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Snake oil can be beneficial for arthritis and other conditions (2007)

scientificamerican.com

11–17 of 17 posts

Re: Snake oil can be beneficial for arthritis and other conditions (2007)

#12
post #3

Well I guess the salesmen will be relieved

What 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.

That 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.

Re: Snake oil can be beneficial for arthritis and other conditions (2007)

#13
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What 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.

There's an analogy here for OO.

I don't get it. Can you explain a bit more?

Re: Snake oil can be beneficial for arthritis and other conditions (2007)

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another example of why explicit is better than implicit.

What do you mean by that?

What 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.)

Re: Snake oil can be beneficial for arthritis and other conditions (2007)

#16
post #12
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What 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.

That 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.

So 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.

Re: Snake oil can be beneficial for arthritis and other conditions (2007)

#17
post #6

Python 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_co...

Scientific 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.
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