Hatred, By God

You know, with everything going on in the Middle East and really everywhere else, I have to wonder - and this is a totally, completely... I mean, this has been discussed to death at different times throughout the ages, so this is certainly nothing new - but I have to wonder whether organized religion has any place in a modern society?

One can argue that many religions impart good values and morals, but at the end of the day, nothing else has caused more death, wanton destruction, and warfare than religion. Whether on a mass scale or individually, religion is the usual excuse for nearly all Evil.

Like I said, this is not a new concept and I'm not trying to make it sound anymore important this go-round than anyone else who has pondered the issue before me, but the world has entered yet another phase of unchecked religious fervor and we're all suffering because of it.

The thing that is different this time is that I actually do have a few suggestions to rectify the situation -- well, one; I have one suggestion:

Stop it.

Seriously.

Just stop it. I'm not being flippant.

In almost every religion, the basic teaching is that the followers are "The Chosen Ones" who will go on to greater things, whether in life or afterward. So why not just accept that you are The Chosen Ones and leave everyone else the hell alone? What is it about humanity that makes every person want to sit in judgment over his fellow man? I find it prosaic to think that it all boils down to displacement -- trying to feel better about themselves by castigating others; I think it goes deeper, in that the people who act like that do so partially because they think it is going to grant them some kind of redemption. The whole concept of "saving" someone, not from him- or her- self, but from Eternal Hellfires or the Corruption of the Western World, or whatever other demonic influence a religion can preach to beware of, somehow endears one to their chosen god.

And I think the recent resurgence in this zealotry is directly related to the rise of the Web. With access to such a wealth of information -- and, yes, disinformation -- a lot of people vie for simpler times. I don't necessarily think they see the Web as Evil so much as they are cowed by the rampant ignorance, greed, and basic ugliness of humanity -- something that was once easier to overlook, now almost impossible to ignore thanks to the Web. A lot of people are pushing for more traditional values and ideals in the face of millions of porn sites, Girls Gone Wild videos, YouTube catfights, et. al.  The ugliness has always been here, it just hasn't always been this accessible.

Which brings us to the matter of Freedom of Speech and the Web, and I have to remind everyone of this: Yelling "fire" in a crowded theater is not a Freedom of Speech issue. Pornographers aren't making any "message," they're just making money (and too often victimizing others); I guess performers and public speakers do have a right to use racial epithets, but that doesn't make it right; and on and on in that vein. The Web has taken things you once has to go out of your way to find -- vice, greed, hatred, violence, blatant sex of all kind -- and made them easily, and widely accessible, in anyone's home. And that is scary.

But turning to extremities to suppress these things is just as bad in the opposite direction, and I think people know that intrinsically; it's just more of an emotional response that is going to take some time to even-out. And don't get me wrong, I think a lot of the people who have fallen prey to this type of thinking really believe what they are pushing -- or at least they really want to -- and I don't see anything wrong with that. I believe religion for some people -- to whatever extent -- feeds a spiritual hunger we all have, the way reading and learning feeds an intellectual need (which too few people have). The problem is that most of the really religious people are the other side of the same coin to those who are so vehemently anti-religious: They feed one of those hungers to excess while starving the other -- a gluttony of its own kind.

The problem with religion is that it is far too easily abused by despots and other would-be criminal masterminds. It is a very convenient, very powerful, tool Evil entities use to subject entire peoples to their whims.

There is no way to turn back time; the Web isn't going anywhere. There is always the chance of a major, earth-shattering event which will cripple it, but smaller networks will replace it the way they preceded it. Computers are not the enemy; the enemy is the same as it has ever been: Man. No matter your god, no god has yet changed Man for the better, so we all might as well accept that and try to move on from it.

In the meantime, just stop it.

Infantile Morality

This story is a few weeks old, but it interested me no end: US scientists think babies may develop some kind of morality system as early as 6 months. They say this does not mean the babies come "hardwired" to be good or bad (Nature vs. Nurture), but that their original predispositions may form this early in life, and play an important role in how they come to regard things as they grow older.

Kind of like pets, babies this young are said to be able to tell between people who do not like them and those who do. They also seem to make "moral" decisions to do the right thing or not -- as expressed by their choosing a "helper" character, as opposed to "hinderer" characters, in the study.

The question now is: If babies so young are able to make the right decisions without much help, why do so many tend to make the wrong ones later in life?

Topi Gotta Have It

The topi antelope come together once a year for approximately one month to mate, as the female is only fertile for one day... and extremely aggressive.

According to new research, the males are commonly seen to collapse from the sheer sexual demands of the female -- and have even had to physically rebuke the advances of the more aggressive ones! This is odd, because female topi rarely wear platform heels.

Seriously, this may play a very important role in cryptozoology, as this sexual role-reversal may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than we currently know.

Men on Mars

NASA released tentative outlines for a manned Mars mission to take place within the next "few decades."

A skeleton crew on a 30-month round-trip mission would leave in a nearly 500 ton spacecraft for the Red Planet. The ship would be built in low-Earth orbit using Ares V, heavy-lift, launch rockets.

To leave in February 2031, the estimated cost would be $20-450 billion. That's... a very broad estimation, I'll say.

The astronauts would have means of growing their own fruits and vegetables, and would use nuclear energy to power their habitat. Air and water would be recycled by "closed-loop" life support systems. Their re-supply and operation-aborting options would be very limited, so they would have to be good mechanics -- possibly to the extent that they would know how to manufacture their own parts.

The moon may be used to test some of these radical ideas.

Testing FTP

Well, we started out strong  (or tried to, at least) and were quickly shutdown by FTP problems. Again.

I have some news stories to get out to you today -- some new and several quite old that lost in the shuffle when this happened the last time and are just now coming to light (because I went through the bookmarks) -- and I may get to some more Thunderbird stories, if things work themselves out.

I'm really just posting this to test the connection...

New Hope for Fighting Cancer

University of Kentucky researchers claim a mouse with a more active Par-4 gene did not develop cancerous tumors, and even lived longer than control subjects. They are hopeful this will lead to better cancer treatments in humans, but Cancer Research UK noted much more research was needed before that step was taken.

The Par-4 gene was originally discovered in the 1990s, and related to fighting cancer. Kentucky researchers injected the gene into a particular breed of mice's eggs -- mice known to be more vulnerable to cancer -- to see if the gene would have any effect. They were pleased with the results.

If the treatment can be used on humans, it will be a much safer and more effective way of treating the disease than current methods, which damages many other cells in the process.

Bigfoot on MonsterQuest

Did you see tonight's MonsterQuest over to the History Channel? That was damned good!

They always end the episodes with that whole, "Nothing's conclusive" thing, but I felt some of what they came up with tonight was pretty damned conclusive!

In one study, a scientist concluded (with the help of a professional athlete) that a human being could not match the gait the animal in the Patterson film appears to have. In another, computer enhancement proved that the level of detail in the face was too high to have been faked in that day and age (1967). They didn't say that it couldn't be done at all but, as one researcher correctly pointed-out, who would have thought to include that level of detail in a hoax on 16mm film? How could they have predicted that technology 40 years later would allow researchers to go into that much detail?

Really good show that I feel proved the Patterson footage was no hoax.

Thoughts and Format

I told you earlier: without a steady supply of good conversation, my paranormal musings kind of dry up. Most of the books I have cover the same accounts that I have been reading for years. It's a simple matter of being inspired, instead of overworked.

I don't want to keep churning out, "I'm going to do this soon" posts, and half-hearted, "I think this about that," stuff. I obviously have some strong feelings about a lot of these subjects, and I love to voice them, but reading accounts is a pretty impassionate way of approaching them when you get right down to it.

