wasser@viking.DEC (John A. Wasser) (10/22/85)
> [I'm] afraid that the gullible people typically have a deep psychological > need to believe in a conspiracy on the part of the scientific establishment > to suppress good ideas from backyard inventors. Giving three examples of > devices that look just like the bogus inventions but that have solid > scientific explanations won't prove a thing to these people; they'll believe > the next hoax for which they haven't yet seen the explanation. Worse than that, they have an annoying tendency to believe the next hoax for which they HAVE seen an explanation. They have to have PROOF of fraud in EACH AND EVERY CASE even though many previous similar or identical cases have been shown to be frauds. Take Uri Geller (please!). -John A. Wasser Work address: ARPAnet: WASSER%VIKING.DEC@decwrl.ARPA Usenet: {allegra,Shasta,decvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-viking!wasser Easynet: VIKING::WASSER Telephone: (617)486-2505