Giants In The Earth
It's the end of the world! The signs are everywhere! First there was the Internet, then the Holy Reclamation (via George Bush) in the Middle East, and now drought, earthquakes, and gay marriage! This can only mean that God (the one worshiped in the heartland of America - not the one represented in actual scripture) is obviously sending signs that our way of life has fallen so drastically that we have lost sight of our spiritual path.
It's rarely that I've waxed political on this blog, but it should be noted that skepticism isn't solely for rubber bigfoot suits frozen in ice, or planets mistaken for UFOs. You can apply skepticism to almost anything around you, and that includes public policies, legislation, and political platforms.
I recently moved to the humble state of Texas, where the governor goes golfing with God on weekends. He (the governor - don't let the "H" fool you) is thinking of making a bid for the White House on a premise of faith. In his own state, the land is suffering from drought, and is convinced that a day of prayer and fasting will help end these troubled times.
Let he who is without nitrates cast the first stone...
These prayer gatherings have gone on throughout the summer for everything from asking God for rain, asking God for a better economy, to getting rid of those heathen gays who are clearly to blame for our country's decline (but not for his efforts to educate people on the matter of heterosexual intercourse). Thus far, God seems to be in it for the free publicity, but has failed at actually answering these prayers.
(Note: the economy in Texas is booming, but I think that's mainly to jobs opening up in the tech industry more than it is because of prayer. I haven't seen many tent revivals at the Google, Apple, or Dell offices here.)
"Dogs and cats, living together..."
Today it was reported that an earthquake occurred and caused not only the Washington Monument to lean (expect Jay Leno to provide hilarious insight into that one), but damage to the National Cathedral, as well.
What does it all mean? Could God very well be trying to send a message about how angry He is with the corruption in Washington, the prurient lifestyles of the decadent masses, and the travesty of the Obama Presidency? "All God's chill'un got birth certificates."
Not to be a damp towel on this speculation, and possibly the upcoming specials on TBN, The 700 Club, or The History Channel, but the earthquake happened for very simple and scientific reasons. Not only that, it happened in Virginia. Further studying will also show that there with earthquakes in Ohio and upstate New York - both places where, shockingly, nothing was happening in the political or financial realms.
Earthquakes happen when pressure builds in plates beneath the Earth's surface - either due to movement along fault lines, or a buckling and expanding deep in the plate itself. Contrary to popular belief, earthquakes do not occur due to high concentrations of gay people, or even people who oppose Moses and his buddy, God.
Now as for Rick Perry, his bid for the White House is a long shot, but to prove that he is somewhat more grounded (or to prove that the people want to be fooled by outrageous claims), he might want to focus on why businesses are growing in his state and why there might be a scientific reason for the drought, rather than getting into a debate that, as the late comedian Richard Jeni put it, "to see who's got the better imaginary friend."
Or better still, while everyone's riding on the atonement wagon, why he once may have looked at scientific data and believed in numbers, as opposed to Numbers.
When Planets Become UFO’s – Now I Understand
A recent news item I came across last week (read it here), read to me like one of a thousand stories I've read, but never understood. How could a small point of light fool you into thinking it's an intelligently controlled spacecraft? The explanation seems so unbelievable to me, that I almost don't blame the Stanton Freidmans of the world, who criticize skeptics for trotting out such a lousy theory. Planets, usually Venus and/or Jupiter, seem so obvious to me, but judging by the statistics out there, Venus and Jupiter are indeed among the most misidentified planetary bodies.
Early on Monday morning, I was driving directly west at around 5:10 am. The sky was pretty black in front of me so I was able to make out a few stars. I came over a small hill and noticed a bright shining light to my left, seemingly moving in my direction. I kept my eye fixed on it, as it continued to move rapidly up and down while moving north in front of me. The apparent vertical acceleration was astounding, and as I drove through a slight left turn, the light quickly jerked in front me, appearing to be maybe a mile or so in front of me. Soon after the solution to what I was looking at became obvious, and I laughed.
