The Interstellar Housewife

Image Issues

2011-12-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

If some of you have visited over the last month, you may have noticed 2 things:

1.) I haven't posted anything for a helluva long while.
2.) Images such as the header and post borders were smaller.

I have a sufficient answer for both, but right now I'm going to address the image issue.

Sometime in early December, Picasa changed the default image sizes for photos. This means that if you used Picasa for images on your Blogger website, and did not specify a size within the image link (regardless of if you specified the height and width within the CSS), then your images would display at the new default size.

The way around this is to go to your Picasa account, locate the image, then right click (or ctrl+click on a Mac) and choose to copy the image URL. Paste it somewhere, and change the size value. The size value is specified just before the actual image file name and will have an 's' preceding it. For example, my banner size has a max width of 950 pixels, so the size within the image URL should be 's950'

I'm really pretty pissed about this, but have finally gotten around to correcting the issue here. Now I just have to cultivate the urge to look at and fix some of my other Blogger sites.

Oh, and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Open-Mindedness? Pshaw!

2011-08-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is a few years old, but I found it recently via a friend. It's a brief 'educational' video more correctly explaining what 'open-mindedness' really means, as opposed to the typical definition as perceived by those who like to lob around accusations of close-mindedness when someone is skeptical of paranormal or religious claims.

It's well written, explained, and animated (1960's-esque cartoon/comic book art, a la 'The Sub Mariner' and 'The Hulk').

Summer Satellites and the Great Scar

2011-07-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well, Summer is supposedly here, though it's not always easy to tell in Portland. Not that I'm bitching - you can have the heat and sunlight. The only thing that is sort of a downer is that sky-watching is less fun when it's cold and limits the amount of time you want to spend gazing upwards from a lawn chair. That said, last Saturday was a pretty decent night and after BBQing, my girlfriend and I pulled out the tri-fold lawn chairs and watched the sky for a couple of hours.

It may sound cliché, but it's really hard to argue against how well Dark Side of the Moon goes with watching the countless satellites drift through the salted sky, peppered with the occasional meteorite. I wasn't looking for anything in particular and had no hopes of catching anything mysterious -- that's not why I stargaze. But there was one particularly bright object that we caught in the Northwest moving speedily towards the Southeast. It had a brightness of 4 and was quite stunning. After a brief What The Fuck moment, we both realized it was the ISS. We confirmed this later by an online tracker that gave the exact time and location in which we saw the object.

Sure, it wasn't a UFO, but you know what? We made that. Us. Humans. We have a space station hurtling some 17,000 mph around the globe and that's pretty fucking spectacular, if you ask me. See, sometimes you don't need to imagine extraterrestrials or their suggested influence in order to really appreciate our own leaps and bounds.

As the satellites passed through the night, I told my girlfriend about the first time I saw one. I was about 9 and thought for sure it was an alien craft. I frantically ran into the house telling my parents, who looked at me with raised brows and asked "What do you want us to do, call the United States Air force?" At the time, I was thinking "Of course, what else would you do?! Get on the bloody phone!" Looking back now, I am amused by imagining my parents calling the Air Force to report that their daughter saw a bright light moving through the sky in a straight line.

I did see my first UFO about 2 years later, however. It wasn't particularity spectacular and at first, I assumed it was a satellite. But while I was following it's path, it unexpectedly 'separated' into 3 objects. One remained on the current course, while 2 other parts shot off at 45° angles in opposite directions and continued on until out of my view. In the end, it was just lights in the sky and could very well have had a more down-to-earth explanation. Maybe not, but such is the way of these things: always elusive and riddled with questions.

Anyway, I'd love a chance to get out to Eastern Oregon's high desert this Summer and spend an evening under the open sky. I do manage to get out East a few times a year, though only abut 40-50 miles from Portland. Still, even at that short distance from the city, the view is amazing and you can very clearly see the giant scar (which always looks vaginal to me) that is the galactic center of our own Milky Way. And though it is all so very far away, this scar reveals billions of stars and planets, at least a few of which are probably home to civilizations who are wondering if they, too, are alone in the universe.

It Rhymes with 'Bars Mace'

2011-06-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

If you've fallen for the recent 'Mars base' claims and have been too submerged in your own beliefs to look for opinions and information to the contrary, then this post is ~~not~~ for you!

Original:

Mars Express orbiter image H5620_0000_ND2

Google Mars version:

Google's compressed & colorized version.

Links:

Discussion 1
Discussion 2

Not that it's a bad thing, being skeptical of what you're told. It works both ways. But the likelihood that NASA overlooked an actual base and passed it off onto the Internet is pretty fucking slim. And considering the agency's penchant for altering photos, if this were really some kind of secret base, you'd think they'd avoid releasing the unaltered image to the, you know, Internet.

Some will say that this data error is hiding something important. That it's made to look like an error, but instead camouflaging something beneath it. To that I say, fine, have it your way. Write 12 books on the NASA Secret Mars Bio Base. But it's still probably not a base since the whole base idea came about in the first place because the pixel-pattern of the missing image data was misinterpreted by some guy in... wherever.

As always, it is baffling to me why people will jump wayyyyy the fuck over the gun at a completely improbable landing point instead of questioning whether there is a more simple explanation. I suppose those who don't really work with images on a regular or professional basis might not be familiar with these kinds of errors, which is somewhat understandable -- though most of our lives are now centered around the Internet: the largest warehouse of crap photos in the known solar system. You'd think people would be more familiar with this sort of thing.

How many of you have opened up Google Earth, typed in your old or current home address and noticed pixelization or smearing? Oh, that's right -- just about everyone who's used the damn app. Look, I empathize with the desire to find answers to some of the more bizarre mysteries that plague us, particularly when it comes to UFOs. But reel it in once in a while, will ya? And choose your battles, for Christ's sake.

Dimensional Wrinkles

2011-05-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I had been thinking about the morph-able abilities of some UFOs, giving them an almost living quality, as opposed to an actual craft of some kind of metallic-esque alloy, welded or bolted together, with computers inside, some sort of propulsion engine, and a crew. I wondered if a vessel could be constructed in a way that would allow for physical transformation into various shapes, and what the purpose of such a vessel would be.

Then I began thinking about your more typical sightings: saucers, cigar-shaped, triangles, rectangles, and so on. How peculiar it seems that in our own imaginings (i.e. Science Fiction), alien ships would look something more like a Klingon Bird of Prey, The Millennium Falcon, or the Battlestar Galactica. If sightings of classic UFOs are indeed extraterrestrial in nature, the contrast is stark, with these craft carrying few details, save for their shapes, lights, and in some cases, portholes. And maybe that’s really how it goes. As creative as human beings appear to be, maybe we’re really over-thinking the whole thing. In fact, I’m pretty sure we are.

But what if something else is going on here -- something less apparent and more complex? What if those who witness UFOs aren’t really seeing the object as a whole? You might ask, “Fine, I’ll bite. Where’s the rest of it then?” A decent question, for sure, but my answer might be, “It’s right there in front of you!”

Consider that UFOs (the truly unexplained kind, mind you) are not of this dimension. You’ve probably heard some of this before, the idea that UFOs are not extraterrestrial, but extra-dimensional, although this isn’t really about that speculation as much as it's about a possible explanation for the seemingly simplistic shapes we see darting around our skies.

Take, for instance, a 2 dimensional world and imagine there are 2 dimensional people living in this world. They would be bound by their dimensional laws, meaning that they could move left, right, forward, and backward -- but they could not move up or down, as their world would be quite flat (and would actually have no height at all. This is extremely difficult to visualize, so just think of the world as a vast sheet of paper). How would a 3 dimensional object, such as a ball or a cube, appear to these 2D people if it entered their world? Keep in mind that by entering their world, the object would have to 'land' since it would not be visible at all if it were floating above (remember, they can't see up!). Having no sense of depth or height, this object would not appear to them at all like it would appear to you and I. Instead, what they might observe is a flat circle (or a flat square, if it were a cube), which would seem rather plain with the only mystery being its sudden appearance out of "nowhere."

Perhaps we are experiencing a similar dilemma when it comes to UFOs. If these objects come from a dimension higher than our own, we would see them much differently than a native of that dimension would. One can only guess what a higher dimensional object could look like in its true form, as it is rather impossible from our perspective (though representations have been illustrated). We have no way of knowing or observing an extra-dimensional UFO's ‘true’ shape -- not as we would know the shape of a car or building in our world. This could account for the apparent simplicity of some UFOs, or help explain the morphing, more fluid-like shapes of others. So, when it comes to sightings, what we may be witnessing is an extra-dimensional object in only 3 dimensions, giving it the shape of a disc, orb, etc.

Carl Sagan better explains this concept with visual aids in the segment below, from an episode of Cosmos (I'd tell you which one, but I don't feel like pulling the DVDs out):

*Tesseract image by Claudio Rocchini

Walking the Razor Wire

2011-05-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

Regan has a post up over at The Orange Orb called The USSR Cause for Roswell? - Muddled Disclosures, about the new book by Annie Jacobsen, Area 51 - An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base. The book's theme is that while there are indeed mysterious events taking place at Nevada's infamous base, they are not alien in nature. At one point, Regan points out that when it comes to the mainstream, the general attitude is "No, it could never be aliens."

I have posted a response (that may still be awaiting moderation, so if it's not there when you read this, that's why), which basically brings up the ~~dreaded~~ Occam's Razor argument -- which I'm not opposed to, depending on it's application. But our understanding of the greater universe is still a very human understanding, and is therefore definitely limited. So, when discussing these sorts of unknowns, such as possible highly advanced extra terrestrial civilizations and their capabilities, it becomes more difficult to apply Occam's Razor in those contexts. On one hand, you could say that the argument is applicable based on what seems more likely:

Aliens from a far off star system have honed in on planet Earth, a tiny spec among billions of other orbiting planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and have successfully made the long voyage only to be defeated by our primitive technological systems causing one of their vessels to crash in the New Mexico desert.
Roswell was a Cold War tactic to convince the Russians that America possessed superior technology (or other such military experiment).

Obviously, scenario 2 would seem the more likely. On the other hand, our body of knowledge is a drop in the pan and we learn more and more about physics and the universe every day. This means that we do not currently have all of the answers -- a shocker, I know. A Type 0 civilization (based on the Kardashev Scale), which is what we are considered, has far less understanding of universal physics, than say, a Type 1 or Type 2 civilization. Taking that into consideration, the capabilities of an advanced civilization is largely unknown, and can't be dismissed so easily. And actually, I personally believe we have no way to accurately incorporate such an unknown into something like Occam's Razor, realistically.

This lead to a brief mention of possible civilizations in the known universe, and that if a large number of civilizations exist in any given galaxy, at least a few of them are bound to have similar characteristics and composition to humans, and come from a similar type of planet. Some of those few might reach a point where they need to search out habitable planets, much like we are currently doing. Since the number of Earth-like planets in at least the Milky Way is probably less than the number of non-Earth-like planets, it narrows their options, making the actual Earth a potential candidate. Yes, there's a lot of if's there, but it further points out that what may seem improbable, certainly isn't impossible.

Coincidentally, after reading Regan's post, I came across this article, by Michio Kaku, called The Paradox of Multiple Goldilocks Zones or "Did the Universe Know We Were Coming?

I like Michio - I'm not the Michio aficionado others are, but I appreciate his openness to possibilities such as the above, as well as Time Travel. In this article he talks about Goldilocks zones and just how many of them might exist in our universe:

But now, cosmologists are facing this paradox again, but from a cosmic perspective. It turns out that the fundamental parameters of the universe appear to be perfectly "fine-tuned."

This begs the question of how many of the Goldilocks zones there actually are. If you begin to count them, you will soon realize that there are so many of these instances, it simply boggles the mind.

If there in fact are a mind-blowing abundance of Goldilocks zones, this would help support the idea of a large number of possible life-giving planets, therefore giving support to the possibility of a large number of civilizations. This doesn't mean that they are all advanced, as some would undoubtedly be primitive -- even compared to our own civilization. Some, however, are bound to be thousands, if not millions of years above our own -- assuming that on average, civilizations aren't habitually destroying themselves in their respective nuclear ages.

Cheap Wine and Plastic Cups: McMinnville 2011

2011-05-18T00:17:00.000-07:00

I guess I'll give an update on the McMinnville UFO Festival. If you're expecting to hear my opinion of the three speakers, Robert Salas, Stan Gordon, and Paola Harris, you might as well click another link, because I only saw one of them and that will possibly be addressed in a collaborative post that Regan and I are considering. It might go a little something like this, though:

"Paola walks into a bar..."

My girlfriend and I had a mess of a time getting down to the festival. I had busted ass to get all of my work done on Thursday night so I could have Friday off to sleep in a bit, tidy up the house, and then get the Hell out of Portland. That all happened pretty much according to plan with the exception of timing. We hit the road an hour late, which turned into two hours and some change with rush-hour traffic. I use to think rush hour started at 5pm, but as I've grown older, I've come to realize that rush hour starts whenever I get on the fucking road.

We rolled into McMinnville about 6pm, got our room, freshened up (who says that anymore?) and then took off to see what was happening on 3rd near McMenamins. That's where most of the festival stuff takes place -- well, except for this night, because not a damn thing was happening. Which is fine and all, but I was a little more than bored and was hoping something explosive would be going on. Like scantly clad Pleiadian women picking off costumed folk from the top of Hotel Oregon with a portable particle accelerator. Or a moltave cocktail tossing contest. I was pretty much down for whatever.

After an hour of wandering aimlessly up and down the sidewalks, we were feeling a little peckish. After another hour of me trying to make up my damn mind on where to eat, we ended up at Ruby Tuesdays. I'm still not entirely sure why. My boredom was increasing somewhat exponentially, so after dinner I opted for a quick cure-all, requiring a brief visit to the local Safeway for a bottle or two of merlot. The evening ended around 3am in our Ikea-inspired room at Motel 6 listening to Wish You Were Here (the album, not just the song). Eyes glued to the iTunes visualizer, I managed to polish off one mediocre bottle of wine. The complimentary plastic motel cups just might have added to it's digestibility.

Saturday morning provided the usual motel morning experience: poor water pressure, rough towels, horrific mirror lighting... you know how it goes. Breakfast and much-needed coffee were had at Shari's, a kind of Baker's Square meets Wal-Mart dining establishment. My tummy no longer grumbling, we headed back to the festival area where still nothing was happening. Thankfully, just before the parade, We briefly met up with Regan Lee and her partner and planned to meet up again about an hour before the last speaker (Paola Harris).

It was lovely having the chance to gab with Regan outside of email. We were able to do this briefly last year, but not in a one-on-one kind of way. We spent most of the hour before the presentation Q&A'ing each other. I wish there would have been more time to talk and pick brains, but I'm sure that will happen soon enough. After Paola's "presentation," all of us decided it was time to split McMinnville and head to our respective homes. Good-byes and hugs went 'round, and Dee and I were off.

And that was the McMinnville UFO Festival. My version, at least. It's only a 2-day event. Actually, it's more like a 1 1/2 day event. You get one speaker on Friday night at 7, one on Saturday morning at 10, and a final speaker at 4pm. The rest is just people wandering about like body-snatchers, the occasional food & beer tent, t-shirt sales, and hipsters wearing Reynold's Wrap. But it's a good excuse to get out of town for a bit and do something other than watching movies or wandering about my own city, so I can't complain. Right?

Just a Few Things

2011-05-09T01:37:00.000-07:00

Last week I submitted my latest Saucers, Slips, and Cigarettes column to Nancy at UFO Magazine. The deadlines always catch me off guard, for some reason. I managed to finish, though!

The piece is called The Mediocrity of the Great Oz and talks (mostly) about how the abundance of information within Ufology has actually made me more skeptical of the ETH, when typically, you might expect the opposite. And yes, I am aware that many believe the so-called '4th Density' to be a non-physical realm, in which case, cocaine use would probably be non-existent. It was just funnier that way. Confused? You won't be after this ~~episode~~ issue of ~~Soap~~ UFO Magazine. Context is everything.

Other Shit That's Going On:

This weekend is the annual McMinnville UFO Festival, in McMinnville, OR. I went last year for the first time and met up with Regan Lee of The Orange Orb and Erik Stitt for drinks, then we were off to see Colin Andrews speak the following afternoon. I'm heading down again this year and Regan and I have plans to hang out again. I probably wouldn't attend this one if Regan wasn't going. Sure, I love getting out of town, hotel-ing it up a bit, and heading to the bars for drinks, but much of the festival is what you'd expect: a lot of people (and animals) in silly costumes. I usually loathe that sort of thing, but I try to get over myself a bit now and then. Last year I somehow made it through the Avatar portion of the parade without jumping in front of a moving vehicle, so, I suppose I did all right. It's just as well. Parade vehicles are much too slow, anyway.

Last weekend was the Wake Up Now Conference in New Mexico, an event Lesley Gunter helped organize. You can read about it here.

Speaking of Lesley, Dennis Rano of The Ufologists drew up another wonderful caricature of her -- check it out. He also tooned a 2nd one of yours truly, which is visible up over there on the right sidebar.

A couple of weeks ago, Carol Rainey was booted off the UFO Updates List. Disappointing yet sadly unsurprising. You can read a little about it at the Paratopia blog. Paul Kimball also discusses her banishment over at his site.

Reaching Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

2011-04-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

Today I happened upon a post written by Bryce Zabel on A.D. After Disclosure, titled Calling Roger Ebert. I am not in the habit of reading A.D. -- not because I have a particular issue with the site or Richard & Bryce, but because I typically stay away from much of the disclosure topic. You can blame this on the Disclosure Movement, and not so much on the idea of disclosure. I'm all for it, provided there is something to disclose. However, I am skeptical that the government knows as much as many claim. But this isn't really about secret government knowledge or reverse engineered craft. Instead, it's about Roger Ebert.

It's really hard not to love Roger. Well, for me, at least. As a native Chicagoan myself, Ebert's face was always in the paper and, of course, on the television series At the Movies (along with the late Gene Siskel), which was a staple in our house during the 80s. He had a pleasant voice and a familiar perspective when it came to cinema. Ebert is certainly a knowledgeable and intelligent man, and so it came as little surprise to discover he recently penned a journal entry, A Quintessence of Dust. The piece is his perspective on the universe and sentient existence. It makes for an enjoyable read and is presented in such a way that anyone who has ever become dizzy pondering the expanse of space, would likely appreciate it. Go on, give it a read. It's rather lovely. He also gives a little nod to Prufrock near the end.

Ebert has also published a recent review on the new film Source Code, which, from what I have read and viewed, is kind of about Time Travel. I have not seen the film (I loathe theaters), but probably will once it's released on DVD. Anyway, it is within this review that Ebert states the following:

"Source Code" is an ingenious thriller that comes billed as science fiction, although its science is preposterous. Does that matter, as long as everyone treats it with the greatest urgency? After all, space travel beyond the solar system is preposterous, and yet we couldn't do without "Star Trek." The "science" in this case is used to prop up an appealing story of a man who tries to change the past.

This is about where Bryce Zabel comes in. I'd like to point out that Bryce isn't attacking Ebert. In fact, he shows nothing but respect for the man, even though the topic of his post on A.D. calls into question the above quote.

Bryce explains:

My bone to pick is that he appears to not understand the UFO situation and indirectly put down those of us who do. In the same week he wrote his essay about the worlds the Hubble is exposing us to, he also wrote this in his review of the new film, "Source Code."
...
Ebert is saying that if you believe that it is possible to travel the galaxy and the universe that you believe in something that is preposterous. I say that very statement is preposterous.

Ok, fine.

Wait, no! How did Ebert's claim that travel beyond the solar system is preposterous, at the same time denounce extra terrestrial travel to our own neighborhood? Ok, ok. I suppose it could, on it's own. But not in the shadow of A Quintessence of Dust, which Bryce first commends in his post. I think Bryce has greatly misunderstood Ebert's position. Either that, or Roger Ebert, who in his journal entry illustrates a more than basic knowledge of the universe, was just pulling words out of his ass. I somehow doubt the latter.

"After all, space travel beyond the solar system is preposterous."

He didn't say that travel to our solar system is preposterous. As well-read on the subject as he appears to be, he has to know that we currently do have the technology to travel outside our solar system (and will have officially done so in a few short years, thanks to unmanned spacecraft, like Voyager 1 & Voyager 2), just not the resources or funding. So, in that respect, as far as right now is concerned, a 400 person crew on a ship the size of the Enterprise travelling outside our solar system is pretty preposterous. But we will do it. Some day. We have to if we hope to ensure the survival of our species. I believe Ebert does realize this.

So, in my opinion, Roger Ebert's statement was in regards to us efficiently traveling vast interstellar distances now, with today's understood science. Not some unknown civilization light-years ahead of our own, visiting Earth. Otherwise, I'd be inclined to question whether Roger Ebert knows the difference between a solar system and the galaxy. Or a galaxy and the universe -- but A Quintessence of Dust states otherwise. Perhaps his use of the term 'solar system' was an error. It happens. He might have meant galaxy, which would have been a more respectable limitation (for now).

But the fact that he referenced Star Trek in the first place leads me to consider he was speaking strictly of human exploration as it currently stands -- not hundreds of years from now (from the trailer, it looks as though the film Source Code takes place in the relatively near future). I sincerely doubt Ebert was speaking of the limitations of a proposed advanced civilization. Therefore, I do not believe his statement should be viewed as a put-down to UFO researchers and enthusiasts, intentional or otherwise. Nor do I feel it displays an ignorance of the UFO phenomenon, because it had nothing at all to do with the possibility of an alien presence in our solar system (or UFOs in general).

It may be that Ebert doesn't believe that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth, but I don't feel that his review of Source Code reflects that.

12:50, Press Return

2011-03-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, but I finally have a new article up at Women of Esoterica:

12:50, Press Return

It discusses my early interest in (and obsession with) numbers, and how music helped me to better understand mathematics, thus igniting my interest in science. I also talk about my belief that one day (in the far, far future) science will be able to observe and study what we currently refer to as 'the paranormal.'

~Deirdre

Conversations with Dr. John Mack

2011-03-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

Interesting article over at The UFO Iconoclast(s) by Anthony Bragalia, regarding interviews and discussions he had with John Mack in the early 90s:

The Fabrication of Alien Abduction: My Conversations with Dr. John Mack

Clarification on a Statement

2011-02-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

In my last article, Ufology: Live at Budokan I used the term "non-biased therapists."

In his article, The Illusion of Objectivity, Arvin Hill points out:

"It would be easier to prove the existence of highly advanced non-human, trans-human or non-corporeal intelligent lifeforms than prove the existence of non-biased therapists or hypnosis specialists"

I agree with this, but would like to make a clarification on my use of the term 'non-bias,' which may not need to be made, but here it is in case there is any confusion:

My statement:

"Shouldn’t the same results come from non-biased therapists and hypnosis specialists?"

Might better have been illustrated with:

"shouldn’t the same results come from regression therapists who are not biased on the side of the extraterrestrial or abduction hypothesis."

After all, everyone is likely biased about anything, to particular degrees.

It, of course, would be interesting to see how a certain past case would have turned out if the individual(s) had gone to a therapist who has little to no knowledge or interest in the ETH, but we're currently S.O.L. when it comes to peeking in on alternate timelines.

