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Friday, July 30, 2004

Meteor lights up central Victorian sky
29/07/2004. ABC News Online

A huge meteor has been seen in the skies over central Victoria. There have been reports of a big red and blue light streaking over theCastlemaine area just after 1:00am AEST today.

Policewoman Senior Constable Sharon McEachern says she was on patrolduty with a colleague in Maldon when she saw the light in the sky. She says it was a spectacular sight that lasted about 15 seconds.

"A bright blue light going across the sky...not coming straight down andit just had a large blue tail and a bright red ball and then as it wentacross it just exploded into pieces, so I'm not sure whether it was acomet, or a meteor, or what it was," she said.

© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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CONFERENCE NOTES
A Conference lecture summary is available as a 7 page Word document.

Download CLICK  66Kb

Thank you UFOR(NSW) good job!

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CONFERENCE PHOTOS
UFO Research (NSW) and UFO Society of Western Sydney 2004 National UFO
Conference Held on 5/6 June 2004 at Campbelltown.

Not many but its a start!

Full list CLICK

GEORGE SIMPSON at Conference Dinner

BUD HOPKINS & DEBBIE PAYNE (AURA)
DUNCAN ROADS
(Editor of Nexus magazine) at Conference Dinner

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CHARLES FORT BOOK "LO"

Mac Tonnies has an introduction to the new reissue of Charles Fort book 'Lo!'. Mac tells us that his bit appears on the back cover of the Cosimo edition. Tonnies also notes "Cosimo is going to reprint all of Fort's books, if I understand correctly."

About the book - CLICK

FROM THE BOOK COVER

ABOUT THE BOOK: "Charles Fort was an intellectual adventurer, a deep-dyed scholar of the weird whose work paved the way for generations of researchers. Writing in the early 20th century, Fort pursued unexplained phenomena with feverish intensity and a rare sense of humility.

"Fort's Lo! is a classic work of studied iconoclasm, a restless ensemble of anecdotes thatproduces a singular sense of unease mingled with awe, gape-jawed amazement—and a pang of existential fright. Fort's parade of scientific anomalies frames the larger anomaly that is human existence. Lo! is a book with the capacity to rewire brains and sculpt new lenses for seeing the unexpected, the unexplained—and perhaps for glimpsing our own role in Fort's mystifying cosmic scheme.

"This book is a singularity, a focal point so rich with heretical memes that it's infected an entire century with its bizarre implications and sense of the inexplicable. Perhaps if Charles Fort had never existed, we would have been forced to invent him, or someone like him. But it's doubtful we could have improved on him. Lo! is something new and correspondingly startling: a crack in the veneer of orthodoxy and an impassioned plunge into the deep black waters of a most enigmatic planet."  - Mac Tonnies, author of After the Martian Apocalypse and Illumined Black.

THE EARTH MAC

THE REAL MAC

THE AUTHOR MAC
Macs' Blog Have A Look

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BELIEF IN HELL BOOSTS ECONOMIC GROWTH - FED SAYS
Fear of nether world is a ‘disincentive to wrongdoing’ — reverend
Updated: 4:34 p.m. ET July 27, 2004

WASHINGTON - Economists searching for reasons why some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis "In countries where where large percentages of the population believe in hell, there seems to be less corruption and a higher standard of living," the St. Louis Fed said in its July quarterly review.

For instance, 71 percent of the U.S. population believe in hell and the country boasts the world's highest per capita income, according to the 2003 United Nations Human Development Report and 1990-1993 World Values Survey.

Ireland, not far behind the United States in terms of income, likewise has a healthy fear of a nether world with 53 percent of the population acknowledging hell's existence. FULL STORY

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FORTEAN ART
The Ninth Wave -FT 177 - 30th Anniversary Special 2003

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Thursday, July 29, 2004

ET AND THE NZ SKEPTICS
NZCSICOP Inc

 The NZ Skeptics have a conference on the books for Saturday 11 to Sunday 12 September, the speakers are below. I draw you attention to their poster... very nice!

DOWNLOAD Copy PDF - CLICK 935Kb

Our King Richard will do us all proud with his show, but I fear Australian Skeptic Richard Lead may have that barrow he pushes around full of that bull s**t. Anyway he's an accountant, need I say more? Not a big agenda but its some thing to do in the land of the long white cloud and friendly sheep, take your spurs and gum boots King Richard! (Poor Sheep!)



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Crop Circles Offer Straight Line To Success
The Age, Australia - Jul 26, 2004
By David Harrison.

"Mr Lundberg's hero is Doug Bowers, a watercolour artist who, with Dave Chorley, a fellow artist, started secretly making crop circles in Britain in the late 1970s. Bowers was inspired by "a couple of crop circles blamed on UFOs" while he was living in Australia. The pair continued their hoaxes for 14 years before confessing to a shocked - and, in some quarters, disappointed - world in 1991.

Bowers, now 80, is surprised at the commercial turn of late. "We just wanted people to think that a UFO had landed in a field, when it was really just two blokes with a plank of wood," he said. "And it worked a treat.

"We'd make the crop circles and crowds would come to see them. We used to mingle with them and listen to what they were saying, all these so-called UFO experts spouting off about aliens. We would look at each and burst out laughing.

"We did it for a laugh. Money - and even art - never came into it. Who would have thought it would come to this?""

The Doug & Dave bull has been doing the rounds for years. These two numnuts have magic powers of being able to create crop circles all over the world while they sit at home in old dart! I wonder if any POM farmer have sent them a bill for damaging their crops? - Thats the POM for yah!


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DR. J ALLEN HYNE
THE PIED PIPER OF UFOLOGY?

Source:   Official UFO  Page 14, Vol. 1, No. 8, May 1976

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T. TOWNSEND BROWN & NICAP

Did you know this about inventor named T. Townsend Brown?

"When the final history of private UFO investigations is written, the place of honor as the leading membership organization at one time will undoubtedly go to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, or NICAP.

For most of its existence it has been the best known of all the non-governmental groups, the largest and the most influential. Located in the heart of Washington, D.C., and long headed by the dynamic Donald Keyhoe, it was the obvious source of UFO news for the immense Washington press corps, and thus was in the spotlight whenever the UFOs were flying.

Backed by a staff which grew as large as nine full-time employees, NICAP operated through a world­wide network o£ investigative sub­committees and scientific advisors. To communicate with a membership which reached a high of 14,000 in the late 1960s, it published the periodic "UFO Investigator" and a long list of special booklets and reports; its 1964 "UFO Evidence" report remains a classic among the serious literature on the subject.

It all began in the late summer of 1956, when a group of Washington­area UFO enthusiasts decided to develop their informal discussion group into something more specific and permanent. With an inventor named T. Townsend Brown leading the way, NICAP was incorporated in October of 1956. Brown envisioned plush offices, a sophisticated Washington-style operation and a quick solution to the mystery.

It was a great idea, but the hoped for finances never materialized, and by the end of 1956 NICAP found itself in the midst of the first of many financial crises. The Board of Governors met in the middle of January, 1957, eased Brown and his cohorts out, and installed Keyhoe as the new director, with almost unlimited powers."

THE NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE ON AERIAL PHENOMENA - NICAP
Source:  Official UFO  Page 32, Vol. 1, No. 7, April 1976

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004

TRUE BROTHERS
Also available for the photo shoot where Natasha homo-saps older brothers Ian and Barry.

Darwinian View Of Professor Ian Plimer
& Barry Williams
Love Paul de Blog

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Monkey Apes Humans By Walking On 2 Legs

 Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/AP 

A young monkey at an Israeli zoo has started walking on its hind legs only, like humans, after a near death experience.  Natasha, a 5-year-old black macaque at the Safari Park near Tel Aviv, was diagnosed with severe stomach flu with three other monkeys and slipped into  critical condition two weeks ago.  After intensive treatment, her condition stabilized. But to everyone's surprise, when she was released from the clinic, she began walking upright like a  human. Her veterinarian says the only possible explanation is that the monkey suffered brain damage from the illness."

The NDE is very interesting!

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BELIEF SYSTEMS - THE JEDI FAITH

While we are on belief system take a look, even the Australian Government in all its wisdom must obey belief system. Come on all you skeptics try and change this Australian Bureau of Statistics fact! Too hard....

