Dilute This

Ordinarily I would hesitate to post a video that oozes such a profoundly dizzying misunderstanding of basic physics, but it seems that "Dr." Werner (or possibly an unknown woo-lover) doesn't want her baffling butchery of simplistic scientific concepts displayed to anyone with enough brain to understand just how bat-shit-nutters she really is. XanSimpson, who originally posted the video on YouTube, received the following letter:

I thought you would like to know that you will be contacted by Dr Werner's Attorney shortly regarding her video. The posting of this video is in violation of copyright laws. We are aware that you have had this video up since March of '08 however I suggest you delete it immediately.

Jayson Patrick

Now, XanSimpson is understandably a bit nervous about this. Luckily, PZ Myers knows exactly what to do under these circumstances:

"As is common practice in these cases, the answer is obvious: everyone who can should make a copy of the video. More people should link to it. Spread the word and share the information - let her threat of a takedown lead to greater dissemination of her words.

Welcome to the internet, Charlene."

I wholeheartedly agree. So, in the interest of Woo extermination by way of exposure, I present to you



I do warn you, however, that I was reduced to a stuttering mass of endless repetition for several minutes after viewing. "But... but... equations don't work like that! But... but... those particles have MASS! But... but... energy isn't fucking emotional! But... but..." This stuttering was followed by a good two hours of impassioned ranting.

The stupid... it really does burn. Though, by her logic, stupid this concentrated shouldn't burn as much as stupid that was shaken really hard and then diluted a million times...

Want your own copy? Fetch. *smiles*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0c5yClip4o


UPDATE:

Holy shite. In trying to hunt down the University that gave this quack a degree I found a couple other gems of ignorance that have erupted forth from this nutter:

"Our cornea acts like a double-ended prism and when light passes through it, the light divides into spectral light, and our photoreceptors (red, blue and green cones picking up that specific frequency of light, and the rods picking up all the rest) absorb the light energy, which is then transmitted to the brain. It is the red and blue cones that actually have a stimulating effect on the autonomic nervous system...

What can drive the autonomic nervous system are the red and blue cones. When you think of red, you think of fast and hot, or the sympathetic nervous system - that's the red cone system working. When you think of blue, you think of slow and cool, or the parasympathetic nervous system - that's the blue cone system working. So, light stimulation can change physiological function through photoreceptor transmission.

What diseases are you more likely to suffer with when the red cone system is overworking? That's right: fast diseases like high blood pressure, anxiety, hyperthyroidism, arteriosclerosis, and cancer (make more cells) - a speeding up of the processes. What diseases are you more likely to suffer with when the blue cone system is overworking? That's right: slow system disorders like low blood pressure, depression, and low thyroid function.

Almost every disease process can be explained this way. So, light therapy essentially stimulates and enhances the ability of our photoreceptors to pick up light in a different way toward changing function in the body. It can create balance in the system and with balance comes better function."

(From the Austin Integrative Medicine site, captured by Google on November 1st, 2009: http://tinyurl.com/yezrlw3 Current page comes up 404 and her name has been removed from the header: http://tinyurl.com/yj88quo One wonders what kind of offense one has to commit to be removed from a site dedicated to quacks.)


For more video quacktastery, Dr. Werner explains how she "treats" disorders like ADHD and Dyslexia while providing another fascinating insight into Homeopathy - her shaken-not-stirred magic water apparently gives her access into "stubborn cells".




Continued searches for the origin of her degree have come up empty, though I was able to find information regarding her active status with the Texas Optometry board. Her license apparently expires in December of this year... that gives me hope.

Autism and Health Care Reform

With national health care reform in the limelight, many of us in the "Autism loop" have been receiving emails from organizations asking us to sign petitions, send messages, and phone representatives to insure that proven autism therapies are part of the discussion. Currently, only 14 states require insurance companies to cover ABA therapy for those with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and I firmly believe that requirement should be part of any Federal program.

As you sign those petitions, send those messages, phone your representatives, and forward those emails I would like you to consider adding some version of the following:


"Guaranteed insurance coverage of proven therapies, most notably ABA therapy, may additionally help discourage individuals from seeking cheaper "alternative" therapies. Not only do these sham therapies offer no documented benefit, many are dangerous and clearly unethical. Two increasingly popular "therapies" are of particular concern - chemical castration, which is not only a direct assault on human rights and dignity but also carries a range of serious side effects and chelation therapy, which is both scientifically inappropriate for the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders and potentially fatal.

Please insure that all individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders have access to proven therapies by helping to relieve the financial burden they carry, and in doing so, marginalize the spread of dangerous "alternative" therapies which threaten lives and provide nothing but false hope to desperate families."


Perhaps highlighting the dangers of excluding coverage will be the kick in the ass they need. Beside - it never hurts to plant a seed of knowledge in this woo-filled world.

Someone please tell me this is a joke...

One would hope they were joking... but no... I fear they're really this deluded. InJesus.com member Jim Bramlett has posted a very special call for the warriors of god to protect McCain and Palin from the African Witchcraft Curses that Obama's family and friends are reportedly busy dolling out from their village in Africa.

In their defense, the "witches, warlocks and those involved in satanism and the occult" apparently get up at 3:00am every morning to release these curses which shows a great deal of dedication. Also, Senator Obama's grandmother apparently sacrificed both a black and a white chicken so the magic would convince both white and black folks to vote for him. Until now I had no idea sacrificial magic was so racist as to be segregated. While the article does explain that they're all false Christians for participating in witchcraft, it never explains how they can simultaneously be Muslim and participate in witchcraft as the two are also mutually exclusive.

In all seriousness, why are these type of beliefs given a pass in our society? This is the 21st century, not the 15th. We should all understand at this point that hearing voices and fearing curses are products of mental illness, not supernatural activity. It's not an "alternate theory", it's not a "spiritual warfare", it's a form of madness fed by a group of individuals who are either highly delusionary themselves or, more likely, keen on taking advantage of the highly suggestible. You are not warriors of god, you are nutters and you should be called out as nutters.

I don't like feeling like this. I don't like raging against a belief system because it's almost impossible to draw the line of acceptability. Are you still crazy if you only believe in a personified deity? What about if you actually hear this personified deity's voice? What if you believe this personified deity contorts the laws of physics to grant you wishes in the form of answered prayers? Where does it cease to be a remote possibility and start to become a threat? When an individual believes that I'm filled with demons? When they seek to indoctrinate my children for the good of their "eternal soul"? Do we wait until they stop merely trying to pray away the gay, and the curses, and the demons and take physical action?

At what point do we stop being politically correct and take a hard look at this? When do we begin to openly ridicule the ridiculous? I used to believe that screaming against faith as Dawkins so often does was just as intolerant as the fundamentalists screaming against us. But is it? Is screaming against uncontrolled schizophrenia intolerant? Is screaming against willful ignorance intolerant?

I just don't know anymore...