Steve Warner's Dark City

[nooryisawesome]

Keith's already got me on at the 1am timeslot on Saturdays, but if Art wanted me to do a 'Dark Matter' show, of course I would.

The show would need to be 3 hours long 

I fired off an email to Keith asking him to ask Art if he wants a weekend verson of the show or not. If so I requested he has Art check out your show to see if he thinks you would be a good fit.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about Noory stealing you away 

[bateman]

Hey are you after some decently priced ads? or are you good

Define "decently priced". Roadside diner placemat "decently priced"?

[bateman]

What a thrill it was to find out that we could all now purchase our realistic squirting jizz cock dildos and support Dark City at the same time! How you ask? By simply clicking through the Amazon affiliate banner on the Dark City support page HERE. Never has it been so satisfying and fulfilling to support a quality show. Now all we need is for jp mucklestone to open up shop

And for the record, I don't see what anyone's buying through the affiliate link, so you can order all the squirting cocks you want, and I will be none the wiser. I just get a small commission. Alternatively, you can donate here.

I haven't ever heard the theory of Mars being nuked, but it was a interesting show. We've been lucky to not get stamped out for the lulz.... so far. Makes me really wonder why. The guest did say that it's been about half a billion years since the blasts so some space laws may have changed since then haha. We might just be a protected species! I'll have to listen to it again, but I'll be FFWD'ing through he parts where he talks about his fictional book. I lol'd when you interrupted with "We're talking about a book you made up"

Yeah, he was really tickled by that novel he wrote.

[TheMan WhoFell ToEarth]

I just want to add my voice to the others saying I'd be thrilled to hear you on a weekend edition of DM, or even as a fill in host. I really believe you're one of the few people who could step in and carry the same level of quality. I might have to email Art about this.

[cweb]

Yeah, he was really tickled by that novel he wrote.

This was my observation as well. I was hoping he'd lay off the novel a little. The show seemed to drag a little bit after the middle when he started rambling. It's great you brought everything back with your UFO question.

The asteroid question was really good. His response made sense. I'll take a look at his documentation, but since I'm not a scientist I'd be even more interested to see what our resident science experts think.

You handled the interview well. I think Dr. Brandenburg is a "one hour" kind of guest. Certain other hosts would probably have let him go on just to fill time...

[popple]

I think Dr. Brandenburg is a "one hour" kind of guest. Certain other hosts would probably have let him go on just to fill time...

Agreeeeeeeeeed.

[astroguy]

Brandenburg's claims are hackneyed, misleading, and debunked.  I listened while in my hotel room at a conference and doing other things, but I made a few notes.

- Xenon-129: His raison d'être.  If there was a nuclear explosion, there should not be just one radioactive nuclide.  There should be many. And all having half-lives and abundances that yield the explosion magnitude and timing that he espouses.  There isn't.  And xenon-129 so far as I can find ANYWHERE, including when questioning Brandenburg, is NOT produced in a nuclear explosion.  In fact, xenon-129 is stable.  He claims it's produced by "fast neutron reactions."  Only thing I can find - and I have searched for hours, is that it's produced by the decay of iodine-129, which occurs naturally and is a byproduct of nuclear fission ... but it has a half-life of 15-24 million years, so I'm not sure how we have gigantic quantities from bombs only 50 years ago.  Regardless, where are the other byproducts?  And, experts have absolutely no problem accounting for the relative enhancement of xenon-129 on Mars (see last paragraph of this Wiki section).


- Face on Mars: His recounting of the way MGS took the Face picture in the late 1990s has been reworked over the years to make Facers out to be the hero and MSSS and NASA the villains.  It's also like trying to say that the fact that doctors in the 1700s couldn't cure a bacterial infection means it's impossible to cure them today.  We have literally dozens of images of the FOM since then and the only one that look like a face is the original Viking under that specific lighting, resolution, and data drop out characteristics of that detector and receiver/transmitter.  "Enhancement" among this crowd is usually code for "mucking with it to get features that we want."  I was told something early in grad school (my first summer) that's stuck with me:  If after your manipulation, you go back to the original data and it's not there, then it's a product of your manipulation, not the original data.


- Money: bateman's question was spot-on and is asked by most interviewers of this kind of pseudoscience: if we found this stuff for realz, wouldn't we get more money? Yes. The only way out of this is vast conspiracy.  The ONLY way.  So, the evidence for the conspiracy becomes the requirement for the claim, rather than independent evidence.  Oh yeah, and they love to say stuff like "follow the money." Okay, John, aren't you making money from this?  I seem to see that you have a book you're selling, for example ...


