Saturday, December 25, 2010

Monday, December 13, 2010


Solar Energy

As you may have noticed from a previous post I've been irritable lately. I've also been dealing with low energy levels. Besides the usual holiday bullshit, the weather has also been getting to me. Check out this five day forecast:



How can I deal with this? All that sunshine! I'll get sunburn.


Saturday, December 11, 2010

Updates At xrayer.com


The last two issues of my zine, Ray X X-Rayer #77 & #78, have been uploaded at my website, http://xrayer.com . Each zine is a collection of posts from this blog in PDF format; you can print them out for your own personal use. I also did some tweaking with the format, putting the issue links for each year in reverse chronological order, i.e., the latest edition is listed first.

Friday, December 10, 2010


Too Short? Too Bad


I've received a couple of comments that my hardcopy - snail mail zine, the Ray X X-Rayer, is too short of a read.

Guess what. I ain't writing War And Peace.

My zine is a collection of posts from my blog. I slap it together when I feel like it. Sometimes it's only four pages, other times longer. Considering that I only charge a lousy dollar for it, it's not worth the time and effort to produce it, sort it, and then get it out in the mail. I would rather do all my writing online and leave all the meatspace bullshit behind.

If you find my paper zine is too short, then produce your own that meets your length requirements. You'll see how easy it is.

Anyway, zining is supposed to be about individual, independent expression.



Googling The Gs


Two words, six letters. And a lot of frustration.

Throw in information overload and it's a big mess.

I had remembered reading somewhere about a FBI program that employed people from all walks of life to help out with surveilling a suspect. These employees were civil servants, not Special Agents, who looked like the average Joe or Jane. That was because they were the average Joe or Jane. The nickname for the program was the Gs. I thought the Great Search Engine Google could help me find the answer.

So I used keywords like "FBI" with "civilian spies" or "citizen spies" or "the Gs." Nothing. A dead end.

I dug out my copy of the book, The Spy Who Got Away (1988), by David Wise. This nonfiction work tells the story of Edward Lee Howard, a CIA agent who escaped to Moscow after passing US secrets to the Soviet Union. I checked the index and found under Federal Bureau of Investigation references to the Gs, the Special Support Group.

More Googling but no good hits. So I just went with abbreviations: FBI SSG. And then the answers were revealed -- not too many but something.

I was going to write about the Gs but I'm too Googled out to continue. Next time.

So when you're reading one of my posts, keep in mind that sometimes a lot of frustrating research is involved.


Monday, November 29, 2010


What's Wrong With This Picture?


January 24, 1988.

Evening. Cloudy. A somewhat secluded road, a few houses around, far apart.

A pickup truck pulls over. The driver gets out. He walks down the road, shouting, daring someone to show themselves. His name is Ed Walters.

The passenger gets out, holding a video camera, taping the event. He is a newspaper editor who was contacted by Ed that a UFO might appear. His name is Duane Cook.

Cook has been following Ed's story for some time, a story involving the strange appearances of a UFO, aliens sending mysterious messages to Ed via telepathy. Ed is a contractor in Gulf Breeze, Florida, who claims he hears a humming sound inside his head before a UFO appears. As on other occasions, the humming starts low, then grows to such intensity that it becomes painful.

So why doesn't Cook think all of this is just in Ed's head?

Because Ed has submitted pictures to Cook's paper, images showing an otherworldly craft hanging in the night sky. The pictures were taken with a Polaroid camera. In pre-digital days the Polaroid system provided the closest thing to instant gratification. Other cameras used film that had to be exposed, then developed as negatives or slides. Negatives needed enlargers or automated machinery to make prints; slides required a special projector that cast images on a screen. Both processes involved a long turnaround time from taking the shots to viewing them.

A Polaroid camera combined the developing and printing into two simple steps. Snap a shot. The exposed small print would pop out from the camera. Wait sixty seconds for the development process do its magic and after you carefully peeled away the protective top layer, there was the image.

Cook believed that Ed's Polaroids were good evidence of UFO encounters because Polaroids were hard to manipulate to produce fakes.

As Ed keeps shouting at his alien tormenters, it starts to rain. Cook decides it's now too dark to keep shooting. As he starts to get back into the pickup, Ed yells, the UFO has appeared. Ed snaps a shot of the object, his camera's flash going off.

Cook isn't quick enough. By the time he gets out to take a look, the UFO has disappeared, or so Ed claims.

Ed hands the exposed print to Cook. The newspaperman waits sixty seconds and then pulls the protective layer off, revealing an alien craft hovering in the sky, the rooftop rack to Ed's truck illuminated by the camera's flash.

But Ed is upset. He wanted Cook to see the UFO but the aliens are playing hide and seek once again. But Cook isn't disappointed. He tells Ed: "It's more important that you shot it, and I saw you shoot it, and this is what I saw you shoot. This is better if I had seen it and you had not gotten the picture."

Cook adds: "I can flat out guarantee anybody that I saw you take this picture."

Wait a minute. Back it up. At this point in Ed Walter's book, The Gulf Breeze Sightings, I had a problem. (And not for the first time.)

It's stated in the book that Polaroids were hard to fake -- but it doesn't state that such fakery is impossible. With everything going on -- Ed's hysterics about the aliens tormenting him, the rainfall starting up, Cook getting back into the truck -- how can Cook definitely say that Ed gave him the same print that popped out of the camera at that time?

Cook states: "[Ed] came over to my door, pulled the photo from the camera, and handed it to me." (Page 340). Or so he recalls.

With everything happening Cook could have assumed that Ed pulled it from the camera. Under certain conditions perception and memory can play tricks. Maybe another print, one exposed using a special method, was substituted.

Misdirection is a standard trick for magicians. Look over there while I'm making a switch here. So is misperception: the magician influences what you think you see.

No, I'm not saying Ed Walters that evening was only doing a magic trick. But the possibility still exists. And considering that a model of the same UFO was found in Ed's home after he moved away, I find myself leaning towards the skeptical.

I argue that it would've been better if Cook saw the object and Ed didn't get the shot. A hovering UFO is harder to fake than a picture.

Previously in the book another man -- Bob Reid, a videographer for a local TV station -- one night has a similar experience to Cook. Reid is keeping watch over Ed, his mini-van and observation set-up a block away from Ed's house. The videographer and Ed keep in touch via walkie-talkies. Ed leaves his house, walking over to the van to deliver an item to be passed along to someone else. During part of the walk Reid can't see Ed; trees obstruct the view.

Suddenly Ed on the walkie-talkie asks Reid if he sees the UFO. But the videographer can't see the object at that moment because he is looking at the wrong spot in the sky, distracted by a plane. Ed soon shows up, agitated, asking Reid if he witnessed the ET craft during its brief appearance.

Once again another observer misses viewing the elusive alien ship. But Reid believes he has the evidence he needs: his recording of the Ed's distraught state is proof that Ed did see an alien craft, that he was in contact with aliens. After all, Ed's terror is so convincing. It couldn't just be his imagination.

Again, a problem. Certain people can completely convincing on videotape, even though their emotions are faked, reacting in fictional situations. They're called actors. Hollywood awards them for being so apparently real. Maybe Ed did have a terrifying experience but his reaction by itself proves nothing.

Both incidents and the responses by the observers of Ed's actions involve what I call hyper-logic. Whether you're a harden skeptic or a true believer, don't try to win me over with such "logic."


[Disclaimer: I read The Gulf Breeze Sightings years ago and this time I only perused parts of the book to refresh my memory. I didn't read it from cover to cover a second time. My life is too short. But note I did more than scan the index.]



Sources: All from The Gulf Breeze Sightings (1990) by Ed and Frances Walters.

Chapter: JANUARY 21, 1988--TWELFTH SIGHTING--WITH REID ACCOUNT; pages 140-147.

Chapter: JANUARY 24, 1988--THIRTEENTH SIGHTING --ENCOUNTER VIDEOTAPED BY COOK; pages 152 - 158.

Appendix 2, pages 337 - 341, Duane Cook's January 24, 1988 account.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010


Martin Gardner


Shouldn't scientific thinking and logic work together?

Recently the Skeptical Inquirer magazine published an issue remembering the late Martin Gardner, a founding member of CSICOP/CSI (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, renamed Committee for Scientific Inquiry). I first encountered his work in Fads and Fallacies in the Name Of Science, a classic book in the skeptical field.