Census of Population and Housing
The 2001 Census, Religion and the Jedi
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recognises that people have a wide range of belief systems

If your belief system is "Jedi" then answer as such on the census form. But if you would normally answer Anglican or Jewish or Buddhist or something else to the question "what is your religion?" and for the census you answer "Jedi" then this may impact on social services provision if enough people do the same. READ

AND THIS:

May The Farce Be With You
Sydney Morning Herald - August 27 2002

More than 70,000 Australians identified their religion as Jedi, Jedi Knight or Jedi-related in last year's national census. The high number of Jedi-related religions was a response to an email published before the census calling on Star Wars fans to state Jedi as their religion.

"If there are enough people in the country, about 10,000, who put down the same religion, it becomes a fully recognised and legal religion," the email said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said Jedi or Jedi-related responses had been categorised as not defined for census output purposes.

"However, due to interest in this matter further analysis of census responses has been undertaken since the release of census data on 17 June to separately identify the number of Jedi-related responses," an ABS spokesman said.

He said 0.37 per cent, or 70,509 people, provided Jedi or a Jedi-related response on their census form.

"The optional religious question was included in the 2001 Census because, outside of government, religious organisations are the biggest provider of a range  of services to the community, such as education, hospitals, and aged care facilities," the spokesman said.

"For example, around 30 per cent of Australian children attend schools provided by religious organisations.

"Census information is important for planning these facilities."



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CALLING XENUTHESKEPTIC

XenuTheSkeptic had this to say in a comment page found below: "I just found out that the Church of Scientology think that we all come from UFOs! Would the UFO people out there please comment and do something about this rubbish? Or is Paul de Blog to scared to take on Scientology? Xenu 07.25.04 - 1:52

 XenuTheSkeptic had this to say about Scientology:

"Well what did you think of that story?

What? You thought it was a stupid story?

Well so do we. However, this story is the core belief in the religion known as Scientology.* If people knew about this story then most people would never get involved in it. This story is told to you when you reach one of their secret levels called OT III. After that you are supposed to telepathically communicate with these body thetans to make them go away. You have to pay a lot of money to get to this level and do this (or you have to work very hard for the organisation on extremely low pay for many years). We are telling you this story as a warning. If you become involved with Scientology then we would like you to do so with your eyes open and fully aware of the sort of material it contains." VIEW PAGE

Scared no! But your right Mr XenuTheSkeptic what a lot of rubbish to think about. Why does it  occupy your time dear fellow, no more magnetic pillow out there?

However on this topic, this is where most skeptics and I part company - why? Well I don't care what you or anyone hold up as a belief system. You can make false images or icons to the Barry Williams Belief system or the Prof Plimer BHP connection even walk around the streets with a bucket on your head... that’s OK with me. Now if you decide to hurt someone then the law of the land will be upon you, again that is done by the correct authorities with the backing of the community. Most skeptics are under some odd delusion they are acting for or saving the community. This some what "God Like" position is false, you don't represent anyone. If you did then you would have a office in Canberra to do your good deeds. This is the challenge to you, save us from snake oil sales men is one thing but get a conviction is another.

Let’s see some guts in the skeptics, as someone pointed out in another comment line go get the scientist who make money out of DEATH PROJECTS! Or is that just too hard... I guess it is... better find another magnet pillow project!

Oh Dear.

Before I close - when it comes to Scientology and skeptics I wonder if XenuTheSkeptic owns an aircraft that’s bigger than DICK SMITHS, go on ask this man he  should know.

John Travolta

Hollywood movie star John Travolta flew into Perth in his Boeing 707 as part of The Spirit of Friendship tour.  VIEW PAGE


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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

HISTORY OF THE ELECTRO-KINETIC EFFECT
"The electro-kinetic effect was first documented over 180 years ago. It is another one of those things that science "forgot". The measured effect was very small so it was ignored, or not noticed at all by almost everyone who ever did electrical research. That is until Townsend Brown decided to research the effect. By the 1950´s he was testing 3 foot flying disks."

LOOK SEE


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Dr STEVE ROBERTS DIGITAL VIEW


Oh dear, the Victorian skeptics Vice President, still thinks he can see through a digital camera. (See this post). Now I understand how this is accomplished with a reflex SLR camera but come on Steve fess up it was the view finder your eyeball was up against. Those pictures on the back of Steve’s digital camera, I wonder what he thinks they are?

I must say Steve is an intellectual giant when it comes to skeptics. A Britt who went walk about to Oz and we are glad we got him, but I am perplexed, how does one get a PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry and then become a diminutive Director or was that "independent security consultant" or "Computer Systems Consultants" or "Computer security and cryptography consultant" take your pick.

Witham Interesting Web Page Logo


Parked in a small home edition business called "Witham Laboratories" or was that "Witham Pty Ltd" of 15 Ians Gr Templestowe Lower VIC 3107. Sounds all very brrrrright and confusing. What happened to the Organic Chemistry stuff?

I shudder to guess what any sensible business would do with Steve’s services, to be frank cryptography is an well tried art sold in the box load at any good computer retailer these days and if Microsoft has its way I would bet they have the rights to just about every crypkey designed, so what is on offer here Steve -"evaluating algorithms and devices for the banking industry" that takes up all of your time? I wonder out aloud.

Did I say intellectual giant.

("Witham Laboratories" is a trading name of Witham Pty Ltd - ABN: 25 063 282 753)



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COMPUTER WORLD
Australia had the third-highest investment in information and communications technology as a share of gross domestic product in 2001, compared with a ranking of ninth in 1980. CLICK

CHINA
Internet usage in China at the end of June.

With web users increasing, the number of China-based websites reached 627,000 at the end of June, up 32.2 percent year-on-year. CLICK

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Monday, July 26, 2004

UFO ACTIVITY STATS TO COME

This afternoon I bumped into two members of PRA - Phenomena Research Australia, at a MONASH Uni staff function. Apart from the normal chit chat, I asked PRA computer guru and statisticians Simon Cummins if there had been an increase in UFO reports or general activity over the past months, well the answer was yes!

Next question to Simon, do you have those figures available, “well yes, do you want a copy”, yes please. And so with the kind help of PRA and Mr Birch, I am to receive some images showing the trends over the last 3 years, up to last month.

I look forward to that, and will post them up when they come in.


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SATELLITE SEES JETS PHENOMENA

Remember this one all you skeptics out there. Yes for years pilots reported seeing glowing jets and balls fly off into the upper atmosphere at great speed.  Each story that came in was poo hared by the skeptic; even USAF U2 pilots reported the flashes. Then, oh not again, another myth turns out to be real.

High-altitude light show in focus
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor 
Saturday, 24 July, 2004, 07:15 GMT 08:15 UK 

Fresh data on sprites, jets and elves - strange flashes of coloured light in the Earth's upper atmosphere - is being returned to Earth by a new satellite.

The Taiwanese Rocsat-2 spacecraft has been in orbit for two months and is studying the high-altitude phenomena.

They are believed to be discharges of electricity from above thunderstorms, part of a global electrical circuit.

Rocsat-2's first goal is to make a map of the distribution of the flashes and how often they occur, say scientists.  The phenomena occur between 50 and 100km above the Earth's surface.

SKEPTIC CHANT - I found another pillow magnet sale person.



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ANOTHER STRIKE FOR MYTHS

Oh dear, another so called myth end up being so. How many sailors and captains have been branded as fools by the establishment after reporting these rogue waves - many! And now where are these establishment dills who think talk by the non scientist is not worthy of any research. I know were they are chasing after people who sell magnets in pillows.

Seas awash with monster waves
ABC Science Online - Monday, 26 July  2004

Rogue waves that rise as high as 10-storey buildings and can sink large ships are far more common than previously thought, satellite images show.

Two European Space Agency (ESA) satellites have monitored the world's oceans to test the frequency of monster waves that were once dismissed as a nautical myth.

Three weeks of data from the early months of 2001 showed more than 10 individual giant waves around the globe over 25 metres high. Previously, ESA said, scientists believed that such large waves occurred only once every 10,000 years.



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Sunday, July 25, 2004

PAUL DAVIES MATRIX MULTIVERSE
Be warned, this could be the matrix
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - Jul 21, 2004
Paul Davies is professor of natural philosophy at Macquarie University's Australian Centre for Astrobiology

'Multiverse Theory' Holds That the Universe is a Virtual Reality Matrix.

The multiverse theory has spawned another - that our universe is a simulation, writes Paul Davies. If you've ever thought life was actually a dream, take comfort. Some pretty distinguished scientists may agree with you. Philosophers have long questioned  whether there is in fact a real world out there, or whether "reality" is just a figment of our imagination.

