Paul Kimball Gets Too Wild During Birthday Bash; Special Law Enforcement Agent Called In [ PHOTO: www.adarasteele.com ]
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Two Questions Recently the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal has announced it is changing its name to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. So CSICOP is becoming CSI. When referring to the organization by its original name, some would pronounce the abbreviation CSICOP as sie-kop (Psi-Cop). Ergo, one could pronounce CSI as sis-see. So if someone representing CSI acts petty and irritable, could that person be called a pissy Sissy? Also, if a CSI representative keeps tirelessly repeating the same dogma over and over, creating a minor commotion that doesn't change your mind, could you call him Sissyfuss? [Note: Ray X will be appearing at the Purple Elephant Comedy Club this weekend.] Comments via email: rayxr@yahoo.com
Air Ship From 3000 C.E. Mac Tonnies has stirred up some controversy with his CTH - crypto-terrestrial hypothesis - over at his blog, Posthuman Blues. Other UFO theories have been mentioned by commenters, including the idea that UFOs come from our future , i.e., mankind advances to the point that it discovers how to travel through time. Of course, the argument has been made that time travel could never be possible because of the paradoxes involved. For example, you couldn't go back in time and kill your grandfather before your father was born because you would never exist in the first place. I just left a comment at Mac's blog and I'm also posting it here so that it's less apt to be lost in the insurmountable sea of information that is the Web. = = = Here's my speculation on time travelers and UFOs: In the future time travel is possible as long as you don't try to change history. As soon as a time traveler attempts to affect a past event, they are negated,...
Counting Electrodes Instead Of Sheep How many? One on my chin. I think two or three in my hair. The rest come in pairs, one for the right, one for the left: legs, behind my ears, right next to my eyes. No wonder I have all sorts of color-coded wires running from my body into the wall. There are also wired belts wrapped around my chest and stomach. A strap encircles my head to keep my mouth closed. Additional straps keep the nose mask in place. Increased pressure is being pumped into me to keep my airways open. A technician is the next room is monitoring me, not just through the electrodes glued all over my body, but also with an infra-red camera looking down at me. The system is a hi-tech Argus. I did sleep, maybe for three hours, despite being plugged in and spied on. But now I can’t sleep. I hear a disembodied voice – not God – from the ceiling say: “You’ve been awake for an hour and a half. Do you want to end the study now?” I force the chin strap open. Air rushes out. “A...
UFOs And The Belt Of Orion A few people were at the lakeside park, waiting for the slo-mo celestial event. My camera atop tripod was ready. I had a small flashlight to check the camera’s settings and also some reference notes for changing the exposure as the event progressed. It was a warm night. At least I wasn’t standing outside, alone, in the snow as I had done on another similar occasion, trying to keep warm while recording the darkening moon. As the event progressed, a young man, a college student, asked me if I knew much about the night sky. I told him I was somewhat familiar with it, having taken amateur astronomical photos before. When the moon was in total eclipse, the stars appeared brighter, thanks to the drastically reduced lunar “light pollution.” I pointed out to the college student the prominent stars in the Orion constellation that form his belt, a trio of radiant diamonds, seemingly perfectly aligned. The student was caught off guard. Apparently he had never paid...
Holidayism Over at the Posthuman Blues blog [ link ] Mac Tonnies mentioned that he wasn't a big fan of Xmas. A few comments from his readers also reflected this POV. One of the commenters, Paul Kimball, who was probably making an observation in jest, caused me to write a knee-jerk reaction comment. Anyway, for those who don't frequent Mac's blog, here's my observation today on this so-called Holiest of Holidays. = = = Racism. Sexism. Well, I love Christmas you grinches and Scrooges. And let me coin a new term: holidayism. If someone enjoys the holidays, that's fine by me. But don't criticize anyone who doesn't share your enthusiasm. Individuals are entitled to like, not like, hate, or love anything they want -- assuming that they're not infringing upon someone else's rights. This Grinch-Scrooge label, even in jest, smacks of one thing I hate the most: conformism. It's not funny or annoying: just tiresome. Ray = = = Comments via email...
The Purple Elephant In The Room Just in time for the Xmas holiday: there has been some debate on a couple of other blogs in regards to religion and faith. Well, such issues need a unique perspective and so I telepathically interviewed that Ultra-Deity Pachyderm, The Supreme Supreme-O, Purple Elephant. He appeared in my living room for a short chat about the Meaning Of It All. Ray X [RX]: What is existence? Purple Elephant [PE]: Existence is vaudeville. Death is a cream pie in your face. RX: What is the purpose of existence? PE: Leave it to you humans not to appreciate a good thing. Most of you are doing OK, but you have to look for a hidden meaning in the universe. Everything has to be a little bit better; it can’t be taken at face value. You act as if you’re consumers trying to hunt down the best deal. Only humans would look for “value added” with reality. RX: But people can’t accept that senseless things happen at times. PE: So don’t make “sense” out of it. Shit happens on...