But in my opinion, any hypnotic regression practitioner can lead a patient (whether intentionally or not) onto their own particular path based on what they think is really happening. It's not just abduction regression that I find questionable or unreliable. It's all regressive hypnotherapy.

Arvin later comments:

"Is there an Association of Non-Biased Therapists and Hypnosis Specialists? I suppose I could just ask one. Hey, before plunking down my $130 for this regression - and, please be honest with me: Are you biased or non-biased?

I'd bet everything on the answer."

And so would I.

Bruce Priddy - New BOA Columnist

2011-02-28T09:39:00.000-08:00

Binall of America has a new writer: Bruce Priddy who introduces himself in his column The Paranormal Apostate.

Bruce writes:

"My name is Bruce and I'm an skeptic. Debunker. Nasty Noisy Negativist. Along with any other four-letter-word used in the paranormal community to describe people like me. Though often employed as pejoratives to dismiss without thought those who challenge claims of the paranormal, I wear them as a brand of pride. That is what I am, a skeptic, a critical-thinker (by definition, a skeptic is a critical-thinker; that isn't to say a believer is not a critical-thinker, far from it. But that is a subject for another column), and I see no shame in it."

It's lovely to see more skeptical, critical thinkers attempting (and I hope not futilely) to show that skepticism isn't the terrible, horrible abomination many within the paranormal believe.

Keep and eye out for his column!

*Thanks to The Debris Field for the link.

Ufology: Live at Budokan

2011-02-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

It is often said that within ufology, the internal dialog is often more about it’s players than the phenomenon itself. While this is probably true in many fields of interest, it seems to glare more harshly in ufology.

In fact, ufology feels so propelled by the celebrity aspect, that it makes one wonder if there is really a true and deep interest in the subject by certain names, or if it’s a vessel for mediocre fame by those who might not otherwise gain notoriety. Big in Japan.

Hey, it worked for Cheap Trick.

In the case of abduction research and hypnotic regression, names like Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs are reminiscent to some of old-Hollywood royalty: even if they’re bad actors, they still get the headlines. And like Hollywood, interest is more often placed on the people themselves than the details of their work. Fans tend to cling to the legendary status of the figures they admire and adore, simply because of headlines, causing them to brush away criticism of their work, citing blasphemy.

And that’s probably some of what we are seeing in the case against hypnotic regression, the validity of such, and the methods of some researchers involved: An unwillingness by it’s followers to rip down the posters of the icons they cherished, and tear their fandom asunder. But there comes a time in every one's life when it’s time to rethink their commitments, and for supporters of researchers like Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, perhaps that time is now.

I’m sure a lot of people are tired of the names Emma Woods, David Jacobs, Carol Rainey and Budd Hopkins, and are loathe to read another piece about the pitfalls of hypnosis and it’s reliability in retrieving lost or buried memories. As someone deeply interested in the abduction phenomenon, and an editor for The Journal for Abduction-Encounter Research (JAR), I feel compelled to continue addressing it.

Slow news day? No, not at all. This topic is important. Not only because of the possible damage done by hypnosis to ‘abductees,’ but because it means that the entire backbone of the abduction hypothesis could be completely out of alignment. Everything you thought you knew... well, it might just be totally wrong.

I do have sympathy for abductees who have placed their faith in things like the alien hybridization program, because questioning hypnosis questions the result of hypnosis. Those who have spent years believing they have had certain experiences would surely have a difficult time considering those experiences may not have existed at all -- or at least occurred anything like they thought or were led to believe.

If you have an experience that is based purely on so-called retrieved memories, the reliability of those memories is often at the mercy of the regression hypnotist and what an individual might think have happened to them, which in many cases could be based on pop culture and their own research and interest in ufology and abduction.

As Kevin Randle put it in his recent piece 'A Response to Budd Hopkins:'

"If these people, and their clients, aren't already "programmed" to believe in an abduction, then why search out Hopkins for assistance? Wouldn't anyone versed in hypnosis be able to help them learn what happened during this supposed missing time? Aren't each of them "primed" for an abduction, just as those who go to a reincarnation specialist are "primed" for learning about a past life."

An excellent point -- one that is pretty fucking obvious, but needed to be said. If abductions are happening as frequently as some believe, or happening at all, shouldn’t the same results come from non-biased therapists and hypnosis specialists?

Of course, there are people who don’t fit the above profile, who had no interest in or knowledge of alien abduction, but have been lead to that conclusion anyway, such as the often over-cited Betty and Barney Hill Case. That case came out 50 years ago though, and since then, even those without an interest in little bald men and UFOs know something about the classic abduction experience, thanks to television and film. So, for scenarios happening in years after the Hill case, it could be argued that anyone with a television or plug into to society could be influenced by such stories -- which is just about damn near everyone in America and Europe.

Kevin also mentions a concern that the late John Mack had, using a quote from the book Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind by C.D.B. Bryan, in which Mack states:

"And there’s another dimension to this, which Budd Hopkins and Dave Jacobs and I argue about all the time which is I’m struck by the fact that there seems to be a kind of matching of the investigator with the experiencer. So what may be the archetypal structure of an abduction to Dave Jacobs may not be the uniform experience of, say, Joe Nyman or John Mack or someone else. And the experiencers seem to pick out the investigator who will fit their experience."

It makes a lot of sense. People who have suspected alien abduction in their own lives and have worked with Hopkins and Jacobs, searched them out for a reason: Because they suspected their experiences were alien in nature. Which means they already had a profile for such events in their head and knew that these two researchers dealt with alien abduction. This, of course, is arguably a big set-up for the results that would follow a hypnotic regression. And yes, it is possible that someone who felt they had an experience, and initially had not linked it to alien abduction, but confided in someone who referred them to Hopkins and Jacobs. Still, even in this situation, the referrer undoubtedly informed the possible experiencer that their abduction might be something non-terrestrial in nature, which would in turn support the idea that going into a hypnosis session with the idea you might have been abducted, could color the actual retrieved experience so that it fits the established scenario and imagery.

And yet, the question of whether alien abductions are actually happening, or happening as abundantly as interested parties suggest, isn’t the only or even the largest problem here. The other problem(s) are the practises of these regression ‘therapists’ and the trust placed on non-mental health professionals to perform hypnosis, and the taking of their word and recommendations as the advice of a mental health practitioner, which (and we should all know this by now) Jacobs and Hopkins are not.

If you haven’t already read Carol Rainey’s article The Priests of High Strangeness in the preview edition of Paratopia Magazine, please do so. It is an interesting, often disturbing, and well-written piece on her experience working with Budd Hopkins. Supporters of Hopkins were quick to jump to his defense, accusing of Ms. Rainey of attacking him out of bitterness (they are divorced), and therefore disregarded the piece and dismissed the content of her article. This was to be expected, but if you do read the article and all you get out of it is the angry offensive of a jilted ex-wife, you’re reading it wrong.

There was no way in which Carol could have written her piece without the immediate assumption that she was trying to hurt Hopkins. Not with the knowledge they were married and divorced hanging over it. Any criticism she had about his work and ethics, no matter how she approached it, would have received the same accusations -- and that is truly a shame.

Budd has since written his own retort to Rainey, Deconstructing The Debunkers: A Response, defending himself and doing what others have accused Rainey of doing -- attacking and smearing one's name. The article can be found here.

UFO Magazine will be publishing Hopkins' rebuttal to the issue #154 article written by Jeremy Vaeni, as well as the article written by Alfred Lehmberg, in the upcoming issue.

After reading Budd’s Deconstructing The Debunkers: A Response, browse on over to Kevin Randle’s A Different Perspective and read his piece, A Response to Budd Hopkins. It’s quite good.

Edit: Clarification on a Statement

Goings On

2011-02-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

Things have certainly been brewin' the last 2 weeks, and I probably have something to say about some of them. But not just yet:

I've taken on some additional work and have been swamped, leaving me a little behind in the current drama(s) within UFOlogy, and I'm probably also behind on my next column for UFO Magazine. Though, I'm not entirely complaining. Finances have been difficult the last couple of years, so, having more work has been a much desired development.

Anyhoo, despite my heavier workload, I do have a few things in the works that should see the light of day over the next few weeks.

Forensic Science - Best 50 UFO Blogs

2011-02-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

Google Alerts brought this rather unexpected news to my attention. Apparently, Forensic Science has placed The Interstellar Housewife in the top 5 of their Best 50 UFO Blogs listing, and wrote a cute little blurb about the site. Regan Lee's The Orange Orb and Lesley Gunter's The Debris Field are also listed.

Check it out!

Paratopia Magazine: Preview

2011-01-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

Paratopia, the brain-child podcast of Jeff Ritzmann and Jeremy Vaeni has entered a new vein in the vesel of a quarterly digital magazine: Paratopia Magazine.

Currently, Paratopia offers a preview which includes two full articles. The Priests of High Strangeness by Carol Rainey, an award-winning PBS documentary filmmaker (and ex-wife to Budd Hopkins), and Tainted, Toxic & Taboo, by Tyler A. Kokjohn, Ph.D, a biochemist and Professor of Microbiology at the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine.

This impressive preview of their first issue demonstrates the tenacity and to-the-point nature we've come to expect from Jeff and Jeremy, and serves as an excellent introduction into this new venture.

Paratopia pulls no punches with this puppy, building ever further on their case against hypnotic regression as a useful tool for abduction research and the lack of accountability by it's major players, namely Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs.

The Priests of High Strangeness, Carol Rainey's article on her close experiences with Budd Hopkins and his alien abduction research, starts things off -- and let me tell you, it's quite a powerful piece. If it doesn't get more of you looking at this area of Ufology with a more skeptical eye, I'm not sure anything will.

If you're familiar with the Emma Woods case (and you should be), this will further force the question many have been juggling with for months now: do we throw all hypnotic regression 'evidence' out, or do we hold on to what remaining scraps there are?

Tainted, Toxic & Taboo, by Dr. Tyler Kokjohn, educates the readers on the rigid methods of presenting scientific evidence to Institutional Review Boards, and helps explain why mainstream science is so hesitant to involve itself into the bizarre world of the alien abduction phenomenon.

These articles, while painting a very disturbing picture of an area of research largely accepted within Ufology, do not dispute abductions in general, only the major players in abduction research, their irresponsible (and sometimes sleazy) methods, and the questionable validity of their findings.

Give Paratopia magazine's preview a read. It's well crafted, well written, and helps take the frowned-upon subject of Ufology and the paranormal, to a new and more respectable level.

*Image Art by Jeff Ritzmann

In Response to an Email Request

2011-01-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

And no, it's not a photo of me flashing my tits.

Last week I received an email from a man who thought I might be able to help him understand something about the abduction phenomenon and the claims therein. To protect his privacy, I will not be including his name or contact info, but only the body of his email (including the part where he says I'm attractive).

His email is as follows:

Hi,

I am contacting you just to see if you are a real person, I was not aware there were such attractive women involved with this UFO thing.

Anyway, my major reason for contacting you is to find someone who will answer my question as to why abductees do not have CCD video to provide proof of their claims of a felony kidnapping/abduction committed against them or their loved ones. If any of these people are allowing this to happen without contacting the police I believe this is also a felony or an 'indictable offense' in Canada; i.e., a serious crime, also not reporting a felony is a crime.

-Name withheld

It is doubtful you will find many non-abductees who can answer this question in a way that might better satisfy you, but you may also find that many of those who do consider themselves abductees would not be able to give you an adequate response either. I am no great expert on the abduction topic, but I am deeply interested in it and am familiar with a number of cases and common elements associated with abduction claims -- so, let me give it a shot:

First of all, we should note that there are two main types of abductions - those occurring in the bedroom (or more specifically, those who had been sleeping prior to the event) and those that occur during the waking states, such as with the Betty and Barney Hill and the Travis Walton cases. Those two categories are further broken down into those who have a fairly clear recall of the events, and those who have recall of the event only through (or mostly through) hypnotic regression. The latter presents a unique problem: the validity and usefulness of hypnosis. Many within ufology and abduction research are beginning to question claims brought forth through hypnosis, citing it as an unreliable tool to recover lost or blocked memories. The human mind is extremely susceptible to suggestion and the concern there is that those performing hypnosis -- especially individuals who are not mental health professionals -- often 'lead' the patient, whether intentionally or not).

I should also clarify that I do not consider myself an abductee. While I have had many strange experiences, and have witnessed bizarre things in my room upon waking, I have no recollection of ever being aboard a ship or taken out of my physical environment in any other way. This leads me to believe that it is possible I am suffering a kind of sleep paralysis and that (in my case) paranormal/contact events that occur upon waking are a product of the hypnagogic state, or in simpler terms: lucid-dreaming.

The question as to why those claiming abduction and contact do not provide proof is a fairly common one, but frankly, in most cases, people are not aware when an event might take place. Some claim they experience abduction frequently, while others experience the phenomenon over longer periods, sometimes even years.

Some obvious explanations as to why a smoking-gun recording (audio, video, or both) has not surfaced would be:

The individual does not have the funds or means to obtain a reliable recording device.
The individual does not know when she or he will experience an 'abduction.'

Now, there have been many people who have tried to capture an event on film or audio media, and either the film has been proven (or largely suspected as) a hoax, or there has been some unexplained mishap with the equipment -- such as inferior-quality video recording devices that do not work well in low light conditions, power outages, and so on.

But let's play Devil's advocate here a moment: If abductions are really occurring, and they are being performed by extraterrestrials of higher-intelligence and technology, it is very conceivable that they will be able to locate and disable recording devices prior to entering the subject's room. It may also be conceivable that devices they may carry with them or utilize to gain entrance into the home may cause electrical interference. While this may sound like a 'cheap' explanation, it is something one has to take into consideration if the argument includes a highly advanced civilization interacting with our planet.

Of course, with so many unknowns, it's all really straw-grasping as to what would interfere with recording devices. If extraterrestrials are visiting people, we really have no idea what they are like or what they have to work with (technologically speaking). As humans, we have a tendency to anthropomorphize when it comes to the concept of 'aliens,' assuming they would have elevated technology but with core characteristics of our own technology, and that they would think or act similarly to ourselves. The truth of the matter is, none of us really knows how an alien being would operate -- and those who claim they do know have not provided proof or evidence that would hold up in the court of science (or even the court of law).

You ask why those claiming abduction have not contacted appropriate law enforcement agencies. In actuality, many have, but when it comes to claiming alien abduction, a topic regarded as pure fiction by the majority, law enforcement agencies tend to brush it off, chalk it up to psychological issues, or lay the blame on substance abuse. In those cases where police have investigated claims, they have found no evidence that an extraterrestrial entity has invaded a home and taken members of the household. In some situations, there have been signs of intrusion, higher levels of radiation, strange substance residues, and other items, but nothing that supports the reality of actual extraterrestrial interference.

One of the problems inherent with evidence of alien beings is that evidence has to be measured against what we know and understand. If we find a peculiar substance, it doesn't mean it's necessarily alien to our own planet, as the universe is all made up of similar stuff. What that means is if, say, an alien got mud on it's shoes on planet Glorpenburgh (yes, I totally made that up), then later that day tracked mud into an Earthling's bedroom, that mud may be made up of a similar composition to our own. If the being could live and function in our environment without some kind of life sustaining apparatus, you'd have to kind of assume that they are made up of elements common to our own biology and come from a place similar to Earth in composition.

To go a bit further, say that someone was abducted and on one occasion, nabs a device from the alien ship. Then, after the abduction, presents the device to the scientific community for analysis. There is really no test we could perform that would tell us exactly where the materials of that device came from or who constructed it. Laboratory testing may tell us that the device is made up of some unknown materials, and possibly materials of a non-earthly origin, but this doesn't rule out the possibility that the materials were found on Earth, such as materials from a meteor. Also, without knowing the exact level of advancement of our own technology, we wouldn't know for sure that the device wasn't manufactured by the military (our military is often said to have technology farther ahead of what is given to the public. Take for instance the Internet, which was in existence decades before it became popular on home computers).

See, we have nothing to measure a proposed alien artifact to, because we don't know what an alien artifact is (and if we do in fact know, then it's a secret closely guarded by the government and/or military and not available for the general public and science communities). Sadly, we are often at the mercy of what we are allowed to know by our respective governing bodies.

Another thing I want to mention -- as long as we are talking about the military -- is it has been suggested that some abductions do actually occur, but are not performed by anyone or anything of extraterrestrial origin, but are instead MILABs. The acronym 'MILABs' is given to the term "Military Abduction(s)." These are abductions supposedly performed by military or paramilitary organizations made to appear as a paranormal or extraterrestrial event to either hide the fact the military is abducting people, or to convince people of an extraterrestial presence for whatever reason.

This does beg the question: "Why would the military abduct people?" If it is really happening, who can say? I suppose some possibilities might be to try out new technologies such as teleportation, or for psychological purposes like mind control. Perhaps even for other kinds of illegal testing where human subjects are desired.

To throw even more things into stew, there are a growing number of people within UFOlogy who do not feel abductions are taking place by alien beings from another world, but are instead inter-dimensional beings, cryptoterrestrials (cryptoterrestrials are theorized yet-undiscovered sentient beings that exist on Earth, but in locations we have little to no knowledge of, such as deep underground or within the oceans), or even the product of an entity known as The Trickster. The Trickster theory is not one I am very knowledgeable about, so there's not much I can elaborate on there.

So, unfortunately the abduction phenomenon is not as straightforward as one might assume (and hope). There probably isn't anyone who can really provide you with the answer you, me, and many others require, because of the large number of unknowns and the varied circumstances and stories.

At this point it's probably apparent that I haven't subscribed to any one theory. It is an interesting phenomenon, and one that is sometimes too easily written off as sleep paralysis. But sleep paralysis alone does not explain abduction or contact claims that occur during waking hours, or situations in which two or more persons are involved. Personally, I believe something real is happening to some percentage of these individuals, but am I comfortable simply laying it off on an extraterrestrial presence?

Nope.

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien...

2011-01-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

...seeks same.

*In case it isn't clear, I did not create or have anything to do with the above video.

Happy Holidays

2010-12-25T10:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

(to those who deserve them)

-Deirdre

The Good, The Vague, and the Ho-Hum

2010-12-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

It (almost) never ceases to amaze me how quickly a minor comment will snowball into something huge. For instance, this whole WikiLeaks / Assange UFO statement. What Julian Assange actually said was:

"Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the Anti-Christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant," he wrote when asked if any of the documents he had received referred to extraterrestrial life.

"It is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs."

That's a fairly tame statement, one which says to me that the references are nothing more than off-the-cuff remarks or part of a general discussion. When you take into consideration the preface, "Many weirdos email us about UFOs...", it becomes more difficult to believe that any major or shocking information will be disclosed. Now, if Assange had worded it like this:

"Holy fucking shit, y'all! In yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs -- ZOMG!!!111"

Then yes, I might get the impression that some fairly interesting news regarding extraterrestrials (or whatever) would be forthcoming.

I'm not sure why so much crap is read into pretty vague and ho-hum statements, but somehow this next headline started gaining visibility in the last 2 days:

'Assange File Reveals Extraterrestrial Contact'

Woah. Where the fuck did that come from? At first I thought, "Hrm. Maybe Julian has made additional comments in recent days..."

Nope!

Apparently, that headline came purely from speculation based on the original (and only) Assange UFO statement, “It is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.”

It wouldn't be such a bad thing if people didn't get carried away or take those sorts of things at face value, but then again, we are talking about UFOlogy, here. Add to that the number of people (more than anyone should hope for) that still haven't got it through their heads that the 'U' in 'UFO' means 'Unidentified', not 'Extraterrestrial', and voilà - instant conspiracy.

If I strap a Barbie doll to a bottle rocket and launch it, someone viewing the sailing rocket with the naked eye from a mile or so away would probably not be able to make out that it's a friggin' Barbie doll straddling a firecracker. If the sighting is reported but its true nature never discovered, it would probably be classified as an Unidentified Flying Object.

Point being?

Point being that the term 'UFO' could be used to describe any number of airborne unknowns, most of which are likely terrestrial in origin.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the reference to UFOs in the unreleased WikiLeaks cables goes something like:

"Dude. I was so fucking baked at the UFO concert last night -- I hadn't seen them play since '77!"

A Little Slap & Tickle

2010-12-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

I want to express my thanks for the support I’ve received regarding the kooky, yet entertaining attempt at an assassination piece (UFO Mag Columnist is an Insult To Readers) written by David P. Kuhlman in UFO Digest. Extra-special thanks go out to Lesley Gunter for her write-up on The Debris Field, and of course, Regan Lee for her hilariously wonderful article “Brazen Hussies Invade Earth! Serious UFO Research Attacked!" (with the delicious subtitle: “Cigarette Smoking Woman Single-handedly brings down UFO research! In her slip, no less!").

A few people have asked if I was going to respond to the original article by my admirer, Mr. Kuhlman -- but what is there to really say that wasn't already addressed by Lesley and Regan? I dunno, I'll give it a whirl anyway:

The entire thing was so ridiculous, that it was difficult to be offended by it. His piece seemed more obsessive than newsworthy, though admittedly, I was really flattered that he spent so much time writing about me. The UFO column that so drove Mr. Kuhlman over the edge was merely an introductory piece that was requested by UFO Magazine Editor, Nancy Birnes – if that alone made his *ahem* “blood boil,” Lord only knows what my actual columns will do to the poor guy.

Every serious area of research and study has its off-color writers, so why should UFOlogy be so different? Poking fun at the ridiculousness of UFOlogy should in no way imply that I am not serious about it. If I wasn't, I wouldn't waste my time hammering away at my keyboard. And believe me, if there is an -ology out there that could use a little self-deprecating humor, it’s definitely UFOlogy. If you can't laugh at some of the outrageous crap that goes on within the field, I don't know what to tell you other than maybe you need to find some other area of interest to devote your time to. Like needlepoint.

I think that's really what confused me the most – his argument that I was undermining "serious" UFO research. How exactly was I doing that? Because I wrote an introduction in which I called bullshit on a lot of UFOlogy and used the occasional naughty word? Because I made it fun to read instead of stuffily laying on a bunch of thick, worthless credentials? Every "serious" UFO researcher knows that this field is smeared in bullshit – to deny that is probably more of the problem, than the remedy.

Some have speculated that his response was so strong because I'm a female, and that it carried a chauvinistic edge. I’m not so sure I’m comfortable jumping to that conclusion, though I don’t completely dismiss the possibility. Men largely populate the world of UFOlogy, and the women who are involved are often overlooked, ignored, or brushed aside -- so I can understand why some may feel this way. I'd like to give Mr. Kuhlman the benefit of the doubt though, and assume that it was only me who invoked such a response from such a hardcore researcher (or that maybe he was instigating a little slap & tickle).

What are my opinions about Mr. Kuhlman? Hell if I know. As long as I have been studying UFOs, I’ve never heard of the guy. Of course, I don’t read UFO Digest, so that may have something to do with it. I mean, yeah, he’s a dick, but its hard to be too upset with someone who is a bit thick in the head and leaves no room for anything outside of his little bubble of priggish, "serious" UFO research.

And just because I felt like it:

Oh, Dear - Ive Done It Again!

2010-11-22T22:19:00.000-08:00

"UFO Mag Columnist is an Insult To Readers"

Beautiful post over at UFO Digest about yours truly. Take a peak!

http://www.ufodigest.com/article/ufo-mag-columnist-insult-readers

Apparently, I've helped tarnish the good name and respectability of UFOlogy.