In a SI tribute by Ray Hyman this detail leaped out at me: Gardner would sometimes write a book review by just reading its index.

Hyman wondered how Gardner could read and review so many books with his busy schedule. Gardner replied that in most cases he didn't actually read a book, he just scanned the index for the info he needed to write his review.

As I've mentioned before, sometimes I skim-read / skip-read a book, i.e., I'll peruse a few passages and jump around from spot to spot. When writing a review I mention this, letting the reader know that I haven't read a book from cover to cover. That way the reader knows I'm only commenting on certain aspects, not the entire work.

And please note: I haven't read the SI tribute issue for Martin Gardner (September/October 2010) from cover to cover. I just read a couple of the tributes.

From what I gather, Gardner didn't inform his readers about his index scanning method of book reviewing. Not very journalistic or scientific.

But this doesn't surprise me. One time in a SI interview (published March/April 1998; link below) Gardner revealed that he believed in God and a soul that lives on. He admitted that he had no evidence that either God or a immortal soul existed; he invoked fideism, a view that such things can't be proven by reason but by faith alone and that's OK if it makes you feel good.

So what about those who follow astrology or other fringe beliefs that Gardner would criticize with scientific skepticism? Why can't they invoke fideism? After all, doesn't astrology make a believer feel good, giving meaning to life?

Maybe it's a matter of who you are. If you're a intellectual skeptic, you're allowed to believe in an unprovable idea because you can use a philosophical copout like fideism.

I'm an atheist. Martin Gardner, prove me wrong. Send me a message from the great beyond like Houdini.



Sources:

-- Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 2010 (Print version): Martin Gardner: A Polymath to the Nth Power by Ray Hyman, page 28-29.

-- A Mind at Play: Interview with Martin Gardner


Friday, November 05, 2010


Are You There Zehaas? Its Me, Kal-El


Memory trigger.

Over at his blog, The X Spot, X. Dell (no relation) has been running a series of posts dealing with Ed Walters and the Gulf Breeze sightings.

In November 1987 a resident of Gulf Breeze, Florida, contractor Ed Walters, was nearly abducted during a UFO encounter, zapped by a blue beam. The aliens started to abduct Ed, lifting him off the ground with the beam, but he fought back. He screamed "Aagghh!" and the aliens dropped him and left.

Thus begins Ed's story in the book, The Gulf Breeze Sightings (1990), co-written (as such) with his wife Frances. (I don't notice any discernable differences in writing styles between Ed's and Frances's sections.) As explained in the book, the aliens kept showing up now and then, telepathically saying stuff to Ed like "Zehaas, in sleep you will know."

When X. Dell mentioned the name Zehaas it triggered a memory. The main detail I had retained after reading TGBS many years ago was the alien's name for Ed. So I checked out a copy of the book from the library and started skip-reading through it again. (Some books aren't worth a full read.)

Originally Ed tried to stay in the background, calling himself Mr. X (definitely no relation) when he submitted the Polaroid snaps from his first UFO encounter to the Sentinel, a local newspaper. On page 243 of TGBS it's mentioned that a Sentinel editor received a call from a woman who suggested that since the aliens spoke Spanish at times that Zehaas was really "cejas" (pronounced "See-hass"), the word for eyebrows. Ed wrote that since he had curly eyebrows maybe the aliens were eyebrowless, impressed by his prominent ones.

Yeah, right.

Ed's story doesn't hold up for a number of reasons. As X. Dell explains at his blog Ed faked a photo one time of a "demon." After he moved away from the house where all the weird stuff went down, the new owners found an UFO model similar to what was seen in Ed's photos hidden under some attic insulation.

Even without this revelation I find it hard to buy Ed's story with its old-style sci-fi pulp magazine details like a small alien who appears in a metal suit with a futuristic cattle-prod. Or the UFO that looks like something out of an old TV series like Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. And don't get me going about the hack-writer name for an alien, "Zehaas."

I haven't read the two books by Ed that followed TGBS so I don't know if the Zehaas mystery was ever explained. Going by what is offered in TGBS it seems that Ed might have been working towards a story that he was part alien or had some sort of alien connection. You know, the trite SF story about a prince from another world who is exiled to Earth as a baby because the bad guys on his own world have killed off the rest of the royal family. Or maybe his world just went BOOM! but he got away.

This isn't anything new outside of science fiction. In an article entitled "Alien Memories And Dreams" paranormal writer Brad Steiger observes:

"The whole matter of sensible men and women who claim alien memories and persistent dreams of extraterrestrial origin invites extensive speculation. Are these people, because of their higher intelligence and greater sensitivity, rejecting an association with Earth because of all the inadequacies and shortcomings, which they witness all around them?

"Does the mechanism of believing oneself to be of alien heritage enable one to deal more objectively with the multitude of problems, which assail the conscientious, and caring at each dawn of a new day?"

Steiger collects information on human hybrids with alien DNA with his Starseed Questionnaire. I don't know the validity of all those who claim to be "Star People" but if Ed Walters and his "Zehaas" rap was intended to go in that direction, faked Polaroids and a concealed UFO model undermine any of his claims.

Saturday, October 23, 2010


Notes From A Paranormal Expo


I drifted around like a ghost, staying in the background, jotting impressions down in my small notebook.

Saturday. 10/16/10. A year later; how time flies. Same location, the old gym on a former military base in Plattsburgh, NY. This second time for the paranormal expo had the same set up: vendors upstairs, lecturers downstairs.

Reviewing my notes:

-- The main area upstairs for vendor tables: a basketball court. Like a high school that has to use its gymnasium for both athletic and social events. Today a paranormal expo. Upcoming events: a sock hop, a bake sale, and then the big game.

-- Psychic sits at a folding table in the middle of a basketball court, giving a reading. The readee across from the psychic, intent on what the reader has to say. Me, I would want more privacy. The burning candle works in a small dimly lit room but not a brightly lit gym.

-- Missed the presentation on UFOs in Northern New York State, my neck of the woods. Other lectures focused on the supernatural.

-- Four people sit towards the back of the lecture room, two couples. Skeptics, making cynical comments to themselves. I'm halfway between them and the lecturer, just close enough to pick up their vibes. I don't buy everything the lecturer states but at least I'm mature enough to keep my negative thoughts to myself. A polite ghost. After a while the snide four leave. Hope a gang of poltergeists slaps them silly tonight.

-- A paranormal investigator states that most hauntings don't involved demonic spirits. But he doesn't discount such evil beings. A Roman Catholic, he conducted the rite of exorcism one time but as a lay person. He wasn't entitled like a priest to read two certain lines from the rite.

-- A healer shows the invisible. She invites people from the audience up front. The person stands there and the healer uses dowsing rods to show the size of that person's energy field. Large fields = personal imbalance, emotional distress.

-- Lecturers repeated common New Age/paranormal beliefs:

* A nasty person while living becomes nasty spirit after death.

* Weird things happen with quantum physics; that's why weird things happen with the paranormal.

* Chiropractors can cure many ills with spine alignment; even babies should visit one.

* Live in the now, not the past or the future.

* Everyone to varying degrees has psychic powers. Not everyone can be a psychic superstar (Uri Geller) but can develop potential powers.

* Children are open-minded, able to see more than adults. But are conditioned not to believe in spirits, UFOs, etc., lose ability to see more.

-- Paranormal investigators talked about devices they use. EMF - electro-magnetic field - detector: reveals ghostly activity or malfunctioning fluorescent light. Scalar microphone: detects multi-dimensional wave patterns; akin to sound waves through time; like dowsing rod, different results with different users.

This year's paranormal expo had the same attendance rate, around 900 people according to newspaper articles. But considering the state of the economy, that's good, it held its own. If there's a third one next year and I'm around, I'll try to attend -- either in my present physical form or whatever. (I always wanted to knock an EMF detector off the scale.)

Monday, September 27, 2010


Alien Saviors To Appear Oct. 13th


Tentatively, that is.

Retired Air Force Officer Stanley A. Fulham apparently is hedging his bets by saying 10/13/10 is the day that alien craft might provide a spectacular display over principal cities here on Planet Earth. I'm not too excited because where I live, Plattsburgh, NY, isn't a principal city. (Hell, it isn't even a city.)

