Sync Log: Heavy Traffic

This is the kind of Synchronicity I hate...

I was out for a walk on Friday evening and was thinking about the rash of recent daylight UFO sightings. The sky was still light and there was a tremendous amount of air traffic overhead, most of it coming and going to Newark. 

The Secret Sun Best of the Zer0's: TV

    

OK, here's the TV list, in no particular order. There certainly was a lot to pick from in the past ten years- in many ways the Zeros were to TV what the 70s were to movies. I've had high hopes for TV rescuing the concept of authorship as well as thoughtful sci-fi. In some ways it's done just that, but the economic iceberg is looming in the distance. 

As the Internet and video games take up more of our time, less money is available for quality TV. Certainly the glory days of actors in last-rated series living like pashas is long gone. But there are a lot of encouraging signs, so keep your fingers crossed for the Teens. 

Stairway to Sirius: Ground Zero Blues

As much as anyone who wasn't actually in Manhattan that day, I was deeply traumatized by 9/11. Nearly every single one of my friends was in the city that day and the day before my best friend told me he had terminal cancer. My son's football coach was killed as was his friend's father. All told, seventeen people from my town died in the event. 

SJ/ET/LDS/AAT/SF

The whole Vatican-ET meme we talked about last week seems to be a lot more serious than these jokey news stories let on. A quick Google search on 'Vatican' and 'Extraterrestrial' gave me more than a million hits. Do they know something we don't, or is this all just a diversion on the part of a few eccentric old Jesuits? 

Secret Sun Best of the Zeros: The Movies

The Zeros were a decade in which memes from the underground bubbled up into the mass media and took over the mainstream in a way I would never thought possible. Twenty years ago topics like secret societies and sacred symbolism were purely fringe stuff. Today, they're literally kids' stuff. 

Richard Dawkins, Ancient Astronaut Theorist?

 

I don't know how I didn't hear about this earlier*, but Ben Stein coaxed a fascinating confession out of Darwinist rock star Richard Dawkins- that it's possible that life could have been seeded here from an intelligent civilization from elsewhere in the Universe. 

Secret Star Trek: The Second Coming of Sisk-O-Bama

The gift that keeps on giving...

The grand final of the Norway missile/rocket event is not only fascinating because of its proximity to the Nobels and the weird synchronistic emanations that resulted from it, it also struck as being strangely familiar visually...

 

The Siren: The Lovely Bones

Like several other films before it, Peter Jackson's new film The Lovely Bones features one of the central mysteries of the Secret Sun-o-verse, Elizabeth Fraser's heart-ripping cover of Tim Buckley's 'Song to the Siren' (recorded for the This Mortal Coil supergroup project). Jackson is obviously a Cocteau Twins fan- he hired Fraser to sing on the Lord on the Rings soundtracks.

Secret Solstice: The Lost Symbol of Ra

 

Wayne Herschel has been looking at the same memes and symbols in an ancient context that we've been seeing pop up like mushrooms in the media lately. Ancient or modern, it all points to the stars. Maybe it's no accident that so much of the symbolism lately has to do with the space program- maybe they've figured out the real meaning of the ancient mythology, using computers and telescopes. 

Herschel looks at the Key of Solomon here. Somehow this seems very appropriate for this interim between the Solstice and Christmas. 

Enjoy.

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: Bonus Picture Parade

Well, it's been quite a week here on The Secret Sun. The Stairway to Sirius, Revisited series looked at the reemergence of symbols familiar to longtime readers, starting with the weird Norwegian aerial event, and ending with the retrieval of a pylon from the gateway of the ancient Alexandrian temple of Isis, herself identified with the star Sirius. 

In between we looked at a whole host of topics- Will Smith, Barackobamun, Indiana Jones, Masonic tracing boards and of course, the 17 meme.

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: The Moscow Pyramid

 

The excitement of the Norway "missile" was such that a lot of people overlooked another event that may or may not have occurred at the same time - a pyramid-shaped UFO floating above Moscow in footage taken on a cell-phone (allegedly). 

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: Up from the Depths

There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. 

