BREAKING NEWS: My back is killing me! Because of that the news are early today.

• Georgia Hoaxers issued an apology video on their attempt to bamboozle the world with their monkey suit—and trying to implicate Biscardi in the deception as well—More on this sad and smelly story here. Oh, and here too.
• And as it was to be expected, the happiest persons with this whole debacle are none other than the usual skeptics.
• Americans? Russians? Chinese? Pffft! The Chileans are trying to woo the really powerful allies, and have opened the country's first UFO trail. Traitors!!!
• In South Africa, a lecturer and his students detected a very strong alien signal with their custom-built radio telescope. I only hope the South African Intelligence agencies will be gentler with them than the AFOSI was with Paul Bennewitz [‘Project Beta’ by Greg Bishop, available on Amazon US & UK].
• Was the Secret Service overruled in the release of FAA radar data on the Stephenville UFO? Or is it all part of the same disinfo game they’ve been playing with us?
• Blurry UFO pic of the day: This one’s from Bridgnorth.
• A 'minor planet' named 2006 SQ372 is now closer to the Earth than Neptune, on its 22'500-year journey around the Sun. Our overlords from Nibiru… are close O.o
• Mars' ice clouds eat up ozone. Soooo… are we talking of vaporous extraterrestrials here? Come on NASA, give me something!!
• Placebos work better in children. Lucky little bastards…Ouuu, the pain! :-(
• Freeze your dead baby and revive it later, the kosher way.
• Fetus mummies were likely king Tut's. Talk about missing alimonies...
• Remember that quarrel between Spain and the Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. over a gold treasure? Well, Peru has joined the party!
• That mysterious underwater sound that’s been keeping scientists scratching their heads are not USOs, but sea urchins chewing their food. Yeah right! Like we’re gonna fall for that.
• So you think the Grail is missing from Leonardo’s famous Last Supper? Think again! (H/T to our own Carol Noble).
• Symmetrical bodies are more beautiful to humans. So that would mean Stephen Colbert got married to a goblin ;-)
• How to watch Faux news? Veeeeery slowly. 1, 2, & 3 examples of why a little NLP comes very handy these days.
• Another reason why you shouldn't trust TV: Lifelike animation heralds new era for computer games. Then again, the folks at Cartoonbrew are not impressed.
• The fat that could make you lose weight. And I’m not talking about your money-grabbing brother-in-law.
• Physicists transmit light through opaque materials. No, they didn’t use James Randi’s head.
• Alan Boyle gives us another twist on the Doomsday Debate, now that the LHC is about to be started.
• 'Watchmen' movie may be delayed as studios battle over rights. You hear that? That’s the sound of a million fanboys crying :-(
• Y’all ready for a Nuclear War? Come on, sell your SUV & build a homely shelter instead! :0)

Thanks to Greg, Rick, Kat, Perceval & Mr. Rodríguez (that’s the kind gentleman that injected me to easy my suffering).

Quote of the day:

”No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.”

Christian Nestell Bovee

Forgetomori points out that Martin Kottmeyer's seminal essay "Gauche Encounters" - on connections between bad science fiction movies/TV and tales of alien abductions and UFO encounters - can now be read online at the Talking Pictures website. The updated postscript to the article contains a good capsule summary by the author:

'Gauche Encounters' was originally conceived and written around 1989. It was intended to appear in a zine for bad film buffs called Zontar - The Magazine from Venus that I dearly loved. The editor accepted it, but the zine disappeared before the article was used. I copied it and sent it to some friends of mine who were UFO buffs like me. I knew it wasn't the sort of thing you send to UFO journals and so never sent it off anywhere else to be published. As the years went by I sometimes took bits of it for shorter, meatier articles for other publications, but never gave much thought to re-doing it. Ironically, while I was to write literally dozens of other articles in the years that followed, this paper became my most-cited work even though it remained unpublished. Not just friends known to me, but total strangers, professional psychologists among them, were footnoting it. Recently I saw it in the references to Carl Sagan's 'The Demon-Haunted World'. Clearly, it got around more than I expected.

