Month: August 2014

SETI search suspended due to wildfires

California wildfires temporarily suspend search for aliens 

Wildfires raging in Northern California briefly halted the search for extraterrestrial life on Tuesday.

Quite possibly one of the best news headlines ever to appear on CNN..

But the real news is this: For those not aware, tremendous wildfires are burning and raging in California, the home of SETI. A fire was near SETI, about 200 miles north of Sacramento.

CNN goes on to report:

At SETI — which stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — scientists search the heavens for signs of extraterrestrial life by “listening” with an array of small satellite dishes.

The blaze came within a mile of the facility, located near Hat Creek, California, on both the east and west, according to Shostak.

“The fire on the west had jumped the road, burnt down our favorite lunch place, got within a mile of the telescopes,” he said. As the flames got closer, the staff fled to safer ground and shut down the satellites.

“We just lost some search hours,” he said. “To expect that E.T. will somehow reach out at this moment, that would be very bizarre.”

That is the amazing part.. imagine the irony if this moment, when computers were abandoned and no one was home, ET phoned earth?

Strangers things may have happened. Or not. That we know of.

Hoax or Axe?

An image printed by the UK METRO has gained popularity in paranormal circles.. some see evidence of a ghostly figure, while others say it’s a major hoax and can be dismissed as that.

The story, as printed by the less than always reliable tabloid across the pond:

A man clutching an axe inside an old military frigate doesn’t make for your typical ghost story, nor does it make typical fodder for an internet hoax.

But a photograph showing a ghostly figure with an axe in his hand aboard a decommissioned military vessel on a dry dock has gained a lot of traction on social media sites.

Stevgoldhound, who posted the picture on Imgur yesterday, claims it was taken by a colleague of his called John who works as a dock foreman.

John apparently took the picture while snapping work areas and navigating deep within the ship with a torch. He didn’t see anyone while taking the images.

Another user of the site cleaned up the image and came up with this. Creepy huh?

It is creepy, if real.. Even if not real, the image is genuinely jumpy.

The METRO story goes on to say that this person, only with one name of Stevgoldhound *I assume a user name from somewhere online?* is a skeptic.. Even more, supposedly, a search was conducted and there were no people aboard the ship. Matey. And finally, the one-named onliner also said his friend ‘John’ could simply be blowing smoke up his ass. Maybe. And all of the internet world, too..

At this point: I am placing this one in the fun but fake category. No evidence to showcase any thing real.. nothing which proves the user names are true, and certainly no real information that offers any credibility to the story.

But it is a creepy image.

Is that a face on your comet, or are you just happy to be probed?

Where’s Richard C. Hoagland when you need him!? The ‘Enterprise Mission’ was famous for spotting a ‘face on Mars,’ one that turned out to just be a trick of the camera and lightning gone awry.. But there’s a new trick in space, one perhaps even creepier: The face on the Comet..

It was spotted by the Rosetta probe, the European Space Agency’s craft in orbit.. It captured a photo of the ‘face,’ most likely another optical illusion that will create years of wild speculation..

The face is more like that of a skeleton. Freakishly pale, with a mummified appearance.

Tariq Malik from SPACE.COM points that that these types of ‘faces’ seen on planets, and now comets, are examples of pareidolia, in which the human brain perceives faces or shapes on random images.. Such as clouds, if you have a good imagination on a summer day..

And anyway, if you take a close look at the extreme left hand side of the comet, it looks like Ferb from Phinneas and Ferb. I think.

The amazing part of this story isn’t the fictitious face, it’s the true science: Rosetta will be landing on the comet in November. And then it will accompany the comet until its closest approach to the sun in August 2015..

To major stories here: 1) Earthlings are landing a probe on a comet. And 2) NASA isn’t doing it..

Horrific stabbing shocks town

There’s something deeply wrong out there.. Perhaps always was, and made much more easy to learn about with the internet’s super highway connecting all of the vast portions of the world together..

