# Inexplicable happenings that are really inexplicable **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 14, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142 "2010-06-14T15:10:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/1 "2010-06-14T15:10:44Z")
You often hear stories from the Woo-Woo Club about how something-or-other proves fill-in-the-blank. “And he could set things on _fire_ just by _looking_ at them, and scientists have not be able to explain how he did it. His doctors said he was a medical mystery. To this day, science has not come up with a convincing explanation…” You know what I mean. And then it turns out the doctor quoted as saying it was a medical mystery was really his primary-care physician from Kyrgyzstan, and the woowooers are conveniently overlooking widespread debunking. Or, it was inexplicable at the time, but fifty years later science can explicate every little detail. Are there any of these types of stories that really can’t be explained by the laws of nature as we know it? Or that are just bizarrely baffling enough to attract the crazy? (I’ll bet [cracked.com](http://cracked.com) has a list somewhere. They always do this sort of stuff). No, I don’t believe that psychic aliens are helping the CIA teach pyrokinesis to kids from Kyrgyzstan as prophesied by Nostradamus and the Mayans. I’m just interested in weird stuff. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/2 "2010-06-14T15:12:22Z")
[http://www.forteantimes.com/](http://www.forteantimes.com/) ---
**Author:** ![trapezoidal\_jellyfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6f9a4e/32.png) [@trapezoidal\_jellyfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trapezoidal_jellyfish)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/3 "2010-06-14T15:46:55Z")
I’m not saying this is inexplicable, but it’s certainly weird. the [Guidestones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/4 "2010-06-14T16:43:21Z")
Oh, the world is full of weird stuff without an explanation. Here, to get you started… [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) ‘‘[6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can’t Explain](http://www.cracked.com/article_16871_6-insane-discoveries-that-science-cant-explain.html).’’ My favorite is the bloop. I for one welcome our Elder God overlord! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/5 "2010-06-14T19:28:12Z")
Since we’ve already got one Cracked link, they have two more that are along the same lines: [The 5 Creepiest Unsolved Crimes Nobody Can Explain](http://www.cracked.com/article_18459_the-5-creepiest-unsolved-crimes-nobody-can-explain.html) [The 5 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts](http://www.cracked.com/article_18381_the-5-creepiest-unexplained-broadcasts.html) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/6 "2010-06-14T19:39:09Z")
The placebo effect in science and medicine is a true mystery. It is so common that most people take it for granted and think the explanation is obvious when it isn’t at all. The placebo effect occurs when a biologically active drug is tested against a fake treatment like a sugar pill of saline injection. One of the biggest hurdles in research is to design treatments that can beat the placebo controls. Most people take this to mean that not beating the placebo means that both treatments do nothing when that isn’t the case at all. The placebo often has a real and measurable effect in things like pain management and even diseases. Animals sometimes show the the response as well and nobody really understands why except in the most vague and mystical terms. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/7 "2010-06-14T19:48:29Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The placebo effect in science and medicine is a true mystery. It is so common that most people take it for granted and think the explanation is obvious when it isn’t at all. The placebo effect occurs when a biologically active drug is tested against a fake treatment like a sugar pill of saline injection. One of the biggest hurdles in research is to design treatments that can beat the placebo controls. Most people take this to mean that not beating the placebo means that both treatments do nothing when that isn’t the case at all. The placebo often has a real and measurable effect in things like pain management and even diseases. Animals sometimes show the the response as well and nobody really understands why except in the most vague and mystical terms. I don’t have a cite right-off, but it’s my understanding that the placebo effect has actually increased over time. It works even better now than it used to. ---
