MIRROR AMAZEMENT
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ALIENS: THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
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PSYCHIC SYLVIA BROWNE FAILS ON THE BIGGEST PREDICTION OF HER CAREER
“Aliens will begin to show themselves in the year 2010, they will not harm us, they simply want to see what we are doing to this planet. They will teach us how to use anti-gravity devices again, such as they did for the pyramids”
(ALLEGED PSYCHIC SYLVIA BROWNE–FROM SYLVIA BROWNE.COM)
World renowned and self-proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne probably thought we would forget about this nutty prediction she made on “Montel” in 2006. The world has watched the biggest prediction of her career go unrealized–a prediction I would have loved to come true.
FOR MORE ON THE REAL SYLVIA CLICK HERE
GOODBYE, MARTIN
from CBSnews.com:
May. 23, 2010
Scientific American Columnist Martin Gardner, Prolific Math And Science Writer, Dies At 95
(AP) NORMAN, Okla. (AP) – Prolific mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner, known for popularizing recreational mathematics and debunking paranormal claims, died Saturday. He was 95.
Gardner died Saturday after a brief illness at Norman Regional Hospital, said his son James Gardner. He had been living at an assisted living facility in Norman.
Martin Gardner was born in 1914 in Tulsa, Okla., and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the University of Chicago.
He became a freelance writer, and in the 1950s wrote features and stories for several children’s magazines. His creation of paper-folding puzzles led to his publication in Scientific American magazine, where he wrote his “Mathematical Games” column for 25 years.
The column introduced the public to puzzles and concepts such as fractals and Chinese tangram puzzles, as well as the work of artist M.C. Escher.
Allyn Jackson, deputy editor of Notices, a journal of the American Mathematical Society, wrote in 2005 that Gardner “opened the eyes of the general public to the beauty and fascination of mathematics and inspired many to go on to make the subject their life’s work.”
Jackson said Gardner’s “crystalline prose, always enlightening, never pedantic, set a new standard for high quality mathematical popularization.”
The mathematics society awarded him its Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition in 1987 for his work on math, particularly his Scientific American column.
“He was a renaissance man who built new ideas through words, numbers and puzzles,” his son, a professor of special education at the University of Oklahoma, told The Associated Press.
Gardner also became known as a skeptic of the paranormal and wrote columns for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He wrote works debunking public figures such as psychic Uri Geller, who gained fame for claiming to bend spoons with his mind.
Most recently he wrote a feature published in Skeptical Inquirer’s March/April on Oprah Winfrey’s New Age interests.
Former magician James Randi, now a writer and investigator of paranormal claims, paid tribute to Gardner on his website Saturday, calling his colleague and longtime friend “a very bright spot in my firmament.”
He ended his Scientific American column in 1981 and retired to Hendersonville, N.C. Gardner continued to write, and in 2002 moved to Norman, where his son lives.
Gardner wrote more than 50 books.
Gardner was preceded in death by his wife, Charlotte. Besides James Gardner, he is survived by another son, Tom, of Asheville, N.C.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
[I'm glad my nephew, Cole, was able to meet this amazing person] – thank you, Amy…..
TRIBUTE TO MARTIN IN SKEPTICAL INQUIRER
KNICKS SAY SKIRVIN HOTEL HAUNTED
From the New York Daily News (online version):
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Knicks were afraid, very afraid. And it had nothing to do with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For two days, several players had trouble sleeping because they were convinced that their downtown hotel is haunted.
“I definitely believe it,” Jared Jeffries said. “The place is haunted. It’s scary.”
Eddy Curry claims he slept for only two hours Sunday night because he couldn’t stop thinking about ghosts roaming the hotel.
For years, guests staying at the Skirvin Hilton have reported ghost sightings and strange noises. Legend has it that sometime in the 1930s, a woman jumped to her death while holding her baby in her hands.
