Silly Neck-Stuff, Incredible, Yet Another “Search” Show, Discovery Channel Discovers More Woo-Woo, Dow Jones Offers the Latest in Science, What Winners Do, Pretty But Useless, Waldorf Schools Examined, and In Closing…
Reader Richard O. Brown writes us about that silly “Q-Link” that we’ve handled at tinyurl.com/63u6zl. Just another fraudulent – but highly profitable – bit of junk jewelry. Richard says:
Q-Link couldn't have gotten a less critical puff piece if they wrote it themselves: tinyurl.com/6jj6jf
Embarrassing. At least, based on the online comments, the readers aren't buying it. The Chronicle has good reporters who can write critically about science, health and technology, but as usual they assign an "arts and features" writer with no science background to this.
All sorts of sports and music-world heroes are said to wear this phony “charm,” as if IQ is well represented by pop stars. “More than 300 golfers in the PGA wear theirs” so we can be further reassured by that inclusion. There's more. Said Richard Gray, president and CEO of Clarus Transphase Scientific Inc., maker of Q-Link:
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SILLY NECK-STUFFReader Richard O. Brown writes us about that silly “Q-Link” that we’ve handled at tinyurl.com/63u6zl. Just another fraudulent – but highly profitable – bit of junk jewelry. Richard says: Q-Link couldn't have gotten a less critical puff piece if they wrote it themselves: tinyurl.com/6jj6jf All sorts of sports and music-world heroes are said to wear this phony “charm,” as if IQ is well represented by pop stars. “More than 300 golfers in the PGA wear theirs” so we can be further reassured by that inclusion. There's more. Said Richard Gray, president and CEO of Clarus Transphase Scientific Inc., maker of Q-Link: It was amazing. In the space of a few weeks, the guy pitching the opener of the World Series, Josh Beckett, flying out of his shirt was the Q-Link and then Alex Shabalov, the U.S. chess champ, was wearing it. In a chess blog, he said he put it on and it helped him to win the tournament. How can such definitive evidence be refuted or even doubted? I can add this: No major Federal building in Washington in which a Q-Link has been worn, has ever been destroyed in an earthquake! And Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker and Anthony Hopkins are on the list of wearers, too! Now, that’s convincing! The Q-link is claimed to increase energy, improve focus and concentration, reduce stress, enhance stamina and endurance, and protect against EM from cell phones, power lines and computers. Richard Gray, appropriately known to his friends as simply, “Rich,” for good reason, tells us that everyone has a “biofield” about which he knows nothing, cannot define, and cannot prove exists – but it sells jewelry. If you put the physical body into states of stress, the biofield goes out of balance. What the Q-link does is resonate sets of natural frequencies with the biofield, returning it to balance. How could I have been so ignorant, I must ask? Gray says that inside the Q-Link is crystalline matter imbued with frequencies that “exist outside of the electromagnetic spectrum.” This is a new area of science, he says, and controversial because there is no way to prove the energies exist. Oh. Who knew? The Q-Link operates by interacting with energy systems of the body, not directly on the body. All we're doing is providing a clearer pathway between the body's energy system and physical body itself... People are understanding that if we look after the energetic, holistic body, that is the way to a more sustainable health. That's why we're seeing this resurgence – in yoga, meditation – it's all linked to the idea that the energy body performs an important function in every day life. Prices for the pendants range from $100 to $1,000 depending on whether you want plastic or platinum. You see, if you flash the platinum model, folks will know that not only are you foolish, you’re as dumb as a stump, too. Maybe that will help... |
INCREDIBLEFrequent correspondent Dr. J. W. Nienhuys, in the Netherlands, tells us: No longer is Dutch woo-woo confined to commercial TV, second-rate mediums, overcreative petty officials, and naive government ministers; the rot goes all the way to the top now. Dr. Nienhuys gives us this account of how the normally perceptive Dutch seem to have officially abandoned all scientific standards – a quality of thought that took them to the top of the intellectual scale with such luminaries as Van Leeuwenhoek, Christiaan Huygens, Bart Bok, and Jan Oort – to name only a few of the hundreds of Dutch intellectuals who have advanced knowledge so famously. Now, Dr. Nienhuys tells us: In the Netherlands, astrology is endorsed by the Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Two demographers from the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographical Institute (NIDI, one of the KNAW institutes) looked for astrological influences on marital stability. On a single zodiac circle, when the positions of Sun, Moon and planets (the 10 astrological “planets”) of both husband and wife are marked out, one can measure the angular distance between the “planets” of husband and wife. This yields 100 angles, and when such an angle has approximately one of the values 0, 60, 90, 120, 150 or 180 degrees, some astrologers believe it has either a positive or negative influence on marital stability. |
