Can shrimp and vitamin C kill you?

No.

Well, that’s the short answer anyway. Today I received an email from a reader which claimed (in broken English – not the reader’s) that eating shrimp or prawns while taking a vitamin C supplement can cause the shrimp to react in your stomach and emit enough arsenic to kill you dead.

Here is the email:

A woman suddenly died unexpectedly with signs of bleeding from her ears, nose, mouth & eyes. After a preliminary autopsy it was diagnosed that death was due to arsenic poisoning. Where did the arsenic come from?
The police launched an in-depth and extensive investigation. A medical school professor was invited to come to solve the case. The professor carefully looked at the contents from the< h (sic). In less than half an hour, the mystery was solved.
The professor said: ‘The deceased did not commit suicide and neither was she murdered, she died of accidental death due to ignorance!’
Everyone was puzzled, why accidental death?
The professor said: ‘The arsenic was produced in the stomach of the deceased.’ The deceased used to take ‘Vitamin C’ everyday, which in itself is not a problem.
The problem was that she ate a large portion of shrimp/prawn during dinner. Eating shrimp/prawn is not the problem that’s why nothing happened to her family even though they had the same shrimp/prawn. However at the same time the deceased also took ‘vitamin C’, that is where the problem was!
Researchers at the University of Chicago in the United States , found through experiments, food such as soft-shell contain much higher concentration of five
potassium arsenic compounds.

Such fresh food by itself has no toxic effects on the human body.

However, in taking ‘vitamin C’, chemical reaction occurs and the original non-toxic elements change to toxic elements.
Arsenic poisoning has magma role and can cause paralysis to the small blood vessels. Therefore, a person who dies of arsenic poisoning will show signs of bleeding from the ears,
nose, mouth & eyes. Thus as a precautionary measure,

DO NOT eat shrimp/prawn when taking ‘vitamin C’.

 

After reading this; please do not be stingy. Forward to your friends

All of the classic elements of a hoax email are wrapped up with a lovely red bow here.

• Threat of sudden, terrible death
• Lack of specific details about who the woman is, where this happened, and when this happened.
• Something seemingly innocuous that will cause the terrible death.

Right off the bat I am deeply skeptical about the purported effects of arsenic, that it

has magma role and can cause paralysis to the small blood vessels.

This is absolute bullshit.

Symptoms of arsenic poisoning include headaches, confusion, diarrhoea and drowsiness. And you can be exposed to a lot of arsenic for a long time before you start to notice the overt signs of the poison in your system: convulsions (hard to miss), white lines across your fingernails, horrible blisters, hair loss… it’s not pleasant.

While arsenic is the preferred tool of the evil housewife who likes to watch her husband suffer a slow and painful death, it can also kill you quickly. An acute dose of arsenic will cause massive nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, kidney failure, coma and, eventually, death.

This does not match the “paralysed blood vessels” story.

Furthermore, shrimp does not turn into arsenic when it encounters vitamin C. It just doesn’t happen. Shrimp may contain low levels of arsenic, as it is a basic element and occurs naturally in the environment, but it is not a dangerous dose and your body can deal with it. Unless you eat shrimp until you sprout those weird antennae, then you might be in trouble.

I can find no research which indicates that shrimp and vitamin C can have a magical party in your tummy and turn into arsenic. Nor can I find any news relating to such a death.

Finally, and I think this is worth pointing out, if you have an allergy to shellfish, they could kill you. and if you take an extremely high dose of vitamin C it can also be very dangerous. But this is NOT the same thing. (Incidentally, there is no evidence that vitamin C taken for colds and flu has any positive effect, so you can stop wasting your money on it).

This is a hoax. Do not forward it on to your friends and family. Just press delete.

The universe was not made for you

The Milky Way Galaxy - photo by the author.

My heading might sound like a line from Fight Club;

“Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

But I mean it in a slightly less poetic way. The universe exists the way it does and we happen to live on a vanishingly small splash of it. It always bothers me when, involved in a theological debate, I am accused of being arrogant for questioning the existence of the divine creator who made this amazing universe perfectly suitable for me to live within it.