I expanded the format a while back to include a host of topics, but that hasn't helped much because I want to keep the focus on the paranormal and Unexplained... Sociology, psychology, politics, and other fields definitely figure into the investigation and research of the Unknown, but to various extents and for various reasons. I do believe we can gain some insight into the Unexplained by discussing these related topics, but I want to remain focused on the paranormal and Unexplained.

Thankfully, with the new shows scheduled, I'm hoping things pick up over the next few weeks. In the meantime, I'll get you a few posts formerly lost in the quagmire of bookmarks...

The 1977 Sandra Mansi Photograph of Champ, the Lake Champlain Monster

Champ, the Lake Champlain Monster - Sandra Mansi, 1977

If you are unfamiliar with the Sandra Mansi photograph of Champ, you are unfamiliar with probably the best piece of hard evidence in cryptozoology. Ms. Mansi owns the rights to her photograph and while it has been printed in mass publications (meaning, technically, I could scan it and show it off), I am not going to reprint it here -- the legal ramifications are just too dire -- besides, it has been widely circulated in the media, so it shouldn't be hard at all to find. (In fact, it went on display a few years after this was posted.)

But I digress...

Ms. Mansi's photograph clearly shows what appears to be a plesiosaur or similar creature, rising from the surface of Lake Champlain. The neck, head, and what appears to be at least some of the torso, are clearly visible. In fact, the head is turned from the camera in such a way as to completely mimic how long-necked animals maneuver.

So, they were discussing the photograph on TV the other day and one of these flat-earther "skeptics" said it was obvious that Ms. Mansi had taken a photograph of -- wait for it -- a log! Yes, a log!

A fucking log.

A flock of seabirds wouldn't work in this situation, but the infamous "swamp gas" does. See, sometimes gases form on old logs and submerged wood, causing it to rise to the surface and float for a while before slowly sinking back to the bottom. A very good, and incredibly implausible, explanation for all things "impossible."

Except that the Mansi photograph very clearly shows grey-brown skin. If you look at the picture, the skin does not appear scaly and, though it might be rough, the water makes it appear slick -- much like a snake's or other lizard's. Further, the neck is crooked in a clearly visible way, with the head turned away from the camera. You can clearly see the outline of the head and all body parts are proportionate to the rest of the creature.

Quite a feat for "swamp gas."

I mean, after so many reported sightings, motion picture and photographic evidence, and historical accounts -- many from experienced seafarers and Lake Champlain residents -- how (why) can you explain them all away with such a flimsy, transparent, and obviously reaching "explanation?"

UPDATE:  I included a copy of the original photograph found online.  It has been modified for clarity and size, but still does not look like swamp gas coming off a log on a flat Earth.  Those people are fucking idiots (and religious extremists with military ties). - 2018

What's Been Missing

As you might have noticed, we're picking up steam a little here and I couldn't be happier. After watching the History Channel marathon the other day, I realized that is what was missing: Some paranormal-type news and issues to truly inspire me to write!

Ghost Hunters is great and all, but you know what to expect; they've settled into a basic formula. It isn't very inspiring, but it is still fun to watch.

The new UFO Hunters premieres in February, then Destination Truth comes back... one of these days. Not a moment too soon for me -- there's nothing on Tuesday nights.

Anyway, plenty to get to today, but I finally got some positive feedback on the site and Google's PR slam has really hurt, so I have to spend some time on technical issues.

The Occult: America's #1 Export

Supernatural (CW)

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed the recent upswing in Occultism in popular culture and entertainment.

Comics, TV, movies, music, you name it -- shades of the Occult and Supernatural have entered it. And not just in the old, "This one's a vampire, that one's a werewolf -- but they're trying to be a good one!" way; nowadays, Occult investigators are everywhere and almost every form of the Occult is omnipresent. Even "straight" dramas and entertainment have "dabbled," if you will.

This is no "warning," nor am I crying "witch." I just wonder what the recent interest in this dark subject is? Whether or not you believe in the powers of the Occult, why has it suddenly become so mainstream?

To be sure, this has been true to some extent for a while now, and to various degrees throughout history. Satanism became fairly acceptable back in the 1960s-70s and, even though it met with severe consternation in the 1980s, it returned in the 1990s with a vengeance; comic books in particular were preoccupied with Satanic themes and characters in the 1970s, many of which returned in the 1990s. Further, the Occult and magic in general have been popular themes and subjects throughout Western society at various times over the years, such as the late 1800s. People held seances, consulted psychics/mediums, and believed in spirit photography.

Satanism is clearly divisible from the Occult, but only by those who know better; even in this day and age, mainstream society holds to the popular notion that the two are largely the same.

So how is it that Occult themes and ideas have taken hold to the extent they have and how long do you think it will last?

UPDATE:  In retrospect, TV shows like Supernatural, True Blood, and Ghost Hunters were big hits for an industry which was losing audience to the Internet.  Copycat programming proliferated. - 2018

Thunderbirds

One of the better episodes of MonsterQuest last night dealt with Thunderbirds. The episode was entitled "Birdzilla," which was pretty cool.

Various traditions are attached to Thunderbirds, but the general consensus is that they were gigantic, predatory birds with massive wingspans that often preceded great thunderstorms. The other, generally agreed-upon, trait is that they sometimes kidnapped small children. Some accounts even have them terrorizing grown men, but these are far more rare.

Like so many of these cryptozoological oddities, accounts of Thunderbirds began in ancient times -- well, ancient to us, anyway. In fact, there's no way to know exactly how far back such stories go because the white man only started hearing them from Native Americans during exploration of the New World, so there is no recording of accounts prior to then. At the very least, we know that reports of giant birds attacking men and small children go back to at least the 16^th-17^th Centuries.

There was a resurgence of Thunderbird sightings in the mid to late -1970s, with at least one famous attack on a small boy taking place in a Mid-Western state. Further, not only does photographic evidence of some of these creatures exist, actual motion picture evidence of at least two of them was taken in 1977!

The interesting thing about this particular episode of MonsterQuest was that, while no real conclusions were made (see previous entry), even the pedants were stumped! They couldn't find two experts who agreed on anything when it came to what sort of bird could have attacked a 10-year old boy, nor what species of bird(s) were shown on that piece of film.

Now, I'm a weird sort: When any, relatively intelligent or observant, person tells me he saw something out of the ordinary, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not saying that I automatically accept that he saw something Unexplained; I'm saying that, if he says it's so, then the next step is to start researching the subject -- not dismiss it out-of-hand. Further, I tend to give eyewitnesses who have practical experience with the wildlife in their area more credence than some nerd who spends all day in a cloistered room looking through a microscope.

When a Cherokee Indian who has lived in the same area his entire life and knows its legends, flora, fauna, and landscape tells me he knows what a Turkey Vulture is, and what he saw was not a Turkey Vulture, I take that into consideration. It certainly carries more weight for me than when some Ornithologist clear across the country takes a brief look at a few seconds of film and "debunks" it.

But I digress.

There have also been reports of great birds since the 1970s, and there are great swaths of wilderness in North America, and throughout the world that have never been fully explored, and probably never will be. I heard one guy talking about how these birds would fly, and so they would have to be seen -- well, they have been!

See, the problem isn't that these giant birds are making themselves scarce; the problem is that the Poindexters who receive millions of dollars a year to study Bald Eagles spend all their time looking at mites under microscopes and discussing the migration of field mice, so they've fooled themselves into thinking that absolutely nothing outside their little bubble could possibly exist without them already knowing it.

And this is true of these "professionals" when it comes to basically all cryptozoological pursuits.  They also discredit laymen, and researchers who do all the work, in order to lay claim to these discoveries.

But I love Thunderbirds and I have been trying to get a post or two out about them out for a while now.  If I get a chance today, I'll try to bring you some accounts of Thunderbirds from some of the sources I have (see sidebar).

