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All posts for the month August, 2012

by via Mysterious Universe

“Don’t move.” The sound of the woman’s voice was plain and audible, whispered quietly from directly behind him. Nick had just gotten out of bed, and standing beside the door leading into the hallway, he did the first thing that came to mind: he answered her.

“Okay,” he said, a little unnerved, expecting maybe to hear further instructions from his mysterious visitor. He had heard nothing more for several seconds, and finally jerked around to see who had been issuing early-morning orders from behind him someplace. And yet, to his surprise, there was no one there. Later that day, he asked if his roommate had perhaps been host to a visitor that Nick hadn’t been told about, but his friend denied receiving any such visit, and said he had heard no voices earlier that morning. Perplexed, Nick had to resolve that, despite clearly hearing a woman’s voice telling him not to move, there must have been no one present to have actually told him this!

On occasion, strange phenomenon such as this does tend to occur, particularly as one awakes from a sleep state, where disembodied voices can be heard so lucidly as to create the certain impression in one’s mind that they are not alone. And yet, on further inspection, more often than not there actually is no one else with you… thus, could such voices merely be products of the imagination? Or might there be something more to such odd utterances from beyond?

Keep Reading: Voices From Nowhere: Strange Disembodied Utterances? | Mysterious Universe.

by Josh Fox via listverse

Next time you are walking on the beach, there is a possibility, albeit a small one, that you may come across a hideous, stinking mass of life coughed up from the grimiest depths of the ocean floor: in other words, a globster. For those who don’t know, a globster is an unidentified organic mass that is washed up on the shoreline of a body of water. Many fascinating, albeit slimy, globster (and other sea carcass) cases have been documented over the years, all united by the stimulating sense of mystery surrounding them. Science has explained away many historical cases; however some remain enigmatic to this day. Listed below are some of most notable recorded discoveries of both globsters and other interesting sea carcasses.

Keep Reading: Top 10 Fascinating Globsters and Sea Carcasses.

By Benjamin Radford via LiveScience

When a four-part crop circle pattern roughly resembling a Mickey Mouse head appeared last week in a wheat field outside of Seattle, Wash., farmers Greg and Cindy Geib were surprised — but not shocked.

After all, it was not the first crop circle in the area; several others had appeared in previous years, mostly chalked up to mischievous youth. The pattern was noticed by a neighbor driving on a nearby highway who soon called the Geibs on July 24 and told them they’d been punk’d. The mysterious circle had apparently been made overnight, with no obvious signs of hoaxing.

People are always surprised by crop circles (especially when it happens to them), but in fact they’re not as rare as often assumed: According to an article by Richard Taylor published in “Physics World” (August 2011), “these patterns appear around the world at a rate of one every evening,” making them literally an everyday event.

Many hundreds of crop circles have appeared over the years, usually in hotspots like Great Britain, and according to Taylor their designs are getting ever more complex as a result of the technology available to crop-circle artists.

Theories & explanations

Crop-circle enthusiasts have come up with many theories about what creates the patterns, ranging from the plausible to the patently absurd. One explanation in vogue in the early 1980s was that the circles were …

… continue reading: Washington Crop Circle Surprising, But Typical | LiveScience.

by Steven Novella via Skepticblog

Where is the “seat of consciousness” in the brain? This is often presented as an enduring mystery of modern neuroscience, and to an extent it is. It is a very complex question and we don’t yet have anything like a complete answer, or even a consensus. The question itself may contain false assumptions – what, exactly, is consciousness, and perhaps what we call consciousness emerges from the collective activity of the entire brain, not a subset. Perhaps every network in the brain is conscious to some degree, and what we experience as our consciousness is the aggregate effect of many little consciousnesses.

One way to approach this question (really a set of related questions) is to study different mental states – altered states of consciousness. How those differences relate to brain function are likely to tell us something about the contribution of that brain function to full wakeful consciousness.

A new study by scientists from the Max Planck Institutes of Psychiatry in Munich and for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and from Charité in Berlin attempts to do just that. They have studied the brain activity of those in normal dreaming and in a so-called lucid dreaming state.

Dreaming is an excellent subject of study for questions of consciousness. I often use dreaming when discussing this topic as an example of an altered state that everyone experiences. While dreaming we have awareness and experience and are forming memories (at least sometimes). When we remember our dreams, however, they don’t quite make sense to our waking selves. Things happen in dreams, for example, that …

… continue reading:  Skepticblog » The Seat of Consciousness.

A news article in the Sacramento Bee declares: “Harvard Study Finds Fluoride Lowers IQ – Published in Federal Gov’t Journal.” Except – this is not a news item, and it’s not really a study. The article is about a recently published systematic review and meta-analysis – not new data. The term “study” is vague, and I find it often causes confusion.

Far worse than this common imprecision is the fact that this article, under the “News” tab on the Bee website, is not actually a news report. It is a propaganda article written by the NYS Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. and distributed as a press release. The Bee does post a disclaimer at the top of the page, reading:

This section contains unedited press releases distributed by PR Newswire. These releases reflect the views of the issuing entity and are not reviewed or edited by the Sacramento Bee staff. More information on PR Newswire can be found on their web site.

