John Ratcliff's Weblog

Andrea Rossi : Sinner or Saint?

2012-01-22T11:22:00.000-06:00

Not my best work but the following article expresses some ideas I have been thinking about regarding the Andrea Rossi affair. The insight came to me that if Rossi is not running a scam (and there is no way to tell at this time), but if he is doing what he says he is then he is probably taking the best course of action possible to get LENR out to the world.

Here is a link the the full article.

NASA Langley Presentation on LENR

2012-01-12T17:38:00.000-06:00

Mark your calenders because today may end up being noted as a great day. On January 12, 2012 NASA released an LENR presentation for the general public. If this story doesn't get picked up by the mainstream press, I would be very surprised.

But, since I'm a part of the non-mainstream press, I'm going to do my part to spread the story.

I wrote a brief article about this and posted it on the bizarre crowd sourced 'news' site called 'Examiner.com'. I did this because a friend of mine gets $50 the first time I post an article and I told him I would write something as a favor. I passed the rigorous process to become approved as a reporter for this site (I think the rigorous process involved submitting an application).

You can read my article here. And, frankly, I'm just glad to bump that Shroudman crap off the top of my page.

The Shroudman Prophecies of Paratopia

2012-01-03T09:09:00.008-06:00

(For regular readers of this blog, a note of warning, this article is probably much ado about nothing and you will be scratching your heads wondering why I am wasting so much time on it. Sorry, sometimes I get a bug up my butt and I need a healthy rant to get it out of my system. It also occurs to me that you are going to be wondering why in the world I am wasting time on people and a topic that you will probably consider to be completely nuts. It’s a fair question, and I don’t have a good answer for that one. Nevertheless, I spent some effort writing this article so I hope that you will at least find it entertaining to read; even if the subject matter is absurd.

This article covers a lot of territory. It talks about the podcast Paratopia and its hosts, of course, as well as the particular episode that started this whole argument. I cover podcasting in general, with a specific focus on paranormal podcasts. I also talk about the problems which arise when people who have no formal education in science, advanced mathematics, physics, or the scientific method read books written for the layperson and then make the rather embarrassing mistake of talking as if they know something about these subjects. And, it’s not just the Paratopia podcast which does this. Lots and lots of people are doing this worldwide; because there are a whole lot more ‘lay-people’ reading science for dummies books, than there are people who are actually educated in the sciences. It’s why the ‘History’ channel is now devoted to ‘ancient aliens’ and the ‘Discovery’ channel is devoted to ghost hunting. It’s truly a disgusting development in our culture and I don’t see it stopping any time soon.

I conclude this article with a very serious discussion about what a rational person probably would, should, or could do if the paranormal intruded into their lives in the way that the hosts of Paratopia claim is happening to them. I argue that the rational response would be almost anything other than what the hosts of this paranormal podcast have done and I close with an online poll to determine what other people would do if they found themselves in a similar situation.)

My reason for writing this article is based on a specific episode of the paranormal podcast ‘Paratopia’ entitled 'Echoes in a Yawning Chasm'. My critique is focused primarily on this particular episode and how criticism of it was handled, not necessarily the podcast as whole, which I have generally enjoyed listening to off and on for the past couple of years.

After listening to this specific episode which, quite frankly I found painful to sit through, I went to the Paratopia message forums where I was rather surprised to see that other listeners were much more impressed by the content than I was. I made a post expressing my less than enthusiastic endorsement of the material and this post then exploded into a classic fast and furious Internet message forum exchange that went on for several days of back and forth.

During this exchange, a great deal was said, and it eventually reached the point where the parties involved seemed to simply be talking past each other. I removed myself from the discussion and made a promise to drop the topic in public for a self-imposed 30 day cooling off period. Later I had a phone call with Jeremy Vaeni which went a long way towards clearing up some misunderstandings.

At the time I figured that when the 30 days were up I would not even bother to resurrect this topic; but something changed my mind. Two things really. First, in the following episode of the show, the hosts used their bully pulpit to completely mischaracterize everything I was trying to say. And, second, I don't think they ever really 'got' the point I was trying to make in the first place. Jeremy did post both an apology on the forum as well as issue an apology on a follow up episode for mischaracterizing my position and, for this, I am deeply appreciative. However, I still have some things I want to say on this topic.

Now, this blog is my bully pulpit; it's where I can write an article and state my views uninterrupted just as Jeff and Jeremy get to do on their show; so turnabout is fair play and that is what I intend to do today. This is a long article, yet the expected reading time is still just a fraction of what it takes to listen to the podcast episode it is referring to.

About a week ago, I let the hosts of the show know that I would be posting this article and I even offered them the opportunity to read it ahead of time; so that I might take their input into consideration. They declined to read the article and, instead, they simply cancelled my subscription to the show, banned me from their message forums, removed me from Facebook, and demanded in an angry email that I never contact them ever again, period. The specific quote was: "This letter is also a formal request for you never to contact me again through the Internet (email, message boards, private messages of any kind), phone, or any other medium. To do so will result in formal complaints to the appropriate authorities."

The hosts of Paratopia seem to think that it's a little bizarre that a mere listener might have something critical to say about them (actually, they think it is more than bizarre, they think it is narcissistic, arrogant, self-important, and that peons of weak intelligence, such as myself, have no standing to criticize a show of such deep and insightful brilliance. This is essentially what they said on a recent ‘live’ episode when they stated, quite explicitly, that only stupid people criticize their show and smart people never do. Much patting of selves on back followed this statement). Quite frankly, I find this insanely hypocritical since the hosts of the show are quite vocal in their critical opinion of nearly every competing paranormal podcast and their hosts. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and, contrary to the belief of the hosts of Paratopia, I've got just as much right to state my point of view as they do theirs, and so I shall.

According to a recent email I received from Jeff Ritzmann, my big problem is that I am a narcissist. I find his free diagnosis more than just a little bit ironic coming from someone who has a podcast, a magazine, an online store, a message forum, a twitter feed, a facebook group, and a live radio show. Sure, I'm a narcissist, but I'm in the fly-weight amateur division of narcissists compared to Jeff and Jeremy. All I have is this little old blog that I barely post to but a couple of times a year any more. Do I have an inflated sense of self-importance? There can be no doubt about it. However, it just seems to me that the kettle is calling the pot very, very, black when this kind of statement comes from the hosts of a show that wallows in self-importance. Jeremy believes quite strongly that nearly every single spiritual leader throughout history is wrong and only he can communicate the correct path to enlightenment. So much so that he has written his own book about it. Jeff Ritzmann thinks his contact experiences are so profound that they might influence future scientific thought about our interpretation of the nature of reality. Wait, now I'm confused, just who is the narcissist in this conversation is again!?

In addition to hosting a vlog, and appearing on numerous podcasts, Jeremy has also written two books and created a couple of documentaries. In one of his films he appears nude in a bathtub, for no apparent reason, since it is merely uncomfortable and not particularly funny to watch. His books are auto-biographical and deeply personal. His 'spiritual' book is so self-important that the frequent references made about eliminating the ego and recognizing that we are all part of the 'one' almost makes the mind implode as it tries to cope with the cognitive dissonance created by such statements. Maybe this is how you reach enlightenment, by trying to swallow the hypocrisy inherent when an egoist writes about destroying the ego? Jeremy often proclaims that all other spiritual teachers are wrong, and only he has it right. But, hey, he has no ego left of his own...

Jeremy’s comedy bits make broad and often vicious attacks on other personalities in the paranormal field, but the skin gets pretty thin when criticism comes back the other way. Honestly, I just don't see how a little old narcissist like me can even begin to compete with narcissistic behavior on the order of magnitude exhibited by Jeff Ritzmann and Jeremy Vaeni. Their inability to recognize their own hypocrisy is almost staggering to behold at times.

So long as you love their show, give them praise, all is well. However, if you offer nearly any criticism it is not tolerated for long and you are quickly branded an enemy of the show, which apparently I am now.

To be clear, I was a long time fan of the show. But, being a fan doesn’t mean that I am going to praise everything the show does, especially when it practices the kind of hypocritical behavior exhibited in the particular episode this article is going to talk about. I would also like to say that I am still very fond of Jeremy Vaeni. He has spent quite a bit of time in reasonable discussion with me on these topics and I really do enjoy his sense of humor. I also very much enjoyed his first book, and the fact that I cannot make head or tails out of his ‘spiritual’ material is neither here nor there. I just think there is a certain arrogance in claiming that only you have figured out the path to enlightenment and there is a clear contradiction in demonstrating such a huge ego (not something I have a problem with) while arguing that the only way to reach enlightenment is to destroy the ego; a little humility can go a long way when proposing spiritual material is all I’m saying. As far as Jeff Ritzmann goes, it’s pretty much impossible to get into a discussion with him because the moment you become argumentative he almost immediately says he is done arguing with peons, doesn’t care what anyone believes about him, and then continues the discussion on his radio show where, of course, you cannot respond.

What is really remarkable is that Jeff and Jeremy preemptively responded to this article prior to it even being published. At around 30 minutes into their Episode #149 : 2011 Year in Review they respond directly to this controversy. The good thing is that I didn’t have to make any edits to this article, since I already address all of the points they raise. The short response to what they are saying is this, neither Jeff nor Jeremy have an education in science so when they make statements that ‘science doesn’t know anything about this stuff’, they are making a statement out of their own ignorance. Go to school, get an education in the sciences, but if you don’t have that background, realize that you are treading on very shaky ground. Contrary to statements made on the show, science knows a great deal about the sub-atomic world. But, if you feel qualified to brand the scientists of the world as being ignorant, I guess you get to do that on your own radio show. Just don’t claim you are being rational when you do so. To be clear, I am not saying that Jeff and Jeremy are stupid, I hope I wouldn’t waste so much time on stupid people. I think they are both quite intelligent and insightful, however, I also think they are uneducated in the sciences and, because of their lack of education, they are out of their depth when it comes to passing judgment on issues relating to what science does or does not know, or can and cannot say about the nature of reality. When the hosts of Paratopia act dismissive about science, it is at that point that they lose all credence to refer to themselves as being the show for 'smart people', and they certainly lose me as a listener.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself here, so let me take several steps back and start from the beginning.

I listen to paranormal podcasts. You might wonder why, that is certainly a fair question. I listen to paranormal podcasts to pass the time on a long drive. A podcast, for those of you who don't know, is simply a recorded conversation; typically in the format of a host (or hosts) who interview guests and free-style chat about various topics. I find this conversational format a really great way to keep the mind occupied while on a long drive.

Now, there are thousands and thousands of podcasts. All it takes to create a podcast is a computer, a microphone, and an Internet connection. Anyone can blabber on about anything, upload it to the Internet, and have their very own 'radio' program. Their audience might be quite small, but it's just another side of the blogging phenomenon. Apple Itunes allows anyone with an Ipad, Iphone or Ipod to easily synchronize these podcasts so that they can be played back at a later date.
Here is a link to the Itunes podcast page.

My absolute favorite podcast of all time is 'The Jeff and Casey' show which was produced by my friends Jeff Roberts and Casey Muratori. It's a bit unusual since Jeff and Casey are both very successful individuals in their professional lives and are generally pretty damned busy. So, for them to take the time to produce a comedy podcast is really quite surprising. They only did if for two seasons, but you can listen to their archived shows and there is a lot of great humor there.

Jeff and Casey graduated from podcasting and are now producing an animated show called 'Jeff and Casey Time'. Now, what needs to be made clear is that most people who create a podcast do so to make money, feed their personal ego, or inform the world about a topic they are passionate about, but 'Jeff and Casey' do their show for none of these reasons. They are already extremely successful, both financially and professionally. They don't need money, and they don't need to feed their ego, especially considering the fact that their egos are already plenty big enough to begin with. They do the show because it cracks them up. They enjoy ranting and making themselves and others laugh. It's some pretty pure id at work and strongly recommended.

Unfortunately, there is only so much of 'Jeff and Casey' out there, and once you have consumed their high quality content, you have to go dumpster diving to find something else to kill the hours and hours you spend driving on the road.

What appeals to me the most are paranormal podcasts, as I have a long time interest in the subject. To be clear, I have never had a paranormal experience, and I'm a card carrying skeptic. My interest in the paranormal is fairly basic.

I am interested in the paranormal for the following reasons:

Mystery
Story Telling
Modern Myth / Folklore
Belief Systems

While I have never had a paranormal experience, I readily grant that other people do have them and I don't presume to judge them for having these experiences in their lives. Even though I consider myself a skeptic, I am also aware that I am in no particular position of authority to attack someone’s personal and private experience. I can merely shrug my shoulders, say 'It happened to you and not me', and then listen to their story.

And...oh the stories they do tell. The paranormal has at its core a 'mystery', something which is unexplained. That's what makes it paranormal to begin with, and the human mind loves a good mystery; it's as simple as that. Great story-telling comes out of the unknown, deep mystery, and profound personal experience. All of these elements are showcased by paranormal themes.

Collectively, these paranormal stories form our own modern and evolving myth. Each UFO story someone tells, or ghost story, or alien abduction tale, is weaving the modern mythology of the day. In the future, when we look back, these will comprise the folk-lore of our time and I believe it can be more fun watching myth be made in real-time rather than simply retelling the mythology of cultures from the past.

Finally, and for me perhaps the deepest core of my interest, is that I am truly fascinated by how and why people form their personal belief systems. There is a massive leap between someone having a bizarre experience and then for that person to codify the experience into a particular belief about reality. How people come to form these beliefs and, ultimately, let those beliefs both transform and give meaning to their lives is a journey I have always been fascinated by.

So, there you go. That's why I listen to paranormal podcasts. And, in that vein, for my money the absolute best paranormal podcast out there is 'Mysterious Universe'. The two hosts, Benjamin Grundy and Aaron Wright, are world class story tellers from down under. Their show isn't about searching for 'truth' or 'meaning'. Nor is it a show trying to promote either the acceptance or skeptical dismissal of any particular belief system. The only thing their show is about is storytelling, plain and simple. Whether it is ghost stories, UFO stories, or stories about Bigfoot, they know how to weave a gripping yarn. This is the one podcast that I make sure I listen to every single episode of as soon as it comes out. If you are looking for a great way to pass time on a long car drive, I couldn't recommend any podcast more strongly.

The second paranormal podcast I would like to recommend is 'Binnall of America'. This is a long running and very professionally produced podcast hosted by Tim Binnall. This podcast is a bit more conventional. The host interviews people in the paranormal field, usually those who have a book to promote. It can be a bit of a mixed bag. If you like the guest and their topic, great, if not, then you may want to skip it. However, the host is a really great interviewer. He has an easy going and non-confrontational style. When he does have an interesting guest it is a really enjoyable listening experience and highly recommended.

