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Acupuncture Still Looks Like Quackery

Xinhua is gloating about a flawed study purporting to prove a acientific basis for acupuncture. Acupuncture still looks no better than the placebo effect. Elizabeth Armstrong Moore goes even further, and offers a nice summary before slipping over the edge of the cliff.

Nanna Goldman…[and her] team, which presents its work this week at Purines 2010 in Barcelona, inserted and rotated needles into the tender paws of mice and found that the biochemical blockade of adenosine soothed the mice about as much as giving them drugs that boost adenosine levels.

More specifically, both during and immediately following an acupuncture treatment, the level of adenosine in the tissue near the needles was 24 times greater than before the treatment. So acupuncture may relieve pain by simply tricking bodies into thinking there’s been minor tissue trauma.

And yet another pin in the proverbial coffin for skeptics like myself: The researchers even found that in “adenosine receptor knock-out mice” not equipped with the adenosine receptor, acupuncture had no effect.

So what do revelations about a 4,000-year-old technique have to do with modern technology? The better we understand exactly how needles relieve pain, the more likely we are to invent modern acupuncture kits that are affordable, portable, and safe.

From one study to rolling out a commercial product? e!Science News has a longer explanation of why the procedure works. Yet, Ed Yong quickly punctures the hype.

Many trials have demonstrated that acupuncture does have some pain-relieving effects – that is not in doubt. And as Steven Novella notes, unlike things like homeopathy or reiki, with acupuncture “something physical is actually happening… so it is therefore not impossible that a physiological response is happening”. But the big questions are whether this effect is genuine of nothing more than a placebo.

To answer that, clinical trials have used sophisticated methods, including “sham needles”, where the needle’s point retracts back into the shaft like the blade of a movie knife. It never breaks the skin, but patients can’t tell the difference from a real, penetrating needle. Last year, one such trial (which was widely misreported) found that acupuncture does help to relieve chronic back pain and outperformed “usual care”. However, it didn’t matter whether the needles actually pierce the skin, because sham needles were just as effective. Nor did it matter where the needles were placed, contrary to what acupuncturists would have us believe.

…There has been so much previous work in this area that the question “How does acupuncture work?” is better replaced by “Why are acupuncture’s effects largely indistinguishable from those of sham treatments?” The new study suggests some answers but it seems unfortunate to me that Goldman didn’t include any sham-needle controls in her experiments.

Moore at least failed Yong’s test, “…whether your average health journalist will know how this study fits into the bigger picture – whether it vindicates the use of acupuncture or whether it actually fits with a skeptical stance.” I might add, how ridiculously Korean newspapers and quacks will react to this “vindication”?

Filed under: Science Tagged: acupuncture, medicine

Random pictures - part 32

No bull - this place serves real meat. Seen in Konkuk University's party zone.

Hey, it's called random pictures, ok?

© Chris Backe - 2010

This post was originally published on my blog, Chris in South Korea. If you are reading this on another website and there is no linkback or credit given, you are reading an UNAUTHORIZED FEED.

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Geoje Island and a Spaz Update

Saturday morning I got up bright and early to make it into Busan for the 10:30 ferry. I whipped out my camera and prepared to be the world's best little blogger...only to realize that I'd left my memory card in my card reader on the table in my apartment. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Geoje Island is definitely worth the visit. I'd go so far as to say that tourists to Korea would do better to skip Seoul and just head down south to check out all of the craggy islands dotting the Korean coast. It's breathtakingly beautiful. I spent the day at Gujora beach, laying in the sun, building a sand castle (and yes I did get strange looks for that one), and picking up pretty shells. That night about 20 expats had a bonfire and roasted veggies and such over it.

Epic Spaz Updates:
1. Forgetting my memory card.
2. I'm sure there have been many updates related to ridiculous things I do before coffee. I am absolutely retarded before caffeine. As usual, I poured the second half of my coffee pot into my travel mug before heading off to work. No problem there, I didn't even manage to get any on my new white polo shirt (let's see if it lasts the day) and then I realized that there were white bits floating along the top. I opened the fridge again and sure enough my milk had gone bad. Aside from the travesty of wasting a cup of coffee made from freshly roasted Kenya beans was the fact that I had already had a cup of it with the sour milk and didn't notice. My stomach and bad milk are decidedly unhappy.

