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#81
HISTORY / MYSTERY / (mirror online)10 crimes that ...
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 28, 2018, 04:18:59 PM1 - The Shepherd's Bush murders - the Massacre of Braybrook Street
On August 12th 1966, three detectives in an unmarked police ‘Q’ car spotted a battered Standard Vanguard estate car containing three men parked in a side street near Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London.
Suspecting the men might be part of a planned prison break from the jail, and because the car had no tax disc, Detective Constable David Wombwell and Detective Constable Chris Head got out of their car to speak to the occupants.
After a few moments' conversation one of the men in the car, professional criminal Harry Roberts, produced a hidden Luger pistol and shot DC Wombwell dead.
Detective Sergeant Fox tried to run back to the police car but Roberts chased him and killed him with a bullet to the head.
At the same time another of the car’s occupants, John Duddy, armed with a Webley revolver, ran up to the police car and shot dead Pc Geoffrey Fox as he sat behind the steering wheel.
The police murders sparked huge public outrage with demands that the recently abolished death penalty be re-instated.
Witney and Duddy were quickly arrested but Roberts stayed on the run, hiding in Epping Forest until he was captured in Hertfordshire three months after the massacre.
All three men were jailed for 30 years. Duddy died in Jail. Witney was released but murdered by another criminal in 1999.
Roberts, now aged 77, is still considered a risk to the public and remains in prison.
2 - The assassination of Airey Neave
Airey Neave, a leading Conservative MP and shadow cabinet minister, was assassinated as he drove his car out of the car park under the House of Commons on 30 March 1979.
A bomb, activated by a mercury tilt switch, exploded under his Vauxhall as the 63 year old politician drove up the exit ramp.
Neave, who had been appointed shadow Minister for Northern Ireland by Margaret Thatcher, died hours later from terrible injuries.
The Irish National Liberation Army, a break away group from the Provisional IRA, claimed responsibility.
The incident was the only ever murder of a politician inside the Houses of Parliament and caused public outrage.
Years later a debate raged over who actually killed him, with some politicians claiming Neave was murdered by MI6 and the CIA because he was going to expose spies inside Western Intelligence.
No one has ever been convicted of his murder.
3 - The murder of James Bulger
James Bulger, who was just short of his third birthday, was murdered in February 1993 by two ten-year-old boys who lured him away from a Liverpool shopping arcade while his mother was distracted.
The boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, led the crying toddler on a two and a half mile walk across the city to Walton.
There, on a rarely used piece of railway, they used bricks and sticks to beat and torture him and finally killed him by repeatedly dropping a 22lbs piece of steel railway track on his head.
The killers then placed his body across a rail hoping people would think he had been killed by a train.
When he was found two days later his body had been cut in half by a freight train but police examinations showed he was already dead before he was run over.
CCTV from the shopping centre showed him being led away by the two older boys, who were soon caught.
Thompson and Venables were tried and convicted, becoming the youngest murderers ever in British history.
4 - Donald Neilson and Lesley Whittle
Nicknamed The Black Panther, Donald Neilson was a ruthless solo serial killer and kidnapper.
During 1974 Neilson broke into post offices in Harrogate, Accrington and the Midlands in the dead of night and shot dead three post masters while robbing their businesses.
In January 1975 he changed his modus operandi. He broke into a house at Highley, Shropshire, and kidnapped 17-year-old Lesley Whittle, whose wealthy family ran a coach firm.
Neilson kept the terrified teenager hostage in an underground ‘tomb’ " a drainage shaft, in Bathpool Park, Staffordshire - while he tried to negotiate a £50,000 ransom from her family.
Through a series of blunders, the negotiations broke down.
Lesley Whittle’s emaciated body was found hanged by a wire noose in a drainage shaft two months after she had vanished.
Neilson disappeared but later that year he was spotted by chance by police patrolling in Nottinghamshire.
After a struggle inside a patrol car in which Neilson’s sawn off shotgun blew a hole in the roof, he was overpowered.
5 - Harold Shipman
Family doctor Harold Shipman is known to have murdered 218 of his patients, but many believe the number over his career may have been 355.
Shipman, who was 54 when he was caught, worked in Hyde in Cheshire. He dispatched his victims at their own homes with deadly injections of diamorphine.
Eighty per cent of his victims were elderly women, but his youngest victim was a man aged only 41.
He got away with it for years because he alone signed the death certificates and because of a reluctance by officials to believe a family doctor could be a serial killer.
Concerns were first raised about his activities in 1998 when a local undertaker told police an unusually large number of his patients were dying. But an initial police investigation cleared him.
His undoing came the following year when he altered the will of an elderly patient who died making him the beneficiary of her £386,000 estate.
Shipman was jailed for life in 2000. He hanged himself in Wakefield jail in 2004.
6 - Mary Bell
Mary Bell was only 10 when she murdered the first of her two victims in Newcastle in May 1968.
It was the day before her 11th birthday when she strangled four year old Martin Brown in a derelict house in the Scotswood district.
Two months later she killed again. Three-year-old Brian Howe was battered and strangled and his body mutilated.
Bell was arrested and put on trial, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
She was released aged 23 in 1980 and a plea to a court that her identity should not be revealed by the media was accepted by the High Court under what became known as the Mary Bell law.
She now lives under a new name in Britain and is reported to be a grandmother.
7 - Fred and Rosemary West
The Wests, a sexually depraved and homicidal couple, were unmasked in 1994 after Gloucestershire police began investigating claims the builder had raped a member of his own family at their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester.
As the investigation continued a number of collections of human bones were found buried under floors and in the garden of the house.
Two of the bodies were those of the couple’s own daughters Charmaine and Heather.
The couple had also killed a number of other young women who they had picked up from the streets.
Although police think the couple killed 13 victims, there was only enough evidence to charge them with 11 killings.
Before killing himself in jail in 1995, Fred told witnesses he had killed 30 people, but police have found no evidence of other murders.
Rosemary West remains in jail.
8 - Great Train Robbery
In August 1963 a gang of robbers held up the Royal Mail’s Travelling Post Office train and stole £2.6 million in cash, equivalent today to £40 million.
No guns were used but when most of the gang were caught, the public outrage over the crime swayed judges to hand out 30 year jail terms.
Three of the gang, Buster Edwards, Charlie Wilson and Ronnie Biggs, spent long spells on the run after jail escapes.
The robbery has achieved legendary status and been the subject of two cinema films, Robbery in 1966 and Buster in 1990.
