Snake oil

[cprobertson1]

Couldn't find the original reference, but I found a reference to the reference (actually a debunking stemming from him suggesting that if free energy actually existed, when you applied it the earth would have problems dumping all the heat it will generate)

Also found a list of instructables* on making free energy devices

*= not the actual website "instructables" though I'm sure it has it's fair share of free energy devices too xD
----
EDIT:
   Whoops, apparently it just linked through to the actual instructables website - oh well So yes, it does have its fair share of nutjobs too!

----
ADDENDUM:
   For a laugh, check out the "Searl Effect Generator" - now to quote Hackaday,

Supposedly, his “Searl Effect Generator” SEG has been built several times, but the prototypes generate so much power they create their own anti-gravity field and fly off into space.

Obviously this man and his staff need your money to continue their work.

Ps - I need to take a break from looking for that article - it's destroying me

[Cyberdragon]

I only see two dodgy ones in that instructables list, the fuel cell one and the quantum battery.

[timb]

Ugh I just clicked this turd by accident: https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@dailybitcoinnews/tesla-dr-walter-russell-the-optic-dynamo-generator-and-how-it-could-revolutionize-cryptocurrency-mining-soon

  My eyes are burning! Free energy is one thing...but this...

These people (even in their comments) believe that bitcoins are actually some form of energy that has to be created and transmitted with special machines!!! They claim it requires "too much energy" for the average person for these machines to make bitcoins! They don't even understand computers or the internet!

EDIT: At least if these people idiots actually start playing with big tesla coils...we won't have to worry about them much longer.

No, that's not quite what they're saying... Buttcoins are "mined" by number crunching (essentially useless) hashes. It takes quite a lot of processing time to mine a single coin. So, there's tons of people out there basically wasting a whole lot of real electrical energy running all these CPUs/GPUs/ASICs, just to generate imaginary money that's not actually accepted anywhere (besides Spergs'R'Us).

When the Buttcoin fad first started a few years back, a guy filled his bedroom with motherboards/power supplies in order to mine coins. He almost died of heat stroke when his room got up to over 110F one night.

The whole *coin world was a great source of amusement for me (and other members of a very Awful forum I frequent) when it was just starting out. (Back when the primary place people exchanged coins to real dollars was called Mt. GoX, better known as Magic the Gathering Online Exchange. Yes, people would send a (failed) site originally designed for trading Magic cards tens of thousands of dollars!)

[helius]

Like the California Gold Rush, the enthusiasts who get involved do not, on the whole, make it rich, and there would be no reason to think they would. In any financial system, money moves towards intelligence, not enthusiasm.

[cprobertson1]

In any financial system, money moves towards intelligence, not enthusiasm.

How does that apply in Trump's case? (this is definitely not something we should get off-topic over ) - Trump also isn't a financial system (thankfully)

I actually need to read up more on bitcoin - I know very little about it - wonder if there are any good kindle books on the matter


ANYWAY - back on topic: The Finchley Clinic - a dedicated Naturopath, who, to his credit, admits that "evidence of his treatments working is anecdotal - but my patients believe [treatment] helps them"

That's fairly rare to see an honest conman... or a sky-blue website

[timb]

This went into my promotion folder today. Shame on Google that failed to put it in my spam folder. Amazon is getting stupid. I think Amazon used to have some kind of censorship on its Prime goods, but now it simply sells anything that the mfg wants to pay Prime premium.

Why would they "censor" available Prime items? As far as I know, they never have. Basically, if it's shipped or sold by Amazon, it's eligible for Prime. That's what makes Prime so useful.

[timb]

Why would they "censor" available Prime items? As far as I know, they never have. Basically, if it's shipped or sold by Amazon, it's eligible for Prime. That's what makes Prime so useful.

They do not even think before carrying items in their own warehouse?

Why would they? They're making money on it.

It would be like if I owned a warehouse/shipping company. You ship me a box of widgets, which I would warehouse and ship for you as orders came in. You're still the seller; I just handle fulfillment.

So long as what you're selling isn't illegal, I'm not going to turn your business away (since I make a small percentage off each item you sell).

That's exactly what's happening here. Smart-Choice is the seller, paying Amazon to warehouse and ship their products for them.

Furthermore, why do you think Amazon has any idea what that item even is? Do you think they do in-depth research on each of the millions of items they warehouse for other businesses? They don't. Neither does any other warehouse or fulfillment center.

[Richard Crowley]

They do not even think before carrying items in their own warehouse?

They are not in the business of of "vetting" products.  Who do you propose they hire to evaluate electronic gadgets before deciding to sell them?  Perhaps you can contact them and make a job for yourself. 

Imagine the hue and cry if they set up a book review process where they sold only the books THEY thought were "good"?

Yes, WE know those "whole house neutralizer" things are silly, but so are all the other snake-oil products. We mention mostly the electronics-related examples in this discussion, but you could have the same argument about snake-oil products in dozens of other categories.

