Censorship begins at home

Yesterday was another triumphant episode of Westminster Skeptics, featuring the radiant Sile Lane, the affable Ben Goldacre, the coiffed Simon Singh, the efficacious Peter Wilmshurst, the sharply dressed Raymond Tallis, the closet-rocker Dave Osler, and the shy and retiring Jack of Kent.

The delectable Jourdemayne has done a great summary with some choice quotes here, along with a great photo of Sile and Simon, she really is radiant

I won’t talk at length about yesterday’s meetup, as there are other bloggers who do it better. I tend to comment on what people are wearing because I’m generally impressed by little things like that. What I will talk about, however, is something Sile said which I’d never thought of, but rings so true it’s eerie:

”Censorship doesn’t begin in the courtroom, or with the angry letter you get from the lawyer, or even from your home computer. Censorship begins inside your head, it’s the voice that tells you not to write an article in the first place.”

The 10:23 stuff I was doing and blogged a bit about, whilst really really fun, also opened up a can of whoopass on my inbox. No vitriolic comments on the actual blog, just messages on Twitter and several emails, one person in particular trying (and thankfully failing) to get me arrested. This person told me I was sick and an attention seeker and that I deserve to be locked up. Naturally, I called my mum, but it wasn’t her. It was a complete stranger who’d taken offense at a minor reference I’d made in a blog post a few weeks ago. I checked with a couple of friends who blog about similar things to find out if they’d been contacted by this troll to see if their issue with me had any legs. It looks like this was just another mad person on the internet. Usually, I wouldn’t mind someone being a bit mean or disagreeing with me, but making threats to get me arrested? That’s just silly.

The problem I have with getting in shit with the law is that I don’t have the funds to support myself to try and win, and I have a Rickenbacker 330 and a growing collection of geeky brooches to lose. As a result of this twunt trying to intimidate me, an arrogant but otherwise harmless blogger, I’ve been careful to avoid personal comments about people or groups for fear of getting sued or arrested or worse: losing my budding reputation!

Thinking about what Sile said, I’ve decided to screw it all. If you disagree with any of the following, I’d rather you provided some evidence and proved me wrong, but if you must sue me, then sue me and bugger off. These are a few ideas for blog posts that I never wrote because I was worried about the potential repercussions:

1. Homeopathy is crap. It likes to pretend to be medicine, but they seem to put a lot of effort into ensuring that there are no ingredients left in their potions. Sometimes me and my mates refer to something as “homeopathic” when we want another word for “crap” or “non-existent” as in “That film had a totally homeopathic plot” or “I’m making a homeopathic porno. It’s going to have no gratuitous sex, but an epic storyline.”

2. There are no great looking members of the BNP. I assume this is what happens when you come from such a limited gene pool.

3. You don’t have to be religious to be a good person, but if you are religious and a bad person, it’s not difficult to cover it up.

4. Prince Charles would be lethal if he had a fully functioning brain.

5. Isn’t it funny how Richard Littlejohn is outrageously ugly, and an arsehole on paper? I bet he has a tiny penis. The pen is mightier than the sword? It probably is, Dick. It probably is.

6. Jan Moir was blatantly just jealous that Stephen Gately was happy and loved (fuck, I had a massive crush on him when I was 8, we all did), so she decided to try and smear his reputation with complete disregard for facts, compassion for another human being, and wit. I hope she’s ashamed of herself.

7. Most (but not all) practitioners of alternative medicine that I’ve met are rude, inarticulate, and have bad breath.

8. Dr Evan Harris MP has an offensively sweet tooth (he drinks Smirnoff Ice, yuk!)

9. David Cameron looks like someone who’d be great at lying for a living. As such, I’m sure he’ll be just as good a Prime Minister as Tony Blair. Whenever I see his face in the papers or on a billboard out and about, I whisper the word “wanker” under my breath and I feel slightly better about myself.