YET ANOTHER “SEARCH” SHOWHere we go again. In the TV business, all it takes is a teeny-bopper intern to happen upon the most transient of “hot” subjects, and enthusiasm does the rest. Currently, everyone wants in on the “find a psychic” rage, and it doesn’t ever occur to them to look at the abysmal ratings and reviews that such efforts produce. Even Russia has a “psychic search” show going, and the winner of that is – they state – supposed to become eligible to try for the JREF million-dollar prize – though that’s available to everyone who can qualify, without any amateur attempts to winnow down the applicants. And, note, we’ve never heard from anyone in Russia to give our view of such a show and/or to make an offer… It seems that it’s now Australia’s turn. From a news item: SEVEN ON SEARCH Andrew Daddo will host a new reality show for [TV channel] Seven titled The One: Search For Australia’s Most Gifted Psychic. The series puts seven self-proclaimed psychics through a series of challenges, such as finding a lost child, diagnosing a medical condition and reading a celebrity’s mind. Each week the panel – psychic Stacey Demarco and sceptic Richard Saunders – will eliminate one contender until only one remains. You have been warned. Forget the warning, and get on with the farce. Here we have – as with the Russian show – an attempt to find the least-failed “psychic” among a lot of losers. That assumes, of course, that there are any persons connected with the show who have any notion at all about how to control and evaluate these fumblers. In the Australian case, they have Richard Saunders, as we see, and that certainly is a huge step forward! It all remains to be seen whether Richard will be too rational and perceptive for the producers, of course. After all, they want winners, and too much close observation by Richard just might bomb the show, off the top. Will Richard Saunders be allowed to place any controls at all on the “psychics,” will he have any authority, and will the producers choose to do a really factual – “reality” – show that examines such claims? We’ll see… |
DISCOVERY CHANNEL DISCOVERS MORE WOO-WOOAn anonymous reader, “Martin,” informs us: Discovery's "Science Channel" is currently showing a mini-series called "The Science of Star Wars." Most of it is simply a series of promotions for a set of current DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] research projects, interspersed by tiresome links involving [robot] C3P0 tenuously drawing comparisons between the inventions and the Star Wars Universe, in a woefully unfunny way. Yet another failing of the Discovery Channel to live up to expectations… And how DARPA ever got connected with such a mess, is unknown. |
DOW JONES OFFERS THE LATEST IN SCIENCEReader Chris Torrero tells us of two things that we “may not be aware of”: i) It appears that the coach of the French football (soccer) team in the European Championships uses astrology to aid in team selection: euro-2008-team-profile-france.html Well, that’s if the DJ people mean “graphology” by the term “handwriting analysis,” Chris, and it seems that they do. There’s a legitimate study involving the science of handwriting analysis, and those who pursue it are often confused with woo-woo fortune-telling and “character-reading” artists… On my Granada TV series, years ago, we tested the best of these, and he obtained exactly the results we’d expect by chance alone. Mind you, that didn’t dampen his claims one bit. He managed to find all sorts of contradictory “vibrations” hanging in the atmosphere… |
WHAT WINNERS DORobin L. Zebrowski is an ABD Ph.D. student in the philosophy department at the University of Oregon who won one of our JREF scholarships last year. You can find out all about her at tinyurl.com/63e47z – just scroll down a bit. She’s written to us to say: As one of the scholarship winners from last year, I can say with certainty that the JREF money helped me in very specific educational goals. (It might be cool if the Foundation kept tabs on the scholarship winners – that might serve to reassure people that the money wasn't spent on booze and hookers, and at the same time it would be a bit of an incentive to be sure we use the money wisely since we'll have to report back). Regardless, part of the scholarship application includes an evaluation of what you intend to use the money for, which I can only assume is factored into the awarding criteria. Thank you, Robin! Knowing that our funding helped in such a useful manner, is welcome news. We’re happy to hear from you! As a side note we are accepting applications for our scholarship awards for the 2008-2009 academic year. More information can be found at http://www.randi.org/joom/jref-scholarships.html |
