Smelling Rosemary

This meme has been going around Facebook for a little while and links to some bullshit parading as journalism.  It is the perfect example of bogus "facts." I looked at the linked "article" (first saw it last month) and had to stop and bang my head on the table a couple of times. It keeps getting passed around and it's just meaningless nonsense with links to a bunch of actual scientific studies that say no such thing, I can't even see how you pry this "fact" out of the linked studies. Makes me crazy. My favorite part though is that it improves memory 75%... 75% of what? You can remember 3/4 more dates? 3/4 more musical notes? 3/4 more places where you stumped your toe? What does that even mean?!?!? Someone explain to me why anyone would write this nonsense, I seriously don't understand the drive to just make shit up. Do they sell rosemary oil or something?

Kiln

The word kiln is one of the oldest words.  Not oldest English words, oldest words.  Until American school teachers got their hands on it it was pronounced "kil."  Same goes with falcon (fokken) and palm (pom) and their until recent American English pronunciations.  And now you know.

Modern Snake Oil and Contempt for the Ethics and Morality of Scientists and Doctors

I get enraged.  Over and over I hear people say that you can't trust science but should trust some new age truism or conspiracy theory instead.  Why does this make me so angry?  Because I have several close personal friends who are research scientists and medical doctors.  One of my cousins is a medical doctor and research scientist with dozens if not hundreds of published studies credited to his name, a friend of over 30 years is the head of two major medical departments and oversees hundreds of researchers, and yet another friend of nearly 40 years is a scientist working at JPL.  I studied research psychology for several years at Tulane (dropped that second major because it wasn't the type of psychology I was interested in) and have an intimate knowledge of scientific ethics, methods, and motives.  I'm going to limit this discussion to medical research in particular (though the same accusations are levied against aerospace scientists, climate scientists, or even my friends who attended the funerals of Sandy Hook children they knew personally) because one particular blithe and insulting comment keeps coming up in the context of "western" medicine v. "traditional" medicine:  "All doctors are in the pocket of 'Big Pharma.'"

The most common infuriating statement I hear is that "herbal supplements" or "natural cures" are superior to modern medicine.  This belief is based on a series of logical fallacies including anecdotes, appeal to nature, confirmation bias, and arguments from antiquity.  Scientific studies are dismissed because they're "all funded by 'Big Pharma'" which explicitly accuses the tens of millions of research scientists and doctors performing long term studies and collecting billions of data points for analysis of being unethical, corrupt, and untrustworthy.  This opinion is based on the false idea that all or even the majority of peer reviewed studies are underwritten by pharmaceutical companies and that all these studies are manipulated and falsified by those companies.  Again, this is insulting to all these scientists that do the work of conducting the studies, running the experiments, crunching the data, and reaching conclusions.  It ignores that these studies, once complete, are then examined and re-examined by other scientists and doctors, that the data is sifted through by people whose sole goal is finding fault with the study.  Most of the time fault is not found or, when it is, it is because a larger study or experiment has been conducted that shows the original findings were not as significant as the data of the smaller study showed.  There is also a huge confusion in the minds of laymen and media that report on these studies as to what statistically significant means.  For instance, if a study shows that the effect of ginkgo extracts is statistically significant that does not mean that anything has occurred other than a measurable change when compared with placebo.  It does not mean that spending $50/month on ginkgo tablets is justified, it means that in this particular study they found an effect that rose above the baseline noise always found in a statistical study.  Subsequent larger studies can show (and in this case have shown) that the effect is so small as to be insignificant and in the smaller study was a fluke of the population involved.  Science moves forward and self corrects.  Belief is stagnant and entrenched.

As far as "Big Pharma" underwriting studies of their own drugs there is no doubt of this.  They have a LOT of money and they must have these studies for the FDA and international regulatory bodies to approve their use as medicine.  There have even been very rare cases of companies hiding data or cherry picking, the most prominent example that comes to my mind is Viox.  The study results were manipulated unethically so that the product's lethality was concealed.  So how was this fraud discovered?  Through the scientific process.  The process of peer review eventually brought out the truth, the drug was recalled (largest in history), and criminal charges were pursued.  This does not happen in the world of herbal supplements and "natural medicine."  The $60 billion/year herbal supplement industry does not underwrite independent peer reviewed examination of their products because they don't have to and because they're well aware that most of their claims will be disproven.  The herbal/dietary supplement industry spends fortunes on lobbying and have several major politicians in their pockets (most notably Senator Orin Hatch).  The industry wrote and pushed through Congress a bill in 1994 that exempted them from the same oversight as medicines.  The only time the FDA can do anything about their products is if they are found to be contaminated, they actually poison people, or the companies make explicit medical claims (which can be skirted by adding the simple statement "this product is not a medicine").

