Demi Lovato Loves Ancient Aliens, Viewer Accuses Scott Wolter of Cover-Up

12/16/2013

Monday is my busiest work day, so I’m a little pressed for time today. Therefore, I will leave you with a few random tidbits on ancient astronauts, Scott Wolter, and the British Museum.

Another Starlet Falls for Ancient Aliens
First: Why do young starlets love Ancient Aliens? After both Megan Fox and Katy Perry revealed their undying devotion to Giorgio Tsoukalos and the ancient astronaut theory, 21-year-old songstress Demi Lovato has apparently been telling her fans about her love of Ancient Aliens, posting online the following statement:

Self care is so important.. and so is Ancient Aliens Friday the 13th + Ancient Aliens + cozy blanket + fire place + organic food = my Friday night… And I am loving it!! Life is amazing

There you have it: Ancient Aliens is as “important” as self-care. Lovato did not explain how her love of ancient astronauts squares with her self-described spiritual Christianity. Can one serve both God and Martian? Or, more specifically, how does one pray, as Lovato says she does before each concert, to a God that Ancient Aliens says is really a space ship packed with Grey aliens?

Worse: When celebrities jump on pseudoscience bandwagons, it only brings more attention to false claims, never more depressing than when the audience is children and teens.

Scott Wolter Accused of a Rockwall Cover-Up
Well, this was bound to happen: One viewer of America Unearthed is already claiming that Scott Wolter and America Unearthed are part of a widespread conspiracy to suppress the truth about the “obviously” artificial rock wall of Rockwall, Texas. Wolter determined, correctly, that the site was in fact a natural formation. The viewer floated the theory of a sinister subtext in a message board posting on the conspiracy-oriented Godlike Productions website:

Well TPTB have managed to cover up another HUGE find that is an obvious ancient intelligently made structure. I guess this will be debated just like the Yonaguni structure underwater in japan. Funny how the so-called "experts" are so easily swayed to think mother nature creates these inexplicable structures. The ROCKWALL in Texas has been studied enough to know that it goes 7 stories deep has some type of mortar between the stones and is reported to be some 20 miles long, yet good ole mother nature created it? LOL.

Notice the way this viewer fails to distinguish between scientific study, which since 1874 has consistently found the formation to be natural, and fringe writers’ conspiracies; any examination of the site is a “study” and all are of equal weight, I guess. Otherwise, how can one simultaneously claim that the “experts” studied the site and found it natural but that it was also “studied” and found to be artificial? Logically, that must mean that only amateurs think it’s artificial, which in fringe world is a badge of honor.

British Museum Images
Special thanks go to Matt Mc for sharing with us the fact that the British Museum has made available more than one million pre-1900 photographs, etchings, drawings, and maps from the Library’s collection of books. It’s an amazing archive of interesting stuff, all now in the public domain and free for use. (Quibble: Microsoft, who digitized the images, could have made high resolution scans for printing rather than low-res versions.) The Library hasn’t indexed the pictures, so right now they’re completely random and can’t be searched. They hope to use crowdsourcing to make them searchable.

Obviously, I haven’t looked at all one million pictures, but those I have seen are a fascinating slice of mostly Victorian art, history, and ethnography. It’s interesting to see just how much of our image of the past has been shaped by Victorian artistic impressions, which have lingered in the popular imagination, not least because U.S. and international copyright laws have essentially frozen the public domain in 1923.

Here is a picture of a tomb near Giza:

This Scottish drawing shows the devil preaching to witches.

It’s a fascinating resource, and I’m sure there are some amazing treasures buried in its more than 10,000 pages of photos.

16 Comments

Cathleen Anderson

12/16/2013 07:10:07 am

In the last sentence "resources" should be resource.

Interesting update about the "coverup".

Matt Mc

12/16/2013 10:09:59 am

I knew you would think the release of the photos to be really cool. In my world it is creating quite a stir since the # of usable public domain photos will be increased dramatically. Good news for everyone especially those of us who are always struggling with photographic rights and cost versus client needs and wants.

12/16/2013 10:11:48 am

Oh yeah and we can thank Disney for so much of our current frozen public domain problems. Its all about the mouse.

Jason Colavito link

12/16/2013 11:54:23 am

I've already found some great art to use including a hilarious cartoon of drunk Vikings partying at the Newport Tower that I'll be using in my review of the Viking episode of America Unearthed!

titus pullo

12/17/2013 04:09:53 am

I actually met Jim Eagan last summer when we took the family to Newport RI for a beach vacation. I had read about the Tower in a book I bought 30 years ago called "Mysterious New England" and dragged my wife to find it once before in 95 just after we got married (she was NOT impressed). Anyway, since no one in my family was interested I hiked up to the park and popped in Jim's place. He was a very nice guy (the museum was actually closed as he was doing the painting all by himself) but he let me in and we chatted. He gave me the five minute John Dee theory...and actually has created in his little place using tape the various motions of celestial bodies that he believes the tower tracks. I did ask him about if any of the previous digs uncovered anything before 1700 and he said no. you would think the Chinese or Vikings or Templars would have left some garbage behind..

That said he was a gentleman and I very enjoyed our bantering for a few minutes. I left him to finish painting and walked around the tower..there was a (and I kid you not) a fair of Japanese arts and crafts and a guy was walking around with a sword as a sameri. One thing is for sure..it is kind of a weird looking structure.

Clint Knapp

12/17/2013 02:37:55 am

Seriously great find, Matt. Thanks for sharing. I read this posting last night and was two hours late going to sleep just browsing in fascination. Even with no professional use for the images, it's a terrific glance back in time that everyone should get a chance to appreciate. I've already passed it on to some friends of mine who immediately echoed Jason's only complaint with the resource; hi-res images would've nice.

