nPostednon January 29, 2015
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Today’snfamous birthday was a scientist and author who delved into so manynthings I’m interested in: physics, quantum mechanics, cosmology,nphilosophy, and skepticism / pseudoscience! n
Today’snfamous birthday was a scientist and author who delved into so manynthings I’m interested in: physics, quantum mechanics, cosmology,nphilosophy, and skepticism / pseudoscience! nn
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nBornnin New Jersey on this date in 1935, Stenger died last year. But whatnhe explored during his 79 years included the very, very teeny and thenmind-numbingly huge, the beginning of time and the ending of thenuniverse.
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| Stenger worked on furthering our knowledge about things like quarks and gluons. |
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nAndnif you don’t count all that grand sweep of ideas that Stengernexplored, you can also look at the explorations he did right here onnEarth: His study of physics took him from New Jersey to Los Angeles,nto Hawaii, and to visiting positions at universities in Colorado,nGermany, England, Italy, and Japan. Also, Stenger became a publicnspeaker and promoted his books, science, and skepticism all over!
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nHerenis an example of some of Stenger’s work for skepticism. In 1990 henwrote a book called Physics and Psychics: The Search for a WorldnBeyond the Senses. In that book, Stenger examined claims by wellnknown psychics – claims about extrasensory perception (ESP) andnparanormal activity, things unknown and unseen – and he explainednhow each of those claims could be explained with scientificnprinciples that have the benefit of tons of testing and evidence tonback them up. There is no need to resort to the supernatural when youncan explain things with the natural.
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nOne of the psychics whosentricks Stenger explained was Uri Geller. Geller was famous fornsupposedly bending spoons with his mind. But really he is just annillusionist or magician—and other magicians such as James Randineasily demonstrate the exact same tricks that Geller relies upon.
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nGellerndidn’t like being revealed as a fake in Stenger’s book, so thenso-called psychic sued both Stenger and the publishers. However, thencase was dismissed, and Geller was ordered to pay legal fees ofnnearly $50,000!
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nStengernalso worked hard to decouple (separate) quantum physics from thensilliness that people keep spewing about life on the universe –nstuff they SAY comes from quantum physics but that really comes fromntheir misunderstanding of quantum physics. Examples of that sillinessninclude the movies What the Bleep Do We Know? and ThenSecret, as well as the book The Secret. Stenger helpednshow why these movies and book are incorrect about the power of thenmind.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nThomasnPaine Day
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nNationalnPuzzle Day
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nFlightnpioneer Lawrence Hargrave’s birthday
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nGeologistnFrederick Mohs’s birthday
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nJanuaryn holidays
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in January
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nFebruaryn holidays
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nFebruaryn birthdays
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