Is it any wonder that my mind's on fire Imprisoned by the thoughts of what to do

Here at the Riddled Fermented-Milk Products Department, it is with great pleasure mixed with an expectation of financial compensation that we award the inaugural Cheese Promotion Cup to Blum, Febo & Badgaiyan for their ground-breaking advances in scientific illustration:

Figure 13: Functioning brain connections represented by cheese

Only eat non-addictive brains, people!

Frivolous younglings, you are not taking this seriously. The intention of Figure 13 is to dramatise the heartbreak of Addictive Brain, and how to cure it through dietary supplements like KB220Z, which will bind up your brain in the manner of a well-aged fromage.

Some people have defective brain-chemistry neuroreceptors that force them to crave stimulation, so they seek out dangerous situations involving flying skwirls or rats on strings.

Or they drink recklessly and solicit furtive but semi-public handjobs... possibly unmindful that a surveillance painter has been installed in the Wigglesworth Lounge of the Old Entomologist since last month's regrettable episode with the pinball machine.

In other cases the risky but stimulating behaviour manifests as an addiction to writing ostensibly-scholarly papers, but illustrating them with garish WTF diagrams -- not entirely persuasive, and seemingly drawn in the throes of a tequila hangover -- then paying low-life predatory publishers to put them on line, as if daring us to point and laugh:

Figure 9 Schematic representation of Brain Reward Cascade. Happy Brain feeling of well-being [38] with permission.

Figure 7 Cartoon showing that raising brain endorphines with the known enkephalinase inhibitor D-Phenyalanine metabolite Hydrocinnamic Acid blocks alcohol craving.

What was going though the authors' heads? Apart from a hypodermic needle full of Hydrocinnamic Acid to raise brain endorphines.

The skeezy little mockademic scammers facilitating the risk were in this case "Austin Publishing Group", yet another gaggle of grifters from Hyderabad (two of our reckless authors -- Blum and Badgaiyan -- feature on the Editorial Board of "Austin Addiction Sciences").

Tell us more about Dr Blum's ideas, Uncle Smut!

You are in luck, importunate younglings! Anticipating your request, I have scoured the fringe literature to learn about dopamine-pathway dysfunction, and how this causes the "Reward Deficiency Syndrome" underlying addictive behaviours, and how this can be treated with the dietary supplement neuroadaptagen KB202z, alias SynaptaGenX, alias Synaptamine™, alias Synaptose, marketed by K. Blum's companies.

Figure 7 above ['Happy Brain feeling of wellbeing'] originally appeared in Blum et al. (2012), "Neurogenetics and Nutrigenomics of Neuro-Nutrient Therapy for Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS)", from Journal of Addiction Research Therapy. Where JART is a journal-shaped dumpster from the skiving wazzcocks of OMICS Publishing Group, with Kenneth Blum as quondam Editor-i-C.

Blum has squeezed out a further 22 publications through various OMICS spigots, and regularly appears as Keynote Speaker at OMICS scamferences; his dedication to publishing is tireless, prolific, compulsive, and possibly treatable with KB202z.

Further below the bottom of the publishing barrel, Dr Blum can be found pimping his products through spamming, shameless OMICS-wannabee mooks like Jacobs,


ClinMed,


and SCIRP: ¹

Looking for the bottom of the barrel

These are all slight variations on a common theme, roughly as follows:

• Aberrant allelles of a few genes cause dysfunction in the dopanergic pathways;
• Reward Deficiency Syndrome is a Protean phenomenon that can variously manifest as opiate addiction, thrill-seeking, alcoholism, sex / porn addiction, eating disorders, problem gambling, lucid dreaming and possibly country dancing;
• A simple though trademarked Neurogenetic test (GARS™) can tell whether an individual will develop RDS, for the benefit of potential employers and other interested parties -- contact Kenneth Blum for more information about Genetic Addiction Risk Score™; ²
• RDS can be treated with the right mixture of dopamine precursors and herbs; ³
• America will not be great again until the world accepts the reality of RDS and the prescient unrecognised genius of Kenneth Blum.*

Reckless Sleeper [Magritte, 1928] with A1 allelle
of Taq1A polymorphism for dopamine D2 receptor
DRD2 gene: oblivious to risk of lucid dreaming

NO I confess, I stole all this from the earlier inquiries of Neuroskeptic. Neuroskeptic has been working that side of the street for long enough to accumulate precedence and expertise in this academic field of Advanced Blum Studies.

Here is the gist of the story: Blum's main contribution to the sum total of gnowledge dates back to 1990, when he announced the isolation of the genetic basis of all addiction. Subsequent replications of that discovery have been erratic, and largely confined to research groups associated with Blum et al.; it is all reminiscent of the paradigmatic Gene for Homosexuality, which is rediscovered at roughly five-year intervals, to much media furore, on a different chromosome each time.

But this has not deterred Blum from monetarising his methods for detecting and ameliorating incipient addiction, with a range of companies and websites, some now vanished and known only to the Wayback Machine. Multilevel Marketing is involved; also liposomes, and nanotechnology, to ensure that the magic amino mix survives digestion and crosses the blood-brain barrier. Also RDS conferences! -- organised through Blum's OMICS-clone company "United Scientific Group"... Neuroskeptic classes these as a commercial venture on account of the pay-to-play aspect, and the relentless spam solicitations, which begin in true Hyderabad style with "Greetings for the Day!" This is the short version, but there is clearly enough material for a Journal of Advanced Blum Studies.

That does not exist, but what we have instead is the "Journal of Reward Deficiency Syndrome" (now "J. Reward Defic. Syndr. & Addiction Sci.")... published by United Scientific Group, through "blumsrewarddeficiencysyndrome.com". The Editor-in-Chief is Kenneth Blum, and the first issue was largely written by Blum, about KB202z and such.

It is not clear why Blum spreads himself so widely and pumps so much money as 'processing fees' into the parasitic-publication industry, when he runs his own mockademic outlet.

This man needs more dopamine

-----------------------

1. Should not forget Frontiers in Bioscience, from a publisher noted for its unconventional publishing model; our old friend Medical Hypotheses; and the first issue of a Bangalore e-journal with little Interlattice footprint, with Blum as first author but written in a language barely recognisable as English.

Blum's frequent co-author R. Badgaiyan can also be found on the Editorial Boards of Sciepub, Bio-Accent, BioInfo, Avens, Sciencedomain International, Openventio and MedCrave, perhaps by way of apology to these egregious little shitweasels for failing to send any Blum-Badgaiyan press releases their way. Or perhaps he is competing with Dr George Perry for indiscriminate editorial promiscuity.

2. "Dominion Diagnostics" emerged from "DocBlum.com":
'The test involves swabbing the inside of the cheek with a foam-tipped applicator, applying the applicator to an indicator card, and mailing the card to a lab. A home test kit sells for $275, and the products cost $59.95 per month for pills and $29.95 for a corresponding oral spray that is said to provide 1-2 hours of relief from "cravings." The Web site also includes an application for becoming a "Reward" distributor for Nutrigenomic products.'

3. 'The "Reward" product line is marketed by Nutrigenomics, Inc., of San Antonio, Texas. It includes six formulas: Alcoholism/Heroin, Cocaine/Stimulants, Smoking/Tobacco, Weight Management, INFOCUS/ADD, and PMS, each of which contains vitamins, herbs, and amino acids. The "anti-alcohol" formula, for example, contains vitamin C, vitamin E, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6, folic acid, vitamin B12, biotin, pantothenic acid, calcium, magnesium, zinc, manganese, chromium, 5-hydroxytrypthophan, dl-phenylalanine, l-glutamine, rhodiala rosea, chamomile flower, passion flower, hops flower, oat straw powder, skullcap herb, motherwort herb, valerian root extract, and Jamaican dogwood extract.'

* Blum's original Whackyweedia entry is entertaining [H/t to "g05b"]:

• 1 Academic Background
• 2 Dr. Blum's Famed Genetic Research Into Addictions
• 3 Dr. Blum's Expertise Has Been Recognized Worldwide
• 4 Dr. Blum's Research Has Been Published in over 300 Scientific Journals

-------------------------------------------------------

I missed one! It never occurred to me that Blum would use the services of the third-generational Hyderabad scammers at "Peertechz" -- yes, that is really what they called their company -- because on a Scale of Griftiness from 1 to 10, Peertechz is up there at "Potato". What kind of nimrod would associate himself with a pack of gombeens called "Peertechz"?!

This is just embarrassing.

But wait, there's more! (there's always more). The Wayback Machine has helpfully archived a copy of Jeffrey Beall's less-than-positive assessment of Juniper Publishers ("Key to the researchers"), yet another wretched Hyderabad hive of scum and villainy. And one can't help wondering whether Drs Blum and Badgaiyan were using the Beall list of rip-offs and parasites as a guide to choosing which publishers to patronise with their recycled papers press releases, because we find Blum supporting the "Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Medicine".

The theory is flawed, however, because another pair of Hyderabad low-lifes Symbiosis Online started their late-comer scampaign of ingratiating spam too late to receive the full Beall treatment, but Blum gravitated to them anyway. The name is apt... 'symbiosis' is a broad term that subsumes parasitism as a special case.

"Open Access Text" is yet another band of OMICS alumni, spamming out their grift from Hyderabad with a faked London address. To expect Blum and Badgaiyan to stay away would be like asking a dog to stay away from vomit.

Funding
Marcelo Febo is the recipient of NIDA NIH DA038009 and Dr. Badgaiyan is the recipient of National Institutes of Health grants 1R01NS073884 and 1R21MH073624.

