There are no living pterosaurs, and “ropen” is a stupid fantasy

I was recently getting dunned by kooks insisting that a live pterosaur had been found. I’d love to see a pterosaur, but I’m afraid they’ve been extinct for over 65 million years; I’d also like to have a conversation with my great-great grandfather, John Page Hurt of Saylersville, Kentucky (I’m pretty sure he fought in the Civil War…on the wrong side), but I think we can be realistic about the likelihood of that happening. I took a look at the pterosaur information anyway, though, and discovered something interesting. There isn’t any evidence. There’s just one fanatic.

Here’s the kind of evidence they present. You’d expect a blurry photo of some flying creature, right? Or maybe claw marks, or scattered fewmets…none of which would be particularly persuasive. But no — we don’t even get that much. We get photos like this:

Professor Peter Beach tells Whitcomb how the bright light quickly flew up from the tree

Professor Peter Beach tells Whitcomb how the bright light quickly flew up from the tree

That’s it. Not a picture of the creature, but a picture of a guy pointing to a place where he claims to have seen a glowing light. Or sometimes we get this:

wonder-al-Daniel-Boone-Nat-Forest-KY-c868b4_z-300x200

A generic picture of some trees in Kentucky, where some guy said he saw a pterosaur. Twice, no less.

These stories are terrible and pointless. There is no evidence here.

And then something else emerges — all the sources sound dreadfully familiar. Here’s a list of some of the sites I found, and the authors’ names where available.

Same stories, same pedantic, boring style, same lack of understanding of what constitutes evidence. It turns out that they’re all by the same guy, Jonathan Whitcomb, who’s been busily dropping turds all over the internet to make it look like there is an active community of researchers tracking down the wily pterosaur. There isn’t. And he confesses to rampant sock puppetry!

If you had Googled something like “live pterosaur” in 2005, the first page may have included a site that included the words “stupid,” “dinosaur,” and “lies” in the URL. Yes, it was libel, and that site is probably still out there; but try searching on “live pterosaur” today and you won’t see that libelous site listed on the first three pages of Google. You will find that most of the pages are positive about the possibility of modern living pterosaurs. The few that are negative are at least not libelous.

My purpose in using the pen name “Norman Huntington” differed from that of Alice Sheldon, but is was equally valid. I got around potential bias in readers by using that name instead of my own. The difference is this: I was trying to attract attention to the basic idea of modern pterosaurs, not to my own writing ability. (In fact I altered my writing style for those blog posts using “Huntington.”)

But it’s OK that he’s playing these circular SEO games, because he’s not trying to peddle his writing commercially — it’s just so gosh-darn important that everyone know about these pathetic pterosaur stories, so he’s just got to play these sneaky games to avoid criticism and get his essential story told.

There’s another motive, too: he’s a creationist who thinks finding a ptersoaur would defeat evolution, and he’s using his book and web pages to promote the Mormon religion.

Consider Helaman 5:50, regarding the conversion of many Lamanites, after the miracle in the prison with the brother-missionaries Lehi and Nephi. Lamanites who did not see the miraculous fire believed the words of the eyewitnesses who did see it: “And it came to pass that they did go forth, and did minister unto the people, declaring throughout all the regions round about all the things which they had heard and seen, insomuch that the more part of the Lamanites were convinced of them, because of the greatness of the evidences which they had received.” Latter-day saints rejoice for those who listen to the spiritual testimonies of those who had received confirmation of the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as missionaries may appear, on the surface, to differ from those they teach, eyewitnesses of strange flying creatures are from various countries and cultures, appearing to differ from those who have been raised in Western countries in which universal-extinction ideas are taken for granted for dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

Greatness of the evidences, indeed.

