Humor Science Pseudo-Science Conflicts and their effects on us...

[fsci123]

Have you ever gave an explanation to someone and some random person pops out and says something completely stupid...

I was once talking with my mother about the moon landings... My neighbor who was sitting with us said that the US started testing nukes on the moon in 1953 and this may cause the moon to shatter because it is hollow...

I was watching the ancient alien show on history channel when they started saying that the world is a giant spaceship...

I was once talking with my friend about time travel when he said that he learned that an example of general relativity: That an object in space doesn't experience time...

How does pseudo-science effect your lives is it good or bad... If you can, give examples...

 

[Krikkit]

Other than Apollo hoaxers who I seem to attract, tt really isn't that bad for me.

Some people I know are way too serious about astrology.

And one of my best friends, who has a degree in biology, is a big fan and evangelistic about alternative medicines including homeopathy. That is his only fault though.

Also another friend of mine thinks the world is visited by aliens all the time and that somehow all the worlds governments are keeping it secret for some outrageous reason.

 

[diogom]

In one Physical-Chemistry class, I heard, both from a classmate, and from, incredibly, the teacher, "On the Moon there's no gravity, you just float around".

 

[fsci123]

I say the biggest example of pseudo-science is zodiacal signs...

 

[Scruce]

Other than Apollo hoaxers who I seem to attract, tt really isn't that bad for me.

That Apollo flag waving "conspiracy"? :facepalm:

 

[Keatah]

Have you ever gave an explanation to someone and some random person pops out and says something completely stupid...

I was once talking with my mother about the moon landings... My neighbor who was sitting with us said that the US started testing nukes on the moon in 1953 and this may cause the moon to shatter because it is hollow...

Musta been watching too much Space: 1999:rofl:

 

[iamwearingpants]

I was talking about dark matter and energy, and one person's explanation of how it's created is:
"When the antimatter gets like surrounded by the other matter it like explodes and gets massive power, and it's dark matter"
How do you come up with that? :uhh:

 

[dgatsoulis]

I was at one time engaged to be married to a Greek-Orthodox "believer" that had somehow reconciled (in her mind): Astrology with Astronomy... Alchemy with chemistry (Paulo Coelio)... and even embraced MAGNETIC EARRINGS!

The real question here is this: Why are women more acceptable to stupid beliefs? Evolutionary biology has the answer to that.

 

[Artlav]

The Apollo hoax people here are kind of lame. Both encounter i had ended with a change of opinion after being shown thousands and thousands of pictures from all places and angles during the Apollo flights. If you fake it, why fake that much and bad and good? That seems all it takes.

My brother is a military doctor. Being a talented surgeon he is quite reasonable, but being military he likes taking stuff as heard without questions. So we often have discussions ranging from reactionless drives to atomic bomb construction, where he actually start to reason with the facts he got from all over, usually with reasonable conclusions.

A lack of habit to check stuff they hear against reality seems to be a common trait in people.

There is a "doctor" here on TV who says that any illness can be cured by urine. I wonder how many people take him for real... Alt-med is common, with normal medicine being in ruins. Fortunately it's more of a how-to-make-medicine-from-plants stuff rather than homeopathy and faith healing.

Astrology is a common stuff, there all logic gets suspended. No matter what you say, the "but he's a leo and she's a scorpion" argument won't go away.

I've witnessed two UFOs over the last decade. One was a passenger jet at sunset, brightly lit in the sky, but everyone around kept pointing at this "alien flying cigar".

Another was something strange, most likely balloons of some kind. Never found out, but the interesting thing is comparing what i saw with what they were blabbering on TV about. The only fact they got right is that something was in the sky, all else is pure fantasy.

And don't let me start on technology. Anything electronic is reason-sapping magical artifact. I hate the why-should-i-think,-just-fix-it argument.

 

[Izack]

I was talking about dark matter and energy, and one person's explanation of how it's created is:
"When the antimatter gets like surrounded by the other matter it like explodes and gets massive power, and it's dark matter"
How do you come up with that? :uhh:

By applying simple logic to a few assumptions one makes or heard fellow primary-school students make. If the person saying that is old enough to use a library or at least Wikipedia, then there isn't much excuse beyond lack of interest (which should mean said person should never talk about dark matter. )

 

[T.Neo]

People don't understand astrology. It's (can be) just a load of fun.

I mean, come on... lions, and crabs, and scorpions, and lobsters, and birth-dates, and aquarii, and stuff. It's the sort of stuff one can look at, and be amazed at how applicable (or utterly absurd) the "predictions" turn out to be and have a good chuckle at them.

But hey, am I gonna spend my life savings because of astrology? Of course not; the chance of me doing that, is about as high as the chance of some milli-micro G from Mars, somehow affecting my life...

 

[Dambuster]

Astrology seems to be a bit like Glenn Beck, in that it predicts X, Y and Z, and then when only Y comes true, proudly proclaims: "AH HA! See, I was right!"

 

[fsci123]

People don't understand astrology. It's (can be) just a load of fun.

I mean, come on... lions, and crabs, and scorpions, and lobsters, and birth-dates, and aquarii, and stuff. It's the sort of stuff one can look at, and be amazed at how applicable (or utterly absurd) the "predictions" turn out to be and have a good chuckle at them.

