Getting OT here, for sure. Those images are stunning by any measure of beauty and composition, and then to realise the conditions and equipment used to make them. No point-and-shoot self-focussing available... I found a haunting quality in them, knowing what they did not, about the arduous future lying ahead
What books are you reading ? (conspiracy related, science, etc...)
- Thread starter Leifer
- Start date
Kieron McNulty
New Member
Kieron McNulty
New Member
I wouldn't say it was bed time reading but is an excellent for an authoritative source of information in neuropsychiatry. Many case studies. The chapter on sleep disorders has a startling opening sentence. "No-one knows what sleep is for." , it fascinating stuff.
When it comes to understanding the human tendency to believe in conspiracies, I recommend "The Believing Brain" by Michael Shermer. Shermer delves into the psychology behind belief systems, including conspiracy theories, and offers valuable insights into why we're prone to such thinking.
When it comes to understanding the human tendency to believe in conspiracies, I recommend "The Believing Brain" by Michael Shermer. Shermer delves into the psychology behind belief systems, including conspiracy theories, and offers valuable insights into why we're prone to such thinking.
If you're interested in delving deeper into these subjects, I recently came across bookwormera.com, which provides a comprehensive guide and analysis of the Game of Thrones books. While it may not directly relate to conspiracy theories, it offers a unique perspective on human nature, politics, and power dynamics within a fictional world.
If you're interested in delving deeper into these subjects, I recently came across bookwormera.com, which provides a comprehensive guide and analysis of the Game of Thrones books. While it may not directly relate to conspiracy theories, it offers a unique perspective on human nature, politics, and power dynamics within a fictional world.
Ravinder Kumar
New Member
Whenever I am upset or think about the creation of the infinite universe, I read Baba Fakir Chand ji. He was probably the first religious guru in the world who experienced death repeatedly while alive. He was the first to introduce spirituality to the world on the basis of science. He fought the First World War. He clearly explained how all religions and sects were born in the world. He has done a complete analysis of the power of thought. He proved that man can create matter with his will power. He can break the molecules of solid matter.
Baba Fakir Chand says that the entire universe is a copy of the human mind, if you want to know the universe, then know yourself.
https://sites.google.com/site/babafaqirchandbooks/home/
https://santmatradhasoami.blogspot.com/2017/08/podcast-chand-mat-radhasoami-teachings.html?m=1
https://manavtamandir.com/english-books.php
Baba Fakir Chand says that the entire universe is a copy of the human mind, if you want to know the universe, then know yourself.
https://sites.google.com/site/babafaqirchandbooks/home/
https://santmatradhasoami.blogspot.com/2017/08/podcast-chand-mat-radhasoami-teachings.html?m=1
https://manavtamandir.com/english-books.php
Last edited:
JMartJr
Senior Member.
I could accept a modified version of that: "Our entire perception of the Universe reflects the abilities of the human mind, if you want to know how you perceive the Universe, know how your brain works." The other seems to far "out there" for me, but you do you.
Ann K
Senior Member.
I'm enjoying "Doggerland: Lost World under the North Sea" (Various articles). The archaeology of an inaccessible location is fascinating to me. Fishing vessels have dragged up artifacts, and since the coast of Holland constantly has to be replenished by dredged-up sand, many fragmentary items have been found by beachcombers. Doggerland was a large swath of inhabited ground in Paleolithic times that once connected the U.K. to Europe until rising sea levels, pulses of water all the way across the Atlantic from the collapse of the ice bridge(s) that held back glacial Lake Agassiz, and a significant tsunami finally divided the two.
FatPhil
Senior Member.
After seeing PBS Eons' /Did a Tsunami Swallow Part of Europe?/ on that very topic (
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5XVxKNzhjQ
), my interst indeed did get piqued somewhat, but I never did do the deep dive that I promised myself. I did notice that the time that there were severl long-form documentaries no youtube, but wasn't really familiar with their producers - can anyone recommend for or against any of these, which are what google has selected for me on the subject this morning?
- "Get Factual"'s /Ancient Apocalypse: Doggerland | Full History Documentary/ [50:15] (ytid fd3QpHSm-O4)
- "History Time"'s /How Doggerland Sank Beneath The Waves (500,000-4000 BC) // Prehistoric Europe Documentary/ [49:59] (ytid DECwfQQqRzo)
- "antimegaton"'s /Doggerland Documentary/ [1:33:56] (ytid wwKuTO0nv-0)
Last edited:
Ann K
Senior Member.
"Ancient apocalypse" is Graham Hancock's debunked pseudo archaeology handiwork, so I'd avoid it. I'll check out the other ones.
