SDWFD: Episodes 3-6!

Hello from Super-Duper Woo-Fighting Duo!

You can listen to Episode 3 in which we read Chapter 1 of Jim Humble’s book, and Episode 4 covering Chapter 2 (guest hosted by Hayley Stevens of Righteous Indignation, because I was away! Thanks for filling in, Hayley).

Also check out Rhys on the One Show! Bringing ‘bleachgate’ to the masses.

In Episode 5 (also on iTunes!) we’re taking a break from Jim’s book (back to Chapter 3 in Episode 6!) to look at some other woo;

• Cosmetic Acupuncture
• Annie Cap (therapist/telesales extraordinaire)
  
• Colloidal Silver
• Live blood imaging (guest report from @JoBrodie)
• Pumpkin Pie for pudding
  

Enjoy!

Cosmetic Acupuncture

Rhys reads from the leaflet he picked up in one of the two Health with Herbs stores in Cardiff, shown below [when he's scanned & sent it to me!].

I had a look at this website cosmetic acupuncture and their ‘About’ section (I have italicised for emphasis):

Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years and although relatively new to the west the Chinese have been using points on the face to combat the signs of ageing and to help with various skin conditions for many years. It was in use as early as the Sung Dynasty (960AD – 1070AD) when the Empress and Emperor’s concubines received cosmetic acupuncture.

A cosmetic acupuncture treatment will obviously concentrate on points and muscles of the face in order to improve elasticity of the skin and general overall appearance. During the treatment the practitioner will also needle constitutional points on the patient’s legs, arms and body, these are the points that will help to balance and harmonise the patient’s inner elements.

Studies published in the International Journal of Clinical Acupuncture in 1996 showed that of 300 people who received Facial Acupuncture, 90% demonstrated marked results after only their first treatment. [I can't find this study; if anyone can, please send to superwooduo@gmail.com!]

Over the course of treatments the patient can not only expect to be looking more radiant and their skin revitalised, but they will also start to feel more at balance and happy in themselves. The Irish Times recently acclaimed* this treatment as:

“…a viable alternative to cosmetic surgery and the effects can run much deeper than simply improving appearances.”

When the patient feels more in control of their body, mind and spirit they can then start to address other issues in their lives. These may be things to do with exercise or lifestyle, or maybe they would like to stop smoking, or loose [sic] some weight. These are all things that we can achieve when we are in balance and feeling good about ourselves, once you start to feel like this, you will be surprised how much your self image improves. This can be achieved by cosmetic acupuncture bringing a person’s natural beauty to the surface.

* Here they fail to mention the closing line of said ‘acclaim’, which is:

“As I turned in that night, I looked expectantly in the mirror again, only to conclude that a brisk walk or even a swim would have left more of a glow on my face.”

Annie Cap

There is a street in my home town that has a very high turnover of shops; the rent is high, few succeed enough to stay there very long. One of the latest editions caught my eye with this window sign:

I picked up some leaflets from outside and went on with my day. Annie Cap has her own website which is worth a look, and her leaflet is [will be!] below.

Colloidal Silver

This is the wiki article we were looking at for a bit of background on colloidal silver. The link to argyria is well worth a look.

The main worry with this ‘therapy’ is its ability to interfere with the absorption of several drugs; so people on medication may be seriously harming themselves if they choose this alternative therapy at the same time.

Healthy Pumpkin Pie for Pudding

As a happy thanksgiving to our American friends & listeners, he’s a tasty pie recipe that apparently is super-healthy too!!

From naturalnews.com:

How to make the creme…

In a small work bowl of a food processor, place:

Cashew nuts (truly raw-unheated, hand-shelled) = 3-3/4-ounces (refer to notes)

Blend cashews into a nut butter.
Add to food processor:

Water = 6-tablespoons (refer to notes)

Maple syrup (pure, grade B) = 3-tablespoons

Vanilla (pure extract) = 1-teaspoon or equal amount vanilla bean powdered (the vanilla bean powdered is preferred)

Puree ingredients.
Add to food processor:

Psyllium husks powder (plantago ovata) = 2-teaspoons

Press psyllium into mixture. Puree and let creme stand for 10-15 minutes. After creme has thickened, puree again. Place creme atop the pie. Level out the creme. Voila! Cut pie into 8 large pieces or 16 small pieces.

Optional Garniture:

Pumpkin seeds (heirloom, unheated and organic) = 1-cup

Maple syrup (pure, grade B) = 2-tablespoons

Salt, cinnamon and ginger (dried, powdered) = 1/4-teaspoon of each

Place salt, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl and mix. Stir in maple syrup. Stir in pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle up to 1/2-cup spiced, sweet pumpkin seeds over crust then add filling. Top pie with creme. Over top of creme, sprinkle up to 1/2-cup spiced, sweet pumpkin seeds. This garniture adds more pumpkin sapor and a crunchy texture to pie. For festive color, surround each piece of pie with fresh cranberries.

Notes…

*1 Many cashew nuts sold as raw are heat processed to remove their shell. The definition of “raw” for the cashew industry means “not roasted”. In this scheme of things, cashews-in-shell are either boiled in oil or scorched in fire in order to condition the shell (prior to cracking) and speed the process. During this heating process, the cashew nut degrades significantly. Seek out organic, truly raw (unheated) cashew nuts that are hand shelled.

