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Skeptic Summary #356

Whispering, mediuming, transferring, expoing and more!

César Millán, the ‘Dog Whisperer’ - Will woo put dogs into submission?

Mediums - How far under the radar does a cold reading have to fly to stay undetected?

Thought transference - There are many ways to transmit thoughts.

Conscious Life Expo — This is not my usual kind of pick because I’m not actually endorsing this site or the event it promotes. But I’m going to it. I’m drawn to events like The Conscious Life Expo like a moth is to an electrified patio light zapper. Or maybe it’s more of an anthropological expedition. Yeah. I like that better. It was, in fact, an essay about one such trip, Evil Skeptic and a Visit to Awareness 2000, that earned me the title of “Evil” as in Evil Skeptic and Evil Picks. The essay is almost ancient history now, in light of how much the skeptic community has grown since then, but there you go. After decades of skeptics picking at it, the New Age is still going strong. As long as there are major television stars like Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Oz, and others out there, attracting big audiences, ours will continue to be an uphill battle for reason.

Mother Earth has already begun her 5th Dimensional transformation. In addition, humanity has been given a gift to become a part of the transformation and ascend along with the planet. We are multi-dimensional beings that are awakening to our true selves. We are learning that we are limitless, co-creators and immortal beings of light. At this time in our lives, we are blessed with the ability to communicate with beings that are from other star systems and dimensional planes. The veil is being lifted and our divine powers and magic are being restored to us.

Anyhow, this one looks like it will be a lot of fun, because after all, this is the year the Mayan Calendar ends which is a big deal in the New Age. And not to miss a trick like that, it’s also a theme of the Expo. The cover art on the program I received in the mail shows the back of a person sitting in the lotus position, in silhouette, of undetermined sex, with arms reaching out and with hands palms up in worship style, over looking a city, (presumably Los Angeles in this case, but still rather generic looking, probably for economy sake, as the expo is a traveling event), and only just beyond the city is a massive Mayan pyramid about the size of Mt. Everest. Given the perspective, the pyramid should be permanently snowcapped. (I’m probably not allowing enough poetic license to this artful scene, clearly meant to inspire and not be taken as realistic.)


Along with the speakers other festivities and the usual things to buy, at this expo they are also selling a Mayan Galactic Alignment Cruse

December 21, 2012:
Mayan Galactic Alignment

Join us on a spectacular Cruise and Seminar-At-Sea to the sacred Mayan sites of the Yucatan, where we will gather in a grand ceremony and ritual that closes a 5000-year era of darkness, and opens a new eon of light — the ascension of humanity. On this day, the Great Cycle, which began in 3114 BC, will end. The Fourth World will pass, and the “World of the Fifth Sun” will be born.

Now catch the crest of the wave. Add your momentum to the vibrational energy that culminates in the peak spiritual event of the Millennium — the Solstice of 2012, which will occur at the incredibly auspicious hour of 11:11 a.m. Universal Time on December 21, 2012.

At that time, on that date, everything we know will change. We will enter a new world — a world of Ascension.

Listen. You must visit the “Cruise” page. It only gets better!
The event will feature workshops, Lectures, Exhibitors, music, and more. Of special interest will be the talk by Cat Woman, Julie Newmar. Why? I don’t really know. But SFN contributing writer and sometimes partner-in-crime Michelle Shires has just decided to join me and she says she will die if she doesn’t get a picture with Cat Woman. Most of my time will be spent in the exhibit hall, I’m sure. It’s there that you get to hobnob with people like Dr. Valentine who is a veterinarian and a naturopath, which means he can take care of both you and your pets. Good deal! I might also want to play with some Quantum Wave Lasers and learn more about the Global Coherence Initiative. Who knows? There is always so much to take in at a Conscious Life Expo.


We’re going on Sunday. If you live in the Los Angeles area and you would like to see for yourself what the New Age is up to this year, contact me via email and maybe we can arrange for a skeptic meet up!

SkeptiQuote: False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness. — Charles Darwin

Wednesday: Chatters complained that the placement of the search box right under the chat client wasn’t optimal. Other than that, chat started out talking about alcohol, not just the one we drink like beer, wine and whiskey, but rubbing alcohol and wood alcohol. Some are more dangerous than others, what could happen and how to counteract it. We tried a few slogans for SFN T-shirts, none of the fit though. Homage to Filthy and his grouchy old diamondback. Saving for a trip to this year’s TAM. We rounded up the chat talking about the financing of the health care system in USA and other countries, who knows the largest number of programming languages, and finally: young earth creationism and New Atheism.

Come chat with us.

jamalrapper
CuriousSkeptic

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10 Urban Legends That Drove Pinoys Crazy

Afghan police: Man kills wife for giving birth to daughter instead of son

Anti-matter atoms to address anti-gravity question

Archeologist uncovers ancient pottery

Ark Park Still in Kentucky Budget

Baboons wreak havoc at Zimbabwe border post

Be Scofield, Greta Christina, and New Atheist racism

Chimp ‘X Factor’: Extensive Adaptive Evolution Specifically Targeting the X Chromosome of Chimpanzees

Christopher Hitchens on life, death and lobster

Crackpot ‘Theory of Everything’ Reveals Dark Side of Peer Review

DNA Turning Human Story Into a Tell-All

Doubtful Newsblog

Earth in the Balance: 7 Crucial Tipping Points

Escaped slaves may have lived in Great Dismal Swamp

Evolution Shrinks Mammals Quickly, But They’re Slow to Grow

Give ’Em a Million Years and They’ll Have Their Own Space Program

How NASA Solved a $100 Million Problem for Five Bucks

How Viruses Evolve, and in Some Cases, Become Deadly

Letter from Ireland: Mystery of the Fulacht Fiadh

Militant group kicks aid group out of regions in Somalia

MP calls for pardon for computer pioneer Alan Turing

“Psychic” Sally Morgan Sues Critics for £150,000 After Refusing $1 Million to Prove Her Powers

Rogues’ Gallery: The Convicts of Early Australia

Science decodes ‘internal voices’

Science TV “network decay”

Self-steering bullet researched by US weapons experts

Senate broadens teaching creationism proposal

Should Scientists Be Held Legally Responsible for Their Results?