MonsterQuest - A Review (2007)

MonsterQuest

MonsterQuest was on all night last night, and I watched all of the episodes on the first run. I noticed the one on Champ was actually a 2-hour special that also ran from Midnight to 2, but I didn't quite make it 'til then. Still, I got a good idea of the show from the four episodes I saw.

Sadly, there isn't much to report. These shows always stop just short of ever concluding anything and that really bothers me. They got some good results with the Sasquatch investigation -- technically, some very good results -- so when will they be going back to collect more evidence?

That's what I always say about these "real" scientists and researchers: They're always pulling the Holy Grail Excuse ("What scientist wouldn't want to find a [insert monster here]? It would be like The Holy Grail!"), but they collect no evidence, do no research, and refuse to follow-up on promising leads. Quit spending your time dismissing the evidence and do your fucking jobs!

Scientists... just cops with books and less common sense.

But I digress...

MonsterQuest at least went in-depth on the stories it covered but, again, if they're just going to do a surface investigation of these things -- find a feather or footprint -- then carry it back to some pedant who sits in a lab all day, studying the migratory patterns of fleas or some flimsy bullshit, then what's the point? It's just another crypto- show where nothing gets solved, no conclusions are made, and nothing promising is followed-up on.

MonsterQuest airs on History Channel Wednesdays at 8:00 (CST).

History Channel Delivers All Night Long

As a member of The History Channel, I guess I should know something about the station I am bankrolling (hey, for my $12-13.00/year, I'm the frigging Howard Hughes to their Las Vegas!)... but I was watching BBCA's Torchwood marathon earlier because there was one episode I missed (I am so thoroughly impressed with that show, so consistently!), and I switched over to see that they've had a marathon of UFO Files and related shows on all day.

Even better, in another hour or so, they are starting a marathon of their MonsterQuest series! I have no idea when it airs, because I have seen it on before, but always when it was just going off or I was flipping channels in the middle of something I was already watching, so I'm really down for this.

Then, they have a new series called UFO Hunters (or something like that) premiering this January!

As many readers likely know, History Channel used to be the place to be on Mondays, because it lead with UFO Files, then it went to the archaeology show with the young, good-looking guy that had the Indiana Jones-type thing going on -- Josh someone -- Indiana Josh... Uncovering History? Really good block of programming for a handful of years. Then NBC knocked it out with Heroes and now Chuck then Heroes, but I've really missed my Monday nights o' Oddity, so I couldn't be happier to see some of this programming returning!

Not to mention that, of all the channels that program such fare, History is the most reputable. Of course, I love everything Sci-Fi Channel does -- and I am not about to diminish their research, exploration, or funding into these fantastic subjects -- but History Channel has the goods when it comes to getting hold of those records and tapes which confirm the reports all the other shows investigate. Not to mention the authoritative name.

I am not generally swayed by such things, but you have to admit, History Channel has been presenting these types of shows since before Sci-Fi started doing John Edwards...

11-25-07

Sorry things have been slow around here lately. I got some stuff out to you this week, but I haven't been very active anywhere since last week. The holiday had me busy and my downstairs neighbor had the good fortune of investing in a new home theater... and he likes to get up around 5:30-6:00 every morning and listen to music. He also has an affinity for war movies -- action/adventure, whatever -- shit with lots of explosions is all I know.

He's a good guy and all, but if I so much as stay up to 1:00 or 2:00 AM, he'll say something about it the next day, then act standoffish for a week afterward.  Because KillZoneTV comes on at dawn, and he wouldn't want to miss that!

Anyway, I think I'm getting back on schedule now, so you can look forward to a little more action.

And we'll just go from there.

Baby, the Bionic Cat

Baby is six years old and has metal plates in her legs, thanks to falling 20' from a balcony -- not once, but twice!

Administrators at the Blue Cross veterinary hospital in Victoria (England) inserted metal plates and screws into the short-haired domestic cat's back legs after she fell from her owner's window in September. When they X-rayed her, they were shocked to discover similar implants in her front legs from when she was a kitten!

The staff then dubbed her "Bionic Cat."

Baby is said to have an affectation for sunglasses even in the dark, imbibing in designer drugs, and a penchant for very loud and very heavy music.

Baby the Bionic Cat is not owned by William Gibson.

© C Harris Lynn, 2007

Javanese Statues Found in Jakarta

Several statues from the 7^th to 9^th -Century have been returned to the Javanese city of Surakata after being found in the capital of Jakarta. Police arrested three members of the museum staff on charges of theft and selling stolen property.

This, and similar incidents, were brought to light when investigators were tipped-off as to the curator's thefts. They allege that he stole numerous items, some of which have yet to be accounted for. Further, when the state archaeology body investigated these claims, they found that no inventory had been kept for six years -- many more items may be missing.

The museum was founded over 100 years ago and is the oldest in Indonesia.

Happy T-Day!

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy Thanksgiving... or Thursday, if you are not from America.

I'm not going to lie, I won't be here all day long, but Thanksgiving is always a fun day to blog because everyone is at home and a lot of them logon, so who knows? I'm making no promises is all I'll say.

But like I told you last night, there have been some pretty great OddBlog-gy stories as late, so I have some stuff to discuss, not to mention a bit on the book I am currently reading. I may even have a word or two to say on American History -- what with this being T-Day and all...

But I'm here right now, so what the hey? I'll get out a post or two real quick.

This One Time, the World Had Huge Crabs

Now this is what The OddBlog is all about... kinda.

European scientists claim to have found the claw of a prehistoric 8' sea crab!  The claw is nearly 400 million years old and was found in a Prum, German quarry.  It has been named Jaekelopterus rhenaniae.  The size tells scientists arachnids and insects (and similar creatures) were larger than even they once thought.  The largest modern scorpion is only 30cm.; the claw measures 46 cm!

Researchers theorize higher oxygen levels in the atmosphere may have led to the gigantic size of these and similar invertebrates, such as cockroaches.  The larger specimen would likely have been killed-off first by predators, as they are easier to spot.  While many would have lived entirely on land, others, like this one, would have led an aquatic or semi-aquatic life.

Scientists think Jaekelopterus rhenaniae lived in swamps, ponds, and similar environs.

Will This Make It Before the Lights Go Out?

There are actually some pretty great stories that hit the news today -- in fact, I was a bit surprised by just how many! But I am still not feeling well, and there is a storm here. They've been talking about it all week, and putting out warnings and watches and alerts all night, and it just hit a few minutes ago, so... there's lightning and thunder and heavy rains and I'm just rushing to get this out before the lights give.

Anyway, I'll be here tomorrow for at least a few posts, and if I still have as much trouble sleeping as I have been (and have electricity to work with), I may be back later tonight/this morning.

Happy T-Day to all our American readers!

Heart of Rome Unearthed - The Lupercal

Some are saying they may have found the heart of Rome -- literally.

An integral part of Roman mythology, the Lupercal is where the she-wolf is said to have suckled the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, after they were found on the banks of the River Tiber. The cave was uncovered by workers near the ruins of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine hill.

The 26'-high cave is decorated with shells, mosaics, and marble. In Roman times, young nobles called Luperci participated in a popular fertility festival called the Lupercalia every February 15^th. Naked but for the skins of goats sacrificed that day, the young men would run around Palatine hill, striking women's hands with strips of the goatskin.

The Italian Culture Minister, Francesco Rutelli said archaeologists were "reasonably certain" the cave is, indeed, the Lupercal. Lupa is Roman for "wolf."

The cave was found about 15' underground, and has only been explored by technological means due to fears of collapse. After a near $20 million restoration, parts of the famous Hill will re-open to the public in February. I do not know if it will coincide with the famous festival, nor what fanfare will accompany the event.