*2 Bottled spring water from the marketplace is not recommended. Fresh water from one of earth’s natural springs is highly recommended.

*3 Best flavor and best nutrition comes from food that is heirloom and grown organically, sustainably or biodynamically.

Article References
Maple Syrup
http://www.healingfoodreference.com…
Cashew Nuts
http://www.healingfoodreference.com…
Vanilla Bean
http://www.naturalnews.com/028432_v…
Cranberries
http://www.naturalnews.com/027768_p…

About the author

This recipe creation is by Dianne Wawrzyniak-Marshall. Via YouTube video, Dianne brings you alive healthful recipes that she and Paul enjoy time and time again. Catch Dianne and Paul in food-prep recipe-demoing action ToLiveWellNow.
http://www.youtube.com/ToLiveWellNow
Dianne Wawrzyniak-Marshall has a passion to share her many extremely challenging experiences and the grand lessons she has learned. If you could pick up a blue-eyed blonde-haired little girl of 5 and spare her so very many years of forthcoming pain of the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental, would you? Dianne was this little girl. Born in 1963, Dianne desires to share information that comes from deep suffering in order to help parental figures understand how to give children an abundant life(as well as themselves). Dianne wants to help people ToLiveWell!
http://iLoveToLiveWell.com

[I really don't get that last paragraph!! Intriguing.]

SDWFD: Episode 2!

Have a listen here, and you can now find us on iTunes!

woo top phlog!

[Intro by Dr*T]

R: Today we’re going to be reading some more from Jim Humble’s book, The Miracle Mineral Solution for the 21st Century.

M: Also, because we didn’t last time, we’d like to give more of an introduction to MMS and Jim Humble [JH for short!] himself, in case anyone hasn’t been keeping up with the exciting news.

R: I was one of the people to discover MMS; I found it on a Crohn’s Disease support forum and I recorded a video about it. I also adapted the video into a blogpost. I discovered it being introduced as possibly a treatment for Crohn’s disease, I noticed people who were saying it had done wonders for them. Then I did more research into it and found it was being claimed that it could cure absolutely everything. The miraclemineral.org site claims it can cure:

AIDS, hepatitis A, B and C, malaria, herpes, TB, most cancer

But in a recent interview with Righteous Indignation, Humble said it could cure everything but broken bones. Powerful stuff.

M: Asthma, burns, what else?

R: Oh yeah, because as we now know the pain from burns is caused by acids and toxins.

So, I suppose the real aim of this podcast is to help you make up your own mind as to whether JH is a quack or something else

M: Crazy, deluded or just somewhere on that scale? I think when I started researching about JH – was it before you got banned from the forum or shortly afterwards? Near the beginning of everything – I found a video of him, maybe from 2008, which is an hour long but I sat through all of it because it started getting scary. I assumed that he was your typical, swindling, evil, quack/monster sort of thing…

R: Typical snake-oil salesman M: Yes one of those, but we’re not sure; we’re not a100%! So join us as we try to make up our minds. R: Especially after the RI interview M: Yes, it’s a must-listen!

[Rhys reads a spam email because it's vaguely amusing - thanks Mabu!]

M: I have an email from our friend @writerjames, who says:

A very promising first show. During the reading of Humble’s extract I was thinking “NEEDS MOAR SARCASM” at times, but you got around to some sensible response.

Sorry about that, James, we will do our very best to fulfil this request.

The pacing was impressive, you could sort of tell that you were both pretty comfortable with chattering away to each other in this format.

Yes we are!

My only suggestion would be that, if reading out any extracts in future that get much longer than today’s, you break it up every so often with some mockery and commentary as you work through it, rather than ploughing through the pseudoscientific crap in one unpalatable block and leaving all the editorialising to the end.

That is exactly what we were thinking and therefore we’ll do that in this episode!

R: I think James might be a psychic!

M: Yes, I think he might be – maybe he can do a guest report for us and we can test that.

That’s just a thought for further shows, and one that you may well have been planning on anyway.

More evidence!

Certainly wasn’t a problem with the inaugural episode. I look forward to seeing what future adventures your capes take you on!

All the best,

writerJames

P.S. Yes, I’m totally fishing for my first ever mention on a podcast. That’s okay so long as it’s couched in obsequious flattery, right?

Yes! James is fantastic and you should totally read his blog, Cubik’s Rube. [Sorry about all the American-style 'totally'!]

R: OK, today we’re reading:

About this Book

{I hope you do not think this book is just another account of a very interesting supplement that can help some people after they take it for several months. It is not. This book presents the Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), which works in just a few hours. In the world today, the leading killer of mankind is malaria, a disease that is usually overcome by this solution in only 4 hours.}

I think that’s a very big claim to make, don’t you?

M: It is a huge claim and it’s one he makes in the video I was talking about – it says how he came across MMS, that he was in Africa, some people were feeling very sick and so:

I asked them if they would like to try to my water purification drops that I had brought along with me. And in four hours they were up, laughing about how bad they were feeling just a little while before.

{This has been proven through clinical trials in Malawi, a country in eastern Africa. In these trials, MMS has never failed to kill the malaria parasite in an infected human. More than 75,000 malaria victims have taken the Miracle Mineral Solution and are now back to work and living
productive lives.}

M: There’s that 75,000 again R: He does love his round numbers doesn’t he.

Also these clinical trials, where are theys? They’re not published in any peer-reviewed medical journal that I know of.

