Am I right people? Nick's new book is out and it looks like another winner. Ok, so it's his 148th book and number 27 this year, but I've never even heard of "the Collins Elite."

Week 34 on Dark Matters Radio !

by admin on Sep.07, 2010, under Uncategorized
Dark Matters Radio Archives
Welcome back to Dark Matters Radio and, believe it or not, Week 34 right here on CyberstationUSA. First, some “local news.”
My wife Vicki has always loved the beach.
Southern Calf. Beach


Being here in Southern California means that we are not too far from any one of a number of beaches, when the mood strikes, to go visit one. Now, the last several years Vicki has been doing the “background actress” gig, and she has appeared on too many shows to recall. However on one of her gigs, “Heroes”, she met another Vicki and they became good buddies. Now the other Vicki may soon move back east and she called my Vicki up last week and asked if she wanted to go to the beach on Saturday, you know, since Summer is for all intents and purposes … over. My Vicki, never needing an excuse, said Sure! Off they went … and later that day home she came home barely crawling. My Vicki got caught in a tremendous “riptide”, got knocked off her feet and severely injured her ankle. I ended up taking her to the Emergency Room at our local hospital Sunday morning and she is now temporarily laid up!
Usually that would not be a major issue cause I pick up the ball, but I have been laid up a bit with some back problems. Seems like every once in awhile some (former Soviet Russian shrapnel) in my back from Viet Nam kicks up and does me a “funky.” It kicked up a little over a week ago and I been dealing with that. Oh Crikey! What a pair we currently are! Okay, enough whining from me.
Monday September 6 was Labor Day and since most folks took the day off (it being the end of Summer and all) Dark Matters Radio ran the classic episode of STS-48! No matter how you carve it that is one heck of a story. If you missed it make sure you catch it in the Dark Matters Archives.
STS 48 debate on LKL

Tuesday September 7 Walter Bosley is back on Dark Matters.

Walter Bosley
As you know, Walter has appeared here a number of times and is always a great interview. Tonight we are going to discuss his other “job” which is his publishing firm. One thing Walter and I have discussed is the “graphic novel” phenomenon that has swept across the nation. If you are familiar with “Comic Con” you will be aware of how many folks have really jumped into that fray. I have always thought my novel, Past Sins, would make a great transition into the graphic novel world and I am sure we might even touch on that. Weds. & Thursday TBA
Friday September 10 Rich Sarradet will be in studio and we will examine the weeks events. See you on the radio

Okay Gang, from June 2006 and a column I wrote when I was still pissed off because of another encounter with a "brain dead" TV asshole.

I Get the Last Word
By Don Ecker

June 2006


Now that Summer is arriving, most of us will be spending more time outside enjoying the milder weather and growing vegetation. Perhaps a lot of us will start looking up at the sky hoping to see something “unusual.” At least I hope so. Why?
Well, it seems that the UFO topic has pretty much dropped off the radar. Most of the news has been pretty bad of late. In Iraq, suicide bombings continue, the American political landscape is in turmoil over the issue of undocumented immigrants, with various aspects being highlighted; “national security vs. human rights,” “economic meltdown vs. millions paying into the tax structure,” etc., ad nauseam. Geeze, can you imagine what would happen if we were suddenly confronted with an extraterrestrial immigration? It seems to me we NEED an influx of UFO information to “jump-start” the silly season, as it was once called.
When you are dealt lemons you really should make lemonade. But I digress.
Once again I received an email from a TV producer who suddenly discovered the UFO subject! Over the years I’ve received hundreds of such calls from the TV industry. It kind of goes like this. . . .

TV Guy: Uh, hi Don! (sounds like my newest best-est buddy!) I’m Joe TV and I want to do a special on the UFO thingy!

ME: Great! So, what did you have in mind?

TV Guy: (or sometimes TV Girl) Well, I was on the Internet and I came across this webpage that says that aliens are eating us. So, tell me everything you know in the next three minutes ‘cause I have a meeting with the Gazillion-Dollar Network President in a half an hour!!! I think I have a winner for a special!!

