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News Briefs 19-03-2007

What happened to January, February and most of March?

  • The former Governor of Arizona, famous for ridiculing the Phoenix Lights by having a member of his staff dress up as an alien at a press conference, has done a 180-degree turn and now claims to have seen them. Funny how attitudes change when political reputations are no longer a concern.
  • Even more bizarre is news that Sheik Khalid Mohammad has hired KPMG to begin an immediate forensic audit and investigation of UFO researcher Kevin Randle’s numerous claims about the 1947 Roswell UFO crash. He’s not the Al-Qaeda mastermind by the way.
  • The Apache have legends of tunnels beneath the land made by people who live near the stars; could they be connected to Tiahuanaco?
  • If you’re interested in the above kind of story, I highly recommend Gary David’s book The Orion Zone (Amazon US or UK), a fascinating journey through Native American and Ancient Egyptian culture, landscape, and myth.
  • Myths and legends exist that tell of a time when the Earth had no moon.
  • Are flying saucers the results of secret American research projects from World War II?
  • Reports of UFOs spotted above the Prime Minister of India’s home in Delhi.
  • Rotorua in New Zealand is a hive of UFO sightings.
  • Pictures taken by NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft reveal what may be seven caves on the surface of Mars. If they’re thinking about landing there, I hope NASA has seen Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
  • The Inuit hope science can explain why the sun is acting strangely in the Arctic. Something this mind-blowing should be on the front pages of all newspapers.
  • The northern hemisphere recorded its warmest winter on record and El Nino is to blame.
  • Scientists are at a loss to explain why some of the largest glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice at an alarming rate.
  • It shouldn’t be that hard to work out, especially if they watch An Inconvenient Truth (Amazon US or UK).
  • Two leading UK climate researchers say some of their peers are overplaying the global warming message.
  • Two left-wing film-makers disillusioned with Michael Moore’s hypocrisy give him a taste of his own medicine in a new documentary, Manufacturing Dissent.
  • The President of Gambia claims the cure for AIDS was revealed to him in a dream by his ancestors.
  • South African Credo Mutwa says the Suderlandia Fructosate plant can cure HIV, which is more credible than the Gambian President’s secret herbs and spices.
  • The tomb of China’s first emperor could rival that of Tutankhamen, but a heated debate among Chinese archaeologists and Party officials question whether to excavate it at all. Maybe the Chinese can borrow Zahi Hawass’s pyramid-shaft robot, he doesn’t appear to be using it.
  • A respected Chinese economist says the “cultural enlightenment from excavating the tomb of Qinshi Huang will surpass the pyramids of Egypt“; but his reasons could be considered a wee bit biased. My novel depends on the tomb remaining a mystery.
  • No such hesitation in Mexico, where archaeologists have recently excavated more than 29 different tombs dating back about 2000 years.
  • Delaware County workers stumbled onto what scientists believe to be a well-preserved earthwork built by pre-historic Woodland Native Americans.
  • About dot com has an interesting article detailing encounters with the elusive little people.
  • Everyone can be a psychic clairvoyant to an extent because we all possess an intuitive part of our soul.
  • Are psychic abilities inherited traits passed on by parents with the right genes, or can they be developed by anyone?
  • A cryptographer has solved Randi’s Psychic Challenge, but has politely (and wisely) declined the prize money of $1million in worthless bonds. The gentleman is Matt Blaze, and he explains the solution on his blog.
  • And because it’s an excellent read, I highly recommend Paul Smith’s commentary on the MoD’s remote viewing efforts. I hope linking to TDG doesn’t cause a hole in the time-space continuum.

Quote of the Day:

The pyramids of Dashur have always been the odd ones out. Evidence has convinced Egyptologists that the two Dashur pyramids, as well as that at Meydum further south, belonged to the pharaoh Snefru, founder of the 4th dynasty and father of Khufu. But three pyramids for one king is a serious “weakness” to the tomb theory of Egyptology.

Robert Bauval, from an interview by Greg Taylor in Sub Rosa Issue 6

  1. Randi’s $1 Million is NOT in worthless Bonds
    [Er … sorry TIHZ HO, I accidentally deleted your post. I only just woke up, haven’t had a cup of tea yet, and meant to hit the reply button. Can you repost what you originally wrote? Cheers]

    1. Worthless
      Then why not state the prizemoney is in bonds from the very start? The fact that Randi advertises the prizemoney as one million dollars demonstrates the shifty obfuscation he’s about.

      So Matt Blaze could have claimed the prize and earned $80’000 in interest, but he declined. Blaze is a smart man, and rejected the prize for a very good reason.

  2. Using the Blog to advertise.
    Hey anyone else noticed people coming into the blog site, just to leave an advertisment. Some have been cleared out, but it is happening more and more.

