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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/03/2002 : 10:16:33
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More and more, I'm seeing a sort of device that is supposed to do all the usual - lose weight, tone muscles, look good, and so forth with little expenditure of effort on the part of the purchaser. It's currently advertized all over the tube. It appears to be some sort of battery-powered vibrating, belt dingus. The best part about it, as far as I can tell, is the foxy women who shill for it.
Does anyone know anything about it? Is it, as I suspect, primarly a money moving machine, or does it actually do something - I'm assuming that a proper diet and exercize are reccommended with it. In short, does 'vibrating' enhance a normal, training routine (no snide remarkes, please. Well, ok. Maybe a couple of snide remarks)?
f
The more I learn about people, the better I like rattlesnakes.
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
 Posted - 01/03/2002 : 10:42:20 [Permalink]
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quote:
More and more, I'm seeing a sort of device that is supposed to do all the usual - lose weight, tone muscles, look good, and so forth with little expenditure of effort on the part of the purchaser. It's currently advertized all over the tube. It appears to be some sort of battery-powered vibrating, belt dingus. The best part about it, as far as I can tell, is the foxy women who shill for it.
Does anyone know anything about it? Is it, as I suspect, primarly a money moving machine, or does it actually do something - I'm assuming that a proper diet and exercize are reccommended with it. In short, does 'vibrating' enhance a normal, training routine (no snide remarkes, please. Well, ok. Maybe a couple of snide remarks)?
f
The more I learn about people, the better I like rattlesnakes.
It's one of the most effective devices used to perform a radical cashectomy.
Seriously, the stuff I've seen has to do with using electroshock to exercise muscles. Standard claims. "Do no work and let the electrical impulses work their way to your physical fitness". BZZZZTTTTT gotta give em' more money. BZZZZZTTTT gotta give em' more money.
I can run out some tap water and add dog piss to it, anyone wanna label it and sell it as snake oil? (for those squeaky snakes.)
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2002 : 12:48:41 [Permalink]
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Do you remember in High School Bio you attached a battery to a dead frog and it's leg twitched?
That's all these things do. The only results you will get from them is a slight burn on your skin if the contacts aren't tight.
It's exactly the same thing as the Heidelberg Electriopathic Belt from 1908. Only in 1908 it was for lumbago, constipation, nervousness, and weak hearts. You can see the ads for these things in Bob McCoy's trade paperback QUACK! tales of medical fraud from the museum of questionable medical devices
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The brain that was stolen from my laboratory was a criminal brain. Only evil will come from it. |
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Garrette
SFN Regular
USA
562 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2002 : 12:53:01 [Permalink]
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So you're suggesting that all of those babes on the infomercial are lying? I find that hard to believe. I mean really, anecdotes, there are so many anecdotes...
My kids still love me. |
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Tokyodreamer
SFN Regular
USA
1447 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2002 : 14:26:05 [Permalink]
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Actually, this all started because of an actual medical use for electical shocks into muscles.
Electrical shocks will prevent muscle loss, useful for patients in long-term casts, comas, etc. to prevent muscle atrophy. Where the crooks on tv cross the line into, well, crookdom, is in their claim that the electrical shocks will build muscle, which of course is a load of hooey.
[edit] Oh yeah, if I recall correctly, this is a cyclical con. I believe in the 50's, a person was actually charged with fraud for selling them. Why current liars are allowed to get away with it is beyond me...
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Sum Ergo Cogito
Edited by - tokyodreamer on 01/03/2002 14:27:38 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2002 : 15:33:28 [Permalink]
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Uh-huh...
So, it's electrical rather than mechanical. I seem to recall reading about the one in 1908, but didn't make the connection. Thanks for the info.
I'd imagine that the reason these charlitans are not prosicuted is that nobody has complained - money-back garentee, and so forth. Whaddya got to lose?
regards,
f
The more I learn about people, the better I like rattlesnakes. |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2002 : 16:19:21 [Permalink]
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quote:
Actually, this all started because of an actual medical use for electical shocks into muscles.
Electrical shocks will prevent muscle loss, useful for patients in long-term casts, comas, etc. to prevent muscle atrophy. Where the crooks on tv cross the line into, well, crookdom, is in their claim that the electrical shocks will build muscle, which of course is a load of hooey.
