# What to you is the epitome of bullshit? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 15, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890 "2012-02-15T03:16:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/61 "2012-02-15T18:42:47Z")
“Good morning, employees of WidgetCorp. Yes, it’s true that EvilSouless Robot Manufacturing, Inc. recently purchased your company, but no need to worry. Your company culture is one of the things we value most, and you can be assured that we will never make any changes that would affect it.” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/62 "2012-02-15T19:54:55Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > The anti-vaccination movement. What I came to post. There is also this food place that sells something like “Maker’s Diet”, which is supposed to be only food God made and designed. It’s supposed to be healthier. It’s quite crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/63 "2012-02-15T20:12:20Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > [This.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14775798&postcount=24) Dude, what’s your malfunction?? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/64 "2012-02-15T20:25:10Z")
Healthcare insurers are here for you, for your health, your care is a priority and we guarantee the highest quality. By the way, your claim has been rejected since your specialist is 0.2 miles outside the authorized alternative care provider distance, and we will only pay up to a statistically calculated market average for that particular care compared to the national average. No you can’t see those figures or market statistics, we’ll tell you when the check comes due. Yes, my BA communications degree and customer service script authorize me to make critical preferred care decisions that your surgeon is woefully underqualified to make. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/65 "2012-02-15T20:44:01Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Has anybody here ever dealt with ISO 9000 certification for management? > Hey, it’s international, it’s a standard, it’s a certificate…so it’s _got_ to improve management , right? > > The biggest crock of BS I’ve ever seen… > fill out forms just for the sake of filling out forms, and then fill out more forms to certify that the previous forms were properly filled out. > Then keep huge bulky files and show 'em to an external inspector, whose only job is to make sure you filled out all the forms. > Never mind that you lost money because of the time wasted filling out forms. Fuck, I’d forgotten all about that fucking albatross getting hung around my neck. What a colossal WOMBAT that bullshit was. I finally just quit working on it and rebuffed senior management efforts to revive it. What really pissed me off were managers who hung their hats on it in order to justify their positions. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/66 "2012-02-15T20:52:26Z")
> [@Trom](#): > > That’s debatable… True. Astrology at least has entertainment value. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/67 "2012-02-15T21:18:07Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > True. Astrology at least has entertainment value. If you’re talking stupid moving average systems, etc. being sold on the internet, I agree with you. But then you have to consider you have people like the [director](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lo) of of the MIT Lab for Financial Engineering releasing [papers](http://web.mit.edu/alo/www/Papers/1705-1765.pdf)(pdf) saying stuff like this: > [@](#): > > Technical analysis, also known as ``charting,‘’ has been a part of financial practice for many decades, but this discipline has not received the same level of academic scrutiny and acceptance as more traditional approaches such as fundamental analysis. One of the main obstacles is the highly subjective nature of technical analysis—the presence of geometric shapes in historical price charts is often in the eyes of the beholder. In this paper, we propose a systematic and automatic approach to technical pattern recognition using nonparametric kernel regression, and apply this method to a large number of U.S. stocks from 1962 to 1996 to evaluate the effectiveness of technical analysis. By comparing the unconditional empirical distribution of daily stock returns to the conditional distribution—conditioned on specific technical indicators such as head-and-shoulders or double-bottoms—we find that over the 31-year sample period, several technical indicators do provide incremental information and may have some practical value. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/68 "2012-02-16T00:28:06Z")
Psychoanlysis of dreams. Astrology. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/69 "2012-02-16T00:43:26Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Critical theorists don’t treat science as an ideology, they treat it as what it is: an exploitative power dynamic social construct reinforced by the entrenched polymorphically perverse patriarchy. Okay, I think I get it! I have some respect for the weak version of post-modernism. Some ideas are, in fact, influenced by the culture of the people who hold them. Language has some role in directing the thoughts it expresses. But the extreme varieties…the notion that there isn’t any real objective truth, or that any given culture is exactly as good as any other… Now that’s bullshit! ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/70 "2012-02-16T00:50:34Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Alien reptilian ruling overlords: [David Icke](http://www.davidicke.com/) I’d classify that more as “insanity” than “bullshit”. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/71 "2012-02-16T00:52:05Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > . . . Such as the idea that whatever science _I_ can’t understand, no-one else can either. . . . I’m hugely sympathetic with this, when it comes to really complex modern science. I will absolutely forgive anyone for not getting quantum mechanics, expansionary phase cosmology, or even special relativity. These are all blatantly counter-intuitive. (Which, of course, is true because we’ve been fortunate to exist in a large-scale, stable, sheltered part of the cosmos, conducive to the origin of life and intelligence.) Doubting these things when first encountering them is not bullshit; it is the essence of wisdom. Continuing to doubt once the evidence has been presented… Now that’s bullshit! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/72 "2012-02-16T00:55:38Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Has anybody here ever dealt with ISO 9000 certification for management? . . . Gawd, yes! Also Sarbanes-Oxley certification. And I was also given the Y2K certification assignment, and that was bullshit too! While we’re talking business bull, add in Six Sigma. I was a maths major in college, and know my stats cold. This was a ghastly waste of everyone’s time! But I got to do a fun “Green Belt” project, just like high school science fair! Whee! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/73 "2012-02-16T00:57:29Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Psychoanlysis of dreams. . . . Aw! I like dream analysis! I’ve learned a lot about my unconscious mind from it. (Also, I’ve written entire novels based on my dreams! If I could record 'em, they’d be big hits on YouDream!) ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/74 "2012-02-16T06:06:59Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Dude, what’s your malfunction?? 😕 [I’m beginning to feel like it’s all BS.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13958653&postcount=33) 😃 😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/75 "2012-02-16T06:11:19Z")
Lots of good BS downthread. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/76 "2012-02-16T14:35:22Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Politicians. Politics is the art of bullshit. yeah, I was going to say “any time a politician is producing sound.” ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/77 "2012-02-16T14:40:16Z")
Another vote for ISO certification. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/78 "2012-02-16T18:01:10Z")
Life. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/79 "2012-02-16T18:17:44Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > …My favourite Dutch writer, Karel van het Reve, held a prestigious, yet hilarious lecture on this very subject [“Literatuurwetenschap: het raadsel der onleesbaarheid” (Literary studies. The enigma of unreadability)]. … After that speech, literary criticism as a college study in the Netherlands pretty much died a silent death. It is a shame it isn’t, to my knowledge, translated in English. :eek: I would pay actual money to read that in English. Even bad machine-translated English! Please oh please! Any idea where I can see even an excerpt in Dutch? ETA: I am in [heaven](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/reve003lite02_01/reve003lite02_01_0001.htm&ei=gEg9T7jqEcG2twff0InaBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.dbnl.org/tekst/reve003lite02_01/reve003lite02_01_0001.php%26num%3D50%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DdgR%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Dimvns). ---
**Author:** ![Jbone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@Jbone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jbone)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890/80 "2012-02-16T21:56:37Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Has anybody here ever dealt with ISO 9000 certification for management?.. How about Lean Six Sigma? [http://www.6sigma.us/](http://www.6sigma.us/) I personally have not had any training or received one of their colored belts, but I’ve been in a project group where the organizer was doing it based on this training. It was absolutely a waste of time. It took like the first three weeks of the meetings to establish meeting rules, timelines, definitions, etc before we even looked at the problem at hand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-you-is-the-epitome-of-bullshit/612890.md?page=5)