There was a study not that long ago that concluded that the placebo effect doesn't really exist. How did they test that? Did they give some patients a placebo, and others (the control group) a fake placebo?

Possibly they gave one group real medicine, and the other nothing at all, and got the same results as giving one group real medicine, and the other a placebo.

Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider: this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. That does not make sense! Why would a Wookiee -- an eight foot tall Wookiee -- want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more importantly, you have to ask yourself: what does that have to do with science? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with science! It does not make sense! Look at me, I'm posting on slashdot in response to an article about science, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca. Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense. None of this makes sense. And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberating and conjugating the Emancipation Proclamation... does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense. If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests

Great, then I will have to tell my boss I was missing for a couple of days because I thought I was on a bender.

Just great, like I really needed 13 more things to worry about.

Hey, why wasn't my wife on that list?

I have emough thimgs that dom't nake semse im ny life so as to worry about that. For exanple, why the fuck does ny keyboard type "n" whem I clearly hit the "m" ke... wait, mvn... forgot to put the keys back right. Okay, i'll give those problems a whirl now.

They should probably just use air in the syringes, then.

For exanple, why the fuck does ny keyboard type "n" whem I clearly hit the "m" ke...

Because you're a norom?

I guess I might as well buy those enlargement pills after all.

Hey, you never know...

Wouldn't be the first time a slashdot story discredited something/someone. Only this time that was the intent.

The 14th thing that makes no sense: Not reading the article that is posted right there in the submission and easily reachable to inform the reader, and yet feeling fully qualified to write something as a comment without that knowledge.

Such as this comment...

Look at this monkey.... [Head asplode] That does not make sense.

Oh great. Now we can add the "Chewbacca defense" to the same illustrious group of overquoted "instant +5 funny" personalities as Yakov Smirnov, CATS, Kent Brockman, and the Beowulf cluster guy.

I can't wait for someone to mention that in Korea, only old people use the Chewbacca defense. /me shoots self

You must be old here. The current fashion in slashdot is that not even editors RTFA. We are currently working on SNRTFA, that is, Submitters Not Reading the Fucking Article, maybe next year ...

No but as an ewok I welcomed our eight foot tall also hairy like us overlord!!!!

I actually tested this theory one day. I dressed like a whigger (backwards baseball cap and all) and started talking to your typical overdone-tan chick at the mall and after an hour she was wanting me to come and hang out with her. Then I was like, "No, I'm actually a nerd. I just wanted to prove something. Sorry."

So... You're an even bigger asshole than you were pretending to be. Is there a bell curve here? Is there an optimum level of asshole-ness?

Yeah, that's what I see. I see there are two types of guys in a lot of women's eyes. The kind you fuck and the kind you go crying to when you can't get to a guy you fuck. The later type is also the one you put in charge of fixing your car, raising your kids, and providing general emotional support.

1) take a slashdot comment
2) reply to it
3) reply to the reply
4) each reply containing less information and insight
5) ????
6) profit!

The final comment still has the same amazing powes of useless drivel the first had.

Come on man! It's tradition!

Right... He didnt notice it was water? what were you mixing it with? Wasabi?

We got a whole group of chicks drunk this way... and did them afterwards. Was a blast telling them that they weren't really drunk....

Or that in Soviet Russia, the Chewbacca defense uses YOU.

Oh, whoops.

You know, jobs in the science would really open up if we started burning heretics again.

#1 Skill for a successful career in science: Try not to look flammable.

Why'd you spell moron backwards?

Isnt that kinda dum?

I actually tested this theory one day. I dressed like a whigger (backwards baseball cap and all) and started talking to your typical overdone-tan chick at the mall and after an hour she was wanting me to come and hang out with her. Then I was like, "No, I'm actually a nerd. I just wanted to prove something. Sorry."

note: may not have happened

girls like dicks.

1977, it was called the Wow! signal.

2005, it would have been the WTF! OMG! LEET! signal.

Someone who posts in /. and has a wife? Another item to the list!

Hey, have you heard about Placebo Domingo, Placido's younger brother? He looks just like his brother and gets great press, but he actually can't sing worth a damn.

Heh heh. Hoo, tough crowd tonight...

Two groups of test subjects. Tell Group A the usual story, some people are getting placebos while others are getting the real thing and no one knows who's who. Tell group B everyone's getting a placebo. Give everyone placebos, and see if the pills being taken by group A have any effect.
~
Also get Group C and tell them they are all getting placebos and give them the real pills and get Group D and tell them they are all getting the real pills and give them placebos. With Group A, the patients will have some uncertainty about what they are getting and that may affect the effect.

Then get Group E and tell them they are getting real placebos and give them random pills and then get Groups F through J and give them pills on the second Tuesday of every month and tell them you're uncertain about what the pills are and then get Group K to distribute fake placebos, real placebos and small slices of toast to Groups A, D and G respectively and then tell Group L they're not needed and should just take whatever pills they find at home or on the street. This ensures that Groups B, C, E and J but not C know what they're taking but not really and that people in Group A will think they're in Group D.

Sheesh, what a stupid bitch.

Oh wait, now she's likes me...

>> B - knowing that that they're not getting it.

I think B would be the appropriate choice here for most /.ers.

This suggests that as long as we think we're getting morphine, our bodies will respond accordingly.

I think I'm getting morphine... I think I'm getting morphine... I think I'm getting morphine...

Shit, nothing!

You, sir, went to a kinder, gentler, college than I did.

I don't know... White blood cells that believe in homeopathy? They sound pretty stupid to me.

And I honestly have no idea how she ended up on mine.

That and wrecks at 12MPH tend to do much less harm than wrecks at normal speeds.

how come MS Windows did not make it. ;)

Never mind that before 1913 when opiates were banned and before 1937 when marijuana was banned, we didn't seem to be having all too many problems keeping society together.

When looking at those numbers i just realized something.

1913 opiates banned
1914 WWI starts
1937 marijuana banned
1938 WWII starts

I see a pattern, don't you?

One would expect cosmologists to jump for joy at their luck. (And among those whom I know, everyone does!)

Among the cosmologists I know, they break out in hedonistic orgies when they find something new.
Oh, wait.
All the cosmologists I know personally are imaginary.

I read an article about women who cook and eat the placebo after they give birth. Very, very gross.

The answer to all of these questions is obvious: Jesus did it.

If she doesn't like something I say or do, she'll make sure I know straight away...

Run.

Very fast.

Do not look back.

Pot just makes you want to eat more and makes you paranoid ( and more careful ).

Pot by itself doesn't make you paranoid. It's the chemicals that THEY spray on the pot that make you paranoid.
-russ

Girls

I'm a lesbian, you insensitive clod.