My favorite brand of snake oil is ...
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 17576 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 40 comments
My favorite brand of snake oil is open source (Score:5, Insightful)
My favorite brand of snake oil is open source software.
"Many eyes make all bugs shallow."
"Just open up your proprietary closed source code and developers will pop out of thin air to carry on development and fix all the bugs."
"Open source means anyone can audit the source code and prove that the application is secure, bug free, etc."
"Launch an OSS project and a bunch of people will show up to help you build it."
There are some notable exceptions, the Linux kernel being one of them, but OSS works best when a developer is scratching their own itch.
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1 - Citation needed. In the sense of open source being easier to debug than proprietary code, it's undeniable.
2 - Citation needed. That strawman is getting old.
3 - True. It does mean anyone _can_, not that anyone _will_ . That's very valuable by itself. You can trust the vendor for example, but have the possibility to stop trusting them. Don't you prefer to be able to find backdoors vs not being able?
4 - Citation needed. Same as 2 -
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"Many eyes make all bugs shallow."
This is true, at least to an extent. The more people you have doing code review, the better your software will be (well, assuming that the people doing the review are competent and not, for example, Debian OpenSSL maintainers). This is true with proprietary and open source software.
"Open source means anyone can audit the source code and prove that the application is secure, bug free, etc."
If I'm using a piece of software and I decide I don't entirely trust it, I can pay people to audit it, as long as I have the code. I can pay companies like Coverity for their static analysis tools (actually, Coverity is free t
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There's another question that's just as important that most OSS advocates never ask: How many users are qualified to analyze the source?
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Not only in that case.
Your ability or interest might change. Like what happened now with NSA backdoors getting more publicity, the Linux code is getting more reviewed for their backdoors, even after being in use for several years. If the source were not available, it would be a lot harder to check.
About "non-code submmitting users", I don't think they are the ones who should audit it. You can trust someone who does submit code, or you can suddenly gain interest in security and start checking it, or even pay
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Honestly it's hard to imagine any program of any real size and complexity would be safer open source than closed source. Even experienced coders aren't necessarily going to understand every part of a program at the required level to understand the combined whole. Backdoors are likely to be very well hidden, and disguised as bugs, if nothing else. Open source means more eyes, but it really just means there's potentially many more people trying to put those backdoors in to begin with, and you likely don't kno
That little experience? Why tell us about it? (Score:2)
You just need to see a few internally developed utter clusterfucks to see why it's better to drag stuff out into the light instead of hiding the mistakes. Another cure is reverse engineering the showshopping bugs in closed commercial software that are preventing users from using it effectively (and thus costing money), presenting the results to the vendor effectively on a silver platter, t
Ok... see.. (Score:3, Insightful)
You eat this little cracker and drink this wine and zombie jebus will "save" you if you're super duper sorry.
No we're not insane! No! Really!
Stop looking at us like that!
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Really? I can still clearly recall a sermon from when I was in my teens, the preacher ranting about how everyone who wasn't a member of our specific sect (Methodist), "friends, family, neighbors and even those sitting in the church down the street (Baptist)" would become "our enemies" on judgement day. And how we needed to "remain vigilant" so as to not be led astray by their (heavily implied evil/wicked) ways. Even then I knew that religion was not for me, needless to say I found the thunderous applause
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Really? I can still clearly recall a sermon ... realize that they can't take their religion too seriously. Religion can be a force for good, but when they demand strict adherence to it .....
Citation needed. (And thanks god for Christoper Hitchens...)
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You haven't been to a Catholic Mass, have you? We re-crucify and then devour him every single day.
Antivirus products? (Score:4, Insightful)
My vote for snake oil are a lot of AV products out there.
1: They can't pick up 0-days, and virtually everything out there is a zero day. My ad-blocking software is far more useful.
2: It doesn't really help clean much if infected. The days of clicking on a utility, having a beer, and coming back to a de-loused system are far gone. Generally if you find some oddball application trying to toss a browser extension, it is time to grab media, save off files and reinstall.
3: Other than Windows, it is pointless. I worked at a place using POWER7 machines, and McAfee had to be on all LPARs due to contract stipulations. Still no single detections.
4: A scanner on a compromised box's disk drives is probably the only use an AV program has, or perhaps a SAN that can snapshot LUNs, search for malware, then freeze/roll back the machine.
Cryptographic Snake Oil (Score:2, Interesting)
Single DES is easily cracked these days.
