Slashdot Log In
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."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Technology Spontaneously Combusts In Sicily
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 1010 comments
(Spill at 50!) | Index Only
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
|
2
(1)
|
2
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmm. (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.orlandi.com/)
If it was an EMP so strong to burn power lines, why didn't it fry all the small electronics (including scientist's instruments) which are more susceptible to EM fields?
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/Ihaveone.Askme. | Last Journal: Thursday June 03 2004, @02:37PM)
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.)
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.modthemovies.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday October 27, @11:59PM)
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.
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd mod you insightful... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://richardstanford.com/ | Last Journal: Monday April 05 2004, @06:03PM)
Re:I'd mod you insightful... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.kevingarcia.net/)
It's that giant subwoofer the one guy built...
Re:Hmm. (Score:4, Insightful)
> [...] while a van with a large, rotating antennas on top measures the radio waves.
It seems that they look for that particular cause.
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://timgray.blogspot.com/)
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...
Re:Hmm. (Score:4, Interesting)
However, I have never heard of it producing current high enough to set anything on fire. Oh, and anyway, furnature usually has metal nails, screws, and staples in it.
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Neg (Score:4, Informative)
Virgin Mary (Score:5, Funny)
(http://gmail.google.com/gmail/ | Last Journal: Tuesday September 21 2004, @08:57PM)
Sadly, in the news, a number of faithful Catholics have suddenly burst into flames today.
Re:Virgin Mary (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Virgin Mary (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously, they where heretics
No way! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://walkiry.no-ip.org/)
*Jumps into Holy Water pool*
Re:Article one week old (Score:5, Informative)
Mafia (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.soonersports.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday March 13 2003, @03:39PM)
There is a reason my grandparents left Sicily, it was a corrupt shithole.
That being said I'm proud to be Italian (and English).
Confirmation? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
NO CARRIER
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Informative)
The Register's coverage [theregister.co.uk]
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~sable)
Knight 2: He wouldn't say **BZZZZZZZZTT*, he'd just say it!
Knight 1: Maybe he was dictating.
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
splat.
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.colingregorypalmer.net/)
-Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
Re:Confirmation? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://storyinmemo.com/)
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.welton.it/davidw/)
Re:Confirmation? (Score:5, Interesting)
well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:well... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://seventhcycle.net/)
Re:well... (Score:5, Funny)
Well mine said a while ago:
Are you sure that Linux is really safe? I'm scared.
USB Printer Status (Score:5, Funny)
Best quote: "We're working in the dark..." (Score:5, Funny)
Suspicious timing (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.chriscanfield.net/)
Re:Suspicious timing (Score:5, Informative)
(http://erchambers.com/)
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 Slashdot Effect (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.sammamamma.com/ | Last Journal: Friday June 15, @01:49AM)
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)
Re:Volcano Experts? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.sunbeam60.net/)
The Score (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.colingregorypalmer.net/)
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)
Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.simplyspiffing.com/)
Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
[TMB]
Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
It really makes me sad when, if people don't understand something they assume it's advanced technology.
Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://homestarrunner.com/)
Finkployd
Re:The Score (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.madprof.org/)
David Copperfield did not make the Statue of Liberty disappear but created the illusion that it had done so.
Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.ehast.net/)
And I find the lack of citations from any of the alleged scientist disturbing. The press is in a sad state indeed.
Re:Highest Stress Job: Advisor to Tyrant (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/21/)
(Sort of like, "Why doesn't the Psychic Hotline lady call me?")
That's how it works in Soviet Russia...
Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.google.com/search?q=gilead+greene)
It would perhaps be more correct to say that "There's lots of stuff that science hasn't yet explained". The term science doesn't refer to some fixed body of knowledge. It refers to a methodology for finding and refining explanations.
Re:The Score (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.google.com/search?q=gilead+greene)
Sure. Why not? The basic algorithm is:
- Observe something no previously predicted or explained
- Develop a hypothesis to explain the observations
- Make predictions based on the hypothesis
- Develop tests to determine whether the hypothesis is correct or incorrect
- If the hypothesis is incorrect revise it based on the new observations
- Rinse and repeat
Please tell me how this algorithm, given enough time, will not succeed in explaining "everything"?Forgive me if that sounds a little arrogant.
