National Geographic is reporting the discovery of stone tools in Minnesota that might be 13,000 years old, dating them to the late Ice Age. While they've only been dated by the layer in which they were found at this point, the discovery hints at the continual pushing back of the date at which humans are believed to inhabited North America. If confirmed, the tools would push back known habitation in Minnesota at least 4,000 years.

Scientists have recently been able to measure the results of quantum effects on larger objects than ever before. There have been many hints over the years that not everything in large-scale life could be described purely in classical terms, and this seems to confirm that belief through thermodynamic measurements of materials that include high-temperature superconductors and quantum magnets at least in clusters up to billions of atoms in size.

Seems the O'Hare UFO story isn't going anywhere yet. A guest opinion article from a Florida news source has reignited the debate. I guess at this point there's really nothing to discuss until we wait to see what evidence comes out. The most likely source seems like it's going to be Dan Aykroyd, but it might not be coming real soon, just "sometime this year". Seems like everyone will just have to wait a while and see what happens. At the very least there do seem to be many credible witnesses, but any sufficient video and/or photographic evidence has been disturbingly lacking thus far, from what I've seen.

(NIAID/Handout/Reuters)


This amazing image is crystallographic data of the AIDS virus actually attacking an immune cell, and they hope that the data will help them create an anti-AIDS vaccine. In studying the data the scientists believe that they may have found a spot on the outside of the disease which may be vulnerable to antibodies that would block it from even attacking human cells to begin with. While there are a couple of vaccines currently in human trials, the researchers believe that this might be their best hope at making a vaccine that would work for everyone.

I've been personally interested in the Skinwalker Ranch case for a while now, and posted about it before. If the stories are true, and I will admit that to my knowledge there hasn't been enough proof put out to completely convince me, the ranch in Utah may be the center of a phenomenon which could shed light on a lot of the paranormal world.

The occurrences there speak to a wide range of paranormal happenings from UFOs to orbs to cattle mutilation to spontaneous combustion to multiple dimensions to possessions and everything in between. I'm still trying to sit down and read the book, but in the meantime I found a great article on it with a bunch of excerpts and stories from the book.

Recently I posted an article about Randi's Million Dollar Challenge and how the money might not even be real and got a comment from JaneDoughnut(who has a pretty cool blog) which mirrors something that I've heard countless times over the years. Namely, that the JREF challenge does a good job helping prove that most paranormal phenomena are definitively not real.

So, I thought I'd post a link to, and some excerpts from, a multiple part, quite thorough, investigation into the challenge and how it's virtually impossible to even enter, much less win the(possibly non-existent) million dollar prize from author Michael Prescott. All of the quoted material below comes directly from Randi's own FAQ on the challenge, and are some of my personal favorites from a pretty ridiculous piece of writing, in my humble opinion.

Possibly the main reason that no one has even managed to win the prize is that you can't enter if your phenomenon is among many of the most common types of paranormal phenomenon:

There are some claims that are far too implausible to warrant any serious examination, such as the "Breatharian" claims in which the applicant states that he can survive without food or water. Science conclusively tells us all we need to know about such matters, and the JREF feels no obligation to engage applicants in such delusions....

Other claims, such as "Crop Circles" and UFO's are rejected because they have been definitively proven to be the result of hoaxes or mass hysteria. Claims involving "Cloud-Busting", for example, are rejected because Science (along with keen observation) tells us conclusively that clouds will move and disperse despite the efforts of humankind to move them according to their wishes. The phenomenon behind Oujia boards, for example, is attributed to ideomotor reflexes, and not to anything paranormal.

....

Claims of psychic healing border on the miraculous, and the JREF declines to investigate them...

....

Of course, when confronted with a particularly incredible claim like "remote viewing" (the current version of "clairvoyance") we can easily stop short and ask ourselves just why we are involved with such obvious nonsense.

...

The JREF will also not waste its time (or jeopardize the applicant's safety and well being) with claims from applicants who exhibit clear signs of paranoid delusions, schizophrenia or other mental illness, feeling strongly that it is their moral responsibility to avoid the furthering of such delusions in the minds of those who may be in need of immediate psychiatric attention. What this means is that it is OK for you to be deluded, as the JREF feels many applicants may well be, but it is not OK for the JREF to support your illness.

...

While you may be neither mistaken nor a cheater, the JREF will always assume that you are one or the other.

...

Many people who claim to have paranormal powers are, sadly, suffering from an advanced state of delusion. That isn't to say that you are, but it's a hypothesis that may be raised during the application process. So, be prepared for this in advance, especially if your claim is extremely remote by reasonable standards.

