Relatively Interesting

Homeopathic Birth Control: Evessla

2012-01-17T09:45:00.003-05:00

This advertisement is a fake*, but it still got my attention. Why? Because I can imagine a scenario where a product like this exists, and where a company would try to use the pseudoscience behind homeopathy to market the product.

If you can't see the text, it reads: Evessla, the homeopathic birth control pill. Up to 100% effective, no side effects, and made with real human fetus. (wtf?)

The small print?

" * When used in conjunction with a condom or withdrawal. Effectiveness is reduced if sexual intercourse occurs during ovulation. Do not consult your family doctor. Fetal ingredients obtained strictly from miscarriages."

Ok, so why is this ad even plausible?

The "law of infinitesimals" in homeopathy states that dilution of the medical ingredient increases the curative power of homeopathy medications. The medical ingredient often gives the "opposite" side effect of the desired result. For example, you'd take a homeopathic dose of caffeine as a sleep aid. In our Evessla example, you'd take a... well, you get the picture (and hence, the joke).

Back to the law of infinitesimals: this means that a part-per-million solution of a substance is more medicinally powerful than a part-per-thousand solution, which has in turn more curative power than a part-per-hundred solution. In contrast, many of our modern drugs are ineffective in small quantities and the efficacy increases with dosage.

Let us put modern medicine aside and consider the dosages involved in homeopathy.

Homeopathic medicines come in 12x, 24x, 28x dilutions ("28x" means the solution has been diluted 28 times) . If a substance were to be diluted 30 times, this means that there would be one part medicine to one trillion quadrillion parts water (or other inert ingredient). That's a 1 with 27 zeros, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

What does this mean? It means that a homeopathic solution is effectively water. Nothing more. Yet, it is sold, and people buy it. Homeopathy defies the laws of physics and chemistry, but due to effective marketing and a proper lack of FDA involvement, homeopathic "remedies" continue to be sold alongside legitimate medications. Evessla, while fake, serves as a great discussion point for skeptics and homeopathic practioners alike, poking fun at the implausibility of homeopathic medicine.

To learn more about the extremely small dilutions involved in homeopathy, and to help visualize scale within our universe, read "Understanding Scale: The Universe, Atoms, and Homeopathy"

* Based on several Google searches... the ad seems to originate from "thecreationnews.com" which no longer appears to be active.

The Red Flags of Quackery: A Handy Guide

2012-01-13T22:59:00.000-05:00

The folks over at at www.sci-ence.org have put together a fantastic comic highlighting the red flags of quackery. It covers the common logical fallacies that tend to fool consumers. If you come across a treatment or product that seems too good to be true... assume that it probably is too good to be true, and then consult this guide. Buyer beware...

Be a guest blogger and write for us!

2012-01-10T17:00:00.002-05:00

Do you want to contribute to Relatively Interesting.com? If you would like to be a guest blogger for us, or if you have an existing article that you'd like post on our site, email us at relatively.interesting AT. gmail dot com.

Wondering what to write about?
Try... Pseudoscience in general, cryptozoology (Bigfoot, Loch Ness, etc), homeopathy, anti-vaccination, conspiracy theories (Big Pharma, 9/11, etc), unproven medical treatments (snake oils), alternative medicine, myths, urban legends, rumors, UFOs, fraud, hoaxes, new age beliefs, religion, philosophy, evolution vs creationism, the scientific method, incredible images from the sciences: physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy (to name a few), debating methods, the paranormal or supernatural… anything that you and our readers might find, well, relatively interesting.

Read our Editorial Policy to make sure your article is in-line with the site, and if it's a good fit, we'll publish it!

Send us an email at relatively.interesting AT. gmail dot com or leave a comment pointing us in the right direction.

Celebrities and Misinformed Science Claims

2011-12-29T12:03:00.000-05:00

Sense About Science is a charitable organization that equips people to make sense of science and evidence.

Since 2006, they have reviewed the misinformed science claims that celebrities have made - about diets, cancer, magnets, radiation, and more. Many of these claims promote theories, therapies and campaigns that make no scientific sense and are not backed by legitimate scientific evidence. Sense About Science then works with scientists to respond to these claims, helping the celebrities to realize where they are going wrong and helping the public make sense of these often strange claims.

A few of the highlights from the report include:

Jersey Shore's Snooki's remark that the oceans are salty due to an abundance of whale sperm... Snooki, that would have to be a lot of sperm to make the entire ocean salty.
Bill O’Reilly, US TV host and political commentator reference to the tides: “In my opinion – alright? Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can’t explain that. You can’t explain why the tide goes in.” Bill, try "the moon's gravitational force."
Michelle Bachman, member of the US House of Representatives and Republican Presidential Candidate, told journalists: “There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given the [HPV] vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences.” In reality, there is no evidence to suggest that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation or that there are dangerous consequences. Cervical cancer, however, does cause deaths. The vaccination program in the UK is forecast to save 400 lives per year.

Why is the report relevant and important?

Tracey Brown, Managing Director at Sense About Science for the Guardian UK explains:

"Celebrity claims have a particular kind of reach. They boast a large share of high-impact broadcast and social media followed by the longevity of weekly and monthly magazines which then float around indefinitely in doctors' waiting rooms. Once uttered, their views go viral and global, and it is hard to mount an effective response, especially on subjects like vaccine safety. It’s tempting to dismiss celebrity comments on science and health, but their views travel far and wide and, once uttered, a celebrity cancer prevention idea or environmental claim is hard to reverse. At a time when celebrities dominate the public realm, the pressure for sound science and evidence must keep pace."

Sense About Science is doing their part to promote critical thinking and skepticism. Read the report,download the PDF for free, and share it to do your part.

