The Beacon

The Need For Scrutiny

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 10:35:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia The 30-Second Skinny There's little better evidence for an intervention than the double blind randomized placebo controlled trial, but these trials still need to be properly scrutinized. In one double blind trial on acupuncture as a treatment for smoking cessation, the drop-outs were distributed across the three groups in a way that suggested that the blinding simply hadn't worked, making the resulting evidence all but worthless. The holy grail of proof for medical...

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Narconon London - Fun With Paperwork

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:28:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia The 30 Second Skinny The Church of Scientology will often change its story to best suit its audience. By comparing publicly available reports these "economies of truth" can be placed under the spotlight. Narconon London for instance has suggested to regulators that they do not offer a residential rehab service but suggest to the public and to the Charity Commission that they do. The Church of Scientology is often accused of saying whatever suits its purpose from one...

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What's True For You

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:29:00 +0000

Image by mandiberg via Flickr The Twitter account @scientology is currently posting through links to the Scientology.org site. Interestingly the website is being more open about some of their more fringey beliefs, such as an affirmative response to "Does Scientology believe in mind over matter." The site also places on each page the following quote from L Ron Hubbard: "What is true for you is what you have observed yourself. And when you lose that, you have lost everything." It's a...

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There Is No Doctrine Of Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Image by seangraham via Flickr The 30 Second Skinny Many people join Scientology on the promise that it will help them achieve their goals, but over time these personal goals fall away to be replaced by Scientology's own goals. The Church fails to fulfil its part of the deal and tends to behave as if it is the injured party whenever a parishioner or staff member calls them out on it. One of the things that continues to fascinate me is what leads people to Scientology in the first place....

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The Unkempt Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:20:00 +0000

In Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus he draws an analogy between website designs and kitchens. Looking at sites that promote user interaction (and specifically Grobanites For Charity) he noted that they tended to be more amateurish than the professionally produced corporate websites interested in acting as billboards for products, services and brands (http://www.joshgroban.com say). Shirky makes the point that if you walk into a designer kitchen, with marble tops and meticulous design, where...

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Prevention or Cure?

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:42:00 +0000

When Narconon school lectures came under the scrutiny of the Californian State Department, a point was made that is quite far reaching. They stated that, along with a lot of misinformation about drugs, the curriculum spoke of the incredible results Narconon alleges its controversial Purification Rundown gets. This, it was argued, was not a good message to impart to children to dissuade them from ever trying drugs. Put simply, if it is easy to become drug free, then there is less of a barrier to...

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Stupid Scientology

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:13:00 +0000

None of what follows is big or clever. Last year, Cardiff councillor John Dixon found himself in London shopping for a wedding ring for his future wife. While wandering down Tottenham Court Road he passed the Dianetics Centre. Embracing social networking, he made the following tweet: I didn’t know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off. Now, this is perhaps not the greatest move in the world, if we're fair, but John Dixon has...

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That Individualisation Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:02:00 +0000

The 30 Second Skinny Advocates of Homeopathy point to the way remedies are individualised to a client to explain why the blanket approach of clinical trials fail to show positive results. There have been some trials that take individualisation into account, and they don't show positive results either. Also, even with the blanket prescriptions in clinical trials you would expect remedies to outperform placeboes as some patients would get the correct remedy by chance alone. Following a...

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Sea Org and Coerced Abortions

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:45:00 +0000

The 30 Second Skinny The Church of Scientology runs a quasi-military group called Sea Org that it describes as like a monastic order. Accusations have been made that Sea Org members are coerced into having abortions. This is denied by the Church, but there is undoubtedly a great deal of pressure for Sea Org women to comply to get an abortion, because leaving Sea Org, and possibly their family or even the Church itself, would be too great a price to pay. This pressuring needn't be verbal...

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Dear Grahame

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:20:00 +0000

That small handful of ex-members included people very high up in the church. Have you been reading "Ask the Scientologist"? He raises some very important questions about the Church of Scientology's response to the claims of violence; questions that have yet to be answered. The way I see it we have a group of people talking about violence at the top of the church, and that violence being denied by people still in the church. Now it could be that this is just malice from appostates, as you...

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Church of Scientology and Joined-Up Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:20:00 +0000

Just a brief observation before the Easter break. The revelations of the CNN AC360 reports on the culture of violence at the top of the Church of Scientology are, in the main, old news. These are, after all, the same allegations that have already been levelled at Miscavige in earlier reports. What is interesting, though, is that having told the press that listening to Rathbun et al is like trying to get an honest opinion about someone's character by talking to their ex-spouse, the Church of...

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Stephen Green is Not The Voice of Christianity

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:12:00 +0000

So. Classic FM runs an ad and promotional competition for Not The Messiah, a spoof of Handel's Messiah based on The Life of Brian. This erks Stephen Green, whose "organisation" shall not be named. Green posts a story to his website, and sends an email out to his contacts. Some time later the ad disappears from Classic FM. Why we do not know. However, Green posts another story to his site, claiming victory: Faced with hundreds of distraught emails sent over the weekend, and bombarded with...