The essay is both entertaining (you've got to love reading about the 1964 movie Kiss Me Quick, in which "a Dr Breedlove is displaying strippers to an alien named Sterilox from Drupiter in the Buttless Galaxy"), and also informative in showing how many tales of alien encounters seem to have strong points of similarity with certain science fiction broadcasts of the day.

One of the most controversial elements of the essay is Kottmeyer's take on the famous 'abduction' of Betty and Barney Hill (an abridged version of which appeared in Skeptical Inquirer under the title of "The Eyes That Spoke"):

Barney Hill's version of events does not match Betty's in all particulars. One feature he emphasizes in his hypnosis sessions is that the aliens have "wraparound" eyes. The source of this feature serendipitously appeared before me one evening while watching reruns of The Outer Limits on the local PBS station. Having recently looked over sets of drawings of the Hills' aliens, I instantly recognized the alien of the episode 'The Bellero Shield' had to be the inspiration for Barney's alien. I simultaneously realized it was an absurdity since the events of The Interrupted Journey belonged to 1961 and The Outer Limits played in the mid-1960s. The paradox quickly resolved after some research. Barney said or drew nothing about "wraparound eyes" until a hypnosis session dated February 22, 1964. 'The Bellero Shield' aired on February 10, 1964. Further corroboration of the link emerged on learning Barney stated, "the eyes are talking to me." Eschewing telepathy, the Bellero Shield alien analyses eyes and explains "all who have eyes, have eyes that speak."

I think sometimes Kottmeyer overextends himself in looking for links - after all, in the vast corpus of sci-fi stories and UFO/alien encounter lore, you are sure to find numerous crossovers which don't necessarily have direct links. However, he is cautious enough to point this fact out himself in the essay - and the strongest parts of his investigation are those in which *multiple* elements are found between one sci-fi story and an individual alien encounter.

There are also some elements which Kottmeyer sees as obvious evidence of a fictional influence upon alien abduction lore which I disagree with somewhat. He ascribes the presence of 'mists' in these recollections as originating in the use of mist in sci-fi films. However, paranormal encounters from previous centuries also contain this element (see the upcoming Darklore #2 for a good essay on this aspect). And he describes the 1975 case of Sandra Larson, who claimed that aliens removed her brain and put it back in again, as "a re-write" of the Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain" - even though shamans talk about much the same thing in their own experiences (indeed, there are numerous links between alien encounters and shamanic "trips").

There are other odd links between sci-fi and the UFO/alien phenomenon. For example, the supposedly fictional story of Hodomur, Man of Infinity (1934!), which Keith Thompson describes in his book Angels and Aliens:

The event took place in a remote area near Brabant where farmers had reported suspiciously crushed vegetation in their wheat fields. While walking in this area, Belans noticed a man dressed in black under a tree, apparently waiting for something. His curiousity aroused, Belans waited and watched. Soon an unusual feeling of fatigue came over him, as if some force had taken control of his actions. This was followed by a strange buzzing sound, then by a very bright light, as an elongated craft landed nearby.

Anybody who has researched paranormal encounters will recognise many of the elements here which have been reported over the centuries, such as the buzzing sound, the fatigue, and the bright light. And yet this is supposedly science fiction. As Alice might say, curiouser and curiouser.

Check out Kottmeyer's piece - it's a great essay, even if I don't subscribe to all of the author's conclusions. Also, Forgetomori has a gallery of relevant images to help you out in seeing how spot on many of Martin Kottmeyer's observations are.

Three months and counting...

