Looking for Skeptics

[chillzero]

You missed one - which paper (or which member of the press) did you talk to?

 

[SusanB-M1]

Just posting to join thread again. (I've never worked out what to do to subscribe without posting.)

 

[Donn]

my late Father IS R.I.P

Tracy, I have some bad news for you. Without being flippant I want you to know that your father is dead. He's not resting, in peace or anything else.

Dead. Gone. Absent forever. There is no active or passive remaining of him lurking about in this or any other place -- aside your precious, but flawed, memories.

Take this fact and face it. Then reassess your situation.





(I had to resist the parrot...)

 

[Donn]

I wouldn't have lost anything, just charity wouldn't have gained. The gent gave me the full info after the clock started ticking. You may find this fair but I don't. I called the press earlier to ask how many readers they have and it's not 100,000 readers so I can't actually accept the offer.

The original bet is good enough. Show LL wrong about the interview with members of your family. The mere name of the reporter (and their paper/blog/school rag) will suffice.

 

[Drewbot]

Has anyone discussed the following possibilities?

A. Trolling for Skeptics
B. Psychotic episodes

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Impressive.. I'm really not here to impress, I wish it wasn't true.

If you don't want us to be convinced by what you claim, why did you bother to tell us?

Yes it can be authenticated, I received the recording through yahoo mail on the 16th Jan 2014.

My point was that the message was not received before the statue was struck and damaged. That appears to have happened on 16th January too.

I don't quite follow what you mean about Yahoo mail. Are you saying that some unnamed person emailed you an audio or video file on 16th January, and when you listened to it, you thought you heard a spirit message about the statue on that recording?

If that's what you mean, then I'm afraid that's less convincing still. From previous experience I'm confident we would find that nobody else could hear the message you think you heard. So what you might be able to authenticate is that you received a file on the 16th.

Can you show that you heard the message before you heard the news about the statue being damaged? For example, did you email the sender back, telling them what you heard in their recording?

 

[Alice Shortcake]

Is there any chance of flaccon revealing "the great secret of life", as told to her by the spirits? It seems rather selfish to be in possession of such knowledge but not share it with the rest of the world.

 

[Donn]

Has anyone discussed the following possibilities?

A. Trolling for Skeptics
B. Psychotic episodes

Oh yeah.

 

[pakeha]

Has anyone discussed the following possibilities?

A. Trolling for Skeptics
B. Psychotic episodes

Yes, those points occasionally turn up in the thread.

In another line of threads there's a poster I'm convinced is either
A. A bot
B. The Amazing One amusing himself when in a black mood.

Is there any chance of flaccon revealing "the great secret of life", as told to her by the spirits? It seems rather selfish to be in possession of such knowledge but not share it with the rest of the world.

I thought that was covered earlier, Alice Shortcake:
Kill the cats before they give us cancer.

 

[Mojo]

Impressive.. I'm really not here to impress, I wish it wasn't true. Yes it can be authenticated, I received the recording through yahoo mail on the 16th Jan 2014.

How about this: next time you get one of these "messages" post it here when you receive it. No problems with "authentication" then.

 

[Mojo]

Is there any chance of flaccon revealing "the great secret of life", as told to her by the spirits? It seems rather selfish to be in possession of such knowledge but not share it with the rest of the world.

We had an answer to this: although flaccon claims that the spirits communicate with her in clear sentences and have explained "the great mystery of life", she says that she is "not literate enough to find the words required" to tell anyone else what it is.

 

[tonyyouens]

ASKE

Dear all,

Maybe I can clear up a few points although this thread seems all over the place.

I'm one of the founding members of ASKE (Association for Skeptical Enquiry). We are a small organisation in the UK that is affiliated to ECSO and therefore we conduct preliminary tests for the Sisyphus Prize. I wouldn't describe us as "paranormal investigators". In the distant past I have worked with Randi himself and once designed a preliminary test for a $1 million claimant. You can probably guess the outcome.

We have been approached regarding this challenge a while back and I conducted an informal test which proved negative. Personally I have found the claim itself to be confusing and so another member is going to see what I suppose is a live demonstration. Once we are clear about what is being claimed and that results can be objectively measured we will look to conduct a more controlled test as a preliminary to the Sisyphus Challenge.

I believe the claimant has been in touch with a reporter but to what degree they are involved I have no idea. I didn't know, until today, that this was being discussed on this forum.

Hope this helps a bit. I don't want to say any more at this stage or prejudice the outcome.

Best wishes to all,

Tony Youens for ASKE.

 

[turingtest]

Is there any chance of flaccon revealing "the great secret of life", as told to her by the spirits? It seems rather selfish to be in possession of such knowledge but not share it with the rest of the world.

What? "You think your breath is complicated" didn't tell you everything you need to know (or anything at all) about life? Maybe he should have just stuck to "42. That's all I'm going to say on the subject, Flaccon."

