Hi, hairy-ape-people
Have you heard the story about the Bigfoot DNA paper that went missing?
The only evidence was footprints; frayed paper; and dodgy-looking videos of the paper trundling through brackeny woods, in the mid-ground, yet out of focus despite technology nowadays rarely failing to focus properly.
Now, however, the paper has been found!
Melba Ketchum - a leading Bigfoot Believer - has made her own journal, so that she could publish her own paper in it, and peer-review herself, for her own paper, thereby 'proving', once and for all, that Bigfoot exists.
The paper has been rubbished by scientists who have read it.
http://doubtfulnews.com/2013/02/ketchum-bigfoot-dna-paper-released-problems-with-questionable-publication/
Another thing that's gone on recently, is the UK's jump toward equal marriage access, joining some States in the USA, and other countries around the world. But no thanks to the cuntservative bigots who line the Conservative Party... well, duh.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21346220
Because of this, Queers of the UK are now empowered to be just as nauseating as the Straights, in their persistent equivocation between love and marriage... yeurch.
The importance of equal access to marriage is that marriage grants the people involved privileged legal (mostly financial) status.
That's how traditional cis-hetero-only marriage subjugates non-bromidic couplings.
Marriage is not about 'acknowledging people's love' - in fact it's not really about love at all.
...equal marriage for Tapejaras though!
------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff
More 'Funny Place Names' albums, with verifying links:
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/43882108164/bad-bargain-lane-in-york-yorkshire-england
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/43882111026/barking-in-london-mudchute-in-london-popes
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/43882113148/frisby-on-the-wreake-in-leicestershire-england
'Flexible Sculptures - Pure White Paper' - from Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
I almost didn't realise what's so crazy about this art, but then... watch the video to find out.
http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/unbelievable-but-true/flexible-sculptures/
See another video demo here:
http://youtu.be/KQvqlUHTOxg
A 'best of' compilation of basejumping videos on YouTube. If i ever do this, myself, it will be happening against my will :-o
http://youtu.be/6il9-zdQL4Q
'No Hands Push Ups' Funny trick :-)
http://uniquedaily.com/2013/02/no-hands-push-ups/
‘Spider skin at 12,000 magnification’
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/43885385114/via-uniquedaily-spider-skin-at-12-000
'Can you work this picture out?' - via Richard Wiseman
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/43886500437/can-you-work-this-picture-out
'Trinity: Interview with Dr. Oz, Alex Jones, and Deepak Chopra' - a musical episode of Skeptoid, by Brian 'Brian Dunning of skeptoid.com' Dunning
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4350
"For we are the holy trinity,
Of pseudoscientific idiocy,
And we have the network's mandate,
To blow your brain cells away."
------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks
Un-quotes:
The Daily Mail: "Corrections and Clarifications: The Mail has decided to earnestly correct all its bigoted, hate-inducing, exploitative, racist, sexist, nationalistic, and pseudo-scientific propaganda, going back over the last century. This may take some time... sorry"
William Shakespeare: "...Yours Sincerely, The Earl of Essex"
Jane Austen: "..."Oh my goodness", cried Miss Bennet, as Mr Darcy plunged his throbbing member deeper inside, and grasped at her quivering bosom"
Nelson: "Oh yes, i see those ships. Second thoughts, they look big - let's turn around and go home..."
Nelson: "Have you seen the size of my column? It's the reason Lady Hamilton loves me so much. UNF"
Word Of The Week: shibboleth -- a word for a word that, for some reason, can be used to distinguish between populations
Expression Of The Week: "one over the eight" -- just enough to tip the balance
Quote Of The Week: "I have kleptomania, but when it gets bad, I take something for it" - Robert Benchley
Scientific Paper Title Of The Week: Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born? {See Feedback excerpts, 22/29 Dec, at the bottom of the page}
------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff
'The House in the Middle of the Street'
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/the-house-in-the-middle-of-the-street/100411
'Bacon Flavored Shaving Cream'
"The self-titled "bacontrepreneur" has also come up with other pork inspired products such as bacon roses, bacon lip balm and bacon baby formula.
And, for those "who love bacon to death", he has created a £2,000 bacon-wrapped coffin."
http://uniquedaily.com/2012/12/bacon-flavored-shaving-cream/
'Huge Psy Snowman!'
http://uniquedaily.com/2012/12/huge-psy-snowman/
'Lawyer Bills Client For Time They Spent Having Sex'
What a scumbag!
http://uniquedaily.com/2013/01/lawyer-bills-client-for-time-they-spent-having-sex/
'Russell Howard's Good News Big Cook Little Cook Scene'
http://youtu.be/TLmOC7FvIlM
Feedback excerpts:
ABOUT to go on a business trip to Brisbane, Australia, and hoping to do a bit of exploring as well, Adrian Page decided to download a map onto his satnav and start planning in advance. In doing so, he discovered that Australia, big as it is, is even more interesting than he had thought.
According to Adrian's satnav, the 1.2 million kilometres of roads that cover the continent contain "879,100 million 'Points of Interest'." This means that on average there is a point of interest every 1.5 millimetres of road. To put it another way, given Australia's surface area of 7,692,024 square kilometres, the continent must contain something interesting every 10 square metres.
Clearly, truly fascinating trips lie ahead for Adrian and others.
8 Dec
Michael Holroyd sends us a scan of an advertisement he saw in The Equity newspaper in Shawville, Quebec, Canada. It's for a portable toilet rental service, and although it's not a new Apple product, it's called - get ready to groan here - "I-Pood".
8 Dec
BALLYGOWAN mineral water, Barry Cash was startled to read, is "filtered through calcium-enriched limestone". Barry asks, "How can you enrich it with more calcium?"
15 Dec
{The chemical structure of limestone is CaCO3 - it's calcium carbonate - how could you put more calcium in it?}
"KEEP back from the platform edge," begins a sign from Penrith railway station sent by Alan Storer from Victoria, Australia, who assigns it to Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. Feedback's fine eye for typography and railway architecture places it firmly in Penrith, Cumbria, UK, in the time of standardised British Rail signs using the Helvetica font. Searching, we find readers of The Guardian newspaper in 2006 offering confirmation of its location.
And why might it have gone viral all over the interweb and undergone such memetic mutation? Because we more frequently see a sign that assumes some knowledge of physics in expressing the reason for keeping back, such as: "Passing trains cause air turbulence."
The sign in Alan's photo is in plain English and finishes, simply, with: "...or you may get sucked off".
Feedback wants an explanation for the giggling we hear. This is serious.
15 Dec
OUR piling system throws up a report in Canada's Globe and Mail online telling us that in October President Bashar al-Assad of Syria "approved a law on the health security of genetically modified organisms... to regulate their use and production".
