General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPlease pardon me as a totally clueless old fudd, but...
...what exactly is WOO?
In MY world, "WOO" is what I yell when my beautiful wife gets frisky...and I'll NEVER say anything nasty about THAT !!!
PEACE!
quinnox
(20,600 posts)like all the rest eventually do.
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)PEACE!
treestar
(82,383 posts)Like being against vaccines. Someone made a list in a post yesterday. Included feng shui, stuff like that.
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)PEACE!
snooper2
(30,151 posts)certain common characteristics.
The term comes from woo-woo, an epithet used in the 1990s by science and skeptical writers to ridicule people who believe or promote such things. This is in turn believed to have come from the onomatopoeia "woooooo!" as a reaction to dimmed lights or magic tricks. The term implies a lack of either intelligence or sincerity on the part of the person or concepts so described.
As a coincidence, the Chinese word "Wū" (巫 means a shaman, usually with magic powers.
Despite the terrible name, it has become quite a popular term. Woo is sometimes synonymous with bullshit, though there are differences. Bullshit is generally just a lie pulled out of wherever, about whatever. Woo is understood specifically as pseudoscience, uses a science-like formula, and attempts to place itself as scientifically, or at least reasonably, supported.
Woo generally contains most of the following characteristics:
A simple idea that purports to be the one answer to many problems (often including diseases)
A "scientific-sounding" reason for how it works, but little to no actual science behind it; for example, quote mines of studies that if bent enough could be described in such a way to support it, outright misapplication of studies, or words that sound scientific but make no sense in the context they are used in
It involves the supernatural and paranormal (not necessarily)
A claim of persecution, usually perpetrated by the government or the pharmaceutical, medical, or scientific community
An invocation of a scientific authority
Prefers to use abundant testimonials over actual scientific research
A claim that scientists are blind to the discovery, despite attempts to alert them
A disdain for objective, randomized experimental controls, especially double-blind testing (which are kind of what makes epidemiology actually, y'know, work)
And, usually, an offer to share the knowledge for a price.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Woo
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)I think I'll stick to my response to my wife's friskiness!
PEACE!
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)And appropriated the sound to denote poor scientific practices, fraudulent claims and conspiracy paranoia.
whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)"Woo" is vague pejorative that means whatever the user wants it to.
Old Codger
(4,205 posts)That your wife gets frisky, the idiocy involved in the on line here has gone way over the edge... Just put the word and any ways of "spelling" it in my trashcan list...
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)It's an advantage of having a younger(by a little more than 8 years) and very foxy wife!
PEACE!
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Scientific claims used as marketing tools, mostly.
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)Pass.
PEACE!
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Whereas 500 years ago one would have appealed to some deity, now one appeals to "objectivty" and "science".
Iggo
(48,193 posts)See: Homeopathy.
PEACE!
I HATE pseudoscience!
PEACE!
Greybnk48
(10,340 posts)what it is, what it means, or even acknowledging the posts. From this moment on, for me, they don't exist.
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)PEACE!
meow2u3
(24,899 posts)MarianJack
(10,237 posts)Now that I know, I've gained nothing!
PEACE!
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)May the two of you love one and other until you are an even older fudd.
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)I want to be with her until I'm 110!
PEACE!