The Bermuda triangle

[conscious evolution]

Whatever happened with that bit of what-the-fuck'ery?
I heard someone mention it the other day and I realized that I had not heard about it in many,many years.When I was a kid it was probably on of the biggest tin-foil hat topics around.
Should I still be afraid?!?!Q!1!

[Orrex]

1. Shut up, you fool! You'll get us all killed!

Actually, The History Channel still dedicates an hour or two of each week's programming to this pressing topic.

[TZ]

2. Actually I saw a really interesting show about the Triangle

Awhile back. Speculating about methane "bubbles" bringing down planes in the Triangle. It was very very scientifically based.

[conscious evolution]

4. Methane?

For some reason visions of boat and aircraft crews getting into epic battles over who cut the cheese comes to mind.

[lizerdbits]

5. I remember seeing that.

I thought it was cool since it was scientific instead of voodoo.

[conscious evolution]

3. For real?

It is still a tin foil topic after all these years?

Wow.

[mr blur]

6. Even Wikipedia knows,

"A substantial body of documentation shows numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have stated that the number and nature of disappearances is similar to any other area of ocean."

Conservapedia, on the other hand, says that most of the disappearances are Gawd calling people "home" and the rest are a Liberal plot to discredit George W. Bush.

[charlie]

7. It ate Charles Berlitz

Which would be like Bailey barbecuing Barnum, a dumb move with predictable effect. Malignant Forces of Nature aren't especially attuned to much beyond their appetites, nevermind their careers.

Actually, Berlitz died of old age in 2003. It would've been fitting though, if had disappeared inside his lucrative hoax.

[Heddi]

8. I love the Bermuda Triangle shows on History channel

they show them like EVERY SINGLE WEEK fer f's sake !!! But I love them! They're so cheesy. The first time I heard about The Devil's Trapezoid or whaver the hell it's called was on In Search Of with Leonard Nemoy. They re-play that on History but under a different name. It has the same shitty cheezy ass drawings of the pilots of the plane, grey/green skin (from FEAR!!!) frozen in rapt horror. it's great.

There was a show on discovery or PBS recently (may have even been History!) that tried to look at Satan's Rhombus in a scientific way, and 1) they concluded that it was probably methane bubbles that made ships sinks and 2) all the horrible things that the pilots of the planes supposedly said were never said but imagined by the guy who wrote Chariot of the Gods in the 60's or 70's that started the whole Mephisto's Paralellogram mythos to begin with.

[salvorhardin]

9. Von Daniken started the Bermuda Triangle stories?

Wow. I never knew that. He was like the Deepak Chopra of the late '60s/'70s, except more scientific.

I loved watching In Search Of... I was ten when it first came on and that show used to totally freak me out. When I look at it today I realize how cheesy it is, but at the time I used to sit and watch it in rapt terror. Of course, it should also be mentioned that Scooby Doo used to scare me when I was a really little kid.

[Heddi]

10. I thought In Search Of was great

still do, but like you, cheezy as hell. I wish it came on again. I'd love to have a Cosmos/In Search Of Power Hour :-D Be even more perfect on a Saturday afternoon. For some reason, those shows are best at Saturday around 4pm...

I remember the one about the crystal skull of the AMAZONNNNNNN1!11! ooooh! what could have made it? Does anyone care?

And I'm pretty sure the Chariot of the God guy didn't start the bermuda triangle story, but rather ramped it up, added about 100% of the mythos behind it and made it more of an oooo-weee-ooo story of the paranormal than it was before.

[dropkickpa]

11. GPS killed it

That and cruise ships serving drinks out of pineapples on a waterslide while IN the Bermuda short trapezoid. Hard to be scared while hollerin' "WHAHOOOOEEEEEE!!!" with a mega wedgie.

[conscious evolution]

12. lol!

[onager]

13. Good debunking in the "Is It Real?" series

A series of 1-hour shows on Discovery Channel (IIRC) a few months ago. Each show tackled one topic - ghosts, Bigfoot, etc. - giving the woo side, followed by the rational explanation.

Very skeptical attitude and very well done.

For the Bermuda Triangle, they interviewed a pilot who described her "supernatural experience" in a light aircraft flying thru the Triangle. They followed that with a meteorologist explaining what the experience probably was. I think she (the meteorologist) then went up with the pilot and they tried to duplicate the event. The pilot came away satisfied that nothing supernatural was involved, just a freak weather front. A common event in that area.

Naturally the show tackled Flight 19 and carefully debunked all the woo claims: "It was a routine flight of experienced pilots!" (It was a training flight, led by an instructor who was new at the job himself.) "The rescue plane just disappeared!" (The rescue plane exploded, and several people in the area witnessed and reported the explosion.)

Insurance experts noted that their actuarial tables show the Triangle is no more dangerous than any other oceanic area, using data on sinkings and disappearances. Shipping companies have never been denied insurance because they go thru the Triangle, and insurance premiums are no higher for that area than any other in the world.

The show didn't bring up the "methane bubble" explanation, as I remember, but that is interesting.

[immoderate]

14. It disappeared!!

It's gone! :shrug:

--imm