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12:31 am
June 1, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Richard Wiseman is conducting Twitter's first scientific study on "Remote Viewing." And…he needs you!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17219-twitters-first-scientific-study-needs-you.html
There will be a warm-up session starting this Tuesday.
For a skeptical look at remote viewing:
http://www.skepdic.com/remotevw.html
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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7:10 am
June 1, 2009
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Mary
| | Pondering what you're pondering | |
| Investigator | posts 147 |
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Reading the Topic Line, I thought, "Recreational Vehical study? Well, that sounds like something I could do. Volunteer to drive an RV cross country and give my opinion on absolutely everything!"
Then I clicked on the subject, and saw, "Remote Viewing", and thought, "Darn. I do that already when I'm watching TV with that little black remote thingy with buttons."
Then I clicked on the links, and thought, "Ah, ha! It's none of the above! It's the Government, spying on us!"
Then I read the article. One should never jump to conclusions. 
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"Quando omni flunkus moritati" ("When all else fails, play dead") – Possum Lodge motto. Jason and Grant should adopt it as their own.
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7:40 am
June 1, 2009
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Hannah
| | Texas | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 361 |
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Mary said:
Then I read the article. One should never jump to conclusions.
Mary, I thought Wiseman had a haunted RV.  Now I will go and read the links. Revenant finds the most interesting things when he is not hopelessly locked in his fear cage.
Edit: Now I have got NS on my twitter list. I guessed Big Ben clock for the trial test today, only on the basis that is the first thing that popped into my head.
I had to give myself the lowest rating. . .he has a stream in a wooded area.
http://twitter.com/newscientist
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12:21 pm
June 1, 2009
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Mary
| | Pondering what you're pondering | |
| Investigator | posts 147 |
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The government spent millions of taxpayer dollars studying this 'talent'? :O And they STILL can't locate Bin Laden?
*I see a cave. And sand. Lots of sand. Plus shoulder rockets, machine guns, and turbans. Can I have my share of those tax dollars now?*
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"Quando omni flunkus moritati" ("When all else fails, play dead") – Possum Lodge motto. Jason and Grant should adopt it as their own.
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1:33 pm
June 1, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Hannah said:
Mary, I thought Wiseman had a haunted RV. 
I never said that he didn't. 
To choose his sites, he's using this:
http://www.random.org/
So if you're looking for a little numerical randomness in your lives…you're now covered.
Mary, I'm right there with you because I'm a bit…underwhelmed by Remote Viewing as well. Yet, if Wiseman wants to study it, then cool. Knock yourself out, I say. No problem with people viewing the psychic phenomenon in a….somewhat scientific fashion. I only say "somewhat" because I'm not quite clear how on this Twitter study is going to show valid results. Maybe after the test is done, I can review his data by envisioning it from my room. Wait…that…would prove…never mind.
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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2:27 pm
June 14, 2009
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Update- The test is over and the results are in:
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/twitter-experiment-results/
So…I'm still unclear if we learned anything that we already didn't know. Thoughts?
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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5:00 pm
June 14, 2009
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alicat
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| Lead Investigator | posts 1215 |
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Revenant,
I think it's clear that we already knew what the outcome would be and that there is a possibility he has a haunted RV, right?
Mary and Hannah,
For some reason I missed all your comments and I have to say they made my Sunday night. You two consistently make me laugh. Thanks.
Again, Revenant,
Thanks for posting this in the forum. As Hannah has said, you do post interesting forum threads. I loved this one.
Mary, Hannah and Oubliette,
Maybe we should do an RV trip cross country. It might not be scientific but I can drive down and pick up Oubliette if she wants and meet you half way. We can make it up as we go. Since there are no more rabbit ears and I doubt we can get a satellite tv, remote controls wouldn't be needed. Just a place to charge the laptop batteries! We can swing by and pick up Hannah on the way. It could be a girl's only trip! All aboard!
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8:54 pm
June 14, 2009
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phillyk48
| | Indiana | |
| Investigator | posts 81 |
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@Alicat HEY!! Dont forget to stop in Indiana and pick me up on the way! I'll also bring my 3 kittys…maybe they'll find us something paranormal. 
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If your cat's speaking Latin, you might have a problem
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11:42 pm
June 14, 2009
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Stephen
| | San Jose, CA | |
| Admin
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I learned that Wiseman spells "skeptic" with two Cs.
