The Gralien Report

Looking back on 2008, it could be argued that we had an exceptionally strange year.

Of course, this notion might have an awful lot to do with who you’re asking, but historically, economically, and scientifically there were many events which certainly could be considered landmarks by just about anyone.

Of course, the election of our first African-American president Barack Obama will be near the top of the list. But is there anything strange or anomalous about this per say? Not surprisingly, there could be indeed. Many of the popular conservative radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh have had a great time this year referencing Obama as “The Messiah” due to his “messianic stature and devoted followers”. For the most part, this has all been mere sarcasm, although there have been reports of “orbs”, the popular photographic anomalies most often associated with ghostly activity, photographed over various rallies prior to the election.

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Greetings all,

A brief note for all of you readers of this blog as we move nearer to 2009: with the crazy scheduling and general business that envelopes the holidays, I’ve had little time to update this website regularly. Fortunately, I’m not the only one in such circumstances, however! My good friend Nancy Birnes (the hardest working gal in the biz) over at UFO Magazine has been running behind schedule also, due to the busy lives lead by she and her husband Bill (star of History Channel’s UFO HUNTERS). Granted, the holidays are obviously a time for friends, family, warmth and celebration of the season, and a bit of anticipation leading up to the new year… usually this leaves little time for rest in between stops!

So rest assured that those of us in the paranormal community who haven’t been updating our sites as regularly, or haven’t been able to respond to every email we’re sent (trust me, I have tremendous difficulty with this due to the amount of letters I receive from readers like you), haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth… yet! If anything, once 2009 rolls in, I’m looking forward to hitting things harder and with a degree of depth that we didn’t see around here during this site’s first year. That being said, I think there will be a few pleasant updates and changes made to this site during the early part of the year, and I’ll look forward to doing what I enjoy the most: bringing you news of the deliciously weird, the incredibly odd, and the downright uncanny for yet another year (and many, many more to come)!

Ciao,

-Micah!

To all GR readers,

I wish you all a very merry Christmas, a cozy and enjoyable holiday season, and bright and cheery times with friends, family and loved ones. Here’s to eggnog and 2009, and let us not forget the weird news that brings us together here so often. It is my honor and privilege to have you as guests!

Seasons’ Greetings,

-Micah A. Hanks

Aside from typical issues that include albinism, mange, or skin disorders, from time to time we see colored animals that appear to defy logic. For instance, recently a purple squirrel that has appeared near a British grammar school has been turning heads.

According to the school’s registrar Lorraine Orridge, “We don’t think he is a mutant squirrel but he may have had a mishap around the school. The old building where we have seen him nipping in and out is a bit of a graveyard for computer printers. He may have found some printer toners in there.” Similarly, an English TV wildlife expert named Chris Packham commented that “Squirrels will chew anything even if it’s obviously inedible. It is possible he has been chewing on a purple ink cartridge and then groomed that coloring into his fur.” Packham believes the squirrel will likely lose the purple coat in time for spring of ‘09.

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The Dreamy Draw Park is a recreation area that exists alongside Piestewa Peak, formerly known as Squaw Peak, the second highest point in the Phoenix Mountains of Arizona. The quiet little area, named for a cinnabar mine that harvested the minerals to extract highly toxic mercury (said to have caused “dazed and dreamy” states among the miners), is now one of the area’s best known hiking and recreational areas.

Aside from tales telling of the dreamy effects of harvesting mercury sulfide from deep within the mountain, there are other strange stories that abound in the area. In an article by writer Richard Nilson that appeared recently on the website of The Arizona Republic, legends of a UFO crash in the area shortly after the famous crash at Roswell, New Mexico, have existed in the area for decades among locals. Nilson describes the following, which allegedly occurred three weeks after the Roswell incident:

According to the tale, the flying saucer crashed, leaving the dead bodies of two aliens, each about 4 1/2 feet tall, sprawled in the desert outside the craft. A local resident collected the bodies and kept them in his meat freezer until the men in black showed up to quiet any rumors and took the remains.

