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Home >History > Front page updates April 2020
Updates made to The Millenium Project in April 2020Let's start by analysing conspiracy theories (18/4/2020)
See more Speedbump by Dave Coverly here
If they only had a brain between them (18/4/2020)
Ray Bolger created one of the most enduring (and most loved) characters in movie history when he played the Scarecrow in "The Wizard Of Oz" in 1939. The Scarecrow's lament was that he didn't have a brain.
The Scarecrow seems to be the prototype for many of the believers in pseudoscience and nonsense and the rejectors of science and facts that I deal with on this site. In some cases, like the fictional Scarecrow, they believe that possession of a piece of paper from some irrelevant (or even nonexistent) source gives them brainpower, but generally they are unlike Ray's character in having no desire to get a brain at all and are quite happy with and even proud of their ignorance.
Back in February I mentioned some vegan activists who seemed to think that an organisation with the initials BAVA must be every other organisation with the same initials. In the same month someone questioned my qualifications to write what I do here (qualifications which are actually irrelevant but can be seen on the "About" page of the site by anyone capable of a little research).
Analogous to "All BAVA must be that BAVA", woonatics are continually conflating organisations as being either closely associated or just different names for the same thing despite the organisations and groups being obviously very different entities. I suppose this makes it easy for them to keep all the names in their limited mental capacity at the same time, so we probably should show some sympathy for those of diminished ability. If someone is a member of two or more organisations this is seen as definite proof that the organisations are identical and have the same aims and objectives.
To make things easy for my critics, here is a list of groups of which I am a member.
Together with the population of small country I'm a member of Amazon's Affiliate Program. Every now and then they send me a check (never a cheque) which costs me money at the bank to change from US to Australian dollars.So have at it, woosters. Make sure to tell me that all of these organisations are the same because I'm a member. The commonalities must be obvious.
The Carbon Comic web site disappeared in May 2020
The postman knocked (18/4/2020)
Sounds 
reminiscent of Morris dancing erupted from my computer speakers as the postman knocked to tell me that there was mail waiting to be read. It mentioned Dr Boyd Haley, a professional academic chemist who had forgotten the basics of organic chemistry.
Subject: Bunch of shit.
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2020 16:14:34 -0400/p>
You're a proctologist. That's hilarious! You must have looked at too many assholes, you've turned into one.
Thank you for your comments. We welcome constructive criticism here as we have a program of continuous improvement. You comment has been passed to HR for inclusion in future staff training sessions.
Verbal diarrhea pouring out of your mouth on your Dr. Boyd Haley bullshit article.
"Dr. Boyd Haley bullshit". You got that part right, because that perfectly describes the nonsense he says about mercury.
You're insane if you don't think mercury is causing global neurological problems.
Really? Could I have more details of this phenomenon, please. Are you sure it's not fluoride in the water or aluminium in the chemtrails?
Look up mercury elixirs or "quick silver" given in the 1800's in every single MDs office for everyone that walked through the door.
"1800s" does not require an apostrophe, but "MD's" does. Sorry to be pedantic.
As the MD degree was very uncommon in the 19th century I assume you are using it just to mean someone qualified to practise medicine. It doesn't. I can excuse your ignorance about this as you also seem to think that Boyd Haley (PhD, not MD) has anything worthwhile to say.
I agree that the 1800s didn't represent the height of medical knowledge. After all, that century saw the spread of the ridiculous absurdities of homeopathy and chiropractic.
A disaster that almost took the medical establishment down. They covered that up so deep, it was a heinous mistake that destroyed many peoples lives.
If it was so covered up, how is that you know about it? As your research skills don't seem to extend to identifying Boyd Haley's lack of knowledge of basic chemistry or the meaning of academic postnominals I'm a bit surprised that you were able to uncover this great conspiracy.
How about spreading the word about the mercury entrenched in bigPharm, the biggest bunch of ratbag money hungry "good 'ol boys" that ever walked the planet? Don't you think people realize that?
Where is the mercury "entrenched" in today's pharmaceutical industry? It's gone from vaccines, it's hard to find mercurochrome antiseptic these days and you don't even see it in thermometers. I know it's still used in homeopathy but that's not anything to do with medicine.
Sorry to be pedantic again, but the apostrophe indicating elision of a letter in "old boys" should follow the "l", not precede the "o". It's "ol' boys".
You're sick.
But my real doctor can make me better, even without using mercury.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
Replied to from Pegasus Mail.
