Do we live in a world where there is magic and meaning, or is it all just chance? Radiolab meets two young women who share a nearly unbelievable story of coincidence and fate. Then they consult with statisticians for a very different take on the same story.
This short audio documentary is charming and delightful.
A Lucky Wind won a Best Documentary: Honorable Mention Award in the 2009 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition as well as the 2009 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award (Radio Documentary).
[more inside]
posted by storybored
on Aug 25, 2010 -
92 comments
But remember, talking to the dead can be dangerous. "All peoples of earth posess this natural ability," says Nicole Zapruder, who has been communicating with the dead since she was 4 years old. People aren't disputing her ability to use the Grey Walter-Berger Neurophysical Construct for communicating with the dead. They're asking her not to share it online because the technique is too dangerous.
[more inside]
posted by destinyland
on May 11, 2008 -
69 comments
Fed up with old-fashioned boards and planchettes? Want to contact spirits the 21st century way? Try
iPod Ouija.
(not responsible for any possessions or nightmares. try at own risk.)
posted by divabat
on Oct 31, 2006 -
2 comments
You may not have heard of Jansenism. But on
May 1, 1727 one of its more prominent members, Francois de Paris, died. He was a popular fellow for his charitable works and lots of people visited his tomb. That's when things got weird. At first it was just a bunch of people claiming to have been cured of things like "cancerous tumors, paralysis, deafness, arthritis, rheumatism, ulcerous sores, persistent fevers, prolonged hemorrhaging, and blindness."
Then things started to get really
weird.
...The mourners also started to experience strange involuntary spasms or convulsions...the 'convulsionaires,' as they came to be called, displayed...the ability to endure without harm an almost unimaginable variety of physical tortures....
These events lasted years and were witnessed by thousands as well as commented on by the likes of David Hume and Voltaire. Louis-Basile Carre de Montgeron investigated it for the Paris Parliment and published
La Vérité des Miracles in three volumes detailing the events. The tortures were asked for by the convulsionaires. Montgeron details one time when while having an iron drill hammered into a convulsionaire's stomach he, "maintained an 'expression of perfect rapture,' crying, 'Oh, that does me good! Courage, brother; strike twice as hard, if you can!'"
posted by john
on Jul 23, 2004 -
11 comments
Fork-you! :: spend a rainy Saturday afternoon learning how to bend forks with your mind. Sort of.
posted by anastasiav
on Jul 10, 2004 -
4 comments
The X-Files TV series is officially over. Two years too late, probably. But the finale definately is in my list of favorite episodes. What are some of yours?
posted by gsteff
on May 19, 2002 -
44 comments
Belief in Astrology up 3% to 28% and belief in ghosts up 13% to 38%. I find the
new Gallup Poll on Americans' Belief in Psychic and Paranormal Phenomena depressing, but not surprising. Aren't we supposed to be headed in the other direction?
posted by quirked
on Jun 8, 2001 -
93 comments
Oooooh... they described a
burning sensation on the arm, and others
felt something touch their face and tug at their clothes. No, this is not some S&M fantasy. It's ghosts in Edinburgh. Scientists are looking into it.
posted by borgle
on Apr 19, 2001 -
5 comments
