Did the Soviet Navy see a gigantic UFO emerging from the water in the Pacific Ocean during the Cold War? Richard Dolan strikes again!
Did *both* superpowers see craft too technologically advanced to be theirs? Hmmm...
Or did both sides have exactly the same disinfo program? That is, blaming secret military programs on space aliens. I don´t know, that seems highly unlikely. The Soviets had tight media censorship, they could classify anything, so what need would there be for such a scheme?
Or did some secret US intelligence agency "psy-op" both the American public and the Soviet military?
If they even exist, that is. Which they most certainly do not. Some tall tales from China, Chile and Argentina.
Artemis II (or was it Orion) is back on Earth. Meanwhile, the trolling and low IQ disinfo on various social media platforms about the Moon mission is off the scales. I frankly wonder if sheer resentment is part of the picture? Imagine being jealous of some crazy ass nigga who flew around the Moon, I mean, dude!
So the astronauts from the Artemis II mission will soon be back on Earth. LOL, do they *really* wanna return here, I wonder?
If everything goes smoothly, it´s a big win for paganism. You know, Artemis, Moon, Easter, that kind of thing...
Yes, oarfish. That´s the new apocalyptic sign, apparently. From a channel which previously promoted the idea that 3I/ATLAS is alien tech and that the Blood Moon was some kind of doomsday event. And yet, here we are. And how many stranded oarfish are we talking about, anyway? Two? Three??
Here is ChatGPT.
Yes — the fish you’re thinking of is the Oarfish, and it is often called a “doomsday fish.” But the reputation is mostly folklore rather than science.
In parts of East Asia, especially Japan, oarfish are traditionally believed to predict earthquakes or tsunamis. In Japanese folklore they are called Ryūgū-no-tsukai, meaning “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace.”
The idea is that when these deep-sea fish appear near the surface or wash ashore, it signals that something is wrong beneath the ocean floor.
This belief gained attention after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, because several oarfish had washed up on Japanese beaches in the preceding years.
There are a few speculative reasons people propose:
Deep-sea disturbance theory – If tectonic activity changes pressure or releases chemicals, deep-sea animals might become disoriented and rise toward the surface.
Rare sightings – Oarfish normally live hundreds of meters deep, so when one appears it seems mysterious or ominous.
Sea-serpent appearance – Their long ribbon-like body (sometimes over 10 m long) historically inspired myths about sea monsters.
Scientists have actually tested the idea.
A statistical study in 2019 concluded that the link between oarfish sightings and earthquakes is an “illusory correlation.”
In other words:
Earthquakes happen all the time, so coincidences occur.
Oarfish occasionally wash up because they are sick, dying, or injured, not because of seismic events.
Folklore: Oarfish = omen of earthquakes or tsunamis.
Science: No reliable evidence of any predictive relationship.
Interestingly, because of their strange appearance and deep-sea habitat, oarfish are also one of the animals often proposed as a historical source for sea-serpent legends.
If you want, I can also show you:
why deep-sea fish sometimes suddenly appear near the surface, or
some other animals that people historically believed could predict earthquakes (there are several fascinating ones).
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| Credit: pitpony.photography |
I blogged about this before (see second link). This seems to be the sequel! So there is a hypothesis that the evolutionary ancestors of the eukaryotes (a vast group of organisms including animals, plants and fungi) were Archaea. Asgard Archaea, more exactly. Or perhaps some unknown microbe living in symbiosis with a bacterium *inside* an Archaeon? The content linked below isn´t entirely clear on this topic, but some kind of hybridization is the bottom line.
The problem, apparently, is that the bacterium participating in the primordial merger needed oxygen to survive. Asgard Archaea, on the other hand, can´t stand oxygen. However, recent research suggests that some of them actually can do so, making the scenario more plausible.
Personally, I like the fact that our deep evolutionary ancestors might (at least partially) be tentacled micro-organisms named after the abode of the Norse gods, and that some of them have been found in a remote part of the Atlantic Ocean named after Loki. Life looks like a "trickster", somehow...