Then along came the quantum physicists, who unveiled an Alice-in-Wonderland realm of atomic uncertainty, where particles can be waves and solid objects  dissolve away into ghostly patterns of quantum energy. Things get interesting when the multiverse theory is combined with ideas from sub-atomic particle physics. Evidence is mounting that what physicists took to
be God-given unshakeable laws may be more like local by-laws, valid in our particular cosmic patch, but different in other pocket universes.

He even suggests that a glitch in our simulated cosmic history may have already been discovered, by John Webb at the University of NSW. Webb has analysed the light from distant quasars, and found that something funny happened about 6 billion years ago - a minute shift in the speed of light. Could this be the simulators taking their eye off the ball?


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MIN MIN LIGHTS

A Western Australian woman says she is confident that she has taken one of the first photographs of a Min Min light in outback Queensland. The small, bright, dancing light is one of Australia's oldest natural mysteries.

Janet Burgin took the photo when she was in Boulia last year and has since had it tested. She says experts are baffled and she thinks it is a Min Min light.

"There has to be some truth in it," she said.

"There's too many unexplained sightings by too many people for there not to be something in it. It's a phenomena that no-one can explain."

Meanwhile, Professor Jack Pettigrew, of the University of Queensland in Brisbane claims the lights are actually an inverted mirage of light sources which are, in some cases, hundreds of kilometres away over the horizon. His work was published last year in the current issue of Clinical and Experimental Optometry. Professor Pettigrew studied the phenomenon in western Queensland where he said it has been disturbing the locals for many years.

Woman hopes photo sheds light on outback mystery
ABC - Thursday, July 22, 2004. 8:32am (AEST)


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THIS LITTLE Fortean JEM
Mother-in-law stolen along with car
July 22, 2004 - Sydney Morning Herald

A man had his car stolen from a central Auckland [NZ] petrol station ... along with his mother-in-law. Just after 8pm (1800 AEST), the man was filling his petrol tank when a man jumped into the car and drove off, taking the mother-in-law with him. Inspector Gavin Macdonald, of the police Northern Communications Centre, said the mother-in-law had since been found.

Oh Dear!


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LYNNE KELLY IN SYDNEY
Richard Saunders has placed these images up on his site, go have a look. CLICK

Skeptics' President Richard Saunders with Lynne.

Lynne taking questions after her talk.

A very good strong supporter turn out ladies and gents, I wish we could do that. Lots of book sold by the looks of things.


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I have not failed.
I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
- Thomas Edison -

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Build Your Own UFO At Home
Real Physics Principle Of UFO's

The Lifter is an asymmetrical capacitor which uses High Voltage ( > 20KV ) to produce a thrust.


"The Lifter works without moving parts, flies silently, uses only electrical energy and is able to lift its own weight plus an additional payload. The Lifter uses the Biefeld-Brown effect discovered by Thomas Townsend Brown in 1928. The basic design of the Lifter has been fully described in the Townsend Brown US  Patent N°2949550 filed on Aug 16, 1960 and titled "Elektrokinetic Apparatus", you will find in this patent the full description of the main principle used in the Lifter devices."


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Friday, July 23, 2004

CH7 Sunday Sunrise - Photo Essay
Mark Warren - 18th July 2004

2004 UFORNSW Conference - Sydney


BUD HOPKINS

  BILL CHALKER


MATTHEW FAVALORO





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Thursday, July 22, 2004

NZ SKEPTICS DO REAL SCIENCE NOT!

This extract came from NZ skeptic Vicki Hyde whose blurb tells all "[Hyde is the] founder member of the New Zealand Spaceflight Association and is author of Godzone Skies Astronomy for New Zealanders". The ever so bright Hyde has produced a flyer (Download - CLICK) for the NZ Skeptics on UFOs. Read it nothing bright inside, what got me rolling over in fits of laughter was how her numnut mind (surpose scientist) jumps from the odd to the out right absurd and back again. Have a look at this (page 2).

LETS START HERE!

How is the evidence for UFOs or alien abductions any better than the evidence for Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy?

THEN UNCLE CARL

[Finding evidence for extra-terrestrial intelligence] would be an absolutely transforming event in human history. But, the stakes are so high on whether it's true or false, that we must demand  the more rigorous standards of evidence. Precisely because it's so exciting. That's the circumstance in which our hopes may dominate our skeptical scrutiny of the data. So, we have to be very careful. There have been a few instances in the [past]. We thought we found something, and it always turned out to be explicable... Carl Sagan

THEN THIS!

Things to do
Try faking a UFO photograph and show it to friends to see their reaction.
Spend an evening near an airport and watch the lights in the sky to see how hard it can be to judge size and distance.


Santa Claus -> Tooth Fairy -> Rigorous Standards -> Faking -> Airport Light.

NoVicki not tonight, I'm off to bed too cold at the airport. Oh dear!



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ABDUCTIONS AND REALITY


ABC News (USA) have a 4 page story on "How Emotion Can Cloud Reality" a very good read, lots of wise comments and ideas. Save this data you may need it one day.

Feeling Is Believing?
Alien Abductees Reveal How Emotion Can Cloud Reality
July 21, 2004 — Researchers at Harvard University called on aliens from outer space to help them solve a problem that surfaces frequently in everything from therapeutic sessions to criminal trials, or even just chatting with a friend...

Read The Full Report - 4 Pages.



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Aliens in sight, says expert
Michelle Pountney
Melbourne Herald Sun - 22 July 2004
Ed: 1 - FIRST , Pg: 004 , 96 words , NEWS

IF there is life on another planet we will find it within 20 years, an alien hunter has predicted.
Developments in computer processing and radio telescope technology mean we will soon be able to detect alien transmissions.  Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak told New Scientist there are 10,000 to a million transmitters that could indicate life in the galaxy. To find them will involve observing radio emissions from most of the galaxy's 100 billion stars.

Within 20 years, emissions from enough stars will have been observed to have found the first alien civilisation.

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CAUGHT ON A CANBERRA SPEED CAMERA


I have it on good authority this is Peter Bowditch - Skeptic Vice President rushing to the Skeptics Canberra chapter function for Lynne Kelly.

I recognise the sports car and that hat, turkey teens and King Richard riding high above his flock. As Peter would say - "The midlife crisis silver [red & yellow] sports car is capable of doing about twice the legal speed limit on the motorway" - I would like to see that skeptic rocket go with this load!


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MR MAGOO ENCOUNTER
 
Sony have just put out a new DVD called "What's New Mr. Magoo - MOUNTAIN MAN MAGOO" - Release Date: 1st June 2004 - Label: SONY WONDER - SRP: $9.98US - Runtime: 70.

It has 6 Classic Episodes and this one - "Baby Sitter Magoo Close encounters of the Magoo kind!
Magoo boards a UFO.

We have a few Mr Magoos in ufology, do we not! - Oh and the skeptics Magoos ... phew nearly missed that cheap shot!

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THE UK GRAMMAR BITCH


Picture Linda Nylind - Guardian.

The Melbourne Age reporter Jane Sullivan has this excellent report on Lynne Truss the "Grammar Bitch" of the UK. I see the written and verbal word as a sign of our time, very flexible and fluid, but out in the noddy world of the outdated pedantic tribes who try and hold onto past practice any change to the Queens grammar is seen as a sin. These rules have served us well yet time tells us to move on, evolve and change. I wonder how they get their little heads around computer lingo and the youth of Australia with all these old rules. We all make mistakes or look for the easy path out and through these conventions we get the change we need. The main thrust of any change world is to keep people thinking, interested and having some input.

"A transatlantic squabble has erupted over claims Lynne Truss's diatribe against flawed grammar has a few clangers of its own. By Jane Sullivan. It had to happen. Lynne Truss, the new high priestess of punctuation, who goes into shock every time she sees a rogue apostrophe, has been caught out dealing in dodgy commas.

"Doubtful, distracting and unwarranted commas" turn up throughout the English writer's best-selling manifesto on punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The comma is employed "as the mood strikes" and is sometimes absent when it should be present."

Read The Full Report - CLICK

Dodgy commas and apostrophes spell a breach of Truss
The Age, Australia - Jul 16, 2004


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Wednesday, July 21, 2004

CH7 Sunday Sunrise - UFO PROGRAM

I missed the Mark Warren Sunday Sunrise (18th July 2004) segment on UFO & SETI, I don't look at the program as I am usually taking my long Sunday stay in bed rest. However, I thought I had missed the segment, but no Channel 7 has it up on their web site. There are two down load links take your pick.

