by Anthea My first visit to the Big Apple Comic Con in New York City, October 2nd, 2010. I’m not much of a geek so I didn’t know most of the people there. I spoke to the Suicide Girls, and I asked the delightful actor Doug Jones (“Hellboy,” “Pan’s Labyrinth”) to sign a photo for me. Cool!
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by Anthea Yes, folks. I was there.
I know, it’s hard to imagine somebody as cool and as non-geeky like myself would go to a Star Trek Convention. Well, it was 1972, I was very young, and I went with my sister, Jill, my brother, Mark, and my Mom (Mom had a secret crush on DeForest Kelley). The convention was held in the second floor ballroom of the Staler-Hilton Hotel on a cold weekend in January.
My family and I jumped on the subway and breathlessly raced down to the westside of Manhattan. At the hotel the convention staff stamped our hand with an ink ‘tattoo’ and we rode the escalator to the second-floor ballroom. The place was packed. Then an unexpected party-pooper ruined everything—the fire marshall of the FDNY announced it was over capacity and thus a fire hazard and some people would have to leave. The FDNY proceeded to kick people out and a small riot broke out. Meanwhile, in the confusion of the combative crowd I ran into a school friend of mine. We both had our 35mm Pentax SLR cameras around our necks. He and I stood at the top of the escalator and watched a fireman trying to single-handedly control a bunch of angry Trekkies in the lobby. “A riot always makes a good shot,” he said, as he snapped picture after picture of flailing arms and bulging eyeballs in the crowd.
Once the riot had subsided it was time to enjoy the convention. There were a few tables selling Star Trek memorabilia scattered around the room. My mother complained it was mostly junk, but yet she still bought a pair of rubber Spock ears. And she was right, it was junk. The damn Spock ears were impossible to get over your ears. There were people walking around dressed in full make-up and costume of various alien characters from the TV show.
At some point the stars of Star Trek made an appearance for their fans. On a stage in the ballroom, Nichele Nichols who played Ahora walked out in a floor length evening gown. She spoke for a little while and then DeForest Kelley (Dr McCoy), George Takei, James Doohan (Scotty) came out. Kelley had laryngitis, and a fan gave him a cough drop. The last star on the stage was William Shatner. He talked about growing up in Canada and how he started off as a stage actor in Shakespearean plays. For the next 30-minutes the cast answered questions from the audience, and that was that.
Next, my mother, sister, brother, and I separated to check out various venues at the convention. My mother wandered into a room where a man was giving a lecture on the Klingon Empire. He gave a power-point presentation of the Klingons space ships, pointing out the engine room, command center, etc. Then he went on to discuss the proper pronunciation of the Klingon language. When my mother came out of the lecture room, she rolled her eyes and said, “Geez, he was talking about the Klingons like they really exist.”
In another room, a very famous science-fiction writer (who shall remain nameless) who had written one of the Star Trek episodes, was giving a talk to a small crowd. Suddenly, a man in the audience began to heckle the writer. This lead into a war of words. The writer angrily said, “Don’t think because I’m wearing a turtleneck sweater that I won’t come down there and kick your ass.”
I don’t remember how long I was at the convention, but I stayed ’til the end. The event was wrapped up with a encore appearance of the Star Trek cast. The crowd had dwindled and only a few fans remained behind. We all sat crossed-leg on the ballroom floor. Suddenly, the MC on the stage pointed over my head and said, “We have Candice Bergen in the audience.” Everyone turned their heads to look in my direction and I turned around, too, and sitting directly behind me was the actress Candice Bergen. She was holding a Nikon SLR camera and looked very embarrassed to be recognized.
I can still remember some of the audience’s questions. One young man asked Shatner “Will there be gay people in space?” And Shatner gave a politically-correct polite answer. Then someone asked Shatner if he had enjoyed himself at the convention. Well, he cleared his throat and commented on how rude and hostile everyone had been. He added, even the people asking him questions had a chip-on-their shoulders (I have to agree with Shatner it was a rough crowd).
