Ghosts! In Wales!

Take a look at this snap from a Welsh castle, taken as part of the recent "GhostCon" event (?!)..

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=14278064%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26headline=ghost%2dsnapped%2dat%2dwelsh%2dcastle-name_page.html

Real? Fake? Who knows.. I'm not sure to be honest, but I do like to imagine ghosts exist, somehow :razz:

Oh, and that isn't the only fruit of my tireless inane browsing - take a look at this guy, who took hatred of small, annoying, flying beasts to the next level..

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/324931.htm

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=14278064%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26headline=ghost%2dsnapped%2dat%2dwelsh%2dcastle-name_page.html

I'd be less worried about ghosts and more worried about that terrible decor. Puke-green everywhere.

Heh yeah, strangely as well the decor isn't too far off that shade when the lights are on either :razz: Judging by other welsh castles i've visited, anyhow...

How does he know he's killed yey-many flies, does he collect them after he kills them?

And Gwil, that ghost photo is lame, could have been a developer problem or just a coincidental wall stain, or, er, grasps at more straws :wink:

No offence to anyone believing in ghosts (I believe in them to a degree), but that looks like a shadow casted on the wall :rolleyes: .

How dare you refute the credibility of the blob!

omegaslayer4777 said:
No offence to anyone believing in ghosts (I believe in them to a degree), but that looks like a shadow casted on the wall :rolleyes: .

Good theory. Except that if you read the article, you'll find there were no lights on :razz:

Will you accept the Moron Of The Week Award? :razz:

*fictional award. does not exist. (does not exist yet, anyway :biggrin: )

The award is a ghost trophy. It's on the stairs. Enjoy! :biggrin:

Gwil said:
Will you accept the Moron Of The Week Award? :razz:

Okay I will, but in atempts to make myself seem less of a moron (but will ultimately make me look even more foolish) I would like to point out that infra-red only picks up heat, thus impling that the "figure" was giving off heat, which then implies that the "figure" must have been living to give off heat, making it not a ghost.

Infra red doesnt pick up heat only :razz: what would be the point in ghost hunting with infra red cameras when ghosts are notoriously cold creatures? :razz:

and castles are COLD places as well, if they were relying on picking up heat, the stairs/walls etc wouldn't have given that much off..

im not sure if its a ghost, or what - but i will say theres not a great deal of evidence or science to say it isnt either...

Good point, I over looked that.......ill accept the award then :biggrin: .

You know, if you have an old camera[one of those with the huge lights on top] and take a pic of some one, then rewind the film and take the same pic with no-one there, it will make them look transparent, ghost like even :biggrin:

You know, if you have an old camera[one of those with the huge lights on top] and take a pic of some one, then rewind the film and take the same pic with no-one there, it will make them look transparent, ghost like even:D

Its called double exposure and its much easier to do it with recent cameras that aren't digital.

I have a picture that was a picture of Portland and a Sun set that exposed ontop of each other. It made it look like a nuke went off in Portland

I'll try to find it and scan it in :smile:

Gwil said:
Infra red doesnt pick up heat only :razz:

**Science geek rant**

Um, quantization of energy dictates that radiation can only be emited by transitions of the proper energy. For the infrared region of the spectrum these are typicaly vibrational energy levels which are excited at normal temperatures, hence the popularized vision of of IR as thermal radiation. The only way I can think of to produce such wavelengths without useing "heat" would be with an LED or a laser. So yes really. IR does pickup heat only baring the presence of an engineered light source.

For a minute though think about this. If ghosts did emit infrared radiation in the absence of heat, that suggests a significant ammount of low entropy energy being given off into the surroundings. Now where does that energy come from? (oops ther went the first law of thermodynamics) and if ghosts are really cold as people say, then it is implied that they spontaneously decrease the entropy of their surroundings signficantly while heating up things which are a bit further away (The infrared radiation is absorbed)! Think of it. Ghosts could be the answer to the worlds energy problems! a heat and cold source that are kept sepearted without the expenditure of any energy. I guess the Second law is dead too (no pun intended). perpetual motion! The heat -death of the galaxy has been averted! or not.

End Rant

If you are going to believe in ghosts, you've got to first assume that they are not a part of this universe, and therefore cannot interact with electromagnetic radiation and therefore can't have their pictures taken! Otherwhise you haven't a leg to stand on.

What a lovely arguement, shame you seemed to have missed that anything and everything above 0K (absolute zero) "emits infrared radiation"- a 'cold' ghost is a relative term.

The chinese fly guy is cool...

Tracer: No-one said they believed in ghosts. The funniest thing is, there is a lot of arguments trying to prove it's fake, or not a ghostly entity yet most of them get shot down in flames...

And yes, when I said cold I was generally referring to below 0 degrees, there is heat in everything right up to -237 degrees, I believe - I guess generated by the movement of atoms etc...

I'm not a scientist, but I know i'm right If infra red cameras relied on heat, as in physical "you can feel it is hot or warmer than freezing" heat, they would be absolutely useless.

Anyone have a credible explanation for the ghost yet? :razz:

I think it's just the way the photo has turned out, either through developing or environmental factors. My motto is, just because you can't think of a reason it doesn't mean there isn't one.



