Category Archives: piffle

Aug 16 2012

The Fleece Machine – Spiritual medium to meet with Pike River families


This made me a bit angry today  – ” Spiritual medium to meet with Pike River families ” via Spiritual medium to meet with Pike River families – National – NZ Herald News.

So to be clear as to where I stand on this - There are no spirits, ghosts, afterlife, angels, sky-god, demons, it’s all made up bullshit nonsense to part you & your cash.

You can’t talk to dead people, they do not talk to you.

Prayer does not work, the Bible is not the true word of anyone other than then person who wrote it.

There is no plan for your existence, there is no reward in some imaginary afterlife, you will not be rewarded in this life by some imaginary sky-being who watches over you, and there is no after-life.

If psychics were real then the stock market would use them, and lotto would be won at will - don’t be taken in with the claims that “it does not work that way” – tell me in what way does it work.

Why are all these spirits hanging about to tell you they are ok, and that you should be ok, and they watch over you. Which is all they do. Is that, in fact, all you do for ever and ever and ever, just hang about watching. Can these “spirits” only tell of the past, of things that you knowingly or unknowingly communicate with your “medium”

What happens when all your immediate family die, and you’re a spirit, joined by all your relatives, good and bad? Do you start watching over strange people just for the crack?

Do the dead outnumber the living ?

That’s an awfully big ratio.

Finally let me confess to tell you, I did once get a freebie to watch one Kelvin Cruickshank  at work in Takapuna, and was amazed at his skill and the way he dealt with the audience. I was impressed and confused as to how he did what he did, but let me state again – he wasn’t talking to dead people, spirits, ghosts, angels, demons or anything other than his own thoughts, and his interpretations of the feedback from the audience.

I’m prepared to be made to look a fool and have someone tell me something that they can’t know about me but that a “spirit” told them, both my Mother and Father are dead, and all my GrandParents, so you should be able to get something recent, unless they’ve disowned me.

Do it for free to prove you can do it, if you have a gift why do you need to monetize it?

Related articles some of them Comedic Value only and not an endorsement
Dec 7 2011

One-third of Kiwis believe in alien visits


A third of New Zealanders believe aliens have visited Earth and a majority think psychic powers exist, a study has found.

One thousand respondents were asked by UMR Research if they believed “that Earth has been visited by UFOs from other planets”.

via One-third of Kiwis believe in alien visits – National – NZ Herald News.

  • Nearly 8 in 10 believe that Jesus was a real person who lived 2000 years ago
  • 57 per cent believe in life after death. That belief declined with age, falling from 65 per cent among under-30s to 49 per cent among over-60s.
  • A quarter believed astrology can predict people’s futures.
  • Six in 10 – 72 per cent of women and 52 per cent of men – believe in the existence of God or a universal spirit.
  • 55 per cent believed that at least some people have psychic powers such as ESP.

I have an opinion on this, like that’s never happened

Aliens exist. In a infinite universe, with infinite suns and infinite planets (give or take) the odds are that there are other life forms in the universe. What like that’s a surprise. What isn’t a surprise is that they’ve never visited our planet. If they have ask yourself why? and where are they from. How come they conquered the travel distance thing, and if they are so advanced how is it they can fly vast distances only to get to Earth and crash at places like Roswell. And also ask yourself that with the billions of camera phones that are currently in use that there aren’t more pictures and, er, evidence.

There isn’t actually a lot of evidence to support a person called “Jesus” ever having existed.

There is only death. That is it.

That an arbitrary planet can exert some life force upon you and 1/12 of the population seems likely.

Man invented God, any God, pick a god, we’ve always done it, mostly from ignorance and fear. We’ve had sea gods, tree gods, air gods, fire gods, animal gods, cat gods, stone gods the list is almost endless

Yes of course ESP. If it was real you think we’d need stockbrokers and market gamblers?

I surprised they didn’s ask about Homeopathy, Bio-Mag blankets and the PowerBlanace band to be honest.

Nov 18 2011

Quackery of the first degree


I use twitter a bit, and was followed by a chiropractor, which made me smile a crooked smile.  Lots of “might” and “may” but actually it’s just wriggle your back and talk quietly if you read the rest of the blurb. IT’s out-and-out quackery to claim that a back “manipulation” can sure ear-ache and prevent flu, it’s nonsense of the first order. The bit that made me smile most though is this naked claim

“I laughed in reply and informed them that New Zealand is behind the rest of the world when it comes to sports performance and chiropractic”, in that we still allow it unfettered and unmonitored and unqualified application with grandiose claims and benefits just on hearsay and anecdote.

