Incredible Naivety?, Is CNN Serious?, More “Phenomenon”, News Flash, Re the Cable Nonsense, Popoff Does Rather Well, Useless Woo-Woo Therapy, Ignorance Prevails, It’s Still Nonsense, You’re Kidding – I Hope, Nietzche at a Séance, and In Closing…
When spirit medium Nomatter Tagarira, 35, of Zimbabwe announced that she could magically cause refined diesel oil to come out of a rock just by striking it with her staff, the ministers in President Robert Mugabe’s Government apparently believed her, and they gave her five billion Zimbabwean dollars in cash – worth US$3.5 million at the start of the year, but now worth one seven-hundredth of that – for this fuel bonanza. President Mugabe had already come up with a clever scheme of simply printing money to end inflation, so this was no stretch of the Zimbabwean imagination, I guess.
The woman was also given a farm, as well as food and services that included a round-the-clock armed guard on the magical rock located 60 miles from Harare, the capital city. A year passed, and the officials actually realized they had been deceived! Ms. Tagarira is now awaiting trial on charges of fraud. Court papers said that over fifteen months, until July of this year, the enchantress continued to convince Cabinet ministers, ruling party politicians and top army and police officers of Zimbabwe that by striking the rock with her staff she could produce enough fuel to supply the country for the next century. It was discovered that this was an exaggeration…
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INCREDIBLE NAIVETY?When spirit medium Nomatter Tagarira, 35, of Zimbabwe announced that she could magically cause refined diesel oil to come out of a rock just by striking it with her staff, the ministers in President Robert Mugabe’s Government apparently believed her, and they gave her five billion Zimbabwean dollars in cash – worth US$3.5 million at the start of the year, but now worth one seven-hundredth of that – for this fuel bonanza. President Mugabe had already come up with a clever scheme of simply printing money to end inflation, so this was no stretch of the Zimbabwean imagination, I guess. The woman was also given a farm, as well as food and services that included a round-the-clock armed guard on the magical rock located 60 miles from Harare, the capital city. A year passed, and the officials actually realized they had been deceived! Ms. Tagarira is now awaiting trial on charges of fraud. Court papers said that over fifteen months, until July of this year, the enchantress continued to convince Cabinet ministers, ruling party politicians and top army and police officers of Zimbabwe that by striking the rock with her staff she could produce enough fuel to supply the country for the next century. It was discovered that this was an exaggeration… How was this oil caused to come out of the rock? Well, according to the police, last year Ms. Tagarira had discovered a large abandoned tank of diesel. She laid pipes from this tank to a point at the bottom of the hill, and arranged that when she struck a rock with her stick, an assistant at the top of the hill would open the tap and fuel would pour out. From then on, after the tank ran dry, she would purchase more diesel oil from lorry drivers and keep it flowing that way. When the government finally decided to conduct an official investigation, however, they dispatched a large “task force” of politicians and members of the security forces, led by the deputy commissioner of police. That task force reported to Mr Mugabe’s politburo, the most powerful body in the country, that the liquid appearing at the rock had been put into trucks, and that they had driven off without any problem. Then a second “task force” of ministers was sent by the politburo a month later, and the ruse ended. Perhaps there was at least one smart person with this new group, since the witch disappeared and was arrested later this month. A local lawyer who wisely asked not to be identified, commented: It is not the woman who ought to be arrested, it is the idiots who authorized this criminal waste of public money. You think…? |
IS CNN SERIOUS?Reader Joshua Zelinsky is shocked at CNN’s willingness to tout what appears to be a serious item about “presences” in houses, written at a sophomoric level. He writes: The level of credulity combined with religious bigotry of this article is really appalling:
That makes so much sense, because everyone is a Protestant with a "family minister.” If one assumes charitably that they mean clergy of any religion, then it becomes even more incoherent; it implies that a clergyman of any religion will be able to do ghostbusting by "praying for the soul of the departed," never minding that all these religions are mutually contradictory. I’m appalled that a news source that I generally consider to be reliable is willing to publish this sort of junk. Joshua wrote CNN:
I’m appalled that this sort of drivel would be on the front page of CNN. Amidst all the problems and news and we need to have a credulous article about how to deal with ghosts? This article doesn’t even mention the possibility that these entities don’t exist at all. If you think you’ve ruled out all possible natural explanations for a phenomenon you shouldn’t be living with it, you should be calling James Randi. The James Randi Educational Foundation offers a one million dollar prize to anyone who can give, under controlled conditions, evidence of the paranormal. See Million Dollar Challenge Joshua, that would ruin a perfectly good – but trashy – Halloween story. |
MORE “PHENOMENON”Reader Jon Waller comments: A little more on the "Phenomenon" phenomenon. The show is the subject of the editor’s note in last week’s issue of "TV Week" magazine, a British Columbia publication that has TV listings (well, with a name like that, what else did you expect?) and reviews. After a brief description of what the show is all about and a quote from a network VP, the column reads:
Look at this shot from the 1997 Geller choose-an-ESP-symbol trick, at which David Frost was the presenter: this is exactly the same setup as last week’s NBC “Phenomenon” show, with the star symbol in the expected #2 position except that he only used four symbols, thus increasing his chances…! |
NEWS FLASHFrom our John Atkinson in the Isle of Man comes this startling item, extracted from the UK Daily Mail of October 27th – just in time for Halloween:
Villagers had been baffled for years over the way their toasters and TVs regularly burst into flames. But now the mystery has been solved.
I think that Signor Venerando might have come up with a few other more likely scenarios – for a much smaller investment by the citizens of Canneto di Caronia. And the town might now be in deep trouble with the Vatican. After all, could their Chief Exorcist be wrong? Ever? He takes care of those pesky demons, y’know. He’s no fool… |
RE THE CABLE NONSENSEConcerning the acceptance of the “Transparent Opus MM” cables, I’m told by experts that they’re equipped with some sort of "network" box, and that these very often have frequency-response effects that can possibly introduce or reduce various kinds of detectable distortion. Before accepting these cables for a test, I’d have to be sure that the added “box” element doesn’t constitute a contributing factor; if that were the case, this would not be just a straightforward set of cables, but a designed device. On the Transparent Audio website at www.transparentaudio.com, there is no specific info on the Opus MM that clearly answers this question. Therefore, we would not be testing cables, but pitting a set of cables against a set of conductors equipped with additional features. Not acceptable, and in any case, the challenge is for the Pear Anjou cables. We’re awaiting the next move… |
POPOFF DOES RATHER WELLFor a man who was thoroughly exposed as a scam artist on TV on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, as well as in several other media confrontations and investigations, Peter Popoff continues to do rather well. Here’s an extract from an item carried on KOMO-TV Seattle, Washington, about the infamous TV evangelist:
The only insight into Popoff’s organization comes from IRS documents. In 2003, people donated $9.6 million to Popoff’s organization. Nearly a million of that, $909,133 went to salaries paid to him, his wife and children. By 2005, donations soared to more than $23 million. And so did the salaries of Popoff and his family, jumping to $3,137,929. When we told Clement [a minister] the numbers, he was stunned. "$23 million dollars? That’s ridiculous," he said Pastor Fuiten has a different answer: "I think it sours people toward religion."
Yes, and he’s making even more money than before, simply because no government agency will close him down – or cares to do so… |
USELESS WOO-WOO THERAPY
The Maryland Shock Trauma center is now using Reiki as a treatment. The Baltimore Sun story is at tinyurl.com/yuvwwb.
Jack’s letter to the doctor:
I have a different take on Reiki than the scores of "masters" that you’ve had on your show today.
Jack, I disagree with one statement that you made: “I do agree with the decision for Shock Trauma to offer Reiki as a supplemental treatment for pain.” If patients begin to accept one sort of woo-woo, they’ll also embrace other sorts that can drastically change their rational point of view, and damage them seriously. That’s the problem with allowing imagination to take over. It’s the thin-edge-of-the-wedge problem… |
IGNORANCE PREVAILSReader Lior Dagan – we heard from him last week – tells us of a frustrating discussion… I hope that I have something to contribute to JREF. Just wanted to share with you a meeting with an environmentalist that I had a year ago. He ranted about cell phone antenna radiation, how dangerous it is, that the cell phone companies stop research from getting published... Conspiracy 101.
