THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
February 2, 2014
Explore the Frontiers of Paranormal Research on The Paracast
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Important — Please Read! In a separate email, Paracast host Gene Steinberg has made a personal appeal for emergency financial assistance. Please check that message for further details. If you’re able to assist, please note that we have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com. We can also accept Bitcoin, and we offer a donation link for that, too, on our site.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present that outspoken blogger on the paranormal, Red Pill Junkie. Under his online name, he is a regular contributor for The Daily Grail, Mysterious Universe, the Intrepid Magazine blog. He also collaborates frequently with The Grimerica Show podcast and also lends a little hand on The Gralien Report radio show. He says, "But my true forte is that I like to comment on things…a lot."
Chris O'Brien's Site: http://www.ourstrangeplanet.com
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Sponsored Message: Don’t get ripped off when you need to liquidate your precious jewelry and silverware. Call Steve at Numis Gems at (480) 878-7678 and get the straight scoop!
So Where’s the UFO Photograph?
By Gene Steinberg
If you’ve read the statistics lately about such things, you’ll find that the majority of mobile handset owners in the U.S. have smartphones, which are actually sophisticated miniature computers. This is becoming more and more true around the industrialized world.
But you don’t have to read statistics. Just look around you. It’s hard to go anywhere without seeing someone with phone in hand either talking or texting. Indeed, you wonder about some people who cross the street without following the lesson I learned as a child — look both ways!
To me, it’s up front and personal: When my son, Grayson, came home from Spain for a brief visit last December, we took him out to dinner. Typical of those who are part of Generation Y, he came equipped with an iPhone, and he spent a little too much time with his head focused not on what his dad and mom had to say, or the meal in front of him, but on texts from his friends.
But people of all ages are addicted to their smartphones, and while I do occasionally glance down at my iPhone, I try not to make a habit of it.
So where am I going with this?
Well, even the cheapest smartphones — and some pretty expensive models are actually free with a wireless contract — have decent cameras. For the most part, they are easy to use for quick and dirty snapshots. The better cameras, which you find on such handsets as an iPhone or a Nokia Lumia, can deliver photos that are every bit as good as the ones you take on most digital cameras. They can even record high definition videos with some measure of image stabilization.
In the old days, the common excuse for not being able to take a photo of a UFO was the time it took to locate a camera, set it up, and take the picture. But many people have their smartphones with them all the time. So is it such a chore to take it out of the pocket or purse, assuming it’s not already in your hand?
It would seem, therefore, that there should be a virtual avalanche of credible UFO photos, assuming that at least some of those sightings represent real objects of unknown origin. So why aren’t we seeing them?
Indeed, most of the photos and videos that do turn up display little more than flashing lights in the sky, usually indistinct. For the most part, when something is clear with recognizable features, it’s often a fake. You see the easy availability of digital cameras of one sort or another, particularly those embedded in a mobile handset, a tablet, has also made it possible to create the building blocks of a hoax.
Take the digital image, open it in a photo editing app, such as Adobe Photoshop, and a reasonably skilled graphic artist or photographer can do wonders. For videos, Apple’s professional editing app, Final Cut Pro X, is available for Mac users for just $299.99. This is the very same software used in the movie and TV industries to create real motion pictures.
So you might think that photographic and video evidence has become almost useless.
And it’s true that evidence of this sort is only as good as the eyewitness testimony that accompanies it. If the report is credible, and a professional examination of the digital data doesn’t reveal evidence of tampering or outright fakery, you may have something worth further investigation.
On the other hand, if there are thousands of UFO sightings each year, and hundreds of millions of people have ready access to a decent camera, why isn’t there more evidence to examine?
I think I’ve addressed that apparent contradiction already. People who are heavy smartphone users aren’t looking up for possible UFOs. They are staring down at their handsets, often oblivious to their surroundings.
