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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 08/28/2010 : 08:44:40
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Choo-choo woo-woo can be hazardous to your health. This from CNN.com:'Ghost train' hunter killed by train in North Carolina
By Phil Gast, CNN
August 28, 2010 9:22 a.m. EDT
Christopher Kaiser was looking for a legendary "ghost train" on
this bridge when he was struck by a real train, authorities say.
(CNN) -- The facts: On August 27, 1891, a passenger train jumped the tracks on a tall bridge near Statesville, North Carolina, sending seven rail cars below and about 30 people to their deaths.
The legend: On the wreck's anniversary, the sounds of screeching wheels, screaming passengers and a horrific crash might still be heard. You might also see a uniformed man with a gold watch.
Shortly before 3 a.m. Friday, on the 119th anniversary of the Bostian Bridge train tragedy and at about the same time, between 10 and 12 ghost hunters were on that approximately 300-foot long span.
They were hoping to hear the sounds of the crash, and perhaps see something.
Instead, a real Norfolk-Southern train -- three engines and one car -- turned the corner as it headed east to Statesville, about 35 miles north of Charlotte, authorities said.
The terrified "amateur ghost watchers" ran away, back toward Statesville, trying to cover the nearly 150 feet to safety, said Iredell County Sheriff's Office Capt. Darren Campbell.
All but two made it.
. . . |
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 08/28/2010 08:45:29
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2010 : 09:24:27 [Permalink]
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That's been all over the news here in NC.
Now we'll likely get another dingbat or so killed on the same trestle whilst looking for Chris' ghost. This thing could snowball into a massacree!
Well, I'm braggin' up the mule a little, but hey, stupidity always exacts a price and there are a lot of stupids around.
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"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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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2010 : 09:31:52 [Permalink]
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| I think Christopher Kaiser deserves the immortality of recognition with a Darwin Award. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 08/28/2010 09:42:13 |
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Fripp
SFN Regular
USA
727 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2010 : 10:36:51 [Permalink]
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I'm not expecting a logical, rational answer, but why does a train -an inanimate object- become a ghost? I thought ghosts came from the spirits/souls of living beings, that they hadn't "crossed over" yet (whatever the heck that means). Just thinking out loud...
This reminds me of the Simpson's episode that was a take off of Thelma and Louise. Homer and Chief Wiggums were in pursuit of Marge and a friend(?) at night. Marge's friend decides to try turning out their lights to lose them. Marge says there's no way that'll fool a trained law-enforcement officer. But as soon as Wiggums sees the car's taillights disappear, he slams on the brakes and cries out in fear, "Oh my god, it's a ghost car!" |
"What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought my Dark Lord of the Sith could protect a small thermal exhaust port that's only 2-meters wide! That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet! You have any idea what this is going to do to my credit?!?!"
"What? Oh, oh, 'just rebuild it'? Oh, real [bleep]ing original. And who's gonna give me a loan, jackhole? You? You got an ATM on that torso LiteBrite?" |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 08/28/2010 : 11:20:39 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
I think Christopher Kaiser deserves the immortality of recognition with a Darwin Award.
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Certainly, and I'm sure he's already been nominated. If he hasn't had the the opportunity to sucessfully breed, then the gene pool is now slightly less diverse, but the better off for it.
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"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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| Edited by - filthy on 08/28/2010 11:23:46 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2010 : 11:49:21 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Fripp
I'm not expecting a logical, rational answer, but why does a train -an inanimate object- become a ghost? I thought ghosts came from the spirits/souls of living beings, that they hadn't "crossed over" yet (whatever the heck that means). Just thinking out loud...
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When dealing with the woo among us, historical and modern, one must be open-minded. Or not.... 
With these folks, anything is possible.
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"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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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2010 : 12:57:23 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Fripp
I'm not expecting a logical, rational answer, but why does a train -an inanimate object- become a ghost? I thought ghosts came from the spirits/souls of living beings, that they hadn't "crossed over" yet (whatever the heck that means). Just thinking out loud...
