Study: Internet Explorer Users Less Intelligent*

* By “study” I mean publicity stunt.

AptiQuant Psychometric conducted an online study (IQ-Browser-AptiQuant-2011.pdf)  to determine the intelligence of users of various web browsers.  When I saw this article at first on Consumer Affairs about it, I was all, like, duh!

Being a programmer, I know IE is a big piece of garbage, and personally I use Firefox, but after taking a step back from the ego-stroking I was forced to admit there is major bias in this study, the most obvious being the comparison of IE versions 6-9 with newer add-on browsers.  IE6 is 3 years older than version 1 of Firefox and Opera.  IE 6 was released in 2001 and Firefox 1 was released in 2004, as was Opera. Google released Chrome in 2008.

Their conclusion is invalid because they’re over-selecting users for the IE group who don’t/can’t update software (less intelligent people are less capable of updating software).  This doesn’t speak to the choice of browser, it speaks to inability to install and update software.

IE is installed by default with Windows, and other browsers actually require you to do something to install them.  Less intelligent people are less capable of downloading and installing software. A lot of people don’t even know what a browser is so they would have no idea how to install something additional. They will just use the default browser, whatever it is.  How about people using Safari, the default browser on Macs. Are they stupid too?  Perhaps.

I think it goes without saying that surfing the web with IE6 is dangerous and not a very bright idea, due to the amount of malware out there on web servers, but this is not obvious to all people.  No offense if you don’t update your IE.   There’s no need for anyone to call you stupid, because you’ll find out the hard way on your own when your computer stops working.  If you like re-installing Windows over and over, who am I to judge?

To summarize, this is bologna.  If you read the conclusions  it sounds like they are angry at M$ for integrating IE into the Windows Explorer like a brain slug that can’t be removed.  Aptiquant developers seem to have a bone to pick with IE (who doesn’t) but they should re-examine the data and attempt to control for some of these confounders or they’re going to insult a lot of users and not learn anything useful.  Then again, no publicity is bad publicity, right?

Blinking electrionic cereal boxes foreshadow a nightmarish new age of annoying advertisements

Sweet Lord have mercy. This will certainly turn out to be one of the most irritating mis-uses of technology for marketing purposes ever.  One could envision legitimate uses use for big, cheap flashing displays– road signs, elevator buttons, etc… but this … this.

Don’t be surprised if you start to see people falling down in the fetal position and having seizures in the cereal and soda pop aisles (assuming you even go to this type of big chain store that would have flashing cereal boxes, hopefully not).

Flashing, strobing imagery exploits the fight or flight mechanism to distract your attention.  When a human, (or any animal) sees blinking light out of its’ peripheral vision, that activates a very important survival instinct, which in the wild can mean the difference between being someone’s lunch and living another day.  Advertisers know this.  It’s a tactic of activation of stress-inducing neural pathways for brand imprinting, and an assault on our collective peace of mind.

Corporations beware, there are many consumers who find this to be annoying and wasteful. There is no need to put disposable electronics in cereal packaging. Why don’t you donate that few cents per box to some starving children in a 3rd world country instead, and print that on the box (with regular ink).  There’s your advertisement. Do something good.

Teenage Breasts: Coke and Facebook track teens like cattle and sell it with sex

This is a sophisticated psychological warfare operation advertisement.  The juxtaposition of thin bodies and Coca Cola is quite ironic, don’t you think?   Lets get some obese people in here. Obese people need to be tracked like cattle too!

“Scores of beautiful, wet women are a part of this human tracking matrix, so I should be too.”

Why is there a Gardasil ad on my coffee cup?

I stopped in to Amer’s Deli tonight (on State Street in Ann Arbor) for a sandwich, and discovered they are hawking Gardasil for Merck now.

Naturally I was curious how this ad was placed there so I asked what the deal was.  He said they get the cup insulators for free and they have ads on them.  I informed him that some people, especially in Ann Arbor might be offended by this and he might want to think about the content of these ads, and whether it’s actually going to result in any savings.  He was quite aggravated.

So let’s just look at the numbers.  Personally, after the way that manager-ish guy barked at me that “Well you’re always going to offend someone”  I’m less inclined to go there for the 2-3 sandwiches (conservatively) per month I have at Amers.  So let’s say they lose my business alone, and no one else’s.   That’s about $20/month lost revenue.  So that’s 2000 cents. let’s also say these cup holders cost 1 cent each.  Do they sell 2000 cups of coffee a month?   Maybe. But remember that is just 2 fewer sandwiches per month.   Who knows how many Big-Pharma-hating customers like myself might be deterred from purchasing their food.
This idea makes no financial sense and is just plain annoying. So hey– big shot Amer’s manager that thought he was saving $20 a month or whatever you saved on the insulators…  you just lost it all because I’m going to the other Amer’s next time.  (Unfortunately Amer’s sandwiches are quite good.  I’ll see if the other one also has Big Pharma ads on the coffee.)

Why might a customer might be offended by an advertisement for a vaccine on their coffee?  Well first of all it contains all kinds of nasty stuff, including aluminum and sodium borate, and has caused at least 50 deaths  and thousands of adverse events so far- according to the CDC’s own stats (reality is probably much higher).

