I grew up in the land of black swans. And I don’t think the queen had much to do with those.
Australia, I assume? (Didn’t the Aborigines revere the black swan? Or at least had much to say of them in their folklore?)
Yes. I grew up maybe a mile from the Swan River that runs through Perth.
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I have never accepted the fixity of topics. In fact, I think this is part of the problem with the constant attempt to put hazard barriers around theology. All facts that are worth knowing relate to other facts around 'em. A thing which exists as a pure philosophical isolate is, by its nature, irrelevant to everything else. So, while the conventional view seems to be that relating the gods to the world “reduces” them and makes them pathetic, my view has always been that failing to do this makes them unworthy of discussion.
Cf. Love Potion #9.
This is yet another example of how fallible humans can get sucked in by anecdotal evidence, and why the scientific method has been such a wonderful discovery for the human species.
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Very true. I just never got the “at her kitchen table” part.
It gives me a mental picture of this clueless schoolteacher with a bunch of vitamin powders and various herbal concoction shipments from China arbitrarily measuring out homeopathic quantities. (Of course, the homeopathic part is kind of unintentionally brilliant because as various of those ingredients have been determined to be toxic, they can explain that not a single molecule of the poison was actually present in the final product. “No harm. No foul.” Except the customer’s money. And no benefit, of course. )
Oh no, this is where they raise the psychological effects of placebo. You see, if people believe it’s beneficial to them, then it helps their quality of life. Sort of like some do with religious beliefs. It gives them comfort, so who cares if it’s false, it makes them happy. No harm no foul?
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I once considered marketing my own dietary supplement: PlaceboMax™
The closing voice-over on the TV commercial comes easily:
Get yourself the 100% homeopathic benefits of PlaceboMax™. Bolster your sense of well-being and enhance your quality of life!
(Of course, I was going to make it at my kitchen table.)
POSTSCRIPT: I would have introduced it through Multi-Level Marketing and promised great wealth to all who sign up as sales people. (I even considered moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan.)
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Additional verbiage in my PlaceboMax™ advertising was going to rely on these never-fail standards:
“No other supplement has more homeopathic benefits than PlaceboMax™”
" PlaceboMax™ has the performance of all other competing homeopathic remedies combined!"
I never know just what I will wake up to find here on Monday mornings. The Mischief gNomes have clearly had another busy weekend!
As a practical matter for moderation, topics don’t stay fixed, and some of the best discussions might be sparked from the weakest original topics. There is a balance to be struck between the integrity of topics and the creativity of responses.
It this case tho, comments seem to have jumped the shark. or dolphin, whatever. 
After reviewing the topic, I find that @AllenWitmerMiller has derailed his own topic, and is having a whale of a good time doing so. I see no need to school him on forum etiquette - I’m a moderator, not a podesta!
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In recent times, I’ve seen some “homeopathic” remedies where meaningful quantities of things were included – dilution to one percent, that sort of thing. It violates the standards of homeopathy, of course, to do that, but if you’ve got an active ingredient and you’d like to administer it without needing FDA approvals for safety and efficacy, there ya go.
I spent quite a bit of time once trying to persuade our regional drug store chain here to stop carrying Oscillococcinum, which is classic “not-even-one-molecule” stuff. The dilution ratio worked out, if I recall correctly, to be larger than the number of fundamental particles thought to exist in the universe, which means – if proper procedures are followed, I suppose – that the “active” ingredient is in a LOWER concentration in the pill than in any randomly selected bit of matter in the universe.
Thar’ she blows!
(I’ll never stop fishing for laughs.)
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Speaking of miracle remedies, Jim Bakker is at it again:
He must be very unhappy with this prophet who has solved the coronavirus problem without any need for his Silver Solution™:
For very specific applications, some doctors are starting to ask if a placebo might be the best medicine. If people report relief from chronic pain after “non-traditional” treatments, then that may be a viable option for them. However, infectious diseases remain quite resistant to placebos.
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