That’s better than nothing, but I wonder how many people reading the press release will notice and read the disclaimer. In my opinion, a news outlet should not reprint press releases sent out from advocacy organizations clearly intended to promote an agenda. They especially should not print them under the banner of “News.” The disclaimer is not adequate.

The review itself is being spread around the internet and multiple readers sent me links to the article or reporting about it. Not surprisingly … (keep reading) NeuroLogica Blog » Anti-Fluoride Propaganda as News.

If you were to look outside your home during a thu­nderstorm and see a tall streetlamp glowing with­ blue flames, you might be tempted to call the fire department. Then you might notice that the streetlamp is on fire but isn’t actually burning — and the water from the fire hose isn’t putting out the flames. At this point, you might be about ready to call a priest, but that, like the call to the fire department, would be unnecessary. The phenomenon you’re witnessing is actually St. Elmo’s Fire. (Which has nothing to do with a 1980s coming-of-age film starring a young Emilio Estevez.)

St. Elmo’s Fire is a weather phenomenon involving a gap in electrical charge. It’s like lightning, but not quite. And while it has been mistaken for ball lightning, it’s not that, either — and it’s definitely not fire.

Early observers of the phenomenon, mostly sailors on high seas during thunderstorms, seem to have understood they weren’t looking at actual fire, because instead of abandoning ship …

Keep Reading:  HowStuffWorks “What is St.Elmo’s Fire?”.

A ‘magical log’ in Cambodia is receiving up to 2000 visitors a day, each hoping to gain some good fortune.

The log was dug out of a pond on a farm in the Pursat province of the country and measures about 13 metres long, Reuters reports.

Word of its ‘magic’ has spread across the country, with visitor numbers increasing dramatically each day.

Some people rub talcum powder on the log, and try and read lottery numbers in the residue on their hands.

Others hope it will bring miracle medical cures.

‘I have pain in my belly, knee joints and all over my body, so I came here to use the holy water and take pieces of wood to put in my drinking water, to treat these kinds of diseases,’ Bou Sang, a resident of nearby Battambang province told Reuters.

Another Battambang province local, Nem Nay, explained to Reuters why he believed the log was magical:

‘What I think is, why does this log not rot, even though it stayed underground for over a hundred years? It is still in such good state, unlike some metals, which would have rusted if it stayed underground for that long. I have never seen such a well-preserved log before, so when I heard the news, a group of villagers and I came to see it straight away’, he said.

There have been no reports of any ‘magical’ results.

Keep Reading: Sky News: ‘Magic’ log found in Cambodia.

Whether you’re gay, straight or somewhere else on the spectrum, the truth of who attracts you could be in your eyes.

Pupil dilation is an accurate indicator of sexual orientation, a new study finds. When people look at erotic images and become aroused, their pupils open up in an unconscious reaction that could be used to study orientation and arousal without invasive genital measurements.

The new study is first large-scale experiment to show that pupil dilation matches what people report feeling turned on by, said study researcher Ritch Savin-Williams, a developmental psychologist at Cornell University.

“So if a man says he’s straight, his eyes are dilating towards women,” Savin-Williams told LiveScience. “And the opposite with gay men, their eyes are dilating to men.”

Keep Reading: Eyes Reveal Sexual Orientation | Pupils & Attraction | LiveScience.

Any time an act of mass murder occurs in this country, or even in other countries, conspiracy theorists automatically claim that it’s a false flag attack. It doesn’t matter to them whether it’s an act of terrorism by an organized terrorist group, or an act of terrorism by some lone nut case, or just something that some lone nut case decided to do one day because they couldn’t control their violent urges.

The main “reasoning” behind all of this, besides that fact that many conspiracy theorists don’t believe that anyone would just randomly commit an act of mass murder, is the belief that these mass murders are staged in order to convince the public, or at least justify, that creating stricter gun control laws, and eventually outlawing firearms completely, is acceptable and reasonable.

The problem with this claim is that while some politicians often times do call for much more stricter gun control laws after a mass murder involving fire arms occurs, actual nation wide laws getting passed in this country regarding gun control is quite rare. In fact, the last major nation wide gun control law that was passed in this country was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. Plus, in 2004 that law expired, and has never been renewed.

Keep Reading: The Soap Box: Embarrassing Conspiracy Theories: Acts of Mass Murder are False Flag Attacks.

Sixty volumes of “meticulous UFO research over 30 years” by the late Ufologist Leonard H. Stringfield were donated to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), according to an August 3, 2012, announcement by MUFON Executive Director David MacDonald who spoke at the organization’s annual symposium.

The news of Stringfield’s work surfacing and in MUFON’s hands now had been kept secret prior to the 8 p.m. announcement as one of two “blockbuster UFO discoveries” that the group was to make at the Cincinnati event. A second briefing will be made about 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 5.

