This could have been done better. I mean, the placebo effect DOES work. Trouble is… (via ABCNews)
… the investigation revealed that Airborne’s clinical trial was conducted by just two people in the absence of a clinic or scientists.
They are settling a lawsuit for $23 million. Monies to be distributed for those stupid enough to that believe this is a preventative and cure for colds.
Now the following took 3 seconds of investigative reporting. Look at the image I snapped of their website today. It says “The famous original formula – created by a school teacher – contains 17 herbs and nutrients…”
The ingredients list:
8 “herbal extract proprietary blend”
2 “amino acids”
8 “other ingredients” are sorbital, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, orange flavor, mineral oil, acesulfame potasium, sucralose.
If I’ve got my math right, only one of those “other ingredients” isn’t a “nutrient”. Do you think it’s the mineral oil or the orange flavor? Yeah, right.
In 1989 I was a DJ at WMFO, Tufts radio station. I found a cart (image via) in the music library called “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island”. I fell in love with it.
Last year, I came to mentioning the song to a guy in a tiki bar in Alameda (I was there with some friends from my Improv class) because the song had been floating around in my brain. Amazingly, he said that he knew the guy who made the song and he lived nearby. (small world, eh?).
I really should look him up. Here it is, Stairway to Gilligan’s Island by Roger and the Goosebumps:
I’ve noticed that Google Ads sometimes serves up ads into my blog that I think are offensive (and bizarre). I’m trying to get rid of them by putting them in my “competitive ad filter” in Google Adsense. We’ll see how it goes. (grumble grumble)
I also just started using Google Adsense section targeting. I now put my post content inside these tags. Google should now be able to parse my posts easier.
<!– google_ad_section_start –>
My content blah blah blah.
<!– google_ad_section_end –>
Update 3-5-08
Ah ha. I figured out why my site has started seeing lots of penis related Google Ads. The title of the photo on my peni[nospam]s patch page is peni[nospam]s-patch.jpg. My site is apparently the most popular image site on the internet related to peni[nospam]s patches. You’ll notice that the second most popular “peni[nospam]s-patch” photo is the photo I use in the upper right corner of my blog header. Apparently, the two photos had their google-juice comingled (eiw!). And while I enjoy being a being a peni[nospam]s patch magnate, I think I’ll change the name of that file so all my Google ads aren’t so…. patchy.
Update 3-13-08: Over the last 7 days, the hit count for the peni[nospam]s patch image has fallen from 230/day to less than 25/day.
the investigation revealed that Airborne’s clinical trial was conducted by just two people in the absence of a clinic or scientists.
