Electric footwear

Have you heard of Kickstarter?  It's a neat idea.  The site is devoted to people who have come up with cool ideas for small businesses or civic projects, but lack the funds to get going.  You launch a page on their site describing your proposal, publicize it, offer promotions and prizes -- whatever you can do to get the idea off the ground.  Interested people donate money, and when you have enough, your idea gets launched.

While the general concept (and most of the proposed projects) are good, it also means that crazy, but appealing, proposals can get way more funding than they deserve.  Because, after all, you have to be able to tell if what the person is saying makes logical sense -- and as we've seen over and over in this blog, lots of folks aren't really all that good at doing that.

Enter Earth Runners sandals.

Now, before we get started, let me be specific about what I don't mean in the following paragraphs.  I am not criticizing the quality of the sandals -- I've never seen one, but have no reason to suspect that they're poorly made.  Nor am I going to comment about the benefits (or hazards) of running while barefoot or thinly shod -- I have read a good many articles that lean either pro or con on this issue, and I am not knowledgeable enough about exercise physiology that my opinion would be relevant.

However, I do take exception to a large chunk of the "science" they're using to sell their product.

I put "science" in quotation marks, because once again we have that "sort of science-y or something" use of language, coupled with a good dose of woo-woo metaphysics, that we've seen so often.  Here's a sample:

Earth Runners are the first ever conductive minimalist footwear inspired by the world renowned long distance runners, the Tarahumara Indians of Northwestern Mexico.  Our original conductive design allows you to absorb ever-present subtle electrical energies of the Earth.  This provides an experience similar to that of going barefoot while still enjoying a measure of safety from varied terrains or street hazards.  The soles of our feet are natural access points for life force energy from the planet.  Typical footwear blocks these natural incoming flows of vital ground source energy, and thus impacts our health and how we move and live upon the earth.

What kind of energy are we talking about, here?  The Kickstarter page isn't specific, just using the vague, fluffy "earth energies" phrase without ever really defining it, but fortunately, the Earth Runners Facebook page goes into more detail:

Chances are, 99.9% of your reading this are completely disconnected from the earth right now. This is because you are not grounded to her through any direct physical connection. When we do rarely venture outdoors, we tend to insulate ourselves on top of rubber shoes, which block the infinite flow of free electrons which the earth shares with its inhabitants.

Standing barefoot on the earth (or otherwise connecting to the natural frequencies of the earth) connects the human body with an unlimited supply of free electrons resident in and on the surface of the earth. Standing barefoot on the earth also connects the human body with rhythmic cycles of the earth’s energy field. These appear important for synchronizing biological clocks, hormonal cycles and physiological rhythms.

The cells in your body constantly draw energy from the brain and the Earth's electromagnetic field in an effort to achieve what is called "magnetic resonance". Magnetic resonance occurs when the magnetic frequency in your brain matches a harmonic of the frequencies of the other organs and body tissues.

And lo, in order to promote the "free flow of electrons" that the Earth is "sharing with its inhabitants," the soles of Earth Runners sandals are pierced with copper studs, arranged in a "Fibonacci spiral" that lines up with the "foot's acupuncture points."  That way the electrons are free to flow up from the Earth and into your feet.

Well.  That gives us a place to start, doesn't it?  Here are a few responses I had, right off the bat:

1)  Yes, the Earth has lots of electrons.  That's because it's big.  Big things have lots of atoms, and atoms have electrons.  Ergo, the Earth has a great many electrons.  Most of those electrons aren't moving around much because they're participating in chemical bonds, but some of them can.

2)  When electrons move around, it's called "electric current."  If enough of them flow through your body, it's called "being electrocuted."

3)  The Earth's electrons do sometimes get stuck on objects, causing the objects to build up a static charge.  If you experience small amounts of static charge buildup, the result is a carpet shock.  Large amounts of static charge cause lightning.  Neither one is comfortable.

4)  Your biological clock has nothing to do with being barefoot.  It does have something to do with light/dark cycles and the internal production of hormones and neurotransmitters; getting the two to line up is called "entrainment."  Some of us are naturally bad at this.  We're called "insomniacs."  I walk around barefoot all the time, and note that I am still up at 3:30 AM writing this post instead of doing what the rest of the household is doing, namely, sleeping.

