• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Split Thread The Bermuda Triangle

Chanakya

,
Chanakya
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
5,811
Beerina said:
I have skeptic books from three authors: those two, and

The Bermuda Triangle Mystery -- Solved! by Larry Kusche, who was a librarian sick of credophiles constantly coming in and asking for Bermuda Triangle. It pours over every case, delving into not just the actual known facts, suggesting mundane explanations, but goes into how book hacks exaggerate, mislead, or even lie to make the case for something odd.
Click to expand...

@Magrat posts obit. Can't remember member who passed, but touched by obit. Curious, look up @JPK, and am led back here. A thread I've seen, obviously, but missed this post that now caught my eye.

Didn't know the Bermuda Triangle's "solved"! This post's just a more-likely-I'll-follow-up-on-than-passive-bookmark reminder-to-self, posted hurriedly from phone, as well as invitation to anyone that wants to comment to do so.

(OT, I know, but I'm sure the patron saint of skepticism won't mind! A detailed discussion, should it happen, can always branch off.)


eta: Maybe I should have started a fresh thread. Maybe I will, later.

Posted By: zooterkin
 
Last edited by a moderator:
arthwollipot said:
There was never anything to "solve".
Click to expand...

Oh? Aircraft and ships did get lost there, more than they would elsewhere, didn't they? (I say this from no more than just a vague idea about it.) I'd have imagined that the solution would entail, on one hand, something reasonable like consistently extra-choppy seas, or reefs underneath, maybe even some magnetic field thingie (heh, I find myself cringing as I think that last aloud, and find asking myself, "What kind of magnetic field thingie?), or something, plus the exaggeration effect over a kernel of something.

Are you saying the thing is zero kernel, and all fluff? That no ships or aircraft got lost there at all, any more than what might be expected in any stretch of water and airspace of comparable size?

eta: Okay, it's fine to sit at Randi's grave and talk skepticism, I'm sure the old man would not only not mind but approve! But not to make the Bermuda thing an endless derail here, I'll go start a thread.
 
Last edited:
Chanakya said:
Are you saying the thing is zero kernel, and all fluff? That no ships or aircraft got lost there at all, any more than what might be expected in any stretch of water and airspace of comparable size?
Click to expand...
All in, yes, that is actually my understanding. Not based on just size though: actual usage due to flight paths factor in. Some stretches of water get flown over more than others, due to airport locations and all.

ETA: ships, obv, too. Look at it's location and you can see it is a prime heavy traffic area for both planes and boats.
 
Last edited:
Chanakya said:
Oh? Aircraft and ships did get lost there, more than they would elsewhere, didn't they? (I say this from no more than just a vague idea about it.) I'd have imagined that the solution would entail, on one hand, something reasonable like consistently extra-choppy seas, or reefs underneath, maybe even some magnetic field thingie (heh, I find myself cringing as I think that last aloud, and find asking myself, "What kind of magnetic field thingie?), or something, plus the exaggeration effect over a kernel of something.

Are you saying the thing is zero kernel, and all fluff? That no ships or aircraft got lost there at all, any more than what might be expected in any stretch of water and airspace of comparable size?
Click to expand...
You could try reading the book.


Pretty much every single mysterious "case" is thoroughly debunked. And some of the remaining ones have been since the book was first published in 1975.

en.wikipedia.org

The Bermuda Triangle (book) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Thermal said:
All in, yes, that is actually my understanding. Not based on just size though: actual usage due to flight paths factor in. Some stretches of water get flown over more than others, due to airport locations and all.

ETA: ships, obv, too. Look at it's location and you can see it is a prime heavy traffic area for both planes and boats.
Click to expand...

Okay, still not gotten around to starting a new thread, but, if what you say is indeed the case, then there's not much more to say, and we can wrap this up right here by Randi's side. ...Although, that does bring up this obvious question: Why the hell this whole hoohaa then, over literally nothing? There must be some reason, surely, if only someone pulling off a con, or something?
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
You could try reading the book.


Pretty much every single mysterious "case" is thoroughly debunked. And some of the remaining ones have been since the book was first published in 1975.

en.wikipedia.org

The Bermuda Triangle (book) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

Thanks for the book recommendation. ...Glanced through the wiki, though, and unless I'm mistaken it suggest that this Berlitz's book, although a bestseller, is actually nonsense, and has been debunked subsequently by some guy called Kusche? ...Or, of course, it might be that Berlitz himself described the fairy tales associated with the Bermuda Triangle, and debunked them; and Kusche subsequently pointed out further holes in Berlitz's work?

But regardless of the Berlitz-Kusche thing, your wiki clearly says, "Lloyd's of London has determined the Triangle to be no more dangerous than any other piece of the ocean, and does not charge unusual rates of insurance for passage through the area. United States Coast Guard records confirm this determination. " I suppose that settles it conclusively.

Which still leaves one small niggle, over why, in that case, this whole hoohaa over the Bermuda Triangle at all.
 
