h a l f b a k e r y"This may be bollocks, but it's lovely bollocks."
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A way to educate people about nostrums, quackery and pseudoscience. On the last treatment you’re told it was all nonsense and gives a lesson on how other health scams work. It might actually work as advertised.
ADDENDUM: The 5 day course of treatment would cost like $10 and include a daily placebo
pill in an envelope that also has a message about scams in general. The last one tells you two things:
1- Those pills did nothing and this was a hoax to demonstrate how hoaxes work, but...
2- You get a coupon with two choices that asks you to check one box and send it in.
First one says: "Give me my money back". Fill it out, send it in and you get your money back.
Second box says "I learned something from this and would like to donate that money to the cause. Keep it and make more of these to send the message out to other people."
List of prizes for evidence of the paranormal
https://en.wikipedi...e_of_the_paranormal
[a1, Nov 22 2023]
One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge ... 1964-2015
One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
Over a thousand people applied to take it, but none were successful. [a1, Nov 22 2023]
Doc could use this to build his course syllabus
https://web.archive...a/encyclopedia.html
[a1, Nov 22 2023]
farmer cures cows using homeopathy
https://www.irishex.../arid-30888762.html
[xenzag, Nov 22 2023]
Gotcha!
https://youtu.be/c_...si=xPum2BZvNyEALLm5
Randi rules! [minoradjustments, Nov 23 2023]
[link]
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[+/-] I like the idea - but other than lining your own pockets I don't think the last treatment would act as advertised. People are endlessly gullible. |
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James Randi wrote many books debunking hoaxes. Said that often people would write to him or come up to him after lectures to say things like "You really nailed it on X, I can't understand how anyone believes in that. But you're completely wrong about Y, which I firmly believe in..." |
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Do I get a full refund if it doesn't work? |
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I'm still waiting for the $97.99 book on How To Scam People to show up. |
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P.S. James Randi never met me or he would have owed me that million dollar reward if he's hung out for any length of time.
My opinion.
He was anti-psychic propaganda and nothing more. |
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Sure there are a lot of scam artist out there...
...but then some are not.
He tended to focus on what he knew before hand could be debunked while staying well away from anything he might not be able to. |
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That's not proof. That's a con. |
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It kind of tickles me...
A con man debunking cons as his con. |
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Buck up, [2_Fries], there are still a lot of prizes out there you could win (link). But do tell, how come you never took James Randi up on his offer? |
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Never heard of him before he stopped his reward. |
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Still plenty to choose from though - you could be rich! |
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Any of them willing to hang out for a while and record some unreproducible results?
I'm game. |
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Either way... it won't be science will it? |
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I doubt you'll find anyone to just hang out with you until something weird happens. But go read the list, you might find something. |
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If they were really interested... they'd have found me. |
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Farmers use homeopathy to treat any cows suffering from mastitis - see link |
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Just shows that farmers are just as gullible as the general population. |
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How did the cows in the control group do? |
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//If they were really interested... they'd have found me.//
Not true. It pretty obvious that there are a lot more people making unbelievable and unproven claims for things than there are provably new and astonishing phenomena that defy current understanding of physics, so for anyone who wanted to find such phenomena it would be a really bad strategy to go round the people one by one examining them. |
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//Farmers use homeopathy to treat any cows suffering from mastitis - see link// |
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//Just shows that farmers are just as gullible as the general population.// |
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//How did the cows in the control group do?// |
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Maybe only the gullible cows believed it worked. |
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I've added a change to how this is financed that sort of moves this idea from cocktail party conversation to an actual idea. See addendum. |
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I'd like to add, that lawyers heads would blow up over this because lawyers are inherently stupid and know nothing about actual concepts of justice being basically cosplayers adopting "good side / bad side" characters for as much money as they can bilk from the system. It would be fun to do this just to watch the justice system's heads explode. Was it a product sold under false pretenses? Did it do as advertised? The court case could be used as advertising that might being attention to pseudoscience medicine scams. |
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// it would be a really bad strategy to go round the people one by one examining them. // |
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Both for those trying to find people with wild talents and those who claim to have them. |
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I remote viewed the first sessions. They did not go well. The Eye recommends you develop another scam, preferably staying well clear of true “extra talents.” |
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////If they were really interested... they'd have found me.//// |
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//Not true. It pretty obvious that there are a lot more people making unbelievable and unproven claims for things than there are provably new and astonishing phenomena that defy current understanding of physics, so for anyone who wanted to find such phenomena it would be a really bad strategy to go round the people one by one examining them.// |
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Meh.
Actively suppressing and Not looking for are two separate things. |
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The cracks to fall through were wider than a school bus and my little as fell through every one of them. |
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Did you happen across the April 1 demonstration in which the applicant for the $1M actually ‘won’ the prize? (Link) I was fascinated and then disappointed. |
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Unless you're curing transgenderism, will the $10 trickles cover your malpractice suits? |
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I haven't even watched it, and I know the result. It's a magic trick and he shows how he did it. I don't know how that would surprise anyone. Anyone capable of actual magic feats wouldn't bother collecting that prize for numerous good reasons including the ability to get more money performing them than the prize, unwillingness to become a celebrity and therefore have to perform party tricks for the rest of their lives (and so be unable to do anything important), unwillingness to discuss how they do it, and not desiring to become a prisoner of a three letter agency. Also I'll eat my shoe if the prize would have been awarded to anyone with an actual magical power. It would ruin Randi's career to do so. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there are people with magic. I'm saying the prize is not a way to find them if they exist.
The idea is a simple rewrite of numerous versions of "did you know the word 'gullible; isn't in the dictionary?". As such I'm awarding it a stinky bone. |
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