Wired.com recently published a list of 10 great snake-oil gadgets. No surprise that everyone’s favorite, the Q-Ray bracelet, made the top of the list.

Tested by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at an electron microscopy lab, it found that the thing wasn’t ionized at all. Even for true believers, it’s a waste of wonga.

You may also be happy to hear the infamous Harmony Chip made the list as well.

The Harmony Chip is so transparently useless as to be an object lesson in how drivel may be dressed up as science.

And here’s what they have to say about the Harmony Chip’s illustrious inventor.

A long-haired, bare-chested Yorkshireman with a fake Eastern name who rambles emptily about the nature of innovation and who attributes commonplace platitudes to himself.

Click on the link for proof I’m not making this up.

What, no LifeWave?

And Alex picked up the beech knobs back in 2006, I see.

Smerk - 05 January 2008 09:30 PM

What, no LifeWave?

Haven’t you heard, LifeWave uses nanotechnology instead of snake-oil.

The best thing on the Wired article is the comments section at the bottom.

Lots of “I tried dowsing and it worked!“ testimonials, proving once and for all that when P. T. Barnum said there was a new sucker born every minute he was - in fact - underestimating the American public (though he undoubtedly didn’t go broke doing so)!

Heh. My husband was just telling me the other week about how his grandfather used a dowsing rod to find the well where his parents live

If paying thousands of dollars for a volume control isn’t spendy enough, try upgrading it with a pair of $485 wooden volume knobs, replacing the standard bakelites.

There’s just no reason to pay this much for wood, even for committed audiophiles. Look at it this way: unlike speakers, signal processors or even cables, there’s no engineer out there dedicating his life to polishing wooden volume knobs.

I think I’m going to buy one of each of these things.  I should live to be 150.  Wheeeeeeeeeee  

That or the excessive buildup of harmonic energies will incinerate you instantly..

“Wonga” is a great word. I just felt I needed to share that.

Wonga. Wonga wonga wonga.

Robin Bobcat - 07 January 2008 11:44 PM

That or the excessive buildup of harmonic energies will incinerate you instantly..

I wonder if I can channel it like the Green Lantern.  hmmmmm

“The Gray Lantern”?  I suppose it could work.  Especially if your first name is Earl.

And I still wonder about the people who bought those stereo knobs, thinking that they actually do anything noticeable to the sound.  Perhaps I should start selling balsa television screens, for a “unique viewing experience not to be accomplished with more traditional screens”.