ME: Well, Joe, I gotta tell ya, that in all my years in this business I’ve never really seen any evidence that the ETs are eating us. So, where did you see this page?

TV Guy: Um, where did I see the . . . what?

ME: Well, Joe, the webpage that says the aliens are eating us, remember?

TV Guy: Oh, that. Well this guy -- let me check, oh yeah -- the Paranoid Schizoid Website where all the SECRET alien suppressed information is!

ME: Oh, that website. Well, Joe, we did an investigation on that two years ago and found out that this guy had a nervous breakdown several years ago when he was working as a widget counter. Now, if you want to do a special on UFOs, let me tell you about this case we are working on now. We discovered this document in the Presidential Archives of . . .
. (Now I can hear his eyes glazing over!)

TV Guy: What? I’m really interested in the aliens eating us thingy!

ME: Well, Joe, I’m sorry but I have no information on anything like that.

TV Guy: Okay, how about this? This other webpage says that aliens are really LIZARDS and that George Bush senior and the Queen are really LIZARDS in disguise and they’re plotting to take over the world! Gee, you’ve heard all about that one, right?

ME: Joe, yes, I’ve heard that, but wow! You don’t really buy into that, do you?

( 15 seconds of deafening silence)

TV Guy: Well! Okay, thanks. Click!

Maybe I should have spun him a story. On the other hand, I’ve written this very well-received horror novel. Hey TV Guy! Wanna break into the movie biz? Cause let me tell ya, I’ll have my people call your people and we can do the lunch thing! Oh yes! Let’s do a power lunch and I can pitch you on the latest soon-to-be breaking HORROR CRAZE! Or, you can pick my brains that are storing 20 years of esoteric UFO research and then refuse to use any of it!
Oh, the shame! The shame of it all!

And until then, keep looking UP!


*Don Ecker is research director for UFO Magazine and an avid television watcher. He’s currently writing the sequel to his first novel, *Past Sins.

[Nick's] latest release, FINAL EVENTS and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife, is now available.


[Personally I'm not totally sure that we are dealing w/ evil "demons" and fallen angels -- most of you know I have ID'd them as amoral "tricksters," but Nicks great research into this shadowy government group possibly confirms what I have heard from law enforcement sources about a secret group within the government looking at the occult connection with the paranormal.---COB]


For decades, stories of alien abductions, UFO encounters, Flying Saucer sightings, and Area 51 have led millions of people to believe that extraterrestrials are secretly amongst us. But what if those same millions of people are all wrong? What if the UFO phenomenon has much darker, and far more ominous, origins than the realm of outer-space?

For four years, I have been carefully and quietly investigating the strange and terrifying world of a secret group buried deep within the U.S. Government known as the Collins Elite.

It is the belief of the group that far from being extraterrestrial in origin, our purported alien visitors are, in reality, deceptive demons and fallen-angels; the minions of Satan, who are paving the way for Armageddon, Judgment Day, and the reaping and enslavement of our very souls.

Highlights of FINAL EVENTS include:

• A study of secret government files on occultists Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons, and their links to the UFO mystery.

• Revelations concerning the demonic link to the famous “UFO crash” at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 - links that, the Collins Elite believe, suggest the Roswell event was a staged, Trojan Horse-style deception.

• An examination of the Collins Elite's conclusions that there is a satanic agenda behind alien abductions.

• The disclosure of Government investigations into life-after-death and out-of-body experiences.

FINAL EVENTS reveals the stark and horrific conclusions about UFOs from Hell that certain people in the Government don’t want you to know about.

Halfway through the book. Fascinating !

Compelling and well presented cases accompanied by a deep frustration that an american reporter has to go overseas to get non-biased and balanced opinions about the UAP subject.

An uncooperating air force and oppresive airline policies that squash any report of ufos by its employees forces a reflexion on the objective of suppression.

