Things I learned lately 16 Nov

• Rick Moranis, of SCTV fame, used to be a disc jockey on CHUM-FM (and 2 other radio stations) in the mid 70s. He went by the name Rick Allen.
• Although redheads and blonds may become more rare, they will not die out unless everyone who carries those genes (strictly speaking, alleles) dies or fails to reproduce.
• There was no widespread outbreak of panic across the US in response to Orson Welles's 1938 radio adaptation of H.g. Wells's The War Of The Worlds. Only a very small share of the radio audience was even listening to it, and isolated reports of scattered incidents and increased call volume to emergency services were played up the next day by newspapers, eager to discredit radio as a competitor for advertising. Both Welles and CBS, which had initially reacted apologetically, later came to realize that the myth benefited them and actively embraced it in later years.
• Double-blind trials have shown no difference in behaviour between children given sugar-full or sugar-free diets, even in studies specifically looking at children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or those considered sensitive to sugar. Surprise! Your kids are naturally hyperactive! Yaaay!
• Hair care products can't actually 'repair' split ends. They just kind of glue the ends together to look better.
• Acne is mostly caused by genetics, not diet.