There is nothing kept secret that will not come to light. - Luke 8:17

This whole semiotic/synchronistic adventure started in Norway, with a strange aerial display and a host of symbolic aftershocks in its wake. It should be no surprise then that on the 17th we found ourselves in the ancient waters of Egypt, lifting up a stone pillar from the Gate of the Gods.

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: IndiAnnunaki Jones

 

No matter how far afield things might get here sometimes, I want to reiterate that The Secret Sun is a pop culture blog, that explores esoteric topics in the context of entertainment. So why do I cover political topics here? 

Well, I agree with the late Frank Zappa, who said American politics is the entertainment wing of the military-industrial complex. 

Rihanna: She is the Darkness

 

Marilyn Manson called- 

he wants his video back 

Rihanna is one of these divas who are so preternaturally gifted and so heart-stoppingly gorgeous you wonder if she was grown in a lab somewhere.

Astronaut Theology: I Don't Know

 

Since the dawn of time, there have been reports of strange objects flying over heads. Since the 19th Century, with the advent of photography and motion pictures, we've had hundreds of thousands of images captured of this strange objects. Are they extraterrestrial spaceships? 

 I don't know. 

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: Divine Interventionism

The basic story of I Am Legend is this - an Army microbiologist named Robert Neville is working to reverse a plague that wiped out most of the Earth's population, and left many of the plague's survivors in a feral, cannibalistic state, totally lacking in higher brain function.

 

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: I Am (That I Am) Legend

"Hey honey, look at that 

crazy blue spiral in the sky!"

In the previous entry in this series I mentioned the strange synchronicities that coincided with Barackobamun's Nobel speech, as well as Will Smith's appearance at the Nobel festivities at a time when I was struggling through an analysis of his 2007 film, I Am Legend. 

The Deathbed of Corporate Media

Dark, quiet, haunting- the REAL Hellboy

I turned off Hellboy Potter Hellboy II: The Golden Army just around the point they left Diagon Alley. Now, it may be a fine film if you're into Willow or Labyrinth-type fantasy movies but has less than zero to do with the dark, moody Hellboy comics I love so dearly. 

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: Will Smith Gets Sirius

 

The Smiths meet the "evolutionary flashpoint"

We saw Barackobamun making his appearance in Norway preceded by that strange aerial phenomenon, which may or may not have been a failed missile test. The funny thing is that I'd actually considered ignoring the blue spiral story when it first appeared. 

Why?

 

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: Part 1

Synchronicity - significant coincidence - is a powerful thing. I've come to realize just how powerful it is and how unacceptable that power is to many people, even though they experience it themselves. A lot of people dismiss it (as a lot of you are aware of) and others strain for agency; acausality (or apparent acausality) contradicts everything we're conditioned to believe.

 

TVOD: Fringe Pierces the Veil

At a point when lesser shows begin to bleed away their mojo, Fringe continues to conjure up the numinous counter-reality of a dream within a dream.

 

Breaking Open the Pinchbeck

All of the recent talk about 2012 kicked loose a connection I'd been processing subconsciously but hadn't yet been able to nail down. When researching a recent post on the 2012 film, I came across a documentary in which Daniel Pinchbeck appears...

Three Men and a Smokin' Synchronicity

There's a new book coming out in February with the backbreaking title The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down. 

The book promises to blow the lid off the John Edwards scandal, something we've not seen too much of lately, but seems to have resurfaced in the wake of the Tiger Woods scandal. 

"Get the Hell of My Way!"

 

We all know Frank Miller is the scourge of weaklings, panty-waists and namby-pamby bleeding-hearts everywhere. So when he tells all you do-gooder, uptight, busybody censors to back off and let him write and draw what he damn well pleases? 

Well, I pity the fool who doesn't listen.

When Mythworlds Collide: Doctor Who goes 2012

 

 ...well, almost.  

The Fourth Doctor and his companions come across an ark sent into space to avoid an oncoming solar storm set to wipe out all life on Earth. Oddly prophetic; We're hearing some rumblings in the underground that the current space craze is in fact in preparation for the solar apocalypse in 2012, and that the elite will all be whisked off to Mars to sit out the cinderization of the planet.

