Rage
I have been tagged for rage.
5 Things that have caused me to froth at the mouth. Some recent, some ongoing. Not including Blues Wanker who I have already ranted about.
1) Creationists in education. Or anywhere else. What is WRONG with you people? At least we no longer have Tony fucking Blair downplaying it.
2) Alternative medicine. Snake oil salesmen who prey on the sick and vulnerable are evil. End of. Traditional Chinese remedies? Are we talking the ones that destroy your liver or the ones that kill every last tiger on earth and grind up their bones? Homeopathy? Don't get me fucking started*. Acupuncture? This says it all, including all that needs to be known about the poor data interpretation (if I'm generous) and dishonesty (if I'm not) involved. In fact I'll put everything that comes up regularly in the Bad Science column in here, if only because if I were to list the enragements individually it would take all day. I should probably put all new age crap in here for the same reason. Except for....
3) Gillian McKeith. What's not to hate? She faked her credentials (struck through because of her notorious litigiousness). She makes a living out of bullying fat people on television. Her alleged science can be debunked by a GCSE biology student. She has a face like a satanic hamster. This is enough for her to get her own special mention.
I am currently working on taking her down via the medium of indie electro. The next song WILL be called "Roger Bacon vs Gillian McKieth" as suggested by Jo.
4) Stephen Fry iPhone madness. Not the iPhone itself, which seems a useful little device, with a mostly lovely interface, that almost but not quite does what I want it to (*cough* coverflow *cough* contract *cough* 3G *cough*), but the fact that Fry's new technology column (which I was looking forward to) may as well be renamed the iPhone evangelism column. Last week? Comparing a new mobile to the iPhone. Saturday (paper)? The iPhone. Saturday (magazine)? How a Philips mp3 player is not as good as the iPhone. Enough already. Yes, Stephen, we can ignore it if we like, but apparently not if we want to read your column.
5) Audio bullshit. Let's be clear about this. It does not matter which end of your speaker cables you connect to your amp. Paying £1500 for a power lead will not make your system sound better. Putting a $5 alarm clock (with an orange sticker, repriced to $250) on your mantlepiece will not improve your room acoustics. You do not lose anything audible "between the samples" of a digital recording, and the Nyquist/Shannon sampling theorem does, in fact, work. Blind tests are not invalidated because you "know" a gadget sounds better but can't tell the difference an an A/B>X comparison.
I tag ginger_princess, oxfordslacker, smileandfall, motodraconis, truecatachresis
*No, really, don't
5 Things that have caused me to froth at the mouth. Some recent, some ongoing. Not including Blues Wanker who I have already ranted about.
1) Creationists in education. Or anywhere else. What is WRONG with you people? At least we no longer have Tony fucking Blair downplaying it.
2) Alternative medicine. Snake oil salesmen who prey on the sick and vulnerable are evil. End of. Traditional Chinese remedies? Are we talking the ones that destroy your liver or the ones that kill every last tiger on earth and grind up their bones? Homeopathy? Don't get me fucking started*. Acupuncture? This says it all, including all that needs to be known about the poor data interpretation (if I'm generous) and dishonesty (if I'm not) involved. In fact I'll put everything that comes up regularly in the Bad Science column in here, if only because if I were to list the enragements individually it would take all day. I should probably put all new age crap in here for the same reason. Except for....
3) Gillian McKeith. What's not to hate? She faked her credentials (struck through because of her notorious litigiousness). She makes a living out of bullying fat people on television. Her alleged science can be debunked by a GCSE biology student. She has a face like a satanic hamster. This is enough for her to get her own special mention.
I am currently working on taking her down via the medium of indie electro. The next song WILL be called "Roger Bacon vs Gillian McKieth" as suggested by Jo.
4) Stephen Fry iPhone madness. Not the iPhone itself, which seems a useful little device, with a mostly lovely interface, that almost but not quite does what I want it to (*cough* coverflow *cough* contract *cough* 3G *cough*), but the fact that Fry's new technology column (which I was looking forward to) may as well be renamed the iPhone evangelism column. Last week? Comparing a new mobile to the iPhone. Saturday (paper)? The iPhone. Saturday (magazine)? How a Philips mp3 player is not as good as the iPhone. Enough already. Yes, Stephen, we can ignore it if we like, but apparently not if we want to read your column.
5) Audio bullshit. Let's be clear about this. It does not matter which end of your speaker cables you connect to your amp. Paying £1500 for a power lead will not make your system sound better. Putting a $5 alarm clock (with an orange sticker, repriced to $250) on your mantlepiece will not improve your room acoustics. You do not lose anything audible "between the samples" of a digital recording, and the Nyquist/Shannon sampling theorem does, in fact, work. Blind tests are not invalidated because you "know" a gadget sounds better but can't tell the difference an an A/B>X comparison.
I tag ginger_princess, oxfordslacker, smileandfall, motodraconis, truecatachresis
*No, really, don't