Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Turkish UFOs were IMOs?

[NB 1 May 2010, a good explanation for these objects can be found here]

One of my favourite UFO videos of recent years – the sinister looking objects filmed off the coast of Kumburgaz, just west of Istanbul in 2008 and 2009 above – may have a mundane explanation after all… they were IMOs – Identifiable Marine Objects.

Booooo!

Over at the excellent Forgetomori site, a translation of an article by Chilean researcher Andrés Duarte reveals that the biomechanoid UFOs were quite likely yachts off the tourist-heavy coast reflecting lights from the shore.

Boooo again!

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‘We can summarize the probable characteristics of these alleged UFOs to suggest a specific hypothesis: the objects are straight or just slightly bent specular surfaces, there are different designs for them, they could be part of a bigger object that can’t be seen given the circumstances, they are possibly sheets of transparent material, they are probably in the sea…. All of this takes us to the following hypothesis: the objects are lateral ‘shark’ or ‘moth’ style windows in some boats or small yachts.”

Much as it pains me to accept that Giger-esque ETs haven’t weren’t among the hordes of Summer visitors to  the Anatolian coast, Duarte’s theory seems entirely sensible. Now he should be encouraged to try to recreate the effect with a video of his own.

The other, and perhaps most important point to be made about this discovery is that the original videoegrapher, night security guard Yalcin Yalman, was probably filming what he believed to be genuine UFOs, and not conducting a hoax as some have declared.

While I’m an advocate of the theory that some UFO events and beliefs have been deliberately fostered and encouraged by military and intelligence organisations around the world – I’ve just written a book, Mirage Men about it! – this story is a timely reminder that people will continue to see UFOs and ET spacecraft with or without government assistance.

Via Forgetomori – thanks Ian Ridpath!

Ali Hussain Sibat: A Saudi witch hunt

For more than two years, Ali Hussain Sibat of Lebanon has been held in a prison in Saudi Arabia, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. His head is to be chopped off by an executioner wielding a long, curved sword.
His crime: manipulating spirits, predicting the future, concocting potions and conjuring spells on a call-in television show called “The Hidden” on a Lebanese channel, Scheherazade. It was, in effect, a Middle Eastern psychic hot line.
“Sorcery is the ability to influence matters that affect people’s lives through the use of spirits,” said Abdulaziz AlGasim, a retired Saudi judge. “It is impossible to prove such an act except through confession, and confessions are suspect.”

For more than two years, Ali Hussain Sibat of Lebanon has been held in a prison in Saudi Arabia, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. His head is to be chopped off by an executioner wielding a long, curved sword.

His crime: manipulating spirits, predicting the future, concocting potions and conjuring spells on a call-in television show called “The Hidden” on a Lebanese channel, Scheherazade. It was, in effect, a Middle Eastern psychic hot line.

“Sorcery is the ability to influence matters that affect people’s lives through the use of spirits,” said Abdulaziz AlGasim, a retired Saudi judge. “It is impossible to prove such an act except through confession, and confessions are suspect.”

Full story at the New York Times via The Anomalist

Cathy Ward on hair, music and art

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I grew up in a time of defiant youth culture. One could move into different groups of people that were mostly defined by their hairstyle and music taste. The 70’s were fantastically experimental, a fertile breeding ground for creating strong individuals. My defiant sensibilities were well established by the time punk arrived. A reaction initially teased out by the greaser-bikers I’d hung out with in my ween-teens. Motorbikes, Heavy Metal, ‘Snake bites’ (cider and lager), Hickies and those illicit parties in  straw-cut fields accompanied by exciting police raids. My hair was short by the age of 14, and for some inexplicable reason I started collecting and bagging the trimmings.

Read the full piece over at Plectrum

Cathy Ward’s Teen Age (above) is at the USURP Gallery until 30 May

Robot Epiphany: The Wire 315

COVER315I’ve written an Epiphanies column for the current issue of music magazine The Wire.

Taking the slot’s title literally I recall a synaesthetic experience while listening to Kraftwerk as a teenager, and a more recent reality-processing glitch while watching Charles Hayward in action.

The Wire’s web portal also features Wyndham Hill, an Asterism dematerialisation of a forthcoming track by Xylitol, and brief texts about some favourite web sites.

Meanwhile, Further will be quiet until Monday 26th April as I’ll be away, volcano gods willing.

On yer bike!

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Today is bicycle day and, after some time in limbo, Hofmann’s Elixir: LSD and the Road to Eleusis is finally back from the printers.

This beautifully produced book – a tribute to Dr Hofmann and his problem child – is a co-production between The Beckley Foundation and Strange Attractor Press. Here’s the press release:

Dr Albert Hofmann died in 2008 aged 102. The philosopher-chemist would have been a remarkable man even if he hadn’t discovered the chemical compound that changed the course of the 20th century – LSD. Voted the greatest living genius in a 2007 poll, the self-described ‘little Swiss chemist’ was as much loved and respected for his personal nobility and modesty as he was for his chemical creations, which besides LSD, included chemicals used every day in maternity and geriatric wards the world over.

This unique book collects, for the first time, a number of his later essays and lectures. Between them they present a comprehensive overview of Hofmann’s relationship to his controversial creation, and reveal his profound mystical outlook, informed both by his own LSD experiences, and by a life lived through one of the most turbulent centuries in human history.

The second section contains essays and memoirs from some of the world’s leading psychedelic thinkers, including Huston Smith, Myron Stolaroff, Ralph Metzner, Jonathan Ott, Stanislav Grof and Amanda Feilding. The book is also is illustrated throughout with many rare photographs from the Hofmann archives.

Hofmann’s Elixir is at once an important cultural and historical document, and a rare glimpse inside a visionary mind.