M: It’s the usual double-standard; ‘look we have studies to show that our stuff works because there are studies!’ well actually the studies don’t show that, they say that it’s crap ‘but your science isn’t evidence!’

R: Except that here it isn’t us saying ‘your evidence is rubbish’, it’s that there is no evidence! Well apart from

M: {After taking the Miracle Mineral Solution, AIDS patients are often disease free in several weeks, and other diseases and conditions simply disappear. If patients in hospitals around the world were treated with this Miracle Mineral Solution, over 50% of them would be back home within a week.}

So, there’s the old cures HIV/AIDS claim again. Apparently if we rolled it out in the world, more than 50% of them would be back home within a week; what about the other 50%? Have they died? Probably.

R: A 100% cure rate for those who don’t die! This paragraph sums up exactly what MMS is:

{For more than 100 years, clinics and hospitals have used the active ingredients in this solution to sterilize hospital floors, tables, equipment, and other items. Now, this same powerful germ killer can be harnessed by the immune system to safely kill pathogens in the human body.}

I don’t quite know what to say about that! M: It’s difficult to find the words. R: Well the fact he thinks that it can kill bugs outside the body means it can kill bugs inside the body… M: Mm, and it can also kill you or at least do you some serious damage!

There’s been some confusion over the ‘bleachgate’ (I’m loathe to call it that as I hate this addition of -gate to the end of words to describe an incident but it’s a catchy, quick Twitter tag #bleachgate) because while activated MMS is a bleach, it’s not your average household bleach , it’s not the same thing, but it is a bleach.

R: It’s a type of bleach used for water purification, stripping textiles, other nasty things M: Things you don’t want to be doing inside yourself basically! R: While it’s not household bleach it’s still not very pleasant at all.

{Amazing as it might seem, when used correctly, the immune system can use this killer to attack only those germs, bacteria, and viruses that are harmful to the body. It does not affect the friendly bacteria in the body or any healthy cells.}

M: Obviously that’s absolute rubbish. If you spread a sterilising agent on something, it’s going to kill whatever’s there, it doesn’t care whether it’s got smiley faces or not.

R: Do you remember that homeopathy study where they used alcohol as the control and the alcohol killed as much as the homeopathic things did? It killed about 80% of the cells; so by Jim’s definition, alcohol should be perfect to use for killing cancer cells! M: Yeah, kind of the opposite! [Here I'm referring to the fact that drinking alcohol can lead to liver cancer; it won't act like a chemotherapy drug!]

{In this book, I have, to the best of my ability, stuck to the facts of exactly what has happened regarding the Miracle Mineral Solution. This book is the story of the discovery and development of the most amazing enhancement for the immune system yet discovered. Thus, it is the greatest solution to the diseases and ills now known to mankind; it is not a drug.]

M: Well there’s that classical thing that alt med people tend to do, which is try to distance themselves from the idea of big pharma drugs; they don’t understand what a drug is, a drug is anything you put inside your body (of exogenous origin) R: Anything that has some sort of effect in the body isn’t it M: Yes, a physiological effect, not manufactured within the body. So  of course it’s a drug. R: He seems to like the term supplement M: It’s a bit more benign-sounding isn’t it R: Yes, because when you say supplement it sounds like the body is meant to have it but is missing it M: Yes it’s clever wordplay to get people on your side.

{I believe if you follow my efforts to develop the data presented in this book and to make it available to the public, the story will help make it real to you and convince you to give it a try.}

R: It hasn’t! M: Not yet. We’ll see, maybe by the end of the book , we’ll all be taking MMS! R: Maybe we’ll find out that Jim’s book was actually published in the Lancet or something!

{To that purpose, I have provided complete details on how to make the solution in your kitchen, and to buy most of the ingredients off the shelf. It is entirely possible that one day you will use this solution to save someone’s life, perhaps your own}

R: Very humble, Jim, very humble.

{Because the Miracle Mineral Solution functions as a supercharger to the immune system, it is not meant for treatment of any particular disease, rather it is meant to improve the immune system to the point of overcoming many diseases, frequently in less than 24 hours.}

M: One wonders how a bleach would possibly do that.

R: It also contradicts his claim of ‘if patients were treated with MMS, over 50% would be home within a week’ – why is he saying that there and then..

M: Well obviosly if you’re in hospital, you want to stay there for at least a week! R: Well, yes, hospital’s quite a nice place, I gather M: The food’s good.

{My purpose for writing this book is that this information is far too important to allow any one person, group, or even several groups to have control of it. It is information that the world should have. After 5 years of seeing practically nothing done by a group that could have done a great deal, I finally realized that the information simply had to be distributed to as many people as possible or someone would always be out of the loop of receiving this life-saving data.}

M: This is his aim – to tell everyone about this fantastic discovery, to save all the lives!

R: Possibly a bit of a messiah complex?

M: {It regularly occurs that there is a great deal of important medical information withheld from the public that could save lives. It is my intention to prevent this from happening with this information.}

M: I’m not sure where these people get the idea that important medical information isn’t given to them. I mean, it’s all there. Sure, sometimes you have to pay to get a journal article, but then there’s a free review somewhere, or, ask your doctor..

R: If you really want to get hold of a medical paper, there are ways of getting it so that you can make an informed choice about your own health instead of relying on hear-say.

More about Jim

It’s quite odd how he refers to conspiracy theories.