[edit] Oh yeah, if I recall correctly, this is a cyclical con. I believe in the 50's, a person was actually charged with fraud for selling them. Why current liars are allowed to get away with it is beyond me...
Yes, this is used in physical therapy - alot. This was actually the only way we were able to get the VMO in my left leg to start working properly. But the work itself in redefining the muscle was up to me. We only used this to help me *find* the muscle.
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. -Mark Twain |
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PhDreamer
SFN Regular
USA
925 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2002 : 20:57:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
Yes, this is used in physical therapy - alot. This was actually the only way we were able to get the VMO in my left leg to start working properly. But the work itself in redefining the muscle was up to me. We only used this to help me *find* the muscle.
I had this done in PT after my 2nd knee reconstruction in 1997. I don't remember what voltage they used but the thing hurts like hell [might hurt if it were an actual place]. Basically it just contracts the whole muscle for as long as the voltage is applied. In PT, they use it for varying lengths of time, but usually far past the threshold for aerobic respiration. Lactic acid builds up really fast when the muscle can't relax. My odd reaction to extreme pain is to start laughing. Needless to say, I remember times in PT that even Carrot Top would have had a captive audience. 
Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things. - Silent Bob |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2002 : 23:57:07 [Permalink]
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quote:
Yes, this is used in physical therapy - alot.
Funny you (Filthy), should mention that thing. About a week ago someone called Dr. Edell to ask about it. At the time I didn't know what they were talking about but a few days later I saw a commercial on TV and it looked like what the caller was talking about. Same as you.
Dr. Edell said something like this:
he wished he wasn't so ethical because he could make a bunch of money putting stuff like that on the market.
I too had some sort of eletrictal pad put on my back. It felt good, if the tingle was too much I'd tell the theripist and it would be lowered. Then I'd lay there for a while relaxing. This was during theapy when I broke my back.
Rap Crap is to music what Paint by Numbers is to art. |
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Badger
Skeptic Friend
Canada
257 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2002 : 15:41:58 [Permalink]
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This kind of stuff really pisses me off.
It's not so much the people trying to make a buck, it's the idiots who want the quick fix. Know what the quick fix is? EAT LESS, DO MORE! Walk, don't drive. Eat lean meat and veggies, and not deep fried carbohydrates (you hear me, Krispy Kreme?!!) Get off the couch, and go for a walk. Who knows what you'll see, do or learn?
Why I have half a mind (well, yes, it's only half a mind at best) to open my own resort. All the wood you can chop, all the lawn you can mow, and all the holes you can dig. 1 week package $1500.00. ($500 more if you wish to shovel my driveway) Meals included, but you have to catch them first.
Call 555-LAZY for further details.
Just because we're hypnotized, that don't mean we can't dance. - Tonio K. |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2002 : 23:58:32 [Permalink]
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quote:
This kind of stuff really pisses me off.
It's not so much the people trying to make a buck, it's the idiots who want the quick fix. Know what the quick fix is? EAT LESS, DO MORE! Walk, don't drive. Eat lean meat and veggies, and not deep fried carbohydrates (you hear me, Krispy Kreme?!!) Get off the couch, and go for a walk. Who knows what you'll see, do or learn?
How true.
You kinda can't feel sorry for those people who run right out and get the lastest fad. However in sort of a defense, some of the ads for various products are slick and you have to think about some of them, they do sound like they could help. But it's always good to question, like Filthy did. I even question my own doctors before taking their advice.
Rap Crap is to music what Paint by Numbers is to art. |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2002 : 00:44:55 [Permalink]
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quote:
This kind of stuff really pisses me off.
It's not so much the people trying to make a buck, it's the idiots who want the quick fix. Know what the quick fix is? EAT LESS, DO MORE! Walk, don't drive. Eat lean meat and veggies, and not deep fried carbohydrates (you hear me, Krispy Kreme?!!) Get off the couch, and go for a walk. Who knows what you'll see, do or learn?
Why I have half a mind (well, yes, it's only half a mind at best) to open my own resort. All the wood you can chop, all the lawn you can mow, and all the holes you can dig. 1 week package $1500.00. ($500 more if you wish to shovel my driveway) Meals included, but you have to catch them first.
Call 555-LAZY for further details.
