What's my favorite worst story? Not sure I have one, they all make me sad; but then again, as I always rant about the UFO arena, Trickster games are to be expected, and that's true for crypto world as it is for any other estoeric/paranormal/Fortean realm.
I suppose my favorite worst is number 7 on the list: "Teen Created Nutmeg State’s Bigfoot Hoax" about what police found after investigating a woman's report to police she had seen a Bigfoot:
Police threw out a dragnet, and said they searched and found a 16-year-old male subject dressed in a gorilla-like costume. The teenager told officers he was standing at the intersection of Unquowa and Sturges roads, waving at passing cars while friends watched.
I'm always amazed at people who think it's funny to put on a Bigfoot type costume and run around highways and the woods...there are so many trigger happy people out there who shoot at anything that moves that has fur. And if they think it's a Bigfoot, many people wouldn't hesitate to kill themselves one.
As Coleman himself says in the post, "Thank goodness we get to start all over again in 2010."
Lesley at Debunklicans has posts and links to the Deepak Chopra - Michael Shermer fight. Interesting insight into Shermer; as Lesley points out, he used to be a "Christian Fundie." Read more here.
Usually pleasant enough uber-skeptic Neil DeGrasse Tyson on UFOs, at the Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas, NV. This is so bad, because it's so damn wrong. Surely, surely (I know, don't call me Shirley) he knows better. After all, he's intelligent, right? Right? Thanks to The Daily Grail for the item.
Okay, can't help myself, but I'm going to respond to this. First, for your viewing pleasure. Or, not:
On second thought, you know what? I can't go on. You either get it or you don't.
Following one of the many links offered on the SCEPCOP site (see post below) I found the "Action Skeptics" blog. One of the most telling, as well as annoying, tactics/personality traits of the pseudo skeptic is their attitude. Far from a true skeptic view of things, they're on the attack. Action Skeptics, for example, have as their sub title: "annoying stupid people, one woo at a time."
SCEPCOP. a lot of interesting stuff on there. He goes after New Age "we create our own reality" stuff as well, even though he writes that he is a New Age kind of guy. I like that; I'm New Agey my own self but some of the stuff swirling around it does get to be like anything else; ego driven, self important, empty feel good on the surface b.s. But that's a given. I do believe we help to create our own reality by the way, but so much of that belief is so trivialized and misunderstood. . .anyway, that's another story. Check out SCEPCOP, there is a lot of material there to explore.
Here's a brand new Bigfoot thread on the James Randi "Educational" message board: The History Channel and MonsterQuest Murdered Bigfoot. (This thread makes, oh I don't know, stopped counting, something like the 45th separate thread about Bigfoot on a forum that doesn't believe Bigfoot exists?) The OP writes that he once accepted the possibility BF could exist:
I use to enjoy believing in the possibility that oddities such as Bigfoot could exist. I would use the same arguments Squatchologists used by citing the coelacanth and lowland gorilla to justify this belief.
But since, in his opinion, MonsterQuest and The History Channel have exploited the topic instead of being Really Very Scientific and All, his dreams are shattered. It's kind of cute in a bittersweet way when uber-skeptics no longer have pixie dust in their eyes.
None of that bothers me but the posts from the uber skeptics who believe it is their mission to contact TV programmers and urge them to rid the world of woo annoy me, as this poster comments:
I have sent nasty notes to both History and Discovery about their programming. Infuriating in that they are quite capable of fielding good, solid stuff that lives up to the name of the network, and also the silliest woo imaginable.
"Nasty notes?" Well no wonder.
It does all get down to entertainment and the whims of producers, whether it's a skeptic show, a woo show, or what. As much as I like UFO Hunters, I realize it isn't ultimately up to the show's hosts, it's up to the ones behind the cameras. It's true with all shows on television.
That's beside the point really. Look, if you don't like Woo TV, don't watch it.
Recently Monster Quest aired an episode about humanoid and "monster" bird sightings, mainly in Mexico and California.(Terror in the Skies.) It was an all right episode; though why they threw in that poor dead skinless,diminutive creature is a mystery. The connection between teeny monkey-like critter and large flying creatures is a very thin one.
Sometimes Monster Quest thinks it's a good idea to bring on a skeptic, and this episode had debunker "skeptic" Joe Nickell. He of the Owl Theory. (Nickell is famous for his explaining away Mothman, Flatwoods and the Hopskinville entities as misidentification of "owls.")