And it seems these aliens are being a bit snooty about visiting. According to Fulham who gets his info via a "world renowned channeler," the aliens don't want to initially contact us because of the fear and panic that might result, so no planetfall or direct communications, just a massive show of their craft. (Or maybe they don't want to rub elbows -- or whatever they have analogous to elbows -- with the terran hoi polloi.)

Then why the (tentative) UFO display? Mankind is poisoning the planet and it has to wake up before it's too late. The aliens, called Transcenders (cousins to the Transformers?), are a group of ethereal beings who have lived for eons in various incarnations. They have seen other worlds pollute themselves to death. The (tentative) display will be the first step by the aliens, making mankind realize that it is not alone in the universe. From this breaking-in period the Transcenders will eventually make contact and save our world from CO2 pollution, cleaning up our bad act by 2015 or sooner.

Fulham has written a book, Challenges of Change (3rd ed.), that details his knowledge of UFOs since World War II and later with NORAD. With shades of Major Philip J. Corso, his book explains the government is aware of ET visitations but believes mankind isn't ready for the shocking truth. To borrow a line from Saucer Smear editor, Jim Moseley: Wheee!

The PR release laying this all out ends with this key point:

"Fulham clarifies there are no absolutes; the principal of free will and choice that exits with all souls precludes all absolute realities, and the aliens may decide to postpone their intervention -- but the Transcenders confirm it will nonetheless occur in 2010."

Me, I won't be surprised if the intervention is moved up to 2011, 2012, 2013...

I'd like to be wrong but how many times has this story been told before without the promised pay-off?


--Source: http://sites.google.com/site/challengesofchange/

Wednesday, September 22, 2010


Is Richard Hoagland The Bee's Knees?


After (more or less) reading the book Dark Mission I wanted to follow up on Richard Hoagland's research into torsion physics. What I found was a hornet's nest.

Worker honeybees have been disappearing. It's called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) or honey bee depopulation syndrome (HBDS). Whatever label you choose, the fact remains that domesticated honeybees are a key link in the world's life cycle, providing pollination to agricultural crops.

What's causing the problem? It could be factors such as pesticides, genetically modified crops, mites, insect diseases, or some combination of these and other factors.

But Richard Hoagland has the answer:

Our civilization has developed marvelous gadgets, giving us instantaneous, worldwide data and audio-visual communcation [sic]. The signals travel through "empty space" on invisible electromagnetic waves -- for which, the existence of civilization (if not our own existence!) now depends. Nature and the biology of the "natural world" is no different -- but instead of electromagnetic waves, it uses (in part) something called "torsion fields" for the same essential purpose -- to transmit vital signals into and between living eco-systems, so that they may function properly.

In Dark Mission Hoagland and co-author Mike Bara gone on about hyperdimensional physics. From what I've read there isn't much difference between HD and quantum physics. With quantum stuff it's all a lot of speculation with mystical formulae, of spooky stuff like the observer influencing the observation, a cat both dead and alive, the universe is made up of silly string, whatever.

Now E=mc2. That's impressive. You can see the effect with the detonation of an atomic bomb. But until there's a Q-bomb, quantum physics is a lot of talk about nothing.

I won't go into all the details about torsion physics except to say it doesn't have any dead-alive cats (as far as I know). Hoagland does claim it promises all sorts of free energy for mankind, that's why "They" are keeping it a secret.

As for the case of the disappearing honeybees, Hoagland states the torsion field background flux might be changing, ergo "the domesticated bees may have lost their equally fundamental torsion navigation systems." It's a matter of lost, not dead, bees.

The online article that is my source (see below) is dated April 2007. There's the promise of "Part II Currently in Preparation" but I haven't found it. Maybe Hoagland got mentally lost from a torsion flux.

Anything is possible with those damn torsion fields.



Source:

The Bees' Needs: It's the Physics, Stupid!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Papernet: An Interesting Train Of Thought




Fred Argoff is fascinated with Brooklyn and trains.

I've enjoyed his zine, Brooklyn!, but always wondered about his other niche publication, Watch The Closing Doors. A copy of WTCD has been added to my burgeoning zine collection, issue #51. It's a basic DIY B&W zine, digest sized and saddle stitched, no frills, but more entertaining than most of the slick mainstream titles stuffing the newsstand shelves.

Fred is now employed as a tower operator but in his earlier years he was a conductor for the New York City Transit Authority. The stories he can tell, like a man trying to drop kick his train and the unexpected result.

But he doesn't confine his coverage to just NYC. The issue goes global, photos showing the interior of a modern Warsaw station, ridin' the rails in Bulgaria, and a clever NO SMOKING sign at a Moscow station. Considering that this zine is laserprinted or photocopied, the quality of the photos is good. (Want great photo reproduction? Buy an expensive slick magazine loaded with annoying ads.)

I'm not a "railfan" but I did enjoy this issue because I'm interested in history and architecture, two topics that Fred covers within his study of locomology (Did I just coin a word?). And there are also the "people stories" that Fred shares in the "Things Happen" section.

WTCD #51 also features an article by guest writer Mark Strickert on the first section of the Phoenix, Arizona light rail system. It's good to hear that this mass transit system has been a hit, a large number of riders.

And for someone like me who doesn't own a car, more emphasis on mass transit in this country, especially by rail, is welcome. Watch The Closing Doors might be early at the station as a new age for train travel dawns.

Snail mail a couple of dollars (bills, well hidden) for a sample copy of WTCD to:

Watch The Closing Doors
Fred Argoff, Editor
Penthouse L
1170 Ocean Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11230-4060


Saturday, September 18, 2010


Paladino's Stink


Don't live in New York State? Be glad. In a survey NY ranked at the bottom of the list for happiness.

And really be happy that you're not on the mailing list for GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Paladino wants to revamp closed state prisons into education camps for welfare clients where they can learn new job skills and, just as importantly, good personal hygiene. For we all know that social services clients don't know how to bathe.

Apparently Paladino is on a roll with the bad smell motif because he recently sent out a mailer with the message, SOMETHING STINKS IN ALBANY. And to back up his point, the enclosed material gives off an unpleasant odor.

Paladino says he wants to clean up Albany, not with a broom but "with a baseball bat." Great. Al Capone's management style will really fix all the problems.

Need I add that Paladino is a Tea Party favorite?

Dark Mission: The Moon Hoax Meme


It's an interesting story but has anyone besides Richard Hoagland come forward about the incident?

July 22, 1969.

Von Karman Auditorium, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California.

Richard Hoagland, 23-year-old science advisor to CBS news during the Apollo program, notices a man who appears out of place before a press conference. The man is dressed in jeans, wearing a long cowpuncher coat, a leather bag hanging from his shoulder. The weather is warm that day.

The "great coat guy" (as Hoagland refers to him) was leaving materials on each seat in the auditorium. The man is accompanied by Frank Bristow, head of the JPL press office, who was properly attired for the occasion, white shirt and black tie.

At this time Apollo 11 is returning home with Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon. and Mike Collins, the second man to walk upon the lunar surface.

Hoagland observes Bristow escort his guest to the press room area where the great coat guy hands his material to leading reporters from news organizations like the New York Times.

Curious Hoagland opens up one of the handouts to find a small American flag made of aluminized mylar and two mimeographed pages. Hoagland keeps the shiny flag but tosses the pages into the trash.

Why did he find the mimeographed message to be so worthless? It stated NASA "has just faked the entire Apollo 11 Lunar landing...on a soundstage in Nevada."

This incident is told in the Introduction to the book, Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, by Hoagland and Mike Bara. Of course, Hoagland rejects the "All the moon landings were faked" conspiracy theory because he believes that not only did NASA send men to the moon, the astronauts came back with alien artifacts found there that prove the existence of an ancient solar-system spanning ET civilization, a story being held from the public.

The great coat guy incident was an official "Op," according to Hoagland, to plant a meme in the minds of people that would be stimulated to go viral years later with such prods as Did We Land On The Moon?, a TV special broadcast on Fox in 2001. Even the shiny flag was planted as a mnemonic device making it easier to recall the incident and the handout's message.

The story of the moon landing hoax is an attempt, says Hoagland, to direct attention away from the evidence that he and others have accumulated proving the reality of alien buildings on the moon and Mars.

Hoagland sees astounding details in NASA photos. To me what looks like lens flare, tricks of light, and image defects is to Hoagland floating glass structures.

Maybe back in 1969 at JPL he misinterpreted what he saw. It could be the head of the press office was playing along with a kook, letting the great coat guy have his say to entertain the reporters there.