**Author:** ![Hallucinex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba9def/32.png) [@Hallucinex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hallucinex)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/8 "2010-06-15T03:39:56Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I don’t have a cite right-off, but it’s my understanding that the placebo effect has actually increased over time. It works even better now than it used to. I know Ben Goldacre has mentioned the placebo effect (and the nocebo effect) a bunch of times in [his column](http://www.badscience.net/category/placebo/). Heard him give a pretty good talk last year where he spent a little time talking about just how wacky the placebo effect is. In one of the articles on that page he links to [this 2002 study](http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/287/14/1840) saying that the effect of the placebo looks to have increased over time. ---
**Author:** ![Haunted\_Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@Haunted\_Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haunted_Pasta)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/9 "2010-06-16T04:25:58Z")
The Cracked articles cited above are some of my absolute favorites. These articles from New Scientist cover some of the mysteries noted above, plus several others: [13 Things That Do Not Make Sense](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18524911.600-13-things-that-do-not-make-sense.html) [13 More Things That Do Not Make Sense](http://www.newscientist.com/special/13-more-things) I think the mysterious Belfast homeopathy study results from the first article have pretty much been explained away as being due to faulty experimentation. Apparently others have not been able to replicate the results. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/10 "2010-06-16T04:58:41Z")
> [@trapezoidal\_jellyfish](#): > > I’m not saying this is inexplicable, but it’s certainly weird. > > the [Guidestones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones) My father lives in Atlanta, and I sent him a link about the guidestones a while back. He took a day trip to see them, and was severely disappointed. His account of the visit: > [@My Dad](#): > > Some dickheads have vandalized the stones with paint, polyurethane and crayon, alas, and, when one stands next to a 16 foot tall hunk of foot thick granite, it just doesn’t seem as impressive as one might expect. This is probably influenced by the rather austere setting: a weedy grass field, a potholed gravel parking lot, and red Georgia clay having stained the bottom of some of the stones. I post this not to say they aren’t mysterious, but as a heads-up to anyone who might be considering a road-trip to visit them. Also, to be honest, I’m not sure what he meant by some parts of that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/11 "2010-06-16T13:19:55Z")
There is an inexhaustable supply of new things which happen and are inexplicable. They’re inexplicable simply because not enough accurate data was captured at the time and, by definition, more won’t be forthcoming on something which happened in the past. The so-called Wow signal is a good example. All we will ever know about it was in that small recording of amplitude. Even if another 10 similar signals were recorded over the next 50 years, if each is a surprise and no better data is recorded, it’ll be impossible to determine anything beyond the obvious. Almost all of the true woowoo phenomena fall into this trap. The more that so called “researchers” and Discovery Channel camera crews interview the few witnesses, the more their recollections become unreliable rehashs of the previous interview rather than accurate recitations of their original knowlege. And their set of original knowledge wasn’t all that good 3 minutes after whatever happened had ended. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/12 "2010-06-16T14:48:50Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I don’t have a cite right-off, but it’s my understanding that the placebo effect has actually increased over time. It works even better now than it used to. I have nothing to contribute but to say this is a GOOD thing. It (herbal tea, aromatherapy, Head On) works if you think it works. ---
**Author:** ![hougaswd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@hougaswd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hougaswd)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/13 "2010-06-16T14:51:19Z")
> [@Haunted\_Pasta](#): > > The Cracked articles cited above are some of my absolute favorites. > > These articles from New Scientist cover some of the mysteries noted above, plus several others: > > [13 Things That Do Not Make Sense](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18524911.600-13-things-that-do-not-make-sense.html) > [13 More Things That Do Not Make Sense](http://www.newscientist.com/special/13-more-things) > > I think the mysterious Belfast homeopathy study results from the first article have pretty much been explained away as being due to faulty experimentation. Apparently others have not been able to replicate the results. A couple of observations here: One-off weird stuff has a high probability of simply being a faulty observation, or a poorly constructed experiment. Unfortunately, the Stanley & Pons cold fusion experiment falls into this category, as much as I’d like it to be true. The placebo effect is interesting, but I think it says more about our limited understanding of mind-body interaction than it does about the limits of medical science. Horizon effect: Cosmic inflation during the Big Bang is less believable than more recent violations of the speed of light limit? I agree that inflation is kind