Are We Being Unfair To Flat-Earthers? Taking A Closer Look At How We Perceive The “Truth”

By Dorraine Fisher


Did we as a society create the flat-earth theory? Maybe.

I can see it now. People reading this headline and instantly thinking that Dorraine Fisher and The Crypto Crew advocate for the Flat Earth Theory. But although we believe in the possibilities of many things as purveyors of cryptozoology and the paranormal, we are not purveyors of Flat-Earth Theory. But it’s a topic worth exploring, and I’ll tell you why. Flat Earth Theory is a catalyst for a conversation that needs to take place that really has nothing to do with the earth being flat. Or maybe it does. I guess you can decide. But this is just a world of ideas and we’re all caught up in the storm of them all.

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Have you seen this picture? Boy, I sure have.

This image and also a short GIF image of it is supposed to be proof of giants, and it has been floating around on the internet for a few years now. It shows a large man walking and some point to this as not only proof of giants but of the Nephilim. The Nephilim were the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" before the flood according to Genesis 6:4.

I have seen this picture show up on numerous bigfoot groups and various "crypto" type news groups on Facebook for a couple years now.

But the truth of the matter is that, while giants may in fact be real, this particular image is from a movie.

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So, this picture has a few stories that surround it. In some places it is know as the "Scariest Picture on The Internet". In other places it is translated to "the most horrible picture in the world". In either case, there are mysterious stories and even deaths associated with this picture.

Today, I will attempt to explore some of the stories, legends and hopefully some truths about this picture.

So, lets dig in.

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Season 7 episode 10 - is that a UFO?

The Walking Dead literally has millions of people watching it each week. This past weeks show has caused a little bit of a stir in the UFO/Research community. Many, maybe millions, of people say they spotted a UFO in one of the scenes. I can include myself in the fold of those who saw it.

As I was watching the show, and Rick is on the mountain of trash, I saw something zipped by in the background. I thought to myself, that looked like a UFO in the background. Well, it appears I was not alone in what I thought.

But just what was the object? Was it a UFO?  an airplane? a bird? or something else?

This has caused a little debate amongst people online. If you have not seen the scene, here is the very short video.

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I often chuckle when people start talking about critical thinking. Many people think they’re critical thinkers,including me at times, until I correct myself, because it’s harder to think critically than one might imagine.

According to the Foundation For Critical Thinking, critical thinking “is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.”

This is a great and very thorough definition. And I was happy to see that it now acknowledges the flaw in it that I’ve been talking about for years. The flaw that comes from the humans themselves.

No human, no matter how much they claim to be a critical thinker is devoid of human flaws. We all believe lies sometimes. We all are subject to irrational or uncontrolled thinking at times. We are all slaves to our personal perceptions more often than we imagine. Real critical thinking relies a great deal on our ability to understand and control our own thoughts and recognize when our thinking is flawed. The problem is, the majority of people are unable to do this. And the most dangerous thing is that, all the while, they’ll think they’re doing it. This is why I’m a bit guarded when people claim to be critical thinkers. I’ve known very few.

It's one thing to be able to think. It's quite another to be able to think about what you think. To pick it apart and analyze it and decide if every part of it is useful or not. And it’s quite another thing entirely to be able to decide that maybe what you were thinking before is wrong. That’s where the supposed critical thinkers often hit a snag.

Even the most intelligent people get caught up in the idea of being right. Like being right is the most important thing there is. And being wrong is the equivalent of the sky falling. And the basic insecurities of humanity cloud the discussion before it even starts. Egos get in the way. They often need to feel they’re right and superior in their thinking. So, in order to achieve this, someone has to be wrong. And this is where critical thinking falls apart. Not because of critical thinking itself, but in the failure of the humans to implement it.

There are a lot of people who might roll their eyes at me when I say this, but exercising subjects like cryptozoology and the paranormal is a good practice on the subject of critical thinking. They teach us to think about what we once thought and whether we still want to believe it.

In the worlds of cryptozoology and the paranormal, there is a whole group of people whose paradigms have been forever changed by something they saw or experienced. Something that wasn’t supposed to exist, or something they didn’t believe existed.

