Don't you just *hate* it when you are awaken from a dream, and you feel you were in the middle of something important... but you don't remember what?

• Happy St. Patrick's Osiris' day!
• Vatican announces commission to investigate the BVM apparitions at Medjugorge —something fishy about the timing here...
• Exhibiting at Oakland: A Golden Dawn (inspired) art show.
• Nick Pope pontificates on the recent Cleveland UFO sightings.
• The first reports of strange lights from lake Erie date back from earlier than you might guess.
• Almost, there baby! New exoplanet is near the habitable zone.
• Red in Jupiter's Spot not what Astronomers thought —BTW, check the name of the astronomer, and see if YOU can spot a Fortean coincidence ;)
• Hubble + IMAX = 3D Eye candy cocaine! Watch the trailer to get high... on science ;)
• Alan Boyle shows us the queer quirk tales from the quantum frontier —and you can quote me on that.
• The cat's out of the bag box: First quantum effects seen in visible object.
• Premonitory novelists? Micah Hanks explores when Truth is stranger than Fiction.
• In her recent diary entry, Anne Strieber deals with hummingbird synchronicities, near-death experiences, and car oracles.
• [Video] Ken Caldeira: Is Geoengineering our only option? [Full program] What's funny to me about this, is that if you take the 'i' from this guy's name, you get 'Caldera', and you know what caldera means in Spanish? look it up :)
• So you think yourself a better person because you consume green products? That's exactly the problem.
• "Elementary, my dear House": Bacterial trail may be next forensic clue.
• 40,000-year-old tools found at construction site in Tasmania.
• Tea leaves used by Chinese archeologists to rewrite the past, not peer into the future —open your miiinds!
• Look into my eyes: Gastroenterologists embrace the use of hypnotherapy.
• Smoking, not alcohol abuse, 'impairs mental function'. I'll drink to that, doc!
• Study links bullying to cognitive deficits & brain changes. It's the scars you can't see the ones that hurt the most.
• Banana component effective against HIV infection —so *that* was Cheeta's secret all along.
• The perfect gift for Greg Taylor's 80th birthday: a personal Rosetta grave stone —Twittering from the great beyond, mate!!

Thanks Kat, Rick & Micah.

Quote of the Day:

"You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you."

Isadora Duncan

Enjoy.

• Russians invade Georgia! TV hoax to rival War Of The Worlds.
• Soviet-era Lunar landers spotted on moon. Definitely not a hoax.
• Scientists find life beneath 600 feet of Arctic ice. Is Mars next?
• Mummies found in 4000-year-old boat-shaped graves in the desert of central Asia. Slightly let down by unimaginative Freudian analysis. Terrific documentary on the mummies of Tarim Basin.
• The Mummies Of Urumchi by Elizabeth Wayland Barber (Amazon US & UK).
• In-depth PDF field report of Mongolia's stone circles & deer stones.
• Experts fight to save Cybele temple in Bulgaria.
• Giant red granite statue of Thoth in monkey-form unearthed in Egypt. No pics as yet -- have to wait for Zahi's photo op.
• Zahi Hawass in King Tut's tomb. With him leaning over like that, it'd be so easy to 'accidentally on purpose' bump him...
• Excavations in San Claudio reveal ancient Maya weapons and tools trade.
• Stunning photography of the far side of Phobos, without Glen Larson.
• 10 natural formations that look like they were created by aliens.
• Delhi unveils giant air filtration tech to combat pollution.
• Europe's butterflies face extinction. with 500 animal species in England gone forever because of humans.
• The moody octopus is the 'Jekyll & Hyde" of the ocean.
• A group of bees act like "pied pipers" to trigger bee swarms.
• Man who woke from coma has Foreign Accent Syndrome.
• Iggy the labrador returns home after missing for five years.
• Osama the cat has Allah written in his fur. Neva's giving me a funny look.
• Atheist's ridicule won't win friends & influence people. You can't expect mature debate at a kangaroo court.
• Great dicussion about the Phoenix Lights and the flare obfuscation this Friday on the Paranormal Radio Network. Hard to believe it's been over a decade already.
• Physicist Michio Kaku escapes to a parallel universe.

Thanks Greg and Kat.

Quote of the Day:

The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.

Kahlil Gibran

Still prefer Mozart.