10. Contrary to popular belief in the CAM world, Andy Lewis, Martin Robbins, Jack of Kent, Evan Harris, Sunny Hundal, Five Chinese Crackers, Crispian Jago, Gimpy and all the male skeptics who come to Skeptics in the Pub are all really nice guys who act fairly normal around women. I’ve made jokes at their expense to their faces and they didn’t even blush or threaten to sue me. And none of them work for pharmaceutical companies. I know one lady who’s an admin clerk for Big Pharma. She gets paid less than £20,000 a year, and is definitely not a “shill” for them. She has a really cool pair of purple Dr Martens that I want though. I guess once you make up magic, making up your own little world where you’re the king isn’t much of a challenge either.

If any of these ideas sound like the sort of thing you’d like to have read, please sign http://www.libelreform.org/ and tell everyone you know to do the same. This isn’t something that only affects the chattering classes or the liberal lefty woolly minded loonies I spend my free time with. If you enjoy your right to call someone a wanker, or to suggest that something’s not working as it says it does without the worry of being done for it then put your name to the campaign. It takes less than a minute if you can type your name as fast as I can and will help keep us ordinary citizens speaking our mind whenever we want to!

Cx

Homeopathy and the Art of Rhetoric

This blog post was inspired by a Twitter conversation between @Blue_Wode and @mattlodder. You can follow me on Twitter here. I’m really very funny.

 Yesterday evening, I was sent a link to another London 10:23 video. I promise I will post it here as soon as possible, as it was absolutely hilarious. It jogged my memory of a few reasons we chose the particular prominent skeptics to kick off the “overdose” – Simon Singh, Evan Harris, and Dave Gorman – all three are great at rhetoric. Lucky for me, I’m related to my dad, so I’m pretty good at rhetoric too. My dad isn’t a particularly famous person (unless you have a keen interest in British field hockey) but he’s bloody good at arguing. He’s so good at arguing, that sometimes he’ll forget which side of the argument he was on the first time he had a particular discussion. He’s a genuine devil’s advocate.

 It would be pertinent of me to clarify that I don’t ever really start arguments with people, not because I know I’ll win (often I don’t know), but because arguing about something isn’t always the best way to solve a problem. Like many things in life, it’s usually a bit more complicated. When it comes to a subject like alternative medicine, it’s really handy to remember that whichever side of the argument you’re on, the other person cares about public health too.

 Recently, at a dinner party, the hostess was congratulating me on getting my picture in the Sunday Torygraph. A friend of hers (who I’ve blogged about before) approached me to try and convince me yet again that homeopathy works, with the phrase:

 “But it worked for me…”

 If someone’s going to use an anecdote as their main argument, the easiest rebuttal is a bigger anecdote like:

 “Yeah you said that last time, but it still didn’t work for me, or my brother, or my aunt who had breast cancer, or my mates cat who was, like, 16 years old.”

 It’s childish, but it seemed to get the point across succinctly and without my mum having to raise her eyes up to heaven at her brilliant but arrogant daughter irking up her sensitive friends. Just try explaining the value of double/triple blind randomised placebo controlled trials to someone who has no interest in science. I’ve been there. It’s not pretty. It comes across as obnoxious, smug, and really bloody patronising. When discussing a subject as sensitive as this with people who have a vested interest in homeopathy (whether they earn a living out of it, or use it a lot), it does little good to call them charlatans and quacks etc – they care about public health too.

 The 10:23 campaign was really successful I think because there was none of that patronising tone. We simply asked “what’s in it?” The website is beautiful because it has a few handy quips from both sides in the Twitter stream on the left, as well as a further delve into the science behind it if people want to read it. I was thrilled when I read the comments section on the Daily Mail article – look allopaths, normal people can be smart too!! Omglmao.

 I’ve attended debates on alternative medicine with prominent speakers on both sides, and it’s pretty clear that science alone doesn’t win debates, rhetoric does. This is why people like Simon Singh, Evan Harris, and Dave Gorman are so useful to us lay skeptics. Science is on our side, if we want to win the argument then perhaps we should learn a bit of rhetoric? Yes, it’s a bit, you know, “evil”, but it’s exactly what’s working for those who don’t have science on their side.

Martin Robbins and I will be giving a talk on the 10:23 campaign on Monday 15th at the Penderel’s Oak. You can register your place here. All are welcome, it’s £2 to cover their overheads, and they serve food, and drinks, and you’ll get to see my fancy new haircut

I almost forgot to show off my new hairdo!

