Your Attention Captured But...


This curious ad pops up on my Yahoo email account:



(Click on image for eXpanded view.)


The text reads: “You're probably wondering how a guy like me ended up paying way less for car insurance.”

That isn't the curious part. Check out the portrait of the man who is supposedly making the endorsement. While he is not a movie star or male model, it seems the image has been made to accent his features to the point of distortion. It looks like a wide angle shot taken up close so that his nose and glasses appear to be too big. Of course, being “dentally challenged” (a nod to you PC types) doesn't help either.

At first glance I thought it was an ad for Geico, a car insurance company that features TV spots with actors made up as Neanderthals. (“So simple a caveman can do it.”) But this image shows a member of Homo sapiens.

Photoshopped? If not, then the photographer isn't presenting his subject in the best light.

Does it make you want to run out and buy car insurance? Especially with that headline about President Obama backing insurance regulation. Did he approve this ad? Is the company being promoted now under new government regulations set forth by Obama? What is this company's connection to the president and insurance regulation? Details, please.

I think I'm going to add this tagline to my blog:

Obama Backs Free Speech, Responsible Bloggers

And speaking of details, there's the disclaimer in tiny print at the bottom of the ad:

“*This testimonial is not an actual representation of an experience by any one consumer.”

Ya think?

The Other Ufologist



[FLOTSAMETRICS and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science. By Curtis Ebbesmeyer & Eric Scigiliano. Nonfiction. © 2009.]



Curtis Ebbesmeyer is an oceanographer who could also be called an ufologist. He investigates incidents of UFOs – unidentified floating objects, that is.

His book Flotsametrics reveals that the oceans of the world form a giant conveyor belt of eleven planetary gyres. These gyres carry miscellaneous man-made objects in circles until they wash up on shore. A container ship at sea encounters a problem and tub toys are spilled overboard. By tracking from where the toys were dumped to where they wash up shows the path of an oceanic gyre.

One would first expect that such research is interesting but has no practical value. After all, a cargo ship from Japan loses some merchandise that washes up months or years later on the west coast of the United States. So what?

But as Ebbesmeyer explains, the gyres show how they are part of a worldwide system that can affect mankind. Pollution – such as garbage patches – is spread by the conveyor belt.

One series of UFO incidents haunts Ebbesmeyer, large ceramic urns that have washed up on the Northwest coast of the US since 1961. He has tried to years to determine the origin of the urns. Unlike an ufologist who doesn't have physical evidence, Ebbesmeyer has the goods - but he doesn't know what they are.

Ebbesmeyer is also interested when a MIB comes ashore – not a man in black but a message in a bottle. MIBs have made it easier to track gyre currents because each one usually contain a note explaining its point of origin.

One wonders how Ebbesmeyer would react if a man in black did wash up, flotsam from an UFO – the alien ship kind – that crashed and sank at sea.

Ufology meets ufology.


[More info at http://flotsametrics.com/ ]

Peekaboo Alien



Is an alien peering around the corner at me...





Or am I'm just looking at an image of alien worlds at the wrong angle?

Paranormal Expo: How About A Quartz Mothership?

(Wrapping up my coverage of the Paranormal Expo held in Plattsburgh, NY on October 24th.)


UFOs and haunted houses and everything in between.

The guest speakers at the Paranormal Expo covered it all.

Dan Lowenski, UFO specialist, didn't come across as either a complete skeptic or true believer. During his slideshow presentation he referred to various cases, some puzzling, but he didn't flat out say that he believed that every case was true, that hoaxes and misidentification never happened. With his background in law enforcement, he presented a balanced view of ufology.

Part of the slideshow showed a training exercise once conducted in the Adirondack forest with a mock up of a crashed UFO. Codenamed Project Diogenes, the participants located the mock UFO and conducted an investigation, a simulation of what should be done if an alien craft did actually crash. Lowenski said the exercise was done years ago with a limited budget; that's why the “special effects” of the crash weren't top quality.

During the Q&A after Lowenski's presentation, a woman in the audience mentioned a case involving a Japanese airline pilot who had encountered an UFO. (I think she was referring to the incident back in 1986 when a pilot for Japan Air Lines observed a gigantic UFO over Alaska.) She stated that the night it happened, she saw the alien mothership over Plattsburgh.

The last presentation of the day dealt with an investigation into a haunted house in the region. The home owner said he was a skeptic until unnerving occurrences happened in the old house he had bought and was renovating. Some local paranormal investigators – affiliated with an organization founded by his brother-in-law – encountered all sorts of weird stuff. This all seemed to be caused by the spirit of a mentally disabled woman who lived in the house a long time ago.

Someone in the audience asked if an attempt was going to be made to release the spirit. The lead investigator and the home owner explained that there was a lot of quartz in the stone walls of the house and in the ground where the house sat. Quartz, it was mentioned, is a material that strongly binds spirits.

UFOs, ghosts, new agers and crystals – sometimes it all ties in for some people like those who attended the PExpo.

Paranormal Expo: Sorry, I Don't See It

(Another post about the Paranormal Expo held in Plattsburgh, NY on October 24th.)


