It’s no secret that I <3 robots, and apparently you all do as well. This week’s Comment o’ the Week winner was nominated about 2,000 times or slightly less. Congrats to Steve, who responded to news that robots think we taste like bacon with this:

Steve // Jul 27, 2009 at 12:06 pm

Robotics tip #314: Many English phrases that appear straightforward to humans are likely to confuse a robot. For example, never tell a robot (especially one that thinks you taste like prosciutto), “make me a sandwich”. The alternative phrasing, “make a sandwich for me” has a much higher survival rate for the requester.

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Well done, Steve! You win the prize of getting to choose next Wednesday’s Afternoon Inquisition! Send it in using the contact form.

Happy Friday!

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I know, I’m not who you were expecting. This is generally Maria’s AI day, but she’s got super important business to take care of today and needed someone to fill in.

Let me begin by saying I’m not a superstitious/woo-y person. However…

When I get sick, the first thing I crave is chicken noodle soup. It can’t be helped. I know there’s actually nothing behind it besides fluid intake, but in my mind it makes me feel better. A glass of water doesn’t make me feel better, even though it’s accomplishing the same thing. Why? Because when I was little, every time I got sick people told me “eat chicken noodle soup – it’ll make you feel better.”

I avoid cracks in sidewalks. Not because I think anything is going to happen to my mother’s back, or that it causes a change in luck (good or bad), but the old superstition stuck with me for some reason. Silly childhood superstitions, especially the ones that come in rhyme-form, get so embedded in one’s mind that they have the potential to carry on. In this instance, it’s more of an OCD for me.

It bothers me sometimes that, as a rational person, I am still capable of irrational thinking. I don’t actually think chicken noodle soup makes anyone less sick, and I don’t suggest it to anyone when they feel sick, but I know it makes me feel better for the few minutes after I’ve finished the bowl. I don’t believe in luck of any sort, but a childhood game relating to superstition stuck with me. I know I’m not the only one plagued by bits of nonsense sticking to memories.

What do you think of old wives’ tales? Do you have any silly practices that you’ve carried with you since childhood? By bringing them forth from our own childhoods, no matter how unknowingly, are we likely to pass them on to our children? In doing so are we doing harm to future generations of rational people?

The Afternoon Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Skepchick community. Look for it to appear daily at 3pm ET.

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• Slaughter a cow every 28 days: How the Bible ruined Western Society – Have our Abrahamic roots led us to have a tendency to polarized thinking?
• Is a woman in labor a child abuser? – “If she lives in New Jersey, she might be. Because apparently, refusing a C-section (and then successfully vaginally delivering a healthy baby) and acting “combative” “erratic” and “noncompliant” during labor is considered child abuse and neglect…” 
• Banking on a chemical reaction – Pheremone enhanced body wash: “We don’t claim using our product you’re going to hit a home run,” said Ryan Gaspar, a brand manager. “We say, ‘We’ll get you to first base.’ ”  From Middleman.
• Stephen Colbert interviews Orly Taitz, leader of the Birther conspiracy – From jtradke
• Cute Animal Friday! I think the idea of humming fish is pretty cute (from Kaylia).  They should form a band with these musical rats.  And maybe this not-actually-an-animal can dance.  These hyraxes, however, do not approve.

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Are you in the market for a diamond? Probably not, considering the recent downturn in diamond sales. Sales of diamonds- and other luxury goods- have declined over the last year or so as a result of the economic downturn.

Engagement rings are still selling, but not as many people are purchasing “Christmas diamonds” and high-end gemstones. Americans, at least, must know what I mean by “Christmas Diamonds”- these are the diamond earrings and pendants they advertise every year just before Christmas. The designs change slightly over time (the “Journey” pendant, the “Circle” pendant, the “Heart” pendant… and so on…) but the advertising message is the same: buy your wife/girlfriend/daughter the latest trendy diamond jewelry, and she’ll love you even more over the holidays. She’s also more likely to give you a big smooch under the mistletoe. By the way, does anyone else hate those “Every Kiss Begins with Kay” ads? The jingle makes my skin crawl, personally.

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Even if you haven’t heard of the “Patterson-Gimlin film”, chances are, you’ve seen this iconic video.

This grainy, blurry film reputedly stars Bigfoot (and a chick Bigfoot at that!). Moreover, it’s touted as the best evidence for Bigfoot in existence.

Anyway, here it is… again…

In the latest episode of Monster Talk, we interview Mike McLeod, author of Anatomy of a Beast, an in-depth study of the  characters surrounding the Patterson-Gimlin film and the hunt for Bigfoot. There are obsessive Bigfoot hunters, hoaxers, and accusations that someone wore a big, hairy, primate suit…

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Last week, the FBI arrested 44 people, including a number of politicians and rabbis, in a series of raids in New Jersey for money laundering, corruption, and trafficking in human kidneys between New York and Israel.

The traffickers paid $10,000 for kidneys in Israel, and then charged patients waiting for transplants in the US $160,000 for the organs. And of course, this is the part of the story that gets everyone’s attention.

When asked why he participated in such activity, one rabbi declared, “What? They signed their donor cards.” 

Yeah, and az di bobe volt gehat beytsim volt zi geven mayn zeyde!

But seriously, the Brooklyn man who appears to be the kidney broker has apparently been running the operation for a decade.

Don’t worry though. Today’s Inquisition is only slightly related:

Are you an organ donor? Have you or anyone close to you ever received a donated organ? What do you know about supposed transferred traits and memories claimed by some recipients?

The Afternoon Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Skepchick community. Look for it to appear daily at 3pm ET.

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By way of Wendy Chao, Official Friend of Skepchick, comes news that a new study by the National Institutes of Health has found that Americans spent $33.9 billion on complementary and alternative medicine last year. This is such a massive number that my brain, unable to comprehend it, keeps insisting I type “million” instead of “billion.”

Compared to the amount of money spent on medicine that is, you know, real, it’s actually not that much. The NIH says it amounts to about 1.5% of total spent, though it’s about 11.2% of the total amount spent out-of-pocket.

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• Radovan Karadzic’s New Age adventure – “How did a Serbian war criminal hide from the world as a bioenergy-channeling, alternative-medicine-peddling, bearded and, well, nutty guru?”
• Arm-swinging riddle is solved – “Biomedical researchers on Wednesday said they could explain why we swing our arms when we walk, a practice that has long piqued scientific curiosity.” From Infinite Monkey.
• It’s not actually a tumor - Shona Holmes is the woman who was on a commercial, “telling the story of how she couldn’t get treatment in Canada for a brain tumor, so she fled to the United States for treatment and went nearly bankrupt in the process.”  Except, she didn’t have a tumor and did have appointments scheduled with Canadian doctors.
• Greta Christina has a great couple of posts on fat-positivism, feminism, skepticism, and weight loss.  Part one and Part two.

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