That outrageously clever chap Simon Perry has created a tool that removes all the hassle of submitting complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority and to the Trading Standards complaints system Consumer Direct about the claims made by quacks on their websites.
The tool is a plugin for the Google Chrome web browser. If you don’t have it yet then I suggest you use the link and install it now. The FishBarrel plugin is also being developed for Firefox and we’ll let you know when it arrives.
Once you have the browser installed you can then add the plugin. Simply go to the FishBarrel post on Simon’s website, Adventures In Nonsense, and click on the ‘download the plugin’ link under the video. Or if you already have Chrome installed you can just click this.
This is Simon’s instructional video where you can see just how easy it is to use and submit complaints.
I can see Sundays becoming a lot less boring and a lot more productive. So get in there and start complaining about the quacks in your area.
Never has feeling mean also felt so much fun! (and right!)
Just complained about The Natural Practice in Winchester. It’s that Palace of Woo we walk past on the way to SitCH.
Picture of the complaint
Splendid.
You can hear Simon talk about his skeptical activism work, including FishBarrel and the ‘Quacklash’, at Reading Skeptics In The Pub this month.
http://reading.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/569/Skeptical-Activism–The-Quacklash
Just had a go with FishBarrel and made complaints to ASA and Trading Standards about http://www.quantumwavelasers.co.uk/products/quantumwave-laser. In all it took 15 minutes.
The Quantum Wave Lasers site makes some marvellous claims…
“Blue light holds more cellular information than any other colour. The 405 Viopulsar blue violet pulsar probe works with everything because it resets the information in the quantum field of the body which in turn gives organisation to all the physical tissue”
HAHAHAHA ! That’s some amazing gibberish right there. Superb stuff.
Yes, I can perhaps go a little way to forgiving the well-meaning but misguided homeopath who fervently believes in the woo he or she is pedalling. But, I can’t help picture a nasty manipulative charlatan weaving together all the pseudo-scientific claptrap that’s on the Quantum Wave Lasers website with he sole intention of parting the gullible from their money.