LoST KiD ™

Charlie Brooker on a television advert by the British National Party, England’s (very small) right-wing political party: Extremist material of any kind always looks gaudy and cheap, like a bad pizza menu. Not because they can’t afford decent computers – these days you can knock up a professional CD cover on a pay-as-you-go mobile – but because anyone who’s good at graphic design is likely to be a thoughtful, inquisitive sort by nature. And thoughtful, inquisitive sorts tend to think fascism is a bit shit, to be honest. If the BNP really were the greatest British party, they’d have the greatest British designer working for them – Jonathan Ive, perhaps, the man who designed the iPod. But they don’t. They’ve got someone who tries to stab your eyes out with primary colors. Read the article: Charlie Brooker on the BNP and their political broadcast.

Will Vitamin C really prevent or cure your cold? What about Echinacea? The best way to find out is to follow these simple steps: Gather 2000 people who have the common cold Split them randomly into two groups of 1000 Give vitamin C to one group, and a sugar pill (the placebo) to the other Make sure the people receiving the pills and those dispensing the pills don’t know which is which (to make your trial double-blind) Wait a bit See if the Vitamin C group gets over their colder faster than the other group You will of conducted a double-blind placebo controlled scientific trial. Luckily for us, we don’t have to do it ourselves. Several of these trials have already been done. Enough trials, in fact, that one can do a Meta analysis, a statistical review and summary of all the trials. A comprehensive meta analysis, by an unbiased organization, is the gold standard of scientific inquiry; it is our best chance of knowing the truth. The Cochrane Collaboration is an international not for profi