Links of the Week (2008/24)
- Crazy stuff during the football Euro 2008 (German): Some use homeopathy and tarot cards
- Sapere aude (German) proves the statement “You owe me 100 Euro” the way some folks want to prove the existence of god.
- The Surrealist Compliment Generator (via Nerdcore) – e.g. „Fast blinking reveals the true visage of time pieces hidden within your eyes“ or „Your tears evoke a taste as memorable as honey.“
Almost every second German is superstitious
And almost every fifth is feeling uneasy today on Friday 13th.
This can also serve as a nice example for biased choice of words 
– since Statista titles (in German; my translation) “Friday 13th spreads only little fear”, based on the same number of 17.9% (see here (German); by the way, 22.3% of women say they’re “especially careful”).
The latter numbers are from a different poll (2007 Germans aged 14+, GfK, June 2008) than the one asking for particular objects or situations of superstition that is the basis for this post’s title (2000 Germans 16+, Allensbach, Nov. 2000):
Top to bottom: four-leaf clover; shooting star; chimney sweeper; black cat; the number 13; finding a horseshoe; cuckoo calling; spider in the morning; swallow’s nest; Friday; clock stopped ticking; the number 7; bad luck when a little owl calls; borrowing salt means bad luck; knife’s edge at the top brings quarrel: sheeps to the left; walking back when stumbling; door opens by itself; rain on bridal veil; touch a hunchback.
It’s of course hard to tell this way if those not believing in clover do believe in other stuff, so there may actually be more than 43% who decided to give their brain some time off in favor of their superstition.
Addendum: Julia reminded me about the extreme superstitions of US presidential candidate McCain and, to a much lesser extent or maybe not at all, Obama.
Links of the Week (2008/23)
- Superstition homeopathy – an extensive analysis of the basic assumptions of homeopathy (German).
- A particularly stupid creationist argument that god exists (English, with video):
To summarize: God ordered the soldiers of the Hebrews to march around Jericho 6 times on 6 days, which means they would have traversed 6 * 360°, or 2160 degrees. The moon has a diameter of 2,160 miles. Therefore, God exists.
- Put a Little Science in Your Life – an article by the famous physicist Brian Greene (via Pharyngula)
The Law of Distraction
Part 6 of my little satire series about mysticism and pseudoscience…
Don’t you wish you could make every atractive person of your preferred sex undress for you? But it doesn’t work, these wishes aren’t fulfilled? The mail-order department of the universe can’t even deliver measly X-ray glasses?
The cimddological super research has found the solution:
The law of attractive distraction by undressing, as the full name goes.
Forget the ludicrous “wishing bullshit” * with the “secret” around the “law of attraction” that’s been rehashed throughout the decades and centuries over and over again, according to which you’d just have to wish for what you want, the universe would deliver it because “like attracts like” – that’s all mystical nonsense! No, only we know the ultimate truth, only we know the actual most powerful law in the universe!
Become a master of the law of distraction and successfully order everybody you meet to undress completely naked – it will work! Guaranteed!
(Well, you might have to open an S&M studio with you as dominatrix or master, but then, your customers will definitely obey you.)
Many famous personalities knew how to use the law of distraction – including illustrious names such as Giacomo Casanova, Henry VIII of England, or Leonardo da Vinci with his famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man (image on the left).
Or Thomas Alva Edison – he invented the lightbulb in order to be able to better watch his wives undressing. We could continue this list forever – Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Goethe, Beethoven, Plato, Socrates, Newton, Einstein, to name but a few. Name-dropping always looks good, as nobody can disprove it anyway.
But also for the more simple people, well, for everyone the law of distraction by undressing works. Like Rhonda* who is burning (if not dying) to frankly show Pierre her feelings for him, who see Bärbel more as their hick – they all can capitalize on this ultra hyper powerful law! And you too!
We will show you how! In a small, affordable book series which we will launch shortly – presumably 30 volumes for a low four-digit sum (per page) –, supplemented by a similar number of DVDs, you will learn everything to masterly fake everything in your love life and every other aspect of your existence!
(Fake everything? Aren’t we the ones who fake— erm, well, enough of that.)
Bla!
* German book recommendation: “Wunsch-Bullshit im Universum: Kritik der Wunsch-Bestellungen im Universum von Rhonda Byrne, Pierre Franckh, Bätbel Mohr, Esther Hicks und Kurt Tepperwein – auf dem schmalen Grat zwischen Nicht-mehr-Satire und Noch-nicht-Wissenschaft” – which translates to “The wishing bullshit in the universe: Criticism on ordering wishes from the universe… – on the thin line between no-longer-satire and not-yet-science” by Jacky Dreksler und Hugo Egon Balder. 159 pages, Pacific Productions.
Casually and funnily written and yet well-researched by these two German comedians/producers, they tear apart that wishing stuff – just a little expensive at 17.90 €.
“Bullshit”, in this context, is also a term in philosophy describing an “opportunistic way of dealing with the truth” or that bullshitters don’t care about the truth at all in the void things they do.
Photo © Cristian Ilie Ionescu – Fotolia.com