But even if they do see a UFO, that doesn’t mean they will have the time to take out the camera and attempt to shoot a picture, or a video. The event may only last a few seconds. Even if the UFO lingers, the excitement of the moment may make it difficult to think logically. After all, we’re talking of an unexpected event, though some do, I suppose, believe they can duplicate sightings at will.
Even then, most sightings are nothing more than lights in the sky. Sure, some will appear to display flight characteristics that seem to defy the capability of conventional aircraft. Consider, though, the problem of holding your mobile handset steady enough to get a clear picture, and record images that reveal such incredible maneuvers. Most of the time, you see jumping lights. If equipped, digital image stabilization was ineffective, or switched off.
So even though most of you have the equipment at hand to record the presence of a UFO, actually succeeding in getting a visible record of a sighting is extremely difficult. And a lot of it involves thinking clearly in the excitement of the moment.
That, however, doesn’t stop some unscrupulous people from posting hundreds of images of lights in the sky and proclaiming that they represent solid proof that ET is here. All that does as confirm to skeptics that the quality of UFO evidence is extremely poor, or even nonexistent. The people who promote those photos, sometimes on a YouTube channel, are often looking strictly for traffic and ad fees from Google. They aren’t interested in finding answers to the enigma.
In the end, anyone who hopes for solid UFO evidence would probably have to use tried and true methods, which means putting up a high resolution Web cam in areas where unusual events are often reported, and recording the data on huge hard drives. Or simply stage an old fashioned skywatch session, with lots of people with lots of cameras training their eyes on the skies hoping to capture images of some unworldly phenomenon.
Indeed, if you are lucky enough to capture a photo of an unusual flying object, do let us know about it. Meantime, I can assure you that I’ll continue to look to the skies. But don’t forget that, on the evening of the Phoenix Lights on March 13, 1997, I was living in the Phoenix area. But I was also indoors rushing to meet a book deadline. So I missed all the fun, even though I had a pretty decent traditional film camera on hand.
Copyright 1999-2014 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
February 2, 2014
Explore the Frontiers of Paranormal Research on The Paracast
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Important — Please Read! In a separate email, Paracast host Gene Steinberg has made a personal appeal for emergency financial assistance. Please check that message for further details. If you’re able to assist, please note that we have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com. We can also accept Bitcoin, and we offer a donation link for that, too, on our site.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present that outspoken blogger on the paranormal, Red Pill Junkie. Under his online name, he is a regular contributor for The Daily Grail, Mysterious Universe, the Intrepid Magazine blog. He also collaborates frequently with The Grimerica Show podcast and also lends a little hand on The Gralien Report radio show. He says, "But my true forte is that I like to comment on things…a lot."
Chris O'Brien's Site: http://www.ourstrangeplanet.com
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Sponsored Message: Don’t get ripped off when you need to liquidate your precious jewelry and silverware. Call Steve at Numis Gems at (480) 878-7678 and get the straight scoop!
So Where’s the UFO Photograph?
By Gene Steinberg
If you’ve read the statistics lately about such things, you’ll find that the majority of mobile handset owners in the U.S. have smartphones, which are actually sophisticated miniature computers. This is becoming more and more true around the industrialized world.
But you don’t have to read statistics. Just look around you. It’s hard to go anywhere without seeing someone with phone in hand either talking or texting. Indeed, you wonder about some people who cross the street without following the lesson I learned as a child — look both ways!
To me, it’s up front and personal: When my son, Grayson, came home from Spain for a brief visit last December, we took him out to dinner. Typical of those who are part of Generation Y, he came equipped with an iPhone, and he spent a little too much time with his head focused not on what his dad and mom had to say, or the meal in front of him, but on texts from his friends.
But people of all ages are addicted to their smartphones, and while I do occasionally glance down at my iPhone, I try not to make a habit of it.
So where am I going with this?
