Occam's razor is your friend, or, You,sir/madam, are insulting science (and society)

It's often said that the truth is much stranger than reality and in science, there are no shortage of instances where this is most certainly the case. Anyone that knows me would say that I would love to be the person to tell you that we are not alone in the universe and that the truth is out there but let's face facts here, the chances of us coming in contact with a civilized, extra-terrestrial race is slim to none. I can break out the math and show you but I figure I'll spare you the agonizing details. And yet, society (in a broad, world-view sense)seems to jump at the chance to claim first contact/evidence of ET/aliens among us whenever something slightly out of the ordinary presents itself.

This week was no exception.

While I won't judge anyone on their beliefs (hell, I'm a faithful Christian-Buddhist conglomeration of various religions who holds a degree in Anthropology, practises archaeology and studies various physical sciences) but, really? With such a vast spectrum of physiological extremes and characteristics, an anthropologist and some unnamed scientists are going to jump at claiming to have proof of ET? Spare me. While this report will undoubtedly be refuted by many members of the scientific community and prove to be a case of skull binding or one of the many congenital malformations of the skull or even a combination of the two, it is almost as if science, as well as reporters who are guilty of it often, has jumped to sensationalism before anything else.

Whatever the reason for the claim, and supposed supporting claims, an anthropologist should know better. After all, their job is to study human society and physiology so why make a claim otherwise unless you have mountains of proof ready to be peer reviewed.

So, why the critical rant? Boredom, mostly but also because it truly begins to wear on my sensibilities that society panders to the conspiracy theorists, the believers of ancient aliens (though I can often be found watching the show with my boyfriend or my cousin for the entertainment value which has even more often led into rants about why these people have a job and I don't), or the crackpot theorists. Maybe I'm just a dork but extreme body modification and skeletal deformities are much "cooler" than the quickly-refuted claims of an alien body but, hey, they got me to write a response.

Also, anyone with any basic knowledge of human anatomy can tell it's a human child from the photos.