Another Senseless Killing in the USA

 General, Politics  No Responses »
Aug 272015
 

So there has been another senseless killing in the USA, and the world has reacted by asking Americans to "Please stop killing each other". If you read this blog religiously, you will probably recall previous occasions when I have mentioned gun control (and related issues), but bear with me. One slightly tacky thing to point out is that this senseless killing onl made the news because it was shown on live TV – senseless killings in the USA are so common (I could probably link to hundreds of similar articles) that this would not ordinarily be newsworthy.

The gun control fans have of course emphasised that the USA needs proper gun control, and I'm not going to disagree. 

Any society as sick in terms of violence as the USA needs strong gun control because it's citizens cannot be trusted not to run amok.

Those who want to hang onto their guns need to come up with a solution to the problem of violence in the USA and they need to stop parroting ridiculous excuses for why guns should not be controlled.

Everyday Annoyances: Waiting For Two Green Men

 General  No Responses »
Jul 272015
 

Crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing when you get 7 seconds every 70 seconds (I've just timed it) to cross the road is bad enough – we know pedestrians are second-class citizens who are supposed to tug their forelocks every time a car goes past.

But when you want to cross diagonally at a cross-roads, you are supposed to wait twice for the little green man to flash you. So a car driver on a major road has a not unreasonable chance of not having to stop at all whereas a pedestrian almost certainly has to stop and wait twice; and even if they are really lucky, they will definitely have to stop once.

Why?

Why can't the green light for pedestrians be long enough to allow us to cross diagonally? It's hardly an unreasonable request – unreasonable would be to ask for the little green man to be on for as long as the traffic light for cars was green.

Pluto At The Very Edge?

 General, Media  No Responses »
Jul 132015
 

No, of course it isn't. It's only mainstream media that is dumb enough to think so. 

Pluto is a dwarf planet whose orbit averages about 39AU (i.e. about 39 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth) whereas the edge of the solar system is approximately 200AU.

The Key To Alternative “Medicine” Phrases

 General, Humour  No Responses »
Jul 052015
 

Herbal

An untested chemical that grows in the garden. Possibly not your garden.

It could be benificial – Aspirin is after all a cleaned up and tested version of what was previously a herbal remedy. It could be safe; at least it could be safe in the kind of doses suggested (everything is poisonous enough in high enough doses – even water).

But it has not been tested properly either for effectiveness, nor safety. And if it is effective, is it more effective than a placebo?

Chemical-Free

Another way of saying an empty bottle. If you shake your bottle and it rattles or gurgles, send it back as it's got chemicals in it.

Homeopathy

Expensive water.

In fact if there were any positive value to homeopathy, there would be no complaints of joint pain in hard water regions (calcium carbonate is supposedly a treatment for joint pain).  And guess what? I get both hard water through my taps, and joint pain. 

Natural

… as opposed to "man-made". Both are a means of production and neither means of production has any implications as to the effectiveness of a product.

However evolution does not tend to produce something whose sole purpose is to cure headaches; the willow tree evolved to have a nasty bitter tasting bark to discourage animals from eating its bark not to cure headaches. That was an accident. To treat a headache "naturally", you will need to find a willow tree, pull off a chunk of bark, grind it up, and eat it. A man-made pill labelled "Aspirin" is more readily available, safer (it only contains the chemical for the headache treatment), and is less damaging to those poor willow trees.

So in this case, "natural" is actually a bad thing.

Faith-Healing

Asking an imaginary friend for help. Frankly asking a real friend is just as likely to work, and any effectiveness is due to the placebo effect.

Acupuncture

If you want someone sticking pins in you to make a little wax figurine replica of you to say "Oww!" then by all means go ahead.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries