I've been picking up my guitars again lately, after ignoring them for quite a while. I set up a mic into Garageband to noodle around, here's part of the result:

http://dailygrail.com/share/ComfortablyN...

The complete song is a bit of a mess. Three guitar tracks plus a semi-acoustic bass track, all laid down in one take each without tuning them up. Throw 3 kids into the mix (you can hear the occasional squeal...those aren't pick slides folks!) and it's not exactly an ideal recording. This bit's not too bad though (for a one taker!).

Fun to do some tracking again though (I used to have an old 4-track back in the cassette days, and did an audio engineering course). Hope you enjoy it - of course, nowhere near the class of the masterful David Gilmour (this is how it's done). But it was good to have some fun with guitars again, instead of worrying about ET disclosure and rabid skeptics barking in my ear...

I read the news today. Oh boy!

• Academics ponder riddle of Viking burial stone.
• The double life of an infamous Serbian fugitive.
• Voyaging to DMT Space with Dr. Rick Strassman.
• Peru declares ayahuasca a part of cultural heritage.
• 20 incredible light phenomena.
• Rothschild plans to sail across the Pacific on a piece of junk. Looks like these guys beat him to it.
• The health consequences of global warming.
• Wipe out worlds population with a virus. Or maybe leave it to the experts.
• ZombieHarmony - one of the best free dating sites for zombies.
• Who said it: Bush or Batman?
• The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again - online. The newest version looks like this.
• Jinns - plasma aliens from a parallel Earth?
• Planets in the fields point to 2012. A case of ostension?
• Human visual system could make a powerful computer.
• Unique habitat found inside Earth.
• Scientists are concerned that a contest to send robotic rovers to the moon will threaten lunar landmarks.
• Human speech traced to talking fish.
• When opposition (conservative) front bench MP David Davis resigned to fight a by-election on a platform of defending 'British liberties' last month, David Icke stood against him. Here's why (video). Big Picture? It's elephant-in-the-room big at 3 hours.

Quote of the Day:

Albert Einstein
... Read More »

Welp, Dr Edgar Mitchell, sixth man to walk on the Moon, has set tongues a'wagging all over the world with his revelations in a radio interview that Earth has been visited by aliens, and that the government has covered it up (not to mention, "I think we're heading for real disclosure"). Rick and RPJ covered it over the past couple of days, when it was an 'underground' thing, but now it's hit mainstream - check the frenzied press coverage via Google News.

For those who want to hear it for themselves, check out this UFO Blogger post, which has the relevant excerpt, as well as NASA's response ("Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinion on this issue.").

It should be an interesting story to follow. But let's clarify things. Dr Mitchell has been saying this for a long time. In fact, a similar story to this one broke ten years ago, when he made the same claims in another interview:

I am an American astronaut and a trained scientist. Because of my position people in high places confide in me. And, as a result, I have no doubt that aliens HAVE visited this planet.

...As a former astronaut, the military people who have access to these files are more willing to talk to me than to people they regard as mere cranks. The stories I have heard from these people, who are more highly qualified than me to talk about UFOs, leave me in no doubt that aliens have already visited Earth.

...So when I learned that aliens really do exist, I wasn't too surprised. But what did shock me when I started investigating extra-terrestrial reports a decade ago is the extent to which the proof has been hushed up.

...Make no mistake, Roswell happened. I've seen secret files which show the government knew about it - but decided not to tell the public.

Also, here's a video interview from this year's X-Conference in which he says much the same again. This story is old news, just with a fresh helping of hype. It makes for good copy though, that's for sure.

Skeptics will no doubt point out that Dr Mitchell has been involved in plenty of other 'fringe' science subjects, from remote viewing to alternative healing. We actually profiled Dr Mitchell, and the organisation he founded - the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) - in Sub Rosa Issue 5 (free PDF download), so if you're looking for a good summary of the research he's been involved with, that's a good place to start.