Today 11-20-07

Sorry. With all the FTP problems and everything else going on around here, I simply had to take a few days off. Luckily, several interesting things went down while I was gone, so we've got a day or two of moderately-heavy posting for you. Just depends on whether or not I can get my ass in motion!

I have been unable to get moving today. Has to do with the medications I take, and not sleeping and eating well. And the whole house is a wreck; I don't remember the last time I cleaned the place. Wouldn't take more than an hour or so to get everything together, I just don't feel like doing it.

Anyway, I want to get you some fun stuff... but I have to pay my frigging cable bill!

UPDATE:  I overpaid Charter Communications nearly $400 during this period, which has never been refunded.  That's why there are so many posts regarding this, and similar troubles, from around this time.  Charter Communications had its BBB license revoked due to embezzlement and impropriety, but got it back after throwing the BBB a gala affair in St. Louis.  I have never received my money back to date. - 2018

The Healing Touch - Reiki

I have discussed the power of healing touch therapy for years now. I may not have touched (eek!) upon it here in print, but healing touch therapy is a lot more powerful than most "accredited" science would have you believe.  This practice, developed in 1922, is known as Reiki.

In short, the therapist focuses on certain energy points -- upper body, mostly -- such as the head and shoulders. The, usually gentle, touching of these areas has a freeing result. My theory is that it correlates to the idea that these are "No"-zones -- areas considered intimate by many, and so off-limits to strangers and others with whom we are unfamiliar. The direct stimulation of these spots in non-intimate ways results in emotional changes that allow relaxation.

I am not suggesting that touch therapy brings upon any changes in the person's actual sense of awareness; touch therapy does not, in itself, induce an altered state of consciousness. However, it does result in a state of relaxation most people do not regularly experience. It's akin to being in the company of friends and others you trust, allowing you to let down your guard against the outside world.

With your energy freed to focus on other things, you can better attune yourself to your health. I would venture to say that people in general (particularly Americans) are fairly self-involved -- whether due to sociological concerns or inherent needs of survival -- so this redirected energy tends to point itself toward healing one's wounds. That garbled mess of stumbling is to say that, when you are comfortable, you can focus on healing.

Whether or not my theory holds true is still widely-debated, but this recent report shows that more and more of the medical community is starting to accept that, whatever the reasoning behind it, touch therapy does have some medical validity.

UPDATE:  I learned that this is known as Reiki.  Numerous links, particularly regarding Health and Medication, in several posts have been removed by parties unknown (military). - 2018

The More Things Change...

Well, I guess I spoke too soon as to our seemingly meteoric rise from a big, fat goose-egg to a whole 2 Google PR.

Turns out that we are not only still at 0, the entire site has dropped to a 0 (from a 3)! How, I do not know, but it appears to have happened -- possibly due to the host change. Even after it first went up to a 2, it has since fallen back to a 0.

Worse yet, The Rundown has also dropped to 0, which has caused us to lose some sponsors. But I'm not fretting it. As I mentioned over there, this gives me every reason to go ahead and move the blogs to their own sub-domains... I just have to be able to get to the fucking place online where I do that... it apparently does not work well with Win 98.

But then again, neither does Microsoft...

Evil Lurks in Laguna Beach

Several, wet, beheaded animals have washed ashore on Laguna Beach on the past week or so, according to officials.

Two goats, a dove or pigeon, and several chickens (including a rooster) have been found along the shoreline. Police says they are puzzled by the appearances of the animals and are looking into everything from childish Halloween pranks to "cold, ritualistic-type activities."

The beheading of animals plays an integral role in many primitive religious practices, most notably Vodoun. Goats and fowl play a particularly important role in many Vodoun rituals. While sometimes associated with Satanic practices, the ritualistic killing of animals is not actually a part of any Satanic rite of which this author is aware.

Laguna Beach is where the popular Empty-V "reality" show is filmed, so they have enough problems.

An Orange Ball of... Squirrel?

Residents of Baker County, Florida in the United States reported seeing "A large ball of orange fur" in and around a state park. Officials received so many reports that they began an official investigation which led to them saying it is most likely... a squirrel!

Orange phase fox squirrels can grow to be two-feet tall and can climb trees. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission laid a trap of doughnuts, and the beast took the bait. According to officials, this discounts the possibility of the creature being an orangutan, as many had previously suspected.

One official noted that, though he "is not discounting anything," the eating habits of the "orange ball of fur" simply do not match those of an orangutan.

Kids' Stuff

No matter what new topic I tackle, I always turn first to a children's book on the subject.  Not a "See Dick Run" sort of book, mind you; a basic primer aimed at young kids of ages 8-12 or so.

It may seem a waste of time, but I swear by them. After all, they really are primaries for whatever topic is at-hand -- and, though they rarely include any deep talk or complexities, they are a quick way to get an overview of the subject. I find that, even if I am intimately familiar with whatever it is I am studying, a quick read-through of a children's book on the topic reminds me of what I've forgotten.

I wrote this because I am working on the Chill gaming material (as I have mentioned, oh, once or twice, I'm sure), and tabletop RPG material is generally aimed at younger people -- not necessarily "kids" -- teenagers and young adults (YA), at least.  That being the case, while the book in question is extremely well-written, and the information it provides is obviously for a fictitious game and fictional backdrop, it includes a lot of accounts taken from "real" source material.

In reading the book, I recalled many of the tales it recounted and very few of them had been significantly altered to fit in with the game material they were presenting; they were basically just included, as-is. So few were changed that I decided to look into some of the accounts myself and include a few here, if I can find anything worthwhile I think might interest you.

One Thing or Another

Well, I sat around almost all day yesterday waiting for the electricity to come back on. It finally did around noon, but by then, I was out and about, doing other things. By the time I got back here and was prepared to work... I just didn't feel much like doing so.

Then today, I waited around all day and left the phoneline free so that a neighbor could bring me some groceries, seeing as how my car is down (again). I called and called and finally got hold of her around noon. She said she'd be here in an hour or two. So here I sat all day, reading books, and napping, until I awoke at the butt-crack of 5 PM to discover she had decided to go out of town.

Just my luck.

I have some things to get to you, but I am not promising anything. This is supposed to be my day off, as I have said before, and the only reason I wanted to get something done was because I missed yesterday due to the electricity...

Anyway, if tings work out, I'll get some of these things out to you... of course, I'll probably have to wait 32497320947 hours for this post to go through first, so...

Your Friendly Neighborhood... Second-Story Man?

Now this one's really, really old but part of the delay is in that I wasn't sure on which blog to post it then it just got lost in the shuffle. But I thought it was interesting enough to include somewhere, and given that the big Spider-Man movie hoopla is over and done with, this seems the most logical choice:

Researchers have announced that a wall-clinging suit is very feasible in the near-future. The kinds of suits that not only Spidey wears but that you often see in TV and movie programs - where the wearer dons a skin-tight, often back costume that allows the to scale sheer surfaces. He may even be able to dangle upside down from rooftops and ceilings!

While this sort of behavior is natural to some animals, many dissenters argue that this may not be the case for larger-sized humans, but the possibility does exist.

Regardless as to whether the idea proves fruitful, research into the costume is going through for now.

ESA Flying High - Really High!

The ESA (European Space Association) is finally entering the outerspace travel program at no inconsiderable costs. While their expected help in the program have been discussed for years, recent reports indicate that the ESA will, in fact, have something to do with further space exploration.

The ESA is expected to be involved in International Space Station effort with their flagship project, the Columbus laboratory. The project has cost them at least 5 billion euros getting this far and is expected to enter the fray within the next four months.

Truly detailed information on these developments can be found online at BBC.

Machine Gun Posting

We have spoken enough on the Blogger/FTP issues this month, but I just want wanted to point-out that there are several posts to get out to today and I posted the earlier ad just to see if it would go through. We got lucky on that one, so I have hopes for the others today. Unfortunately, with everything else that's been happening, I am going to basically do a 1::1 ratio until I get the sponsored posts on out there, just in case it starts to fall apart along the way.