5)  The "magnetic resonance" thing is nonsense.  Sorry for being blunt, but really.  The brain "matching a harmonic of frequencies of the other organs?"  What the hell does that even mean?  Your organs aren't magnetic, or else walking through the silverware department of an Ikea would be a dangerous proposition, and would result in stainless steel cutlery flying toward you and embedding itself in your body.  Your water molecules (and any other molecules in you that are free to rotate) do respond to a strong magnetic field, which is the principle behind an MRI.  But the idea that each of your organs has a specific "magnetic frequency" and you'll feel better if they all get synchronized with each other is unscientific horse waste.

The disheartening thing is that so many people lack the scientific knowledge and critical thinking skills to recognize this sales pitch for what it is.  If you look at the Kickstarter page for Earth Runners, you'll see that they've already raised over $5,700.  The optimistic side of my personality wants me to believe that the donors are just interested in getting a cool-looking, comfortable, well-made pair of sandals, and they aren't buying them so as to keep their bodies well-stocked with happy electrons.  But the cynical side -- never very deeply buried -- remembers all of the other stuff people buy, the magnetic bracelets and crystal pendants and water vibration machines and so forth, sold using just such pseudoscientific foolishness.  And it becomes all too easy to believe that the sponsors of Earth Runners are being taken in, and believe that if they just wear their copper-studded sandals, they'll get in touch with Mother Earth.

So, anyway, there you are.  That's all I have to say about that.  Partly because if that wasn't enough of a debunking to convince you, going on for longer probably won't have any effect.  It's also because it's time for me to get going to my day job, where I will be wearing my nasty, rubber-soled, insulating shoes, depriving me of the natural flow of electrons from the floor of my classroom.  Maybe that's why I'm so tired at the end of the day.

Online magic marketplace

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about eBay's decision to discontinue the posting of "paranormal goods and services" on their site.  While this was ostensibly a good move, in the sense that fewer people were being ripped off by charlatans, the positive aspects were overshadowed by the fact that eBay still has plenty of woo-woo stuff for sale -- books on astrology, homeopathy, and so on.

And of course, the reduction in eBay's woo-woo market share doesn't really change the market itself.  In fact, it opens up a gap that someone was bound to fill.  I just didn't think it'd be filled this fast.

Introducing MetaBazaar.  Billing itself "The Online Metaphysical Marketplace," MetaBazaar has jumped in to fill the cosmic void left by eBay's retreat from the world of the weird.  Items are sorted out by category.  We have the following to choose from:

• Metaphysical Publications
• Astrology
• Crystal Healing
• Paranormal
• Psychic
• Reiki
• Tarot
• Wicca
• Other Spiritual Services

A few examples of some of the goods and services you can purchase here:

A SuCcEsS FULL BLUE Moon Blessing and Ritual for your shop (starting bid, $5.00) - On the next FULL moon I do ritual work for money and success. It is said that once the work is done the spell should manifest by the following full moon, although sometimes it could take longer. I honor the Celtic Goddesses of Avalon and request their blessings.  This blessing, spell and ritual includes my own spell (written by me) and the full ritual that I will do for your shop's blessing. This include asking the Divine to bring business to your etsy store's "door", to enhance money, increase sales and so on. I'll also burn a rune inscribed candle that will also be inscribed with your business name.

A Rose Petal Black Concave Scrying Pendant (starting bid, $44.00) - These Scrying pendants work well with the natural scrying methods...and can be used anywhere, at almost any time. They are inconspicuous and do not draw much attention, usually. They may be worn at all times, though it is advisable to keep them tucked in your clothing.  Seeing tools are very personal to your energy. They should never be left on display as a scrying tool after they have been charged, or used with others, if they are to be used for seeing.

A Large Beaded Smudge Feather (starting bid, $92.00) - Smudging is a way to revitalize the energy around you, it is not just aroma therapy, but with the proper intent, can alter the energetic state around you, in a room or area. All of our smudge/dance feathers are of course, one of a kind. The larger feathers like this one, are a bit harder to come by, so we can only make them when the feathers are available.

Attract Love Oil (starting bid, $5.00) - An oil for those wanting a little umph in their search for the right person. This lovely oil was created when the moon was right! Jasmine flowers in a sweet almond base with gardenia essential oil.! Dab a little on each wrist or anoint a red candle for some candle magick! Sealed with wax and decorated with a little red yarn and a charm that you can also wear as a necklace! (I recommend it!) Yarn and flower color may vary!

So I think you can see, from this sampling, that MetaBizarre (sorry, MetaBazaar.  My mistake) has really jumped in where eBay feared to tread.  Amazing what the profit motive will do.