Here it is:

I prefer it slicked down. It’s nay bad as they say in bonny Islington.

Haven’t counted up all the money I’ve raised but I’ve got almost £300 in cash (including a £50 cheque from my managers manager)!! Thank you to everyone who donated, I’m almost gutted my hair looks quite nice. Imagine how much I could have raised if I’d done something really drastic The Little Princess Trust will be sent a cheque tomorrow.

Also, I changed the layout of my blog. You don’t mind, do you?

Cx

Westminster Skeptics: Does Political Blogging Make a Difference?

Admittedly, I couldn’t pay attention to the whole talk at Westminster Skeptics as I was too busy flitting and flirting my way around the room as always, and ended up hanging out with a couple of mates making rude jokes and sniggering quietly at the back. One thing I will say was that the outcome of the debate was pretty much decided from the get-go. Does political blogging make a difference? Yes, or at least yes we bloggers would all like to think so.

Nick Cohen argued that blogging can not and will never replace classic journalism, and journalism demonstrably influences public opinion, before he stuck his two fingers up at the audience of bloggers and shouted “Ner ner ni ner NER!”*. On the question of blogging vs journalism, I’m not so sure. My blog is primarily for entertainment, I’m not using it to change the world, but there are many other blogs around who are dedicated to research or informed opinion (Jack Of Kent, NHS Blog Doctor, Ben’s Prison Blog, The Quackometer, Dr Petra) – these blogs are useful as well as entertaining and informative – perhaps they will change the world. My other gripe with this point is that it takes a binary approach to the subject. Why should blogging and journalism be at loggerheads? In my time, I’ve met plenty of journalists who also blog. Blogging seems like a great way to publish all the stuff your editor doesn’t want to go to print. Okay, it might not be seen by the same number of people, but it’s getting published, and hopefully read.

Likewise, many bloggers have crossed over into the mainstream media (I’m not abbreviating this to MSM, because in my neck of the woods it means something different). Martin Robbins of http://www.layscience.net frequently has articles published in The Guardian and the Times, just the other day he was in the Independent. Jack of Kent, David Colquhoun, Simon Perry, I could go on – they have all had their say in the printed press, be it local or national.

Sunny Hundal gave loads of examples of times when blogs have influenced mainstream journalism. Remember the “Muslim extremist” who claimed he was targeting prominent British Jews like Alan Sugar, Amy Winehouse and Jon Ronson? The likes of Richard Wilson (of Don’t Get Fooled Again fame, who was far too grown up to take part in our rude-joke-a-thon) regularly posts stuff uncovering some of the heinous acts of the rich and powerful. The 10:23 Campaign I was involved in started out as a bunch of Northern bloggers thinking “enough is enough” and putting together an international protest that was widely covered in the mainstream press. There was a photo of me in the Daily Mail and Sunday Telegraph next to Dave Gorman. My granddad was so proud!

I believe it was Robin Ince who said “The internet is not a library. It is an infinite public toilet attached to a library” – Bloggers, moderators, commenters and blog readers are democratic voters too. Many mainstream media outlets have a blog section these days, the printed press needs to move on or move out.

*That didn’t actually happen

[APPLAUSE]

I’m shaving my hair off for charity!

A few days ago, I decided that I’d very much like to shave my incredibly long hair off.

This is how it looks today...

Why the hell would I do such a thing?

1. Whilst eating a big bowl of spaghetti a few days, my luscious locks got tangled up in the fork. This happens a lot.
2. Pretty much every item I’ve ever knitted or crocheted has some extra keratin in it. In the past, I liked to think it made a fluffy hat that little bit more special. Now it’s just annoying.
3. Sometimes I wake up choking, because I’m smothered in my own hair.
4. It’s a bastard to hoover now that I have a carpeted floor in my bedroom.
5. It takes about an hour to dry, using a hair dryer. And about 3 hours to dry without.
6. I had short hair as a teenager and it looked pretty badass.
7. There might be some control issues at play here after discovering that there are only a few areas in my life in which I have complete control. This is something my mum suggested to me.
8. It means I can totally dress up as Halle Berry in Catwoman more often (mediocre film, great character/costume design – Sharon Stone looked great and you know it).
9. I’ve had long hair for a couple of years now and felt like a change.
10. I’m donating it to a really wonderful charity, The Little Princess Trust, who provide real hair wigs for children suffering hair loss as a result of cancer treatment.

