Recent Blog Posts

  • Tools for Ghostbusting

    Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 9:01:54 PM
    by Amanda H.

    Ok, I have no idea if this works, but I found this really cool "EM Meter" for detecting the paranormal! "EM" stands for "electromagnetic", as in field, and apparently everything alive and inanimate gives one off! So these little meters detect very subtle changes in electromagnetic fields, I guess alerting you to the potential presence of stuff you can't see!

    They can detect people right through walls...could be useful if you're avoiding someone ;)

    The website says "Its sensitivity is of interest to researchers in the filed of parapsychology. Every type of detectable physical manifestation requires a certain amount of energy." I've seen these around Rabbit Fall once in a white when things go bump in the night.

    Here's a few other kinds of EM meters that ghosthunters use. Apparently a basic compass is sometimes able to detect otherworldly presences too. Happy ghosthunting!

     

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  • 50-Foot Sea Monster discovered near the North Pole

    Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 2:40:59 PM
    by Randy B

    He's long dead, of course, but "Predator X" - a new species of Pliosaur - has been unearthed by paleontologists about 800 miles from the frozen North Pole.

    With teeth the size of cucumbers in his 10-foot head, Predator X swam the Northern seas 150 million years ago. Remnants of these creatures may have inspired tales of ancient sea monsters among the mariners of yore.

    Here's a video of what the leviathan might have looked like.

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  • Weird stuff on the moon?

    Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 12:39:44 AM
    by Amanda H.

    Take a look at this video of the moon. It's the Copernicus Crater in Mare Insularum, the Sea of Islands. There's something weird in the crater...big square chunks and then some sorthe of weird, white pile of...rocks? There's no ice on the moon, so it can't be that...I don't want to say 'spaceship', here, but...what do you think?

    http://shrinkify.com/o4j

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  • Korean fish...with HUMAN FACES!

    Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 1:04:34 AM
    by Amanda H.

    News of the weird time...these fish were spotted in Korea with human faces! Nose, eyes and lips. The carps' owner, a 64-year-old Korean gentelman, says they've been getting "more and more human for the past couple of years!"

    What's going on here? Are these fish reincarnated spirits—humans returned in fish form?


    Photo by Splash News

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  • Amazing Japanese mummies

    Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 2:50:09 AM
    by Randy B

    This horrifying collection of Japanese mummies - demons, mermaids, water spirits - must have been very convincing in the 18th & 19th century. They're a great example of why you should be skeptical of things that seem supernatural.

    In carnival sideshows called misemono, skilled fishermen turned taxidermy into a gory art form by seamlessly stitching together the corpses of fish, monkeys, and other small animals. On display, the mummies must have seemed like amazing evidence of mythical creatures.

    Photo: Mermaid mummy at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden

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  • Ghostly apparitions in New York!

    Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 12:40:01 AM
    by Amanda H.

    Ghost hunters in Palmyra, NY held a bit of an otherworldly press conference this week, playing recordings of ghostly whispers and faint piano music captured in two local museums. Rob Henning, co-founder and case manager for Scientific Paranormal Investigations of Palmyra, encountered a young girl and a blast of icy wind while ghost hunting in the old buildings.

    The paranormal research team also encountered a black cat, who seemed to vanish after he was spotted.

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  • Atlantis ALMOST discovered by Google

    Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 3:13:09 AM
    by Randy B

    Google's Earth and ocean mapping software appeared to have discovered the mythical land of Atlantis recently, uncovering a very street-like grid on the seabed. That grid's location coincided with one of the potential locations of the legendary naval power.

    Google's comment on the interesting artifacts located at the co-ordinates 31 15'15.53N 24 15'30.53W is a little less intriguing, however. Their Vice President of Rumour Debunking explained in a statement: "It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth, including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an ancient Roman villa. In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data."

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  • I survived… plus I made the paper!

    Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 1:53:10 AM
    by Amanda H.

    Superbugs are no fun! Practically everybody in town was sick, but everything's ok now. They said it was a staph infection. I never want that again!

    I made the paper...no pic, but that's ok because I had a some gross blisters! Not the best day for a close up ;)

    Speaking of outbreaks, check this out...two plague-infected mice are missing from a lab in New Jersey. Yes, the plague! Gulp!

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  • Scams...know what to look out for.

    Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 1:27:18 AM
    by Randy B

    I love Snopes. It's a website that catalogues scams and urban legends, and a great place to go when you get an email warning you not to flash your headlights at cars on the highway, and stuff like that.

    Here's a list of common "poison" legends...some of which are true! Did you know there's enough alcohol in hand sanitizer to give a kid alcohol poisoning?

