io9 Offers $2000 Bounty For Authentic Photos Of Cryptids
io9 is looking for submissions of authentic pictures or videos of cryptids and I'm curious to see what they end up getting. They've already put up a few of the submissions for voting and you can find and vote on those here. In my opinion, most of the critters on that page are insects that could probably be identified by a competent expert. Another looks like a decomposing sea turtle to me. Overall, I think that the white cheetah is the most compelling and the reasons for that are outlined in the description accompanying the photo.
The folks at io9 also have a contest for the best fakes that are submitted but all you'll get are some books and DVDs. All of the authentic submissions will be judged by a panel of experts that will make the final decisions. Submissions also have to be original and submitted by the person that shot them. All of these factors should make for some really interesting submissions.
I'm really glad to see a website doing something like this in what seems to be a lighthearted manner. Sure, there may not be any groundbreaking scientific discoveries coming out of it but for those that are interested in cryptozoology this is definitely something to keep an eye on. Is there incentive to try to pass off a hoax as the real deal? Sure. Will it make this entire prospect any less interesting? I doubt it. If anything, I think it will be even more interesting to see if anyone is able to pull one over on the panel of experts.
Showing posts with label hoax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hoax. Show all posts
Friday, July 8, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Ghost Photos
Photographs of ghosts are perhaps the Holy Grail of ghost hunting. That being so, there are lots of attempts to fake ghost photos. There are also a lot of photos that show natural phenomena that has been misidentified as paranormal. Someone with enough experience in this field can usually pick out when a photo has been tampered with or when the "ghost" is just a trick of light and shadows. For skeptics and believers, knowing how to pick out a fake or misidentification makes it a little easier to determine what is the real deal. To that end, I give you the following link:
Photos That AREN'T Paranormal
To give a taste of what real ghost photos may look like there's this:
The Best Ghost Pictures Ever Taken
And finally, if you're the type that likes to find things for yourself:
How To Photograph Ghosts
I've never been much of a photographer and ghost pictures have never really done it for me, but it's a facet of the larger phenomena that I thought should be explored. Hopefully you find these links interesting, even if all you get out of them is learning how to spot hoaxes or misidentified natural phenomena.
Photos That AREN'T Paranormal
To give a taste of what real ghost photos may look like there's this:
The Best Ghost Pictures Ever Taken
And finally, if you're the type that likes to find things for yourself:
How To Photograph Ghosts
I've never been much of a photographer and ghost pictures have never really done it for me, but it's a facet of the larger phenomena that I thought should be explored. Hopefully you find these links interesting, even if all you get out of them is learning how to spot hoaxes or misidentified natural phenomena.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Vampire Watchers and the Kemetic Order of Aset Ka
Recently I was turned on to the idea of researching "vampire watchers." This is allegedly a group of people that watch the modern vampire community much as Watchers watch the immortals in the Highlander franchise. I had heard of the idea in the vampire community a few times before but had never paid much attention to it. Through a bit of basic web searching I found that whenever there was mention of the "Vampire Watchers Group" there was almost always mention of the Aset Ka as well.
The Kemetic Order of Aset Ka is a spiritual order that claims lineage from ancient Egypt and vampirism plays a part in in their teachings and beliefs. I won't go into too much detail about the specific beliefs of the Aset Ka, but my perception is that it's a bit of a mixed bag of Kemetic beliefs, vampiric beliefs, and some New Age beliefs all thrown into a blender. It's interesting that even though they claim ancient lineage, no one seems to be able to produce anything concerning them before 2006 or so. By doing a simple WHOIS search on their domain name one can see that it was created in 2006.
My personal opinion is that the Aset Ka (and probably the Vampire Watchers Group as well) were created to get publicity for the Asetian Bible by Luis Marques (published in 2007). No one seems to know anything about them aside from very general information that has been rehashed over and over again and most people claiming any association with them always refer to the book. This book seems to be the only evidence of their structure, beliefs, practices, or very existence and is marketed as the authoritative source on the Aset Ka. One should also keep in mind that since the release of Asetian Bible the Aset Ka have not been very active except to promote and refer people back to that work.