• Alan Sokal: my philosophy.
• Symphony in J flat: the curious quest to reinvent music.
• The euro crisis.
• Psychopaths' brains wired to seek rewards, no matter the consequences.
• 5 natural events that science can't explain.
• Can General Fusion bring about an energy breakthrough?
• Orange dwarf star set to smash into the solar system.
• Thomas Jefferson off the curriculum in Texas.
• Canadian scientists uncover poppy's painkilling power.
• Life, but not as we know it.
• Da Vinci predicted world would end in 4006.
• Catatumbo: Venezuela's vanishing lightning.
• Blind soldier able to see with his tongue.
• The Planck mission.
• The Iboga insurrection.

Quote of the Day:

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

Nicola Tesla

A couple of years ago I wrote an article titled "The Myth of James Randi's Million Dollar Challenge". It's one of the most read pages of all time here on the Grail, so it's obviously a topic that many people are interested in. Apart from the flaws in the MDC that I pointed out in my article, another element of this (and other) 'paranormal prizes' which disturbs me somewhat is the use of 'cannon fodder', in order to maintain the (somewhat dubious) validity of these challenges. And by 'cannon fodder', I mean those people that apply for these challenges, who truly believe they can win the money. To my mind, some may not understand the odds properly, some are misleading themselves about their 'talents', and some are just plain unbalanced. That's a worrying thing when combined with a high-profile test which is undertaken with the intention of publicity based on the challenger being unable to succeed.

A perfect illustration of this occurred last month, when the IIG (the 'Independent Investigations Group', a volunteer-run organization based with the Center for Inquiry) tested Regan Traynor, an individual trying to win the CFI's $50,000 paranormal challenge with his alleged telepathic powers. Unfortunately, this skeptical publicity event didn't go exactly to plan:

On February 20th, Regen Traynor and his receiver, Fernando arrived at the Center for Inquiry. Not only were they searched for electronic devices but for weapons as well. We had a retired police officer assist with the check. Both men were found to have no weapons and no electronic devices other that a cell phone which was removed for the duration of the test. Both men signed release forms agreeing to be photographed and agreeing to the proposed protocol. I should mention at this point that both men were visibly drunk.

These men weren’t just slightly inebriated. They were wasted, stumbling, swaying side-to-side smell-vodka-across-the-room drunk. They both freely admitted to being drunk and in no way regentried to hide the fact. At one point during the test Traynor referred to himself as not only being drunk but also being “a drunk” and asked for more alcohol a few times during the test. None was provided.

I should also mention that we found out both men were homeless. When asked to sign the release forms they said they had no address and that they were “homeless.” They had traveled from the state of Washington to Los Angeles via bus. I was told the bus trip was a 14-hour drive. They informed us that they planned to travel to Texas after this test to participate in another psychic challenge that offered a $12,000 prize.

This is just really sad. Are skeptical groups really so desperate for publicity that they feel comfortable exploiting disadvantaged and psychologically unstable people for their purposes? The Skepchick blog entry does voice concerns about how this all turned out, but still finishes by saying these sorts of challenges should continue, because they are "very important, especially in the sharing of factual information about these claims and the outcomes of the tests with the public". As I pointed out in my MDC article, this is nonsense. The odds required by paranormal challenges are insanely high - meant to guarantee the prizemoney, not to assess whether someone has a talent which might suggest some sort of anomalous power. For instance, the odds against chance required for success in Regan Traynor's IIG test were 13,000 to 1 - and this was just the "preliminary test" needing to be passed before applying for the CFI's actual $50,000 challenge!

These paranormal challenges are designed for one thing: publicity. They do not offer a scientific evaluation of claims of the paranormal, and as such there are very logical reasons why people should avoid taking part in them. The outcome of this is that the people that do end up applying for them are exactly the sort of people that should be protected from public ridicule.

Skepticism would be better served by helping out these people, and engaging in genuine scientific examination of claims of the paranormal. At the moment, such challenges make them not much better than the 'hucksters' they claim to be trying to out, profiting off the misfortunes of others.

Whatever I've done wrong, please believe me, it was the devil, the bacteria, and the faulty wiring that made me do it!