It goes on and on from there. It's not hard to pull amusing quotes from it. Until I read his FAQ last year I would have never thought that a former magician was qualified to diagnose people with schizophrenia, for instance, but, apparently he is. I think what this investigation, the lack of a real, tangible prize, and the quotes above from Randi's own FAQ prove is that the challenge is, in fact, just an excuse to debunk phenomena which may or may not be real without even raising so much as a finger.

It seems to me, in the end, all of the time and energy spent investigating Randi is far more than he's put into investigating the paranormal...and one of those certainly seems to be fake to me. Given a choice between Randi and his challenge and the paranormal, guess which one I think is more real?

While it's not exactly new news to a lot of people, more evidence of water flowing on Mars has come forward. This time images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter seem to show rocks that have been recently weathered by flowing water.

As the evidence mounts I wonder how long it will be before NASA starts working the very real possibility of water on Mars into their future plans. I also can't help but wonder long NASA has known about the water, and why most of the exciting Mars news most recently seems to come from scientists outside of NASA studying NASA data.

While browsing around today I found a gallery of the 15 best UFO photos of 2006. Have a look and see what you think. If you have any that you think are better, send me the file or a link.

Regan Lee has a very nice article on Binnall of America about all of the dedicated UFO researchers who give so much of their time and effort for free. She also lists Book of THoTH as one of those sites where people can share their experiences and discuss such topics everyday in the forums. Thanks for that Regan!

I started thinking about it, and it's true. I don't know as much about most of those sites as I do BoT, obviously. I've been doing what I can on BoT for years now, and the group of people who spend their time to help out and give a free information resource, as well as a place for people to discuss just about anything in the world, really is special. I know the owner and webmaster of BoT, Michael Bourne, quite well by this point, and I know that doing what he does is certainly not free. However, until a few days ago during our recent server issues, no one's ever even persuaded him to solicit donations, much less put up advertisements or make a subscriber service.

That kind of dedication, by each of the sites which she lists, and so many others, certainly shows how important it is to people, and is really quite unique and special. So, following Regan's lead, I have to say THANKS to all the people who spend so much time, effort, and even money giving everyone free information resources. When you sit down and think about the enormity of the web and the information contained therein, it really is an interesting time to be alive if you always want to learn more, like myself.

In an article titled "Fossils: myths, mystery and magic" Steve Connor explores the history of fossils, their discoveries throughout history, and some of the myths which unfolded from early discoveries of strange looking fossils. Some of the stories show quite clearly how certain stories may have been propagated, and most I'd never actually heard of. For instance:

Fossil trees and giant serpents

The fossil Lepidodendron is an extinct genus of a tree-like plant related to club mosses. They could sometimes grow to heights of 30 metres and have trunks a metre thick, and thrived during the Carboniferous period (360 to 300 million years ago).

Lepidodendrons had tall, thick trunks that rarely branched and were topped with a crown of branches bearing leaves. The leaf scars on their trunks and stems looked like tyre tracks or alligator skin.

The folklore Lepidodendrons' rotted and compacted remains formed the coal seams exploited in Britain. After their leaves had fallen off, their trunks became covered with diamond-shaped scars, which resembled the scales of a reptile. As late as 1851 a specimen of this fossil tree was exhibited in Neath as a gigantic fossilised serpent. Visitors could view the 8ft-long specimen for the sum of one shilling (tradesmen six pence and working classes three pence).

Lepidodendrons are now known as scale trees.

I can imagine that fossil would look quite strange to an uneducated observer!

The Free Lance-Star, out of Fredricksburg, VA, has an interesting article about a severed foot found at the local landfill. The local police were worried that the cleanly cut foot was evidence of a homicide, and began an investigation. It turns out that the foot is from an ape, but one which they were unable to identify.

As you might suspect, bigfoot believers from all over the world are proclaiming it as the next surefire piece of evidence, but, as of yet, there's no further details known about the foot. There are plenty of pictures at the site should you wish to take a look and make up your own mind. I do hope the local police department doesn't just let the whole thing slide since there's, apparently, no homicide involved, and that they continue to follow through and attempt to find out what the foot really is from, and where it came from. Seems to me, at the very least, there's the possibility of an animal cruelty case, which, as they stated, is well within their jurisdiction and should be a reason to continue on with the case.

The Guardian has a really interesting article on prehistoric tools found in the Amazonian jungle. That alone would make for a good find, however, these tools were made and used by chimps, not humans, and point to a "chimpanzee stone age" 4,300 years ago. They suspect that the idea of using stone tools might have even been passed on to both humans and chimps from a common relative even further back, and are hoping to find evidence of older stone tool use in the region.

