Apparently the UN doesn’t share Stephen Hawking’s view about contact with extra terrestrial life and has appointed Mazlan Othman as the new Space Ambassador. Now I’m not sure what the fine folks in alt.aliens.they-are-here think about this development, but I for one think we need to have our bases covered. Sure its highly unlikely that any species capable of interstellar flight would want to talk to us for any reason beyond strip mining our planet. Sure its less likely now that we’ll be found as radio transmissions are of less power and won’t penetrate as far into space as they had in the past. There is always the chance that if they exist and want to be nice they could be. Besides you could always vote for Kodos if they take over the planet.

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Former stage magician, skeptic, and beard aficionado James Randi founded a non-profit organization in 1996 to investigate paranormal and supernatural claims, like ghosts, bigfoot, and chupacabras. Since 1996, he has offered one million dollars to anyone who can provide proof of a paranormal claim under controlled scientific conditions, but so far, nobody has been able to claim the prize.

Alt.Paranormal user |-|ercules has applied and has so far been unable to get the Foundation to take his claim seriously. I think he’s a psychic who is claiming that he has the ability to determine a person’s name by their writing or speech. Check out his demo video below in which he demonstrates his amazing ability to point to a word on a random page.

From Alt.Conspiracy/Alt.Paranormal:

The whole Paranormal Claim idea is flawed

Because you have to define an impossible event into a contract, it’s too easy for the skeptics to copout. If they know you might be paranormal, they won’t sign a test protocol and just blacklist you.

The only way a $prize challenge would be fair is to accept the psychic’s terms for a demonstration, which may be revealed DURING the demonstration in front of witnesses and media.  This is not a problem as for the test phase it must be repeatable.

I’ve applied to a dozen paranormal prizes. here is my demo video.

Here is the video of a control for comparison.

Any skeptics want to put their money where their mouth is?  (shut up Raven)

–Herc

James Randi Educational Foundation – [Link]

List of prizes for evidence of of the paranormal via Wikipedia – [Link]

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I saw a small article at io9 yesterday about the man of steel in his twilight years and it made me wonder. What will happen to all of the superheroes when they age and begin to lose their minds? Barring some cataclysm that ends the Earth or a battle to end all battles some of them are bound to get to retirement age. Of those that do some are bound to begin to lose their minds. What happens when that occurs? How could they be controlled? Would you keep them sedated? Would you remove them from the earth so they don’t begin destroying it unaware of their actions? If this is your kinda thing be sure to check out alt.comics.superman and io9.

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User NBates posted a link to this “Hard Times Survival Site” which at first glance looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1995, but it turns out this site is a pretty comprehensive survival guide with tons of great content, like food supply checklists and efficient recipes for survival meals, and requirements for a permanent home, like this tidbit:

You don’t need to move to the unexplored wilderness in Alaska. You don’t need to move into the heart of the Arizona desert. You just need to relocate to an area that is more lightly populated than a big city. The area you select should meet the following minimum criteria:

1. It is not on a major freeway or interstate.
2. It is at least several hundred feet above sea level.
3. It is surrounded by farm land, dairy cows, and other typical farm livestock such as horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens.
4. It has a history of good average rainfall (not too much rain or too little rain).
5. It has a reasonable supply of trees and forest timber land.
6. It has a few nearby manufacturing facilities of any size.
7. Its residents still have the right to own firearms to protect themselves.
8. It has short mild winters.

via alt.survival [Link]

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