DOWNLOAD - MODEM

DOWNLOAD - BROADBAND

This is a late production taken around the NSW national UFO conference just past. Not a bad piece, balanced and semi interesting. There is a shot from inside the conference, and the place looked rather empty. I thought Bill Chalker came up very well, did you see all the files Bill has at home (its about time a few researchers went over to Bills home and had a look at what he has - oh dear, I had to say that) but... I have my doubts about Matthew Favaloro. I find Matthew a bit of a cry baby always threatens ufologist for not helping his business and not once but it must be 3 times, that I know of, where he packs up his UFO kit and tells everyone he has left for ever, only to appear again some time down the track, a bit of a loon. The big surprise was US researcher Bud Hopkins, he looked woeful,stacked on the weight and old age has caught up, he seemed to dither a bit.

Mark Warren is a bit of a clown, so there was a chance he would drive the images that way, but I was pleasantly surprised. Not a great video piece but worthy of a second look.

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ANONYMOUS RULES

I have noticed a few complaints about people using the anonymity clause when making comments on topics or other post within the discussion page. Personally I have no problem with anyone keeping their identity closed, that’s fine. My argument is this, as researchers, especially with some subjects in ufology, it is a wonderful tool to open up arguments or data when those we want to talk to or hear from fear the medium, press or ridicule. Anonymity is a valid mechanism, if used appropriately it creates environments of free open disclosure. It is no panacea to good face to face dialog, but it has many good points when you’re in that confrontation bind. Lets face it, some people in ufology and the skeptics ranks are just out right thugs, when someone makes a comments against the thugs views, out come the sycophantic supporter, verbal threats, legal drivel and the email harassment flood all designed to frighten away any opposition. So for the moment anonymity is here to stay, get use to it folks.

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Tuesday, July 20, 2004

EXAMPLE A "Quintessence of the Loon"

Prize Nomination

"The RatbagsDotCom site has been nominated for the Australian Government Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science in the 2004 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes."

To: Peter Bowditch - Skeptic Vice President and Anti-Quackery Fighter
"Known far and wide as 'Ratbag', Peter is a tireless crusader for the forces of science and reason. He once attended a ‘Mind Body Wallet’ festival waring a multi-coloured jester’s hat… and no one noticed. Peter is the dart board pin-up boy for all Cancer Quacks and Anit-Vaccination (Loons? Idiots? Liars? .. take your pick) and has been threatened with lawsuits more times than he has had hot dinners."Quintessence of the Loon http://www.ratbags.com/loon
 
AND THE REAL FINALISTS ARE:

Dr Kenneth Baldwin
Senior Fellow and Deputy Director
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics Australian National University - For his role in conceiving and championing the now annual Science meets Parliament event in Canberra .

Associate Professor Philip Batterham
Department of Genetics - University of Melbourne
Secretary of the International Genetics Federation and organiser of the International Congress of Genetics 2003 (Melbourne)  - For his role in initiating and organising the International Congress of Genetics 2003 (Melbourne).
 
Phillip Higgins
Teacher and pilot - For initiating the Flying Scientist program to provide a hand-on science learning experience for students in the School of the Air region of outback.

OH DEAR...

No Computer Consulting Business man.



That's Ok Peter, you get my prize for a try hard, may be next time try for the $10,000 Australian Skeptics Eureka Prize For Critical Thinking. I was thinking next year I may go for the Brain Surgeon Award or take on Peter for the Dumb Arse Numnut Skeptic Bent Spoon & Platter. I think I can win that one.



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NEW PAPER

Aviation Safety in America:Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and Under-Reporting Bias
By Ted Roe
July 10, 2004

"Science has validated the existence of phenomena that are characterized by unusual airborne lighting displays, some are related to tectonic or geo-magnetic activity, others are a result of weather induced electrical activity, solar and meteor activity, etc… Tentatively identified examples include:blue jets, sprites, and various lightening and so-called "earthlights" and "earthquake lights"."

Read In Full - 3 Pages

National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena

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THE NOTION REIFIED METAPHOR
Mac Tonnies

"I keep returning to John Mack's notion of "reified metaphor." The "aliens" may not be what they seem. Of course, to most, they don't seem like anything... except perhaps a useful portal into aberrant psychology or pop-culture run riot."

This was how Carl Sagan left matters in "The Demon-Haunted World," grossly misrepresenting Jacques Vallee's "multiverse" thesis, which posits that we are somehow involved with an unseen intelligence that camouflages itself to fit the reigning zeitgeist. According to Vallee, both "aliens" and "faeries" are equally misleading labels for something that can't be properly addressed using a single-universe model.

Are our perceptions so fragile that our brains are forced to manufacture new and better diguises for our visitors? Is the "visiting" intelligence (given that it exists) responsible for its apparent cultural camouflage, or do we effectively hide its true nature from ourselves, as reflexively as we might swat at a bothersome fly?

Mack's concept of "reified metaphor" might help to excavate something real from the desert of illusion. Perhaps human consciousness exists on several levels at once. "Reality" -- the world we think we inhabit -- might represent a relatively low level of awareness, a crude virtual reality designed to keep us from over-taxing our seemingly meat-based brains."

Read In Full - CLICK

Posthuman Blues is the official blog of Mac Tonnies - Sunday, July 18, 2004

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INTERGALACTIC GADGET

AMONG the vibrating head massagers, battery-operated shoe polishers and no less than four different types of farting electronic toys that populate the Gadget Central catalog comes the most fun object Open Source has played with all year. It's the $49.95 radio-controlled flying saucer that lifts off under rechargeable battery power and can be hovered via a radio control hand throttle.

With couple of glowing, spinning LEDs making the little sucker look like something out of Close Encounters of Third Kind, the saucer is just the ticket for freaking out the neighbours by flying it around the backyard at night.
 
The Australian - "The art of making simple things complicated" - open source- industry gossip - JULY 20, 2004.

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LUCRETIUS WINDOW
Andrew Masterson

"Even if I new nothing of atoms, I would venture to assert on the evidence of the celestial phenomena themselves that the universe was certainly not created for us by divine power. It may surprise you to discover that these are not the words of Peter Costello. They were written, in fact; way back when the Virgin Mary no more than a twinkle in her mother’s eye, by a Roman philosopher and scientist named Lucretius (Circa 100-55 BCB).

Luke, as he most certainly wasn't known to his mates, studied other philosophers such as Epicurus and Democritus, and like them, concluded the world was essentially explicable. Accepting the mysterious by pointing to the unknowable caprices of gods. He felt, was just plain silly. Needless to say, when the youthful Christian church reached its ascendancy in the centuries after his death, Lucretius was condemned as a madman, and his main work, a hefty document called On The Nature of the Universe, suppressed.

This was a great pity, his thoughts led him not merely to refreshingly impious positions, but also remarkably close to modern conceptions to both Newtonian and quantum physics. Had subsequent generations had the opportunity to study and build on his writing as much as they were able to concentrate on the New Testament, the world today might be a very different place."
 
Andrew Masterson – “If only we worshipped the indifferent god, Kenneth” - This Life – The Age 20 July 2004.

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Monday, July 19, 2004

SCIENCE IN A SPIN AGAIN!
 
Science that old work pony has its days. When you hear someone tell you that science has got it all right and the game is up well think again. I hate to think how many times some fool has stepped up to the crease with an absolute definition only to be bowled out on the next ball (Barry William eat your cricket heart out!)  Science not that perfect.- Have a read.
 
Hawking cracks black hole paradox
New Scientist 19:00 14 July 04  - Link
 
"After nearly 30 years of arguing that a black hole destroys everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking is saying he was wrong. It seems that black holes may after all allow information within them to escape. Hawking will present his latest finding at a conference in Ireland next week."

"The about-turn might cost Hawking, a physicist at the University of Cambridge, an encyclopaedia because of a bet he made in 1997. More importantly, it might solve one of the long-standing puzzles in modern physics, known as the black hole information paradox."

"It was Hawking's own work that created the paradox. In 1976, he calculated that once a black hole forms, it starts losing mass by radiating energy. This "Hawking radiation" contains no information about the matter inside the black hole and once the black hole evaporates, all information is lost."
 
AND THIS:
 
New twist on out-of-Africa theoryJudy Skatssoon
 
U.S. researcher Professor Alan Templeton of Washington University, St Louis, debunks the prevailing version of the out-of-Africa hypothesis, which says early humans migrated from Africa and wiped out Eurasian populations.

Instead, they bred, he told the Genetics Society of Australia's annual conference in Melbourne this week. Templeton said his evidence didn't support the so-called replacement theory in which African hominids caused the extinction of other Homo species.

But Templeton said this extinction never happened and a combination of movement and interbreeding meant diversification of races didn't occur.

"We really have to abandon the idea of race. It actually does not reflect the genetic differences we can now measure in an objective fashion."

ABC Science Online Wednesday, 14 July  2004 

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IS THE LEADER AN ATHEIST?

This is a little sequence of comments between the President of the Australian Skeptics and online bloggers, (Look below or CLICK). After reading the exchange I was very impressed with this word tease, and I actually learnt something new. No doubt Richard has never kept this a secret, and why would he, yet it still begs the question why he changed over, that's if he did? What do you think?

LANCE STOW:  When Mr Saunders Senior a “Man of the cloth” discovered his progeny was an atheist then we have the truth about teens. They astonish even holy men. - Lance  Stow 07.18.04 - 2:47 am

RICHARD SAUNDERS:  That's Rev. Saunders and what makes you think I'm an atheist? - Richard Saunders 07.18.04 - 9:31 pm

GLEN:  Come on now Richard all true skeptics are atheist. No room for faith in that mind, or are you just a little bit pregnant? - Glen 07.18.04 - 10:55 pm

RICHARD SAUNDERS:  Yeah? I'm skeptical of atheists. How can they be so sure??? - Richard Saunders 07.19.04 - 1:30 am 

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DAYTIME UFO's VIDEO NSW
Grafton N.S.W. (Australia) Thursday 8th July 2004
Event duration: 1.18 to 2 25pm.

Researcher Barry Taylor of Grafton NSW has done it again, captured a UFO on video.  No judgments from me on this one, it looks ok to me, but go have a look. As I have said in other posts, I find Barry’s work very well presented and alway interesting,. I may not always agree with some items of detail, never-the-less he does good work.
 
CLICK - Web Page
 
You can download 43 seconds of the Video Clip to have a look it is in Windows Media Video (WMV) Format and about 5Mb.

CLICK - DOWN LOAD


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Saturday, July 17, 2004

Unedited Mexico infrared targets video still availible
UFOnet - International UFO & Anomaly News
Frits Westra -

"For those who haven't watched it yet, the complete 33 min. UFO footage of the March 5, 2004 video files from the Mexican military is still avaliable as a WMV file.

http://www.pixcells.dk/mexico/mexicoDODstream.wmv (53.3 MB)

Since WMV (Windows Media Video) is a compressed video format, it has limited suitability for research purposes. WMV is a so-called lossy compression format that discards data in order to achieve a lower bit rate and a smaller file size. The original video source data is partly discarded. Serious research calls for lossless video compression. The AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) format would offer that."

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INTELLIGENCE FAILURES

If you think we or our critics can pluck out facts and detail from a complex world and serve it up as a main course defence then we have some big hurdles to overcome, especially the human factor. The whole truth does not reside in ufology or the skeptic dull old grey matter it can live independently from our earthly gravity and flourish with out our fertilizer.

Military historian and author Sir John Keegan is defence editor of The Daily Telegraph, London and wrote this in the New Statesman, London 19 July 2004, about or highly equipped defence spooks & lookers:

"Intelligence experts hate conceding that truth [it never wins wars], the public collude [truth is lost]... the reason is that the fiction of intelligence, beginning with Childers and Buchan, reached its apogee in our age with the works of Ian Fleming and John le Carre, has worked so powerfully on Western imagination that many of its readers, including presidents and prime ministers, have been brought to believe that intelligence solves everything... If only life were so simple." 

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2004 UN Human Development Index
Taken From 177 Countries.

R1 - In human terms, advanced Australia scores poorly at UN - July 16,
2004 - Expatica, Netherlands

R2 - Netherlands placed 5th in UN quality of life report - Sydney
Morning Herald - 16 July 2004

R3 - UN: Japanese women becoming more empowered - Mainichi Shimbun,
Japan.



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HAVE WE FOUND THE SKEPTICS TURKEY TEEN?

IMAGE (C)  Richard Saunders -http://www.users.on.net/~ct/skeptic/kelly/act/images/act_01.jpg

From Peter Bowditch web page RatbagsDotCom come these hints. I have no idea who is who or what is what but we may have a our teen.
 
Read this (in full) not a bad tale:

Coincidence (10/7/2004)
""In alternative medicine and pseudoscience there are no coincidences. If
two apparently unrelated things happen together, then there has to be a
connection. Skeptics like to point out that coincidences happen all the
time but people only remember some of them, and most of them mean
nothing anyway and are not actually that unlikely.


Last Thursday I drove from Sydney to Canberra to attend a meeting of
Canberra Skeptics.
My daughter Belinda came with me, not specifically
to go to the meeting but to meet her friend Bridget
who lives in
Canberra. The two girls had met in some Internet forum for young
people, where they had presumably discussed many matters of importance
to teenage girls, including, I suppose, some things that the respective
parents are better off not asking about. They had never met physically,
and Belinda was quite excited about seeing Bridget for the first time.
I waited at the meeting place long enough to satisfy myself that
Bridget wasn't a middle-aged man in a raincoat and then left them to
their own devices. When I came back a couple of hours later I invited
Bridget to have dinner with us and we set off for the Vietnamese
restaurant where the local skeptics were gathering before the meeting.
After dinner we all went to the meeting, and after that about a dozen
of us went looking for somewhere to get a cup of coffee. (This was very
important to me because I was about to set off on a three hour drive
home. The midlife crisis silver sports car is capable of doing about
twice the legal speed limit on the motorway, and I didn't fancy being
asleep in it with my foot holding the accelerator down. I have no
desire for an early meeting with my saintly namesake (or to hear him
say "Ha, ha! You lost!"), let alone John Edward or James Van Praagh.)


At the coffee shop, one of the committee members of Canberra Skeptics
produced some brochures advertising a forum they are running in August
about global warming and the environment (you can see the details here)
and asked if the people from Sydney could take a few home and help
publicise the event. Before you read the next sentence, remember that
nobody in the group had ever met Bridget before that day, she and
Belinda had never discussed anything about skepticism in their Internet
conversations, and she had apparently never heard of the Canberra
Skeptics before. Now read on ... Bridget picked up one of the brochures
and said: "Are you people involved with this? My father is going to be
one of the speakers". Explain that, skeptics. ""


While I am on this subject, pop over to Peter Bowditch site, some great material lots of comments and ideas (for me), you should find something to agree with or rant over. Bowditch site is very professional and up to date. I would say to follow a skeptics path you could do no better than this - see what drives Peter Bowditch mad.

You don't have to agree with Bowditch but expand the mind go look.

You see I think Peters is not a real hard hat red neck skeptic! With a little scratching under all that feathered anger you will find Peter has to believer in something outside his grasp.

How do I know this, pray tell… well if a Computer Consulting Business mans main focus of his skeptical activities are on fraudulent medical practices and that computer consulting business man is not qualified as a MD to make such judgments, then that folks is a man with a FAITH!


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Friday, July 16, 2004



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BLOG HAVE UPGRADE ME
 
What has happened? It seems as if we are a hit with BLOGGER.COM? Well what ever it is I have been given new tools, function keys and space to do my bit! I have to see but I may be able to place images into the page - I wonder? So that is OK with me. Very happy with that arrangement and it has been fun doing this - so it looks as if I will be around for a little longer.
 
Thank you Blogger.com! 


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RELIGION & SCIENCE WOW FACTOR.

People try a separating religion out of everything these days but its long hand still twist and turn people's lives. Science seems to be the big stick we use to counter religion and that is fine as long as both have a place in this world. The warning bell should ring for us all when either camp decides it has the whole truth. If you see any cults, fundamentalism or dogma then counter it, have a say don't run for cover. For me I am happy as a believer in a God and happy with my science attempts to change me. This is where skeptics fall down and I am always surprised that a person would reach for the skeptic pill, you see both religion and science get their energy on the wonder factor or WOW factor! It is that sense of being driven to new places that over comes our small minds, a drive to understand. If you can fit the two together then as I see it you’re a very healthy and wise person.

Take this item:

"Many Australians dread that unexpected knock on the door: you open it
to find two polite, clean-cut, impeccably dressed young Americans
(usually) who want to explain why you should be a Mormon, or perhaps a
Jehovah's Witness."

"Australians may mock, but what traditional Christianity dismisses as
cults are rising to claim a place alongside the mainstream, says a
visiting professor of religion."

"Dr Terryl Givens says some ingenious solutions were devised, using
popular fiction and the press. In the 20th century, anti-cult
professionals argued that Scientologists, Moonies and Mormons were
brain-washed."

"Members are expected to tithe (give a 10th of their gross salary),
abstain from alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee, abstain from premarital
sex,..."  (1)

Now wait a minute did you say 10% of my wage??? After all that NO SEX... gives me a break NO SEX with out coffee you must be deranged son - close the gate as you go out old chap!
A Mormon - not I!
 
(1) 'New' faith comes a'knocking - By Barney Zwartz - July 12, 2004 - The Melbourne Age. 

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NEW WAY TO SEE
 
"I soon put 2-and-2 together and looked to him as one of two future species, in present time called ´Homo sapiens sapiens´, and found humanity to be greater than the sum of its base pairs."

Mystery man & J-Rod -Dr Dan BurischDan Burisch's Last Letter - Sky Watch - Date: 16/07/2004
 

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LYNNE KELLY IN CANBERRA

What a feeble mob the Australian Skeptics are. Ufology thought it had its problems but so do the skeptics I see - their numbers are not that good. To add insult to injury and to boost the numbers up at the function, the Sydney chapter decided to send in some support - well hell that did a lot to the numbers you numnut!

IMAGE - Tables.

Table 41 = 9
Table 42 = 8
Table 43 = 9
TOTAL = 26

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

On table 42 on the left hand side, we have a turkey in black well that is what it looks like to me, and I should know being the big turkey around ufology. Interesting, we thought all the nuts came to our meetings.

IMAGE - What was that?

Kellys lecture to the believers was... well let’s forget that snooze. I want to see the pin up girl in full flight - that’s her flapping her wings - "Down with this down with that all skeptics are right the rest are wrong..." You get the picture.

IMAGE - Kelly in Flight.

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Thursday, July 15, 2004

UFO IS THE WORD

I love the way words describe and it has become even more common to see the abbreviation UFO pop up in conversations. For example the Sydney Indymedia Newswire in a article about the upcoming election popped this line in:

“But even in this last respect we are often self-defeating. Someone approached with care, worked alongside in a campaign environment, for whom socialist politics is not broached as if it popped out of a UFO from Mars,…”

Marc Newman - Sectarians hide members from discussions with the left.

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SKEPTICS KEEP SCORE

The Australian skeptics are an interesting bunch when it comes to male driven clubs for the insane. While the world moves on presenting many an interesting and complex view of the unusual for inquiring minds what do the Australian Skeptics talk about – well yes CRICKET!

What bunch of dim lights, but I love them all?

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BEEN NORTH OF THE BORDER

Well I’m back after two days in Sydney with an administration meeting at Sydney University. All very pleasant and for once the whole event ran on time and to schedule, one can be grateful for small mercy’s. I am not a great fan of Sydney, the traffic and roads are frightful but like most I presume if offered I would take up residence, it is one of the most spectacular views in the world. When it comes to work places and conditions MONASH University would be hard to replace old Sydney University is out of date and so limited.

So I am back, need to brush up all the dirt I have collected in my boot.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2004

INVESTIGATIONS DO TAKE TIME

AN investigation into the authenticity of weeping religious statues at a Brisbane church has become as much of a mystery as the incident itself.

Griffith University professor of history and philosophy Wayne Hudson said there was no guarantee there would be a definitive finding.

Professor Hudson said incidents of the type seen at Inala were not likely to have a simple scientific explanation.

"It's very important to take manifestations of this kind seriously," he said.

"Studying them can take an extremely long time, but often it is never clear even 30, 40 or 50 years later.

"There is something wrong with the idea that there is a mystery and we'll study it and it won't be a mystery any more."

"'Miracle' report weeks away"- Queensland The Courier Mail - By Amanda Watt - 09 July 2004


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CASSINI SATURN ORBIT TOUR

"Cassini's tour of the Saturn system is divided into 6 different segments. Each segment contains many Saturn and Titan flybys as well as opportunities to study the different smaller satellites."

HAVE A LOOK AT THE ORBITS

(1). Bleow is the Cassini-Huygens Mission "Petal Plot"with both aerial and edge-on views.

ORBIT IMAGE 01

(2). Bleow this plot outlines the tour of the spacecraft around Saturn, Titan and the icy satellites

ORBIT IMAGE 02


Highlights of the Saturn Tour

74 - Orbits of Saturn
45 - Close flybys of Titan
08 - close "targeted" flybys of other satellites:
03 - close flybys of Enceladus, Phoebe, Hyperion, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus
30 - Additional satellite flybys at distances less than 100,000 kilometers (about 62,100 miles)
01 - One "Titan 180 degree transfer
01 - One high inclination sequence
XX - Many Saturn and Ring occultation opportunities

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DAVID BOWIE

"Born David Jones in Brixton, London, he first won fame with breakthrough single, Space Oddity, released in 1969 and used by the BBC during its coverage of the moon landing. His passion for science fiction, fuelled by a spell as editor of a college UFO magazine, continued with the album Life on Mars, and his early work is credited for inspiring glam rock."

The Scotsman, UK - Jul 9, 2004
Heart scare could mean Bowie will produce best music ever
By WILLIAM LYONS

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Monday, July 12, 2004

VICTORIA POLICE STOP A UFO

Who was the bad bad boy and member of VUFORS with UFO as a number plate, seen being pulled over by a TOG police car for speeding this week end? I thought UFOs where faster than the average police car, may be not a TOG car, remember next time fly a little higher and use that stealth mode drive your dad put in your car! A report will be sent back to Judith bad boy!

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Research and index CD

As Debbie Payne (AURA) has pointed out in one of the below comments pages, there is a CD out that you can get. One characteristic I like about Debbie is her get up and go and her positive attitude - she can when she wants "give me one back in the eye", no bunker mentality with this lady! That is living life as it should be. So I may not support all she does, I bet it would help if she got some support with a few purchases. Why not help?

"The Disclosure Project’s group Aura, South Australia, is proud to announce the release of The Aura Research Catalogue, File Summary Listings & Bonus Archive files. These listings are current for the year ending/new year 2003/2004 and are to be updated annually."

CD LINK HERE

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Portrait of Barry Williams
by Kilmeny Niland

Have a look at this portrait of father skeptic, the bearded burglar aka Santa. Very impressed with Nilands work.In the blurb I learnt some think new, it looks as if father skeptic is an x-member of the Royal Australian Air Force. Oh dear now I know why he became a skeptic poor fellow, all that microwave radiation, hence the big white beard

HAVE A READ:

"Essentially a man of peace, he was not found wanting in time of war. He saw active service in the Near East at the time of Confrontation with Indonesia over the newly independent state of Malaysia. During a crisis he took up a rifle to defend the airforce base, like the heroes in the thin red line facing the Zulus at Rorke's Drift. In the event the Zulus did not appear, being engaged elsewhere. The cause of the alarm, a blip on the horizon, was an artefact produced by a defective radar unit. The base was rendered safe by returning the rifles to the armory before they went off and injured someone."

HAVE A LOOK - Portrait.


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Sunday, July 11, 2004

AUFORN LOOKING FOR THE RAT

Oh dear! The word has gone out to all list members of the Auforn Yahoo group. All "dastardly" evil will be found and eliminated, cut out even killed that’s their promise. Robert thinks there is a rat within the clan. Oh no! Paranoia runs free "close down membership links; mark up the name of the suspects, kill all communication, close all holes blah blah".

And there they are all 4 of them, all by their lonely selves - posting "happy birthday this, love your talk and that, kiss this and now". Come on join in, enjoy the battle, be proactive. Just the four of you is no place to be, and George to enlighten you? Put away the icon alter, place the statue of BC in the the bin - come and play with the rest of ufology!

But take caution as thy eyes, look behind thy back Robert, the viper takes false friendship and countenance from thee.

Oh dear... now back to reality!

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Australian UFO Conference Summary
Fwd Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 13:30:11
From: UFO UpDates.

"For a summary and review of the recent Australian National UFO
Conference, please go to: Sheryl Gottschall".

READ: Sheryls Report.

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BIG RUN ON THIS SIT

Date Page Views - VIEW CHART
Sun, July 11, 2004 17
Sat, July 10, 2004 74 <---- Run
Fri, July 09, 2004 55
Thu, July 08, 2004 24
Wed, July 07, 2004 20
Tue, July 06, 2004 26
Mon, July 05, 2004 31

COUNTER HITS 1000

Thank you all, the counter went over the 1000 mark, beyond my wildest dreams. Keep looking and more comments - It's all so easy to have a say.

OZDEBATE ISSUE 1

Is still going strong 30 comments have a read and have your say.

