Author: Paul Hutch

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A lesson for UK hosting providers

The first good news is that the Quackometer is back! A great big thank you needs to be given to The Positive Internet Company Ltd. whom picked up the hosting for Quackometer.

The next good news, if true, should send a clear message to UK hosting providers. The news comes from Joe Obi’s blog:

The fact that I am currently suing the Quackometer’s former Internet Service Provider (Netcetera Ltd) …

If he is to believed, then he is proceeding with suing Netcetera even though they caved to his bogus threat and removed Quackometer from their servers. This should be a lesson to all UK based hosting providers, even when you cave to the demands of a con-man like Obi he will still try to drag you through the courts to steal some cash from you. Since Obi’s claims are bogus I believe Netcetera would prevail in court and likely recover their costs in defending themselves from Obi. However because they dumped Quackometer, they have gotten a bunch of bad publicity along they way. If they had been willing to stand up for what’s right they would have ended up with good publicity and the same trial outcome, heck it could have even made their defense less costly and simpler because Le Canard Noir and others would have been motivated to help their defense.

The only way UK hosting services can be sure to avoid this situation is to pre-screen all content your customers wish to post. I think you’ll need to limit your customers to people who want to post about kittens, puppies and other non-controversial topics. Somehow I don’t think this is a workable position for UK hosting providers. I suggest they form an industry lobbying organization and push the UK government to give them legal protection like they have in much of the civilized world. I suspect a UK hosting support lobby would get much support from the science friendly blogosphere for a protective law, at least I know I would do what I can to help publicize their cause.

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Please Boycott the Netcetera hosting service

Last night in a comment on Orac’s blog I found out that Le Canard Noir’s great Quackometer site has been taken down by his hosting provider. This was prompted by more groundless threats by the ridiculous pseudo-scientist Joe Obi. While Mr. Obi deserves to be ridiculed and taunted for his outrageous pseudo-science and legal bullying what is even more important is to send a message to the hosting provider who caved in to Obi’s threats.

If you are a customer of Netcetera Limited I strongly urge you to notify them that you are moving to a hosting provider who has a spine. Personally I’ve been very satisfied with GoDaddy for hosting services and from what I’ve heard about Netcetera pricing I think they are less expensive as well. As consumers we have very little power over corporations but we do have the power to vote with our wallets. This is an important issue, hosting providers must be made to understand that free speech on the Internet is a right we demand, not a casual service they’ll give us until they have some nutcase threaten them.

If you are going to cancel your service with Netcetera then sending a letter explaining why you’re leaving will be helpful (email just doesn’t have the same impact). Here’s Netcetera’s contact information from their web site:

Netcetera Limited
The Dataport
Ballasalla
Isle of Man
IM9 2AP
British Isles

For more details see:

The Bad Science Forum :: View topic – Quackometer silenced

Quackometer silenced! « gimpy’s blog

Today’s News: Quackometer Silenced. Netcetera Tossers. Obi A Disgrace. « jdc325’s Weblog

Science and Progress: The Duck is dead, long live the Duck

shpalman: Regrets to inform you that Quackometer.net is dead because Netcetera were stupid

Thinking Is Dangerous: Netcetera condemn themselves as pathetic caitiffs

Quackometer blog taken offline – by its cowardly Netcetera host, and spurious legal threats « Holford Watch

Apathy Sketchpad » Blog Archive » Netcetera Are Spineless Morons

Netcetera Cave In « Letting Off Steam

Quackometer Silenced – JREF Forum

Not that Little Black Duck

Respectful Insolence: Le Canard Noir in trouble? I’m there!

The Bronze Blog: BOYCOTT NETCETERA

Save le canard noir! « WhiteCoat Underground

badscienceblogs

Hawk/Handsaw: Netcetera fold like a cheap suit

Netcetera are a pathetic, cretinous excuse for a webhost at Badchemist’s Blog

Twonilblankblank · Netcetera bad, well done Positive Internet

netcetera QUACKOMETER – Google Blog Search

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ScienceDebate 2008

ScienceDebate 2008 has gained some steam lately but they still can use more help. Please stop by their web site and help out if you can.

From the latest email they sent out:

Friday Business Week ran this story on us.

Over the last several days heavy hitters like Intel Chairman Craig Barrett and former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala have signed on, as have numerous universities, including Stanford, Georgia Tech, Cornell, and several others. 