I want to be clear here. At no point did I think I was viewing a spacecraft. I originally thought I was looking at some sort of airplane since I live relatively close to the Kansas City Airport. But as I noticed the change in direction and angle of my car, I noticed how much in sync the light and my car were. The slight up and down on the road made the light make quick up and down movements in the sky, far larger than I would expect. The mystery, if you call it that, was quickly solved, and as I said, I had a little chuckle when it all clicked. I now see how people could somewhat mistake a planet for a UFO, especially when driving. The movement of a point of light in the sky changes more dramatically than a car's movement, so if you don't noticed your car making certain motions, you might not make the link.
No great mystery solved here. No real investigation. Just a small observation of mine that made me understand how something so simple can look so different under the right circumstances. The point of light I was seeing? It was Jupiter.
The Hunt for the Elusive Giant Beaver
Bigfoot. Champy. Mothman. Apart from being the topics of myriad documentaries on television that only serve to reaffirm my faith in reading books, these creatures have yet to be caught or leave plausible proof of their existences.
One John Warms, of Canada, is such a person who has taken up the gauntlet to investigate the claims of people who have seen monsters and other unexplained creatures. The author and retired teacher has been traveling all over to listen to first, second, and third-hand accounts of everything from an underwater moose to sasquatch, as he compiles information for an upcoming book.
Living in Manitoba, he grew up with tales of giant serpents, huge frogs, and even bigfoot. But the one creature he hopes to find is the giant prehistoric beaver. Scientifically named Castoroides ohioensis and reaching lengths of about 9 feet, these beavers are believed to have been extinct for roughly 10,000 years. However, John believes these creatures to still be alive, and is avidly seeking proof that they still roam the wilds of Canada.
"I have encountered people in northern Manitoba and along the Alaska Highway who claim to have seen the bear-sized creature," John Warms said. "I saw one in southern Manitoba, swimming, and the head was about basketball size. They seldom come ashore; that is why we don't know about them."
I am a skeptic by nature, though I keep an open mind about these things. I always try to remind myself that we often do not see that which we aren't seeking. To say that giant beavers still roam the countryside implies that there is more than one, and that they are capable to reproducing. However, the fact that one one has caught one on camera, or a corpse hasn't washed ashore (or part of one, given the size), or evidence of their impact on the immediate surroundings of their habitat, leads me to believe that the chase for the wild giant beaver may end up being nothing more than a sasquatch chase. I am however willing to consider any evidence that Mr. Warms finds and brings to light.
If you would like to know more about John Warms and his various endeavors, you can read an interview he did in Utah when he was looking for evidence of a Loch Ness monster of sorts in Bear Lake, or you can visit his site, Creatures Seldom Seen.
Finally, real solid evidence of…
a hoax. Observe:
Ironically, while the perpetrator brags about recording in HD, it is the high quality of the video that makes it pretty clear it's a man in a suit with a terribly fake looking mask on.
The world awaits Tom Biscardi's news conference.
Red Herring On A Red Planet
In case you missed it last week, NASA released photographs from the Mars Spirit Rover that were taken between May and June of this year. One shot, in particular, looks as though it may be debris of an unknown origin, partially buried by the terrain of the red planet.
A German news site got a hold of this image, and now speculation has begun as to whether this object is extraterrestrial in nature. According to the site, this debris may be part of a wing, or even a drive unit (if anyone actually knows what this is, please tell us).
Wing? Drive unit? Gigantic mouth harp? YOU MAKE THE CALL!
Now, I do not work for a major news site. I don't even know what the journalistic standards are in Germany. However, I do know that when trying to report things that seem sensational, one should have some facts that, while they may not directly support your claims, will at least mislead the readers to connect the dots in the way you desire.
The closest this article comes is with two statements:
"It is uncertain exactly what the pictures show, but it is not the first discovery suggesting the planet had a lost civilisation - what could be buildings, a hominid skull and even a strange creature have all been spotted in earlier photos beamed from Mars."
In the above, it would be helpful to have links or citations so that the reader can formulate ideas and discuss them with a little more than hearsay to back it up. A strange creature? Oh do tell! Think about it. You're at the watercooler because you are either ducking work or your pink slip, and you try to start a conversation about this debris. The person you're talking with says something like, "Really? A drive unit? Like to create a localized wormhole or a sub-light speed engine?" Or, they ask more about the "creature" and the hominid skull. What do you do? Do you have a more credible response than, "Well, I read it on-line," while you wish you had just done your work or cleaned out your desk rather than look like a complete jackass?
