Psychic To Contact Michael Jackson In Televised Séance

I knew it wouldn’t be long before some slimey psychic did a séance to contact Michael Jackson. Enter Derek Acorah. Sky1 will be screening two shows, Michael Jackson: The Live Séance and Michael Jackson: The Search For His Spirit, in November

Please follow this link to Derek’s official website, I have purposely linked to the page where Derek describes how he met his spirit guide Sam – it’s the best laugh I’ve had in weeks – but I digress.

Derek Acorah is an English medium who is best known for co-presenting a television series called Most Haunted, in which he frequently became “possessed” by some of the spirits he encountered on the show’s investigations. He left the show in 2005 when it was discovered that one of the spirits he was possessed by, an entity called “Kreed Kafer”, turned out to be  a fabrication by the programme’s parapsychologist, Ciaran O’ Keeffe. The name “Kreed Kafer” is an anagram for Derek Faker.

I think the whole idea of doing this séance is blatant greed; Sky1 knows the shows will get high ratings, and Derek Acorah will probably get some new gullible customers  – it’s disgusting.

A Miracle………

For those of you living in Johannesburg and wondering about the crazy weather we’re experiencing, I can now inform you of the cause. Today a major miracle occurred and it involved Telkom !!!

This afternoon I received a call from a Telkom technician asking me if I wanted a new wireless phone installed, and if he could do it today? I almost put the phone down thinking it was a joke, but Lo and Behold, there was a Telkom van at my gate within 3 minutes of the call……a minor miracle in itself.

After being with out a phone for 21 months now, Telkom has finally got around to installing wireless technology in our area and they updated all their existing customers free of charge – another miracle!

So a big THANK YOU Telkom, it’s great to be in contact with the rest of the world again without having to pay the exorbitant fees charged by my mobile service provider.

Now, if only you could do something about your download times so that I don’t have to resort to using Winston’s friends and relatives.

A Reminder Of How We Came Into This World

From atheistcartoons.com

Happy Birthday to Me……….

Today, The Skeptic Blacksheep turns one…hip,hip,hooray! It’s been a fun year, it still surprises me that anyone actually reads my blog. Writing this blog has  changed me, it’s given a shy and reserved person – moi – a voice.

I knew from the beginning that a lot of people would find my opinions offensive and hurtful because I was speaking out against everything they believed in, but I felt I could no longer hide my own thoughts and views, and this blog served as the platform for my coming out of the atheist closet, so to speak.

It’s given me the confidence to stand up proudly for those opinions and liberal views, and I no longer care if anyone thinks I’m a militant atheist. If pointing out the ridiculous makes me a militant atheist, then so be it.

I’ve met some incredible fellow skeptics online and I’ve learnt a lot from them, and look forward to continuing to do so. I find many of them inspiring, educational, and have learnt that most of them have a wicked sense of humour.

Here’s to another year of fun, learning and pointing out the ridiculous.

Cheers!

Winston, My New Hero!

Meet my latest hero – Winston the carrier pigeon - Winston put Telkom to shame after proving that he could deliver 4GB of data faster than a Telkom ADSL line. Braving bad weather and predatory hawks, Winston flew 80km to deliver the 4GB of data to the head office of  The Unlimited, an IT company.

Winston delivered the memory card, which was strapped to his leg, in 2 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds beating Telkom’s estimated download time of 2 days. By the time the memory card was retrieved and downloaded, the ADSL line had only managed to download 100MB of data.

Telkom declined to be interviewed – why am I not surprised – and asked that all questions be sent via email. Based on my vast experience with how Telkom handles enquiries, I won’t be in the least bit surprised if we don’t hear from them. Losers!

Hooray for Winston!

_________________________________________________________

Update

“Telkom would like to clarify that the company cannot be blamed for this particular customer’s lack of throughput speeds,” Troy Hector, executive of business sales and ICT business solutions, told Sapa in an e-mail on Thursday.

“Several recommendations have, in the past, been made to the customer but none of these have, to date, been accepted. It must also be noted that Telkom is not the customer’s core service provider,” said Hector.

Yes, but whose infrastructure is the other service provider using, Hector?

Local Homeopath’s Skeptic Rant

The trouble with going offline for a few days is that it’s a lot like going on a long holiday, you spend a lot of time trying to catch up on the news and gossip that you missed out on. And boy, have I missed out on some good stuff.