Yes, I’m fully aware that points 1, 2, 3, and 9 could be solved by the clever application of hair gadgets. I own many hair things – pink things, glittery things, spiky things, stretchy things, sharp and dangerous things, all manner of contraptions to make my hair look different every day. Why bother putting stuff like that in your hair when you could just… you know… get rid of it instead?

This is the style I’m going for:

I chose this style mainly because it allows me to donate as much of my hair as possible to the Little Princess Trust, but also because it’s quite versatile. I had something similar when I was a bit younger, just not shaved, so I’m not too bothered about the aesthetics. I have a good shaped cranium!

The appointment with the hairdresser is all booked up for tomorrow (Saturday 6th Feb) at 1pm in Croydon. Providing I can teach my mum how to use my iPhone, we’ll put pictures up showing how I’m doing. Get ready to see a grown woman cry for a good cause!

If you’re able to, please sponsor me. All the proceeds go to this great charity and I’m really proud to be doing something for a good cause. So far I’ve raised about £130. If you’re coming to Westminster Skeptics in the Pub on Monday, I’ll be collecting more, so if anyone wants to donate, please let me know! I’ve also set up an events page, where you can donate directly to them. Please help! Your donations really do make a difference

Muchas gracias x x x

10:23 – Was it good for you too?

Photo courtesy of Kelly Haddow, photographer and mamajama extraordinaire.

 

A few months ago, I almost blew the entire covert operation we call 10:23. I wrote a blog post (now deleted, although I may re-post it for sentimental reasons) called “SUICIDE!” in which I called to arms my fellow skeptics to join me in a crusade against the often ridiculous claims of homeopathy. It got retweeted, people talked about it, prominent skeptics approached me in the pub to get involved. Little did I know that a group of bold, brave, and allegedly beautiful people had already been planning exactly the same thing for weeks – and I was on the verge of killing it completely!

Before I had the chance to destroy everything, their chief, Andy, got in touch with me to find out if I wanted to help with theirs. At first, I had no idea what skills I could offer. I’m just a normal person who occasionally tours the periphery of geekdom. My talents are audio-typing (70+ WPM I’ll have you know!), quoting Star Wars on Twitter and offending women with children (perhaps monitor your child’s online activities, rather than seeking to censor my free speech?) – I was stumped. Initially, they needed someone for London Skeptics in the Pub, and someone to help get in touch with all the Skeptic in the Pub groups in the UK. Easy. Most of them were on my Twitter feed, I just had to Google the rest and raise some hell. As it became clear that I had the ability, time, and passion to do more, my role became more involved.

Maybe, around this point, it would be good to make a couple of things clear:

1. I am not, nor have I ever have been employed by any pharmaceutical or science based company. My CV consists of mainly office PA/secretarial work for law firms and more recently, a fine arts company; and voluntary events work (for London-based raves if you must know, I like to party). I once applied for a job at the Science Museum gift shop but I didn’t get it, probably because it was the summer and a lot of people wanted to work there. I’m a relatively normal person, ok? Really, I am.
2. Nobody got paid any money at all for 10:23. The t-shirts were sold to cover our expenses, which included breakfast for my voluntary helpers (in the form of delicious cake and fruit!) and a round of drinks in the pub after the Trick or Treatment conference we attended. Every single person participating purchased their own bottle of pills, including Simon Singh, Evan Harris and Dave Gorman. If we were doing this for a profit, my helpers would have got lunch as well.
3. The reason I did this out of love and not money was because I care about public health. I see no reason for a sane person to argue against evidence based healthcare. It has been posited that the 10:23 campaign is “attacking homeopathy”, to that I say why not? If it’s strong enough to withstand scrutiny as so many supporters of homeopathy claim, what’s your beef? The #ten23 column in my Tweetdeck contains a few studies showing homeopathy to be effective (mainly by @DrNancyMalik), and yet it only takes a very brief understanding of scientific papers (or a mate who knows how to read them) to see that every single one of these studies has either shown to have the slightest possible benefit, or none at all. If conventional medicine showed these same results, there would be hardly any conventional medicine.

