I am proud to present to Nerd Alert News and our readers an interview with Ben Davidson of Suspicious0bservers and his faithful followers of citizen scientists dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and facts diligently exposing propaganda and false information. Join me in discovering the hours of content and knowledge Ben dishes out daily with updates and routine documentaries on Youtube, please if you are interested to check out this playlist of introductory videos Ben has created to bring you up to speed if you wish on the topics offered.
I hope you enjoy our interview as much as I enjoyed participating in it.
Elijah Perrin (EP): For our readers who are just finding your channel tell us what sort of information they would expect from your daily videos and regular documentaries on Suspicious0bservers YouTube channel?
Ben Davidson (BD): We track weather, earthquakes, top science discoveries, and the energetic activity of the sun as it related to it all. We cover astrophysics, cosmology, climate, meteorology, seismology and more, and break it down to a level people can understand, with frequent special video releases to enhance and further explain content found in the daily news program.
EP: Other than YouTube what are some other projects and resources you have developed over the years on Solar weather and Earthquakes?
BD: We have a number of other websites meant to provide resources on these topics – including SpaceWeatherNews.com, QuakeWatch.net, and MagneticReversal.org. In 2014 we toured the US and Canada giving talks and teaching students about sunspots and space weather. We have an app (The Disaster Prediction App) that tracks earthquakes and solar activity in real-time and includes the only space weather health alerts available anywhere on earth.
EP: Being an avid follower of your work I see you follow and peer review many studies and proudly display links to these reports in hopes of starting a conversation, what are some of the resources you use to find your information and keep yourself current?
BD: Sadly this is the hard part all of this – the part I’ve mentioned that even professors in the field don’t really have time for when they also teach or run labs, etc. I check. All the relevant journals, which now update daily in the age of information. All the major observatories and organizations like NASA and the USGS and all the press department sites for universities that have strong research activities. It amounts to checking about 160 news sites daily (another 50 or so each weekend) and then the data feeds for a number of satellites and global climate models. It is a mountain of work that takes about 5 to 8 hours every day, but someone has to do it, and if I’m being honest, I enjoy it.
EP: Have you found these resources are able and willing to accept peer review on their studies and open a dialogue with you when you approach them with suggestions?
BD: No. I’ve had a paper refused to be sent out for review because “it is impossible.” No look at the stats, no peer-review, just a stiff-arm. Myself and others experience this regularly, and you can even tell when it happens to major professors, like the two guys from Princeton who are doing the cloud studies do manage to get published regularly, but their one paper blaming the solar cycle modulation of clouds for the global warming pause was too much for most journals, and they were forced to simply put the manuscript on Cornell’s pre-print arXiv. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.01752.pdf
EP: One of the more disturbing things you speak of is the effects Cosmic Rays and Solar energy have on living tissues and human biological systems even developing a graph with threat levels and expected side effects of these particles that bombard the earth routinely. Where and how was this data developed?
BD: There is a considerable amount of published science on the topic, and so it was merely a matter of getting all that science together, finding the most solid correlations between things like solar flares and geomagnetic storms and cosmic rays- and things like heart attacks, strokes, cognitive or emotional dysregulation, overall hospital admissions, serious mental health events, etc., and then forming an organization to the information. Having the alerts in our App was a simple matter of writing programs to watch for these events, and applying the correct correlated health alert with those events.
EP: What are you trying to accomplish by warning the public about the physiological effects of space weather and Cosmic Rays on all biology and the world in general?
BD: I am hoping for two things. The effects of space weather are completely outside of the focus of 99% of studies, and there is a 99% chance than many studies have data they are analyzing incorrectly because they just don’t have the right tools in the toolbox. In many cases, these studies involve learning about the thin line between life and death, and so it’s partly a matter of data integrity and intellectual principal. I am also hoping that people realize that the same placebo effect that can overrule physics and chemistry to create the reality you believed can protect them from many situations. Maybe you get a health alert, and then maybe DON’T ignore that chest pain today, and maybe that extra action you take saves your life. Maybe you are prone to emotional instability and it harms your relationships, but linking the events to major cosmic ray alerts may not only allow for better social management but better self-awareness and control in those situations. We are pretty powerful creatures when you give us a bit of knowledge.
EP: In the studies, you site and one of the main themes of your channel is the effects of the sun on the earth and the solar system along with how variations in our sun alter the climate on our earth, clearly CO2 is a greenhouse gas and I have heard you accept that it will increase the earth temperature along with other gasses that act as a heat reflector trapping heat in also promoting clean air and reducing chemical releases. Considering you are doing your best to provide a full perspective to the people of the world about climate and all of the hidden variables at the forefront of science, what do you say to people who may categorize you as a climate denier?
