#Penn & Teller Tell A Lie

[academicelephant]

If you want to see whether piranhas are dangerous or not (or Teller diving into an aquarium), watch this video!

#penn and teller #penn & teller tell a lie #penn jillette #teller #piranhas #fish #animals #biology #facts #Youtube

[icarusthelunarguard]

This Week’s Horrible-Scopes

It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along. It really doesn’t matter.

Aries  

AH, Malta! The smallest member of the European Union. Half-a-million people in the same area as Indianapolis or Surrey, British Columbia; the biggest difference is people WANT to stay in Malta. “Stuffat tal-Fenek” which is a Maltese rabbit stew is considered the national dish and it’s delicious! Indianapolis has Fried Bologna Sandwich while Surrey has Butter Chicken Pizza… which actually sounds worth trying! This week, make your own Butter Chicken Pizza! 

Taurus 

“Two wrongs don’t make a Right; Three Rights make a Left.” Remember that this week. You’ll feel lost, like you’re The Adventure Line from “The Stanley Parable”, but you WILL get where you’re going eventually. Enjoy the view, unless you’re the driver. 

Gemini  

There are a lot of colours that work together, and a lot that are of dubious pairing quality. Red next to Yellow can kill a fellow. Red next to Black is a friend of Jack. But Black and Gold could be a Bumble Bee, a Yellow Jacket, or a Christian Glam-Metal band from the 80’s. You don’t want to hear any of those in your ears while you’re outside working on your garden. 

Cancer Moon-Child 

If Spider-Man wanted to travel from his home in Forest Hills, Queens to the Empire State Building it would take him about 20 minutes by web-swinging, the “F” train would take just over half-an-hour, and driving his Spider-Buggy should only take 25 minutes… but  he’s a high school kid in Queens. Why the hell would he need an automobile? Look, it was 1973; the same year that brought us “Goober and the Ghost Chasers” and “The Brady Kids”. Don’t be overthinking things this week.

Leo 

Lot’s for you to get fixed this week. It’s too easy to get burned out, so start with the easiest item, then the hardest. Yeah, you’ll likely be upset or frustrated after that, but then you can work on the next easiest thing to cleanse your palate. The best part about it is that you’re not being graded this time. Not like that one time you tried to use leather dye on a white rabbit to make it brown.       

Virgo 

English is a weird language with weird ways of remembering the differences between similar words. For instance, “Cannon”, with two N’s is bigger than “Canon” with ONE N. Just remember that a ship-mounted gun is bigger than a book! Simple, right? Now the word “Gray” with an A vs. with an E. You tell them apart by remembering the A is used in America, and E in England. And that brings us to the idea that alcohol was heavily drunk when the English Language was being minted, because all this shite makes NO sense! This week, use the British “O-U” in words to screw people up.

Libra 

Penn and Teller are the most honest liars in entertainment; they tell you to your face that they are going to lie to you, that you paid good money to watch them do that, and they’re gunna make you think it was worth it. They are illusionists, not magicians; they make you think you saw something when you really didn’t. You’re not Penn OR Teller. That speed camera got you dead to rights. Just pay the fine and move on with your week.

Scorpio 

That jar of honey hasn’t gone bad, it’s just crystalized. That’s normal. Get a pot of water taller than the bottle, set it on the stove on a low heat, and float the honey bottle in there for an hour or so. It’ll come out just as smooth as if it’d just been poured out of the hive. You know, except for the little amputated bee legs and wax floating to the top. This week consider switching to pure maple syrup instead.  

Sagittarius 

You think you know all the great genres of music, but you are woefully wrong. Everyone’s heard of “Christian 80’s Glam Rock”, but have you heard of “Strip-Mall-Ternative”? Or “Yiddish Rock”? How about “Klezmer Opera”? Take the time to really research things before you say you’re an expert this week.

Capricorn

With the Summer approaching don’t forget to stay hydrated. Sure, straight tap water is cheap and simple, but you can spice it up a little. Flavoured sugars are simple, fruit juices too. But how about something you really need? Add a pinch of salt too. Your body will thank you for it later. And don’t forget to wear a hat!

Aquarius 

Some people wonder, “Do We All See The Same Colour? Is what you call ‘BLUE’ what I see?” And, sure, there are ways to see if the frequency of light is the same, and we can agree that one frequency is “Blue” and another is “Red”. But how do we describe the muscles we tense to evacuate our various bodily wastes? There are certain things we just don’t have the words for - and maybe that’s a good thing.

Pisces 

The lyrics say, “If your heart is in your dream; No request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star; As dreamers do”. This week you need to wish really, really hard for something, Pisces. If you don’t get it you didn’t really put your heart into it. But if you buy a cow’s heart, technically it’s your heart. Try wishing while burning that on a bar-b-que grill as an offering to the winds and see if you win via technicality.   

And THOSE are your Hobble-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and Discord.

#horoscope #horrorscope #funny #parody #humour

[pennandtellerandmary]

Just Penn & Teller things

UNSUNG MY ASS

Teller’s impeccable sleight of hand

Penn Jillette’s laugh

Teller’s laugh 

Road Fatigue™

WICKED

The story of their meeting always changing

The Slammer

Teller’s southern accent

UNDERWATER

Penn crying at everything

Finding Nemo Tupac

Teller eating wet paper that’s been through a blender

I LOVE YOU DOG

Teller with a knife

Teller eating sushi that was in someone else’s mouth

Hey Boss!

“Oceanography’s Loss, Magic’s Gain”

Monkey Tuesday / Simian Sunday

No seriously Teller will eat anything

When Teller isn’t silent, he’s swearing

Penn is secretly a witch

Fuck raspberries

“Rock and Roll” ears

Penn converting all of the kids at his church into atheists

#penn and teller #penn jillette #teller #raymond teller #penn and teller tell a lie #bullshit #off the deep end #the unpleasant world of penn and teller #penn and teller fool us #fool us #pennsundayschool #google talks #interview #magic and mystery tour

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Conspiracy fantasy

When we talk about conspiratorialism, we tend to focus (naturally) on the content of the conspiracy. Not only are those stories entertainingly outlandish — they’re also the point of contact between conspiracists and the world.

If your mom is shouting about “Hollywood pedos,” it’s natural that you’ll end up discussing the relationship of this belief to observable reality. But while the content of conspiratorial beliefs gets lots of attention, we tend to neglect the significance of those beliefs.

To the extent that we consider why the beliefs exist and proliferate, the discussion rarely gets further than “irrational people have irrational beliefs.” This is a mistake. The stories we tell one another are a kind of Ouija board, with all our fingertips on the planchette.

The messages it spells out don’t describe external reality but they do reveal our internal, unspoken anxieties and aspirations.This is why we should read science fiction: not because it predicts the future, but because it diagnoses the present.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/26/meaningful-zombies/#oracles

Sf is an ever-mutating ecosystem of fears and hopes, and readers apply selective pressure to those organisms, extinguishing the ones that don’t capture the zeitgeist and elevating the ones that do, a co-evolution of our fantasies and our narratives.

http://locusmag.com/Features/2007/07/cory-doctorow-progressive-apocalypse.html

This is why Alternate Reality Games are so central to their players’ lives. They’re a form of narrative co-creation, with the players throwing out theories and the game-masters actually changing the story to incorporate the best of them.

ARGs are an environment where your coolest and most deliciously scary ideas become reality. It’s a powerful way to galvanize collective action.

As anthropologist Biella Coleman writes in Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, it’s the organizing principal behind Anonymous.

Anon Ops begin life as victory announcement videos. If the vision of success captures enough Anons, they execute the op.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-anonymous-ghost-in-the-machine

In other words, the degree to which a shared fantasy of victory compels its audience predicts whether the audience realizes its fantasy. Long before the alt-right, Anons were memeing ideas into existence (no coincidence, as both were incubated on 4chan).

On the Conspiracy Games and Counter-Games podcast, three left academics — Max Haiven, AT Kingsmith, Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou — analyze “conspiracy fantasies” (as opposed to conspiracies, e.g. the Big Lie behind the Iraq War) for what they reveal about late capitalism’s anxieties.

