This is what we think of your "community service", Buckeyes!

So, we missed the “because it’s Thursday” feature last week. Sorry about that. I had a whole thing on weird law enforcement planned, but I read Mack’s articles on the tasering of grandmothers and thought to myself “this is too serious an issue to dilute with frivolous arrest stories.”

But this week we’re back, and leading off with the neatest free, educational game I’ve seen in a while; Wolf Quest. I mean, where else are you going to find a game that encourages kids to “harass grizzly bears with your mate” and pee on things?

You can check out the promotional video here.

Now, on to the pre-empted police insanity; it seems that cops in Ohio really have too much time on their hands. I mean you’d think that with a failing economy, rising unemployment, and a prescription drug problem that had reached epidemic levels BEFORE the recession put everyone in crisis and desperation mode, they’d have bigger fish to fry. But not so. No, Ohio is intent on excercising all due dilligence to ensure that responsible citizens learn to stay in their place! And that place is apparently NOT contributing to the good of their communities.

First, we have the 81 year old Akron man, a retired construction worker, who dared share his experience with road crews and even give them a hand prepping a pothole in front of his house for patching. His reward? A charge for criminal damaging.

Not to be outdone by their colleagues in Akron, Sandusky police arrested a man for mowing the grass in a public park after the cash strapped city had to cut back on seasonal maintenance. But while those charges may be dropped, the state still isn’t done embarassing itself or its citizens.

In the southern Ohio town of Reading, for example, the police are earning the citizen’s tax dollars by harassing business people over their decorations. Specifically a bikini clad mannequin that has the prudish elements of this Cincinnatti area enclave fuming. I suppose when you’re bitter that your gerrymandering to get rid of a popular Democrat Congressman not only doesn’t work, but that same Congressman leaves the House of Representatives and takes over the Governor’s seat, you got to get your kicks where you can*. Good on you Cincinnatti. Now you can be known for something besides your racism and disappointing sports franchises.

Finally, wrapping up our Ohio weirdness, we have a 90 year old widow from the Columbus area causing a stir when she attempted to donate a WWII artillery shell to the Motts Military Museum in Groveport. Although her husband had held it in their home as a souvenir, without incident, for over 60 years after receiving it in appreciation for his service during the war; her donation led to the bomb squad being called out until it was confirmed that the shell was safe.

Luckily for her, Ohio broke its pattern of punishing a sense of community and history and didn’t arrest her.

*For those from outside the state or region, there have been several attempts to kill the working class Democratic hold on the southeastern portion of the otherwise red state, usually from redistricting to dillute the  strongly Democratic portions of the state by placing small swathes of them in largely Republican districts, as occured when the western part of Scioto County, where Strickland’s ancestral home stands, was moved from his Sixth District into the strongly Republican Second District of then Congressman Rob Portman.

diorama from the American Museum of Natural History, in NYC

It’s long been believed that the bite of the Komodo dragon was lethal because of the potent stew of bacteria found living in their mouths. But, as it turns out, the dragon’s bite would prove lethal even if the beasties brushed, flossed, and rinsed daily.  Australian researcher Brian Fry located the big lizard’s venom glands via magnetic resonance imaging, and then successfully extracted them from a terminally ill dragon at the Singapore Zoo. Although the poison elicits a variety of reactions, the deadly combo seems to be a drop in blood pressure and an anti-clotting agent that causes the victim to bleed out,  resulting in a victim too lethargic to resist the dragon’s attacks.

Read more about it here.

(For Parts 1 and 2 please visit the TBRC website at www.texasbigfoot.org)

by Michael C. Mayes and Jeremy D. Wells

A widely publicized study, authored by Mathias Osvath, a Ph.D. candidate at Lund University, seems to indicate some startling information about the intellectual capacities of the chimpanzee. In particular, Osvath studied the territorial displays of a captive chimpanzee named Santino. The observed behaviors of this particular chimpanzee seem to prove that apes are very much aware of the future and can plan ahead for it just as humans do.

According to a report on Osvath’s work in the journal Current Biology, Santino, a chimpanzee residing at Sweden’s Furuvik Zoo, collected a stash of rocks during periods of calm, stashed them away, and then hurled them at unsuspecting zoo visitors who gawked and laughed at his daily territorial displays. Because the enclosure is relatively rock free, and many of the stones Santino launched at visitors were covered in algae, it was inferred that he initially collected many of his stones from the waters of the moat surrounding his enclosure. However, in looking to supplement his arsenal, Santino went so far as to probe the artificial concrete “boulders” in his enclosure seeking weak spots. Once located, the chimp knocked off chunks of the material to add to his weapons cache. If the collected concrete was too large to easily toss, Santino worked at breaking it into more manageably sized pieces. Even more impressive is that Santino did all of his collecting in the morning hours before the zoo opened and waited until midday before raining down his collection upon zoo patrons.

