Posts made by Arkandel

@Pyrephox said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

Inherently bad? No. USUALLY bad? Yes. Why? Because people who want you to "believe in" things without being willing to offer any proof or evidence for the efficacy of them usually are trying to screw you. By and large, they want your money.

I wouldn't go that far. I mean of course you're right, there are those who'll do their best to take your money in exchange for fake hope or whatever, that's one of the oldest scams in the book...but they aren't the majority.

I think most of those who want you to believe in the supernatural are just...people. They're your aunt who lost her husband to cancer and wants to find evidence of an afterlife, that ultra-religious guy down the road who comes to your door with the fervent desire to convert you into their cult, countless folks who follow zodiac this-or-that, etc. That's without even looking at some who have had unique experiences and are trying to find answers but don't really have selfish reasons for doing so per se other than satisfying their own need to know.

I don't know if that's a valid comparison though @surreality. A new, previously unknown kind of canine or bear invading an ecosystem might spawn rumors and even under certain conditions produce legends but it's still ultimately something relatable; even truly mythical creatures like Bigfoot or Nessie would, after all, creatures. Different, unique, sure... but ultimately nothing that's actually new under the sun.

... And yes I suppose it depends on the definition of what's 'supernatural' for the purposes of whether they'd be included under that umbrella or not but that's probably a different discussion.

But something like ghosts, spirits, or even true double-blind test verified precognition would be things utterly different. They're like nothing we already accept exists and would constitute true departures from the sphere of what's 'natural'.

An underwater creature might be weird as fuck but it's still natural within its own environment. There are all sorts of weird shit at the bottom of the ocean as it is.

@Sunny I don't do that much work with spreadsheets but wow, $13/month is a lot. Aside from Google Docs it's even more expensive than a month-to-month MS Office subscription ($10/month) which bundles the entire platform let alone their annual price ($100).

I guess there are enough spreadsheet nerds out there to make the business model sustainable.

@Miss-Demeanor said in Good TV:

The people who can find fault with BttF.

Such are not people.

@Lithium said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

@Arkandel There's plenty of research in it. I'll get you started with the simplest of internet searches:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectromagnetics

Okay, but maybe you're confusing me with someone else in the thread, I wasn't part of that discussion.

People throughout the ages have used popular religion to justify their desire to be assholes.

"Sure, there's a commandment explicitly forbidding murder, so let's have a Crusade and kill a bunch of people."

I mean the names and exact justifications change but the heart of the matter remains the same; there's a 'we', there's a 'them', and we need to fuck their shit up.

One of my favorite reads by Isaac Asimov on the argument of 'well, science has been wrong in the past'.

http://chem.tufts.edu/answersinscience/relativityofwrong.htm

@Ganymede Would we be having this conversation in the rl-anger thread if she was hot?

Although in general at the gym I'm a misanthrope. I speak to no one, I just do my sets, take a shower and walk out. Chicks dig that, right? Right?

@surreality I've no idea if this is relevant or on topic or even if anyone else will find it funny but I was reading it on my commute this morning.

Sperm donors of Reddit, what kind of porn do they give you in that little wanking room?

@surreality said in Good TV:

don't judge!

You must be new here.

@surreality I love time travel when it's used well - Donnie Darko is one of my all-time favorite flicks, Groundhog Day is a goddamn masterpiece, Terminator is a classic series and of course... Back to the Future, come on. Come ON. Even @EmmahSue can't be the type of misguided monster who rains hate on these.

As long as it's not an empty gimmick though. If it's just a modern guy participating in medieval antics or whatever - unless it's meant to be a comedy - it's kinda meh.

Outlander worked for me for a while but the accents throw me off. The lady is quite easy on the eyes which makes it better though so I watched part of it... the story isn't bad. I'm told (typically ) the books are better.

@EmmahSue Can I hate you any more?

