Is the world going to end on Dec. 21?
Probably not. In fact, it is a 99.9% definite possibility that it won't. I am only leaving a small bit of wiggle room because this makes me sound more pseudo-scientific. No matter what, most people will wake up on Dec. 22 with the world as they more or less know it (minus a few hangovers and stuff).
The Mayan Apocalypse may be a tad overstated. OK, George Lucas may or may not buy into it (his staff says he doesn't). Many Russians are worried about it. A bunch of Mayans are telling people to cut it out with all of the doomsday talk. NASA agrees with the Mayans. So there!
Of course the doomsayers club is extremely predominate across the internet. I have seen postings from various mythics, seers, and spiritually inclined observers chatting about the upcoming 3 days (though now stretched to 2 weeks) of darkness that will overwhelm the earth. According to some, the spirits of the dead shall walk while the poles shall shift and our vibrations will vibrate way off the chart (or something like that - it's a little confusing).
Obviously, it is all horse hockey. The so-called Mayan prophesy (which is composed of a few relatively minor glyphs) is not exactly a prophesy and the vision of the Apocalypse has been cobbled together from a bad mix of Mayan, Aztec, and Western references. Heck, all the Mayans talked about in regards to Dec. 21, 2012 was their concept of one age ending and a new age beginning. They were largely shy about any details and were definitely not talking about the world ending. For the Mayans, it was all about the continual cycles of the cosmos. The Apocalypse stuff is a Western mindset that would have been quite alien to the Mayans.
So get over it. Nobody is talking about the end of the world. There is nothing in here about poles shifting, the earth tilting, or anything of that sort of splashy Hollywood styled doomsday imagining. Besides, it could be argued that the doomsday notion is based on a glass-is-half-empty vision.
What if the glass is half-full. You know, the start of a new age. A chance to quietly reboot. Maybe even get a new and, hopefully, better perspective on things. Maybe, just maybe, embrace the new age as simply a chance to start fresh. Nothing speculator. Just an old fashion resolve to try and do better.
Doesn't that sound preferable? Or do you really have your heart set on a big old catastrophic end of the world, fire and brimstone event?
If so, plan on having it alone. A lot of us will be busy with other things.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Just a Little FYI
This is less a posting and more of a solicitation for information. On Sunday night, August 26 (2012), we were on the phone to a friend of ours in Hubbard, Ohio. In the middle of conversation, she held a ruckus outside and went to see what was happening. She and various neighbors found themselves standing around staring at a mysterious object flying low and moving slow through the sky.
It is described as being about the size of four or five prop planes in both width and depth. It appeared to have been square shaped with rounded corners. It had no standard FAA lights but did have a faint glowing band around its center and two intense beams of blue-white light shooting out of the back. It was about 600 to 800 feet up in the sky and moving roughly West. The object made a noise that supposedly resembled the sound of this YouTube tape.
In attempting to get an ID on the object, we have so far ruled out the Goodyear blimp (too bad - their hangers are just to the West of Hubbard) and it doesn't appear to fit any known military model for lighter than air crafts. I am hoping that there might be more witnesses out there, especially people who saw it from a different location.
The event took place on Sunday, August 26 around 10 pm (EDT). I can be contacted through this site via the comment section and any help would be appreciated.
It is described as being about the size of four or five prop planes in both width and depth. It appeared to have been square shaped with rounded corners. It had no standard FAA lights but did have a faint glowing band around its center and two intense beams of blue-white light shooting out of the back. It was about 600 to 800 feet up in the sky and moving roughly West. The object made a noise that supposedly resembled the sound of this YouTube tape.
In attempting to get an ID on the object, we have so far ruled out the Goodyear blimp (too bad - their hangers are just to the West of Hubbard) and it doesn't appear to fit any known military model for lighter than air crafts. I am hoping that there might be more witnesses out there, especially people who saw it from a different location.
The event took place on Sunday, August 26 around 10 pm (EDT). I can be contacted through this site via the comment section and any help would be appreciated.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Medium Cool
As a general rule, anything bad you might hear about a commercial "psychic" is usually accurate. The bogus nature of this ancient trade is legendary as they largely contact the spirit world in pursuit of your wallet. Normally you want to avoid them and if you can't avoid them, be sure to know the phone number for the fraud division of your local police force.
Ironically, my only first hand experience with a paid medium was somewhat different. So before I start, let me once again state for the record that most (and I mean the overwhelming vast majority of) commercial psychics are bogus, dishonest, and untrustworthy. However, the one person I dealt with was...well, I don't know. It was an odd experience.
At the time, I was dealing with some legal "issues" involving a recently deceased relative. Since it finally resulted in a lawsuit and out-of-court settlement, I am not allowed to discuss much of the case. But I was trying to learn a variety of details concerning my cousin's death that were proving difficult to pin down. A family friend suggested that I should talk to a psychic they knew. I do not wish to give out either this man's name or phone number because he has since retired from public consultation.
At first I didn't much like the idea, but I finally decided that it might be a bit of a lark (as long as I kept an eye on my wallet). This psychic was located in another part of the state, but did telephone consultation several evenings every week. All I had to do was first send him a check for $25 dollars and he would arrange an hour slot for us to talk. I sent the check, got my spot and kept waiting for the up-sale.
There was no up-sale. $25 an hour was his flat and only rate. In actuality, we ran slightly over the hour. That was not a problem. He did tell me that he likes getting the fee out of the way upfront because he wasn't totally comfortable with charging.
The phone session was quite simple. We chatted briefly, mostly about our mutual acquiescence (who he hadn't talked to for a while, which I already knew) and then he took a couple of seconds to settle into a "state" of contact with his spirit guide. There was no change in his voice nor speech pattern. He preceded to contact the decease. We then had a bit of an awkward conversation because my cousin wasn't all that responsive. In fact the psychic finally asked me "Was he like this in life?"
Unfortunately, the answer was "Yes." We were getting "answers" to direct questions but even the psychic afterwards told me that it was a bit like pulling teeth. Again, unfortunately, that accurately described my cousin. The core answers we got would later prove to be correct. Extremely correct. We also conducted a read on the person who was about to become the defendant in our impending lawsuit. There it would be harder to judge the accuracy of this "read," but the material would later prove useful in what became an extremely long suit.