MORE

Every Tuesday over at Anomaly Television is “Science & Technology Tuesday” when I and my friend Floyd Anderson post the latest videos related to those topics. Well last Monday night Brave New Bookstore featured an important speaker (whose radio show I sometimes carry at Anomaly Radio). Dr. Katherine Albrecht is the leading expert in America fighting for your and my freedom from rampant surveillance society, prison planet, techno tracking and taxation. She was just here in Central Texas to fight the new MANDATORY pet-chipping happening just down the road in San Marcos. I went to the bookstore event hoping to catch her lecture, show my support and maybe even finally meet her face to face. However, the event was so successful that I took one look around, saw no place to sit (it was standing room only and there were a LOT of people standing), turned around and left. I’m not phobic of crowds but I just couldn’t deal with standing around for the next two hours after a long day of work. But thankfully, my friend Floyd Anderson was undeterred and managed to get video of the entire event. As Katherine begins her lecture she estimates there were about 200 people crammed into Brave New Bookstore. Wow! Thank each and every one of you that showed up. Anyway, check out the entire lecture available over at Anomaly Television dot com.

- SMiles Lewis

Part One

Katherine Albrecht speaks on microchips at Brave New Books in Austin, Texas along with Randall Mock, Lisa Marie Coppoletta, Judith McGeary, and Sheila Dean.

Watch all the videos here at Anomaly TeleVision » Blog Archive » Dr. Katherine Albrecht Speaks on Microchips at Brave New Books 3/2/2009

New Books from Jacques Vallee!

The other day while browsing The Anomalist dot com headlines I noticed in the right sidebar a new book by Jacques Vallee - its the sequel to his fantastic memoirs, Forbidden Science. The original volume led right up to the dawn of the 70’s UFO Scene. There was so much in that original volume yet the prospect of more decades of revelations of the behind the scenes activities of the world’s leading UFOlogist has had me wanting for more ever since. One of the more important bits in the original Forbidden Science was Jacques’ revelations about the infamous Pentacle Memorandum addressed to Miles E. Coll from H. C. Cross; from my April 2005 Anomaly Archives eNewsletter:

One of the probable reasons for ufo researcher Jacques Vallee’s suspicions about the potential use of UFOs as a form of Disinfo and “Double Cross” was his 1967 discovery of what has become known as the “Pentacle Memo.” This document led Vallee to the discovery of secret dealings between Battelle Memorial Institute and the United States Military / Intelligence complex and plans to simulate large waves of UFOs. All of this information was kept secret from the famous scientific Robertson Panel that was tasked by the United States government to assess UFOs. From Vallee’s correspondance on the importance of the memo, we read…

“… the Pentacle proposal goes far beyond anything mentioned before. It daringly states that “many different types of aerial activity should be secretly and purposefully scheduled within the area.” It is difficult to be more clear. We are not talking simply about setting up observing stations and cameras. We are talking about large-scale, covert simulation of UFO waves under military control.

The greatest implication, which is perhaps not obvious on first reading but which amounts to a scandal of major proportion in the eyes of any scientist, has to do with the outright manipulation of the Robertson panel. Here is a special meeting of the five most eminent scientists in the land, assembled by the government to discuss a matter of national security. Not only are they not made aware of all the data, but another group has already decided “what can and cannot be discussed (Pentacle’s own words!)” when they meet. Dr. Hynek categorically stated to me that the panel was not briefed about the Pentacle proposals.

Revelation of this document may seem irrelevant to Just Cause, but its explosive nature wasn’t lost on Battelle. As I noted in Forbidden Science, and as Fred Beckman vividly recalls to this day, the Project Stork team reacted with fury when Hynek went back to Battelle in 1967, demanding to know the truth. The man I have called Pentacle snatched his notes away and told him in no uncertain terms that the contents of the memo were not to be discussed, under any circumstances.

I find it odd that a group that claims to be interested in the historical study of our field, as Just Cause does, should fail to see the significance of the Pentacle Memo, which is an authentic document, when so much time, money and ink have been devoted over the last several years to an in-depth analysis of the MJ-12 papers, which were faked. Perhaps the Pentacle memo only proves that scientific studies of UFOs (and even their classified components) have been manipulated since the fifties. But it also suggests several avenues of research which are vital to the future of this field: why were Pentacle’s proposals kept from the panel? Were his plans for a secret simulation of UFO waves implemented? If so, when, where and how?  What was discovered as a result? Are these simulations still going on?