I smiled at him: "Do you know anything about electromagnetic radiation? Maxwell’s equation? Friis formula? The basis of all wireless data transfer, Radar, you name it." He looked at me with a pair glassy eyes. "No", he answered.
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IT'S STILL NONSENSEReader Paul Claessen, in Palm Bay, Florida, tells us:
I was a bit surprised to find a link on today’s www.cnn.com website (a site read by more than just a handful of people) with the title, "Five alternative medicine treatments that work." This would really be "news," so I clicked the link which took me to this page: cnn.com/2007/HEALTH
Fortunately, there indeed is some sound advice. The article ends with some:
Of course, what I find crazy may sound totally plausible to someone else, so this advice strikes me as a bit subjective and not too practical. But Dr. Weil then lucidly explains:
Which, to me, applies to the entire body of alternative medicine, so I wasted my time reading all this. The article ends with a reassuring:
Note that they don’t use the expression “Some alternative medicine," but address the whole of alternative medicine! Now that’s a fine example of a very crazy claim, and I will follow this article’s own advice and be very wary of it.
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YOU’RE KIDDING – I HOPEReader Paul W. Draper writes:
I found something that you may find of interest. As part of the adult education program for Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah, they are offering a class on "Fork Bending" with the power of your mind. I wanted to contact the local media about this to get a little air time, debunk the craziness and keep people from paying any money to practice with this psychic. However, if you would like to be involved, I would love to have your help.
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NIETZCHE AT A SÉANCEReader Anthony Metivier in Canada writes: As part of my research, I have recently read an excellent book (excerpt below). I thought you would appreciate the addition of this anecdote regarding Nietzsche’s involvement with a séance to your collection. I would be thrilled if it were to appear for all of your readers to enjoy – especially after the 20 or so moments it took to type this passage into this tiny window, a sign of dedication to the skeptical cause if ever there was one! I should say, by the way, that I am not advocating Nietzsche here as an exemplary skeptic or as anything other than an interesting historical figure and philosopher of no small familiarity. This is taken from “Nietzsche and Ree: A Star Friendship,” by Robin Small: On the night of their arrival in Leipzig, Nietzsche organized attendance at a séance. The occasion involved a link with his past. The controversial Leipzig astrophysicist Friedrich Zöllner – whom Nietzsche had publicly supported ten years earlier – had later joined the then fashionable spiritualist movement and gained widespread publicity for the cause before his sudden death in April 1882. Demonstrations at Zöllner’s home had been attended by such eminent scientific colleagues as Gustav Fechner, Wilhelm Weber, and Wilhelm Wundt, although they remained unconvinced, and in Wundt’s case openly disbelieving. Nietzsche knew from Tatenburg that Lou [Salome] was dabbling in spiritualism and that she claimed a tendency to evoke mysterious knocking noises. In any case, he wanted to see one of Zöllner’s mediums in action and make his own judgment about whether Zöllner had been deluded as his many enemies claimed. Most of all, Nietzsche wanted to impress Lou and Ree with an explanation of spiritualist phenomena as produced by an unconscious “nervous force” passing between the participants. He may have hoped that the experiment would provide evidence of a group consciousness akin to the “herd mind” concept that he wanted them to accept. Yet he was badly disappointed by the event, and the next day told Heinrich Köselitz that spiritualism was “boring after the first half hour.” The medium’s performance had been so unconvincing and obviously contrived that no theoretical explanation of the phenomena was even called for. An irritated reference in “Thus Spake Zarathustra” to small groups of “apostates,” including a “scholarly half-madman,” who “wait in darkened rooms for spirits to come” was Nietzsche’s last word on the subject of spiritualism. Thank you, Anthony. |
IN CLOSING…I’m off to NYC to attend the opening of Jose Alvarez’ new one-man art show at "The Kitchen" - The Visitors. See details at TheKitchen.org |