Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit of a picture taking fanatic. No, I'm not that person who runs around taking pictures of everything, but, I do love to take pictures of nature in particular. Sometimes, you're lucky enough to take amazing pictures.

For instance, recently I was lucky enough to take a day and go to Sanibel Island with Jessica, and we had a wonderful time. Sanibel Island is a gorgeous little island off the west coast of Florida, close to Fort Meyers. I took a picture of a pretty little lagoon near one of the beaches there by day.



While that was a great picture, and the lagoon was just perfect with birds flying around and fish jumping, when I took a picture at dusk, the colors were simply unbelievable. Pictures like this are why I own a camera, frankly.

Science a Go Go has a really good article(broken up into Part I and Part II) about physicist Peter Lynds' new paper on the idea of a cyclic universe. Well, not quite a cyclic universe as has been discussed by many previous models in which the universe continually expands in the Big Bang and then contracts to a singularity, but a model in which time has no relevance, and rather than ending in a singularity which then explodes back out in the Big Bang, there's a reversal of time in which the second law of thermodynamics isn't violated.

It is this reasoning that has given rise to Lynds' conclusion that no singularity can ever be reached, as events would be reversed before the second law could be breached. The implication of this, if you haven't already guessed, is that the reversing of events at the first available opportunity would represent the big bang, with the added implication that this process not only leads the universe toward the big bang, but also causes it. Following from this, he says, is the expansion and development of a universe identical in every way to the last one. But even more important, according to Lynds, is the realization that what we are really saying is that the big crunch caused the big bang, as well as being equally true to say that the big bang caused the big crunch. Voila! Our contrived notions of past and present become redundant. "One is now faced with a universe that has neither a beginning nor end in time," contends Lynds, "but yet is also finite and needs no beginning. The finite versus infinite universe paradox of Kant completely disappears." Lynds model also shows that time travel is not possible.

Confused yet? Well, honestly, if philosophical/scientific discussions on the beginning of the universe and where we go from here is your thing, then this is a great article. If it's not, well, move on down the page to the rest of my posts today. This article is certainly not too complicated to understand, but it is a little bit complicated at times.

As a scientist sometimes I feel a little silly pointing out all the things that we don't know. However, unfortunately, so many times I get into a discussion with someone over the unknown and they just refuse to believe because "science has explained everything" by this point. It's just simply not true, and here's an article from Wired that covers 42 of the biggest questions in science.

I've always enjoyed stories of incredible archaeological finds involving giants, underground burial chambers and sometimes even huge caches of riches. I've always thought it was interesting that so many of the stories seemed so similar, and many come from the same region of the southwest US. Interestingly, stories of cover-ups from Darwinian scientists and the Smithsonian seem to go along with these finds in many cases as well. While many pieces of solid proof haven't surfaced to date, I like to think that someday there's a chance that they will. So, having said all of that, there's a great article from UFO Digest that covers many of these stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through it. Even if they're just fictional accounts, they're good reading.

Bigfoot and the so-called "Bigfoot professor" have found their way into the news a few times the last few days.

Jeff Meldrum, aka the Bigfoot professor, was the focus of a couple of articles that made some headlines recently. Both seem to make the same point that I have before, namely, that as long as he's doing real science, and searching for the truth, why is it that his fellow professors are so against him?

The first article, while I don't completely agree with it, centers around these three main points:

One, unlike the study of, say, intelligent design and other forms of creationism, researching bigfoot does not come burdened with a political or religious agenda that trumps the scientific method or leads a researcher to distort data. Meldrum is not hell bent on using his status as a public university professor to promote a sectarian agenda or “prove” some right-wing point.

Two, Meldrum’s research is not hurting anyone. Dr. John Mack, the late, controversial psychiatrist who taught at Harvard, became convinced that alien abductions were real and wrote several books on the topic. I think Mack committed a form of malpractice. The people who believe they are being abducted by aliens suffer from a form of neurosis, and Mack, instead of helping them, fed their delusions by saying, “Yes, you really are being sucked out of your window at night and probed by evil gray aliens.” This is irresponsible. Harvard never cracked down on Mack, but in my view the university would have been justified in doing so. Meldrum’s work looks harmless by comparison.

Finally, there is a small possibility that Meldrum’s research could result in significant findings. I believe the possibility that the sasquatch exists is very remote — but there is a case for the creature, and Meldrum should have the right to make it. By contrast, people who try to debunk Darwinism, prove that the Grand Canyon is only 6,000 years old or deny the Holocaust are wasting their time since there is no possibility their “research” will ever add anything of value to science or history.

