17 Comments

Presumably the stench from battlefields around the world is sweet and wholesome, and does not adversely effect air quality in the least.

Expand full comment

Researchers have found a new invention, an air-renovating device called "window." These are actionable structures inserted in walls. They are still working out the math that explain the quantum effects of having walls with holes in them, which increase the permeability of rooms, so we cannot be sure if they work correctly until then.

The principle of operation is purportedly this: when people want to ventilate a room, they open the window for a time interval, measured in minutes. The denialists of environmentalism put forth the crank-theory that particles suspended in air then disperse with the new air that enters through the contraption, thus reducing the concentration and improving air quality, all other things being equal.

Let's be careful because this is a "traditional" practice, and therefore pseudoscientific.

We need more experts to measure the effects of opening windows while cooking, to confirm that the superstitious practice is actually kosher.

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by William M Briggs

Been done before... The government put a tax on windows, that's why only churches and Mason Lodges have windows. Bloodletting and indoctrination do not produce climate change.

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by William M Briggs

“Research shows” and “scientists say”: phrases that tip you off that you are about to get a face full of volatile organic compounds.

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by William M Briggs

"research shows" and/or "research suggest" are retard code for "we discovered some trivial correlation that is probably not even reproducible but we're going to claim is dispositive and, of course, really really scary".

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by William M Briggs

"Certain aldehydes are involved in physiological processes. Examples are retinal (vitamin A aldehyde), important in human vision, and pyridoxal phosphate, one of the forms of vitamin B6. Glucose and other so-called reducing sugars are aldehydes, as are several natural and synthetic hormones."

Dangerous stuff, these aldehydes.

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by William M Briggs

All of this, all the madness engulfing us. Is this collection of psychos, cowards, careerists and imbeciles determined to do away with EVERYTHING that makes life worth living? Maybe the way our minds work, maybe the little scientist in each of us, we want to determine a precise moment, a single event to mark the point when something so monstrous arose. How could this have happened to us? Thing is, though, I believe it has been coming for us since the expulsion from the garden. It did make me think of this, from The Thin Red Line:

“This great evil, where's it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doing this? Who's killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we might've known? Does our ruin benefit the earth, does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?” ― James Jones, The Thin Red Line

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by William M Briggs

Excellent! I put this on my Facebook page, where there is (sadly) little to no danger of anyone reading it.

Summary: Happens all the time these days. Read a scary or intriguing headline. Find a link to the press release the scary or intriguing article is based on. In the press release, find a link to the original scientific study the press release summarizes. Examine the scientific study. Almost always, something was taken out of context, or exaggerated, or extrapolated, to create the scary or intriguing headline. Motive is usually either clickbait (monetizing) or ideological (propagandizing), or both.

Expand full comment

Once again, an example of “scientists” cutting things as thinly as possible in order to “study” something new. Absolutely ludicrous.

Expand full comment
Jun 18Liked by William M Briggs

One important (my opinion) thing to note is that Las Vegas is an incredibly high-density urban environment that contains an order of magnitude more active food/beverage/hospitality venues than most places in the world. Naturally, the number of overhead "hood vents" must be astronomical. The kicker for me is that they don't fully filter the outgoing air mix - it contains fryer (seed) oil, among other culinary byproducts. Good recipe for unhealthy urban air...If you have ever worked in kitchens (especially if you manage and have to ACTUALLY deal with hood trap/vent cleaning;) you would know how fryer oil distributes up through the grease traps via air induction. The airborne oil collects and forms a soft plastic layer and hardens as it cures in the hot environment. Cheers!

Expand full comment
Jun 18Liked by William M Briggs

I am not too far into the article and am laughing out loud. What a gem!

In my head the NPC reading the article is a Mad Magazine dullard drawn by Al Jaffe or Angelo Torres

Expand full comment
Jun 16Liked by William M Briggs

Excuse me while I go turn on every burner on my stove.

Expand full comment
Jun 14Liked by William M Briggs

Last time I checked in on the subject I was told that complaining about the smell of other people's food was racist. Is the National Endowment for Discovering Where Smells Come From doing racist science now? Smh.

Expand full comment
Jun 14Liked by William M Briggs

They got "unexpected" results from random measurements, having never, it seems been near cooking food, and called it another part of the "unsolved puzzle" of urban air quality.

Never should have been written about.

Expand full comment

The politicians who create these laws are the pollution, aka "Cancer to Society"; get rid of all of these politicians and start over with a Government that abides by the American Constitution. We are not a Democracy but a Constitutional Republic!

Expand full comment

And here's this week entry for junk science: Implications of food ultra-processing on cardiovascular risk

considering plant origin foods: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort

https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2666-7762%2824%2900115-7

Expand full comment

The paper had twenty authors. That´s like TWO CRAYONS for each!

Expand full comment