Tondemo
Encyclopedia
Tondemo means "outrageous" or "preposterous" in Japanese
. Recently the word has gained another meaning thanks to the activity of Togakkai (the Academy of Tondemo books) which annually award Nihon Tondemo-bon Taisho (Japan Tondemo Book Award), which is a sort of combination of Razzie, Ig Nobel Prize
and James Randi
Foundation. Tondemo-bon is defined by the academy as "something amusing from a perspective that differs from what the author intends." The award covers not just conspiracy theory or pseudoscience but also includes historical revisionism
as well as atheists or scientific sceptics who make rather biased attacks toward the former. The members of Togakkai included religious figures as well as scientists and other academics. In Japan, this genre has superseded similar activities of scientific sceptics.
Some winners of the Nihon Tondemo-bon Taisho (Japan Tondemo Book Award):
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. Recently the word has gained another meaning thanks to the activity of Togakkai (the Academy of Tondemo books) which annually award Nihon Tondemo-bon Taisho (Japan Tondemo Book Award), which is a sort of combination of Razzie, Ig Nobel Prize
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prizes is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think"...
and James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
Foundation. Tondemo-bon is defined by the academy as "something amusing from a perspective that differs from what the author intends." The award covers not just conspiracy theory or pseudoscience but also includes historical revisionism
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
as well as atheists or scientific sceptics who make rather biased attacks toward the former. The members of Togakkai included religious figures as well as scientists and other academics. In Japan, this genre has superseded similar activities of scientific sceptics.
Some winners of the Nihon Tondemo-bon Taisho (Japan Tondemo Book Award):
- Ninja, its Origin and Technique, an ostensibly scholarly exploration of the history of ninjaNinjaA or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
techniques, including the secret magicMagic (paranormal)Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
al hand gestures - Amazing Science Fiction Weapons, a notoriously poorly researched book detailing the weapons and plots of science fiction series
- A Final Warning from Mother Earth, a guide to the future based on the knowledge of the ancients of AtlantisAtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
and other civilizations
See also
- Conspiracy theoryConspiracy theoryA conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
- UFO conspiracy theoryUFO conspiracy theoryA UFO conspiracy theory is any one of many often overlapping conspiracy theories which argue that evidence of the reality of unidentified flying objects is being suppressed by various governments around the world...
- Hollow EarthHollow EarthThe Hollow Earth hypothesis proposes that the planet Earth is either entirely hollow or otherwise contains a substantial interior space. The hypothesis has been shown to be wrong by observational evidence, as well as by the modern understanding of planet formation; the scientific community has...
- PseudosciencePseudosciencePseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...