So, by this author's definition, Professor Meldrum practices science.

The second article takes a very similar tone. What Professor Meldrum does is science in its purest form. He's searching for unknown answers to questions.

Recently in the media, a particular academic at a university in the United States has been called to task by many of his peers for his support of a Sasquatch event that was held at the university. Indeed, many of the comments from his peers were pretty disparaging to sat the least. The gist of their comments was that the investigation of the Sasquatch was not a topic for "serious" science, and any scientist who did such an activity was not a scientist at all but a quack. I have always been bothered by this attitude of most academics and scientists, as from my point of view, it seems to be in opposition to what their professions are all about, namely the searching for facts within the natural world to produce useful models of reality.

Well said, I believe. At least, in the end, while Professor Meldrum may have to deal with pretentious colleagues who refuse to believe what he's doing has any scientific merit, the dean of sciences at ISU believes in what he's doing, and that should keep Professor Meldrum at the university doing exactly what he's been doing for a long time to come.

While Professor Meldrum is getting most of the press in the Bigfoot research realm lately, there are other professionals looking into the phenomenon. Stanislaus National Forest's archaeologist Kathy Strain is, literally, digging for evidence of Sasquatch. While she's never seen a Bigfoot herself, she's collected countless eyewitness accounts, cast footprints, ancient pictographs and other evidence, and calls herself a believer. She has spent hundreds of off-work hours dedicated to researching the animal, and believes that eventually rock-solid proof will be found.

If proof is ever found, it will be because of hard work from professionals like these two dedicated scientists.

Scientists who have been studying Mars and the atmosphere there believe that there's a possibility of huge water reserves. They believe that the rate of atmospheric escape, 20 grams per second of oxygen and CO2 to space, doesn't account for most of the atmosphere that Mars is thought to have once held.

Recent evidence seems to show that water flows on Mars still from time to time, leading the team to believe that Mars might very well hold huge reservoirs of water close below the surface. While Dr. David Brain(yes, that's really his name...), believes that extrapolating the current rate out over time ignores the possibility of variable rates that may have taken more of the atmosphere and water out into space, he also thinks that some of the ancient water and CO2 is still stored in hidden reservoirs.

Of course, the possibility of water on Mars not only points toward the possibilities of life currently on Mars, it also means that putting people on Mars would be much easier in the not too distant future. Mars missions under development are sure to be on the lookout for proof of these hidden reservoirs.

Three archaeological stories that I read today all have fascinating discoveries, and each show how we're losing the history of our planet every day.


Dario Lopez-mills / AP

The first one is about a 2,500 year old Olmec influenced city which was, surprisingly, found hundreds of miles away from the traditional Olmec territory in Mexico. While the scientists don't think that the site was inhabited by true "Olmec people" they do think that trade routes existed between them and the Olmec society 250 miles away which influenced their buildings, statues and art. The problem with this site is that it's on the edge of a rapidly growing city with "10 housing developments, a gas station, a highway and a commercial building on the site now." This type of city encroachment has buried many archaeological sites, and threatens to do the same to this one.


Plinio Lepri / AP

In Italy police have recovered marble carvings from an ancient and widespread detriment to archaeology: grave robbers. Along with other artifacts, some of the best known carvings of gladiators in combat were recovered from a private residence which was the hiding place for a large cache of ancient artifacts stolen from grave sites. The carvings will eventually be shown at Rome's Villa Giulia Museum after some restoration work.


Allianoi Archive

Also, in an effort to construct a new reservoir for drinking water, Turkish officials are planning on flooding an area that holds an ancient site which includes an ancient spa and medical center. The site has only been approximately 20% excavated, and has yielded over 10,000 artifacts thus far. The site includes marble floors and walls, some of which still reach the ceiling, and is in an incredible state of preservation. While it seems as though there might be ways of preserving the site, apparently Turkish officials are going to go ahead with the flooding of the area anyway.

The pressures of modern society upon the ancient cities which could teach us about our past seem to be overwhelming. Everyday evidence of what's happened here on Earth previously is destroyed. Is it any wonder that there's so many questions as to the true history of our planet?

Also on the UFO front, there's an interesting story about a Missouri man who claims to have an artifact from a UFO. In short, the man was driving when he saw a UFO which he says then ejected something that landed just over a hill from where he was. He walked over the hill, followed the trail it left in the earth, collected it, and has had it ever since. This is part one of the story, and while there's no picture of the artifact, I think part two will be worth reading.