Finally, for a little perspective, here's what Dr Mitchell wrote about UFOs (with a little SETI conspiracy thrown in for good measure) in his autobiography The Way of the Explorer (Amazon US and UK), originally published in 1996:

Claims and denials have continued unabated for decades. At the time of this book, however, there has yet been no hard, undeniable, physical evidence available in the public domain to substantiate such claims. But the circumstantial evidence has continued to mount as unusual sightings and bizarre events are reported and investigated by credentialed professionals. A significant number of persons, many quite elderly, formerly in military intelligence and government service, have privately dropped intriguing pieces of their stories on the ears of serious investigators, in hopes of getting the true story revealed, and in hopes of achieving amnesty from tough, punitive secrecy oaths they were forced to sign. In addition, certain documents from the presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower have surfaced that add to the controversy about ET visitation and government cover-up. In this intriguing environment of claims, counterclaims, and denial, one might easily conjecture that even SETI, although it enjoys a certain scientific respectability today not in evidence when originally funded, was initially advanced as a smokescreen and diversion from the real activities taking place behind the scenes. Garnering funds and political support for an advanced science project is nearly impossible without strong concurrence in the scientific community, and there was no strong scientific support in the 1960s.

As always, we'll keep an eye on where this one heads.

The new X-Files movie (subtitled "I Want to Believe") was released today in Australia, reversing a recent trend which has seen Australia at the back end of the queue when it comes to movie release dates (not till tomorrow in the U.S.) I managed to get into one of the first showings this morning, and thought I'd do a little TDG review of Chris Carter's new feature.

For those wanting a taster of the film, the official X-Files website (linked above) has trailers and excerpts from the movie. Also you might be pick up some insights from Wired's Q&A with Chris Carter. Carter has also just released a new DVD, X-Files: Revelations (Amazon US), a compilation of episodes from the television series which is said to be the "essential guide" to understanding the film. (For those who want to take on the daunting mythology of the complete series, try this.)

The film certainly does revolve around the concept that Chris Carter described as "a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. 'I Want to Believe.' It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith." But then, that pretty much sums the entire lifespan of the X-Files. Some of those allusions become pretty concrete though in the new film, which I'll discuss after the fold to avoid spoilers. In short though, my summary - without spoilers - would be: Great film, well-directed and acted, excellent storyline with surprises for fans. A worthy stand-alone film - just perhaps not paranormally 'epic' enough for my liking; this is The X-Files dammit!

** Warning: Spoilers after the fold **

------

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Review by Greg Taylor

The filming of Chris Carter's latest X-Files feature film has been surrounded by the type of security one might expect at FBI headquarters. The plot of the film has been a closely guarded secret (scripts handed in at the end of each day, surveillance cameras monitoring the set, etc), as have the answers to those ever-present questions surrounding the entire The X-Files series: will Mulder and Scully hook up romantically, has Mulder found 'The Truth', and so on. The X-Files: I Want to Believe answers many of these questions, and some will delight audiences, while others probably will not.

The surprise answer to the mystery of Mulder and Scully's relationship is ... Read More »

Why so serious?