SANA, the state-run news agency, explained that the law's purpose was to "preserve the health of human beings, animals, vegetables and the environment".
The same report mentions that "more than 33,000 people have been killed in 19 months of conflict" in Syria, "most of them civilians". Clearly, al-Assad is, despite that, the kind of guy who cares.
15 Dec
The makers of the Vactor sewer cleaner, Ronald Davis notes, claim it has a new fan and air-routing system that "delivers significantly increased vacuum pressure"
22/29 Dec
{If we temporarily pretend that 'vacuum' can mean vacuuminess, surely an increased vacuum pressure would mean a weakened vacuum, and thereby less suction power?!?}
THIS year's competition run by UK newspaper The Guardian to win "six mind-boggling science books" included the following question: "Food that doesn't contain any chemicals: a) is known as organic; b) was grown without pesticides; c) will help you lose weight; d) is much healthier".
Our mind, like Paul Manson's, was boggled by the question. Paul suggests an additional answer: "e) doesn't exist".
22/29 Dec
{'Chemical' is another one of those terms that the wider public seems to have a very odd impression of. Other examples are 'theory' and 'natural'}
A SELF-STYLED "important memo" forwarded by Robin McKellar warns that the Ottawa Citizen newspaper is being delivered later than normal "due to a shortage of carriers" - and "apologises for the incontinence".
As it happens, the note was delivered to Robin's mother in her nursing home.
22/29 Dec
FINALLY, READER William Urton supplies our favourite title of the week - albeit one belonging to a paper published in 2008 in the American Journal of Physics (vol 76, p 143).
Its author, Hrvoje Nikolic, begins his attempt to compare the work of the quantum physicists David Bohm and Max Born thus: "I discuss a hypothetical historical context in which a Bohm-like deterministic interpretation of the Schrödinger equation is proposed before the Born probabilistic interpretation and argue that in such a context the Copenhagen (Bohr) interpretation would probably have not achieved great popularity among physicists."
In case that isn't entirely clear, the paper's title sums it up simply: "Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born?"
22/29 Dec
Monday, 25 February 2013
Monday, 18 February 2013
Entertainment stuff from the week 11-17/2/13
Hi, folks
Firstly, i must apologise for last week's equine puns -- they weren't a-mews-ing at all :-P
Less facetiously, this week, i found out who Michelle Jenneke is. I could barely be more glad :o)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Jenneke
http://youtu.be/U_9J2oJjjd4
This is belated, but "happy Singles Awareness Day", alotofone. Say wut, Tap? Read here - it has been renamed!
http://lucien0maverick.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/happy-single-awareness-day/
Anyone notice Brian Cox's clanger-of-the-week, on Wonders Of Life? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014r1s8
He pushed down on some solid CO2, which he was using for cooling purposes, heard a weird squeaking sound, and explained it as the plate underneath cooling rapidly. Wrong, Brian! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!
That noise is what you get from compressing solid CO2 - dry ice - and squeezing the gas out of it. And you can certainly get some weird noises from solid CO2!
Hear some of that funky stuff, heres:
http://youtu.be/90cRyd4LpJo
http://youtu.be/USbQMQ4FI48
http://youtu.be/NuVxT6UPLBQ
Two types of marriage i learned about, this week:
Lavender marriage - which is engaged in to conceal that one or both members are non-hetero; the one whose presence is used to conceal the sexuality of the other is called a 'beard'
Boston marriage - where two women live together, independently of male support (not necessarily a sexual/romantic relationship)
Well, whad'ya know? Thank you, Wikipedia!
Oh - and the other news - the Pope has given something up for Lent - infallibility:
http://godless-apostate.tumblr.com/post/43034529554
{That's a Family Guy reference, if you didn't know}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_%28Family_Guy%29
'Resigning Pope No Longer Has Strength To Lead Church Backward'
http://www.theonion.com/articles/resigning-pope-no-longer-has-strength-to-lead-chur,31248/
His departure was heralded by this:
http://youtu.be/DF6Dd8MXnjI
http://youtu.be/frZUfXsRPuA
Of course, superstitionists have been claiming that the meteor, along with lightning, and a seagull, have been some kind of omen, which is, frankly, embarrassing for the human species:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2140316/pg1
http://www.bbsradio.com/cgi-bin/webbbs/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=30614
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/meteorite-fragments-are-said-to-rain-down-on-siberia-russia-500-injuries-reported/#comment-136666
------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff
'10 more amazing bets you will always win' - Richard Wiseman
http://youtu.be/4VG2bOaHMog
LMAO - conservatism and obsession with guns:
'Gayle Trotter: The Woman Who Called Gun Control Sexist'
Before long, she was being hailed as a hero by some — conservative blogger Michelle Malkin tweeted, “Stand tall, Gayle Trotter. We appreciate your strong 2nd. amendment voice” — and as a nut job by others. Trotter “is now officially the most insane gun advocate in America,” wrote blogger Michael Edward Kelly. The New York Times called her testimony “dangerous.”
“An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon,” Trotter said. “And the peace of mind she has…knowing she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she’s fighting hardened violent criminals.”... "she said she’s never personally experienced gun violence or knows anyone who has."
"The 41-year-old is a mother of six and a partner in the law firm she and her father built. She has written for a few blogs, including the now defunct Christian-themed Evangel. She’s a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a nonprofit research group whose mission is to “expand the conservative coalition".”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/07/gayle-trotter-the-woman-who-called-gun-control-sexist.html
Hehe - those horrific bigots at Fux News accidentally used a picture of a lesbian couple, to head an article exhorting 'traditional marriage' :-D
'Fox Uses Lesbian Photo for 'Traditional' Marriage Argument' - TYT
http://youtu.be/g7l7mI9eJb8
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/42998263613/hehe-those-morons-at-fux-news-accidentally-used
Ever seen a bottom percussionist before? Nope - neither had i - but i want a go :o)
'Percussionist Jorge Perez plays some percussion on peculiar instruments'
http://youtu.be/R5mMRiiCwak
The marvelous Maynard of maynard.com.au... AU!... interviews Craig Charles, Bobby Llew, and Danny John-Jules in Sydney
http://www.maynard.com.au/maynards_malaise/red-dwarf---a-smegging-good.html
'Top 5 Most Unbelievable Valentines' - Ripley's Believe It Or Not
http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/strange-places-and-customs/top-5-most-unbelievable-valentines/
------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks
Un-quotes Of The Week:
Meryl Dorey: "I hope you've vaccinated your kids against all those horrible diseases"
All the world's banks: "..so in conclusion, we've decided to give back all the money we've hoarded for absolutely no good reason"
Any stand-up comedian: "Look, none of this story's actually true, but let's run with it anyway..."
