How Can People Be So Stupid?

I don't really understand it.

All of a sudden there are these mobile phone companies who are selling "love calculators". They must do some pretty good business to be able to con people into paying up to AU$5 a message for something that is complete rubbish.

I saw one commercial while watching The Simpsons which was offering a "love calculator" a "cheat calculator" (conspiracy theorists eat your hearts out, it isn't a government that is spying on you, it's these companies), and a "flirt calculator".

All based on your name.

But I guess there are stupid people who will do these things and take it seriously, even though there is no science, or anything whatsoever behind these.

There is one strange thing that I have noticed though.

Channel 7 was stupid enough to air Scrubs at some ridiculous timeslot (11:30 ish) which is about the time you get to watch the sex line ads and there were also these "calculator" ads. I don't remember seeing them any earlier.

Ok, they were crap but at least they used the word "numerology" or "astrology" so you knew what kind of crap you were getting, but these new ones don't.

I feel sorry for the parent who has their kid on a proper plan instead of pre-paid and has to pay the bill.

But I guess it isn't that hard to part fools from their money, and also why didn't I think of doing this?

Microblog 5

If a purple people eater came to Earth what would it eat, considering that there aren't any purple people?

Zero Wing Rhapsody

On the JREF forums someone posted a youtube video.

Now that doesn't seem important until you consider that the video is a fusion of a great thing and a not so great thing. It's a fusion of Queen and an internet phenomena, the opening of the game Zero Wing (All your base are belong to us if you don't know the game).

Review Revisited.

I'm vain enough to see if people post comments on this blog (although there is a rather funny one where it told me that I was replying to myself, when I was actually replying to a commenter). Anyway, I learned today that I got a reply on this post

"So, so, you are doing a review of my site without giving me a chance to say something. What did you think? That I am not a real person? Some ghost in the machine or what.

Anyway, I just updated the site. Maybe you like it.

- Louanne"

Well, umm... I don't really know what to say...

I doubt that you are a ghost in the machine, because I don't think that there are bots capable of writing sentences that mean something. In my defence when I wrote that I based what I knew about reviewing things on what I would, say, read in the paper. I didn't actually know that I had to tell you, but considering that you managed to find that post about a month after I posted it I don't really see what the problem is.

Still you are more then welcome to write a proper reply, and if it makes you happy I can provide a link to anything that mentions you in the future.

The Answer Is: ID

Well I'm more then a week late but I'm going to talk about this anyway, namely because I forgot about it when I first saw it.

If you remember the Beware the Believers Video, then you should also remember the discussion that went on about who actually made the video.

The answer is below:



Well then, I'm still a bit cautious of this video, I mean who would call themselves "clods"?

But that's good that they call themselves that, as well as "IDiotic".

Because the first step in curing your problem is admitting that you have one to begin with.

But I can think of a few things that they could have added and had to choose which one to cross out and still look stupid:

Intellectually honest

Copyright upholders

Competent editors

Can you think of more?

ITK Blocker a Cure For AIDS?

Well no actually, but it is a catchy title.

According to the BBC, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (A pdf can be found here) reported that it has been found that blocking the ITK protein causes a decrease in HIV replication. Here is a better page from MedPage Today.

In really simple terms what they have found is that blocking ITK can slow down the progression of the virus in quite a few ways:

1. Impedes infection
   
2. Slows down replication

Clearly it doesn't stop HIV from being transmitted but it sure screws things up for the virus.

If you want a Numb3rs-type analogy I would say think of your own but make sure that it has zombies in it.

Apparently the effect that it has on us is just a slowed immune response, but we are not completely harmless.

But it does show a change in the way we are thinking of combating HIV. Instead of trying to kill the virus itself, which mutates quickly and is slowly becoming immune to the drugs, we are looking for ways to make our own bodies a rather hard place for it to survive. Such a drug that could block ITK production in T cells would mean that instead of developing drugs to combat viral infections we develop drugs that make it harder for viruses to infect you in the first place.

Think of the benefits, although we do need more testing to see how adverse the side effects could be.

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After the graph craziness of the last few days (263 visits on April 26) things have quietened down now, so I'm pleased to announce a return to your regular programming.