Random Musings

Over the years, I’ve seen several reports of mysterious bird die-offs. Sometimes thousands of birds just seemingly fall out of the sky, either already dead, or dying when they hit the ground. Such a scene is disturbing and frightening. What is going on?

I’m not here to claim that science is bogus or vain; or that it should somehow not be conducted. I believe science has given us many good things, and will likely continue to do so, assuming we don’t annihilate ourselves in the meantime. However, some people have let themselves become arrogant because of all the progress science has made throughout history. I want to take it down a notch or two.

According to dictionary.com, scambaiting is “…the practice of pretending to fall for fraudulent online schemes in order to waste the time of the perpetrators.” Basically, a scambaiter acts as though they were naive, gullible, even stupid, in order to get the scammer to spend a great deal of time accomplishing nothing. Somehow this feels satisfying, turning the tables on scammers who try to defraud people of their hard-earned money.

What I am going to say here will be highly unpopular with some people. They will accuse me of bigotry or worse. They are mistaken.

The notion of sentient water was developed by Masaru Emoto. He purported to show that when water was treated to varying stimuli, it created noticeably different patterns when it froze into crystals. Water that had been exposed to positive stimuli, such as the word ‘hope’, formed symmetrical, beautiful crystals. Water subjected to negative stimuli such as the expression ‘self-consciousness’, formed misshapen crystals. Emoto’s claim was that water could sense the emotions behind the words, and would respond accordingly.

I have long been puzzled by people who say that they’re “manifesting” things – a great job or career, wealth, health, romances, whatever. They seem to be claiming that they can bring these goals into their lives by thinking. One definition of manifesting I found is:

…to make your dreams, goals, and aspirations a reality by believing you can achieve them.

Occasionally I see someone who claims to be 50 or 60 or 70 year young. This strikes me as being kinda dumb.

The Mpemba effect is named after Erasto Mpemba, a student in Tanzania who, in 1963, observed that sometimes hot liquid would freeze more quickly than cold liquid. This effect was noted by many scientists throughout history, at least as far back as Aristotle.

Erasto Mpemba