Meets The Weird » News

No disclosure announcement in President’s speech

John D — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:26:09 +0000

What was quite possibly the best opportunity for President Obama to announce the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life to the world has passed without a single word on the subject. Of all the supposed venues for announcement that have been theorized, today’s speech was the only event that would allow the President to make what would be the most important announcement in world history without any overbearing American nationalism. With this opportunity passed, I believe the chances of disclosure coming from President Obama or his administration are slim to none. Barring any action from the UN or another national government, it would appear the current tradition of silence and deception will, for the time being, remain the status quo as it has for the past 62 years.

Galileo’s missing fingers discovered at auction

John D — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:06:27 +0000

The missing fingers and tooth of Galileo Galilei were discovered at an auction stored in a wooden case. Friday’s announcement by Italian authorities brings the century old mystery to a close. The finger and tooth were removed from the 17th century astronomer’s corpse when it was exhumed from its original unsanctified grave to be moved to the Florentine church of Santa Croce in 1737. During the ceremony naturalist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti removed three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth to be kept as relics. One of the fingers and the vertebra were preserved and are currently on public display. The remaining two fingers and tooth were passed through a series of owners and disappeared completely over a century ago. The newly re-discovered remains will be on display when the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence reopens in March as the Galileo Museum.

Galileo’s Fingers and Tooth Recovered by Collector [via Chris Holly's Paranormal World]

History Channel Seeks Lead Investigators For Documentary

John D — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:28:56 +0000

If you are a scientist or researcher looking to raise your public profile, this may be right up your alley: Go Go Luckey Entertainment & BermanBraun Television Productions are looking to cast two lead investigators for a documentary series that will look into 2012 predictions. They want to set up a Mulder and Scully sort of team (though with an Indiana Jones type twist) that meets the following requirements:

Male & Female Investigators between the ages of 30 and 45, who are scientists, explorers, or adventurers with advanced degrees (Ph.D desired).

Ideal Investigators would already be a team (husband and wife, co- workers) who fall somewhere between the FBI Agents on “The X Files” and “Indiana Jones”. One is a believer, the other a skeptic. One is driven by reason, science and empirical evidence, the other by feelings, intuitions and faith.

Ideally, the woman would be the skeptic and the man the believer. We are not limiting ourselves to an existing team nor will we rule out a woman who is the believer and a man who is the skeptic. We are open to any combination as long as they are articulate, passionate, and knowledgeable.

Investigators must also be genuinely curious as to why there are predictions in nearly every culture that the world will end in 2012.

Each episode is supposed to center around investigations into End of Days profecies and other unsolved mysteries from around the world.

If you meet their qualifications, this seems like an interesting opportunity, or if you don’t qualify (like me) this looks like a show that will definitely be worth watching when it airs.

Seekers 2012 Casting

Could a Third of “Known” Dinosaurs Never Have Existed?

John D — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:45:31 +0000

According to National Geographic a controversial new theory suggests that as many of a third of currently recognized dinosaur species may never have existed at all. At least not as a true species. According to analysis by paleontologists from UC Berkley and Montana State University, many currently recognized species may in fact be misidentified juveniles of other known species. The paleontologists theorize that, like birds, the dinosaurs underwent drastic physical changes during adulthood. While other paleontologists acknowledge that some species may have been misidentified juveniles, just how many have been mistaken is the source of much controversy. Unfortunately, the amount of fossil material currently available to researchers is insufficient to adequately test this new theory.

A Third of Dinosaur Species Never Existed? [via IQXS]

Are Aliens Attacking A Bosnian Man?

John D — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:52:58 +0000

The odds of being hit by a meteorite are, quite frankly and for lack of a non pun inducing term, astronomical. In fact there is only one known case in all of recorded history of a person actually being hit by a meteorite. This makes what is happening to one Bosnian gentleman so incredible, that it defies all reason and logic. Radivoje Lajic’s house in the village of Gornja Lamovite has been hit by meteorites no less than 5 times since last November. All of the rocks brought by Mr. Lajic to Belgrade University have been verified by experts as being meteorites. Adding to the strangeness of this already bizarre tale, the meteorites seem to only fall during heavy rains. Scientist from the university are investigating the area looking for any magnetic anomalies that could possibly attract the space rocks to the house. Mr. Lajic has a less Earthly explanation for the strikes, claiming that he is being attacked by extraterrestrials.

“I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don’t know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense. The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit five times has to be deliberate.” Lajic told reporters. He has since had his roof heavily reenforced.

There is obviously something going on in this Bosnian village, though I don’t know if anyone is on the right track looking for a cause. I would imagine that a magnetic field strong enough to repeatedly guide meteorites in to a specific location would have other tell-tale signs of its existence (watches malfunctioning, compasses not pointing true, etc) that are not being reported in this case (but I am not a scientist, so I may very well be wrong). However, I don’t think there is any real evidence to point to extraterrestrial involvement. The incredible statistical improbability of the strikes does not reliably point to anything other than some outside force influencing the meteorite’s travel. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of what that force may be, only that it exists. Hopefully further study can reveal its identity. For now all we can do is wildly speculate.