This is not a new phenomenon.  You can find countless examples from thousands of years ago in your own culture of origin (and all of ours' for that matter).

[Connoiseur]

This went into my promotion folder today. Shame on Google that failed to put it in my spam folder. Amazon is getting stupid. I think Amazon used to have some kind of censorship on its Prime goods, but now it simply sells anything that the mfg wants to pay Prime premium.

I don't understand why some people are so much bothered about EM fields and stuff. I don't know any household source that can expose you to such levels of radiation that would be deemed harmful (be it anything from UV to long wave radio).

This is an extreme example of one such insanity. (Real  detected)

[fubar.gr]

I don't understand why some people are so much bothered about EM fields and stuff. I don't know any household source that can expose you to such levels of radiation that would be deemed harmful (be it anything from UV to long wave radio).

This is an extreme example of one such insanity. (Real  detected)

Many reasons for that

1) EM radiation is invisible and people are afraid of things they cannot see. Same thing with germs for example

2) EM radiation is one of the toughest subjects in physics and electronics. Even EEs have trouble understanding all the concepts and intricancies about EM. To your average Joe it sounds like voodoo magic.

3) Ionising radiation and the damage it can do (eg Chernobil) is well known to the general public and conflated with non-ionising radiation. See number 2. It's tough stuff and you need the proper education to understand the differences.

4) There's the stupid notion that dosage doesn't matter and even the tiniest exposure can do damage. This of course isn't true even for ionising radiation

5) Some people through malice or stupidity propagate false information. Some benefit from this by selling all those bogus devices.

[cprobertson1]

I don't understand why some people are so much bothered about EM fields and stuff. I don't know any household source that can expose you to such levels of radiation that would be deemed harmful (be it anything from UV to long wave radio).

This is an extreme example of one such insanity. (Real  detected)

Many reasons for that

1) EM radiation is invisible and people are afraid of things they cannot see. Same thing with germs for example

2) EM radiation is one of the toughest subjects in physics and electronics. Even EEs have trouble understanding all the concepts and intricancies about EM. To your average Joe it sounds like voodoo magic.

3) Ionising radiation and the damage it can do (eg Chernobil) is well known to the general public and conflated with non-ionising radiation. See number 2. It's tough stuff and you need the proper education to understand the differences.

4) There's the stupid notion that dosage doesn't matter and even the tiniest exposure can do damage. This of course isn't true even for ionising radiation

5) Some people through malice or stupidity propagate false information. Some benefit from this by selling all those bogus devices.

Very valid points - I also think a great deal of fear for "radiation" came from the Hanford tests during the Cold War when a large volume of radioactive Iodine was released into Washington State and the surroundings got a very large dose.

The government in it's wisdom then claimed the dosing was small - so if you received a large dose and get sick, but were told it was a small dose - what other conclusion could you have drawn, other than that small doses of radiation are harmful?

I think a great deal of the cultural fear of "radiation" descended from this: how many articles have you seen in the past about "overhead power lines causing me cancer" or "mobile phones cooking your brain" or "microwave ovens causing epilepsy" or "radio masts causing autism in children that received the mmr vaccine"?

As fubar.gr said, it's something you can't see and don't understand: and you know there are situations were it's bad, the result is you don't want it in your home.

As James Randi once said: "Ignorance is both hereditary and contagious"; and if somebody is willing to make money from your ignorance then the world's their plug-in EMC-cancelling oyster.

[helius]

The government in it's wisdom then claimed the dosing was small - so if you received a large dose and get sick, but were told it was a small dose - what other conclusion could you have drawn, other than that small doses of radiation are harmful?

Thanks for mentioning this; I wasn't aware of it. It's actually much worse than that: the deliberate releases were secret and the amount of their activity was tens of thousands of times higher than well-publicized disasters like Three Mile Island.
http://hanfordproject.com/atmospheric.html
Our nation has stopped building nuclear power plants over severely overblown fears of accidents, but the production of "modernized" nuclear arms with its classified fallout continues, no matter which administration is in "power".

[cprobertson1]

Just discovered this and cried a little.

Scientists have known for a long time that plasma energy is real and that there is enough energy in the vacuum of a single hydrogen atom to power the whole world for many years.

Apparently all us engineers and scientists missed the memo: I always thought plasma was an ionised gas, not an "energy"; and wow, better start regulating that hydrogen vacuum energy before some noob free energy investigator accidentally releases several terawatts in the space of a single hydrogen atom and causes a massive explosion...


I know this isn't a snake-oil product, but I still found it... um... 

Capacitors setting on a shelf should have a resistor (shunt) across the terminals, while they are in storage on the shelf to prevent accidental discharge when picking them up off the shelf. They develop dangerous charges just setting there.

Well, who knew!

[G7PSK]

[quote


I know this isn't a snake-oil product, but I still found it... um... 

Capacitors setting on a shelf should have a resistor (shunt) across the terminals, while they are in storage on the shelf to prevent accidental discharge when picking them up off the shelf. They develop dangerous charges just setting there.

