Andreas Brevitz

And I don't think I've said it is. If you think that "big placebo" is better than "big pharma" I'm almost inclined to agree. I think there is a method to see what truly does work. And it's not listening to medical companies, it's not listening to government, it's not listening to gardeners, it's not listening to anyone. It's accepting and understanding the scientific method.

"The Cochrane Collaboration is a group of over 28,000 volunteers in more than 100 countries who review the effects of health care interventions tested in biomedical randomized controlled trials. A few more recent reviews have also studied the results of non-randomized, observational studies. The results of these systematic reviews are published as "Cochrane Reviews" in the Cochrane Library."

http://www.cochrane.org/about-us

Another quote that comes to mind; "Science is not a company. It's not a country. It's not even an idea. It's a process."

I feel as though my point is not getting across. As Michael says in the video; "We hate big pharma, we hate big government. We don't trust the man, and we SHOULDN'T. Our healthcare system sucks! It's cruel to millions of people... ... So we run away from it, and where do we run? We leap into the arms of big placebo."
Individual scientists are subject to bias, absolutely. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis changes that. The thing is, ONE scientist doesn't make science. You need lots of independent studies by lots of different, independent scientists and you need them to produce the same evidence independent of eachother. Then you have science. One study is NOTHING.
It's when ONE paper is over representated by the media that people think "science says this and science says that and it's never right!", when in fact science hasn't even made it's statement yet.
How many studies regarding Roundups safety did you look at before you decided it was safe/unsafe, Len? I don't know what Roundup is actually, but there probably never was any science behind that product.

I don't know what he meant by "let's be honest". Maybe just a bad choice of words. Kind of seems insignificant to me.

Regarding proof, there seems to me that there is no such thing as absolute truth, but the closest thing we have is the scientific method. And I agree, if you are more concerned with the possibility of getting what ever the vaccine is for than you are with possible side effects from the vaccine it is up to you to choose. That is not something that science can decide for you.

I don't know what you heard about the MMR vaccine controversy, but the paper that showed the connection to autism got retracted and declared fraudulent. But I don't really care about that.

I'm sorry you stopped watching, Paul, and maybe I should have mentioned that he talked about a lot of stuff. There is a part further in to the clip, I think, regarding herbal medicine or alternative medicine and that part is the one that I would like people to listen to and that was why I posted it in that section of the forum. I understand this is your forum and you do what you will, I don't mind.

What I think was the point of his talk, and the point that I wanted to share is that there is a way to distinguish what is scientific "fact" and what some people claim to be scientific "fact". As there will always be frauds and mistakes I would suggest to anyone, reading this and who is interested, to look up the terms "systematic review" and "meta-analysis". There is a lot of research like this on a wide variety of substances and herbs and treatments and I think that you will find that you can really see what is true and what is fiction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-analysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_review

And really the book "Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial" is a goldmine. Regardless of what your stance on this subject is now, I think it would be counter productive to reject something before looking at it. I will certainley, at least, look at information from sources I would not concider trustworthy. If armed with a critical mind, what harm could it do?

Also, I completely agree that there are conventional medicines not suitable for consumtion! And there IS natural remedies that work! The thing is that there is a way to see which those are. Not everything used in China for 5000 years really does work. Most things don't. Some do.

I don't think it's very humane to let those critters die by drowning but a deep bucket and a looooong hike from home seems a good routine to me!
I have no experience in this but other ways that occured to me regarding keeping the rodent population down would be
1. A body of water or a pond, attracts amphibians and reptiles and birds and probably also birds of prey.
2. Lots of rock piles, again to attract the amphibians and reptiles
3. Piles of brush and woody material, once again a good place for the amphibians and reptiles, especially for nesting and overwintering.

This, along with the book "Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial" (I sincerely recommend it)  was an eye opener for me.
I am not interested in hearing from anyone who is going to be angry or narrowminded in their responses, but I am prepared to discuss this in a scientific and mature manner.
The reason to why I am posting this is that, although I've only been on here shortly, I love you guys, I love permies who are trying to make the world a better place, and I'd love to spread some usefull information in return.
I have noticed that there are a lot of idea's within the permaculture community that I don't agree with and I've been struggling to discuss these ideas in a constructive way. So, now I'm simply throwing this out there.

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html

What do you think?

Dandelions, nettles and "garbage". =)

Well, both are herbs, actually... Are you suggesting to dress spiderbites with the plantago major, or what? Use it you say. Use it how?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantain
Is this what you are talking about? Does it discourage flies? Actually I live in Sweden and I don't think we have spiders here who are actually able to pierce the skin of a human and if so not poisonous enough to produce any pain, so that's not an issue for me.

Call the police and ask for advice, sounds like they probably can't do anything yet but maybe they have some ideas as to how you can produce evidence and nail the guy.