PS the lipstick is actually Rimmel shade 136 Balistic.

Der Untergang - UFOlogy

2010-11-18T17:50:00.000-08:00

Another "Downfall" spoof, this one illustrating Hitler's frustration with UFOlogy. Found it via UFO Blog.

Made me laugh -- especially the bit about analyzing photos.

Collapsed Starstuff (And Other Stuff Too)

2010-11-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

I'm just finishing up my next column for UFO Magazine. Got to it a little late, as my world has been nothing short of strange and chaotic since mid August. But Autumn is here, my mind has calmed, and I'm looking forward to the colder months with what remaining leaves there are on the trees, followed by the onset of Winter (I am hopeful for a decent amount of snow in Portland, this year).

I'd been out of touch for the last few months, as noted, and so the the last couple of weeks have been spent catching up on all the UFOlogical zaniness I had missed. Not a whole Hell of a lot has happened (much to my unsurprise). There were some predictions, some more sightings, some speculations on the possible rocket launch in in Southern California, the failure of Jeff Peckman's kooky ballot measure and such, but that's been about it.

The Emma Woods / David Jacobs story is hitting a little harder with Jeremy's recent article in UFO Magazine. Gary Haden has also been covering the story for many months over on his site, Speculative Realms.

I wanted to throw out a plug for a Podcast I have been enjoying immensely, as it's geared more towards my line of thinking. That show is The Devil's Advocate with David Rountree and Stephen Rorke. I first heard David and Stephen on Paratopia episode #65. It's nice to see people with science backgrounds discussing paranormal happenings and educating the listenership with facts and theories based on those facts, as opposed to the usual cacophony of bologna and bullshit.

By the way, if you were sleeping in yesterday or haven't been paying attention, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory discovered what may possibly be a young black hole in the M100 Galaxy. Or it may be a young neutron star. In any event, pretty interesting news for those of you turned on by more than just saucers and almond-eyed aliens.

Though it resides in our 'galactic neighborhood', as NASA put it, the object is located about 50 million light years away, so cast aside any fear of ending up in the gravitational attraction of SN 1979C.

Newest Caricature from D. Rano - Tina Sena

2010-11-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

Dennis Rano has added another female UFO enthusiast to his portfolio. This time it's the lovely Ms. Tina Sena.

For more caricatures and info on Dennis, check out his website, The UFOlogists. You can also read my December 2009 interview with the artist.

Thanks to Lesley for the head's up, via The Debris Field.

Denver Discs & Fruity Loops

2010-11-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

As most of you have probably heard, J-Peck's Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission ballot failed with only 15% of the vote. I know some of you are shocked - shocked - that the measure failed. After all, with this kind of logic, how could it possibly have received so little support:

"It [the Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission] is important because if you're driving down the highway and you saw a crash of a small spaceship and a car or a bus full of kids, you really wouldn't know what to do," Peckman told the Rocky Mountain News. "Do you wait for the hazardous materials experts to show up because of potential contaminants from another solar system? What do you do? People really don't know."

Apparently, the citizens of Denver are not so easily swayed by the slick rhythms and drum loops of Pink UFO.

But Jeff isn't licked just yet! He argues that the initiative was tossed in with another measure, No on Number:

"Initiative 300 was lumped together with the Democrats' 'No on Numbers' campaign against amendments 60, 61 and 62, which all got within a percentage point or two of what Initiative 300 got."

He further added that:

"...the ones who said they voted 'no' gave one of two reasons -- either because they thought it was going to cost taxpayers money, which it wasn't, and because they were voting 'no' on the numbers, like the Denver Democrats said."

So, possible legal action is now a consideration for the Metatron Tech guru. I guess the risk of a crashed disc and a buss-load of kids is just too great to be dismissed! If it were my kids (I mean, if I like had children and shit), I'd certainly want an Extraterrestrial Affairs commission on the scene handling 'contaminant from another solar system', and not something like the EPA.

To echo Jef Otte of Denver Westword Blogs, please let this guy stop making rap videos.

Credit: Denver Westword Blogs & Live Science

Saucers, Slips, and Cigarettes

2010-11-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

Just a few lines to let you know that my first column, Saucers, Slips, and Cigarettes (which is really just an introductory piece) is now available in the latest edition of UFO Magazine (Vol. 24 No. 1, Issue #154).

If you pick it up, be sure to also check out the columns of Regan Lee & Lesley Gunter, not to mention the piece Aliens vs. Predator: The Incredible Visitations at Emma Woods, by Jeremy Vaeni!

I haven't gotten around to the other articles and columns yet, but I'm sure there are more great pieces in this issue. Give it a go!

Thanks for reading!

~Deirdre

Absence makes the heart grow -- oh, fuck it!

2010-09-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

I've been gone a while. Without getting into the details, I'll just let you all know that I have been coping with a breakup, and then most recently, the death of my dog 'Tuff' who passed on yesterday afternoon. He was such a darling little man, and I miss him terribly. My heart is broken.

I feel horribly out of the loop, and there are 175 emails in my inbox, all labelled 'UFO'. I have a lot of catching up to do and hope to be writing more again within the next week or two. I have updates to add to UFO Mag blog, WOE, Queeranormal, and of course, here at IHW. I should also probably get on my next UFO Magazine column.

Yeesh! I fucking hate falling behind!

That's all for now. Take care and see you soon!

~Deirdre

Cool News

2010-08-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

I've had a busy month - some of which has even been UFO related.

I have 2 book reviews in the newest issue of JAR Magazine #9, which came out a 2 weeks ago and I have also been working on the re-design of JAR's new website which should be launched within the month.

The biggest news, however, came unexpectedly a little over a week ago. Nancy Birnes contacted me and asked if I would be interested in having a column in UFO Magazine. I gladly accepted this offer and have already sent in my first piece, which is basically an introduction. I think she is is gearing up to put it in the next issue, so if you are a subscriber, check it out!

More soon!

~Deirdre

Technology, Privacy and Nothing About UFOs

2010-07-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

A popular discussion for many years has been the acceleration of technology and our dependence on that technology at the cost of less human memory usage. This is not a new take on the idea that we are losing some of ourselves to an increasingly gadgetized world, but rather just my input, which tends to fall on deaf ears when discussed with most people.

We certainly love our devices. Our phones, our laptops, our Global Positioning Systems, and the myriad softwares available for each. Our phones process faster than all of NASA’s computers during the age of the Space Race, our laptops packed with more punch and much less size than a 386 IBM circa 1996. We carry with us music studios, vast music libraries, and thousands upon thousands of photos & documents. The total collection of each of our lives, comfortably fitting on a handful of gigabytes with room to spare. These are, of course, amazing and impressive things, but what price have we paid beyond dollars?

How many of you could tell me 5 of your friends phone numbers without referring to you cell phone’s contact library?

I can barely remember my own, let alone the number of anyone else. I’d be proper fucked if I had to make an emergency phone call, sans cell phone. Yeah, I could try 411 if anyone I knew was listed.

How many of you could write a few pages in a standard college ruled notebook without getting a hand-cramp?

I have near 100 notebooks of stuff that I have written, but interestingly, I have no notebooks that I’ve kept since 1999. Occasionally, I’ll take a notebook with me to the river or a park, planning to write, and side from lamenting the loss of my legible handwriting abilities, my hand becomes sore and cramped much sooner than it would have a decade ago. Same thing with sketching.

My writing hand is a little more productive than some other hardcore interface users, but that’s only due to my work in graphic design and the use of the pen tablet. Still, it does not really mete out the same stress and strain as when putting graphite to pressed pulp.

It was about 3 years ago that, as much of a computer geek as I am (and make no mistake, I am a rather huge computer geek) I am starting to become fearful of the route the world has taken. Sure, I could bring balance to my life and reinstate some of the more human processes of daily tasks, but the world itself is on a very fast road with no posted speed limit. Its not enough that I simply change my ways -- I’d be forced to continue in the same mode as the rest of the world, if I were to remain on the grid... and perhaps that in itself, is the answer: Living off the Grid.

I’ve heard acquaintances and friends talk from time to time about how great it would be to live off the grid, to relinquish some of the control of the digital world. To work with their hands again, setup home in the middle of nowhere, and significantly reduce their so-called carbon footprint. Yet, not one of them has really made the effort to do so. These things are usually only brought up around campfires or at a BBQ -- fire and smoke tend to bring out the primal nature of people, if only for a few hours.

Perhaps they talk themselves out of it, thinking that there is a rainbow in our future, and at the end of it is some perfect harmony to be found. Free Energy, clean water for everyone, massive nature preserves, synthesized meat -- all alongside a streamlined, computer driven world.

I’m not going to get into the use of avatars in real world experiences and how one day our existence may no longer depend on the blood and bones that fill us. I’m not saying that the direction we’re heading is necessarily a bad one -- only that it isn’t quite the future I has hoped for and I’m not quite sure I want it -- beyond the fantastical proclamations made in technology specials on the Science Channel.

I worry. I worry about giving ourselves away -- and we are giving ourselves away, if you think about it. We are throwing up our hands and allowing things external to ourselves, to run our schedules, our world, and our lives. And with that, we are abandoning something once very scared to us: Privacy.

And we’re doing it willingly.

We all laughed in high-school when paranoid people told us that we were heading towards an Orwellian dystopia: “That couldn’t happen here!” we’d say. “We’d recognize it happening and do something about it!” But would we?

Enter Facebook.

I’ve done the social networking thing for a long time. I had profiles on all of the major networking platforms - even Friendster back in the early 00s. But as much as I’ve been up on what’s current with the social functions of the Internet, I’ve been a pretty ‘terrible’ social networker. I’ve always been very picky about my privacy and what I let out there, and so I’ve never been very good at utilizing these systems as intended. Some of you may say “Deirdre, I’ve seen you post some pretty personal things” and that may be true, but I suppose it depends on what one deems as personal. My interests are not necessarily what I would consider personal to me, but my feelings about work, friends, family, the goings on of my everyday life -- I like to keep that shit on the down-low, and I very rarely update anything with what I am doing at any given moment, where I happen to be, or what emotional crisis I’m going through.

But when I click on the home tab for Facebook, I’m fed an infinite amount of data about each and every person I have ‘friended’, and as I’m sure some of you probably have witnessed yourselves, people give away a lot of private and personal shit. I find myself thinking “Why would someone announce [insert status update, here] and have it visible to everyone?”

I think one reason is the false sense of security and privacy that comes with these sites. People think that because they have their profiles set to ‘Friends Only’, that it’s good enough. They believe that because they choose who is and isn’t on their list, they are safe in what they choose to tell -- ignoring the obvious past privacy flaws that have plagued such networking sites in the past. If you think that only the people on your list have access to what you are running at the mouth about, you’re crazy.

Given the right reason (and probably no reason at all) the Government could have complete access to everything you’ve ever said on your Facebook. They’d know what you eat, where you've been, what drugs you’ve done, what music you listen to, and whether you like anal sex or not. You might be thinking that this is highly unlikely -- yet every day we hear about things that should scare the living piss out of us and raise our internal red flags. For example: Martial law in the gulf, the recent laws passed to make it illegal to record on duty police officers, and all of the other terrifying shit that’s been happening over the last 20 years.

And if we really do get to a point where we have subcutaneous chips in our arms and retinal scans at every entryway, at what point are we going to say enough is enough, and refuse the chains of an Orwellian world -- and will it be too late? We all swore it couldn't happen, wouldn't happen -- but these days the government wouldn't have to do much to make that happen if they wanted -- not with us walking willingly into a world where privacy is a thing of the past.

Sometimes I hope those Exo-nutcakes are right.

Sometimes It's Just a Giant Sumerian Phallus

2010-07-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

It's July 19th, and while I'm unhappy that we're officially in the Summer-zone, I'm glad May and June are over. Not that May was a bad month. In fact, it was one of the better months I've had in many years.

A lot of change has happened (and still continues to happen), that really began to show form in early May and carried on through until the end of last month. As anyone who has gone through significant life changes can attest to, it can be positively exhausting! I've not written much anywhere in the last few weeks -- been too busy fighting through the cloudiness and disorientation that often travels with discovering new perspectives... but I hope to be coming out of that haze sooner rather than later.

I've been thinking a lot about my voice (however small it is) in UFOlogy, and it's been occurring to me that I pick on so many topics, that some of you might think I don't believe in anything. I even began to wonder if I was looking like a debunker more than someone actually interested in sorting out the un-sortable mysteries of the world.

Well, I am not a debunker, nor am I a disinformation agent in disguise. I throw that out there because it's pretty popular to label someone who doesn't agree with your beliefs in ufology as a disinformation agent. Some people are so set in their own beliefs that they will shout out anything they can think of to point an accusing finger toward who or whatever they perceive as a threat to their ideology.

So, there isn't a lot of welcome room for skeptical-minded folk in the paranormal. There should be, but there isn't. And while many have clarified their anti-skeptic position by saying that its really debunkers they hate, many still use the term 'skeptic' to denote that, which further distorts the meaning. To me, skepticism is probably the best possible way of thinking for anyone (in my humble opinion, Guv'na). A skeptic is someone who looks before she jumps. It doesn't mean that she won't jump, only that she wants to gather more credible information before taking that leap.

I know that everyone and their dog has written about skepticism -- especially this past year, but I felt like throwing my opinion in anyway.

If you're not a skeptic, you probably in one of two other categories. You either don't believe in anything, or you believe in everything -- neither of which are very appealing, and certainly not sexy (because when you think 'UFOlogy', you think 'sexy', right?).

Of course, as skeptical as I think I am, more hardcore skeptics would not see it quite that way. Especially if they were privy to some of my beliefs. I think some of those beliefs might even surprise those of you who know me, or at least know of my writing.

In the last month or so, I began to feel as if all I was doing was bitching about what probably isn't real, and not really giving exposure to things I do believe in or support. I had meant to address this a little earlier than now, but got sidetracked with the whole Pickering joke. I was reminded again during a phone call with my friend Elaine.

Elaine is an editor of JAR Magazine, along with myself and two others, and we were talking about the diversity of all of the JAR editors and contributors in regards to beliefs. At one point Elaine jokingly exclaimed "And then there's Deirdre the Skeptic - you can't get her to believe anything!" It was pretty funny, and perhaps comparatively true in a way, but it made me further realize that while y'all know I can't hang with the Alien in the Windows of the world, you don't know about some of my not-so-widely-accepted interests.

For instance, there is a theory I am very critical of (I have written about it previously on a few occasions, and have two half-written articles picking on this topic -- or rather picking on some of the more colorful theories floating around out there), yet also very intrigued by. Can you guess what it might be? That's right: Ancient Aliens. It's a silly term, but it was either that or Ancient Astronauts, and the latter just makes me think of Buzz Aldrin.

Really, it shouldn't be that surprising. If I'm willing to accept the possibility that Earth has had non-local visitors, I should be willing to accept that they could have been visiting for thousands of years. But since I've thrown a lot of rotten tomatoes at the AA camp, it occurred to me people might assume I think the entire idea is bullshit -- which is untrue. Do I believe some other civilisation had a hand in developing the human race? I suppose it's possible. I think that had they been here, they would have at least influenced it somehow, even by simply being visible.

My problems with Ancient Aliens (besides the fact the term denotes extra terrestrial intervention(s), when it could be something more crypto or perhaps even dimensional *cringe* in nature) is more with the researchers than the general concept. There are certainly some interesting and plausible theories running around out there, and even I watch all of those kooky specials too (just like all of you do), because sprinkled within those documentaries are usually some very intriguing bits and pieces. You just have to do your best to ignore all of the complete crap with it's glaring lack of anything resembling evidence, and do your own external research.

I think that Von Daniken and Sitchin both caught on to a great idea, but I also think they lost some much needed objectivity over the many years (or maybe even before they started out the gate). Sometimes a model of a bird is just a model of a bird. Sometimes people draw peculiar strange shapes just because they can, and sometimes translations are incorrect (after all, they are only translations, darlings). It's easy to want to insert our own interpretations and imagination into the unknown, but it often becomes misunderstood as fact by others, which leads to a whole mess of people citing evidence that doesn't actually exist. This, of course, happens in most paranormal areas of study.

And just to be clear: An etching of something that looks like a "rocket" is not evidence of a rocket. it's only evidence that someone created an image that resembles a rocket -- or a giant cock (you know, to represent fertility and stuff).

I have other interests that would maybe raise an eyebrow or two, and I'll get 'round to them eventually. I'm pretty far down the road from having all of the answers, and just wanted to make sure it was understood that I do not disbelieve everything.

Just almost everything.

New Site

2010-07-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

Just a quick message to let people know that I have started a new blog called Queeranormal. It will mainly be a place to write about my experiences and esoteric interests outside of UFOlogy.

I'm not ditching IHW -- not at all. It's been a slow Summer for UFO crap, and believe it or not, I do have other interests!

Take care,

~Deirdre

Rayguns: Practical Applicatons

2010-07-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

As sick as I am hearing about Roswell, I think I’m more sick of people talking about how sick they are of hearing about Roswell.

And of mysterious alien technologies, too.

There’s a lot of people swearing by extra terrestrial technologies that could be made available to humanity that would cure cancer, solve our energy problems, and cleanup the BP oil spill. Boy, ‘those aliens, sure do have everything, don’t they!

“Commander Zorlagh, it looks like those neurotic ape-people have fucked up the ocean again. Better pull out the ol' OS Raygun.”

Jeff Peckman, the godfather of Metatron Technology and the Extra Terrestrial Affairs Commission, has told the Denver Daily News that if we made contact with ET, they could fix that big BP mess right up:

“More recent messages coming from this direction or that direction have affirmed that there are such technologies in existence that could be made available to us once there is open contact, acknowledgment and diplomatic relations with these advanced extraterrestrial cultures."

What directions is he talking about? And I’d love to know who confirmed the existence of the BP Ray (or at least the technology that could clean it all up). Diplomatic relations with aliens -- same old ExoBS.

So, let me get this straight: ‘inside’ sources are in contact with, and have been told by an extra terrestrial civilization(s) that they (the ETs) can clean up the Gulf, but only if diplomatic relations are in place between Earth governments and their civilization -- otherwise, it’s tough shit for humanity!

That's rather harsh.

“*cough*We can make this all go away...
...if you just give in, Earthling *cough*.”

Me thinks someone is piggy-backing the crisis and hoping the current disgust and outrage brought on by the disaster will help push a few voter pens in the direction of the ETAC ballot check-box: “I don’t believe in no god or googly-eyed spacemen, but by god, it's worth a shot!”

Can we stop banking on extra-terran involvement to save our sorry asses?

Please?

In other news -- well, not a whole Hell of a lot has been worthy of noting and I’ve not had a lot to say in regards to UFOlogy. I’m not disinterested, I’m just preoccupied. Summer is upon me and my coping mechanisms for heat and sunlight are scant, at best. Still, I’ve been a relatively busy little beaver.

I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries and reading a lot of stuff on physics (one of my favorite subjects), as well as dabbling in areas of consciousness. Right now, I’m high on quantum entanglement theories and how QE might be a decent explanation for synchronicity, as well as a number of ‘paranormal’ events. Something more solid than simply resigning one’s self to the ideas of giant spaghetti monsters and whatnot.

These aren't really new interests, just recurring ones. Consciousness and perception have been the thoughts du jour recently because of a certain strangenesses that has been more aggressive in my life these last few months. In short, there is something in my house. There always has been, but whatever it is has become more ‘vocal’ lately. As a result, I've been pondering about why it is only sometimes here, what brings it into a more tangible light, and what that might imply about our ideas of reality which are based on the limited visual and audio spectrum granted to most of us.

I’ve reached no conclusions (about anything), but I did have a brief moment of semi-satisfaction not long ago. I suspect my friends think I’m totally nuts -- especially when it comes to the realms of high-strangeness, but an incident involving one of those friends, a garbage can lid, the basement, and my studio, while I was away from home a few weekends ago, has possibly helped my case.

But this isn't the site for that story, so I’ll probably post something about it on Women of Esoterica in the next week or two.

That is all.

Are You There Congress? It's Me, Margaret

2010-06-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

Damn. People are still pretty bent about that Hawking's statements from the first episode of his new series Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. I thought it might settle down once everyone actually watched the episode, instead of taking the statement out of a 45 minute context, but what the fuck do I know? I wonder what pissed people off the most -- was it painting extra terrestrial biological entities in human shades? Was it upsetting the folks who have spent an awful lot of time concocting their elaborate little universe, which has been fictionalized and knocked-up for so long that it has blurred the dividing line between perceptions of reality and make-believe? Maybe they just hate motorized wheel chairs.

Who really knows why everyone spit up their Gerber at the idea that an alien civilization could have it in for humanity and our little blue world. Sure, you can run your formulas, pour over philosophical ramblings, and imagine every scenario your limited mind allows, but when you're finished, you're still gonna know jack-shit -- until you come face to face with every alien civilization out there. So, kick back, take a pill, and STFU for a bit. There's certain to be more coming out of the science and paranormal communities to enrage and disgust you, soon enough!

But this isn't really about Hawking. He only came to mind while pondering what I was going to write about -- which is the notion of 'Human Rights' as it applies to the expanding and seemingly infinite universe. What exactly do I mean? Well, I'll tell you:

I've read a few articles discussing this topic. One that comes to mind argued that the Exopolitical community has treated abductees poorly, by either outright denouncing abductions happen, or insinuating that if they did happen, it's because the abductees deserved it (How's that for solidarity?). As a result, the author felt that Exopolitics hasn't done enough to work on Human Rights issues, rights that are apparently being violated by extra terrestrials.

Human Rights. Extra terrestrials.

Yeah.

Now, let's not get lost in the leap of faith needed to support the idea that Exopolitics really does maintain a dialog with extra terrestrials, but instead let's consider how Human Rights would be maintained throughout the cosmos:

Human Rights are recognized by--

Anyone? Anyone?

HUMANS.

Who might not give a flying-fuck about Human Rights (aside from megalo-maniacal, warmongering, genocidal humans)?

ALIENS (and maybe Cows).

Dan Aykroyd also brought up the violation of rights on his recent appearance on Larry King Live (which is really what reminded me of Hawking), but it's been discussed within UFOlogy and it's bastard offspring branches for a while now. So, for the sake of discussion, lets just pretend that ET is here and working with the government -- or Exopolitical leaders. How exactly are you going to address the issue of Human Rights? You have to assume that if humans are working with ET in any long-term capacity, the aliens would be fairly versed in 'Human Rights'. If they were in violation of them, what's the big plan to stop the abuse or to get them to recognize our 'certain inalienable rights' on a level that would have them suddenly giving a shit? Ya gonna spoon-feed it to them along with their strawberry ice-cream? Slip it into their Soylent Green? Make them sit through a Lifetime flick?

I'm just not sure what good it is arguing about our rights being violated with the government, when the government doesn't acknowledge alien contact -- and probably couldn't do anything about it, especially if those performing the violations, don't care. I'm not suggesting that if people are being abused by alien beings that it's 'ok'. Not at all. I'm a firm supporter of Human Rights, only I understand they are probably only 100% relevant among humans.