Many of the robbers are still alive but much of the stolen money is still unaccounted fo
9 - Lockerbie
On the night of 21 December 1988 a bomb planted in the hold of a Pan Am Boeing 747, flight 103 from London to New York, exploded as the plane flew over the Scottish market town of Lockerbie.
It had been hidden in the plane at Heathrow airport.
All the 259 passengers and crew on the plane and 11 people in their homes were killed in the worst act of mass murder in British history.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was convicted of planting the bomb at a special court in Holland.
It is believed the attack was ordered by the former Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi.
10 - Fagan and the Queen
On the night of 9 July 1982, the Queen woke up in her apartments at Buckingham Palace to find a man sitting on the end of her bed.
He was drunken cat burglar Michael Fagan, 31, and he later confessed it was the second time he had breached security to break into the supposedly ‘impregnable’ palace.
At the time, the Royal family were under assassination threat from the IRA.
The crime was an extreme embarrassment to PM Margaret Thatcher and the head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Squad was sacked.
Fagan apologised to the Queen and was sentenced to a short jail term.
On August 12th 1966, three detectives in an unmarked police ‘Q’ car spotted a battered Standard Vanguard estate car containing three men parked in a side street near Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London.
Suspecting the men might be part of a planned prison break from the jail, and because the car had no tax disc, Detective Constable David Wombwell and Detective Constable Chris Head got out of their car to speak to the occupants.
After a few moments' conversation one of the men in the car, professional criminal Harry Roberts, produced a hidden Luger pistol and shot DC Wombwell dead.
Detective Sergeant Fox tried to run back to the police car but Roberts chased him and killed him with a bullet to the head.
At the same time another of the car’s occupants, John Duddy, armed with a Webley revolver, ran up to the police car and shot dead Pc Geoffrey Fox as he sat behind the steering wheel.
The police murders sparked huge public outrage with demands that the recently abolished death penalty be re-instated.
Witney and Duddy were quickly arrested but Roberts stayed on the run, hiding in Epping Forest until he was captured in Hertfordshire three months after the massacre.
All three men were jailed for 30 years. Duddy died in Jail. Witney was released but murdered by another criminal in 1999.
Roberts, now aged 77, is still considered a risk to the public and remains in prison.
2 - The assassination of Airey Neave
Airey Neave, a leading Conservative MP and shadow cabinet minister, was assassinated as he drove his car out of the car park under the House of Commons on 30 March 1979.
A bomb, activated by a mercury tilt switch, exploded under his Vauxhall as the 63 year old politician drove up the exit ramp.
Neave, who had been appointed shadow Minister for Northern Ireland by Margaret Thatcher, died hours later from terrible injuries.
The Irish National Liberation Army, a break away group from the Provisional IRA, claimed responsibility.
The incident was the only ever murder of a politician inside the Houses of Parliament and caused public outrage.
Years later a debate raged over who actually killed him, with some politicians claiming Neave was murdered by MI6 and the CIA because he was going to expose spies inside Western Intelligence.
No one has ever been convicted of his murder.
3 - The murder of James Bulger
James Bulger, who was just short of his third birthday, was murdered in February 1993 by two ten-year-old boys who lured him away from a Liverpool shopping arcade while his mother was distracted.
The boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, led the crying toddler on a two and a half mile walk across the city to Walton.
There, on a rarely used piece of railway, they used bricks and sticks to beat and torture him and finally killed him by repeatedly dropping a 22lbs piece of steel railway track on his head.
The killers then placed his body across a rail hoping people would think he had been killed by a train.
When he was found two days later his body had been cut in half by a freight train but police examinations showed he was already dead before he was run over.
CCTV from the shopping centre showed him being led away by the two older boys, who were soon caught.
Thompson and Venables were tried and convicted, becoming the youngest murderers ever in British history.
4 - Donald Neilson and Lesley Whittle
Nicknamed The Black Panther, Donald Neilson was a ruthless solo serial killer and kidnapper.
During 1974 Neilson broke into post offices in Harrogate, Accrington and the Midlands in the dead of night and shot dead three post masters while robbing their businesses.
In January 1975 he changed his modus operandi. He broke into a house at Highley, Shropshire, and kidnapped 17-year-old Lesley Whittle, whose wealthy family ran a coach firm.
Neilson kept the terrified teenager hostage in an underground ‘tomb’ " a drainage shaft, in Bathpool Park, Staffordshire - while he tried to negotiate a £50,000 ransom from her family.
Through a series of blunders, the negotiations broke down.
Lesley Whittle’s emaciated body was found hanged by a wire noose in a drainage shaft two months after she had vanished.
Neilson disappeared but later that year he was spotted by chance by police patrolling in Nottinghamshire.
After a struggle inside a patrol car in which Neilson’s sawn off shotgun blew a hole in the roof, he was overpowered.
5 - Harold Shipman
Family doctor Harold Shipman is known to have murdered 218 of his patients, but many believe the number over his career may have been 355.
Shipman, who was 54 when he was caught, worked in Hyde in Cheshire. He dispatched his victims at their own homes with deadly injections of diamorphine.
Eighty per cent of his victims were elderly women, but his youngest victim was a man aged only 41.
He got away with it for years because he alone signed the death certificates and because of a reluctance by officials to believe a family doctor could be a serial killer.
Concerns were first raised about his activities in 1998 when a local undertaker told police an unusually large number of his patients were dying. But an initial police investigation cleared him.
His undoing came the following year when he altered the will of an elderly patient who died making him the beneficiary of her £386,000 estate.
Shipman was jailed for life in 2000. He hanged himself in Wakefield jail in 2004.
6 - Mary Bell
Mary Bell was only 10 when she murdered the first of her two victims in Newcastle in May 1968.
It was the day before her 11th birthday when she strangled four year old Martin Brown in a derelict house in the Scotswood district.
Two months later she killed again. Three-year-old Brian Howe was battered and strangled and his body mutilated.
Bell was arrested and put on trial, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
She was released aged 23 in 1980 and a plea to a court that her identity should not be revealed by the media was accepted by the High Court under what became known as the Mary Bell law.
She now lives under a new name in Britain and is reported to be a grandmother.
7 - Fred and Rosemary West
The Wests, a sexually depraved and homicidal couple, were unmasked in 1994 after Gloucestershire police began investigating claims the builder had raped a member of his own family at their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester.
As the investigation continued a number of collections of human bones were found buried under floors and in the garden of the house.
Two of the bodies were those of the couple’s own daughters Charmaine and Heather.
The couple had also killed a number of other young women who they had picked up from the streets.
Although police think the couple killed 13 victims, there was only enough evidence to charge them with 11 killings.
