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True Story!

My wife played poker the other day. Texas holdem.

She got AA in the hole.

At the river she got her fourth ace!

She got beat by a royal flush.

I’m not making this up.

I saw it happen.

I haven’t introduced a NutCase Of The Week in a long time.

So, one of my most dedicated readers took it upon herself to provide me with some input. (Thanks Deannie, for the links .. you’re now officially a Research Fellow for paulclaessen.com/blog – that means, you can now put RF-CCB behind your name! .. And in case you’re wondering about compensation: it’s an Honorary title!)

The case I’d like to mention here involves not one but TWO Nutcases (yes, that’s with a capital N).

Not only does it involve two of them… they are even married. And it is a sad sad story. Horrifying, in fact.

It’s the short but sad story of Joshua Royce Mauldin and his wife Eva Marie Mauldin.

And their two months old daughter Ana Marie.

And Satan.

What happended? This simple one line quote from the article (link) sums it all up:

Eva Marie Mauldin said Satan compelled her 19-year-old husband, Joshua Royce Mauldin, to microwave their daughter May 10 because the devil disapproved of Joshua’s efforts to become a preacher.

Not sure why I blog about this, because, upon re-reading that sentence, I’m at a loss for words!

Where is the logic? ANYONE who wants to become a preacher KNOWS that Satan isn’t happy about such a career path! So why on earth would a wannabe preacher appease the devil by burning the one child that he loves so much? The horrible case of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children, because she thought they weren’t worthy enough to appear before their Lord Jesus Christ, makes more sense than this! (okay… only slightly more). WHY burn your beloved child to appease a creature that you intend to warn the world about?

Well.. there IS no logic. In fact the husband denied that that’s what happened. While STILL a terribly sad and horrible case, he claims he did it while being totally stressed out. A more believable scenario. How many crying babies have died horrible deaths by the hands of their completely stressed out parents? Unfortunately… many! WAY too many. It SHOULDN’T happen … but it happens. And while WE would never do such a thing and express out disgust … deep down… VERY deep down .. quite a few of us understand how it could have come to that. SOME of us! Not you, of course, and not me… Just a few of us.

So where, then, does the devil come into play? The wife! She has SEEN the loving father. But also witnessed the horrible event. And simply refuses to accept the horrible truth. Cannot face reality. And the mind starts looking for soothing, numbing explanations.. something outside reality. Like so many people do. And then the stories of supernatural beings ALL GOOD or ALL EVIL come to mind. Faith comes to mind. And then there’s that sudden solution to the problem: GOD told me to drown my five children .. SATAN told me to put my child in the microwave.

So, maybe, after all it’s not simply a case of being a nutcase. But more one of out-of-control stress. And pathological denial, fed and nurtured by superstition.

But it remains a sad and disturbing story.

And more disturbing than the story of the lady who put her poodle in the microwave to ‘dry’ if after taking it for a walk in the rain!

Because that’s based on sheer stupidity as where in the “husband’s” case, he may claim stress.. but stress still is no excuse for violence.

And this was an act of violence.

For centuries countless people have searched for the holy grail of physics: The perpetuum mobile: A device that would go on and on forever, without the need for external energy. Or even more interestingly: a device that would actually produce more energy than what is put into it. Wouldn’t that be nice? Free energy!

So far, however, such devices have never been constructed and shown to work as promised.

And there is a very plausible reason for that unfortunate failure: such a device would have to violate one or both of two VERY basic laws of nature. It would either break the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy), the second law of thermodynamics (entropy never decreases) or both.

It’s not my intention to go into the physics side of all this. Nor will I go over the long history of failed attempts. I just like to focus on the latest folks who are making claims of being able to produce free energy.

And I also will make a prediction or two.

The folks I’m referring to is the company Steorn (link), their ‘free (and clean and continuous) energy’ technology is called ‘Orbo’, they are based in Ireland and their spokesman and CEO is Sean McCarthy.

How are these folks different from all those that have claimed the same and failed miserably?

Quite frankly: Not that much.

The only obvious difference I can see, is that these folks seem to be very good at marketing! They have a very professional web site, have some ‘convincing’ (well…) stories to tell, they REALLY seem to be serious about getting ‘name and brand recognition’, are engaging in discussions in forums, engage the scientific community and generally seem very eager to tell everyone in this world about their ‘claim’: their name is all over the Internet.

All of which will probably raise a bunch of red flags and trigger some alarm bells for folks who have been following the ‘free energy’ clubs around the world: the “Investment Scam’ light will flash as a warning and reminder of previous claims.

Then what are the similarities with previous claims?

