I got an email from writer Paul McNamara about my recent comments complaining about shoddy journalism when it comes to UFO reports. Turns out he wrote a list of 10 reasons not to believe in UFOs, and while it’s a tad snarky it really hits the high notes.
To his list, I’ll add my #1 reason of all time: why don’t amateur astronomers report them in record numbers? After all, who spends more time looking at the sky? The fact that few if any amateurs report them is a pretty clear case that the vast majority, at least, of all UFO reports are misunderstood mundane objects like airplanes, satellites, reflections, meteors, and Venus. Sometimes even the Moon, amazingly.
When a flying saucer lands on the White House lawn, someone call me.
There’s a preview of the next Futurama direct-to-DVD movie out on YouTube!
Squeee!
OMG OMG OMG.
The first movie had some great moments, though a lot of it was lackluster. This preview looks a lot funnier, the equal to some of the best of the episodes. It has Morbo (kittens give him gas), and Nixon, and Kif, and and and…
It has a giant ant. Really. Oh man. I love giant ants. "Them!" is one of my favorite movies of all time.
2) Tires made of rubber and holding air won’t work too well. That’s why the rovers had mesh tires.
3) The dust billows when the saucers land, but there’s no air on the Moon for the dust to billow, um, in. It would fly up and back down on little ballistic parabolic arcs.
4) Nazi flying saucers! Sweet!
Now, I have to add that this looks like it’s based on really silly conspiracy theories from the 1970s and 80s; I read a (really bad) novel about it based on those same CTs and it had all the same trappings: Antarctic Nazi base, flying saucers, etc. But "Iron Sky" looks pretty cool. They have a website for the movie, and it has a bulletin board for community input. I may drop in some suggestions for them…
P.S. No one tell Ben Stein about this movie. Nazi scientists! His head would explode.
Tip o’ the pith helmet to Timo Poikola for letting me know about this.
OK, yes, it’s a cross in a potato. I’ve seen stuff like this a zillion times, though I’ll admit not one that looks quite so much like a cross with a glow behind it (or perhaps some sort of bacterial bloom). Still.
It’s a potato.
Yet, we get this:
“Everyone was deeply stirred,” [Birgül] Balta [the potato’s owner] told the paper. “Some of them even began to weep and to pray.”
Yes. They prayed over a tuber. Seriously, if God wanted to appear to people, would He really pick a starchy root for His sign?
On the other hand, you might think, it worked. People are really excited by this. But I suspect that to the last one, these are people who already believe. If you’re sitting on the fence, theologically speaking, would a potato be what pushed you over the edge?
Now, a sweet potato might be more convincing. After all, like He Himself said, "I yam that I yam".
Tip o’ the shroud to Sandra Prow for sending me the news item.
Regular readers of this blog know that I turn a jaundiced eye to claims of sightings of supernatural beings in mundane objects. Mary in an oil stain, Jesus in the wood grain, angels in a window pane. I am of the strong feeling that these are random or semi-random patterns that our brains are desperately trying to make sense of.
Certainly there is no lack of examples. Just check out this very blog’s pareidolia category.
Still, that’s a jumble. Wouldn’t you rather have your Messiahtings (say it out loud) all arranged in a nice, neat ordered list?
Sure you do! So head over to The Shark Book blog, where they list the Top 11 Jesus Sightings. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with their choices on the list or the order (a shower sighting with no mention of Lenin?) but it’s still a good one and shows, all in one place, how some people really really want evidence of their faith, a process I have always found a little bit like cheating. If it’s faith, it doesn’t need proof. And if it’s real, then wouldn’t the evidence be a little bit better than a smudge in a pancake?*
P.S. Yeah, I’ve seen the Jesus on the Ultrasound, too, and it cracks me up. It looks more like Nosferatu leaning over a victim. And there’s more than one ultrasound sighting, too.
*…that looks more like Salvador Dali than Jesus anyway.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is NASA’s next big mission to the Moon, and it will launch later this year. It carries an interesting suite of equipment: a camera that will have 50 cm resolution on the surface of the Moon (I’m hoping for Apollo rover shots!), a laser altimeter for mapping the lunar topology, a radiation detector to map out the radiation environment of the Moon, and more.
But there’s something else it can carry as well: your name. NASA is putting a microchip onboard LRO that will contain the names of anyone who submits them. Send them your own, or a relative, or someone you’re trying to impress.
I actually think this is a cute idea. It doesn’t hurt the mission, doesn’t add any real mass, but it can help inspire people about space travel and give them a sense of ownership. They even have a cute video about it (here’s the direct link).
I got an email from writer Paul McNamara about my recent comments complaining about shoddy journalism when it comes to UFO reports. Turns out he wrote a list of 10 reasons not to believe in UFOs, and while it’s a tad snarky it really hits the high notes. 
