Debunking the Stundies - April Edition

[William Rea]

The first warm glows of the summer sun, the evenings getting longer and the vibrant colours of the garden blooming, it must be May. In spite of being surrounded by all that is good and right with the world we find ourselves once again embarking on this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue to debunk the April Stundie Nominations.

This month I find myself honoured to make the short list of final nominations. Not being one who wishes to be in the limelight I will be modest and ignore the nomination but no doubt this thread will turn into a similar series of attacks on me rather than my arguments. I know this will annoy my loyal stalkers readers, but I must think of everyone and spread my razor sharp analysis amongst all you good people.

I won't be able to devote as much time as normal this month because I will be travelling on company business more than usual. I thank my lucky stars that thermal energy knows hot from cold, otherwise I wouldn't be paid this very generous salary to travel around Europe. It's a hard life.


Edited to remove personal attack(s), based on more stringent interpretation of the forum rules.

[Oliver]

The first warm glows of the summer sun, the evenings getting longer and the vibrant colours of the garden blooming, it must be May. In spite of being surrounded by all that is good and right with the world we find ourselves once again embarking on this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue to debunk the April Stundie Nominations.

This month I find myself honoured to make the short list of final nominations. Not being one who wishes to be in the limelight I will be modest and ignore the nomination but no doubt this thread will turn into a similar series of attacks on me rather than my arguments. I know this will annoy my loyal stalkers readers, but I must think of everyone and spread my razor sharp analysis amongst all you good people.

I won't be able to devote as much time as normal this month because I will be travelling on company business more than usual. I thank my lucky stars that thermal energy knows hot from cold, otherwise I wouldn't be paid this very generous salary to travel around Europe. It's a hard life.


So what's your critique? Which nominees made it falsely to
the nominations? ... I mean this month.


Edited quote box for consistency with my mod edit in the original post.

[JAStewart]

Unfortunetly for you the Stundies are the LEAST bit of debunking we do, so knock yourself out debunking them when you really should be doing at least two other things:

Contacting experts and first responders RE: 911, such as Wally Miller
Stating who should be on a new investigative committee.

Have fun, JA.

[William Rea]

So what's your critic? Which nominees made it falsely to
the nominations? ... I mean this month.


Patience my pretties, patience.

[Horatius]

EDIT - Actually, looking at the posts currently accumulating it would seem the Randi prize is in the bag. It seems these people are without any self control whatsoever under my psychic influence!



"are without any self control", or are, as is more likely, not inclined to let unsupported* assertions go unquestioned.

It is a skeptic fourm, after all.




*And demonstratably wrong.

[HyJinX]

Thank you Mods.

[William Rea]

I don't know if this is a legitimate post to make or not but please will you recognise that I will present an argument against certain Stundie nominations at some stage but, as my first post points out my time will be limited and it takes time to piece together debunking points.

[Lisa Simpson]

Look people, I do not want to spend my entire evening moving posts. Post on-topic or I will close the thread entirely.

[beachnut]

The first warm glows of the summer sun, the evenings getting longer and the vibrant colours of the garden blooming, it must be May. In spite of being surrounded by all that is good and right with the world we find ourselves once again embarking on this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue to debunk the April Stundie Nominations.

This month I find myself honoured to make the short list of final nominations. Not being one who wishes to be in the limelight I will be modest and ignore the nomination but no doubt this thread will turn into a similar series of attacks on me rather than my arguments. I know this will annoy my loyal stalkers readers, but I must think of everyone and spread my razor sharp analysis amongst all you good people.

I won't be able to devote as much time as normal this month because I will be travelling on company business more than usual. I thank my lucky stars that thermal energy knows hot from cold, otherwise I wouldn't be paid this very generous salary to travel around Europe. It's a hard life.

we find ourselves once again embarking on this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue to debunk the April Stundie Nominations.
It seems this thread was just as William says "... we find ourselves once again embarking on this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue ...".

I can not see how you can replay to this "journey down Ad Hominem Avenue", without moving the entire thread to where all ordinary comments end up. I see not one CT mentioned, but I do see "this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue", as stated by the thread first post.

The first post is this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue .

It is veiled, and hard to see, but it is clearly a "tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue", and this first post will at least be quoted to join the replies not so veiled as this first post was.


Edited quote box for consistency with my original mod edit.

[The Doc]

The Stundies are something we do for humour. William takes them very seriously.

Facts are something we take very seriously. William doesn't use them at all.

[qarnos]

William, to re-phrase my earlier point in a less inflammatory way, your previous attempt at "debunking" the stundies was a spectacular failure, with you resorting to lying to make your case.