The paranormal podcast I used to listen to, but do not any more, is 'The Paracast'. The Paracast was made famous back in the day due to its extremely skeptical tone. There is something refreshing about a podcast which deals with such fringe material as the paranormal while, at the same time, keeping a rational viewpoint and skeptical tone intact. When this show was good is back when David Biedny was involved. However, Biedny got tired of it and left the show. The remaining hosts, frankly, I find somewhat painful to listen to. Additionally the podcast is riddled with commercials which are extremely obnoxious and constantly interrupt the guests that are being interviewed. I would not recommend the current incarnation of this show to anyone.

So, finally, we get to the paranormal podcast called 'Paratopia'. I used to be a big fan of this show but, from my perspective, it has been less entertaining on a regular basis. The hosts of the show wanted to monetize their effort and, rather than inserting a zillion commercials like 'The Paracast' does, they decided to go to a subscriber model instead. Now, I don't hold that against them. Hosting a podcast is a lot of work, and there are real hard expenses to it as well. You have to pay for server and bandwidth costs, as well as equipment. The time you spend finding guests to interview, conducting those interviews, and then editing the final product is substantial, it's far more work than I think most people realize.

About a year or so ago I thought I would make my own podcast just to see if I liked it. I only did four episodes and I had problem after problem with audio quality. I also learned that I was not, myself, a very good interviewer. I would talk over top of the guests, almost jumping down their throats at times. I quickly realized that I didn't have the time, temperament, or interest, to keep it going. Frankly, I'm glad I went through the exercise just so I could have the experience and learn how hard it is to produce a quality podcast. It is for this reason that I tread lightly when criticizing others who put themselves out there at great personal effort to produce a show for our entertainment. It's a crap load of work and if your reward is some listener bitching, complaining, or critiquing your show, that can be hard to take. That said I still take issue with Paratopia in regards to this specific episode and how they handled it.

Paratopia is hosted by Jeff Ritzmann and Jeremy Vaeni. Jeff Ritzmann is a very talented commercial artist. Jeremy Vaeni is a writer, former pet-shop employee of the month, and wanna be comedian.

When Paratopia initially began, the show was both free and quite a bit of fun. Jeremy would produce comedy bits, many of which were extremely funny, though often at the expense of some of the more outrageous people in the field. Frankly, these were people who deserved to be made fun of, so I never really had a problem with it.

In the beginning Paratopia was somewhat light hearted in tone and interviewed a lot of different people in the field. If you listen to paranormal podcasts what you will often find is that an author with a new book will go on the 'tour'; being interviewed over and over again by multiple podcasts week after week. If you listen to the guest on one podcast you generally have no interest in hearing them repeat themselves on another. However, that wasn't the case with Paratopia. They would ask questions none of the other podcast hosts did. And they would usually engage the author in some deeper and more philosophical lines of questioning.

But, over time, Paratopia changed. It seems to me that it really started with the Emma Woods debacle. I don't want to detail this bizarre fiasco here at this time; you can look it up for yourself if you are interested. There seemed to be a marked change in the tone of the podcast once they started exposing this case. After Emma, their next line of attack was against the use of hypnosis, in any way, shape or form, within the paranormal field.

Now, let's take a step back and recall what I, personally, like about listening to podcasts. I like to hear stories. Now, if those stories come from someone being hypnotized, having a dream, taking drugs, or going into a trance, personally, I don't really care much one way or the other. I just want a good story.

And, while Jeff and Jeremy made a lot of great points on the issue of hypnosis, I began to worry about their very black and white binary approach to the topic. It quickly came off that if someone claimed to have a lifetime of paranormal experiences but saw a hypnotist one time that pretty much invalidated anything they had to say. Simply by virtue of having seen a hypnotist once you were persona non-grata and nothing you had to say held any merit. Now, maybe Jeff and Jeremy take issue with this characterization on my part. All I can say is that, as a listener, both I (and many others) perceived it this way.

After the period of time of the great Emma Woods / Hypnosis wars, Paratopia just stopped being as much fun. Gone were the comedy bits. Instead, the show seemed to progressively be taking itself more, and more, and more seriously as the last bastion of reasoned discourse on the topic. Next they decided that they were done interviewing book authors and other personalities in the paranormal field, and would focus pretty much exclusively on interviewing actual 'experiencers' of the paranormal.

Now, personally, I don't have a big problem with this on paper. But the episodes with 'experiencers' were a bit of a mixed bag. Not everyone is a good story-teller and often times an episode would focus on one or two relatively minor life experiences and then drag it out, dissecting these minor incidents for hours ad nauseum. Often the hosts wouldn't even bother to get a guest, and instead the two of them would just chew up hours at a time 'speculating' about the paranormal and generally rambling on for extended periods of time saying a whole lot of nothing. Frankly, I found this exhausting and it held little entertainment value for me. For a show that I used to look forward to listening to the entirety of almost every episode I found that over time I listened to fewer and fewer of them.

Another problem arose with how they dealt with a long time paranormal author and 'friend of the show' Phil Imbrogno once he was exposed as having completely faked all of his credentials. Now, Phil Imbrogno wrote a lot of bat-shit crazy stuff over the years but I'll give the guy this, he was a heck of a story teller. Of course now we must assume that, like his credentials, all of his stories were completely made up.

Paratopia, in my opinion, did not handle this situation well. They continued to defend Imbrogno long after they should have given up and, most importantly, they should have presented a balanced and skeptical point of view the minute Imbrogno started telling his rather ridiculous tales to begin with. What was particularly remarkable about this situation is that Imbrogno had been going on paranormal shows for years and years, with completely fake credentials that could have been (and were) proven fake with a simple phone call but, in all those years, no one bothered to do so. As long as Phil would keep spinning his ghost stories while calling himself an MIT trained scientist, it was all just fine and well for the paranormal podcast circuit.

This, finally, brings me to Shroudman. Both Jeff and Jeremy claim to have had a lifetime of bizarre paranormal experiences; ranging from seeing bright shiny metallic UFOs to having ghost like apparitions walk through the walls of their homes. They have had mystical experiences, magical healings, apparitions, apports, and can even share stories of strange paranormal creatures from other dimensions sitting in their living room.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is all great stuff. For a guy who likes to hear stories, this is rich fodder for the mill. Bring it on.

It is important for the reader to know that the hosts of Paratopia have a long track record of poking fun at New Age / UFO people who claim to receive messages from paranormal sources. So, when Jeff and Jeremy devoted an entire episode of their show to delivering a message of major importance from a disincarnate paranormal entity I was, to say the least, just a little bit surprised and befuddled.

After I pointed out in their message forums that, to the outside observer, there was absolutely no difference between Jeff delivering messages from his disincarnate entity and some New Ager channeling their favorite ancient warrior, what did they do? Rather than, in a self-deprecating way, acknowledge the simple truth of this obvious comparison, they instead accused me of promoting New Age nonsense myself and spent 30 minutes of their next show making fun of New Age channelers!?!? Talk about missing the point....

So...let me give you the back-story here.

For the past year Jeff Ritzmann reports that he has been visited late at night by a shrouded man who has been teaching him lessons of some kind. On one occasion, when he disobeyed the shrouded man, he woke up the next morning with vicious bloody and violent scratches all down his back; presumably a paranormal event. He took photographs of his bloodied back and uploaded them to his message forum as testament to the physical reality of this event in his life (Note: Jeff has since removed this photograph from the Internet).

Over about a year or more of his involvement with this shrouded man Jeff has been very, very, cautious about speaking of him in public (common sense perhaps, as many people might assume such a person to be suffering from mental illness after hearing a story like that). However, something happened to Jeff which he deemed so significant that he had to share it on the November 26th episode.

It just so happens that one evening the shrouded man sat Jeff down in his living room and spoke to him about some pseudo-scientific nonsense which he then dutifully wrote down.

Jeff and Jeremy deemed this message of such potential importance that they heavily promoted the episode and made it a free download to even non-subscribers so that the world at large could benefit from this hidden knowledge.

At no point, that I can tell, did Jeff or Jeremy find any hypocrisy in this.

Once the episode began, Jeff and Jeremy were sure to throw out many disclaimers about this message. Jeff was self-deprecating and described it himself as coming from a ridiculous source and said that if somebody else were telling this tale he wouldn’t believe it either. So, with that preface, all should all be fine right...right? Well...except...that this disclaimer did not make up for the fact that they heavily promoted the episode as being important and, more significantly, spent over an hour and a half dissecting the message for its potential to impact on scientific thought and our understanding of the nature of reality. The hole was dug deeper once they strongly defended this ‘message’ from anyone who would criticize it on their forums. And, most recently, they have uploaded the episode to YouTube replete with diagrams and visual aids so that the common man can better grok this important material.

And, just what was this message? It was 530 words of pseudo-scientific gibberish largely devoid of content (like most New Age twaddle), childish in tone, and in direct contradiction to reality as we observe it. Even now I can't believe I managed to sit through the two of them talking about this nonsense and taking it seriously for an hour and a half.

After listening to the show I went to their message forums and was even more shocked to see that other listeners were chiming in about how incredibly awesome the show was and how important the message seemed to be. At this point I simply couldn't believe it, did we listen to the same episode? Did I miss something here?

Here are two guys who pat themselves on the back for their rational and skeptical approach to the subject, two guys who often ridicule anyone who claims to 'receive messages' from paranormal sources, but when it happens to one of them they are completely unable to recognize their own hypocrisy? It is as if they, quite literally, could not smell their own bullshit.

I want to be clear; I never said that I thought Jeff was lying about his experiences. What I said is that the message from the Shroudman was bullshit, and if you compared this message to the messages produced by most New Age Channelers, the Shroudman material was pretty weak in comparison. This is a very clear and important distinction. I was not trying to attack the messenger (Jeff) but rather the message, which is patent nonsense on the face of it. Jeff states that if someone else were telling this story ‘he wouldn’t believe it’. So, with that acknowledgement on his part, how come he gets so pissed off when someone questions the message he is receiving from some alleged paranormal entity? He doesn’t seem to practice what he preaches. And, once he begins defending this ‘message’, how can he not see his own bias and hypocrisy inherent in doing so?

Jeff feels completely comfortable judging the validity of every other person’s paranormal experiences on a regular basis; just listen to the show. But, be forewarned; just don’t question his experiences; which, by the way, I didn’t. I don’t question that Jeff believes he is having the experience of a Shrouded dude spouting mystical mumbo jumbo to him in his living room (a position which is remarkably open minded if you ask me; especially when you consider the fact that neither Jeff nor Jeremy are the least bit shy about calling any other paranormal experiencer a liar and a fraud, something they do on a quite frequent basis). But, there is a giant leap between believing that Jeff believes this to be true and for me to believe that his experience in any way, shape, or form intersects consensus and objective reality. For guys who spend hours and hours dissecting these topics, I think they would have no difficulty grasping this distinction.

After hearing this lengthy discussion about the importance of the message from Shroudman, I was pretty frustrated with the whole affair and I made a post on the Paratopia message forum with the goal of putting Jeff's mind at ease. I assured him that he need not worry himself about the situation since the 'message' from the paranormal entity was complete nonsense. However, rather than being relieved by the news that he could dismiss this message as the trite New Age psycho-babble that it was, he got pretty upset with my characterization and defended this ‘message’. Since then he has dug an ever deeper hole by continuing to promote and champion the teachings he is receiving from this paranormal entity.

So what is this message? Well, you see, the Shroudman (as this entity is called) likes fractals. Of course, Jeff Ritzmann really likes fractals too; he has been posting about them on his message forum for years and years, making it clear his near obsessive fascination with these equations. I'm sure there is no co-incidence here that Shroudman expresses an equal fascination with fractals...no coincidence at all....

For those of you not familiar with how fractals work you should know that there is a key feature of mathematical fractals that allows you to zoom into them infinitely. It never stops; you can just go deeper and deeper into them and keep finding self-similarity the whole way down. Now, apparently, this Shroudman told Jeff that our reality is also fractal and that you can continue to zoom forever finding entire universes inside of universes; like so many turtles stacked end to end. Now, I admit that this sounds kind of poetic right? One problem, reality simply doesn't work that way. It turns out that you can zoom into reality, don't get me wrong, that's why the good lord invented electron scanning microscopes. However, once you reach the Planck constant you can't zoom any further. Sorry Charlie, but reality just doesn't work that way. Here Shroudman demonstrates about as much scientific knowledge as well, frankly, Jeff Ritzmann does, which, frankly, ain't that much.

This is the point where Jeff and Jeremy begin to get into real trouble. God love them. Jeremy is a great writer and a really funny guy. Jeff is a great artist and usually pretty articulate. But, honestly, neither of them knows much of anything about science other than what they try to understand by reading quantum physics books written for the layman. These ‘quantum physics for dummies’ books take concepts that are so complex that only a relatively small percentage of people on the planet can even wrap their head around the mathematics, and then reduce them to crude and simplistic analogy.

Unfortunately, to the laymen who read these books, they now think they ‘know something’ about quantum physics and quickly leap to using these concepts to ‘explain’ every type of paranormal event they have ever encountered in their lives; a leap of logic which is as laughable as it is ridiculous. But the layman doesn't get it, because the most he can grasp are the crude analogies in the books he has read. Using 'quantum physics' to 'explain' paranormal events is no explanation at all. It's just equating one thing you don't understand with something else you don't understand. There is no correlation other than your inability to grasp the two concepts. One does not 'explain' the other; especially considering the fact that quantum physics is backed up by rigorous mathematics which are highly accurate and predictable in how we apply it to the real world while the paranormal is, well, it's just a bunch of stories which do not bend to the scientific method in any way, shape, or form. One does not 'explain' the other, and anyone who says it does is merely demonstrating their ignorance of math, science, and how reality is modeled and understood through the scientific method.

One of the most painful podcast listening experiences is when Jeff and Jeremy hear a paranormal story and then free-style rap on quantum physics as a way to "explain" it. Stop. Please, for the love of God, stop. You know you are out of your depth, so please don't keep digging yourself a deeper hole. (For the record, I am not myself a physicist nor do I have any significant training in that field beyond college level physics, chemistry, and a great deal of advanced mathematics courses I took when I attended college. However, I am just smart enough to know that I shouldn't be speculating in areas I know nothing about. And, also for the record, I do have a formal training in the scientific method, I have been published in a number of peer reviewed scientific journals, and I do know what the requirements are for something to be 'explained' by science.)

I would like to point out something else that Jeff, Jeremy, and a bunch of other paranormal proponents are guilty of. When some scientific principle, theory, or experiment appears to support their pet paranormal claim, they will tout it with great enthusiasm. However, whenever something in scientific understanding states, unequivocally, that their pet paranormal theory is completely impossible, they are quick to reject science and the scientific establishment as a bunch of fanatical closed minded fundamentalists. How convenient it must be to get to pick and choose which parts of science you like and which parts you don’t. It’s a lot like picking which parts of a religion you will follow and which you won’t. In fact, it’s exactly like that. But, I have news for you, if you are going to think of yourself as a rational person, one willing to accept the power of the scientific method as a tool for understanding the nature of reality, then you don’t get to do that. You can’t just reject science because a ghost came into your living room and told you so. It simply doesn’t work that way if you still want to consider yourself to be a rational human being. And, if someone like me comes onto your message forum and points out the obvious and clear stupidity of the message you received from your paranormal pal, I’ve got news for you, I’m not the problem. Your paranormal buddy is.