At the end of the phone session, he took a moment to introduce me to one of my guardian angels. She took the name and form of Glinda, the good witch in The Wizard of Oz. Until now (which means as of this posting), I have never told anyone that I have privately always viewed this film character as an ideal vision of a guardian angel. I do not see how he could have simply guessed this detail. Heck, I basically haven't even watched the movie since childhood.
So let me go back to what I said at the beginning of this piece. Most commercial psychics are bogus. It is a scam. They are simply fleecing you.
But my personal experience has been extremely different. Oh goodness, are we back to that "More things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of" point in Hamlet?
Ironically, my only first hand experience with a paid medium was somewhat different. So before I start, let me once again state for the record that most (and I mean the overwhelming vast majority of) commercial psychics are bogus, dishonest, and untrustworthy. However, the one person I dealt with was...well, I don't know. It was an odd experience.
At the time, I was dealing with some legal "issues" involving a recently deceased relative. Since it finally resulted in a lawsuit and out-of-court settlement, I am not allowed to discuss much of the case. But I was trying to learn a variety of details concerning my cousin's death that were proving difficult to pin down. A family friend suggested that I should talk to a psychic they knew. I do not wish to give out either this man's name or phone number because he has since retired from public consultation.
At first I didn't much like the idea, but I finally decided that it might be a bit of a lark (as long as I kept an eye on my wallet). This psychic was located in another part of the state, but did telephone consultation several evenings every week. All I had to do was first send him a check for $25 dollars and he would arrange an hour slot for us to talk. I sent the check, got my spot and kept waiting for the up-sale.
There was no up-sale. $25 an hour was his flat and only rate. In actuality, we ran slightly over the hour. That was not a problem. He did tell me that he likes getting the fee out of the way upfront because he wasn't totally comfortable with charging.
The phone session was quite simple. We chatted briefly, mostly about our mutual acquiescence (who he hadn't talked to for a while, which I already knew) and then he took a couple of seconds to settle into a "state" of contact with his spirit guide. There was no change in his voice nor speech pattern. He preceded to contact the decease. We then had a bit of an awkward conversation because my cousin wasn't all that responsive. In fact the psychic finally asked me "Was he like this in life?"
Unfortunately, the answer was "Yes." We were getting "answers" to direct questions but even the psychic afterwards told me that it was a bit like pulling teeth. Again, unfortunately, that accurately described my cousin. The core answers we got would later prove to be correct. Extremely correct. We also conducted a read on the person who was about to become the defendant in our impending lawsuit. There it would be harder to judge the accuracy of this "read," but the material would later prove useful in what became an extremely long suit.
At the end of the phone session, he took a moment to introduce me to one of my guardian angels. She took the name and form of Glinda, the good witch in The Wizard of Oz. Until now (which means as of this posting), I have never told anyone that I have privately always viewed this film character as an ideal vision of a guardian angel. I do not see how he could have simply guessed this detail. Heck, I basically haven't even watched the movie since childhood.
So let me go back to what I said at the beginning of this piece. Most commercial psychics are bogus. It is a scam. They are simply fleecing you.
But my personal experience has been extremely different. Oh goodness, are we back to that "More things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of" point in Hamlet?
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Phantom of Rte. 40 (and 30 and 45 Etc.)
Sometimes the best news is really out of date weird news. Modern reality is a bit depressing and an old relic of an urban folktale can hit the spot like an ice cold lemonade on a hot summer day.
So it was fun to be recently reminded of an obscure bit of Ohio folklore, the Phantom of Route 40 (video link provided by NBC4 of Columbus, Ohio). A nice half-scary tale from the early 1950s with a dash of hot rods and a splash of rational explanation. It plays like a drive-in movie with fun for the whole family.
The story is pretty simple. In the early spring of 1952, a mysterious person roamed late at night up and down a stretch of Route 40 (aka the National Road) near Dayton, Ohio in a high-speed jalopy. The driver would whiz past various lonely truckers, switching on a mysterious system of greenish lights which accentuated the skeleton costume and skull like mask worn by the driver. Once the trucker was thoroughly spooked, the car shot on down the road and would vanish out of sight.
The numerous reports from various frightened truckers kept both the state highway patrol and the local police busy for part of that spring. It even inspired a song (though I have not been able to confirm some of the details contained in the third verse) and a variety of campfire tales. It also added to the extremely rich body of folklore found in the Dayton area (not all of which has to do with Wright-Patterson Air Base). If you watch the TV presentation, there is even a faint suggestion that some one in the area even knows (or at least suspects) who the prankster might be, leaving the tale with a nice sense of possible closure.
To be bad there are a couple of oddities about this tale. We can vouchsafe from the newspaper accounts that this was happening during the period of March through April of 1952. There are strong rumors (though I am having problems confirming them) of other reports that came later (possibly as late as 1953). This suggests that you had one really dedicated prankster.
The eyewitness reports (all from rattled truckers) suggests that the hot rod was rigged with a variety of special lights (interior and exterior). Some of the reports also hints at some kind of fog effect producing a halo around the car's roof. Technically, a car could have been rigged with the equipment needed back in the early 1950s. However, it would have taken a lot of equipment back then. I also doubt if the car could have handled a fog machine. It would have required a prankster who was not only a hot rod enthusiast, but also a reasonably gifted electrician and lighting designer.
All of which is possible but this guy is now becoming a very versatile chap. He might also have been on the thin side since he would be losing space inside the car due to all of the equipment he must have been hauling around. But this is all still possible.
He also had a lot of free time on his hands. The Phantom of Route 40 was also making appearances on parts of Route 30 and Route 45 near the town of Wellsville, Ohio. These incidents were all taking place during the month of March as well. The Phantom of Route 40 was operating near the Indiana border. Wellsville is midway between Pittsburgh, PA and Youngstown, Ohio, over 200 miles on the other side of the state. Today, it would take about 4 hours to drive from the one spot to the other (mostly by interstate). In 1952, the trip would have easily taken about 7 to 8 hours.
