Skeptical Humanities

It’s a balmy day here in Wisconsin. In December. It’s probably just the sun or hippies or something.

A week of editing, writing, crusading, and, above all, grading has passed, and I am up to my eyes in tales of small groups of people doing very naughty things in secret. So let’s get to the conspiracy theories!

• The apotheosis of civic engagement fail, with just a hint of racism in the comments. The Second American Revolution.
• This one came out on the 29th, but I’m sure I had heard that Obama had toppled the unspellable regime in Libya in order to install Al Qaeda. A Texipublican congresscritter said this.
• NOAA scientists are on alert for the solar maximum. I don’t know why they are so worried. The E.T.s are protecting us from the solar storms. Oh wait, my bad. They are protecting us from solar storms of the second sun. Anyone could make that mistake.
• The top 11 pop artists accused of Satanism. Satan will win because Bieber is not on this list.
• There’s nothing scarier than a rogue geoengineer. A go-it-alone type of chemtrail…-er. (Is there a word for people who advocate chemtrails?)
• Apparently we have combat troops in the Sinai Peninsula. Because of some reason.
• There is a conspiracy theory art exhibit going on right now in New Zealand. Here’s the promotional poster.
• Taylor Swift at the AMAs: clearly an Illuminati initiation ritual. (How many times does someone have to get initiated before the initiation sticks?)
• Also over at the House of Mental Illness, Vigilant Citizen gets messages through German bank commercials, not unlike how Manson received messages through The White Album. Actually VC was on a bit of tear this last couple of weeks. The IRS building: scary!
• And now Alex Jones is getting into the act.
• An article titled: 21 Blatant Lies Obama Has Told you Directly To Your Face. Maybe these are lies, but they forgot to add “…While Kicking a Puppy with Cancer” to the headline.
• In a website written in all Comic Sans, an account of generals who have admitted the reality of UFOs.
• Um. This.
• A summary of rightist nuttery at the NYT.
• Please, please, PLEASE, Jesus, let Dr. Oz and Mike Adams shred each other in a cage match!
• Wow. The no-airplane 9/11 crowd is pretty unpopular, but they are still out there.
• A comprehensive list of all FEMA death camps!
• Whadda mensch: Ben Stein: “Control Freaks” Use Things Like Environmentalism And “Keeping The Jews In Line” To Control People.
• Seismic evidence reveals that the Twin Towers were demolished with explosives. Or incendiaries. Or whatever. Published in the Journal of 9/11 Studies, where people go to publish when real editors laugh at them.
• Haha! I saw a lot of goofy stuff on my twitter feed about the recent “Ozark Doomsday” episode of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. The locals apparently think that Jesse is nuts.
• ALL THE COUNTRIES ARE GOING TO SECEED FROM THE US!
• You know who I go to when I have a question about Shakespeare authorship? A business professor. I am rather annoyed that the Sunday Herald papered over nutter Christopher Carr’s his lack of credentials by describing him as an “academic,” which may be technically true, but it does not follow that said academic is competent in all fields. At the root of his criticism lies the claim: “Shakespeare’s sudden production of top works did not tie in with current thinking that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to reach the top of any field.” I’m sure he never spent 10,000 hours using English, dingus.
• Obama to seek 3rd term. And he could do it too, because he steals elections and then doesn’t tell anyone, thereby exposing the truth about how he stole the election!
• Bianca Jagger has some crazy time, declaring chemtrails to be real…in Sweden!
• Was James Holmes programmed by a therapist to commit the Batman shootings? If he remembers it, it was clearly not a good programmer.
• Who was behind the Walmart strike? Only the boogieman himself, George Soros, says FoxNews. Also, Monica Crowley (an expert on what, exactly?) says that War on Christmas=Plot to Bring About Big Government.
• From Xeni at BoingBoing comes the ultimate in Reptillian overlord skin care.
• “Thinking Hard” is part  this website’s motto, and it sure looks like it is for them when you look at their criticism of how Dallas diminishes JFK conspiracy theories. They also seem very proud about getting to the bottom of things, but they make the mistake of staying at the bottom.
• They dug up Yassir Arafat to see if Israel killed him. Sigh.

Twit of the Week:

Jesse Ventura started a rumor this week that TruTV is messing with his show. Curiously, he has not updated his twitter feed since. Perhaps his overlords at the network are reminding him of who he works for? Muahahahah! Then this came across the feed:

CT W/ Jesse Ventura @CTWJV

Headline of the Week:

From the Southern Poverty Law Center:

• In New Novel, Glenn Beck Warns of Squirrel-Worshipping Socialists

Conspiracy Theory of the Week:

• Henry Winkler IS Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

And with that, let’s face it, conspiracy theories are now done. They just don’t get any better than that! It’s all downhill from here, folks!

RJB

Hi again, everybody! I’m back!