For those abductees who have had or are having horrifying experiences, I truly sympathize. I don't have answers on how to stop what you're going through, though I do hope there is some sort of light at the end of the tunnel one day, that you will no longer experience these violations. My position here is not to poke fun at abductees or to refute experiences, but to address our very human and oft times silly and unrealistic rationale. In a situation where we probably aren't holding any cards, let alone holding a shitty hand, I don't think there's much hope of instilling our brand of Right and Wrong on interplanetary peoples, if they aren't already on the level. We might as well write a letter to congress telling them that God is violating our rights and that something should be done about it (incidentally, crucifixion doesn't seem to work).

And through all of this talk of Human Rights vs. Alien Interactions, people are still acting as if aliens would adhere to the same human scales of right and wrong. As I mentioned in my last thing on Hawking, it's folly and pure ignorance to assume that such actions could be that simplified when it comes to an alien people. Think about the word Alien. We call them 'aliens' because to us, they would be alien, meaning: "Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange" (Thank you, FreeDictionary.com!). Where do we get off burdening non-human intelligence with our still ill-developed morality and ideals?

Yes, yes, I've heard the 'experts' wax probabilities left and right. I've listened to them discuss how similar or dissimilar technologically advanced races might be, but it still comes from a place of ignorance and still avoids the possibility (and in an near-infinite universe, the probability) that at least one advanced, intelligent civilization is not going to see eye-to-eye with us and our position on the Law. 'Good' and 'Bad', are -- and I'll say this for the billionth time -- subjective.

Here's something to chew on: I'm not a big fan of the idea that aliens are farming us for food -- but let's say they are indeed farming us for food (which would, of course, require them to kill us, whether humanely or other). Is this representative of an 'evil' alien culture -- or a necessity of survival? After all, according to, um -- 'Human' rights, we all have the right to survive. So, who is Good and who is Bad in this picture? I know you really want to attribute intelligence here -- that humans are 'intelligent' beings and as such, fall under some universally understood law maintained by a galactic protection agency. But the problem with this is that levels of intelligence are also subjective, which then requires you to start considering on what level it is or isn't 'ok' to lead cattle to the slaughter so we can enjoy a quick gluttonous romp through any of the billion drive-thru's across the world.

And its because of all of this that I have a hard time understanding what good the Human Rights argument is in these cases, how it would be implemented on a galactic scale, and how it might be understood and respected by a civilization of intelligent beings that are totally alien to us.

I Haven't Died... Yet.

2010-06-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

Nor have I left 'the field'. *wink*

I would have made more of a joke of that, but as they say: "It's too soon!"

Never mind.

Still here and still kicking! Inadvertently took more than a week off of writing due to a number of appointments, social engagements and of course, work.

I'm finishing up and article for Women of Esoterica, and then a new article will appear here shortly thereafter.

Hope all of you have been wonderful!

Take care,

~Deirdre

The Lost Island of Paratopia

2010-06-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Paratopia, the show many of us have come to love and cherish, is at an end. It's not a permanent end, but it is an end of sorts. Jeff and Jeremy have officially changed the format of the program and it will no longer feature the dynamic duo as a team. They have mentioned that in the future, they may do specials in which they both will appear, but overall, the island we set up camp at each Friday will all but disappear beneath the waves.

In it's place, a new resort -- one that is listener-driven. That's right: long time fans and listeners will now take the hosting seat, providing a voice for many who might otherwise not have one, allowing them to interview new and returning guests alike.

So stay tuned for the new wave, but for now let us pause and give thanks to Jeff and Jeremy for an often invaluable program with intelligent discourse, countless laughs, and much appreciated company once a week.

You can check out the last official episode via iTunes or here:

Paratopia - Episode 70

The message boards will remain intact, so please join us over yonder for continued discussion, fun and frivolity!

Erik Has Left the Building

2010-05-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note:

Erik Stitt is calling it a day in regards to the paranormal. I waited a while to see if he would change his mind, but alas, it would not be so. Therefore his site Contact will not only cease in updates, it will cease to exist period. In fact, this is already the case.

Please join me in wishing Erik the very best in his future endeavors, that he finds a way to return to his much-missed homeland, and back to the good things in life.

Thanks for the brief but wonderful contributions you've made, for your friendship and for your support. Though I will always be in touch with you, I know you will certainly be missed by many.

Take care, darling!

~Deirdre

PS If you come back after I've written all this, I will probably choke you.

IHW: Updated Site Design

2010-05-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

For those who care - I've made some modifications to the design of this site. A lot of the layout is intact with a few minor changes, such as line-height and the angled corners of the columns, as well as the main navigation tabs. But the most significant change is with the header image.

While I liked the previous design, after a while I wanted something that reflected my own personality better, and was a bit more 'fun'. So, I began brainstorming a few new ideas about a month ago. Finally, after tossing out some not-so-snazzy mock-ups, I came up with the current header design.

I may be tweaking things here and there, with the overall site and header itself, but I think it will probably remain pretty close to the what you see as of the date of this post.

Because I know some will ask - no, the legs aren't mine.

I'm kidding, they actually are my legs. I took a couple of leg-shots a few weeks back specifically for IHW and am pleased that at least a few turned out and that I was able to remove all of the visible cat hair that is inevitably woven into most of my clothing.

I wanted the header to have a very retro feel without using the typical 50s and 60s pop-art styles (though I do appreciate those). After choosing the type face, it became clear that with the theme, name, and magazine-ish layout of IHW, a header reminiscent of vintage magazines - particularly the pin-up rags of the late 50s and early 60s - was the way to go.

Anyhoo, as mentioned, the layout is pretty much the same, with some minor changes. I added a new link category for women's links that aren't esoteric in nature, and I got rid of the Labrys & Oregon images because they were just getting in the way of of the new header design.

This concludes my over-explanation of the new design which few of you will read past "...no, the legs aren't mine".

Take care & thanks for reading,

Deirdre

Things You Might Find in a Vaudville Show

2010-05-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

Every so often something comes along that really just makes my day. It's usually never as grand as this, but whether it's a poorly planned hoax or an alien wearing Bermuda shorts, a good laugh is always a nice change up from the usual stream of garbage and drudgery. Such is the case of the freshly pickled Pickerings and their mysterious 'Source A' disclosure agent, now revealed as one Richard Theilmann. If you haven't read this beautifully executed exposé, do yourself a favor.

Let me throw a bit of the back-story at you (though I highly recommend reading the entire piece written by Stephen Broadbent):

Shawn and Clay Pickering have been milking a story about a secret inside-source who divulged information regarding alien contact with the US government, having been a liaison officer to these very extra terrestrials. Known only as 'Source A', this man was touted as having a very illustrious career in the Navy of which he still claims active-duty. Source A, a.k.a Richard Theilmann, a.k.a. Chaps McGee, confided in the Pickerings not just that extra terrestrials were in contact with the government, but that these beings were actually involved with the government. Nothing too shocking there - we've heard this story a bazillion times before. But on April 9th of this year, Clay Pickering attended an event that would, within a month's time, pull the rug out from under his feet (as well as his brother's), tearing off the shroud of secrecy covering their mysterious source in the process.

Presented on Open Minds as a very high-profile, hush-hush meeting and worded like some convoluted cloak-and-dagger screenplay, this event was reported to have been attended by high-ranking officials that included Naval officers as well as State Department and United Nations delegates. It's purpose: to discuss the future of the Navy and it's policies with nation-states. A number of times along the way, Clay reiterated the extreme importance of this function, even detailing his experience with admission into the event (he was vetted by four different individuals and given some hard looks before Theilmann vouched for him -- talk about beefed-up security!). In fact this event was so secret that it wasn't even known about until just before it took place -- an obvious move to avoid unwanted exposure.

The amount of trouble Clay went through in order to present this meeting as highly, super-ly, majorly, incredibly classified and top secret, was ridiculous. Really ridiculous. But, then that's part of the intense beauty of what was to soon follow.

As it turns out, this 'major' engagement was not entirely the important meeting of minds it was built up to be. And by 'not entirely', I mean 'not at all'. Through some excellent (though relatively simple) investigation, a very different story unfolds. It's the simplicity, or rather the ease in which the investigation was performed that adds to the humor of this fiasco.

The mysterious and highly secure meeting was nothing more than the Chief of Naval Operations (Admiral Gary Roughhead) addressing the New York Council of the Navy League at the New York Athletic Club. As you might guess, security at the event was not as secure as had been portrayed either, with members paying 50 bucks admission and non-members (read: Clay Pickering) paying 60 bucks. Along with those costs came access to an open bar (I love open bars!). The New York Athletic Club was just one stop of many for the admiral, having been to NYU Poly Tech and the New York City Yacht Club, earlier in the day, where he made the same speech. These were, in fact, public speaking engagements.

Let that sink in a moment.

It get's much, much better! I don't want to ruin the article for you, but I did want to give you a brief introduction. I will tell you that we find out Source A's Naval record is an impossible length. For instance the claim that he has served in the Navy for 40 years would put him at age 15 in 1968, and then at school for a few more years after. There is also a seemingly touching (yet also creepy) story of his help with rape victims in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina that I find truly disgusting, as his involvement was a complete fabrication. And lastly, a photo from his MySpace account of him being flogged with a ping-pong paddle at a skimpy buffet table, while wearing vinyl chaps and a lock on his cock (or a 'cock-lock', if you will).

I can't make this shit up.

This laughable piece of deception is an excellent example of why I'm critical of the Exopolitical movement and it's constant 'secret inside-sources' telling stories of alien employment by various governing bodies. Now, before anyone starts crying: I am not saying everyone in Exopolitics is a bullshit artist or is purposely misleading the public in any way. I'm sure there are some sincere people out there waving the Exo-flag. But unfortunately, some of the Exopolitical movers and shakers are really not doing any favors for the more sincere people involved.

Perhaps this bit of sleuthing will serve as a warning to those getting into UFOlogy (or in this case, specifically, the Exopolitical and Disclosure movements) to be wary of who you believe and what you buy into. It's easier than some might think to be taken as a sucker in a fixed game of dice. I've certainly fallen for some less than stellar sources in my time, as have many others. Oh, by the way: I also recommend reading the comment section of the article, as well. You'll see a lot of praise by various parties, more discussion, some attempts by Salla to make it all sound not-so-bad, and a great comment by Richard Dolan commending the researcher(s) and explaining his original opinion of this story and then his subsequent dismissal of the Pickerings as he began to catch wind of Denmark.

But if you hate reading articles as long as Hold the Pickles and the Special Source, then just look at the pictures* -- they pay off eventually!

While this wonderfully produced bit of Fact Versus Fiction will not change much in the grand scheme of things, nor rid the field of charlatans, it may also say something about UFOlogy itself and it's inability to move forward past the obvious bullshit and onto bigger and better things. As ~~The Maen Vaen~~ Jeremy Vaeni put it:

"There are very few fields that take clear-from-word-one bullshit this seriously. In fact, I can't think of another. If someone were to send a ghost investigator video of a sheet on a string claiming it's a full body apparition, that investigator would laugh it off. In ufology, we need to interview the witness, examine the tape, and check the location for trace evidence before laughing. And then we don't laugh because it isn't funny; it's serious.

And then the joke is on us. Again. Always on us. AGAIN."

And it's true!

Ah, well. Maybe this investigation will have a positive impact beyond thoroughly de-pantsing a hoax, by opening more eyes to the land-mines scattered throughout UFOlogy. That alone is something.

Probably.

I think.

Fuck.

*Photo may be considered NSFW, though it contains no nudity.

Circles, Sound, and Synchronicity

2010-05-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

I just got finished telling Erik (at some point we're going to have to stop mentioning each other all the time) that I was going to review Colin's Paratopia appearance as well as his blog before writing up my piece about his presentation this past Saturday at the UFO Fest in McMinnville, Oregon. However, after mulling it over, I was concerned if I waited too long, I'd forget some of the intensity I experienced -- not only with Colin, but with the weekend in general.

I had an idea of what to expect with Mr. Colin Andrews, but I really wasn't prepared for the full impact of his presentation. It started off a little rocky for me, as he divulged to us (apparently for the first time) that he had undergone hypnotic regression in the past and that he had 'hidden' memories of being contacted, citing "little men" as part of this experience. You know how I feel about hypnotic regression as it applies to abduction, so it was difficult for me to roll myself over that first hurtle. But he then went on to explain that during this regression he recalled a specific location from his childhood. Upon returning to the location that was brought forth through the regression, he discovered the 'remains' of an old crop circle, one that was formed in his youth, and where the ground is still scarred to this day.

He was able to retrieve (and by retrieve, I mean purchase) his medical records from just after these events. A photo was shown to us, revealing his then youthful skin which had been subjected to an intense light from an object within the field the circle appeared (if I recall correctly). It was terribly blistered and added some impact to the situation and perhaps some veracity to this claim.

Later he presented us with an audio file of sound that was taken at the site of a (I think) different circle. At it's original speed, the sound was almost insect-ish sounding (don't worry, I'm not going to throw any praying mantis beings in here), white noise but with a definite pattern. Slowed down, the audio exposed a repeating tone, one that pulsated with an eerie drone beneath it. An audio recorder was also placed in a tree near the circle and a very similar tonal-pattern was discovered.

The original sound was heard by Colin while in the circle. He was alone when he first heard it and became unnerved by the experience. He said that he felt as if whatever was creating this sound was aware of his response to it, and stopped when he became uneasy. I wasn't sure what to make of this, but it did leave me considering that perhaps the vegetation we so often take for granted, has some form of conscious intelligence or is reactive to something output along with our emotions.

Something interesting to note -- apparently the four of us, Erik, Regan, her husband, and myself, all have noticed these little connections, individually, with Colin's presentation. You can read about Erik's here and Regan's here. Mine happened later that night after I had returned home. I switched on my surround system to listen to some music. I meant to hit the auxiliary button, but accidentally turned on the radio receiver instead. It landed on a default am station - a station that usually only produces pure static. But not this time -- this time it was producing this strong, patterned tone, with a very similar eerie drone backing it. It wasn't the exact same sound as Colin presented, but it had all of the key features, and had me pause for a few moments in confusion.

Colin believes the government and military are interested in this phenomenon more than they are letting on -- shocker there, eh? He said something that evening -- something simple, but it resonated with me, as it will resonate with many of you, I'm sure. He said "If we have people deceiving us, we ought to know about it". See? It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's important to remember from time to time. This idea is a large part of why I began IHW, to sort through who was bullshitting and who was being honest, as well as I could. It's why I pick on so much and why I'm as skeptical-natured as I am.

Much of his latter presentation delved into the military's involvement into the circles, his own experiences, his personal thoughts and a possible tie-in to 2012. The 2012 thing was and still is hard for me to choke down, but not unlike R2D2, I have been known to make mistakes... from time to time. If I'd taken better notes, I'd cover more of the event, but I became so captivated by the talk that I all but forgot to put pen to paper after the first 45 minutes. That and I was busy telling the assholes behind us to shut the fuck up.

Now that I got down the basic outline, I want to change gears a bit here and let you all in on something. Despite some of my misgivings and the occasional wincing throughout the presentation, I was wholly moved by the experience in ways that I cannot put into words or even hope to explain adequately. And I'm not alone. Regan, her husband and Erik found themselves in the same 'predicament'. Between Colin's words, the gentle roll of his voice, his research, his conviction, and his frankness, there was some sort of underlying transmission that seemed to hit us all in the heart. I say 'heart', but you can call it what you will.

I know how this sounds, and some of you may be concerned that I'm losing my marbles or succumbing to the darkside. I don't believe I am. Sure, I have no tangible evidence to help illustrate what exactly was going on, but this is the paranormal, kiddies. The reason we research and write about it is because we don't have a fucking clue as to whats going on. Some things you just have to take any way you can.

Colin's talk was also the seal on an incredibly enlightening weekend, for one Miss Deirdre O'Lavery. 'Enlightening' isn't the best word, but its the only word I can think of at the moment. From the minute we hit town until the minute we left, something happened to me. I became alive. I felt as if I were living for the first time in a very long time. All signs of my crippling anxiety had all but disappeared during those 2 days and the drudge of the world that has brought me so far down in so many years, weighed almost nothing at all. I had an epiphany of sorts, though it was not in the form of an impact. It was subtle and then when noticed it, it was amazingly huge. I am not quite the girl I was when I first entered McMinnville, and I don't believe I will ever be quite the same again.

There really are no words for this, so if you think you've missed something in my description, you haven't. This is the best I can do -- the only way for me to even remotely convey the spark inside of me. It wasn't the festival itself. It wasn't Colin himself. It wasn't the weather, and it wasn't the beer. But it was there and it happened to me.

I considered not saying anything about this, but ya know, I'm not going to start pretending I don't have unexplainable or bizarre shit happen in my life, or that I don't have non-scientific thoughts just because I'm worried what you, the general public might think. Fuck what you think - this is about me and my life. Like a number of us who have had experiences and are involved in the paranormal fields, we are in this in an attempt to get a handle on what the Hell is happening or has happened to us. Whether there is scientific evidence or not, it is occurring nonetheless.

Reflections on the 2010 McMinnville UFO Fest

2010-05-17T00:21:00.000-07:00

Well, that was unexpected! I had a great time at the annual McMinnville UFO festival, in McMinnville, Oregon! Oh, it wasn't so much the festival itself that was grand -- I mean, it was filled with your usual nutbaggery and abundant silliness complete with grey-type alien faces galore *shudder*. No, the best parts were the times Maggie and I spent with Erik Stitt, Regan Lee and her husband, James Rich.

Regan is an amazingly cool woman! I was very happy to finally meet her in person. We all had some great conversation the first night, nestled into a quiet corner in the always-overpriced McMenamin's. For those of you who aren't familiar with McMenamin's, it's a company that buys up old landmark buildings and converts them to restaurants, pubs, hotels and so on. This particular McMenamin's was a bar/hotel, but featured the same inflated prices and overrated consumables you've come to know and love from the chain. Despite this, I very much enjoyed myself.

Sadly, Maggie wasn't feeling well, so I drove her back to our hotel a couple of miles down the road and put her to bed, before I headed back to the pub to continue on with our conversations. Regan and her husband eventually called it a night and ascended up to their room, while Erik and I closed the bar -- and then some.

Somehow we managed to get up before noon, the next day, having been out until 4am. Me, Magz, and Erik all hopped in my Civic to hunt down some grub. We weren't in the mood to go searching out any particular restaurants, and seeing as we were all in dire need of some coffee -- STAT, we opted for the ever-dreadful Shari's. For you Midwesterners and East Costers, Shari's is kind of like Bakers Square or Perkins, only worse.

Maggie was happy with her Eggs Benedict but Erik and I had made a horrible error and ordered steak and eggs. His was intended to be rare, while mine was supposed to be medium rare. Poor Erik, lol. His was the worst of the two cuts. Instead of bloody it was more like red gelatinous blob-stuff in the center.

They were still edible, but not so awesome. I'd go so far as to say the steaks were totally un-rad. Oh, and my hash browns came with bacon and cheese. Bacon and cheese? On hash browns? What kind of new-millennium gluttonous fuckery is that? The menu didn't say anything about bacon -- and if you know me, you know I will not, under any circumstances, eat pork.

Bacon on hash browns. For fucks sake.

After Shari's we headed on back to the car and spent about 10 minutes ensuring our future diagnosis of lung cancer before shooting over to the main strip of the festival to get ready for the UFO Fest parade. We kind of debated whether to subject ourselves to that nightmare, but Erik and I had a strange desire to get a peak at the Star Wars contingent, so off we went!

I could go on to tell you about the intense cheese of the whole thing, or point out some of the more ridiculous features, some not even in the parade, such as the pregnant woman with a midriff tank-top, cutoff shorts a stroller and a cigarette in her mouth. Or the douchey creepazoid that walked up and down the center of the parade route like 20 times with his shirt off, looking to score some Pleiadan-skank action -- but I digress.

The parade finished about 2 and we killed a few hours waiting for Colin Andrews to speak at 4. At one point I re-applied my lipstick and did the ritualistic 'kiss' on a piece of paper to set the color in and left it with Erik. He had me sign it later in the evening.

When 4 O'clock rolled around we shuffled into the auditorium and found that Regan had saved us two seats in the front row. Thanks again, Regan!

Colin Andrews was something else! Originally, I wasn't that gaga about going to see him, but I'm wholly glad I did (he was the only speaker I saw, and the only one I had even a remote interest in seeing). Unfortunately, a couple of jackasses sat behind us and thought it might be a good idea to talk . Not "whisper", but talk while Colin was speaking. Oh, I'm sure he couldn't hear them, but they were right the fuck behind the 4 of us. There chatter was on and off, lulled a bit in the middle of the presentation, and then picked up again near the end. I had finally had it at that point, but I'll let Regan or Erik tell that story. Oh, and I'll also go into more detail about Colin's actual presentation in my next article. It's too much for this piece and I'm still processing the whole talk .

After Colin finished speaking, we all went up to shake his hand and passed a bit of chatter back and forth before letting him go. It was about 6:30 and it was time to give our goodbyes and hugs to Regan and James. Then Erik, Magz and I headed up towards Erik's motel in Newberg, OR, about 15 miles north of McMinnville.

On the same lot as the motel, there exists a semi-dive bar called Finnegan's. We gladly coasted on over for some burgers and Guinness (as you can see by the photo of Erik to the right), a bit of flirting with our way-too-cute server, and cheerfully finished off the final night of our UFO Fest extravaganza at around 9:30.

I think it was Shakespeare who said "Parting sometimes sucks ass" -- or something like that -- and this parting was no different. But alas, we all had our lives to return to and thus our little adventure ended.

So, that's it in a bombshell. Great fun, great convo and great friends. There's not much more I need out of life!

Well, besides sex.

McMinnville, OR - UFO Fest 2010

2010-05-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

I'm really bad at promoting myself. I usually do all the necessary links to stuff I write elsewhere and so on, but don't do much beyond that. I think it's my "Who the fuck do I think I am?" mantra that rings in my head, preventing me from pelting you with how awesome I am. *cough*

That said, I'm going to mention this next thing:

I will be attending the McMinnville UFO Festival in McMinnville, Oregon next week, barring any anxiety/panic attacks -- I suffer from severe anxiety and also do not fare well in the sunlight either (it's Oregon so the latter might not be an issue!). Since it's Mothers Day, I'd like to take this time to thank my mom for the wonderful genes I received from her. *sigh*

Anyhoo, I'll be in McMinnville from Friday night through Saturday night (the 14th & 15th). I'll be the taller chick sporting reddish-brown hair with a blond stripe. I also have a lot of tattoos if that helps... unless you're a stalker, in which case, I have platinum-blond hair and no tattoos.

I'll be meeting up with one of my close friends, Erik of Contact as well as another friend, Regan Lee, who will be (unless anything's changed) interviewing both Erik and myself for her upcoming Podcast, Cafe Esoterica.

I think that's about it - more soon!

~Deirdre

Update - New UFO Magazine Blog Article

2010-05-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Just a quick update to let you know I have a new article up at the UFO Magazine blog: Miss Sakamoto and the Commotion of Spheres.

I'm hoping to have something up here soon, as well as something on Women of Esoterica.

Take care!

Not Everything Goes Well With Cheez Whiz

2010-05-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

I was going to write something about the Larry King Live alien debate that aired on Friday. This show came about due to the overwhelming response Stephen Hawking's 'alien statement' received. That statement was lifted from the first episode of his new series called Into the Universe on the Discovery channel, and appeared in the last 3 minutes of that program.