Well, even the cheapest smartphones — and some pretty expensive models are actually free with a wireless contract — have decent cameras. For the most part, they are easy to use for quick and dirty snapshots. The better cameras, which you find on such handsets as an iPhone or a Nokia Lumia, can deliver photos that are every bit as good as the ones you take on most digital cameras. They can even record high definition videos with some measure of image stabilization.
In the old days, the common excuse for not being able to take a photo of a UFO was the time it took to locate a camera, set it up, and take the picture. But many people have their smartphones with them all the time. So is it such a chore to take it out of the pocket or purse, assuming it’s not already in your hand?
It would seem, therefore, that there should be a virtual avalanche of credible UFO photos, assuming that at least some of those sightings represent real objects of unknown origin. So why aren’t we seeing them?
Indeed, most of the photos and videos that do turn up display little more than flashing lights in the sky, usually indistinct. For the most part, when something is clear with recognizable features, it’s often a fake. You see the easy availability of digital cameras of one sort or another, particularly those embedded in a mobile handset, a tablet, has also made it possible to create the building blocks of a hoax.
Take the digital image, open it in a photo editing app, such as Adobe Photoshop, and a reasonably skilled graphic artist or photographer can do wonders. For videos, Apple’s professional editing app, Final Cut Pro X, is available for Mac users for just $299.99. This is the very same software used in the movie and TV industries to create real motion pictures.
So you might think that photographic and video evidence has become almost useless.
And it’s true that evidence of this sort is only as good as the eyewitness testimony that accompanies it. If the report is credible, and a professional examination of the digital data doesn’t reveal evidence of tampering or outright fakery, you may have something worth further investigation.
On the other hand, if there are thousands of UFO sightings each year, and hundreds of millions of people have ready access to a decent camera, why isn’t there more evidence to examine?
I think I’ve addressed that apparent contradiction already. People who are heavy smartphone users aren’t looking up for possible UFOs. They are staring down at their handsets, often oblivious to their surroundings.
But even if they do see a UFO, that doesn’t mean they will have the time to take out the camera and attempt to shoot a picture, or a video. The event may only last a few seconds. Even if the UFO lingers, the excitement of the moment may make it difficult to think logically. After all, we’re talking of an unexpected event, though some do, I suppose, believe they can duplicate sightings at will.
Even then, most sightings are nothing more than lights in the sky. Sure, some will appear to display flight characteristics that seem to defy the capability of conventional aircraft. Consider, though, the problem of holding your mobile handset steady enough to get a clear picture, and record images that reveal such incredible maneuvers. Most of the time, you see jumping lights. If equipped, digital image stabilization was ineffective, or switched off.
So even though most of you have the equipment at hand to record the presence of a UFO, actually succeeding in getting a visible record of a sighting is extremely difficult. And a lot of it involves thinking clearly in the excitement of the moment.
That, however, doesn’t stop some unscrupulous people from posting hundreds of images of lights in the sky and proclaiming that they represent solid proof that ET is here. All that does as confirm to skeptics that the quality of UFO evidence is extremely poor, or even nonexistent. The people who promote those photos, sometimes on a YouTube channel, are often looking strictly for traffic and ad fees from Google. They aren’t interested in finding answers to the enigma.
In the end, anyone who hopes for solid UFO evidence would probably have to use tried and true methods, which means putting up a high resolution Web cam in areas where unusual events are often reported, and recording the data on huge hard drives. Or simply stage an old fashioned skywatch session, with lots of people with lots of cameras training their eyes on the skies hoping to capture images of some unworldly phenomenon.
Indeed, if you are lucky enough to capture a photo of an unusual flying object, do let us know about it. Meantime, I can assure you that I’ll continue to look to the skies. But don’t forget that, on the evening of the Phoenix Lights on March 13, 1997, I was living in the Phoenix area. But I was also indoors rushing to meet a book deadline. So I missed all the fun, even though I had a pretty decent traditional film camera on hand.
Copyright 1999-2014 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