As leftists, they naturally focus on the relationship between material conditions and people’s behaviors and beliefs. This is an important part of the discourse on conspiratorialism that’s often missing from liberal and right-wing analysis.

Conspiracists aren’t just “irrational” nor are they just “racist.” They may be both of those things, but unless you look at material conditions, then the surges and retreats of conspiracism are mysterious phenomena, strange tides raised by unseen forces.

A decade ago, then-PM David Cameron — the architect of a brutal, authoritarian austerity — dismissed the Hackney Riots as “criminality pure and simple,” and demanded a ban on discussion of the relationship between austerity and unrest.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2011/aug/09/david-cameron-riots-criminality-video

But without that discussion, there’s no explanation. Even if you believe that “criminality” is a thing that is latent within some or all of us, what explains a rise or fall in that criminality? Is it like pollen that alights upon some of us, turning us bad? Or the full moon?

Likewise the “conspiracists are just racists” or “they’re just deranged.” Without looking at the material world, there’s no explanation for why that racism suddenly became more (or less) important to how conspiracists live their lives.

We can’t talk about conspiratorialism without talking about material considerations, and we have to talk about the form and substance of the conspiratorial belief. The ARG-like structure of Qanon is a hugely important part of its popularity:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/05/behavioral-v-contextual/#adrian-hon

Memeing things into existence in a game-like way is hugely compelling. You can tell when a D&D game is hopping when the players and the DM start co-creating the story, with the DM slyly altering the dungeon and the NPCs to match the players’ super-cool theories.

A recent episode of the CGACG podcast present a mind-blowing analysis of the interplay of the material conditions, mythology and structure of Qanon. It’s a two-part interview with Wu Ming 1:

https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/wuming-one-1?in=reimaginevalue/sets/unmanageablerisks

https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/wuming-one-2?in=reimaginevalue/sets/unmanageablerisks

Wu Ming 1 is part of Bologna’s Wu Ming Collective, the successor to the 1990s Luther Bissett net-art collective. Bissett did many wild, weird things,including publishing “Q,” an internationally bestselling conspiratorial novel in 1999 (!!)

https://www.wumingfoundation.com/giap/what-is-the-wu-ming-foundation/

The plot of “Q” involves a high-level government official, privy to top-secret info about a state conspiracy. It closely mirrors Qanon beliefs, right down to a call for a Jan 6 uprising (!!!!). The major difference is that “Q” is set during the Protestant Reformation.

In the interview, Wu Ming 1 talks about the proliferation of conspiratorial, ARG-like 4chan hoaxes that predated Qanon, and hypothesizes that the original Q posts were plagiarized from the novel.

The strange experience of seeing a novel turn into a cult prompted Ming 1 to write “La Q di Qomplotto” (“The Q in Qonspiracy”), a book that defines and analyzes “conspiracy fantasies.”

https://edizionialegre.it/product/la-q-di-qomplotto/

Ming 1’s interview digs into this in some depth, including setting out criterial for distinguishing conspiracies from fantasies (for example, a conspiracy doesn’t go on forever, while a fantasy can imagine the Knights Templar running the world for centuries).

I was taken by Ming 1’s discussion of the role that “enchantment” plays in conspiratorialism — the feeling of being in a magical and wondrous (if also anxious and terrible) place. He says this is why “debunkers” fail — they’re like people who spoil a magic trick.

Ming 1 and the hosts talk about replacing the enchantment of conspiratorialism with a counter-enchantment, grounded not in the conspiratorialist’s oversimplification and essentialism, but in the wonder of reality.

Ming 1 analogizes his “counter-enchantment” to the “double-wow” method of Penn and Teller: first they blow you away with a trick, and then they blow you away with the cleverness by which it was accomplished.

He describes how the Luther Bissett collective performed a double-wow during Italy’s Satanic Panic, creating a hoax satanic heavy metal cult and a counter-cult, promulgating stories of their pitched battles, then revealing how they’d faked the whole thing.

The action was taken in solidarity with actual Bolognese heavy metal fans who’d been framed for imaginary Satanic “crimes.” Luther Bissett wanted to demonstrate how a panic could be created from nothing, to reveal the method behind the real hoax with a fake hoax.

The double-wow method reminds me of Richard Dawkins’ manuever in “The Magic of Reality,” his excellent children’s book about the virtues of the scientific world, revealing how the numinous wonder of faith is nothing compared to the wonder of science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_of_Reality

The idea that conspiratorialism is a leading indicator of capitalism’s anxieties is a powerful one, and it ties into other compelling accounts of conspiracy, like Anna Merlan’s REPUBLIC OF LIES, which discusses the importance of trauma to conspiratorial belief.

Like Ming 1, Merlan stresses the kernel of truth underpinning conspiracy fantasies — the real aerospace coverups that make UFO conspiracies plausible, the real pharmaceutical conspiracies to cover up harms from drugs that underpin anti-vax.

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/21/republic-of-lies-the-rise-of-conspiratorial-thinking-and-the-actual-conspiracies-that-fuel-it/

In the podcast, Ming 1 and the hosts stress the importance of identifying and addressing the kernel of truth and the trauma it produces in any counter-conspiratorial work — that is, a successful counter-enchantment must address the material conditions behind the fantasy.

I really like this approach because of its empathy — its attempt to connect with the conditions that produce behaviors and beliefs, not to be confused with sympathy, which might excuse their toxic and hateful nature.

It reminds me a lot of Oh No Ross and Carrie, whose hosts have spent years joining cults and religions and digging into fringe practices and beliefs in an effort to understand them; they laugh a lot, but never AT their subjects.

https://ohnopodcast.com/

But Ming 1 brings something new to this discussion: an analysis of the role that novels have played in conspiracy fantasy formation: not just the plagiarizing of “Q” to make Qanon, but things like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion plagiarizing Dumas.

The interview also brought to mind Edward Snowden’s recent inaugural blog-post, “Conspiracy: Theory and Practice,” which seeks to separate conspiracy practice (e.g. the NSA spying on everyone) from theories (what Ming 1 calls “fantasies”).

https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt1

Snowden connects the feeling of powerlessness to the urge to explain the world through conspiracies, relating this to his experience of revealing one of the world’s most far-reaching real conspiracies, and then becoming the subject of innumerable conspiracy fantasies.

Snowden’s perspective is one that has heretofore been missing from conspiracy discourse — the perspective of someone who has been part of a real conspiracy and then the central subject of a constellation of bizarre and widespread conspiratorial beliefs.

These different works, focusing as they do on the character of conspiratorial beliefs, the nature of conspiratorial practice, and material conditions of conspiracists, comprise a richer analysis of our screwed-up discourse than, say, theories about “online radicalization.”

As I wrote in my 2020 book “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism,” the “online radicalization” narrative requires that you accept Big Tech’s unsupported marketing claims about its power to bypass our critical thoughts at face value.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

Claims to be able to control our minds — whether made by Rasputin, Mesmer, pick-up artists, MK-ULTRA or NLP enthusiasts — always turn out to be cons (though sometimes the con artists are also conning themselves).

But there’s a much more plausible, less controversial set of powers that Big Tech possesses. By spying on us all the time, it can help scammers target people who are ready to hear conspiratorial explanations.

By monopolizing our discourse, it allows SEO scammers to create default answers to our questions. By locking us in, it can keep us using a platform even if the discourse there makes us angry and anxious.

And by corrupting our political process, it creates “kernels of truth” for conspiratorial beliefs.

As with Scooby Doo, the monster turns out to be a familiar villain in a fright mask: a monopolist whose abuses and impunity create the anxiety that make conspiracy plausible.

#pluralistic

[eerythingisshaka]

Ficmas Day #15 “Should Old Acquaintance Be Diego?”

