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4:26 pm
March 20, 2009
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The Doctor
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| Lead Investigator | posts 488 |
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5:39 pm
March 25, 2009
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alicat
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Well, it's another money making proposition for both parties again. One hand washes the other. Check out the home page of the Edith Wharton website: http://www.edithwharton.org/. If you wish, you too can make a donation as, per the site, "EWR's goal is to raise $40 million to completely restore The Mount and to establish it as a center for recognizing women of achievement."
So, if you have a spare $125, you can help Dustin and Barry raise some of those donations in April. Here's the link from the home Wharton home page. http://idealeventmanage.com/themount.html
If you click on the link Ghost Hunters' visit to The Mount! link on the home page you will see the YouTube video provided by The Doctor above, along with a photo gallery and a history.
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7:03 pm
March 25, 2009
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Nosfer
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So now TAPS has invented the Geophone????? These things have been in use in seismology for over 100 years!!
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8:31 pm
March 25, 2009
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NewbieGhost13
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| Investigator in Training | posts 19 |
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I'm a little confused about hearing footsteps with no (?!) vibration. I think Jay said he could hear footsteps as he had his head to the ground, yet the Geophone picked up no vibrations. Unless I am remembering my physics class incorrectly (and I could be, I'm no expert.), you cannot generate sound without vibration of the floor borads which then must travel towards Jay and Grant and vibrate thier eardrums. In order for my little eardrums to vibrate, whatever is making the sound must be vibrating. So if Jay and Grant are hearing sounds there, then perhaps the sounds really weren't coming from the floor. Anyway you got to have vibration. A tree falling in the woods does indeed make a sound even if you're not there to hear it.
Of course the investigation turned up sounds and the geophones did go off. Well, ghost or not if you hear sound, something is vibrating. Ah, but what is causing the floor to vibrate?
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9:40 pm
March 25, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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I was highly impressed with the "Black Box" EMF detector. What a stroke of genius to remove the bothersome numerical factor that one can easily gauge and record results and replace it with an ambiguous noise.
Brilliant! Brilliant I say! *using my best Scottish, threatrical voice while shaking my finger towards the heavens*
I can't wait for the Black Box Mach II version which features a helium tank. When it detects an EMF a little balloon on the top of it inflates. You can draw a smiley face on it too. That way, the bigger the grin, the bigger the EMF…
Seriously…are they that far away from tinfoil hats now?
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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6:06 am
March 26, 2009
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blinddog
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I was really speechless watching this episode.
Sitting there with jaw open a guest asked me if I was alright.
When J&G were in the bedroom an Jay started getting on his knees my mind was screaming, NO! NO!
Not the ear to the floor again!(shades of Hallum House).
I expected him to set up and say "Four men on horseback and one pack mule, one horse missing shoe".
Steve and Tango, sigh, I'm really beginning to think they are unmedicated bi-polars.
All they needed in the room where they were,whatever it was they were doing, was to have Jay join them as Curly..NUK,NUK,NUK.
Tango dragging his flashlight across the surface of the sheet music stand, I bet the building management loved seeing that happen.
SHEESH. What was he thinking!
Oh, I forgot, Tango suffered intense EMF exposure early in the investigation.
They announced at the beginning of the show that they had new equipment at this investigation.
Oh crap, I moaned, not again.
A black box that buzzes.
WOW, I bet that was mired in R&D a long time.
Geo-phone, Guys, you are in a house that is made of wood, with the Sun shining on it all day, it is night, it is Winter(snow on ground was clue).
The house as it cools is going to snap, crackle and pop like bowl of Rice Krispies.
Thus causing vibrations and noises that may sound like footsteps.
I'm really starting to believe that J&G don't watch the show(remember,"they've lived it").
If they are the least bit concerned about the product they produce they would have not allowed the antics of the Two Stooges(Steve and Tango) to have been aired.
Any type of creditability they may have had was destroyed during that segment.
Each week after the episode airs I think 'That the show can sink no lower'.
Alas, somehow the next week they prove me wrong.
I fully expect a pie fight in the season finale.
NewbieGhost13,
Newton's laws or any facts of science have never… ever deterred GH/GHI during an investigation.
