Welcome again to JJNN for March 10th, 2009. Today I will be talking more about that friend of ours, pareidolia.
Yesterday I talked about pareidolia and how it can make us see images in a random pattern. Well, as it turns out, pareidolia does not just affect the eyes. There is also an audio version of this phenomenon. A good example of that is electric voice phenomenon, or EVP. This happens when people listen to static or audio interference and think that they hear voice or similar sounds. Watch this next video on EVP and than I will point out some things about audio pareidolia that totally discredit the video.
The important thing here is not really the sound. The important thing is the suggestion that that sound is a voice that is saying something specific. Once someone suggests that a sound actually sounds like a certain word, it is hard to get that word out of our head when we hear that sound. For example, listen to the first "EVP" again but go in with the suggestion that the "voice" is saying "Man, it's hot this summer." Do you hear that the second time you listen to it? It is just a noise that our brain is trying to make into something that is important when it really isn't.
Another example of this audio pareidolia is misheard lyrics to songs. The following video is Wishmaster by Nightwish.
The lyrics are:
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Elbereth
Lorien
A dreamy-eyed child staring into night
On a journey to storyteller`s mind
Whispers a wish speaks with the stars the words are silent in Him
Distant sigh from a lonely heart
"I`ll be with you soon, my Shalafi"
Grey Havens my destiny
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Silvara
Starbreeze
Sla-Mori the one known only by Him
To august realms, the sorcery within
If you hear the call of arcane lore,
Your world shall rest on Earth no more
A maiden elf calling with her cunning song
"Meet me at the Inn of Last Home"
Heartborne will find the way!
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Wishmaster
Crusade for Your will
A child, dreamfinder
The Apprentice becoming...
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
OK, now watch this video and see if you can hear the other set of lyrics.
Showing posts with label pseudoscience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pseudoscience. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
JJNN: Subaru pareidolia
Welcome again to JJNN for March 9th, 2009. Today I will be talking about a Japanese contest.
I want to you take a look at a picture and tell me what you see. Just keep your eyes open and your mind blank and see what comes to you. Here is the picture, look hard.
So, what do you see? I will give you a hint. The giant picture is made by 339 cars. How is that a hint? Well, the picture has something to do with the cars that make up the picture. I will tell you about why all those cars came together and than I will tell you what the picture actually is.
This event all started in 2007 in Portugal. There was a group of people that want to get into the Guinness book of records. And like any respectful group that wants to get into the Guinness book of records, they decided to do something stupid. In this case it was to make a giant mosaic using just cars. They type of car that they used was a Japanese car, so some Japanese people that heard about the Guinness record decided that they should out do the Portuguese. There is Japanese pride on the line after all. So last saturday they got 339 cars made by the same company together and made a huge mosaic of that car's symbol. Did that hint help you figure out what car symbol it is? It is actually the Suburu symbol. Take a look at the symbol below and compare it to the mosaic above.
Does it actually look anything like the Suburu symbol? Well, I would say that it has a passing resemblance. But, of course before I knew what the Subuer symbol looked like I couldn't tell you what the mosaic was representing. This leads to something called pareidolia. Pareidolia is seeing an image in an random pattern (or in this case a pattern that is just hard to make out). There is also another version of pareidolia that covers hearing things in a random sound pattern.
Pareidolia has been the root cause of many different types of pseudoscience. The most obvious one is of course seeing the face of Jesus or Mary in the pattern caused by the grain of the wood or the pattern caused by the melted cheese stuck to the bottom of a pizza box. You can see one such example below.
So, why would this happen? Is Jesus really reaching out his all powerful hand and burning himself into a piece of bread for all to see? I would have to say a big "no!" to that question. What happens is that the burn pattern of the bread is natural and the image of Jesus is so engrained into everyone's heads (even those who are not religious have spent most of their lives seeing that image in different places) that it jumps out at us. All I got to say is that the next time you see the image of Jesus burnt onto some toast you better be looking for his signature in the bottom right hand corner of the burn mark before you believe it is a divine sign of anything.
I want to you take a look at a picture and tell me what you see. Just keep your eyes open and your mind blank and see what comes to you. Here is the picture, look hard.
So, what do you see? I will give you a hint. The giant picture is made by 339 cars. How is that a hint? Well, the picture has something to do with the cars that make up the picture. I will tell you about why all those cars came together and than I will tell you what the picture actually is.
This event all started in 2007 in Portugal. There was a group of people that want to get into the Guinness book of records. And like any respectful group that wants to get into the Guinness book of records, they decided to do something stupid. In this case it was to make a giant mosaic using just cars. They type of car that they used was a Japanese car, so some Japanese people that heard about the Guinness record decided that they should out do the Portuguese. There is Japanese pride on the line after all. So last saturday they got 339 cars made by the same company together and made a huge mosaic of that car's symbol. Did that hint help you figure out what car symbol it is? It is actually the Suburu symbol. Take a look at the symbol below and compare it to the mosaic above.
Does it actually look anything like the Suburu symbol? Well, I would say that it has a passing resemblance. But, of course before I knew what the Subuer symbol looked like I couldn't tell you what the mosaic was representing. This leads to something called pareidolia. Pareidolia is seeing an image in an random pattern (or in this case a pattern that is just hard to make out). There is also another version of pareidolia that covers hearing things in a random sound pattern.
Pareidolia has been the root cause of many different types of pseudoscience. The most obvious one is of course seeing the face of Jesus or Mary in the pattern caused by the grain of the wood or the pattern caused by the melted cheese stuck to the bottom of a pizza box. You can see one such example below.
So, why would this happen? Is Jesus really reaching out his all powerful hand and burning himself into a piece of bread for all to see? I would have to say a big "no!" to that question. What happens is that the burn pattern of the bread is natural and the image of Jesus is so engrained into everyone's heads (even those who are not religious have spent most of their lives seeing that image in different places) that it jumps out at us. All I got to say is that the next time you see the image of Jesus burnt onto some toast you better be looking for his signature in the bottom right hand corner of the burn mark before you believe it is a divine sign of anything.
Monday, February 23, 2009
JJNN: LED veggies
Welcome again to JJNN for February 23rd, 2009. Today I will be talking about a new way of growing vegetables.
A farming venture company in Kyoto named Fairy Angle (what a name, huh?) has been experimenting with different ways for growing vegetables. They have been using lights of different colors as different stages of development to make sure the vegetable turns out shaped well and full of nutrients. You can see the original article here.
The company believes that if the vegetables are grown with red light they will undergo a faster form of photosynthesis and thus lead to bigger and more nutritious vegetables. This got me thinking. Could it really be true that different color lights could change the rate of something as natural as photosynthesis? I went and did some poking around the internet and found this article put out by CU Boulder in 2001. The gist of the article is that red light might speed up photosynthesis just a little bit, but that is really lost within the noise of the experiment. In other words, it is not really measurable, which means it might not even exist.
The Kyoto company also says blue light helps the vegetable take its shape. I don't really get this. You never see carrots come out of the ground looking like pumpkins just because they didn't get any blue light. Well, I guess I can't say that because blue light is included in the white light that the vegetables get. Maybe I should do my own experiment with a darkroom, some red lights and carrot seeds.
The article also states that they are using green lights. That made me shake my head. The leaves of the vegetable are green because they are reflecting back all of the green light. If you shine just green light on a plant it would be just the same as keeping the plant in a dark room.
Normally something like this would never get into the news, but this company made a change. They changed from normal colored light bulbs to LED lights. They are being shown as great pioneers that are thinking of the environment while trying to produce new plants. The truth is that the best way to think of the environment is to let the plants grow outside in normal sunlight.
I will leave you a picture of this vegetable factory.
A farming venture company in Kyoto named Fairy Angle (what a name, huh?) has been experimenting with different ways for growing vegetables. They have been using lights of different colors as different stages of development to make sure the vegetable turns out shaped well and full of nutrients. You can see the original article here.