 

Stairway to Sirius, Revisited: The Real Lost Symbol

Ancient Astronaut Theory is just that - a theory. We obviously don't have access to the ancient astronauts themselves, so it's up the various researchers to present their theories based on the evidence as well as the gaping holes in orthodox theories of human civilization and evolution.

 

CERN Watch: Universe B

 

  The new Vanity Fair* has an article on CERN, which trumpets the site's inherent practical uselessness in the subheadline. Something to the effect of CERN being an 8 billion dollar Sharper Image-type toy for happy-go-lucky quantum physicists.

 

Secret Sun Picture Parade: Clowns in Space

Well, another week, another batch of seemingly unrelated images grabbed from the memestream and stitched together with a fistful of snark from yours truly...

Readers have noticed this new Rolling Stone cover, which should be no surprise to Secret Sun readers. Space colonization is where its at for the moneyed classes these days, so of course U2 are going to promote it. Note Saturn up top there.

Secret Sun Picture Parade: Taylor Stardust

Taylor Swift continues to fascinate- we saw her Astral Anointing recently and here we see her wielding stardust in the palm of her hand.

Nightmares in Camelot: The Special Ones

  

Bruce Rux explained on his epic Binnall of America interview-a-thon that the original Outer Limits series was a clearinghouse for UFO contact narratives, including many that had never been disseminated. 

Get Ready to Cringe: Battle of the Network Stars

 

I admit it- I'm easy to entertain. Why? Well, I think growing up in the 70s had a lot to do with it. Certainly everything marketed to kids was cut-rate and depressing, and the adults didn't have it much better themselves.

 

CERN Watch: NOT a mere science project

 

The 17-mile Large Hadron Collider at CERN is back online. There are all sorts of theories about the project, never mind the incongruous statue of Kali* at its front door (so much for scientific atheism).

 

The Astral Annointing of Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson were the big winners at tonight’s American Music Awards ceremony, with the former picking up five awards, including Artist of the Year, Favorite Female Artist in the pop/rock and country categories, and Favorite Adult-Contemporary Artist (the teen accepted her awards live via satellite from London) - Wall St. Journal

Silent Bob Enters the Widening Gyre

I have a lot of LA and SoCal readers- I wonder how many of them are in the film industry. And I wonder if one of them is Clerks director Kevin Smith. 

TVOD: Sanctuary and the Godly Blitzkrieg

 

It used to be that "Sci-Fi/Syfy Original Series" usually translated into Secret Sun-ese as "for the love of God, stay far away from your TV set." Over the years, that's slowly evolved into "what the hell, there's nothing else on."

AstroGnostic: Trapped Here on this Alien World

NOTE: Scroll to bottom of post for important update.

Well, here we are- it's Twilight time again. The Gnostic vampire-superhero phenomenon is about to descend on multiplexes all across the planet, enrapturing tween girls in ways not seen since the glory days of N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys. 

Stairway to Sirius: Shambhala Discovered?

 

This is pretty dramatic: NatGeo has a special on the discovery of what may be the legendary Shambhala, aka Shangri-La.

 

Tuesday Newsday: Farewell Sgt. Howie

 

ITEM: We've lost the great Edward Woodward, best known as The Equalizer, but rendered immortal for his role in The Wicker Man. Check out a memorial by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). 

Apocalyporn: 2012 or 6 to 4

Seeing that Nineties were the Sixties in reverse, it's strange how much the Naughties feel like the Seventies. 

We have a deep recession, an President more interested in platitudes than policy, a mass culture obsessed with sports and celebrity and a fashion culture fixated on decadence and 'transgression'. American politics is still fixated on the same old social wedge issues.

Yahooccultism: Mini-Picture Parade

I admit I'm not a big Country music fan, but what does the chevron have to do with its top awards ceremony?

Hey, Remember that LCROSS mission?

Well, the LCROSS mission was a smash success -  today's headlines tell me so...

Hey: Remember that Dark Knight Movie?