So this was one incredibly dedicated prankster. Guess the guy was pretty tired from sitting behind the wheel by the time he got to Wellsville. Some of those reports claim that the driver was standing on the car's running board while high balling the vehicle along a bumpy road. Was this cool cat good or what!
The thin details of the story makes it almost impossible for any kind of assessment. Most likely, some one was having a blast. But the news reports have just enough odd details with widely divergent locations that you have to wonder. Especially in 1952, when lots of people were looking upward at a major UFO flap. Add in the many tales of ghosts roaming highways and byways and well...who knows.
So it was fun to be recently reminded of an obscure bit of Ohio folklore, the Phantom of Route 40 (video link provided by NBC4 of Columbus, Ohio). A nice half-scary tale from the early 1950s with a dash of hot rods and a splash of rational explanation. It plays like a drive-in movie with fun for the whole family.
The story is pretty simple. In the early spring of 1952, a mysterious person roamed late at night up and down a stretch of Route 40 (aka the National Road) near Dayton, Ohio in a high-speed jalopy. The driver would whiz past various lonely truckers, switching on a mysterious system of greenish lights which accentuated the skeleton costume and skull like mask worn by the driver. Once the trucker was thoroughly spooked, the car shot on down the road and would vanish out of sight.
The numerous reports from various frightened truckers kept both the state highway patrol and the local police busy for part of that spring. It even inspired a song (though I have not been able to confirm some of the details contained in the third verse) and a variety of campfire tales. It also added to the extremely rich body of folklore found in the Dayton area (not all of which has to do with Wright-Patterson Air Base). If you watch the TV presentation, there is even a faint suggestion that some one in the area even knows (or at least suspects) who the prankster might be, leaving the tale with a nice sense of possible closure.
To be bad there are a couple of oddities about this tale. We can vouchsafe from the newspaper accounts that this was happening during the period of March through April of 1952. There are strong rumors (though I am having problems confirming them) of other reports that came later (possibly as late as 1953). This suggests that you had one really dedicated prankster.
The eyewitness reports (all from rattled truckers) suggests that the hot rod was rigged with a variety of special lights (interior and exterior). Some of the reports also hints at some kind of fog effect producing a halo around the car's roof. Technically, a car could have been rigged with the equipment needed back in the early 1950s. However, it would have taken a lot of equipment back then. I also doubt if the car could have handled a fog machine. It would have required a prankster who was not only a hot rod enthusiast, but also a reasonably gifted electrician and lighting designer.
All of which is possible but this guy is now becoming a very versatile chap. He might also have been on the thin side since he would be losing space inside the car due to all of the equipment he must have been hauling around. But this is all still possible.
He also had a lot of free time on his hands. The Phantom of Route 40 was also making appearances on parts of Route 30 and Route 45 near the town of Wellsville, Ohio. These incidents were all taking place during the month of March as well. The Phantom of Route 40 was operating near the Indiana border. Wellsville is midway between Pittsburgh, PA and Youngstown, Ohio, over 200 miles on the other side of the state. Today, it would take about 4 hours to drive from the one spot to the other (mostly by interstate). In 1952, the trip would have easily taken about 7 to 8 hours.
So this was one incredibly dedicated prankster. Guess the guy was pretty tired from sitting behind the wheel by the time he got to Wellsville. Some of those reports claim that the driver was standing on the car's running board while high balling the vehicle along a bumpy road. Was this cool cat good or what!
The thin details of the story makes it almost impossible for any kind of assessment. Most likely, some one was having a blast. But the news reports have just enough odd details with widely divergent locations that you have to wonder. Especially in 1952, when lots of people were looking upward at a major UFO flap. Add in the many tales of ghosts roaming highways and byways and well...who knows.
Monday, July 09, 2012
If They Ever Come From Outer Space
Once again, the anniversary of the Roswell Incident has come and gone and nobody has gotten a day off. You would think that folks in this country would get a lousy day off for something like an alien crash but no...we don't even get any stupid greeting cards.
Oh well. However, it is a good time to reflect on the ever popular notion of alien invasion. Due to a wide variety of factors, the concept is becoming faddish in some mighty strange areas as a solution to world peace (the novel Impact by Douglas Preston) and to economic policies (Paul Krugman and his fake alien invasion proposal). Oddly enough, these ideas are almost starting to sound half reasonable.
What isn't reasonable are the various scenarios for such an invasion. Despite some recent interviews and news programs (such as the NBC Today Show story), we don't really know what the folks at the Pentagon really have up their sleeves in the event of a real War of the Worlds. Unfortunately, it is probably deeply rooted in traditional military concepts. After all, you often get a standard form of thinking from the Pentagon like you get the same type of burger from every McDonald's.
Likewise, the history of the U.S. Military cooperation with certain movies would suggest that the key concept of the film was acceptable to the brass. It doesn't mean that the government is trying to send covert messages to the audience (beyond the usual: 1. We look good; 2. We got lots of neat equipment; 3. Don't worry - if anything happens we can handle it; 4. Why not join?). But it does mean that the core ideas are considered half OK.
So certain Hollywood movies do suggest some of the thinking and basically, it all seems to be rooted in the central concept of total full frontal attack as found in such classics as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and War of the Worlds. Lots of aliens with lots and lots of ships that come screaming in until it becomes a pitch battle waiting for something that tips the war to Earth's favor.
From a film producers viewpoint, this is the way it ought to be. Major tourist sites get blown up, mass carnage and speculator displays of destruction followed by a nice moral message and a sweet surge of optimism about the human spirit. But to be honest, I doubt if an alien invasion would ever happen in this manner. For one thing, the sheer cost in material needed for a global invasion (even of a smallish planet such as ours) would have to be mind boggling. Even with superior weapons, alien invaders would have to expect a protracted and costly fight.
Of course this type of invasion is also remarkably human in its planning. Presumably this is how we would do it...oh yeah, we are not talking about humans are we. For all I know, we could be talking about methane breathing jellyfish critters from a moon of Saturn.
Which is why I would argue that the real starting point for exploring alien invasion (at least in theory) is best found in the TV scripts of the British writer Nigel Kneale. Especially the four parts of the Quatermass trilogy (long story but it is sort of a four part trilogy).