• Keilor Valley locals unite with environmentalists and archaeologists to oppose garbage dumps. Never upset a 7-foot-tall mega wombat.
• New research suggests humans caused the extinction of megafauna, not the end of the last Ice Age. We never stopped.
• Pollution, overfishing responsible for massive increase in ocean 'dead zones'.
• Canadian journalist Will Thomas on food as a weapon and fighting back with independent organic farming. Food for thought.
• Psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar writes about the benefits of psychedelic drugs.
• Incredible video of ayahuasca ceremony from Arizona's John David Balla.
• North Dakota man faces five years in prison for $32 of Salvia divinorum leaf.
• You'll find this hard to believe, but the U.S. military is paying scientists to study mind-reading... via synthetic telepathy.
• The incredible memories of elephants may hold key to survival in the worst of times.
• Quantum 'uncollapse' muddies definition of reality. When was it ever clear?
• If we have free will, then so do subatomic particles, say two mathematicians.
• Clues to life on Mars found in prehistoric Mexican crater. Too many burritos, RPJ.
• A new pic of the Yucatan cave system known as Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.
• Pre-Hispanic tombs and well-preserved textiles found in Machu Picchu, Peru.
• Ruins of a pagan temple from the second century AD excavated in Israel.
• 5000 years ago, women were in control of Iran's Burnt City. Today, they get 20-years prison when they're raped.
• If you want to get off this planet, here are the Top 10 exoplanets.
• Larry W. Bryant's FOIA request regarding a CIA UFO cover-up in 1987 involving the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
• Small, metallic UFOs are attacking people in Brazil with stabbing beams of light causing blood loss. Mosquitoes have gone high-tech.
• Chinese Roswell: 1947 document recently uncovered in Chengdu archives details an investigation of a crashed flying saucer in Sichuan. The official explanation -- American weather balloon!

Thanks Greg and Kat.

Quote of the Day:

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly I awoke, and there I lay, myself again.. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming that I am a man.

Chuang-Tzu, 3rd century BC

And it all comes crashing down. The only question remaining is whether Biscardi was truly hoaxed by the Georgian 'Bigfoot trackers', or whether he has simply hung the other two out to dry, in order to save his own skin...

The annual Fortean Times 'UnConvention' is scheduled for the weekend of November 1 and 2 this year, at the University of Westminster in London. Speakers include some of our good friends: Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor, The Anomalist's Patrick Huyghe, Theo Paijmans, Jon Downes, David Clarke and Andy Roberts. You can purchase tickets through the website. Anybody want to shout me an airfare to London...

Perhaps there is an alien that like the stones?

• Von Braun's 50 year old secret.
• Population paradox.
• Shroud of Turin stirs new controversy.
• Red an advantage?
• Sky goes black in the UK.
• Asteroid or comet: same bloke, different haircut.
• Electric universe predictions.
• A new view of why cholera wont go away.
• The innocents in the DNA database.
• Mirror test shows magpies arent so bird brained.
• 30 ton metal sphere spins for magnetic fields.
• Greeks followed a celestial olympics.

Quote of the Day:

If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake.

Frank Wilczek

Andrew Bayuk has posted his annual "Guardian's Spotlight interview with Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. The interview covers a number of topical areas, including the restoration work on (and laser survey of) the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, and also that the Great Pyramid of Giza will no longer be part of the yearly closing cycle of the Giza pyramids - it will remain open always from now on (though limited to only 300 people per day).

Also mentioned in the interview is the 'persistent' matter of the Queen's Chamber shafts in the Great Pyramid (the site of the "Gantenbrink Door", first discovered...oh, 16 years ago now?):

I meet now with people from Singapore, and scientists from Manchester University, and also from Hong Kong, and we built a kind of a tunnel in the desert, similar to the one in the Great Pyramid, and they made 3 times experiments. And next month we have the final experiment. After that, we’ll choose the team to continue the work...

...We will hope that it’s the beginning of next year, maximum.

Also worth checking out, while you're in the neighbourhood, is this recent update on the Great Sphinx:

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said that the scientific studies carried out by the Ecology and Engineering Center revealed that the groundwater in front of the sphinx is potable water, found at a depth of 4,8 metres below ground – a level which has not changed since ancient times. He asserted that within two months, the water in front of the Sphinx will be pumped out within the framework of a 2 million LE project being carried out by the Archeological Engineering Centre at Cairo University (AEC).

