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Technology Spontaneously Combusts In Sicily
Posted by
simoniker
on Thu Apr 08, 2004 06:45 AM
from the skeptics-skeptical dept.
from the skeptics-skeptical dept.
Zacronos writes "According to MSNBC, ever since mid-January, various electronic devices have been spontaneously combusting in the now evacuated town of Canneto di Caronia, Sicily; at this point, the fires are almost daily. The town has been disconnected from the larger electrical grid and was hooked to a generator, but that, too, caught fire. Even unplugged items have succumbed. Nothing seems to have burst into flame except where there is someone present to witness it, but the police no longer suspect a prankster -- after witnessing wires catch fire without cause. Scientists have yet to explain the phenomenon (although unproven theories abound), leading many people to look to supernatural causes."
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Virgin Mary (Score:5, Funny)
Sadly, in the news, a number of faithful Catholics have suddenly burst into flames today.
Re:Virgin Mary (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously, they where heretics
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well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:well... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:well... (Score:5, Funny)
Well mine said a while ago:
Are you sure that Linux is really safe? I'm scared.
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Best quote: "We're working in the dark..." (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Suspicious timing (Score:5, Informative)
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I don't meant to be blasphemous, but... (Score:5, Funny)
I feel sorry for any IT professionals walking around with a pager, NEXtel, and a PDA in their pockets/belts. Ouch!
The Godfather Part 4 (Score:5, Funny)
Volcano Experts? (Score:5, Funny)
Sweet jumpin' Jesus! The volcano 'experts' must have burned up and left little *poof* marks where they stood.
Re:Volcano Experts? (Score:5, Funny)
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The Score (Score:5, Interesting)
It really makes me sad when, if people don't understand something they assume it's magic. Why is it that so many people refuse to take 'we don't know yet' as an acceptable answer?
Science: 0
Magic: 1
:/
-Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
[TMB]
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
It really makes me sad when, if people don't understand something they assume it's advanced technology.
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
Finkployd
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
And I find the lack of citations from any of the alleged scientist disturbing. The press is in a sad state indeed.
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
An excuse for not understanding something.
Rather than being bothered to actually try and understand something you just shrug your shoulders and say "magic".
It all reminds me of one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips:
Calvin: Dad, what makes the wind? Dad: Trees sneezing. Calvin: Really? Dad: No, but the real answer is a lot more complex.
Magic/Myth/Religion are all ways to explain the world to those who can't bother to be interested in the actual truth.
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
Fires are appearing randomly, what are the possible causes:
1. fire bugs
2. higher than normal voltage
3. emp devices being tested nearby
4. act of God 1 (natural causes)
5. act of God 2 (God's pissed - it is Easter, afterall)
6. aliens
we can rule out #1 due to witnesses. Ditto for #2 as fires have been happening in unplugged equipment.
We can also rule out #3 as the slashdot crowd says that can't be it.
There is nothing in nature that we know of that would cause #4. God promised after Noah's flood he wouldn't do this sort of thing again so we can rule out #5.
That just leaves #6.
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Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
For the last time, it's the Illuminati!
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Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I used to think that, too. Then I realized that there are an awful lot of really smart people that are extremely religious, too. Albert Einstein, if I recall correctly, was a devout believer. Isaac Newton, when he was developing calculus and his theory of gravity, was trying to understand God.
It is the desire to understand God that has driven virtually all of scientific history, from Galileo to Planck, and only recently has science been transformed into only the desire to undersand our world. And even then, anyone with half a brain would see that we're really juyst trying to understand what God has given us, if you believe in God (see below). Of the viewpoint that I'm trying to expouse in this paragraph, I can't think of anything that can articulate it better the the end of the movie Contact.
I have come to the belief that religion is not about whether you can explain it or not, or even if it makes sense. If it had to make sense, there wouldn't be any Mormons or Scientologists. But all it really requires for belief in God is exactly that -- belief.
I for one do not actually believe. But I can see the draws to belief, and they are so strong that I sometimes have think twice about my reactions. Am I particularly bright? I don't think so. But neither do I think I'm really dumb.
So what's my point? Well, I guess it's that the part of your post I'm quoting was idiotic and immature, born of a sense of moral superiority for your beliefs and contempt for the viewpoints of others. I used to be the same way; only recently, I saw the errors of that way of thinking, and have become more tolerant and open-minded towards people who beilve in God, Allah, Krishna, Zeus, Ra, or whatever faith you believe in. The rest of your post, on it's own merits, I belive to be accurate; however, in light of the point you were trying to make, is wholly inaccurate and inadequate as to what religion actually provides a society.
After all, after everything is said and done, you can't DISPROVE God; absence of proof is not proof of absence. Since you can't disprove it, you have to take into account that God is possible. Belief in God is just as credible -- not more than, and not less than (and that's the key point) -- as my belief that God does not actually exist, and is in fact a creation of our own minds.
Although maybe one of these days I'll be proven wrong. I look forward to that day.
Responses are welcome; this is the biggest area that I spend idle moments thinking.
weylin
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Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Funny)
Behind Health Insurance, you mean
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Re:because... (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the alarming things about slashdot is the way it really brings out the bigots in the community.
Story about a sicilian village? Sure, they must be a bunch of superstitious peasants with a mental age of 11. Story about women? Cue for side-splitting 'jokes' about how dumb they are with computers and or crude sexual innuendo. (and then the authors wonder why they can't get a girlfriend). Story about India? Racial stereotypes alive and well.
