64 ms·
Snake oil can be beneficial for arthritis and other conditions (2007)
- Simulacra 9y agoWell I guess the salesmen will be relieved
- ender89 9y agoWhat I heard was that actual snake-oil was used for a number of things it actually worked on in china, but when someone tried to introduce it in the US, the salesmen figured it was complete bs and no one would notice if they just sold counterfeit oil.
- Simulacra 9y agoOh wow! I didn't know that, sort of reminds me of the olive oil market right now.
- glup 9y agoI thought the above was about object-oriented programming. Language is hard.
- ChristianBundy 9y agoAnother example of why explicit is better than implicit.
- danblick 9y agoWhat do you mean by that?
- stcredzero 9y agoWhat I heard was that actual snake-oil was used for a number of things it actually worked on in china, but when someone tried to introduce it in the US, the salesmen figured it was complete bs and no one would notice if they just sold counterfeit oil. Object Orientation was used for almost everything in Smalltalk, but when someone tried to introduce it in C-based languages, some programmers figured it was bs. Some "consultants" figured it was more programming industry bs/fashion and some marketers figured people would buy stuff if they just claimed everything was Object Oriented. In the right context, OO can be pretty darn good, but it's not a panacea for everything. (And there is some good OO in C-heritage languages.)
- stcredzero 9y agoThere's an analogy here for OO.
- smnrchrds 9y agoI don't get it. Can you explain a bit more?
- stcredzero 9y agoSee: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14489472 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14489472
- tdeck 9y agoThat last part at least is correct. Clark Stanley (the original snake oil salesman) traveled around with a bag full of snakes, and made a big show out of rendering them into oil. But the actual product was just beef fat and some other ingredients.
- macawfish 9y agoSo the actual product was pretty much the opposite of therapeutic... I mean, at least go with beef gelatin, at least that could fix someone's joints.
- rootsudo 9y agoLaughable.
- jlg23 9y agoPython fat has been used to treat painful joints in Nigeria for ages and its effectiveness has also been proven in a scientific study.[1] [1] https://www.biomedscidirect.com/1195/python_fat_effect_on_collagen_levels_of_human_keloid_tissue/articlescategories https://www.biomedscidirect.com/1195/python_fat_effect_on_co...
- potatote 9y agoSame in Myanmar. There, people with stroke are given small doses of Python liver/pancreas or some sort as part of traditional medicine. I'm quite surprised to see that there's some sort of medicinal application to snakes.
- cholantesh 9y agoScientific studies do not not prove anything. They provide evidence for a hypothesis. And one study is not sufficient to draw conclusions from,especially with a sample size of 9.