There's a new post on documentaries and the media, which is a follow up to Stanton Friedman's recent article about a National Geographic show on Roswell. This one's by Dennis Balthaser, and details some of his problems with the recent show, and biased media documentaries in general.

Last summer I filmed with them here in Roswell for about 6 hours and not once during that time was I told by the film crew that the National Geographic special would obviously have an agenda that would be extremely biased by the time the one hour show ended after the editing was completed. I was also contacted several times by email and telephone requesting additional factual information about the Roswell Incident while the documentary was being prepared. I had a lot of airtime on the show and those that responded to me after viewing the show indicated that I came across honestly and sincerely in my comments that were used. I was thankful for that, but very disappointed with the overall show and factual information unfairly presented.

While I think it's great that "mainstream" media has been more interested in paranormal topics in general lately, I find it disturbing that so many of the pieces that claim to be doing fair shows are, in fact, really just hatchet jobs on the topic at hand. Not to say that there haven't been any good shows on paranormal topics over the last few years, there certainly have. However, I'm afraid that they're not the norm. Like both Mr. Friedman and Mr. Balthaser said, you really expect better from a respected name like National Geographic.

Gary David has posted a great article at Book of THoTH which makes the supposition that, perhaps, there is a link between the Great Pyramids of Egypt and Humphreys Peak, Agassiz Peak and Fremont Peak in Arizona.

Gary's really done some fascinating research, and I promise my review of his book The Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest is coming up as soon as I get the chance to sit down and do it justice.

I read two archaeological articles today that I thought were worth sharing.

First one was yet another discovery of a Stonehenge-like formation, this time in Brazil in the midst of the Amazon.

The second one was an article on archaeologists making the best of looters, and even using some of the looters work, in South America in the heart of ancient Mayan territory.

Lesley, from The Debris Field Blog, posted a nice rebuttal towards those who think that UFOlogy is "cult" like.

One of her best points also made me laugh, then shake my head. How true...

Beyond that, for ufology to be a cult there would need to be a belief system that everyone followed. Anyone who is a member of ufo updates would quickly realize that ufologists agree on almost nothing.

Stanton Friedman has posted a very thorough and exhaustive critique of a recent National Geographic documentary which seemingly attempted to debunk the happenings of Roswell. As he puts it they "abided by the 4 basic rules of debunkdom":

1. Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up.

2. What the public doesn’t know, I won’t tell them.

3. If you can’t attack the data, attack the people.

4. Do your research by proclamation, no investigation is required.

I never saw the National Geographic documentary on Roswell, and I certainly won't waste my time with it after reading this.

Back in November I wrote about PEAR closing down. Unfortunately, I guess it's time for them to shut down the laboratory now.

Dean Radin has a nice closing statement on some of the things that PEAR accomplished.

The Denver Post, a paper which I happen to read quite regularly and have since I was a little kid, actually carried a fairly balanced article on MUFON. Well, at least it wasn't openly mocking, which, I guess is better than most.

Two of my favorite authors, and favorite Philips, have new articles out.

Philip Gardiner has a new article out at Book of THoTH which traces the evolution of societies and marketplaces from the time of nomads until we reached the, unhealthy, stage of economic based society. In it he makes some interesting connections between our pre-societal roots to our current situation, and explains step-by-step how we got here.

Philip Coppens has a great article, with tremendous pictures, on a subject that I was almost totally unaware of. His article on Tassili n'Ajjer, the "largest storehouse of rock paintings in the world”, takes a close look at the area and attempts to connect it to Egypt as the birthplace of ancient Egypt. Having been lucky enough to travel to the area himself, Philip has some really great pictures of some amazing rock art, and weaves an interesting tale that seems to possibly tie the pre-Pharaonic Egyptians to the area. He also denounces Erich Von Däniken's idea that many of the figures shown are evidence of ancient astronauts, and makes a convincing case for the use of hallucinogens in the art work.

This is a subject that I'll probably give more time to here in the future. Much like many of the people who think about such topics, I believe that neither the ancient astronaut theory nor the hallucinogenic vision theory explains the entire phenomenon, although I believe that each of them have their place in the discussion. I do believe that there are some instances where both seem to very adequately explain a local phenomenon, and I also believe that there are cases where each fail miserably. Much like what Mac Tonnies said in a recent post, reconciling the visionary and the physical has gnawed at me for a long time. Is it two, distinct, phenomena? Or two sides of the same coin?

