"I Never Knew How Precise These Things Are,..."

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Cheap Trick

"Poor old Albert Einstein. He not only gets dragged in whenever religious apologists want a good scientist-quote about God – despite this fairly unambiguous statement: 'I do not believe in a personal God, and I have never denied this, but have expressed it clearly' – now he’s being used to support a laughable 'scientific' case for psychic powers.

The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena, by Diane Hennacy Powell, cherry-picks a line from a personal letter to build its nonsensical argument. You might think that was a little unfair, since the letter was one of condolence to a friend’s widow. But even if you don’t, it’s still ridiculous.

The quote reads: 'Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past and present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.'

According to our review (full disclosure: I haven’t read the book. I can tell you it’s piffle without doing that, though), Ms Hennacy Powell uses this to suggest that Einstein’s theories imply the possibility of precognition, or seeing the future.

Now I admit it is possible that Einstein kept his thoughts on ESP to himself, only revealing them in an obscure letter a few months before he died. Maybe he also declared his love of ouija boards in some graffiti on a toilet wall, or wrote a pseudonymous horoscopes column for the National Enquirer. But it seems more likely that he was referring to his rather better-known general theory of relativity, which showed that time and space are relative to each other and gravity. Not that spoon-bending weirdos can predict the future through dreams."

-- Tom Chivers, whose byline states he's "regularly startled by the stupidity of intelligent people" - unlike TMR, which is regularly disappointed in stupid people's lack of intelligence - like Diane Hennacy Powell, the latest NewAger attempting scientific duplicity to sell her bullshit beliefs, in The Telegraph, U.K..

Dumbest. Satanist. Ever.

"Often, after victories, athletes like to take a moment to thank God, Jesus, or even the occasional shout out to Allah. But one NMU hockey player stirred up controversy after thanking Our Dark Lord Satan.

Melvin Schwarz, a sophomore wood technology major and forward for the Wildcats, thanked Satan for imbuing him with 'the strength of the Dark Prince himself.' Schwarz has been a self professed Satanist for the past three weeks. According to Schwarz, the conversion has not affected his game play, except for the occasional possession.

'As a Satanic-American, I'm entitled to all the rights that Christians are,' said Schwarz.

Schwarz scored three goals in his last game before being ejected for wearing unlicensed horn-shaped implements on his helmet. He spent most of his penalty time using a Ouija board in the box in a vain attempt to contact Wayne Gretzky - who Shwarz erroniously assumed was deceased."

-- Lucifer Jones, who must have known he has a great name for this story, in The North Wind.