-------------------------------------------

UPDATEⁿ. Should we count Badgaiyan's editorial roles with JSciMed Central ["Bringing Excellence to Open Access!"] among his qualifications, as JSciMed is simply a thinly-disguised metastasis of "spamming, shameless OMICS-wannabee mooks like Jacobs"?
Jacobs, JSciMed, Juniper... I don't know what it is with Hyderabad cyberscammers and initial-Js.

And then there was this instantiation of Betteridge's Law --


-- no jazzy logo on the PDF because the owner of "Medical Research Archives" and "Knowledge Enterprise Journals", one Dylan Fazul, is a class act. He is only charging the suckers $2900 for each extrusion through his spigots (also charging potential readers to ensure that there are none and the papers remain write-only) so there is no money for such frippery.

Readers may be familiar with the wee gobshite's operation if they have received any of Fazul's mendacious e-mails wheedling for contributions. These are assembled by bots that scrape the Interducts for $YOUR_NAME and $YOUR_PAPER, and pass these as parameters (along with $EDITOR and $ED_ASSIST and $ED_ASSIST2) to a script. The resulting slice-of-life narrative is presented as the latest installment in an exchange of forwarded e-mails among editorial staff craving your money academic work, replete with circumstantial details for greater spontaneity, and humanised with actual identity-stolen names in the manner of a meat-mask onna killbot. Or an Alzabo speaking with the voices of its previous victims.

Anyway, Blum and Badgaiyan fell for the scripted blandishments (or they recognised the grift but didn't care). The paper itself is the usual self-advertising exercise in self-citation, calling for more application of Blum’s worthless GATTACA-wannabee gene test to children so their nascent addictive behaviours can receive remedial treatment with KB220Z™. The authors must have hoicked up the extra charge to make it 'open access'. That's what NIH grants are for.

UPDATEⁿ⁺¹. some people collect stamps, or Pokemons; I collect appearances of Drs Blum & Badgaiyan within the Contents Tables and Editorial Boards of trashy little parasite-publishing scams. It feels like cheating to count their contributions to e-Science central or the lovable CamelCased scamps at SciTechnol ("Key to Open-Access Science!") where Blum moonlights as an Editor-in-Chief, as both are simply pseudopods or fleshy excrescences of OMICS, extruded for the benefit of customers who need to avail themselves of OMICS' negotiable virtue peer-review standards but are understandably reluctant to be seen doing so. Nor does his Ed-in-C role count at SM Journals, as the SM Group is the other buttock of the same bum as the Austin Publishing con.

Steal from the best

Suffice to mention Blum's editorship at Gavin Publishers, fine upstanding public-spirited citizens of Illinois Hyderabad. Why is it that Hyderabad is so over-represented in the cyber-scamming industry? It must be a tradition, or an old charter or something. In another of these traditions, when Hyderabad wannabees are at a loss for a name for a new entry in the increasingly crowded scammarket, they often opt for "odd first names", and I suppose we should be glad that Blum has not signed up with Herbert Open Access Journals.

Not to be outdone, Dr Badgaiyan can be found padding out his CV with a Prestigious Editorial Role with Herald Scholarly ("a leading, internationally publishing house").

Also, in no particular order, in a bumpy road of CamelCase: eSciencePublisher ("A Peer-Reviewed Journal!"), Elyns Publishing Group ("Explore and Expand!"), American Research Journal ("An Academic Publishing House"), Scholarena ("With the support of strong Editorial Board we provide quality publication through our rigorous peer review process"), SmartSciTech ("A smart choice for publication!"), The Scientific Pages ("Science for All!" -- "The journal offers fastidious emphasis to papers that assimilate the findings of academic research into realities of clinical practice"), theIRED ("Let your research do the talking!"), OpenAccessPub ("Invented for inventions!"), and Remedy Open Access ("An international, peer-reviewed, open access, mega journal") from California Hyderabad.


Are there parasitic-journal grifters so pathetic and transparently fraudulent that Badgaiyan will turn them down? Magic 8-Ball says "No". And I haven't even mentioned his enthusiasm for Ayurveda scams.

SEVERAL-MONTH-DELAYED UPDATE:
Huzzah! Another Badgaiyan / parasitical-journal affiliation for my collection! Madridge Publishers LLC boast addresses in California and Delaware but the company registry and domain registration place them in Hyderabad. They would like to extend into the more lucrative scamference grift.
Known for "Empowering Scientific Idealogies",

Madridge has always been loved and reputed for the most updated info in form of scientific journals, thus sprouting up innovating scientific ideologies. 

(where "always" means "since incorporation in 2015"), and if you believe that, there's a Windows help-desk representative on the line, who has identified a serious security flaw in your home PC and would like to talk you through the process of fixing it.

One wonders how this gombeens find Badgaiyan to recruit him. Is he known to the entire Hyderabad conman fraternity as a potential accomplice ? Do they pass his name around in the manner of a communal lollipop?