SW Factoid: Suicidal Chickens & Your Health Welcome to the Wild West of Ideas: U.S. domestic shortwave broadcasters and the freethinking radio programs they promulgate. Case in point: today I was listening to a program on WWCR (Worldwide Christian Radio) called Stairway to Health . When I tuned in (12.160 MHz, 2:30 PM Eastern Standard Time), the woman host was ranting about bad meat, particularly the meat produced by chickens raised in cages on large farms. She advocated eating free range chickens, saying that you paid more but it was better for your health. You see, caged chickens are adrenally stressed to the point of being suicidal. In a classic case of you are what you eat, kids were committing suicide and adults were suffering from depression due to the consumption of these tainted birds. Comments via email: rayxr@yahoo.com
Schlock Corridor Spawned in 1963, Shock Corridor is described on the back cover of the video box as both “camp” and “a brave new art form.” Sorry, there ain’t much art in this stupid movie. Imagine if Ed Wood had a bigger budget and some actors who could act. Basically, Samuel Fuller, the writer/producer/director behind Shock Corridor , has created a more sophisticated edwoodian disaster. Good actors can only do so much with an overblown, over-the-top script. There’s nothing wrong with the basic plot: a reporter, Johnny Barratt, goes undercover as a mental patient to solve a murder at an insane asylum. But that germ of an idea is mutated into an insane virus of a screenplay. While undercover, the reporter has to ferret out from three different witnesses, all patients, the identity of the murderer. The patients are introduced one at a time. This set-up makes it obvious that Fuller was trying to make Important Social Observations relevant to the early 1960s by using each patient a...
Vaporized by Blogger Beta? Looks like The Orange Orb blog lost its older posts when it switched over to Blogger Beta. You can find The Orb here at its new Beta home. According to The Orb, others have also suffered problems when switching from Blogger Original to Blogger Beta. Apparently Blogger subscribes to this principle: If it doesn't need fixing, let's break it. Me, I'm going to stay here until with BO they kick me off. I don't know if I'll ever switch to BB. Blogger is convenient -- when it works the way it should. My website isn't as easy for posting and archiving, but it has been more dependable. I might start using it more often with its blog-like section called "X-Rays." So make a note: www.xrayer.com . If this blog should suddenly vaporize, you will find me there. As I mentioned in a previous post, it seems some comments to this blog have been lost or blocked. Probably part of the Beta nonsense. If you can't comment via Blogge...
Fun With Sleep Apnea: Sleep Or Teeth To get a good night’s sleep, I might have to give up my teeth. No, that doesn’t mean that I need to have my teeth surgically removed so that I can breath properly while sleeping. Let me backtrack. Thanks to some bad advice given to me by a dentist years ago, I have receding gum lines due to improper brushing. Dry mouth can aggravate the problem. When I first tried the C-PAP machine, I would wake up with a parched mouth. A water unit to add humidity was included in the system and that did keep my mouth moist while sleeping. But one night I woke up and found my head filled with moldy miasma, even though I had carefully changed the water and cleaned the C-PAP hoses and other accessories. I have a severe allergy to molds; that ended my C-PAP use. Yesterday I was talking with a friend who has sleep apnea but successfully uses C-PAP. He said he also had a mold problem when he used the water unit. He doesn’t use the unit anymore, putting up with dry...
Comments? I’ve noticed lately that I haven’t received any comments to my posts. One answer could be that I’m annoying or boring everyone Out There. Or everyone is busy with “the holidaze.” Another answer is that leaving a comment via Blogger is stopping a few opinions from getting through. I know that Blogger can act quirky at times. When I want leave a comment, sometimes I have to post it twice. And with the big push to Blogger Beta, I wonder if things are really quirky to the point that comments are lost along the way. Also, to leave a remark at this blog, you have a join Blogger, an option that some people would rather skip. I do value feedback. If you don’t feel like commenting, OK, that’s the way it goes. But if you’re not making a comment because Blogger is too bothersome, let me offer an option: email. Yes, I know email has its own problems, such as spam, over-filtering, whatever. But it seems to work easier and better than using the comment option here. So from now on ...
A New Saucer Smear Editor? In the latest edition of his zine (11/20/06), Supreme Commander Jim Moseley mentions that while he is “doubtlessly immoral,” he isn’t immortal. Now 75, he has been considering who should carry one with the world’s best ufooligical newsletter. He states he has been in contact with “an intellectual/academic type fellow who seems really enthusiastic about taking over the ‘Smear’ desk when the time seems right.” Gee, I didn’t know that Henry Kissinger was a saucer fiend. I wonder if Henry the K’s humor can be as penetrating and as irreverent as Jim’s. (As for the issue of immorality…) Anyway, if you’ve never read a hardcopy issue of Saucer Smear – and seeing it on a computer screen isn’t the same – then it’s time to send a SASE business envelope and a couple of dollars to Mr. Moseley at P.O. Box 1709, Key West, FL 33041. Eschewing all things digital, Jim still creates his newsletter with a typewriter, scissors, and glue. It’s that handmade fanzine quality...