Psychic Fails: 2011 Failed and Forgotten Predictions

2011-12-20T15:54:00.000-05:00

Each year at RelativelyInteresting.com, we take a look at some of the world’s premier psychics and evaluate the accuracy of their predictions. The year 2011 has come and gone, so let’s see how they fared…

Psychic Craig and Jane Hamilton-Parker

Here is what the Craigs had to say about 2011:

Prediction: Tropical Island is evacuated due to volcanic eruption

Wow – so general. Any island along the Ring of Fire could be a target, and that’s a lot of targets. This is an easy “hit” because it’s so predictable. Doesn't count.

Prediction: Earthquake in California and the famous Hollywood sign is damaged.

Looks like it’s still standing, unscathed…

Prediction: Wild animal disease scare results in mass slaughter of livestock.

Nooooope.

Prediction: In February the Beckhams reveal that are planning a divorce.

Not that I care about this one in the slightest… but they are still together as of December 18^th, 2011: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20111218/david-beckham-post-los-angeles-galaxy-moves-111218/

Prediction: Liverpool wins the FA cup

Nope, someone else won. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_FA_Cup_Final

Prediction: Leading politician dies in a plane crash

A bit more specific, maybe? A president? Prime minister? A cabinet minister? Come on.

Psychic Nikki

She has hundreds of predictions on her website, but let’s take a look at a few of them…

Prediction: The Playboy Mansion will burn down.

This would have been big news, but alas, it did not happen.

Prediction: A gold rush will occur in Hawaii.

Nope, didn’t happen.

Prediction: The first brain transplant will take place.

Seriously? Didn’t even come close.

Prediction: A horseshoe-shaped UFO will be spotted over Roswell, New Mexico.

Swing and a miss.

Prediction: Hilary Clinton will win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nope. It was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman.

Prediction: A big computer virus will take out large swathes of communication for a 48-hour period, which could affect air travel.

Fail.

Monte the Psychic

According to Monte, “I have been having psychic experiences since I was 8 years old, but have been working with Angels & Guides for the last three decades doing readings and workshops for Spiritual awareness”. On his website, he states that “No other psychic in the world has posted more than 500 future World Predictions since 2008 with more accuracy!”

That sounds really impressive. Let's see how he did...

Prediction: 2011 will be a year of economic change for most people by late Summer from high food cost and major shortages all over the world due to soaring grain and corn prices…Expect to see food protest in China, Russia, the UK, and USA….

Food protests are nothing new, and “a year of economic change” can easily be considered a “hit” any year. Doesn’t count.

Prediction: North & South Korea will continue their fighting and economic collapse is coming to N.Korea before late Winter which will trigger a revolt in their country by citizens wanting change, the leader at that time, Kim Jong Un may not survive the revolt, or he may go into hiding in China…

Completely wrong, and considering that Kim Jong Il died on December 19^th, 2011, wouldn’t Monte try to predict that?

Prediction: Russia and China will sign a major military pact that will make them a dominant world power rivaling NATO….

I missed hearing about this in the news – perhaps it’s a secret.

Prediction: A major volcano eruption in Indonesia will become the largest in that country’s history, killing many, the people there need to leave now to be safe.

Again, fairly easy to consider a “hit” since there are many active volcanoes in the region. There was one, in fact (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/15/indonesian-volcano-erupts) but it wasn’t the largest in the country’s history.

Prediction: A device to allow people to levitate will be built where you can walk on a platform and levitate…

I hoped this one would be true, but alas, no such device exists.

Prediction: Japan and China will have a military standoff after more ships are sunk near a disputed Japanese Island by China almost bringing these countries to war, Russia will intervene to settle the dispute.. …

Didn’t happen…

Prediction: The US military will sabotage President Obama’s administration by leaking damaging information on him to the public…

Didn’t happen…

Sidney Friedman

We then took a look at Sidney Friedman. Friedman bills himself as ‘psychic to the stars’.

Prediction: Lady Gaga becomes a teacher at a university. Maybe it’s just for a day or two, but she lectures at a school of higher learning.

This is a useless prediction. I’m at a loss for words.

Prediction: Economically in the U.S., I sense the climate in some ways continues to improve, slowly but surely.

He had a 50/50 chance of getting this right, and he got it!

Prediction: This I truly hope does not occur: A major league baseball player inexplicably dies on the field.

As far I could tell, one active MLB player died in 2011, but it was not on the field – it was a stabbing. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7266671/2011-mlb-death-mariners-greg-halman-leaves-some-stunned Sorry, Sidney, this doesn’t count as a hit.

Prediction: I am not precisely certain of what this is, but an explosion in the sky is seen in the middle part of the country.

Could you be more specific? Seriously – this could be a plane, a meteor, a flare, a hot air balloon… this is so general that it probably happened a number of times, but was so insignificant that it was never reported in the news.

The Psychic Twins

Psychic Twins, Terry and Linda Jamison, claim to have been the only psychics to predict the 9/11 attacks. They have been correct on a number of predictions which have given them a high profile in the United States.

Here’s their predictions for 2011:

Prediction: President Barrack Obama will not be re-elected, and more women will come to power in the next a few years.

This might happen in 2012, but all one must do is look at the US opinion polls to make an educated guess. I wouldn’t really consider this a “hit” even if it comes true.

Prediction: There will be many medical breakthroughs for diseases such as cancer in general, including lung cancer, colon cancer, bone cancer, as well as diabetes, heart diseases in the year of 2011.

