Posts Tagged Daily Mail
Skeptics with a K – Episode #028
Posted by Mike in Podcast, Skeptics with a K on August 12th, 2010
Psychics, pets, infertility, vodka, caramel slices and Bisphenol A. Plus Vesuvius, Red Rum, swastikas and the world’s best ampersand joke. Featuring guest hosts Al and Harris! QED.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Curious Tale Of The Missing Moggy, And The Missing ‘Found’ Moggy
Posted by Marsh in Media, Psychics, Skepticism on May 31st, 2010
Oliver the Missing Mog
Psychics, eh? Is there anything they can’t do? They can cure/heal/treat/help cancer, use their magic to confirm police reports and wear flat caps with their arses hanging out, and they can contact dead people who never actually existed. They’re a marvellous lot!
But that’s not the full extent of the psychic realm, it seems, as the BBC reported last week:
‘An Indian psychic is helping to search for cat which went missing from a Lincolnshire village. Oliver, a four-year-old tabby and white cat, went missing from Boothby Graffoe in October.
Owner Sue Machen, 56, has paid £1,000 for Hertfordshire-based company Animal Search UK to hunt for the animal.
It has employed psychic Sarita Gupta, who is based in Bangalore, to help in the search, a move which has been criticised by a sceptics’ society’. - Source: BBC
That’s right – we’re dealing psychic pet detectives! Which, to be clear, isn’t a detective who specialises in finding psychic pets (I can’t really see how one could make a full career out of that, really), but instead people who claim to use their psychic powers to detect and locate missing pets. Obviously.
So, what’s the story here? Well, it’s pretty simple - Oliver is a white and grey tabby cat. He has a white stomach and legs, and is tabby down his back and tail. He also has a distinctive black spot on the left side of his pink nose. And he’s missing. His owner Sue Machen, ‘distraught’ (according to the Fail) turned to Animal Search UK to locate him, and – as the newspapers report – they hired Indian mystic, magic woman and general all-round superhero Sarita Gupta to locate said missing moggy. Read the rest of this entry »
Skeptics with a K – Episode #022
Posted by Mike in Podcast, Skeptics with a K on May 20th, 2010
Mice and the Mail; Voyager and Vista; Foxes and Fleas and; Homeopathy and Healing IBS.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Skeptics with a K – Episode #021
Posted by Mike in Podcast, Skeptics with a K on May 6th, 2010
Batman and the Health Ranger; Iron Man and Wheatgrass Juice; the Pope and the Civil Service; Scotland and Cannibals; and Fizzy Drinks and Old Age.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Newspapers Wake Up From A Coma Speaking Fluent Bullshit
Posted by Colin H in Journalism, Medicine, Pseudomedicine on April 26th, 2010
This is a story that recently popped up in both the Daily Fail and the Telegraph (from now on referred to as the BellyLaugh).
Apparently, Croatian doctors are baffled after a teenage girl who fell into a mysterious coma woke up speaking fluent German. The teenager has been unable to speak Croatian – although can understand it when it is spoken to her – and now communicates only in German.
Pretty off-the-wall I think you’ll agree. This is the kind of thing that would have steadfast believers in past lives screaming “Proof!” in very loud voices, particularly if this unfortunate teenager didn’t speak German beforehand. Going by the tone of the article, you would think that this is what had actually happened. Read the rest of this entry »
Bad PR: Women Fake Orgasms!
Posted by Marsh in Bad PR, Flat Earth News, Fun Stuff, Herbal Medicine, Media, PR on April 8th, 2010
Fake orgasm story? Trot out a Meg Ryan pic
To help me vent my frustration and ongoing obsession with the dodgy PR stories that make the papers on a daily basis, I thought I’d start a bit of a ‘BadPR’ series, taking a look at stories as they appear in the papers, the press release that inspired them (often word-for-word inspiration, no less), and the companies who benefit. Regular readers of the blog will know the score, and irregular readers of the blog will soon pick it up, so without further intro I give you today’s offering:
Ex girls top at fake fun
The fake orgasm capital of Britain is Exeter, claims a new survey. A whopping 57 per cent of women in the Devon town admit to feigning it. Meanwhile, girls in Oxford were happiest in bed with only a third faking their big O. Nationally, one in 10 women admits acting most times. And a fifth said they thought about another man if they wanted satisfaction. – Source: The People
And, alternatively:
Poor show, chaps: Survey reveals nearly one in ten women fake it between the sheets
It is enough to make even the most confident lover a little worried. One in ten women fake an orgasm almost every single time they make love, according to a poll. Researchers found that 48 per cent of British women had faked the height of passion. But an Oscar-worthy 9 per cent admitted it happened every time they have sex. Seven per cent have ended a relationship because they were unsatisfied in bed but just one in ten of those told their partner the real reason for the break-up. Read the rest of this entry »