Sherlock Holmes was badass. Too bad his creator believed in fairies.
"Dr Burrow said he viewed the story of how the photos came to prominence as an "accidental conspiracy" but that without Conan Doyle's involvement there would have been no story.
"When the girls took the photos there were a few prints made at the time by the family but that would have been it," he said.
"[Without him] I imagine they would have been lost in a drawer somewhere, just a quirky family story."
Speaking to the BBC in 1983, Frances Griffiths said: "I never even thought of it being a fraud. It was just Elsie and I having a bit of fun.
"I can't understand to this day why people were taken in. They wanted to be taken in.
"People often say to me 'Don't you feel ashamed that you have made all these poor people look like fools? They believed in you.' But I do not, because they wanted to believe."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-55187973
Ann K
Senior Member.
@FatPhil Your second one ("History Time") is more of a general overview of the Stone Age people in the area. It's repetitive and spoken slowly with overdramatic music throughout. A couple of interesting scenes (e.g.the "Red Lady" of Paviland), but you can scan it at double speed without losing any substance.
I never really agreed with that famous Holmesian logic, which he recycled in various forms over the years:
It's simply not true. There can be any number of plausible possibilities that could have occurred. Just because they're not impossible or unfeasible doesn't mean they actually happened. Once you have eliminated the impossible, what remains is an almost infinite number of possibilities.External Quote:
What did that Sherlock guy know anyway
Ann K
Senior Member.
@FatPhil , I'm only part way through your third reference, but it seems to be the best of the bunch.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwKuTO0nv-0
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwKuTO0nv-0
Ann K
Senior Member.
Great literary device. Lousy logic!
JMartJr
Senior Member.
I rise in defense of the Great Detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, London.
My understanding of his famous dictum, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," hinges on understanding what is meant by "the impossible." Take the case of UFO that is in fact a video of a bee. Holmes would have us gather data and start ruling out the things it wasn't. Since, in this example, it WAS a bee, only it being a bee is possible. It cannot possibly be something that it was not.
In Mr. Holmes's line of work, solving crimes in Victorian England, the set of reasonable explanations is somewhat restricted. If you are trying to figure out who strangled the Grand Duke, answers like "a bee" or "it was aliens" pretty much rule themselves out. So he looks at the clues -- the data -- and starts ruling out the obvious suspects whom silly old Inspectors Gregson and Lestrade believe were the culprit. If he can establish that nobody had access to the building, other than family and staff of the Grand Duke, then he has eliminated as impossible everybody other than the family and staff. Eventually, he eliminates every answer that is impossible, being wrong, and is left with the solution, by which Watson almost always is astounded.
In fairness, Holmes uses other processes than a methodical "eliminate the impossible." Sometimes he recognizes the pattern of the crime, having studied such things, and knows that the culprit is surely Wilson, the Notorious Canary Trainer. Sometimes he notices the depth to which the parsley has sunk into the butter on a hot day, and destroys the timeline of the culprit's alibi, leading to a confession. And Holmes benefits hugely from accute powers of observation -- Watson sees almost everything that Holmes sees, but Watson often sees without observing.
Also in fairness, Watson seldom shares with us the cases that Holmes fails to solve -- though a few are told if they are interesting to Watson, and others are alluded to in passing, so Holmes's methods are not infallible. We're not seeing a representative sample.
Still, we should all be a little humble in critiquing the logical genius of the one and only S. Holmes, until we have walked a mile in his tobacco-scented Persian slippers.
(I'll mention in closing that I solved one case faster than Holmes, while reading the stories. Many cannot be solved until the end when he reveals the minutia he observed but that Watson, our usual narrator, did not. But in one case, Homes and Watson both knew of the crucial clues, and Watson reported them early in the story, but neither knew a bit of information about jellyfish that I happened to know. So the score stands at Homes 61, me 1.)
Ann K
Senior Member.
Conan Doyle was one of the first people that popularized skiing as a sport instead of just a way to get around in the winter. On one occasion he lost his balance and slid hundreds of feet down an Alp. At the bottom he got up, surveyed the wreckage of his attire, and sadly said "...and they told me a Harris tweed would never wear out!"
Haliate2854
Member
If you have not watched Joe Rogan's recent podcast with Hancock VS Flint Dibble (archaeologist) that happened just 2 few weeks ago it is worth it. I wont link the video because its not a book, but the title in YouTube is "Joe Rogan Experience #2136 - Graham Hancock & Flint Dibble".
A funny conspiracy/bunk book I read a few years ago was called "The Fog: A Never Before Published Theory of the Bermuda Triangle Phenomenon". It was in a bargain bin of a second hand book store for just 1 dollar (foreshadowing) and I couldn't resist. You might criticise me for buying such a silly book even for 1 dollar and you would be right, it was the worst thing ever. I should have bought a KitKat or something, that was my mistake.
