J. Hutton Pulitzer Teams Up with ESPN Founder for Secretive New Sports Technology Business6/20/2016 Normally I don’t like to talk about fringe historians’ outside business dealings since it isn’t really relevant to the allegations they make about history. Sometimes, though, it becomes impossible not to take notice of what they do outside their work in zaniness. Jason Martell, for example, spent many years trying to pander to Christian conservatives as a tech mogul while simultaneously ridiculing their faith with his ancient astronaut theories. Erich von Däniken’s repeated efforts to enter the entertainment industry with a theme park and mall-based branded entertainment locations were hilarious both as failed businesses and for their connections to his ancient astronaut theories.
21 Comments
I know I had said that I’d be devoting Fridays this summer to discussing the good work that others are doing, but this Friday I ran a bit short on time to catch up on my reading. So let me make up for it today by discussing an article equal parts fascinating and devastating about the apparent forgery of the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” papyrus fragment that made headlines in 2012. According to Ariel Sabar, writing in the new edition of The Atlantic, the entire affair was inspired by the toxic stew of fringe history, with special appearances by ancient astronaut theorist Erich von Däniken, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, and that perennial favorite, hatred of academics who are allegedly conspiring against an unsung genius to protect pseudoscientific paradigms.
Tonight is a real treat when it comes to Ancient Aliens. Instead of recycling from an earlier episode of the show, tonight they are recycling from an episode of their spinoff series, In Search of Aliens. Granted, they’ve already reused this material in an Ancient Aliens episode from 2014, which in turn built on other similar claims from another 2014 episode. So when S11E06 “Decoding the Cosmic Egg” tries for something new, it’s really just recycling material it’s already covered before, but with a few extra eggs thrown in for good measure.
In the current edition of Skeptical Inquirer I was pleased to find that I received a mention from Robert Sheaffer in his regular UFO column, citing my discussion of the many failures of Jacques Vallée and Chris Aubeck’s Wonders in the Sky (2009) in advance of the new edition that the wealthy Vallée asked his readers to fund for him. The same edition (July/August 2016) also contains the results of a reader survey that the magazine sent out to a random selection of its readership. Skeptical Inquirer’s statement of ownership and circulation late last year listed a total circulation of 24,672. The magazine sent out 3,000 surveys and received 549 responses. There is, of course, a good chance that the survey over-represented older readers based on who took the time to fill out the lengthy 39-question survey, but the results seem to be generally in line with what I already knew about the audience for science-oriented material of any kind.
For those of you who are interested and keeping score at home, last Friday Ancient Aliens brought in 1.14 million viewers, down several hundred thousand from its previous outing. Its lead-out, Time Beings: Extreme Time Travel Conspiracies, clocked in with an even 1 million viewers. According to ratings data, the loss of viewers came almost entirely from younger viewers under the age of 49, especially among female viewers, the largest segment to tune out.
Micah Hanks Uses Falsified Sanskrit Text to Argue for Ancient Knowledge of Global Cataclysms6/15/2016 In an article published this morning on Mysterious Universe, fringe history’s leading purveyor of logorrhea, Micah Hanks, offered some poorly reasoned speculation on whether ancient texts can be used to determine the reality of prehistoric cataclysms. Not, mind you, your run of the mill cataclysms like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. He’s talking about nuclear explosions, cometary collisions, and other events that range from the unusual to the unlikely. And to do so, he relies on (sigh) another fabricated ancient text concocted by a Soviet fringe writer.
Ex-Syfy Channel Fringe Historian Claims to Find Oldest Viking Map of America Under Rosslyn Chapel6/14/2016 The headline was tantalizing—claiming that a historian found a shocking medieval carving that would rewrite the history of the New World. The article in the Sun was sensational—a Viking map of Vinland found under Rosslyn Chapel. The claim was supported by two experts—TV historian Ashley Cowie and a university professor. And yet everything in the story seems to be wishful thinking by Sinclair family super-fans—and recycled wishful thinking to boot!
This week Graham Hancock posted video of a reading he gave at a local TEDx event about what he sees as epistemological problems with the “house of history.” TEDx events use the format of the well-known TED Talks but are organized by local groups and are not officially endorsed by the TED organization. In the video, Hancock reads from a prepared text because, he wrote on his blog, “my concern, with this one, was above all in getting the content right.” Hancock asked his fans to watch the video quickly, before the TED organization removes it as they did his last TEDx Talk, which was found to violate the organization’s standards for scientific accuracy.
Can you make an inexpensive knockoff of Ancient Aliens entirely out of recycled content, stock footage, interviews with deluded lunatics, and internet rumors? If you answered “yes,” then you are a History Channel executive.
The History Channel aired a new special Friday night after their flagship pseudohistory program Ancient Aliens. Time Beings: Extreme Time Travel Conspiracies attempts to ape Ancient Aliens in a number of ways, most notably the use of a sound-alike narrator who resembles Robert Clothworthy, the voice of Ancient Aliens, not just in tenor but also in intonation and pacing. The show also makes use of talking heads and rhetorical questions to speculate on the possibility of time travel just as that other show discusses aliens. The opening credits are modeled on those of Ancient Aliens, with a very similar typeface, albeit less polished and apparently quite cheaply assembled. As with Ancient Aliens, the program is composed almost entirely of stock footage, though this show is cheaper and relies on still photographs where Ancient Aliens either buys or commissions video. I’m struggling a bit to come up with new things to say about Ancient Aliens because, unlike the show itself, I have a basic respect for my audience and don’t think that recycling old content over and over again is an appropriate method of filling time. Tonight’s episode of Ancient Aliens, S11E05 “The Visionaries,” is extremely similar to earlier episodes that alleged alien contact with geniuses, including S05E05 “The Einstein Factor,” S08E06 “The Tesla Experiment,” S09E04 “The Genius Factor,” and various segments from their episodes on NASA that touched on Robert Oppenheimer and their episodes on Leonardo da Vinci and others. It’s so tiresome to see the same material recycled.
|
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
May 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
- Atlantis as Biblical History
- Sardinia and Atlantis
- Atlantis and Nimrod
- Santorini and Atlantis
- The Mound Builders and Atlantis
- Donnelly's Atlantis
- Atlantis in Morocco
- Atlantis and Hanno's Periplus
- 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
- America Known to the Ancients
- 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
- CIA Search for the Ark of the Covenant
- 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
© 2010-2025 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.