Proof that logic is needed! (continued)

I posted erilier today about how proof is needed to stop such things as bieng prosacuted for witchcraft.when i got another intresting story from one of my lovely followers (by the way if there is a story you eould like me to look t logiclly hit me up at twitter i am @tjflorence ) it go's as follows: "
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Court officials in Zimbabwe say two self-confessed witches who claim to have flown on a magical grain threshing basket are to undergo medical and psychiatric examinations.
Prosecutors said Thursday two women were arrested earlier this month after they were found naked in the yard of a home in the town of Chinhoyi, 110 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Harare. The women are charged under witchcraft laws carrying the penalty of a fine.
In local belief, the flat, traditional hand-held winnowing basket is equivalent to a witch's broomstick in Western fable.
Officials said a Chinhoyi court on Wednesday set another hearing for July 11 to hear medical reports and testimony from tribal healers.
The middle aged women claimed the basket "ditched" them in the yard after a naked night ritual nearby.
Belief in witchcraft and tribal superstition is common in Zimbabwe."



as it clearly shows and as history dictates (any any appocalypse movie supersticion leads to fear,fear to crazy decisions. it also shows how i am getting the word out so thanks all! (also appolagies for any mispelt words my spell checker is seeming to not work)


REFRENCES
http://bigstory.ap.org
http://fightforyourchild.blogspot.co.uk/

Proof that logic is needed!

Here is a sad yet intresting story which shows why logic thinking is needed in are lives the BBC news report go's as follows:

"A Saudi man has been beheaded on charges of sorcery and witchcraft, the state news agency SPA says.

The man, Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, was found in possession of books and talismans, SPA said. He had also admitted adultery with two women, it said.
The execution took place in the southern Najran province, SPA reported.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned executions for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia.
Last year, there were reports of at least two people being executed for sorcery.
Mr Asiri was beheaded after his sentence was upheld by the country's highest courts, the Saudi news agency website said.
No details were given of what he was found guilty of beyond the charges of witchcraft and sorcery.
Amnesty International says the country does not formally classify sorcery as a capital offence.
But the BBC's Arab Affairs Editor, Sebastian Usher, says there is a very strong prohibition of some practices from the country's powerful conservative religious leaders.
Some, he explains, have repeatedly called for the strongest possible punishments against anyone suspected of sorcery - whether they are fortune tellers or faith healers.
In 2010, a Lebanese television presenter of a popular fortune-telling programme was arrested while on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
Though sentenced to death, after pressure from his government and human rights groups, he was freed by the Saudi Supreme Court, which found that he had not harmed anyone.
More recent cases of death on charges of sorcery include that of a Saudi woman, executed for committing sorcery and witchcraft in December, in the northern province of Jawf, and that of a Sudanese man executed in September, despite calls led by Amnesty International for his release."

If logic isnt used to stop frauds and charlatons it can at least be used to save people being killed for riduculas claims.

REFRENCES
BBC

Next step in cold reading!

This is an intresting stroy of Alan Rice, a student in Ireland who became suspicious about some of the photos displayed as 'Live psychics' to be called at €2.44/min on Irish TV. He used image searches to find photos of some of the 'psychics' on stock photo sites.

as he says here:"Psychic Pat was in fact a bought stock photo! I quickly tweeted about this and from that I was pointed to the boards.ie thread about the show where I posted the same photos. Things certainly took off from there and some wonderful people there started finding pretty much all the psychics listed on their website from various places around the internet including, from what I gather, a personal Flickr photo. It really begs the question who are you talking to? And in some cases from what I’ve read you only get through to a hold message."


 so these "Psychics" not only use varuis open statements and trickery they also fake what they look like. i would say to anyone who does believe are these the moves of trustworthy people? and if so is it realy worth  €2.44/min to see your future? because if you just have a quick snooze tommorrow will already be here.




REFRENCES
BOINGBOING.NET

Freaky Fridays

Here is your weekly dose of fear

Xenoglossophobia- Fear of foreign languages.
 Asymmetriphobia- Fear of asymmetrical things.
Ataxiophobia- Fear of ataxia. (muscular incoordination)
Ataxophobia- Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Atelophobia- Fear of imperfection.
Atephobia- Fear of ruin or ruins.
Athazagoraphobia- Fear of being forgotton or ignored or forgetting.
Atomosophobia- Fear of atomic explosions.
Aulophobia- Fear of flutes.





REFRENCES
GOOGLE (I CHECKED DOUBLE SOURCES)

hypnotism gone wrong! (best exuse ever!)

An interesting news story from all-girl College du Sacre-Coeur in Sherbooke, Quebec. they hired a newbie Hypnotist. 20 year old Maxime Nadeauto preform a end of year hypnotist show. he preformed one for the staff only a few weeks before with no problems but something accrued when doing it to the school children.

After a well received  show,he couldn't "untrance" some of the girls,they were not actually volunteers either but rather some of the crowd.
According to witnesses, several girls who’d been sitting at nearby tables watching the show had also been ‘put under’, had their heads lying on their tables and seemed a little out of it.
One girl seemed to be in a trance-like state for five hours when the 20 year-old hypnotist decided to call his mentor who lived about an hour away.


He came and successfully "untranced" the girls, he then in this excerpt learn the reason why (and i must say it is a great excuse) “After travelling for one hour, Whitbread used a stern voice to awaken the girls, blaming his trainee’s good looks for the students’ hypnotic states.” some of the girls said they  "were complaining of nausea and headaches. One girl even claimed it was like an out-of-body experience. the head of the school said after the event. “We also wish to gather all relevant information before talking to the media about this unfortunate event which, fortunately, did not leave any consequences.’



