Archive for November, 2006
Recently I wrote about Nathan Efron and his insidious formula on the Beer Goggle Effect, and pondered the BBC’s infatuation with printing this kind of fluff. God help me, because I punched in a simple search into the BBC News engine, and a tide of pseudoscientific nonsense was vomited into my lap. Think I’m exaggerating?
Currently the BBC has “news articles” detailing how to make the perfect toast, what makes scary movies so scary, when to sack football managers, where to find the perfect shopping street, how to hold chopsticks, the key to good biscuit dunking, which bread is best for mopping gravy, the perfect holiday resort, the perfect beach, the perfect pint, the perfect romantic comedy, the perfect commentating voice, how to make chemistry on-screen, how to build sandcastles, both the best method of pulling crackers and how to choose a Christmas tree, therefore the perfect Christmas (not actually related), the perfect sitcom, what makes a perfect marriage, perfect pork crackling, the perfect cup of tea, how to make the perfect film, a scientific solution to pancake flipping, the most depressing day, how to make the perfect free kick, the perfect cheese sandwich, the secret of the perfect golf swing, the small matter of everlasting perfect happiness and, inevitiably, an article entitled “the formula for a perfect formula“, which, as it turns out, is an article on spurious formulas published by err… the BBC!
That’s not even starting on formulae published by other outlets, with the (Australian) Sunday Times getting in on the act with a formula for the perfect bum, and the multitiude of companies who shout this trash from their own websites - M&S with their perfect strawberries & cream ratio, as well as our own experience with Carpe Diem.
It’s really enough to make a grown man weep. Harmless fun or epidemic of trash? You decide.
November 19th, 2006
During the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, the battle between evolution and creationism was fought not only in the courthouse but also the streets of Dayton. A carnival atmosphere featured dozens of exponents vying for attention, and chief among these were the books of B.H. Shadduck, including “Puddle to Paradise” illustrated by F. W. Alden. The prose hasn’t dated well, but the images are still wonderfully wry pokes at the evolutionist camp, and tell as much about the creationists as their adversaries.
See more images at Puddle to Paradise, or read more…
November 18th, 2006
The ghostly apparition of Charles Darwin has appeared (to some, at least) in a tree.
Click here to see a full sized version of the picture.
Now, perhaps I worry too much, but I hope this story isn’t picked as a soft news story up by any major channels. I think the ID brigade are keen to cast Darwin as an ideological figure, and “Darwinism” as a belief system, in order to present intelligent design as a legitimate alternative. Assigning messianic properties to a scientist obfuscates the true source of their achievements - their science.
Thanks to Stever via BoingBoing.net
November 17th, 2006
Experimenting with a YouTube plugin has made my website look uglier than a horse’s arse. Only, it only looks ugly on some computers. Until I figure out what the problem is exactly, I’m going to have to assume it looks good to you, because that’s the easiest option right now.
If it looks like a baby in a jar of bees, well, go here instead.
*** Update - as suspected, the embedded YouTube video was the problem. I’ve changed this to a link until I can figure out how to embed videos properly.***
November 16th, 2006
For the last couple of weeks, Ben Goldacre over at Bad Science central has been hounding Durham County Council over their alleged fish oil trials. I say alleged, because although they are the first to claim feeding nutritional supplements to unsuspecting kids is winning the war on low grades, neither Durham County Council nor Equazen (who donated said pills and received a shitload of free advertising in the process) are willing to cough up any details of the “trials”. This includes numbers, methods, protocols, results, - well, everything.
The heartwarming part of this tale is where Ben makes a Freedom of Information request, has it denied, only to be joined by an overwhelming number of armchair journalists, all firing FoI requests to DCC, demanding to know the dirty details of these so-called trials. It’s the internet equivalent of the slow handclap scene in every movie ever. And what’s best is, yoiu you can join in too. it’s all going on here.
Do it, for the kids.