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Whether or not you’re a fan of hard rock music, the latest Metallica video for their new single “All Nightmare Long” presents a cavalcade of Fortean and paranormal weirdness. Beginning with Soviet tests dating back to 1908 with dust found at the site of the the Tunguska explosion over Siberia, the video tells the story of an “alternate history” in which large quantities of this strange element are dumped on the US, creating a nation overrun with zombies, before finally resolving with a hint that the popular phenomenon known as chemtrails is also related to the alien dust. Below is Metallica’s video, complete with subtitles… and for those familiar with the Tunguska event, notice the references made in the video to one of the more enigmatic aspects of the blast, specifically reports that the sky over London “glowed green at night” after the explosion. What creepy imagery…

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The notion of the “humanzee”, that is, a hybrid resulting from the cross-breeding of a human and a chimpanzee or other ape, seems to be a popular topic in the outer circles of cyptozoology and fringe science today. I’ve addressed the subject a few times before in Gralien Report articles (one of which may be viewed by clicking here), and although the majority of the topics I address on this blog don’t have to do with human-ape hybrids, I still generate a huge number of hits to my website on a weekly basis from people using Google to search for key terms that include “Humanzee”, “Chumans”, “ape hybrids”, “Ivan Ivanovich”, and other names and phrases related to the controversial subject. Never before has the existence of a true hybrid between the species been confirmed, nor does hard evidence exist that supports theories that such would even be possible. Still, many scientists nonetheless feel that human genes are similar enough to that of a chimpanzee to allow breeding to occur with some degree of success, likely on par with that of a mule, the sterile offspring which results from mating between a male donkey and a female horse.

One of the leading activists to speak out against experiments that might involve inter-species breeding with humans and apes is Dr. Calum MacKellar, director of research at the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, who this past April warned of a “controversial draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill” which did not specifically place restrictions on human sperm being inseminated into animals. MacKellar argues “if a female chimpanzee was inseminated with human sperm the two species would be closely enough related that a hybrid could be born.”

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Over the weekend my pal Jim, who often keeps me up-to-date on what’s going on in the “alien underground” when I’m going through busy spells, sent me a link to a video posted over at the Last Outpost blog. Since then, many others have been circulating it, and I’ve received it in other emails making the rounds. The video in question depicts former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura discussing his new book, Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me!, as well as his past exchanges with CIA personnel. You may view this interview by following the link below:

http://52.thelastoutpost.com/video-4/police-state/cia-embedded-in-every-state-government.html

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…That is, “The Other Side of the Pond”! By this I am specifically referencing reports of hairy wild men reported in places other than here in the United States, specifically Europe and Russia. My interest in this subject, from a folkloric perspective, stemmed from recently coming across the term “Woose”, which refers to a particular breed of Bigfoot-like creature common to C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. The term “Woose” actually is a derivative of an Old English term, Woodwose, which was used to describe wild men seen in throughout Europe during the middle ages.

ABOVE: A battle with a Woodwose depicted in the Medieval ink drawing “The Fight in the Forest”.

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By now, most of us have heard about the studies linking excessive cell phone use to brain tumors. EM fields created by the mobile devices, in some instances, could cause disruptive health issues, according to researchers, and this data now has many looking to WI-FI internet “hotspots”, RF fields produced by radio transmitters, and other sources of electromagnetic (EM) radiation as possible health concerns.

Indeed, I’ve known many folks over time who have claimed to have been unable to be near many of the aforementioned areas, and after working full time in the radio industry for several years, I recall hearing many coworkers complain of the “RF Sludge”, that is, a feeling of dreariness and mild exhaustion that seems to set in when you spend too much time around transmitter sites. Now granted, there isn’t much evidence that exposure to mild levels of EM frequencies, in the home, office, or etc, do indeed influence how we feel. In spite of the lack of clinical evidence, there are still countless numbers of people who describe discomfort for a number of reasons which may pertain to some kind of “EM pollution”.

Now, a recent Wired blog article discusses the possible implications of EM technology as a kind of weaponry, and though it seems unlikely at best that it could be an effective instrument in offensive maneuvers, there is nonetheless evidence that seems to show that such was considered in the past, back when our understanding of EM fields and the like were in their infancy:

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