Shortage of Rare Metals Could Threaten High-Tech Innovation

Skepticality #175 — Religious Disinformation

Smart Paint Could Revolutionize Structural Safety of Bridges, Mines and More

South Dakota Resolution Encourages Bible Study In Schools

Targeted DNA Vaccine Using an Electric Pulse

Tennessee senator not concerned about dead babies, women, or men. If they were HIV+, they werent ‘regular’ anyway.

This [Time Period] in Intelligent Design

Tiong San store’s collapse a hoax

Tricks of the Psychic Trade

Trumpets of outrage in the outback

Unless you really know what you are doing stay off the ice!

Vintage bombs probably used as ‘booby trap’: archaeologist

Waiting for Death Valley’s Big Bang: Volcanic Explosion Crater May Have Future Potential

Was the Little Ice Age Triggered by Massive Volcanic Eruptions?

What’s New by Bob Park

Winged Dinosaur Archaeopteryx Dressed for Flight

The World’s Greatest Hoaxes

Got some skeptic news items? Send them to us, and we’ll think about adding them.

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, by Shawn Lawrence Otto.



“‘Whenever the people are well informed,’ Thomas Jefferson wrote, ‘they can be trusted with their own government.’

But what happens in a world dominated by complex science? Are the people still well-enough informed to be trusted with their own government? And with less than 2 percent of Congress with any professional background in science, how can our government be trusted to lead us in the right direction?

Will the media save us? Don’t count on it. In early 2008, of the 2,975 questions asked the candidates for president just six mentioned the words ‘global warming’ or ‘climate change,’ the greatest policy challenge facing America. To put that in perspective, three questions mentioned UFOs.

Today the world’s major unsolved challenges all revolve around science. By the 2012 election cycle, at a time when science is influencing every aspect of modern life, antiscience views from climate-change denial to creationism to vaccine refusal have become mainstream.

Faced with the daunting challenges of an environment under siege, an exploding population, a falling economy and an education system slipping behind, our elected leaders are hard at work … passing resolutions that say climate change is not real and astrology can control the weather.

Shawn Lawrence Otto has written a behind-the-scenes look at how the government, our politics, and the media prevent us from finding the real solutions we need. Fool Me Twice is the clever, outraged, and frightening account of America’s relationship with science — a relationship that is on the rocks at the very time we need it most.”

— Book Description

Forum Topics:

1. Dr. Jeffery Life and Cenegenics
2. Funny FAILS
3. Scattershots: gargoyles & grotesques
4. Mediums
5. The Battle of Tehran
6. Stan Lee’s superhumans
7. Science / Religion Flow Chart
8. Scientist: No knuckle-walkers in human ancestry
9. Key Bending
10. Cue the oh-so-persecuted delusionists

Articles:

1. Evolving a Venom or Two
2. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle
3. The Legend of the Shrinking Sun
4. Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark
5. The Bible’s Bad Fruits
6. Is the Speed of Light Slowing Down?
7. Skeptic Summary #355
8. The Biblical support for a Flat Earth and Geocentricism
9. Scientific Truth
10. Miracle Thaw Tray

There were 6,889 daily visitors this week.

Forum Topics:

1. Dr. Jeffery Life and Cenegenics
2. Funny FAILS
3. Scattershots: gargoyles & grotesques
4. The Battle of Tehran
5. Science / Religion Flow Chart
6. Science disproves NDE's?
7. How fundies react when they don’t get their way
8. Fif50ty FreAkieSt AnIMaLS
9. Missing Mooner
10. Scientist: No knuckle-walkers in human ancestry
11. Of Serpents and Men
12. Stan Lee’s superhumans
13. Jesus tempts Satan
14. Proof of cover-up of time-travel technology
15. Scattershots: Cleaning out the pipes
16. Cruise ships become dangerously top-heavy
17. ‘Zion Oil’ getting into hot water?
18. Parody Chick tract, ‘Myths, Lies and Miss Hinn’
19. Krispy Kreme’s whole wheat donut of death
20. Hojo Motor

Articles:

1. Evolving a Venom or Two
2. Miracle Thaw — The Bogus Miracle
3. Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark
4. Cold Reading
5. The Bible’s Bad Fruits
6. Is the Speed of Light Slowing Down?
7. The Biblical support for a Flat Earth and Geocentricism
8. Scientific Truth
9. What is a Skeptic and Why Bother Being One?
10. Miracle Thaw Tray
11. Skeptic Summary #352
12. The Legend of the Shrinking Sun
13. TAM4
14. The Truth About The Bible And Evolution
15. TAM5
16. Come & Receive your Miracle: A Sunday Afternoon at a Robert Tilton Crusade
17. Preaching that Anti-Evolution Propaganda
18. Kent Hovind is a Big Phony!
19. N. 25, June 2002: Ecology vs. ecophily — being reasonable about saving the environment
20. Skeptic Summary #354

There were 30,166 daily visitors in January, 2012.