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.

Dealing with news stories about hauntings is difficult. There is an ongoing complaint from skeptics that I think is true; reporters and editors will do stories about hauntings with no critical treatment at all because they view the stories as fun, human interest entertainment. The problem is that this gives an air of fact to the stories and makes them seem to be real.

I think this trend is worsening because of the prevalence of the ghost hunter TV shows. Those are seen to be entertainment, but still “reality TV”. It’s very misleading and it encourages the public to accept stories of hauntings and ghosts as fact without applying any critical thinking at all.

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.