Yesterday, Earth & Sky Radio began running this interview with one of our organizers around the nation.

But the big news is we have invited the candidates.  And we’ve issued a press release.   The debate is set for April 18 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.  That’s four days before the Pennsylvania Primary.  The New York Times, MSNBC, and others have picked up the story. 

In fact, just about the only people we haven’t heard from are the campaigns.  If you have contacts at the Clinton, Huckabee, McCain or Obama campaigns, please urge them to accept. 

Please tell them this is a mainstream concern about the big policy challenges the next president and our nation are facing.  We are doing this for the good of our nation, and we hope those who would lead it take the future of the American economy and job security seriously enough to come to Philadelphia.  We hope they take having a discussion with American voters about climate change seriously enough to come to Philadelphia.  We hope they realize that we as American innovators, business leaders, scientists and thought leaders, and as over 100 leading American universities and organizations, that we care about our nation’s investments in science and math education, that we care about our broken healthcare system and our declining investments in basic research, that we care about scientific integrity, about clean energy, about the future of the oceans and about the biodiversity that secures life on our planet, that these are not arcane, quirky science questions, they are questions about American jobs, about the health of our families and businesses, about our children and the future of the planet, and we hope that those who would lead us them seriously enough to come to Philadelphia.

Thanks for being a part of this historic and important initiative.  Finally, please consider making an online donation here to support our efforts.

The team at ScienceDebate2008.com

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Happy 199th Birthday Charlie

darwin-mi-1882On, February 12th, 1809 Charles Darwin was born at Mount House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. Take a moment to read this short biography or view his life in pictures. If you’re more ambitious you can read some of his great works at Project Gutenberg or the University of Cambridge Darwin web site. For any religious people reading this who are unsure of how to think about science and Darwin’s big ideas, please read this earlier post I made, MLK Jr., Science, Darwin & Intelligent Design.

After you’ve learned a little about him please show your support by becoming one of The Friends of Charles Darwin. The requirements for membership are minimal so anyone capable of reading my blog should meet the qualifications easily. Then you can sing Charlie Is My Darwin while you celebrate the life of this giant of science. While you’re visiting the FCD site be sure to subscribe your RSS reader to the wonderful blog, The Red Notebook by Richard Carter, FCD.

If you have some cash, then please donate to The HMS Beagle Project so they can launch next year in time for Charlie’s bicentennial birthday.

Wishing everyone a happy Darwin Day,
Paul Hutchinson, FCD

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New paper shows evidence for the Salem hypothesis

I was pointed to this EDN blog post about an Oxford University paper via a mail list posting. I later found another article about it in EETimes. The title of the paper is “Engineers of Jihad” the full paper as a PDF is here and here. It’s part of the Department of Sociology, Working Paper Series at the University of Oxford. The paper is by Nuffield College Professor Diego Gambetta FBA, PhD and Steffen Hertog.

I have only skimmed through most of the paper’s 90 pages so far but I plan a more detailed reading as time permits. The only section I read completely is the section “Religiosity of engineers” beginning on page 51. This section refers to the Salem hypothesis and gives data from a 1984 survey of academic engineers. While the survey does not explicitly deal with creationism it clearly shows engineering academics to be more likely to be conservative and religious. In my experience, the combination of conservative and religious is a good predictor for creationist beliefs, hence my feeling that this supports the Salem hypothesis.

This reply on the mail list surprised me:

Sounds to me more like paranoia over the protestors who are attempting to stop Oxford University building a laboratory where animals will be used for experimental medicine. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4707251.stm for typical news item on it.

This engineer jumps right up to say the paper is merely a conspiracy to draw attention away from the PR problems Oxford is currently having. Lets see if this makes logical sense based on the evidence that I see. First, the paper was published three months ago and has not been actively promoted by the university. To me that seems like the absolute worst way to use the paper for deflecting public opinion away from the other troubles. Active early promotion of the paper would help support the premise that this was a diversion but that didn’t happen. Second, I’ve never seen conservative religious groups protesting against animal laboratories, in my experience these types are more likely to defend the laboratory. The paper makes the case that academic engineers are more likely to be conservative and religious. Intentionally irritating those who are most likely to support your cause does not seem to me to be a good way to deflect public criticism. So, from what I see if this paper was meant to diffuse the animal laboratory issue, Oxford has made a very illogical choice.

