Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for April 22, 2010

Commerce 1, Science 0.

….Even thinner zits.

It might be a little difficult to find evidence to support that theory.

It’s true! It’s true!

I guess people haven’t been keeping up on the health benefits of dark chocolate.

GROG You’re right. The modern scientific method. Pick the data to support your conclusion. Al Gore showed this.

Or, you can just make up the data entirely to support your own ideology, like Faux News or the Tea Party…

Lewreader,

Enough of that canard. Read the IPCC report and all of the primary scientific literature that supports global climate change, and then make a coherent, evidence-based counter argument if you can.

I just taught a lecture on the physical and biological evidence for climate change, and your unsubstantiated assertion is, frankly, laughable.

Eating chocolate makes everything look better. You would look better if you looked younger and thinner. Therefore when I eat chocolate, you look younger and thinner. There’s our hypothesis. Now lets get a couple of tonnes of M&Ms and see if we get that conclusion.

I believe this comic is a comment on how modern corporations work – make an assertion and then make up the “data” to prove it.

It’s scary how often this could happen…

Without chocolate stars would fall from the heavens and earth would end.

just ask a woman, grog. you’ll get all the evidence you need. now slowly back away from the chocolate and nobody gets hurt.

I’m sort of with superfrog on this one. Chocolate makes a person feel good so whether you’re fat or thin, at least you’re happy which can make you feel younger. And, NATURALLY, that doesn’t mean eating TONS of chocolate. My mother used to say it would make you constipated! And, THAT certainly wouldn’t make you happy!

(Of course we all really know what Wiley meant - we sort of just got sidetracked. Another good one, Wiley!)

Eatin ex-lax will MAKE you thinner! I have heard of pranks involving lax and brownies!

“Save the Earth! It’s the only planet with Chocolate”.

Theobromine is my alkaloid of choice.

Well, said, kea - after all today is Earth Day!

Chocolate makes you look better, Alcohol makes others look better, lets consume more of both and then, everyone looks good!

Chocolate is sooo over rated!

If it were only true.

I love having just one square of 70% Cocoa daily. I break it in 4 so it lasts longer…

When I was still an active R&D engineer, I coined a term to refer to this practice: “sponsored research”. I avoided such assignments at all costs. Occasionally I was called on to determine the truth of a competitor’s sponsored research, which tended to be a lot more fun. (I wasn’t above debunking our own sponsored research – but, understandably, I was never assigned to do that.)

BTW, the most egregious example of sponsored research I saw in my 40-year career was sponsored by the US Defense Department.

Of course it’s true. I dn’ need no steenkin data.

dtut, I can only ask in regards to the DOD episode, “And you were surprised, why?”

I could raise the political level of this and ask when and/or which administration but I’ll pass on bringing that up.

elbeck: what makes you think a comic book publisher like DC has policy institutes?

I forgot to mention the best “chocolate” ever: JaMocha Beans - Dark Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans! Yum!

Craig, climate change, sure. Man-caused, impossible to prove. Perfect excuse for a power grab, you bet!!

I wonder if this is how the Tobacco companies came up with their assertions that cigarettes are non-addictive and non-harmful.

I say let’s just get it over with….bring on the chocolate cigarettes containing 40% alchohol.

I’ve been told that working backwards sometimes helps.

Craig Linder so the climate is changing; no duh! Climate is ALWAYS changing. What’s at issue is the phony, trumped up hysteria, peddled by twits like Al Gore, and the naked power grab by governments. Like in the Watergate scandal, “follow the money”.

donhar said,

“Craig, climate change, sure. Man-caused, impossible to prove. Perfect excuse for a power grab, you bet!!”

This is true. The climate is constantly changing and has been from the beginning.

Dark chocolate M & M’s keep me sane. I hoard my supply and make it last and I never, never share.

I volunteer for the research Wiley! Pick me, pick me, pick me!

Actually, chocolate has just about zero calories, so it is very easy to make the assertion presented in this strip. I got some 100% cocoa chocolate chips that have 5 calories per serving. The problem is that you add lots of sugar to chocolate to make it palatable. And, it is loaded with anti-oxidants, which do make you younger.

CHOCOLATE CRAVE! :-P

I went to see a nice young doctor for a very bad cold two years ago, and he prescribed a small piece of dark chocolate every day to support my immune system….I thought, “This is my doctor for life!”

Hey, that’s how the drug companies do it when they introduce a new drug..

reverse engineering? or this guy could use Danae!

