The Skepdick » Woo http://www.skepdick.eu A Voice of Reason and Skepticism in Europe Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:10:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 New project: homeopathic bullshit http://www.skepdick.eu/2009/12/new-project-homeopathic-bullshit/ http://www.skepdick.eu/2009/12/new-project-homeopathic-bullshit/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:59:58 +0000 The Skepdick http://www.skepdick.eu/?p=112 chaser plus

Picked up a card of this shit today.  Seemed like a good project.  It’s homeopathic.  Meaning, it’s harmless.  And useless.  The ingredients:

  1. Chinchona 12X
  2. Lobelia inf 12X
  3. Nux vom 12X
  4. Quercus gland sp 6X
  5. Ranunc bulb 12x
  6. Zincum met 30X

There are problems figuring out how much of each of these is actually in a tablet.  12X dilution by weight or by volume?  Fine, I can figure out a dilution, but how much of that dilution is in each tablet?  Or, does that really matter?  What the fuck are these ingredients, anyway?

More to come.

]]> http://www.skepdick.eu/2009/12/new-project-homeopathic-bullshit/feed/ 4 Ghosthunters, my shiny metal ass (to quote Bender). http://www.skepdick.eu/2009/05/ghosthunters-my-shiny-metal-ass-to-quote-bender/ http://www.skepdick.eu/2009/05/ghosthunters-my-shiny-metal-ass-to-quote-bender/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 21:08:58 +0000 The Skepdick http://www.skepdick.eu/?p=58 My hobby of pissing off the locals in my hometown newspaper has again yielded fruit.  The latest article that spun me up is this one:  Ghost-hunting Team hits Ashland Hotel.  Long story short:  Employees of a 20 year old hotel, the Hotel Chequamegon, on the shores of Lake Superior in Ashland, Wisconsin can’t explain some bumps in the night.  It must be ghosts.  Call the ghost “experts” from Minneapolis, Team PROPHET.  Get publicity for free.

Yeah. That’ll do the trick.

I was most amused by the scientific instruments they bring to the “investigation”.  Even more amusing are the explanations for their uses on their website.

Trash journalism popularizing woo.

Two classic arguments in support of the woo from the discussion thread:

1.  What’s the harm?

and

2.  There’s a wiki article quoted saying god is also a ghost, so therefore ghosts must be real, too.

I ran into a YouTube video of Penn Jillette discussing the website www.whatstheharm.net, so I went and had a look.  Like I needed more examples.

Fuck!  This penchant for woo and lack of critical thinking will be the end of us all if we’re not careful.

But, the two guys arguing that god is a ghost, therefore ghosts must exist was pure gold.  One of them actually asked me at one point if, since I didn’t believe in ghosts, I also didn’t believe in god.  He must not be a regular reader.

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