Monday, August 23, 2010


Mary Roach Is Going At It Again




Yes, snarky science writer Mary Roach penned a book about sex research. No, the book wasn't called Stiff.

Stiff was about decaying corpses; Bonk is about copulating live bodies (well, for the most part. There is mention of autoerotic death and whether a beating-heart cadaver could have an orgasm if properly stimulated). Mary goes at her subject with the usual curiosity and irreverence befitting a woman who was raised as a strict Catholic. (Too strict, of course. Press down on that spring all you want but someday -- BOING! Or in this case, BONK!)

Bonk is subtitled The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. That coupling part also includes Mary and her husband who volunteer to have an intimate moment recorded by dynamic 3D ultrasound imaging. Why bother with dull regular ultrasound for such an occasion? Just go all the way.

Going solo Mary gets some hands-on experience with a photoplethysmograph probe used to gauge her reactions while watching videos both neutral and erotic. Besides physical reactions, psychological responses were also recorded with the arousometer. One would think such a device would be high tech, using a PET scan to monitor brain activity, but actually it's nothing but a lever similar to a car's automatic transmission shifter operated by the subject to indicate her reactions. She moves the lever up and down to record her level of arousal. Of course, a computer touchscreen would work as well but then the Freudian symbolism is lost.

And Mary makes this poignant observation, one that brings laughter to MIB's:

"Orgasm appears to be a state not unlike that of the alien abductees one always hears about, coming to with messy hair and a chunk of time unaccounted for."

Along the way the reader will also encounter the postage stamp tumescence test, the Smithsonian Institution penis bone collection, the Thrillhammer, and even clamping vaginas.

At one point Mary refers to a scene from the Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall. This supposedly explains her book's dedication: For Woody.


Sunday, August 22, 2010


Smell Bad? Off To Camp With You


I wonder how this story will play with the New World Order conspiracy crowd.

Basing his ideas on the Civilian Conservation Corps program of the Great Depression, politician Carl Paladino wants to transform under-used New York State prisons into special dorms (or camps) for people on welfare. Such a center would train welfare recipients to acquire new skills. Also -- according to gubernatorial candidate Paladino -- the campers would be given lessons in "personal hygiene."

Of course this program would be voluntary. (Did you know filing an income tax form annually is also "voluntary?") Out-of-work prison guards would become counselors for such a dorm set-up. After years of walking the cell blocks with billy clubs, I wonder how many guards would have an affinity to "counsel" someone.

As Paladino explained in an Associated Press article: ""Instead of handing out the welfare checks, we'll teach people how to earn their check. We'll teach them personal hygiene ... the personal things they don't get when they come from dysfunctional homes."

Is Paladino out of touch with reality? Well, he is a wealthy real estate developer of the Republican stripe. Quick, Carl, what does a quart of milk and a loaf of bread cost? What's the minimum wage in New York State? Hey, don't turn to your aide for the answers.

Now the NWO alarmists might say this is the first step. Round up the smelly people first. Next will be the ones who don't smell but still need a job. Then the ones who don't get behind the program, those disloyal to American principles.

Paladino says his special camps would train welfare recipients to become state employees, working at state parks or in public service or even in "military service." Gee, does that last one include brown shirt uniforms?

For some reason Paladino is a favorite of the Tea Party. I thought the Tea Baggers opposed socialism and the government control that presumably goes with it. Maybe they're also NWO dupes.


Source: "NY candidate: Prison dorms for welfare recipients" By Bethy Fouhy (AP)


Thursday, August 12, 2010


Zine Zone Updated

Over at my Website, www.xrayer.com, I've updated the Zine Zone archives once again for my snail mail zine. I've simplified the layout to save time for myself. The latest issues of the Ray X X-Rayer, #75 and #76, will be found in the 2010 file. After you click on that file you will find links in ascending order, oldest to the newest, the latest issues at the end, of course.

For those unaware of my zine, it collects posts from this blog into an easy-to-print format (PDF). I used to put links on the main page for my Website but I'm getting burnt out with computers, HTML and all the rest. I trying to keep things as simple as possible. The main page will announce when a new zine has been archived but without a link.

Speaking of computer burn out, I almost threw my HP printer out the window. Even though I had converted a color image into grayscale and the set the printer to grayscale, pink blotches were showing up in the B&W images. After wasting a lot of time, ink and paper, I found the solution: the stupid HP printer has to be told to print grayscale images using only black ink. I had to check the box for Use Black Ink. Yes, computers save time, especially with user-unfriendly programs and useless Help files.

I was using Open Office and while I support free open source programs, I want to use programs that WORK. Open Office is supposed to be compatible with Word documents but it kept screwing up. In fact, it would even screw up with a RTF (rich text document) file, wrecking the format, making it unfixable. So I uninstalled Open Office. Good riddance.

I do miss one feature with Open Office, the option to convert a .doc file into PDF. That worked great. But when the file is screwed up, who wants to covert it to PDF? I use CutePDF to convert and it's OK. I might just stop screwing around with PDF and archive my zine files as plain RFT so that any word processing program can open them.

Then again I might stop print zining. I'm down to a handful of subscribers -- actually swappers -- and in a few cases what I receive in return is semi-readable junk, print too small or poor overall quality. Maybe that sounds elitist to you. I don't expect a zine have slick, high production standards. If it's a bit rough around the edges, OK, but it should at least have minimal quality. And with these aging orbs, I don't need the eyestrain.


* * *

ADDENDUM: Forget RTF. I always thought that format would give you a smaller file than a .doc file. But after some eXperimenting I found that when I converted a Word document of around 800k to RTF, the RTF one bloated to over 10 MB. It seems that images really blow up the file. And even when I start from scratch, starting with a RFT file and adding images, it ends up being much bigger than a .doc file. Amazing. I always thought RTF had less bloat than a Word document. And with limited space at my Website, the smaller the better when it comes to uploads.

With RFT I lose formatting and my headers (issue # and page #). But with PDF conversion I end up with a smaller file that retains all formatting. Good thing I checked this out now than waiting to do it later when I wanted to archive my next zine.

Sunday, August 01, 2010


X This Date: August 4

Mark a big X on your calendar: Wednesday, August 4. Why? It's the birthday of Supreme Commander James W. Moseley. If my math is correct, Jim is 79.

I want to include a photo of Jim with this post and so I'll type "james moseley" "saucer smear" into Google for an image search. Now here's a shot of him:



OK, wrong image. Google isn't perfect. Let's try again:



That's better.

The last issue of Saucer Smear took a while to arrive via snail mail. Jim states in every edition that it's a NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER -- meaning he publishes it whenever he gets around to it. (My zine is also NSN.) But some readers noticed a long gap in his non-schedule. A while ago Jim had a fall and it took a while for him to recover. Apparently he's OK because the last issue of Smear is on target as usual.

For a sample copy, mail two dollars US to James Moseley, PO Box 1709, Key West, Florida 33041. Maybe you can hide the cash inside a birthday card.

Happy Birthday, Jim.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010


Yuks And Yuck!



Sounds like a good thing to do. Donate your body to science. Maybe your corpse will help train a young surgeon so when he's working on a living body he will have the practical experience not to cut the wrong part.

Crash test dummies don't provide the same information as a human body. OK, I won't feel the impact, so let my corpse test the limits of new safety restraints in a vehicle.

But leaving my fresh (i.e. unembalmed) cadaver out in a fenced-in grove and let nature run its course to see what happens -- well, let me think about that one. I sunburn so easily. (And I'm already too bloated now as it is.)

And using my lifeless flesh for vain cosmetic reasons, to "aggrandize penises" -- to use Mary Roach's phrase -- I think I'm ending up on the short end of the donation deal.

The nonfiction book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, is a blend of gags (author Mary Roach's snarky comments and puns) and gags (referring to the reader's physical reactions to gross -- and I do mean gross -- anatomy). She mentions how people who conduct scientific research or investigate fatal disasters have to objectify human remains, pretend that they're made of wax, for example. Her humor is her objectification, especially when she sees a bloated body that's been in a left outside as part of research into criminal forensics.