M: Yes I think that’s what surprised me about the video, again – I was expecting the guy to talk about his crazy bleach solution but he brings up all kinds of conspiracy theories. There’s a fantastic one at the beginning where JH decides to tell us about all the other stuff he’s done in his life, he says:

I did things like set up A-bomb tests.

I’m not sure why that’s something to be proud of.

I worked on Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. I was able to wire the first computer-controlled machine in the United States at Hughes Aircraft Company… they called me in and had me repair the Lunar Vehicle.

Really?! A gold-prospector from the deep south, OK then. R: Bit odd. Why choose him? M: It’s not as if he’s qualified!

And so, did they go to the Moon or didn’t they?

So he’s not even buying into the moon landing! Fantastic. R: Didn’t he even reference the moon base conspiracy theory? M: he has:

I don’t know whether they took it to the Moon or they took it out to the mountains in the desert… He was going through the files one time and he come upon this photograph, 8 x 10 photograph, that showed a space station on the back side of the Moon.

You must, you absolutely must, visit this site about the Secret Nazi Moonbase. It’s absolutely hilarious – beyond parody.

What were the other things that JH claims to have achieved in his life?

R: At miraclemineral.org, Jim also claims to have:

worked on secret radio control electronics, set up experiments in electrical generation by magneto hydro dynamics… Jim’s immediate goal is to return to Africa to eliminate all of the malaria in a single African nation in order to prove to the world that it is possible.

M: An admirable goal, but perhaps slightly unrealistic. R: Slightly? Given that he hasn’t even produced any evidence that MMS works, it’s pretty unlikely. He also claims to have intented, and I think is by far his biggest and best invention:

the first automatic garage door opener.

M: Wow! R: I am in awe of this man M: I like his hat. R: Not only does he plan to cure Africa of malaria, he’s also invented a garage door opener. M: Brilliant. R: Brilliant man.

M: What else has Jim been up to in his amazing life? R: I don’t know, it is hard to find information about Jim, othe rthan stuff fairly recently  M: considering he’ must be late 60s if not into his 70s by now.

Suspect Shopping

R: I don’t quite get why he has these photos on his website that appear to be photoshopped. M: Yes they’re obviously shopped and there are a few around R: The website MMS Debunked has a few…

M: Almost as if they’re hyper-sharpened and images of different resolutions… badly shopped but not really sure to what end.

R: This one is very obviously photoshopped M: Yes he looks like a card-board cutout there! R: Again the white glow and it’s so different the resolution, colouring, everything.

M: Highly suspect.

Seminars in the DR

Jim does seem to be quite difficult to get hold of; possibly because at the moment he seems to be living in the Dominican Republic.

R: When I geolocated the IP address from the comment he left on my blog, it did go back to the DR! M: So he may be telling the truth there! But it seems he has been fined for distributing MMS illegally

R: Didn’t they claim it was a herbal remedy in Africa to cure AIDS? M: Yes so he is wanted in lots of places including the US. Canada has already banned MMS obviously so he’d not be welcome there either.

In the DR he has been running some training courses so you can come and learn about MMS! In a newsletter from this year, Jim gives some details of the course:

There will be a week of theory where I cover the details on what MMS is, how it works, the basic chemistry for anyone coming off the street, how it is made, labeled and bottled,  how to treat Cancer, Hep C, HIV, colds, H1N1 flu, and dozens of other diseases. I try to tell you everything I know.

Surely that wouldn’t take long!

When people leave here they really know how to use MMS for all things, skin diseases of all kinds, colon problems, how to regenerate the liver, how to treat brain cancers, how to treat babies and pregnant women, and how to treat animals from mice to elephants.

You can treat your pet elephant! R: Pet elephant?? M: Yeah why not. Stampy.

For 5: Bag, see below...

You will be personally taking MMS while here, spraying your skin with powerful solutions of MMS (but won’t hurt you), spraying others’ skin and hair. You will learn to use sprays, baths, IV solutions, MMS gas, soak the feet, and most importantly, the new protocols that in the country of Malawi have cured more than 800 people of HIV plus 40 cancer cases, 50 of feet and leg numbness, 3 heart disease cases, 13 diabetes cases, and many other diseases and problems.

It just does everything, it’s amazing. R: Yes and he’s now discovering other ways to use MMS!

wtf?

And there’s also the hilarious picture of him stuck in a black sack. M: Yes that is wonderful, from Phaelosopher’s blog; the pictures of JH on these training courses are generally quite amusing – he’s usually standing in front of one of those flip-charts that he’s been scribbling on barely legibly, trying to draw atoms and things…

R: Wait! Chlorine dioxide is an ion remember? That’s what Jim Claims…

M: Now you’re just being picky. You and your science! So yes there’s the picture of him sitting in a giant bin sack and I really don’t understand what he’s doing. Maybe it’s one of these MMS gas protocols or something.

So, you can attend the first week of these courses for the little sum of $750 USD! And if you want to stay for the second week it’s $250. But remember, he’s not making any money from MMS! R: No, of course not, that money all goes into running more courses.

And, we have some more information on what he actually does teach in the training course:

Jim is teaching the latest protocols and  here are some of the other topics Jim teaches:

The Fundamentals of MMS: the discovery and evolution of the usage of the world’s most important broad spectrum non-toxic anti-microbial agent including these topics:

• Chemistry of 28% Chlorine Dioxide solution
• Sourcing of MMS chemicals
• Home manufacture
• Basic first aid and diagnosis
• How to make money selling MMS

but remember, Jim isn’t making money from this!