Many amateur service providers foolishly use a pregenerated key that comes with the service software. Apache HTTPD calls this key "snakeoil-rsa.key"
transcranial direct current stimulation (Score:3)
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I don't know that safe is the word I'd use for it. Just ask Hemingway.
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There is real question if the memory effects reverse or if agnosia sets in. It is known that the effects of the treatment are often temporary. There is also evidence that the convulsion is just a side effect and that the damage is the mechanism of action. Closed skull head trauma often creates a temporary euphoria.
OTOH, TMS may actually be helpful without all of the damage.
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You do know that is the subject of legitimate research, don't you?
I don't see how the FDA is going to clamp down on DIY devices.
My vote - actual snake oil. (Score:5, Funny)
Magnets of course (Score:2)
"Cleansing" diets (Score:4, Funny)
I've never seen the point or any science whatsoever that supports the idea that people need to somehow "clean" their digestive track. Ranks right up there with having your aura cleansed. I think I'll start a business selling bottled tap water as "Dave's Incredible Miraculous Cleansing Diet Supplement". Drink enough of it and it will cleanse your digestive track.
Cheers,
Dave
Re:"Cleansing" diets (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a need to clean it, just not with any ridiculous methods. You clean it by having adequate fibre in your diet.
Re:"Cleansing" diets (Score:5, Informative)
A hundred times this. I spent some time as an OR tech, where I'd stand next to the surgeon and hand him instruments, load scalpel blades, hold things, etc. Although I'm not a gastroenterologist, I've seen inside plenty of guts in my life. Never once, except in cases of severe disease, have I ever seen an intestine that looked like the nightmares that "cleansing" advocates describe. Basically, the insides of your intestines are nice and pink and clean unless there happens to be food actively passing through them at the moment. They don't have pockets filled with "toxins", or swallowed marbles, or any of that craziness. They're certainly not spackled with decades worth of unpassed stool that needs to be "purged".
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Re:"Cleansing" diets (Score:5, Funny)
They're certainly not spackled with decades worth of unpassed stool that needs to be "purged".
Not by the time you see it [miamiherald.com], no:
MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.
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Some foods that are often toted as being "healthy" and "full of fibre" are known to linger in the colon longer.
A prime example of this is linen seeds - which can be quite common in wholegrain bread.
Another culprit is nuts. Raspberry and tomato seeds also.
I know this because I had a colonoscopy where I could see these seeds up close in my colon.
I had eaten bread with "yellow linen seeds" a few days before, not knowing about the seeds in the bread - because they were yellow I could not see them.
I had also eat
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eat a bowl of Colon Blow today! (Score:3)
Some people are full of shit, Dave.
But yeah, if you eat whole-wheat bread for breakfast instead of just having a cup of coffee, "this too shall pass".
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Some people are full of shit, Dave.
But yeah, if you eat whole-wheat bread for breakfast instead of just having a cup of coffee, "this too shall pass".
Great, I had a white English muffin and a cup of tea. YOU SHALL NOT PASS.
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I've never seen the point or any science whatsoever that supports the idea that people need to somehow "clean" their digestive track. Ranks right up there with having your aura cleansed. I think I'll start a business selling bottled tap water as "Dave's Incredible Miraculous Cleansing Diet Supplement". Drink enough of it and it will cleanse your digestive track.
Cheers,
Dave
Whilst we're on this subject, my favourite form of snake oil: vitamin supplements.
Any supplement that has a measurable effect is prescription only and not sold over the counter. However this has not stopped pharmaceutical companies claiming that off the shelf vitamin supplements can do all and sundry. They always use spurious and hard to prove claims based on "feeling" rather than fact. If they had any real effect on health they'd have to be kept behind the counter with all the other medications that wor
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Secret Option F (Score:4, Insightful)
Austrian Economics
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Placebin (Score:5, Funny)
Placebo, the brand name for generic Placebin or it's full chemical name Placeboxidasemethylhydroxone as originally isolated from Asian dandelions. Some say it does nothing; but I swear by it.
Re:Placebin (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, there are numerous scientific studies that prove that a placebos improve medical outcomes (compared with not administering any drug).
Here are some cool facts* about the effectiveness of placebos: http://listverse.com/2013/02/16/10-crazy-facts-about-the-placebo-effect/ [listverse.com]
This is why you can actually say [homeopathy/snake oil/Magnet Therapy] etc. all are "scientifically proven to improve your outcomes" and be telling the truth.
The real question is if [homeopathy/snake oil/Magnet Therapy] is any "more effective than a similarly administered placebo".
