Hey Rippln, Dr. Seuss wants their game name back!

Rippln, the vaporware income opportunity, apparently finally made something real, as they announced that their game "Guessaroo", had been approved by iTunes store, and they are about to roll out their "Rippln Communicator".

Right now, I'm at the "I'll believe it when I see it, but that name "Guessaroo" sounded familiar...

Turns out it's from Dr. Seuss game... ALREADY IN ITUNES!

Stealing names from Dr. Seuss? What a Grinch you are, Rippln...

When Scientists are Skeptics, We All Win (Yes, this is Related to MLM, sort of)

Alan Sokal is a physicist that read the journals where his papers (and tons of other papers) are published, and wondered... Does someone actually read all that stuff? So he proceed to write the WORST paper he could possibly write. It's complete bull****, filled with buzzwords ("quantum gravity..." Ooooohhhhh! Aaaaahhhhhh!" )  but completely bull****. The paper was called "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity", and it was submitted to a journal called "Social Text", an academic journal of postmoderncultural studies.

It got published in 1996. When Sokal revealed the whole paper is pure bull****, and he basically "trolled" that journal, the feedback was definitely mixed. Some are horrified at the "lack" of vigor the editors of the journal demonstrated. Others are angry at Sokal for ridiculing other "scientists". There's also question on what exactly is "postmodernacultural studies", and why would a physicist try to troll them, and so on. The whole thing was dubbed "Sokal Affair" and even has its own Wikipedia entry.

The point is a scientists was skeptical of something, and he built a test to test that something.

How many of you would be willing to do that, or have done that, and I mean really test it, not merely "I tried it, it works, I got paid"?

Alan Sokal just struck again, when he and some friends took apart two psychologists, Fredrickson and Losada, who attempted to apply Lorenz Equation (huh) to "positivity ratio", and how feeling too happy will lead to a happiness inversion (what?) when the positive emotion to negative emotion ratio reached the tipping point of 2.9013 (huh?)  Sokal, along with Nicholas Brown, and Harris Friedman basically destroyed that other paper for all of the various reasons, including bogus math, bad logic, and much more.

Now you say, what does *that* have to do with MLM? Ah, but you see, this "positivity ratio" was a popular topic among the various "motivational speakers" who often show up at MLM events to "inspire" the crowd, and it was simply never challenged (cited over 1000 times, according to Google Scholar).

So what exactly is this "Positivity Ratio", how motivational speakers are citing it, and why is it bull****?

More Bizarre TelexFree Affiliates In Brazil: TelexFree Ice Cream

What would you call this ice cream concoction?

The creator of this flavor in Rio Branco, Brazil, named it after "TelexFree", the embattled scheme alleged pyramid / Ponzi scheme (at least that's what the article seem to have implied).

REMINDER: FINAL DEADLINE to file ZeekRewards claims is September 5th, 2013!

If you believe ZeekRewards owe you money, you need to file your claim before September 5th, 2013! That's only 2 weeks left!

After that it's "lights out"!

Over 350 million of claims had been filed, according to the receiver. There should be more of you out there!

And for the net winners... Your time is running out too. Soon the receiver is going to SUE you all!

Will You Be The Greater Fool in MLM?

Sell eBooks to riches? Don't be so sure. It may be
Great Fool instead. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the stock market there is this theory called "the greater fool" theory. Its believers state that many questionable stocks are worth buying, not because the stocks themselves are worth the price, but because s/he can convince a "greater fool" to buy them at an even higher price than they paid.

It seems quite a few shady businesses work the same way, esp. those that promise easy riches through selling eBooks and whatnot. One eBook author claimed she was sucked in by such a scheme, which promised easy money by selling eBooks. Turns out what she had to do was spam Craigslist with "income opportunity" ads just like the one that sucked her in (and those are flagged and removed as soon as they're found, so it's a constant cat and mouse game, as she had to constantly create new blogs, websites, URLs, capture pages, and disposable email addresses as they keep getting banned) just so that she can recruit other people to do the SAME THING. And what does she sell? The same thing that she "bought" from whoever sucked her in: an eBook that described and explained how to do what she's doing: spam the net to sell itself.

It's like a f***ing meme that won't die but should have long time ago. It self replicates, feeding on greed.

And a lot of MLMs that were recruitment heavy work the same way: by looking for "greater fools".

Scammers Will Fake Anything and Everything

Let me show you this little "certificate" here, plastered all over the shady corners of the Internet called we critics call "the great fool pool", otherwise known as HYIP forums. HYIP, or "high yield investment programs", are basically Internet Ponzi schemes and/or ponzi/pyramid hybrid schemes where you are paid commission if you brought in people who pay into the program, and you get get extra money out of the program after X days, with promises of 1 to 2% interest per DAY.

Any way, here's the "certificate"

Notice anything wrong with it?

How about... Everything?

Will John Peterson's Suicide Save Herbalife, or Doom it?

John Peterson, a Herbalife Millionaire who climbed his way (some say over his downlines' backs) to Herbalife "Founder's Cicle", the highest grade of salesperson rank possible, has just put a bullet in his own brain. Herbalife put out a press release calling it a tragic accident, but clearly, putting a bullet in one's brain while sitting in an old pickup is not an accident at all.

So who is John Peterson? As mentioned before, he's one of the top salesperson in Herbalife, claims to earn 3 million a year from commission, apparently brought Herbalife to Mexico (and from there backfilled into US Latino communities), and has properties in Brazil, Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. He's so rich, he had 3 kids, divorced his blonde trophy wife, and traded up to a Mexican bonita by the name of Fernanda.

His rise to top of Herbalife is a bit controversial, as he rose through one of this schemes called "Work from Home Inc."  Basically, it's the same model that another Founder's Circle member "Shawn Dahl" used: create a recruiting firm, that sends out these "business opportunity kits" that is basically a teaser DVD for $50 (though you'll advertise it as $10, but only if you return it in 14 days). The DVD comes with a form you can fill out and send back and someone will call you to enroll you with their support system and take your money, which is usually DOUBLE what it normally costs to join Herbalife (the extra goes into his pocket for some lame webpage and some brochures), but that's only if you're really enthusiastic. If you're a bit hesitant or did not actually mail back the form yet, your name will be sold to someone who already joined and is eager to "buy leads".

Through this sort of borderline scheme (not quite a scam, but shady as heck) Peterson and Dahl and others clawed their way up the Herbalife affiliate human ladder to the very top, over other affiliates' backs, and is raking in the money to the tunes of millions per year, while the average Herbalife affiliate earns HUNDREDS per year (not counting expenses).

One then speculates what was would cause him to take his own life, and what effect would this have on Herbalife?