[Diego Hargreeves x Reader]

Word Count: 1.5k

“One more!”  You call the bartender to refill your drink.  The bar is packed with patrons as music blares over the speakers and party horns are tooted constantly.  New Years’ Eve pulled you out of the comfort of your home for a chance of having that whimsical moment with a stranger who you might share the stroke of midnight with, however this spot seemed rather dull.

“Adrian, let’s go across the street.  They know how to make my gin and tonics the right way,” you slur, pulling on your white faux fur coat over your silver shimmery jumpsuit.  

Adrian puts down her half done drink, giving you a look.  “You didn’t say that with the first four you had.  My feet hurt, it’s almost 10 minutes away from midnight can’t we stay here?”

You shake your head, moving your curly locs of your wig out your eyes clumsily.  “It’s not the right vibe.  I want my New Year to start right.  I’m tired of these half washed looking sons of bitches sharing my air.  I want beautiful people and a playlist that tells my life story!”

Adrian gets up, putting her arm under yours.  “You’re drunk but ok.  Let’s try the other bar.”

The cold air hits your face, giving you temporary sobriety.  The streets were pretty clear since the bars were packed, as you and Adrian walk down to your current favorite spot but you’re greeted by a bouncer.  

“Sorry ladies, we are at capacity.”

You groan.  “Come on!  It’s just two more!  What’s the difference?”

“Two people.  Because we are at capacity.”  He says once again.

Adrian pulls you back.  “Look, let’s just go back.  The countdown starts in five minutes.”

You look at her with surprise.  “Five minutes!  Sir, you gotta let me in, my boyfriend is in there and you know if you don’t kiss at midnight, you won’t make the new year!”

The bouncer looks over his shoulder.  “What does he look like?”

Your mouth freezes open as you think quickly, looking through a side window.

“Short haircut, black turtleneck,” you squint your eyes, “Latino looking…”

Adrian interrupts you.  “She is just messing around, we’ll go.”

The bouncer stops her.  “No, I know who you’re talking about, he’s a regular.  I didn’t know he has a lady.  I’ll get him.”

You grab a hold of his arm.  “If you go in and it’s over capacity, you might as well let me!  I got two minutes to get to him, it’s more romantic that way.”

The bouncer mulls it over.

“You can’t be serious,” Adrian says under her breath.

“Ok, go ahead, but you and him need to be out quickly.  You don’t need more to drink.”  The bouncer opens the door as you make a stank face but thank him just the same.

“SIXTY SECONDS!”  Someone shouts as you push through the crowd looking for your ‘boyfriend’.  Everyone is buzzing from the anticipation of the new year to come.  You keep losing sight of him in the crowd, but realize he is playing darts, so you use the board as your North Star.

“Ten...Nine…”

You reach out for his shoulder just as he is about to throw another dart.

“Do I know you?”  he asks.

“Seven...Six…”

“What’s your name?”  you ask, making mental note of his square jaw and intense stare.

“Four...Three…”

He puts his darts aside, folding his arms.  “Diego.  Yours?”

As the crowd erupts, you pull his face to yours, giving in to the sudden passion you felt deep within.  You don’t make time for social norms, this New Years is about primal instinct.  When you pull yourself back, you feel slightly small as he stares into your eyes wordlessly.  Feeling smaller now, you get the urge to retreat and turn away, but he pulls you back to him.

“Do you need a drink?”  he asks.

You burst out laughing, partly from the relief of moving past the awkward air and partly because of the flashback to the security guards warning.  

“Sure, but not here.  Come back to my place.”

---

“You all have a good night,”  you call out to your friend, who managed to bring home the bouncer from the bar.  Closing your bedroom door and untwisting the bottle of gin, Diego wastes no time to grip you against him and make you forget how your legs work.  

You and Diego roll around on top of your bed, exploring each other under the haze of new year bliss and gin.  As Diego licks on your neck, you reach back for the bottle, pushing him back so you can straddle him.  

“Open your mouth,” you command, holding his jaw until he complies with a warning in his eyes.  “I won’t drown you!”  You pour the liquid into his mouth, petting his stubble as you fill him.

“Good, now hold it.”  You set the bottle back on your nightstand and hold his face in your hands, taking in his facial structure, his hands on your hips, the hardening you sit upon.  

“Open your mouth again.”  He does so, gin still sitting where you poured it.  You hover your mouth above his, letting your tongue out to lap at the alcohol like a cat.

Diego snorts, spitting some at you as he sits up and laughs.  “Shit, girl!  What’re you into?”

You sit back wiping your face.  “Different shit!  Damn, you couldn’t control your reaction for a minute?”  Eventually you chuckle, but aren’t over him spitting all over you.

“Hell am I supposed to do!  My bad, lemme see.”  He eyes your face, wiping one side.  “Hm, what’s that?”

“What?”  you ask, reaching your hands to feel, but he holds them down.  

“Let me.”  He leans into our face closer and closer, almost getting eyeball to eyeball with you causing you to go rigid.  Then, he licks your cheek.

You push his chest hard.  “Diego!”

Falling back on the bed, he looks shocked.  “Is that now what you like??  I thought I was on track there!”

You wipe your face in shock.  “No lie, you are...but now I’m trying to figure YOU out.”  

“What is there to know?”  he asks. 

You shrug.  “Tell me...your childhood pet’s name.

He pauses.  “I didn’t really have a pet...not like what you’re saying.”

“An animal?”  you ask.

“...yes?”

You furrow your brow.  “Why is that such a hard question?  I don’t get-”

Diego interrupts you, sitting forward in preparation.  “Ask me another, come on.”

You think.  “Ok...something easy that you will make difficult.  Hobbies?”

Diego scoffs, reaching for something under his pant leg.  “I’ve got a thing for these.”  Pulling out of a sheath, he brandishes a dagger.

“Whoa!  Why do you have weapons on you like that?  In my house?!”  you exclaim, getting off the bed to add some distance.  

Diego puts a hand out to you, holding the knife away.  “Listen, I don’t hurt anyone with these unless they’re asking for it.  We’re good, by the way.”

“So if you don’t use it, what do you do?  Cuz a knife collection is feeling a little dark web right now.”

He smirks, holding the blade in between his fingers.  “I didn’t say I don’t use them.  I use them a lot actually.  I’m pretty good with aiming these.  Like the dart game you interrupted me on?”

“Oh,” you say, intrigued.  “How good?”

Diego shrugs, looking you up and down, he stands up.  “Very good.  Like, carnival attraction or Penn and Teller in Vegas good.”

You nod slowly, studying the weapon in his hand.  “Can you show me something now?”

Diego points the blade at you.  “How much do you like your outfit?”

You fidget with it, looking it over.  “I mean, it;s kind of nice.  Old, but-”

“Let me rephrase that.  How badly do you wanna come out of it?”  Diego asks, scraping the blade lightly against his face.

You grow warm at his suggestion, standing back toward the door in feigned peril.  “My gosh, what will I do.  Me, being so warm, yet unable to come reach my zipper?!”  You laugh out loud, waving him off.  “Nah, I don’t trust you that-”

You see him flick the blade at you, but before you finish screaming out to stop, you can barely catch your jumpsuit before you’re holding it over your chest, yelling like you’re at the peak of a rollercoaster.

“Whoa, you ok?  I didn’t mean to scare you,” Diego says, flipping his blade in his hand a couple times, completely unphased by you.

When you catch your breath, you let the fabric fall, this time sending Diego into his own state of shock as you walk up to him, snatching the blade.  You pull his shirt from his pants, starting at the hem to run it up the length of his shirt, stopping at the neck.  You can see him tense up as the blade hovers under his Adam’s Apple.

“I think you have a lot left, you need to show me.”

@chaneajoyyy​

#diego hargreeves x reader #shakafic #ficmas

[5-star-songs]

“Hallelujah” -- LEONARD COHEN

"It's a good song," Leonard Cohen said in 2009, "But too many people sing it." One can only imagine his reaction had he lived to hear it conscripted for the final night of the Republican National Convention eleven years later.

