Planet Earth – Wired to the Moon?
The entire planet, it would appear, has lost the plot. In this morning's newspapers, on the Web and in my email, the quota of bizarre news surpassed what I usually see in a week. June 24th was the 50th anniversary of Kenneth Arnold's sighting of UFOs over the Cascade Mountains, which has sparked off a crazy amount of media interest in the lead up to the Roswell Incident 50th anniversary. On the same day, the USAF released their GAO Inquiry report, Roswell Report: Case Closed, followed by an announcement to the effect that they are not going to investigate the Phoenix UFO. Col. John Haynes told reporters at a Pentagon press conference: "If you're interested in the Arizona question, I suggest that you contact the local authorities in Arizona and see what they have to say, because the Air Force no longer does any investigation of UFOs." The Phoenix UFO...
Dr. Death Rides Again
Yes, euthanasia advocate and unlikely hero Dr. Jack Kevorkian has once more escaped the clutches of justice, after his fourth assisted suicide court case ended in mistrial. Dr. Death He was tried in Iona, Michigan, USA, for assisting in the suicide of Loretta Peabody, a 54 year-old woman with multiple sclerosis, and practicing medicine without a license (his Michigan license was suspended in 1991). Mrs. Peabody was cremated on August 30th, 1996 after her death had been ruled natural. There was no autopsy. A week later, police seized a video showing Kevorkian conversing with Mrs. Peabody and asking her to sign the consent form. On the tape, Mrs. Peabody said: 'I can't go to the bathroom. I can't get in my refrigerator, I don't want to do this anymore. I can't do this anymore.' Kevorkian, 69, who acknowledges being present at 45 deaths since 1990, has been tried for three,...
Sligo UFO hoax, Wexford antelopes, exploding Kerrymen and belated poltergeists
This week's Blather is going to be a mish mash of Irish topics which have been meandering about in my head, waiting patiently to be spooned out to the masses. Spaceman Pass By The Hills Above Glencar On Thursday 22nd of May, The extremely Rev. Joe McNally of Fortean Times alerted me (via the Forteana mailing list) of an apparent UFO sighting in Sligo, on the west coast of Ireland. The report appeared on various Usenet groups. It was titled 'Huge UFO Over Ireland' and was posted by one 'Hans Rosenthal', and told of his mother phoning him from Sligo to tell him about 'triangle shaped craft of huge size flying over the northwest coast of Ireland'. The craft were seen by climbers on Ben Bulben, frightened livestock, and passed directly over Drumcliff Graveyard, burial place of the poet W.B. Yeats. There were numerous witnesses, and although the news never...
Intergalactic Tourists Hit Cork?
In 'The Examiner' (Cork) of Saturday 10th May 1997, Áilín Quinlin reported a 'UFO' had been filmed by a British film crew who were in Bantry, Co. Cork, researching sightings of alien spacecraft. Apparently the area has been plagued with 'UFO's' for the last two years. The 'sighting' filmed by the Carlton TV crew is due to be shown on ITV in a two-part documentary entitled 'We are Not Alone' on June 24th and 26th next at 10:45pm GMT. A bunch of researchers known as 'The Irish Centre for UFO Studies' were also on the scene, and reported that the aerial activity was clearly the work of "vehicles from extraterrestrial sources", and one of their number, a local man by the name of Eamon Ansbro was "transmitting their thoughts through crystals in an effort to make contact with aliens". People in the Bantry area had apparently reported seeing alien vessels...
Milking Men? Cows Might Fly!
This time round, the Czar of Blather has decided to pass comment on several topics which are causing much consternation in Blather HQ. Man Jabs In the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, April 27 1997, was an article entitled 'Age of the breastfeeding man is nigh' by Steve Connor. What's this, you ask? Yes, it's true, why, I read it in the newspaper! According to Jared Diamond, professor of physiology at the University of California in Los Angeles, 'All men have a latent potential to lactate and there have been rare cases of this happening naturally. At first, however, it would have to be induced artificially.' These rare cases refer to prisoners of war whose starvation subsequently led to diseased livers, which then led to lack of hormonal breakdown in the body. Another case involved a 64 year old man after seven years of hormone treatment for cancer. Diamond seems...
One of our bombers is missing!
You know, it's rare that I fail to be amused over people's tendency to draw the craziest conclusions from flimsy evidence. Colorado I refer, of course, to the recent fun and games which took place in Colorado, where the US Air Force are striving to recover debris of the A-10 aircraft which disappeared on April 2nd while flying on a routine training mission in Arizona. For eighteen days before debris was spotted, buried in deep snow on a mountainside, all sorts of crazy speculation was rampant on the internet concerning the apparent fate of the A-10 and it's pilot, Capt. Craig Button. Many people were quick to connect the Timothy McVeigh trial to the A-10 issue, and wondered if perhaps Button had stolen the plane, planning to attack as part of a 'militia' offensive, due to the forthcoming Oklahoma bombing/Waco anniversaries. I had to admit, it was all very fitting...especially...