Mel Gibson: "Since i converted to Judaism..."
Peter Tatchell: "You can take your Human Rights and shove 'em up your..."
Word Of The Week: inexorable -- not capable of being stopped; unceasing
Fact Of The Week: The air in several Italian cities has been found to be laced with various drugs. The best for cocaine is Turin. Concentrations, however, are far too low to 'benefit' from
Etymology Of The Week: transpire -- through-breathe, leading to the modern definition of 'coming to fruition'/'leading to something taking place' which many sources, curiously, consider erroneous
Quote Of The Week: "Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple." - Charles Babbage
------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff
I saw this guy on Russell Howard's Good News. It must have been a repeat, but LOL
'Offensive hedge gets the snip'
The same guy who was World pea-shooting champion got in the papers for shaping a hedge outside his house into the shape of a cock and balls :o)
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Ely/Offensive%20hedge%20gets%20the%20snip.htm
Two Guys And A Guy - 'Pencil Sketch' (cartoon strip)
http://www.twogag.com/archives/2323?
'Friendzoned!!!' From a comic strip by Migle Anušauskaite
http://ihavenoteeth.com/2012/09/10/friendzone-fellas/
'Wtf, nature? — Jellyfishes and worms' - also by Migle Anušauskaite
http://ihavenoteeth.com/2013/02/02/wtf-nature-jellyfishes-and-worms/
'15 Things Not To Say To Your Boyfriend'
http://youtu.be/_yQDl9veUeY
'The Drugs Song' - by Amateur Transplants
Btw, they say the line "and if you want to overdose there's always paracetamol". I once worked out how much acetaminophen (the active ingredient in paracetamol) it would take to kill an average man.
I calculated that it would require about 0.6 Kg of pills - enough for a small meal! Somehow, i don't think overdosing on paracetamol's a very practical method, especially as you'd likely use them a lot already if you were considering them, which means your liver would grow familiar and you'd need an even bigger dose!
http://youtu.be/KXROnzpsrlg
'"Weird Al" Yankovic - Do I Creep You Out?' with video by The Button Mushroom, who did ^ that video too.
http://youtu.be/ZL1EwFzBn5Y
'Finals Fantasy' - by Amateur Transplants
http://youtu.be/EdmiOhpqlLI
'Dorsal Horn Concerto' - by Amateur Transplants
http://youtu.be/2uUH34mNUNs
The tune to this one is, of course, Mozart's horn concerto in E-flat minor, Koechel rating 495, which he wrote at about the age of 18 months. And whenever i hear it, i can't not think of Flanders & Swann, whom i've heard quite a lot, recently.
I couldn't find a satisfactory version on YouTube so i uploaded this:
http://youtu.be/VjA6bA1qtfQ
I took the opportunity to upload this one too:
http://youtu.be/VnbiVw_1FNs
I'd heard these songs well before i studied Physics at Uni... do you think this one might have influenced me, subconsciously? ;-)
Thank you, YouTube, for nudging me at this video, with one of Michael Flanders' glorious monologues. No thanks for the false Content ID match on one of uploads, though.
http://youtu.be/usdf8UHL0vU
A great video illusion. Watch on YT, full screen, for best effect
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/never-trust-your-eyes/
Mike Wood is puzzled by an advert for David Ormerod Hearing Centres in his local paper, the Chester Chronicle: "New invisible hearing aid has to be seen to be believed"
3 Nov
Peter Buck's Indesit PWE 91272 W washing machine has a button to control its temperature. The instruction manual explains: "Temperature button: press to reduce or completely exclude the temperature". Peter says he has not yet tried a wash cycle with the temperature completely excluded, as he fears it may damage his clothes.
10 Nov
IN RESPONSE to our report on a sign about hearing tests in a Canadian clinic that said "please wait until you are called in" (27 October), John Gledhill tells us that a few years ago his uncle Dennis went to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, UK, to have his first hearing aid fitted. He was told to be there by 9 o'clock, which he was.
After sitting in the waiting room for more than 3 hours he went over to the receptionist and asked what was going on. She replied, apparently without any sense of irony, "Oh, we've been calling you on the PA for ages".
"Sigh," John writes.
17 Nov
HOW do they work that out, then? John Vanhegan's comment on the list of ingredients of his Hotel Chocolat dark organic chocolate is that the numbers involved are "odd". The list reads: "Cocoa solids (minimum 100 per cent), emulsifier, soya, lecithin."
17 Nov
Are they hoping to emulate the publicity gained by the Higgs Boson? A press release arrives at New Scientist headlined "Hitachi Consulting UK seeks to unlock the 'Shopping Particle'"
17 Nov
THE copyright statement that Isobel Clarke found at the bottom of a music review on www.wrightmusic.net (bit.ly/CopyWright) seemed so excessively inclusive that she sent it to Feedback with her comments.
The statement reads: "This article or any part of it, however small, must not be copied, quoted, reproduced, downloaded or altered in any way whatsoever nor stored in any retrieval system. Failure to comply is in breach of International Copyright Law and will render any offender liable to action at law."
Isobel notes: "The 'however small' phrase must include every letter and punctuation mark in the article. Therefore I must conclude that virtually everything written in the Latin alphabet since the publication of this document (2010) is in breach of copyright - including this letter.
"Taking this further, the phrase 'any retrieval system' must include the human brain, and so it was obviously illegal for me to read the article (and store the contents in my brain) but there was no way of knowing this until I had read it. Should I feel guilty?"
What's more, it seems to Isobel that "Feedback cannot legally report anything of this for that would mean reproducing the copyright statement, but maybe in the eternal quest for free speech you should risk it."
We checked with an expert and we are allowed to reproduce these terms and conditions, with attribution, for the purposes of reporting news and current affairs, whatever they say.
Whether we're allowed to think about them, we're less sure.
24 Nov
WHEN she decided to clear her browsing history for the first time in Google Chrome, Shelley Williamson was invited to "obliterate the following items" from a choice of "1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 4 weeks or the beginning of time".
Without thinking about the possible consequences, she chose "the beginning of time" - but then, as she clicked on it, she was seized with the thought that she may have set in motion the wheels of the demise of the universe.
Shortly afterwards, when it became clear that nothing untoward had happened, she relaxed - and decided to inform Feedback.
24 Nov
SEVERAL readers wrote to us about a BBC news article back in August about artificial vocal cords. They were struck by a sentence describing the work of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which states: "They have tested a gel, called polyethylene glycol 30, which can flutter around 200 times per second - about the same speed as a woman during a conversation."
Carol Ince's comment was typical: "I hadn't noticed myself fluttering while talking to people," she says, perturbed. "No one's mentioned it to me."