You are forgiven.
Also, what is it that is being explained? Reality, or our perception of reality?
What is reality but what you perceive? If something is completely imperceptible (i.e. makes no observable change in the universe whatsoever) then whether it exists or not is irrelevant - it makes no difference to my life or yours. If it can be perceived, it can be observed. If it can be observed it is amenable to study via the scientific method.
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.
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.
Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
(http://rapture-cms.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday June 24 2003, @02:11PM)
For the last time, it's the Illuminati!
Re:You need to read the Bible a little closer... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.mtavc.com/)
Or blame the military, CIA, Illuminati... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://finnbiff.multiply.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 12 2007, @10:04AM)
Or some evil, sinister military/CIA project. Do a quick Google seach on HAARP and/or weather control and you'll see.
Re:Or blame the military, CIA, Illuminati... (Score:4, Interesting)
(at least thats what happened at tunguska...)
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:4, Insightful)
Dude, you've got a seriously skewed view of religion.
I'm a network geek. I've completed my B.S. and M.S., both in technical fields. And I believe in God and Jesus. And:
You need to get out of that Middle Age's thinking about God. There's alot of us out here proclaiming the Good News and living our lives believing in God, educating ourselves, and working intelligently.
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Insightful)
what makes you think my religion, the religion of the oldest know civilized people is not right?
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Insightful)
You are condemning him as a "nut-job" just because he used two key-words specific to his religion. You sound Jesusphobic.
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Insightful)
One might argue that it's atheists who have a less skewed view of religion as they're not part of it.
> And finally RELIGION != FAITH IN GOD
Religion = "the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship:" (from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=66
Anyway, to many people who are not religious, the belief in a god, and particularly the common varieties that send their children to earth, seemingly arbitrarily bless or smite people etc. are as real as Father Christmas or Zaphod Beeblebrox.
The mere fact that a lot of people believe it is no convincing argument, especially when those people proclaim their belief being due to faith rather than any evidence. For 1000s of years everyone believed the earth was flat.
Even today, a lot of people believe summer is warmer than winter because the earth is closer to the sun then, or that the entire world is only 6000 years old because some religous nut tells them so, or any other number of demonstrably wrong things. The number of people believing something is not sufficient reason to assume it is true.
This is precisely the reason i trust science more than tradition or religion: Scientific dogma is subject to revision in the face of new evidence, religious dogma usually isn't. It's 2000 years out of date.
> If you're dumb enough to turn over your thinking to a religious
> Pope/Evangelist/whatever, that's your idiocy, not God's.
So who did you turn your thinking over to? What made you a "believer"? A charismatic person? An old book? Indoctrination from your community? Peer pressure? Anyway, i completely agree with your statement bar the last two words...
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, because the only reason someone would hold religious faith is because of indoctrination, peer pressure, or a cult of personality. It also goes without saying that such people have stopped thinking for themselves.
WOW
You've hauled out so many tired charicatures of religious faith in so short a time that when I see you accuse someone else of not thinking, the words "plank" and "eye" come to mind.
Of course, that's a Biblical reference, which outs me as being a religious person as well. Accordingly, you're free to put my comments in whatever pigeonhole makes you most comfortable and continue a happy life of ignorance.
XOXO,
Some mindless religious guy
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Insightful)
(https://customer.lylix.net/aff.php?aff=006)
I'm a Christian and I study physics, and people so often ask me how I can be a Christian and believe so much in Science... I think for some people science has become the new religion - it gives us all the answers, except to the most important questions (why are we here? what is right/wrong?). I work on the Mars Exploration Rovers mission and I was upset to see so many posts on slashdot saying that finding life on another planet would mean the end of religion... I don't get this! Many people working on the mission are Christians (or also some other faiths) and they are all very excited by the prospect, as am I! People assume too much about things they do not understand.
Thanks again for a great post!
Cheers,
Justin
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:4, Interesting)
Damn straight. I've added you to my friends list. There's nothing more satisfying than running across a fellow geek who lives his life for Jesus Christ.
Don't sweat the other replies. They'll understand the truth some day. Unfortunately, it will be too late for most of them.