The company believes that if the vegetables are grown with red light they will undergo a faster form of photosynthesis and thus lead to bigger and more nutritious vegetables. This got me thinking. Could it really be true that different color lights could change the rate of something as natural as photosynthesis? I went and did some poking around the internet and found this article put out by CU Boulder in 2001. The gist of the article is that red light might speed up photosynthesis just a little bit, but that is really lost within the noise of the experiment. In other words, it is not really measurable, which means it might not even exist.
The Kyoto company also says blue light helps the vegetable take its shape. I don't really get this. You never see carrots come out of the ground looking like pumpkins just because they didn't get any blue light. Well, I guess I can't say that because blue light is included in the white light that the vegetables get. Maybe I should do my own experiment with a darkroom, some red lights and carrot seeds.
The article also states that they are using green lights. That made me shake my head. The leaves of the vegetable are green because they are reflecting back all of the green light. If you shine just green light on a plant it would be just the same as keeping the plant in a dark room.
Normally something like this would never get into the news, but this company made a change. They changed from normal colored light bulbs to LED lights. They are being shown as great pioneers that are thinking of the environment while trying to produce new plants. The truth is that the best way to think of the environment is to let the plants grow outside in normal sunlight.
I will leave you a picture of this vegetable factory.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
JJNN Sunday: Leftovers - 10
Welcome again to JJNN for Sunday October 5th, 2008. Today we will be talking about a terrible movie.
I was busy all day so I didn't have enough time or energy to actually find a news story. So instead of looking for one at this point of time I am going to talk about the movie that I am watching at the moment on TV. That is the only connection with Japan...it is now playing on Japanese TV. Sorry guys.
Any way the movie that I am watching now is called the Poseidon Adventure. It was made in 2005 and is a remake of the 1972 classic movie. The basic story is about a huge ship that was suddenly flipped upside down. It is the basic man against the environment, escape the dangers and get out with your life type of movie.
So, why am I talking about this movie? Well other than it is what I am currently watching it is the fact that it sort of gives science a huge slap in the face. The ship is turned upside down in the first place because of a huge tidal wave in the middle of the ocean. You can see this scene down below.
So, what is so wrong with this scene? Well how about everything. Let's focus on the wave though. Why is there a huge wave in the middle of the ocean? In the movie itself they call it something like a "rogue wave," but that is crap. Just think about it. Have you ever seen a wave like that in the middle of the ocean? The answer is no because waves do not act like that.
How do ocean waves work? Well just like all other wave of the same type. The wave propagates (moves) though a material (water, air etc) but the material itself does not propagate with the wave. For example, with sound, the sound waves go from my mouth to some one's ear, but the air from my mouth does not go to the person's ear. The material just helps the waves move. The same thing goes for ocean waves. The energy moves though the water, but the water itself does not move.
Well than, why do we see waves on the beach? Well that is because there is still energy left over. The energy propagates though the water and as the water gets more shallow the energy actually pushes the water up and onto land. This is the same principle for normal waves and for tidal waves. The source of the energy is just different.
So, why is the wave in the movie crap? Well unless the area the ship was in was extremely shallow there would be no reason why a wave would form out of the ocean like that. And if that area of ocean was shallow the boat would be screwed any way.
I know what most of you will say. "It is a movie. Forget the science and just enjoy it." I can do that for most movies, but for some movies truly terrible science ruins my enjoyment of the movie. Especially when it is something that the rest of the movie is based of from . I guess I am just a scientist through and through.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 津波(つなみ). It is pronounced tsunami and means tidal wave. The other English name for tidal wave is tsunami. A raw English word that comes from the Japanese.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
I was busy all day so I didn't have enough time or energy to actually find a news story. So instead of looking for one at this point of time I am going to talk about the movie that I am watching at the moment on TV. That is the only connection with Japan...it is now playing on Japanese TV. Sorry guys.
Any way the movie that I am watching now is called the Poseidon Adventure. It was made in 2005 and is a remake of the 1972 classic movie. The basic story is about a huge ship that was suddenly flipped upside down. It is the basic man against the environment, escape the dangers and get out with your life type of movie.
So, why am I talking about this movie? Well other than it is what I am currently watching it is the fact that it sort of gives science a huge slap in the face. The ship is turned upside down in the first place because of a huge tidal wave in the middle of the ocean. You can see this scene down below.
So, what is so wrong with this scene? Well how about everything. Let's focus on the wave though. Why is there a huge wave in the middle of the ocean? In the movie itself they call it something like a "rogue wave," but that is crap. Just think about it. Have you ever seen a wave like that in the middle of the ocean? The answer is no because waves do not act like that.
How do ocean waves work? Well just like all other wave of the same type. The wave propagates (moves) though a material (water, air etc) but the material itself does not propagate with the wave. For example, with sound, the sound waves go from my mouth to some one's ear, but the air from my mouth does not go to the person's ear. The material just helps the waves move. The same thing goes for ocean waves. The energy moves though the water, but the water itself does not move.
Well than, why do we see waves on the beach? Well that is because there is still energy left over. The energy propagates though the water and as the water gets more shallow the energy actually pushes the water up and onto land. This is the same principle for normal waves and for tidal waves. The source of the energy is just different.
So, why is the wave in the movie crap? Well unless the area the ship was in was extremely shallow there would be no reason why a wave would form out of the ocean like that. And if that area of ocean was shallow the boat would be screwed any way.
I know what most of you will say. "It is a movie. Forget the science and just enjoy it." I can do that for most movies, but for some movies truly terrible science ruins my enjoyment of the movie. Especially when it is something that the rest of the movie is based of from . I guess I am just a scientist through and through.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 津波(つなみ). It is pronounced tsunami and means tidal wave. The other English name for tidal wave is tsunami. A raw English word that comes from the Japanese.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 09
Welcome again to JJNN for Saturday October 4th, 2008. Today we will be talking about a form of prayer.
Have you all seen kung fu movies? In 9 out of 10 classic kung fu movies there is a scene in which the main character looses his master or his lover or his kid or something like that and goes into training so that he can defeat the person that did the killing. Training of the body is easy, but than the main character finds out that he has to "train" his soul in order to defeat the bad guy. How does he do this? Most of them do something like seen below.
They purify themselves by sitting or standing under a waterfall. Usually these scenes take place in the middle of the winter as well when the temperature is at or below freezing. Somehow cold water hitting main character's skin causes the main character soul to be pure and allows him to kick major ass.
Unfortunately real life is not quite like the movies. How do I know this? Well 4 or 5 years ago in the middle of the winter I went out to the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people and actually tried out the whole sitting under a waterfall thing. I am pretty sure that my soul (if there is such a thing) was as dirty after the waterfall as it was before the waterfall.
Of course there is a lot more to the process than running out and jumping under a waterfall. There is a whole Shinto and/or Buddhist (see my post for August 23rd) process involved. Some of the processes include a lot of bowing, dressing in special clothes, chanting a sutra (Buddhist script), praying to a Shinto god, and lots of yelling. You can see what happens in the video below (though the end of the video is actually the start of a Shinto fire walking ceremony. That is a topic for another time...though as a side note I did the fire walking thing as well with the same group).
So why do people really do this? What do people get from going under a waterfall in the middle of the winter? Well it is suppose to help you change yourself. If you don't like yourself or what you do going under a waterfall is suppose to help you deal with your past self and change who you are. It is also suppose to be a form of prayer. There are some people that even say that going under a waterfall helps make you more beautiful.
What does this actually do for a person though? Well I can see how the shock of being hit by a lot of cold water can help you deal with some emotional problems. I can tell you from personal experience that after you are done and warming up by a fire it does sort of feel like a rebirth of sorts. As for helping with beauty, it is easier to just wash your face in cold water every morning. I don't think it really does anything but help close up those pores. As for prayer, that will open a whole bag of things that I just don't want to deal with.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 滝(たき). It is pronounced taki and means waterfall. I think I might want to try the waterfall training again because I didn't get pictures the first time. I would like to do it in the summer next time though.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Have you all seen kung fu movies? In 9 out of 10 classic kung fu movies there is a scene in which the main character looses his master or his lover or his kid or something like that and goes into training so that he can defeat the person that did the killing. Training of the body is easy, but than the main character finds out that he has to "train" his soul in order to defeat the bad guy. How does he do this? Most of them do something like seen below.
