I attended. It was dull. Most of my photographs came out blurry. The photos are from me; the video clips are from around the Internet.

UCI police were well-represented. Alan Dershowitz was wrapping up his talk elsewhere in the building, though, so who knows how much security Pipes alone would have attracted.

The head of the UCI College Republicans, the head of the UCI Objectivist Club (Eric Brunner), and Reut Cohen each gave separate preambles. Cohen was introduced as working for the David Project. Another Young Republican then led the attendees (some of them) in the Pledge of Allegiance, “under god” and all.

It’s difficult to make out in this video clip, but students from the Muslim Student Union arrived wearing duct tape over their mouths. On the duct tape gags were written phrases such as “no censorship” and “free speech”. Soon after Pipes started speaking, they stood up, held up signs facing the lectern, and filed out of the room. Since the signs weren’t facing the audience, it was near-impossible to make out any of the slogans.

This cleared out about half of the room. Starting at -0:25 in the clip, notice the unaffiliated undergrads rushing in to grub better seats. Go go Anteater decorum.

The MSU released a statement and a video statement.

This clip is remarkable only for the dueling inanity.

Pipes talked only for about 35 minutes. Chancellor Drake and one of UCI’s communications officials (I think) dropped in for a few minutes, partway through. Pipes then took about 45 minutes in Q&A giving inane answers to mostly-inane student questions. Several students, including Brunner (twice) if I recall correctly, and one of his friends (who slapped him a congratulatory five after one attempt), tried vainly to get Pipes to agree with them that all of Islam, not just militant Islamism, is the enemy.

See also assorted juvenilia from Chuck DeVore and divers hands.

More throughout the day if I run across anything interesting.

Point and snicker time again. This brilliant image represents the UC Irvine College Republicans on both MySpace and Facebook.

What can I possibly say? The red, white, and black theme? The Gothic font? The grainy black-and-white stills of der Führer?

C’mon.

Now you may be thinking, “Gott in Himmel! The UCI junior GOP must be an enclave of neo-Nazism! Nobody could be that fucking clueless! Not even in Orange County!” Well, sorry to disappoint, folks, but it seems that people in Orange County really can be that fucking clueless.

Need I call attention to the irony that the UC Irvine College Republicans are co-hosting a speaking event with a Hillel- sponsored Israel-advocacy group, given that Hillel has voiced concern that Jews might not feel safe on the UCI campus?

Yes, I think I do.

See also: “California Über Alles”.

The Randies, the David Project (more on them momentarily), and UCI College Republicans are bringing Daniel Pipes to campus next week.

The David Project is a project of the Israel on Campus Coalition, which in turn is a PR effort designed to promote positive perceptions of the Israeli government on US college campuses.

On the Israel on Campus Coalition:

The group was put together by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, which is funding several student programs and has invested a quarter of a million dollars to fund this project.

It hired Wayne Firestone, former director of the Israel office of the Anti-Defamation League, as its director.

Based in Washington, the Israel on Campus Coalition will act as an information-sharing and planning agency for more than 20 Jewish organizations on campus, and a central clearinghouse for students and professionals.

Pro-Israel professionals from the elite consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, offered pro-bono services to assess the key lessons learned from the activities of the past year and the top priorities of each organization for the coming year.

In a document the company submitted to the Israel on Campus Coalition, it stated that the primary goal for this year should be to “take back the campus” by influencing public opinion through lectures, the Internet and coalitions.

It says that to affect public opinion on the campuses, the message should be to “make the case for Israel proactively: Don’t sound defensive about Israel, or argue about specific facts — instead, reframe the debate to emphasize Israel’s long history of democracy, peace and resistance to terror.”

• Pomerance, Rachel. 2002. “Jewish Groups Coordinate Efforts to Help Students ‘Take Back Campus’”. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 28.

