Blog Posts

Read My New Piece for CNN

1/25/2023

I wrote an opinion column for CNN about the recent controversy over museums renaming mummies with more person-centered language. I survey briefly the history of displaying dead bodies and analyze a bit what kinds of messages these displays send. You can read the complete story at CNN: "Why it’s time to stop displaying human bodies in museums."

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Review of Ancient Aliens S19E03: “Mystery of the Lost Civilization”

1/20/2023

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This week Politico reported that Enigma Labs would begin working with the Pentagon’s new UFO office on UFO sighting analysis. The mysterious company vowed to keep its employees a secret to protect their “privacy.” Indeed, CEO Alex Smith takes this so seriously that she apparently uses a false name and is probably in reality venture capitalist Alice Lloyd George, whose name appears in place of Smith’s as CEO on trademark application documents. The company is associated with UFO journalist Alejandro Rojas and has partnered with Discovery+ UFO personality Ben Hansen. This certainly fills me with confidence when they say they want to create a database of UFO witnesses’ personal data.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S19E02 “The Crop Circle Code”

1/13/2023

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You will have to forgive me if this review comes in a little shorter than usual. Unfortunately, my shoulder froze up on me due to shifting calcium deposits in my torn rotator cuff, causing inflammation and pain. While I have regained most of my range of motion, my arm is sore, and typing is hard. As a result, I didn’t get to write all of the pieces I intended to post this week. You’ll have to settle for a quick note that the New York Times published a credulous story today about Jacques Vallée’s ridiculous claims about the Trinity UFO crash of 1945, with no contrary views, giving credence both to the tall tales about an avocado-shaped UFO piloted by tiny beings recalled seven decades after the fact by people who were first graders at the time, and to Vallée’s claim that federal UFO legislation was purposely altered to incorporate these asinine ideas. Chris Mellon pops in to the piece and is the obvious instigation for the Times’ return to uncritical UFO propaganda—just in time for Mellon and friends to use the new legislation to put pressure on the Pentagon to give them lucrative sinecures.

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Graham Hancock Tells Russell Brand Archaeologists "Despise" Ordinary People

1/11/2023

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In case you didn’t see it, Graham Hancock appeared on Russell Brand’s podcast this past week to promote Ancient Apocalypse and to attack archaeologists yet again for being mean to him by asking for evidence for his claims. Hancock looks tired and angry during the interview, and even Brand notes that he seems unduly dejected and downtrodden for a man with one of the world’s most popular streaming nonfiction series.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S19E01 “The Hotspots Connection”

1/6/2023

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Videos circulating on social media contrasting what alleged “Secret Space Program” space cadet Corey Goode said on cable TV and streaming services with his statements under oath in footage from a September legal deposition provided plenty of laughs. Goode said that he could “create any reality.” Goode stated on the record that he never claimed to have lived on Mars, for example, a claim that he not only made at the Conscious Life Expo, as a viral tweet notes, but one that was also discussed right here on Ancient Aliens in a 2017 episode. The footage came out during the hiatus, but the way exposed Goode as a serial fabricator who does not believe many of his own claims is fairly emblematic of the Ancient Aliens ethos, and as of this writing, Ancient Aliens and the History Channel have neither noted Goode’s legal backtracking, nor corrected the falsehoods they broadcasted, nor apologized for celebrating Goode’s fantastical claims.

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Graham Hancock Attacks Archaeology, Claims Conspiracy to "Marginalize" Him

1/4/2023

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Ancient Apocalypse host Graham Hancock gave a lengthy, self-pitying interview to London Real in which he celebrated his own bravery while offering a series of oxymoronic and illogical arguments in a sustained attacked on Wikipedia, archaeology in general, and one archaeologist in particular.

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Jacques Vallée Claims UFO Law Amended to Incorporate His Crashed UFO Claims

1/3/2023

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The text of the National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Pentagon to create a historical report investigating the U.S. government’s involvement with UFOs was quietly altered prior to final passage to change the dates covered by the report from 1947 to 1945 in order to force the government investigate ridiculous tall tales about miniature space aliens and an avocado-shaped flying saucer promoted by Jacques Vallée in his most recent self-published book, Vallée claimed in a Daily Mail interview after the bill was signed into law late last month. Vallée claimed that his “friends” in D.C.—by which likely means Chris Mellon, his top fanboy with government connections—pushed the change through on Vallée’s behalf.

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This Was the Year That Was: 2022 in Review

12/26/2022

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This year wasn’t quite as bad as 2021, so I can’t be too upset at a year that, if nothing else, did not get appreciably worse. On the other hand, nothing really improved either. Between inflation and further work cuts in my failing industry, it’s been hard. When a prominent astrologer said this year would be the best of my life, I wasn’t sure whether that was a promise or a threat. It’s a good thing astrology is bunk, or else I would be painfully depressed to think this was the best things will ever get.

In a more general sense, this was a year devoted mostly to UFOs, which dominated the paranoid paranormal discourse for the first ten months, until Atlantis made a late run for the crown.

Here, then, is the year that was, edited and condensed from my blog posts and newsletter.

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New Evidence Points to a 19th Century Origin for Kensington Runestone Alphabet

12/17/2022

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The probable origin of the Kensington Runestone's runes has been found: The runic alphabet from the stone, with its distinctive "hooked X," was taught in a mid-19th century Swedish calligraphy school and the textbook its instructor published. It includes "Masonic" characters like those used by the Larsson brothers, whose runic writing had previously been the only other known runic use of the "hooked X."

Magnus Källström of the National Antiquities Office in Sweden published the results of his investigation last week. The key was in an 1876 textbook published by Eric Ström, an itinerant calligrapher (!):

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"Sirius Mystery" Author Claims Universe Is a Giant Living Alien Species

12/15/2022

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Sirius Mystery author Robert Temple has a new book out, A New Science of Heaven, claiming that 99% of the universe is plasma and that plasma is a sentient form of extraterrestrial life.

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