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Vintage British woo.

Big Les

Philosopher
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I've been looking at the British Pathe archive online, and if anyone is still labouring under the misapprehension that irrationality is anything new in the modern era, take a look at these;

Dowsing for a missing child - including the horrific claim by one dowser that he'd found the ashes of said child :mad:
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=33304

Some seriously old school ghost hunting and mediumship;
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=47750
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=34709
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=43092

More of my recent fixation - archaeological dowsing, this time at the Tower of London!
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=66590
The guy doing it is Major C.A. Pogson, official water diviner to the Bombay Government. Amazing.

...and a whole raft of water divining videos;
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=47695
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=18917
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=2410
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=38176
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=48122
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=2411

And finally, for the 'takes the biscuit' award, some 'Clairvoyant Fishing';
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=632

There may be more besides.
 
That'd be a cooler site were I a Brit and knew the best search terms. Looked up "The Ashes" and knew I was screwed.
 
Big Les said:
I've been looking at the British Pathe archive online, and if anyone is still labouring under the misapprehension that irrationality is anything new in the modern era, take a look at these
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I seriously doubt that there are many people labouring under that misapprehension.
 
wollery said:
I seriously doubt that there are many people labouring under that misapprehension.
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Agreed, though there is often talk of a resurgence, as though it had ever died down in the meantime. This idea was implicit in Dawkins' 'Enemies of Reason'.
 
Big Les said:
Agreed, though there is often talk of a resurgence, as though it had ever died down in the meantime. This idea was implicit in Dawkins' 'Enemies of Reason'.
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I think it's just that the advent of mass media and the internet allow it to be spread more easily. But anyone who buys into some woo because they read it on the internet would find some other woo in the absence of the internet.

I think that sentence makes sense. :covereyes
 
gtc said:
Are you sure you are not British? That is the way it usually goes for them.
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Didn't get this before the Wiki search. Always have been a sucker for our Antipodean guests. ;)
 
wollery said:
Well, if you want to get picky about it, it's English and Welsh.
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So neither the English NOR the Welsh can play Cricket? :p

I hate that website. It's like my old college library, where I had request a specific book from the card catalog because nobody was allowed into the stacks. I didn't then, nor do I now, know exactly what I'm looking for but know it will be within a couple shelves of something specific.
 
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