I would personally like to say i have been doing Hypnotism for sometime,and it isn't likely that you will get Nausea or headaches,you might however get those symptoms if you awake from a relaxed state (i prefer that term as it is far more realistic than calling it a "trance") and there is panic everywhere. also the O.B.E out-of-body experience. (which by explaining it kinda defeats the point of just calling it an O.B.E) can also be explained scientifically but i think i will do a separate post purely on that.

in my personal experience,i have never had such problems................is that a good thing or?!?

REFERENCES
GLOBAL NEWS

Lack of Scepticism

This here is a Supernatural story,spread by Tabloid newspaper's and how lack of information and logic makes you look like a fool.(i think)

The daily mail wrote this article which can be found here http://tinyurl.com/btqlnjd the story go's that a couple took a photo of there living room years after there baby died of cot death. So whats the big deal, a ghost  photo with little evidence whats new  right? Well the reason this is different is the daily mail found this story thanks to Gloucestershire Echo:http://tinyurl.com/74262pw the problem is the Gloucestershire Echo did a follow up report here:http://tinyurl.com/ckufef4   
proving it was a fake using a cool iphone app. so will they admit to there mistakes? only time will tell....


and for them whats worst of all is it is the same app that fooled them a few years back which can be found here:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253073/Does-spooky-image-ghost-boy-watching-builders-demolish-old-school.html


so moral is DON'T RUN STORY'S THAT YOU DON'T HAVE FULL PROOF ITS REAL! or alternitivly just do loads of crazy storys and hope some sticks. tho of course that idea is CRAAAZY




REFERENCES
DAILY MAIL
GLOUCHESTERSHIRE ECHO

how are we fooled?

From Con artists to "Mediums" to magicians (like me!) no matter if we are being told we are about to be fooled or conned full stop,from a baby to a genius we can all be fooled but how? there are varies reasons but lets look at one for know.

ASSUMPTION
Assumption is a large key to how we are fooled,so how can we define assumption?
Well we have three types of memory,which are Sensory Memory,Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory but for this Post we will concentrate on Sensory and Long Term.

Sensory Memory is the shortest out of the three,it is the gathering of the sense's taste,sight,touch and hearing,it flows into the "sensory store" and is then distributed to different regions of the Brian.a sensory memory or icon only lasts a split second unless we think its significant it becomes a Long Term Memory.


As sensory memory is instant,if we take an orange for example. All are Sensory Memory would see is a round,certain light refracted colour,mass. it would have to go to are Long Term Memory. to remind us that that particular light refraction is orange,you may then also get the smell while simultaneously remember the first time you tasted it.also we assume if we let go of it of course it will drop because of gravity, so by knowing this,we know a principle of how we  are fooled.


Because are brain has to process the mass of information that is life, we make assumptions,for example, you see me wearing glasses or rather your Sensory Memory See's a mass which then go's to your Long Term Memory and you see glasses. you would be filled with memory's of glasses (perhaps more personal experiences and most definitely more memory's if you actually need them) it wouldn't occur to you that they had no lenses and that i was wearing them to fool you.


and this is a big but in my opinion an overlooked principle to why we are fooled. from assuming the magician is using the "same" pack of cards, believing you did follow the lady and can win big to assuming the Medium didn't do any background research into the place where she/he is talking to the ghost about "the house's  past" and of course we make more assumptions or in essence deny if we "want to believe it" and if you do not think that is true.then why, when we were children did we believe, no matter the lack of evidence, in magic?


REFERENCES
DOMINIC O'BRIEN
JAMES RANDI

Freaky Friday UPDATE

i was catching up with my good Friend Daisy, when she told me about someone who has fear of sellotape and she said she didnt know the offical name so i went searching.......altho i found many people saying they had it there was no offical name so i ghave my good friend the task of creating THE name and it is scotchophobia. so you can know show off to your firends with this new made word and spread it using any means! (tho not sticking it on walls if you have scotchophobia,see using it already)


REFRENCES
Daisy & Me

Freaky Friday

its Phobia time again :)

1.Xyrophobia-Fear of razors.
2. Pagophobia- Fear of ice or frost.
3. Panophobia or Pantophobia- Fear of everything.
4. Papyrophobia- Fear of paper.
5. Paraskavedekatriaphobia (say THAT ten times)- Fear of Friday the 13th.
6. Peccatophobia- Fear of sinning or imaginary crimes.
7. Phalacrophobia- Fear of becoming bald.
8. Haphephobia or Haptephobia- Fear of being touched.
9. Hierophobia- Fear of priests or sacred things.
10. Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (and THAT)- Fear of the number 666.

Freaky Fridays!

Hi all, i was thinking Fear plays a big role in the psychology of many of the stories i post. so i have decided that every Friday i will post a few "out there" Phobias........................

THIS WEEK
1.autophobia:The Fear is need not be physically alone, but believe that they are being ignored, unloved, threatened by intruders,(not super weird  but....)or OF YOURSELF!
2.Chronomentrophobia:Fear of CLOCKS
3.Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing.
4: Xenophobia- Fear of strangers or foreigners.
and 5. Xylophobia- 1) Fear of wooden objects. 2) Forests.

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE

REFERENCE
GOOGLE
WIKIEPEDIA
VARIUS CONVERSATIONS WITH PEOPLE