Nessie Video Due to Black Holes?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 21st, 2007
Editorial Commentary
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” as spoken by Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Gordon T. Holmes (above) is doing himself no favors by adding more information and speculation to his university-hosted website. In addition to coming up with some rather bizarre theories, he now is sending out appreciation for the feedback he’s receiving, while also saying no one can refer to his material any longer.
What?
Mr. Holmes continues to add more and more details to his staff pages at Bradford University; see here.
First, Mr. Holmes, says he has discovered new 2006 sonar that he can’t release yet showing what he takes to be front and back flippers “estimated to be 12 foot long.” I’m assuming he means the contact (creature?) not the flippers.
Side note here: Mr. Holmes use of capitalization and spelling, for a university-based “scientist,” is quite shaky, (e.g. “Fort Agustus” for “Fort Augustus” – twice, so he must think he’s spelled this location correctly – and “National Geographical” for “National Geographic”).
When talking again about his 2007 video, Mr. Holmes thanks people for the feedback after he writes about his new theories:
The two local Experts are dropping hints that this 2007 phenomena might be due to atmospherics. However, it is early days but I must admit their early analysis is possible. Although, the images I have obtained from the film strongly suggest two animate objects but not of a Species I am familiar with.
After approx 43 seconds, I’m sure I can clearly see a long neck thrusting through the waves. Also, occasionally there seems to be a tow-wire but this might just be a shadow effect.
Other possibilities, but a bit far-fetched include:-
Star Wars Laser testing on the Loch from a Satellite, a bit far-fetched but who knows.
Caused by periscope moving just below the surface (note two submarines for the two objects spotted).
Miniature Black Holes, anytime soon the new European Accelerator is attempting to produce them, perhaps they have already started! Yes a bit far-fetched again.
It is great reading every ones feedback on the Net. Keep up the good analysis.Gordon T. Holmes
After discussing “How to Build a Time Machine,” his “First Ever Radio Image of Martian Lightening?” and the other things I’ve mentioned before (fairies, black cats, and all), Mr. Holmes issues a new declaration about his copyright.
Holmes has added this notice to the bottom of his page: “COPYRIGHT This Web Page was Designed and Developed in 8/6/2007 It must not be considered as an instruction or means to use in any way. Anyone who wishes to refer to any part of it, must acquire confirmation from the Author.”
Of course, copyrights need to be respected, but there’s not a court in the UK that would rule against anyone making an intellectual “comment” or even an opposing “commentary” about what someone has posted on their website. Mr. Holmes is the guy who freely shared his video and gave the media interviews. If he’s upset because people are not lock-step in unison with his multiple theories or insights on the material, that seems very strange indeed.
“Come, Watson, come!” he cried. The game is afoot.” as said by Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson, in The Adventure of Abbey Grange by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
If I might make a suggestion, Gordon T. Holmes needs to realize that if there is any worth to his Nessie footage, the more he puts his foot in his own mouth, the worse this gets. Why come up with more and more incredible theories to explain the video? Perhaps a little thoughtful quiet would be important on Mr. Holmes’ part? It almost seems that if anyone wanted to have any questions about the credibility of this video, all they had to do was wait for Mr. Holmes to start talking and writing about it.
Perhaps Gordon Holmes sees himself as a “scientist,” and no doubt he has a legacy, technically, which might give him the right to call himself that at his university. But, frankly, Mr. Holmes is giving everyone else in the world plenty of information for calling him a few other names too. At this point, with his new theories and new copyright notices, I am afraid that the main person hurting the case of his Nessie video is none other than Mr. Holmes himself. Credibility is everything, and I fear that Mr. Holmes is his own worse enemy in this case.
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
With no disrespect to Mr. Holmes, I certainly would have appreciated a little more upfront analyses of the raw digital video footage, and a lot less talk from Mr. Holmes about what he thought it could be.
But by saying so much, now the Nessie video will always be viewed through the screen of who made it, not merely by its content alone. That, ultimately, is the way it should be, but I am dismayed by how this has all turned out.