On the David Project:

The ICC has a single “affiliate member”: the David Project. The David Project is led by Charles Jacobs, who is a co-founder of CAMERA, the pro-Israel media watchdog group; the founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which calls itself “America’s leading human rights group dedicated to abolishing modern day slavery worldwide”; and, along with Richard Perle, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol, among others, a member of the board of advisers of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

The ICC’s website lists a number of “regional ICCs” that receive “strategic advice and guidance” from the Washington headquarters. The regional ICC representative in New York is none other than Rachel Fish, the director of the David Project’s New York office. Jacobs was tight-lipped in a recent interview: He refused to provide details about his financial backers, referring only to unnamed “individuals and foundations”; and he declined to elaborate on the extent to which the David Project receives tactical advice from professional pro-Israel lobbyists and operatives allied with the ICC.

• Sherman, Scott. 2005. “The Mideast Comes to Columbia”. The Nation, April 4.

By popular demand, I’m putting back up some details behind some more anti-caffeine marketing that appeared on HowStuffWorks and Lifehacker last year. The HowStuffWorks article is an extended sales pitch for Stephen Cherniske’s Caffeine Blues: Wake Up to the Hidden Dangers of America’s #1 Drug.

Stephen Cherniske’s nutritional authority is his M.S. from Columbia Pacific University – a now-defunct distance learning diploma mill. Browsing directly to the Amazon.com entry – but not the HowStuffWorks bookstore gateway, interestingly – allowed you to see this noted in the customer reviews.

Stephen Cherniske is a founder of the Oasis Wellness Network, aka MaxCell BioScience, Inc., aka Oasis LifeSciences, aka Univera LifeSciences. (See the current blurb, as well as the Internet Archive cache from 2003 February 13). Oasis/MaxCell/Univera ran into some trouble in 2000 (after the 1998 publication date of Caffeine Blues, note) with the Federal Trade Commission for marketing health products with unsubstantiated claims. See documents at the FTC and FindLaw. Oasis/MaxCell/Univera sold those products via a multi-level marketing campaign.

A glowing review of Stephen Cherniske’s Caffeine Blues has a conflict of interest:

I am Caffeine Free after 40 years, October 9, 2004

Reviewer: Michael Van Masters “OasisMike” (Denver CO) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have been a serious coffee drinker for over 40 years. I love everything about coffee. Reading this book freed me from a major problem (caffeine) that I didn’t even realize was a problem. The book was a gift to me. I am so thankful I read this book. Dr. Michael Van Masters, “OasisMike” Denver CO

“OasisMike”? Yes, it’s Michael Van Masters of Stephen Cherniske’s Oasis LifeSciences, aka MyAgelessLife, aka Oasis Wellness Network, aka MaxCell BioScience, Inc., aka Univera LifeSciences.

Strangely, the titles of a couple of my recent posts have been duplicated in posts from a spam blog that keeps linking back to me. The second time, the spam mirror post appears to have been created at exactly the same time as my post.

The spam blog mentions “Kelly Ramsey” in a couple of posts, and mentions “Kelly” a whole lot.

It’s hosted by ThePlanet.com, a company that seems prone to hosting splogs, spam, and other disreputable endeavors.

Soon after the second post, someone with a blacklisted IP address out of Israel visited my site, first by way of a Google blog search for “kelly ramsey”, then by way of the spam site. I wonder how they knew where to look.

89-138-190-248.bb.netvision.net.il

* /favicon.ico
Http Code: 500 Date: Nov 17 01:37:13 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: -
Referer: -
Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9 Creative ZENcast v1.04.06

* /
Http Code: 500 Date: Nov 17 01:37:54 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: -
Referer: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?q=kelly+ramsey&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=o
Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9 Creative ZENcast v1.04.06

* /index.php/2007/11/16/salesmanship-awareness-alliance/
Http Code: 500 Date: Nov 17 01:38:35 Http Version: HTTP/1.1 Size in Bytes: -
Referer: http://www.sideleft.com/?p=1123
Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9 Creative ZENcast v1.04.06

The Caffeine Awareness Alliance is still skulking about. Last month a college newspaper published a regrettably poorly-sourced article about the terrible, terrible dangers of caffeine:

Marina Kushner, author of The Truth about Caffeine, wants students to wake up to “the real truth” about caffeine.