So, just what is this great message from Shroudman? Am I being unfair? Was it really an important message for mankind, worthy of deep and serious consideration by our most learned scholars and scientists? Was it more brilliant than the channeled writings of other New Age mystics?

Unfortunately, to date, Jeff has failed to successfully video tape or in any way record his interactions with Shroudman other than by taking shorthand on post-it notes; so the best that I can do is reproduce the following detailed 3d computer simulation of the event. It is important to note that the dialogue in the following video is reproduced exactly perfectly, word for word, as transcribed by Jeff Ritzmann and relayed on the show.

So, there you have it. This long rambling post is almost over. But, I would like to close with these few thoughts about Jeff Ritzmann's experience with the Shroudman. Thoughts that I have when I ask myself, "What would I do if Shroudman were showing up in my living room?" And, one might wonder, why doesn't, or hasn't, Jeff done some of these things as well?

First of all, if I had a guy showing up in my living room, in a shroud and all of that, the first thing I would do is buy myself a taser and always have it ready. The next time the Shroudman showed up in my living room, I would hit him with the taser, tie him up, call the police, and have him arrested and prosecuted for breaking and entering.

Note. This statement is not facetious; it is not meant as a joke nor is it sarcasm. Quite literally, this is exactly what I would do. A man showing up in my living room in the middle of the night is deadly serious; especially when it is in the home where my wife and children are sleeping. I’m not going to sit around and listen to this intruder spout mystical nonsense; I’m going to have him taken out if at all possible. And, he should consider himself lucky that I'm so nice as to use a taser on him. My father would have put a bullet through his heart, using the 38 pistol he always kept with him at all times, both awake and asleep.

Now, let's say that the taser thing didn't work. Let's say Shroudman is too ephemeral, and too much of a paranormal entity to be caught up by this trick. Maybe he can read my mind.

Well, the next thing I would do is I would go see a psychiatrist and get a prescription for some anti-psychotic medication. Once again, I am not kidding here. This is not a joke. Quite literally, this is what I would do if what Jeff claims to be happening to him, were happening to me. Even if Shroudman is legitimately a paranormal entity it is also clear that he would only be able interact with me due to something going on in my own mind. Perhaps anti-psychotics or some other psychiatric medication might block that access and prevent him from intruding into my life. There would clearly have to be something unique about me and my brain chemistry, otherwise everyone would have shroud people sitting in their living rooms too; and clearly that is not happening. I would strive to find out what was unique about my brain that causes these experiences to happen, and I would seek help from the psychiatric community to make these experiences go away.

Now, let's say that I am convinced that I am not suffering from a mental illness or the medication simply won’t make the Shroudman go away. And, also, I am convinced that Shroudman is physically real and physically present in my living room. In this case I would have motion sensitive cameras set up pointing throughout the house recording 24 hours a day seven days a week. Once again, this isn't a joke. A couple of years ago we had kids steal some stuff from out of our garage. Right after this happened I installed a high-end security system and motion sensitive night-vision cameras all around my home, recording to disk 24 hours a day seven days a week. And this was just for some teenagers, not a shroudman spinning pseudo-scientific garbage in my living room. In fact, on second thought, maybe I would get out my dad's 38.

Finally, if none of these things worked, here is what I would do. I would keep my mouth shut about it. If this paranormal entity were giving me nonsense messages, I would keep them to myself. The last thing I would do is talk about them on a podcast, or suggest that they held some importance to the outside world. Also, quite seriously, as I said above, I would deeply question my sanity. I would seek psychiatric help and, if I were a religious person, I might have a priest come to my home to perform an exorcism. The last thing I would do is 'embrace' the experience which is what Jeff seems to have done.

It doesn’t seem to me that Jeff even wants these experiences to go away. It’s as if he has no desire to lead what the rest of us would consider a ‘normal’ life. Maybe he enjoys how his interactions with the paranormal make him ‘special’ compared to the rest of us. Perhaps he believes his interactions with this Shrouded man give him access to deep mystical and secret knowledge that the rest of the profane world is unworthy to even hear. Yeah, I suppose that is one way to approach it. It’s not my way, of course, but you can tread that path if you so choose.

But Jeff should know that by virtue of hosting a public podcast with a wide audience and baring his most deep and personal intimate experiences to the world at large, he opens himself up to this kind of public comment. He has lost the right to privacy in this matter through his own actions. He is now a public figure and his experiences become fodder for public discussion. He said something about this on his forum before, just as soon as I questioned the message on the show. He muttered that it was people like me that made him regret ever telling anyone about this experience in the first place. Well, it’s certainly something worth thinking about, because I sure as hell wouldn’t be telling a story like this in public unless my only reason for doing so was to make fun of how stupid it was. And, seriously, I wouldn’t even do that, the only person I would tell is a psychiatrist and probably not even my wife.

From what I can tell Jeff does not seem concerned that a man is coming into his home while his wife and children are asleep. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t attempted to video tape him, arrest him, have him shot, tased, shouted out for help, or called the police. As far as I know he has not spoken to a psychiatrist or even a priest. Instead, he just sits calmly in his living room, takes notes, and tells people (with a completely straight face) about the messages he is receiving from a paranormal entity who lives inside of a sub-atomic particle in the spaces between spaces; and God help you, if you dare point out that the garbage this Shroudman is telling him is a complete and total load of horse-shit. If you do that, you will be attacked, your views will be mischaracterized and misrepresented, and you will be banned from the forums and marked an enemy for life for having the temerity simply to point out that this ‘message’ is complete and utter nonsense.

Note that I never once said that Jeff is lying about Shroudman. I have never once claimed he is making it up. And, also, it is extremely important to realize that Jeff accuses other paranormal experiencers of being liars and frauds all of the time, constantly! And he sees absolutely no hypocrisy in doing so!

My rant is now done and that is my take on the situation, what is yours?

I’m curious to hear your opinion on this crazy story. Please take the following poll; you do not have to have listened to the show to express an opinion.

The Shroudman Prophecies Internet Poll

Golden Pyrenees Puppy Pictures : Caution Severe Cuteness Ahead

2011-11-12T17:36:00.007-06:00

My Puppy Winston Niles Rumfoord II : A Golden Pyreneese : Half Golden Retriever Half Great Pyreneese
Click on the picture for a larger version.
Personally I think this photograph, taken by my wife, could win a contest!

Note: If you have a Golden Pyrenees of your own, go ahead and send me some pictures and I will add them to this post.

You can friend Winston on his facebook page here.

Winston play-fighting with his sister Winnie

Our son Alex playing with Winston

Winston and his sister Winnie

Winston sitting on my lap after just a few months of growing up

Winston and a Golden Retriever Puppy

Winston and a full grown Great Pyreneese

Winston and our cat Goldy

Winston and Goldy demonstrating their laser eyes

Winston laying in my bed with our other cat Amp

Winston Today at about 7 months old and 65 pounds.

Winston the day we got him

Over Christmas I range the bell for the Salvation Army. I took Winston with me and I think I raised about 3 times as much money as I would have without him along. Here's some pictures.

The following are pictures sent to my from John Rudd of his Golden Pyrenees 'Ginger'

Andrea Rossi : Cold Fusion, LENR, E-Cat, Energy Catalyzer

2011-11-04T12:23:00.004-05:00

So, a lot has happened in the media since I made my last blog post about Andrea Rossi's alleged cold-fusion device 'The Energy Catalyzer'. After 9 months of complaining from the Free Energy movement that no mainstream media coverage was being done, that now seems to be getting corrected.

Numerous articles have come out this past week, many of them, in fact most of them, not entirely dismissive. A few are even optimistic and hopeful in tone.

Since my last post Rossi supposedly did a demonstration of his 1mw device, which he claimed produced 1/2 a MW. He released data that, on paper, looks like the device produced a lot of energy. However, that's only if you believe what he says. And, frankly, pretty much no one does.

The entire thing could quite easily be a hoax or scam. Just like a good magician uses misdirection and outright lies, Rossi could be doing the same thing here. Only independent replication will ever be completely convincing. Some will not be convinced, even after LENR power plants are running all over the planet, until there is a scientific explanation in theoretical physics to account for the phenomenon.

No demonstration of Rossi's has ever lasted more than a few hours; so obviously a demonstration of continuous operation for weeks would be much more compelling.

Probably my biggest sticking point is that, to date, Rossi has not produced so much as a milliwatt of electricity from any of his devices. The technology to convert heat or steam to electricity is well established and it should not pose a major technical problem for Rossi to configure an E-Cat so that it converted the output heat, or steam, to usable electricity.

Why is this important? Because to run his device optimally he needs a certain amount of electrical input. However, if he could feed that input from electricity generated from the output, he could create a closed system and forever end the debate about whether or not he truly has an over-unity self-sustaining reaction. Let's put it this way, I would find such a demonstration a lot more compelling. Certainly more interesting than arguing about wet steam, dry steam, and other issues of measurement which have created so much controversy to date.

Personally, I will be convinced that the technology is real at the time it has been independently replicated in multiple laboratories over a period of time. Of course, if Rossi continues to sell devices then, theoretically, proof could come from his customers who would stand as independent replication and verification of the device. However, conclusions we might draw from this are limited as much of the device remains black boxed even to licensed 'customers'.

Of course what everyone is all excited about is the potential of this technology to transform our society and free us from the need for petrochemical solutions to our energy needs. Sadly, it doesn't appear that Rossi's proprietary approach is helping much there.

Right now he is building his E-Cat's in a labor intensive and very low bandwidth way. Given his current rate of production it would take one hundred million years for him to produce enough E-Cat's to free us from other sources of energy production.

At a certain point, he has to open the product up to mass production on a massive scale. I understand he wants to retain his intellectual property and the best way to do that is to obtain patents and then license the technology far and wide. Maybe that is his plan. Time will tell.

Another way the technology might reach the masses is if it is independently replicated by other scientists and engineers and they publish those results in the public domain. This isn't completely far fetched. Half of the challenge in engineering and science is simply knowing that something can be done. It wouldn't be surprising if other mechanisms for achieving commercial processes in LENR were developed in the years to come.

Ultimately only competition, mass production, and a heavy investment by industry is going to achieve the capacity necessary to transform the energy infrastructure of this planet.

But, we must remember, this is all predicated on the notion that what Rossi has is real and not a hoax. Most people believe it is a hoax. And, considering the way he is approaching his project, I don't see him dissuading many of that opinion any time soon.

Some of the people most upset about Rossi are those who are already part of the LENR community today. They fear, and rightly so, that if Rossi is proven to be conducting a hoax then there is no chance of LENR ever being taken seriously ever again. It's the parable of crying wolf all over again.

Rossi has a lot to answer for. If he is sincere and has truly made the breakthrough he claims, then I wish him all the best in the world and I encourage him to license his technology as fast as possible to get it into as many people's hands as he can. The potential market for this technology is measured, literally, in the *trillions* of dollars. I don't know how much money Rossi wants to make, but there are larger moral issues as stake here. If his technology is real, it stands to improve the quality of life for the entire population of the planet, it stands to lift us out of our current economic crisis by creating millions of jobs and injecting trillions of dollars of new economic activity into the world economy. It can go a long way towards stemming climate change and preventing the continued rape of our planet with oil wells, oil spills, coal mining and frakking.

As you can see, the stakes are very, very, very high.

And, if he is conducting a scam, I hope he rots in jail for a very long time.

Which is it?

Time will tell.

The Andrea Rossi 'E-CAT' (Energy Catalyzer) and how it's spawning ramptant speculation around the Internet

2011-10-26T11:43:00.003-05:00

There is a fire storm of controversy running loose on the Internets, and soon it may begin seeping into mainstream coverage as well. The controversy all surrounds the man pictured above, Andrea Rossi, and his radical claims of being able to produce cheap, limitless, and decentralized energy.

This story has been developing for most of this year and it has been ramping up in excitement these past few weeks.

So, first of all and up-front, let me make it abundantly clear that it is an almost 100% absolute certainty that the 'E-Cat' is a fraud and hoax. However, that doesn't make the story itself particularly less interesting to follow and, even as a hoax, it becomes very difficult to figure out how Rossi intends to get away with anyone's money without ending up in court or jail over the affair.

But I suppose that's just more of the mystery when trying to figure out what is this odd character is up to.

So, here are the reasons that this is almost for certain a hoax and conscious fraud. I have a friend who says that one possibility is that Rossi is simply misinterpreting his data and is not consciously committing fraud; but if you examine the facts surrounding this case that doesn't seem very likely.

Cold Fusion (now rebranded LENR) has not been accepted as a legitimate scientific phenomenon
Rossi has never published any of his work in a peer reviewed scientific journal.
Rossi carefully controls all tests of his device.
Rossi intentionally misleads people in his experiments by confusing the question of energy output. He has not once demonstrated a device which produces electricity. Instead he produces varying amounts of steam of questionable quality and energy content. However, by converting the steam to electricity; a simple task, he would then have a radically more compelling story to tell.
Rossi claims to have a 'secret catalyst' which he withholds. His patent for the device does not explain how it would even work, since the secret magic catalyst sauce is missing.
The effect claimed by Rossi has not been independently replicated by anyone, anywhere, any time. This is probably the most damning piece of evidence. Until there is independent replication and publication of those results, this all just remains a huge circus side show.
Rossi has a colorful past.
Rossi is prone to emotional outbursts which include frequent use of ALL CAPS LETTERS WHEN POSTING MESSAGES TRYING TO DEMONSTRATE HOW SMART HE IS!!!

So, that's just a handful of the reasons to assume this entire thing is a fraud and a hoax. As I said before, that doesn't make it an any less an interesting story.

On other blogs and websites people have focused on how an invention like this could transform the planet and society. If Rossi's device is real, he stands to become the first trillionare on the planet.

I believe part of the fascination with a story like this is the same attraction we have when dreaming what it would be like if we were to win the lottery. Even though there is an infinitesimally small chance that any of us would win the lottery who hasn't bought a ticket once in their life solely so they could play out the "What If" scenario in their head if they were to win.

That is the fascination we have with the Rossi story. Even though odds are that there is absolutely nothing here the question remains...but what if...it were true?

Others have played out the scenario of what it might mean if suddenly, over night, we had a limitless supply of clean cheap energy which, most importantly, could be delivered in a decentralized fashion. What if every person could produce their own electricity, on demand, to meet their personal needs without having to be 'on the grid'. How dramatically this would transform society, culture, economies, and raise the standard of living of every person on the planet is a captivating idea to explore. And, of course, don't forget about the most dramatic impact of all. We would stop raping our planet and environment as we have been doing for far too long.