Romans 14:11: For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
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
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.saunalahti.fi/voas0113)
If you mean devout believer as in Christian or Jewish belief, no, you do not recall correctly at all.
Einstein did not believe on the stupid "man-on-steroids" god of most religions, Einsteins belief [wikipedia.org] was pantheistic [wikipedia.org], that universe itself is God, he believed in a "God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of men".
After all, after everything is said and done, you can't DISPROVE God
I can't disprove the tooth fairy either. Is it just as likely to exist then, than not?
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Funny)
(http://w1xer.de/ | Last Journal: Saturday September 09 2006, @05:55AM)
Behind Health Insurance, you mean
Dude, you are seriously weak-minded. (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 17 2005, @09:12AM)
So what is Weak Minded? It's this:
1. The inability to accept that other people have valid motivations, ideals or valuable knowledge that that are different from your own.
2. The inability to differentiate between what one person or one group do in the name of a cause, and the core purpose of that cause.
There are a lot of people who wrap themselves in religion who are weak minded. There are a lot more that are not. There are a lot of people who wrap themselves in science who are weak minded. There are a lot more who are not. There are a lot of people who live in many different countries, societies, cultures who are weak minded. There are a lot more who are not. And out of all of these, many among the weak minded also tend to be the most vocal, so that is a lot of what you hear from them.
Different people accept religion for different reasons. And different people abuse the name of religion for different reasons. David Koresh claimed to be Jesus. Few Christians believe or supported him. Osama claims to work in the name of Islam. Few Muslims believe or support him. Some Catholic priests have sexually assaulted children. Few Catholics support them. There have certainly been bad things done in the name of religion, but that does not mean the religion was the cause. Most often the cause was dangerious people doing bad things, and claiming religion as their cover.
As for why people believe what religion teaches them rather than "modern science". That is probably because modern science is not taught as widely as you would like. It takes money, knowledge, political support, lots of people power, and strong social support to spread new knowledge. Churches have been around for centuries. They already have the structures in place to teach their docterine. Church schools exist in almost every town and country around the world teaching religion. Modern educational institutes in remote places are few and far between. This is not the fault of the people who live there. They learn what is available to them. And for many centuries, that was from the local church.
Knowledge is relative. With all your great scientific knowledge, If you were dropped naked into the middle of the Amazon rain forest, you'd probably die of poison or starvation inside a week. All the while those stupid savages who worship their sun gods have been surviving there for generations just fine.
We all learn and accept what our society and parents teach us. If your parents and society teach you science, great for you. If you are too ignorant or weak minded to accept that other people have different educational backgrounds, different social and physical needs, or different ideas about the unknown, AND THAT THESE DIFFERENCES ARE NOT EVIL, STUPID OR WRONG, then that's too bad for you.
Re:It's Not Magic, It's God(TM) (Score:5, Interesting)
It was the last time I attended church. Yes, some of those people were intelligent (the one asking the question had far higher hopes than that - he never got to apply his obvious analogy he was working towards), but it felt *wrong* to sit in a room knowing that these people didn't just have faith where faith was potentially appropriate: they had faith indiscriminately. To them, the light switch was powered by God, the microwave worked because God did not see it as evil, and TV was beamed from heaven direct (must not have *watched* too much TV recently, eh?).
After some years of thinking about this situation, I have come to a realization that you don't need a higher power to explain the organization of the universe. (Previously, I had my doubts about the complexity arising spontaniously, a common doubt of even scientifically minded people). Quantum mechanics says that until an event is observed, the outcome is a probability wave. Upon observation, that wave collapses. Taking this to the logical conclusion, after the creation of the universe (big bang or string colision or whatever) there was a huge, unobserved probability wave. Upon one part of that wave stumbling across the unlikely (but part of the probabilty wave) creation of an "observer", that observer would cause the wave to collapse locally, influencing the rest of the wave from that point forward. In other words, every outcome was equally likely until an observer becomes an outcome of the probability wave. Once that happens, the observer is no longer just a probability, but a fact. More simply: a quantum mechanical universe favors the creation of observers. Of course, this conclusion is simply the creation of my own brain: perhaps someone has a refutation?
