Watch the In Search Of... episode on YouTube. 

Jeb, Blake and special guest Alexandria "Alex" French discuss the In Search Of about they mystery whether a woman called Anna Anderson was really the long lost Russian Czarina Anastasia. (Narrator:  She wasn't.) 

***Highly recommended long-read about the lives of "Anna" and Jack Manahan.***

Russian royals not that cash-wealthy.

Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and German Emperor Wilhelm II were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom.

Summers & Mangold book File on the Czar - holy crap make sure you buy it used if you get it!

Nokolai Sokolov's investigation into the death of royals (Warning - VERY graphic descriptions)

Wiki page on list of known Romanov royalty impostors. 

Ingrid Bergman Anastasia movie

Animated Bluth Anastasia musical cartoon

Grand Duke Vladimir bio 

1977 WAPO article about Anderson/Anastasia 

 

 

 

Nimoy Fashion Alert - the professor will see you now!

 

Biometrics Montage

Eating 1 Battery or 5 Batteries? (source Dr. Strongbad)

 

(Watch this In Search Of... episode on YouTube.) This episode has so much content warning. Fish heads, shark assassination, pig sacrifice, child nudity, adult nudity, and Hawaiian shirts!  You've been warned. Jeb and Blake have to fin for themselves as they mako lotta discussion about one of the odder episodes of In Search Of... we've watched so far. 

Annual shark attacks on humans ranked by species. 

History of the Solomon Islands. 

The island of Laulasi.

The Solomon Islands. 

Langa Langa Lagoon 

Jersey Shore shark attacks 

Screenshot from Savage Shadows:

History of Savage Shadows 

Henri Bource bio 

Facts on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis 

 

Shark Repellant 

The so-called shark "threat-response." 

Likely source of the silent-footage in this episode:

News article about this voyage.

Shark god Dakuwaqa 

Nimoy Fashion Alert!

Shell Money 

Terry Hannigan 

Have we already done this episode before? Have you already heard it? Jeb and Blake tackle Reincarnation featuring the surprise reappearance of "Doctor" Hans Holzer!

 

Shirley Krepp says she spent past life as a witch, and her tale is quite a cliff-hanger. 

Today's topic is Reincarnation. (Wiki)

 

Dr. Helen Wambach is behind a lot of the topic in this episode. She's the hypnotist who...

...will later perform group regression sessions.

 

Some discussion on W.E.I.R.D. and samples in psych testing in Uni.

Nimoy Fashion Alert - Nimoy is in "The Graveyard" - a setting we've seen before, and will see again!

 

That shirt he's wearing isn't just blue - it's blue with pinstripes!

 

The Old Chestnut Inn - was going to be a rehab center. 

Ruth McGuire who was variously involved in an Indian uprising and a Pilgrim voyage.

 

Finally, we meet Dr. William Yaney - who Holzer wrote about in Fate.

Special thanks to Maiken King for her assistance with the translation of Bob's hypnotic hieroglyphs.

 

 

Jeb and Blake discuss the two-millennia old archaeological treasure known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

(Watch this ISO episode on YouTube)

The Dead Sea is not strictly dead. It has bacteria and freshwater vents in the bottom act similarly to how volcanic vents promote life in the deep sea.

Jeb mentioned "the Aral sea" before & after shots - 1989 compared to 2014.

 

A list of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth.

Wikipedia entry on the Essenes includes this:

Josephus later gave a detailed account of the Essenes in The Jewish War (c. 75 CE), with a shorter description in Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 CE) and The Life of Flavius Josephus (c. 97 CE). Claiming firsthand knowledge, he lists the Essenoi as one of the three sects of Jewish philosophy[7] alongside the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He relates the same information concerning piety, celibacy, the absence of personal property and of money, the belief in communality, and commitment to a strict observance of Sabbath. He further adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings. 

Jerusalem 

The Six-Day War 

Temple Mount 

Al-Aqsa Intifada 

Spring at Ein Feshka 

Before we get to Nimoy Fashion Alert - we first find Nimoy high above some large body of water, but we are extremely skeptical (even with the flag) that this is Israel.

The First Jewish-Roman War 

TV Mini-Series MASADA. 

The ruins of Qumran 

The initial discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls 

The MUSEUM OF THE BIBLE scrolls were fake.

Copper treasure scrolls mentioned

The Shrine of the Book now houses most of the known authentic scroll content.

There is a discussion of the "Greater Israel" idea in our coverage.

Check out the attachments for some contemporaneous DSS coverage from the news.

 

(Watch this ISO episode on YouTube)

Jeb and Blake are surprised to find no aliens and almost no magic as we pursue PYRAMID SECRETS.

Shabti (aka Ushabti) servant "robots"

3D Models of Shabti (Sketchfab)

3D Model - Great Pyramid of Khufu (aka Cheops) (Sketchfab)

Frit - fused "glass batch" 

Faience - Egyptian ceramic like Frit

Flood cycle of the Nile

Three seasons of Akhet (Inundation), Peret (Growth), and Shemu (Harvest)

Transamerica Pyramid 

Stanford Research Institute (SRI)

Harold Puthoff (SRI)

Jason Colavito on Puthoff & "flying saucer material" 

John B. Alexander (SRI)

Doug Englebart and the "Mother of All Demos"

Dolphin Lab at SRI

Dolphin on Egypt 

More on Dolphin 

This excerpt gives some context to Dolphin's mixture of materialist science and desire for the numinous/spiritual.

Biblical Archaeologists: Maximalists 

Minimalists 

Biblical Archaeology & William F. Albright 

Robert Schoch - Sphinx age controversy

Schoch and Demons (Colavito Blog)

Schoch and (take a drink) Theosophy 

Cosmic Rays and Remote Sensing (not Remote Viewing)

Alchemy and Hermes Trismegistus 

Al-Ma'mun 

Al-Aziz 

Desertification of Egypt 

Pyramid Power (Loxton's resources)

Pyramidion 

Benben 

Broken Pyramid (Meidum) - Either Djoser or Sneferu (reign 2613 - 2589)

Bent Pyramid

Red Pyramid 

Giza

Consultant Gerald LaRue

Nimoy Fashion - plus fabulous pyramid model

Close-up reveals corduroy fabric

Check out this Amazing "James Bond Safari Infographic" by Matt Spaiser.

 

Here's a photo of Giza from the 1920s that we mentioned:

Photos Jeb provided from various museum trips:

Coffin Texts

Book of the Dead:

Imhotep (Left) with other gods in Ashmolean museum:

Imhotep and faience tiles from Djozer (Ashmolean):

Pyramidion:

Dive into the Great White North as we look beneath the surface of Lake Okanogan to see if we can find The Ogopogo Monster. 

Watch this episode of ISO on YouTube. 

 

The Ogo-Pogo: The Funny Fox-trot - via Karl Shuker's blog.

(Note: The lyrics listed here are not the same as in the recording, apparently due to differences between the published sheet music and the actual recording. Chiefly, in the actual recorded song, the lyrics match this version.)

The music was by Ralph Butler. The lyrics were by Cumberland Clark. 

Lake Okanagan (Wikipedia)

 

Nimoy vs Blue Steel:

 

Modern Coelacanths are larger than their fossil ancestors.

Book: Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis 

Tribal representatives give really interesting lore about the lake and its dangerous water spirit.

 

Editors at ISO give us this "1970s calendar worthy" fade shot of the lake and First Nations representatives.

The famous Three Wolf Moon t-shirt.

Kelowna Museum - where we meet Ursula Surtees More on Ursula.

 

Mid-Atlantic accent 

Mary Moon! (author)

 

More on Canadian Dainty. 

Ben Radford & Joe Nickell's Lake Monster Mysteries 

The Lambton Worm song - not to be confused with the D'Ampton Worm Song from Lair of the White Worm (the movie, not the book).

Galvanic Corrosion on boat engine casing.

 

Alleged sighting of Ogopogo seen in ISO episode:

Jeb compares photos from Loch Ness he shot:

Willard Bascom, director of Southern California Waters Research Project appears as science expert. (and John McCain lookalike)

Jeb describes IncEELs - apparently, there is something to this.

Arlene Gaal - author and owner of the film shown at end of the episode. 

Nimoy Fashion Forensics:Are the shooting locations of Ogopogo and Astrology the same place? I think the yellow house with verticle exterior planking looks very much like it's the same building and setting.  We will keep an eye on this to see if further clues emerge!

Jeb and Blake discuss the ISO episode: Hurricanes.  The episode touches on some emotional memories for Jeb, who was directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005. (Watch the ISO episode on YouTube.)