Having finally had a chance to watch the actual episode with the 42 other minutes no one bothered to mention, I am even more baffled by the amount of anger it has been met with.

Anyway, I realized that I really had nothing important to add regarding King's latest round-table, and so I've decided not to bang on that drum.

Nah, I'm just screwing with ya.

Seriously, what the fuck was that?

It's very easy to get upset with the people you hate that wind up on these round-table discussions, and its just as easy to lob praise at the ones you love and support, so I won't be taking the predictable path of picking on Seth and David, mostly because I had already expected their position and responses. The thing that really had me scratching my head, having seen a few nightmare roundtables on LKL in the past, is why in God's name these people even agreed to this shit. It's the kind of train wreck that almost no one looks good coming out of.

If these four have seen previous UFO-related round-tables on King before (I know Shostak has been a part of them in the past) and didn't see this one ending up as another joke, then maybe there really is something in our water. But thank God for Michio -- and not even because I totally agreed with him, but because he maintained a level of calmness and respectability that the other 3 guests couldn't get their arms around. Yeah, sorry Dan. Love your comedy, but I can't really swallow those 2000mg UFO pills you're dealing, or hang with the sales pitch.

Did anyone other than Kaku bother to prep for this show? I mean, it's not like the questions were flying out of left field. They were all completely predictable. I'd have written my responses down the night before, knowing I'd maybe get 30 seconds per question in which to answer. Michio did his homework. Or, wait -- that's not entirely true. He really just used relevant quotes from shows and specials he's done in the past. At least with his responses, he showed how a little preparation can make these 'discussions' a bit less like men measuring their Johnsons and a bit more like adults holding an actual debate.

I don't know if Aykroyd was huffing Cheez Whiz or if Shostak's inability to be funny is an airborne contagion with mind-numbing side effects -- whatever the case, this show was not really working. It was folly from inception, with it's odd combination of guests and it's conversation-limiting half-hour time slot.

That's about all of the time I can devote to LKL, because while I was writing this and wondering why Brin, Shostak, Kaku and Aykroyd bothered to do the show, I kept wondering why I even bothered to watch it -- especially after the second time Dan mentioned that aliens are breaking the law and I realized he was being serious.

I can just hear Gomer Pyle shouting: "Citizen's arrest! Citizens arrest!"

I almost hate to say it...

2010-05-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

... but my opinions on the Larry King Show from last night, forthcoming.

Jesus what a piece of work.

On a Long Enough Timeline...

2010-04-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

This initially began as a response to comments on a post here, at IHW, as well as an article posted by Erik Stitt of Contact, and is in regards to Stephen Hawking's recent opinions on the nature of extra terrestrial life. But once I'd posted it thought it might make for a good piece on it's own, after elaborating on some points and cleaning it up a bit.

With Stephen Hawking's latest statement on extra terrestrial life, their arose the question of anthropomorphic tendencies among some physicists. Of course, this isn't anything particularly new. It's human nature to project human qualities on other forms of life and sometimes even on inanimate objects. These peculiar inclinations of ours provide a lot of interesting questions and has produced some awful literal representations. But when it comes to inserting our qualities into the mind of an intelligent alien life form, when does it become overly presumptuous, if not completely presumptuous from the start?

I have mentioned in past articles that labeling the possible actions of an extra terrestrial civilization with terms like 'good' or 'bad', is a bit ridiculous because it assumes that all intelligent beings would act more or less like us, portraying the same kinds of emotions and have the same ideas of what is considered 'right' and 'wrong'. So, when science speaks up and theorizes that contact with EBEs may be to our detriment because they could live a malevolent existence and seek to conquer us, it gives the general public the impression that life really is like Star Wars and that it might not be such a slick idea to set up base on Hoth.

Could that really be the case? Sure. Why not? But such ideas do not sit well with everybody. Many are arguing that assuming human concepts of 'good' and 'evil' are prevalent throughout the universe is a childish and naive approach -- and coming from the keyboard of such a notable and respected physicist, why, that's just adding insult to injury! Seriously though, I agree that it is indeed a naive perspective, but I'm not so sure that's what Hawking (and others) are really suggesting. I believe what he was trying to convey (albeit poorly), is that certain actions of an extra terrestrial people may appear as 'malevolent' to us.

Evolved and intelligent life on other planets would undoubtedly be quite strange to the people of Earth, and have developed significantly different in comparison. Things like atmosphere, water, vegetation, sunlight, and so on, are all factors that can produce different outcomes in the evolution of a species. But I think there are some 'human' qualities that might apply across the board: certain so-called universal behaviours, such as the idea that 'For something to live something must die' and 'All living creatures have a right to survival'.

If we do one day find ourselves tits-up as a result of heinous space-faring beings, it doesn't necessarily have to be the product of some devious alien nature. Good and Evil are subjective concepts, but it's how these concepts impact us that dictates our actions and fears, and promotes the creation of labels and shoveling of things into neat little boxes we can conveniently tag as Black or White.

I don't think Stephen was totally out of line for propounding that aliens could want to invade us, unless he was also suggesting that they would do so only for purely diabolical reasons. It is very possible that an alien act of survival may seem like something horrifically cruel to us, if we found ourselves on the short end of that stick, thereby causing us to knee-jerkingly brand them as 'malevolent'. So, Hawking was probably only suggesting that there exists the chance that some alien civilizations may be malevolent, or what we might consider as malevolent... and it just may be one of those that could pop on by for some liver and a nice Chianti.

If you buy into the law of probability, given a near (if not) infinite universe, the probability of more than one other alien civilization evolving similar to us, is very high. So in that alone, there would probably be (and probably is) an alien civilization very much like us, somewhere out there in the Great Beyond -- and with that comes a real concern of motives and what they might do if our humble little planet were to be discovered by them. We don't trust ourselves, so why would we trust someone like us? The odds that one such civilization would exist by or would have come anywhere near us are probably pretty high, but who really knows?

As Erik mentioned in his piece, this is all speculation. It really is. Your ideas, my ideas, and Hawking's ideas. Our speculation comes from what we understand, only. Perhaps ironically, even the speculation that extra terrestrial life would be 'totally alien' to us is coming from a very human position.

Stephen Hawking on Extra Terrestrials

2010-04-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

My friend Allen just sent me this so I thought I'd post it here:

Hawking: Aliens may pose risks to Earth

Excerpt:

Hawking claims in a new documentary that intelligent alien lifeforms almost certainly exist, but warns that communicating with them could be "too risky."

The 68-year-old scientist says a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth would be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas, "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."

Basically, he is reiterating what other physicists have been saying over the last couple of months, but the thing that piques my interest about this is that while science has been telling us that interaction with an ET civilization is highly unlikely because of the 'vast distances of interstellar travel', it make you wonder what ideas are changing among physicists (if any) to bring this up now, if it's something they feel is a non-issue for a very, very long time.

Is Hawking possibly hinting at something, or simply playing on science fiction to attract ratings for his upcoming series? Maybe it's nothing more than speculative thoughts he felt like voicing.

It is interesting, however, that the once common and widely accepted theory that advanced civilizations would be 'enlightened' and therefore be well beyond war and plundering, is now being looked at in largely different light.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Cunny Bunny!

2010-04-22T22:53:00.001-07:00

I received a mysterious email after watching Pan's Labyrinth tonight.

Well, it wasn't all that mysterious. Anyway, someone decided to send me 2 'curses' via PinStruck.

The first one I read was addressed to "BunnyCuny" which I presume was intended to be "BunnyCunny". With the words reversed, that would become "Cunny Bunny" which is apparently a reference to a slutty lesbian. I chortled a moment and thought "Aww, Some little homophobe doesn't approve of me kissing the carpet."

"Cuny" Heh. Gotta love the attention to detail.

The message that came with it, if you can't read it on the above image, reads: "Don't ever do that again."

But then I saw the second email -- this time addressed to "Bunny Ugly".

"Hrm" I thought.

And then it hit me: Someone's got a crush on me!

By the way, that one reads "It won't wash off". I assume they mean they can't wash their love for me off, which I totally get because-

Who could blame them?

Speculative Realms

2010-04-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a quick plug for Speculative Realms. Gary Haden has been blogging about the Emma Woods and David Jacobs chaos for a few of weeks now. I find myself very much enjoying his writing and his perspective.

He has a fairly recent article that takes a break from that whole affair, called The Argument from Ignorance and Skeptical Omniscience. In a nut shell, it breaks down the various kinds of arguments that you run up against when debating paranormal topics with those who have not had experiences themselves.

Anyway, check his site out!

UFO Magazine - The Art of Chasing Tail

2010-04-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Just letting y'all know I have a new article up at the UFO Magazine:

The Art of Chasing Tail

It delves into the question of why I am interested in UFOlogy and what I hope to gain from my involvement. And no, I don't really come to any solid conclusions *wink*

A new IHW post will be coming up shortly, so stay tuned!

Hoodely-Hoo and the Blah, Blah, Blahs

2010-04-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

When my girlfriend and I are watching movies that have some pretty far-fetched plot changes in a seemingly realistic story, she often comments on how completely unbelievable it is. I usually counter that by replying, "Suspension of Disbelief, dear". More often than not, this receives a playful, mocking impression of me, waving her hands all about like a kid who's had too much Lik-M-Aid, exclaiming, "Suspension of Hoodely-Hoo! Suspension of Hoodely-Hoo!"

I was thinking about this last night while watching some old Star Trek episodes (TOS) and it occurred to me that the kind of off-the-wall claims present within UFOlogy are not too unlike a B-movie plot that requires a healthy serving of Suspension of Disbelief. Then there are those like myself, shaking there head at the screen mumbling "Like that would ever happen".

Calling UFOs or referring to UFOlogy as 'science fiction' is nothing new, but still, it is depressing that so much of it plays out like an old Buck Rogers episode, and that so many would be willing to stave off reality and common sense for the sake of a few thrills they can cling to in opposition to the monotony that is most of our lives.

Somewhere out there, a bunkhunter is going to read this and think: "Um, Hey Pot, Meet Kettle", simply because I believe in something they think is total fiction, despite how rational I think I am. But I still would argue that having an experience that falls under the label 'paranormal' does not automatically make me a believer in anything in particular. Experiencing high-strangeness is one thing, creating an elaborate backdrop in which that strangeness makes sense, is quite another.

I often wonder what drives people so far left-of-center within an already left-of-center field. Separating the nutty from the rational is not so simple when dealing with experiencers, though, because many believe they have received information form a greater source, verifying their claims -- and who is anyone to say otherwise if they haven't experienced the same thing themselves? But when it comes to non-experiencers who believe in some pretty extraordinary things, that's where my real curiosity lies.

Why are some people so willing to believe in something they've never witnessed? There are probably two main camps here:

1.) Those who have received information form sources close to them that they feel are rational, honest and credible.

This doesn't bother me so much, at face value. Why wouldn't we believe those who are close to us -- especially if they've never been know to lie or suffer from delusions (as far as anyone can tell)? I think there are things to consider though, nevertheless:

The experiencer may believe they have experienced something, when they have not.
The experiencer's interpretation of what may have happened isn't completely accurate. This happens all of the time outside of the realm of the paranormal. People misinterpret things on a daily basis.
There could be a more 'Earthly' explanation for their experience that they didn't notice or consider.
The experiencer's interpretation is fairly or totally accurate.

2.) Those who receive information from individuals in government or the military they feel are rational, honest and credible.

This one gets me the most -- government 'insiders' who tell civilians that the government is lying about this, that, and the other, and that the real truth is "blah, blah, blah". This helps further the idea that the government has lied to us (not really a point I'm disputing), but disregards the fact that the insider relaying the information is part of that same government they are accusing of deception -- so how can you trust even them?

If this source isn't someone you know on a close, personal level, you have either your gut instinct to go on or the perhaps gullible belief that this one person is giving you the straight dope while their many associates are helping to propagate and maintain magnificent lies.

Some of these sources may be telling the truth -- or at the very least, telling the truth as they understand it. The only way to verify these claims is if the truth is exposed on a large or official level and so far, that hasn't really happened as we might hope, though it's started in some areas, such as with credible ex-military personnel and astronauts stepping up to bat, risking career and reputation to let us now we aren't being told the whole truth about what the government and military knows about UFOs.

It's easy to jump on the 'government sucks' bandwagon. After all, the government and military have had a plethora of periods where they've definitely not inspired faith. But how 'bad' is it really? Does it really go so far as Shadow Governments, The Illuminati, Satanic Worship, MILABS, Monstrous Experiments on Humans, Weather-Control, The Philadelphia Experiment, Free-Energy and Snuffleupagus?

I'm not so sure.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I think they're both hiding a fair amount of stuff, but the way you hear it within parts of UFOlogy and the paranormal, the government is 110% pure evil. I can't go that far. If I did, I'd never vote again.

I'm willing to go in for the government hiding 'knowledge' or evidence of UFOs, visitation, whatever -- but I'm not sure how willing I am to believe that at every turn, the government has it's hand in all of these exceptionally sinister cookie jars, where citizens are nothing more than test mice.

I could be way off, but if I really believed all of that was happening, I don't know that I could still allow myself to be a part of the system -- or how anyone really could. How do you justify being a part of something you think is dong you harm? Wouldn't you want to 'break the chains'? Wouldn't you stand up against your oppressor and refuse to play the game? Or are we really so addicted to the 'benefits' of a governing body, that we can't break away from the grid? The obvious argument is that people don't want to rock the boat and make things worse for themselves -- but if you're writing books on the subject(s), that excuse goes out the window.

In closing, I'd like to add that covering up UFOs for the the sake of National Security, and as a way to avoid a possible mass-panic, makes sense under a lot of circumstances. I get that. However, a government tapping the well of black magic and that is in league with demons and nefarious aliens... well, I'm not sure I can stretch my 'Suspension of Hoodely-Hoo' quite that far.

My UFO Magazine Blog Introduction

2010-04-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

My first blog post is up at UFO Magazine - It's really only an introduction and a lot of it you probably already know -- but if you want to read it, here it is:

The Girl Who Talked Too Much: An Introduction

You'll be happy to know that I mention wine at least once.

My Secret, Scandalous Love Affair

2010-04-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

I work a lot with WordPress. A lot, a lot. It's the software of choice for most people & businesses looking for a CMS. It's functionality is pretty damn sweet and with it's standalone package available for running off your own hosted account (and the fact it is almost completely customizable), WordPress is a no-brainer... except for one thing:

I have this secret love affair with Blogger.

While many moved on past Blogger once they became more serious bloggers, and took up residence at sites like WordPress and Live Journal, I've stayed here (I do briefly mention UFOs here, eventually). It hasn't always been easy, and there have been some major frustrations with it over the year -- namely, the use of Google's own propriety code which is not compliant with W3C standards. Not too big a deal for most, but for me, compliancy is a necessary evil that I have to tend to often, when designing and building sites for clients. Nevertheless, my attraction to Blogger has withstood it's sometimes not-so-minor issues.

One thing I have noticed -- a lot of us UFO and Esoteric nuts have a web presence here. In fact, so many of us are part of the Blogger community, that I am surprised when I come across a WordPress UFO blogsite. It seems somehow out of place. I imagine part of the reason as to why so many of us are here is because Blogger existed before WordPress and was one of the few popular free blogging systems around. Some of us are here because we don't know any better, and others are here because they tried everything else and hated them, for whatever reason, and realized that despite the bells and whistles of other platforms, Blogger was "home". And maybe Blogger reminds us of our respective areas of study: Unpopular, uncool and a little bit odd.

And so it was with me when I started thinking about Interstellar Housewife. I considered running it off of a host with a WordPress install, or even running off the WordPress site, but my heart decided on Blogger... this lil' CMS with a kooky spellcheck and, until recently, it's lack of a page creation function.

I hope Blogger appreciates us, her dedicated fans from the fringe. We've stuck it out and put up with the worst possible tech support that ever there was (I mean really, have you been to the support forums? Christ). I'd like to see her keep going -- defiant and unflinching, quirky and ill-compliant -- not too unlike myself.

That last bit was kind of cheesy.

Who am I kidding -- the whole thing was utter geek-cheese

By the way, I will now be blogging for UFO Magazine! My darling friend Erik Stitt of Contact will also be joining the ranks -- be sure to check out his site! Thanks to those who thought of me (especially Lesley). Between IHW, WOE, and now UFO Mag, I had better start whipping up things to write about!

Thanks again to all of you who read my little slice of the web. You are appreciated -- even those who would love to see me shut the fuck up.

Fame, What You Get Is No Tomorrow

2010-04-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

Tina Sena of Y.Ufology has an excellent follow-up article to Bruce Duensing's piece "Does Ufology Have A Future When It's Non-Existent?" (also a great article). As you might surmise, both discuss the sorry state of UFOlogy today (and probably yesterday, too).

Some of the expected points are made, such as how those who use UFOlogy as some kind of quasi-celebrity vehicle, are helping to slowly kill the entire 'field', and how Science is still donning the gloves of elitism, denouncing paranormal claims as hogwash, simply because the existence of bizarre phenomenon is (currently) void of anything scientifically plausible. And they are good points -- but my favorite part is Tina's argument that the world we live in just isn't as cool as a lot of the UFO Yo-yo's and knuckleheads prefer to believe.

And she's right -- Fiction and Reality have been merged in the minds of the overly-wishful, most probably out of a need to believe that there has to be more to life than work, sleep and fucking (though I am rather fond of the latter). They dive into UFOlogy and start to build their case for the existence of a galaxy crammed full of extra-terrestrials, playing out some geek's elaborate Star Trek fantasy.

Tina put it best:

"Because we let the fantastical, ridiculous things creep in and slowly mix and congeal with the possible. The fact that people are seeing the same things they've been seeing for thousands of years means nothing to mainstream science if the only people speaking out are the clinically insane."

But lets go back to the 'fame' thing a moment. What is that about? Of course, anyone in such a position within UFOlogy would swear up and down they weren't looking for any kind of fame. The funny thing is that fame usually requires work on both sides of the fence -- meaning that these reluctant 'celebrities' really can't have been all that reluctant. They did do some leg work to get there. I get that people need to pay the bills and eat. I'm not condemning fame itself, but instead, fame based on the sole desire to be famous, to be held in high regard based on an illusion of power.

Look, anyone putting themselves 'out there' in UFOlogy is looking for some sort of fame, no matter how big or small. Otherwise, we'd have a field stuffed with anonymous researchers and an internet laden with anonymous bloggers. So, fame is what it is, and that's fine -- but what does the real damage here are those who seek this kind of status only for the purpose of holding it, ignoring any real notable contribution to the research.

I mean, how big a deal is being regarded as a celebrity among such a small percentage of people in a field that has no real solid base from which to stand on? Sure, they may think they have all of the answers, but as Bruce's touched on in his article, UFOlogy has been in a transitional state for years now. Lately, that shift from one basic belief to another has been more apparent as everyday people begin to put the strictly nuts-n-bolts theory of UFOs farther behind them, opening up to the consideration of something even more 'alien' than we initially imagined.

It's not a bad thing to consider. My ideas have greatly changed over the last few years. I was pretty resistant at first, and still am from time to time, admittedly. Reassessing one's beliefs is not that easy. I also fought that feeling of 'giving up on an old dream' -- the dream of people from another world. Then it occurred to me that I didn't have to give that idea up. There aren't any real answers here (yet). Perhaps both physical and non-physical phenomenon exist, independent of each other. I don't really think you have to ditch the possibility of visitors from another star system making the long voyage to Earth in a metallic craft. That could very well still be valid, but more and more, a lot of sightings and experiences are pointing to something not so easily explained as an alien spaceship. The more the stubborn toes of UFOlogy wiggle and scoff at this new line of thinking, the more the field chokes on it's own bile.

A lot of hardcore and long-standing researchers appear to be threatened by any other theory than the ones they've held fast to, many of which evolved from events that supposedly transpired in '47. Why? Why can't it be something else? Why cant it be more than one thing? What's so hard about opening up to the idea that maybe everything they thought they knew... was wrong? After all, isn't that the argument with their debunking counter-parts -- that they're close-minded and near-sighted?

The simple answer is that they (and just about everyone else on this planet) are afraid of change. Especially if most of their life has been spent promoting their idea of what's going on. It would be a bit like Stephen Hawking finding out that he was totally off about black holes. All of the many years of work spent trying to prove the existence of those theoretical planet-eaters, all for nothing. I imagine that kind of realization would be quite a crushing one, and I can't really blame them for being reluctant -- but I can blame them for being outright stubborn.

UFOlogy is changing. It feels like its approaching a reboot, and possibly (and perhaps for the best) a fresh new name. The term 'UFO' almost always invokes a silvery disc and super-secret paramilitaries, reverse-engineering extra-terrestrial craft in the shadow of the Cold War. Meanwhile, the kinds of experiences people are having are changing and becoming stranger and stranger. Like many of the modern UFOs, UFOlogy is morphing and becoming harder to put into a neat little box. Will it survive its metamorphosis and come out swinging? Or will it end up like poor Gregor Samsa -- an enormous vermin regarded with deep disgust and barely acknowledged?

Oh, wait...

Some Kind of Strangers

2010-04-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

With your head stuck shoulder-deep in the quicksand of UFOlogy, it's sometimes easy to forget that most of the world goes about it's merry, ignorantly blissful way, void of paranormal concerns or interest. Such is the life of my family and friends. I'm the quirky, left-of-center girl they have come to love, but probably think of as a bit of a space cadet -- no matter how skeptical natured or grounded I may appear to be. And if anything esoteric pops up in discussion, they usually have no fucking idea what I'm going on about.

This has been my relationship with people most of my life. I understand that the majority of society is wrapped up in survival, socializing, leisure and the various goings-on of day-to-day life. I'm wrapped up in those things as well -- I think most everyone is -- but where they are primarily aware of what they can see and are told, some of us have a different kind of awareness - or maybe it's an 'extra' one. Having experienced my past 35 years as a continuum of strange phenomenon while most of my acquaintances have not, the differences between us and them are often in sharp contrast. One might assume that interest in the Strange is directly related to those having experienced such, but this isn't quite true. There exists a decent chunk of people within UFOlogy and the paranormal fields who have had no paranormal experiences whatsoever, yet are still deeply intrigued by the prospect of the Unknown. But what about the rest of the world? Why is the interest often lost on them?

I sometimes wish that I, too, was blissfully unaware of forces that exist beyond our understanding; wish that I could go about my life unaffected by the seemingly impossible and the possibly irrelevant. It's a life I can only wonder about from this unique position, because if I were suddenly made unaware, there'd be nothing to compare against and I'd not relish the esoterically uneventful course of my life in quite the same way. Of course, I don't think I could willingly accept that kind of change and cease to exist as the 'me' I know. I am, after all, the sum of all my parts.

And so be it.

In spite of the obvious dividing line that exists, I am still regularly in a state of disbelief when I realize just how oblivious much of humanity really is when it comes to the existence of Strangeness beyond the scope of their immediate perception. It's something that occurs to me from time to time, sometimes simply by reviewing my Google Alerts. Each and every night, while scouring the hundreds of results cluttering my inbox, I am reminded of just how deep and wide the ravine that separates us is.