• In an historic radio interview, Apollo 14's Dr. Edgar Mitchell claims aliens HAVE made contact. Hear the interview here (look for the ‘Tuesday’ transmission of the ‘The Night Before’ show; Mitchell goes on air at approx. 18:31:00 to 18:41:25. Nick Pope's comment goes out at 18:51:00 to 18:59:00). Yes, I’m aware Rick linked this news yesterday; but I do believe it is worthy of a second look, don’t you?
• And here’s yet another scientist defending the UFO phenomenon. If this is becoming a trend, those skeptics who like to go out on Larry King Live might have to find a new gig (H/T to Greg Bishop at UFO Mystic).
• Another historic event in the making? Loren Coleman doubts it: The Bigfoot Body Brouhaha. (This news has already jumped into mainstream media).
• Do dead people watch us? Yes, says medium Concetta Bertoldi; author of ‘Do Dead People Watch You Shower?: And Other Questions You've Been All but Dying to Ask a Medium’ (Amazon US, & UK).
• Michelangelo knew he was ugly and had poor hygiene, so why do modern artists have to rub it in?
• A 62-year-old Capuchin monk is the leadsinger of a heavy metal band. Because you can have only so much of those darn Gregorian chants.
• Barely alive: Seafloor microbes might resemble exo-organisms. The only difference? The ecosystem of Europa is probably not polluted with plastic bottles.
• "At the next crater, turn left…" GPS for the Moon.
• The little satellite that could… spot Armageddon-class asteroids.
• Go Rocket Racer, go! Rocket planes to ship for first demo race.
• Thanks to the Olympics, Beijing gets its Eiffel Tower of sorts: A cool Möebious strip-shaped ultra-modern building, courtesy of Rem Koolhas. In these pics you can see several, different, phases in its construction.
• Also thanks to the Olympics, Beijing’s modernizing drive turns many historical neighborhoods into rubble.
• The mystery of the Chinese pyramids (H/T to The Anomalist).
• Hanging out with the wrong swarm: "Greenhouse" bees spread disease to wild bees.
• Tired: Wikipedia. Wired: Medpedia. Medical searching the Wiki way.
• Why you will eat less in the future; and nothing at all in the far future —you know… ‘cause you’ll be like, dead ;-)
• Big brains arose separately in multiple primate groups; in the group known as ‘politicians’, the brain did not arise at all.
• Bay of Pigs 2.0? U.S. General warns Russia on nuclear bombers in Cuba.
• Synthetic pot as a military weapon? Meet the man (or is that 'dude') who ran the secret program.
• WarGames: A look back at the film that turned geeks & phreaks into stars. It sure changed the life of this bloke.
• Comics-based movies keep on comin', including the much anticipated Watchmen (You can view its new HD trailer here).
• World's smallest camera plane shows off in public. You might want to buy new bug screens for your windows, before they become illegal (Video here).

Thanks to Greg, Rick, Kat and the rest of the Agents of Chaos ;-)

Quote of the Day:

"Ever danced with the Devil under the pale Moon light?..."

Jack Nicholson as The Joker (v. 1.0) ... Read More »

Skeptical stuntmen The Mythbusters will be taking on one of the grand-daddies of all myths in need of busting, the Apollo Moon Landing hoax theory, in a show set to air on Wednesday, August 27.

The Mythbusters take on one of their biggest, most controversial myths ever: Could the July 1969 moon landing have been an elaborate hoax? First, Adam and Jamie focus on photos, testing the theory that two of NASA’s most famous images were shot in a studio. Then, they investigate the myth that to get the classic "low lunar gravity look" the government shot the footage in a studio and then simply slowed it down. And Grant, Tory and Kari take on the claims that the footage of footprints and flags flapping in zero gravity had to be faked.

Now, I know it's hardly going to make a difference to the debate - The Mythbusters are self-professed skeptics, and so they'll have their take on it, and the hoax believers won't be drinking their skeptical Kool-Aid. But there are so many elements of basic stupidity* to the Moon Hoax, it just needs a good walloping by someone...so it may as well be The Mythbusters. Note that I'm not saying people shouldn't question things like this - and there are some superficially valid reasons why people would do so - just that we should be a bit sane about it all.

* Feeding my frustration is watching Richard Hoagland's book 'Dark Mission' sit comfortably within the Top 1000 on Amazon for the past 6 months, sitting at #1 most days on the list of 'UFO' related books. WTF?

Let's see how I go after a day of many blood-tests and glucose jelly beans.