Stringfield (1920-1994) was an American ufologist who worked with government and private agencies to track UFO reports and had a special interest in reports of crashed objects.

Grainy B&W image of supposed UFO, Passoria, Ne...

Grainy B&W image of supposed UFO (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MUFON Pennsylvania State Director John Ventre, reacting by telephone just minutes after the announcement, said MacDonald touched on just some of the written evidence compiled by Stringfield.

“In those 60 volumes we have government interference, the FBI and CIA stopping the ufologists at any cost,” Ventre said. “He names Donald Rumbsfeld and President Ford as being briefed on UFOs by J. Allen Hynek. He talks about UFO investigators being beaten or receiving death threats. He names heads of state that knew. He even has actor Jackie Gleason’s contact information in there. There is a lot of explosive information in there.”

Keep Reading: 30 Years Of UFO Crash Reports Go Public – National ufo | Examiner.com.

By Christie Wilcox via Scientific American

People believe a lot of things that we have little to no evidence for, like that vikings wore horned helmets or that you can see the Great Wall of China from space. One of the things I like to do on my blogs is bust commonly held myths that I think matter. For example, I get really annoyed when I hear someone say sharks don’t get cancer (I’ll save that rant for another day). From now onward, posts that attack conventionally believed untruths will fall under a series I’m going to call “Mythbusting 101.”

Ten years ago, Certified Organic didn’t exist in the United States. Yet in 2010, a mere eight years after USDA’s regulations officially went into effect, organic foods and beverages made $26.7 billion. In the past year or two, certified organic sales have jumped to about $52 billion worldwide despite the fact that organic foods cost up to three times as much as those produced by conventional methods. More and more, people are shelling out their hard-earned cash for what they believe are the best foods available. Imagine, people say: you can improve your nutrition while helping save the planet from the evils of conventional agriculture – a complete win-win. And who wouldn’t buy organic, when it just sounds so good?

Here’s the thing: there are a lot of myths out there about organic foods, and a lot of propaganda supporting methods that are rarely understood. It’s like your mother used to say: just because everyone is jumping off a bridge doesn’t mean you should do it, too. Now, before I get yelled at too much, let me state unequivocally that I’m not saying organic farming is bad – far from it.There are some definite upsides and benefits that come from many organic farming methods. For example, the efforts of organic farmers to move away from monocultures, where crops are farmed in single-species plots, are fantastic; crop rotations and mixed planting are much better for the soil and environment. My goal in this post isn’t to bash organic farms, instead, it’s to bust the worst of the myths that surround them so that everyone can judge organic farming based on facts. In particular, there are four myths thrown around like they’re real that just drive me crazy.

Myth #1: Organic Farms Don’t Use Pesticides

When the Soil Association, a major organic accreditation body in the UK, asked consumers why they buy organic food, 95% of them said their top reason was to avoid pesticides. They, like many people, believe that organic farming involves little to no pesticide use. I hate to burst the bubble, but that’s simply not true. Organic farming, just like other forms of agriculture, still uses pesticides and fungicides to prevent critters from destroying their crops. Confused?

So was I, when I first learned this from a guy I was dating. His family owns a farm in rural Ohio. He was grumbling about how …

Keep Reading: Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture | Science Sushi, Scientific American Blog Network.

The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, “already seen.” Those who have experienced the feeling describe it as an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that shouldn’t be familiar at all. Say, for example, you are traveling to England for the first time. You are touring a cathedral, and suddenly it seems as if you have been in that very spot before. Or maybe you are having dinner with a group of friends, discussing some current political topic, and you have the feeling that you’ve already experienced this very thing — same friends, same dinner, same topic.

The phenomenon is rather complex, and there are many different theories as to why déjà vu happens.

Keep Reading: HowStuffWorks “What is deja vu?”.

Reblogged from Zuma's Revenge:

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Ok… I am a bit confused by the whole “Batman Shooter Conspiracy” theory.  Correction - I am a bit confused about the reasons some people are citing as proof of a conspiracy.

I certainly don’t doubt the possibility of a conspiracy existing here.  Nor do I doubt our government’s willingness to create such a conspiracy in an attempt to use fear to convince the general public to hand over their Constitutional rights (it certainly wouldn’t be the first time).

Read more… 1,031 more words

Reblogged from The Color of Lila:

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Okay, all you the-moon landings-were-faked conspiracy nuts:  now we have photos taken from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the flags that the Apollo astronauts left behind on their moon landings.

NASA has a nice web page explaining the science that debunks the conspiracy nuts, but a picture is worth a thousand words.  Then again, conspiracy nuts are notoriously committed to their world views…

Read more… 104 more words

“…magical thinking is “a fundamental dimension of a child’s thinking.” –Zusne and Jones

According to anthropologist Dr. Phillips Stevens Jr., magical thinking involves several elements, including a belief in the interconnectedness of all things through forces and powers that transcend both physical and spiritual connections. Magical thinking invests special powers and forces in many things that are seen as symbols. According to Stevens, “the vast majority of the world’s peoples … believe that there are real connections between the symbol and its referent, and that some real and potentially measurable power flows between them.” He believes there is a neurobiological basis for this, though the specific content of any symbol is culturally determined. (Not that some symbols aren’t universal, e.g., the egg, fire, water. Not that the egg, fire, or water symbolize the same things in all cultures.)