It’s pretty fair to say there will be “medical breakthroughs” because 1) it’s hard to define what’s a “breakthrough”, and 2) they chose diseases/conditions that are heavily funded and researched – so there’s a decent chance that if there’s a discovery or “breakthrough”, then it will be for one of those diseases/conditions.

Prediction: They have predicted job recoveries, especially in the second half of this year, albeit they are slow job recoveries.

This is a safe bet. The unemployment rate did decrease in 2011 compared to 2010, but, it’s important to note that it actually increased in June (the start of the second half of the year), and then dropped again in November. So you see, as soon as they try to get specific, they… fail.

Ooops... What About These Forgotten Predictions?

The year 2011 also had some epic moments in the news… and you will note that the psychics above failed to predict any of them.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the associated nuclear crisis
Bin Laden's Death
Tucson, Arizona Shooting Rampage
Death Amy Winehouse
Occupy Wall Street
Kim Jong Ill's death
Arab Spring
Penn State abuse scandal
Steve Job's death
Tornadoes across Midwest and Southeastern U.S.
EU Fiscal Crisis

Wouldn't it have been incredibly useful for the public to know where the tsunami would hit Japan? What about saving the military's 10 year hunt for Bin Laden... and just telling them where he was hiding? Maybe a little warning about the Tucson shootings? No. Nothing. Why? Because no psychic can predict anything useful with any sort of accuracy. Good luck in 2012.

A Sobering Fact: Popular Articles Usually Have Something to do with Sex or the Paranormal

2011-11-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

I like to keep track of popular science web sites and which articles collect the most traffic, which are most popular, and which are shared on social networks.

I couldn't help but notice that on LiveScience.com, the Popular Posts widget shows five stories, and none of them are based on hard science. Their top stories are often related to sex or the paranormal. As of November 14th, 2011, the top articles were, in order:

1: 11/11/11 How Friday is tied to the Mayan Apocalypse
2: Sex With Animals Linked to Penile Cancer
3: Asian Ancestors Had Sex With Mysterious Human Cousins
4: Lair of Ancient 'Kraken' Sea Monster Possibly Uncovered
5: Do Einstein's Laws Prove Ghosts Exist?

Now, to be fair, the content of these articles are ultimately based on hard science. The titles are chosen to provide link bait for users - so I don't fault the creators of the site. In fact, LiveScience.com is one of the sites I will occasionally use as a reference for content. What I am surprised at, is how popular the paranormal and sex are, even on a science-based website.

Which begs the question: are people looking to find the truth (science-based evidence), or are they looking to further support their own beliefs?

15 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Use Bottled Water

2011-11-14T05:04:00.000-05:00

According to the Earth Policy Institute, in 1976, Americans drank an average of 1.6 gallons of bottled water per year.

That number has risen to 30 gallons per year today. This massive increase of portable water comes with a hefty price tag – both economically and environmentally.

1 Bottled water is 240 to 10,000 times more expensive than tap water.

2 The production of bottled water containers requires millions of barrels of oil per year.

3 The transportation of those bottles releases thousands of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is what only one tonne looks like:

4 American purchase 29 billion bottles of water every year, which requires 17 million barrels of oil to produce them (the equivalent amount of oil used to run 1 million cars for a year). To get some perspective on how huge a number that is, look at the diagram below. If each bottle were a penny, this is what only 10 billion pennies would look like:

5 In 2006, the equivalent of 2 billion half-liter bottles arrived in U.S. ports, according to the NRDC.

6 Fiji, for example, shipped 18 million gallons of bottled water to California, releasing about 2,500 tons of transportation-related pollution.

7 The Earth Policy Institute estimates that the energy used to pump, process, transport and refrigerate bottled water is over 50 million barrels of oil annually

8 According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature, roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.

9 Bottled water isn't always as safe as tap water. The NRDC conducted a four-year study of the bottled water industry and that roughly 22 percent of the water tested contained contaminant levels that exceeded strict state health limits. One study found that hormone-disrupting phthalates had leached into bottled water that had been stored for 10 weeks.

10 Bottled water, because it is defined as a “food” under federal regulations, is under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration while the Environmental Protection Agency —under much stricter standards—regulates tap water. Also, while municipal water systems must test for harmful microbiological content in water several times a day, bottled water companies are required to test for these microbes only once a week.

11 Spring water is not even necessarily from a spring: According to the NRDC, “An estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not.” Sometimes, it's basically just municipal water that's been filtered and bottled, then sold to the consumer with a huge margin.

12 Bottled water doesn’t even taste better. In an (non-scientific) study conducted by Showtime television, the hosts found that 75% of tested New York City residents actually preferred tap water over bottled water in a blind taste test. Penn and Teller performed a similar study on their show, Bullshit!

13 Think recycling is the solution? Think again. According to the NRDC, the recycling rate for those 29 billion bottles of water mentioned early is very low; only about 13 percent end up in the recycling bin. In 2005, roughly 2 million tons of water bottles ended up in U.S. landfills

14 Plastic bottles take centuries to decompose and if they are incinerated, toxic byproducts, such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals, are released into the atmosphere.

15 The bottles are not really considered safe for reuse. According to Health Canada,

Health Canada does not recommend the reuse of single-use bottles because the reuse poses a potential microbiological risk if not cleaned properly. Studies on reusing single-use bottles have found that depending on the source of the water used and the general hygiene of the user, the growth of bacteria in the bottle can vary from negligible to potentially hazardous. Health Canada suggests that people use wide-necked bottles that can be thoroughly washed with hot soapy water between uses.

So there you have it - 15 reasons why bottled water is ridiculous, nonsensical, and one of the greatest marketing ploys ever to be conceived. Drink the water from your tap: it's cheap, it's safe, and there's much less of an impact on our environment.

