Here is a rundown of the top stories in pseudoscience, paranormal and anomaly news from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.
The big news this week was an outbreak of whooping cough, or pertussis. Cases have exploded in Washington state. Tragically, a baby dies in Idaho. In Australia,the ad commission required removal of homeopathic claims for pertussis. Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers are injecting misinformation into warnings about a real threat of disease spread with the upcoming Summer Olympics. For more anti-vax news, click this category link.
Good news regarding the forthcoming Mayan apocalypse: a newly discovered calendar does not show the world ending this December. And, just to be safe, even though you drop the lucky skull that will save us all, it should still work.
This week’s monster was a strange creature captured on a remote controlled underwater video camera surveying an oil rig.
Selma, California has to allow fortune tellers back in town but residents worry about religious implications. Meanwhile, some people take fortune teller’s advice WAY WAY too seriously.
Three old ideas were made new again. First, this author claims Jack the Ripper was actually a Jill.
Remote viewing proponents claim success in helping to solve a murder.
And, the previously suspected idea that seeing auras is related to synesthesia was claimed to be vindicated but the real story is how wrong the media spin was.
The gross-out story of the week was the seizure of pills said to contain human remains.
A pyramid-shaped UFO spotted in Ontario may have been a data gathering weather balloon.
Finally, the New Jersey haunted house case went to The People’s Court. The paranormal defense did not hold up. And, we gave up on Bigfoot news. Oh, the absurdity.
People really believe this stuff. But there is more to what the news story gives us.
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Sharon Hill runs Doubtful News, a unique feed of news stories about the paranormal, pseudoscience, the weird and the unexplained with questioning commentary.
