Photo from: http://www.joystiq.com

Of course CNN talks about the applications suggested in big budget sci-fi movies like Avatar and the Matrix, and the perfunctory various medical applications.

But to be honest, if it follows the course of other technologies, I see the first practical commercial applications of the technology being applied to porn or games (or porn games, like these, because I’m betting the Japanese will be the first to make it work anyway). In fact,the manufacturers of the Emotiv Epoc claim to already have a device that allows the user to control games with their mind. How well this device actually works though hasn’t quite been established yet, with those viewing demos of the tech often less than impressed. But this is how the technology will end up being developed; by selling high-priced, low value toys and gimmicks to those eager early adopters.

Then, after enough people have telepathically pawed their digital harem of anime girls or bought the expensive peripheral with the Men Who Stare at Goats video game and want to do something else with it, it will filter down to other games, the controls will be refined, and then the technology will finally be cheap and reliable enough for it to be viable for giving the average amputee without unlimited funds the ability to scratch his or her own ass make their own pot of coffee in the morning.

So instead go check out this new MMO under development by Funcom (the folks who brought us the Age of Conan MMO). Set in the modern world, it’s based on the premise that, besides the everyday world we all know, a Secret World of demons, monsters,  and shadowy secret societies and conspiracies exists and exerts a very real influence on the “real” world.

You can read more about it, from folks who know more about it than I do, at Kotaku here, here, and here.

Dowsing Talks in Texas with Remote Viewer Paul Smith:

Folks–

Here’s a heads-up.  I will be giving a presentation on dowsing in two different locations this coming week.  The talk will be “The Remote Viewing/Dowsing Connection,”  And I will be giving it on the following days at the following locations:

AUSTIN
Austin Metal Detecting Club
Thursday, 14 May 2009, 7 PM.  Address:

Woodlawn Baptist Church
4600 Manchaca Blvd.
Austin, TX  78745

Website:  www.amdconline.com/Meetings.htm
______________________

HOUSTON
Lone Star Dowsers Dowsing Conference
Friday, 15 May 2009, 1:30 PM .  Address:

Days Hotel at 500 N. Sam Houston Parkway, Houston, Tx.  77060
Website:  www.dowsersmayconference.com

If you’re around, come on by!

Best wishes,

Paul
(Paul H. Smith)
www.rviewer.com

I’m going to try and start a new tradition around here. Every Thursday we’re going to post random links to strange tid-bits in the news that you may have missed, may have seen elsewhere, or may know more about than any of us could begin to.

I’ll need your help to keep on task.

Sometimes there will be a theme. If I can’t come up with a cohesive theme, it’ll just be random. The point is, here are some weird things that I don’t have the time or inclination to write a full article about, but they’re interesting.

Hope you enjoy:

We’ll start with a little news of feng-shui impeding international relations in Hong Kong. These sorts of beliefs, straddling a line between sciences and superstitions, have always fascinated me. Asian traditional medicine is full of this. The Doctrine of Signatures, for instance, that says because a food is kidney shaped it is good for the kidneys, colon shaped it is good for the colon, etc. These ideas were abandoned in the west long ago, and while we may at times scoff at macrobiotic classification of foods as yin and yang, the healing aspects of such diets are well-documented, as are the effects of ayurvedic remedies, acupuncture, etc.  It’s also interesting to note that “pseudo-sciences”, such as dowsing, are considered legitimate means of scientific investigation in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (see Jacques Vallée’s Ufo Chronicles of the Soviet Union : A Cosmic Samidzat for examples).

In the same vein of superstition, but on the more primitive end of the spectrum, we have this report of a witch/goat accused of armed robbery in Nigeria. Naturally, culture dictating norms, the goat is being held in custody until the story can be confirmed.

Jumping back to the former Soviet Union, we have this story, one some western scientist are sure to raise an eyebrow at, of a man with a tree found growing inside his lung.

And finally, just because I thought it was adorably hillarious (and because I have a weak spot for facial hair) we have this story of a finely mustachioed horse from Gloucestershire in the UK.

Enjoy!

Now here’s something that sounds like a truly unique local event…

For anyone interested in all things parapsychological, check out former military psychic remote viewer Paul Smith’s upcoming “Dowsing For Your Dead” presentation for the Austin Genealogical Society.

Paul says, “It is an introduction and overview of how dowsing could be used to help search for ancestors’ final resting places.”

Paul is the author of Reading the Enemies Mind and wrote the Army’s manual for training people in the art of Remote Viewing.

Here are the details:

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Program: Dowsing For Your Dead

Presented by: Paul H. Smith

Where: Highland Park Baptist Church

5208 Balcones Drive, Austin, Texas

When: 6:30 P.M. Doors Open; 7:00 P.M. Meeting & Program Begin

Paul H. Smith – www.rviewer.com