Well, the Federal Trade Commission [FTC] has finally stumbled upon the Q-Ray "Ionized" Bracelet and formally charged the marketers of this purported pain-relief product with "making false and unsubstantiated claims." Wow. What a leap of intellect that was! Guys, wasn't that obvious from the start? Did it take all these years to figure it out?
The report on the matter reads:
In Federal District court, the FTC alleges that QT, Inc., Q-Ray Company, and Bio-Metal, Inc., all operating out of one location in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and their principals, Que Te Park and Jung Joo Park, violated the FTC Act by deceptively claiming that the Q-Ray Bracelet is a fast-acting effective treatment for various types of pain and that tests prove that the Q-Ray Bracelet relieves pain. In fact, according to the FTC, a recent study conducted by the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, shows that the Q-Ray Bracelet is no more effective than a placebo bracelet at relieving muscular and joint pain. A federal district court has issued a temporary restraining order against the defendants. The TRO prohibits defendants from making any misleading or deceptive claims about the Q-Ray Bracelet and freezes defendants' assets.
The disturbing fact is that the www.qray.com, www.q-ray.com, and www.bio-ray.com web sites are still open, and they're still selling the product! Would it not have been useful to close down those advertising sites? And, of course, they've already made millions and can easily afford to go out of business. That's the plan, with these people. The sellers of the "Stimulator" device were in business for years, internationally, before they were closed down, and they paid a very minor fine. They, too, had already made their millions...
Though the Q-Ray defendants' infomercial advertises a "risk-free money back guarantee" that allows consumers to return the Q-Ray Bracelet for a full refund if they are not satisfied, the FTC found that consumers were not able to readily obtain a full refund of the purchase price if they returned the product within 30 days, as promised. In fact, according to the FTC, many unsatisfied purchasers were unable to obtain any sort of refund despite repeatedly contacting the defendants. Furthermore, some purchasers who viewed the infomercial and went to the defendants' Web site to order the Q-Ray Bracelet were not given this 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
The FTC is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, including redress, to consumers who purchased the Q-Ray Bracelet. Their vote to file the complaint was 5-0, and it was filed on May 27, 2003.
Just look at those web sites and read the "testimonials" section. This is strong proof — as if any were needed — that otherwise perceptive witnesses can talk themselves into believing there are results from blatant quackery, and I can tell you, from my experience, that none of those who have endorsed the device will ever change their minds.
Let's see how much of the customers' money — if any — can be returned to them. To the vendors, this is a disappointment, but not too severe a blow. This only means that they have to stop further swindling. As soon as they're off this hook, they'll be back in business; there are 25 more letters of the alphabet. Let's see: "X-Ray" is taken, but "M-Ray" sounds good, and "G-Ray" has a certain ring of authenticity. But watch out — the FTC will find you. In about eight to ten years....
I didn't mean to imply last week that the term "bright" was originated by Richard Dawkins. He embraced it, as I do, but it was suggested by Paul Geisert, and he and Mynga Futrell, both of Sacramento, California, worked on the definition. Sorry for the misunderstanding...
At a garden party for elderly folks in the UK recently, Uri Geller appeared. The local newspaper described his involvement:
Uri, shown here with resident Greta Lavin, reprised his famous party trick to entertain the party-goers by bending spoons with his fingers. Not with his mind.
Don't tell me that the media are beginning to doubt Mr. Geller's claims! Well, I'll bet that his lawyers are scrambling to disabuse the editor of his unacceptable opinion, right now. Uri is not known for his patience with those who don't accept miracles!
On one of the sites that is alarmed at the continuing success of the JREF, one frequented by a man named Michael Roll — who seems totally obsessed with the matter — appears this flattering reference to myself:
This debunker is the establishment front man for the whole of the religious and scientific establishments throughout the world. The mind boggles at the sort of funding that he must have access to. . . . You mentioned their seemingly unlimited source of funds and I too have found this very interesting and unusual. Do you by any chance have any knowledge as to where these funds come from? Any leads or hints that you might supply me so I can do a bit of digging? Ever hear of any religious or governmental connections to their group. Even the smallest hint may give me a suitable lead and I would be most grateful.
