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From: ingria@mit-prep.ARPA (Bob Ingria)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Re: Contempt prior to investigation
Message-ID: <14@mit-prep.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 7-Mar-86 03:04:42 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-prep.14
Posted: Fri Mar  7 03:04:42 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Mar-86 08:27:58 EST
References: <899@decwrl.DEC.COM> <402@aoa.UUCP> <192@ulowell.UUCP> <954@lanl.ARPA> <208@ulowell.UUCP> <435@ccivax.UUCP> <166@epimass.UUCP>
Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 57
Keywords: Bermuda Triangle
Xref: watmath net.sci:569 net.philosophy:4384

> In article <435@ccivax.UUCP> rb@ccivax.UUCP (What's in a name ?) writes:
> >Some of sciences "taboos":
> >UFO's and Alien life.  - Blue Book didn't even say they didn't exist!
> 
> You mean you aren't aware of the well-funded programs to search for
> extraterrestrial intelligence?  What is "Blue Book"?

This is Project Bluebook, a USAF study of UFO reports.

> >Bermuda Triangle and similar dissappearances.
> 
> This is no mystery.  This area has been one of the most heavily used shipping
> areas since the 1500's, and has always had lots of pirates.  In the old days,
> they stole gold; now they steal ships for use in the drug trade.  It also
> has some of the worst weather in the world.  There was a book that
> successfully debunked most of the Bermuda Triangle stuff; I forget the title.
> Naturally it didn't sell well.

@i(The Bermuda Triangle Mystery---Solved) by Larry Kusche.  He was a
librarian who was constantly being asked for books about the Triangle.
He decided to actually look at the primary sources of information
(Shipping records, Llloyd's of London reports of losses, etc.)

He discovered that:

(1) some of the cases that were reported didn't have ANY primary
backing at all: no reports on Lloyd's, no records of ships of that
name, not even a contemporary newspaper account.  This was the
smallest proportion, but there were still accounts in this category.

(2) Some of the cases occurred but (a) there were clear natural
causes; and/or (b) they didn't even occur in the Triangle area.  Some
gems of this kind are a ship that was capsized in the PACIFIC that
was reported to have disappeared in the Triangle and a plane that was
reported lost in the triangle when it actually crashed on the CANADIAN
leg of a flight path that WOULD have gone through the Triangle.  There
are also cases that are attributed to the Triangle of ships that were
lost, in the days before radio, etc. on a route that ended in the
Triangle.  However, there was no clear indication of where exactly the
ship was finally lost, so it could have ``disappeared'' anywhere in
along its route.

(3) Cases where contemporary reports show bad weather (storms,
hurricanes, etc.) that were not reported in popular accounts of the
disappearances.

There were a few cases where the exact cause of the disappearance
could not be determined but these were the least numerous of all the
cases and were not the ``biggies'' of the Triangle mythos.

Kusche also wrote a book called @i(The Disappearance of Flight 19),
which dealt with the loss of the 5 Navy Avenger bombers, presenting
the previously available evidence and some new evidence that was the
result of his own investigations.

-30-
Bob