Oh, alright, here's the song! (18/4/2020)
If the vibrations don't get you then the frequency will (18/4/2020)
I got a bit tied up during the week (shut up and stop with the sex talk – it's a figure of speech) and I didn't get around to my longish article on 5G madness, so I thought I'd show you some examples of technology panics from history. I do like the way that people who used analogue mobile phones to spread fear about 2G then used 2G phones to wail about the terrors of 3G, went on to use 3G phones to screech about 4G and are now using 4G phones to spread fear about 5G. It's almost as if the scaremongers didn't know what they are talking about and might even be a little hypocritical. (Note – the last part of "hypocritical" has nothing to do with "critical thinking". Quite the opposite, really.)
At the start of the 20th century (ask your parents about what that was, youngsters) there was much concern about the dangers of the new fangled electricity thing. Here is a cartoon from the times.
It's familiar, isn't it?
There was concern a few centuries earlier when the plague was coming and going across Europe. I haven't been able to source the provenance of this image, but it must be true because I found it on the Internet and they wouldn't let it be there if it wasn't true, would they?
Another thought on the epidemic (18/4/2020)
See more from Martin Perscheid here (I assume there must be an English version somewhere)
And one last thing (18/4/2020)
There seems to be a common factor in the threats against society (and even civilisation and humanity) detected by conspiracists. 5G, GMO, Glyphosate, Gates, etc. Maybe they are onto something. Maybe they are on something. Or maybe they are just loons. Loon birds are of course gooseish members of the genus Gavia, family Gaviidae. The evidence just gets more compelling, doesn't it?
Oh, gee. I think I've revealed too much.
The bleat goes on (25/4/2020)
My special correspondent from last week was less than happy about my reply. I politely replied to her reply.
From: Jennifer Schiel
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 07:37:05 -0400
Subject: Re: Bunch of shit
Get your facts straight. Ignorance is not worth arguing with.
Yet I continue to do it. One day I'll learn not to, but life would be much less fun then.
You are ignorant and a nit picker as most a-holes usually are.
I actually appreciate it when people fill holes in my ignorance or correct mistakes I've made. Unfortunately you seem to take polite correction of solecisms badly. Sad, that.
Good luck. I'm not wasting one more second of my time.
A wise decision. People who rely on medical advice from know-nothings like Boyd Haley have fewer seconds of life left to waste than the rest of us.
You can fool some of the people whenever you want to (Lincoln, A 1976) (25/4/2020)
It's a pity that the creator of this marvellous piece of satire put in the wrong month, but there will be those who take it seriously and see it as evidence that Big Pharma is in the pocket of the left wing elite. How else could you interpret this criticism of President Trump appearing in one of Pharma's main publications? Also, Massachusetts is in New England and was the only state to give a majority vote to the leftist George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election. All the signs are there.
One thing which is common to many of the people and organisations that I deal with on this site is total imperviousness to any facts or ideas which conflict with entrenched beliefs. (I wrote something about this a few years ago.) This also applies when political beliefs and ideologies are challenged. Despite video evidence being available from several places and the release of an official transcript, there were immediate denials that Donald Trump had suggested injecting cleaning products as a possible treatment for COVID-19 infections. Some admitted that he might have said something like that but he was being sarcastic. (Whether sarcasm is appropriate in a presidential press briefing is something that can be discussed at another time.) I saw an article in a magazine commenting on government bodies diverting shipments of personal protective equipment get an immediate reaction of "BS" and "fake news", with these responses coming in less time that it would have taken to read the article. It was triggered by the experience of a hospital administrator who had to use subterfuge and deal with the FBI (and the threat of Homeland Security) in order to get PPE supplies delivered to his hospital. (You can see the doctor's letter to the NEJM here.)
Rational discussion is impossible if one side rejects reason and facts without the slightest hesitation or consideration. Which is a sad fact.
Experts. You have to love them. (25/4/2020)
Earlier this year we were being assailed by self-taught meteorologists and people familiar with YouTube videos about atmospheric physics who were telling us that the bush fires ravaging parts of Australia had nothing to do with climate change, because climate change doesn't really exist. Suddenly, all these experts seem to have morphed into epidemiologists and immunologists who know everything there is to know about virus propagation and control. There are YouTube videos.
Luckily, there is a beverage that is just right for these experts to consume while in social isolation. If they bother to isolate, of course, because it's all really just a hoax. Just ask YouTube.
I congratulate the anonymous creator of this. I'll even acknowledge them if someone tells me who it is
The origin of Dunning Kruger memes can be found here.
