Mobile Madness

I was filling the car with petrol today when my mobile phone rang. This is actually a rare event for me. My mobile phone can go for weeks without being used once. It's basically there for emergencies only.

I figured this was a fairly important call so with one hand on the pump, I answered the phone. This prompted other motorists to call out at me and point to the signs indicating that mobile phones were not to be used at the pumps.

Yes, believe it or not, in Australia the oil companies have been fooled by the internet hoax and have put up "no mobile phone" signs at petrol stations across the nation. We have all heard the story that fires in petrol stations have been started by mobile phones. But where?

This is where the problem arises. There have been several groups that have investigated this urban legend such as Australia's ABC television, Discovery Channel Myth Busters and the internet based SNOPES.

So, what do you do in this situation? I just smiled and waved at the people and continued my phone call. When I got inside to pay for the fuel, the following conversation took place.

Register Attendant (RA): "Don't you realise how dangerous it is to be on the phone when filling up your car?"

Me: Why? What's so dangerous about it?

AR: "It could create a spark and make the petrol vapours explode in flames"

Me: "That's an old internet hoax. It has been researched through fire brigade and police records all over the world and there has not been one confirmed report of a mobile phone starting a fire."

AR: "You're kidding!"

Me: "I kid you not. It's a hoax, it's been investigated and no records of any fire exist. Give me your e-mail address and I will send you a copy of the details."

There have been newspaper reports that blame mobile phones for a petrol station fires, but the investigations later clear the phone as the ignition source.

Mobile phones and petrol stations do mix. So next time you're at the petrol pump and your mobile phone starts ringing, don't panic. It is safe to answer the call.

No news today

This blog has been left feeling a bit abandoned of late.

Most of the paranoid psychos, looneys and fruit loops I am usually in contact with have been discussing health issues, so my blogs have been showing up at my fighting scam blog.

But, never fear. I have been reading some articles that teach how to do the swindle that made Jonathan Edwards famous, cold reading.

With some practice and a gullible audience, it seems like something that most people could learn. If you've got the gift of the gab and know the tricks of the trade, there are millions of gullible people out there just waiting to swindle you out of your money.

Some of those tricks will be presented here in the future. At the moment, I'm concentrating on the deceptions and half-truths that are being perpetrated in the world of health fraud.

Horoscopes

I recall years ago, when I was back in high school, talking to some friends about astrology and the daily horoscope.

There was a new service where you could ring and get a full astrological report based on your date of birth. This caused some excitement among a few who believed that astrology was useful. My view that astrology was fake was met with derision.

When I mentioned how broad and inaccurate the newspaper horoscopes were, they replied that they had to be broad as they were trying to provide something that would apply to a wide range of people that cover an entire month. In those circumstances, there were bound to be some people who had slightly different experiences to what was printed.

Another friend who was sceptical as well suggested that we test this new astrology service. There were several suggestions including asking for reports of different dates of birth and seeing if any was duplicated. The believers thought that this might work.

In the end we decided to ask for reports weeks apart using the one date of birth. That was all that was required as the two reports, based on the identical date of birth, were totally different. You may expect some differences as the timing was 2-3 weeks apart, but the longer-term predictions were not even close to each other in many cases.

So what happened to the views of the true believers? They still believe that your future can be read in the stars, but the service we tried was not very good. We just need to find a more reliable and accurate service.

You can search all you like, but you will not find the answer to your future revealed by the random placement of distant stars.

When I get the time to get the research together, I will provide details of when each constellation appears in the sky and compare that with the time of year that is supposed to correspond with the constellation. Over time they have changed so that a Pisces is not necessarily the dominant constellation during March.

Chemtrails - It's a contrail or cloud, you idiot!

Just as I was arriving home with my son after school, he pointed up into the sky and asked me what that strange cloud was.

What he had spotted was a bright white cloud that appeared to be moving away from us, with the trailing section slowly fading. I responded that it was an aeroplane flying through very cold, wet air. The following question/answer discussion took place.

Q. Would an aeroplane engine be hot or cold.
A. Hot.

Q. What happens to water when you make it really hot.
A. It turns into clouds.

While the answers may not be totally scientifically correct, the basic theory is. If a 6 year old can understand where a contrail comes from, why do so many adults see non-existent conspiracies?

I made sure that we came back outside to have a look at the same cloud later to see what effect time and the wind had had on it. Well what do you know? It looks exactly like one of those "chemtrails" that we hear so much about.

I'm just annoyed that I forgot to take a photo of it. I'll try to do that next time.

A six year old can put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4.

A consiracy theorist puts 2 and 2 together and can't tell you the answer because knowing the truth could endanger your life as the government and those who control it continue to hide the truth in their unending secret plan, that only true conspiracy researchers have managed to uncover through de-coding some of their secret documents that they are trying to hide from the general public for fear that they may be exposed as the being under the control of multinational companies who are in turn controlled by a few ruthless individuals who effectively control the whole of the worlds supply of oil, money and food, whom are more interested in blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure you get the picture.

Irradiation Misinformation

Yesterday, a politician released a statement saying that if elected, he would campaign to stop food from being irradiated as the process removes up to 80% of vitamins, leaving the food with virtually no nutritional value. He is campaigning to get organic food accepted as standard for cleaner and greener Australia.

I couldn't resist and e-mailed him. I asked him if he was also going to campaign to stop vegetables from being boiled. If you boil a vegetable for several hours, changing the water regularly, you can also leech 80% of the vitamins out of the food.