They purify themselves by sitting or standing under a waterfall. Usually these scenes take place in the middle of the winter as well when the temperature is at or below freezing. Somehow cold water hitting main character's skin causes the main character soul to be pure and allows him to kick major ass.
Unfortunately real life is not quite like the movies. How do I know this? Well 4 or 5 years ago in the middle of the winter I went out to the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people and actually tried out the whole sitting under a waterfall thing. I am pretty sure that my soul (if there is such a thing) was as dirty after the waterfall as it was before the waterfall.
Of course there is a lot more to the process than running out and jumping under a waterfall. There is a whole Shinto and/or Buddhist (see my post for August 23rd) process involved. Some of the processes include a lot of bowing, dressing in special clothes, chanting a sutra (Buddhist script), praying to a Shinto god, and lots of yelling. You can see what happens in the video below (though the end of the video is actually the start of a Shinto fire walking ceremony. That is a topic for another time...though as a side note I did the fire walking thing as well with the same group).
So why do people really do this? What do people get from going under a waterfall in the middle of the winter? Well it is suppose to help you change yourself. If you don't like yourself or what you do going under a waterfall is suppose to help you deal with your past self and change who you are. It is also suppose to be a form of prayer. There are some people that even say that going under a waterfall helps make you more beautiful.
What does this actually do for a person though? Well I can see how the shock of being hit by a lot of cold water can help you deal with some emotional problems. I can tell you from personal experience that after you are done and warming up by a fire it does sort of feel like a rebirth of sorts. As for helping with beauty, it is easier to just wash your face in cold water every morning. I don't think it really does anything but help close up those pores. As for prayer, that will open a whole bag of things that I just don't want to deal with.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 滝(たき). It is pronounced taki and means waterfall. I think I might want to try the waterfall training again because I didn't get pictures the first time. I would like to do it in the summer next time though.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 08
Welcome again to JJNN for Saturday September 27th, 2008. Today we will be talking about a Japanese lake monster.
Almost every culture that lives near water has to deal with some sort of creature that lives within the depths of the water. Weather it be a deep river, a lake or the ocean there are almost always Gods or monsters associated with the body of water at some point in its history. Wether it be the famous Loch Ness monster or Champ who lives in Lake Champlain in New York. Other examples are Whitey, the monster that lives in the White river in Arkansas, or the Kraken that is said to live in the ocean.
Large body of water, even if it is shallow and can't really support large animals, is said to have one of these monsters. The one thing that connects these monsters is that the bodies of water that support the animals are murky. If the water is murky you can't see what is just below the surface so any disturbance on the surface could very well be a monster. Sure, those ripples could be made by a large school of fish that are looking for something to eat (something that happens everywhere in nature) or it could be some sort of undiscovered or forgotten anima: AKA a lake monster (something that is extremely rare).
Like everywhere else in the world lake monsters are not rare in Japan. They have special monsters called Kappa that are said to live in almost every river in Japan (though no one has ever actually filmed or taken a picture of one). Also, in some lakes, there are lake monsters.
In one lake in Kagoshima prefecture called Lake Ikeda there is suppose to be a lake monster. This lake monster is called Isshii. It is suppose to be named after Nessie. Below you can see a picture of Lake Ikeda fronted with a sign that is suppose to show what Isshii looks like.
Well, apparently Isshii was not only named after Nessie, but the statue was also made to look like the statues of Nessie. The basic story of Isshii started in 1961. Apparently someone saw a hump coming out of the water and it was estimated that the length of the creature that had that hump was from 10 to 20 meters (about 32 to 64 feet) long. Later it was said to be sighted in 1978 and 1991.
What could this thing be? Well I doubt it looks anything like that statue, because no one has ever seen its head. The best way to figure out what the creature might be is to look at what animals we know live in the lake. A lot of fish live in the lake, but the best known of these can be seen below.
That is a huge eel. Like it says in the picture it measures to 170cm (about 5 and a half feet) in length. Probably the most likely explanation for Isshii is one of these eels coming to the surface and swimming around looking for food. The way the eel moves can be described as a hump coming out of the water if you can't actually see the eel (black eel on dark colored water). It is basically case closed in my book, but what do you guys think?
Thanks to Isshii the number of people that go to Lake Ikeda has gone up a lot. Thanks to the monster and the way town uses it to draw people in, the town around the lake is booming. I guess pseudoscience can be used for good, but I would rather not see it at all to tell you the truth.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 鰻(うなぎ). It is pronounced unagi and means eel. Unagi refers to fresh water eels while anago is Japanese for salt water eels. Both taste good though!
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Almost every culture that lives near water has to deal with some sort of creature that lives within the depths of the water. Weather it be a deep river, a lake or the ocean there are almost always Gods or monsters associated with the body of water at some point in its history. Wether it be the famous Loch Ness monster or Champ who lives in Lake Champlain in New York. Other examples are Whitey, the monster that lives in the White river in Arkansas, or the Kraken that is said to live in the ocean.
Large body of water, even if it is shallow and can't really support large animals, is said to have one of these monsters. The one thing that connects these monsters is that the bodies of water that support the animals are murky. If the water is murky you can't see what is just below the surface so any disturbance on the surface could very well be a monster. Sure, those ripples could be made by a large school of fish that are looking for something to eat (something that happens everywhere in nature) or it could be some sort of undiscovered or forgotten anima: AKA a lake monster (something that is extremely rare).
Like everywhere else in the world lake monsters are not rare in Japan. They have special monsters called Kappa that are said to live in almost every river in Japan (though no one has ever actually filmed or taken a picture of one). Also, in some lakes, there are lake monsters.
In one lake in Kagoshima prefecture called Lake Ikeda there is suppose to be a lake monster. This lake monster is called Isshii. It is suppose to be named after Nessie. Below you can see a picture of Lake Ikeda fronted with a sign that is suppose to show what Isshii looks like.
Well, apparently Isshii was not only named after Nessie, but the statue was also made to look like the statues of Nessie. The basic story of Isshii started in 1961. Apparently someone saw a hump coming out of the water and it was estimated that the length of the creature that had that hump was from 10 to 20 meters (about 32 to 64 feet) long. Later it was said to be sighted in 1978 and 1991.
What could this thing be? Well I doubt it looks anything like that statue, because no one has ever seen its head. The best way to figure out what the creature might be is to look at what animals we know live in the lake. A lot of fish live in the lake, but the best known of these can be seen below.
That is a huge eel. Like it says in the picture it measures to 170cm (about 5 and a half feet) in length. Probably the most likely explanation for Isshii is one of these eels coming to the surface and swimming around looking for food. The way the eel moves can be described as a hump coming out of the water if you can't actually see the eel (black eel on dark colored water). It is basically case closed in my book, but what do you guys think?
Thanks to Isshii the number of people that go to Lake Ikeda has gone up a lot. Thanks to the monster and the way town uses it to draw people in, the town around the lake is booming. I guess pseudoscience can be used for good, but I would rather not see it at all to tell you the truth.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 鰻(うなぎ). It is pronounced unagi and means eel. Unagi refers to fresh water eels while anago is Japanese for salt water eels. Both taste good though!
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 07
Welcome again to JJNN for Saturday September 13th, 2008. Today we will be talking about cold readings and physics.
A few years ago in Japan in Niigata and I suppose in Tokyo there was a psychic reading boom. Almost all young (20s and 30s) ladies would go out every weekend, or more often, to get a psychic reading. The psychics here are just like those in every other country around the world. The supposedly tell you about your future about everything from your job to romance.
