Readers will know that I’ve long thought the ancient astronaut theory is tinged with racist thinking. (Think about it — the AA theory says Egyptians and various South American civilizations couldn’t possibly have built their pyramids and temples...
Ancient Astronauts
Did NASA Just Endorse Ancient Astronauts?
Uh . . . no. But you might be led to believe that, given the carelessness of some mainstream media outlets. I saw several pieces on this fiasco yesterday, but I want to direct readers to Jason Colavito’s site for a timely assessment: “Media Outlets Wrongly...
The Starchild Skull and Its DNA Testing: No Proof of an Alien Hybrid
Frank Johnson of the Ancient Aliens Debunked (AAD) blog recently posted this lengthy essay concerning alleged DNA evidence that the Starchild Skull was that of a human-alien hybrid child: “A Bone to Pick with the Starchild Skull.” It’s well worth the...
Ancient Aliens on Mars?
Ever wonder about the claims of Richard Hoagland and Mike Bara about ancient alien artifacts and structures on Mars? Well, if you have, here’s the antidote, in detail, from the Emoluments on Mars blog. (This blog is filled with other pages painstakingly...
Ancient Astronauts and Comic Books
Jason Colavito has an informative post on the “big-business-factual-data-be-damned” approach of Ancient Aliens. The early section of his post notes connections between ancient astronaut theory and pop-culture, specifically with respect to Marvel comics....
Ancient Aliens Malpractice
Jason Colavito just posted a review of the Ancient Aliens episode “Alien Operations.” As usual, the review is informed and insightful, while the episode was disturbingly dumb –another ode to incoherence. My favorite paragraph: Tsoukalos adopts Thomas...
The Cosmos in the Antikythera Mechanism: ET Flunked Astronomy
That’s the title of a new, freely accessible scholarly paper on the Antikythera mechanism you can find here. Here’s the abstract: The Antikythera Mechanism is a fragmentarily preserved Hellenistic astronomical machine with bronze gearwheels, made about the...
Ancient Astronauts, Esotericism, and Utopian Politics
Jason Colavito has a short post on the relationship of these three areas of study that’s a good interest-piquing piece if such connections are new to you. I can recommend it since it links ancient astronaut myths to utopian thinking on both sides of the...
Review: Encounters with Star People
I just finished the book, Encounters with Star People: Untold Stories of American Indians (Anomalist Books, 2012), by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke. I can review it in one word: disappointing. Or four words: don’t waste your money. When I heard about this book I was...
Lengthy Series on Vallee and Aubeck’s Evidence for UFOs in Antiquity
Jason Colavito recently produced a series of posts exposing the poor use of data (and perhaps deliberate deception in that regard) on the part of Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck in their book, Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern...
Chariots of the Frauds: The Real Erich von Daniken
Kudos are once again in order for Jason Colavito for his review of the Ancient Aliens episode entitled “The Legacy of von Daniken.” As part of his review, Jason summarizes some of the material that can be found in his book The Cult of Alien Gods: H.P....
Fidel Castro, Plato, Richard Hoagland, and Giorgio Tsoukalos
What’s the connection between all of them, you ask? Why, Cuba, of course. I just came across a worthwhile essay on the Bad Archaeology site dedicated to the last underwater city off the coast of Cuba (there’s Fidel) that space aliens no doubt helped to...
Ancient Aliens Debunked: Some Impressions on the Documentary
I just finished watching the whole (free) three-hour Ancient Aliens Debunked movie on YouTube. Took me quite a while, as it’s hard to find three hours of free time. But it was worth the here-and-there effort. I’m not going to write a full review, just...
Bait and Switch Archaeo-Porn Media Gets Page Views with “Alien Skulls” Discovery
Must be a desperate time for TV news media . . . or the same old same old. We’re treated today to reports of “alien like” skulls found in a Mexico archaeological dig. You can click on the link to discover that it’s just more elongated skulls...
Giorgio Tsoukalos and Elephant Men
Check out Jason Colavito’s post on the elephant god Ganesha. Giorgio Tsoukalos thinks he was an actual alien UFO pilot. Really, do you need to know any more than that? Was Gamera a real alien, too?