Well, in the spirit of co-operation and education, and all the more conscious of my huge responsibilities as the major representative and spokesperson of the Vatican, the Dalai Lama, Islam, Scientology, and the other churches, as well as MIT, Oxford University, Yale, CERN, Plantation Middle School, and Microsoft — to name only a few! — I hasten to relieve the questioner of his ignorance. Those vast sums come from my lecture fees, generous personal donations, corporate support, JREF membership fees, my TV fees, and the sales of JREF merchandise. It's such a job counting it all, we just weigh it and guess. I cannot of course reveal the extensive network of secret government agencies and closely-concealed cults that pour money into the JREF. If more "leads" are sought, I recommend Tarot cards, tea leaves, or a forked stick, dependable means whereby such occult knowledge may be found....
Concerning the UK TV show testing ESP that I referred to last week, skeptic Nick Pullar tells me he was also at the recording of the show, although Dr. Chris French was much more involved, including the setting-up of the experiments featured. Says Nick:
Given that it was a TV show, I thought they did well in producing some experiments. However, when I spoke to Van de Castle afterwards [this was the man who attempted to "remote view" the randomly-chosen photo and failed dramatically to do so] about his failure to get the correct picture, he said that he was confused because the picture he decided upon, and the actual target picture, both had water in them! I suggested that it might be due to the fact that he hadn't really seen anything, but of course, he was adamant!The (psychic) woman sitting next to me was similarly convinced of her enormous powers — she claimed she got all of the Zener trials correct, but wasn't moved when I pointed out that the odds of that happening were not so bad: more improbable things happen most times when I play backgammon!
The show certainly opened my eyes. I don't think TV can be used to show people that psychics can't do what they claim to do — there's too much room to explain things away.
I agree, Nick, and that's why I've never accepted to participate in such shows. The only kind I'll be involved with, are those in which the psychics are required to prove their powers, and there's no requirement that we prove that they don't have them. If they continue to fail to prove their case, long enough, the message will get through...
As mentioned, Professor Chris French of Goldsmiths College, University of London, was one of the official "experts" on the show, Dr. Matthew Smith being the other one. Dr. Smith is an authority on parapsychology, the psychology of superstition and paranormal belief, and the psychology of deception. He's an ex-postgrad of Dr. Richard Wiseman, a considerable credential, I'd say. He teaches at John Moore's University, Liverpool.
Chris, in a partial preliminary report which will be amplified shortly, writes:
[Dr. Smith] had a more difficult role [than I] to play, insofar as he was presented as being the person who would ensure that all the experiments were done to "the highest scientific standards" but in fact no self-respecting parapsychologist would have done some of the things that were included in the show. On the other hand, the program-makers did go to considerable lengths to ensure that other "experiments" were carried out properly. They also did respond to advice from me and Matt following a read-through a couple of weeks before and generally did their best to carry out the demonstrations properly.Unfortunately, the constraints of the format meant they ended up doing things that were rather pointless from a scientific point of view. Having said that, they were quite happy for me to point out the weaknesses in the demos in my role of resident skeptic. Overall, I thought they did a reasonably good job given that they were making a program which was primarily meant to be entertaining (with a bit of science education smuggled in) rather than an in-depth documentary. However, I think most of my colleagues just thought the program was cr*p — but university lecturers were not the primary target audience!
The most obvious bias in the program was evident in the contrast between the pre-recorded inserts, all of which produced results in favor of psi, and the live studio-based tests, none of which did! This may have something to do with the possibility that any pre-recorded bits which failed to produce positive results simply did not get into the program! I know for a fact that this happened with at least two prepared inserts, and there may have been others.
We'll look forward to a continued account by Dr. French....
Reader Matt Youngquist of the state of Washington asks:
I'm wondering whether you caught a particular news story called "Answer to their Prayers" that aired on MSNBC several weeks ago. You could obviously flip on any news channel and find examples of uncritical journalism, but I found this story to be especially vapid, not to mention ironic.As the title suggests, it concerns the "miracle" cure of a Florida reporter who was suffering from cancer and survived against the odds by receiving a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor. It's an absolutely wonderful and heartwarming tale. Unfortunately, the entire slant of this story (both on TV and in the print version) is the suggestion that his recovery was due to the power of prayer, miracles, and religious faith — when right there in black-and-white, it's patently obvious that the real "miracle" of this guy's survival is not his devotion to prayer, but the advancement of Western medicine, the dedication of his medical team, and the (secular) charity of the girl who donated her bone marrow to save him.
Odd that the reporters should fail to notice this! Odder still that God would choose to spare this one individual, when surely hundreds of thousands of other cancer victims have passed away despite an equal or greater amount of religious devotion.
