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slycatA program which is currently airing every Tuesday at 8pm on BBC3 called The Bulls*** Detective annoys me. It's basically a ripoff of the excellent Penn & Teller: Bullshit show aired in America (recently finished completing my collection of all episodes aired in the states). It's such a clone that the people at the BBC basically saw the US show and remade for the UK, even down to the show title (Although censored as it's pre-watershed). The UK show covers the same subjects, although it does tackle them in a different way. Where in the US show, the hosts never actually interview the interviewees themselves, they just comment on recorded footage of them meaning the interviewee doesn't have the opportunity to argue back, in the UK show they have "investigators" who actually appear to go hands on to deal with the subject of the show.
However, the US it's presented in a much more entertaining fashion, with Penn and Teller using their magic tricks to help show how silly claims made are and the ways they use their unique form of editing and voice overs to make the interviewees out to be the idiots they are (such as those claiming magnet-therapy is real). That said, I did disagree with their episode about passive smoking, which they've acknowledged is now inaccurate using more recent studies and the episode about gun control, which I do understand why Americans are so keen on guns, I still think it's a bad idea for them to be available to the public
While both shows do their job of exposing commonly ill-conceived ideas about things, the main thing that pisses me off is just how close a clone of the show the UK show is. They could have at least changed the title and tried to cover more subjects specific to the UK so I don't feel so patronised to be told it all again after watching the US show. If you've not had a chance to see the US show, I'd strongly recommend it, some shows are obvious from the outset despite the loons that believe the subject matter, but some episodes are real eye openers.
However, the US it's presented in a much more entertaining fashion, with Penn and Teller using their magic tricks to help show how silly claims made are and the ways they use their unique form of editing and voice overs to make the interviewees out to be the idiots they are (such as those claiming magnet-therapy is real). That said, I did disagree with their episode about passive smoking, which they've acknowledged is now inaccurate using more recent studies and the episode about gun control, which I do understand why Americans are so keen on guns, I still think it's a bad idea for them to be available to the public
While both shows do their job of exposing commonly ill-conceived ideas about things, the main thing that pisses me off is just how close a clone of the show the UK show is. They could have at least changed the title and tried to cover more subjects specific to the UK so I don't feel so patronised to be told it all again after watching the US show. If you've not had a chance to see the US show, I'd strongly recommend it, some shows are obvious from the outset despite the loons that believe the subject matter, but some episodes are real eye openers.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 02:15 am (UTC)Try sleeping with a pair of 5lb ceramic magnets about 2ft either side of your head... If you don't end up paranoid that someone's in the room with you, you'll have some pretty fucked up dreams.
I found this out a long time before I even knew what magnet therapy was*, so whilst I'm not calling bullshit on those calling bullshit on *it*, I'm more than a little inclined to believe that magnetic fields do indeed have effects on the human body, even at relatively small levels.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 12:07 pm (UTC)As I said before, I didn't know magnet therapy existed at the time, nor had anyone told me that magnets had effects on humans. In fact, all I knew, was that it was impossible for me to sleep between them. I think I was about 12 at the time.
Also, I will take this oppertunity to point out that some people can "hear" electromagnetic fields, and scientific testing has proven that there are a handful who can do so with 100% accuracy. If I remember the sites I read about this on, I'll link you, but they're bookmarked on my Mac...
I put this down, logically, to the fact that cells use electricity to transmit information within them and also contain ferric oxide, which has magnetic properties. Pass a magnetic field through a conductive element, and you have an electric field generated, and since blood cells are always moving, they would always be cutting the lines of flux created by a permanant magnet, so always producing small electric currents. Obviously, moving fields would have a similar effect.
If you want to come up with something to the contrary, either of my theory or the proven scientific facts behind it, please do.
But never assume that because something is different, and someone *else* says it's not true, it must be wrong.
I have to deal with a lot of snake oil in the audiophile circle, a lot of which consists of very expensive items classed as "tweaks" (google "Brilliant Pebbles" for a classic one). These tweaks also all work, as long as the user believes they will, but unlike swapping a £0.99 signal cable for a £30 cable with far better screening and insulation, there is no scientific reason they should. Incidentally, very cheap "tweaks" tend to be laughed out, despite them very often being more effective than the expensive ones. As we all know, the more expensive something is, the better it is. Or maybe not.