The most important of the original stories would be Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit (better known in the U.S. by the title of Five Million Years to Earth). Quatermass II answers the question about methane breathing life forms (most likely they would deal with invasion through a radical change of our atmosphere - which would deal with the human issue pretty quickly). As for Quatermass and the Pit, well if you have read Nick Redfern's book Final Events then you can kick back and watch the so-called Collins Elite's worse nightmare. Even more bizarre, Kneale has an incredible skill at making the fantastic seem strangely logical and highly plausible.
Along with the work of Nigel Kneale, I would also highly recommend the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. This tale of an attempted invasion involving a small band of alien-hybrid children is profoundly precise, rational, and deeply disturbing. Good grief, it also sounds modern. But if you cannot find a copy of the book, the original British film version titled Village of the Damned does a good job of conveying most of the book's key points (minus the references to Hegel). Skip the American version. It is extremely weak.
This is merely a short list, but these would be the key works to start any serious study on the subject. I just hope the Pentagon is playing attention.
Oh well. However, it is a good time to reflect on the ever popular notion of alien invasion. Due to a wide variety of factors, the concept is becoming faddish in some mighty strange areas as a solution to world peace (the novel Impact by Douglas Preston) and to economic policies (Paul Krugman and his fake alien invasion proposal). Oddly enough, these ideas are almost starting to sound half reasonable.
What isn't reasonable are the various scenarios for such an invasion. Despite some recent interviews and news programs (such as the NBC Today Show story), we don't really know what the folks at the Pentagon really have up their sleeves in the event of a real War of the Worlds. Unfortunately, it is probably deeply rooted in traditional military concepts. After all, you often get a standard form of thinking from the Pentagon like you get the same type of burger from every McDonald's.
Likewise, the history of the U.S. Military cooperation with certain movies would suggest that the key concept of the film was acceptable to the brass. It doesn't mean that the government is trying to send covert messages to the audience (beyond the usual: 1. We look good; 2. We got lots of neat equipment; 3. Don't worry - if anything happens we can handle it; 4. Why not join?). But it does mean that the core ideas are considered half OK.
So certain Hollywood movies do suggest some of the thinking and basically, it all seems to be rooted in the central concept of total full frontal attack as found in such classics as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and War of the Worlds. Lots of aliens with lots and lots of ships that come screaming in until it becomes a pitch battle waiting for something that tips the war to Earth's favor.
From a film producers viewpoint, this is the way it ought to be. Major tourist sites get blown up, mass carnage and speculator displays of destruction followed by a nice moral message and a sweet surge of optimism about the human spirit. But to be honest, I doubt if an alien invasion would ever happen in this manner. For one thing, the sheer cost in material needed for a global invasion (even of a smallish planet such as ours) would have to be mind boggling. Even with superior weapons, alien invaders would have to expect a protracted and costly fight.
Of course this type of invasion is also remarkably human in its planning. Presumably this is how we would do it...oh yeah, we are not talking about humans are we. For all I know, we could be talking about methane breathing jellyfish critters from a moon of Saturn.
Which is why I would argue that the real starting point for exploring alien invasion (at least in theory) is best found in the TV scripts of the British writer Nigel Kneale. Especially the four parts of the Quatermass trilogy (long story but it is sort of a four part trilogy).
The most important of the original stories would be Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit (better known in the U.S. by the title of Five Million Years to Earth). Quatermass II answers the question about methane breathing life forms (most likely they would deal with invasion through a radical change of our atmosphere - which would deal with the human issue pretty quickly). As for Quatermass and the Pit, well if you have read Nick Redfern's book Final Events then you can kick back and watch the so-called Collins Elite's worse nightmare. Even more bizarre, Kneale has an incredible skill at making the fantastic seem strangely logical and highly plausible.
Along with the work of Nigel Kneale, I would also highly recommend the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. This tale of an attempted invasion involving a small band of alien-hybrid children is profoundly precise, rational, and deeply disturbing. Good grief, it also sounds modern. But if you cannot find a copy of the book, the original British film version titled Village of the Damned does a good job of conveying most of the book's key points (minus the references to Hegel). Skip the American version. It is extremely weak.
This is merely a short list, but these would be the key works to start any serious study on the subject. I just hope the Pentagon is playing attention.
Friday, June 01, 2012
(Almost) Zombie Apocalypse
Repeat after me: "There is no such thing as the Zombie Apocalypse."
Keep saying this to yourself. Oh, and don't watch the news or anything because that might disrupt your state of denial.
Sure, the Center for Disease Control is busy telling everyone that the Zombie Apocalypse tests they kept conducting over the past several years were just a fun way to teach disaster preparedness. But isn't that what the government always wants you to believe? Odd thing, they have just removed the material from their web site. Like what do they really know?
The recent zombie attack in Miami wasn't really a zombie in the honest to goodness zombie sense. It was simply zombie-like. Really had to do with bath salts. You see, it's all perfectly rational. It just happens that all of the video footage looks like a scene from Night of the Living Dead.
After all, there is no scientific way of creating zombies. So don't look at the Cracked.com blog piece on The 5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen. Sure, the piece is funny and accurate and everything, but do you really want to know this stuff? Wouldn't you rather get a good night sleep?
Good thing that Richard Lawson over at the Atlantic Wire has set us straight with his cry for an end to all of this zombie nonsense. He's right, you know. Sort of. Maybe. Oh hell, he ought to be right but the growing rash of bizarre incidents are getting kind of weird.
You got the porn actor who killed, raped, and ate his victim. There's the guy in New Jersey who disemboweled himself and then threw his intestines at the police. Then there is the college student who killed and ate his room mate. Fortunately it isn't just here in the States as reports just came in about a Swedish man who cut off his wife's lips and ate them. And these are just a few of the grisly highlights from the past week of deranged news items.
Add in the ever growing reports of people who keep dropping their clothes and taking a naked stroll along with the numerous cases of berserk behavior on airplanes, you start getting a creepy feel. That kind of sensation when you're walking along on a warm summer day and a cold wind hits you in the face. I mean I know better and all of that, but it is getting really difficult not to notice that this is becoming a tad worrisome.