Personally I can see myself going to a cheap psychic for a little entertainment value. The cheap ones cost less than movies (here at least) and give you a nice topic for conversation at work the next day. The problem I see with psychics is when people actually start to believe in them. They start to believe and soon enough almost all of the money they earn goes directly to the psychic. That is when it crosses the line from light hearted entertainment to being a scam.
Why am I saying psychics are entertainment and not a means of getting serious information about the future, or about a dead loved one? Well, that's because there is no such thing as real psychics. Simple as that. All psychics do is a combination of detective work and acting. This is called cold reading. The psychic (I will call them that even though they have no "psychic" powers) trains themselves to get a lot of information from a person with a look and by asking leading questions or making leading statements. Watch the psychic below and see if you can spot the cold reading.
The first thing he said "Old lady, but with black hair." he said because he knew that any one in the audience would know an old lady and the chance of an old lady having black hair is not that low. Notice when he was saying that names he says a lot of them at once. This is called shot gunning. If you say enough names you are bound to get one right. A lot of psychics don't go that far and just say a letter. He than gives a lot of statements. He looks at the reactions from the people he is giving readings to and changes his statements accordingly. He is not actually saying anything, the people in the audience are saying everything for him.
This next clips is an explanation of cold reading by Orson Welles. This is one of my favorite clips.
So, any way, psychics may be good entertainment, but don't start believing them. Remember to look at things a little skeptically.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 超能力者(ちょうのうりょくしゃ). It is pronounced chou-nouryoku-sha and means psychic. The chou part means over and above and nouryoku means powers. So in Japanese a psychic is a person that has powers over and above normal people. That makes sense I guess.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
PS: This is the 100th post for JJNN yay!
A few years ago in Japan in Niigata and I suppose in Tokyo there was a psychic reading boom. Almost all young (20s and 30s) ladies would go out every weekend, or more often, to get a psychic reading. The psychics here are just like those in every other country around the world. The supposedly tell you about your future about everything from your job to romance.
Personally I can see myself going to a cheap psychic for a little entertainment value. The cheap ones cost less than movies (here at least) and give you a nice topic for conversation at work the next day. The problem I see with psychics is when people actually start to believe in them. They start to believe and soon enough almost all of the money they earn goes directly to the psychic. That is when it crosses the line from light hearted entertainment to being a scam.
Why am I saying psychics are entertainment and not a means of getting serious information about the future, or about a dead loved one? Well, that's because there is no such thing as real psychics. Simple as that. All psychics do is a combination of detective work and acting. This is called cold reading. The psychic (I will call them that even though they have no "psychic" powers) trains themselves to get a lot of information from a person with a look and by asking leading questions or making leading statements. Watch the psychic below and see if you can spot the cold reading.
The first thing he said "Old lady, but with black hair." he said because he knew that any one in the audience would know an old lady and the chance of an old lady having black hair is not that low. Notice when he was saying that names he says a lot of them at once. This is called shot gunning. If you say enough names you are bound to get one right. A lot of psychics don't go that far and just say a letter. He than gives a lot of statements. He looks at the reactions from the people he is giving readings to and changes his statements accordingly. He is not actually saying anything, the people in the audience are saying everything for him.
This next clips is an explanation of cold reading by Orson Welles. This is one of my favorite clips.
So, any way, psychics may be good entertainment, but don't start believing them. Remember to look at things a little skeptically.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 超能力者(ちょうのうりょくしゃ). It is pronounced chou-nouryoku-sha and means psychic. The chou part means over and above and nouryoku means powers. So in Japanese a psychic is a person that has powers over and above normal people. That makes sense I guess.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
PS: This is the 100th post for JJNN yay!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 06
Welcome again to JJNN for Saturday September 6th, 2008. Today we will be taking about waking dreams.
Have you ever had a time when you were sleeping and you suddenly woke up? Did you find that you couldn't move when you woke up? When you woke up did you ever feel that there was someone or something in the room with you that wasn't supposed to be there? Maybe you saw or just felt a figure in white or a small green man with big eyes. Anyone have any of those experiences?
If you did have any of those experiences you were not be haunted or being looked over from aliens from across the void of space. What were you experiencing is known as a waking dream. Waking dreams are actually a common experience that happens to everyone around the world all the time.
I want to explain what a waking dream using an example from my own life. About 6 months ago after a long day at work and shamisen practice I crawled into bed for a good night's sleep. I quickly drifted off to a very light sleep. It was than that I woke up in a total panic. I knew for sure that there was something or someone in my room. I looked around, but there was no one there. I could feel them standing there near my door. My body was fighting to react to the terror, but I found that I couldn't move at all. I was struggling as hard as I could to get up and run to the other side of my room, but I couldn't move at all. The only thing that I could move were my eyes. I knew that this thing in my room would come to attack me, and sure enough it did. I could feel it suddenly move forward and grab my foot. As soon as it grabbed my foot I found that I could move. I jumped away and looked around and surely enough it was only me in that room.
So, what exactly happened? A lot of things actually. The person that I felt in my room was a dream. I couldn't see it because it wasn't there. There are people that go though a deeper version of waking dreams that do actually dream something in their room. Why couldn't I move? Well that is for my own safety. When a person goes into REM sleep the part of the brain that controls body movement shuts down for a little while so we don't react to our dreams in real life. When people have trouble shutting this part of the brain off it leads to things like sleep walking. So, not being able to move while dreaming is a normal thing. Why could I move at the end? Well that is because the terror of the whole experience ended up fully waking me up. Why did I dream that there was something in my room? I don't know. I guess that is what I am the most paranoid about so it came up in my dreams.
What do you think my reaction would be if I didn't know about waking dreams? I would have thought it was some type of ghost in my house. At that point I heard that there was a ghost in my house any way so I guess that would be the logical conclusion. But, I have heard of waking dreams. I was able to figure it out as soon as I fully woke up and wrote it off as a natural thing that happened in my brain, not an evil spirit in my room. I was lucky that I heard about waking dreams because if I have not I would be living somewhere else at this point.
The thing is, not a lot of people actually know what waking dreams are. They have this weird experience and don't know what to think about it. A lot of good ghost and daemon stories come out of waking dreams. Any story that has some sort of spirit that sits on your chest so you can't move is actually a waking dream. This includes stories about old hags (the origin of the term "hag ridden" for someone that looks tired), incubus, succubus and other ghosts.
The thing is this changes by society. People a long time ago heard the stories of succubus so that is what they experienced. If your culture has no stories like the story of the succubus you never experience a succubus waking dream. You would experience the waking dream that fits your society and culture. After the stories of Roswell and aliens in the west a lot of people have experienced waking dreams that include aliens. That is how a lot of abduction stories got started. It not something from outer space, it is something from inside your head.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 夢(ゆめ). It is pronounced yume and means dream. In Japanese they say yume wo miru, which means to dream. If you literally translate those words it means to see a dream. I sort of like that.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Have you ever had a time when you were sleeping and you suddenly woke up? Did you find that you couldn't move when you woke up? When you woke up did you ever feel that there was someone or something in the room with you that wasn't supposed to be there? Maybe you saw or just felt a figure in white or a small green man with big eyes. Anyone have any of those experiences?
If you did have any of those experiences you were not be haunted or being looked over from aliens from across the void of space. What were you experiencing is known as a waking dream. Waking dreams are actually a common experience that happens to everyone around the world all the time.
I want to explain what a waking dream using an example from my own life. About 6 months ago after a long day at work and shamisen practice I crawled into bed for a good night's sleep. I quickly drifted off to a very light sleep. It was than that I woke up in a total panic. I knew for sure that there was something or someone in my room. I looked around, but there was no one there. I could feel them standing there near my door. My body was fighting to react to the terror, but I found that I couldn't move at all. I was struggling as hard as I could to get up and run to the other side of my room, but I couldn't move at all. The only thing that I could move were my eyes. I knew that this thing in my room would come to attack me, and sure enough it did. I could feel it suddenly move forward and grab my foot. As soon as it grabbed my foot I found that I could move. I jumped away and looked around and surely enough it was only me in that room.