“They said it happened on the 10th floor and I’m the only one staying on the 10th floor,” Curry said. “That’s why I spent most of my time in (Nate Robinson‘s) room. I definitely believe there are ghosts in that hotel.”
Assistant coach Herb Williams teased Jeffries and Curry for believing that the Skirvin is haunted, but Curry wasn’t laughing.
“There are too many stories,” Curry said. “Something is going on there.” [END]
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Gimme an ever-loving break. Is this all it takes to get into the heads of one of professional sports’ most storied franchises? Let’s look at some key statements:
* “…they were convinced that their downtown hotel is haunted.” With what evidence?
* “I definitely believe it” (Jared Jeffries)–based on what?
* “I definitely believe there are ghosts in that hotel” (Eddie Curry)–what happened?
Then the truth comes out. “There are too many stories” (Eddie Curry). Oh, so the legend, stories, and suggestion have convinced Eddie that the Skirvin Hotel is haunted. That’s how it happens for almost everyone, Eddie. I hope all NBA visiting teams stay at the Skirvin and feel the exact same way. If that happens, look for the Thunder to have come up with the perfect prescription to win an NBA championship. With this formula, the Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Cavs, and all the rest, don’t stand a chance. File this one under “GIMME A BREAK.”
GHOSTS: A SKEPTICAL PERSPECTIVE
With Halloween coming up, keep this definition (from The Skeptic’s Dictionary) in mind as the increased suggestion of ghosts makes their existence “feel” more real…
ghost
A ghost is an alleged disembodied spirit of a dead person. Ghosts are often depicted as inhabiting haunted houses, especially houses where murders have occurred. Why some murder victims would stick around for eternity to haunt a place while others seem to evaporate is one of the great mysteries of the spirit world.
Many people report physical changes in haunted places, especially a feeling of a presence accompanied by temperature drop and hearing unaccountable sounds. They are not imagining things. Most hauntings occur in old buildings, which tend to be drafty. Scientists who have investigated haunted places account for both the temperature changes and the sounds by finding physical sources of the drafts, such as empty spaces behind walls or currents set in motion by low frequency sound waves (infrasound) produced by such mundane objects as extraction fans. Some think that electromagnetic fields are inducing the haunting experience.*
Some ghost experiences may be attributed to sleep paralysis. For example, the description given by Geoff Hutchison, a miner turned medium, is typical of sleep paralysis. He says he had his first paranormal experience while he was in the Army during the 1960s when he saw a figure: “It was just a man with a big black coat and a big wide-brimmed hat. He just stood there bent over me. I couldn’t move my arms or legs and had to lie there.”
As I note in my entries on poltergeists and haunted houses:
Even if I provided plausible physical explanations for a million poltergeists [or ghosts] in a million different places at a million different times, there is always the possibility that the next one that pops up will be the real thing. So, those who believe in poltergeists, ghosts, and haunted houses can always take refuge in the fact that nobody ever has enough information to debunk every ghost story, and even if they did, the next one might prove the debunkers wrong!
As a skeptic, all I can say with confidence is that when one considers the requirements for a ghost story to be true, the most reasonable position is that there is a naturalistic explanation for all these stories, but we often do not or cannot have all the details necessary to provide that explanation. We must rely on anecdotal evidence, which is always incomplete and selective, and which is often passed on by interested, inexperienced, superstitious parties who are ignorant of basic physical laws. Thus, there will always be stories like the “Bell Witch” story that attract much attention, especially when made into movies, that will lead many people to think that maybe there is something to this one, even if all the other ghost stories are false. The “Bell Witch” is alleged to be “a sinister entity that tormented a family on Tennessee’s frontier between the years of 1817 and 1821.”* The likelihood that we don’t have all the evidence in this case is proportionate to the number of years that have passed since the events allegedly took place.
If one is selective enough, one can confirm just about any hypothesis. And, as the history of research into psychic phenomena has shown, the brighter one is the easier it is to rationalize and find reasons to support one’s beliefs. Witness Debra Blum’s latest book, The Ghost Hunters. This former science writer provides a selective history of psychical research to support the view that maybe some of these stories are for real. After all, we can’t prove they’re not.
