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woolytoad
Skeptic Friend

313 Posts

Posted - 09/05/2006 :  16:35:32  Show Profile Send woolytoad a Private Message
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i21/21b02001.htm

Any others you guys can think of?

Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9687 Posts

Posted - 09/05/2006 :  19:55:51   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message
It's an excellent article.

Like the author says, though... A discovery may have one of these warning signs without being bogus. The most prominent recent example I can think of right away is #6 the loner, the mathematician who worked out the sollution for Fermat's Last Theorem.

Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3

"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse

Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 09/05/2006 :  20:45:12   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
I like the article, too. It seems to be based on the Crank Index. I intend someday to write a science fiction story in which a loner, uneducated researcher makes a huge scientific breakthrough, and then, out of a sense of humor, proceeds deliberately to set off every one of those bogus science alarms.

It could happen.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard

USA
4574 Posts

Posted - 09/05/2006 :  20:46:26   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send H. Humbert a Private Message
Neatly-combed hair. Everyone knows that real scientists always have messy hair.


"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman

"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 09/05/2006 :  21:19:07   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert

Neatly-combed hair. Everyone knows that real scientists always have messy hair.



A dead giveaway.

Also, a neat but obviously fake toupee. I recall seeing this guy on TV who had hunted living dinosaurs in Africa. I could hardly hear his comments, I was staring so hard at his rug. I wondered if he actually wore that thing when exploring in West Africa. To me, it was more fascinating than a possible dinosaur in Africa.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/05/2006 :  22:25:46   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
quote:
The most prominent recent example I can think of right away is #6 the loner, the mathematician who worked out the sollution for Fermat's Last Theorem.


Andrew Wiles. But there was a crackpot by the name of E. E. Escultura who claimed that Wiles' proof was incorrect because the reals are inconsistent. He violated #7 by proposing new "axioms" for the reals, which turned out to exclude most irrational numbers and be contradictory.

Another mathematician who violated #6 was a Russian, Perelman, who recently may have proved the Poincare conjector.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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woolytoad
Skeptic Friend

313 Posts

Posted - 09/06/2006 :  02:50:42   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send woolytoad a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky

[quote]Another mathematician who violated #6 was a Russian, Perelman, who recently may have proved the Poincare conjector.



Nope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

Earlier last month he was offered the Fields Medal.

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upriver
New Member

22 Posts

Posted - 09/06/2006 :  07:56:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send upriver a Private Message
It has been pretty well established that low energy nuclear reactions happen by scientists at Mitsubishi, the Naval Reasearch lab and many universities around the world.
B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann did discover something and they are being villified for not going through the proper channels. And its interesting how they are still being debunked by those that have no real knowledge of the field.

For those that think that lenr/"cold fusion" has been debunked, your deluding yourself with skepticism.

Here are some papers. Look at the authors and labs.
http://www.lenr-canr.org/LibFrame1.html
There is no doubt that they are getting neutrons from low temperature reactions. Some of the ones I find interesting are loading Ti with deuterium and heating it and cooling it and getting neutrons.

Here is an experiment you can do yourself.
http://jlnlabs.imars.com/cfr/ppclkrs/index.htm

Here is a picture of my fusion project.
http://www.strangeeye.net/universe/pictures/fusionsetup.jpg

I'm sure everyone has the clear photos of UFO's.
http://www.billymeier.com/photos.htm
Never been proven fakes.

As far as evidence for human psi abilities(human interaction with matter on a quantum level) check out "What the Bleep II" or PEAR.
The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program
http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/

Bob Parks has some interesting things to say but this is not one of them.
Edited by - upriver on 09/06/2006 08:02:31
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 09/06/2006 :  08:09:06   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message
I don't think citing Billy Meier helps you out at all.

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
Edited by - pleco on 09/06/2006 08:09:27
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 09/06/2006 :  10:12:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
What really doesn't help upriver's entire position is the idea that "Never been proven fakes" actually means something other than that he's trying to shift the burden of proof. His "look at the authors and labs" is just an argument from authority. "An experiment you can do yourself" is simply wrong, because as far as I can tell, they never describe the calculation of the COP.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard

3192 Posts

Posted - 09/06/2006 :  10:50:46   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send BigPapaSmurf a Private Message
Sorry upriver, your links prove jack and shite. As it happens the dustmite who lives on my suit coat which destroyed and then created the Newniverse, has never been proven fake. Also he can vanish from existance at will and hates being tested.

"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History

"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/06/2006 :  14:19:35   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by woolytoad

quote:
Originally posted by Ricky

[quote]Another mathematician who violated #6 was a Russian, Perelman, who recently may have proved the Poincare conjector.



Nope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

Earlier last month he was offered the Fields Medal.



No, what? #6 is about working in isolation. I've read that he worked on the Poincare conjector by himself.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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ktesibios
SFN Regular

USA
505 Posts

Posted - 09/15/2006 :  22:59:06   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send ktesibios a Private Message
Parks' article reminded me of Irving Langmuir's "symptoms of pathological science", which are

quote:
Symptoms of Pathological Science:
1 The maximum effect that is observed is produced by a causative agent of barely detectable intensity, and the magnitude of the effect is substantially independent of the intensity of the cause.
2 The effect is of a magnitude that remains close to the limit of detectability; or, many measurements are necessary because of the very low statistical significance of the results.
3 Claims of great accuracy.
4 Fantastic theories contrary to experience.
5 Criticisms are met by ad hoc excuses thought up on the spur of the moment.
6 Ratio of supporters to critics rises up to somewhere near 50% and then falls gradually to oblivion.


(source)

Note the similarity of Parks' #3 to Langmuir's #1 & 2, and Parks' #7 to Langmuir's #4.

I'd propose that the two lists be combined into a sort of Woo Quotient test.

"The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole." -P.Z.Myers
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