Here's the rundown on the radio schedules for the second half of the week. Remember that our good friend Mitch Horowitz is on C2C on Thursday night if you're near a radio:

Whitley Strieber's Dreamland: This week's show begins with Jim Marrs reporting on Peter Jennings' announcement that he has cancer, and how this relates to the UFO community. Then this week's guest Dr Colm Kellerher discusses his research into the dangers of Mad Cow Disease, and how there may be links to the current 'Alzheimers epidemic'. At the end of the show Linda Howe reviews the latest scientific information about the spread of Mad Cow in the US.

Coast to Coast AM: Friday is open lines, Saturday's guest is remote viewing teacher Major Ed Dames, Sunday sees NDE 'legend' Raymond Moody step into the chair for a chat with Art Bell.

More details including relevant websites are available at the linked pages above. Remember also that while Coast to Coast is subscription, it can be listened to through KOGO, while Dreamland is free.

A summary of the updates to the Phenomena website over the past week:

Here is Thursday's news. I'm off to find a mountain...

• John Brown, a born-again Christian and founder of Zion Oil & Gas of Dallas, is using his Bible to find black gold in the Holy Land.
• The latest edition of New Scientist is now available online. Check it out here. The lead feature this week is "Evolution's Greatest Inventions".
• Was a boy abducted by a pedophilia ring, turned into a Satanist and then trained by the CIA as a journalist? Well, it's unlikely but it's a story on conspiracy-buff websites.
• Something strange is happening to wildlife off the Florida coast following last season's hurricanes.
• What if UFOs were really angels and demons? That's the thesis of a movie by a Truthseekers, a group interested in exploring current events through a Biblical world view.
• On June 11, Natural Awakenings - Austin, with the association of Anomaly Archives, will present "The Texas Ghost Lights Conference". There are more sightings of mystery lights in Texas than anywhere else in the world - I think it's because of Bill's experiments.
• Those who say eclipses herald history-shaping events will find support for their superstition when, on Friday, the Sun will be briefly plunged into darkness on the day of Pope John Paul II's funeral.
• Dr. Richard Wiseman is holding seances in the most haunted room in the most haunted street in Edinburgh's haunted undercity catacombs. I've been down there - incredible place.
• Parapsychology: Fact of séance fiction? A visit to Edinburgh University’s Koestler Parapsychology Unit.
• Never mind the Bermuda Triangle - what about the strange happenings in the "Michigan Triangle" on the Great Lakes?
• Russia unveils more details of it's new ballistic missile, designed to beat the US' missile shield (if they ever get the shield working in the first place) and invites international sales.
• It's ridiculous but true - a judge had to order the CIA to reveal it's top-secret budget figure....from 1963!
• Just what every Grail Knight needs - a ghost detector is now on the market in Japan. When can I have my particle beam generator?
• Fleshing out the 'first ape-man' - experts are a step closer to answering whether an ancient skull from Africa belonged to a possible human ancestor or was closer to apes.
• Masterpiece move - The Mona Lisa has been carefully transferred to a brighter setting at the Louvre.
• DNA tests of the inhabitants of the Shetland Isles reveal that the Vikings took their womenfolk with them to settle down when they went a-pillaging.
• NASA's Prometheus: Fire, Smoke And Mirrors. There are technical difficulties in putting a nuclear powered craft into space.
• Scientists at NASA and the University of Kansas say that a mass extinction on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago could have been triggered by a star explosion called a gamma-ray burst. But could it have sunk Atlantis?
• Nanobacteria in clouds could play a crucial role in the spread of disease and in the formation of rain drops.
• Scientists trying to solve a medieval murder mystery that has puzzled historians for 550 years say France's first officially recognized royal mistress was poisoned and probably murdered - but who did it remains a mystery.

Quote of the Day:

He was the sort of person who stood on mountaintops during thunderstorms in wet copper armour shouting "All the Gods are bastards."
Terry Pratchett

The latest issue of Fortean Times (#196) is out for sale, so pick yourself up a copy if you get the chance. This month's mag has a headline story on occultism in Nazi Germany, as well as a report from James Randi’s "Amazing 3 Conference" and a disturbing walk into the world of a serial killer. See the latest issue page for details - remember too that a new issue usually means new archived feature content available from the front page of the site, so stop in there as well.

Just for a change I've updated the 'Cool Things' block on the right of the page with some new and interesting books. Project Beta by Greg Bishop is certainly getting some attention in the UFO community at the moment, dealing as it does with the involvement of intelligence agencies in the history of UFO research. Aliens: Why Are They Here by Bryan Appleyard is certainly an interesting proposition - written by a high-profile media person and dealing with the many 'realities' of alien contact, and taking on the huge job of challenging the public's perception of what reality is, and how physicalist science has created that image. Lastly, for those occultists out there you can't go past Sex and Rockets, which delves into the life of rocket scientist and occult luminary Jack Parsons. For more details check out the blurbs on Amazon.

Election fever has taken hold of the British isles. It would be a lot harder if the pronunciation were Chinese.