But hey, am I gonna spend my life savings because of astrology? Of course not; the chance of me doing that, is about as high as the chance of some milli-micro G from Mars, somehow affecting my life...

I never realy believed some of that stuff until I looked at my fathers and my sign... Which were horribly correct... For me it said that I am: Stern, smart, and that I try t o keep order... For my father it said that he's: is smart, talented, and dosnt like stress... Both of which are correct... And then I looked at my mothers horoscope which is the same as my dads... And I laughed... Complete opposite... But you do hear "doctors" who claim that the moon has pull on ions in your brain and that Polaris can pull blood vessles... I'm going to call into the dudes show who says all the monkey garbage and ask him where he works most probable answer is: Room 305 garden motel...

 

[Keatah]

Have you ever gave an explanation to someone and some random person pops out and says something completely stupid...

I was watching the ancient alien show on history channel when they started saying that the world is a giant spaceship...

I was once talking with my friend about time travel when he said that he learned that an example of general relativity: That an object in space doesn't experience time...

How does pseudo-science effect your lives is it good or bad... If you can, give examples...

Yeh stupidity shouldn't be too hard to find when it comes to science. The educated person will admit ignorance and learn from what you have to say. The stupid person will not.

Now, regarding time, inanimate objects do not experience time, whether they are in space or not. Time is a human concept. *I* believe it comes from the constant conscious/unconscious comparison of physical processes (like rust for example) against your own biological processes.

You will note that sometimes a minute feels like 10 minutes, and other times it just blasts on by in a matter of seconds. It's all your perception.

As far as the Earth being a spaceship, well now, that is a matter of semantics and viewpoints. Sure, it plows through space at, what, 66,000 miles an hour? Yes. And it has a biosphere for life to live in. It has energy tap points, like dams for hydroelectric power, or up and down drafts for wind power. It has elements for nuke power. and so on and so forth.

In fact. Everything we do, can be considered something or other, this way, or that way, depending on how you specify the observer.

You might say integrated graphics suck, I might say they kick ass. It's a matter of perspective. For example..

 

[fsci123]

Yeh stupidity shouldn't be too hard to find when it comes to science. The educated person will admit ignorance and learn from what you have to say. The stupid person will not.

Now, regarding time, inanimate objects do not experience time, whether they are in space or not. Time is a human concept. *I* believe it comes from the constant conscious/unconscious comparison of physical processes (like rust for example) against your own biological processes.

You will note that sometimes a minute feels like 10 minutes, and other times it just blasts on by in a matter of seconds. It's all your perception.

As far as the Earth being a spaceship, well now, that is a matter of semantics and viewpoints. Sure, it plows through space at, what, 66,000 miles an hour? Yes. And it has a biosphere for life to live in. It has energy tap points, like dams for hydroelectric power, or up and down drafts for wind power. It has elements for nuke power. and so on and so forth.

In fact. Everything we do, can be considered something or other, this way, or that way, depending on how you specify the observer.

You might say integrated graphics suck, I might say they kick ass. It's a matter of perspective. For example..

I have a feeling that you didn't read the entire paragraph and just started giving explanation why it may be true...

 

[iamwearingpants]

By applying simple logic to a few assumptions one makes or heard fellow primary-school students make. If the person saying that is old enough to use a library or at least Wikipedia, then there isn't much excuse beyond lack of interest (which should mean said person should never talk about dark matter. )

I know, but I was kinda remarking on how strange it is

 

[Keatah]

Uhm back to the time thing, *I*, again *BELIEVE* it has to do with comparing rates of changes in events you observe. Generally speaking the fastest time intervals you can discern apart would be about .1 or .2 seconds. Anything faster, and it might as well be a 1/50,000th second strobe light flash.

That is to say that you can tell the difference between an event that lasts 0.1 second and 0.2 second. But you can't really tell a 1/2000th second flash against a 1/5000th second flash.

It is this ability to tell things apart that creates the illusion of time.

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------

I was at one time engaged to be married to a Greek-Orthodox "believer" that had somehow reconciled (in her mind): Astrology with Astronomy... Alchemy with chemistry (Paulo Coelio)... and even embraced MAGNETIC EARRINGS!

The real question here is this: Why are women more acceptable to stupid beliefs? Evolutionary biology has the answer to that.

true or not, that could be considered an insult!

---------- Post added at 07:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

The only way someone's strong belief in pseudo-science affects me is if I'm trying to explain something and have to dispel incorrect theories or go out of my way to get a point across. It is not my job to re-educate you if you're stubborn.

 

[T.Neo]

true or not, that could be considered an insult!

Indeed. :shifty:

It is this ability to tell things apart that creates the illusion of time.

Illusion of time? How in the universe is time supposed to be an illusion? Pretty much everything... ever... is reliant on time. Time might be a big wibbly wobbly ball, but it exists, and it does stuff. Otherwise the universe wouldn't make any sense at all.

 

[Keatah]

:facepalm: I will explain it later on, I gotta run on outta here right now. Remind me if I forget.

 

[RichWall]

Nostradamus - What was that tea he was drinking? And where can I get some?