References:
http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/water-bottle-pollution-2947.html?source=glmore
http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/
http://www.allaboutwater.org/environment.html
http://www.energyrace.com/commentary/what_does_a_ton_of_co2_look_like/
http://hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/securit/facts-faits/faqs_bottle_water-eau_embouteillee-eng.php#a16

Just because it's natural, doesn't mean it's safe.

2011-11-09T07:00:00.007-05:00

According to the Courier Mail, an Australian news website, more than 200,000 practitioners work in unregistered health fields Australia-wide and complementary medicines generate almost $2 billion a year, but little can be done when treatments go wrong.

In a assessment of consumer-protection measures, Queensland's health watchdog admitted it was powerless to respond to the misconduct of alternative healers and other unregistered practitioners.

"The status quo does not sufficiently protect consumers from (the) risk of harm from unregistered health practitioners," the Health Quality and Complaints Commission said in a confidential paper obtained by The Sunday Mail.

Naturopathy, faith and spiritual healing, Chinese medicine, homeopathy, and massage are among the unregulated fields in Queensland, with the medical community warning of a health "time bomb".

In Australia, there "is a public health issue waiting to explode," said UQ School of Population Health researcher Jon Wardle, who has found there are now more alternative medical practitioners than doctors in some areas of the country. "For half the healthcare sector to be non-regulated is completely inappropriate it is the black market of health."

The Sunday Mail reported that there have been 119 complaints about alternative practitioners to the state's health watchdog in the past three years. Allegations of assault, rough and painful treatment, illegal practices, medication errors and inappropriate treatment are among the complaints. In one example, an acupuncturist caused a collapsed lung.

Here's the bad news: the complaints commission is unable to discipline offenders and can only forward cases to other agencies for action under general consumer and criminal laws.

A huge question mark hangs over the safety of complementary medicines when it was revealed that nine out of 10 products were not meeting regulatory standards. The Auditor-General's report found the 10,000 complementary medicines registered with the Therapeutic Goods Administration did not have to be tested for safety nor efficacy.

The bottom line, in Australia: medical doctors are formally regulated and alternative medicine practitioners are not. Ultimately, it's the consumer who will suffer the most. Future patients - don't assume that "because it's natural, it's safe".

References:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/natural-medicine-a-time-bomb/story-e6freoof-1226145328750

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/adnature.html

Breaking News: White House Formally Acknowledges: "Searching for ET, but no aliens yet".

2011-11-07T15:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's not really breaking news. It's kinda mundane. But, it's interesting nonetheless.

The White House has formally acknowledged that the human race is not engaging extraterrestrials and is not withholding any information from said aliens. This was in response to two petitions on the White House's "We The People" site, which requires a response from the government if 25,000 signatures are signed. The first petition stated the following:

We petition the obama administration to "formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race - Disclosure."

"We, the undersigned, strongly urge the President of the United States to formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race and immediately release into the public domain all files from all agencies and military services relevant to this phenomenon."
___

Hundreds of military and government agency witnesses have come forward with testimony confirming this extraterrestrial presence. Opinion polls now indicate more than 50% of the American people believe there is an extraterrestrial presence and more than 80% believe the government is not telling the truth about this phenomenon. The people have a right to know. The people can handle the truth.

The second petition reads:

We petition the obama administration to "Immediately disclose the government's knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings"

This Petition calls for the President to disclose to the American people the long withheld knowledge of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings and call for open Congressional hearings to allow the people to become aware of this subject through those whose voices have been silenced by unconstitutional secrecy oaths.

The Response...

Phil Larson, who works on space policy and communications at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, replied with this official statement:

Searching for ET, But No Evidence Yet

By Phil Larson

"Thank you for signing the petition asking the Obama Administration to acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence here on Earth.

The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye.

However, that doesn't mean the subject of life outside our planet isn't being discussed or explored. In fact, there are a number of projects working toward the goal of understanding if life can or does exist off Earth. Here are a few examples:

SETI—the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence—was originally stood up with help from NASA, but has since been moved to other sources of private funding. SETI's main purpose is to act as a giant ear on behalf of the human race, pointing an array of ground-based telescopes towards space to listen for any signal from another world.

Kepler is a NASA spacecraft in orbit that's main goal is to search for Earth-like planets. Such a planet would be located in the "Goldilocks" zone of a distant solar system—not too hot and not too cold—and could potentially be habitable by life as we know it. The Kepler mission is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover Earth-sized, rocky planets in or near the habitable zone of the star (sun) they orbit.

The Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, is an automobile-sized rover that NASA is launching soon. The rover's onboard laboratory will study rocks, soils, and other geology in an effort to detect the chemical building blocks of life (e.g., forms of carbon) on Mars and will assess what the Martian environment was like in the past to see if it could have harbored life.

A last point: Many scientists and mathematicians have looked with a statistical mindset at the question of whether life likely exists beyond Earth and have come to the conclusion that the odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe there is a planet other than ours that is home to life.

Many have also noted, however, that the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones—are extremely small, given the distances involved.

But that's all statistics and speculation. The fact is we have no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth."

The official petitions can be found here and here:

Do you think this case is settled? Or is the government lying to us again....???

5 Amazing Photos of Storms

2011-11-02T10:25:00.000-04:00

This past summer was a Summer of Storms in the mid west USA, and electrician/amateur photographer Sean Heavey did his part to capture a few of them on film. Heavey has photographed storms for the last seven years, but his most recent shots are up for a prestigious award by National Geographic.

'I have two storm chasing friends I met through my wife Toni and they've been badgering me to go out with them for that long,' explained Sean.