Needless to say, that area is another that has had it's fair share of rumour and controversy...

A strange assortment to get you through the week...

• The latest Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast discusses the recent Bigfoot news, and also features an interview with Captain Disillusion.
• WhatisEnlightenment.com hosts "The Divine Feminine, Unveiled", by Elizabeth Debold.
• Afterlife researcher Michael Tymn remembers the Watseka Wonder on his blog.
• At UFO Mystic, Nick Redfern reviews TDG's recently published book by Jacques Vallee, Messengers of Deception (Amazon US and UK).
• The MAPS August News Update has been released, with the latest news from the world of psychedelic drug research.
• Jeff Wells has posted "Attention Deficit World Order (Part One)" at Rigorous Intuition.
• Mac Tonnies urges a deconstruction of false ufology on his SETI.com blog.
• The latest 'Ayahuasca Monologue' video at Reality Sandwich is Manuel Rufino's "To the Moon, Ayahuasca".
• The latest Paracast podcast features an interview with abduction researcher Budd Hopkins.
• Also at Reality Sandwich: "Shamanism, Anarchy, and the End of the World", by Dave Hanson.
• eSkeptic has released a special mid-week issue devoted to last week's Bigfoot hype.
• Filip Coppens has a new podcast interview on his website, with Cris Winter and Jim Honey, on the topic of the Mitchell-Hedges skull.
• Michael Prescott rethinks his criticisms of medium David Thompson.
• Filer's Files #30 for 2008, and UFO Casebook #320, have the latest ufological roundups.
• The latest podcast from the Psychedelic Salon is Timothy Leary's lecture "Question Authority and Think for Yourself".

Enjoy!

The Spoof's spot-on spoof of the spoof.

• Belief in Yeti dying out as Bhutan modernizes, but Bhutan's conservation department still has plaster casts of Yeti footprints mounted on the wall.
• Are aliens targeting Wales? (With video.)
• Monday night's premiere of Into the Unknown With Josh Bernstein on Discovery Channel set to dispel myths about ancient gladiators.
• The possible discovery of the Theatre, built in 1576 and where Shakespeare's troupe performed in the 1590s, could complete the set of open-air theaters where the Bard's plays were staged.
• Music inspired art in Stone Age caves.
• Amazing gold ring and earrings unearthed from 2500-year-old Thracian tomb.
• Roman sarcophagi discovered in Newcastle, 1,800 years after they were sealed.
• Scientists on 'Indiana Jones' mission hope global warming will help solve 160-year mystery of missing British explorers.
• The £10,000 drawing that turned out to be a £100 Million Da Vinci.
• Evolutionary benefits of the heebie jeebies: Horror film gene makes some scream while others laugh.
• Primordial Earth echoed in arsenic-eating bacteria.
• The origin of theories: A review of Robert J. Richards’ The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought (Amazon US & UK).
• Not every scientist worships at Darwin's feet: Scattered among the world's top scientists are those who believe a conscious intention is behind nature's processes.
• Do subatomic particles have free will?
• While magicians work, the mind does the tricks.
• Bird flu hopes from 1918 victims.
• Flu not the only killer in 1918 pandemic.
• 300 dwarfs may hold key to beating cancer -- and to extreme life-extension.
• Ancient species of tree is helping Britain's birds survive the effects of climate change.
• Ugly Bettys will always do worse, say scientists, because bias towards beauty is human nature.
• Mayor assures 'beauty-disadvantaged women' they'll find no shortage of interested blokes in Queensland mining town, Mount Isa. Storm of protest ensues.
• Cockroaches of the sea: From Alaska to Africa, Australia to Alabama, scientists have noted with increasing frequency that jellyfish populations are on the rise, and threaten the health of oceans.
• Jellyfish invasion: Britain to fight them on the beaches.
• Designers of Spore want you to play God by creating your own alien species, starting from single-celled organisms. Will your 'intelligent beings' be bent on interstellar domination?
• A founding father of the internet says it's come a long way, but its potential for worldwide change can and will be greater still.
• Military bent on creating an online, self-teaching artificial intelligence.
• A flying saucer that can sneak into buildings to spot enemy gunmen or plant explosive devices or bugs could be used by British troops on the frontline.
• Once upon a time an ethicist had a brilliant idea for a prison. Today we all live in it.
• Flexible nanoantenna arrays capture abundant solar energy.
• Cataloguing Invisible Life: Microbe genome emerges from lake sediment.
• Lab animals number close to 115 million.
• Like the little Satans we are.
• A review of Kathryn Shevelow's scholarly For the Love of Animals (Amazon US & UK Oct 6).
• How apes are like us.
• Octopuses have six arms and two legs.
• Inhalation of persistent free radicals, a newly discovered air pollutant, exposes the average person to up to 300 times more free radicals than smoking a cigarette.
• Aussie drug may prevent kidney disease. A tablet a day may cast dialysis away.
• Researchers say we size up someone's trustworthiness within milliseconds via surprisingly small factors - where we meet someone, whether their posture mimics ours, even the slope of their eyebrows or the thickness of their chin.
• A blueprint to regenerate limbs.
• The man with the answer to life, the universe and (nearly) everything.
• Millionaires are trying to save the planet by buying entire ecosystems and turning them into conservation areas.
• Mad Max Delusion: Some scientists believe we’ve already entered into the beginning of the sixth extinction, set in motion by Homo sapiens.
• Peak oil is coming, and we're unready.
• The Most Trusted Man in America?

