A Scene From My Upcoming SF Movie
Posts
Hillbilly Heaven Recently I joined facebox.com, invited by Paul Kimball . So far I haven't done that much with my site over there. Paul advised that I should put up a photo of myself or a least a picture of my "lovely hometown." Well, here's a snapshot of an inspiring spot in my town. I thought I should share it with all my "fans" here at blogspot. All that is missing is the broken washing machine and the rusted-out car sitting on cinderblocks. Actually, the rest of the neighborhood is OK, but for some reason the city and the neighbors just let this frontyard faux pas slide. The owners do pick it up for a while, only to place new old stuff in a different arrangement. Maybe it's really some sort of art project. (And maybe the Pope is an atheist.)
eXclusive Links I hate HTML. That's why it's taken me some time to update this blog and add some hyperlinks to other voices out there in the blogverse. Somehow my brain was working just right so that I could finally handle the template section and create a new section of links. If you take a look at the right-hand side of the screen under eXclusive Links, you'll notice the name Greg Bishop of The Excluded Middle. He just started blogging, despite the fact he could have done it much sooner, indicating an aversion to this newfangled medium. Well, at least he isn't as bad as my favorite Luddite, Supreme Commander Jim Moseley, he eschews all things computer and still creates his zine, Saucer Smear , with a typewriter. Man, I'm surprised when a UFO buff avoids or outright rejects new technology. How would such a person react if he was picked up by a flying saucer, whisked off to another planet, and then had the opportunity to explore a technologically advanced civil...
Website Updates Besides this blog I also maintain www.xrayer.com , a place where I archive my many eXpressions as short articles and in zine form. Under the section designated "X-Rays" I've added an article that appeared the latest edition of my print zine, The Ray X X-Rayer , outlining its evolution. For inclusion in "X-Rays" I changed the title a bit to "50 Issues: A Brief History." If you look under "The Zine Zone" you will see links for X-Rayer #50 , a choice of MS Word format or plain text. I no longer create a webzine version in HTML because it just duplicates what is already on my blog. Also, I'm assuming that most readers have MS Word or a compatible wordprocessing program to access (and to print out, if needed) the print zine version. Unless I hear otherwise from my readers, I will only archive my zine as a Word file. And if suitable, I will also save it as plain text. Issue #49 was too much of a mix with text and images to...
Misc. UFO Con Updates No, I'm not referring to ET scam artists. The "con" refers to conference, such as the 2006 New Frontiers Symposium that was held on October 14th, up there in Halifax, Nova Scotia (in Canada, eh?). Over at his blog, The Other Side Of Truth , Paul Kimball explains that while his conference didn't draw great numbers (and ended up losing money), he will press on with another New Frontiers Symposium, probably in late spring of next year. LINK The next symposium might feature a modern way of reaching the masses. To quote Paul: "I view the 2006 Symposium as a trial-run for things to come. Will Wise and I were bouncing some very interesting ideas around after the Symposium about how we can move forward by using the Internet, and concepts such as live streaming of symposium video, which would allow people from all around the world to 'attend', and, hopefully, even interact with the speakers. More on all of this in the days and weeks to com...
Flash Gordon B.S. (Bad Science) OK, I ain’t a scientist. But I can smell bad science a light year away. Case in point: an episode of the live action Flash Gordon TV series from the 1950s entitled “The Lure of Light.” (At first I thought the episode was called “The Lurid Light,” but that would have been more appropriate for another character, Flesh Gordon.) In this episode earth scientists have discovered a way to make a spaceship travel faster than the speed of light. A bit of background info for Those Not In The Know: this Flash Gordon TV series takes place in the future where travel between planets can be accomplished in a matter of hours, except for long hauls that may take a few days. Our hero Flash works for GBI – the Galactic Bureau of Investigation – that operates like an interplanetary FBI, enforcing the law throughout the galaxy. Operating out of GBI headquarters on earth, Flash takes off in an old-style sci fi fuel-powered rocket, complete with a fiery exhaust, to fight ...
Whatever Happened To Morton M. Zeitlin? I’m poking around the used books shop when I stumble across an interesting little publication. Decades old, its pages are just beginning to yellow, taking on a brittleness that will eventually give way to complete disintegration. It was a stapled literary magazine published by the pupils of Watertown High School, Watertown, NY, back in April of 1930. I open up this edition of The Owl , flip through its pages, and I spot an interesting title to one short story: “The Retreat from Mercury.” Science fiction? Yup, but it’s more like early SF, i.e., scientifiction. The story opens in the year 3509 at the Astronomer’s and Spaceflyer’s Club in the city of Dragonum, a thriving futuristic metropolis that sits on the site of an ancient city called Chicago. The narrator tells his friend, Ralph X2AFXW53, that he believes it’s possible to take a trip to Venus. “We have made calculations,” the narrator tells his friend, “and believe that there is sufficient...
Lack Of Air To Dvorsky’s Brain Affects His Thinking; Doctors Rush To Place Oxygen Line Up His Backside George P. Dvorsky is a bigot. Recently at his blog, http://sentientdevelopments.blogspot.com, he took some cheap shots at Mac Tonnies and everyone who has a serious interest in UFOs. LINK To quote him: "Trouble is, however, a significant and burgeoning segment of society doesn’t believe this to be true – the so-called UFOlogists. You know, the folks who talk about flying saucers, little green men (or is that grey men?), crop circles – the whole X-Files bit. Today, an entire sub-culture exists devoted to these topics as if they were matter of fact." It's so easy to stereotype a whole group with one sweeping statement. I don't consider myself an ufologist, but I am interested in the topic. Apparently, in Dvorksy's eyes, I believe in "flying saucers," "little green men," and all sorts of kooky stuff. Never mind that he's invoking the sa...
The Startling, Psychedelic (But Non-Hallucinogenic) Origin of Ray’s Purple Elephant It started with a comment by noted skeptic Martin Gardner. Gardner is considered one of the founding fathers of modern skepticism. His most famous book, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, takes a few good jabs at people who hold irrational beliefs. He criticizes others for believing in what can’t be proven by the scientific method. But then I read that he believed in God. He admitted that there was no reason to believe in a Supreme Being, that was no logical or scientific proof, but he found it reassuring. He invoked the term “fideism.” My dictionary defines fideism as “exclusive reliance in religious matters upon faith, with consequent rejection of appeals to science or philosophy.” (Random House Webster’s College Dictionary.) During an interview published in The Skeptical Inquirer, Gardner said: “Shortly before he died, Carl Sagan wrote to say he had reread my Whys of a Philosophical Scri...