Re:Placebin (Score:4, Funny)
No man. It's the dandelion extract. You have no idea how placebo actually works. Homeopathic remedies as originally formulated were filtered through a fine mesh that contained dandelion fibers. The snakes ate rodents, and the rodents ate dandelions. That's how the chemical got into the snakes. The magnetic field takes placebin precursors and facilitates a chemical reaction to synthesize the chemical. Yes, that's why all those studies show it works. I wish I could say I was surprised; but placebin chemistry just isn't very well taught these days. Pity. It's such a fascinating, ubiquitous and tenacious molecule. I was planning to write my thesis on it; but career got in the way...
economics. (Score:2, Insightful)
Since Reagan, "free" market theory has been treated almost exactly like a religion.
And I want to shout, "But these are all just assumptions!" just as much as I did when sitting through chapel every Sunday. But I can't, because the whole point in faith is blind acceptance.
(And no, deer knee-jerker, this isn't a pro-Soviet post. Exactly the same problem occurred there.)
Goat glands! (Score:3)
Please, please, please .... (Score:4, Insightful)
Trickle-down economics (Score:5, Interesting)
Enough said.
Just about... (Score:3, Informative)
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Anything labeled "Audiophile" or geared toward audiophiles. ...
Damn you. I have about 100 old vinyl records I'm trying to sell. Of course only a true audiophile would see me in these clothes... I'm sorry, would realize that the sound quality from these scratchy old pieces of vinyl are far superior to modern digital recording techniques...
Contact me for a deal, readers!
Diet principles (Score:2)
They are not really snake oil as they have an impact, although a negative one, but I really like kinked diet principles:
Search Engine Optimisation. (Score:3)
Older pages simply rank higher in pagerank. It is not due to the money you spent on SEO.
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googling it says you''re lying
Definitely Homeopathy (Score:2)
The more diluted it is, the stronger it gets. This means that every time I drink water, I'm consuming extremely strong homeopathy treatments for everything that it "cures."
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so you're drinking homeopathically prepared fish jizz and shit.
Chriropractic anyone? (Score:2)
My favorite reference site when these type of "topics" come up is Science-based Medicine [sciencebasedmedicine.org].
Religion (Score:5, Interesting)
Capability Based Security (Score:2)
Capability Based Security lets a user decide what resources a program is to be allowed to access at run-time. Unlike Windows, Linux, Mac, it doesn't automatically just trust programs with everything on your system.
This will eventually (10-15 years from now) allow for computers to be actually secure, assuming the NSA doesn't backdoor them.
Everyone seems to think it's snake-oil, hand waving, or just a dumb idea... so I figured I'd post it here.
Greatest Slashdot Poll Ever? (Score:2, Insightful)
This is truly the perfect flamebait.
We've got libertarians claiming it's fiat currency.
We've got non-libertarians claiming it's Austrian economics.
We've got atheists claiming it's religion.
We've got conservatives claiming it's global warming.
We've got closet Nazis claiming it's the Holocaust.
We've got Republicans claiming it's Obamacare.
We've got trolls claiming it's open source software (the perfect choice to piss off Slashot!).
Now we just need a couple people to insist that it's gun control and affirmativ
Magnetic therapy (Score:2)
But it worked for Ironman.
USA-related (Score:3)
"Mysticism" in psychedelic research (Score:3)
I - as you can probably tell from my sig - am very interested in psychedelic substances and the effects they have on the mind. Generally speaking, I'm a proponent of their responsible use.
However, I find that in the realm of psychedelic research, there is a great deal of pseudoscience and mysticism. Just because someone has a 'mystical experience' on LSD or other psychedelics, they then start going off and believing a whole lot of rubbish that just makes no sense. I myself have had plenty of such experiences, and they can be very profound, deep and wonderful learning exercises - I wouldn't be the man I am today without having had these experiences. What they are not however is evidence of something 'beyond our world'.
Essentially, this is just another facet of people's failure to use critical thinking and logic, but it tends to be even more pronounced when it comes to experiences and feelings from within rather than when examining external matters.
Where this causes the most problems is when people start promoting psychedelic use as a snake-oil to help someone 'get closer to the spiritual world' or 'attune yourself to nature' or so on. It's a problem because it works. If you go in to the experience believing this rubbish, there's a good chance that what you experience will reinforce it quite strongly. If however you go in to the experience without believing this rubbish, you can learn an amazing amount about yourself without the need for attributing things to mysticism and superstition.
