Twonilblankblank » science

Shock-horror: Good Dispatches on Channel 4

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:26:10 +0000

Dispatches - The Truth About Beauty Creams was good. It’s good that Dispatches seems to be over the hump of mediocrity and doing something worthwhile. Even the present (Tazeen Ahmad) seemed more switched on than the usual presenters (whose primary occupation seems to be obsessing about immigration, Muslims, and other things they think are crowd pleasers. Thus adding to the hysteria du jour). So well done Channel 4. If only you had a Youtube-a-like, like the good bit of the BBC iPlayer. I could post a link to it. 90% of sensible people, a figure pulled out of my arse - but I suspect accurate - can’t be arsed with 4OD.

If you saw the severed finger story on TV this will make you angry

admin — Sat, 03 May 2008 02:10:02 +0000

The recent stories in the press about high-tech dust that helped grow a severed finger back are nonsense. Furthermore they’re old nonsense. It will make you angry but today’s Bad Science column is essential reading and worth sharing. The stories of the ‘pixie dust’ were bad, in many ways, and on a very simple human level - there’s going to be people who, in desperation, will badger doctors for something that doesn’t work as well as the stories they’d seen in the press implied. When I saw the story this week I took a minute, and did a Google Archive search, it’s a little like LexisNexis (something many journalists have access to), and it turned up the following results:

Click here to lose a little more faith in humanity.

And, was somewhat perplexed that the story didn’t appear to be new, given the widespread coverage it was receiving, and that, furthermore, the finger didn’t appear to be severed in any sense of the word. I think Ben Goldacre is right to draw attention to such risible coverage from people we rely on for news. See also.

Imagine a world before science

admin — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:13:14 +0000

Imagine a world before science: a world of the supernatural - hunches dictating belief, of sun blotting fallacy. For some seriously lolworthy quackery and pseudoscience watch UFO uHnters. For fuck’s sake.