Because of the current global economic situation, the stress level is running mighty high. Lots of people must feel like they are at their wits end. Many folks are on edge. Occasionally, I have pondered the possibility of a near global mental breakdown that sounds like something out of the old George Romero movie The Crazies. Previously, I had dismissed this idea as too extreme.
These days, I'm not so sure. Heck, I'm ready to get out a DVD of Zombieland so I can bone back up on the rules.
Keep saying this to yourself. Oh, and don't watch the news or anything because that might disrupt your state of denial.
Sure, the Center for Disease Control is busy telling everyone that the Zombie Apocalypse tests they kept conducting over the past several years were just a fun way to teach disaster preparedness. But isn't that what the government always wants you to believe? Odd thing, they have just removed the material from their web site. Like what do they really know?
The recent zombie attack in Miami wasn't really a zombie in the honest to goodness zombie sense. It was simply zombie-like. Really had to do with bath salts. You see, it's all perfectly rational. It just happens that all of the video footage looks like a scene from Night of the Living Dead.
After all, there is no scientific way of creating zombies. So don't look at the Cracked.com blog piece on The 5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen. Sure, the piece is funny and accurate and everything, but do you really want to know this stuff? Wouldn't you rather get a good night sleep?
Good thing that Richard Lawson over at the Atlantic Wire has set us straight with his cry for an end to all of this zombie nonsense. He's right, you know. Sort of. Maybe. Oh hell, he ought to be right but the growing rash of bizarre incidents are getting kind of weird.
You got the porn actor who killed, raped, and ate his victim. There's the guy in New Jersey who disemboweled himself and then threw his intestines at the police. Then there is the college student who killed and ate his room mate. Fortunately it isn't just here in the States as reports just came in about a Swedish man who cut off his wife's lips and ate them. And these are just a few of the grisly highlights from the past week of deranged news items.
Add in the ever growing reports of people who keep dropping their clothes and taking a naked stroll along with the numerous cases of berserk behavior on airplanes, you start getting a creepy feel. That kind of sensation when you're walking along on a warm summer day and a cold wind hits you in the face. I mean I know better and all of that, but it is getting really difficult not to notice that this is becoming a tad worrisome.
Because of the current global economic situation, the stress level is running mighty high. Lots of people must feel like they are at their wits end. Many folks are on edge. Occasionally, I have pondered the possibility of a near global mental breakdown that sounds like something out of the old George Romero movie The Crazies. Previously, I had dismissed this idea as too extreme.
These days, I'm not so sure. Heck, I'm ready to get out a DVD of Zombieland so I can bone back up on the rules.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Space Oddity
Don't you just hate it when things come in threes? Sure, sometimes the pattern is OK. Sometimes it's not so OK. But mostly it's annoying.
It is especially annoying when it involves something that should be easily ignored. Take for example the recent buzz on the net concerning the supposed alien ship orbiting the sun. Oh sure, the photo is extremely suggestive though the dang thing seems to be the size of a planet and its possible function is hard to discern. But just look at those articulated arms on that thing.
Of course, the official NASA explanation is also pretty reasonable. One of the problems with digital photography is a tendency to occasionally produce patterns out of random patterns (for example, stray cosmic rays coming in at an unusual angle - according to NASA). It is a common enough phenomena to actually be occasionally true (though perhaps not as often as some skeptics would like to believe).
So Nathan Rich's glitch explanation is pretty good. At least it was the first time back in 2011 when the same type of object was spotted by SOHO (and my thanks to SunsFlare over on YouTube for looking this one up). In fact Nathan Rich's recent statements about the April photo was a repackaging of his same explanation back in October.
OK, so once is an accident and twice is coincidence. These things happen. It is a bit odd that these stray cosmic rays would result in the same formation each time, but it isn't impossible. Highly unlikely, sure, but not impossible.
So I guess Nathan Rich isn't too happy that it happened again. Good grief! You would think that those stray cosmic rays would learn a few new tricks. So now SOHO is offline for some "needed repairs." Not a moment too soon because this is getting a bit weird.
When the news story broke last month, I wrote it all off as a simple glitch. My assumption was that if anything was really going on then there would have to be previous corresponding photos and without such images, leave this type of report to our old "friend" The Weekly World News. I felt pretty happy with that attitude.
Then I made the mistake of looking for information related to previous such images. OK, there is one. Now I'm not so happy. Gee, at the very least you would think that NASA could use our tax dollars to build better equipment than this dang piece of junk. But things happen and two such incidents don't necessarily mean anything.
But now we are up to three such images. All remarkably the same. As Groucho Marx once said: "That's an awful lot of accidents for such a quiet neighborhood."
And by the way, we have just gone past the coincidence stage and thrice is a problem. Whether it is a major technical failure or a visitation, Houston's got a problem and they are not really being honest about it. Most likely, they don't even know what really is going on (which might explain the quick move to take SOHO offline).
I don't think we need to get out the tinfoil hats (just yet), but I can't wait to hear Nathan Rich explain this one. Hey! Maybe it is just the planet Venus.
It is especially annoying when it involves something that should be easily ignored. Take for example the recent buzz on the net concerning the supposed alien ship orbiting the sun. Oh sure, the photo is extremely suggestive though the dang thing seems to be the size of a planet and its possible function is hard to discern. But just look at those articulated arms on that thing.
Of course, the official NASA explanation is also pretty reasonable. One of the problems with digital photography is a tendency to occasionally produce patterns out of random patterns (for example, stray cosmic rays coming in at an unusual angle - according to NASA). It is a common enough phenomena to actually be occasionally true (though perhaps not as often as some skeptics would like to believe).
So Nathan Rich's glitch explanation is pretty good. At least it was the first time back in 2011 when the same type of object was spotted by SOHO (and my thanks to SunsFlare over on YouTube for looking this one up). In fact Nathan Rich's recent statements about the April photo was a repackaging of his same explanation back in October.
OK, so once is an accident and twice is coincidence. These things happen. It is a bit odd that these stray cosmic rays would result in the same formation each time, but it isn't impossible. Highly unlikely, sure, but not impossible.