It was inevitable, really.  Whatever else you can say about the practitioners of woo-woo, they have money, and they're happy to spend it on anything their Magick can Scry.  So we've moved way past caveat emptor into the realm of "if you're willing to spend your hard-earned money on this stuff, you deserve everything you get."

Crazy clinics, sexy psychics, and frisky ghosts

Here at Worldwide Wacko Watch, we're keeping our eyes on three developing stories.

First, from Whanganui, New Zealand, we have word that a clinic at a local hospital has been closed because it has been connected with witchcraft and wizardry.  [Source]

This summer, Whanganui Hospital started a "natural therapy clinic" where doctors and practitioners of "alternative medicine" would treat sick people not with nasty old medicines, but with such dubious practices as "energy cleansing" and "color therapy."  And if the bad example of the Christian Scientists wasn't sufficient to demonstrate its efficacy, the clinic also offered "Christian prayer" as a healing modality.

The story got even weirder when one of the senior doctors involved in the project made a public statement that he was "affiliated with the Whanganui School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."  Hospital chief executive Julie Patterson said that this statement was "confusing to the public" and resulted in the clinic being closed. 

I'm not sure I see what is "confusing" here, unless it's why any hospital with a sane governing board would think it was a good idea to host a clinic whose treatment protocols rely solely on the placebo effect.  The contention that the oversight of the hospital might be a little questionable was given ample support by Clive Solomon, general surgeon and member of Whanganui District Health Board, who said, "When a hospital gives credibility to something like color therapy, that becomes a problem," but then followed it up by saying that he was "not anti these holistic treatments at all."

The whole thing makes me wonder if now we might know where this clip was filmed.  (Just watch it, you won't regret it.)

It also makes me determined not to get sick if I ever visit Whanganui.


A different kind of therapy is the bailiwick of "Sallie," who bills herself as the "world's only sex psychic."  [Source]

Sallie was interviewed on Buzzfeed, where she describes her epiphany that if psychic stuff sells, and sex sells, then psychic sex would sell even better:

This whole thing started because I had medical bills and needed an alternative way of making money. The first two things that came to mind were phone psychic and phone sex. So, I enrolled in a psychic class where I learned about auras and mediumship and communicating with past lives. After the course I started working a mainstream psychic line doing regular readings for $1.88 a minute. And then at night, I also started doing phone sex for the same cost. It wasn’t long before I combined the two.

It's a little hard to imagine anyone considering career options and narrowing it down to those two in the first round.  Be that as it may, Sallie found herself uniquely qualified, because of her sensitivity to "sexual energy" and her ability to beam said energy to her clients' "chakras:"

 I start each sex psychic reading reading by grounding the space and tuning my chakras (a "chakra" is a place in the body that collects energy). I’ll have my eyes closed with a notebook sitting next to me so I can jot down the images and fragments that come from the spirit realm...  I also offer psychic persuasion, which means I send psychic energy to the person you sexually desire...  I (send) sexual energy and energy to the heart chakra.

Which I guess would be easier than having to come up with a good pick-up line.

The funny thing is if you go to Sallie's website, you very quickly get the impression that she's a little disdainful of traditional psychic readers.  "A sex psychic reading," she says on her home page, "is to other psychic readings as free speech is to censorship."  Which brings up something that I'd never considered, which is rivalries and feuds between woo-woos.  I'd always sort of had the impression that all varieties of woo-woo pretty much got along.  It never occurred to me that one woo-woo might be scornful of another woo-woo's approach to magic.  I see now that I was being simpleminded, although I am reminded of the South African saying, "There are forty kinds of lunacy, but only one kind of good sense."

In any case, Sallie now makes it clear that her days of phone sex are over.  She has now clearly identified as a sex psychic only, and any people who are just looking to get off are directed to "Niteflirt," a phone sex line.  "Sallie's Sexual Emergency Hotline," should you need to talk to her immediately, will cost you $3.88 per minute.  Which I suppose is pretty cheap, considering how expensive a chakra tune-up is these days.


Of course, there's no possibility of playing the sex angle for money in pop singer Ke$ha's recent claim that her new song "Supernatural" was inspired by her having sex with a ghost.  [Source]

"I had a couple of experiences with the supernatural," the singer recently told Ryan Seacrest in an interview.  "I don't know his name! He was a ghost.  I'm very open to it."

