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Pterodactyl sightings

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Martina

Martina

Skilled Investigator
I was quite charmed to read of this. Apparently some are claiming that pterodactyls have been sighted in New Guinea and that they have terrified the local tribes for hundreds of years. They even have photos, which, admittedly, are automatically suspect, and the creature in the photos is quite obviously a pterodactyl.... but...

I remember a video about a project some years back in which a radio controlled pterodactyl was built and actually flew, flapping it's wings and moving it's crested head to steer itself, and it was really quite an amazing sight to see, something not seen in 65 million years on this world.

I googled this of course, and it was no surprise at all to find claims of pterodactyl sightings in the western US, where the RC model pterosaur was built and flown, and I guess they think no one remembers that RC pterosaur project so now they can make fantastic claims and drum up some excitement for the fun of it.

As for what's being reported in New Guinea, I have no idea, but I'll be following it.
 
How funny when reading this about the radio controlled pterodactyl I was trying to think where I was associating the link too.

But I think it’s from watching a film called ‘War Games’ as kid back in the 80’s, I believe it had a remote controlled pterodactyl in it but can remember for sure, I will have to Google to see if this correct or not.
 
AlexAnderson said:
How funny when reading this about the radio controlled pterodactyl I was trying to think where I was associating the link too.

But I think it’s from watching a film called ‘War Games’ as kid back in the 80’s, I believe it had a remote controlled pterodactyl in it but can remember for sure, I will have to Google to see if this correct or not.
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Back in the mid 80's a guy named Paul MacCready, who built the Gossamer Albatross, built and flew a computer controlled half scale 18 ft. wingspan RC pterodactyl for an IMAX production called On the Wing. It was flown in Death Valley and filmed flapping it's wings and steering with it's head crest, and looked completely realistic. Quite an amazing sight, and I wish I could find the video of it online, but sadly it's nowhere to be found anymore.

This was not the one from War Games, which was just a glider. MacCready's was far more sophisticated and today is in the Smithsonian.
 
Yes I agree most of the time monsterquest failed badly, but in the giant squid episode they did some great work and managed to film a trully giant squid alive (underwater) for the first time which was, for them nothing short of a miracle :) personaly I was sad when the show was cancelled as it was better than most other history channel shows. I just wish the BBC would make some serious cryptozoology programmes as they have the know how and skills to make superb nature programmes. below is a part one of the "giant squid episode"

P.s Im not sure if its available where you are but if you can, check out "inside nature's giants" on channel4 (uk) although its not about cryptozoology its one of the best nature series I have seen.
 
Now what I'd really like them to go after is Mokele Mbembe, but I don't think those guys are quite prepared to go into the Likouala swamp to reach Lake Tele in an unexplored region of the Congo full of venomous snakes and wicked tropical diseases after that critter.
 
Sadly because the BBC relies on licence fees they have to justify any programmes they make and unfortunatley crypto subjects are apparently not in the public interest. Having said that I think there are plenty of people who work for the BBC who would happily go to Lake Tele or anywhere else for that matter if they had the funding, and they would actually enjoy the snakes and insects. as the old saying goes "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun" :)
 
I agree with Martina that Monster Quest did lug a bunch of stuff around and found just about "zilch" for their troubles most of the time. That said I really enjoyed the show and recorded it every week to play back and enjoy. I also watched U.F.O. Hunters and liked it o.k. Although not as much as MonsterQuest. I want "pile on" as to why U.F.O. Hunters had some weakness but overall I was just glad to see a show take on the subject seriously. But, (your not gonna beleive this) :-) What U.F.O. Hunters really needed was a good honest "Skeptic" to keep certain folks from going overboard. Still, I miss both shows.
 
tyder001 said:
I agree with Martina that Monster Quest did lug a bunch of stuff around and found just about "zilch" for their troubles most of the time. That said I really enjoyed the show and recorded it every week to play back and enjoy. I also watched U.F.O. Hunters and liked it o.k.
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Yeah, Monsterquest did report a lot of good stuff, and came up with some neat re-enactment videos, but then again, they nearly never really came up with anything, kinda like that blonde bigfoot hunter Autumn Williams, who during all her show came up with zip while making the show out of high tech gadgets, unverified reports, and speculation. I think there are just too many shows like that.

I have to say I found UFO Hunters disappointing, for much the same reasons, and because they just plain talk too much.
 
Martina said:
Yeah, Monsterquest did report a lot of good stuff, and came up with some neat re-enactment videos, but then again, they nearly never really came up with anything, kinda like that blonde bigfoot hunter Autumn Williams, who during all her show came up with zip while making the show out of high tech gadgets, unverified reports, and speculation. I think there are just too many shows like that.