If there is anything on this video, we might have learned something worthwhile about the natural fauna of Loch Ness, be it a seal, an eel, a Nessie, or, yes, even an otter. But as it is currently, the image on the video will never be the story. It is the man behind the camera, once again, who may overshadow the total equation here, when equal parts of personality and picture should have been in the mix.
Here and there a tawny brook prattled out from among the underwood and lost itself again in the ferns and brambles upon the further side. Save the dull piping of insects and the sough of the leaves, there was silence everywhere–the sweet restful silence of nature. – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in The White Company.
Yes, Mr. Gordon T. Holmes, there are many truths in that old saying: “Silence is golden.”
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I was reading that page just before coming here, and I was struck with the feeling that I’ve been had. Alright, I’ve met perfectly normal and educated people who’ve told me that they’ve seen fairies or elves (I’m not into the terminology in that particular field, so excuse me if they are different “creatures”), and I have no reason to doubt that they believe what they saw to be exactly that. But they have not been trying (for six+ years) to prove anything at all. They aren’t screaming out for attention, so to speak. And they haven’t made a book + disc set of “possible evidence” available _for sale_ either.
So one shouldn’t confuse the witness with the object witnessed, but I think I’ve seen proof enough. Even if mr. Holmes was just a witness, who would get “the blame” if the(se) object(s) were proven to be fakes? And if the creature(s) exist(s)? Would Holmes get the honors? He is too personally involved to make this interesting.
Sorry for the rant… Star Wars laser testing? Miniature black holes? *cough*
A picture speaks a thousand words, and video even more so. Mr. Holmes could learn from that and let the video do its own talking.
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” ~ Arthur Conan Doyle
This is unfortunate. If Mr Holmes comes across as a crank the value of the video will be diminished, even though the video should stand on its own.
I won’t go as far as to say the video must be fake because of all this wild theorizing coming from Gordon, since he could very well have taken legitimate footage and is just coming up with ideas of what it could be. Just because his ideas are somewhat nutty and unsupported does not necessarily mean that the video was faked, in my opinion. I am trying to look at the video on its own merit without letting myself become too biased by Gordon’s far out theories. I am not ready to throw out the credibility of the footage just yet without some more evidence to that effect in the video itself.
That being said, it does give some things to think about. There is still the possibility that it WAS faked in order to give Gordon a platform to have his ideas heard so that must be considered as well. This neat little clip is turning into quite a bizarre sequence of events, isn’t it? Can’t wait to hear more.
Mr.PassiveAggressive: yep, good quote. It should be required reading for true skeptical analysis of any cryptid.
And yep, really unfortunate. I start to think “we have a concoction here” when the signal/noise ratio starts taking a plunge, which it seems to be doing with this at the moment.
But you know, because Murphy ordains it, that once in a while the s/n ratio will drop to near zero – when the signal is something worth paying attention to.
Interesting. I pretty much echo mystery_man’s comments.
Hmm, I like the tow wire concept. It’s a great tool for offering a conventional explanation about those instantaneous spikes ahead of the moving object. Also, before we lay a nuttiness verdict on Mr. Holmes, let’s not forget the untold millions out there who consider us all visitors to Cryptomundo pretty nutty too.
I would like to defend Mr. Holmes (a little) and offer other observations.
1. Mr. Holmes comes across as a quasi-Fortean, so it surprises me that folks here are dissing him so. In fact, his theories are not so much more far fetched or implausible than notions that the Spicer sighting might have been of a prehistoric whale, dragon, or waterhorse (especially given the fact that the last two are decidedly mythological). So, I second Richard888’s comments above.
2. While it is unfortunate that Holmes is not as believable as the late Dinsdale, this may in fact prove paradoxically beneficial to his case. He is not a die-hard Nessie-believer on a holy grail quest, misidentifying a dingy at a distance, but a fellow apparently lark enough to stumble on to something.
3. What are we really saying here? He faked his video? I don’t know about that. The video was shot at such a wide angle that it is hard to see how he may have faked it. On the other hand, he does mention tow wires! Egads!
