Greenwich Skeptics in the Pub

The Rendlesham Forest UFO Case – Deconstructing a myth
Ian Ridpath, Writer

The Rendlesham Forest UFO incident of Christmas 1980 ranks as one of the top ten UFO cases in the world as voted by UFO believers and is often described as the ‘British Roswell’. Evidence for a series of sightings spread over two nights includes eye-witness statements from security guards at the US Air Force base near Woodbridge in Suffolk, a memo from a high-ranking USAF officer to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, and a real-time tape recording of events as they unfolded. This talk looks at the main points of the case and explains how the witnesses were fooled by a series of natural and man-made objects. The Rendlesham case is an instructive demonstration that UFO sightings can never be taken at facevalue no matter how reliable the witnesses may seem.

Ian Ridpath is an internationally renowned writer on astronomy and space and a well-known UFO skeptic. He was the first skeptic to investigate and explain the Rendlesham Forest UFO case after it hit the headlines in 1983. His investigations have grown into a major website which can be accessed here

http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/rendlesham.html

This talk will summarize his investigations of the case.

With millions of users on AI companion apps everyday, and millions more pouring their heartfelt feelings into ChatGPT, people are engaging emotionally with AI. For some, they are convinced that this love is a two-way thing, even while admitting they know that it’s just a piece of software. So why are folks falling in love with a machine? And is it a problem if they do? This talk will explore the surprisingly long cultural history of the artificial companion and the ramifications of our science fiction becoming fact.
Kate Devlin is Professor of Artificial Intelligence & Society at King’s College London where she leads the Digital Futures Institute. She is the author of Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots – a book that tells the story of technology and intimacy. Kate writes general audience pieces for a wide range of mainstream publications and regularly talks about AI and robots on podcasts and radio.

This presentation will summarise the results from the National Folklore Survey for England that aims to capture an accurate snapshot of the traditions and beliefs of people who live in contemporary England. It is the first systematic survey of its kind since 1964 and aims to address the lack of data on the cultural value of folklore in post-Brexit, post-pandemic England as a source of resilience and community identity. It includes data on supernatural beliefs and experiences, contemporary legends and a range of folkloric traditions linked to the natural world, domestic life and the changing seasons. The 2-year AHRC-funded project is led by Dr David Clarke and a team of folklore specialists from Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Hertfordshire and Chapman University in California.

Dr David Clarke is Associate Professor at Sheffield Hallam University and is Project Lead for the AHRC-funded National Folklore Survey for England. He is co-founder of the Centre for Contemporary Legend at SHU and was curator for the release of the MoD’s UFO files archive at The National Archives 2008-13. His books include The Angel of Mons (2004), How UFOs Conquered the World (2015) and UFO Drawings At The National Archives (2017). His next book, Space Age Folklore, will be published by Reaktion books in 2027.

The Hull Werewolf
Deborah Hyde

Was a werewolf really loping around Hull’s Barmston Drain in 2016? Folklorist Deborah Hyde investigates this modern manbeast mystery.
In 2016, a peculiar story hit local headlines – a werewolf was loping around Barmston drain, an eighteenth century canal in Hull. Such tabloid gold couldn’t stay local for long and national newspapers amplified the reports to the point that international publications like the Huffington Post repeated them. Rock star Alice Cooper even commented on social media. But what lay behind the sensational spin? How many eye-witnesses were there and what did they really say? The Hull Werewolf’s context – both folkloric and contemporary – is rewarding to examine, to illuminate the content and transmission of this popular twenty-first century cryptid tale.

A specialist in belief, folklore and the supernatural, Deborah is a writer, broadcaster and producer who explores the strange corners of culture. She has appeared on ‘Strange Evidence’, ‘Mysteries at the Museum’ and the hit BBC podcasts ‘Uncanny’ and ‘The Battersea Poltergeist’, and was Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Skeptic’ for a decade.