Red Ice Radio; Trickster's Realm

Tim Binnall, creator of the Binnall of America website (where he very kindly publishes my column Tricksters Realm twice a month,along with Lesley of Debris Field, Khyron, and others) and interviewer himself of many a solid UFOlogist, like Stanton Friedman, etc. (his latest with John Greenwald Jr. was very good) was interviewed himself recently.

You can listen to the interview on the Red Ice site.

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This week's Tricksters Realm:
You can read my latest piece for Binnall of America on my Trickster's Realm column, where I say "thanks" to all those out there who give us so much UFO news, resources, etc. and virtually for free, using their own monies in order to give us these things. Taking Things for Granted,

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New UFO Blog: UFO Media Matters

Just found this blog: UFO Media Matters, author is Joseph Capp. From what I can tell, it's only been up since last month. Lots of good items over there.

UFOlogy in Russia: Development and Review

A bit of a tie-in to my recent piece on the Russian "alien" eaten by fishermen; THE DEVELOPMENT OF UFOLOGY IN RUSSIA,UFO AND POLITICS
Several Episodes in the 40-Year History of Soviet UFOlogy
by Lev Chulkov March 1993, over on Aileen Garoutte's blog, UFO Experiences.

Aileen Garoutte is in Washington state, and "retired as Director of the UFOCCI (Ufo Contact Center International) " but still retains an interest in UFOs, as her blog shows.

SICK AD ON GOOGLE SQUEAKY THING FROM THE DEEP

Over on UFO Digest, where my article (see below) on the "mysterious" creature pulled from the deep was eaten by hungry fishermen in Rostove, Russia, there is embedded a 'Google Sense' ad. An ad for "Bear hunting tours' in Russia.

Anything to do with canned huntes, or so-called trophy hunting, makes me ill. And I was sad to see that.

Squeaking Alien Eaten: UFOs and High Strangeness in Rostov, Russia

My recent piece for UFO Digest on the "alien" creature eaten by hungry fishermen:

Did It Taste Like Chicken?

Squeaking Alien Eaten: UFOs and High Strangeness in Rostov, Russia
The other night Keith Olbermann aired a bit on a green fishy creature of unknown origin, eaten by (apparently) starving, or at east way hungry, townspeople. I wasn’t paying much attention to Keith ;(though I love him, as Stephanie Miller says, my future husband -- if I weren’t already married) working away on my laptop. But the combined images of mysterious green entity that squeaked, eaten by hungry citizens, in foreign lands, was too much for me to ignore, and I had to find out more. So I searched and found this article: Russian Fisherman Catch Squeaking Alien and Eat It. I couldn't resist a title like that.

You can read the rest of the article on UFO Digest.

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PYTHON TREK

This is great; the "real" Star Trek, and Monty Python.

Luca Land: Did Betty Andreason Luca Lie?

I saw this post on UFO Updates; a post by a member of the Luca family, who has just come out to tell the world the whole Betty Andreason Luca UFO experience was a hoax. Their website, Luca Land, explains it all for you.

The following legal notice appears on their web page:

Legal Notice: All material published on this website is based upon my own personal opinion thus you may take it for what you think it
is worth and decide for your own self as if you agree with it or not as I do not wish to be political in my statements, but to only give my
own personal view point and logical conclusions and let you decide if you agree or not.

That’s fair. But does this mean that there is no proof that Andreason Luca lied, since it’s all “personal view point?”

There are pages of autobiographical material related to the experiences of thirty years ago, and it's highly interesting, which goes without saying.

I cannot begin to delve into this, and wouldn’t dare to be so presumptuous as to make all kinds of pronouncements about who's telling the truth, who's lying, who's unbalanced, etc. Obviously, there is a huge tangled mess here of family history that has elements of alcoholism and all kinds of other issues. I don’t know anyone from this family, and am not a psychologist.

That said, this is a big “wow” and worth exploring, for a variety of obvious reasons.

At this point, I’ve only skimmed over this; it’s going to take a good chunk of time to read all that’s there. So far, the site appears to be a blend of airing unpleasant family history, personal views on UFOs which wildly jump from “skeptical” to belief, some weird thing about getting a pass to be an advanced user on the site, and also how to get a Yahoo website, and stuff for sale. Also a blog, and links, and all sorts of things I haven't gotten to yet.

I think it’s important, however, to not get lost or consumed by this very personal and intense family story, and use it as an excuse to dismiss Betty’s experiences, merely based on the content of this website.

What’s true, what isn’t? This person seems to be searching for something, for the truth, and it’s all wrapped up with a lifetime, literally, of not only family dysfunction, but UFO high strangeness, and religious weirdness. You don’t have to be a psychologist to realize that this is an incredibly complicated mess for a person to wade through, and I don’t wish that on anyone. No matter what you think of the Andreason story, this individual, or his website, I think we can all agree he has had a very rough time, and is just trying to make some sense out of it.

