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Zero Percent - 0%

H3LL

Illuminator
H3LL
Joined
Jul 21, 2004
Messages
4,963
Zero Percent.

0%

Nothing.

Zero.

0

Nought.

Nil.

Zilch.

Zip.

Just testing. Is there anything that is difficult to understand about the above words and symbols? They seem to me plain, clear and easy to comprehend for a native English speaker.

I foolishly used these words to describe the amount of active ingredient in a high potency homeopathic remedy and just got blank looks.

Finally I have found a use for homeopathy. It seems to make anyone totally incapable of understanding these words.



I give up...


.
 
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I dunno, there are a lot of people who don't have the slightest idea how homeopathy is supposed to work and often mistake it for some kind of "natural medicine". In my experience, explaining the ridiculous concepts of dilution and succussion to these people is usually enough to convince them that homeopathy is BS. Of course the 0% argument isn't going to convince the nutters who believe in water memory etc., but debating them is like debating religious fundamentalists. Hopeless and frustrating IMO.
 
SwissSkeptic said:
I dunno, there are a lot of people who don't have the slightest idea how homeopathy is supposed to work and often mistake it for some kind of "natural medicine".
Click to expand...

Exactly the situation I was in and why I stupidly opened my mouth.


SwissSkeptic said:
In my experience, explaining the ridiculous concepts of dilution and succussion to these people is usually enough to convince them that homeopathy is BS.
Click to expand...

You would have thought so. Thus my bafflement at his inability to understand zero.


.
 
On a side note. It also has a similar effect on really big numbers. Not everyone understands really big numbers but you would have thought an Msc would understand that 1030 is bigger than 1024. (I didn't pursue that line of argument for very long).

.
 
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I've explained this to one (1, uno, etc.) person in my entire life, and she got it immediately and decided not to try homeopathic medicine. It felt pretty good.
 
I've also had occasion to explain this to people who didn't really have an idea of what homoeopathy was, just that it was some sort of "natural" medicine.

In my experience, explaining that "it's like you get one drop of the active ingredient and dilute it in an olympic swimming pool of water" seems to get the point across.

Then I tell them it's actually worse than that. It's like one drop of active ingredient in the whole ocean.

Then I tell them that the so-called active ingredient isn't really all that active anyway.

And finally, I explain how it all started.

Usually, by that point, they are as mad as I am. So I suggest some Arnica.
 
H3LL said:
An Msc,fcoptom,fsmc.

.
Click to expand...

(I had to google fcoptom and fsmc...)

I'm a little shocked. I suppose I shouldn't be, but I am.

Btw, which of these is the relevant fsmc:

FSMC Federal Supply Manufacturer's Code
FSMC Female Sexual Medicine Center (UCLA)
FSMC Finite State Markov Channel
FSMC Finite State Modulation Code
FSMC Finite-State Markovian Channel
FSMC Fixed Silver/Mica Capacitor
FSMC Forward Support Medical Company
FSMC Frame Store Memory Controller
 
Just the other day I was talking to a girl who had decided that "calorie diets" don't work. She said she had been eating very few calories for one month and not only she did not lose any weight, but she gained 3kg. I said "exactly, that's why people who go on hunger strikes end up being so fat", but that didn't ring a bell to her and she ... agreed!

Sometimes arguments, *real arguments*, are futile.
 
El Greco said:
Just the other day I was talking to a girl who had decided that "calorie diets" don't work. She said she had been eating very few calories for one month and not only she did not lose any weight, but she gained 3kg.
Click to expand...

Heh, I've heard this one a few times, too. Not so surprisingly, always by people who don't track their calorie intake.
 
SwissSkeptic said:
Heh, I've heard this one a few times, too. Not so surprisingly, always by people who don't track their calorie intake.
Click to expand...

They mostly track it in their own ways... Like "fruits don't count", "liquids don't count", "hmmm... that whole chicken must be about 150gr" :D
 
I've "deconverted" my whole family from homeopathy by:

1) telling my dear mother how my brother and I used to compensate for the lack of sweets in the house by stealing her homeopathic pills (5 from the bottle against headache, 3 against restless legs, 3 against cough, ...).

2) explaining the history of homeopathy and pointing out that by Hahnemann's time, a whole bunch of medical/scientific facts were totally unknown, facts that clearly show homeopathy is BS (and Hahnemann's more a cult's guru than a scientist),

3) explaining the difference between "herbal" and "homeopathic", dilutions, succussion, and the problems with "memory" of water,

4) and finally, pointing out the fact that the claims of homeopaths of being pure, disinterested benefactors of humanity who are fighting an evil conspiracy of greedy pharmaceutical companies intent on poisonning us with evil chemicals is pure BS, given the millions homeopaths are raking in ...

Of course, all this won't convince true believers. And I've discovered that the worst of the worst true believers were usually the ones who shouldn't be, e.g. nurses working in our clinical pharmacology department :shocked: , pharmacists :eek: , and quite a bunch of medical secretaries who then leave their job in order to open their own "clinic" (obviously believing medical knowledge can be acquired by osmosis at the contact of physicians ...) :jaw-dropp ...


:hb:
 
I thought this was going to be a thread about Libertarian Party nut Michael Badnarik's vote total in the 2004 election. Zero percent.
 
H3LL said:
Zero Percent.

0%

Nothing.

Zero.

0

Nought.

Nil.

Zilch.

Zip.

Just testing. Is there anything that is difficult to understand about the above words and symbols? They seem to me plain, clear and easy to comprehend for a native English speaker.

I foolishly used these words to describe the amount of active ingredient in a high potency homeopathic remedy and just got blank looks.

Finally I have found a use for homeopathy. It seems to make anyone totally incapable of understanding these words.



I give up...


.
Click to expand...


Ah, yes, you really don't understand, do you?

Don't you remember that old Anadin pain relief advert....?

"NOTHING works faster than Anadin"!

Therefore (stay with me here...) if homeopathic remedies contain...NOTHING, and this substance called "nothing" works faster than Anadin...therefore....homeopathic remedies MUST work! There's your evidence - an advert from the 1970's proved it!

It's not difficult to understand, is it?!
 
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