I bought a meter.........

Reading the Sunday paper should be a relaxing occasion, but sometimes there are articles that just make you shake your head and wonder if the journalist is just regurgitating a press release.

March 10th, The Sunday AGE, page 4 of the Domain section had one of these articles, a piece entitled "Might not mite, the growing field of building biology finds and deals with hazards around the home". What is this growing field of building biology I hear you ask. Which university has this course? Where can I sign??
It is one of a set of courses that is run by The Australian College of Environmental Studies, a school started by Nicole Bijlsma. This school also offers a course in Feng Shui. It's located in a business park in Bayswater, surrounded by such scholarly institutions as "Door Repairs", "Prolux Electrical" and "Computer Call". I'm surprised at this last one, considering the article's main thesis is that magnetic and electric fields are bad for your health. Yet she is willing to have a computer company, which you can presume has wi-fi, as neighbours????

There of course is a photo that accompanies the article which shows Nicole holding an i-phone in one hand and an EM meter in the other. The caption reads, "Nicole Bijlsma shows how wireless devices can cause pollution". Um, no.... this picture shows that an EM meter (a device that can detect signals transmitted by phones, etc), wait for it, has detected that the i-phone has a wireless signal!!!!!! It says nothing about pollution.

Now according to this website, Nicole has the following qualifications, ND, B.H.Sc.Ac.(HONS), Grad Dip.OHS, Ct.IV in Feng Shui, Dip.Building Biology. I'm always skeptical about people who put lots of letters after their name. Usually it's done by people who want to seem more important than they really are. Anyway, the ND stands for naturopath, but trying to google the B.H.Sc.Ac.(HONS) only returns entries with her name in it. Does that mean she is the only one in the world who has this esteemed qualification? And no institution came up either. The Grad Dip OHS is an occupation health and safety course that is done in about a week. And the last two are certificates in courses she runs.

OK, so let's look at at the Building Biology course. Here are the subjects:

Core Subjects (six)	Subject Costs	Pre-requisites	Correspondence Available
Air Pollution	$695	None	Yes
Air Sampling	$895	Yes (AP)	January Intensive (on campus)
Building Materials	$695	None	Yes
Electricity Fundamentals	$695	None	Yes
Electrobiology	$895	Yes (EF)	January Intensive (on campus)
Water Pollution	$695	None	Yes
Elective Subjects (two only)	Subject Costs	Pre-requisites	Correspondence Available
Building Design	$695	Yes (BM)	Yes
Business Skills	$695	None	Yes
Geobiology	$695	None	January Intensive (on campus)
Feng Shui Foundations	$695	None	Yes

 Browsing through the Electricity Fundamentals course description:

"This subject introduces the basic concepts of electricity including the scientific units, terminology and its underlying principles (volts, current, resistance and circuits, Ohms law, Power law and magnetism). Students will learn about the various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and more specifically which frequencies impact the built environment. A detailed theoretical knowledge of how electricity is produced and conducted through the power distribution network and ultimately through a building will be described."

A DETAILED THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE OF HOW ELECTRICITY IS PRODUCED???  What are the chances that Maxwell's Equations are studied in detail, as well as the photoelectric effect? These are essential if you truly want to know about the theory of Electromagnetic waves and their affect on human tissue.

Also, another link in the article points to the website ecolibria.com.au. Looking through this I found the following article on Electromagnetic Radiation ( EMR ) And Potential Adverse Health Affects. Here is the intro blurb:

"This very well researched paper takes a look at the public health trends in 2007 and their possible links to EMR exposure. The paper has a strong focus on Australia and is well referenced. The paper makes reference to many studies that have demonstrated strong links between electromagnetic radiation exposure and adverse health effects. Cancer clusters and phone masts are discussed in some detail."

Well researched it says, so let's look at one of the quotes mentioned in this article:

"I have no doubt in my mind that, at the present time, the greatest polluting element in the earth's environment is the proliferation of electromagnetic fields." Dr Robert O. Becker, Nobel Prize nominee

Nobel prize nominee, hey,..... well..... the Nobel prize committee doesn't release nominations till at least 50 years after the awards are given.So I went to the Nobel nomination database to find his name, guess what, there is Angell Becker and a Coudenhove-Kalergi Becker, but no Robert Becker. Well there goes that "well researched paper".

Folks are dumb where I come from......

Another year gone in which again we were shown that the human race is not as smart as it thinks.Here are my top examples for 2012.

Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink
 What if I told you that someone has an arrest warrant out for him basically because he said that a trickle of water was caused by clogged drainage pipes? Not only is there an arrest warrant out for him, but he received physical threats. Well, welcome to India.

And the reason? A statue of Jesus in a Catholic Church began seeping water, the local clergy declared it a miracle (a weeping Jesus), our protagonist went to investigate it and found that the seeping was caused by clogged drainage and capillary action. And for this, Sanal Edamaruku was charged under India's Blasphemy Laws.Why is he being charged for a natural explanation? Maybe because you can't make as much money from "Look, Capillary Action at Work!" compared to "Look, a Miracle!"? But who knows, I'm only guessing. It's not like there is money to be made from miracles, is there?

You might want to change your doctor
 Ah, politicians. Just more proof that the human race is a bit loco. I'm not blaming them, par se, it's more about the fact that they were voted in. What does that say about those that vote? Anyway, some US Republicans really showed us their (lack of) scientific knowledge. The winner was definitely Todd Akin. I'll let his words speak for themselves:

“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Mr. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child."

 This is crazy thinking in itself with statements such as "legitimate rape" and "female body shutting the whole thing down". But there is a scarier thought. This man was (he was voted out during the 2012 elections) on the United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. It is frightening to think that this man's opinion may have contributed to US science policy. Who else on the committee may have such thinking?

Non-prediction of the unpredictable
Not only are politicians not well versed in science, we can also include the law fraternity. An Italian court found scientists guilty of not being able to predict an earthquake, which are well know to be unpredictable.What I'd love to see are courts charging and sentencing economists for not being able to predict economic outcomes. Now there is a class of professionals that make predictions in the media about the economy and they hardly ever get hauled over the coals when (and it happens with regularity) their prognostications don't eventuate. But the funny thing is, even if their predictions fail, they are invited back on TV and treated like the oracle at Delphi.

The Un-expert
Last but not least, there are those that I call the "I know less than you in your field of excellence, but my opinion outweighes your expertise so you are wrong" types. They are everywhere. Mostly they can found giving their opinions on TV or in newspaper columns. Examples are cartoonist talking about climate, particle physicist talking about earthquakes and social commentators talking about anything.

Here's my advice to you all. Next time you have a health problem (presuming you are not a doctor), diagnose yourself, medicate yourself, and if necessary, operate on yourself. Remember, your opinion trumps the medical knowedge of a doctor.