Scotto's Wall Scrawls

Taking a short week this time, Thursday and Friday off to celebrate the b'day.

Dan wants to go see that documentary about Indigo children, I might or might not go with. He really *wants* to believe in kids with special, possibly supernatural abilities (like laying on of hands helaing, etc)... I'd be fascinated to see some empirical evidence. Surprisingly, he was a little taken aback at my skepticism, and mentioned (I paraphrase, because I don't remember his quote exactly) - "Well, it's a commonly held belief in Christian circles that there is a kid in Vietnam that can cure folks by touch". I got a bit snarky with him, and replied that it was also a commonly held belief with those folks that after about six weeks of rain, the entire planet was underwater except for one guy's family and a boatload of animals. Just because a lot of people believe something isn't enough for me to go along with it "just because". At least give me a little math and something to work with.

I'm perfectly willing to believe that cool weirdness is out there, but I'd like to test it before just saying some magic kid can cure disease and see the future.

[later, after doing a bit of google-sniffing]

Upon doing a little cursory research, it sounds like a likely explanation is a "New Age" apologist way of excusing a child's bad behavior. Just because a kid is hyperactive or gifted doesn't mean that they're a Dalai Lama.

Dan must've overheard a little snippet from somewhere. He can't possibly buy into this stuff, being a teacher and having some observational skills. Despite their claims to the contrary, no proponent of "indigo children" has ever provided a single piece of verifiable evidence to support their claims. The stuff I've come across so far is up there with nonsense like other psychic healer stuff. The biggest proponent of this hubbub is a "channeller" who claims to be in contact with an alien named Kryon who speaks and shares knowledge through a human host.

I wonder if this'll be the next self-diagnosed "asperger's syndrome" / "otherkin" in that a bunch of socially retarded people will flock to the description and use it as an excuse to define why they behave badly, and view themselves as better/more intelligent/etc than other folks.

My preliminary opinion : The "Indigo Child phenomenon" is a crock. I'm actually a little annoyed that I spent 15 minutes doing research on something so ridiculous... and I have no issues searching the web for pictures of monkeys with guns or David Hasselhoff singing "Hooked on a Feeling". I almost wonder if Danny planted that seed on purpose to yank my chain a little bit.

Ah well, at least I can speak intelligently on the subject if it decides to pop up in conversation with some of my more mystically-oriented associates . I was really hoping for some good information on common themes of child prodigies.

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Moment of Lyric : (youtube movie here, thanks to instantloser)


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(cowbell)

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Best quote heard yesterday via ilenebook -"Don't think of yourself as an ugly person, just a beautiful monkey."

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1 year ago - Mel out of hospital, AVG good, Mona booboo, gene kelly vw ad, oddball personal names list, beach place cam

2 years ago - Key west, Antarctica dollars, new matter, noting some filter styles for the heck of it.

3 years ago - cool dream, birthday poll, Phrases I use/have passed on, got a jornada (it retired early)

4 years ago - gold star, lego horror, haiku, tattoo poll, Random phone message memory, happy things

5 years ago - fat albert, SOP, Friends list fluke, mocha, QotD

testing a new map

http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/mallrisk.htm

ok?

I appreciate all the folks that care, but the "Girl receives letter from her disappeared Afghan boyfriend saying terrorists are going to strike at U.S. malls on Halloween." is a hoax.

I didn't know you, but you will be missed by many. Strong Journey.

I think it's kind of funny that some folks take what they hear without researching it, and automatically assign truth to it. (I'm not pointing fingers, as I have fallen victim to a few hoaxes in my own time... only after looking it up to prove I was right, did I realise... well... no, that email someone sent me was not true, and Abe Vigoda isn't dead.... or whatever.)

Here's one that I've gotten probably 50 times, and it is patently untrue. It's so ridiculous, that well, it almost sounds like it would be legit.

***snip***

This is Very Disturbing - This was sent to me so I'm just sharing the information.

KFC has been a part of our American traditions for many years. Many people, day in and day out, eat at KFC religiously. Do they really know what they are eating? During a recent study of KFC done at the University of New Hampshire, they found some very upsetting facts.

First of all, has anybody noticed that just recently, the company has changed their name? Kentucky Fried Chicken has become KFC. Does anybody know why? We thought the real reason was because of the "FRIED" food issue. It's not. The reason why they call it KFC is because they can not use the word chicken anymore. Why? KFC does not use real chickens.

They actually use genetically manipulated organisms. These so called "chickens" are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure. They have no beaks, no feathers, and no feet. Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them. This is great for KFC because they do not have to pay so much for their production costs. There is no more plucking of the feathers or the removal of the beaks and feet.

The government has told them to change all of their menus so they do not say chicken anywhere. If you look closely you will notice this. Listen to their commercials, I guarantee you will not see or hear the word chicken. I find this matter to be very disturbing. I hope people will start to realize this and let other people know.

Please forward this message to as many people as you can. Together we make KFC start using real chicken again.

** end snip.

It has all the hallmarks of a hoax... the evil corporate conspiracy, the authoritative sounding reference to a university study and, of course, the plea for grassroots action by forwarding "this message to as many people as you can." It plays on the concerns that have been raised over genetically altered produce and from a theoretical standpoint is almost plausible. However, that is a very big "almost." Two things about this hoax jumped out at me immediately as I read it for the first time. The first was that if the University of New Hampshire had really done a study such as this I wouldn't be hearing about it for the first time in a forwarded e-mail... it would have made the front page of the newspaper and CNN's Headline News. This is true of many hoaxes, if they were real the media would jump all over them. That alone convinced me this was a hoax, but then when it went on to say "I guarantee you will not see or hear the word chicken" in KFC's advertising I thought "then what's that stuff they keep saying they do right?" One thing is for sure, the person who wrote this doesn't do rumors right... it fell apart from the start. However, as far as rumors go, it was amusing. Had the author implicated McDonalds' burgers I may have been inclined to believe it. *g*