24 Nov
THE banquet contained in the sachet of vinegar that Roy Kettle bought made the meal he was about to pour it on seem superfluous.
The label informed him that the contents "May contain: Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame Seeds, Mustrad (sic), Celery, Wheat, Eggs, Fish, Soyabeans, Milk, Sulphites and Cereals containing Gluten". Who would want fish and chips on top of all that?
24 Nov
Domino sugar, according to the bag Alison Gibson picked up in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is "carbon-free". So what's left - water?
1 Dec
FINALLY, Tim Hall's Facebook timeline told him, "Tim Hall is at Aviemore and one other place."
Tim says he has no idea where the other place is and he doesn't want to check in case the uncertainty collapses and he suddenly finds himself there.
1 Dec
Firstly, i must apologise for last week's equine puns -- they weren't a-mews-ing at all :-P
Less facetiously, this week, i found out who Michelle Jenneke is. I could barely be more glad :o)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Jenneke
http://youtu.be/U_9J2oJjjd4
This is belated, but "happy Singles Awareness Day", alotofone. Say wut, Tap? Read here - it has been renamed!
http://lucien0maverick.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/happy-single-awareness-day/
Anyone notice Brian Cox's clanger-of-the-week, on Wonders Of Life? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014r1s8
He pushed down on some solid CO2, which he was using for cooling purposes, heard a weird squeaking sound, and explained it as the plate underneath cooling rapidly. Wrong, Brian! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!
That noise is what you get from compressing solid CO2 - dry ice - and squeezing the gas out of it. And you can certainly get some weird noises from solid CO2!
Hear some of that funky stuff, heres:
http://youtu.be/90cRyd4LpJo
http://youtu.be/USbQMQ4FI48
http://youtu.be/NuVxT6UPLBQ
Two types of marriage i learned about, this week:
Lavender marriage - which is engaged in to conceal that one or both members are non-hetero; the one whose presence is used to conceal the sexuality of the other is called a 'beard'
Boston marriage - where two women live together, independently of male support (not necessarily a sexual/romantic relationship)
Well, whad'ya know? Thank you, Wikipedia!
Oh - and the other news - the Pope has given something up for Lent - infallibility:
http://godless-apostate.tumblr.com/post/43034529554
{That's a Family Guy reference, if you didn't know}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_%28Family_Guy%29
'Resigning Pope No Longer Has Strength To Lead Church Backward'
http://www.theonion.com/articles/resigning-pope-no-longer-has-strength-to-lead-chur,31248/
His departure was heralded by this:
http://youtu.be/DF6Dd8MXnjI
http://youtu.be/frZUfXsRPuA
Of course, superstitionists have been claiming that the meteor, along with lightning, and a seagull, have been some kind of omen, which is, frankly, embarrassing for the human species:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2140316/pg1
http://www.bbsradio.com/cgi-bin/webbbs/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=30614
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/meteorite-fragments-are-said-to-rain-down-on-siberia-russia-500-injuries-reported/#comment-136666
------------------------------------------------------ contemporary stuff
'10 more amazing bets you will always win' - Richard Wiseman
http://youtu.be/4VG2bOaHMog
LMAO - conservatism and obsession with guns:
'Gayle Trotter: The Woman Who Called Gun Control Sexist'
Before long, she was being hailed as a hero by some — conservative blogger Michelle Malkin tweeted, “Stand tall, Gayle Trotter. We appreciate your strong 2nd. amendment voice” — and as a nut job by others. Trotter “is now officially the most insane gun advocate in America,” wrote blogger Michael Edward Kelly. The New York Times called her testimony “dangerous.”
“An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon,” Trotter said. “And the peace of mind she has…knowing she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she’s fighting hardened violent criminals.”... "she said she’s never personally experienced gun violence or knows anyone who has."
"The 41-year-old is a mother of six and a partner in the law firm she and her father built. She has written for a few blogs, including the now defunct Christian-themed Evangel. She’s a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a nonprofit research group whose mission is to “expand the conservative coalition".”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/07/gayle-trotter-the-woman-who-called-gun-control-sexist.html
Hehe - those horrific bigots at Fux News accidentally used a picture of a lesbian couple, to head an article exhorting 'traditional marriage' :-D
'Fox Uses Lesbian Photo for 'Traditional' Marriage Argument' - TYT
http://youtu.be/g7l7mI9eJb8
http://tapejarascience.tumblr.com/post/42998263613/hehe-those-morons-at-fux-news-accidentally-used
Ever seen a bottom percussionist before? Nope - neither had i - but i want a go :o)
'Percussionist Jorge Perez plays some percussion on peculiar instruments'
http://youtu.be/R5mMRiiCwak
The marvelous Maynard of maynard.com.au... AU!... interviews Craig Charles, Bobby Llew, and Danny John-Jules in Sydney
http://www.maynard.com.au/maynards_malaise/red-dwarf---a-smegging-good.html
'Top 5 Most Unbelievable Valentines' - Ripley's Believe It Or Not
http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/strange-places-and-customs/top-5-most-unbelievable-valentines/
------------------------------------------------------ of the weeks
Un-quotes Of The Week:
Meryl Dorey: "I hope you've vaccinated your kids against all those horrible diseases"
All the world's banks: "..so in conclusion, we've decided to give back all the money we've hoarded for absolutely no good reason"
Any stand-up comedian: "Look, none of this story's actually true, but let's run with it anyway..."
Mel Gibson: "Since i converted to Judaism..."
Peter Tatchell: "You can take your Human Rights and shove 'em up your..."
Word Of The Week: inexorable -- not capable of being stopped; unceasing
Fact Of The Week: The air in several Italian cities has been found to be laced with various drugs. The best for cocaine is Turin. Concentrations, however, are far too low to 'benefit' from
Etymology Of The Week: transpire -- through-breathe, leading to the modern definition of 'coming to fruition'/'leading to something taking place' which many sources, curiously, consider erroneous
Quote Of The Week: "Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple." - Charles Babbage
------------------------------------------------------ non-contemporary stuff
I saw this guy on Russell Howard's Good News. It must have been a repeat, but LOL
'Offensive hedge gets the snip'
The same guy who was World pea-shooting champion got in the papers for shaping a hedge outside his house into the shape of a cock and balls :o)
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Ely/Offensive%20hedge%20gets%20the%20snip.htm
Two Guys And A Guy - 'Pencil Sketch' (cartoon strip)
http://www.twogag.com/archives/2323?