But it is a good song -- that’s why so many goddamn people cover it, and so many goddamn music supervisors license it, and so many goddamn fascists appropriate it. And though it can be hard to hear the song’s glory through the clamor of all the different versions being misused in so many different ways, the glory remains. 

“Hallelujah” is stubbornly powerful because Cohen’s lyric resists succumbing to the very epiphanies the title is supposed to honor. He scoffs about any one word being more meaningful than another (“there’s a blaze of light in EVERY word,” he reminds us), and, like Penn & Teller doing cups and balls with clear glasses, he even explains exactly how the music’s manipulating you: “it goes like this/the fourth, the fifth/the minor fall/the major lift.”

Cohen supposedly wrote eighty verses for this song, so the fact that he felt the verse with that bit was one of the four worth keeping indicates its importance. He pops the song’s balloon, but the balloon somehow remains. That doesn’t make him Jesus, or mean magic exists, it makes him a smart human being trying to figure out what’s real and what’s just a lie we tell ourselves because reality’s too fucking tragic (the latest example of reality being too fucking tragic: “Hallelujah” getting used on the final night of the RNC despite Cohen’s estate specifically denying them permission to do so).

“Hallelujah” does not grant the listener permission to get all gooey and spiritual. It challenges listeners to acknowledge that the impulse toward gooey spirituality is pervasive, and can be hijacked, and urges those listeners not to stop and bow at the first thing that inspires them, but to look beyond it to find what’s really real.

So, by all means, play this song, loud and often, in whatever version by whichever artist most inspires you (or in whatever movie that borrows its majesty most thrills you). Just don’t stop listening when the feeling of transcendence it evokes washes over you. The song’s designed to get you to keep going beyond that. 

There is truth to be found, it’s just not the gaudy trinket most people settle for.

#folk #leonard cohen

[asklittlepip]

You wanna know why ghosts are bullshit?

Back around 1999 or so, when my best friend and I graduated college, we went to Gettysburg. He was at the time working as a paranormal investigator, and had thousands of dollars worth of equipment, both dedicated to that task and otherwise, which could pick up all sorts of signals along the electromagnetic spectrum and even radiation, as well as various cameras and attachments.

For several days we were there (including areas we weren’t supposed to stay in overnight), watching, observing, recording. At the start of July. When the battle actually happened. Nothing. Not a god damn thing.

If you’re telling me that the literal killing fields of one of the most bloody battles in all of American history resulted in zero, zilch, nada.. you can’t fucking tell me your stupid spooky house is haunted. It’s just the old pipes or faulty wiring or some other shit messing with your brain. Ever notice these things are always indoors? Yeah. That’s why.

That friend also died a few years later to leukemia, and he totally had reasons to linger, seeing as how he had a wife and an infant daughter, yet he never ‘appeared’ to anyone. Souls may or may not exist, but the concept of ghosts outside of fantasy, and the cons who peddle the idea, is a complete and total lie.

And don’t even get me started on so-called “psychics”, who are actually worse, because they provide false hope and divert attention from reality.

Let’s just finish the fraud trifecta with some good ol’ Penn & Teller:

#ooc #please never let me link to tmz ever again #youtube #penn and teller

[lazingonsunday]

Tag Game!!

I was tagged by @gretavanfic and @bigthighsandstupidguys , thank you, lovelies!! 💛

1. What is your middle name?

Starts with G lol

2. How old are you?

20

3. When is your birthday?

Dec 2

4. What is your zodiac sign?

Everyone is putting like moon and sun and rising and I have no idea what that mean lmao, sorry! I think I’m a Sagittarius though

5. What is your favourite colour?

Orange or Yellow 🧡💛

6. What’s your lucky number?

Don’t really have one, but I always tried to be #10 on my volleyball jersey

7. Do you have any pets?

An old border collie named Riley

8. Where are you from?

Canada! 🇨🇦

9. How tall are you?

Like 5’7 ish

10. What shoe size are you?

Usually 9.5 or 10. I got big ass feet :(

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Way more than one human being needs

12. What was your last dream about?

I went to IT chapter 2 last night so safe to say I was having some freaky clown dreams all night lol

13. What talents do you have?

Um, I can say the alphabet backwards, which is super random lol. I can also kinda play guitar, bass, ukulele, and harmonica, but I’m not very good at any of them yet lol

14. Are you psychic in any way?

I used to think so when I was little, but not so much anymore

15. Favourite song?

Ooh, this is hard. Right now I really love When The Curtain Falls by GVF, but I would say an all time fave might be Forever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond because it reminds me of my mom

16. Favourite movie?

Oh, also a tough one! I think either Rocky IV or The Sandlot

17. Who would be your ideal partner?

Jake Kiszka, obviously. But in all seriousness, anyone who is genuinely kind that I feel comfortable and happy around.

18. Do you want children?

I never thought so, but now a bunch of my older cousins are having kids and they’re pretty cool, so maybe one day if I found the right person to raise them with

19. Do you want a church wedding?

No, even though my mom will kill me if I don’t lol

20. Are you religious?

I was raised Catholic, but I don’t consider myself religious anymore.

21. Have you ever been to the hospital?

Yes, I’m asthmatic af lol, and prone to breaking my fingers playing rugby

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law?

No, I am a well-behaved child

23. Have you ever met any celebrities?

I met the magicians Penn & Teller if that counts haha

24. Baths or showers?

For practical purposes of actually getting clean, showers, but I l o v e baths

25. What colour socks are you wearing?

Black

26. Have you ever been famous?

No

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity?

While I daydream about it frequently, realistically I know I would hate it

28. What type of music do you like?

Literally the most random taste in music, it changes all the time. I don’t even have certain genres that I like, just certain artists or albums from a variety of genres

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping?

Yes. I was very drunk lmao

30. How many pillows do you sleep with?

Three normal ones and a body pillow

31. What position do you usually sleep in?

On my side cuddled up with the pillows

32. How big is your house?

Typical white suburban neighbourhood house

33. What do you typically have for breakfast?

I typically pout in the kitchen for 10 minutes before I give up and make something completely inappropriate for breakfast lmao. Usually grilled cheese. This morning alphagetti. I hate breakfast so much lol

34. Have you ever fired a gun?

Nope. No desire to.

35. Have you ever tried archery?

Yes, we did it in school a few times

36. Favourite clean word?

Love

37. Favourite swear word?

Idk if it’s a swear word, but I say ‘goddammit’ a lot

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?

Not long, I’m a sleepy bitch. Probably 24 hours

39. Do you have any scars?

Yes

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?

In 9th grade I found out this guy had a crush on my and told literally everyone but me lol

41. Are you a good liar?

I don’t lie very often, but mostly because I am a terrible liar

42. Are you a good judge of character?

Yes. I frequently get such strong vibes off of people and I can tell right away if they’re the kind of person that’s gonna stress me out

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own?

Not well

44. Do you have a strong accent?

I guess I probably have a Canadian accent, but not super strong. The region I’m from has a pretty neutral North American accent

45. What is your favourite accent?

Certain regions of Irish accent are so beautiful. Like Hozier’s accent

46. What is your personality type?

Quite shy, but generally very kind

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing?

I have a shirt that I got for work that was like a hundred bucks and I never wear it cause I sprayed foundation on it once and now I’m scared I’m gonna ruin it lol

48. Can you curl your tongue?

Yes

49. Are you an innie or outie?

Innie

50. Left or right handed?

Right

51. Are you scared or spiders?

Not really scared of them, but I don’t like them to be close to me if that makes sense

52. Favourite food?

Probably burritos

53. Favourite foreign food?

Mexican

54. Are you a clean or messy person?

Fairly clean

55. Most used phrase?

I really don’t think I have one?

56. Most used word?

Completely. I say it like to agree with someone or acknowledge what they’re saying

57. How long does it take for you to get ready?

Depends what I’m getting ready. For school or something I don’t really care about, maybe half an hour. For work or going out, probably over an hour.

58. Do you have much of an ego?

I don’t think so

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops?

