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How to Romeo out into the open, or Spoofing email addresses
Forging an email is the easiest thing in the world. Once you see how easy it is then I think you’ll understand why you should never trust the From header in an email.
A while ago I used the Montagues and Capulets to explain how the domain name system worked I’ll do the same again to show how easy it is for anyone to ( Read more... ) -
Why 'denialism'?
Mark Hoofnagle on the place of 'denialism' as a label:The mistake in thinking that the ideal debunker should constantly poke holes in the nonsense from the denialists is the assumption that your opponent is an honest broker in the debate. However, when they repeatedly use the dishonest tactics of denialism, which you can read in our "about" section ( Read more... ) -
Sexual dimorphism of voice and effects on reproduction.
Language Log discusses The Barry White effect:All that said, we need to observe that the effect of voice pitch was a statistical tendency, a much weaker effect than I'll bet most readers of the news stories are imagining. (Those stories exaggerated and sensationalized the results of this study; in other news, the sky is still often said to be blue ( Read more... ) -
Getting to hospital at midnight
Several years ago the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary moved from its central location in Edinburgh to somewhere beyond the back of beyond. The area’s even called Little France and we all know how far away France is, right?
So if you decide to move the main hospital serving a city out into ( Read more... ) -
Neologisms ahoy!
A new word is born:Considering this is programming.reddit you can count on people here having projects and such all over, source control repos with gigs of data, and sluttabytes of porn (had to make up something larger than a yottabyte).
(Emphasis all mine.)
The pun-loving fiend in me wants to ask How many Libraries of Congress is that? but I ( Read more... ) -
Homeopathy: Liberal and Extreme
On Professor David Colquhuon’s blog, there was a discussion about the closing of the Tunbridge Wells Homeopathy Hospital (I use that last word advisedly). This comment from Le Canard Noir struck some bells:
The real menace comes not from medical homeopaths, but from lay ( Read more... ) -
Crooked cross as dangerous as ley lines.
I really deplore magical thinking:The U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air ( Read more... ) -
Conspiracy theories against alternative medicine
So Ben Goldacre links to a homeopathist gloating over the result of David Colquhoun’s legal set-to with a couple of snake-oil peddlers. (Keep an eye on Goldacre’s Delicious links at http://del.icio.us/begoldacre. There’s some good stuff there.)
The outcome was reasonably good for the forces of reason, but as I ( Read more... ) -
Denial in action: Verizon
Verizon have started offering a text message service to organisations in the US - like, text 45231 to receive news on Girls Aloud concerts or something. But they've decided that just being a mass text message hub wasn't worthwhile. They needed some of that good ol' fashioned Puritanism that everyone loves, and have decided not to send messages from ( Read more... ) -
Cereal: good for breakfast!
I think the serving suggestions on breakfast cereals are fascinating. A bowl and a spoon, you say? And cover it with milk? Wait, I need a pen and paper.
But I just saw something as good on a wine advert. Apparently it's "ideal to share with friends". Who would have thought - friends. And all this time I'd been reserving it for the negotiation ( Read more... )