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1997-11-10
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From owner-skeptic@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu Thu Sep 4 10:33:17 1997
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Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 13:31:32 -0400
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From: John Chalmers <non12@deltanet.com>
To: skeptic@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu
Subject: Ban DHMO, Solar satires
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The "Ban Water" Science Fair project is certainly not original (though
it might be true) and is, as I thought, a long-standing joke. The
two forwarded messages below give more info and a URL for a similar
satire on solar energy.
--John
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 07:33:34 -0400
From: Brian Siano <siano@cceb.med.upenn.edu>
Subject: Re: Junk Science
>
> This is from a forward by David Ross:
>
> A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater
> Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26. He was attempting to show how
> conditioned we have become to the alarmists practicing junk science
> and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project
> he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total
> elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide." And for plenty of
> good reasons, since it can
[snip]
> He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.
> Forty-three said yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that the
> chemical was water. The title of his prize winning project was,
> "How Gullible Are We?" He feels the conclusion is obvious.
>
I wouldn't give the kid any prize: I just did a NEXIS search,
and found that it's in no way original. A group of kids in Pittsburgh
put flyers about this "dangerous chemical" in local mailboxes, and got
into a bit of trouble with the local authorities. There's apparently a
couple of Web pages carrying the joke even further, and I even turned
up a gag item in _New Scientist_ on the matter. (Arthur C. Clarke
wrote a letter in response, saying that John Campbell ran a similar
gag item in one of his old SF magazines.)
So, if we're talking about stealing another person's idea and
getting a science award for it, the above is _definitely_ appropriate
for the SCIFRAUD list.
Brian Siano - siano@cceb.med.upenn.edu
"The Internet is an elite organization. Most of the
population of the world has never even made a phone call."
-- Noam Chomsky
>From Donald Simanek
The "Ban DHMO" spoof has been on the internet for several years, and can
be found at my web site (address below), in the "Humor and Satire"
section. In the "Education Section" Documents there's a discussion of
student responses to it, collected by a biologist colleague three years
ago. The idea isn't exactly new, and one wonders at how much original
input this student gave to it.
A related document, which I wrote, is also on my web site "Hazards of
Solar Power". It has plenty of internal evidence that it is a satire of
the style of activists who have more zeal than understanding. Yet hardly a
week goes by that I don't get e-mail from teachers whose students have
taken it seriously and used it in reports or term papers, people who say
"I agree mostly, but take issue with one point...". Others suggest I am an
idiot and should learn something about solar energy before writing about
it. Only one person who wrote me realized it was satire. Read it yourself
and see whether that says anything about science literacy and human
gullibility.
The trouble with writing satire these days is that it is indistinguishable
from reality.
-- Donald
.....................................................................
Dr. Donald E. Simanek Office: 717-893-2079
Prof. of Physics Internet: dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA. 17745 CIS: 73147,2166
Home page: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek FAX: 717-893-2047
.....................................................................