It seems a certain homeopathic ”doctor” has got his knickers in knot about people criticising homeopathy. He refers to critics as “IGNORANTS” – which, I guess, would make me one too, because I happen to believe that homeopathy is bullshit. He also seems to get cranky about…….

The one thing that always catches my attention is the fact that generally the skeptics of Homeopathy also tend to be anti-religion or at least skeptical of religion.

Ahhh, yes. That’s because we have a low tolerance to bullshit, so we tend to see right through it when we’re confronted with it.

While he has a go at the members of the South African Skeptics forum and at Owen Swart of 01 and the Universe, it seems that Angela of The Skeptic Detective is the one who really got under his skin. His ad hominem attacks on her personal beliefs (or lack thereof) and her field of study have absolutely nothing to do with with his arguments on homeopathy, but are rather petty and pathetic attempts at obfuscation. Nowhere in his lengthy rant about skeptics, does he offer up a half decent argument about his chosen profession. I’m not going to go through “Dr.” Prinsloo’s “Validity on Homeopathy” whinge;  Owen’s response is much funnier and deliciously to the point.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to fight Angela’s battles - she’s very capable of doing that herself and I’m so looking forward to her rebuttal - instead I’m standing in support of a fellow skeptic.

Way to go Angela!

I Ain’t Afraid Of No Ghosts……

A cottage I stayed in that was part of a "haunted" hotel.

Everyone loves a good ghost story,including a skeptic like me. I grew up in a family that pretty much believes in ghosts, my father in particular believed in them. I have memories of him trying to contact spirits using a circle of letters, with the words “yes” and “no” at the 12 and 6 o’clock positions in the circle, and a glass – it was called “glassy glassy”, if I remember correctly – I was very young.

Throughout my childhood I just took it for granted that there were ghosts, although I’d never seen one. I also believed that the house I grew up in was haunted, but looking back now – a little more wiser – I realise that it was just the noises that an old house makes. It was already an old house when my family moved in, I think I was about 4 years old at the time. It had pressed ceilings and wooden floors, and underneath the house was an old cellar, so it isn’t surprising , with temperature fluctuations, that the old floorboards creaked and groaned, sounding very much like footsteps to an overactive imagination.

I often wondered why people’s spirits would stay behind when there was, supposedly, a much better place to go to. I also wondered if it was possible to talk to them without using a silly glass, and if it was possible to find out what was on the “other side”; and so my interest in the paranormal was born.

I read every book I could find on the subject – ghosts, the occult, supernatural phenomena, telepathy, psychics and anything else that was remotely related to the paranormal. I probably would have gone wholeheartedly into pursuing the realm of woo if I hadn’t chanced upon a library book debunking all of the things I was reading about. I can’t recall the name of the book, only a few paragraphs in it talking about a magician who made it a habit of exposing anything to do with the paranormal. The magician’s name was James Randi. What struck me was the reward that he offered to anyone who could prove that they could talk to the dead, bend spoons or read minds – and not a single person had claimed the prize. Back then, in the 70’s,  the original reward was only a few thousand dollars – not the One Million Dollar Challenge it is today, and it still hasn’t been claimed.

I don’t see all those years of reading up on the paranormal as a waste; instead it gives me insight into the world of woo and knowledge of how some fraudsters think and operate.

Anyhow, this post is basically a long winded way of saying that I will be doing a couple of posts on ghosts,  haunted houses and unexplained phenomena. I’ll relate some of my own experiences and I’ll look at how these paranormal activities can be explained.  I’ll also explain how ghost hunters investigate claims of the paranormal, and will visit a local pub that’s said to be haunted and tell you what I find.

The Power of Prayer

From my favourite cartoon site……

The Power of Prayer

Woo Products For Health

Just how gullible are we? I decided to do a search for the wackiest woo items on the web that made some outrageous claims – and some had outrageous price tags to match.

The Pulsor products are described in the quote below

A Pulsor is a solid-state composite of `semi-intelligent’ micro-crystals, arranged in very specific patterns, giving it the ability to resonate with, and harmonise subtle energy vibrations, thereby amplifying the personal aura, providing protection from environmental influences and creating a warm and nourishing atmosphere in which to live. They can be thought of as bio-energy receiver/transmitters with ultra-wide wavebands. Pulsors work through resonance.

