Law and Magic Blog

Keep Watching the Skies

Lots of people claim to have seen UFOs and aliens. Lots of famous people. Physicist Michio Kaku makes a good case for life elsewhere in the universe. Moving on--Dan Ackroyd suggests little green (or grey) men don't land in populated areas precisely because they don't want to interact with us. (Then why come here at all? For the beer?) More here.

New Issue of Skeptic Magazine Features Articles on UFOs, Precognition

In the new issue of Skeptic magazine (volume 16, number 4):

a special section on UFOs and beliefs in aliens, including these articles:

Pulp Fiction UFO

How the Idea of UFOs Originatedby Armando Simon

Roswell, Aliens & Belief

Who Believes that Aliens Landed at Roswell? by Frank Borzellieri

and on precognition, including these articles.

Precognition or Pathological Science?

An Analysis of Daryl Bem’s Controversial “Feeling the Future” Paperby Nicolas Gauvrit

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

How the Science of Sleep Explains “Precognitive” Dreams by Richard Wiseman

Cryptozoology

MSNBC.com offers this look at the latest in cryptozoology, packaged as a career for writer Loren Coleman. Mr. Coleman is probably best known for his association with the tv series In Search Of (2002 version). Also check out MSNBC.com's X-File Odysseys.

Reports of UFO Attack at Wind Turbine Installation in UK

CNN.com reports on a "UFO attack" at a wind turbine installation in the UK here. "It", whatever "it" was, happened near Conisholme on January 4. A wind turbine lost one of its 20 meter blades to something. Reports of strange lights accompany the damage. Read more here.

A New Skeptical Blog

The Skeptics Society has launched a new blog, Skeptics Blog, with a permanent list of bloggers, which includes Michael Shermer, Phil Plait, and Brian Dunning. Check out the introductory post and mention of a lot of interesting stuff, including a link to an article about our tendency to believe in the paranormal that features one of the bloggers, Steven Novella.

 

Why Do People Want To Believe in "Real" Monsters and Alien Creatures?

MSNBC.com has this report on the desire to believe in the supernatural, particularly in supernatural scientific phenomena, by Robert Roy Britt. Why do we want to believe? Is it because science has such a huge hold on us, even though most of us have such a poor understanding of it? Check out the comments.

Keep Watching the Skies, Part Deux

Nick Pope, who headed the the British Ministry of Defense's UFO investigations in the early 1990s, writes in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times that "A healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers leads people to disregard U.F.O. sightings without a moment’s thought. But in the United States, this translates into overdependence on radar data and indifference to all kinds of unidentified aircraft — a weakness that could be exploited by terrorists or anyone seeking to engage in espionage against the United States."

I assume that he means that the U.S. government is skeptical, and not that Americans in general are skeptical, about U.F.O.s. In any case, he's assuming that the U.S. government actually doesn't investigate. I wouldn't assume that just because we don't hear about an investigation, there isn't an investigation. A government at war isn't necessarily going to tell us that it has opened such an investigation, particularly if it could easily make itself the target of ridicule.

Keep Watching the Skies: The Return of Scully and Mulder

Today's New York Times has a review of the new X-Files movie: I Want To Believe.

New Acquisitions

Just added to my ever-increasing pile of books to read: Jim Steinmeyer's Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural (Penguin, 2008). I really do need to make that pile diminish, by magical or other means. The felines keep knocking it over.

The Still Unexplained (But We're Working On It)

MSNBC.com highlights some "weird science" written up by Benjamin Radford here, who, in a sidebar for an article discusses why Indiana Jones is an entertaining character but a really bad archaeologist. Dr. Jones seems utterly unaware of the law regarding historic artifacts, even in the 1930s. Ya don't just grab 'n go, pal. Mr. Radford reviews Bigfoot, near-death experiences, deja vu, psychic detectives, ESP, and the placebo effect, among other unexplained phenoms. All interesting, and worthy of discussion. A tip of the hat to MSNBC and Mr. Radford for this overview of the subject metter.