Well, who knew!
[/quote]
At school I had an EHT capacitor from an old TV that would pick up a charge large enough to give a nasty jolt just by it hanging around, put next to a florescent lamp and the charge was enough to floor you.

[cprobertson1]

I know this isn't a snake-oil product, but I still found it... um... 

Capacitors setting on a shelf should have a resistor (shunt) across the terminals, while they are in storage on the shelf to prevent accidental discharge when picking them up off the shelf. They develop dangerous charges just setting there.

Well, who knew!

At school I had an EHT capacitor from an old TV that would pick up a charge large enough to give a nasty jolt just by it hanging around, put next to a florescent lamp and the charge was enough to floor you.

Sorry, should have said - the guy was claiming to use a series of transistors to harvest free energy from the cosmos - and then went on to give the general advice on not getting shocked from your parts-bin capacitors

Your example's an interesting one though: I assume you could charge them with a strong enough RF field - a lot of HAMs used to check their antennas were transmitting by having a fluorescent bulb (disconnected) nearby xD

--EDIT BEGIN--
I'm actually wondering if that'd even work, given that the RF field would induce an alternating current - would there be a net charge at the end?
--EDIT END--

In the case of the EHT cap - was that just dielectric absorption from the, I would assume, pretty large voltage that it once had?

Still - in general, I'm not sure I've ever seen anybody regularly put bleeder resistors on stored (general purpose) capacitors

[G7PSK]

Tha capacitor could be left for days with the terminals shorted and you would not get a shock from it but put it next to a florescent lamp for a second or two and it would give you a nasty belt again.

[G7PSK]

Came across this today, LED's are very bad for your health according to this quack site.

https://youtu.be/mOQ2SmaDLOY

[meeder]

As soon as I see Mercola.com I am done... That guy is one of the biggest nutcases out there together with that guy from natural news...

[Cyberdragon]

"WTF is mercola.com?"

*new incognito tab*

"mercola.com"

 

*close tab*

"Oh...OK then. New age health "

*gets it now*

[TheNewLab]

He I like snake oil, well, snakes taste food, and there must be oil in that meat.

About TJ  YouTube channel. Watch it through. he has a whole series of satires of doubling and tripling your Internet speed, plus others. I don't fall off my chair, but i do get a nice chuckle and am glad he is doing it.

Now snake oil, search for "EMF illness" on YT. Sure some of it makes sense and may be possible. A lot of it is ubsurd.  I mean, use a grounding mat for therapy??

Glad you opened this thread. Will, keep checking back to see where it goes 

[cprobertson1]

Now snake oil, search for "EMF illness" on YT. Sure some of it makes sense and may be possible. A lot of it is ubsurd.  I mean, use a grounding mat for therapy??

Bet you to the punch I'm afraid! Check out "original earthing" and other such nonsense - I came across them a while back while looking for earthing rods... They sell 6" and 12" earth rods for £40 (which is practically $40 these days) and claim that they can do everything from curing cancer to making unicorns appear.

The claim is that you're not getting your dose of "earth energy" because you're insulated from the ground by your houses' foundations - but earthing yourself (with their £40 ground rod, £20 cable, and £20 wrist strap and optional £10 junction box, £60 ground mat and special £10 solid banana posts) gives you a connection to the earth energy again.

Duh, what, you didn't know this? Somebody should tell the NHS, they could just wire you up to mains earth instead of wasting all those hundreds of millions on pounds on state of the art drugs and training people who dedicate their lives to treating illness!

Of course, walking around barefoot in the grass is far better than forcing the earth energy through some copper... xD

[CJay]

Of course, walking around barefoot in the grass is far better than forcing the earth energy through some copper... xD

Well I would highly recommend walking around barefoot in the grass on occasion as I find it a rather pleasant experience (of course we don't live in a country where the native wildlife actively tries to kill us so 'YMMV') but if you have to ground yourself then you really should use aligned crystalline oxygen free copper that's been treated by a liquid nitrogen dip 

[McBryce]

Well I would highly recommend walking around barefoot in the grass on occasion as I find it a rather pleasant experience (of course we don't live in a country where the native wildlife actively tries to kill us so 'YMMV') but if you have to ground yourself then you really should use aligned crystalline oxygen free copper that's been treated by a liquid nitrogen dip 

Don't forget to coat the copper in silver to counteract the skin effect.

As most of us spend a considerable amount of time with an earth strap on our wrist (not the wireless version), we must be some of the healthiest people on the planet. Unless of course our benches are being lit with evil LED lighting.

McBryce.

[AlxDroidDev]

but if you have to ground yourself then you really should use aligned crystalline oxygen free copper that's been treated by a liquid nitrogen dip 

I have some thick scrap wires made of copper. I'll align the copper crystals with tiny tweezers and dip them in cold water. Do you think that will do the trick?

[G7PSK]

Dont forget to scrub your electricity with bleach before you use it as apparently dirty electricity is bad for your health, oh and remove any numbers digital is also harmfull.