One of the driving principles of magical thinking is the notion that things that resemble each other are causally connected in some way that defies scientific testing (the law of similarity). Another driving principle is the belief that “things that have been either in physical contact or in spatial or temporal association with other things retain a connection after they are separated” (the law of contagion) (Frazer; Stevens).

Keep Reading: magical thinking – The Skeptic’s Dictionary – Skepdic.com.

August 8, 2012 – The economy has sparked a wide variety of truly bizarre conspiracy theories. People continue to believe them. The internet has given them a wider forum and audience, and has proved to be fertile ground for these ideas to spread.

These are the myths and conspiracy theories that just won’t die.

1) The Federal Reserve is a private corporation run for the profit of its shareholder banks.

This one’s been kicking around almost since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. It’s the subject of a three hour documentary called “The Money Masters”.   The reality: Nationally chartered banks do hold stock in their regional Federal Reserve Banks, and receive a small portion (6 percent of their stock) of the profits of their regional banks, which is presumably the origin of this theory.

2) Official inflation statistics dramatically understate the true rate.

As long as currency has existed there have been conspiracy theories about it. The more recent iterations are claims by people like John Williams at Shadowstats that the government has reconfigured the CPI to understate inflation, and claims that the Federal Reserve’s use of core rather than headline inflation leads to underestimation of the real rate and policy error.

3) There’s a conspiracy to suppress precious metal prices

Due to its use as a hedge against inflation, and the ongoing insistence that we return to a gold standard, there will always be a loud contingent of gold conspiracists. More recently, Ted Butler has led claims that the silver market is being manipulated by a small cabal of traders, and an organization called the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee claims that central and private banks works to suppress press gold prices.

Keep Reading: The 12 Most Popular Economic Conspiracy Theories.

by via Mysterious Universe

No, the title above is not a reference to a new Japanese monster-movie, as much as it might sound like it should be! What I’m actually referring to is something that both students of UFOs and researchers of strange creatures – for the most part, anyway – absolutely hate. What is it? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s those curious, and not irregular, occasions when Ufology and Cryptozoology don’t just cross paths, but where certain cases suggest a common point of origin for both phenomena.

Of course, many Ufologists and Cryptozoologists get irate and fired up when I bring up such matters. But what the heck; I don’t care. The fact is that there are a lot of cases suggesting a connection. So why hide them? Let’s take a look…

Keep Reading: When Aliens and Creatures Clash | Mysterious Universe.

English: This is Netherworld Haunted House in ...

English: This is Netherworld Haunted House in Norcross, GA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some people might be hesitant to admit that they believe in ghosts. But if you’ve ever heard a chilling bump in the night when you’re home alone, ghosts might not be such a leap of faith. In fact, a little more than a third of American adults believe in ghosts. Perhaps more surprising is that 23 percent of adults polled said they’d personally seen or felt a ghost.

Every October, thousands of people pay to walk through commercial haunted houses, in which costumed actors stand in for otherworldly spirits. Customers can get the adrenaline rush of scary “monsters” popping out at them for a few minutes without any risk of getting their souls stolen or becoming possessed. But real-life haunted houses are a different story. Sure, there are plenty of paranormal enthusiasts who intentionally stay in purportedly haunted hotels and hunt for ghosts. But what if ghosts found their way into your home? If the poll results we just mentioned are accurate, the sensation of an uninvited guest isn’t such an uncommon occurrence.

According to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP), there are some things to pay attention to if you suspect your house is haunted. Seeing apparitions, hearing weird sounds, smelling odd odors, feeling “cold spots” within a room, noticing objects that …

Keep Reading: HowStuffWorks “Top 10 Real-life Haunted Houses”.

Published by (2009)

On a recent episode of Fringe (a rather mediocre, in my opinion, series on the supernatural), the investigators come across apparent cases of spontaneous human combustion (SHC).  Popular Mechanics decided to write an article about the science behind SHC (it turns out there isn’t any) and luckily contacted me to give them the skinny. You can read the article here.

SHC is a fun pseudoscience in that there is nothing concrete at stake – no health claims, no products, no concerns about squandering limited research funds. It’s purely a scientific question, one highly amenable to skeptical analysis.

In order to understand SHC imagine the following scene: An elderly woman who lives alone is found dead in her apartment. She is the victim of fire; her body is mostly reduced to ash, and only the ends of her arms and legs remain. The ashen outline of her head lies upon the hearth of her fireplace, the iron grill of which has been knocked to the side. There are signs that a fire recently was burning in the fireplace. A brown greasy substance coats the walls and ceiling near the body, but otherwise the room is unharmed.

Now set aside all common sense and reason, and you’ll have a typical case of spontaneous human combustion.