Re:The Score (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.linuxlabs.com)
There's a few reasons. Firstly, there people are sitting in a hotel and tired of it, hoping daily that this isn't the day their family home (or entire town) burns to the ground. They're desperate for an answer and not in the mood to spend a few years investigating this interesting phenomenon.
Next there's the fact that to most people, technology itself IS a sort of magic. Just press that button and invisible forces spring into being to make the cup of water boil. Even if they take the nuker apart it still looks like magic. Just one moving part, and even that doesn't have to be there (but the heating will be less even without it).
If you look at the way many people without technical knowledge interact with technology, it's just a bunch of 'invocations' that they have learned will do something useful (usually they learned it from a book of a techie). For all the meaning it has to them, they might as well be burning incense and shouting arcane latin phrases. They know that when the incantations don't work, there's this 'reboot' that can restore order. That's why you see business DSL customers rebooting the router when the email doesn't work (but the web does) and rebooting their PC didn't fix it.
Sometimes, when there's no harm in it, I find it better to let people do those things while I figure out what the problem is. It lets them feel less helpless and occasionally, they stumble over the solution.
You'll also note that the local priest along with the residents did decide to let the scientists have the first crack at the problem.
'We don't know yet' is a perfectly valid answer right now, but it doesn't get them back into their homes. It doesn't help that things bursting into flames for no discernable reason is a recurring theme in movies about the supernatural.
It doesn't help that scientists aren't always all that scientific when presented with observations thay cannot explain. Too often, important phrases like "this is just a guess, but" get replaced with "I'm absolutely certain that" whenever coincidence is about to be invoked. The correct pronouncement would be "I have no idea whatsoever", but scientists don't like to say that either.
Add on top of that all of the 'scientific' pronouncements like 'eggs are bad for you', 'any wine is bad for you', 'oops, no, some wine is good for you, and so are eggs, but avoid fat at all costs', 'oops, people are getting fatter on low fat diets', etc, etc, and people start to think that the 'scientists' are just making things up too. They make the mistake of confusing various pseudoscientific nonsense from the FDA, NIH, and the AMA (or their own regional equivilants) for science. I call it pseudoscience because collectively they have a habit of stating working theory (complete with conflicting evidence) as if it were fact and flatly denying the existance of plainly observable phenomena when the correct answer is clearly "We don't know".
If we can't get scientists to abandon dogma and various forms of mysticism, how can we expect it from laymen?
Re:The Score (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.dalai-llama.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday June 01 2004, @10:44AM)
At this point in the discussion I doubt this will be read by anyone, but I'm going to tell the story anyway.
At the tail end of a stint in the Marines (too short to deploy) I got shipped to a headquarters unit personnel office that had a bunch of computers networked to a couple of shared printers. Since I knew the most about computers (which isn't saying much) people often asked me to help them with small problems.
One of the corporals came to me once and said that her computer wouldn't print. I walked over, fiddled with everything I knew to fiddle with, and when that didn't help I turned to religion.
"Corporal," I said, "Papa Legba is the voodoo god of the crossroads; all communication falls into his domain and he is displeased. We must make a sacrifice. Do you have a floppy disk that you are not using?" She gave me a 3.5" disk, which I held in the air and then tore open. I used a ballpoint pen to mark some arcane-looking but utterly meaningless symbols on the disk's medium, then had her tape it to the side of her monitor. I told her to try it again.
Of course, when she tried again it printed with no problem. I have no idea what changed, but as I walked back to my desk she told me that I was the weirdest man she had ever met.
The "sacrifice" was still taped to the monitor when I rotated out three months later.
The Dalai Llama
...probably reading "Count Zero" at the time...
Re:The Score (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.colingregorypalmer.net/)
That is such crap. I don't understand how international currency exchange rates work, but I don't say 'must be magic!'. Scientists don't know why the magnetic poles of the Earth reverse, but I doubt that any of them would suggest the reason is Magic until they learn something new.
-Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
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
Agreed (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.emopirates.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday July 16 2003, @10:46AM)
Human nature (Score:3, Interesting)
You only have to look at all the loony beliefs in the world to know that people will leap to the most ridiculous conclusions at the drop of a hat.