Let's change the subject - that warning from the board mods is a joke. 

Hey, remember that movie The Dark Knight? You know the movie that everyone saw but no one seems able to recall? The one whose IMDB board is filled with chatter having to do with everything but the movie?

Disclosure and its Discontents

 Well, another ‘disclosure event’ has come and gone. I haven’t really been keeping track of how many there have been, but it seems as long as I've been paying attention to the UFO phenomena people have been making remarkable predictions of upcoming disclosures that have yet to come to pass. 

One Step Beyonce

Andre at Alien Project sent me this picture of Beyonce chilling out with Zahi Hawass in Giza at sunset. Zahi must have been in heaven, especially since Beyonce was nice enough to dress as Isis for him.

 

AstroGnostic: You're a Nine

SPOILER ALERT- this post contains spoilers

I'm one of those weirdos who likes to listen to director's commentaries on DVDs. I've listened to all of the X-Files commentaries, which usually seem to be focused on the technical aspects of production and not so much the stories, which can be a bit frustrating.

The Last Days of Selfosophy?

There seems to be a flood of damaging material about Scientology appearing in the press, after years of the media adopting a hands-off policy. The St. Petersburg Times is going after the CoS hammer-and-tongs in a massive series called 'The Truth Rundown.'

Secret Sun Weekend Edition: 11/7/09

Two movies open today that we've looked at in the past: The Fourth Kind and The Men Who Stare at Goats. T4k is getting murdered by the critics, which doesn't mean anything, but I'll probably wait for the DVD. Goats is getting OK reviews but I'll wait to rent that too. Interesting conjunction with the Fort Hood situation, in a way.

 

The Red Book: Jung-Mania hits Manhattan

 Hmm. Well, The Red Book is the big story in publishing this season, which on one hand is exciting because it seems such an opportune time for it to be revealed, and unbelievably depressing since it sets us up for yet another round of the commodification of Jung. 

Asterix Against the Ancient Astronautix

How did I miss this? I used to be a huge Asterix fan- it kept me interested in the comics form during the hideous early 90s. Granted, I stuck mostly to the classics but had a volume or two of the post-Goscinny material. If nothing else, I dug on the art.

 

Astronaut Theology: Thetans or Titans?

...Zeus or Xenu? Does the evil trapped within these meat-prisons come from the auras of ancient Thetans or the ashes of ancient Titans? Depends on who you ask....  

Week in 17 Mini-Marathon (UPDATED)

Well, it's that time again- time to wrap up random news stories with significant mentions of 17s and try to discern any meaningful patterns within. Pretty quiet week overall, but then again my attention's been focused elsewhere.

Remembering Mac Tonnies

 

UFO/Fortean researcher Mac Tonnies passes on, apparently of natural causes. He seemed very young, this is tragic. He was an extremely impressive thinker. Mike C! had long been planning a podcast with Mac and I and I'm sorry now that will never come to pass.

Legion (2010): Prophecy and Stolen Property

Hollywood's idea of originality is knocking off a well-known older film (or in this case, a series of films) and throwing a lot of CGI on top of it, giving it a new name and reselling it. This is the trailer for the original Christopher Walken film, The Prophecy. Not a masterpiece by any means, but a fun little romp.

 

Wham-Bam, Thank You, Elam

Having recently discussed Hercules and shamanism and voyages to the underworld, I was flipping through one of my Essential Thor's, where I can upon this splash-page from one of the crucial comics of my early days. 

I was quite chuffed to see 'The coming of Hercules' plastered on a picture of Thor wrestling a 'witch-doctor' who found Thor's 'Norn-stone' and developed the powers of a 'demon'. I figure Kirby was plotting these stories by this time and Stan was scripting them. The connections then make perfect sense, given whatever Jack had tapped into. 

Then there was the Eleusinian bit with Thor descending into the underworld to rescue Hercules, who'd unwittingly signed on as king of Hell. Interesting spin, there.

