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Comment Re:I should add that it is improving (Score 1) 713

So maybe a few homeopathic solutions or healing herbs would come in handy to the doctor who wants return business, but doesn't want to prescribe unneeded antibiotics. And who knows, the patient might get well faster because he feels better: the doctor clearly cares about his welfare, he's been given "medicine", all should be well. People aren't machines; they don't respond well to being treated as though they were. Whatever happened to the art of medicine?

It went away with modern medical ethics. A doctor is ethically required to prescribe medicine which he or she honestly believes will address the problem, and tell the patient why that is. It's about informed consent. If a medical doctor prescribed a homeopathic remedy, how do you imagine the conversation going?

"Well, the remedy I'm giving you has no active ingredient--it's actually diluted so far down that it's just water! Nevertheless, I think it will reduce your pain/swelling/etc because of the placebo effect. Which requires that you think this is a real medicine--oops."

This is the same reason that doctors are now taught that sugar pills and other placebos are ethical only in medical trials, in which the priority is the testing of a treatment rather than the actual treatment. Using placebos in place of tested treatments in actual practice is equivalent to lying to the patient.

Comment Re:We already knew this (Score 1) 713

I'm glad acupuncture helps you feel better. However: do you know why your back is hurting? Have you had a doctor actually look at your back to make sure the symptom isn't a symptom of a real, serious condition? Or do you just trust your "personal experience" which says that acupuncture makes pain go away?

The real danger of alternative medicine isn't that it doesn't work, but that it makes people less likely to look deeper into their problems. In your case and most others, it probably doesn't matter, but from time to time you really do need that "proven" treatment.

The Internet

Submission + - China's Open Document Format (zdnetasia.com)

eldavojohn writes: "While there's been a lot of talk of the open document formats in the states, we have to realize that China's facing the same dilemma. And that's nothing to ignore with the largest population of the world under it's governance. The blog starts by pointing out they will most likely merge their current standard with either OOXML or ODF. The bulk of this blog points out why OOXML shouldn't be ISO certified and the biggest problem for Microsoft's standard: "Another Standard, Microsoft does not support, is the specification RFC 3987, which defines UTF-8 capable Internet addresses. Consequently, OOXML does not support, to use Chinese characters within a Web address." This would be problematic for many languages, not just Chinese."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - 37th and final Independent game review panel (gametunnel.com)

cyrus_zuo writes: " Game Tunnel 's monthly Indie game review panel is no more. This month's panel, posted July 31st, will be the final panel reviewing what's new in Independent games. The monthly review panel has run just over 3 years with the July panel marking the 37th panel. Having reviewed 468 games over its life, the panel has had a variety of writers giving a plethora of opinions about what has been great and what hasn't been so great in the world of Indie games. The final panel features Derek Yu from TIGSource (and IGF winner Aquaria fame), Greg Costikyan from Manifesto Games, John Bardinelli from Joystiq, and Caspian Prince from Puppygames."
Space

Submission + - Jupiter moon pukes into space: probe movie

Tablizer writes: The New Horizons probe caught the moon Io in the act of barfing into space. "This five-frame sequence of New Horizons images captures the giant plume from Io's Tvashtar volcano. Snapped by the probe's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as the spacecraft flew past Jupiter earlier this year, this first-ever "movie" of an Io plume clearly shows motion in the cloud of volcanic debris, which extends 330 kilometers (200 miles) above the moon's surface...The appearance and motion of the plume is remarkably similar to an ornamental fountain on Earth, replicated on a gigantic scale."

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