The primary goal of an airline is to offer safe transportation within the limits of its capacities, which it does extremely well if you take a look at the statistics... Seems that they've calculated that hiding these rare events is less damaging to their business than coming out with world changing revelations that would obviously scare their clients away 8). UFO's are not part of their business plan, especially in tough economic times.

The same reasoning applies to the air force whose missions can address earthly issues but is powerless against UAP's. An empire admitting powerlessless goes against its business plan. (Illusion more important than reality ?)

IMHO, what differentiates the U.S. and U.K or France concerning the address of the UFO subject is scale, secularity and the homogeneity index. The U.S. harbours a variety of groups with strong religious belief (ex. evangelists, religious lobbyists), the presence of a 'bible belt' and a growing chasm between conservative and liberal values that become barriers to seriously addressing controversial religiously-incorrect subjects on a national scale. (Most noteable during the Bush years:frown:)

Reading Leslie Keans book leads me to think that discussion or disclosure of information concerning the UAP subject in the context of that vast environment is infinitely more difficult than in more homogeneous liberal countries such as France, the U.K.... Chile, Brazil... etc. where it seems religious sensibilities are less flammable and whose aeronautical industries would be less impacted ;)

Came across some free pdf downloads of books by Karla Turner. Just wondered if anybody has heard of her? I did a little reading and it seems Greg Bishop and Art Bell and several people have interviewed her. I had googled "free online u.f.o. books" and that is how I found her books.

Hi Folks as you gathered there's a real war going on in Afghanistan and it seems the authorities may have decided to increase numbers . http://www.stripes.com/?mobile=no,

Sending our best wishes to theses USA Servicemen& Women who will be joining the other ranks already there and those killed or injured (Give them your support) in action God Bless them all and God Bless America.

Peace,
BF

Bizarre!

Giant hay bale crushes ex-ELO star to death - Entertainment - Music - TODAYshow.com

The biblical Garden of Eden was taken away from man because of sin, or the the bible and a few other texts say. The Bible says Edan was located east of Israel where four rivers meet- The Tigris and Euphrates and the Pison and Gihon. The later two have long been considered mythical but however; recent satellite photography suggest these rivers did exist in Iraq. Another theory places Eden's location beneath the Black Sea. Both the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh and Ancient Greek texts speak of a paradise lost.

I like to know if there is any other texts other than the Bible reinforce the idea of Eden and where it might be found? The Bible to me is more stories or guidelines on how you should live your life than historical fact. A good analogy would be the Bible to me is like a Dan Brown novel; it has facts in it but those facts have been bent to fit the story. So just like Atlantis is a mystery did a place like Eden really exist? Some facts I would suggest point to a Eden like place did exist.


History Channels Mysteries of the Garden of Eden

On the Paracst show and in this forum it seems you all have it in for Stan Romanek.
He's presented and continues to present hours of filmed evidence to corroborate his experiences with high strangeness and the visitors.
He also has many witnesses to his experiences.
It's easy to say about anyone who comes out with experiences such as Stans "it's all fake" or "He's a scam artist looking to make money" etc. because to make accusations like those you don't have to back them up with anything except opinion.
How has the Paracast show disassembled his story exactly?
It seems there's a lot of jealousy and 'Experiencer envy' going on here from what I can see.

It came out early, finished it yesterday. Walter Bosley doesn't come out looking too hot.

I can't really gauge the value of the book. It did give me some opportunities to observe the faultiness of my thinking, though--there were at least two occasions where certain content triggered a quick and broad judgment ('the UFO subject is all government deception' or 'my God they really have been here')--the second 'conclusion' coming on the heels of a somewhat dramatic interview with Kit Green. Pilkington describes himself going through the same process, but as is typical with the subject, after a few minutes the glow of certainty fades and one returns to question mark status.

Maybe it's just a further lesson in having to accept that the issue will never be settled. That's a nice dream, but for me, my feeble little mind has a very hard time balancing itself comfortably in the middle ground. Perhaps another ten or fifteen similar books will finally complete the re-wiring process.

Anyone else read it yet?