Pictured Above: Marsquatch
The second statement in the article really has nothing to do with the topic of the article at all:
"Expert and author Hartwig Hausdorf (53, ‘Encounters with the Incomprehensible’) said: 'I can imagine that Mars was once inhabited. The last NASA probes found water, a key requirement for life.'"
He's an expert and author! Actually, when looking up his biography, his areas of expertise seem to be all over the place, with such titles as, "Close Encounters of the 5th Type: The Darkest Side of the UFO Phenomenon," "The Return of the Dragon: The Last Living Dinosaurs," and "Not of this world: The Stargate in the Andes."
However, he can imagine that Mars was once inhabited. Hell, I can imagine that my neighbor has pieces of The Amber Room in his basement, but guess what happens when I start making those wild claims and investigate his home late at night in the name of sound Internet Journalism?
But we're deviating. You want to know what I really think it is? It's the remnants of the sound stage we used to fake the moon landing.
One small step for man. One giant leap for credulity.
If you have any ideas as to what this image is of, please let us know. We'd be more than happy to have input and theories as to what's really happened on Mars.
The Fourth Kind…Better After A Fifth
Last night, I had a chance to watch The Fourth Kind. Growing up in the Hudson Valley (a hotbed for UFO activity); moving to New Hampshire and constantly visiting Exeter and driving the same route Betty and Barney Hill were on when they had their first experience; to moving to Arizona and reading up on their fair share of extraterrestrial phenomenon, it's safe to say I have a great deal of interest in UFOs, aliens, and other related incidents, including my own experiences.
The owl is a lie.
The Fourth Kind starts off as a really good movie. There are people coming to the realization that they've had experiences that undeniably smack of alien abduction. The owl they keep remembering outside of their bedroom windows is a safety device their minds conjure to keep them from having to deal with the unfathomable experiences that they had, which were so traumatic, that when they go under hypnosis, they are shaken into hysterics by the realization of what truly happened to them, driving some to be unable to cope, and committing suicide. This is all understandable, as the human mind can only take so much revelation, especially when it's personal.
The psychiatrist in this movie, Dr. Abigail (Jovovich), soon realizes she may also have had strange experiences, as evidenced on a recording on her dictation device. She calls in an expert in the field of ancient civilizations and alien contact (a very specific area of expertise), and finds out that the voice that is not her screaming is speaking Sumerian. This (and we are asked to make this leap, as viewers) tries very blatantly to not-so-subtly hint that these aliens have been in contact with our species since the dawn of civilization, and that we may be their experiment.
This theory is nothing new, and certainly the movie should have balanced that out more with the experiences people were having in this small Alaskan town. However, the movie then scatters too much in too short of a period of time to resolve anything or see it through in any way.
This is the problem I have with this movie, and almost any movie like it. To expose certain topics in a movie, the world in which the movie exists presupposes that the subject matter has either never been thought of in the first place, or that so few know about it that the idea is almost preposterous. Some examples include:
Paranormal: People refuse to believe that there's anything wrong happening and that there is nothing that can't be explained away or destroyed
Transformers: That, even in a world where the Transformers franchise doesn't exist, that no one has thought of vehicles that could change into robots, even as toys. (This also presumes that the country of Japan does not exist, by logical extension.)
The upcoming remake of The Third Man: This presupposes that anyone could reinvent gold and turn it into something that isn't going to be an utter insult to movie history.
Anyway, to get back to the film, Dr. Abigail's patients are dropping after hypnotherapy causes them to go over the edge, either because they can't cope with what's happened to them, or because the aliens have set up certain psychological triggers so that the bigger picture is never discovered.
The small town sheriff in this movie thinks that hypnotherapy is utter bunk and wants to arrest Dr. Abigail on charges that what occurred after putting her patients under makes her an accessory. Her house is put under 24 hour police surveillance, and this is where the movie goes all to hell, in my opinion.
During the first night of the police watching the house, one of the officers sees “something” happening. Something entering the house or hovering above the house. He is so aware of this, mind you, that he calls for backup (while the video surveillance in the police car records the event and is horribly distorted, there's no denying that something caused the officer to radio for help). The police arrive, only to find that Dr. Abigail's daughter is missing. The sheriff thinks the doctor hid her own daughter. The doctor says she saw a light and then her daughter was gone. No one bothers to review the tape or ask the officer who reported the incident what he saw. Ever. Not even once for the rest of the whole movie.