of an ad-hoc explanation, but it’s really not all that surprising that we don’t have the big-bang completely figured out yet, given that it’s a tough problem and all. Ultra-Energetic Cosmic Rays, Dark Matter, Methane On Mars, Tetraneutrons, Pioneer Anomaly, Dark Energy, Kuiper Cliff, The Wow Signal, Cosmalogical Constants, and many others: Well, this is science at work, isn’t it? I think the most difficult thing for non-scientists to grasp about how science is practiced is that there is a great deal of uncertainty in the process of figuring it out. Every thing we know to a reasonable certainty now was once a set of observations that didn’t make a lot of sense, and were the source (usually) of some nasty arguments. Walt ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/14 "2010-06-16T15:36:30Z")
> [@trapezoidal\_jellyfish](#): > > I’m not saying this is inexplicable, but it’s certainly weird. > > the [Guidestones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones) [Some factual info on the Georgia stones](http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4198) Some interesting recent suggests that epigenetics may explain placebo effect as well as inexplicable cures, etc. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexplicable-happenings-that-are-really-inexplicable/543142/15 "2010-06-16T15:47:09Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) ‘‘[6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can’t Explain](http://www.cracked.com/article_16871_6-insane-discoveries-that-science-cant-explain.html).’’ 1. [The Voynich Manuscript](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/rugg.html) > [@](#): > > Rugg published his hoax theory earlier this year in the journal Cryptologia. It was bolstered by Laura Aylward, one of his students, who used software to replicate his work. She found that the Voynich’s well-known statistical anomalies - its unnatural repetition of certain words, a sudden dropoff in the use of previously common syllables - can all be accounted for if one uses structured tables and grilles. 1. [The Antikythera Mechanism](http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4184) > [@](#): > > And, as a result, we now know that the ancient Greeks were building far more advanced computational devices than we used to give them credit for. We knew they had the knowledge, we just didn’t know they were translating it into bronze so exquisitely. 1. [The Baigong Pipes](http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4181#) > [@](#): > > The authors found that these were the fossilized casts of tree roots, formed by pedogenesis (the process by which soil is created) and diagenesis (the lithification of soil into rock through compaction and cementation). The result of this process was to create metallic pipelike structures, which by comparing the descriptions offered by researchers, appear to be a perfect match for the Baigong Pipes. The Chinese scientists eventually did come to the same conclusion, according to the Xinmin Weekly article. They used atomic emission spectroscopy to conduct a detailed chemical analysis of the rusty pipe fragments, and found them to contain organic plant matter. Under the microscope they found tree rings, consistently throughout the samples. Once they established that the Baigong Pipes were simply fossilized tree casts, they set about to discover how they got there. 1. [The Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica](http://www.randi.org/jr/111502.html) > [@](#): > > The true nature and origin of the stone balls is quite different, though just as wonderful, in my opinion. They are formed in volcanic areas, in magma, and are the results of very much the same process that occurred in that once-popular and outstandingly grotesque novelty, the “Lava Lamp.” This consisted of a bottle with a heating element in the bottom of it, containing two non-miscible (“won’t-mix”) liquids of slightly different densities and of different colors. > > These stone balls are formed when the material — granodiorite, a metamorphic rock — melts in magma and is of different density than the surrounding fluid. Upon slowly cooling and solidifying, the magma traps the balls until weathering wears away the surrounding material, and the balls — occasionally — come to the surface by other geophysical means. 1. [The Baghdad Batteries](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2804257.stm) > [@](#): > > One serious flaw with the electroplating hypothesis is the lack of items from this place and time that have been treated in this way. 1. [The Bloop](http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4177) > [@](#): > > So, while there are substantial differences between the Bloop and anything else we can think of, the Bloop is not really all that unique. Sources that promote it as some kind of rare mystery often fail to point out that NOAA libraries contain lots of sounds that are unidentified, and the Bloop is just one. Many of these have spectrograms that also consist of clean, well-defined shapes. > > So, be skeptical of news reports or web sites that parrot the unsourced claim that the Bloop “matches the audio profile of a living creature.” It doesn’t really;