Right on. Or if you’re looking at “anomalies” in JPG images, stop using a compression scheme that creates random patterns that weren’t in the original.
Acid Lamp, if you really want to know how some of the phenomena is created, why not just ask? I might not have the time to analyze any specific example to the Nth degree, especially if it has been done well before, but I’ll be glad to suggest some likely explanations. Do you really want to learn, or will you insist on skipping over the logical to the fantasy?
Since you didn’t ask, here is one explanation to EVP phenomena:
Cheap recorders are poorly shielded from RF (radio frequency) signals. Almost any short length of wire can act as an antenna and electronic devices commonly pick up RF. Better devices will filter it or reduce it; cheaper ones don’t.
When radio stations are recorded at very low levels, they are lost in the noise. Noise can be generated by Brownian motion, weak static discharges, motors rotating and vibrating, tape scraping against the guides, heating and air conditioning units in the room, wind, and cheap circuitry.
To hear anything other than noise, EVPers might amplify the signal, which enhances the random noise as well as the “wanted” parts of the signal. Distortion is added to distortion.
Now you have a bunch of total acoustic junk. If you listen very carefully, you may be able to pick out speech, words, phrases, music – humans are great pattern-matching animals, and even if what you are listening to came from the wind, you might be able to just make out something you recognize. And not everyone may hear exactly what you do unless you prep them for it first.
Experiments have shown that humans, if they are looking for something like “Paul is dead,” will tend to find it due to the power of suggestion. This is what gives rise to the funny misheard lyrics videos on YouTube. Another name for it is pareidolia.
While this may not explain every EVP example, it seems to explain most of it. So the next time you hear someone claim it is a paranormal event they have captured, see if it might lend itself to the explanation I just gave. What is your explanation?