• The Northern Star Polaris, whose vibrations were thought to be dying away, appears to have returned to life.
• Did campfire rituals separate modern humans from Neanderthals? I love a good driftwood bonfire on the beach.
• Folklore: the links with our past that we must preserve.
• Hundreds of fragments of an ancient Egyptian boat entombed at Giza will be put back together again. "You can smell the past," said Zahi Hawass. No, that's FOX.
• Tourism is damaging Machu Picchu and the temples of Angkor Wat.
• Bolivian relics could shed light on 3000 years of Andean culture.
• The Shaman's Last Apprentice by Rebekkah Bloom shares her incredible journey into the heart of the Amazon (available to order from her website).
• Ancient Mayan healing traditions, or New Age commercialism?
• Psychedelic research is emerging from the 40-year drug war dark ages.
• The Truman Show Delusion: psychiatrists are treating patients who believe they're the subject of a reality tv show. My ad break never ends.
• More than half the Amazon rainforest may be destroyed by the year 2030.
• Dead birds are falling from the sky in Western Australia. I hope it's not this.
• British SAS trains dogs to parachute into enemy territory. They even get cat tags.
• We don't need oil: 5 electric cars you can buy today.
• A white humpback whale has been sighted off the east coast of Australia.
• Nick Redfern wishes he could join the expedition to explore Siberia's Lake Baikal.
• Be careful Nick, you might get sent to Camp Skeptic to be healed of woo-woo. This one time, at Skeptic Camp...
• Skeptic Peter Huston thinks UFO research is mostly harmless and other cliches.
• UFO researcher Robert Hastings is dismayed at the public apathy regarding UFO sightings at military installations.
• James Fox, producer/director of the brilliant Out Of The Blue UFO documentary, needs our help to make a sequel.
• Edgar Mitchell spills the beans on UFOs and ET visitation on Aussie radio.

Thanks Greg, Kat and the other cat.

Quote of the Day:

Perhaps to some extent we have lost sight of the fact that LSD can be very, very helpful in our society if used properly.

Senator Robert Kennedy, 1966

Reality Sandwich has a couple of fascinating interviews posted regarding shamanism and entheogens. Yesterday I posted an embedded video of RS's Jonathan Phillips interviewing Jeremy Narby, author of The Cosmic Serpent (Amazon US and UK). Narby discusses his work investigating ayahuasca, how it personally affected his worldview, and some of the insights and discoveries he has made in researching the Amazonian entheogenic brew.

Also new from Reality Sandwich is Martin Ball's interview with DMT researcher Rick Strassman (published in text format), regarding his new (co-authored) book Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (Amazon US and UK). Rick discusses DMT entities, new ideas for scientific research with entheogens, 'quantum consciousness' and much more.

Remember that Rick Strassman is currently discussing the book on Graham Hancock's Author of the Month messageboard (until the end of July). Also, previously on TDG: my interview with Dr Rick Strassman, and also a review of DMT: The Spirit Molecule (Amazon US and UK).

Forgetomori has an interesting feature on software that can be used with a video camera in order to capture 'UFOs' on film (well, not technically film, but you know what I mean). Now you can sleep at night, while your computer and camera capture fantastic sky sightings via...

...a fantastic piece of software that automates mostly everything: the UFOCaptureV2! It’s joined by the UFOAnalyzer and the UFOOrbit. The whole package automates the process of detecting unusual phenomena in the sky, and even attempts to automatically classify and analyze it.

Check the samples of videos captured by the software: meteors, birds et al and, what I was quite skeptical when I first saw it, even sprites, elves and jets! Of course, it wouldn’t be worth its name if it didn’t also capture UFOs.

As the Forgetomori story notes, there are a bunch other interesting software apps out there for the aspiring ufologist to use in his search into the unknown. Now we just need to set up a few of these motion-detecting set-ups on the Skinwalker ranch. And wait...

A strange assortment to get you through the week...

• At Fate Radio, Hilly Rose interviews renowned cryptozoologist Loren Coleman (mp3 or Real Audio).
• Speaking of Loren - on Cryptomundo you can read his fascinating article "The Reality of Post-Heuvelmans Discoveries".
• Afterlife researcher Michael Tymn reveals some of the "Awesome Phenomena at the Saturday Night Club".
• The latest podcast from the Psychedelic Salon features Sheldrake, McKenna and Abraham discussing "The Heavens".
• Episode #156 of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast features an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, analysis of the P.Z. Myers-cracker incident, and much more.
• Anthony North gives a short guide on "How to Explain Entities", at Beyond the Blog.
• Filer's Files #29 and UFO Casebook #316 have the latest ufological roundups.

Enjoy!