Well, that's always been the awkward situation the prayer-mongers have chosen to avoid. Didn't the millions who perished in The Holocaust pray for help...?
Reader Mike Scott, looking into Susan Miller's Astrology Zone® Message Board, finds that those in there are required by the rules to "agree not to post any messages that are libelous, threatening, vicious, vulgar, obscene or pornographic in nature, harassing, abusive, unlawful, defamatory, related to witchcraft, or [that] may be construed [as] invasive to another's privacy." Asks Mike: "Witchcraft? I thought they were buddies!"
Readers should really visit this site, at www.wuidry.com/links.html where they'll learn, for example, about "The Mystery of Wu," that Wu is "a self-aware, intelligent sacred language of memory tones." Where else can you find out about such things, I ask you?
Reader Eugene J. Phelan has a strong comment on my recent criticism of chiropractic:
. . . you should not denigrate all chiropractic professionals who are providing a necessary and wonderful service to those like myself who have found a new lease on life and release from pain. . . . I visit chiropractors for a specific reason, and know many people who have improved health, and have avoided expensive major surgery.
I don't doubt that last statement at all, Eugene. My argument is that it's not necessarily chiropractic at work here; manipulation of the spine and of other musculature systems of the body can be effective, without reference to any "subluxations" or other claimed aspects of Palmer's theory. A good massage therapist, using one of the many effective procedures that have been developed to increase circulation and generally "loosen up" the body, can produce exactly the same relief and benefit as those claimed by chiropractors, without the mumbo-jumbo or the pseudoscience. Chiropractors are fond of telling patients that they've a need for "re-alignment" of the spine, that they've one leg too short, that their nerve-endings have been "misplaced," that they need special pads, lifts, magnetic devices, or a series of expensive, prolonged treatments, to obtain relief of conditions that often respond well to simple but directed massage. The "popping" noises obtained by the chiropractors are sheer showbiz, dramatic bits of choreography that appear to demonstrate the poor relationship of the vertebrae.
I direct readers to a site we should all know about and refer to often: www.quackwatch.org. And at a specific section of that site, www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chirochoose.html, you'll find an excellent summary of how a chiropractor should be selected, if that's your choice. Myself, I would opt to accept a masseur rather than visiting a practitioner who has accepted a theory/notion that cannot support itself by evidence.
Opportunity time for the UFO nuts: NASA is trying to identify a small — 2-inch — object that was spotted floating outside the International Space Station (ISS) last Thursday morning. Astronaut Ed Lu, with whom I've maintained correspondence, noticed the object outside the window of the ISS laboratory and took pictures of it. Ed is up there right now in orbit with cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko in the middle of a six-month stay aboard the station.
I give you here the official mission badge. Ed is so polite that he didn't even use "Edward," just "E.," for his name, thus creating rather a dramatic size difference between Yuri's "billing" and his own. Also shown here is the badge that his family designed. That's Ed doing the "Doctor Evil" gesture, pinkie to the corner of the mouth. In his latest "Letter from Space," astronaut Lu gives us a bit of insight on a problem most of us will never encounter. He writes:
Last night we celebrated by making space bruschetta. First, I cut up a fresh tomato. This is easier said than done in space — I put the tomato in a plastic bag and held my hand inside the bag with the knife. I managed to keep most of the tomato inside the bag.
It's thought at NASA that the rectangular-shaped object Dr. Lu spotted probably came from the station itself or the Soyuz vehicle, and it could be a "label" of some sort that became detached. Ground controllers are analyzing his photos but don't yet have enough information about the object's direction of travel to determine where it came from. It has since moved out of sight.
But please note what NASA has set out to do here: instead of adopting an extraterrestrial explanation, rather than assuming that this unexpected development means that the little green men have shown up, they're asking U.S. Strategic Command (USSC) to use its resources to gather more information about the mystery object. This is the difference in approach between science and fantasy, between rationality and crackpottery. Already, USSC has reported that they tracked a small object seen floating near Columbia shortly after the shuttle entered orbit on its last mission. Further analysis of the photo, along with conversations with the Russians about their hardware, may help NASA figure out what it is. So far, there are no immediate plans to use the station's robot arm to inspect the station's surfaces. In light of recent events, every small object becomes very important to the success and safety of these brave guys.
At present, neither Sylvia Browne nor Uri Geller has been consulted on this situation, though I'm sure they'll have woo-woo opinions on the subject.
