Podcast/Site Update

Hi guys this is just a quick status update:

We are currently just waiting on approval from iTunes before we continue with recording new episodes. For those of you who may not know we do have a new recording online though which explains our long break and the future of Derationalize This!. Also we have almost completed our new website, it looks brilliant and should go live as soon as we get out iTunes approval and release our first new episode. Thank you everyone for your continuing to follow us and support us along the way. Please feel free to drop us a line with any feedback we do check our messages and personally respond to each and everyone.

Thanks,

Perry

Caught in a lie… by your brain

X-Posted on Skepfish

Polygraphs move over, it’s been a good 100 years but its time for a new tool now. The future of lie detectors may very well be found in the brain, well the reading of the brain to be precise. Functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) is thought to be able to tell if a person is lying.

In short:

“fMRI scanners detect variations in the magnetic properties of blood as oxygen levels change in response to neural activity. The more a section of the brain works, the more oxygen it demands and the brighter it glows on the scan.” It is believed that when a person is lying certain parts of the brain are working (lighting up) in a particular pattern, termed as a “deceit pattern”.

Recently reported in Popular Science magazine, two companies are working on Lie Detecting MRIs. Thanks to the increasing admission of MRI evidence in court cases, there is now an opening for MRI lie detector evidence to be used in courts as well.

It should be noted that there is no such things as a true lie detector. The one that the majority of the public has come to know of is called a polygraph, which measures physical responses like blood pressure and pulse during questioning. There is much debate to this day about the credibility of the polygraph as a lie detector since the factors that cause it to produce results consistent to lying, can also be achieved from a person who is nervous or stressed during the interrogation.

I personally believe that fMRI lie detectors are no better or more accurate then the current 100-year-old polygraph. While fMRI machines are useful tools in the medical field, they are by no means perfect. In an article published by WIRED magazine. It was found that a dead salmon being used in testing an fMRI at Dartmouth apparently showed results of having brain activity.

Photo from WIRED magazine

This shows that MRI results used for the sake of mapping “deceit patterns” in a brain may not be as accurate as one would hope when possibly passing a life sentence or death penalty. Another problem found with using a fMRI result for lie detecting purposes is that no two brains are alike, and the variations in brains makes it difficult to establish a base line to compare the subjects brain scans too. While I am in no way saying that fMRI results are worthless and should not be used, I am just saying they are not fool proof enough to be used as lie detector evidence in a court of law.

Astronomers Puzzled Really?!?

x-Poster on Skepfish

The notorious spiral lights in the sky image (above) has recently been making its way around the interwebs and blogosphere at a rather frightening pace. This photo at first glance appears to be a  rather elaborate and interesting Photoshop job. This is actually and image taken in the sky above Norway on December 9th, and according to Popsci Magazine

“The Norwegian Meteorological Institute remains unsure of the phenomenon's origins, but astronomers have said that it does not appear connected to the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights.”

It has now become known that this light show was caused by a failed Russian missile test, that was scheduled and announced ahead of time. Thankfully not all of the reports came out the same way, playing on the eye catching idea of scientists being baffled. The Daily Mail, a UK based paper is one of many to report the truth about this case. Even without confirmation they were able to dig deep enough and discover that the display was most likely from a failed Russian test launch of their Bulava missile.

Unfortunately the truth about this story was not researched enough and many popular news sources like The Huffington Post published stories with more emphases on the unknown lights and the idea of Aliens, and less on what (logically) might have caused them. This led to an otherwise harmless and rather interesting story being used by members of the UFO supporters community twisting it around as proof of the existence of extra-terrestrials.

Once again another fine example of how sloppy or lazy journalism, and a desire for quantity over quality  has resulted in a harmless story being taken advantage of to propagate a rather laughable idea like UFOs.

Bedstand Bible

X-Posted by Skepfish

This is a post from Professor Richard Wiseman's Blog. I Found this idea very interesting and feel like reposing it here.

"I have been traveling lots recently, and keep coming across Bibles in my hotel room.  I assume that they are there to help some people in times of need.  The idea of offering help is obviously sound, but I do worry that perhaps there is a more effective and inclusive way of doing it…..so, what book would you like to see in every hotel room in the world?  How do you react to the Bible in hotel rooms?  Would you keep the Bible or replace it with something else?"

Personally I feel that its time we changed things up a bit. Take them out of the hotel bed stand and put them behind the room service desk, if people want them they can still get them but instead of putting them in every room let guests ask for them if they want one. By placing them in the rooms it is in a way imposing a religion many don't agree with on the patrons paying for a room for the night. I say take the black book out, but leave the yellow pages in, now that is something people could have a real use for.

Homeopathy stole my sense of smell

X-posted by Skepfish

Many people have heard of and probably at one point used the well known cold remedy Zicam. Well aside from being all natural and homeopathic it is also apparently very dangerous to your health, who would have guessed. Aside from not curing your cold, according to the Associated Press reports that:

"Consumers should stop using Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel and related products because they can permanently damage the sense of smell, federal health regulators said Tuesday."

Zicam contains large amounts of Zinc which can cause nerve damage, and has resulted in at least 130 cases of loss of smell. While many think that the FDA is supposed to prevent things like this from happening but what they don't realize is that Zicam falls in to a special group of remedies called homeopathic products, which are, according to the FDA not required to undergo review.