(24-Apr-2010, 02:09 PM)Lije Wrote: Cargo Cult Science is a colorful lecture by Richard Feynmen on pseudoscience and irrational beliefs. I've first read it in his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmen!" when I was a kid and it still sounds just as funny and insightful as it did back then.
Thanks for the link its excellent ! Here is an extract ...
"One time I sat down in a bath where there was a beautiful girl
sitting with a guy who didn't seem to know her. Right away I began
thinking, "Gee! How am I gonna get started talking to this
beautiful nude babe?"
I'm trying to figure out what to say, when the guy says to her,
I'm, uh, studying massage. Could I practice on you?"
"Sure," she says. They get out of the bath and she lies down on a
massage table nearby.
I think to myself, "What a nifty line! I can never think of
anything like that!" He starts to rub her big toe. "I think I feel
it, "he says. "I feel a kind of dent--is that the pituitary?"
I blurt out, "You're a helluva long way from the pituitary, man!"
They looked at me, horrified--I had blown my cover--and said, "It's
reflexology!"
I quickly closed my eyes and appeared to be meditating."