Fake Reviewers Caught

Ever see a review that sounds too good to be true? Over the years, I have come across quite a few of these. Unless you are Mr. Wiffle or Flo the Progressive Insurance spokeswoman, it is hard to find people that enthusiastic in the real world. In a major crackdown, Amazon is now suing users that were paid to place positive reviews on their site. The culprits evaded detection by using different accounts and IP addresses. While Amazon claims to have found roughly 1,000 such reviewers, they are not alone. Yelp and TripAdvisor have also discovered fake reviewers. In fact, virtually all sites that allow reviews at some point or another find they have the same problem.

Unless we are talking about an exceptional cause like the AbilityOne program or green / biobased alternatives, few people will be so thoughtful as to write a review. Even with biobased or green alternatives, I cannot recall anyone ever bothering to give us a recommendation after making such a purchase. The person may be a strong advocate for utilizing biobased solutions or helping people with major disabilities but you are lucky just to get the sale let alone a review.

Most products are simply not that interesting. While it may not come as a surprise that a toilet paper or #2 pencil review is fake, many people do not realize that it isn't illegal (at least yet) for a product reviewing service to sell "legitimate reviews" to different sites that sell those products. Although technically not illegal, to me this is a little deceptive because it may give the impression the product was sold by a different party. Moreover, when someone does actually bother to write a review, many site owners would prefer to give the person the benefit of the doubt. Small companies do not have the resources to properly vet each review and big companies may only make a token effort to protect their reputations. Ultimately, it is up to the consumer to use proper judgement as no computer program will catch everything and disclaimers provide a convenient scapegoat to circumvent corporate liability.

Why are we Still Wasting Helium?

Helium may be greatly abundant throughout the universe but we have a very limited supply here on Earth. Why is this so important? Helium is crucial for medical devices like MRI machines and has no real substitute when it comes to certain industrial, medical and military applications. Once it is gone that is it and yet we still allow airships, blimps, floats and party balloons like it was as abundant as the grass in our yards. One day it will be gone and we'll look back at how wasteful we were.

Unlike hydrogen, helium is a noble gas meaning its inert properties make it stable and ideal for scientific research. While it may be fun to see how it affects our voices, there is no practical way to produce the element in a laboratory environment. Helium is normally produced through the nuclear reactions that occur in stars. When two hydrogen atoms collide at super high speed and pressure, nuclear fusion occurs and we get helium. Although a nuclear fusion reactor can produce the element, it always takes more energy to produce than what we get out of it. Moreover, it is extremely expensive to extract helium from air in the trace amounts that are available as opposed to hydrogen which can be stripped from H²O.

On a recent The Big Bang Theory episode, Leonard and Sheldon mirror the reality of the situation as they cannot prove their theory with a liquid helium shortage. When liquefied, helium produces the coolest temperature of any element (-452.2 degrees Fahrenheit) making it ideal for scientific and medical applications. Every time I see a blimp now or my neighbor buying helium filled balloons, I truly cringe. In a world where anything can be bought for the right price, I guess this should not surprise me. Nevertheless, the days of the Goodyear Blimp may very well soon come to an end.

Learn more about the science behind our world and other human interest stories at http://roberthaskell.blogspot.com/.