HAVE A SAY - CLICK HERE

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Saturday, July 10, 2004

AN AUSTRALIAN PROFILE
The Face Lynne Kelly
By Helen Elliott


The Australian Skeptics “Pin up Girl” Lynne Kelly gets a big full page blurb in Profiles, the Australian 10 July 2004 pR3. Helen Elliott profiles spider loving reformed arachnophobe. First impression of Kelly from the image on the said page is an aged Goth without the black eye shadow.

The story was not bad, but to the die hard sheptic watcher, the text is full of tricks. A quick book plug and then the mandatory show for the reviewer “spoon bend” with a “fire walk” story thrown in for good measure, all very convincing for the untrained eye, nothing original or even scientific, just tricks. All so very droll. Helen Elliott struggles to get to the marrow and by the final paragraphs kills the saintly image with two shots.

“Kelly packs away her kit. She’s off to attend a magic show, something that is drawing her more and more”.

Then this:

“I’m glad spontaneous combustion is just a myth [wrong again Helen]because Kelly is so high-energy, she’d be a likely candidate.”

A quick scan of Kelly’s back room wall tells me more.

CLICK ON PICTURE OF: Lynne Kelly by David Geraghty

REF: Weekend Australian - Profile Lynne Kelly , 10 July 2004 pR3

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CARTOON

God created the universe - The "Big Bank" Theory.

HAVE A LOOK

REF: Melbourne Herald Sun 30 June 2004 p18

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DISCLOSURE NEWSLETTER 14 JULY 2004 - Out Now

The latest newsletter from Debbie Payne is out, just click on the link

NEWSLETTER 14
I went over the news, again nothing new or helpful, top marks for the effort!

But what drama for a box of files. And this:

Project visit to RAAF base Edinburgh South Australia:

"On 3 June 2004, Keith Basterfield, a member of the Project Secretariat visited RAAF Edinburgh to inspect files made available to us under our second Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The purpose of the visit was to identify papers to be photocopied for us."

And this:

"A report from two Army SAS members who sighted a UFO while on a mission, and during which observation their radio equipment would not work"

I have a copy of this report got iy years ago, and I think VUFORS or was it PRA got the interview job (not positive), but what a song and dance for files we have all seen!

I think PRA reported this file in one of their magazines (must look).

Sorry Debbie P & Keith B all the graves were robbed years ago, what drama, save your money.



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Thursday, July 08, 2004

OZDEBATE ISSUE 1
HAVE YOUR SAY

TOPIC BY: Sheryl Gottschall - UFORQld
8th July 2004

Q: "How about some constructive discussion towards improving Australian Ufology? I'd be very interested to hear people's views about the possibility of National programs towards raising public awareness, educating the media, funding, pros and cons of moving UFO research from voluntary status to paid work, the role of UFO groups, support for close encounter experiencers, building bridges from the UFO community to our general society as well as close encounter experiencers, and a whole host of other topics just eeking out an existence in the background waiting to be discussed. C'mon, I know you're all just chomping at the bit to get into it! (well aren't you? Paul?)"

PAUL de Blog:
Sound Ok to me. I will set the comment section up (In this post just below) with the Sheryls question first. If it takes off I may place a link so when you come back each day it should be at the top of the page. Say what you like, get as bad as you like, hate everyone all GLOVE PUPPETS welcome (me) - you're free to call. Let's see how it works out shall we - So come one come all let's give it a go.

COMMENTS Please Below:

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A CURIOUS GLOVE PUPPET
Bill Chalker in a "bundle of trouble"

Bill Chalker in his reply to my post on Harry Turner used this text (Below) as his argument against my disclosure (Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - BLOG COMMENT WARS), Bill said:

"...that Paul seems to misrepresent is simply Turner's handwritten
report, which DAFI get typed up, then copy & circulate. I am lead by
evidence and documentation, not anonymous "rants".
(see Part 3) - Bill Chalker | 07.06.04 - 1:17 pm.

Oh dear, so that "bundle of trouble" was only Turner's handwritten report. Now this is very interesting for a number of reasons, but the most obvious,would be Bills concept or definition of what institutes a bundle. You see Turner uses the phrase for a very good reason as I have stated, he returns a group of files with the report and we know he has these files as they are a part of his request... now my point if the report was only 11 page (Foolscap) then how does 11 pages equates to TROUBLE or even a BUNDLE?

You need to do better on this Bill!

By the way I do know who typed up the final report, she is still alive, but not in good health. It should be noted there are more than one typed draft of the original.

A PUBLIC DOMAIN COPY

Just on a side issue, after all the hoopla about the report not being in the public domain, is it not curious that Bill Chalker after his claims of being the first and only Ufologist to set hands on the report, has never posted a copy for the general public to see? Let’s be frank, there is no excuses for this Bill, that’s the standards you (Chalker) have set and you seem unable to keep even that obligation. Now the WWW/Net has been up and going for around 12 years and Bills book for 8 years, so what happened? Or was it our responsibility to do that task.

I quote:

"The Turner report was kept secret, until I came across it in the RAAF
Files." Chalker "The Oz File", ISBN 1875989048, 1996, ch6, p67

Oh Dear - Just curious.


BUNDLE
–bundler, noun
/'bundl/
noun, verb, bundled, bundling.

Noun:
1. a group loosely held together: a bundle of hay.
2. something wrapped for carrying; package.
3. a number of things considered together.
4. drop a bundle, Colloquial to give birth.
5. drop one's bundle, Australian Colloquial to give up, especially out of a sense of despair or inadequacy.

Verb (t):
6. to dress snugly (fol. by up).
7. to send away hurriedly or unceremoniously
(fol. by off, out, etc.).
8. to tie or wrap in a bundle.


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Wednesday, July 07, 2004

FLYING SAUCER, SAUCERIAN BULLETIN 1959

Another Oz eDay item from The Entrance, N.S.W. Australia.
Have a look - VIEW.

And this:

FLYING SAUCER NEWS, THE SAUCERIAN, 1955

Also from The Entrance, N.S.W. Australia.

VIEW THIS ITEM

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THIS IS ON AUSTRALIAN eBAY

RTF R/C UFO Fly Saucer
(RTR package)
Model Number : RCP00038

RTF R/C UFO Fly Saucer is great and FUN r/c plane to make you easy to control & easy to enjoy the flying in the Sky. No much practice is needed when you fly it. A Launch Pad (Charging Stand) is come with the package. Easy to charge the battery. You can charge the battery everywhere. AC Charger is included for the power of Charging Stand.

AU $10.50

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UFO REVIEW ISSUE 3

Stuart Miller "UFO Review" Issue 3 is now available and is delivered in a PDF file. I like what Miller is trying to do, but he does have some trouble with the format. The past editions have been in MSWORD and they have been bad. The contents is great but the format or the way he sets it out has been a nightmare. As he gets into the production swing I can now say "Third time lucky"?

Our Sheryl Gottschall (UFORQld)has an say in this edition and that is always good news. This one is in PDF so get it!

MAGAZINE - LINK

"Issue 3 contains interviews with Mac Tonnies about Mars, the Face, artifacts and the landers and with Wendy Connors about her website, Faded Discs, and her quest to preserve old ufological recordings and to make them available for researchers."

"Also, articles by Kithra about NASA and SOHO and by Sheryl Gottschall about the differences between the way men and women approach ufology. And not forgetting of course Andrew Pike with another fascinating article, this time on Casinni."

"Plus, a special offer for UK and European readers concerning Fate magazine."

A great Job!

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SKYWATCHER MAGAZINE OUT
Jim Hickman
Executive Director
Skywatch International Inc
MUFON Research Specialist


The Skywatcher -July 2004 magazine as a PDF (315437 bytes) is now out. You have to be a member to get it, so you will have to ask that is not hard, just follow the LINK.

Jim Hickmans first go at the magazine just did not come out right, but he had the good sense to take it back and have another go... this time it worked. So the text has nothing dramatic within it, yet for the Ufologist it is something to read. So Get it!

This edition is in MESSAGE 14432" target="_blank - July 7th

"After next month's issue we will be sending these out to only our paying members so I encourage you to join us now to continue receiving this important newsletter. To join just fill out the form on our webpage and send it in to me. It's really that easy! Everyone have a good July!, and keep watching the skies!"

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Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Astronomy Picture of the Day
Titan from Cassini in Infrared

"Could life exist under the smog of Titan? If not, what is creating all of the methane? To help answer these questions, the largest and most mysterious moon of Saturn got a quick first look from the Cassini robot spacecraft soon after entering orbit around the giant planet last week."