 

[Pixel42]

Dear all,

Maybe I can clear up a few points although this thread seems all over the place.

I'm one of the founding members of ASKE (Association for Skeptical Enquiry). We are a small organisation in the UK that is affiliated to ECSO and therefore we conduct preliminary tests for the Sisyphus Prize. I wouldn't describe us as "paranormal investigators". In the distant past I have worked with Randi himself and once designed a preliminary test for a $1 million claimant. You can probably guess the outcome.

We have been approached regarding this challenge a while back and I conducted an informal test which proved negative. Personally I have found the claim itself to be confusing and so another member is going to see what I suppose is a live demonstration. Once we are clear about what is being claimed and that results can be objectively measured we will look to conduct a more controlled test as a preliminary to the Sisyphus Challenge.

I believe the claimant has been in touch with a reporter but to what degree they are involved I have no idea. I didn't know, until today, that this was being discussed on this forum.

Hope this helps a bit. I don't want to say any more at this stage or prejudice the outcome.

Best wishes to all,

Tony Youens for ASKE.

Thanks for that clarification, I certainly found it helpful.

 

[Biscuit]

It's already concluded something paranormal is afoot, hence investigation with the press covering the night. You want to see who they are up against? Lets try an upload (not been able to upload since some folk scoffed at the earier images)

No it is not. There is zero evidence that anything paranormal is occurring. that said you did not answer my question so I ask again,

If your investigators conclude that nothing paranormal is occurring what will your next step be?

Please answer the actual question.

 

[pakeha]

Dear all,

Maybe I can clear up a few points although this thread seems all over the place.

I'm one of the founding members of ASKE (Association for Skeptical Enquiry). We are a small organisation in the UK that is affiliated to ECSO and therefore we conduct preliminary tests for the Sisyphus Prize. I wouldn't describe us as "paranormal investigators". In the distant past I have worked with Randi himself and once designed a preliminary test for a $1 million claimant. You can probably guess the outcome.

We have been approached regarding this challenge a while back and I conducted an informal test which proved negative. Personally I have found the claim itself to be confusing and so another member is going to see what I suppose is a live demonstration. Once we are clear about what is being claimed and that results can be objectively measured we will look to conduct a more controlled test as a preliminary to the Sisyphus Challenge.

I believe the claimant has been in touch with a reporter but to what degree they are involved I have no idea. I didn't know, until today, that this was being discussed on this forum.

Hope this helps a bit. I don't want to say any more at this stage or prejudice the outcome.

Best wishes to all,

Tony Youens for ASKE.

Thanks for taking the time to post here, Tony Youens.

 

[Alice Shortcake]

I thought that was covered earlier, Alice Shortcake:
Kill the cats before they give us cancer.

I was expecting something more on the lines of "be excellent to each other", only couched in more Biblical/New Agey language. Still, the advice to burn feline orifices had the value of novelty.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Dear all,

Maybe I can clear up a few points although this thread seems all over the place.

I'm one of the founding members of ASKE (Association for Skeptical Enquiry). We are a small organisation in the UK that is affiliated to ECSO and therefore we conduct preliminary tests for the Sisyphus Prize. I wouldn't describe us as "paranormal investigators". In the distant past I have worked with Randi himself and once designed a preliminary test for a $1 million claimant. You can probably guess the outcome.

We have been approached regarding this challenge a while back and I conducted an informal test which proved negative. Personally I have found the claim itself to be confusing and so another member is going to see what I suppose is a live demonstration. Once we are clear about what is being claimed and that results can be objectively measured we will look to conduct a more controlled test as a preliminary to the Sisyphus Challenge.

I believe the claimant has been in touch with a reporter but to what degree they are involved I have no idea. I didn't know, until today, that this was being discussed on this forum.

Hope this helps a bit. I don't want to say any more at this stage or prejudice the outcome.

Best wishes to all,

Tony Youens for ASKE.

Thanks you. I think that this ties in with what most of us thought someone from your organisation would say.

 

[IXP]

I don't know it was just a strange message that I thought was worth a mention to the team. Maybe is isn't so relevant.

I will offer my own $100 bet. I will bet that if we give that recording to an uninvolved person to listen to, who knows nothing about it predicting a lightning strike on a statue in Brazil, that they will not hear anything about a lightning strike on a a statue in Brazil.

Edited: In fact I will up the odds for you. I will pay out if the listener hears any of the words "lightning", "statue" or "Brazil". Of course I am taking a big risk here, because the recording might be of a youtube video reporting on a previous lightning strike, but I don't think I need to worry about that too much.

IXP

 

[Biscuit]

Not much danger of that - paranormal investigators wouldn't last long if they went around not finding the paranormal, now would they?

I recall watching several episodes of ghost hunting shows where the investigators conclude nothing paranormal is occurring despite the claims to the contrary.

In one T.A.P.S. episode they determined that a floating ball of light in a theatre balcony was caused by headlights from cars passing by and not a ghost lady.