The lunatic is on the grass…

• Time in space may alter astronaut's genes. Well duh…any Fantastic Four reader could tell you that.
• No solar disaster…this time. Make sure you check out Robert Schoch's fascinating article about the chances of a solar apocalypse in Darklore Volume 6.
• NASA's GRAIL mission returns first video of the far side of the Moon.
• Need a whole lotta GRAILs to do the same on Jupiter…two newly discovered moons bring its total to 66.
• Fourth exo-planet that could support life found.
• Lennon, Shatner, Ali, and twelve other strange celebrity UFO sightings.
• It Came From Above (or Did It?): Solving the 'Sky Noise' Mystery.
• Junk or treasure? An introduction to space archaeology.
• Why did Psychic Sally lose her powers in September 2011?
• The hounding of 'Psychic Sally' is becoming a modern-day witch-hunt.
• Who you gonna telegraph? Charles Darwin, Ghostbuster.
• A young J.K. Rowling is zoo excited that her book Harry Potter has sold 30,000 copies. Just goes to show we never know what could be just around the corner for us all…
• Scientists create computer that can decode your thoughts and put them into words.
• Ethical concerns about boosting animals from sentience to self-aware consciousness.
• Animal camouflage: true masters of disguise.
• Did you know there are more than a million ants for every human on Earth? Ten frightening facts about ants. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords.
• Study counters arsenic life claims.
• Are we alone in a universe of bacteria? Is complex life just a freak accident?
• Researchers design self-guided bullet. Yay, science!
• Books of human flesh: the history behind annthropodermic bibliopegy.

Quote of the Day:

Most of our ancestors were not perfect ladies and gentlemen. The majority of them weren't even mammals.

Robert Anton Wilson

Holy carp, can't wait to see this movie: Red Lights, starring Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy. A thriller based on skeptical investigators pursuing a famous psychic...think it might be up my alley?

Seems to be a few nods to real-life events/phenomena in there, such as James Randi exposing Peter Popoff's use of an in-ear radio receiver to gain information about audience members (the actor even looks similar to Popoff). Director Rodrigo Cortes has some good observations about the skeptic-believer divide in this interview, so I'll be interested to see how it plays out on the screen. Great trailer, hopefully the movie is just as good.

So it goes.

• The Gadabout TM 1050: for all your time-traveling needs.
• The Maya of Eternal Time: Geoff Stray reviews Drunvalo Melchizedek's Serpent of Light --Ouch!
• Members of the IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences) West Suburban group like to ponder on the BIG questions.
• Video: Cosmic Consciousness & the Holographic Universe, with Ervin Laszlo.
• Making money by selling Pi.
• The DaVinci Code Copy: newly found copy of Mona Lisa could shed light on its secrets.
• Downside: wild pythons in the Everglades eating everything in their path. Upside: python boots becoming the new fashion trend.
• What if there were another advanced species sharing the planet with us?
• Alien particles invading our solar system --Does the MJ-12 manual cover 'nano-invasions'?
• When it comes to aliens, size DOES matter --at least according to Nick Redfern.
• Unidentified flying Craft in Utah and Missing Time. Ground-breaking evidence, or just another hoax?
• The Gralien Report interviews Philip Coppens on the subject of the age-old Alien question: whose galaxy is Giorgio Tsoukalo's barber from?
• Huffington Post reviews Jim Fadiman's The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys [Amazon US & UK].
• Carlos Fuentes: legalize drugs to save Mexico.
• Red pill of the day: New psychiatric hospital in Spain shows what happens when lunatics take over the asylum --and design it, too...

Thanks to Rick, who is quite fluent in Tralfamadorian.

Quote of the Day:

-- "Welcome aboard, Mr. Pilgrim," said the loudspeaker. "Any questions?"
-- Billy licked his lip, thought a while, inquired at last: "Why me?"
-- "That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?"
-- "Yes." Billy, in fact, had a paperweight in his office which was a blob of polished amber with three lady-bugs embedded in it.
-- "Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."

~ Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughter-house Five

Okay, I know this is getting a little tiresome, but here's another one of my 'clarifications' regarding the whole Amazing Randi mythos. While reading what is overall an interesting article about deliberate skeptical hoaxes at the Doubtful Newsblog, I noticed that Randi's infamous "Carlos Hoax" is described with these words:

With the “Carlos hoax”, Randi recruited a performance artist who played the part of a channeler communicating with a 2,000 year old spirit. The act was to show how uncritical the media were about such claims. Carlos continued the act that enthralled audiences. The press never questioned the authenticity or verified his claims. This exploit demonstrated how easy it was to manufacture a story whole cloth, dupe the public, and manipulate the gullible media, who just ate it all up. [my emphasis]

James Randi himself has said that the Carlos hoax - which he organised in 1988 at the request of the Australian version of 60 Minutes - "proved that the media can be willingly seduced so long as they are convinced that surrender to bunk will increase ratings, circulation, and general satisfaction of the consumer". Here he is discussing the infamous stunt on Youtube:

In the video above, Randi notes that "the major lesson to be learned from this hoax was that it was the media, not we, who actually created and nurtured the Carlox entity… He became a character who was accepted as a genuine though transitory phenomena." But was this really the case? The footage excerpts from 60 Minutes seem to show the media questioning Carlos' authenticity. For instance, the famous 'water-throwing' incident on the Today program occurred at the end of a rather hostile interview by hosts George Negus and Liz Hayes, when Negus asked "why did you come in this morning, apart from for a little more publicity?" As José Alvarez and his 'manager' stormed off, Negus simply states "I think we've proved our point", followed by Liz Hayes saying "I think it speaks for itself."

A contemporary report by the Australian Skeptics agrees with this. In an article for The Skeptic, Tim Mendham points out a fact that seems to have become comprehensively-ignored in the modern mythos that has grown up around the Carlos Hoax: "None of the media coverage was credulous; all disbelieved that Alvarez was genuine". In fact, according to Mendham – writing shortly after the Carlos events – "to a certain extent the whole hoax backfired":

As an exercise to prove that the local media were somewhat lax in doing research and effective checking of claims, proved its point, but on the other hand the media were extremely cynical (if not sceptical) of Alvarez' claims, and he received no sympathetic coverage at all. The Today program's hosts, Negus and Elizabeth Hayes, were particularly scathing.

Indeed, given the attitude of the Australian media toward Alvarez, it seems more than likely that the lack of background checks wasn't because they were gullible, or wanted to spoil a good story, but because they were already convinced he was not genuine and were happy to attack him in person on their shows (though I don't think any of us would suggest that media aren't sometimes too lax in checking sources).

Mendham's original report runs counter to most recent skeptical representations of the events that I can find - rather than "scathing", the Australian press are now said to have never questioned Carlos' authenticity. For instance, according to Skeptic's Dictionary author Robert Todd Carroll (writing in Skeptical Inquirer) the media "took it for granted they were who they said they were and did what they said they did."

But what about all that uncritical radio and newspaper coverage? Mendham again:

John Tingle's radio coverage consisted solely of an interview with Skeptics president, Barry Williams - he even refused to say where Alvarez would be performing and the Daily Mirror story simply factually reported the waterthrowing incident.

In his YouTube account, Randi also explains that the Carlos scam was enabled by "a rather cute gimmick: Carlos could stop his pulse by a simple means that got by the most astute observers, except from one member of the Australian skeptics, who easily solved it. But none of the media paid any attention to him, of course. The story was far too good to die!" But did "none of the media" really pay any attention? Mendham again:

Terry Willesee, after screening Alvarez' first appearance on Sydney TV with a satellite interview, followed this up with an interview with Skeptics national committee member, Harry Edwards, who explained how Alvarez' number one trick, stopping his pulse while being 'possessed', was achieved.

In fact, not only did the Terry Willesee show run a skeptical explanation of the heart-stopping stunt, but also one of their researchers actually rang Randi regarding José Alvarez/Carlos. Randi's reaction, rather than to admit the hoax, or to give cautionary advice about this particular individual, was this: "I managed to avoid answering the question of that researcher, who came away with the impression that I’d said I never heard of him." So when a media channel actually checked with the world's most prominent skeptic on this topic, he basically scammed them himself – and yet went on to bemoan how the Australian media didn't include skeptics' opinions on the matter...

So maybe it's more about depriving the fire of oxygen, and the best method for dealing with the Carlos affair was to ignore it altogether? Some in the Australian media did exactly that. Mike Carlton, morning commentator on 2GB radio, said he had not been fooled, and had simply put his press-kit in the "round filing tray" (the rubbish bin). Kevin Sadlier of The Sun said he did the same. Strangely though, Randi took these journalists to task for *not* covering the Carlos tour. "If so many persons in the media knew that the public were being lied to, why did they insist upon allowing them to fall for such fakery? Could it be that it was not in their interest to offend the public’s preferred tastes?". But when the media *did* cover Carlos, and according to Mendham in a unanimously skeptical fashion, Randi trumpeted the fact that "Any kind of publicity will attract an audience". Damned if you, damned if you don't!

But not according to Barry Williams', then-President of the Australian Skeptics:

Certainly, 60 Minutes proved its point that a charlatan can gain free media publicity by the perpetration of stunts. I am however dubious of the truth of the old axiom “Any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right”. The media may well have a duty to protect the public from false claims, and I believe that the great majority of the reasonable public would have been protected by the clearly skeptical manner in which most of the media covered Carlos.

So what of the gullible Australian public? They were apparently so taken with Carlos, that when the program A Current Affair featured a confrontation between George Negus and Jose Alvarez/Carlos, according to Negus it was the first time that audience phone reaction had favoured him (anybody familiar with either ACA's audience, or the Australian public's general opinion of Negus, will understand how telling *that* fact is).

But didn't Carlos' have a vast following in Australia? According to the 60 Minutes report, the Opera House hall "was packed", showing interviews with the those who had come because "they saw it on TV". But according to Mendham:

Australian Skeptics came, as we had seen it on TV too. The hall was by no means full. Our estimate put the audience at about 250-300, as opposed to the 60 Minutes' 400-500; the Drama Theatre holds a maximum of 550. A large percentage of the audience were sceptical (if not Skeptical), with an even larger proportion thus unconvinced after the session was over. We subsequently learned of many who, having intended to attend, had been turned off by the poor performance Alvarez had given on TV.

…Other TV programs replayed interviews with those at the seminar who had not been convinced by Alvarez/Carlos (including the author of this report). This was in response to the 60 Minutes coverage, which only showed believers and failed to interview any of the known Skeptics.

…Following the revelation on 60 Minutes that the whole affair had been a huge (and expensive estimates ranged from $50,000 to $200,000) set-up, there was an immediate response from the media. In fact, there was probably greater coverage for the hoax than for poor old Carlos.

This coverage for the hoax itself, rather than 'Carlos', was ultimately the best result of this project. In the end, the Carlos Hoax *was* successful - at least, as a publicity tool. Despite the mediocre results, a certain mythos has developed around the stunt itself, so much so that the general perception of it now is that it showed what dupes the public and media can be. And given the seemingly blind acceptance of this hoax as being a raging success, in a very meta way, it has...

And while we're talking meta, then we can't go past the fact that José Alvarez himself turned out to be a hoax. In late 2011, Randi's life-partner was arrested for identity theft - federal authorities accusing him of stealing a New York man's name, date of birth and Social Security number to obtain a U.S. passport first issued to him in 1987...right before he traveled with Randi to Australia to perpetrate the 'Carlos Hoax'. Which may itself end up being a better example that any of us can be fooled, and for a long time...

Nice to see some skeptics can poke a bit of fun at themselves (NSFW language):

Though I think they forgot the old psychic line "they should have seen that coming"...

Dead Can Dance, playing all the hits of the summer of 1461.

• Up Helly Aa! A Scottish-Viking party with a deeper meaning.
• Searching for Shambhala: seeking Himalayan myths on a mountain bike.
• The shamanic culture of the Q'ero people of the Andes.
• Stunning timelapse video shows the true beauty of Yosemite.
• Snowy owls are migrating south from the Arctic in unprecedented numbers. Hogwarts really needs to upgrade their 56kbs dialup.
• Perhaps this explains the owl migration. Strange atmospheric noises reported around the world linked to recent solar storm & Northern Lights.
• At Shasta, there's a humming around the mountain.
• The facts & history of how solar flares can cause earthquakes.
• How space weather affects planes & power grids.
• Witness sees hovering lights shoot into the sky near Peru, Indiana.
• Inexplicata has more on the recent Mexicali UFO chase.
• Why is it taking so long for aliens to find us? Why is it taking so long for us to acknowledge aliens may already have done so!
• New study analyses the dreaming brain...
• ... but we're still no closer to understanding the dreaming mind.
• A Yale doctor discusses how meditation can change the brain.
• How to build your own mind palace. RPJ's working on a 'mind jacuzzi'.
• A younger Rupert Sheldrake muses on the nature of our consciousness.
• Scientists make a breakthrough in mind-reading technology.
• Psychotronic generators, psi-rays, Egyptology, & orgone accumulators.
• Egyptologists are still digging up the past, despite the loss of the Big Z.
• Modern archaeologists love to hate Giovanni Belzoni, the 18th century circus strongman turned ancient Egyptian treasure hunter (Amazon US & UK).

Gracias, RPJ.

Quote of the Day:

We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
And that changes everything.

