Science

The dangers of listening to The Living Dinosaur in work

Posted on 16th May 2016 by mh

I’ve ripped The Living Dinosaur‘s Holy Hallucinations series to MP3 so I can listen to them while working.

It’s just because he rips a new arsehole for everyone he crosses, he makes me chuckle away to myself.

However, listening to Holy Hallucinations 17 in work, I got to this point and laughed out loud in the office. He’s replying to some prick about how great the human species is, and then lists superior aspects of other species.

And this is the bit that made me laugh.

It just so happened that I started laughing just as a developer turned around, so I’ve made him a little paranoid 🙂

Fundamentally Flawed: End of Year Special 2014

Posted on 5th January 2015 by mh

Blame it on a bizarre alignment of the planets, or Nibiru, or just plain boredom, but on December 30th 2014 Fundamentally Flawed reunited for a one-off* podcast special.

With Alex, Kat, my good self, Peter and later on ~~a pissed up~~ Jim, we discuss some of the events of 2014 (thanks to Wikipedia’s exhaustive list of events and deaths)

WARNING! This contains video of me and my comedy accent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sj1vy2u3XE

* probably not.

Testing Geocentrism – Part 10

Posted on 13th September 2014 by mh

Part ten in a series taking a wry look at geocentrism and how it stacks up against reality. In this part we work through fixing problems with Tycho Brahe’s version of geocentrism, arriving at a Universe with a glaring problem, and ask whether anyone could be stupid enough to posit such a Universe as a geocentric one.

Guidance: Contains some mild language within a comedy context.

Thanks to Mahrai ZIller for the helix animation in this video. If you’d like to see flat Earthers and other 21st Century F**kwits being thoroughly shown up, check out his channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRfHMZOCXSbFsGOKFKyt_qw

Testing Geocentrism – Part 9

Posted on 24th April 2014 by mh

Part nine in a series taking a wry look at geocentrism and how it stacks up against reality. This part continues examining the Sky Fairy Conjecture, and finds out what lumps of rock and metal have to say about that and geocentrism.

Guidance: Contains some mild language within a comedy context.

Spirit Science Tests Spirit Science

Posted on 21st January 2014 by mh

Spirit Science gets candid and guides us through some of the key failures of intellectual integrity in his last video, before showing how sacred geometry can be used to say anything. Find out how your Mind’s Arse connects to your chakra as exciting new discoveries from the Hippy Thoughtspace are revealed, and never look at woo in the same way again!

Spirit “science” video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWPi4dbLdnw

Testing Geocentrism – Part 8

Posted on 20th December 2013 by mh

Part eight in a series taking a wry look at geocentrism and how it stacks up against reality. This part continues looking at light in the form of the CMB, before considering the formation of other worlds in the Universe. What can these tell us about geocentrism and the Sky Fairy Conjecture?

Guidance: Contains some mild language within a comedy context.

Testing Geocentrism – Part 7

Posted on 27th October 2013 by mh

Part seven in a series taking a wry look at geocentrism and how it stacks up against reality. This part takes a look at light, which as we all know was deemed “good” by 8 out of 10 sky fairies. What then does this good light tell us about the stars, and Earth’s place in the Universe?

Guidance: Contains some mild language within a comedy context.

Testing Homeopathy – Part 3: Research Evidence?

Posted on 8th September 2013 by mh

Homeopathy defies fundamental physics, chemistry and biology. In this video we’ll see how much evidence the Society of Homeopaths was able to bring to bear when a complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority, and we’ll look at some of the papers they didn’t present to the ASA.

The ASA’s ruling:
http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2013/7/Society-of-Homeopaths/SHP_ADJ_157043.aspx

Referenced papers:

CHILDHOOD DIARRHOEA :
Jacobs et al 2003: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12634583

Other papers:
Jacobs et al 1994: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8165068
Jacbos et al 2000: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10784270
Jacobs et al 2006: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17034278

CHRONIC FATIGUE:
Davison et al 2011: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21733480

Other papers:
Awdry et al 1996: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=194209#REF-JRV10026-52
Weatherly-Jones et al 2004: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15016577
Alraek et al 2011: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3201900/pdf/1472-6882-11-87.pdf
Reid et al 2011: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3275316/pdf/2011-1101.pdf

Mental Fatigue:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3517425/pdf/1472-6882-12-167.pdf

FIBROMYALGIA:
Davidson et al 2011: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21733480
Perry et al 2010: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20099019

INFLUENZA:
Vickers et al 2006: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16855981

Other papers:
Mathie et al 2012: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23235586

Other info:
http://www.skepdic.com/oscillococcinum.html
http://www.csicop.org/news/press_releases/show/leading_scientists_and_physicians_rebuke_walmart_for_selling_ineffective_fl

PMS:
Yakir et al 2001: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11479782

Other papers:
Danno et al 2013: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23290881

Exercise for PMS:
Vishnupriya et al 2011: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23204690

RHEUMATIC DISEASES:

Other papers:
Jacobs et al 1991: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2008219
Fisher & Scott 2001: http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/40/9/1052.full.pdf+html
Andrade et al 1991: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2068543

SINUSITIS:
Friese & Zabalotnyi 2007: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17180695
Zabalotnyi et al 2007: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17362845
Wiesenauer et al 1989: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2667526

Testing Homeopathy – Part 2

Posted on 10th August 2013 by mh

Homeopathy defies fundamental physics, chemistry and biology. What does it take to become a homeopath? No training is needed at all, but in this video we compare what seems to be the last BSc Homeopathy course in Britain with a BSc in medicine. The claim that the Swiss Government has endorsed homeopathy is also examined.

References:

The Centre for Homeopathic Education:
http://www.homeopathycollege.org/

Imperial College London’s medicine course:
http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/teaching/undergraduate/mbbsbscmedicine/

The Contemporary College of Homeopathy:
www.conhom.com/professional-homeopathy-training.php

Society of Homeopaths article of 10 April 2012:
http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/2012/04/swiss-scientists-endorse-homeopathy-evidence

Natural News’ version of Ullman’s article:
http://www.naturalnews.com/035499_homeopathic_medicine_Swiss_report.html

HometopathyPlus’ version repeating claim of “government report”:
http://homeopathyplus.com.au/homeopathy-%E2%80%9Ccost-effective%E2%80%9D-swiss-government/

The Huffington Post original:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathic-medicine-_b_1258607.html

Swiss Medical Weekly, “The report “Homeopathy in healthcare: effectiveness, appropriateness, safety, costs” is not a “Swiss report””:
http://www.smw.ch/content/smw-2012-13723/

The PEK, and Shang et al’s paper:
http://www.bag.admin.ch/themen/krankenversicherung/00263/00264/04102/index.html

Sven Rudloff’s translation and analysis of the PEK:
http://www.zenosblog.com/2012/05/that-neutral-swiss-homeopathy-report/

The Quackometer’s “The Swizz Report on Homeopathy”:
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2012/05/the-swizz-report-on-homeopathy.html

The House of Commons Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/45.pdf

Other resources for the interested:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/category/homeopathy/

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/fun-with-homeopaths-and-meta-analyses-of-homeopathy-trials/

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/switzerland-endorse-homeopathy/

http://www.quackometer.net