General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFrom whom did you first hear the term
"woo" used. Specifically was it on the DU?
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)TlalocW
(15,392 posts)He uses it a lot.
TlalocW
2naSalit
(86,840 posts)within the past year.
kcr
(15,320 posts)It's not a term exclusive to DU. It is pretty popular here though.
1000words
(7,051 posts)"New Age woo" was the phrase. I believe it's been around a while.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)when the term was used to mean "seek someone's hand in marriage".
cui bono
(19,926 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)immoderate
(20,885 posts)"Woo" originates with ghostly, spiritual things. It generalizes to things that require invoking the supernatural to "explain" them.
I know Randi uses it, but it might go back to Sagan, or Asimov. It is not a DU originated word, though, DU has some skeptics.
--imm
applegrove
(118,841 posts)Can give me a clear definition of when a hypothesis starts and woo ends. It seems to be a concept LOST lost lost IN in in TIME time time.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)But some are more equal than others.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)I may "hypothesize" that rubbing bear dung and weasel urine on a person will cure their cold ... (amazingly everyone that does this miraculously recovers within 5-10 days) ... have I put forward a scientific hypothesis ... we both know I have not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis ... its a place to start if you truly do not understand.
Arkansas Granny
(31,535 posts)when I encountered it here, I knew what it referred to.
Revanchist
(1,375 posts)Here's a good explanation of it
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)It is a term that is short hand for pseudo science and quackery.
Woo (pseudoscience) it what passes for science at places like the Creation museum ... if science doesn't offer the answers "you" like ... one can always engage in pseudo science, and tailor "findings" to fit your needs.
Pseudoscience is used to confuse and obfuscate ... either by design (charlatans or those with a specific agenda), through ignorance ... or through (what I like to think of as) zealotry/mysticism.
Some woo can be fairly benign, but much of it poses a danger to others (squandering time and emotional and financial resources)
Tanuki
(14,924 posts)etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)Tanuki
(14,924 posts)or the sound that tv ghosts would make when waving their hands at you menacingly.
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etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)sakabatou
(42,186 posts)ileus
(15,396 posts)Not on DU...
Fla_Democrat
(2,547 posts)Dead Poets Society.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/quotes
John Keating: Language was developed for one endeavor, and that is - Mr. Anderson? Come on, are you a man or an amoeba?
{pause}
John Keating: Mr. Perry?
Neil: To communicate.
John Keating: No! To woo women!
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)I've been told it comes from James Randi, whom I do not respect in the slightest, one of the most dishonest artists of my lifetime. A man who lied harder and longer than almost anyone outside of professional politics.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Whyevolutionistrue.com
MO_Moderate
(377 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)a kennedy
(29,723 posts)lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)And I have never heard it used anywhere else, and I have never heard the "woo" discussion anywhere else either.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)by a DUer who will remain nameless, as he has passed. Way, way back in the old "Meeting Room."
I didn't know that there was a branch of fundamental skepticism before DU. I thought I was a skeptic simply because I don't drink the kool aid of conventional wisdom or any groups "group think."
Boy, did I get schooled.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)the title, but, I read part of the book and immediately recognized that woo physics was "junk science". My friend, on the other hand
was very enthused about it. He has also drifted into "New Age Woo Science."
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)It is an insult and intended as such, which has much to do with the ineffectiveness of the campaign. And the fact that too many people know by experience that legally sanctioned drugs and safe, effective drugs and not necessarily the same.
ananda
(28,885 posts)In some respects it is apt.
But it often gets applied too broadly.