The snake oil thread

[Captain Nemo]

Who remembers how Tomorrows World always went into raptures about the extra leisure time we’d all have every time they reviewed a computing breakthrough?

. . .  and the total lack of paper in the business environment (and newspapers for that matter) - all still very much with us.

The future sure isn't what it used to be.

Ah yes, Tomorrow's World!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdU8j5ydVuI

Interesting concept, but with too many serious flaws. I had one (actually went through 3 frames before I gave up on it).

[Pickled Onion]

Who remembers how Tomorrows World always went into raptures about the extra leisure time we’d all have every time they reviewed a computing breakthrough?

. . .  and the total lack of paper in the business environment (and newspapers for that matter) - all still very much with us.

Really? I've not seen paper in a business environment for years.

We have printers dotted around the building, but they seem to be used just for personal stuff, like who bothers having a printer at home nowadays? Last time I used one it was for a form the bank insisted had to be hard copy, I took it into the branch where they scanned it, pressed a button and said "it'll take 24 hours to get there" and gave me the paper back. I could have emailed it with a scanned signature and there would be zero difference.

Newspapers. Don't understand that either. I'll often pick up the free (Waitrose-paid-for) guardian when I'm in Waitrose, on the basis that it supports the Guardian, but it's pointless as I'll have read it online earlier. Handy for packing out sodden shoes or under wet dripping bikes.

[onerousdeporte]

Free guardian...how does that work?

[Kim]

like who bothers having a printer at home nowadays?

People who do voluntary/hobby/activism stuff that involves handing out or sticking up pieces of paper, mostly.  Our trusty Laserjet still gets used, but it's more likely to do a hundred copies of a flyer than a one-off letter to some bureaucratic organisation that doesn't do computers.

I think I last used it for:
- Exploded diagram of the pingfuckits in my suspension fork, so I could refer to it with greasy fingers.
- Sheets of entries to BHPC races, for ticking off the register purposes.
- Selected pages from device datasheets when mucking about with electronics.  I should really get round to sorting out a cable and sone kind of bodged VESA mount so I can connect an additional monitor in a suitable position to my computer for this sort of thing.

[spesh]

Free guardian...how does that work?

I think if you have a Waitrose loyalty card, you can get a free newspaper if you spend over a certain amount.

[Beardy]

I haven’t got around to re networking/repositioning what was my work printer which still sits by my home working desk in the garage. Getting to it on the rare occasions I do need to print stuff out is becoming increasingly challenging as the TQT builds up between the door and my desk.

[Mr Larrington]

Last things I printed:

• Stiff ticket of motor insurance to go in the glove box
• Gig tickets
• Thing from the DVLA for hiring a van purposes
• Stuff I deem worthy of having a hard copy of when visiting Abroad, whence dwell the FOREIGNS, lest the SCIENCE throws a sickie and decides it doesn’t want to play with Abroad's version of The Devil’s Radio

[spesh]

Hyperlight Eyewear, anyone?

I got introduced to Hyperlight Eyewear®, a new kind of glasses that incorporate fullerene C60. Since hyperpolarized light resonates with microtubules and other biomolecules it affects our mindsets. Proving that by wearing Hyperlight Eyewear®we feel and think better… we could change the world around us, even avoid the wars!
Dr. Howard Moskowitz

PSYCHOPHYSICIST

https://www.hyperlighteyewear.com/

From the "how it works" page:

The symmetry and unprecedented dynamics of Fullerene C60 correspond to those of healthy biostructures. C60 has unprecedented quantum properties, including a unique rotation-twist rate of 18 billion times per second); through Resonance Principles of Biomimicry, it efficiently interacts with incoming light, which ultimately restores biostructures to a natural, healthy state at the quantum level. Through this physiological process, Hyperlight Eyewear® protect, maintain, revitalize, regulate, and restore the body to optimal health. See more – Think faster – Feel better – Perform at your best

https://www.hyperlighteyewear.com/how-it-works/

 

[TPMB12]

We couldn't get by without a work printer. Automotive sector and we print pages and pages of labels, spec sheets, drawings,  visual aids, advice notes, etc. None of them can be a paperless alternative without way too much expense that's not warranted. Mind you, if we tried paperless labelling we'd have a nonconformity within 5 hours of the first dispatch. Judging by the labels left on the reusable packaging every other company that supply the tier 1 company we do uses paper and printers too.

Must be a service industry thing to be paperless.

[TPMB12]

I think the ultimate snake oil has to be that old favourite of the desperate and gullible. The homoeopathic remedy! Otherwise known as water!

Not technically oil and had not been anywhere b near a snake, well at least for the last 3000 dilutions!

[Pickled Onion]

I think the ultimate snake oil has to be that old favourite of the desperate and gullible. The homoeopathic remedy! Otherwise known as water!

Not technically oil and had not been anywhere b near a snake, well at least for the last 3000 dilutions!

https://homeomart.net/python-regia-homeopathy-dilution/

[Kim]

Not technically oil and had not been anywhere b near a snake, well at least for the last 3000 dilutions!

I was wondering whether snake oil was oil derived from snakes (like whale oil) or oil for the use on snakes (like baby oil).

[citoyen]

Our new garden hose has “anti-torsion technology”.

Does it heck.