• Running an MMS help desk—or not
• Working in remote areas: strategies for communication and protection
• Training in remote areas
• Legal and FDA considerations
• Problems with foreign health departments and permissions

So that’s going to be almost every country in the world now! M: Jim’ll teach you how to escape the man.

• How MMS attacks different pathogens in the body
• The evolution of MMS protocols
• Successful stories with different diseases

So you can sit around the campfire and listen to Jim telling stories about how he cured cancer AIDS, Hep.. M: Yay, anecdotes!

• Practical applications of MMS for water purification

Actually teaching something possibly of worth there!

• Health ministers training

Yes you can become a minister in his church. M: We’ll cover the church stuff later…

• MMS2
• New protocols
• Question and answers

I doubt anyone will be asking something like ‘do you have evidence this works?’ M: He’ll say “yes! Here are some phone numbers of people I’ve cured. They have phones. Call them! I’ll pay the phone bill@. R: Yeah, I’ve not bothered to call back on them yet but you can, you can do my work for me! M: I’m so busy helping people cure their elephants of asthma. R: Poor pet Stampy.

On the genesis II website he later refers to it as a ‘life changing, world changing seminar’! M: Sold it to me! R: I want to go. In the second week you can either help people in the Dominican Republic, or you can get to go over to Haiti! Let’s go and help all the people in Haiti who are still recovering from the earthquake. Because that’s not got any moral or ethical implications has it? M: He’s saving the world!

R: OK, I think that sums up Jim’s course pretty well.

M: We hope you have a better idea of why it is we’re talking about MMS and Jim Humble; we hope you will tune in with us every week to help us decide what kind of guy Jim is.

R: e-mail feedback to superwooduo at gmail dot com or you can follow us on twitter @Superwooduo

M: For more information on MMS you can follow #bleachgate and do drop in to my blog [here you are!]

[Rhys pimps his blog again and reckons I had twice already *lovers' tiff*]

M: We need to pimp the wonderful new podcast from our friends Martin Robbins and Michael Marshall called Strange Quarks, which you should definitely listen to every week.

R: It was sort of the inspiration for this podcast wasn’t it? M: Yes, but they’re professional R: And we’re just ramblers. We aimed to infiltrate our show but made our own instead! M: We’re going to take it over but don’t tell them…

Justin Satov 05 November 22:14 I quite liked it being longer. It was the soundtrack to my morning as I readied myself for work.

SDWFD Episode 1

Here’s the transcript of Episode 1 for those who like it typed out with links! R: = Rhys and M: = me, if that’s not obvious. Emphasis in book extracts, denoted by { stuffaboutwoo }, is mine.

[Annoyingly-catchy jingle from Dr*T # welshboyo and noodlemaaaaz]

 

R: Hello and welcome to Super-Duper Woo-Fighting Duo (M: with capes!) – I’m Rhys! M: I’m Marianne!

R: This podcast is going to be all about Jim Humble‘s book, or at least this episode will. In future episodes, we aim to ramble on about quacky, wooey things M: General ridicule, bit of comedy, but there’ll be some serious stuff as well.

R: Yes. One person we aim to ridicule is Phaelosopher, for example!

M: Yes, I’d really like to see why he spelled it that way. R: Yeah! Why not spell it ‘Filosopher’ or something like that, why choose to spell it ‘Phaelosopher’ when that’s so easily exploitable?

M: It’s asking for trouble! R: Indeed it is. Anyway, I think we should get on with reading the editor’s note from Jim Humble’s book: Miracle Mineral Solution of the 21st Century. M: Let’s.

MMS Part 1: Editor’s Note

R: {Editor’s Note Dated October, 2009
First published in 2006 this book ranks among the most read books in the world. Over 3 million downloads have gone out from thousands of web sites. Over 4,000 web site owners are “friends of MMS” and they provide free copies to anyone who asks for it. The original copyright statement remains unchanged. As of June, 2009, Jim Humble became a perpetual traveler and his work continues in Africa and other countries as described in his updated web site http://JimHumbleFoundation.org.

The links within the original book version gradually became obsolete or broken. Therefore a table has been placed at the end of the book which lists Internet

resources – recent educational materials that have been written mostly by Jim since June 2009. They are updated frequently and are listed at the end of this book.}

M: {The world-wide Flu Pandemic announced by the World Health Organization has caused numerous health web sites in the U.S. to be brought off-line. This is based on U. S. Congress openly supporting arrests and fines against persons and organizations that promote alternative remedies for flu and Influenza other than those approved by the World Health Organization. Vaccinations and Tamiflu or other approved antibiotics are said to be the only legitimate means of reducing flu symptoms. At the time of writing, most web sites located in non-US countries still provide MMS information as listed at the end of volume one.

Viewed as a classic work this book stands as the authentic history of how ClO2 came to the front as the most potent and powerful germicidal agent on the planet. Jim explains how activated MMS cannot harm normal living body cells. His contribution was that he found the best way to package MMS as a safe affordable product, and to test it for five years to prove reliable outcomes. His discovery is now used daily by more than a million people around the world, not including dogs, cats, horses, and other animals. All this since 2006 when MMS was introduced along with this book.}

R: {MMS suppliers are no longer listed or identified because search engines provide that information quite effectively.

Disinformation on the Internet states that MMS (and the ClO2 that it generates) is the same as chlorine and therefore it is dangerous. That is not true. Chlorine dioxide has been well known in industry for 70 years. Chlorine Dioxide is even an approved food additive at food-packaging time because it destroys salmonella, ecoli, and every other known germ – eventually converting into molecules of water as it disappears.}

M: {MMS was developed and tested by Jim between 2001 and 2006, involving over 75,000 volunteers in five different countries. This is the story of those years and the events that led to standardization of the current MMS product.

New protocols and methods for using MMS have evolved in the years since the release of this book. The latest discoveries and innovations are described in the links at the end of the book. Disregard links within the book – they are now obsolete. The Editor – October, 2009}

Discussion

R: Mmm, a very interesting start. M: Indeed. So, this book apparently ranks among ‘the most-read books in the World’! R: Big claim! M: Not sure where they got their data on that. It is a big claim. And indeed, living up to his surname, it’s apparently viewed as ‘a classic work’.

R: Mm, think I’d disagree with that. M: think I would as well.

R: Maybe classic as in classically hilarious? M: Yes, I was going to say, it is a bit of a classic!

R: One thing that stood out to me was the ‘Tamiflu and other approved antibiotics” – I don’t think many doctors would recommend Tamiflu for .. M: bacterial infections, seeing as it’s not an antibiotic! R: But I also don’t think they’d recommend antibiotics for flu! M: Indeed, well they shouldn’t R: Yes, that would be rather silly and dangerous. I find it funny, you know, most doctors wouldn’t recommend Tamiflu for just your average flu; they only started giving it out for the swine flu pandemic.

M: More amusing perhaps is his clear separation between the millions human users and the “dogs, cats, horses and other animals” that have been happily taking MMS apparently! R: Yes, because everyone knows that they like to take ClO2, hehe!

M: Wasn’t there someone who was giving it to their cat recently, but the cat unfortunately died? I seem to remember hearing about that. R: Yes, that was on Facebook on the MMS/Jim Humble UK group. Which is now shut down! M: Ah it is, fantastic! That was a scary, scary place. R: Yes and there were some scary people on that M: Yes, asking how best to treat their infants with it.

R: I remember hearing as well about the child who was having activated MMS dripped into their eye, and they were saying how the eye was burning M: That was very distressing. R: but then Jim Humble told them that was a sign it was working! M: it’s the standard thing; however bad you feel, it just means it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. R: Rather concerning.

R: The final thing : straw man argument of saying “Disinformation on the Internet states that MMS (and the ClO2 that it generates) is the same as chlorine and therefore it is dangerous. That is not true” – I don’t see anyone on the internet claiming that MMS is chlorine, or that it’s the same as chlorine. M: no, certainly not, quite the opposite. Everyone seems to be pointing out that just because a particular element is in a compound, doesn’t mean the compound is going to behave as the element does – that’s pretty much never true – and anyone with basic chemistry knowledge knows that. R: Yes but Jim doesn’t seem to have basic chemistry knowledge M: of coures not!

R: I think finally the thing I wanted to point out was “MMS was developed and tested by Jim between 2001 and 2006, involving over 75,000 volunteers in five different countries” – if that took place in a double-blind trial, I would really like to see the results. M: Certainly, 75,000 is an impressive cohort! R: Yes, yes – something tells me though that he didn’t actually get 75,000, but if he did – if he did – if he didn’t do it in the setting of a clinical trial, well I’m sorry they’re just 75,000 anecdotes and no matter how positive they are, they’re all useless, medically.

M: Indeed, it seems he’s very fond of his round numbers, generally to the 5,000′s.  It’s a bit suspicious. [PS: sorry, suspect! I hate that!!] R: He is very fond of anecdotes as well – one that we’ll be coming on to later is how someone had given MMS to their young daughter, around the time of puberty, they gave them the MMS and they reported that their daughter had grown breasts because of MMS! M: Yes, it’s a revolutionary discovery! R: and I think it was all in the space of about a week! M: We’ll certainly come back to that one

M: So next week we’d like to do a bit more of a fuller episode so we’ll go into the Jim Humble’s first chapter in his book, also in later episodes we’ll be having some guest reports from people and we’ll be looking at some interesting leaflets from various CAM-type shops that are, irritating, let’s say!

R: I’ll just give you a little spoiler, one of them is going to be on ‘cosmetic acupuncture‘! M: and I have here something that was really annoying me at home, from a new ‘complimentary health therapy’ shop with a ‘qualified homeopath’ in residence R: Damn those homeopaths! M: Or ‘holistic therapist’ as her calling card says. R: I think you know when you see the word holistic, you’re talking about a CAMster.

R: OK, well thank you for joining us on this week’s Super-Duper Woo-Fighting Duo M: with capes!

R: You can find me on Twitter: @rhysmorgan M: and you can find me: @noodlemaz.

R: You can email us at superwooduo@gmail.com – we’d appreciate any and all feedback, positive and negative – even if you’re a homeopath or even Jim Humble, if you are Jim Humble, please get back to us and we will read your comments. I think that’s a good place to end! Goobye. M: Bye!

PS. Thank you to Dr*T for this week’s intro!

—

PS: we forgot to ridicule “Africa and other countries” – because everyone knows Africa r country in Asia!!1!

Phew, that’s better.