I know that a lot of what we have been bringing you has been decidedly non-paranormal and non-Supernatural, but those tend to be shorter and more to the point,m which is why I did that: I didn't want to spend too long getting into the philosophical ramifications that often accompany the "Unknown" and Unexplained only to find out it is going to cycle through publishing for 2-3 days before finally being published. So, so long as things appear to be working more or less correctly, I am going to pump-out the stories sandwiched between some sponsored posts just so I can get them out and beat the deadlines.

If everything works out well, I'll drop back to a more relaxed agenda for the rest of the day. I just figure, given the fact that it's been working fine one day, the not at all for several, I have to do what has to be done!

Netherlands Criminalizes Psilocybe

The Dutch government is in the process of banning the sale of "magic mushrooms." Magic mushrooms contain the hallucinogenic chemicals psilocybin and psilocin, which induce giggling fits, intensification of colors, and (rarely) hallucinations. The Netherlands is world-renowned for its liberal policies pertaining to drug sale and use, as well as prostitution - the latter of which has recently seen legal tightening, as well.

This ban comes after a series of highly-publicized events involving the hallucinogens. One 17-year old girl jumped from a building, while another jumped from a balcony and broke both legs. A Dutch reporter under the influence of the mushrooms drove erratically through a campsite, nearly missing several campers. All of these were tourists.

Many Dutch business owners have complained that their losses will be in the millions, and noted that all of these incidents occurred when the mushrooms were used in conjunction with other drugs.

Psilocybe was only allowed to be sold "fresh" and not dried, as the latter contains more concentrated forms of the hallucinogenic chemicals. Psilocybe were historically used by many religious practitioners throughout the world. This practice has carried over to modern day in some religions, including Native American Animism/Shamanism.

Effing Blogger!

Well, I'm trying here. I Have several things to talk about that have been building-up over the past two weeks because of this Blogger issue, but - yet again - the same issue has cropped-up. It took over an hour to publish the first post this morning and I am simply not waiting around all day for these posts to go through.

I apologize profusely, but there is just nothing I can do about it, personally. This is a Blogger issue and seeing as how they've been having it for basically the entire month so far, I am looking into other blogging packages and may change formats, so as to avoid this happening in the future.

I'm sure you're almost as tired of hearing about it as I am of dealing with it and posting about it, so just know that if there are no posts throughout the days from here on out, it's because of Blogger - not me!

Ghost Hunters Season Finale, 2007

Tonight's Ghost Hunters was the season finale but, as I've pointed out time and again, that's something of a misnomer because Ghost Hunters runs in "half-seasons." Sci-Fi does like 6 new episodes twice a year, which almost makes an entire season (a full season is 13 episodes, with an option to pick up the back 9) -- when you include the Halloween specials, it works out.

Seeing as how Ghost Hunters is one of Sci-Fi's highest-rated and most popular shows, the only reasoning I can give for this (and it is completely a guess) is that it's a reality show and the guys involved have families and day jobs, so they can't do it full-time. But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because you would think doing this full-time would be more lucrative than their day jobs... I don't know.

At any rate, tonight was the "season finale" and it was a retrospective of previous events, and Jason's and Grant's favorite episodes/investigations. But it was also a round table discussion with the group, hosted by Josh from Destination Truth, in which they discussed general, sometimes personal, things and answered questions from the audience submitted via e-mail. I did not see the last ¹/₂-hour of the show because something else I wanted to watch came on (if I catch the repeat later, I may comment), but the one question I noticed they did not address was what happened to Brian Harnois and those cats. We answered that here, but I don't know how close to the truth we got, and I just don't care anymore.

A pretty good episode with some behind-the-scenes stuff and a little bit more about the players. I hope they show the entire 1-¹/₂ hours of the program in reruns (a lot of times, they edit them down to fit the 60-minute timeslot) so I can catch the whole thing. They should -- after all, they can make that work in one of those all-day marathons, especially since the shows are divided into two ¹/₂-hour investigations.

Trousers Snake Bitten in the Butt

Former Judge Roy Pearson was not reappointed to the bench after losing his $54 million lawsuit against a local dry cleaners who lost his frigging pants!

If you recall this story, Pearson claimed the dry cleaners lost his trousers and renegged on a "satisfaction guaranteed" pledge. The poor family lost their business due to the court costs they incurred at the hands of this jackass, and even had the pants the man claimed they lost, but he refused to accept them!

I know I am cynical when it comes to the American legal system, but that's because it doesn't work; if it ever did, the time is long past. Unscrupulous defense attorneys (that's redundant, I know) have so twisted the letter of the law that the spirit is no longer to be found - and this case proves it!

I realize this is not necessarily an "odd" story, but it one I have been following and fits here and I have been following it, so I wanted to bring it to you. I know people the world over were outraged by this asshole's actions and while not being reappointed is a step in the right direction, I truly believe this jerk should face some kind of legal repercussions!

Do you know that some people who are arrested for the most minor of misdemeanors spend days in jail awaiting their court appointment? And litigious bullshit like this is directly responsible. There are many other factors, to be sure, but you cannot deny that this sort of thing is at the top of a pretty short list.

The entire premise of the case wasn't just "flimsy," it was flat-out ridiculous and should have been thrown out at first glance. And the amount for which Pearson was asking was outrageous even for a wrongful death case in most instances! I can't help but think his political pull is what allowed the case to get as far as it did and really, when I think about it, everyone involved in allowing this to happen should face some serious consequences.

Beautiful Autumn Day

Well, knock wood, we seem to be up and running today. Of course, like every other day the past few weeks, we'll just have to wait and see how things go...

I have a few more "odd" stories to get out to you, as well as some news stories that are actually quite old. This hit-and-miss outage has really gotten me behind. I spent several minutes earlier writing a post that I had written yesterday! I just couldn't remember if it had gone through or not until I checked and saw it.

Anyway, I'll try to spread them out a bit over the day, but seeing as how there are so many of them, there may be a kind of information dump here early-on. Just whatever - however it plays itself out.

Hope everyone else is having a good day! It's a wonderful, breezy, 70-somethingº this beautiful Fall day. There is an 80% chance of thunderstorms and the electricity has already gone out on me once this morning, so - between that and damn Blogger - I'm playing it by ear.

The Nightlife

If you are a cat owner (or have ever lost one), you'll like this story:

Sgt. Podge, a 12-year old cat from Talbot Woods, Bournemouth, in England, leaves every night about the same time and takes off in the same direction. The next morning, his owner drives by to pick him up at the "usual spot."

Liz Bullard said, one night earlier this year, Sgt. Podge took off and was nowhere to be found. She posted bulletins around the neighborhood and a woman who lives nearly two miles away called and said she had found the wayward pussycat. Ms. Bullard went over and picked him up. A few days later, Sgt. Podge disappeared again. Bullard called the same woman to find out that Podge had indeed returned to her home and was awaiting his car home.

Since then, a routine has become established. Each morning, Bullard takes her son to school and picks up Sgt. Podge at the predetermined destination. When it rains, Podge waits in the bushes, but bounds to the car when Ms. Bullard claps her hands.

Cats were praised by the Egyptians, who considered them the reincarnation of gods. They often appear in Supernatural literature and figure prominently in superstitions the world over.

I Now Pronounce You Man and Dog

An Indish man has married a dog in hopes of lifting what he thinks is a curse.

33-year old P Selvakumar of the Sivaganga district stoned two dogs to death several years back. Since then, he has gone blind and fallen prey to paralyzation. Selvakumar believes his run of extremely "bad luck" is connected to this incident.