• NASA scientists are searching for an invisible 'Death Star' that circles the Sun and catapults potentially catastrophic comets at Earth.
• From aboard the ISS, astronaut Soichi Noguchi posts stunning videos of the Earth and Moon.
• What would YOU say to ET? Competition to see what messages Earthlings want to send to extraterrestrials has produced shocking results.
• Cro Magnon skull supports theory that human brains have begun to shrink.
• Headless man's tomb found under Maya torture mural.
• It's a mystery that would stump even Sherlock Holmes: Why on earth are we letting Conan Doyle's home fall into ruin?
• Deep beneath London's streets, visitors revisit the eighth wonder of the world. 'How they got the performing horses down there God only knows.'
• What the devil is going on at the Vatican? What echoes down the centuries is not only the longstanding belief in demonic possession, but the logic behind it.
• Our microbial overlords: Can the bacteria in our bodies control our behavior in the same way a puppetmaster pulls the strings of a marionette?
• The brains of psychopaths are wired to keep seeking rewards, no matter the consequences.
• Journey to the center of the Earth: The dangerous quest for deepwater oil.
• Human-flesh search engines: crowd-sourced online detective work that aims for real-world vigilante justice.
• Data, data everywhere: Information has gone from scarce to superabundant, bringing new benefits and big headaches.
• Making bricks from straw may soon be possible - even desirable - now that scientists have figured out how spider silk can make ordinary materials stronger than steal.
• Scientists find key to rattlers' infrared sight.
• Illegal fishing and climate change are decimating shrimp and lobster populations in Central America.
• Short blasts of exercise are as good as hours of training, scientists find.
• We're being poisoned by mercury! How to get this lethal toxin out of your body.
• Caltech Cosmologist Dr. Sean Carroll blogs about his recent appearance on The Colbert Report -- and clears up that whole cake-batter thing ...sort of.
• Bloody, yes, but freedom flourished in the Dark Ages.
• In Mexico, drug cartel violence has gotten so bad, news reporters and authorities have retreated into a separate reality. The latest case in point.
• Jesse Ventura's Censored 9/11 Commentary.

Quote of the Day:

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter.

Lewis Carroll, in Alice in Wonderland.

"One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea..."

• Einstein’s theory of gravity, confirmed? His handwritten works are on display in Jerusalem.
• Roger Penrose and the loops of time.
• The inequality aversion, explained.
• Recently restarted LHC shutting down for year to address design flaws.
• Ghostly accident or accidental ghost.
• Ghost-catching, one invention at a time at the Pump House Castle.
• Buzz Aldrin thanks the world for his birthday wishes.
• Was Pont-Saint-Esprit’s mysterious 'cursed bread' a CIA experiment with LSD?
• Vatican’s chief exorcist says Devil is in the Vatican.
• Dan Akroyd predicts the end of the world, sans Stay-Puft marshmallow man.
• Could some earthquakes be man-made?
• Meanwhile, it appears the Chilean quake may have shifted the Earth’s axis.
• Dozens of centuries-old shipwrecks discovered in Baltic Sea during construction.
• Has deforestation revealed an impact crater in Central Asia?
• Light in the California sky emits… smaller lights .
• Is Daylight Savings hazardous to your health?
• Titan’s slushy interior.
• It's Oyster vs. Anaconda in the battle for control of the waves.
• The mystery of thalidomide, unraveled.
• A mass grave of headless vikings.
• Brain scan experiment reveals what people are thinking.
• Past visions of science fiction’s science future .
• Australia’s buried rivers of antiquity.
• Are the Amazon rain forests stronger than we think?
• Archaeologists discover buried Mayan fountain.
• 15 photos from the 70‘s that raised awareness about preserving Mother Earth.
• Need a place to crash during the next polar upheaval-- try a Sea-skraper.

Many thanks to RPJ, Kat and Greg!

Quote of the Day:

“All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality-- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape…”

Walter Bagehot

Eight Martinis remote viewing magazine is also now available as a full-colour printed and delivered direct to your door magazine. This issue has a general CRV focus with great articles from people like Lyn Buchanan and CRV examples from the creator himself Ingo Swann including parts of an operational CRV session with an evaluation of its operational use.

Issue 3 contains the following articles:

• Searching...
• The Role of Sketching in Remote Viewing.
• Remote Viewing Processes and Layers of Meaning.
• A Remote Viewing Experiment.
• Frontloading and Throughput in Remote Viewing.
• The Road Ahead.
• The Cassandra Syndrome.
• Remote Viewing & Project Stargate; An interview with Lyn Buchanan.
• Remote Viewing Websites & blogs.
• Ah, the Wonderous Joy of Doing Demo Sessions.
• Remote Viewing Documents: The DIA Grill Flame Report - January 1983.

Free download of Issue 3: http://www.eightmartinis.com/

Late last year I noted that 'alternative history' author Graham Hancock had written a science fiction novel, titled Entangled, which is due to be published in the UK next month (pre-order from Amazon UK). If you're keen to learn more about the book, you'll definitely want to watch the following clips, which feature Graham reading Chapter 1 from his impending novel (warning: some NSFW language):

I haven't heard anything about a US release as yet - will keep you updated if I hear any news. Mind you, it's not that hard these days to just order it from across the pond...

