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Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:28 pm
by ericbarbour
final side: I can attest to Farley's hateful personality, having seen his boiling rage meted out elsewhere. Like Susan Gerbic, and "Little Oliveoil" and TimidGuy, and their Divine Protectors SlimVirgin, Will Beback, Guy Chapman and Binksternet, Tim's socks were not happy just pointing out when Chopra or Sheldrake says something he thinks is "woo". They get on Wikipedia and get into the most hateful, stupid, petty kinds of revert wars.

AND THEY LIE ABOUT IT. The "Rules" don't apply to the Guerrilla Skeptics. Farley, especially, LIES LIKE A RUG.

Here's a little clod of dirt for you, Rome.

https://skeptools.wordpress.com/2013/12 ... -interest/
Because of my relationship to the James Randi Educational Foundation as a Research Fellow (starting in 2011), I personally avoid editing the biographies of James Randi, D.J. Grothe and the foundation itself. I advise other skeptics to also abide by this, and I very often find it necessary to remind people to never edit their own biography.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =761074636
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =744809878
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =712948023
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =674582267
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =589049608
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =589039551
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =589031825
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =589024990
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =586389634
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =586389492
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =586388609
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =480078914
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =462839271
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =438857073


And he had his OWN biography hand-written for him. By Susan Gerbic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =501497966

At one time John Hagelin was actually rated a "Good Article". Then in 2009, these little shits showed up and trashed it. Led by SlimVirgin and Will Beback. Even film director David Lynch was subjected to skeptic spluttering, because he practices TM.

I don't personally care what Chopra, or Sheldrake, or even Tim Farley believe. They can like whatever crap they want to like. The problem for me is when Farley openly uses Wikipedia to shit on people while being protected by notorious abusive administrators. AND venerates his hero James Randi. And then LIES about his role.

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 10:58 pm
by Strelnikov
D.J. Grothe (when he was involved with the James Randi Education Foundation) seemed to suffer from foot-in-mouth disease when it came to "Elevatorgate" : https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html (<---- it's paywalled). I think he also said dumb stuff on other occasions, but it "doesn't count now" because the JREF is dead and their messageboard is run by the "International Skeptics".....which is probably some guys in a basement somewhere.

Look at the number of living people who have burned through skepticism; off the top of my head I can name: Phil Plait (wanted to fight the UFOs because he's an astronomer, and UFOs drive astronomers apeshit), Susan Blackmore (neuroscientist [?], she wanted to fight claims of life after death and out-of-body incidents, was done with CSICOP by the late 1990s[?]), Kal K. Korff (UFO fighter with unknown science background, went right off the deep end, was/is allegedly scamming people in the Czech Republic*), Dennis Rawlins (astronomer who got roped into an early debunking of the statistical "Mars effect" by CSICOP, was bullied by James Randi and Phil Klass, wrote an expose of the affair in Fate magazine, still raging about it to this day.) It's a field where people burn out because they seem to be terrified of real social change, love science but are afraid of the next big discovery that will invalidate huge swathes of what we know, have a loathing of common people and their layperson understanding of science or economics or politics or whatever and thus are trapped between teaching them and fearing any misinformation they might spread. They hate conspiracy theories, but don't understand why they spread, hated the "paranormalism wave" of the 1970s-80s in media** and hate UFO websites online now. So they get fed up and quit, but it doesn't matter because CSI(COP) and Skeptic magazine train new cadres to replace the old ones, and the thing marches on like the religion it is.***



* https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread422063/pg1
Also this: http://www.ufowatchdog.com/kal_korf.htm <--- a better source

** The TV shows In Search of...., That's Incredible!, Ripley's Believe It or Not, UFO Digest the magazine, Fortean Times in the UK, Strange magazine, every TV digest show in the 1980s had the UFO or Bigfoot story (PM Magazine is a good example). Then when the Fox network came in the late 1980s, they brought to their channels the tabloid with Sightings in the early 1990s, a show about every odd thing going on from the bizarre humming in certain locations that allegedly had no source to crop circles to UFOs to local LA psychic Peter James (who may or may not be the author of a 1975 book titled The Air Force Mafia; if he was, then things were truly bizarre.)