There’s also another place where you can find the story of the living pterosaur: the wikipedia article on “ropen”. It’s pure mush regurgitated from Whitcomb’s pages; the only sources cited are from Whitcomb, with the exception of mentioning two paranormal reality TV shows, “Destination Truth” (on SyFy) and “Monster Quest” (on the History channel). It’s a completely credulous and pro-bullshit page, and is a perfect example of why I don’t let my students ever cite Wikipedia. It’s also got Whitcomb’s fingerprints all over it — he was formerly an editor going by the name “jondw”, although he seems to be an ex-editor now. The page that contributes to his PR efforts for the totally fictitious creature “ropen” still stands, though.

Time to arrest the police

I’ve been away for 10 days, and trying to catch up with the nightmarish news from Ferguson, Missouri is rage-inducing. I’ve decided that the only possible solution is to declare martial law, call in the National Guard, and let the tanks roll in…to shut down and arrest the police force. These trigger-happy militarized goons need to be stopped, and not just in one town in Missouri, but all across the country: no more drones, armored personnel vehicles, SWAT teams, and thugs playing soldier — those aren’t the police. We need something in between open-carry idiots deputizing themselves to enforce the peace, and these paramilitary pseudo-soldiers who believe their job is to suppress people they don’t like.

Once upon a time, it was people in blue uniforms who were supposed to avoid drawing their weapons in all but the most dire circumstances. Now it’s a race to make the police increasingly lethal, which should not be their mission.

And then, just to get yourself even deeper in a fug, read the opinions of white people in St Louis. We’re screwed.

(By the way, I’m closing this thread full of Ferguson news…now you can fill up this one.)

Undermining their audience

I just realized that I haven’t tuned into any of the so-called educational channels for years — Nerdy Christie dissects the latest shark week abomination, and I understand why.

Not only is there no support for the show’s entire premise, each of the hypotheses presented are factually wrong or illogical. Sharkageddon’s pointless pontificating doesn’t leave us any closer to explaining why shark attacks occur—or where, or when. Alexander ends on a conservation message, which Discovery, of course, ensures is brief and buried with credits. But this final thought is what Discovery should have focused on all along. Sharks are vital to Hawaiian ecosystems. We don’t need another “documentary” villifying these ecological and culturally important animals—we need one that explains why they matter, what they do for us, and why we should be fighting to save them.

Although SMBC might have an alternative explanation.

Back in the USA at last!

I’m home! I got home around noonish, but I promptly laid down and fell asleep. Man, that was a long trek to get back.

But it was all worth it. I went to Oxford for the World Humanist Congress, an event that occurs every three years and costs a small pile of money, but really, if you want to meet godless folk who walk the walk and represent positive Enlightenment goals, it’s the event to attend to restore your confidence in humanity. This one had excellent representation from mainstream European groups like the International Humanist and Ethical Union, European Humanist Federation, and humanists of Netherlands, Britain, and Norway (the Norwegians were ubiquitous!), as well as humanists from specialist organizations like Defence Humanists and countries where I didn’t find an obvious website, like Croatia, Uganda, and Nigeria. International outreach FTW! In three years, the 2017 World Humanist Congress will be held in São Paulo, Brazil, sponsored by Liga Humanista Secular do Brasil, and I’m going to save my pennies to go — it’d be wonderful to attend one of these where I’m not in a jet-lagged fog half the time.

As long as I had traveled all the way across the Atlantic, I had to make a few more stops; thanks to Maureen Brian for inviting me, and Richard Carter, FCD for ferrying me about, I got to visit Hebden Bridge and get introduced to the lovely Yorkshire countryside, and also had a grand time giving a talk to a good crowd. Also thanks to the Edinburgh Skeptics who gave me the opportunity to get dazzled by the weirdness of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and to babble at yet another talk. Also many thanks to Nick Gotts for giving me the penny tour of the city.

Things were busy at home while I was away, too. My daughter is getting married, and #2 Son learned what he’s going to be doing for the next few years: he’s about to be promoted to captain, and is going to be assigned to a medical support unit in South Korea. All I know about that kind of work is what I learned on M*A*S*H, but I’m happy to see that his job will be all about helping people.

Now I feel like I need a few more naps.