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The continuing "Q collar" scandal (statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu)
TheJoeMan 23 hours ago [-]
“You can think of Q collar as a baby version of health scams promoted by wealthy and powerful medical-adjacent celebrities such as Dr. Oz, Andrew Huberman, and RFK Jr.”

This sentence seems unnecessary and perhaps inflammatory, I think it detracts from the article.

conartist6 23 hours ago [-]
> Before posting on PubPeer, Shane spoke to the authors directly to alert them of his concerns and request the data—the 2021 article has a data sharing agreement—but they denied his request because he was critical of their work.

What little fucking shitbags. I surely hope they don't call themselves scientists

adaml_623 24 hours ago [-]
For anyone who has never heard of the Q Collar I'm copy pasting a google summary with a tiny bit of trimming. My first uninformed thought is, "OMG that sounds insane"

" Q-Collar is a C-shaped, non-invasive silicone neck band designed to help protect athletes' brains from repetitive sub-concussive impacts. It is worn during high-impact contact sports like American football, soccer, lacrosse, and hockey.

How It Works -

Jugular Compression: The band applies light, safe pressure to the sides of the user's jugular veins.

Increased Blood Volume: This mild pressure slightly slows blood outflow from the head, increasing blood volume in the venous structures surrounding the brain.

Reduced Brain "Slosh": The extra blood acts like an internal cushion or seatbelt, minimizing the movement (sloshing) of the brain inside the skull during an impact. "

rvba 1 days ago [-]
[flagged]
_diyar 1 days ago [-]
Hijacking this comment to ask about Huberman, can he really be lumped in with the other two in that list?

I listen to his podcast for a while and stopped when I realized most of what he is talking about is marginal stuff or ”new research suggests”, which I found less interesting.

But has he really ever been a grifter selling complete bunk? Not talking about the ad-segments, which are of course payed endorsements.

n4r9 1 days ago [-]
This article seems like a fairly comprehensive run down of the issues: https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberma...
cheshire_cat 1 days ago [-]
You might be interested in these critiques of Huberman:

"So, Should You Trust Andrew Huberman?" by Dr. Andrea Love: https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/andrew-huberman-huberma...

"Is Self-Help Guru PhD a Womanizer and Pseudoscientific Nonsense Broker? | Andrew Huberman Analysis" by Dr. Todd Grande: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANW3daJggoQ

He definitely has content that is helpful to people, but there's probably better sources for the same information.

Arodex 1 days ago [-]
Well, here he is promoting complete bunk, so the question answers itself.
_diyar 1 days ago [-]
> You can think of Q collar as a baby version of health scams promoted by wealthy and powerful medical-adjacent celebrities such as Dr. Oz, Andrew Huberman, and RFK Jr.

This sentence does not imply that Huberman has endorsed this product.

theF00l 1 days ago [-]
That is fair, especially on this occasion. On the other hand I have found some of his material very helpful, particularly around sleep and helping me maintain my circadian rhythm.
altmanaltman 1 days ago [-]
Wait if they blow up their guards, who will protect them from all the cave people? Surely there are better ways to buy loyalty than this James Bond villian idea lol
wongarsu 1 days ago [-]
It turns it into a kind of prisoner's dilemma where all guards rebelling means everyone dies, while only some guards rebelling means the guards that rebelled die while everyone else (including the billionaire) get to live

It's incredibly unethical, but in a game theory sense it seems sound. Any one guard is punished for rebelling, and even if everyone coordinates they can't do anything about it. At least if you can eliminate the obvious weak points: the collars would have to be automatically activated

chongli 1 days ago [-]
The other obvious weak point is that you can’t surveil the guards 24/7 to make sure they don’t swap the live explosives collar with a placebo collar.
mrob 24 hours ago [-]
The obvious countermeasure is adding tamper detection to make it automatically trigger if they try.
chongli 24 hours ago [-]
Right, that’s what they do in sci-fi books and movies. But then those collars magically never need batteries replaced, service, or replacement. They also don’t have any issues with false positive detonations.

If the collar can be deactivated to be removed for servicing/off duty/retirement/replacement/etc then it can be hacked and replaced with a placebo.

diryawish 1 days ago [-]
Incredible quote, such great context. No wonder people trust the science so much.
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