(no subject)
I had dreams since around 9:00 this morning of people playing the electric guitar and the ukulele. Also of having acupuncture done on me, but I don't think that's related.
In other news, other people in the world who need to stfu:
1. The pope. I was really thinking he might try and go at least until Easter without making anyone angry. But he elicited one of the most strongly-worded pieces ever written in the Lancet, a prestigious medical journal. Honestly, how does he have the nerve to go to an African country where AIDS is leveling the society and tell people that using protection could make the problem worse? Fine, condoms don't address the problem of people not choosing their partners responsibility, but telling people that condoms won't help prevent the spread of HIV is misrepresenting the facts in a huge, grotesque way.
I hope the pope becomes aware of his small share of personal responsibility for the suffering of anyone in the audience who listens to him, decides not to use a condom when one is available, and contracts HIV as a result.
2. People who write articles about cancer research. This article basically says: "maybe drinking hot tea causes cancer." Or at least that's the impression that most readers are going to get. If you read too many of these, you really start to think that everything causes cancer. It's irresponsible and only serves to make people afraid of everything. This article sort of reminds me of that classic example of the cum hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy where an increase in ice cream sales is associated with an increase in drownings, therefore ice cream consumption may cause drowning. Correlation does not imply causation. Of course the researchers who wrote about tea and cancer know this, so they probably had a good reason for reporting their findings. This sort of news article rarely gives decent citations of the studies that the it's based on, so it's difficult to judge what the researchers' findings actually were.
In other news, other people in the world who need to stfu:
1. The pope. I was really thinking he might try and go at least until Easter without making anyone angry. But he elicited one of the most strongly-worded pieces ever written in the Lancet, a prestigious medical journal. Honestly, how does he have the nerve to go to an African country where AIDS is leveling the society and tell people that using protection could make the problem worse? Fine, condoms don't address the problem of people not choosing their partners responsibility, but telling people that condoms won't help prevent the spread of HIV is misrepresenting the facts in a huge, grotesque way.
I hope the pope becomes aware of his small share of personal responsibility for the suffering of anyone in the audience who listens to him, decides not to use a condom when one is available, and contracts HIV as a result.
2. People who write articles about cancer research. This article basically says: "maybe drinking hot tea causes cancer." Or at least that's the impression that most readers are going to get. If you read too many of these, you really start to think that everything causes cancer. It's irresponsible and only serves to make people afraid of everything. This article sort of reminds me of that classic example of the cum hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy where an increase in ice cream sales is associated with an increase in drownings, therefore ice cream consumption may cause drowning. Correlation does not imply causation. Of course the researchers who wrote about tea and cancer know this, so they probably had a good reason for reporting their findings. This sort of news article rarely gives decent citations of the studies that the it's based on, so it's difficult to judge what the researchers' findings actually were.