@EmmahSue With Preacher I'm finding myself committing the ultimate sin... I constantly compare it to the original comic. So it keeps being a boot I'm waiting to drop ('when is <X> going to happen?' 'oh, maybe that's how <Y> will be introduced') although they are very, very different storylines.

Oh, while we're at it, Silicon Valley is fantastic. Funny as hell, with spot-on performances and a so-close-to-the-truth look at the IT industry it hurts.

The lady at the gym who keeps chatting constantly, apologising for things like "using a rubber band five feet away" or "lifting a kettlebell somewhere in the general vicinity" to strike up conversation.

It's 6 am. I don't want to chat. I just wanna do the thing so I can go to work.

I need my new earphones to arrive at the mail, dammit.

@surreality FINE what did I miss in the colder months!

... Other than Marvel stuff and The Last Kingdom (surprisingly good, especially given I didn't care for the first episode at all) I haven't binge watched anything in ages.

What's good for the summer now that GoT is over?

I've watched just a couple of episodes of Preacher and it's okay but I'm still lukewarm about it. Does it get better later on?

Anything else new-ish that might not be on my radar? I remember @EmmahSue saying something about some sort of ear-spacebug thingie for example.

@surreality said in Good TV:

@Arkandel Well, there's always The Punisher! I mean, technically, he's a crime fighter. Technically. Kinda if you squint.

(I have my own theory on aspects of that storyline, but they're pretty fucking out there and hard to explain, so I'mma just shut up and see how it all plays out.)

Anyone who's been known to wear black shirts with skulls on them and white boots at the same time can and should fight crime.

@Thenomain said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

Okay, here's what I came up with. I'm not going to back-and-forth respond just yet, because I do have other things to do with my day. Later, perhaps? Perhaps.

Nah.

It might as well end here. I don't think you are fully capable of admitting you are wrong, Theno, let alone apologising. You possess an arrogance that sometimes makes it hard for me to relate to you; other days I gloss it over but today it just put me off.

I'm off this issue when it comes to you.

@Thenomain said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

And yeah, accusing your devil's advocacy as mentally unstable is mostly my frustration, because you do it preeeetttty much any time you disagree with something. Now you're trying to get me to come up with the evidence that you can openly dispute. If you want to be fair on this (i.e., not a devil's advocate), then do the same thing.

I'll start with this part if you don't mind.

I don't mind attacks (which, frustration-inspired or not, that was); this is an internet forum after all and we all get flamed eventually, some of us more than others. But it seemed out of the blue to get personal about an issue I was trying to remain patient myself while dealing with someone who was, in this thread, wishing people to get cancer and treat them as respectfully as I could.

It also crossed a line - we've all hanged out enough around here to be peeved by each other now and then but certain escalations seemed rather unnecessary. It's like shooting the shit with the regulars at the hobby store, making fun of each other's fashion sense or taste in movies or whatever then someone goes way off the charts and insults the other's job or choice in partners. ("Yeah but you're in a dead-end job and your husband is probably cheating on you, you ... Trekkie!").

Think about it man, in the whole thread this made you salty enough but not the part someone was wishing people got cancer? What gives?

@Arkandel

Let me turn around what you're doing:

Prove to me that my statement is wrong. Clearly you think it is. While I come up with my evidence, you come up with yours. This is what debate is for, not just one person saying, "That's interesting, but I think you're wrong, so convince me," without the other side doing the same.

And you would have been completely right if I had come out of the blue and asked someone that question. But I didn't, and in fact in this whole thread I didn't challenge anyone else, some of whom have posted about strange experiences of their own, to prove that it actually happened. However I did after this bit:

Talk to me about being open minded after you've spent over a decade researching this stuff in depth.

Part of the scientific method (I'm getting tired of typing that by now) involves communicating one's findings. Someone claimed to have done a lot of research on a topic which they deemed I couldn't understand or be open minded about, so I requested to see their results so we could find out.

I believe at best you could say my demand was out of place - I don't get to demand that, that'd be true - but devil's advocacy it was not.