And on that note the first Star Trek Convention came to a close.
Were you at the 1972 Star Trek Convention? If so, what were your experiences?
by Anthea Podcast originally aired September 17th 2010:
Tonight’s guest is TOM PAYNE, the author of the book “The Template of Time: Decoding Our Destiny”. The Bible’s hidden time code holds the answers to some of life’s greatest questions, such as: “What is our destination?” and “When will we get there?” In The Template of Time, Tom Payne relies on eight years of intensive research as he shares a comprehensive, chronological study of the quirky time patterns scattered throughout the Bible that, when assembled, create an eternal template upon which history unfolds. Just as atmospheric patterns suggest tomorrow’s weather forecast, the historical patterns of the template suggest future outcomes while ruling out coincidence and chance. While illustrating how some forecasts have already come true, Payne examines the various time cycles that clearly demonstrate how the rhythms of history are leading to future surprises. As he follows the development of the Roman Empire and its prophesied conflict with the people of God, Payne proves that, as we approach the culmination of processes two thousand years in the making, everyone will be affected. www.thetemplateoftime.com
by Anthea One day, in New York City, a concerned son had not heard from his elderly father in several days. He was not answering the phone, and he was not answering the door bell. So, the son called the cops.
The cops who responded to the job wanted to gain entry to the house. This way they could verify that either the man was not there, or perhaps in need of medical assistance, or a dozen other reasons that would explain why he wasn’t answering the door. They tried to open the front door, but it was bolted shut. Then they tried to open the windows, but they couldn’t, because all the windows in the front and back of the house were locked and painted shut. The cops tried to open the back door, but they couldn’t, because the back door was also locked and painted shut. Plus, the son said, there was a heavy generator pinned against the back door.
So, the cops went back to the front door and decided to use a halogen tool to pry the door open. When the door was pried open there was a chain blocking the door, and bolt-cutters were used to cut it off. Finally, the cops entered the house. They went from room to room looking for the old man. In the bedroom, they found him dead in his bed. He had been stabbed numerous times—the victim of a homicide.
A few days later, the detective who was investigating the murder, spoke to the cops who had broken into the house. “I don’t get it,” said the detective, scratching his head. “How did the murderer get out of the house?”
The detective went over the crime scene with a fine tooth comb—and, besides the fact that the back door and all the windows were painted shut, & that the chain was on the door—there was no basement, no secret tunnels, no break in the walls, floors, ceilings, etc. So, how did the perpetrator exit the house?
“Are you sure the chain was on the door?” asked the detective.
“Yup,” the cops said. “We had to cut it off.”
Well, I think I have a theory: the man stabbed himself to death. What? You say. Well, listen to this: I handled a job where a woman had committed suicide. She grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen, went down to the basement, and laid down on the bed. But instead of slitting her wrists, she wanted to slit her jugular vein, a major artery in the neck. The woman took the knife and hacked away at her neck and throat. She hacked! Hacked! Hacked!
When I went down to the basement to look at the body, I found her laying peacefully on the bed with her hands folded across her chest. The butcher knife was laying next to her side. Her throat was sliced wide open, and the only thing keeping her head attached to her body was her spinal cord, still intact. In spite of the massive wound, there was no blood.
The medic, who was in the room with me, said, “She got everything but the jugular vein”. And then he pointed out the artery to me, a long white fleshy “cord” running along the left side of her neck.
So, if it’s possible for someone to chop their own head off, why not stab yourself to death?
