We hear that the Druids have been called in to reduce accidents on Austria's worst stretches of autobahn. They have erected huge roadside monoliths of white quartz to "restore the natural flow" of "Earth energy." In a secret two-year trial the Druids' massive pillars were put up beside a notorious stretch of road, and lo! fatal accidents fell from an average of six a year to zero. A man named Gerald Knobloch, who modestly describes himself as an Archdruid, used a divining rod to inspect a 300-metre stretch of the autobahn to restore "Earth energy lines." He claims that he located dangerous elements that had disrupted that flow. Way to go, Gerald!
To quote the heroic Archdruid himself, "The worst [dangerous element] was a river that human interference had forced to flow against its natural direction. By erecting two stones of quartz, each weighing more than a tonne [2200 pounds], at the side of the road, the energy lines were restored. Acupuncture needles also restore broken energy lines. What acupuncture does for the body, the stones do for the environment." A spokesman for the motorway authority said authorities had turned to Mr. Knobloch as a last resort. Said he:
We had put up signs to reduce speed, renewed the road surface and made bends more secure but we still kept getting accidents. At that point we couldn't think of anything else to do and decided we might as well try anything. I admit when we first looked at it (energy lines) we were doubtful. We didn't want people to know in case they laughed at us, so we kept the trial secret and small scale. But it was really an amazing turnaround. Of course, the fall in accidents could be due to something else as we are continuously repairing the roads.
Wait a minute. They missed Tarot cards, sprinkling salt, exorcism, sacrificing lambs, holy water, casting the Autobahn horoscope, running around naked at midnight, all kinds of other equally sensible remedies! These people just don't have any common sense!
Scientists are skeptical but the motorway authorities are extending the Druids' role across the country, paying them about $6000 for each investigation — a fraction of the cost of resurfacing a road. Sounds logical to me. I only hope no motorists get into accidents when they see monstrous quartz towers looming ahead. Ah, but I'm such a delusion-buster….
Reader Dr. Kenneth F. Reeve, Psychology Department of Caldwell College, Caldwell, NJ, offers us this account:
I am a psychology professor who often teaches classes in experimental psychology. Since this class deals with learning how to determine the validity of claims, I like to give my students something interesting to test their critical thinking teeth on. If a student discovers an extraordinary claim about paranormal phenomena on the internet and then designs a sound study to test the claim, he or she is awarded extra credit. (The students get a pretty good idea about how to do this by watching your [Nova] special, Secrets of the Psychics.)To that end, I thought I would relate the following success story: One of my students forwarded to me the following email message that she had received from a friend who dabbles in mysticism:
I just discovered something called Kabalarian philosophy at a great website Kabalarians.com. I don't understand much of it but it describes your personality based only on your name! Although I know you're usually skeptical of this sort of thing, the personality descriptions were extremely accurate! I looked up my own name and those of some friends, and the descriptions just amazed me! Check it out!Having already checked out the site, the student hit it right on the head by proposing that people perceive such personality descriptions as "extremely accurate" as a result of a person's subjective bias and desire to believe, when combined with the vague kind of information often seen in such descriptions.
My joy at this student's ability to apply her skeptical skills was only furthered when she designed a study to test the accuracy of the Kabalarian claim. The student chose 30 people at random. After collecting their names, the "personality" descriptions of these individuals were pulled from the Kabalarian website. 15 of these people, chosen randomly, were given their "actual" personality description and asked to rate its accuracy on a scale of 1-10. The other 15 people were given personality descriptions NOT connected to their names and asked to make the same rating of accuracy. Individuals in both groups were told that the descriptions given to them DID correspond to their names. My student correctly hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in accuracy ratings across the two groups. She was surprised, however, that my hypothesis (that the accuracy ratings would likely be very high regardless of the condition) was also supported!
Quite a few of the students have done some rather competent studies investigating paranormal phenomena, all without positive findings for the purported claims made. Through their investigations, the students are becoming "brights" in spite of themselves. Many of the students, however, are still strongly hoping that they obtain positive results in the paranormal areas. You can guess why — I've shown them the offer for the JREF prize!