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7:46 am
March 26, 2009
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Oubliette
| | Igloo in NJ | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 574 |
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At least the "new device" wasn't Moon's Telephone to the Dead device. Be grateful for the little things!
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If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France
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8:43 am
March 26, 2009
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Nosfer
| | Rotaredom | |
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@blinddog…that would be "one missing a FLIPFLOP" lol The geophone, despite having been invented over 100 years ago (and then reinvented by the brilliant Britt) is very sensitive and would probably pick up a car coming into the driveway. That's just the way they are!
Why do they go from something that gives a quantitative output to a qualitative "buzz"? Because it sells better. It is also easier to wow people with a sound than calling out numbers, it's all effect. Speaking of effect, what they are doing, in effect, is throwing out data. Suppose EMF IS a means of detecting ghosts. Now instead of knowing what level of EMF might be considered haunting, now we just have a buzzzzzZZZZzzzz sound.
What was Britt saying at the start, something about "now let's just hope the Ghosties come out to play" What happened to going in with the notion that what is there is NORMAL and debunking? They are starting out now HOPING for activity which is completely counter to the premise of TAPS. They've 180ed.
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Legal: The content of this post is copyrighted and is intended exclusively for use on skepticalviewer.com It may not be copied, distributed, or redisplayed on any other site without the express written consent of the author.
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9:00 am
March 26, 2009
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Learjet
| | Australia | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1075 |
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There's a number of EMF meters out there that have meter readings and also an audio buzz, eg the Gauss Master, Trifield meters, Cell sensor and the excellent range of Spectran spectrum analysers. But no, they use something more basic than all of them. Even Barry's EMF listener would have been better.
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10:08 am
March 26, 2009
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StanTheMan
| | Lincoln, RI | |
| Investigator | posts 89 |
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Theres a theory out there ….
Whenever the show opens with the plumbers close to the end of the job getting a call with a camera crew standing by the K2 meter will go crazy when Grant is out of sight, or at least his hand aren't visible.
All new equipment will register hits at least in the first investigation.
All investigation of fee-charging sites will have a lot of personal experiences but little audio or visual evidence.
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1:17 pm
March 26, 2009
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Nosfer
| | Rotaredom | |
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Britt and Amy are hearing things in the attic. They are certain it is someone "real" downstairs. They rush out. Interestingly enough, there is a shot (from the lower floor) of them rushing DOWN the steps to check…obviously the cameraman got down there ahead of them, or was down there to begin with…staged?
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Legal: The content of this post is copyrighted and is intended exclusively for use on skepticalviewer.com It may not be copied, distributed, or redisplayed on any other site without the express written consent of the author.
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1:58 pm
March 26, 2009
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Bobarino
| | Valencia, CA | |
| Investigator | posts 181 |
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Nosfer,
They abandoned their plan of going in to debunk a while back. The first I remember them saying it outright was the OK Corral episode, where Grant says at the beginning "I hope we find a ghost!"
Now I understand them being excited about finding a ghost in an historic location, becoming part of the legend themselves, but come on people!
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I've found that being AWESOME is a full time job…
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5:35 pm
March 26, 2009
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Oubliette
| | Igloo in NJ | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 574 |
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And what about that hand print on the wall? The one made by the Jolly Green Giant's newborn son?
If it was a genuine handprint, I already had an explanation for it. Grant surprised me by bringing it up, but of course, in their new endeavors to find ghosts instead of debunking, he quickly threw it away as an explanation.
I'm talking of the fact that a heat signature of a hand print can last quite a while after someone had touched the wall. It would depend on a lot of factors, including what the wall was made of. Since no one bothered to find out if anyone (esp. a crew member) might have touched the wall with a hand that looked like it could have come from the Hamburger Helper guy, I would not have discarded that explanation as cavalierly as Grant did.
But then, his motives would be entirely different from that of a scientist, to say the least.
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If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France
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7:40 pm
March 26, 2009
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Learjet
| | Australia | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1075 |
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This annoys me. Sorry, EMF rant time.
I notice in the Butler's pantry that Dave Tango finally succumbs to the effects of EMF hypersensitivity with a pounding headache. Or so he says.I would bet he got a visual clue from the little Radioshack plugpack adapter. The wheels in his head start turning and…..
They look around and in a closet find a bunch of electrical boxes and wires. With the EMF meter held almost touching them they get very high readings. Well I should think so! If they didn't it means the power is off!
