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Comment Re:Not necessarily without deception. (Score 4, Informative) 430

Addtional: The researchers themselves note something along the lines of what I'm talking about:

The placebo response in this trial (59% on IBS-AR) was substantially higher than typical reported placebo responses of 30–40% in double-blind IBS pharmaceutical studies. [15] This finding seems counterintuitive. We speculate that it is an indication of the credibility of our open-label rationale. Patients in our study accepted that they were receiving an active treatment, albeit not a pharmacological one, whereas patients in double-blind trials understand that they have only a 50% chance of receiving active treatment. It may be that one hundred percent certainty that one is receiving the “treatment of interest” (in this case open-label placebo) is more placebogenic than a fifty percent probability of receiving an inactive control.

Comment Re:Not necessarily without deception. (Score 1) 430

Perhaps "implicitly deceptive" is too strong a phrase. My argument is that the phrasing promoted the measurably effective placebo effect, rather than the inert nature of the pills themselves. I'd be interested to see some sort of companion study where the patients were told "These are completely inert sugar pills, they will have no physiological effect on you."

Incidentally, my objection may be beside the point. I read some time ago someone (possibly Ben Goldacre) arguing that one could potentially use placebos ethically in general practice, provided they were delivered with sufficiently careful phrasing. This study seems to be a verification of that idea.

Comment Not necessarily without deception. (Score 4, Informative) 430

From the actual study, the wording used to present the placebos to the patients seems to have been very carefully chosen to be utterly truthful, yet implicitly deceptive:

...open-label placebo pills presented as “placebo pills made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in IBS symptoms through mind-body self-healing processes”

Piracy

Estimating Game Piracy More Accurately 459

An anonymous reader tips a post up at the Wolfire blog that attempts to pin down a reasonable figure for the amount of sales a game company loses due to piracy. We've commonly heard claims of piracy rates as high as 80-90%, but that clearly doesn't translate directly into lost sales. The article explains a better metric: going on a per-pirate basis rather than a per-download basis. Quoting: "iPhone game developers have also found that around 80% of their users are running pirated copies of their game (using jailbroken phones). This immediately struck me as odd — I suspected that most iPhone users had never even heard of 'jailbreaking.' I did a bit more research and found that my intuition was correct — only 5% of iPhones in the US are jailbroken. World-wide, the jailbreak statistics are highest in poor countries — but, unsurprisingly, iPhones are also much less common there. The highest estimate I've seen is that 10% of worldwide iPhones are jailbroken. Given that there are so few jailbroken phones, how can we explain that 80% of game copies are pirated? The answer is simple — the average pirate downloads a lot more games than the average customer buys. This means that even though games see that 80% of their copies are pirated, only 10% of their potential customers are pirates, which means they are losing at most 10% of their sales."

Comment Re:The eye adapts slowly (Score 1) 133

... usually while driving.

That's the problem with this and every other UV adaptive lens treatment: Glass (like, for example, your windscreen) blocks UV.
So, they don't actually work when you're driving.

This is why I always get frames with clip on sunglasses with my glasses. Although, since I always end up losing the sunglasses part within a year, I'm considering just lashing out and getting prescription sunglasses.

Comment Five Fingers (Score 1) 776

I've got a pair that I had a friend bring back from a trip to the US. I love them, but if you're one of the genetic freaks like me who has a longer second toe, they can be a little uncomfortable. Mine have stretched to fit, but it took a while.
If you can, I strongly recommend you do a test fitting in a store before buying, as the sizes are not quite the same as standard shoe sizes. The guide on their website is pretty good and worked for me, although this guy thinks it's a bit off.

Also, one of the other toes is coming apart due to some dodgy stitching, but it's past the 90 days return and in the wrong country, so I'm out of luck with that.
(I seem to have had a run of bad luck with Vibram - the Vibram soles of my expensive hiking shoes have recently cracked across the middle).

United States

Submission + - Second Amendment in question

dheera writes: "Attorneys in Washington, DC question the scope of the Second Amendment in the first case in nearly 70 years, citing that the right to bear arms only applies to "a well regulated militia". "We interpret the Second Amendment in military terms", said Todd Kim, the District's solicitor general."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Kill Off Frontpage

GoogTube writes: "Microsoft frontpage have announced what we have all be hoping for, And that is the death of microsoft frontpage.
After nine years of being an award-winning Web authoring tool, FrontPage will be discontinued in late 2006. We will continue to serve the diverse needs of our existing FrontPage customers with the introduction of two brand-new application building and Web authoring tools using the latest technologies: Office SharePoint Designer 2007 for the enterprise information workers and Expression Web for the professional Web designer.

With personal pages dying out and the average PC user turning to things like blogging it makes sense that Microsoft should ditch thier "web design for average joe" idea and move onto more professional webdesign tools and suites."
Announcements

Submission + - What soda does to your body

DeadboltX writes: Healthbolt.net has a story outlining what happens inside your body when you drink a coke

"# In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don't immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
# 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get it's hands on into fat."

The article goes on to explain how the caffeine binds itself to calcium, magnesium and other nutrients and gather in your bladder to get expelled rather than go to a bone to make it stronger as well as a few other effects.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Richest 2% own half the world

kop writes: "The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth, according to a new study by a United Nations research institute.
The survey is based on data for the year 2000. The authors say a more recent year would have involved more gaps in the data. As it is, many figures — especially for developing countries — have had to be estimated.

Nonetheless, the authors say it is the most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6211250.stm"

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