Federal Elections

I thought I may throw my two cents worth about the elections right at the end.
First off I think the Coalition will win because of the swing in the marginals in NSW and QLD.
Labor has been running scared from the issues of "Climate Change" and "Asylum Seekers".
If they had a real carbon policy, plus not running with the scared hysterics that the Coalition has regarding asylum seekers they may be in a better position.
The wild card in all of this is the Greens. They have what looks like a 13-14% vote. This may help Labor over the line. If the Green voters in the marginals are 13-14% and they second preference Labour it may be very interesting on Saturday night.
I cannot at all see anything separating the two parties except the NBN. The NBN for me is the big thing that is very important for the future. I cannot see how the coalitions broadband policy will deliver much at all.
It will not be up to me who wins, my electorate is a safe Labor seat. The senate will hold more power to me.
Look forward to Saturday night.

Derren Brown Investigates---The Ghost Hunter

 This is the third and last show in the Derren Brown series "Derren Brown Investigates."
In this show Derren travels to the USA to investigate ghosts, spirits and possession.
He follows a man, a very committed man, Lou Gentile. He has studied and put together a massive array of photos, videos and recordings of what he believes is the paranormal over 20+ years. 
This man makes no money from what he does, just raw dedication in what he believes in.
Everything shown on these five videos cannot be interpreted in any way as paranormal as far as I am concerned. It is in fact sad to me that he cannot see the obvious flaws in all of his work. He thought that what he had to show Derren Brown, a committed sceptic, would change his mind and he would believe, sadly Derren did not.
Watch, and please comment if you wish on what you have seen.
I was saddened at the end of this, and it does have a somewhat sad ending.
First Video
Second Video
Third Video
Fourth Video
Fifth Video

Macarthur is going off

What's going on in Macarthur!
Yes, the outer south west of Sydney.
Has it gone completely loopy.
In the local newspaper "Campbelltown Macarthur Advertiser" there was an article on a Psychic, Debbie Malone. The article below.
Psychic Debbie Malone.
This article, or should I say advertisement, I wonder if she paid for it? Made some startling claims.
The Psychic, Debbie, claimed that she was strangled by a ghost in a near death experience. She also claims she has a particular gift for catching spiritual entities on camera, wow. Do you mean she has control of the camera in a metaphysical way and only she can make the camera see and take spiritual entities, something us mere mortals cannot do.
The punchline in this incredulous article is of course the advertising of her upcoming workshop at Picton where she will share her fantastic knowledge at a miserly cost of only $350 for the day. Picton of course is the logical location being the famous, most haunted town in Australia.
She also carries on and says she is a bit sceptical, and wants proof, this is why I do it she says. I doubt if she knows what scepticism means. Oh, and she also photographs Orbs and talks to them. What a woman.
Well if you want to part with your hard earned on this, well go for it, but I think you would have to be very gullible.
This Debbie Malone I assume is the same psychic that was part of that fantastic psychic trio at the "Psychic Taskforce event" at Burswood Casino on September 27 2008, which featured psychics Scott Russell Hill, Anthony Grzelka and Deb Malone, who presented a raft of claims regarding the unsolved murders and the supposed killer in the Claremont serial killings. Non of these murders have been solved. Maybe the police are deliberately ignoring their startling findings?
But there's more, from the Advertiser.
Festival of Light.
On the same weekend as Deb Malone.
What a paranormal weekend that will be in Macarthur.
At West's Leagues Club, Leumeah, running from Friday to Sunday.
Featuring of course, "The One" star Ezio De Angelis.
This festival has, Natural Therapies, Mediums, Animal Connections, New Age Products, Psychic Readings, Seminars and Kids Workshop Age 7+.
The Kids Workshop is a worry. Why inflict this superstitious nonsense on the young and impressionable. Give me a child at 7 and I will shape him into anything, I think the old saying goes.
But then again, organised religion does the same with Sunday school. Teaching impressionable minds mindless drivel from 2000+ years ago.
Fortunately, all of this superstitious nonsense is in the Entertainment section of the newspaper, just a small saving grace. But I don't think the gullible will particularly notice what part of the paper it is in, it is all fair dinkum to them.

Derren Brown Investigates--The Man with X-Ray Eyes

This is the second show in the Derren Brown series "Derren Brown Investigates."
In this show Derren travels to Holland to investigate a Russian method of allegedly teaching blind people to see, plus other amazing abilities.
This method is called the "Bronnikov method". This has been developed by a Russian man  Vyacheslav M. Bronnikov. Here is his website.
The method is taught by practitioners trained by Bronnikov, one of which is his son.
This man has allegedly obtained this knowledge from Tibetan Monks whilst he was asleep from 3 years of age.
It is all falling into place, is it not. Do you smell a scam?
This show was aired on British Channel 4 on Monday. Below are the links to the YouTube videos. The show is in five parts.