After this incident, Dr. Abigail decides to be hypnotized as a means of contacting or understanding the aliens and where her daughter might be. She has a friend and colleague put her under, while the expert in ancient civilizations holds a camera to record the event. Everything goes haywire. The recording is distorted, there is the doctor's voice and some entity speaking ominously in Sumerian. Then the recording ends.
What we are left with is Dr. Abigail, talking to someone on a show about her experiences, her colleague who put her under who isn't saying anything, and the expert in ancient civilization being nowhere to be found.
Maybe that's what the film intended – to have everything be as much an unknown to the audience as it is for the people who experienced the abductions. However, I doubt this movie will become a series, and it was (unfortunately) portrayed in a fashion no better than a dramatization on the Discovery Channel or old episodes of “In Search Of...” The Fourth Kind leaves no resolution whatsoever, and doesn't even bother to explore any of the mysteries it created. It would have been great as a late night movie in the 1960s or even 1970s, but right now, its portrayal just left me cold and unable to relate to a subject I know is much different (or rather, the film exaggerated the subject matter in the wrong areas) in my world, and in the experiences of others.
Shaking It Up In East Texas
Last week, KLTV in East Texas posted a story here with some of the least impressive UFO footage I have seen since the last time I watched any of Billy Meier's awful fakes. When I watched the interview on the website (which I will post below), something reminded me of the recent Balloon Boy incident. In the modern age of communications, with so many media outlets and the distance between story and broadcast so short now, I expect to see more and more people trying to create their own stories around them. To me, this video is such an obvious fake.
It's pretty clear to me, that what we see here is nothing more than a digital video camera aimed a single bright source of light and purposely shaken to give the light the appearance of motion. The light, being so bright against a dark sky, leaves a ghost image as the camera is quickly jerked back and forth. I don't think it's any coincidence that the light streaks are longer during the time when the camera is more violently shaken and vice versa. While I can't be sure, the time frame, 6pm in the evening good be the planen Jupiter, which would stand out in the western sky during the evening hours. In the end, this is nothing more than a poorly executed hoax.
These are fun to check out and I'd like to look at more.
Who Ya Gonna Call?
In 1984, the world of the paranormal was changed forever by a documentary ingeniously disguised as an Ivan Reitman comedy. I am of course talking about Ghost Busters:
This movie spurred on the technological revolution within the ghost hunting community. No longer satisfied with blurry photographs or fading memories, ghost hunters got serious with the tech. I'd like to take a moment, just days away from Halloween, to highlight some of the amazing gadgets being used in the field of ghost hunting.
EMF Detector
No one knows for sure if ghosts have any sort of electro-magnetic field, but they might. Other sources of EMF include the Earth, electronic devices, solar rays, and electrical wiring. It can be difficult to separate false readings from true readings from honest to god spectres. When it doubt, determine how you feel. That's as objective as one can get when it comes to EMF.
Voice Recorder
It's been well established (I think) that electronic recording devices (unshielded of course) are hundreds of times better at detecting the voices and nosies of ghosts. EVP, which stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena, is when you come back and listen to hours and hours and hours and hours of sound recording and pick up a couple seconds that kind-of-sort-of-if-you-squint-real-hard sound like people talking. If you're really lucky, you can make out words.
Audio Enhancement Software
EVP's don't make themselves. You need to process, clean up, and enhance your sound recordings to make them sound as close to voices as possible. The more digital manipulation applied to as little audio data as possible the better. Some people have been known to be so skilled at audio enhancement, ghosts have been heard doing karaoke.
Red LED Flashligh
It's a well established fact that ghosts only come out at night when we have trouble seeing and when our instincts cause us to go into a kind of fight or flight mode where the slightest movement or sound sends our hearts thumping. Red LED flashlights are the best because they keep your night vision intact and don't scare the ghosts away.
Geiger Counter
Never mind that there is no reason to think ghosts give off radiation, geiger counters make clicky sounds when near decaying isotopes. If you see a ghost that is glowing, suffering from radiation sickness, and containing a large amount of mass in our dimension, you might want to point the old geiger counter at it.