There are some who go down this line of speculation and wonder if the powers that be, the current multi-trillion dollar petro-chemical industries which would be wiped out by such an invention, would ever let it happen? One way they could prevent it is by demonizing the technology. They could claim that it is dangerous, needs more study, and could even be used as a terrorist weapon.

There is one flaw with that strategy. For every country which would try to restrict or limit the adoption of this new technology there would be five countries which would accept it with open arms. And, since we live in a global economy, no nation could afford to not also use the technology for themselves. Kind of hard to compete against an economy which has access to cheap limitless energy.

The other 'what if' scenario that fascinates me is how the scientific establishment would react to finding out just how horribly wrong they had been. How would they react to the knowledge that by actively repressing and suppressing research into LENR they had set the world back by almost two decades unnecessarily. While there be any comeuppance? Will anyone admit, and learn, from these errors?

Another what if it were real question, is what might be done with the technology once more scientists and engineers could understand it. After all, Rossi's device would likely be the 'Model-T' of LENR power plants and, in a short period of time our minds might be blown by rapid advances in using this technology to greater and greater effect.

So, in the end, it all boils down to this. Enjoy the story. Watch it unfold. Chances are it's a hoax and we will all have a chuckle about this one when Rossi goes to jail for fraud. Or, who knows, maybe there is something to it after all. Only time will tell but isn't it fun to scratch that lottery ticket and wonder?

Wow, puppies sure grow fast!

2011-09-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

Look at how much my 'puppy' has grown in a matter of a few short weeks! Simply amazing.

The Bizarre Id of YouTube Commenters and the 'Dome of the Rock UFO video'

2011-08-20T11:17:00.011-05:00

"Your mockery is neither kind or welcomed. Tread lightly, because you are treading on my dreams." MrEvad65

There is something strange going on in cyberspace and it has to do with the psychology of people who leave YouTube comments. What is it about YouTube that causes people to unleash their id in such a raw way? I really don't get it.

On YouTube you could make a statement like say, 'The sky is blue' and, almost immediately, someone would feel compelled to post a comment to the effect "I hope you die you fucking bastard!"

Where does that come from? What fuels it? I cannot bring myself to get that angry about much of anything and, most especially, any particular person. If anyone reading this post has a degree in psychology, I would love it if you could leave a comment explaining this behavior.

I suppose this is old news to most people but I am absolutely amazed at what I have experienced personally in this bizarre forum of feedback.

So, let me tell the complete story. A few months ago someone uploaded a video of an alleged UFO to YouTube. There is nothing particularly unique about this, people do it all of the time. What made this particular video compelling/interesting were the reactions of the people who were in it. Soon after this video was uploaded, another video, allegedly of the same event, was posted that showed it from a different camera angle.

What was interesting is that in the minds of YouTube viewers this was somehow supposed to be significant. Their belief that the alleged 'event' had been recorded from multiple camera angles made this more believable in their way of thinking.

There are, however, just a few problems with this line of reasoning. If someone wanted to create a fake UFO video and put it on the Internet, to fool a bunch of people, it would be completely natural to upload *two* (or more) fake videos to make it seem more believable. And, let me assure you, there are plenty of people who derive immense pleasure out of creating fake UFO videos and uploading them on YouTube.

Let me put it into perspective. Over in the United Kingdom there are large teams of pranksters who invest tremendous amounts of time and energy to create complex crop-circle formations at night. This is a grand hobby that they derive a great deal of personal sanctification from. The key source of their satisfaction comes from when crop circle enthusiasts go rushing out to their formation with dowsing rods, healing crystals, and ooh, ahh, and gush over how the inter-dimensional hyper-space aliens are communicating deep mystical symbols of the apocalypse. Yes, this just tickles the crop circle makers to death.

Now, in contrast, creating a fake UFO video is a trivial exercise by comparison. It requires nothing more than a cell phone and access to a piece of software like Adobe After Effects.

On a planet filled with billions of cellphones and hundreds of millions of bored teen-agers with access to the Internet and some modest computer software skills, you can just imagine how many fake UFO videos are uploaded to YouTube on a regular basis.

Finally, there is a little thing called 'provenance'.

A YouTube video is generally anonymous and there is no way to actually know who filmed it, when, where, why, how, etc. In other words, it has no provenance at all! So, literally by definition, *all* YouTube videos of alleged UFOs should be assumed to be fake to begin with. There is literally no way to prove otherwise. They may be fun, and entertaining, but in terms of 'proof' they have virtually no evidential value of any kind.

So, back to our story about the UFO video that was uploaded from 'multiple camera angles'. Well, this became quite the Internet meme and within a matter of weeks there were dozens of YouTube videos uploaded that were supposedly from the same event. Each YouTube video more silly and ridiculous than the last.

The video which really took the cake was one which had a bunch of people supposedly speaking in the background in various accents effusing hyperbolic amazement at this supposed event. What made this particular video even more absurd is that it didn't even match the original video which had started the entire meme!!!

I began reading the YouTube comments on these various videos and I became continually amazed at the complete and utter lack of critical thinking skills of nearly every person who was contributing to this discussion.

Finally, as a joke and to make a point about 'provenance', I had the idea to upload my very own 'Dome on the Rock' UFO video. I decided that I would make the absolute most fakest UFO video humanly possible. I grabbed my Iphone and in, literally, 30 seconds I had created my own fake UFO video and uploaded it to YouTube. No editing. No Adobe After effects. Just point, shoot, and upload.

What ensued afterwards, to me, seemed to be one of the greatest social experiments I have ever been involved in. A few people 'got the joke' and left positive comments on the YouTube page.

However, the vast majority of those who posted comments to my 30 second YouTube clip acted as if I had burned, raped, murdered, and eaten their grandmother. The level of vitriol, hatred, and obscene responses to what was obviously a mild joke truly amazed me.

So that you can get the complete story. Here is the original 'Dome of the Rock' UFO video which started the entire meme. This is the one that many people got excited about and wanted to believe was 'real'.

Here is the second 'Dome of the Rock' UFO video 'taken from another angle'. It has almost 3 million views!!!

This video is simply absurd. Notice that the background is perfectly static and still. Notice that the background lights do not twinkle or move in any way. Note that there is no movement of traffic, or anything else. This is because the background is actually just a photograph projected on a computer monitor. Notice that you can hear a bunch of people speaking, in English, but you don't see them. Notice how they have extremely silly accents and say silly things. And, notice most of all, that in this obviously fake video (which millions of people apparently believe is 'real') that they didn't even remember to put the bright flashes in which were so key in the 'original' 'authentic' video!

And here is the video spoof I made making fun of the previous video. The UFO video that took me an entire 30 seconds to make. Now, mine only has 20,000 views, but those 20,000 people who watched it are certainly some very angry people. Does this 30 second video warrant this kind of over the top response? I'm not sure it does.

While a small percentage of the respondents to my video left comments such as 'Hah hah, very funny', they were in the minority. Meanwhile, here is a sampling of some of the less enthusiastic comments I received; including death threats. Needless to say, I have correct no spelling or grammatical errors; nor have I removed the profanity.

"I hope an alien rapes you both now that would be funny real funny haha! dumb bitches." KAMINOUNO 7 hours ago

"bus wanker", zoolook1000 15 hours ago

"so your narrow minded and an asshole besides you didn't disprove shit you only made yourself look like a dickwad with your stupid cackle WOWwwwwwwwwww" Slick1G3 5 days ago

"full retard" BER2ERKER 5 days ago

"fucking dickhead! " HELLBURNZZ 6 days ago

"U have no fucking life -_-" lilimiami 6 days ago

"you're doing a disservice to humanity by creating fake videos....good luck in the near future :)" Barnes466 1 week ago

"Thanks for wasting five seconds of my life. Go read a book moron."

bacso76 1 week ago

"just fuck you for wasting my time!!!!"

bgmkaak 1 week ago

"stupid white people"

noelmaster1 1 week ago

"you dumb fucks go choke on the hairiest ballsack in the worlds your video is the worlds greatest waste of time! damn you"

wwcs2012 1 week ago

"why don't you shove that flash light up your ass and then say wooooaaaa!!!!dick head! don't reply me or i fuck u up ignorant!"

kannabee 1 month ago

"I think the reason why people get angry and upset is because the U.S. government has always referred to people who have reported a sighting as being crazy and unstable individuals. So when somebody makes a "joke" about something they feel intensely about its very upsetting. It would be like if you had a child abducted and when you reported their kidnapping nobody believed you and then to make matters worse they laughed at you and called you crazy even though you had a video of the kidnapping."

b0ilerboy 2 months ago

"fuckin idiots!"

ruffraul 2 months ago

"Dome Of The Rock printed -> 1/2 dollar

Surprised friend shouts -> a beer

make me waste my time -> no have price ¬¬"

pablitorrincos 3 months ago

"fuck u bitch"

thedarkmaster1101 3 months ago

"TIME-WASTING IMBECILE!"

sjm636636 4 months ago

"Yo everytime people make a fake video u waste everyones time and credibility."

jharv607 4 months ago

"let me guess... you are from america? RETARDS"

newdawnhungary 5 months ago

"you fucking assholes this shit is not funny,now go fuck yourselves!!!!!"

scientististheshit 5 months ago

"FUCKING RETARD!!!!"

davenuts22 5 months ago

"they see everything we do on our planet, everything is monitored for centurys. maybe they hire you"

voerendaal1 5 months ago

"two frickin ass holes maybe you will shit in your pant's if all of this turn's out to be true"

dgtbp 5 months ago

"dont be so nieve have a look at all the legitamit ufo evidence there is. not saying aliens are here but this kind of technology definately is and its being kept from us while we destroy ourselves. Meanwhile losers with nothing better to do make fake youtube videos to try to fool people, wow so smart. wake up to the truth sheep read a book, educate yourself."

infoassassin84 5 months ago

"Fucking Idiot you waste my time and you just do disinformation!!! with morons like you, the government don't have to pay anymore."

pinonoir302 6 months ago

"@jratcliff63367 People like you fuck it up for everyone. Self-involved, self-important cyphers who think they know the "truth". You are just an asshole, a cypher, a punk, a nobody. So you think the other videos are a hoax. Big fucking deal, who cares? Go fuck yourself."

gary7vn 4 months ago

"Haha, not listening to the message god has shown me mint be your undoing, but don't take my word for it, you seen like you have it all figured out."

tylerdurden666able 6 months ago

"Sadly, it is because of a%%h*(^@ like these, that people don't take the UFO phenomenom seriously and the Goverments of the world keep a tight lip about what they know. Instead of making fun of something you obviously know little about. You should be using your skills to do some serious research and find the TRUTH. Unless you are too chicket to find the truth. Go out there and shoot a real UFO. You will never be the same."

ricoalagoproductions 6 months ago

"U R A MENTAL MIDGET"

1500swinger 6 months ago

"your a wanker"

theJason299 6 months ago

"yeah... only retards fake ufo sightings... more so if they are so bad even for comedy"

: D

osiris6669 6 months ago

"this is rly scared ppl of the truth that just wants to silly this thing as mush as they can becouse they cant handel the truth ^^ see what they do fucked up things like this... well anyways This is comming ,. easyer to just accept it :P PEace"

zliezer 6 months ago

"Your mockery is neither kind or welcomed. Tread lightly, because you are treading on my dreams."

MrEvad65 6 months ago

"The fact that you took the time to upload this says a lot about your intelligence level."

juelz99z 6 months ago

"complete idiots get a life not even funny"

bryanguy1 6 months ago

Inside Scientology

2011-07-31T15:02:00.001-05:00

I just finished reading the book 'Inside Scientology' by Janet Reitman and I feel compelled to make a short post about it.

Before I read this book, here is what I thought about Scientology. I thought it was just another confidence scam and that a fool and their money are soon parted. I had no particular sympathy for anyone so stupid they would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to be 'audited' by this absurd and ridiculous organization.

I didn't consider it a 'cult' that was unique from any other religious 'cult'. From my perspective, all religions are 'cults', in that it is a key feature of all religions to instill a belief system with the desired result that the follower feels compelled to financially contribute to the Church. This is almost always done through a carrot and stick approach. The carrot is 'eternal salvation', 'spiritual enlightenment', or some other equally vague and nebulous promise that, for some reason, causes many to feel as if it gives their life a deeper meaning and purpose. The stick is the threat of hell and/or being excommunicated from the Church. In a short period of time a person who is a member of the church finds that their entire sense of community, friends, and often family, are built in and around the institution. The threat of losing that connection is a real one. A threat that they feel is far too high a price to pay. It's easy from the outside to say 'why wouldn't you just quit', but for the individual who's entire world, friends, family, support system, and their very psychology and belief system is wrapped into this organization, that is no simple task. You might as well ask them to commit suicide, as they would literally be starting their lives over, filled with guilt, without friends, family, or support, and in some cases actively attacked by the very institution they once pledged their life to.

Different religions practice varying degrees of this time honored confidence scam, with some being more severe and dogmatic than others, but they all share these essential qualities in one way or the other.

So, before I read the book 'Inside Scientology' I figured that Scientology was just one more incarnation of this ancient practice. I figured the only reason people were happy to call it a 'cult' while calling their local protestant Church a 'religion' was simply a matter of cultural acceptance over time. Christianity has had thousands of years to ingrain itself into the fabric of Western society, to such an extent that very few consider it 'cult like' to attend a Sunday sermon and have a preacher tell them they were born in sin, deserve eternal punishment in hell, are an unworthy and unwelcome creature unless they accept a particular belief system based on what, to me, appears to be nothing more than essentially a fairy tale.

More modern religions, like the Mormon church, are clearly proven to be based on a hoax and a group of con-artists who practiced sexual perversion and even child molestation. This has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt by researchers into the origin of this 'faith'. However, these facts don't seem to bother anyone who would become a member of this organization.

Likewise, if you want to hook yourself up to an E-meter, believe in Xenu, and get audited, what skin is it off of my back, or why it is particularly any different?

Well, it turns out, that it is different, and I didn't have my eyes opened until I read this book.

This book is an objective and detailed history of the 'Church', from its inception all of the way up to today. And, while it did exhibit the traditional qualities I described above, what I didn't realize it had, at its core, something that feels to me to be truly evil.

The Scientology process involves literal brainwashing and mind-control of the most extreme kind. And its practices are mentally and physically abusive.

I was shocked, dismayed, and upset reading the material in this book. The biggest questions I had while reading it, and still have after I am done, is *WHY* would anyone allow themselves to submit to this process?

I still don't feel, after having read the book, what any of the 'appeal' could have ever been for any of these people to get involved in the first place? And, once it turned into outright physical and mental abuse, why they put up with it for even one second? The standard practices of the 'religion' involve being screamed at, attacked, and belittled by others. What's appealing about that?