(Also, maybe something of interest--Richard Doty took the author onto Kirtland with no problems, which struck me as odd, as I was under the impression that he had a falling out with the Air Force. The visit was in 2006.)

(Another thing--the book has some discussion of radar with regards to its manipulation by military agencies, which has been in existence for as long as the modern UFO phenomenon...it might take a bite out of radar's status as some sort of sacred evidence...)

Mr Dolan,

Can you ask your publishers to get their collective finger out and start another run of Ufo' & State Security (Vol1) please - I've been waiting 3 months for my copy to arrive only to be informed that they have stopped printing it!

Damn their eyes!

THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
September 4, 2010

The Paranormal Events in Your Backyard Explored on The Paracast

Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM (Central Time) on the GCN radio network.

The Paracast Humbly Requests Your Donations: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough, and we don't want to overwhelm the show with them, so we hope you'll be willing to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large :). We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, right below our logo. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.

You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and a collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt, just pay a visit to our new online store at http://store.theparacast.com/ to select your size and place your order. We now also offer a lineup of other premium merchandise featuring The Paracast logo.

Sunday, September 5, 2010: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.

Set Up: The Paracast hosts interview long-time researchers in the field, to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.

Join us as we explore the realms of the known and unknown, and hear great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.

This Week's Episode: Co-host Nicholas Redfern presents an interview with journalist Jason Offutt, who returns to The Paracast to talk about his latest book, "śWhat Lurks Beyond: The Paranormal in Your Backyard."ť

Nick Redfern's site: Nick Redfern

Coming November 12: Co-hosts Christopher O’Brien and Nicholas Redfern present a return visit with paranormal author and adventurer David Hatcher Childress, author of “Yetis, Sasquatch & Hairy Giants.”

Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet

Nick Redfern's site: Nick Redfern

Coming November 19: Co-host Christopher O’Brien introduces an elder for the Zuni tribe making his first radio appearance, Clifford Mahooty, who will discuss Indian legends, including those involving “star people” who came to Earth in ancient times.

Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet

Reminder: Don't forget to visit our always-active Discussion Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal (and note our new Internet address): The Paracast Community Forums.

Were There Really Ancient Astronauts?

In the early 1950s, when people focused on the controversial claims of contactee George Adamski, not so many considered the fact that Adamski’s book, “Flying Saucers Have Landed,” had another author, Desmond Leslie.

Leslie’s large contribution to the book contained chapters theorizing that advanced or higher beings reported in the Bible and other sacred texts were, in fact, ET. The Ancient Astronauts concept was also advanced by Brinsley Le Poer Trench and Yonah Fortner, the latter writing in Jim Moseley’s original “Saucer News” as “Y.N. Ibn Aharon.”

Later on, a former hotel manager, Erich von Daniken, parlayed widespread lore about advanced beings from the skies into a number of successful books, beginning with “Chariots of the Gods.”

Now the truth or falsity of all this speculation is beyond the scope of this brief commentary. On the other hand, you can’t dismiss the sheer ubiquity of these tales around the world and the consistent information, such as the larger stature and evident longevity of these visitors from the unknown.

It’s also commonly believed that these creatures were emissaries from God, and certainly the potential influence (or harm) of any superior culture can drastically change a relatively primitive civilization. That is the logic in Star Trek’s Prime Directive, one involving non-interference. Of course, the mere presence of an advanced society may be sufficient to forever change the life experiences and culture of the people (or creatures) they visit, and there were episodes of Star Trek in which that interference occurred, despite the best of intentions.

Using Ancient Astronaut legends, the creators of the Stargate movie, which spawned three popular TV series, imagined a universe in which advanced creatures actually enslaved early humans.

Now I’m not about to suggest that the “real” beings from the stars, assuming the legends and beliefs are genuine, came here to turn is into slaves. There may have been all sorts of motivations involved, some of which we can only guess. In the end, maybe their intentions were benevolent, at least from their point of view, although visiting a primitive culture and altering it to fulfill some sort of cosmic plan may not seem such a good idea if it is your civilization that’s harmed.

