Should well-respected journalistic outlets publish ‘April Fools’ items? For Dr. Moira Smith, writing in the scholarly journal Folklore, Volume 120, Issue 3, 2009, such media hoaxes flout journalistic ethics. “On April Fools’ Day, journalists from every media take advantage of the occasion to pass off fabricated stories as news. While entertaining, these media hoaxes flout […]
Homeopathic medicine possibly contaminated with actual drugs
Some homeopathic remedies might be contaminated by actual remedies — might contain actual drugs — warns The US Food and Drug Administration in March 20, 2014 alert headlined “Pleo Homeopathic Drug Products by Terra-Medica: Recall – Potential for Undeclared Penicillin“. (Arielle Duhaime-Ross supplies commentary about this, in The Verge). BONUS: All wet: Benveniste explains it to […]
Generating predictions while watching the movie Moonraker
Two decades ago, Rolf Zwaan — who likely at the time did not predict that he would one day be awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for an experiment involving the Eiffel Tower — published a study, with colleagues, about people generating predictions while watching the James Bond movie Moonraker. The study was and is: “Generating predictive […]
For sleep-and-monks-and-nuns enthusiasts
Rare is the study that focus on how monks and nuns sleep. One is: “Ring the Bell for Matins: Circadian Adaptation to Split Sleep by Cloistered Monks and Nuns,” Isabelle Arnulf [pictured here], Agnès Brion, Michel Pottier and Jean-Louis Golmard, Chronobiology International, Dec., 2011, Vol. 28, No. 10 , pp. 930-41. (Thanks to investigator Yvette […]