(Concerning the story of the stabbed man in the bed, I just thought of something: the storyteller never mentioned to me if the “murder” weapon was, or was not, at the scene. If the knife was gone, then maybe I should make this a paranormal story)
by Anthea Two blogs ago I wrote how consuming the tropical fruit tamarind can remove fluoride from the body. Well, I had such a good response to my tamarind chutney recipe that I thought I’d post another one. This recipe comes from my favorite Indian cookbook The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi:
2/3 cup of raisins
3/4 cups water (distilled)
1-2 hot green chilies
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
1/3 cup gelled tamarind puree, concentrated
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon chat masala or black salt
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1. Combine the raisins and water in a small pan and quickly bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, or a blender, and process to a smooth puree. Transfer to a non-metallic storage container, cover, and refrigerate.
by Anthea Originally aired July 30th, 2010:
Tonight my guest STEWART SWERDLOW returns to discuss “The Galactic History” and our ancient past. Mr.Swerdlow is a clairvoyant, a gifted medical intuitive, and the author of “Montauk: The Alien Connection”. Join us as we explore Atlantis, human origin, Lemuria, and our mysterious solar system. www.expansions.com
by Anthea A lot of folks are concerned about the effects of fluoride on the body. Numerous studies suggest it can damage our bones, brain, kidneys, thyroids, and pineal gland (see reports here). The USA is one of 8 countries that fluoridates more than 50% of its water supply (the other 7 are: Australia, Colombia, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, & Singapore). In mainland Europe, most countries don’t fluoridate the water supply, and yet, according to World Health Organization data, their teeth are just as good, if not better than Americans.
The chemicals used to fluoridate the water isn’t pharmaceutical grade, but rather hazardous waste products of the phosphate fertilizing industry. More importantly, fluoridated water is like forced medication with no control of the dose, or who gets it.
The best thing to do is to avoid consuming fluoride (drink distilled water for starters). But sometimes you can’t avoid it, especially if you eat at a restaurant, or your misinformed friends feed you food cooked in it. So, now that you’ve accidently consumed fluoride, how can you remove it from your body? Well, there is a little tropical pod-like fruit called tamarind that when eaten has been proven to remove fluoride from the body while leaving the good minerals, like calcium, zinc, magnesium, and phosphorous, mostly intact (the fluoride is extracted during urination).
Tamarind can be found in any Indian grocery store. You can find it raw for cooking, or already prepared as candy, or chutney.
Here is my favorite recipe for Tamarind Chutney. It’s so delicious you’re gonna wanna eat it like pudding:
1/4 cup seeded dried tamarind, packed
1 1/4 cups boiling water (I use distilled water)
1/2 teaspoon ajwain seeds, or 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 tablespoon scraped, minced ginger root
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dates
3 tablespoon chopped almonds
3 tablespoon fresh or dried grated coconut
1 teaspoon salt (I use sea salt, preferably not from the Pacific Ocean area)
2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
1. Place the tamarind in a glass, or ceramic bowl, add boiling water, and set aside for 30 minutes. Then use your fingers to mash and squeeze the tamarind until it separates from the fibers & turns into a pulpy sauce. Discard the roughage.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, mix, cover, refrigerate, and set aside for 2-3 hours to allow the flavors to mingle. Yummy!
by Anthea There’s something strange going on in our solar system.
In early May, the NASA asteroid-watching service, the Near-Earth Object Program headquartered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and also the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, tracked an unknown object from deep space heading in our direction. The object—dubbed 2010 KQ—is a few meters long and is considered too small to be an asteroid, and NASA feels it is “artificial”. Object 2010 KQ made a close pass by Earth, coming in almost to the distance of the Moon’s orbit, pulled away, and is now returning into the outer regions of the solar system. They don’t expect it to return until 2036.
In a The Register article, it stated: “The object has used no propulsion during the time NASA has had it under observation. However the spacewatch boffins believe that it must have moved under its own power at some point, given its position and velocity”. (Say what? It moved on its own?!)
But before you get too excited: No. NASA doesn’t think it’s an alien probe sent to spy on Earth. Their explanation is: it’s a discarded rocket booster from one of our old space programs that got caught up in a wide orbit.
How strange. Since when do old booster rockets turn themselves off-and-on?
