Brian Dunning

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Jersey Devil: Impossible Animal of Story & Legend

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on March 27, 2013
Posted in: Creatures, Debunk, Jersey Devil, Story Telling, Superstition, Urban Legends. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

By Benjamin Radford via LiveScience

jersey-devil

Jersey Devil sightings go back to the 1700s. This image is from a 1909 Philadelphia newspaper.

A devil is said to haunt the wooded Pine Barren of southern New Jersey. Dubbed the Jersey Devil, it has never been photographed or captured, but has appeared in dozens of books, films, and television shows including “The X-Files.”

Most accounts suggest that the creature has a horse-like face with antlers or horns sprouting from the top of its head. It walks on two legs, ending with cloven hooves or pig’s feet. The overall body shape resembles a kangaroo, though it also has wings like a bat. Some say it has a tail like a lizard; others say it has no tail at all. The monster is said to kill dogs, chickens and other small animals, as well as leave spooky cloven hoof prints in snow, and bellow a terrifying screech in the wooded darkness.

History of the Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil is the subject of a legend dating from the early 18th century. There are several variations, but a common story holds that a woman named Mother Leeds (who was believed to have been the wife of a Daniel Leeds) gave birth to her 13th child on a dark and stormy night. Rumors claimed that she was a witch, and bore the Devil’s child. Shortly after birth, it changed form, growing wings, hooves and an equine head. It flew into the air with a bloodcurdling shriek, killing a midwife in the process, and headed toward the woods.

It sounds like a scene from a horror film or novel, too bizarre to be true. And indeed Brian Dunning of the Skeptoid podcast notes that there are holes in the popular story of the Jersey Devil: “In looking at the historical sources, we soon find that this story is not possible. … There appears to be no contemporary sources connecting Daniel Leeds or either of his wives to a devilish character of any sort, and … Although newspapers of the 1800s did occasionally print the Mother Leeds story as given in the legend, we seem to have a total lack of factual basis to anchor it to any real history.”

Despite its origins in legend, several people have claimed to have seen or encountered the Jersey Devil over the past 250 years. In a section on the topic in the encyclopedia “American Folklore,” folklorist Angus Kress Gillespie notes that “The Jersey Devil remained an obscure regional legend through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, until 1909 when a series of purported ‘Devil’ sightings inspired a Philadelphia businessman to stage a hoax. He painted a kangaroo green, attached fake wings to the helpless creature, and had it exhibited to the public.” The 1909 hoax (and others like it) inspired further sightings and reports, which continue to this day.

What Is the Jersey Devil?

Could the creature be real? The Jersey Devil’s diverse features are strong evidence that it does not — and cannot — exist as a real animal. The most obvious biologically implausible feature is its wings: they would need to be much bigger, and anchored in a much more massive musculoskeletal structure, to lift the animal’s body weight into the air. Birds and bats can fly because their bodies are relatively lightweight; the reputed heavy muscles and thick limbs of the Jersey Devil would never work; you’d have better luck putting butterfly wings on a rhino. Most images of the Jersey Devil look like a monster that a high school Dungeons & Dragons player might dream up as a composite of different, unrelated animals whose features could never actually exist in the same animal, but look weird and scary.

So what’s the explanation for the Jersey Devil? There’s very little to “explain”; we have a monster whose origin is obviously . . .

MORE . . .

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Genetically Modified Crops

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on March 20, 2013
Posted in: Debunk, Educational, GMO, Organic, Science. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment
Why the big fuss about GMO crops?
Are they indeed as terrible as some people say?

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Full transcript and more information.
Related: Mark Lynas, environmentalist who opposed GMOs, admits he was wrong.

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Here Be Dragons (Brian Dunning)

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on February 9, 2013
Posted in: Alternative Medicine, Astrology, Brain Works, Conspiracy, Creatures, Crop Circles, Cults, Debunk, Educational, Ghosts, Haunted, Hoax, Homeopathy, Horoscope, Human Perception, Magic, Mayans, Metaphysics, Myths, Paranoid, Paranormal, Perception, Pseudohistory, Pseudoscientific, Psychics, Psychology, Quackery, Scams, Secret Societies, Skepticism, Spirits, supernatural, Superstition, UFO, Urban Legends. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 comment

Here Be Dragons is a 40 minute video introduction to critical thinking. This video is on my “must watch” list for skeptics and critical thinkers :)

Most people fully accept paranormal and pseudoscientific claims without critique as they are promoted by the mass media. Here Be Dragons offers a toolbox for recognizing and understanding the dangers of pseudoscience, and appreciation for the reality-based benefits offered by real science.

