by david allan van nostrand | Jul 10, 2023 | InterWeb, Items in the News, Misinformation traps, Using Information
An article by Gabriel Daros in Rest of World discusses a recent trend in product reviews in Brazil. For as little as $4 each, freelancers create scripted product review videos. The videos are in Portuguese, one minute long, and appear to be real customers reviewing...
by david allan van nostrand | May 1, 2023 | Fads, Misinformation traps, The world around us
Most dictionaries agree that to bamboozle someone is to deceive, defraud and hoodwink them. No one knows for sure where the word comes from. Some say it began with a Scottish word meaning to confound. Others say it’s from the French word for baboon, which means to...
by david allan van nostrand | Apr 11, 2022 | Human Behavior, Misinformation traps, Psychology
Devotees of rump reading purport to find deeper meaning in the lines, crevices, dimples, warts, and moles of people’s buttocks. Rump reading was big in ancient Babylon, where seekers of rectal wisdom (one wonders who they were) covered their hindquarters with liquid...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 7, 2021 | Assumptions, Gatekeepers, Misinformation traps
Research should be providing the fact base that points companies in the direction of likely success. Instead, it stands at the corner of walk and don’t walk, selling maps to the stars’ homes. Business research today churns out mountains of misinformation that send...
by david allan van nostrand | Jul 12, 2021 | How to tell good research from bad, Misinformation traps, Surveys, Using Information
Agatha Christie was a British novelist who wrote the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot whodunits in the 1930s and 1940s. This was the golden era of British murder mysteries, with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson the most memorable of all. Fascinated...
by david allan van nostrand | Jul 5, 2021 | Misinformation traps, Point of view, Using Information
Five men who had been born blind listened to the stories told by travelers who came their way. After hearing about strange creatures called elephants, they argued amongst themselves. Looking to resolve their differences, the men went to the palace to learn the truth...
