Messages

Agreed - there's nothing sadder than a kids toy that hasn't been played with. I hate the idea of a parent telling a child "keep it in its box it'll be worth something someday". My happiest find was an ex library copy of batman long Halloween that some kid had 'recoloured' and added more speech balloons. "Hiya sexy want to have sex" was batman's added caption on meeting poison ivy. Priceless! Kids deface and rip up your comics! If they are any good Hachette will reflog them to you when you are middle aged!

My all time favourite book is a Led Zeppelin biography called "Hammer Of The Gods". Not the book itself, which was trashy sensationalist garbage, but the copy in Chesterfield library. Someone had gone through it tippexing all the Jimmy Page sex stuff out of it, someone else had tried to chip it off, a few other people had commented on the censorship, until about two-thirds of the way through, where someone had scrawled "OH MY GOD YOU STUPID BASTARD STOP DOING THIS". I wish I still had that book.

Maybe we can move on with our lives now?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/21/no-link-between-mmr-and-autism-major-study-concludes

"Retromania" by Simon Reynolds

It's been sat on my shelf for years, thought I'd best read it before it became retro itself. Really good too.

Be patient though. After tonight, I'll be AFK until early next week, which should give Famous Mortimer plenty of time to prepare a witty "Photoshopped!" or "Visual pareidolia!" response. 

Yes, I'm definitely the only person who thinks this is all a load of rubbish.

I don't think I need to say anything about whatever you'll be posting next (photos of spectral anomalies? Really?) You just carry on, refusing to state your opinion or why those scientific analyses of EVP are wrong. You're doing my work for me!

You don't sound like you're trolling, more writing material for a late-night chat show monologue.

Could you list the issues and annuals you have?

If I had made a positive claim that an entity exists, I would have the responsibility of supplying supporting evidence, but before anyone considers I've used a reversed responsibility response, note that I haven't actually stated my position.

At the end of your post - the bit about the son identifying the voice of his mother - seems a fairly explicit "EVP is a real thing" statement. Why don't you actually, clearly state your position then, as you apparently haven't up to now?

What I have done here is present a selection of recordings and asked for forum members opinions on them.

They're examples of radio interference. That's it.

Even the hardened skeptic's pin-up poster boy Michael Shermer is broad-minded:

He's not my "poster boy", seems like sort of a dick to be honest. Here's where I would normally post the Wikipedia link to "ad hominem", but it seems you're allergic to websites that don't agree with you. Sorry about that.

Presenting a Wikipedia article as a source of referencing is a joke, right?

You were (and are) doing the classic troll's trick of pretending not to understand an extremely basic concept (in this instance, what science is).

Thanks for the link ...and thanks again, Wikipedia!

I'm really not sure who you're trying to convince here. You said you didn't like James Randi because he expects people to prove things to a reasonable standard; I gave you a list of other prizes available to people who can prove the "supernatural". If you have got evidence of people speaking to the dead (as the end of your post strongly indicates) then rather than waste your time asking the opinion of a bunch of strangers on a message board, perhaps you ought to be claiming one of those prizes and becoming one of the world's most famous people?

Sincerely now, thanks for the links. I've read through each and, to be honest, there's nothing new to me in their content. The cause of EVP remains inconclusive and continues to fascinate me.

Ah, the classic "this isn't new, therefore I can ignore it without bothering to tell anyone why".

Eighteen months ago I conducted a modern-day séance

As long as you're undecided on the issue!

"Joe! I was there for you!" was in response to "Do you have a message you wish to pass on?" This was recorded at the grave of a lady who had died at a young age and whose only son was named Joe. Upon hearing the voice, Joe (who was 60 years old at the time) identified it as that of his mother.

Well, that's enough evidence for me!

[Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films]

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films - a documentary about the straight-to-VHS kings of the 1980s-1990s rental store.  I assumed a lot of the films featured were just clumsily put together, but according to this, they were made by a guy - and later pair of guys - whose first language wasn't English and who constantly and disastrously misunderstood the US market they were trying to crack.  Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were obsessed by making movies, but had more enthusiasm than common sense and by the time they got good advice about their projects the movies were almost finished shooting - hence Superman 4.  It's fascinating stuff, if only to see the empire they built on flim-flam and the near-incidental creation of the 1980s home video rental market that in turn impacted hugely on Hollywood because by the time big-budget movies got to the video stores they were on an even playing field with anything that had a poster hanging on the wall.

I did a review of this for mine / my friend's site:

http://iscfc.net/2015/01/08/electric-boogaloo-the-wild-untold-story-of-cannon-films-2014/

Reading it back, it's a bit all over the place (my review), but I did do some original research on the guy who really got my goat.

An aged Ford does not mean that he isn't a replicant with the four year kill switch turned off.

Those self-ageing robots will be the death of us all.

I'm not entirely sure female bodies bend that way.

I think these days, if you haven't offended someone on the internet, then you've failed as an artist.

I'd say that the people you offend is the crucial thing - do you go for groups who already get stomped on on a daily basis (Muslims, gays, the disabled) or do you aim for harder targets? Miller has spent much of his later career punching down.

So if Harrison Ford is starring, and is clearly aged, does this mean Dekkard ISN'T a replicant then?!

It means "who cares, money!!!!"

Eurgh. There are a million great sci-fi ideas, why try and mess with this one? The sole motivation is money, and the sole marks for this particular scam are us.

I'm growing disgusted with the modern movie industry. Read 10 random issues of 2000AD. Chances are good that in one of those will be an idea better than "hey, let's do a sequel to Blade Runner".

Didn't mean to sound adversarial, but if we're talking being unhelpful, then linking to a site which takes the showrunner's word as gospel and ignores the awful ratings, the lukewarm critical response and the fact it didn't get a "back nine" order, isn't exactly all that helpful either.

The political issues you mentioned wouldn't be issues if the show had done well or had more of a fanbase.

If I watched all those GOT episodes now, for example, it'd be forever to wait for episode 5. Seems foolish.