Here Be Dragons is written and presented by Brian Dunning, host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast and author of the Skeptoid book series.

Source: Here Be Dragons – YouTube.

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Logical Fallacies

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on January 29, 2013
Posted in: 9/11, Aliens, Conspiracy, Debunk, Educational, Homeopathy, Human Perception, Medical, Perception, Pseudohistory, Pseudoscientific, Quackery, Skepticism, UFO. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Ever hear someone argue a point that was effective, even though it didn’t quite ring true? Chances are they used a logical fallacy.

Each video is only about 3 minutes long. Enjoy :)

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:



Three great websites run by Brian Dunning (in the videos above) that all skeptical thinkers ought to have bookmarked:

Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB)

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The Rothschild Conspiracy

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on October 23, 2012
Posted in: Conspiracy, New World Order, Secret Societies. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 4 comments

Some believe that world governments and economies are secretly controlled by the Rothschild banking family.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild

By via skeptoid.com
- May 22, 2012
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Today we’re going to point our skeptical eye at the famous Rothschild banking family, and the multitudinous conspiracy theories surrounding them. Just about every conspiracy theory website that presumes the world’s governments act in willing concert under the guidance of some secret council points the finger at the Rothschilds. We’re going to take a modern-day look at this mysterious family, see who they really are and what they really do, and see exactly what evidence there is that shows that they are actually directing world affairs. Why would superpowers such as the United States, Russia, and China willing give up their sovereignty, conducting wars and exerting control over markets according to instructions from above? The answer, according to the believers, is money.

Driven by their quest for money, the Rothschilds have been said to assassinate US Presidents, and to create virtually every war since the 1800s in order to finance both sides. Some say the Rothschilds (who are Jewish) caused the Holocaust, while others say they were the true power behind the creation of Israel. They would, and continue, to do anything for money. In fact one of the earliest and most influential Rothschilds, Nathan, is claimed to have said:

I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply.

The Rothschilds’ whole story is one of money, and it began in the 18th century. Their history is perhaps largely responsible for the modern belief that Jews control the world’s money supply, which is not entirely unrooted in fact. Throughout Christian Europe, it was common for institutionalized anti-Semitism to prohibit Jews from owning property; so Jewish businesspeople had no choice but to work in the fields of commerce and finance, where money could be kept liquid and easily transferred or hidden. By denying Jews the stability of property ownership, Christians unwittingly forced Jews of the day into great financial expertise.

The greatest of these financial adepts was Mayer Amschel Rothschild, born in 1744 in a Jewish slum of Frankfurt. Not much is known about his early life, as his was one of tens of thousands of marginalized, outcast families. But once he came of age he became an apprentice at a small bank in Hamburg, where he learned the trade.

MORE . . .

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Homeland Security Buying Ammunition (Again)

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on October 21, 2012
Posted in: Apocalypse, Conspiracy, Doomsday, New World Order, Paranoid, Secret Societies. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 3 comments

by Brian Dunning via Skepticblog
- Sep 20 2012

News on the conspiracy websites is once again reporting that the US Department of Homeland Security is making huge purchases of ammunition, which they believe is to be used against American citizens. For the entire decade I’ve been following the conspiracy theorists, they’ve been predicting the imminent war on the American people by the American government. That this prediction has always failed to come true every time it’s been made has not seemed to suggest to any of them that perhaps the idea should be reviewed.

This particular report from our old friends at InfoWars cites a purchase of 750 million rounds of ammunition in addition to a previous purchase of 450 million rounds. Evidently it has not occurred to anyone at InfoWars to consider reasons for this other than a war on the citizens.

Why else might Homeland Security buy ammunition? You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure it out. Homeland Security encompasses a huge number of federal agencies. It’s not just FEMA and the TSA, whom the conspiracy theorists usually name as the agencies on the verge of declaring war against us. DHS also includes these five agencies, all of whom blow through a lot of ammo, and are in a constant state of readiness to blow through a whole lot more:

It’s fine to harbor ideological objections to the idea of DHS, FEMA, TSA, what have you; and fine to keep a sharp watchdog eye on the government. What’s stupid is to just make up infantile crap without even taking the trouble to check to see where that ammunition is needed.

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Hypnotism: Hijacking Your Brain?

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on October 9, 2012
Posted in: Brain Works, Educational, Human Perception, Psychology. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 comment

The facts and the fiction of one of the most intriguing psychological phenomena.

