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Old 12-15-2007, 10:47 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Qiaozhi
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Are you saying that we should encourage this pseudoscientific gobbledygook to be posted here, purely for entertainment purposes? I must admit that most of it is very amusing.
Of course pseudoscientific gobbledygook is welcome here. This is a forum for anyone in the world to post their ideas -- extraterrestrials too, I believe. Carl's intro post cautions people to be prepared to back up your claims if you make an extraordinary claim in the remote sensing section, so there is no harm in telling "tall tales" and trying to pass them off as reality. There will always be intelligent people who will laugh and challenge the "extraordinary claims". In the end, only the claims that can be backed up by repeatable demonstrations will be believed. The rest of the fake BS will fall into the category of "more amusing idiots playing around".

I don't think we should encourage pseudoscientific gobbledygook, but let's look at it for what it is. It is a fascinating form of entertainment that opens our eyes to how some people cling to superstitions, much as early tribal members believed in the science of witch doctors. Today's version is riddled with pseudoscience rather than potions and tales of evil spirits (with the exception of Sharky's concern for jins who move treasures in the ground). The people who try to pass off pseudoscience as an explanation to convince others to buy expensive junk electronics have been invariably exposed as frauds. If Carl were to ban pseudoscience posts from the forum, then these perpetrators would seek other forums to fool their victims rather than coming here where there are ample educated technicians to debunk their deception. But the biggest reason to allow these idiots to post their diatribe is for the amusement factor sought out by the majority of the readers here.

Best wishes,
J_P
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