Some specific claims regarding relatively ‘orthodox’ communication systems (‘languages’) reported as used in the context of alleged contact with extraterrestrial entities. As ever, detailed references on request.

One especially prominent advocate of the reality of extraterrestrial languages of a more ‘orthodox’ nature is Mary Rodwell (Perth, Western Australia). Rodwell organises support groups for ‘experiencers’ (most of them ‘abductees’) and produces books, videos etc. on the subject, with samples of the written and spoken forms of alien languages as well as alien-inspired artwork. Rodwell promotes the view that these experiences represent actual physical happenings. Her ideas are discussed at length in the ‘Alien Semiotics Project’ papers mentioned earlier. The spoken and written material cited by Rodwell is produced by ‘experiencers’ rather than directly by aliens; the forms and sequences are outlined in largely self-reported case studies, notably that of the repeat-experiencer Tracey Taylor. The written material has the appearance of text written ‘grass-stroke’ style in a range of large alphabets, syllabaries or (parts of) logographies. There is too little material in each sample to be more confident, especially in the absence of useful translations. In fact, the translations offered for both the spoken and the written material are typically holistic only; they represent entire messages rather than individual words or phrases. Morpheme-by-morpheme translations are not available, and this point is actually emphasised by Rodwell. This conveniently excuses Taylor and others from being asked to assist linguists seeking to analyse the languages in the normal way by breaking utterances down into meaningful units and analyses using substitution and other such exercises.

Other cases involving alleged extraterrestrial languages include one presented by Janet and Colin Bord, who report the alleged finding (by John Reeves) of paper bearing an unintelligible manuscript; as this finding immediately followed a UFO sighting (in 1965), the material was interpreted as alien (‘Martian’) in origin. A decipherment was later offered but with no authority or conviction. A similar case, also reported by Bord & Bord, involves the ‘Silpho Moor Disk’ (eighteen centimetres wide) found in Yorkshire, UK, in 1957, containing copper foil sheets and bearing ‘hieroglyphic’ inscriptions on both disk and sheets. These too were ‘deciphered’ as containing extraterrestrial messages. Bord & Bord refer also to the similar texts presented by George Adamski and to the supposed links with Marcel Homet’s work (see above).

One very forthcoming reporter was the 1960s contactee Bernard Byron, who claimed fluency in seventeen written and spoken extraterrestrial languages (some of them extrasolar) and was happy to provide specific translations. He was interviewed by the skeptical astronomer Patrick Moore, but unfortunately his material was never recorded at sufficient length for useful linguistic analysis.

Allen Greenfield commences from the alleged oddity of the names reportedly given by extraterrestrial aliens for themselves, and argues that aliens (and now contactees) are in fact using a Kabbalistic cipher which is related to the Roman alphabet as used to write English.

The experiences recounted by Alec Newald, who had a ‘missing time’/UFO-abduction experience, involved ‘telepathy’; but he does report a series of written single numerical symbols corresponding with the integers 0-12 (suggesting that the aliens use Base-13 or a higher base, see below on Jim Sparks).

Another set of claims involves the ‘Wingmakers’, extraterrestrial beings (‘a specialized training faction of the Central Race that – for the most part – is not incarnate in a physical form’) who have allegedly provided contactees with large amounts of information ‘translated from a language that does not easily translate to human definitions’. This belief system arose from the claimed discovery in 1996 of an alien artefact near Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.

The ufologist George Hunt Williamson claimed to have experienced many communications with aliens – some through devices resembling ouija boards. Although he uses the term tongue (‘language’), the linguistically novel elements of these communications very largely involved only individual alien names and other single words. In addition, Williamson presents a series of some 81 symbols, channelled to his associates in 1952 and identified as the ‘Solex-Mal’ system. Each symbol is linked with an alien word spelled out in the Roman alphabet. Some of the symbols form structurally-related series, and, where symbols form such a series (and thus share features), the associated words are phonetically similar. A number of the symbols/words are provided with English glosses (words or phrases). Williamson also promotes bizarre etymologies and analyses involving the mystical significance of the positions of letters in words, such as English ladder and its earlier form with initial h-.; he links these claims with his views on alien contact with humanity extending over the centuries. See also later on Williamson and the ‘Rocks of Writing’.

Another case involving alphabetic writing is that of Jim Sparks, who claimed to have been taught an alien alphabet in which the number and direction of the strokes making up each character was crucially important (or so perceived). Suspiciously, the characters correspond directly with the letters of the Roman alphabet (except Q, X and Z) – or with integer symbols, but only 1-6 (this might suggest use of Base-7, comparable with the Base-13 suggested by Newald’s data as reported above). In writing, the alien users of the system would place one symbol over another, until only a black spot was visible, although Sparks believed that the aliens could still resolve this into characters when reading. Sparks was initially taught to read alien texts from right to left but was later presented with texts arranged in circular form.