Selvakumar was perfectly healthy 15 years back, but after stoning two dogs to death, his health began to fail. He says he tried every cure imaginable, but nothing helped, so on the advice of astrologers and several others, he decided to marry a dog.

The practice is actually not uncommon in Selvakumar's culture. Superstitious Indians often marry animals in attempts to ward off curses. But it really isn't so far removed from Western society; many of us marry bitches, too.

OH COME ON! You knew it was coming.

Test Post - Blogger Hates FTP

Well shit. It says it is still uploading files from yesterday. I found out this is a known issue for Blogger and has been going on since the day we started having problems here. A whole lot of people posted about it yesterday, as well, so I'm glad to know it isn't just me. I didn't think it was.

Anyway, this is basically just yet another test post to see if it gets through and how long it takes. I can't publish anything while it's like this, so there's no real point in trying. The only thing I can do is save a bunch of posts in draft form and then roll them all out later this week or whenever Blogger gets their shit together. That means you may not see anything for several days, then you won't be able to read everything in one sitting! I hate that - big no-no in blogging, really - but what can I do?

Anyway, if this goes through like it should, we'll be back in business. I have a few things from yesterday, something from this weekend, and I'm sure one or two things will pop-up over the course of this beautiful day.

Killing Yourself Just Got More Costly

Where I live, the taxes on tobacco products were raised - again, this is about the fourth time they've been raised in the past 10 years or so - nearly $1.00 a pack, ostensibly to pay for education. Now, I'm all for the education of young people - even more for the education of those over 18 - and I live in a really stupid part of the South. I am not saying this to be ugly; this is just a fact. Where I live, the overwhelming majority of people, both young and old, are woefully uneducated. Many drop-out of highschool as early as the 9th-grade and very few of those who graduate ever attend college. So, on the surface, this seems like a sound idea.

But I really do not feel that, because I smoke, I should be held responsible for other peoples' children's education. Even if I had kids of my own, which I don't (yet - he said hopefully), I would not send them to public schools, so I don't want to be charged extra to pay for other peoples' children's schooling.

The UK is going through a somewhat similar issue when it comes to alcohol consumption. Apparently, the normalization of heavy drinking is leading to an increase in alcohol-related disease, especially among younger drinkers. Of 115 doctors who spoke to the BBC, 101 of them said there had been an increase in the number of patients they have treated involving alcohol-related problems. 77 said they had treated patients with "pretty catastrophic" damage who were under the age of 25.

So authorities are thinking of raising the taxes on alcohol in order to curb this disturbing trend. Of course, they do not want to dissuade casual and social drinkers from partaking, but they do want to lessen the medical impact on both younger drinkers, as well as society at-large. As one doctor notes, the burden to society is "...hugely greater for alcohol than for drugs, but the majority of money has always gone on drugs, partly because of the strong link to crime."

This is true - not just some factoid pot proponents like to point out. But is raising the taxes really the answer? I mean, people who seriously have alcohol problems are going to find a way to afford their "fix," regardless the cost. If anything, it seems like making the substance harder to acquire will actually increase crime, when you think about it.

As usual, large corporations seem to think the easiest route is a good "solution" to a complex problem. It seems obvious to me that more education is needed, but even with that, people who want to drink are going to drink, regardless! Like Denis Leary said about cigarettes, 'You can put a picture of a skull and crossbones on the pack and we'll be lining up around the block to get to those things!'

There are far too few pleasures in this life to keep taxing them away and denying them to everyone. Without being too flippant, I would imagine a pretty direct link could be made between the rising anger of the general Western population and the continual denial of simple pleasures.

What are these taxes going to be spent on anyway? If you tell me "educating young people as to the dangers of alcohol" or something equally ridiculous, then... I mean, it's all circuitous and it comes right back to itself, doesn't it? If you educate these young people as to the dangers of alcohol, you don't need to overly-tax them, so why are you overly-taxing them so that you can educate them as to the dangers of alcohol?

What I mean is that, people who want to drink are going to drink - even if they know it isn't good for them, even if they have to pay a little extra to do it. It's just Big Business at work; don't let them make you think they care whether or not we drink ourselves to death.


© C Harris Lynn, 2008

The UFO Conference

Well, whatever enticing new evidence was presented at the UFO press conference earlier hasn't made it to the major media outlets - of course, that's hard to say, since they ignore it anyway. But the conference has definitely achieved its goal, which was to spread the news and hopefully get the US to reopen its famed Project Bluebook program, which has supposedly not been in operation since the late 1960s. The conference, and the message, has made international news.

It involved high-ranking governmental and military experts from seven countries, all of whom either had personal experiences with UFOs or had worked on UFO-related cases. They argued that it was really a matter of national security, as much as anything else.

The USAF claimed that nothing significant enough had occurred in the last 40 years which demanded the reopening of such a program.

Technical Notes

I know I have been "chatting" a lot lately about things decidedly not odd, but there has been a lot going on with the site, IRL, and with other things. Like I have said time and again, real "news" of the paranormal is not all that frequent.

But I do need to know if anyone else is experiencing this problem with Blogger blogs posted via FTP. I know that some of this stuff has to do with the fact that I am on Windows 98, but this is a really good computer with a lot of RAM and plenty of HD space, so while some sites simply will not come up (or take their sweet-ass time doing so), I am not sure this has anything to do with that.

In the first week, when it took several days for a few posts to go through, I logged off entirely and let it run on its own. Now, why would Blogger have a problem publishing to my site because of my OS when I was already done with what I had to do? I mean, if I were posting directly from my computer/connection, that would be a viable possibility as to the source of the problem; I do not think Win 98 is the problem, even though some other sites and programs are having issues with my OS.

Speaking of which, I am pretty sure The OddBlog is moving to a sub-domain (oddblog.theweirding.net), but not 100% just yet. I want to move it, but I can't get into the part of my host where I do that - I'm assuming thanks to Win 98. I go off on that a bit over to The Wording tomorrow (already wrote the post, but I try to keep them down to a minimum over there to make sure infrequent readers get a chance to see what I do post), if you're interested. Anyway, I am going to move The Rundown onto the website and if anyone knows how that works, I'd love to hear more about it. I am worried about losing what Google PR I have over there, as well as making sure people will be redirected to the right place. In particular, I want to make sure people are redirected to the right post when they enter individual URLs (if they want to see a specific post, I want to be sure it redirects them to that exact post on the new domain). Any help or suggestions anyone has are greatly appreciated!

Other than that, I did get the Chill section online. There are some problems with the Books section which I am about to tackle, but other than that, things look pretty good - a good start, if I say so myself. I have some chatting to do about the UFO conference earlier today, but not much... I had hoped for a bit more revealing of information and what-not, but it doesn't appear much of that took place. Still, it's worth a post.

"ADHD" Meds Harmful

Well, I'm not sure how this one got past the pharmaceutical companies, nor who funded it, but here's one study (at long last) that has a grain of truth to it:

An influential US study has determined that drug treatments for children with the controversial ADHD do not help. In fact, they said that drug treatments (Ritalin, Concerta, etc.) had no more effect after three years than traditional therapy and could even stunt children's growth. The conclusion: the benefits of these drugs has been exaggerated.

The OddBlog would like to go on record as saying, "Duh."

But it gets even better! The professor in charge of the study then said, "There's no indication that medication's better than nothing in the long run." Professor Pelham said there were no beneficial effects of the medication and all of the effects they had observed were actually negative.

Children suffered from growth problems and displayed emotional problems, including violent mood swings, night terrors, self-harm, and even violence toward others.

Again, The OddBlog would like to go on record as saying, "We told you so."

Blogger FTP

Blogger's doing that damned hanging thing again today with blogs going through FTP. Has anyone else had this problem this week?