This is what is known about a brutal Michigan killing: A 12-year-old boy stabbed another boy, age 9, in a playground.. There seemingly is no connection between them. They don’t appear to have known each other.. Th 12-year-old stabbed the other in the back with a kitchen knife..  The 12-year-old calmly approached a man close to the playground after the stabbing, and asked to use a phone.

Reportedly the boy said he was unloved..also this: He took multiple pills earlier in the day.

As if the entire story wasn’t chilling enough, this is how the culmination of events took place, as CNN reported:

Police said that after he was stabbed, Conner managed to run back home before he collapsed on the porch. An ambulance rushed him to a hospital, where he died Monday night.

Lawhorn, meanwhile, “left the playground then went to a nearby residence where he asked to use the phone,” Kentwood Chief of Police Thomas Hillen said.

“I thought he was calling for his parents to come pick him up,” homeowner Glen Stacy told CNN. He wasn’t. “He called 911,” he said.

Stacy described Lawhorn as “calm and collected” throughout, and that he told the 911 dispatcher, “Hi, I just stabbed someone, please pick me up and come kill me, I want to end my life.”

MORE here..

There can be dozens if not more questions applied to this news brief. A kitchen knife? From where.. parental guidance lacking? Mental problems undiagnosed? So many aspects to the story that are difficult and time consuming to contemplate.

In the mean time, a 9-year-old family is grieving a tragic and abrupt loss of someone they love..
Horror in the playground..
The kids aren’t alright.

From the depths of my childhood, new toys for my son

My son and I were playing my my old He-Man action figures tonight, I think it’s the first time in my 33 years of life I actually took a close look at Moss Man’s face.. What an ugly mug.

Funny enough, Moss still has a slight hint of the fresh 1980s added on odor that Mattel have him.. Amazing.

BUT!

Oh no! Ayden just beheaded Mekaneck… Another casualty in the old toy box..

Oh no! Ayden just beheaded Mekaneck… Another casualty in the old toy box..

Weird Wednesday: News of the world

Here are the headlines of reality and fiction.. blended together, as they so often are.. You be the judge on what’s real and what’s now.. As Truman Burbank asked: Is anything real? He was..
But really he was fiction.
Right?

NEWS OF THE WORLD.. PRESENTED FOR YOUR HORRIFIC APPROVAL THIS EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING..

EBOLA SUMMER: A few days ago, we were told of a person being tested for Ebola at Mount Sinai in New York.. the results of which are not known..But it turns out that that 1 sole patient number may be a bit skewed.. it is now 6–I suspect maybe more–being tested.. And it’s also not just the Big Apple.. Ebola tests are being conducted across the nation, and it would appear that at this point the government is attempting its best to surpress information on where the tests are being conducted.. Numbers are being concealed.. Press reports from Ohio indicate that the suspected patient in that state is negative for the virus.. Meanwhile in the hotspot of the outbreak: Sierra Leona is being ravaged by the disease, troops are being deployed, and doctors are describing a scene of chaos and horror.. One doctor, as quoted in the UK DAILY MAIL, described a frightening appearance of Ebola patients prior to death, saying that patients typically look healthy up until a bit before they succumb .. A possible carrier is also being watched in Wales..

A few questions still revolve around why the two Americans with Ebola got the secret serum.. And while the world is clamoring for a vaccine, some are beginning to question if people should line up in droves to get the yet undone antecdote: Red flags are being raised over the use of experimental Ebola drugs..

Fear and loathing with Ebola: The internet world is abuzz with reports information over Ebola: 90% death rate, vs the more realsitic 60% rate with this outbreak is one item that is constantly being misreported.. And even more: Lola Okolosie writes in the UK GUARDIAN today that “Ebola has infected public discourse with a new xenophobia”.. It’s a summer of fear..

Oh, back to that ‘secret’ serum thing? Maybe we gave the two Ebola patients the antecdote, and then brought them to the CDC for observation to see how effective it is. It is somewhat common sense and really not conspiracy conjecture.. we would probably desire to know if our ‘secret’ cocktail worked..

