Ray's X-Blog

Paul Kimball, Ghost Darer Am I watching a reality TV program called Ghost Cases or Head Cases ? "Come on, drop it." Co-host Paul Kimball is lying on the floor underneath a large painting that has been said to occasionally fall off its nail because of ghostly activity. His partner Holly Stevens waits in another room at the reportedly haunted Waverly Inn in Halifax, Nova Scotia, using a conversational method to make contact with any spirits that may be about. Paul prefers the confrontational method, the paranormal investigator with a chip on his shoulder. He taunts any nearby ghosts to drop the painting on his head. But no ghosts knock off his chip -- or the painting. That previous sentence might be considered a spoiler, i.e., I just revealed too much about the Waverly Inn episode of Ghost Cases . But while he may be arrogant at times, Paul isn't stupid. He knew that painting wasn't going to drop (well, at least in this universe). The episode opens with a perspect...

Closet Catholic Conspiracy Closet Catholic? The right-wing ham radio operator was reading from a book or article about the evil machinations of the Vatican. Shortwave conditions were poor that night and I kept missing some of his points. But I did hear the term "closet Catholic" a few times. Unlike SW radio "reception conditions" are normally great on the Web so I did some Googling. Closet Catholic can be defined as a protestant who has sympathies for the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. To the extreme it means a non-Catholic who is secretly Catholic, working as a secret agent or puppet for the Pope. Even a Protestant US president could be one of these conspirators. A quick search linked me to a personal home page: "The Outrageous, Anti-Christian Roman Catholic Church by Elsie Hamer, Wife Of My Husband, Caleb." Elsie is a self-proclaimed born again fundamentalist Christian who thinks the Roman Catholic Church is the work of Satan. Eslie Hame...

Norway Spiral: What Really Happened Image: Anita Olsen/AP Scene: Monitoring center deep underground, manned by agents codenamed "Wally" and "Beav." MIB #1: "Damn, it's all over the Web. Videos, photos." MIB #2: "Huh?" MIB #1: "They're calling it the Norway Spiral. Leave it to those idiot ETs to open up a hyperspace aperture over there at night. Cripes, look at the detail. Seen for miles." MIB #2: "So what do we do, Wally? We have to cover this up." MIB #1: "Let's check the Phil Klass CUE files on the computer." MIB #2: "CUE?" MIB #1: "Cover Up Explanatory files, ya dope. OK, here we go. Test missile goes off course, spews rocket propellant off at an angle, creating a spiral pattern. Bluish color - tiny sapphires - sunlight bouncing off aluminum oxide -" MIB #2: "Sunlight? But this happened at night." MIB #1: "Yeah, but there's enough science junk i...

The Alien Is Still Among Us At one time his image – elongated humanoid form, green skin, big ebony eyes – was omnipresent. Go to a fair and inflatable versions would fill a wall, prizes to be won with a game of chance. Walk through a mall and an army of them printed on t-shirts would stare at you from a display rack. Key chains, toy magnets, magazine covers, greeting cards – he conquered all forms and media. Actually his image was a combination of the “little green man” from back in the days of “flying saucers” and the gray alien of more recent times. The green-gray alien had the cartoony goofiness of the little green man merged with the overall features of the evil gray who abducted humans for terrifying experiments on board his UFO. Retro amiability overlay the nightmarish modern incarnation. The fad was soon over and other images affixed to diverse merchandise took over. Hannah Montana, anyone? But the green-gray still lurks. I spotted his image the other day while walking th...

Chemtrailing An Alien Invention? Over at piglipstick.blogspot.com writer nolocontendere sees many events in a conspiratorial light, evidence of the machinations of what he calls "our self ordained Masters of the World." Nolocontendre thinks these Masters want to cull the herd -- the common people -- through bio-warfare. In a post entitled "Epidemics" (11/28/09) he presents excerpts from "The Gods of Eden" by William Bramley, a book that claims that an alien presence lurking in the shadows has been calling the shots since the beginning of time. Bramley questions the common knowledge of how the Black Death spread through Europe starting in 1347, killing -- according to one estimate -- about one third of the population in four years. It wasn't fleas hitching rides on rodents, says Bramley. During the Plague Years there were reports of strange foul-smelling mists after bright lights -- UFOs -- were spotted in the sky. It was a period of great UFO a...

Beware - The Glowing Red Eyes It seems that no one was killed on Black Friday this year. Then again, it's the time of the year to dwell on positive thoughts. Why even pause for a moment to think about Jdimytai Damour , a seasonal Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death last year by the greedy horde that bolted as soon as the doors were open? Yup, I hate the Holiday Season. It's one of the biggest scams going. Usually I try to minimize my eXposure to all the eXmas advertising that tries to get one worked up into a buying frenzy. But this image caught my eye: Check out the eyes on the reindeer. A satanic beastie or what? Looks hungry. The perfect symbol of an impatient herd ready to storm a store on Black Friday.

Papernet: Brooklyn! If newspapers and Web sites can go hyperlocal, why not a zine? Fred Argroff's zine sums up the geographic area it covers with its name: Brooklyn! Nothing fancy about its format: 8 1/2" by 11" sheets folded lengthwise and stapled together into a digest-size edition. It's the content, not the format, that counts. Brooklyn! #66 features a photo-essay of the annual Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. No actual mermaids showed up -- even though one costumed participant went all out and had her legs fused into a tail. She must have wiggled, not marched, down the appropriately named Surf Avenue. The latest issue has photographic evidence that you can find Heaven and God in Brooklyn, at least when it comes to delis and restaurants. Besides providing short articles about local history, Brooklyn! also features a lexicon and pronunciation guide so that you, too, can speak Brooklynese. If you wanna know wat Fred Argroff thinks, three bucks well-concea...

XR #67: Pain In Ass It was difficult but I finally got the latest edition of my zine published. Once again, the CTS (computer time suck) factor. With my budget I can't afford to buy Microsoft Word. Also, I have tried the latest version of MS Word, 2007, and it's an overcomplicated piece of shit. Too many options, too many chances to screw up or find yourself in a dead-end. I tried three freebie wordprocessing programs: Abiword, Jarte, and OpenOffice Writer. What I want in a wordprocessing program is capability with MS Word, the ability to save in the .doc format. I would format a file with a text box in Abiword, save it as a .doc but when I opened it later, the text box was was all fucked up. I won't bore you with the problems I had with Jarte. By default I ended up with OpenOffice Writer but that also has its quirks with .doc compatibility when it comes to frames/text boxes. Take a MS Word document with text boxes and when you open it up with Writer, enjoy the jum...

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...

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? Bu...

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; ...

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, say...

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 tha...

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 ...

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...

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 b...

RX XR: Paper And Photons It's amazing how a small project can eat up so much time. After all these years publishing a hardcopy zine, you would think it would get easier. Nope. First, write enough material for an issue. Paste in all that text to fit. Then proofread, print a master copy and then go the the printshop to make photocopies. But that's about half of the job. Check the mailing list, address the envelopes, fold each zine to fit the business size envelope, seal each envelope, and then drop the whole mess off at the Post Office. I don't have a car so walking around town is involved. Good eXercise but... Compare that to publishing a blog: write, proofread, push a button, you're done. I started this journey with my zine, the Ray X X-Rayer . In the beginning it was fun, learning how to paste up a zine using a computer. Playing around with different lay outs and fonts. Now the whole hardcopy gig is a pain. So why do I do it? 1. I like getting zines via snail...

CST Where's my DSL installation kit? I'm walking around my neighborhood at night, looking for the box that didn't arrive at my door. I had signed up for the faster internet connection because I want to save time. For years I had tolerated a poky dial-up connection, a blazing 48 Kbps. But thanks to that poky dial-up connection, I found out that the box had been delivered earlier in the day, according to the UPS tracking site. I assume it was dropped off at the wrong address. No sign of it in the neighborhood, at least in the dim lighting. A phone call to UPS after my useless neighborhood search. I find out the package was delivered to my building but to the wrong apartment number. This pisses me off because I had the DSL service company repeat back to me on the phone my address when I placed the order. The wrong apartment has a separate entrance way that I had assumed was always locked. The package isn't outside that entrance way. Someone might have grabbed it. ...

UFO Talk With Buck And Biff! Getting out of bed is a problem for me. So how do I motivate myself? Simple. My portable radio has an alarm mode but instead of the buzzer, I set it to a particular AM radio station and then fall asleep. Bam. Radio snaps on to a sports commentary program, boobs squawking about pro athlete nonsense. That gets me out of bed; I quickly kill the annoying chatter. The other day I was snapping off the radio when an epiphany struck me: if such a program – basically egocentric opinions and boring scores and stats related to overpaid steroid-saturated muscle – can get people to tune in, why not use the same format to develop a broader audience for an relatively unpopular topic like UFOs? All you need is a couple of brawny guys who sound like they mainline caffeine, just zealous about the subject. Recycle the basic lines used by sports commentators and adapt them as needed. = = = BUCK: Welcome to UFO Talk! I’m your co-host, Buck! BIFF: And I’m Biff! W...