Before killing himself in jail in 1995, Fred told witnesses he had killed 30 people, but police have found no evidence of other murders.
Rosemary West remains in jail.
8 - Great Train Robbery
In August 1963 a gang of robbers held up the Royal Mail’s Travelling Post Office train and stole £2.6 million in cash, equivalent today to £40 million.
No guns were used but when most of the gang were caught, the public outrage over the crime swayed judges to hand out 30 year jail terms.
Three of the gang, Buster Edwards, Charlie Wilson and Ronnie Biggs, spent long spells on the run after jail escapes.
The robbery has achieved legendary status and been the subject of two cinema films, Robbery in 1966 and Buster in 1990.
Many of the robbers are still alive but much of the stolen money is still unaccounted fo
9 - Lockerbie
On the night of 21 December 1988 a bomb planted in the hold of a Pan Am Boeing 747, flight 103 from London to New York, exploded as the plane flew over the Scottish market town of Lockerbie.
It had been hidden in the plane at Heathrow airport.
All the 259 passengers and crew on the plane and 11 people in their homes were killed in the worst act of mass murder in British history.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was convicted of planting the bomb at a special court in Holland.
It is believed the attack was ordered by the former Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi.
10 - Fagan and the Queen
On the night of 9 July 1982, the Queen woke up in her apartments at Buckingham Palace to find a man sitting on the end of her bed.
He was drunken cat burglar Michael Fagan, 31, and he later confessed it was the second time he had breached security to break into the supposedly ‘impregnable’ palace.
At the time, the Royal family were under assassination threat from the IRA.
The crime was an extreme embarrassment to PM Margaret Thatcher and the head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Squad was sacked.
Fagan apologised to the Queen and was sentenced to a short jail term.
#82
CONSPIRACY ZONE / Re: WHO WAS JACK THE RIPPER ?
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 28, 2018, 03:20:44 PMI think from watching various reports and documentries that whoever he was he had a certain medical knowledge the way he cut his victims and later the Yorkshire ripper copied this method of killing and of course that does not prove a medical background as we know the Yorkshire ripper had no medical background but it probably means whoever it was studied books on organs inside the body and knew exactly where to cut
Sadly because so many years have passed i doubt the real truth will ever come out and remember DNA was not invented then so nothing could be pinned on suspects but one thing is for sure he sounds like a man that has either been hurt by prostitutes or a man that has been hurt by women in general that should be the main clue the other main clue is obviously his knowledge of the human body
Sadly because so many years have passed i doubt the real truth will ever come out and remember DNA was not invented then so nothing could be pinned on suspects but one thing is for sure he sounds like a man that has either been hurt by prostitutes or a man that has been hurt by women in general that should be the main clue the other main clue is obviously his knowledge of the human body
#83
CONSPIRACY ZONE / WHO WAS JACK THE RIPPER ?
Last post by fobrien1 - March 27, 2018, 01:00:46 AMmany names have come up that could be jack the ripper . are they credible ? do you believe them ? .
ive personally watched many ripper documentaries and read about the ripper . so i know most if not all suspects .
the suspects vary from dr gull , to a polish emigrant called michael ostrog . the classic vision of the ripper is i guess a well dressed man with a deer stalker type hat and a gladstone bag . a fair argument has been made that if anyone saw such a man that they would have screamed the place down .
so then they argue it must have been someone that blended in to the poor east end . again this is a fair argument , after all such a person would look like everyone else .
i will use this thread to post multiple videos but ill start with two , these two for me offer what i feel are very plausible suspects . however we cant prove these people were guilty .
the first video is THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwN6VMjgw2Q
the above video centers on a man who was friends with an elderly gent , the elderly gent gave him a package an old diary , and said maybe he can earn some money out of it . the elderly man died soon after . it wasnt immediately evident whos diary it was and only at he very end was the name revealed .
the early criticisms of the diary by ripper authors etc were that the ink wasnt from 1888 , but the ink and diary were indeed from that era . another criticism was that the author used a term that was not used until years after 1888 , this also proved false , the term was A ONE OFF . the authors found that the term first appeared in dictionaries etc years after 1888 which was true . however words / terms are in use usually long before they get into dictionaries . and the term was indeed found to have been used as early as 1888 and prior to that .
information was in the diary about the victims , information that was kept from the public for about 100 years , that in itself begs the question why keep this information secret so long . this information was in regards items on or near the body that ONLY the police knew . things that were very ordinary and which would have had little significance to the police at the time . but the author of the diary was spot on and knew this information . this led the authors to one of two conclusions , the diary was a fake , faked after 1988 or most certainly genuine . all some had to state it was a fake was that they didnt want to accept it as genuine .
ill leave you guys view the video and decide for your self if you think the suspect in it JAMES MAYBRICK was a credible suspect .
the next suspect is maybe a bit of an unexpected suspect , but he must be viewed in the context of the story he was involved in .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_ibP4J5dQ
the above video is JACK THE RIPPER : THE FINAL SOLUTION . there is a book also of the same name and the video is based on that book .
the author spoke to an old artist , the son of a famous artist walter sickert . and what the son told the author was stunning and may well be the answer to the puzzle and to all our questions .
the story is that the jack the ripper killings were the result of a 3 man team NOT one man . an east end cockey caoch driver , an acknowledged nasty piece of work . dr gull who was inside the coach . and a third man who was the subject of the video and the book . prince eddie (victorias grandson ) frequented an east end area and was friends with the third man .a few things happened that could embroil the royalty in a scandal that could destroy the monarchy . one was that eddie had a relationship with a commoner that bore him a daughter . the other ? well a documented scandal in that same area that involved known people at that time visiting a homosexual brothel for want of a better term .
and a blackmail attempt . this involved several prostitutes who knew eddie and his childs mother .
a combination of the above led to the three above mentioned men working together to remove the problems that could destroy the royals . one thing noted at the time was that despite the grissly nature of the public murders of the first 4 women was that despite them being badly stabbed and slashed , throat cut from ear to ear that there was very little blood . all most as tho they were killed elsewhere and the bodies dropped in the areas they were found . this story and the author posit that the first four were killed inside the coach . the author also posits that there was atleast one other kiling before the main five , and that there is reason to believe that there were a few others after .
most certainly scotland yard shut this case down very quickly . a few of the autopsies were controlled so as to keep information from coming out . i have read the book that the video is based on , i have to say it was engrossing and very hard to put down .
i welcome any comments and views on the above and on the videos above .
ive personally watched many ripper documentaries and read about the ripper . so i know most if not all suspects .
