This week, the Ghost Hunters visited the Philadelphia Zoo. Whenever TAPS hits Philly, I get mixed feelings. See, I went to college in Philadelphia and have many fond memories of the city. Yet the only place they've ever shown that I recognize is a cheesesteak place on South Street. I guess I'll have to wait until they stop visiting historical sites and start hunting in sleazy college bars.

The most dramatic "finding" was a mysteriously falling FLIR camera. While Jay and Grant were investigating the attic of Solitude House, Jay went upstairs to investigate while Grant stayed down below. As soon as I saw them separate, I wondered if something was going to happen. As we've been pointing out here for some time, things tend to move on their own around Grant when no one can see him. My anticipation was rewarded pretty quickly. Grant put the FLIR on the stairs two steps up. While Jay was upstairs, the camera (according to Grant) fell on its own and rolled down two steps. Of course, this could be accidental. This would mean that Grant is unable to tell the normal action of gravity from the work of a ghost.

More on GH: Philadelphia Zoo

On Sep. 13, 2010, at 6:00 PM Pacific time, I'll be appearing on Warning: Radio. This is a live-streaming show and podcast brought to you by the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society. I've been a fan of this show for a while now, and am quite excited!

Update: You can now listen to the interview in their archives.

(Note: I'm shifting style a bit and offering more commentary and less recap. Let me know if I should switch back.)

It was pretty disorienting to see a good, old-fashioned Ghost Hunters fake-plumbing opening, with Jay and Grant pretending that, A., they have a camera crew follow them around while they fix air conditioners, and that B., they fix air conditioners. I mean, does Roto Rooter even do that? Never mind, rhetorical question. Kris Williams calls them up to let them know that they have a case at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, but I'm still too distracted by the mechanics of this bit of nonsense to care. Which bit do they shoot first, Jay and Grant's, or Kris in the office? Do they memorize the script, or is it written down somewhere in that cramped little room? These are all questions which are, honestly, somewhat more interesting to me than the episode itself.

More on GH: Otesaga Resort Hotel

Stephen interviews Benjamin Radford, author of Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries and editor of the Skeptical Inquirer magazine.He also does a roundup of recent episodes of Ghost Hunters International and Fact or Faked.

Links:

• Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries (affiliate link– buy here to support Skeptical Viewer!)
• Benjamin Radford's web site

Download the podcast here.

While Austin, Jael, and Ben go to Indiana, Larry, Bill, and Chi-Lan go to the San Luis Valley in Colorado to investigate the cattle mutilations which were the subject of the other chosen video. The video was in the form of a news story.

In the car ride there they recap the video and Chi-Lan mentions that the rancher saw lights. So, of course, Larry brings up extra-terrestrials and that maybe it was a UFO. Off to a great start already. They meet first with Chuck Zukowski who is billed as a UFO Expert. Chuck investigated this case when the rancher first found the cow and will be taking the team to the area. More on FoF: Cutter (Cattle Mutilations)

We start the season finale (er, the summer season finale, that is) with something a bit different. Different clothes, that is. Other than that, we have the same problems. I screwed up my DVR recording of this one right from the get go but fortunately it was aired again an hour later so I caught it and got the whole thing. Why did I have a problem with the recording, you might ask? I’m glad you asked that. I tried to do a playback during the initial sit-around discussing videos scene. I shall go into more detail later….

As I mentioned, a change of clothes was ordered for the last episode. They discuss a few videos like the Skunk Ape and the Linda Vista place and decide on a cattle mutilation and a ghost in a graveyard that some paranormal researchers captured. They didn’t notice it at the time but when reviewing the “evidence” later, there was a ghostly figure with a light that seemed to go right by the cameraman.

This is the story of the Cemetery Phantom, known as the Caretaker for some reason. More on FoF: The Caretaker (ie, THE SPIDER!)

Once upon a time, in Tallinn, Estonia, a mysterious man in black came to rent an apartment. He offered to rent a room for three nights, on the condition that no one, not the landlord, nor any snoopy neighbors, look inside. The landlord agreed, and the man in black handed over his cash and moved into the room. That night, however, the sounds of a loud party emanated from the room, and the landlord could not contain his curiosity. He knelt at the door and put his eye to the keyhole. What he saw made him draw back in horror. "The Devil!" he cried to his wife. "It is the Devil, and he is having his wedding!" He died, horribly, the next day.
More on GHI: "The Old House", Tallinn, Estonia