Perceptual Illusion and Cryptozoology

Some years back a famous “cryptozoologist” published a blog entry in which he related an anecdote that had been forwarded to him by a reader. The story was that a woman was driving along a road late at night and witnessed a strange creature attempting to cross over a fence. [...]

Dodecheads or Dodickheads?

The prefix “dodeca” means twelve, and derives from a Greek root.

We are already seeing a profusion of claims pertaining to the world ending in 2012, all of which are abject nonsense.

I should like to propose that those who make such claims need a banner under which to rally. We already have “birthers” and “truthers” [...]

Live Shows I've Seen

This is a list of the live concerts I’ve seen in my life, as best as I can remember.

1. Buddy Rich, Late 1970′s, Missoula. I went with my father. Later I read a Rolling Stone magazine interview with Rich in which he discussed music but not the details of his life-changing UFO sighting…

2. Van Halen, [...]

Polyethylene, Plasma, and Philip Klass

Last June I posted a video to YouTube showing how to use carbon fiber to create “ball lightning” or plasma in the microwave oven. I fully recognize this is an esoteric thing, and as with most esoteric things there is some sort of convoluted history that leads up to it. As they say about movies [...]

The Hudson Bay Blanket

When I was a child, my mother gave my brother and me each a Hudson Bay blanket. My mother had been a child in the Great Depression, and the experience clearly made a profound impact on her. I grew up constantly hearing her tales of deprivation, which induced in me a sort of guilt when [...]