The premise was about a phenomenon I think he just made up called "electronic fog", as well as claiming to be the only survivor of this Electronic Fog, which is very convenient. His hypothesis was that some fog at sea can somehow become magnetically charged by electricity and it sticks to aircraft and boats, so that when the fog gets you, you cant escape because its attracted to the meta of your vessel, you don't know what direction is which and then you go missing in the Bermuda Triangle.
FatPhil
Senior Member.
I think I'll pass. Rogan's incredulity grates; worse, even when he does occasionally know better he wusses out on pushing back against nonsense. And I'm expecting nonsense from Hancock.
Pulled down into the depths as if by a solid ion anchor?
Haliate2854
Member
It might have been one of the worst things I have ever read. I made the mistake of telling a friend about it, and he has never let me live it down He often jokes that I go into book stores when I think people aren't looking so I can find more copies of The Fog. At least its a funny joke.
Yeah I can understand that, I was more interested in Flint Dibbles rebuttals to Hancock's theories. Rogan wasn't a big part of it because Hancock is the one in the hot seat, it was a debate between 2 people instead of an interview with Rogan. Dibble did quite well despite Rogan siding with Hancock more than not, but it was a fair enough debate.
I do enjoy the Sherlock Holmes stories. Just that bit of faulty logic always bugged me.
Ann K
Senior Member.
A "factoid" (forgotten source, unknown veracity) I remember from many years ago was that the whole "Bermuda triangle" thing was bunk, because there were more lost ships per square mile in my nearby Lake Erie than in that vast expanse of the Caribbean.
Some years before we took a spring vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Great numbers of ships have sunk in the shifting sands of that area. Severe winter storms had stripped several feet of sand from the area, and when we strolled along the waterfront from our hotel in Kitty Hawk, we saw some very large blackened timbers embedded in the beach. The next day's newspaper tentatively identified it from its size as one of two missing ships known to have been lost back in the seventeenth century.
Leifer
Senior Member.
The Twilight World
by Werner Herzog, Michael Hofmann - translator on Audible. https://www.audible.com/pd/B09HRC1FYR?source_code=ASSOR150021921000V
Described like no one can, in his own voice.... Herzog's memoirs.
Also, I have been listening to Ray Kurzweil's string of books about the machine future and the coming "singularity". Though, he tends to ramble a lot, repeat a lot, but I guess that's okay because of his truckloads of data. I need to listen in regulated blocks, otherwise I perceive it as noise and block it from my mental doorstep (absorbing it).
by Werner Herzog, Michael Hofmann - translator on Audible. https://www.audible.com/pd/B09HRC1FYR?source_code=ASSOR150021921000V
Described like no one can, in his own voice.... Herzog's memoirs.
Also, I have been listening to Ray Kurzweil's string of books about the machine future and the coming "singularity". Though, he tends to ramble a lot, repeat a lot, but I guess that's okay because of his truckloads of data. I need to listen in regulated blocks, otherwise I perceive it as noise and block it from my mental doorstep (absorbing it).
Greene
Member
Imperial Rivals: China, Russia and Their Disputed Frontier - S.C.M. Paine
Dr Paine is a professor at the Naval War College and one of my favorite historians.
The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology - Nick Cook
Cook is the former editor of Jane's Defense Weekly, and this one focuses on the claim that the Nazi's developed an anti-gravity device that was captured & copied by the US after the war. The direct evidence of these claims is...lacking.
Dr Paine is a professor at the Naval War College and one of my favorite historians.
The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology - Nick Cook
Cook is the former editor of Jane's Defense Weekly, and this one focuses on the claim that the Nazi's developed an anti-gravity device that was captured & copied by the US after the war. The direct evidence of these claims is...lacking.
FatPhil
Senior Member.
That might be best reserved for toilet reading.
elvenwear
Active Member
There may be something to what you say. I notice upon reading even small amounts of the text, my bowels start moving.
Ann K
Senior Member.
You're not supposed to eat each page after you read it.
John J.
Senior Member.
So how do you explain "The Reader's Digest"?
elvenwear
Active Member
It's untestable now, but I maintain that the US could have know the location of Osama Bin Laden instantly if they'd only subscribed him to reader's digest.
Admitting nothing, that may not have been what each page was used for after reading.
Ann K
Senior Member.
If readers digested the pages, they wouldn't cause such a problem, would they?
elvenwear
Active Member
There is considerable anecdotal evidence that this can clog toilets and require them to be flushed many times. Full disclosure, the anecdotal evidence has been provided by one person only, but this has been publicly declared on multiple occasions.
