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December 14th, 2009
September 14th, 2009
 | 10:52 am
Here is a demonstration of homeopathy done by Crispian Jago, well known skeptic. He takes a cup of pee and adds 1 ml of it to 100 ml of water. (It's pointed out that he should have added it to 99 ml of water, but who's counting.) He then adds 1 ml of the new solution to another 100 ml cup of water. He does this 30 times to achieve a "C30" solution--1 part pee to 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 parts water (that's 60 zeros). According to one of the commentors, by the 12th cup there should be less than one "molecule" of urine in the cup. After another 18 cups, there are quite fewer than one molecule of pee in the cup. In fact, I believe I read somewhere else that a C30 solution would have to contain more molecules of water than there are atoms in the universe for it to also contain any of the original substance.
But that's OK! homeopathy is magic, remember?
Anyway, this is a good demonstration as to how homeopathy "works." If you ever need to explain it, this is a good video to watch or show.
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July 31st, 2009
| 09:23 am
In case it's not very clear, homeopathic "medicine" is pure water that's been imbued with "magic healing properties." The premise is that you take something that causes the problem (e.g. caffeine for sleeplessness), put it in water, and then dilute the shit out of it until there is, sometimes literally, less than one molecule of the given substance per more molecules of water than there can possibly exist in the solar system, and then slap a label on it and call it medicine. The water is supposed to magically remember the substance it contained, and then somehow in reverse use the memory of that substance to heal you. Seriously. That's how homeopathy works. Or doesn't work. It's like curing obesity with cheesecake. Or rather, like curing obesity with an empty cheesecake box. There is absolutely no possible mechanism by which it can do a damned thing other than quench your thirst or put out a fire.
Remember, there is no such thing as "alternative medicine." Either it works, and we just call it "medicine", or it doesn't work, and we call it a sham.
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July 27th, 2009
| 09:42 pm
Studies Show Alternative Medicine Ineffective
Laura Roma,
Grant Writer
"So my idiot friends who have never been to medical school don't know what they're talking about?"
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June 5th, 2009
| 05:00 am
So, we still don't know the sex of Meatwad. This is the second time we've tried to find out, and hesheit won't open hisherits legs. I grounded himherit for 3 months and said all hisherits stuff would wind up being yellow. We're going back in two weeks for another appointment. Maybe we'll find out then.
Finally someone in the mainstream gets it. Newsweek did an article on Oprah being a douche for promoting quackery and lies. I hope this isn't the last we hear of it. If someone doesn't stop her, she's likely to start advocating leeches, astrology, and homeopathy. She probably already does, actually.
We're taking the kitties in tomorrow for a checkup. No, nothing is wrong with either of them.
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May 6th, 2009
| 01:29 pm
My sister in law once asked me why I thought Oprah Winfrey was a douche. I semi-explained that it was due to her promotion of pseudo-science to fill her purse. I recently read an article about Jenny McCarthy and Oprah Winfrey that reminded me of that question. Then I read this BadAstronomy post about a four-week-old child in Australia who died of whooping cough. What does this have to do with anything? Let me try to explain.
The anti-vax crowd, in which Jenny McCarthy includes herself, is convinced that vaccines cause autism. This is not true. [1], [2], [3], [4]. However, due to her celebrity status, the generally gullible population listens to her and doesn't vaccinate its children against common and easily dealt-with diseases, including whooping cough. This pretty much sucks for the children in question, since they now have a greatly increased chance of contracting the disease in question. This would be bad enough if that were the end of it. But it's not.
Herd immunity is when a population is generally protected against a disease because a certain percentage of its people are vaccinated or otherwise immune to the disease, thereby protecting the rest against infection. Some people cannot be vaccinated due to allergies or other reasons. These people rely on herd immunity to be protected from the disease. The fewer people who have their children vaccinated against certain diseases, the more likely the disease will spread to those who aren't vaccinated, and people die. Those who choose to go unvaccinated, those whose parents decide to not have them vaccinated, and those who can't be vaccinated like the four-week-old infant mentioned above.
Read again: children die because of the proven falsehoods that people like Jenny McCarthy spread.
And since Oprah, with her billions of American dollars, and her vast audience, promotes this and other pseudo-science and sham medicine, she is a douche.
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May 1st, 2009
April 1st, 2009
| 09:32 am
Pigasus Awards for 2008 Written by Phil Plait
Every year, on the appropriate date of April 1, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) gives out the Pigasus Awards, a dubious honor to people or organizations that have done their best in the past year to snuff out science and promote irrationality. The award is named after the beloved mascot of the JREF because, after all, when paranormal powers are proven, pigs will fly.
The five categories of the Pigasus Award are:
1. To the Scientist who said or did the silliest thing relating to parapsychology in the preceding twelve months.
2. To the Funding Organization that supports the most useless parapsychological study during the year.
3. To the Media outlet that reported as fact the most outrageous paranormal claim.
4. To the "Psychic" performer who fools the greatest number of people with the least effort in that twelve-month period.
5. For the most persistent refusal to face reality.
This year's (dis)honorees are:
1) Dr. Colin Ross, who can shoot electromagnetic radiation from his eyes;
2) The Producers of the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed";
3) Late night cable TV stations;
4) Jenny McCarthy; who has written books and appeared on countless TV shows promoting measles; and
5) Kevin Trudeau; who sold quack books even after the government fined him for it.
Details of these prestigious prestidigitators are below. They receive no actual trophy, no prize money, no plaque; just the publicity they generally seek, though perhaps not in the way they want it.
Pigasus Awards for 2008
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February 19th, 2009
| 04:11 am
I was going to actually try to reduce it to 20 words, but there was too much to tell. I wanted to make sure I actually typed out enough information to catch the eye, rather than a list of one-word links.
First please read this wiki article on cold reading. It explains how "psychics" make you think they have magic powers, when really they're just asking vague questions and making YOU do all the work.
Sylvia Browne: gives medical advice though she isn't a doctor, is almost always wrong about every small detail in every case she tries to "solve", and is a general fraud. It's even better when she is set up.
Deepak Chopra: one of the more well known snake oil peddlers.
Oprah Winfrey: her only real crime is using her fame and money to promote every single crackpot pseudoscience she come across to her vast audiance, aleviating them of their excess cash. She may or may not actually believe this crap, but she's a monster for using her name to promote it all. Montel Williams is just as bad, though not as rich, but gets extra points for being Browne's man-bitch.
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This was a response to my MIL asking what was "wrong" with Browne, Winfrey, and Chopra. I thought I would post it here to possibly stir up some discussion.
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January 26th, 2009
| 08:50 am
I don't understand spoon bending. Or rather, I don't understand why spoon benders take themselves seriously. Psychics, astrologers, chiropractors, and fortune tellers can occasionally make a good guess, or stumble upon the placebo effect, and convince themselves that they have magic powers. But you can't accidentally bend a spoon. Every single spoon bender out there is a complete sham, yet they still peddle their wares. Or do some of them really believe? Do any of you know any spoon benders who have convinced themselves?
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June 5th, 1973
March 12th, 1973
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