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60% Again

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 07:13:00 +0000

Following some information the UK IPS released in response to a FOIA request, I can now revise the figures of my earlier post on the Greater Manchester National ID Scheme pilot. You can find the post here. BeaconPurview

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The Apple Test

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:47:00 +0000

Thanks to @iszi_lawrence and @SkepticBarista for pointing me towards this bit of nonsense. You cut an apple in half, bung one in a bottle marked "love" and the other in a bottle marked "hate". You then love the one half however you see fit, and hate the other. As the Daily Mail's photo dramatically shows, the hate half will rot faster than the love half. Let's see how we might put it to the test properly. We need to run the experiment on more than one apple. If we only do this once, it's...

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Would've Could've

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:26:00 +0000

The 30 Second Skinny Mrs Xiao-Ping Zhai runs a fertility clinic based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. Some time ago The Beacon complained to the ASA that she was using the name Doctor in her advertising despite not being medically qualified, and that she was making outlandish claims for the success of her treatment. Mrs Zhai failed to be able to provide evidence for these claims and so agreed not to make them in advertising in future. In explaining away science's failure to find a positive...

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Tommy Davis on Religious Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:05:00 +0000

"Scientologists as a general rule are opposed to any human rights violation, anything that violates an individual’s right to choose, anything that would reduce a person’s freedom, individuality and ability to think for themselves." However... “One can’t be a Scientologist and not be part of the church.” BeaconPurview

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Homeopathy as Misdirection

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:22:00 +0000

This is just a brief observation about the activism, both for and against homeopathy, that surrounded the Evidence Check. As was ruled by the check itself there is no robust evidence for the efficacy of homeopathy. It has been shown in randomised placebo controlled trials that it is no better than a placebo. So certain are many that the implausible mechanic of water and sugar-pill memory can in no way lead to any clinical benefit that they feel it unethical to undertake further...

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60%?

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:34:00 +0000

The Government today responded to a petition requesting that the forthcoming National Identity Scheme be dismantled. It stated, along with a rather puzzling projected cost of £4.575 million for the next ten years (billion, surely?), that "Research over the past 18 months into public support for identity cards shows that 60% of people support the National Identity Service." This figure puzzled me somewhat, because the NID scheme has been piloted in Manchester, and the response falls far short...

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Faith Schools: They Can Do What The F___ They Like

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:22:00 +0000

More special treatment in the pipeline for faith schools. Oh to be a bigot with a book. Dear XXXXXXX, The Schools secretary Ed Balls recently tabled an amendment to the forthcoming bill addressing sex and relationship education in schools. This amendment will allow special exemption from the bill for faith schools and its introduction is being heralded as a success of the lobbying of the Catholic Education Service. The bill originally was intended to standardise the teaching of sex and...

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The Trouble with OTIII

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000

30 Second Skinny The scriptures for Operating Thetan 3 serve as a kind of shibboleth for the Church of Scientology. The Church flatly denies (often without lying outright) that the scriptures in the public domain are the genuine ones, so should someone reach and pay for the OT3 they are in a position where they are already deeply embedded in church life and must make the difficult choice of swallowing the story so often denied, or walking away from a sizeable part of their life. Should they...

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Coercion and Extortion? In My Religion?

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:12:00 +0000

Tommy "Foot Bullet" Davis has been at it again. In case you've not heard, Larry Anderson, star of the Church of Scientology's Orientation video, has woken up and walked, claiming that he no longer believes Scientology can deliver what it promises (freedom from "the trap"). He also blames what he regards as corruption in the upper levels of management, citing the fact that the Church, for a period of about two years, was quite happily selling books it knew were no good, while those titles were...

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The Trouble with TRs

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:11:00 +0000

The 30 Second Skinny Scientology's Training Routines often involve pattern spotting. Psychology suggests that is possible that by training someone to be a more adept pattern spotter they may in turn become more superstitious, or in other words come to recognise patterns that aren't really there. This could well be a consequence, intended or otherwise, of the TRs. For the uninitiated, TRs are the Training Routines that mark the beginning of someone's path in Scientology. The initial...

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Hubbard Motors

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:32:00 +0000

with apologies to Tory Christman "Hubbard Motors! 100 million vehicles sold!" "Hi, this is Mr Construct. I bought a car not so long ago from you." "Of course, sir. Can I interest you in supplying us with a testimonial?" "Not really. There's a problem with the car." "A problem?" "It doesn't work." "Really?" "Really. I was told it would be more powerful than run of the mill cars, but it doesn't seem to be. I keep getting left behind at traffic lights." "Oh my. Are you sure you're...

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Fighting Nonsense with Nonsense

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:02:00 +0000

Dear Helios Ltd. I read with some discomfort that Natrum Bromatum can stop someone being homosexual. http://shelleytherepublican.com/2010/01/20/finally-a-100-effective-cure-for-homosexuality.aspx If this is the case, should NB carry a warning? This sounds like a massively disruptive side effect for those who are happy with their sexuality. I'd hate for Helios to be the subject of a lawsuit. Kind regards, Beacon Schuler. BeaconPurview

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Homeopathy and Malaria, Still...

noreply@blogger.com (Beacon Schuler) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:57:00 +0000

The 30 Second Skinny A study into a homeopathic preparation of the neem tree has been promoted as evidence that homeopathy can be used against malaria. However, the study raises many concerns. Results of the two year trial were being published after only six months, but no later version of the paper seems to exists. It also didn't compare the treatment against a placebo, and recruited people who had had malarial attacks in the last twelve months, making its six month reporting of little value....

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