Cullan Hudson's Blog, page 45

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KREEPY GIRL: STEAMGOTH

I picture her commanding her armada of airships to stop the encroaching forces of the undead....

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The REAL Mayan Experts Finally Begin Addressing 2012

[from Boing Boing]
"It's August of 2011, do you know when your Apocalypse is?
There are 1000s of people who think that something important—if not the end or the world, then something—will happen on December 21, 2012. These speculations spring from a well-seasoned cultural melting pot, but a key ingredient is the writings and beliefs of both ancient and modern Maya people. In fact, the folks promoting the 2012 movement often frame themselves as experts in Maya traditions.
Here's the thing, though: There are actual experts in ancient Maya traditions, and actual experts who study the culture and religion of modern Maya living today. These archaeologists and anthropologists have, inadvertently, created some of the pop culture legends that spawned the 2012 movement. But, until very recently, they've largely ignored that movement. This is starting to change, however. Last January, archaeo-astronomers held a symposium on the 2012 phenomenon and those papers were recently published in The Proceedings of the International Astronomy Union. Meanwhile, a new scholarly book, collecting essays on the 2012 phenomenon by Mayanist researchers, is set to be published soon.
One of the researchers featured in that book is John Hoopes, an archaeologist and one of my former professors when I was an anthropology student at The University of Kansas.
Hoopes does field research, digging at archaeological sites in Costa Rica and other parts of Central and South America. But, as a side project, he's also developed some expertise in the way archaology—and, particularly, pseudo-archaeology—influence pop culture in the United States and Europe. I spoke with him about where 2012 myths come from, why scientists need to study and address pseudo-science movements, and why he thinks the 2012 phenomenon owes as much to H.P. Lovecraft and Aldous Huxley as it does to the ancient Maya."
READ THE INTERVIEW HERE

Is DARPA's Latest Plaything The Elusive 'Aurora'?

DARPA's 320 million dollar hypersonic Falcon, which flies in excess of Mach 20 (13,000 mph) launched this week on a test flight and was promptly lost in the deep blue. But fear not! They had, of course, two. A second launch is scheduled.
The unmanned craft is shaped like a large black spearpoint, a configuration familiar to many UFOlogists. One cannot help but wonder if these are the first tests, or if these are the first tests the public has been allowed to know about?
Since the late 1980s when a military budget listed an expenditure of $455 million as a black project (as secretly-funded ventures are termed in the parlance of military spending)  known only as "Aurora,"it has been long-rumored the military has been testing a hypersonic jet. Some felt, however, this huge sum was tagged for Lockheed's B-2 Spirit, which was revealed to the public in the 1990s. 
These likely gave rise to many black triangle sightings in the years prior. In 1989, a British engineer spotted one refueling. And it can't be a coincidence that the number of black triangle UFOs sprang like weeds during the 1980s and early 1990s. As the revelation of the now famous Delta wing bombers and fighters emerged, it becomes obvious that many of these arose from very real sightings.
All along, a hypersonic jet has been rumored alongside these. Can we assume that it too has a ring of truth? Aurora likely saw various iterations of the concept over the years, each getting scrapped in turn as their flaws became apparent. That DARPA is releasing information on this vehicle tells us, despite this week's failure, the concept is sound--and didn't spring forth overnight.
In late 1991, as recorded by the USGS, a series of strange sonic booms was picked up in Southern California that seemed "stonger than other sonic booms," according to Jim Mori, a seismologist. "They've all come on Thursday mornings about the same time, between 4 and 7."
Dom Maglierie, a former NASA expert on such phenomena, confirmed the data represented something at 90,000 feet, traveling at Mach 4 to Mach 5.2 and were unlike any aircraft he was familiar with.
On March 23, 1992, near Amarillo, Steven Douglas took photos of a strange, donuts-on-a-rope contrail that he linked to rather peculiar sounds that produced "a deep pulsating rumble that vibrated the house and made the windows shake." Douglas also claimed ot have intercepted air-to-air communications between an AWACS known as "Dragnet 51" from Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City and two other unidentified craft known by the callsigns "Darkstar November" and "Darkstar Mike." These latter designations were, apparently, AWACS squadrons out of Tinker as well. Anyone who lives in the Oklahoma City area is extremely familiar with these large jets surmounted by flying saucer-like radar arrays.
One month later, a similar incident took place in California by a civilian monitoring air traffic communications out of Edwards AFB. He heard early morning transmissions between callsign "Joshua Control" and a high-flyer using "Gaspipe": "Youre at 67,000 feet, 81 miles out...70 miles out now, 36,000 feet, above glideslope..."
And while sightings tapered off (other than some dubious Area 51 claims) by the mid-1990s, budget holes continued to show up in conjuction with anomalies that might suggest such a project was still under way.
Again, I have to wonder if this is what we've been seeing all along. Perhaps after failed attempts to man such a craft, a drone was deemed the likeliest solution.
If black triangles and hypersonic craft can shed UFO mystique to become actual military advancements, should we then take a closer look at such reports, with an eye toward air force technology? What of the rumored silent-running refueling platforms and stealth blimps? Are they generating similar sightings? Perhaps only time will tell since, as yet, no hobbyist UFOlogist has successfully penetrated the veil of denial surrounding such black projects.