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  • Weird presence in the forest

    Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 3:54:09 AM
    by Amanda H.

    I don't know if it was a ghost deer or what, but check out this story from Tennessee. Hunter Hodge, a 16-year-old hunter, was alone at the edge of a cornfield one recent morning when some very weird stuff started happening to him. The area is famous for Civil War-era hauntings...so maybe some scary stuff happened in those woods!

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Non-Believer Blog Posts

  • 50-Foot Sea Monster discovered near the North Pole

    Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 2:40:59 PM
    by Randy B

    He's long dead, of course, but "Predator X" - a new species of Pliosaur - has been unearthed by paleontologists about 800 miles from the frozen North Pole.

    With teeth the size of cucumbers in his 10-foot head, Predator X swam the Northern seas 150 million years ago. Remnants of these creatures may have inspired tales of ancient sea monsters among the mariners of yore.

    Here's a video of what the leviathan might have looked like.

    Read more

  • Amazing Japanese mummies

    Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 2:50:09 AM
    by Randy B

    This horrifying collection of Japanese mummies - demons, mermaids, water spirits - must have been very convincing in the 18th & 19th century. They're a great example of why you should be skeptical of things that seem supernatural.

    In carnival sideshows called misemono, skilled fishermen turned taxidermy into a gory art form by seamlessly stitching together the corpses of fish, monkeys, and other small animals. On display, the mummies must have seemed like amazing evidence of mythical creatures.

    Photo: Mermaid mummy at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden

    Read more

  • Atlantis ALMOST discovered by Google

    Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 3:13:09 AM
    by Randy B

    Google's Earth and ocean mapping software appeared to have discovered the mythical land of Atlantis recently, uncovering a very street-like grid on the seabed. That grid's location coincided with one of the potential locations of the legendary naval power.

    Google's comment on the interesting artifacts located at the co-ordinates 31 15'15.53N 24 15'30.53W is a little less intriguing, however. Their Vice President of Rumour Debunking explained in a statement: "It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth, including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an ancient Roman villa. In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data."

    Read more

  • Scams...know what to look out for.

    Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 1:27:18 AM
    by Randy B

    I love Snopes. It's a website that catalogues scams and urban legends, and a great place to go when you get an email warning you not to flash your headlights at cars on the highway, and stuff like that.

    Here's a list of common "poison" legends...some of which are true! Did you know there's enough alcohol in hand sanitizer to give a kid alcohol poisoning?

    Read more

  • Near-death experiences: testing the afterlife

    Monday, December 29, 2008 at 6:38:38 PM
    by Randy B

    Around 15% of cardiac arrest victims are revived. Many report near-death or out-of-body experiences. Is it real? Or just the brain's way of dealing with its imminent demise?

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5324234.ece

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  • Is reincarnation real?

    Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 10:36:32 PM
    by Randy B

    What makes people believe in reincarnation, besides the fear of death? Are past-life memories and flashbacks, or "crypto-amnesia"? ABC News reporter Nick Watt investigates the realm of past-life regression, and uncovers an interesting psychological phenomenon called "confirmation bias".Confirmation bias "is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions and avoids information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs". That means if you want to believe, you'll accept evidence with less critical inspection if it supports what you hope is true.

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  • Drinking Skeptically...social networking for the reasonable!

    Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 3:12:58 AM
    by Randy B

    One heck of a useful resource for the lonesome skeptic: DrinkingSkeptically.org! This website helps reasonable folks to hook up with each other for some down-to-earth beer and skeptical talk. What could be better?

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  • New England Skeptical Society

    Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at 1:46:14 AM
    by Randy B

    It's ok not to believe! The New England Skeptical Society has the best darn skeptic podcast out there, The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe (with over 40,000 listeners, it's also available on iTunes). These doubting Thomases address issues "from the world of the paranormal, fringe science, and controversial claims from a scientific point of view". Put your critical thinking caps on!

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  • Why we believe

    Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at 1:07:00 AM
    by Randy B

    "Belief in the paranormal reflects normal brain activity carried to an extreme."

    From Newsweek: A study reported a few weeks ago in the journal Science found that people asked to recall a time when they felt a loss of control saw more patterns in random noise, perceived more conspiracies in stories they read and imagined illusory correlations in financial markets than people who were not reminded that events are sometimes beyond their control. “In the absence of perceived control, people become susceptible to detecting patterns in an effort to regain some sense of organization,” says psychology researcher Bruce Hood of the University of Bristol, whose book “Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable” explores the mental processes behind belief in the paranormal.

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