Archive | September, 2006

Better Late Than Never

12 Sep

Joseph meme-clobbered me with a book meme awhile ago. This is a serious thing as I love books. Fiction, Non-Fiction, prose, poetry – love it all. I had to think long and hard about this.

One book that changed my life

Fiction: Lord of the Rings. My mum read it to me and my brother when we were kids and I was utterly captivated by the depth and strangeness of it all. It sparked a life long (so far) deep abiding affection for fantasy, sci-fi and horror novels and films. Its one of the books I re-read at least once a year.

Non-Fiction: HTML 4 For the World Wide Web by the wonderful Liz Castro. Up to this point I’d been flashturbating like crazy. This book changed my whole approach to web development.

One book that you’ve read more than once

Fiction: The Dune series (not the shitty new ones just the Frank Herbert ones). These are the only works of fiction I know that even approach Tolkien for depth and pure story telling. The first in the series is as close to perfection as a book can get.

Non-Fiction: Simon Schama’s History of Britain Book II: The British Wars – It’s Tudor-tastic!

One book you’d want on a desert island

Sorry, this is silly. One book? I refuse to divulge anything less than a top five. I would recommend everyone has these books.

1) Koko by Peter Straub (probably the best chiller/horror ever written. Classy, reserved, menacing).
2) Flashman and The Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser (if you ever need cheering up Flashy will do it. He’s a literary character – from Tom Browns School Days – placed in Victorian Britain at the height of the Empire. Coward, bastard, rake, hero, poltroon).
3) Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. Better known for his ‘Straw Men’ series of chillers, this is an innovative and witty sci-fi. His first published novel.
4) The Shining by Stephen King. His best book IMO. I still can’t look at the numbers 217 without shivering.
5) Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. A book of empathy. I gave it to my wife to try and explain why football matters. She loved the book but still thinks footy’s crap.

One book that made you laugh

All the Flashman book by George MacDonald Fraser. Seriously, buy one. Read it. You won’t regret it. Oh yeah – Catch 22 as well.

One book that made you cry

OK, here’s where I reveal my inner big girls blouse: Little Women had me in bits.

One book you wish you had written

None really. Pleasure is in the reading.

One book you wish had never been written

Can’t think of anything bad enough to warrant never having been written.

One book you’re currently reading

Fiction: The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow. Great book for skeptics ;o)

Non-Fiction: Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques by Kevin Mullet

One book you’ve been meaning to read

The Design of Sites: Principles, Processes and Patterns for Crafting a Customer-centered Web Experience by Douglas K.Van Duyne is top of my Amazon Wish List :o)

David Kirby Part III. Another Twist In The Tale

11 Sep

I’m going through a mini-fascination with video online at the moment. I was delighted to unearth that old video of Brad Handley and I was equally delighted to come across a few video’s of David Kirby on Google Video, courtesy of FAIR Autism Media.

David Kirby Contradicts the Militia

Now, its an article of faith amongst the mercury militia that you since 1992 you haven’t been able to leave your house without tripping over a huge amount of autistic people. I remember Erik once saying that ‘everybody knows someone with autism’. So I was struck by the opening of the video interviewing Kirby.

So if I understand the ‘logic’, since 1992 autism has been increasing massively and according to Erik et al you can hardly move for autistic people and yet as of 2002 David Kirby has never met one. Odd. I mean, as he says:

Bit of an odd discrepancy, no?

But hardly worthy of a blog post all to itself. No, the really interesting stuff popped up a bit later.

David Kirby Contradicts David Kirby

In December of last year, I commented on an odd discrepancy in David Kirby’s take on the thiomersal hypothesis.

Briefly, blogger Citizen Cain had an email exchange with David Kirby earlier in 2005:

Understandably, Kirby doesn’t seem interested in mucking around in the data with me too extensively, or in answering my detailed questions. But in an e-mail, he did address the key point, and concede that _“if the total number of 3-5 year olds in the California DDS system has not declined by 2007, that would deal a severe blow to the autism-thimerosal hypothesis.”_ He also conceded that total cases among 3-5 year olds, not changes in the rate of increase is the right measure.