It may seem like the easy way out to laugh him out of the equation and make fun, cast sneers and sarcasm his way. I admit to wanting to do a bit of that myself; we can all find things to nitpick about.

But for those out there who are going to take this on and tackle it, trying to get at the truth of the Andreason story (which is very likely impossible) or, use this as a smug way of utterly trashing everyone involved, I suggest some compassion.

We’re dealing with human beings first, and UFOs second.

Marginalization of UFO "Buffs"

Two related blog entries by two blog authors on the marginalization of UFO "believers." Lesley, of the DebrisField blog, has good comments about this. In her essay Ufology: A Cult of Personality she writes:

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. They all have their own theories and personalities and anyone who thinks they would all agree on anything, except that there are strange things in the sky, has never spent any quality time with a ufologist.”

Exactly.

As Lesley points out, sure, there are the “cults” within UFOlogy; the Raelians, etc. To consistently use those groups as an accurate representation of UFOlogy is dishonest, as those who rabidly attack UFO studies know full well.

On the Sanity for Sale blog, there is a good piece:

UFOs: To Believe Or Not To Believe.
The author writes:

”You may have noticed that, in the media, UFO believers are usually referred to as buffs, a term used to diminish and marginalize them by relegating them to the ranks of hobbyists and mere enthusiasts. They are made to seem like kooks and quaint dingbats who have the nerve to believe that, in an observable universe of trillions upon trillions of stars, and most likely many hundreds of billions of potentially inhabitable planets, some of those planets may have produced life-forms capable of doing things that we can’t do.”

In contrast, those who believe in Jesus, God, other forms of mainstream religions are not only acceptable, but considered honorable, trustworthy people. A recent poll (I forget where I read about this) revealed that the majority of voters would not trust an atheists as president. The tension between Upstanding Religious Person and UFO “Believer” is hypocritical, one could say, but it’s a given oppositional juxtaposition in the realm of the Trickster.

As both articles point out, many mega-skeptics and anti-UFOists refer to a “belief” in UFOs, which automatically calls up the memes of: faith, blind faith, miracles, religion, cults, craziness, delusions, and hallucinations. With such labeling, the UFO witness, writer, researcher and investigator are dismissed. People who study UFOs are “buffs” as the author of the Sanity blog says, or they’re “enthusiasts” which some anti UFO skeptics insists on calling those of us who are involved in UFO research (meaning, from a non chronic skeptic perspective) “enthusiasts,” as if we’re all fanatical NASCAR fans. Both terms further trivialize the subject, and more to the point, those who are involved in its study. By consistently using these terms and phrases: buffs, enthusiasts, fans, believers, etc. the topic of UFOs, and those involved with UFOs in whatever way, are presented to the culture as goofy, eccentric, unintelligent, uneducated. Certainly not a topic to be taken seriously, nor the humans involved with the topic. (Unless it’s to debunk, deny, and discredit the topic. Then those people count of course.)

Our culture -- our infrastructure -- has many ways it perpetuates anti-UFOism, along with anything outside of the mainstream. Misdirection, disinformation, appropriation, trivialization, marginalization, outright lying and dishonesty, questioing the patriotism, morality, sanity, intelligence and or honesty of UFO "believers," are among the dozens of ways this populates throughout our culture.

Raelian Swastika Update

Update on the Raelians and their swastika fetish: Greg Bishop on UFOMystic has a good piece on this: Raelians Revive Swastika Symbol.

More Skepti-ness: Randi’s “Challenge”

From the PsiPog.net blog, an entry on the author’s experiences with members of the JREF forum, (James Randi Educational Foundation) Randi himself, and an assistant.
Beware Pseudo-Skepticism I’m not at all surprised by what the author (who calls himself Peebrain) has to relate; it mirrors much of what I’ve personally experienced and observed through the years. And, as so many of us ask: why can’t people just be nice? Sheesh, such a prickly bunch. Far more important of course, and the real issue, is the lack of forthrightness on their part.

Gordon Kaswell on Skepticism

It's skepti synchronicity! About a week ago I received the following email from Oregon UFO researcher Gordon Kaswell. With his permission, I've posted his thoughts on skepticism below:

This email is about something that keeps popping up in controversial science issues: Carl Sagan's famous dictum, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Just this evening, I heard a psychologist on the Discovery Channel use this phrase regarding the question of whether or not "Bigfoot" exists. (Hardcore skeptics of the "paranormal" love to atack those who maintain that the creature might actually be real. It's really not a paranormal question at all, by the way-- only a crypto-zoological one.)

But back to Sagan. His comment about "extraordinary claims" sounds reasonable. It seems to be saying that we must have very high standards in scientific inquiry.

