THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
October 14, 2012
The Paracast Explores Martian and Lunar Mysteries
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Send a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay your humble hosts decent wages. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able 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 and utility bills. 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, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: 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 is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris explore the other side of the mysteries of Mars and the Moon with Expat, to provide another point of view of the claims made by Mike Bara and Richard Hoagland about evidence of intelligent artifacts. Expat is the pseudonym of a former producer of TV documentaries for the BBC in London, now emigrated to USA and semi-retired. He maintains a blog called Emoluments of Mars.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Our Strange Planet
Expat's Blog: The Emoluments of Mars
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Are We Pushing Too Hard for Evidence of ET?
By Gene Steinberg
The notion that we are being visited by advanced intelligent beings from another planet is romantic, not to mention the source of countless sci-fi stories. But that, of course, is based on the assumption that our visitors are friendly, and not here to take over or harvest humans for reasons best known to themselves.
Certainly, there’s plenty of evidence that decidedly weird things are going on. We have the standard UFO cases, and I say standard because there are so many, where aircraft of unknown original are seen flittering about in our skies, or on the ground. They sometimes demonstrate incredible feats of maneuverability, and occasionally play some sort of cat and mouse game with our own aircraft.
There is evidence of reality, in the form of photographs, occasional trace remnants, not to mention those legendary reports of simultaneous radar and visual sightings. So it’s no wonder that the vast majority of people who believe in UFOs are convinced they are extraterrestrial. Yes, I suppose there is a “what else can they be?” element to all this.
By itself, UFOs are a compelling mystery, and if space ships, present all sorts of amazing possibilities. Imagine what we could learn from advanced beings from elsewhere, but again that assumes they have any interest at all in interacting with us on an intelligent level. They might consider our petty tribal conflicts as evidence that we are little more than primitive savages, and you hope they don’t want to stamp us out.
If you use some of our sci-fi stories as examples, such as the cult drama, “Babylon 5,” ET, while far more advanced, has not really advanced so much in other areas. They still engage in conflicts, sometimes warfare, but often on a planetary level, rather than among different factions of a single world. Such depictions of a future in which humans interact routinely with other races of intelligent beings demonstrate that things haven’t changed that much. Having a high level of technological achievement doesn’t necessarily indicate a more peaceful intent. Clearly our moral behavior isn’t advancing near as quickly as science.
While the mere possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life is itself an amazing concept to consider, that they might be here presents all sorts of incredible possibilities, assuming, again, there’s no hostile intent.
But you sometimes wonder if possible evidence of ET’s presence is pushed a little too enthusiastically. Take those famous (or infamous) Martian and Lunar mysteries. There is, of course, the Face on Mars, but there are photos that may or may not indicate other possible artifacts of alien visitation.
Those of you who listened to this week’s episode of The Paracast, featuring “Expat,” a former BBC producer specializing in space program coverage, heard a pretty conventional view of possible evidence of alien presence, or previous visits on the Moon and Mars. The long and short of it is that Expat can paint a pretty compelling picture of taking conventional images and pretending they are unconventional.
The Face on Mars is not the only example that some believe indicates the presence of an unknown intelligence. Years ago, there were reports of possible canals on Mars. The existence of such artifacts was originally reported in 1877 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. This discovery indicated the presence of long networks of straight lines in the equatorial regions of Mars, from 60° N. to 60° S. latitude.
The possibilities were extraordinary, and confirmation of the presence of intelligent constructions would indicate the presence of Martians, now or in the past. Edgar Rice Burroughs, famous for his Tarzan stories, used the influence of possible canals on Mars to create John Carter, a character who is mysteriously transported to the red planet, only to find a dying civilization. Referring to Mars as Barsoom, Burroughs described a dying world, whose natural resources had been severely depleted. Some of you might remember a certain movie based on the character that failed big time at the box office, although, having read the novels as a teenager, I kind of liked it. But the marketing failed to convey the message of how John Carter influenced so many of our famous sci-fi sagas, including “Star Wars.”
In any case, those alleged canals of Mars were eventually found to be optical illusions as the ability to observe surface features on Mars became more advanced. The various Martian probes have utterly failed to find any evidence to vindicate the present of canals, and it doesn’t seem as if the possibility of the Face on Mars has fared any better, although some will dispute that argument.
Taken by itself, the Face on Mars, originally based on a low resolution photo, seems compelling enough, but higher resolution images of the Cydonia region of the red planet don’t appear to confirm the artifact’s existence.
Now it’s easy to suggest a cover up, that the authorities have decided to shoot down the possibility of the presence of intelligent life on Mars, not to mention the Moon. I suppose it’s easy to suggest the pictures were altered to remove evidence of a real phenomenon to make it all look like an optical illusion.
Certainly discoveries of the presence of water on Mars tend to point to primitive life forms. While I suppose it’s possible a highly advanced civilization existed on Mars hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, before the atmosphere thinned, it may take a lot more than a few unmanned probes to discern such a possibility.
But as I said, it doesn’t take the alleged existence of an alien presence on nearby worlds to demonstrate that UFOs are real. Indeed, it seems that all of the UFO evidence indicates a phenomenon that is happening on Earth, and that presents all sorts of fascinating possibilities that aren’t being explored as extensively as they should be.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
October 14, 2012
The Paracast Explores Martian and Lunar Mysteries
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
Please Send a Donation to The Paracast: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay your humble hosts decent wages. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able 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 and utility bills. 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, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.Attention U.S. Listeners: Help Us Bring The Paracast to Your City! In the summer of 2010, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. But we need your help to add additional affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact on your behalf. We can't do this alone, and if you succeed in convincing your local station to carry the show, we'll reward you with one of our special T-shirts, and other goodies. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
Please Visit Our Online Store: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and an expanded collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt now featuring our brand new logo, just pay a visit to our online store at The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We also offer a complete lineup of other premium merchandise for your family, your friends and your business contacts.
