episode linked below
This Week We talk about David Paulides and his books, Documentorys and work surrounding the Missing 411, Cases where people disappear from National parks in the united states. Plus we have a chat about the news headlines from Donald Trump's crazy Rocky Photoshop tweets. The solved Mysterious boats that washed up on in Canada plus so much more besides.
Join Gaz and Taylor for another Epic episode of Never a straight answer
David Paulides is a former police detective who is now an investigator and writer known primarily for his self-published books, one dedicated to proving the reality of Bigfoot, and his Missing 411 series of books, in which he documents the disappearance of people in national parks and elsewhere. Paulides attributes mysterious, unspecified causes to these disappearances, while data analysis suggests that these disappearances are not statistically mysterious or unexpected.
Steven Kubacki - Case File
In February 1977, a 24-year-old man named Steven Kubacki was cross-country skiing through the snow near Lake Michigan. Once he reached the edge of the lake, he took his skis off to sit down and rest. When he got up to leave his own tracks were gone, and he became lost. The last thing he remembers was walking through the snow, feeling numb and exhausted. He blacked out. In the blink of an eye, it was spring. He was lying in a grassy field in the middle of a forest, wearing clothes that weren’t his. Sitting next to him was a stranger’s backpack containing running shoes and glasses that did not belong to him, either.
He hiked to the nearest town and asked a local resident where he was. They told him he was in Pittsfield, Massachusetts — 700 miles away from where he had been skiing. His aunt and father lived in Pittsfield, so he knocked on his aunt’s door. His family was in shock, hugging him and asking where he had been. Kubacki had been missing for 14 months.
When Kubacki had first gone missing, the search team found his poles and skis at the edge of the lake. There was only one set of his footprints leading toward the water, but none walking away. They could only assume he drowned himself in the freezing lake. He had been missing for so long, everyone assumed he must be dead.
The official explanation is that he had amnesia and that he was wandering in a fugue state. But even doctors are baffled by this case. It’s incredibly rare for someone to lose their memory of such a large chunk of time. And it still leaves so many unanswered questions. His story was included in a psychology case study in a book about amnesia, but even experts have been unable to figure out what actually happened.
Kubacki had already earned a degree in linguistics before he went missing, but he was so fascinated by his own case that he went on to earn his Ph.D. in Psychology. He wanted answers about his own disappearance, and yet he still couldn’t find them. Solving the mystery of his missing year became an obsession, and he went on to publish a book called Meta-Mathematical Foundations of Existence: Gödel, Quantum, God & Beyond. In it, he writes about the possibility of alternate universes.
Ben Franklin’s National Symbol
Following the momentous adoption of the Declaration of Independence by Congress on July 4, 1776, America desperately needed a national symbol. Benjamin Franklin was appointed to a three-person task force—along with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams—to design a seal representative of the newly formed country.
According to internet fodder, this is about the time Franklin brought up the possibility of making a fat, flightless bird America’s emblem. Of course, such a declaration would have been followed by an awkward, extended pause by Jefferson and Adams. Except this never happened at all.
In truth, Franklin didn’t want birds on the Great Seal of the United States. Instead, he envisioned a more complicated concept. An image of the Biblical patriarch Moses standing on the shores of the Red Sea, his arms extended for the wave-parting miracle that allowed the Jews to flee from slavery in Egypt. Franklin also wished to see Pharaoh depicted in an open chariot with the motto “Rebellion to Tyrants Is Obedience to God.” Talk about complicated branding!
Despite the lack of practicality inherent in the seal’s design, Jefferson and Adams were both on board with the idea, too. The Continental Congress, however, felt underwhelmed. They tabled the proposed scene from the Book of Exodus, turning to nature for inspiration instead.
The mystery of who was behind a boat that washed up on the Irish coast after apparently coming from Canada has been solved.
The houseboat came ashore on Drum Beach, Belmullet, Co Mayo, in November 2016, with clues as to who made it but no signs of life.
The strange-looking craft had solar panels on the top but was badly damaged, despite still being afloat.
Inside was an inscription saying: "I, Rick Small, donate this structure to homeless youth to give them a better life that Newfoundlanders choose not to do! No Rent No Mortgage No hydro".
At the time, efforts to track down Rick Small provided futile and it was not known whether he was alive or dead. It turned out the 62-year-old was a passionate advocate of solar technology and built the boat to highlight the danger of climate change to the Arctic.
His plan was to set sail from Newfoundland, where it was constructed, up the coast toward the diminishing sea ice.
But after his plan was scuppered by his failure to find an appropriate motor, for reasons not explained, he gave the boat to someone else.
He said: "I wanted to go from Newfoundland up around the Arctic and then come here (Victoria)."
He said he was pleased that the vessel had made it across the Atlantic, adding: "It didn't sink, so it must have done a good job, hey?"
A statement on the Facebook page of Ballyglass Coast Guard, which was involved in searches when the houseboat washed ashore, said: "A good news story... Thankfully Rick was located safe and well... Mystery solved."
The fate of the person he gave the houseboat to remains unknown.
Donald Trump is known for not pulling any punches on Twitter but his latest post - depicting his head on Rocky Balboa's body - has confused people.
The US president tweeted the picture on Wednesday morning without a caption or a single word of explanation.
It shows his head superimposed onto the body of the famous fictional boxer, played by Sylvester Stallone in a string of successful films.
More than 500,000 likes later, people are still trying to work out what it's all about.
Many have tweeted unflattering photos of Mr. Trump in response, pointing out the obvious difference between the chiseled Stallone in his prime and the 73-year-old president.
Among various mock-ups doing the rounds is a picture from Rocky IV, showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivering a vicious punch to Mr. Trump (whose face is on the Russian character Ivan Drago).
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