Friday night, I couldn’t sleep. During the day, we were told (incorrectly) that we were not allowed to film in Conway Hall. My laptop decided to use the precise moment at which I sent a message to all 120 of my Swallowers and Followers to fail and I was on the verge of tears. My lovely housemate took me out to get a fry up (the vegetarianism is going well by the way, four months in and just three slip ups, all drunken) before I trekked up to North London to see my esteemed associate Tessa. We needed to send notification out to everyone, and I needed to choose an outfit. In retrospect, Tessa was right, the shorts were a bad idea.

Every so often, the 10:23 HQ would send some of their hate mail to us in case we wanted to respond. I’ve received a distinct lack of hate mail so it’s always nice when someone gets angry enough to get involved. At about 11pm on Friday night, I received one such message. I got a surprisingly polite reply back and we had a conversation til about 1am. It turns out that although Anna and I might not be singing from the same hymn sheet, we are at least in the same key. She, like most people, cares just as much about public health as I do, and I can honestly say it was refreshing to converse with someone who, despite not agreeing with most of the time, came across as an intelligent and articulate person. After our first ranty response (mine was just as bad as hers!) we had a rather civil discussion. I recommended a couple of books, and invited her to come to Skeptics in the Pub sometime. To any homeopathy supporters reading this, please do come to Skeptics in the Pub. There have been some really snotty messages on Twitter about the sorts of people who attend. At least give us the benefit of face to face conversations before you make public your assumptions about us. We’re a lovely bunch really!

After about four hours sleep, I managed to somehow wake up before the first of three alarms (!), made a cup of tea, got dressed, ticked off everything in my to-do list (which I’d already done before bed), put some make up on, checked my emails and Twitter feed, and left my house. My bedroom looks onto a small park and a block of flats opposite, I generally don’t open my curtains, so I was FLABBERGASTED when I opened my front door to find out it was SNOWING. To say I was unimpressed would be a gross understatement. I was livid. Jamie, one of my lovely volunteers met me at the station and took the brunt of my foul morning temper. He deserved cake slightly more than most!

We eventually got to Red Lion Square in Holborn to find Martin (the editor of http://www.layscience.net and Science PR legend) there with a TV crew, looking all cold. Skeptic friends Alan, Maria, Sarah, Mark, Francis, Snowy (haha) and Simon were there to distribute t-shirts, sign people in, mingle around looking fabulous in their 10:23 t-shirts. Paolo was on hand to provide crowd control in the form of his big booming voice, and I pretty much hugged everyone I could for missioning it into London in the freezing cold!

At time of writing, no one has experienced any side effects from their overdose. I had a brief scare when someone on Twitter had a cold, but she said it was unrelated. I’ve been a bit tired since Saturday morning, but I think that has more to do with a lack of sleep due to the incredible emails I’ve been receiving at all times of the day, rather than downing a bottle of Belladonna 30C. Pretty much everyones videos and photos had been uploaded by Sunday evening when I eventually sat down with my laptop (now working), and I got really emotional. Everyone who took part was smiling and laughing, it just made all that hard work better than worthwhile.

I am so proud of everyone in the world who took part and showed their support, and I am genuinely honoured to be associated with all of you. In particular, I’d like to thank Tessa, Martin, Simon, David, Imran, Andy W, Marsh, and a mate who provided the money for extra t-shirts at the last minute, as well as Evan Harris MP, Dave Gorman, Chris French, Andy Lewis, and my excellent 10:23 London Team – Simon, Alan, Maria, Jamie, Francis, Sarah, Sandra and Paolo as well as Michael Willoughby and James O’Malley for their excellent films, and the stunning Kelly Haddow for her expert photography skills.

Can’t wait to do another one!