I actually assumed that marine cryptids are almost as implausible as terrestrial ones, but ChatGPT disagrees and thinks that at least in principle they are more likely.
Explain why marine cryptids are more plausible than terrestrial ones.
Marine cryptids are more plausible than terrestrial ones not because the ocean is magical, but because physics, ecology, and sampling bias work very differently in water than on land. When scientists say this, they’re making a sober inference about where ignorance can realistically persist.
Here’s the reasoning, step by step.
This is the single biggest factor.
~71% of Earth’s surface is ocean
>80% of the ocean is unexplored at fine resolution
Most of the deep sea has:
Never been directly observed
Never been biologically sampled
Never been filmed continuously
By contrast:
Virtually all terrestrial biomes have been repeatedly surveyed
Large land animals are constantly encountered
Ignorance is plausible where observation is sparse.
On land:
Bodies persist as bones and teeth
Scavengers scatter remains slowly
Skeletons are often found decades later
In the ocean:
Bodies sink
Pressure, scavengers, and microbes destroy remains rapidly
Bones dissolve faster in deep, cold, acidic water
Carcasses are consumed within days to weeks
This means:
A large marine animal can die without leaving recoverable remains.
That alone changes the evidential calculus.
The ocean supports:
Enormous biomass at lower trophic levels
Wide-ranging predators with very low population densities
Long-distance migratory behavior
Examples:
Blue whales: global range, rarely seen
Giant squid: known almost entirely from fragments until recently
Beaked whales: multiple species discovered in the last few decades
On land:
Large mammals require:
Dense, localized populations
Stable territories
Predictable feeding zones
Which are easy to detect.
Water fundamentally changes biomechanics:
Buoyancy supports mass
No need for load-bearing limbs
Gigantism is energetically cheaper
This is why:
The largest animals in Earth’s history are marine
Many deep-sea species are much larger than their shallow-water relatives
A “giant unknown thing” is biomechanically plausible in water, not on land.
Marine detection relies on:
Sonar (low resolution for biology)
Trawls (sparse, destructive, biased)
Remote cameras (tiny windows of time)
Most ocean animals:
Are never caught
Are never photographed
Are known from indirect traces
Terrestrial detection:
Trail cams
Roads
Satellites
Human density
Hunters
If a large land animal exists, we will get a clear photo or body.
Real examples once considered “cryptids”:
Giant squid (Architeuthis): known from myths → beaks → carcasses → video
Megamouth shark (1976): large, slow, near surface
Living coelacanth (1938)
Beaked whales: new species discovered via bones/DNA
These follow a consistent pattern:
physical evidence first, live observation later.
Marine cryptids sometimes meet this standard. Terrestrial ones don’t.
More plausible
Deep-sea invertebrates
Rare sharks or rays
Elusive cetaceans
Large gelatinous organisms
Deep pelagic animals with wide ranges
Much less plausible
Humanoid sea beings
Intelligent, tool-using marine species hiding from humanity
Enormous surface-dwelling animals near coasts
Plausibility ≠ license for fantasy.
Even water has limits.
Lakes:
Are small
Have limited biomass
Are heavily monitored
This is why:
Loch Ness monster fails ecological tests
Lake cryptids are generally implausible
The open ocean is the real ignorance zone.
Marine cryptids are more plausible because the ocean erases evidence, limits observation, supports sparse large animals, and has a proven history of surprises.
Terrestrial ecosystems do not.
This doesn’t mean famous cryptids are real — it means where uncertainty legitimately remains.
If you want, I can:
Rank famous cryptids by ecological plausibility
Explain why humanoid cryptids are almost certainly mythic
Compare cryptids to legitimate “unknown unknowns” in biology
Tie this into philosophy of scientific ignorance (what kinds of unknowns are allowed)
Just say the direction.
