Geologist Sharon Hill is one of my favorite writers in the oddity business. She has written about everything from the "stone tape" theory about ghostly activities (she didn't find it plausible) to bigfoot to UFOs, and her work on such topics is must reading.
Sharon is skeptical in the proper sense of the word, being open-minded but (sometimes regretfully) refusing to accept claims without proof. As she put it in a 2017 interview with this blog, " I don’t want to be labeled as a “Skeptic:" that connotation is so negative when finding out the truth is a totally positive thing to do." She isn't a member of the major skeptical organizations, which she sees as preoccupied with secularism to the detriment of other topics.
I mentioned Sharon did an interview for this blog in 2017: it's still very interesting reading. I also reviewed her book from that year, Scientifical Americans, a clear and concise analysis of why people accept weak or unsupportable claims if they are cloaked in "scientifical" terminology. See the review here.
Today she maintains the website Spooky Geology, addressing "ringing rocks," quicksand, and so on. Her other current venture, in which she collects weird news and writes about science and pseudoscience, is her Strange Times site with its accompanying newsletter. Go to Sharon's Strange Times (substack.com). She also maintains a personal blog with many relevant stories. It includes links to her many book reviews, some of which are shared by agreement with reviews on this blog.
Her very good paper on Pseudoscience and cryptozoology is on Academia.edu.
Sharon has moved on from her "Idoubtit" FaceBook page because she dealt with endless negativity that would wear down anyone (or any block of granite), as well as her Doubtful News site and podcast. She is, however, as much worth reading as she's always been. Lovers of the strange should follow her to the new site.
Visit: www.mattbille.com
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