Quote of the Day:

I'm not here to convince you that Sasquatch exists. I was hoping to convey to you that there is a body of data that is extremely compelling. I am convinced there is something out there. Something is leaving footprints. There's something out there that begs for our consideration.

The amassed evidence of the footprints is strong evidence that there is a real animal that exhibits a consistent anatomy that is distinct from human anatomy and yet shows adaptations that are very elegantly suited to the habitat where they are reported to exist.

Jeff Meldrum, PhD, author of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science (New paperback at Amazon US Sept 4, & UK Oct 10), speaking in Edmonton Sunday at the Royal Alberta Museum on his research into Bigfoot.

Interesting little aside in this ABC News story about the Biscardi Bigfoot:

Biscardi said he plans to keep the body at an undisclosed location while scientists, including two Russian hominid specialists, study the creature. Biscardi said the entire process will be filmed and then released as a documentary.

That exploding sound you can hear is my bullsh*t detector, unable to cope with it all any longer. Nothing to see here, move along...

Last week SETI's Seth Shostak let loose in his Space.com column about personal attacks on him by 'UFO proponents' after his appearance on a UFO special on Larry King Live (watchable at YouTube - Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4):

Reader warning: I'm taking off the kid gloves. If I seem angry here — a state of emotional discombobulation that seldom seems to be my wont — it's because people whom I barely know, or in some cases haven't even heard of, insist on propelling me over the precipice.

Ostensibly, the issue is extraterrestrial intelligence. Not whether it exists, but whether the aliens have come to Earth. This idea, often monikered as "the UFO hypothesis," is a belief that's neither fringe nor uncommon. A 2002 Roper poll found that nearly half of all Americans believe that alien craft have visited Earth, and an even larger percentage feel in their heart of hearts that the government is playing dumb about these cosmic callers.

But that's not what's causing the bile to marinate my gallbladder. Personally (and as regular readers know), I'm not convinced by the evidence presented so far that aliens are sharing our airspace. But the evidence for the UFO hypothesis isn't the point here. Rather, it's the lack of civilized discourse...

...So what's wrong here? Why is it that so many members of the UFO community feel that they need to be bullies? Yes, I'll freely admit that many scientists are dismissive of the UFO hypothesis — often to the point of ridicule. I can understand the frustration occasioned by that. "I don't get no respect" can be a legitimate plaint, and I'm sure that some UFO proponents feel that pain.