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| - Yes, bird shit. You heard that right! |
I´m sure you´ve heard about the glory days of American isolationism during the 18th and 19th century. Yeah, so about that...
Isolationism my ass.
Some scary tales (or tall tales) about unknown monsters in the deep blue sea. One of them is nicknamed "The Underwater Abominable Snowman"! Other "cryptids" mentioned are more trivial to the sensation-hungry layperson, such as fish in the Mariana trench (although that too is actually very strange). And yes, I suppose I have to mention Cthulhu again...
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| Credit: US Army World Class Athlete Program |
Det enda land som lyckats få Donald Trump att öppna gränserna?
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| - Not sure if the journey was worth it, tbh... |
"Iguanas sailed on rafts 34 million years ago". LOL, no, they didn´t. But the headline does sound funny. I mean, for a moment I hoped peer-reviewed Science (TM) had proved the Silurian hypothesis?!
Alas, it´s an article about perfectly normal lizards clinging to masses of vegetation drifting with the ocean currents all the way from North America to the Fiji islands. The longest journey ever made by a non-human terrestrial animal, apparently. Somewhat ironically, the ancestors of the Fijian iguanas may have been desert-dwelling ditto in America.
I assume their evolutionary adaptations to a desert environment (think extreme heat, almost no water) may have helped them survive on the "raft" in scorching tropical heat with no fresh water until they reached the land of milk and honey in the middle of the Pacific...
Does the federal government classify information about interstellar objects as HORRENDEOUS as they are SQUAMOUS to stop a RUGOUS UNIVERSAL PANIC from ENGULFING Homo sapiens (sensu stricto) as we know it???
Well, at first I almost thought so, but naaah, it was just standard military secrecy (and red tape). When Avi Loeb (yes, *that* Avi Loeb) and some co-workers studied the trajectory of a certain meteorite which had impacted the sea off New Guinea in 2014, they suspected it may have been the first ever interstellar object observered within our solar system (and on Earth). Their study was published in 2019. However, to conclusively confirm the above, they needed data from military telescopes...but the US Space Command wasn´t very keen on sharing it. Obviously. No conspiracy here, just good ol´fashion security clearence! Which you don´t have, sorry.
In 2022, the military published their own study, pretty much confirming the civilian science team´s original conclusions. Note that in 2017, another interstellar object had been confirmed: ´Oumuamua. Which Loeb argued could have been a UFO/UAP. So now you can go ahead and spin a conspiracy theory about it! At the time, The Scout was regarded as the first interstellar object ever to be observed inside our solar system, but if Loeb & Co (and the Space Command) are right, then the nameless meteorite has the primogeniture...
An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014, classified info reveals
Secret government info confirms first interstellar object on Earth
OK, help me out here. So the ship recently boarded in the Gulf of Finland by the Finnish police has a flag of convenience from the Cook Islands, an obsure quasi-independent territory somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The ship is believed to be part of a "shadow fleet" controlled by Russia, the main purpose of which is to export Russian oil and hence break the Western sanctions. Finland suspects that the ship also sabotaged two underwater cabels connecting Finland and Estonia.
But the most interesting part of the equation here is surely the flag of convenience. So by not banning such anti-labor practices, the Western nations (including New Zealand, the actual overlord of the Cook Islands) have enabled Russia to bypass the sanctions.
Capitalist greed makes it more difficult to fight Russian imperialism. How ironic!
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| No rare whales were harmed when generating this picture |
"The best cryptid evidence" doesn´t strike me as very "cryptid". Note that the Patterson-Gimlin film of Bigfoot fame isn´t included in this survey. All animals featured (except maybe Marvin) seem to belong to known and currently extant taxa. So-called cryptozoologists don´t really care - they want to find a giant ape-man, a surviving dinosaur, or something to that effect.
So it seems the Patterson-Gimlin film is unique, being the only good footage of an *actual* cryptid (i.e. a monster). But it´s precisely it´s singular character that makes it so hard to believe...