Just because we're hypnotized, that don't mean we can't dance. - Tonio K.
Go for it Badger. People pay $2000/week to work on a cattle ranch - go figure.
It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. -Mark Twain |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2002 : 13:46:36 [Permalink]
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quote:
It's not so much the people trying to make a buck, it's the idiots who want the quick fix.
I agree that the people who buy the quick fix to whatever the perceived problem is are partly to blame. But the purveyors of miracle diets and such know that many of us are willing to suspend reason, almost automatically, on the off chance that one of those goofy products might work. The thing is, we want them to work.
Viewing such adds critically takes a certain amount of rational intervention on the buyers part. And that doesn't come naturally. Critical thinking is a learned behavior.
I have found that it doesn't take much to get a potential buyer to reconsider if they are presented with a reasonable explanation as to why the product is probably worthless. Many of these products are being offered with testimonials from supposed MD's and Ph.D.s and Nutritionists. Who has actually been taught to recognize the pseudoscientific support from the real thing?
After blaming our schools for not teaching critical thinking, I would go after those companies for making false claims about their products. Their target is largely uneducated in science and critical thinking and the companies know this. The people who buy these products will find out soon enough the mistake they have made...
I think the FTC will soon be on the case of those electric muscle toning devices. I hope so anyway.
The Evil Skeptic
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous. |
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Badger
Skeptic Friend
Canada
257 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2002 : 14:04:46 [Permalink]
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"After blaming our schools for not teaching critical thinking..."
Oh, Kil. I wish you hadn't said that.
It isn't a problem with the bogeyman of "The School". It comes back to the parents. When you become a parent, you have taken responsibility for a life, and you must do right by that life, that person. The magnitude of that is not thought of by many who leap into the sack, as Trish has pointed out elsewhere.
And as such, you have a duty to give that person what it needs to lead a successful life.
So, if "the school" isn't cutting it, it's the parents fault for putting up with "the school" and/or not finding a better school, or taking things into their own hands.
But back to your main point, yes, there is a severe lack of critical thinking in the general population. I don't think it's new, though. After all, isn't there a sucker born every minute?
Just because we're hypnotized, that don't mean we can't dance. - Tonio K. |
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Dr Shari
Skeptic Friend
135 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2002 : 15:55:22 [Permalink]
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Since no one has brought up the obvious reply to this I guess I have to. As a woman I find some battery powered vibrating dinguses to be very beneficial to certain muscles in my body.
Sorry had to go there.
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2002 : 17:38:55 [Permalink]
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quote:
It isn't a problem with the bogeyman of "The School". It comes back to the parents. When you become a parent, you have taken responsibility for a life, and you must do right by that life, that person. The magnitude of that is not thought of by many who leap into the sack, as Trish has pointed out elsewhere.
And as such, you have a duty to give that person what it needs to lead a successful life.
So, if "the school" isn't cutting it, it's the parents fault for putting up with "the school" and/or not finding a better school, or taking things into their own hands.
But back to your main point, yes, there is a severe lack of critical thinking in the general population. I don't think it's new, though. After all, isn't there a sucker born every minute?
I'm not making excuses really. There are schools that, because of the union, are forced to keep teachers who will tell a parent they are too lazy to work with children more advanced than the rest of the class. You are left with no choice other than realizing the schools are incapable of teaching children on multiple levels so they teach to the lowest level all the while harming the child who requires more. Some schools have become nothing more than a place to warehouse children during the day.
I'm unsure how Canadian schools are, but the schools in the US need a serious overhaul. It's no longer about teaching. What should we expect when we pay our janitors in school more than we pay our teachers? Throwing more money after the problem hasn't solved anything, we need to teach our teachers how to motivate students to want to learn. We need to do things like refocus societies expectations and quit teaching stupid shit like girls are bad at math. Even teachers believe this garbage much to the detriment of those girls who are very good at math. We have a prejudice against women studying hard sciences and that concept is still prevalent in our schools.
We also have a prejudice against boys being good at studying language. And a misconception that if a boy does study languages arts he is somehow too sensitive. These views do affect children who are still trying to figure out who they are.
Why force a child to sit through classes that are being taught two years beneath their current understanding? Why not expect more of our children? Are our expectations of what our children should know and need to know too low?
There is no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've known. Sagan |
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