'Friendzoned!!!' From a comic strip by Migle Anušauskaite
http://ihavenoteeth.com/2012/09/10/friendzone-fellas/
'Wtf, nature? — Jellyfishes and worms' - also by Migle Anušauskaite
http://ihavenoteeth.com/2013/02/02/wtf-nature-jellyfishes-and-worms/
'15 Things Not To Say To Your Boyfriend'
http://youtu.be/_yQDl9veUeY
'The Drugs Song' - by Amateur Transplants
Btw, they say the line "and if you want to overdose there's always paracetamol". I once worked out how much acetaminophen (the active ingredient in paracetamol) it would take to kill an average man.
I calculated that it would require about 0.6 Kg of pills - enough for a small meal! Somehow, i don't think overdosing on paracetamol's a very practical method, especially as you'd likely use them a lot already if you were considering them, which means your liver would grow familiar and you'd need an even bigger dose!
http://youtu.be/KXROnzpsrlg
'"Weird Al" Yankovic - Do I Creep You Out?' with video by The Button Mushroom, who did ^ that video too.
http://youtu.be/ZL1EwFzBn5Y
'Finals Fantasy' - by Amateur Transplants
http://youtu.be/EdmiOhpqlLI
'Dorsal Horn Concerto' - by Amateur Transplants
http://youtu.be/2uUH34mNUNs
The tune to this one is, of course, Mozart's horn concerto in E-flat minor, Koechel rating 495, which he wrote at about the age of 18 months. And whenever i hear it, i can't not think of Flanders & Swann, whom i've heard quite a lot, recently.
I couldn't find a satisfactory version on YouTube so i uploaded this:
http://youtu.be/VjA6bA1qtfQ
I took the opportunity to upload this one too:
http://youtu.be/VnbiVw_1FNs
I'd heard these songs well before i studied Physics at Uni... do you think this one might have influenced me, subconsciously? ;-)
Thank you, YouTube, for nudging me at this video, with one of Michael Flanders' glorious monologues. No thanks for the false Content ID match on one of uploads, though.
http://youtu.be/usdf8UHL0vU
A great video illusion. Watch on YT, full screen, for best effect
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/never-trust-your-eyes/
Mike Wood is puzzled by an advert for David Ormerod Hearing Centres in his local paper, the Chester Chronicle: "New invisible hearing aid has to be seen to be believed"
3 Nov
Peter Buck's Indesit PWE 91272 W washing machine has a button to control its temperature. The instruction manual explains: "Temperature button: press to reduce or completely exclude the temperature". Peter says he has not yet tried a wash cycle with the temperature completely excluded, as he fears it may damage his clothes.
10 Nov
IN RESPONSE to our report on a sign about hearing tests in a Canadian clinic that said "please wait until you are called in" (27 October), John Gledhill tells us that a few years ago his uncle Dennis went to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, UK, to have his first hearing aid fitted. He was told to be there by 9 o'clock, which he was.
After sitting in the waiting room for more than 3 hours he went over to the receptionist and asked what was going on. She replied, apparently without any sense of irony, "Oh, we've been calling you on the PA for ages".
"Sigh," John writes.
17 Nov
HOW do they work that out, then? John Vanhegan's comment on the list of ingredients of his Hotel Chocolat dark organic chocolate is that the numbers involved are "odd". The list reads: "Cocoa solids (minimum 100 per cent), emulsifier, soya, lecithin."
17 Nov
Are they hoping to emulate the publicity gained by the Higgs Boson? A press release arrives at New Scientist headlined "Hitachi Consulting UK seeks to unlock the 'Shopping Particle'"
17 Nov
THE copyright statement that Isobel Clarke found at the bottom of a music review on www.wrightmusic.net (bit.ly/CopyWright) seemed so excessively inclusive that she sent it to Feedback with her comments.
The statement reads: "This article or any part of it, however small, must not be copied, quoted, reproduced, downloaded or altered in any way whatsoever nor stored in any retrieval system. Failure to comply is in breach of International Copyright Law and will render any offender liable to action at law."
Isobel notes: "The 'however small' phrase must include every letter and punctuation mark in the article. Therefore I must conclude that virtually everything written in the Latin alphabet since the publication of this document (2010) is in breach of copyright - including this letter.
"Taking this further, the phrase 'any retrieval system' must include the human brain, and so it was obviously illegal for me to read the article (and store the contents in my brain) but there was no way of knowing this until I had read it. Should I feel guilty?"
What's more, it seems to Isobel that "Feedback cannot legally report anything of this for that would mean reproducing the copyright statement, but maybe in the eternal quest for free speech you should risk it."
We checked with an expert and we are allowed to reproduce these terms and conditions, with attribution, for the purposes of reporting news and current affairs, whatever they say.
Whether we're allowed to think about them, we're less sure.
24 Nov
WHEN she decided to clear her browsing history for the first time in Google Chrome, Shelley Williamson was invited to "obliterate the following items" from a choice of "1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 4 weeks or the beginning of time".
Without thinking about the possible consequences, she chose "the beginning of time" - but then, as she clicked on it, she was seized with the thought that she may have set in motion the wheels of the demise of the universe.
Shortly afterwards, when it became clear that nothing untoward had happened, she relaxed - and decided to inform Feedback.
24 Nov
SEVERAL readers wrote to us about a BBC news article back in August about artificial vocal cords. They were struck by a sentence describing the work of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which states: "They have tested a gel, called polyethylene glycol 30, which can flutter around 200 times per second - about the same speed as a woman during a conversation."
Carol Ince's comment was typical: "I hadn't noticed myself fluttering while talking to people," she says, perturbed. "No one's mentioned it to me."
24 Nov
THE banquet contained in the sachet of vinegar that Roy Kettle bought made the meal he was about to pour it on seem superfluous.
The label informed him that the contents "May contain: Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame Seeds, Mustrad (sic), Celery, Wheat, Eggs, Fish, Soyabeans, Milk, Sulphites and Cereals containing Gluten". Who would want fish and chips on top of all that?
24 Nov
Domino sugar, according to the bag Alison Gibson picked up in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is "carbon-free". So what's left - water?
1 Dec
FINALLY, Tim Hall's Facebook timeline told him, "Tim Hall is at Aviemore and one other place."
Tim says he has no idea where the other place is and he doesn't want to check in case the uncertainty collapses and he suddenly finds himself there.
1 Dec
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Flower Porn (?)
Date Started: 14/5/12
Date Finished: 19/5/12
Date First Published: 17/2/13
Have you ever wondered why people are so prudish about
bearing their own
genitals, seeing the genitals of other
people, and even seeing the genitals of other animal species, but are perfectly
willing to display the genitals of non-animals on the living-room table, or in their
lapel, or on birthday cards? [1]
Eh?
What the heck are
you going on about now, Tap?
When do we ever do
that?
Well, here’s the thought-jerker for you: flowers are the
genitals of plants
Flowers are the reproductive structures of plant species.
