

"We are more possible than you can powerfully imagine" - baha_man
http://www.badscience.net/2009/07/we-are-more-possible-than-you-can-powerfully-imagine/

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RiderOfGiraffes
See also: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=598385>

In addition to the book on cryptography, Singh also directed the film about
Fermat's Last Theorem ...

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermats_last_theorem>

... first transmitted by the BBC as part of the Horizon series, subsequently
aired in the USA as part of the NOVA series. He also wrote the book that
followed. Both have been mentioned here before, both are most highly
recommended. The Wikipedia article references Singh's book copiously.

The Code Book, mentioned elsewhere, was his second book.

You can read more here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Singh>

I know Simon quite well, and am following the libel case with interest. (The
wikipedia article also references John Stillwell, whom I also know. This is
slightly worrying ...)

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dtf
Wow, you've got to love the internets. This reads just like a highbrow version
of one of 4chan's "for great justice" campaigns. Surely the BCA must now be
regretting the day they picked a fight with Singh. As Simon Perry noted,
chiropractors were largely left alone to the back pain business by the
sceptics, who were far more interested in exposing other alternative
therapies. Suing Singh for the "bogus" remark was like posting a video on
YouTube of a bunch of chiropractors abusing a cat. By the time they win their
battle - still a possibility - they'll have lost the war.

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sebg
My favorite part of the article: "Professional complaints followed in May,
mostly about individual chiropractors’ claims. Then, in June, blogger Simon
Perry found the BCA database of 1,029 members online, containing 400 website
URLs. He wrote a quick computer program to automatically identify all the
chiropractors in the UK claiming to treat colic, locate their local Trading
Standards office, and report them (more than 500 in total) automatically,
followed up with printed letters."

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
I like this bit:

    
    
        So Perry reported over 500 chiropractors to them,
        alleging they had made claims without adequate
        evidence. The GCC rejected his letter, saying it
        only takes individual complaints. A pile of
        individual complaint letters were instantly
        generated and delivered to their door.

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nazgulnarsil
chiropractors make their money off of ignorance. if you feel better after
going to a chiropractor it's because the muscles that support and stabilize
the spine (especially the posture muscles of the lower back) are weak. do some
basic exercise like stretching, hyper extensions, and yoga and your back
problems will go away.

there's a reason chiropractors don't grab a chunk of the lucrative physical
therapy market, their techniques are a stop gap, they don't improve your
condition.

~~~
krschultz
Have you ever had a spine/neck injury? There is no amount of streching or yoga
that will fix it. I fell rock climbing last summer and was in serious pain for
weeks. I went to a physical therapist not a chiropractor, but "cracking" your
back is necessary for some injuries and it is the only way to fix it. It took
a hell of a lot of force to get my spine back in line but it feels better
almost immediately. After that comes the therapy to rebuild the muscles, but
that takes a LONG time, and resetting the spine is done multiple times in
there.

~~~
ricree
Sure, strengthening back muscles is not enough for real injuries, but neither
is going to a chiropractor. At best, the chiropractor is a physical therapist
with a focus on the back. But mixed in with those people are a good number of
others who believe in treatments with no basis in evidence. And at times, as
gcheong pointed out, the treatments can result in making the condition worse.

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cubicle67
tangental - Simon Singh (the guy being sued) is the author of this excellent
book on cryptography [http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-
Cryptography...](http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-
Cryptography/dp/0385495323)

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notaddicted
The article is interesting, but this is a really terrible title. The title
contains zero relevant info, not even any irrelevant info, and it barely even
sense as a sentence. The sentence doesn't appear in the article. I am at a
loss as to what the titler was thinking.

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wglb
Talk about a crowdsourcing smackdown.

