Hotfixy goodness has been applied

Thanks to ongoing database performance issues, this blog has not been particularly stable of late. Luckily, 941450 is available, which might help. I've applied this and hopefully things will get better.

If you get timeouts, well, obviously you won't see this message, but the few regular readers I know of, let me know if you have issues.

To quote Esther

On the subject of some impromptu handyman work at yesterday's bacchanalia to celebrate our joint birthday party:

"Frankly, it would have surprised me if you and Viv hadn't got out some powertools while you were drunk"

Which might, just possibly, speak volumes.

A tragic, yet important story

Under the category "Bullshit kills":

Homeopath's baby 'died of infections'

The next time anyone opens their senseless trap and asks what harm a seemingly trivial 'alternative' belief can do, I'll show them this link, after first punching them in their fat, stupid fucking mouth. There is no evidence that homeopathy works or has ever worked, and belief in this wacky, culty, frankly fucking weird school of alternative medicine is no better than appealling to wood spirits to cure your fucking toothache, or chanting to make it rain.

That anyone in this day and age could neglect genuine proven medical treatment to dose their baby up on plain water in the hopes of some sort of miraculous cure baffles me. This is a genuine and tragic case of seemingly simple and trivial nonsense causing the final and irrevocable result of death.

Fucking remember that next time some idiot gives you a sugar pill and claims it'll really work because it's homeopathic.

One final note: No reliable double-blind trial has ever shown homeopathic treatments to be more effective than placebo, as this example shows. You know why? Because homeopathic treatments are just water. Nothing more than water. They are no more effective than placebo because they are functionally identical to the placebo itself. Wake the fuck up, folks. This crap is killing people.

Update: Orac has picked up the story at ScienceBlogs, meaning this should gain some significant momentum.

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