 

Journey to the Underworld- Cover dated July 1966

Which brings us to this story, that still boggles my mind: Falcons’ Elam has a ‘frustrating day’

Jason Elam left it in the bullpen on Sunday. After what he said was his best practice week of the preseason and a good pre-game warm-up, the Falcons kicker had one of the worst days of his 17-year career. Seven points went missing.

Falcons? Elam? This is a joke, right? The great Egyptologist Flinders-Petrie wrote that the Falcon tribe - who brought Horus into Egypt - came from the land of Elam:

The distinctive character of the 1st dynasty, which separates it from all that went before, is the conquest and union of the whole land of Egypt. It became thus subject to the falcon-bearing tribe of Horus, which was the natural enemy of the Aunu, the Set-bearing tribe. This falcon tribe had certainly originated in Elam (modern -day Iran), as indicated by the hero and lions on the "Araq knife handle". They went down the Persian Gulf and settled in the "horn of Africa."

Iran, the Persian Gulf, the Horn of Africa? Why, this Horus tribe seems to have hit all of the hotspots circulating in the news these days, no? Finally, speaking of Horus, there's this story:

Nev. man accused of DUI for 3rd time in 17 days RENO, Nev. – A 50-year-old Reno man has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving for the third time in less than three weeks. Reno Police Sgt. Tom Robinson said the man was stopped Monday afternoon on a U.S. Highway 395 off-ramp...

Oh Synchronicity, such a saucy maiden... 

 UPDATE: This just in from Dubai... 

 UPDATE: Actually, this just in from Dubai. Seven stars for synch-searching SoapFan. 

 UPDATE: I'm sorry, this is f***ed.

The 43-year-old told the AP in a series of interviews this week that by the time the sweat lodge ceremony began, the participants had undergone days of physically and mentally strenuous events that included fasting. In one game, guru James Arthur Ray even played God.

At one point, someone lifted up the back of the tent, shining light in the otherwise pitch-black enclosure. Ray demanded to know who was letting the light in and committing a "sacrilegious act," Bunn said.

The account marks a significant revelation in the investigation because it portrays Ray as driving participants to stay in the lodge despite signs all around him that the situation had gone horribly awry. Until now, few details had surfaced about Ray's actions inside in the sweat lodge.

Interesting timing, given that Elizabeth Clare Prophet just passed away. Prophet's apocalyptic, authoritarian, neo-Theosophist, Christo-Buddhist cult was big in the late 80s but her predicted Apocalypse never came, as is so often the case with those stubborn ol' Armageddons. 

The problem was is that her followers quit their jobs and holed up in Montana with guns and such for the occasion. Speaking of the Gyre, Prophet's Church Universal and Triumphant was most likely a model for the 'Church of the Red Museum' from The X-Files. Prophet was stricken with Alzheimer's for the last decade or so. 

 Here's an MP3 of Prophet's 'Invocation for the judgement against and destruction of rock music'. Enjoy! 

 UPDATE: Can some explain to me what this woman is saying? Does she think the sweatlodge deaths were a blessing? 

 UPDATE: From luxury to heartache:

VALHALLA, N.Y. — Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik is now just another number in the county jail. Westchester County jail spokesman Justin Pruyne says Kerik was given the number 210717 and a single-bed cell when he arrived Tuesday afternoon.

And of course Valhalla ties back to the Thorniverse, doesn't it?

"Balloon Boy" Dad: The New Wilhelm Reich?

History repeats itself, first as tragedy,

 second as farce.- Karl Marx

By now, we've all heard that the Flight of the Falcon in the mushroom-shaped UFO is believed to be a hoax, all part of a bid for a reality series by the somewhat intense Richard Heene and his family.

 

Hercules. Ancient Astronauts. Human Sacrifice. This is Happening.

 

Here's the pitch, cobbled together from a couple IMDB reviews...

An alien race from the moon lands in ancient Greece, terrorizing the nearby city of Samar, and taking the population’s children as human sacrifices.

Trailer Trash: Tommyknockers and Night Tides

 

Here's a movie that I saw and kinda wish I didn't: the TV adaptation of Stephen King's Quatermass and the Pit ripoff tribute, The Tommyknockers.

