Category Archives: Space

Finally, Tractor Beams!

Posted on by
Reply

Well not quite yet, but in Jack Ng’s email he claims that along with Jun Chen, and other super-nerds, they have discovered a

backward scattering force which pulls a particle all the way towards the source without an equilibrium point.

A few years ago we figured out that photons’ momentum can be used in order to manipulate other objects to move in a certain direction, i.e. a solar sail. Yet this new theory explains how one could create

“an additional degree of freedom to optical micromanipulation.”

Chen and friends now need to prove this theory with a demonstration and then we’ll be plucking Millenium Falcons out of space in no time.

Ng’s Email

Aliens Want Us To Go Green

Posted on by
1

Photo: Gabriele/Flickr CC

How many more Al Gore documentaries and hollow political promises must we endure before we actually establish a viable energy source? When aliens from another universe tell you to change your oil or your engine will blow up, its  time to act.

As far as suits being vocal and passionate about extra-terrestrial life and interaction, Paul Hellyer, might as well have had a megaphone late this February, 2011.

Hellyer (Former Canadian Defensive Minister) claims that aliens have warned us of our energy sources’ gradual waning:

Decades ago, visitors from other planets warned us about where we were headed and offered to help. But instead we, or at least some of us, interpreted their visits as a threat.

Hellyer continued to assert that a secret branch of the United States’ government is already harnessing energy through ways taught to them by the aliens.

They [A secret branch of government] have developed energy sources, and publicly I’m saying that if they do not exist in commercial form, that extraterrestrials would certainly give us that information if we would ask them for it

If extra-terrestrial warnings are not enough to convert us to a reliable energy source, then hopefully man’s natural desire to drive a hovercraft and make it with a space chick will be enough.

Hellyer Stresses An Honest Government, at least with Obama

Star Trek prophecy fulfilled, centuries early

Posted on by
2

Thanks to the Secret Sun for alerting us to the news that — as anticipated by the interesting, if boring, Star Trek: The Motion Picture — Voyager 2 is still speaking.

Only this time, the craft is speaking to us Terrans, and in a strange language, which the craft acquired “out there.”

“Alien expert Hartwig Hausdorf said:’It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth.’”

via Have aliens hijacked Voyager 2 spacecraft | The Daily Telegraph.

Maya were masters of sustainability, sat images show

Posted on by
1

Sustainable cities, now in ruins. Photo: Bill McChesney/Flickr CC

Archaeologists studying ancient Mesoamerica are trading-in their machetes for satellites that can spy massive structures buried by time.

Using satellite images, scientists at the University of Central Florida are reporting that — long before Agenda 21 — Mayan architects were concentrating people into smaller areas, by weaving together living and work spaces.

It’s a stretch, greenwashing the Maya to make them appear relevant to 21st Century audiences. But that’s how science writers roll, these days.

The Maya’s reasons for forming self-sustaining city states were, after all, entirely defensive.

“Until now, Maya archeologists have been limited in exploring large sites and understanding the full nature of ancient Maya landscape modifications because most of those features are hidden within heavily forested and hilly terrain and are difficult to record. LiDAR effectively removes these obstacles.’It’s very exciting,’ said Arlen Chase. ‘The images not only reveal topography and built features, but also demonstrate the integration of residential groups, monumental architecture, roadways and agricultural terraces, vividly illustrating a complete communication, transportation and subsistence system.’”

via UCF Newsroom.

Comic teaches you an esoteric thing, or two

Posted on by
Reply

Find your way to the whole comic, by Andy Carolan, at Binnall of America. (Click on the image to get to the BoA site. You will find a link to the column at the lower right-hand side of the page.)

The latest installment of Andy Carolan’s web comic, Disclosure,  is dedicated to Hub esotericist and podcasting sensation, Tim Binnall.

It tells the story of the discovery of an anomalous, narrow-beam radio signal detected by Earth-based observers in the early 1970s.

via binnallofamerica.com.

Hubble records Saturn Aurorae

Posted on by
Reply

Video (below) is accompanied by “approaching planet” music, which sounds as if its from the soundtrack to Star Trek V.

In January and March 2009, researchers using Hubble took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings are edge-on, resulting in a unique look featuring both of the giant planet’s poles. And Saturn cooperated by providing an incredible double light show with Saturn’s own northern and southern lights.

via Hubble Captures Double Aurorae Light Show on Saturn | Universe Today.

What's up with the Moon?

Posted on by
Reply

The

There’s a definite synchromystical, Moon “thing” going on, at the moment…

President Obama might not let us go to the Moon, but in Düsseldorf, you can see the largest sculpture of Earth’s sole satellite, as part of a new solar system exhibit (from a pres release I received today):

Düsseldorf, Germany – The inside of a 380-foot tall obsolete gas holder, the Gasometer in Oberhausen, is the space for a new exhibit called “Out Of This World – Wonders of The Solar System.” It includes the largest moon sculpture in the world — an 82-foot wide replica of the moon hanging in a cathedral-like space under the holder’s 328-foot roof, as well as replicas of the sun and its planets in a space 223 feet wide. The exhibit explores scientific, cultural and artistic perspectives on the creation and death of our solar system in the vast dimensions of the cosmos.

I’d be the first to say, of the Moon, “been there, done that.” But that was before a team led by Brown University professor Carle Pieters confirmed the presence of H20 up there.

And then there is Richard C. Hoagland’s idea of combing the Moon for ancient ruins.

Source: Sternstunden: RUHR.2010.


ETs not part of futurists' vision

Posted on by
Reply

Not in Futurismic's future. (Image: Marcin Wichary/Flickr CC)

Futurismic pays for fiction — $200 for a short story.

But writers with an ET bent (think Romulans, greys, reptilians, and the like) need not apply :

We’re interested in what we can see and develop and control, what’s in front of us and what we need to react to.

The site’s fiction editor doubts we’ve got much to worry about, from beyond the troposhere, or inside our hollow Earth.

via Why we reject stories | Fiction | Futurismic.

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

Posted on by
9

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.

Saturday space foto: The light o'er Kraken Mare

Posted on by
Reply

Kraken Mare. Sounds Gaelic enough. NASA snaps this pic of a 150,000 mile methane lake.

That’s about five times the surface area of Lake Superior.

From the space agency:

By comparing the new image to radar and near-infrared light images acquired from 2006 to 2008, Cassini scientists were able to correlate the reflection to the southern shoreline of a Titan lake called Kraken Mare. The sprawling Kraken Mare covers about 400,000 square kilometers 150,000 square miles. The reflection appeared to come from a part of the lake around 71 degrees north latitude and 337 degrees west latitude.

via Cassini Equinox Mission: Image Details.