[From ... The "Pentacle Memo": CUFON enters the "Pentacle Memo" controversy. File contains 2 letters from Jacques Vallee and text of the Pentacle Memo.] <www.cufon.org/cufon/pentacle.htm>

Looking at the Amazon.com entry for Vallee’s latest addition to his memoir series I noticed that, lo and behold, he also has a new fiction book out as well. It is called Strategem which immediately evokes memories of his thesis in his seminal 1979 book (recently re-published by Daily Grail Publishing) as well as the themes in his only other science fiction story published in English, Fastwalker (co-written by Tracy Tormé). There is only this brief description of his new book at Amazon:

Two high-tech executives from Silicon Valley witness unexplained phenomena while on vacation in Brazil. They become the targets of a classified project ready to kill them to capture their data.

I immediately ordered both books and am anxiously awaiting their delivery. We’ll report back once we’ve got them and devoured their contents.

In the meantime, check out these reviews already online by Austin’s own former military remote viewer Paul Smith, plus commentary from Milton Hourcade and Brett Robinson.

And don’t forget that you can now pick up all 3 books of Jacques’ Alien Contact Trilogy series thanks to their being republished by Anomalist Books:

Now Available: Dimensions, Confrontations, and Revelations

• Forbidden Science - Volume Two: Jacques Vallee
• Stratagem: Jacques Vallee

Next Thursday, February 12, marks the 200^th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. Few figures (if any) have had a greater impact on the course of scientific discourse and understanding, religious dialogue, and continuing public controversy.

This includes the controversy surrounding cryptids.

For some people, Darwinian theories are “proof” that certain cryptids are “impossible”. Ignoring (or misrepresenting) available evidence, they argue that certain animals simply can not exist because the design described by eye-witnesses doesn’t seem, in their mind, adapted to the environment where it was sighted. Ironically, some on the other end of the spectrum balk at the idea of cryptids because they are unwilling to confront their insecurities about where these creatures may have come from, or how they might have evolved to fill certain ecological niches.

It’s curious to me how people with conflicting ideas about a fundamental world-view can come to the exact same conclusion, from those different perspectives, based on nothing more than sheer stubborn insistence that their pre-conceived notions have explained everything there is to be explained.

It’s curious to the TBRC’s Alton Higgins too, who has given us permission to run his essay, “Bird Beaks, Bible Belt Biology, and Bigfoot” here at AnomalyMagazine.com.

I’m sure, were he still alive, Mr. Darwin would find it curious as well.

Bird Beaks, Bible Belt Biology, and Bigfoot

On February 12, 2009, the world observes the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. By any accounting, Darwin must be included with the most influential thinkers in the history of science. The young naturalist’s five-year voyage on HMS Beagle gave him an extraordinary opportunity to examine rich fossil beds and explore the diversity of life on many distant shores. Upon his return to England, Darwin spent the next forty-plus years contemplating his observations and writing books on a variety of subjects, including a four-volume set based on his eight-year study of the natural history and classification of barnacles, sessile marine crustaceans living in shallow water. In 1859 he published his landmark work, often abbreviated as “On the Origin of Species.” Contrary to popular opinion, the seminal premise presented in his book was not the concept or theory of evolution; the idea of descent with modification had been discussed for centuries. Darwin proposed a process, natural selection, by which populations might change. It continues to represent a central tenet of biology.

As almost any schoolchild can relate, variation in the beaks of Darwin’s finches, birds living on the Galápagos Islands, is one of the most prominently portrayed examples illustrating the influence of natural selection. Interestingly, at the time of his visit to the islands, Darwin was not overly concerned with the birds

Read more »

Respectability. Reputation. Legitimacy.

For those researching strange phenomenon, establishing and maintaining a good reputation, a measure of respect, and the legitimacy of their studies is always an uphill battle. Mainstream journalist and pundits usually scoff, when they bother to pay attention at all. Hoaxers and scam artists garner big notice in the press. But researchers who are respected in their particular cloistered field, and who have called a hoax a hoax from the outset, are relegated to a footnote in the mainstream news reports. That is, they are relegated to a footnote if they are lucky enough to be noticed at all.

In the world of conspiracy theory, ufology, cryptozoology, and fringe science, your damned when you speak out, and damned when you don’t.

So, given all of this, what does respectability even mean to these fields? Enthusiasm and interest ebbs and flows, as it does for anything, and people choose to construct a world-view that best suits them. If that means that all bigfoot reports are hoaxes so that they aren’t afraid to go into the woods at night, or that ghosts are real because nothing else explains the creepy feeling they get in the third floor guest room where Uncle Jim died, then that is what people choose to believe.

