At least they weren’t facebook quizzes

via Alan @ Critical Mass Podcast.

Most of these quizzes were from oneplusyou – which also has a bunch of blog bumper stickers.

Created by Recipe Star

I think I may need to stay away from Alan, and my other vegetarian friends, in the event of cannibal-eating situation.

54%

Created by OnePlusYou – Free Dating Site

I will blame this abysmal score on living in a large city, and not having enough canned food products.

23

Created by OnePlusYou – Free Dating Site

Created by Recipe Star

Created by OnePlusYou – Free Online Dating

Created by OnePlusYou – Free Dating Site

Procrastalicioius

Okay, I’m gonna use work as a flimsy excuse for not posting lately.

Went to Auckland last week (will have to upgrade my flickr and show picks), Melbourne the week before (please do not ask) – and go to Adelaide next week (will take my iBook and try and blog during downtime, if I get any*).

Anyway, let’s be clear, I’m not dead yet, and I do have some writing left in me (I think). Stay tuned for dolphins, zombies, and how effective old episodes of House as teaching tools in medical schools.

But that can wait. Instead I’m gonna take some internet quizzes.

*what else is there to do in Adelaide

Lying to children is good for them

Somone often tells me:

Adults you know and trust will not only lie to you, but they’ll do it because its fun.

There’s stories about the bogeyman, Santa Claus giving presents, zombie Jesus, the Tooth Faerie trading scheme, and of course, what exactly really did happen to Rover when Mummy forgot to check her rearview mirrors.

Is fun the only reason why we befuddle the youth in this way?

Well, now scientific studies have given us another reason: It works!

When 186 four-year olds were given carrots called “X-ray Vision Carrots” ate nearly twice as much as they did on the lunch days when they were simply labeled as “carrots.”

Early carrot-marketing studies conducted with standard animal models were halted by Cornell’s ethics commitee

…Oh… dear…

I think that might fall under “false and misleading claims” line found in in most advertising codes.

I don’t think this quite matches up with calls to improve schoolyard scientific literacy by not only promoting the concept of “X-ray vision” (that’s not how x-rays work!) but also that eating lots carrots is good for your eyes.

You can’t try to promote good nutrition and make children more aware of how the food choices they make affect them by just simply to get them to follow the whizz-bang empty marketing jargon that got us here in the first place.

Lying to children is NOT good for them.

Image: Carrots! by marmotto (CCbyA-NC)

Townsville 1; Bolivia 18

Not quite the competition you want to be winning though.

Northern Queensland is currently suffering the worst dengue fever epidemic “since WWII“. Last reports I heard, cases were over 200, outbreaks of all four types of dengue have been reported, and the first casualty had occured last week.

Hopefully it will serve as a reminder that appropriate anti-mosquito health regulations on domestic gardens, water tank filters and other breeding grounds do need to be followed – or there can be dire consequences.

However it also important to note that Bolivia is currently suffering from its own dengue epidemic. Wikipedia puts cases around 31,000 and deaths at 18.

Laws of denialism: The facts-to-rage ratio

An interesting analysis on denialism from the latest Annals of Improbable Research (Mini-AIR):

2009-03-05 Global Warming Nutshell Sheet, and the F/R Ratio

Investigator Grover Winthrop composed a handy “in-a-nutshell study sheet” for scientists who are confused by the great debate about global warming.

Winthrop writes: “People tell me there’s a debate about global warming. Yet these days I don’t meet any any competent scientists who see it as a debate. So here – for my colleagues – is a guide to what people mean when they tell us there is a debate:

1. Global warming is not happening
2. It causes no problems
3. It’s not caused by human engineering
4. Whatever problems it causes are easily solved by engineering.

“What we are seeing here,” enthuses Winthrop, “is the birth ofsome new kind of logic. It’s fascinating.”

Investigator Daniele Ramos, too, has been fascinated by reports that there is a debate. She alerts us to a simple tool she uses to analyze the debaters’ arguments. Ramos writes: “The arguments I’ve heard and read (saying there’s no global warming problem) nearly always have a very low F/R ratio. The F/R ratio – the ‘Facts-to-Rage ratio’ – was invented (I think) by the journalist Josh Marshall. As soon as I find myself in a discussion with someone whose argument has a very low F/R ratio,I relax and simply enjoy the spectacle. It does wonders for my stress level.”

Does this mean global warming deniers are spouting “hot air”.

But can it play mp3s?

Could people please stop stealing my awesome ideas… (I swear I thought of them first, stop reading my mind!)

Christie has found someone has started making personal genomics art.

Now I also read in the paper that China has started producing electronic smoke-less cigarettes, “e-cigs”. While the UK is letting them through without much regulation (if any?). Australia and the US have said no, for now. Why?

These are medical devices. Much like a ventolin inhaler. They deliver a drug, nicotine, to your body’s organ systems. While perhaps not the most carcinogenic substance in cigarette, nicotine is far from harmless. This is why certain nicotine replacement products are only available through prescription.

I suppose some consolation is the fact that the e-cig allows satisfaction of oral cravings while limiting substance abuse to the consumer alone. Placing it in the murky waters of other legal addictive recreational products like alcohol and caffeine.

An interesting thought thought:

Could the e-cig technology be adapted for delivery of therapeutic drugs (asthma medication), or even non-medical compounds (say fruit flavoured).

No teacher left behind

If your teacher doesn’t know any better, how can we expect you?

How your body works is no longer a mystery. Babies are not tiny miracles. And “Better Living Through Chemistry” does not mean what they think it does…

While not quite so abrupt as that, this press release from the University of Colorado makes a point – increasing scientific literacy is the primary method by which we can protect future generations from becoming victims of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo jargon overload. This will not happen without similarily increasing the scientific literacy of teachers in topics such as basic biology, biochemistry and genetics.

Information from me and you

In an effort to fight the looming competition from Wikipedia (remember the comparison back in 2005; Nature, BBC), Encyclopedia Britannica has decided to put some dramatic changes into action…

No, not quite that dramatic.

But they are  going to start to allow some user-driven content:

Readers and users will also be invited into an online community where they can work and publish at Britannica’s site under their own names. Interested users will be able to prepare articles, essays, and multimedia presentations on subjects in which they’re interested. Britannica will help them with research and publishing tools and by allowing them to easily use text and non-text material from Encyclopaedia Britannica in their work. We will publish the final products on our site for the benefit of all readers, with all due attribution and credit to the people who created them. The authors will have the option of collaborating with others on their work, but each author will retain control of his or her own work. – Britannica Blog

The main encyclopedia ” will continue to be edited according to the most rigorous standards” – but will now allow basic users”to suggest text changes, updates, photos, videos, bibliographies, Web links and other reference materials and improvements”. Most importantly, Britannica will recognise this content: “Anyone whose contributions are accepted for publication will be credited in detailed article-history pages in the encyclopedia.”

The core expert editor community, with user community advice, all by attribution is also the model being used by Medpedia. Which launched earlier in February.

The future of online user generated content?

So it has started…

Terrestrials must remain united against the aquatic threat.

Rising shark attacks in Sydney!

Cephalopod takeover attempt foiled in Santa Monica!

Look at the size of this stingray! (We all know what stingrays do to Australians…*)

Remain alert but not alarmed land-dwellers. If you know or suspect anyone of being a sympathiser to the marine cause, report them immediately to your local authorities.

This menace will not be allowed to affect our way of life.

*too early?