News from 10/16/2018: Episode #372

I don't normally write a blog for the news but with this week's news I shared a few photographs in the chatroom during the live broadcast on the Paranormal King Radio Network. I thought it would be nice to share these photographs with everyone via the blog instead of just sharing the stories through Facebook and Twitter like usual. Something new, but not sure if I will continue this or not.

I was one of four speakers on October 13 at the Albatwitch Day event in Columbia, Pennsylvania. I had a great time there enjoyed the presentations of local author David Glass, Tim Renner, and Rick Fisher. If you're interested in attending a paranormal conference (ghosts, UFOs, or crytids) then check out my list of events on Paranewsinsider.com.

Cryptid News:

Just seconds before the 4' gator lunged at a deputy.

Last week I covered a story from Chicago where a live alligator was pulled from the waters of Lake Michigan. Well, later on in the week another alligator was discovered but this time nowhere near the Great Lakes. A driver in a town about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Kansas was initially startled when she saw an alligator walk out in front of her car a week ago Monday, October 8th. Deputies had a hard time wrangling the alligator as the four-foot-long reptile lunged at one of them and he pulled his gun. Shots were not fired but the alligator was not captured either. The gator ended up getting back home on its own as it had been an escapee from a nearby residence.

Even more strange is that the same day as this one and not only the one in Chicago, Illinois, but another alligator turned up in Kansas about 20 miles south of the first one. This alligator was about 2 feet long and was found hiding under someone’s car. The city of Olathe, Kansas, where this second alligator was found apparently has a law against owning them so it will be transported to a reptile rescue facility in Kansas.

A set of photographs have surfaced of a mysterious creature seen in the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach, California. The headline of the Daily Star made this sound like very scary situation as it said, “Mysterious 'human-like' sea creature lurking in water leave beachgoers TERRIFIED. A BIZARRE creature sparked terror on the shores after beachgoers failed to identify what was heading their way.”

Despite the description in many stories saying there is a video there are only a few photographs including one that is just water that were taken back on October 3rd by a man only identified as George. I'm not sure who else was there that was terrified. George states of his encounter, “I was sitting on the sand and saw a frenzy of fish. Water was splashing, and the fish were jumping out – so I went to take a photo and caught this. I've been a surfer all my life and have never seen anything like this before.”

Sure looks like a dolphin to me...

Many people (paranormal researchers especially) assume that just because they can’t explain it that means that no one else can either and therefore it must be paranormal. Within the comments section of the video many claim that they recognize this creature as an orca or as dolphin which is in my best guess as well. I would probably guess this would be a dolphin as an orca’s dorsal fin would be much taller than what we see in the one photograph. But, it sure does look like a dolphin to me!

In the last few years Huntington Beach has had issues with sharks and stingrays chasing fish close to shore causing panic and a few minor injuries and dolphins are frequently seen in the area- and any longtime surfer would know that.

UFO News:

Cruz del Tercer Milenio (Third Millennium Cross)

“Mysterious UFOs in shape of white orbs of light 'speed across sky' at South America's highest monument” is the headline that accompanies the latest purported UFO video. The video was shot through observation windows at the Cruz del Tercer Milenio (Third Millennium Cross) which is located in northern Chile and stands about 83 meters high or 272 feet if you’re from North America.

This astounding UFO should have been reported by thousands of people and there should be dozens of videos of this amazing object as hundreds visit this monument daily and the countryside would have been busy with people. But, where are the other videos?

The reason there are no other videos is that this one isn’t really a UFO and it’s not even a good fake. Of the two comments on the Mirror article that I saw earlier this evening both pointed to the fact that this was shot inside behind glass and that there was a light on either the camera of the phone or other device behind the phone. I find it very hard to believe that the person filming this did not realize it at the time.

Some might watch the video and wonder why the first light seen did not move as the camera did in the last shot. Well, the video opens looking out one window from a few feet away from it (1). As the person turns and moves quickly toward the other window you can clearly see the light reflected on the wall (2) and when it appears on the window the light gets closer to the camera (3 then 4) since it’s actually the camera getting closer to the window. Case closed.

Is the To The Stars Academy in debt to the moon? The To The Stars Academy became the target of a misleading article on Monday, October 15th. The article claimed that the company is a whopping $37.4 Million dollars in debt. Tom DeLonge of the musical group Blink 182 fame has been under fire for a number of things that the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences has done over the past few years, but this attacked them where it hurts- the wallet.

DeLonge fired back via a now removed Instagram post which read in part, “This article is highly misleading and grossly mischaracterizes statements in an SEC filing. Mr. Berger apparently did not EVEN READ the filing in its entirety, and clearly did not understand the excerpt of the SEC filing he quotes.” DeLonge also commented that the writer of the article did not contact him for clarification of the information that was published. He clarified the findings by stating, “The approximate $37 million stockholders’ deficit is NOT DEBT as he characterized it but is attributable to stock-based compensation expense.”

