The History Channel is showing an all-day marathon of its excellent MonsterQuest series. I have seen pretty much all of the episodes, though I still come across one or two I missed now and then.
MonsterQuest is a fantastic show on cryptozoology. While Destination Truth remains the model for this fare, MonsterQuest is a close second. And unlike its competition, it actually comes to some conclusions - conclusions that often puzzle, not because they don't answer anything but because they specifically lead one to conclude the evidence cannot be explained-away, nor is it inconclusive.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
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Showing posts with label monsterquest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monsterquest. Show all posts
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Last Night's Ghost Hunters International, MonsterQuest
Last night was the second episode of Sci-Fi's new Ghost Hunters International that I have caught. I am pretty sure I missed a show or two, but I don't really mind. Personally, I just don't care for the spin-off as much as the original.
Maybe it's a misplaced sense of loyalty, maybe I just got used to them, but I feel the International team is a bit on the pompous side. I love that T.A.P.S. takes what they do seriously, but these International cats take themselves very seriously -- and it's a total turn-off. But, I can tell they all really enjoy what they do, and they're very good at it, so maybe it will just take some time for them to grow on me.
After GHI, I flipped over to MonsterQuest over to the History Channel. I absolutely love this show!
While Destination Truth is fantastic and always has a place on my must-see list, MonsterQuest really goes Destination Truth one better because they focus solely on a single "monster" each episode and they really get some definitive conclusions!
Well, that's probably overstating it...
Let's just say that MonsterQuest always comes to some definitive conclusions. They may not solve the mystery, but they definitely get further down that road than their counterparts.
If you are interested in Cryptozoology, then you simply have to check out this show! It never fails to give me something to think about and reawaken my passion for the Unknown -- nor does it fail to enlighten me on whatever subject it tackles. A perfect winner of a show!
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
Maybe it's a misplaced sense of loyalty, maybe I just got used to them, but I feel the International team is a bit on the pompous side. I love that T.A.P.S. takes what they do seriously, but these International cats take themselves very seriously -- and it's a total turn-off. But, I can tell they all really enjoy what they do, and they're very good at it, so maybe it will just take some time for them to grow on me.
After GHI, I flipped over to MonsterQuest over to the History Channel. I absolutely love this show!
While Destination Truth is fantastic and always has a place on my must-see list, MonsterQuest really goes Destination Truth one better because they focus solely on a single "monster" each episode and they really get some definitive conclusions!
Well, that's probably overstating it...
Let's just say that MonsterQuest always comes to some definitive conclusions. They may not solve the mystery, but they definitely get further down that road than their counterparts.
If you are interested in Cryptozoology, then you simply have to check out this show! It never fails to give me something to think about and reawaken my passion for the Unknown -- nor does it fail to enlighten me on whatever subject it tackles. A perfect winner of a show!
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Bigfoot on MonsterQuest
Did you see tonight's MonsterQuest over to the History Channel? That was damned good!
They always end the episodes with that whole, "Nothing's conclusive" thing, but I felt some of what they came up with tonight was pretty damned conclusive!
In one study, a scientist concluded (with the help of a professional athlete) that a human being could not match the gait the animal in the Patterson film appears to have. In another, computer enhancement proved that the level of detail in the face was too high to have been faked in that day and age (1967). They didn't say that it couldn't be done at all but, as one researcher correctly pointed-out, who would have thought to include that level of detail in a hoax on 16mm film? How could they have predicted that technology 40 years later would allow researchers to go into that much detail?
Really good show that I feel proved the Patterson footage was no hoax.
They always end the episodes with that whole, "Nothing's conclusive" thing, but I felt some of what they came up with tonight was pretty damned conclusive!
In one study, a scientist concluded (with the help of a professional athlete) that a human being could not match the gait the animal in the Patterson film appears to have. In another, computer enhancement proved that the level of detail in the face was too high to have been faked in that day and age (1967). They didn't say that it couldn't be done at all but, as one researcher correctly pointed-out, who would have thought to include that level of detail in a hoax on 16mm film? How could they have predicted that technology 40 years later would allow researchers to go into that much detail?
Really good show that I feel proved the Patterson footage was no hoax.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Thunderbirds
One of the better episodes of MonsterQuest last night dealt with Thunderbirds. The episode was entitled "Birdzilla," which was pretty cool.
Various traditions are attached to Thunderbirds, but the general consensus is that they were gigantic, predatory birds with massive wingspans that often preceded great thunderstorms. The other, generally agreed-upon, trait is that they sometimes kidnapped small children. Some accounts even have them terrorizing grown men, but these are far more rare.
Like so many of these cryptozoological oddities, accounts of Thunderbirds began in ancient times -- well, ancient to us, anyway. In fact, there's no way to know exactly how far back such stories go because the white man only started hearing them from Native Americans during exploration of the New World, so there is no recording of accounts prior to then. At the very least, we know that reports of giant birds attacking men and small children go back to at least the 16th-17th Centuries.
There was a resurgence of Thunderbird sightings in the mid to late -1970s, with at least one famous attack on a small boy taking place in a Mid-Western state. Further, not only does photographic evidence of some of these creatures exist, actual motion picture evidence of at least two of them was taken in 1977!
The interesting thing about this particular episode of MonsterQuest was that, while no real conclusions were made (see previous entry), even the pedants were stumped! They couldn't find two experts who agreed on anything when it came to what sort of bird could have attacked a 10-year old boy, nor what species of bird(s) were shown on that piece of film.