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http://aaaalexsadventuresinasia.blogspot.com/

Recent haul from the Russian shops near Busan station...

Alone in the City

Approximately 1 million people in Seoul are homeless.

Some gather in communities of 20-30.

Some brave their days in groups of 10 or less.

Some go it alone.

If you live in Seoul, you can help.

Learn how to volunteer with the Itaewon Global Village Center here.

And discover ”Feed Your Seoul” through PLUR here.

Now, if only I could find volunteer groups helping the homeless in Busan…anyone know?

Beijing Goes After Michael Corleone

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (L), South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (C) and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pose with elementary school students of their countries as they arrive to bury a time capsule and plant a tree in Seogwipo on Jeju island May 30, 2010.

“Listen, whoever comes to you with this Barzini meeting, he’s the traitor. Don’t forget that.” No matter how it’s translated, the PRC’s prime minister still sounds like the threat the Godfather warns Michael to expect.

It already seems Beijing has done well for itself from the Cheonan incident.

A diplomatic source who requested anonymity said Friday that China had proposed to the U.S. to conduct a joint investigation with the participation of the UN Command, China and North Korea. The source said China made the offer last week through its UN delegation in New York, and that the offer called for convening the UN Command’s Military Armistice Commission, which has lost its function over time.

The U.S. and China reportedly informed the South Korean government of the offer through the UN Command’s special investigation team for the Cheonan sinking following some final adjustments during China-U.S. strategic and economic talks in Beijing on May 24 to 25.

In response, the UN Command special investigation team told the South Korean government that they will ask China’s People’s Liberation Army to rejoin the Military Armistice Commission, and will request the North Korean People’s Army also send representatives to the Joint Observer Team. The UN Special Investigation Team also reportedly stressed the need to resolve the Cheonan incident through dialogue. The UN Command Military Armistice Commission composed a special investigation team on May 22 to look into the cause of the Cheonan sinking.

Now, with North Korea still selling nuclear technology, and Wen Jiabao getting his meeting in Seogwipo – a place I’ve visited I’d never thought to see in a news story about diplomacy – this entire incident looks like a win-win game for both the PRC and the DPRK.

Filed under: East Asia, Korea, Maritime, Military, WMD Tagged: cheonan, china, dprk, japan, jeju island, lee myung bak, north korea, nukes, prc, rok, un command military armistice commission, wen jiabao, yukio hayoyama

Hunting Season on Cheonan Incident Conspiracy Theories Opens

Aside from collecting conspiracy theories about the sinking of ROKS Cheonan (here, here, here, and here), I’m partial to blaming the incident on subordinates.

The possibility that we’re seeing a paranoid totalitarian state beginning to spin completely off the game-board of comprehensible action seems fairly plausible to me. But my general attitude in interpreting what appear to be bizarrely aggressive moves is that they’re likely to represent screwups, snafus, and underlings’ fear of disciplinary action for insufficient vigilance. The Soviet decision to shoot down KAL 007 back in 1983, for instance, was an excellent demonstration of exactly what made the USSR so awful: with gales having (unbeknownst to America) knocked out Soviet radar in Siberia and allowed the plane to accidentally cross Kamchatka without being intercepted, Air Force generals were more worried about being humiliated by not shooting down whatever the thing was than they were about the possibility of killing a few hundred civilians. (Talk about the banality of evil.)

The KAL 007 incident brings up another issue. Malcolm Gladwell has a famous/notorious chapter in “Outliers” in which he makes the case that Korean Air Lines’ abysmal safety record before 2000 was related to a dysfunctional culture of deference to rank in the cockpit. Mr Gladwell cites the six forms of address in Korean, based on seniority, and the high score of Koreans on a psycho-cultural ranking called the Power Distance Index; he says that in a series of Korean Air crashes in the 1980s and 1990s, flight officers were reluctant to indicate to the captain that anything was wrong except in elliptical and confusing ways, because it would have been viewed as criticism of a higher-up. One theory of the KAL 007 incident holds that such deference by lower-ranking flight officers was in part why the plane drifted hundreds of miles off course.