Reading over the comments at the EDN blog and EETimes article, I see many irrational and conspiracy minded responses from people who likely haven’t even read the paper (some even admit this). The ad hominem attacks, claims that all sociologists are fools and multiple commenter’s saying how they know so many religious non-Muslim engineers, all provide evidence to support the basic premise of the paper and the Salem hypothesis. It sure looks like many of the commenter’s didn’t take the time to read the paper and instead are simply reacting to the papers title, sigh. With all the ridiculous comments is it any wonder that scientists are suspect of engineers when it comes to questions of science.

Another interesting data point is that economics and business majors came in number two, right behind engineers, in the conservative and religious proclivity. Now where have I been recently seeing a high profile member of this 2nd group involved in promoting creationism? Bueller?… Bueller?… Bueller?

While researching this post Tyler DiPietro published an interesting post, Irrational Engineers: A Conjecture. I’m thinking about this and will comment over at Tyler’s site later.

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Netiquette for blog carnival readers or how to confuse a group of blog readers

It had never occurred to me that the following would be need to be said but clearly there is at least one person out there who needs to hear this. When you read a blog post linked from a blog carnival, you should post your comments about the post, at the post. Don’t post your comment at the carnival host’s post, the main carnival site, the carnival organizer’s notice of the carnival or, at a random post at the carnival organizer’s blog.

Until this evening it didn’t occur to me that anyone would need to be told this because I’ve never been told this, it just seems like common sense. Tonight this situation came to light at Orac’s blog, it was a simple little humorous post about a nasty email he’d received. I’m skimming through the comments when I encounter this long winded comment that doesn’t appear to be at all related to the post. The replies and comments go on and on and I can’t easily figure out what precisely the commenter Roy is trying to say. Many of the replies from others show that they also are having trouble figuring out what Roy is complaining about. I see references to the denialists deck of cards from a totally different blog and mentions of the Skeptics Circle blog carnival.

Then it finally clicks for me, Roy dislikes and/or disagrees with blog posts in various Skeptic Circle carnivals. Does he post a comment at the blog post he has issues with, no. Does he at least post at the carnival host’s post, nope. Does he post his comment at the main blog carnival page, not. Does he post at the carnival organizer’s notice of that edition of the carnival, no way. Instead he places his comments at the most current post of the blog organizer, a post which has absolutely nothing to do with the blog carnival. Hmm, I don’t think I can even imagine a more effective way to make readers totally confused about your comment. 😉

So to re-iterate what should be obvious to most people, when you have a comment about a blog post, place your comment on that exact post. This way the author of the post sees your post and the blogs readers will be able to have context for your comment.

The only other acceptable alternative is to put the commentary on your own blog as a new post and link back to the original blog post. Oh and while we’re on the subject of blog carnivals, do not assume that the carnival organizer and/or carnival edition host agree with the other blogger’s posts that make up the carnival. Just because a post meets the criterion for a host to include it in an edition of the carnival does not mean the host agrees with it.

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Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani & TechNet, lying or clueless?

In this weeks EETimes there is an article on the presidential candidates, Tech off radar in ’08 race. In a photo caption they have this quote from Mitt Romney:

Reform Sarbanes-Oxley to aid small businesses

The text of the article repeats this sentiment.

Among the industry interest groups, TechNet‘s senior-executive membership has put forth perhaps the most detailed economic agenda. The group calls for reforming Sarbanes-Oxley to reduce the legislation’s unintended repercussions and compliance burdens, especially on small companies.

Both Giuliani and Romney call for reining in the excesses of Sarbanes-Oxley, particularly for small businesses.

Sarbanes-Oxley only applies to publicly traded companies, last time I looked there are no small businesses listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ. Therefore small businesses are not required to follow Sarbanes-Oxley. So obviously changing Sarbanes-Oxley is not going to help companies for whom it does not apply. I suppose it’s possible that Mitt, Rudy & TechNet are so clueless about business that they don’t actually know what a small business is but, they certainly don’t portray themselves that way. That quote seems to me like they are simply trying to muddy the waters to push for regulatory relief that benefits big businesses on the pretense of helping small businesses. If that’s their purpose then it’s just classic political lies. A rewording of the quote to, reform Sarbanes-Oxley to aid smaller public companies, would make this an honest sound bite and is what is currently being worked on in Congress.

