Reality shopping; a consumer's guide to new age hokum

Reality Shopping A Consumer's Guide to New Age Hokum

Another innovation: downtown, SkyTrain goes through an abandoned railroad tunnel, the guideway stacked into two tiers to handle trains in both directions.Both systems are electric-powered, use standard-gauge steel rails atop an elevated guideway to eliminate street crossings, and can add or drop cars as needed.Boon to commutersAbout the size of a city bus, each SkyTrain car can seat 40 passengers with standing room for another 35.Linear induction motors (LIM) have replaced conventional rotary motors. Instead of spinning a drive shaft connected to wheels to propel cars, LIMs create a magnetic field between cars and rails by alternating surges of electrical current. But the power surges are not in step, and it's this out-of-phase magnetic attraction that pulls each train down the tracks. Far less friction occurs between wheels and rails, reducing wear and maintenance.Commuters don't have to worry about missing a train; another will be along soon. Riders can board trains every 4 minutes between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. Less frequent service continues to 1 A.M. Two-minute service starts in October.Transfer tickets allow combined travel throughout the entire metropolitan area by bus, train, and SeaBus (the passenger-only ferry from Waterfront Station across Burrard Inlet to North Vancouver).A new era of public transportation began in the Northwest in January as the sleek red, white, and blue trains of the region's first rapid-transit system began whistling down the tracks in Vancouver, B.C.What is automated light rapid transit?One-way fares range from 50 cents to $1.75 Canadian. Automated ticket machines accept $1 and $2 Canadian bills and all Canadian and U.S. coins except pennies, and will make change.Almost everyone with a paranormal theory to tout, I have discovered, is unwilling to scrutinize the phenomenon. Whatever the claim, chances are he won't examine it closely even when he gets an excellent chance to do so. I get the impression that, deep down, paranormal claimants are afraid they'll see there's nothing there. Because science, the art of looking carefully to determine the truth, is precisely what they're afraid of, they'll reject its ability to assess their claim, perhaps with a snide reference to the inadequacy of "linear, left-brain, Western science."SkyTrain is computer controlled, the longest fully automated system in North America. Compared to underground subways and standard railroads (heavy rail), its cars and guideway are "light,' saving construction cost.The new rapid transit offers tourists the chance to enjoy the city without traffic and parking hassles. Closest station to the U.S. border (at Blaine) is the New Westminster terminus, on Columbia Avenue at the foot of Eighth Street.

When my father was investigating mediums, they often claimed that the spirits would stay away if there was a skeptic in the room. So if an investigator frisked the medium for gadgets, the spirits would fail to materialize. This is a very convenient explanation for why paranormal phenomena disappear when someone looks closely, and it is invoked in many ways by New Age theorists. The Amazing Randi is strongly disliked by the modern parapsychological community, and quite unwelcome at psychic demonstrations because of this "skeptics effect." A simpler explanation for why something isn't there when you look carefully is that it isn't there at all. Beware of anyone who says you mustn't look closely.

Author: Alan M. MacRobert