Now, I'm a weird sort: When any, relatively intelligent or observant, person tells me he saw something out of the ordinary, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not saying that I automatically accept that he saw something Unexplained; I'm saying that, if he says it's so, then the next step is to start researching the subject -- not dismiss it out-of-hand. Further, I tend to give eyewitnesses who have practical experience with the wildlife in their area more credence than some nerd who spends all day in a cloistered room looking through a microscope.
When a Cherokee Indian who has lived in the same area his entire life and knows its legends, flora, fauna, and landscape tells me he knows what a Turkey Vulture is, and what he saw was not a Turkey Vulture, I take that into consideration. It certainly carries more weight for me than when some Ornithologist clear across the country takes a brief look at a few seconds of film and "debunks" it.
But I digress.
There have also been reports of great birds since the 1970s, and there are great swaths of wilderness in North America, and throughout the world that have never been fully explored, and probably never will be. I heard one guy talking about how these birds would fly, and so they would have to be seen -- well, they have been!
See, the problem isn't that these giant birds are making themselves scarce; the problem is that the Poindexters who receive millions of dollars a year to study Bald Eagles spend all their time looking at mites under microscopes and discussing the migration of field mice, so they've fooled themselves into thinking that absolutely nothing outside their little bubble could possibly exist without them already knowing it.
And this is true of these "professionals" when it comes to basically all cryptozoological pursuits. They also discredit laymen, and researchers who do all the work, in order to lay claim to these discoveries.
But I love Thunderbirds and I have been trying to get a post or two out about them out for a while now. If I get a chance today, I'll try to bring you some accounts of Thunderbirds from some of the sources I have (see sidebar).
Various traditions are attached to Thunderbirds, but the general consensus is that they were gigantic, predatory birds with massive wingspans that often preceded great thunderstorms. The other, generally agreed-upon, trait is that they sometimes kidnapped small children. Some accounts even have them terrorizing grown men, but these are far more rare.
Like so many of these cryptozoological oddities, accounts of Thunderbirds began in ancient times -- well, ancient to us, anyway. In fact, there's no way to know exactly how far back such stories go because the white man only started hearing them from Native Americans during exploration of the New World, so there is no recording of accounts prior to then. At the very least, we know that reports of giant birds attacking men and small children go back to at least the 16th-17th Centuries.
There was a resurgence of Thunderbird sightings in the mid to late -1970s, with at least one famous attack on a small boy taking place in a Mid-Western state. Further, not only does photographic evidence of some of these creatures exist, actual motion picture evidence of at least two of them was taken in 1977!
The interesting thing about this particular episode of MonsterQuest was that, while no real conclusions were made (see previous entry), even the pedants were stumped! They couldn't find two experts who agreed on anything when it came to what sort of bird could have attacked a 10-year old boy, nor what species of bird(s) were shown on that piece of film.
Now, I'm a weird sort: When any, relatively intelligent or observant, person tells me he saw something out of the ordinary, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not saying that I automatically accept that he saw something Unexplained; I'm saying that, if he says it's so, then the next step is to start researching the subject -- not dismiss it out-of-hand. Further, I tend to give eyewitnesses who have practical experience with the wildlife in their area more credence than some nerd who spends all day in a cloistered room looking through a microscope.
When a Cherokee Indian who has lived in the same area his entire life and knows its legends, flora, fauna, and landscape tells me he knows what a Turkey Vulture is, and what he saw was not a Turkey Vulture, I take that into consideration. It certainly carries more weight for me than when some Ornithologist clear across the country takes a brief look at a few seconds of film and "debunks" it.
But I digress.
There have also been reports of great birds since the 1970s, and there are great swaths of wilderness in North America, and throughout the world that have never been fully explored, and probably never will be. I heard one guy talking about how these birds would fly, and so they would have to be seen -- well, they have been!
See, the problem isn't that these giant birds are making themselves scarce; the problem is that the Poindexters who receive millions of dollars a year to study Bald Eagles spend all their time looking at mites under microscopes and discussing the migration of field mice, so they've fooled themselves into thinking that absolutely nothing outside their little bubble could possibly exist without them already knowing it.
And this is true of these "professionals" when it comes to basically all cryptozoological pursuits. They also discredit laymen, and researchers who do all the work, in order to lay claim to these discoveries.
But I love Thunderbirds and I have been trying to get a post or two out about them out for a while now. If I get a chance today, I'll try to bring you some accounts of Thunderbirds from some of the sources I have (see sidebar).
MonsterQuest - A Review (2007)
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| MonsterQuest |
Sadly, there isn't much to report. These shows always stop just short of ever concluding anything and that really bothers me. They got some good results with the Sasquatch investigation -- technically, some very good results -- so when will they be going back to collect more evidence?
That's what I always say about these "real" scientists and researchers: They're always pulling the Holy Grail Excuse ("What scientist wouldn't want to find a [insert monster here]? It would be like The Holy Grail!"), but they collect no evidence, do no research, and refuse to follow-up on promising leads. Quit spending your time dismissing the evidence and do your fucking jobs!
Scientists... just cops with books and less common sense.
But I digress...
MonsterQuest at least went in-depth on the stories it covered but, again, if they're just going to do a surface investigation of these things -- find a feather or footprint -- then carry it back to some pedant who sits in a lab all day, studying the migratory patterns of fleas or some flimsy bullshit, then what's the point? It's just another crypto- show where nothing gets solved, no conclusions are made, and nothing promising is followed-up on.
MonsterQuest airs on History Channel Wednesdays at 8:00 (CST).
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