So I guess Nathan Rich isn't too happy that it happened again. Good grief! You would think that those stray cosmic rays would learn a few new tricks. So now SOHO is offline for some "needed repairs." Not a moment too soon because this is getting a bit weird.
When the news story broke last month, I wrote it all off as a simple glitch. My assumption was that if anything was really going on then there would have to be previous corresponding photos and without such images, leave this type of report to our old "friend" The Weekly World News. I felt pretty happy with that attitude.
Then I made the mistake of looking for information related to previous such images. OK, there is one. Now I'm not so happy. Gee, at the very least you would think that NASA could use our tax dollars to build better equipment than this dang piece of junk. But things happen and two such incidents don't necessarily mean anything.
But now we are up to three such images. All remarkably the same. As Groucho Marx once said: "That's an awful lot of accidents for such a quiet neighborhood."
And by the way, we have just gone past the coincidence stage and thrice is a problem. Whether it is a major technical failure or a visitation, Houston's got a problem and they are not really being honest about it. Most likely, they don't even know what really is going on (which might explain the quick move to take SOHO offline).
I don't think we need to get out the tinfoil hats (just yet), but I can't wait to hear Nathan Rich explain this one. Hey! Maybe it is just the planet Venus.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Unreal Estate
The recent case in New Jersey involving a family that bolted after a week from their new rental certainly brought back some memories. It also brought up a question that I can half answer: Do landlords and/or real estate agents have an obligation to tell prospective buyers (or tenants) that a property might be haunted. Since the case in New Jersey is going to court, I am not going to make any statements about it one way or the other (like I need to be in a stranger's lawsuit). But I have two minor stories to offer around this topic.
About fifteen years ago, my wife and I were looking to buy a house. Since this was back when the housing market was hot (and we were looking for a location in a reasonably desirable neighborhood), the process took us the better part of a year. Oh yes, these were the boom days of the market where you barely had time to look at a place before you discovered that while you were in the kitchen someone was at the front door making a deal for the house. So it was turning into a long and miserable quest.
Which is why it was not at all unusual to find ourselves on a sunny afternoon bring dragged out for the thousandth time by our agent to look at a house. We had a very good agent. A really nice, pretty straight forward, honest kind of lady. Which made what happened next a tad odd.
We got to the house (a large and slightly rambling structure on a nice and quiet street) and before I even got all the way up the front steps a thought flew into my head: "Craps! The place is haunted." I don't make a claim to having any sort of "gift." But I have also discovered that when that little voice in the back of my head speaks, I am advised to listen. It has saved my life on a few occasions.
Since I have spent more afternoons with my real estate agent then with anyone else, I decided to ask her upfront, "Hey, is this place spooked?" She gave me one of her big friendly smiles and simply said, "What makes you say that?"
So we go into a front room that has the strange feel and mood of the Tomb of Ligeia. Normally our real estate agent would put a positive spin on just about anything. She once explained to us that a house with train tracks running by its side was a sure sign that we would get a regular breeze. But the minute we entered the place, she became oddly silent. Just stood around, sticking very close to us.
Except when we went upstairs. For some reason, she didn't want to follow us. Which is sort of OK, because then I would have been tempted to ask her about the odd spot midway up the steps where both my wife and I got a very profound feeling of dread. Just plain old dread right around a section of three steps. No idea what that was about but we both felt it coming and going.
Maybe it had something to do with the pentagram etched into the window in the front bedroom. Maybe not. I wasn't going to ask because I suspected I didn't want to know the answer.
However, the real estate lady was willing to go down into the basement with me, but only if I went first and didn't go far from her. Since the basement had a low ceiling which added to the sense of claustrophobia, some of the bad vibes of the place could have been due to that alone. The odd chill also didn't help. The open entrance in one wall to an underground crawlspace that simply vanished into darkness was also a nice touch. I soon decided that I didn't need to see the basement and practically had to race the agent back up the steps.
Once we were in the kitchen, I asked her if it was true that real estate agents kept a private record of houses that were known to have "problems." She smiled and simply said, "What makes you say that?"
What I didn't tell her was that I already knew the answer. Yes, they do. Many years prior to this Vincent Price house tour, I use to know a couple who were old friends of a person I was involved with at the time. The husband was a psychologist who was getting close to retirement and was dabbling on the side in real estate as a form of second income.
One night while they were visiting, he noticed that I was reading a book by D. Scott Rogo. Turns out he had gone to college with Rogo and was curious to know what I thought of the paranormal. According to him, Rogo was already interested in the subject back in school but that he kept his own distance from it because, quite frankly, it scarred the willies out of him. Oh, and by the way, did I happen to know anything about how to deal with a haunted house?
Turns out a friend of his in the real estate profession had a house that was an infamous "problem" within the business. He refused to tell me exactly where the house was located and didn't want to discuss what the nature of the problem might be, but basically no one was willing to stay in the place for more than a week or two. In fact, the last buyer had apparently bolted before they had even completely moved in.
I asked him how he knew so much about the place, especially since the owner didn't sound too interested in discussing it. Turns out that the folks in real estate maintained an extremely informal line of communication about these type of places. Nothing on record; nothing on paper. Just a regular system of chit chat.
I should add that he was also very concerned that I did not get the mistaken idea that he might actually believe in anything pertaining to the supernatural. But....He did like my suggestion of calling in a priest.
I think you will find that this is how the system works. And by the way, they basically are under no obligation to discuss this issue publicly (though it varies some from state to state).
About fifteen years ago, my wife and I were looking to buy a house. Since this was back when the housing market was hot (and we were looking for a location in a reasonably desirable neighborhood), the process took us the better part of a year. Oh yes, these were the boom days of the market where you barely had time to look at a place before you discovered that while you were in the kitchen someone was at the front door making a deal for the house. So it was turning into a long and miserable quest.
Which is why it was not at all unusual to find ourselves on a sunny afternoon bring dragged out for the thousandth time by our agent to look at a house. We had a very good agent. A really nice, pretty straight forward, honest kind of lady. Which made what happened next a tad odd.
