Science News of the Day

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Dardedar
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Re: Blackmore. That's why I posted the quote here, so I could link to it from the comment thread in that Huff Po article.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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They're selling these at Wal-Mart now. $20.00

Image

irenew bracelet

They don't even claim to be using magnetic bullshit. It's gone beyond that (at least magnets do something observable... with metal).

***
Live your life to the fullest with the As Seen on TV iRenew Bracelet. This bracelet may promote strength, balance, and flexibility, so you can feel your best. It's available in seven fashionable colors to match your style.
As Seen on TV iRenew Bracelet:
May help to promote balance, strength, and flexibility
Adjustable
1 size fits all
Silicone and stainless steel band
Available in black, pink, blue, green, purple, red, and white
As seen on TV
***

See the "science" testing going on here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/iRenewProdu ... _W3uxPe0e4

From their website:
"How Does IRenew bracelet Work?
As you wear the bracelet, it will harness natural frequencies that occur in your immediate environment to help tune and rebalance your biofield to a more natural state.

Wondering what your biofield is? Your biofield is an integral part of your whole being, not just your body. It is in close balance with every aspect of your self and can become easily unbalanced due to electromagnetic radiation surrounding you at any given moment. When you pop on theIRenew bracelet, you are restoring your biofield’s natural balance with biofield technology that works to balance the frequencies of e.n.e.r.g.ys surrounding you."
DAR
There is one thing this bracelet actually can do. It can test your intelligence.

If you bought one, you failed the test.

We are surrounded.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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I am soooo not worried about my student loans....
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by RobertMadewell »

As I am sweeping the floor at store 100, I am subjected to a comercial for these pieces of metal with an elastic band. In the ad, the guy demonstrating them uses the old trick of pushing on the subjects hands behind the back. Chiropractors have been doing that for decades. How many ways can I say, "It's a trick!"? The demonstrator is using leverage against you! After you put the braceltet on, he just doesn't push as hard.

I found one (that was removed from the packaging by a customer) under the shelf. I examined it during break before I returned it to claims. All I can tell is that it is just a piece of metal with an elastic band.

I could make a bracelet and sell it as a tool for renewing vitality and strength, also. Too bad I have a thing called ethics. Ethics have kept me from making lots of money for a long time.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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RobertMadewell wrote:All I can tell is that it is just a piece of metal with an elastic band.
Actually, if you look at the package and labeling, they were careful to not even claim that it is anything more than that. But it may... renew vitality and strength.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Darrel wrote:. But it may... renew vitality and strength.
It may....make your pecker fall off....
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Re: Science News of the Day

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The end of an era:

For Kodachrome Fans, Road Ends at Photo Lab in Kansas

“The best slide and movie film in history is now officially retired. Kodachrome: 1935-2010.”

New York Times
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Ha, perhaps the only thing that will stop these types of crooks:

http://www.powerbalanceclassaction.com/

"ABOUT THE CASE:
The Power Balance® products class action lawsuit centers around the fact that Power Balance marketed their products, which include wristbands, pendants and other Mylar Holograms, by purposefully misleading the public and falsely advertising and marketing the products as having, when worn close to the body, physiological benefits including, but not limited to, increased strength, balance and flexibility. In reality, the aforementioned products, maintained absolutely no physiological benefits."
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Savonarola »

Darrel wrote:Ha, perhaps the only thing that will stop these types of crooks
We can hope.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Finally, Cold Fusion "demonstrated":

http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.c ... 1#comments
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Chicago on alert for homeopathic terrorists

Three homeopathic terrorists could be in the Chicago area, say members of the Green Squad.

“These individuals are extremely dangerous.” Said an officer who asked to be identified as R1. “They can take any benign substance, and reduce it into a poison.”

The Green Squad believes that the terrorists, members of the John Benneth Sympathic Alliance, want to unleash a homeopathic weapon of mass destruction during Super Bowl weekend. Chicago is believed to be one of their targets.

Chicago officials fear that the terrorists want to... prove the effectiveness of homeopathy. If the Chicago cell gets the go signal, they will try to find a normally harmless substance, like caffeine. They will take one drop of caffeine, add ninety-nine drops of water, and then shake the container. They will then take a drop of that solution, put it in another container, add ninety-nine drops of water, and then shake that container as well. After repeating the process five more times, the substance, according to homeopaths, now causes drowsiness. Each further dilution will make the substance more powerful.

Said Paula Omstead of the Chicago Homeopathic Association, “A responsible homeopath knows when to stop diluting. There’s terrorists have no such ethical limits.”

Some officials fear that the terrorists could try to turn a deadly homeopathic substance into an aerosol that they can spray in a public place. Others fear that that will put a drop of the substance into Lake Michigan, poisoning the Great Lakes.

“Thousands would be dead in a matter of seconds because of quantum mechanics.” Said Omstead. “I know these freedom fighters mean well, but homeopathic medicine would be hated forever, and allopathic medicine would be the only legal medicine left!”

