Tubular H₂O and homeopathy

A floating water bridge between beakers. Credit: Elmar Fuchs, et al.

So, Austrian physicists have found an interesting property of water. Anyone care to guess how long until homeopaths try to use this research to justify the ‘memory of water’ effect?

For a good overview of all the latest woo in the subject of the memory of water, this article at Homunculus is an excellent place to start. The blog article gives an overview of all the articles in a special issues of the journal Homeopathy. It’s a heroic effort; I tried to read the articles myself but just couldn’t take it after a couple of pages.

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Texas Gunpowder

In the UK, pepper spray is classified as a firearm:

In the United Kingdom, “Any weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing” is classed as a section 5 firearm (Firearms Act 1968). The same act covers other prohibited weapons such as automatic firearms and rocket launchers, all of which can only be possessed by permission of the Home Secretary. Although legal for police officers, recent debates have arisen whether such a weapon should be legal for civilians as means of defensive purposes only. At present a number of legal alternative dye sprays are sold in the UK which have the effect of temporarily blinding the attacker but do not constitute noxious substances and so do not contravene this act.

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Marcus Brigstocke’s take on religion

I know I’m hopelessly — like a couple of months — late to post these things, so I won’t even try to come up with a clever excuse. Just treat them as my private bookmarks.

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I’ve got proof, ’cause I believe

Roy Zimmerman is a genius. Via Retrospectacle:

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My added value? The lyrics are here.

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Greetings from Rye

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New phone, new content

I just got my N95 today. I’ve set up the blog to automatically put up photos and videos I send it. Look out for some more multimedia in the future.

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Who needs Occam when you have Jesus’ razor?

Halfway There provides a wonderful commentary on the Research Challenge Contest ‘winners’. My favourite quote from one of the papers:

Many evolutionists are recognizing the problems with these theories that attempt to explain cells’ irreducible complexity. An infinitely intelligent Designer must have created these cells. That Creator and Designer is Jesus.

Let me paraphrase.

  1. I don’t know how a cell has developed to its current form.
  2. Therefore, it hasn’t. It was created.
  3. Therefore, it was created by the same guy who performed magic tricks about two kiloyears ago around the Mediterranean.

Bloody marvellous.

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Mrs Postie is an idiot

You know how on the telly everyone in the village knows their postman by name?

I’m getting really fed up with the Royal Mail. These days (and it’s not just after the strikes) I often get my mail delivered once or twice a week. On several occasions I have received domestic letters three weeks after they were sent. On other occasions my mail just never arrives. A few weeks back I got two copies of the Economist on the same day, the new one and previous week’s. I just had NatWest send a letter to me three times before one (the last one sent) actually got through.

Also, the postwoman is an idiot. She’s actually written to me (on an envelope addressed to me, signed as ‘Mrs Postie’) asking if we could install a mailbox at the bottom of the stairs (I live on the 3rd floor). I can only assume that it’s Royal Mail’s policy that the placement of maiboxes be decided between a tenant in a block of flats and an individual mailman. According to the building porter, ‘she’s a bit stupid’. I couldn’t have put it better.

Am I unlucky to have a lazy and/or dishonest postwoman/sorter or is it really this bad throughout Royal Mail?

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Rise and fly ye English language

I was going to ask why the word exply doesn’t exist but, apparently, it does. Well, almost anyway.

P.S. The title actually happens to be in trochaic tetrameter. That’s just as well as it’s a rough translation from Finnish.

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At the local library

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