I've outlined the "ghost"- tell me, what are those two bits coming out of his front? And think of the angle that he's walking up the stairs, it seems about 45-50 degrees to me, as we see him side on. How many other photos did they take that their 'psychic' told them to, which turned out negative? Think about the size of the figure in comparison to the stairs- it doesn't seem to fit unless his legs are far too short. It could be a shadow- there's obviously a light source somewhere, note the bright reflection on the door in the background, and how upstairs seems to be a lot darker than downstairs- possibly just from an LED, or perhaps a 'heat shadow'.

It's grasping at straws, really, although I look forward to hearing about when they return (not that we ever will I think as this happens all the time, with no results). And I'm not being closed minded- I used to be hugely into ghosts and psychic phenomena- but you'd think with all this research after so many years, you'd have tangible results or know what was going on.

to me it looks like a cheeky faded out image that someone has done from photoshop!!?

I think it looks somewhat like a butler. The bits coming out the front look like lower arms holding a tray or something, while the bit at the back looks like the "tails" on an old waiter style jacket. The "arms" are at somewhat different heights though, if it was holding a tray the contents would be all over the floor :smile:

I personally think that if it is the shape of a ghost, it looks like he is ascending the stairs - and possibly there was formerly a handrail on the right hand side? It looks like there is a "hand" resting on it - yet it doesnt exist anymore

Like the Roman soldiers etc who are seen walking along with no feet, as the level of the road has been raised... etc

All good points you raise as well Lep, I also await the results of a second investigation eagerly :smile: Ghosts are a slight vested interest of mine, as Derby is the "most haunted" city in the UK (possibly the world?)

We supposedly have a ghost who lives in the attic of our dorm up here. It's always amusing to pick the locks on the door and take people up there. Nothing too outlandishly weird has happened- most can be explained with little effort (footprints in some of the old rooms, toilets flushing with no one around, a door that refuses to stay open, etc.) but it's still fun to just poke around up there.

Whether or not I believe in ghosts is a different matter. I don't not believe in them, but I haven't really seen hard proof one way or the other.

What exactly is that boxy structure protruding out of the wall right in front of the "ghost"? Whatever it is, it looks rather inconvenient for anyone walking the stairway.

Leperous said:
What a lovely arguement, shame you seemed to have missed that anything and everything above 0K (absolute zero) "emits infrared radiation"- a 'cold' ghost is a relative term.

Sort of. It was a joke anyway, but if it matters, things do emit light down to absolute zero, but not IR light. The wavelength shifts with the temperature so at very low temperatures it would be microwave radiation not IR. And yes "cold" is of course relative, but that is part of the objection. like I said though, it was a joke. :smile:

Tracer Bullet said:

Leperous said:
What a lovely arguement, shame you seemed to have missed that anything and everything above 0K (absolute zero) "emits infrared radiation"- a 'cold' ghost is a relative term.

Sort of. It was a joke anyway, but if it matters, things do emit light down to absolute zero, but not IR light. The wavelength shifts with the temperature so at very low temperatures it would be microwave radiation not IR. And yes "cold" is of course relative, but that is part of the objection. like I said though, it was a joke. :smile:

I think lep figured as much from the light blue sarcasm text.. you just have an exceptionally strange sense of humour, comes with being a scientist eh? :razz:

Me thinks that must be it

Im pretty open minded to ghosts and whatnot...althought this picture is cool at first sight here is what i see.

Although it may have been dark, there still can be a little ammount of light that could have possibly cast a shadow. The "arms" appear to just end on another (what im guessing to be) shadow. So it could have bene somebody walking by at the time holding something, and the little light there was (maybe from the moon or something) just cast the shadow. Im guessing the shadow was in another room and walking by a doorway, which would explain the "arms" ending. The shadow of the 2 seem to be the same.

This could have been our ghost too, they just took a photo of his shadow...while he was really in the other room..

Leperous said:
My motto is, just because you can't think of a reason it doesn't mean there isn't one.

I can taste the irony.

Hello, Cassius. Enjoy your vacation? :smile:

Where's the irony in that, is it because I'm taking sides against there being ghosts? No, I can't think of many actual reasons for how the picture turned out that way, BUT there are things which lead me to cast doubt on it being a ghost, as I listed, and NOTHING postive going for it except that it shows a shadow in the shape of a person. No-one ever said anything about being unbiased, anyway

Anyway, here's something new somewhere else which we should hopefully hear from again:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/3758543.stm

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<TD style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; COLOR: gold">? written by Leperous, in 'anti-christianity.doc'</TD></TR>
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<TD bgColor=#151515>
"Why should you ?live for god? if he?s infinite?"

"Why do you need the bible and other people to convince you of his existence; surely his existence alone should be enough"

"A lot of the bible and Christianity draws from Judaism; why are you not Jewish? Why did they not turn to Christianity after his death"

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Leperous said:
My motto is, just because you can't think of a reason it doesn't mean there isn't one.

Clearly, it isn't. Sorry, cheap shot; it's just the first thing that came to mind.

Oh, that Guess my defence to that again is the "being cast in doubt" gubbins, and when you have lots and lots of questions that start piling up which you can't answer perhaps then you should start doubting your foundations- if Gwil came back to me with a follow up study on this castle and others, showing loads of photos/film footage that's been independently verified and whatnot. I didn't mean that in an incredibly deep sense, only on a level that "I don't know right now but if I went away to research it I could probably find out", and hence I guess it can't really apply in a religious context unless you're looking at historial details :/

Wow, those ghost hunt results eh...! Told you we'd never hear about this again

[edit] nm stupidity.

Uber skeptic :razz:

It's borefests like you that perpetuate the reign of muppets in power!! I KEEL YOO!

runs away very fast