Category Archives: Bloggers

The Heretic's "10 New England Esotericists to Watch in 2010"

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New England is home to some of the biggest brains in the businesses of esoterica and mad science.

But you knew that already.

Here then, is my list of the busiest folks we know in the worlds of offbeat science publishing, UFOlogy, cryptozoology and the occult — even comics. Ghost-hunting? That is sooo last decade. But keep these peeps on your radar in 2010. They make for an eclectic mix, alright, but I think the list somehow works:

Marc Abrahams announcing "The Penguin Prize" at the annual Ig Nobel Prizes ceremony, at Harvard U. (Photo: Courtesy of the Ig Nobel Prizes.)

1. Marc Abrahams. Few can match the wit, charm and energy of this singular Cambridge, Mass. personality. Abrahams is the publisher of the uproarious Annals of Improbable Research, and organizer of the annual Ig Nobel Prizes awards ceremony, which honors  “research that makes people laugh and then think.” He also writes a weekly column about wacky science (think bras that double as gas masks, and astrology charts for bacteria), for the UK Guardian.

Tim Binnall. (Photo: Courtesy of BoA)

2. Tim Binnall. Did you know that one of the planet’s fastest-growing podcasters to the “Coast-to-Coast AM” crowd is based right here, in the Hub? The young genius behind the whole thing, Tim Binnall, is relaunching his website, Binnall of America, with another season of podcast interviews with big-name UFOlogists and conspiracy researchers, from Texas to Sweden.

Binnall also organizes a successful paranormal confab in the Hub.

3. Loren Coleman. This legend in the world of cryptozoology (2010 marks his 50th year in the business) will be surprising us again with new insights, and new guests and events at his Portland, Maine-based International Museum of Cryptozoology.

A regular contributor to Coast to Coast AM, Boing Boing, and The Anomalist, Coleman is also the keeper of the world’s most popular cryptozoology blog, Cryptomundo.

Loren Coleman and friend. Photo: Loren Coleman (via Thomas Roche/Flickr CC

Coleman this year will be speaking at Bigfoot and “big cats” conferences — both at home and across the pond, in Glasgow, Scotland. This spring, he will also be lending his expertise to the ongoing search for the Loch Ness Monster.

In addition to his ongoing consulting work for History’s “MonsterQuest,” and Animal Planet’s “Lost Tapes,” Coleman will also be working on (we kid you not) five new books.

4. Stanton Friedman. I met Stanton Friedman at a UFO conference in Washington, D.C. a few years ago, and I’ve been trying to keep up his research ever since. But I only learned (after listening to Mr. Binnall’s interviews with this UFO luminary) that Friedman resides in the Northeast. Friedman jokes in his BoA interviews that he is one of the few surviving members of UFOlogy’s “old guard.” But I expect he’ll have a lot more to say at his conferences appearances this year.

5. Greg Kaminsky. If you like your occult podcasts served-up hot, and packaged with vintage Black Sabbath tracks, Beverly, Mass.-based Greg Kaminsky is your guy. Kaminsky is the host of the fantastic website and podcast, “Occult of Personality,” which — like BOA — is poised for big changes (including a subscriber section, with extended interviews) and breakout success in 2010. Kaminsky has landed interviews with leading occult scholars on both sides of the Atlantic since making his quiet start, just a couple of years ago. To taste some of that OoP magic I am talking about, check out this fascinating interview with Penguin’s occult books editor, Mitch Horowitz.

John Rozum and son, at the International Museum of Cryptozoology, in Portland, Maine. (Photo: Loren Coleman)

6. John Rozum. Scooby-Doo. The X-Files comics. The supernaturally-talented writer may be in the business of inventing things that go bump in the night, be he is also said to be living quietly on Cape Cod. One of Rozum’s latest creations, The Hangman, is fighting human trafficking in DC Comics’ just-released The Web #4.

7. Joe Moore. Commended to this list by OoP’s Kaminsky, Moore is a New Hampshire-based podcaster, a breathwork facilitator, and onetime Evolver spore group leader. (Click the links if you are as mystified by these terms as I was.) Not sure if magic is for you? Try the “Mr. Spock” ritual that Moore discusses in his latest podcast with chaos magic expert Andrieh Vitimus. (Skip to the 17-minute mark, if you can’t wait.) Next: Moore and Kaminsky in 2010 are collaborating on a documentary film.