Problem Pointer Mystery at Manzanar is a well-written, well-illustrated young adult novel – but there’s a problem. I picked up the book because it appeared to be a graphic novel. But actually it’s somewhere between a book and graphic novel, switching between prose and illustrated sections with word balloons. I had no problem with the format. The book is labeled Historical Fiction; the subtitle explains: A WWII Internment Camp Story . Another reason why I picked it up. I wanted to see how the writer, Eric Fein, presented this dark history in America’s past. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, innocent Japanese immigrants and citizens were rounded up, relocated to camps like Manzabar in the California desert, penned in with barbed wire fences and watchtowers. The kind of paranoia that followed 9/11. The hero, 15-year-old Tommy Yamamoto, is a fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries. A crime in committed during his confinement at the Manzanar Relocation camp. Tommy uses his detect...

Vote Fraud The Digital Way Think your vote counts? Take a look at Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008 , an anthology of articles edited by Mark Crispin Miller. If you think that computerization has eliminated ballot hi-jinks, you’re wrong. Part of the problem could be the classic fox watching the henhouse. Have elections tallied up only by a private company with little or no oversight by local government, a company beholden to a particular political party. Such loose security leaves open opportunities to manipulate the vote. One way it could be done is a last minute “patch” or piece of “corrective” software being installed in the voting machines that will help keep one candidate ahead in the race by a few points, even if he’s losing. Or install a memory card in one machine that can spread a virus to other machines in the system, manipulating the vote in your favor. Then there’s the memory card switcheroo. When the cards are taken out of each ...

Does Homeland Security Know About This? I just signed on tonight and found this image (Google is my default page): No, it’s not a Google time bomb. Apparently it’s some sort of electromagnetic device; the logo is to honor the birth of the Danish inventor, Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851), according to techcrunch.com . But with all the post 9/11 paranoia that remains, I bet there are those who don’t think it looks that innocent. For example, I’m eXpecting someone will claim that it’s one of those Hidden-In-Plain-Sight Illuminati symbols/messages…

0 A big fat 0. That’s how many people visited this site according to Google Analytics during the period of July 13 to July 19, 2009. I don’t think so. I’ve never pulled in any tremendous amount of hits but to believe that NO ONE stopped by during that period is nonsense. I set the tracking NOT to ignore when I stop by. I know I checked out the site during that period. I think switching to a new template caused the problem. Goose egg reports started coming in after that. I deleted the old tracking code and re-installed it. The 0 visitors problem persists. Interesting when one considers that Google runs both Blogger and Anal-ytics. What’s the problem: one company has compatibility issues between its own services? Fed up with Google’s bullshit, I’ve added another tracker. This indicates the normal amount of numbers so far – or it’s just lying to me to make me happy. Sure, part of it is ego. But also I’d like to know if anyone is out there or I’m just typing in unreadable nonsens...

Sound Reasoning And The Lake Champlain Monster Ever read an article that leaves a bit of confusion lingering in your mind? I’m trying to get a handle on how bioacoustics researcher, Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, regards the existence of a lurking monster in Lake Champlain. For those who aren’t familiar with this region, up here in the North Country Lake Champlain divides New York State from Vermont. I’ve live on the NY side in Plattsburgh; it’s just a ten-minute to the lake from my door. On the east side is Burlington, Vermont. Burlington is home to an alternative weekly, Seven Days , that recently profiled von Muggenthaler in an article entitled “Making Sound Waves” in its July 15-22, 2009 edition. (Online version here .) Six years ago von Muggenthaler was hired by the Discovery Channel to do some bioacoustical research in Lake Champlain. She made recordings of an unknown critter or critters echolocating. She has ruled out sources such as beaver, otter, and other animals includin...