It is said that ghosts like to work in the dark because it’s harder for people to see them than in broad daylight where their invisibility is more visible. It’s also easier to deceive and scare people at night because they can’t see what’s going on. It’s usually cooler and breezier at night, too, and both those elements assist the ghost in producing scary sounds and movements. Ghosts don’t like to work in conditions where people can easily see what they are doing because then people would see them for what they are rather than for what they imagine them to be. By appearing only in the dark they can maintain their mysteriousness better. Besides, ghosts have found that many people are afraid of the dark and that fear makes their work much easier.
There are numerous groups of paranormal investigators that spend their spare time investigating allegedly haunted places. They arrive with coffee pots, flashlights, tape recorders, EMF detectors, video cameras with night vision, metal detectors, and other devices that were not designed to detect ghosts and therefore have no instructions on how to use them for that purpose. (I know. There is no equipment designed for this purpose. How could there be?) The equipment looks scientific, but does that make the investigation scientific? I’d say you’re about as likely to detect a ghost with a Sony camcorder as you are to get the truth out of a house plant by hooking it up to a polygraph.
“KING OF POP” ON CLOUD 9?
WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO
.………………MAN IN THE MIRROR; HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
Michael Jackson’s death has been all over the news and understandably so. Even if you have disagreements about his life, his contributions to pop culture are undeniable. So not surprisingly, Michael Jackson has instantly made his post-life appearance in the clouds. I’m of course referring to a story that has been picked up by many news outlets including CNN. The story states that in an odd cloud formation seen in New York City on Friday, people claim to have seen the face of Michael Jackson.
I must say that the clouds are very beautiful but nothing new for those of us in Oklahoma. As is the case with most of these stories, and pointed out by the video (at bottom), these are Mammatus clouds and are very common with thunderstorms. These clouds can appear very ominous and it’s not surprising that people were concerned, since they can seem very unnatural.
As for the face, well, that’s just good old Pareidolia at work. It is the process by which our brains try to make sense out of chaos. This has caused people to see everything from the Virgin Mary in grilled cheese to Kermit the Frog on Mars.
I personally don’t see the face, but there may be an explanation for this. According to a recent study, our pattern recognition can be increased by feelings of “lacking control”. While this might be a bit of a reach, it still brings up some interesting questions regarding one’s likelihood to see these patterns. If you are seeing many of these patterns, it might be saying more about your frame-of-mind than communicating a message-from-beyond.
Invited Blog by J.D. Church
WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO–Can you see Michael’s face in the clouds?
DOOMSDAY? 2012? Don’t bet on it….
Scores of prophets have predicted the end of the world or large-scale destruction. According to the Skeptic’s Dictionary, Jehovah’s Witnesses “have been wrong so many times that they’ve quit making specific predictions, but they’re still warning us that the end is near.” Among others who missed the mark were Jeanne Dixon, and John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann. Obviously, the most important thing to remember when thinking critically about this is that
EVERY SINGLE DOOMSDAY PROPHECY–WHOSE PREDICTED DOOMSDAY HAS PASSED–HAS BEEN WRONG
Are you worried about December 21, 2012? I hope not….I recall a student in a nontraditional spring, 1999 college class where his final exam was to occur in January of 2000. During the first few days of class he mentioned there was no need to study for the final exam since Y2K was going to wreak such havoc on the world that going to college would be rendered meaningless. I tried to talk some sense into him and on the day before the last class I asked him once and for all, “are you going to study for the final exam?” He nervously replied, “uhh, I think I should.” Do you think he made the right decision?
CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF FAILED PROPHECIES
REMOTE VIEWING: “Seeing” from Afar?
WATCH THE SCIENCE CHANNEL EXPLAIN
NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
Dying To Know?
WATCH AND HEAR A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION FROM SKEPTICAL INQUIRER