They contain the stamen and stigma - equivalent to the testes and ovaries of
animals – and produce pollen and ova – the equivalent of semen and ova in
animals.
That the outer structures of plant genitals are designed
to attract vectors of gamete distribution is an artefact of plants’ staticity,
and does not negate from their function in the sexual reproduction of plants.
All other elements of the process are directly comparable:
All other elements of the process are directly comparable:
Gametes: pollen and ova – semen and ova
Sexy things: colourful petals and volatile chemicals (sweet smells) - curvy and sticky-outy bits, and seductive behaviour, to attract a mate
Mechanism of sex: bees/beetles/butterflies/birds/ants to carry the pollen – sexual intercourse, where the genitals are rubbed directly against each other [2]
Mechanism of sex: bees/beetles/butterflies/birds/ants to carry the pollen – sexual intercourse, where the genitals are rubbed directly against each other [2]
Gamete fusion: pollen grains fuse with plant ova –
spermatozoa fuse with animal ova
Development: eggs in plants are called seeds – developing
eggs in animals are called embryos/foetuses (contingent on stage of development)
After sufficient development, plant eggs are ejected out
of their host – of animal eggs, only mammals retain theirs internally for
prolonged development
So remember that, next time you’re in someone’s garden,
and you decide to sniff someone’s prize specimens – you’re actually shoving a
plant’s genitals in your face!
And if you ever eat a fruit, remember that you’re
actually eating the inflamed ovary from a pregnant plant! [3]
Why do humans feel disgust in response to animals’ bits
and bobs, but not the plants’ equivalents? It’s purely down to cultural
conditioning. [4]
As a Tapejara, i consider you to be a rather two-faced
species, to treat plants and your fellow animals so differently :-P
Post-jaunt: Some
humans are
allergic to
human semen. Many more,
however, are allergic to the semen of plants – it’s called hay-fever!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Non-animals on a table; in a lapel; on a card. Well, genitals are the right thing to send, on Single Awareness Day, right?
[2] When farmers deliberately genetically modify their plantstock, they do sometimes rub flower heads together, replicating the animal fashion.
[3] Plus, what we think of as 'fungi' are actually just the fruiting bodies of fungi - most of the body is underground, hence fairy rings and the largest organism known to mankind.
[4] You don't subjugate plants for being bisexual or hermaphroditic, the way you do human animals; and you don't reject humans for being infertile or old and weak, they way you do plants. You grant privileged legal and financial status to humans who engage in supposedly-monogamous heterosexual coupling, whether lavender or not, thereby subjugating all others; but when plants breed with whoever they get, whenever they get them, you don't bat an eyelid! Hypocrisy....
A reference:
[2] When farmers deliberately genetically modify their plantstock, they do sometimes rub flower heads together, replicating the animal fashion.
[3] Plus, what we think of as 'fungi' are actually just the fruiting bodies of fungi - most of the body is underground, hence fairy rings and the largest organism known to mankind.
[4] You don't subjugate plants for being bisexual or hermaphroditic, the way you do human animals; and you don't reject humans for being infertile or old and weak, they way you do plants. You grant privileged legal and financial status to humans who engage in supposedly-monogamous heterosexual coupling, whether lavender or not, thereby subjugating all others; but when plants breed with whoever they get, whenever they get them, you don't bat an eyelid! Hypocrisy....
A reference:
{Just ‘cos i shall}
Monday, 11 February 2013
Comment #20: -- Lumosity And The Brain-Training Bunk
Date Started: 6/2/13
Date Completed: 10/2/13
Date First Published: 10/2/13
Date First Published: 10/2/13
Gaaaah.... Lumosity. Who can bear that dreaded ‘ting’?
It plagues YouTube with its ads, and has driven me to
write a much-too-un-mini mini-essay about it.
If this seems rambly, then the reason is that Lumosity
has shredded my nerves!
Pseudo-neuroscience has become much more abundant, in
recent years, because no-one wants to be stupid, and no-one wants to be thought
stupid. The products we see are largely targeted at people who will live a long
time, and so, increasingly, also fear dementia as they age.
‘Molly Crockett: Beware neuro-bunk’
‘Molly Crockett: Beware neuro-bunk’
http://youtu.be/b64qvG2Jgro
From fruit drinks, to brain-training games, entrepreneurs are producing pseudoscience, to exploit the growing market of people willing to shell out for brain-enhancements.
From fruit drinks, to brain-training games, entrepreneurs are producing pseudoscience, to exploit the growing market of people willing to shell out for brain-enhancements.
But there’s no
evidence that they work.
The drinks certainly don’t work – not now, at least –
maybe sometime in the future, they will; but the claims of brain-training games
currently have greater verisimilitude.
Exercise makes people fitter, brain exercise makes brains
fitter – that’s how it works, right?
Not quite.
Exercising specific parts of your body makes those parts
fitter, but not the rest. This is why health and fitness depends on
cardio-vascular exercise, which does have a body-wide effect. (Your
cardiovascular system does go pretty-much everywhere, after all). Big biceps
don’t equate with good fitness.
All the little puzzles and things, from the crosswords in
‘papers and magazines, to Sudoku books, to the quizzles of doctor
hiro-whateverhisnameis, to the computer games that the media and zealous
parents bemoan alike, are active in training specific areas of the brain. Which
areas? The regions involved in doing these activities. Now, there’s a surprise!
“Think of the brain as a muscle” – every neuroscientist
since time immemorial
If you practice ‘til you’re a god at Sudoku, then that
doesn’t mean you’re going to get any better at anything else – all you’ve done
is to practice Sudoku and get good at that.
Baroness Greenfield (ex-head of the Royal Institution –
the one that does the Christmas Lectures) was met with adulation from the
Press, and grief from the scientists, when she warned that computer games
‘change teenagers’ brains’.
Well, of course they bloody do!
If you learn something, your brain changes, in order to
incorporate that information. All she was saying, in actual fact, was that when
teenagers learn how to play computer games, they learn how to play computer
games. Gah.....
But this doesn’t mean they’re turning into zombies, who
are going to start eating each other and eventually come for you. {Yes – i know
that’s an exaggeration}
Ben Goldacre on the barmy claims of Greenfield and her
apparent-cohort: http://www.badscience.net/2011/11/why-wont-professor-greenfield-publish-this-theory-in-a-scientific-journal/
There are potential dangers to such activities, however –
they tend to be highly habit-forming (read: “addictive”).
Having grown up in an electronic age, and having been a
slightly-OCD and more-so Generalised Anxiety-y child, i am well aware of how
easy it is to grow emotionally attached to one game in particular, and
experience weird withdrawal symptoms when it’s unavailable i.e. i ran out of
batteries. Darn! In that case, i got a chance to recover self-control; later,
with PC games, no such opportunity. Pure mental muscle was necessary.