In Chapter 5, Beyond the Black Box, she discusses how corpses can provide additional clues to the cause of an airplane crash. She interviews an injury analyst who investigated the TWA Flight 800 disaster, a plane that exploded over the Atlantic in July 1996 while en route from the US to Europe. Flight 800 is a favorite among conspiracy theorists who believe nothing happens by accident. What appears to be accidental was actually planned, they believe, the result of machinations being executed by a shadowy Mega-Conspiracy.

The argument is that some witnesses noticed a streak of light going up towards the doomed plane, indicating a missile was fired at it. One theory has the plane being shot down by an US submarine that was in the area at the time.

Others argue that the streak of light was only flame shooting out from Flight 800 after vapors in a fuel tank were ignited by frayed wiring. Because of the viewing conditions, an illusion was created that the light streak was traveling upward.

Chapter 5 lays out all the details how the injury analyst determined that it was an exploding fuel tank, not a missile, that caused the crash. Of course Mary holds back on her jokes during this part of the book, showing how bodies retrieved from the ocean provided clues to what happened.

If you're someone disturbed by corpses being classified by a damage rating system -- from Green (body intact) to Red (loss of three or more extremities or complete transection of the body) -- then you won't be able to handle much of this book.


Thursday, July 15, 2010


"My Beautiful Indestructible Fish Man"


Rick Baker, eat your heart out.



The title of this post? A quote by Dr. Simond Trent, mad scientist in the movie "Curse of the Swamp Creature" (1966).

This grade Z effort was recently broadcast on the television network This TV, sponsored by that new miracle drug, Colon Flow.

Dr. Trent is hiding out in a Texas swamp, transforming human beings into fish men. Of course, none of these humans volunteered for his experiments but when the law is far away, who's going to stop you?

Well, maybe the local "natives," poor blacks who live in the same swamp. Trent exploits the locals, forcing one to be his lieutenant and number one lackey. Another local ends up as a failed experiment, dumped into a screened swimming pool loaded with hungry alligators who like to chew up the scenery.

Besides the locals, John Agar shows up, a geologist searching for oil in the swamp. He doesn't suspect that the people in his party -- a B-girl, a slow-witted young adult named Ritchie, and a guide named Rabbit -- have done away with the oil man he was supposed to meet. The B-girl -- first name Brenda -- is pretending to be the wife of the murdered oil man, using the name "Mrs. West."

This party of idiots travel by motorboat through the swamp. Scene after scene is shown of the swamp. Hey, it's free, so shoot it. Eventually they end up at Dr. Trent's home where he has been holding his wife a virtual prisoner.

Mrs. Trent -- portrayed by "statuesque" Francine York -- at one point is alone with John Agar. She tells him that her husband is insane, they have to escape. John doesn't buy it. After all, it's normal for someone to keep hungry alligators in his swimming pool.

The party of idiots stay the night at Trent's home. John sleeps in the living room, apparently a sound sleeper. Trent passes by him, carrying another dead experiment from his lab for a late night swimming pool party. Later the mad doctor drugs Brenda, the so-called Mrs. West, and carries her right by John. Apparently John could sleep through Trent dragging a trumpeting elephant into his lab.

Trent has locked up his wife in the lab closet. Despite her screaming, John doesn't hear a thing, despite both the lab door and the closet door not being that thick or soundproof.

Ritchie the stupid overgrown kid goes off and spies on a voodoo ceremony. What is odd is that the leader of the ritual is Trent's number one lackey. Why is he now putting on a voodoo mask and stirring up the others against his master? Motivation is as murky as a dark swamp in this movie.

As the oppressed locals leave, Ritchie is entranced by a girl who danced provocatively during the voodoo ceremony. Apparently voodoo got his mojo working. Following her back to her home, he corners the girl in her dressing room, telling her: "Be good, baby. There's nobody here but us chickens." Will Ritchie ignore the warning about staying away from the river and the quicksand when he chases the poor girl? Do I really have to answer that question?

Ritchie's last words: "I won't hurt you... help me... helpgurglegurgle--"

Let me mention the actor Bill Thurman has a dual roll in this cinematic classick. He's the overweight oil man who is killed in the beginning. And in the end he's the flabby monster with bad make-up who is supposed to be the slender Brenda/Mrs. West transformed into a fish woman.

John Agar wakes up when he hears a gunshot outside the house and somehow he finally notices Mrs. Trent screaming in the closet. The mad doctor orders his creature to attack the mob of locals approaching his home. John and Mrs. Trent try to convince Fishified Brenda to attack the mad doctor. This scene is shot through the eyes of the monster, all three actors trying to influence it/her. It's a technique called Ham-O-Vision.

Mrs. Trent: "Look at yourself! You were a beautfiful girl, Brenda."

The monster visually checks itself, an amazing feat since its eyeballs are painted rubber balls cut in half. Will the monster turn on Dr. Trent and will they end up falling into the swimming pool filled with hungry alligators? Do I really have to -- never mind.

This movie features looped in dialogue done post production inside a big steel bin, beating drums that almost never stop, and sound synchronization off half a beat, from someone hitting a drum to hand-clapping. And let's not forget dialogue that the one microphone could barely pick up. Of course, there's all the "night" cinematography, scenes shot when the full moon was bright as the sun. Filmed more or less in color, apparently on some WW II era Kodak film left inside a hot warehouse in Brazil.

A small turtle makes the perfect crunchy snack while experiencing this disasterpiece.


[If you're a fan of goodbad movies, check out this series by X. Dell over at his blog, The X-Spot: http://xdell.blogspot.com/search/label/grindhouse.]


Sunday, July 11, 2010


Creating Dialogue With The FW Method




Does confrontation lead to conversion? Or is it better to try to open up a dialogue with someone who doesn’t share your view, calmly explaining your position, pointing to facts?

Apparently Rebecca Watson prefers the FW Method when promoting the skeptical viewpoint over at www.skepchicks.org . And what is that method? Check out her post on May 29th, 2010 entitled “It’s Like He’s Trying to Explain Evolution to Fuckwits”.

Yes, calling others who don’t share your POV “fuckwits” will really lead to changing their minds.

The title is actually a quote from Rebecca’s husband regarding book author Dr. Ahamed Kutty and his theory that the children of Adam and Eve didn’t commit incest. Kutty states that human fossils dating back 25,000 have been found that show the same DNA as modern man and these other humans mated with the children of Adam and Eve who appeared later in this world.

Adam and Eve, says Kutty, were the first fully developed human beings – they had “God conscious” – while the humans before them were not fully developed. Adam and Eve were created to lead other humans to God, to become moral.

Hey, I don’t buy it, especially Kutty’s conclusion when Adam and Eve were created. Unfortunately all I have is an interview with Kutty on Fox News (the video clip is linked in Rebecca’s post) where he had to present his beliefs in a TV news nutshell, no time to elaborate. I'm interested in learning how he concluded that Adam and Eve appeared 12,000 years ago. So I am skeptical about his views – but note I’m also skeptical about skeptics and some of their opinions.

Here’s Rebecca’s take on the issue:

“That’s right: an entire book devoted to the challenge of using science to justify Biblical creationism while reassuring Christians that no, you did not come from a guy doing the nasty with his sister. (But he may have fucked a monkey.)

“Be warned: the stupid is strong in this one. Please keep all palms far from all faces throughout the entirety of this clip.”

Instead of name-calling and stereotyping, it would’ve been better to question the basis behind Kutty's assertions. Like the Fox News reporter did in the video clip, the woman that Rebecca called “the idiot anchor.”

Leave it to Rebecca to preach to her cynical choir and leave out any possibility of possibly changing someone else’s mind because anyone who believes in creationism is a fuckwit. Interestingly, her attitude comes across as “holier than thou.”

Polarization is so much better than engaging in debate.

Saturday, July 10, 2010


Channeling Heaven



If you've been victimized by a Catholic priest, then St. John the Apostle, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Jesus want to help you.

That's the message of "Heaven Speaks to Victims of CLERICAL ABUSE" (2005). The book is written by "Anne" but not in the sense of a traditional author. Described as a wife and mother, "Anne" hears messages in her heart from above which she records and shares with others. The process of "interior locution" -- which has the semblance of "channeling" as practiced by New Age psychics -- has resulted in a series of booklets published by the non-profit corporation Direction for Our Times.

As noted in "Heaven Speaks to Victims" Anne's bishop has given permission for the messages to be published. The publisher adds that all messages have been submitted to the Holy See for the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur.

