Public Obession with the Paranormal LiptonCambell: To me, it's very sad. A Scottish newspaper ran an article about an argument in their tourism industry over whether to maintain a strong stand on the existence of monsters in Loch Ness. After 80 years some of them are backsliding, and talking about mirages and otters. The article, with Loch Ness in its headline, was enough to trigger "Loch Ness Monster" as the number one trending topic on Yahoo for the past two days. Understand, there has been no new sighting of Nessie, no carcass has washed up on the beach. There was simply a quarrel among tour-boat operators over how forceful to be in claiming that whale-sized cryptids live in the lake. Whatever you may think of Yahoo as an ISP or search engine, can you imagine the number of hits it must take to reach number one? The popular addiction for anything paranormal is apparently without limit. Any crumb or speck will be seized. Internet writers understand this, and work the word "monster" or "creature" into news stories about any animal larger than a bread box. It's the same with the rest of the paranormal stuff. They milk it for all it's worth, and apparently it's worth a fortune. I think it speaks to a rebellion against science. Huge numbers of people feel threatened by "know-it-alls" in the world of science, and thus they embrace anything and everything non-scientific. They can't keep up with all the changes coming out of modern science. Who can? So they have formed this tribe of sorts that rejects science. Maybe I'm not telling you anything new here, but it doesn't seem to be getting better. It makes you wonder what the scene will look like in forty years. I know that we shouldn't worry too much about "Slippery Slope" scenarios, but at the bottom of this slope would be a catastrophe. http://www.skepticforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=20470  Corwin: I've always gotten a kick out of this photo... the most famous photo of Nessie ever taken, shot by Ian Wetherel in 1934. It's so obviously a guy in the water holding his arm up.  http://worldsfamousphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/lockness_monster.jpg  Corwin: Don't you think it's an incredible coincidence that Nessie's neck and head are shaped EXACTLY the same as a Human forearm and closed hand?  The gullibility of some people never ceases to amaze me. LiptonCambell: Bah. Theres not enough food in that Loch to sustain both the local fish population and a giant lizard.....thing....so whats Nessie been eating? lori100: From Nessie's website-----www.nessie.co.uk------at which she has her own live webcam, gift shop, email, and diary--------Hi folks ! My name's Nessie and I live in Loch Ness, Scotland. I'm an elusive creature, I manage to keep my appearances to a minimum. Below are some of the entries in my diary of when I've been seen, with a few snapshots to prove it. My favourite spot is Urquhart Bay, just beside the castle.------ 565 a.d. One of my ancestors was out for a swim one day and bumped into St. Columba who was crossing the loch with his followers.This is the first recorded sighting of our species. .........-------1933 A local chap was walking near Foyers and saw me when I was washing my back.He snapped this photograph for my album. Pic on the website-----------------1934 A motor-cyclist called W. Arthur Grant,who was returning from Inverness, saw me having a stroll along the loch side. I scurried down the bank and disappeared leaving him wondering if it was me or not, and it was. ------------------------------------------------- 1934 I was seen having my daily swim on the loch by R.K.Wilson who took this photograph of me which I must say is not very becoming, but is the most famous photograph to date. --------------------1955 ------Mr Peter A. Macnab took this photo of me sunbathing in Urquhart Bay. See 'Searching for Nessie' ---------------------------1960 Noted Loch Ness author Tim Dinsdale filmed me with his 16 mm cine camera. Sceptics suggested that I looked like a small motor boat but they were proved wrong I'm glad to say. 1976 This year some fools were throwing bacon around my home from a hot air balloon but I didn't appear for them as I don't like bacon. 1982 A big search was made this year for me.This loch was covered from side to side with a line of boats using a thing called sonar but I managed to evade them. lori100: from Nessie's website^^^ --------The Feeding Habits of Nessie----The Discovery Channel estimated 1 ton of fish in the loch. This was a very misleading figure as they could only trawl the centre of the Loch to a depth of 100 feet.The Loch Ness Project estimates around 27 tons of fish in the loch, but this does not include the eel population. Corwin: Well, there wouldn't be 27 tons of fish for very long, if there was a Plesiosaur living down there. And there couldn't be just one... there would have to be a sufficient breeding population of Nessies to maintain the species. When they combed the loch with a gauntlet of boats equipped with sonar, and found nothing, it pretty much closed the book on the myth. lori100: Maybe Nessie lives for hundreds of years.....but she would probably deny that she is that old.... Corwin: There would still need to be at least two of them if they were to breed, and to have survived the last 65 million years since the KT extinction that wiped out all the rest of their kin. It doesn't matter how many hundreds of years they live. Corwin: There is no evidence that Nessie exists at all. But the common belief among Nessie believers is that Nessie is a Plesiosaur... an extinct aquatic reptile that disappeared along with the rest of the dinosaurs at the KT extinction 65 million years ago. The KT Extinction Level Event, or ELE happened when the Earth was slammed with a giant asteroid that impacted where the present day Gulf of Mexico is, just off the shore of the Yucatan Peninsula. Corwin: Actually, the "smoking gun" of the asteroid theory for the KT extinction was a giant impact crater found only in recent decades with satellite technology. The remnants of this giant crater is underwater off of the Yucatan Peninsula, and was dated at exactly 65 million years. There are some lovely satellite images of it if you'd like me to dig them up for you. (Edited by Corwin) Corwin: "Theories" There is a layer found worldwide... a radioactive layer of a scorched Earth... that dates back to 65 million years ago... underneath this layer we find dinosaurs... above this layer we don't... ... this is the KT extinction I refer to... 98% of every living thing on Earth died at that time... and the Earth spent a few million years reinventing itself Biology-wise. The story of Earth's history is there buried underground for those who can read the language... and the story unfolds further as our technology turns the pages... the satellites... our eyes on the world... and as we learn more, we become ever closer to the "truth" about everything... ... which separates "knowledge" from "superstition". ... we call them Scientists... those who speak the language of "truth" and read the "book" which is the Universe around us... this Universe that tells it's story, if we only listen objectively and use educated eyes to see what it is telling us. Yeah... "Theories"... what do the superstitious have?.... STORIES... not even a viable theory to back them up... just..... stories. ------ But that's why I always tie the conspiracy and superstitious crack-pot fuck-wads into the same camp as the religious crack-pot fuck-wads (see.. I didn't use the word "moron" ) Because YOU believe whatever you want... whatever suits your fancy... no accountability... no proof needed... no reason or logic needed to support your beliefs... you just believe what you want. Science does not have that luxury... any "theory" has to stand up to any and all scrutiny... among scientific peers who would just love to punch holes in your work... but when they can't... and it holds water under any scrutiny... well.... then we get closer to the TRUTH. The way you use the word "truth", it's more like a "swear-word"... we obviously adhere to very different definitions of the word.  Cherokee 26: Well lori as much as Corvin and I disagree on a lot of these forum topics....i would have to agree that satellite images do not lie. Theres many HUGEEE and colossal asteroid craters all around the earth...including the one underwater in the gulf of mexico....how or when it got here.....one can only assume and suggest a date and time but the fact is its there.....and whenever it got here its pretty safe to say that it must have had a devastating impact to the eco system and wild life around it. Corwin: Oh, and Lori, I wasn't "calling" you stupid... I said you were "being" stupid... suggesting that we would have to actually have photographed the asteroid hitting the Earth 65 million years ago to have any evidence of it, is being pointlessly argumentative and asinine... which is why I coined the term "stupid". A photograph of a 300 mile wide crater on the ocean floor is just as good. (Edited by Corwin) | Science Chat Room 3 People Chatting Similar Conversations |