Regan at The OrangeOrb Blog has added another post into the recent swarm of posts on skepticism.

This one's from UFO researcher Gordon Kaswell.

PsiPog's Sean Connelly, aka. peebrain, did a little bit of an investigation into Randi and his JREF million dollar challenge into the paranormal. Of course, just about anyone involved in the paranormal in any form has heard of his challenge, and feels that it's total bunk. Randi has eluded many challenges over the years, and continues to carry out his vendetta on a few people in the paranormal world.

However, the latest news is that his "million dollars" might be worthless anyway. Not only that, but him and his henchmen faked some e-mails along the way during this check into their money, as well. Having corresponded with Mr. Connelly a couple of times a while back, I'll take his word over Randi's any time.

This investigation is about six months old, back from when PsiPog was still maintained, but was recently picked up on The Anomalist.

Science A Go Go has an interesting story on the bacteria that live on our skin. I'd heard before that up to 10% were unknown, and the story confirms that with an estimate of 8%. While that might seem strange that we don't even know the bacteria that live on our own skin, what I found even more strange was that this was, essentially, the first molecular study of our skin, according to the lead researcher. They found some interesting variances in the types of bacteria from person to person, and even between the different sexes. While they theorized on a couple of different causes for that, one that they didn't comment on that I would have thought of right off the bat is antibacterial soap. Many of the bacteria that live on us are, basically, essential to our skin, and the constant use of antibacterial products is a relatively new phenomenon. There have been previous studies that show that many of the bacteria that live on our skin have become resistant to antibacterial products, setting a dangerous precedent should harmful bacteria follow suit.

The group plans to follow up on the research with more studies of the human skin and its inhabitants, which should make for more fascinating scientific reading in the future.

The Doubtful Blog has another post on skepticism as has been a popular topic lately. It seems like everyone who's writing about it has similar ideas. Hopefully the recent flurry of discussion leads to some changes in the way the subject is handled in the future.

Recent fossil evidence has pushed human ancestors back closer to the dinosaur age. The primates fossils have moved the known date of their first emergence back quite a long time, possibly as much as 10 million years.

As we further our knowledge of the history of this planet I've always believed that the time line of human evolution would be changed. We continue to push our history on the planet back further, in every aspect. First civilizations on every continent are constantly being pushed back. First technological evolutions are continually moving back, and now our ancestors are, geologically speaking, pretty close to the dinosaur age. As more of the fossil evidence of former life gets discovered, I always wonder what we'll find out about ourselves next.

There's one more big UFO story that seems to be getting a lot of attention the last day or two, as well. The Phoenix Lights, apparently, made a comeback recently(video included). Once again, the official explanation from the military is flares, but it seems like most of the locals don't agree. While they don't look exactly the same, to me at least, as last time, they do look anomalous. It should be interesting to see if there are as many witnesses and different views from different angles as last time as the story develops and people come forward.

There's an article making the rounds from the Santiago Times. It claims that during the Tenth International Ufology Conference, organized by the Chile’s Ufology Investigation Group, military photos and videos of UFOs were presented. There was also a presentation from Rodrigo Bravo, Captain of the Army’s Fifth Division, who talked about military encounters with UFOs. While I haven't seen any of the photos or videos, if the story's true and they make it onto the 'net at some point, they're probably going to be worth a thorough look.

UFO Digest has a rather strange, but interesting, article on an Indonesian UFO sighting with a possible UFO "base" as well. From there it takes a bit of a twist from the average UFO story by attempting to tie together big cat/panther sightings and UFO sightings.

REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo (PHILIPPINES)

It seems to me that every time scientists spend time looking at the oceans they find new species, and a recent expedition to the Philippines is no different. Over the last two years scientists from 19 countries documented, and in many cases filmed, thousands of crustaceans and mollusks. In fact 150-250 of the crustaceans and 1,500-2,500 of the mollusks observed were new species, including the giant lobster pictured above. The good news is that even after two years they're not done, as the French government has announced an expedition that will explore the area for the next five years. It should be interesting to see what they come up with!

The Mysterious Wisconsin Wonder Spot is going away. The local village of Lake Delton has bought it to demolish it and run a road where it stands.

While I don't know if it and other places, like the Oregon Vortex which I've visited before, are real phenomena or just optical illusions I think it's sad that a piece of American history is going away at all, but particularly for a road to be built. I enjoyed my happenstance visit to the Oregon Vortex years ago, and I'd be sad if they decided to pave over it, as I am every time we blindly destroy tokens of old America to continue modernizing. Are we capable of preserving our history as we move forward? Or are we doomed to continually lose it as we've done for centuries? I'm not against progress, quite the opposite, in fact. I just believe that we could probably go about it a little better sometimes.

