10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets

The Byelorussian Strikes Again writes "Wired offers up 10 of the most awesome snake oil gadgets, from industrial cables sold as $200 ionized pain-relieving bracelets to a plastic chip that cures anything, improves gas mileage and cleans swimming pools. One truly sad development: the infamous $500 wooden volume knob is no longer on sale."

Comments

Not to mention...

[Bananatree3]

multi thousand dollar EPFX machines that run off random number generators. Apparently this William Nelson fraud character lives in a multimillion dollar house in budapest because of it.

Re:Not to mention...

[garlicbready]

The link reminds me of an article I saw recently in the Fortean Times
(couldn't find a link sorry)
during the early days of X-Ray's they were often used as a method for hair removal
(you'd place an exposed body part in front of a wooden box / machine and the hiar would drop out)

it was only later on that they discovered the slight problem with cancer

Dowsing

[plover]

My father in law showed me how he uses dowsing rods. He takes hefty copper wire (about 8 gauge or so,) cuts it into two pieces each about half a meter long, bends a right angle in each roughly in the middle, and then walks around with one held very loosely in each hand with the wires pointing forward as he walks. When he crosses a water pipe, or electrical wire, or whatever he's looking for, the wires in his hands swing together.

He believes this with all his heart.

So one day I had him do it over a stretch of ground we both knew to have some old pipes buried under it. And then I had him repeat it, blindfolded. He couldn't hit the same spot twice. Not even close. (The pipes were indeed buried roughly where he said they were when his eyes were open.)

I tried to explain to him that he was simply remembering where he had buried the pipes, and that it was his subconscious mind that was causing the wires to cross, but he really didn't want to hear that. He'd rather believe in dowsing.

Re:Dowsing

[plover]

There are plenty of reasons why dowsing might appear to work so often. The world is full of clues, to someone who knows how to read them. A dowser probably picks up on them subconsciously. And a scam artist may pick up on them consciously, but has no reason to be truthful to you as to how he knows.

So how do you find a water pipe, when you don't "know" where the water pipe is? Well, if you've worked in construction all your life, you will learn things about house construction and plumbing. The sewer pipe usually exits near the front of the building facing the street, often in a line perpendicular to the street from the vent stack on the roof. You know that sewer pipes are built with as few bends as possible, as bends cause constrictions and blockage. And the water pipe will frequently parallel the sewer pipe, because you know that plumbers rarely want to dig two trenches when they only have to dig one. So you drive up to the place, your brain picks up on the vent stack on the roof (but doesn't tell your conscious self,) and you start witching for the pipes. Your subconscious does the rest.

Or out in the middle of an open field. Digging a trench for a pipe disturbs the ground. When a trench is backfilled, a small hump of dirt remains, but gets flattened out over time as the dirt is compacted. Sometimes the hump remains high over time, and sometimes the dirt is washed away before it's settled, leaving a slight depression. Some humans can detect minuscule changes in slope with their feet, and again this could happen without the dowser realizing it. Or the ground cover can reveal the presence of a dug-and-refilled trench, with less mature plants over the trench, or a slight change in the density of plant growth because of the digging, or plants that grow slightly differently due to the change in soil makeup beneath. There could be a difference in that weeds may be more or less prevalent over the refilled trench. Your feet can feel all of these differences. Cuts in the treeline at a distance can give visual clues, too.

A good friend is a pilot who has flown pipeline inspection flights, and he says they're easy to follow, even without the little yellow signs. Ground cover and erosion patterns give them away, even under a field that I personally know has been tilled annually for at least 27 years since the pipeline was buried. If you doubt me, go check a google satellite map of any local pipeline you're familiar with -- you will find an unnaturally straight line cutting through fields, passing under roads, disturbing trees, brush, and altering creekbeds. Yet if you were walking across that field, you'd likely miss all those clues.

Dowsers may be attuned to the differences without being aware that they are. But there's no magic behind dowsing. Sensitivity, observational skills, and experience are the really simple explanations. There's not much reason to "dig around" for a paranormal answer when there are perfectly logical physical reasons.

Audio Cables and more.. A slight rant..

[h.ross.perot]

I wandered in to Radio Shack the other day for a TOSLINK cable. Young "not quite a geek" spys me and approaches. "How may I help you?" he says. "I need a few TOSLINK cables" says I.. and reach for the Radio Shack house brand.. "OH" he interrupts; "You don't want those; you want these" and reaches for a brand name that will remain nameless. I see a 59.00 dollar price tag on a 3 meter cable and look at the fellow. "So; what's the difference" I ask (Knowing he has not clue) "Well"; said the young not quite a geek; "these have better insulation". "Oh?" I counter; "Insulation from what; sunspots?" "No" he replies; "for all of the electronic gear around your house. The better insulation blocks hum and pops". Sad thing was the young lad had no idea why his argument was pointless. I remember the day when I could walk into a Radio Shank and hob-nod with my fellow wizards.. Now; I could probably go to 7-11 and get better advice. Rant mode off ..

Stock spam of lube additive treated as terrorism

[Animats]

A few years ago, I received many stock spams for "XLPI.PK", or Xcel Plus, which sells fuel and lubricant additives. Such additives are referred to in the automotive industry as "mouse milk"; they usually don't do much, and may make things worse. That whole category of products is mostly bogus.

Back then, their web site contained endorsements from the FAA and the US Army. The web site reproduced a a letter of endorsement appearing to be from an FAA representative. I thought this was a bit strange, so I sent off a note to the regional FAA office asking if it was legitimate.

A few weeks later, I got a call from an anti-terrorism investigator at NCIS. Someone at the FAA had looked at the letter and the web site. They apparently didn't like what they saw, and referred the matter for investigation of the use of unapproved lubricants in military equipment. That comes under the "sabotaging the war effort" laws, which brings in military investigators.

I'm not sure what happened thereafter, but the spamming stopped and "XLPI.PK" is now trading at $0.001.