*** God = Science.
Christ = any scientist who died or was maimed doing science.....Louis Slotin, Marie Curie, the brothers of Alfred Nobel.
The Bible = every decent book of Science: textbook, manual, etc.
Satanism = Everything I have written about here concerning the paranormal.
The Devil = Possibly me for questioning scientism, possibly J. Allen Hynek for going up against Blue Book.
Skeptics = The God-fearing.
The Masses = Possible converts.
Astrology = Witchcraft for Idiots.
Astronomy = A tool of the Lord and His prophet, Carl Sagan.

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 12:47 am
by ericbarbour
Strelnikov wrote:
Fri Dec 31, 2021 10:58 pm
D.J. Grothe (when he was involved with the James Randi Education Foundation) seemed to suffer from foot-in-mouth disease when it came to "Elevatorgate" : https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html (<---- it's paywalled). I think he also said dumb stuff on other occasions, but it "doesn't count now" because the JREF is dead and their messageboard is run by the "International Skeptics".....which is probably some guys in a basement somewhere.
Thanks. There's an archive of the article if you don't wanna give Bezos any money.

Yeah, I didn't even mention that, or the Michael Shermer mess, or several other recent skeptic scandals that are carefully purged from Wikipedia. We end up going off-topic.
Phil Plait (wanted to fight the UFOs because he's an astronomer, and UFOs drive astronomers apeshit)
Oh shit, here we go off the track again.

This reminds me--watched "Don't Look Up" last night. It started out half-decently but quickly turned into a twisted imitation of "Idiocracy" and "Network". DiCaprio tried to play a "responsible astronomer" yet ended up being dragged into the craziness. He gave a reasonable statement about life on other planets and had it twisted into "belief in UFOs". At one point he tried a bad Howard Beale imitation on live TV. And ended up in bed with Cate Blanchett. The cynic in me sez that perhaps humanity deserves to be destroyed by a damn space rock; we are so unimportant yet so concerned with our bloody "importance".

And PS, the director, Adam McKay, and screenwriter, David Sirota, have been fighting with people on Twitter about assorted bullshit. You may remember Sirota for his attacks on Hillary Clinton and all the Clintons in general, and for writing speeches for Bernie Sanders. He's also a "valued contributor" for The Fucking Guardian and let's not get into that shit. No wonder Sirota wrote "Don't Look Up"; he's the perfect nut for the job.

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 2:54 am
by ericbarbour
& now, back to "actual work"
screenshot-twitter.com-2021.12.31-18_52_31.png
screenshot-twitter.com-2021.12.31-18_52_31.png (22.45 KiB) Viewed 4176 times

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 7:14 am
by Strelnikov
David Sirota is David Sirota....The Baffler was not impressed with Don't Look Up: https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-told-you-so-bittle

Back to the skeptics, I think that it's been a 45+ year cul-de-sac for the humanists and the crypto-Logical Positivists, and taking these battles online has just made the look worse by shouting louder while doing a James Randi impression circa 1980.....RationalWiki fits that description, as does the Encyclopedia of American Loons (http://americanloons.blogspot.com) I've mentioned before. Screaming at people doesn't work. You can expose a dangerous cult, name the leaders, let abused ex-members speak -- it does not seem to kill the thing.....what does is lawsuits and long prison sentences, things that David "Dime-Store Nosferatu" Gerard* and "G.D." of EAL CANNOT hand out. And that's where Viharo comes in, because he is collateral damage in the endless artillery barrage from RationalWiki.


* Gerard's only saving grace in 2022 is that he wrote a book ripping cryptocurrencies and he speaks against all the 'coins (Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin, all the other little shitty scams) to the media when asked. He knows a scam when he sees one and that might be one or two of the things we might agree on.