With incidents like the recent pseudocide of 9-11 Truther Ace Baker, blogged on here by SMiles Lewis, and the Georgia bigfoot body hoax pulled off by a police officer and former prison guard (professions comprised of individuals normally accepted as paramounts of honesty and respectability) in August of last year, it seems valid that we pause and ask ourselves some questions.

How important is reputation in these fields? Jacques Vallee is educated, well written and spoken, not prone to jumping to conclusions, and yet he would be lumped in with the “saucer nuts” by most mainstream journalists. The same could be said for hominid researchers such as Jeff Meldrum, who like Vallee has an academic reputation to maintain outside of his personal studies.  Yet while the Meldrums and Vallees of this world suffer under the derision and constant scrutiny of colleagues and the media, or keep their private pursuits to themselves; known hucksters and hoaxers like Tom Biscardi continue to benefit from the flippant attitude toward the subjects and lack of background research undertaken by various local media outlets. Biscardi is a known and proven hoaxer, yet he can pull into any small town and have the cameras on his crew in a matter of hours.

Perhaps, as guest blogger Oliver Hallen muses in the post below concerning UFO reports by police officers in the UK, respect and reputation are concepts as culturally and contextually loaded, and therefore as ephemeral, as the UFOs and beasties we endeavor to understand.

(The views expressed by Oliver Hallen are his own and do not reflect the opinions or views of AnomalyMagazine.com, its editorial staff, or myself. — Jeremy D. Wells)

Read more »

I found this item about those crazy Raelians on Huffington Post thanks to Chez Pazienza over at Deus Ex Malcontent.

For those not familiar with the Raelians, they are a saucer cult founded by French race car test-driver turned spiritual guru Claude Vorilhon. The Raelian ideology is the standard ancient astronaut world seeding theory, with heaping dollops of late 60s and early 70s free love, and generically spiritual “war is bad” platitudes. They have been in the news most recently for their support of, and claim that they had succeeded in, human cloning. Vorilhon, who currently goes by the name Rael and claims to be the son of an earthly mother of an extraterrestrial father, founded his religion after an alleged close encounter in 1973 where he met his father and learned the truth behind our creation myths.

That all may be true. Or it could be that after failing as a pop-singer (under the name Claude Celler) and as a race car driver, and with his youth fading as quickly as his car in his competitors’ rear-view mirrors, Vorilhon decided the only sure fire way to continue getting laid by a different woman every night was to start a free love cult.

The truth is for more devoted seekers than me to puzzle out.

But for now, enjoy the links. Pull out your old UFO paperbacks and look in the index for anything on Vorilhon and Rael. Enjoy your holiday. And try not to be too upset at the lost opportunity for deliciously comic irony that could have been found in a group celebrating the season when we remember the virgin birth of the Prince of Peace, with a World Peace Orgy.

Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah. Festive Festivus. Happy New Year.

Download the PDF Flyer: Lo Res / Hi Res

November 6th, 7th & 8th

In this workshop: Discover the unification of physics and metaphysics. Find the origins and inner workings of consciousness and reality,mind and matter. Understand who, what and why you are. Integrate your personal experience and present understanding within a larger scientific context. See how love, spirituality and quantum mechanics are derived as fundamental aspects of reality. Nuclear physicist Thomas Campbell helped get Bob Monroe’s laboratory for the study of consciousness up and running in the ’70s. Tom, the “TC (physicist) ”in Monroe’s book Far Journeys, has been a serious explorer of the frontier of reality, mind, consciousness, altered states and psychic phenomena for 35 years. He has steered his research toward discovering the outer boundaries, inner workings and causal dynamics of the larger reality system. He published his My Big TOE trilogy (my-big-toe.com) in 2003. It is a logic-based work of science representing the results and conclusions of his scientific exploration of the nature of existence.

Download the PDF Flyer: Lo Res / Hi Res

Thomas Campbell Workshop, Advance Tickets (non-INACS members) 11/08/08, Austin, Texas ($85)

Thomas Campbell Workshop, Advance Tickets (INACS members) 11/08/08, Austin, Texas ($60)

Thomas Campbell at I N A C S

Dorothy Sisk, a homeowner whose beachfront property near Caplen, Texas was destroyed by Hurricane Ike, discovered this football sized tooth that Lamar University paleontolgist Jim Westgate identified as belonging to a Columbian mammoth. The tooth will likely be displayed at the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin.  AP story here.