Moderate doses of caffeine, ranging from 200-300 milligrams a day (about two to three cups of brewed coffee) aren’t harmful, according Kushner, the founder of the Caffeine Awareness Alliance, a New York-based non-profit organization committed to provide objective information and evidence about caffeine abuse and addiction. However, excessive caffeine consumption, over 500 milligrams a day (over three cups of coffee), can cause irritability, nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and diarrhea.

The old Coffee & Caffeine FAQ and the Wikipedia article about caffeine could tell you as much. The problem is the reliance on Kushner and her organization.

The Caffeine Awareness Alliance is an industry advocacy group. Prior to March 2006 the CAA site’s front page described its mission as selling caffeine-alternative products:

CAA was founded in 2003 as an authoritative voice for advocacy to serve the needs of the Caffeine-Free Industry & create a valuable network of resources to executives, sales people, retailers, buyers, growers, media and associations.

Caffeine Awareness Alliance founder Marina Kushner also happens to be CEO and founder of Soy Coffee LLC, which sells a caffeine-free coffee substitute.

Marina Kushner also has acquired a reputation on Amazon.com for reviewing her own books (positively) as well as competing caffeine-related books (negatively) under fake names. See Amazon discussion board threads from June 2006, September 2006, again in September 2006, October 2006, and November 12.

Sometimes articles that issue warnings about caffeine cite Roland Griffiths as an independent authority. He has consulted for the caffeine-substitute industry. The Caffeine Awareness Alliance forum used to have a section titled, “Ask the Experts”. The “experts” listed numbered two: Marina Kushner and Roland Griffiths.

College journalists, the Caffeine Awareness Alliance seems to make the rounds year after year after year after year after year after year. Don’t look like tools for industry PR. Search for independent medical professionals who can fill you in on the current state of medical research.

.

Addendum: I’m looking for documentation for a spectacularly ham-handed fake Amazon review, since it seems to have vanished down the memory hole. Last year Harold Bresnick “M.D.” (Mayo Clinic, Rochester NY) trashed a competing book of anti-caffeine quackery:

While reading this book, I needed caffeine to keep me from falling asleep., August 21, 2006

Reviewer: Harold Bresnick “M.D.” (Mayo Clinic, Rochester NY) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While reading this book I realized that I needed caffeine from falling asleep. Though the book addresses the dangers of caffeine, it is too technical and dry. It easily could have been summed up in 200 pages, instead of being twice that it is now.

The book is also dated (1996) and does not address the latest studies on caffeine (i.e Parkinsons, Diabetes). As a cardiologist, my priority is to help my patients understand the dangers of caffeine. That is why I recommend “The Truth About Caffeine” by Marina Kushner. It’s current (2006) and has everything in this book including the amount of caffeine found in many popular consumer products. It also has an extensive bibliography that I found invaluable.

Caffeine has no nutritional benefit and I believe it should be regulated like a drug. Manufacturers are not required to reveal how much caffeine is found in their products and consumers cannot make informed decisions. The only way to understand the risks is to be informed which I do with my patients

As the anonymous reader who tipped me to this pointed out, “Harold Bresnick” was not on the Mayo Clinic’s list of doctors. I didn’t have any luck finding other mention of him online. Perhaps not surprising, because the Mayo Clinic is in Rochester, Minnesota, not Rochester, New York. “Harold Bresnick” was a few states off.

The reviewer deleted it, maybe in response to other reviewers’ outrage. A remarkably similar review of the same book, though, appeared a month later.

As a followup to my post yesterday about some strangely absent posts in Google blog search results, I ran searches for menstrual stem cell again.

Wow. Yesterday one could cover all of last week in 100 results. Today, Google displays over 500 blog posts – yes, 5 times as many – from the same period. The vast majority of them are obvious spam blogs and fake blogs, and most of the new additions appear to be from… November 6.

Backdated blog spam bomb? An inconceivably long processing delay (6 days?) in Google’s blog search system? You tell me.