My conclusion, Mitt, Rudy & TechNet are either clueless about real world businesses or they they are lying to muddy the waters. Either case means they can’t be trusted on this issue.

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Miro on OpenSuse a DLL Hell fix

A couple weeks ago I posted about switching to Miro the Internet TV program running on Linux from another app on WinXP. Well a day or two after I wrote that post, OpenSuse 10.3 had some mandatory updates. Miro was running at the time so I exited Miro and waited for the updates to finish. No reboot was requested so I clicked the Miro icon, a little processor usage then nothing. I rebooted, tried again and the problem remained, time to open a console to see what’s going on.

paulh@linux1:~> miro
/usr/lib/xulrunner-1.8.1.4
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/miro.real", line 123, in <module>
startapp()
File "/usr/bin/miro.real", line 58, in startapp
import singleclick
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/miro/singleclick.py", line 36, in <module>
import app
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/miro/app.py", line 610, in <module>
import frontend
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/miro/frontend.py", line 50, in <module>
import MozillaBrowser
ImportError: libgtkembedmoz.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I see the last line and knowing there was just an OS update I immediately think DLL Hell. I know, most people only use that term for Windows *.DLL files but, I use it whenever I hit  a problem with shared code in any OS. Actually I can’t remember the last time I had to deal with DLL Hell in Windows or Linux. Both Microsoft and the Linux community have done a great job of eliminating dependency issues. Since I’m lazy when it comes to fixing PC problems these days I simply searched Google for ImportError: libgtkembedmoz.so. Many plausible looking solutions are in the results and I spend a bit of time trying out some of them but no luck.

When I get back to working on the problem a few days later I try out some more suggestions found on the net. Still no luck, no time left to play around that night and I want to see the new Cranky Geeks episode. Here’s where the cross platform feature of Miro pays off, I put it on the Media Center PC and tell Miro to use the Samba share for storage. I get my Cranky Geeks fix and plan to revisit the problem later.

Tonight I decide to try again but this time I actually read the whole console output instead of just the error line. There’s the answer in the first line, the OpenSuse package for Miro is looking for xulrunner-1.8.1.4 and I have xulrunner-1.8.1.10 and a symbolic link for xulrunner-1.8.1. I take the easy way out and just create a symlink for xulrunner-1.8.1.4 (ln -s /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.8.1.10 /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.8.1.4).  That does the trick and Miro launches again on OpenSuse. 🙂 I’m assuming the recent OS update upgraded xulrunner-1.8.1.4 to xulrunner-1.8.1.10.

I had seen a thread about this issue on the Miro forums before so I head over to post my fix. What do I find, pturner7 posted the following fix two days ago.

Looking in this folder /usr/lib/ reveals that I have xulrunner-1.8.1.10
To fix this, edit as root the file > /usr/bin/miro
Change both instances of /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.8.1.4 to /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.8.1.10 (or whatever version is residing there).
That should get it past the .so error.

The problem was that the OpenSuse package builder used a hard coded library reference in the startup script creating this DLL Hell.

Comments closed 7/18/08 to slow the spam

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Freedom of speech under attack by Joseph Chikelue Obi

The excellent blog at the quackometer site has had posts taken down by its ISP over a ridiculous legal threat from Joseph Chikelue Obi. This type of censorship based on ridiculous legal threats is a growing problem for freedom of speech on the Internet. Mr. Obi should publish a response to Le Canard Noir’s posts pointing out what he considers wrong instead of attempting to stifle the criticism with legal threats.

The only way to fight this trend is to repost the information in as many other places on the Internet as possible so that the person or organization using the threat will have to spend money to send take down letters to many ISP’s around the globe. There is an additional benefit in that search engines will see all the posts about Joseph Chikelue Obi and start offering up these copies of the original posts to people looking for information about this jerk. So, as Orac has respectfully requested I am putting the original Quackometer posts that Mr. Obi dislikes on my site.

