tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post9112155746187286038..comments2024-03-20T03:33:22.357-07:00Comments on Skeptophilia: The strange, fictional life and death of Dana DirrGordon Bonnethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06003472005971594466noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post-57725587666310100662012-05-24T22:58:44.183-07:002012-05-24T22:58:44.183-07:00It was a woman named Emily Dirr. Yeah she used her...It was a woman named Emily Dirr. Yeah she used her own last name. This complex hoax went on for over 6 yearsNancy Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05437134204017197028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post-13557146268624899432012-05-24T18:21:02.527-07:002012-05-24T18:21:02.527-07:00Read further into this story and... wow. As the ou...Read further into this story and... wow. As the outing blogger quipped "Whoever came up with this hoax must need spreadsheets to follow it."<br /><br />What a tangled web this hoax is. I immediately gravitate towards the sheer volume of premeditation necessary... and I'm stuck on that thought. Just going through all of the props that were created, let alone all the picture stealing... This woman spent thousands and thousands of hours over the course of 8 years maintaining and bolstering this fabrication. If this young woman had devoted this much effort, capability, and earnestness to a noble pursuit, she could have done something amazing.<br /><br />HBO used to run a series called "Autopsy" (Dr. Michael Baden is a prodigy) and Münchausen's By Proxy Syndrome was a frequent topic, wherein mothers were ending the lives of their children for the sympathy it garnered. I remember one retelling of a woman who killed 9 of her own children, one at a time, within the first year of their birth, before the truth was discovered.<br /><br />Humans never cease to amaze me, on both sides of the good/evil spectrum.Hontseur Thotshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10799765178908406877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post-23048658249241663632012-05-24T14:34:24.331-07:002012-05-24T14:34:24.331-07:00Scammers were successfully getting organizations t...Scammers were successfully getting organizations to assist them before the internet. While I agree with E. Phantzi about the face-to-face, I believe that good hucksters could probably "work me" better in person, using all of those other senses against me (think car salesman).<br /><br />As a product of the digital age, I actually feel a bit safer using the internet. The hucksters are anonymous, but I can be too.<br /><br />That and avoiding social networking almost completely.Hontseur Thotshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10799765178908406877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post-24242105476727371892012-05-24T04:46:34.667-07:002012-05-24T04:46:34.667-07:00p.s. I think I'm going to start using the capt...p.s. I think I'm going to start using the captcha word verification thingies as names in my yet-unwritten science fiction novel :-)E. Phantzihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05812948199658356521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post-46768971021523776252012-05-24T04:45:33.189-07:002012-05-24T04:45:33.189-07:00I wonder what "sixth sense" we will deve...I wonder what "sixth sense" we will develop when it comes to online material for smelling the proverbial rat? We have had millions of years to evolve our mechanisms for sniffing out danger in the analog world, but the digital age is still so new, and changing so fast - how fast can we keep up? When our social interactions are digitally mediated, what happens to the part of the brain that uses ALL the senses and relies a great deal on physical proximity to assess trustworthiness vs. unreliability? I read a great book called The Gift of Fear that's all about using our intuitive ability to sense danger - but going digital short-circuits almost all of that. <br /><br />I suppose with situations like the Warrior Eli hoax, we have to rely on the fact that lies spun out over time become more and more elaborate and eventually implode as the liar can't keep all the details straight, and contradictions emerge. So it's a much more consciously cognitive approach. Applied skepticism, perhaps.E. Phantzihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05812948199658356521noreply@blogger.com