Mr Gladwell’s case was challenged in a pretty trenchant review in Asiance magazine, arguing that he’d misunderstood the Korean and mischaracterised cockpit transcripts, and that KAL pilots were inappropriately deferential to rank not because they were Korean but because they’d been trained in the military. So take it with at least a small grain of salt. Still, if there’s one thing that North Korea certainly has, it’s a dysfunctional culture of deference to rank. And that can lead people to do some very counterproductive and confused things in high-pressure situations. If we can’t figure out what the North Koreans are trying to do, it may be because they can’t figure it out either. Not that that makes them less dangerous. Maybe the opposite.

Filed under: Academia, East Asia, Korea, Maritime, Military, Subscriptions, USA, YouTube Tagged: cheonan, conspiracy theory, dprk, john pfeffer, kal 007, kim jong il, martin gladwell, north korea, rok, the economist, wayne madsen

Sirens

There is a civil defence drill here around the 15th of every month. The authorities put out flags a day or two beforehand to remind people. Now that the puppet regime in North Korea is threatening to attack South Korea again - in the past it has threatened to turn it into a sea of fire amongst other things, the drills take on a slightly more ominous feel.

Sometimes I don't hear the sirens - it depends where I am. If fact, it's a given that if I'm in the subway or even in a store I won't know anything about it. One person told me that she never hears it in her school where she works, and I never used to hear it in my old apartment which seemed to be positioned in a place where the warning coverage wasn't very good. One would hope that because of South Korea's love of technology, in the event of a real threat in addition to sounding the sirens the Government would have a system in place to text everyone, but I'm not sure that they do.

There is no such danger of not hearing the sirens in the apartment I live in now. And because it overlooks the main road into the centre of the city, every month I watch the entertainment unfold as the sirens sound and civil defence ajummas march into the middle of the lanes and, armed with little more than a whistle and looks that could turn flesh to stone, attempt to cajole drivers into pulling over to the side of the road. This almost always works, because they have to, but as you might expect, for some motorists the challenge is to get as far as possible before they dare not go further. I've seen cars speed past the ajummas on occasion well into the drill, soliciting the dirtiest of looks from them undiluted by my high vantage point. I'm not entirely convinced that if the sirens ever sound in anger drivers are going to be quite so well behaved and pull into the side of the road to possibly die, when their gut instinct is to get home to their families as quickly as possible.

Last month once the sirens had stopped I noticed something new. It was incredibly quiet. So quiet in fact, that I could hear birds singing. That was practically a new experience in Busan, where wildlife is largely confined to the mountains. As birdsong echoed through the valley we live in, it struck me that this must have been a beautiful place once before someone dropped a city on it.

This month there was something new again. The sirens were different. They seemed to have changed from the air-raid type sound familiar from the Second World and Cold Wars, into something more akin to a police siren, with a different pitch and a more rapid cycle. I was a little disappointed - I felt it lacked the menace of the Soviet attack warnings I grew up with, but later it transpired it was actually a natural disaster drill, and the sirens were for tsunamis and earthquakes. I'm not actually sure how you sound a siren to warn for an earthquake though – but that's what they said.

Despite its proximity to Japan, Busan is not particularly directly prone to earthquakes, which is just as well considering the dubious build quality of our apartment block. However, with climate change turning the waters off the southern coast we live on subtropical, the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Administration (KHOA) are warning us of worse typhoons and tsunamis in future. Unfortunately, typhoons are a very real threat here as are tsunamis caused by major earthquakes close to Japan.

Telling the two types of sirens apart then is actually quite important, as in principle it's the difference between heading down into the civil defence shelters otherwise known as the subway system, versus heading for high ground. (In practice however it's not quite that simple anyway - the subway system might not be the best move in the event of a chemical attack where the gas is heavier than air and sinks).

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Busanmike.blogspot.com

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We are the CHAMPIONs: Clubbing with the New Girl (that's me)

Last night was a blast for so many reasons!

First of all, I'd like to thank Emma who absolutely, without a doubt, has made my life suddenly brighter with her presence in it! ♥ I met a lot of very kind people last night, all of whom seem to be absolute dolls. It was the first time that I'd been out in such a big group of foreigners before. To be honest, I was a little worried, because some foreigners here can be kind of ridiculous. You know, what I mean? As in, they get completely plastered and act like complete idiots and make fools of themselves. But, I guess those people are everywhere, no matter where you go.