There is also the matter of manipulation of children’s spines -

 

This from their website “Dr B’s  unique gentle approach and her caring manner enables her to work with children effectively and efficiently.

Clinical experience and extensive research has shown that a wide range of childhood symptoms may respond favourably to chiropractic treatment.

These symptoms  include migraines, gastric reflux, recurrent ear and chest infections, hyperactivity, bed wetting, fatigue, recurrent throat infections, arm and leg pain, headaches, asthma, poor co-ordination, sleeping problems, irritability, colic, back pain, stomach ache, visual problems, digestive disorders, scoliosis and poor posture.

B has also assisted many new mothers during  pregnancy and child birth.”

Righty then, no mention of any clinical studies on the website, and a couple of testimonials about not getting flu anymore.  And worse it’s available in NZ on ACC which is a disgrace.

I’ll end by saying that as a grown adult,  if I want to spend my money on snake-oil and because I think it’s work, and  therefore then must work, then more fool me. If my back stops hurting that isn’t evidence, or claim for efficacy.

Aug 21 2011

It keeps me awake at night #2 – the speed of light.


Yeah it does, when the darkness comes without sleep the idea that I can understand or get my head around the statement that light has a finite speed. That’s it. Nothing faster.

I get that I observe light, I see it at the speed of light. And then I imagine that I’m a spaceship of some kind. And then it gets interesting. To me that is.

If I’m banging along at a fair lick of speed, say 1/2 the speed of light and I look at a star, I observe the light at, guess what? the constant that is the speed of light. I don’t see it at say one and a 1/2 the speed of light. If I’m advancing to the light source at 1/2 the speed of light the speed of light is still the same. Which is weird. Unless I got it all wrong.

And if I’m observing two objects, one on my right and one on my left, and each of the objects  is approaching the other in straight line (imagine a triangle ABC, I’m at A, and they are at B and C and heading towards each other). If they are both going 1/2 the speed of light I think I should see them converging at the speed of light. If they are both going the speed of light (ok so it’s a big triangle) then I imagine that I should see them converge at twice the speed of light, which isn’t possible, is it?

Now if there are observers on B and C looking at each other how fast do they think they are converging. It’s worse if I imagine that one of them is going the speed of light and one is going 1/2 the speed of light.

Like I said it keeps me awake, for all of about 7 minutes.

Sep 29 2009

I read the news today. Oh Boy!


There were/are 3 things that prickled me this morning on the news, which in no particular order are

1. Roman Polanski. – Moral indignation from the elitist bleating about cultural significance of his works and how he should be granted clemency. I say “What about all the good things Hitler did?” It’s not good enough to claim it’s 30 years – it could be 300 years, 3 years, 3 days it would not make a difference, plying a teen with alcohol and drugs to have sex with them isn’t legal, wasn’t then, isn’t now. IF Mr. P had any backbone he would have stayed to clear his good name. He Didn’t.

2. Some Cellist is playing his thing in Auckland, and the advertising goes something like “acclaimed as a phenomenon by The Herald (a newspaper). Not, you note, acclaimed by Mr.Billy Perkins, Staff Writer, as a phenomenon, but hidden behind a facade that “The Herald” implies gravitas. The Herald speaks we listen!

3. Ministerial allowances. So an MP has been dobbed in for claiming an allowance on a house he owns and lives in. The bureaucracy that condones this is not configured to catch people out, but to ensure that the allowances are meted out to the claimants. The bureaucracy is in place to serve the bureaucracy, no other reason. They don’t check the validity of the claim, but only the receipts and mathematics are correct so they can process the claim. All care no responsibility.

As to claiming the allowance or perks, which employee for any company given a list of claimable things would not go out of their way to ensure they could claim everything, and which employee would be the advocate and loop-hole advisor to others to allow maximum claim under “the rules”

The only people going on about this are the indignant people who cry “public trough” at the drop of a hat – you know they typically are “I know my rights” type people.

Sure the allowance is a rort. It always has been. And this would be the top of a scary iceberg if we were really interested in looking in detail at everything that MP’s could and probably do claim from a daily newspaper, magazine subscriptions, stamps and a lot of other things.

Just saying.