Maybe the Aset Ka are more than a publicity machine to sell books. If that's the case, I think claiming to be older than humanity is still a stretch. Claiming ancients roots to gain some sort of validity is nothing new in the occult world but eventually the truth always comes out. There's nothing wrong with starting a new organization and picking up ancient ideas but claiming direct lineage is dishonest. Doing it just to sell books is even more dishonest.
Taking all of this into consideration, I have to say that all of the mystique surrounding the Aset Ka, and the Vampire Watchers for that matter, is all pomp and posturing. They are trying to start an "ancient" tradition (which has too many similarities to other traditions and practices in the vampire community and the new age community to even count), apparently in hopes of getting rich off of it. I can certainly see why someone would attempt this as vampires have been very popular for the past few years and "ancient" or "secret" knowledge is always desirable no matter the time period.
So to anyone that may be fearful of the Aset Ka or the Vampire Watchers, all I can say is take a deeper look and read between the lines. The only thing they are really dangerous to is your wallet. Their practices and traditions may be just as valid as any other practices or traditions but an ancient occult order the Aset Ka are not. The Vampire Watchers make convenient bogeymen for the vampire community and this is perhaps why they were created and seem to talk almost exclusively about the Aset Ka. It's made to get one thinking "Well, if these watchers are watching the Aset Ka then there must be something going on there." The only thing going on is marketing, I think.
The Kemetic Order of Aset Ka
WHOIS for asetka.org
Asetian Bible at Amazon UK
Compare this entry at Paranormal-Encyclopedia.com with this deleted Wikipedia entry.
Forums for "Vampire Watchers Group"
See this thread on VampireForum.net.
Hopefully after going through that information you can see what brought me to my conclusion about the Kemetic Order of Aset Ka and the Vampire Watchers Group. Maybe this will explain a few things or set some minds at ease. I certainly feel like I now know a lot more about these elusive Vampire Watchers I've heard about.
The Kemetic Order of Aset Ka is a spiritual order that claims lineage from ancient Egypt and vampirism plays a part in in their teachings and beliefs. I won't go into too much detail about the specific beliefs of the Aset Ka, but my perception is that it's a bit of a mixed bag of Kemetic beliefs, vampiric beliefs, and some New Age beliefs all thrown into a blender. It's interesting that even though they claim ancient lineage, no one seems to be able to produce anything concerning them before 2006 or so. By doing a simple WHOIS search on their domain name one can see that it was created in 2006.
My personal opinion is that the Aset Ka (and probably the Vampire Watchers Group as well) were created to get publicity for the Asetian Bible by Luis Marques (published in 2007). No one seems to know anything about them aside from very general information that has been rehashed over and over again and most people claiming any association with them always refer to the book. This book seems to be the only evidence of their structure, beliefs, practices, or very existence and is marketed as the authoritative source on the Aset Ka. One should also keep in mind that since the release of Asetian Bible the Aset Ka have not been very active except to promote and refer people back to that work.
Maybe the Aset Ka are more than a publicity machine to sell books. If that's the case, I think claiming to be older than humanity is still a stretch. Claiming ancients roots to gain some sort of validity is nothing new in the occult world but eventually the truth always comes out. There's nothing wrong with starting a new organization and picking up ancient ideas but claiming direct lineage is dishonest. Doing it just to sell books is even more dishonest.
Taking all of this into consideration, I have to say that all of the mystique surrounding the Aset Ka, and the Vampire Watchers for that matter, is all pomp and posturing. They are trying to start an "ancient" tradition (which has too many similarities to other traditions and practices in the vampire community and the new age community to even count), apparently in hopes of getting rich off of it. I can certainly see why someone would attempt this as vampires have been very popular for the past few years and "ancient" or "secret" knowledge is always desirable no matter the time period.
So to anyone that may be fearful of the Aset Ka or the Vampire Watchers, all I can say is take a deeper look and read between the lines. The only thing they are really dangerous to is your wallet. Their practices and traditions may be just as valid as any other practices or traditions but an ancient occult order the Aset Ka are not. The Vampire Watchers make convenient bogeymen for the vampire community and this is perhaps why they were created and seem to talk almost exclusively about the Aset Ka. It's made to get one thinking "Well, if these watchers are watching the Aset Ka then there must be something going on there." The only thing going on is marketing, I think.
The Kemetic Order of Aset Ka
WHOIS for asetka.org
Asetian Bible at Amazon UK
Compare this entry at Paranormal-Encyclopedia.com with this deleted Wikipedia entry.
Forums for "Vampire Watchers Group"
See this thread on VampireForum.net.
Hopefully after going through that information you can see what brought me to my conclusion about the Kemetic Order of Aset Ka and the Vampire Watchers Group. Maybe this will explain a few things or set some minds at ease. I certainly feel like I now know a lot more about these elusive Vampire Watchers I've heard about.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
UFOs over Utah? I don't think so.
Coast to Coast AM had an interesting Photo of the Day today. The photo (which can be seen here) claims to be of an unidentified triangular craft in the sky above Box Elder County, Utah. What sets this apart from most UFO photos is that this craft was visible in broad daylight (cloud cover aside). This also isn't the only photo (you can see the rest on the blog created specifically for these photos).
Honestly, the only thing astonishing to me about these photos is how one of them managed to become Photo of the Day on Coast to Coast AM's website. I'm no photo manipulation expert, but in every single one of these photos something stands out to me: There are definite anomalies, either around the objects themselves or in other areas of the photo. Others that I have shown these to have seen the same thing.
In the first photo (in chronological order as posted on the blog) you can see a vaguely triangular object in front of some clouds. If you look closely above this object, you'll see what I can only describe as a distortion that is about the same shape as the object. It almost looks like a picture of a pyramid was shrunken down and pasted over the cloud, then tools were uses to make it blend into the background.
The second photo could depict anything. It is certainly an unidentified flying object by definition of the phrase, but there's no scale, nothing to compare it to, and it's just a black blur against some background sky. There also appears to be some distortion around the edges (if you can call the whole object anything but a distortion). It could be just about anything.
Photo three is the photo that was Photo of the Day. Looking at the triangular craft (and you don't have to scrutinize it very closely), you can definitely see something strange around the edge of the craft. That distortion seems to be the tell-tale sign of cutting and pasting, and then using tools to smooth and smudge the edges to make them blend with the background. Again, I'm not a photo manipulation expert, but I spotted this on my first glance at the photo. The manipulation is so obvious that it makes the thing look like it has an aura.
The fourth photo (the final one at the time of this posting) and its close-up show more unidentifiable objects in the sky. These are little more than pixelated slivers against the background. The low resolution of the objects makes it near impossible to determine what they are, but based on the previous examples I'm inclined to say that these are also meant to be a clever ruse. I can say that they just don't seem to fit with the resolution of the rest of the picture (notice the cloud in the lower-left of the close up, which appears to be farther away than the objects yet better defined).
There are some more problems I have with this whole presentation as well. If these objects are sighted so often that he has posted four separate photos over the course of that many days... Why can't he shoot some video of these things? My guess is that his manipulation skills aren't good enough to alter video convincingly. On top of all of this I have to say that reading his story sets off my bullshit detector. This isn't something that is quantifiable though, so take it as you will.
I'm open to the possibility of these types of craft existing whether they're owned by the government, extraterrestrials, or others. I do not have a vendetta against UFO evidence or the UFO phenomenon. What I do have a problem with is people that try to pass off fake UFO photos as legitimate UFO photos. It's even worse when they manage to make their hoax work by getting attention from a popular radio show's website. I reconsidered writing about this because I didn't want to funnel any more attention this guy's way, but then I decided that it didn't really matter since he was already on the front page of the Coast to Coast AM website.
As always, I encourage you to decide for yourselves.
Honestly, the only thing astonishing to me about these photos is how one of them managed to become Photo of the Day on Coast to Coast AM's website. I'm no photo manipulation expert, but in every single one of these photos something stands out to me: There are definite anomalies, either around the objects themselves or in other areas of the photo. Others that I have shown these to have seen the same thing.
In the first photo (in chronological order as posted on the blog) you can see a vaguely triangular object in front of some clouds. If you look closely above this object, you'll see what I can only describe as a distortion that is about the same shape as the object. It almost looks like a picture of a pyramid was shrunken down and pasted over the cloud, then tools were uses to make it blend into the background.
The second photo could depict anything. It is certainly an unidentified flying object by definition of the phrase, but there's no scale, nothing to compare it to, and it's just a black blur against some background sky. There also appears to be some distortion around the edges (if you can call the whole object anything but a distortion). It could be just about anything.