What this essentially means is that the $37.4 Million dollars is not debt as in borrowed money but is a deficit which is basically spending more money that you are taking in. So, unless the TTSA can bring in some more revenue they will certainly be in debt when they eventually have to pay some bills. According to an article in Motherboard.vice.com, “In September 2017, the company began selling $50 million worth of stock to fund its operations, and its website claims to have a total of 2,547 investors. According to the SEC filing, however, To the Stars has only sold a little over $1 million worth of stock to date.” So, no matter how they try to spin this the information is far from positive when it comes to the future of the company. Also mentioned in the article is how DeLonge and others get royalties in excess of $100,000 each no matter what results the company has.

While many view the TTSA as the leader in discovering evidence of UFOs and pushing disclosure to the governments of the world while others see this as nothing more than a money making scheme that has lacked in providing anything credible. Some point to the video that accompanied the Acquisition and Data Analysis of Materials (ADAM) project where it showed team members unwrapping purported pieces of UFOs and other evidence with their bare hands. If this were truly physical evidence of UFOs one would think a company designed for discovery would have taken some sort of precaution. This is symbolic to this latest story and I wonder if this is just the crack in the wall that eventually leads to the collapse of this venture.

Other News:

I’m pretty sure there is a logical solution to this, but until then it’s a story about a strange object washed ashore on Seabrook Island in South Carolina. The story has quickly picked up a lot of buzz and has become one of the stronger viral paranormal stories of the year so far.

The large object has been speculated to be everything from a UFO to space junk all the way to just a buoy or some other logical but boring solution. Many websites are focusing on the fact that it was taken away by city officials and some are saying this means it is some sort of alien technology or something else that is a secret. 

Not sure about this guy's face, but this sure looks like the object in question.

But, the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network was the first to report this object and has since allowed hundreds of people to join in the guessing as to what it could possibly be. City officials did take the object away, but it was just due to public safety as well as to identify what it is. It wouldn’t be very good to allow this object to reenter the water and eventually was up somewhere else.

The speculation about what the object might be is all over the place, again from a UFO to even parts from the Space Shuttle Challenger by more than one person. Mysterious, yes, but the object seems to be made of foam and the many guesses as a buoy or other object used to float or protect boats is probably correct. One of the most guessed objects is a pipeline. Strange objects like this wash up on the shore all the time and even in this particular area it is said to be a somewhat consistent thing.

The Paranormal News Insider has been broadcasting since September of 2008 with 372 episodes to date and can be heard live at Paranormalking.com at 8 PM eastern every Tuesday night. The show is also available as a podcast after that on Podbean, iTunes, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spreaker, as well as many other podcasting apps and websites as well as on YouTube.  

The Science of Ghost Hunting and Paranormal Investigation Part II: Advancement of Technology

"Technology has advanced so quickly that it's just a matter of time until the truth of ghosts are unveiled."

Not my words folks and that's why they're in quotes. I agree that technology has advanced in the field of paranormal investigation even since I have been a part of it, but does that mean we are really closer to finding answers? Some seem to think so, but personally I think it actually has set us back a bit.

In my last blog in this series, "The Science of Ghost Hunting and Paranormal Investigation Part I: The Basics of the Scientfic Approach", I discussed the scientific process and how it ties in to our field. While technology plays a part it's not the headliner that many make it out to be, it's merely the supporting cast to a symphony of processes, procedures, and documentation. The technology can certainly add to the data collected as well as make up for our interpretation of events, but it can still get in the way or make our data give us the results we are looking for. I don't want to beat a dead horse in this blog, rather I am going to discuss the advancements in technology that could potentially lead us to the opening quote.

You might be surprised to learn that pagers are still in use by many emergency personnel as well as Information Technology (IT) professionals. Don't remember pagers? Well, my first "Emergency Contact" number used for my paranormal group was for my pager. I was the last in my family to get a cell phone and I am now on my fifth phone in I don't know how many years. Even when cell phones were becoming mainstream we never dreamed they would be taking several minutes of video, connecting to the internet with ease, providing GPS data, PowerPoint presentations or all of the other things that come standard on many phones today.

The biggest advancement over the years with cell phones has been the camera phone. This of course, follows on the heels of the advancement of digital cameras which are taken for granted in this day and age. When I first began in this field I had to buy film for my 35MM camera as well as pay to have it developed. A typical roll of film held 27 exposures (I use to take as many as 30). If you knew how to handle the photo business you only had to pay for what you wanted, and you were sure to tell the technician to develop all of the pictures regardless of their appearance. Of course there was also the Polaroid camera that took instant photos that was the rage for quite a while in the paranormal field and it saved you a trip to the photomat.