• On Mars things only get more weird.
• Pope attacker had Vatican help.
• 911 was an inside job.
• Atlantis in Ireland theory gaining strength; an invitation to debate.
• Novel interpretation of monster sighting.
• Not intelligent and surely not science.
• Oil baron seeks gusher from God.
• The mystery of postponed deaths.
• Autism caused by pollution.
• The Clement problem.
• Plenty of Earths await discovery.
• Planetary explosion mechanisms.
• Fog in the Valles Marineris?
• Light sabres to replace toothbrushes?
• Wave heights raise energy hopes.
• Experts find 41 saltworks used by Mayans.
• Galaxy has mystery star clusters.
• Flew's flawed science.
• What happened to the Segway? The bicycle?
• Universe spawned stars at a young age. Or perhaps it doesn't have an age.
• Space dust and snowball earth.
• Allez Allais!
• DU death toll tops 11000.
• Marburg outbreak is deadliest on record.

Scrote of the Day:

Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war.

Tony Blair

Quite a conference coming up in a couple of weeks: the 2nd Annual Exopolitics Expo will be held from April 22nd to 24th in Washington, D.C.

Paradigm Research Group is pleased to announce it will again bring together in the Washington metro area a powerful group of speakers to focus on the governmental, political and media aspects of 50+ years of extraterrestrial engagement and societal denial - exopolitics. Collectively, the X-Conference speakers hold enough knowledge of government involvement with extraterrestrial phenomena and the truth embargo to end the cover-up tomorrow. All it would take is for the political leaders and the political media to pay attention. And yes, once again they will be invited, too.

Speakers include Richard Dolan, Ann Druffel, Stanton Friedman, John Greenewald, Jr., Dr Lynne Kitei, and Dr Michael Salla - plenty of others besides. Go to the website for a full run-down as well as the conference schedule and ticketing options. Thanks Kat.

The good folks over at Graham Hancock's official website have posted to the messageboard regarding upcoming changes and the addition of new features to the best-selling author's Internet home. Some of the more exciting additions to the site include a new e-zine with articles from many of our favourite writers, and an exclusive 'radio' show just for GHHQ. Check out the message linked above for the full run-down.

You know, there's been plenty of news about the Pope's death, but comedian Mitch Hedberg died last week too. Each of those people made me laugh, but only one of them intentionally. I know which one I'll miss more...

• Following the death of John Paul II, what secret rituals will be undertaken, and who will be the next Pope and leader of 1.1 billion Catholics? Sheesh, don't they know how to use condoms?
• Times letters debate intelligent design.
• The Aztec UFO Symposium comes to an end for another year.
• Slow-moving 'UFO' seen over Australia. Ending up near Alice Springs, I bet Pine Gap went on alert. Perhaps that's where Bill went? Image available here. Of the UFO that is, not Bill. Although, if you look hard enough...
• Lamps from a Thai wedding ceremony spark UFO sightings.
• Archaeologist finds oldest 'porn statue'. Greg's comment: sexual depictions are not porn until you put some funky music (preferably with wah-pedal guitar) behind it.
• King Tut liked red wine.
• Sub-continent archaeologists debate ancient city claims.
• Blast damages Iraqi monument.
• Editorial discussing the fate of Kennewick Man.
• Were the disastrous British floods of 1607 caused by a tsunami?
• Attack of the psychic soldiers: a review of Jon Ronson's The Men Who Stare At Goats (Amazon US and UK).
• Conspiracy Journal #307 is available to help shake you out of your government-induced stupor.
• Crop circle expert waxes lyrical about flattened crops.
• Psychic set to reveal all about the Kennedy assassination - because she talks with JFK. Apparently.
• Randi might have something to say about it next week. This week's newsletter has plenty of content already.
• Miraculous fountain draws sick crowd.
• Ebola-like Marburg virus claims 146 victims, and counting.
• Gene editing technique cuts out diseased DNA.
• The simple reason why we're not all 30-foot tall.
• The steep slopes of Mars are a mystery.
• Find out whether you get to see the April 8th partial solar eclipse.
• The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) decision is heading for one thing: Earth. NASA decides on de-orbit option.
• NASA schedules robotic spacecraft launch.
• Bob Marley refuses interview with the BBC on the grounds that he has been dead for almost 25 years.

Quote of the Day:

I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry. And that's extra scary to me, because there's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside.

Mitch Hedberg

As mentioned in the radio updates below: our very good friend here at TDG, Mitch Horowitz (who is executive editor of Tarcher Penguin in the U.S.), will be making an appearance on Coast to Coast AM this Thursday night.

I will be giving a three-hour interview on the history of the occult on one of most popular radio call-in shows in America, Coast-to-Coast AM with George Noory, on Thursday, April 7th, at the august hours of 2-5 a.m. EST.

Tune into your local station if it carries C2C, or try KOGO for Internet radio if nothing else is handy. Note that Mitch has a blog here on TDG, in addition to his own website.