Photo three is the photo that was Photo of the Day. Looking at the triangular craft (and you don't have to scrutinize it very closely), you can definitely see something strange around the edge of the craft. That distortion seems to be the tell-tale sign of cutting and pasting, and then using tools to smooth and smudge the edges to make them blend with the background. Again, I'm not a photo manipulation expert, but I spotted this on my first glance at the photo. The manipulation is so obvious that it makes the thing look like it has an aura.
The fourth photo (the final one at the time of this posting) and its close-up show more unidentifiable objects in the sky. These are little more than pixelated slivers against the background. The low resolution of the objects makes it near impossible to determine what they are, but based on the previous examples I'm inclined to say that these are also meant to be a clever ruse. I can say that they just don't seem to fit with the resolution of the rest of the picture (notice the cloud in the lower-left of the close up, which appears to be farther away than the objects yet better defined).
There are some more problems I have with this whole presentation as well. If these objects are sighted so often that he has posted four separate photos over the course of that many days... Why can't he shoot some video of these things? My guess is that his manipulation skills aren't good enough to alter video convincingly. On top of all of this I have to say that reading his story sets off my bullshit detector. This isn't something that is quantifiable though, so take it as you will.
I'm open to the possibility of these types of craft existing whether they're owned by the government, extraterrestrials, or others. I do not have a vendetta against UFO evidence or the UFO phenomenon. What I do have a problem with is people that try to pass off fake UFO photos as legitimate UFO photos. It's even worse when they manage to make their hoax work by getting attention from a popular radio show's website. I reconsidered writing about this because I didn't want to funnel any more attention this guy's way, but then I decided that it didn't really matter since he was already on the front page of the Coast to Coast AM website.
As always, I encourage you to decide for yourselves.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Jerusalem UFO
The Internet has been buzzing about a UFO sighting in Jerusalem recently. I normally don't take sightings like this very seriously and I grew increasingly skeptical when I finally watched video of it. The video that I saw looked to be highly suspicious because the UFO looked like it could be faked by a trick of perspective and a small light rig. No video tampering would be necessary in this scenario.
It then came to my attention that there were multiple videos from multiple angles, but others have done a good job of pointing out the flaws in each of those videos so I opted not to scrutinize them myself. The whole thing just seems entirely too good to be true and the various anomalies that have been pointed out seem to suggest tampering with the footage. I know that there are a lot of people out there that want to believe this is proof of alien visitation but I just don't buy it. Aliens may be visiting Earth, but I don't think this is them.
Are aliens here? Shining white 'UFO' spotted over Jerusalem shrine
Jerusalem UFO 'Almost Certainly a Hoax'
I've stated my position but only you can decide for yourself.
It then came to my attention that there were multiple videos from multiple angles, but others have done a good job of pointing out the flaws in each of those videos so I opted not to scrutinize them myself. The whole thing just seems entirely too good to be true and the various anomalies that have been pointed out seem to suggest tampering with the footage. I know that there are a lot of people out there that want to believe this is proof of alien visitation but I just don't buy it. Aliens may be visiting Earth, but I don't think this is them.
Are aliens here? Shining white 'UFO' spotted over Jerusalem shrine
Jerusalem UFO 'Almost Certainly a Hoax'
I've stated my position but only you can decide for yourself.
Monday, December 13, 2010
UPDATE: Strange creature in Louisiana is viral marketing.
A friend tipped me off to the fact that the strange creature in Louisiana that various media outlets have been reporting on (and which I did a blog post about a couple of days ago) is a viral marketing image for an upcoming Playstation 3 game. I knew that the image was too good to be true and I'm glad to see it outed so soon.
Creepy Resistance Viral Spooks Media
Creepy Resistance Viral Spooks Media
Friday, November 5, 2010
Hoaxing
If you spend enough time researching the paranormal then you come across a lot of hoaxing. Some of it is very high quality and continues to fool people even after it has been exposed as a hoax. Other hoaxes are easily identifiable as such.
People that present hoaxes as reality are a huge problem to this field, in my opinion. This is perhaps the biggest problem in the realm of UFO research. From my experience, I have to say that I've seen more UFO/alien hoaxes than I have seen hoaxes of anything else in relation to the paranormal, perhaps with the exception of ghosts. The problem of hoaxing is twofold and it really does do the field an enormous injustice.