New Computer: Less Time Computers save time. Take wordprocessing. Instead of messing around with a typewriter and paper, you can correct and revise on the fly before printing out, producing an article in less time. Computers eat up time. Get a new computer and wordprocessing program and you’ll soon discover you have less time for writing. The learning curve cuts into your productivity. I’ve been sidetracked lately with a new notebook computer. It was the least expensive way to upgrade from what I had with my aging desktop unit. The notebook’s system interface is different from my old desktop. For example, it has two different files called DOCS and Documents, just to make things confusing. And then there’s learning to use a new software program. That cheap bastard Bill Gates installed on my notebook Windows Office 2007 for only 60 days. I just need a wordprocessing program, not all that other crap that comes with Office. Yes, I know about Open Office, but all I want to do is pro...

You, Too, Can Be A Self-Help Guru PBS is getting desperate. In the past the public TV network prided itself on science programs like Nova . But over the years it’s grown so needy to raise money that it showcases all sorts of characters during its fundraising stretches like Wayne Dyer. I always thought Dwyer was a bit much. My suspicions were confirmed with I caught him on Whitley Steiber’s radio program, Dreamland , going on about all sorts of New Age malarkey. When Dyer first appeared on the scene back in the 1970s, the original edition of his paperback bestseller, Your Erroneous Zones, featured a tightly cropped portrait of the author, mainly his face. This was obviously done to hide the fact he was bald as a cue ball, albeit a cue ball with some wispy long hair still attached to its sides. Dyer started the modern era of self-help books. If his first book had all the answers, why did he or anyone else have to write more? Sorry, I don’t have much respect for these pop psychol...

Could It Be…? Check out Newsweek, June 8th, 2009 edition. Talk show hostess Oprah is on the cover; article about her on page 54. The slant? Crazy talk with Opie, taking her to task for promoting wacky cures. (Online version here .) For example, 62-year-old actress Suzanne Somers was on the Oprah show one time, talking up estrogen products: cream on her arms, a shot into her vagina. She also swallows a lot of other stuff, like 60 vitamins and other preparations daily. Why? To stay healthy and live long. The goal: to see her 110th birthday. So let’s say that Suzanne does live to see one century plus a decade. That would really p.o. the skeptics. But if she makes that goal, what could be the explanation? Among the possibilities: 1.] She was born with good genes, had access to good traditional health care, and all the extra “wacky” stuff didn’t make that much difference. 2.] Her genes were average but the “wacky” additions were very beneficial. 3. ] Good genes, health care and ...

Psychics Fulfill Needs She (they’re usually female) sits at a table in one corner at a coffeehouse. Or maybe she has a booth or kiosk set up at in outdoor pedestrian mall. She speaks confidentially with the attentive person sitting across from her, providing to that individual what can’t be found with a clergyman, counselor, psychiatrist or even friends. Answers. That’s why psychics have cornered a good share of the human needs market. I’m skeptical about psychics when it comes to their claims of “auras” and “spirits” and “karma” or whatever new age stuff they believe in. But I’m also skeptical of some parts of traditional medicine and psychotherapy. Mainstream health services have their own share of BS. When the professional experts fail, those seeking help might end up trying a psychic reading, another form of counseling or psychotherapy from what I’ve seen. Science and medicine can be like priesthoods with secrets and mystery. Take a look at the Diagnostic and Statistical Manua...

Anomalous Phenomena: The Para-Pachydermic Explanation “Get your umbrella ready,” said the TV weatherman. “Lots of rain tomorrow.” The next day considerable precipitation fell but not rain. Six inches of snow in the city, twelve inches up in the mountains. Obviously weather forecasting isn’t an exact science. Despite all the data gathered, there could be a tiny bug in the system that throws off the prediction. The chaos butterfly. An analogy that shows how an unknown element or X factor can make the weatherman look like an idiot. Two months before the weatherman predicted rain, a butterfly in China flapped its wings a couple of extra times. This pushed additional air molecules along, a small action that kept building as the days passed, until it turned into a cold air mass that unexpectedly shifted, turning rain into snow. Science itself isn’t an exact science. But there are those who act like it is, resulting in dogma that doesn’t allow any thinking beyond what it considered “no...

CSI: Crime Sand Investigation A nonfiction book about sand? Surprisingly, it’s very interesting. Sand: The Never Ending Story proves that there is indeed a world of knowledge in a grain of the stuff. The author, Michael Welland, covers the topic not only on this world but beyond, to Mars and one of Saturn’s moons, Titan. But what intrigued me the most was geological forensics, how the properties of a particular sand can be used to determine its origin point, valuable evidence in a criminal investigation. One case involved $3 million worth of gold that turned up missing while being shipped. It was discovered after opening the crates that ordinary sand and iron bars had been switched with the gold. It was suspected that the substitution had been made in Canada but a forensic geologist and policeman determined that the sand originated in another country. Another example of sand forensics involved a pickup truck driven by the murderer. Mud splashed on the truck contained tiny debris f...

