Reader Larry Thornton offers us his observations on radio host Art Bell’s “rain” experiment:
Here’s something crazy: When there were those massive fires in the States, Art Bell and his gang (the fill-in jocks) were asking millions of listeners to THINK RAIN. They then claimed massive success when floods ensued, but in the WRONG AREAS—FAR from the fires. The jocks (most notably George Noory) continued to praise to the rafters the “power of the mind” to do miraculous things. He kept telling later guests about how wonderful the experiment was, even if it didn’t accomplish its objective in the way they wanted it to.
This reminds me of the old Hippy-Dippy Days of the late 1960’s: While commune-dwelling malcontents tried to eschew mainstream society by living out in the woods au naturel, the moment any of them got seriously ill, it was back into town to the local hospital! And that, I humbly submit, tells the tale.
The Big MEG Takes a Fall
Here’s a very rewarding and yet puzzling bit of news. Our frequent correspondent Ian MacMillan of Devon, England, was as infuriated as we were with the claim that the Motionless Electromagnetic Generator (“MEG”) device “extracts energy from a permanent magnet,” a matter discussed on our website, www.randi.org. JREF made formal inquiries to the “scientist” J.L. Naudin at JNaudin509@aol.com long ago, asking simple yes-or-no questions. We never received a reply, not much of a surprise. And we’ve not been able to determine just what makes Naudin qualified to validate this device.
Well, Ian wrote the United States Patent and Trademark Office about their granting of patent 6,362,718, back in May and June. An excerpt from his comprehensive letter reads:
In granting US Patent 116,362,718, a United States federal agency is endorsing a claim of this kind being made. The four named inventors of the MEG may attempt to raise funds in the United States or other countries of the world, for the purposes of building new versions or production models of the device. In doing so, they may cite US Patent 116,362,718 as grounds that the MEG functions as stated.
It is a matter for serious concern that the work of a federal agency of the United States of America may be used in this manner. Although I am not a US citizen myself, issues relating to patent law, commerce and science can cross national boundaries readily. By setting a precedent with US Patent 116,362,718, the USPTO is likely to face numerous patent applications for similar devices in the future, with every possibility of their being granted full US Patent status. Members of the public, not just in the United States of America but in other countries as well, need to be informed that devices of this kind will almost certainly not function as stated, if they are to make accurate business decisions relating to devices of this kind. In my opinion, the granting of US Patent 116,362,718 is an unhelpful development in this area.
Ian was not expecting that he’d hear back from the USPTO; he knew that we at the JREF had received no response to our inquiries. But lo! On August 22nd he received an answer from no less than Nicolas P. Godici, U.S. Commissioner for Patents! To get to the point directly, the following rewarding sentence appeared in the response from Commissioner Godici: “After a careful review of the [MEG] patent, we are planning to issue a Director Ordered Reexamination.”
Hallelujah! Ian MacMillan, from the UK, was able to stir the sleeping giant in Washington, when we—U.S. citizens all—were unable to do so! Why? We’re considering the possibility of moving the JREF to Devon, England, in order to have more effective correspondence with the U.S. Federal Government.
Ah, but there’s much more! When I communicated these glad tidings to physicist and skeptic Bob Park, he countered with a bombshell of his own: there will not only be a reexamination of the patent examiners, themselves, but the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office will now test and certify patent examiners on a regular basis and will change the way it recruits examiners! So there’s some hope, after all…!