Important safety warning - Don't lick your toys

[KnightBeat]

Read this article and resist the urge to show your toy love in the future.

[Gav]

I'd never seen those things before, but they look like fun! Not the date-rape part mind. I'm thinking i could make some cool Nintendo stuff with that.

Bad news about the kids though, i'm glad they're all okay.

[kayevcee]

The chemist in me wonders if the digestion of the accidentally-swallowed plastics involved would release enough GHB to produce any measurable effect, and whether a kid would have to eat several packs in order to experience the full symptoms. The shop assistant in me wonders what life is going to be like for Customer Services in the coming weeks considering the hundreds if not thousands of Bindeez packs that our shop alone has sold.

Bad news all round.

-Nick

[The Doctor]

Yep. Parents will just see the words 'toy', 'children' and 'date rape drug' in the same sentence and go nuts.

-Ralph

[rurudyne]

Nvts doesn't begin to describe it!

[kayevcee]

A classic example of reporters poorly interpreting scientific data can be found in this article from the
Daily Fascist.

First the writer, quite rightly, bemoans media and government ministers alike for going off half-cocked, coming to incorrect conclusions and drawing false connections that cost the country billions based on incomplete or misrepresented data. Then based on his handful of unrelated examples he declares that global warming is bunk and passive smoking is harmless, and spends the rest of the article taking pot shots at Al Gore. Way to lead by example there, genius.

And did I mention the article is written to promote his new book?

-Nick

[The Doctor]

That was a hilarious read. Bonkers.

-Ralph

[rurudyne]

kayevcee ... your author seems a real mixed bag.

[kayevcee]

If anyone's wondering about the DDT issue that he blames for the spread of malaria, that happens to be my chosen specialised subject. DDT was banned because:

a) it was catastrophically toxic in environments with a long food chain, such as rivers. Mosquitoes breed in wetlands, so heavy use would have destroyed fish stocks and bird life.

b) DDT takes centuries to break down in nature. Once you spray it, it stays sprayed. Until it reaches toxic concentrations in the food supplies of the local wildlife. Then it stays sprayed and animals start dying.

c) generations of resistant mosquitoes were being born that DDT had a diminished effect on. This would mean people using more of the stuff to achieve the same effect and, well, see above. Eventually only resistant insects would be left and the pesticide would be both omnipresent and useless, except to make the area uninhabitable.

It's not like we're short of options for insecticides. It's just that once DDT was banned the will to wipe out malaria seemed to run out of steam and backing started to diminish. It's a bad state of affairs, but blaming the people that had it banned just makes you a goon.

-Nick

[legios]

kayevcee said:

It's not like we're short of options for insecticides. It's just that once DDT was banned the will to wipe out malaria seemed to run out of steam and backing started to diminish. It's a bad state of affairs, but blaming the people that had it banned just makes you a goon.

-Nick

True, but we are talking about the "Daily Mail", hardly a bastion of journalistic capability and integrity.

What boggled my mind is that he seemed to be insinuatiing that "evil scientists" made the newspapers print alarmist headlines (like the "KILLER BIRD-FLU STRIKES BRITAIN" nonsense that I am sure will be in some of tomorrows papers. I think it is fair to say that a lot of scientists could only wish they had that much power over how their findings are reported by the men and boys of the tabloid press.

Karl

[kayevcee]

Indeed. That's why whenever a journalist asks to speak to a scientist at Glasgow uni, they get directed to Media Services who speak fluent bullhonkey and can communicate our ideas in a form that will get them into newspapers in as close to the intended format as possible. Still, at least with newspaper features there's some chance of feedback before it's printed- with TV, you don't see the spin/editing job they've put on you till it appears on screen, and by then the damage is done.

-Nick

[Philip Ayres]

Does everybody's parents read the Daily Mail ? Mine do, as do Liz's.

[The Doctor]

The most terrible tabloid of them all is The Daily Express which revolves constantly between 2 headlines: 'IMMIGRANTS ARE EVIL!' or 'DIANA - CONSPIRACY!'. A: stop fostering bigotry, you arseholes, and B: Let the woman rest. Though in the last 6 months another common headline has been 'SHOCKING MADELINE REVELATION!', usually lacking in actual news and just sensationalist cashing-in.

Gods, I hate The Daily Express!

-Ralph

[rurudyne]

Doctor Ralph,

I don't know if you've ever heard a humorist singer named Ray Stevens— whom I highly recommend BTW — but he's got this one song about tabloids that has the phrase "Minds that need examining want to know!"

[The Doctor]

A wise man.

-Ralph

[Deleted]

Ray Stevens did this song in 1977 called 'In the Mood' in which he performed as a group of clucking chickens! (Just thought I'd mention that)

As for the media I think the Daily Star is the rag of choice for anyone who wants to read a newspaper that is full of shite.

[The Doctor]

I hope everyone is restraining themselevs from licking their toys over the festive period.

-Ralph

[kayevcee]

Blimey, I did love spouting off last year, didn't I?

-Nick

[The Doctor]

Just so long as you're not licking your toys.

-Ralph