The
makers of the Lutec
1000 free energy machine, alluded to
above,(and which sounds more like something dreamed up by M
C Escher (note - large image) than any real
world device) are more than a little touchy
over their creation having received less than sympathetic coverage from
the Australian Skeptics, who awarded Lutec their prestigious Bent
Spoon Award, and whose site
incidentally is well worth more than a moment of your time. Another site
with a low regard for the ridiculous claims made by Lutec is The
Millenium (sic) Project, (hosted on the
Ratbags site which is also home to Quintessence
of the Loon). This page has a funny and
incisive email sent to the free energy company making the obvious
comparison between Lutec's device and every other perpetual
motion machine, for that is what it surely
is, merely dressed up in modern pseudoscientific bafflegab. For more
background and technical information on free energy devices, including
Lutec's baby, look here
and here
(pdf Acrobat documents from The
Skeptic - journal of The Australian
Skeptics).
Tablet
of Deceit?
A short while ago the world of archaeology, or at least that subset
with an interest in so-called New Testament times, was abuzz with the news
of the James Ossuary (see Backwards Glance - Box
of Hot Air? ) with its inscription
that, to some observers, seemed to confirm the historical reality of three
biblical characters, Joseph and his two sons, James and Jesus. This hope,
and it was more hope than anything else, now seems to be dashed by serious
problems with the nature and
dating of the second part of the box's inscription, that referring to
Jesus, which is likely to be what is termed a "pious
fraud". Now an inscribed stone tablet, hailed
as evidence for the existence of Solomon's
Temple, seems
to be less than it first appeared.
Like the ossuary the provenance of the tablet is not known - which
immediately detracts from its historical value - artifacts that
surface in the antiquities market in the way of these two items lack the
vital context needed to make proper sense of them. The initial impression
that the inscription on the tablet was independent evidence of events
described in the Book of Kings now seems to be more than a little
shaky. Some of the phrases are anachronistic and seem to derive from
modern Hebrew and not from the time of of the Jewish King Joash, 2,800
years ago. Also there are similarities to an authentic inscription on the
Mesha Stele, which at least one expert deems to be indicative of twentieth
century copying. Another academic has dismissed the tablet, claiming the
lettering thereon is inconsistent in date, veering from 9th century BCE
Hebrew to later 7th century BCE Aramaic and Phoenician. When
artifacts such as the tablet and the ossuary seem to confirm the bible
tales they answer a deep need for proof of some people's religious beliefs
and a tremendous amount of emotional capital is invested in them -
sadly this does no more than contribute a lot of sound and fury to any
debate on their authenticity and precious little light. Despite the
supposed power of blind faith many folk still crave some solid evidence -
which has yet to appear.
On a somewhat related note the "Black
Sea Flood was Noah's deluge"
school of thought seems to have taken a knock. It has been suggested that
about 7500 years ago the Black Sea filled rapidly in a
cataclysmic flood and that the memory of this gave rise to the Noah story.
Why just Noah is an obvious question, perhaps it is Judaeo-Christian
bias, but what about Deucalion
and Utnapishtim?
Now the whole Black Sea theory is being challenged
by an international team of scientists, although the
proponents of the flood are sticking to their guns.
Psychic
Central Spam As anyone who has an email account knows
all too well the plague of spam is worse than ever - masses of
unsolicited and often offensive emails land in your inbox every day. Apart
from the tedium of deleting the trash the sheer volume of these unwanted
messages clogs up networks worldwide inconveniencing everyone. 80 receives
a fair amount of spam, some the usual random stuff and some targeted by
those disenchanted for some unfathomable reason by the content of the
80 web pages. 80 is often signed up for newsletters, gay chat sites and
other services. A recent unsolicited email came from perry47@yahoo.com
(looks like a disposable address) on behalf of www.psychicscentral.com.
They obviously induge in the practise of sending out software robots, "bots"
to harvest email addresses to which they then send their messages. This
usually happens without any intelligent intervention as the text of the
spam makes clear.....
"My name
is Perry. I am the Webmaster of Psychics Central. I ran into
your website by accident. I browsed your site, viewed some of the
content and links and loved what you guys have created. The main
reason I am sending you this E-Mail is to ask if you would be kind enough
to put a link of our site on to your site. Our website is www.psychicscentral.com
. It is a fun site that is dedicated to various topics relating to
metaphysics, psychic ability and astrology. I thought the link to
our site might be a nice little addition to provide to your visitors and
your site would be a nice one for my visitors. "
Anyone who has actually read any of
80's opinions will know that Perry is either a pseudonym for a spambot or
a complete idiot - and sending unsolicited mail of this type is one sure
way of attracting the wrong kind of attention from 80, who has zero
tolerance of spambots or Psychic Central's putative webmaster/knucklehead,
Perry Liu.