The "ghostly" photos we ran a couple of weeks back elicited much excitement. There were many explanations offered, some far out of the ball park, others much closer to the actual solution. I apologize for not dealing with this matter sooner, but pressure of work, etc. etc....
First, I note that many readers thought that some intended camera trick had brought about these strange smears and trails. No, this was simply the result of faulty photographic technique. Most thought that a flash had been used, which it was; the ambient lighting was very faint, mostly provided by the candles evident in the photos, making the use of a flash imperative. The actual intended images of people and furniture that showed, were faint and fuzzy, which would have happened if the flash had gone off at the beginning of a long (3 or 4 seconds) exposure, and then during the remaining open-shutter period, the photographer had dropped the camera down and to the right, producing the trails from the candle-flames on the film-plane.
(To several readers I at first incorrectly reported that no flash had been used. I corrected as many of those reports as I could.)
The camera was a modern one, and was performing correctly; the photographer was not. The photographer had somehow set the shutter speed at about 3 or 4 seconds. The film that was used wasn't very "fast," and the photographer aimed the camera, held it steady, and pressed the shutter-release. The camera clicked, the shutter opened, the flash fired, and the intended image was captured — barely — but the shutter was still open to continue registering the image, as the photographer dropped the aiming-point of the camera, thinking the photo was taken. He apparently didn't notice that there was an additional "click" as the shutter closed after an exposure of perhaps three seconds, during which the bright candles — and reflections of the candle-flames from shiny objects — smeared light-trails across the film-plane and produced the squiggly lines shown.
Look at the first section of one of the original photos, shown here. You'll see the same repeated pattern, which is the locus of the still-open camera as it falls away from the scene, repeated for each light-spot. The six green arrows point to the same spot on each of six light-traces; those marked with a blue dot are very faint, and need close examination to be seen. The pink dots mark the light-spots, two of them candle-flames and the others reflections of those candle-flames from glass items adjacent to the candles.
The thin green lines indicate which spot is the source of the trace it's joined to. Other traces seen there come from other light-sources not in the frame.
You will recall that almost this same problem came up some months back, and was solved efficiently by reader Henrik Herranen. Look it up at http://www.cs.tut.fi/~leopold/FlimFlam/0205_RandiCreature/
The next photo shown here is one I took myself in our library, with a digital camera, of a telephone with a red indicator light on it. I didn't use a flash. I purposely set the camera to use a 4-second exposure, held it steady, snapped the photo, and wiggled the camera about during the rest of the long exposure. Two traces are seen; the secondary, fainter, trace is from that same red light reflected from the shiny surface of the receiver.
Really, folks, I usually take better photos...
Let's try another, similar, puzzle, a really provocative one. 
Reader Gordon Hudson, of Livingston, Scotland, has informed me of the latest religious "miracle" to be embraced by desperate believers there as evidence of divinity at work. Here are two photos, taken at sunset. Your mission, should you choose to accept it... What causes these strange X-shaped images? Hint, as given by Gordon: these occur mostly at latitudes where there is a low sun angle in the winter, like Canada, Scotland, Scandinavia. And, they appear to the eye just as they do to the camera, so they're not camera artifacts. Further hint, from me: It can get cold in these locations. Nope, nothing to do with ice crystals. In fact, these shapes can be seen in summer, too, though they're stronger in winter...
Gordon solved it. Let's have your ideas. Send to randi@randi.org, please.
Glenn MacStravic suggests that our readers who have an interest in foolish patents issued by the USPTO can see them on his site at www.patentoftheweek.com for a pretty much inexhaustible supply.
Reader Randall Wald points out that on the "Annoying Celebrities" site, in addition to Sylvia Browne's rank as the 47th most annoying celebrity, some other familiar names were in the Top 100 list. John Edward came in at #7, Nostradamus as #8, and Miss Cleo was #22. And, to my surprise, L. Ron Hubbard was 'way down at the #33 position. Ron deserves to be 'way up on top too, I would think...
Reader Jayson Smith took an appropriate action when he felt he should. He tells us about what he calls this "small victory":
I was listening to internet radio today and heard a commercial come on the air for "Alternative cancer treatment". It said that if you send in money you can buy a book that has "helped others beat cancer when medical procedures have failed." My stomach literally turned; I don't think I've ever been so upset. I looked up the radio company's website and fired off the following email:
To: mmetter@businesstalkradio.net
Subject: Highly irresponsible advertisement on BusinessTalkRadio.NetI was listening to the Ray Lucia show this morning when a commercial came up for "1-877-BEAT-CANCER" that gave the following advice:
"Before you take dangerous drugs or go under the surgeon's knife, order our book on alternative methods of fighting cancer." This advice could literally kill people. You should take this ad off the air immediately.