- Arguments from authority:  Bateman, perhaps on my recommendation (I haven't listened to his interviews before, so this could be his style, and if so that's GREAT), asked him at least a few times what others thought of his work.  The statement around 1 hr 7 min really struck me as an example of this, where Brandenburg said that he's shown it to people who can't think of other explanations.  I don't care.  It only takes one.  I could make a chemical that tastes like chocolate and fools everyone.  Until one person figures it out and then my fake chocolate is no more.  Same goes with this.  Brandenburg has convinced no one who is a practicing geologist who is involved in the scientific community.  Why do I say that?  Because NONE of his papers are cited by anyone but himself.  That's one of the main tests of an idea: Do other people reference it.  Oh, and Brandenburg's comment about no one in the US government saying that Brandenburg is crazy?  Um, why would they?  Who the he-- cares about him?  Michael Horn tries to pull the same crap by saying that because I don't respond to his e-mails, I agree with him.  Bullshit.



- Trinitite:  Where?  It's not in his LPSC abstracts, and in searching the literature, I can find no mention of anyone publishing a discovery of Trinitite on Mars, nor do I think you could with today's remote sensing technology.


- Affect:  For some reason, I find his constant laughs very off putting.  I don't know why.  It has nothing to do with his arguments, but it makes it sound like he doesn't take this seriously.  I hear this in all of his interviews.


- LPSC: He's scheduled for Tuesday night. I'll look to see if he's there.  If it's anything like the last year or more, he won't show and his whole, "I'm presenting this at..." will continue to be BS. I'll let you know.

[basswood]

Brandenburg's claims are hackneyed, misleading, and debunked.  I listened while in my hotel room at a conference and doing other things, but I made a few notes...

Since you're here, I wonder what you think of the phenomenon of the increase in the use of "nuke-you-ler" over the use of pronouncing "nuclear" how it is clearly spelled. Dr. Brandenburg said he has been a professional scientist for 40 years but he pronounces the word the same as Bush and Noory. Wikipedia has links to dictionaries that are basically saying that "language evolves" and since educated persons have begun to use the term, its use is becoming acceptable. Does that also mean since Jimmy Church claimed to have always listened to your podcast yet he still pronounced it "sway-doh-astronomy" that we are witnessing the evolution of language?

[basswood]

Nice show, Steve.


JP Mucklestone underwear is made from Austrian Beech trees. Chinese underwear made from Chinese beach flotsam. Mucklestone wins.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

And for the record, I don't see what anyone's buying through the affiliate link, so you can order all the squirting cocks you want, and I will be none the wiser. I just get a small commission. Alternatively, you can donate here.

How about getting a Patreon account?

[astroguy]

Since you're here, I wonder what you think of the phenomenon of the increase in the use of "nuke-you-ler" over the use of pronouncing "nuclear" how it is clearly spelled. Dr. Brandenburg said he has been a professional scientist for 40 years but he pronounces the word the same as Bush and Noory. Wikipedia has links to dictionaries that are basically saying that "language evolves" and since educated persons have begun to use the term, its use is becoming acceptable. Does that also mean since Jimmy Church claimed to have always listened to your podcast yet he still pronounced it "sway-doh-astronomy" that we are witnessing the evolution of language?

I don't really care or even tend to notice the wrong pronunciation of nuclear, but yes, it is a bit odd that someone who says he was in the field for decades doesn't pronounce it correctly.  That said, I know many people who pronounce Io as "EEEE-oh" and Enceladus as "en-sell-AH-dus."  Those bug me more.


Similarly, I didn't want to correct the host when Jimmy interviewed me, but in the interest of marketing, I felt as though I had to correct him on the pronunciation of my podcast.  I do pronounce it during every episode, at the beginning, but I suppose he could've missed it.

[wr250]

I don't really care or even tend to notice the wrong pronunciation of nuclear, but yes, it is a bit odd that someone who says he was in the field for decades doesn't pronounce it correctly.  That said, I know many people who pronounce Io as "EEEE-oh" and Enceladus as "en-sell-AH-dus."  Those bug me more.


Similarly, I didn't want to correct the host when Jimmy interviewed me, but in the interest of marketing, I felt as though I had to correct him on the pronunciation of my podcast.  I do pronounce it during every episode, at the beginning, but I suppose he could've missed it.

and now we know why you have never been on noory to noory am .

[cweb]

Brandenburg's claims are hackneyed, misleading, and debunked.  I listened while in my hotel room at a conference and doing other things, but I made a few notes.
...