My advice to the reader of this blog post? Don't give up your free will to anyone!!!!

P.S. If anyone reading it finds some irony in the fact that I'm a 'Freemason' let me clarify. Freemasonry does not require me to belong to or subscribe to any particular religious faith or dogma. 'Freemasonry, at it's core, centers around encouraging strong principles of morality without any accompanying dogma. It promises neither salvation nor damnation. It simply states that, can't we all agree, that regardless of your personal religious faith, shouldn't we all be good and kind to one another as fellow members of the human family?

I certainly wouldn't change my beliefs or moral principles based on the threat of excommunication that is for sure.

Winston Niles Rumford II : Our Golden Pyrenees

2011-06-27T14:42:00.001-05:00

We have had our new Golden Pyrenees puppy for three weeks now. He has literally doubled in size in that short time. When we first got Winston he could simply walk through the slats in our fence. Yesterday he couldn't fit through no matter how hard he tried. He may be the cutest puppy in the history of cute puppies but, then again, I'm a bit biased. A Golden Pyrenees is a mixed breed dog, not officially recognized, that crosses a Golden Retriever with a Great Pyrenees. We don't know how big Winston is going to get but....it could be big!

Please Welcome the newest addition to our family; Winston Niles Rumfoord II

2011-06-05T14:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we got a new member in our family; young puppy 'Winston Niles Rumfoord II'; named after the main character in Kurt Vonnegut's classic tale 'The Sirens of Titan'. Perhaps it might have made more sense to name him 'Kazak' since that was the name of the dog in the novel; but Winston Niles Rumfoord sounds so much more distinguished. This name was chosen by my daughter Lauren.

Our puppy is only 8 weeks old, a male, who is a mix between a Golden Retriever and a Great Pyrenees. Winston is going to be a huge dog when he grows up. His temperament is simply amazing. He is an extremely mellow and laid back little guy. He is very loving and has taken quickly to the family and his new environment.

We actually found our puppy through 'Pet Finder.com'. It's hard to believe this was a 'rescue' puppy for adoption. Over 150 people called in interested in getting one of six puppies available. I got to the store two hours early to make sure I was officially the 'first in line'. By 11am when they finally arrived there was a crowd of people who wanted one of these little guys.

I have decided to get my ass off the couch and write a computer game

2011-06-03T11:57:00.008-05:00

You know how when you reach a certain age you start to contemplate the direction of your life and your goals? Whether you just turned 18, or 21, or 30, or 40 or, now for me, the big 5-0.

I'm turning 50 in a few months and this past weekend, while driving a total of over 15 hours in my car, I had a lot of time thinking about these questions.

One my big questions is what do I want to be doing five or ten years from now? Professionally, I am currently doing pretty much the same thing I have always been doing for the past 30 years. I sit at a computer, think of stuff in my head, and then develop software that solves problems for people.

For a while in my career I was self-employed. I had some major successes but, in the end, I found the stress of being self-employed (uncertainty about where the next check was coming from and having to pay an outrageous amount in additional taxes) too much to handle. Since then I have primarily worked as an employee for other companies; though I did join a startup called 'Ageia' technologies and was granted a great deal of incentive stock options that, today, I'm sure would service well as some very coarse toilet paper.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love my current job. I'm extremely happy with the work and my level of compensation. The question for me, is that what I want to still be doing five or ten years from now?

If I don't do something different then that's exactly what I will be doing; when I'm 60 years old, I will still come into work, sit at a computer, and program it to do cool shit all day. Why not? I'm good at it, and it's my key talent. I can't imagine anytime soon someone willing to have me do something else; like a management position, for the same level of compensation.

So, if I want things to change, I probably need to set a goal to make it happen.

In just the past two years there has been a major, major, shift in the world of software development; games in particular. The explosion of smart phones, and now tablets, is opening up incredible markets for independent software developers. These are truly amazing times.

Before this happened, the only major markets for video games were consoles. And, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo locked those platforms up with an iron fist. For those of you who aren't aware of this, you can't just go and decide and write a Playstation 3 game, develop and, and then sell it. There are insane barriers to doing so. I won't give all of the details unless it's something you are interested in knowing about, but suffice it to say, your average independent developer cannot just write games for those platforms.

Meanwhile, people changed their perception of what a 'phone' is. Today everyone understands that the phone in your pocket isn't just a phone; it's an incredibly powerful personal computer. And, more and more, people are buying and playing games on their phones. Soon, the same phenomenon is going to happen with tablet computers. Already today, if you take an airplane flight and walk up and down the aisle is seems like every third person has an Ipad sitting in their lap.

Well, here's the rub. You can develop software for these devices with little barrier to entry. Apple does require that your application be approved before it can show up in their marketplace, but this hasn't proven to big a big barrier and mostly serves as a form of quality control.

Also, I have recently seen two of my friends write games for these smartphones in their 'spare time' and made an outrageous amount of money doing so.

My friend David Whatley wrote 'GeoDefense' and 'GeoDefense Swarm' two wildly popular IOS tower defense games (David is currently jet-setting around the world for a month). And, recently, my friend Jared Freedman wrote the amusingly titled 'Weed Farmer' which lets you play a game where you grow your own weed on your smart phone. I know, it sounds silly but he is reaping incredible (legal) profits from the game he wrote.

So, I'm not jealous of my friends (much). I can't really be jealous. They invested their time, money, and creativity to create these products while I, largely, sat on the couch and watched 'American Idol'.

You know something funny? You don't *have* to watch 'American Idol' or any other TV for that matter. You can do other things with your time like, oh, I don't know, writing a computer game that sells a few million copies.

So, I've decided I'm going to at least put forth the effort. I have a particular game I have been wanting to write for over 15 years. I've always told my wife that 'when I retire' I'm going to write this game.

But..maybe that's a little backwards? Maybe the way I get to retirement is to write the game now; so when I'm 55, or 60, I don't have to work so hard; maybe I can jet-set around the world for a month then like my friend David.

At any rate, for those of you who follow my blog (which I know I post to infrequently now) check out the development blog I have started for my new game project.

The game is called 'Duatiu' and is going to be a massively mutiplayer online game in the genre of first person shooter strategy (similar to Planetside and Tribes for example).

Let me know what you think. I am *not* trying to do a little Iphone game. I'm trying to do an MMO which is a whole different proposition entirely.

Let me know what you think. The development blog is here.

Iceland Week #1

2011-04-30T13:12:00.002-05:00

My company needed someone to travel to Iceland for two weeks to work on a project. I readily volunteered because I like to travel, meet new people, work on interesting projects, and see new places.

Iceland certainly sounds very exotic but the reality is quite a bit different. I'm sure that Iceland is a place of great natural beauty for a few months every year. However, for the rest of the time, it's kind of what you would expect for an island nation north of the arctic circle. The weather has been miserable the entire time I have been here. It has rained, snowed, and/or sleeted every single day. Today was the first day that I could do tourist type things and it has been pouring raining, sleeting, and snowing all day.

I took my rental car and drove about an hour to see the waterfalls and geysers. Both were certainly cool to see, and I took pictures and some videos. That said, I think I'm done being a tourist and tomorrow I'm just going to go back to work.

The project has gone well so far. I am working with a game company here in Iceland called CCP. It's an incredible facility with a lot of extremely talented and friendly people. Probably the most unique thing about the company is that they serve a full breakfast and lunch, on flatwear with metal utensils, to every single employee for free, every day of the week. They have a large kitchen staff which cooks varied and delicious meals every single day. Twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday, they serve a full dinner as well.

Like many other game companies they have a large game room with pinball machines, pool table, table tennis, and fooseball. And, soda's and drinks are free as well. But the full on meals was certainly a new experience for me. It really is cutting a big dent on the expenses I will have to submit to the company at the end of the trip.

The best part of the trip so far has been my hotel. I am staying at 'Hotel Fron' in Reykjavik. I got a full one bedroom studio apartment for only about $120 a night. The hotel serves a lovely breakfast every morning and has a nice little 'Mexican' restaurant and bar in the evenings. I ate dinner there one night and ordered a chicken quessadilla. What I was served was some kind of strange honey pastry with chicken inside. It actually tasted pretty good but like no 'Mexican' food I've ever eaten before.

Another fantastic thing about the Hotel Fron is not only do they have free wireless internet (which many hotels offer) but, unlike every other hotel I've stayed at the internet connection actually has really good bandwidth! Before I came on my trip I had just bought a 'Slingbox' and installed it at home. The primary reason I purchased the slingbox was so that we could use it in our basement while working out on the treadmill. I was highly skeptical that I would be able to use it half way around the world in Iceland.

To my surprise, it has worked flawlessly! I have been able to watch my favorite TV shows recorded on my home TV while in my Hotel room each evening without any difficulty. The slingbox is an amazing piece of technology that really works!

Finally, my two biggest complaints about Iceland; the food and the prices. I have come to realize that we in the United States are completely spoiled without realizing it. The variety and quality of food that we can buy in any supermarket in the United States is staggering. We take getting incredibly high quality beef, pork, fish, completely for granted.

In a small island country like Iceland; they are not so fortunate. They have fish, but it's just the kind of basic white fish we would normally reserve for something we would fry in batter. As far as meat goes, it's generally lamb. If you want something like beef, you are more likely to find horse on the menu. The Icelander's find it strange that I find it strange to be eating a horse. I tried to explain to them that, to Americans, eating horse is like eating our pet dog or cat. It's just not done. That said, I will probably force myself to eat one meal with horse meat while I'm out here, just to have had the experience. The poor horse is already dead, so my eating it isn't going to make the situation any worse.

Another odd thing they eat here is Puffin, a bird, kind of like a penguin (or maybe it is a kind of penguin?) which is about the cutest thing you have ever seen. I suppose I will have to try to eat one of the birds myself in the coming week.

Probably the most normal dish in their cuisine is lobster. Most every restaurant offers a lobster soup, which is typically a bisque. This is served with bread and is particularly delicious.

Now, I'm afraid, I have to get to the most painful issue. I like to drink beer. This is no great secret to anyone who knows me. I enjoy it immensely, and it is a key part of my diet. I drink exclusively high quality beers, pilsners and ales, such as Pilsner Urquel, Becks, Warsteiner, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Anchorsteam, and the like.

The main two beers here in Iceland are Gull and Tuborg. Gull is ok, a fairly basic beer, and the Tuborg is quite an exceptional pilsner which I quite enjoy. On my first day here I stopped at an ATM to get some cash. I had not yet figured out the exchange rate and the ATM offered me several basic choices; withdraw 10,000, 20,000, 40,000 and 80,000. I figured 80,000 must be about a $100 since ATM's in the United States typically offer withdrawals in that amount. So, I withdrew 80,000 Icelandic Kronas. I stopped by a local bar and ordered a beer. I figured a beer would be somewhere between 5 and 10 dollars; so I handed the bartender two 5,000 krona bills. The bartender pushed one of the 5,000 krona bills back to me, and then brought me a crap load of change. It was then I realized, hmmm..., maybe I withdrew more money than I thought. It turns out that 80,000 krona's is over $700!

Beer at a bar here typically runs about $7 to $8 which, while a bit pricey, isn't totally out of line for buying a drink while traveling. However, I like to have a few beers, not just one, so it was bugging me that every time I stopped to have a few drinks I was spending about $25!

Since I have an apartment with a refrigerator I figured I would do what I usually do when I travel; I would buy a six pack and take it to my hotel room. There are plenty of little stores and gas stations around, but none of them have any alcohol. Finally, I asked someone who lives here and was informed that no stores are allowed to sell alcohol in Iceland! Only state-run liquor stores which are open for a very limited number of hours each day. Today when I was finally able to find one of these mysterious state run alcohol dispensaries I learned that my favorite beer to drink at home, a $7.50 six pack of Pilsner Urquel, cost $25! About half the price than if I had bought it in a bar; but a ratio of about 2 to 1 instead of 6 to 1 like back in the US.

So, while it's lovely to have that feel of a quaint European city, there is no way I could ever live in a country where they don't have good beef and have only restricted access to beer at exorbitant prices.

I wonder what their rationale is for this? Is it simply the state taxing a known vice to the highest levels to try to keep the country afloat? Is it an attempt to control the alcoholism that would surely ensue in a nation which lives in darkness and has a generally miserable climate and lousy food for most of each year?

I'm not sure. But, I'm here for one more week and I'm focusing on the project. I'm glad I came, because I always love to have new life experiences. If they ever want to send me back here again, say in July or August, I wouldn't object either but clearly Iceland in April isn't ideal.

Beck 550 Pictures

2011-04-18T17:59:00.000-05:00

My Daughter's first artist demo reel for multimedia graphics!

2011-04-08T17:41:00.000-05:00

Simply amazing. I'm so proud!

A very early review of my Motorola Xoom with Honeycomb

2011-03-03T23:42:00.004-06:00

This is a brief early review of my Motorola Xoom which just arrived today.

First of all, I have been a long time user of the Apple Iphone and I currently own an Iphone 4 which I think is amazing.

I have never used any version of an Android device so this was a fairly raw experience.

The main reason I bought the Motorola Xoom is because it uses the computer chip which the company I work for designed. The computer chip is called the 'Tegra 2', which is a dual core 1ghz ARM processor. In addition to this capability, is also supports fairly decent high-end 3d graphics.

As much as I love my Iphone-4, I could never bring myself to purchase an Ipad. The bottom line is that an Ipad simply runs the same exact software that my phone does and, in the end, it is nothing other than an iphone with a large screen. In fact, what was really ridiculous is that an Ipad has a lot fewer features than an Iphone-4. A deficiency which is only just now being addressed by the latest Ipad-2.

So, after using my Motrola Xoom for a day, I'm absolutely happy with it. It is very easy to use, has a great form factor, and I had no difficulty working my way through the interface even though I have never used the software platform before.

It definitely does *not* feel like a 'large phone'. It feels exactly like the tablet form factor of a netbook computer, which is just what I was looking for.

There are a couple of negatives about the Motorola Xoom. First, it is over-priced. At $800 it's simply too damned expensive for what you get (a $400 netbook in a tablet form factor). However, that is not going to last for long. There is a lot of pent-up demand for a Honycomb 3.0 based tablet computer and Motorola knows they can command a premium price for being the first one to market.

As an 'early adopter' I accept that as the price of admission. I'm just saying that if you have patience and can wait until fall or winter of 2011, you will be able to by any one of dozens of Honycomb tablets with equal or better features for hundreds of dollars less.

The biggest plus of the Honycomb is that it's a Google product. If, like me, you use Google extensively (for mail, blogging, etc) it's really cool how deeply integrated it is.

