[meteorite-list] Stop Naysaying! (Was: Try divining rods over a large iron)

From: Warren Sansoucie <warren3174_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:53:15 -0500
Message-ID: <BAY132-W1776689215FD498AA64D93D3560_at_phx.gbl>

Hi Chris & list,

While I agree with you , I must do so with a small grain of salt.

I nearly quoted your previous email statement to my father regarding divining rods .

He smiled at me, went inside and brought out 2 coat hangers. He cut them and produced two straightened pieces of wire. He then bent them both the same way, nearly at a 90 degree angle with one end longer than the other. He then held the short ends, one in each and hand, loosely out in front of him. He walked across the lawn over a buried water pipe and the two wires went from pointing forward to crossing each other. They crossed exactly when he walked over the pipe and then uncrossed when he was past it.

I didn't believe any of it, so he handed them to me. Like a fool ( I felt like one, holding two pieces of wire walking around), I took them and repeated what he had done. Damned if they didn't cross exactly the same way. I could back up slowly and they would move slowly at the same time, crossing when over the pipe.

I took this situation to school. A professor listened and proposed we try some tests. All in all.... our conclusion was that you can call it bunk, but if you were thirsty, you could find water pipes easily.

I have not found much REAL data on the subject. My own theories about why the wire worked wouldn't jive with sticks or plastics.... While I didn't believe in it scientifically I can honestly say, if I were dying of thirst and had to find water underground in a pipe(lol) you'd find me with some coat hangers and a glass.

Warren Sansoucie
IMCA #3174
St. Louis MO

> From: clp at alumni.caltech.edu
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:44:53 -0600
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Stop Naysaying! (Was: Try divining rods over a large iron)
>
> Actually, new ideas that are RIGHT have generally been accepted fairly
> quickly. It is a myth of the pseudoscientist that so many great minds have
> been considered wrong or crazy, and that the establishment has usually been
> wrong. It is entirely appropriate that new ideas be viewed with some
> skepticism before they are accepted, however.
>
> In fact, it is science that tells us very clearly that divining rods do not
> work. This is something that has been put to the test, and failed that test.
> Nobody can actually demonstrate that they work any better than random
> chance. Only a fool would ignore that reality in favor of quotes (some of
> dubious origin).
>
> Divining rods, homeopathy, astrology... all these things are firmly in the
> same category.
>
> Chris
>
> *****************************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 1:32 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Stop Naysaying! (Was: Try divining rods over a
> large iron)
>
>
> Chris, I fully support the eviction of superstition from the human mind.
> BUT... Non believers and naysayers of radical ideas are typically,
> historically, and statistically, often wrong!
>
> People said the Wright brothers couldn't fly. But they did.
> People said you would die if you went faster than a few tens of MPH.
> They were wrong.
> People disbelieved DaVinci's inventions. But modern science proved many
> to be possible.
> People said it wasn't possible to fly to the Moon. Be we did.
> People slammed Tesla, and persecuted him and his free wireless
> electricity. Yet today we know induction charging and energy
> transmission over distance is real.
>
> "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -
> Thomas Edison
>
> "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're
> right." - Henry Ford
>
> "Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers." - General Colin Powell
>
> "...The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not
> expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is
> like that of the planter ? for the future. His duty is to lay the
> foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. He lives and
> labors and hopes...." Nikola Tesla
>
> Thomas Jefferson, with such a great mind on politics and human
> advancement still had problems and could be considered a naysayer when
> he said.
>
> "I would more easily believe that a Yankee professor would lie than that
> stones would fall from heaven." - Thomas Jefferson
>
> Closedmindedness is the enemy of progress.
>
> Regards,
> Eric
>
>
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Received on Thu 14 Oct 2010 04:53:15 PM PDT