Heh Shiri's whale avatar isn't working *poke*

Yeah, I stopped using it a few months ago, and went back to the badger.

I think if this box were proved to actually be able to "predict" future events, and after further research, I am sure that there would be many desires to actually want to apply this "box" into practical use. Also, even when how this box operates may be debateable, I am not sure if it is a real hoax... or at the very least it would be a phenomena that many intelligence communities may want to research on, if the "box" has any form of validation. Maybe this box is the manifestation of somekind of "sixth sense" attributed to animals, capable of perceiving undetectable things that may announce a nearing "catastrophe". Though, I am just speculating here as you may surely notice.

I thought the sixth sense attributed to animals was discovered to merely be the way they, for example, get panicky just before an earthquake because of...I don't know, being more able to sense tremors et al. than us?

Yeah, but they arent sure exactly what they detect. Changes in the environemnt, changes of pressures, vibrations, what? I remember reading somewhere, that some animals may start evacuating areas sometime before an event. All I can say is that obviosly animals have a higher awarness than humans. So, this box could somehow function as the same way of this awarness. It could be proven if it keeps being consistant with it's results on the faces of events.

I could say that was due to me playing Aetolia at the time. Or maybe it was because I was annoyed that I was at work.

Maybe some martion flapped its wings on mars, causing interstellar radiation to cause the maching to fluctuate.

I think any scientific studies that prove we have a collective mind is good. Whether it is helpful or not, maybe proof of this would bring the world closer? It's certainly a nice thing to believe, that we are all connected.

I'm as close as I want to be to every other random stranger, thanks anyway (yes, i'm starting to overuse that emoticon)

True science, not the majority of the crap you see these days which are too mixed in with university/commercial politics and funding issues, doesn't try to bunk or debunk anything. Its simply the recurring cycle of noticing something, stating possible explanations, designing experiements to test your hypothesis, and repeating this over until you have a theory. Which is then debunked later on as someone sees something else, etc, etc.

You'll find, that in 'true science', they don't /care/ about religion. Not because its practiced by a bunch of kooky mystics, but because it doesn't fit in their experiment-based universe. Its all fine and good fto say that the scientists are trying to nullify the beliefs held by people but, in the end, they're looking for experimentally validated proof. And the majority of "religious beliefs" are just that - beliefs. Faith in that what you're being told holds true.

Its not wrong. Its not right, but I think such skepticism is required in order to do /science/. Whether scientists or religion was "right" isn't the question - its the path you take to get there thats interesting.

That said, *puff*, there is a /lot/ of edge unexplained stuff floating out there. Like, for example, these random number generators that always go a bit skewed. Ignore all of the random stuff thats thrown out there - the /data/ is important. They have this /thing/ that they're throwing random ideas around with. They need to sit down, come up with a few possible hypotheses and test them experimentally. In doing so, they'll start to understand the process a little more, they'll need to think up nifty devices and new ways of thinking. At the end of the day it might be related to something completely amusing - like, for example, the interaction with humans and the 50hz AC background hum which throws the timers off - but the path they've taken to get to that answer is just as beneficial as getting the answer.

Rant over. In summary - if you're ever bored of IRE games, you'll find a whole world of kooky ideas and reproducable but unexplanable 'things' which, for the most part, are swept under the rug. Like, why its not taking the predicted time to talk to the probes out there in the solar system. Or these random number generators. Or, casting your mind back 100 years ago, how everyone thought physics was wrapped up and all they needed was a decent explanation for blackbody radiation and why, unexplicably, some strange composites were generating electricity but said electricity wasn't varying with light intensity.. read this to see where that led.