I make myself sound a real ‘case’, don’t i – except i
know i’m not.
People become behaviourally dependent on all kinds of
things. I remember seeing a programme on Channel 4, about a woman who’d become
dependent on coffee enemas! If you’re familiar with the UK’s TV, i expect you’ll have worked
out that that programme’s ‘Embarrassing Bodies’. (Enemas are much-touted by
medical pseudoscientists – please don’t do them, unless under proper medical
advice/supervision). The woman in question developed a several-times-a-day
habit, which risked her health, let alone her social life.
I know this case is extreme, but it is the intention of
the marketers to get you ‘hooked’, because you are the source of their revenue
stream. Over the decades, computer games of all kinds have advanced in their
ability to capture our attention, and keep it under lock and key for extended periods
of time. We, as the user, would say “they’re so much fun – so absorbing”. Well,
we would if we spoke in adspeak :-P
But yes – absorbing – too absorbing, if you ask me.
Then again, i am probably the kind of person who should
avoid them, LOL.
Brain-training companies are probably the most nefarious
when it comes to engendering destructive habits. They don’t just feed you fun
stuff that you can’t put down – they actively advise you to pick it up and pick
it up again, and again, and again, for the rest of your life, potentially. You
don’t want to get unfit, now, do you? Then keep
playing!
And with that, i think
it’s time to get stuck into Lumosity. I’ve been waiting for months, to do this
[wrings hands and wipes sweat from brow]
Lumosity plagues my viewing, on YouTube – and i do a lot
of it - so their ads really piss me off!
What is it?
A monthly subscription web-site, which you get a free
trial for.This means you get hooked, and then you pay out for the rest of your
life, or until you recover your self-control.
And doesn’t it make them money!
“Lumosity Raises
$31.5M From Discovery Communications For Brain Fitness Games... This
brings Lumosity’s total funding to over $70 million to date.”
By Rachel Ponce:
“Nearly every page of the site contains health
"tips" that encourage users to train their brains and train them
often. "Did you know?" the site asks rhetorically before each tip.
"Did you know? The ACTIVE study, funded by the NIH and
involving 2832 adults, found that some benefits of cognitive training can last
over five years after the initial training." The implication here is
clear: train with Lumosity for life-long health benefits.”
“Players' user and performance data is rigorously tracked
by Lumosity. This data is then utilized for the company's own aggressive
targeted advertising, as well as sold to various undisclosed third parties.
It's right there in the Privacy Policy.”
“Thanks to the Children's Online Privacy Protect
Act, websites are strictly limited in what kinds of data they can collect from
children, and the FTC has become more involved recently in fining children's app developers
for violating these privacy laws. Because of this, Lumosity specifically
notes that "the Site and the Software are not designed for or directed at
children; the subject matter of the Site is not designed for or directed at
children; and the content, including any video or audio, on the Site is not designed
for or directed at children." But there is a fair amount of
doublespeak involved on this point. At the same time that the Privacy
Policy makes explicit the fact that children should not use the site, the site
has "Scholar" training programs that are designed for use by
"students." And in the sparse scientific data presented in
their "Science Behind Lumosity" the Lumosity shows to substantiate
it's claims to efficacy, middle-school aged children were the demographic that
their studies tested. So the unwary parent should take note that despite
any appearances to the contrary, Lumosity's all-encompassing data
collection practices that make this educational gaming site off-limits to the
under-18 crowd.”
“If you're serious about fitness, you are probably better
off running on a treadmill instead of hula hooping on WiiFit, and if you're
serious about keeping your mind sharp, you'll benefit just as much, if not
more, from reading a book, learning or practicing a foreign language, doing a
few math problems each day, or playing your favorite casual puzzle game, be it
a crossword puzzle or Tetris.”
More, about their dodgy private-data policies; this one
dating back to 2009, when the company was only 2 years old:
“I’m not sure what to make of your response. I would like
you to delete my user account. Can you
please do that?...”
“I’m sorry, but it’s not possible for us to completely
purge your information from our system...”
“This got me nervous. Why would anyone construct a website
where the staff can’t purge user accounts? After all, the signup terms state
that user accounts can be deleted if they are impersonators or minors. Clearly,
Lumos Labs were lying to me.”
Such a seemingly-malignant organisation is bound to incur
plenty of complaints... Oh, it does:
This one’s my favourite:
“I signed up for Lumosity just to see how much it costs
etc... I got an email 3 days later showing how much I've improved after my
first lesson, showing my BPI was in the 92nd percentile, with bars graphs for
Speed, Memory, Attention, Flexibility, and Problem Solving. I never went
through ANY lesson. This information is all made up and purely fictional.”
LOL
Businesses like Lumosity are in the vein of classic
pseudoscience – the spam mail Viagra for insecure/unhealthy men, or the
extreme-diet fads for insecure/unhealthy women – they offer a simple, easy
get-out-clause from complex, difficult problems.
“Lose weight with this one tip”... “Your penis could be
bigger”... “Beauticians hate this woman”... “Architects hate this
amphibian”.... all that bullshit.
In reality, difficult problems have difficult solutions.
Tempting people that are in difficult situations, with easy ways out, is
abusive, in my book!
1) Graphs with no labels on them!!!
2) Irrelevant equations and diagrams that vaguely allude to intelligence
[full image] 3) Specs drawn on, because specs 'make people clever' [grrrrrrr]
[full image] 4) Pictures of brains all over the place http://youtu.be/b64qvG2Jgro?t=3m51s
[full image]5) Pictures of light-bulbs - so superlatively cheesy
[full image] 6) The 'ting' at the beginning, which heralds the agony of the ad
7) Infuriatingly anti-scientific statements: “Lumosity.com is based on neuroscience”; “it just seems like games, but it’s serious brain-training”; “improving your performance with the science of neuroplasticity”; “Regardless of your age, Lumosity can make you smarter and more mentally fit.”; “I can tell a big difference – decisions come quicker, i’m more productive – it’s serious brain-training, it just feels like games”. Outright lies!
8) An economics-style graph of ‘performance’, deliberately formulated to deceive by exaggeration – look at the axes!
[full image]9) The playlist of real science videos, to make their non-science seem legitimate
[full image]10) They quote Indre Viskontas, who is a real neuroscientist... and Skeptic! I wonder what else she said, that they cut out. Or maybe she sold out – i hope not!
http://youtu.be/WDuD_HvPcXY
All the versions of their videos, on YouTube – with
ratings and comments disabled on many:
Ratings disabled, you say, Tap? Why ever would they do
that...
Obscene comments? ....Actually, i’m not surprised!
