'Oh, come on, you just _have_ to go'

I have been hearing those words quite frequently of late. Why? I will explain. I'm coming towards the end of my secondary school education (11-16, I'm not sure what the US equivalent is), and at the end of the final year, there is a 'prom', or in other words a semi-formal buffet dance affair which almost everyone goes to. Being a rational, scientifically minded person does not make school life easy, as ~80% of teenagers treat you as a different species. I'm generally well-liked by people, but I'm no socialite. By now you should be getting an idea of what I'm driving at!

In essence, I can think of many things that I would rather do than pay to go along to something I have next to no interest in (read, watch Star Trek/Doctor Who, surf the web, work on my time machine, etc.). People at school seem intent on persuading me to go, using arguments such as 'it's the last time you'll see everyone' (not true, there's a results day, and a trip for high achievers) and 'it's tradition that everyone goes' (it was tradition for about 1000 years to chop people's heads off and make a public spectacle of it...). To me the whole thing seems rather pointless anyway, and after about half an hour I bet most of the people will wish they are somewhere else! It seems to be the product of clique culture & traditionalism, things which I am decidedly allergic to! I wonder how many people have thought critically about whether they really want to go, rather than just thinking 'well everyone else/my boyfriend/my girlfriend/next door's cat is going, so I have to'.

I feel better for having that little rant!
I have been hearing those words quite frequently of late. Why? I will explain. I'm coming towards the end of my secondary school education (11-16, I'm not sure what the US equivalent is), and at the end of the final year, there is a 'prom', or in other words a semi-formal buffet dance affair which almost everyone goes to. Being a rational, scientifically minded person does not make school life easy, as ~80% of teenagers treat you as a different species. I'm generally well-liked by people, but I'm no socialite. By now you should be getting an idea of what I'm driving at!<br /><br />In essence, I can think of many things that I would rather do than pay to go along to something I have next to no interest in (read, watch <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek<span style="font-style: italic;">/</span>Doctor Who</span>, surf the web, work on my time machine, etc.). People at school seem intent on persuading me to go, using arguments such as 'it's the last time you'll see everyone' (not true, there's a results day, and a trip for high achievers) and 'it's tradition that everyone goes' (it was tradition for about 1000 years to chop people's heads off and make a public spectacle of it...). To me the whole thing seems rather pointless anyway, and after about half an hour I bet most of the people will wish they are somewhere else! It seems to be the product of clique culture & traditionalism, things which I am decidedly allergic to! I wonder how many people have thought critically about whether <span style="font-style: italic;">they </span>really want to go, rather than just thinking 'well everyone else/my boyfriend/my girlfriend/next door's cat is going, so I have to'<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>.<br /><br />I feel better for having that little rant!

A glimmer of hope...

Television is blamed for an awful lot these days: street violence, bad manners, bad eyesight, bad brains, etc. In some ways this is true, in accordance with Sturgeon's Law, 90% of TV programming is utter crap (Big Brother, [somewhere]'s Got Talent, soaps, any celebrity gossip shows).

However, TV can also be a force for good. There are (at least in the UK, I'm not sure about elsewhere) some truly brilliant science-based, informative shows. Last week I watched one of these, and finally thought 'we're making progress'. In the BBC's 'Professor Regan's Medicine Cabinet', the eponymous Imperial College professor puts various medical myths, from health checks to branded drugs, to the test. The show explains the placebo effect and other important scientific concepts in an easy-to-understand manner, and Regan certainly seems to have her head screwed on air-tight when it comes to scientific rigour (even sending off various homeopathy papers for a thorough statistical analysis).

For someone like me who always follows the science, and doesn't swallow anything (both literally and metaphorically) without seeing the proof, it felt good that proper scientific procedure had come to prime time TV. If at least one person watched the show and stopped using 'complementary' therapies, it did some good.

For those of you in the UK, you can watch the show (and the previous one about diets) on the BBC iPlayer. Those elsewhere with a bit of technical savvy could always google for 'uk proxy' and go from there.
Television is blamed for an awful lot these days: street violence, bad manners, bad eyesight, bad brains, etc. In some ways this is true, in accordance with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law">Sturgeon's Law</a>, 90% of TV programming is utter crap (Big Brother, [somewhere]'s Got Talent, soaps, any celebrity gossip shows).<br /><br />However, TV can also be a force for good. There are (at least in the UK, I'm not sure about elsewhere) some truly brilliant science-based, informative shows. Last week I watched one of these, and finally thought 'we're making progress'. In the BBC's 'Professor Regan's Medicine Cabinet', the eponymous Imperial College professor puts various medical myths, from health checks to branded drugs, to the test. The show explains the placebo effect and other important scientific concepts in an easy-to-understand manner, and Regan certainly seems to have her head screwed on air-tight when it comes to scientific rigour (even sending off various homeopathy papers for a thorough statistical analysis).<br /><br />For someone like me who always follows the science, and doesn't swallow anything (both literally and metaphorically) without seeing the proof, it felt good that proper scientific procedure had come to prime time TV. If at least one person watched the show and stopped using 'complementary' therapies, it did some good.<br /><br />For those of you in the UK, you can watch the show (and the previous one about diets) on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=Professor%20Regan%27s...">the BBC iPlayer</a>. Those elsewhere with a bit of technical savvy could always google for 'uk proxy' and go from there.

Greetings from Planet Earth!

Ohai! Welcome, wherever or whenever you may be (if you are a time traveller, do remember to visit MIT's Time Travel Convention. I know it's already happened, but then again, you do have a time machine!) . As you may have already picked up, I'm a bit... different from your average Homo sapiens. I love science (specifically physics), and am proud to call myself a geek and a skeptic. For this reason, I am increasingly disturbed by the amount of woo-woo and very bad science floating around today. Here I will output my thoughts and opinions on various things, from skepticism and science to computers, and anything else in between which I find interesting!
Ohai! Welcome, wherever or whenever you may be (if you are a time traveller, do remember to visit <a href="http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler/">MIT's Time Travel Convention</a>. I know it's already happened, but then again, you do have a time machine!) . As you may have already picked up, I'm a bit... different from your average <span style="font-style: italic;">Homo sapiens</span>. I love science (specifically physics), and am proud to call myself a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek">geek</a> and a skeptic. For this reason, I am increasingly disturbed by the amount of woo-woo and very bad science floating around today. Here I will output my thoughts and opinions on various things, from skepticism and science to computers, and anything else in between which I find interesting!