This post from Jim Davila's PaleoJudaica blog made me chuckle. He comments on how a report on an opera based on the book of 1 Enoch being performed in New York makes bonehead errors related. Classic. Davila is an expert on the Pseudepigrapha and Second Temple Judaism....
media hype
UFO Propaganda in Movies and TV Shows: Robbie Graham Interview
Jack Brewer of the excellent blog, The UFO Trail, recently interviewed Robbie Graham, who blogs at the fascinating Silver Screen Saucers. The thrust of the interview is that motion pictures and television have far greater potential to influence beliefs about UFOs and...
December 21: We’re All Still Here
I never got to the *real* debunking of the 2012 nonsense last night on Coast to Coast AM. All that "galactic alignment" and "Planet X" stuff is utter hogwash, as everyone now knows (and anyone thinking clearly new long ago). But in any event, here's a short set of...
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 -- of the type known from...
How Cable TV Shows Like the History Channel Doctor What You Watch
Hat tip to Jason Colavito for the link. I can identify with "A Skeptic's Brief Conversation with a TV Producer" given my own 2003 experience with one of the History Channel's production companies (it's the reason I have twice turned down a request to be in Ancient...
BBC Film Crew Trying to Sneak into AREA-51 Fails to Win Darwin Award
The UK Mail online has the story here. These 12 death-wishers will just have to try again.
Eisenhower and ET Myth
The Huffington Post recently blessed ET religious believers with this piece of mythology. The story ( and that's all that it is, a fairy tale) that President Eisenhower met with extraterrestrials during his term. Here's the reality: the whole idea is based on...
Another Reason Why Biblical Studies and Archaeology Should Not Be Done Via the Mainstream Popular Media
Ah, the paleobabbling media now gives us proof that it is also clueless with respect to intellectual discourse. Mark Goodacre reports that Nicole Austin, the Associate Producer on The Resurrection Tomb Mystery documentary (The Jesus Discovery in Canada) has accused...
How Research Reaches the Public and PaleoBabble is Born
Robert Cargill posted this today on his blog. It's funny because we've all seen it happen, again and again. Although the creators forgot to include the Fantasy Channel (formerly known as the History Channel).
A Case of Credential Envy?
I just read a short but telling post by Jason Colavito on the blog that bears his name entitled, "The Dubious Authorial Accomplishments of Gorgio Tsoukalos." Gorgio is the star of the cinematic tribute to non sequitur thinking known as Ancient Aliens. Jason examines...
Of Mustard Seeds and TIME Magazine
We're all familiar with Jesus' statement about faith and the mustard seed. Now there's something else I'm not sure I have enough faith for: Larry Hurtado's post that there's something of a biblical-theological nature worth reading in TIME magazine (on heaven, no...
Is “Jesus Archaeology” Becoming Like Professional Wrestling?
That was the thought that hit me after reading "Scientists say Turin Shroud is Supernatural." Now, you all know that I'm interested in the Shroud of Turin. (How could I not be when I write a blog like this?) Despite my ambivalence toward the object (I lean toward the...
Thoughts on the New “Talpiot B” Tomb
Just wanted to check in regarding the new Talpiot tomb discovery (referred to most often it seems as Talpiot B). I'm caught up with all the reading available online, beginning with James Tabor's description of the discovery and sketch-analysis ("A Preliminary Report...
More on the New Talpiot Tomb
Lots of material being generated pretty quickly. Here is a worthwhile overview from Mark Goodacre's NT blog. The post that Mark directs us to by Tom Verenna that serves as a collection of response is here (just in case you don't click through to the Goodacre post)....
More Media PaleoBabble on the Gabriel Stone
Sometimes I come across something that makes me wish I'd named this blog PaleoDiarrhea. I usually have that thought when the popular media dips its toe into archaeology and biblical studies (or ancient astronauts). Here's another example brought to my attention by...