Last Thursday I posted a short interview with Jacques Vallee about his recently released book Messengers of Deception (Amazon US and UK). In five days, the interview has already been read by 10,000 people, so it would seem plenty of readers still value Jacques' opinion on the UFO controversy.

Well if you liked the taste of that short interview, you're going to feast on this: the Season Finale of Binnall of America audio, just released today, features Tim chatting with Jacques Vallee - for *two* hours! And not that Larry King 3 second attention span stuff, or unintelligent lines of questions from radio hosts that should know better - Tim and Jacques get right down to it and cover nearly every facet of ufology, with no punches pulled. If you're looking for some deep insight into Jacques' thinking, Tim's interview is a must. As always, BoA Audio is available as downloadable mp3s/podcasts, or streaming via Flash. Well worth it, it's a wonderful interview feature.

Oh, and as Tim points out in the podcast, he's doing it pretty tough over there financially - so if you can spare a donation to help keep BoA above water, lend a hand via the PayPal button on the right side of this page.

The second issue of the new journal Time and Mind has been published:

• "The Symbolic Use of Fire: A Case for its Use in the Late Neolithic Passage Grave Tradition in Wales", by George Nash.
• "Continuity, Causation And Cyclicity: A Cultural Neurophenomenology Of Time-Consciousness", by Charles D. Laughlin and Jason C. Throop.
• Paul Devereux interviews Professor Timothy Darvill regarding 'The Magical Stones of Preseli'
• "Medicine Wheels or "Calendar Sites": Indian Time or the Space/Time Continuum", by Herman E. Bender.
• "Making Sense of the Maltese Temple Period: An Archaeology of Sensory Experience and Perception", by Robin Skeates.

Full details are available via the link, including purchasing options (full mag, or individual articles). Issue 1 remains available for free, if you would like a sample of the content. Thanks Filip.

News - baked to a rich golden brown, and fresh out of the oven. Right - I'm off to watch Star Trek.

• Spain says Great Apes have right to life and liberty.
• Cyrus cylinder's ancient bill of rights 'is just propaganda'.
• Volcanoes fingered in oceanic mass extinction. It was an asteroid. No, it was volcanoes. Asteroid. Volcanoes. Asteroid! Volcanoes! Okay, how about this: It was an asteroid that triggered the volcanoes.
• The cult of Hadrian -- a very modern emperor.
• Vampires: the Celtic connection.
• Traces of ancient DNA shed light on contents of amphorae.
• Google Earth reveals archaeological sites in Afghanistan.
• Commemorating the ultimate geek project: Apollo 11.
• An alien's view of planet Earth. NASA video: Lunar transit of Earth.
• Moonlighting rocketmen.
• Ineos patents first way to make bioethanol from municiple solid waste. And happily, they already own a conventional refinery.
• Genders have different genes for long-term memory creation.
• Why we sometimes have to re-read a page.
• Schizophrenia linked to split protein.
• White horses are actually mutants.
• Mistress Bonferroni cracks whip, tames data.
• The Car of Tomorrow Has an Extension Cord.
• Green-loving California may dodge the utility bill bullet - while rest of the US pays 20-30% more for energy.
• Commercial fishermen are reverting to wind power in response to soaring fuel prices.
• Gamers' virtual enemies get minds of their own.
• Online game lets players invent superheroes. Sony likes to watch.
• Mexico intercepts mini-sub laden with 5.8 tons of cocaine. Check out that photo!
• Wonder Drugs that can kill.
• Fantasy Islands: Cities at sea have long been a libertarian dream.
• MSM bitch fight in progress: Responding to statements made by Fox News executive John Moody, MSNBC's new president, Phil Griffin, says, 'You can't trust a word they say.'
• Our Continuing National Disgrace Is Our Media.
• Mixing it up with 9-11 Truthers last week, Guardian op/ed, "So, you believe in conspiracy theories, do you? You probably also think you're the Emperor of Pluto", garners a record 1,700 comments -- and a follow-up op/ed.
• Physicists forced to reaffirm that human-caused global warming is "incontrovertible".
• The right's misguided frenzy over the American Physical Society.
• It may be years before the new internet protocol IPv6 takes over from the current IPv4, but many systems – corporate and personal – are already open to attack through channels that have been enabled on their machines to support IPv6 traffic.
• Evangelical atheist slaps creationists into primordial soup.
• Food crisis: If it comes down to a choice between jellyfish, bugs and pigeons, I think I'll take the pigeons. And hope they taste like doves.
• A little perspective on the fuel crisis and the energy crisis.
• Stunning photos of a leopard savaging a crocodile.
• The real Batman.

Thanks, RPJ.

Quote of the Day:

Always question the recieved reality.

George Carlin

Many thanks to all those who have provided a contribution to our Daily Grail Donation Drive - it is appreciated very much! The prize pool (for those who have offered a 'voluntary subscription') is growing, with various authors/personalities kicking in some goods (e.g. this week Jacques Vallee and Graham Hancock offered a few autographed books each). At the moment, with number of contributors, versus the size of the prize pool, you're a good chance of picking up something - so it may well be worth your while.

A number of people have asked about providing a snail mail address, as they prefer sending a cheque to using PayPal, so here it is:

Please note: as I mentioned previously, cashing international cheques costs me around $10 each, takes 15 minutes to do each, and takes 30 days to clear. So, while I appreciate the thought very much, it just does not make sense to send a cheque in non-Australian dollars for a small amount - PayPal is best suited to that.

Greg Taylor
P.O. Box 28
Petrie, QLD, 4502
AUSTRALIA

Also: for those who queried me about donating via bank transfer, I have now received information from my bank about the SWIFT code needed to do so. Please contact me personally if you wish to do this.

And, just to persevere, here's the PayPal donation button again:

Again, many thanks and appreciation to all those who have given a little bit back to TDG!

Alan Boyle posted an interesting article at Cosmic Log this week on whether we should be trying to contact ET (though you'd already know that, because you've got it bookmarked - right?!). He quotes David Brin, who is wary of what he calls METI (Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligences - aka 'Active SETI'), warning of the possible consequences of "shouting into an unknown jungle that we do not understand". Brin authored a Lifeboat Foundation report a few years ago titled "Shouting at the Cosmos: ...Or How SETI has Taken a Worrisome Turn Into Dangerous Territory". He believes there should be regulation, on behalf of the people of the Earth, as to what is allowed to be broadcast 'out there'.

As I've noted before, I do find it quite funny how ufologists are routinely dismissed because there's apparently no way that ET could ever travel the vast distances to the Earth, and yet we have this serious debate taking place about the dangers of inviting extraterrestrials to...travel to Earth!

Anyhow, I've created a new poll which asks you for your opinion. Share your answer to the question, and if you want to expand on it, please feel free to comment on the poll. Older polls are archived here, including the most recent one in which the majority of respondents believed conspiracy was involved in the collapse of WTC 7.

A few things to keep you busy over the weekend...

• Filip Coppens profiles "The Pyramid Heretic", Joseph Davidovits.
• Robert McLuhan analyses "The Koestler Doctrine" at Paranormalia.
• Fortean Times lists the Top Ten X-Files Monsters" (free registration may be required).
• Also at FT: "Lost in Space: What Really Happened to Russia's Lost Cosmonauts?"
• Paul Kimball reviews David Cherniak's documentary UFOs: The Secret History, at Above and Beyond.
• Michael Prescott looks at some of the stranger books released by a very prominent skeptical publisher, in "Prometheus Bound (and Gagged)" (probably one of the smartest and funniest blog titles of the year I think).
• Radio Rennessence features a half-year review on "what’s been going on in and around the mystery of Rennes-le-Château."
• The Mitchell-Hedges website reproduces a 1971 article proving that Hewlett-Packard tested the crystal skull (contra to assertions by some skeptics).
• Skeptic Randi's latest newsletter confronts the woo.
• The July MAPS News Update is now online.
• Kevin Randle takes on the skeptics about the apparent secrecy of the Mogul Project (allegedly the real origin of the Roswell 'crash').
• Nick Redfern reviews Jonathan Downes' new cryptozoological tome, The Island of Paradise.
• Nick also presents a guest article from Brian Haughton, "Ancient Sites, Sacred Landscapes".
• Anthony North discusses "Emergence and the Paranormal" at Beyond the Blog.
• Sorting Out Science hosts the latest Circle of Skepticism Blog Carnival.

