A while ago now I wrote something on common logical fallacies. I’ve just come across an e-book that talks about this area in rather more detail than I did. If you’re interested, you can read the digital version of Humbug on-line, & it’s also available to download. (And thanks to the Millenium Project for the heads-up.)
Grant says:
Thanks for that, could be fun for the cartoons!
You studied veterinarian biology, didn’t you? What do you make of this: http://tinyurl.com/dh9gwj A large part of me wants to think that this is a crank paper that slipped past the cracks. It’s not April 1st yet, either. (I haven’t read the paper, just a very quick skim on Ed’s take on it, bit short on time.)
Alison Campbell says:
Moi, a vet? Non, monsieur! No, I did the standard biology first-year papers at Massey, which at the time were standard for students wanting to get into vet, but after than I diverted to zoology & thence animal behaviour. Being a vet was never a carer option for me – I had serious doubts about my ability to cut things up & put them together again 🙂
I don’t really know – I’m probably hyperskeptical… and exactly how could magnetic alignments help some body processes to work properly, which it seems is one suggestion from the original paper? (It makes me think of the various claims about sleeping on magnets being useful because this somehow influences the iron in your blood – an idea which would render MRI machines lethal, I would have thought…) I’ll have to find time to read the original.