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YASID: "Non-fiction" on Telekinesis in Baen's Destinies/New Destinies

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Ben Bradley

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Jan 25, 2007, 7:38:34 PM1/25/07
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I have several of Jim Baen's MMPB format quarterly magazines
"Destinies" and "New Destinies" from circa 1985-1990. I've dug out
some from the last move, but others (including the one I'm looking
for) are still boxed up or (perish the thought) lost.
I want to know what issue has an article describing this simple
telekinesis experiment: It's made by putting a pin through a pencil
eraser so the pin sits straight up on a tabletop surface, and strip of
paper about 1 inch long is creased so that it sits on the point of the
pin and can rotate freely with very little friction. A drinking glass
is put on top of the contraption so it can be seen but not affected by
any air currents. The object of the experiment is to get the
'propellor' to rotate by mental effort alone.
The author claimed he and others were able to do this, but I never
was. I'm such a skeptic, I'm not at all surprised I'm "psi-negative."

David Goldfarb

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Jan 25, 2007, 8:46:21 PM1/25/07
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In article <ubjir2lint36ltq7o...@4ax.com>,

Ben Bradley <ben_nospa...@frontiernet.net> wrote:
> I want to know what issue has an article describing this simple
>telekinesis experiment: It's made by putting a pin through a pencil
>eraser so the pin sits straight up on a tabletop surface, and strip of
>paper about 1 inch long is creased so that it sits on the point of the
>pin and can rotate freely with very little friction. A drinking glass
>is put on top of the contraption so it can be seen but not affected by
>any air currents. The object of the experiment is to get the
>'propellor' to rotate by mental effort alone.

I remember that article. I just looked for it in the ISFDB.org listings
for _Destinies_ and didn't find it. They don't list contents for
_New Destinies_. So you might try _New_ first. (Thinking about it,
I think I remember reading the article while sitting behind the
counter at a bookstore; when the original _Destinies_ was coming
out, I'd have been too young. So that also points to _New Destinies_.)

I do have one fact for you that might help: if memory serves me right
(which it might not) the article was authored by Martin Caidin.

Let me know if you find it -- I'm curious to know whether I'm right.

--
David Goldfarb |"Thanks for the Dadaist pep talk. I feel
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | much more abstract now."
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Nyrath the nearly wise

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Jan 25, 2007, 8:46:37 PM1/25/07
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I do not know which issue that was.

However, the described device is the so-called "Ripoff rotor".
It can be found in The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles,
Paradoxes, and Problems by Martin Gardner
http://www.fenomeno.matrix.com.br/fenomeno_fenomenos_1_rotor.htm

It is not a psionic device, it is a hoax that runs off body heat.
Gardner was a founding member of the Skeptical Inquirer,
a group that debunks fringe science claims. He created
the Ripoff rotor as a trap to snag gullible fringe science fans.

James Nicoll

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Jan 26, 2007, 9:17:20 AM1/26/07
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> I have several of Jim Baen's MMPB format quarterly magazines
>"Destinies" and "New Destinies" from circa 1985-1990.

I can't help with what you are actually looking for so I
will clarify a different point: DESTINIES ran from 1978 to 1981
(11 issues, I beleive) and NEW DESTINIES ran from 1985 to 1986
(8 issues).

I also seem to recall that the frequency of DESITINIES
varied.
--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)

The Hurkle Beast

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Jan 26, 2007, 12:52:42 PM1/26/07
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"Nyrath the nearly wise" <nyr...@projectrho.com.INVALID> wrote in
message news:PaedneYsTM3nwCTY...@io.com...

Still snagging them, too....
http://forums.vsociety.net/index.php?topic=24.msg72883

Ben Bradley

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Jan 26, 2007, 3:58:15 PM1/26/07
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On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 01:46:21 +0000 (UTC), gold...@OCF.Berkeley.EDU
(David Goldfarb) wrote:

>...

>I remember that article. I just looked for it in the ISFDB.org listings
>for _Destinies_ and didn't find it. They don't list contents for
>_New Destinies_. So you might try _New_ first. (Thinking about it,
>I think I remember reading the article while sitting behind the
>counter at a bookstore; when the original _Destinies_ was coming
>out, I'd have been too young. So that also points to _New Destinies_.)
>
>I do have one fact for you that might help: if memory serves me right
>(which it might not) the article was authored by Martin Caidin.

That name rings a bell, though I looked him up and am amazed I
don't recall reading other things by him (okay, I saw the Six Million
Dollar Man on TV), as he appears to have been rather prolific.
According to wikipedia and this article
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorTotalNewsList.asp?AuNum=101
he wrote over 50 books and over 1,000 articles(!).
A little more net.research finds this page describing Caidin's
[alleged] PK abilities, and this writing is so reminiscent of the
article that I have no doubt Caidin wrote it:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:d7in_JHKgqYJ:www.mindreader.com/fate/articles/Fate0604.doc+%22Martin+Caidin%22+esp&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=firefox-a

Ben Bradley

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Jan 26, 2007, 5:16:55 PM1/26/07
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On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 01:46:21 +0000 (UTC), gold...@OCF.Berkeley.EDU
(David Goldfarb) wrote:


>Let me know if you find it -- I'm curious to know whether I'm right.

I found a reference:
http://books.iuniverse.com/viewbooks.asp?isbn=059527658X&page=374
Caidin, Martin von Strasser: "Fiction this Ain't." In New
Destinies, IV, Summer 1988, 211-222.

With a title like that, the article is elusive. I may have seen it
before when browsing the contents and dismissed it as not being the
article I was thinking of. But it's not any of the three New Destinies
in front of me.

I found plenty of copies at Amazon once I went to paperbackswap and
found an ISBN: 067165408X

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