Espionage In Icelandic Parliament

bumburumbi writes "An unauthorised computer, apparently running encrypted software, was found hidden inside an unoccupied office in the Icelandic Parliament, Althingi, connected to the internal network. According to the Reykjavik Grapevine article, serial numbers had been removed and no fingerprints were found. The office had been used by substitute MPs from the Independence Party and The Movement, the Parliamentary group of Birgitta Jonsdottir, whose Twiiter account was recently subpoenaed by US authorities. The Icelandic daily Morgunbladid, under the editorship of Mr David Oddsson, former Prime Minister and Central Bank chief, has suggested that this might be an operation run by Wikileaks. The reporter for the Reykjavik Grapevine, Mr Paul Nikolov is a former substitute MP, having taken seat in Parliament in 2007 and 2008."

Comments

James Randi is a fraud

[Steeltoe]

In contrast, the James Randi Paranormal Challenge has a $1,000,000 prize, only has rules that disallow cheating, has been running since 1964 and is still running. The fact that no one has passed the preliminary stage of that challenge means something

It means nothing. James Randi is a con man and a fraud. The whole "challenge" is a setup. Only James Randi is judge and jury, there are no independent experts involved. The rules are not set in stone beforehand at all. He alters the rules at any time of predicament. He also intimidates and harasses those going for the challenge, making for an exceptional hard environment to perform anything successfully. He's a total prick. Many people have accomplished what they've claimed, but then Randi came up with extra tests, until they failed. Randi also rejects many many applicants based on his own suspicions wether they might actually pull it off or not. He's not interested in "statistics", but demands "undisputable show of magic", but without magic tricks. He reserves all rights to explain away any "magic", being an accomplished magician, there is no lack of knowledge and creativity in that area, on the contrary. He demands the super-natural, but in reality, nothing is beyond nature, so he can always reject the results on the premise that it is still natural in some way. So the challenge is unbeatable.

Being one who has actually had Out Of Body experience, seen auras, and experienced that there is more to this universe than the judgement of sciencific-minded people. These experiences are not enough to win the "challenge" by far, because it is designed to reject everything. I just have to both giggle and pity people, when I see them falling for the same traps that overly religious and superstitious people do. Superstitious people accepts prematurely, while supersceptics rejects prematurely. You're all in the same boat, unable to open your mind to more possibilities than the one you've already decided for. It's extremely limiting, just imagine a history without such people! Of course you're going to miss what's happening on a subtle level. There are rare moments in life one has the possibility to experience such things, but it's easy to fall into either camps (superstitious / supersceptical) and become deluded that one knows more than one really does.

One of the most spiritual and scientific statements is: "I don't really know, but I would like to know". Then there is suddenly NO CONFLICT AT ALL between them, but rather, complementary vehicles of broading the mind.

Re:James Randi is a fraud

[Steeltoe]

Randi very clearly lays out of the bounds of any tests beforehand, and what is considered proof. ...And then changes those parameters at any time. If you Google this you'll see many independent complaints about this.

If anyone had actually passed that test, they would, you know, sue him, because they were promised payment of a million dollars if they did that. There is an actual contract with actual winning conditions.

No can do, as per the contract, which is designed to benefit James, not the applicant:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/89173/exposing_the_unfair_truth_about_the.html

But since you've made that claim, you should be able to demonstrate that Randi has, at least once, laid out a test and winning conditions, and then backpeddled once someone actually won.

Except it's no contract in the lawful sense. Seek and Ye shall find:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/89173/exposing_the_unfair_truth_about_the_pg2.html?cat=17

Video: James Randi Challenge Exposed - A Lawyer Explains:
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1442

Professor Michael Prescott found that James Randi’s million dollar challenge is very much an illusion that have fooled people for decades:
http://torbjornsassersson.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/james-randi-and-his-one-million-dollar-challenge-fraud/
http://michaelprescott.freeservers.com/challenge.htm

Examples (hard to find these days as SEO or litigations have made sites disappear, they used to be easy to find):

Rico Kolodzey
http://www.rense.com/general50/james.htm

Riley G Matthews
http://www.rileyg.com/pressdir.htm

Serios
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/2006/08/lets_get_serios.html

Or you are a liar and a slanderer who has accused someone of criminal fraud.

These are not my claims, and there are many many more, however hard to find now. Some is to be found in articles, some in books. I'll let the reader make the good judgement wether this is true or false, I don't have the time or interest to investigate it in detail for you.

You missed my point entirely though. Since everything "supernatural" can be explained away with magic tricks or similar mundane tricks, then it is impossible to prove that you just did something "supernatural". If you read more about James Randi, you'll see his argumentation is dismissive of diversity of people, intolerant and arrogant. So the "Challenge" then quickly turns into a fight for survival, and often end up in the courts. Not very nice.

Yeah, you moron, because that's what he's testing.

Wow, where did that come from?

If he let people win by 'statistics', he'd have a constant stream of people claiming they could predict a coin toss 75% of the time....and eventually one of them would happen to do that. Because that's how statistics work.

But how can you ever dismiss statistics? It is crucial to make discoveries and validate them in any field. Nothing is ever as black and white as some people want the world to be..

This has been discussed to death in other forums. If a basketball player misses the hoop 1 in 100 shots, is she no longer a basketball player? This is the way statistics is being misused to dismiss any results in the JRF chalenge. In the