Who you gonna believe?

Both of these observations/articles come from the "Economist" Newpaper, world's best in my opinion:
"Most published research is wrong". Dr. John Ioanndis and his colleaques found that within a few years of publication in the most prestigious(sp?) journals (those that claim to publish only the best scientific work), one third of the papers had been refuted by other studies usually found in less prestigious journals. This was not true of findings published is less prestigious journals. (Economist 11 October, 2008 page 109)

"Placebos work better than morphine". In 1572 Michel de Montaigne, a
French philospher, observed that "there are men on whom the mere sight of medicine is operative". ... Both Dr. Benedetti and Dr. Diederich point to a techinique called hidden dosing that demonstrates the power of the placebo effect. In one study that used this, post-operative patients were given morphine secretly, given morphine with fanfare or given a placebo that was falsely declared to be a powerful pain releiver. ... made the striking observation that telling the patient a painkiller is being injected into him, when the injection is actually a saline solution, is as potent as covertly giving him a 6mg-8mg done of morphine. ... but the covert dose had to be increased to the full 12mg to surpass the effect of the placebo. (There are of course ethics questions) (Economist 1 November 2008 page 93)

Here is some creative wording: When the Church sends used computers out to Family History Centers, they call it "cascading". Not bad, but not as good as "plausible deniability", a term coined by the government to deny the existence of Area 51, the top secret flight test center in the desert NE of Las Vegas. They are reputed to have an alien spaceship and the body of an alien there. The best aerial photos of Area 51 are by the Russians.

Just heard on the TV , "he will be charged with unlawful use of a weapon". This is a contradiction, a catch-22. Isn't a weapon meant to hurt or kill people? How can it be "unlawful".

Grandpathegrump