“Do you see my white aura?” she asked.

The psychic had moved back from the podium during her presentation, standing against a white wall.

Someone in the audience said they could see it.

All I saw was a faint shadow to one side of her cast by the fluorescent ceiling lighting. Was that what she meant?, I thought.

Then she stepped away from her original position and then pointed at that spot.

“See how my aura was left behind?”

Sorry, no. But a woman in the audience said she saw the psychic's aura lingering in place. The psychic replied that she could see the audience member's aura: it was orange.

“I've been told that before,” replied the expo attendee.

Then the speaker gave that woman a reading from the podium, relaxing, closing her eyes. She said the woman was a creative and independent person. So am I.

Then the psychic cut her reading short, saying that there was more information but it was dark and she would share it with the audience member afterward.

I had arrived late for the presentation, only catching this last part. I wondered what I had missed.

Obviously my sixth sense had failed me. I would've got there on time if precognition had compelled me.

Liberal Paranormalist Conservative?

Three key aspects of a successful business: location, location, location.

Shouldn't the same apply to online political ads?

There's a congressional race going on in my neck of the woods, northern New York State. It had been a three-way race but the Republican candidate dropped out; she was considered a RINO (Republican In Name Only) partly because she didn't toe the conservative pro-life line regarding abortion.

Some anti-liberal narrow-minded Republicans got together and are running their own man, Doug Hoffman, as a conservative party candidate. I don't follow politics – most of it is bullshit - but this race has intruded upon my online activities.

One blog I check out is Why?... Thoughts Of An Angry Old Woman. The angry woman is Regan Lee's mother. While Regan is into UFOs with her blog, The Orange Orb, her mother “Skazski” is into politics but with a strong a liberal viewpoint. The other day Skazski was ranting about that buffoon, Rush Limbaugh. Right above her post was an ad for Doug Hoffman:




I found that ad placement to be incongruous. Then I went over to ufodigest.com, a site that not only covers UFOS but also related paranormal topics. Guess what I found there, right next to an ad for a creepy sci-fi movie, The Fourth Kind, a film dealing with alien abductions? Yup, another Doug Hoffman ad:




I don't know if the ads are only popping up locally, i.e., computers around here are being identified by location and that's why I'm so blessed with Doug Hoffman ads. But why would a conservative try to sway voters by popping up on a liberal's blog? Better yet, why would a down-to-earth conservative push his POV on an “un-earthly” site like UFO Digest? After all, according to the disclosure movement, politicians – especially those favoring strong government – are keeping the truth about UFOs from the public.

Must be some sort of Illuminati trick...

Mac Tonnies

I just found out that Mac Tonnies died on October 22nd at age 34, apparently from natural causes. From what I've read online, his book about his cryptoterrestrial theory was finished and should be published.

I'm still in shock from the news. I first encountered Mac's work through his blog, Posthuman Blues. Unlike others in ufology locked into the ETH mindset, he was looking for answers beyond the “same old same old.” His voice will be missed.

Other posts about his passing can be found here and also here.

First Paranormal Expo Held In Plattsburgh



For one day exercise gave way to X the unknown.

Saturday, October 24th, 2009. The City of Plattsburgh Recreation Center welcomed psychics, ghost hunters, healers and others involved in the paranormal.

The Northern New York Paranormal Expo was co-sponsored by the City of Plattsburgh and the Northern New York Paranormal Research Society. The setting for the vendors was a bit unusual: a gymnasium. The building was once the recreation center for the decommissioned Air Force base.

Tables were lined up in neat rows on the gym floor. The basketball hoops were raised up, out of use for the day. Up above ran a second story track along the walls, a jogger doing laps while people waited in line down below to consult with a psychic. Muscles and minds.

Other tables featured girl scouts selling Halloween cupcakes, an author with copies of his book for sale (“Saviors Among Us: The Story of a Northern NY Superhero”), recycled Halloween costumes (“Think Green”), and the usual unusual, from herbal remedies to crystals.

One table was manned by members of the NNY Paranormal Research Society who explained the tools used in their investigations (mostly hauntings). A laptop computer featured a screen with frozen green waves: most likely an example of EVP (electronic voice phenomena). One researcher demonstrated how a EMF (electro-magnetic field) meter worked, one of the tools in the ghost hunting trade. Two compact dgital cameras stood side by side on a small tripod; one had been converted to record images in the infra-red range.

I arrived late in the day but from what I saw the event was well-attended. One factor that helped: it was set up for the whole family. Fun for children 12 years old and younger, according to the brochure, included a Witches Hat Ring Toss, Bite the Witch's Apple, and a Cauldron Toss. There was a “haunted city morgue” installation that came with the warning: “The Haunted House could be too scary for some children. Please inspect it prior to allowing children to enter.” I didn't see any crying kids.

And with all of that activity upstairs, downstairs was set aside for guest speakers. I'll comment on that part of the PExpo (as I call it) neXt time.

Speaking Of Flying Saucer Zines...