In other news: new mic acquired and next time we’ll break up the reading with discussion instead of leaving it all to the end (thanks to @writerjames for emailing the suggestion, we’d already decided it was a good idea!).

‘Bleachgate’ and beyond

Hello!

So, I’m having a bit of a blogging holiday due to other things catching up with me at the moment but I hope to get a few posts out soon.

First, a few words on the ongoing MMS story.

Rhys has been notified that the WHO have now been informed of MMS and will be taking steps to warn the public internationally – fantastic! Have a listen to him on the radio today; from 9:10.

He also received an award at TAM last weekend (I encourage you to read some of the fantastic blog-based commentaries on the proceedings if you’re interested in the concept and might attend next year, and also look up QEDcon!) in recognition of his skeptical activism achievements.

So, on to the meat.

‘Bugs’ and Cancer

I was saying to Rhys the other day: the most annoying out of all Humble’s false claims, for me, is that cancer is caused by ‘a bug inside the cancer cells’.

Some cancers can be initiated by viral infections; when parts of the viral genome are incorporated into our own, as is the case with certain types of virus, some disruption of the DNA sequences in that cell can occur. If that disruption is in a particularly important place – like in the middle of a gene that makes a protein important in preventing cancer from developing – then this could initiate pre-cancerous cellular behaviour. However, for the most part, cancer is not to do with ‘bugs’ but with the genetics, damages and behaviours of our cells.

You certainly don’t treat cancer using the rationale that there’s something living inside your cell that needs killing off. The only bug-like things in our cells are the mitochondria, which are absolutely essential for cell survival – you certainly don’t want to kill them!

Anyway, to continue. There is a blog by the Phaelosopher (whom we have affectionately dubbed failosopher) that I found a while ago. This guy attends Humble’s courses and writes about MMS quite a lot.

There is also a regular commenter (a spammer, shall we say) on Rhys’ blog by the supposed name of Maria who today reveals on failosopher’s blog both that Princess Diana is alive and MMS reverses greying hair! We suspect she either is Jim Humble or may somehow be in his pay; she’s very enthusiastic that we take her personal doctor’s records that we can phone up to scrutinise any time as proof of MMS’ efficacy.

The Fungal ‘Hypothesis’

So, to the point – I come across a comment referring to someone’s friend who analyses cancer patient blood samples, finding that they all have candida; a usually fairly harmless yeast that we all have as part of our natural flora, sometimes causing a bit of thrush if you’re healthy, but can be more serious if for example you are immunocompromised (see wiki for more there).

This person therefore concludes that candida always causes cancer and refers to this site on that very ‘hypothesis’.

I just watched some of the video featuring ‘Dr’ Tullio Simoncini below, but have to run and will finish it later – listen to it! It’s clearly just that freaky tactic of chopping up audio and stitching it together to say what you want, much like the clichéd old newspaper-cuttings ransom note.

Ridiculous.

The lumps are always white

As evidence for their claim that cancer is always white and therefore caused by this white fungus (yes, albicans is Latin for white), they show formaldehyde-fixed tissue. Well, that’d be because when you leave things in formaldehyde for ages, the pigment goes. Plus, tumour cells aren’t usually pigmented, no – except for melanoma, which is nice and black because of the melanin. Blood vessels colour them, but tumours come in a variety of hues. As a quick Google Images search or conversation with a surgeon (but not for the feint-hearted) will show.

The standard scary-theory dramatic music is in the background.

I can’t begin to describe the absurdity of this video. Standard correlation/causation mix-up, pathetic scaremongering. If you do watch it, don’t worry – if you’re feeling a bit itchy down there you can just take some clotrimazole and all will be well.

Metastasis Mixup

The latter part of the video, from around 8 minutes, is particularly worrying.

It suggests that metastasis is not cancer cells leaving the primary tumour (which it is and has been repeatedly demonstrated in the lab and in the clinic) but bits of fungus that are dislodged by ‘conventional surgery’ and chemotherapy exacerbates the development of distant metastatic tumours.

This is yet more damaging anti-medicine propaganda.

This Simoncini fellow is bad, bad news. And guess what he’s peddling as his cure-all?

Oh! Sodium Bicarbonate.

Post-script edit:

Via @rbhinkley - Simoncini was prosecuted back in 2006 (yay!). Google translate aids us with the original Italian text:

‘…date back to 2002, three deaths have prompted the prosecutor to accuse the oncologist Tullio Simoncini of manslaughter and aggravated fraud. The first death, February 8, Massimo Civetta, 34, killed by a tumor of the gut. On March 1, adenocarcinoma ended the life of Maria Grazia Canegrati, Milan, and on November 15, Grace Cicciari, Milazzo. The bicarbonate-based care has cost the medical radiation from the Order. [awaiting better translation of that last bit]

and from earlier in the article:

the oncologist, in exchange for 400 euro, tried the ‘miracle’ with a base injection of sodium bicarbonate, mixed with water, piercing the tumor mass. The effect was not as hoped: the following evening, February 8, 2002, the young man died with a perforated bowel, in excruciating pain.

And hopefully we’ll see far more miracle-peddling quacks who prey on gullible and desperate people go the same way.

Ponderment

Apologies

Hello! Sorry for general silence of late.

Excuses: being generally busy, dealing with some things that aren’t for publishing on the internet right now, our flat flooding last week and not having caught up on lost sleep – et cetera.