Chanakya said:
Okay, still not gotten around to starting a new thread, but, if what you say is indeed the case, then there's not much more to say, and we can wrap this up right here by Randi's side. ...Although, that does bring up this obvious question: Why the hell this whole hoohaa then, over literally nothing? There must be some reason, surely, if only someone pulling off a con, or something?
Click to expand...
As PJ Denyer and Pixel42 say, somebody made it a thing and others followed suit. I recall one tale of planes that vanished without a trace, only to find that they found the freaking things washed up on another close by beach, but it didn't get the press of the spooky story.

Bigfoot stories abound too, right? People love to tell their spooky tales.
 
P.J. Denyer said:
Because someone made it a story. Sometimes that's all it takes.
Click to expand...

Sure, quite possible. This is just a niggle, like I said, but I was wondering whether, given the sheer size to which the story has blown up, we might know the hows and wherefores of how the whole thing started.
 
Thermal said:
As PJ Denyer and Pixel42 say, somebody made it a thing and others followed suit. I recall one tale of planes that vanished without a trace, only to find that they found the freaking things washed up on another close by beach, but it didn't get the press of the spooky story.

Bigfoot stories abound too, right? People love to tell their spooky tales.
Click to expand...

Retractions and clarifications never get the prominence of scare stories.
 
Chanakya said:
Sure, quite possible. This is just a niggle, like I said, but I was wondering whether, given the sheer size to which the story has blown up, we might know the hows and wherefores of how the whole thing started.
Click to expand...

We do, Edward Van Winkle Jones wrote an article, George X. Sand built on it in Fate magazine a couple of years later and a paranormal believing readership picked up on it and provided a fertile picking ground for the authors who exist by providing content for them.
 
Thermal said:
As PJ Denyer and Pixel42 say, somebody made it a thing and others followed suit. I recall one tale of planes that vanished without a trace, only to find that they found the freaking things washed up on another close by beach, but it didn't get the press of the spooky story.

Bigfoot stories abound too, right? People love to tell their spooky tales.
Click to expand...

Right, agreed. I mean, one might ask the same about the Loch Ness monster, and Bigfoot (as you say), and Yeti, and whatever else. Why Loch Ness;, why that area and not, say, someplace in Mexico or the Amazon; why Tibet? ...Not suggesting that not knowing how the stories started is any reason to therefore believe the stories. Just curious about whether we do know how this particular story started. After all, given the huge amount of attention given over the years to the Bermuda Triangle, someone may have found that out. ...Anyway, not to flog this to death. I can feel old Randi getting impatient down there, don't want him to get up and tell us to buzz off somewhere else!

eta: Thanks to @P.J. Denyer for clearing that one up!
 
Last edited:
Chanakya said:
Right, agreed. I mean, one might ask the same about the Loch Ness monster, and Bigfoot (as you say), and Yeti, and whatever else. Why Loch Ness;, why that area and not, say, someplace in Mexico or the Amazon; why Tibet? ...Not suggesting that not knowing how the stories started is any reason to therefore believe the stories. Just curious about whether we do know how this particular story started. After all, given the huge amount of attention given over the years to the Bermuda Triangle, someone may have found that out. ...Anyway, not to flog this to death. I can feel old Randi getting impatient down there, don't want him to get up and tell us to buzz off somewhere else!

eta: Thanks to @P.J. Denyer for clearing that one up!
Click to expand...
Also, every backwoods holler has their local folklore of monsters and mystery stuff. Some just get more wildly popular than others, for whatever reason.
 
Thermal said:
Also, every backwoods holler has their local folklore of monsters and mystery stuff. Some just get more wildly popular than others, for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

Exactly, some of them will get written up and some of those will fall on the fertile ground of credulous readers.
 
Chanakya said:
Why the hell this whole hoohaa then, over literally nothing? There must be some reason, surely, if only someone pulling off a con, or something?
Click to expand...
skeptoid.com

The Riddle of Flight 19 - Skeptoid

The 1945 disappearance of five fighter planes in the Bermuda Triangle was real, but hardly how it's portrayed.
skeptoid.com skeptoid.com

The guy's name was Charles Berlitz, and he published a book in 1974 called The Bermuda Triangle. He's the one who started all the buzz, and it was to sell his book.
 
Last edited:
Chanakya said:
Right, agreed. I mean, one might ask the same about the Loch Ness monster, and Bigfoot (as you say), and Yeti, and whatever else. Why Loch Ness;, why that area and not, say, someplace in Mexico or the Amazon; why Tibet? ...Not suggesting that not knowing how the stories started is any reason to therefore believe the stories. Just curious about whether we do know how this particular story started. After all, given the huge amount of attention given over the years to the Bermuda Triangle, someone may have found that out. ...Anyway, not to flog this to death. I can feel old Randi getting impatient down there, don't want him to get up and tell us to buzz off somewhere else!

eta: Thanks to @P.J. Denyer for clearing that one up!
Click to expand...
Loch Ness sightings should come with a (TM) registered to the tourist board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom