Friday, October 19, 2012

We are not tin foil hat wearers...

This is a tin foil hat wearer (Skip to ~17:00)...



This is from the final episode of the new series of "Conspiracy Road Trip" on BBC3. It's about UFOs. Seriously, I didn't know there were people out there who actually wore tin foil hats. I always thought that was something the Simpsons made up or something. I like how he complains afterwards that people call people like him "the tin foil hat brigade". Don't wear a tin foil hat then! Anyone who's ever put a load of tin foil in a microwave knows that it wouldn't do much good anyway.

While I don't believe UFOs are aliens, I loved the reaction of the participants at around 27:30 when Andrew Maxwell announced that they'd be meeting Michael Shermer. I'd have probably reacted the same way.

This is probably the only topic I actually agree with PZ Myers on (he's in it around 11:30). I agree that under Darwinian assumptions, it's unlikely aliens will look like us. The key words though are "under Darwinian assumptions" ;).

The other two episodes of this series were Creationism (can creationism really be considered a "conspiracy theory"?) and 7/7. The 7/7 one was, as predicted, just like the 9/11 one. There were four participants - Tony Topping, a CCTV expert better known for his UFO research, Jon Scobie, a WeAreChange activist, Davina, the token Muslim of the group and Layla Randle-Conde, an ... ahem ....



... "actress"!

Also featured was a woman named Sacha Christie who was from the same area of Leeds as three of the bombers and knew them. According to her, Layla - who started ridiculing Jon and Tony half way through - only appeared in it coz she was a friend of the director.

For rebuttals from participants and people who've done a lot more research into 7/7 than me, see:

Sacha's comments
Paul Joseph Watson & Jon Scobie - 7/7 Bombings: Conspiracy Road Trip Debunked
Keelan Balderson - REBUKED: 77 Conspiracy Road Trip
Tom Secker - Debunking 7/7 Debunking