OK, that's the proper British spelling. But that's the major thing that I learned.
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Stephen the Friendly Skeptic
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6:23 am
June 15, 2009
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Oubliette
| | Igloo in NJ | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 574 |
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I'm ready to go..all in the name of science of course! Who knows what might come of our journey. Hey, we can film a pilot for a TV show and see if any channel would bite. We can make a lot of money and then buy an inn somewhere in NH and claim it's haunted and…whoops, getting off topic here.
Wiseman is a guy who always makes me laugh. He is probably one of the most interesting research scientists out there and his specialty are the quirky ways our brains work (hence his book, Quickology).
The results, as Revenant stated, were as could be expected. However, I was surprised to learn that Prof. Wiseman feels there is some validity to the concept:
""I agree that by the standards of any other area of science that remote viewing is proven, but begs the question: do we need higher standards of evidence when we study the paranormal? I think we do. (…) if I said that a UFO had just landed, you'd probably want a lot more evidence. Because remote viewing is such an outlandish claim that will revolutionize [sic] the world, we need overwhelming evidence before we draw any conclusions. Right now we don't have that evidence." Richard Wiseman Daily Mail, January 28, 2008, pp 28-2"
In other words, the famous statement "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence" is something I think most of here would agree on.
What intrigued me about Wiseman's use of twitter is that hopefully it will stimulate more intelligent exchanges of ideas as opposed to the ho-hum "Just came back from taking the dog for a walk" or "grilling pork chops with the twins ;) sort of babble. It would be nice for people interested in topics such as RV to get together and actively set up and report on different experiments of their own. A more intellectual twitter, if you will.
I for one would love for Wiseman to perform a similar experiment like the one he did in Edinburgh, but at a different location. It would be interesting to compare the results to those obtained at the Vaults, which also intrigued him. Something like this would go far more towards indicating if a place is haunted in the general use of the term and/or if people are more susceptible to certain stimuli in particular environment. He felt, for instance, that something about the dimensions of the caves were affecting volunteers psychologically. Harder to explain was the fact that one participant saw the same apparition that has been frequently reported by tourists.
Wiseman is a true skeptic but keeps himself open to the possibility that there are things that exist which remain beyond our current understanding. That is why this type of test is so typical of him and his own quirky (and very interesting) approach to investigating how our brains really operate.
Many thanks to Revenant for the initial post and of course the follow-ups by the great bunch of folks we have here on SV.
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If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France
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7:12 am
June 15, 2009
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Mary
| | Pondering what you're pondering | |
| Investigator | posts 147 |
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alicat said:
Mary, Hannah and Oubliette,
Maybe we should do an RV trip cross country. It might not be scientific but I can drive down and pick up Oubliette if she wants and meet you half way. We can make it up as we go. Since there are no more rabbit ears and I doubt we can get a satellite tv, remote controls wouldn't be needed. Just a place to charge the laptop batteries! We can swing by and pick up Hannah on the way. It could be a girl's only trip! All aboard!
If we make it up as we go, perhaps SCIFI will pick up our expenses, and put us on a TV show! *face excited*
If phillyk48 gets to bring her kitty cats, I get to bring my 95 lb German Shepherd. She's a real sweetheart, but she's kind of afraid of cats. LOL! http://www.sjtoday.org/site/views/photos-by-pat-moody.html
(middle row, fifth picture down in Reindog Parade photos)
Can we stop at Carhenge? http://www.carhenge.com/
What about Wall Drug? http://www.walldrug.com/
And I've already found a list of sites we can 'investigate', too! http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/roadside-paranormal.htm
This could be a LOT of fun.
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"Quando omni flunkus moritati" ("When all else fails, play dead") – Possum Lodge motto. Jason and Grant should adopt it as their own.
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7:28 am
June 15, 2009
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blinddog
| | Special Agent Zombie Elimination Agency | |
| Moderator
| posts 857 |
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Double tap to the head. Don't become Undead.
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7:44 am
June 15, 2009
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Mary
| | Pondering what you're pondering | |
| Investigator | posts 147 |
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I'm WAY too old to be considered a girl. How about "Red Hat Ladies Investigating the Unexplained"?
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"Quando omni flunkus moritati" ("When all else fails, play dead") – Possum Lodge motto. Jason and Grant should adopt it as their own.
