Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped America by William SommerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Review: Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped America
Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped America by William SommerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Sunday, June 25, 2023
Review: Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence
Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence by Terence HinesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Basically a textbook on debunking, I mostly like the bibliography here fitting into the approach of considering fantastic notions in the context of relevant, published studies. Some of these overviews of studies include interesting facts I do not believe I have heard before, such as the unreliability of "blips" on 20th Century radar not capable of aircraft identification:
But what about the radar report of two unidentified targets? Amusingly, it turns out that the targets were two of the aircraft that reported the UFOs in the first place. In 1969 airport radar did not automatically identify planes that appeared on the screen. The operator had to place a written note next to the screen identifying each "blip." Aircraft that were passing over rather than landing at a particular airport were not honored with such a written identification. None of the three aircraft that reported the UFOs was landing at St. Louis. Thus, when the first aircraft reported seeing the UFOs, the tower at St. Louis correctly reported that there were two "unidentified" targets in the area. There were the two other aircraft that moments later also reported the UFOs. Modern airport radars now automatically identify all aircraft in their area by picking up a special signal from each aircraft's transponder. Klass (1984- 85) has noted that, as radars have become more sophisticated at correctly identifying aircraft and filtering out sources of error, the number of radar UFO reports has dropped almost to zero. Of course, if UFOs were real, one would expect the increased sophistication and sensitivity of modern radar to increase the number of UFOs seen on radar.
I had hoped for some redeeming value found in the consideration of psychology, like the lie detector chapter which suggests a potentially valuable tool is too often misused in setup and lack of double-blind approach:
Lykken (1981) has developed what he terms the "Guilty Knowledge Test," which evaluates an individual's physiological reaction to information that only the criminal could have. In Lykken's (1981) hypothetical example, a double murder has been committed. Police officers photograph the bodies in the actual positions where they were found. Additional photographs are taken of each body after it has been moved about the house to different, but equally plausible locations. An innocent suspect would respond with equal arousal to pictures of the bodies whether they were in the actual or the "posed" positions, assuming that the innocent suspect had not had the opportunity to see the bodies in their correct positions. The murderer, however, Lykken (1981) argued, would respond with greater arousal to the picture that only he or she knew to be correct. Laboratory studies of the Guilty Knowledge Test...
As one who in my 20s was in awe of the writings of Carlos Castaneda (thought no longer), I was disappointed to learn of how blatant the fraud was and how well known:
What is most interesting is the response that has greeted the revelation that Castaneda's works are fictional. First, there has been no real attempt to revoke his Ph.D., based as it is on fraudulent "research." Secondly, as de Mille (1978, 1980) documents, the response among many anthropologists and others who share the Don Juan type of philosophical outlook has been neutral. In other words, it doesn't matter if the works are fictional because the underlying philosophy is, in some vague sense, true. An excellent example of this approach is Shelburne's (1987) article titled "Carlos Castaneda: If It Didn't Happen, What Does It Matter?" Shelburne argues that "the issue of whether it [Castaneda's experience] literally happened or not makes no fundamental difference to the truth of the account" (p. 217). Such excuses are little more than intellectual used-car salesmanship.
If anything, this is valuable to me as a modern example of the evolution of a revealed religion and how it could grown and persist, despite being undercut in its very foundations. Even the Shroud of Turin is shown to have been seen as fake in the 1300s as recounted here...
Speaking of such religious mumbo-jumbo, there is a great quote take in the section considering the fantastic claims around Lourdes:
The French writer Anatole France made a telling and pungent comment upon visiting Lourdes in the late nineteenth century and seeing all the abandoned crutches and canes: "What, what, no wooden legs???"
View all my reviews
Review: Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence
Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence by Terence HinesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
But what about the radar report of two unidentified targets? Amusingly, it turns out that the targets were two of the aircraft that reported the UFOs in the first place. In 1969 airport radar did not automatically identify planes that appeared on the screen. The operator had to place a written note next to the screen identifying each "blip." Aircraft that were passing over rather than landing at a particular airport were not honored with such a written identification. None of the three aircraft that reported the UFOs was landing at St. Louis. Thus, when the first aircraft reported seeing the UFOs, the tower at St. Louis correctly reported that there were two "unidentified" targets in the area. There were the two other aircraft that moments later also reported the UFOs. Modern airport radars now automatically identify all aircraft in their area by picking up a special signal from each aircraft's transponder. Klass (1984- 85) has noted that, as radars have become more sophisticated at correctly identifying aircraft and filtering out sources of error, the number of radar UFO reports has dropped almost to zero. Of course, if UFOs were real, one would expect the increased sophistication and sensitivity of modern radar to increase the number of UFOs seen on radar.
View all my reviews
Saturday, June 24, 2023
Friday, June 23, 2023
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Monday, June 19, 2023
Review: Age of Secrets: The Conspiracy that Toppled Richard Nixon and the Hidden Death of Howard Hughes
Age of Secrets: The Conspiracy that Toppled Richard Nixon and the Hidden Death of Howard Hughes by Gerald BellettMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
1981 Indictment
Accused in a 1981 Los Angeles County Grand Jury indictment of having arranged Netter’s murder to collect on an insurance policy, Meier fought extradition from Canada for more than two years.
Prosecutors contended that Netter was the manager of a struggling videotape company when he met Meier in early 1974. Meier, they said, offered to help out by arranging a loan for Netter and subsequently had him killed to collect on a $400,000 insurance policy taken out as a condition of the loan.
On Tuesday, Brenner said he still believes “Mr. Meier either alone or with others . . . caused the murder of Netter. But in a general intellectual sense, the plea bargain reflects what we can prove today. Meier had knowledge of the murder . . . and has kept his knowledge secret.”
Brenner had charged in earlier proceedings that the beneficiary of the insurance policy and the man who took it out at Meier’s request was Canadian attorney Gordon Hazelwood. Hazelwood was also indicted in the murder, but Canadian authorities refused to extradite him, claiming there was insufficient evidence.
Third Man Never Found
The third man indicted, William Raymond McCrory, was never found. Brenner claimed that it was McCrory who actually entered Netter’s hotel room and stabbed him 15 times.
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Sunday, June 18, 2023
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Review: The Hunt for Life on Mars
The Hunt for Life on Mars by Donald GoldsmithMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
To some of the JSC researchers, the ovoids' shapes resembled those of microfossils, the fossilized remains of bacteria so small that their sizes are measured in microns. But the ovoids at the edges of the carbonate globules are even smaller-smaller, in fact, than any known living organisms or microfossils on Earth. Does this mean that the ovoids are too small to have been alive? No one knows for sure. If living organisms had the size that the ovoids do, we could reasonably talk of nanofossils.
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Sunday, June 11, 2023
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
Saturday, June 3, 2023
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