Welcome welcome to another edition of show notes! This time, covering elusive and potentially not real atmospheric beasts!
As always, some quick housekeeping, just what are the answers to this weeks intro questions?
Well someone pointed out over in the TPL secret society that I’m wrong. indeed dark matter and dark energy are simply names we give to unexplained aspects of the models of classical physics.
Then HOW do y’all explain this:
You know what that is right there? That’s a shuttle in space. Why’s it all dark out there?
“Kit it’s dark because there is nothing there”. WRONG! It’s dark because it’s DARK matter, the clues in the name! All ya gotta do is shine a big ol torch on it. And I mean a big torch. Maybe this one:
And actually I didn’t make the connection at the time, but what if atmospheric beasts are hiding not only in our atmosphere but in deep space? Woah.
Anyway, that’s what we’re here to talk about today, atmospheric beasts. *crack of thunder* *panther roar*
yeah I bet that's what the pilots saw.
I'm seeing double! 3 Nessies?!
Yes that’s right folks, if atmospheric beasts looked anything like the above images, it would be a double yes this week. Unfortunately for us, the sightings aren’t this dramatic, but there are sightings!
Let’s dive in to the first one, in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Here’s the original news clipping about the beast’s sighting…
That’s only one clip, there’s whole host on this site! https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/crawfordsville-monster/
But what did it look like? Well we don’t have any photos,but we do have artists impressions!
I really like this one! They definitely captured the black and/or white era! Not to mention they did a good job of trying to capture that ridiculously long description from the paper! They got all the key features:
18 ft long ✅
8 ft wide ✅
Rapidly moving ✅
Side fins ✅
Pure white ✅
No real shape or form ✅
Resembling somewhat a great white shroud ✅
Propelling fins ✅
No tail ✅
No head ✅
One flaming eye ✅
Sort of a wheezing sound ✅
One mouth ✅
Flapped like a flag in the wind ✅
Frequently squirmed ✅
Suffering unutterable agony ✅
But here’s a few more artist interp’s for good measure
Bit plain, but fine i guess
Not bad, got more of a ‘cartoon monster’ thing going. Scary nonetheless.
Now the trouble is, that the link i posted before (https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/crawfordsville-monster/ you’re welcome) mentions that it is believed the atmospheric beast was really a flock of Killdeer.
Right.
Personally, I’m skeptical of this. Sometimes with the paranormal there’s a tendency to assume that the most mundane explanation is the right one even if you would have to have never seen a bird before to think it’s a sky monster.
We can assume that historians think the residents of crawfordsville really saw a murmuration of birds like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY
Granted that looks cool, but I still don’t think it’s going to be mistaken for an atmospheric beast any time soon. What do you guys think?
I mentioned the fact that Charles Fort wrote about atmospheric beasts in The Book Of The Damned, which may make it the earliest modern literary example of atmo-beasts. You can actually read the book online thanks to archive.org! https://archive.org/stream/bookofdamnedbych00fortrich/bookofdamnedbych00fortrich_djvu.txt
The time has come to rattle off some evidence! Here is reportedly what was seen by chinese pilots. (this may be the only one rory didn’t rag on)
You definitely get the jellyfish idea, but we still gotta take their word on it that it was otherworldly, its kind of a simple shape. I think it looks like a 1up mushroom!
right?!
This is what was seen in Russia!
Again, getting a pretty good shape here! But this is super low quality imagery, we really don’t know if this was a secret weapons test or something else…
Now THIS is the most recent one. Also potentially the one rory hated most… a way better picture for sure, but is it just a lens flare?
Also, to prove that I’m NOT a loon, YET at least: here are some words about Star Jelly aka Sterre Slyme aka Caca de luna aka moon poop aka celestial crap aka ok im done.
https://futurism.com/strange-unexplained-things-science-star-jelly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_jelly
Weird huh!! Reminds me a lot of the moon’s tear from Zelda, Majora’s Mask
And what about these aerogels, huh? I can’t believe just how badly I explained them on the podcast. As lighter than air itself except they kind of don’t float. But i think you just have to see for yourself. Behold! -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoCAxS4vqwQ
I actually forgot to show that on the episode. Did he die after he ate that??
I've made a huge mistake.
So we know that the physical materials for lighter-than-air solids are possible, but are we any closer to proving the existence of atmospheric beasts? Potentially not. What do you guys think? Sky jellyfish or literal birds and lens-flares?
Remember, keep watching the ski’s! I mean skies!