What happens is that it pops up that "Taking longer than expected" message, and no matter how many times you click to wait, it just cycles back to it. Further, when you try to click on the "Show Transfer Progress" link, nothing shows up.

It eventually did publish the posts I made today, but it took a little over an hour to do so. On the 4^th, it took almost 4 whole days to publish!

This really worries me because I am about to move The Rundown onto the site and it's HUGE! Over 1500 posts on that dude and if this one is taking 4 days to publish, that one might never publish!

Again, if anyone reading this uses Blogger to publish via FTP, I would love to hear if you've been experiencing these issues lately. I have tried surfing some other blogs, but seeing as how I'm on this old 98 machine, a lot of them give me messages about it slowing FlashPlayer 9.0 and my computer might become unresponsive, etc., so I am basically stuck!

Thanks.

UFOs on Larry King Live, Press Conference Tomorrow

Friday night on Larry King Live, he had a very impressive panel of high-ranking and important military and political officials who had either first-hand experience with alien craft or were prepared to speak on behalf of their constituency who had.

And then he had Shirley Maclaine.

Now, to be fair, Maclaine is one of the premiere actresses of our time - hands down - she's phenomenal. And I agree with much of what she says, concerning Ufology, at least. She's well-read, well-informed, intelligent, and passionate. But having Shirley Maclaine on the show amidst such an impressive and qualified panel smacked to me of so much schlock! It's like when Oprah does a show on something very serious, then brings out John Travolta or someone right in the middle of it for no reason and asks his opinion on the topic:

"Today, we're discussing abortion: who has more rights, the mother or the child? We're here with Holly, who was raped by her father and impregnated. Also, we have Tasha, who found out her son would be born with crippling birth defects and would never lead a normal life. But right now, I want to bring out a very special guest: JOHN TRAV-OL-TA!"

I mean, really.

Not to mention that the stories he covered throughout the first of the program were incidents which have been well-reported and are well-known throughout the community. So I fell asleep while Shirley talked...

However, the real news is that a truly distinguished panel of Ufologists and witnesses are holding a conference tomorrow at 11 AM in the National Press Club ballroom to discuss the matter of UFOs and the American government's role in researching the phenomena. Obviously, this is HUGE news and The OddBlog will be covering it in great detail in the coming weeks, so watch for that.

This is a monumental event I fear will not bring the attention it deserves, partly due to the timing. It being so close to an election year, I have a feeling many politicians will overlook the event, citing "more pressing matters." But the press release does mention the disclosure of evidence previously unreleased, so who knows? There is always the possibility of some great news piece that will capture the imaginations of Americans everywhere and make them scream louder (again), "What exactly is up there?!"

The evidence for alien life - or at least for intelligently-controlled craft being active in the world's airspace - is overwhelming. There is certainly more, and more credible, evidence for it than there is for the existence of, say, black holes - yet the phenomena of black holes is accepted without question. Why, exactly, is this? No one has been able to give me a satisfactory answer to that, yet.

Much Work Done

I'll get to Larry King Live in the next post because I have to do some quick research on some of the things they discussed the other night (and, honestly, I fell asleep about halfway through the program, sadly).

But I wanted to let you know why I wasn't here yesterday:

I know I have been taking Saturdays off lately and I said I was trying to get on a schedule that allowed me to do just that. I'm sticking to that, so yesterday was an anomaly. But I spent the entire day working on the website, which is a great thing. It isn't so much that I have been putting it off as it is that I just haven't wanted to get into the middle of a huge project when I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it. Big projects of such a delicate nature just can't be dropped and picked up in media res.

But I got far enough ahead in my notes that I went ahead and tackled a significant portion of the Chill section yesterday and actually finished most of it! Well, to be fair, I have been working on it in pieces for most of the week - an hour or two each day, as I found the time - but yesterday I went ahead and jumped into the fray.

Something will be up late tonight or tomorrow, I just can't say exactly what yet. Still, I have a lot more work ahead.

So, Larry King...

Animal Masks

Halloween may well be over, but that doesn't mean you can't still have fun with costumes. Kids love to play dress-up (so do a lot of adults!) and they do not need a holiday to do it. There are a lot of good excuses to wear animal masks: show and tell, oral reports, costume balls, school or local plays, or just plain fun!

Whether you or someone you know likes animals, The Jungle Store has masks of all kinds for any reason. Follow the link above to check out their great selection and even better prices!

UFOs on Larry King Live and Blogger FTP

I am trying to stay awake for the UFO show on Larry King Live in about an hour. It's not so much that I will be able to sleep as it is that I need the sleep! I haven't been able to sleep more than an hour or two all week long, thanks to my medication. I figured out I have taken more of it than I should have, but that's a catch-22 because I couldn't sleep, so I had to take my medication since I was awake - and I couldn't sleep because of the medication!

Anyway, Larry King Live has a whole show on UFOs tonight, which looks promising and comes on right after Flash Gordon. I wanted to tell you this earlier, and have a few other stories to get out to you, but Blogger has been doing that freaking slow FTP-loading all day today. It took one of the earlier posts something like 30-45 minutes to upload this afternoon, so I just started working on something else.

But I wanted to tell you about the show tonight and plan to discuss it tonight or tomorrow.

Milk Does a Birthday Good

A new study has shown that vitamin D may slow the aging process, but the study stops short of claiming cause and effect. Apparently, vitamin D shortens the DNA strands of telomere within each cell, which effectively "slows" aging.

Now, this is good news and everything, but I want to admonish readers not to take it too far. These studies are released at a rate of something like 10 a day and are paid for by vested interests, so none of them can be trusted anymore. They don't even really bother to hide that fact any longer, and a study that "proves" the exact opposite of this one's is only a week away.

That being said, I truly believe that the vitamins and minerals which should be present in all our bodies plays a far greater role on literally everything than we have been lead to believe up to now. The pharmaceutical companies would have you think that all of your flaws and "deficiencies" can only be effectively corrected through manufactured, prescription medications, but I have always said this is not the case. This study at least confirms that certain vitamins appear to have a greater effect on aspects of our lives that we may not even have considered before.

The original article can be found here on the BBC.

America's Most Mysterious Tower

A stone structure overlooking Newport Harbor in Rhode Island is as mysterious as its appearance. While it looks like no other building in America, boasting eight arches formed by eight, rounded columns, and is constructed of stone from many eras, its exact date of origin - as well as its original purpose - are lost to history.

Various stories say the building was built in the 12^th-Century by Norse colonists; by 14^th-Century Scottish explorers; 15^th-Century Chinese sailors; 16^th-Century Portugese pilgrims; or possibly by none other than one Benedict Arnold in the 17^th-Century! As best as anyone can tell, the building was erected between 300 and 900 years ago.

The first written reference (according to History Channel Magazine) was in the 1678 will of Benedict Arnold, where he (supposedly) refers to it as "my Stone built windmill!" Archaeological excavations have uncovered artifacts dating back no further than the 17^th-Century. C-14 carbon dating of the mortar indicates it was built between 1635 and 1698.

However, many have pointed out that C-14 carbon dating is not very reputable, and that the lack of pre-17^th-Century artifacts is not proof that the tower did not exist prior to that time. Also, the mortar tested may have come from later repairs to the tower.

The tower's builders have been in question for ages now - since at least 1839, when Danish scholar, Carl Christian Rafn, discussed it.

In 2006, the nonprofit organization, Chronognostic Research Foundation, claimed to have found stones bearing tool marks that pre-date the 17^th-Century. These rocks were found beneath the extent of the previous dig in 1949.

Sub-Domain on the Brain

Aaarrggh!

Okay, okay. Give me a few more hours or one more day. I got sidetracked after Supernatural with trying to figure out how to add a sub-domain so each blog can exist on its own "domain." For instance, "oddblog.theweirding.net," instead of the current path.