The idea that people can suddenly and spontaneously burst into flames … (keep reading) NeuroLogica Blog » Spontaneous Human Combustion.

DC layout design debunked by Rational wiki

Rationalwiki debunks the DC city design myth saying:

The claims about the D.C. street layout are easily refuted just by looking at an actual map of the city.  Conspiracy literature will show Rhode Island Ave., Vermont Ave., Massachusetts Ave., Connecticut Ave., and K Street making up five lines of a pentagram.  A look at the actual street map shows that Vermont and Connecticut Avenues do not extend south of K street so there is no point below that, and ergo, no bottom point of any pentagram pointing at the White House.  Further, Rhode Island Ave. does not extend west of Connecticut Ave. so not only does this alleged “pentagram” not have five points, it doesn’t even have four.  It is purely the product of someone’s overactive imagination.

As to whether Masonic symbols such as the square and compass can be found in the street layout, this would seem to be conceivably possible given that many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons.  In actuality, the city’s street layout was designed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a French-born architect appointed by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to design the city.  L’Enfant’s design somewhat resembled that of Karlsruhe, Germany.  But even if Freemasonry was an influence on the street layout, so what?  Most street intersections everywhere resemble a Christian cross – is this evidence of a Christian conspiracy to control the world?

There is also the question of whether symbols and buildings can somehow harbor or channel demonic forces, witchcraft, or other supernatural powers, solely because of their design.  This is one nutter belief piled on top of another; one has to first believe in the supernatural, and then believe that man-made things can have the power to harbor or channel that supernatural, and then further believe that this can somehow place an entire city under occult control or provide a direct line of communication between Satan and the President of the United States.  This is all patent bullshit.

Finally it should be remembered that Washington was a planned city.  The street designs were intended to be laid out on a diamond shaped grid with both numbered streets and streets named after letters intersecting them.  Traversing the whole city are streets named after various states and figures in American and local history, running on diagonals.  As a result things that look like pentagrams, Masonic t-squares, and compasses in an overhead view were inevitable.  Finally, there have been many changes and revisions to L’enfant’s design as the city has grown over the years.

CONCLUSION:DEBUNKED!!!

via DC layout design debunked by Rational wiki | Autistic skeptic..

From the land of quackery comes the man who “predicted” the Japanese earthquake. He has now predicted a massive earthquake/tsunami that will decimate everything in sight – like Godzilla stomping through Hong Kong! Be frightened. Be VERY frightened! Not.

This is going to be a very public fail. Enjoy.

via disclose.tv

August 7, 2012 – You might remember the man who apparently predicted the Japanese earthquake and tsunami: Mitchell Combes? Story is that he posted a 104 hour countdown to the earthquake on his Facebook page and got it 100% correct. Different thoughts and ideas circulate as to whether that was a legit prediction or not.

Nonetheless he has just posted his first real prediciton since the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and if he is correct, we are in for a massive global incident very shortly.

Here is what he posted about 45 minutes ago on his Facebook page (see image above):

“Ok everyone, you’ve been warned of what’s to come, we are getting extremely close to the 104 hour tsunami warning. I strongly advise that if you live on the east coast of NSW and west coast of USA, have your evacuation gear ready to go as soon as possible. I said on March 11 that California would be next after Japan’s countdown… Sydney’s earthquake will be magnitude 9.5, California’s earthquake will be magnitude 9.6, followed by two 9.4′s, all of these tsunamis will be created in the same exact hour.”

Will he be correct?

Keep Reading:  Massive Sydney And California Tsunamis Coming?.

Most people have their own vague idea of what constitutes a cult. But “cult” is one of those slippery, nebulous terms that are difficult to define. Strict definitions tend to be either too wide or too narrow. To complicate matters, what one considers a cult is often a matter of opinion. But, as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about another ill-defined topic, people tend to think that they know it when they see it.

Sidestepping the controversy, sociologists don’t like to use the pejorative term “cult.” Instead, they like to talk about new religious movements (NRMs), which can be more widely defined. NRMs hold beliefs that are far outside of the mainstream. They are often characterized by making strict demands on the lifestyle of their members, such as giving up possessions, professions and contact with family to live in a commune with other members. Many have charismatic, authoritarian leaders whose followers believe have special prophetic powers. These leaders often prophesize about an imminent apocalypse.

Keep Reading: HowStuffWorks “10 of the World’s Most Infamous Cults”.

… the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has just given approval to Proteus Digital Health for the use of a tiny microchip to be placed in medication taken orally.

The supposed purpose of the microchip embedded in the medication is to “improve the effectiveness of existing pharmaceutical treatments.” If that were only the case, then I would not question it at all, but when you read what they really say on the company’s website, it causes me concern about who is getting what information about my body and what it will be used for:

Digital Medicines are the same pharmaceuticals you take today, with one small change: each pill also contains a tiny sensor that can communicate, via our digital health feedback system, vital information about your medication-taking behaviors and how your body is responding.”

Please take note that these chips will be monitoring when you take the medication, how much you take and how effective it is. Then it will be reporting this information back to someone who will then have that information about you and your body. Someone we don’t know will be receiving our personal information and sharing it with whom?

