|
On a day when rejected History Channel personalities J. Hutton Pulitzer (once of Curse of Oak Island) and Scott F. Wolter (of America Unearthed) teamed up to launch their own private on-demand TV programming because they said they were just too smart for cable TV, it is a bit difficult to argue that they are wrong after watching yet another installment of Ancient Aliens. Tonight’s episode, S11E03 “The Next Humans,” is another entry in the series’ ongoing blurring of the words “ancient” and “aliens” to refer to anything vaguely science-fictional or techno-utopian.
16 Comments
BREAKING NEWS: Scott Wolter and J. Hutton Pulitzer Join Forces to Launch New Multimedia Company5/20/2016 There is breaking news from the world of fringe history. Earlier today onetime CueCat inventor J. Hutton Pulitzer announced that his “Investigating History” branded media products were joining forces with forensic geologist Scott Wolter of the recently cancelled America Unearthed and Pirate History of the Knights Templar television series for an online multimedia venture called XpLrR, according to a badly written press release Pulitzer posted to his blog this morning. It seems that Pulitzer pulled the switch a little early on announcing a venture that isn’t really up and running.
I’ve noticed that there is a pretty steep drop off in blog readership on Friday, particularly when Ancient Aliens is set to air later that same day, so I’m toying with some ideas for how to repurpose Fridays to make them more useful or at least rebalance the work-to-readership ratio. I’m not sure yet what would work best. One possibility is to highlight other blogs’ interesting or important posts. I’m going to try that today with a look at a recent interview with an archaeologist and skeptic.
Yesterday a TV producer contacted me to ask about giants. I won’t share her name, but I will tell you that her credits include Toddlers and Tiaras, Dancing with the Stars, and Wahlburgers, along with some generally low end history shows from many years ago. She wouldn’t tell me what the show she’s currently researching is or what network it is for, but she wanted me to help her find any archaeologist who has uncovered genuine “giant” bones from a human and/or Nephilim. I of course informed her that, with the exception of the occasional pathological specimen, such giant human bones do not exist. But the bottom line is that cable TV is still hunting Bible giants.
Is the Kensington Rune Stone Related to the Masonic Select Master Degree through a Number Code?5/18/2016 I must admit to being a bit surprised by the apparently good news I read today in Bloomberg News about the changes coming to National Geographic as a result of its takeover by Rupert Murdoch. According to the report, the National Geographic Channel’s tabloid trash had long been National Geographic’s profit center, and the crappy taste of cable TV audiences exerted pressure on National Geographic to dumb down in print and online. In fact, the report says that TV executives bristled that National Geographic’s leadership thought the shows should be fact checked and scientifically responsible. But now as part of a larger company, the National Geographic branded media products no longer are the tail wagging the dog after being diluted into the Fox empire, and their new boss, James Murdoch, the son of Rupert and head of 21st Century Fox, intends to transform them into a luxury brand for quality science journalism and entertainment, describing the new vision as “HBO” for science.
I’ll believe it when I see it, but it sounds a lot better than Discovery’s strategy of flooding TV with reality crap and creating whole networks for paranormal pseudoscience Since there is so much material about Atlantis that has been published over the centuries, I can hardly be said to have read it all. That’s why old Atlantis literature still has the ability to surprise me. I picked up Lewis Spence’s 1943 book The Occult Sciences in Atlantis, and I was by turns amused and dumbfounded by what I read in its early chapters.
Generally speaking, I don’t post very much about topics where there isn’t much to say. Scott Wolter appeared at the Paradigm Symposium the other day, and he delivered a lecture that contained the same material he always says about the Kensington Rune Stone and Templar-Jesus conspiracies, clocking in at around 90 minutes, or half the length of an average radio appearance. There’s a great summary and reaction by a flabbergasted skeptic over at the Pharyngula blog, and I recommend you check it out. The “facts” and claims, such as they are, I’ve covered many times before, so I don’t really have anything to add. Instead, I’ll move on to a topic where I can add a little bit to the discussion.
What caused the Late Bronze Age collapse in the eastern Mediterranean? The question has vexed scholars for generations and led to a number of hypotheses. These tend to fall into a number of categories: environmental changes, climate change, and widespread failures of political and social institutions. Now a Swiss publicist and former geoarchaeologist has proposed a radical new explanation for the fall of cultures from Mycenaean Greece to the Hittite Empire and the Egyptian New Kingdom’s empire in Asia: The Luwians did it.