Terrorism (Score:4, Interesting)
Want to try my brand of snake oil? (Score:2)
Just send $1 to:
P.O. Box 181417
Cleveland Hts, OH 44118-1417
Why not just get it out of the way (Score:2)
What is your favorite brand of flame war:
Religion
Monetary theory
Unix editors
Computer operating systems
Global Warming
US politics
World energy policy
The lack of a Cowboy Neil option in recent
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You mean like oil companies?
They are transnational bureaucratic elites.
But, as opposed to US wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric projects, they mostly fund, directly and indirectly, terrorists.
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Why are you calling Muslims terrorists?
Because we know that is why you really mean with that line.
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I'm not.
It has nothing to do with that.
yeah right racist
I find your argument extremely compelling.
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I don't even think it's a remotely close paraphrase of one.
Citation, please. (Score:5, Informative)
That said, some homeopathic remedies have proven useful in medical research into cures.
Citation, please. The fundamental theory of homeopathy is unsound and violates fundamental physics. If you have a study with a statistically significant population that shows statistically significant improvements over a placebo, then please put the authors in touch with James Randi, who has offered $1 million to anyone who can prove it to work. [randi.org]
The problem is the dosage levels normally used are insufficient to cause that changes claimed.
At higher dosages, homeopathy stops being homeopathy and starts being herbalism. That's a whole different kettle of fish.
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If you have a study with a statistically significant population that shows statistically significant improvements over a placebo
It doesn't always have to be better than a placebo to work.
The placebo effect shouldn't be a problem, it should be a solution for some problems. Homeopathy usually works on the placebo effect. That doesn't mean it doesn't work. Quite the opposite.
This all assuming there are no side effects. But with infinite dilution side effects should be diluted infinitely to. Except for the Nocebo effect [wikipedia.org] of course.
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Been done: epic fail on your part (Score:2)
Please write about some subject where you actually know more than can be picked up by paying casual attention to the media for an hour or so a day. You'll look a bit less silly that way and be far less boring.
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Select a random group of people in the street, ask them about their most recent dream.
Should I ask them about their most recent alien encounter as well? Why not cut the bullshit and just ask them flat-out if they're delusional?
What is that step supposed to prove? That other people have the same delusions that you do? After sampling a kindergarten classroom and discovering that 98% of participants believe that Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny exist, does that somehow make their silly childhood beliefs true?
The "lots of people believe this fantasy, therefore it's true" argument is nonsense
drinking a big glass of Jews in the morning (Score:2)
"Snake Oil" is a popular term for a cure-all, as is the term "The Final Solution." Shoe's on the other foot, dude.
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I understand the need for an economy based on shiny shiny metal, but gold isn't flattering to my complexion. I prefer silver-- it cures all manner of ills.
Re:Fiat currency (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fiat currency (Score:5, Insightful)
"If Congress can apply money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may establish teachers in every State, county, and parish, and pay them out of the public Treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post roads. In short, every thing, from the highest object of State legislation, down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare." -James Madison
"The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."-James Madison
"With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."-James Madison
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Yes, if only we were a tiny country again, isolationist, entirely white anglo-saxon protestant (except for our slaves), with an agrarian economy - those words would be apropos.
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God forbid you should make stealing from your brother legal, because you are too lazy to earn money to pay your own way in life. Confiscating money by threat of force is not "cooperation"
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Falling back on the old 'lazy' stereotype are we?
Perhaps you didn't notice the whole economic collapse and all those 'lazy' people who lost their job. You may have missed those 'lazy' people working 2 jobs and still not getting the bills paid.
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Look deeper, you'll find that the real source of the problem is very wealthy lazy people who have no idea what it's like to actually work.
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At the bottom line, "redistributing wealth" does not. All the incentives and subsidies on one side and additional taxes and contributions on the other just offset prices and wages the other way, by the same amount. And that is why all the government's money represents tangible wealth that was taken from everyone and not just those you think paid more taxes than others. Everyone pays, directly or indirectly, either by charging more and paying less wages to compensate the tax burden, or by getting less real w
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Which is why my 'fave' snake oil is Obamacare, which at bottom is basically a wealth redistribution scheme. Trouble is, it's going to redistribute it in the unintended direction, just like most meddling ultimately does.
Re:Fiat currency (Score:4, Informative)
Funny sad thing is, the more distortion is imposed on the price/wage structure, the wider the gap between the uber-rich and the very-poor.