Quite a few, but just let me mention the single most obvious one:

THEY CAN’T DEMONSTRATE A WORKING DEVICE!

Another one would be their claim: “BUT WE WILL HAVE A WORKING DEVICE REAL SOON NOW!”

Think about it! You have this great idea! You discovered something that all physicists, to this day, have overlooked (the temporal variance of of magnetic viscosity, in Steorn’s case) and you realize you could build a ‘free energy’ machine with it. What would you do? Would you withdraw in your garage and build a proof of concept and then take this working prototype to investors to help you turn this into a commercial success? Or would you go to investors FIRST, telling them you WILL BE able to build this, but first you need a bunch of money? I can tell you what would I would do, and I can also tell you how I would react as an inversor if you tried to get some money out of me with this ‘device’.

But anyway, Steorn is going to demonstrate this device .. *drum roll* .. this July!

This world will never be the same!

Unless, … some of my predictions come true!

The simplest prediction of course is “No demonstration of a working ‘free energy’ device will take place in July 2007”.

Of course, as Sean McCarthy already has admitted: “.. It is simply a question of money ..” (link), not showing anything wouldn’t be good for those streams of investor money.

So they already came up with the obvious cop-out:

Q: What progress do you have with the continuous motion testing?
A: We have made huge progress on this – we expect to be demoing this version in July. …I would say 80-90% of the way.

80-90%? 

Let me give an example here: Suppose I claim to have a ‘free energy’ device. Let me be VERY modest here, and claim 101% efficiency. The device will demostrate this by dropping a ball from 10 feet. Without any added energy from outside, you will see the bouncing ball reach a height of 10.01 feet!

However, I’m still working on refinements and I’m not quite there yet (I need more money!). So I’ll demonstrate to you (in July 2007) my device as it is now. I will already announce that what you will see is that the dropped ball will bounce to 80 – 90% of its original height! Impressive right? I’m REALLY getting there.. ALMOST there, just a few more percentage points! Please hand me your money.. I really need to finish this! And hey, you just SAW I’m ALMOST there…

Needless to say that a device that ALMOST produces free energy, is NOT a ‘free energy’ device. There are of course cases where ‘almost’ can be impressive or desireable (I wish I ALMOST was a billionaire!), but this is a case where ‘almost’ doesn’t get any points.

It’s probably not easy to find investors for this: most of those interested have their money tied up in premium swamp land in Florida and the Brooklyn Bridge!

Here’s another prediction: I will make this company’s claim known to James Randi, whose JREF organization (link) offers ONE MILLION BUCKS to anyone who can … well … put simply … break laws of nature. I’m sure he’ll agree these folks qualify …

My prediction: The JREF will get to keep their money!

And yet another prediction: before too long this device will show up in the Museum of Unworkable Devices (link)!

Notes:

1. Thanks to my dear friend Leo W. for bringing this to me attention.

2. “A device that would go on and on forever, without the need for external energy”: Of course, ANYTHING goes on and on forever when in motion and no other force acts on it! (Newton made that very clear!): I’m talking here about a machine whose internal ‘motions’ keep going on without addition of energy from outside!

3. This site lists quite a few attempts by folks who didn’t let their thinking be clouded by knowledge of the laws of nature: link.

4. And here’s an interesting link in case you yourself think you can get rich off of the free energy craze: link.

5. Steorn’s announcement: See Sean McCarthy explain (?) it all: link.

When I grew up there was this thing called Judo.
It was a form of martial art where two combattants would grab eachother by the lapels of their special white pj’s, followed by some pushing and pulling and then the tallest and heaviest guy would win.
There was also a far less popular form of martial art called Jiu Jitsu.
Since martial arts were basically taught, at that time, as a form of self defense, I must say that, to me, pj-pulling Judo was far less effective than Jiu Jitsu, which involved, amongst other things, poking your finger in your opponent’s eye and breaking his fingers.
Then Karate became popular and was soon followed by a whole gamut of martial art forms, some more bizarre than others: from hitting eachother over the head with a cane stick to kicking eachothers shins to a bloody pulp.
Most, if not all, involved unpronouncable names, lots of yelling and screaming, and jumping around a lot.
And none of them was as effective as a method of unarmed self defense as the much more down-to-earth ‘western’ method of firmly planting ones fist in ones opponent’s face, better known as boxing. But I don’t think boxing is considered a martial art.
Which, then, leaves us with the question ‘which is the most effective form of martial art?’.
This is, of course, a hotly debated topic amongst martial artists, and I’d like to introduce to you a case where a representative of one form challenges one of another.
This is about a Kiai master who wagers $5000 on a claim that he can beat ANY MMA master.
An MMA master accepted the challenge and I’ll point you to a video of the match.
But let me first explain the two different forms of martial art.
Kiai is fairly hard to explain, because there’s a lot of mumbojumbo involved about breathing, silent yelling, reflection and energy concentration.
Let me describe it this way: the Kiai master attacks (and defeats) his opponents by ‘manifesting, emitting and projecting his internal energy’ onto his opponents by waving his arms around, but without touching his opponents (the video starts with a demonstration of this!).
The MMA master (MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts) on the other hand, has no qualms whatsoever when it comes to touching his opponent.