Are these people incapable of critical thinking? Not at all. But they are, like every other member of humanity, subject to their own personal perceptions, shaped by an unusual experience. This can’t be avoided. But the important thing to remember is that the group of humans judging this person’s experience and claiming it was a figment of their imagination are also in possession of the same human flaws and personal perceptions created by their LACK of having had the same experience. So is anyone here really applying critical thinking? Not really.

If our personal perceptions get in the way of our analyzing a subject, then we’re not thinking critically. In order to be a real critical thinker, we have to recognize this problem and eliminate perception from our thought processes. We have to have the ability to clear our minds of any preconceived thoughts, beliefs, or ideas that will hinder the process of getting to the truth.
  
That is what critical thinking REALLY is. It’s being able to think about and analyze our own thinking and correct it when necessary. But the hardest part is recognizing when we need to do this. It’s  not an easy task, and I’ve rarely seen anyone able to do it completely. We have to  entertain the idea that we could be wrong, and that’s not easy for many people.  It takes a lifetime of self-reflection and self-analysis in order to even begin to really do this right.

So, are you a critical thinker or not? If you’ve read this article through this far, then I know you’re at least open to the idea. The real success is in implementing it. Which requires critical thinking. It’s hard being human.

Reference: The Foundation For Critical Thinking

*************DF






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By SedesGobhani

Okay, so most of us have heard of the Jackalope, right? One of the long standing "jokes" in the realms of the cryptid world. The fabled rabbit with antlers. It is an amazing sight that we can view thanks to some skilled taxidermy.
Like many unusual creatures and tales, there seems to always be some sliver of truth buried in these folkloric stories. The Jackalope is no different. As unreal as it seems, it has just a small dab of truth possibly sprinkled in the fabled creature story.

But first a brief history about the Jackalope.

The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns. The word "jackalope" is a portmanteau of "jackrabbit" and "antelope", although the jackrabbit is not a rabbit, and the American antelope is not an antelope. Also, many jackalope taxidermy mounts, including the original, are actually made with deer antlers.

In the 1930s, Douglas Herrick and his brother, hunters with taxidermy skills, popularized the American jackalope by grafting deer antlers onto a jackrabbit carcass and selling the combination to a local hotel in Douglas, Wyoming. Thereafter, they made and sold many similar jackalopes to a retail outlet in South Dakota, and another taxidermist continues to manufacture the horned rabbits in the 21st century. Stuffed and mounted, jackalopes are found in many bars and other places in the United States; stores catering to tourists sell jackalope postcards and other paraphernalia, and commercial entities in America and elsewhere have used the word "jackalope" or a jackalope logo as part of their marketing strategies. The jackalope has appeared in published stories, poems, television shows, video games, and a low-budget mockumentary film. The Wyoming Legislature has considered bills to make the jackalope the state's official mythological creature.

The underlying legend of the jackalope, upon which the Wyoming taxidermists were building, may be related to similar stories in other cultures and other historical times. Researchers suggest that at least some of the tales of horned hares were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus. It causes horn- and antler-like tumors to grow in various places on a rabbit's head and body.

Shope papilloma virus is also known as cottontail rabbit papilloma virus (CRPV). Shope papilloma virus, is a type I virus under the Baltimore scheme, possessing a nonsegmented dsDNA genome. In the 1930s, hunters in northwestern Iowa reported that the rabbits they shot had several horn protrusions on many parts of their bodies including their faces and necks. This lead to the investigation and discovery of the virus in 1933 by Richard E. Shope when he was experimenting with cancer research. Shope separated the virus from horny warts on cottontail rabbits, and made one of the first mammaliam tumor virus discoveries. The virus is also a possible source of myths about the jackalope, a rabbit with the horns of an antelope, and related cryptids such as the wolpertinger. Bavarian folklore tells of the wolpertinger, also called wolperdinger, a mythological hybrid animal allegedly inhabiting the alpine forests of Bavaria in Germany. The wolpertinger is made up of several different animal parts, including antlers.

Shope determined the “horn” protrusions were keratinous carcinomas due to the infection of CRPV. These are typically found on or near the animal’s head, and can become large enough to interfere with the host’s ability to eat, causing starvation. The virus was originally discovered to affect only cottontail rabbits. in the Midwestern U.S., but can also infect brush rabbits, jackrabbits, snowshoe hares, and house rabbits.