But is all this real? Well, assuming there are advanced civilizations throughout the galaxy, and the existence of more and more potential Earth-like planets makes this a distinct possibility, it’s quite reasonable to suggest that they have visited us at one time, and might still be visiting us.

But the larger question is whether our visitors of today are the same ones that came from the skies in ages past. If they are, are they simply keeping tabs on us until we’re ready to engage in a dialogue among equals, or do they still regard us as irrational warlike primitives, that we must change our ways before they will treat us with respect?

Or maybe, just maybe, we were originally seeded by the giants of old who mated with the daughters of men to produce an entirely new species. For better or worse, maybe we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.

Both the UFO mystery, and the legends of star people, are far more complicated than that. Alas, since the books on the subject -- even if they are best sellers -- are hardly taken seriously by traditional scientists, it’s highly likely that we’ll ever know the truth. That is, until or unless those higher beings decide to make a public appearance and set the record straight.

Hey all: Long time no chat with :) Been good and will update soon. Meanwhile, wanted to share this FUNNY video. Enjoy! :)

Incompatible Browser | Facebook

You may or may not have heard that we had an earthquake here in NZ 30 miles west of Christchurch (where I live) this morning at 4:35am. It was 7.1 on the richter scale, and was roughly the same size as the one in Haiti at the start of the year.

We were very lucky in our area of Christchurch (west). Some major damage was reported in the east of the city with damaged sewer pipes, cracked roads and the fronts of a number of buildings have been damaged or have collapsed completely. In our part of the city, no damage as far as we can see. At our place all we had was a couple of broken plates, books and cds fell off shelves, and we lost electricity. One of our cats slept through the whole thing. :rolleyes:

Luckily so far there have not been any deaths. Just a few injuries due to "flying chimneys" (apparently) and flying glass and things. There is now a state of emergency in the city and the central business district has been cordoned off. There were reports of looting earlier on ... typical people.

All in all I think everyone is a bit rattled, but luckily because the buildings over here are built in case of earthquakes it could have been far worse. The one in Haiti cost 200,000 lives.

So ... we're still getting aftershocks (some of them have been quite unsettling) but hopefully things will settle down again in the next few days.

Most reports will come as and when they come in ... apparently.

And now back to your featured presentation ... :D

ps more aftershocks happening as I write this so excuse the rather brittle and abrupt language ... its not a day for baroque prose of any kind ::)

Second super-fast flip of Earth's poles found
From newscientist.com

SOME 16 million years ago, north became south in a matter of years. Such fast flips are impossible, according to models of the Earth's core, but this is now the second time that evidence has been found.

The magnetic poles swap every 300,000 years, a process that normally takes up to 5000 years. In 1995 an ancient lava flow with an unusual magnetic pattern was discovered in Oregon. It suggested that the field at the time was moving by 6 degrees a day - at least 10,000 times faster than usual. "Not many people believed it," says Scott Bogue of Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Now Bogue and his colleague Jonathan Glen of the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, say they have found a second example in Nevada. The lava rock suggests that in one year, Earth's magnetic field shifted by 53 degrees (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2010GL044286). At that rate, a full flip would take less than four years, but there could be another interpretation. "It may have been a burst of rapid acceleration that punctuated the steady movement of the field," says Bogue.

Peter Olson of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, remains sceptical and points out that the effects could have been local rather than global.

Earth is overdue for a reversal, and rapid shifts would cause widespread chaos - for navigation and migratory birds for instanc

For the life of me I can't find a podcast feed for Dark Matters Radio, as I did for Paracast... I found the page listing links to past show MP3s, but no way to feed my podcast apps. The RSS link on the Dark Matters Radio main page is not compatible with iTunes or any other podcast app I tried--it doesn't link to the MP3s.

Am I:

A) Blind
B) Out of luck

Thanks for the assist.