Infrared thermometers
In addition to having electromagnetic fields and tons of radiation, ghosts are known to not give off a lot of energy in the infrared range. Hence, you need infrared thermometers to detect these cold spots. Any temperature differential of greater than 0.5 degrees could be proof of a ghostly apparition.
These are just a few items that the modern, technologically advanced ghost hunter is using out in the field. Some of this technology is so cutting edge, you can get it here: http://theghosthunterstore.com/
For some demonstrations on how to use this modern technology, I pass on these instructional and informative videos:
How Far We’ve Come, Some of Us Anyway
The following video has been going around the skeptic blogosphere the last few days:
It's amazing to me that someone who could be so rational about religion and the (non-)existence of God, could be such a twit about the rock solid science of vaccines. Vaccines are the single greatest achievement of human medicine. Nothing has changed and improved the lives of so many. I'm not a gifted enough writer to explain with words of how amazing vaccines have been, so here is a little handy chart, based data from the US.
| Disease | Deaths Before Vax | Deaths in 2007 | Lives saved by Alternative Medicine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smallpox | 48,164 | 0 | 0 |
| Measles | 503,282 | 43 | 0 |
| Mumps | 152,209 | 800 | 0 |
| Pertussis | 147,271 | 10,454 | 0 |
Note the column "Lives saved by Alternative Medicine", each row tallying up a big fat zero. Of course, I did a small little trick here. There is no such thing as "Alternative Medicine." If something works better than a placebo in double blind tests over and over again, it's just medicine. Otherwise, it's just untested, unproven folk tales. This is what Bill Maher's view on vaccinations did to kids one hundred years ago:
Horrible thing to happen to a child, and it will happen a lot more children if vaccination rates plummet. This next picture might be shocking to some. It's a picture of a child, who has been stricken with a disease that effects the mind, and so far is incurable. Symptoms include narcissism, asininity, and ignorance.
I don't want to add too much more to this post. I think the numbers speak for themselves. Vaccinate your kids, vaccinate yourself, and if you're in a risk group, get the flu vaccines. Don't waste money on homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractics, or anything claiming to be "natural" or "eastern" medicine. And remember the face of the child in this post. That's how far we've come.
It’s A Goat, See?
I am slowly finding myself drawn to bild.de as the source for all of my international news. This site is to the (now defunct) Weekly World News what The Weekly World News was to The New York Times.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a small article circulating around the web about a still-born cryptid. I'm not talking about an alien hybrid or some sort of sasquatch. What the article reported was something of mythic proportions! It was a Pan, a satyr, or whatever you would like to call a creature that appears to be half-man and half-goat. The village of Maboleni in Zimbabwe was shaken when one of their goats gave birth to this:
Can you believe I found this image at abovetopsecret.com?
As I have discussed in previous posts, humans are very rational beings when faced with the unknown. Some study what they do not understand. Some appeal to a higher authority when confronted with notions or tangible things that challenge existing scientific axioms and social beliefs. Others give in to more primal reactions.
Instead of destroying this creature on sight, the villagers called in government officials to study the dead animal and get some sort of official ruling as to what it was. After what I am certain was a thorough autopsy, the official declaration by Governor Jason Machaya was that (to quote the article), “The head belonged to a human but the body belonged to a goat!”
The miscarriage (of both goat and science) has since been cremated, leaving those who witnessed the creature with theories and speculations ranging from witchcraft to secret government experiments. I am, admittedly, not a scientist. I do not practice sorcery. I don't even have clearance of any sort to confirm or deny what biological programs any government agency has in play. However, I am intrigued by abnormalities and the prospect of hybrids and cryptids. I did a little (VERY little) research, and looked back on things I witnessed growing up on a farm, and was able to find a couple of images. When you look at the following pictures, I want you to ask yourselves the following series of questions:
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Is this a goat or a person?
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Is this not a goat? Explain.
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Is this not a person? Explain.
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Is there a rational explanation for its existence?
Example 1
Do you have your answers? Then let's move on.
Example 2
This is fairly easy when approached with an analytical mind, isn't it?
And finally:
Example 3
Close your books and pass your responses to the front of the class.
Now that you have finished, feel free to post your answers or share your own experiences with animal oddities, cryptids, or anything else you fancy.