There's no doubt that those who have a deep-seated "extraterrestrials are here" belief can get pretty hot-headed about the topic. I do have to be a little dismissive of Shostak's claim that "I watched as folks who were there to describe their evidence for extraterrestrial visitation laid into the guests who were skeptical: Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and me". There was very little "laying in" - no doubt, there were some cheap shots at Bill Nye, although largely an understandable response when he was making patronising (and often plain idiotic) responses to pertinent remarks by military UFO witnesses. In fact, the recent Larry King Live features have shown quite conclusively that Bill Nye has barely read a thing about UFO history and investigations - so Seth Shostak's argument that "if the only way the investigator can convince others is by insisting that their audience shift careers and start doing their work, then something's gravely amiss" is a little disingenous...surely they can at least read a little of the documentation before playing skeptic? And I really didn't see too much "laying into" Shostak by guests on the show - in fact he gave as good as he got with his usual little jokey comments (I don't think he's being overly snide, Shostak naturally seems to communicate his ideas in this way - but one can understand how his 'opposition' might take it the wrong way). He has more right to be offended by the subsequent emails though.

On the other hand, it's about time that ufology was represented by someone other than Stanton Friedman. Don't get me wrong, he's done some wonderful investigations, and has been around for nearly the duration of the modern phenomenon - but he too is patronising, and a true believer in extraterrestrial contact. And if he says "I used to work on fusion propulsion systems, it's the energy in the sun" one more time, I think my head will explode.

Phil Plait was quick to welcome Shostak to the club, though in truth the simple matter is that "true believers" in any topic (including skepticism) can be nasty, pedantic and patronising. Yes, ET contact believers can be asses - but then so can skeptics (witness all the jokes in skeptical discussion forums after Rupert Sheldrake was stabbed earlier this year).

The key is to raise the level of discourse (e.g. Bad Astronomy could point out things like the recent Channel Islands report to show how ufology is being done by intelligent people, rather than focusing on the idiots out there, which anyone can do). Conversely, those interested in ufology need to accept that there are very good grounds to doubt a lot of sightings and cases, and not get worked up when someone challenges them about it.

By the way, I discussed the strange relationship between SETI and CSI(COP) way back in Issue 5 of Sub Rosa (free PDF download), which I've reposted today here on TDG for your convenience. It's an interesting topic itself...

“Whatever happened to, the life that we once knew…”

• How green was my Saharan valley (albeit 10,000 years ago)?
• How dead are our oceans…
• Enceladus, the tiger-striped moon.
• More on Quantum Correlations and communicating 100,000 times faster than the speed of light.
• And since we’re already on the subject, could speed of light travel be far behind? Engage the FTL!
• Martian dust under the microscope…
• Nanotube technology as a new cancer cure?
• Entrance to Xibalba (the mythical Mayan underworld) discovered?
• Is your water polluted? Just ask the plants.
• Terrapin… Stationary? (Or “12 non-native species threatening British waterways”)
• Robots with biological brains -- And you thought skynet was all you had to worry about…
• Life on Titan?
• And in the 'blast from the comedic past' dept (emphasis on *blast*), say hello / reacquaint yourself with the good and gaseous “Reverend” Robert Tilton, the original.

Many happy returns and danke schöens to Capt. Greg and Dr. RP "Bones" J…

Quote of the Day:

" It is better to know less than to know too much that isn't so..."

Josh Billings

Over recent months, it has become plain that an odd alliance has been created between the ultra-skeptical organisation CSICOP (the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) - since renamed CSI - and the leaders in SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The SETI Institute's weekly radio program "Are We Alone" is now heavily flavoured toward skeptical subjects and guests (even to the point of having a 'Skeptical Sunday' feature), and their website proclaims outright that the show is produced in partnership with CSICOP and other skeptical organisations such as CFI (the Center For Inquiry). This has even led to some of the subject matter discussed not even being related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (such as investigation of psychics).