For those of you keeping score at home, the History Channel renumbered the seasons of Ancient Aliens, breaking up some of the longer middle seasons into multiples for DVD release and streaming. So what should have been season nine is now magically season 11. That’s why the episode numbering has changed. If Ancient Aliens can rewrite history at will, surely they can rewrite their number of seasons they’ve been on the air at will.
Tonight’s episode of Ancient Aliens (S11E02), “Destination Mars,” covers familiar ground—quite familiar in fact. It was only in February of 2014 that Ancient Aliens ran pretty much the same episode, but back then it was called “Aliens and the Red Planet” (old number S06E16, new numbering S07E05). The recycling of old material coincides with the Cartoon Network restoring Looney Tunes to its schedule this past week, which brought back to my TV Marvin the Martian and his infamous Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Compared to Ancient Aliens, Looney Tunes was practically a documentary. According to a recent blog post, Nephilim conspiracy theorist L. A. Marzulli is now taking preorders for his newest entry in his documentary series about the Nephilim. Watchers 10 is currently in production, and Marzulli is asking fans for money to produce the film. However, I was more interested in the fact that after ten documentaries searching of the Nephilim and the Enochian Watchers, the best Marzulli can do is this: “All I can say is, We’re on the Trail!” You’d think after years of research and twenty hours of documentaries he’d have more than that.
|
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. 
Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
January 2025
|
- Home
- Blog
- Books
-
Articles
-
Newsletter
>
- Television Reviews >
- Book Reviews
- Galleries >
- Videos
-
Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud
>
- Chariots of the Gods at 50
- Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
- Of Atlantis and Aliens
- Aliens and Ancient Texts
- Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
- Blunders in the Sky
- The Case of the False Quotes
- Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
- David Childress & the Aliens
- Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
- Intimations of Persecution
- Zecharia Sitchin's World
- Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
- Extraterrestrial Evolution?
- Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
- Collection: Ancient History >
- Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
- Collection: UFOs >
- Scholomance: The Devil's School
- Prehistory of Chupacabra
- The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
- Magicians of the Gods Review
- The Curse of the Pharaohs
- The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
- Whitewashing American Prehistory
- James Dean's Cursed Porsche
-
Newsletter
>
-
The Library
-
Ancient Mysteries
>
-
Ancient Texts
>
- Mesopotamian Texts >
-
Egyptian Texts
>
- The Shipwrecked Sailor
- Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
- The Papyrus of Ani
- Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
- Inventory Stela
- Manetho
- Eratosthenes' King List
- The Story of Setna
- Leon of Pella
- Diodorus on Egyptian History
- On Isis and Osiris
- Famine Stela
- Old Egyptian Chronicle
- The Book of Sothis
- Horapollo
- Al-Maqrizi's King List
- Teshub and the Dragon
- Hermetica >
- Hesiod's Theogony
- Periplus of Hanno
- Ctesias' Indica
- Sanchuniathon
- Sima Qian
- Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
- The Book of Enoch
- Slavonic Enoch
- Sepher Yetzirah
- Tacitus' Germania
- De Dea Syria
- Aelian's Various Histories
- Julius Africanus' Chronography
- Eusebius' Chronicle
- Chinese Accounts of Rome
- Ancient Chinese Automaton
- The Orphic Argonautica
- Fragments of Panodorus
- Annianus on the Watchers
- The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
-
Medieval Texts
>
- Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
- The Hunt for Noah's Ark
- Isidore of Seville
- Book of Liang: Fusang
- Agobard on Magonia
- Book of Thousands
- Voyage of Saint Brendan
- Power of Art and of Nature
- Travels of Sir John Mandeville
- Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
- Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
- Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
- The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
- Islamic Discovery of America
- The Aztec Creation Myth
-
Lost Civilizations
>
-
Atlantis
>
- Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
- Fragments on Atlantis
- Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
- Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
- Gómara on Atlantis
- Sardinia and Atlantis
- Santorini and Atlantis
- The Mound Builders and Atlantis
- Donnelly's Atlantis
- Atlantis in Morocco
- Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
- W. Scott-Elliot >
- The Lost Atlantis
- Atlantis in Africa
- How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
- Termier on Atlantis
- The Critias and Minoan Crete
- Rebuttal to Termier
- Further Responses to Termier
- Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
- Amazing New Light (Hoax)
- Lost Cities >
- OOPARTs
- Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
- Caucasians in Panama
- Jefferson's Excavation
- Fictitious Discoveries in America
- Against Diffusionism
- Tunnels Under Peru
- The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