Chris Carter Goes Green The creator of The X-Files , Chris Carter, is green. No, he wasn’t hit by gamma rays and turned into The Hulk – even though that would more entertaining than his last X-Files film, I Want To Believe . I borrowed a DVD of XF: IWTB . After being disappointed by the main feature I checked out the so-called “special” features that included a short about how Chris went green during the production of his movie. [Note to historians decades hence: “Green” refers to a fad popular at this time to save the earth from mankind’s impact by using less energy, eating local “organic” foods, and acting like a fanatic over ecology and the environment due to concerns about global warming. While commendable, this fad is out of hand in that some people are joining in because it’s the “cool thing” to do. A present-day individual doesn’t fit in unless he’s absolutely committed to being “green.” Green statements uttered without question act as a shibboleth to hip conformity. Like ...

Groovy Positive Vibes Skeptic Rebecca Watson has been having bad luck lately. As she mentions at www.skepchick.org/blog within two weeks she was hit by a car and then her apartment was burgled, her laptop computer stolen. But maybe it wasn’t a run of “bad luck.” Rebecca should watch “The Secret,” a documentary about how to attract good things in their life. People radiate vibrations out into the universe. The movie shows someone wishing for something and all those thoughtwaves just spread out into forever. In fact “The Secret” states that the universe can be your catalog. Just list what you want, think good thoughts, and it will come your way. The Supreme Being/Grandest Poohbah/whatever will listen to you. It’s New Age wishful thinking without equal. If all the skeptics like Rebecca keep thinking bad thoughts, radiating negativity into the cosmos, they could end up bringing down an alien invasion force or blowing up the sun.

The Unimal The ancient Greeks could really come up with some wild beasties when they unleashed their imaginations. For example, the manticore: a mythical monster sometimes depicted with a man’s face, a lion’s body, a dragon’s legs, and a scorpion’s tail. But that combo critter can’t match the unimal. I just watched a documentary called Farmboy about the life of H.E. Babcock, a professor of farm marketing who later became Chairman of the Board at Cornell University in the 1940s. During his lifetime he promoted nutrition standards. To symbolize animal agriculture the unimal was created, five basic farm animals in one: chicken, cow, steer, pig and sheep. This cobbled-together imaginary beast had the key aspects of each animal, from the rooster’s red comb on its head to the curly pigtail on its butt. The front legs were those of a cow; the rear ones of a chicken. Toss in a pair of wings and udders and you had a unimal. Babcock had a plastic unimal toy on the market to promote a hea...

Halloween: Evil Or Depraved? A cheaply photocopied pamphlet has been lurking on my desk since last fall, buried among all the other stuff to be processed. It keeps popping up to the surface, daring me to peruse it. It’s time to eXamine this bit of hysteria. THE TRUTH ABOUT HALLOWEEN was found shoved in a friend’s doorway when he came home one day. He doesn’t know who left it but I can speculate what kind of person wanted to share its startling “facts.” “Don’t be fooled by what appears to be just a bit of harmless fun!” is emblazoned on page one. Open it up and one learns the “true” history behind Halloween, its satanic origins. Back in 1500 B.C, the Druids held their evil sway over Western Europe. They practiced a cruel kind of magic, using people as human sacrifices, flogging and sexually molesting them before their hearts were torn out. Whoever passed along this pamphlet was apparently a prude because one line has been crossed out with a black pen. But the most of the line can...

The ART of Conspiracy Advanced alien civilizations are in contact with Earth but the public at large is being kept in the dark about this fact. That statement is the basis of exopolitics, the study of the relationship between humanity and offworld entities. At exopolitics.blogspot.com Ed Komarek talks about the conspiracy keeping ET contact limited to a privileged elite. He discusses Corporation X or the Alien Resource Development Corporation (ARDC), a shadowy inner circle that controls the alien research trade (ART?). [ Link ] The human elite control alien tech for their own self-interests. For example, new sources of clean, cheaper energy are being held back so the oil companies can maintain their profits. In one post Komarek speculates about a modern day slave trade: human abductees are being used for the harvesting of biological materials by certain aliens. (He points out that not all alien species in contact with our world are doing this.) He says the same powerful families w...