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Not everyone thinks ghosts are spirits. I've heard some put forth the idea that ghosts are psychic impressions that replay like a looping recording. Ghosts are no more conscious than actors on a movie screen. The idea is that if some event or tragedy is sufficiently traumatic, that can "scar" reality. The environment "remembers" what transpired. Psychics or sometimes ordinary individuals can feel and pick up on that event, like hearing an echo from the past. A ghost sighting, then, is more like a temporary window into the past. This line of thinking supposedly provides a better explanation for things like ghost ships and ghost trains, even though as a skeptic I find it fatally flawed in its own ways.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Fripp
SFN Regular
USA
727 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2010 : 13:59:59 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Not everyone thinks ghosts are spirits. I've heard some put forth the idea that ghosts are psychic impressions that replay like a looping recording. Ghosts are no more conscious than actors on a movie screen. The idea is that if some event or tragedy is sufficiently traumatic, that can "scar" reality. The environment "remembers" what transpired. Psychics or sometimes ordinary individuals can feel and pick up on that event, like hearing an echo from the past. A ghost sighting, then, is more like a temporary window into the past. This line of thinking supposedly provides a better explanation for things like ghost ships and ghost trains, even though as a skeptic I find it fatally flawed in its own ways.
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Wow, that's quite a stretch. I'm not asking you to speak for them, but it appears that "sufficiently traumatic" is a pretty fluid determinant. Take 9/11 for example. I'm not hearing any examples of "ghost Twin Towers" looping over and over again.
This is a can of worms I probably shouldn't have opened. |
"What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought my Dark Lord of the Sith could protect a small thermal exhaust port that's only 2-meters wide! That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet! You have any idea what this is going to do to my credit?!?!"
"What? Oh, oh, 'just rebuild it'? Oh, real [bleep]ing original. And who's gonna give me a loan, jackhole? You? You got an ATM on that torso LiteBrite?" |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 08/28/2010 : 16:01:35 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Fripp
Wow, that's quite a stretch. I'm not asking you to speak for them, but it appears that "sufficiently traumatic" is a pretty fluid determinant. Take 9/11 for example. I'm not hearing any examples of "ghost Twin Towers" looping over and over again.
This is a can of worms I probably shouldn't have opened.
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Skeptic's Dictionary talks a little bit about the idea. They quote Maurice Townsend, co-editor of The Paranormal Investigator's Handbook:| One of the least contentious kinds of ghost, seemingly, is the ‘recording' type. We all know cases where the same kind of phenomena recur at the same places time after time. Some people have hypothesised that the phenomenon is, in fact, a real recording of a past event, somehow imprinted onto the local surroundings. Attractive as the idea is, no one has yet demonstrated any convincing physical mechanism or medium for this recording. |
Some people refer to this environmental imprinting as morphic resonance.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 08/28/2010 17:31:35 |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2010 : 04:38:17 [Permalink]
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| Well if you are gonna complain about ghost trains, perhaps you had better start with ghost clothes!?! |
"...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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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2010 : 05:16:35 [Permalink]
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| What I have learned from watching Ghost Hunters is that having limestone in the area is the best thing for the "recording" type ghosts to occur. |
Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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Robb
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2010 : 08:52:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Choo-choo woo-woo can be hazardous to your health. This from CNN.com:'Ghost train' hunter killed by train in North Carolina
By Phil Gast, CNN
August 28, 2010 9:22 a.m. EDT
Christopher Kaiser was looking for a legendary "ghost train" on
this bridge when he was struck by a real train, authorities say.
(CNN) -- The facts: On August 27, 1891, a passenger train jumped the tracks on a tall bridge near Statesville, North Carolina, sending seven rail cars below and about 30 people to their deaths.
The legend: On the wreck's anniversary, the sounds of screeching wheels, screaming passengers and a horrific crash might still be heard. You might also see a uniformed man with a gold watch.
Shortly before 3 a.m. Friday, on the 119th anniversary of the Bostian Bridge train tragedy and at about the same time, between 10 and 12 ghost hunters were on that approximately 300-foot long span.
They were hoping to hear the sounds of the crash, and perhaps see something.
Instead, a real Norfolk-Southern train -- three engines and one car -- turned the corner as it headed east to Statesville, about 35 miles north of Charlotte, authorities said.
The terrified "amateur ghost watchers" ran away, back toward Statesville, trying to cover the nearly 150 feet to safety, said Iredell County Sheriff's Office Capt. Darren Campbell.
All but two made it.
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Wouldn't you try to get some train schedules before you went out on the bridge?
http://www.pacerfarm.org/cgi-bin/scb01.cgi?opr=NS |
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2010 : 09:47:46 [Permalink]
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| Good question there, Robb. Could it be that people who believe in ghost trains are the kind of people who neglect or forget vital basic details like that? The kind of people who might die of asphyxiation by neglecting to breathe, if respiration was not mainly an autonomic function? |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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'Ghost train' hunter killed by real train
