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The Placebo Effect Not Just On Drugs
dvdme writes "It seems the placebo effect isn't just valid on drugs. It's also a fact on elevators, offices and traffic lights. An article by Greg Ross says: 'In most elevators installed since the early 1990s, the 'close door' button has no effect. Otis Elevator engineers confirmed the fact to the Wall Street Journal in 2003. Similarly, many office thermostats are dummies, designed to give workers the illusion of control. "You just get tired of dealing with them and you screw in a cheap thermostat," said Illinois HVAC specialist Richard Dawson. "Guess what? They quit calling you." In 2004 the New York Times reported that more than 2,500 of the 3,250 "walk" buttons in New York intersections do nothing. "The city deactivated most of the pedestrian buttons long ago with the emergence of computer-controlled traffic signals, even as an unwitting public continued to push on."'"
My computer isn't responding when I click an icon. I click again. Nothing. So I click it really hard 30 times in a row. Now the computer decides to respond. Clearly, the computer can read my frustration, and therefore hurries to open the 32 firefox windows I requested.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Or their ADD forbids them from waiting for a whole damn minu
They are a good aid in me repeatedly hitting it both before and after someone boards the elevator, and a visual aid to my sighing in exasperation when they make it on the elevator. They convey exactly the message I intended.
I keep voting and nothing new happens.
Funny coincidence... my father calls the "walk" buttons at traffic lights, "politician buttons". I never understood the answer, and thus the joke, as a child... went something like this:
Dad: "why do you always press the politician button?"
Me: "why do you always call it a politician button?"
Dad: "because it does nothing."
Hmmm, placebo effect? How about when she says she likes it, and moans appropriately, but really you're not doing a thing for her?
After reaching the level cap, I'd join pug groups and in the role of "healer". I had gear with special effects that did nothing and created all manner of macros to create these effects while at the same time emoting that I was healing my target.
After the wipe, when they'd call me on it (I have yet to find an addon that will monkey with other people's trackers) I'd try to explain that I was doing this strictly for research and they were in the placebo group.
Somehow, this did not seem to appease them.
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Oh for a mod point. I've come to look at the election process as voting for Coke or Pepsi when all I want is a glass of water. Transparent and no artificial additives.
Screw that, I want a Dr. Pepper. And go ahead and Bomb Iran while getting it for me.
Agreed.
Also - I don't know about you, but when I press a "close doors" or a "use crosswalk" button and press it, and nothing happens, I tend to press it again. If there was a placebo effect in play, why would I bother pressing it again? The placebo effect suggests that I would be happy with the outcome, rather than stabbing relentlessly away at a soulless machine, like a rat trying to get a food pellet, muttering and cursing the infernal, non functional button and the soul sucking society it seems to embody, when all I want to do is get downstairs and across the street to a bar so I can drown my sorrows in a few glasses of gin and try to muster the courage to talk to that girl who is always there even though I know she's probably damaged goods and wouldn't give me the time of day besides...
I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?
Water isn't even on the ballot. There is, however, Mellow Yellow...yeah, no thanks.
"Ask your Doctor"
it is just a placebo that comes with every operating system
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
You have arrived at an intersection in town. There is a button.
> Press button
You press the button and... Nothing happens.
> Press button
You press the button again and still nothing happens.
> Smash button a few more times!
I do not understand "Smash".
> Press button
You press the button and this time something happens.
You have been eaten by a grue.
[r]etry / [q]uit?
Carol vs. Ghost
So, I went to the link to read TFA, and realized that the TFS isn't a summary at all. It's just a copy/paste of the entire blog post with the line breaks taken out. It's amazing what constitutes "New for Nerds, Stuff that Matters" these days...
I think the "door close" buttons cause the crosswalk lights to change, and the "walk" buttons cause the elevator doors to close.
I wonder if it uses the Elevator sorting algorithm?
Instead of working, it would seem...