Keep Reading: Could Microchip Laden Drugs Be Used To Invade Our Privacy – Godfather Politics.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — For millennia, humans have pondered their mortality and whether death is the end of existence or a gateway to an afterlife. Millions of Americans have reported near-death or out-of-body experiences. And adherents of the world’s major religions believe in an afterlife, from reincarnation to resurrection and immortality.

Anecdotal reports of glimpses of an afterlife abound, but there has been no comprehensive and rigorous, scientific study of global reports about near-death and other experiences, or of how belief in immortality influences human behavior. That will change with the award of a three-year, $5 million grant by the John Templeton Foundation to John Martin Fischer, distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, to undertake a rigorous examination of a wide range of issues related to immortality. It is the largest grant ever awarded to a humanities professor at UC Riverside, and one of the largest given to an individual at the university.

Keep Reading: UCR Today: $5 Million Grant Awarded by Private Foundation to Study Immortality.

I used to believe in ghosts, an afterlife, and that people had the ability to talk to the dead; these beliefs were fuelled by an information overload. As a curious teenager, I had the internet at my fingertips and I wasn’t really taught how to critically examine claims like these at school. Thus, when I joined web forums dedicated to discussing paranormal experiences and the proof of these experiences, I wasn’t able to distinguish between the plausible and the implausible.

In addition to the forums, there were numerous television shows catering to aspiring ghost hunters that championed spiritual and pseudoscientific methodology, and many magazines in the shops that encouraged the belief that paranormal ideas were real because others had experienced them.

I could get psychic readings in person, online, over the phone, on television, or by writing into my favorite magazines. Having paranormal beliefs validated is easier today because we are constantly bombarded with information that we can then cherry pick to suit our particular ideas.

Falling into the trap of illogical thinking is very easy.

Keep Reading: CSI | The Consequences of “Stupid”.

Thanks to the movies, there are a lot of weapons that most people think are great for killing zombies, but in reality, they really aren’t that useful for killing zombies at all.

So now, here is a list of five weapons that people think are great for fighting zombies with, but really are not:

5. Shotgun

While most people believe that the shotgun is the best gun to use against a horde of zombies, in reality, it actually isn’t.

A shotgun might be effective at close range, but at a distance, or if you’re using bird shot, it isn’t that effective.

Shotguns have a more limited range then rifles, plus, shot scatters, so if a friend is a middle of a zombie horde, you could hit them and either kill them, or cause them to get eaten. Also, because of the scattering effect of shotgun shot, you might not even hit the brain or brain stem of a zombie. Then of course there’s bird shot, which might not even be effective at all against a zombie.

4. Axe

A lot of people might think that an axe is a good weapon to use against a zombie, but because the best way to kill a zombie with an axe is either with an over head swing, or a side swing to the head, it might not be the most effective melee weapon you can use.
Beside the fact that you could easily injure yourself if you miss hitting a zombie with an axe, you could also get your axe stuck in a zombie’s head, costing precious seconds, and if you’re battling a zombie horde, you may not have that much time. Also, because you have to swing an axe, you can leave yourself open to attack.

Keep Reading:  The Soap Box: 5 Weapons People Think are Great for Fighting Zombies, but Really Aren’t.

10,000 B.C.


Along the Chinese-Tibetan border, the Dropa Stones indicate what some believe to be an ancient alien crash-landing. While exploring some curious caves in the Himalayas, an archeological professor and his students came across small tombs, which held the skeletons of several 4′ 4″ creatures. There were no gravestones but instead hundreds of foot-long disks with holes in the center and grooves spiraling out from the holes. Beijing’s Dr. Tsum Um determined the grooves contained hieroglyphics that told a tale of a group, the Dropas, who crashed on earth. The Dropas attempted to befriend local tribes but were instead killed by the primitive humans who shunned them for their inhuman appearance.

Keep Reading: The Secret History Of Aliens On Earth Photo Gallery – 10,000 B.C. – Conspiracies on truTV.com.

It is probably the closest Australia has come to scrambling fighter jets to intercept a UFO.

Documents that have just become available under the 30-year rule at the National Archives of Australia reveal how two RAAF Mirage jets were placed on the second highest level of alert to determine the cause of unidentified radar contacts seen on screens at Mascot.

The ”X Files” viewed in Canberra also give details of other unexplained sightings, some of which are supported by witness statements to police.

Mysterious … a colour-enhanced photo of a UFO seen from Bendigo. One caller dismissed it as a rock band’s laser show. Photo: National Archives of Australia

In the Sydney alert, the papers stamped ”restricted” tell how operation ”Close Encounter” was launched by No.3 Control and Reporting Unit at RAAF Base Williamtown near Newcastle on June 30, 1983, after the phenomenon was first noticed earlier in the month.

Senior air controllers at Mascot said the contacts were mostly located between 70 and 150 nautical miles north of Sydney at ”alleged speeds of 1100-6500 km/h that suggested high altitude”.