Regrettably, this has been confirmed by an eyewitness.
Last edited:
Mendel
Senior Member.
The practice of having the almanac handy stems back to outhouses; there's no plumbing to get clogged.
Barry Ram
New Member
Even Sherlock Holmes was touched here)) I hoped that the classics were untouchable, but no)) I would like to add that, of course, any book has its supporters and critics, but without knowing this, I reread all the adventures of Holmes with great enthusiasm, so the impressions remained the best . And then science fiction started, which really does not go along with logic.
John J.
Senior Member.
Just started reading a small backlog of Fortean Times magazine, something to flick through as Autumn closes in.
Never subscribed, but I've gone through patches of buying it regularly and other times of buying it if a cover story looks interesting.
Named after Charles Fort (1874-1932), an American writer who documented reports/ stories of the odd and anomalous.
Each issue has a mix of regular columns/ items (Strange Days- odd, quirky or paranormal-related news reports from around the world; It Happened To Me- individual first-hand accounts, sometimes perplexing or chilling, sometimes a bit "Meh"; Strange Deaths- as it sounds; Reviews- book and TV/ film reviews, sometimes games/ music; Classical Corner- oddments from Ancient Greece, Rome, etc.; some other regular or semi-regular features) as well as around 3 features and 2 "series" items.
Frequently has content about UFOs, cryptozoology, ghosts and poltergeists, "mainstream" mysteries (e.g. D.B. Cooper, the airliner hijacker who picked up his ransom payment and later parachuted from the plane, never to be seen again), folklore/ urban myths, esoteric/ occult groups.
Editorially it's neither "skeptical" or "believer", a wholly uncritical feature describing encounters with faeries might be in the same issue as an article pointing out why a classic haunting or UFO sighting is probably a hoax.
A feature about the Loch Ness Monster some time back, which looked into the people behind the most famous reports, left little doubt that the monster is a product of early-mid 20th century newspapers and a few perhaps not totally reliable witnesses (not least a loch bailiff who sidelined as a journalist).
Best bits: Varies a lot. Bits I like least: I feel "The Conspirasphere" has repeated internet nonsense without responsible critique.
Issues I'll be reading, with selected cover stories/ blurb:
Jan 2024, cover stories include "Take Me To Your Leaders: NASA's long, strange relationship with UFOs" and "Nightmare on Green Street: The afterlife of the Enfield poltergeist". Also, "Virgin Mary Disco Brawl".
Feb 2024: "Haunted Decade: Spooks of the Seventies", "Lust In Space: The lure of alien romance fiction", also "Accidental Magpie God", "Lion eats Vicar" and "Do You Believe in Faeries? Interpreting the results of Britain's new fairy census".
April 2024 (Don't know why I bought this one!), "Satanic Psyop Swift: Why the world's biggest pop star became a magnet for conspiracy theories", "In Search of the Lirpa Loof: How Esther Rantzen pulled off TV's greatest cryptozoological hoax".
June 2024: "Haunted Skies! RAF jet pilots reveal the 1950s UFO encounters the establishment covered up", "Odd Podcast: Joe Rogan, Baphomet and the Smurfs", "In Search of the Hackney Mole Man". Also "Toilet Imp" (the mind boggles).
Sept 2024: "Telepathic Dogs and Terminal Lucidity: An exclusive interview with Rupert Sheldrake" (I can happily read people's reports of faeries, talking Mongooses and alien ninja monkeys encountered on a school trip, but Sheldrake really winds me up),
"They Walk Among Us: The cryptoterrestrial theory". Also "Arsenic-Laced Library Books".
One of the beauties of Fortean Times is, until you're part-way through an article you don't know whether it's going to be a well-reasoned analysis of a reported strange phenomenon or a huge load of subjective codswallop. Even if it's the latter it can still be entertaining.
I can imagine some people here might like it, others will find it infuriating.
N.B. Because of occasional reports of e.g. people arrested or hospitalised because of strange behaviour, or of some unusual events, e.g. the Kanamara Matsuri festival in Japan, some issues might not be suitable for younger readers.
Never subscribed, but I've gone through patches of buying it regularly and other times of buying it if a cover story looks interesting.
Named after Charles Fort (1874-1932), an American writer who documented reports/ stories of the odd and anomalous.
Each issue has a mix of regular columns/ items (Strange Days- odd, quirky or paranormal-related news reports from around the world; It Happened To Me- individual first-hand accounts, sometimes perplexing or chilling, sometimes a bit "Meh"; Strange Deaths- as it sounds; Reviews- book and TV/ film reviews, sometimes games/ music; Classical Corner- oddments from Ancient Greece, Rome, etc.; some other regular or semi-regular features) as well as around 3 features and 2 "series" items.
