Next on Fox: When Skepticism Goes Bad!

[Perforatu]

As a kid I once ate a bunch of those small red peppers - I don't know the exact name, but it's the extremely spicy kind. I'd seen them lying on the dinner table earlier, and asked my mother what they were. She told me never to eat them because they're extremely, tongue-searingly spicy. But I was skeptical of her claim; I thought she was just exaggerating, like going swimming after you've just had a meal.

One jar of sugar, a litre of water and an hour of violent hiccups later, I realized I should've just taken her word for it.

I'm also reminded of a quote from the movie Pi: "When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did."

 

[AWPrime]

Irrational Brain: We're going to die. The plane is going to crash and fall and we're going to die.
Rational Brain: ...What?
IB: I know it. We're going to die. People have these feelings and then they get off the plane and then the plane blows up and they die.
RB: That was Final Destination.
IB: Still! There's always stories about how people had some kind of feeling and they didn't get on the plane and they were saved!
RB: And yet, people still die in plane crashes. If there were premonitions, then nobody would get on the plane. Also, I do this every single flight and I'm still alive.
IB: ...WE'RE DOOMED!
RB: Shut up. Just shut up. You know how these things work.
IB: I know what can go wrong!
RB: And I know that it rarely ever does.
IB: But it does! We're due.
RB: I also know that's a load of bullsh**. There's no such thing as being "due." I'm taking a stat class sometime so I can get this into my head.
IB: We're going to be in a several ton giant metal thing in the air!
RB: And I know that by the "magical" laws of physics, that's possible and is done. A lot. Every day.
IB: WE'RE DOOMED.
RB: Hey, look, we're in the air. Look down and the pretty tiny things and be quiet.
IB: OOH. Shiny.

I am an engineer and I specialize in aircraft. I have this unconscious habit of pointing out design flaws to other passengers and tell them how they can cause the plane to crash. While continuously smiling.

My unconsciousness is a bastard.

 

[gtc]

Beer plus lemonade is a shandy. Tescos supermarket sold that in cans but I don't think it was actually alcoholic.

 

[Ducky]

I didn't mean things like,"OH GOD MY LEG!" I meant, "Hey, I have to try that out and see for myself. I'm not going to take someone's word on it," or where being a skeptic doesn't help. (Me on the plane.)

Ulterior motive? To be amused.

Oh no wait, it's to bring down all you psuedoskeptimaniacsomethingsomethingsomething.

I invoke Lewis Black's assessment of Candy Corn. We all have to suffer through that out of morbid curiosity.

Sorry to join this dicussion late...

My story is about the "vitaminCherbal/alkaline" crap that people spout about cancer.

I was living with a roomate and had a tumor develop in my spine. last november I went through surgery to remove the tumor, repair the spine and then radiation treatment.

I'm ok now, but I had all sorts of crazy ideas thrown at me about homeopathic cancer remedies and "alterantive treatments" to cancer that the drug companies are supressing because it would hurt their sales (of course, THEY wouldn't want to market their own versions if it worked, would they? Apparently they have a gambler's fallacy about their drugs? whatever.)

So I tried the green powder crud she bought for a few weeks. All it gave me was the runs and bright green stool.

Needless to say, I can't convince her it didn't help because the radiation treatments killed the rest of the tumor (or the green crud did, according to her.)

So that's my morbid curiosity story about trying something I knew to be crap.

On a side note, I did have a great time shutting up someone in a restraunt/bar who was trying to tell me about the "your body needs to be more alkaline, the cancer just dries right up then" when they saw my livestrong band. They hadn't guessed I was a cancer patient and knew anything about it. The look of surprise was rewarding.

Not that I'm overtly mean to people who believe bunk, but once in a while it is nice to bring them back to earth.

Anyway, hello again everyone!

-David

 

[epepke]

Beer plus lemonade is a shandy. Tescos supermarket sold that in cans but I don't think it was actually alcoholic.

Except in Germany, where it's a Radler.

It's a shame that Ice Station Cool doesn't serve Manzana Lift. I used to drink that all the time in Mexico. It bears approximately the same relationship to apple juice as Fanta orange soda bears to orange juice.

 

[Dr Adequate]

Those aren't instances where skepticism brings horrible things. Do you have an actual example ? To be honest, I think you have an ulterior motive here.

What did I tell you to shut up?

I believe it was the F.

Troll.

 

[Kiless]

The Italian one wouldn't be called "chinotto" or something similar, would it?

I love chinotto. I'm the only one I know who drinks it regularly, you get used to it and then addicted....

Visual illusions. I know, they're the same length, et al. But I still stop and look at them hard to be sure.