It's just that, for some reason, I thought that there seemed to be more of them in Korea than normal. I guess I just needed guiding, haha.

Anyway. The people I met last night were lovely. Here's the downlow on what went on.

Around 9:30 Emma came by my apartment and we headed out to 700 club where everyone was met up. Apparently two of the groups really good friends are leaving Korea today (Sunday) so it was some what of their send off. They were funny, and boisterous (but totally not over the top), and sooo friendly!

I was surrounded by couples. I was the only single gal in that group, but I didn't feel uncomfortable at all because everyone was so relaxed. Via a speech made by the 'Man of honor' (the man leaving Korea) I discovered that they'd all made quite good friends over the years and through a few of the people sitting at the table he'd met his future bride (who was sitting right next to him beaming with this gorgeous smile).

This man was big guy, quite tall and broad with a shaved head. He looked like a biker (and he was technically, somewhat, from what I gathered from the speech). He got teary eyed. That's right. I almost cried myself, and I don't even know these people. It's mostly because when men get so emotional that they start to cry (even a little bit) then the situation is pretty serious. I just thought it was so sweet, and I'm a sucker for sweet things.

Anyway... after that we did some shuffling about doing this and that and finally headed out to our destination...

CHAMPION

CHAMPION night club. Now, THAT was an experience. Upon arriving you notice that there are tons of men in black suits running around and ushering people about very formally with ear pieces in. They looked like FBI. Upon entering I noticed how DARK it was. Geez. I could barely see anything except the faint outline of cushy chairs and the tables with little dimly glowing red lamps at the end (I guess so you don't run into them).

Apparently it's a VERY expensive night club. To even enter in the first place you have to purchase 'platters', big plates of fruit, veggies and other little snacks, as well as drinks. The whole place was rather swanky, and set up almost like a dinner theater with a huge stage and dance floor at the front.

A couple of DJ's started playing and when the dance music started everyone would get up and go out onto the floor and dance it up. Most of the dancing was REALLY awkward, and one of my friends said something extremely, and hilariously, accurate.

"They all look miserable, don't they?"

It was true! Almost every person dancing out on that floor looked bored and even upset (like they were doing this grudgingly). We also noticed that most of the Koreans just tended to sway around a bit to the music, there was very little actual 'getting down', if you know what I mean. Though, I can understand that for the girls because some of them were wearing dresses so tight I don't know how they even sat down.

Anyway, the Dj would play for a bit and then stop and everyone would go sit back down. The starting and stopping really disrupted the mood, but it also gave everyone a chance to rest for the next DJ to play. One of the DJ's kept stopping the music to make noise or say something into the microphone so the beat got lost like every four measures. A liiiiiiitle annoying, but fun none the less.

And then....

SURPRISE! MALE STRIPPERS!

Wait... What?

Not really. I'm kidding. There weren't any strippers at this club, though it suddenly became that kind of atmosphere. Korea is obsessed with boy groups here (and I understand the fetish, I'm not knocking it or anything.) CHAMPION night club took that idea and hired a group of handsome guys (all young, all cute for different reasons to appeal to most every girl) and they have them perform on stage. These guys lip-sync and dance to popular songs and drive the girls absolutely nuts. There was literally a horde of girls crowding the stage to touch these guys.

It was pretty entertaining.

In the group there was:

The Show Off: He looked like he would be the leader of the group. Kind of a Bad-ass type with a 'The devil may care" attitude. Lots of suggestive facial expression and gyrating to get the girls to scream and jump up and down.

The Tough Guy: Your token guy who looks like he might have a bit of a mean streak. But may also be a total softie on the inside. Great dancer, looks like he spends his free time smoking cigarettes and riding a motorcycle around town.

The 'Cool' Guy: You know the type. The type that's flirty with everyone, but totally not in a suggestive way. Kind and elusive enough that the girls just can't get enough of him. They want to get to know him and crack his playboy exterior and become 'that girl' that officially steals his heart.

The Cutie And then there's the 'Cutie'. This guy is almost a little awkward, but in a really charming way. While he can dance, he often has a bashful look on his face. His features are boyishly handsome and he looks like the romantic type. Probably sensitive and sweet, a guy who gives flowers, candy, and new little trinkets to his girlfriend, takes her out on picnics, and shyly gives her a kiss in the glowing light of the setting sun. That type.