Suck until I get bored and crunch it lol

60. Do you talk to yourself?

Yes, a concerning amount. Like full conversations with myself at full volume, constantly when I’m alone.

61. Do you sing to yourself?

Occasionally

62. Are you a good singer?

Not really

63. Biggest fear?

Never learning how to make meaningful connections , pushing all my friends away, and dying alone.

64. Are you a gossip?

No, I hate it! My friends try to tell me about people we went to high school with, and I just genuinely don’t care and don’t want to know lmao

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen?

Idk what classifies as a ‘dramatic’ movie, but I guess the Rocky movies again

66. Do you like long or short hair?

I love long hair, I’m so jealous of people with really long hair. Mine grows so slow :(

67. Can you name all 50 states of America?

Maybe, if I thought really hard about it? I can barely remember Canadian provinces lmao

68. Favourite school subject?

I always really loved some topics in science, but then hated others. I was probably best at English.

69. Introvert or extrovert?

Introvert af

70. Have you ever been scuba diving?

No, even snorkeling freaks me out. The ocean is some scary soup

71. What makes you nervous?

Pretty much everything lol. But mostly any social situation where there’s people I don’t know, or I don’t know exactly what to expect.

72. Are you scared of the dark?

Really depends where I am. Usually no, but if I’m outside then usually yes, and after watching It last night, yes lol

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?

Depends who it is and what the mistake is

74. Are you ticklish?

Honestly, not really

75. Have you ever started a rumour?

Not intentionally

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority?

Kind of? At work they have like hourly leaders who are in charge of the sales floor, and I did that a lot, but it’s not really a lot of power or responsibility. Also babysitting I guess

77. Have you ever drank underage?

Yes

78. Have you ever done drugs?

Honestly, this is gonna sound so stupid, but I’ve never done anything other than alcohol and cigarettes. I actually high key wanna try weed, but again the whole ‘not knowing what to expect makes me anxious thing.’ Not even so much that I’m nervous to try the drug but that I’m nervous to try to buy it or get it, even though it’s fully legal in Canada and there’s a dispensary on every corner lmao

79. Who was your first real crush?

The first one I remember was a boy named Evan in first grade

80. How many piercings do you have?

Just my ears, and I rarely wear earrings so I always have to stab through them again when I do

81. Can you roll your R’s?

No, and I can’t whistle either! Which is deeply infuriating!

82. How fast can you type?

Fast enough to not look foolish

83. How fast can you run?

Not fast at all. I’m asthmatic and out of shape lmao

84. What colour is your hair?

An ugly medium mousy brown. I always wanna dye it a little lighter, but I go to the hairdresser like once every two years so it would look stupid when it grew out lol

85. What colour are your eyes?

Hazel-y greenish

86. What are you allergic to?

All sorts of environmental allergies; dust, pollen, animal hair, etc. I’m always sneezing and watery eyes lol

87. Do you keep a journal?

I carry a notebook, but it’s more like an agenda than a diary

88. What do your parents do?

My dad owns a drywall company and my mom is a stay-at-home mom, but she volunteers a lot now that we’re older

89. Do you like your age?

No. I think that being in your late teens and twenties can be really stressful because you feel like there’s certain things that you should have accomplished or experienced and it can be very overwhelming, feeling like you’re competing with all your peers to get your life together

90. What makes you angry?

Rude and disrespectful people

91. Do you like your own name?

Not really

92. Have you thought of baby names, and if so what are they?

I’ve definitely thought about it but I don’t really have specific favourites

93. Do you want a boy or girl for a child?

I don’t have a preference. I’d probably like to have one of each

94. What are your strengths?

I think I’ve become a lot more kind and open-hearted in the last few years.

95. What are your weaknesses?

I feel like I have let fear dictate my entire life, and there’s so many things I haven’t done because I’ve been afraid. I need to step outside my comfort zone more often.

96. How did you get your name?

There was a character on a TV show called my name that my parents liked

97. Were your ancestors royalty?

Not that I am aware of

98. Do you have any tattoos?

I changed the question because scars was an earlier one. I have two tattoos on my right arm

99. Colour of your bedspread?

Because it’s summer, I have a lighter blanket that’s light blue. My winter duvet is navy

100. Colour of your room?

Light blue

That was LONG lmao but really fun! I’m too lazy to bold the questions so sorry if it’s hard to read!

Tagging: @frcmthefires @sweetkiszkadreams @okietrish @sammyscherub @gretavanbobatea @jake-thomas-kiszka @mr-stank-i-dont-feel-so-dank and anyone else who wants to do it!!

#tagged #tag game

[mashitandsmashit]

America’s Got Talent: Season 14 - Auditions 2

Perhaps last week was just them getting all of their “Remember that other act from last year?“ acts out of the way, because this week, they had a bit more focus on the weird and unusual...And I mean weird in a good way!

Once again, I was legitimately impressed by most of the acts in this episode, and even for the ones that I WASN’T big on, I do see a lot of potential in terms of FUTURE performances...So keep that in mind, as I rank them based on how much I enjoyed them THIS time around, as all of them have something to praise (yes, even the little Hannah Montanas...But I’ll get to them in a moment...)

11: Nicholas Wallace. Well, I hear he managed to fool Penn and Teller with an Oreo, so there must be more to this guy than just playing a poor man’s Mike Super/Clairvoyants/Sacred Riana...On second watch, the cushion on that chair was pretty painfully obvious, and there were surely sensors connecting it with the doll...So in all honesty, the trick was pretty lame...But his charisma isn’t half bad! I don’t need to be possessed to feel that he may very well up the magic in later rounds...(PS, I love how Gabby seemed hardly phased by the creepy stuff...You can tell he picked her simply because she’s filling in for Mel B, and you know how much SHE’D be freaking out!)

10: Bir Khalsa Group. Who should I be more afraid of, the giant, or the dude blindly hitting a hammer around the stage going all Gallagher on those fruits? (Probably the latter!) That being said, I do find it kinda hard to buy that he was actually as blind as he led us to believe...Once you look past that...it’s basically just an extreme version of making smoothies...I do like their personalities, and look forward to seeing what else they can do...But for now, they are very much the poor Indian man’s Aaron Crow (right down to the produce abuse and over-the-top blindfolding method!)

9: Ryan Niemiller. It seems like now the only comedians who ever get featured on this show anymore are middle-aged women and men with disabilities...While I did get a decent chuckle here and there, which gives him a nice lead over Miss Fabulous (who was apparently at the same audition as him, if their backstage talk is anything to go by), he’s not there yet for me...But hey, neither was Samuel J. Comroe for HIS audition, and look how much my opinion for him rose since! This man was just getting his obligatory “Let me talk about my disability“ introductory set out of the way, and for what it was, I think he did a decent job with it! Here’s to his later sets!

8: Benicio Bryant. Hey look, we found Hozier’s long lost brother! Yeah, I won’t lie, I’m one of many who thought he was a girl at first...I guess that’s what happens when a kid wears his hair in a “man-bun” and his testicles haven’t dropped yet...But I like him! I’ve heard that Grammy-bait song before and know well enough that it demands quite a bit of range! Not much else to say, but as far as singers go, he has promise!

7: Joseph Allen. How fitting that I give the Lucky #7 spot to the lucky recipient of tonight’s Golden Buzzer! Yes, I really wish they’d give more GBs to non-singers, and this did all feel a bit manipulative...But he is another likable character who has plenty of potential for later rounds...The lyrics were cheesy as hell (though that’s par for the course when writing a song SPECIFICALLY for AGT), but he had plenty of solid flow with the rapping, and the singing was JUST good enough to help the chorus along...He does seem to take a fair bit of inspiration from Drake, and it helped with the charm...So far, he’s no Flau’jae, and I for one have yet to actually know his name as he insisted with his song...But as I’ve said with several other acts so far, give him time!

6: The Messoudi Brothers. The dude from Malevo called, he wants his hair back! Again, I’m sure they have more to offer for later rounds, but for now, it was mostly pretty standard stuff as far as balancing acts go...That said, I WAS very impressed by the formation at the end! So all they need to do is up the ante, and we have yet another act with a lot of future potential...Because if nothing else, they will surely get plenty of the horny female vote!