Hurricane Harbinger: A Look At The Gray Man of Pawleys Island

As we step into Hurricane season, let's take a moment to revisit an old tale, one with which you may be familiar.
On South Carolina's Pawleys Island, legend has long told of the Gray Man who appears as a harbinger of these deadly storms. He has been reported since 1822 when a devastating hurricane wrecked Charleston.
1893 found the Gray Man presenting himself to the Lachicotte family. Undestanding the import, the family fled the island and were spared being counted among the 1500 people killed by the Sea Islands Hurricane.
In October 1954, Bill Collins and his new bride were honeymooning on Pawleys Island when, at an ungodly hour, they heard a knock on their door. Answering the knock, Bill was confronted by a man in a gray suit and hat. His face wasn't clearly seen beneath its broad brim. The stranger told him the Red Cross was warning locals to evacuate the area, a storm was coming. Before he could really reply, the man in the gray suit left without another word. Wisely, Bill Collins and his wife left the island just in time to miss a category 4 hurricane named Hazel, which killed 95 people.
It's not clear who this ghostly messenger is. Some think he was an innkeeper on the island long ago before a hurricane took his life. Others think he was a young man on a journey from Georgetown, SC to visit is fiancee on the island. To save time, he turned his horse down what he thought would be a shortcut through a marsh. Sadly, the horse and rider were both caught in quicksand. Later, the distraught fiancee was wandering heartsick along the beach when a man in gray approached her. To the woman's shock, it was her lover. He warned her to leave immediately because a terrible storm was headed toward the island. She heeded his warning and was spared her life as a result. Among the many shattered remains of homes that littered the island, a sole dwelling stood unfazed: the fiancee's home.

APPARITION CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Is it real? You DECIDE .

The Valentich Vanishing

In late 1978, Australian pilot Frederick Valentich, took off from Moorabbin Airport in Victoria on a solo flight in a Cessna 182. His course would take him across Bass Strait to King Island. However, 50 minutes into his flight, Valentich spotted a large craft with four bright lights in his immediate vicinity. He then radioed the following message to Melbourne air flight service controller, Steve Robey:
"It seems to be playing some sort of game. Flying at speed I cannot estimate.... It is flying past.  It has a long shape...coming for me right now.... It has a green light and sort of metallic light on the outside. The thing is orbiting on top of me. [at this point, the Cessna begins a rough idle, and the engine coughs] Proceeding Kind Island. Unknown aircraft now hovering on top of me."
As Valentich signed off, a loud metallic groan was heard for 17 seconds by those on the ground listening in. Then the signal went dead. That was the last anyone heard from the young pilot. Neither the Cessna nor his body were ever located.
To better understand the mystery, the unusual metallic sound, which wasn't made immediately public in the wake of the tragedy, was analyzed by several experts, including Dr. Richard F. Haines, a one-time researcher with NASA. Haines reported that the sound was "thirty-six separate bursts with fairly constant start and stop pulses bounding each one....no discernible patterns in time or frequency."
Following the incident, several witnesses came forward to claim that green lights had been seen in the sky. One said he spotted a green light trailing the very plane that went missing.
Others posited more mundane explanations,including the typical pilot disorientation, strong winds off the strait pushing the plane far out to sea, and that Valentich was involved in drug smuggling and shot down by another plane. In absence of any proof, all three of these scenarios are no less ridiculous than abduction by a UFO.

Anatomy of an Urban Legend: Oliver Lerch Goes Missing

Around the 1890s, according to legend, a Christmas Eve gathering was held on a farm near South Bend, IN. A young man in attendance, Oliver Lerch (or Larch according to some variations), goes into the clear, cold night to get water from the well.
Minutes later, those inside hear blood-curdling screams. They race outside, but find no trace of Oliver. However, in the snow, they spot his footprints. Shockingly, the tracks disappeared halfway from the house to the well.
Suddenly, from the clear skies overhead, the group hears Oliver's voice shouting, "It's got me! Help! Help!" His anguished cries fade to silence within a minute or two.
Much like Ambrose Bierce's "The Difficulty of Crossing a Field," this vanishing into nothing story involves the echoed cries of the unseen victim. And despite iterations showing up in the 1960s (a Welsh version) and in 1936 by Fate magazine contributer, Joseph Rosenberger, who later claimed to another Fate writer that it was all a hoax of his own design.
However, the tale was well-known before then and not likely Rosenberger's creation. The basic plot comes form "Charles Ashmore's Trail," published in 1893 by (not surprisingly) Ambrose Bierce in the volume, Can Such Things Be?
The only real mysteries are how the seemingly unwaiverable name of Oliver Lerch came to replace Charles Ashmore as it took on Urban Legend status (was there something about a REAL Oliver Lerch) and how tales like this and others (The Ghost of U65 or The Bowmen, for instance) are able to leap from the page into popular consciousness as truth?