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| Credit: National Park Service |
Newfound whale species found in US waters may already be on the brink of extinction
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| Credit: Jolene Bertoldi |
Mysterious sound from the Mariana Trench has finally been explained
“Waiting for John”, retitled “Waiting for John Frum: Cargo Cult of the
South Pacific. When God is an American Soldier” by this YouTube account, is a
low-budget documentary about the John Frum Movement at Tanna, an island in the
New Hebrides. Previously a joint (!) British-French colony, since 1980 the New
Hebrides are independent under the name Vanuatu. The film crew spent some time
in the small settlement of Lamakara, the last hold out of the Movement. There, a
couple of hundred people led by one Chief Isak still await the return of their mysterious savior
figure. They also interviewed members of a breakaway faction at Sulphur Bay
(the quitters are actually the larger group) and Christian missionaries from Port
Resolution.
The beliefs of the John Frum Movement are an eclectic mix of
pro-American “modernism” and Melanesian traditionalism. Indeed, the cult
members seem to live a more traditional lifestyle than many other people in
Vanuatu. Frankly, the Movement comes across as very weird. The inhabitants of
Lamakara are self-sufficient, grow their own food, raise pigs and try to stay
out of the money economy (not entirely successfully). Ecstatic dances and kava
drinking also form part of Custom, as they call their traditional ways.
Apparently, Christian missionaries and the colonial authorities attempted to
stamp out Custom.
At the same time, the Movement has quasi-apocalyptic expectations and hopes
that America will bring them “cargo” (modern products). The main rituals of the
cult include the hoisting of an American flag and a mock US army drill, during
which Chief Isak dress in fancy uniform. John Frum himself is a
composite character. On the one hand, he is seen as an American soldier,
neither White nor Black, who speaks all languages in the world. He supposedly
appeared in 1940 and prophesized the coming of the US military to the New Hebrides.
On the other hand, John is seen as a spirit-being who can be contacted
through visionary trances. Isak “spoke” to
John in a cave at the top of a high hill. The documentary doesn´t say, but it´s
easy to suspect a connection to native shamanic practices.
Like virtually all other religious movements, the John Frum Movement has
experienced at least one split, perhaps due to the delay of the Parousia. When
based at Sulphur Bay, most adherents decided to follow a certain Prophet Fred,
who claimed new revelations from the spirits. His movement, called Unity, no longer
believes in the return of John Frum in the flesh, instead preaching concord between
cargo cultists and Christians. The few remaining stalwarts were forced to leave
Sulphur Bay and build the new village of Lamakara in the hinterland, Lamakara
meaning “outcast”. The Movement is also under pressure from Christian missionaries
(who are ethnically Melanesian) and modernity in the form of the national
capital Vila and its money economy.
I can well understand why cargo cultists have fascinated Western anthropologists
and scholars of religion. The parallels to Christianity are obvious. The
Christians at Port Resolution resolutely proclaim the return of Jesus, who rose
from the dead and ascended to Heaven, while insisting that John Frum is dead
and won´t return. But, of course, the John Frum-ites insist that John is very
much alive in mint spirit condition. The eagerly awaited American aid is
clearly the apocalypse of the cargo cultists, and even the peculiar combination
of nativist traditionalism and modernity could be a subconscious Christian
borrowing. Think this-worldly asceticism leading to a pie-in-the-sky reward in
the afterlife. The crisis when the Messiah doesn´t show up on schedule is a
classic. To a Christian, this simply means that the John Frum Movement are a
bunch of Anti-Christs, but from a more secular viewpoint, the Melanesian cargo
cult raises questions about Christianity itself. Isn´t it strange that the sociological
dynamic of both “true” and “false” religions are remarkably similar?
With that reflection, I end this little review.
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| Credit: Marilyn Sourgose |
The locals are manning up to protect Julian Assange from ZOG abduction attempts. Just in from the Northern Mariana Islands!
Kidding...
