Category Archives: News
Update on Ken Harvey law suit
The latest events in Dr Ken Harvey’s legal stoush with the SensaSlim weight-loss company have seen further delays put in the face of the noted campaigner against unproven or disproven medical practices and products. Harvey’s lawyers have succeeded in having SensaSlim Australia’s initial statement of claim ‘thrown out’, due to technical legal errors. However, SensaSlim’s lawyers have … Read on »
Warning on unproven breast imaging
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Cancer Council Australia and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) are urging Australian women not to rely on unproven commercial breast imaging technologies to detect breast cancer. The warning comes after Cancer Council Western Australia raised concerns with the ACCC that women may have been misled into believing certain commercial breast … Read on »
Teachers Health teaches woo
In a worrying gesture toward a profession concerned with education and critical thinking, the NSW Teachers Federation’s Teachers Health Fund has given a ringing endorsement to unproven and disproven alternative health practices, without any caveats or suggestions there might be serious doubts about them. Nicole Lestal, the editor of the Fund’s Health Matters publication, says in her … Read on »
Psychics a Waste of Police Time
Once again, valuable police time and resources have been wasted on a wild “psychic” goose chase. On Wednesday the 8th of June, Australians awoke to the awful news that a mass grave with up to 30 bodies, some children, had been discovered in the US state of Texas following a tip off. Details were sketchy but … Read on »
Ken Harvey taken to court
Dr Ken Harvey, adjunct senior lecturer in the School of Public Health, La Trobe University, and a regular campaigner against nonscientific products and services, has been put under great personal and financial pressure by a ‘SLAPP’ suit (a strategic lawsuit against public participation) over a complaint he has made concerning a slimming product. Dr Harvey complained to … Read on »
Dr Rachie’s Big Idea
Australian Skeptics vice-president, Dr Rachael Dunlop, has expounded on her Big Idea in the ABC program of the same name. Part of the annual Festival of Commercial Creativity, or “Circus”, Big Idea speakers in several different fields are given up to fifteen minutes to spruik a paradigm-shifting ‘big idea’: then the audience votes for the winner. Dr Rachie’s big … Read on »
First Skepticamp a success
Australia’s first Skepticamp was held on Saturday, April 30, and it was generally held to be a total success. Organised by Jason Brown and a bevy of keen and hardworking volunteers, Skepticamp was held at the University of Technology Sydney over a seven hour period with an audience of approximately 100 people, who were able to attend … Read on »
GPs split over CAM registration
The prospect of naturopaths and herbalists gaining formal registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is causing consternation among GPs, with just over half of participants in a Medical Observer poll saying they favoured the move. While it was a small poll of only 94 web poll votes, 61% believed the two groups should be … Read on »
2010 Bent Spoon Award — final review
On 27 November 2010, Australian Skeptics named the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) as the recipient of the 2010 Bent Spoon for its draft science curriculum. [Those wishing to review the award, and a supplementary statement of 20 March 2010 should go to this page.] At the time, some bloggers and commentators criticised the … Read on »
Call to close RMIT chiro clinic
A call has been made for the closure of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Chiropractic Paediatric clinic for “teaching inappropriate and potentially dangerous techniques that target pregnant women, babies, infants and children”. Loretta Marron has campaigned fearlessly and forcefully for evidence-based health care against unsubsantiated claims made in alternative medicine, and particularly unsubtantiated cancer cures. … Read on »
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