The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations granted by Roman Catholic Church officials that state a printed work is free of doctrinal or moral error but without the implication that the officials agree with everything presented in the work. What is important is the work won't harm one's faith or morals. It sounds like a variation of the standard disclaimer, "The views expressed by guests / interviewees / listeners / commenters are not necessarily those of this TV station / radio station / newspaper / Website, etc."

Here are some key points found in "Heaven Speaks:"

-- St. John the Apostle states that Jesus didn't assault young ones. It was done by those who had free will, who decided to commit such sins. Jesus didn't give free will to the abusers to assault innocent children. It was given so that a soul could choose heaven freely.

-- The Blessed Mother says that the world will benefit by the suffering of all victims because they will obtain from Jesus healing graces for their souls and also for other souls around them.

-- Jesus explains that clerical abuse is a double betrayal: both the victim and him were betrayed by those who claimed to serve heaven but instead served the enemy. Due to the circumstances of these misdeeds he is allotting unlimited graces for the healing of all victims. (Skeptics may say that Jesus is playing favorites.)

More information about "Anne" and her messages can be found at www.directionforourtimes.com .

Thursday, July 08, 2010


Oh, Those Auqanette Girls!


The Aquanettes. Don't confuse them with the hairspray product (Aqua Net) or the Belgian beach volley team (AquaNet). These young ladies are US astronauts in training under the ocean surface.







Yup, it's another classic episode of Sea Hunt, that old TV series starring Lloyd Bridges as scuba hero Mike Nelson. In an episode from 1961 he's been hired to help out with a special governmental program, Operation Astronette, training three women for a space trip to Venus. Apparently being underwater duplicates conditions on Venus.

Why Venus? Well, that planet is named after the goddess of love. And after all, Venus is for women while Mars is for men. Not to say "The Aquanettes" episode shows any signs of sexism from that time.

Of course, one trainee -- let's call her Sensitive Sue -- has problems, makes a mistake. She gets upset and cries. The real tough cookie of the trio, Brass Bitch, scorns Sensitive Sue. BB says Sue doesn't have what it takes to be an astronaut.

The third girl in the trio is Amiable Amy, at least amiable towards stud Mike Nelson. At one point she and Sue get in a catfight over Mike. Our hero throws both of them off the boat into the water to cool off.

Obviously these gals are ready for a rigorous space mission that doesn't tolerate any mistakes.

As the story progress, Sensitive Sue is involved with another screw-up while training with the others underwater. Back on the boat Brass Bitch rips Sue a new one.

Later Sue turns up missing. She's dived in by herself to prove she has the right stuff. Mike and the other two Aquanettes/Astronettes don their scuba gear and search for her. Mike gives BB his spear gun because sharks have been spotted. But when a shark shows up with the munchies, BB freezes up. But everyone escapes and are soon back on the boat where BB apologies to Sensitive Sue for the way she treated her before.

You see it's different when the flipper is on the other foot. Upset for freezing up and not dealing with the shark, Brass Bitch cries.

I think these three gals were chosen not for their expertise. They were chosen for their expendability. ("Dumb broads. Shoot them into space and let God take care of 'em.")

After seeing this episode, I began to wonder. Since it was such an emotional moment, did Neil Armstrong cry when he first stepped on the moon?

Tuesday, June 22, 2010


Ghost In My Machine



I had a surprise today when I opened up my email. There was a message from Mac Tonnies.

Mac unexpectedly died in October 2009.

I check the message and noticed it was about a Tweet he made before he died.

Thanks to Facebook, everyone is trying to get into social networking, including Yahoo email. Call it The Flavor-Of-The-Month Syndrome. Next month everyone will be jumping on to a different fad.

Yahoo is pushing something called Updates, its variation on social networking. Here's the description:

"Updates like little news bulletins about you and your friends that appear in Yahoo! Mail and elsewhere in Yahoo!. Through updates you can find out things like when a friend has posted photos to Flickr, rated a restaurant, 'buzzed up' a news item, and more. Updates help people stay in touch by effortlessly letting each other know what they’ve been up to on Yahoo! and the web."

Updates can include profile pages and you can exchange messages, just like Facebook. So how did I get an update from Mac? Here's the answer from Yahoo:

"To help you get started, we automatically show you updates from select Yahoo! Contacts and Yahoo! Messenger friends. Of course, you have full control over what updates you want to see. The list of people you see updates from is for you only (private), so your relationships aren’t exposed to anyone else."

So a bot is making updates for people I know. Even dead people.

Mac's work lives on through his books, blog and Website. That's good. His writings are important. But oddly enough he has become a ghost thanks to mindless automatic programming. He was into transhumanism, a field where an individual mind could possibly live on beyond the physical body due to advanced technology.

Maybe this incident with Yahoo can be called autohumanism.

Monday, June 21, 2010


Comet On The Curve


I'm walking home the other evening. To the west is a crescent moon. Above it is another object, most likely Venus. Or is it?

The bright spot above the moon is elongated. A comet?

Not really. I stop and stare at the puzzling light, moving my head up and down. I've worn eyeglasses since I was a pre-teen (I'm nearsighted) and over the years my lenses have grown thicker to keep pace with my deteriorating vision. As I lower and raise my glass Coke-bottle-bottoms, I noticed that the trail changes into a point when the light is centered in my lenses.

Obviously the elongation was distortion caused by the curvature of my glasses. One would think I would have noticed this sooner but apparently conditions weren't right until recently.

Now I see why when a field investigator makes an UFO report he notes whether or not the observer wears corrective lenses.


Spiritual Placebo And The Truth


Some people claim they can channel Jesus.

For example, there is "Anne," a lay apostle of the Catholic faith who passes along messages from Heaven in a series of booklets published by Directions for Our Times. On the back cover of one booklet appears this statement:

"Anne, a wife and mother of six, reveals her journey to the heart of Jesus. The messages she hears in her heart, which she believes are from Jesus and Mary, reveal the tender, solicitous love that our Saviour has for each one of us."

I think of the Bible and its warning against false prophets and not allowing a witch to live. What if this "Anne" is in error?

Apparently anticipating such concerns, Directions for Our Times includes a special statement in its booklets. The publisher acknowledges that the Holy See of Rome has to make the final decision about the validity of private revelations. Then Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini; 1568-1644) is quoted:

"In cases which concern private revelations, it is better to believe than not to believe, for if you believe, and it is proven false, you will receive all blessings as if it had been true because you believed it to be true."

It's like the doctor who tells a patient that there's a special pill to treat the patient's particular ailment. The patient takes the pill and later he feels better, even though the special medication is nothing but a sugar pill with no healing properties. The Placebo Effect. If it works, give the deception a pass.

There is a fascinating aspect to Pope Urban's quote: there is debate about whether or not he made that statement.

But if you still believe it and he never said it, what's the harm? Just ignore the fact that all churches are supposed to be about The Truth.


(Historical footnote: Before Maffeo Barberini become pope, he had a patron-client relationship with the astronomer Galileo. But there was a dispute between them and Pope Urban III refused to pardon Galileo after the astronomer was found "vehemently suspect of heresy." Galileo's freedom was severely restricted by the church, even though he was correct in his observations. Like I said: The Truth.)


Sources:

"Heaven Speaks to Victims of Clerical Abuse"
(Booklet. 2005)

http://galileo.rice.edu/gal/urban.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Urban_VIII#cite_note-8


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei#cite_note-19

Tuesday, June 08, 2010


Parallel Conversations

Some people don't like Vern.

I monitored some of the last Liberty Net get-together on its stickam.com site, both audio and text. While the ham radio superpatriots were exhanging their right-wing beliefs on air, some were also communicating in the Stickam chatroom. What was interesting was the contrast between what was being said on the air by a particular Lib Netter and the reaction by the listeners participating in the chatroom. For example:

"n8wgm: If [Vern] was trained in propaganda, and admits it here, then why should we trust anything he says?"

This is a response to an on-air statement by Lib Netter Vern Kaspar that he was trained in propaganda analysis during World War II. I must admit the same thought crossed my mind. Maybe he's working for Them.

Seriously, I doubt Vern is an agent provocateur. But after seeing some of the chatroom comments, it's obvious that he's unintentionally provoking jealously.

Vern sounds like a pleasant gentleman. He's a good speaker, an asset for someone who owns a few radio stations. During his long life (he's 88 years old) Vern has spent a lot of time traveling abroad, visiting Russia, China, and many other points within the four corners of the world. And while I don't agree with everything he says, Vern sounds knowledgeable. But for some people, he's too well-traveled, too knowledgeable. (Edited chatroom comments follow.)

