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Friday, November 23, 2012

Existence Disproof

George Dvorsky's article recommending 10 Supplements You Can Take Today To Enhance Your Intelligence was written by someone who takes at least some of them himself.

PuhDUM-pum.

2 comments:

Barkeron said...

So, ol' Georgie boy here advises an audience consisting mostly of credulous, techno-fetishistic 20-something computer kiddies to partake in off-label use of strong drugs developed for serious neuro-degenerative conditions. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

Oh, I know. Side effects running the whole gamut of circulatory disorders like in the case of Piracetam, to organ damege of the liver, kidneys or whatever and coming full circle with drug-induced neuro-degenerative disorders. But hey, at least we get this way more data points than from the flimsy animal testing those meds went through!

Dale Carrico said...

Athena and I grumbled over this on twitter last night, and she pointed out that the recommended substances that WEREN'T actually dangerous often have already been demonstrated to lack the enhancement effects Dvorsky attributes to them (creatine, omega-3). io9 commentors making these points themselves were of course airily dismissed by Dvorsky. Then, AFTER the obvious objections had already been raised, the stealth Robot Cult outfit IEET endorsed the piece with a re-publication on their site. Classic! Speaking of data-points, chalk up another one for the Robot Cult as pseudo-scientific scam.