[spesh]

Not technically oil and had not been anywhere b near a snake, well at least for the last 3000 dilutions!

I was wondering whether snake oil was oil derived from snakes (like whale oil) or oil for the use on snakes (like baby oil).

The former - and oddly enough, actual snake oil apparently may have beneficial effects:

But where did the belief in snake oil arise? It seems that early American immigrants may have adopted native American customs and also transposed to the rattlesnake an ancient British belief that preparations based on the adder can cure various ills.

These notions would have been reinforced in the 1840s when many Chinese labourers arrived to help build the Transcontinental Railroad. They would almost certainly have brought with them oil from the Chinese water-snake (Laticauda semifasciata, black-banded sea krait), which in traditional Chinese medicine has been used for centuries as an anti-inflammatory agent to treat arthritis, bursitis and other joint pains. These labourers may have offered snake oil to fellow workers as relief for enduring long days of physical effort.

Modern-day research suggests that Chinese water-snake oil may indeed have health benefits because of its high content of omega-3 fatty acids. In 1989 an analysis of snake oil bought in San Francisco’s Chinatown found that it contained 20 per cent eicosapentaenoic acid, which is more than is found in popular omega-3 food sources such as salmon.

Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to reduce inflammation and are alleged to offer many other health benefits. Although many of the claims made for them — often by the modern equivalent of the snake oil salesman — are unproven, it does appear that they may help in lowering systolic blood pressure, improving cognitive function, reducing the risk of dementia and relieving depression.

https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/opinion/the-history-of-snake-oil

Amusingly enough, the article's third paragraph mentions the case of a snake oil salesman being taken to court by the US government for selling "Snake Oil Liniment" which contained no snake oil. 

[De Sisti]

A bike harness, to carry your bike on your back over rough terrain.

What's wrong with carrying a bike à la cyclocross?

https://restrap.com/collections/accessories/products/hike-a-bike-harness

[mrcharly-YHT]

A bike harness, to carry your bike on your back over rough terrain.

What's wrong with carrying a bike à la cyclocross?

https://restrap.com/collections/accessories/products/hike-a-bike-harness

I don't think that is snake oil. It leaves both hands free - which you might want if scrambling over very rough terrain.

Also removes risk that you could drop your bike if you slipped.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I agree with Mr Charly. It's also aimed at heavier bikes than cyclocross (MTBs and similar), and for cases where comfort is more important than time. That said, you'd have to be anticipating a lot of hike-a-bike to justify it, and you could probably knock up something at home given a sewing machine, the skills to use it and some old cloth - but that goes for loads of items.

[De Sisti]

https://restrap.com/collections/accessories/products/hike-a-bike-harness

I don't think that is snake oil. It leaves both hands free - which you might want if scrambling over very rough terrain.

Also removes risk that you could drop your bike if you slipped.

The bike isn't going to stay upright if you slipped whilst wearing the harness. Both would go to ground.  It's not like it could be Jettisoned from your back in such a scenario.

[ravenbait]

A bike harness, to carry your bike on your back over rough terrain.

What's wrong with carrying a bike à la cyclocross?

https://restrap.com/collections/accessories/products/hike-a-bike-harness

It's aimed at people doing off road ultras such as the HT 550, where a few people are taking one to use. I'm going to assume they know what they are doing.

https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2023-highland-trail-550-rigs/

Sam

[Cudzoziemiec]

Probably the most interesting bit of kit I’ll be taking is the Restrap hike-a-bike harness. I tested this out a lot with my fully loaded setup over the past week and think it could be a bit of a game changer when it comes to the long hiking sections.

It sounds like a small but deep niche of users.

[JonBuoy]

Probably the most interesting bit of kit I’ll be taking is the Restrap hike-a-bike harness. I tested this out a lot with my fully loaded setup over the past week and think it could be a bit of a game changer when it comes to the long hiking sections.

It sounds like a small but deep niche of users.

The quote was from Molly Weaver.  Unfortunately she scratched with a knee injury before she got to CP2.

[quixoticgeek]

Probably the most interesting bit of kit I’ll be taking is the Restrap hike-a-bike harness. I tested this out a lot with my fully loaded setup over the past week and think it could be a bit of a game changer when it comes to the long hiking sections.

It sounds like a small but deep niche of users.

Popular on ht550, SRMR, etc... Hike a bike on a loaded bike packing bike is not pleasant. When you've got a frame bag, carrying cyclo-cross style doesn't work. And on a lot of steep stuff you really want hands free.

Niche. But not that niche. But now snake oil.

J

[Slave To The Viking]

Plug covers to stop kids sticking their fingers into sockets.

a. Every single socket in this country has got one of those already built into it.
b. See a.
c. Check out the size of a finger on a child old enough to have the motor skills to even attempt it; compare to the size of the already-protected hole on a socket. See? Like threading a sewing machine with a bike chain.
d. See a.

[Diver300]

Plug covers to stop kids sticking their fingers into sockets.

a. Every single socket in this country has got one of those already built into it.
b. See a.
c. Check out the size of a finger on a child old enough to have the motor skills to even attempt it; compare to the size of the already-protected hole on a socket. See? Like threading a sewing machine with a bike chain.
d. See a.

Threads passim, including https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=65876.0 have pointed this out.

[Slave To The Viking]

Indeedly. Not necessarily this thread though?