Can you spot the irony it that? Isn’t it more arrogant to assume that this incredibly vast and complex universe, with its hundreds of billions of galaxies, its uncountable trillions of stars –  all of this – was made just for us?

I was listening to the January 13th episode of NPR’s Science Friday podcast and a listener called in and asked how we can question the existence of God when the sun shines at the perfect temperature for us.

I have seen many examples of this argument (the teleological argument (also known as the argument from design)) and they all echo the same mantra: “X is perfect for humans, therefore God (or some other creator) made the universe.”

Ray Comfort’s “Atheists Nightmare” is the perfect example. Comfort claims that bananas are perfectly created for human consumption, they fit just right in your hand, they have a tab for easy opening and they are curved towards you mouth to make sure you don’t put them in the wrong orifice. Comfort doesn’t mention watermelons though…

The sun, the planet, our crops, animals, the whole shebang. If it makes life more comfortable you can probably find somebody, somewhere, claiming that it is evidence that the universe was designed to suit our specific requirements.

And it’s all complete and unadulterated bullshit.

I am not particularly well suited to debate the philosophical inaccuracy of the teleological argument. But that’s okay because there are LOTS of people who are perfect for the task, and they have done it.

The only one of the traditional arguments for God that is widely used today is the teleological argument, sometimes called the Argument from Design although — since the name begs the question of its validity — it should better be called the Argument for Design. It is the familiar ‘watchmaker’ argument, which is surely one of the most superficially plausible bad arguments ever discovered — and it is rediscovered by just about everybody until they are taught the logical fallacy and Darwin’s brilliant alternative.

In the familiar world of human artifacts, complicated things that look designed are designed. To naíve observers, it seems to follow that similarly complicated things in the natural world that look designed — things like eyes and hearts — are designed too. It isn’t just an argument by analogy. There is a semblance of statistical reasoning here too — fallacious, but carrying an illusion of plausibility. If you randomly scramble the fragments of an eye or a leg or a heart a million times, you’d be lucky to hit even one combination that could see, walk or pump. This demonstrates that such devices could not have been put together by chance. And of course, no sensible scientist ever said they could. Lamentably, the scientific education of most British and American students omits all mention of Darwinism, and therefore the only alternative to chance that most people can imagine is design.

Even before Darwin’s time, the illogicality was glaring: how could it ever have been a good idea to postulate, in explanation for the existence of improbable things, a designer who would have to be even more improbable? The entire argument is a logical non-starter, as David Hume realized before Darwin was born. What Hume didn’t know was the supremely elegant alternative to both chance and design that Darwin was to give us. Natural selection is so stunningly powerful and elegant, it not only explains the whole of life, it raises our consciousness and boosts our confidence in science’s future ability to explain everything else.

- Richard Dawkins

Evolution really is the answer to this question in most of its incarnations. Why is the sun perfect for us? It isn’t, we have evolved to make use of the sun as it is. Plants have evolved to convert solar energy into food through chlorophyll. Humans and animals have evolved to harness solar energy for warmth. We have adapted to the environment in which we live. People who live in northern Europe are fair skinned, their bodies have evolved to absorb as much light as possible by minimising the amount of melanin in their skins. People who live in the mid-latitudes, around the equator, have evolved to have far more melanin in their skins and they absorb less solar energy, they don’t need to capitalise on every sunbeam that reaches them, like their northern cousins.

The same goes for all the animals and all the plants that live, or have ever lived, on the planet. If a fruit with a sticky-out peel was easier to eat, it would get eaten more often and it’s seeds would be more widely-spread. This, in turn, would supercharge the plant’s ability to spread it’s genes and crowd out competitors.

To argue that the universe was made for us also shows a supreme lack of understanding of the statistics of very large numbers. Proponents of the teleological argument often state that it is statistically impossible for life to evolve on Earth, from inorganic molecules to the complex life forms which crawl between the planet’s crust and its upper atmosphere.