Try running a Google blog search for menstrual stem cell or C’elle. Do you see any of these posts?

• 6 Nov – Collect and FedEx menstrual stem cells with the C’elle kit: the next flow (Attila Chordash @ Pimm)
• 6 Nov – Pie in the sky between your thighs (PZ Myers @ Pharyngula)
• 6 Nov – Every month is a miracle (me)
• 8 Nov – Must be a low flow day (me)

A new comment on the Pimm post makes the list, but the original post doesn’t. All sorts of press releases, splogs, and flogs are still padding the search results, though.

Does Google Blog Search really suck that badly? Really?

If I were prone to crazy conspiracy theories, I might draw unwarranted conclusions from the observation that C’elle is a Google AdSense client, as Ms. M & P and Frenchy relate, or that C’elle is represented by PR giant Edelman, a company that is no stranger to either ties with tech companies or attempts at manipulating the blogosphere.

Here’s the non-crazy question. What if a search engine hegemon like Google – or Technorati, for that matter, which has engaged in joint business ventures with PR companies – were to, at some future date, start offering special services to advertising clients? Deleting critical blog posts from the search results would be easy. So would tweaking the spam filters to let splogs and flogs bury blog discussion. How would you ever know?

Do you really expect that there’s anything preventing a search engine corporation – any search engine corporation – from filtering what you read?

Oddly, my post about C’elle’s menstrual blood collection kit – bank your own stem cells, from your menstrual blood, in case your doctor can ever use them for a miracle treatment, which probably won’t happen but hey what’s a few thousand bucks? – has dropped out of both Google’s blog search results and Technorati’s search results.

What, Google, Technorati, simultaneous hiccups? Too much marketing copy quoted too soon? C’mon, people, you’re killing me. All those blatant splogs get through but nothing for my little blog? Boo.

I study the politics of stem cells, so my newstrawl brings me gems like these:

C’elle’s exclusive and revolutionary service provides women with the unique opportunity to collect and preserve vital stem cells that can be harvested from the body’s menstrual fluid during the menstrual cycle. Until now, menstrual blood has typically been discarded as unsanitary waste. However, exciting new research shows that menstrual fluid contains, self-renewing stem cells that can be easily collected, processed and cryo-preserved for potential cellular therapies that may emerge in the future.

(I found it via Attila Csordás at Pimm. There’s also a Wired article now.)

I’m guessing the stem cells here are supposed to be blood or uterus adult stem cells, since sifting through menstrual blood to find the odd blastocyst that didn’t attach sounds terribly unpromising. Notice the double hedging: “potential cellular therapies that may emerge in the future”. (Much like saying “it may be possible to spread herpes”.)

This struck a chord because the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about a similar venture several days ago:

A San Carlos startup is offering to create “personalized” stem cells from the spare embryos of fertility clinic clients on the chance that the cells, frozen and stored away, may some day help a family member benefit from medical breakthroughs.

But some of the most fervent denunciations of StemLifeLine came from vigorous supporters of embryonic stem cell research. Two Stanford University critics aired their complaints in newspaper editorial pages. A prominent Stanford ethicist challenged UC San Francisco scientists who are advisers of the company to sever those ties. These critics accuse StemLifeLine of trying to profit from the promise of stem cell research in the present, even though the work may not yield medical treatments for decades, if ever.

Whether StemLifeLine’s clients ever benefit hinges on the chance that a stem cell therapy will arise for a specific disease by the time a family member needs treatment for that very illness. In addition, the company that developed the therapy would have to be willing and able to use the family’s StemLifeLine cell culture. The chances of all that are remote, say some of the most ardent backers of stem cell research.

Oh the mailing lists I’m on. Quoted for your amusement: an advertisement email for a discount club. What next, late-night infomercials? (”I’m singularitily impressed with the results, Bob, and my penis is larger, too!”) Emphases are mine.

See also PZ Meyers’s post at Pharyngula and a comment from “zorgon the malevolent” about related marketing.

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