In general, the way we have it now is fine, but it looks better on its own sub-domain, not to mention boosts Google PR, as it looks to the search engines as though each blog exists on its own domain. Technically, they all exist on The Weirding domain, just as they do now, but a sub-domain is preferable to a simple directory.

The next topic I am bringing you is on the Old Stone Mill, one of the most mysterious structures in America. I just got in the middle of this project and am awaiting a response from the host, so if everything goes through quickly enough, I'll go on and rush that right out to ya. Otherwise, it will be late tonight or tomorrow.

Fascinating story, though.

Seriously...

Hey guys, sorry. I went to the doctor and got my medications Monday and I don't know what's going on, but it's been a rough week. I think it's the cold weather, honestly. My neck and shoulder have been hurting terribly most everyday and if I take too much medication, it makes me sick. It gives me that "swimmy" headache - kind of right behind the eyes, with nausea - like motion sickness or when you read for too long in a car.

I'm getting ready to settle in and watch good ol' Supernatural (still the best show on TV, for my money - or yours) and try to catch-up on some of the periodicals (History Channel Magazine, Smithsonian, Heavy Metal, etc.), but I am going to get at least a few posts out to you right now because I don't want there to be 2 days in a row where I promised something and did to deliver.

Agenda

Well, we're apparently back in business finally! Like I said earlier, I didn't even know we had been out of business until yesterday and Blogger didn't clear it up until early this morning, but everything appears to be going through regularly now.

I have many posts to get out to you, largely because I was finding all sorts of things to post about, but I spent all day trying to get anything to go through.

But I did not sleep a wink last night. Well, I slept for like an hour, then woke up, then slept for an hour, etc. And - quite literally - all my dishes are dirty... all of them. So I am going to do a sinkful of dishes, then grab a light lunch, and try to take a nap. But I'll be here this afternoon and on throughout the night.

Blogger FTP Problems

Hey guys, sorry about everything. I have been posting steadily for the past few days here. I had no idea they were not being published until this morning, when I tried to post and it would not go through.

When I got to looking, it showed that the posts I had made the last few days had not come through (even though they appeared to have gone through just fine in the dashboard)!

When I publish posts on any of the blogs, I rarely actually view the blog; I just publish the entry and move on to the next project on my agenda. And we all know I rarely get anything done, so my agenda is always full... anyway, I will start checking more closely from now on because this was obviously going on for 2-3 days before it came to my attention and for that, I apologize.

I spent literally all day yesterday trying to get the posts to come through. Even went so far as to republish the entire blog! Well, tried to anyway. So, once again, I'm a day behind through absolutely no fault of my own...

Time to make the doughnuts...

Math and Ms. Peterson

We talked the other day about a teacher named Peterson who recently absconded with a 13-year old boy to Mexico. The two were said to have been having a sexual relationship and that’s why they ran away.

But - for as terrible as all of that is - check this out: the 25-year old former teacher is 25; the boy is 13; there is only about 8 years’ difference between the two. The woman already has an 8-year old daughter! The daughter is only 5 years younger than the woman’s current lover.

Here’s the math CNN’s Erica Hill pointed out that almost escaped me: it means that she had the daughter when she was about 13 years old!!!

Now this all sounds bad because, well, it is bad, but think about this: if the woman was sexually abused at/around age 12-13, then she is likely psycho-sexually "stuck" at that age - which explains this pedophilic relationship (and will then most likely form the basis of her defense).

But obviously, there is a huge difference between being sexually abused and simply sexually active. I’m sure we’ll find out more as the story unfolds.

© C Harris Lynn, 2007-08

News and New Features

Hey! Just a quick few technical notes to fill you in on some things you may or may not care about:

Google recently reassessed their "PR" ratings (which stands for Page Rank, not Press Release or Publicity Relations, but is closely-related in meaning to both) and we got back up to an impressive 2! Now, on a scale from 1-10, this obviously isn't that impressive, but just so you know, we had either a 2 or 3 before we moved the site and I was dismayed to see it had fallen to a solid 0 for the past several months, so I'm happy that we jumped a solid 2 points.

Just so you know, it's pretty hard to get it up to anything above a 3 unless you're a Perez Hilton or the like and... well, we ain't goin' there, honey, mmmkay?

The other thing is that, if you have a Gmail account, you can now subscribe to comments from all The Weirding Blogs (you can also subscribe to threads originating on The Wording, but you don't have to send them to your Gmail account). When you comment, you should see a checkbox there to do this; just check the little box and then you'll know whenever anyone responds to anything you've said or comments on any of the posts on which you've commented.

Tons to do today, so stay tuned! And, as always, thanks for reading! (And tell your friends!)

Computer Meltdown of the Future?

Have you ever watched the show, 2057? It's on one of the top-tier cable science channels and I've seen it several times, but have no idea its regular airing time or day.

Anyway, it's a great show that always brings up a number of philosophical and scientific questions. And the episode I saw earlier did much the same:

It had to do with a grandchild who gained access to his grandfather's "old" laptop. Of course, by then, such devices were relics of the past, but this one was well-advanced of the models to which you and I (and most of the general populace) have access. Anyway, his grandfather had been some kind of "master hacker" and he and the child's mother had had an argument, so the grandfather had left.

The kid wanted to get in the old man's computer and send out 3-D ads throughout the city (de rigeur for 2057, mind you), pleading for his grandfather's return. In so doing, he managed to infect the entire city with an "ancient" virus. Within hours, the whole place was completely gridlocked (thanks to computerized, robotic cars), people were locked in and out of their homes and businesses, and so on and so forth.

Now, even if the show was wrong about half of the advancements, the entire scenario seemed quite plausible and I had to wonder just how far into the future such a possibility is. I mean, even without robotic cars and citywide networking, if you are in a fairly large city, just think of exactly how much damage a crippling virus, DOS attack, or hijacking could do, especially when coupled with relatively "low-level" technology, such as radio.

The smallest, cleverest, little thing - such as hacking into a city-wide major TV network broadcast and displaying a fake emergency message (EBS in America - Emergency Broadcast System) - could feasibly shut down a city of considerable size.

I mean, even if the proper authorities were able to almost instantly confirm the report was faked and regain control of the network, the level of panic and possible destruction that could be unleashed in those few moments could well be all it takes!

Sure, it seems a little far-fetched - slightly, slightly far-fetched - but the real implications are beyond the scope of this little missive; if you really stop to consider it, just how safe are we from this sort of computer misconduct today?

Ghost Hunters Live, More Halloween

We have been getting an inordinate amount of spam here lately - I mean like 50-75 a day! It’s been since Halloween, so even though I know (intellectually) that this is not true, I do wonder if someone somehow affiliated with Brian Harnois hasn’t been storming us!

Okay, I know it’s not true - I said it wasn’t true - I’m just saying!

Speaking of which, I made note of why I fell offline Halloween night: turns out, the little snappy-thing on the phonecord had somehow broken off in the computer plug, so even though I did have the correct cord in the correct plug correctly, it wasn’t actually plugging in like it should have and I didn’t figure it out until like Friday, when I turned the computer on its side because the fan wouldn’t quit whirring. The little piece fell out and I was like, “Damn!” I mean really, even if I had been stone-cold sober (let’s... let’s say I was, shall we?), I don’t know that I would have figured that one out except on a fluke, like I did.

So I watched about 2-3 hours of the Ghost Hunters all-nighter, but it just wasn’t doing it for me. I really wanted to last it out, but between the beers and the computer effing-up, and everything else, I just couldn’t focus on it and was blinking-out. There was absolutely nothing else on, so I wound-up hanging out with a friend and just enjoying the evening.

I have no idea how it turned out, but I haven’t heard any great buzz across the blogosphere or seen any “revealing” ads on Sci-Fi, so I’m assuming not much went down.