"n8wgm: There you go. HE's the expert."

"n8wgm: He talked to all the leaders of the world"

"wb8rav: ...just sitting here in wide eyed, rapt attention!...."

"n8wgm: They wanted his wisdom"

"n8wgm: Glad I can be here to be listening to the VERN net."

"thelibertynet: Vern certainly kills the rotation!"

"n8wgm: I, I , I , I, I, I, Vern is the EYE man."

"n8wgm: I did that. I had dinner with. I traveled to...I have a license.....I can speak...I can ....."

"wb8rav: Of course, Tovarich!"

"wb8rav: All Vern, ALL the time...what else you need?!"

"thelibertynet: self-satisfied adj having or showing a complacent satisfaction with oneself, one's own actions, behaviour, etc. self-satisfaction n"

"n8wgm: over half an hour of the marvelous Vern. I wonder when anyone will come on and say how wonderful it is to have Vern back."

OK, Vern does go on a bit with his on-air comments but maybe you could diplomatically tell him instead of acting like schoolkids jealous of the friendly rich boy with all the cool toys?

The Liberty Net meets every week to discuss the various threats to freedom, the lurking menaces biding their time until world domination is within easy reach. When the Illuminati and New World Order emerge from the shadows to take over the world, it's good to know that the Liberty Net gang is ready to protect individualism and resist the power of evil. That is, if they're not too busy backstabbing each other.

Gosh, I Didn't Know That



Amazing what you can learn from listening to right-wing ham radio operators during their on-air discussions.

Take the last meeting of the Liberty Net (June 5th, 2010). Some info is so startling that when you hear it live, you say to yourself: "Did he really say that?" Fortunately for me and future historians, a Website -- http://3950.net -- archives recordings of each Saturday-night-into-early-Sunday-morning discussions. That way I can play back the comment and verify to my boggled mind that I did hear what I thought I had heard, right down to the hour, minute, and second.

For example, check out the June 5th recording (archived as Liberty Net - 2010-0605) around 1 hour, 39 minutes, 40 seconds [ 1:39:40 ]. Vic Misek, net coordinator, is talking about the Gulf Oil Spill, that the damaged rig should be examined to see if it had been hit by a torpedo. Then he makes this fascinating statement about the impact of the spill:

"The disaster I believe is overblown. Oil has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for thousands of years. A lot of it just seeps up from the bottom, there's a lot of oil under the Gulf of Mexico and some of it naturally comes up into the Gulf and the oil is eventually consumed by petroleum-consuming bacteria."

Really. There has always been oil-soaked wildlife and countless tar balls along the Gulf shores? I never knew that. From what I've seen on TV, that petroleum-consuming bacteria have been slacking off. Or maybe they're just a bit overworked lately.

Skip ahead to around 3:20:18. Discussion is focused on the dumbing down of the American public at large by the US gene pool being "stupefied" by illegal immigrants. This "demographic degeneration" is why Barack Obama was elected president, according to Vic Misek.

Then another Lib Netter, Vern Kaspar, makes the comment that he's heard that most black men are preferring to marry white women. This will also affect the overall intelligence of the US population.

Vic agrees with him, adding this statement: "The average mulatto intelligence falls halfway between the average black and the average white."

Really. I'd like to see the scientific study that supports that "dumb" statement. Please email the info, Vic.

Saturday, June 05, 2010


XR #74 & Website Redesign

If you prefer to read these blog posts in zine form, then check out my website, http://www.xrayer.com . Ray X X-Rayer #74 is now up to read on screen or print out and read on paper.

I've simplified xrayer.com, dropped some old articles and deleted the Word format zine versions. The zine archives are only in PDF. I've checked all the links but if there's a problem, please let me know.

Thursday, June 03, 2010





What Does It All Mean? Ask A Tree



“In accepting this Conclave’s nomination as the 73rd Sorcha Faal of our Order, I express the gratitude of all the Sisters in thanking Sister Lyuha for her guidance as our Sorcha Faal these past 7 years, especially her efforts these past 5 years in re-orienting all of us towards the Western World.

"Our Order has always striven to provide to this World that Light needed to dispel the myths inherent in Darkness, but which without we could never see the truest balance between the two.”


Sorcha Faal, 3 February 2007


* * *


It's like trying to dig a hole in a big pool of quicksand.

The conspiracy theory: North Korea blew up the British Petroleum oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, causing the great Gulf spill. After all, if NK could attack and sink a South Korean vessel, why not one of our oil platforms?

OK, I'll do some Googling and take care of that topic in a few words.

The story: a cargo vessel from North Korea deployed a mini submarine within strike range of the Deepwater Horizon. The sub, manned by suicide team, fired two incendiary torpedoes and to make sure the job was done right, the team then exploded the sub directly underneath the rig.

What was the motive? Besides the fact that the rig was made in South Korea, the hated enemy of the North?

To put President Obama in a tight spot. According to a "report" circulating in the Kremlin, Obama might be forced to use a small nuclear device to seal off the well (the nuke option that I talked about in a prior post) during the an important conerence being held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was scheduled from May 3rd - 28th.

As reported by the What Does It Mean website, "...if Obama chooses the 'nuclear option' it would leave the UN’s nuclear conference in shambles with every Nation in the World having oil rigs off their coasts demanding an equal right to atomic weapons to protect their environment from catastrophes too, including Iran." (Link listed below).

The article also notes: "And not just to the environmental catastrophe that is unfolding the only devastation to be wrecked upon the United States and South Korea by this North Korean attack as the economic liabilities associated with this disaster are estimated by these Russian reports to be between $500 Billion to $1.5 Trillion, and which only a declaration of this disaster being an 'act of war' would free some the World’s largest corporations from bankruptcy."

The author of this startling article about the Kremlin report is Sorcha Faal. And who is she? That depends. She could be a he.

Supposedly it's not one person but a series of women who take on that title. Like the Pope in the Vatican or Number 2 in "The Prisoner" TV series (the original). According to the WDIM site in a brief history, the Order of Sorcha Faal was founded in 588 BCE in Ireland. This order claimed Tamar Tehi, the oldest daughter of King Zedekiah, as its founder. The name Sorcha Faal has its origins in the ancient languages of Ireland. Faal means "the Dark and Barren Place." Not a great surname. But to counter that negative meaning, "Sorcha" means "She Who Brings Light." Reminds me of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader. The OSF is claimed to have 18 monasteries around the world, including Russia and the US.

I wonder if any of those monasteries are listed in the telephone Yellow Pages.

On the flip side, according to the skeptics and critics (links below) the whole Sorcha Fall is a hoax being perpetrated by David Booth, computer programmer and writer of Apocalyptic tomes. Booth is supposed to be dead but in lives on behind the avatar of Sorcha Faal because some people are upset with his dubious actions in the past under his own name. The new Number 2 -- I mean Sorcha Faal -- is supposed to be a Russian academic but according to one researcher no one with that name is listed at the Russian Academy of Sciences website. Of course, that's assuming that she changed her name to Sorcha Faal and dropped her birth designation.

At this point I'm getting a headache. The more I dig, the faster the quicksand is sucking me in.

Actually it doesn't appear to be quicksand if you look at it closely enough...


* * *

Consider how small you are
Compared to your scream
The human dream
Doesn't mean shit to a tree


-- Eskimo Day Blues, Jefferson Airplane


* * *

Sources:

"US Orders Blackout Over North Korean Torpedoing Of Gulf Of Mexico Oil Rig"
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1367.htm

"Who Is Sorcha Faal?"
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/whoissorcha.htm

"Sister Maria Theresa is the 73rd Sorcha Faal of the Sorcha Faal Order, Elected as Mother Superior 3 February 2007"
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index738.htm

"2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons 3-28 May 2010"
http://www.un.org/en/conf/npt/2010/

"Sorcha Faal... Internet Hoax Queen Courtesy of One David Booth"
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/sorchafaaldisinfo15mar08.shtml

"Reader Asks - 'Who Is Sorcha Faal?'"
http://www.rense.com/general63/sorcha.htm


Papernet: Theme Zine Has Devil In The Details

There must be a market for a zine about devil girls.
Randy Robbins publishes a review zine called Narcolepsy Press Review that reviews – well, zines. And with his last snail mailing of NPN I found another surprise in the 6 X 9 envelope: You’re an Angel, You L’il Devil #4.