The first problem with hoaxing is that it takes time and resources to investigate a hoax. If someone were to file a false police report then they would be held accountable for the expenses of that investigation. There are no such laws or rules concerning UFOs or the paranormal, but the fact remains that someone is spending time and resources on looking into this case that was intentionally fabricated to fool people. It takes resources away from looking at actual anomalies.
The second problem with hoaxing is that it hurts the credibility of the field. All it takes is for a few well-made hoaxes to be passed off as real to credulous people and then they get incorporated into the public mind. When eventually exposed as hoaxes they have the effect of making people think that all similar occurrences must be hoaxes. Even with the existence of legitimately anomalous cases, people will often look at the exposed hoaxes as being a nail in the coffin for the field.
I've focused on the example of UFOs, but ghosts might be a very good example as well. There are so many hoaxed ghost videos that it has the same effect of people pushing aside even the legitimate cases. No doubt there is a certain amount of skill and artistry in making videos like that, but the honest thing to do would be to label them for entertainment purposes only.
Perhaps putting a disclaimer at the end wouldn't be enough though. I come across people to this day that still think Paranormal Activity was the real deal. The same thing happened with The Blair Witch Project when it was first released. These were both major movie releases designed to look so real that people actually believed they were recovered footage from real events.
In a perfect world people wouldn't be so dishonest as to pass off a fake as the genuine article. This isn't a perfect world though, so we have to be vigilant and discerning when it comes to evidence that is "too good to be true," especially when we have people intentionally trying to deceive others for profit. Let it be noted that deception isn't confined to just UFOs and ghosts.
Creating fake evidence and passing it off as real is dishonest and really does a disservice to those of us that are looking for genuine answers. Hoaxing evidence is bad enough, but then profiting from deception makes it even worse. I know I'm not the only one that feels this way. Remember to keep a healthy amount of skepticism in your search for the truth.
People that present hoaxes as reality are a huge problem to this field, in my opinion. This is perhaps the biggest problem in the realm of UFO research. From my experience, I have to say that I've seen more UFO/alien hoaxes than I have seen hoaxes of anything else in relation to the paranormal, perhaps with the exception of ghosts. The problem of hoaxing is twofold and it really does do the field an enormous injustice.
The first problem with hoaxing is that it takes time and resources to investigate a hoax. If someone were to file a false police report then they would be held accountable for the expenses of that investigation. There are no such laws or rules concerning UFOs or the paranormal, but the fact remains that someone is spending time and resources on looking into this case that was intentionally fabricated to fool people. It takes resources away from looking at actual anomalies.
The second problem with hoaxing is that it hurts the credibility of the field. All it takes is for a few well-made hoaxes to be passed off as real to credulous people and then they get incorporated into the public mind. When eventually exposed as hoaxes they have the effect of making people think that all similar occurrences must be hoaxes. Even with the existence of legitimately anomalous cases, people will often look at the exposed hoaxes as being a nail in the coffin for the field.
I've focused on the example of UFOs, but ghosts might be a very good example as well. There are so many hoaxed ghost videos that it has the same effect of people pushing aside even the legitimate cases. No doubt there is a certain amount of skill and artistry in making videos like that, but the honest thing to do would be to label them for entertainment purposes only.
Perhaps putting a disclaimer at the end wouldn't be enough though. I come across people to this day that still think Paranormal Activity was the real deal. The same thing happened with The Blair Witch Project when it was first released. These were both major movie releases designed to look so real that people actually believed they were recovered footage from real events.
In a perfect world people wouldn't be so dishonest as to pass off a fake as the genuine article. This isn't a perfect world though, so we have to be vigilant and discerning when it comes to evidence that is "too good to be true," especially when we have people intentionally trying to deceive others for profit. Let it be noted that deception isn't confined to just UFOs and ghosts.
Creating fake evidence and passing it off as real is dishonest and really does a disservice to those of us that are looking for genuine answers. Hoaxing evidence is bad enough, but then profiting from deception makes it even worse. I know I'm not the only one that feels this way. Remember to keep a healthy amount of skepticism in your search for the truth.
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