the suspects vary from dr gull , to a polish emigrant called michael ostrog . the classic vision of the ripper is i guess a well dressed man with a deer stalker type hat and a gladstone bag . a fair argument has been made that if anyone saw such a man that they would have screamed the place down .
so then they argue it must have been someone that blended in to the poor east end . again this is a fair argument , after all such a person would look like everyone else .
i will use this thread to post multiple videos but ill start with two , these two for me offer what i feel are very plausible suspects . however we cant prove these people were guilty .
the first video is THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwN6VMjgw2Q
the above video centers on a man who was friends with an elderly gent , the elderly gent gave him a package an old diary , and said maybe he can earn some money out of it . the elderly man died soon after . it wasnt immediately evident whos diary it was and only at he very end was the name revealed .
the early criticisms of the diary by ripper authors etc were that the ink wasnt from 1888 , but the ink and diary were indeed from that era . another criticism was that the author used a term that was not used until years after 1888 , this also proved false , the term was A ONE OFF . the authors found that the term first appeared in dictionaries etc years after 1888 which was true . however words / terms are in use usually long before they get into dictionaries . and the term was indeed found to have been used as early as 1888 and prior to that .
information was in the diary about the victims , information that was kept from the public for about 100 years , that in itself begs the question why keep this information secret so long . this information was in regards items on or near the body that ONLY the police knew . things that were very ordinary and which would have had little significance to the police at the time . but the author of the diary was spot on and knew this information . this led the authors to one of two conclusions , the diary was a fake , faked after 1988 or most certainly genuine . all some had to state it was a fake was that they didnt want to accept it as genuine .
ill leave you guys view the video and decide for your self if you think the suspect in it JAMES MAYBRICK was a credible suspect .
the next suspect is maybe a bit of an unexpected suspect , but he must be viewed in the context of the story he was involved in .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_ibP4J5dQ
the above video is JACK THE RIPPER : THE FINAL SOLUTION . there is a book also of the same name and the video is based on that book .
the author spoke to an old artist , the son of a famous artist walter sickert . and what the son told the author was stunning and may well be the answer to the puzzle and to all our questions .
the story is that the jack the ripper killings were the result of a 3 man team NOT one man . an east end cockey caoch driver , an acknowledged nasty piece of work . dr gull who was inside the coach . and a third man who was the subject of the video and the book . prince eddie (victorias grandson ) frequented an east end area and was friends with the third man .a few things happened that could embroil the royalty in a scandal that could destroy the monarchy . one was that eddie had a relationship with a commoner that bore him a daughter . the other ? well a documented scandal in that same area that involved known people at that time visiting a homosexual brothel for want of a better term .
and a blackmail attempt . this involved several prostitutes who knew eddie and his childs mother .
a combination of the above led to the three above mentioned men working together to remove the problems that could destroy the royals . one thing noted at the time was that despite the grissly nature of the public murders of the first 4 women was that despite them being badly stabbed and slashed , throat cut from ear to ear that there was very little blood . all most as tho they were killed elsewhere and the bodies dropped in the areas they were found . this story and the author posit that the first four were killed inside the coach . the author also posits that there was atleast one other kiling before the main five , and that there is reason to believe that there were a few others after .
most certainly scotland yard shut this case down very quickly . a few of the autopsies were controlled so as to keep information from coming out . i have read the book that the video is based on , i have to say it was engrossing and very hard to put down .
i welcome any comments and views on the above and on the videos above .
#84
HISTORY / MYSTERY / The Most Unbelievable True Fac...
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#85
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE / Re: TRY YOUR LUCK WITH GENERAL...
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 25, 2018, 03:42:29 PM1. Which German dog was bred for digging out Badgers?
2. What weight is another name for the Snow Leopard?
3. What animal did the lions share of farmwork during the Middle Ages?
4. What is thr favourite food of the Death Watch Beetle?
5. What name is given to chicken under 1 year of age?
6. What is the lifespan of a Mayfly?
7. How many wings has a Bee ?
8. From which country does the Wombat come?
9. From which part of a cow does silverside come?
10. Why does a Glow Fly Glow?
11. What colour is copper sulphate?
12. Where was the first British nuclear power station?
13. Which element is used to make the rod found inside an ordinary electric battery?
14. Which two elements are alloyed to make brass?
15. What instrument is used to detect radiation?
16. Where is a bird's patella?
17. Pulmonary refers to which part of the body?
18. If a person has myopia what problem does he or she have?
19. What is the chemical symbol of tin?
20. .What did Jacques Cousteau invent?
Answers
1. Dachshund
2. Ounce
3. The Ox
4. Wood
5. Pullet
6. 1 day
7. 4
8. Australia
9. Top of rear leg
10. To attract mates
11. Blue
12. Calder Hall
13. Carbon
14. Copper and tin
15. Geiger counter
16. Knee
17. Lungs
18. Short sighted
19. Sn
20. Aqualung
2. What weight is another name for the Snow Leopard?
3. What animal did the lions share of farmwork during the Middle Ages?
4. What is thr favourite food of the Death Watch Beetle?
5. What name is given to chicken under 1 year of age?
6. What is the lifespan of a Mayfly?
7. How many wings has a Bee ?
8. From which country does the Wombat come?
9. From which part of a cow does silverside come?
10. Why does a Glow Fly Glow?
11. What colour is copper sulphate?
12. Where was the first British nuclear power station?
13. Which element is used to make the rod found inside an ordinary electric battery?
14. Which two elements are alloyed to make brass?
15. What instrument is used to detect radiation?
16. Where is a bird's patella?
17. Pulmonary refers to which part of the body?
18. If a person has myopia what problem does he or she have?
19. What is the chemical symbol of tin?
20. .What did Jacques Cousteau invent?
Answers
1. Dachshund
2. Ounce
3. The Ox
4. Wood
5. Pullet
6. 1 day
7. 4
8. Australia
9. Top of rear leg
10. To attract mates
11. Blue
12. Calder Hall
13. Carbon
14. Copper and tin
15. Geiger counter
16. Knee
17. Lungs
18. Short sighted
19. Sn
20. Aqualung
#86
HISTORY / MYSTERY / When was the most violent time...
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 25, 2018, 03:40:54 PMThe most violent time in history, measured by the number of people killed by collective violence as a proportion of a) total number of deaths and b) total number of people who lived, was the 1st half of the 20th Century. See this answer for details.
