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  • WisGuy says:
    March 24, 2017 at 17:13

    Interesting episode – I started subscribing to Euphomet after listening to Jim and Ky tell about their ECETI adventure.

    I can’t help but think, though, that much of what Jim described in their nighttime sighting could be created or replicated by an entirely terrestrial human device, namely, a quadcopter drone. If you are not familiar with what drones can do, go look at some videos on YouTube, particularly Frequent Flyer RC, who loves doing crazy aerobatics, although good drone review channels include Quadcopter 101, RCSaylors, and Dustin Dunnill. Drones are capable of performing aerial feats that no plane or helicopter could mimic, including stopping on a dime, hovering, making near right-angle turns, nearly instantly switching and reversing directions, and accelerating at seemingly amazing speeds, all of which are commonly reported by individuals who believe they are seeing UFO’s. This James Gilliland fellow could quite possibly have a few pals who are experienced drone pilots, with some higher-end drones with powerful enough motors and batteries to stay aloft for half an hour or so and carry powerful lights that switch on to create the “flare-up” effects. At night and at a distance, it would be hard to tell how big or how far away something like a drone would be and I think much of what Jim Perry reported could have been faked by drones.

    Jim certainly has a great radio personality and tons of enthusiasm for interesting topics, which is why I started subscribing to his podcast. However, he seems entirely too eager to accept at face value every mysterious phenomenon or alternative theory he encounters, and I strongly recommend that he turn his proverbial BS detector’s volume up to audible levels and start viewing his guests and their theories with a more discerning and discriminating eye. Case in point: he has bought hook, line, and sinker into the absolutely fictional tripe of bombastic fringe history conspiracy theorist and reality TV host Scott Wolter, who did the worthless America Unearthed pseudo-archeology show on H2 and who has appeared as a guest on Euphomet.

    The first several times I watched America Unearthed I was distracted while doing something else but thought the topics seemed interesting. However, when I actually sat down and paid attention, I discovered that although Scott Wolter holds himself out as a scientist (a “forensic geologist”), he has complete disregard for the scientific method, logic, evidentiary concepts, and common sense. With one exception (when geological proof conclusively established an underground rock barrier was a natural geological phenomenon and not a fortified wall created by “an ancient race of giants”), EVERY episode of America Unearthed features some extreme fringe history theory, Wolter consults with some crackpot amateur proponents that of course endorse that episode’s fringe theory, he talks to one or two genuine expert historians or archeologists who tell him the theory is either impossible or extremely unlikely, and then Wolter concludes the episode by ignoring the actual experts and declaring that the evidence established that the theory is true, ignoring all of the much more convincing evidence to the contrary. In one episode in which he declared that the love-child of Marc Antony and Cleopatra took all of Cleopatra’s treasure to North America and hid it in a secret cave in the wall of the Grand Canyon, Wolter surprisingly caught the proponent of this theory red-handed committing fraud by selling “ancient Egyptian artifacts” that were actually made from 19th century grave markers (complete with original English inscriptions on the back), yet Wolter still claimed this con-artist’s theory about the Grand Canyon treasure trove was true?!? Wolter further claims “The Government!” is out to stop him, and cites to the fact that he has been prevented from doing his investigations when a) he has been too lazy to obtain permits to dig at recognized archeological sites; b) he wants to excavate Native American religious sites in violation of federal law; and c) he wants to violate safety laws that have been around for long before anyone heard of Scott Wolter, such as no flying below the rim of the Grand Canyon.

    Shannon, I have a suggestion for you for a guest on ITF. After seeing for myself what an obvious crackpot theorist Wolter was, I discovered I certainly wasn’t the only one and there is an author named Jason Colavito who has similar disdain for Scott Wolter and has a website where he also publishes a variety of reviews of mysterious phenomenon TV shows and books. Colavito has published an episode-by-episode review of America Unearthed in which he goes into quite admirable detail in debunking each and every one of Wolter’s fringe theories, doing the sort of careful, accuracy-oriented research that Wolter should have done in the first place. Additionally, Colavito has repeatedly challenged Wolter to present a fact-based defense of his theories and his shows, claiming he will be more than happy to give Wolter the space on his website to speak his piece and defend his claims, but Wolter refuses, although he has acknowledged Colavito on multiple occasions. Colavito additionally has done similar skeptic-but-accuracy-oriented reviews of other shows including Ancient Aliens and pokes fun at that show’s self-proclaimed expert Giorgio Tsoukalos’ fringe theories and his lack of background in the topic about which he claims expertise (Tsoukalos actually has a B.A. in sports information communication, not the Ph.D. he once claimed). Sorry Sam, I know you became UFO-watching pals with Tsoukalos at some desert UFO conference. I think Colavito would make a very interesting guest and would be a refreshing change of pace from the usual guests to have an avowed skeptic on the show. I would think that Ryan might be able to add significantly to any discussions with Colavito of debunking Ancient Aliens, given his focus on UFOology. What do you think, Shannon? You could find out if there are any Fortean phenomenon that Colavito believes might be real.

    [BTW, just to clarify, I am not a diehard skeptic trolling this website. I have been fascinated by Fortean phenomenon since I was a kid, but I view such reports with a sensible bit of skepticism and attempt to be objective about these things. For instance, I don’t believe in Nessie or any sort of lake monster, as the limited environments would not support a breeding population of such animals, plus there are so many much more likely non-mysterious explanations behind the sightings, such as waves and wakes, logs and floating debris, and naturally-occurring known fauna such as waterfowl, otters, sturgeon, etc…. However, I am on the fence about sasquatch, balancing the extensive and similar Native American beliefs in tall men of the woods, the thousands of sightings of bigfoot by relatively credible people, the seemingly convincing P-G film, the generally persuasive arguments posed by Jeff Meldrum in Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, against the obvious lack of a body, the large numbers of hoaxers, the relative lack of bigfoot evidence in wintertime when there should be many more footprints in the snow, including some leading back to a bigfoot lair, etc…. And I do believe in UFO’s, of course accepting that many sightings are of top-secret advanced USAF craft, but finding that there have been too many sightings over the years by individuals as credible as Jimmy Carter to blame it all on hoaxes and misidentification. With most cultures around the world having a tradition of being visited by superior beings (many of which have been deified), a very plausible explanation would be visits by advanced beings from other planets.]

  • WisGuy says:
    May 18, 2017 at 19:47

    Anyone know what happened to Euphomet? They haven’t put out a new episode in a half-year. Maybe Jim and Kyle got abducted from the ECETI Ranch?

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