Thank you, Professor Reeve. Yes, if we can promote similar projects among students, and get them actively designing experimental procedures, we will have accomplished much. Concerning the experiment carried out by your student, I suggest that it might be expanded by obtaining written comments from the participants, following their involvement — after first getting them to express their basic views and attitudes toward such claims. The variety of opinions sure to result from such a survey would be interesting!
Reader Marc Berard, in Rhode Island, tells us:
Today I was reading an article poking a little fun at National Psychic Week. ( http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WolfFiles/wolffiles.html) Near the end of the article it mentions something called Enchanted Forest Intuitive Camp, a sort of summer camp in North Carolina where children are taught about such things as developing their ESP potential, dowsing, auras, clairvoyancy, and communication with spirits. Their site is the Psychic Kid's Spiritual Experiences (http://www.psykids.net/index.html).
Interestingly, on a link on their site to the American Society of Dowsers they say "We have found that dowsers are some of the most wonderful people, open, dynamic — and willing to put things to the test — so a baseline of validity can be established and maintained." (emphasis mine). One wonders what sources they use for "scientific research." Take, for one, this example: "Empirical scientists have found biological receptors for over 20 senses beyond the tangible 5, and consciousness researchers have identified another 20-plus intangible senses. These 49 senses are inherent in each one of you — just awaiting to be activated!" 49 senses?!?! Wow, what are the chances that most humans are naturally blind in 44 of them?They are also into giving parenting advice. How to raise a child intuitively, how to handle a child's developing psychic ability, Metaphysical home studies, and something called Holistic education. They recommend such resources as the book, "Learning to Communicate with Animals, Nature, Fairies, Angels" and this is listed in their Non-Fiction reading section! I wonder if bringing up a child in such an environment so unconnected with reality could be considered a form of child abuse?
I just had to get the word out on this. I mean, this is too much.
Marc, the American Society of Dowsers is shut down to investigation. Those who have inquired in years past, report that their inquiries are met with stony silence. One disenchanted former member told me that when the subject of the JREF prize was brought up at their annual meeting, members were plainly told to avoid becoming involved with me, or with the JREF. Why, if the ASD is "willing to put things to the test — so a baseline of validity can be established and maintained," is that organization just wanting a bona fide challenge to simply go away? Can't the ASD use such a handsome sum of money?
Churlishly, I suspect that they know full well how dowsing always fails any proper test, and they wish to continue nurturing their favorite delusion.
To be sure that they were reluctant to be tested, I sent the following e-mail to ASD@dowsers.org, on Wednesday, August 20th, 2003:
Hello!I'm repeatedly asked by my readers, why I don't offer the million-dollar prize of the James Randi Educational Foundation to the ASD. Since I'm sure that the ASD is familiar with this offer, and indeed many ASD members have already applied, it appears strange that the Society takes no interest in the offer.
Can anyone with ASD provide me with the reason behind this odd reluctance to win a million dollars? I ask this so that my readers can be informed.
James Randi
James Randi Educational Foundation
www.randi.org
randi@randi.org
I'll keep you posted….
I'm constantly grieved by knowing that kids are being drawn into these cults by ignorant parents, and I see almost daily the distress that ensues. Kids have a hard enough time differentiating between reality and fantasy; having parents with the same problem isn't going to help any.
I often get the inquiry: "How many persons have applied for the JREF prize?" Though that may appear to be capable of being answered with a simple number, when we enter the strange world of "psychic" claims, we have crossed over into Looking-Glass Land, and nothing is as simple nor as direct as it might first appear to be….
The following may prove this to my readers. In the Application for Status of Claimant found on the JREF web page, there is a requirement that the applicant must state, briefly, their basic claim. One very recent applicant, after sending in two copies of the downloaded form without the required statement, finally got it right — more or less — by appending the following, original spelling intact:
Telpathy DiscoveryTo state for the record, my name is M—W—M—, the name derives from Russian. What I am about to explain is my mean for which you will be able to explain telepathy. First I will write in a mathmatical formula, regent for which all solutions are proven to. Then will fold the paper up once then with the remainder fold down once. Giving me a surface to write the mathmatical formula to telepathy.
The attempt will so that the definition of action for me to win the prize, is have you redefine an act or action of what occurs to you mind, without revealing it. To this method is write this act or action down. For I will have someone witness my writting of this act or action of you establishment. When they are of equal is when the prize is given to me. Simple exchange will surf ice.
Okay, folks, where do I go from here? Bearing in mind that this is not at all an unusually enigmatic description offered by an applicant, this probably begins a long, convoluted, dreary, back-and-forth series of letters and e-mail messages, likely ending when it becomes clear that the applicant cannot adequately outline their claimed ability. So, should such aborted applications be counted in the total? This is a philosophical consideration, not mathematical.
I share this with you so that you may have a glimpse of the world into which I have entered, willingly, to try making contact with the strange folks who live there. Alice had it easy….
Doris Reynolds, food columnist for the Naples Daily News in Florida, is suing Angela Passidomo Trafford, another of the paper's writers who offers "spiritual advice," for more than one million dollars. Reynolds says she was manipulated into writing Trafford a $95,000 check as a "gift." The suit accuses Trafford of constructive fraud, unjust enrichment and civil theft. Reynolds says she went to Trafford for "spiritual self-healing treatment" from 1999 until May 2003, using Trafford first as her spiritual adviser in 1996, and has since paid her between $2 million and $3 million for the "treatments."
Reynolds says she was "under extreme duress," since Trafford told her she would not return to treat her unless she gave her that money. She says Trafford terminated her treatment on May 13 "without explanation or reason," though it would appear that the reason was that she wasn't getting paid. Now, Reynolds seems to be getting smart, since she says that her co-worker "intentionally misrepresented to her that she was a messenger of God," and that Reynolds needed to pay her.
Reynolds' suit seeks damages totaling more than $1 million, but Reynolds on Thursday said the amount she surrendered to God's messenger could be closer to $3 million. Trafford originally charged $190 per hour, but the fee eventually increased to $380 per hour, she said. Who does this Trafford woman think she is? A lawyer?
Reynolds said she paid Trafford $500,000 last year for spiritual healing sessions that consisted of the two women talking together and meditating and Reynolds completing drawings. Their sessions typically lasted four to five hours, sometimes seven days a week. At the time she was receiving the treatments, Reynolds suffered from depression, anxiety and stress, she said. And, I imagine, gullibility. Man, I sure hope she knows more about food than she does about human perfidy.
Reader "Rupert" shares with us this definition: "Chronomancy is the art of telling the future by waiting to see what happens."
In the UK, The Guardian newspaper continues to make excellent sense by looking into and reporting various items of pseudoscience. This item, they tell us, appeared on a website with timely advice for anyone traveling with homeopathic remedies:
"Try not to put homeopathic remedies through airport security x-rays as it will render their healing properties less effective." You should also "pack them well away from strong-smelling substances, i.e. essential oils, perfume, after-shave, toothpaste etc."
And bull droppings, probably. From the Society of Homeopaths' leaflet series: "You can protect them by using a lightweight lead-lined bag of the type sold for photographic films, or carrying them in your pocket." The Guardian asks, "Please send your bad science to bad.science@guardian.co.uk"
I've got something better on homeopathy than this latest clown-material. In trying to arrange tests of homeopathic products in the past, we've been warned that if a homeopathic preparation has been shipped by air at above a certain altitude, the qualities of the material will be negated due to cosmic influences. Asking whether all their output is thus shipped by sea or land, we of course received no responses.
But this gives us a really simplified way of designing and carrying out a test of these materials! It's been tricky working out how to perform this simple inquiry: can the applicant differentiate between homeopathic and non-homeopathic materials? We'll accept positive results and the determination can be done by any means: chemical, physical, optical, biological (in vivo or in vitro), using infrared, ultraviolet, polarized, high-intensity, or pulsed light, conductivity or electrochemical means, Tarot cards, or a crystal ball. Now, in view of this newest technological breakthrough — which says that x-rays will lessen the homeopathic qualities — and assuming that a very heavy dose of x-ray treatment would effectively cancel out any such qualities — I propose that a control batch of water (bottles of already-packaged product, exposed to heavy x-rays) be mixed with non-radiated samples, and presented to an applicant, to be sorted out.
The loud silence you hear is the response…..
Yes, I thought of the possible residual radiation. There are ways around that….
Here's an exchange that serves as a good example of how carefully the nut-cases out there will avoid answering simple questions, preferring to obfuscate with other drivel. I heard from a person I will call "R" (original structure and spelling retained) who observed:
I've heard numerous skeptics bash the ancient version of the human energy field by saying it was a simple explanation for health problems. This is very untrue, our subtle energy system is believed to be very very complex and it is not an easy explanation. I am a Reiki practitioner and have seen it work its wonders which couldn't be by the possible "placebo effect". I do not believe in anything supernatural either, I believe it is very natural and science is still in its infancy. How could you totally dismiss ESP and other popular beliefs as folly? I think it is enough and I think that at least one of these claims by people have some truth to it. I know you are skeptical and I can somewhat understand why you are that why. Growing up with people screaming your going to burn in a pit of fire if you're not a good boy. There is also plenty of scientific validation for the ki in the east, I can send you some sites. The west is barely starting to grasp the understanding of this energy. Has anything in your life happened that you could not explain scientifically?"It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure." — Albert Einstein
Note that, as often done, the writer appends an out-of-context quotation from a recognized authority, as if to lend strength to his notions. While Einstein is often used for this purpose, the quotes are frequently invented rather than actual. This one is genuine. I replied:
Okay. Prove any of it, and win the million-dollar prize! Isn't it significant that not one Reiki practitioner has ever applied....? Just 30 minutes of a test, and he/she could be a million dollars richer, but none of them will apply....Perhaps you'd like to share with us YOUR reasons for not being interested....?
And no number of "sites" can do what any amount of evidence can. As for "So many people believe, millions upon millions like you have said believe, isn't that enough empirical evidence?" — many more millions believed that the Earth was flat, and it isn't. Opinions do not make facts....
But please tell us if you'll accept the million-dollar challenge.
Immediately this fuddled person answered, again original spelling:
Yes James, Millions did believe the Earth was once flat at one time? Your point being? The Earth is something that can be felt, parts seen, and observed! Isn't that enough empirical evidence for you to know that it exist? Like I said, science is still in its infancy. Reiki can be felt with the sense and it does indeed have its benefits. Millions and millions believe in psychics, yet all these millions are full of shit and your opinion is going to make up for them? I think not. Something is going on.
Okay. Prove any of it, and win the million-dollar prize! Isn't it significant that not one Reiki practitioner has ever applied....? Just 30 minutes of a test, and he/she could be a million dollars richer, but none of them will apply....Honor. A lot of people probably feel it goes against there honor for such a wonderful gift. Also to note that Reiki is a popular method with Buddhist people, and are these people known as materialist? Not! So why would they care of a million dollars. Also do you support transportation for people who would like to demonstrate in your lab? I didn't think so. Reiki principles...
Perhaps you'd like to share with us YOUR reasons for not being interested....?I'd would glady demonstrate its existence and its benefits, but it is more then what some people's beliefs system can handle, so it is always possible people like yourself could reject it. People can shield themselves, if I would demonstrate on you, you would have to keep an open mind and accept the healing, then you would probably recieve something, but you're are probably too far gone! So I challenge you Mr. James Randi to be an open minded scientist for once and just maybe, just maybe, accept that something is happening.
"If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism." — Albert Einstein
Was this man full of himself?
Well, yes, he was. But he had a right to it, in my opinion. Hold on, "R." Where's that yes-or-no answer that I asked for? Please tell us if you'll accept the million-dollar challenge. Hello?
More silence. It's been a quiet two weeks….
Reader Norman Pridmore of Sleaford, UK, tells us:
More media mayhem for you. Every week in the "quality" British Sunday newspaper "The Observer" there is a column by a guy who writes as "The Barefoot Doctor." It's full of useful advice about the importance of not overheating your spleen or of letting your liver cool to excess.He begins his latest column (10th August) by wowing readers with a reminiscence concerning a "phase" (as he calls it) during which he was asked by various private surgeons to administer to their patients anesthesia by acupuncture (query — does he mean anesthesia or analgesia: there's a bloody big difference.) He found these sessions, he says, "highly sweatly." Mmm... too much information, I think....
During one operation, a hysterectomy, he tells how the patient started to groan as the surgeons knife reached her spine (a small query, here: does a hysterectomy involve cutting to the spine? Not to my knowledge....) Anyway, the good Barefoot turned up the juice on the electrically-stimulated acupuncture needles — just enough, he says, "to keep the level of groaning to a bearable minimum" (bearable to whom, I wonder — him, or to the poor woman?)
It all got too much, it seems, all the groaning: the needles were not up to the task. The Barefoot says that "traditionally, a different acupuncturist would have been assigned to each of the six to twelve needles being used." Ah, so that's why it was not entirely successful — Lack of Quack. Anyway, pretty soon "they pumped her full of chemicals." Good thing too, by the sound of it.
The next paragraph begins: "Of course, I didn't take this as a personal failure — I'd warned everyone involved that there was only a 50-50 chance of it working — I was just relieved she came round from the anesthetic in one piece...."
And there we have it! This seems to me a perfect example of the "With a Single Bound He Was Free" school of Quackery: if it doesn't work, it's because it wasn't done quite as it should have been; it worked a bit; the patient didn't die; and, finally — I as the practitioner will steadfastly adhere to my oath as a complementary therapist to be unwavering in my resolution to draw no sensible conclusions whatever from my experience.
He concludes his column by suggesting that a good way to promote healing and reduce pain is to "soak in a hot bath of Epsom salts." Ah, sense at last. Mind you, it's only what my granny could have told me for free!
What concerns me about Barefoot is that he seems so confused about what he is doing, and that he is in consequence likely to confuse his readers. He and the many like him who offer "alternative" advice on matters of medical treatment should make the necessary distinctions between the various techniques they use, but too often they do not (or perhaps, due to ignorance, cannot). If they don't, though, their readers and hearers are left in the dark about what does and does not, and may or may not, work. Barefoot does this week after week with not a sign of a challenge anywhere, from anyone. In the present case both the column headline and the column itself claimed that what he was doing was acupuncture. The electrical stimulation aspect of it was, as it were, (and this was the strong implication of what he wrote) simply a modern refinement — the necessary consequence of a lack of extra bodies to "twiddle the pins." It seemed to me that the subtext was, "hey, if only I'd got the right facilities and equipment then there would have been no problems and all those awful anesthetic chemicals would not have had to have been used."
What he was saying, and saying very clearly, was that had everything been OK, then there was at least a 50-50 chance of acupuncture being effective as an anesthetic during a hysterectomy. Does he offer evidence for this claim? Not a shred. I think that's a case of him trying to have his cake and eating it, and all without any evidence of there being a bloody cake in the first place! It's typical of a certain kind of mindset in the field of complementary therapy, one that depends upon vagueness and lack of rigor. The apparent effectiveness of dubious therapies is not able, as a result of this confusion, to even begin to be properly assessed. Because it's in the interests of the therapists that this remains the case, they will continue to offer fudge in place of real information. This seems to me to be pretty reprehensible and thoroughly reckless.
What was also deeply worrying was that Barefoot seemed prepared to risk such a procedure despite knowing that the chance of it working was at best only "evens." I'd have thought that a responsible practitioner would have performed some prior assessment on and with the patient as to their suitability — and done this well before any scalpel was applied. There was no suggestion in his piece that he'd done this. Given that hysterectomy is a major operation, his actions seem grossly irresponsible.
As for electrical stimulation proper (the "TENS" [Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator] version of it, to be precise), I've used it myself a few times and found it pretty good, for lower back pain, anyway, and so has my father, who has Paget's disease. I'd even consider having acupuncture if certain musculo-skeletal problems were to arise. But I'd want to know, before I underwent any invasive procedure, which acupuncture is, what was going to be done and why, what the risks were, and what the possible outcomes might be. I wouldn't want within a mile of me some seat-of-the-pants practitioner, especially one like Barefoot who can't make clear, even in a considered article in a national newspaper, exactly what he's doing. Medical ethics? It's about time that [these people] got on board, I reckon, and learned something about the subject.
Randi notes: This "TENS" system has often been referred to as "electroacupuncture," but has nothing to do with the ancient Chinese notion. I've had reports that it is effective as an analgesic method, though with some possible serious long-term effects.
Despite its long and checkered history, scientists have wondered whether hypnotism is a genuine psychological state or just a gimmick. Now, we're told, recent research shows it causes measurable changes in the brain. Last year, Stanford University psychiatric researcher David Spiegel used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to watch changes in brain function in volunteers who were believed to be highly hypnotizable. How that was proven, we're not told. The "hypnotized" volunteers were told to see color. Then, regardless of whether or not the researchers showed them color, the areas of the visual cortex that registers color would fire. When the researchers told them to see "grey" objects, the volunteers had less activity in the color zones of the brain.
"When they believed they were looking at color, the part of their brain that processes color vision showed increased blood flow," said Spiegel. This PET technique is quite remarkable, but I'd like to know whether non-"hypnotized" subjects were tried, and the simple word "color" was used to try triggering a change in the appearance of the PET image. More importantly, were the tests — and the observations — done double-blind? Perhaps some reader will look into that for me.
Here's something that really interests me, though I can name many other projects on which I'd prefer to spend research funds. A Japanese expedition equipped with infrared cameras will scour the Nepali Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. This legendary critter has been known as the Bigfoot, Meh-Teh, and Sasquatch. Huge footprints have been seen on Mount Dhaulagiri during trips to the world's seventh-highest mountain in the 1970s and 1990s which observers believed belonged to the Yeti. The exploration team is comprised of seven Japanese climbers and seven Nepali Sherpas and will take infra-red cameras that can register images generated by body temperature.
Many teams have been on Yeti hunts since the 1950s to verify the authenticity of tracks left in the Himalayas and elsewhere, but no conclusive scientific evidence has proved that the creature exists. With recent developments of cryptozoology such as the discovery of a "giant chimp" with distinctly unexpected facial features, explorers are well advised to spend time on such a project.
Eric Taggart, of Irvine, California, is as bewildered as anyone at the carnival of candidates reaching for the governorship of his state. He thought we might enjoy this, the statement of candidate Shu Yih Liu:
I don't have any interest in personal fame. I see that there is a big solution for the deficit. California has lost its chi — its aura — and I have the solution. As soon as I am in the position to do so, I will announce my plan to solve the problems in California.
Adds Eric:
I can imagine her budget plan — probably consists of: Everyone in the State holding hands to channel their collective chi, or rearranging furniture in the capitol building to enhance earnings, or rearranging the location of cities and counties in the State to enhance earnings. That darn dog-leg shape of the State is the real source of our financial woes.
Wouldn't be surprised, one bit….
Reader John Bruce sends greetings from Adelaide, South Australia:
In Swift 8/8/03 you suggest we look at www.hoopers.org. When I went to the section "Magnohealth" I found the following: "Its [magnetic therapy] common use is described in the books of Homer, Hypocrites, and Aristotle." I imagine that hypocrites would have written on many inane subjects over the millennia. I am pleased that they did not invoke the name of "the Father of Medicine," Hippocrates.
