Sense About Science: Celebrities on Science 2010

[PeZook]

This is a crushing list picking apart the most senseless, stupid and downright offensive opinion of celebrities, published annually by a nonprofit organization called "Sense About Science".

It's in PDF format, available on their website. It points out gems like:

Pop star Sarah Harding told Now magazine that she crumbles charcoal over her food. She said: “It doesn’t taste of anything and apparently absorbs all the bad, damaging stuff in the body.”4

Power Balance, a silicone bracelet embedded with a hologram, promises to improve strength, energy and flexibility. Celebrities sporting the bracelets have included David Beckham, Robert de Niro, Kate Middleton and even Spanish Ministers of State. Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello gave the bracelet his official endorsement, saying: “It is amazing how I feel better, stronger and more flexible when I exercise.”6

American basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is also a huge fan of the bracelet, recounting the first time he wore the bracelet in a match: “We won that game by 57 points!”7

And my favorite so far:

Cage fighter Alex Reid gave fans his tips on how to prepare for a match as he promoted his new fight show, Alex Reid: The Fight of His Life. He said: “it’s actually very good for a man to have unprotected sex as long as he doesn’t ejaculate. Because I believe that all that semen has a lot of nutrition. A tablespoon of semen has your equivalent of steak eggs, lemons and oranges. I am reabsorbing it into my body and it makes me go raaaaahh.”9

EATING YOUR OWN SPERM MAKES YOU SUPERMAN!

It's too bad the scientists in the document don't mock them more ruthlessly. As an aside, I regained a tiny bit of faith in humanity because I first heard about the list when it was brought up by a major Polish radio station in prime time

Link to the article on Sense About Science

[General Zod]

It's easy enough to dismiss Shaq's bracelet obsession as a relatively harmless superstition, but Sarah Harding and Alex Reid are Darwin awards waiting to happen.

[LaCroix]

The charcoal is not dangerous - it is actually used if you have stomach problems (e.g. The Runs) as it actually does absorb stuff.

[General Zod]

The charcoal is not dangerous - it is actually used if you have stomach problems (e.g. The Runs) as it actually does absorb stuff.

Maybe not, but her reasoning for taking it is pretty absurd. I mean "it doesn't taste of anything"? Who the fuck uses that kind of reasoning for whether or not something is harmful?

[Archaic`]

To be fair, I think her reasoning there was more "it's apparently good for you, and it doesn't taste bad like so many things which are good for you".

[Broomstick]

The charcoal on food thing stems from one of those factoids I think someone overhears, then takes to an extreme.

Activated charcoal is used medically to help neutralize ingested poison (drug OD's, toxins, etc). There is also scientific documentation that a number of species (parrots, monkeys, others) seek out and eat charcoal when they have it available (either due to forest fires or human activity) and consume it with various foods that are prone to contain toxic components. So yes, charcoal CAN be useful.

However, there is absolutely NO evidence that adding it to the typical human diet is in any way beneficial. Domestic plants have largely had the toxins bred out of them. Animal flesh may be contaminated, such as fish with mercury, but charcoal is not effective against those toxins, or against artificial compounds created since the 20th Century.

There is the potential for charcoal to absorb and carry off essential vitamins and minerals simply because it absorbs stuff, but I honestly don't know if that's a significant danger or not. In any case, a little charcoal munching is probably harmless, but like anything else the whackadoodles are perfectly capable of carrying it to unhealthy extremes.

Alex Reid's nuttiness has a long tradition in several cultures of seeing ejaculation of semen as somehow reducing a man's vital essence or whatever. I remember when I was young it was common for athletes to refrain from sex before a game, fearing it would somehow deplete them physically, and tantric yoga has a bunch of practices revolving around sex without ejaculation. So it's really the same old shit, with bareback sex as a positive thrown in.

The hologram bracelet is basically magic. As such, there can be a powerful placebo effect, but it's no different than an athlete having a "lucky jersey" or "lucky shorts", or someone carrying around a four leaf clover or whatever. It's superstition repackaged for the 21st Century. Personally, I don't have an issue with "lucky charms" as such, and have made quite a few in my day for various people (almost always for free), but the cost demanded for what is essentially a cheap bangle is sickening, as are the attempts to promote this as some sort of science.

[Molyneux]

The charcoal on food thing stems from one of those factoids I think someone overhears, then takes to an extreme.

Activated charcoal is used medically to help neutralize ingested poison (drug OD's, toxins, etc). There is also scientific documentation that a number of species (parrots, monkeys, others) seek out and eat charcoal when they have it available (either due to forest fires or human activity) and consume it with various foods that are prone to contain toxic components. So yes, charcoal CAN be useful.

However, there is absolutely NO evidence that adding it to the typical human diet is in any way beneficial. Domestic plants have largely had the toxins bred out of them. Animal flesh may be contaminated, such as fish with mercury, but charcoal is not effective against those toxins, or against artificial compounds created since the 20th Century.

There is the potential for charcoal to absorb and carry off essential vitamins and minerals simply because it absorbs stuff, but I honestly don't know if that's a significant danger or not. In any case, a little charcoal munching is probably harmless, but like anything else the whackadoodles are perfectly capable of carrying it to unhealthy extremes.