One of my favorite examples is a common topic that shows up in my Alert results: "Where are all of the UFOS?" Have these people not been introduced to the functions of Google (or any other standard search engine of the last 15 years)?. I would find that hard to believe. I suppose the dominant mentality is that if it's not in the New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, or CNN, it simply isn't happening. Yet every week, there are tons of new sightings and reports. Despite whether or not these sightings are explainable, people do see perceived anomalies on a pretty regular basis -- and that has been consistent, as far as I can tell, for at least 60 years. So, when people ask questions like "Where are all of the UFOs?" do they really not think to look any further than their news feeds of choice, or are they just unaware that a simple string of words typed into a search engine, would yield more relevant results than they would ever care to read? Maybe they really don't want to know. Maybe these question and comments are made out of a passing curiosity that has no real tethered interest to their lives. Maybe it's a form of passive aggression: "If there aren't any UFO reports, then the phenomenon doesn't exist... suckers!"

Another example might be the treatment UFOlogy has always received in mainstream media. Beyond the jabs and laughter at our expense, there is a deeper ignorance there. Articles from seemingly prestigious news sources report the occasional paranormal event as if it was something that happened only rarely. Further marginalized by tacky wit (if it could even be called 'wit'), limited discussion on the given topic, and the incessant need to interview the most ridiculous of witnesses, a kind of fear is created within society. It's not a fear of alien invasion, but a fear of being different. Of what the neighbors will think. Of being eighty-sixed from the ever-righteous clique of Normalcy.

Many of us never had a choice. I was born the odd-girl-out, the product of my mother and odd-man-out father. Of both my immediate and external family, my father and I are two-of-a-kind. Our individual experiences lead to our search for answers, and between the two of us, kept the torch lit with the many very-late night discussions that covered everything from the wonders of the Universe, to the possibility of extra-dimensions, time-travel & causality, the ETH, and on rare occasion, the ghostly. Like many of you, I have been in between two worlds from the moment my head crowned.

As I write this, it occurs to me how secretive I was with my father about my own experience. Was that intentional? I don't know. Was I afraid to open up to even him for fear of dismissal or laughter? If so, I should have known better. That would make some sense, however, as most of our conversations happened during my grade school and high school years. It wasn't until high school that I would stop trying to fit my trapezoidal self into the rather dull, round hole of conformity. But that baggage took a while to completely shed, and while it was still clinging to me, the feeling that I had to pretend to be 'normal' for survival's sake undoubtedly affected my interactions with everyone, even those I could and should have trusted.

Not unlike the Paranormal community (in a round-about way), my life in the Queer community has resulted in a similar perspective of the 'outside' world. The oblivious nature of 'straight' society's majority to the arguments, struggles and history of Gays and Lesbians, has been all too apparent. But if it does not affect your life, why would it interest you? I sort of get that. Ignorance is everywhere, always has been, and is clearly visible to people of many different beliefs, communities and cultures. There are 'outsiders' who do get involved, and who do educate themselves -- whatever their reasons. I only wish more people had received that gene.

We know the world relies on popular news outfits for their daily injection of current events. We also know the news is often biased and because of this, many people are in the dark about things like UFOs and other bizarre occurrences. But why so easily assume that the only news in the world is the 5 recent articles that came though your Google Reader? There's nearly 7 billion people on the planet. A Hell of a lot more is going on in the world. Maybe the real answer exonerates the lazy. Maybe an inability to look beyond our immediate needs is hard-coded in our DNA. Are most people inherently peripherally challenged? Or are we, the poor schmucks stuck in the realm of the esoteric, all delusional nutbuckets, mass-consciously creating things that aren't really there?

I have no answers and I don't expect anyone else has them. There are likely a million reasons why so many are eerily unaware of what we call 'high-strangeness'. A million reasons as to why some look only so far, and then no further. This has been the theme for thousands of years, and I doubt we'll sort it out any time soon. But it's hard not to wonder about. Everyday we in the paranormal fields are surrounded by a society that easily writes us off, or pats us on the head for being adorably creative and imaginative -- and because of that, the chasm that separates us is almost never far from sight.

Photo by Jeune Fille.

Abduction Round-Table on The Paracast

2010-03-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

For those interested in the recent Abduction Hypnotherapy debate, The Paracast is hosting an 'Abduction Round-table' this Sunday, April 4th.

Fom The Paracast website:

Coming April 4: Gene and co-host Christopher O’Brien present an “Ultimate Abduction Round-Table,” featuring Budd Hopkins, Dr. David M. Jacobs and Kevin D. Randle. This is an episode you won’t want to miss!

Jacobs refused to come on the show if Paul Kimball was involved, which to me says that he won't field any confrontational lines of questioning. Kimball has agreed to step back for the sake of the show. I have a feeling it will be a telling interview, regardless -- if you listen between the lines. Of course, as Jeff Ritzmann pointed out, Randle will be there, so some more direct questioning may still ensue.

The Underside of Abduction Hypnotherapy II

2010-03-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

I began writing this article in early March but had trouble with the ending. Prompted by Regan Lee, and because of the interview with Emma Woods that aired on Paratopia yesterday, I decided to buckle down and finish it up.

If you haven't caught my post from a couple of weeks ago, The Underside of Abduction Hypnotherapy, it was a brief update regarding an episode of Partaopia in which they aired a recording of a phone dialog between Emma Woods and David Jacobs. As you might imagine, it has stirred the emotions and opinions of many people on either side of the hypnotherapy argument, causing the Paratopia forum, as well as a few others, to erupt with some pretty strong opinions - the main arguments being whether or not abduction scenarios are created during hypnosis sessions by the hypnotist (in this case, David Jacobs), either intentionally or unintentionally, and whether Jacobs acted poorly in his dealings with Ms. Woods.

I have long been skeptical of hypnosis as a reasonable tool to achieve certain results, be they memory retrieval, curbing the cigarette habit, or clucking like a chicken at a Vegas magic show. I don't think I could allow someone to put me into such an impressionable state, especially if that person is not a mental health professional (and I don't even trust those, either). There are a number of fragmented memories I would love nothing more than to retrieve in full, but the risk seems far greater than the need.

When it comes to the force-surfacing of abduction memories, I do not believe that in all cases, the practitioner is purposely trying to fuck with the patient's mind. But creating a false memory doesn't need to be intentionally performed for it to actually manifest. A passing remark, an audible thought or assumption made by the hypnotherapist -- these can all provide skeletal framework for a memory that doesn't entirely exist as an actual, physical event.

The results of guided hypnotic regression and the memories that are freed from the subconscious, I think are even less reliable than regular, "conscious" memories. That's not to say none of the stuff people are reporting, has actually happened, but I don't think it's happening as often as a lot of UFOlogists would tend to believe.

This Jacobian fiasco has me thinking more and more about non-mental health professionals handling things like hypnosis -- especially when the question of poor mental health is brought to the table. I am still mortified by the recorded session in which David Jacobs suggests to the patient (Emma) that she may be suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder -- while she is under hypnosis! What the fuck? Really? You're gonna tell someone in an extremely vulnerable and impressionable state that they have a disorder!? Some argue that that the inclusion of MPD (which is actually now called "DID", or "Dissociative Identify Disorder", if you don't want to be all antiquated about it), in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is disputable; it doesn't really matter to me in this situation. Instilling the belief that one has it, is dangerous enough. Two very close people in my life both suffer from DID and it is not something to be taken lightly.

I'm particularly aggravated when I read responses from people who have heard the tapes and say "Well, she sounds like a deeply disturbed woman". Why, because she was noticeably frustrated and in a state of disbelief over the way Jacobs was handling the call? Because she was crying over the fact that a man she put faith in as a "professional", treated her like ass for most of the conversation? I'd be frustrated and crying too, if I'd been in that situation. I think quite a few "stable" people would, as well.

Emma did put herself in the care of Jacobs. That was her choice -- and what lead her to make that decision was obviously due to something very disturbing in her life. But in the dialog that transpired between them, Emma struck me as a woman who has more or less come to her senses (if she was ever even out of them), and as far as that conversation went, didn't present herself or her argument in a way that I would qualify as 'deeply disturbed'. So, what do "normal" people consider as "deeply disturbed"? I'd love to know, because if it's something as simple as tears of frustration and heated conversation, I think a lot of us are totally fucked.

I'm not sure what Mr. Jacobs could say at this point that would have me believe he acted reasonably. I think he conducted himself poorly throughout the entire call and that he was using the power of his "professional" experience to throw her 'poor' mental health back at her; an attempt to have her believe she was acting "crazy". This woman gave the guy a number of outs with an offer to make an amicable statement explaining the termination of their working relationship. And just when you thought they'd reached an agreement, he'd bust out with a left-hook, bringing them back to square one -- like his pride would not allow him to completely submit to any fault.

As I said, I don't really have a whole lot of faith in abduction memories brought on by hypnosis. Some may very well be actual events that have transpired, but there is much that can be falsely added to a fragment of memory. The human mind is quite a fantastical thing when it wants or needs to be. So, I don't write off all hypnotic regressive results as fictional, but I do consider abduction claims based on hypnosis, as flimsy 'evidence'.

Another Brief Update (Still Void of Panties)

2010-03-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

I just posted my first Women of Esoterica article entitled Get Ahead, Go Figure, Go Ahead and Pull the Trigger. It's my take on the 2012 thing, brought on by a curious question my girlfriend asked me this evening.

I have an article for IHW in the works that I'm hoping to finish tomorrow. It's about all of the lunar and planet anomalies Hoagland pulls out of his magic ass -- so keep an eye out for that. Or don't.

And I still have to finish 2 other articles I have been promising to finish for over a month now. *le sigh*

Greetings from the Merlot Madam

2010-03-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

Somewhere between the treadmill and my first glass of wine, I decided to -- whoops! Silly me, I went and left my wine on the kitchen counter!

Ok, back! I didn't just get off the treadmill, for the record. That happened around 5. Afterwards, I spoke with a friend online regarding some interesting info, which then lead to a 45 minute roast of paranormal television and nutty exopolitical leaders. I think I even mentioned David Sereda's name, which is a rarity. That reminds me -- Joseph Capp of UFO Media Matters just posted a new article called UFOs: Deconstructing Sereda. I think a few of you just might enjoy this, so give it a read if you've got the time (and lets face it, if you're reading the crap I'm writing, you've certainly got the time.

Speaking of crap I write, I finally broke down and purchased a domain for IHW. I wanted to break 6 months to see if it was actually being read or that I actually kept maintaining the site before doing so. And while it will probably affect my page ranking, I figured I might as well do it now rather than when its way too late. So, the new official URL is: http://www.interstellarhousewife.com/

This year really started off with a moderate bang in UFOlogy and related fields. We had the darling Mr. Ritzmann taking a short leave from Paratopia (though I think he's back), the David Jacobs debacle, the annual Zorgy Awards (congrats to Leslie, Regan, BOA and Paratopia!) the arrest of long-time scheister Sean David Morton, a new extrasolar planet, a Pink UFO and the appearance of way too much corned beef in my fridge.

My, oh my -- I hope UFOlogy didn't blow it's load all up front! Oh, I'm not really worried. I'm 105% certain someone will say or do something completely stupid, soon enough (excluding myself, of course).

Regarding the David Jacobs and Emma Woods tapes: I'm still pretty much in disbelief over the whole nasty affair. I've written a fair amount on it, as I had previously mentioned, but I think I'll wait a bit and see what Mr. Jacobs has to say, if anything, before I finish it. I've read so many threads about the subject that I get a little nauseous every time I type his name.

Not long ago, I mentioned to a friend that I was tinkering with the idea of creating a podcast. No, I don't think I'm important enough to have an actual podcast, where I like interview people and stuff. Not at all. I was thinking more along the lines of a monthly wrap-up type deal, covering all of the ridiculousness in UFOlogy that's been in the news. I would want to keep it around 20 minutes or so, and would prefer to share the seat with a co-host -- which is why I was mentioning it to my friend -- (who shall remain nameless... unless he doesn't want to remain nameless). He's all for it, and I will be too, once I get my workload back to a reasonable schedule. It's not set in stone, and it may not happen at all, but if time and interest allows, I'd like to give it a whirl. And if we do move forward with it, it will be a joint project and not something specifically IHW-based. It will also probably bare a permanent [Explicit] tag, because I know the both of us all too well.

The McMinnville UFO Festival is coming up soon. This, I guess, is the Oregonian/PacNW version of the Roswell Festival. I was plannig on attending, but I'm not entirely sure I will be able to. If I do go, I will most definitely meet up with the honorable Regan Lee and the lovely Erik Stitt. Or the Lovely Regan Lee and the honorable Erik Stitt?

By the way, Erik posted an absosmurfly hilarious introduction to the paranormal for newbies interested in digging their hands into the dull splendor that is paranormal investigation and research. I highly recommend this post.

St. Patrick's Day came and went. I hostessed a low-key gathering of a few friends on the Saturday prior, and drank a respectable amount, though not enough to cave my head in, come morning sun. As the actual St. Patrick's Day arrived, I kept a quiet evening with my girlfriend and watched a film called Hunger, which detailed the last month of Bobby Sands' life in the H Blocks, just before and during the hunger strike which took his life (and the life of nine others), in 1981. It was a moving, gritty and often hard-to-watch film, but it is one of the best films about The Troubles, I've seen. Yes, I know this has nothing to do with UFOs -- a woman can't live on saucer-cheese alone!

Spring approaches, and most of you are probably just tickled pink about that fact. I, however, am almost never ready for it. Still, I do have a few things to look forward to. One is that I hope to procure a decent reflector telescope. The other is that the weather will be nice enough for long drives out to the middle-of-nowhere for some intense star-gazing. I won't be looking for UFOs, I'll just be looking up -- because believe it or not, outside of UFOlogy, I have a legitimate interest in astronomy and the universe in general -- even if we do happen to be relatively alone in this part of the galaxy.

I guess that's about it for now -- just wanted to catch up with all of you! Things are smoothing out for me a wee bit, so I will probably be able to post again on a more regular basis!

The Dark Flow Mystery

2010-03-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here's something interesting from space.com -- Some scientists are speculating that the rapid speed of galaxy clusters into the depths of the observable universe maybe be due to the tug of objects beyond the observable view, or possibly an object in another universe 'bubble'.

Distant galaxy clusters appear to be zooming through space at phenomenal speeds that surpass 1 million mph. The clusters were tracked to 2.5 billion light-years away – twice as far as earlier measurements.

Crazy, eh? We're at a very interesting point in our development and understanding of the universe. The last few years have been a whirlwind of new discoveries. I think we're going to be seeing some major text book changes in regards to the physical universe, soon.

And without getting into the controversial topic of String Theory, it's interesting that multi-verse dialog is beginning outside of the fringe:

The researchers think dark flow may be caused by structures that lie beyond the horizon of our own universe. As odd as that may sound, some cosmologists think that our universe is actually only a bubble of space-time that was created during a period of rapid cosmic expansion, called inflation, after the Big Bang. Other bubbles may also have been created where inflation took place at a different rate, and perhaps something in one of the other bubbles is tugging at our universe.

Read the article

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T01:18:00.000-07:00

I'm all caught up with the current UFOlogy crap. Took a couple of hours, but I made it! Now on to the wine!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, my friends!

XOXO

~Deirdre

Brief Update

2010-03-15T17:23:00.001-07:00

In case anyone was wondering, I'm still alive! I know I promised a new article a week ago, but I am stupid busy with work -- which is taking up my days and nights. *sigh*

I'll get around to something, soon!

Cheers,

Deirdre

Coast to Toast

2010-03-09T12:32:00.001-08:00

I've never been much of a fan of Coast to Coast. I know that is considered blasphemy to some, but there it is. I found the show to be sometimes intriguing when I'd catch the odd episode, like the Titor one or the one where the guy calls from a payphone, claiming to have escaped from A51 saying that ETs are actually Inter-Dimensional beings. And lets not forget the guy who flew over A51 while Art repeatedly suggested he should maybe turn the fuck around.

But then came Snoory.

As interesting as any C2C episode might have been, it was mostly entertainment (to me, at least) and not so much a media in which I felt I'd receive quality info from. But I suppose that it was a staple for many before the onslaught of Podcasts, especially more of the high-brow shows like Paratopia, Paracast and Radio Misterioso (the latter of which is in dire need of an update).

Anyway, why am I babbling about C2C? Because the esteemed Robert Barrow has posted a new article regarding the affiliation of C2C with Sean David Morton (who, if you do not know, is a self-proclaimed Psychic that has recently gotten himself mixed up in a heap of legal troubles).

Morton has had a pretty sketchy track record, and is 1/2 of a popularly heated dispute between Royce Myers III, the original owner of UFO Watchdog, when Myers listed Morton in the sites 'Hall of Shame' category.

Here's an excerpt:

The Web site, UFO Watchdog (see link) posted Morton prominently in its "Hall of Shame" section (must see) years ago, but words of caution never diverted Coast from incorporating this gentleman into the show on numerous occasions. After all, the listeners love him, the hosts apparently love him, and the producers -- well, I suspect the producers may have become lax over the years, finding it necessary to frequently invite as guests almost anything that snorts, squeaks, grunts or spits, so long as doing so keeps the audience listening and purchasing sponsors' products. But mixing the spice and the sensational with an increasingly anemic format may not bode well for the future, despite the truly useful or entertaining interviews conducted on the show occasionally.

Check out the rest at Robert's site.

Of Bun E. Carlos and Batteries

2010-03-08T23:10:00.000-08:00

New article forthcoming - more about the David Jacobs & Emma Woods impact crater. I still have to go through and edit it, so it may be another day or two. Until then, I thought I'd show you something:

Boobs!!!!

No, its not actually boobs (or is it?), but rather, the continuing escapades of Jeff Peckman.

Recently, Jeff hosted an official Welcome to Earth campaign launch, at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, in Colorado (personally, I'd rather it had been a Cheap Trick concert). For those of you who are new, Jeff has developed an Extra-Terrestrial Affairs Commission ballot initiative, in Denver. Basically this would create a non-profit commission to welcome extra-terrestrials looking to stop off for a quick tinkle and some beef jerky.

While at the campaign launch, Jeff had this to say about what politicians think about his measure: "They're totally out of the loop".

Jeff, I'm afraid the politicians aren't the only ones.

He was also quoted as saying that he wants us to take advantage of "the cancer-curing technology from UFOs" (I'd make a quip, but that kind of stands on it's own).

The night before the launch, Peckman's campaign themes song, "Pink UFO", was performed by Calm at the Bluebird Theater in Denver.

Boy, are you kids in for a treat!

I think I have a vibrator called The Pink UFO.

The Underside of Abduction Hypnotherapy I

2010-03-05T14:51:00.001-08:00

More on this later, but for now:

You have to check out this episode of Paratopia. It is sort of a second part to Episode 55 where they begin to expose hypnotherapy when used in possible abduction cases.

The current episode, Episode 57, deals with the recorded phone conversation between David Jacobs and Emma Woods (both were aware the recordings were being made).

Here is the brief summary Jeremy wrote on the Paratopia Podcast page:

Alien hybrids making threats over instant messenger. Hypnosis sessions conducted over the telephone. Boisterous, arrogant men talking down to a victimized female. This story has it all and then some.

Jeff and Jeremy dissect Emma Woods’ phone conversations with Dr. David Jacobs regarding the termination of their relationship. This episode asks the important question: Who presents the bigger threat to us, aliens or the researchers looking into them? Then we examine the wrongheaded and cruel response to Emma by UFO Watchdog. For her, the hits just keep on coming.

Take a drink every time we repeat this is just our opinion or beg Jacobs to come on our show in this, our most controversial episode to date.

This is, as the hosts point out, void of David Jacobs side of the story, and because of that, they cannot confirm 100% accuracy. You'll have to judge for yourself. They have invited him to be on the show to give his version, but so far he hasn't bitten.

Warning, the recordings are pretty emotional and this could upset some people, so be mindful if you're easily triggered.

A Raymond Chandler Evening

2010-03-02T21:53:00.000-08:00

I've got 2 long articles I can't seem to finish. One is for WOE and the other for here... I think. I've got a little bit of block and there hasn't been a whole lot of nuttiness going on as of late -- aside from MOD's order to destroy all future UFO reports after 30 days (to avoid having to release them to the public). Frankly, I'm surprised they released anything in the first place. So, with relative quiet on the UFOlogical front, there's not much to pick on.

Although I did hear someone use the phrase "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" for the 4th time in a week. It's a particular peeve of mine, since its a peculiar saying that tends to stand glaringly out when in use -- and it is in use a lot during paranormal interviews. And besides, I dislike children, so naturally, I would want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If anything, I'd be more inclined to save the bathwater. It's not unlike "having my cake and eating it to", though I haven't eaten any children (in case that wasn't clear).

A lot of the past few days has mostly been me reading through my Alerts, trying to find something of interest, with little luck. This is when I end up watching documentaries or listening to music in a slight haze of cigarette smoke and candlelight. My boredom has increased tenfold as of late, which, in the case of last night, lead me to a documentary called "Roswell: The UFO Uncoverup".

I don't know why I do that to myself. Roswell is one of those cases which cause me to groan about every time it's mentioned. Yet occasionally, I will go out of my way to watch documentaries about it. This documentary had a kind of hokey flare to it (imagine that!), and I zoned out a bit near the end when someone began discussing 3rd and 4th Densities which triggered some flashbacks of Zeta Talk c. 2002. And as expected, this lead to flashbacks of 2003 when everyone was waiting for Nibiru to give us a good whoopin'. Of course, that never happened -- or it did, as some people claim, explaining that the rogue planet passed through our solar system in a different density. Oh, and the poles shifted too... just not here in our meager little slice of 3rd Density Peach Cobbler.

If the mythical Marduk does appear and devastates our wee planet, I wonder how HAARP will beat the rap.

3-2-1 Contact!

2010-02-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

My Good friend Erik is rebooting his website Contact with a new approach, and he's wearing his critical-thinking cap!

Keep an eye on it, as it's sure to produce some very interesting and thought provoking posts!

His latest article, Messianic Intergalactic Ambassador Asshats and Real Paranormal Investigating, asks questions like "What is support for some of these organizations really doing, aside from throwing money at Disclosure's 'ambassadors'?".

Women of Esoterica

2010-02-24T12:54:00.001-08:00

In addition to IHW, I will now be writing for Women of Esoterica on occasion.

Thanks to Regan Lee for the invitation! I look forward to be contributing alongside such notable women and am honored to have been asked.

IHW is my first love, and will most certainly not be neglected. I will continue to post here just as regularly as I do now.

I also want to thank the people who read this blog, especially the regulars. It means a lot to me to have your support, and in many cases, friendship.

You're all lovely. Really.

~Deirdre

Familiarity

2010-02-23T17:08:00.001-08:00

I thought this might amuse some of you while being somewhat appropriate. I found this on Tim Binall's forum a few days ago:

Wrapping My Lil' Head Around This

2010-02-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

About half-an-hour ago, I received a comment response notification to a post Regan Lee made about my article "Alien Healthcare and How I Got a Unicorn".

Yes, I was criticized by someone (not Regan, to be clear) who used Mayan Prophecy as part of her argument.

I'm not even kidding.