Enjoy!

The latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer (32:2) has been released, and as usual there's a bunch of free sample articles from the new release available at their website. The major theme of the new issue is the advance of China, and promotion of rational thinking there.

The magazine details are below, but I'd just like to add a quick sidenote here, after reading the articles. CSI(COP) has close ties to the American Humanist Association (not least through Paul Kurtz), and the AHA's affinity for Marxist/socialist thinking is fairly well known. Both articles by Frazier and Kurtz (below) seem to feature an undercurrent of some 'promised land' that China may be moving towards, in their emphasis on science and technology:

The provision of the Communist Party’s Congress that I found most surprising is the supremacy it accords science and technology in its future plans. The Party Congress—it is perhaps the only major power in the world to do so—supports as its highest priority the “scientific outlook on development,” a goal adopted as an amendment to the CPC Constitution...

...Hu, trained as an engineer, was quoted as saying: “Uphold science; don’t be ignorant and unenlightened.” What a contrast with the current U.S. administration where “intelligent design” theorists oppose evolution and stem-cell research is effectively thwarted. Traditional Marxist theory emphasizes that the expansion of “the forces of production” is essential to economic growth—the Chinese have recognized that increased expenditures for science and technology are crucial to their effective development.

Now, I'm all for assigning high priorities to science and technology. But I think humanists, skeptics and atheists (they are not all one and the same) should be concerned about glowing reports by CSICOPians about China's emphasis on science and technology, without some critique of the human rights abuses taking place there. Even against qigong groups such as Falun Gong, no matter what their feelings on religious sects. There has been much made in the 'atheism debate' about how atheist regimes have been just as cruel and repressive as some religious groups - an idea that Richard Dawkins and others reject - and as such I think it's important that CSICOP and the AHA don't sweep this issue under the carpet.

Now, back to the contents (the above should get The Daily Grail banned in China fairly promptly...):

• Kendrick Frazier recounts some highlights of the recent World Congress on Scientific Inquiry and Human Well-Being, in "China Gone Modern".
• Paul Kurtz compares "The New China and the Old".
• Martin Gardner reviews Frank Tipler's The Physics of Christianity.
• Bjørn Lomborg urges everyone: "Let's Keep Our Cool about Global Warming".
• Joe Nickell shares stories about people being buried alive.
• Harriet Hall critiques Dr Gary Schwartz's 'Energy Healing Experiments'.

Full details of the new issue, and ordering details, are available at the website.

"To begin a voyage of a thousand miles requires the first step…"

• Undersea volcanoes linked to aquatic die-off in Cretaceous Period. So if Kilauea and Llaima are above water, would that link them to…
• Moon transits the Earth… The jaw-dropping view from space. More here.
• Water on Mars was ”Widespread”, according to the BBC. A little more proof of Martian water. And of course, Martian ice, courtesy of Phoenix.
• Mission to Mars by way of Alaska…
• Newly discovered mummy from the largely unknown Chancay civilization of Peru.
• 20 million year-old fossils offer new clues to the formation of the Americas.
• The typewriter Douglas Adams used to write The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is for sale. The numbers “4” and “2” are conspicuously missing.
• Dementia patient shows remarkable progress, thanks to a revolutionary 'infra-red helmet' treatment.
• Attention, Steampunks! Time-traveling tips for meeting your future self…
• Testing the Plausibility Effect.
• Second-brightest star ever detected shines like 3 million suns.
• Money woes mean NASA's new Moon capsule may not be ready by 2013.
• Cracking the code of the mysterious cipher sent to Fermilab.

Grand thanks to Monsieurs Greg, RPJ, Rick and the good Dr. Timothy Cox…

Quote of the Day:

"From wonder into wonder existence opens..."

