Phosphor

This thread seems to have run it's course. Descending into bickering and pointing out of character flaws looks to be the dominant arguement rather than anything scientific. If anyone wants to salvage any of the good points brought up here and start new discussions, that's fine, but I think this particular thread is past the point of salvation.

Levels don't mean anything, really. High level posters are usually munchkins anyways At the moment, there is no title system in place.

You mean something like the Trans Canada Highway?

Regarding Kirlian's photography, here's some info. From http://skepdic.com/kirlian.html : "In 1939, Semyon Kirlian discovered by accident that if an object on akirlian butterfly digigraph by R. Carroll photographic plate is subjected to a high-voltage electric field, an image is created on the plate. The image looks like a colored halo or coronal discharge. This image is said to be a physical manifestation of the spiritual aura or "life force" which allegedly surrounds each living thing. Allegedly, this special method of "photographing" objects is a gateway to the paranormal world of auras. Actually, what is recorded is due to quite natural phenomena such as pressure, electrical grounding, humidity and temperature. Changes in moisture (which may reflect changes in emotions), barometric pressure, and voltage, among other things, will produce different 'auras'. Living things...are moist. When the electricity enters the living object, it produces an area of gas ionization around the photographed object, assuming moisture is present on the object. This moisture is transferred from the subject to the emulsion surface of the photographic film and causes an alternation of the electric charge pattern on the film. If a photograph is taken in a vacuum, where no ionized gas is present, no Kirlian image appears. If the Kirlian image were due to some paranormal fundamental living energy field, it should not disappear in a simple vacuum (Hines). There have even been claims of Kirlian photography being able to capture "phantom limbs," e.g., when a leaf is placed on the plate and then torn in half and "photographed," the whole leaf shows up in the picture. This is not due to paranormal forces, however, but to fraud or to residues left from the initial impression of the whole leaf." From http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles...hotography.html : "A photographic process that captures the auras or biofields of persons or objects within the photograph. The technique involves the photographing of subjects in the pressence of a high-frequency, high-voltage, low-amperage-electrical field, which display glowing, multicolored emanations known as auras or biofields. The process of Kirlian photography is named after Seymon Kirlian, an amateur inventor and electrician of Krasnodar, Russia, who pioneered the first efforts on the process in the early 1940s. Even thought the process has produced results it still is controversial. There seems to be no evidence that Kirlian photography is a paranormal phenomenon. Some experimenters think it reveals a physical form of psychic energy. Another theory is that it reveals the etheric body, one of the layers of the aura thought to permeate all animate objects. The understanding of this latter aspect of the process gives rise to the prospects of beneficial benefits of gaining significant insights in medicine, psychology, psychic healing, psi, and dowsing. Critics repudiate the process by saying that it shows nothing more that than electricity being discharged which can be produced under certain conditions. Experiments in photographing objects in electrical fields, prior to Kirlian, was called "electrography" or "electrographic photography." Little value was seen in the process, so scant attention was given to it. Electrographic photographs were exhibited as early as 1898 by the Russian Yakov Narkevich Yokdo (also given as Todko. Research in the fields was published by a Czech, B. Narvratil, also in the early 1900s. The published evidence of photographs of leaves coronas was presents by two Czechs, S. Pratt and J. Schlemmer, in 1939. The initial Kirlian experiments were simple. In his first experiment Kirlian just photographed his hand, noting a strange orange glow radiating from the fingertips. His wife Valentina was a biologist, and together they photographed both animate and inanimate objects. Over the years, they refined their equipment and graduated from back and white to colored photography. The principle of Kirlian photography, as well as all electrography, is the corona discharge phenomenon, that takes place when an electrically grounded object discharges sparks between itself and an electrode generating the electrical field. When these sparks are captured on film they give the appearance of coronas of light. These discharges can be affected by temperature, moisture, pressure, or other environmental factors. Several Kirlian techniques have been developed, but the basic ones generally employ a Tesla coil connected to a metal plate. The process is similar to the one which occurs in nature, when electrical conditions in the atmosphere produce luminescences, auras, such as St. Elmo's fire. Kirlian's work mainly gained attention in the west during the 1960. Its reception was mixed. However, scientist met on the process at Alma Ata in 1966. Biophysicist Viktor Adamenko theorized that the energy field was the "cold emission of electrons," and the patterns they formed might suggest new information concerning the life processes od animate objects. One finding of Adamenko and other Soviet scientists was that the biological energies of human beings were brightest at 700 points on the body which concurs with Chinese acupuncture. There is evidence that Kirlan photographs do give indications of the health and emotional changes in living things by changes in the brightness, color, and patterns of light. At the University of California Center for Health Sciences, a plant's leaf showed changes when being approached by a human hand and pricked. Even when part of the leaf was cut off, the glowing portion of the amputated portion still appeared on film. Other researchers have found that changes in the emotional conditions of humans can be detected by changes in the brightness, color and formation patterns in the photographs. When psychic healers and the psychokinetic metal-bender Uri Geller were photographed flares of light were seen streaming from their fingertips as they performed their respective activities. Many Kirlain enthusiasts declare that the leaf phenomenon is evidence for the existence of an etheric body. But, critics state the phenomenon completely disproves Kirlin photography. The latter contention is that "If the method truly photographed a biofield, then the aura should disappear when an organism dies. The effect is produced solely by a high-voltage electric field breakdown of air molecules between two condenser plates." Supporters of Kirlain photography do, however, foresee its applications in diagnostic medicine. It has been used in the detection of cancer with only a sporadic success rate. Some envision that it will eventually be connected to computerized tomography (CT) scanners (advanced versions of axial tomography or CAT scanners, which utilize a thin beam of X-rays to photograph an object from 360 degrees) and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). This latter method uses no X-rays, but employs magnetic fields to produce images of body cells and water in tissues." From http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelate...cs/kirlian.html by Dr. Stephen Barrett: "Kirlian photography allegedly depicts the body's "aura," a so-called "human energy field" that is said to be not ordinarily visible. During the procedure, the object, such as a person's hand, is placed on a photographic emulsion within an apparatus that generates a high-voltage (15,000 to 100,000 volts), low-amperage, high-frequency electric current. The resulting photo shows a fuzzy glow surrounding the outline of the object. Proponents correlate these patterns with acupuncture meridians and claim that "auric" qualities reveal changes in health and emotional state. Kirlian photography has also been claimed useful for demonstrating changes before and after chiropractic spinal manipulation. However, scientific investigators have shown that Kirlian effects depend on physical factors that are well understood. Kirlian photography is named after Semyon Davidovich Kirlian (1900-1980), a Russian electrician who observed that an electric spark can "take its own picture" as it passes through a photographic emulsion. This phenomenon had been well known to physicists and electrical engineers since the earliest days of photography. But in 1939, Kirlian proclaimed that he was photographing a supernatural human energy field. The Kirlian photographic process requires a high-voltage, high-frequency, alternating current supply. The basic process -- a corona discharge phenomenon -- occurs when an electrically grounded object discharges sparks between itself and an electrode generating the electrical field [1]. Two set-ups can be used to take Kirlian photographs. In the first, one end of the circuit is attached to an electrode above a piece of film, the other to an identical electrode below the piece of film. The second method involves grounding one electrode of the power supply and placing a dielectric slab on the other. A piece of film is then placed on the slab. Any object placed between two films in the first method, or on the film in the second method, will produce a beautiful photograph as "streamers" of charged particles leave any "bumpy" features of the object and pass through the film [2]. Kirlian himself did not understand the involved science. To him, the "fuzzy" field surrounding any object was a photograph of its "aura." He was ignored by Russian scientists, but during the early 1960s the Russian press and popular magazines promoted him as a "great discoverer." American and European journalists and pseudoscientists flocked to see him and returned home ready to "study the aura" and "probe the bioenergy field." Kirlian photography is alleged to detect all types of disease (even before physical signs appear) and emotional states. Many "energy healers," "clairvoyants," and other occult practitioners still rely on it today. "Supernaturally gifted" people are claimed to generate unusually dramatic photos. However, scientific investigation has found that the outcome depends on the type of film, the voltage, the skin resistance (which can be affected by perspiration and the amount of pressure of the finger on the film), how well the subject is electrically grounded, the humidity of the room, the exposure time, the photographic development time, and even the order of the photograph in a series [3,4]. Moreover, coins and water droplets can generate Kirlian "auras" as effectively as living things. In fact, at least 22 physical, chemical, and photochemical characteristics can influence the coronal discharges seen in Kirlian photos."

