And I was making a joke about your joke about my joke.

well…not really.

Thanks guys!
P

Again, you are wrong – there are plenty of times when a full-blown start from scratch investigation is not warranted.

If they were, for instance, able to completely rule out physical causes – bums hiding in the bathrooms, cats sneaking in through the ductwork, etc., then yes, a more detailed investigation might be warranted.

Investigating the cause of result A, you do not start with the assumption that “anything could have caused it”. in any query, you ALWAYS start with what you know and move to what you don’t know, and ALWAYS tackle the most likely answer first. That’s why, in murder investigations, the order of suspects is: family, friends, associates, neighbors, strangers.

How does one determine likelihood? By examining what has gone on before in similar assertions. There has *never* been a case where a ghost/spirit/magical banana split has been shown to have caused anything to happen. At best, the cause has remained undetermined.

Ergo, assuming that this is (or might be) the first provable case of ghosts/whatever is wrongful thinking. Demostrably wrong, and has BEEN demonstrably wrong for many years.

Sure – IF they investigate, and IF they find an actual ghost, Dr Plait will have been wrong – in his basic assumptions. I rather think he’d even apologize, but that would be putting words in his mouth, and only Mrs BA is allowed to do that. He would NOT have been wrong to take the position that he has.

In summation, Dr Plait is right and you are wrong.

(and, to agree with the nice person who shares a name with me, even if he does spell it wrong – it’s quite true. Having served as security guard in all manner of places – from retail stores to grain elevators, from Libraries to hotels – I can confirm it. There are very few structures that man has constructed that have more hiding places than your local library.)

The librarians are locking somebody in when the close for the night, and that person is getting pissed off and vandalizing things.

It could be that somebody has fallen asleep and was missed when the library is closed at night (a friend of mine locked somebody in once), or it could be that somebody is deliberately trying to remain hidden.

Libraries are big with lots of nooks and crannies, and it would be trivial to remain undetected during the sweep that is done at closing time, which is designed to find people who have lost track of time, not those who are actively trying not to be found.

And nobody does a sweep in the morning to see that there’s nobody there – you just turn on the lights and unlock the doors.

I was making a joke about your joke! Hard to banter in pure text mode…