The Gralien Report

For many Gralien Report readers, it may come as a bit of a surprise that, in addition to my fascination with the unseen twilight realm of the unexplained, I share a mutual affinity for tasting fine craft brews, as well as exotic spirits of different varieties. Another website I moderate, Culture of Spirits, features reviews, news, recipes and a good selection of other interesting facets pertaining to the alcohol industry. Of particular interest to Gralien Report readers is a recent round-up I’ve done, regarding strange themes used in popular craft brews around the country that feature (sometimes very odd) paranormal imagery on their labels. With the help of my good buddy Christopher McCollum, one of the COS editors (as well as a correspondent to this website), I’ve managed to put together an entertaining bunch of selections for you, just in time for Halloween:

A Cavalcade of Paranormal Beer Selections

How many have you tried? Arguably, after trying ALL these at once, you’d be likely to see some spirits yourself! Remember: drink responsibly!

A friend of mine living in Holland named Robert recently added this video blog to his YouTube account, where he discussed the radio program Speaking of Strange, hosted by Joshua P. Warren (and of which I am executive producer). A frequent guest on the program, Robert describes everything from natural causes that may be behind controversial issues like Global Warming, as well as ghosts, aliens, and a variety of Fortean subjects in the video below:

For those of you reading this on Facebook, here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDe1h58_EIA&feature=player_embedded

Robert, like myself, is a student of the unexplained, fringe science and arcane mysteries. Fluent in close to a dozen languages, Robert has traveled most of Europe in search of the truth behind a variety of UFO related phenomena.

Last night, my friend and associate Joshua P. Warren discussed two separate lists he and I recently concocted which describe our top five scariest cryptid monsters on the late-night radio program Coast to Coast AM. Surprisingly, only two creatures made both lists: the flying “Batsquatch” of Mount Rainer, Washington, and the vile demonic serial-rapist “Popobawa” of Zanzibar, the latter of the two ranking first-place on both of our round-ups.

Chalked up by psychologists to be a mass-hallucination stemming from social unrest in the affected regions of Zanzibar and Tanzania, locals who have encountered the horrific Popobawa—described as being a humanoid entity with wings and large male genitalia—would argue otherwise. Terrifying reports, often made buy male members of the community, detail sexual assaults where the creature warns them that it will return if they don’t share their the details of their encounter with others.

Having studied the Popobawa literature profusely, today I was shocked to read about recent reports stemming from Kuala Lumpur of what is being described as a “horny ghost”, which in local Malay culture is called an orang minyak (similar in spelling to the cryptid animal Orang Pendak, a Sumatran Bigfoot-like creature). The entity has spent the last week accosting close to 300 families in the Sungai Petani area, and unlike Popobawa’s preference for male victims, Orang Minyak is alleged to be picking homes where there are young women.

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Tonight during the final hour of the radio program Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, paranormal investigator extraordinaire Joshua P. Warren will be discussing a recent list of the five “scariest cryptids” I featured here at the Gralien Report:

Coast to Coast AM: Tonight’s Show

You won’t want to miss this intriguing (and at times scary) interview with this good pal of mine and master-of-the-strange. For more information, visit Joshua’s website:

The Official Home of Joshua P. Warren

According to conventional physics, electrons flowing through metals like iron, nickel, and other potentially magnetic materials act in a manner similar to “little bar magnets.” In essence, once electrons are introduced to extremely low temperatures, they begin to align themselves, pointing in the same direction within large “domains” in crystalline matter. What conventional physics can’t explain is exactly why the electrons align themselves.

Now, according to a new study performed by So Gyu-Boong Jo, Wolfgang Ketterle, and several of their colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, an ultra-cold gas has been observed self-magnetizing in a similar way, according to a team of atomic physicists. What this shows us is: the “messy physics” observed in solids can be modeled with the observation of pristine gases, the researchers say. This fascinating study poses the question: is it possible to magnetize a gas?