In my previous post I mentioned Jim Moseley's Saucer Smear. There's another old-fashioned UFO zine out there, Flying Saucer Digest, published by Rick and Carol Hilberg. FSD offers a round-up of UFO stories collected from various sources. Two dollars to R. Hilberg Publications, 377 Race St., Berea, OH 44017 should get you a sample copy. They also publish another zine featuring Fortean items, Weirdology.

Rick is still recuperating from a bad fall. He mentioned in a recent postcard that he's walking around with a cane and going for physical therapy, but he hopes to be able to walk by the end of the year. I've never met Rick and Carol in person, only have corresponded with them via e- and snail mail, but they have always been helpful.

Despite his setback, Rick is still publishing his zines.

The Future Of Saucer Smear




Besides the latest issue of Saucer Smear, I found an extra item in the envelope from Supreme Commander Jim Moseley: a white card with a big question mark scribbled on it.

No, it wasn't a secret Illuminati message. Jim hadn't heard from me in a while either by snail mail or by phone.

Of course, yours truly hasn't eXpired – at least not yet.

I'm reusing Jim's question mark to illustrate this post. Why?

The lead essay in the last edition of Saucer Smear (Whole Number 425/Oct. 15Th, 2009). In his RAMBLING EDITORIAL Jim talks about having “grim thoughts” at age 78. He mentions that “Sooner or later, your editor will have to cease publican of 'Smear.'” It had been announced that someone was in line to take over SS – but that circumstance has changed. There is no new editor set to continue his zine.

Dr. Chris Roth had volunteered to take controls of the starship but has reconsidered his offer. As Jim explains in his essay, Roth considered his financial needs and decided not to assume the mantle of Supreme Commander. Jim says he feels no ill will about this change.

Fans have pointed out that Jim IS Saucer Smear and that no one can take his place.

What I like about SS is that Jim stills puts it together with a typewriter, scissors and some tape. It harkens back to the early days of fanzines where the writer would fix the text post paste-up with a black pen. Corrections printed in the margins, the mistakes crossed out. A couple of underlines for a spot to ink in a page number since the editor didn't know where an article would end up (e.g., See details on Page __ .).

I must say I can't keep up with Jim's output. SS keeps showing up in my mailbox many more times than my zine is mailed out. At 78 Jim has more energy than yours truly. So while the future of Saucer Smear is uncertain, at present it's still going strong.

For ufology with a personal touch, send a couple of dollars to Jim Moseley, PO Box 1709, Key West, FL 33041.

Is There Only Death After Life?

[ Spook: Science Tackles The Afterlife. By Mary Roach. © 2005. Nonfiction. ]





One reason why I enjoyed this book: that snarky (ex-)Catholic girl tone. Sarcasm that an ex-Catholic like yours truly can really appreciate.

As Mary Roach explains in Spook, her early years were steeped in Catholicism, her mother reading the Bible to her at bedtime. But as she grew into adulthood, science provided better answers than religion. For example, maybe the Lazarus story was just a case of premature burial; nothing miraculous happened.

But Mary doesn't embrace science with blind faith. As she observes: "Of course science doesn't dependably deliver truths. It is as fallible as the men and women who undertake it... Flawed as it is, science remains the most solid god I've got."

In her book she pursues the question: Is there a soul separate from the physical body that lives on after death? Or, to put it in a nutshell, are ghosts real?

She begins at the beginning, discussing how scientists like Anton van Leeuwenhoek tried to find the soul with scalpels and microscopes. In 1675 the dutch naturalist discovered bacteria and other microorganisms in stagnant water with his microscope. He called them animalcules. From there he searched for preformed humans in sperm, evidence of human souls. Despite his work physical evidence of the soul remained elusive. (Gee, I wonder why...)

So soul searchers tried at find proof at the other end of the scale: death. And this work literally involved a scale.

Back in 1901 surgeon and physician Duncan MacDougall tried to weigh the soul. Employed at the
the Consumptives Home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, he rigged up a special cot to place a patient dying from tuberculous. In turn the cot was hooked up to a scale. MacDougall noted there was a loss of three-fourths of an ounce after the patient passed on. Ergo, the difference in weight had to be the soul leaving the body.

Critics of MacDougall's research had other explanations, e.g., the difference was due to the last breath of the patient being expelled.

At this point in the story Mary Roach's makes a snarky Catholic girl comment regarding MacDougall and the other physicians watching the man on the cot-scale dying for three hours.

She writes: "In place of the more usual bedside attitudes of grief and pity, the men assumed an air of breathless intent expectancy. I imagine you see this on the faces of NASA engineers during countdown and, possibly, vultures."

Bring her story up to modern times, Mary takes a trip to the Consciousness Research Lab at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The director of the lab, researcher and neuroscience professor Michael Persinger, has a theory about ghost encounters. His believes that electromagnetic fields, such as those created by geomagnetic activity, induce a haunting in a person's brain, specifically the sensation of being watched by an invisible presence.

Persinger wires up a Mary with a special helmet that exposes the subject to an electromagnetic field. She waits for a ghost to appear. What happens, like the other incidents during her research, is inconclusive.

But despite questions leading to nothing positive, Mary finds the answer to the question of life after death -- her own answer.

But not mine.