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woolytoad
Skeptic Friend

313 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  00:14:41   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send woolytoad a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Giltwist

Well the body runs on all sorts of electrical impulses. I also know that the EMF that surrounds your average human can interfere with certain sensitive instruments. In general, this interaction just involves a minor fluctuation in reported measurement. However, there have been known to be more potent interactions. See also: The Pauli Effect ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_effect )


The first line:

quote:
The Pauli Effect refers to the mysterious failure of technical equipment in the presence of certain people, particularly theoretical physicists.


Guess you're not a physicist ...

quote:
So you don't think its likely that electromagnetic fields could influence out well being?


Sure it can. But you need an extremely large field. Like how you have to take off all metal bits when you take an MRI scan. You're not going to feel very well after your nipple ring is ripped out of you.
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latsot
Skeptic Friend

United Kingdom
70 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  03:03:07   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit latsot's Homepage  Send latsot a Yahoo! Message Send latsot a Private Message
quote:
Do you know of any examples where wikipedia was inaccurate (past or present, future if you have paranormal abilities)? I have been using it for a while and fairly often, and haven't seen one.



Yes (although I will have to trawl for the specific examples). But more importantly, in no case has the wikipedia entry been any less accurate than more conventional encyclopedias (insofar as it is possible to judge this). Plus, with wiki you have the advantage of being able to see revisions, which can act at least as a guide to provenence. Plus, of course, you can easily help to fix those innacuracies.

It is certainly true that you shouldn't believe everything you read on wikipedia, but I'd extend this to other encyclopedia as well.

To compound the off-topic sin further, I seem to remember someone from one of the leading 'traditional' encyclopedias made a very public attack on wikipedia. It was a pretty silly attack and was easily refuted. Interesting reading though. I thought i had bookmarked both articles but can't find them now. Does anyone else here have links?

Cheers

r
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  05:40:31   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Giltwist

So you don't think its likely that electromagnetic fields could influence out well being? Wasn't there a whole spiel a while back about electric blankets causing problems because of that?
So far as I know, the most-common health problem caused by electric blankets occurs when they catch fire.
quote:
EDIT: Come to think of it, I'm almost positive EMFs have been used to explain certain paranormal phenomena because specific kinds can cause hallucinations or something.
Yes, if you pass huge magnetic pulses through the brain, you can really screw things up.
quote:
EDIT2: Minnesota Dept. of Health article
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/radiation/emf/
That's the best you've got, a site which (using best evidence) suggests that 60 Hz fields are as likely as pickled beets to cause cancer? Why not mention electroconvulsive therapy? Or the fact that pulsed magnetism can speed up bone-fracture healing? Hell, technically speaking, laser hair removal is an application of EMF to "well being."

But again, those are applications of huge amounts of EMF, as compared to the field surrounding your average human.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Giltwist
Skeptic Friend

USA
69 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  09:36:56   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Giltwist's Homepage  Send Giltwist an AOL message  Send Giltwist an ICQ Message  Send Giltwist a Yahoo! Message Send Giltwist a Private Message
quote:
But again, those are applications of huge amounts of EMF, as compared to the field surrounding your average human.


Granted, and that's why they have such obvious results. So, my thinking is that the lower intensity fields will just have a less pronounced result, at least for a good while.

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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard

3192 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  09:47:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send BigPapaSmurf a Private Message
You can become one of my students for only 66$ and I offer all of the same things with none of the work. My healing power called "Usodum" can be absorbed via E-Mail.

"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History

"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini
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woolytoad
Skeptic Friend

313 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  16:54:14   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send woolytoad a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Giltwist

quote:
But again, those are applications of huge amounts of EMF, as compared to the field surrounding your average human.


Granted, and that's why they have such obvious results. So, my thinking is that the lower intensity fields will just have a less pronounced result, at least for a good while.



It's more likely that there will be no effect. I've actually participated as a experiment subject while at university (great way to get some spare change, it's really interesting and you get to do weird things). They applied EMF to my brain. The fields involved are quite large, not to produce a measurable response, but to produce any response at all. The strength of the field needs to be large just to get past my skull and have any effect on my brain. Any field that surrounds the human body is useless.