So, what exactly happened? A lot of things actually. The person that I felt in my room was a dream. I couldn't see it because it wasn't there. There are people that go though a deeper version of waking dreams that do actually dream something in their room. Why couldn't I move? Well that is for my own safety. When a person goes into REM sleep the part of the brain that controls body movement shuts down for a little while so we don't react to our dreams in real life. When people have trouble shutting this part of the brain off it leads to things like sleep walking. So, not being able to move while dreaming is a normal thing. Why could I move at the end? Well that is because the terror of the whole experience ended up fully waking me up. Why did I dream that there was something in my room? I don't know. I guess that is what I am the most paranoid about so it came up in my dreams.
What do you think my reaction would be if I didn't know about waking dreams? I would have thought it was some type of ghost in my house. At that point I heard that there was a ghost in my house any way so I guess that would be the logical conclusion. But, I have heard of waking dreams. I was able to figure it out as soon as I fully woke up and wrote it off as a natural thing that happened in my brain, not an evil spirit in my room. I was lucky that I heard about waking dreams because if I have not I would be living somewhere else at this point.
The thing is, not a lot of people actually know what waking dreams are. They have this weird experience and don't know what to think about it. A lot of good ghost and daemon stories come out of waking dreams. Any story that has some sort of spirit that sits on your chest so you can't move is actually a waking dream. This includes stories about old hags (the origin of the term "hag ridden" for someone that looks tired), incubus, succubus and other ghosts.
The thing is this changes by society. People a long time ago heard the stories of succubus so that is what they experienced. If your culture has no stories like the story of the succubus you never experience a succubus waking dream. You would experience the waking dream that fits your society and culture. After the stories of Roswell and aliens in the west a lot of people have experienced waking dreams that include aliens. That is how a lot of abduction stories got started. It not something from outer space, it is something from inside your head.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 夢(ゆめ). It is pronounced yume and means dream. In Japanese they say yume wo miru, which means to dream. If you literally translate those words it means to see a dream. I sort of like that.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 05
Welcome again to JJNN for Friday August 30th, 2008. Today we will be taking about ghosts in Japan.
During the middle of August there is a period of time in Japan called obon. Many people take time off from work and go visit the graves of their family and friends during this time of the year. You could think of it as the Japanese version of memorial day. The only thing a little different is the fact that Japanese people visit graves on obon because it is during obon that the spirits of their friends and family come back to earth and take up shop in their household alters. In this way it is sort of like the Japanese version of Halloween.
This is why there are so many shows about ghost stories on during the middle of the summer. I always enjoy coming home at night and seeing famous people on TV get freaked out because of creepy ghost stories. A lot of these TV shows also have pictures or video that is suppose to be about ghosts. I found some really good pictures and videos while researching this post and I want to share them with you. Keep in mind I will bash these with the science hammer afterwords so don't be too scared!
This is a picture of what people call ghost orbs. Apparently when ghosts are lazy and don't want to take their human shape they fly around as little orbs in a sort of ghost version of energy save mode. It may surprise some to know, but these are not ghosts. Ghosts orbs are actually dust. Yes. Common every day dust. When the flash from the camera bounces off from the dust you get little orbs like that in your pictures. When people take pictures like this they always say things like "Nothing was in the room, but that showed up in the picture." Well, yes. Your eyes don't work fast enough to process the light, and even if they do you wouldn't think anything of it anyway. But, now that it is on film (data) it is a big thing. The only thing is, it's not...it's just dust.
Look! A creepy ghost in the window! Well, actually, no. If you look to the left of the picture you will see a blob of light that signals the use of our old friend, the flash. This is another trick of light and reflection. In this case the light is reflecting off of one of the people in the picture, hitting the window and reflecting back to the camera lens. It is very dark outside so the glass will act like a mirror. More than likely it is the person on the left who is the actual ghost.
Lastly I want to share this video.
This one freaked me out for the longest time. I mean, it's just scary to see something like that. But, eventually I got to see this video below which explained it all. Got to love Captain Disillusion (well, except what he says about Japanese TV shows which are all in all entertaining). Watch an enjoy.
It is a good reminder that there are other reasons there are ghost pictures and videos out there. Either they are a natural play of light in the form of reflections, refractions, etc or someone just made them up. Remember to look at things with a skeptical mind.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 幽霊(ゆうれい). It is pronounced yuurei and means ghost. There are probably close to 100 words for ghost in the Japanese language, but yuurei is the one that is used the most. It is so amazing to see how Japanese people look at things like ghost and goblins (not the video game).
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
During the middle of August there is a period of time in Japan called obon. Many people take time off from work and go visit the graves of their family and friends during this time of the year. You could think of it as the Japanese version of memorial day. The only thing a little different is the fact that Japanese people visit graves on obon because it is during obon that the spirits of their friends and family come back to earth and take up shop in their household alters. In this way it is sort of like the Japanese version of Halloween.
This is why there are so many shows about ghost stories on during the middle of the summer. I always enjoy coming home at night and seeing famous people on TV get freaked out because of creepy ghost stories. A lot of these TV shows also have pictures or video that is suppose to be about ghosts. I found some really good pictures and videos while researching this post and I want to share them with you. Keep in mind I will bash these with the science hammer afterwords so don't be too scared!
This is a picture of what people call ghost orbs. Apparently when ghosts are lazy and don't want to take their human shape they fly around as little orbs in a sort of ghost version of energy save mode. It may surprise some to know, but these are not ghosts. Ghosts orbs are actually dust. Yes. Common every day dust. When the flash from the camera bounces off from the dust you get little orbs like that in your pictures. When people take pictures like this they always say things like "Nothing was in the room, but that showed up in the picture." Well, yes. Your eyes don't work fast enough to process the light, and even if they do you wouldn't think anything of it anyway. But, now that it is on film (data) it is a big thing. The only thing is, it's not...it's just dust.
Look! A creepy ghost in the window! Well, actually, no. If you look to the left of the picture you will see a blob of light that signals the use of our old friend, the flash. This is another trick of light and reflection. In this case the light is reflecting off of one of the people in the picture, hitting the window and reflecting back to the camera lens. It is very dark outside so the glass will act like a mirror. More than likely it is the person on the left who is the actual ghost.
Lastly I want to share this video.
This one freaked me out for the longest time. I mean, it's just scary to see something like that. But, eventually I got to see this video below which explained it all. Got to love Captain Disillusion (well, except what he says about Japanese TV shows which are all in all entertaining). Watch an enjoy.
It is a good reminder that there are other reasons there are ghost pictures and videos out there. Either they are a natural play of light in the form of reflections, refractions, etc or someone just made them up. Remember to look at things with a skeptical mind.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 幽霊(ゆうれい). It is pronounced yuurei and means ghost. There are probably close to 100 words for ghost in the Japanese language, but yuurei is the one that is used the most. It is so amazing to see how Japanese people look at things like ghost and goblins (not the video game).
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 04
Welcome again to JJNN for Saturday August 23rd, 2008. Today we will be taking about pseudoscience in shintoism.
Shintoism is the native religion of Japan. It has a long history that includes many interesting folk tales that explain how Japan and the Japanese people came to exist. Shinto is an animistic believe system, which means their gods (known as kami) live in natural objects. For example, Mt. Fuji is a god. So is Mt. Yahiko near my house. There are gods in very old and big trees known as shinboku. One of those trees can be seen below.
Shintoism is rather interesting as a religion because there is really no praying that we would think of as praying. Once or twice a year people go to shrine and make a wish (I guess that is sort of like a prayer) to the kami of the shrine, but is is not done in a way like church back home.
Any way, shinto is very interesting. I invite you to consult ol' wiki if you want to know more about it, because this post would get very long if I went on and on about shintoism. What I really want to talk about it one specific pseudoscience in shintoism. It is the process of blessing a car.