Watch the video of this challenge, and be amazed. Be VERY amazed.

See the video here: link

Time for another Nut Case Of The Week.

It’s always a tough choice to make, since there are so many of them, but today I selected Rodney M Cluff.

To make a long story short: Rodney has found the lost tribes of Israel! (For the longer, rambling, story, see Rodney’s website: link)

And where did Rodney find these folks? In our planet! Yes, that’s “in“, not “on“, because, you see, our planet (and most, if not all, other heavenly bodies as well) is hollow!

Now, I knew that there are people who, usually on religious grounds, to this day, still believe, and often think they can prove, that the sun revolves around the earth, that the earth is flat, that the earth is stationary and 6000 years young, that Noah’s flood created the Grand Canyon, and that Noah had dinosaurs aboard.

I also knew that the idea of a hollow earth has long been very popular, but I had no idea that there are still people who actually think this, or rather, are absolutely convinced of it. To the point that they’re actually organizing an expedition to the entrance of our hollow planet, somewhere near the north pole. If you’re interested: you can sign up for the expedition here: link.

Ofcourse, I applaud the fact that they are willing to test their hypothesis and actually setup an expedition! But I can hardly wait to hear their ‘excuses’ for not finding that entrance.

If there is going to be an expedition.

It wouldn’t be the first thing they made up!

And probably not the last thing either.

I just read about a pastor here in Florida, who has “666” tattooed on his arm and claims to be God: link.

He knows he’s God, because he has had a dream in which angels told him that.

I don’t quite understand why God needs to be told by angels that he is God, but then, there’s so much that I don’t understand.

More interesting however is that his “claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake“.

And they know this how exactly?

Didn’t the religious leaders in (the ‘real’) Jesus’  time say exactly the same thing about Jesus?

(Oh, and by the way, the usual answer to the question raised in this post’s title is: “about one hundred years”)

<warning: rambling!> 

I just read something that struck me as the weirdest news I’ve read in days (and I do read a lot of weird stuff!).

Here’s what I read: link.

This is what I thought was weird:

a. He mummified in a year, due to the low humidity. Low humidity in New York? (and with a broken water pipe in his house!)

b. If I don’t pay my monthly electricity bill, I don’t get to watch TV for another year!

c. He was found in front of a blaring (deaf?) TV. And he has been blind for years?

But then, maybe it’s not all that weird after all.

First I think I once heard that they can’t cut off your water (you need it to survive) and electricity (that may kill someone). (Does anyone know if there’s some truth to this?)

Second, maybe using a TV as a radio isn’t that bad an idea after all. You get all the news channels, and for shows like Jeopardy, Deal or No Deal, and basically all sitcoms,  music and ‘talk’ shows… who needs to actually see anything? In most cases it’s probably preferable to not having to watch what you’re listening to! I know quite a few programs that I prefer to not even listen to! Actually, now that I think of it, the only movies you probably would want some visuals with are porn movies. And even those are usually horrible to watch (someone told me that)(and not really on TV, here in the US). Okay, maybe programs about art and nature too, but then again, they usually have very nice music too! And, unfortunately, these programs are rare. So in conclusion, TV programs that are actually worth watching are rare. Extremely rare.

Basically, our TV programs show us the taping of a radio show.

So, as for finding this blind man sitting in front of his TV? I grew up without TV, and the whole family would listen to certain radio programs. And we sat in front of the radio! All seven of us.

So, maybe, after all, not that weird at all.

Just sad.

Although… I’ve always said, that when it’s my time, I want to die in my sleep.

Maybe in front of a blaring TV isn’t that bad either…

(and it also may not be that uncommon:  link )

Yesterday we had a drink in a bar and while waiting for my Corona I read an ad in a local paper.
It was about a ‘seminar’ organized by the ‘Unity Church of Melbourne (FL)’ (no, this is not another ‘religion’ rant).
I rolled my eyes, let my wife read it and we both had a good laugh.

