Sunday, January 6, 2013

Snopes it!

Snopes it! :)
Remember before passing on information to check to make sure it's accurate. Spreading misinformation can be problematic (sometimes even dangerous). Snopes is a great tool in first defense against a lot of that. Here is the snopes on a few misde-"meme"-ers ;)
http://www.snopes.com/crime/prevent/rape.asp

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp


http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/handle.asp


http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/eggthrow.asp



 http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/mirror.asp


Another one going around, with dangerous consequences is the peroxide one. The new one going around has a lot longer list but with some seriously twisted advice (like bathing with it) http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/peroxide.asp


http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/e15.asp

Weightloss

Saw a lot of people doing this still.   Did a wiki on it and found that it is definitely questionable.  Herbalife is an MLM that has been, at least in one country, ruled as a pyramid scheme.  But beyond it's questionable marketing practices, I am more concerned with it's potential health problems.   The studies listed (always check the wiki references) do show very little efficacy for the product as compared to other similar products and placebos.  There also seems to be concerns with liver damage.  Although it seems that a causal relationship has not been established, there is leanings to the plausibility of such.  *note:  it would need to be shown with dosage as to how much would be unsafe before I would outright say this product is unsafe.   As of right now, there is only a concern.