8. Joseph Citro is sick of ghosts. Yeah, that’s right. Ghost-busting, the bane of Binnall and other esotericists — driven half-mad by hacks seeking quick paranormal fame — is tired. Citro made his break from the past last fall, with one of his latest titles, The Vermont Monster Guide, a roundup of the land, air and sea creatures haunting the North.

9. The guys behind NE FOR (the New England UFO Research Organization). When Tim Binnall hints at the political infighting within the New England UFO community, he might be referring in part to the guys who last year formed this New England MUFON splinter group. But more UFO researchers might mean more eyes on the sky, and more thorough documentation of sightings

10. Mr. Crowley. Just be sure you pronounce the first syllable of his name correctly, like the bird, while in Salem, Mass. (Not the way Ozzy Osbourne does in his classic song about the Beast.)

And yeah, I know the guy’s dead. But when the Heretic placed its call for nominees last weekend, a bunch of folks, from Salem and beyond, tapped their peers in magical orders that derive their inspiration from Crowley. Crowley-inspired authors and booksellers, too, all got a good talking-up.

So, stay tuned on this one, because I’m going to need a week-or-two to share with the rest of you, what our magician friends have been sharing with me.

Report: Acela's got a track-rager behind the wheel

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Image: Bruce Tuten/Flickr CC

Universal Hub picks up on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center chief Paul Levy’s post that the Acela — that laughingstock of the of the high speed train industry — is moving dangerously fast, on a section of its Boston-bound route.

I know, I know, sounds silly for a train that, at best, only gets to top speed on small sections of track in Rhode Island. But that’s exactly the problem, Paul Levy recently reported the driver of the 4 p.m. Boston-bound train always seems to go too fast on that stretch:

via Could Acela possibly be too fast? | Universal Hub.

Photo: SignalPAD/Flickr CC

I have experienced similar frightening moments on the lurching, loud-as-frak, 80-year old High Speed Trolley out of Mattapan.

At least the Mattapan Trolley is free. I can’t say I’ve ever come close to getting my money’s worth on the Acela.

Sex toys: Philips wants a piece of the action

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When your God-given parts aren’t enough: Philips promises better sex with batteries.

It’s a “me too” market grab for the Dutch electronics maker.

But Gizmag greets the announcement with this  ludicrous, blanket, windbag statement:

Remarkably, for all the knowledge we have accumulated as a species, one of humanity’s primary aspects, our sexuality, remains shrouded in veil of political correctness, awkwardness and misunderstanding.

via Philips leads the marital aid industry out of the Dark Ages.

The post celebrates Philips for making sex less shameful–as if our culture could get any more debased around the issue. In fairness, the author of this particular post (excerpted, above), might himself have a dating life plagued by miscues. It happens.

MBN Drama: Flux's bus on the blink

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Photo: CC/Shelley

Photo: CC/Shelley

A furious Flux Rostrum is pushing his wheezing green grease bus into Austin tonight.

Emblazoned with Flux’s Mobile Broadcast News, the hobbled bus is also proving to be a cop, and bee, magnet.

I don’t know what Flux’s current mission is all about, but I do hope it gets sorted out.

For all you green greasers out there, here is an excerpt of Flux’s latest post:

As I rolled around under the bus frantically trying to put tape on wet hose with one hand (because that’s all that would fit it the space) a trucker pulls up next to me hops out and leans down to warn me of the swarm of bees he saw behind my bus… I thanked him even though those bees and the ones I was laying on were all dead from the coolant that covered my entire body as well.

I cut an extra piece of hose and tried to cover the hole and protect the hose from the sharp metal it had been rubbing against for 25,000 miles. I called in for reinforcements from my Texas comrades, ideas for where i could limp the bus to for safety.. Thank you all, just knowing someone was helping me think it through was quite comforting. Also, Much thanks to Topher who I bugged ’til the wee hours last night trying to find a solution. You Topher, are my “real” favorite veggie mechanic; the title of this post however is a reference that that other guy will only get.

via To My Favorite WVO Mechanic | Fluxview, USA.