For $35 you can attend this presentation tonight here in Melbourne, where a certain Dr. Emoto will explain that (I doubt he will explain ‘how’) crystals in freezing water are bright and colorful when the water is subjected to ‘loving words’, as where water exposed to ‘negative thoughts’ will produce crystals with “asymetrical patterns with dull colors”.
He has established this astonishing and shocking fact by using high speed photography.
Why anyone needs high speed photography to watch water freeze is beyond me, but okay, I’m not a professional ‘water researcher’ like Dr. Emoto. (Since the freezing of water is a rather slow process, I COULD imagine that he would have used the exact opposite way of recording what is happening: time lapse photography! But high speed photography? That’s just plain nucking futs!)
Says Dr. Emoto:

“We must pay respect to water, and feel love and gratitude, and receive vibrations with a positive attitude. Then, water changes, you change and I change, because both you and I are water.” ~ Dr. Masaru Emoto, The True Power of Water.

The second speaker tonight is a certain Helena Reilly. She is an expert on “the process of transformation utilizing Scalarwave technology to release deep seated emotional, physical, mental and spiritual blockages“. She also works closely with best selling author Dr. Masaru Emoto (yes, the other guy from the seminar) in the co-creation and distribution of the “EmLloy” products.
I don’t know what scalar waves are but it all sounds impressive.
Tonight Helena Reilly will unveil the breakthrough Scalarwave technology of Voice Analysis Hydration System (VAHS).

No, I’m not making any of this up!
Read that add for yourself: link

I wondered what exactly this spectacular new invention would be all about, but I don’t want to spend $35 on finding out, so I did some googling.
I think I now know exactly what she will ‘unveil’ tonight: She will ‘unveil’ that you can actually buy this wonderful machine from them for the ridiculously low price of $4000. You can see it here: don’t forget to click on the picture to enlarge it: link

Yes, that’s $4000 for a computer speaker system, a cheap microphone, and some wires coiled around a bottle of water!

There’s an incredible amount of mumbojumbo and pseudo-scientific nonsense on their website: link.
If you can actually read all that without your bullshit detection kit’s bells and whistles going berzerk, then you need some education in critical thinking!

Please browse around and let me know what you think about these folks:
Nutcases or .. just plain old con artists?

(rant warning) 

I have thoroughly had it with all this political correctness business. It’s about time we again say it as it is.

If people are offended by the truth and the facts, then that’s their problem.

The latest “politically correct” idiocy I read this morning was about the Bush administration telling the Grand Canyon Park that their employees can no longer comment on the age of the Grand Canyon, so that they won’t offend creationists (probably based on the incorrect assumption that all creationists think the earth is only somewhere between 6,000 to 10,000 years old). (See link to article)

Folks, this is not politically correct. This is politically wrong!

It is wrong, it is cowardly stupid, it is frightning, it is dishonest, and above all, it’s unfair to our children when we are no longer allowed to teach them the facts of life, simply because a small group of people who are too delusional to accept some simple facts and too afraid to use their own God-given brain, could possibly be offended by the truth.

(the above sentence was designed to offend. Every time my right to free speech or free access to scientific knowledge is infringed upon or blocked in order to prevent some people from being offended, then I will have to protect my rights and access to knowledge by negating the effect of the political correctness by offending the very group that was being ‘protected’.)

So, since we’re now at a stage where, when you ask a park ranger how old the Grand Canyon is, he will put his fingers in his ears, close his eyes and starts humming loudly, we have to wonder how long it will take before he’s forced to explain that, well, there’s a distinct possibility that it’s 5,000 years old, created by Noah’s flood (or by a Scottish tourist who lost a dime). (Link to the Noah’s flood farce)

And why stop at the age of the Grand Canyon? There is a large group of people, who, based on biblical interpretation, are convinced that the Sun goes around the Earth (geocentrism), and not the other way around (heliocentrism). Shouldn’t we tell our college’s astronomy departments to refrain from telling our children that the planet Earth goes around the sun, so that we don’t offend these geocentrists? (see for instance this website -there are many like this, no kidding!-)

And Nasa should at once stop broadcasting images of the International Space Station circling the Earth, since this will, no doubt, deeply offend the good folks of the ‘Flat Earth Society’! (See their website -they’re serious! No, really!-).

Not to mention the majority of all politicians who should immediately refrain from making any sound, because anytime they open their mouths they deeply insult my intelligence.

None of that nonsense! You can’t make an omelet without breaking an egg. Grow up, get a life, work on getting a thick skin. Feeling offended is being insecure. It’s that simple.

I wish I had the power to start a strong ‘boycot-political-correctness’ movement.

Let’s tell and say it how it is. Simple, factual, truthfully and to the point.