And as far as I understand it, this is, in fact, true. It is vanishingly unlikely. BUT! Given the staggeringly long time scales of the life of the universe (13.7 billion years to our best estimate) and the incredible number of planets in the universe, it is almost certain that life will evolve on one of them during the time between the beginning and the end of the universe. We just happen to be on one such planet. In a study published in the January 11 edition of Nature, astronomer Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute says  that:

We find that, on average, every star has a planet, and since there are at least 100 billion stars, there are at least 100 billion planets.

It is, correspondingly, incredibly arrogant to believe that we are the only sentient life forms in the milky way, let alone the entire universe. This belief is implicit in the “God made the universe just for us” argument.

I would much rather persist in my “arrogance” by questioning the blind faith which encourages the denial of knowledge in order to cling to beliefs that make us feel special.

I will embrace the face that, despite being highly improbable, I exist, and I have a mind equipped with the tools to help me know the universe around me as it truely is.

It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, no matter how satisfying and reassuring.

- Carl Sagan

Religions are perverted

Yesterday I watched Greta Christina’s superb “Why are you atheists angry?” talk at Skepticon 4 last year. I haven’t seen that talk before and I am slightly ashamed of that fact. Today I read Atheists and Anger, her transcript of the same talk, and am convinced that this is one of the single best pieces of atheist writing anywhere. Needless to say I agree with almost every single thing she says (not living in the USA means that some of her points were not directly relevant to me).

One of the things that stands out the most in my mind, after watching that talk and being in touch with some of what is happening in the world, is that religions are perverted. The sickest, most disgusting and despicable ideas and actions – the ones that make me feel ashamed to not be doing more about it – come from religious texts, religious leaders and their obedient followers.

Religions treat women like dirty, stupid sperm receptacles. It is the view of Abrahamic religions that women must be covered up, disdained, hidden, treated like a burden by the oh-so-superior males of the species. A women walking down the street in an Islamic country faces a real threat of being murdered if she is not covered from head to toe in a black sack. Girls trapped in a burning school are left to die instead of being allowed out of the building without their burqas on. Because doing so would bring shame onto their families.

No, leaving the children to die brings shame on the entire community that allows this kind of perverted madness to continue.

In both the Muslim (under Sharia law) and Christian faiths it is explicitly stated that a girl or woman who is RAPED by a man must marry him or be put to death. Women are severely punished and made to apologise and repent their sins after being raped. By men who were far stronger than they are and who are far more respected than they are.That is deeply, disturbingly perverted.

Even if a woman is not forced to marry her rapist, she is not allowed to have a safe abortion. It is considered far better that she raise a child which will always remind her of a brutal attack than that she be allowed to terminate the pregnancy before the blastocyst has attached itself to the wall of the uterus. Even though the Bible itself says nothing of the sort. The Christian god, in fact, is quite fond of murdering foetuses and doesn’t even consider an infant less than one month old to be people. Perverted.

Religions mandate that women be subservient and submit to their husbands, even if they are being abused, raped and terrorised by those men who are supposed to protect and care for them. Perverted.

Children are terrorised by ghastly visions of eternal damnation in a fiery pit if they do not prostrate themselves before a magical fairy in the sky. They are told that this fairy loves them, that he will care for and protect them, but only if they deny the very impulses that mark them as human. They are forbidden to question the unproven existence of this god (whichever one you like). They are told to wish as hard as they can for things they want, that God will provide, that if they don’t get what they asked for they didn’t wish hard enough. Perverted.

Children are denied life saving medical treatment in favour of wishing really hard, or trusting in the will of a being created in man’s own image. A resentful, malicious, hateful bastard who would rather kill 50% of embryos, before the pregnancy is even recognised, than reduce the suffering of one child. And if they don’t feel better, they didn’t wish hard enough. Perverted.