These four guys cover most bases with what appeals to girls. And they drove them all BONKERS. It was cute, hilarious, and interesting all at the same time to see how these young women were reacting to these untouchable men.

Here comes the whole stripping thing.

At one point during the dancing the lights dim and a vague outline of 'The Show Off' is seen walking behind these moving screens, pulling his shirt off. The girls are already going nuts. The next song starts and the screens raise and there he his, shirtless, with this expression on his face that could have melted a glacier. The girls go even more wild.

A guy having his shirt off is no big deal. But when a guy has a body like that guy had AND when he's dancing the way that guy was it becomes a deal as big as the Trojan war. I know I had this look on my face that was a cross between "This is fun!" and "Uuuuhhh...okay...."

Anyway. 'The Cutie' was the next to take his shirt off, and of course the girls put forth a new screaming wave of enthusiasm. This is another thing about 'The Cutie' that you have to know. 'The Cutie' is SO adorable, that you never guess that he's actually built like Adonis under his graphic T-shirt. This drives the girls even more crazy as it's all part of the 'prince charming' attraction. You know... a sensitive man who can understand a woman and be in tune to her as a female but at the same time be totally masculine.

Guys, this was what I was thinking as a group of shirtless men were dancing on a stage in front of me. Sure I was having a good time, but I was also ANALYZING the entire situation. Do I need to be admitted somewhere? Back into graduate school, that's where.

Wouldn't that be just so much fun? Go around from nightclub to night club and document the scene and then write paper after paper of thoughts on what and why? (But I think someone has already done that, oh well. Fresh perspective!)

I MISS UNIVERSITY!

So...

Sure. CHAMPION was a great time, and the dancing was nice. After a while I left with Emma and her Hubby-to-be and we went out to Gwangali to a place called "Thursday Party", met up with some other people and had a great time.

I was actually kind of worried about going out that night, because I'm not a big drinker and you know... clubbing and bar hopping usually involves a lot of alcohol. So I was a bit concerned, but aside from maybe a beer (and not even a whole one), and a single shot of soju at the beginning of the night (I hate soju, I had the shot handed to me because everyone was doing a toast after their friends speech and I didn't have a drink. UGH. Soju=do not like) I didn't have anything but water. I didn't get tired, I didn't feel exhausted when 3am rolled around. I was totally alert, energetic, and ready for more dancing!

DANCING ANYONE?

For those of you who don't know, I love dancing. Find me a good nightclub and I'll stay there all night, not even joking. I used to hate it back at University when the dance clubs would close at 2am. WHY?! Stay open until 5-6am like the rest of the clubs around the world! People are just getting started at 2am!

Anyway, it's great exercise, and if you really enjoy it and you dance for hours then you burn so many calories. Gals, when going dancing LEAVE THE FLATS AT HOME! You MUST wear heels! Most girls wear what a friend of mine refers to as '2 hour heels', the really spiky stilettos that cram your toes in and really hurt your feet. Why do you even own a pair of shoes like that?

Buy a pair of comfy 'all night' heels. Those would be CLOSED TOED heels with a thick chunky heel instead of a stiletto. The chunky heel gives you more balance, and the closed toe doesn't rub blisters into feet as easily because your feet have nowhere to slide back and forth like with strapped shoes or open toed shoes (which also get uncomfortable because your foot is being semi-shoved through a small opening at the tip of your shoe).

But the reason I say WEAR HEEELS is because, wearing heels while dancing is GREAT exercise for your ab muscles and legs. Having to keep your balance on heels while move your hips and shoulders around at the same time requires more leg and middle body strength than you'd expect.

Anyway the I LOVE DANCING being said, if anyone knows of a good night club out in Busan then give me a holla'. I'm up to trying new places.

I've been to FOXY, WOMB, and now CHAMPION but there's got to be more out there.

So, if you live in BUSAN you should totally give CHAMPION a go. It's fun, entertaining, and really worth the money (which I still owe to someone because we left early. WHO DO I PAY?! )

Well, everyone. I know I keep promising pictures and then don't deliver. But eventually it'll happen, don't you worry your little selves about that.

I'm off for now. More exciting adventure recaps later.

Until next time,

~Auggie

Koreabridge