I Speak of Dreams

Trains & Tanks

Hung out with ScholarMan, ScholarWoman, ScholarBoy1 & ScholarBoy2 at, where else, PV&ARR.

It was a beautiful day and we were happy with each other's company.

There have been some changes to the the landscape around the railroad: to whit, many of the vehicle formerly stored at the "vehicle barn" are now stored elsewhere around the property.  While they should really be stored undercover, I kind of like the sight of them all tucked here and there.  And elsewhere (photos later) it is more possible to experience the scale of each of the vehicles and the size of the collection with them spread out in this way.

ScholarBoy1 explores tankness.

I collected acorns, conifer cones & some other seed forms for a friend's son.

Sleep Disturbance

Feh.  Snatched out of sleep by...that nightmare feeling.  Time for better sleep hygiene.  Advice from Dr. Sleep, How Your Sleeping Life Affects Your Waking Life.

Oh No! One of My Favorite Books Is Out of Print! (Much-loved Children's Books)

I loved the Tall Book of Make Believe (compiled by Jane Werner, illustrated by Garth Williams)  when I was a child (I think it was published the year before I was born), and I loved it all over again when my daughter was little.

I want to provide a copy each for my granddaughter and my grandsons, but it's out of print.  Used copies are sellling in the +$100.00 range...so not so much.

I know that JumperGirl's copy is somewhere in her father's house (or in one of the other storage areas)-- but I have no idea where.  Her stepmother isn't much interested in facilitating their discovery.    JG had a pretty large library of picture books & early readers (for example, lots of Jan Brett and The Rainbow Goblins and Night is Coming and North Country Night and almost everything Maurice Sendak published and many others for which the titles are lost to my memory).   which was moved out of her room a few years after her father and I were divorced.

Neither of my daughters-in-law grew up in the United States, but both were bookish little girls. It's interesting talking about the differences in "best-loved books for children".  The Little Fur Family and The Nutshell Library were revelations to both.

Personally, I thought the Berenstein Bears were...well, not my taste.  As it turns out, ScholarMan has a deep affection for them.  So....

My granddaughter, DrummerGirl, is 4.5 and is careful with books, and I like buying them for her (and reading them).  ScholarBoy1 is only 18 months....I think it will be a while before he's careful with books.  So it's board books, all the time for now.  LFF came in a board book format, and I'm off to look for more classics in board book format.

What books did you love as a child?

How Does Homeopathy Work?

I should have been this simple:

How Does Homeopathy Work?

Elsewhere:

• How Does Homeopathy Work? (Respectful Insolence)
• The Long Dark Tea-Time of Homeopathy (Respectful Insolence)
• Index to posts on homeopathy & links to resources (Science Based Medicine)

Previously Here:

Most recent post

• Homeopathy: There's Nothing In It (10^23 campaign)

Four-part series on homeopathy from 2003

• Part I--Critique of Homeopathy: An Overview of Why Homeopathy Cannot Be Effective, And Is More Like A Religion
• Part II--Critique of Homeopathy: The Foundations and Background; Why It Is Hard to Think About Homeopathy; and Why It Is Health Fraud
• Part III--Critique of homeopathy: An Examination of Its Utility in Some Life-Threatening Medical Conditions Where The Tough Get Going: Homeopathy and Life-Threatening Conditions
• Part IV--Critique of Homeopathy Is Homeopathy Pure, or Is Homeopathy Big Business?
• Index to the series.  Read the, uhm, rationally-challenged posts

Other posts prior to 2010

• Dyslexia and Homeopathy Don't waste your money and time.
• Another Confused quack homeopath. Repeat after me, there is no reputable evidence that homeopathy works.
• Dolivaxil cannot cure anything.
• Can Homeopathy (Oscillococcinum, Dolivaxil, Influenzinum) Help With The Flu? No, although homeopaths continue to misrepresent the research and insist that homeopathy is effective.
• Clark Bertram (a pseudonymous physician) speaks against homeopathy
• Homeopathy is indeed Big Business
• Homeopathy: It Just Doesn't Work (2005)

Update April 2010 Homeopathy a systematic review finds no evidence that homeopathy has effects beyond placebo. Dr. Steven Barnett's article, Homeopathy: The Ultimate Fake reviews the status of homeopathy in the United States. Homeopathy lists the critiques published of homeopathy in April, 2010. homeopathyThere's Nothing In It, the 10:23 campaign.

Detailed, Thorough, Citizen Journalist Coverage of Accused Shooter Amy Bishop's Academic Non-Performance

I wrote about those killed and injured at the University of Alabama Huntsville shooting. The blog Shepherds and Black Sheep have been digging into accused shooter Amy Bishop's academic, well,non-performance.

• February 14, 2010 Student Feedback on Accused Murderer Amy Bishop, PhD
• February 15, 2010 Is Accused Murderer Dr. Amy Bishop An Academic Fraud, Delusional, or Both?
• Februrary 15, 2010 Could Accused Murderer Amy Bishop Have Made a Weapon of Mass Destruction?
• February 20, 2010 UPDATE: Mainstream Media Finally Reporting Evidence Dr. Bishop Tried To Cheat Her Way to Tenure

Most Incisive Comment re the "Autism is Vaccine Injury" Collective

From David M. Brown, commenting at Respectful Insolence post Shifting goalposts, shifting stories. The "they" in the paragraph below consists of Generation Rescue, the editors and commenters at Age of Autism, and other members of "autism must be caused by the vaccines" I added the emphasis.

When it seemed that autism appeared around age 2, they blamed MMR, which is administered at 12 months or later. Now that strong evidence shows that 12 months is too late for a cause of autism, they are looking backward into vaccines before age 1. In a further display of selective memory and perception, 6 of the 25 “vaccines” listed are the PCV and rotavirus vaccines, which were added well after the early- mid-1990s “autism epidemic”. They do not just “move the goal posts”, as critics have charged; they also move the first-down lines, switch the end zones, rewrite the rule book and change the game to cricket.