T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

For those that could never tell the colour of shite, things have become even more complicated.

• Paper denying HIV AIDS link sparks resignation.
• Morgellons: all in the head?
• For a moon colony technology is the easy part.
• Artificial braneworlds made to collide in lab.
• Explosive volcano may lurk beneath Death Valley.
• Volcanic origin for the Litte Ice Age. And for the big one?
• The north star may be wasting away.
• Amazon rainforest mapped to unprecedented detail.
• Grape seed extract kills head and neck cancer cells leaving healthy cells unharmed.
• Shipwreck hunters stumble across mysterious find.
• Bournemouth resident mystified by blue sphere shower.
• Stonehenge precursor found? Island complex predates famous site.
• Skin samples used to create brain cells.
• Frenetic pace of Ethiopia's khat boomtown.
• Bulletproof skin stops a speeding gunshot.
• Blue whales keep getting bigger.
• Testicular zap may stop sperm from becoming royally rife, after a fashion.

Quote of the Day:

Prevention is better than cure.

Desiderius Erasmus

For anybody that missed it in the lead-up to Christmas: late last year we released Volume 6 of our Darklore anthology series. I've had great feedback about the new release from numerous quarters, and was especially happy to see this glowing review by Fortean 'veteran' John Rimmer at the Magonia blog:

Every issue of Dark Lore is eagerly anticipated, and the sixth is no disappointment. The twelve essays cover a huge range of the paranormal, the anomalous, and just simply the weird, and all are written with authority... Scholarly and academic, intriguing, amusing, revelatory and accessible, this volume of Dark Lore is well worth its place on any Magonian’s bookshelf – along with the previous five, of course!

If you haven't grabbed a copy yet, you can find it at most online book retailers. Here's the links to Amazon:

Darklore VI Paperback

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK

Darklore VI Limited Edition Hardcover

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK

Remember that you can find three sample articles from the latest release as PDFs at the Darklore website (as well as from previous releases), and I also added one of the sample articles to TDG in HTML as well ("Anthropology of the Weird", by Jack Hunter).

Wow.

• Police in Mexico called to investigate large glowing UFO.
• Judges try to speed up extradition case of 'UFO Hacker' Gary McKinnon.
• Fran 'The Nanny' Drescher claims that aliens abducted both her and her husband.
• The Strieber Enigma.
• Seth Shostak ponders post-biological aliens.
• On the latest Binnall of America podcast, cryptozoologist Adam Davies discusses his 2011 expedition to Sumatra in search of the fabled Orang Pendek.
• NASA's Kepler telescope finds another 26 alien planets.
• New Navy drone has no pilot anywhere - so who's accountable for its actions?
• First quantum jiggles detected in a solid object.
• Blue spheres rain from the sky. About a dozen sci-fi plots just jumped into my head, none of which end well…
• Your complete visual guide to the Northern Lights.
• Did the Salem witches dance to the psychedelic tune of the Devil's trumpet?
• Rick Strassman discusses his research into DMT.
• Richard Branson urges an end to the 'War on Drugs'.
• There's no need to panic about Global Warming.
• "There might be a God", says David Attenborough. Though to be fair, also basically "There might not be a God".
• "Comprehensive study" by CDC finds that Morgellon's Disease does not exist.
• And "arsenic-life" is dead.
• Is Lou Gehrig's Disease/ALS caused by a toxic molecule found in pond scum?
• Why do we want autistic kids to have superpowers?
• Are you interested in receiving a mediumship reading about a loved pet? For science!
• The Guardian reviews Rupert Sheldrake's new book, The Science Delusion (Amazon UK). Guardian-commenter-rage follows.
• Nicolas Cage immersed himself in occult to prepare for his role as the Ghost Rider.
• The architect of the U.S. Capitol wanted to re-animate George Washington's dead body.
• Native Americans originally from Siberia, DNA reveals.
• Stonehenge precursor found in Scotland?
• Image of the Day: NASA's new 'Blue Marble' - the Earth in super high-res. (warning: large file).

Quote of the Day:

I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions.

Robert Anton Wilson

I've posted a few jaw-dropping timelapse videos of the aurorae in the past, but check out this *real-time* wonderfulness:

As I've said before, one can only imagine what ancient peoples thought this phenomenon might be...certainly conjures up magic, spirits in my head even though I know the scientific explanation. More information on the video/aurora can be found at Bad Astronomy.

You might also like:

• Aurora As Seen from the International Space Station
• Timelapse: The Aurorae
• Aura of an Aurora
• Ten Amazing Timelapse Videos