And this: VOX reports that the Ebola patients in America are the subjects of a science experiment..

x x x

A new generation of scientists has apparently been entering to the mainstream.. now their warnings of impending global doom are accompanied by swear words best used by Megan Fox describing her hatred for haters. Professor Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland tweeted “If even a small fraction of Arctic sea floor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we’re fucked.”

MASSIVE WILDFIRE IN CANADA.. VISIBLE ALL THE WAY TO PORTUGAL..


Living through weather history.. never fun. Hawaii is bracing for Iselle. And then Julio follows.. that’s right: A double trouble bubble in the Pacific is forming, and two tropical storms are aiming for Hawaii, one after the other.. While some are nervous and preparing, others are undoubtedly preparing surf boards for waves..

Scientists think that California’s drought may increase chances for earthquakes..

United Nations warns that the US may have to migrate people out of California area..

First Ohio, now British Columbia: Hundreds of people in British Columbia can’t use their water after more than a billion gallons of mining waste spilled into rivers and creeks in the province’s Cariboo region..

The kids continue to not be alright: Now enter the ‘choking game’..

Mo Rocca enlisted to help make propaganda for Monsanto..

Justin Bieber’s song BABY saves man from bear attack? See, even bears hate Justin Bieber..


Another example that the internet is changing everything.. the Los Angeles porn industry is being hit by bad economic times.. it’s fleeing LA.. the number for permits has plummeted 90% in the city when compared to 2 years ago. Only 20 porn permits issued in ’14.. but websites are still hopping with the free stuff posted by users and regular people across the world, those desperate for attention and the desire to be the next online porn star..

The book of Revelation becomes a horror movie in THE REMAINING..

Horror movie SEPTIC MAN gets attention..


TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE star Marlyn Burns dead..
Scream queen gone at 65..
From Erie, PA..


This is quite possibly the best wedding photo ever taken: Adam Biesenthal, the photographer who snapped the picture, told The Huffington Post that Jeff Goldblum and his fiancee attended the wedding of Pamela and Jesse Sargent this past weekend in Toronto…The couple wanted a T.Rex Photoshopped into one of their pictures..

Fat bottomed Slenders make the horror world go round

Is this the BEST ABC news could do?

In a recent story posted on the ABC NEWS website about the two girls who used Slenderman as an excuse in the stabbing and near-murder of their friend, they opted to use this photo, pictured with this post, of ‘one of the many internet depictions of the fictional character Slender Man.’ 

The choice of this image is bizarre to me.. First off, while it may an internet depiction, it actually ends up looking much more like a Monty Python skit than a Slender Man example? I have seen a tremendous abundance of Slender Man images all over since this tragic case took place, but this is the first time I have seen the giant big-bellied version of Slender Man..I even Google searched images for “Slender Man costumes” and I found no evidence of this ABC news ‘internet depiction’ ..  this really is more like the Big Boned Slender Man.. or even The Fat Bottomed Slender Man.. Perhaps Slender had a few too many buffet trips..

While the image has next to nothing to do with the story, nor the fact that one of the accused girls talks to unicorns and Voldemort,, I just found its use to be peculiar..

Fat Bottom Slenders make the rockin’ world go round.

Sharknado 2: The best worst movie of all time

While some mock it, and others decry the acting skills, I quite loved it. How can it not be loved.. I certainly will not review it, rate it, or recommend it.. unless you’ve got a well established group of friends who, perhaps a wee bit, are under the influence of some sort of legalized liquid mind changer. Otherwise, you’re forced to see the movie for what it is: A tremendous waste of time.

But that’s why I loved it.
Time was meant to be wasted, especially on a Sunday night when the other real new programming on is HOARDERS..

Tara Reid? Oh my.. but making up for her lack of skills to deliver a solid line even in a joke film: Al Roker and Matt Lauer driving sharp objects through CGI sharks. That cannot be missed..

So watch this at your own peril.. try to make it a group thing. If it’s not.. you’ll wonder why you did what you just did..