1. Pulsor: Slotted Infra Card – £160.00

This is a credit card sized piece of rubber that is…….. 

” tuned to the resonant frequency of the body’s cells and is designed to constantly shift its vibratory rate and is therefore particularly suited for pain alleviation.”

You can buy more than one and link them together to cover a bigger area, But you might need to take out a rather large loan to do so. If they don’t work, they make great bar coasters.

2. Pulsor Set: Angel Vortex Stabiliser Set – £745.00

These three small round objects are for……

·      Set of three divided spectrum doughnut-shaped pulsors, black with coloured inserts showing each of the 3 frequencies or spectrums: blue for the mental energy circuit, green for the emotional energy circuit and red for the physical energy circuit.

·      When used therapeutically, they help to correct, maintain and protect the body’s vortex polarity and subtle energy field.

·      When placed strategically in the environment, they can create harmony in the home and office.

Considering the price of these 3 small black plastic thingys, I don’t see how they can create harmony in the home. I couldn’t think of an alternative use for them if they didn’t work, I mean there’s only 3 of them, so you can’t use them to add height to a chair or a table.

3. H2Om Water – approx. $2.00 for 0.5 litres

This is “interactive” water (I kid you not) , “infused” with good intentions that promotes positive thinking and positive energy for people and the planet. The producers of this product believe that everything is energy and frequency, in other words everything around us, including us, vibrates at a certain frequency, creating a resonance.

They say that their water is infused with several distinctive frequencies, from the label, to the intention and by sound – certain sounds and music is used to “charge” the water.

Personally, a good single malt with a dash of water does the trick for me – it makes me happy, calms me and allows me to think good, relaxing thoughts.

4. JumpSnap – $60-$100

This is a ropeless skipping rope, yup, you just get the handles. However these a smart handles, they display your jump time, a jump counter, a calorie counter, a user profile, it has target jump alerts, and more. You even have the option of turning the snapping sound on so that it feels like you’re jumping over a rope. Cool. no more tripping over the rope!

5. USB Ghost Radar Memory Stick - no price found

From the product info:

“In use, it beeps quietly, the light-array patterns change, and the UV LED flashes. If it detects any phantom presence, the beep-rate changes and the new light-array patterns help you to assess position, movement, and risk possibilities. Ghost Radar and a small silver adhesive label have been purified at a Shinto shrine to help bring good fortune and keep evil spirits in check.”

I’ll have to get one of these.

6. G-Oyster Personal Energetic Vitaliser – £82.00

If you suffer from geopathic stress, then the G-Oyster is for you and it fits snugly into your trouser pocket. It protects you from sick building syndrome and negative “Earth” waves that radiate up through faults in the Earth. The G-Oyster enhances detoxification,  helps with natural pain relief, boosts energetic systems of the body, it Improves the efficiency of immune system, increases the efficiency of the lymphatic drainage system , helps you restore your energy levels, your sleeping patterns are considerably improved, and it has a great calming effect.

Wow, this little plastic thingy is incredibly powerful – we should all carry one of these instead of using conventional medicine, just think how much you’ll save on medication.

If you’d like to find out more about these products, they’re quite easy to find on the web. However, you’ll also find that although these sites use words like “science” and “scientific”, none of them has any valid scientific evidence on them to back up their claims. Most use scare tactics to sell their products and any linked articles are poor excuses for research that would not stand up to scrutiny in a peer reviewed journal.

To quote Carl Sagan, ” Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

South African and African Blogroll Update

It’s been ages since I’ve updated the South African science and scepticism blogroll, so here’s an updated version. If you’d like to be added to the list, please contact me at theskepticblacksheep@gmail.com.

01 and the universe
Acinonyx Scepticus
Amanuensis
Ambient Normality
Botswana Skeptic
Bullshit Fatigue
Effortless Incitement
Ewan’s Corner
Hayibo (satirical news website)
Heidi’s Hideout
Ionian Enchantment
Irreverence
Just Up The Dose (new)
Limbic Nutrition
other things amanzi
Orion Spur
Pause and Consider
Pickled Bushman
Prometheus Unbound
Psychohistorian
Reason Check (new)
Scorched
Science of Sport
Shadows Hide
Stop Danie Krugel
subtle shift in emphasis
The Intrepid Aardvark
The little book of capoeira
The Skeptic Blacksheep
The Skeptic Detective
The South African Skeptics Forum