By – October 02, 2012 – via skeptoid

Today we’re going to point the skeptical eye at a topic that’s intrigued nearly everyone who’s thought about it: hypnosis. The hypnotist appears to have the ultimate superpower, the ability to persuade anyone to do or feel whatever he wants them to. For the subject, hypnosis appears to be the miracle cure to just about anything: lose weight, stop smoking, feel happier. We’ve all heard the basic plot points — that it can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, that different people are susceptible to varying degrees — limitations that seem to negate the potential benefits. So what can it actually do, and might it be of any value to any of us?

Forms of hypnosis go back through history nearly as far as history itself. Even the earliest reported forms of deep meditation from India and Persia are considered to have been analogous to what we now refer to as self-hypnosis. Even the ancient Greeks are believed to have had practices comparable to Hindu sleep temples, where people would go to essentially become hypnotized to be put into a relaxed state as a presumed medical cure. But the history of hypnotism is associated with one name more than with any other: the 18th century German physician Franz Mesmer.

[...]

Many of us wonder about the common usages we hear about in psychotherapy, like stopping smoking, weight loss, or recovering lost memories. These are generally overblown. We like to think that we can go to a hypnotherapist who will make us no longer desire cigarettes or food, and snap like magic, the problem is solved. This is completely fictitious, as are most magically easy solutions in life. Whether hypnotherapy is effective at all in long-term behavior modification is something of an open question. Weight loss has shown good promise, but studies of using hypnosis to stop addictive behavior such as smoking or drug abuse have been much less successful. The difference is probably that weight loss is a matter of willpower alone, whereas addictions such as nicotine have additional physiological factors. Regardless, virtually all authorities agree that hypnosis should only be used to supplement conventional psychotherapy, and should not be the only tool relied upon.

The idea of recovering lost memories is highly controversial, and is no longer accepted as reliable. Hypnotherapists would lead the patient through age regression, to have them relive and re-experience a traumatic event. It is true that the focused, relaxed state does enable very strong and realistic recollections, but what we’ve learned is that these recalled experiences, though vivid, are no more accurate than any other memories. Similarly a dream can be extremely realistic, but as we know, dreams don’t necessarily reflect reality in the slightest. It’s essentially the same imaginative mechanism in your brain that creates dramatic and lucid dreams that creates the perception of a relived moment in age regression hypnosis. The prevailing view is that the subject is not actually reliving what happened, but rather is realistically imagining what it was probably like way back when, based in part on whatever recollections remain. Today, in many jurisdictions, hypnotically recovered memories are no longer admissible in court as evidence, since they’ve been proven to be too unreliable.

MORE . . . .

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Do Ghosts Exist?

Posted by Mason I. Bilderberg (MIB) on September 5, 2012
Posted in: Brain Works, Ghosts, Paranormal, Spirits, supernatural, Superstition. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

by Brian Dunning, Aug 30 2012 via Skepticblog

Since so many of my acquaintances know me as “that skeptic guy”, it’s not rare for one of them to challenge me with an experience they had, often reporting something like a ghost experience and saying “Disprove THAT, Mr. Skeptic.”

Of course, this completely misrepresents what I do, and where the process of skeptical science leads us. I’m far less qualified than my friend to prove or disprove his ghost experience; I wasn’t even there. In fact I’m always a little disappointed to find that my friends think I’m obsessively out to tell people that they’re wrong. If there is one thing that obsesses me, it’s the challenge of finding solutions to interesting mysteries — and telling people that they’re wrong is not relevant to that process. Proving alternate explanations wrong is collateral damage when a mystery is eventually solved, but it’s never the goal.

Yet, plenty of unsolved phenomena exist, and so the field for possible explanations remains wide open. Perhaps some strange experiences are caused by ghosts. However, I don’t think that’s a very satisfactory hypothesis, and the main reason is that the rationale for the existence of ghosts is — forgive the term — illusory.

Here, in brief, are a few of the reasons I give most often why it’s never right to jump to the conclusion of “It was a ghost”:

  1. There is no theory in any life science that makes a prediction that ghosts exist.
  2. Ghosts have no properties that can be described.
  3. There has never been a reproducible ghost event. This makes it unlikely that the perceived phenomenon was a real one.
  4. The logic that most people use to arrive at a conclusion of “ghost” is faulty. It’s usually “Something inexplicable happened, what else could it be?” A ghost is an unknown. By no logic can a set of unknown properties be considered consistent with your experience. Any other unknown – leprechauns, sorcery, Bigfoot – is an equally valid match.

Continue here: Skepticblog » Do Ghosts Exist?.

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