# Strange Claims from an Interesting Book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 16, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339 "2022-10-16T19:52:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/21 "2022-10-16T23:14:20Z")
Long titles are a way of marketing books. The potboilers sold at 19th century airport newsstands didn’t have glossy lurid pictures on them or blurbs printed on the back cover. A long title was likely the only way to judge a book with a featureless cover. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/22 "2022-10-16T23:25:37Z")
It is mandatory to mention Robert Benchley’s _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or David Copperfield_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/23 "2022-10-16T23:35:24Z")
I also need to point out that the full title of Riveted is _Riveted: The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One with the Universe_. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/24 "2022-10-17T00:47:04Z")
I actually read something recently (forgot where it was) was that said actually there are MORE UFO sightings than ever, it’s just that nobody really cares anymore so they don’t get reported on the nightly news like they used to. If you look at YouTube they have all sorts of different UFO videos almost every day taken from cell phone cameras. You might claim “Yeah but they’re not believable” but then again so we’re the vast majority of earlier videos, but it specifically contradictive “UFO sightings are down” narrative. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/25 "2022-10-17T00:51:09Z")
When was there ever a time when UFO sightings were reported on the nightly news? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/26 "2022-10-17T01:16:43Z")
> [@susan](#): > > #3 has been mentioned here several times, though I don’t remember if there were citations. X-files had fun with this in one of the more recent seasons. Mulder complains they don’t have any really good X-files anymore because everyone records everything, so nothing is mysterious. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/27 "2022-10-17T01:18:06Z")
He has it backwards. Skeptics are everywhere, therefore there is nothing mysterious to record. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/28 "2022-10-17T08:30:43Z")
The number of UFO clips on YouTube is quite impressive, but these short clips do provide some data about the phenomenon that didn’t exist before. YouTube UFOs are generally either bad CGI fakes or misidentified stars, planets, clouds, birds, nearby insects, distant airplanes, chinese lanterns or balloons. These clips give us more data to work with - and the data all seems to point to the fact that people are easily misled or mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/29 "2022-10-17T09:11:28Z")
On a similar note, there’s James Randi’s seminal book about the history of stage magic - CONJURING: Being a Definitive Account of the Venerable Arts of Sorcery, Prestidigitation, Wizardry, Deception, & Chicanery and of the Mountebanks & Scoundrels Who Have Perpetrated These Subterfuges on a Bewildered Public, in short, MAGIC!, by JAMES RANDI, ESQ., A Contrite Rascal Once Dedicated to these Wicked Practices but Now Almost Totally Reformed. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/30 "2022-10-17T09:12:56Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I actually read something recently (forgot where it was) was that said actually there are MORE UFO sightings than ever, This contradicts the statement that there are fewer UFO sightings about as much as much as an anonymous person on the street’s claim that we never landed on the moon contradicts the belief that we did. You actually read this? Well, I actually read somewhere that Bigfoot is real and comes from a secret society from the inner core of the earth. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/31 "2022-10-17T12:24:25Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > The interesting article on the placebo effect getting stronger I read is here. Looking forward to reading this article later. Right now I just ate a Tic Tac and it’s making me very sleepy. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339/32 "2022-10-17T13:17:04Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Right now I just ate a Tic Tac and it’s making me very sleepy. Dude, those are quaaludes, not TicTacs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-claims-from-an-interesting-book/973339.md?page=1)