We got to the house (a large and slightly rambling structure on a nice and quiet street) and before I even got all the way up the front steps a thought flew into my head: "Craps! The place is haunted." I don't make a claim to having any sort of "gift." But I have also discovered that when that little voice in the back of my head speaks, I am advised to listen. It has saved my life on a few occasions.
Since I have spent more afternoons with my real estate agent then with anyone else, I decided to ask her upfront, "Hey, is this place spooked?" She gave me one of her big friendly smiles and simply said, "What makes you say that?"
So we go into a front room that has the strange feel and mood of the Tomb of Ligeia. Normally our real estate agent would put a positive spin on just about anything. She once explained to us that a house with train tracks running by its side was a sure sign that we would get a regular breeze. But the minute we entered the place, she became oddly silent. Just stood around, sticking very close to us.
Except when we went upstairs. For some reason, she didn't want to follow us. Which is sort of OK, because then I would have been tempted to ask her about the odd spot midway up the steps where both my wife and I got a very profound feeling of dread. Just plain old dread right around a section of three steps. No idea what that was about but we both felt it coming and going.
Maybe it had something to do with the pentagram etched into the window in the front bedroom. Maybe not. I wasn't going to ask because I suspected I didn't want to know the answer.
However, the real estate lady was willing to go down into the basement with me, but only if I went first and didn't go far from her. Since the basement had a low ceiling which added to the sense of claustrophobia, some of the bad vibes of the place could have been due to that alone. The odd chill also didn't help. The open entrance in one wall to an underground crawlspace that simply vanished into darkness was also a nice touch. I soon decided that I didn't need to see the basement and practically had to race the agent back up the steps.
Once we were in the kitchen, I asked her if it was true that real estate agents kept a private record of houses that were known to have "problems." She smiled and simply said, "What makes you say that?"
What I didn't tell her was that I already knew the answer. Yes, they do. Many years prior to this Vincent Price house tour, I use to know a couple who were old friends of a person I was involved with at the time. The husband was a psychologist who was getting close to retirement and was dabbling on the side in real estate as a form of second income.
One night while they were visiting, he noticed that I was reading a book by D. Scott Rogo. Turns out he had gone to college with Rogo and was curious to know what I thought of the paranormal. According to him, Rogo was already interested in the subject back in school but that he kept his own distance from it because, quite frankly, it scarred the willies out of him. Oh, and by the way, did I happen to know anything about how to deal with a haunted house?
Turns out a friend of his in the real estate profession had a house that was an infamous "problem" within the business. He refused to tell me exactly where the house was located and didn't want to discuss what the nature of the problem might be, but basically no one was willing to stay in the place for more than a week or two. In fact, the last buyer had apparently bolted before they had even completely moved in.
I asked him how he knew so much about the place, especially since the owner didn't sound too interested in discussing it. Turns out that the folks in real estate maintained an extremely informal line of communication about these type of places. Nothing on record; nothing on paper. Just a regular system of chit chat.
I should add that he was also very concerned that I did not get the mistaken idea that he might actually believe in anything pertaining to the supernatural. But....He did like my suggestion of calling in a priest.
I think you will find that this is how the system works. And by the way, they basically are under no obligation to discuss this issue publicly (though it varies some from state to state).
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Four Stooges of the Apocalypse
Gosh gee whiz, 2012 fever is hot out there. I know because I recently made a passing joke about 2012 and the end of the world in a film finance blog piece (sort of my day job) and got various responses from assorted religious types who were stocking the bunkers. Guess they were not sure how solid they were with the Lord.
Of course, the ancient Mayans did not predict the end of the world in 2012. They only predicted the end of this current age. Maybe, depending upon your interpretation, the end of this period of civilization. But that is about it (except for a little detail we shall get to later). But that hasn't stopped the true believers from bracing for everything from Rapture to alien invasion (and lots of stuff in between).
For example, take the recent buzz on various UFO and end of the world sites concerning the report of Strange Metal Boxes on the Coast of Oregon (I put it in caps so you can quickly run it through Google). The story started around Feb 8 as the boxes began appearing up and down the Pacific shoreline. Continued on Feb. 14 as Dr. Bill Hanshumaker of the Hatfield Marine Science Center arrived to examine the boxes and announce that he had NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE! Then, the boxes began to glow and buzz and you would think that they would all be running for the hills.
OK, maybe there are some problems with the story. Little details like the fact that Dr. Hanshumaker has never seen the so-called boxes (I know, because I asked him via email). Sure, he sent some young volunteers over to Bray's Point to look at the boxes but there were no boxes. In fact, nobody could be found who had a clue what they were talking about.
OK, maybe this story has some really big problems. Considering the fact that the tale is just a single source story, completely lacking in any basic form of confirmation and the one and only expert witness quoted in the piece is telling everybody that he hasn't seen anything, we might just have to suspect a hoax. A really, really big hoax.
Though the stupid tale doesn't hold up under the slightest scrutiny, it has traveled across the internet like lightening. At some sites, UFOs have been added to the story with dark hints of an impending invasion. At others, these boxes are clear signs of the 2012 Apocalypse (though I can't recall anything in the Book of Revelations that referred to the Holy Gift Boxes of God). Increasingly, as the bogus reports pump up the tale with a buzzing sound, a few bold folks have linked it to the strange sky sounds that are a major hit on YouTube.
At any moment, someone will decide that these boxes must contain President Obama's real birth certificate. The assumptions mount. And yes, assumptions can also make an ass out of you and me.
But notice the quick linkage between this completely bogus story and the sky sound reports. These many reports are a trickier lot. Some, such as the incident in Costa Rica are confirmable. A few odd incidents even received national broadcast, such as the "noise" during several baseball games at Tropicana Field. So there really is something going on, but it is hard to truly evaluate as numerous hoaxes have been uploaded onto YouTube. It becomes a bit hard to see the forest due to all of the plastic Christmas trees.
I have a bad feeling that the many hoaxes are doing a major disservice to the general public. Especially if I am half-correct in my hunch that some of these noises may be related to unique freak upper atmospheric winds caused by radical climatic change. Who needs the Four Horsemen when you have that going on. Unfortunately, the hoaxes simply make it easier for many folks to doubt the whole thing and that may not be a good idea.