Children are taught by their religious parents and leaders that sexuality is dirty, that if they are not attracted to one person of the opposite sex something is wrong with them and they will go straight to hell. And they are told this while being systematically raped and sodomised by the very same religious leaders who are protected by the highest figures in their churches. Fucking perverted.

Boys have their penises mutilated in the name of one sick god or the other. Perverted.

Girls have their clitorises hacked out to appease some filthy god or another. Perverted.

Children are ritually tortured and killed because their parents or their parents’ religious leaders say that they are possessed by demons. Because they have emotional problems. Or they have epilepsy. Or they are too young to know why their Mommy is witholding their dinner. Perverted.

Religious leaders lie, steal, incite hatred, take sexual advantage of their followers and get away with it because they are “men of god.” Perverted bastards.

Mother Theresa. Sick fucking pervert.

While all of this is going on people like me, people who love their families and friends, people who go out of their way to be courteous to strangers and refuse to judge people for being different. We are the ones who are accused of being morally corrupt because we do not have faith in a malevolent dictator in the sky. We are told that our lives are devoid of wonder and meaning because we choose not to believe in fairy tales. Something is very, very wrong here.

News24 still promoting 2012 doomsday rubbish

Happy New Year Everybody! I hope you have a marvellous year and head into 2013 with all your resolutions met and a lot more money in the bank. I hope you spend the year focussing on the important things in life; your family and friends, activities that fill you with enthusiasm and passion, and the way the sunshine filters through clouds in those really pretty columns.

What I hope you don’t do this year is worry about the world ending on the 21st of December, at around 4:30 in the morning, CAT*. I won’t be, and I’m pretty sure that anybody who doesn’t have his head so far up his arse he can smell his own tonsils also won’t be. Because I will say it loud and clear, the world is not going to end on the 21st of December, 2012.

News24, however, is obviously in the habit of employing journalists and editors with an uvula impression on the fronts of their noses. Today, I read an article in their travel section entitled “End of the world: 21-12-2012” and the journalist, Clare Louise Thomas, offers up the Mayan Calendar version of the end of the world with all the naivete of a six year old.

She actually suggests that readers refer to John Edward (actually, she suggests we ask John Edwards, but he’s a different person) for help and links to December212012 as an authoritative source. She should have provided a warning though, because that site is so full of crackpot rubbish that it is actually hard to tell whether or not it is a parody. They have pulled together every crazy idea they can and tried to shoehorn it into the idea of the world ending in December.

Planet Nibiru? Sure, that could cause the end of the world.

Galactic alignment? Why the hell not?

Let me quote from that site to show exactly how ludicrous it is:

The alignment of Sun, Moon and the earth on December 21, 2012 is significant because gravitational release of hidden asteroids can take place.

Yeah, because every other time the three bodies have been aligned it was ok. Now all of a sudden “hidden” asteroids are going to be released? From where?

And, to top it all off, apparently the Bible Codes predict a holocaust in 2012 as well. This website is impossible to take seriously and should not be used as the basis for any kind of understanding of the way the universe works. Seriously.

And in a tour de force of mind shattering stupidity, Thomas actually makes reference to Graham Hancock and quotes him as saying (the bad grammar is hers):

this is something “we can’t afford to dismiss it.”

I have news for you Clare, even the Mayans don’t think that the world is going to end this year (see Penn & Teller’s Bullshit episode entitled 2012, part 1 and part 2).

There is no reason to believe that this end-of-the-world prediction is any more accurate than Harold Camping’s claim that the Rapture would suck all the good guys into the sky on the 31st of May 2011 AND the 21st of October of the same year. Neither of which happened.

Predictions for the end of the world based on holy books, calendars and planetary alignments have been made for centuries and every single one has been wrong. Every time. This is no different.

*Actual times of end of world may vary

Stupid religious email

On the 17th of November I posted a rather vitriolic post about children being abused and murdered under the pretences of exorcisms (see “Demons don’t kill people, exorcisms do“). *Note: This article contains “bad” words, deal with it.