12/17/2013 02:48:12 am

Thanks, I agree higher resolution images would be desirable. I am hoping that in the future that will be made available.

After this coming public yesterday I have heard a few rumors that the Nation Archives intends to do something similar in the near future on archives.org . The lady I spoke to has spent the past 2 years scanning pre- 1910 items at high resolutions with the understand that all the high-res files will be made public once the project is over and has been reviewed

Varika

12/16/2013 12:45:13 pm

I have actually been seriously thrilled about the digitizing of old sources for public domain over the past couple of years. My favorite find has been downloading two costuming resources: a pattern-making manual and a millinery manual, both written in the first decade of the 1900s, so that I can make accurate Edwardian costumes. (Historical costuming is rather a passion of mine.) Hearing that there are now thousands of images as well, and from such a rich source, well. <3, that's all I can say. <3<3<3

Harry

12/16/2013 11:30:46 pm

Jason, I think you misinterpreted the posting. I do not think that he is citing studies that prove it is artificial. He is citing studies that conclude that it is seven stories deep and 20 miles long and then reaching his own conclusions, based on his own untested assumptions about what could create a wall that extensive. This "expertise! We don't need no stinking expertise!" attitude is also typical of 9-11 truthers and NASA moon hoax believers.

12/16/2013 11:32:03 pm

To make a different point than I did above: as someone who has practiced law, it occurs to me that Scott Wolter might, in fact, have an ulterior motive for accepting that the Rockwall rock wall is natural (aside from those Jason posited in his review). If he still makes his living testifying as an expert witness in the field of geology, he must maintain his scientific cred. Before an expert can testify, the opposing counsel has the opportunity to challenge his competency to do that, and a judge determines whether he is or is not competent. If Wolter expresses an opinion that contradicts the opinion of every other geologist who has studied the question, it convince the judge to rule him incompetent and, even if he survives that challenge, could be raised in cross-examination to besmirch his credibility with the jury.

J.A. Dickey

12/25/2013 09:08:31 am

Good point! He can meander into areas that have people abundant
with PhDs but he cannot undercut his own degree by being a total
idiot in public. If I tried to get academia to vindicate all Aquatic Ape
theories that are halfway reasonable... it helps to have a Masters
degree at least. After seeing the activity on websites & the blogs
over the new mitochondrial DNA results that separates out Homo
Heidelbergensis from Neanderthal but does link to the Denisovans,
all from a 800,000 year old bone sample, and speculations over
Homo Erectus DNA being found in Denisovan samples, as we are
rewriting the textbooks with each new DNA string we find, I am now hoping we can get Giantopithecus DNA online as a control
for all Yeti, Sasquatch and Yowie samples! Anthropology is a field
in upheaval. It looks like the Dmanisi Georgia community from 1.8
million years ago could have evolved from Homo Habilis and the
team there thinks some from the community could have returned
to Africa, hence a more evolved Homo Erectus. John Hawks has
tried to make sense of these linkages, the newer idea has the very
early hominid ancestors of Neanderthal not springing up from Homo Heidelbergensis, but like us, Homo Erectus directly. I'd love to see
DNA from a very ancient set of "squatch" bones compared to the
even more ancient Giantopithecus bones that have yet to be found!
If there are modern Sasquatches, they had their ancestors, so there
also has to be ancient great ape bones of theirs. The story could
begin with Louis Leakey's ZINJANTHROPUS and a side branch is
possibly the Giantopithecus community often found near bamboo.
Do people see modern bears and have an ancient ape image well
up from the deep ancestral Id? Did we intelligently evolve next to
an imposing great ape who is then extinct for aeons of our time?

12/25/2013 09:13:30 am

i have a typo

Gigantopithecus

i dropped a G

RLewis

12/17/2013 03:13:51 am

I'm predicting that SW will soon hear from the Christan far right about his glossing over of the bible giants. They won't go away quietly.

12/17/2013 06:49:40 am

http://www.timwise.org/2013/12/dreaming-of-a-white-jesus-and-a-real-santa-reflections-on-conservative-derangement/

A more in depth look at the subject. This also shows clearly that Jason is not the only one concerned about the racial issues behind all of this.

12/17/2013 07:41:23 am

I've often found those that scream the most about "diversity" and "tolerance" are the least diverse in thought and not very tolerant. The "white santa" thing is just a pretext to attack Fox News..let's be honest..the anchor was responding to a someone who was the ethnocentrist...seriously..Santa has to be replaced because in popular culture he is white skinned? What's next? Have the NBA replace about 80% of the players with white players so the players match the percentage of each racial group in the US? Or better yet..in commercials today we usually have a very diverse actors..often black families..the mom and dad and kiddies..given that 70% of black children are born out of wedlock..should these commercials show a mom and no dad? For that matter I think about 40% of white kids are born out of wedlock..so all these whitebread families on commercials need to be changed..

I thought the point was moving beyond race...instead we have self serving race focused folks where everything is about race..everything in pop culture..everything in politics..every little comment by anyone has to be viewed through this filter...you want a recipe for a country in decline..that's the one to cook with.

Who cares if Santa is white? Seriously..get over it.

Lisa

12/22/2013 09:19:29 pm

Hi guys, I don't comment here much, but love the blog. As an archaeologist who works a lot with geology, I do wonder why I put myself through watching AA every week, but part of the fun is to then come here and follow the debates. Anyway, to follow on from Matt's fantastic BM link, I thought you all might be interested in Europeana; http://www.europeana.eu/ This is an EU funded project to digitize millions of artifacts and works of art kept in museums around Europe.
All the best.