Notwithstanding that this isn't what most people mean by getting in touch with the spirit world, psychic Eric Olsen of America's Most Haunted says this claim is not unprecedented.

"There is a tradition of entities known as 'succubus' and 'incubus,' which are malevolent spirits and their whole modus operandi is to seduce human victims and, in the process of consummating, steal or possess the victim's soul," Olsen told reporters for The Huffington Post, but cautioned that "There is a question as to what kind of visitation you can have while you're asleep."  Ke$ha's amorous ghost friend, Olsen said, might have just been a vivid dream.  "Unless you can observe them, you can't really differentiate between a vivid dream and an actual encounter."

Right-o.  Because that's a scientifically credible protocol.

Of course, that the whole thing is a publicity stunt would be immediately obvious to anyone with more than twelve working brain cells.  But on the off chance that Ke$ha is really disturbed by having these, um, close encounters, maybe she should give Sallie the Sex Psychic a call.  Especially given that now she can't check into Whanganui Hospital for an "energy cleansing."

The Mars rover's cleaning crew

A few days ago, I posted about the contention that the NASA rover Curiosity had discovered life on Mars, in the form of a couple of UFOs and a Martian groundhog.  Today, we have the contention that the Mars lander was actually a (covertly) manned spacecraft.

What is the proof, you might ask?  It's a photograph, to wit:

What we are looking at, claims an article over at UFO Blogger entitled, "Who is Cleaning the NASA Mars Rover Curiosity?", is a man in a space suit leaning over and applying Windex to the camera lens.

Amongst the many problems with this conjecture is that if NASA was smart enough to be able to send a human crew along with Curiosity, lo under our very noses, then presumably they would be smart enough not to post photographs publicly showing the shadow of one of said crew.  Especially given that supposedly they're doing this with evil intent.  Notwithstanding that argument, the poster over at UFO Blogger says if we don't buy the manned-mission hypothesis, we can only come to one other possible reasonable conclusion -- that the Mars landing was a fake, and the rover is currently sending back photographs from the Atacama Desert (and the article conveniently has some photographs of the Atacama Desert for comparison).  Way at the end the writer admits that it could be a "shadow illusion," but you get the impression that (s)he doesn't think that's likely at all. 

And neither do the people who posted the comments section.  A couple of samples will suffice:

"Why would they pull such a scam? This government truly sucks. Not even surprised by anything anymore."

"You know guys... its becoming clear to me that NASA is doing this purposely for the 'conspiracy crowd'. they know we're not buying it yet they still have us distracted, our attention diverted, from whats really important as we waste our time and mental energy on their BS. we need to totally ignore NASA at this point."


Yup.  Those doggone attention hogs down at NASA are never satisfied unless we're watching them.

Of course, the other problem with this whole idiotic contention is that it's remarkably difficult to determine what an object looks like from its shadow.  If you think I'm exaggerating, take a look at this amazing shadow art by Sue Webster and Tim Noble, in which mounds of trash illuminated with light from a particular angle create shadows that look like people, a pair of rats having sex, two severed heads on spikes, and a variety of other things.  Add a bit of pareidolia into the mix -- the tendency of people to see human forms in random shapes -- and you've got an explanation for the shadow in the Mars photograph that doesn't require you to believe that NASA is either duping us all by sending the rover to Chile, or else sneakily including a human crew on the mission for their own nefarious purposes.

So anyhow, that's pretty much that, as far as I can see.  The rover will have to manage without any space-suited humans cleaning the camera lens, and the woo-woos will have to find another ridiculous conjecture to blather on about.  The latter might actually be a forlorn hope, because as we've seen before, once woo-woos catch hold of an idea, they hold on like grim death despite the most cogent argument to the contrary.  But at least the rest of us can go back to enjoying the photographs from Curiosity for what they are -- amazing images of our strange and uninhabited neighbor world.

Psychics and the right to comforting self-delusion

Today's post is a question with no answer provided: If an alleged psychic, or medium, or someone of that ilk brings healing and closure to a person who is grief-stricken from the loss of a loved one, has the psychic done good or harm?

I ask this because of a story called "I Only Want to Help: Psychic to Sceptics," that appeared in the New Zealand-based media outlet Stuff.  The article describes a visit to New Zealand by Australian psychic Deb Webber, where she will hold a free "private reading" this week for people who lost family members and friends in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and another next month for those who lost loved ones in the Pike River mining disaster in November 2010.