For example, get this. I wanted to check out the device so I copied some photographs onto it. When I went to the gallery application I was surprised to see hundreds and hundreds of photographs and albums organized that I had never uploaded!!! My gallery, through my gmail account, was automatically seeded with every single photograph I had ever uploaded to every one of my blogger accounts! Simply amazing.

The bottom line is this, however. There are hundreds of thousands of applications for the Iphone and Ipad, many of which are extremely high quality. The number of applications available for the Honycomb, especially those targeted towards the larger form factor, are few and far between.

Add to that, Motorola shipped the device before the software was even ready. The SD-slot doesn't even work yet. The browser doesn't support flash yet. The hardware doesn't support 4g yet.

These are pretty blatant flaws, all of which will be corrected in a few weeks. Again, this is just the pain of being an early adopter.

A part of me is extraordinarily frustrated that it took until spring of 2011 to be an 'early adopter' of the first operating system that gives the Iphone/Ipad fair head to head competition. Why did it take so long for anyone to come out with an operating system that could compete with Apple? I really don't know.

However, a true competitor to Apple does exist now in Honycomb. It is slick, efficient, competent, and very usable.

So, why does any of this even matter? If it's taken years for someone to come out with an operating system that can more or less compete equally with Apple, why should we care?

Well, here's why we should care.

Remember when Apple computer did their famous '1984' commercial? I'm sure you have heard about it. The commercial was taking a shot at IBM for being the 'Big Brother' in the computer field.

How ironic is it that, today, Apple computer is the absolute incarnation of 'Big Brother'.

Let me be clear. Here is why I *LOVE* my Android Honycomb computer.

Here is why I will champion it to succeed and kill Apple in the process.

Today, I got my Android Honycomb tablet computer and *TODAY* I can download the development system, write a computer program, and then immediately run it on my own tablet. I don't have to ask 'permission', I don't have to sign an agreement or contract. Not only that, I can give a copy of that program to anyone I know and they can run it on their Honycomb computer as well.

I can distribute my software any way I wish. Yes, if I distribute it through Google Android Market, they will take a cut, but I am not *restricted* to distributing it that way. I can chose to distribute my software on a link via my own personal blog and bill through my own PayPal account if I choose to!!!!

Apple has gone from being the 'anti-Big-Brother' to the most closed, restrictive, proprietary gate keepers in the history of computer software.

You cannot develop software for an Apple product, without first signing a contract with Apple agreeing to a wide range of restrictions. You must pay them for the privilege of programming software for their products. Finally, the *ONLY* way you are allowed to distribute software is through their distribution channel. A distribution channel which they own, and exercise absolute and complete control over what you can or cannot do, say, think, or present.

This is absurd. Apple Computer demands more control than the worst dictators in human history.

It is for this basic and fundamental reason that Honycomb and Google will succeed and, in the end, Apple will fail.

So, today, I pay the price as an 'early adopter', but tomorrow I will reap the rewards.

Applications which are developed freely and independently, without censorship or restriction, without arbitrary rules and regulations, and without trying to dictate my creative process.

It may take another year, but I don't see Apple changing their ways. They will continue to control the content they allow on their devices with an iron fist. And, in some ways this will benefit them as people will perceive the quality of that content as being higher.

However, in the end, creative freedom will win the day. And the quality, quantity, and variety of applications on Honycomb will so far exceed the Apple operating system that they will find themselves overthrown, in just the same way that dictatorships are being overthrown in the middle-east today.

Do you think this is hyperbole? It is not. Try getting an application published through Apple and you will quickly realize that my rhetoric truly represents the current state of affairs.

I have patience to wait for the applications which will rapidly become available for Honycomb. In fact, I plan to start writing my own Honycomb applications as soon as possible. Applications that I can share with all of my friends without requiring permission from anyone to do so.

In short, f**k you Apple, the future belongs to open and free software developers who can exercise complete creative freedom.

Your days are numbered indeed.

Just a quick comment about the situation in Tuscon

2011-01-11T22:23:00.000-06:00

As anyone who used to follow this blog may have noticed, I have pretty much stopped posting here. My reasons for doing so are a bit complicated, though I lay most of the blame on the fact that I use Facebook now for most of my social media interaction these days.

I wanted to make a very brief comment about the recent media coverage surrounding the terrible events in Tuscon this past week.

My first comment is about the statements made by the local sheriff and how the media has reacted to them. The sheriff was speaking out of a deep sense of grief and relating his personal experiences with the current climate he has been dealing with. In other words, he was not stating that the incident itself was directly caused by the political climate, but rather, that the climate itself was responsible for much of the challenges and difficulties he has had to deal with in his job. This was not the singular case he has had to deal with in terms of threats, but rather just the manifestation of what those threats ultimately can lead to.

So, let us stop parsing things so carefully and all fully understand the main point he was getting at. That using language filled with hate and tinged with violence is not helpful in our society in any particular way, especially as it filters down to the masses and even the mentally unstable.

However, that is not the main point I wanted to make here this evening.

What really concerns me is the media reaction to the parents of the young man responsible for this act.

All I heard all night on the newscasts was 'how could the parents not know'?

I heard this question over, and over again.

To be frank, this made me fairly angry.

Why?

Because it is the WRONG QUESTION!

The correct question is 'What could we do?'

Let's see how this conversation goes.

911 - This is the operator, what is your problem?

Parent : Well, it's my son. He's very moody. Very difficult. We can't even talk to him anymore, he doesn't have any friends. We think he might be mentally unstable.

911 - What would you like us to do?

Parent - Would you please come and arrest him?

911 - I'm sorry sir, what has he done? Is he a threat to himself or others?

Parent - Not that we can tell. He doesn't speak to us. He's just very moody and difficult. He's extremely disrespectful. Please come and arrest him. Or please take him to a mental heath facility.

911 - How old is your son?

Parent - 22 years old.

911 - I'm sorry, but he is legally an adult. Do you have a power of attorney over him?

Parent - No, no we do not. Please do something.

911 - I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do. I would suggest you try to get him to a hospital and convince him he needs help.

Parent - He won't speak to us. Thank you very much...

Look, this is something I don't talk about on my blog. And I won't now, other than to say that I am the father of a mentally ill son who is 24 years of age. I will not go into further details other than to say that the struggles we have dealt with make the story being told by the parents of this young man seem fairly minor in comparison.

No one, and I mean *NO ONE* has the right to criticize these parents until they have raised a mentally ill child to the age of adulthood and gone through that struggle.

I would ask the media to please show a little bit of respect and try to learn the absolute hell that parents of mentally ill LEGAL ADULTS have to struggle with.

When they are under 18, yes, maybe you can commit them to a mental health instution (and have your child hate you for the rest of their lives for doing it), but once they are legally an adult you can't make them do anything. You can't shove medication down their throat. You cannot force them to seek help. You can't 'make them' do anything.

Anyone who doesn't understand this, has never had to deal with a mentally ill adult family member. I would caution everyone to lean towards sympathy for people who have struggled with a burden you cannot imagine.

New Podcast epsiode, one hour conversation with Leslie Mitts

2010-10-23T17:45:00.000-05:00

I just uploaded a new podcast episode for 'The Dialectic Struggle'. This is a one hour conversation with 'Leslie Mitts', a popular personality on Facebook who posts an incredible number of links every day. In this interview we learn a little bit about what drives Leslie to such extremes of interest in 'fringe' topics.

You can find the podcast here:

http://www.cyberears.com/index.php/Show/audio/5777

Comment follow up ..

2010-10-16T18:54:00.000-05:00

(I was having difficulty posting my comment reply to Paul, so I just bumped it up to a blog post. Actually, I am hoping that this final message brings our little debate to a close with each of us, essentially agreeing to disagree. We will see where it ends up...)

Paul, there is a lot to respond to here. However, I think we are converging towards a clarification of our views on this matter and, while I think we are very close on most things, these last few exchanges definitely highlight where we differ.

"Every time I look into a "What about this case?" example, I can construct a trivial mundane explanation, but it does take time to research, and there is no gain for me, since it's always trivial,"

Personally, when I research some of these cases, often times I do not find them to be 'trivial' at all. Clearly we differ in this view.

"and you, in any case, will never be convinced. (I'm sure this is why science has lost all interest--all the honest research comes to naught, every single time)."

I think science has 'lost interest' for a number of reasons, but the most important reason is simply this. The UFO phenomenon does not present itself in a form that is subject to the scientific method. A key component, probably the key component, of the scientific method is that a phenomenon can be reproduced by independent scientists on demand under controlled laboratory conditions. This is an extraordinarily powerful tool and provides us with our greatest certainty about how the Universe operates.

UFOs are a fleeting phenomenon which cannot be reproduced on demand. The only 'evidence' for them is witness testimony, sometimes radar, sometimes photographic, and sometimes trace landing data. You can only investigate them 'after the fact'. Therefore, UFO cases really only lend themselves to forensic techniques and the scientific method can't really illuminate the topic at all.

This is the reason that the subject is at 'the fringe'. It's elusive nature, the quality of the 'evidence', and the fact that none of it can be replicated. Where we can measure it's effects is in sociology and psychology; admittedly very 'soft' sciences.

"This all reminds me of your excitement over the Alien Autopsy film, which was a laughable fraud. I think you said it would change the world. I'm sure now you might attribute that to what, something like the global disinformation conspiracy?"

What I was saying at the time was that the alien autopsy, whether 'real' or 'not real' would have a major cultural impact; which I believe has been the case. I also had a theory that someone involved in this piece of performance art might be using the film as a 'disinformation' effort. That was only a theory, which has been proven false with time. The reason I posited this theory is that, in the past, intelligence agencies *have* used the UFO phenomenon to exercise disinformation campaigns, for motives unknown. (If you want references to this I can provide them, but I think this would be a diversion for now).

Over the years the 'alien autopsy' has become a dominant meme in our culture and reappears in numerous forms. My prediction then, and remains so today, that the alien autopsy film had the measurable effect of 'inoculating' the general population to these images and concepts. I believe the general population is inoculated to such an extent there were someone to come out with a 'real' alien autopsy film tomorrow, it would largely be met with a collective yawn. That's a long sight away from the kind of panic that was caused by the 'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast back in 1938.

To me the significance of the alien autopsy film is in how it impacted our culture and I would argue that the impact has been strong. Even today, after Philip Mantle so brilliantly dismantled the entire hoax in great detail, there are still millions of people who believe it's the 'real thing'. I find that development to be quite telling.

"(1) Lonnie Zamoro : Liar, and hoaxer (planted physical evidence)
* I am fine with this explanation. Case closed."

I understand that the case is closed for you. However, not so much for me. Having studied this case, including the time-line as well as Lonnie's testimony, I am not able to 100% accept a 'hoax' explanation. Lonnie died last year, and went to his grave never revealing his hoax, if that were the case. I found him to come across as an honest and sincere man, who dedicated his life to public service, so, I remain an agnostic on the Lonnia Zamoro case.

"(2) Travis Walton : Liar, and hoaxer. Disappeared for five days, put his co-workers at risk of a murder charge, all for a good laugh and a book and movie deal.
* I am fine with this explanation. Case closed."

Once again, I can see how you are comfortable with this explanation. I, however, am not. First of all Travis is my 'facebook friend', so we clearly have a deep, close, and personal relationship. Seriously, I have looked into this case and while 'hoax' is without question a valid theory, I am still not convinced that it is the ultimate explanation.

You say you are an 'open minded' skeptic but wouldn't a truly open minded skeptic allow for the possibility that Travis Walton, and his co-workers, told the truth? For myself, that is where I remain. Perhaps it was a hoax, though that has never been proven. Perhaps it happened as the principles say. I don't know for sure one way or the other. I continue to find the case interesting.

"(3) Paul Simington : Liar, hoaxer, made the pancakes himself.
* I am fine with this explanation. Case closed."

That is most likely the case. However, it was investigated by the USAF and it remains an infamous project blue book case. It remains on the books, and to this day, 'unexplained'. I consider primarily just two possibilities in all three of these cases. Either the principles themselves conducted a hoax, or they did not. There isn't a whole lot of wriggle room in between. I remain an agnostic on each case but I do note that no one has every been able to definitively prove the hoax hypothesis in any of these three instances. I particularly like this case due to its extreme high weirdness.

"(4) Japan Airlines - Alaska Flight : Liars, reports of radar confirmation, lies as well.
* No one was lying. Mistaken crew (Not uncommon, as I mentioned before, pilots make errors far more dramatic than this, even resulting in their death) coupled with anomalous radar display (that today can not be examined!). Case closed."

Well, that's one theory. Another theory would be that they are accurately reporting an incident that occurred. While you find the case 'closed', I find that it remains wide open and squarely in the corner of the unknown.

"(5) Iran F-14 UFO dogfight. Liars, radar confirmation reports, more lies.
* Fabricated historical event, none of the actual information or people are available. One liar, --the person who fabricated the event. Case closed."

Actually, the people involved are available, and have testified openly and publicly on this incident a number of times. As well, one of the pilots involved in this case has an entire chapter in Leslie Kean's new book describing the incident in first person. So, it is not true that the people involved are not available. Additionally, there are documents obtained through FOIA, dated to the time of the incident, detailing these events. So, it is absolutely by no means a 'fabricated historical' event.

I don't find this case to be 'closed' in any way. It's just old.

(6) Betty Cash : Liar, faked illness to try to win a lawsuit.
* I am fine with this explanation. Case closed.

In fact, I find that explanation to be a bit difficult to swallow. This incident remains purely an unknown to me, though I think testing of a military aircraft a possible explanation for the incident.

(7) Rendelsham Forest Incident : Tons of liars, liars everywhere. Everyone lied, top to bottom.
* 5 people made first-hand reports. I can believe they perpetrated fraud. The radar confirmations may not match the event in question, because the time of day seems not to align, and the hard evidence was never recorded. The rest are second-hand reports. Depressions in the ground, and burned spots are easy for 5 people to stage. Case closed.

I don't find this case even close to being closed. It is incredibly well documented, with live audio tape recording of the people involved in the incident at the time. This case is by no means 'closed' in my book.

In summary, the skeptic believes:

“We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.”

Since all the explanations are sufficient, these cases are closed. They may not be likely events, but the reports are extremely rare, so the unlikely, because it is sufficient, it the best explanation.

So, I think I grasp your view of the situation. Personally, I find that response entirely unsatisfying. My quest for knowledge does not end simply because I can imagine, no matter how tortured or in conflict with the facts of a case, a 'natural cause'.

In the world I live in, I try to remain an agnostic. I am willing to allow for the possibility of the unknown. Does that make me a gullible fool? Perhaps so..but I find my life to be more interesting if I consider all of the evidence rather than dismiss it out of hand, or simply refuse to look at it at all.

In other words, we have a clearly distinct difference of opinion about how to consider reports of anomalous phenomenon.

