Matharu's Rants and Raves

Retired judge Sir Mota Singh, a Sikh, recently made some comments that Sikhs must be allowed to carry Kirpans (a ceremonial dagger or knife) and be exempt from the prohibitions that forbid the carrying of knives to such places as schools. In UK law, there some seem to be some specific exemptions for “religious reasons” including those relating to school ground but I’m not expert so don’t full understand their extent.

Singh says:

“I see no objection to a young Sikh girl or boy, who’s been baptised, being allowed to wear their Kirpan if that’s what they want to do”

Really? This guy is a judge?

I can see this becoming an issue when some kid uses his kirpan in a school fight. And it will also encourage others to carry knives.

No special privilege is required for religions, especially more so in this case as these so-called “symbols” are NOT essential to proving anyone’s alignment to some religious belief system. What is far more important than these symbols is how one treats others; to be fair and to do the right things which we all instinctively feel and aspire to.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

This video from DarkMatter2525 at http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatter2525#p/u/6/zIwiU7thK54 has been out for a while but I wanted to add it here as it has a lot of synergy with NonStampCollector’s video on “http://www.metalvortex.com/images/Misc%20Photos/Snow%20in%20London%202009/index.html)” which I had linked to only just recently.

This is the DarkMatter2525 “EPIC GOD FAIL” video http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatter2525#p/u/6/zIwiU7thK54

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

Now and again I may link or embed a video from NonStampCollector. For those that don’t know, NonStampCollector has his own YouTube channel.

In this post, I’m linking to NonStampCollector’s video on “Jephthah (Judges 11)”.

On a slightly different tack, I’m looking forward to having more lively debates with Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on my door, but as of late they don’t seem to come around any more

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

I recently had a little diatribe in my article at www.metalvortex.com/blog/2010/02/04/354.html where I expressed concern at the increasingly worrying practice of Boots and others of handling homeopathic products as medicine contrary to all results from proper scientific trials which show that homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo.

Well, I just came across this video at some other blogs.

It was rather humorous at first but it soon developed into something rather serious. In my opinion, it isn’t a stretch at all to equate the actions of Boots and others to that of Bruce the so-called “entrepreneur” in the video. The Dragon’s Den team was right and they called it as it they saw it; Bruce is a snake oil salesman who fills you with disgust and anger. A dangerous person who can cause suffering and death by delaying or usurping the use of proper treatment.

The sad thing is that there are probably a significant number of people with morals just like Bruce who are in positions to influence and make decisions if it helps to rake in the money.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

Quackery such as homeopathy need to be treated as such; quackery. Endorsement for quackery from the government, NHS or the meddling Royal family need to be challenged. Additionally, silence or inaction can be interpreted as an endorsement for quackery. It is a hard battle fighting nonsense, but we do need to get away from these witch-doctors., to get out of the darkness of backwards thinking and move into the light. I do still find it astonishing that seemingly intelligent persons can delude themselves into believing in such magic. But I expect that this is a result of the recent cultural trends to avoid conflict and not to “offend” anyone; such behaviour soon assigns critical thinking to a dwindling few. What an insane way to live! Everyone should be practiced in the skills of critical thinking as this is the way to cut away the nonsense, the chaff and get to the truth.

But is that the whole picture? No, because there are others out there who gain financially through the promotion of nonsense and quackery. Witness Boots, who continue to sell homeopathic solutions as if these things were real medicine and refuse to acknowledge that all credible trials have evidenced that homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo.

A few months ago, there was the UK Parliament House of Commons Select Committee (Science & Technology) “Evidence Check: Homeopathy”. A YouTube video is here:

 http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5C1A092C32F5C971

I was disappointed to see Paul Bennett of Boots evading questions and not giving a straight answer. He did eventually admit that he/Boots had seen no evidence that suggested that homeopathy had any effects beyond the placebo effect (although he started to bandy the word “efficacious” around which seems to me to be a deliberate ploy by him to avoid using the word “placebo” whilst discussing the topic of homeopathy because placebos can be “efficacious” ie have an effect within certain confines). But despite his admission, the lack of supporting evidence, he stated that he (or at least Boots) did not believe or disbelieve that homeopathy was a real effect [my words here]. That is a very strange statement from him. He is well aware that all the evidence indicates that homeopathy is a placebo…and such evidence is getting stronger, not weaker. He is obviously afraid of saying it…that Boots sells products that are shown to have no effects beyond the placebo. It was most sad to see Paul trying to get out of this difficult position…he was trying not to lie but at the same time he also had to protect Boots shareholders and probably his job. But you know, he did come out as a nice bloke. Perhaps if this had been a private session without the shackles of Boots, he would have felt freer to express himself.

