Unsought Input

Toxins.  They are all around you, in the air, in your food, in your drinking water.  So how are you going to get rid of them?

One way would be to realize that “toxins” is so broad a term as to be useless and that in order to avoid exposure to specific health risks like mercury you need to do some research, analyze costs and benefits of approaches, and participate in a modern society with environmental, health, and food inspection.

But that’s too hard.  So instead, turn off your brain and watch this commercial:

So let’s check off all the reasons why this smells scammy.  Have you ever had any of the following symptoms:

• Headaches?
• Backaches?
• The dreaded…  fatigue?
• And many more?

These symptoms could mean that you are filled with toxins! or more likely, that you are a human being, since everyone has a headache once in a while.  In any event, products that claim to cure everything usually cure nothing.

The pads “work” by sticking to your feet at night and removing everything bad from your body.  Everything bad includes:

• Heavy Metals
• Metabolic Wastes
• Toxins
• Parasites
• Chemicals
• Cellulite

Yes, it turns out that cobalt, chiggers and chubbiness all follow the same metabolic processes.  This is point number two - claiming to work in several, completely unrelated ways.

Point number three is easy.  Too easy.  Isn’t it a bit suspicious that it does so much without any effort, pain, or discomfort on your part?

How was such an amazing products discovered?  Through the amazing, ancient art of oriental reflexology.  And acupuncture, or something and nature.  Did they mention homeopathy?  They should.  Misusing a lot of scientific-sounding or hippie nature-sounding terms is point four.

So what did I miss?  What other ways does this seem ridiculous to you?

Magician Criss Angel will join Uri Geller on Phenomenon on NBC. The show is billed as American Idol for magicians and “mentalists,” but that’s not really interesting. Within the next few years there will be an American Idol-style show for every profession, hobby, and pursuit in the history of man.

What’s interesting is that Geller, who has for years gone on TV all over the world claiming to have psychic powers, is still able to get on TV at all. He’s been caught cheating and had his powers debunked so many times it’s not even funny anymore.

He was probably most famously exposed by James Randi (The Amazing Randi). Watch the video below for some entertaining history.

Yes, that’s right, Geller is so busted that he flaked out on Johnny Carson. In 1973. That’s more than 30 years of being busted.

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I am not exactly sure what I have done to be so lucky, but I have been receiving emails from the Italian, British and Spanish lotteries saying that I have won a whole bunch of money. I can’t believe I am so lucky. I mean, I didn’t even enter a lottery. And I won. Take that all of you who are always paying money to play the lottery! I won for free, and I didn’t even ask to be entered. That is how lucky I am. Let’s take a look at how awesome and lucky I am and how unlucky and not so awesome you are. Here is my winning email from the Italian Lottery:

Date:	Mon, 2 Jul 2007 17:16:07 +0200 (MEST)
From:	“wonlotteria@terra.es”
Subject:	YOU WON.

**************DO NOT DELETE THIS MAIL**************

Dear Winner,

You have been selected as victorious via your email address.You have won $1.000.000.00 (One Million United States Dollars). Click here to view rules: http://claiminglikitaliat1.biz.ly/ or paste it in your browser. You must read the rules and understand them before responding. This must be claimed not later than the 15th of July, 2007. We are required to disburse the award to the correct recipient, but we must verify that you are the owner of the selected email address before we can send this money to you.

Contact us with reference number: 29NER08/2007.
In respect to your claim, provide the following when
responding:

1. Full Names:
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Sex:
5. Phone numbers:
6. Country of residence:

Contact person: Enrico Mancini
nricoma1@yahoo.itLotteria Italia
Venezia.

2000-2007 Copyright. Lotteriaitalia- Tutti i diritti riservati - E’ vietata la copia.

**************DO NOT DELETE THIS MAIL**************

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Imagine you are a high-school principal charged with keeping your students away from illegal drugs, at least during school hours. Trained dogs might be accurate, but they are too expensive. It takes too long to go through every single locker. What can you do?

Buy a $900 dollar dowsing rod designed to find drugs! Pot heads, your days are numbered. This nugget of practical information comes from the video below (about a third of the way through). It turns out the dowsing rod will find drugs - if you keep opening lockers until you find them.

…

The talk is by Skeptic Society founder Michael Shermer. Perhaps skeptics are just a source of resistance to new ideas, obsessed with ridding their lives from false positives. But I’ll take $1 worth of skepticism over a $900 dowsing rod any day.