XPost: sci.math   
   From: jesse@phiwumbda.org   
      
   JohnF  writes:   
      
   > In sci.math Jesse F. Hughes  wrote:   
   >> JohnF  writes:   
   >>> Sure, for near-death-but-not-dead out-of-body experiences, where you   
   >>> eventually get a chance to objectively interview the revived subject,   
   >>> controlled experiments are possible. Is it so hard to figure out how   
   >>> to interpret 0% success?   
   >>   
   >> On this, I disagree.  A large number of persons think that NDEs are   
   >> actual out-of-body experiences.  An experiment which repeatedly fails to   
   >> verify this claim seems useful -- far more useful than just saying that   
   >> the other side is too dogmatic and should cut it the heck out.   
   >   
   > Sure. Works for me. Be an investigator. Anybody capable, who feels   
   > there's something to all this, that's not been revealed by existing   
   > investigation, should absolutely go out and design their own   
   > better experiment. I'll absolutely accept any well-designed,   
   > well-interpreted, with repeatable results (to, say, three standard   
   > deviations), experiment. Go do it. But what you've got here is   
   > people asserting what they think the results of such experiments   
   > would reveal, without feeling the need to actually go do them.   
      
   I guess I'm not sure which people you're referring to here.   
      
   > And they're apparently pooh-pooh'ing the only available experiments   
   > with 0% success. So, yeah, I'd call that dogmatic -- asserting an   
   > opinion as if it were a fact. And they should "cut it the heck out" --   
   > shut up and go design and do some irrefutable experiment. I dare them.   
   > That'll put me in my place, all right. But until then, let them stay   
   > in their own place, i.e., they've got absolutely nothing.   
   >   
   >> But, on this, respectable folk can disagree.  And you were once   
   >> respectable folk.  Back before you sullied Romero's good name.   
   >   
   > Not that I'm `dissing Romero, just that flick had a pretty   
   > downbeat -- dare I say distasteful -- ending. For entertainment   
   > purposes, I preferred the "valley girl conquers all" ending.   
   > They even put that "driving off into the sunset" scene literally   
   > into the ending. Who said zombies can't be funny?   
      
   It was a perfect ending.  This isn't your stinkin' Hollywood "everything   
   is beautiful" pablum, man.  This is (zombie) reality!   
      
   And zombies can be funny.  Romero's zombies were funny, at times.   
   Ripping the man's arm off and feasting on his mutilated body while he's   
   having a blood pressure test?  Hilarious[1].  That's funny, man.   
      
   And "Shaun of the Dead"?  Brilliant, despite the fast zombies heresy.   
      
   And maybe your favorite movie is funny, too.  But it just don't compare   
   -- *can't* compare -- to the master, dammit.   
      
   Most historic site I've ever visited: the Monroeville Mall, in   
   Monroeville, PA.  Site of Romero's brilliant Dawn of the Dead.  I got   
   goosebumps every time I shopped there.   
      
      
   Footnotes:   
   [1]  I honestly wrote the word "gut-splittingly" and thought I'd never   
   be forgiven.   
      
   --   
   Jesse F. Hughes   
   "Anything was possible last night.  That was the trouble with last   
   nights.  They were always followed by this mornings."   
                                  --  Terry Pratchett, /Small Gods/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)