PRETTY BUT USELESSReader Terence de Giere tells us, re last week’s item on the V.I.B.E. toy: I have actually seen one of those V.I.B.E machines that Linda Rosa reported to you [last] week. The V.I.B.E. I saw was marketed with the name TeslaStar. A number of web sites seem to be offering this device. Interestingly, there is a complaint document at the FDA about its use by a chiropractor, where it had no effect on the patient. The patient reportedly called the manufacturer of V.I.B.E. (presumably Koonce) who told her that the TeslaStar is a "knock-off" of his machine. Another factor operates here, Terence. Those who have invested in such schemes, tend to defend them even after they’ve discovered that they don’t work; they would have to admit to themselves and to others that they were suckers who fell for a scam. That, they won’t do… |
WALDORF SCHOOLS EXAMINEDDr. Adrienne Huber, Australian educator and psychologist, has been appointed as an international supporting advisor for the San Francisco-based world movement People for Legal and Nonsectarian Schools, PLANS, which was organized in late 1995 by former Steiner/Waldorf parents, teachers, students, administrators and trustees, and their expert support base. This group is actively investigating the Waldorf schools, originally known as Steiner schools. Rudolf Steiner was a Nazi-era mystic who came up against the whole movement, threatened by the party, and fled. He embraced Anthroposophy, an occult religion that now both guides and inspires Waldorf teachers. Waldorf education is very secretive in nature. There is virtually no hard information about what goes on in Steiner classrooms or on the effects it has on children’s learning. Parents learn little if anything about the curriculum, but I have seen it in operation in Finland, and it’s really woo-woo. The students are taught about spirits that inhabit rocks and trees, astrology, and every variety of occult lore. The Waldorf's two-year teacher training program is simply inadequate and farcical. The first year of their training is an Anthroposophical seminary program, the study of Steiner's occult philosophy as revealed in his books “Knowledge of Higher Worlds and its Attainment,” and “Reincarnation and Karma” and “Occult Science.” Go to www.steinerbooks.org to see just how nutty this man was – and realize that parents actually put these people in charge of their children’s education! Says Dr. Huber, referring to a statement by Steiner about the connection between Anthroposophy and his system of education: Most people will recognize this as a clear statement that anthroposophy is the pedagogy and Anthroposophy is religious at heart – since it is concerned with inputting to “souls,” not the education of minds and hearts. Religion is not taught explicitly, rather it is implicit in everything that is done and “lived” in the name of “pedagogy.”… [Students and their parents] have no idea of what they are being drawn into and that makes it difficult for them to challenge the practices. They have no idea what they are looking for. |
IN CLOSING...Re a few of the comments posted by readers about last week’s SWIFT: First, dictionaries do not define words; they give current usage. And, the usage I gave for the word “monster” IS the number-one use given by my Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, contrary to what one reader claimed. And, the word “Benzolite” is a name made up by amateurs; it has several different proposed formulae, and we cannot assume that any are correct. It’s like the word “stuff” or the phrase “you-no-die-mean?” repeated so often by careless speakers... Reader Reed Hubbard notes: This past Friday (6/6/08), the USA Today crossword puzzle included an interesting entry. 64-down is a three letter word with the clue, "Alleged psychic Geller." What I found interesting was the word, "Alleged." Perhaps this is progress, in that Geller is not merely taken at face value? Anyway, I found it amusing and not a little encouraging. Every little bit helps... (The word is “Uri” – or did you guess?) Brian Dunning sends us to herebedragonsmovie.com – which I highly recommend... Then go to cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/11/crime.club and see just how backward, pandering, and lacking in academic standards a school can get when adults aren’t in charge… We’re off to TAM6 with a record registration of 840+ and more expected at the door. This should be a heavy conference....! |