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7:51 am
June 15, 2009
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Hannah
| | Texas | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 361 |
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I will go. . .have not finished unpacking from last trip I took. Let me run a couple of loads of laundry.
I like philly48's and Mary's ideas for bringing their pets, I will bring Scooter the cat who thinks everyone in the whole wide world is his friend and has the scars to prove it! Alicat & Oubliette, who are you bringing? Does the RV include a margarita machine? Oops, if we have a margarita machine who is driving the RV?
Gotta have a catchy title for this show. The SV-RV Girls Dangerously Skeptical Ladies
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7:57 am
June 15, 2009
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Hannah
| | Texas | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 361 |
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Mary said:
I'm WAY too old to be considered a girl. How about "Red Hat Ladies Investigating the Unexplained"?
Good title. . .apparently you and I were posting at same time. I think the term "girl" for me would be stretching the truth quite a bit.
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8:48 am
June 15, 2009
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blinddog
| | Special Agent Zombie Elimination Agency | |
| Moderator
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Ya'll need some travelin' music.
Maybe The Stones version of 'Route 66'.
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Double tap to the head. Don't become Undead.
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9:20 am
June 15, 2009
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alicat
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| Lead Investigator | posts 1215 |
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Wow! You are all fantastic. Is this what happens when I shut down the computer, go out for margueritas and then get up late? (Great margueritas by the way! ) I have to bring Lucinda (my 16 yr. old cat) because she's only been away from the house for one night and she is extremely shy so you won't notice her at all. I also have to bring my greyhound. http://www.greyhoundfriendsnj.org/info/display?PageID=3875 She's the one with her bum towards the camera trying on the coat for a woman in the 11th picture (her grey was the same size but was not in attendance). The best one is the last picture of her looking holidayish.
Sorry phillyk48, didn't mean to leave you out. Mary, your german shepherd would be welcome and we could definitiely need the security. I know he's scared of cats but he'll probably find Lucinda and they can be best buds hiding together. Hannah, I think Scooter would make a great addition. I would love for Oubliette to bring Cookie.
Hmmm……. I'll volunteer to drive. I love it. A marguerita machine? Sounds like a good idea. I promise I'll be good. No drinking and driving for me.
Mary, great links. We already have a number of places to visit.
Blinddog, thanks as well. Gives us a few ideas. I've never seen that show and I know you've spoken about it a few times. What channel carries it in your area? Now let's not poach off other shows ladies!
Hannah, loved the title. We should determine a signature look to match it.
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9:42 am
June 15, 2009
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Mary
| | Pondering what you're pondering | |
| Investigator | posts 147 |
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We'll still need to find a haunted RV that SCIFI can purchase for us. Or could we just buy a regular one (it'd have to be really big to handle all these dogs and cats that are coming along on our cross-country investigations) and just claim it's haunted after we buy it?
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"Quando omni flunkus moritati" ("When all else fails, play dead") – Possum Lodge motto. Jason and Grant should adopt it as their own.
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9:42 am
June 15, 2009
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Hannah
| | Texas | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 361 |
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alicat said:
Wow! You are all fantastic. Is this what happens when I shut down the computer, go out for margueritas and then get up late? (Great margueritas by the way! ) I have to bring Lucinda (my 16 yr. old cat) because she's only been away from the house for one night and she is extremely shy so you won't notice her at all. I also have to bring my greyhound. http://www.greyhoundfriendsnj.org/info/display?PageID=3875 She's the one with her bum towards the camera trying on the coat for a woman in the 11th picture (her grey was the same size but was not in attendance). The best one is the last picture of her looking holidayish.
Sorry phillyk48, didn't mean to leave you out. Mary, your german shepherd would be welcome and we could definitiely need the security. I know he's scared of cats but he'll probably find Lucinda and they can be best buds hiding together.  Hannah, I think Scooter would make a great addition. I would love for Oubliette to bring Cookie.
Hmmm……. I'll volunteer to drive. I love it. A marguerita machine? Sounds like a good idea. I promise I'll be good. No drinking and driving for me.
Mary, great links. We already have a number of places to visit.
Blinddog, thanks as well. Gives us a few ideas. I've never seen that show and I know you've spoken about it a few times. What channel carries it in your area? Now let's not poach off other shows ladies!
Hannah, loved the title. We should determine a signature look to match it.
Guess we will all have to learn to Twitter. Maybe we can include a couple of the guys as guest skeptics.
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