f13.net

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4895148.stm


Celebrate good times come on!

Woo hoo! 

I've been hoping someone would discover a way to boil my fat within my body, so that it rots until it slimes it's way out.  Oh happy day.  Now if only they could think of a way to make a tasty snack food with the melted fat, my joy would be complete.

I lawled.

I can imagine a bunch of scientist type guys, who look suspiciously like the cast of Monty Python, standing around a lab. 

"So what can we do about the wave of obesity sweeping the western world?"

"...Maybe we could... shoot fat people with a laser!"

"Of course, a laser that makes people thin!"

"...Yes, that's what I meant."

Are they going to market a home version?

I can just see it now- there will be tanning booth- like rooms with a sturdy toilet in the middle. Sit down, get bombarded by lasers, then *ahem* excrete all the excess fat.

I hope so?

I bet you will be able to find some half-assed instructions on the internet soon.  I wonder if insurance will cover the trip to the ER from a botched home fat lasing?

They should build it into the Playstation 3. Probably wouldn't drive the cost up much.

Pie in the sky article.  This is the kind of spin scientists put on their work to garner funding.  While I can see the potential for this sort of application, I'm not overly enthusiatic about its implementation just yet.  Far too many variables to consider. 

Variable focus lasers are getting to be pretty common (Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, numerous specialized apps) so that end of it is no problem.  Actually performing this on a live subject without causing real damage?  Not my field.

What field would that be? Fat Zapper?

My background is somewhere between biosensor tech, medicinal chemistry, and photophysics.  While I can safely state that a transdermal laser is a pretty common bit of technology, I've always had my concerns about the lack of good control studies.  People are so Gung-ho to see the potential good of these lasers that they fail to consider the negative effects.  High intensity radiation will always have a downside. The fact that we don't know how to measure that negative effect doesn't disprove its existence.   

THE ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE IS NOT THE EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE.

Are we sure the article was not simply a way to get a woman's bum in a 'legitimate' news picture?

If so, it was a very sad effort.  Then again, it is the BBC.

I just put this under a dilbert cartoon on a slide for my next lecture.  Now if you could generate more interesting bits, I could take the rest of the day off!

I cribbed it from The Boondocks. I'm so unorginal.

lollerskates.

Gin Rummy: I always say the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: Simply because you don't have evidence that something does exist does not mean you have evidence of something that doesn't exist.
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: What country are you from?
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: 'What' ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in 'What'?
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?
Riley: Yeah.
Gin Rummy: So you understand the words I'm saying to you!
Riley: Yeah.
Gin Rummy: Well, what I'm saying is that there are known knowns and known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns that we know we don't know.
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: Say what again! Say what again! I dare you! I double dare you, motherfucker! Say what one more time!


Yes, Gin Rummy is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

And his dialogue was provide by your friend and mine, Donald Rummy. (http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/quotethis/a/rumsfeldquotes.htm)

as far as the fat thing goes, i prefer the old ways...

Ok time to watch Pulp Fiction again.

"That *is* a tasty burger!"