Conversely, regular CSICOP commentators such as James Randi (no longer affiliated with the organisation, for reasons too detailed to explain here) have long advocated SETI and participation in the distributed computing effort SETI@home. 'Bad Astronomy' critic Phil Plait has a regular spot with SETI radio. Skeptical Inquirer has recently featured a critical article by Peter Schenkel regarding the search, which allowed no less than three responses to the critique by individuals such as SETI luminary Jill Tarter and astrobiologist David Darling. While the balance of articles suggests that there is some tension within CSICOP as to the validity of SETI, it also is astounding in comparison to the one-sided attacks (with no responses) on other topics that are usually seen in the magazine.

Why does James Randi not offer a million dollar prize for SETI to prove that there is truly an alien intelligence out there, with criticism of the funding that has been provided to them? Simply because he thinks it likely that there is 'someone' out there. Parapsychology research has provided far more positive results than SETI (see the Dean Radin interview in this issue), with as huge implications for our paradigm, but he regularly savages anyone who dares to ask the question of whether psi effects exist, and finds the idea of funding such studies outrageous.

CSICOP's collaboration with SETI, and accompanying lack of criticism (apart from Schenkel's article), stands in contrast to other critical views gaining momentum. Historian George Basalla, in his book Civilized Life in the Universe, takes SETI to task for fifty years of failure. In his view, SETI is popular because of its quasi-religious features; perhaps there are benevolent 'beings' out there, more advanced than us, who have wondrous things to show us (it's interesting to note the lack of concern in SETI circles about the dangers posed by contacting an alien civilisation). He also notes the cultural assumptions we have made at various points throughout history about possible alien races, and uses this as a mirror to point out the ethnocentric blindness through which today's SETI scientists "believe that extraterrestrial civilizations construct radio telescopes."

Basalla's point has been well made previously by Terence McKenna, who noted that "to search expectantly for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial source is probably as culture bound a presumption as to search the galaxy for a good Italian restaurant." SETI's Seth Shostak has made the highly positive analogy that in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we are like Columbus sailing into uncharted waters. Perhaps, considering current search strategies, we are more akin to Columbus standing on the coast of Europe throwing pebbles into the ocean, waiting for Native Americans to see the ripples and answer back via the same method.

In ABC's 2005 feature "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs - Seeing is Believing", both Jill Tarter and Seth Shostak provided a skeptical counterpoint to ufology (Tarter is a CSICOP fellow). "If we claim something, there will be data to back it up," Tarter says in the program. Ironically, Tarter –- the current director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, and one of the pioneers of research in the area - was the 'model' for the character of astronomer Ellie Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (and played in the movie version by Jodie Foster). Those familiar with the story will remember that it ends with a twist, in which the rationalist atheist character of Arroway is placed in the position of believing in something for which she has no empirical evidence – alien contact – based solely on her own totally convincing experience.

This is a worthwhile sidenote to keep in mind. Turning once again to Terence McKenna, we should remember to avoid anthropocentric thinking, and keep our minds open (while obviously thinking critically) to other methods of contact from ‘intelligences’. SETI, says McKenna, has been “chosen as the avenue by which it is assumed contact is likely to occur. Meanwhile, there are people all over the world - psychics, shamans, mystics, schizophrenics - whose heads are filled with information, but it has been ruled a priori irrelevant, incoherent, or mad. Only that which is validated through consensus via certain sanctioned instrumentalities will be accepted as a signal.”

So should we abolish SETI? I don’t think so; actually I’m actually a fan. It’s ideal is a worthwhile one, reaching out beyond our isolation to communicate with anyone else who might be out there. Remembering what the acronym actually stands for, my only suggestion would be that SETI stop lying down with close-minded inquisitors, and start broadening their horizons by entering into a dialogue with scientists out there who share SETI’s ethos, but are willing to look outside the paradigm for answers.

This article originally appeared in Issue 5 of Sub Rosa magazine (free PDF download).

