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.

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 ..