UKC

I've been pondering the weirdness of the internet (and it's obvious connection to weirdness in humanity) and I wondered if anyone had any anecdotes of strange things people have said/done based on "advice" from the internet. This is not a dig at any particular online community/anything, just looking for some funny stories. Also, I'd like to avoid anything Morbid, so any climbing accidents (unless very minor) are probably off topic.

I'll start off:

My youngest brother (15) has really bad eczema, he seems to have tried everything, but my Dad decided to take it a step further. Having read somewhere that Broccoli was a superfood/magical cure-all or something, he decided that it might cure my little brothers eczema.

So, he decided to rub Broccoli (raw) onto my brother's skin, obviously no harm was done, nor was any good done (other than a potentially wasted Broccoli). But somehow he thought it might and I guess was willing to try anything.

In reply to Oliver Houston:

Isn't that story more about your Dad being an idiot than the internet being weird?

In reply to Oliver Houston:
Pokemon Go? That got people doing some pretty strange things.

In reply to Oliver Houston:

I like pranks that exploit stupidity and gullibility. Apple users are a typical target: Make you iphone waterproof through a software update? Wireless charging by microwave? Drill a hole to access the hidden earphone plug?

Obviously not all who "admit" being fooled have actually destroyed their brand new phone, but even if only one person was tricked it was worth the effort!

If you want the full rant mode, let´ s discuss stem cell therapies for just about anything, but that is probably not what you are after....

CB

In reply to cb294:

A personal favourite of mine was the iPad ap that allowed you to stand on your ipad to use it as a set of scales....

In reply to Oliver Houston:

Presumably somebody reads this shite:

http://goop.com

In reply to cb294:

But CB, I read that genetic modification is bad and scary.

Is it not better to eat alkali lemons and drink loads of turmeric tea??

Just to clarify, I am joking. I will be taking my medical advice from doctors and respected journals, not internet forums. Do stem cell therapies even come under GM?

In reply to GregCHF:

I would like to avoid derailing the thread, so just the one post: Never mind GM, a quick google will show you hundreds of sites like this one

http://www.startstemcells.com/diabetes-type1-treatment.html

that offer experimental (at best) or obviously nonviable stem cell therapies to desperate patients with life threatening diseases. Some treatments on offer correspond to approaches that are still at the level of basic basic research and may eventually go into clinical translation, while other suggested treatments clearly cannot work in principle (e.g. the transplantation of autologous stem cells from fat tissue in type 1 diabetes patients: Even if they magically were to become beta cells, they would be destroyed like the original ones!).

These web sites also exploit the gullibility of people, but in a criminal rather than funny way. Exploiting dying people in this way is probably one of the lowest levels you can sink to.

CB

In reply to Ben_Climber:

Good one, I had not seen that one! My favourite was the software update to make the phone waterproof, as it is so obviously wrong on so many levels.

CB

In reply to Oliver Houston:

There's actually only one reliable source of advice online that can be trusted:

http://viz.co.uk/category/top-tips/

In reply to Oliver Houston:
Going off to chop the bolt on Eroica

In reply to Ben_Climber:


Or the one where you could charge your iphone in a microwave...

In reply to cb294:




And anyone that hasn't had their children immunised.

In reply to Oliver Houston:



Maybe he was supposed to eat it!

In reply to Oliver Houston:

Broccoli only works as a suppository, big ripe florets are the best.

In reply to hokkyokusei:

+1, that is even worse.

CB

In reply to GregCHF:


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/11/why-we-fell-for-clean-...

I'm just wondering who the "we" in the article's title is meant to be. It's certainly not me, or anyone else I know.