Shope’s research has led to the development of an SPV model and the first mammalian model of a cancer caused by a virus. He was able to isolate virus particles from tumors on captured animals and use these to inoculate domestic rabbits, which then developed similar tumors. The animal model of the Shope Papilloma Virus (SPV) has contributed to our understanding of fundamental mechanisms in neoplasia, or the formation of a new, abnormal growth of tissue. The virus was sequenced in 1984, showing substantial sequence similarities to HPV1a. It has been used as a model for human papillomaviruses both before and after this discovery. The most visible example of this role is the HPV vaccine, which was developed based on and incorporating research done using the virus as a model. Similarly, it has been used to investigate antiviral therapies.

So, this is probably what started the jackalope stories way back in the day. It probably started with someone just catching good enough glimpse of a rabbit suffering from Shope Papilloma Virus, to start telling people "I saw a rabbit with antlers". You know, rabbits at notoriously fast and a fleeting view of one with antlers, would probably have gotten your attention. It probably would have got you laughed at pretty fast as well, while telling about it. But I suspect that others started getting a quick view of the running rabbit and the stories became more accepted.
 
Regardless, of the origin of the jackalope, the legend has many twist and turns. I guess that is what has helped it to continue to be in our current society and  to be a good source for humor.
 
The jackalope is subject to many outlandish and largely tongue-in-cheek claims embedded in tall tales about its habits. Jackalopes are said to be so dangerous that hunters are advised to wear stovepipes on their legs to keep from being gored. Stores in Douglas sell jackalope milk, but The New York Times questions its authenticity on grounds that milking a jackalope is known to be fraught with risk. One of the ways to catch a jackalope is to entice it with whiskey, the jackalope's beverage of choice. 

The jackalope can imitate the human voice, according to legend. During the days of the Old West, when cowboys gathered by the campfires singing at night, jackalopes could be heard mimicking their voices or singing along, usually as a tenor. It is said that jackalopes, the rare Lepus antilocapra, only breed during lightning flashes and that their antlers make the act difficult despite the hare's reputation for fertility.

So, in the end the jackalope is much more than just a myth. It's part of our history, our entertainment, our culture and I'm guessing, our future. 
 
(source: wikipedia)   


Thanks
~Tom~

This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.



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The image above was first described by many as a UFO. Images and sighting reports of the object started to flood social media and some newscast. Some at first also speculated that it was a meteor. Some described it as a blue ball of light that faded out of sight.

Later the Navy announced that it was no UFO or meteor but one of their scheduled rocket test. According to the Navy, they were testing Trident II missiles. It is my understanding they had a schedule that included 2 firings of the Trident II missile . That would seem like the end of the story, but there is another set of pictures that started to pop up on social media.

Here is the cluster of pictures. The claim I was reading was that these weird, some called them aliens, started to be found after the first "rocket test." That other pictures had been posted to social media but some were removed. There was even some speculation even after the Navy admitted to the test firing, that it was not a test and they shot down some type of UFO. That was what I had gather from the information I had read.

One has to admit the creature in the photograph is rather weird looking.

To me the strange creature could be nothing more that a prematurely born deer or elk....or something. Some still may think it is an alien but I dug up some more information about it.

Here is the post I saw, I have blacked out the person's name and face.

 
In my hunt for the truth on this set of images and claims, I ran across some interesting information.
It seems the pictures I saw were not the original posting of the photos. The original posting was dated back to Nov. 5th and the pictures come from Missouri not California. According to what I read about the original posting of these photos, the identity of the mystery creature is unknown. Many say it is a deformed cow and it may very well be. Some said several of these dead cows have been found over the last few weeks on the same property. So, sorry folks, no alien this time.

I didn't want to share the Facebook pages of people involved because they may not want the extra attention. There is also a little feud about the second posting of the photos. The person who posted them second claimed them as their own. But it appears the original posting was by another person back on the 5th.

Even the somewhat popular satirical huzlers.com website picked up on the story and added to it, with the headline:

"Teen In California Who Posted Dead “Alien” Outside Her House On Facebook Was Found Dead The Next Day"

It appears the second posting of these photos was nothing more that an attempt to cause a stir and get some attention. Which it did.

In the end, this was nothing more than a hoax with a fabricated story to coincide with the Navy's test firing of the rockets. 


Sometimes all you can do is shake your head.


Thanks
~Tom~



This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet



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