Thank you, John! I wonder if Pluto and Architecture were in on this? I thought Hippocrates were the cages used to hold those fat African water-beasts….
Some agencies, including those in the US government, can't get over the notion that the "polygraph," or "lie-detector," works. It just doesn't, but old, dumb, habits are well-implanted and difficult to be erased. Also, there's a lot of tax money invested, and we can't have agencies admitting that they frittered away millions, so the myth is kept alive.
Now, we're thrilled to hear, possible insurance cheats will be subject to lie-detector tests in a pilot project being introduced by an Edinburgh bank, HBOS [Bank of Scotland]. Beginning next month, the bank will begin analyzing phone calls to its insurance hotlines using "sophisticated technology" that has been debunked endlessly in the past, but appeals to the scientifically-challenged because it just sounds good.
The insurance industry, which rather depends on various aspects of witchcraft to run its affairs, anyway, will be breathlessly watching with interest as it fights to reclaim the estimated £1 billion which they say is lost by them in fraudulent claims each year. The new HBOS phone system will randomly test a selection of the calls it receives from its 1.5 million policyholders. The claim is that using techniques to detect changes in speech patterns caused by stress, the machines will be able to make an initial assessment as to whether the caller may be lying. Sure. A device was sold here in the USA years ago, that was supposed to be a "stress analyzer," and we applied it to the speeches of a couple of American politicians who were already proven to have been lying — and not a quaver showed up.
It's interesting to note that the system will be used by HBOS, according to their announcement, "on a small-scale" trial basis on calls to its household insurance department, but "only as a starting point for further investigations." And, they say, "The system will be used with a whole host of other ways such as the sharing of information which the insurance industry does as routine." In other words, where they want to be suspicious, they'll find signs of lying….
"After the initial three-month trial period," said a spokesman, "we'll be able to judge whether it's been a success or not." Count on it, anyone who wants to continue to work for the system, will be reporting great success for this flummery.
Last year, we're told, a computer software company announced it had developed an online lie-detector test which sifted through e-mail and other text, looking at factors such as the "tone" (?) of the messages, to try and find indications of senders telling lies. Incredible. Next they'll have software zeroing in on tell-tale spelling errors and bad punctuation as evidence of serial killers.
A reader assures me, following the recent assault on my behavior that warned me about the Bible inveighing against being "judgmental," that I've nothing to fear in the way of divine wrath:
When "Christians" spout their believe that you should NOT judge others, simply quote them their own medicine: It is acceptable to judge others, and even promoted in the Bible:
Lev.19:15
"In righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor."Jn.7:24
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."1 Cor.2:15
"But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."1 Cor.6:2-3
"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?"
See? I just felt I was doing the right thing!
I'll tell you now, and I'll remind you just before it airs, but don't miss this one. PBS will finally be showing the program on the fabulous Archimedes palimpsest that we've discussed here previously! See www.randi.org/jr/02-09-2001.html and www.randi.org/jr/02-16-2001.html. It'll be titled, "Infinite Secrets," and you'll see it all on Tuesday, September 30th, at 8 p.m. EDT.
The episode description, from the PBS website:
Christie's, New York, 1998: In a blaze of publicity, an extraordinary item was put up for sale. To the untrained eye, it was nothing more than a small and unassuming Byzantine prayer book, yet it sold for over $2 million. Its real value lay not in the prayers, but in a much earlier, spidery script that lay hidden almost invisibly beneath them. This turned out to be the oldest and most authentic copy of a compendium of works by the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes, lost for more than 1,000 years. Scientists are now using cutting-edge imaging techniques to unlock the secrets of this time capsule and gain a unique insight into one of the greatest minds the world has ever known.
Hey, folks, I've actually handled this manuscript, and visited the lab where this ultra-sophisticated project is going on. I won't reveal some of the wonders that have been discovered, but you'll know all, in about a month!
We had to send our intern, Jonathan, back to school. He did a great job for us, and we'll miss him. But we've another, Kelli, arriving in a week or so. We've been very fortunate, in that regard!