Now maybe if Dave had his head glued to the boxes where the levels were high, but he says he could feel it from the other side of the room where the levels would be low. EM field strength is relative to proximity and die off rapidly after a few inches from these boxes, as the meter shows.
So Dave, why did you correct Amy last episode with her horse hoof/power tool theory mmm?
This show is so full of baloney I could cure world hunger with it all!
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8:44 am
March 27, 2009
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The Doctor
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| Lead Investigator | posts 488 |
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S & T in the dining room that opens onto the terrace -
Curious that investigators would spend so much time imagining a screaming head appearing in the room.
As they pan around, is that a large photograph on an easel showing a white ghostly figure in the room ? ( wonder why they never mentioned or tried to debunk it ? )
When T is dancing around the table at one point S is by the right hand door, and we hear sounds that seem like S is rapping on the door.
Shortly thereafter S wants to head out but the door "mysteriously" opens on it's own.
They wind up explaining it as the wind, with S saying " I think WE probably didn't secure the doors good enough" .
With those doors, you either turn the handle horizontally and latch them or you don't – there is no "good enough", but at least he seems to admit that "we" did fiddle with it.
Was this another Steve setup ? Did he unlatch and leave the door loose, in the expectation that it might blow open later ? ( he seemed to want to bail out of that room quickly)
They move to the next room or hallway, the wind blows it open and they run back — instant ghost.
BTW, when S is reviewing the dvr's we can see how the wind was blowing outside those windows.
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10:40 am
March 27, 2009
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The Doctor
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| Lead Investigator | posts 488 |
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Butler's Pantry
If Tango was getting a headache from being in the room away from the EMF source where they did not show us any high readings, just how is it possible he could stand being right next to the source, where the readings are perhaps 100 times as high ?
Regardless, since the supposed screams were heard on the other end of the phone, it appears that high EMF could not be a possible cause of the only event described for that area.
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11:28 am
March 28, 2009
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dr_peter_venkman
| | Rochester, NY | |
| Investigator | posts 99 |
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Learjet said:
This annoys me. Sorry, EMF rant time.
Now maybe if Dave had his head glued to the boxes where the levels were high, but he says he could feel it from the other side of the room where the levels would be low. EM field strength is relative to proximity and die off rapidly after a few inches from these boxes, as the meter shows.
It seems like EMF is being blamed for a lot of what their clients experience. It's a convenient, somewhat mysterious scapegoat. I don't know the exact equation(s) but I would bet good money that the strength of the field is exponentially related to the distance. The field may not even be detectable a few feet away. For there to be real merit to the whole "fear cage" thing, it would need to be a mighty small cage.
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Hee hee hee! "Get her!" That was your whole plan, huh, "get her." Very scientific.
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1:06 pm
March 28, 2009
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Stephen
| | San Jose, CA | |
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The story about the publicist who saw a man in a tuxedo asking what all the noise was about made me think. Now, when S&T were rehashing it, they mentioned a new detail: that the man's lips hadn't moved along with the voice. It could be just another game of TAPSaphone, with the details getting scrambled as the story goes from person to person. If it's true, though, then the image she saw and the voice she heard could have been separate. She could have been staring at a distorted version of her own reflection and heard someone else complaining about the noise (not an uncommon thing to happen at rehearsals), put the two together, and assumed that the voice was coming from the image.
EMF does drop off very quickly as you move away from the source– I think it obeys the inverse squared law, though probably Learjet can correct me on that one.
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Stephen the Friendly Skeptic
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4:14 pm
March 28, 2009
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Nosfer
| | Rotaredom | |
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You know…there may need to be a "differences topic" established where these can be discussed in detail in one place. There are enough of them for sure!
I posted a big one about Fort Mifflin where footage was even altered to support Steve's different version.
Then there was the dialog about the candle that I posted in the Oak Alley episode where an entirely different description of the candle's movement is given by Steve compared to what Dee described in the tour.
If the part in this episode about no lip movement during the tour was edited out, why? If it was never mentioned, then why did Steve add it? There are just too many of these to be simply the telephone game, especially when footage is altered. There are incredible differences in detail in some of these that I don't think can be attributed simply to Steve not paying attention.
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