And then we come to Robert Wilson. In my opinion a most disagreeable person who misled that session. And with his attitude a dangerous person who is culpable for the dangers that homeopathy brings. Let’s be clear…most homeopathy pills (ie sugar pills) in themselves are not dangerous but the entire fabric of homeopathy can delay the diagnoses and treatment of serious illnesses. And as much as Paul Bennett seems like a nice bloke he needs to realise that he also contributes to the falsehoods and witchcraft that Homeopathy brings. That’s why I was disappointed with him.

But what can be done about homeopathy? There was the recent 10:23 campaign at http://www.1023.org.uk/ which should bring some awareness to some people. One particular message at 10:23 that did strike a chord with me was that homeopathy had abused its placebo privileges.

The ever resourceful Quackometer has an interesting article relevant to homeopathy. Check it out at:

http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2010/02/dispensing-with-homeopathy-proposal.html

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

Cherie Blair, or known as Cherie Booth QC, as judge issued a suspended sentence to a man convicted of a violent crime. One of the reasons that Cherie spared the man from being thrown into jail was because he was a “religious man”. Fine. So what Cherie seems to be saying is that those who are not religious will be subject to greater punishment.

Of course, extreme violence has been committed and continues to be commited by “devout and religious” peoples so there is no logic to Cheri’s comments. But perhaps that is what can be expected from someone who herself believes in all the nonsense and gibberish that are at the core of Roman Catholicism, much as in other religions.

Other articles here:

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/59308,people,news,cherie-blair-wrong-to-spare-religious-man-jail-tony-blair

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8497365.stm

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7014701.ece

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

The recently released Firefox 3.6, as default, does not utilise Windows 7 taskbar previews for multiple tabs. This is in stark contrast to Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) which uses it to great effect and is a great productivity feature. However, Firefox 3.6 can be configured to utilise Windows 7 taskbar previews by following these steps:

1. In Firefox 3.6, type about:config in the address bar.

2. When the “Here be dragons!” page appears, proceed by clinking on “I’ll be careful, I promise!”.

3. A page is now displayed with a list of preferences.

4. In the “Filter:” field, type browser.taskbar.previews.enable

5. The preference browser.taskbar.previews.enable should now be displayed. Double-click on this preference so that the “Value” field toggles to “true”.

6. OK, you’re done now. You shouldn’t need to restart Firefox as the change should be instant.

Everything seems to be working fine now, but there probably are one or two bugs within Firefox 3.6 otherwise this feature would have been switched-on by default.

One bug that I did find, though, occurs when you change the page zoom levels within Firefox 3.6. It doesn’t matter if you use Firefox’s in-built per-site zoom levels, manual zoom, or the rather excellent “NoSquint” Add-on (for managing default zoom levels for all pages/sites), the result is always the same; the Windows 7 taskbar previews do not show the correct zoom levels or page layouts if the zoom levels are not at 100%.

I recognise that the Firefox team have probably been busy on other features, bugs and performance issues but it seems to me that they’ve had plenty of time…Windows 7 has been out for quite a while especially if you also consider Windows 7’s extensive beta trial.

I doubt that any 3.6.x version will implement a non-buggy version of the requested feature, so here’s looking at Firefox 3.7!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

Afghanistan? What? Where? You mad?!

Most of our travels within the country were through central and northern Afghanistan. The trip was quite exhausting and security concerns increasingly played a part especially during the elections with the risk of rocket attacks, suicide bombs or IEDs. However, I did think that the security forces were over enthusiastic in protecting us…we tried to avoid them whenever we could. The reason being that they invariably curtailed our movements or detained us for our “protection”. They obviously were very sensitive about ensuring that we didn’t attract undue attention from the Taliban. There was one point when we were escorted by several armed vehicles to get to the next town; what a day that was as we travelled from checkpoint to checkpoint and waited hours while the roads ahead were checked. Being flagged down by masked gunmen was taken in its stride, especially in light of being roughed up by armed guards at one checkpoint. We only had a couple of real security concerns during the trip and what appeared to be a direct rocket attack that made me dive for cover!

