Hard News: The First Draft
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OK then, for another distraction, what about those plastic hologram bracelets that are very popular at the moment, particularly with sportspeople? I also notice some politicians wearing them. They cost about $100 and many people (including those well aware of scientific method) swear by them.
They are an excellent tool for easy visual identification of credulous fools. The best part about this particular tool is that you don't need to pay for it yourself.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
They are an excellent tool for easy visual identification of credulous fools. The best part about this particular tool is that you don’t need to pay for it yourself.
And our esteemed Prime Minister has one. God help us.
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No, no, no, Stevie - god won't help us. THAT is the problem. For a guy who was going to take over the science portfolio when he came into office.....
Yes, it may have been a present from one of the kids. If so then please, tell me the name of their school science teacher! I want to educate them.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
Yes, it may have been a present from one of the kids.
Everyone keeps saying that, but actually it's not substantiated at all. People just fell over themselves to give him an out.
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Rich Lock, in reply to
And our esteemed Prime Minister has one.
I try reasonably hard to not make unwarrented personal attacks on, for example, National politicians. Play the ball and all that.
But it gets a bit difficult when you see him strolling around in one of those...
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He also had a lot of time for a guy espousing the Doctrine of Signatures, amongst other nut-jobs.
Keeping up the ratio of Agnotology in the community.
Speaking of that there's this, which lead to me increasing my knowledge of obscurantism. -
A link has appeared on Sciblogs from Vicki Hyde, Scitech editor. Makes interesting reading of what is happening out in the edges.
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James W, in reply to
I’d rather they give the crackpots airtime so someone can then debunk them. Otherwise we end up with Sensing Murder being the number one rated show.
It seems a very faulty correlation to me. How about we don’t air Sensing Murder?
My point was rather than simply airing shows like Sensing Murder, I'd rather they aired them AND debunked them. Obviously, I'd prefer they not air them at all, but they do, because they're popular. But by debunking them, you don't just ignore the problem and hope it goes away, you confront it head on.
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Andre Alessi, in reply to
But by debunking them, you don’t just ignore the problem and hope it goes away, you confront it head on.
That gets into some pretty tricky territory as to which incorrect beliefs we tackle and which we don't, as well as the degree and time spent on each.
A much more effective approach is something like Penn & Teller's Bullshit where the debunking is done once, along with methods for thinking about these issues that can be applied in other cases. People aren't mindless drones, if they're given the right tools to analyse and understand issues, they'll work out the problems in their own time.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
And our esteemed Prime Minister has one. God help us.
He was asked about it on breakfast TV and was very very coy about how he got it and why he was wearing it.
My read on it (warning cynic alert) was that he'd been compensated in some way for wearing it in public. Totally unsubstantiated musing on my part of course.
Because really if he'd paid for it himself then why not say so?
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
People aren’t mindless drones
You only think you aren't a mindless drone ...
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
You are out by a factor of 1000. 2,200kg is 2.2 tonnes, not 2.2kilotons.
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Andre Alessi, in reply to
You only think you aren’t a mindless drone …
Ssssh, I'm trying to keep up the facade!
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And for those of you who worry about getting Ripped off or Scammed, here is the difference...
How to spot a fake power balance braceletSo for the people considering buying one and worried about getting scammed: relax. I have a very easy guide as to when you’ve been ripped off.
1. If you buy it direct from power balance: you’re getting ripped off.
2. If you buy one from an authorised dealer or distributor: you’re getting scammed.
3. If you buy a fake one you will also be getting scammed, albeit slightly less. The difference is entirely down to a single metric to determine how much you’re getting scammed. If you pay $59.95 then you’ve been scammed 59.95 units on the power balance scam-o-meter (also known as Australian dollars or AUD). If you have some shifty looking guy (well.. a shifty looking guy who isn’t officially affiliated with the power balance company) sell you one for $29.95 you’ve been scammed out of twenty-nine bucks and ninety-five cents BUT that means when you stand next to the person who bought a “real” one: you’re actually $30 less scammed than that guy. So in essence you’ve got the same placebo for half the price.
So, there's the difference.
It is not known if the Prime Minister believes in the benefits of the band, and he did not return calls made by the New Zealand Herald last night.
A Spokesman* said it was given to Mr Key as a present.
*note; actual spokesman may differ.
It's a bit like not borrowing for Tax Cuts but borrowing for things you could have afforded before the Tax Cuts.
Magic. -
B Jones, in reply to
My read on it (warning cynic alert) was that he'd been compensated in some way for wearing it in public. Totally unsubstantiated musing on my part of course.
I'd be surprised. For one, there might be rules about what the PM can endorse for pay. I know there are for lower-ranked public servants. And for two, the man's got a few dollars already - it's not like he needs endorsement fees.
My totally unsubstantiated imagining involves a boostery sort of meeting with an up and coming entrepreneur making or selling them, being a great kiwi business and an Example to Us All, maybe a ribbon cutting or factory opening or a fashion show, and "as a token of our esteem, PM, we'd love it if you would accept a sample of our product as a gift - we really reckon it will make you feel stronger and more balanced."
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nzlemming, in reply to
I like the later article in the series Power balance admits misleading and deceptive conduct - spanked by the ACCC! Someone should show that one to the PM's "spokesman".
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Mine includes a horribly lame and embarrasing present from some over-sensitive relation whose feelings you don’t want to hurt. So, you don’t slap it on Trade Me with a dollar reserve on Boxing Day morning.
Nah… That’s nowhere near as much fun as the worse branding exercise since Dior through it a good idea to have a Jewish celebrity on the ads for their lucrative perfume lines while the head designer turns into the Mel Gibson of haute couture. Then again, I generally point and laugh at men wearing bangles so what do I know?
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Sacha, in reply to
I'd be surprised
I see no reason to doubt that someone gave it to him. More important fish to fry anyway.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
there might be rules about what the PM can endorse for pay
Pretty sure the Cabinet Manual has strict rules on Ministers even appearing to endorse products, never mind actually doing so for financial gain. For one thing, if certain events transpired that could end up being classified as corruption of an elected official.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Yup. Even the mere association of it was what did for Pansy Wong. That and her husband's business activities while travelling on our dollar. But one of the points of issue was her quote on a chinese website as Minister of Government.
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SteveH, in reply to
No, it is Nukes to TNT. Here is a link that gives the equivalent tonnage of TNT V Richter Scale. Christchurch 2011 6.3 = 42.4 kiloton
I realised that's what he meant, I was more wondering why he decided to use TNT equivalent tonnage. It's a confusing measurement - moment magnitude is much more useful and familiar (even if people do still refer to it as "Richter Scale", which is something different).
The Oaklahoma Bombing was the equivalent of 2,200 kg of TNT (2.2 kiloton about a 5.5 earthquake). Pretty brutal bomb but a piddler to the Ruskie’s Tsar H Bomb of 57 MILLION tons of TNT.
This is why using equivalent tonnes of TNT is a bad idea. It gets used for incorrect and meaningless comparisons. The Mw equivalent of 2.3t of TNT is around 3.5 (you've accidentally converted 2200kg to 2200t and got 5.5 from that). The Oklahoma bombing was actually measured as 3.0 Mw, which doesn't sound like much difference, but the equivalent tonnage of a 3.0 is only 474kg of TNT. Since the Oklahoma bomb wasn't carefully set underground it didn't all get converted to seismic energy.
You can't really compare earthquakes to nuclear weapons at all as the effects are totally different, but it's interesting that Tsar Bomba had a theoretical equivalence to a 7.1Mw earthquake, i.e. the September quake. The actual seismic wave was measured at approx. 5.1 (which is 1/1000th of the energy of a 7.1). And obviously the September quake was nothing like a 50Mt nuclear blast - Tsar Bomba levelled every building, wood and brick, in a village 55km from ground zero and broke window panes 900km away.
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Well done folks, you found my deliberate powers of 10 error. ;-) I just knew I would dunk a mistake in there...
Frankly, if I was next to an Oklahoma bomb and a Tsar I don't think I would care how big it was. Even 10,000 tons of TNT is hard to imagine. But given it was the most powerful explosive around at the time Fat Boy went off it was probably the easiest to use.
Tsar = 7.1 Which goes to show there is a shit load of energy in the Alpine Fault when it lets go next with an 8+.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Yup. Even the mere association of it was what did for Pansy Wong.
And a certain Philip Field isn't in prison for a fraction too much friction on a ministerial credit card. So perhaps we've had our fun, and should be a little careful about weaving elaborate scenarios about how the Prime Minister is corrupt unless we have some actual evidence.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
So perhaps we’ve had our fun
aw but conspiracy was so entertaining for a while, such a nice break from reality
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
aw but conspiracy was so entertaining for a while, such a nice break from reality
True 'dat. :)
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