Almost everyone in Japan that buys a new or used car will take that car to the nearest shinto shrine and have the car blessed by a shinto priest. The theory goes that when you get a car it comes with evil spirits (que creepy music). Apparently these evil spirits must be like the gremlins of yore. For a large chunk of money (it's a different price at different shrines) the shinto priest will come out and do their form of an exorcism on the car. This is what one of these ceremonies looks like.
Sure it is entertaining to watch and deeply linked to Japanese culture, but what is waving a stick over a car really going to do in the end. It will do just the same as when Christian priests throw holy water on a car. Absolutely nothing! In fact, if people really believed in the ceremony I can see it having the opposite effect. The driver will get so relaxed in their car that they start driving sloppily and end up causing an accident. In sort, blessing a car is a waste of money and time.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 車祓(くるまばらい). It is pronounced kuruma-barai and means car blessing. I got a new (very old) car a few weeks ago. Maybe I should bring it in for a car blessing just so I can see the look on their faces.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Shintoism is the native religion of Japan. It has a long history that includes many interesting folk tales that explain how Japan and the Japanese people came to exist. Shinto is an animistic believe system, which means their gods (known as kami) live in natural objects. For example, Mt. Fuji is a god. So is Mt. Yahiko near my house. There are gods in very old and big trees known as shinboku. One of those trees can be seen below.
Shintoism is rather interesting as a religion because there is really no praying that we would think of as praying. Once or twice a year people go to shrine and make a wish (I guess that is sort of like a prayer) to the kami of the shrine, but is is not done in a way like church back home.
Any way, shinto is very interesting. I invite you to consult ol' wiki if you want to know more about it, because this post would get very long if I went on and on about shintoism. What I really want to talk about it one specific pseudoscience in shintoism. It is the process of blessing a car.
Almost everyone in Japan that buys a new or used car will take that car to the nearest shinto shrine and have the car blessed by a shinto priest. The theory goes that when you get a car it comes with evil spirits (que creepy music). Apparently these evil spirits must be like the gremlins of yore. For a large chunk of money (it's a different price at different shrines) the shinto priest will come out and do their form of an exorcism on the car. This is what one of these ceremonies looks like.
Sure it is entertaining to watch and deeply linked to Japanese culture, but what is waving a stick over a car really going to do in the end. It will do just the same as when Christian priests throw holy water on a car. Absolutely nothing! In fact, if people really believed in the ceremony I can see it having the opposite effect. The driver will get so relaxed in their car that they start driving sloppily and end up causing an accident. In sort, blessing a car is a waste of money and time.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 車祓(くるまばらい). It is pronounced kuruma-barai and means car blessing. I got a new (very old) car a few weeks ago. Maybe I should bring it in for a car blessing just so I can see the look on their faces.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 03
Welcome again to JJNN for Saturday July 26th, 2008. Today we will be taking about belts made of photons and the end of the world.
Do any of you remember when I talked about joining that class on dowsing? Well, every so often I talk with them just for a kick. In the end it always makes me a little depressed to realize that people actually think in the way they do, but they always give me something to talk about on Saturday.
Earlier this week the leader of the dowsing group sent me an email containing a report on some wacky topic. I didn't bother to read the report, but I figured the least I could do was click the link. I was promptly greeted with this website. I thought that it didn't look that bad so I kept reading only to find out that there is a chance that all of humanity will be wiped out in 2012!
What's a man to do!? I only have just over 4 years to live! Should I be running around and panicking in the streets? Should I dress up like a superhero of some sort and try to get rid of all the evil people in the world so that the rest might be saved? Or maybe I should look into why we all might die.
I randomly decided on the last option. So, why do you think that we are all going to die? Do you think it will be a 4 horse man apocalypse? Do you think a giant comet will hit the earth? Well, apparently, this does have something to do with space. According to these people on December 23rd of the year 2012 the Earth will enter a doughnut shaped belt of photons.
Oh man! Photons! Those little buggers are deadly. I saw a man get hit in the eye with one of those one time and you do not want to know what happened to him. Wait a sec... Photon... That's light! Well, actually, more than just visible light can be made up of photons. Things such as gamma rays, microwaves and radio waves are also made up of photons.
So how are these photons suppose to wipe out humanity? Apparently, a huge belt of photons are in orbit around the Pleiades (a star cluster in the constellation of Taurus). Every 11000 years the earth enters the belt and it takes 2000 years to get to the other side. When the Earth enters the photon belt all electronic equipment will be fried and the Earth will go though a couple of days of either total darkness or total light. The energy from the photons is suppose to change our DNA and evolve us into something different (or wipe us out).
Sounds plausible, right? Not hardly. Sure photons like gamma rays have the power to mess with our DNA and cause mutations. I will give them that. But, the major problem with their argument is the fact that there is a static belt of photon energy hanging out there that the Earth rams into every so often. If we were talking space debris I would say that that is possible but we are talking about photons here.
Why can't there be a belt of photon radiation? Well, for one thing, there are photons everywhere. It would have to be more of a blanket than a belt. But, lets say that the photons in the photon belt are special somehow. They have the magic power to change humans (and I would suppose other animals and plants) every time we venture close to them. Even with that assumption (yes, I did just make an ass out of u and mption) if you look at there claims you would notice that something else is really really wrong with this. The Earth hits this belt every 11000 years. That means that those photons are motionless out there and we careen into them. Well than, it seems they have named the belt wrong because photons move at the speed of light. The speed of light is very fast. A photon can go from the Earth to the moon in about a second or from the Earth to the sun in about 7 minutes. This all means that there can not be a static belt of photons.
Let's say that instead of a static belt that the Pleiades release a burst of radiation in the form of photons every 11000 years and that lasts for 2000 years. It would take a long time for that radiation to reach the Earth (about 440 years because the Pleiades are 440 light years away). Let's say that about 440 years ago the Pleiades did release that burst of radiation and is still releasing it now. So, what happens? Well nothing. The radiation will be in the form of visible light, microwaves, radio waves and the like. Nothing that can really harm us. In fact the Pleiades have been releasing radiation in this form for the last 100 million years or so.
But, what if the Pleiades gets it into its mind to be evil for a little while and release a lot of very bad things? Well, first of all, I don't see any reason it would suddenly change the way it is releasing its photon energy. But, if it did most of the bad stuff (along with most of the visible light) will be scattered off the dust that surrounds the Pleiades and not do anything here on Earth. All in all, I think 2012 will be a normal year.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 星(ほし). It is pronounced hoshi and means star. I always liked looking up at the starts when I was a kid in Maine. It is really too bad that I live in a city now where I really can't do that. I have to drive out to the country to see the starts now. Maybe I will go out tonight if it is not cloudy and see what I can see up there.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN
Do any of you remember when I talked about joining that class on dowsing? Well, every so often I talk with them just for a kick. In the end it always makes me a little depressed to realize that people actually think in the way they do, but they always give me something to talk about on Saturday.
Earlier this week the leader of the dowsing group sent me an email containing a report on some wacky topic. I didn't bother to read the report, but I figured the least I could do was click the link. I was promptly greeted with this website. I thought that it didn't look that bad so I kept reading only to find out that there is a chance that all of humanity will be wiped out in 2012!
What's a man to do!? I only have just over 4 years to live! Should I be running around and panicking in the streets? Should I dress up like a superhero of some sort and try to get rid of all the evil people in the world so that the rest might be saved? Or maybe I should look into why we all might die.
I randomly decided on the last option. So, why do you think that we are all going to die? Do you think it will be a 4 horse man apocalypse? Do you think a giant comet will hit the earth? Well, apparently, this does have something to do with space. According to these people on December 23rd of the year 2012 the Earth will enter a doughnut shaped belt of photons.
Oh man! Photons! Those little buggers are deadly. I saw a man get hit in the eye with one of those one time and you do not want to know what happened to him. Wait a sec... Photon... That's light! Well, actually, more than just visible light can be made up of photons. Things such as gamma rays, microwaves and radio waves are also made up of photons.
