NASA vs. Gwyneth Paltrow

A sad note about the confrontation between skeptics and charlatans

Denis Yatsutko, XX2 century, based on Gizmodo: NASA Calls Bullshit on Goop's $120 'Bio-Frequency Healing' Sticker Packs

Talented American actress Gwyneth Paltrow (Gwyneth Paltrow) has been famous for the last few years, in addition to her wonderful roles, for leading the brand Goop, which was born in 2008 as a home page and has now turned into a rather big lifestyle company, selling Gwyneth to numerous fans (or rather, fans: the main audience Goop – women) "all the best", including non-working diets and useless wellness practices and accessories. From time to time honest and educated people can't stand it and try to expose certain statements Goop about sold and promoted products and techniques. Unfortunately, on the emerging holivar Goop and its partners, as a rule, are just getting up. The other day, the center of the scandal became Body Vibes stickers, "regulating the energy of the body" and made, according to the statement Goop, "made of the same material as NASA space suits." The essence of the scandal is that NASA was not aware that it has such material. Because there isn't one.

An example of the use of pseudo-cosmic Body Vibes stickers, contributing, according to their manufacturers and authors of the site Goop, headed by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, "maintaining the ideal energy frequency of the body, relieving physical tension and inflammation, as well as improving cellular metabolism." 24 pieces of painted plaster for $ 120. Good business, Gwyneth!

At the beginning of this year around Goop thundered scandal related to the so–called "jade eggs" (jade eggs): Paltrow suggests that women insert them into vaginas – to "increase sexual energy, improve muscle tone, better control over the bladder, a more regular cycle and – perhaps most importantly - for the sake of a sense of connection with yourself and your inner strength." That's it. To confirm all these bold claims, Goop refers to some abstract "Tantric and Taoist practices." Doctors and just caring people in January wrote a lot on various resources that:

a) there is no research that jade eggs work at all somehow;
b) there is neither a hole nor a lace in them to facilitate their extraction if there are difficulties with this;
c) jade is porous, and therefore leaving jade egg in the vagina at night is fraught with toxic shock;
d) what the hell is "inner strength" anyway?

And so on. A discussion broke out – as a result, interest in jade eggs only grew.

This time, the focus of public attention was another product promoted by Paltrow's company – Body Vibes stickers ($120 for a package of 24 pieces). Goop described them as "made of the same conductive carbon material as NASA's space suits." By virtue of the latter, Body Vibes supposedly have to "rebalance the energy in your bodies" because they are "tuned to the ideal frequency of vital energy." At the same time, apparently, it was meant that the customers Goop do not live in such extreme conditions as astronauts in orbit, because they do not need a whole spacesuit, but an inch circle or a heart made of wonderful material on the forearm is enough.

However, we live in the XXI century, and the problem of wide-ranging hoarding of a sucker is now associated with the inability to keep it a secret from those whose good name you are trying to hide behind. The advertising of the miracle slaps caught the eyes of the authors of Gizmodo, and they did not hesitate to contact NASA directly for comment. And a representative of this respected agency said that NASA "does not have any conductive carbon material," and the suits in which astronauts work on the ISS are made of synthetic materials, in particular spandex.

Gizmodo has reached out to representatives of Body Vibes and Goop with a request to provide a link to a study published in a peer-reviewed journal confirming that their "space" stickers have any effect on the human body. At first there was no answer for a long time. Then they explained to the Gizmodovites that the basis of the allegedly existing health effects Body Vibes are some "bioenergy synthesis technologies", supposedly developed at AlphaBio Centrix, Nevada, USA. Gizmodo asked for comments from the company's founder Richard Eaton, who told the following:

"Without going into the details of the development and research of this technology, it boils down to the following: I have found a way to use the human body's biofrequency, which is susceptible to external energy signals." He also added: "Most of the research is confidential and protected as a trade secret."

Five points, Eton! Justification by the "secrecy of research" is almost the same as a reference to the "esoteric wisdom of the east": it is immediately clear to skeptics that it's bullshit, and romantics can continue to be deceived, since you can't imagine objections to each thesis or conclusion of research – there are no conclusions and theses!

When Gizmodo asked Mark Shelhamer, the former chief scientist of NASA's scientific research department, to comment on the situation with Body Vibes, he was laconic:

"Wow," he said, "what a big pile of shit."

A little later, explanations from Goop followed. Gwyneth Paltrow's website removed the mention of NASA and sent the following statement to Gizmodo:

"As we have always explained, our advice and recommendations are not officially approved, and the opinions expressed by the companies and experts we represent do not necessarily reflect our views. The purpose of our content is to highlight unique products and offers, find open alternatives and encourage discussion.
...Based on NASA's statement, we, in turn, contacted [Body Vibes] to clarify the information, and removed the controversial statements from our website until we receive additional information."

Finally, the representatives of Body Vibes apologized for the incorrect description of their product:

"We apologize to NASA, Goop, our customers and fans for this damaged phone. We never intended to mislead anyone. We found out that our engineer was incorrectly informed by the distributor about the relevant material purchased by us due to its unique specifications. We regret that we did not exercise due diligence before including the distributor's information in the description of our product."

In general, it is clear: the switchman is to blame. Classic. Now look for that engineer and that distributor.

On the other hand, you can be happy, right? Have NASA, Gizmodo and common sense won? Well, how to say…

Here is the continuation of the statement Body Vibes:

"...However, the origin of the material does not affect the effectiveness in any way. Body Vibes remains committed to creating a holistic lifestyle, and we support the quality and effectiveness of our product."

"It doesn't affect efficiency," you know? That is OK, the material is not cosmic, the technology is the devil understand what, the seller of raw materials deceived our engineer, but our buzzer for w ... the sticker for the skin still works! Just $ 120 – and your lifestyle will become holistic. Whatever that means.

Checkmate, amethysts. God's dew. Well, what about it? Do not lose profit because of some annoying skeptics.

Speaking of amethysts. In the online store Goop sells many other "health products". For example, "medical pouch". This is, of course, a bag inside which customers who have paid $ 85 will find "magically charged stones: citrine, transparent quartz, black obsidian, rose quartz, amethyst, lapis lazuli, carnelian and chrysocolla (also known as the "stone of the Goddess")." According to the main shaman Goop Colleen McCann, all these pebbles can be useful for "using your own intuition and inner strength, protection and healing." And since there are no links to NASA, there is no one to dig in.

Yes, and if Goop was one. But there are thousands of them.

And here we are all about the technological singularity, about GMOs, about the conquest of space…

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  26.06.2017