Homeopathy

Posted on November 20, 2007 by Paul — 2 Comments ↓

Here’s a great article about the nonsense of Homeopathy, the idea that giving people a dilute solution of a substance that causes their symptoms can cure those symptoms. A couple of ideas that hadn’t registered with me before:

1. One of the standard dilutions used is 100C, which translates to 1 in 100¹⁰⁰. To translate that into terms that we can understand (kinda), if you magically created a new atom that did not exist anywhere else in the entire universe, then counted up all the other atoms in the universe, your novel atom would still not be as diluted as a 100C solution.

2. It’s really hard to get totally pure water in any volume, and even harder to keep it uncontaminated as you swish it from beaker to beaker to create your desired dilution. That means that there are background levels of pretty much any chemical you might put in there that would swamp the supposedly ‘medicinal’ levels you’re trying to create. It would be like trying to apply Giselle BÃ¼ndchen’s lipstick while 10 guys emptied cans of Dulux over her.*

(*In your dreams)

Justice Being Undone

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Paul — No Comments ↓

It appears that the President has appointed two judges who donated to his campaign while they were being considered for their judgeships.

There are two sides to justice, embodied in the saying “Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.” Clearly this has nothing to do with the first part of that; I’ve no doubt the President is happy to hand out positions to friends and supporters (one has only to look at the former horse judge who was put in charge of FEMA to understand that), but a thousand dollars or so just isn’t enough to sway his decision one way or another (100 grand maybe). But the President tramples all over the second part of the saying. There is nothing illegal about these men making a contribution while under consideration, but it is entirely antithetical to the idea of justice. That would be bad enough if this was an appointment to the Forestry Commission or some-such, but we’re actually talking about the justice system!

(HT: ThinkProgress)

Oh fer cute!

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Paul — No Comments ↓

Friday fun for you:

The researchers stationed a 2-foot-tall robot called QRIO (pronounced “curio”), and developed by Sony, in a classroom of a dozen toddlers aged between 18 months and two years.

QRIO stayed in the middle of the room using its sensors to avoid bumping the kids or the walls. It was initially programmed to giggle when the kids touched its head, to occasionally sit down, and to lie down when its batteries died. A human operator could also make the robot turn its gaze towards a child or wave as they went away. “We expected that after a few hours, the magic was going to fade,” Movellan says. “That’s what has been found with earlier robots.” But, in fact, the kids warmed to the robot over several weeks, eventually interacting with QRIO in much the same way they did with other toddlers.

…

Eventually, the children seemed to care about the robot’s well being. They helped it up when it fell, and played “care-taking” games with it â€“ most commonly, when QRIO’s batteries ran out of juice and it lay down, a toddler would come up and cover it with a blanket and say “night, night”.

Go on, admit it, that’s cute, right?

Foreclosures

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Paul — 6 Comments ↓

Here’s an interesting twist on the sub-prime mortgage scandal (TM) in the US. Back in the day you would take a mortgage out with a lender, and they would hold that lien on your home until you paid off the mortgage. But as mortgages were turned into commodities they were sold off to institutions all over the world. That in itself would be a minor complication. The problem comes when you bundle together many loans, and then sell a share of that bundle to several different buyers.

Financially that’s fine, until it comes time to foreclose on the house. To get your money back on a property you have to show your ownership of the mortgage for that property. And if you bought a fraction of the commodity as a security then you don’t have full ownership, and in all likelihood neither do you have a piece of paper (technically required) to show your ownership.

This could be good news, surprisingly; up to now only real people have been suffering, while banks write off theoretical profits. But now the banks are at risk of losing actual money, and that requires action.

Cheney

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Paul — No Comments ↓

I worked too long yesterday, so here’s a little something from the past as a pick-me-up.

Update: If you’re having problems with this, all I can say is it worked this morning. If that’s not good enough, Jajah offer free trial phone calls, so you can call someone who cares.