Dyatlov Pass Mystery Solved?

 

At the beginning of February 1959, nine Russian hikers died under inexplicable circumstances while camped overnight in the Ural mountains in what came to be called the Dyatlov Pass Incident (after their leader, Igor Dyatlov).  The case has been examined in numerous books and documentaries, and sensationalized on film (including Devil's Pass in 2013, where nine more young people try to investigate the mystery, with horrifying results).  Like so many "unexplained" mysteries, it has become shrouded in paranormal and conspiracy theories, especially because the bodies of the young hikers were found nearly a month later (after most evidence had been obscured), with very little clothing, having died of hypothermia outside their tents.  It seemed impossible to explain what could have driven them hurriedly to give up the protection of their tents, which remained intact, and to succumb to the elements.  In their study "Mechanisms of slab avalanche release and impact in the Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959," investigators Johan Gaume & Alexander M. Puzrin present new evidence that a peculiar type of avalanche may finally explain the mystery, and the story has been covered extensively in Nature, The New York Times, National Geographic, and countless other news outlets. Is the mystery finally solved?  

Close Encounter at 37,000 feet

An American Airlines pilot reported a close encounter with an unknown craft that flew right over his plane.  I await the government debunking and I am curious to see how they explain it.

Remembering Oumuamua

Avi Loeb's ridiculously titled Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (as though the entire UFO phenomenon never existed) is about the discovery and significance of the Oumuamua asteroid (the first interstellar object observed by astronomers) and has received generally positive reviews, including in The New York Times and The New Yorker.  In my view, we actually have a lot more compelling evidence of extraterrestrial visitors to earth than we do evidence that Oumuamua was more than an oddly shaped rock doing a fly-by of our sun -- though I also agree with Loeb that “If we acknowledge that 'Oumuamua is plausibly of extraterrestrial-technology origin, whole new vistas of exploration for evidence and discovery open before us.” It's odd that The New York Times reviewer fails to mention UFOs, given the superb reporting the paper has done on the subject -- as several of those commenting on the article point out.  At least Elizabeth Kolbert mentions UFOs in her New Yorker piece, and even reaches out to Erich von Däniken, author of Chariots of the Gods, who calls Loeb courageous, as “No scientist wants to be ridiculed, and whenever they deal with U.F.O.s or extraterrestrials, they are ridiculed by the media.”  Kolbert certainly recognizes that possibility, and she quotes Loeb, who says, “Extraordinary conservatism keeps us extraordinarily ignorant.” Too true.