I propose a new Internet Law aimed specifically at the claims of paranormal believers.

Lou’s Law: One cannot invoke Quantum Mechanics in an argument or explanation unless one can show at least a basic, layman’s understanding of Quantum Mechanics. For example, one might explain what Planck’s Constant describes or the idea behind the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle or even list the “flavors” of Quarks.

This comes from hearing Quantum Mechanics mentioned in The Secret, bizarre explanations of how Astrology works, and a host of other paranormal crap. Specifically, I came across it again in reading this interesting article on the paranormal radio/phone called Frank’s Box.

I was listening to The Conspiracy Skeptic Podcast today. The host was talking about Moon Landing deniers and made the point that they are so blinded by their own misconceptions that they refuse to accept any evidence that doesn’t fit their own narrow world view. The basic question is “What would convince you to change your mind?”.  The host then went on to list a few things that he would consider evidence enough for him to believe that the moon landing was a hoax.  You can listen to the episode mp3 here in which he picks apart some claims made in the Phil Plait/Joe Rogan debate on the moon landing.

I came across this blog posting that seriously discusses what you should tell your kids if you live in a haunted house.

The really mind-boggling thing about the advice given is that the writer basically says to give as many natural explanations as possible for the natural occurrences ghost phenomena to the children so that the children will not be scared by the superstition knowledge that the house has ghosts. Basically, the author is saying that you should lie by giving natural explanations. Here look:

I came across this interesting article called, “Creating a Monster” on the randi.org page.  It briefly discusses the fact that different cultures view common supernatural beings or myths in different ways. The example given is that the traditional Japanese style of ghost has no legs. In the Western world, we have traditionally depicted ghosts with legs. These cultural norms then shape our perceptions. So if someone has an event occur in which they assume they have seen a ghost, they are most likely to report the look of the ghost to match their cultural expectations.

The Daily News Online ( a local newspaper in NY state) published this story today:

Seen a ghost? I think so! by Virginia Kropf

The story is fairly long so I’m going to cut and past sections of it here. I encourage you to read the whole thing to make sure I’m not cherry-picking.

The photo on the left is from her article. Click on it to see a larger version.

The text below in italics are by the newspaper wrtier Virginia Kropf. The regular text in between are my comments.

Some time ago, I had a number of friends in my  house. I was doing their FX make-up for a party. The oldest person (other than me) was 27, the rest were all 16 to 18 in age.

With that many people in the house, it was sorta chaotic and loud. I was doing the makeup in my dining room which is converted into my studio. The dining room opens onto the kitchen and the front room. The door to the basement is in the kitchen. The basement stairs are directly under the stairs that lead from the first floor to the second floor in the front room. I hope that all makes sense because it’s important to the story.

Yes, I know I can’t prove something doesn’t exist. But I can damn well say that if they did, we would know by now.

Psychics are frauds or seriously confused people.

The stories you hear about ghosts are either mistakes, dreams, mistaken dreams, or complete and utter lies.

I get into trouble when I say these things to people who desperately want to tell me about when they saw a ghost. I’ve never seen any evidence that is the least bit compelling about ghosts. After lots of reading of true believes and skeptics I realized there was just no debate. There was either “But, but, but, I felt this PRESENCE….” sorta statement or “You can’t tell me what I saw wasn’t real.” kinda defense.