Many of the YouTube videos are single source presentations and are lacking in any form of confirmation. A few have voice overs that attempts to misdirect the viewer. For example, in one tape that I've seen, a woman claims to have been awaken in the middle of the night by the mysterious noise and has gone out to her backyard to tape it. At one point, she describes how her neighbors are also waking up to this scary noise and their lights are coming on. In reality, the lights were already on at the start of the tape. She is just claiming otherwise. Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be any sign of anybody stepping out to even see what is going on. In fact, it looks like a pretty quiet neighborhood (except for the so-called racket from above).
I have noticed that many of the most suspect videos often share something in common. They all have the same noise, the so-called Trumpet of the Apocalypse. Many of these videos have virtually the same (or even the exact same) sound. Most are presumably duped from the same master tape. Ironically, they all resemble the climax from Kevin Smith's movie Red State (starting at the 32 second mark). It is not the exact same sound (though extremely close), but it is the exact same idea (minus the explanation in the movie's wrap up).
Coincidence? Yea, sure. To be honest, I don't think God gets His ideas from Kevin Smith movies. But if He does, then He must be a more fun fella than we have given Him credit (and I bet He loves comic books).
And by the way, what the ancient Mayans predicted for 2012 was the return of the heavy duty super god Bolon Yokte. On Dec. 21, he is scheduled to descend from the sky and kick start the world into a new age. Almost sounds like a job for The Ghostbusters.
Update: Email just received from Dr. Bill Hanshumaker:
Of course, the ancient Mayans did not predict the end of the world in 2012. They only predicted the end of this current age. Maybe, depending upon your interpretation, the end of this period of civilization. But that is about it (except for a little detail we shall get to later). But that hasn't stopped the true believers from bracing for everything from Rapture to alien invasion (and lots of stuff in between).
For example, take the recent buzz on various UFO and end of the world sites concerning the report of Strange Metal Boxes on the Coast of Oregon (I put it in caps so you can quickly run it through Google). The story started around Feb 8 as the boxes began appearing up and down the Pacific shoreline. Continued on Feb. 14 as Dr. Bill Hanshumaker of the Hatfield Marine Science Center arrived to examine the boxes and announce that he had NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE! Then, the boxes began to glow and buzz and you would think that they would all be running for the hills.
OK, maybe there are some problems with the story. Little details like the fact that Dr. Hanshumaker has never seen the so-called boxes (I know, because I asked him via email). Sure, he sent some young volunteers over to Bray's Point to look at the boxes but there were no boxes. In fact, nobody could be found who had a clue what they were talking about.
OK, maybe this story has some really big problems. Considering the fact that the tale is just a single source story, completely lacking in any basic form of confirmation and the one and only expert witness quoted in the piece is telling everybody that he hasn't seen anything, we might just have to suspect a hoax. A really, really big hoax.
Though the stupid tale doesn't hold up under the slightest scrutiny, it has traveled across the internet like lightening. At some sites, UFOs have been added to the story with dark hints of an impending invasion. At others, these boxes are clear signs of the 2012 Apocalypse (though I can't recall anything in the Book of Revelations that referred to the Holy Gift Boxes of God). Increasingly, as the bogus reports pump up the tale with a buzzing sound, a few bold folks have linked it to the strange sky sounds that are a major hit on YouTube.
At any moment, someone will decide that these boxes must contain President Obama's real birth certificate. The assumptions mount. And yes, assumptions can also make an ass out of you and me.
But notice the quick linkage between this completely bogus story and the sky sound reports. These many reports are a trickier lot. Some, such as the incident in Costa Rica are confirmable. A few odd incidents even received national broadcast, such as the "noise" during several baseball games at Tropicana Field. So there really is something going on, but it is hard to truly evaluate as numerous hoaxes have been uploaded onto YouTube. It becomes a bit hard to see the forest due to all of the plastic Christmas trees.
I have a bad feeling that the many hoaxes are doing a major disservice to the general public. Especially if I am half-correct in my hunch that some of these noises may be related to unique freak upper atmospheric winds caused by radical climatic change. Who needs the Four Horsemen when you have that going on. Unfortunately, the hoaxes simply make it easier for many folks to doubt the whole thing and that may not be a good idea.
Many of the YouTube videos are single source presentations and are lacking in any form of confirmation. A few have voice overs that attempts to misdirect the viewer. For example, in one tape that I've seen, a woman claims to have been awaken in the middle of the night by the mysterious noise and has gone out to her backyard to tape it. At one point, she describes how her neighbors are also waking up to this scary noise and their lights are coming on. In reality, the lights were already on at the start of the tape. She is just claiming otherwise. Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be any sign of anybody stepping out to even see what is going on. In fact, it looks like a pretty quiet neighborhood (except for the so-called racket from above).
I have noticed that many of the most suspect videos often share something in common. They all have the same noise, the so-called Trumpet of the Apocalypse. Many of these videos have virtually the same (or even the exact same) sound. Most are presumably duped from the same master tape. Ironically, they all resemble the climax from Kevin Smith's movie Red State (starting at the 32 second mark). It is not the exact same sound (though extremely close), but it is the exact same idea (minus the explanation in the movie's wrap up).
Coincidence? Yea, sure. To be honest, I don't think God gets His ideas from Kevin Smith movies. But if He does, then He must be a more fun fella than we have given Him credit (and I bet He loves comic books).
And by the way, what the ancient Mayans predicted for 2012 was the return of the heavy duty super god Bolon Yokte. On Dec. 21, he is scheduled to descend from the sky and kick start the world into a new age. Almost sounds like a job for The Ghostbusters.
Update: Email just received from Dr. Bill Hanshumaker:
The "boxes on the beach" are merely floats that were originally built to support docks. After a recent flooding event, some docks were destroyed and their floats drifted downriver and subsequently deposited on the beach. A colleague from a local state agency had the opportunity to examine one and confirmed this explanation. William Hanshumaker, Ph.D. Public Marine Education Specialist Oregon Sea Grant Faculty
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