Some of you may know who Tim Minchin is, some of you may not.  He is a musical, comic, performance artist with a skeptical bent and is very entertaining.  He will be performing in Atlanta at Center Stage on Thursday, July 14.

A little about the man:

Tim Minchin is an Australian, musician, actor, comedian and writer. He has been performing his unique brand of musical comedy in front of appropriately excitable and ever growing audiences since starting out in South Melbourne’s Butterfly Club in 2005. He won the Director’s Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his break-out show Darkside, and followed this later the same year with one of the most successful debut acts ever at the Edinburgh Fringe – winning the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. Without wanting to go on and on about it, he’s done some pretty successful live shows since then, often in Australia or the UK, but also on the North American continent (yes that includes you too Canada). But not you Guatemala. Maybe one day.

His current songs span topics such as environmentalism, rationalism, prejudice(ism) and his amour de boobs(ism). In fact it would hardly be over the top to say that his love of boobs would be up there in the back of Plato’s cave in the bit that’s carved out for the most perfect and complete example of the love of boobs. But not in a weird way. During his shows he plays the piano, always nicely and oftentimes wildly and excitingly, whilst looking wonderfully athletic, in a pair of delightfully uncomfortable skinny jeans.

You can get an idea of his act here:

This article at CNN references a study in the Archives of Ophthalmology stating that acupuncture treatment for lazy eye is substantially more effective than the traditional eye-patch treatment.

The article quotes Dr. Willie Y.W. Chen, an Atlanta board-certified ophthalmologist who also includes acupuncture in his practice. “I have been using acupuncture to treat certain eye conditions but only with success in a few, including eye and head pain,” he says.

Dr. Chen is concerned about this practice, which uses acupuncture in sensitive areas in children: “Can 7-12 year olds tolerate this treatment?”

I am extremely skeptical about the study. I have downloaded it from the journal, but I’ve only had time to skim it. I won’t deny that my opinion is that there are either methodological flaws or fraud. They phrase the conclusions so strongly that there’s a smaller possibility of the “chance” error, which occurs because 1 in 20 studies will (by chance) cross the 95% threshold of effect, even when there is no effect.

I have the paper available to read, please e-mail or comment here if you would like to review it.

I was at a meeting in Auburn and spent a few minutes digging around the stores for some of the (occasionally) funny football shirts, when I discovered the secret of Auburn’s football success this season: Power Force Ion Infused Wristbands!

These wristbands “work with your body’s natural inner force” and contain “ions that work with your body’s energy to give you confidence from within.” Based on my years of observation, the only ions I have seen reliably giving confidence have been ethanol ions in aqueous solution. And it’s obviously not THOSE ions helping Auburn to such a good season, so this must be something special.

I did further research, and discovered a scientific analysis of the product by its manufacturer (from Guangdong, China). Their homepage is here: http://www.hottime.cn/ but I don’t care enough to find the research page there. On the research page you learn lots of amazing things about them. It’s almost entirely a list of absurd claims for every medical and scientific scam over the last century. They make you more “stable” so you can’t be knocked over (they have pictures to explain this)!

The research page contains this exciting list:

Benefits of energy:

I knew all of this MUST be the secret of Auburn’s astounding football success this year, where the team has the chance to win more games this season than the last two seasons put together. Surely major American university bookstores and athletic departments wouldn’t be selling their name and this product without thoroughly reviewing the evidence supporting these amazing claims!

Auburn’s success is plenty of evidence for me to trust that this product delivers everything it promises! I don’t need to research any more.

Wait, I’ve got one more page open from my google search…Oh, never mind, this page has new evidence that contradicts everything above about Power Force Ion Wristbands and football success.

[Added 12/22/10] This story, about the Australian consumer watchdog group ACCC cracking down on Power Balance bracelets seems relevant, though the company uses a different name. The product looks identical.

Like most of you, I’ve heard and read about the anti-vaxers. I don’t want to beat this dead horse, but I did want to share my recent experience. I’d never heard the dark side first hand…until now. I found out about an information session at a “clinic” that treats autism and various other children’s neurological issues. The clinic is only about 3 miles from my house so I said “Why not? It’ll get me out of the house for a while.” The woman (I will call her Ms. Information) who runs the clinic is an RN from South Africa. Her office had wall to wall shelving full of homeopathic bottles. Other services offered include “bioenergetic assessment,” “neurointegration therapy,” and “craniosacral therapy.” These are just big, fancy words that mean “crap that doesn’t work, but you still have to pay me.” I should mention that she does recommend legitimate neurotherapy in addition to all the other expensive unscientific treatments. » Continue reading “Anti-vaxxers in our own backyard”

I love the Bert show, let me say that right now.  Day after day, they entertain me like few other morning shows have.  I like the charity projects that they do, like Bert’s Big Adventure.  Chances are that if you have been in the Atlanta area, you have at least  heard of them.  I personally love the critical eye they cast towards listener’s dubious stories.  If you call in and you don’t have your story straight, you will be eaten alive!

The problem is that when it comes to pseudoscience and woo they are woefully inadequate.  I’ve been forced to listen to those damn Atlanta Ghost Hunters too many times.  Now, their latest golden calf is this weight loss supplement called Healthe’ trim.  They have numerous commercials throughout the day with Bert Weiss, the namesake of the show, giving his testimonial of how effective this supplement is, followed with testimonies of actual users.

My inner voice stewed, “These commercials are so annoying! This is CRAP!”  I turned on the radio today and listened to the creator use Bert show airtime to hawk this junk.  In response I sent this email: » Continue reading “Celebrity Endorsements or Why I Love/Hate the Bert Show”

Generally I support the idea that politics should stay out of science and vice-versa, but when talking about problems that can be accurately measured and quantified, I think science can lend a hand in providing solutions. Case in point: the new super speeder law that has become official on 1 January 2010. This law will tag on an additional two hundred dollars to a speeding ticket when the measured speed is thirty-five miles over the posted limit.

There are two stated reasons for this extra fine: the first is that Georgia lawmakers want to reduce the amount of speeding in the state. If you’ve ever been on any part of I-285 you know what I’m talking about; it’s a frakking racetrack. The second reason stated that this extra money will go fund trauma centers, but (fine print) the legislature can do whatever they want with it.

I don’t want to talk about Georgia politics, (but I will if given half a chance); instead I want to focus on the idea that higher fines will decrease speeding. Surely, other states have tried this approach. There should be a mountain of data out there confirming or unconfirming this idea. Can we move this from an idea to a testable hypothesis? » Continue reading “Evidence Based Government”