Skeptics, of course, are disdainful of the whole thing.  New Zealand Skeptics spokeperson Vicki Hyde said that Webber's "readings" were "another sick example" of exploitation by the psychic industry, using vulnerable, grieving families as "a marketing drive" for free publicity.  "It's as bad as any of those shonky finance companies putting up free investment evenings - and it's about as useful," she said.  "No doubt at some point she will also be selling her services, which are very highly priced."

Webber, of course, defends herself, saying that she can't understand why she and her practice are being criticized.  "People need healing," she said.  "I never want to cause anyone more grief."

As far as the money end goes, Webber will be doing a public show in Christchurch, at a venue that seats 150, for $70 a person.  She denies, however, that she's living high from what she makes.  Anyone who thinks she's rich, she says, should look at her bank account.  "I'm actually skint," she said.

 Okay.  We've considered in this blog before the question of whether or not psychics actually believe that they're doing something real, or if they're just hucksters who are well aware that they can't do what they claim.  So for now, let's assume that Webber is acting from all good intentions, and really thinks she's contacting people's dead relatives.  My question is: does it really matter if what she's doing is real, as long as it makes her clients feel good?

The people who come to her, who lost family members and friends in dreadful natural disasters, want only one thing; to have comfort for their grief.  They want to believe that the people they loved are in a better place, and are happily past all suffering and pain.  They want to be given closure.

Webber gives them that.  She assures her clients that their loved ones are still there, smiling down from the afterlife, watching over those they left behind.  And I've no doubt that the majority of the people who attend her readings leave feeling better.

So if I, in my hard-headed rationalism, tell her customers that they're being deluded, that Webber didn't really speak to Grandma Betty and Uncle Frank, that the whole thing is a scam, who is doing more harm -- Webber or me?

It's a hard question to answer.  I once had a student tell me, in some distress, that he was finding himself unable to believe what his minister was saying in church on Sunday, but he was resistant to leaving the faith.  "I just don't know if I can do it," he said.  "Religion tells me that there's a reason that everything happens, and that if I just believe, everything will turn out okay in the end.  I don't know how I can trade that for a belief in nothing, that tells me that bad things just happen because they do, and that when I die, I'm just... gone."

It's strange, isn't it?  We are (obviously) drawn to what gives us comfort -- but will even stay with that source of comfort when the rational parts of our brains are certain that what is comforting us isn't true.  But the dilemma really falls on the shoulders of those of us who have already chosen the rather bleak road of accepting that the rationalist view is correct.  What should we do when we see others falling for -- perhaps even paying good money for -- a comfort that we believe to be based in a falsehood?

I can't bring myself to do it.  Even being a fervent, at times rather militant, atheist, I couldn't bring myself to tell my student, "Be brave and face up to it.  You know you're right, now act on it."  I just told him to keep thinking, reading, and talking to people he trusted, and eventually he'd find an answer he could accept.  As far as the New Zealanders who are planning on attending Deb Webber's talks -- it wouldn't work for me, but if it helps them to move past their grief and loss, I can't argue with the outcome.  I guess there's times that my compassion for humanity's inevitable sorrows trumps my determination to broadcast the cause of rationality.

On the other hand, there's a niggling part of my brain that keeps quoting Carl Sagan:  "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."  And I can say that for myself, that is what I want -- but I would hesitate to make that decision for anyone else.

Quantum entanglement, and the path of mental laziness

There are, as far as I can see, two reasons why people believe the counterfactual, unsubstantiated nonsense that I deride daily as "woo-woo."  One of them I can actually sympathize with; and that's "wishful thinking."  I know what it feels like to wish, vehemently, that the universe was other than it is.  And some of the things woo-woos would like to be true are admittedly pretty cool.  Wouldn't it be awesome if crystals could heal you of incurable diseases?  If you could find out why your love life is in a tailspin by looking at patterns of Tarot cards?  If there really was a reason for everything that happened, and that all of the apparent chaos of life was linked by some grand, cosmic plan?

The second reason for woo-woo beliefs, however, is one for which I have no sympathy whatsoever, and that's "laziness."  Practitioners of woo-woo often end up there because they are too mentally indolent to be bothered to learn the basics of scientific induction, or, in fact, any science at all.  Once you start delving into scientific explanations, and learning how to construct a rational argument, most woo-woo beliefs simply fall apart at the seams.  But science is hard; and the crystals-and-Tarot-cards set, it seems, would prefer the easy road of doing no real work to earn their understanding of the universe.

