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Scott Wolter Announces Publication of New Book on Secret Templar Code

4/30/2019

Unfortunately, a plumbing problem took up most of my day yesterday and left little time for writing. Let’s just say that I am not happy about having had to cancel all of my plans for yesterday while the issue got repaired. Anyway, after a very long day, I thought I would share with you the promotional book description for America Unearthed host Scott Wolter’s new book Cryptic Code: The Templars in America and the Origins of the Hooked X, a self-published sequel to From Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers due out in September. Here is what the self-publishing service has to say about the book:

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Graham Hancock Doesn't Quite Square the Circle When Discussing Earthworks

4/27/2019

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It’s been a very long week for me, made longer by the three hours I spent listening to Graham Hancock basically read his new book to Joe Rogan while discoursing on his respect for psychedelic drugs. Because I have been a bit too busy this week to do much writing, today I’d like to turn over my blog post to a video that archaeologist Andy White made to explain why Graham Hancock is wrong when he misuses the term “squaring the circle” to describe circumscribing a circle with a square. It’s a small but important detail that demonstrates how Hancock’s fact-checking (and the fact checking of his paid research assistant and his British and American publishers) continuously misses easily correctable errors.

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"Ancient Aliens" Strikes Gaming Deal to "Leverage Its Media Franchise Potential"

4/26/2019

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On Wednesday night, the Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown did an hour on Tiwanaku, which is in and of itself of no particular interest. But what was interesting is that Discovery and host Josh Gates seemed to be at odds over how to frame the story. The network’s promotions for the show, and even the show title, spoke of Tiwanaku as “Atlantis in the Andes,” referencing a midcentury fringe hypothesis that the Andean city was 10,000 years old and the capital of Atlantis. But the episode itself clearly labeled both this idea and the ancient astronaut theory as “conspiracy theories” and instead referred to the architectural remains now below Lake Titicaca’s waters as “an” Atlantis, meaning it in the figurative sense—underwater ruins. It was an odd juxtaposition between a factual presentation and a sensational marketing effort, and it probably says something about what Discovery thinks of its audience. Incidentally, Gates’s full-throated rejection of the ancient astronaut theory here on the Discovery Channel is quite the contrast from his Travel Channel days when he openly speculated about space aliens being responsible for Easter Island and other ancient sites. Discovery is very good about sequestering fringe content on specific channels dedicated to lunatic ideas. That’s why America Unearthed is coming to the Travel Channel and not the main Discovery Channel.

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Three Renaissance Scholars and the Surid Legend

4/25/2019

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On Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes ran a piece on Easter Island reported by CNN’s Anderson Cooper. To promote the piece, CBS tweeted questions about whether aliens built the statues. In the filmed piece, Cooper asked whether space aliens put the statues in place. It was a depressing confirmation that the media has a low opinion of its audience and that the ancient astronaut theory is now so mainstream that it even shows up in news reports on the highest-rated news broadcast in America.

How did Easter Island become covered with statues? There are a few theories… some involving aliens https://t.co/JiYYHspwEo pic.twitter.com/o2gA0MxDcV
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 21, 2019

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Graham Hancock and Joe Rogan Discuss "America Before"

4/24/2019

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On Monday night, Graham Hancock appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience to discuss his new book, America Before. The interview lasted nearly three hours in length and in large measure consisted of Hancock delivering a series of monologues summarizing most of the major points of the book. Because so much of the interview is essentially identical to the book, I will refer you to my review of America Before for my take on the majority of Hancock’s claims. Instead, in this discussion of his Joe Rogan interview, I will look at some of the claims that are either not in the book or that Hancock and Rogan discuss in ways that go beyond what Hancock says in the book

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My Review of "America Before" by Graham Hancock

4/23/2019

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Today marks the U.S. publication of Graham Hancock’s new book America Before. Last night Hancock appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss the book, but I can’t say that I was going to turn over three hours of my evening to listening to it. I will review the recording and discuss it later this week. In the meantime, to mark the launch of the book, my review is now available. You can read it on Skeptic magazine’s website, in this week’s eSkeptic newsletter, or in the forthcoming edition of Skeptic magazine in print. By arrangement with Skeptic, it also appears here on my website.

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Taking Stock of "Ancient Aliens" After Ten Years

4/20/2019

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According to once and future TV host Scott Wolter, the new season of America Unearthed will debut on May 28 on the Travel Channel. The History Channel announced that the new season of Ancient Aliens will debut three days later, on May 31. The two shows used to air together on the H2 network back in 2012, so it’s almost like we’ve gone back in time and it’s 2012 all over again.

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Chicago Tribune: "America Unearthed" to Probe Bombing Before Haymarket Riot

4/17/2019

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My birthday is this week, so I am going to be taking the Thursday and Friday off. I will return on Saturday for a weekend post. In the meantime, you might have seen the story in the Chicago Tribune that Scott Wolter and the crew of America Unearthed visited Chicago two weeks ago to shoot an episode about the Haymarket Riot of 1886. According to the Tribune, the episode will attempt to discover who threw a bomb at police during a peaceful labor protest in favor of an 8-hour workday, sparking the riot that took lives of seven police officers and four civilians.

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"Time" Publishes Article Linking Viking-Themed Media to White Nationalism

4/16/2019

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Yesterday, we all watched the horrible images of Notre Dame de Paris burning, and it is a terrible loss to history that will take years to undo, if at all. The cathedral had survived the French Revolution, the Franco-Prussian War, and two World Wars, but saw its worst damage from renovation work. It was another sad event in what seems to have been an endless cycle of bizarre and unprecedented events. If history is any judge, every generation feels that way.

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Review of "Now Apocalypse": A Quarter-Life Sex Farce with Reptilians

4/13/2019

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The cast of "Now Apocalypse" (Starz)

Starz’s Now Apocalypse is a strange mixture of quarterlifer angst, sex farce, and space aliens. Going into the series, I had no idea it would involve History Channel-style conspiracy theories about Reptilians, government cover-ups, and cattle mutilation. I’m not sure that the aliens added anything to the series, but the show certainly helps to continue mainstreaming conspiracy theories, albeit under the guise of fiction.

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<<Previous

Scott Wolter Announces Publication of New Book on Secret Templar Code

Graham Hancock Doesn't Quite Square the Circle When Discussing Earthworks

"Ancient Aliens" Strikes Gaming Deal to "Leverage Its Media Franchise Potential"

Three Renaissance Scholars and the Surid Legend

Graham Hancock and Joe Rogan Discuss "America Before"

My Review of "America Before" by Graham Hancock

Taking Stock of "Ancient Aliens" After Ten Years

Chicago Tribune: "America Unearthed" to Probe Bombing Before Haymarket Riot

"Time" Publishes Article Linking Viking-Themed Media to White Nationalism

Review of "Now Apocalypse": A Quarter-Life Sex Farce with Reptilians

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