BD: ”Lazy jackass.” I’m only half kidding. The categorization is one born of a refusal to even listen, as nobody who listens to even one of my presentations on the topic could lump me in with an oil company shill. The unfair aspect of my response is that much of this material is somewhat complex, and most people have no idea what propaganda is let alone the weird kaleidoscope of fiction through which the world comes to us through that rectangular box with lights each day. Maybe they have not and can not avail themselves of better information…but if that’s the case they shouldn’t be talking about it.
EP: Would you consider the evidence that the Sun and our interaction with the Sun is the largest contributing factor to the earth’s climate?
BD: Without question, provided one includes the cosmic rays in the larger category of ‘space weather’
EP: What have some of the challenges have you run up against as an educator in such a highly contentious field of Climatology and Solar effects?
BD: Journals are gatekeepers to the world of science. They’re full of people who pandered to get their PhDs and pander to this day, rubber-stamping those pandering for grant money. Most people are those lazy type I mentioned and have even less ‘want’ to have their beliefs challenged in any way. Yes, we see glimmers of hope…Faris Wald, winning the national science championship 4 months after he was the only student in the world who’s parents trusted me to inform their young one. Our papers on the sun and earthquakes continue to be cited by professors and scientists from NASA, and the Seismo-Electromagnetic satellite is cranking out data to further the field. Dark matter dies by the day as the pieces to a better puzzle are unearthed daily…luckily someone is keeping track of them all.
EP: Recently there was a letter sent to Sundar Pichai CEO of Google from The Select Committee On The Climate Crisis US House Of Representatives Kathy Castor requested YouTube censor conversations on their platform that do not fit into their personal definition of climate change be removed and demonetized. What is your opinion of this move on the side of the Government?.
BD: I support YouTube/Google’s decision to ignore the congressional request. It is not only factually ludicrous, but it is plainly an illegal attack on the first amendment that includes a little something called ‘tortious business interference’ – but I don’t want to slip back into my days in the law. The scrutiny on Google after the last year of bad press has them a bit stiffened-up, and I mean that in the best way possible. I know they are doing some things to other channels that people don’t like, but they have let me unleash on anything I’ve ever wanted, as long as I didn’t break their community guidelines, and when congress asked them to take me out, they implicitly said no. As for congress…and the rest of the climate extremism world, since when have contrary ideas not been present? Alternative explanations, conspiracies, etc…nobody is shocked they exist – the only thing you can do to make your situation worse (if you are the people in power) is trying to silence people now. It tells the world that there is something there, something worth hearing, something they fear. When Alex Jones got booted from social media a year or two ago he had the biggest surge of website member sign-ups ever – biggest payday ever. It worked against them – I should be so lucky.
Please see this video response to Kathy Castor.
EP: Your wife Kat Davidson has written two Children’s books that you both must be very proud of while also active as the CEO of Suspicious0bservers. I know my readers would love to know more about Kat and her role with your company.
BD: Katherine is the perfect partner for me in this company. She worked in finance and marketing and is more than capable of handling our small business accounting. She runs the annual Observing the Frontier conference and has also written our two children’s books: Kira and Lulu Visit the Sun, and Kira and Lulu Visit the Planets. They are perfect “my first books” for parents to read to children, and are also good to bring back again when children begin to read, especially because the topic is educational – space science. The books are available at OTF.selz.com
EP: We really appreciate your time and effort to put your message out on our platform for our readers, I believe you have a textbook used in Universities as an educational resource. Is this Textbook available for purchase and if our readers have any further questions for you or Kat what would be the best forum to follow and comment on social media?
BD: Our textbook “Weatherman’s Guide to the Sun” is currently unavailable until this summer. We wrote the first as a pocket guide – 6×9, 90 pages. The 2nd one was a proper textbook, 8×11, 200 pages. The upcoming edition is ~300 pages, contains 450+ citations to major studies, and covers the sun and its effect on weather, earthquakes, technology and human health, and includes a new chapter on extreme solar activity – superflares and micronova events. Since our twitter was de-platformed (possibly a time-saving blessing in disguise) the only social media we use other than YouTube is Facebook and Instagram – but those are mostly for posting. We respond to emails (usually within 2-3 days) and those emails are Ben@, and Kat@, ObservatoryProject.com
EP: Is there anything else you would like to add to our discussion today that you would like our readers to know?
BD: Earth has a magnetic excursion every ~12,000 years. The last was ~12,000 years ago and earth’s magnetic field is changing like it hasn’t done in 1000s of years. The entire solar system is changing too, and the stars in line with the center of the galaxy have been outbursting in a line one after another, and our sun is next. This interplay of a changing sun, earth, and species trying to survive it is the long-term focus and an underlying pillar of the channel.
EP: I want to personally thank Ben Davidson for his time and I hope everyone reading this interview has an interest in the world and the space we inhabit, I have included a link Ben created to his Catastrophe cycle playlist of a group of documentaries about the earth magnetic excursion every 12,000 years-ish. The Suspicious0bservers and our fellow citizen scientists look forward to the future and do so with eyes open and no fear.
Written by Elijah Perrin