The original Quackometer posts by Le Canard Noir:

Right Royal College of Pompous Quackery – Dublin, Thursday, September 28, 2006

I had to share this with you. Following on from my recent Quack Word ‘Doctor’ blog, I came across the Royal College of Alternative Medicine (RCAM) , a Dublin based – well, I’m not sure quite what it is…

What caught my eye was just the shameless aggrandisement of the site. It is quite hilarious, if not a little repetitive at times. Calling yourself ‘Doctor’ is somewhat pompous when all you have done is paid for some international postage. However, the man behind RCAM has absolutely no shame and titles himself as the:

Distinguished Provost of RCAM (Royal College of Alternative Medicine) Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi FRCAM(Dublin) FRIPH(UK) FACAM(USA) MICR(UK)

Wow! Probably, just Joe to his mates. Naturally, when you Google the qualification FRCAM(Dublin), there is only person who appears to revel in this achievement. I’ll leave the rest as an excercise for the reader.

The distinguished provost looks like he is just another pseudoscientific nutritionist, his spin being “Nutritional Immunomodulation”. This is obviously a lot more clever than Patrick Holfords mere ‘Optimum Nutrition’, but having only one ‘omnipill’ is probably a poorer commercial decision that Patrick’s vast range of supplements.

Obviously, Professor Obi has had a few problems with what probably amount to bewildering comments about his site as the legal threats and press releases concerning his ‘ethical’ responses to criticisms cover more space than anything else. ‘Ethical’ is a favourite word on the site.

The most recent press release states,

7th September 2006 : The Distinguished RCAM Provost, Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi FRCAM(Dublin) FRIPH(UK) FACAM(USA) MICR(UK) has formally accepted appointment as Chief Professorial Examiner for the Doctor of Science (DSc) programme in Evidence Based, Alternative Medicine (EBAM) of a highly respected International University in one of the British Commonwealth Protectorates.

This new qualification is primarily aimed at Medical Graduates, Physicians, Surgeons, Pharmacists, Dentists, Osteopaths, Chiropractors, Opticians, Wellness Consultants, Herbalists, Acupuncturists, Naturopaths , Healers, Podiatrists , Chiropodists , Scientists , Healers ,Therapists, Homeopaths, Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Nurses wishing to ethically upgrade their current Qualifications in Alternative Medicine over an exceedingly intensive 12 – 36 month period of study.

British Commonwealth Protectorates? Could that be Dublin?

I really have no idea what this organisation is all about. But it looks like it could be getting quite big soon…

RCAM currently has International Vacancies for One Million (1,000,000) ‘Foundation Fellows’ (‘Movers and Shakers’) ; who will independently play a highly pivotal role in diligently mentoring (and regulating) it’s future Global Membership.

So if you really think that you seriously have what it takes to become a ‘Leader’ in Alternative Medicine , then (perhaps) RCAM may definitely be exactly what the Doctor ordered for you.

One million. That’s a lot of quacks! And they are just to mentor (and regulate) the wider quack membership! This man has ambition.

The Big J really hates real doctors. This is his most recent press release…

RCAM would like to warmly commend the various Chieftans of the National Health Service of the United Kingdom for ethically and appropriately ignoring utterly misguided calls (from a rather amusing Group of thirteen Clinical Yestermen) to compel Hard-Working (and Tax-Paying) British Citizens to additionally pay for Life Enhancing Alternative Medicine Interventions out of their very own pockets – rather than get such treatments free via the NHS. RCAM would like to also categorically state that such exceedingly flawed ‘G-13? demands that the National Health Service of the United Kingdom expediently abandon Alternative Medicine altogether (in total favour of Conventional Medicine) be diplomatically treated with the very utmost contempt which such unguarded verbal flippance duly deserves ; as none of these 13 ‘Eminent UK Scientists’ behind such calls has professionally attained Globally Acceptable Fellowship Qualifications in Alternative Medicine and as such cannot be deemed competent enough to make such sweeping ‘Shilly-Shally’ statements about the noble independent specialty of Alternative Medicine.

RCAM therefore publicly advises the General Public to lawfully go about their normal Wellness-Seeking Behaviour as usual – without any unwarranted prejudice or fear resulting from such highly self-serving, morally unethical , abjectly crude , totally unprofessional, utterly unstatesmanly, morbidly barbaric, wantonly uncivilized, profanely undemocratic and unspeakably sacrilegious perpetual affronts on the therapeutically formidable institution of Alternative Medicine.

Now, I do not have ‘Globally Acceptable Fellowship Qualifications’ in Santa Clause Studies to know he does not exist. But hey. I must be a morbidly barbaric and profanely undemocratic, unethical duck.

