Quickies

Skepchick Quickies 2.10

Jen is busy developing a vaccine against superstition today, so I’ll be providing your links!

  • Can a Mouthguard Turn You Into the 6 Million Dollar Man? – I’m going to guess “no,” unless the 6 Million Dollar Man had trouble with nighttime tooth-grinding. (Thanks, Only Cheryl, who hints “Watch the stance of the dentist change during the “strength” tests before and after using the mouth guard.”)
  • Is Botox the Key to Happiness? – A reminder of Wiseman’s experiments that showed frowning makes you sad as opposed to the other way around. (Thanks Steve!)
  • Honor Killing By Any Other Name – The murder of women and girls justified by religious and cultural reasons may be more prevalent than you think. (Thanks, lower depths of humanity)
  • Utah Legislature Shows Scientific Ignorance – They passed a bill forcing encouraging women to see the heartbeats of their 3-week fetuses before having an abortion. What’s wrong with this picture (anatomically as well as misogynistically)? (Via Feministing, as was the previous item)

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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14 Comments

  1. Given the $2K price tag for the mouthguard, I’d say it made him the $2000 man- and not a very bright one.

  2. “It was an act of love,” wrote Father Igino Ciabattoni, a leader of the White Cross Catholic organization. The priest also accused the victim of “torturing her husband” because she refused to take him back.
    The “good” father is a sick fuck. He can bite my shiny metal ass.

    IMHO, these so-called “honor killings” should be punished as premeditated murder. Period. No extenuating circumstances allowed. They’ll keep doing it until the price is raised too high for them to bear.

  3. “A fetus does not have a heart at three weeks, much less a heartbeat. A human embryo at three weeks is about a millimeter long. Good luck detecting a heartbeat.”

    Therefore, if you can’t detect a heartbeat at 3 weeks, then you must not be pregnant! Therefore, you can’t get the abortion!

    Brilliant strategy.

  4. I love the Utah idea.

    Dr: “I have to let you listen to the hearbeat of your embryo”

    Dr hooks up equipment. Slience.

    Patient: “Dr. I don’t hear anything.”

    Dr: “Your embryo is so young the heart hasn’t developed yet and is approximatly 1 millimeter long”

    Patient: “Oh that’s good, I feel better about this now”

  5. At three weeks not only does the baby not have a heartbeat that can’t be seen on an ultrasound, but the zygote itself is undetectable!

    Implantation has not occurred. You wouldn’t have missed a period. You wouldn’t have taken a test. And if you have taken a test, the result would be negative.

    At three weeks you’re not even fucking pregnant!

  6. Before I reviewed the Utah article, I was going to say pass a law requiring fisherman to ‘view the heartbeat’ of the fish they catch. — But apparently we don’t even have a fish-like 2 chamber heart that early.

  7. @Rebecca: Agreed.
    A coworker just asked me why I was laughing uproariously and I explained the progression. His response “That reminds me, I heard there’s hope for your kind. Aspergers is now reclassified and you’re less mentally retarded.”
    My response: “WTF? Wow, you are so going to sensitivity training next week. I’ll be right back.”

  8. I suppose the article on Utah was basically “Dog bites man.” I mean, since when has legislation actually had to deal with reality? It’s as if the alleged law making Ï€=3 had actually been passed.

  9. At $2000 a pop, those mouth thingies will definitely make me a $6 million man. I just have to sell 3000 of them. Who’s in for a couple?

  10. That one about honor killings is sickening.

    Stories like that ought to make headlines, not what some actors or actress or sports figures are doing in their daliy lives.

  11. As soon as I saw “heartbeat at 3 weeks old” I almost laughed and then groaned when I realized that something taught in a basic high school biology class was unknown to the idiot who put that bill together.

    For the other article, ever since I first heard of “honor killings” I always thought it was a bit sketchy that I never heard of men being murdered for honor. That’s not to say they aren’t, but every single time it is a wife, daughter, girlfriend, or sister who is murdered. Consistently. Classifying it as an “honor killing” is just another way to shrug off the fact that there is still a great deal of misogyny in the world that has yet to be dealt with.

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