Comments for The Fabulous Georgia Magnet - Revisited in 2010! at http://www.randi.org/site , comment 1 to 19 out of 19 comments http://www.randi.org/site Thu, 23 May 2013 01:30:31 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-18058 A look at what can and can't be done with one of these devices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdCKI5QjwE0 (No Science Content Warning) - tomfoolery_101 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:15:59 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-18023 you sure as hell do. it's all about leverage! look at his thumbs on the first test: they're much closer to the woman's first knuckles. in the second "test", his thumbs are much, much closer to her wrist; damn near right on top of it by comparison (considering how short the hand is). at first, i simply thought the woman was faking. especially with her little thing she does with her shoulder in the first test. this capitalizes on the classic societal assumption that a woman is weaker, which is also emphasized by the demonstrator's exaggerated chauvinism. but i decided to give it a shot myself without the aid of this miraculous gizmo or its ridiculous price. at first, it looked like he was possibly twisting her wrist in, but noticed on myself that didn't seem to make me appear weaker. so then i paid more attention to the placement of his hands. again- as in the balance "test"- they space out the demonstrations in order to change positions without us noticing. that's when i began to focus on the placement of his hands. b/c the bones of the hand are acting like a lever when he "pushes" down, (which is really just pivoting the joint as it's made to do which is also twisted into the misinformation that the wrist is a "weak area") . hence the importance of the placement of the thumbs: more torque at the end (further away from the wrist) and less torque right up against the wrist. you can reproduce this concept easily by moving an open door with one finger on the edge away from the hinge and then trying to push it with one finger closer to the hinge. very simple concept of leverage both physically and psychologically :) anyone else agree? or were you teasing us with sarcasm, TDjazz? lol also, i would like to note that he begins twisting her wrist down in the first exercise before he even tells her to resist, which is kind of like saying "1, 2, 3, go!" at the start of a race and running on "2". but i also suspect there's a bit of faking going on since she looks directly at the camera immediately afterward and awkwardly stops herself... and in the second exercise, they're also making eye contact & nodding, which seems to be a potential cue for her to flex if you scrutinize it closely. plus, you have to account for the placebo effect the purchasers testing this device on themselves will feel. they psychologically desire it to work & will flex more strongly the second time b/c they're already sold on the idea and want to "prove" how magical this piece of crap is. and don't even get me started on warming up the muscles; think of getting out of bed in the morning, or getting up to stretch on a long road trip. a very elegant deception on many levels! it's almost enough to make you want to become a swindler yourself if you didn't have morals. just think of yourself as half magician, half used car salesman! ;D - ccolazo Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:07:37 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-18011 I wrote a comment offering Randi's observation (and citing this blog post) and tried to post it on the YouTube page, but, guess what, comments are "moderated"! I don't think that comment is ever going to appear. - Kritikos Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:19:59 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17989 For the life of me, I can't see any chicanery going on in the Wrist Strength test video. 8) - TDjazz Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:16:29 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17979 Really enjoyed the Magnetic Lady post by Mr. Randi. However, for the first time, in my many years of following TAM (the amazing Randi), a secondary post (by Richard) got me going more than the original post. Took me awhile (because I am slow) to link to Richards video but it was very much worth the time. I am sure Mr. Randi doesn’t mind that I liked Richards video a little more than his because that is one of the things he has been trying to teach us to do, be a little objective as well as being skeptical. Good stuff! - Able Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:37:16 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17978 My favourite part starts at 0:15: [quote]...and we're gonna do, actually, a total of four different tests; we're gonna test strength, balance, flexibility.[/quote] Strength, balance, flexibility. Sounds like [u]four[/i] tests to me. - kenhamer Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:19:26 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17973 Report the spam to YouTube. I have flagged the video as scam/fraud. I wanted to send the link to Richard's video with the flag, however YouTube does not allow adding a comment to the flag, so they may not understand how the scam works. - gerdbonk Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:37:26 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17972 sschlimgen - If it is from a_zulkarnaen then I got the same spam for commenting on their youtube. - rjh02 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:54:51 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17971 They're also spamming people - I just got one. - sschlimgen Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:23:13 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17970 Submit the company and product to the FTC, https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx - William Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:27:57 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17969 In the second video - the core flexibility test - watch the subject's feet. Without the bracelet he twists around without moving his feet. With the bracelet his feet pivot and he turns much further. Cheap tricks. - RobbieD Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:19:14 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17968 wonderful video Richard :) - harpman Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:55:16 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17967 In the first demonstration, notice that the guy blue shirt has his feet closer together so that there is only a two-point system - very unstable like a two legged chair or a bicycle. In the second demonstration(with the amazing bracelet - whatever), notice that he now separates his feet to create a triangle with the other subject - a more stable platform like a tripod. So, not only was there an allowance for motion instability, there was instability built into the system in the first demonstration (evidenced by blue shirt almost falling back as well). - Kuroyume Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:39:02 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17966 [quote]I think the kool-aid's nearly all gone.[/quote] I wish. But I'm pretty certain there's an unlimited supply. - kenhamer Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:28:46 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17965 It is one of the few videos where the number of people who dislike it outnumber the number of people who do like it. - rjh02 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:03:10 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17964 There are a lot of these products coming out of the wood work at the moment. Power Balance (which has a bunch of celebrity sports stars endorsing it) and CieAura (which I think is sold via multi level marketing)to name just two, that use similar tricks and are selling basicaly the same thing. It seems that a lot of people who have paid for these trinkets, and they are not cheap - powerbalance will set you back $59.95 here in Australia- are true believers. The comments I see on videos explaining the tricks are along the lines of "well thats a trick, but I've got one and it works for me" I wish it wasn't the case but I think the kool-aid's nearly all gone. - tomfoolery_101 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:37:44 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17963 BAAAAAH HAAAAAAAA, I can't believe people still fall for this load of dog squeeze. Next thing you know they will be talking about this curing certain disease states. A fool and his money are soon seperated. - HarveyC Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:33:49 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17962 Readers might like to see a video I made on the subject. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piu75P8sxTo - Richard Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:45:02 +0100 http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1041-the-fabulous-georgia-magnet-revisited-in-2010.html#comment-17961 Such a pitifully obvious scam. You wonder why those simpletons don't see how phony that "demo" looks to even a casual observer. Oh, of course! It is because they ARE simpletons, of the same ilk as those that would spend even a dollar for that bracelet. - daveg703 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:44:12 +0100