Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal

Chris Mooney and Michael Specter along with others did a lecture at MIT last April. MIT has put the video up online and it is well worth a view.

The topic was denialism and disinformation. How can so many people believe things that someone tells them with no critical thinking. (My post on Authoritarians goes along with this quite well I suspect)

I regularly get asked if the world is going to end in 2012, and amazingly I am still getting comments from buyers defending their purchase of the iRenew and Q-Ray bracelets!

Frank Adams has a must read article on the NPR web site.

Click the image below to read it.

Click to read.

He is absolutely right. We are totally failing in America to educate our young people in science. Don’t believe me? Attend any college graduation, and look at the nationality of those who are getting the PhD’s.

Sign advertising the Power Balance Bracelets. (Pic taken by my wife)

So I go out to eat on my birthday Wednesday and what do I see?

This sign at a fitness store next to my fave tex-mex place.

Could it be another scam.

Yes indeedy!

I wonder how many thousands they have scammed??

Let’s take a look at their website and see what unscientific goodies we can find.

Here is what they claim on their web site:

•What is Power Balance?

Power Balance is Performance Technology designed to work with your body’s natural energy field. Founded by athletes, Power Balance is a favorite among elite athletes for whom balance, strength and flexibility are important.

•How Does the Hologram Work?

Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body.

from plognark's blog- gotta love it.

Ok, I have just a few questions if I may.

1. What is the body’s “natural energy field”?? What is it composed of and how is it generated?

2. How is it measured?

3. Who discovered it? Has anyone taken a picture of it??

4. Have there been any papers published on it in a peer reviewed scientific/medical journal?

5. How is this natural energy field connected to the health of someone?

6. Is it radiation? Is it dangerous radiation? Do some people have an energy field while others do not?

7. Do fat people have a bigger field than skinny people? Does it get weaker as you age?

8. How does your little piece of plastic with a hologram printed on it resonate with this so called field?

9. If it does resonate with it, how could this affect the body?

10. How much money have you paid these athletes to claim a piece of plastic and silicone worn on the wrist can do anything other than make your wrist sweat??

The fact that thousands of people are buying this junk is proof positive of the lack of basic science literacy in America. If you are taking a class somewhere and you see one of these on your instructors wrist- run!

A couple of TED talks That should leave you angry.

It does me.
First is the slurry of plastic we now have in our oceans. One thing you can do is to NEVER use plastic at the grocery store.

Next are one of my favourite subjects.
Penguins.
They truly are the warning sign of what we are doing to our oceans. Nearly every species on the planet is in sharp decline and Penguins are no different. Pollution and climate change are the main causes. Listen to Penguin expert Dee Boersma:

The oceans are dying and so is the life that live in them. We mammals cannot survive without the oceans either.

A link on the CNN website lead me to a couple of must see videos. Both are by vbs.tv. The first is on the most polluted city on Earth. Linfen, China.

You may not know it but about 1% of all air pollution in the United States is estimated to originate in China. It takes a lot of coal to make the electricity to run the factories that make all that stuff you see in Wal Mart and Best Buy and Ikea. The Asian Brown Cloud is HUGE.

The next video is also by VBS. It’s about the great garbage dump in the Pacific Gyre. The gyre is where ocean currents in the Pacific spiral together. It forms because of a semi permanent high pressure area that sits over the North Pacific. The clockwise flow of winds around this high blow across the water and induce the currents. Just like in the air, the moving water gets turned to the right (left) in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere by the Coriolis affect.

Other gyres exist in the Atlantic as well.

This video is over an hour long, but well worth watching. (Warning for strong language)

Something to think about the next time the person at the supermarket says: “Paper or plastic?”

Dan