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:53 pm
by Jake Is A Sellout
Strelnikov wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 7:14 am
* Gerard's only saving grace in 2022 is that he wrote a book ripping cryptocurrencies and he speaks against all the 'coins (Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin, all the other little shitty scams) to the media when asked. He knows a scam when he sees one and that might be one or two of the things we might agree on.
Well he seems to say/do the same shit about the Daily Mail as he does coins. But there's no book, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't speak to the media about them either (and he has surely been asked). The power of the law. British law anyway.

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:41 am
by Strelnikov
Jake Is A Sellout wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:53 pm
Strelnikov wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 7:14 am
* Gerard's only saving grace in 2022 is that he wrote a book ripping cryptocurrencies and he speaks against all the 'coins (Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin, all the other little shitty scams) to the media when asked. He knows a scam when he sees one and that might be one or two of the things we might agree on.
Well he seems to say/do the same shit about the Daily Mail as he does coins. But there's no book, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't speak to the media about them either (and he has surely been asked). The power of the law. British law anyway.
Here is Gerard talking to the anti-Nazi podcast I Don't Speak German about Bitcoin and the neo-Nazis running around in the crypto scene: https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/85- ... vid-gerard

Here is the book: https://www.amazon.com/Attack-50-Foot-B ... 7cdded8223

Here is his other book on crypto: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KK ... tkin_p1_i1

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:52 am
by ericbarbour
Jake Is A Sellout wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:53 pm
But there's no book
:lol:

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:31 am
by Jake Is A Sellout
q
Strelnikov wrote:
Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:41 am
Jake Is A Sellout wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:53 pm
Strelnikov wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 7:14 am
* Gerard's only saving grace in 2022 is that he wrote a book ripping cryptocurrencies and he speaks against all the 'coins (Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin, all the other little shitty scams) to the media when asked. He knows a scam when he sees one and that might be one or two of the things we might agree on.
Well he seems to say/do the same shit about the Daily Mail as he does coins. But there's no book, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't speak to the media about them either (and he has surely been asked). The power of the law. British law anyway.
Here is Gerard talking to the anti-Nazi podcast I Don't Speak German about Bitcoin and the neo-Nazis running around in the crypto scene: https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/85- ... vid-gerard

Here is the book: https://www.amazon.com/Attack-50-Foot-B ... 7cdded8223

Here is his other book on crypto: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KK ... tkin_p1_i1
I meant the Mail, obviously (as in, in context, for the benefit of Jake). Unlike Eric, I read prior posts properly before responding, and I generally know my shit.

Re: Aiki Wiki, Wikipedia We Have a Problem update

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:54 am
by WWHP
Jake Is A Sellout wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:53 pm
Strelnikov wrote:
Tue Jan 04, 2022 7:14 am
* Gerard's only saving grace in 2022 is that he wrote a book ripping cryptocurrencies and he speaks against all the 'coins (Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin, all the other little shitty scams) to the media when asked. He knows a scam when he sees one and that might be one or two of the things we might agree on.
Well he seems to say/do the same shit about the Daily Mail as he does coins. But there's no book, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't speak to the media about them either (and he has surely been asked). The power of the law. British law anyway.
I'm not sure. As a technologist myself, a designer, it is easy to see the appeal around various innovations of the blockchain, independent of any particular tokens and its sad to see innovation become a politicized argument.

The innovations have moved far beyond bitcoin and tokens and now there is an entire web3 digital governance DAO NFT decentralization explosion that is about to change the internet again, so it may be wise to keep an open mind. There is no question that these emerging networks are incredibly powerful solutions in many areas.

I've read Gerard's rants about crypto, and a lot of it just sounds like politicized arguments, making it a critique of some sort of libertarian or capitalist ponzi scheme. I think that is a very narrow view, while there is some truth, he skips any context that would contradict his biased political view, it also is more of a luddite perspective.

He has also failed every time he has predicted it would all fall apart, and now it has the largest market cap in the world.

He wants to be taken seriously as a crypto critic and journalist.