Today, I have encountered what could very well be the Dutch patient zero. I saw an emo. In Alkmaar. An emo in The Netherlands.

You know what this means right?

It has found a way to cross the Atlantic. It has found a way beyond the border of the United States, into Europe. No longer is the emo issue a domestic American problem - oh no. This is now an international problem.

Where is the Threshold plan when you need it? I want Molly!

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I just had one of the weirdest experiences ever.

Here I was, watching the evening news/discussion program, about the Dutch military effort in Afghanistan. At the same time, I’m browsing OSNews, reading/making comments. All of a sudden, my ears pick up some faint static - the static a radio produces when it is in AM mode. My ears are extremely keen, so even the faintest of noises make it to my brain.

Anyway, the static turned louder, and all of a sudden, I heard voices. I could clearly hear a German woman speaking about “Korea”. It was difficult to make out individual words, but from the woman’s intonation I could make out it was a news programme. I immediately muted my TV, and located the sound from the speakers of my Apple Cube (my main computer). My first response was to see if there were any audio ads in Safari - but I was browsing OSNews, and we don’t run audio ads (I’d go on strike if we did).

I grabbed the (non-cordless) remote control to my Creative iTrigue speaker set, and max’d out the volume. The static and the woman’s voice undulated, from loud, to faint, and back again, for a few times - until it disappeared. Flabbergasted, I sat there. In the back of my head, that Mythbusters episode about that woman receiving radio signals through her teeth popped up. I swiftly fired up Google, and it promptly gave me a reply.

Thank you Google, for reassuring me I’m not going crazy.

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Our former Secretary of Finance Gerrit Zalm (one of the best secretaries, in any field, we ever had; great guy, too) summed up pretty well why I simply do not believe miracles, crop circles, alien visits, conspiracy theories, or other forms of mass hysteria. He said it during a discussion about a popular TV program here where people who have experienced miracles can tell their tale.

There are 16 million people in this country, 365 days, each of which has 24 hours. Coincidences are bound to occur.

Well said, Mr Zalm. Six billion people + enough time = a whole lot of nonsense.

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On the National Geographic Channel I’m watching this documentary about how aliens have supposedly sparked the early civilisations of man. Because, how on earth were the Egyptians capable of building those pyramids? How did the large pyramids in South America get built? I mean, they were savage, stupid beings, right?

No, you arrogant morons. The ancient Egyptians were exactly the same as us. They had the same brain size, the same mental capabilities as we have. They were not “dumber” than we are today. A Homo Sapiens Sapiens is a Homo Sapiens Sapiens, whether it lives now, or 4000 years ago. This means that if we can grasp something, so can they. I find it highly arrogant to think that our ancestors were too dumb to build the pyramids.

Imagine 5000 years from now. Archeologists discover the Petronas Towers. I can just see the nutjobs of that era going, hey, how did they build that with their limited technology? Aliens must have helped them!

Pathetic.

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I want to talk to you about a scientific principle from the 14th century. This principle is called Ockham’s Razor, and it explains that if you have two different theories capable of explainging the same event or phenomenon, the simplest one is usually the correct one. Most people (including myself, actually) got to know this principle via the film ‘Contact’.

Yesterday was 9/11. There are two theories concerning this event. One says the attacks were staged by the United States government, meaning the US gov. has been working for years, with thousands of people, companies, airlines, explosives experts, controlled demolition experts, politicians, the military, etc. without any of them ever leaking any kind of information to the outside world. The US gov. would be willing to kill thousands of innocent people in order to justify going to war with Iraque.

The second theory says that a bunch of brilliant idiots came up with the relatively simple plan of hijacking a few planes and fly them into important buidings, causing mass hysteria and terror.

Back to Ockham’s Razor. You get my point?

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Of course I’m not even going into the fact that almost all claims made by our black helicopter-loving friends have been refuted [.wmv] using scientific research, in particular research by Dutch controlled demolition experts, aeronautic engineers, and scientists from the Technical University in Delft.

A random set of exmaples: the black helicopter people say that the turn the plane that crashed into the Pentagon made was impossible, the plain would fall apart. Nonsense; aeronautic engineers in The Netherlands put inexperienced pilots in Boeing 757 simulators, and made them do the turn; they all succeeded. Scientists from the TU Delft calculated that the maximum amount of G forces experienced during this maneouvre did not surpass 1.5G. You experience more in your car.

Secondly, the claim that controlled demolition was used to destroy the WTC: the controlled demolition experts explained that the building started coming down EXACTLY where the planes hit; it did not look like controlled demolition AT ALL. The fact that the tower who got hit later came down first was because that plane hit lower, meaning more weight of the tower pressed upon the sore spot of the tower, making it come down earlier. The scientists from the TU Delft calculated that the amount of energy of the planes and the crashes were enough to bring down the towers.

And so every argument was torn apart by people who actually know what they are talking about.

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People who believe in these 9/11 conspiracies, as with all other conspiracies, are moronic idiots. “omg wtf lolololol theres a movie on t3h 1nt3rnet, it must be true roxx0rs!”

Look boys and girls, I detest the current US gov. as much as the next guy, but they will not kill innocent Americans like this. To even think that, is completely moronic, and if you believe in nonsense like this, you are ripe for the men in white coats.

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I want to talk to you about a scientific principle from the 14th century. This principle is called Ockham’s Razor, and it explains that if you have two different theories capable of explainging the same event or phenomenon, the simplest one is usually the correct one. Most people (including myself, actually) got to know this [...]
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