The 119,515,000 deaths caused by war and oppression between 1900 and 1945, according to my calculations based on Matthew White’s list of man-made calamities, make up 4.72 % of the (1,656,000,000 + 3,390,198, 215 " 2,516,000,000 =) 2,530,198,215 people who died between 1900 and 1950, and 2.37 % of the (1,656,000,000 + 3,390,198,215 =) 5,046,198,215 people who lived in that period according to the chart in Carl Haub, How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?.
The current era is comparatively very peaceful. From by blog article Germs vs. guns, or death from mass violence in perspective:
However, as the 21st Century is into its fifteenth year, and despite the horrors of local conflicts that make international press headlines (like the "Islamic State" insurgency in Iraq and Syria) or do not (like the ongoing armed conflict in my native Colombia), war ranks low " some say lower than ever " as a worldwide cause of mortality, According to the WHO’s World Health Report 2004, "Annex Table 2 Deaths by cause, sex and mortality stratum in WHO Regions, estimates for 2002", in 2002 war was responsible for a total of about 172,000 deaths representing 0.3 % of the ca. 57,029,000 deaths in that year (about 1 in 333 deaths), vs. violence other than war (ca. 559,000, 0.98% or about 1 in 102), self-inflicted deaths (873,000, 1.53 % or about 1 in 65), unintentional injuries (ca. 3,551,000, 6.23 % or about 1 in 16), communicable diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies (18,324,000, 32.1 % or about 1 in 3) and non-communicable conditions (33,537,000, 58.81 % or about 1 in 2). The WHO’s Global status report on violence prevention 2014 mentions war in the following context:
Since 2000, about 6 million people globally have been killed in acts of interpersonal violence, making homicide a more frequent cause of death than all wars combined during this period. Non-fatal interpersonal violence is more common than homicide and has serious and lifelong health and social consequences.
An online algorithm based on WHO data shows war ranking way after each of traffic accidents, falls, drowning, poisonings, fires, other accidents, suicide and non-war violence as a cause of death from injuries.
The 119,515,000 deaths caused by war and oppression between 1900 and 1945, according to my calculations based on Matthew White’s list of man-made calamities, make up 4.72 % of the (1,656,000,000 + 3,390,198, 215 " 2,516,000,000 =) 2,530,198,215 people who died between 1900 and 1950, and 2.37 % of the (1,656,000,000 + 3,390,198,215 =) 5,046,198,215 people who lived in that period according to the chart in Carl Haub, How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?.
The current era is comparatively very peaceful. From by blog article Germs vs. guns, or death from mass violence in perspective:
However, as the 21st Century is into its fifteenth year, and despite the horrors of local conflicts that make international press headlines (like the "Islamic State" insurgency in Iraq and Syria) or do not (like the ongoing armed conflict in my native Colombia), war ranks low " some say lower than ever " as a worldwide cause of mortality, According to the WHO’s World Health Report 2004, "Annex Table 2 Deaths by cause, sex and mortality stratum in WHO Regions, estimates for 2002", in 2002 war was responsible for a total of about 172,000 deaths representing 0.3 % of the ca. 57,029,000 deaths in that year (about 1 in 333 deaths), vs. violence other than war (ca. 559,000, 0.98% or about 1 in 102), self-inflicted deaths (873,000, 1.53 % or about 1 in 65), unintentional injuries (ca. 3,551,000, 6.23 % or about 1 in 16), communicable diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies (18,324,000, 32.1 % or about 1 in 3) and non-communicable conditions (33,537,000, 58.81 % or about 1 in 2). The WHO’s Global status report on violence prevention 2014 mentions war in the following context:
Since 2000, about 6 million people globally have been killed in acts of interpersonal violence, making homicide a more frequent cause of death than all wars combined during this period. Non-fatal interpersonal violence is more common than homicide and has serious and lifelong health and social consequences.
An online algorithm based on WHO data shows war ranking way after each of traffic accidents, falls, drowning, poisonings, fires, other accidents, suicide and non-war violence as a cause of death from injuries.
#87
HISTORY / MYSTERY / BERMUDA TRIANGLE
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 25, 2018, 03:37:11 PMThe Bermuda Triangle is a mythical section of the Atlantic Ocean roughly bounded by Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico where dozens of ships and airplanes have disappeared. Unexplained circumstances surround some of these accidents, including one in which the pilots of a squadron of U.S. Navy bombers became disoriented while flying over the area; the planes were never found. Other boats and planes have seemingly vanished from the area in good weather without even radioing distress messages. But although myriad fanciful theories have been proposed regarding the Bermuda Triangle, none of them prove that mysterious disappearances occur more frequently there than in other well-traveled sections of the ocean. In fact, people navigate the area every day without incident.
LEGEND OF THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE
The area referred to as the Bermuda Triangle, or Devil’s Triangle, covers about 500,000 square miles of ocean off the southeastern tip of Florida. When Christopher Columbus sailed through the area on his first voyage to the New World, he reported that a great flame of fire (probably a meteor) crashed into the sea one night and that a strange light appeared in the distance a few weeks later. He also wrote about erratic compass readings, perhaps because at that time a sliver of the Bermuda Triangle was one of the few places on Earth where true north and magnetic north lined up.
Did You Know?
After gaining widespread fame as the first person to sail solo around the globe, Joshua Slocum disappeared on a 1909 voyage from Martha’s Vineyard to South America. Though it’s unclear exactly what happened, many sources later attributed his death to the Bermuda Triangle.
William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” which some scholars claim was based on a real-life Bermuda shipwreck, may have enhanced the area’s aura of mystery. Nonetheless, reports of unexplained disappearances did not really capture the public’s attention until the 20th century. An especially infamous tragedy occurred in March 1918 when the USS Cyclops, a 542-foot-long Navy cargo ship with over 300 men and 10,000 tons of manganese ore onboard, sank somewhere between Barbados and the Chesapeake Bay. The Cyclops never sent out an SOS distress call despite being equipped to do so, and an extensive search found no wreckage. “Only God and the sea know what happened to the great ship,” U.S. President Woodrow Wilson later said. In 1941 two of the Cyclops’ sister ships similarly vanished without a trace along nearly the same route.
A pattern allegedly began forming in which vessels traversing the Bermuda Triangle would either disappear or be found abandoned. Then, in December 1945, five Navy bombers carrying 14 men took off from a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, airfield in order to conduct practice bombing runs over some nearby shoals. But with his compasses apparently malfunctioning, the leader of the mission, known as Flight 19, got severely lost. All five planes flew aimlessly until they ran low on fuel and were forced to ditch at sea. That same day, a rescue plane and its 13-man crew also disappeared. After a massive weeks-long search failed to turn up any evidence, the official Navy report declared that it was “as if they had flown to Mars.”
