- Thread starter Blobber
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Replacing the fuel sender on my partner's Triumph I discovered a neat parcel of lead pellets from a previous owner who didn't understand about petrol additives...But thats the point of the internet - so you can spend half your life correcting those who are wrong on the internet . . .that and making references to frozen sausages in lawns . . . (might have to be a car enthusiast site from a long time ago for that one . . .)
Critical thinking is the skill we are most in danger of losing, because of the rise of AI and, with the ubiquity of the smartphone, our preference for absconding our human responsibilities to black boxes. This makes superstition more attractive, and the ability to weigh up evidence is in decline. We do have to work at this, not for the sake of Internet discussion, but because truth matters. Snake oil can be very harmful. Not only economically with the vulnerable taken for a ride, but psychologically from misplaced trust. Misinformation is more and more mainstream; conspiracy theories are becoming almost normal.
If you read Defoe's 'Journal of the Plague Year' there are many similarities with today. The uncertainty of the time led to innumerable street preachers and soothsayers who all had some mystic knowledge, since to them there was no evidential basis for the disease. Today we have access to mountains of evidence and people ignore it. It shows how important it is for us to tell stories, and that we disregard the emotional in favour of the rational at our peril. However, that's all well and good for psychological health, but in the case of paranormal phenomena that can and have been tested, the evidence is (absolutely) overwhelming that none of it exists, except as stories some like to believe. If that's for their own sense of comfort, like touching wood or having some bizarre ritual before playing sport that's fine.
Public money has been spent on this stuff. The ADE 651, GT200, Sniffex etc. are all examples of dowsing being sold to the gullible. Hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on empty boxes with a radio aerial on that are supposed to detect anything you want by some mystic process. Lives have been lost with this rubbish (that ought to be covered in red flags for the most basic GCSE science student) because they were sold as being able to detect explosives and obviously didn't.
Of course, people can do whatever they want with sticks in their own fields for their own amusement, but it will be equally useless as a means to an end, no matter how fervently one believes it to be worthwhile.
Guineafowl
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The number of rational, educated people I’ve met who do this…
I repeat: not sneering. Just wondering how certain things can bypass an otherwise sharp mind.
But not try it
Guineafowl
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The fizz-retaining spoon? It didn’t seem physically plausible, so I looked it up online, and found it had been shown not to work.I think the crack is try it and see if it works! certainly seemed to work for me and i don't believe in ghosts or nufink silly like that
To test it at home, you’d need to open two, drink the same amount from both, same temp, etc. put in the same place, one with spoon, one without, etc, etc. An opened bottle would retain some fizz anyway, especially if cold.
Blobber
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Nope, the thread title not a random diversion
Guineafowl
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I did! I tried it in the past with that dowser bloke I had to pay. He followed me, holding me by the back of the neck as if trying to transmit something. I disappointed him, not deliberately.
Also did the 50p under carpet, wife, etc. Didn’t work for me. I even threw the 50p on the floor, where I could see it. Welding rods in copper pipes, just kept them balanced, pointing forward.
Went outside to a known drain, no good again. Sorry
Morris
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I have long believed that critical thinking should be taught as part of the school curriculum. Easy enough to make space for it, ditch Religious Education (an oxymoron if ever there was one) although I dare say that would not go down well in some quarters. It is not the states job to indoctrinate children.
Morris
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It clearly says "gold miner", bit of a stretch to call it a red herring.
The irony.
"I believe" is doing some heavy lifting in that statement. Let me guess, the diviners say they have been successful, not so much others.
I'm as atheist as they come, but to be fair, RE in schools isn't about conversion, it's about understanding what makes the other folk tick and generally understanding why they do what they do to enable you to to get along with other people that you will invariably meet in life....and so you don't come across like my Grandad.
If you were going to bin off anything, get rid of PE. At least RE is only half an hour a week. If I was banning religion, I'd ban football too.
Anyway, this divining...there's enough people here saying it works to make me want to give it a go. That said there's far more people at church wasting their Sunday mornings. I shall observe with suspicious interest.
Would anyone care to send me a couple of nickel TIG rods to try? I understand they're supposed to be one of the better materials to use
I don't have nickel TIG rods. Nickel TIG rods are expensive. I would like nickel TIG rods.
Hence
brightspark
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no the cables ran round the playground not directly across between the buildings being the shortest route
brightspark
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at one point mossad was interested in him
till they found out it was all an illusion 
PhillipM
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But thats the point of the internet - so you can spend half your life correcting those who are wrong on the internet . . .that and making references to frozen sausages in lawns . . . (might have to be a car enthusiast site from a long time ago for that one . . .
Can you dowse for custard wells?
7.83Hz, apparently. It's an electromagnetic, rather than a mechanical vibration.
Schumann resonances - Wikipedia
Guineafowl
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Ok, but with a power source at A, portacabin at B, the cables would run either straight across, or round an obstacle. Educated guess as to which came first, playground or cabin?no the cables ran round the playground not directly across between the buildings being the shortest route
Establishing that large corporations might try pseudoscience, in the spirit of trying anything to get ahead.
Guineafowl
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Didn’t know that! I wonder if it interferes with submarine comms?7.83Hz, apparently. It's an electromagnetic, rather than a mechanical vibration.
Schumann resonances - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
pedrobedro
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Two bread sticks is the accepted method
Thanks for tryingI did! I tried it in the past with that dowser bloke I had to pay. He followed me, holding me by the back of the neck as if trying to transmit something. I disappointed him, not deliberately.
Also did the 50p under carpet, wife, etc. Didn’t work for me. I even threw the 50p on the floor, where I could see it. Welding rods in copper pipes, just kept them balanced, pointing forward.
Went outside to a known drain, no good again. Sorry
