A Night Of Secrets, Lies And Unsolved Mysteries
Illawarra Mercury
Monday May 17, 2004
Bermuda Triangle: Secrets Revealed
WIN, 9.30pm
If I had my way, I'd start a TV show called ``It's All Crap". The purpose of the show would be to punch holes in crazy theories like the Bermuda Triangle, Loch Ness, and those who think man hasn't landed on the moon.
For years people have been banging on about crazy theories, apparently preferring them to boring old logical explanations.
The Bermuda Triangle is a perfect example of this. It is, as you might have guessed, all crap. It seems to have started in 1945 when five US Navy planes disappeared while on a training mission during a severe storm.
The kooks would suggest they were abducted by aliens, swatted out of the sky by giant sea creatures or flew through a time vortex and are all alive and well in 2423.
They don't want to believe that maybe, just maybe, the lead pilot's compass failed (his was the only one with navigational gear). Then they got lost and ran out of fuel.
As the Skeptic's Dictionary points out, the only mysterious force acting on the planes was that of ``gravity on planes with no fuel".
The biggest Bermuda kook was Charles Berlitz (pictured left), who was also famous for his language schools. His work has since been discredited because he basically made most of it up.
For years people have claimed an abnormally high number of ``mysterious" accidents occur in the triangle.
Given the amount of shipping that passes through the area, the number of wrecks isn't that surprising at all. US Coast Guard records state that section of water is no more accident-prone than any other.
The only secret to reveal about the Bermuda Triangle is, there is no secret at all.
Oz
SBS, 10pm
A series of unsolved prison murders puts the pressure on warden Leo Glynn (pictured right) in the excellent Oz, and the tough-on-criminals governor is threatening to send in the FBI.
One of the best shows on TV.
© 2004 Illawarra Mercury