5: The Emerald Belles. Howie’s pretty difficult to please whenever a group of teenage girl dancers take the stage...He tends to fall back on the “dance recital” critique an awful lot...I suppose these ladies aren’t for everyone...But neither are the Rockettes...I guess what I’m trying to say is that I was quite impressed by their precision (especially considering how many of them there are!) It does feel like their fate is already sealed, but I do want to see what else they have before they get eliminated...

4: GFORCE. (Sigh...) Yup...I have GFORCE at #4...............I LIKED THEM! I mean, yes, it all sounded like the opening theme to the show that the Disney Channel is surely already preparing their contract for, but it was super-catchy, upbeat, and...wholesome! And in today’s pop music landscape, we could probably use more songs like that! I think they’re doing for me what Us the Duo did for FrankDoc last year...Probably the only issue I have is that it was kinda difficult to hear what they were saying...(It really did feel very speechless, didn’t it?) They probably have the least amount of cred out of all the acts in this episode, and I can definitely see them getting annoying fast...But for now, I was charmed! Consider me all in with these miniature Spice Girls!

3: Jonathan Burns. In all honesty, his entrance (while friggin’ amazing) was creepier than anything the guy with the doll had to offer! (That face made it look for a moment like a gremlin was crawling out of that luggage!) Insert obvious joke about how he got practice from being shoved into lockers...(That said, he DOES have a wedding ring, so I guess the nerd persona is mostly an act...) I would say that the main thing about him that’s so praiseworthy is that he found a way to make an overall trite performance genre into something both funny and entertaining! Probably the only thing he was missing was some sparkly briefs!

2: Adaline Bates. So, is she related to NORMAN Bates? They both seem to have the same intergender split personality! THIS is the kind of act I watch this show for! It was a perfect display of her vocal range while also finding a way to make it unique and entertaining! And while there are other acts of this nature, they’re usually performed by men, and it must be quite a bit harder for a woman to hit the low notes than it is for a man to hit the high notes...Not much else to say; This lady’s a definite stand-out for me!

1: Light Balance Kids. Well, here’s the Light Balance successor I brought up last week, though I had no idea that said succession would be hereditary! So basically, it’s Light Balance again, but pint-sized? Sign me up! Indeed, I was feeling VERY cynical about the idea of ANOTHER light-up dance crew, because as much as I’ve always enjoyed these kinds of acts, it does get very old seeing them year after year...But if it’s literally the same act, but as kids (like one of those spin-off cartoons from the 80s and 90s), then as long as they capture what made the adult version work, I’m all for it! And yes, it was about as seamless as any of the performances we saw from the parent act, which is made all the more impressive by how young they all are! (And on a side-note, between this and their Finals performance two years ago, that guy who led Light Balance must be a big MCU fan! Kinda odd that there was no use of a certain Black Sabbath song, but I guess “Another One Bites the Dust” is pretty appropriate as well...Of course, I should avoid spoiling anything for those who haven’t seen “Endgame” yet...) While it’s hard to say if they’ll make it as far as their adult counterpart did, they do have the right elements going for them: They will surely have support from the variety voters, and get extra help from the sympathy vote as long as their “daddy” keeps going on about how much life in Ukraine sucks (which will be further helped by attaching poor little kids’ faces to the story). But backstory aside, this is already on par with most of the performances we saw from Light Balance Senior! I love it 3000!

Another strong show! While I have some mixed opinions about most of the acts, they all had something to offer, and there was more variety than I feel like I’ve seen on this show in a while!

It looks like Simon’s got the Golden Buzzer next week...No point in getting my hopes up for a non-singer, but I am curious to see what special charity he wants to represent with it this year...Tune in next week to find out!

[libertasrpg]

We welcome Barkis Bittern to the city. He’s 35 years old and is a bank teller. Barkis is often mistaken for Penn Badgely. He’s open.

→ Background Information

Barkis Bittern comes from a family of some wealth and a bit of fortune down the line, but not exactly in the best way. A once not so distant then lawyer of a great uncle caused quite the problem for the family when he was caught embezzling money from the trust funds of his clients. A man who was once a high profile and well respected lawyer found himself breaking the laws himself and became a shame to his family. Barkis’ father and mother separated themselves from him and did their best to keep their own small fortune in check and raise their son in peace. Though he comes from a loving family, Barkis has always been a sneaky bully, bothering kids behind their backs in school and manipulating people into believing he’s a saint in his adult life. He’s quite the evil charmer.

→ Living Situation

Some people jumped at the idea of moving out with friends upon graduation from school but that had never been too appealing to Barkis. No, what he had dreamed about since early high school had been living on his own, in his own glorious townhome, fixed up with every latest amenity possible, complete with a private rooftop terrace. And he had all of that for several years upon graduation, and it was all paid for by his parents. When he moved to Libertas he made the best with what he could, purchasing a townhome for himself and fixing it up as best as he could with modern amenities and fixtures, though he has missed his quiet rooftop space he finds his little porch quite “cute,” often joking about how he truly feels like a common person. 

→ Relocation Explanation

Barkis needed nothing more than a new start after a string of failed relationships - one being his engagement to Emily. His father had been breathing at him down his back to get himself together and make a real job for himself, but Barkis had grown too comfortable mooching off of his parents. Promise after promise was made that he’d get what he needed together, and well, he did sort of, just not in the way his parents wanted him to. Barkis decided to move to Libertas in hopes of starting over, making out a sort of fake profile of himself, one where back home he’s the father of a famed bank owner and to simply ‘fill his time’ he’s a bank teller. Of course that’s a lie, and he’s a bank teller so he doesn’t go broke.

→ His Personality

To put it simply, Barkis is a jerk in disguise to most of the people in his life. Having come from a loving home, at least loving up until his father began to get onto him for using too much of the family money, one might think Barkis would know compassion and humility but it’s quite the opposite. The man can play a mean game of pretend, seeming to be the most confident and charming man in the room but when he wants something, or is in a situation of not getting what he wants, he can turn on you in a heartbeat. And he’s often cracking jokes at those of a lower class - despite being not so rich himself currently.

→ His Qualities

Confident, Professional, Classy

Arrogant, Manipulative, Selfish, Greedy

→ His Relationships

Victoria Everglot (Ex-Girlfriend): Victoria and Barkis were first introduced as teenagers through their families. Unbeknownst to the two, their families had spoken prior to their children meeting of their marriage in the future. A bit after their meeting that seemed as though it could be the possible as they were smitten with each other. It wasn’t too long though before things took a turn. Barkis would never admit to his behavior towards Victoria and though he has no intention of seeing her family again, he wouldn’t hate having the chance to see Victoria once more. 

Victor Van Dort (Acquaintance & Possible Enemy): Though Barkis doesn’t know Victor personally outside of seeing him in passing once at a family event he attended with Emily, he didn’t like the guy from the start. The way Emily looked at him at the time didn’t settle quite right with him and he knew from then on if he ever saw him again he’d need to be careful. 

Emily Corpus (Ex-Fiance & Enemy): Emily and Barkis had somewhat of a picture perfect relationship to begin with, and up to the end it had been just the same in public. However behind closed doors Barkis was controlling, wanting to manipulate Emily’s every move; banning her from hanging out with her friends without him, checking her phone routinely for any behavior, making her wait for him before going out, etc. At first it seemed as though he was just being a gentleman but soon Emily became privy to it and left him. Barkis has still to this day not forgiven her for leaving him like that in such a state of embarrassment. 

Lucas Farquaad (Friend): Though Barkis hasn’t known Lucas too terribly long, he’s known the man long enough to enjoy his company on nights out, mostly talking business. Barkis isn’t too savvy of a business man himself but he can bluff enough to be on Lucas’ good side and learn the ins and outs of starting and keeping a thriving business. 

