Yesterday, there was an organized protest in the UK where hundreds of people "overdosed" on homeopathic remedies, to demonstrate one key fact that Britain's NHS has so far ignored: there's nothing in them. Seriously, these things are literally just water and sugar pills, and thousands of people and the UK's government are spending millions of dollars on this crap.

Normally, I just ignore most of this "alternative medicine" crap. My mom's friend actually recommended I go see her acupuncturist, and I politely declined while trying not to laugh. I mean, at least those sorts of useless things actually look like they're doing something to you, even if that's just poking you with a needle -- so it's slightly more understandable people buy into it, especially if they get a placebo effect.

But homeopathic remedies are literally nothing. The idea is to put a drop of whatever is causing the harm (i.e., caffeine for insomnia) in a beaker of water, and then take a drop of the new solution and put that in a beaker of water, etc etc. Repeat 6-10 times, at which point there's likely nothing of the original drop left... but apparently if you shake it up at each new step, the water "remembers" its properties. I you not, that's exactly what these con-artists/nutjobs say.

Not surprisingly, there's been no reports of any actual overdose-related harm.

So, do you know anyone into "alternative medicine"? Are you embarrassed for our species?