As of May 31, 2010, approximately 29.5 million doses of Gardasil were distributed in the United States.

ok, DISTRIBUTED, but how many of those have actually been used? This is ambiguous. But for the sake of argument let’s assume they’ve all been administered.

As of May 31, 2010, there were 16,140 VAERS reports of adverse events following Gardasil vaccination in the United States. Of these reports, 92% were reports of events considered to be non-serious, and 8% were reports of events considered serious.

8% of 16,140 is 1,291.  So there are 1,291 “serious” adverse events in their database.

VAERS defines serious adverse events as adverse events that involve hospitalization, permanent disability, life-threatening illness, and death.

So where is the evidence that this vaccine is actually going to prevent cancer?  Where are the 20-year clinical safety trials?  Is this vaccine even necessary?   We have the evidence that the vaccine is harming thousands of girls, yet no evidence at all that it prevents cancer.  And now they’re advertising the stuff on my coffee cup!

Someone please prove to me that this vaccine has reduced cervical cancer in the ~ 5 years it’s been on the market

Related video here: In Lies We Trust – Dr. Leonard Horowitz

“Tatoogle Adsense”

Britney Spears before and after Photoshop

dailymail.co.uk

Tea contains high levels of fluoride

From Rocky Mountain Herbal Institute

Green and black teas (dried and often fermented leaves of Camellia sinensis) have been popular drinks throughout the world for many hundreds of years, but recently tea has been promoted in the health literature as being beneficial in preventing a wide range of diseases including cancer. Such literature usually focuses on the fact that teas contain families of chemical compounds called catechins and polyphenols, which are potent antioxidants. [5a]

While these antioxidants may indeed have the beneficial properties claimed for them, whole plant products generally consist of complex combinations of thousands of biochemical compounds. If one neglects to investigate the presence of other compounds with potentially significant physiological actions, the health benefits and risks of consuming the whole plant product may be very different from the picture presented by focusing on only a small subset of the plant product’s biochemistry.

It turns out that both green and black tea products contain high amounts of naturally occurring fluoride. Tea leaves accumulate more fluoride (from air and soil pollution) than most other edible plants. Fluoride content in tea has risen dramatically over the last 20 years (probably due to increasing levels of pollution) as has tea consumption. Various studies within the past few decades show levels of fluoride in tea leaves to range from 50 to 340 ppm; recently, average levels of fluoride in a typical cup of tea exceeded 1 mg, or approximately 4 times the recommended amount for fluoridated drinking water. One cup of such tea would exceed amounts formerly prescribed by physicians as a treatment for hyperthyroidism, due to the effect of fluoride as a thyroid gland poison. And, the fluoride in tea is absorbed by the body in similar manner to fluoride in drinking water. [5g]

Almost all information about tea promoted by the tea industry either ignores tea’s fluoride content entirely, or gives brief mention of the fluoride as a health benefit in preventing dental caries and ignores all of the serious side effects of fluoride consumption. [5a, 5b, 5c, 5e, 5f]

Most of the research literature on anticancer properties of green and black teas focuses on the effects of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a compound that belongs to a family of anti-oxidants known as polyphenols. The negative effects of the fluoride content of teas are so severe that any beneficial effect from the catechins and polyphenols may be negated; however, not much scientific evidence is available on the interaction between fluoride and polyphenols, although fluoride is known to adversely affect the action of many antioxidants. Research studies of green tea consumption reveal only weak anticancer effects at best, and some studies show ambiguous or actually negative results. [5g]

Fluoride is known to be correlated with increased incidence of the numerous diseases and conditions [5m - 5u]: Alzheimer’s disease (especially in combination with aluminum; fluoride combines with aluminum and increases the rate of aluminum absorption by the body and brain tissue); dental fluorosis; degenerative CNS diseases; hypothyroidism; Down’s syndrome; ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder); psychosis and manic depression; osteoporosis and arthritis; irregular menses and infertility; crippling skeletal fluorosis; calcification of joints and ligaments; lupus; fibromyalgia; nephrosis and nephritis; cancers of thyroid, bone, and other tissues; SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Many of these diseases are closely associated with the hypothyroid aspect, which is a primary effect of fluoride poisoning. CNS symptoms of fluoride ingestion from drinking water include impaired memory and concentration, lethargy, headache, depression and confusion. [5q] I have observed many clients over the years obtain almost immediate relief from arthritic pain, chronic urinary infections, weak digestion, fatigue and other symptoms after stopping all black and green tea consumption.

While black and green teas have been in traditional use for many centuries, their moderate caffeine content has been long known to be addictive. Addictive potential plus promises of health benefits are a potent marketing combination, and history is replete with examples: opium and cocaine-containing elixirs of good health from snake-oil salesmen in 1800′s America, and more recently, promises of quick weight loss from herbal products high in ephedrine, a constituent of the plant Ephedra sinensis. It appears that green and black teas, long a source of enjoyment for the mild buzz and quiet contentment they gave to generations of Chinese, Indians, and Englishmen, have become dangerous in the hands of Americans, who have added a health spin to their marketing of tea products, increasing sales by orders of magnitude at a time when the commercial product has become laden with dangerous concentrations of fluoride.