"Would all those who believe in psychokinesis please raise my hand?"
  Junk Science "purports to use the methods of
science while in fact it is failthess to its nature".
                   -Carl Sagan
What is Junk Science?
    "Junk science: work that is presented as valid
science, but that in fact falls outside the rigors
of the scientific method.  An example is work that
has not gone through the peer-review process."
                           -Nancy Cole
                           Debunking Junk
"This study found Americans suspicious of science and embracing pseudoscience and even superstion.  Fifty-three percent declared scients are dangerous because they know too much, 46 percent rejected the theory of evolution, 43 percent believed UFOs carry visitors from outer space, and a significant number expressed a belief in astrology."        -Norman Lear
                                                                                                  Omni Magazine 1987
                                                                                                   Why Johnny Can't Think 
             Method of Discovery
     Junk Science             Science
 "Science is arguably the greatest achievement of our culture, and people deserve to know about it: science affects everyones lives.  Many public policy decisions involve science, and these can only be genuinely democratic if they arise out of informed public debate; science is publicly suported, and such support is (or at least ought to be) based on at least a minimal level of public knowledge."                               The Public Understanding of Science
                                                  Nature vol 340 


People are scammed, conned, swindled, and fooled
    with "science"- or rather pseudo-science.
Links to inform and entertain;
    Junk Science
    How to sell a pseudoscience:
            1. Create a phantom.
            2. Set a rationalization trap.
            3. Manufacture source credibility and sincerity.
            4. Establish a granfaloon.
            5. Use self-generated persuasion.
            6. Construct vivid appeals.
            7. Use pre-persuasion.
            8. Frequently use heuristics and commonplaces.
            9. Attack opponents through innuendo and character assassination.
                                                                -Anthony R. Pratkanis
                                                                Skeptical Inquirer July/Aug 95