Thank you for this! Brandenburg's story seemed to loosely fit together, especially if you were casually listening like me. It's an interesting story from a novelist, but it's not science. I'm glad you highlighted the untruths.

I get weary when someone talks about image "enhancement" too. It makes it seem like they're adding resolution when you can't really do that. You can try to physically clean up the film and rescan it, but the limits are the limits. Plus, why wouldn't NASA want to release the highest-quality images possible? Think about the bragging rights. And the bedroom wall posters! 

- Affect:  For some reason, I find his constant laughs very off putting.  I don't know why.  It has nothing to do with his arguments, but it makes it sound like he doesn't take this seriously.  I hear this in all of his interviews.

Agreed. I thought maybe it was just an unconscious thing he had, so I tried not to hold it against him and listen to his arguments. After a while it made me wonder if there was intention to deceive, though.

Since you're here, I wonder what you think of the phenomenon of the increase in the use of "nuke-you-ler" over the use of pronouncing "nuclear" how it is clearly spelled. Dr. Brandenburg said he has been a professional scientist for 40 years but he pronounces the word the same as Bush and Noory. Wikipedia has links to dictionaries that are basically saying that "language evolves" and since educated persons have begun to use the term, its use is becoming acceptable. Does that also mean since Jimmy Church claimed to have always listened to your podcast yet he still pronounced it "sway-doh-astronomy" that we are witnessing the evolution of language?

"Nuke-you-ler" drives me nuts too. Once again, I tried to ignore that and listen to his arguments instead.

"Sway-doh" made me cringe every time. Stuart was more than polite with his correction, but Jimmy's tone of voice suggested annoyance at the thought.

[astroguy]

I get weary when someone talks about image "enhancement" too. It makes it seem like they're adding resolution when you can't really do that. You can try to physically clean up the film and rescan it, but the limits are the limits. Plus, why wouldn't NASA want to release the highest-quality images possible? Think about the bragging rights. And the bedroom wall posters! 

For some disgusting reason, I got an image in my head of stupid down spacecraft components and the FOM with a bikini at the bottom as pin-up posters when reading this.  Scary.

Agreed. I thought maybe it was just an unconscious thing he had, so I tried not to hold it against him and listen to his arguments. After a while it made me wonder if there was intention to deceive, though.

I hope it's unconscious.  But I agree.  After hearing it in every interview, one almost has to wonder if he takes his ideas seriously, or if the laugh is a bit of a "tell" to see how much he can get away with.

[basswood]

...  After hearing it in every interview, one almost has to wonder if he takes his ideas seriously, or if the laugh is a bit of a "tell" to see how much he can get away with.

I'd read the comment about his laughter before I listened to the show so was "analyzing" it as it occurred. It happened more frequently and for longer periods as the show continued. In my professional opinion, I think he started the interview with a 6 pack in front of him. By last call at the end of the show, he sounded like a someone who was regretfully set to go home after spending a few hours telling his ideas to the guy next to him at the bar.

[basswood]

"Sway-doh" made me cringe every time. Stuart was more than polite with his correction, but Jimmy's tone of voice suggested annoyance at the thought.

That was a while ago he did the interview and I only remember that because it made me wonder over and over how someone could exist for 50 years without ever coming across that word. The conclusion I came to was that his frequent mispronunciation of things (just as often as Jorch) signifies a self-directed education. His personality aside, he's not a moron. But then again, it could also be a symptom of toxic Chinese underwear.

[cweb]

In my professional opinion, I think he started the interview with a 6 pack in front of him. By last call at the end of the show, he sounded like a someone who was regretfully set to go home after spending a few hours telling his ideas to the guy next to him at the bar.

That could very well be. If true, it certainly would hurt the cred of someone trying to sell their "non-mainstream" idea. What do you think of your own ideas if you're doing that during an interview?

That was a while ago he did the interview and I only remember that because it made me wonder over and over how someone could exist for 50 years without ever coming across that word. The conclusion I came to was that his frequent mispronunciation of things (just as often as Jorch) signifies a self-directed education. His personality aside, he's not a moron. But then again, it could also be a symptom of toxic Chinese underwear.

I almost wondered if it was a regional dialect thing. But it's a bit far off from "SUE-doh" I suppose.

You're probably right again. Toxic Chinese undies.

[bateman]

Boy did I get some nutty emails about that one. More than John B. Alexander even. Basswood, others were speculating about his, um, state of sobriety as well.

- Trinitite:  Where?  It's not in his LPSC abstracts, and in searching the literature, I can find no mention of anyone publishing a discovery of Trinitite on Mars, nor do I think you could with today's remote sensing technology.