4. The film is the most important film yet taken at Ness, I think. It’s enhanced version is classic “Nessie”: single hump, long neck, small head. If it proves to be an otter or seal, then I think the game is up. If it proves to be fake, then it becomes worrisome and casts suspicion on other sightings (especially if Holmes is not in on the hoax). And if the film proves inconclusive, “Nessie” lives to frolic another day.
The image on the video is an inconclusive blob (I don’t care what anyone says, for the life of me I can’t see a head, a mouth, a neck, flippers, a tail, lasers, a tow line, black holes, fairies or anything else that doesn’t resemble a run-of-the-mill blob distored by light refracted through rolling waves). The man behind it is completely and utterly bonkers. The mass media gave him his 15 minutes of fame and we’ve stretched it to 15 days. I think it would be wonderful if Nessie exists, but this ain’t the guy I’m banking on to prove it.
Nice touch with ‘”The Cottingley Fairies.” I’m sure most readers here know the story behind them. In a way it relates to the continuing odyssey of of Gordon T. Holmes and his “Your guess is as good as mine thing” video. His credulity may have been stretched to its limits with some incredulous theories as mentioned. I’ll wait for the film analysis to make any further and final judgements.
“I have learned never to ridicule any man’s opinion, however strange it may seem.”- The Captains of the Polestar.
Yeah, I’m not seeing this head, neck, flippers, etc. either. And I certainly can’t see where people are getting two large objects out of this. This video is about as indistinct as any I’ve seen claiming to be the legendary monster. As I stated in an earlier post, why didn’t he zoom out for scale? Supposedly he has some scientific background, so you’d think he would know to do this. As it is, it could be 2′ long or 50′ long. Personally, I think it’s a misidentification of a known animal.
And although it may not be entirely fair to just write this sighting off due to the exceedingly bizarre comments of the man who filmed it, I can’t help but think that Cryptozoology will never be taken seriously in the slightest if this is typical of the average person who has a sighting. This whole incident has done a lot more damage than good to the cause, in my opinion. Not all publicity is good publicity in this case. Let’s put this one to bed and move on.
Wow, perfect ending for this Loren. *thumbs up*
Well. I read Mr. Gordon’s page as well. His Nessie ideas are only one part of the exuberence that Mr. Holmes exhibits…”Trice Visualization” featuring “Cartoon-like sketches”, his neon-colored “Technical Artwork” “compared” by “some People” “to a [David] Hockney!” his belief that a basalt rock was a “plesiosaur flipper”, fairy images, and my favorite, “Famous People whom I have shaken by the hand”.I tried to figure this poor guy out. Mr. Holmes’ position is as a “Media and IT Technician” at the University of Bradford, part of the Technical Staff within Archaeological Sciences. His academic qualifications are not within archaeology however. “YHAFHE(stage1)P/T Teacher-Training, HNC (elect.), HNC (mech.), FULL TECH (tech cert.)” YHAFHE is the YORKSHIRE AND HUMBERSIDE ASSOCIATION FOR FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION. HNC is the Higher National Certificate which is equivalent to the first year of college in the U.S.. “In general a student with a pass profile from an appropriate HNC qualification will normally be eligible for acceptance to enter Stage 1 of a degree programme” (Source).
It looks like Mr. Holmes took one year of college studies, to qualify in certain technical areas as well as teacher’s training. No word if he ever went on with his studies, but he ended up being a lab tech, re-booting crashed computers and running Powerpoint, in an academic context that is extremely status-aware. Academics can often be rather insufferably snobbish; this sort of situation always creates an atmosphere of social climbing and status-seeking, elevating insecurities in people who didn’t climb very high. Some invent status as researchers to feel better about their situation. So give the poor guy a break. Being around professors all the time and crunched under their academic jackboots can drive anyone a bit over the edge.
I still think this is a video of two (possibly more) otters of normal size swimming practically side by side at a rather far distance (about 100 yards or meters) out in the water from where Holmes is filming. Holmes is credible on is the color and distance of the objects. Other than the water is Loch Ness, I sadly just don’t see anything remarkable at all about this video.
wshinhamjr,
Here is a video for you to view much like the holmes video
but taken in 2006.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DFVXf1RrEac