Verizon Faces New $20 Billion Suit over NSA Spying Complicity

"Upping the ante in what may be a high-stakes legal battle, an Upstate New York lawyer filed a $20 billion class-action lawsuit against Verizon last week, charging that the company violated customer confidentiality in aiding warrantless eavesdropping by a federal spy agency." - bella

Told you so years ago: Viral connection to Prostate Cancer.

Read about Raymond Royal Rife who invented a super microscope in the 1930's. He is said to have isolated a filterable virus from cancerous human tissue samples donated from the Mayo Clinic. He injected the virus into rats and they got the same cancer the humans had. He found out how to kill the virus and then later cured the cancer in rats and supposedly in humans.

His lab burned down and his notes disappeared right as he was about to present his results. Anyway, we know today that some cancers have a viral source, but when I spoke to a leading cancer doc about all cancers having a viral source, I was told that I shouldn't pay attention to conspiracy theories. Well, I don't dispute that there are scams using Rife's name today, but his original research seems real and interesting. I bring this up because in the news today we now have yet another cancer with a possible viral link: Virus found in Prostate Cancer. Makes you wonder.

The quest for perfect pitch, can it be learned?

A person who has the ability to tell if a given single pitch is slightly out of tune and even to sing or name any tone out of the blue without a reference note is said to have perfect pitch. (The naming is learned, the perception of pitch color differences is instant and automatic after it is learned.)I've seen and have performed with many amazing musicians, but there are two people who stand out in my mind as having something extra. They both sang with an effortless exactness of pitch which I could hear, but could not duplicate, even with my years of experience. Playing a few gigs with Jason Mraz freaked me out. When I first heard Bobby McFerrin as a kid at a Jazz festival, I knew there was something unique about him, but perhaps it was just his ability to mimic instruments? Years later, when I heard Jason Mraz raw, live, and unprocessed by a recording studio, I knew what it was about Bobby McFerrin which had fascinated me as a kid: perfect pitch. This is something subtle, something you can't get from listening to records, especially these days when most studios have pitch correction.

At one point after a show Jason came out to smoke and stand with us in the front of the True Love Coffee Shop in Sacramento, CA. He then sang a few bars of one of my songs he liked a capella. This kid singing MY song sounded better than me. (And I'm no slouch!) It wasn't just the type of voice he had, it was the exactness of the pitches he sang from memory. It was like meeting Mozart or something. Mraz heard with such exactness. I was amazed. (Oh, and Toca Rivera was there harmonizing too for a minute which was so awesome.)

Anyway, I'm now taking some time away from performing as a musician to see if it is possible to acquire perfect pitch as an adult. From what I've heard, Jason grew up singing in church choirs and I figure that's where he tuned his ear and ability to harmonize. I grew up around music too, but we always just tuned our guitars to themselves, never to a pitch fork or a tuner. As a result, I have great relative pitch, but I can't sing an "A" note out of the blue.

I once drove a girlfriend crazy by playing an "A" reference tone over and over for a week and trying to sing it out of the blue. I failed. This is NOT the way to obtain perfect pitch. Don't try to memorize a tone this way. Now I'm trying some new exercises which I'll share here. There is hope. In the last few weeks I've started to see progress.

You have to go slow and learn to hear in a new way. Each note has a unique "color" or character about it, so I'm told.

EXERCISE 1. Perfect Pitch Training For Guitarists. Learn to sing the open strings. Learning the strings as a new song. Sing the tune and say the notes. Sing it to yourself during the day. Sing low to high E A D G B E, and then high to low E B G D A E. Get to the point where you can do this when given either the high or low E string as a reference.

EXERCISE 1a. Wait 5 or 6 seconds. Blindly play any note on the guitar (use the wrong hand and locate a string without knowing by touch which string it is) and with that as a reference, sing the other strings using the above melody which you have learned.

EXERCISE 1b. Play any open string on the guitar blindly (see above) and name that note. Vary the amount of silent time between tests. Spend a few days working on this until you can name the strings correctly 30 times in a row.

Jurassic Beaver: Find Shows Mammals Diversified Much Earlier Than Was Thought

"The Castorocauda lutrasimilis, the largest mammal of its time ever found, is characterized by fur, beaverlike scales on its wide, flat tail and soft tissue webbing between its hind toes. It lived and died about 164 million years ago. ...Its discovery, reported in today's issue of the journal Science, showed for the first time that mammals diversified much earlier than was thought, even in an age dominated by dinosaurs." - wpost

"Paleontologist Jason A. Lillegraven, a Docodontans specialist retired from the University of Wyoming, noted that the world's first mammals appear to have arisen about 200 million years ago, with their history paralleling that of the dinosaurs right up to the moment of the dinosaurs' extinction 65 million years ago."

By comparison, the oldest known hominid footprints found near Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania are over 3.7 million years old. The earliest known footprints of our species Homo species are about 385,000 years old at most. So, we might now crudely say that 160 million years of evolution could get mammal complexity and size from that of a beaver to a human.

Fluoride, is it safe and does it help?

Someone asked me about the fluoride debate. Is it helpful or dangerous? That depends on who you choose to trust and how you handle your personal health choices. I use the precautionary principle: If a number of people reasonably express what seem to be good reasons for avoiding something, I avoid it. For that reason, I've avoided fluoride and healed cavities while doing so.

If you'd like to believe it is safe you can find many dentists, governments and chemical companies who will agree with your decision. Whatever you believe, consider the fact that you may be brushing with fluoride toothpaste and drinking it in your water due to decades old national security reasons. No one debates the fact that industrial waste fluoride is a byproduct of atom bomb creation.

Unsafe: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Safe: 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ( I had trouble finding more...)

Two Fishermen Claim to Videotape Monster in Lake Champlain

An authentic video of ... nothing?

"Residents near Lake Champlain in New York say they have their own Loch Ness monster. They call it Champ, and it's a local legend. It is the inspiration for parade floats, T-shirts, key chains, minor-league baseball team mascots, and wild stories.

ABC News obtained exclusive video of something just under the surface of the lake that some say may be Champ.

The video was taken by two fishermen with their digital camera last summer. Before their supposed sighting, they were Champ skeptics.

... As for the latest sighting, two retired FBI analysts reviewed the tape and said that it appeared authentic. "I can't find anything in there that would suggest or indicate to me that this has been fabricated or manipulated in any way," said Gerald Richards, a forensic image analyst.

"However, there's no place in there that I can see actually see, an animal or any other object on the surface." - abcnews

Favorite Bush Port-gate quote

Regarding his deal to give the $6.8bn US port security job to the home country of two supposed 9/11 hijackers:

"It wouldn't go forward if we had concerns to our nation's security." - Bush, cbc.ca

That sums it up. Most think Bush has no real concerns for national security, only for money and power, war and fear mongering in order to get more money, power and war. Look, I'm not cool with the Brits having control of our ports either. Who knew they had it? Not me. Not many. We are a big country. We are all grown up now. I think we can secure our own ports, especially during a "war". The UAE is an Ally in the war on terror?

"The September 11 commission's report raised concerns that United Arab Emirates officials were directly associating with the al Qaeda leader as recently as 1999." - ahn

Things keep making sense from the perspective that Bush is directly tied to the attacks of 9/11. Read enough bizzare facts like this: Bush gave $27 million to an al Qaeda foot soldier. ( What, you missed that story? ) The plane into building exercise pre-planned for 9/11, one top al-Qaeda operative was a British intelligence agent, etc. and you eventually draw the conclusion that the UAE is an ally in the war of terror, not the war on terror.

UFO-like effects on cars near radar dome in UK

"The giant grey "golf ball" cuts a sinister shape on the seaside skyline as it goes about its silent duty of helping protect the nation. But strange things, that could be part of an X-Files episode, are happening in the shadow of the radar dome. Frightened motorists have had their engines and lights cut out, while instrument dials crash to zero or speed to 150mph as they cruise past the landmark on the North Norfolk coast.

... "We must have had 30 cars in with problems over the past couple of months. And they are only the ones we know about, so there could be more. It is a mixture of lights and engines cutting out, along with dashboards going haywire."

... During six years in the RAF as a fighter controller Mr Crayford worked at Trimingham's "mother station" at Neatishead before joining the motor trade. He is barred under the Official Secrets Act from saying too much about the dome - which is a key part of the national air defence system.

But he said: "Something must have changed - either the frequency or output - for this to happen. "I lodged an official complaint with the Ministry of Defence two weeks ago, but incidents are still happening. We get about five a week, and had three more on Friday." An MoD spokeswoman confirmed it was investigating complaints about the radar head interfering with cars." - edp24

Free Download / Free Song: NoLongerNude (~2 MB, MP3)

NoLongerNude (~2 MB, MP3) (right click, save as..)

Here's a new somewhat autobiographical song to get me in trouble with all of my Catholic friends.

I figure at this point they know what I think anyway so they won't be too shocked.

Private: Amazing NASA video shows “shooting star” that changes direction, several things around ISS

This 1/2 hour UFO video is interesting. Is the change in direction of the shooting star due to thursters fired by the ship taking the video (notice the Earth changes position right around the time the shooting star does), or did it really change course?

PART I

[googlevideo]-5070476612863849446[/googlevideo]

PART II

[googlevideo]8524267568796529301[/googlevideo]

If it did, I don't think it is a shooting star. What are those things flying around the International Space Station? More ice crystals?

Balistics study confirms Cheney lied?

