Living in the Age of Stupidity (caption contest)

• THE MEMORY OF WATER MOLECULES. On Friday, Ben Goldacre of The Guardian wrote about the widespread embrace of the alternative medicine homeopathy (A kind of magic?) despite clear evidence that homeopathy doesn’t work.

Oldacre is attempting—to use one of my dad’s favorite phrases—to shovel shit against the tide. He may as well rail against dirt or stupidity or George Bush. Still, I like ‘im.

An excerpt:

Homeopathic remedies are made by taking an ingredient, such as arsenic, and diluting it down so far that there is not a single molecule left in the dose that you get. The ingredients are selected on the basis of like cures like, so that a substance that causes sweating at normal doses, for example, would be used to treat sweating. ¶ …The typical [homeopathic] dilution is called "30C": this means that the original substance has been diluted by 1 drop in 100, 30 times. … ¶ To phrase that in the Society of Homeopaths' terms, we should say: "30C contains less than one part per million million million million million million million million million million of the original substance." ¶ At a homeopathic dilution of 100C, which they sell routinely, and which homeopaths claim is even more powerful than 30C, the treating substance is diluted by more than the total number of atoms in the universe. ¶ …How can an almost infinitely dilute solution cure anything? Most homeopaths claim that water has "a memory"…. ¶ Many homeopaths also claim they can transmit homeopathic remedies over the internet, in CDs, down the telephone, through a computer, or in a piece of music. Peter Chappell, whose work will feature at a conference organised by the Society of Homeopaths next month, makes dramatic claims about his ability to solve the Aids epidemic using his own homeopathic pills called "PC Aids", and his specially encoded music. "Right now," he says, "Aids in Africa could be significantly ameliorated by a simple tune played on the radio."

• HIDING DSCOVR. Meanwhile, also on Friday (Nov. 16), Bob Park reported that

[Global] Warming is caused by atmospheric contaminants that change the energy balance with the sun. Last week an "elite" group talked about sending up vast amounts of other contaminants to make it go the other way. Yes, they really did. Before we do that, maybe we should launch DSCOVR to measure the energy balance. Built and paid for, the Bush administration is hiding it in a Greenbelt, MD warehouse. [See White House Denies Inquiries about DSCOVR Cancellation.]

• LIAR, LIAR PANTS AFIRE. This morning, the AP reported that

California fire officials [just] released their first detailed account of the highly criticized aerial assault at the start of the wildfires that destroyed more than 2,000 homes in Southern California last month. ¶ The documents attempt to answer charges by federal lawmakers, military officials and others that the state did not effectively marshal all its available air resources as the series of blazes began roaring out of control. In particular, an earlier Associated Press investigation revealed that military helicopters sat grounded for days, in part because of a shortage of state fire "spotters" who were required to be onboard. ¶ The documents obtained under the California Public Records Act ... reveal a more detailed and at times different version of events than previously provided by the state's top fire and emergency officials. ¶ For example, state fire officials last month said high winds had grounded virtually all aircraft in the first two days after the flames broke out. Therefore, they reasoned, it would not have mattered whether additional state fire spotters had been available to ride in the military choppers. ¶ The documents, however, show that although pilots were hampered by strong winds, a dozen air tankers and five state helicopters flew more than 70 hours in firefighting missions on Oct. 21, the first full day of the firestorm. ¶ They also reveal that number was a fraction of the tankers and helicopters available in the state that day. ¶ Twenty-eight of 52 aircraft the state was tracking for firefighting efforts remained grounded, and high winds were not listed as the reason. Rather, state officials had not requested them or they were being kept in other parts of the state in case fires broke out there….

NO DOUBT you’ve noticed that, at some point, each age or period is given a name or a characterization—the “Jazz Age,” the “McCarthy Era,” the “‘Me’ Decade,” and so on.

I have no doubt that future generations, if any such should exist, will refer to ours as the “Age of Stupidity.”

• For more stupidity, see Italy's "Black Cat Day" Aims To Halt Killings:

Saturday is "black cat day," in Italy, an initiative by an animal rights group to try to stop the killing of thousands of the cats by superstitious citizens convinced they bring bad luck. ¶ Black cats have a bad name in many countries, but nowhere more so than Italy, where a papal edict in the middle ages declared they were instruments of the devil. Black cats were thrown into the fires to join witches burned at the stake. ¶ The Italian Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment (AIDAA) estimates 60,000 were killed last year, to ward off bad luck but also for use in satanic rites and in cosmetics laboratories where black fur gives the best results….

• A CAPTION CONTEST TO IGNORE. OK, we've tried this before, and it never seems to work, but, as you might gather, I'm an optimist, always lookin' on the friggin' Bright Side. So let us know what you come up with. Or not.