News Briefs 30-01-2012

Orale!!! o_0

He claims he immersed himself in the Occult to prepare for his role in "Ghost Rider".

It was my understanding that he normally immersed himself in Bourbon. :)

Very clever offering Greg.

Only bum note's with that torch under his four chins (so to speak) the guy doesn't look so much like Freddy Mercury as a family of Sasquatch - at least one of which probably resulted from inbreeding with The Leprechaun!

HUZZAH CDC!!!

They're gray, big-eyed, and smoother than a buffed Maserati. They're aliens à la Hollywood. Lacking noses, ears, hair, and a sense of humor, these short-statured creatures are omnipresent in sci-fi films and TV.

Not surprisingly, many members of the public assume that if we ever interact with real extraterrestrials, they'll probably resemble these colorless critters. Indeed, if you look at the drawings of aliens made by people who believe that Earth is under saucer attack, you'll quickly note that most of these invaders fit the Tinseltown mold.

This little paragraph encompasses the incredible ignorance of the 'skeptic' community with regards of the UFO phenomenon. They always jump to the conclusion that people see gray aliens because they are shown in the movies, when in reality is the other way around: movies make use of what people describe aliens to look like.

Yes, there is obviously an inevitable 'cultural contamination' when it comes to trying to elucidate meaning in a very bizarre non-ordinary experience. And no doubt much of the lore is consequence of our expectations of what aliens are supposed to behave like.

Which brings us to one of the reasons people like Shostak are so eager to dismiss out of hand the UFO phenomenon: because the aliens don't behave as they would expect them to! They don't land in front of the White House, and prefer to establish contact with common folks that lack their academic credentials, when everybody knows a sensible alien would have on top of its interplanetary agenda a brunch with Shostak & co ;)

I see another "pile on" Strieber link there. Whatever you to make of experiences, or whether they are real or not, it certainly isn't money that he rakes in with his encounter books. I see that criticism often of "ufologists", or those that dabble on the edge of ideas. Cheap shot and most likely completely untrue. Strieber had a pretty precipitous drop in book sales after Communion, and his fiction fared worse, which is a shame, because some of it is fun to read.