I received this response just hours later:
Dear Sir: You are right, we did not hear this commercial before it ran, it was sent directly to us by an ad agency. We have taken the commercial off the air. The tone is misleading and very unethical. Thank you.Sincerely, Michael L. Metter
Way to go, Jayson! Responsible media people like Mr. Metter will react to properly presented criticisms, and we can use much more of this sort of involvement!
Reader Caroline Nyitrai shares her experience with us, beginning with...
I think it is great that you are trying to prove that the psychic world is bogus.
Whoa! That's not what I do. I ask the claimants to prove that their claims are not bogus, and I offer them $1,000,000 if they can do that... To continue...
I have had a few very horrible experiences with psychics where they manipulated me by fear and then took my money. I went to a psychic years ago when I was 17 years old, only a child. I was very naive and I believed what she told me about my health. She said that I was to get an inherited illness that runs in the family. The only illness I knew of at that time was a deadly one, and because I believed her, my life was changed forever on that day in 1991.I fell into a deep depression, I couldn't sleep, and I didn't know how to get this fear out of my head. My life took a completely different direction. I didn't know how to relax and I felt I was doomed because even if this prediction wasn't really going to happen, I felt I was going to create a self-fulfilling prophecy because of the fear and stress and thinking about it so much.
Well, I am still alive to this day, but looking back, I am appalled that an adult could do that to a child for $10. There were no signs posted that the reading was for entertainment purposes only, she didn't try to console me after giving me that information by giving me her business card. Nothing. I just lost my $10, and I also lost my ability to feel safe in the world, I also lost years of my life, and a lot of money on counselors and on medications.
Anyways, I see more clearly now that these people are sneaky manipulators who try to discover people's fears, then work on that to get an extra buck for themselves, in no different than a sneaky used-car salesman, but a hundred times worse, and a thousand times dirtier. And there is definitely no magic behind it.
We're happy to know that at least you're out of this scam, but just to amplify your observations, Caroline, I'll give you here an example of how a person in another country was heavily affected by the irresponsible blatherings of one of these quacks. It happened in South Korea to a young man who wrote to ask me my opinion on advice he'd been given. I've tidied up the spelling and grammar a bit...
Hello Randi. I'm Korean, 20 years old. Sorry I don't speak English well. My future hope is to be painter artist and rock artist. I'm happy drawing pictures and play guitar and I'm study hard.but...
Korean astrologer 'saju' told me I'll never gonna be painter artist... If I become rock artist I gonna die...
I so so sad... I was crying... Astrology is true? I'm despair...
I want your reply please...
I immediately told this young man to go with his ambitions, forget the fakers, and grab his dream. The advice he got is the default position, since most of those who want to become Andy Warhol or David Bowie probably won't make it that far. But, along the way, they'll get a lot of good experience and wisdom, as well as pure joy, that will serve them well. I have some advice for the Korean astrologer: get a job that really helps people. And try for some ethics while you're at it.
Volunteers needed!
After months of back-and-forth, the "Yellow Bamboo" martial arts group has finally agreed to a protocol for a preliminary test re the JREF million-dollar prize. We're now looking for someone in their area to supervise that test. It would take place in Indonesia.
They prefer Singaraja, Bali, but any nearby location should be suitable. They're suggesting 14 July, or if that's not suitable, in the middle of August. Anyone who participates has to join their organization — don't ask me why — but there are no fees or human sacrifices involved.
At least theoretically, the process would be simple. They claim that the "attacker" we choose has to go up to their guy and simply tap him with a bamboo wand, but that he will use his magical powers to knock down the attacker from a distance, without touching him/her.
Anyone available....?
And finally, does anyone recognize this electronic item? That's a centimeter scale shown, the copper leads are badly corroded, and I suspect it's an RF choke — but I don't know. That brownish blob is a bit of "hot glue." The number printed on it is "LQ476." Its origin and history will be discussed next week...
Another inquiry: Can anyone give me a clue about a circuit board labeled "Sep 14 1979," "Type-4," "AP-10-74," "EIA 86-3," (or maybe that’s "E/A 86-3")? Are there records somewhere on such things? This appears to be a simple printed-circuit board used in some basic device, the kind that electronics tinkerers buy at surplus stores for salvaging of parts.