The small booklet is loaded with photos and drawings of horny – I mean horned – females. It’s amazing how such a niche zine can find so much material, including drawings contributed by readers with an artistic bent.




If your interest is piqued, send two dollars (bills) to Randy Robbins, PO Box 17131, Anaheim, CA 92817-7131. Please mention Ray X sent you.

Saturday, May 29, 2010




Liberty Net Jamfest


I've been trying to listen to the May 22 - 23 recording of the Liberty Net with the emphasis on the word trying. I used to hear the transmissions between the ultra-right-wing ham radio operators live on my portable shortwave radio but reception usually sucks. So now I download the latest meet-up from the archives at http://3950.net.

Last Saturday jammers were out in force, illegally blocking the Lib Netters. Loud rock music and stupid comments from "Buck Rogers in the Holland Tunnel." I don't agree with most of what the Lib Netters espouse; I'm just trying to track conspiracy theories. Discussion during the last Liberty Net dealt with the theory that North Korea blew up the BP oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, causing the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Why? Because South Korea built the rig.

One Lib Netter said he gave that theory a 30 or 40 percent chance of being true, unlike Rush Limbaugh's "Environmental wackos blew it up" speculation that only rate a two percent with him. He read an article that stated that President Obama was covering up the story, keeping it from the American public.

There could have been some more discussion on the topic but the jammers came on and most of the recording is their interference. So much for my tracking.

But there seems to be an alternative for the Lib Netters: the Web. A couple of them worked around the jammers by streaming through Stickam, an online service that carries the Saturday night net live. They could keep commenting via audio or by using the instant messaging feature.

So as disagreeable as some may find their ultra-conservative views, the Liberty Net will keep pushing on, maybe even to the point of doing their discussions only online. That's OK until the cyber-jammers show up but unlike SW transmissions, such jammers should be easier to block and locate.

Free speech means the freedom to speak.

Thursday, May 27, 2010


Sea Hunt: Target USO


** Ahoy! Spoilers! **



"It was shiny and circular like a flying saucer."

And underwater, not in the sky.

I'm watching a rerun of an old TV show called "Sea Hunt" about the adventures of a ex-Navy frogman, Mike Nelson, portrayed by Lloyd Bridges. Usually the flippered hero is out chasing crooks and assorted other bad guys but this time around he's investigating reports of a sea monster off the coast of Mexico. He responds to an urgent message from a friend living in the area of the sighting.

The episode is entitled "Decoy," from the first season of "Sea Hunt" (First broadcast: Sept. 20, 1958). You can watch the episode at this link.

Whatever this unidentified submerged object is, when it approaches the shore, whales go nuts, jumping out of the water. It also emits a strange sound that is picked up by underwater microphones. One fisherman claimed it had eyes that burned and long flowing hair.

When the object is detected by an underwater microphone, Nelson -- ready to go in his scuba gear -- grabs his camera and dives in to find out what the mysterious visitor could be. But the turbulence from the speeding object is too much: he's tossed around like a seahorse trapped in a sealed aquarium bolted to the bed of a pickup truck with bad shocks racing down a potholed street. (How's that for a simile?) The visitor disappears without Nelson even getting a glimpse.

Time for a different tactic. Nelson has some nets rigged up and the object is trapped. He goes down and sees the visitor is manmade: it looks like a submerged Sputnik satellite.



The strange device is still active but Nelson knocks it out by pulling off its radio antennae. Later, after contacting US Naval Intelligence, he talks with an officer about the device.

The Navy lieutenant says that it's an underwater satellite, akin to a space satellite but one that orbits underwater. He doesn't know who made it but it could have been manufactured by one of a dozen countries, big or small. This is the 1950s. Days of the Soviet Union. How many countries belonged to that union? Those commie bastards! But whenever the Cold War situation rears its ugly head in a "Sea Hunt" episode, the foreign nation behind a particular oceanic bad deed is never named.

As for the details reported during its previous "orbits," the burning eyes were a couple of "light sensitive discs" on the sphere. The long, wild hair was kelp it had picked up along the way. If this thing created such strong turbulence, wouldn't kelp be torn apart and forced away before clinging to it?

Don't pay attention to science when watching an old TV show like this. For example, it's explained the small submerged satellite caused the tremendous turbulence from its great speed. And its great speed, Mike Nelson observes, was created from the device "using the pressure of the water itself for propulsion." Huh?

During the denouement Nelson tells one of the fishermen that he doesn't blame him for thinking the device was from another world.

But Nelson's friend, the one who called him in to investigate, says: "Who can say with all that is happening today?" Spooky.




Another episode - "Underwater Narcotics" - from Season 3 matches "Decoy" for being offbeat. Here is a plot description:

(First broadcast: Aug. 27, 1960) "Mike discovers a plant growing profusely on the ocean floor that turns out to be a hybrid cannabis..."

Underwater marijuana? I don't use drugs but, man, that has to be one salty smoke. The kelp aftertaste must be a killer.

Unfortunately this episode doesn't seem to be available for viewing online. I caught it on the This TV network early one morning.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010


XR #73


It's up, the latest PDF version of my hardcopy zine, the Ray X X-Rayer. Go to www.xrayer.com, scroll down to the PDF zine section and click on XR #73b. Snail mail readers have received a pamphlet version, a double-sided sheet, but I didn't want to confuse my online readers with the details of printing that out. So what's online is just three pages, 1-3, no special lay out. And with the problems I had putting together the hardcopy pamphlet, I should've stayed with a straight lay out instead of getting compleX.

Of course, each X-Rayer reformats a few posts from this blog into an easy-to-read zine.

Friday, May 21, 2010


Conspiracy Theorist Rush Limbaugh


Environmental "wackos" might have blown up the BP oil rig that is gushing disaster into the Gulf of Mexico, according to Rush Limbaugh.

Sure. And if someone attacks this blog and shuts it down, I'll blame it on neo-Nazi Zionist Amish radicals. (We all know how dangerously tech-savvy Amish radicals are.)

I used to tune in Rush's right-wing conservative circus / radio show to verify that he remained a bloviating bag of bullshit. But thanks to the Internet Rush's stupid comments can be found without the pain of listening to an entire program.

One of the few times I tuned in Rush he was saying that the Democrats might have screwed up the economy so that Obama could be elected. I did some Googling and learned that informative comment was spewed way back on December 22nd, 2008. When I heard it I thought how appropriate it was to spread such negative BS during the holiday season.

His "Democrats did in the economy" theory involved NY Senator Chuck Schumer starting a run on a California bank during the summer, creating panic and unease that helped the evil liberal Demos win the White House and gain more seats in Congress. Rush said that this part of a plan by Obama and the Democrats to push the nationalization of US industries -- that Commie take-over type of stuff that the John Birch Society used to foist on the public.

But what's so funny is that Rush in the past wouldn't tolerate any Illuminati / New World Conspiracy theories to discussed on his program when listeners called in. At cuttingedge.org -- a web site warning the public that the NWO plot is "spiritually based," i.e., it's God Vs. Satan -- there is an open letter to Rush, taking him to task for his disbelief:

"On March 11, 1998, Rush Limbaugh reiterated his long standing policy against any consideration of 'Conspiracy Theories' as a possible explanation for any event(s) that have occurred in history, or which might occur in the future. In a phone conversation with another Conservative host, Rush said that such a belief constituted 'Intellectual Laziness', and, of course, he, Rush Limbaugh, would not and could not condone such a belief."

But on occasion Rush is throwing out stuff just as "intellectually lazy" as anything promulgated by the anti-NWO crowd. Environmental wackos blowing up the Deepwater Horizon rig to stop President Obama's plan for more offshore drilling. It's like something out of a bad movie -- a bad movie like "Special Bulletin," a made-for-TV turkey from 1983 in which radical scientists concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons build a homemade A-bomb and threaten to set it off unless all nuclear detonators are removed from Charleston, South Carolina. Of course, the wackos end up accidentally blowing up Charleston.

Anyway, here's an audio link so that you can hear Rush in his own words theorizing why environmentalists decided to save the environment by destroying it:



And by the way, Rush has also claimed that Obama wants to ban sports fishing. Now there's a fish story if I ever heard one.