John’s cholesterol is high but he doesn’t like taking prescription drugs. Should he take red yeast as a “natural” alternative? Evidence shows that it is effective in lowering cholesterol.

In 1994, the Diet Supplement Health and Education Act was passed, allowing the fiction that “natural” medicines are really “foods” and need not be regulated the way prescription medicines are. Do we need to supplement our diet with red yeast? Do we suffer from a red yeast deficiency? Of course not. People are really taking it as a medicine, not as a supplement to their diet.

From Estonia we received the following:

Here is the short test report of the challenge for the self-described psychics here in Estonia. If any additional information is needed, please contact the board member of the Estonian Skeptics Society – Martin Vällik. The following report is translated by Elver Loho – a contributor for your newsletter regarding Sniffex.

Thank you for inspiration!

Swift reader Malcom Dodd (and others) brought this wonderful bit of activism to our attention:

Dear Mr Randi

I am sure that you will be interested in this http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7681914.stm

£51,000 raised in one day (in the time that I have taken to write this the total has risen to £51,850), that is enough for ads on 300 London buses for four weeks!