Trends : BadScience and Japan
The Guardian have a weekly column called Bad Science, which picks apart confusing pseudo-science babble by companies trying to sell things, nutritionists, holistic therapists etc. When reading back you occasionally find updates apologising for when they attacked a person unjustly, and I think that it's a pretty balanced and informative way for laymen to learn a bit about science in the media, and sometimes, actual science.
The theme of the placebo effect does get visited often, and these two articles yield facts such as:
Confidently waving an ultrasound machine around someone's face is effective for post-operative dental pain, regardless of whether the machine is switched on. Likewise, in the 1950s, we used to ligate the internal mammary artery to treat angina: but when someone did a placebo-controlled trial, going to theatre, making an incision, but only pretending to ligate the internal mammary, the sham operation was as effective as the real one. Like morons, instead of applauding the power of the placebo, we just stopped doing the procedure, assuming that it was "useless".
Likewise, studies have found that salt-water injections can be a more effective placebo treatment than white sugar pills - not, I might add, because there is anything particularly useful about salt water injections, but because the ceremony of performing an injection is a far more invasive, authoritative and dramatic intervention.
An article about buying canisters of pure oxygen was interesting because it was a product and treatment that was being blogged about in quite a few places. The article says:
After all, if you're the proud owner of two lungs then you already inhale more than the average, and oxygen, like love, is free and all around us. Feel the love. Breathe the oxygen. But no. There is a reason. "Just 300 years ago, the density [sic] of oxygen in the environment on Earth was 30%. Today it is 19-20%." Breathe into that thought. Feel the bad science washing over you.
The piece about the Brain Gym, exercises for kids to do in school to help the brain learn, is just hilarious.
Firstly, they're very keen on water. "Drink a glass of water before Brain Gym activities. As it is a major component of blood, water is vital for transporting oxygen to the brain." Heaven forbid that your blood should dry out.
"Processed foods do not contain water," they announce, in what has to be the most readily falsifiable statement I've seen all week. How about soup? "All other liquids are processed in the body as food, and do not serve the body's water needs." It goes on. "Water is best absorbed by the body, when provided in frequent small amounts." And if I drink too much in one go, will it leak out of my anus instead?
The columnist, Ben Goldacre is a statician, and he also uses his column to sometimes explain things form a statistical point of view. This article about cheating on clinical trials was easy to read and kind of worrying.
(Off-topic, but can someone explain to me the political leanings / general reputations of the main UK papers? I know you always get particularly leftist or conservative papers, ones that are taken a bit more seriously than others... I don't really read them much but I would like to know at least what categories they fall into... I'm looking at you guys, otana, box_of_sorrows, _zed, robot_mel, el_nacnud - although some of you have been MIA!)
I usually don't support characters and things 'the majority' support - like with X-men, I would never support Wolverine, I wouldn't support Sailor Moon (what a terrible example), and I also think that Japan and its culture get enough love from everyone and I feel a bit sorry for other countries that don't have rabid fans scattered all around the world.
That said, its culture is damn interesting so although I've followed some aspects before, I've found another good site to keep up to date with the trends in Japan, C Scout are actually a trend-spotting and marketing business, and post about fashion, technology, and general household things. They also link to a shop where you can buy all sorts of WTF.
A deep fat fryer with fish swimming happily in the water beneath the oil
Because oil floats on water, despite the massive heat (163 degrees Celsius) the goldfish simply stay away from the surface and all is well. They eat the crumbs of croquettes and other fried foods that fall to the bottom, and can live in there for 5-10 years** as they happily clean away, ignorant to the fact that certain death awaits any potential escapees.
See the original post here.
Fruit-shaped soaps.
Soy-sauce-flavoured salt... so that you can add the flavour to a dish and not have to make your dish more liquidy.
Curry, Wasabi, and Annin (a Chinese dessert I think) flavoured ramune... why?
Confidently waving an ultrasound machine around someone's face is effective for post-operative dental pain, regardless of whether the machine is switched on. Likewise, in the 1950s, we used to ligate the internal mammary artery to treat angina: but when someone did a placebo-controlled trial, going to theatre, making an incision, but only pretending to ligate the internal mammary, the sham operation was as effective as the real one. Like morons, instead of applauding the power of the placebo, we just stopped doing the procedure, assuming that it was "useless".
Likewise, studies have found that salt-water injections can be a more effective placebo treatment than white sugar pills - not, I might add, because there is anything particularly useful about salt water injections, but because the ceremony of performing an injection is a far more invasive, authoritative and dramatic intervention.
After all, if you're the proud owner of two lungs then you already inhale more than the average, and oxygen, like love, is free and all around us. Feel the love. Breathe the oxygen. But no. There is a reason. "Just 300 years ago, the density [sic] of oxygen in the environment on Earth was 30%. Today it is 19-20%." Breathe into that thought. Feel the bad science washing over you.
Firstly, they're very keen on water. "Drink a glass of water before Brain Gym activities. As it is a major component of blood, water is vital for transporting oxygen to the brain." Heaven forbid that your blood should dry out.
"Processed foods do not contain water," they announce, in what has to be the most readily falsifiable statement I've seen all week. How about soup? "All other liquids are processed in the body as food, and do not serve the body's water needs." It goes on. "Water is best absorbed by the body, when provided in frequent small amounts." And if I drink too much in one go, will it leak out of my anus instead?
(Off-topic, but can someone explain to me the political leanings / general reputations of the main UK papers? I know you always get particularly leftist or conservative papers, ones that are taken a bit more seriously than others... I don't really read them much but I would like to know at least what categories they fall into... I'm looking at you guys, otana, box_of_sorrows, _zed, robot_mel, el_nacnud - although some of you have been MIA!)
I usually don't support characters and things 'the majority' support - like with X-men, I would never support Wolverine, I wouldn't support Sailor Moon (what a terrible example), and I also think that Japan and its culture get enough love from everyone and I feel a bit sorry for other countries that don't have rabid fans scattered all around the world.
That said, its culture is damn interesting so although I've followed some aspects before, I've found another good site to keep up to date with the trends in Japan, C Scout are actually a trend-spotting and marketing business, and post about fashion, technology, and general household things. They also link to a shop where you can buy all sorts of WTF.
A deep fat fryer with fish swimming happily in the water beneath the oil
Because oil floats on water, despite the massive heat (163 degrees Celsius) the goldfish simply stay away from the surface and all is well. They eat the crumbs of croquettes and other fried foods that fall to the bottom, and can live in there for 5-10 years** as they happily clean away, ignorant to the fact that certain death awaits any potential escapees.
See the original post here.
Fruit-shaped soaps.
Soy-sauce-flavoured salt... so that you can add the flavour to a dish and not have to make your dish more liquidy.
Curry, Wasabi, and Annin (a Chinese dessert I think) flavoured ramune... why?