CLICK - HAVE A LOOK!

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MILLER BLACK EYES HALL

Richard Hall

Why are you so knee-jerk averse to the word
"science?" Could it be that you believe in New Age "truth?"

Stuart Miller

And why do you wail to the heavens when New Agism is mentioned?
Is it because there are lots of women in it? J'accuse! You are a
mysogonist masquarding as a ufologist.

Nah, I don't have much time for New Agist theories either. But
neither do I go swinging my cave man club about when it gets
mentioned. Here's the trick Dick. I listen. Who knows? I might
actually learn something. And, with the admitted exception of
one English sceptic, I don't growl at people in my best Walter
Mathau fashion if they offer ideas contrary to mine.

UFO UpDates - Re: J-Rod And The Challenge - Jul 4, 2004

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Monday, July 05, 2004

WHAT! A UFO Corse Yamaha WR250F

Merriman all but guaranteed a fourth world title
Fullnoise, Australia - Jun 28, 2004

"The 31-year-old scored maximum points on his UFO Corse Yamaha WR250F in Slovakia’s round six, extending his Enduro 1 lead over teammate Bartos Oblucki to ..."

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Jeff Wells calls it a day
Jeff Wells' last column
By JEFF WELLS

Daily Telegraph, Australia - July 5, 2004

"I started as a racing details kid in Melbourne in 1960 and got to do some boxing and road and track cycling, which hooked me for life on those sports.

For the past 18 years I have been writing measured, considered, conservative prose - or, if you take the opposite view, a steaming pile of gibberish - in sports columns in Sydney. I also have on my CV: massage parlour roundsman for the Sunday Mirror with a $5 expense account, film reviewer for The Truth in Melbourne (the man who introduced the raincoat ratings), and UFO kidnap writer for the National Enquirer in Florida.

So I was well-schooled."

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GREAT WEEKEND AT PAULS

I had a wonderful weekend at home out of the cold and wet. With the children, reading two new books (never one at a time?), Big Brother live evictions yah Bree is out go Paul (I must be mad but I love BB) then The last chapter of "Status Anxiety" with Alain de Botton on Compass ABC TV and playing with my new computer "Pauls New Rocket", so life is good! But oh dear work is still Shit!

So back to other things...

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DIANE HARRISON WALKS THE TALK
National Director of The Australian UFO Research Network
[Reply to below post to Keith]

"Keith I feel strongly also when someone posts damming comments that are total lies which could or may affect my business my well being or any future employment.

I promise this I will go after these people with all guns loaded.

Keith some people on the UFO scene in Australia "NEVER" walk the talk all they do is collect information for self-gratification locking it away I ask how can this progress UFO research in this country?.

Robert and I walk the talk to the disgust of those who wish to horde and hide what they have. AUFORN came about because we personally got sick of UFO groups who have the policy of non transparency, who show little or no accountability to the general public who have given these groups their personal details of sighting and close encounters in trust they will share and use these reports to further UFO research.

Because AUFORN promotes sharing, because we are transparent this upsets some people in the UFO community. But Robert nor I will ever apologize for doing so.

Keith Freedom of speech is great I'm all for it but how about these so call free speakers speak the bloody truth. I advocate for freedom of speech and I say come on lets uncover the cover ups be they Health issues UFOs or Government. So how about list members start asking
questions of these UFO groups as to why they don't advocate for the freedom of information sharing especially when the information was given to them freely by the general public.?"

Subj: Re:[AUFORN AUSTRALIA] I have read the blogger site
Date: 7/1/2004 11:06:22


Oh dear!


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AUSTRALIAN SKEPTIC PIN UP GIRL IN ACT

Canberra Skeptics invite you to a talk by writer [Author] Lynne Kelly

8.00 pm Thursday 8 July 2004

Light refreshments from 7.30 pm
Canberra RSL Club, 13b Moore St, Civic.

"Lynne Kelly sees skepticism as a protection against being exploited emotionally and financially. She will talk about her fascination with all things paranormal and the questions she has found most often asked in 30 years of science teaching and at dinner table debates."

$5 for non-members - Free for Canberra Skeptics members - Enquiries: Vicki Moss 6296 4555

I MUST GO!

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"Interrupted Journey"
Barney and Betty Hill Abduction
An old one but good one. Have a look some more data for the files? Read Paper.

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SOME CLEAR THINKING

This was posted up by Blogger Mac Tonnies on his site for Saturday, July 03, 2004. It is very good and I have taken the whole text for yoy to read. However have a look at his Blog, always interesting.

""I've long been interested in "Occam's Razor" -- the scientific maxim that maintains that all things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the correct one. But who gets the honor of defining "simple"?

It's a lot like Carl Sagan's "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." What, exactly, is "extraordinary"? "Extraordinary" to whom? Are the criteria subject to change?

Paranormal researcher Albert Budden nailed the problem when he pointed out that it's not science's goal to determine the "simplest" explanation; science should properly strive for the correct explanation.

All of which sort of leads the way to my new theory about UFOs and where they come from. I've been dissatisfied with the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis since encountering Jacques Vallee. But sometimes musing about a nonhuman "psychosocial control system" just seems too abstract, too vague and obtuse. Vallee himself pointed out that the prevailing materialist interpretation for UFOs is quintessentially American; Americans like to "kick the tires."

But could the phenomenon be both a physical, nuts-and-bolts reality as well as metaphysical? Arthur C. Clarke's "Any sufficiently advanced technology would appear indistinguishable from magic" certainly applies. But even Clarke was postulating arbitrarily advanced forms of known technologies; judging from his fiction, I doubt he invested much hope in "impossibilities" like telepathy and nonlocal consciousness -- both of which, I suspect, are slowly but certainly encroaching on the scientific arena.

One of the most interesting books I've read recently was Michael Cremo's exhaustively researched "Human Devolution." Cremo argues that the Vedic concept of the human soul is validated by various phenomena, including documented episodes of "psychic" activity and unexpected archaeological findings. Cremo's book is disappointing because he fails to synthesize his research into a coherent paradigm; it's fascinating reading, but his conclusion is little more than a thinly disguised rationalization for his personal religious beliefs.

I think the evidence demands a bolder revision of our role as sentient beings. By redefining human consciousness -- a process that 21st century neuropharmacology will almost certainly hasten, probably assisted by cybernetics -- it's possible to envision an Earth so utterly unlike conventional models that it may as well be alien.

My own thesis is both absurd and simple: We're sharing the planet with a home-grown intelligence that took a critically different evolutionary route in our own prehistory, exploiting consciousness itself as a technology while the recognizable "we" contented ourselves with the immediate, tangible world of physical matter. These others -- call them "aliens," simply for lack of a better word -- can access our own level of perception if they choose, but they don't inhabit a "parallel universe" of the type considered by theoretical physicists such as Michio Kaku. Our own universe is probably big enough for a far-flung ecology of nonhuman beings; we're just limited to an incredibly small portion of it, for reasons both biological and "spiritual." (John Keel's electromagnetic "superspectrum" is an especially useful metaphor, if nothing else.)

Maybe the reason we don't hear the incessant chatter of extraterrestrial radio transmissions or see megascale engineering works etched onto the dome of the night sky isn't because alien intelligences have uploaded themselves into addictive virtual environments; perhaps they've shed their physical forms, but in an altogether different fashion. They might inhabit a previously undetected cosmological substrate, enmeshed in the universe's deep structure as we twitch feebly on the surface, so many bacteria in an intergalactic Petri dish.

The familiar boundaries of space and time would be radically different to a being existing within this hidden order (what physicist/philosopher David Bohm termed the "implicate"). Interactions with lowly forms of intelligence like ourselves might be maddeningly cryptic; perhaps our only clues would take the form of Fortean anomalies: dark waves lapping silently against the shores of consciousness and batted furiously away if by some chance actually noticed.

This sort of cosmos is upsetting to Western science because it implies that consciousness is pliant and mutable, not necessarily dependent on a physical substrate. The implications are disturbingly theological: What purpose do we serve in this vast, secret world -- if any? Hindu texts, which describe a spectrum of conscious forms, forcibly suggest that humans are akin to larvae. If so, what are we to make of the myriad "humanoid" and UFO "occupant" reports that invariably surface year after year?

Maybe we can safely dispense with notions of interstellar visitors and wormholes. Our apparent visitors may not be "visiting" at all; conceivably, we are the newcomers . . .
posted by Mac at 1:24 AM""

Thanks Mac!


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