Empire of the Odd

Astronomer Mark Thompson argues that we need only apply some common sense to know UFOs probably don’t originate from space.

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It’s unlikely that you’ll see a flying saucer hovering over a field, but if you do, don’t assume it’s piloted by little green men.
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I’m fed up.

Yet again, a few days ago, someone told me they saw a UFO in the early morning sky and immediately assumed it is unquestionable evidence that aliens exist and that they are visiting Planet Earth, raping and pillaging the locals!

After a big sigh, and a little sly questioning on my part, we discover they had witnessed nothing more than Venus rising in the dawn sky and the flashing lights were the distorting effect of the atmosphere.

SLIDE SHOW: Top Exoplanets for Alien Life

A few months ago, at our street party celebration for the Royal Wedding, I convinced the neighbors to launch some Chinese lanterns. It turned out that the fleet of orange lights floating silently across the sky was mistaken by an alarming number of residents nearby as a whole invasion from bog-eyed monsters! I mean, really..

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August 16, 21011 by Courtney Mroch.

Lately Paranormal Posers are popping up everywhere. That’s how it seems anyway. I mean, they’re always around, but anymore they seem more audacious about expecting people to buy their faked paranormal evidence as real. (And in some cases I don’t mean “buy” as in “believe” but actually fork out money.)

Luckily there are people out there willing to call out paranormal posers when they see them. Below are two examples of Paranormal Poser Busters, Jason Stromming of the Occult Section and Steve Fernino, Director of Paranormal Research Groups.

I tip my virtual hat to people like these two who unofficially police the paranormal community in an attempt to keep it safe, real, and free from the ridicule paranormal posers ultimately bring upon it with their fakery.

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By John Timmer, Ars Technica

We’ve seen recently that air travel can have an oversized impact on the atmosphere, at least relative to emission of things like greenhouse gasses, because they seed clouds that can persist for hours. Now, researchers have taken a detailed look at what happens when aircraft fly through clouds that already exist. Under many circumstances, it turns out that the aircraft have the opposite effect, causing pressure changes that trigger the formation of large holes in the cloud, with the missing water falling out as snow.

Holes in clouds, like the one shown above, have been associated with the passage of aircraft since the 1940s, but it hasn’t been clear how significant this process is. By the 1980s, researchers had found that propeller-driven aircraft produce large pressure changes in their wake, which produce a lot of ice crystals if they pass through supercooled clouds.

More recent work showed just how large this effect can be: Propellers can induce temperature drops of up to 30 degrees Celsius, while the wings of jets can lower the temperature by 20 degrees Celsius. If a cloud is already in the area of -10 to -20 degrees Celsius, that means the airplane should cause ice to crystalize out of clouds.

The new paper shows what happens as a result of these crystals. Modeling indicates that the heat released by ice formation causes an updraft in the immediate vicinity of where an aircraft passes. This carries most of the ice crystals back upward, with the exception of the heaviest, which fall through the updraft as snow.

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If UFOs are real and trying to get our attention perhaps they are getting a little more savvy about the way we humans work.
A new video has emerged purporting to show ‘a mothership and its fleet’ zipping around in the clouds above a BBC building in West London.
Perhaps the group of intergalactic travellers was hoping for some coverage from Auntie.
See the video below…

UFOs? In the video, three fast-moving white dots streak across the London skyline

Crowd puller: By the time the cameraman arrives on the scene there are already three other people observing the ‘phenomenon’
Instead they were caught on camera by a passer-by, and at least one other person who can be seen filming or taking pictures on his camera phone while the video is filmed.
In the video, the cameraman runs towards the corner of Bolsover Street and Clipstone Street where two other men are already standing, gazing skywards, one of whom is using a mobile phone camera.

More…
Ghostly apparition of entire city appears over Chinese river… but is it just a mirage?
MICHAEL HANLON: UFO brigade Not Alone in talking nonsense
As the camera is pointed upwards, over the BBC’s Yalding House, three white dots flash across the sky at great speed in a triangle formation, they are very quickly followed by two similar sized white dots.
As the camera pans down again, two people on the opposite side of the road can also been seen watching events unfold above them.
Then one larger, bright and more slow moving disc-shaped white object appears, circles around briefly and zips off.

Mothership: After the five white dots are seen whizzing around, one larger brighter disc-shaped white object movers around slowly in the sky
By this time a crowd of five people have gathered on the street corner to observe. A Scottish man’s voice is heard off camera saying the word ‘UFO’.
Shortly after another Scottish man’s voice is heard saying: ‘Are you getting that up there? I couldn’t see before because the sun as flashing by.’
Far be it from us to suggest that the video is a hoax, but were people so minded then that part of London is home to a great many production houses offering both the expertise and facilities to mock up a convincing video.
Another similar video posted by alymc01 appears to have been filmed from the office of The Mill, a company which creates visual effects for the film industry.
But as the person who circulated the footage wrote in order to circumvent the cynical naysayers: ‘If you believe it’s easy photoshopped why don’t you make a video & show us all.’

