Tag Archives: rant

The Problem With Coast To Coast AM and George Noory

30 Jun

June 30, 2016

I make fun of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory a lot. A LOT. In case you don’t know the show, here is their own description:

Coast to Coast AM airs on more than 600 stations in the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and Guam, and is heard by nearly three million weekly listeners. With hosts George Noory, George Knapp (weekend), and guest weekend hosts, it is the most listened to overnight radio program in North America. A media phenomenon, Coast to Coast AM deals with UFOs, strange occurrences, life after death, and other unexplained (and often inexplicable) phenomena. Coast to Coast AM is overnight talk radio with daytime ratings.

What that leaves out is that it is not nearly as popular or respected as it was under Art Bell, who created it. It also leaves out that under George Noory the show has become a joke. You’ll see why soon.

Art Bell was a critical questioner and listener. He had as guests experts in major scientific fields as well as those involved in fringe paranormal research. But no matter who he had on, he asked probing and intelligent questions and did not let anyone who made outrageous claims go unchallenged. George is just the opposite. Not only is he himself ill-informed  about most of the topics he addresses, he rarely asks follow up questions and never, ever challenges a guest about anything said. Even callers with ridiculous claims are given a “gosh, wow!” by George. Ghost of Hitler got off a UFO and had a picnic with Bigfoot on your front lawn while you danced with pixies and made sandwiches? “That sounds like some afternoon. Do you think they chose you intentionally or do you live in a UFO hot spot?”

The big issue is that George is totally uncritical and unquestioning. He is open to anything and will never, ever say a negative word about anything or anyone.

I debunked a UFO claim on their Facebook page the other day.

C2C crap

I’m not an expert on UFOs. I’m just a guy with an interest in things who has read some books. Surely the host of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, a “media phenomemon” who has been delving into the mysteries of the paranormal for 13 years, would be more knowledgeable than me. Surely someone on his staff would do some research on an alleged UFO photo before posting it on their website. Surely they wouldn’t be powned by a noob like me, right?

Nah, that’s giving them too much credit. No one checks anything. No one bothers. They put anything out there no matter how fake or stupid. (And you should really see some of the stupid stuff on their page.) I saw that photo and immediately knew it was fake. I recognized that UFO from one of the most famous pictures in all of UFOlogy. It is lifted from one of the McMinnville, Oregon photos from 1950.

mcminnville01

Not just a similar object, but the same exact photo. Same lighting. Same silhouette. Same everything except that the doctored photo is so badly done it is a lot blurrier. (To be fair, some of that blurriness came when I enlarged it. Go to their page for the original.) I saw their post, recognized the photo, googled “UFO over farm house” and found that picture in under 20 seconds. The giveaway that it is the exact image is the way the light- and possibly the grain of the photo- makes the left top edge of the object appear to be pointed. Look closely in the Facebook post, it’s there too. I didn’t need any computer skills, I used my own two eyes!

And if you think that it looks like something hanging from a wire, that’s the common claim of debunkers.

That picture dates back to 1950. It is over 65 years old and has been reprinted in books all over the world since then, not to mention the internet. But did the “media phenomenon” recognize it? Nope, no one even bothered to look into it for a second.  It took me to discover that it was a doctored picture? Way to go George Noory.

 

 

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Imponderable #129: Who is Gamma?

5 Mar

March 5, 2016

Optimum is an internet/TV/phone company that routinely gives me such lousy service that I often have to write Mr. Blog’s Tepid Ride from the gas station down the street. (And it shows- the Editors.)

They are running very annoying commercials at all hours of the day touting their excellent service. Ironically, their service is so bad I can only see those commercials when I am at the home of anyone else with better internet. Or at the gas station. I get better service stealing the gas station unsecured Wi-Fi than I do at home from Optimum.

The commercial begins with very serious-seeming people working on very serious-seeming stuff in a very serious setting that looks like NASA in every film you have ever seen.

The real NASA has technology about two decades older. That's true.

The real NASA has technology about two decades older. That’s true.

How serious is this? It is so serious that these people have their fingers on the nuclear button! We’re through the looking glass, people.

gamma 0

Finally, they intone “Gamma is a go. Go for Gamma.” They turn their keys, push their buttons, and jump up and celebrate as the warheads launch towards North Korea. Finally, Kim Jung-un, it is put up or shut up time. No, no, not really.

They turn their keys, push their buttons, and jump up and celebrate as an old woman and a baby appear on their screens.

gamma 1

The woman then appears to have a stroke, making faces and odd clicking sounds at the baby, who seems to take delight in the old woman’s senility. Seriously, the woman seems less like she is trying to amuse the baby and more like she is sucking a lemon seed through a straw.

gamma 2

If this kid could talk he'd be calling 911.

If this kid could talk he’d be calling 911.

The voice-over comes on and asks “Did we do all that just so you could make silly faces with Gamma?” Before you can say “how the heck do I know?” the voice-over answers “yes we did.”

Ah gotcha, they developed a high-tech system so you can do whatever you want, even terrorize your grandkid. Nice. Cool. WAAAAAIT A MINUTE.

Who is this ad aimed at? “Did we do all that just so you could make silly faces with Gamma?” Listen to the commercial, he emphasizes you. He’s talking to you.
So who is Gamma? I, and everyone else, assumes that Gamma is the old woman, Gamma being a cutesy way of saying Grandma.

So the voiceover is saying “Did we do all that just so you could make silly faces with your grandmother?”

The kid. They are talking to the kid. Optimum is telling all the babies in the audience, all the babies who pay their household’s cable bills, to switch to Optimum so they can see funny faces from grandma. This commercial is directed at infants.

Did Optimum really make a commercial for the babies who pay internet bills demographic?
The question is Imponderable.

 

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