It struck me as odd as I remembered something Kirby had told NYT reporters in an interview with the New York Times also in 2005:

Because autism is usually diagnosed sometime between a child’s third and fourth birthdays and thimerosal was largely removed from childhood vaccines in 2001, the incidence of autism should fall this year.

I was puzzled by the discrepancy of Kirby arbitrarily adding on 2 years <a href="so I mailed him. He replied:

The Times misquoted me. I actually asked for a correction, but did not receive one.

OK, so my next stop was the two NYT reporters. What did they say about the whole thing?

Reporter Gardner Harris said:

Prior to publication, we read the entire passage relating to this matter to Mr. Kirby. He approved it.

And Anahad O’Connor said:

we stand by that quote. David Kirby was interviewed at length, and we verified that quote and additional information with him before the article was published.

I was disappointed at the time and asked David Kirby to clarify. However he refused to comment further and did not reply to any of my emails, nor respond to any blog comments I left either here or on his page at the Huffington Post blog. This is strange behaviour coming from a man who said:

Seems like Kirby only wants a debate when he hasn’t been caught out.

Anyway, this is all old news. And its still not established. Kirby denied he was referring to 2005 the two reporters say he definitely was. Who to believe?

How about David Kirby?

Well, well, well. Correct me if I’m wrong but the year Kirby mentions at the start of that snippet is *2005* is it not? Of course, the details about falling/rising cases have been gone over and over now that its obvious cases are in fact *still* rising. the important thing for me was hearing David Kirby mention 2005. Something he denies he ever said.

What else does Kirby say about California and 2005?

Yes, they do Mr Kirby. Closely enough to see that cases are still rising. Closely enough to see you’ve been caught in a lie. Stop moving the goalposts and then lying about it Mr Kirby.

We’re here Mr Kirby. We always have been.

Ready when you are.

Generation Rescue: Time To Come Clean

10 Sep

Generation Rescue Redefine Autism

JB Handley’s Generation Rescue created quite a stir when they first launched. They went with a simple, clear, easy to understand message. The first part of that message was:

So, autism is a misdiagnosis for mercury poisoning as per Brad Handley in February 2005. You heard the guy – if you line up one hundred symptoms of mercury poisoning and one hundred symptoms of autism they are exactly the same.

Which is why its odd to find a post on the Evidence of Harm Yahoo Group from one Bradford Handley dated August 30th 2006 which reads1:

Guys, it ain’t ONLY the mercury.

So in Feb 2005, autism is mercury poisoning. By Aug 2006 its not. Now, its apparently more. Lets not forget that Brad is also quoted as ‘refusing to admit the possibility he might be wrong2.

What else can Brad inform the viewing public about autism?

So at least now we know where John Best Jr gets his ridiculous ideas from. But even that poster boy for truly spectacular idiocy can have his idiocy exposed3 as I did when I got John to admit that:

Your 19th century autistics had genetic autism not MP.

True, he couldn’t see how this invalidated his belief that autism didn’t exist in the 19th Century (apparently ‘genetic autism’ isn’t autism – I know, I know, try not to laugh) but wow, Brad took it even further than John. Going on national TV and now internationally on the Web to reveal that he’s _more dogmatic and less rational than John Best Junior_ ! Something I have to admit, I thought was an impossibility.

Is there anything else Brad can tell us about the nature of autism?

All are poisoned. So the kids who have Rett seem to have flown past the end of Brad’s nose when he wasn’t looking. Same goes for the kids who’s mothers caught wild strain Rubella4 – just….never made Brad’s list.

Isn’t it reassuring that Brad and Generation Rescue are so informed and factual about autism? Can you imagine how it would be if we couldn’t trust him on an even _more _ important point such as treatment for example?

Generation Rescue and JB Handley’s Issues With Time

Notably, how they seem to be running out if it.