I'm not worried so much about the existence of these posts. The attraction of
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Limits of Science (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems to me any true scientist should always be watching for observations that don't fit the known theory, as they are indicators of a nedd for further refinement.
Sadly, scientists, like most people, are more interested in being right, and tend to look for confirming evidence, sometimes to the detriment of their conclusions.
Before you flame me as an anti-science zealot, let me confess that I'm a science guy as much as your average geek, and I think science is responsible for most of the good changes of the last few centuries. I just think that when we hold too tight to our theories, we leave the realm of skeptical science and enter the world of blind faith.
BTW, I have no plausible explanation for the spontaneous fires. But I am confident that someone will come up wih one that doesn't invole a tinfoil hat.
Re:Limits of Science (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't. Not the *real* ones anyway, only the quacks with books to sell. Science is all about finding evidence to *refute*, not support, a hypothesis.
You need to read more.
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Re:Limits of Science (Score:5, Insightful)
For a more scientific approach to the problem you should check the site The Fires of Canneto di Caronia [ebicom.net] which at least attempt to provide an explaination.
And furthermore, you may complain that scientist are sceptical to new ideas. This is natural because in science there is a clear distintion between an idea (hypothesis) and something which is "tried and true" (theory, law). What these enthusiasts are doing is to invent meaningless stuff about the "causes" and claiming that it's as good as a scientific idea. Now naturally if you can't use the hypothesis to actually predict anything then it's at best cute. Most likely it's a big fat waste of time.
The scientific method is a systematic way of getting more and better knowledge. What these people do is a good way to sell more papers. I just feel that it's so extremely sad when I read about "science" or statistics in a paper that I want to go to that journal and smack him on the nose with a rolled up paper (perhaps a scientific journal would help) and say "Bad irresponsible crackpot journalist! Bad irresponsible crackpot journalist! Look at what you did!"
BTW I recommend that you read eg "The deamon haunted world" by Carl Sagan. It's a pretty good introduction to critical thinking in a world of disinformation.
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Perhaps volcanic activity is the cause? (Score:5, Informative)
Aurora Borealis? (Score:5, Funny)
" "....My God! Is that your kitchen on fire?"
"Err, no. It's Aurora Borealus."
"An Aurora Borealus?"
"Yes."
"At this time of the day, at this time of year, in this part of the country, localized entirely in your kitchen?!"
".....Yes."
"....Can I see it?"
".....No."
Not Unique (Score:5, Interesting)
o 1945 - A village a short distance from Almera in Spain (New York Time 5th July 1945).
o 1983 - A small coal town in West Virginia, Wharncliffe (Housten Post 16th June 1983 and Columbus Dispatch 24th July 1983)
o 1990 - San Gottardo in the Berici Hills of Italy
(UK Sunday Express 11th March 1990 and The Guardian 22nd March 1990)
I've given you references so you can check them out for yourself.
(posted anonymously to avoid Slashdotters you refuse to think about things which don't fit inside their predefined universe).
all this is measureable (Score:5, Interesting)
2. America is one of the few nations in the world where the power going out or setting firest makes the news, in most of the world it happens daily.
3. About a decade ago Italy ruled their version of the FCC incompetent and disbanded them. Though there are EU rules to deal with, it is a wild west of wireless where you can send photon-torpedo strength EMI around with no-one to slap you until the mobs find you.
Old News, Vatican Response (Score:5, Insightful)
CICAP's take on this (Score:5, Interesting)
Here is CICAP entry [cicap.org] on this phenomenon (in Italian sorry).
CICAP is a group of scientists who routinely investigate (and debunk) any so-called supernatural phenomenon in Italy (they cover anything: ESP, religious miracles, even omeopathy). Sort of a James Randi fan club.
I suppose most of Slashdot's reader cannot read Italian: the gist of it is that they suspect a prank. According to similar phenomena they investigated in the past, the first accidents are caused by natural causes (short-circuits, overload).
But then people start talking, and making hypotesis, and someone starts causing this as a prank or a way to get attention, media coverage etc. Then CICAP arrives, and start looking aroud, and everything goes back to normal.
CICAP sums this as follows: 100% of phenomena happen when controls are at 0% 0% of phenomena happen when controls are at 100%
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
NO CARRIER
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Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Informative)
The Register's coverage [theregister.co.uk]
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Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
-Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
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No way! (Score:5, Funny)
*Jumps into Holy Water pool*
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Re:Article one week old (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
Another big hint: they said the'd disconnected the town from the power system. If they still had a connection somewhere to the grid that they didn't know about, that would set them up for more problems. (Mixing grounds from different phases is a NONO... I've experienced really bad RF just trying to use a radio that was running on gen power and a computer on shore at the same time.)
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Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)
It's obvious what this is; the barrier between the normal world and faerie is coming down; look for reports of weird creatures in the nearby hills, similar things happening in various spots around the world as the local rules of physics change.
It's FULLY detailed in the Shadowrun or Dark Conspiracy sourcebooks.
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Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
my EE professor back in college demonstrated Nicolai Tesla's theories and designs by powering a electronic device from across the room and with no wires. he also warned all of us to NOT bring any electronic equipment and everyone in the Engineering building was also warned as well were PC's removed from the building.
he was generating a field strength that pegged a standard meter 500 feet from the building.
Tesla was going to generate much HIGHER atmosphereic voltages with his tower...
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Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
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