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Old 04-29-2009   #1 (permalink)
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Pseudoscience

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time.

Over the years, I've come to love (as a journalist, historian, and editor) the very strange things people strongly believe is science.

I'd like to create a repository of all those things, or at least as many as people can think of and support.

I don't want to simply replicate the general "Strange Claims Forum." I love it. I want this to be an examination of those claims that have for some reason gained some scientific community traction in support of their popular belief. That might be pretty restrictive, but I also don't want a thread that just gives people a chance to spout off. In other words, you must know that people have published the theory for it to qualify.

I have too many opening suggestions to be able to list them here, but a soft target is always THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (Gothic organ music). Any other nominations? Any pitchforks and torches (i.e. defense of a theory)? Any comments about THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (Gothic organ music)?

--lemit

p.s. Any suggestions on how to get that music to stop?

Last edited by lemit; 04-29-2009 at 07:33 AM..
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Old 04-29-2009   #2 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Science = observation; Logic = deduction.
Philosophy is the logic of "why are we logical, and can hear music and see light, etc"

Science is 'immediate'; when a light 'blinks' it does so in a logical "time-space"; when a philosopher thinks about "why" they mean "why do we see a light - blinking? What is this blinking we 'see' in this 'logic-space'?"

A scientist means, why does it blink in time?
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Old 04-29-2009   #3 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

UFOs come to mind as pseudo science.


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Old 04-29-2009   #4 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Numerology
Astrology
Perpetual motion machines
Phrenology
Pyramid Power
Alchemy - Transmutation
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Old 04-29-2009   #5 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Intelligent Design/Creation Science
Paranormal research

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Old 04-29-2009   #6 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Quote:
Originally Posted by lemit View Post
I want this to be an examination of those claims that have for some reason gained some scientific community traction in support of their popular belief.

In other words, you must know that people have published the theory for it to qualify.

Any comments about THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (Gothic organ music)?

--lemit

p.s. Any suggestions on how to get that music to stop?

Either stopping--or starting--certain drugs?
...but seriously now.
...
So do you mean a supporting theory such as the possibility of large methane releases from the Atlantic-Bermuda area?
....An area with known, large deposits of methane hydrates/clathrates.
....Theorizied to cause ships to fall into the bubble(s) or a plane to register a different altitude and/or explode while flying through the methane?

~
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Old 04-29-2009   #7 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Quote:
Originally Posted by Essay View Post
So do you mean a supporting theory such as the possibility of large methane releases from the Atlantic-Bermuda area?
....An area with known, large deposits of methane hydrates/clathrates.
....Theorizied to cause ships to fall into the bubble(s) or a plane to register a different altitude and/or explode while flying through the methane?

~
Yeah. I'd like to see people trying to defend the pseudoscience or at least relating stories about the claims.

An example of the latter is that the first "Flying Saucer," had nothing to do with saucer-shaped objects. I've read a few differing accounts of the event, but the single seminal moment is always described the same way:

Quote:
In a memoir of the incident for the First International UFO Congress in 1977 [Kenneth] Arnold revealed the flying saucer label arose because of a "great deal of misunderstanding" on the part of the reporter who wrote the story up for the United Press. Bill Bequette asked him how the objects flew and Arnold answered that, "Well, they flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water." The intent of the metaphor was to describe the motion of the objects not their shape. Arnold stated the objects "were not circular." A look at the drawing he did for his report to the Air Force shortly after the incident confirms the truth of that statement. It is hard to describe in a word or two; beetle- shaped is the best I can come up with. However you describe it, one thing is clear. It is not the elegant alien geometric perfection we have come to know and mystify ourselves over.
This version is from "The Saucer Error" by Martin Kottmeyer in "The REALL News," Volume 1, Number 4 -- May 1993.

With apologies to Arnold's family, I've always wondered, if he had used a less tortured analogy, would we today be talking about Flying Stones?

--lemit

Last edited by lemit; 04-29-2009 at 11:19 PM..
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Old 04-30-2009   #8 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Quote:
So do you mean a supporting theory such as the possibility of large methane releases from the Atlantic-Bermuda area?
....An area with known, large deposits of methane hydrates/clathrates.
....Theorizied to cause ships to fall into the bubble(s) or a plane to register a different altitude and/or explode while flying through the methane?
The Bermuda Triangle stories are in almost all cases misrepresentations of the truth. The famous plane squadron story is not true. The radio crew who spoke to the missing squadron state that the material in the books never occurred.

More pseudoscience:
crystal power
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Old 05-03-2009   #9 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Isaac Newton sought the Philosopher's Stone; he also probably contributed by doing so to modern Chemistry to some extent. He may have been trying to understand "the essence" of metal.
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Old 05-03-2009   #10 (permalink)
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Re: Pseudoscience

Very good, Boof (May I call you Boof?).

We often forget that modern chemistry is an outgrowth of alchemy. That is the most benign outcome of pseudoscience I can think of. Astronomy coming from astrology is good, but hasn't resulted in the treatments for disease that chemistry has. It has given us Tang, though.

What other good results of bad science can people come up with?

--lemit
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