November 13th, 2006
If this looks like a $10 Timex clock with a red sticker on it, that’s because it is. Oh all right then, it’s not, it’s Machina Dynamica’s Clever Little Clock. How clever? Clever enough to sell for $199 a piece.
Continue Reading November 12th, 2006
Hwang Woo-Suk first appeared on the world stage in 1999, announcing that his team had cloned a dairy cow. Curiously, this breakthrough was presented via press release rather than submission of scientific paper - a tell-tale sign of pseudoscience.
Continue Reading November 10th, 2006
What’s cooler than cool? Supercool, of course! Most people think to play with supercooled objects you need liquid nitrogen or some expensive lab equipment: not true! The video below shows the results of leaving bottled water outide on a cold night. The water is so pure (and the plastic so smooth) that they lack the tiny imperfections ice crystals need to grow. The result is a bottle of water that is below 0 degrees C, but still liquid. The fun part is this: as soon as the liquid is disturbed, it will freeze instantaneously, just like in that one movie Demolition Man.
See the Video
November 9th, 2006
I willing to ignore the fact that this whole page is written in dreaded comic sans, simply because it has some delightful pictures of mites that live in your eyelashes. Just a fraction of a millimeter long, these little beasties feed on dead skin cells and secretions, and boast such efficient digestion that they don’t even have a excretory opening. Brilliant!
Worsley School’s Eyelash Creatures
November 8th, 2006
Like the determined bloodhound of truth with its nostrils filled with the stench of pseudoscience, WoE tracks quarry from the pages of Carpe Diem to MM Products, home of the famous Swiss Herbal Yeast Tonic, Bio-Strath®. The connection is one Stefan R. Becker, doctor and media consultant, proprietor of the Swiss Journal of Integrative Medicine. Found by WoE singing the praises of kombucha tea, Dr Becker is now found expounding the virtues of Bio-Strath, a sort of real-life gummi bear juice. Clearly Switzerland has no need for antibiotics, vaccines, or other frivolities of modern medicine with a wonder-drug like Bio-Strath on the shelves. Thus, with a heavy heart, I bring the twentieth century to MM Networks.
Continue Reading November 8th, 2006
And so begins the Carpe Diem saga. Most of the letter is self explanatory, but you should know the background. Firstly, I sent this email a long time ago and got no reply. Then I received a newsletter from CD (thanking me for subscribing to it – the cheek!) so I decided to get hardcore and ring up Carpe Diem. This meant discovering that Carpe Diem was founded by none other than Dietrich Mateschitz, who brought us Red Bull. So it comes as no surprise to find that although Carpe Diem is based in Austria, it is distributed through the UK by… …Red Bull! Now, Rachel Warren didn’t answer my email (and Carpe Diem only provide an Austrian no.), so I wonder if calling up the UK Red Bull office and asking for Rachel Warren will get me anywhere…
Continue Reading November 6th, 2006
Being an electrician isn’t the first choice of career amongst young kids these days, but if they saw this video, it probably would be. The link shows engineers opening the switch of a 500,000 V line, with suitably awesome results.
Watch Video
November 4th, 2006
New Scientist is currently hosting footage from the University of Provence in Aix-Marseille, where physicists are studying the properties of elastic materials. Boasting a camera capable of an incredible 38,000 frames per second, they captured the split-second recoil of stretched rubber bands.
See the Video
Via BoingBoing.net
November 3rd, 2006
Finding dodgy science is a bit like having “spider-sense”. I look at something seemingly innocuous and an alarm goes off in my head, and it might take me twenty minutes to find it, but I know there’ll be some pseudo-scientific nonsense if I just keep looking. Thus it was with Dr Niko Tiliopoulos and his equations. The goldmine of bad science that is the Carpe Diem webpage threw up the article: “Carpe Diem has teamed up with well-being expert Penny Hunking and willpower psychologist Niko Tiliopoulos to produce the definitive guide to sticking to resolutions.”. Sure enough, it was there, and before long the following email was sent.
Continue Reading November 2nd, 2006
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