"We can identify that flying object so therefore it must be an advanced alien scout ship!" etc.
It's sad really. No doubt when the mundane reason for this story becomes clear (e.g. hoax, sensational reporting or whatever), there will be another bunch of loons accusing the Italian government of a 'coverup'.
Radar Installation Nearby (Score:3, Interesting)
They're not THAT powerful.. (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.webchemistry.nl/)
A high-power military radar installation does put out enough power to kill an unfortunate bird (or incompetent engineer) at short distance, but still wouldn't do much more than disrupt electronic equipment at greater distances.
However, it is not unthinkable that a relatively small disruption in an eletronic device can lead to a bigger problem later on - a disrupted control circuit causing an overload that leads to a fire is well possible. This scenario is not very feasible after main power is cut though.
This will happen in the US soon too... (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, the new Janet Jackson single... gimmee gimmee gimmee playing WOOOOOOOOOF! FLAMES!
Limits of Science (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
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.
Re:Limits of Science (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Saturday February 05 2005, @10:48AM)
On the contrary, Popper's ideas about the nature of scientific inquiry have been proven incorrect for the simple reason that hypotheses are not tested in vacuums. If you disprove a conjunction, you only know that one of the components is false, but you don't know which one. In reality, science works both ways: finding evidence both for and against certain hypotheses and most importantly, independently validating them.
You need to read more.
I'd suggest you (re-)read Kuhn.
Re:Limits of Science (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.ehast.net/)
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.
Perhaps volcanic activity is the cause? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.phoenixanime.com/)
Aurora Borealis? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://flickr.com/photos/re_verse/ | Last Journal: Tuesday April 13 2004, @04:41PM)
" "....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."
Yay! (Score:4, Funny)
"Someone wrote to us saying the solution was to sacrifice a black goat and collect its blood. At some point, that's going to start looking like a good idea."
Wohoo! They took my advice!
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).
Re:Not Unique (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://nullability.net/)
Don't be ridiculous. Do you seriously think there are Slashdotters who don't enjoy a tantalizing problem like this one?
all this is measureable (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.ee.vt.edu/~jmentz)
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.
Obviously (Score:3, Funny)
It's the result of scientists ignoring Zero Point Energy [calphysics.org] for so long. Now it is rearing it's ugly head.
Old News, Vatican Response (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.stygianlabyrinth.net/ | Last Journal: Friday April 30 2004, @11:11AM)
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%
Apple sales are going to take a hit now... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://homepage.mac.com/ap_llywelyn/Writings)
It's a hotspot (Score:3, Funny)
Ricardo: It's a hot spot.
Richard: A hot spot?
Ricardo: A hot spot, broadband, wireless, a tipping point. One hot spot... a blip. Ten... a novelty. Then shit starts exploding... billions of dollars fly through the air and spontaneously combusting.
Richard: Billions?
Ricardo: Billions. (faces Richard) Watch your head.
Sean: (asking Richard) How's our securAAAAAAARGH MY CELL PHONE JUST EXPLODED IN MY FRONT POCKET!!!!!!
Title: IBM SECURITY FOR THE ON DEMAND, SPONTANEOUSLY-COMBUSTING WORLD
satan took over my keyboard (Score:3, Funny)
>daily Il Messaggero. "Demons occupy a house and
>appear in electrical goods."
I have seen this too. It is usually manifested in the form of a great deal of pr0n downloaded onto my harddisk. I have no idea how it gets there.
It *could* be... (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www-oss.fnal.gov/~mengel | Last Journal: Monday August 30 2004, @05:02PM)
If you read This reference [cryofab.com] under "Combustibility", it says:
Now when you consider that dunking a wire and plastic in liquid oxygen is also likely to cause lots of heat-stress fractures in both the now-brittle plastic and the metal...Whoosh!
The Core (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.strangedog.net/)
SD
IMDB link for the clueless [imdb.com].
Already diagnosed by Hollywood... (Score:3, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 06 2002, @05:15PM)
And, if so, does anyone know how to fix it? I fell asleep about 20 minutes into that bomb... I sure hope they key to our salvation wasn't in there somewhere.