It is. The same documentary that aired is the one that's part of the DVD set.

Yes, it was on A&E, which is where I watched it......

The documentary (Empire Of Dreams, I think it's called) is really interesting and runs some 90 minutes I believe.

That's not common knowledge? That was taught to me back in grade 7 science class.

Ally and Oz are an alligator and pig, stuffed animals that Choyrt writes fantastic stories about. The stories are apparently for kids, but I, and Gorth, love them.

No, I haven't heard anything yet. There's a good chance internet connections may still be spotty, though. I do hope he, Snookems, Ally and Oz are ok, though.

No, I don't confuse my real name with my board name, but when I see someone mention my board name, I automatically "over-ride" it with my real name, so the two read the same to me.

I thought Feargus was Emperor Palpatine?

Perhaps.. Though the Delete function is supposed to automatically put the deleted posts into the forum I mentioned earlier.

Honestly, I don't know what happened. When threads and posts are deleted, they go into a specific forum, and the missing posts from this thread aren't in that forum, so it's a mystery. I will enquire.

So, a tribe of demonic satan-worshipping spore innards?

We had a hybrid car once. A blue '85 New Yorker. It was on it's third engine rebuild, using parts from other cars, and after an accident the hood and right front fender were replaces with parts from a brown car of the same model. It was definately a hybrid. When we got rid of our last car, it too could have been a hybrid, using real horse-power. But we don't have a place to keep the horses.

You can disable signatures in your Controls section, so you don't have to see anyone's signature. Though I do agree that image sizes for signatures should be smaller.

Heh. My neighbour has one of those actually. Damned good car, she's driven it all over Canada numerous times. Personally, I love station wagons.

That's very cool. I love boxy cars; I really hate the look of most new cars, there's no style to them and they all look the same.

I have a grey and black cruiser bicycle that I bought for $25 and fixed up.

No, but this kind of thread is completely pointless spam.

I think this thread needs to be put out of it's misery.

I realise this thread is in good fun, but.. move along people, move along.

That's... impressive. Must have taken ages to put that together.

The biggest problem with the search is that it won't accept words under 4 letters, so with a RPG boards and the prevalence of acronyms, searching can be tricky or even impossible.