May 10, 2015 — Red Pill Junkie with Richard Dolan

[Mulvaney]

An improbable tale, with plenty of flags long before May 5, delivered by people who refused to make information available. While I still wonder if this was the actual story that Dew intended to tell from the start, I am more interested in the kind of thinking that led to this - or any number of other examples that seem to riddle the field of UFOs, cryptids, ancient aliens, or alternative "archeology" and "science."

In this case, if it was on a slide said to be using a cardboard holder from a certain time, that could be connected to people who lived in the Southwest, it might have something to do with Roswell. And if it does, then the glass case could not be from a museum and it must be lying on an army blanket, and the placard must have some alternative purpose that cannot be deciphered, and the body that looks like a mummy must not be a mummy.

How many other tales are spun from assumptions that lack basic foundations? How many times does a "documentary," book, or conference speaker start with "If this is true. . Then it could also be, and build from that until you are standing on the ceiling, looking down at the floor, and wondering how you got there?

Speculation is fun, and can be important. If people want to go to a conference to hear a theory or take a trip to investigate a claim that lacks a foundation, then very little is lost - although it can lead to consequences that go far beyond this particular incident. But for a field that offers critiques, analysis, and research that questions mainstream theory, critical thinking of our own assumptions seems to be a lost art.

So the only questions that I still have is what was Dolan thinking before he got up on stage, what did he look at, what proof did he seek? What were Carey and Schmitt doing with the material over the past couple of years? They will not be the first to seek to use dubious information as a basis for an event, conference, or book - but still it would be nice to know. Bragalia's apology was a start, although it raised more questions and did not address his own actions and statements made in reference to people asking hard questions. It did not explain why he believed that there were any real coincidences that could point to something larger, while people were doing their best to hide the ball.

As much as some blogs have decided that it is time to move on, I think it's still important to understand how this particular debacle unfolded. It may be all that I am interested in hearing from Dolan, Carey, or Schmitt for a very long time -- perhaps their silence should be broken before Roswell 2015.

 

[Jeremiah Dugger]

When a handful of researchers sit on "evidence" for years without submitting it for peer review, but do sell tickets to the revelation, alarm bells should be ringing.
When no readable version of the placard could (or would) be revealed at said pay-per-view event, but a small group of not-for-profit researchers can (and do) produce a readable placard within days of obtaining a blurry image, your reasonable conclusions are few: 1)Adam Dew & the so-called "Dream Team" couldn't do it because they're inept.
Or 2) they wouldn't do it because they're dishonest profiteers.

 

[Burnt State]

You just support my impression they went into it with blinder's on? Was it desperation to find something new and significant about Roswell?

That's a valid question as it seems these slides were the best thing the dream team could come up with in their attempt to create new definitive material around the legend of Roswell. There seemed to be an incredible amount of confidence heading into this fiasco. Is it possible that a minor documentarian could actually bamboozle seasoned investigators with low res high contrast digital copies? Something's not clicking here properly given all the previous pro-Roswell slide statements.

It seems that what we are left with is a whole big pile of excuses and appeals to scientific authorities that Dolan advised on this show when in the same breath he admits their claims are too speculative in their reaches. How is a claim that the body is not a mammal and developed in an environment without gravity supposed to provide anyone with any evidence beyond what was known as soon as the very first blurry image was revealed. Anyone who saw this image in passing would immediately say 'museum mummy' as everyone did prior to the event. Yet somehow there should be some kind of deferring to 'experts' who are making even more outlandish claims than those who tried making a Roswellian connection based on a slide alone?

 

[Wade]

Who was it at the conference that name dropped the paracast in their comments?

 

[wwkirk]

The latest mea culpa:
A Different Perspective: Tony Bragalia and the End of the Roswell Slides

 

[Gene Steinberg]

For some that's should only be the start of the apology tour.

 

[Wade]

Take note that twice in as many paragraphs anthony had to point out they were SKEPTICAL researchers...not just researchers, so does this make dew and party BELIEVER researchers?

Ham handed doesn't even begin to describe his whole approach on this matter.

 

[Creepy Green Light]

But no matter what was gonna go down in Mexico City, did any of you NOT think the end result was going to some type of debacle/scandal, like we are witnessing?

 

[Constance]

The latest mea culpa:

A Different Perspective: Tony Bragalia and the End of the Roswell Slides

The comments at Randall's page are interesting. The newly developed disambiguating software used to make the placard readable is now being discussed for its potential uses in further clarifying the Ramey telegram. David Rudiak is interested. According to one of the comments some researchers are already applying DeBlur and other new software applications to the telegram.

 

[Christopher O'Brien]

Work on making the Ramey memo readable has already been completed. Ron Regehr will be publishing the results in his soon-to-be-released book.

 

[Constance]

But no matter what was gonna go down in Mexico City, did any of you NOT think the end result was going to some type of debacle/scandal, like we are witnessing?

As one persuaded by the complement of Roswell research that a small alien craft did crash near Roswell in July 1947 and that small anomalous beings were seen at two of the three wreckage sites, I considered it within the realm of possibility that slides dated to that period and found in the region might present some trace evidence supporting the alien crash theory. I was not aware that some southwestern American Indian tribes had mummified their deceased members going far back into the past. I doubted that the bodies of human children with encephalitis were preserved, publicly displayed, and photographed often enough to account for the slides. So yes, I thought the 'Roswell slides' might have a connection to the Roswell crash.

 

[Constance]

Work on making the Ramey memo readable has already been completed. Ron Regehr will be publishing the results in his soon-to-be-released book.

Excellent. Do you know when it will be published?

 

[Mulvaney]

With all the software enhancements, perhaps we can deblur the old Adamski photos and see the Venusians waving at us from the portholes. On the other hand, we might just see a crudely made model. Still, with all the blurry photos out there of flying objects and cryptids, perhaps sharpening up the details would be interesting in a number of contexts.

 

[Creepy Green Light]

As one persuaded by the complement of Roswell research that a small alien craft did crash near Roswell in July 1947 and that small anomalous beings were seen at two of the three wreckage sites, I considered it within the realm of possibility that slides dated to that period and found in the region might present some trace evidence supporting the alien crash theory. I was not aware that some southwestern American Indian tribes had mummified their deceased members going far back into the past. I doubted that the bodies of human children with encephalitis were preserved, publicly displayed, and photographed often enough to account for the slides. So yes, I thought the 'Roswell slides' might have a connection to the Roswell crash.

I'm with you, up to a point. If it were announced that a retired Colonel that was once head of security/intelligence at Roswell Army Airfield was on his death bed and claimed he had some slides of supposed aliens....well, now you've got my attention. But when Joe Blow Nobody and his wife, whom have no connection to the Army and/or intelligence; not interested.

 

[Creepy Green Light]

With all the software enhancements, perhaps we can deblur the old Adamski photos and see the Venusians waving at us from the portholes. On the other hand, we might just see a crudely made model. Still, with all the blurry photos out there of flying objects and cryptids, perhaps sharpening up the details would be interesting in a number of contexts.

Omg, that literally made me laugh out loud. Wasn't expecting that.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

I'm with you, up to a point. If it were announced that a retired Colonel that was once head of security/intelligence at Roswell Army Airfield was on his death bed and claimed he had some slides of supposed aliens....well, now you've got my attention. But when Joe Blow Nobody and his wife, whom have no connection to the Army and/or intelligence; not interested.

And we never proved whether "Joe Blow Nobody and his wife" even took those pictures, or merely collected them, or whether it's a mixture from different people from different places all thrown in that box.

 

[Creepy Green Light]

And we never proved whether "Joe Blow Nobody and his wife" even took those pictures, or merely collected them, or whether it's a mixture from different people from different places all thrown in that box.

Exactly Gene. Couple those facts with the fact that there was an "expo" held in Mexico City that you had to pay to attend or watch, and that Jaime M. was one of the orchestrators of it all and you end up with.....well, what we're talking bout now

 

[Constance]

And we never proved whether "Joe Blow Nobody and his wife" even took those pictures, or merely collected them, or whether it's a mixture from different people from different places all thrown in that box.

True. The evidence concerning the origin of the slides was all circumstantial. But I can see how the lines connecting the circumstantial dots seemed to firm up as additional circumstantial details were discovered -- e.g., the friendship of the Rays with the Eisenhowers (Mamie, Dwight, and Milton); the display of multiple mummies at the roadside museum in White City including the photograph taken there of the very small mummy with the extremely large head.

I called White City, btw, using a telephone number on the facebook page titled White City, NM, and spoke with a member of the family that now owns White City. They purchased the whole site of the town about seven years ago. The individual I spoke with, who consulted with his father while we spoke, told me that he had seen a number of the mummies in the 'Million Dollar Museum' while he was a child. I asked if he knew what had happened to the contents of the museum and he answered that it was all auctioned off six or seven years ago and they had no records of who purchased what. His father supplied the name of the auction company that handled the disposal of the contents, a major auction and real estate firm in Lakeland, FL, called Higgenbotham Auctioneers. I was of course interested in whether the exhibit appearing in the Roswell Slides might have been photographed there and might still be located (following Nick Redfern's suggestion in a recent blog). Anthony Bragalia's research has now made all this a moot inquiry.

I also traced a living descendent of Charlie White, the former owner of the Million Dollar Museum, who reportedly lectured on the museum's holdings and other matters every Friday night for years, thinking that if his lectures, notes, papers were still in the possession of the family they might shed some light on the mummies exhibited there and their origins. I hadn't yet called Charlie White's descendent by the time Bragalia announced his discovery of the mummy's actual origin among the Pueblo Indians at Mesa Verde late Saturday night, obviating the point of making such a call.

 

[Burnt State]

And we never proved whether "Joe Blow Nobody and his wife" even took those pictures, or merely collected them, or whether it's a mixture from different people from different places all thrown in that box.

In fact there's probably some very clear slides taken at the museum in that collection where you can actually read the placard without the need of any deblurring software at all. No one would take only two pics at a museum...

 

[Constance]

With all the software enhancements, perhaps we can deblur the old Adamski photos and see the Venusians waving at us from the portholes. On the other hand, we might just see a crudely made model. Still, with all the blurry photos out there of flying objects and cryptids, perhaps sharpening up the details would be interesting in a number of contexts.

Your post actually is funny in the context of the high expectations in our time that computer software can answer all our questions.