Google hating on Obama haters

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Obama appears to have the kabillion-dollar internet company hypnotized, too.

From Mark:

Google denies that it is spiking Blogger users for their anti-Obama rants. And at least one credulous blogger (below) seems to be taking the company at its word.

But given Google’s iffy track record looking after its users’ interests, I say it is too soon to suggest Hilary diehards should feel embarrassed.

Bloggasm » All aboard the Hyperbole Express
Their explanation is certainly interesting, and if true it means that Obama supporters had absolutely nothing to do with the Blogspot lockdowns.

I bet a few anti-Obama folks who thought they had discovered Hitler 2.0. might be feeling a little silly right now. Of course Miguel told me that Google wasn’t really elaborating much on this issue, and their claims sound a little suspicious, but wouldn’t it be ironic if they were telling the truth and the blogs were flagged simply because of the mass emailing?

Freemasonry: It's all good

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Masons are virtually powerless, Mason claims… Nothin’ here but a bunch of guys “around the fireplace.”

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

(Good magazine portrays Masons as “benign,” and virtually powerless. The magazine suggests that the dozens of of U.S. presidents and Supreme Court justices in the Masonic fold did not benefit from their membership. Photo: Rich Lem.)

from Mark:

Parallelnormal friend and Boston-area blogger Kathy turned me on to on a new, cheeky send up of conspiracy theories by Good magazine: from the Masonic layout of Washington, D.C., to the conniving of the secret societies Skull and Bones and the Bilderberg Group.

Good is an attractive new magazine for people with fat wallets and consumer guilt: “Good is for people who give a damn. It’s an entertaining magazine about things that matter,” reads the magazine’s mission statement. The magazine’s most prominent ads are greenwashing statements from the airline JetBlue, as well as British Petroleum and BMW.

The Good piece is written by a Mason, and is being well-received by his brothers in the blogosphere:

The Burning Taper: A good guide to shadowy organizations that rule the world
Next time those pesky conspiracy theorists start ranting in your face about Freemasons, Bilderbergers, Trilataterists and Skull and Bonesmen, send ‘em packing with some words of wisdom from the Good Guide to the Shadowy Organizations that Rule the World.

Blogging kills

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Bloggers’ hearts are giving out under the strain of chasing stuff that’s already been reported.

In other words, geezer journos are playing a game meant for young people.

I turned 41 on April 1. So imagine the pang I felt in my chest when I read that tech blogger Om Malik nearly croaked at the same age last December. (Malik’s WordPress avatar has him chomping on a cigar. I am a former cigar and pipe smoker myself.)

And just yesterday, I ran into a friend, a veteran newspaper editor, who sees–somewhat perversely–an “opening” for himself as a blogger.

Here’s what my friend said: Young journalists are not interested in blogging. They are after the trends. They want to write the “big picture” stories. That’s where he steps in (hand to heart, staggering, with a nitroglycerin tablet under his tongue.) He can break stories as a blogger!

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop – New York Times
Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

Leave "Left Behind" behind, says blogger

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Bleak: New York is a battleground for Christian soldiers

“Left Behind: Eternal Forces,” the apocalypse-themed video game I covered in my Boston Globe column last year, is an ungodly mess, according to Extreme Politics blogger Henry Garfield.

“The game is riddled with bugs, making it difficult to get through a compete mission without the whole thing crashing,” Garfield writes. “Oh well, I guess I’ll have to live out my fantasies of satanic jihad elsewhere for the time being.”

Even so, like Garfield, I find the “blowing away nonbelievers” concept compelling.

Check out the link and excerpt, below.

clipped from extremepolitics.blogspot.com
Unfortunately according to both published reviews and Amazon’s feedback page, the game fails to live up to its initial promise. There in fact appears to be little killing involved, as the players spend most of their time trying to peacefully convert citizens to their line of thinking. The game play is also (as might be expected) crude and unimaginative, with some reviewers comparing it unfavorably to freeware games.