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	<title>SciencePunk &#187; The Letters</title>
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	<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com</link>
	<description>Kicking ass in the name of science!</description>
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		<title>Monadith&#8217;s Scientific Research</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2007/03/monadiths-scientific-research/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2007/03/monadiths-scientific-research/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:41:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2007/03/monadiths-scientific-research/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With surprising punctuality, those dear ladies from Monadith despatched the following email on Friday in response to our requests for hard scientific evidence to support their claims about bioresonance
Dear Mrs XXXX
In connection with our visit in your company I would like to express how grateful I am that you gave me the opportunity to introduce [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Monadith Bioresonance Smoking &#8220;Cure&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2007/03/monadith-bioresonance-smoking-cure/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2007/03/monadith-bioresonance-smoking-cure/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:03:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2007/03/monadith-bioresonance-smoking-cure/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a lowly data monkey who spends a third of his life in the offices of a large multinational, I'm not subjected to half as much email spam and unfunny forwards as I deserve. Which made it all the more surprising when I received an offer to QUIT SMOKING in a mass email from the office manager.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2007/03/monadith-bioresonance-smoking-cure/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>12</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Scott&#8217;s of Stow</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/scotts-of-stow/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/scotts-of-stow/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:36:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[
Sometimes you just know they won’t reply.

Dear Scott’s of Stow,
I recently came across your catalogue whilst browsing the web. I was surprised to see that you sell suitcases that, according the description, are “Lighter Than Air”.  This leads me to ask three questions:
1)  As the items are lighter than air, are you prepared [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>P.W. Joller faces up to his Strath claims</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/pw-joller-faces-up-to-his-strath-claims/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/pw-joller-faces-up-to-his-strath-claims/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:30:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Continuing on from my harrying of Alex Wong and the Strath® cats, it think it is time to take on those crackpot studies that sully the good name of food supplements. Enter Dr Peter W. Joller, author of no less than eight different studies on wonder-elixir Strath®. Let’s stop to look at “Influenza and colds in winter: Prophylaxis with a herbal yeast preparation in comparison with influenza vaccination”, which appeared in, yes, you guessed it, the Swiss Journal of Integrative Medicine.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/pw-joller-faces-up-to-his-strath-claims/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Bio Strath &#8211; a Feast of Yeast (Part 2)</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/bio-strath-a-feast-of-yeast-part-2/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/bio-strath-a-feast-of-yeast-part-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Dec 2006 09:00:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2006/12/bio-strath-a-feast-of-yeast-part-2/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Regular readers of SciencePunk will remember my skirmish with MM Networks over their wonder-drug / food supplement Swiss Health Tonic “Strath®”. I was just coming round to their way of thinking when I received this email from the Strath® head office (CC’d to a bunch of other Strath® bigwigs):]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/12/bio-strath-a-feast-of-yeast-part-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>27</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Ecover come clean on their laundry bleach</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/ecover/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/ecover/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Nov 2006 05:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Now, Ecover is a brand close to my heart. No one is making them use recycled cardboard in their packaging, or avoid the use of persistent chemicals like chlorine, they just do. It’s what they’re all about. But science, my friends, has made me a stony man, and all bad science is fair game. There’s no favouritism to be found here.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/ecover/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Bio-Strath: a Feast of Yeast.  (Part One)</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/bio-strath-a-feast-of-yeast-part-one/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/bio-strath-a-feast-of-yeast-part-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Nov 2006 05:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Like the determined bloodhound of truth with its nostrils filled with the stench of pseudoscience, WoE tracks quarry from the pages of Carpe Diem to MM Products, home of the famous Swiss Herbal Yeast Tonic, Bio-Strath®. The connection is one Stefan R. Becker, doctor and media consultant, proprietor of the Swiss Journal of Integrative Medicine. Found by WoE singing the praises of kombucha tea, Dr Becker is now found expounding the virtues of Bio-Strath, a sort of real-life gummi bear juice. Clearly Switzerland has no need for antibiotics, vaccines, or other frivolities of modern medicine with a wonder-drug like Bio-Strath on the shelves. Thus, with a heavy heart, I bring the twentieth century to MM Networks.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/bio-strath-a-feast-of-yeast-part-one/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Health claims behind Carpe Diem&#8217;s Kombucha don&#8217;t stand up</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/carpe-diems-kombucha/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/carpe-diems-kombucha/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Nov 2006 05:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2006/11/carpe-diems-kombucha/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And so begins the Carpe Diem saga. Most of the letter is self explanatory, but you should know the background. Firstly, I sent this email a long time ago and got no reply. Then I received a newsletter from CD (thanking me for subscribing to it – the cheek!) so I decided to get hardcore and ring up Carpe Diem. This meant discovering that Carpe Diem was founded by none other than Dietrich Mateschitz, who brought us Red Bull. So it comes as no surprise to find that although Carpe Diem is based in Austria, it is distributed through the UK by... ...Red Bull! Now, Rachel Warren didn’t answer my email (and Carpe Diem only provide an Austrian no.), so I wonder if calling up the UK Red Bull office and asking for Rachel Warren will get me anywhere...]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/carpe-diems-kombucha/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Bad Maths with Dr Nick</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/bad-maths-with-dr-nick/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/bad-maths-with-dr-nick/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:00:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2006/11/bad-maths-with-dr-nick/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Finding dodgy science is a bit like having "spider-sense". I look at something seemingly innocuous and an alarm goes off in my head, and it might take me twenty minutes to find it, but I know there'll be some pseudo-scientific nonsense if I just keep looking. Thus it was with Dr Niko Tiliopoulos and his equations. The goldmine of bad science that is the Carpe Diem webpage threw up the article: "Carpe Diem has teamed up with well-being expert Penny Hunking and willpower psychologist Niko Tiliopoulos to produce the definitive guide to sticking to resolutions.". Sure enough, it was there, and before long the following email was sent.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/11/bad-maths-with-dr-nick/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>PWB Electronics&#8217; Quantum Clip</title>
		<link>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/10/pwb-electronics-quantum-clip/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sciencepunk.com/2006/10/pwb-electronics-quantum-clip/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:41:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Frank the SciencePunk</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Letters]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2006/10/pwb-electronics-quantum-clip/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ben Goldacre's boast of a £30 power lead was quickly trumped by a jar of magic pebbles ($129), a clock that boosts your sound and video systems ($199), and, best of all, a £500 crocodile clip. Bear in mind though, that this is a Quantum (crocodile) Clip, which has the power to instantly convert any object pressed against it to a state of "compatible morphic resonance" via a complex quantum particle energy stream.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
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