belting a brain bodgy
I loathe pseudo science. I despise hucksters who feed off the credulous with fake research and bodgy qualifications. For this reason, I am often enchanted with Tim Lambert at Delta.
Here is an exquisite piece of sark ripping into a major nutritional commentator called Dr Gillian McKeith PhD, who is
“an empire, a multi-millionaire, a phenomenon, a prime-time TV celebrity, a bestselling author. She has her own range of foods and mysterious powders, she has pills to give you an erection, and her face is in every health food store in the country. Scottish Conservative politicians want her to advise the government. The Soil Association gave her a prize for educating the public. And yet, to anyone who knows the slightest bit about science, this woman is a bad joke.”
She got her degree “by correspondence course from a non-accredited American college”.
Just read the article.
February 21st, 2007 at 12:35 am
Wait wait wait…
There’s a Soil Association?
*lives, learns*
February 21st, 2007 at 11:04 am
Rule of thumb: it’s either ‘Dr’ before or ‘PhD’ after, but never both. In my experience, only those (usually Americans) insecure about their credibility and the quality of the credentials resort to both. A business card or a product bearing the mark of ‘Dr So-and-so, PhD’ constitutes fair warning that one should crank up the scepticism to max.
February 21st, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Anyone selling stuff who uses PhD or Dr. in front of their name should be treated with extreme caution.
February 21st, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I believe there are Soil Associations in Austrailier: google gives us one in South Aust and another in Cottesloe. I can understand the need for both places, there being little or no soil in Cottesloe, and that in SA is mainly hard and infertile.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
As I recall, Soil Associations are mainly to do with Organic farming, as the basis of organic farming is soil management.
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Actually, there is a protocol in the US – not sure if driven by a law, but probably is being the States – whereby if you call yourself ‘Dr’ and this is not medical (e.g. Vet, Dentist, GP) then you have to indicate this by PhD. Look at pop psych and health and wellbeing book covers for examples.
So you’ll see:”As used and recommended by Dr Lei Feng MD” This indicates that I am a genuine quack who has slept through my ‘degree’ in China – in between sleeping with KTV girls with my cobbers. Compare and contrast wtih :”As used and recommended by Dr Lei Feng PhD” indicating that I have slept my way through mail-ordering a doctorate from a dirtwater ‘uni’ in the US for “Life experience” et al – ditto the KTV gals!
February 24th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
The Guardian linky is borked – couldn’t quite work it out from the source, although I saw a few things in googlenews. I note that she has a PhD in ‘Holistic Nutrition’ for which she studied 4 years. Some of the news snips describe her as ‘over confident’ and ‘feisty’ but I like the TimesOnline: “the unhealthy looking and quasi-coprophiliac “health guru” who humiliates fat people on television”
Heh. Oh I found that Guardian piece – via Pharyngula. What a vacuously arrogant piece of work she is.
February 26th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
fixed bung link. Sorry and thanks..
February 27th, 2007 at 9:56 am
That would be “attempted to fix”, I’m afraid. Cheers.
To temper the all too ready-to-fire scorn at all things quack we could remind ourselves periodically that the early discoverers of the disease/hygiene dynamic were dismissed for their lack of allegiance to “miasma” as governing principle of infection. There’s an over-confident pomposity in the camps of science that quacks and delusionals only serve to reinforce. That’s potentially as dangerous as the assault of unreason, in the long run.
February 28th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
What you may perceive as overconfident pomposity Roy Belmont, others regard as a rigorous public manifestation of the foundations of science. Savants who are at first mistaken as charlatans will win through if their thesis/invention/beliefs are solid under the probe of logic. Having MacKeith dressed down publicly is more likely to thwart copycats so some level of bombast is part of the ’societal therapy’. In years to come textbooks will include a picture of MacKeith under ‘charlatan’.
March 1st, 2007 at 12:25 am
And you, peacay, friend of the datastream, will find the picture..
March 3rd, 2007 at 2:13 pm
[...] David Tiley of Barista writes films, so I will put him in The Yartz. David’s post of choice is about Dr Gillian McKeith’s Fast Formula Horny Goat Weed Complex. Ms – let us not call her a doctor – McKeith is apparently doing quite well trading on people’s fears about not being able to get it up. More pathologising of sexuality for the sake of making a few bucks. [...]