I have to say I found UFO Hunters disappointing, for much the same reasons, and because they just plain talk too much.
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Anybody watched Paranormal State? I haven't watched it because I'm afraid it would just be another "Ghost Hunter" bunch of silliness. But, I have been thinking of giving it a try. Also, for fun and some honesty I recommend 30 Odd Minutes. You can download it on itunes for free. :-) They don't take themselves to seriously and that kind of makes it fun...to a point. :-)
 
UFO Hunters was a complete joke with the likes of Bill Birnes mumbling about alien hybrids and secret bases and all that. It was pretty terrible IMO and not worth watching if you were trying to be honestly informed in any way about the subject.

Monsterquest is a good show. Sure we can't expect them to find bigfoot but the shows were much better, .... WAY better. They did show a number of real interesting pictures and videos. They had numerous first hand witnesses, forensic evidence that could be tested, and brought the notion of myth versus reality to a much better light. The squid episode was outstanding.

They didn't find the mosters they were looking for, but were able to test certain aspects in each episode. I thought the black cat episode was interesting as well. They were able to go back and use scale, reference points, morphology and more to investigate the sightings. Many of the shows made you wonder where the line is drawn from normal variability within a species to another species altogether.
 
tyder001 said:
Anybody watched Paranormal State? I haven't watched it because I'm afraid it would just be another "Ghost Hunter" bunch of silliness. But, I have been thinking of giving it a try. Also, for fun and some honesty I recommend 30 Odd Minutes. You can download it on itunes for free. :-) They don't take themselves to seriously and that kind of makes it fun...to a point. :-)
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Well Tyder, I'm watching an episode of Paranormal State right now, and they are on Gilliland's ranch, reporting UFO's and bigfoot, although nothing they get on camera is conclusive at all, and to me it's just stupid lights at night in the sky, brief movement in the brush, sounds heard in the woods, and all of that blown up to seem like spooky stuff with artificially generated drama.

Gilliland's ranch is supposed to be a big UFO hotspot, and full of all kinds of paranormal stuff.... Then they bring in a psychic...Oh please! I've also heard Gilliland on C2C going on about his profound spiritual connection with the aliens, he claims are flying those distant high altitude points of light in the sky, and claiming he's seen US fighter jets coming there to chase them.

The video we are shown is points of light at high altitude moving around, and they confirm it's UFO's by checking with NASA with regard to satellites, and say there are none there at the time, so it's GOT TO BE a UFO.... Ummm.. what about AIRCRAFT???? I don't see any of these lights maneuvering outside the performance envelope of known aircraft.

As for whatever our young kid saw go into the woods for a fraction of a second at night that he's so spooked about, how about an elk kid?

Until I see video of a daylight disk from there that isn't doctored or faked, instead of this distant lights in the night sky stuff I'm not convinced of anything going on there.

Gilliland has really done his best to cultivate that place as a UFO hotspot, and I have to wonder, how does he support his ranch there, and how much does he make on the people coming there. He's done C2C shows on it, hyping it to a high degree, and I guess I'm supposed to believe it's the paranormal portal of the universe.

Eh, not so much....
 
tyder001 said:
Thanks. What about the show itself. Promising or another "ghost hunters?"
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Oh, I can't really speak to that just yet since this is the only episode of the show I've seen. I'm not real big on ghosts having never run into one, and they do cover that subject, extensively from what I've seen listed of their shows. I tend to avoid the subject and concentrate on UFO's, which I have seen. Should I happen to see a ghost I might become interested in that subject, but I don't expect that to happen.

Haven't seen Ghost Hunters at all.
 
In defense of UFO hunters although I agree the content of the shows was not great, and there were attempts to lead the viewer. For sombody like me who who had little prior knowlege of the, lets say best UFO cases, it was a good starting point as they covered most if not all of the big ones. To be honest where I live most people dont take UFO's seriously, they are not really talked about and to have an entire series dedicated to the subject was for me unique. (I dont have satelite tv and we only have 5 terrestrial channels I am gratefull for the internet these days ) UFO hunters definatley wet my appetite for the subject and lead me to watch pretty much anything to do with ufos then I came across Dr Reed "alien in the freezer" case and was shocked that people actually bought into it so I did a google search "Dr Reed shamed" and the top result was the Paracast Hall of shame, I have been an avid listener ever since, Long live the Paracast! its a billion times better than anything else out there! If I am totaly honest I had never linked UFO's, Ghosts and Cryptoterrestrials I thought they were all in seperate catagorys
but thanks to the paracast I now believe they are inextricably linked.
 
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