May your skies be full of vibrant iridescent clouds...

• Knowing the mind of God: Seven theories of everything —and 42 is a multiple of 7!
• 'Tis the question that has puzzled man since time immemorial: does Bigfoot have a bone in its penis? —and why am I suddenly humming 70's blaxploitation movie soundtracks??
• [Video] UFOs over lake Eerie Erie?
• Quick: under the desk! Regan Lee studies reports of strange beams of white light.
• Big Think video interview with the Big Kahuna of commercial space travel: Burt Rutan.
• Moa eggshells yield ancient DNA —Hmmm... Moa huevos rancheros *salivating*
• Chinese archeologists discover a new 137-km stretch of the Great Wall.
• The search for Zheng, ancient China's greatest mariner.
• An unearthed tomb on Crete reveals a dynasty of priestesses reigned on the isle during the "Dark Ages" of ancient Greece —proving also that Greek archeology is not very P.C.
• Archeologists find conduit designed to deliver pressurized water to the Mayan city of Palenque... or human blood —Bwahahahaaaa!
• World's southernmost site of early human life uncovered in Australia.
• Why the demise of civilization may be inevitable —may? you mean I spent my entire savings building an 2012-proof shelter for nothing?!
• Black tears from the sky: Japan confirms the exisence of a secret Nuclear pact with the US.
• Listen up laddies: "Non-scientific study" (their words!) says Scottish have red hair to endure bad weather —Melbourne weather might explain Rick's ginger beard... and his Scroogish temper :-P
• Richelle Hawks on the liminality of color, and why Red is the awesomest hue of them all ;)
• "My, what beautiful 64-bit RGB eyes you have": computer vision & how robots are taught to perceive images.
• Pentagon looks to breed immoral immortal ‘synthetic organisms’. In the words of the immortal quantum-leaping Dr. Sam Beckett: "Oh Boy!"
• Conspiracy Smorgasbord @ Zorgy-awarded BOA, with Kenn Thomas. Listen to the podcast and join the list of citizens surveilled by the NSA —just kidding! or am I?
• American lawmakers are considering a national biometric ID card to counter the hiring of illegal immigrants. Might be cheaper to just tattoo a codebar in every American's right cheek...
• Lula da Silva, Latin America's defacto majority leader, seeks peace in the Middle East, while failing to criticize the totalitarian regime in Cuba. Meanwhile, political dissident Guillermo Fariñas is on the brink of death.

Thanks to Rick, Kat, Greg & Moezilla. And also thanks to Corey, for teaching me how to recognize a master vampire —Very handy info y'all.

Quote of the Day:
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal"

Albert Pike

I think I remember how to do this, it's like riding a bike... without the LSD.

• Robin Hood & the Templars of Doom: hidden history in Sherwood Forest.
• Oxford mathematician & Wonderland explorer, The Mystery Of Lewis Carroll by Jenny Woolf (Amazon US & UK).
• Algebra in Wonderland; the science of Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll.
• Singalong-a sulcus: investigating how brains hear music & lyrics.
• Sputnik Observatory is a not-for-profit educational organisation dedicated to the study of contemporary culture. Guest features by Jacques Vallee, Colin Andrews, & much more. Looks brilliant.
• Lunar rock samples collected during Apollo missions suggest a wet interior. That explains this.
• Physicist claims warp speed will kill you. To timidly stay home & avoid strange new worlds...
• Ohio man films strange lights above Lake Erie over five nights.
• Unweaving the rainbow: beautiful photography, shame about the science proselytizing.
• Skeptic Ben Radford eloquently describes his visit to Machu Picchu. OMG, I actually agree with him -- and I don't have a fever! Even if he did misspell Machu Picchu.
• Excavated tomb reveals dynasty of priestesses on Crete.
• Sudan's forgotten pyramids: more mysteries than Egypt, without Zahi.
• DNA of extinct birds extracted from ancient eggshell.
• Experts seek 15th-century Chinese shipwrecks off the coast of East Africa.
• Trove of shipwrecks, one up to 800-years-old, found in Baltic Sea.
• The ultimate marine battle: great white shark vs giant squid.
• Crikey, that's not a yokai! Phantom kangaroos seen in Japan.
• In case Yokai Attack! please read (Amazon US & UK).
• The UFO Mystic tracks blue dogs & chupacabras in Texas.

Thanks Greg, Kat, & Joanne.

Quote of the Day:

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll