Fake Science

Warning: contains real science and some nerdy ranting

I would like to address something that has been bugging me for a couple years now. It really drives me nuts when commercials on TV use big science-y words and put someone with "Dr." in front of their name on the screen to sell you something that is basically a useless piece of junk. I am thinking specifically of the Q-ray bracelet, but there are other examples as well (I'm looking at you, shampoo!) The Q-ray bracelet claims to balance your chi to relieve pain through the ionizing effects of the metals in the bracelet. Supposedly it balances the ions in your body- the only problem is that SOLID OBJECTS CANNOT BE IONIZED! Since ionization can only occur in soluton, it is impossible for a bracelet to do so, no matter how hard it tries. The Mayo clinic did a study of about 600 people over a month and found there was no beneficial difference between the Q-Ray and a placebo. It's called a placebo effect for a reason- go buy a shiny bracelet from the dollar store and squint your eyes really hard and pretend it is going to cure your back pain. It will work just as well and is much cheaper than the alternative.

In regard to shampoo, I am mainly referring to all the amino acids and vitamins and proteins the hair commercials say are good for your hair. You just have to think about it logically- hair is not alive, so why would it need nutrients? Amino acids and proteins are too large to even enter a cell that is not in the bloodstream. I will grant that vitamins may have a beneficial effect to your scalp and the live part of your hair (ie. the root), but beyond that it's all bunk science.
Obviously there are a lot of people who don't really care about this but it just makes me angry that companies take advantage of people's ignorance like that. And I don't mean "ignorance" in a bad way, because chemistry is not exactly priority information in the general population; hell, I wouldn't have learned it if I wasn't forced to for degree requirements.

Don't even get me started on Creationism, that is a whole other post in itself (a fair tip is not to bring it up to any geologist unless you are prepared to listen to a long rant about the Pre-Cambrian paleontology and uranium-lead dating methods).

Oh, the Power!

I was in Best Buy the other day to help my mom pick out a laptop and ended up spending quite a bit of time there because we had purchased a floor model that had to be reformatted before we could bring it home. While wandering the aisles and chatting with the clerks, I noticed a strange phenomenon. When I talked to the Geek Squad guys, the TV guy and the digital camera guy, they all seemed to hang on my every word. Because I knew what HDMI stands for (High-Definition Multimedia Interface, in case you were wondering) and the difference between DDR2 and DDR3, it was like I had some kind of magical power over them. I am not sure if this was because I was particularly well dressed that day or it's always been this way and I have just been too busy looking at shiny new electronics to notice, but I like it. I did not have the same experience with female employees, but I suspect that they were probably of the same species as I was. The rare and inimitable Geek Girl.

I had a particularly long conversation with the attractive British guy selling us a macbook, and when I came to pick it up later, he said to the guys in the back "this is the girl I told you about who plays Dragon Age!". My mom happened to catch part of our discussion and later, after telling me I should marry him, confessed that she thought that when was spouting off about how she needed an optical audio cable for her surround sound, that I might have been bullshitting a bit- thanks for the confidence mom. My ability to rattle away about stuff with the Best Buy guy convinced her otherwise.

I would like to state for the record that in the 21st century, one can be both geeky and cool at the same time- really, it's true!

-A.

Genesis

The last couple months I have noticed that my brain has been slowly atrophying. I have been having trouble focusing and my vocabulary is shrinking by the minute. To remedy this downward spiral, I am starting this blog. Hopefully it will keep me from losing my mind (literally AND figuratively) before I can find a proper geology job. There is absolutely nothing interesting occurring in my life right now so don't expect the high adventure of my travel blogs. On the bright side, High Prairie is chock full of interesting material.

Case in point, I overheard this in the IGA the other day: "Isn't it a cool coincidence that the full moon comes exactly once a month!"

Wow. Well there is one good thing about living back home- I feel like I am doing well when I can understand a calendar and am not sporting any fashions that involve Disney or No Fear. Go me!

-A.