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Detecting porn from the future. Preliminary science data from Cornell professor as covered on The Colbert Report.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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3D printer, $750. Pretty nifty.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Robot solves Rubik's Cube in 18.2 seconds:

Video clip

Oops, this one does it in 10.7: Video clip

My fastest time is 55 seconds.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Interesting:

Fracking the life out of Arkansas and beyond

The last four months of 2010, nearly 500 earthquakes rattled Guy, Arkansas. [1] The entire state experienced 38 quakes in 2009. [2] The spike in quake frequency precedes and coincides with the 100,000 dead fish on a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River that included Roseville Township on December 30. The next night, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings dropped dead out of the sky in Beebe. [3] Hydraulic fracturing is the most likely culprit for all three events, as it causes earthquakes with a resultant release of toxins into the environment. [4] [big snip...]

Red-winged blackbirds roost in clusters up to a million or more birds, often with other species like starlings and cowbirds. (In the 1950s and ’60s, roosts could number 20 million birds.) Blackbirds prefer low, dense vegetative cover in wetlands or near streams. Though some may perch 30 feet above the water, most perch within one to two feet of it, and some will roost with their feet resting in water. Blackbirds can range up to 50 miles a day from roost to feeding sites, but they all settle in for the night before sunset. [11]

An earthquake of whatever scale can release a stream or cloud of gas and fracking chemicals which could easily explain why sleeping birds would suddenly take flight, and then quickly die as they succumbed to the toxic fumes. Of note, eight measured quakes within 40 miles of Beebe, and within 75 miles of Roseville, hit the area on December 30 thru several minutes past midnight on January 1st. [12] This excludes any micro- or miniquakes which can have the same effect. Significantly, the area is known for its prolific microquakes — numbering 40,000 since 1982. [1]"

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Dow Corning commercial. Quite cool.

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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Savonarola »

Darrel wrote:Dow Corning commercial. Quite cool.
Ah, the future: Where a small group of teenage thugs with a bucket of rocks can bring the economy to a standstill.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Just the list of water quackery:

Gallery of water-related pseudoscience

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Radioactive Smoke

Image

"Radioactive Smoke; January 2011; Scientific American Magazine; by Brianna Rego

Summary:

Tobacco plants accumulate small concentrations of polonium 210, a radioactive isotope that mostly originates from natural radioactivity in fertilizers.
Smokers inhale the polonium, which settles in “hot spots” in the lungs and can cause cancer. Its effects may lead to thousands of deaths a year in the U.S. alone.
The tobacco industry has known for decades how to virtually eliminate the polonium from cigarette smoke but kept its knowledge secret and failed to act.
The Food and Drug Administration now has the authority to regulate tobacco and could begin to use it by forcing manufacturers to reduce polonium content.

Excerpt:

In November 2006 former KGB operative Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital in what had all the hallmarks of a cold war–style assassination. Despite the intrigue surrounding Litvinenko’s death, the poison that killed him, a rare radioactive isotope called polonium 210, is far more widespread than many of us realize: people worldwide smoke almost six trillion cigarettes a year, and each one delivers a small amount of polonium 210 to the lungs. Puff by puff, the poison builds up to the equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest x-rays a year for a person who smokes one and a half packs a day.

Although polonium may not be the primary carcinogen in cigarette smoke, it may nonetheless cause thousands of deaths a year in the U.S. alone. And what sets polonium apart is that these deaths could be avoided with simple measures. The tobacco industry has known about polonium in cigarettes for nearly 50 years. By searching through internal tobacco industry documents, I have discovered that manufacturers even devised processes that would dramatically cut down the isotope’s concentrations in cigarette smoke. But Big Tobacco consciously decided to do nothing and to keep its research secret. In consequence, cigarettes still contain as much polonium today as they did half a century ago."

Scientific American
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Japan’s wind farms save its ass while nuclear plants founder

"If Japan's wind turbines were to get a new theme song, it would be Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", and it would ring out from the hills upon which they stand triumphantly, unscathed by the the country's earthquake/tsunami double whammy, lifting their skinny, still-turning blades like antennas to heaven.

While Japan's water-dependent nuclear power plants suck and wheeze and spew radioactive steam, "there has been no wind facility damage reported by any [Japan Wind Energy Association] members, from either the earthquake or the tsunami," says association head Yoshinori Ueda.

Even the country's totally badass Kamisu offshore wind farm, with its giant 2 MW turbines with blades big as the wings on a jumbo jet, and only 186 miles from the epicenter of the largest quake ever recorded in Japan, survived without a hiccup thanks to its "battle proof design." As a result, the nation's electric companies have asked all of its wind farms to increase power production to maximum, in order to make up for the shortfalls brought about by the failure of certain other aging, non-resilient 20th-century technologies.

Unlike conventional power plants, wind turbines don't have to be situated close to sources of water (always a liability), and their simplicity means fewer potential points of failure."

LINK
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