'I' normally rely on simply being in the right place at the right time for my photography, while I'm out working. But in July I finally decided to do it and thankfully this picture was the result. We don't usually get weather like this out in Montana, it felt like the perfect storm. The power was awe inspiring.'

Take a look at the five images below, and then read the full story from the Daily Mail to see the rest.

Looking Through the Eyes of the Skull of Doom

2011-10-28T14:10:00.000-04:00

Magical Artifacts Or Man-Made Marvels?

Behold, the Crystal Skull of Doom (image, left). This fine piece of workmanship is shrouded in mystery – from its origin to its special powers. Some have said that it was handed down by extraterrestrials to the ancient Mayans. Others theorize that the crystal skull originated from lost a civilization with advanced technologies for their time - like the inhabitants of Atlantis.

Modern New Agers believe that the crystal skulls have supernatural abilities like healing or “visions of the past, present and future”. They also claim that at certain points on the Earth, the crystal skulls vibrate and project images similar to a hologram. Some say that, when placed close together, they will produce an audible hum.

"I personally feel that the Crystal Skulls are not only here to share ancient knowledge and wisdom, but to assist in awakening our race to higher spiritual laws and understanding of itself....If the Crystal Skulls were not brought by extraterrestrials then certainly we must conclude their [sic] have been civilizations much more technologically or spiritually advanced than our own today." --Joshua "Illinois" Shapiro

"[The] crystal stimulates an unknown part of the brain, opening a psychic door to the absolute." -- Frank Dorland

Behold - The Skull of Doom!

Skulls have often been associated to the symbol of death in many different cultures. Crystal skulls entered the public eye around 1943 when the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, more affectionately known as the Skull of Doom, was allegedly found by archeological excavator F.A. Mitchell-Hedges' daughter, Anna Mitchell-Hedges, during her father's exhibition to discover Atlantis*.

According to F.A Mitchell, Anna was rummaging around while her father was working, and she stumbled upon an altar in a temple where she found a crystal skull. There’s no hard evidence for this claim, and there’s no evidence of Anna tagging along with her father to the Lubaatun exhibition. In fact, there is contradictory evidence in a 1936 journal which states that the Crystal Skull belonged to an art trader by the name of Sydney Burney. Interesting. Without going into the fine details, the skull traded hands a number of times before resting at the Smithsonian Institution today.

All Things Evil

Anna believed that the Skull of Doom embodied all things evil and that it was a piece of an important ritual. According to Anna, when an old priest was about to die, he would pass all of his knowledge to the younger priest through the crystal skull before passing.

Besides the Skull of Doom from Mitchell-Hedges, there are other discoveries of crystal skulls, like the British Crystal Skull, the Paris Crystal Skull, the Mayan crystal Skull, the Amethyst Crystal Skull, Max, ET Skull, Rose Quartz Skull, Brazilian Crystal Skull, and "Compassion" - the Atlantean Crystal Skull. According to avid new agers, there are 13 'master' crystal skulls all together, if brought together would unveil secrets and knowledge beyond the world. Just like a scene out of an Indiana Jones movie.

Oops, a Contradiction

Now, scientists, researchers, and skeptics claim that the crystal skulls are frauds and made recently. Studies from a Hewlett Packard lab (there are no evidence or report that this took place!) states that some features of the crystal skull cannot be emulated even with modern technologies, like how it is carved against its axis, which would usually shatter the crystal. Trouble is, there actually no evidence for the study at HP.

What about a real study? Glad you asked.

Using real science like a microscopic analysis and newly discovered archival documents, Smithsonian anthropologist Jane Walsh has revealed the Mitchell-Hedges skull to be a modern creation about which a mythology was deliberately spun.

Just the Facts

In her article, “The Skull of Doom”, published on Archeology.org, author Jane MacLaren Walsh states:

“Analysis of the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull using SEM (scanning electron microscopy) leaves little doubt that this object was carved and polished using modern, high-speed, diamond-coated, rotary, cutting and polishing tools of minute dimensions. This technology is certainly not pre-Columbian. I believe it is decidedly 20th century. The similarities between the Mitchell-Hedges skull and the British Museum skull suggest that the former is an improved copy of the latter. The recently published SEM study of the British Museum skull additionally suggests it was probably carved within a decade of the date it was first offered for sale in 1881 (Sax, Walsh, et al. 2008: p. 2759). It is not unreasonable to conclude that the Mitchell-Hedges skull, which first appeared in 1933, was also created within short time of its debut.”

The Less-Than-Exciting Conclusion

Frederick Mitchell-Hedges warned that the skull was “the embodiment of all evil” and that “several people who have cynically laughed at it have died, others have been stricken and become seriously ill” (1954: p. 240). Worry not - the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull is not ancient, and not even very old. It was probably made in Europe in the 20th century, and was not polished for five generations. It is not powerful, not scary and not at all what it purports to be. It’s just a fine piece of workmanship, at best.

* They never found Atlantis… yet people today still attribute the skull’s fictional powers to the fictional island and fictional people of Atlantis.

References:
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/mitchell_hedges/
http://www.skepdic.com/crystalskull.html

The Cyclops Shark: Fact or Fiction?

2011-10-18T21:07:00.000-04:00

In a world filled with Photoshopped images, it's easy to raise your skeptical flags when an image of a one-eyed albino shark appears - like the Cyclops Shark.

It is claimed to have been removed from the belly of a pregnant dusky shark caught by a fisherman in the Gulf of California in the summer of 2011. Apparently, shark researchers have examined the specimen and concluded the eye is made of functional eye tissue. However, they agreed that the shark would likely not have survived had it been born.

