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The kid just might be psychic. Kids often are. Perhaps autistic kids are more in touch with that stuff than normal kids. I predicted some scary shit when was a kid, according to my parents.

Neither kids nor adults have psychic abilities. If you think you can prove otherwise, feel free to embarass yourself by trying to claim the Million Dollar Prize either for yourself or the neighborhood kid or anyone else with purported psychic abilities.

The ability to predict when a particular public service commercial is going to occur can be explained simply by pattern recognition. There is no need to resort to paranormal bullshit. Scheduling of TV commercials, whether done manually or by hand, is subject to a variety of constraints and conventions that will impose patterns. Public service commercials, for example, are often shorter than standard commercials so they may be grouped with other non-standard length commercials. A 15 second public service announcement is likely to be combined with another 15 second announcement or an odd length paid advertisement. And they might even be spliced on the same video tape to reduce the work queueing them up. And they are likely to be concentrated during less popular (with advertisers) shows. Since they are filler material, they may be more likely to come last. Scheduling algorithms may put a particular ad last if it is a lower priority (not paid, already had most of its allocated airings, has fewer restrictions on what shows it can be placed on, etc). An ad with a slightly lower priority could be fairly consistently aired right after an ad with a slightly higher priority. Public service ads may be shown in round-robin fashion which can lead to one ad being shown after another ad each time. In fact, ads of equal priority may, intentionally or otherwise, tend to be shown in a round robin sequence to prevent them from being shown back to back, getting too annoying, or simply because putting the most recently seen commercial at the bottom of the deck minimizes the chances of you being left at the end of the month showing the same commercial 15 times almost back to back because the others used up their quotas. Patterns may exist beyond just the sequence of consequtive ads during one gap. During the airing of an episode of the show, first you are likely to see the national ads, then the paid local advertisments that have reserved a particular time during a particular episode of a particular show. Next ones that have reserved a non-specific time withing a particular show. Next, one would expect to see low budget local remnant ads that have paid for a up to a certain number of showings but have little or no constraints on when they air. The lowest budget ads are likely to come last. Then the public service advertisements. So if the last filler commercial in the previous commercial break was for Honest Al's No-credit used cars (and Al negotiated the lowest rate for his remainder ads), then the filler at the end of the next time slot is likely to be a public service ad.

10% of people with Autism are autistic savants who exhibit unusual skills. And an obsession with routine is very common among people with autism. I.E. patterns are very important to an autistic. Consider the following quotes from the movie Rain Main

• "Maple syrup is supposed to be on the table before the pancakes"
• "Gotta get my boxer shorts at K-Mart." (and not just any k-mart, either. Has to be the one at 400 oak street)."
• "You said read the telephone book last night. Dibbs Sally. 461-0192. "
• "We have pepperoni pizza for dinner Monday nights. "
• "'Course I got Jeopardy! at five o'clock. I watch Jeopardy!"
• "82, 82, 82." (rapidly counting 246 dropped toothpicks).
• "Uh oh, fifteen minutes to Judge Wapner. " (this is the time of day on certain days he normally watches Judge Wapner - if he can't watch it, he

Amen. Testify!

http://www.randi.org/

One document, written by one guy somewhere, with no sanction and the general historical consensus it wasn't worth keeping, and suddenly we have a better understanding of "the 2nd century views of Christ".

We do. It is simple statistical fact that the more something was copied, the more likely it was to be preserved. And especially considering how much work it was to copy something, if something was copied frequently, it was probably important to a lot of people.

And the recent find of "Dianetics" provides a fascinating view into the religious beliefs of the average American of the 20th century.

It is an interesting viewpoint on the religious view of quite a few Americans of the 20th century. It's interesting you pulled that up, because you're looking at the Scientology of the 1st century and completely dismissing the Aberree as completely unimportant.

the dominant paranoid schizophrenic fantasies of the day

And how do you know that what got historical sanction wasn't the dominant paranoid schizophrenic fantasises of the day? There are a lot more believers in Nostradamus than James Randi; perhaps the document we find will say that the Cottingley fairies weren't real.