When you buy an herbal supplement you have no way of knowing that it is what it says on the label, much less knowing how much active ingredient is in the pill, or whether or not that herb has any real effect regardless.  But somehow intelligent people who should know better are willing to trust this unregulated and demonstrably fraudulent industry over the entire scientific medical field, impugning all the scientists and doctors involved as being unethical liars.

[A little side note:  so called "boner pills" that claim to be herbal aphrodisiacs are constantly found to be spiked with Viagra.  As soon as they are found out the company folds, the product is pulled from the shelves, a new company is started by the same players, the same spiked product is repackaged and continues to be sold (usually for prices equivalent to or greater than pure, unadulterated Viagra).  Ancient Chinese secret?]

One last point about Big Pharma v. Big Dietary Supplement:  the largest owners of herbal supplement companies are Big Pharma.  Why would companies like Pfizer buy dozens of "dietary supplement" companies?  Because they can make a ton of money with little or no regulation.  Dietary supplements are an out of control cash cow for these mega-corporations.  Those racks of pills at your local health food store are not being made by a conscientious mom & pop company working diligently next to their little garden, they are the same people that make the pills that line the shelves of your pharmacy.  They know they can stuff dried grass into a pill, sell it as St. John's Wort and there will be no consequences but if they sell a tablet of ibuprofen that is full of sugar they'll face huge fines and criminal liability.  The "Big Pharma" argument is in and of itself moot as "Big Pharma" is running both sides of the equation.

So yes, it makes me furious to hear perfectly intelligent people call my friends and relatives liars and frauds while claiming that proven liars and frauds are more trustworthy and honest.

related sources:
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/exposing-nutritional-pseudoscience/
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/science_and_pseudoscience_in_adult_nutrition_research_and_practice/
http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/weight-loss-remedies-plain-pseudoscience/
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/caw43/behrendwriting/Specter,%20Reynold.pdf
http://genome.fieldofscience.com/2010/07/deceptive-marketing-of-dietary.html

Another Teabagger Analogy

Let's say a group of people decides they want to buy a car together.  They work very hard to find something that they can afford if they all chip in and that comes the closest to being what everyone needs.  There's one guy that hates the idea, hates the process, and hates the car even though he'll be able to use it just like all the rest of the people in the group.  That guy then spends the money saved for the car and blames the plan to buy the car, he goes to the dealership and keeps tearing up the paperwork to buy the car, he lets the air out of the tires, but when the car is finally delivered to the group he uses it more than everyone else, and every time he gets a chance he runs it into a telephone pole or drains all the oil and then blames the broken car on everyone but himself. 

The Desperate Lies of the Extreme Right

The GOP claimed "Americans don't want Obamacare."  GOP governors in many states refused to set up their insurance exchanges or otherwise undermined the roll out, all the while claiming Americans were against it and didn't need it.  They spent millions on ads trying scare young people out of signing up.  But so many people didn't want it that the Federal system was overwhelmed and the state systems that were set up were sluggish at first.  Now the GOP is screaming about the website not working (so it's a failure).  Guess what, you lying bastards, in the states not controlled by you traitors it's working just fine and people are relieved and happy to finally have access to reasonable (and in many cases free) health insurance.  I hope everyone remembers this come next November.

News Release from the Bat Shit Crazy Club

Just so you know, this quote is from a satirical site.  The best part is it isn't surprising to anyone.

An Analogy of Teabaggers' Approach to Any Social Program

"Captain!  We've found a stow away!"
"That does it!  Burn all the lifeboats and sink the ship!"

News from the Bat Shit Crazy Club

It would be funnier if it weren't true. 

Tax Graphic

Situation:

A "Christian Bible Camp" passenger van is driving south on Preston St. 

Just after passing Broadway a smallish 90's American "luxury" car driven by an elderly man with wife next to him pulls out too close in front of the van. 

The van's driver has to apply the brakes. 

 Preston right here is very wide and two lanes in one direction. 

 What did the "Christian" do?

A. Calmly change lanes after slowing to avoid the offending vehicle.
B. Honk his horn once and then change lanes and pass the offending vehicle.
C. Hold down the horn and tailgate the slowly accelerating older couple's car for at least two blocks.

Additional information: The van was packed full of young children.

A Little Argument for Changing the Filibuster Rules in the Senate

"From 1949 (when Senate rules were changed to provide for cloture on nominations) through 2008, cloture votes were forced on only 20 executive branch nominations. However, in just the first four and a half years of the Obama administration, there have already been 16 such cloture votes...That's an increase of more than 1,000% in the rate of forced cloture votes on nominations - 20 nominations on which cloture votes were forced in sixty years compared to 16 in just four and a half.  Republicans are on pace to force 28 cloture votes by the end of the Obama administration - more than under all previous presidents combined." via

Griffy on Conspiracy "Theorists"

Though this is an oversimplification (I think many believers are intelligent but confused or crazy) it still would be nice if there were fewer people completely out of touch with reality.