Man ‘targeted by aliens’ [via BoingBoing]

New Lead in D.B. Cooper Mystery

John D — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:33:27 +0000

The Seattle Post-Intellengencer is reporting that the FBI has a new lead in the 37 year old D.B. Cooper hijacking case that raises more questions than it answers. A south west Washington resident’s children found a parachute while playing in a rural field he had recently plowed. The FBI believes the parachute is possibly of the same type used by a passenger identifying himself as Dan Cooper during the hijacking of a 727 in 1971. After receiving $200,000 in ransom money and releasing the jet’s passengers, Cooper instructed the pilot to take off, eventually jumping from the jet’s rear stairway mid-flight, ransom in hand. The recent parachute discovery is within the area where Cooper would have landed. If found to belong to Cooper, this new parachute raises some new issues that add to the theory that Cooper was not killed during his escape as the FBI claim. In 1980 a young boy on a picnic with his family found $5,880 of the ransom money along the Columbia River. Experts agree that because of the money’s shallow depth that it could not have been placed on the shores of the Columbia River any earlier than 1974, three years after the hijacking. The lack of a body at the parachute discovery site and its distance from the spot where the ransom money was discovered makes the possibility that Cooper survived the jump quite plausible if the parachute can be linked to the ones given to him in 1971. I personally think that Cooper made the jump, escaping with the ransom and the cache of money found on the banks of the Columbia was a back-up stash placed by Cooper if he felt he needed to run from where ever he settled. While we may never know what happened to D.B., please feel free to share your own theories in the comments.

Possible D.B. Cooper Chute Investigated [via Phantoms and Monsters]
More about D.B. Cooper @ Wikipedia

History Channel Seeks Lead Investigators For Documentary

Spirit Rover Stays One Step Ahead of the Reaper

John D — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:12:27 +0000

Last week it looked like Spirit, one of two remote controlled NASA rovers currently exploring Mars, might not make it out of its winter hibernation. The worst part of this robotic near death experience is that it had nothing to do with technical difficulties on the aging rover. Budget cuts at NASA were to blame. Fortunately, NASA rescinded the letter it sent last week mandating budget cuts that would have abandoned Spirit and greatly reduced Opportunity’s (Spirit’s sister rover) exploration of the red planet. Both rovers have long outlasted their intended lifespan of only a few months, sending back valuable scientific data for 4 years. Gimping the rover program at this point would have been an incredibly stupid move. Especially when considering the cost of sending another rover to Mars (one of the reasons for the budget cut) when you have two healthy robots already in place whose yearly operating budget is fractional in comparison. I would hope that NASA came to this conclusion on its own, but I feel that it is more likely that outcry over the incident from the scientific community and the general public caused NASA to reconsider giving Spirit its walking papers just yet. While the loss of an incredible scientific tool is nothing to scoff about, this incident puts a light on a much larger issue: How the US government allocates it’s citizen’s tax dollars.

NASA, regardless of whether or not you think it is participating in the coverup of the existence of extraterrestrial life, is an important part of America and the World’s scientific growth. (DISCLAIMER: I have some relatives that in the past have worked either directly for NASA or one of its contractors.) NASA has made and made possible numerous discoveries that have expanded our understanding of the universe and improved life on Earth. Yet, this important agency constantly suffers budget cuts and may one day be budget cut out of existence while an endless stream of money is spent ensuring fuel costs continue to rise generating record profits for oil companies… oh, wait sorry I meant fighting the “war on terror”. In this particular instance, a program that cost roughly $20 million dollars a year to run found its head on the chopping block when the US spends an estimated $720 million dollars A DAY funding the war in Iraq. Taking a single day off from the war could fund the Mars rover project in its current state for another 36 years!!! A day and a half off is enough to develop and send another two rovers to Mars and fund them for 13 years!!! Imagine the scientific exploration and discovery that would be possible if we spent more on science and less on an un-winnable war whose only logical purpose can be ensuring unrest in the Middle East, giving the oil companies that line American politician’s pockets an excuse to jack up prices and guarantee record profits. Hopefully, before it is too late, the American people will wake up and elect representatives that are more interested in America and the World’s peaceful future than sustaining corporate dinosaurs, whose unwillingness to evolve should have ensured their extinction long ago.

NASA Cut Means No Roving for Mars Rover [via Gizmodo]
NASA Mars Rovers Won’t Be Cut [via Gizmodo]
War Costing $720 Million Each Day @ washingtonpost.com

Is government disclosure of extraterrestrial life imminent?

Sir Arthur C. Clarke Passes Away At 90

John D — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:30:24 +0000

Author, inventor and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clark passed away early Wednesday at a hospital near his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Possibly best known as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke also was the originated of the concept of using geostationary satellites as telecommunications relays in the 1940′s. He also was the first to describe space elevators, something he felt would be his legacy, eclipsing the telecommunications satellite once space elevators replaced rockets as the primary means of reaching or the stars. His television shows, Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious Universe brought topics such as UFOs, cryptids and the paranormal into living rooms around the world. These shows were responsible for many people’s first contact with unexplained phenomena (I know they were mine).

Sir Arthur C. Clark @ Wikipedia
Author Arthur C. Clark Dies @ CNN.com

Did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle use this ouiji board?