There are various cases in which no coherent account of alien language could be provided but where individual alien words or unintelligible alien speech were reportedly heard or where witnesses later attempted to imitate or reproduce alien speech-sounds without any understanding, and other cases involving unintelligible symbols (sometimes possibly non-linguistic in nature) reportedly observed on alien craft.

More next time, involving alleged ancient visits to Earth by extraterrestrials!

Mark

This week on Virtual Skeptics

• Bob finds out that he could probably practice medicine in Texas;
• Eve explains why scientific ignorance is political bliss;
• Sharon encourages you to stay active [this is a news update on some positive skepticism stories for the week];
• and Tim has nothing for us this week, as it was completely uneventful.

This Week’s Panel:

• Bob Blaskiewicz – CSI’s Conspiracy Guy web columnist, blogger for Skeptical Humanities and Swift Blog contributor
• Eve Siebert – Editor and blogger at Skeptical Humanities
• Sharon Hill – Editor of Doubtful News and author of the CSI’s Sounds Sciencey web column
• Tim Farley – JREF fellow and creator of What’s the Harm.net,the Skeptical Software Tools blog, and the official Virtual Skeptics Cherub of Canadian Justice!!!

The Virtual Skeptics is recorded live in a google hangout at virtualskeptics.com every Wednesday at 8PM eastern.

RJB

It was a veggie pizza and chocolate Thanksgiving in Wisconsin. An odd ritual, but a good time. Nonetheless, another bizarre ritual awaits us! The Week in Conspiracy! Huzzah!

• Ah, a good old-fashioned Obama conspiracy theory. This time, he is having a private swearing in ceremony and is therefore evil.
• Kid who should clearly be homeschooled expelled for not wearing RFID chip or “mark of the beast.” It is an intrusive tracking device, however, the school’s funding depends on attendance, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. Tracking is clearly in the school’s interest, perhaps less in the students’ interest.
• Alien artifact found on Mercury, the worst planet in the solar system! Or it’s a gap in the data. Or a shadow. There is no evidence of depth in either the photo or the author.
• David Patreaus conspiracy theories covered by the Daily Show. It does seem that the right is more prone to see conspiracy theories in this morality tale of why heterosexuals should not be allowed in the military. They seem to think (hope) that the Benghazi attacks are another Fast and Furious, and I hope they are right. Fast and Furious was dismissed long ago as bunk. I think that Mother Jones best described it as a “Conspiracy Theory with No Conceivable Motive.” Of course there is a motive, or at least a need it fills, to confirm that the powers that be are evil and sneaky, which is reason enough for people to accept it. Major networks, however, should aspire to better. I’m just finding it hard to take the Republican’s seriously right now.
• Of course, they were also worried that black people seemed to be voting a lot for Maine.
• My favorite interpretation of Pedobear ever is at the end of the most recent Vigilant Citizen symbolism roundup.
• Gangnam Style / Call Me Maybe /Antichrist hilariousness.

I have never grabbed a more accurate screenshot.

• In similar pop music overmisinterpretation, Vigilant Citizen finds that the Illuminati is sending messages in yet more music videos. It’s kind of like Manson thinking that the Beatles were sending him messages through The White Album, isn’t it?
• Georgia Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers has a badly damaged mind, as he promotes Agenda 21 as not a kookball conspiracy theory.
• Maybe Tycho Brahe was not murdered? Yay!
• Mike Adams thinks that scientists are hiding proof of the afterlife. To be fair, he believes a lot of silly things.
• The Extremis Project’s North American extremism roundup.
• An ongoing conspiracy theory in Poland relating to the plane crash that killed a lot of high level officials a few years back
• Mark Potok’s analysis of the decline of the neo-Nazi group National Alliance.
• I don’t know why I have not heard of davesjfk.com, but I clearly should have.
• Ron Paul departs from Congress.
• An oldie but goofy: Spongebob Squarepants is an Illuminist shill.
• Is the only reason Rick Perry failing to push the secession issue because he is a Bilderberger?
• I do like the idea, however, that Alex Jones wants to secede from the globalists. He’s already on the moon. Let’s just make that official!
• Speaking of the moon landing, it seems to me that there is only one conspiracy theory worth looking at in this article about pop culture improbabilities: Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing.
• CBS admits FEMA camps are real. In a way I have not figured out. You want to see how a conspiracy theorists takes disconfirming evidence and changes it into confirmatory evidence, there is a classic example toward the end. Also, Chuck Norris’s ghost writer apparently thinks that FEMA shouldn’t be helping people in the wake of Sandy.

This Week in Calm Down:

A series of tweets came at me fast and furious this week, and I though that I’d line them up and let you make up your own mind about them:

CHEM TRAIL (@lookupCHEMTRAIL) 11/18/12, 11:46 AM

***BREAKING NEWS***CHEMtrail plane shot down over MOJAVE DESERT. The pilot has not been found. More news to follow soon