One writer wrote:

"The story tellers insist Cheney was about 30 yards (90 feet) away and using a 28 gauge shotgun to shoot at quail. As Mr. Whittington has a bird shot pellet either in or against his heart ... well ... there's a problem with that story. I would like to see the ballistics report that shows how a 28 gauge shotgun can put bird shot through a hunting vest, jacket, skin and ribcage from 90 feet away!" -targ

"The only way to account for the pattern indicated on the TDPW report [ page 1, 2, 3] is if Cheney was about 10 (to 18) feet away from Whittington when he shot him." -infowar

See the infowars video.

Flying Luxury Hotel

Is the stealth version of this technology repsonsible for sightings of a giant black triangle over Phoenix a few years back? Looks a cigar shaped UFO with portholes.

"Even though the Aeroscraft dwarfs the largest commercial airliners, it requires less net space on the ground than any plane because it doesn't need a runway. The airship takes off and lands like a helicopter: straight up and down."

"Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft's weight. The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body?driven by huge rearward propellers?generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising. During takeoff and landing, six turbofan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent. This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2010." - popsci

R2, I need more power!

Dick Cheney’s Got a Gun

Here's a nice little song for you by Mr. Bob Rivers.

Hello world!

Welcome. This is my first post.

US serial number gives clue to mystery of the alien in the attic

" When Barney Broom began renovating his cottage he did not expect to be confronted by a pair of black eyes staring from a cloudy jar. But the mysterious discovery of an alien in his attic has spooked the 54-year-old screenwriter and bewildered extraterrestrial experts, who yesterday suggested the US military could be involved.

The delicate 30cm (12 inch) figure of a baby alien is stored in a pungent liquid and has a US serial number painted on its four-toed foot.

Possibly sculpted from a clay-like substance and painted grey, the model closely resembles the aliens depicted in a hoax film of an autopsy of the infamous "Roswell incident".

Curiously, the alien was discovered stored in an old toffee jar wrapped in a copy of the Daily Mirror dating from October 1947. In July of that year, officials at the American air base of Roswell reported and then denied finding the remains of a flying saucer.

... A spokeswoman for the US air force said it had never made such models of an alien, the figure was not government property and the serial number could mean it had been catalogued by a museum. "It's a hoax," the spokeswoman said. Prof Roberts admitted it could be a film prop dating from the 1960s, but said he was not surprised at US denials: "That is the US air force line. They deny these alien encounters. It is quite possible they concoct stories to cover up for more nefarious activities."

Will it mysteriously vanish before they are able to open the jar and confirm that it is made of clay?

“Alien” Embryo Removed From 35-Year-Old Man’s Back

A 35-year-old tractor operator, Igor Namyatov, has undergone surgery to be relieved of what had initially been diagnosed as a tumor, but turned out to be the embryo of his unborn twin brother.... Doctors said the embryo belonged to Namyatov's unborn brother who had spent 35 years in the body of the patient. Namyatov's fellow villagers doubted the explanation given by the doctors. Some even surmised the object removed from Namyatov's body was an extraterrestrial organism. "It is a pity they have removed it. They should have waited to see what would become of it later on. That would have been a great scientific find, one of the villagers said. The "little brother" first made himself known when Igor was 15. At that time the boy complained about pains in his back, but doctors played down his complaints saying it was only a harmless fatty tumor. Twenty years later the pains came back. The doctors decided to operate at once. They were genuinely surprised to see that the tumor was in fact an embryo with little legs and hands. A forensic expert summoned to the village to investigate refused to probe the incident saying it was clear anyway that the object was an underdeveloped embryo. Igor Namyatov refused to leave the embryo at the hospital for further research." - mosnews

Strange to be a 35 year old embryo. Was this internal parasitic twin perhaps a thinking individual? Did it have a head? Are they just calling it an embryo to avoid the idea that they had to kill an attached adult?

Can we bring back a long-extinct animal?

"In what would be an unprecedented feat, a South African amateur scientist says he is going to bring an animal back from extinction: the quagga. A large mammal that descended from the zebra, the quagga filled South Africa's plains for millennia. But it fell to gun-toting European colonists and was last seen alive in 1883." - slate

Video from secret New Mexico base with aliens?

Here's a fun thing. It purports to be a video from a secret facility where aliens are stored in vats. Found on CrowdedSkies site. Also see here. Anyone have the scoop? The lights are too theatrical to seem real to me. Check it out: RealMedia. dated 10/7/1997, Nippon TV. Warning: Even a fairly smart person might spend years reading alien/conspiracy stuff and still not learn for certain which parts, if any, are true. Perhaps that's the point.

58 indicators of UFO encounters or abductions by aliens

Hey, I've had this one: "... dreams of passing through a closed window or solid wall."

Read them all.