Lao Tzu

As mentioned recently, Daily Grail Publishing has just released a reprint of Jacques Vallee's UFO classic, Messengers of Deception (Amazon US and Amazon UK). Last week I had a quick chat with Jacques about the book, and the controversy it created in ufology. It was intentionally short - I could talk to Jacques for a couple of days on all manner of topics, but in this case I just wanted to address the elements of his work which have made him, as he describes it, "a heretic among heretics" - namely, his concern about uncritical acceptance of the UFO phenomenon, and also the 'psychic' manifestations found in UFO reports which suggest that they may not be "nuts and bolts" craft.

Jacques' answers are succinct and incisive - here's a few pull-outs:

"Many erstwhile ufologists don’t want the deceptive reports exposed, just as the Catholic Church long denied instances of abuse in its ranks."

"People linked to the intelligence community of the major countries have been closely involved in studying UFO cases since World War Two. That interest is legitimate, whether it is purely personal (as most of them claim) or related to their official duties. The same is true in parapsychology."

"[T]he phenomenon comes in an environment of manifestations that include heightened awareness of synchronicities, paranormal sounds and lights and occasionally absurd coincidences similar to those described in the poltergeist literature."

"By denying the reality of the reports, brushing aside the witnesses...and treating them like fools or crooks, the academic skeptics are actually teaching the public that science is impotent at studying the phenomenon."

The full interview is below.

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TDG: Jacques, thanks for talking with us here at The Daily Grail. Let's get straight to the new release: the original publication of Messengers of Deception in 1979 marked quite a turning point in your standing with the ufology community. Your warning that we should be more careful about embracing the phenomenon, and that its underlying qualities could well be negative and deceitful in nature rather than benevolent, was rejected by many (and still seems to cause angst to this day). I'm keen to know what acted as the catalyst for the writing of Messengers of Deception, and if you have thoughts on why so many in the UFO research community paint it as a betrayal of sorts?

Jacques Vallee: The evidence for an “undercurrent” of deceit behind some alleged UFO cases only becomes visible when you spend time in the field interviewing witnesses and tracking down the evidence. It became annoying to me because it represented a waste of time and a distraction from studying genuine observations. Researchers who collect reports only through books or media accounts would not necessarily encounter this level of the phenomenon and would understandably resist the suggestion that the belief in extraterrestrial intervention is being manipulated to serve political or cultist goals.

Even people who are fully aware of this negative aspect don’t want to bring it up into the open because they think it will call disrepute to the subject. Many erstwhile ufologists don’t want the deceptive reports exposed, just as the Catholic Church long denied instances of abuse in its ranks. Whistle-blowing is never welcome: I have even been accused of having an “addled brain” in the august pages of the Society for Scientific Exploration! My own position has always been that, on the contrary, the best way to gain the respect of the intellectual community is to expose hoaxes, sloppy research and manipulation whenever we encounter them. ... Read More »

Parapsychology researcher Dr Dean Radin has posted a summary of a newly published scientific paper (which he co-authored) to his blog: "Compassionate Intention as a Therapeutic Intervention by Partners of Cancer Patients" (subtitle: "Effects of Distant Intention on the Patients' Autonomic Nervous System"):

Objective: This double-blind study investigated the effects of intention on the autonomic nervous system of a human “sender” and distant “receiver” of those intentions, and it explored the roles that motivation and training might have in modulating these effects.

While it's a little strong to use the word "healing", the results of this study do seem to suggest that 'intention' may have an effect on the autonomic system of the 'target':

Results: Overall, receivers’ skin conductance increased during the intention epochs (z = 3.9; p < 0.00009, two-tailed). Planned differences in skin conductance among the three groups were not significant, but a post hoc analysis showed that peak deviations were largest and most sustained in the trained group, followed by more moderate effects in the wait group, and still smaller effects in the control group.

Conclusions: Directing intention toward a distant person is correlated with activation of that person’s autonomic nervous system. Strong motivation to heal and to be healed, and training on how to cultivate and direct compassionate intention, may further enhance this effect.

The full paper is published in the July/August edition of Explore.