"Cyclopia" is a real developmental anomaly, so this defect is entirely impossible. It is extremely rare, but has occurred in several animals, including humans (for example, in 1982 a baby girl was born with no nose and only one eye in the center of her face... she died 30 minutes after birth).

The researchers plan to release their data later in the year - so until then, I will remain at least partially skeptical.

Image credits: Marcela Bejarano

Does eating turkey really make you sleepy?

2011-10-13T10:40:00.000-04:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone here in Canada, and is coming up in the USA. Around the office and among friends, someone will undoubtedly comment that they were sleepy after their turkey dinner, and then someone else will pipe up and say, “That’s because turkey contains tryptophan, which makes you sleepy.”

While it is true that turkey does contain tryptophan and tryptophan does make humans sleepy, it’s not necessarily true that “eating turkey makes you sleepy”. Here’s why.

L-tryptophan is an essential amino acid with a scientifically recognized sleep inducing effect. It is used in the body to produce niacin, a B Vitamin. Tryptophan can be metabolized into serotonin and melatonin, which are neurotransmitters that cause a calming effect and help to regulate sleep. But here’s the kicker: L-tryptophan needs to be taken on an empty stomach and without any other amino acids or protein in order to make you drowsy. In other words, the act of eating turkey (a source of protein) negates the sleep-inducing effects of tryptophan.

It's also worth noting that several other foods contain as much or more tryptophan than turkey including chicken, pork, and cheese. As with turkey, other amino acids are present in these foods besides tryptophan, so they negate the sleepiness effect. Tryptophan also occurs naturally in red meat, other dairy products, nuts, seeds, bananas, soy products, tuna, and shellfish. So turkey is nothing special when it comes to its concentration of tryptophan – you can get a similar dose by eating shrimp, tuna, snapper, and even chicken breast. Oddly enough, people don’t react the same way after eating those items, do they?

So why do we feel sleepy after eating our turkey dinner, if it’s not the tryptophan?

Consider this: you’re on vacation, and you’re already feeling pretty relaxed. You just ate a massive meal and probably ate too much. You probably had high levels of carbohydrates and fats with your meal, and you probably had a drink or two (or three… or four).

Digestion of large meals (overeating) causes blood to be directed away from your organs and nervous system to your digestive system, which induces sleepiness. A meal that contains a lot of fat will cause the same effect. The less blood you have circulating around the rest of your body, the more sleepy you will become. Alcohol is a depressant and will, for a large part of the population, make you drowsy. All these things combine to make you sleepy and lethargic after your Thanksgiving feast!

Seeing the Earth from space during a solar eclipse

2011-10-10T13:58:00.000-04:00

What would the Earth look like from space during a solar eclipse? I wondered the same, and came across two incredible images. Note that the moon's shadow darkens only a part of Earth during a solar eclipse. People underneath the center of the dark spot (the umbra) will see the total eclipse; while others on the edge (the penumbra) will see a partial eclipse. This shot was taken from the Mir space station in August 1999 and is courtesy the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales.

The image below is from the Japanese geostationary satellite (MTSAT) and shows the view of Earth at 9:30 a.m. local time in Taiwan, near the time in eastern China when the disk of the Moon completely overlapped the disk of the Sun. (source Wikimedia Commons).

Mr. Eclipse provides a great infographic which explains the geometry behind a solar eclipse, including the umbra and penumbra described above.

Nikon Small World: Unbelievable Macro Shots

2011-10-07T15:55:00.000-04:00

Nikon Small World is regarded as the leading forum for showcasing the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope. For over 30 years, Nikon has rewarded the world's best photomicrographers who make critically important scientific contributions to life sciences, bio-research and materials science.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the competition:

Credit: Dr. Igor Siwanowicz Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology Martinsried, Germany
First place in the 2011 Nikon Small World photograph competition went to this photograph of a green lacewing larva.

Credit: Dr. Donna Stolz University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
A blade of grass magnified 200 times took 2nd place in the 2011 competition.

Credit: Frank Fox Fachhochschule Trier Trier, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
The third place winner of the 2011 Nikon Small World contest was this photo of living Melosira monliformis, a type of algae.

Credit: Alfred Pasieka Germany
An ultra-close shot of a microchip took 5th-place.

Credit: Dr. Jan Michels Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Kiel, Germany
The marine copepod Temora longicornis took the 9th-place-winning photograph.

Credit: Joan Röhl Institute for Biochemistry and Biology Potsdam, Germany
This is a freshwater water flea, Daphnia magna, and took 10^th place in the competition.

Credit: Dr. Jan Michels Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Kiel, Germany
11^th place went to this shot of the head of a fluorescing ant.

Credit: Yanping Wang Beijing Planetarium Beijing, China
Wondering what these are? Grains of sand – and they took 14^th place.

Interview With 92.1, The Beat: Zombies, James Randi, and The Million Dollar Challenge

2011-09-29T20:53:00.000-04:00

Today, I was interviewed by 91.1 The Beat on their Big Mad Morning Show (you may remember the previous interview about a month ago) for Conspiracy Thursday. They're based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Listen to the interview below to see why we don't need to worry about the Zombie Apocalypse, learn all about James Randi's Million Dollar Challenge, a flyover of planet Earth, and sneek peek about of upcoming post we'll be doing on "performance-enhancing bracelets".

Download and listen to the interview HERE.

James Randi to speak in Toronto

2011-09-22T13:24:00.000-04:00

Noted skeptic and magician James "The Amazing" Randi will be giving a talk on September 27th in Toronto. I will be attending and blogging about the event.

James Randi exposes popularly accepted fakery by discussing with his audience everything from UFOs to the Bermuda Triangle, from the Von Däniken “Chariots of the Gods” fraud to the notion of a lost continent named Atlantis. Randi reveals what really took place in the last three decades in the labs of various prestigious “think tanks” that verified a series of simple magicians tricks as genuine miracles, thus launching a world-wide plague of misinformation, the repercussions of which can still be felt today.

This unique and provocative lecture is not only educational but also highly entertaining. It attracts persons of all educational and social backgrounds and provides a rational perspective on the seemingly paranormal and otherwise unexplained happenings in our day-to-day life.

Mr. Randi illustrates how a “politically-correct” attitude has blinded scientists — who should know better — to the fact that they are not proficient at detecting fraud, often managing to fool themselves, when the prize is sufficiently attractive. Randi offers a million-dollar award to anyone who can demonstrate paranormal "powers".

The Million Dollar Challenge

The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is committed to providing reliable information about paranormal claims. It both supports and conducts original research into such claims.

From the JREF website: At JREF, we offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. The JREF does not involve itself in the testing procedure, other than helping to design the protocol and approving the conditions under which a test will take place. All tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant. In most cases, the applicant will be asked to perform a relatively simple preliminary test of the claim, which if successful, will be followed by the formal test. Preliminary tests are usually conducted by associates of the JREF at the site where the applicant lives. Upon success in the preliminary testing process, the "applicant" becomes a "claimant."

To date, no one has passed the preliminary tests, and major psychics like Syvia Browne have declined to take the challenge.

Flying Over Planet Earth: as seen from the ISS (video)

2011-09-18T13:45:00.000-04:00

Below is a an incredible time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet Earth at night.

According to the creator, on his YouTube channel, "this movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon.

Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy. Raw data was downloaded from The Gateway To Astronaut Photography of Earth "http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/mrf.htm "."

The Best Optical Illusions (so far...)

2011-09-17T07:01:00.005-04:00

Back by popular demand (and because our web metrics indicate that our readers love these illusions), we have another 8 of the best optical illusions to trick your brain.

First, the Spinning Spiral... which is a static jpeg and there's no animation taking place, but if you move your eyes to look in any direction or blink, then the spiral spins.

This is a picture taken directly above many camels walking in the desert at sunset. Look, closely, because the camels are actually the white lines in the image. The “silhouettes” you are seeing are actually the camel’s shadows.

The image below it is similar, only with zebras instead.

The green and the blue in the spiral below are the same color...

It is believed that the reason why we are perceiving one color as two different colors is because of the other colors surrounding the stripes. Each eye has six to seven million cones, which are concentrated in a central yellow spot known as the macula. These cones measure color in different wavelengths, where some of which overlap. Our brain then compares by measuring the differences in wavelengths between the colors. When certain colors are combined, the brain can't process the data from the cones correctly and we get confused. [gsu and Techi]

The QR Code Illusion... sort of. It's not a QR code, but look at at the "shimmering" in this image:

The two orange circles are exactly the same size; however, the one on the left seems smaller. This is known as the Ebbinghaus Illusion.

Two straight and parallel lines look as if they were bowed outwards - known as the Hering Illusion:

And at last, the following image represents a pattern of squares, but there appears to be a spherical bulge coming out of the centre of the image:

Do you know of any other optical illusions that should have made this list?

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delboeuf_illusion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebbinghaus_illusion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hering_illusion

http://www.livescience.com/4950-key-optical-illusions-discovered.html

A Video of Vesta Rotating in Space

2011-09-16T13:25:00.001-04:00

The Dawn team over at NASA has published a simulated flyby of Vesta produced from a topographic model. The model is based on imaging performed during August 2011, when Dawn was in high-altitude mapping orbit.

At the time, Vesta's north pole was in winter darkness, so the shape model does not quite reach into the northern polar regions.

The animated gif (upper left) does not do this video justice - watch the high def video below to see the unprecendented level of photographic accuracy we now have available to look from the comfort of our own homes... while this giant rock is barelling through space. Pretty amazing.

Embedded video from

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology

References:

Credit: NASA / JPL / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

http://planetary.org/blog/article/00003187/

A Map of the 'Flat' Earth

2011-09-09T11:11:00.001-04:00

A Map of the Square and Stationary Earth

In June of 2011, the Library of Congress acquired an old map which was created by Prof. Orlando Ferguson in 1893. The information it contains is a bit out of date... but it is very interesting to look at nonetheless.

The text can be a hard to read, so here it is, verbatim:

Header: Map of the Square and Stationary Earth.

Subheader: Four hundred passages in the Bible condemn the Globe Theory, or the Flying Earth, and none sustain it. This map is the Bible Map of the World.

Caption (right side): These men are flying on the globe at the rate of 65,000 miles per hour around the sun, and 1,042 miles per hour around the center of the earth (in their minds). Think of that speed! (this caption was clearly meant to be a sarcastic jab to the Globe Theory)

Footnote: Send 25 cents to the author, Prof. Orlando Ferguson, for a book explaining this Square and Stationary Earth. It knocks the Globe Theory clean out. It will teach you how to foretell eclipses. It is worth its weight in gold.

The Flat Earth Society (yes, it's actually real)

The Flat Earth Society is a real organization led by a Virginian man named Daniel Shenton. Shenton believes in other scientific principles and facts, such as evolution and global warming, but he and his followers also believe that the Earth is a disc that you can fall off of. In other words, that it's flat.

"I haven't taken this position just to be difficult," Shenton told The Guardian news a while back. "To look around, the world does appear to be flat, so I think it is incumbent on others to prove decisively that it isn't. And I don't think that burden of proof has been met yet."

In fact, the validity of the organization as come in to question so often that it's immediately addressed on the first line of the FAQ:

Q: "Is this site a joke?"

A: This site is not a joke. We are actively promoting the Flat Earth movement worldwide. There are members who seriously believe the Earth is flat, and their research is located in Flat Earth Believers.

Read through their FAQ, as they "explain" the seasons, sunrises, sunsets, and other phenomena.

Here's a map of the flat Earth that they present:

I'm not sure where to start when debunking the notion of a flat Earth, because the theory seems so unrealistic. So I will only present one piece of evidence for the round Earth, and it's a simple picture:

'Nuff said.

To see more images of Earth, our Pale Blue Dot, click here.

References:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/11651
http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=11211.0

Milky Way Creation Simulation (video)

2011-09-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

For decades, astrophysicists have attempted to recreate the formation of spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way as realistic as possible.

Recently, a groupd of astrophysicists from the University of Zurich demonstrated the world's first realistic simulation of the creation of the Milkey Way galaxy. The simulation was done in collaboration with astronomers from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

The new results were partly calculated on the computer of the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS) and show, for instance, that there must be stars on the outer edge of the Milky Way.

"The simulation follows the interactions of more than 60 million particles of dark matter and gas. A lot of physics goes into the code--gravity and hydrodynamics, star formation and supernova explosions--and this is the highest resolution cosmological simulation ever done this way," said astrophysist Guedes.

Just how complex was this simulation? It was calculated in 8 months at the Swiss National Supercomnputing Centre at Manno, Switzerland. It would take 570 years of comptuational time to run the same simulation on a personal computer.

And here it is - the formation of our Milky Way galaxy:

Tempest Milky Way: a stunning example of time-lapsed photography

2011-09-01T06:00:00.002-04:00

Produced by Randy Halverson and shot in central South Dakota, this is a stunning example of time lapsed photography of our Milky Way galaxy with a backdrop of electrical storms in the background.

Tempest Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

From the Vimeo page:

"One of the challenges in making this video, was trying to get good storm with stars shots. The opportunity doesn't come along very often, the storm has to be moving the right speed and the lightning can overexpose the long exposures. I had several opportunities this summer to get storm and star shots. In one instance, within a minute of picking up the camera and dolly, 70mph winds hit. One storm was perfect, it came straight towards the setup, then died right before it reached it."

Visit his page to see more: http://vimeo.com/28040685

No Link Found Between Vaccines and Autism (again)

2011-08-31T17:00:00.000-04:00

Once again, a panel of scientists has found no evidence that the M.M.R. vaccine causes autism.

The gist of the report? “The M.M.R. vaccine doesn’t cause autism, and the evidence is overwhelming that it doesn’t,” Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, the chairwoman of the panel, assembled by the Institute of Medicine, said in an interview. Dr. Clayton added, “We looked at more than a thousand peer-reviewed articles, and we didn’t see many adverse effects caused by vaccines.”

The report did note, however, that many children injured by other vaccinations already have an immune or metabolic problem that is simply made evident by vaccines. To quote: “In some metabolically vulnerable children, receiving vaccines may be the largely nonspecific ‘last straw’ that leads these children to reveal their underlying”. For example, the chickenpox vaccine can lead to shingles in some adults.

The Institute of Medicine is one of the nation’s most highly respected and authoritative advisers on issues of health and medicine. Their reports can change medical thinking around the world. The government has asked the institute to evaluate the safety of vaccines a dozen times in the past 25 years, hoping the institute’s reputation would put to rest the concerns of some parents and organizations that vaccines cause a host of problems, including autism. As expected, it hasn’t worked.

Sallie Bernard, president of SafeMinds, a group that believes there is a link between vaccines and autism, said the latest report from the Institute of Medicine excluded important research and found in many cases that not enough research had been done to answer important questions. How much research will be enough?

“I think this report says that the science is inadequate, and yet we’re giving more and more vaccines to our kids, and we really don’t know what their safety profile is,” Ms. Bernard said. “I think that’s alarming.” However, the report doesn’t say that the science is inadequate – it says that the M.M.R. vaccine does not cause autism. There’s a big difference.

It goes to show that no matter how much research is done, it will never be enough for the anti-vax movement – and those are precious research dollars that could be used towards finding the true source(s) of autism.

For the full report, read the original New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/health/26vaccine.html

Does 0.99999... really equal 1?

2011-08-25T08:53:00.000-04:00

Does 0.999 (repeated) equal "one"? You might be surprised by the answer... which is "yes". I heard this on a couple of podcasts over the last few months, and I still find it hard to accept at face value. However, I am now convinced and here's several simple proofs that .99999 does indeed equal 1...

Method 1:

Let x = 0.9999...

Then 10x = 9.9999...

If we then subtract x from both sides of the equation, then:

10x - x = 9.9999... - 0.9999...

So, 9x = 9

Divide both sides of the equation by 9, and...

x = 1 ... which, when we started, we said = 0.9999...

Method 2:

1/9 = 0.11111...

Multiply both sides of the equation by 9:

9 X 1/9 = 9 X 0.11111...

1 = 0.99999...

Method 3:

We know that 0.9 is not equal to 1; neither is 0.999, nor 0.99999. If you stop the expansion of 9s at any finite point, the fraction you have (like .99999 = 99999/100000) is never equal to 1. But each time you add a 9, the margin error is smaller (with each 9, the error is actually ten times smaller).

You can show (using calculus or other summations) that with a large enough number of 9s in the expansion, you can get arbitrarily close to 1. There is no other number that the sequence gets arbitrarily close to - it is always 1. Another way of saying this is that "the limit is 1".

Thus, if you are going to assign a value to 0.9999..., the only sensible value is "1".