There's nothing amazingly spectacular about this video of an unidentified object in the sky, and there's no abductions or wild stories that go along with it. It's not a close-up of a UFO, and there's no aliens.

All of that is probably why it seems to be so genuine, in my opinion, contrary to so many of the hoaxes out there. Apparently it's been floating around the 'net for a couple of years now, but I just saw it for the first time this morning and thought I'd share.

Mac Tonnies has added another interesting cryptoterrestrial post to the on-going sharing of his thought process.

The entire list is up to 13 posts by my count at this point.

String theory, among other lesser known theories, states that extra dimensions must exist. Proving that has always been a problem. However, in a paper recently published by a group of physicists from the University of Wisconsin, the problem might be solved as we get better views of cosmic radiation left over from the big bang. They believe that in the future, as we get images from projects such as the ESA's Planck satellite, we should be able to see the influences of other dimensions on the early cosmos on the radiation background, in effect proving their existence.

This story is really probably more down Mac Tonnies' alley than my own, but I thought it was pretty interesting. A woman who lost an arm in a motorcycle accident has undergone a radical new surgery to attach an artificial arm which moves under the control of her thoughts and allows her to "feel" someone touching her new hand.

Lets face it. How long is it really going to take until these limbs are better than the ones we have and it's an elective surgery? Or, until you're just given "better" parts at birth? There's an interesting future coming up, and it's certainly going to be a wild ride.

There's been another twist in the Chicago O'Hare airport UFO story. Apparently none other than Dan Aykroyd is claiming to have exclusive photos and video footage in his possession, and says he'll be releasing it all at some point this year. I guess we're all caught up in the instant information age where we expect instant gratification when a story hits the news, but it looks like we'll have to wait to pass judgment on this one.

Just yesterday I weighed in on the recent global warming report and today I saw something that makes me believe the "oil cartels" must be getting a bit nervous. A thinktank funded by ExxonMobil offered scientists travel expenses, $10,000, and "additional payments" to poke holes in the report. To anyone who has been paying attention it shouldn't surprise you that the thinktank has close ties to the Bush administration. In fact, according to Ben Stewart of Greenpeace:

"The AEI is more than just a thinktank, it functions as the Bush administration's intellectual Cosa Nostra. They are White House surrogates in the last throes of their campaign of climate change denial. They lost on the science; they lost on the moral case for action. All they've got left is a suitcase full of cash."

I wonder if this will really help get people, particularly in the US, to change their lifestyles a bit and help out. Or, at the very least, convince people that a Manhattan-type project is necessary to fuel new energy research. Having worked a bit in alternative energy systems I'm thoroughly convinced that we can move past the fossil-fuel age if we're prepared to do so. It just takes people actually doing it as a whole. I think the consequences of not doing so have been pretty well laid out, so no one can say they didn't know what was coming in the future if changes aren't made.

Regan over at the Orange Orb blog has expanded on her thoughts about "skeptics" and that "other" class of skeptics that takes it a step beyond. She really does a good job explaining some of the things that I was attempting to explain.

It's funny how many people are talking about such topics these days with myself, Regan, Greg Bishop and Nick Redfern all weighing in recently. Maybe we can all get together and figure out what terms we should really be using since everyone seems a little perturbed about it these days.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's real. What is it? Global warming. What's the latest evidence? According to leading scientists it's almost a certainty that humans are, if not completely causing global warming(90% certainty), we're at least severely exascerbating the problem. It's likely to continue for centuries at this point, more than a million people could die, we could see a double digit global temperature rise this century, global sea levels could rise by as much as 31 inches in the worst case scenario during this century, and if nothing is done to curb emissions an eventual rise of more than 20 feet is likely.

Here in the US about 75% of people think that global warming will get worse, but don't call it a priority, further enabling the current administration to completely and totally ignore the growing problem. While most of the world sees this as an urgent problem to deal with, the administration here doesn't see any reason to act.

There's a copy of the full report in PDF format here.

Mac Tonnies over at Posthuman Blues has updated with a couple of more posts which I'm adding to the list I've been keeping on his cryptoterrestrial hypothesis posts.

Also over at his site I ran across this little quiz, which I thought was pretty good.

I am: Hal Clement (Harry C. Stubbs) A quiet and underrated master of "hard science" fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s.

Which science fiction writer are you?