BERMUDA TRIANGLE THEORIES AND COUNTER-THEORIES
By the time author Vincent Gaddis coined the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” in a 1964 magazine article, additional mysterious accidents had occurred in the area, including three passenger planes that went down despite having just sent “all’s well” messages. Charles Berlitz, whose grandfather founded the Berlitz language schools, stoked the legend even further in 1974 with a sensational bestseller about the legend. Since then, scores of fellow paranormal writers have blamed the triangle’s supposed lethalness on everything from aliens, Atlantis and sea monsters to time warps and reverse gravity fields, whereas more scientifically minded theorists have pointed to magnetic anomalies, waterspouts or huge eruptions of methane gas from the ocean floor.
In all probability, however, there is no single theory that solves the mystery. As one skeptic put it, trying to find a common cause for every Bermuda Triangle disappearance is no more logical than trying to find a common cause for every automobile accident in Arizona. Moreover, although storms, reefs and the Gulf Stream can cause navigational challenges there, maritime insurance leader Lloyd’s of London does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an especially hazardous place. Neither does the U.S. Coast Guard, which says: “In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified.”
LEGEND OF THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE
The area referred to as the Bermuda Triangle, or Devil’s Triangle, covers about 500,000 square miles of ocean off the southeastern tip of Florida. When Christopher Columbus sailed through the area on his first voyage to the New World, he reported that a great flame of fire (probably a meteor) crashed into the sea one night and that a strange light appeared in the distance a few weeks later. He also wrote about erratic compass readings, perhaps because at that time a sliver of the Bermuda Triangle was one of the few places on Earth where true north and magnetic north lined up.
Did You Know?
After gaining widespread fame as the first person to sail solo around the globe, Joshua Slocum disappeared on a 1909 voyage from Martha’s Vineyard to South America. Though it’s unclear exactly what happened, many sources later attributed his death to the Bermuda Triangle.
William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” which some scholars claim was based on a real-life Bermuda shipwreck, may have enhanced the area’s aura of mystery. Nonetheless, reports of unexplained disappearances did not really capture the public’s attention until the 20th century. An especially infamous tragedy occurred in March 1918 when the USS Cyclops, a 542-foot-long Navy cargo ship with over 300 men and 10,000 tons of manganese ore onboard, sank somewhere between Barbados and the Chesapeake Bay. The Cyclops never sent out an SOS distress call despite being equipped to do so, and an extensive search found no wreckage. “Only God and the sea know what happened to the great ship,” U.S. President Woodrow Wilson later said. In 1941 two of the Cyclops’ sister ships similarly vanished without a trace along nearly the same route.
A pattern allegedly began forming in which vessels traversing the Bermuda Triangle would either disappear or be found abandoned. Then, in December 1945, five Navy bombers carrying 14 men took off from a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, airfield in order to conduct practice bombing runs over some nearby shoals. But with his compasses apparently malfunctioning, the leader of the mission, known as Flight 19, got severely lost. All five planes flew aimlessly until they ran low on fuel and were forced to ditch at sea. That same day, a rescue plane and its 13-man crew also disappeared. After a massive weeks-long search failed to turn up any evidence, the official Navy report declared that it was “as if they had flown to Mars.”
BERMUDA TRIANGLE THEORIES AND COUNTER-THEORIES
By the time author Vincent Gaddis coined the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” in a 1964 magazine article, additional mysterious accidents had occurred in the area, including three passenger planes that went down despite having just sent “all’s well” messages. Charles Berlitz, whose grandfather founded the Berlitz language schools, stoked the legend even further in 1974 with a sensational bestseller about the legend. Since then, scores of fellow paranormal writers have blamed the triangle’s supposed lethalness on everything from aliens, Atlantis and sea monsters to time warps and reverse gravity fields, whereas more scientifically minded theorists have pointed to magnetic anomalies, waterspouts or huge eruptions of methane gas from the ocean floor.
In all probability, however, there is no single theory that solves the mystery. As one skeptic put it, trying to find a common cause for every Bermuda Triangle disappearance is no more logical than trying to find a common cause for every automobile accident in Arizona. Moreover, although storms, reefs and the Gulf Stream can cause navigational challenges there, maritime insurance leader Lloyd’s of London does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an especially hazardous place. Neither does the U.S. Coast Guard, which says: “In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified.”
#88
HISTORY / MYSTERY / Could the Queen lose throne in...
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 25, 2018, 03:33:56 PMHE Queen's right to the throne came under question today after scientists made a staggering genetic discovery surrounding King Richard III - which threatens to shake the foundations of the royal dynasty.
Experts are almost 100 per cent sure that the skeleton with a twisted spine found in a Leicester car park in 2012 is that of the last Plantagenet king.
Now new research has found a chink in the Tudor ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II whose right to the throne can be traced all the way back to King Henry VII, via James I and Mary Queen of Scots.
Previous DNA analysis had determined two female-line relatives of King Richard III still living and five other male-line relatives that have little royal significance.
But new evidence released today shows a break in the male 'Y chromosome' line - a newly discovered illegitimacy - which brings into question the entire history of the British monarchy since the reign of Henry IV.
The research questions the historic legitimacy concerning the descent of Edward III to his son John of Gaunt and also his two grandsons, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset and Henry IV, the first Lancastrian King.
It centres around John of Gaunt, who was Tudor King Henry VII's great great grandfather and ancestor of the Queen.
Richard III was connected to these lineages through his great grandfather Edmund, Duke of York - John of Gaunt’s brother.
Prof Schurer, pro-vice chancellor of the University of Leicester, said: “We don’t know where the break is, but if there’s one particular link that has more significance than any other, it has to be the link between Edward III and his son John of Gaunt.
“John of Gaunt was the father of Henry IV, so if John of Gaunt was not actually the child of Edward III, arguably Henry IV had no legitimate right to the throne, and therefore neither did Henry V, Henry VI, and, indirectly, the Tudors.”
THE QUEEN IN PICTURES
Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists said the claim to the crown of the “entire Tudor dynasty” partly rested on its members’ descent from John of Gaunt.
They added: “The claim of the Tudor dynasty would also be brought into question if the false paternity occurred between John of Gaunt and his son, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset.”
Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the last significant clash between the forces of the Houses of Lancaster and York in the War of the Roses.
According to historical records he was buried in Grey Friars Church, Leicester, which once stood on the site of the car park where his bones were found.
Examination of the skeleton showed that it had a twisted spine rather than the hunchback for which Richard III was famous. Although he would have walked with one shoulder higher than the other, his deformity could easily have been concealed beneath clothing and armour.
The genetic analysis showed a 96 per cent probability that Richard had blue eyes and a 77 per cent likelihood that he was blond, at least in childhood. It was possible that his hair colour may have darkened with age, said the scientists.
His appearance was probably similar to that depicted in an early portrait held by the Society of Antiquaries in London.
In their paper, the researchers compared the investigation to a missing person case that becomes more difficult over time - in this case, 527 years.
Geneticist Dr Turi King, from the University of Leicester, said: “What we have concluded is that there is, at its most conservative, a 99.999 per cent probability that these are indeed the remains of Richard III. The evidence is overwhelming.
Experts are almost 100 per cent sure that the skeleton with a twisted spine found in a Leicester car park in 2012 is that of the last Plantagenet king.
Now new research has found a chink in the Tudor ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II whose right to the throne can be traced all the way back to King Henry VII, via James I and Mary Queen of Scots.
Previous DNA analysis had determined two female-line relatives of King Richard III still living and five other male-line relatives that have little royal significance.
But new evidence released today shows a break in the male 'Y chromosome' line - a newly discovered illegitimacy - which brings into question the entire history of the British monarchy since the reign of Henry IV.
The research questions the historic legitimacy concerning the descent of Edward III to his son John of Gaunt and also his two grandsons, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset and Henry IV, the first Lancastrian King.
It centres around John of Gaunt, who was Tudor King Henry VII's great great grandfather and ancestor of the Queen.
Richard III was connected to these lineages through his great grandfather Edmund, Duke of York - John of Gaunt’s brother.
Prof Schurer, pro-vice chancellor of the University of Leicester, said: “We don’t know where the break is, but if there’s one particular link that has more significance than any other, it has to be the link between Edward III and his son John of Gaunt.
“John of Gaunt was the father of Henry IV, so if John of Gaunt was not actually the child of Edward III, arguably Henry IV had no legitimate right to the throne, and therefore neither did Henry V, Henry VI, and, indirectly, the Tudors.”
THE QUEEN IN PICTURES
Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists said the claim to the crown of the “entire Tudor dynasty” partly rested on its members’ descent from John of Gaunt.
They added: “The claim of the Tudor dynasty would also be brought into question if the false paternity occurred between John of Gaunt and his son, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset.”
Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the last significant clash between the forces of the Houses of Lancaster and York in the War of the Roses.
According to historical records he was buried in Grey Friars Church, Leicester, which once stood on the site of the car park where his bones were found.
Examination of the skeleton showed that it had a twisted spine rather than the hunchback for which Richard III was famous. Although he would have walked with one shoulder higher than the other, his deformity could easily have been concealed beneath clothing and armour.
The genetic analysis showed a 96 per cent probability that Richard had blue eyes and a 77 per cent likelihood that he was blond, at least in childhood. It was possible that his hair colour may have darkened with age, said the scientists.
His appearance was probably similar to that depicted in an early portrait held by the Society of Antiquaries in London.
In their paper, the researchers compared the investigation to a missing person case that becomes more difficult over time - in this case, 527 years.
Geneticist Dr Turi King, from the University of Leicester, said: “What we have concluded is that there is, at its most conservative, a 99.999 per cent probability that these are indeed the remains of Richard III. The evidence is overwhelming.
#89
HISTORY / MYSTERY / Who invented time zones?
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 25, 2018, 03:26:08 PMThe first adoption of a standard time was on December 1, 1847, in Great Britain by railway companies using GMT kept by portable chronometers. The first of these companies to adopt standard time was the Great Western Railway (GWR) in November 1840. This quickly became known as Railway Time. About August 23, 1852, time signals were first transmitted by telegraph from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Even though 98% of Great Britain's public clocks were using GMT by 1855, it was not made Britain's legal time until August 2, 1880. Some old British clocks from this period have two minute hands"one for the local time, one for GMT.
On November 2, 1868, the then-British colony of New Zealand officially adopted a standard time to be observed throughout the colony, and was perhaps the first country to do so. It was based on the longitude 172°30′ East of Greenwich, that is 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT. This standard was known as New Zealand Mean Time.
Charles F. Dowd proposed a system of one-hour standard time zones for American railroads about 1863, although he published nothing on the matter at that time and did not consult railroad officials until 1869. In 1870 he proposed four ideal time zones (having north"south borders), the first centered on Washington, D.C., but by 1872 the first was centered on the meridian 75° W of Greenwich, with geographic borders (for example, sections of the Appalachian Mountains). Dowd's system was never accepted by American railroads. Instead, U.S. and Canadian railroads implemented a version proposed by William F. Allen, the editor of the Traveler's Official Railway Guide.
On November 2, 1868, the then-British colony of New Zealand officially adopted a standard time to be observed throughout the colony, and was perhaps the first country to do so. It was based on the longitude 172°30′ East of Greenwich, that is 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT. This standard was known as New Zealand Mean Time.
Charles F. Dowd proposed a system of one-hour standard time zones for American railroads about 1863, although he published nothing on the matter at that time and did not consult railroad officials until 1869. In 1870 he proposed four ideal time zones (having north"south borders), the first centered on Washington, D.C., but by 1872 the first was centered on the meridian 75° W of Greenwich, with geographic borders (for example, sections of the Appalachian Mountains). Dowd's system was never accepted by American railroads. Instead, U.S. and Canadian railroads implemented a version proposed by William F. Allen, the editor of the Traveler's Official Railway Guide.
#90
AREA 51 / UFOs and Aliens Among Us
Last post by THE FUGITIVE - March 25, 2018, 03:23:15 PMIn the 1940s and 50s reports of "flying saucers" became an American cultural phenomena. Sightings of strange objects in the sky became the raw materials for Hollywood to present visions of potential threats. Posters for films, like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers from 1956 illustrate these fears. Connected to ongoing ideas about life on the Moon, the canals on Mars, and ideas about Martian Civilizations, flying saucers have come to represent the hopes and fears of the modern world.
Are these alleged visitors from other worlds peaceful and benevolent or would they attack and destroy humanity? The destructive power of the Atomic bomb called into question the progressive potential of technology. Fear of the possibilities for destruction in the Cold War-era proved fertile ground for terrestrial anxieties to manifest visions of flying saucers and visitors from other worlds who might be hidden among us in plain sight.
Aliens Among us and Fears of the Other
If UFOs were visiting our world, where were these extraterrestrials? Could they be hidden among us? Comic books and television illustrates how the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors reflected anxieties of that era.
The 1962 comic There are Martians Among Us, from Amazing Fantasy #15, illustrates the way fear of extraterrestrials could reflect Cold War anxieties. In the comic, a search party gathers around a landed alien craft, but it can find no sign of alien beings. Radio announcers warn those nearby to stay indoors. The action shifts to a husband and wife as he prepares to leave their home despite a television announcer's warning to remain indoors. As he waves goodbye he reminds his wife to stay inside. The wife however decides to slip out to the store and is attacked and dragged off. The husband returns home and finding it empty runs towards the telephone in a panic. In a twist, the anxious husband reveals that he and his wife are the Martians.
The fear that there might be alien enemies in our midst resonates with fears of Soviets and communists from the McCarthy era. Ultimately, in this story, the humans are the ones who accost and capture the alien woman. The shift in perspective puts the humans in the position of the monsters.
UFOs as Contemporary Folklore
Aside from depictions of UFOs in media, UFOs are also part of American folk culture. Ideas of aliens and flying saucers are a part of the mythology of America. You can find documentation of these kinds of experiences in folk life collections. An interview with Howard Miller about hunting and hound dogs, collected as part of Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia collection, documents an individual's experience with a potential UFO sighting.
In A mysterious light, a segment of an ethnographic interview, Miller describes a strange light he saw once while hunting with his dogs in 1966 "All at once it was daylight, and I looked up to see what happened. There was a light about that big, going up, drifting up the hill. When I looked and seen it just faded out. I've been in the Marines, and know what airplane lights look like, and it was too big for that." When asked if he knew what it was he offered, "I don't know what it was" but went on to explain, "If there is any such thing as a UFO that's what that was." This unexplained light on a walk in the woods is typical of many stories of these kinds of encounters. It's not only the media that tells stories and represents these kinds of ideas, documentation of the experiences and stories Americans tell each other is similarly important for understanding and interpreting what UFOs meant to 20th century America.
Skepticism of UFOs and Alien Encounters
Scientists and astronomers express varying degrees of enthusiasm for the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. However, scientists generally dismiss the idea that there are aliens visiting Earth. In Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Carl Sagan reviews the possibilities of alien visitors to Earth, and suggests that there is good reason to be skeptical of them. Much of Sagan's work focuses on debunking folk stories and beliefs and tries to encourage more rigorous and skeptical thought. He similarly discussed criticism of beliefs in alien visitors in his earlier book, Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.
This zealous criticism of belief in UFOs from Sagan, who was well known for his speculative ideas about the likelihood of alien civilizations, might seem to be a contradiction. Sagan himself had even speculated on the possibilities of visits by ancient aliens in his essay from the early 60s Direct Contact among Galactic Civilizations by Relativistic Interstellar Spaceflight.
How do we reconcile Sagan the skeptic with the imaginative Sagan? Far from a contradiction, these two parts of Sagan's perspective offer a framework for understanding him and the interchange between science and myth about life on other worlds. Skepticism and speculative imagination come together as two halves of the whole. It's essential to entertain and explore new ideas, however strange, while at the same time testing and evaluating the validity of those ideas.
Are these alleged visitors from other worlds peaceful and benevolent or would they attack and destroy humanity? The destructive power of the Atomic bomb called into question the progressive potential of technology. Fear of the possibilities for destruction in the Cold War-era proved fertile ground for terrestrial anxieties to manifest visions of flying saucers and visitors from other worlds who might be hidden among us in plain sight.
Aliens Among us and Fears of the Other
If UFOs were visiting our world, where were these extraterrestrials? Could they be hidden among us? Comic books and television illustrates how the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors reflected anxieties of that era.
The 1962 comic There are Martians Among Us, from Amazing Fantasy #15, illustrates the way fear of extraterrestrials could reflect Cold War anxieties. In the comic, a search party gathers around a landed alien craft, but it can find no sign of alien beings. Radio announcers warn those nearby to stay indoors. The action shifts to a husband and wife as he prepares to leave their home despite a television announcer's warning to remain indoors. As he waves goodbye he reminds his wife to stay inside. The wife however decides to slip out to the store and is attacked and dragged off. The husband returns home and finding it empty runs towards the telephone in a panic. In a twist, the anxious husband reveals that he and his wife are the Martians.
The fear that there might be alien enemies in our midst resonates with fears of Soviets and communists from the McCarthy era. Ultimately, in this story, the humans are the ones who accost and capture the alien woman. The shift in perspective puts the humans in the position of the monsters.
UFOs as Contemporary Folklore
Aside from depictions of UFOs in media, UFOs are also part of American folk culture. Ideas of aliens and flying saucers are a part of the mythology of America. You can find documentation of these kinds of experiences in folk life collections. An interview with Howard Miller about hunting and hound dogs, collected as part of Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia collection, documents an individual's experience with a potential UFO sighting.
In A mysterious light, a segment of an ethnographic interview, Miller describes a strange light he saw once while hunting with his dogs in 1966 "All at once it was daylight, and I looked up to see what happened. There was a light about that big, going up, drifting up the hill. When I looked and seen it just faded out. I've been in the Marines, and know what airplane lights look like, and it was too big for that." When asked if he knew what it was he offered, "I don't know what it was" but went on to explain, "If there is any such thing as a UFO that's what that was." This unexplained light on a walk in the woods is typical of many stories of these kinds of encounters. It's not only the media that tells stories and represents these kinds of ideas, documentation of the experiences and stories Americans tell each other is similarly important for understanding and interpreting what UFOs meant to 20th century America.
Skepticism of UFOs and Alien Encounters
Scientists and astronomers express varying degrees of enthusiasm for the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. However, scientists generally dismiss the idea that there are aliens visiting Earth. In Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Carl Sagan reviews the possibilities of alien visitors to Earth, and suggests that there is good reason to be skeptical of them. Much of Sagan's work focuses on debunking folk stories and beliefs and tries to encourage more rigorous and skeptical thought. He similarly discussed criticism of beliefs in alien visitors in his earlier book, Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.
This zealous criticism of belief in UFOs from Sagan, who was well known for his speculative ideas about the likelihood of alien civilizations, might seem to be a contradiction. Sagan himself had even speculated on the possibilities of visits by ancient aliens in his essay from the early 60s Direct Contact among Galactic Civilizations by Relativistic Interstellar Spaceflight.
How do we reconcile Sagan the skeptic with the imaginative Sagan? Far from a contradiction, these two parts of Sagan's perspective offer a framework for understanding him and the interchange between science and myth about life on other worlds. Skepticism and speculative imagination come together as two halves of the whole. It's essential to entertain and explore new ideas, however strange, while at the same time testing and evaluating the validity of those ideas.