Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY


	Posts tagged with "myths"

Hotel Key Myths
posted by GJ on March 16, 2010 @ 2:56PM

Steve, Mom and I were discussing some claims about hotel keys yesterday. The two main topics:

You should always take your hotel keys with you when you check out and shred them when you get home, because they contain sensitive information like your credit card number and expiration on them, plus your name and address, and it's not even encrypted.
Don't store your hotel key in your pocket with your cell phone--it will erase it.

Well, first off, hotels do not put credit information on the hotel key. The most you'll find at a normal hotel is name, room #, check in and check out dates. This data is encrypted. Places like Disney and casinos will also typically store a unique key that identifies you in their system, in order to authorize charges--but the card is stored in their system, not in your key. The only fraud that can occur with that kind of key is similar to what would happen with a stolen credit card--which is why those resorts tell you to protect those keys like a credit card for the duration of your stay. After you stay, the card is deactivated in their central system and cannot be used for further purchases.

Now, there are a lot of folks out there spreading the rumor about this non-existent data risk. There was a legit blog posting many years ago (at Network World, if I remember correctly), and they claimed they were able to pull credit data off a hotel's keycard. They were challenged to prove this--were unable to--and retracted their claim. However, it's been passed around as a false email warning since then. See the Snopes article for more details.

On to the ability of cell phones to erase hotel key cards. Contrary to what you have probably heard about cell phones, they don't emit radiation like what comes out of active nuclear sources. They emit very low power microwaves. That's it. Microwaves do not have any degaussing properties.

What can screw up cards? Well, first of all--key cards have a *very* thin stripe on them--far thinner than what's on your credit cards. This doesn't take much to screw up--your keys and coins in your pocket are far more likely to screw up the magnetic stripe with physical damage. Think back to science class--one way to demagnetize a material is physically striking it to jostle the heck out of the magnetized ion arrangement. Take a very flimsy stripe of magnetic material and bang a few metal objects into it (keys, coins, maybe even your cell phone, haha) and presto, you've erased your card.

See, I'm not always full of crap. :)

7 comments | Tags: myths, education

Coming August 27 to the Discovery Channel
posted by GJ on August 7, 2008 @ 1:11PM

7 comments | Tags: myths, video, space, science, television

Marc said 2 minutes later

Wow, I am so glad I have DVR. I just got a new episode of MythBusters last night and I know this would be one I'd miss. The answer is clear, but I'm glad MythBusters is going to clarify it for the non-geeks.
GJ said 43 minutes later

The show is awesome, period. No other show EVER has gotten so many people plugged in to what science and research really is. One can only hope it gets more people thinking critically, unlike that scary lady who thinks metallic oxide salts oozing from the ground are causing rainbows to appear in lawn sprinklers.

I only wish I was kidding about that.
GJ said about 1 hour later

For those of you who wanted to see the stupidity I referred to above, check here.
Geoff said about 1 hour later

That sprinkler lady can't be real. That is the real hoax here..forget the moon. If there is any remote truth to that sprinkler video, that lady should be quartered.
GJ said about 20 hours later

Go look up dbootsthediva's channel on youtube, or go just look up dboots on google. She's been drinking the kool-aid for some years now--she's paranoid about HAARP and blames everything on it, even if she doesn't have a clue what she's analyzing. She's also been trolling physics discussion sites since at least 2006. It's not a hoax--she's a true-believer.

If you want to know what HAARP is, start here.
Steve said about 22 hours later

How can shadows go in two different directions? Easy. Two light sources. You think they forgot to bring lights with them on the spaceship, or on their cameras?

How does the flag "wave?" Well, in minimal gravity, it's going to keep moving when it's forced to move. By moving the flagpole around, the flag is going to be forced to wave. Do you think the astronauts would want a picture of a flag just sitting limp? Heck no, so I'm sure they manually made the wave flap a little bit. In the little bit of gravity up there, it probably could continue to flap for a while once it's manually started.

And who says there is no wind up there anyway? No wind at all? Nothing? Not even the slightest? In 1/8th the gravity of earth (IIRC), it wouldn't take much wind to make the flag flap.

Is it that hard to believe that we landed on the moon? Don't you think if it was truly a hoax, the Soviets would have called us out on it?
GJ said about 22 hours later

Multiple light sources is why they claim it was done in a movie studio.

There is no wind on the moon, as there is no atmosphere. Not in the slightest.

It's not hard at all to believe we landed on the moon. Simply, it'd be far beyond our capability to pull off a ruse involving so many people. You'll find a lot of people who ignore this basic fact and do the following:

1. Find some "evidence" that appears to show an element of a claim is incorrect (or, in their interpretation, created to deceive the masses).
2. Declare the entire claim to be not only false, but a sham to (again) deceive the masses.
3. Make up reasons for why the Man is out get us.