Yesterday I got the following email from someone who didn’t like what I’d said in that post:

J.N. Laubscher laubscherjn@telkomsa.net
18:04 (18 hours ago)

to skepticdetecti.
I see that “Demons don’t kill…” was posted by you on 17.11.2011. Are these all your own words or is it someone else’s article?
If your own, you have just cured me of ever opening ‘skepticdetective’ again. The colloquial usage is that of a full-blown atheist.
Have you noticed that even an atheist, when confronted by a life threatening situation, calls upon the God that he/she does not acknowledge and professes to despise? And blames Him for that which has befallen him/her?
Somebody once said that even atheists have their own annual public holiday: April 1….April Fool’s Day!

Now, I have to admit, I don’t like receiving emails like this. So I resisted my urge to tell Mr. Laubscher to go fuck himself and penned a lengthy response in which I addressed most of his concerns about my post:

Angela Meadon
09:56 (2 hours ago)

to Laubscher
Dear religious person,

Yes, I wrote “Demons don’t kill people”, every last word (except the section I quoted). Oh no! It seems you have discovered that people sometimes hold different beliefs and morals to those that you cling to.
You are very perceptive to notice that I’m an atheist. Oh, wait, NO you’re not! If you read the byline on the blog you would clearly see that it states the three main areas of discussion of the blog: “Science, Skepticism, Atheism”.
Perhaps you thought I wasn’t being serious about that, oh well, happy to disappoint you.

Have you ever noticed that religious people are full of shit?
To assert that atheists call on a god when faced by a life threatening situation, or to blame bad stuff on just shows how self-righteous you are. The whole thing about atheists is that they are intellectually mature enough to realise that magical sky faeries don’t exist. We learn to draw upon inner strength and the support of our families when bad stuff happens, and we don’t blame anybody’s imaginary friends for things that might go wrong. We learn to accept that sometimes shit happens, we take responsibility for our own actions, and we get on with the business of being utterly AWESOME!

Now, about you never visiting my site again, I really could not care less. I get well over 1000 hits a day on the site and the non-click of one Bible-blinkered idiot is not something that particularly worries me.

A little while ago I received a response (yippee!):

J.N. Laubscher
12:30 (18 minutes ago)

Your email says it all! As well as your addiction to foulmouthed
4letter words.
I pity any offspring you might have produced and can only pray for it.

Well, fuck me if I don’t have an addiction to 4letter words (ARGH! SMS Speak! It’s “four letter” you moron).

Angela Meadon
12:40 (9 minutes ago)

to Laubscher
Don’t pray for me or any of my children, thank you very much.
And I fail to see any addiction I might have to “4letter” words, I swear whenever I fucking feel like it, and don’t give a fuck what you think about it.
And yes, my email does say it all. Yours, on the other hand, says nothing.

Ok, now I know I’m getting belligerent, but I really don’t care. It’s religious idiots like Mr Laubscher who have been molesting our children for centuries, murdering them for having epilepsy and inculcating a fear of eternal immolation. So Fuck ‘em. Every one of these self-righteous mother fuckers who thinks he is so much better than me because he submits to the wishes of a bunch of power hungry bastards who threaten him with the eternal ire of a magical sky fairy. The world is too full of people telling us to shut up and not air our views, prejudice against atheists is a very real problem and we need to show people like Laubscher that we are not intimidated by their bible thumping and carry on speaking our minds.

I realise that this curse-filled rant is not the most diplomatic approach, and I hope that my readers realise that I did not fill this article with swear words because I want to be foul, I did it because I have a constitutionally protected right to free speech, and I don’t agree with the missive that I must be careful not to “offend” people. If you take offence, grow the fuck up.

</rant>

<LucidThought>

Not all people who hold deep religious convictions are as offensive as Mr Laubscher. This post is certainly not intended to insult the thoroughly decent, honest and kind people such as my friend John.

The ponies will sort me out when I get home.

</LucidThought>