That's ok, the world is big enough for both of us. However, I do not think I am being irrational by being open to considering the possibility that anomalous phenomenon might exist in the world. Maybe you do, that's ok, I get that. From my perspective I don't really believe in the 'supernatural', I like to think of the 'supernatural' as being that part of the natural world we haven't figured out yet.

Each of us has a different sliding bar that we are going to use to accept or reject as forming the basis for our reality. For some people, all they have to do is read something written in a book by a desert tribe from 3,500 years ago and they accept it as fact. I think you and I are in agreement that this is probably not a very good way to understand and describe reality.

I think we both also agree that the scientific method is the most powerful tool in human history to describe and understand the Universe.

Where we disagree is that I am willing to consider as 'evidence' human experience and forensic evidence after the fact as another contributing factor to a way of viewing and interpreting reality.

That's fine, I think we have identified where the two of us part on this. However, I don't personally feel that the fact that I am willing to consider such data as possibly comprising some aspects of reality we do not yet currently understand, as tantamount to making me a Mormon, Scientologist, Hare Krishna, or New Age bubble head.

I truly don't know 'what' the UFO phenomenon is, or what it ultimately represents, but I am not yet completely satisfied with any theories, including the 'mundane' explanations you are happy with yourself.

John

A Facebook Comment Thread Replanted

2010-10-15T23:35:00.009-05:00

Earlier today I posted a random rant on my Facebook page. An old friend of mine responded and this led to a rather vigorous discussion. Eventually this discussion grew to such a length that I decided that it really didn't fit into a Facebook comment thread any longer and, so, I'm moving it here to my blog.

My original rant was on the topic of 'disclosure', specifically the concept of 'UFO Disclosure'. I made a number of points on this topic, points I thought were brilliant and insightful, because, you know, I'm pretty self satisfied that way. Meanwhile my friend decided this was an opening to bring up the topic of whether or not there even exists a mystery to 'disclose' at all. He also challenged my idea that there was any substance to a 'cover-up' of any kind.

I won't reprint my rant here, and instead I will just pick up the debate where it left off. My friend made a number of points I had yet to reply to. That was a few hours ago and, since then, I've had nearly a six pack of beer and feel armed and ready to make a thoughtful response.

What I find ironic about this debate is that I strongly suspect that I am in almost complete agreement with my friend on this topic. In fact, I think our only disagreement is this. He believes that there is nothing behind the UFO mystery, and that it is all bunk. Meanwhile, I also agree that there is almost nothing behind the UFO mystery, that is is nearly entirely bunk, but there remains a core which represents a mystery as yet unsolved.

If you ask me, that's slicing it fairly thin, and the difference in our points of view is not really that far apart.

This may seem a little bit disjointed picking up the discussion midstream, but I'm going to go ahead and do so anyway. Where we left off was regarding some comments I made about the infamous Kecksburg incident and Leslie Kean's struggle to try to get a straight answer on the matter.

Paul Grace, "John, NASA isn't fighting any battles over anything. It is the credulous fighting battles with NASA. NASA cannot refuse to show up as a defendant in a FOI suit. But perhaps NASA has nothing to give them, they lost whatever unimportant, trivial, garbage they found, maybe the Air Force wanted it, assuming it was a Russian satellite, and the transfer paperwork was never filed (since it was trash) or perhaps it was recycled (titanium is valuable, and rare in the US). There are so very many perfectly mundane explanations, and there is no evidence that requires a novel thesis."

Paul, I agree that this is one possible theory that might account for the story we have today. That is, if the inquiry had only begun decades after the fact. However, this thing has a history. And inquiries have been made since the incident occurred with never a forthcoming answer.

And, the point here is that someone does, in fact, have a definitive answer. Some number of people were privy to what actually occurred in this case. Is it ten people, twenty, a hundred? I don't know exactly. But a lot of people did then and presumably do know today. And, you are correct, it most likely has a mundane and completely non-extraordinary explanation. The question, however, remains; why has no explanation been forthcoming back then, or today? Why has NASA been so difficult in this situation, so difficult that the judge in the case himself expressed frustration with their behavior? Do you seriously think that of every single person involved in this event, those who recovered the debris, packed it on a truck, drove it to NASA, analyzed it, and disposed of it, not a single one of them *remembers* the event? That, I find hard to believe.

Perhaps it is as simple as you say. It was something classified at the time and since then, through bureaucratic incompetence the documents of this relatively non-incident have been lost, the people involved are all dead, and no one remembers anything about it.

Perhaps it is as simple as that. The case has a lengthy history and at this time Leslie Kean has essentially given up on it. But, the point remains. Something crashed in Kecksburg back in 1965. NASA came in, carted off the wreckage, and has never released one word of information about it since.

Is that a 'cover-up'? I don't know. What it is is frustrating. I have never claimed, nor do I claim, that what crashed there was anything out of the ordinary. What I claim is that we do not have the answer, have not gotten an answer, and I cannot think of a single rational reason why, 40 years after the fact, someone can't tell us. Doesn't the mystery itself interest you? Wouldn't you like to get a straight answer one way or the other? Do you honestly believe no one on the planet earth knows the answer? Do you honestly believe there is any rational reason why, 45 years after the incident, it should remain classified? Like Leslie, like the judge in the case, I would just like to get a straight answer on the topic, on the record. Is that really too much to ask?

Paul Grace "I don't suggest that multiple people hallucinate the same thing. But in trying to make sense of some data with with lots of noise, everyone might make the same interpretation, even if it's not correct. This does not make it "hallucination", which is just trying to ridicule my example, a rhetorical cheat. Or one person leads the others to conclude something erroneously--this happens more often than not in courtrooms across the country every day. The Attorneys General of Illinois suspended the death penalty, when he found that DNA evidence, when it existed, exonerated 80% of convicted inmates. Note, without solid evidence, 4 out of 5 juries conceded a vote of guilty, when it was erroneous. This is proof that people are not good judges of interpreting data. No one has ever, ever, provided strong evidence of visitation. The burden of proof is on them. Just like your photo, it would be easy to prove, if only that would appear in the sky over South Africa. Case closed."

Paul, I do suggest that it might be possible for multiple people to hallucinate the same thing. I don't consider it a rhetorical cheat; in fact, there is ample evidence of multiple people hallucinating the same things when their brains are under the influence of similar psychoactive compounds. You make some good points about the limitations of witness testimony, but there is more to it than that.

What is the number one way each of us, individually, forms our conception and perception of reality? The answer is simple, it isn't through the scientific method (that's how we as a society form a shared view of consensus reality) it is through personal experience.

Now I, personally, have never seen a UFO. Therefore, any belief I might have on the topic would have to be based on the testimony of others. Am I willing to believe anything anyone ever would tell me about their personal experience as being true or false? That's an interesting question.

If someone tells me that they saw a UFO, and therefore believe UFOs to be real, I would say that is a reasonable belief for them to hold based on their personal experience. It would not, however, be reasonable for me to believe it to be true simply because they told me so. They could be lying. They could have been hallucinating, they could be mentally ill, or as you point out, merely miss-perceiving a mundane event. (You repeatedly like to cite the numerous and easy ways people can misidentify something. That's all well and good, but those are not the cases which interest me. The cases which interest me are those like the Travis Walton case, the Lonnie Zamora case, the Paul Simington case. These are cases where there is no confusion about 'balloons' or 'airplanes'. They are far more compelling and interesting than that.)

Realize that everything that each of us, individually, perceives about 'reality' exists entirely within our own minds. We, each of us, maintain an illusion that there is some external shared consensus reality that is universal and independent or ourselves. That's a nice picture to have but we are faced with the fact that that presumed external (etic) reality is only a hypothetical concept. The reality we experience is a construction within our own minds as filtered through our individual neurolinguistic system.

Our perception of reality is governed by the sense data that filters through our central nervous system and is then assimilated in our brain. Our beliefs about that sense data are subject to our culture, background, and language. Our minds produce a wide cocktail of chemicals which mediate our experience.

Many of us have had the experience of having a dream that was so vivid, felt so 'real', that when we 'woke up' we underwent a brief period of adjustment trying to realize that we were, in fact, actually 'awake' and the dream itself was not actually 'reality'.

Consider that this is a 'normal' experience most of us can have. Now, add to that mix someone who has consumed a psychoactive compound. As consciousness is mediated, augmented, and adjusted by such a chemical as it interacts within the human brain we are subject to a wide range of experiences which can completely change our perception of reality.

An excellent example of this is the psychoactive compound DMT. Some substantial percentage of people who take DMT have experiences which they claim closely mimic those of those who claim they have been 'abducted by aliens'. Is this significant? I think so.

Realize that DMT is a perfectly natural substance which not only exists in most plants but is also produced by our own minds. Could it be that some people who see UFOs are having waking hallucinatory experiences due to an excessive amount of DMT production in the brain?

Perhaps, maybe it is so. It is one possible idea. And that is why I don't rule out waking hallucinations as one possible explanation for UFO sighting events.

Paul Grace, "I find your occasional "I don't proffer an explanation" another rhetorical cheating. You do proffer vague explanations--that there is "something" secret, hidden, suppressed, by conspiracy. By definition, this is not the mundane. That multiple people can't all be lying, can't all be wrong, the mundane is not sufficient to explain... etc."

Paul, I don't believe this to be so. Where we differ is that you believe you have the definitive answer on this topic. I get the impression you believe there there is 100% absolutely zero chance that there remains any unknown mystery behind the UFO enigma. That, without question, the explanation is completely and absolutely, unquestionably, and always, mundane. That's fine. And, I agree that is the default position. This is why I agree with you that by far 99.9% of all UFO reports almost for sure fit into this category.

I believe this is the part where we largely agree. Where we don't agree is that I don't say 100%. And, why is that? For a couple of reasons. First of all, as I said before, that if an individual has a UFO experience then it is perfectly reasonable for that person to believe in them. I haven't seen one, so this puts me at a disadvantage. For me, the question is about how many witnesses, and of what caliber and quality of the reports of their experience, is enough to convince me, at the minimum, that there is a non-mundane explanation behind it?

I'm pretty skeptical, so skeptical that I can't accept the 'mundane' explanation for certain events where the quality of the data just doesn't fit. My limits are when the reports are of large, structured, craft reported by multiple witnesses, both in the air and on the ground, which are confirmed on radar and these objects exhibit flight characteristics which defy the current laws of physics as we currently understand them. How many cases are there like this? Not many. There are not millions, tens of thousands, thousands, or even hundreds. But, there are cases that fit this level of proof and I, personally, believe cases like this are evidence enough to make me believe there is something at the core of this phenomenon with a non-mundane explanation.

Does that view make me a nut-case? Maybe so, but this is the criteria I require for me to come to that conclusion. It would be much simpler had I actually seen a UFO myself. Then I could just say, "Hey, I saw one and nothing you will say will convince me otherwise.". That hasn't happened. Nor, do I expect it to happen at any time in the future.

So, there you have it. My level of 'proof' that there is an unknown phenomenon of non-mundane origins, even if non-mundane means alterations of human consciousness on par with waking hallucinations or drug trips, is fairly high. It requires multiple credible witnesses reporting structure craft confirmed on radar. And, maybe that's not enough for you. That's cool too.

If you want to suggest that I am claiming I know what UFOs are, what they mean, what they represent, or where they come from, that's not fair either. I don't say that and I never have.

What I know is that there are cases, not many, of reputable witnesses who have reported large structured flying craft, exhibiting flight characteristics which defy our current understanding of the limitations of conventional physics and tracked on radar, and I find those cases, in total, convincing enough to me to conclude there remains a core mystery.

So, while you seem entirely interested in the 99.9% of UFO reports that can be easily dismissed, I remain interested in the subset which cannot.

Paul Grace, "No, you don't provide details, (more proof of the lack of evidence) but you reject the very idea that there are mundane explanations for all of the events--or not enough data to conclude anything. By elimination, you are saying that some of the events, indeed, are exceptional evidence of "something", even though you won't make claims as to what "it" is. It seems a completely hollow case, and hardly skeptical."

I think I covered this above. I agree, most all UFO reports are mundane. Only the core cases I believe represent true 'unknowns'. Whether that unknown means they are ghosts from another dimension, are ETs from another planet, are spontaneous waking hallucinations, or evidence that we live in a Matrix style computer simulation, I have no freaking idea, seriously, I don't know. But these core reports remain a mystery to me. A mystery which I find interesting, and I continue to be fascinated by. As far as providing details, you either follow UFO research or you do not. I've followed UFO research over the years and there are a number of core cases which reach an evidential level that I find sufficient to come to this conclusion; the conclusion that a core mystery remains.

So, in the end, no I am not claiming that UFOs are ET's from outer space. I am not claiming that they are inter-dimensional travelers. I am not claiming they are demons straight from hell. I am not claiming that they are thought-forms summoned up by Tibetan masters. I am not claiming that they are hallucinations inspired by DMT spontaneously produced in the human brain.

I'm claiming, simply, that some few percentage of UFO reports represent a true unknown mystery.

I really think the difference between you and I on the topic is actually very small. You believe 100% of UFO reports have a mundane explanation. I believe 99.9% of them have a mundane explanation. Where we differ is that 0.1%; which I understand you find easy to dismiss. I even think you are being fairly reasonable and rational to dismiss them if you limit your exposure to the data and are fortunate enough to have never seen one of the damned things.

Personally, it's the 0.1% that fascinates me and provides me with a reasonable amount of entertainment as I try to understand what, or if, it means anything at all.

Yes, this is a blog post

2010-10-08T10:38:00.004-05:00

Yes, I kind of stopped blogging since the beginning of this year. I began blogging in November 2002, it's hard to believe, eight years ago!

The initial reason I stopped blogging is because I made a series of posts pointing out what I believed to be an internet scam. However, the person who I was posting about got upset and threatened to sue me, as he felt my posts might hurt his business.

At first I conducted this debate openly on my blog, but once the guy engaged an attorney and started sending me threatening letters, I decided it wasn't fun any more. I hired an attorney as well, and what ensued was a seemingly endless series of back and forth letters. I learned a lot about our legal system during this exercise. I learned that it doesn't matter if you are right or wrong, simply being engaged in any sort of legal proceeding can be extremely expensive.

So, to put the matter to rest, I removed all of my blog posts, and I tried to make the problem go away. In the end it cost me a lot of money, a lot of headaches, and I treated it as an important life lesson learned.

And, since then, I pretty much stopped blogging as I didn't have the heart for it any more. Meanwhile, I started using 'social media' more. I started 'friending' people on Facebook and soon found that I had 600 or so friends. Of course, of those 600, only about 50 are actually close family and friends. The rest are just people on the internet who share some common interests with me. Since I have the facebook app on my Iphone, I find that I enjoy browsing through people's status updates. They post interesting links and stories and, while others I know complain about reading too many status updates, I have decades of experience at ignoring stuff that I don't care about. I have 600 'friends' posting status updates and I can skim through a days worth of postings in a short period of time. And, it helps to pass the time when I am trying to go to sleep at night or, frankly, just sitting on the pot.