Nickell was not introduced as a skeptic, but as a "paranormal researcher" (or investigator, forget which. Either way...) While technically it's a true enough label, since after all, Nickell does "investigate" these things, it's also disingenuous. Anyone who is a member of CSI and writes for Skeptic Magazine is a skeptic, almost always a debunker, but not a paranormal researcher. He doesn't get to appropriate the term. Monster Quest showed video of the weird gliding humanoid figures seen in Mexico and Santa Monica, California. Nickell decides to try out ways these things could be hoaxed, or, mistaken... so he gets himself lots of black balloons, and says, paraphrasing here, that "a celebration goes on, balloons get released, and people see things." My first thought, unless I'm missing something cultural, is what kind of "celebration" is it if there are black balloons?
He lets the balloons go, not a close match. Too spread out. He tightens the bunch of balloons; a bit better, but, still not good enough. He then tightens the balloons, getting them together in a few bunches, binding them tightly in black plastic, like giant Hefty bags. He releases that, and it bobs weirdly, slowly, heavily. . . Pretty close, Nickell decides. Mystery solved.
Another attempt to solve the mystery: analysis of footage in Mexico, and deciding that, based on the high boulders in the area, the thing was on a guide wire and the gliding humanoid was a gondola bringing something from the mines to somewhere else.
Okay, but it wasn't made at all clear if there were active mines, and if gondalas were used. Where was it going? Was there something at the end of this wire nearby that it went to? No idea. And how does this explain the sighting of a similar object in Santa Monica California?
So we didn't find out anything, except some people like to party with black balloons.
Here's a clip from the Monster Quest episode:
And here's a YouTube link (embedding disallowed) that shows a similar thing:"jet powered trash cans." Now, that one is very interesting. No date given for this, but it seems like it's at least twenty years old. It's possible these "humanoids" are an improved version of the "flying trash can." The fact that the flying humanoids were seen in the same region; Northern Mexico and Los Angeles, is telling. Very possibly the government is testing some kind of drone/surveillance thing, maybe to do with the borders, who knows.
That doesn't answer the question of what happened to the police officer, who was very upset by the whole experience. Could a staged UFO event -- mind control -- be part of the flying trash can humanoid scenario? That's possible as well.
None of these ideas occurred to skeptic Nickell or others. There were either "true believers" or debunkers. Meanwhile, our skies are full of weird things, affecting us in very weird ways.
Daily Grail editor and writer Greg Taylor has a good post, with video clip of Sagan, on Sagan's explanation of other dimensions and a demonstration of "flatland." Depth Perception. Taylor comments, in referring to Edwin Abbott's 1884 book Flatland:
Flatland, in my opinion, offers a very good reason why investigation of anomalies is a valid exercise. Certainly, it demands the use of rigorous and honest scientific research; but also it requires an open mind and the willingness to speculate wildly at times.
Still here, nothing has ticked me off lately as far as the skeptoid crowd goes, well, except for the given they will be who they will be. Just noticed however that the James Randi message forum is still at it; several new threads about Bigfoot, and older ones still active. I stopped counting long ago, but the last time I kept track, there were close to forty different threads about Bigfoot. As I've noted before, for something that the debunkers don't believe exists, they certainly go on about it.
Gee, we’ve never claimed that Bigfoot doesn’t exist! Where’d you get that idea? We also don’t claim that Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy don’t exist, and for the same reason…
James Randi.
What People Are Saying About Snarly Skepticism!
Keep up the blogging. As much as I rarely agree with what you write it provides interesting thought. ~ SCFR
"I don't know who you are but dammit you are awesome,just for the fact of supporting Chip in the ways that I would.Very awesome blog" ~ megank
Comments
Comments are not moderated; however, if you are nasty, rude, spamming, trolling or just being a jerk, your comment will be removed.
Snarly Skepticism Joe Nickell Award
Recipients of the Snarly Skepticism Joe Nickell Award
Get your free e-book on UFO-Mary. Articles on contactee Dana Howard, BVM and UFOs, and an article by Richelle Hawks
DARKLORE 2 Now Available on Amazon.com!
A collection of esoteric writings, by Nick Redfern, Jon Downes, Theo Paljmans, Greg Taylor, Regan Lee, and much more
Esoteric E-Books from Regan Lee
More to come, stop by often!
Read about the McMinnville UFO Case, and skeptics, here!
Regan Lee on Author's Den
Where authors and readers come together!
About SETI
"to search expectantly for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial source is probably as culture bound a presumption as to search the galaxy for a good Italian restaurant." ~ Terence McKenna (with thanks to The Daily Grail, where I stole this from)
Take this widget for your blog or site! Just click on "Get Widget."