About The Paracast: 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 is a paranormal radio show that takes you on a journey to a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions. The Paracast seeks to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join long-time paranormal researcher Gene Steinberg, co-host and acclaimed field investigator Christopher O'Brien, and a panel of special guest experts and experiencers, as they explore the realms of the known and unknown. Listen each week to the great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris explore the other side of the mysteries of Mars and the Moon with Expat, to provide another point of view of the claims made by Mike Bara and Richard Hoagland about evidence of intelligent artifacts. Expat is the pseudonym of a former producer of TV documentaries for the BBC in London, now emigrated to USA and semi-retired. He maintains a blog called Emoluments of Mars.
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Our Strange Planet
Expat's Blog: The Emoluments of Mars
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. We recently completed a major update that makes our community easier to navigate, and social network friendly.
Are We Pushing Too Hard for Evidence of ET?
By Gene Steinberg
The notion that we are being visited by advanced intelligent beings from another planet is romantic, not to mention the source of countless sci-fi stories. But that, of course, is based on the assumption that our visitors are friendly, and not here to take over or harvest humans for reasons best known to themselves.
Certainly, there’s plenty of evidence that decidedly weird things are going on. We have the standard UFO cases, and I say standard because there are so many, where aircraft of unknown original are seen flittering about in our skies, or on the ground. They sometimes demonstrate incredible feats of maneuverability, and occasionally play some sort of cat and mouse game with our own aircraft.
There is evidence of reality, in the form of photographs, occasional trace remnants, not to mention those legendary reports of simultaneous radar and visual sightings. So it’s no wonder that the vast majority of people who believe in UFOs are convinced they are extraterrestrial. Yes, I suppose there is a “what else can they be?” element to all this.
By itself, UFOs are a compelling mystery, and if space ships, present all sorts of amazing possibilities. Imagine what we could learn from advanced beings from elsewhere, but again that assumes they have any interest at all in interacting with us on an intelligent level. They might consider our petty tribal conflicts as evidence that we are little more than primitive savages, and you hope they don’t want to stamp us out.
If you use some of our sci-fi stories as examples, such as the cult drama, “Babylon 5,” ET, while far more advanced, has not really advanced so much in other areas. They still engage in conflicts, sometimes warfare, but often on a planetary level, rather than among different factions of a single world. Such depictions of a future in which humans interact routinely with other races of intelligent beings demonstrate that things haven’t changed that much. Having a high level of technological achievement doesn’t necessarily indicate a more peaceful intent. Clearly our moral behavior isn’t advancing near as quickly as science.
While the mere possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life is itself an amazing concept to consider, that they might be here presents all sorts of incredible possibilities, assuming, again, there’s no hostile intent.
But you sometimes wonder if possible evidence of ET’s presence is pushed a little too enthusiastically. Take those famous (or infamous) Martian and Lunar mysteries. There is, of course, the Face on Mars, but there are photos that may or may not indicate other possible artifacts of alien visitation.
Those of you who listened to this week’s episode of The Paracast, featuring “Expat,” a former BBC producer specializing in space program coverage, heard a pretty conventional view of possible evidence of alien presence, or previous visits on the Moon and Mars. The long and short of it is that Expat can paint a pretty compelling picture of taking conventional images and pretending they are unconventional.
The Face on Mars is not the only example that some believe indicates the presence of an unknown intelligence. Years ago, there were reports of possible canals on Mars. The existence of such artifacts was originally reported in 1877 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. This discovery indicated the presence of long networks of straight lines in the equatorial regions of Mars, from 60° N. to 60° S. latitude.
The possibilities were extraordinary, and confirmation of the presence of intelligent constructions would indicate the presence of Martians, now or in the past. Edgar Rice Burroughs, famous for his Tarzan stories, used the influence of possible canals on Mars to create John Carter, a character who is mysteriously transported to the red planet, only to find a dying civilization. Referring to Mars as Barsoom, Burroughs described a dying world, whose natural resources had been severely depleted. Some of you might remember a certain movie based on the character that failed big time at the box office, although, having read the novels as a teenager, I kind of liked it. But the marketing failed to convey the message of how John Carter influenced so many of our famous sci-fi sagas, including “Star Wars.”
In any case, those alleged canals of Mars were eventually found to be optical illusions as the ability to observe surface features on Mars became more advanced. The various Martian probes have utterly failed to find any evidence to vindicate the present of canals, and it doesn’t seem as if the possibility of the Face on Mars has fared any better, although some will dispute that argument.
Taken by itself, the Face on Mars, originally based on a low resolution photo, seems compelling enough, but higher resolution images of the Cydonia region of the red planet don’t appear to confirm the artifact’s existence.
Now it’s easy to suggest a cover up, that the authorities have decided to shoot down the possibility of the presence of intelligent life on Mars, not to mention the Moon. I suppose it’s easy to suggest the pictures were altered to remove evidence of a real phenomenon to make it all look like an optical illusion.
Certainly discoveries of the presence of water on Mars tend to point to primitive life forms. While I suppose it’s possible a highly advanced civilization existed on Mars hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, before the atmosphere thinned, it may take a lot more than a few unmanned probes to discern such a possibility.
But as I said, it doesn’t take the alleged existence of an alien presence on nearby worlds to demonstrate that UFOs are real. Indeed, it seems that all of the UFO evidence indicates a phenomenon that is happening on Earth, and that presents all sorts of fascinating possibilities that aren’t being explored as extensively as they should be.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2012 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