The above story is similar to another near-earth object, 1991 VG. On November 6th 1991, astronomer Jim Scotti discovered this object with the Spacewatch Telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona. 1991 VG seemed to be about 10 meters in size, but did not appear to be an asteroid. As it approached earth, it was observed to have a “…strong, rapid brightness variations which can be interpreted as transient specular reflections from the surfaces of a rotating spacecraft.” In other words, 1991 VG was pulsating a light. But this was explained away as sunlight bouncing off a reflective surface. What did Scotti think it was? In his notes, he writes: “My guess is that it is indeed a natural object, but if it is manmade, perhaps it is a Saturn IVB stage from one of the early Apollo missions.” Once again: space junk from our space program.
My favorite mysterious place is the Kuipers Belt. For those of you who don’t know where that is, the Kuipers Belt is a region of space along the ecliptic outside orbit of Neptune. It contains countless comets and “super comets” or planetesimals. It’s existance was predicted in 1951 by Gerald Kuiper, for whom the belt was named. Then in March 1992, and in rapid succession thereafter, a series of icy planetesimals, or “super comets” have been discovered orbiting the sun beyond Neptune. Pluto, once classified as a planet, and now down-graded to a “dwarf”, is located in the Kuipers Belt. Other “dwarf” planets discovered here are, Ceres, Chiron, and Makemake.
So what’s so strange about the Kuipers Belt? Well, first there is Makemake, discovered on March 31, 2005. I found it odd that Makemake can be seen with a backyard amateur telescope, but yet astronomers couldn’t find it until 2005. It was described as “shining”—explaining it must be covered in ice and reflecting the distant sun’s light. So how did astronomers miss a shiny object—its size just slightly smaller than Pluto—for so long? Could it be because Makemake wasn’t there before and suddenly, in 2005, it just appeared?
Then there are all the disappearing objects in the Kuipers Belt. One day they are there, and the next day they are gone. But I’m not the only person who thinks the Kuipers Belt is a strange place. In 2004, two British astronomers, Gregory Matloff and Anthony R. Martin, submitted a paper to the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society to propose an infrared search of the Kuiper Belt for artificial objects (“A Proposed Infrared Search for Artificial Kuiper Belt Objects,” JBIS 57, pp. 283-287). I did a double-take when I read the title of that scientific paper. What are these British scientists suggesting? That there’s a colony of ETs at the end of our solar system?
Next, is Saturn’s giant rotating hexagon cloud. It is located at the planet’s north pole, and, according to NASA, it’s 65 miles deep and 15,000 miles wide. Scientists are baffled by the geometric-shaped cloud, and have no explanation as to why it’s there. One observer states he could see a pyramid and an eye in the center of the hexagon cloud (a la Illuminati? Personally, I don’t see the pyramid).
Look what’s happening to Jupiter. In July 1994, the “String of Pearl” comet crashed into the planet. In 2005, astronomers began to notice it’s famous “red spot”—discovered in the 17th century—is now shrinking and changing colors. On June 3rd, 2010, Anthony Wesley, an Australian amateur astronomer, documented a comet or asteroid hit Jupiter. Scientists were baffled that there was no debris cloud after the strike. Last year, Wesley noticed a huge black spot on the planet’s surface, indicating another possible asteroid impact (isn’t it strange that only Jupiter attracts them?). And, it was only last month, he produced pictures showing the stripe of dark red clouds in the planet’s southern atmosphere had vanished.
Could all of these occurrences be artificial events? Is Jupiter slowly, but surely, turning into a second sun? So, what is going on in the Kuipers Belt? Are we being watched?
by Anthea This podcast originally aired May 14th 2010:
My guest tonight is PROF. NOEL SHARKEY. Sharkey is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield in the UK. He is also Professor of Public Engagement and has written numerous papers, as well as, given talks, and television and radio appearances, in order to inform politicians, military, and national and international organizations about the ethical problems that may arise in robotics. He is currently involved in initiating public discussion about the ethical use of robots and the implications for public safety and human rights.
www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~noel
by Anthea On Saturday May 22nd, 2010 at 9 PM, est I will be on Journeys With Rebecca with Rebecca Jernigan. Be there, or be square.
Join the chat room & listen here.