He claims these findings will be in his new paper due out next month...

[astroguy]

He claims these findings will be in his new paper due out next month...

Unless he has discovered trinitite himself -- and so far as I can tell, he has NO expertise in remote sensing using Martian orbiter data (and if he's going to claim CRISM, I have it on very good authority - the people who operate the instrument and "easy" web interface - that it's horribly difficult to use and interpret for anyone but experts).  So he'd need to pull it from somewhere else.  Which, as I said, I can't find anywhere else.

[popple]

Boy did I get some nutty emails about that one. More than John B. Alexander even. Basswood, others were speculating about his, um, state of sobriety as well.

He claims these findings will be in his new paper due out next month...

He wants to come back!

[basswood]

No show this weekend?!!!

[zeebo]

... so far as I can tell, he has NO expertise in remote sensing using Martian orbiter data ...

Ok, I just have to listen to this show now, so I can judge for myself.

[TheMan WhoFell ToEarth]

Still catching up. Gotta agree with those saying Brandenburg is more of a one hour guest. Went off the rails a few times there.

Had me thinking, once your home studio is set up, hopefully we can get some longer multi-guest shows? Something like one guest for a interview or update the first hour, then the next hour or two on another.  I'd love to start seeing past guests crop back up with new information.

And I have to say the Roger Stone interview was incredible. You have to get him back.

[TheMan WhoFell ToEarth]

Actually, Steve, I have a bit of a suggestion. Considering the zany news that's come out recently about Charles Manson, don't you think he'd be an interesting topic?

[bateman]

Still catching up. Gotta agree with those saying Brandenburg is more of a one hour guest. Went off the rails a few times there.

Had me thinking, once your home studio is set up, hopefully we can get some longer multi-guest shows? Something like one guest for a interview or update the first hour, then the next hour or two on another.  I'd love to start seeing past guests crop back up with new information.

And I have to say the Roger Stone interview was incredible. You have to get him back.

I tend to agree with all of this. Your second point is something I've been thinking about for a while.

[bateman]

Actually, Steve, I have a bit of a suggestion. Considering the zany news that's come out recently about Charles Manson, don't you think he'd be an interesting topic?

I do. I know Art interviewed Vincent Bugliosi, but I'm not sure if he's done media in the last few years..

[bateman]

2 hours with Kevin Randle on the Roswell slides & his new book Government UFO Files: Conspiracy of Cover-Up

Darkcity.fm

[popple]

With this being mixed in with other vacation photos it could make sense it being a snap of a mummy in a museum, but I've never seen a mummy with a melon like that

YIKES! It's so cold in NYC right now. I know you have to go all the way to the studio and back home just to bring us new content. Which you really don't have to when hell is freezing over. It would be understandable if you didn't want to go out into -16 weather. Thank you for your sacrifices I'm half way through the new show and enjoying it very much. I hope you can get the home studio finished.

[bateman]

With this being mixed in with other vacation photos it could make sense it being a snap of a mummy in a museum, but I've never seen a mummy with a melon like that

Tony Bragalia addressed the mummy/hydrocephalic child hypothesis last night:

The being has no teeth and has wide-set eyes. Lack of teeth and wide set eyes are not known to be conditions associated with hydrocephaly.

In the actual slides it is evident that the being has only four fingers. To my knowledge, mummies and hydrocephalics are not typically missing a fifth digit.

A detail not known or revealed to anyone but those who have seen the slides is that close-ups of the being’s face show a very ‘pointed’ chin, a chin that in no way resembles a human, mummified or hydrocephalic. In fact, the facial features do not in any way match that of other known hydrocephalics or mummies.

I didn't realize they had close-ups.. That would seem to be a new detail.

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-roswell-slides-update-by-tony.html

YIKES! It's so cold in NYC right now. I know you have to go all the way to the studio and back home just to bring us new content. Which you really don't have to when hell is freezing over. It would be understandable if you didn't want to go out into -16 weather. Thank you for your sacrifices I'm half way through the new show and enjoying it very much. I hope you can get the home studio finished.

Glad yeeww enjoyed. 

New York isn't as bad as some other places I guess. This is my friend's house on PEI:

[bateman]

Dear MV,

Please merge this with the Dark Weekend thread and use this name for the title. For your hard work, I will mail you some Val Pak coupons which include generous offers for $1 off Lean Pockets, 10% off an Interstate car battery, and a 2 for 1 deal on pumice stones at CVS Pharmacy (while supplies last).

Kisses!