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(Yet) Another Year End List

Posted by Hemos on from the if-kansas-is-said-"kan-zize"-why-isn't-it-"ar-kanzize" dept.

gordonb writes "New Scientist has yet another of those endless end-of-year lists, "13 things that do not make sense", including such topics discussed on Slashdot this year as the placebo effect, dark energy, and the ever-popular cold fusion. I know there are a lot more than 13 things that don't make sense, such as free markets, but, oxymorons aside, this is an interesting list, nevertheless."

6 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Research mistakes or conundrums? by dada21 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The placebo effect does work! A friend of the family is a hypochondriac (I used to be a BAD one), and always has the same cold or disease as someone else. I told her that the trick to fending off hypochondria is to gently tap the underside of her chin 5 times slowly and the symptoms will go away.

    Guess what? It worked. I just made it up but I told her I heard about it on a medical show. The power of the mind is amazing, but it has taught me how easily duped we humans are. I guess this means don't trust anyone until you know what their end desire is.

    This is an interesting article, but it seems common for them to say that these unknown "problems" might all boil down to bad research -- and I believe that could likely be the answer for many. "Bad research" covers all science conundrums: either you misread the results, or previous bad research gave you an incorrect theory.

    Problems solved :)

    1. Re:Research mistakes or conundrums? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's not proving the placebo effect, because hypochondria's a mental state. The placebo effect is when a real illness is treated with a placebo, not when imaginary ones are treated with a placebo.

      Think about it - there's nothing odd about make-believe cures being able to affect make-believe illnesses. It's like when you are kids, and your make-believe bulletproof vest stops your friends' make-believe bullets shot from their make-believe guns. The placebo effect is like when those make-believe bulletproof vests stop real bullets.

    2. Re:Research mistakes or conundrums? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Mental illnesses are real illnesses and have hard, acute neurological expression in the brain.

      Certainly some people have strong difficulties in their lives. And certainly some people have deformities or injuries to their nervous system. But the idea that "mental illnesses" such as depression have direct neurological expression is not as supported as SSRI makers would like you to believe. (Another link: here.)

      Labeling psychological difficulties (other than neulogical illness or injury) is questionable. It has strong legal and social consequences that we ought to consider.

      The DSM, the official defintion of mental health and illness, has its roots in a military effort to decide who was too crazy (or not crazy enough?) to be a soldier. It's critera for listed condtions are famously vauge. And who decides which condtions are "illnesses"? Just a few decades ago, homosexuality was a "mental illness" according to the DSM.

      These illnesses are not merely coming from a person who is playing a casual game of make-believe who needs to get a grip.

      I agree, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we should use the word "illness" to describe these states.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
  2. obligatory by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "13 things that do not make sense"

    Why would a Wookie, an eight-foot tall Wookie, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does NOT MAKE SENSE! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does NOT MAKE SENSE! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, [approaches and softens] does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does NOT MAKE SENSE! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  3. End of year list? by edgr · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Take a look at the date on TFA.
    13 things that do not make sense

    19 March 2005
    NewScientist.com news service
    Michael Brooks
    Doesn't seem so end of year to me.
  4. Too bad nothing on this list has changed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Since the last time it was posted on /.