Comments on: A Briffa’s Wrong

By: Dr John Briffa on testing for food sensitivity: applied kinesiology, dowsing and IgG tests « Holford Watch: Patrick Holford, nutritionism and bad science

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:22:43 +0000

[...] recently I had rather agreed with him. However, Briffa has now taken up some worrying positions on vaccines and autism. Along with Dr Crippen, “I am worried about Dr John [...]

By: Apathy Sketchpad » Blog Archive » Oh, Briffa

Apathy Sketchpad » Blog Archive » Oh, Briffa — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:45:14 +0000

[...] I’ve explained often enough already that nobody is doing this. (His response seems to be to find something I’ve said which, if cunningly misinterpreted and then fed through several steps….) His basic accusation is that we say the evidence says something it doesn’t, but the fact of [...]

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:18:36 +0000

Oh, and if you do implement that new Captcha, do share the code with me :)

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:17:29 +0000

No offense was intended, Bill. I sincerely apologise.

I could make fun of Briffa’s last name, but that’s more akin to his level of “debate”, where he pulls apart the semantics of an argument rather than addressing the actual point actually raised by the person actually making a statement. Actually.

By: Jennie Bond

Jennie Bond — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:04:09 +0000

Demeaning questions, eh? I think Andrew’s trying to rile Dr Briffa. He won’t like that one bit.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:06:59 +0000

Ben,
I’m thinking of editing my captcha code so that a predefined list of IP addresses see new, more demeaning questions. The idea of Dr Briffa sitting there answering questions like “what letter does ‘ball’ begin with?” would amuse me immensely in a very immature way.

Dr Briffa,
If plh is one of my friends, I’ve yet to figure out which one. Perhaps you are mentally classifying anyone who agrees with you as “independent” and everyone else as my friend.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:43:34 +0000

Ben.

What have you got against me? Confusing me with Dr. Briffa.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:40:54 +0000

Thats a logical fallacy, Dr.B.

The fact that it cannot be proved that MMR does not cause autism, does not mean that it does. The truth of a specific claim depends on the evidence for that claim.

There is no evidence other than anecdote, which suffers from the”Post hoc, ergo propter hoc ” fallacy. Correlation is not causation.

But you know all this and for reasons of your own, prefer to ignore it.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:38:03 +0000

I meant John Briffa, obviously. I don’t know, though. Bill seems more fitting.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:36:53 +0000

Oh, this is delicious. Truly nectarous. Bill “I’m a Doctor, Not a Debater!” Briffa is getting into an online argument and is, for want of a better word, trolling Andrew and deliberately dodging his argument. He’s not giving a proper response to his questions and is instead arguing semantics!

I think I’ll call for the waiter and cancel dessert. I don’t think I could possibly eat another bite.

By: plh

plh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:51:39 +0000

Note also that the substantive evidence of absence (aka absence of evidence in many cases), even if – and this is a crucially important point – it was not considered so implausible a hypothesis in the first place, is very far from powerless.

By: plh

plh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:28:49 +0000

(a prima facie implausible or unlikely hypothesis, e.g. it is the tooth fairy who places a coin under your pillow when you lose a tooth, is a hypothesis which can, of course, be investigated. The more evidence that accumulates consistent with the null hypothesis – that there is no such thing as the tooth fairy and it was in fact your mum wot dunnit – the less credence one gives to the initially implausible hypothesis)

By: plh

plh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:13:02 +0000

“…does absence of evidence mean evidence of absence to you?” — Dr Briffa

So my quoting from a book on the elementary logic of statistical reasoning was in vain?

By: John Briffa

John Briffa — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:52:21 +0000

Bill
You seem to have attempted to side-step my question: does absence of evidence mean evidence of absence to you?

By: plh

plh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:14:48 +0000

If you aim any lower, Dr Briffa, you’ll break your knuckles on Andrew’s boots and that Cochrane review will still be standing.