Do you think it would be wise, then, to attempt to do so this month when you, by your own admission, will have little time to do so? Surely the results will be of even lower quality, due to time restraints?

This is not just a waste of your time, but ours as well.

[Mince]

... but please will you recognise that I will present an argument against certain Stundie nominations at some stage...


This is usually done in what is normally called the OP (Original Post) by the OP (Original Poster), especially when the thread is titled "Debunking the Stundies - April Edition". Perhaps you could avoid starting any future threads about stuff you'd like to talk about but then refuse to talk about them?

[gumboot]

I won't be able to devote as much time as normal this month because I will be travelling on company business more than usual. I thank my lucky stars that thermal energy knows hot from cold, otherwise I wouldn't be paid this very generous salary to travel around Europe. It's a hard life.



Wait... so you basically started a thread to declare your intent to debunk the stundies at some later date?

Right.

And let's see, last month you managed to address a grand total of three stundies. How many should we expect to be debunked this month? Two? One?

-Gumboot

[William Rea]

William, to re-phrase my earlier point in a less inflammatory way, your previous attempt at "debunking" the stundies was a spectacular failure, with you resorting to lying to make your case.

Do you think it would be wise, then, to attempt to do so this month when you, by your own admission, will have little time to do so? Surely the results will be of even lower quality, due to time restraints?

This is not just a waste of your time, but ours as well.

You have the freedom to post or not. If you believe that I am a liar then your post has no other purpose than to perpetuate that myth because you surely do not wish to debate with a liar.

You have the freedom to believe that the March Edition was a failure, I disagree and my view will not be changed by bullying posts like the ones that have already been split from this thread. If my debunking was so unsuccessful then why has there been an apparently orchestrated attempt to make posts in here that will lead to the thread being closed down. I'd have thought that if my arguments were so poor there wouldn't be a queue of people posting in here to refute them.

I am not forcing you to "waste" your own time reading or posting in this thread.

[The Doc]

"Orchestrated"?

Oh yes, we were all sitting in our underground NWO bunker plotting how to stop the oh so great William Rea from "debunking" our precious Stundies! You have figured us out!

Get it straight Rea, we all post as individuals. Nothing "orchestrated" goes on here.

[Foolmewunz]

The Stundies are something we do for humour. William takes them very seriously.

Facts are something we take very seriously. William doesn't use them at all.

William takes everything very seriously. William is, in fact, The Sultan of Seriously. He takes his threads seriously. So seriously that he's appealed to the admins to let him be in charge of editing out the posts he doesn't think are on topic. (This one would surely go.)

He takes the Stundies seriously. He takes himself seriously. He takes his threads seriously. He takes his posts seriously. He takes his cereal seriously, I'm sure.

What he lacks, however, are two important elements. One subjective and one objective: A sense of humor(subjective). Any facts at all(objective.)

William, this is pointed humor. It's an old tradition in western culture. I'm sure that as they were giving Socrates his cup, someone in the corner mumbled, sotto voce, "Take my life. Please." Pop open a brew and lighten up!

And .... when is the grand debunking of the nominations coming. I'm all a-twitter with anticipation.

[Mobyseven]

The first warm glows of the summer sun, the evenings getting longer and the vibrant colours of the garden blooming, it must be May. In spite of being surrounded by all that is good and right with the world we find ourselves once again embarking on this tortuous journey down Ad Hominem Avenue to debunk the April Stundie Nominations.

It's winter here and I can hear police sirens from my room at college, so you can officially cry me a river over voluntarily coming back after having ignored so many people here for so long to once again accuse me of endorsing and engaging in ad hominem attacks.

This month I find myself honoured to make the short list of final nominations. Not being one who wishes to be in the limelight I will be modest and ignore the nomination but no doubt this thread will turn into a similar series of attacks on me rather than my arguments.

Er...you start the paragraph off by telling everybody that you've made the finals last month. You then tell us how you don't want to be in the limelight (in a thread that you've started to "debunk" the Stundie nominations) and that you are therefore going to ignore the very nomination you just brought attention to!

I know this will annoy my loyal stalkers readers like Moby Seven, Beachnut, Pomeroo, Undesired Walrus and Mr D but I must think of everyone and spread my razor sharp analysis amongst all you good people.

Because people respond to you, it doesn't mean they're stalking you. My name is "Mobyseven", not "Moby Seven". Putting the [strike] tags around an attack does not make it any less of an attack.