Oh, and you know pseudoscientists always have a list of
anecdotes as long as their arm, right? Well, here’s theirs:
Does anybody else think it's dangerous to suggest that critical professions can be enhanced by wasting time on ‘brain-training’
regimes?
The best way to get better at being a fire-fighter, is by paying attention in training sessions, and thinking a lot about how to do your job. Not by thinking about racing penguins!
The best way to get better at being a fire-fighter, is by paying attention in training sessions, and thinking a lot about how to do your job. Not by thinking about racing penguins!
But these guys are trying to be real, proper scientists,
so they’ve cobbled together some articles that look like good science.
In fact, they’re farcical. Remember this: all of these are from Lumosity’s ‘Completed Research Behind Lumosity’ section, on their web-site: http://hcp.lumosity.com/research/completed They purport all of this as validating their claims...
In fact, they’re farcical. Remember this: all of these are from Lumosity’s ‘Completed Research Behind Lumosity’ section, on their web-site: http://hcp.lumosity.com/research/completed They purport all of this as validating their claims...
‘Study shows Lumosity training increases frontal lobe
function’
“the analysis did
not include a control group”
You can’t make valid claims about an intervention’s effect,
if you can’t compare it to a dummy scenario! Cancer patients get better. Does
Lumosity accelerate that recovery? I’m guessing not, or they would have done
this study properly.
‘Your ageing brain’
This ‘study’ shows us that practice makes people get
better at the tasks they’re doing! [shocker]
It also shows us that people who start with higher scores
can’t improve those scores as much as people who started with lower scores e.g.
some older people. Ergo, brain training gives older people the brains of
20-somethings! Either that, or they just got good at the task, without any
benefit to any other activity in their life...
‘Executive Function and Emotional Regulation: A Love
Story’
“while it’s too early to say that cognitive and
emotional processing training can help you be better at relationships and
personal interactions, the link between emotional well-being and certain
skills that Lumosity targets—including attention, executive function, and
working memory—makes this a fascinating topic for further study”
So... something to say, but nothing that specifically
supports Lumosity’s expensive software...
‘Lumosity improves sustained attention in study of
mild cognitive impairment’
This study (no inverted commas – apparently, this is a
proper one) has a sample size of 16, and a control group! (of unknown number).
Both groups were subject to treatment; only one to Lumosity.
The results, however, are puzzling. The control group,
which received treatment, got worse.
And they got as much worse as the intervention group got
better. This is such a small study, that we must put this result down to
statistical fuzz – it’s not a real result.
“Mild cognitive impairment, which is associated with an
increased risk of dementia...”
Dementia... dementia... i’m sure i’ve mentioned that, at
some point, in this mini-essay...
‘Lumosity Training Can Enhance Brain Function and Math
Skills, According to Stanford Study’
“Dr. Kesler and colleagues found that the course can
improve cognition and math skills in girls with Turner’s syndrome...
Participants exercised with Lumosity Math Tutor
for 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week, over the course of 6 weeks.”
NEWSFLASH,
NEWSFLASH!! Children get smarter as they grow up!! NEWSFLASH, NEWSFLASH!!
This reminds me of a non-study that Ben Goldacre wrote
about, in which an entire school was given fish-oil pills, and the upward
incline in test scores was attributed; not to the fact that they’re kids at
school who are learning things; but to the fish-oil. Facepalm time! http://www.badscience.net/2008/09/dave-ford-from-durham-council-plays-at-being-a-scientist-again/
P.S. if you skipped it, check back to my excerpts of
Rachel Ponce’s article, in which she notes that Lumosity is forbidden from
marketing to children due to their sloppy privacy behaviours. But clearly,
Lumosity intends them as a market - why else would they test it on kids?
‘LEAP Results Are Out’
Yet another useless study, demonstrating that when you
practice something, you get better at it. So why waste time with Lumosity when
you could be practicing something that actually happens, in the real world?
‘Lumosity Cognitive Enhancement Research Published in
Mensa’
“This study goes above and beyond others of its kind in
building a persuasive case for cognitive training for the general population.”
Does it?
“The implications of this study are clear and compelling:
Lumosity training can improve core underlying mental
abilities, abilities that transfer to myriad aspects of our everyday lives”
A claim of an easy, simple solution, for a complex,
difficult problem, writ right there.
From the actual publication, in Mensa Research Journal (which is not a scientific journal – at least, it’s not listed on sciencedirect.com):
From the actual publication, in Mensa Research Journal (which is not a scientific journal – at least, it’s not listed on sciencedirect.com):
“All patients were mentally and physically healthy as
determined by a short e-mail questionnaire”.
Erm... yeah. That’ll do. No GP’s report necessary.
Geez...
14 were Lumosited; 9 were left to rot. This is, again, a
tiny sample size, massively prone to false positive results. Considering that
this ‘study’ (yep – the inverted commas are back) was done over the web, i
would expect more people to be involved.
The motivation for pseudoscientists to do tiny studies is
that they are cheap, easy, and repeatable – if you do one big study that gets a
negative result, then tough – if you do ten small studies and one gets a
positive result, ignore the other nine, and harp on about the one
positive result ‘til raptor Jesus returns on his pink unicorn.
The methodology goes into massive technical detail, where
a simple diagram would easily explain what happened. {Who do these people think
they are – engineers?}. The general gist is that they played games involving
orientation (spatial, not sexual) and short-term memory.
There was no attempt to distinguish between enhanced
memory and spatial ability, and just enhanced concentration in an environment
they had become familiarised with i.e. the Lumosity software. A valid control
group would have been given benign games to play, rather than nothing at all.
Being given nothing would have led to them feeling dejected, resulting in
arrested enthusiasm for the study, and consequent poor results, regardless of
ability. The only participant who dropped out was in, you guessed it, the
boring old control group who didn’t have anything to do. Of course, there’s no
blinding – they know exactly which group they’re in, and hence that they shouldn’t
bother, if they’re not getting the intervention.
And now onto the nitty gritty....
They blow up the data into nice-looking graphs, for the
‘forward spatial working memory’ and the ‘reverse spatial working memory’, but
not for the ‘divided visual attention’ and the ‘letter memory’, which they also
tested. I wonder why...
Actually, i don’t have to. The trained group improved
more in the ‘forward SWM’ and ‘reverse SWM’, but the
control group (who had absolutely no practice, remember) improved more at
‘letter memory’, and were the only people to improve at ‘divided visual
attention’ (the trained group actually got worse!)
Conclusion: this was a shit study, which they attempted
to make the most of
Then there’re posters and cartoons, that don’t even
present the semblance of research, e.g.:
So there.... i’ve got that of my chest.
And now to prepare my nerves for the next time i hear
that bloody ‘ting!’ before a YouTube video....
Good luck everyone!
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