How to throw away money

Those of you that know me already know I am more than a little skeptical of unmeasurable things. That said, when I saw this it struck me as so silly that I thought it must be a parody. But no, apparently people actually send this guy money to (get ready for what should be a punchline) call him and have him play a recorded message over the phone that improves the video and audio quality of the room. Yep, for only 60 bucks your stereo will sound better and your TV will have a better picture. If you aren't laughing too hard, go to his home page and see the other "products" he sells. Adhesive dots, small bags of rocks, etc. all at high prices and all designed to do magic but unexplainable things.

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina60.htm

I really did think it was satire at first, so I did a search and found a lot of audiophiles that have actually tried this. Of course most found it didn't do anything and used the money back guarantee, but there seem to be a few believers. Interestingly, some of them defend the product even if they agree it might be a placebo effect. They used a new-to-me word to explain the people who did not get results. They said it was a Placeno, meaning the skeptics had already made up their minds that no result was possible. Counting myself among the skeptics it occurred to me that they might be from the company, but I have no way of knowing. I wondered how he managed to avoid prosecution for fraud, but I guess it's like psychics in that as long as they don't promise something tangible it's OK. Anyway it cracked me up.

Have a fine weekend, Randy