The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe > Podcast Episodes

Episode #361

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Steven Novella:
This Day in Skepticism - Captain Picard Day
News Items: LiDar, Extremophiles, Moral Behavior, Cervical Manipulation, Ghost Train
Who's That Noisy
Your Questions and E-mails: Pharmacist Homeopaths
Name That Logical Fallacy
Science or Fiction

wallet55:
Thanks for the podcast!

alh:
WTN: foxes   (a guess)

Trinoc:
This is the band you were trying to remember:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_characters#Hotblack_Desiato

"Hotblack Desiato" is the name of a firm of North London estate agents (really!), and Douglas Adams got their permission to use the name but later they found that people assumed they had stolen the name from him! Still, all publicity is good publicity, even in the dodgy world of real estate (as I believe you former colonials call it).

"Extremophiles" might be a good name for a heavy rock band, but unfortunately, in the UK at least, the tabloid newspapers have convinced the public that any title ending in "phile" refers to a nasty, evil person who should have their windows smashed and then be dragged out and lynched. Likewise any title beginning "paed", such as paediatrician.

Trinoc:
Regarding the email about pharmacist-prescribed drugs...

In the UK we already have three classes of drugs (four if you include stuff even doctors aren't allowed to prescribe, like cannabis): those which must be prescribed by a doctor, those which can be bought over the counter in a pharmacy, and those which you can buy over the shelf in the pharmacy of a supermarket.

For the second class, the pharmacist will normally simply ask "Have you used this before?". If you answer "Yes" then normally no more questions are asked.

The third class has some bizarre rules. For example, you are not allowed to buy more than two packs of certain drugs such as painkillers or (for some reason) antihistamine, regardless of whether you are buying the large or small pack. It's a mixing rule, so if you want to buy painkillers and antihistamine you can only buy one pack of each. On the other hand you can buy packs of Buscopan (hyoscine, as in the poison from deadly nightshade) tablets off the shelf, but the instructions say you should not take them unless your doctor has diagnosed certain digestive disorders. It's not stated whether this is because the tablets themselves could be dangerous, or whether it is just that if you have chronic gut ache you should get it checked in case it is something serious.

But then our supermarket rules are crazy. I've been age-checked for buying plastic picnic cutlery and for non-alcoholic wine. In a tool shop just about anyone can buy all sorts of dangerous objects but if the title contains the word "knife" (e.g. a flexible, plastic palette knife for applying filler) then they have to check your age.

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