The Week in 17: Bend it like Obama

Et tu, Beckham? And what's all this about you being the Barackobamun of Footie?

 

Astronaut Theology: The Queen of Heaven

As many of you know, Jacques Vallee believes that the events at Fatima- where the Queen of Heaven appeared to three young girls and set off a chain of events culminating in the so-called "Miracle of the Sun"- were a mass-scale UFO sighting. 

Fringe: The True Eye, Continued

 

Fringe is trying desperately to become my new favorite show. It lifts mercilessly from The X-Files, takes place in my old stomping grounds (Harvard Square was a particular favorite after-school hangout for me, what with The Million Year Picnic and all) and just to twist the knife, it moved production to Vancouver, as all sci-fi shows should be required by law to. 

The True Eye

Truer words...

I've been neck-deep in the Mystery religions, which are pretty well-documented by ancient sources.

Yahooccultism: Obamoon 17, or LCROSS bust?

So on this very strange day, this strange story makes the Yahoo! headlines. But first, did the LCROSS mission even happen, or was there a last-minute malfunction?

Yahooccultism: Ledger-domain

The movie that Terry Gilliam literally had to beg in the streets to finish gets front page treatment on Yahoo!, here on 10/7. 

Synchronistically for me, since I was earlier writing a piece on how Dark Knight has vanished down the memory hole.

Horus Schwarzenegger

This one's going out to Jake: note the "falcons at your wrist" bit, and then read this...

Osiris came to Horus from the other world and exercised and trained him for the battle. After a time Osiris asked Horus what he held to be the most noble of all things. When Horus replied, "To avenge one's father and mother for evil done to them."

 

Yahooccultism: Shroud it out Loud

Not that this will settle anything, but Italian researchers claim that the Shroud of Turin is a medieval fake:

Scientists have reproduced the shroud using materials and methods that were available in the 14th century, the Italian Committee for Checking Claims on the Paranormal said.

The group said in a statement this is further evidence the shroud is a medieval forgery. In 1988, scientists used radiocarbon dating to determine it was made in the 13th or 14th century.

 

Sync Log: Empire State Obelisk

 

Things have been particularly sync-o-licious around the Secret Sun home office lately. Here's an example: after two different posts namedropping the Empire State Building* last week, the missus and I sit down to watch the Wolverine movie† on Saturday night and this trailer pops up as soon as we put the disk in.

TVOD: (Battle)Stargate Universe

 

 "A Stargate for the rest of us," the headline reads, and so far that seems to be the case. The Stargate movie was a good old-fashioned guilty pleasure, but the two series- SG-1 and Atlantis- strike me as nothing more than elaborate fan fiction or LARP.

Flash Forward: Take Me to the Pilot

A lot of you recommended Flash Forward to me and pointed out it played into the 17 meme. I watched the pilot and enjoyed it, but wondered if you could sustain an entire series on the premise. 

Harryhausen the Magus

 

I've talked a lot about Jack Kirby on this blog, but haven't done much on Ray Harryhausen, who wasn't quite as ubiquitous in my life but had almost as much impact, if not more.

 

Heroes Redux, or 'Life is Killing Us'

 

One thing I've learned over 43 years of chronic pain (and other unpleasantness) is that for most of us, life sucks. You can drown your sorrows in drugs, sex, religion or television but you can't avoid the fact that you're stuck on a planet that wants nothing more than to kill you. 

Desperate Housewitches: Eastwick on TV

 

Here's a surprise: I expected the TV adaption of The Witches of Eastwick to be a Point Pleasant-type cringefest, or at best, "Desperate Housewitches." It's actually pretty entertaining, for what it is. 

TVOD: Warehouse 13

 

I've yet to really explore this series, but based on this episode the writers seem to know their symbolism, which is refreshing particularly for a SyFy show. It's yet another in the endless string of X-Files knockoffs, but more importantly it's also a big-time knockoff of my beloved Friday the 13th: The Series, now out on DVD.

 

Secret Sun Picture Parade: Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl Fashion!

Google rocking the alien meme- again. Thanks to Grey.