A good article on the topic, recently covered on Boing Boing:

Boing Boing Coverage

Full Article in Minnesota Monthly

War comes at horrible cost and no one can fight a conflict with out deaths and casualties. 'Lest We Forget'.:(

http://www.defencetalk.com/us-deaths...10-28496/'

Peace,
BF

Didn't see this up on the board yet. Normally I wouldn't give something like this the time of day but it was supposedly recorded on live tv in Argentina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbQrse84sIA

Professor Hawking might stir up a hornets nest of political backlash with his new book,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...-Universe.html,

Reconsidering Extraterrestrial Visitation
By MARC S. CALLIS
Harvard Crimson article HERE:
The modern UFO phenomenon began in the 1940s. Yet despite decades of evidence, and the fact that opinion polls (such as Gallup) have consistently shown that the majority of people believe that flying saucers are real, this phenomenon has yet to be seriously and systematically investigated by the academic and scientific mainstream. Why? In large part, it has to do with the hypothesis that unexplained UFO sightings represent encounters with artificial, intelligently-controlled craft of non-terrestrial origin. Extraordinary evidence, such as an alien body or an intact craft, has yet to be made publicly available; many claim that such evidence is indispensable to justify any serious investigation at all into this issue, as claims that Earth has been visited by a non-terrestrial intelligence are inherently extraordinary. But while perhaps intuitively correct, this notion crumbles in the face of logical reasoning and facts.

Naturally, this begs the question, “If the presence of extraterrestrials on Earth is not an inherently extraordinary claim, then what is?” An example soon comes to mind. Bigfoot sightings typically occur in the northwestern United States of America. Whether or not Bigfoot exists (and let me be “clear” that I do not intend to argue for or against the existence of Bigfoot in this op-ed), what matters here is that in the case of Bigfoot, there does in fact exist a clear frame of reference justifying a standard of proof far higher than would normally be required for a phenomenon new to science. The region as a whole is highly populated, includes major urban areas, and enjoys a modern, fully-developed infrastructure of roads, airports, hiking trails, etc that allow people more or less free access to even the remotest parts of the region. Large numbers of scientists and experienced outdoorsmen have operated throughout the region for more than a century, and in that time have achieved intimate familiarity with the area’s fauna, large and small. As such, one has at least some reasonable basis to claim that, if Bigfoot exists, its existence would probably have been confirmed by now. The notion of Bigfoot as an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence stems from a frame of reference firmly based in sound logic and relevant facts.

However, no comparable frame of reference exists for UFOs. Far from having an intimate, century-long understanding of other solar systems (even in our own part of the galaxy), we in fact know virtually nothing about them. According to the “Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia” maintained by Jean Schneider of the CNRS-LUTH Paris Observatory, as of the writing of this essay only 460 extrasolar planets have been discovered—most of them gas giants like Jupiter, and none of them similar to our own. We do not even know where the Earth-like planets are or how many of them there are, let alone how many of them have intelligent life—or even life at all. Figuring out how many planets contain intelligent beings of sufficient technological sophistication to perform interstellar travel is barely (if at all) even on the radar screen yet. As such, the prevailing assumption—that interstellar travel is extremely rare or even non-existent (in our corner of the galaxy at least) —is made with no basis whatsoever in observable fact. As such, the notion that reports of objects appearing to be intelligently controlled craft of non-terrestrial origin must be subjected to extremely high standards of evidence similarly lacks basis in fact. Despite the extraordinary things our astronomers have accomplished in recent decades, even the nearer reaches of deep space remain a near-total mystery. We’ve yet to even detect other Earth-like planets, let alone acquire the degree of detailed knowledge about such planets that would justify current demands that abnormally high standards of evidence be met before science entertains the possibility of extraterrestrials visiting Earth

Given our current frame of reference, there is simply no logical reason to hold reports appearing to be of non-terrestrial craft to any higher standards of evidence than is customary for other previously unknown phenomena encountered by science. Granted, the possibility of interstellar travel is difficult for many to comprehend. But cell phones, the Internet—even such now-antiquated technologies as radio and the film projector—would have perplexed even the most advanced scholars of the ancient or medieval world. And yet, we think of all those things as commonplace today. Given human history, it does not take a great deal of imagination to hypothesize the existence elsewhere of technology far beyond our current understanding.