I ran into a spectacular example of this from our pal, frequent Skeptophilia flyer Diane Tessman, just yesterday.  Tessman, you might recall, is the one who believes that clouds are created by UFOs as camouflage, that the Higgs boson was predicted in Mayan prophecy and is responsible for consciousness, and that there is a superintelligent alien being called "the God Cloud" that is going to usher in a New Age of Enlightenment really soon.  So anything that Tessman has to say is bound to be worth reading, wouldn't you think?

Thus my excitement when I saw yesterday that she'd weighed in on the subject of Quantum Entanglement.  Here's a bit of what she had to say:

Quantum entanglement, which we humans are just now beginning to comprehend to some small degree, may explain many of the deepest, most sacred secrets of the cosmos, and open vistas to us of which we could only dream, before.

The first thing to realize: Quantum entanglement, although it sounds like one has been enveloped in an evil alien butterfly net, can be and often is – a good thing...

The second thing to realize: I believe there is general quantum entanglement and specific quantum entanglement; the latter is the kind of entanglement which aliens might use to reach individuals.

General quantum entanglement: We can look at love – particularly unconditional love – as the most powerful and ubiquitous form of general quantum entanglement. You love your daughter, unconditionally. You “get a feeling” when she does not come home on time after a date, that something is wrong. You have been involved with this other soul since her birth. Is it just genetics? No, it is all the crazy memories, all the times you protected her, all the special moments; you have become entangled with this other mind (this other being), beyond any undoing...  I believe there is a morphic (quantum) field which winds between two people like an electric spider web.

I feel quantum entanglement is one of the basic methods by which the universe electrically conveys evolution. Intelligence travels on the electromagnetic webbing, it travels in the quantum field of particles, waves, and strings. 

It all sounds pretty... nice, doesn't it?  We're all connected, and a Quantumly Entangled Field conveys to us all such things as love and caring and special moments and warm fuzzies.  The Sacred Secrets Of The Cosmos are available to everyone because we're linked through a mysterious Electromagnetic Webbing.  Everything is all New-Agey and cosmic and dreamy.

But the problem is, is that really what physicists mean by the term quantum entanglement?  Well, let's do some actual work and find out.  First stop, the Wikipedia article on the phenomenon:

Quantum entanglement occurs when particles such as photons, electrons, molecules as large as buckyballs, and even small diamonds interact physically and then become separated; the type of interaction is such that each resulting member of a pair is properly described by the same quantum mechanical description (state), which is indefinite in terms of important factors such as position, momentum, spin, polarization, etc. According to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, their shared state is indefinite until measured.  Quantum entanglement is a form of quantum superposition. When a measurement is made and it causes one member of such a pair to take on a definite value (e.g., clockwise spin), the other member of this entangled pair will at any subsequent time be found to have taken the appropriately correlated value (e.g., counterclockwise spin). Thus, there is a correlation between the results of measurements performed on entangled pairs, and this correlation is observed even though the entangled pair may have been separated by arbitrarily large distances. 

Quantum mechanical framework:  Consider two noninteracting systems and , with respective Hilbert spaces and . The Hilbert space of the composite system is the tensor product

If the first system is in state and the second in state , the state of the composite system is

States of the composite system which can be represented in this form are called separable states, or (in the simplest case) product states.
Not all states are separable states (and thus product states). Fix a basis for and a basis for . The most general state in is of the form

.

This state is separable if yielding and It is inseparable if If a state is inseparable, it is called an entangled state.
For example, given two basis vectors of and two basis vectors of , the following is an entangled state:

.

If the composite system is in this state, it is impossible to attribute to either system or system a definite pure state. Another way to say this is that while the von Neumann entropy of the whole state is zero (as it is for any pure state), the entropy of the subsystems is greater than zero. In this sense, the systems are "entangled". This has specific empirical ramifications for interferometry.  It is worthwhile to note that the above example is one of four Bell states, which are (maximally) entangled pure states (pure states of the space, but which cannot be separated into pure states of each and ).
Now suppose Alice is an observer for system , and Bob is an observer for system . If in the entangled state given above Alice makes a measurement in the eigenbasis of A, there are two possible outcomes, occurring with equal probability:

1. Alice measures 0, and the state of the system collapses to .
2. Alice measures 1, and the state of the system collapses to .