So how are these photons suppose to wipe out humanity? Apparently, a huge belt of photons are in orbit around the Pleiades (a star cluster in the constellation of Taurus). Every 11000 years the earth enters the belt and it takes 2000 years to get to the other side. When the Earth enters the photon belt all electronic equipment will be fried and the Earth will go though a couple of days of either total darkness or total light. The energy from the photons is suppose to change our DNA and evolve us into something different (or wipe us out).
Sounds plausible, right? Not hardly. Sure photons like gamma rays have the power to mess with our DNA and cause mutations. I will give them that. But, the major problem with their argument is the fact that there is a static belt of photon energy hanging out there that the Earth rams into every so often. If we were talking space debris I would say that that is possible but we are talking about photons here.
Why can't there be a belt of photon radiation? Well, for one thing, there are photons everywhere. It would have to be more of a blanket than a belt. But, lets say that the photons in the photon belt are special somehow. They have the magic power to change humans (and I would suppose other animals and plants) every time we venture close to them. Even with that assumption (yes, I did just make an ass out of u and mption) if you look at there claims you would notice that something else is really really wrong with this. The Earth hits this belt every 11000 years. That means that those photons are motionless out there and we careen into them. Well than, it seems they have named the belt wrong because photons move at the speed of light. The speed of light is very fast. A photon can go from the Earth to the moon in about a second or from the Earth to the sun in about 7 minutes. This all means that there can not be a static belt of photons.
Let's say that instead of a static belt that the Pleiades release a burst of radiation in the form of photons every 11000 years and that lasts for 2000 years. It would take a long time for that radiation to reach the Earth (about 440 years because the Pleiades are 440 light years away). Let's say that about 440 years ago the Pleiades did release that burst of radiation and is still releasing it now. So, what happens? Well nothing. The radiation will be in the form of visible light, microwaves, radio waves and the like. Nothing that can really harm us. In fact the Pleiades have been releasing radiation in this form for the last 100 million years or so.
But, what if the Pleiades gets it into its mind to be evil for a little while and release a lot of very bad things? Well, first of all, I don't see any reason it would suddenly change the way it is releasing its photon energy. But, if it did most of the bad stuff (along with most of the visible light) will be scattered off the dust that surrounds the Pleiades and not do anything here on Earth. All in all, I think 2012 will be a normal year.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 星(ほし). It is pronounced hoshi and means star. I always liked looking up at the starts when I was a kid in Maine. It is really too bad that I live in a city now where I really can't do that. I have to drive out to the country to see the starts now. Maybe I will go out tonight if it is not cloudy and see what I can see up there.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN
Saturday, July 19, 2008
JJNN Saturday: Pseudoscience - 02
Welcome again to JJNN for Saturday July 18th, 2008. Today I will be looking at something that really stinks.
Well I guess it doesn't stink for everyone. I will be talking about feet. You may be asking yourself what feet have to do with pseudoscience, but there is a connection. I come across this connection at least once a week and it always annoys me.
On my walk to go to work on certain days I have to walk in front of a store with a picture like this posted on its front door.
Well, as you can see, they are feet. But, notice that the feet are separated into many different areas. All of the areas have some sort of symbol on them. Those symbols are the Japanese symbols for other parts of the body. For example the tips of all of the toes have the symbol for the nose or the 3rd area down under the big toe is the symbol for the heart.
So, why are the feet separated into different areas that have symbols for different parts of the body? Well, apparently, those parts of the feet are magically connected to those parts of the body. For example, if you find you can't smell as well as you used to (or your nose hurts) all you have to do is have someone massage the tips of your toes. Or, if you find that your heart is not working as well as it should all you have to do is have someone massage that part of your feet. After that massage your suppose to end up in perfect health (for the part of the body connected to the part of your foot that got massaged).
Before I tell you exactly what I feel about this I want to talk about how it is suppose to work. Well, one way it is suppose to work is by activating lymph nodes. Well, there are lymphatic vessels in the foot, but it doesn't look like there are any real vessels at the bottom of the foot. On top of that there are no lymph nodes in the foot. The closest ones seem to be near the crotchal area (it's a real word...look it up). I am not a doctor so if I am wrong about this call me out on it. This all means that the lymph system does not make this work.
Another reason people give for this to work is energy. A certain part of the foot is connected to a certain part of the body with a flow of energy. If the flow of an energy gets blocked it can be unblocked by massaging that area of the foot. This in turn will make that area of the body better. This energy flow can not be found scientifically. There is no way that anyone can prove that it actually exists, so I have to say that energy can't be the answer either.
Now, let's look at this though the glasses of a scientist. Energy and the lymph system are thrown out the window. What does that leave? Well in my own humble point of view I think that it is probably a form of a placebo effect. If you go into a place and pay some money (sometimes a lot of money) to get some relief for a symptom of some sort you want to get that relief. You will convince yourself that you will get the relief and because you do that you will actually get it for a little while. This is all because the person that gives you the massage will show you a chart and explain things to you. That along with the relaxing atmosphere of the office and the massage itself will set up a series of events in your brain that will lead to perceived relief.
Well, if that's true, why is going to one of these places bad? Well, for one, it is expensive. You are basically handing your wallet over to a con-man that will give you nothing in return. Also, if you have something really wrong with you (like cancer) and you go to that place to get cured it could lead to your death. How could it lead to your death? Well picture this, a man has severe headaches all the time. Instead of going to the hospital to find out what is really wrong with him he decides to go to one of these massage places instead. The headaches may go away because of what I explained above, but they eventually come back. The man decides to keep going to the massage places because it gives him temporary relief, but unfortunately a foot massage does not destroy a brain tumor. The man ends up dead, his family ends up very sad and the foot massage specialist ends up rich. Fair? I think not.
I really don't want to talk about this any more because it does make me mad. Seeing as I have a date later tonight (yay!) I don't want to be mad, I want to be happy. But, I will leave you with this. How long do you think people train to become one of these massage specialists? Three years in university? Two years in vocational collage? No. In most countries it is less than 6 months of study. It is all just a big scam. The "university" that trains the practitioners gets money, the practitioners get money from the patients, and also there are a lot of people that made devices for home massage that cost a lot of money. I really hate to see people getting duped out of their hard earned money.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 足つぼ(あしつぼ). It is pronounced ashi-tsubo and means pressure point on the bottom of the foot. There are pressure points everywhere, but lately the ones on the bottom of the foot are the ones that are in vogue. I really don't get it. I mean the only reason I would go in for a foot massage is if I had sore feet.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Well I guess it doesn't stink for everyone. I will be talking about feet. You may be asking yourself what feet have to do with pseudoscience, but there is a connection. I come across this connection at least once a week and it always annoys me.
On my walk to go to work on certain days I have to walk in front of a store with a picture like this posted on its front door.
Well, as you can see, they are feet. But, notice that the feet are separated into many different areas. All of the areas have some sort of symbol on them. Those symbols are the Japanese symbols for other parts of the body. For example the tips of all of the toes have the symbol for the nose or the 3rd area down under the big toe is the symbol for the heart.
So, why are the feet separated into different areas that have symbols for different parts of the body? Well, apparently, those parts of the feet are magically connected to those parts of the body. For example, if you find you can't smell as well as you used to (or your nose hurts) all you have to do is have someone massage the tips of your toes. Or, if you find that your heart is not working as well as it should all you have to do is have someone massage that part of your feet. After that massage your suppose to end up in perfect health (for the part of the body connected to the part of your foot that got massaged).
Before I tell you exactly what I feel about this I want to talk about how it is suppose to work. Well, one way it is suppose to work is by activating lymph nodes. Well, there are lymphatic vessels in the foot, but it doesn't look like there are any real vessels at the bottom of the foot. On top of that there are no lymph nodes in the foot. The closest ones seem to be near the crotchal area (it's a real word...look it up). I am not a doctor so if I am wrong about this call me out on it. This all means that the lymph system does not make this work.