After writing about the O'Hare UFO story the other day, somehow I just knew what the next phase of the story was going to be...There's a picture out...and it's probably a fake. Who would have ever figured that someone would take the time to fake a photograph on such a popular UFO case? Sheesh...

As for the pilot who supposedly took a photo, I sincerely hope the rumors that he's holding back while he auctions it off to the highest bidder aren't true. Just put out the picture, and let people decide for themselves whether it deserves all the attention it's gotten or not, in my opinion.

Mac Tonnies has another new post which is, in part, on the crypto terrestrial hypothesis. This one deals with the possibilities of a "hive" mind or intelligence.

For the entire list I've been compiling of his posts on the subject just click here.

Farmers in Peru have discovered an unusual relic of the now extinct "Cloud Warriors" of the Amazon. The unusual site, an unfortified ruin of massive size, was left behind by the Chachapoya, a culture which was best known for taking on the Incan Empire, unsuccessfully, and attempting to side with the Spanish in their conquest, before dying off from disease brought by the Europeans. The site was reported to Peruvian officials and will be examined more thoroughly in the future.

It looks as though new radio telescopes might be the perfect platform from which we could listen for FM radio, television and radar from other planets. A facility such as the Low Frequency Demonstrator of the Mileura Wide-Field Array in Australia, currently under construction, should be able to scan the neighborhoods of about 1000 stars. A larger facility could, theoretically, scan over 100 million star systems. Lets hope some other civilization out there is broadcasting as much low-frequency noise as we are!

Looks like the "oldest known animal eggs" might not have been animal eggs at all. It looks like the fossils once classified as 600 million year old eggs might actually be giant bacteria. Oops.

Over at Book of THoTH Mr. Bourne, aka. THoTH, has posted a very interesting article along with photographs of an unknown flying object which he took while out with his fiancee on the 16th. The pictures and the story seem to be quite anomalous, leading him to believe that perhaps he snapped off some legitimate unknown craft photos with some military crafts in the vicinity. You can check out the article along with the pictures right here.

Also, please don't forget that the book competition ends in just over a week, so if you want to see your articles in print, make sure you finish them up and submit them by the end of the month!

Doing a little surfing today at UFOMystic, I was reading Greg Bishop's take on a recent UFO case(interesting news video included). By now pretty much everyone on the planet, seemingly, has heard of the O'Hare Airport UFO. In short, on a cloudy day, apparently many people witnessed something hovering over the airport, which then took off leaving a hole in the clouds. The story has really taken off itself, has fascinated many people, and gotten many people who would generally laugh at the subject to look a little more closely.

That is, undoubtedly, in my opinion, a good thing. However, on closer examination, even though airline employees were among the witnesses, including pilots who would seemingly be considered good witnesses, I worry about what this story is doing to the credibility of the UFO subject. Why? Because weeks later there's still been no video, nor pictures of the sighting released. Rumor has it that a pilot took digital pictures, but no one has seen them yet. So, at this point, we're left with an interesting case, for certain, with no evidence at all in the public domain. In short, I guess the whole thing has left me feeling a little restless, much like, it seems, Paul Kimball is.

In a press release virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has shown some of the secrets of the 1918 influenza, one of the most deadly outbreaks in history. In the study, the researchers reconstructed the virus using tissues of long dead victims, and then infected monkeys with it to watch their immune system's reaction. The results of the study(and probably the study itself, based on your viewpoint of recreating deadly viruses from the past...) were quite troubling. The virus seems to put the person's immune system into overdrive, and it attacks the lungs, which fill up with fluid, essentially drowning the victim, causing rapid death. Clinical signs of infection were evident within 24 hours, and death occurs sometime around the one week mark, an incredibly rapid rate which mirrors the speed which the 1918 outbreak spread around the world, killing 20-40 million people.

Another cause for concern, as if all of that wasn't enough, is how closely the 1918 strain mirrors avian flu. As one scientist says, the 1918 version "looks more like an avian virus -- with some human characteristics." In fact, it's entirely likely that the 1918 strain was originally a bird flu which mutated and spread to humans. With all of the recent concern over bird flu, could we be in for another outbreak similar to the 1918 outbreak in the near future? Lets hope that by the time that happens we know a lot more about how to deal with it.

About.com's paranormal area has an interesting article on the far side of the moon, commonly misidentified as the "dark side" of the moon, and the possibility of current or previous inhabitants. Beginning with the reason we only see one side of the moon, the article rehashes many of the various anomalies and secrets about the far side.

