9/12/22 Report - Higher Surf Today and Tomorrow. Two Florida Explorers. Truth or Myth: You Decide.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report

Surf Predictions for the Fort Pierce Area
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Above is the surf prediction chart for the Fort Pierce area, and below is the chart for the Sebastian area.  They are very similar, which is usually the case, and the reason I don't usuallly bother to post more than one

Surf Predictions for Sebastian Area.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

As you can see, a five-to-seven-foot surf is predicted for tomorrow (Tues.). It looks like we'll get some pretty high tides too.

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There are myths and mysteries, and there are hoaxes and scams. I suspect that a great deal of what we think we known is wrong or only partially right. Earthly affairs are seldom as simple as black and white. There is more often some "shadow of turning."

There is always more to learn. The Covid fiasco is a good example. At the beginning people were being told to go home and stay inside when they were at the beach. People were saying it was dangerous to go to the beach. As it turns out, the beach was one of the safest places you could be.

Its seems that UFOs are getting more attention these days - including by government agencies.  They are now often called UAPs.  The newer terminology suggests that the officials have backed off a little.  UFO refers to a "flying object." Both words, "flying" and "object" might be inaccurate in some sense The term UFO, (unidentified aerial phenomena) seems to me to make fewer presumptions.  Are they really physical objects?   Are they really flying as we normally think of flying?  Maybe it is more appearance or a perception or force, and maybe they don't so much fly as appear or time travel.  It just seems to me the new terminology suggests either a new understanding or at least openness to other alternatives.  Learning requires an open mind and, being too confident when you are wrong keeps you wrong.  The pursuit of science requires an open mind.

A couple days ago I referred to an interesting article about "treasure" maps that seemed to point to Mayan pyramids in the Everglades.  One of the people the article associated with the maps is J. Manson Valentine. Here is how Mr. Valentine was described. 

 J. Manson Valentine, is perhaps Miami's foremost gentleman explorer -- a scientist, historian, and world traveler whose lifelong curiosity led him to some strange places, including becoming a world expert on the lost city of Atlantis. An enigmatic former honorary curator of the Miami Science Museum, he's responsible for filling many of the shelves of oddities inside the Curious Vault...

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Joseph Manson Valentine (1902–1994), was an entomologist, who is best known for his interest in archeology, and as Wikipedia says, "in particular Atlantis pseudoscience."  He is credited with discovering the Bimini Wall in 1968.  With all the TV programs on the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis and the Bimini Wall, I don't remember hearing his name before.  He wrote on Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle and co-authored several books with Charles Berlitz.  His entomological publications included the following:

• Valentine, J.M. 1932. Horologion, a new genus of cave beetles (fam. Carabidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 25(1): 1–11. Online
• Valentine, J.M. 1952. New Genera of Anophthalmid Beetles from Cumberland Caves. Geological Survey of Alabama Museum Paper 34: 1–41. Online 
• Valentine, J.M. 1987. Some ancient and zoogeographically significant carabid beetles from the South Pacific (Coleoptera: Carabidae), with descriptions of new taxa. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 27: 73–89. 

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Here is that link.  Joseph Manson Valentine - Wikispecies (wikimedia.org)

So, it appears that Valentine made important discoveries in entomology but also pursued other interests, in what some would call pseudoscience.

Yesterday I mentioned J. Vernon Lamme, who was the first Florida state archaeologist. As Florida's first state archaeologist, you'd think he was highly esteemed, or would you? It appears he had his critics, but that isn't unusual. He was fired from the job once, although he got it back later, and it was thought his archaeology was sloppy, and it seemed that some of the best artifacts he excavated disappeared.

Here is an article that is more critical of him than what I presented yesterday.

Stolen Artifacts! Drunk Teens! And More True Tales of Florida's First State Archaeologist - Atlas Obscura

It seems that both of these early Florida adventurers had mixed reputations, at best.  So what does that say of their discoveries, if anything? As always, you have to seek the evidence and be discerning.  They both made real discoveries, yet they could be wrong in other specifics.  As is often the case, you could find a mixture of truth and myth that must be carefully unraveled.

Good Hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net.