Another reason people give for this to work is energy. A certain part of the foot is connected to a certain part of the body with a flow of energy. If the flow of an energy gets blocked it can be unblocked by massaging that area of the foot. This in turn will make that area of the body better. This energy flow can not be found scientifically. There is no way that anyone can prove that it actually exists, so I have to say that energy can't be the answer either.
Now, let's look at this though the glasses of a scientist. Energy and the lymph system are thrown out the window. What does that leave? Well in my own humble point of view I think that it is probably a form of a placebo effect. If you go into a place and pay some money (sometimes a lot of money) to get some relief for a symptom of some sort you want to get that relief. You will convince yourself that you will get the relief and because you do that you will actually get it for a little while. This is all because the person that gives you the massage will show you a chart and explain things to you. That along with the relaxing atmosphere of the office and the massage itself will set up a series of events in your brain that will lead to perceived relief.
Well, if that's true, why is going to one of these places bad? Well, for one, it is expensive. You are basically handing your wallet over to a con-man that will give you nothing in return. Also, if you have something really wrong with you (like cancer) and you go to that place to get cured it could lead to your death. How could it lead to your death? Well picture this, a man has severe headaches all the time. Instead of going to the hospital to find out what is really wrong with him he decides to go to one of these massage places instead. The headaches may go away because of what I explained above, but they eventually come back. The man decides to keep going to the massage places because it gives him temporary relief, but unfortunately a foot massage does not destroy a brain tumor. The man ends up dead, his family ends up very sad and the foot massage specialist ends up rich. Fair? I think not.
I really don't want to talk about this any more because it does make me mad. Seeing as I have a date later tonight (yay!) I don't want to be mad, I want to be happy. But, I will leave you with this. How long do you think people train to become one of these massage specialists? Three years in university? Two years in vocational collage? No. In most countries it is less than 6 months of study. It is all just a big scam. The "university" that trains the practitioners gets money, the practitioners get money from the patients, and also there are a lot of people that made devices for home massage that cost a lot of money. I really hate to see people getting duped out of their hard earned money.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 足つぼ(あしつぼ). It is pronounced ashi-tsubo and means pressure point on the bottom of the foot. There are pressure points everywhere, but lately the ones on the bottom of the foot are the ones that are in vogue. I really don't get it. I mean the only reason I would go in for a foot massage is if I had sore feet.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
Friday, June 20, 2008
JJNN 28 June 20th, 2008
Welcome again to JJNN for Friday June 20th, 2008. There was a lot of news out there today, but after about an hour of looking around none of it really grabbed my attention so I guess I will tell the story of my latest journey into the land of wu.
"Wu?" you say? No, it's not a person. Wu would be a Chinese name not a Japanese name any way. Wu is a word for anything that is non-scientific (pseudo-scientific) out there. This time I am going to talk about the dowsing class that I went to. What do you think about when you hear the world dowsing? Is it looking for water with two sticks? That is the image most people have, but in the class I went to the students were learning how to find out things using a pendulum.
Let's get right to the debunking of this. The person that was performing the dowsing would hold the pendulum and ask them self a question. The pendulum would than swing one way for yes and another way for no. You may be wondering how the person knows which way is yes and which way is no. Well, first the person would point to a picture of a circle and ask them self if it were a circle. Miraculously the pendulum would swing one way and would always swing that way for a yes answer. The person would also find that the pendulum would swing the other way for a no answer.
That all must mean that what the teacher says about dowsing plumbing the depths of a connected human consciousness to find the answer has to be correct, right? Wrong. The effect that causes the dowsing pendulum to move has been known about for over 100 years. It is called the ideomotor effect.
The ideomotor effect was first discussed in a paper by William Benjamin Carpenter in 1852. He was talking about the ouija board in the paper, but it can also be applied to dowsing. The basic idea of the ideomotor effect is that all humans make unconscious movements. The body actually reacts to ideas or something that it knows is right which in turns moves the pendulum. This is why the pendulum moves when you ask if a circle is a circle or something like that.
Any way, the dowsing class was full of 30 or so true believers and me, the lone skeptic. As the teacher was feeding everyone load after load of crap I was in the only one in the room not believing every word he said. Everyone else was shaking their head and saying things like "I knew it would be something like that" or "I guess I can only believe what the teacher says."
It was a little creepy to hear that, but the most shocking thing was something I heard from the teacher. He said that by using dowsing a person can tell that the sun is actually not hot. I was a little confused when I heard that. I thought that he was talking about the fact that the surface of the sun is not as hot as the outer part of the sun, but he kept talking. He went on to say that the sun was about the same temperature as the earth and there is soil and rice and even water on the sun. I could hardly stop myself from laughing right there, but the thought of being lynched by true believers stopped me.
So we are all on the same page, here is a picture of the sun...
Looks hot to me. And, in fact, it turns out to be hot. It turns out to be 11000F. That is damn hot. Just as a comparison let's look at the melting point of iron. The melting point of iron is 1535F. I guess no iron can be on the sun, but what about soil and rice? One can probably safely say that they would be not present. This means that a statement dowsing makes "The sun is not hot and there is rice and soil on the sun" is scientifically proven wrong. Dowsing is bunk...period.
Any way, I guess that is enough of a rant. If you want to hear more things like this let me know. There are so many pseudoscientific things that the Japanese do. Leave a comment and let me know.
"Wu?" you say? No, it's not a person. Wu would be a Chinese name not a Japanese name any way. Wu is a word for anything that is non-scientific (pseudo-scientific) out there. This time I am going to talk about the dowsing class that I went to. What do you think about when you hear the world dowsing? Is it looking for water with two sticks? That is the image most people have, but in the class I went to the students were learning how to find out things using a pendulum.
Let's get right to the debunking of this. The person that was performing the dowsing would hold the pendulum and ask them self a question. The pendulum would than swing one way for yes and another way for no. You may be wondering how the person knows which way is yes and which way is no. Well, first the person would point to a picture of a circle and ask them self if it were a circle. Miraculously the pendulum would swing one way and would always swing that way for a yes answer. The person would also find that the pendulum would swing the other way for a no answer.
That all must mean that what the teacher says about dowsing plumbing the depths of a connected human consciousness to find the answer has to be correct, right? Wrong. The effect that causes the dowsing pendulum to move has been known about for over 100 years. It is called the ideomotor effect.
The ideomotor effect was first discussed in a paper by William Benjamin Carpenter in 1852. He was talking about the ouija board in the paper, but it can also be applied to dowsing. The basic idea of the ideomotor effect is that all humans make unconscious movements. The body actually reacts to ideas or something that it knows is right which in turns moves the pendulum. This is why the pendulum moves when you ask if a circle is a circle or something like that.
Any way, the dowsing class was full of 30 or so true believers and me, the lone skeptic. As the teacher was feeding everyone load after load of crap I was in the only one in the room not believing every word he said. Everyone else was shaking their head and saying things like "I knew it would be something like that" or "I guess I can only believe what the teacher says."
It was a little creepy to hear that, but the most shocking thing was something I heard from the teacher. He said that by using dowsing a person can tell that the sun is actually not hot. I was a little confused when I heard that. I thought that he was talking about the fact that the surface of the sun is not as hot as the outer part of the sun, but he kept talking. He went on to say that the sun was about the same temperature as the earth and there is soil and rice and even water on the sun. I could hardly stop myself from laughing right there, but the thought of being lynched by true believers stopped me.
So we are all on the same page, here is a picture of the sun...
Looks hot to me. And, in fact, it turns out to be hot. It turns out to be 11000F. That is damn hot. Just as a comparison let's look at the melting point of iron. The melting point of iron is 1535F. I guess no iron can be on the sun, but what about soil and rice? One can probably safely say that they would be not present. This means that a statement dowsing makes "The sun is not hot and there is rice and soil on the sun" is scientifically proven wrong. Dowsing is bunk...period.
Any way, I guess that is enough of a rant. If you want to hear more things like this let me know. There are so many pseudoscientific things that the Japanese do. Leave a comment and let me know.
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