However, no-one would actually do this to their food. It's only in a laboratory where someone would attempt to remove so much of the vitamin content. The same is true of irradiation. It CAN remove up to 80% of vitamins, but that's something that would only happen in a laboratory.

Research scientists test different methods and then advise food processors which method provides the best result. The commercial practice for iceberg lettuce has shown to have virtually no difference in vitamin content between irradiated and non-irradiated varieties. Some fruits have actually been shown to hold vitamin content longer after irradiation than non-irradiated food.

The food freaks have gotten to this politician and convinced him through the usual bogus pseudo-science tricks they employ. Yes irradiation CAN leech out the vitamins, but the irradiated food that reaches the supermarket shelves still has the vitamins in it. The food that has been leeched of vitamins are in the garbage bin outside the laboratory door.

"There is only one truth. How we interpret that truth is called belief."
"The presence of belief, does not indicate the existence of truth."

Dodgy Insurance Statistics

One of the insurance companies in Australia constantly advsertises that a survey showed over 99% of customers who had made a claim would recommend them to others.

What is surprising to me, is that they could not score 100%. Having spent several years in the insurance industry in the past, I can tell you exactly what happens when you don't pay a claim. The customer finds another insurance company.

The survey would have come up with more meaningful results if they had selected a random group of policy numbers from 2-5 years ago, where claims had been made (not just the ones that were paid, but all claims) and then asked all of them if they were happy with the service.

This would then include those who had claims refused, were not happy with the service and have left to find alternate insurers.

In reality the advertisements should read something like "If you exclude those who were so pissed off with our claims system that they are no longer customers, 99% would recommend us to a friend."

Somehow, I can't really see that getting any time on air.

Proof again that there are 3 types of lies. Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.

"There is only one truth. How we interpret that truth is called belief."
"The presence of belief, does not indicate the existence of truth."

Psychics fail $2 Million dollar challenge

An Australian television game show, Deal or no Deal, had a $2 million dollar psychic challenge tonight. 26 psychics were asked a series of 5 quiz questions. The psychic with the most correct answers in the shortest time then becomes the contestant, with the chance to win up to $2 million in prize money.

There are 26 sealed briefcases, each with an amount written inside, from 50 cents to $2,000,000. Feeling the energy forces (Reiki) from the briefcase, holding a scarf that had been in contact with the $2,000,000 briefcase, holding a crystal, which she had asked her dead ancestors to infuse with elemental forces and receiving instructions from her spirit guides, she chose briefcase number 19. The remaining 25 sealed briefcases are then distributed to the other 25 contestants.

Jacqueline then started nominating briefcases to have their contents revealed. The psychic with the nominated briefcase would then guess what amount they thought was inside, winning $1,000 if they were correct. At set intervals, Jacqueline is offered the chance to keep what’s in her chosen briefcase, or to take a cash offer and leave the show. The amount offered to leave varies depending on what amounts are revealed in the other briefcases.

The perfect game would be to choose the smallest amounts first starting from $0.50, then $1, $2 etc, leaving the big prizes, $250,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000 for last, assuming that you chose the $2,000,000 briefcase at the start.

So what did tonight’s show reveal?

The perfect game would start with the smallest amounts being revealed. The first guess held the fourth largest amount and the second the sixth largest. This is not exactly a promising start.

The first offer to take the money and run was refused. The second, higher offer was also refused. When the $2,000,000 was revealed, the offer amount fell. Jacqueline was still confident, because she was getting strong vibes that she had a substantial amount. The next set of briefcases uncovered the $1,000,000 briefcase, with the next offer lower again. This offer was taken up. While no more offers could be made, they do show what the offer would have been if the contestant continued. Each of the subsequent offers was higher than the one Jacqueline accepted.

At the end of the night, we find that Jacqueline’s substantial amount was 50 cents. Maybe Jacqueline should get some new spirit guides. The strong vibes of the substantial amount were coming from the briefcase with the smallest amount available.

The individual psychics who were trying to guess what was in their briefcases were just as unimpressive with only four correct guesses. One of the correct guesses was laughable, with the psychic first guessing an amount that had already been revealed, secondly guessing an amount that was not even available, before the third guess ended up being correct. It was fairly obvious that the psychic had no idea. Even with this guess included, the psychics only managed marginally better than the regular non-psychics that appear on each show.

As more briefcases had their contents revealed, the chances of a correct guess became easier. 15 of the last 16 psychics guessed the incorrect amount. The only one who did manage a correct answer was the last contestant who had a 50/50 chance, as there were only two amounts yet to be revealed.

Being familiar with this type of fraud, I was not surprised when Jacqueline and any other psychic asked, supported every decision by other psychics. To contradict another psychic is to suggest that they can be wrong, which in turn, may suggest that you could be wrong.

While not a regular viewer of this program, it was worth the effort to show that the psychics, once again have had their skills tested and have been found wanting.

Remember, psychics, mediums, clairvoyants, shamans and other people claiming to be able to tell the future, contact dead people, or manipulate the energy forces of the body are simply manipulating you into paying them for a pack of lies.

If there are any psychics out there who think that their ability is better than those on deal or no deal, then there is $100,000 in cash available from the Australian Skeptics, if you can prove it. Application details are at http://www.skeptics.com.au/features/challenge.htm

For the chance to walk away with US$1,000,000 the James Randi Educational Foundation also offers a cash reward for proof of psychic ability. Details from http://www.randi.org/research/index.html


“There is only one truth. How we interpret that truth is called belief”