What Makes Pseudo-Science Pseudo?

There are many differences between true science and pseudo-science. As discussed in class, science by its nature begs to be disproved. Without the constant strive to disprove (or test the validity) what we think we know there will be no ascension in the level of collected knowledge of our race. This is how our knowledge is ever increasing. As Popper said, our knowledge is constantly going through revolutions or paradigm shifts.
But with any pseudo-science, "psientists," as I will dub them, do not like to test their theories. They will get uncomfortable if you try, which immediately suggests that they are uncertain of their theories. If they had any true faith in them, they would say, "By all means, test my theory!" But they don't, generally speaking. And if you do, and you find contradicting evidence, they will ignore it, and write it off as an exception. This is bad. Any theory with exceptions is one filled with holes. For scientific law there can be no exceptions. Now for specific examples.
Astrologists believe that the position of the stars has some sort of significance in our lives, and, indeed, our love lives even! However, I don't think astrology should even be considered as science-anything--whether it's pseudo- or otherwise. It is not at all founded upon any scientific evidence. Despite truckloads of disproving evidence, believers in astrology continue to waste time reading horoscopes. They just ignore falsifying evidence and jump and hang on to every single thing that confirms it, even when it happens only one out of ten-- nay, one hundred times.

I want to talk about Feng Shui now. Last year, during a project week, there was a presentation about Feng Shui in school. I was sick that whole week, and I spent it writing music at home. Anyway, I learned that Feng Shui is an art of moving things about in your room to improve ki (chi/qi/whatever) flow. More specifically, I believe it has something to do with negative and positive energy. I'm not sure. Now, I can see how, for instance, being in a cluttered room painted orange would cause a person to feel rather a lot of negative energy. If that person is affected by the colour of orange, which is said to make you feel restless, and if that person is claustrophobic, then it would make sense that the person would feel discomforted by being in that room. However, that has nothing to do with "ki energy." On the topic of ki, there are interesting videos circling YouTube about things called "Chi Spinners." They are clever devices that spin when the heat of a person's hand is close enough. However, others would have you believe that they spin by your internal energy. The first video is advertising the chi spinner, and the second, a video of a clever young lad discrediting the spinner, and bringing its trickery to light.



I don't know what's more sad: The fact that they are actually looking through this manual and trying to figure out their chi level, or the fact that they spent $10 on it! Clearly the manufacturers are on to a money winning scheme....

Now let's watch someone who isn't fooled...



Even though he states that he does believe in chi energy, he is able to see through the chi spinner.

Oh, and this guy is just hilarious...



His arguments are extremely weak, and have no backing in evidence. The only thing I feel if I rotate my arm is it getting tired. Now, if this guy had rotated his arm and powered an electrical device with his "chi," then that would be something. But he doesn't, and this lack of solid evidence is another difference between science and false science.