If what you claim is true, then why do countries with higher taxes and more social programs have less inequality? From Wikipedia's List of country by income equality [wikipedia.org]:
Those are Gini coefficients and higher numbers represent higher levels of inequality. Unless you want to defend the claim that the U.S. actually has more social programs than Sweden and Denmark, you'd have to reasonably conclude that the evidence supports the opposite of your assertion.
Re:Fiat currency (Score:4, Interesting)
So tell me, how much money have you given to your neighbors when they have medical issues? Have you gone out and bought them food and clothes? Have you paid for their rent, mortgage or car payments?
If you answered no to all of the above, SHUT THE FUCK UP HYPOCRITE!
Your life is not my responsibility. It's yours. If you believe your life is my responsibility then I get to dictate your life.
What you want is responsibility without authority. You want everyone else to be responsible for you and your neighbors without them having any say in how you do things. You just want them to hand over money without having to do anything.
And that is ever more clear when last night, a Republican Rep was on MSNBC and said they had offered a complete package, full funding of everything including Obamneycare, with the only provision being people not be penalized for signing up.
Nope, no deal. Everyone must, under threat of punishment, be forced to hand over money to private companies. That's the Democratic position.
Oddly, this is the same position the Crown took back in the 17th Century when they forced the Colonies to ship raw goods to England (cotton, wood, etc) then forced the Colonies to buy back the finished products. They, the Colonies, were essentially forbidden to buy from anyone else and if they tried to circumvent this process, they were penalized.
Guess what happened after people got fed up with a government telling them what they must and must not buy?
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Well, could you at least get out of their way? Kill the prescription laws so the poor might be able to get the drugs they need even if they can't afford a doctor? Kill medical licensing in hopes they can find a helpful layman rather than nothing at all? How about remove restrictions on importing drugs from civilized countries where they are more affordable?
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Well, could you at least get out of their way? Kill the prescription laws so the poor might be able to get the drugs they need even if they can't afford a doctor? Kill medical licensing in hopes they can find a helpful layman rather than nothing at all? How about remove restrictions on importing drugs from civilized countries where they are more affordable?
Either I missed the *sarcasm* tags or you have absolutely no clue how people work.
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Who was it who said that again, anyway?
Emma Lazarus?
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Meanwhile: The entire world stands and watches in awe as you deny your citizens basic rights like health and then fight over unnecessary ones like being able to kill each other on sight.
I actually agree with the comment the above poster is making, however if you need to actually make these arguments you have lost the battle already I fear.
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What about stuff like rTMS?
The trouble with internet skeptics is that they're not terribly well informed. They get "magnets = bullshit" from some blog and assume, then, that anything health-related involving magnets must be ridiculous nonsense.
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Sometimes magnets aren't enough. Sometimes you need magnetic copper Jesus [acemagnetics.com] power.
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Re:Magnet therapy.. as in using actual magnets? (Score:4, Funny)
I just like wearing magnets because I think they are attractive.
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Re:Homeopathy (Score:4, Informative)
Homeopathy is low-hanging fruit. Everyone knows its nonsense.
Now, I'll grant that homeopath is still a problem -- but it's not a problem because people believe it. It's a problem because it's difficult for consumers to distinguish products that are homeopathic from real medicine.
Head down to your local pharmacy and take a walk through the cough and cold isle. You'll notice that the generic and store brands mimic the packaging of the name brand products. That's helpful for consumers.
Unfortunately, the homeopathic products not only do the same, they go out of their way to hide the fact that they're homeopathic! It's not like the old days when they wrote "Homeopathic" in giant letters on a bright-yellow banner across the top of the box. Today, it's often written in an impossibly thin font, in faint white text near the bottom of the box where you'd expect information like net weight. That's bad for consumers.
If you don't know enough about the scam to figure out it's homeopathic from the information on the back to identify the product as homeopathic (e.g. 100x is the dilution, sometimes disguised further using a different scale like 50C or 100D) -- or you weren't paying enough attention because you're sick -- you, the guy who already knows homeopathy is nonsense, can easily find yourself at home with a box of useless pills!
So stop wasting time patting each other on the back for figuring out that homeopathy is nonsense. It wasn't a tough puzzle to solve. No one is impressed with your "intellectual" prowess. Instead, do something productive with that knowledge and call for better packaging standards. Campaign to get that non-medicine out of your local pharmacy. Do anything that will help solve the actual problem.
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Steve would have made a great snake oil salesman himself. Marketing genius.