Ha! These are pretty good. Probably the worst I've seen in the wild:

A ordinary, round piece of foam you're supposed to stick on your cell phone to "block you and your loved ones from harmful cell phone radiation." Price? $20. What a scam...

Yes... yes.... the idiots are everywhere....

I'd like to add any General Motors product.

Ha i can't believe people still buy the Ionized Bracelet.

There was this one thing, I can't remember the name but it played music but also allowed you to share it with friends who had the same player. You could only play it three times, didn't have smart playlists, and was generally in a brownish color. What the hell was it called..? Oh yeah, it had ads with bunnies, and overweight mullet types were really into 'em. Well anyway, that thing, whatever it was called, should be on the list... or it will be in about 5 years.
:-)

Okay, first my disclaimer: I am somewhat of an Apple fan boy.

There, now, let me be the first (and surely not the last) person to bring up the iPhone on this thread. Feel free to explain to everyone for the millionth time why the iPhone is such a rip off. I'm not griping about it, I'm just opening it up for the rest of you.

@tdj114: The iPhone IS a total rip off. Anyone who buys that piece of crap deserves all the viruses, malware and snooping that comes with it. It can't send emails, can't take photos and crashes constantly. I even heard it doesn't have Wi-Fi. Stupid Apple fan boy idiots...when will they realize that they all waited in line for the lamest cell phone ever created? Just kidding. I love mine!

I think dowsing shouldnt be on the list. Theres a giant thread on the Globalspec cr4 website about dowsing. Alot of those guys are engineers, scientists, technicians and skeptics. They seem to have very good anecdotal stories about dowsing.

There's plenty of engineers, scientists, techs, and skeptics who have stories about bigfoot, yeti, and the loch ness monster too!

Also, people haven't ever lied on the internet, so I guess we're good to go!

they tried to sell these bracelets here in Brazil... no success so far.
anyway, my faith is gone.

Awwww... they didn't mention the new gadgets and sprays that eliminate static buildup on CD's.

My father owns a farm and he has always used dowsing to find drainage tile. Worked every time.

I always thought dowsing was a great way of finding a moron holding a stick.

Crap...I almost forgot: PEAR CABLES!!

@SchruteBuck: Funny too, because there's an ad for the new Malibu right below it.

I almost got snaked out of $400 just yesterday. It was this thing called Kindle that's as locked as my wallet is today. You buy it and then you settle on their selection of popular books just so you can justify spending the $400. The small publishers and some of the best authors that they offer are left in the dust and everything.

The left off Art Lebdev's 3-button keyboard and the eStarling.

Folks, Uri Gellar is back and he has his own show. America is made up of 99% suckers. That's how capitalism works.

I'm an American capitalist. I love this stupid country.

@Mecharine: They seem to have very good anecdotal stories about dowsing.

Ohhh...anecdotes. No need for science then!

Oops. It's actually spelled "Geller"

It's a Hebrew word, meaning "charlatan"

Opps.

First, I meant "They" and not "The"
Second, It's Art "Lebedev" and the 3 key thing was the Optimus.
Third, It's "Geller" and not "Gellar" - It's a Hebrew word meaning "Charlatan"

Crap. I hate that delay.

@hakubak: I feel your pain

I'm sorry, but that list was just too short. I can think of dozens of other products including some obvious ones like Windows Me, the little sticker that boosts cell phone reception (without touching the antenna), most car alarms, and so on.

Technically I am a "water witch"; dowsing works. On a trip to Germany when I was a kid my aunt had me tested, she was in to a lot of homeopathic methods and thought that I may pass the test. I walked across a room with a set of dowsing rods and they consistently moved in the same location in the room. The room was built over an underground stream that was discovered when the addition was built to the house. Afterwards my mother translated what the test was for. I still have the rods, and I was able to find a couple of other water locations when I was a kid. I live in the city now, so finding water is about as difficult as callng United Water. But its still a cool trick.

Skurtis, I'm respectfully not buying it. Read "Flim Flam" by James Randi. I'm not saying that you didn't experience what you experienced - I'm saying that there are many explanations for it - including the fact that there is a whole lot of water under the ground in the US and Europe.

I file dowsing as a mostly harmless diversion. The topic here is intentional scam products. I'm not sure Windows ME fits either.

Junk bonds.
Sub-prime real estate investments.
Socialized medicine.
Catholic Indulgences.

