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News Roundup: A Quiet Week

5/31/2024

A few hiccups in the copyediting process meant that I spent most of this week dealing with book-related issues. It was just as well. This was a slow week in the world of space aliens and fringe history. Members of Congress made the usual noises about passing new laws to demand more UFO accountability, and the usual legislators spoke about new UFO hearings, and the usual UFO influencers demanded action, but it was all pretty much the same as it has been. A couple of interesting UFO year-in-review-style pieces ran in the Washington Spectator and the U.K. magazine The Skeptic, though these, too, had little in them we haven’t seen before. Over on NBC News Now, Gadi Schwartz invited oceanographer and retired rear admiral Tim Gallaudet on to opine that, “There are non-human intelligences visiting us in all domains: of the sea, the sky, and we see reports over land.” His argument, however, was more of the usual, which is to say, “I don’t know; therefore, aliens.” The claim amounted to arguing that if someone can’t immediately identify a shadow in the sky or a signal on sensor, it is therefore a space demon from another dimension.

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UFO News Roundup: Lue Elizondo's New Book and Karl Nell's SALT Talk

5/22/2024

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This week I unexpectedly received the copyedited manuscript for my book, which I need to review and correct over the upcoming holiday weekend. As a result, I am unfortunately a bit pressed for time this week, so I can only cover this week’s news in brief.

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Lue Elizondo Claims UFO Whistleblowers Like Him Are Under Assassination Threat

5/16/2024

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In a statement broadcast on The Good Trouble Show UFO podcast yesterday, Lue Elizondo claims that someone is trying to kill him for speaking out about UFOs:

I was notified yesterday that there may be a personal threat against myself and several other whistleblowers formally associated with the UAP effort for the U.S. government. As such, I would like to make this perfectly clear to the American people: I am not prone to accidents! I'm not suicidal! I'm not abusing drugs! I am not engaged in any illicit activities. If something happens to me or my family members in the future, you will know what happened!

I'm curious who informed him of the alleged threat, given that the authorities who might do so would theoretically be the people who are, according to him, most likely to be plotting against him. It would seem counterproductive for UFO conspirators to spill the beans on their murder plots. I guess the UFO conspiracy can keep saucers secret but can't assassinate quietly?

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Graham Hancock Associate Attacks Archaeology YouTuber in Rambling Rant

5/15/2024

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â€‹In case you were keeping score, so-called "UFO whistleblower" David Grusch pulled out of the SALT conference following the flap over revelations he's been ducking invitations to testify to AARO and was replaced with another UFO speaker, Col. Karl E. Nell, who claims credit for influencing Congressional UFO legislation. Meanwhile, there are some dustups occurring as both archaeologists and fringe figures take aim at the popularity of YouTube ancient history videos, whose audiences have outstripped traditional cable TV documentaries and book publishing.

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Review of "Think to New Worlds" by Joshua Blu Buhs

5/8/2024

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Think to New Worlds: The Cultural History of Charles Fort and His Followers
Jason Blu Buhs | University of Chicago Press | June 2024 | 384 pages | ISBN: 978-0226831480

Charles Fort (1874–1932) is probably more famous as an idea than as a man. His grave sits not far from where I write this now, at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. It’s not much to look at—a curving stone bearing his name above a monogram of a blackletter “F” wreathed in laurels, all slowly dissolving beneath a coating of lichens. It’s a stone’s throw from the much more elaborate marker of Pres. Chester Alan Arthur, but what both men share in common is a paucity of visitors who come to pay homage to their mortal remains. By contrast, you can’t visit social media or read a book about the paranormal or earth mysteries without running into someone calling up the shade of America’s greatest crank to conjure the anomalous and clothe conspiracies in the garb of prewar authority. And almost none of them could tell you anything about his life. Fort is a man who became a symbol, representing a certain stubborn resistance to authority, to science, and to the notion of reality as mechanical, material, and knowable.

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The Real Story Behind Danny Sheehan and Those $15,000 UFO "PhD" Degrees

5/7/2024

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When UFO lawyer Danny Sheehan—he of the bizarre conspiracy theories and erstwhile representation of UFO stars like Lue Elizondo—launched a UFO think tank, the New Paradigm Institute, and immediately started fundraising efforts, it was clear that it would not be his last effort to turn flying saucers into cash. However, a recent Substack newsletter from Skeptoid’s Brian Dunning falsely implies that Sheehan recently launched a fake university to extract cash from gullible UFO believers. The truth is a little more complicated, even if the result is the same.

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Weekend Update

5/5/2024

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It was a busier week for me than for pyramids and flying saucers. I spent the week finalizing art for my book, negotiating the cover design, and arranging for my next major magazine feature. Meanwhile, the Salt Conference of financial investors in New York City announced David Grusch would be a featured speaker, the second year in a row that wealthy nerds turned their gathering over to their adolescent sci-fi fantasies. We should all be disturbed that the self-described masters of the universe take their faux-honorific so literally and think space aliens are the next financial frontier. Similarly, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced her intention to hold a Senate UFO hearing this summer, in the middle of the presidential election campaign. With Democrats trying to make the case that they are the sober, responsible alternative to a venal thug and his caravan of kooks, maybe putting the party’s UFO obsessives front and center for another flying saucer hearing when there are serious and immediate issues at stake affecting every American isn’t the best look.

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News Roundup: A Quiet Week

UFO News Roundup: Lue Elizondo's New Book and Karl Nell's SALT Talk

Lue Elizondo Claims UFO Whistleblowers Like Him Are Under Assassination Threat

Graham Hancock Associate Attacks Archaeology YouTuber in Rambling Rant

Review of "Think to New Worlds" by Joshua Blu Buhs

The Real Story Behind Danny Sheehan and Those $15,000 UFO "PhD" Degrees

Weekend Update

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