Keep Reading: Secret UFO files released.

In 1966, Point Pleasant, West Virginia, one amorous young couple encountered something they’ll never forget, something that was literally burned into their retinas (klieg conjunctivitis, medically speaking). What they saw was a a terrifying man-bird hybrid of sorts with glowing red eyes. From there, subsequent reports and all sorts of wild speculation ensued. And with that a need to explain it all. Here are ten common explanations for this otherworldly entity dubbed simply the “Mothman.”

Read the Top 10 Explanations for the Mothman.

I have a theory: There’s something inherent in human nature that makes people need religion. Some kind of religion. Any kind of religion. Even the most atheist people in the world still can’t fight this urge to have some kind of religious conviction.

With this I don’t mean that every single individual person in existence has religious convictions. Of course there are exceptions, ie. people who truly are neutral and skeptic in the proper sense of the word, who do not obsess about some conviction. However, these seem to be more the exception than the rule. What I mean is that no matter what group of people we are talking about, there will always be some fanatic individuals which obsess about something with religious conviction.

Even people with an atheist world view can still have hard time resisting this urge, and thus they will find some substitute.

One such substitute in the modern world are conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theory fanatics present all the symptoms of religious fanatics. Here are some of them:

  1. A conspiracy theorist has “seen the light”, so to speak. That is, he has seen the Truth, which the majority of other people haven’t.
  2. A conspiracy theorist has the absolute, irrefutable, unshakable CONVICTION that he knows the Truth, only the Truth, and nothing but the Truth. There’s absolutely no doubt in his mind that what he believes is the Truth.The conspiracy theorist will say things like “there’s NO WAY these photos are not faked” and “there’s NO WAY this is something else than controlled demolition”, etc. He is absolutely sure and certain at all possible levels that he knows the truth.
  3. There’s absolutely nothing you can say that will convince the conspiracy theorist otherwise. You can refute every single claim he makes to absolute smithereens with hard scientific easy-to-understand facts, and that will not move his conviction even a fraction of an inch. Not even a shadow of a doubt will cross his mind at any point.
  4. The doctrine which the conspiracy theorist believes is based on a series of books, web pages and “documentaries” made by some other conspiracy theorists (which are completely akin to prophets), and every single word in these works is considered the absolute Truth by the conspiracy theorist. Every single claim, no matter how small or how ridiculous, is the absolute Truth. Not a single claim is considered dubious or unimportant.
  5. The conspiracy theorist has the irresistible urge to spread the Truth to others, the lost lambs who wander in darkness and still don’t know the Truth, who haven’t seen the light, and who must be converted.Spreading the Truth is in no way limited to the Internet. Like the most vocal religious movements, also conspiracy theorists will organize protest marches and parades, where they will disturb the peace of completely unrelated events, they will get into TV shows to spread their convictions, they will preach to individuals at their workplaces and other places, etc, etc.

Keep Reading Facts about conspircy theorists and beleivers. | Autistic skeptic..

Can you remember what you ate for lunch on March 8, 1999? What about what you were wearing on Oct. 29, 1985? A handful of people — only 33 confirmed to date — can remember such minutiae, recalling almost every moment of their lives after about age 10 in near-perfect detail. They have what scientists call a highly superior autobiographical memory, and now researchers have identified what makes their brains special.

Researchers at University of California, Irvine (UCI) studied 11 people with the condition and flagged distinct quirks in nine structures of their brains. Most of those differences, unsurprisingly, were in areas associated with autobiographical memory. The participants also had more robust white matter linking the middle and front parts of the brain compared with a group of control subjects.

Documenting these brain anomalies gives scientists a “descriptive, coherent story of what’s going on” in the minds of people with this unusual condition, UCI researcher Aurora LePort explained in a statement.

Keep Reading: Why Some People Can Recall Life’s Every Moment | LiveScience.

Posted by via The Soap Box

On a previous blog post I wrote about Ancient Alien theorists believe that not only have aliens visited us in the past, but that they also believe that information that would prove this to be true is being covered up.

Besides the fact that you really couldn’t cover up something, the stories that are told by ancient peoples you really can’t take at face value and say that it’s entirely true.

Ancient alien theorists tend take myths way to literally, and that ancient humans were basically trying to best make sense of what they saw, and in a sense, this is true. The problem is that ancient alien theorist believe that these myths are maybe only two or three hundred years older then when they were first written down. In  reality these myths are probably several thousands of years older then when they were first written down. The simple matter of fact is that we have no idea just how old these myths really are. Even if those myths were only a couple of hundred years old before they were written down, it still doesn’t mean that the details didn’t get messed up along the way.

Keep Reading: The Soap Box: ECT Follow up: Ancient Aliens Cover-up: How Myths are Created.
See Also: Embarrassing Conspiracy Theories: Ancient Aliens Cover-up

Ancient Aliens DebunkedAncient Aliens Debunked

Surveillance by government of its people is, almost without question, something that does happen from time to time; perhaps more often than we think. In this age of mass-shootings and the threat potentials associated with terrorist acts, some would argue it has become a necessity; others would tell us that to believe such a philosophy amounts to “giving in,” and that doing so could constitute an unnecessary forfeit in the battle for our liberties.

