Jon Ronson is someone with whom you could sit down and just start up a conversation like you have known him for years. In fact that happened to me a few years back when Jon sat down beside me at a conference, I introduced myself and we started chatting. I feel I could always just… Read More: Is the snowflake to blame for the avalanche? (Book review) »
Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News by A. Brad Schwartz, 2015 “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” – Poe This quote is the frontispiece to this book. Hits me right in my skeptical soul. I run Doubtful News, a site that deals daily… Read More: Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you… »
Paul Cropper sent me a copy of his new book with co-author Tony Healy, Australian Poltergeist: The Stone-throwing Spook of Humpty Doo and Many Other Cases. He must have known how much I love this topic and was eager to learn about various cases around the world. I learned about the concept of poltergeists before… Read More: Stone-throwing wall-thumpers: Review of Australian Poltergeists »
I like reading historical books when the narrative flows and the information is new and intriguing. I really liked A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience by Emerson W. Baker, a professor at Salem State College. I’ve read some about the Salem witch trials but this book was from another angle.… Read More: Storm and the devil: Book review »
Sometimes publishers and authors send me stuff. I’m not sure why they think I’ll suddenly be open to unscientific, fringe ideas about how the world works and overthrow what we know via just one book. Yes, that’s right, KNOW. This book, Paradigm Busters, from the Atlantis Rising magazine library, starts off by confusing conditional scientific… Read More: I know, not just believe, this book is nonsense: Book… »
It’s very difficult to be truly neutral. In most situations, you can only get somewhere by taking a side and exploring it. Last week’s hubbub regarding the Wood Ape report that I posted on Doubtful News was illustrative of a number of different issues that arise when attempting to learn more about and assess an… Read More: Neutrality and the wood ape report »
I had such high hopes for Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs and Bigfoot, by Marc E. Fitch (2013). I found it in an academic library, it was hefty, and the topics covered were ripe for exploring: paranormal culture in America, tourism, television, popularity. Alas, it turned out to be a bloated, credulous, rambling… Read More: A Paranormal National disaster: Book review »
The Undercover Philosopher: A Guide to Detecting Shams, Lies and Delusions by M. Philips I’m just going to do a quick review on this book which started out promising, lost me in the middle, and ended on an up note. You may be able to pull something valuable out of it, as I did, or… Read More: You were OK until the part on acupuncture: Book review »
It was news to me that back in 1985, the US Army commissioned an analysis of certain techniques that were proposed to enhance human performance. The Army Research Institute asked the National Academies to form a committee to examine these questionable strategies. The report is available here where you can read it for free. Enhancing… Read More: The 1988 US Army commissioned report on Enhancing Human Performance »
A review of Deliver Us from Evil, R. Sarchie with L.C. Cool I shall cut to the main point. I didn’t set out to read this one. I saw it in the library and it looked like a fast read. It’s important to understand what’s being put out there as “true” stories. As usual, it… Read More: Deliver me from another ridiculous “demons everywhere” story – Book… »
Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll by Peter Berbegal (2014) Saved it from what? I’m not clear. From “sugary teenybopper purgatory”? Meh. I don’t think the “occult” interest was the key aspect. Culture was changing and music reflected this. Pressing our conscious bounds outside the norm is the way of… Read More: Rock and roll and the occult – A Book Review »
America’s Most Haunted: The Secrets of Famous Paranormal Places By Theresa Argie and Eric Olsen (2014) There are books that people will love that others will hate for entirely distinct reasons. This is one of those books. I categorize America’s Most Haunted as a paranormal true believer’s travel guide to “must see” places that are… Read More: America’s most hyped haunts – Book Review »
The highly anticipated paper from B. Skyes regarding DNA testing of anomalous primates has been published and is, thankfully, freely accessible. In 2012, the team from University of Oxford and the Museum of Zoology, Lausanne, put out a call for samples of suspected anomalous primates – Yeti, Bigfoot/Sasquatch, Almasty, orang pendek. The samples, if accepted,… Read More: Sykes paper is a clarion call for higher standards for… »
Regarding paranormal research, there is no comparison between the work that comes out in print (paper or digital) and the mostly crap posted online from paranormal groups or the media. You are hard-pressed to find anyone online who knows what they are talking about when it comes to solid paranormal scholarship and writes well. Here’s… Read More: Beware the prowling ghost (Book Review) »
Natural disasters happen every day. The people who can help prepare society for them are not psychics or crank pseudoscientists but those who study events inside out and upside down – scientists. Those who consider prediction a part of their research and responsibility range from weather forecasters to seismologists and volcanologists. It’s a great responsibility to… Read More: Warnings of impending danger: Science and Social Factors »
Once again, I’ve finally gotten around to a classic cryptozoology text. MAN! I missed out on this one for so many years. John Napier’s Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality ©1972 is one of the best Bigfoot texts I’ve read. I’m sure it’s because Napier was a scientist, a paleoanthropologist and primatologist… Read More: A Bigfoot book that is incredibly relevant 30 years later »
This is a brief review of Greg Long’s Making of Bigfoot. I don’t have the extra time or feel it’s worth the effort at this point to write much in detail. But in a nutshell, Long goes in search of the truth about Roger Patterson and his famous Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967 that he contended… Read More: The long and short of The Making of Bigfoot »
I am a geologist by training and my main interest was natural hazards. I was not able to apply my interest to earthquakes or volcanoes as I’d hoped but I did get to help the public deal with sinkhole hazards that also cause property destruction and occasional loss of life. This short film is worth… Read More: Science and society: The giant earthquake that launched a new… »
Paranormal investigators say they look for evidence of paranormal activity. That phrase always confounded me. I don’t quite get it. What does it mean when someone says they have evidence of “paranormal activity”? And, how do you know it’s not normal activity that you just couldn’t ferret out? There is a problem with how the… Read More: Unexplained terminology Explained: ‘Paranormal’ versus ‘Supernatural’ »
As one who runs a website about weird news, it’s been a crazy start to the year. A number of hoaxes proliferating around the media the first week of this year. They are passed on almost with the same respect as actual news. If you resolve to do anything this year, resolve to doubt the… Read More: A ruse by any other name still stinks »