Though some in the scientific community are saying the new study’s observations are still questionable, the answer as to why electrons may behave in this manner was already proposed eighty years ago by British theorist E. C. Stoner. Using the the Pauli exclusion principle as a model (stating that no two identical fermions (electrons in this case) may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously) Stoner supposed that if the electrons repel each other with enough force, they could lower their total energy by aligning. Gas could become agitated by the flipping of select electrons, increasing its kinetic energy. Since Pauli’s exclusion principle says no two aligned electrons could be in the same place at the same time, electrons would avoid each other, according to Stoner, further reducing energy loss between electrons in close quarters.

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An excellent segment with the incomparable Jim Marrs, who discusses psychotropic drug administration to children and the dumbing-down of society through so-called “medications”:

Recently, my old partner in crime and long time accomplice Joshua P. Warren and I had a chance to catch up at a late-night get together (above ground for a change, as opposed to in our usual radio bunker miles beneath the Earth’s crust). While we were discussing various things, among them his recent addition as a correspondent to the popular late night radio program Coast to Coast AM, Joshua mentioned a recent article I put up regarding “the Top Ten Scariest Monsters” in Forteana. Of course, many of these creatures are indeed horrific–nothing, to me, is more frightening than letting my imagination go wandering as to what the heck Bloop might be. However, I often tend to be a little humorous with my interpretation of the news (ah, what would life be without Comedians?).

“So why don’t you create a real list for me of the top five scariest cryptids?” Josh asked. Indeed, it seemed we differed a bit on what we called “scary”. Josh clarified that the scariest cryptid monsters should be creatures that could “come and get you,” which is why he wouldn’t have included things like the presumably Chtuhoid “Bloop” in such a roundup; even a giant demi-god isn’t dangerous if it never leaves the ocean to destroy mankind, right?

THERFORE… for your viewing enjoyment, I have now compiled a list of the top five (really) scary cryptids. These are cryptozoological or even alien oddities that might curdle the flesh of even the most experienced monster hunters. Reader beware; due to the nature of some of the alleged attacks these creatures have been associated with, some graphic content may not be suitable for the squeamish. Reader caution is advised.

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Google goes UFO spotting again… this time to mark the birthday of H.G. Wells, an author whose name is forever associated with alien invasions, as well as conspiracies involving government secrecy and plots to condition the public to a UFO threat.

Though Google has recently been on a tangent of replacing their popular logo with images involving saucers and alien craft, the imagery depicted in today’s Wells tribute actually shows us something else. Indeed, along with the flying saucer hovering in the foreground of the image, two other craft visible to the sides of the image display long, spindly legs, representing the “tripod” land craft used by Martian invaders in Wells’ 1898 book War of the Worlds.

With its unique journalistic prose style, War of the Worlds lent itself well to the use of another Wells; on October 30th 1938, Orson Wells directed and narrated a live radio broadcast of the “invasion”. Famously (or infamously, to be politically correct here) panic ensued during and after the broadcast, as many listeners had heard only a portion of the broadcast, causing an outbreak of people fleeing their homes in terror. Many even claimed they had smelled poison gas or “could see flashes of lightning in the distance” as they evacuated, fearing an actual Martian invasion.

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After spending the weekend in Bristol, Virginia, I now wish I had kept my eyes on the skyline a bit more. Within the last 24 hours, NASA has announced the successful launch of a rocket in Virginia as part of an experiment to gather data on clouds higher in Earth’s atmosphere. However, the blast may also be what prompted dozens of calls to area TV and radio stations to report seeing “strange lights” in the sky.

The Black Brant XII was launched on Saturday evening, according to NASA officials. Around the same time of the launch, people in the Northeast portion of the state began calling local television stations to report seeing lights in the sky, although reports of the sightings range from places as far away as Boston.

LEADING A DOUBLE LIFE: Of course, around the time of the launch, I had taken enough time off from professional ufology to perform at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival (indeed, I’ve been known to pick a mean flat-top guitar when Bluegrass is in season). It was lovely weather, and a lively crowd! Still, I would have loved to have seen NASA’s Black Brant light up the skies. Were any Gralien Report readers present in Northern Virginia at the time of the launch, and furthermore, I wonder if anyone witnessed the “strange lights” that caused speculation among so many?

Professional monster-hunter Nick Redfern dishes on chupacabras:

Coolest guy ever.