I was a little surprised, to be honest because the post hit me for having an opinion that was the same kind of “non-productive 'Lets trash Salla and Greer and Wilcock and and and' bile that gets spewed around on any of the male-dominant sites.” Because, you know, I'm not allowed to agree with boys about anything. Not only is it the Women in UFOlogy code, but also the Lesbian code (of which I have probably been in breech of for years) *laughs*

At the risk of, pardon the pun, "alienating" myself on this blog, how is this any different than any of the non-productive "Lets trash Salla and Greer and Wilcock and and and" bile that gets spewed around on any of the male-dominant sites re: anything having to do with "benevolence" of inter-dimensional or off-world beings?

Not very original or news-worthy or contributing to the continuum in any way shape or form.

She also has obviously never heard of galactic history, Zacharia Sitchen, Graham Hancock, Lloyd Pye, Mayan prophecy, our role in the cosmos, etc. etc.

Read the whole comment here

I think the problem is that this individual thought that I was not validating her positive experience with extra-terrestrial/dimensional beings. I never said that positive experiences haven't happened. I was discussing the negative ones and how being removed against your will is usually not considered a 'positive' thing. But most of you probably knew that.

Anyhoo, here is the link to the article and comments. I've responded but it's in the approval queue, so may not be posted yet when you check the page.

Edit 2.23.2010:

Lesley has posted her opinion about this as well, over at her site the The Debris Field.

UFO Photo Manipulation 101

2010-02-20T22:50:00.000-08:00

Oh, this is priceless:

What I thought was going to be the beginning of a long, well done analysis of a photo over at Black Horizon, ended almost as soon as it began -- without even having to adjust the first set of levels. The photo was purported to be of an extra-terrestrial coming through some sort of ... dimensional-wormholey-something-or-other during a recent annual event at Joshua Tree National Park in California. The 'contact event' was hosted by none other than CSETI (if you want to see the original images, go find their site).

Shocker.

Well, the analysis didn't get very far because the first step that was taken to study the photo's integrity was it's undoing. Leftover EXIF data from an image overlaid with the original image cracked this brief case. Yep, that's right: It had the dates to two separate images encoded in the file.

Hoax. Weeeeeeee!

What do you wanna bet there will be a forthcoming excuse that will contain the word disinfo?

Another One Down the Rabbit Hole

2010-02-18T23:11:00.001-08:00

I saw this film last night that was fucking awesome, called MaLice in Wonderland. It was a very unique take on the old story of Through the Looking Glass. All of your favorite characters were there, sometimes played as parts of a few different characters. It had a very Guy Ritchie feel, but still had it's own flavor, and was quite a visual and audible trip.

Anyway, in the intro credits, I noticed Danny Dyer was listed, and I was like "Hey -- I've been seeing a bunch of stuff about him and UFOs lately". So after the film I looked him up and checked out the UFO Special he did called I Believe in UFOs. I was worried, but overall, I liked it. It amused me.

Why was I worried? Because I kind of love that guy -- I never really knew his name before MaLice, so when I realized it was him, I was kind of excited to see him looking into a topic I'm deeply interested in. I had to keep in mind that unlike a lot of us, he doesn't sit at home all night reading every imaginable article on UFOs and/or Abduction. I cut him a healthy dose of slack, and was very happy to see that when he left Stan's house, he second guessed his initial feeling of the footage being legit (yes, Danny got to spend a few hours with Stan Romanek and saw the footage before it was released to the public). At first he was all kinds of amazed, but after he left and had time to process it all, he said he was skeptical because -- and I paraphrase: "He has an agent... and he is asking for 50,000 for the footage". *heart*

Danny was really hoping to see a UFO and eventually he wound up at Gilliland's ranch on Mt. Adams, about 50 miles northeast of where I live. I got a kick out of watching him have to go through the group session of 'opening themselves up', a creepy, spiritual-like session to have a better chance at witnessing a UFO. I half expected to see a snake-handler and some speaking in tongues action. Yeah -- it was some major New Agey bullshit and I do not know how he maintained as long as he did without killing anyone.

In the end, he did see what he believed were UFOs over the ranch, and while I have my own opinions about all that, to him it was all he really needed and the program ended on an upbeat note. I of course wanted to jump through the screen shouting "Danny! Danny! Over here! Check this shit out!" hand over everything I've researched on a lot of the people and places he was visiting, but he was smart enough to not jump right into die-hard belief. And ya know, if I had no idea who any of these yahoos were, who knows how I would have responded? I might have been just as excited -- thought it would have been short-lived as I would have most likely began to pick apart everything. My hope is that he will continue to look into this field and check into these people's backgrounds.

So there ya go. It's a fun watch. And it's lovely to see someone with some celebrity not giving a flying fuck what anyone thinks about what he believes. But like I said, most of us already know all of these claims, cases, and people, and have dismissed most, if not all of it as crap. So don't go looking for any new exciting info here.

And besides -- my main drive for watching it was to drool all over that dirty little Cockney mouth of his and that pretty face. Rawr!

And yes -- he played the rabbit.

Alien Healthcare and How I Got a Unicorn

2010-02-15T23:30:00.000-08:00

What shall we discuss today? Certainly not Disclosure. And I haven't had fries in a while (unless you count two nights ago in which I doused a small batch with salt and malt vinegar), so that's no good. Stan and Jeff haven't done anything particularly zany in the last couple of weeks, either, so this is one of those slow news periods.

Recently, I received a copy of Bill Konkolesky's book Experiencers which I am suppose to write a review for. One of the state directors of MUFON pointed me to JAR Mag's website (JAR is an acronym for Journal of Abduction-Encounter Research) because he noticed they were looking for someone to help them with a re-design, as well as maintain the page. This was a volunteer opportunity and since at the time I was looking for another addition to my portfolio, I shot them an email. This was 4 or 5 months ago now, and I have still not had the time to work on a re-design (so don't go thinking the current incarnation is my doing!), though recently I have had a chance to begin working on some mockups.

A few weeks ago, Elaine, one of the editors and now a good friend, had asked me if I'd be interested in writing a book review for the next issue. I thought that might be fun, so I told her I'd be up for it. At first I was a little hesitant because I believe my thoughts and perspective on the subject are very different from that of the other editors, as well as different from what is commonly written in the publication. I didn't want to be or feel censored. I spoke with Elaine at length about this concern and she assured me it wouldn't be a problem; that the magazine doesn't have an agenda as far as what 'side' they are on. It's open to any compelling argument or discussion about abduction and encounters -- pros, con, whatever. I am hoping the addition of me – in whatever capacity of writing I may end up in (if any), whether its another review or an actual article at some point – will give the readership something different to think about.

I've never written a book review before. I'm also not sure how to write without a healthy dose of colorful metaphors, as may be fairly apparent (I'm teasing! For instance, I don't think my résumé uses any expletives). Anyway, I'm about halfway through the book, so I'll be starting on the review soon.

And I suppose since we're already talking about it, I might as well discuss abduction. And Exopolitics. Both perhaps? I did say it was a slow news period, did I not?

So this Exopolitics bag has really picked up some speed in the last couple of years. With it's colorful personalities and grand theories, it's neck and neck with the Disclosure movement -- but personally, I think its all crap .

But Deirdre! How can you say such a thing!?

I dunno - because of the endless run-around and the inability to produce the credible sources their ideas and claims are based on? Something like that.

Many in Exopolitics would have you believe that extra-terrestrials are visiting Earth and are waiting for us to get our shit together so we can be inducted into the Magical Galactic Federation of Enlightened Beings, Rainbows and Unicorns. They assume (and pretend to know) that actual UFOs are “alien” in nature , and the occupants are totally friendly. Ignoring the fact we have no real proof of the former (and I don't count hush-hush insider info as 'proof'), I say poppycock! If these aliens are really that friendly and concerned about our well being, then what's with all the kidnapping?

I'm sure there are some in the Exopolictical movement that don't necessarily believe that only 'friendly' aliens are here and have nothing but our best interest at heart. Its just that the most vocal voices tend to hold public sway and this is the portrait they paint and is how people become excited about things like Greertonium and flying pie tins in Switzerland.

Don't misunderstand me – I don't think the ExoMovement is crap solely based on their opinions of the 'visitors', but mostly because a lot of what they spew forth looks and smells an awful lot like feces. Whether its predicting disclosure dates, tearing up in interviews for the camera, claiming they're the reincarnated spirit of Edgar Cayce, fighting over who started Exopolitics first, and mentioning reliable sources that can't be disclosed (oh, the irony!), it all seems best displayed in a porcelain bowl just before the big flush. But all of that is another few posts. You can't cover everything in one article (I guess I sort of just did in a single paragraph, but you know what I mean).

But where do abductions fit in the neat and tidy world of ExoMania? For the sake of discussion, I'm going with the theory that abductions are extra-terrestrial in nature, while firmly believing the possibility of them being something else, is a valid consideration.

Here are two of the most common reasons I've heard used to explain the abduction phenomenon by, um, Exopoliticians:

Abductions aren't real. They are nothing more than a product of sleep paralysis.

Abductions happen but the abductors are not 'bad'. We are simply too inferior to understand that the abductions are actually for our own benefit, so they appear to us as a negative act.

I don't want to get into sleep paralysis right now. I have mixed feelings about it – partially because I am trying to determine if I suffer from sleep paralysis or something more, and partially because its been mentioned by every UFO blog and podcast at least twice in the last 2 months.

I am, however, going to address number 2.

First off, putting any non-human life-form into little boxes labeled 'good' or 'bad' is something you really can't do. Our understanding of things like "right" and "wrong" are based on a human point of view (what other could we have?), but I do believe that the entities performing the abductions are aware that the experiences could have and often do have negative impacts on humans. To continue to do something you know may be considered horrifying to another being, crosses a line, I think. I suppose that is also a human opinion, and I can't expect some alien civilization to operate as I do if they have no concept of human emotions. Yet, in order to really argue this at all, I believe there has to be at least a few assumptions we make to provide some sort of base. And for this, I'm going with a (hopefully) universal understanding of 'No Means No'.

In a lot of abduction cases, there has been report of a telepathic-type of communication between the abductor and abductee. It's also been noted that the abductors have often instilled fear – purposely – in abductees, which would lead me to believe that they have some understanding of fear as it applies to humans, and have no moral issue about using it to keep the abductee submissive and compliant. Sure, maybe we are too dumb to get what their 'real purpose' is, but that doesn't really change our perception of what's happening to us, or the physical traumas often associated with it.

I know my dog doesn't understand that when I'm cutting his nails, its for his benefit, so I am extremely gentle and caring with how I handle it. I bring this up because there has been the debate that through abduction, aliens are doing something for our benefit. And yes, there are stories in which the person being taken is calmed, and I guess it could be argued that they are trying (in some situations) to ease our fear, much like my above analogy. That might appear nice and gentle and all, but unless they are abducting me to perform free dental care or check my breasts for lumps, I don't see how its really the same kind of thing. There is still the act of abduction and restraint. There's still trauma and blocked memory. So, number 2 doesn't seem like a sensible enough argument to me. We are, after all, human, and can only act like humans. Using that to their advantage is exploiting our vulnerability.

Isn't it?

More and more I am leaning towards abduction not being so simplified as 'aliens from outer space'. I'm not really talking about MILABS here (though I think that is definitely a consideration in some cases), but rather that these 'beings' may be something other – hyper-dimensional, perhaps. *shrugs* I kind of hate dragging dimensions into this since so few people understand what dimensions are, beyond something they name-drop after having listened to a whole bunch of George Noory. But there it is.

But Deirdre! Many abductees have been told by the aliens that they are from outer space!

Yeah? There have been reports of Experiencers being told lots of things that were not true in order to soothe or make the situation more 'comfortable'. There have been instances where a person has been told that one of the beings was their mother or some other relative, in hopes that this might pacify. And true to the field of UFOlogy, you can't trust anything anyone tells you. Apparently not even the aliens.

But Deirdre! Aliens wouldn't lie! They have evolved beyond that!

LOL, but they haven't evolved above kidnapping? FAIL.

Now, I am not an abductee – to my knowledge. I have had a number of situations which I find suspect, but until I can definitely differentiate those situations from hypnagogic hallucinations, I am not ready to step into that line. Because of this, I only have books and stories to base my opinions on. I know some of you have had encounters and have suffered abduction, and I would really like to hear your perspective on all of this, since you'd probably have a better understanding of whats going on during these experiences, than I.

Before I draw this post to a close, I wanted to show you a photo that has received a bit of buzz the last few weeks. I had hoped to bring it up sooner, but alas, I have been a busy girl. It was first posted by Michael Salla on his Examiner blog about 2 weeks ago. For those of you who have always wondered what an extra-terrestrial looks like, your wait is over!

Yes, you are looking at the correct image.*

Thankfully, this astonishing photo is up for analysis (after all, Salla is pretty careful about what info he imparts to the public.), which will undoubtedly result in its authentication: a real, in-the-flesh extra terrestrial on holiday in Italy!

I think the only analysis that needs to be made here is whether he's got a cucumber wrapped in foil in his shorts or he is packing a leg-of-lamb.

And by “leg-of-lamb” I mean “cock”.

Talk about having a moral obligation to seed the universe!

*Paratopia covered this photo rather well on Episode number 53. Give it a listen!

Forthcoming

2010-02-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

Update 2.14.2010:

Ok, so I lied.

Not really.

I had every intention of getting something up by now, but the truth is, I went on a wild tangent (more than usual) with the article. I finally got it to around 3 pages and am just finishing up the trimming and condensing -- so I'll probably have it posted by tomorrow! I was going to do it tonight, but I'm really kind of out of it for some reason. God knows why. I did fuck all today but sit around watching movies while waiting for a pot roast to slow cook.

I will be posting something here (that is not about homos) in the next day or two.

It will probably include something about The Exopolitic Movement, Breasts, 10 Foot Tall Aliens, John Holmes, and Dental Care.

~Deirdre

The Totally Gay Post

2010-02-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

This isn't really about UFOs, EBEs, Abduction, or the Universe, but I really liked this article and wanted to mention is here for my readers. It comes from one of my favorites bloggers, Robert Barrow and has to do with the recent discussion of nixing the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, and letting gay men and women serve openly.

As some of you are aware, I am an openly gay woman, so this is certainly not an anti-queer piece. Quite the opposite. Here it is for anyone interested:

Can't Shoot Straight
By Robert Barrow

It's way past time for modern military forces to take a tip from ancient armies -- the gay thing was always there. Imagine the countless numbers of gay people who served and died in wars for this country. Why should they be forever invisible and unacknowledged? Thank you for your service, but you don't exist, nope, you were never here, couldn't be, we don't allow those kinds of people into our ranks. Why, it's just not compatible with our religion (our religion?)...

The Interstellar Manifesto - Chapter Five

2010-02-03T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hey there, amateur UFO video editors! If you're the type that likes to throw up all that zany 'UFO' footage on YouTube (the kind that All News Web and The Examiner likes to shove in your face, claiming that it's the "next big thing" or "the smoking gun"), here are 5 things of note that may help you attain something akin to awesomeness:

1.) Credits: You're a geek behind a computer uploading videos - not NBC, so try and stay away from those 2 minute intros before the actual footage begins. There are few things more cerebrally painful than watching obviously fake footage or airplane lights under the guise of "extra-terrestrial craft". But having to witness terrible use of layout, typography and wipes in a 2 minute intro are pretty effin' close.

2.) Soundtrack: What. The. Hell is with the songs!? Why are there songs on these videos!? Is it infrared footage or a Pink Floyd concert? A mobile phone .3gp or an Aphex Twin video? Jesus. It's like being stuck in some bizarre David Lynch/Peter Gabriel wet dream.

Here's a hint: We're ~~probably~~ not interested in your musical tastes.

3.) Frame Rate: How much can you reduce the speed of a video from 29.97 FPS? Apparently a whole lot. I have come to the conclusion that all videos of "UFOs" over 3 minutes are really just a looped 20 second clip slowed down to like 30 different frame rates -- which may seem cool and all, but only better illustrates the artifact you mistake for a UFO. And is 1 FPS really necessary? I mean, really?

PS - Its a plane.

4.) Motherships: Don't call every thing a damn "mothership" like we're in Star Trek or something. If you happen to catch an actual structure and maybe some engines or a docking bay, then fine. Maybe.

I get first dibs on the green chick.

5.) NASA: And please, for the love of God, no more NASA 'leaked' tether videos.

*While searching for images to use as an icon for this post, I ran across this and thought it was cute, so I'm posting it here.

Hey, it's my manifesto. Cope.

The Ministry of Silly Voices

2010-02-01T23:51:00.000-08:00

A post by David Andrew made on UFO Chronicles came through my Alerts this evening. Apparently he had also caught the episode of Open Minds that I mentioned briefly in The Cold, Hard Truth About French Fries.

Here is an excerpt from David Andrew's The Stan Romanek Saga:

These early calls seemed to be in support of Stan but this latest call was a threat. The host of the show also pointed out that it is possible Stan could have had a hand in this but in his opinion he doesn’t think so.

My first question here is, “Why would someone who was truly trying to intimidate or, threaten Stan do so on a radio program with lots of witnesses?” The simple answer is they wouldn’t!

In the article, Mr. Andrew brings up nearly the very same point: Why would anyone who was trying to scare Stan off from letting the cat out of the bag in regards to alien visitation, make a public spectacle of it?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the whole situation was highly suspicious -- though, like David, I wonder why there hasn't been more blog-chatter about it.

Maybe that's a good thing.

Sadly...

2010-01-28T01:31:00.000-08:00

So, uh -- guess what I saw in the label when I opened this up a while ago?

This is a clear sign that I need a break.

And yes, it is terribly cheap vino. Hey! We're in an economic crisis!

The Cold, Hard Truth About French Fries

2010-01-24T15:18:00.000-08:00

What to talk about...

I could talk about the whole James Carrion incident, but I think the rest of the UFO websites have already bludgeoned that one to death.

I could talk about how Stan appeared on Open Minds Radio to discuss the vast amount of evidence he has for his abduction case. I could also talk about the laughable and (in my opinion) staged phone interruption with a 'mysterious' voice that said: "You need to learn to keep your mouth shut".

Yes. I shit you not.

More than just the voice, the rather ho-hum reaction by everyone on that episode was a little less than convincing. If you're interested, it's the show from 1.22.10 and the voice comes in at about 29:26, but you will probably want to go a minute or two before that to get the context. Although, I'm not sure that matters.

Of course, if Stan was telling tales out of school and by doing so, did upset his alleged abductors, would they really blow their cover of secrecy to warn Stan to shut his mouth on a live radio program? And why do I have this funny image of a phone cord running from the bedroom, down the hall and under the bathroom door, where Jeff is sitting on the edge of the tub, holding back the giggles?

But hey, don't listen to me. I'm cynical.

I used to take in some UFO Think Tank/Open Minds Radio fairly often, and Alejandro seems like a nice guy and all -- but I've been on the fence about the show for months now and I have always questioned his steadfast attachment to Stan (and yes I know he says he's had experiences at Stan's place).

Anyway, I can speculate on the involvement of anyone in the Romanek case 'til the cows come home. You kids just have to judge for yourself.

Wait, why was I listening to this anyway? Well, because I like to hear what the other side is thinking. And because sometimes you're having a blah day and need a reason to spurt coffee out of your nose.

But I don't really want to talk about any of that stuff.

What I do want to talk about is Richard Dolan's upcoming show, First Contact. I'd known about this for a couple of months now, but somehow it got back-burnered on the small electric stove of my mind until recently when I began seeing advertisements for it.

Let me say this first (this is the obligatory statement in hopes that people understand I am not attacking Dolan): I happen to like Richard Dolan. Quite a bit. Though I am a bigger fan of the Dolan of years past (and I'll leave Bob Dean out of this). Also, he has done some incredible work at compiling information on UFOs. I was given his first book, UFOs and the National Security State for Christmas and it is an enjoyable read. It's nice to find information in cases long past, that can still open your eyes when you've become somewhat, uh... jaded.

Honestly, this isn't really just about First Contact - or even Richard himself. It's more about reality television in general, specifically the UFO programs. I don't have much opinion on other paranormal shows like Ghost Hunters, because I haven't really watched any and I have very little interest in what we refer to as "ghosts". Not because I don't think there is a phenomenon, but because I have experienced that kind of activity my whole life -- and sometimes stuff like that loses its awe-factor to a person. Sort of like eating french fries everyday -- there will come a time when your original love for them has somewhat lessened.

What the fuck? A French fry analogy for ghosts!? Really, Deirdre?

Basically my issueslashquestion is this: Are these kinds of shows serving any real purpose? Outside of entertainment, I mean. We've all heard the complaints about UFO Hunters, so I wont drag you through all of that. But it's because of the question of credibility where that show is concerned, that I wonder what First Contact will do to change the image of so-called reality UFO television -- and can it?

I think in order for First Contact to remove the stigma associated with UFO Hunters, they would need to first strip the scripted crap. I'm speaking of the obviously fake set-ups to add 'realism' to the meetings that take place, and the staged arrival at locations. They'd also have to throw out all of that intense editing where the viewer is led to believe something totally fucked up just happened but before we see anything, we are forced into a commercial -- and we all know what happens when we return!

Sure, go ahead. Leave in some of the flash, the color effects, the music and maybe even those mini-interviews about what the team members think. I can handle that. Just don't take us on 30 minutes of night-vision through the woods, or suffer us through the opinions of the team 'skeptic' - that never seems to actually be skeptical.

Look, these shows are never going to make this field look awesome and sane to those who think its total crap - especially when they are scripted to the point of being soap operatic. If anything, I think these shows have caused more harm than good. Why? Because you generally don't convince people of something they think is fake, if you add fake elements to it.

Why not do a show about UFOs that is reminiscent of Cosmos, Stephen Hawking's Universe, or some of the the BBC's Horizon series. There was/is flashiness, music, effects, and overall slick-ness in the production of those shows, yet they are relatively void of cheese and leave you with a more... "educational" feeling.

I don't know how Dolan's show is gonna turn out. I imagine it has to be somewhat different than UFO Hunters, but as to how different - that remains to be seen. And who knows -- maybe First Contact will surprise us.*

Of course, my entire opinion completely changes if they get a hot brunette on the show that doesn't look like she was starved half to death.

Do you hear me, Kraft Food Services!?

*But if they do the obligatory Area 51 show, I am going to carve out my eyes and drive pine needles into my ocular cavities.

Just a reminder...

2010-01-24T13:05:00.000-08:00

...that the ETH is still just a hypothesis.*

This was something I came up with while designing some other typographical art.

*After all, that's what the fucking "H" is for!

A (Not-So-Sober) Review of 2010 (The Film)

2010-01-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

I was watching the 1984 film 2010 the other night. By the way, whatever happened to Roy Scheider?

Never mind. I guess he died in February of 2008. Way to start off, Deirdre.

Anyway, I was watching 2010 the other night and getting into it a bit, especially with Helen Mirren's screen time. The premise was interesting (well, the premise of both 2001 and 2010), but then about half way through, it got kind of silly. What follows is the story of one woman's struggle to piece together the events that transpired in the film, through a slight haze of Cabernet Sauvignon.

2010 starts off 9 years after 2001, (as you might imagine) and the Americans are considering building a new ship to go check out what happened to the first ship, Discovery One and it's crew. As it turns out the Soviets already have a ship rarin' to go, and they too want to check out Discovery, as well as the giant monolith, but don't know how to fix HAL. A deal is eventually worked out and the Americans are allowed to hitch a ride with the Soviets's aboard the Alexei Leonov, killing two birds with one giant ship.