I won't be able to devote as much time as normal this month because I will be travelling on company business more than usual. I thank my lucky stars that thermal energy knows hot from cold, otherwise I wouldn't be paid this very generous salary to travel around Europe. It's a hard life.

So, I have reached the end of the first post. And do you know what I saw?

I didn't see any "debunking" going on.

I didn't see even a hint at what is going to be "debunked".

I did see a thinly veiled accusation that I endorse and engage in ad hominem attacks.

I didn't see any justification for this claim.

I did see the part where you insinuated that I 'stalk' you - a personal attack, that I can only assume was meant to undermine my credibility in advance (much like your insinuation in the last "Debunking the Stundies" thread that I am mentally disturbed). Ironically, this makes your comment an ad hominem attack.

So, as your OP contains unsupported accusations, personal attacks and no actual argument, it has been reported.

On a side note - are you going to respond to all the questions and points made in the March Thread (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=78622) that you never got around to addressing?

[Foolmewunz]

You have the freedom to post or not. If you believe that I am a liar then your post has no other purpose than to perpetuate that myth because you surely do not wish to debate with a liar.

You have the freedom to believe that the March Edition was a failure, I disagree and my view will not be changed by bullying posts like the ones that have already been split from this thread. If my debunking was so unsuccessful then why has there been an apparently orchestrated attempt to make posts in here that will lead to the thread being closed down. I'd have thought that if my arguments were so poor there wouldn't be a queue of people posting in here to refute them.

I am not forcing you to "waste" your own time reading or posting in this thread.

Can we get on with the debunking before they close you down for trolling. You created a thread title and a dramatic introduction, and have proceeded from there, straight to no where. If you were ready to get on to master debunking, then why haven't you brought your debunking kit, why are your instruments still in the bag, the bag locked, and in the attic with the carnation you wore to your prom?

Let Lisa and the other Mods do their job, please. In the Forum Mgmt section, you've been informed that you will not be allowed to edit your threads to remove 'undesirable elements'. You get on with your work, and let them get on with theirs. As evidenced by (a nice way of saying "I blame her") Lisa's action, the mods can remove flames and sparks and such quite easily.

[Foolmewunz]

From Wunk and Fagnall's Troofer Dictionary

Stalking: Whoa, dude! If, like I post a stupid message or start an unsubstantiated thread, and then the other guys they notice it and respond to it, that's like stalking, man!

[OMGturt1es]

...If my debunking was so unsuccessful then why has there been an apparently orchestrated attempt to make posts in here that will lead to the thread being closed down...

william, do you honestly believe that folk are purposely trying to get this thread closed by orchestrating a posting campaign that will bring moderator action?

[Mobyseven]

William:

Could you at least let us know which nominations you plan to "debunk"? You've read the list, so you must have some idea of which ones are (according to you) ad hominems.

I mean, you wouldn't have started this thread in the first place if you hadn't found at least ONE to be an ad hominem...would you?

[jmercer]

I saw that Lisa Simpson put a general warning in this thread after I started editing an offending post in order to eliminate the ad hom in it. (One post still contains a reference to it in isolation, however, because removing it would disrupt the rest of the thread content.)

Please keep in mind that Lisa's warning still stands.

[Belz...]

William: since when is laughing at other people's mistakes or stupidity considered an ad hominem ?

[Dr Adequate]

Is he going to tell us that energy is a vector again?

It's an old joke, but it always makes me laugh.

[jmercer]

I am closing this thread, pending a discussion with Lisa Simpson over further possible actions.

[Darat]

OK, I've reviewed the thread and again had to remove some posts to AAH. No more warnings from this point any post that requires Moderation action for anything in this thread from this point will mean an immediate 48 hour suspension for that Member.

[soundaddicted]

Is he going to tell us that energy is a vector again?

It's an old joke, but it always makes me laugh.

I wonder if Fetzer's directed energy is a vector?

[Papermache]

Is he going to tell us that energy is a vector again?

It's an old joke, but it always makes me laugh.And to think that some people say engineers have no sense of humor.

[Mobyseven]

Bump for William.

[Mobyseven]

Bumped to accompany the April voting...

[Mobyseven]

Bumped again to accompany the April voting...equal time to both sides of the argument and all that.

[Mobyseven]

Bump to accompany the April voting.

[Mobyseven]

The April voting poll will close in nary two hours.

As such, I feel that it is important to look back over this thread and carefully evaluate the arguments William put forward, as well as acknowledging the times in this thread and threads past where, when he was shown to be incorrect, he apologised and withdrew his claims.

I, for one, feel that the April Edition of Debunking the Stundies was a great success, and I look forward to the May Edition!

Peace Out

Mobyseven