This wasn’t really a holiday…more of a photographic assignment for me! Still, it was an excellent trip. We were roughing it quite a bit sleeping on floors and went several days without washing. But we had our sleeping bags, roll-mats, med-kits, emergency rations, water purifiers, etc so we didn’t suffer too much! But you can imagine the toilet facilities…there wasn’t much! Using the bushes or the nearest wall was the order of the day!

We basically travelled from town-to-town hiring a driver with a 4×4 mini-bus each time to get us to the next town; we changed our route several times dependent on security and the willingness of drivers to take us through Taliban or bandit country. The heat was constant except along the spine of the Hindu Kush such as the Salang Pass and Bamiyan province. But the dust…the dust was everywhere. We breathed dust all the time. It was in our lungs, in our hair, in our clothes.

Most of the people were really friendly and they were curious to find out who we were. Most initially thought we were part of the NATO-led ISAF force, or that we were journalists or working for the UN or NGOs…they were most bemused to discover that we were holidaying in Afghanistan! Just outside of Kabul we bumped into a security team from the British Embassy…they were not too happy to see us there. But with the recent spate of killings and kidnappings of foreigners in Afghanistan you can understand their concerns.

Despite the armed convoys, military checkpoints, and helicopter gunships flying overhead I did manage to have some relaxing moments. One of my favourite moments was at a Sufi shrine in Gazargah near the town of Herat where a family invited us to share their picnic. Despite the recent road-side explosion that had killed 12 people in Herat, and despite the language barrier, we felt their genuine pleasure at meeting us. This was a special moment for me; not the serenity of the blue lakes at Band-e-Amir, not the majestic Buddhist caves at Bamiyan, and not the rugged beauty of the landscape. It was this touching gesture from a family who allowed us to share their food and gave us the warmth of their friendship.

When we got back to Kabul we were interviewed by a journalist regarding our trip. She was curious about the type of people who would holiday in Afghanistan. I do wonder what she thought afterward…”Crazy people”. Indeed.

Photos can be seen at:

www.metalvortex.com/images/Afghanistan/index.html

I accidently dropped my 70-300mm camera lens down a cliff into a lake in the middle of Afghanistan so that seriously compromised the types of photos that I could take for most of the trip. Still, I was up for a challenge and I hope to have captured the essence of the place.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

Thanks to http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/09/tony-blair-on-faith.html, we see yet more evidence of the warped logic of the ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He’s eagerness to jump into the clutches of the religious, and his condemnation of atheism both indicate that he is a person who has taken a path in which religious dogmas will sustain and prosper his delusions at the expense of critical thinking. He now only hears what he wants to hear.

It’s rather sad as I once admired him. As well as the disappointment that I feel for all his lost potential, I also believe that he is a dangerous individual. He has already condemned atheism. He will soon start talking about carrying out God’s will…the God in this case is that imagined by the superstitions of Roman Catholicism and, despite what religious accommodationists may say, is not compatible with other other religions such as Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. They are not all different paths to some common truth. They are fundamentally different. Blair’s failure to see this is one of his greatest weaknesses and is an indication that there are other things that he does not recognise. He therefore cannot be relied upon and should keep out of the issues afflicting this world. He should sort his own mind out first!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009

reprinted from Sense About Science

Simon Singh is a science writer in London and the co-author, with Edzard Ernst, of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. This is an edited version of an article published in The Guardian for which Singh is being personally sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association.

Beware the spinal trap

Some practitioners claim it is a cure-all, but the research suggests chiropractic therapy has mixed results – and can even be lethal, says Simon Singh.

You might be surprised to know that the founder of chiropractic therapy, Daniel David Palmer, wrote that ‘99% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae’. In the 1860s, Palmer began to develop his theory that the spine was involved in almost every illness because the spinal cord connects the brain to the rest of the body. Therefore any misalignment could cause a problem in distant parts of the body.

In fact, Palmer’s first chiropractic intervention supposedly cured a man who had been profoundly deaf for 17 years. His second treatment was equally strange, because he claimed that he treated a patient with heart trouble by correcting a displaced vertebra.

You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact some still possess quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything, including helping treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying – even though there is not a jot of evidence.

I can confidently label these assertions as utter nonsense because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world’s first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.

But what about chiropractic in the context of treating back problems? Manipulating the spine can cure some problems, but results are mixed. To be fair, conventional approaches, such as physiotherapy, also struggle to treat back problems with any consistency. Nevertheless, conventional therapy is still preferable because of the serious dangers associated with chiropractic.

Continue reading ‘Beware the spinal trap’ »