    1. Ads
      Hi BR,

      For the most part, those are spambots – they post a heap of links, partly for readers to see them, but mainly to enhance the search engine ranking of the products linked to. We have antispam measures in place, but sometimes they make it through.

      Then there is the second tier of people who join up just to publicise their website or merchandise. If it’s on topic for TDG, and not done too gratuitously, then I normally allow one-off postings of this sort.

      Kind regards,
      Greg
      ——————————————-
      You monkeys only think you’re running things

  3. Repost: Randi’s $1 Million is NOT in worthless bonds
    Ok here it is again (with additions) – please get your tea first next time! 😉

    Randi’s $1 Million Paranormal Challenge is certainly not in worthless bonds as so many claim. I recently brought this up with James Randi and his response was:

    “This will interest Goldman/Sachs….!
    Also, that we earned $80,480.18 in interest on these “worthless” bonds…
    James Randi”

    More to the point – IF someone beats the challenge and they don’t get the money what a story that would be!

    However as in politics when someone has something to hide they use MISDIRECTION to divert attention away from the subject at hand. The point of the $1 Million Paranormal Challenge is there are people claiming they have some special paranormal power or some special device so if it really works why not PROVE IT?! What is so hard about that?

    We expect “truth in advertising” in our daily life so why does that change with all the fringe stuff?

    Unfortunately what IS proven IS a sucker is born every minute – and more unfortunately people with nothing more than rubbish to peddle seek them out with well oiled con work to get some of their money! Take those people selling sticks that finds gold. There are more excuses on why it didn’t work when pressed to prove that it does. Remember “Doth protests too much!”

    (Why aren’t these people selling those sticks finding the gold for themselves and be multi-billionaires? The obvious answer is IT DOESN’T WORK so they have to sell them to people who will believe anything they are told!)

    While I am on this subject one of my favorites in the wacko stuff is Holistic Medicine. The idea that water can retain the properties of something that was in it no matter if it has been diluted to nothing is crazy. To think the water to make the tea you will drink has been in countless toilets beforehand scares me! How does the water make that decision on what is good and what is TIHZ? I am sure that someone has the “right” answer for that – only $19.95 (in four monthly payments) but if you call in the next 20 minutes we will give something else totally worthless…

    TIHZ HO

    1. Water everywhere, and not a drop to drink
      Even better, I made myself a cup of Tulsi tea with a generous spoonful of dark honey. I made sure not to use this water. 🙂

      The challenge was set up from the getgo with several escape clauses so Randi could wriggle his way out of being proven wrong. Matt Blaze mentions Randi’s biggest Get Out Of Jail For Free card — the ambiguity of the “14” clue. Also, the very fact that the prizemoney was promoted as one million dollars, with no mention of bonds whatsoever, was also a deliberate ploy by Randi to trick any would-be claimants. Yes, $80,480.18 is a lot of money (unless it’s in pesos), but it’s a far cry from the promised ONE MILLION MULA — and I can just imagine the gloating glee on Randi’s face when he tells the claimant that the prizemoney isn’t one million bucks at all. Very petty and deceiving.

      To be honest, I’m disappointed that a psychic didn’t have a go and make a fool of Randi, but I can also understand why they refused to pander to his terms and conditions. Considering the sly tricks he had up his sleeve from the getgo, I don’t blame them for staying away from the challenge. It is a shame though because I’ve read the data on Remote Viewing, I’ve read the testimonies, and I believe it works — Paul Smith, Joe McMoneagle, a number of genuine psychics could have taken a peek in Randi’s box and made the old fool to be just that, an old fool. But again, I can understand why they didn’t take Randi’s poisoned bait and turn their talents into a cheap sideshow trick to entertain a snakeoil salesman and jeering fanboys.

      Don’t think for a second that just because a psychic didn’t solve the challenge that it makes Randi the winner — he hasn’t come out of this smelling like roses, especially in light of the bonds deception and the ambiguous “14” escape clause. No one’s a winner in this farce.

      But then, Randi was proven wrong a long time ago, by a dowser on television.

      1. Ha! That’s pretty good
        It gets to the point where he would refuse to believe anything he does not believe already even if his nose was forced right into it.

        The problem with ideologies, and they are not all political, is that once you belong to one, you become a vector of that ideology’s spreading around.

        That’s how we get these lame left vs right arguments instead of simply discussing what is on the table, that is how we get these deceptive tactics to apparently prove a point or an other or should I say rather convince one or another into attaching himself to the ideology.

        In this case, it is indeed an ideology as proven by the deception factor used to dupe people into believing he is right in his ‘assumptions’.

        What really is funny though is when you look at it this way, it becomes clear that he is exactly like the charlatans he hopes to ‘debunk’, making him a fair target for the opposing camps to ‘debunk’ him as well.

        In an intelligent conversation, neither side tries to debunk the other person. It is the material at hand that is the subject of attention and all parties involved discuss that material, not the perception of the other.

        Thanks for the link.

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