If 1968 was the Summer of Love, then 2008 is the Summer of Fort :-P

• 150 UFO sightings in UK in 2008. So that would mean 5 or 10 of those sightings could be the real deal.
• While we wait for tomorrow’s press conference, here’s a very interesting comparison between the Georgia “RickMatt Bigfoot” —or “Georgia Gorilla”, if you prefer—and a known Bigfoot costume. What do you think? (H/T Cabinets of Wonders)
• Chupas. Chupucabra. Chupacabra. Despite decades of reports, the American journalists still can’t write Chupacabras correctly! Who’s the sucker here? Video of the infamous beast— or a mangy coyote—here.
• Forget the 100th monkey. Is this the 100th crow?
• No, the Nazca lines weren’t made by aliens. They were made by this guy’s ancestors.
• Monolith schmonolith! It’s Cooking what stimulated a big leap in human cognition.
• Yes, we all love ‘2010’; but is there REALLY life on Jupiter's moon Europa?
• Roboticists create Rover to move & drill on the tough Lunar terrain. I wish they designed a bigger version to sell here in Mexico. The potholes on our streets would be the envy of the Mare Tranquilitatis.
• ... Speaking of which: Mexican crater could give clues to ancient Mars.
• Manipulating Dark Energy to travel faster than the speed of light. So, we haven’t really proven the so-called “Dark Energy” exists yet, and now we are planning to use it to pimp our ships? *sigh* Fine, whatever, just MAKE IT SO, Dammit!!!
• The stuff of Albert’s nightmares: Signals seem to travel faster than light.
• How do you stop a proton beam that can melt a half ton of copper? Find out here.
• A huge increase in the speed of the Internet could be produced by slowing parts of it down, say researchers. Maybe they started with Rick’s account :-P
• European Court of Human Rights allows McKinnon to stay in the U.K., for now. Good thing all the judges are too busy watching the beach volleyball games on the Telly ;-)
• At the beginning of the conflict, Georgia suffered a major cyber-attack to its networks; but kids were responsible & not the Russians, according to some researchers.
• Anthony North explains why he doesn’t believe in Conspiracy Theories… with a theory of his own. Oi!
• Teams set for mock Moon landing. They even have a competition to see who can do the best fake Moon landing? What’s next, a President’s assassination contest??!
• 2,500-year-old Greek ship, the biggest and best maintained vessel of its kind ever found, has been raised off the Sicilian coast. And No! Its name was not Poseidon.
• The 5 Most Ridiculously Unjust Religious Afterlives. What, no scientologists?
• The Pill: it’s what’s keeping you from finding Mr. Right-One. That and your annoying friends and your dreams of living in Park Avenue… and don’t get me started with your parents!
• The human brain could become the battlefield of the future. More of the same here.
• Can erasing a drug memory erase the need for a fix? Hmm let’s see: Messing my head with chemicals, or messing my head with hypnosis? I think I’ll stick to my red pills thank-you-very-much ;-)
• Drug prohibition is an untenable hypocrisy.
• Rat's 'brain' used to power robot. Robot ended up beating the s**t out of the lab’s cat.
• Your grannie will turn into a cyborg! And I think that’s awesome ^_^
• At what point should we consider the long-term ramifications of technological developments? Oops! Too late!

Thanks Greg, Kat & Loren Coleman (Loren for keeping this summer so interesting).

Quote of the Day:

"My view of, let’s say, the last thousand years, is that it’s been pretty progressive. And, yes, we probably killed more people in the 20th century than in the 10th, but there was more regret about it, more soul-searching afterwards, more questioning ‘Why? Why did we do that?’"

Terence McKenna

Issue 4 of Alien Worlds magazine has been released, and as with the previous issues there's an excellent range of content devoted to off-worldly matters. In the latest issue, Stan Friedman tells why he hates SETI, there are interviews with Jon Ronson about goats and UFO hackers, and with Professor Guillermo Gonzalez about his part in the latest Intelligent Design controversy, and feature articles on LSD and UFOs, Crystal Skulls, and plenty more. Help support this new magazine project by Stuart Miller by becoming a subscriber - I can say from first-hand experience that it's a tough gig, and Stuart's doing a great job. I've also heard talk of an electronic edition, so stay tuned for news on that front.