Rapture party at Three Birds this Saturday Come celebrate the upcoming Apocalypse with us this Saturday at Three Birds Tavern. And, in the unlikely event that we are still corporeal here on this material plane come 6:01, either because the Rapture did not in fact occur, or...
PZ Myers on Science and Religion PZ Myers' very entertaining talk from the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne in 2010 recently became available....
Ray Comfort Makes My Teeth Hurt Ray Comfort being interviewed on Atheist Experience on local public access television in Austin, TX. (How do you manage to sound like a blithering idiot within a minute-and-a-half of being introduced?)
Pioneer Anomaly Solved? The Pioneer Anomaly is a long-standing mystery where the solar-system-escaping Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft have been experiencing a tiny, unexplained sunward acceleration over the course of their journey
BBC and the Milgram experiment A beautiful (if disturbing) set of videos illustrating the Milgram experiments. Particularly interesting was the complete lack of empathy visible in the 19-year-old's face (though many others followed just as far in the experiments)...
I’ve got to assume that the skeptical movement is doing something right, considering how many purveyors of pseudoscience have been adopting the term “skeptic” in the last few years. Today, I found perhaps the ultimate example, a blog by a palm reader/medium called The Skeptical Psychic. A quick read through convinced me she probably isn’t either.
One of the more frustrating situations for skeptics is when something has been thoroughly debunked and explained, yet remains in the public consciousness as valid. The idea that psychics help the police with missing persons and murder cases is one. Yet if you look at any given case where it’s claimed that a psychic helped the police, there’s invariably nothing there. So why is it an accepted “truth” that psychics help the police? It’s a combination of lazy reporting in the media and the self-promoting nature of psychics. A recent example from Tampa Bay area illustrates both these factors, caught in the act. Nothing so dramatic as a murder is involved, just a cat named Fluff.
The stories started last Saturday. I guess the lack of terrorist attacks on Times Square left the media with a slow news day or two. A cat named Fluff was reunited with his owner, who had lost the cat two years before. Here’s the important excerpts from the story as given on 1/2/2010 by the local ABC affiliate:
TAMPA, FL — Deitra Jones never gave up waiting for that phone call. This week she got it miles away while vacationing in Costa Rica.Her beloved cat, Fluff had finally been found.a“It was heartbreaking when he first left. I had flyers made. We literally went door to door at every single house talking to people trying to find him and we had no luck.”aIt was two years ago during the holidays when Fluff, a Himalayan, disappeared. Jones said he slipped out the door of their Oldsmar home.a…aIt’s still a mystery where Fluff has been for the past two years. An unidentified woman turned up with Fluff at Hillsborough County Animal Services.a“She told the person on duty she had the cat only for a few weeks. she said she could not take care of him because she has so many other cats to take care of. We have no idea where this cat (Fluff) had been.” said supervisor Melvin Dean.a
But Dean said they knew who to call thanks to a microchip in Fluff. The device as small as a grain or rice is implanted typically between the shoulder blades of a cat or dog.
a…aIn fact, Jones had contacted a pet psychic when Fluff first vanished.a“I know that sounds crazy. But, I wanted him back so badly.”aThe psychic was optimistic she would see Fluff again. The prediction came true, two years later.
Dietra even contacted a pet psychic, who she said “almost” succeeded. When she looked in one spot, [p]eople told her Fluffy had been there just the day before.a“So the pet psychic had the location right,” Dietra said, “but the timing was literally 24 hours off.”
Deitra Jones of Florida was distraught. Her Himalayan cat, named Fluff, disappeared in 2008 and hasn’t been seen since, WFTS-TV, Tampa, Fla., reported Saturday. Even as the second year passed, she never gave up hope that one day her and her cat would be reunited.aFinally, Jones reached out to a local psychic for help. The psychic told her that Fluff was alive, but confused. The psychic sensed the cat wanted to come home, but no longer knew how to get home. The psychic reached out and planted a suggestion in the cat to misbehave for her new owner, as often as possible.a“I could see and feel Fluff very clearly,” said the psychic, who wishes to remain anonymous. “The emotional bond between the two was strong enough that all I had to do was give it a nudge in the right direction.”aJust a few days later, a supervisor at Hillsborough County Animal Services said a woman turned in Fluff, claiming she was unable to care for the animal anymore and that “something might be wrong” with the cat.aOnce Fluff was examined, a chip implanted in the cat provided the name and address of Jones. The long overdue reunion took place the same day.
When the economy turns sour people turn to psychics, as attested by this small story from West Palm Beach.
Mindy Mitchell has been reading palms for years in South Florida. Business has always been good, everyone hoping for a glimpse into their future, but now things are really picking up. She says the economy has changed the questions she hears. It’s not just about love and kids, now, “They want to know what their financials will be. They wanna know if career is right? If their job is gonna be sturdy?” And people around the nation aren’t holding back. They’re still shelling out hundreds for tarot cards and palm readings. One customer says, “Stability is mainly on my mind, because so many people are out of work and, you know, everything’s so expensive, you can’t pay bills, you get paid and it’s like, your money’s gone.”
You know what’s a good way to make sure you have more money? Don’t give it to charlatans and fraud artists.