@hakubak: Well if you're going to go down that road, why don't you tell us what's so great about our current health care system?

I'd also add to that list:

George Bush & the Neocons
Blackwater
ATT
Comcast
All religions except the ones that don't justify violence or oppression.
"Intelligent" Design
Christmas (oh, I forgot Jesus wanted a yearly shopping spree)
IRS
The one or two oil paid "scientists" who say Global Climate Change is a "hoax"
FEMA
Most American News media, esp. Fox.

The list is almost infinite.

@johnnyabnormal: Christmas has nothing to do with being a gadget or being a scam, it's Christianity's take on a pagan's version of Arbor day, basically...which is where we get the tree from.

And GWB isn't a scam, he's a scam artist.

Umm, Johnnyabnormal, that's just a list of things you don't like.

And Global Warming is on my snake oil bull$#!^ list...

And I'm a scientist with no ties to oil.

We're in agreement on Christmas - or rather what it has become.

I don't have a problem with the IRS, per se. They are abused, as is the money they collect.

OK I read with great interest about dowsing and divining rods, even checked out a bunch of videos on youtube. and it appears to me that the movement of these rods are controlled completely by gravity - the angle they are tilted to is the direction they point. So how can anyone not be skeptical when just watching someone use these?

Amen Fierock. Small tilts, intentional or not, will make the rods sway.

@hakubak: It took me the fourth try at reading your reply to realize you said "tiLts" - I was about to say large ones would cause them to sway too.

LOL like 80% of those gadgets had something to do with blocking "harmful" radio waves. Surprised there was only 1 audiophool product on that list.

How could we forget those uber-expensive audio cables?

Those Q-ray things are being sold in a couple of the junk catalogs I get from time to time. They want $200 for the necklace version, too.

Who would have guessed that "SUCKER!" started with "Q"

@gokor: All of this I know. I was responding to HAKUBAK listing things that were non-gadgets.

@hakubak:

"Umm, Johnnyabnormal, that's just a list of things you don't like."

Yup. Just like your list.

"And Global Warming is on my snake oil bull$#!^ list...
And I'm a scientist with no ties to oil."

May I ask what your scientific focus of study is? Also, if you are in fact the only non-oil funded climate scientist (assuming a lot there) that I have ever encountered, please explain: Why do you refute the overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus that the human industrial age has created unprecedented CO2 levels that have drastically altered the climate? Please explain your position very clearly with as many references and links as you like.

"We're in agreement on Christmas - or rather what it has become."

It is quite sick.

"I don't have a problem with the IRS, per se. They are abused, as is the money they collect."

VERY VERY true.

@johnnyabnormal: Actually, the burden of proof is on the global warming believer's side. One of the fundamental axioms in science and skepticism is "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."

The Earth's climate is changing. That's not new. The suggestion that this is happening as a result of human activity is an extraordinary claim.

@johnnyabnormal: Johnnyabnormal, check out the british documentary 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'. It raises questions and points out facts that were missing from "The Inconvenient Truth". A rather thought-provoking film if you don't mind getting both sides of the story and making up your own mind on the matter.

@Pixlmonkey: Do send a link. Have you looked into who funded the documentary?

@hakubak: Uh, the burden of proof is NOT on those who have linked human CO2 production to climate change. It's simple physics: The more CO2 you have in the atmosphere, the higher the average atmospheric temperature goes. You still haven't answered my questions, only deflected them. If you can provide me with just ONE reputable climate scientist who disagrees with the worldwide scientific consensus and isn't bankrolled by special oil interests, you will be the first to do so. Every person I've encountered who says global climate change is a hoax can never back up their claims...they only deflect mountains of evidence crushing down on their flimsy "theories".

Regarding "The Earth's climate is changing. That's not new."

This the weakest defense of your position yet. I never said it wasn't new. What I did say was that it is linked to human activity and is unprecedented. You're ignoring the fact that CO2 levels have never been this high in 100,000 years of ice core samples. This extreme CO2 spike is directly linked through thousands of ice core samples to the use of fossil fuels. There is not a shred of evidence that counters this overwhelming fact. Proof does not lie, oil related companies do.

Yet again, the necons fall silent:

This thread, plus:

[gizmodo.com]

[gizmodo.com]

[gizmodo.com]

[gizmodo.com]

Do you guys ever get tired about being so wrong?