grunion
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
- Messages
- 11,496
Though by its very nature it is fraught with misinformation, I have come to look at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) as a fairly objective resource, particularly when it comes to pseudoscience and quackery. It tends to give me faith in the general intelligence of the Internet population when I see sensible, accurate information generally prevail over the agendas of some faction or another. See, for example, their entries on Homeopathy, Alternative Medicine, Dianetics, and Intelligent Design. (My apologies for being unable to provide links as appropriate to these pages as it appears that HTML tags are not functional here.)
Less satisfactory, but still informative, are their entries on Chiropractic and Reflexology. Their entry on Applied Kinesiology looks as if it has been batted around too many times to make much sense anymore. Their entry on Acupuncture is quite bad, written by an apparent True Believer with only the slightest of nods to those who may want to objectively and scientifically consider any of its claims.
But their entry on Feng Shui is packed with outright hokum such as:
"recent discoveries and effective applications have become popular largely because, like many alternative healing practices, they work"
"the rapid modernization of China has led to feng shui becoming a worthy subject for scholarly inquiry at Chinese universities"
"businesses generally use feng shui to increase sales and boost morale"
The article is neither accurate nor objective and is clearly an advertisement to lure the ignorant into throwing money at the scam artists who claim to be tuned into the supernatural and imbued with special powers to determine the best placement of architectural features, furniture, or interior decorating choices.
Unfortunately I neither possess the subject matter expertise nor the writing skills to edit these articles. My attempt to edit the piece would likely consist of my adding the phrase "that is a lie" liberally throughout the article. Is there some sort of skeptical army out there to which we can refer these egregious claims for refutation and correction? I will be glad to participate.
Less satisfactory, but still informative, are their entries on Chiropractic and Reflexology. Their entry on Applied Kinesiology looks as if it has been batted around too many times to make much sense anymore. Their entry on Acupuncture is quite bad, written by an apparent True Believer with only the slightest of nods to those who may want to objectively and scientifically consider any of its claims.
But their entry on Feng Shui is packed with outright hokum such as:
"recent discoveries and effective applications have become popular largely because, like many alternative healing practices, they work"
"the rapid modernization of China has led to feng shui becoming a worthy subject for scholarly inquiry at Chinese universities"
"businesses generally use feng shui to increase sales and boost morale"
The article is neither accurate nor objective and is clearly an advertisement to lure the ignorant into throwing money at the scam artists who claim to be tuned into the supernatural and imbued with special powers to determine the best placement of architectural features, furniture, or interior decorating choices.
Unfortunately I neither possess the subject matter expertise nor the writing skills to edit these articles. My attempt to edit the piece would likely consist of my adding the phrase "that is a lie" liberally throughout the article. Is there some sort of skeptical army out there to which we can refer these egregious claims for refutation and correction? I will be glad to participate.