The eternal struggle (25/4/2020)
An anti-vax chiropractor lies, but is this really news? (25/4/2020)
One of the great mysteries about chiropractic (apart from the mystery of why anyone takes seriously the idea 
that it has anything to do with medicine or health) is the respect shown by practitioners of the scam to US resident Billy DeMoss. He obviously has more loose screws than a bulk bin at the hardware store but he seems to pop up at every chiro gathering, screeching incoherent nonsense, leaping about like an antelope on meth and generally behaving in a fashion that would embarrass any normal person. I wouldn't like him to be considered a representative of anything I did for a living, but then I made my living honestly, not by selling something useless and sometimes dangerous.
Dr DeMoss (as he likes to style himself despite not being a doctor) is a champion of the anti-vaccination liar community. (This should not come as a surprise to anyone because despite what they claim, chiropractic must be opposed to vaccination just on the basis of the theory underlying the practice.) He went Full Canvas Jacket this week with the story that a subject in a trial for a COVID-19 vaccine had died.
Why he uses the word "vaxscene" is another mystery, but maybe deliberately misspelling a word counts as a lie and therefore helps to fulfill his lie quota. You will note that he says that he doesn't care if it's "fake news". Well of course he doesn't. The most committed anti-vaccination liars know that they are lying, but the end justifies the means so they don't care if what they say is true or not.
So is it fake news? This is from the day after "Dr" DeMoss had his spittle-flecked rant.
I confidently predict that a month from now the "death" of Elisa Granato will be a solid part of anti-vaccination folklore, because once a lie is told it becomes true forever in their perverted verminous world.
Paleo Pete prevents the plague (25/4/2020)
Or does he? One person highly commended in the 2019 Millenium Awards was TV chef Pete Evans. Paleo Pete is back in the news because he was promoting a device to cure coronavirus infections by the use of magic radiation. (Obviously not the same sort of deadly radiation as 5G telephones use, but I digress.)
You could buy this thing for only $15,000, a small price to pay for keeping your family safe. It's half the price of the cheapest model of the best selling new vehicle in Australia during 2019 (a very basic model which nobody actually buys – the best selling version is at least 50% dearer) which makes it even more of a bargain. It probably even goes "ping!".
In a move that has astounded observers familiar with the glacial speed of inactivity of authorities dealing with medical quackery, the Therapeutic Goods Administration has imposed fines of $25,200 on Evans and his company for things that were said on Facebook and the company's web site which suggested that the device was good for more than just moving money between bank accounts. We eagerly await TGA action against other people who offer cures and treatments of doubtful efficacy or even plausibility, such as homeopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths and other inhabitants of the alternative to medicine world. Reasonable people expect, however, that this action will happen long after Pete Evans has invented something new, if ever. The TGA's media release said:
Pete Evans' company fined for alleged COVID-19 advertising breaches
24 April 2020
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has issued two infringement notices to Peter Evans Chef Pty Ltd (the Company) totalling $25,200 for alleged breaches of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (the Act). Mr Evans is the sole Director/Secretary of the Company.
The TGA received a number of complaints about the promotion of a 'BioCharger' device that occurred during a Facebook live stream on 9 April 2020. Mr Evans allegedly live streamed on his Facebook page, which has more than 1.4 million followers, claims that the device could be used in relation to "Wuhan Coronavirus" – a claim which has no apparent foundation, and which the TGA takes extremely seriously.
Any claim that references COVID-19 is a restricted representation under therapeutic goods legislation, and is of significant concern to the TGA given the heightened public concern about the pandemic. The TGA recently published a warning to advertisers and consumers about illegal advertising relating to COVID-19.
The TGA has issued the Company with an infringement notice in respect of the representation made in the live stream / video.
A second infringement notice was issued for alleged advertising breaches on the website www.peteevans.com, which is maintained by the Company. The page for the BioCharger included claims such as:
"proven to restore strength, stamina, co-ordination and mental clarity"
"sharpening your mental clarity"
"recovery....from an injury, stress"
"accelerating muscle recovery and reducing stiffness in joints".
As the BioCharger device has been represented by the Company as being for therapeutic uses, it is a therapeutic good within the meaning of the Act, and is subject to the regulatory framework established under the Act and administered by the TGA.
Unless a specific exemption applies, therapeutic goods must be entered in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) before they can be lawfully supplied or advertised in Australia.
The TGA regulates all medicines, medical devices and biologicals under the Act. The regulatory scheme is important to the safety of Australian consumers, and the TGA investigates suspected illegal activity related to therapeutic goods.
The TGA is monitoring non-compliance, particularly in relation to the advertising of products that claim to prevent or cure COVID-19 and will continue to take action in relation to any advertisements that do not meet the requirements, including those that seek to mislead consumers.
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