The Grumpy Old Techie

Depleted Cranium
Bad Science And Scary Science

Tougher Moderation of Comments: Yours May be Moderated, Sorry
In the past couple of weeks there has been an enormous increase in the amount of spam/advertising/bogus comments showing up on this site.   It might be because this site has gotten onto some list of sites for spamming or it might be just a general increase in spam across the net or it could be [...]
Court Rules Against Anti-Vaxers: No Surprise But Still A Victory
Via Reuters: US court rules again against vaccine-autism claims WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) – Vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal cannot cause autism on their own, a special U.S. court ruled on Friday, dealing one more blow to parents seeking to blame vaccines for their children’s illness. The special U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that [...]
Scaremongering, Cancer and Medical Imaging
In recent times, medical imaging procedures that utilize x-rays have come under increased scrutiny as numerous media outlets and even peer-reviewed studies have reported that these procedures are putting patients at risk of cancer and causing tens of thousands of new cases of cancer per year, with many of those resulting in death.   These reports [...]
One Thousand Dollars to Prove Electrosenstivity
Recently the magazine Popular Science ran a major story on individuals who believe they have electrosensitivity or electrohypersensitivity.   I’m sorry to say that it was an example of horrible reporting that really only talked about the issue as if it were proven real.   It stated the claims of the various individuals who claimed to have [...]
“Green” energy policy in Europe – The numbers don’t lie
Many countries in Europe like to talk about how “Green” they are and indeed in many of these countries the Green Party has become one of the most powerful political parties and has gained control of the government, either directly or as part of a coalition in the past decade.   But for all the talk [...]
Note to Missouri Politicans: Perpetual Motion = Bad Investment!
One would generally think that a buisiness model that involves violating the laws of physics is probably not going to result in a very sound enterprise.   However, it appears that some in Missouri feel differently about that. Via the Kansas City Star: Odessa, Mo., cheers news of manufacturing plant A Utah company announced Thursday that it planned to [...]
In Swizerland Animals Will Not Be Apointed Legal Council
The ridiculous thing isn’t that Switzerland is denying animals the right to an attorney to represent their interest, the ridiculous thing is that they almost did!   70% of the Swiss people turned out not to be quite that insane, but the politicians of Switzerland apparently took the idea pretty seriously – seriously enough to call [...]
20 Classic Atomic Energy Ads
From a more hopeful time when most saw nuclear energy and nuclear technology as the amazing and hopeful field that it is, these ads ran in magazines in the 1950’s and early 1960’s.   They have a great positive and optimistic message combined with some inspiring symbolism and artwork.   My favorite are the Union Carbide ads, [...]
Paul Watson Shot? Nope, Just Another Lie
Paul Watson is many things:  a pathological liar, a terrorist (and I don’t use that word lightly), an attempted murderer, a coward, an attention whore, a criminal, an attempted murderer and someone who generally is not to be trusted.   Watson likes to play pirate and pretend he’s at war on a ship that was bought [...]
Alkalize your body? No thanks
Recently it seems that there’s a new scam out there.   For years, there have been various quacks out there saying that we need to “energize,” “detoxify” or “rebalanced” our bodies, but now there are many who think the answer is to “alkalize” the body. To this end, a number of products have been pushed [...]
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