#NoakesHearing, day 1: Reflections on futility

Yesterday saw the first day of hearings related to a charge of professional misconduct against Prof. Tim Noakes. Here are my reflections on what transpired.

Noakes, #LCHF and the Professoriate of the Twitterati

Concluding my look at Professor Tim Noakes’ column in the December edition of The Big Issue, as well as highlighting the problem in a proposed debate at the upcoming LCHF summit.

Professor Noakes and the Echo Chamber Made of Lard

Prof Tim Noakes has written a love-letter to confirmation bias for the end-of-year edition of The Big Issue. Here’s the first instalment of some comment on his contribution.

Is Noakes the North Korea of epistemology?

I recently spoke at an event themed “demystifying the Banting diet”, at which Dr Celeste Naude and I presented reasons to be skeptical of the hype regarding LCHF and Banting. Dr Naude spoke on the science, I spoke on the hype. Here’s my talk.

Consensus guidelines are anti-science, says Noakes

Prof Tim Noakes™ says that we “must never trust consensus guidelines, because they are anti-science”, but this is simply another instance of playing scorched earth with understanding of the scientific method.

Tuesday miscellany – catching up with Prof Tim Noakes

Prof Tim Noakes has yet to meet an obnoxious LCHF advocate. If he applies the standards he sets for himself in Internet debate, you might think a dictionary an appropriate thing to gift him.

Epistemic prudence, Noakes, and the limits of authority

We can often focus on more than one goal at the same time. Advocating for dietary change in an attempt to improve health doesn’t need to come at the cost of our mental health – or at least, the dulling of our critical faculties.

A Quixotic note regarding Noakes

An attempt to clear up some confusions that seems to result from any criticism of LCHF or its proponents.

On causes, Noakes, and making prudent claims related to diet

Whether Noakes is right or wrong, it would be great for him to sound like a scientist once in a while.

More lessons in bad science (and reasoning) from Noakes

Tim Noakes’ essay-length comment on my previous blog post is unfortunately a simple amplification of the fact that eminent scientists can be guilty of some of the most elementary errors in reasoning.