So, struggling around the acres of pomposity I find one place where Prof Joe might be making some money. You can call him to seek his wisdom, after pre-booking an hour’s slot (and handing over your credit card) for a mere 300 Euros. Alternatively, you can pay by the minute on the contact line for a trifling $10 per minute.

Its going to cost you $20 just for Joe to say Hello and to read out his numerous titles, qualifications and names. Not bad ‘ethical’ work.

Ethical Quackery, the Monarchy and Kate Moss – Thursday, October 12, 2006

No, this is not about our Defender of Quackery, our Quack-in-Chief His Royal Quackiness, Prince Charles, but about the Distinguished Provost of the Royal College of Alternative Medicine, Professor Joseph Chikelue Obi. And yes, it is just a rather lame story written solely to get a picture of Kate on my blog.

I’ve written a rather lazy blog on the distinguished professor before that was just a bit of a gawp at his quacktastic website and what looks like a health phone-line scam.

Well, I’ve done a little more digging with Google and it has revealed a few quack gems. It has been pretty hard work, since Google returns some 6,000 pages, the vast majority just appears to be Prof Obi’s self-promotion. However, if you persist in digging a few interesting facts turn up.

So, what has the little black duck found out about the “most Controversial Retired Physician and ‘A-List’ Medical Celebrity, Dr Joseph Chikelue Obi”?

Here we go…

1. The Irish Independent reports that his college does not exist at the Dublin address given on the web site. There’s a surprise! It’s just a front.

2. The Independent goes on. “In January 2003, he was suspended by for serious professional misconduct at South Tyneside District Hospital. Among the allegations made were that he failed to attend to patients, wrote strange notes about colleagues and at one point gave a dating agency phone number to a psychiatric patient.”

3. He was being investigated by the police for taking thousands of pounds of a 58 year old woman to in order to cure a long standing illness.

4. The GMC strike Dr Obi off their register for “serious professional misconduct”. So much for him being retired.

5. On another tack, Dr Obi has been involved in a little cyber-squatting. This looks as if it took place while he was a doctor – always after a few quid!

6. Since then, now self-titled Prof Obi, a few new avenues have been opened, including trying to entice Kate Moss away to one of his ‘safe-houses’ in Ireland. Hat’s off!

He is quoted as saying:

Under the European Convention on Human Rights, Miss Moss still has fundamental rights, just like anyone else out there, and as far as I am concerned, she is not guilty of anything until an Ethical Jury says so.

(I mentioned before that ‘ethical’ was one of his favourite words.)

7. Prof Obi has been developing a Penis Enlarger (watch out Kate) that his own Royal College has now endorsed.

8. At least one person (out of the targeted million) has paid Prof Obi the fees for his college to accredit them. Dr Michael Keet (8 Canards) of the Central London College of Reflexology handed over ‘hundreds‘. Do we feel sorry for out-quacked quacks? I guess we ought to.

9. For those of you wanting to see behind the grand titles and see the real human being, Joseph lists his interests as Comedy in London, Whole Food Nutrition and Christian Music. On this ‘Meetup’ site, he describes himself as “Just a very ordinary guy . . .”. That’s nice.

10. His name appears very often on the blog Abolish The General Medical Council (GMC), often reporting something he has got up to. The blog describes itself as:

An ethical blog for those who publicly feel that the General Medical Council (GMC) should be Statutorily Abolished in favour of a Medical Licensing Commission (MLC) to solely register and revalidate Doctors who practise Conventional Medicine in the UK. The Blog also recommends that the GMC/MLC hands all disciplinary functions over to an Independent Clinical Tribunal (ICT) in keeping with the EU Convention on Human Rights ; to avoid (both) Institutional Bias and Multiple Jeopardy.

Oooh. There is that word ‘ethical’ again. And ‘European Human Rights’. No name is given for the blog author but the avatar is a portrait of the queen. Another apparent obsession of Prof Obi – royalty. Could the author be none other than the Professor himself, a little agrieved for his ticking off? I hope you all click through to the blog. Maybe we will show up in his stats and whoever the writer is can get in contact and confirm one way or another.

I rather hope it is, as the final thing I turned up would just be fantastic…

11. Is the Distinguished Provost of the Royal College of Alternative Medicine, Professor Obi now selling ethical ring-tones? I do hope so.

Watch out Crazy Frog! Here comes the Crazy Provost…