 

Yahooccultism: Freems Dig Dan Brown

Surprising no one, the Boys love Brown's new book. 

The True Fringe of 17

Pretty much everyone I hear from seems to agree with me- Fringe started off weak, gathered steam over the season and ended breathtakingly strong. For some reason I thought it was supposed to be on Tuesdays, but Tuesday wasn't the 17th, innit?

Lost in Spacemen in Black

Being a hopeless geek, I watch a lot of old sci-fi stuff. Not only out of nostalgia but also keeping my open for little bits of semiotic insanity or hints of high weirdness and parapolitical mayhem. I'm building a little sub-file of obscure anecdotes from UFO history that have worked their way into old sci-fi shows, 

Yahooccultism: The Magick Number 9. Also, 17.

The big event of 9/9/9 was Barack Siskobama's health care speech, which may or may not signal his political resurrection. He let his worst opponents run wild over the summer which severely dampened the morale of his base. But he's been known to use playin' possum as a political technique, so it will be interesting to see if apparent return to form is all part of some ritual cycle. In that light, the photo credit there is certainly interesting. 

 The first numbers we heard from the New Tut were 700,000 and 1943 (=17). 17 is the 7th prime number.

Close Encounters of the Fake Kind

ITEM: The Fourth Kind apparently makes use of Sumerian motifs, bringing a little AAT to the abduction party. Nothing new for hardcore UFOlogists, but as far as I know only The X-Files has fused the two memes. 

Yahooccultism: Subtlety, thy name is Gadhafi

Here's a tip from Reader Miranda:

Dancers perform in front of a replica Sphinx on stage at a lavish outdoor theatrical performance at Green Park in Tripoli, Libya...attended by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi as the culmination of celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the 1969 military coup that brought him to power.

"We Are All Mutants"

Each of us has at least 100 new mutations in our DNA, according to research published in the journal Current Biology. Scientists have been trying to get an accurate estimate of the mutation rate for over 70 years. However, only now has it been possible to get a reliable estimate, thanks to "next generation" technology for genetic sequencing. The findings may lead to new treatments and insights into our evolution. - BBC

 

Astronaut Theology: Invasion

I picked up a DVD of Invasion, a 1997 TV miniseries based on the novel, written the same year by Robin Cook. I didn't hold much hope for it- the cast wasn't filled with heavy hitters (Luke Perry, Kim Catrall and Rebecca Gayheart are the leads) and the production values on these sorts of things were rarely cinematic, to put it mildly.

Touched by an Alien

When I began working on my analysis of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, I was a bit hesitant. What I was writing about dealt with abduction phenomenon, something I am resolutely agnostic about, and also something that hasn't had much resonance in the Memestream lately. 

But since I posted the first part of the X-Files article last Monday, abductions are suddenly in the media again.  

Dr. Steven Greer and the New UFO Religion

Aside from the re-emergence of the abductee material in the media, the big news in the world of UFOlogy recently was the heated debate between Dr. Steven Greer and Kerry Cassidy of Project Camelot over Greer's remarks to the Barcelona Disclosure conference that all alien races in contact with Earth were benevolent. 

Newsweek: "Aliens Exist"

The article isn't as definitive as the headline, but it's certainly interesting to see Timothy Good's drip-drip Disclosure theory playing out on the cover of a major newsweekly. 

UPDATE: Jack brings up District 9- yes, I saw it and found it extremely worship-worthy. It's the kind of film James Cameron would make if he were still young and hungry. And Sharlto Copley takes the Steve Carrell conceit to places you can't even imagine- a star-making performance if ever there was one. Make no mistake- this is the Golden Age of Geek. More on District 9 when the Muses will it.

Ten Thirteen: I Want to Believe, part 2

The so-called "Mythology" of The X-Files centered on alien abductions, colonization and genetic experimentation. 

The feature film The X-Files: I Want to Believe did the exact same thing, only in a symbolic, allegorical fashion. Why the reverse-metaphor? What is the film trying to tell us? And what connections does this mysterious Mythology have with the mythology of the ancient Mysteries?