Skeptoid

Over the following decades, the Ellison story became the standard opening of almost every telling.

The writer Brian Dunning, who examined the Marfa lights for his long-running programme on scientific scepticism, Skeptoid, has pointed out the problem plainly.

If the lights had really been seen over Mitchell Flat in the 1880s, before cars and electric lights, then that would be a serious difficulty for some of the modern explanations, which depend on headlights.

But the evidence for those early sightings is not strong.

His tone kind of interests me in it.

So I do have some clips that the Skeptoid podcast managed to pull and they posted helpfully on the website, like the webpage for their episode.

So I'll play a couple of those.

One that I can't remember if I'll check if it actually makes it into this particular set of them.

Here we go.

Probably, yeah, this is from Skeptoid.

Brian Dunning, you guys know this podcast.

It's super short.

And in our extended content for premium members, the unsolved mystery behind the 1982 Tylenol poisonings.

That's coming up on Skeptoid.

Hey everyone, Brian here.

This December, join me for another great Skeptoid adventure.

This one to New Orleans, where we'll take a deep dive into the history, pseudo-history, myths and legends of one of America's most storied cities.

We'll explore French Quarter ghost, voodoo, and vampire lore with local expert Chris Purley, and walk through the historic St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

You can save money without missing out on the features you need.

Check out Odoo at odoo.com. That's odoo.com.

And if you happen to be an epidemiologist, you probably already know the terms I mean.

All of that and more is coming up right now on Skeptoid.

Hey everyone, Brian here.

This December, join me for another great Skeptoid adventure.

This one to New Orleans, where we'll take a deep dive into the history, pseudo-history, myths and legends of one of America's most storied cities.

We'll explore French Quarter ghost, voodoo, and vampire lore with local expert Chris Purley, and walk through the historic St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.

And of course, we'll eat real Creole and Cajun cuisine, plus beignets and café au lait.

It's a full weekend of true stories, tall tales, and the city that inspired both.

Nimitz's papers on the original case Zients and Sprague carry the supporting arguments.

Skeptical treatments appear in Skeptoid, episode 332, Rational Wiki, and the Wiki page on the Phantom Time Conspiracy Theory, which summarize the astronomical and... shit chronological objections i swear to god that word is 20 letters in it dendro chronological objections there we go on the roman calendar standard works on roman chronology on chronology chronology why can't we just put easy words in here and Plutert's Life of Numa cover the traditional account of the 10-month year and the addition of January and February.

On 13-month proposals, Look up the International Fixed Calendar and the League of Nations discussions of the 1920s.

Fringe complication appears on various alternative history sites and in online videos that treat the numerical 13 in Illig's drift calculation and the 13th month idea as relative signals rather than separate topics.

Other researchers have cited an increase in methane production in the human gut as a possible cause.

However, Brian Dunning of the Skeptoid podcast debunked this idea, pointing out that cows produce a lot more methane than humans, and there aren't any reports of spontaneous cow combustion.

But there has to be an explanation for these people suddenly incinerating.

So if not spontaneous human combustion, then what happened to all these people? While absolutely horrifying, it's safe to say that there is actually a scientific explanation for these events.