Facebook status updates aren't as restrictive as Twitter. You can't post anything thoughtful or intelligent on Twitter. I predicted that Twitter was a fad, and my opinion hasn't changed one bit. With Facebook you can post a reasonable amount of text, along with links, photographs, and videos. Which is, of course, what you do with a blog, but with Facebook, from your Iphone, it's a pretty painless experience.

And that, my friends, sums up why I pretty much stopped blogging.

A few weeks ago I thought I would explore another form of Internet media; podcasting. I started up my own podcast (The Dialectic Struggle), and have since created about four shows. So far, I am extremely disappointed with the results. I have enjoyed the conversations themselves, but I have been unhappy with the end result. The audio quality have been poor, and I have not been doing a very good job of interviewing. I often interrupt or talk over the guests. I often act like I'm just waiting for the guest to finish speaking so I can rant about my own opinions. I don't care for the sound of my own voice or the amount that I stutter and stammer my way through what are often rambling trains of thought.

I haven't given up on the podcasting thing entirely yet. I really do enjoy the conversations and I am hopeful that I will get better at the medium over time. What I do like about my podcast over others is that it is more conversational in tone. It is meant to be engaging and, if not an outright debate, at least a healthy exchange of ideas. I think my podcast with Stacy Lowrey of 'The Black Fridays' podcast was the best I have done so far.

Another thing I wanted to talk about today, in my first real blog post in many months, is the topic of UFOs.

The topic of UFOs has interested me for a very long time. To be clear and up front, I believe there is a true unknown phenomenon behind the UFO mystery. I don't know what it is, I don't know what it represents, and I doubt very seriously we will ever know. However, it is interesting and I enjoy following the topic.

Once I got on facebook I decided to start 'friending' all of the famous people in the world of UFOs. What I found was the more UFO people I 'friended' the more I could find. Now, today, I have as 'friends' nearly every UFO researcher in the world who has ever written a book, given a lecture, or commented on the phenomenon. This is just great as now my newsfeed is filled with links to posts and videos which interest me.

However, this has been a bit of a mixed blessing. I am also 'friends' with some of the most bat shit crazy insane people I have ever encountered. (Please no lawsuits, I didn't name any names...)

What I'm also learning is that people who are interested in this topic live in a bubble that deeply distorts reality.

For example, there have been a bunch of major UFO news stories in the past four weeks. However, I bet most of the readers of this blog haven't heard anything about it. The reason is that these UFO news stories get bounced around the UFO community like a neutron bouncing around inside a nuclear bomb. If you are part of the UFO 'community' you would get the impression that UFOs are just mere seconds from landing all over the world and the US government is ready to hand out flying saucers, free energy devices, and alien bodies to every American family in lieu of a middle class tax cut.

But, it just really isn't so. My friends in the UFO community have lost all reasonable sense of perspective. As they bounce every mention of the topic from any media source around each others blogs, podcasts, twitter and facebook pages, they create a false sense of urgency that doesn't really match reality at all.

So, just what has happened in the last few weeks?

Some scientist / priest at the Vatican said he would be happy to baptize ET.
Lesley Kean came out with a new UFO book and she has been going on the talk show circuit; including the Colbert Report.
Dr. Michio Kaku was asked about Leslie Kean's book and called it the 'smoking gun' on MSNBC
The newswires picked up a hoaxed story about the UN selecting an ambassador for ET. This story was false but was strangely picked up and repeated by the 'mainstream media' (tm) for days. Very odd. What's particularly interesting is that the alleged ambassador's name is 'M.Othman' or 'Moth Man'. Sounds like an obvious joke to me.
A news conference was held with retired military discussing cases where UFOs have interacted with nuclear weapons sites. It was interesting seeing people react to this as if it were 'news' when the reports were generally speaking decades old. The news conference was not well received and generally ignored. It was streamed live on CNN though, and that was kind of cool.
Over the past several months UFOs have caused airports in China to be shut down a few times. While not widely reported, it is an interesting story.
Nick Redfern came out with a new book 'Final Events'. Nick is going on the podcast tour talking about the book. I actually was the first one to interview him for my podcast but, unfortunately, I embarrassed myself. It was without question the worst podcast I have done so far, and I'm not quite sure what got into me. That said, Nick has been interviewed on numerous shows as well as having many discussions about his book on blogs and message forums. The main thesis of Nick's book is that a US government think tank 'The Collins Elite' was tasked with studying UFOs. Over the years this group came to conclude that UFOs were 'demonic forces'. In the end the group was entirely dominated by right wing Christian fundamentalists. Nothing really too surprising here other than the fact that this group supposedly influenced US policy and major political figures.
A retired NORAD officer writes a book predicting UFOs will hover over cities world wide (V style) on October 13th. He gets his information from 'channeled' sources and immediately qualifies his prediction with the caveat 'but I might be wrong'. Big news right? Not really, but it's amazing how much predictions stir the internet pot.
We had a major announcement that the first possibly habitable planet was found; Gliese 581. While not directly UFO related, UFO conspiracy types always imagine that all announcements are somehow connected.
The television show 'The Event' debuted with a whole alien cover-up theme. Again, not UFO related but somehow the UFO community deems anything like this as some sort of conditioning process. Of course, they better get conditioned fast because 'The Event' truly sucks and I doubt it's going to last very long as a TV series.
The documentary 'The Day Before Disclosure' was released and can be viewed for free online. This documentary is just warmed over re-hashed stories from the same cast of characters we have all heard from before. However, whenever there is a new documentary people in the UFO community get all excited.
Richard Dolan's new book 'A.D' (after disclosure) is due out in about a week.

So, I think that sums up most all of the UFO related stories that have been circulating in just the past few weeks. It is certainly a lot of media over a short period of time, but when you get right down to it what does it signify?

Well, it signifies very little. All it signifies is that people are telling the same UFO stories they have been telling for decades. People are writing books and making documentaries. They are promoting their books and that is par for the course.

Other than the UFO events in China, none of this is particularly new or significant. Meanwhile, in the isolation chamber which is the UFO community where everyone reacts to these stories in a state of frenzied expectation, there is deep unrest.

Every day on my Facebook news feed I am told in breathless terms that a project blue beam false flag event is awaiting us any day now.

So, after absorbing all of this information myself, what do I think (and I'm sure you want to know what I think)?

I think that nothing is going to happen. Because nothing ever does happen and nothing ever has happened. People will continue to write books, they will continue to go on podcasts, and the UFO subject will continue to be largely ignored by the main stream because, lets face it, it just really isn't very important in most people's lives.

I can make this prediction with the supreme confidence that nothing has ever happened in the past and, therefore, it is almost 100% certain nothing ever will happen in the future.

Worst case scenario is that I'm wrong and life gets a little bit more interesting. But, frankly, I don't think I'm wrong. Nothing to see here....move along...move along..

New podcast episiode uploaded, an interview with David Biedny

2010-10-02T15:56:00.000-05:00

I just uploaded a new podcast episode. This one is a two hour conversation with David Biedny. At least this time I am pretty certain I didn't talk too much or excessively interrupt the guest.

http://www.cyberears.com/index.php/Show/audio/5777

FINAL EVENTS and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife

2010-09-14T14:38:00.002-05:00

The latest podcast episode of 'The Dialectic Struggle' is now online. In this episode I interview author Nick Redfern about his new book 'Final Events'.

The interview lasted over two hours long and I think produced some interesting conversation. Let me know what you think!

The Dialectic Struggle Message Forum is now open for business

2010-09-10T15:50:00.000-05:00

I just opened the new message forum for my 'Dialectic Struggle' podcast. Here is the link.

An interview with Stacy Lowry of the Black Fridays Podcast

2010-09-06T13:46:00.003-05:00

The latest episode of 'The Dialectic Struggle' podcast is out and features an interview with Stacy Lowry of 'The Black Fridays Podcast'. In this episode Stacy discusses his religious background and beliefs which leads to a discussion on theological topics in general. This interview latest almost two hours long so we must have had something to say during all that time.

I hope you enjoy the podcast, let me know what you think!

My first ever 'podcast' episode

2010-08-28T00:29:00.000-05:00

So, tonight I recorded my first ever 'podcast' episode. It was just an introduction to what I hope to do with the podcast. I was really just testing out my recording equipment and software.

Here's the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.cyberears.com/index.php/Show/audio/5777

I've got some bad news, UFO disclosure is happening right now, so pull up to the crow buffet with your knife and fork...

2010-08-25T00:23:00.000-05:00

Apparently, it has become quite popular to state that 'UFO disclosure is never going to happen'. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that some people (including myself) are going to have to start eating some crow.

The reason for this sudden bird buffet is that, well, disclosure *is* happening. Now, let me be clear. When I say 'disclosure', I do not mean that the US President is going to hold a press conference and state during a prime time address to the nation, 'Folks, a flying saucer did crash in Roswell, we recovered debris and alien bodies, and have been lying to you about it for over six decades.'

If that's what you mean by 'disclosure', then you are correct, that's probably never going to happen.

If, by disclosure, you mean 'A mile wide flying saucer like the one in 'District 9' or 'V' is going to hover over the capital and shout howdy to the world population.', well, no, that kind of disclosure is probably not going to happen either. Since the jackasses flying the UFOs have been conducting a fairly rigorous cover-up for centuries I see no reason to assume that their modus-operandi is going to change any time soon.

However, if by 'disclosure', you mean that a general acceptance of the fact that there is a real mystery, a real phenomenon, occurring which is truly unknown, not of man-made origin, and is taken seriously by serious people around the world, well, that kind of disclosure is happening right now.

As someone who has been following this topic for decades I have to say that I am shocked. I never expected it to happen in my life-time that world governments would release their UFO files to the public. I never expected pilots, generals, and politicians to go on TV and state, in a very serious way, that this phenomenon is real, represents a true mystery, and deserves serious consideration.

Just today, the modern day equivalent we have of a celebrity scientist (a Carl Sagan level personality) stated, as fact, that the UFO phenomenon is real.

Let's be clear. This is a very, very, big deal. Not only did he state that it was real, he also pointed out that the phenomenon might well represent technology not hundreds of years beyond us, but perhaps millions. That the technology might best be compared to us as we compare ourselves to an insect. That the technology might represent advanced artificial intelligence, advanced biotechnology, physics and robotics, and might be so strange we literally cannot grasp it with our tiny little minds.

This, is a very big deal.

I'm old enough (I will turn 50 next year) to remember a time when admitting you were interested in UFOs held about as much cachet as telling someone you really enjoyed child pornography. It was not a topic for polite conversation.

Meanwhile, I was at a meeting of our local 'Lions Club' last week, a group about as staid and conservative as you can get, and not only did the topic of UFOs come up (not by me) but there was a strong interest and general consensus that there was something real behind it.

Leslie Kean's book, statements by Kaku, repeated releases and announcements of world governments on the topic, and a general acceptance of the phenomenon not only in the general population but even in the mass media is indeed a watershed event and absolutely does constitute 'disclosure'.

If you don't think, that in total, the statements made by Kaku, the book by Kean, the MOD releases, French government releases, Brazil releases, and other 'disclosure' events by various governments around the world doesn't constitute a major, and I mean major, shift in the general acceptance of this phenomenon as representing a true mystery, I think you doth protest too much.

Ok, so the US gummint isn't going to cop to what they know. So, the jack-asses flying the UFOs are going to keep things on the down-lo. But, as someone who has witnessed decades of ridicule, decades of debunking, and decades of people generally ignoring this topic and the evidence behind it, I must say this is truly a watershed event. It constitutes a major change in the view, not only of the general population, but of governments and mass media.

For those of you who claimed 'disclosure' is never going to happen. You are simply wrong. Disclosure is happening right in front of your very eyes, and this is what it looks like.

Your Faith Does not contradict My Facts

2010-08-17T23:09:00.001-05:00

I was just in a private email exchange this evening with someone who took offense at something I said. What I had said was a statement of historical fact. This person took my statement of historical fact as deeply offensive to their personal faith.

What a dilemma this sort of thing is. Take Christianity for example. The tenets for that faith were established over two thousand years ago. That's a very long time. And, until we invent a time machine we are just never going to know, 100% for absolute fact, exactly what did or did not happen about much of anything regarding the origin of that religion. That's why believers of Christianity refer to their belief as 'faith' because there is literally no way of knowing one way or the other what the ultimate truth of the matter is.

However...there are more modern religions. Religions that were established not thousands of years ago, not even hundreds of years ago, but less than two hundred years ago. Religions that were created out of whole cloth. Religions which are thoroughly and exhaustively documented. Religions who's history is so thoroughly documented that the basic historical facts surrounding it are not in dispute by anyone from a purely historical standpoint.

What I find interesting is that if I state historical facts about this religion, and realize I am indeed stating facts, indisputable, undeniable, facts, it is somehow an 'attack on someone's faith'.

I find this very odd.

I kind of thought the line 'Your Faith does not contradict my Facts' sounded a bit catchy. But, the thing is, they aren't 'my' facts. They are "the" facts. Maybe my tagline should be 'Your Faith does not contradict historical fact." I suppose that is more accurate, if a bit less of a pithy catchphrase.

If you can't guess what religion I'm talking about, or what historical facts I'm not supposed to mention, well I suppose that's for the best.

Because if I state historical facts about con-artists and child molesters, I get in a whole bunch of trouble....

Pictures from John

2010-07-28T13:37:00.001-05:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Vacation Photos on Shutterfly

2010-07-27T21:29:00.002-05:00

Use this link to find all of my raw vacation photographs on Shutterfly at full resolution. I'm going to stop uploading them all here on blogger, but will make one more post with my absolutely favorites.

Here is the link to the Shutterfly share site.

http://jratcliffscarab.shutterfly.com/

Vacation Pictures : Monument Valley, Arizona

2010-07-27T18:28:00.000-05:00

All of these pictures are free to use for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Credit appreciated, but not required.

Vacation Pictures : Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

2010-07-27T18:07:00.000-05:00

All of these images are free for anyone to use, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Vacation Pictures : The Grand Canyon

2010-07-27T17:05:00.000-05:00

It wasn't a great day for viewing the Grand Canyon. It was overcast and rainy. These are the best shots I was able to get. All of these images are free for anyone to use, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

MOCHIP event in Wentzville

2010-07-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday our lodge, Wentzville #46, sponsored a MOCHIP event at Fire Station. As many of you heard, earlier in the week there was a child abduction in our area and, thankfully, a safe recovery. This spawned a lot of fear and concern in the community and our event was simply slammed. Hundreds of parents showed up and waited patiently to get their children identified.

You an learn more about MOCHIP at the website.

As each child goes through the process they have to sit and wait as their data is entered. I tried to keep the kids I registered entertained by letting them play games on my Iphone.

The local news, KSDK, did a short piece about the event. Here is a link to the video.