Forbidden Knowledge

If you're one of the two or three regular readers here you have probably read a comment made eight months ago on a post Uri Geller Bends On, in regard to a book review I made of the book The Geller Papers by Charles Panati. A man by the name of Bob Couttie, who I assume is either a magician or a maritime investigator (or both?), posted a comment saying that a permanent bend can be made in the metal nitinol using nonpsychic means. The enigmatic Couttie tells the reader to google his name plus nitinol. Then he disappeared, for eight months. About a week ago he posted another comment, on the same exact post, that was almost identical to the first one he posted. He said that he can tell anyone how to make a permanent bend in nitinol using nonpsychic means. I was a bit surprised that he returned eight months later to post a nearly identical comment, and after some thought deleted it because there was nothing really new in his comment.

He posted another comment again yesterday, in which he goaded me to approve his comment, questioned my masculinity, and called me closed minded. He also suggests that I have never met Uri Geller, though I don't know what I said in my book review which would lead him to believe that, and so I must assume he is bluffing and doesn't really know whether I met Geller or not. I did google his name and found an essay from 1988, a few references to said essay on some magic forums, and a site about maritime disasters, about 70 results in all, counting duplicates (The above linked Uri Geller Bends On being one of them). I have not had time to read the whole essay (linked here for your reading pleasure, and mine in a few days), but it seems to suggest that by tying nitinol in a knot and heating it with a match a permanent bend can be made similar to Geller's. Not having the money to spend on nitinol I leave the experiment up to you. Mr. Couttie also has a book, Forbidden Knowledge, that was published in 1988 and doesn't seem to have gone into reprint yet. There is no description of the book so I'm not sure what it's about but I'm guessing it's about Geller and other psychics of the 70s and 80s. There are nine used copies for sale for four dollars and up plus shipping. It's only 160 pages, a nice afternoon's read (maybe a weekend if you're a slow reader like me). I am personally endorsing the book, for what it's worth, and suggest all three readers buy a copy. As soon as I update my Amazon account I myself will buy a copy and read it when I get the chance (I have three books already in que), and when I am finished I will post a review like I did for The Geller Papers.

-Dee

In The Company of The Lord

Yesterday, 26 August 2010, would have been the 100th birthday of Mother Teresa, the modern age's most famous saint. Born in 1910 in Albania, she traveled to India in 1929 where she would later take her religious vows two years later. In 1946 she had a mystical experience that prompted her to embark on a life of charity in 1948. For 50 years St. Teresa (she's one miracle away from "official" sainthood as described by the Catholic church, and I've no doubt she'll be proclaimed a saint within my lifetime) worked tirelessly serving the poor and destitute of India, those suffering from horrible disease, malnutrition, and crippling poverty.

Although the owner of Empire State Building, Anthony Malkin, did not light his edifice blue and white to honour her, claiming he doesn't light it for religious figures, despite lighting the building to honour the end of Ramadan (this is America, don't forget, everyone with power is deathly afraid of Muslims and has to appease them, not realizing the difference between Muslims and terrorists), and lighting the tower for completely asinine reasons like a Mariah Carey album and the Ninja Turtles, The Urban Mystic none-the-less feels the need to commemorate a shining example of selfless service and the hights to which humans can aspire to. India opened a new train line, the Mother Express, in her honour yesterday.



Let us pray that more people are inspired by Mother Teresa's example and try to live their lives with love, especially now when the world is in such dire conditions.

The End of the War

Yesterday night I heard on the radio news that the last US combat troops in Iraq left and are now in Kuwait. Everyone will be home by 31 August. The war is over.

Starchild DNA

The infamous Starchild skull has had a DNA test done, demonstrating that it possesses a long string of DNA that is not found in any known creature. This seems to indicate that it is not human. The scientist who did the test suggests that it is an alien that was implanted into a human mother who gave birth to it on the earth. Why this alien IVF experiment was conducted is anyone's guess. Lloyd Pye, owner of the skull, is now seeking funding to develop a complete sequence of the Starchild's entire genome (it's called the Starchild due to its small size despite later evidence that it was an adult at the time of its death).

Chess Match from Beyond the Veil

Michael Tymn writes about an interesting chess match between a (then) living grand master and a deceased grand master; two of among the greatest in the world. Viktor Korchnoi played against Géza Maróczy through the help of automatic writer Robert Rollans. The match was arranged by Swiss stock broker and occasional psychical researcher Wolfgang Eisenbeiss. The match lasted seven years and eight months. I won't give away the winner.

This is a marvelous story that would make a great movie, if done right. Until a producer finds this story and decides to take it to a mass audience we'll just have to settle for the written word.

-Dee

The New Age

On this day in 1945, just before dawn, the world entered the atomic age. The Manhattan Project cost $2 billion ($20 billion today) and involved the largest group of brilliant minds ever assembled. Not too long after two bombs would be dropped on Japan, turning the largest science experiment in history into largest weapon of war ever used. It was estimated that in order to defeat the Japanese the largest invasion ever would have to be conducted, resulting in one million American casualties. Five million Japanese would have to be killed reaching Tokyo and forcing the government to surrender. The Russians would have invaded from the north, resulting in millions more dead and dividing the Japanese islands in two, one communist, one capitalist. The divided nation would eventually go to war to reunify the islands in a conflict that would make Korea look like a school yard squabble. For saving countless millions of lives and ending the war more than a year early, the overwhelming impetus toward world peace that was born on 16 July 1945 cannot be underestimated. There has not been another World War since. There has not been anything close to one, and we have the threat of nuclear annihilation to thank. It seems we humans are so primitive that we have to be scared straight, or at least less crooked.




Clip from "Trinity and Beyond"



Clip from The History Channel

8 July 1947

A day that will live in infamy. No, not that day. On this day in 1947 the US Army Aircorps published a press release announcing they had recovered a "flying saucer" at Roswell, New Mexico. Hours later they retracted their statement, claiming it was only a weather balloon. Over the years the US government has come up with four "official" stories of what crashed at Roswell, each supposedly debunking the previous one. This alone is proof the government is hiding something, if they keep admitting they were lying and come out with a new "official" story of what crashed. It was a MOGUL balloon, of which many crashed and ranchers regularly called the Roswell air base to come and pick up, but this time it was different somehow and the ranchers thought this particular balloon was a flying saucer. Next, the three alien pilots who crashed, one of whom was still alive and moving around, were said not to be 4 foot tall aliens, but 7 foot tall plastic crash dummies which wouldn't be used until several years after the Roswell crash (after 1951), so I guess the Army Aircorps was testing a time machine. I'm waiting for the fifth "official" story, just to see how stupid the government thinks we are. As more and more countries begin releasing at least some of their formerly classified UFO files I'm left to wonder when the United States will follow suite. Maybe not full disclosure, but at least admit you're hiding something. We're not fools, even if we tend to act like fools to get attention.