Shortly after they reach Discovery One and switch everything back on, they head over to the monolith and decide to send the cosmonaut Max over to check it out. This is where things begin to get a little funky. The end of 2001 had it's own funkiness -- which was bordering on psychedelia, but I was willing to except it in the name of cinema and Stanley Kubrik. But here, in 2010, the film starts to lose gravity *snicker* at about the time that Max get's blown off the monolith when a bizarre energy bolt erupts forth, heading for Earth like a comet who is seriously late for dinner.

Apparently, the energy bolt contains the soul of David Bowman, the first film's main character, the one who originally shuts down HAL and then goes missing ("I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that"). I guess the reason he pops on over to Earth is so he can say good-bye to his wife -- 9 FREAKING YEARS LATER. What the fuck took him 9 years to get around to that!?

In all fairness, it wasn't quite her husband. He was now part of something else -- a god-like consciousness, and has been integrated into whatever the source of the monolith is, if not the monolith itself.

Ok, so then we cut to this old woman in a hospital and a floating silver brush. I mean, why not, right? Floating brushes always make millions at the box office.

It's at this point that I have temporarily lost all sense of what the Hell is going on. But I could also have been a bit drunk.

We then return to the two ships which are still hanging in orbit around Jupiter. War is breaking out between the Soviet Union and the United States back on Earth. This causes a conflict between the Russian flight crew and the American flight crew. They decide to obey a set of orders sent to them by their governments and then head to their respective ships (and I assume play backgammon for the rest of their time there).

I still haven't figured out how this whole Soviet / U.S. conflict really figures into the plot. I mean, sure. Fine. Ok. War and stuff. I get it. But it had like no real influence on any of the other story. Perhaps in the book it was more relevant - but not so much in the film.

But just wait! Something is going to happen -- something wonderful!

Apparently that some kind of wonderful is that the planet Jupiter is going to go through a crazy metamorphosis, spewing forth millions of monoliths at an exponential rate. Our heroes (or whatever they are) have decided to disregard their orders and begin to work with each other to get the fuck out of Dodge before the Jupiter anomaly destroys them all.

Using a technique in which Discovery One piggy-backs on top of the Alexei Leonov, The Discovery's launch rockets are fired giving them a much needed boost, before the old vessel is altogether jettisoned when it's fuel runs out. Meanwhile, HAL is privately contacted by the voice of David Bowman, and instructed to send a message back to Earth, repeating it as many times as possible.

Both crews, now aboard the Leonov, manage to make it just far enough away before gravity (or something) pulls Jupiter into itself, triggering nuclear fusion, thus transforming the once giant planet into a star.

Yes. A star.

A message comes across one of their monitors - the very message HAL was isntructed to send to Earth. It reads:

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE."

At this point, everyone is smiling like they just saw a unicorn. I smile too because I don't want to look like I have no idea what in Christ's name is going on. Shortly after, we cut to Earth and are shown a montage of images in which there are two suns visible in the Terran sky. Roy Schedier's voice is heard as he narrates the end of the film, explaining how the children of the future will never know a sky without 2 suns, and how they'll never know a night of darkness, and Blah. Blah. Blah.

More shots of 2 suns in the sky. Weeee!

The film ends with a single monolith standing upright on the moon (which is now a planet, I guess) Europa, signifying the point of creation -- the beginning of sentient life.

I sat there for a few moments, trying to absorb everything that was just forcibly crunched into the last 15 minutes, and then thought to myself: Jesus, I'd be Hella pissed if there were two suns in the sky. One is already too much. Now there's TWO!? Screw that!

I'd fly my ass toward the new sun (wearing a very large, obnoxious pair of Holly Golightly sunglasses) and land on Europa just to instigate a catastrophe that would hopefully plunge the whole entire solar system into darkness.

And then I'd have a Coke.

Cue "Sprach Zarathustra"

*Note: For those of you who think this is all blasphemy and that I "didn't get it" -- I did. *wink*

Stan Romanek: Time Lord

2010-01-10T14:41:00.001-08:00

MUFON's International Director, James Carrion, has a new post on his blog "Follow the Magic Thread" (or was it"Fallow" ? *snort*) regarding the threat of legal action by Stan Romanek towards MUFON.

Apparently Stan (or rather Stan's vocal chords, Lisa Romanek) are now claiming that James is lying - and that Stan never called and never mentioned legal action. Later on, she mentions that Stan did call the MUFON office (having previously said he didn't) and did ask for the legal department.

The new claim by Lisa is that Stan made the call after having read what James posted. The problem here is that the message was left at MUFON's office on December 28th, while James' article was published on the 29th. So, as Mr. Carrion points out, that would only be possible if Stan had travelled forward in time to December 29th, read James' article, then traveled back in time to December 28th, where he left the message asking for the legal department and where papers could be served.

Excerpt:
So let’s examine some recent events that demonstrate how off kilter you are about the Romaneks. On December 28, 2009 Stan Romanek called the MUFON office asking for MUFON’s legal department. On the same day a “recorded voice” called the MUFON office asking for MUFON’s legal address so that MUFON could be served papers. On the same day, Leslie Varnicle, MUFON Colorado State Director received a voice mail from Stan Romanek also asking for MUFON’s legal department...

Read the whole article

Happy Birthday!

2010-01-08T13:19:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday, Stephen Hawking!

Stephen Hawking has turned 68 today

From Neatorama:

Born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death, Hawking is a theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most intelligent men alive. He has published numerous papers and books on the nature and origin of the universe, the best known being A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Hawking also had a miniseries on PBS in 1997, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, as well as a long list of TV and movie appearances. He is renowned for making difficult concepts comprehensible to the average reader or viewer.

The New (Age) Knights of the Roundtable

2010-01-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

Speculative Realms recently posted a fun article about Project Camelot, appropriately titled "Daydream Believers". While I don't agree with all of Gary's opinions, it is nice to read criticisms on Camelot to help remind interested parties to tread carefully on what they choose to buy into or put faith in.

My favorite part of the article is where Gary mentions Camelot's habit of interviewing individuals who make predictions that "generally speaking, don't come true". Of course, the most obvious problem in this is that they are interviewing people who make UFO-related predictions, period. The concern of whether they end up true or not, is almost besides the point.

Project Camelot associates with some very - in my opinion - questionable folk, such as David Wilcock, Pete Peterson and Bob Dean. I don't claim that any of these people are purposely bullshitting their 'followers'. They may or may not be, and my opinion is not important here (I think its mostly bullshit *wink*), but as Gary mentioned, maybe these guys should just write books and leave the predictions up to... well - no one.

While many in UFOlogy are looking for things like witnesses, testimony, evidence & proof, an overwhelming number of UFO people are content to rely on hocus-pokus and the promises of a magic world in which humanity does the Intergalactic Cha-Cha with über-enlightened Star-Children. I like Star Trek too, but I don't consider it a blueprint of how the future will actually unfold.

The most popular false-prediction of recent times was the much hyped November 27th Disclosure prediction. A supposed pre-planned event by the U.S. Government and Extra Terrestrial races in which one race in particular - a very "human-like" race - was going to land in Florida, thus making their presence known. This was to be followed up by a disclosure announcement made my President Obama, the following day. It was also said that a 2 hour prime-time television slot had already been slated for the announcement (you can't make this shit up!). The initial prediction was made by Peterson and then promoted by Salla, Wilcock, Project Camelot, and probably a few others.

When it was becoming fairly obvious that this event would not come to pass, Project Camelot posted this to their website on November 26th: "We're not holding our breath: there's no immediate sign of this, and we doubt that this will happen."

The disclosure "movement" in general makes a lot of assumptions which many of it's 'leaders' consider (and tell you) are true. I base my acknowledgement of "truth" on something a tad more factual. I'm kooky like that. Yeah, there may be a big UFO cover-up. Yeah, we may be being visited by ETs (or whatever), but relying on speculation and prediction is not a reliable way of discerning reality.

You can believe what you want -- I certainly do, but tread carefully when deciding what you tell the public is truth, unless you have some form of evidence and/or "inside" sources that aren't always conveniently anonymous. Or unless you're just making up shit for the money -- in which case, go fuck yourself.

Hotlinking and Content-Theft

2010-01-04T19:35:00.000-08:00

Atrueoriginall who runs Alien, UFO & the Paranormal Casebook is the victim of hotlinking and content-theft. We're not talking 1 or 2 images and some excerpts of text - no, we're talking about 25,000 images and a complete copy of her entire page!

Hotlinking has been a known issue since the dawn of time (or at least since the near-dawn of the World Wide Web), so it is completely amazing to me that people should still have to worry about hotlinking or warn others not to do it.

How does hotlinking affect a website owner?

The direct link to an image from Site A on Site B, causes the owner of Site A to accrue the bandwidth from not only their own site, but from Site B's as well! So, the person who is hosting the original image is not only paying for their bandwidth, but the bandwidth being used via the site hotlinking the image. If you have a well-viewed blog, this really adds up to some bucks.

How does content-theft affect a website owner?

I write a fair amount of my own content, and I sure as shit don't want someone leeching the entire article with no link-back or credit. When that happens, and the content-thief presents the material in a way that implies or misleads people into thinking they wrote it, it is plagiarism.

We (writers) don't spend hours writing original content to have it credited by someone else. It's like getting pissed on without the courtesy of handing us an umbrella.

So, what are the rules?

Well, in many cases, they aren't entirely clear. But for a good primer, read this article: "Excerpts, Scraping and Fair Use", from Plagiarism Today.

Within the article they offer some suggestions presented by Attributor.com

Excerpt must contain a link.
Excerpt must use less than 50% of the original content.
Excerpt must also use less than 100 words.

Thanks to Lesley of The Debris Field and Regan of The Orange Orb for drawing attention to this! You can also read the discussion that is currently going on over at The Debris Field, here.

Dear Shirley MacLaine

2009-12-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

By the Interstellar Housewife

Dear Shirley MacLaine,

I, um...

Uh...

It's been another one of those days. A lot of time spent sifting through the news and finding fuck all worth mentioning. Well, maybe a few items -- but I'm still formulating my opinions.

I did come across an older Larry King episode in which Shirley MacLaine appeared alongside James Fox and some of the military personnel that he has interviewed for Out of the Blue and I Know What I Saw. Honestly, to say Shirley was alongside these guys is not quite right. She appeared on the same show as they did, but Shirley was interviewed in a separate private interview, which appears in the middle of the show and then cuts back to the military guys. Why? Maybe Shirley couldn't make it on the same day. Maybe she refused to put herself in a possibly argumentative or confrontational situation. Or maybe she didn't want to get boy-cooties. Who can say? This may have been (and probably was) addressed before, but I'm too lazy to Google it right now.

This threw me back in time quite a ways, triggering the memory of a certain TV movie I saw as a young girl called "Out on a Limb" (many of you probably remember this if you're my age or older. I don't know why it has stuck out in reviewing my youth -- it certainly wasn't as horrifying as The Day After, which scared the ever-living shit out of me. Maybe it was that silver-chord thing and the fear that if I really did have one, it would snap and I'd be lost to the enormity of oblivion.

I had a chaotic imagination as a child.

Now that I try to recall the details of the film, they elude me. I think I remember South America. I think I remember some guy in a fedora or some form of brimmed hat. And then this one guy in a jeep with a very bristly moustache -- or maybe that was Matt Huston. Anyhoo, as imaginative as I was, I've always raised an eyebrow at many 'out there' claims. Of course, I'd be lying if I told you I never tried to induce an OOBE. Many times. So, I must have given the idea some form of credence. But maybe it was my inability to fully give-in to the belief, that prevented me from experiencing one. Maybe my midichlorians are actually off-the -chart and I just have to be told that Luke is, in fact, my brother.

But I doubt it.

What have we got so far? Yes, of course -- Shirley was on this Larry King episode, and I really don't understand why. Was it to get her perspective? Yeah, I guess. But her perspective was so far removed from what the general discussion was about, that it seemed disjointed. To me, the topic was Unidentified Flying Objects, or UAP if you prefer. Her bit was more angled at the Experiencer aspect, which is grand and all, since it's all part of the same umbrella, but they are sometimes at opposite positions of the circumference. Let's take things one at a time -- not throw them all together and present it to the public in one confusing pot of goulash. Her segment seemed like an entirely different show altogether, and I think that stands way out.

I'm not going to bang on her overall belief system, because I don't know anywhere enough about it. I just hope she isn't gunning to be the Bono of UFOlogy, because one Bono is enough for the whole of the Milky Way. I'd be ok with someone like Chris Isaak, but that is more probably because I've had a crush on him for years (Yeah, I know -- but in my defense, he does kind of look like a lesbian. Right?).

I'd heard about this particular Larry King show before, but ever since the mash-up with Bill Nye, I've had very little desire to peek in on King's other UFO roundtables. Yes, even if Bill Nye did hang any respectability he may have had with his own bow-tie.

Ms. MacLaine is a charming actress. I've always loved her roles, especially in Terms of Endearment. *pause* Everyone done vomiting? Good. So, yes, I do have respect for Shirley. A lot, actually. I just think UFOlogy maybe doesn't need her, um -- help.

So, let's try this again:

Dear Shirley MacLaine,

Please don't start wearing crazy sun glasses and then arrange for Stanton Friedman and Seth Shostak to shake hands at the next MUFON symposium.*

And please ask The Edge to take off that hat once in a while.

Sincerely,

Deirdre

*Anyone who gets this may consider themselves in my good graces.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T11:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to those who celebrate!

Thanks for reading,

~Wifey

Ancient Sumerian Secret, Huh?

2009-12-21T15:40:00.000-08:00

By The Interstellar Housewife

Back in 2001-2003 when everyone was screaming about Nibiru, I was caught up in the new Mars photos of the Cydonea region, waiting to see if that damn mound was a friggin' face or not. It wasn't, in the end (though Hoagland certainly stood his ground for a bit).

Outwardly, these seemed like two fairly separate camps -- Camp A. being those people in to new martian photos and hopeful of data showing traces of microbial life, if not photos of some extinct civilization and Camp B consisting of those who were proponents of a rogue planet (Nibiru wormwood, X, etc), and it's impact (ha!) on our history and/or creation. But somehow, these groups began to connect, along with a few other 'fringe' groups, by a modest (though significant) number of Internet para-junkies.

Oh, it wasn't a natural connection, to be sure. It required a bit of -- um, leniency. And manipulation. Personally, I never bought into half of the stuff flying around at the time. I did entertain the Nibiru idea, briefly, because some of it seemed plausible enough - but only up until the part were it was a hollow planet that played home-world to a race of beings called the Annunaki, who just could not get enough gold!

The other part I didn't buy was the prophesied impact date of 2003 -- for one, because IT WASN'T IN THE MOTHERLUVIN' SKY. And I'm pretty sure something that big would have been very visible in the years just prior to '03.

This wasn't the first time these kinds of idea poked about. In fact, these are mostly old ideas. But a resurgence surfaced sometime after Y2K, and names that had not been uttered in many moons were suddenly all the rage - particularly Sitchin and Von Daniken. The theories were interesting, admittedly, but it was just a bit much for me. It did, however, appear to over-saturate the online UFO community and after a while, my bullshit alarm was going off left and right with each new addition to an increasingly bloated theory.

So, I ducked out. I just walked away from that whole scene and buried those interests in the back of my mind, next to that copy of Redbook with Molly Ringwald on the cover that I can never seem to find in the labyrinth of boxes that is my basement.

When I'd had about enough of my self-imposed exile, I didn't expect to find the same arguments going on, half a decade after Nibiru didn't show up (and if you say it's coming in 2012, I swear I'm going to stab myself in the face). But what was more crazy was that it was seeping into the mainstream, foaming up around the edges -- and what was once a theory slapped together with odd-shaped pieces and a whole lot of imagination, was now a kind of religion.

And as I said, I entertained the idea for a brief time, to imagine what it all might have been like back in the day if it were true, but I eventually let it go. I'm not anti-ancient astronauts or anything. I think it's certainly something to think about, and just as good as any creation theory floating around in the minds of mortals -- I just find common interpretations of it sorta sketchy.

If the whole basic concept happens to be true, I feel safe in saying that its probably quite a bit different from what individuals like Sitchin claim. People (and especially authors) tend to inject their wants and needs into a subject they feel passionately about and Zacharia was no exception. In reading The Twelfth Planet, I noticed very quickly that he leads the reader a bit too much in his own personal direction, with definitive statements about what it is we are seeing on ancient stone tablets (I think he even claimed one tablet was obviously a depiction of a laser -- really??).

Personally, I think a lot of those mysterious etchings and whatnot, do look like flying vehicles. They strike me as exceptionally odd, interesting and spectacular. Am I ready to say they are definitely otherworldly vehicles? No.

I mean, how do you prove something like that, anyway? We can't even prove current extra-terrestrial visitation, let alone biblical stories -- so what kind of chance does something like this stand? To the individual buying that bag of magic beans, it probably shouldn't matter. I have a lot of beliefs that would cause even the sketchiest UFO zombie to go into permanent shock, but I can't and won't even attempt to prove any of them or direct someone else to believe as i do.

And this is my issue with people like Bob Dean, Hoagland (well, Hoagland for myriad reasons), and about 30 billion others. These voices present their opinions with an authority they don't really have. Big deal right? Well sure, but what about the people who are just walking into this and hear these 'gurus' throwing around mysterious credentials and super-secret insider information (*cough*Wilcock*cough*). Some of these guys really sound good if you're not privy to their backgrounds or if you don't look close enough.

I hate to drop the evidence-bomb on you, but since this post is relatively F-Bomb free, I'm going to -- and I will even paraphrase Sagan, to boot! If you're going to make extraordinary claims, you better have some extraordinary evidence. Otherwise I'm going to sound like a broken record asking "well, how do you know?" "Well, how do you know?" "Well, how do you know?"...

Well? How do you?

Now, before you get your panties in a bunch, I'm not disputing evidence for UFOs. I feel there is evidence. -- and some fabulous testimonial from exceptionally credible individuals. I just don't think there is enough evidence to say that all UFOs or even any UFOs are extra terrestrial. Of course, I believe that some probably are. That's a personal opinion, and a lot less iron-fisty than me saying "Extra terrestrials are definitely here and they really love gold!"

If there was ever any question if I was a Starchild, it should be made clear that I find gold tacky. I'm more a sterling silver kind of gal. And yes, I'm being an ass.

In closing, ancient Sumerian text is probably best understood by ancient Sumerians. Yes, we can learn a lot from them, but translations, in general, have never been perfect, even between our common known languages -- so, claims of an accurate translation of meanings and symbols without allowing much margin for error, is a wee bit foolish. Think about the Bible translation disputes, for example. This is pretty much the same thing -- and the bible is much younger than Sumerian tablets!

Ok, I'm off to find that Redbook!

Titan's Northern Lake

2009-12-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

I found this link via Neatorama, showing this first photo of an extra terrestrial lake on Titan, Saturn's largest satellite:

A haze of methane enshrouds Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and prevents scientists from seeing most sunlight reflections off the surface. But NASA's Cassini orbiter managed to snap a stunning image of sunlight glinting off a huge, liquid methane lake -- a smoking gun that confirms liquid in the northern hemisphere.

Extrasolar Planet, UAP and Astronomy

2009-12-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Doesn't this kind of change the argument a bit? It used to be that if a life sustaining planet existed, it would be so incredibly far away, that visitation to earth would be "unlikely". And sure, there's still that little lightspeed/mass thing to get past, but even at half the speed of light, it would only take a human lifetime to traverse that distance -- and the possibility of some civilization that may have evolved on that planet, making the long interstellar voyage to explore this neck of the galaxy, becomes more and more realistic. Especially if you consider cryogenics or something of the sort.

Of course, this new find might not have any life on it, but it does say one thing: There's a lot of stuff out there that is surprisingly close to us that we aren't aware of... like this really fucking big, possibly life-sustaining watery planet. ~Wifey

Astronomers and the UAP(UFO)

It came with a regular batch of astronomy news from an online news service devoted specifically to that topic. Usually, there are news releases from JPL and NASA about something the Mars Rover was doing, or a new photo that the Hubble took, or the first light of a new telescope. But today, there were two news releases that attracted my attention, mostly because they were so unusual.

First, there was a release from Harvard about a paper published next week in Nature will announce that an exoplanet has been found that is not only within 40 light years of Earth...

Read more at the source

The Interstellar Housewife

Image Issues

Open-Mindedness? Pshaw!

Summer Satellites and the Great Scar

It Rhymes with 'Bars Mace'

Dimensional Wrinkles

Walking the Razor Wire

Cheap Wine and Plastic Cups: McMinnville 2011

Just a Few Things

Reaching Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

12:50, Press Return

Conversations with Dr. John Mack

Clarification on a Statement

Bruce Priddy - New BOA Columnist

Ufology: Live at Budokan

Goings On

Forensic Science - Best 50 UFO Blogs

Paratopia Magazine: Preview

In Response to an Email Request

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien...

Happy Holidays

The Good, The Vague, and the Ho-Hum

A Little Slap & Tickle

Oh, Dear - Ive Done It Again!

Der Untergang - UFOlogy

Collapsed Starstuff (And Other Stuff Too)

Newest Caricature from D. Rano - Tina Sena

Denver Discs & Fruity Loops

Saucers, Slips, and Cigarettes

Absence makes the heart grow -- oh, fuck it!

Cool News

Technology, Privacy and Nothing About UFOs

Sometimes It's Just a Giant Sumerian Phallus

New Site

Rayguns: Practical Applicatons

Are You There Congress? It's Me, Margaret

I Haven't Died... Yet.

The Lost Island of Paratopia

Erik Has Left the Building

IHW: Updated Site Design

Things You Might Find in a Vaudville Show

Circles, Sound, and Synchronicity

Reflections on the 2010 McMinnville UFO Fest

McMinnville, OR - UFO Fest 2010

Update - New UFO Magazine Blog Article

Not Everything Goes Well With Cheez Whiz

I almost hate to say it...

On a Long Enough Timeline...

Stephen Hawking on Extra Terrestrials

Your Friendly Neighborhood Cunny Bunny!

Speculative Realms

UFO Magazine - The Art of Chasing Tail

Hoodely-Hoo and the Blah, Blah, Blahs

My UFO Magazine Blog Introduction

My Secret, Scandalous Love Affair

Fame, What You Get Is No Tomorrow

Some Kind of Strangers

Abduction Round-Table on The Paracast

The Underside of Abduction Hypnotherapy II

Another Brief Update (Still Void of Panties)

Greetings from the Merlot Madam

The Dark Flow Mystery

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Brief Update

Coast to Toast

Of Bun E. Carlos and Batteries

The Underside of Abduction Hypnotherapy I

A Raymond Chandler Evening

3-2-1 Contact!

Women of Esoterica

Familiarity

Wrapping My Lil' Head Around This

UFO Photo Manipulation 101

Another One Down the Rabbit Hole

Alien Healthcare and How I Got a Unicorn

Forthcoming

The Totally Gay Post

The Interstellar Manifesto - Chapter Five

The Ministry of Silly Voices

Sadly...

Oh, Dear - Ive Done It Again!