Posted on Tuesday, 19 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
I love a novel approach in activism and it’s nice to see a corner of the pro-science camp take it to the streets for a change. At exactly 10:23 am on January 30, hundreads of homeopathy sceptics across the UK will go into Boots, a UK chain of pharmacies and join a mass homeopathic ‘overdose’. No need to fret about safety of swallowing a hundred or so pills of the alleged “cures” unless you happen to suffer from hyperglycemia.
The effect of downing a bottle of homeopathic ‘pillules’ would be about the same as quaffing as many Pez, and that’s the point. While homeopathy has no proven ability to cure anything, the pills are offered for sale in Boots pharmacies with labels alleging to help with various physiological problems. A number of them have the boots brand. This is interesting since the company itself gave testimony to the Commons Science and Technology Committee that it doesn’t find homeopathic remedies to be effective. So is the snake oil industry just to lucrative to give up on?
The 1023 Statement:“We call upon Boots to withdraw all homeopathic products from your shelves. You should not be involved in the sale of ineffective products, because your customers trust you to do what is right for their health. Surely you agree that your commitment to excellent patient care is better served by supplying only those products whose claims can be substantiated by rigorous scientific research? Or do you really believe that Boots should be in the business of selling placebos to the sick and the injured?”
Posted on Wednesday, 8 April, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Ian Tomlinson was not part of the Wednesday G20 demonstration in London in any way, and yet some Police earned their nickname, “the filth,” as it is shown here that one officer is directly responsible for his death. The Guardian has on its website a video clip of Tomlinson walking through the protest area, hands in pockets, from his job selling newspapers, shortly before he died. The clip shows Tomlinson being assaulted by a masked police officer brandishing a baton (from behind, as all cowards do). Tomlinson was doing nothing to provoke the attack as the video clearly shows and the attack came without warning as the officer who attacked him, or any around them, offered any sign of a warning. He later rose, walked a few paces and then collapsed and died.
Any public outing of the officer responsible is highly encouraged, including anonymously. Among other places, you can pass along infomation anonymously here.
If you run a website, consider adding a similar post soliciting information.
UPDATE: the story has now entered the shaping stage in which the Met’s spin takes over.
Posted on Friday, 27 March, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Ah, the snap crackle and pop of revolution. It’s in the air again in London as thousands of people prepare to swamp the streets to protest the G20 summit.
Remember when a million or so people marched against the war in Iraq? That sure fixed that. We can say that we don’t condone the actions that are likely to take place during the week of the G20, but let’s face some hard facts. Interests in favor of the current method of doing things don’t pay much heed to nonviolent demonstration. In fact, they celebrate it, showing it to be a prime example of why their system works: “Look these people can express themselves freely in the caged pens we’ve set up for them way over there. Our way works.” So now and again, sort like the WTo in ’99, things tend to get out of hand as people with other views on how the world should operate don’t get a viable seat at the table where decisions are being made.
I’m a fan of art and graphic design that gets created during periods of transition and upheaval. They just have a lot more to say. With rare exception, I’ve mostly included in the following events section samples of unaltered text about the demonstrations themselves. So much of it is throw-back jargon from the days of the luddites, the labor protests of the 20s and 30s, anti-fascist campaigsn of European history. We may be entering that period of time when people can no longer say “this generation has never had to go through a depression or world war,” as if it were a bad thing.
First off is a gallery of graphics made in anticipation of the G20 economic summit taking place here in London. Following the jump, a rundown of activities taking place here from my Delicious bookmarks.
Posted on Tuesday, 17 February, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Photo by Eleven Eight via Fickr
Hundreds of photographers gathered at New Scotland Yard on Monday to snap shots of police in protest of a new law that can criminalize the simple act of taking a snap of police officers or military personnel in public. See the British Journal of Photography for the story.
While BJP posted some of its photos of today’s event against the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, there are a lot more photos now available on sites such as Flickr. Here are the links to a view sets worth a look.
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours – do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained? — Rachel Corrie
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I love a novel approach in activism and it’s nice to see a corner of the pro-science camp take it to the streets for a change. At exactly 10:23 am on January 30, hundreads of homeopathy sceptics across the UK will go into Boots, a UK chain of pharmacies and join a mass homeopathic ‘overdose’. No need to fret about safety of swallowing a hundred or so pills of the alleged “cures” unless you happen to suffer from hyperglycemia.
Ah, the snap crackle and pop of revolution. It’s in the air again in London as thousands of people prepare to swamp the streets to protest the G20 summit.
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours – do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained?