First Video

Second Video

Third Video
Fourth Video
Fifth Video

Derren Brown Investigates--The Man Who Contacts The Dead

Derren Brown, well known English Mentalist/Magician.
He has a TV show currently running on Channel 4 in Britain called "Derren Brown Investigates".
In this show Derren investigates a medium, a ghost hunter and a psychic expert who claims to make the blind see.
The first show was televised early last week and it was on Joe Power a so called Medium from Liverpool, England.
The show is now on YouTube in a 5 part video.

First Video
Second Video
Third Video
Fourth Video
Fifth Video

Look at the five videos and tell us what you think.

Believers and scepticism

Danish researchers from the Uffe Schjoedt Aarhus University Denmark have found that certain parts of the brain that control scepticism and vigilance seem to deactivate in some people in the presence of a speaker who they believe has divine healing powers.
The researchers obtained 36 male and female participants, half of which were Christian of the Pentecostal Church faith and the other half non religious.
They assembled three speakers and the participants were told that the speakers were a Christian, a non Christian and a Christian with known healing powers. In reality all three speakers were Christians with no alleged healing powers. 
 The participants listened to 18 different prayers whilst undergoing brain scans (not sure of what type of scan, the article did not state).
They were looking at the prefrontal cortex that allegedly controls scepticism.
The Christians had decreased activity in this region when listening to the claimed Christian with healing powers. Their brain activity in the prefrontal cortex was increased when the claimed non religious speaker was speaking.
The non religious participants had no change in brain activity across all three speakers.

SMH Article
I suppose this is not surprising. Believers of anything seem to loose their rational thinking when in contact with people they believe in having some type of supernatural powers, or possess extraordinary things to improve you, such as miracle wrist bands, crystal bracelets, longer dongers it is never ending for the charlatans. These  could be religious preachers, Psychics, purveyors of miracle substances such as, Body Flow Machines, Power Balance Wrist bands. By the way Benji's power balance wrist band must be letting him down going on the Tigers performance over the last two weeks, I would want my money back.
To me this sums up a need to be forever vigilant to all sorts of claims, religious, health, sex life (longer dongers etc), spiritual and new age claims.
Scepticism for me is a never ending vigilance.

Another perspective

Here is another perspective to the scandal in the Catholic Church.
The current leaders of this church blame secularism and progressive times for the paedophilia in the church by the priests. Watch this video for a different perspective.
Catholic Church a different look.

Body Flow machine

I was reading The Sun Herald  this morning and came across an article that headlined.
Revealed: how Storm get an edge in recovery.
To read article on line click here
The article went on to talk about a "BodyFlow" machine that Melbourne Storm are using in aid of quicker recovery from injury and training by flushing out toxins and by-products of exercise. The Storm allegedly bought 25 of these units at $4000 each. 
The machine allegedly stimulates muscles with electrical impulses. Of course the article goes on to talk of other high profile athletes that use this scam, um, um I mean fantastic machine.
I don't know if it is a scam or does really work. The body gets rid of toxins in the muscles by the lymphatic system. I assume the makers and promoters of this machine are saying is that it increases the lymphatic flow of these toxins out of the body. Below is a web site promoting and selling these machines.
Body Flow Machine
This site uses the word believe a lot when talking of this machine, a little worrying I would think. They do say this on that site.     It has been demonstrated in clinical trials, however, that Body Flow can help manage Lymphoedema by flushing away the excess fluid with a mild electro-stimulant.
They mention clinical trials which is good, but they do not show any link to those trials or if they were blinded etc.  A clinical trial can mean anything. Maybe the manufacturers did the trial or a unscientific body, they don't say, which is very worrying.

Lymphoedema is a retention of these excess fluids, that causes swelling. There are two types:
1. Primary, caused by the underdevelopment of the Lymphatic System, and
2. Secondary, the result of surgery or major trauma.
The usual treatment for this is massage and compression bandages. Does electrical stimulation work as well as or better than massage or compression bandages? I do not know. Does electrical stimulation work at all? It seems a lot of money to pay when a massage could be as good or better.
It smells to me of a scam. Taken hook line and sinker by the Storm and whoever else is using them. I could be wrong. But I remain very sceptical. I can be convinced with good credible evidence though.