And indeed we should have high standards. But not a double standard. There is really no way to objectively and quantitatively determine the "extraordinariness" of a scientific claim. Therefore, there is no way to objectively say how "extraordinary" the evidence must be before we accept the claim. "Extraordinariness" is essentially an emotional consideration, not a scientific one. If you've done good, careful, science, your results should be taken seriously. If those results overturn previously held beliefs, that's just fine. Indeed, that's how science is supposed to work. Thomas Kuhn's book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is an excellent discussion of how science advances in fits and starts, as new data and viewpoints are ignored, resisted, and ultimately embraced.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Another way to put this might be:

"Adjust your scientific standards to fit you emotional needs."

--Doesn't sound so reasonable now, does it?

Raelians and Their New/Old Symbol

Once upon a time, the Raelians of UFO Land (by the way, their term and name for proposed park/city/compound; I just picked up and used the phrase) had the swastika as their official symbol. Oh, it wasn't just a swastika, for it was artfully entwined with the Star of David. Naturally, this upset a lot of people, both inside and outside of UFO Land. And so, the Raelians did away with their symbol, and redesigned it. The new design was more of a Lotus flower type design. Throughout the Land, and elsewhere, people sighed a sigh of relief, and all was well.

But now, the Raelians have gone back to their offensive ways, and brought back the swastika-Star of David emblem.

Many of us realise that the "original" swatiska was a sign of peace, harmony, and had nothing to do with Nazis, anti-Semities, or Jew haters. But we all know what happened next.

And so, given this context, one would think that the Raelians would get a clue. But alas, they cannot.

The Raelians like to clone things, and say they have a cloned human baby or two around the place. And this is a reason why, combined with their new/old symbol harkening back to Nazism, the whole thing makes a lot of us here in UFO Land nervous.

Look, It's Crash Test Dummies! No, er, Balloons! I Mean, Flares! Yeah, Flares!

Lights over Phoenix, again. Nothing new, it's been going on for ten years, and more. Previous to what we call "The Phoenix Lights," UFOs, strange lights, have been seen in the area for a very long time.

But with the classic UFO Phoenix Lights event of ten years ago, as we know, the official explanation -- when they finally got around to releasing one, as silly as it was -- was "flares."

And so, once again, the official explantion is: yes, flares.

Global Warming Insights

Mac Tonnies has interesting information and thoughts on global warming.

Dean Radin Debunks Debunkers

The attacks on Dean Radin and parapsychology continue. Radin answers back on his blog Entangled Minds. This isn't Radin's only entry on this topic; exploring Radin's blog you'll discover that he doesn't let these things go, and, he shouldn't.

"The Extraterrestrial Bigfoot"

I'm not quesy about Bigfoot-UFO stories; and having personal contact with some who've had these kinds of experiences, what can one say? These stories exist, and, like "alien" abductions, they're here. What to make of them; hmmm. But I am fascinated, and there seems to be a decidedly firm relationship between some sort of Sasquatch like being, and UFOs. Or, what we interpret as Sasquatch like beings, and UFOs.

The CryptoZoology.com site has an article on Bigfoot-UFOs; interesting, but I don't think we see things the same way.

'An Orange Ball Shaped Object'

Here's another sighting of an orange ball from HBCC. No size reported, (or at least, an estimate of a size) and not much else on details, still, as someone who saw an orange orb myself, I'm always interested in similar reports.

Oregon MUFON

MUFON is still the best UFO organization; join your local MUFON chapter! Here's the link to the Oregon chapter, with meetings in a few places, including Portland. The MUFON Jouranl is worth subscribing to.

More Skepticism Pieces

Seems that a lot of bloggers are writing about skepticism past few days; here’s something from the Doubtful blog: Poor Professional Manners. A lot of us have been blogging about skepticism and I’ve noticed we’ve been saying the same things, in one way or another:

Be nice

Skepticism is good and fine and of course, neccessary, however:

There are many who say they are skeptics, and they’re nothing of the kind. (And to make the distinction between true skeptics and the fundies, we use various descriptive labels to make those distincitons)It is those types we have an issue with

Speaking of Global Warming

No, this doesn't have anything to do with UFOs. Or, does it? It could. Make your own connections. I suppose we could say there's a connection in the sense of Pelicanist behavior; the leaders that be continue to ignore, cover-up and disseminate disinfo about both UFOs and global warming.

Alfred Lehmberg, on his blog Alien Views, has a recent piece about this: Slow Death.

Dustin, on his Odd Things blog, has a recent piece on global warming.

If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth yet, why not, and, see it.

The war, er, occupation, is horrific, and so are dozens of other issues; poverty, child abuse, animal abuse, etc. And while global warming may seem boring, daunting, overwhelming, and not sexy enough, the reality is this: if we don't focus on this and fix it (and being as how we're the biggest contributor to the problem, with the least amount of responsibility) we won't be around to worry about the other issues.