(From NOAA - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)  A tropical cyclone is a rotating low-pressure weather system that has organized thunderstorms but no fronts (a boundary separating two air masses of different densities). Tropical cyclones with maximum sustained surface winds of less than 39 miles per hour (mph) are called tropical depressions. Those with maximum sustained winds of 39 mph or higher are called tropical storms. When a storm's maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph, it is called a hurricane. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating, or category, based on a hurricane's maximum sustained winds. The higher the category, the greater the hurricane's potential for property damage.

Tropical cyclones are categorized according to the speed of sustained winds.

• Tropical Depression - 38 mph or less
• Tropical Storm - 39 to 73 mph Hurricane
• Category 1 - 74 to 95 mph
• Category 2 - 96 to 110 mph
• Category 3 - 111 to 129 mph
• Category 4 - 130 to 156 mph
• Category 5 - 157 or higher mph

The Maya god Hurakan. (Wikipedia) This one-legged diety is the axe who opens storms. Much of the ISO episode centers on Hurricane Camille, now considered the second most intense tropical cyclone to hit the United States.  The most intense since the measurement scale began was Hurricane Carla in 1961. This is based on a ranking that combines Intensity and Size, leaving Camile (1969), Opal (1995) and Katrina (2005) all tied for third with a combined score of 36.  Second place went to Betsy (1965). 

Jeb shares some photos from Katrina. 

The exodus as people flee the coming storm.  

Arial footage of floodwater damage in 9th ward:

Coverage of the tragedy in the lower 9th ward.

Mercenaries after Katrina.

Camp Greyhound - post-Katrina Internment Camp, where people were given the option of labor or being stuck on cold concrete.

Famous Mike Myers & Kanye fundraiser moment.

Trump throwing paper towels in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

 

Back to shots from the Episode:

Inside the National Hurrican Center in Florida. You can see they're still mostly in paper mode.  They have computers and advanced tools, but a lot of their work is still paper, feeding in report data and drawing projected paths and force on paper maps.

ASCII computer map of the southern US coast.

Richelieu Apartments BEFORE the Hurricane

Richelieu Apartments AFTER the Hurricane

Thankfully the hurricane party itself is a myth, but the tragic loss of lives was real.

Prominently featured in the last third of the episode, but not so much in our coverage, is Dr. Neil Frank who was instrumental in making the National Hurricane Center the institution that it is today.

 

 

On a more positive note, we did get some 70's beach fashion in our Nimoy Fashion Alert!

 

 

Special thanks to Beth Patterson for allowing us to use her song Come Hell or High Water in this episode. Please check out this song and her other amazing music on Bandcamp.

 

[Correction: I've replaced the original audio file because I forgot to insert the Nimoy Fashion Alert!  I feel like mission control launching the Apollo mission and then turning to ask the astronauts how the flight was going - then doing a spit-take as I see they're not on the space ship. Sorry!]

Jeb and Blake look into the mysterious (well, not THAT mysterious) disappearance of Michael Rockefeller who disappeared while researching the Asmat people of New Guinea.  (Watch the ISO episode on YouTube)

Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande by E. E. Evans-Pritchard

Thinking with Things by Esther Pazstzory

The ISO episode title card:

The original photo the title card is based on:

 

Milt Machlin - the guy who goes looking for Rockefeller, former editor of Argosy men's adventure magazine.

 

Machlin on location looking for Rockefeller

 

 

Just saying... (Harcourt Fenton Mudd)

Machlin investigated the theory that Rockefeller had been taken to the Trobriand Islands, a thousand miles from where the boat had capsized. The shots of the island reminded me of another fateful trip.

 

Interior and Exterior Nimoy Fashion:

 

 

The woodwork of the Asmat people is very impressive:

 

 

Carl Hoffman on the case for cannibalism. 

Ostjanep chief Ajam of the Asmat region, who says that his tribe did not kill Rockefeller. 

Asmat person chewing gum.

 

The writer of this episode, Alex Pomasanoff, also produced a NatGeo special called The Invisible World. 

Jeb and Blake discuss horoscopes, planets, and one of the most pervasive beliefs in human history: Astrology.  (Watch the ISO episode on YouTube.)   Show Notes: The episode "Astrology" first aired on January 12, 1978 . It was written and produced by Peter Rosten. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (Amazon) The Werewolves of Livonia - the witch-fighting werewolves of Italy The Witch by Ronald Hutton (Amazon) http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html Short version is: despite anecdotal support, the actual data (of which there is plenty to look at) does not support increase in suicide, madness, murder, etc… during the full moon.  Schwazenegger on Dating Game  Chapman survey has 18% of Americans with psychics etc. (not just astrology), that’s 60 million Prepping the show for posting, I did finally find a connection between Moses and Astrology in the form of a 1798 book titled Genethliacal Astrology Comprehending an Enquiry Into, and Defense of the Celestial Science: To which is Added an Appendix Containing Remarks on the Nativity of a Gentleman Now Living Paleolithic Bone Markings - like Alexander Marshack Alternative Maps Styles

• Ammassalik Wooden Maps
• Marshall Islands Stick Chart

Gnomon - sundial part that casts shadow Tower of Jericho Mayan Zodiac Mesopotamia/Egypt

• Babylonian Astronomy
• Egyptian Calendar
• Egyptian Astronomy
• Nabta Playa
• Ptolemy

Beth Alpha Star of Bethlehem Sydney Omarr (his IMDB page) George O. Abell, originating member of CSICOP, UCLA C64 Synth Sample  We mentioned Equinox: Superpowers which turns out to be part of a British Channel 4 series Equinox.  I wasn't able to track down this episode, but they also did a famous episode on psychics which was protested by Uri Gellar for showing how some of his effects could be done with stage magic.  Karl Krafft Louis de Wohl - Useless for Britain but you will find lots of news stories about him. Jeane Dixon - one of the astrologers used by the Reagans. Dr. Hans Eysenck Dr. George Abell The Barnum Effect   The "Cancer Dancer" lady:   Nimoy Fashion Alert!  Check out the gingham tie pattern!   Nimoy reads astrology phone-call notes in a cul de sac.  Nurse footage reused from season one and then re-used during this same episode:   The "Bank of America" building in front of a dark high-rise during the "Man on the Street" segment in this episode may give us some "Fashion Forensics" type data to work on identifying the shot locale.

[some explicit language in this episode] Jeb and Blake look at the very strange coverage of Mayan Mysteries on In Search Of season 2. (Watch this ISO episode on YouTube)

The term Blake was trying to remember at the beginning of the creation story was "ethnogenesis." This is a relatively new word, coming from the mid-20th century.

We mention Star Wars and Tikal. The story from David Anderson is in this ArchyFantasies episode, about 5 mins in.

The De Landa Letras - how we came to understand the Mayan alphabet

http://www.famsi.org/

https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/

Mural detail from the episode:

 

The poet (and frequent speaker in this episode) Alurista. (Wikipedia)

 

Some discussion in the episode is about the wheeled caiman or crocodile toy in the museum.  This is a detailed screen-cap of that.

We briefly discuss the United Fruit Company. The role of fruit companies in manipulating politics and behaving badly is long, depressing, and too much to fit into this episode. But it is worth reading about.

 

Reenacment of an Auto-da-fe:

 

We talk a bit about cacao and chocolate. I got curious and asked Jeb if he could help me find some somewhat authentic recipes for those audience members who want to try something close to the original drink. First (because, duh!) some background reading on the history of cacao in Mayan culture. And some thoughts about spicy, bitter takes on the drink. The latter link includes a lengthy video on the history of chocolate by Michael Coe (who we mention in the episode).

Here are two recipes that Jeb described as "pretty ok": First, the "if you go to all this trouble I hope it doesn't suck" version: https://www.instructables.com/id/Mayan-Chocolate-Drink/

Second, the "you can totally knock this one out at a regular grocery store" version: https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/articles/post/mesoamerican-chocolate-elixir/

Good luck! If you try these let us know how it turns out.

Nimoy Fashion!

Fashion Forensics!  I think we've got a repeat use of the same denim shirt from the killer bees episode.  Below are some comparison shots.  Let me know if you agree or disagree. I believe in the bee episode Nimoy's unbuttoned collar is hiding the thick black buttons we see in the Mayan museum.

 

And yes, I did make a joke about "author" Jackson Curtis, as depicted in the disaster film 2012. It is a very, very, very, very silly movie but I love watching it with my kids.  So - no apologies. -B

Extremely cool video example of what LIDAR can do to reveal lost jungle ruins. (NatGeo)

Accompanying story about the LiDAR project.

Snake Kings of the Maya (PayWall)