I like chocolate, but I’m allergic to it. However, there is the stuff called white chocolate, that I can eat. Ya I know, it’s not the real stuff, but I’ll take what I can.

Data: Hang around people that smoke and eat more chocolate than you do!

@Craig Linder—I know, basically, that we are experiencing climate change. However, to blame it all on man is quite specious. We went through climate change many times in the past when man was non-existant or quite primitive. After looking at both sides of the argument, my conclusion is that its happening and we really can’t do alot about it. what we can do is prepare ourselves. Then, when and if, the worst of the changes come we will be ready. The planet will take care of itself. If the coming change were truly as bad as the science predicts and caused by man then who caused Venus to be like it is? It is in the green belt and is covered in greenhouse gases.

Truly, I’m no scientist but I have been successful at thinking through problems with data in front of me. Isn’t it time to accept what is happening and quit creating hysteria and taxes (carbon credits)? We in the USA have been successfully lowering emissions for years to where it costs us more than it is truly worth. At the same time, countries like India and China and Russia have been pumping bad air for the last two centuries.

Thank you for making me think this through more. I do think its time to quit making the USA the leader in the blame game. And, my opinion, it’s time to quit costing us more than we have.

Just one man’s opinion.

John Pike,, Try a trip abroad to see the amount of energy consumed in relation to the amount we use. You don’t need scientific data to see that we are the largest users and abusers on the planet.

Chocolate makes you look younger and be thinner, IF you eat it before it the sugar, and other stuff has been added.

BTW ~ That would be BLECHY!

Justice22– I’m not arguing the usage, except in the casees mentioned above. My argument is that we really don’t need the guilt trip about the climate change. All of these arguments are about fault. Is it man’s fault or is it natural? Is the fault of the USA alone? Hardly. Please, do not jump on that wagon. We have contributed but we have also supported more of the un- and under- developed nations more than anyone else. Yet, we get it thrown back at us as though noone else were industrialised in the entire world. It is not all on us. We began catching our pollution way before 90% of the others did. I’m not even saying there is no global warming. What I am saying is quit the fault game, and game it is, and get on with preparing for what may come.

I still will think that carbon credits are bogus and just another way to tax us to death.

I have had a few minutes to reflect and would like to add this.

I don’t believe in waste. We need to focus on clean renewable energy. I have a friend who makes solar water heaters. These are smart. In our semi-rural area, there are alot of wells. Solar water heaters work almost too well, scalding is a danger. They can also be used for whole house heating.

I drive truck for a living. Make me a hybrid that I can afford and I will jump on it. I’m tired of fuel costs that are so incredibly high. My margin is very thin and I don’t see it getting better in the near future. Another thing that would help the energy use in our country would be to keep our oil in our country instead of selling to others and then importing from others still. Now isn’t that the craziest thing you ever heard of? Why sell your left hand only to borrow from your right?

We need more clean energy. I feel that wind and solar are the best. However, there is the old problem of cost. These options must become more accessible.

Nobody jump on me please. I’m not as well versed in the details of these things as I would like to be, but I have put a lot of thought in this.

Thanks for listening and if you have a link to a forum on these issues I would appreciate it.

grazer said, about 6 hours ago

I say let’s just get it over with….bring on the chocolate cigarettes containing 40% alchohol.

Runs to the patent office

For those of you who turned this into a right/left wing debate : comics are too good for you. Go read the Wall Street Journal.

Almost all candy in the grocery stores are chocolate based concoctions. What ever happened to good old fashioned hard candy. When I was young there was all kinds of hard candy. Now it’s just jolly ranchers and life savers. What’s up with that?

So right Coyoty & others – dark (real dark) chocolate is good for you and it makes me feel younger everytime I eat it (unfortunately, not thinner tho).

As for clean air I would think that would benefit everyone – righty or lefty – of course it depends on what is more important to ya – clean air or money.

@potrzebie - I remember as a kid finding my parents hidden stash of “chocolate” and scoffing the lot. Result - three days off school (YES!) and I became quite a lot thinner.

If only religion and reactionary politics could ever be ethical enough that they would need to worry about the legal ramifications for the lies they spread.

Um, @MadKanga - did you (could you at the time) read the label on that pack of ExLax?

@JohnPike - try looking at a few issues of Home Power magazine (much of the content available online still, used to be a free download PDF if you couldn’t afford to subscribe). Another, from back in the day of the ‘back-to-the-land’ Hippie movement, is Mother Earth News, which carries such goodies at times.