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Anyone that has spent any time in paranormal related cyberspace has probably stumbled across “Ghost Village” and its founder Jeff Belanger. While this particular site is notorious for hilarious dust orbs and “ecto mist” photos featured on the front page, the propensity for generic, media generated sensationalism and a xenophobic forum membership base, up until now Mr. Belanger’s contributions to the paranormal have seemed relatively innocuous, mundane and benign. Regrettably We have been alerted to a rather disturbing companion site to Ghostvillage called “Kids Ghostvillage “, which is apparently intended to be a resource for children interested in the supernatural and paranormal investigation. Sound harmless? Not to SciFake!

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Don\’t You Think The Tea Party Just Needs To Get Away This Summer?

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 16th June 2011 10:41 GMT

Free whitepaper – Virtualization: Optimized Power and Cooling to Maximize Benefits

A Philadephia woman who decided it was a bright idea to publicly recruit a hitman on Facebook is behind bars after the intended victim’s mum spotted her murderous solicitation.

Eley London, 20, allegedly hit the social network on 23 May following a row with Corey Jerome White, the father of her one-year-old daughter. She posted: “I will pay somebody a stack to kill my baby father.”

The conspirators then allegedly agreed a price of $1,000, and London provided Bynum with an address and description of White.

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It is a good idea to sit back and do … nothing.

This is one of those times. Some of you may know that the Odd Empire is under a legal attack and we’ve been obliged to lay low for a while. What the attack is all about we cannot say (exactly) however it is safe to say that should certain ideas be upheld the Odd Empire will forever close it’s doors and you will never hear it’s like again.

I mean that for if this thing passes, the rights of ordinary people to voice their opinions on the Internet will be curtailed. It is actually that important. Your rights are at risk her dear fun-seekers.

Now my worthy opponent will say that it’s all justified and skeptics like myself do not have a right to speak. They feel justified to harass and hound people, threaten and  cajole without restraint.  I’ve met several people like that and they have all been more or less the same.

Why? Because they believe in aliens, Santa, witches, ghosts and other assorted things and I have an opened mind on those subjects.

Let me say that again, I have an open mind and many other people, folks who don’t hesitate to lie, cheat, steal, purger themselves and lie to their friends and themselves dislike me for the following reasons.

1. I tell lit like it is.
2. I have an open mind about the paranormal, which includes consideration of non-paranormal explanations.

Why would that make people angry? Because having an open mind is not enough. I must BELIEVE they shout and if I don’t BELIEVE, they will harass. If I don’t acknowledge their recursive lies are true, I must be punished. If I dare to refuse to validate them, I must go down.

It also has a bit to do with the US First Amendment.

If anyone would like a more detailed explanation, please PM me.

Thanks for the support I’ve received already.

Hopefully more will follow, until then, cherish the freedoms you have and defend them. Because the moment you give up and give in is the moment they win.

The Odd Emperor

Today Gnostalgia raised some interesting questions about whether paranormal TV is staged or hoaxed (or perhaps both). Barry’s no more satisfied with Syfy’s latest paranormal programming offering (Haunted Collector) than I am. And Finding Bigfoot has only turned out to be laughable. (See also another great Gnostalgia post: Finding Bigfoot on Talk Soup.)

Let me give it to you straight: Syfy’s done pissed me off royal. I wanted to like Fact or Faked. But then they had to go and try to package it as some kind of X-Files. Ben Hansen ain’t no Mulder. (Even though the show tries to profile him that way.)

Now we’ve got the Haunted Collector.

Oh, where do I even begin with the woes I’ve got about that show?

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By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press

June 7, 2011, 9:16PM

HARDIN, Texas — Deputies who swarmed a rural Texas neighborhood Tuesday to search a farmhouse where a person claiming to be a psychic told officials multiple bodies were buried found no evidence of even a single homicide, a sheriff’s official says.

Liberty County Sheriff’s Capt. Rex Evans said there was no indication of bodies being anywhere on the property about 70 miles northeast of Houston. Officials ended their search Tuesday night and went home, with the focus of the investigation now turning to the tipster who led local law enforcement and FBI agents to the home.

The sheriff’s office had received two calls from the person, officials said. Evans said authorities took the tip seriously in part because the caller had details about the interior of the house that only someone who had seen it could have known.

He said authorities were working to track down the tipster and determine how she had such detailed information on the house. He said authorities had a name and number for the woman.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7600327.html#ixzz1Og9Se3cB