Hofmann’s Elixir: Talks & Essays by Albert Hofmann and others.
Translation by Jonathan Ott, edited by Amanda Feilding.

More info here

Meanwhile over on BBC Radio 4 Susan Blackmore and Mike Jay discuss Dr Hofmann and his legacy - In the Footsteps of Giants

Crop circles, lasers and mystery mathematicians

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Crop Circle season is almost upon us. Plans are being drawn, fences are being strengthened, black boxes are being turned on to check that the blinky lights still work.

Over at Boing Boing Jacques Vallée, the brilliant French computer scientist and UFO researcher, has posted a sanguine riposte to the hostility he receieved from an earlier post, in which he suggested that some crop circles were produced by the military using lasers mounted on satellites or other aerial platforms:

The specific hypothesis offered–that crop circles are the result of a U.K. defense electronics development project–only elicited 19 responses discussing the facts or arguing for or against the idea itself. Among the other 40 responses … 15 asserted their authors’ strongly-held pre-existing belief … 14 simply expressed a flat rejection with no arguments, and fully 11 responses can only be described as cyber-bullying…. What does that say for the ability of new web-based media to support intelligent debate on controversial scientific issues, censored or strongly discouraged in the scientific environment?

Continue reading ‘Crop circles, lasers and mystery mathematicians’

Theremania – 17 April, South Bank Centre, London

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A day of performances, masterclasses and demonstrations with some of the UK’s leading thereminists coming together to explore and celebrate this pioneering instrument championed by Varese.

Kicking off the day is a performance by Lydia Kavina, one of the world’s leading thereminists, followed by public workshops, masterclasses and a range of performances including a giant theremin improvised jam. (the jam features Ninki V, Bruce Woolley and other SA pals).

Highlights include: Lydia Kavina (1pm); performances by Beat Frequency, Jonathan Golove and Natasha Farny on theremin cellos, Chris Conway and Alexander Thomas (1.40pm onwards); a specialist masterclass (3.40pm); a public workshop (4.45pm); and a grand finale of 21 thermeminists improvising together.

From 6.30pm onwards, there is the first chance for public to explore and enjoy the Enter the Ether installation in full.

More info

Hollingsville begins 15 April

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Via Ken Hollings: Hollingsville TX1/12, ‘The Future’

‘Suddenly it’s 1960!’

The inaugural episode of my new series ‘Hollingville’ is scheduled to go out live and unscripted at 7.00 pm, Thursday April 15 on Resonance 104.4 FM. My main studio guest will be writerSteve Beard, plus – if we can swing it in time – designer and infonautMatt Jones in pre-recorded conversation from somewhere in deep space. Expect live and unscripted wanderings around voodoo science parks, examinations of cities as battle suits and thoughts on pods, capsules and world expos. Specially commissioned musical interludes will be by the ‘Hollingsville’ composer in residence, Graham Massey, with ins and outs by Indigo Octagon. This programme will be taking place in your future: so you’d be crazy to miss it.

America’s Tea Party and the OK Bomb

OKbombNext Monday, 19 April, the US Tea Party movement will hold a national day of protest against Obama’s health care reforms.

The date marks the 17th  anniversary of the disastrous climax to the siege of David Koresh’s compound at Waco, Texas. It’s also the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the federal building at Oklahoma City.

What’s message are the Tea Party organisers trying to get across?

There are clear parallels to be drawn between the growing anti-Obama movement – such as the Oath Keepers group for serving and former military and police officers – and the militia movements of the mid-’90s that informed the actions of Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Michael Fortier  and others.

This Observer article recalls the bombing, considers its current absence from the US media, and speaks to some of the survivors and victims.

On Monday week, 19 April, the national Tea Party protests will be held across America, venting anger at the Federal government. In Oklahoma City, however, their protest will be held four days earlier, so as not to coincide with the memorial at what was the site of the federal government building – almost an admission by the Tea Party that they are playing with fire. “They’ll say they’re coming here to protest Obama’s health care programme,” says Keith Simonds, “but that’s not what it is. They’re here to spew their hatred, vomiting their political agenda. How dare they come here?”

[Last month] nine people appeared in court in Detroit, members of an offshoot of McVeigh’s Michigan militia called Hutaree, charged with “seditious conspiracy” to kill a police officer and then bomb the funeral cortege, in order to spark insurrection akin to that sought by McVeigh. The previous week, congresswoman Louise Slaughter, who voted for President Barack Obama’s health care reform, received one of many threats of violence to elected representatives, this one pledging that snipers would “kill the children of the members who voted for health care reform”. Such language makes the blood run cold in Oklahoma; and the fact that most people in Oklahoma are deeply conservative makes the irony of both the bomb and their disgust at this language all the more cogent.

Read the full article

Electricity of the Mind

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ELECTRICITY OF THE MIND
The Anomalist 14
Guest Edited by Ian Simmons

Articles include:

Mike Jay on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s fragmentary writings on the paranormal.

Bryan Williams, Annalisa Ventola and Mike Wilson provide a basic primer for exploring temperature and magnetic fields in cases of haunting.

Aeolus Kephas examines the similarities between two of the 20th Century’s most popular and charismatic ‘literary shamen’ Carlos Castaneda and Whitley Strieber.

Mark Pilkington discovers that the first cinematic crop circle appeared three years before Doug Bower and Dave Chorley went to work in the fields of Hampshire.

Gary Lachman shares some thoughts on politics and the occult.

Richard Wiseman tells tales from his research into stage magic, including his discovery of the first ever film of a magic trick.

Tim Cridland takes a long, hard, critical look at the career of leading skeptic James Randi and some of the inconsistencies it seems to contain.

Available now