Rand Paul Skips Briefing on NSA Activities So I Write Him a Letter

Mr. Paul,

So you can shout loudly about how offended you are by the NSA's activities but you know so much you can't be bothered to stay for an extensive briefing on the subject?  You are a disgrace to the Senate and to this nation.  http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/305765-senators-skip-classified-briefing-on-nsa-snooping-to-catch-flights-home

Sincerely,
Alan Miller

More Unbelievable Spam - Who Responds to this BS?

(Got this one twice)


Winning Notification 2013©

THE LOTTERY DEPARTMENT BMW

Automobiles

22 Garden Close, Stamford,

Lincs, PE9 2YP, London

United Kingdom

 

Dear Winner,

 

This is to inform you that you have been selected as a winner for a cash prize of ?450,000.00 (four hundred and fifty thousand Great British Pounds) and a brand new BMW 5 Series Car from International programs held on the 28th of May 2013 in London Uk.

 

Description of prize vehicle;

Model: 530iA

Color (exterior): Metallic Silver

Mileage: 5

Transmission: Automatic 6 Speed

 

Options: Cold weather package, premium package, fold down rear seats w/ski bag, am fm stereo with single in dash compact disc player .

 

The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection ballot system from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world which yours and nine others were selected as the winners.

 

The BMW Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). This promotional lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public.

 

To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact our fiduaciary claims department for more infomation as regards procedures to claim your prize.

 

================================================================

BMW LOTTERY DEPARTMENT UK

7 DOCK WAY, SEFTON BUSINESS PARK

LONDON, T40 4RT

United Kingdom

ANDREW WONG

Email: andreww56@yahoo.com.hk

================================================================

 

Contact him by please providing him with your secret pin code X7PWYZ2005 and your Reference Number BMW:2551256003/23. You are also advised to provide him with the under listed informations as soon as possible:

 

1. Name (in full):

2. Address:

3. Nationality:

4. Age:

5. Occupation:

6. Phone/Fax:

7. Country of Residence:

8. Short comment on your occupation. [optional]:

9. Fax [optional]:

10. Email address:

11. Annual income:

==================================================================

Please you are to provide him with the above listed details as soon as possible so he can begin with the processing of your prize winnings.

 

Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

 

Mr. Norbert Benard

THE DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS

BMW LOTTERY DEPARTMENT

UNITED KINGDOM

Subject: OFFICIAL LETTER FROM MICHEAL DRIVER.

KINDLY VIEW ATTACHED LETTER AND GET BACK TO ME.

Sir,

I am Mr.Micheal Driver board of members and executives in American Libyan
chamber of commerce and industry.(ALCCI) but secretly working hand to hand
with the late son of late President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. My full
profile stated to you here is for your confirmation before showing
interest for your record purposes and of whom you are about dealing with.
(http://www.alcci.org/board-and-executives)

Both of us shared a Private account where I do move funds around for him
with some security company's in Asia continent of his choice. Some of
different fund amounting to the worth of $110.500, 000. (One hundred and
Ten Million Five Hundred thousand US Dollars) for investment without any
beneficiary or identification of the principal was pended in different
security Institution waiting for claim.

Sir, because of my serious health condition of Leukemia and some security
reason around me, I cannot be able to move around to move the fund for an
investment, I decided to ask for your assistance for the claim of the fund
since one of the institution where an amount of 10m.dollars was deposited
has asked me to provide for a beneficiary for the fund before they will
get it confiscated without no trace.

If you can assist me in this transaction by receiving the badge
10m.dollars as the beneficiary, I will compensate you with 30% of the
total amount and you will also get benefit from the investment.

More details will be sending to you when I receive your interest response.

Please for the good interest of this transaction to go well, you are
advised to keep it highly confidential as It remains risk free.

Thanks and best regards,

Micheal Driver

Asshole of the Day

A Bunch of Links and Wisdom from @AlanEvil

Just in case you're not following Alan on Twitter here's some highlights of things you should read (or simply hysterical thoughts from) the last week:

REPORT: Swept Up In "Scandal," Network Sunday Shows Drop Coverage Of Economy http://mm4a.org/1bowg2N

It is OK to call Laura Ingraham a stupid fucking cunt, right? http://mm4a.org/11sOZ7D 

Self delusion isn't just a river in Egypt anymore... or something: Straight from the moron files. http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/unskewed-polls-founder-i-was-only-wrong-because … 


It appears not everyone in North Carolina is batshit crazy. http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/60-arrested-in-latest-protest-against-gop-policy …

Sen. Collins: I Was Never Briefed On PRISM http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/ranking-sen-says-she-was-never-briefed-on …  

Cartoonists see more clearly. What a curse. http://derfcity.com/newstuff/newtoon.html … pic.twitter.com/eIYIk3v2WV 

When you say "terrorist acts" doesn't that mean it's terrorism? I just don't get this wingnut linguistic confusion.

