And it has forced me to spend an hour updating my blogroll. But I’m not unhappy, no! Because now there’s a brand-new, shiny source for science blogging: Scientopia. A lot of your favorite ScienceBlogs expats have found new homes there, among them Whitecoat Underground.
Bora’s given them a proper introduction, so I’ll just confine my remarks to: WOOT!
Back in the late 1990s, someone babbled at me about ear candling for a great many minutes. They waxed poetic over the health benefits of stuffing a candle in your ear and lighting it up. I can’t remember why. All I can remember is staring at them with my jaw hanging open and thinking, “Are you nuts?”
Needless to say, though I wasn’t a Certified Skeptic back then, and hadn’t even heard of science-based medicine, I gave ear candling a pass. It sounded like the height of folly.
Over a decade later, the FDA’s caught on. I ended up on their MedWatch page page after reading a post at Terra Sigillata about yet more prescription drugs being sneaked into yet more supplements. (Yes, manufacturers do this so that their “wholesome and natural” products will actually work.) Just for S&G, I decided to see what other nefarious nonsense the altmed world’s been up to, and I came across an alert entitled “Ear Candles: Serious Risk of Injuries.” I laughed and laughed and howled, “Well, no shit, Sherlock!”
The first paragraph is morbidly hilarious:
FDA is notifying consumers and healthcare providers of its warning not to use ear candles – a hollow cone about 10 inches long made from a fabric tube soaked in beeswax, paraffin or a mixture of the two – because they can cause serious injuries, even when used according to the manufacturer’s directions. According to advertised claims, a burning ear candle draws ear wax and “impurities” or “toxins” out of the ear canal. Other claims for ear candles include relief from sinus and ear infections, headache and earache, as well as improved hearing, “blood purification,” improvements in brain function, and cure cancer. FDA has found no valid scientific evidence to support the safety or effectiveness of these devices for any medical claims or benefits. FDA has received reports of burns, perforated eardrums and blockage of the ear canal which required outpatient surgery from the use of ear candles.
Anyone stupid enough to believe that sticking a candle in their ear and lighting it will cure them of cancer almost deserves a little blockage of the ear canal as an object lesson, except I can mostly forgive them – they’re desperate and scared and willing to try anything to survive. The real stupidity comes from the dumbshits purveying this as a cure. They’re either moronic or greedy or both.
And don’t even get me started on the parents taking their kids in for this treatment. Really, don’t. Let’s just say I have definite opinions regarding their fitness as parents, and those opinions aren’t flattering.
While we’re on the subject of “miracle” cures, there’s another great one at Terra Sigillata that’s really not to be missed:
FDA Warns Consumers of Serious Harm from Drinking Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS)
Product contains industrial strength bleachThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to take Miracle Mineral Solution, an oral liquid also known as “Miracle Mineral Supplement” or “MMS.” The product, when used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health.The next time some fluffy-bunny altmed worshiper asks me “what’s the harm?”, I shall be more than happy to inform them.
One weekend in August, depending on when the weather clears, my intrepid companion and I shall be headed out to Olympic National Park. No, I’ve never seen it. Yes, I’ve lived here for three years. Look, I only just last year decided to dedicate summers to adventures rather than writing.
When I go to the official website, this is the extent of what I find on geology:
That’s it. They babble on for pages about flora and fauna, but geology gets a mere mention. Le sigh.
I’m sure that we’ll manage to find some geology anyway, but for those who have been there (or haven’t but know bits about it), here’s a chance to tell us what you’d like us to see and do. If you have a spot you want to experience vicariously, let us know! Hurricane Ridge is already on the itinerary, but I know there’s far, far more. Cast your votes!
Once every month, I ponder whether to hate my biology or my anatomy more. This is that time. Aunty Flow arrived early, so at the moment all I’m interested in is sitting very still in one position going “Ow.” This is not conducive to the kind of thought necessary for blogging. The spanking I planned to administer to a certain NYT Magazine writer shall have to wait. In the meantime, you can head over to Bora’s, where you’ll find links to quite a few other spankings, together with at least one blogger who earned my wrath this afternoon. If you’re not sure which one, just peruse the comments at each post – I refuse to dignify him with a link, but I did make my displeasure known.
I particularly recommend Mike the Mad Biologist’s take on the whole affair. ‘Tis a thing of beauty. Mike also gets props for having the post title that made me LOL: “Why We Need to Vaccinate Germ Dispersal Units Children: The Whooping Cough Edition.” Whooping cough, of course, is far from a laughing matter, but that title is an instant classic. And all too true in so many ways!
If clueless gits and the evisceration thereof don’t tickle your fancy, Brian Switek’s got an intriguing piece on running primates. You know a writer’s good when he can make limb posture interesting.
In the mood for some woo-bashing? Orac’s Friday Dose of Woo will have you snorting your apparently-dead water all over the keyboard. And this time, read the comments – the readers really outdid themselves, reaching a pinnacle of hilarity with this one.
Those of you who are passionate about proper English usage can productively waste your afternoon with Ophelia Benson’s and Jerry Coyne’s posts on “verbal infelicities” – or possibly solecisms. Do not get me started on the difference between “phase” and “faze.” We’ll be here all night, cramps be damned. And when you’re done policing language, do hang about their places a bit – Jerry’s got lynx kittens to die for and Ophelia found an accommodationist she can tolerate, which may in fact be evidence that miracles exist.
That should be enough to keep you in trouble for a bit. If you need more, the blog roll’s recently updated. Have at!
I shall return once my uterus stops trying to kill me.
*Uno mas, via Mike: “On the lessons Joseph Goebbels taught us: The Right Wing, The Big Lie, and the American Spectator’s latest on the Sherrod Case…” No Godwin here, just cold hard truth.
When we went to Arizona last year, my intrepid companion and I crossed Hoover Dam. It’s not an experience I care to repeat any time soon. Lots of traffic funneled through an itty-bitty road sucks mightily. But considering we weren’t getting anywhere anyway, we pulled over to snap some pictures and ogle the Hoover Bridge, which was under construction and promised to someday make the trip less onerous. It wasn’t very close to completion, and in fact it was difficult to tell just what it was and how it was going to come together, as you can see from this photo Cujo shot:
A few days ago, @Perrykid put a link up on Twitter that dropped my jaw. Looks like they’re close to finishing the thing, and now it begins to make sense:
I need to call my daddy. About the most impressive thing I can say about this is, “Ooo! Big…” He’s an engineer, so I’m sure he can expound on the awesomeness of the design.
The sad part is, once they’ve finished it, the drive over Hoover Dam will be no more. They will no longer allow traffic over the dam itself. So I guess we were lucky to go when a person could still drive one of the most impressive dams in the United States.
Funny. Didn’t appreciate it at the time… now I find myself wishing I had enough vacation left to fight the traffic just once more, with feeling.