If the former occurs, then any subsequent measurement performed by Bob, in the same basis, will always return 1. If the latter occurs, (Alice measures 1) then Bob's measurement will return 0 with certainty. Thus, system B has been altered by Alice performing a local measurement on system A. This remains true even if the systems A and B are spatially separated. This is the foundation of the EPR paradox.
The outcome of Alice's measurement is random. Alice cannot decide which state to collapse the composite system into, and therefore cannot transmit information to Bob by acting on her system. Causality is thus preserved, in this particular scheme. For the general argument, see no-communication theorem.

Had enough yet?  I certainly sympathize if you have.  This stuff is difficult.  I was a physics major, fer cryin' in the sink, and I have a hard time with this subject; the math is frankly beyond me, and just the concepts are tough to wrap your brains around even if you've read your share of Brian Greene and Stephen Hawking.  I get that.  To learn what the scientists are talking about requires some serious effort.

But at least try, for heaven's sake.  Find out a little bit of what the physicists actually mean by the word "quantum" before you start using it.  Read a couple of good books (by actual working physicists) on the subject.  At least do a damn Google search.  With sources like Wikipedia available to everyone who has a computer, there is no excuse whatsoever for the kind of mental laziness that the woo-woos seem to embrace.

The universe is weird, wonderful, mysterious, and beautiful.  But it is also complex, deep, and requires effort to comprehend.  Falling for Diane Tessman's "electromagnetic web of love and quantum consciousness" is taking the easy way out, accepting a wrong answer regarding how the universe works just because (1) it sounds nice, and (2) it takes less mental work.  Take the time to learn a little actual science; learn how the actual scientists do what they do.  You'll be amazed at how quickly whole worlds of new and astonishing knowledge will open up for you.  And even if you have to give up the comforting children's stories of Quantum Spiritual Energies Linked By Love And Light, you'll have gained insight into the actual workings of the cosmos.

And I consider that to be a fair trade.

A chocolate war

I spend a lot of time on this blog railing at the internet as being a conduit for nonsense.  But today, I have a positive story, a wonderful story, about a Norwegian skeptic, some woo-woo chocolate makers, and an unsuccessful attempt by the latter to bully the former into silence.  [Source] [Source]

Xoçai is an American chocolate company.  Besides having a brand name that sounds like a Klingon death threat, they have a seriously New Age/alternative health slant on their marketing, and make a variety of wild claims about what their product can do for you.  The following advertisement was widely distributed in Norway:

Here's the translation:

DO YOU LIKE CHOCOLATE?
Millions of people all over the world eat chocolate every day. Unfortunately not all chocolate is healthy, but a healthy alternative does actually exist. Xoçai chocolate products don’t just taste nice; they’re also very healthy because of the high antioxidant-content.
XOCAI HEALTH CHOCOLATE:
- Three bites cover your daily need of antioxidants
- No preservatives
- No added wax or fillers
- No artificial coloring
- No artificial sweeteners
- No refined sugar
- Caffeine and sugar free
- Beneficial for diabetics
- Gluten and lactose free
- ORAC and Kosher certified
ANTIOXIDANTS:
- Strengthen the immune system
- Help against fatigue and give extra energy
- Improve memory and concentration
- The antioxidants catechin and phenols, as well as the vegetable antioxidants flavonoids, can prevent different forms of cancer, heart disease and the formation of blood clots
- Balances blood glucose levels and are beneficial for diabetics
- Can help against skin disease, e.g. psoriasis.
- Cleanse the body of toxins and improve digestion
- Can help against osteoporosis and calcium deficiency
- Can help against depression and early aging
- Prevent inflammation of blood vessel walls
- Prevent infections
- Can stabilize blood pressure

Yes, Xoçai is actually claiming that eating their chocolate is "beneficial for diabetics" and "can prevent cancer."  I suppose that at least we should be thankful that at least they didn't include "helps to remedy the aftereffects of Dementor attacks."

Anyhow, a Norwegian blogger, who (for reasons that will become obvious) has preferred to remain anonymous, challenged these claims.  (My sources, links posted above, gave him the pseudonym "Morten" and I will stick with that to avoid confusion in case you are interested in reading further about this.)  Morten questioned not only the unsupported medical claims but also Xoçai's sales model, which is an Amway-style MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) approach.  Shortly after he wrote his piece, he received the following email:

Hello,

As an association for over 9 000 Norwegian Xoçai-members, we have over the last year received over a hundred complaints from our members concerning your blog www.[anonymous].no

Most of our members seem to think enough is enough when it comes to your defamatory claims about the product and brand name Xoçai, the company MXI Corp. and the representatives of the company – thus everything you have written on your blog for some time now has been sent to the company’s lawyers in the USA – where these are currently preparing a lawsuit on the grounds of your untrue claims that have damaged the brand name and product Xoçai, the company MXI Corp. in the USA and the company’s representatives.