Frequently has content about UFOs, cryptozoology, ghosts and poltergeists, "mainstream" mysteries (e.g. D.B. Cooper, the airliner hijacker who picked up his ransom payment and later parachuted from the plane, never to be seen again), folklore/ urban myths, esoteric/ occult groups.
Editorially it's neither "skeptical" or "believer", a wholly uncritical feature describing encounters with faeries might be in the same issue as an article pointing out why a classic haunting or UFO sighting is probably a hoax.
A feature about the Loch Ness Monster some time back, which looked into the people behind the most famous reports, left little doubt that the monster is a product of early-mid 20th century newspapers and a few perhaps not totally reliable witnesses (not least a loch bailiff who sidelined as a journalist).
Best bits: Varies a lot. Bits I like least: I feel "The Conspirasphere" has repeated internet nonsense without responsible critique.
Issues I'll be reading, with selected cover stories/ blurb:
Jan 2024, cover stories include "Take Me To Your Leaders: NASA's long, strange relationship with UFOs" and "Nightmare on Green Street: The afterlife of the Enfield poltergeist". Also, "Virgin Mary Disco Brawl".
Feb 2024: "Haunted Decade: Spooks of the Seventies", "Lust In Space: The lure of alien romance fiction", also "Accidental Magpie God", "Lion eats Vicar" and "Do You Believe in Faeries? Interpreting the results of Britain's new fairy census".
April 2024 (Don't know why I bought this one!), "Satanic Psyop Swift: Why the world's biggest pop star became a magnet for conspiracy theories", "In Search of the Lirpa Loof: How Esther Rantzen pulled off TV's greatest cryptozoological hoax".
June 2024: "Haunted Skies! RAF jet pilots reveal the 1950s UFO encounters the establishment covered up", "Odd Podcast: Joe Rogan, Baphomet and the Smurfs", "In Search of the Hackney Mole Man". Also "Toilet Imp" (the mind boggles).
Sept 2024: "Telepathic Dogs and Terminal Lucidity: An exclusive interview with Rupert Sheldrake" (I can happily read people's reports of faeries, talking Mongooses and alien ninja monkeys encountered on a school trip, but Sheldrake really winds me up),
"They Walk Among Us: The cryptoterrestrial theory". Also "Arsenic-Laced Library Books".
One of the beauties of Fortean Times is, until you're part-way through an article you don't know whether it's going to be a well-reasoned analysis of a reported strange phenomenon or a huge load of subjective codswallop. Even if it's the latter it can still be entertaining.
I can imagine some people here might like it, others will find it infuriating.
N.B. Because of occasional reports of e.g. people arrested or hospitalised because of strange behaviour, or of some unusual events, e.g. the Kanamara Matsuri festival in Japan, some issues might not be suitable for younger readers.
Mendel
Senior Member.
those who like logic and sci-fi call their part of the genre "hard sci-fi".
John J.
Senior Member.
Funnily enough, this September's issue (one of the ones I've yet to read) has a feature about Fortean TV,
with presenter Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe on the cover, in his customary biker jacket.
(If anyone is tempted to read FT, don't be put off by the sometimes garish covers, the writing- even if it's about something seemingly ridiculous or obscurely niche- is measured and competent).
Rev. Lionel, still with us at 89, is a retired Anglican priest and schoolteacher. He is/ has been a member of several amateur organisations for investigating UFOs, the paranormal etc. and often popped up on British TV / radio between c. 1997 and 2016 talking about those subjects. Always seems cheerful and likeable.
Less well-known is Fanthorpe wrote about 180 Science Fiction/ supernatural novels and story collections in the 1950s and 60s.
He used many pseudonyms, some verging on the silly,
see Wikipedia, Lionel Fanthorpe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Fanthorpe
Lionel's SF output is perhaps best described as prolific, but not widely honoured; can't give a citation but I've read/ heard that he wrote some of the worst SF ever actually published:
-From Galaxy 666, Pel Torro (AKA Lionel Fanthorpe), review by Ken de Vries retained on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine,External Quote:
https://web.archive.org/web/20061209122949/http://www.pacifier.com/~dkossy/gal666.html
I won't be reading any of Lionel's SF novels anytime soon.
Greene
Member
That can be crazy rabbit hole to delve into.
I've seen many arguments among readers & even authors over the "correct" terminology for "accurate" science-fiction and whether such a thing is even possible.
It a topic as rife with orthodoxy & absolutism as politics or religion.
Similar threads