→ Possible Connections

Bethany Windsor (Acquaintance): Barkis met Bethany once while out with Emily and Jack and he hadn’t given much attention to the woman as he was focusing on Emily all night. He couldn’t even tell you the color of the woman’s hair, or her name. And the same goes for her friend, Jack.

Barkis is based on Barkis Bittern from Corpse Bride.

#disney #disney rpg #skeleton rp #skeleton bio rp #new rp #city rpg #alexander skarsgard #joel kinnaman #penn badgley #corpse bride #corpse bride rp #barkis #barkis bittern #male #open male #open #31 to 40

[theteablogger]

A Grifter Magician

Someone sent me a link to this article yesterday, and it sounds pretty similar to Andy, right down to the Belfast/IRA lies: A Con Man Reinvents Himself…As a Reality TV Magician. 

The only element of the article that bothers me is that the author asks a couple of times whether it matters that Outhier still isn’t being completely honest, now that he seems to have turned his life around. He notes that only some aspects of Outhier’s story can be verified, that he knows Outhier is still lying about some of it, and that other aspects of the story are almost certainly embellished. I would say it matters a lot.

Unless this newfound honesty turns out to be cloaking a massive long-con fraud—and it’d take a lot of chutzpah to do that while regularly outing yourself as a former con artist on television and on stage, though certainly chutzpah is not in short supply among grifters—is it really so important that the stories he’s telling are entirely free of embroidery?

Yes. It is. First of all, Outhier has demonstrated a tremendous amount of chutzpah many times in the past. This is a man who, immediately after being detained by the Marines and convicted of desertion, went AWOL again in order to enroll in the US Naval Academy under the name John Valjean. That doesn’t necessarily mean that what he’s doing right now is just a long con, but it does suggest the possibility that he might go back to grifting in the future. Secondly, continuing to lie and embellish his life story makes his onstage “confessions” little better than those Andy has made in the past.  It also negates much of what he’s supposedly telling kids about the importance of staying honest and making good life choices. Sure, it’s a good message, but how can they take it seriously when it comes from a person who isn’t walking the talk?

This is a man who’s been telling major lies about himself and his life at least since he was in high school. For someone like that to change in a real and permanent way, he needs to have people close to him who will immediately call him on his bullshit when he’s being dishonest. That’s not to say that he needs to be nagged and “punished” 24/7 for the rest of his life, but it’s important to recognize that continual lying is a difficult habit to break, and an easy one to fall into again. Given that he had no problem lying on national television, it seems that either his friends and loved ones aren’t holding him accountable, or they don’t know the truth, either.

That article was written almost three years ago. I don’t know what Outhier tells people about his past these days, but I know that a year ago, he lied again on national television when he appeared on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us. Outhier claimed that he’d run into Penn Jillette in Las Vegas in 2005, and that Penn’s kindness to him was his inspiration to turn himself in, after which he served five years in federal prison. It’s only heartwarming until you realize that in 2005, he was actually on the run from Wyoming police, who never found him. Two years later, he was posing as an Irish bartender in Wisconsin, using the identity of a man with Down Syndrome, in whose name he racked up $26,000 in debt. Far from turning himself in, Outhier was busted on December 26 of that year for identity theft in several states, having used other people’s credit to obtain well over $100,000 (not including the aforementioned $26K). And then he served that five-year federal sentence.

Outhier (who’s gone by Aiden Sinclair for the last several years) is now running a “theatrical seance” at a Colorado hotel. He’s started an Indiegogo campaign to move the act to the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. I will be very interested to see what he does with the money, given that Indiegogo is well known for doing very little to hold people accountable for delivering on promises to their contributors.

#aiden sinclair #hiding in plain sight

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Teller on how magicians "alter your perceptions"

Teller, the silent half of the Penn & Teller magic act, explains seven cognitive biases that magicians exploit in order to "alter the perceptions" of their audiences and achieve impossible-seeming feats.

The "tricks" are to: exploit pattern recognition (do two things that seem similar and we'll assume they're the same thing); make the secret a lot more trouble than it seems worth (we'll discount the possibility that a trivial effect was the result of years of work); make 'em laugh (jokes distract you from thinking through the trick); do the trick outside the frame (we assume the trick is the part that seems showy, not mundane things like shedding a jacked "before the trick starts"); make you lie to yourself (let the audience glimpse a "mistake" that reveals a false explanation for the trick); and create the illusion of free choice (we assume that choices are freely made).

To explain how these work, Teller gives the example of letting you choose a card from a deck, then seeming to chew on the deck, digesting one card and moving it to his shoe, and "forgetting" the deck so you can verify that your card's missing from it.

THE SECRET(S) First, the preparation: I slip a queen of hearts in my right shoe, an ace of spades in my left and a three of clubs in my wallet. Then I manufacture an entire deck out of duplicates of those three cards. That takes 18 decks, which is costly and tedious (No. 2—More trouble than it’s worth).

When I cut the cards, I let you glimpse a few different faces. You conclude the deck contains 52 different cards (No. 1—Pattern recognition). You think you’ve made a choice, just as when you choose between two candidates preselected by entrenched political parties (No. 7—Choice is not freedom).

Now I wiggle the card to my shoe (No. 3—If you’re laughing...). When I lift whichever foot has your card, or invite you to take my wallet from my back pocket, I turn away (No. 4—Outside the frame) and swap the deck for a normal one from which I’d removed all three possible selections (No. 5—Combine two tricks). Then I set the deck down to tempt you to examine it later and notice your card missing (No. 6—The lie you tell yourself).

https://boingboing.net/2017/04/28/you-fool-yourself.html

[g4zdtechtv]

FULL EPISODE: AOTS! - Penn and Tell Me A Lie (9.30.11)

Very Ico Friendly.

#The Pile #G4 #Attack of the Show! #Samsung #Transformers: Dark of the Moon #Stand Up 2 Cancer #Star Wars #Ico #Shadow of the Colossus #Penn & Teller Tell A Lie

[keystonewarrior]

Lies, lies, lies.

Statistically, on average, a teacher tells a lie seven times each school day.

Kudos to Eric Samuels, mentalist who appeared on Penn & Teller Fool Us.

#I might be lying #fool us

[emmapeelmk2-blog]

And so to the rest of my rant list

I could rant about trump for months frankly but unusually I think my 14year old son pretty .much summed him up when he said "he's got hair like super sonic in sonic 2 all the go of a real dead hedgehog and he must smell like he's been snogging Mr hanky coz he talks shit all the time" &good observations my boy,you are well on your way to be a healthy sceptical adult one day... So anyway the rest of my burgeoning outrage ,well brexit has inevitably become a shower of shit so grotesque it shud be in a porn site section of unspeakable grossness where strange foulness abounds,unusually I kind of feel sorry for Theresa may she's literally like one of those people who maeey someone a few decades older and suddenly find that they've gone from no kids to step grandparent in an instant ,she's literally been thrown in to this and the mostly privileged male Tory party seem to be determined to see her fail probably because they want to see a woman who fails as much as they do,I'm by no means a great supporter of her but frankly if its her or prime minister Rees mogg or goal help us pm Boris she is the lesser of evils ,her pig porking predecessor however is frankly a fucking Jessie quitting coz he didn't get the result he wanted ...

Kom jpng un-i mean he is literally an adult version of that lying kid in school who tells lies so huge they are entertainment just to listen to,and when him and trump were scrapping it was literally like watching that lying kid take in your crazy ass grandfather who tells everyone he fought the Nazis even tho he literally wasn't even born yet in the world's biggest bullshitters battle

Putin-frankly you are a shitty cliché of a bond villain if you got a fucking cat to stroke I would not be surprised ,do humanity a favour and release the pee tape do it before Christmas make the whole world a lot happier this year seeing you, trump and jong un pal it up is frankly soul destroying two of you are mass murdering warmongers and the other one is dim as broken light bulb ,

So after many years I am disheartened to discover Jeremy kyle still has a show ,I was even more saddened to realise that people (my mam being one) actually believe in these lie detector test (view Penn and teller bullshit for an episode debunking it completely) this man has made a career on this shit destroying families because of these stupid tests you want to know how easy it is to flmox these things clenxh and in clench ur arse cheeks,that's it ,this man literally built a career on that and screaming at drug addicts to get a job and stop spending his tax money on drugs and claims he's been an addict so he knows what he's talking about ,let me just say no you really fucking don't gambling is an addiction but its not a physical on if someone doesn't gamble for a day they may get snappy or enotional but they do not bece physically I'll most drug addicts however do,they Starr withdrawing their own bodies are physically dependant and going nuts on them ,its terrifying.,you are no more qualified to go screaming at drug addicts on TV than I am qualifies to tell a car mechanic his job ,you shouldn't be on TV ,any TV anywhere you literally are the remnant from the days of public execution being entertainment only you could choose to attend a hanging the TV license is law we have to pay frankly I'd pay double just to see you gone .

Upakirters-i say this as a mother of a 17year old girl,if I found someone had done this to my daughter I'd track them down and would probably get a stretch in prison for beating them to a pulp ,no one who up skirts can claim they didn't know its wrong coz if you didn't think its wrong why not ask,girls wearing skirts are not silently consenting to being upskirted,uae your phone to read and educate yourself rather than taking pitchures of knickers

Jehovah's witnessea- seriously Mormons sew my polite noticw asking you not to knock if your seeking to convert me to religion and have moved on to another door yet every week at least once but more often twice you see this same sign and still insist on knocking my door to tell me that god has a plan ....there's a maniac in the white house a mass murdering wprmongeeing ex KGB operative whose more than once shown no hesitation in murdering prople on foreign soil in the Kremlin and he also has nukes that can't be brought down by anti ballistic meauewa and Maas murdering psy lookalike in north Korea and they're all friendly there is no god and even if there was and he met me as I die I'd frankly have a few things I'd have to say to him regarding his job ,believe what you want I respect your right to believe in any magical sky baby you want but respect my right to believe that humanity will only advance once all religion dies off...go convert someone who wants it and stop disturbing my bloody Sundays

So apart from those mentioned above I wish you all a good day I'm going to attempt a new recipe fore lime and coconut white choc truffles

[eyeofhorus237]

Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats, deduction, and rapid mathematics. Mentalists are sometimes categorized as psychic entertainers, although that category also contains non-mentalist performers such as psychic readers and bizarrists.

Background

Much of what modern mentalists perform in their acts can be traced back directly to "tests" of supernatural power that were carried out by mediums, spiritualists, and psychics in the 19th century.[1] However, the history of mentalism goes back even further. Accounts of seers and oracles can be found in works by the ancient Greeks[attribution needed] and in the Old Testament of the Bible. Among magicians, the mentalism performance generally cited as one of the earliest on record was by diplomat and pioneering sleight-of-hand magician Girolamo Scotto in 1572. The performance of mentalism may utilize these principles along with sleights, feints, misdirection, and other skills of street or stage magic.[2]

Performance approaches

Styles of presentation can vary greatly. Traditional performers such as Dunninger and Annemann attributed their results to supernatural or psychic skills[contradictory].

Some contemporary performers, such as Derren Brown, attribute their results to natural skills, such as the ability to read body language or to manipulate the subject subliminally through psychological suggestion.

Others, including Chan Canasta and David Berglas would make no specific claims but leave it up to the audience to decide.

Contemporary mentalists often take their shows onto the streets and perform tricks to a live, unsuspecting audience. They do this by approaching random members of the public and ask to demonstrate their supernatural powers. Performers such as Derren Brown who often adopt this method of performance tell their audience before the trick starts that everything they see is an illusion and that they are not really "having their mind read." This has been the cause of a lot of controversy in the sphere of magic as some mentalists want their audience to believe that this type of magic is "real" while others think that it is morally wrong to lie to a spectator.[3]

Mentalist or magician

Mentalists generally do not mix "standard" magic tricks with their mental feats. Doing so associates mentalism too closely with the theatrical trickery employed by stage magicians. Many mentalists claim not to be magicians at all, arguing that it is a different art form altogether. The argument is that mentalism invokes belief and when presented properly, is offered as being "real"—be it a claim of psychic ability, or proof that supports other claims such as a photographic memory, being a "human calculator", the power of suggestion, NLP, or other skills. Mentalism plays on the senses and a spectator's perception of tricks.[citation needed]

Magicians ask the audience to suspend their disbelief and allow their imagination to play with the various tricks they present. They admit that they are tricksters and entertainers, and know the audience understands it's an illusion and the magician cannot really achieve the impossible feats shown, such as sawing a person in half and putting them back together without injury.

However, many magicians mix mentally-themed performance with magic illusions. For example, a mind-reading stunt might also involve the magical transposition of two different objects. Such hybrid feats of magic are often called mental magic by performers. Magicians who routinely mix magic with mental magic include David Copperfield, David Blaine, The Amazing Kreskin, and Dynamo.[citation needed]. Notable mentalists who mix magic with mentalism include The Amazing Kreskin, Richard Osterlind, David Berglas, Derren Brown, and Joseph Dunninger.

Notable mentalists

Alexander

Theodore Annemann

Banachek

Keith Barry

David Berglas

Derren Brown

Chan Canasta

Bob Cassidy

The Clairvoyants

Paul Brook

Colin Cloud

Corinda

Joseph Dunninger

Anna Eva Fay

Glenn Falkenstein

Maurice Fogel

Haim Goldenberg

Wayne Hoffman

Burling Hull

Al Koran

The Amazing Kreskin

Max Maven

Max Major

Mysterion the Mind Reader

Lance Norris

Alain Nu

Marc Paul

The Piddingtons

Oz Pearlman

Joshua Seth

Marc Salem

Nakul Shenoy

Lior Suchard

The Zancigs

Historical figures

Mentalism techniques have, on occasion, been allegedly used outside the entertainment industry to influence the actions of prominent people for personal and/or political gain. Famous examples of accused practitioners include:

Erik Jan Hanussen, alleged to have influenced Adolf Hitler[4]

Grigori Rasputin, alleged to have influenced Tsarina Alexandra[5]

Wolf Messing, alleged to have influenced Joseph Stalin[6]

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, accused of influencing members of the French aristocracy in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace

The Amazing Kreskin has audience members hide his cheques before the show; if Kreskin cannot find the cheque at the end of his performance, he does not get paid.

In television

Eric Dittelman, a mind reader, performed on Season 7 of the NBC talent competition America's Got Talent. He made it to the semifinals, and was the first mentalist to be featured on the show.

Cristian Gog, a mentalist, won the big prize on Romania's Got Talent.

Tricks of the Mind: a British TV show starring Derren Brown

Pasąmonės Kontrolė: Kobra TV Channel by Nicholas Kin

Katherine Mills: Mind Games: a British TV show

Spidey Mentalist performed on Penn & Teller: Fool Us

In fiction

The Mentalist: an American crime procedural television series in which the main character, Patrick Jane, worked as an independent consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation and later the Federal Bureau of Investigation, solving serious crimes by using his skills of observation and his frequent use of his abilities as a former professional mentalist.

Psych: an American criminal comedy television series in which the main character, Shawn Spencer, works as a consultant to the Santa Barbara Police Department as a "psychic detective". Though he purports to be a psychic, the truth is that his exceptional observational skills, amazing vision, and near-photographic memory allow him to portray himself as such.

Now You See Me: Merritt McKinney, played by Woody Harrelson, performs as a mentalist.

Pretham: John Don Bosco, played by Jayasurya, performs as a mentalist in the Malayalam movie released in August 2016.[7]

Raju Gari Gadhi 2: Rudra, played by Akkineni Nagarjuna, performs as a mentalist in Telugu movie Released on October 2017

See also

Cold reading

James Randi

Memory sport

Mnemonist

Psychomagic

Scientific skepticism

Theatrical seances

Thirteen Steps To Mentalism (book)

#psychology