No... There are pens made specifically for detecting starch, NOT for seeing if bills are real or not...

James Randi and Michael Shermer have been debunking this particular myth for years (I remember seeing it about 4 years ago in "Skeptic" magazine), but obviously people are still buying them...

Those pens just change color if there's starch in the bill. They're almost more for feeling safe than being safe.

Monster Cables are a giant scam designed to relieve gullible people of their money. Double-blind testing has shown time and time again that you can not physically perceive the difference.

There is a huge industry around selling useless crap to people. Monster cables will give you about the same results as rocks. (Yes, people buy those rocks and yes, they think they make their stereos sound better.)

I highly recommend that you check out the James Randi Educational Foundation, and do a site search for "audiophile" or the like.

Frankly, I don't know what scares me more: the fact that someone will honestly claim that a magic rock will make music sound better, or the fact that people will pay good money for one...

[...] this is the same sort of crap that was used a few years ago to sell similar stickers to users of cell phones, to protect against deadly RF emissions! But several other readers spotted yet another Equally Stupid Sticker Scam for us:

This is advertised as a new "money-saving" device for your car, the "MPT SmogBuster Fuel Disc," a quarter-size piece of simple plastic being promoted internationally through multilevel marketing, the sales technique that relies on layers of distributors. The stickers retail for US$299 each, but those who persuade others to sell them get a discount! Upper-level members of the scheme have to buy a minimum of ten SmogBusters for about US$1,400.

This thing is supposed to be taped or glued to the bottom of your cars gas tank, after which, they say, you'll find a significant increase in gas mileage and an improvement in air quality. They claim it "sends holographic frequencies into the gas tank and changes the molecular structure of the gasoline." Ah, I was wondering at the deep scientific background for this wonder. How could I have doubted that it was there? I'm sure audiophiles who buy super-science power cords and speaker leads, will also invest in these stickers.

A suggestion: we should prepare a set of our own stickers, to be permanently applied to the forehead of anyone who is naïve enough to use either of these scam products.

[...] this is the same sort of crap that was used a few years ago to sell similar stickers to users of cell phones, to protect against deadly RF emissions! But several other readers spotted yet another Equally Stupid Sticker Scam for us:

This is advertised as a new "money-saving" device for your car, the "MPT SmogBuster Fuel Disc," a quarter-size piece of simple plastic being promoted internationally through multilevel marketing, the sales technique that relies on layers of distributors. The stickers retail for US$299 each, but those who persuade others to sell them get a discount! Upper-level members of the scheme have to buy a minimum of ten SmogBusters for about US$1,400.

This thing is supposed to be taped or glued to the bottom of your cars gas tank, after which, they say, you'll find a significant increase in gas mileage and an improvement in air quality. They claim it "sends holographic frequencies into the gas tank and changes the molecular structure of the gasoline." Ah, I was wondering at the deep scientific background for this wonder. How could I have doubted that it was there? I'm sure audiophiles who buy super-science power cords and speaker leads, will also invest in these stickers.

A suggestion: we should prepare a set of our own stickers, to be permanently applied to the forehead of anyone who is naïve enough to use either of these scam products.

[...] this is the same sort of crap that was used a few years ago to sell similar stickers to users of cell phones, to protect against deadly RF emissions! But several other readers spotted yet another Equally Stupid Sticker Scam for us:

This is advertised as a new "money-saving" device for your car, the "MPT SmogBuster Fuel Disc," a quarter-size piece of simple plastic being promoted internationally through multilevel marketing, the sales technique that relies on layers of distributors. The stickers retail for US$299 each, but those who persuade others to sell them get a discount! Upper-level members of the scheme have to buy a minimum of ten SmogBusters for about US$1,400.

This thing is supposed to be taped or glued to the bottom of your cars gas tank, after which, they say, you'll find a significant increase in gas mileage and an improvement in air quality. They claim it "sends holographic frequencies into the gas tank and changes the molecular structure of the gasoline." Ah, I was wondering at the deep scientific background for this wonder. How could I have doubted that it was there? I'm sure audiophiles who buy super-science power cords and speaker leads, will also invest in these stickers.

A suggestion: we should prepare a set of our own stickers, to be permanently applied to the forehead of anyone who is naïve enough to use either of these scam products.

I actually first heard about the slashdot story about the magic sticker when I was reading one of Randi's weekly commentaries where one of the readers comments about certain Slashdotter's inability to seperate reality from fantasy. BTW, the sticker qualifies for the Million Dollar prize along with evidence of psychics, homeopathic medicine, or other bullshit.

--
Want a free iPod?
Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof

I actually first heard about the slashdot story about the magic sticker when I was reading one of Randi's weekly commentaries where one of the readers comments about certain Slashdotter's inability to seperate reality from fantasy. BTW, the sticker qualifies for the Million Dollar prize along with evidence of psychics, homeopathic medicine, or other bullshit.

--
Want a free iPod?
Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof

If he can successfully predict the outcome, does he have to pay himself $1,000,000?

Randi's flair for the dramatic shouldn't detract from his real and serious comitment to science and its advancement.

Regarding the protocols for testing paranormal claims by the James Randi Fundation http://www.randi.org/ you should know that they are elaborated in agreement with the person being tested: the experiment has to be agreable to both parties, otherwise it would be too easy to do like you've just done and dismiss Randi's experiment design as being unjustly difficult and designed to fail the claim.

If no agreement on the procedure can be made, no test is done. I believe that the tested actually has to sign his agreement to the protocol before the experiment is started.

Dowsing has been tested elsewhere using similar methods as the one you describe, always in complete agreement with the dowser being tested: part of the test protocol actually asks for the dowser to confirm that he gets a positive readings for the pipes when he is shown beforehand that they actually contain water. Once that is established, the double-blind experiment can start, and eventually show the real accuracy of the paranormal detection method, ie. the usual no-more-than-chance.

Why not include the Columbia prayer study? Oh, yea, because it's been thoroughly discredited. Just like the Belfast study will be soon enough.

One million dollars says homeopathy is a placebo. Do you want to argue with it?

Please see this thread. There's a fairly exhaustive list of reasons to believe this is a fake/hoax/whatever. Basically almost everything on the site turns up blanks - there are no churches, universities, math problems, high schools, etc. by the names cited therein.

If you can provide even a modest piece of evidence for their existance, please do so. There have been a few legitimate evangelical and anti-evolutionist types who have cited or discussed the essays, yes, but they don't seem to have any idea what the hell Fellowship University is or whether these guys are for real either. Thus the pretty obvious conclusion that it's a hoax.

Oh for crying out loud, can we please stop posting this "X-files" nonsense as if its for real? As if we don't have enough propaganda and lies being blasted our way in our media.

Look, we're talking about ESP. If you can't get James Randi to believe it, please don't bother us about it.

What are your grounds for dismissing the random number generator story?

What I my grounds for dismissing any story posted in James Randi's Commentary column (where I am sure we will read about this random number generator very soon)? Good question... Because it is a pseudoscientific bullshit maybe? Because it is quack science? Because I don't instantly believe in every crackpot hypothesis? Gee, I don't know...

I am interested because what I have read so far on the Princeton site has, at best, not convinced me either way on the matter.

You have read only their own website? You can find more info here.

So he really has no reason to care whether or not the fund is given out, in a monetary sense.

The fund may as well be his personal checking account.

If you Read the challenge, you can see that every instance is "by James Randi", not "the JREF institute" or some other dispersonal body.

If the "debunking psychics" busness stops being profitable to Randi, he can just take his million dollars (plus whatever else he may have) and go into some other business. To say nothing of the 10,000 from his own account he must put up upon any demonstration.

I know it's goddamn off-topic, but this has to be said:
Luckily, it *is* a fake. :)

Yesterday I fell for it. Then today I googled for "Fellowship University" (where the anti-evolutionist wacko allegedly teaches) and found nothing. So, I found proof that it's a fake - albeit extremely well done!!

I don't feel so bad for falling for it, since the great James Randi fell for it as well! But he soon corrected himself (here and here)

Btw, The JREF website is totally cool. A great resource to debunk all the quackery of our time (from parapsychology to homeopathy).

--
Requiem for the FUD

I know it's goddamn off-topic, but this has to be said:
Luckily, it *is* a fake. :)

Yesterday I fell for it. Then today I googled for "Fellowship University" (where the anti-evolutionist wacko allegedly teaches) and found nothing. So, I found proof that it's a fake - albeit extremely well done!!

I don't feel so bad for falling for it, since the great James Randi fell for it as well! But he soon corrected himself (here and here)

Btw, The JREF website is totally cool. A great resource to debunk all the quackery of our time (from parapsychology to homeopathy).

--
Requiem for the FUD

I know it's goddamn off-topic, but this has to be said:
Luckily, it *is* a fake. :)

Yesterday I fell for it. Then today I googled for "Fellowship University" (where the anti-evolutionist wacko allegedly teaches) and found nothing. So, I found proof that it's a fake - albeit extremely well done!!

I don't feel so bad for falling for it, since the great James Randi fell for it as well! But he soon corrected himself (here and here)

Btw, The JREF website is totally cool. A great resource to debunk all the quackery of our time (from parapsychology to homeopathy).

--
Requiem for the FUD

I know it's goddamn off-topic, but this has to be said:
Luckily, it *is* a fake. :)

Yesterday I fell for it. Then today I googled for "Fellowship University" (where the anti-evolutionist wacko allegedly teaches) and found nothing. So, I found proof that it's a fake - albeit extremely well done!!

I don't feel so bad for falling for it, since the great James Randi fell for it as well! But he soon corrected himself (here and here)

Btw, The JREF website is totally cool. A great resource to debunk all the quackery of our time (from parapsychology to homeopathy).

--
Requiem for the FUD

In other words, graphology is BS and the people who analyzed it already had a preconceived notion about whose it was and made the appropriate BS analyses.

Graphology is just as laughable as astrology, acupuncture or homeopathy. Here's a nice experiment for your amusement: when you meet a "graphologist" who'd like to demonstrate her amazing "skills" to you, be sure to make an experiment using text copied from some newspaper, the same text written by all of the tested people who had no contact with the graphologist before and during the handwriting examination at all. Observing the graphologist's face when she doesn't have "side channels data" and no interaction with people to play with "cold reading" is a trully hilarious experience.

"This shape might sometimes mean that maybe some kind of a impatience... am I right?"
"Just keep going, I don't want to disturb you!"

And the most funny thing is that unlike psychics they can't just make up some dumb excuses that they feel some disturbance of Force or that the Angels are scared by the camera, because they are supposed to be scientists. Looking at someone's writing you can usually tell the gender and age--the same I can guess reading someone's palm... Or foot... Or arse! Does it make me an arsologist?

For more interesting informations read: Wikipedia article on graphology, James Randi's comments on graphology (by The Amazing Randi of JREF who offers "a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event"), graphology in the Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert T. Carroll, PhD, and of course the excellent Quackwatch paper How Graphology Fools People by Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD. This is not the first time we can laugh at psedoscientific morons on Slashdot thanks to The Amazing Randi.

And a comment to CmdrTaco: please add the Monty Python foot to the article because without it we look like a bunch of imbeciles. What next? Bill Gates tested by the lie detector and a story posted on science.slashdot.org? Please just add the foot. Thanks.

In other words, graphology is BS and the people who analyzed it already had a preconceived notion about whose it was and made the appropriate BS analyses.

Graphology is just as laughable as astrology, acupuncture or homeopathy. Here's a nice experiment for your amusement: when you meet a "graphologist" who'd like to demonstrate her amazing "skills" to you, be sure to make an experiment using text copied from some newspaper, the same text written by all of the tested people who had no contact with the graphologist before and during the handwriting examination at all. Observing the graphologist's face when she doesn't have "side channels data" and no interaction with people to play with "cold reading" is a trully hilarious experience.

"This shape might sometimes mean that maybe some kind of a impatience... am I right?"
"Just keep going, I don't want to disturb you!"

And the most funny thing is that unlike psychics they can't just make up some dumb excuses that they feel some disturbance of Force or that the Angels are scared by the camera, because they are supposed to be scientists. Looking at someone's writing you can usually tell the gender and age--the same I can guess reading someone's palm... Or foot... Or arse! Does it make me an arsologist?

For more interesting informations read: Wikipedia article on graphology, James Randi's comments on graphology (by The Amazing Randi of JREF who offers "a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event"), graphology in the Skeptic's Dictionary by Robert T. Carroll, PhD, and of course the excellent Quackwatch paper How Graphology Fools People by Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD. This is not the first time we can laugh at psedoscientific morons on Slashdot thanks to The Amazing Randi.

And a comment to CmdrTaco: please add the Monty Python foot to the article because without it we look like a bunch of imbeciles. What next? Bill Gates tested by the lie detector and a story posted on science.slashdot.org? Please just add the foot. Thanks.

The James Randi Educational Foundation just had a mention of graphology in it's latest newsletter.
http://www.randi.org/jr/012805opinions.html#5

The whole "art" of graphology is no different from palmistry, reading of tea leaves or pulling out the entrails of small animals for mysterious insights. Basically telling lies and lucky guesses.

Of course telling something of a famous person is easier, because most people already have some kind of preconception of him/her. All the "reader" has to do is strengthen those preconceptions and he/she can't say anything wrong.

As Penn & Teller would say - Bullshit!

there were literally tons of wood that was supposedly from the cross that jesus was supposedly nailed to.

Shhh, I'm making good money selling my leftover firewood on eBay.

I would buy it if I only hadn't spent $28,000 on a grilled cheese sandwich bearing an image of the Virgin Mary... Would you give me a kilogram of your wood for one Jesus Tortilla or two Mother Teresa Buns?

When I read "fake science" I thought that they might be after Randi's million but then when I read the conference agenda I thought that they were much less exciting than most of applicants, especially those two and I was like, wtf? Is this story boring or what? And then I was enlightened. Jon Stewart's media criticism indeed applies, even if it is completely irrelevant here, but they in fact are "hurting [the world]," for their frivolous greedy publicity stunts happenings might indeed have a real influence on people and their respective behaviour. Some people might think "hey, the global worning is not such a big deal after all, why not buy another ugly GM SUV monster instead of a hybrid Honda Civic?" which in turn will make the climate even warmer. The question is, why would anyone want to increase the temperature of the planet? It doesn't seem to make any sense, does it? Could that be only a side effect of billions to be made selling oil? Were the recent decisions on the Middle East only a beginning of a bigger plan? Only time will tell.

When I read "fake science" I thought that they might be after Randi's million but then when I read the conference agenda I thought that they were much less exciting than most of applicants, especially those two and I was like, wtf? Is this story boring or what? And then I was enlightened. Jon Stewart's media criticism indeed applies, even if it is completely irrelevant here, but they in fact are "hurting [the world]," for their frivolous greedy publicity stunts happenings might indeed have a real influence on people and their respective behaviour. Some people might think "hey, the global worning is not such a big deal after all, why not buy another ugly GM SUV monster instead of a hybrid Honda Civic?" which in turn will make the climate even warmer. The question is, why would anyone want to increase the temperature of the planet? It doesn't seem to make any sense, does it? Could that be only a side effect of billions to be made selling oil? Were the recent decisions on the Middle East only a beginning of a bigger plan? Only time will tell.

When I read "fake science" I thought that they might be after Randi's million but then when I read the conference agenda I thought that they were much less exciting than most of applicants, especially those two and I was like, wtf? Is this story boring or what? And then I was enlightened. Jon Stewart's media criticism indeed applies, even if it is completely irrelevant here, but they in fact are "hurting [the world]," for their frivolous greedy publicity stunts happenings might indeed have a real influence on people and their respective behaviour. Some people might think "hey, the global worning is not such a big deal after all, why not buy another ugly GM SUV monster instead of a hybrid Honda Civic?" which in turn will make the climate even warmer. The question is, why would anyone want to increase the temperature of the planet? It doesn't seem to make any sense, does it? Could that be only a side effect of billions to be made selling oil? Were the recent decisions on the Middle East only a beginning of a bigger plan? Only time will tell.

When I read "fake science" I thought that they might be after Randi's million but then when I read the conference agenda I thought that they were much less exciting than most of applicants, especially those two and I was like, wtf? Is this story boring or what? And then I was enlightened. Jon Stewart's media criticism indeed applies, even if it is completely irrelevant here, but they in fact are "hurting [the world]," for their frivolous greedy publicity stunts happenings might indeed have a real influence on people and their respective behaviour. Some people might think "hey, the global worning is not such a big deal after all, why not buy another ugly GM SUV monster instead of a hybrid Honda Civic?" which in turn will make the climate even warmer. The question is, why would anyone want to increase the temperature of the planet? It doesn't seem to make any sense, does it? Could that be only a side effect of billions to be made selling oil? Were the recent decisions on the Middle East only a beginning of a bigger plan? Only time will tell.

When I read "fake science" I thought that they might be after Randi's million but then when I read the conference agenda I thought that they were much less exciting than most of applicants, especially those two and I was like, wtf? Is this story boring or what? And then I was enlightened. Jon Stewart's media criticism indeed applies, even if it is completely irrelevant here, but they in fact are "hurting [the world]," for their frivolous greedy publicity stunts happenings might indeed have a real influence on people and their respective behaviour. Some people might think "hey, the global worning is not such a big deal after all, why not buy another ugly GM SUV monster instead of a hybrid Honda Civic?" which in turn will make the climate even warmer. The question is, why would anyone want to increase the temperature of the planet? It doesn't seem to make any sense, does it? Could that be only a side effect of billions to be made selling oil? Were the recent decisions on the Middle East only a beginning of a bigger plan? Only time will tell.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Audiophiles are the stupidest people on earth.

$1,200.00 is not that much for a high quality digital cable, but notice the arrows on the pictures. They indicate the direction in which the sound should flow. Of course it works best with quantum sound purifiers which strips electronic noise from individual electrons. When you are at it, don't forget to buy your tuning dots: "Marigo's VTS Tuning Dots have been one of the most effective and dramatic steps I have taken to improve my system's performance. The improvements were not sublte. They brought great transparency without losing musicality. Clarity, dynamics, inner detail, midrange bloom, bass slam and articulation have such an improved sense of openness that they represent a major paradigm shift in resonance control." Yes, those are little round stickers in various sizes that cost between $5 and $20 a piece, that you should stick to every single piece of equipment and flat surface in your listening room. It is not surprising that when James Randi offers them a million dollars if they can demonstrate that it works in a simple double-blind test (search the commentary archive for audiophile) they don't want it--if I was selling stones and sticks for thousands, I wouldn't want that laughable million either.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Audiophiles are the stupidest people on earth.

$1,200.00 is not that much for a high quality digital cable, but notice the arrows on the pictures. They indicate the direction in which the sound should flow. Of course it works best with quantum sound purifiers which strips electronic noise from individual electrons. When you are at it, don't forget to buy your tuning dots: "Marigo's VTS Tuning Dots have been one of the most effective and dramatic steps I have taken to improve my system's performance. The improvements were not sublte. They brought great transparency without losing musicality. Clarity, dynamics, inner detail, midrange bloom, bass slam and articulation have such an improved sense of openness that they represent a major paradigm shift in resonance control." Yes, those are little round stickers in various sizes that cost between $5 and $20 a piece, that you should stick to every single piece of equipment and flat surface in your listening room. It is not surprising that when James Randi offers them a million dollars if they can demonstrate that it works in a simple double-blind test (search the commentary archive for audiophile) they don't want it--if I was selling stones and sticks for thousands, I wouldn't want that laughable million either.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Audiophiles are the stupidest people on earth.

$1,200.00 is not that much for a high quality digital cable, but notice the arrows on the pictures. They indicate the direction in which the sound should flow. Of course it works best with quantum sound purifiers which strips electronic noise from individual electrons. When you are at it, don't forget to buy your tuning dots: "Marigo's VTS Tuning Dots have been one of the most effective and dramatic steps I have taken to improve my system's performance. The improvements were not sublte. They brought great transparency without losing musicality. Clarity, dynamics, inner detail, midrange bloom, bass slam and articulation have such an improved sense of openness that they represent a major paradigm shift in resonance control." Yes, those are little round stickers in various sizes that cost between $5 and $20 a piece, that you should stick to every single piece of equipment and flat surface in your listening room. It is not surprising that when James Randi offers them a million dollars if they can demonstrate that it works in a simple double-blind test (search the commentary archive for audiophile) they don't want it--if I was selling stones and sticks for thousands, I wouldn't want that laughable million either.

Well I already said that it's almost every time that I have weird-ass dreams that there's solar activity going on, not every time. Once in a while I'll check the sites and yes... no memorable dreams generally means little/low solar activity. As they say, correlation does not mean causation, I'm just giving a datapoint. No need to act all superior.

No offense intended. Correlation indeed does not mean causation, but it should be more than enough to get the prize--if what you say is true, that is. Here is the Application for Status of Claimant. It doesn't cost anything and you don't risk anything--there is only one million US dollars if you can demonstrate the correlation. That's a lot of cash, I wouldn't wait if I were you.

I don't know about you but I have been tracking the weird-ass dreams that I remember for the last year or so and whenever I have a "rash" of memorable dreams I check the various sun tracking sites and almost without fail I will find that there was some kind of burst of solar activity going on around that time.

And of course you have also noticed that every time you don't have memorable dreams and check the various sun tracking sites, almost without fail you never find that there was some kind of burst of solar activity going on around that time, right? Then hurry up! The one-million-dollar prize is waiting for you!

Sounds like another candidate for the JREF prize.

Are you "American" from the Randi political boards?

Now, of course that seems like hogwash, and maybe it is, but it is pretty accurate

Bullshit. If it's accurate, then you could come up with a test to prove it. You could take astrological predictions for an individual based upon his house and compare them with random predictions. These could then be compared for statistical validity, proving once and for all that astrology is accurate.

Wow, if only someone would take the time to perform tests like these. Maybe someone could even make a contest to offer money to anyone who could prove a fantastic claim like "astrology is accurate". [randi.org]

Get it through your skull. It's PROVEN TO BE bullshit. It's always been bullshit, and it will always be bullshit. I've had close dealings with astrologists. I know how some of what they say can seem to be more than just coincidence, but that's all it is -- coincidence and psychology. It's got nothing to do with anyone's "house" or "fate". It's all just bullshit. Don't be a sucker.
za

- Majority of slashdot readers agree with prominent advertising on Slashdot: Switching from Microsoft to Linux is much more expensive than upgrade"
- Climate modelers come clean and admit their models "can't see shit into the future"
- Shock survey shows slashdotters "getting it" on a regular basis.
- Novell release software properly tested and with all features implemented.
- Iraq turns into haven of peace and democratic tranquility thanks to Bush/Blair intervention.
- Israel ditto.
- Randi $1 million prize won by Sylvia Browne after successfully demonstrating power to talk to dead people.

Not Sweets -- Water. Although Africa might not be too unhappy about lots of water either.

(Oh, but this water has a *memory*, that's why it works! Hail Pseudoscience. Or not.)

Frankly, homeopathy works. Before you criticize, I am as baffled by it as you are. There is no reason it should work, but it does. And yes, there are studies.

Were these peer reviewed studies? Can you cite these studies? All I have found are sites like this one: Homeopathy Fails in the UK Again

If Sollog is who I think he is, he was banned from the JREF forums quite some time ago for making absurd assertions about various "abilities" he posesses.

http://www.randi.org/

The JREF promises a US$1m reward for anyone demonstrating, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any supernatural, paranormal, or occult power or event.

To this date, no one has passed the preliminary testing - Sollog included.

James Randi (link) has been looking at the utter tripe coming out of several audio manufacturers recently. Their responses are enlightening.

This is totally rediculous! If there were any validity to the claims of psychics, there would be intense scientific interest but no one would be deprived of thier life and liberty over it. The truth is, most psychics have such muddled thinking processes, they cant understand the basics of the scientific method and therefore dismiss it out of hand. Check out randi.org and if you do have psychic powers, collect your million dollars.

Cold Fusion? Hah, maybe they could limber up with something easy and pick up a million bucks while they are at it.

Perhaps your Uncle should contact the James Randi Educational Foundation. So far the dosers/witchers that have tried to claim the million bucks have turned out to be self deluded and incapable of finding water. So much so that Randi has written an article about them.

"Sure enough we dug down I believe it was 6 feet and hit all three springs."
This certainly sounds impressive, but how do you know that digging elsewhere in the hill would not have produced the same (or better) results? Six feet is pretty shallow, but what if it had been ten feet down? Would your uncle have stilled claimed success?

"There's a couple here in my state that made the news 6 or so months ago for witching unmarked graves in an abandoned cemetary. "
This sounds less impressive. Unmarked graves are often pretty densly packed. They also often cause visual clues on the surface.

"The only time it's reported to not work so well "
The only time it's Reported by whom? People who make a living dowsing? There's lot's of reports of spectacular failures of dowsing ability. Here is one that's related to the topic at hand : An objective test involving running running through pipes.

Don't get me wrong. I think it'd be the coolest thing in he world to see Randi give out that million bucks, but I also belive that if a witcher could really do what they think they can do, then one of them would have proven it by now. (You get to have a lawyer present during the experiment, so that you can sue Randi if he refuses to acknowledge your victory, but that's never happened either.)

Perhaps your Uncle should contact the James Randi Educational Foundation. So far the dosers/witchers that have tried to claim the million bucks have turned out to be self deluded and incapable of finding water. So much so that Randi has written an article about them.

"Sure enough we dug down I believe it was 6 feet and hit all three springs."
This certainly sounds impressive, but how do you know that digging elsewhere in the hill would not have produced the same (or better) results? Six feet is pretty shallow, but what if it had been ten feet down? Would your uncle have stilled claimed success?

"There's a couple here in my state that made the news 6 or so months ago for witching unmarked graves in an abandoned cemetary. "
This sounds less impressive. Unmarked graves are often pretty densly packed. They also often cause visual clues on the surface.

"The only time it's reported to not work so well "
The only time it's Reported by whom? People who make a living dowsing? There's lot's of reports of spectacular failures of dowsing ability. Here is one that's related to the topic at hand : An objective test involving running running through pipes.

Don't get me wrong. I think it'd be the coolest thing in he world to see Randi give out that million bucks, but I also belive that if a witcher could really do what they think they can do, then one of them would have proven it by now. (You get to have a lawyer present during the experiment, so that you can sue Randi if he refuses to acknowledge your victory, but that's never happened either.)

"Witching works well if you can find a compotent person to do it and have some spare time to kill for a project this massive."

Competent witchers are hard to find because they're all in line to claim their million bucks from The Amazing Randi.

In fact, I don't know why anyone who could operate a divining rod would waste their time finding pvc water pipes for construction crews. Randi is offering a million dollars for an afternoon's work. I can't imagine construction crews pay nearly that well.

As a "skeptic" I found both Jon's comments on Crossfire and this article to be enjoyable -- in the sense that here's someone saying what we've known to be true for years.

If any of you feel this way, you might enjoy some fine skeptical sites such as:

The James Randi Educational Foundation
http://www.randi.org/

Committe for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
http://www.csicop.org/

Bad Astronomy
http://www.badastronomy.com/