@billmaher 's piece on Reagan was fucking awesome. Hopefully that will show up on YouTube so I can send it to certain people. 

@LOLGOP Congrats on leading in Michigan Senate race!

I'm getting the feeling that right wing trolls like to bombard opponents with insults and then block them so they can't reply. Is that fun? 

@Cookiemuffen @mmfa HAHA! And you're obviously a Very Important Person. Gotchya. People "off the grid" defending Fox News always are. 

Liberty v Safety? I think we may have given up way too much for too little. SMBC - June 10, 2013 http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3005 

@ChelseaVPeretti @brendonwalsh @chrisdelia Have a drink before you drive. Less ALL CAPS that way.

I wonder what (GOP) is keeping us from making welfare have no cutoff points (GOP)?

Got blocked by a Faux Noise moron after over a dozen ad hominem and abusive attacks I didn't answer. Way to go, dick.

@mmfa And as Fox does backflips telling its legion of morons Obama ordered the IRS investigations there's this: http://bit.ly/13qbpce 

The GOP in action! RT Fed index ranks Wisconsin 49th in economic outlook http://fb.me/2DU7Askw6  

Yeah, I think I subscribe to one of those: Toothpaste For Dinner: least popular podcasts http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/060913/ 

Don't forget: Guns make you safer. Right? http://nbcnews.to/1bf6mOT 

TX jury says it's ok to shoot a woman if she won't have sex. We've got to fix this #StopViolence http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/texas_woman_shot?referring_akid=.545819.wu6KgY&source=twitter … 

Why Homeless People Don't Use Shelters http://www.squidoo.com/why_homeless_people_avoid_shelters … 

What a maroon. RT Rush Limbaugh: "We are in the midst of a coup taking place" http://mm4a.org/114siaQ 

Ricin doesn't kill people, gun nuts sending it through the mail kill people... with it.

So horrible. I love you so much comic blasphemy! "Caring For Your New Puppy" http://www.comicblasphemy.com/comics/2013-06-06.jpg … 

@peterbakernyt @nytimes "It would embarass us and you would hate us if you knew so it's secret." Nothing new with this admin, just more. 

@fakedansavage a) find picture of shocked Richard Nixon, b) create meme: "Fags eat what?"

Facism, it's here, it's now, it spreads like a disease... pic.twitter.com/doNJQNR5Uj 

@hodgman @travismcelroy I will be making puppets and causing them to speak the seven words that break the boundaries between earth and hell.

@habitual_grump @mmfa I don't think it is unfair to scrutinize"Taxed Enough Already."aand the one application denied? http://bit.ly/ZTJuVp 

@habitual_grump @mmfa They called themselves Teabaggers to begin with. And yes, I have utter contempt for those morons. 

Here's what happens when you turn things over to "The Market": http://bit.ly/1bafQLj  (and yes, we're getting there, thanks to capitalism).

@TheTweetOfGod I can remember when God just spoke to me. Now he tweets at me. What's next? Facebook friend poking me?

@marcmaron Rules fuck dogma grammar is.

@baldwin100 @mmfa Why does anyone question the decision to grill the fuck out of groups whose raison d'etre is hating taxes?

@habitual_grump @mmfa This IRS BS is not a scandal. The Teabaggers deserved close scrutiny. You want a real scandal? http://bit.ly/16L89yo 

That sound? Conservatives' heads exploding, even though they're usually really good at cognitive dissonance. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/05/966121/obamacare-birth-control-abortion/ … 

@baldwin100 @mmfa Are you aware that more progressive and liberal groups applying for 501(c)(4) status were targeted? F* the teabaggers IMHO

When the truth just doesn't do it for you: FOX NOISE. http://mm4a.org/12twfMA 

Remember: guns keep you safe. http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/13-year-old-texas-girl-shot-killed-while … via @tomkludt 

@NextNewDeal @LOLGOP @NickBaumann It's because the criminal rich are always finding better ways to steal our wealth at every point in life.

Health care, student loans, credit cards, payday loans: It's how the criminal rich steal our wealth. They write the laws, not us.

Boy, talk about a lesson in how f*ed up this Congress is: http://on.cc.com/14rcaRu  via @ColbertReport