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News Briefs 16-05-2006

Between DVC fever and MoD UFO/UAP FOI releases, I’m all acronymed out. It’s a news onslaught…

  • Tom Hanks gives his thoughts on the controversy surrounding The Da Vinci Code.
  • Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond goes touring in search of the Grail (hopefully in an Aston Martin DB9, which to me would be the Holy Grail anyhow).
  • Images of the unexpected: the secrets of Rosslyn Chapel.
  • There’s no secret Catholic conspiracy. Overt ones, sure…but no secret conspiracies.
  • British Ministry of Defense says “UFOs Exist: It’s Official!” as the teaser to their newly released and highly publicised debunking effort. Hmmm, so it shows the MoD’s “commitment to openness” that they released the report after receiving an FOI request?
  • More on the report here. And here. And here. And here. Should I go on?
  • Oh, the actual report? It’s here.
  • What are these UAPs that the report refers to, and whatever happened to the old-fashioned terms of UFO and flying saucers?
  • This year’s Roswell UFO festival will launch on June 30. Why would UFOs hang out in the UK anyhow, when the skies are much clearer in New Mexico.
  • Aliens from space, or just cooling gel sticks? Imagine the intergalactic diplomatic crisis which could erupt if you put an alien on your forehead.
  • Is Bigfoot in Georgia? Perhaps he’s looking for a game at Augusta?
  • The spirits in this Scottish pub aren’t just of the whisky variety.
  • Coventry University offers a two-year parapsychology course.
  • Rebel researcher relays the story of his search for a new theory of smell, in his book The Secret of Scent (Amazon UK only, released later this year in the US).
  • NASA keeps on tracking the potentially cataclysmic asteroid Apophis.
  • Astronomers publish a vast new map of the Universe. Imagine unfolding that in your car as you drive…
  • Researchers put light into reverse and make it go backwards. An easy trick when you’re the grown up Harry Potter (I’m just guessing, based on the photo accompanying the article…no doubt Hermione is somewhere out of shot too).
  • Speaking of the wizard king: Harry Potter prevails again after Board of Education rules against mother’s request to remove those heathen books from the local school library shelf.
  • NBC pulls the plug on its sci-fi series Surface.
  • As volcano threatens to erupt, villagers stay behind to placate the mighty beast with mystical rituals and incense.
  • Tsunami risk of asteroid strike revealed.
  • DARPA looks at human cannonball machine to fire rescuers onto roof-tops.
  • Trapped Australian gold-miner talked to his wife via telepathy.
  • Researchers use DNA to track down the origins of Columbus.
  • Archaeological theory would upend history. And give it a heck of a black eye as well.
  • What happens when a rock star takes LSD and investigates the archaeology of Britain? Would be a nice pitch for a television series at the very least…
  • I must have missed this one from last month: the prestigious medical journal Lancet calls for more medical research into the possible benefits of pyschedelic drugs.
  • Forest fires damage ancient building in Chichen Itza.
  • Could the ancient Jewish stronghold of Masada fall again?
  • What to do if you’re the victim of a terrorist bombing? Why not seize some Persian artifacts from the local museum? I kid you not.

Quote of the Day:

A primary objection to the reality of UAP events among scientists is that witnesses consistently report objects whose seemingly absurd behavior “cannot possibly” be related to actual phenomena, even under extreme conditions. In that respect the similarity is striking between contemporary events reported as UFO close encounters and the more traditional observations of entities described as “angels,” elves and fairies, or deities. Skeptics insist that superior beings, celestial ambassadors or intelligent extraterrestrial (ETI) visitors simply would not perpetrate such antics as are reported in the literature. This argument can be criticized as an anthropocentric, self-selected observation resulting from our own limited viewpoint as 21st century Homo sapiens trying to draw conclusions about the nature of the universe.

Jacques Vallee and Eric Davis – “Incommensurability, Orthodoxy and the Physics of High Strangeness: A 6-layer Model for Anomalous Phenomena

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