When we look up at the Moon, we always see the same side. This peculiarity results because the Moon rotates just once for every orbit it makes around the Earth. The Moon is slightly lopsided, so over millions of years, gravitational forces have slowed its rotation so that the one side always faces our planet.

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To bolster this claim, authors at such websites as Alien Presence on the Moon, site the words of Milton William Cooper, allegedly a former intelligence officer with the US Navy. In a 1989 press release from Cooper (again allegedly), he swears under oath that he was privy to information that the US government has knowledge of alien craft visiting Earth. “LUNA is the alien base on the far side of the Moon,” the release states. “It was seen and filmed by the Apollo Astronauts. A base, a mining operation using very large machines, and the very large alien craft described in sighting reports as MOTHER SHIPS exist there.”

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The UFO Casebook website says there are actual NASA and military photos of the bases on the far side of the Moon. “There is a HUGE alien moon base complex on the far side of the moon,” the website says. “This sounds silly but it is true and we have solid proof… straight from the military. In 1994, the US Navy sent a satellite called Clementine to the moon to image it for two months. During that time, the satellite took 1.8 million images. Out of those images, 170,000 images were made available to the public. The rest were classified. Classified moon craters?”

As the article states, the only way to really know what's on the far side of the moon is to get full access to pictures that are taken. As NASA prepares to return astronauts to the moon, including taking samples from the far side, here's hoping that everyone gets full access to what they find there.

Journalist Kristopher Hanson of the Press-Telegram actually did an open minded article on the existence of underwater UFOs, or USOs(unidentified submerged object), for the newspaper. While there's no mind blowing revelations the article does highlight a couple of interesting sightings(including the Battle over Los Angeles) and doesn't mock the possibilities involved.

I've got some important Book of ThoTH news today. There's only about two weeks left in the book competition, so make sure you get those articles in to the site in time! I know I've got some work to do...

In yet another confirmation that panspermia is, in fact, possible, researchers have shown that lichen and bacterial spores are quite well equipped to survive major meteor blasts of up to 45 billion pascals. Cyanobacteria also survived up to 10 billion pascals, more than enough for many meteor bombardments. So, did we come from Mars? The researchers stated, "These results strongly confirm the possibility of a 'direct transfer' scenario of 'lithopanspermia' for the route from Mars to Earth, or from any Mars-like planet to other habitable planets in the same stellar system." I've written about the "red rain" of India a couple of times before, and I think we continue to show that it's entirely plausible that not only it, but also possibly us, came from off of this planet originally.

Department of Energy researchers have developed a new "metamaterial" which promises to lead to the development of cloaking materials and much improved imaging technologies. This new "left-handed" material reflects light at a negative angle, as opposed to natural materials which reflect light at a positive angle, and promises to give scientists the ability to control light the same way semiconductors control electricity. This could lead to the ability to create a lens which could see details smaller than one wavelength of light, which is currently impossible, giving the ability to even look inside of human cells, for instance.

A couple of months ago I wrote about an article which suggested that, perhaps, life on Mars might have evolved to use hydrogen peroxide as an intracellular fluid. Taking that a step further, there was a paper presented at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle which supposed that if life were on Mars, and did use hydrogen peroxide as part of its intracellular fluid, then the Viking experiments to find life on Mars would have actually killed it, rather than identifying it. Lets hope NASA takes the time to think through the possibility and tries to find this type of life next time they send a probe to Mars.

While browsing Mac Tonnies' blog today I came across some sad news that I missed while sick.

Robert Anton Wilson passed away a few days ago. I don't know exactly what to say about that other than the world's a poorer place for losing him.

The complexity of life in the oceans continues to show us just how little we know about the world we live on. A team of European scientists analyzing DNA in samples of seawater discovered an entirely new form of life. These new "picobiliphytes" are so different from anything else in the ocean one scientist said, "In fact, the divergence of this group from known organisms is as great as the difference between land plants and animals." And, yet, some people are so cocky as to think we know everything about the world and there's nothing left unexplained in our modern day of scientific knowledge...

Sorry again for not being around and updating the last week or so. Both myself and my girlfriend have been dealing with the flu bug from hell...as soon as we're on our feet again I'll get back to regular blogging. Back to bed...

A little late, but Happy New Year everyone! I guess the holiday season is finally over, and it's time to get back to the regular routine...for the most part. I'm finally over my knee injury, and pretty much back to normal on that front, however, I'm heading out of town to visit some family for a few days, so look for regular updates again starting around the 8th again. I'm looking forward to getting back in the routine of regular blogging and such, so I'll hear from you all again next week!