Alex Reid's nuttiness has a long tradition in several cultures of seeing ejaculation of semen as somehow reducing a man's vital essence or whatever. I remember when I was young it was common for athletes to refrain from sex before a game, fearing it would somehow deplete them physically, and tantric yoga has a bunch of practices revolving around sex without ejaculation. So it's really the same old shit, with bareback sex as a positive thrown in.

The hologram bracelet is basically magic. As such, there can be a powerful placebo effect, but it's no different than an athlete having a "lucky jersey" or "lucky shorts", or someone carrying around a four leaf clover or whatever. It's superstition repackaged for the 21st Century. Personally, I don't have an issue with "lucky charms" as such, and have made quite a few in my day for various people (almost always for free), but the cost demanded for what is essentially a cheap bangle is sickening, as are the attempts to promote this as some sort of science.

This is purely and entirely anecdotal, but when I was younger, charcoal pills did sometimes appear to help me get over an upset stomach.

[Broomstick]

That's an anecdote, but in this case it's a valid observation. Charcoal can alleviate some types of stomach distress, it's a perfectly legitimate use and actually effective for some tummy upsets.

Certain types of clay - the kaolin that used to be the base of Kaopectate, for example - also have medical uses for some times of gastric distress as well as treating diarrhea.

The problem isn't using these ancient remedies, it's when people stop thinking of them having a limited application and start using a "cures all ills" approach.

[Zixinus]

The problem isn't using these ancient remedies, it's when people stop thinking of them having a limited application and start using a "cures all ills" approach.

To add to this, I once saw an Attenborough show where they shown a species of wild boar (I think) that actively ate poisonous plants (to them) and afterwards ate up what looked like mud. I think it was some either clay or some other fine stone something, but the point is, the stuff absorbed the poison. The boars were doing this for generations.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more like this with other medicines: simple truly "natural" medicines (stuff you could find in the wild if you knew where to look) given abilities they did not have.

[Ritterin Sophia]

It's easy enough to dismiss Shaq's bracelet obsession as a relatively harmless superstition, but Sarah Harding and Alex Reid are Darwin awards waiting to happen.

I dunno, technically Reid is right, once you get over the squick factor. I'm not going to do it, but I'm not going to argue that semen has a lot of protein.

[Stark]

Are you seriously saying that un-fired semen is re-absorbed into the body for a turbo boost of power?

[General Zod]

It's easy enough to dismiss Shaq's bracelet obsession as a relatively harmless superstition, but Sarah Harding and Alex Reid are Darwin awards waiting to happen.

I dunno, technically Reid is right, once you get over the squick factor. I'm not going to do it, but I'm not going to argue that semen has a lot of protein.

Since I was more referring to the whole "unprotected sex is good for you" bit, your sense of humor is really falling flat.

[FSTargetDrone]

I can't be bothered to look at the list of these people to see if she's in there, but one of the more irritating celebrities (concerning science) is Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccine views, dangerously linking vaccination with causing autism.

[Korto]

Power Balance has hit a bit of a snag here. The ACCC has ordered them to retract all claims and refund everybodies money. The ACCC head even went on TV to call the thing, basically, a pile of crap.

[PeZook]

YES

I wish that happened more often. The sheer amount of quacks out there is staggering, they really should be smacked down some more.

[Patrick Degan]

This stuff would be perfect material for a chapter in a sequel to The Demon-Haunted World if Carl Sagan were alive to write it.

[CaptainChewbacca]

How long ago was it that Suzanne Sommers was caught treating her cancer with dangerous 'new medicine' and was shocked that her doctor didn't know about it?

[SpacedTeddyBear]

Anyone else wondering whether people are going poison themselves trying to mimic Harding's eating habits by accidently using self lighting charcoal?

[Broomstick]

It says something about me I suppose that I never even considered that... but then, I light fires entirely without artificial aids involving petroleum products

[Gurachn]

Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida is on record as drinking a glass of his own urine every morning.

Personally, I prefer a strong coffee, but I have heard it claimed that urine "contains minerals, hormones and elements that bind moisture to protein."

[Akhlut]

Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida is on record as drinking a glass of his own urine every morning.

Personally, I prefer a strong coffee, but I have heard it claimed that urine "contains minerals, hormones and elements that bind moisture to protein."

Yes, it contains those things, but they aren't necessarily good for you because a lot of what is in urine is substances that your body has no use for or is actively poisonous anyway.

[Serafina]

Basic rule:
If it comes out of your body, it comes out for a reason. Unless it's blood, putting it back in is generally a bad idea

[Zaune]

What I don't understand is, if you don't ejaculate then how exactly does the lack of a condom factor into the whole "reabsorbing your own semen" thing? Not that I'd get my rattle-and-flute out for his woman without at least five condoms and four inches of heavy-duty rubber encasement between us.

[Molyneux]

Basic rule:
If it comes out of your body, it comes out for a reason. Unless it's blood, putting it back in is generally a bad idea

I think semen would also be an exception. Given that it's designed to go into another body, it's fairly non-toxic, and I suppose a means of recouping some of the metabolic cost of producing it...if you really want to go nuts about it.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Are you seriously saying that un-fired semen is re-absorbed into the body for a turbo boost of power?

I must have been tired since what I remember reading implied he drank his own jizz.