If we are to hold those UFO reports apparently caused by sightings of unknown craft of probable non-terrestrial origin to the abnormally high standards of evidence currently deemed acceptable, we must do so based on a solid, logical frame of reference derived from facts, and not from vague, poorly thought-out, and emotionally-derived notions that aliens and interstellar travel are somehow “wacky” or “out-there.” Even the most rudimentary survey of human history compels any thinking person to accept the potential for technology based on principles that we do not at the moment comprehend, and be open-minded about the possibility that maybe, just maybe others have solved advanced technological riddles before we have. Otherwise, we shall be no wiser than the Aztecs, who thought the Spaniards were gods due simply to their technological head start on things like ship design and metallic weaponry, or those (at the time) eminent scholars at the turn of the last century, who loudly proclaimed from the heights of academic authority that powered flight simply could not be done.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11014645

Rescue choppers from New Orleans and Houston are responding.
The explosion happened around 9:30 a.m. and as of 10:30 a.m. it was still on fire.
Coast Guard officials said they do not yet know if there is any type of leak associated with this explosion.
They said it was not actively producing product, but they will investigate whether there is any type of environmental impact.
The rig is known as "Vermilion 398."
The rig is owned by Mariner Energy, which is based in Houston.
The company has an office in Lafayette.

Here's a great post from Phil Plait's blog about why astronomers don't report UFOs and it touches on a point I made in my earlier post in the "I saw a UFO thread."

I totally agree with him, and as time goes by the more I think that there's absolutely nothing to this UFO business. I hopes this sparks some discussion. It's interesting that the group that looks at the sky the most is the most skeptical of UFOs.

I have, from time to time, made a point that astronomers rarely if ever report UFOs. If UFOs really were buzzing us as much as the media and UFO proponents would have us believe, then astronomers would overwhelmingly report the majority of them: we spend far more time outside looking up than pretty much any other group of people. So why don’t we see all these alien spacecraft? I think this is because we almost always understand what we’re seeing in the sky, so we know not to mistake Venus, the Moon, a satellite, or other mundane things for flying saucers.
While UFO believers love to make hay of this — showing me the extremely rare time when an astronomer has reported a UFO, thus proving my point, or falsely saying astronomers spend too much time at the eyepiece to note the broader sky (which is ridiculous) — the fact is, astronomers are familiar with the sky, so we know what’s going on.
Well, almost always know. John Woolley of the Greater Edmonton Skeptics Society has an amusing story of the time he and some other astronomers saw something they couldn’t immediately explain… and make sure you read Part 2.
And y’know, his story sounds pretty familiar…
So remember, despite the claims of the UFO crowd and the media that love to play this stuff up, seeing isn’t believing. Understanding is!

Hi Chris. Just wanted to say, you have been doing an outstanding job as co-host and bringing in some fantastic guests .
Gene lucked out, having you on board. Hope you continue with the wonderful Mr Steinberg for many many, moons to come.

To lighten the mood just a little...

http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exp...tml?c=y&page=1

I'm a late comer to DMR and I'm enjoying catching up immensely. Especially enjoying shows on lunar anomaly and finding lot's of other fascinating shows.

Don,
If this isn't possible or this is the hundredth time someone has bugged you about it or you just don't want to do it, I apologize, but I was wondering if your web master could add a column down the left hand side of the table labeled WEEKS and put the week number for each row in it. I'm finding it a bit cumbersome to locate shows by week number and day, especially since the table doesn't start with week 1, so counting up from the bottom doesn't work unless you know to start with 6. It might make the archive more accessible for those of us who are coming in late, or who's brains are just getting to old to adapt. I figure this would be a simpler enhancement than referencing dates in the table.

Just a suggestion.
Keep up the good work Don.