As for Psychic Central this is
just another sad little page full of the usual psychic trash complete with
cheesy background music. Here, read the rest of their spam message......
"We are
building the site for people of various backgrounds and depth in study to
discuss this topic. There's a lot of excitement here and our traffic
has been growing at the rate of 10% daily. Currently, we are kicking
off the site by finding some "free psychic reading deals" from
top-rated psychics on the Internet. As time progresses, we will
expand our site by adding more features and programs. These will
include various horoscopes, psychic content, games and discussion forums
for people to interact.
We loved to be
able to have our site linked to your site. If there is anything that
you would like us to do for you (i.e. providing a link of your site on our
site or any other request), please do not hesitate to let us know.
"
Yes, Perry, 80 has a request - if you
must peddle your twaddle go find a willing audience and stop
bothering other folk with your poor attempt at advertising. One phrase
sums up your current strategy - ineffective and deeply stupid.
On the subject of spam of all sorts
and a hilarious way of responding to it take a look at this
page - wonderfully funny stuff from Jonathan Land.
Number Nuts In running a check on search engines and how The View from
Number 80 is listed, a little gem came to light. Part of a site
dedicated to the pointless exercise known as numerology,
"the study of the occult meanings of numbers
and their influence on human life." this page is devoted to - Number
80! Full of non-information of an
anally-retentive kind you learn such stupefying facts as the number
80 is mentioned 16 times in the bible. So what - did someone actually sit
down and wade through the "good book" totting up the eighties?
The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the site's creator, one S.
Desrosiers, badly needs to get out more. Here is the last word on the
symbolism of Number 80.....
this number "represents
the karmic liberation for the whole of the creatures of Cosmos, or the
community of the initiate disengaged of the fate of reincarnations, the
communion of Saints or the Great White Lodge ".
So now you know.......
Miscellany
Here 80 would like to
thank Charles H. Bennett of IBM Research for the following pages which
managed to destroy any kind of productivity for an extended period and
caused more than a little rib pain occasioned by wild laughter. This first
page purports to be from The
Institute of Holistic Computer Wellness with invaluable advice for the
New Age computer user with sections on Computer
Homeopathy, Astrological
System Analysis, Bad
Vibe Filters and more. Next up is an ad for Minuteman
Pizza "The doomsday technology that kept
the Cold War cold has now been put to a more wholesome use - delivering
fresh hot pizza anywhere in the world in about 20 minutes."
via ICBM! Lastly is a page devoted to the lifestyle diet called Mineralarianism
whose basis is thus "The Mineralarians are an
international association of people, diverse in other respects, who share
the common determination to subsist on foods of mineral origin, thereby
sparing our fellow beings the victimization that has been their lot, at
our hands for the last million years, and before that at the claws and
jaws of previously dominant species. " Great stuff!
Go along to
this page
from the BBC and take the survey to see what percentage of
respondents believe UFOs are alien spacecraft - but don't let it depress
you too much - at least not until you have visited the BBC's Ghostcam
- has the dear old Beeb completely lost it?
Perhaps they
should take a lesson from the T-Files
which uncompromisingly nails its colors to the mast
"The
Net is a huge library of bullshit, lies, stupidity and nonsense. And all
the shelves have been toppled and the books are scattered on the floor.
There are those who believe that the earth is flat; that a birth date
means more than an excuse for presents; that aliens are not only taking
jobs no other American wants, but are also performing anal probes on
hapless kidnap victims (looking for their brains, no doubt), and, of
course, that the "X-Files" is a documentary. But the truth is
out there among the conspiracy freaks, naive self-deceivers, medical
quacks, magical thinkers, needy believers and habitual liars. Yes, the
truth is out there. It's just damn hard to find."
Luckily the T-Files tries to redress the
balance with a very comprehensive list of useful links of a
rational and skeptical nature - a place to lose more than a few hours -
recommended.
Yet more highly useful categorized links
are available here from
Jim Lippard's Skeptical Information Links - from Astrology to Ufology -
recommended.
Quotes
"Do not do unto others as you would that
they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same." George
Bernard Shaw
"Reality is nothing but a collective
hunch." Lily Tomlin (one for
the postmodernists)
"When I consider the short
duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the
little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity
of space of which I am ignorant, and which knows me not, I am frightened,
and am astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than
then." Blaise
Pascal
