WOMBAT

[[Image:Vombatus ursinus (Wombat in snow).jpg|thumb|165px|A different kind of wombat, a furry kind.]]{{languagenav}}
{{cquote|Most bona fide scientists aren't interested in spending their valuable time testing what seem to be [[Bullshit|obviously bogus assertions]].|||[[Michael Shermer]], ''Skepticism 101: How to Think like a Scientist''<ref>Chapter 8, 8:55 (Audiobook)</ref>}}
'''WOMBAT''' is an acronym meaning "Waste Of [[Money]], [[Brain]]s And [[Time]]". Examples include spending three years and thousands of dollars studying [[homeopathy]], [[reiki]], [[acupuncture]], or any other form of [[bullshit]] [[tooth fairy science]].

The term also denotes any efforts spent investigating the purported therapeutic effects of any form of "[[healing]]" that has no plausible mechanism or is promoted by [[Dr. Oz]].

At first glance, it might seem nonchalant or even [[Orwell]]ian of scientists to ''ever'' refuse calls to [[False dilemma|either]] [[JAQing off|unconditionally study some issue when asked to]] or to [[Release the data|step back]] and [[Do your own research|let cranks present their own "findings"]].

[[Pseudoskepticism|The fundamental problem]], however, is that [[Willful ignorance|those refusing]] the [[scientific consensus]] only do so because [[Confirmation bias|they've got a dog in the race themselves]]. Besides, [[Moving the goalposts|they wouldn't settle for anything but their favored conclusion]] anyways.

And to add insult to injury, it doesn't help when [[PRATT|the proposed thing to be studied is already known to be fallacious]], or is [[Not even wrong|logically incoherent]] to begin with.

In short, a hypothesis being declared a WOMBAT can be taken as the scientific equivalent of a [[frivolous]] lawsuit being {{wpl|Prejudice (legal term)|dismissed with extreme prejudice|;}} the idea is [[Not even wrong|''so'' farfetched]], [[Logical fallacy|logically flawed]], thoroughly [[Refutation|refuted]] and debunked, and either completely [[Falsifiability|unfalsifiable]] or utterly disproven that one would have to be ''a clinical imbecile'' (or at least ''grossly'' miseducated) to even ''think'' of taking it seriously as something with '''any''' basis in reality, let alone formally studying it.

==Examples==
===Alternative medicine===
{{main|National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health}}
[[Great Britain]] spends more than 500 million pounds each year on disproven or unfounded therapies.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3557651/The-last-rites-for-alternative-medicine.html Last Rites for Alternative Medicine? Thompson, Damian]</ref>
And that figure probably doesn't even take into account retail therapy.{{huh}}

Each year, the US wastes a quarter of a billion dollars on the National Center for Complementary Alternative Medicine and OCCAM, or whatever they have been rebranded as. After several decades and several billion dollars, these two organizations have yet to produce a single productive result.

===Gravity Foundation===
The [[Gravity Research Foundation]] was founded and funded by a successful businessman in the hopes of finding means of either harnessing or defeating [[gravity]] (yes, defeating &mdash; the founder, Roger Babson, wrote an essay titled ''Gravity &mdash; Our Enemy Number One''). Since 1948, the organization has been doling out thousands of dollars for essay contests about gravity and funding research on materials that might dampen the effects of gravity (which isn't possible under general relativity).<ref>Martin Gardner, ''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'', second paperback edition, 1957 pages 92-100.</ref> The Gravity Research Foundation has, since the late 1960s, shed its [[crackpot]] atmosphere, and has attracted reputed contributors such as [[Stephen Hawking]], who won their essay contest in 1971.<ref>[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5852e579be659442a01f27b8/t/5873eb9b15d5db147f3b41d7/1483991964130/1971abstracts.pdf List of 1971 winners]</ref><ref>S. W. Hawking, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150412184110/https://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/pdf/awarded/1971/hawking.pdf Black Holes], University of Cambridge, 1971.</ref>

===Morgellons===
{{main|Morgellons}}
After a focused letter-writing campaign to the [[CDC]], [[Congress]], and other authorities, the CDC decided to do a study on the purported disease Morgellons. After two years and many, many lab tests, the CDC concluded that Morgellons was just {{wpl|delusional parasitosis||.}}<ref>[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029908 Clinical, Epidemiologic, Histopathologic and Molecular Features of an Unexplained Dermopathy]</ref> The response by Morgellons-related associations was that it must surely be a [[conspiracy]].<ref>[http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10236063-mystery-skin-disease-morgellons-has-no-clear-cause-cdc-study-says Mystery skin disease Morgellons has no clear cause, CDC study says, by JoNel Aleccia, NBC]</ref>

==Research on an actual wombats==
[[File:Certified Wombat Faeces.jpg|thumb|right|165px|"Did you know wombats poop squares?" - Olaf, ''[[Frozen|Frozen II]]'']]
While research on why wombats have cube-shaped feces may sound like a WOMBAT, having won the 2019 [[Ig Nobel Prize]] in physics,<ref>[https://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2019 The 2019 Ig Nobel Prize Winners] ''Improbable Research''.</ref> there may be actual real-world applications in manufacturing based on the research.<ref>[https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD18/Session/E19.1 Presentation E19.1, How do wombats make cubed poo?] by Patricia J. Yang, Miles Chan, Scott Carver and David L. Hu, (Nov. 18, 5:10 p.m.) '' 71<sup>st</sup> Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics'' Volume 63, Number 13.</ref><ref>[https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-wombats-poop-cubes Wombats are the only animals whose poop is a cube. Here’s how they do it. The elasticity of wombats’ intestines helps to shape their distinctive poops] by Laurel Hamers (November 18, 2018 at 6:00 pm) ''Science News''.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Bitcoin]]
*[[Citizendium]]
*''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''
*[[Cognitive dissonance]]
*[[Sanctioning the devil]]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Alternative medicine]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Jargon]]
[[Category:Shit articles]]
[[Category:Woo]]

Categories: Alternative medicine, Animals, Jargon, Shit articles, Woo