For the interested, the experiment was about the differences in how men and women make decisions. We had 3 objects on screen at the top, middle and bottom. The top object would appear first. Then the 2nd and 3rd would appear simultaneously after a second or so. Pick the one you like best. Women tend to make decisions based on particular properties of an object. Say "I like pink". Then they would always pick the pink object. Men, tend to take the other objects into consideration. Seeing the first object would influence which object we liked best. The magnetic fields were to make us think more like women. I was also supposed to do another experiment, but it turns out that some people find that it hurts if you apply a EMF to that part of the brain, so it's not so safe. I was one of them.
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9688 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  17:35:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky

quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse

quote:
Originally posted by Giltwist
See also: The Pauli Effect ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_effect )

You should consider that wikipedia isn't considered as reliable as real dictionaries. It's subject to editing by layperson, and as such may very well contain inaccuracies.



Not to go off topic or anything...

Do you know of any examples where wikipedia was inaccurate (past or present, future if you have paranormal abilities)? I have been using it for a while and fairly often, and haven't seen one.

It seems to me that wikipedia gets moderated fairly heavily.

I recall a discussion about gyro effects on a Swedish motorcycle board, where wikipedia was referenced, and it was apparently inaccurate. This might not apply to the English version, I haven't checked.

Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3

"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse

Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder.
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Giltwist
Skeptic Friend

USA
69 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  20:15:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Giltwist's Homepage  Send Giltwist an AOL message  Send Giltwist an ICQ Message  Send Giltwist a Yahoo! Message Send Giltwist a Private Message
Oo! I'd like a copy of that research paper, Wooly.

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woolytoad
Skeptic Friend

313 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2005 :  20:48:05   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send woolytoad a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Giltwist

Oo! I'd like a copy of that research paper, Wooly.



I'll post a link if the paper is published online. But I'm not certain the PhD student who conducted the experiement would be finished yet. Otherwise I'll link to pictures of my brain from the MRI scan (I also earned $50 :)).
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larry_boy
New Member

14 Posts

Posted - 06/27/2005 :  08:59:28   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send larry_boy a Private Message
A friend of my wife once said "I think humans can detect energy." To which my wife responded, "Sure, we can detect light sound and heat."

If your going to use the word 'energy' you should really mean something by it other than 'this word is a cool sounding place holder that makes me sound scientimific!'

In a side note, I have become fascinated with how pervasive the belief is that our 'will' can alter reality around us in an inexplicable and irresistible fashion. From the matrix, to new-agers, to occultism, to Christians and Buddhists, everyone seems to think that all you need to get something is to want it bad enough in the right way, though their definitions of the right way vary a little. no really. you can name it and claim it. honest.
Edited by - larry_boy on 06/27/2005 09:09:43
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie

USA
4826 Posts

Posted - 06/27/2005 :  09:13:58   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Valiant Dancer's Homepage Send Valiant Dancer a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf

You can become one of my students for only 66$ and I offer all of the same things with none of the work. My healing power called "Usodum" can be absorbed via E-Mail.



Named after what you suggest they buy or named after what you're going to buy with the proceeds?

Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils

Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 06/27/2005 :  11:55:25   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
quote:
A friend of my wife once said "I think humans can detect energy." To which my wife responded, "Sure, we can detect light sound and heat."



Nice !

Welcome to the SFN larry_boy

Personally I like the example where you slap the person making that claim, ask them if they felt it, then agree that people can apparently detect kinetic energy.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 06/27/2005 :  13:00:05   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
quote:
A friend of my wife once said "I think humans can detect energy." To which my wife responded, "Sure, we can detect light sound and heat."

Indeed!

On several occasions, I have detected serpent venom contaminating my system. It was most energetic....

Welcome to SFN!


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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trishran
Skeptic Friend

USA
196 Posts

Posted - 07/05/2005 :  13:23:12   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send trishran a Private Message
Wow - what a bargain! I know a woman who paid $10,000 to become a Reiki master. Of course, she went to actual classes. WHat a boon the internet is - to offer such a discount service!

trish
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