This interview was broadcast in Feb 2005.

We can tell two things from that. First we can tell that Brad says chelation will work in one to two years. Secondly, we can tell that Jamie Handley started chelation in September 2004. Or to put it another way, exactly two years ago.

And how sure is Brad of this ‘one to two’ years thing?

Wow – so maybe not even two years – ‘probably less’. And what should the ‘end result’ be? What should we expect?

100% recovered. Neurotypical. No different than their peer group.

Does anybody else think that, seeing as Jamie has been chelated for two years now, we should’ve seen a neurotypical Jamie Handley emblazoned across every media outlet Brad’s chequebook could open for? That we haven’t tells us something about Generation Rescue and their reliability as good sources of information.

But something else doesn’t ring true here either. Jamie Handley’s list of meds5. This is *daily* by the way.

Before Breakfast
B12 shot
Probiotic
B12 x 2, Xylitol nasal spray 2 sprays
TD-GSH 1/2 ML

With Breakfast:
Super Digestive Enzyme 1 capsule
Ora Pancreas, Grapeseed 1 capsule each
FolaPro In Juice 1/4 capsule
Intrinsic B12 in juice 1/4 capsule
Nucleotides in juice 1/4 capsule
EDTA 1 capsule
Horsetail Grass 1 capsule
Transfer Factor 2 capsules
Vitamin C 1/4 tsp (375 mg)
GABA 1 capsule
Liver Support 1 capsule
Ora-Placenta 1/2 capsule
RNA in water, alone 0.5 ML

After Breakfast
BH4 1 tablet, Swiss
CCK, Strep Cocktail, GSE, Caprilyic
DMG 1 tablet

With Lunch:
Super Digestive Enzyme 1 capsule
Ora-Adrenal 1/4 capsule
HHC Multivitamin 1 scoop
B Complex Sprinkle
Citrulline Sprinkle
Niacinimide 1 capsule
Quercitin 1/4 scoop
Sam-e 1 scoop
Cell Food Sam-e, Oxygen 4 drops, 4 drops
Magnesium Citrate 1 capsule
Grapeseed Extract 1 capsule
Vitamin C 1/4 tsp (375 mg)
Sphingolin 1 capsule
Pycnogenol 1 capsule
Fenugreek 1 capsule
RNA in water, alone 5 drops

After Lunch
Vitamin K, Vitamin E, SP, CoQ10, Flax
Mag (1), Zn (1), Molyb (2), SE/1 drop, K
CCK, NADH, ATP, DMG 1 capsule each
Strep Cocktail 1/2 tsp

With Dinner
Super Digestive Enzyme 1 capsule
Ora Pancreas, Grapeseed 1 capsule
GABA 2 capsules
Transfer Factor 2 capsules
Vitamin C 1/4 tsp (375 mg)
Carnetine 1 capsule
Gymnema Sylvestre 1 capsule
Curcummin 1 capsule
Vitamin D 2 capsules
EDTA 1 capsule
Riboflavin Sprinkle
Malic Acid 1 capsule
Horsetail Grass 1/2 capsule
Zen 2 capsules
Idebenone 1 capsule
Ambrotose 1 scoop
RNA in water, alone 5 drops

Before Bed
IMF5 1 capsule
Strep Cocktail, Candex, GSE 1/2 tsp & 1 capsule
CCK, Lactoferrin, Caprylic 1 each
Charcoal, Magnesium Citrate
EDTA Suppository

This is what Jamie Handley is given every day. Quite apart from the jaw dropping size of the (daily!) list (a list Brad says: ‘we created it through all of our reading and correspondence with other parents’) is the fact that surely a neurotypical child (as Jamie should now be after undergoing the requisite two years – probably less – of treatment) wouldn’t need such a list. Especially a list that still seems to contain chelators – although interestingly not TD-DMPS I note.

Sources

1: EoH.
2: WWeek.
3: Me.
4: CDC.
5: CK2.

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