This is just a quickie to let you know I’m still here (because you’re obviously flailing around as if suddenly blind in my absence) and to make a few mini-points.

Bleachgate update

Some big things have been happening lately. The BBC even covered it!

First I recommend checking up on Rhys’ blog because apparently, Mr Jim Humble himself has come out of hiding to grace the skeptical blogosphere with his presence. It’s nice to be able to engage, supposedly, with the person we’ve all been talking about at last, but the claims are as staggeringly wrong and dangerous as ever.

Spaces to watch

Righteous Indignation podcast (plus Michael‘s thoughts about it) – Jim Humble, the man himself, speaks! Keep an ear out for more exciting stuff to come…

The Lay Scientist at the Guardian. Keep an eye out for  similar treats.

Basically keep all the senses primed for bleach-related goings-on.

Social Media

A tweet from onlydanno that I saw today got me thinking:

Facebook is where you lie to people you know. Twitter is where you’re honest to strangers.

9:37 PM Oct 3rd via SimplyTweet

Twitter

Most people do just say what they think on Twitter, which is great – I love honesty, but there are now countless examples of why that can be a ‘bad‘ thing – the Twitter joke trial and Gillian McKeith’s PR idiocy, for example; I’ve also had to apologise for  accidentally offending people.

There is something lovely about it. Seeing ‘real’ thoughts, not what’s been adjusted/censored for acceptability. It’s wonderful to put something out there that perhaps you never had the guts to say before and to launch into conversations with people you’ve never met who somewhat or totally (dis)agree with you.

It has parallels with stand-up comedy (and indeed many of my favourite people to ‘follow’ are fantastic comedians – professionally and not) and I’ve mentioned before how seeing what people are thinking (e.g. twitterfalls at events) can be amusing, enlightening but also slightly disturbing.

There is after all often good reason for not saying aloud what immediately comes to mind.

The exception to this is of course the fake account; for comedy purposes or otherwise. Many Twitter accounts are semi or completely anonymous and devoted to made-up goings-on. Again some of my favourites are fabrications, characters. So the honesty of these is usually questionable if not unapplicable.

Facebook

I’m not sure I completely agree with the sentiment by itself; it’s a neat yin/yang concept,  that statement, but I don’t think it really applies to me. I don’t really lie and if I do it’s limited to the minimal and (I reckon) necessary.

Facebook is, by and large, limited to interaction with people you know. Sure you can add ‘randoms’ but the people I’ve never met, who are on my friend list, I still count as friends because we’ve been interacting online for a long time. I’ve been chatting to people I’ve not actually met through the internet for… 13 years now and I consider myself a reasonable judge of character.

</Tangent>

I think Facebook has just become quite impersonal. The group functionality has been reduced, it’s being stripped down to ‘likes’ that don’t really say much about you except that you enjoy some observational comedy – these groups always existed; the I turn my pillow over to feel the cold side! and A cup of tea makes everything better kind. But now it’s everything, from your favourite books/bands/films to activities. You can’t put it in your own words, you just like a page.

So I’d say if it is lying, it’s more by omission, having been reduced to something more universally applicable – that’s understandable, since it’s gone from being a university-based system to a worldwide phenomenon. To appeal to the masses it must cater for them. That means general sweeping statements. Perhaps I’d call it astrological social networking - make the kind of statements that are vague enough to ring true for almost everyone.

Twitbook

I use both, happily, to keep in touch with people, make new friends and share things. I guess you’d call it networking. Not everyone uses them for that, not everyone has to.

I’ve met more people ‘from Twitter’ in the last year or so than I’ve ever met ‘from the internet’ – almost all have been fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to meet like-minded individuals and so on. Socially and professionally, I think it’s brilliant.

Facebook helps me keep in touch with my friends. We all find phone calls intrusive at times, texts can be forgotten, numbers change, e-mails are plagued by spam and letter-writing seems pre-historic to most (though it’s still fun at times, it’s not good for arranging a dinner party tomorrow night).

Both allow me to access and share interesting, important, funny and pointless links to articles/videos/images etc. – I get almost all my news from social networks now and that means from a range of sources so I feel like I’m finally outside the closed network of news media (owned by a few with very specific interests) that most are stuck inside offline.

Links

So to finish, regarding my last point, here are some interesting things from my recent browsing history that I’d like to share, which you may not have seen if you follow my ranting neither on Twitter nor Facebook.

Jamie Oliver on TED – please spare 20 minutes for this. I’ve written about Jamie before and this is well worth the watch; great to see his work gain international recognition.

A calendar everyone needs to buy.

The Science is Vital campaign – please sign! Writing to your MP even better! Attending Saturday’s march: 1 million points (I can’t go, sadly).

Druidry is officially a religion. Time to go one way or the other: either everything anyone comes up with that based on nothing observably true gets religious status (and the tax breaks that go with it) or nothing gets any special treatment simply because it’s a belief system that you can’t prove is rubbish. Suggest the latter.

Creationist/ID nutters continue to infest UK.

Marmite have made some chocolate (this would be a fun birthday present, hinthint – actually never mind, I don’t want 10 bars of the stuff!!)

Turn off Facebook Places so your friends can’t tell other people where you are! This app is a bit worrying so just turn it off if you’re unsure.

I may have just written about how Twitter is more honest (and therefore perhaps a bit better) than Facebook, but I’m not sure this is really the way to redress the balance.