Mr. Brown's writings can be found at http://evilpossum.weebly.com/

More on Andrew Wakefield & Thoughtful House

Andrew Wakefield is a UK citizen and...well, I suppose he would say he is an autism  researcher.  He was the physician who promulgated the (entirely false) idea that the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine might have a causal effect in autism.

The Texas autism "treatment" non-profit, Thoughtful House, with Wakefield as executive director, came into being in 2005.

Today, he stepped down from Thoughtful House. 

Those Who Have Supported Andrew Wakefield Previously

• Autism TidBits The Wakefield Witchhunt

Those Who Previously Been Critical of Andrew Wakefield

• Brian Deer (the UK investigative journalist who brought Wakefield's iniquities to light)
• Black Triangle (UK blogger)
• Respectful Insolence (first report)
• Respectful Insolence further thoughts
• Respectful Insolence (speculation on why Wakefield stepped down)
•  UK paper the Guardian
• UK paper The Times Online
• LeftBrain/RightBrain On Wakefield's Resignation
• JustTheVax
• Disability Scoop Doctor Behind Flawed Autism-Vaccination Study Resigns
• Skeptic's Book of Pooh Pooh

What next for Wakefield?

Previously Here:

• February 8, 2009 11 Years On: Wakefield Manufactured Data Showing MMR-Autism Link?
• January 28, 2010 UK's medical review board (GMC) Andrew Wakefield: Dishonesty, Misleading Conduct, and Serious Professional Misconduct: Blog Posts Critical of Verdict; Blog Posts Approving of Verdict
• February 2, 2020 On The Lancet's Retraction of Wakefield's 1998 Paper Alleging A Connection Between the MMR Vaccine and Autism

Repeating PZ Myers: Christopher Maloney Is A Quack (and cowardly, and Wordpress is craven) But Andreas Moritz is Worse: A Dangerous Cancer Quack

Update #1: It wasn't Christopher Maloney who threatened Wordpress so they pulled Michael Hawkins' blog, but a dangerous cancer quack named Andreas Moritz. Details chez PZ.

Update #2 -- I've changed some of the wording in the post below to respond to Mr. Maloney's complaints.

PZ Myers at Pharyngula, this morning

image shamelessly stolen from The Periodic Table

Maloney is a naturopath in the state of Maine, where quacks like him get to call themselves "doctors". These so-called "doctors" get to make recommendations like this, in which he disparages standard flu vaccines and suggests these useless prescriptions:

Parents waiting for vaccinations can provide their children with black elderberry, which blocks the H1N1 virus. A single garlic capsule daily cuts in half the incidence and the severity of a flu episode for children.

There's another way you can tell he's a quack. When a student, Michael Hawkins, dared to criticize him, pointing out that "Naturopathic medicine is pure bull" and stating that naturopaths are underqualified and do not deserve the title of "doctor,"(Liz here, editing PZ's post)  Maloney Andreas Moritz took action to silence him. After all, we can't have people questioning quacks — that just makes them look even more ridiculous, which could lead to a loss of business.

(Liz here, editing PZ's post)  So Maloney No, it was Andreas Moritz complained to Wordpress, where Hawkins blog was located, and got them to shut it down. This does not speak well of craven Wordpress; if you're using Wordpress hosting, you might want to reconsider it and move elsewhere. You know, to someplace that respects reality.

Now not only is Maloney a quack (Liz again: he's still a quack), but he's a stupid quack. Shutting down blogs that criticize him? That never, ever works. In fact, it tends to backfire rather severely — because now a much bigger blog is going to spread the word that Christopher Maloney is a quack. I'm also going to ask all of you out there who reads this to echo the message: Christopher Maloney is a quack. Won't that be fun? Poke the net, and the net pushes back.

Share the message. Let the whole world know that Christopher Maloney is a cowardly quack.

The 'I use twitter to spread science' Badge

Back in 2007, there was a flurry of interest in The Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique (O.O.T.S.S.O.E.R.A.A.A.P.)

They've been badgering away.  A recent one is The “I use twitter to spread science” badge.:

Help me out here. I follow some blogging/twittering scientists & science writers, but my list is in no wise complete.  Tweet me (http://twitter.com/lizditz) or leave a comment here.

Here is my list who should sport this badge (in no particular order):

Tweet me  or add a comment & I'll extend the list

Maria Davis, Adriel Johnson, Gopi Podila

My deepest and most heart-felt sympathies for everyone who has been affected by this awful, incomprehensible action.

The University of Alabama at Huntsville shootings have been much on my mind. I picture the scene and cannot imagine the shock and horror as a routine faculty meeting -- often rather boring -- turned into carnage.

The dead are Maria Ragland Davis,Phd, Adriel Johnson, PhD, and Gopi Podila,PhD. Each link takes you to a memorial page at the Huntsville Times.

The wounded are Luis Cruz Vera, PhD, (Dr. Cruz Vera was released from the hospital on February 13th) Joseph G. Leahy, PhD (link takes you to blog of his recovery, maintained by family; Facebook page for support) and Stephanie Monticciolo, a departmental administrator.

Interviews with the non-wounded victims. Debra Moriarity, PhD, is credited with saving her colleagues. Blog-friend Abel Pharmboy has two posts on the shootings: UA Huntsville Dr. Amy Bishop holds active NIH R15 AREA award and Amy Bishop UAH case: What role should personality or collegiality play in tenure decisions?. He points to an interview with UAH psychology professor Eric Seemann Margaret Soltan at University Diaries is covering the shooting and its aftermath.