- Mound Builders
- Gunung Padang
- Tales of Enchanted Islands
- The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
- The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
- The Interglacial Period
- Solving Oak Island
-
Atlantis
>
- Religious Conspiracies >
-
Giants in the Earth
>
-
Fossil Origins of Myths
>
- Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
- Fossil Elephants
- Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
- Fossil Mammoths and Giants
- Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
- Fossils and the Supernatural
- Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
- Man During the Stone Age
- Fossil Bones and Giants
- Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
- American Elephant Myths
- The Mammoth and the Flood
- Fossils and Myth
- Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
- History of Paleontology
- Fragments on Giants
- Manichaean Book of Giants
- Geoffrey on British Giants
- Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
- Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
- Book of Howth
- Purchas His Pilgrimage
- Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
- The Giants of Sardinia
- Giants and the Sons of God
- The Magnetism of Evil
- Tertiary Giants
- Smithsonian Giant Reports
- Early American Giants
- The Giant of Coahuila
- Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
- Index of Giants
- Newspaper Accounts of Giants
- Lanier's A Book of Giants
-
Fossil Origins of Myths
>
-
Science and History
>
- Halley on Noah's Comet
- The Newport Tower
- Iron: The Stone from Heaven
- Ararat and the Ark
- Pyramid Facts and Fancies
- Argonauts before Homer
- The Deluge
- Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
- Old Mythology in New Apparel
- Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
- Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
- Devil Worship in France
- Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
- The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
- The Mutinous Sea
- The Rock Wall of Rockwall
- Fabulous Zoology
- The Origins of Talos
- Mexican Mythology
- Chinese Pyramids
- Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
-
Extreme History
>
- Roman Empire Hoax
- American Antiquities
- American Cataclysms
- England, the Remnant of Judah
- Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
- Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
- Vestiges of the Mayas
- Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
- Origins of the Egyptian People
- The Secret Doctrine >
- Phoenicians in America
- The Electric Ark
- Traces of European Influence
- Prince Henry Sinclair
- Pyramid Prophecies
- Templars of Ancient Mexico
- Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
- The Faith of Ancient Egypt
- Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
- Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
- Book of the Damned
- Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
- The Shaver Mystery >
-
Ancient Texts
>
-
Alien Encounters
>
-
US Government Ancient Astronaut Files
>
- Fortean Society and Columbus
- Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
- The Skyfort Document
- Whirling Wheels
- Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
- Soviet Search for Lemuria
- Visitors from Outer Space
- Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
- "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
- UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
- Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
- The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
- Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
- Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
- Noah's Ark Cables
- The Von Daniken Letter
- CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
- Scott Wolter Lawsuit
- UFOs in Ancient China
- CIA Report on Noah's Ark
- CIA Noah's Ark Memos
- Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
- Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
- Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
- House UFO Hearing
- Ancient Extraterrestrials >
- A Message from Mars
- Saucer Mystery Solved?
- Orville Wright on UFOs
- Interdimensional Flying Saucers
- Poltergeist UFOs
- Flying Saucers Are Real
- Report on UFOs
-
US Government Ancient Astronaut Files
>
-
The Supernatural
>
- The Devils of Loudun
- Sublime and Beautiful
- Voltaire on Vampires
- Demonology and Witchcraft
- Thaumaturgia
- Bulgarian Vampires
- Religion and Evolution
- Transylvanian Superstitions
- Defining a Zombie
- Dread of the Supernatural
- Vampires
- Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
- Science and Fairy Stories
- The Cursed Car
-
Classic Fiction
>
- Lucian's True History
- Some Words with a Mummy
- The Coming Race
- King Solomon's Mines
- An Inhabitant of Carcosa
- The Xipéhuz
- Lot No. 249
- The Novel of the Black Seal
- The Island of Doctor Moreau
- Pharaoh's Curse
- Edison's Conquest of Mars
- The Lost Continent
- Count Magnus
- The Mysterious Stranger
- The Wendigo
- Sredni Vashtar
- The Lost World
- The Red One
- H. P. Lovecraft >
- The Skeptical Poltergeist
- The Corpse on the Grating
- The Second Satellite
- Queen of the Black Coast
- A Martian Odyssey
- Classic Genre Movies
- Miscellaneous Documents >
- Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
-
Ancient Mysteries
>
- About Jason
- Search
RSS Feed
© 2010-2024 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.