She wears her sunglasses at night... and the scam of chiropractic

The first foggy morning of autumn, so why were people wearing sunglasses?

I really hate it when people don't take off their sunglasses when you're talking to them - where do you look?  I end up trying to look at where their eyes are supposed to be, and end up jiggling my eyes all over their face like a mad-man.

Totally unrelated to the above, I have been tangentially involved in a protest against the teaching of pseudoscience at a large university.  This university was in fact an Institute of Technology, but somehow it was thought discriminatory in the 1980s to differentiate between Universities on the one hand and Institutes of Technology on the other - so now this organisation is known as an X Institute of Technology University... well that clears it all up then.  The Chancellor has a PhD in nuclear physics and the Vice-chancellor is a cell biologist.  So far so good.  But explain to me why do they teach Paediatric Chiropractics??

There is NO, I repeat NO evidence that chiropractic works in children (or adults for that matter).  They are essentially teaching a course on how to sell the placebo effect with a dash of snake oil.  Due to the general dumbing-down of science education in schools, the general population is totally naive about anything science-related and are seduced by their friends who tried chiropractic and exclaimed in raptures "it works!".  The question is why is it being taught in a tertiary institution?  I suspect money has something (or everything) to do with it.

My conspiracy theory, and I am sure I am right, is that the government is very happy for the existence of any "therapy" that draws people away from money pit that is the state-sponsored health system.

Some supporters for the Paediatric Chiropractic clinic feel it is better to keep the teaching in a tertiary setting so it can "be monitored".  Monitored for what?  It has a veneer of legitimacy when taught in a tertiary setting which is worse.  Perhaps then, we should teach homeopathy and astrology in universities?

The question to ask whenever you hear someone has been to a chiropractor is: did the chiropractor ever say there was nothing wrong with you?  Well I have never heard of someone who didn't enter the doors of a chiropractic clinic and come out with a plan of treatment over subsequent weeks and a large hole in their wallet.

It is important to point out that there is only one type of medicine and it is called "Medicine".  There is no such thing as "alternative medicine" or "western medicine" - anything that has a plausible biological basis, improves health, and is evidence-based it is "medicine" - if homeopathy or Bach flower remedies were actually plausible and worked they would be become regular medicine and prescibed by medical practitioners.  Why would a doctor withhold valuable treatment?  We don't care where the therapy came from (viz. vinca alkaloids, quinine and aspirin - all plant extracts).

Of course the other major scam at present is the use of the word "organic".  I personally have no problem with fruit grown by boutique producers that select carefully for the best strain of tomato, for instance, but don't necessarily care whether it's organic or not.  I still don't get what is meant by organic - from my years of chemistry at high school and university, organic = carbon containing, which includes all petrochemicals, plastics, etc. The things that are definitely not organic are known as inorganic and include such wonderous (but not nutritious substances) such as sand and ammonia.

And don't get me started on "genetically-modified" - we are all genetically modified, and for thousands of years animal husbandry and plant cross-breeding have produced the best experiments in genetic-modification.