What a hassle, that's all I have to say about film cameras. It wasn't so much the cost, it was all of the hassle about buying the film, keeping it out of the sun, away from static, loading it in darkness, taking it to get processed and sometimes having to go back to pick it up. While it did cost a lot to buy and process film, digital cameras balance out that cost, but have less of the hassle. Although, when digital cameras made their splash with the paranormal field so did a little problem now known as "orbs". This phenomenon is not new nor was it coined by some "Dr." who cruises around on subscriber's money in a Winnebago. Orbs have been around since the film camera days as mentioned in many magazines and books about photography printed in the 1960s and 70s that I have read (I was a big camera fan as a kid).

The field I call "Orbology" came into study when digital cameras made their way into our field. The big problem in the early days was pixelization. Basically, the camera was adding pixels to the picture due to the limitations of the technology at the time. So what's the cause now? One word: Flash. The camera technology has gotten better and with better comes compact. When the cameras got better they started getting smaller and when they got smaller the flash moved to over top of the lens. The flash can reflect off of close proximity dust or airborne debris right into the lens thus creating orbs. We see the orb as being in the picture, hey; the cat is looking at it! In reality its 0-4 inches from the lens of the camera and thus won't be seen by the naked eye.

Another double-edged sword that came with digital cameras was the technology to alter the images taken by them. When a picture was taken with 35MM there were only so many ways the photo could be faked and if the negative was provided as evidence it would narrow down the possibilities to chemicals and static electricity. Digital manipulation has rendered photography and video nearly useless for paranormal investigation as well as use in other anomalous fields (UFO and Cryptozoology) since even children can create photos and videos that can take even a little work to uncover manipulation. How can you prove a photo has not been tampered with? Well, EXIF information in photographs is a start, but how can you do the same with video?

Along with cameras, the other recording media that has advanced from magnetic recording to digital is audio recorders. My first recorder I used in paranormal investigation used a regular sized tape cassette and was "portable", meaning you could clip it to your belt or carry it around as it certainly would not fit in your pocket. The big "rule" about using cassette tapes was to use fresh ones and only record on one side to prevent bleed-through. Well, I used both sides and would use the same tapes over, but only on recording the interview. I used to buy TDK D90 tapes in a ten pack about once a week back then (can't remember how much they cost, more than likely about $15). Even with an external microphone you would still get a lot of hiss and the occasional squeaky wheel (I learned how to lubricate the parts and even pad certain parts to keep the "machine" noise to a minimum). I eventually bought a micro-cassette recorder which I still use to this day, still expensive to buy tapes and a real blast to review.

Now we can walk into a department store and buy a digital recorder with a USB plug and can upload our files with ease to the computer. Prices on the digital recorders have fallen sharply and the expensive models carry a huge amount of space. Again, the big problem with technology is the ability to create fake results or to over analyze files to come up with results you desire. Technology works against us
once again.

Now that the camera and recorder bubbles have been burst, we look at the other technology that we use in investigations. What about EMF detectors? My first detector was a Trifield Meter that I paid $250 for. It was worth every penny when I met someone in the field that would "oooh" and "ahhhh" over it, but it met its demise with an unhealthy trip down a flight of stairs at an abandoned TB hospital. I didn't drop it, but I can't swear it was helped by paranormal forces. Anyway, a quick search on the internet and I can find a new one for $130. We know that EMF detectors are not ghost detectors (despite some of the names given to some of them) and are not designed for our field. That is until Pro Measure introduced the MEL-8704, designed for paranormal investigators by paranormal investigators, hit the market. It has not taken long for this meter to begin to morph from suggestions given by its users; this is good advancement for our field as long as it is used correctly!

(The new Mel 8704 Hybrid with KII built right in)

Better technology and dropping prices have put many new meters in the hands of those who have little idea what the measurements mean or how the meter is affected, but it's not the technology's fault. The once $20,000 thermal imaging cameras are now only a couple grand each and getting cheaper every few months. Handheld weather devices are now inexpensive to carry. I use my cell phone to gather local data periodically to update our investigation forms, but having the data that is occurring in the room is essential to tie this data to the investigation. New technology is being developed for other purposes and beginning to become affordable.

The thing to keep in mind, again, is to remember the limitations of these instruments and use them as references, not answers. The key to using these scientific tools is to use them scientifically. Meaning, documentation of everything you do is essential if you are going to post your data and posting this data is the last big step in your work.

In order for these tools to assist us in moving forward we have to move forward as gatherers of information. Groups need to learn how to gather the data to support the use of these tools correctly. Random videos of orbs and shadows will never provide any proof beyond personal proof. In order for documentation to have weight it needs data and data needs documentation. No one likes filling out paperwork, but if we are to move forward as a field of science, we need to act like a science first.

Coming soon: Part III in this series of the Science of Ghost Hunting and Paranormal Investigation will offer a closer look into where I left off in part I with the scientific method and how the tools play their part.