Moon hoaxes do this; 9/11 truthers do this; pretty much any conspiracy theorist uses this method. And these are not a few kooks among us--a great many people believe that moon landings were faked. That's frightening--especially when so much of modern communications technology that we use every day was directly contributed to by the space program.

"Organic" food--worthwhile?
posted by Kristen on March 7, 2007 @ 9:26PM

Here's one I don't think we've debated yet! Organic foods: worth the extra money or worthless?

In an effort to lose 10 pounds by Geoff's wedding (thanks for the motivation Geoff!) Over the past month I made some changes to my diet and tried to get to the gym more. Pretty standard procedure. Didn't work.

So about 2 weeks ago I decided to give this organic thing a try. I've actually lost a pound, though I think it's from generally eating better b/c with organic foods it's somewhat hard to eat crap. There's less crap available. It's not killing my budget, so I figure I'll keep to it and see how it goes.

I couldn't help but wonder, what would GJ think of this organic stuff? My guess is that he thinks it's a money-making feel-good scheme. I'm not a PETA person by any means--I freely wear leather coats and shoes and I'm not too sensitive to the idea of animal testing. But I admit that I kind of like the idea that the eggs I just bought came from a chicken that isn't penned up in a cage 24/7 ("free range", according to the label).

So what do y'all think?

4 comments | Tags: myths

GJ said about 10 hours later

Organic foods are supposed to be better for you because they are grown without pesticides and other man-made chemicals used to grow plants on modern farms today. I haven't actually heard that they really do anything to help you lose weight. The only thing I can think of: eating organically will probably keep you from eating a lot of things with refined sugar and other carbohydrates, both of which are common in processed food and help make us fat.

At the end of the day, however, you get fat and/or skinny by a simple equation: Your body at rest requires X amount of energy (calories) to function. You eat 2*X calories, you get fat. You eat 1/2* X calories, you get skinny. You can also exercise, which burns off some of those calories you are consuming. Generally, a combination of diet and exercise will work--but only if you carefully measure what you've changed to ascertain if you're actually making a difference.

Anyone who tells you you can lose weight with a pill, a better attitude, or a magical exercise machine is full of crap. Same goes for those that tell you how to get rid of tummy fat vs. buttocks fat vs. (insert favorite fatty area here). Studies have conclusively shown that when you lose weight, you lose fat evenly across all fat deposits regardless of exercise pattern.
Geoff said about 13 hours later

In regards to Diet Pills not working, I may have to disagree. I watched one of my co-workers from Wegmans back in the day (Ryan Mann...Kristen you might remember him, I know Marc does). He was a big guy, ate a lot, and had no self-control over what he ate. He decided to try one of those popular pill diets (can't remember which one). I kid you not, the man lost at least 15-25 pounds in a few months. He was noticeably thinner. He didn't eat nearly as much as before, which is obviously the reason he lost the weight. The question is did the pills reduce his hunger, or did he himself. I would hedge a bet that the pills did because I knew Ryan well...and he's a pig. Marc can attest to this.
GJ said about 17 hours later

OK, let me be more specific: most over-the-counter diet pills do not work. Same goes for the crap they sell on TV.

Diet pills come in the following forms:
1. over the counter, containing phenylpropanolamine. Eg., Dexatrim. Has been shown to work on a temporary basis (you must keep taking it). Significant risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

2. over the counter, herbal remedy containing ephedrine, similar diet effect to phenylpropanolamine. Significant risk to heart, known to cause psychosis, heart attack, heart scar, and stroke.

3. over the counter, supplements, laxatives, diet teas, usually containing plantain. This helps you lose weight by making you shed water weight. Bonus--you lost your electrolyte balance in the process. Double bonus--known to be addictive, and cause all sorts of lower GI distress.

4. Prescription--all sorts of them, working all kinds of ways. Administered by a physician, these do work, but often has risks too.

In your friend's case...anecdotal at best...he may have lost weight temporarily. I'd be willing to bet he's back to being super-heavy, unless he learned how to eat better. I hope he suffered no ill effect from the pills--many people do.
Geoff said about 24 hours later

Ryan has more to worry about that the above mentioned items hahaha. JK...yeah I haven't seen him in awhile but I do know when he stopped taking Dexatrim (I think this is what he used) he gained some weight back. FYI, I don't endorse this whatsoever. Diet and Execise all the way (which I could use a bit more of these days).

Of course the new thing today is that gastric bypass I always hear about...that introduces a whole new set of risks....um like death. However for some of the 500 pound whales, ahem humans, this may be their only option.

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