But in truth, while the political argument (especially in the United States) is more recent, surveillance has been going on for quite some time. I remember the first time I was shown clumsy apparatus that my friend, Joshua Warren, had recently inherited from a family member who had worked in some official capacity. He appeared on the popular late night radio program Coast to Coast AM discussing the acquisition, which was comprised of a phoney watch that was wired with a lead connecting it to a remarkably bulky wire recorder which, in truth, was probably too large to fit in most breast pockets today. There had been recordings that accompanied the outfit, but due to rust and years that had corroded the wires, they were barely discernible.

Keep Reading: They Are Listening: Secret Surveillance and Coverty Oddities | Mysterious Universe.

Lucid dreamers, people who can deliberately control their dreams during sleep, have long fascinated scientists. And now brain scans of those self-aware sleepers could offer insight into the seat of self-reflection in the mind.

It is difficult to get a full picture of what goes on in the brain when we make the transition from sleep to wakefulness. In fact, the specific areas of the brain underlying our restored self-perception and consciousness when we wake up have eluded scientists, according to a statement by the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. But a team of researchers was able to get a picture of that isolated activity in lucid dreamers.

“In a normal dream, we have a very basal consciousness, we experience perceptions and emotions but we are not aware that we are only dreaming,” study researcher Martin Dresler, of Max Planck, said in a statement. “It’s only in a lucid dream that the dreamer gets a meta-insight into his or her state.”

Keep Reading: Lucid Dreamers Offer Clues to Consciousness | LiveScience.

The sun sets on a field in southern England. When it rises again the following morning, that field has been transformed into an enormous work of art. A large section of the crop has been tamped into a pattern of circles, rings and other intricate geometric shapes. But who created it?

Are crop circles the work of alien visitors? Are they a natural phenomenon, created by electrically charged currents of air? Or are they elaborate hoaxes perpetrated by savvy, talented and very determined circlemakers? Believers and naysayers each have their own theories, but the truth remains elusive.

Keep Reading: HowStuffWorks “How Crop Circles Work”.

Conspiracy believers will often point to the latin words on the reverse of the US $1 for evidence of a NWO. However, Let us use translations to debunk this.

1. Annuit coeptis-agreed to undertakings

Details: It was Taken from the

Latin words annuo (third-person singular present or perfect annuit), “to nod” or “to approve”, and coeptum (plural coepta), “commencement, undertaking”, it is literally translated, “He approves (has approved) of the undertakings”. Nothing to do with a NWO.

2. novo ordo seclorum- A new order of the ages.

The phrase Novus ordo seclorum (Latin for “New Order of the Ages”) appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, first designed in 1782 and printed on the back of the United States one-dollar bill since 1935. The phrase also appears on the coat of arms of the Yale School of Management, Yale University‘s business school. The phrase is also mistranslated as “New World Order” by many people who believe in a conspiracy behind the design; however, it does directly translate to “New Order of the Ages”

The phrase is taken from the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, which contains a passage (lines 5-8) that reads:

Keep reading: Great seal demystified. | Autistic skeptic..

Your brain may be more likely to recognize new things as new when the unknown is already on your mind, according to new research.

The findings suggest that memories are not made or recalled in a vacuum, said study researcher Lila Davachi, a psychologist at New York University. Instead, memories are built with the influence of what your brain has just been exposed to, she said.

“Your previous state of mind can influence the way you see the world and what sort of decisions you make,” Davachi told LiveScience.

In fact, the research suggests that the hippocampus, the part of the brain that encodes memories, may have two jobs that it can’t perform at the same time: building new memories and recognizing old ones. The time it takes to switch between these two tasks may explain why the brain is better at recognizing new things when it’s already in “new thing” mode.

Keep Reading: Brain Is Biased When Learning New Information | LiveScience.

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out a clergy abuse lawsuit by a man whose case rested on a repressed memory claim, siding with a lower court’s ruling that repressed memory is an unproven theory.

James Keenan sued the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, claiming that as a teenager he was sexually abused four times in 1980 or 1981 by Thomas Adamson, a priest who has since been defrocked.

Keenan brought his claim in 2006, well outside the state’s six-year statute of limitations, but argued that it should be allowed because he repressed memories of the abuse.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with the district court, which found that studies claiming to have proven the existence of repressed memory “lacked foundational reliability.”

Keep Reading: Repressed memories unwelcome as evidence in court | Doubtful Newsblog.

“There are many different forms,” says David Eagleman, a neuroscientist known for his ability to garner important insights into the nature of perception and consciousness through idiosyncratic methods. “Essentially, any cross-blending of the senses that you can think of, my colleagues and I have found a case somewhere.”

Seeing Sound, Tasting Color: Synesthesia – YouTube.
See Also: Synesthesia – The Skeptic’s Dictionary

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Mason I. Bilderberg