From the signals we have received it will be a seven digit lawsuit, and that’s not in Norwegian «kroner». This because the company now wishes to make an example once and for all, and such create precedence for other countries in Scandinavia and Europe.
We have also been asked on numerous occasions to account for your blog and person on our website, which we now have done on the grounds of information sent by our members. You can read more on: www.sjokoservice.no

We are of course aware that the company [anonymous company] doesn’t have any responsibility for your blog – but as it can be documented that a lot of your activity on the blogpage has been during work hours, we assume it is with your employer’s [anonymous company] knowledge and blessing in accordance with your terms of employment.

In the light of your cynical activities it must be admitted that this isn’t the best advertisement for the company [anonymous company] and your co-workers, neither now nor when the process starts.

Best regards

Foreningen Sjokoservice Norge

The email was also sent to his employer and various coworkers.

Sjokoservice Norge, the Norwegian legal arm of Xoçai, followed this up by a post on their own website that included Morten's name, place of employment, telephone number, and address, and a sly suggestion that Xoçai employees might want to "contact (him) directly."

Then it got worse.  Sjokoservice Norge sent Morten a second email, with an attachment that included Morten's address, the names of his parents, siblings, and wife, and a direct statement that the information was being sent out to nine thousand Xoçai employees!

Morten contacted Xoçai's representatives, asking them to elaborate on which claims he had made that they considered incorrect, and saying that if they could prove that he had misspoken, he'd amend or remove the post.  Sjokoservice Norge said that it was too late, that they had already initiated a lawsuit, but hinted that they might be willing to stop pursuing legal action if Morten deleted his posts and removed all mention of the company from his blog.  Morten caved, and removed the posts.

So far, I guess the message is: "don't make a woo-woo mad."  And at this point in reading the source material on this story, I'm remembering all of the snarky posts I've done in the past about various weird claims, and wondering if maybe I should change my name and move to a small uncharted island off the coast of Mozambique.  But then, I continued reading, and found that a wonderful thing happened.

Have you ever heard of the Streisand Effect?  It occurs when someone attempts to censor or suppress a story on the internet, and as a result causes the story to become viral.  (The name comes from a 2003 lawsuit by Barbra Streisand that attempted to force photographer Kenneth Adelman to remove an aerial photograph of her California mansion from an online photograph collection; the photograph was viewed six times before the lawsuit was filed, and 420,000 times afterwards.)  Well, in their heavy-handed, mafia-style bullying of a blogger who asked too many questions, Xoçai may have triggered the same thing.  Morten's original posts, which he removed when Xoçai threatened him, have been translated and posted on a mirror site (read them here and here).  As far as Sjokoservice Norge, which was acting as Xoçai's brass-knuckles organization in Norway, chairman Terje Babsvik and his brother, Jon-Atle Babsvik, have denied any knowledge of the threatening emails to Morten, and Roger Meyer, Sjokoservice Norge's spokesperson, has "gone on vacation" and "is impossible to get a hold of."  The whole thing has bounced into the skeptics network worldwide, and has been featured on The Baloney Detective, Letting Off Steam (you should definitely check this one out and read the responses by Xoçai drones; they come off sounding like scary Scientologists), and Sharon Hill's wonderful site Doubtful News, among many.

Of course, a rich corporation like Xoçai is probably not going to be seriously harmed by this -- although it'd certainly be nice if they stopped making unsubstantiated (and almost certainly false) medical claims in their advertisements.  And Xoçai has attempted to put the quietus on the story by flooding Google with stories that use the keywords "Xoçai," "threatens," and "blogger," but lead you to links that basically state how wonderful their product is, and how it "threatens" rival and inferior chocolate brands, so much so that many "bloggers" mention it.  Thus far, I'd have to call this Chocolate War a draw.  But even if it doesn't knock them back as hard as I'd like, it does lead me to one cheering conclusion; given the chance, the internet can be a force for rationality.

Oh, and also: don't piss skeptics off.  We generally know how to do research, and we're pretty good at arguing from a factual basis.