The Gralien Report

Greetings Graliens,

First of all, I’d like to thank all the loyal readers of the Gralien Report for another wonderful year! 2009 was tremendous so far as growth in readership, and thanks to the efforts of many of you out there, it also proved to be an instrumental time for boosting the site to the greater presence on the web it now holds. Many thanks to all of you for your comments, stories, news tips, emails, thoughtful insights and overall intelligence. Ideas truly are what make the world go around, and although I might sound a bit idealistic at times (and perhaps even overly optimistic), when people work together I do believe there are few limitations to what can be achieved.

That being said, I wanted to share a few of the most-read articles that have appeared here at the Gralien Report in 2009. These are, as ranked by page views and return visits by folks like you, the ones you’ve demanded to see the very most. Therefore, I encourage you to enjoy them again and share them with others if they were a favorite of yours, and also feel free to share any insights in the comment forum below the post. Or if you’d prefer to communicate directly, you may email me. On the other hand, if the articles below are new to you or you are only a recent visitor to the site, I invite you to enjoy the best of 2009 that so many like-minded individuals out there have read over the last twelve months.

So now, let’s get on to the goodies…

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In a technological demonstration of advanced bio-engineering, use of methods like vivisection to see the workings of organs in live goldfish have now, in a sense, been made obsolete. “You don’t have to cut it open. You can see a tiny brain above the goldfish’s black eyes,” says Yutaka Tamaru, an associate professor in the department of life science at Mie University.

Indeed, a new process has produced the favorable result of goldfish with translucent skin, in response to growing controversy regarding dissections of animals for study.

Calling the see-through fish “ryukin,” the goldfish were produced through a process of selectively breeding varieties of “mutant” hatchery goldfish with pale skin. “Having a pale colour is a disadvantage for goldfish in an aquarium but it’s good to see how organs sit in a body three-dimensionally,” Tamaru told AFP.

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I’ve always been very intrigued by the notion that underground worlds might exist… by this, I mean extensive cavernous realms beneath the Earth that descend to depths yet unexplored. This realm is, typically, only occupied by creatures that exist in exciting works of fiction by the likes of Jules Verne, and more recently, Jeff Long with his fascinating Descent Trilogy.

There is, however, one man who exists in tandem between the frightening works of fiction that pertain to the underworld, and the reality of strange, anomalous things purported to exist below ground. Wm Michael Mott, author of the book Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures, is a well known graphic artist and author who has written everything from Fortean and paranormal subjects to fantasy novels and short fiction inspired by the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mike is a very good friend, and I was delighted when he recently shared with me a series of links to interviews with him over the years, including a classic 2004 Coast to Coast AM appearance.

Wm Michael Mott Radio Appearances

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Here’s a well-wishing of season’s greetings to all of you out there. May your holiday be merry, and the rest of your winter be warm, peaceful, and full of cheer.

Peace and blessings,

Micah A. Hanks

I’ve long been a proponent of the notion that polarized systems involving belief and skepticism are often guilty of the same transgression: ironically, this is belief. Perhaps this sounds redundant, or maybe like I’m creating a circular argument that pokes fun at its own simplistic irony. This is not the case, however; indeed, I feel like the biggest problem with both ideological schools (belief and skepticism) is that proponents of each have a self-contained, inherent belief they prepend to anything they attempt to explain using science. If, to a “believer,” observable data reveals something they believe reinforces their argument, they call it “evidence.” If a skeptic does the same, they might call it debunking. What both parties tend to fail in doing every time is to take a closer look at information that, superficially, fails to support their predisposed theory.

In the new issue of Wired, Jonah Lehrer has written a brilliant article called “The Neuroscience of Screwing Up.” In it, he shares a variety of unique observations that question the way the human mind, as well as the scientific process works in general. Below is a brief excerpt that pertains specifically to the treatment of “anomalies,” and how people are often predisposed to interpret them through this so-called study in scientific failure:

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Who’s the jolly guy with glasses and a beard that shows up each year around late December? If you guessed Santa Clause, you’re wrong… try Stanton Friedman, “the Father of Modern Ufology.” Tim Binnall, oh maker-of-mischief and good friend of the Gralien Report that he is, has delivered an excellent holiday gift just in time for Christmas: an interview with Friedman on his uber-popular podcast Binnall of America Audio:

Stanton Friedman on BOA Audio

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“I AM DIANE… I COME FROM VENUS.”

Thus were the words of “Diane,” a eight-foot tall alien being “Standing like a sylph-like goddess” after manifesting before Dana Howard, a woman famous for her communications with what she believed to be alien visitors from Venus in the 1950s. Howard’s claims certainly represent a fringe element in the history of Ufology, some spectral aspect that can be attributed to the extraterrestrial mystery. As obscure as her story remains in the present day, there is one collaborative aspect to all this that cannot be ignored: she was not alone.

With his book Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction, Nick Redfern has placed himself at the pinnacle of what may be the strangest aspect of modern Ufology. Indeed, many like Howard–famous and flamboyant individuals throughout history–have claimed to possess knowledge of beings from other worlds; although the greatest concentration of contact with “aliens” maintains an epicenter that comprises the last sixty years. This historic period is the focus of Redfern’s book, which the author presents for us in the most well-researched and informative presentation available.

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Since the second week in December, videos (at least two known to exist) were uploaded to YouTube from Russia, allegedly documenting the presence a gigantic triangular “UFO” hovering near the Kremlin. Today the English Daily Mail provided commentary on the strange videos, claiming that the object’s appearance on December 9th coincided with that of a strange “blue spiral light” that made news after its appearance over Norway; later believed to have been a failed rocket launch from Russia. Below is a link showing the strange triangular object that has experts “baffled”:

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I thought I’d share a few unique images taken by yours truly, along with Gralien Report correspondent Christopher McCollum and videographer Brian Irish during an October 2009 television shoot with the National Geographic network. The purpose of our visit was to try and document evidence of the mysterious Brown Mountain lights, a strange “ghost light” phenomenon that occurs throughout the Linville Gorge Wilderness near Morganton, North Carolina. In the image at right, you can see what I looked like when viewed through night vision equipment we were using, which casts a creepy, “Gralien Glow” on those viewed at close range.

Situated just outside of the quaint little township of Linville Falls, Irish, McCollum and I were performing a stakeout within a large stone turret-like structure, one of two that lines the cliffs at Wiseman’s View. From this vantage point adjacent to Table Rock (the large outcropping visible in the photo at left), we were able to use state of the art night vision equipment on-loan for the shoot to observe potential airborne anomalies after dark. Although a few strange things were seen (including the small airborne illumination, left, photographed above the furthest right extremity of Table Rock in the image), there were no significant illuminations filmed or photographed by those in my immediate company.

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The snow that has literally been dumped on the East Coast is officially the most massive winter storm this century. CNN reported today that a total of three deaths have occurred in Virginia, according to the state’s Department of Emergency Management:

The snowstorm prompted an emergency declaration in the nation’s capital, stranded hundreds of motorists, sparked havoc at airports, and threatened to keep hordes of Christmas shoppers indoors.

Ten to 20 inches of snow were predicted for swaths of the country’s mid-Atlantic region. Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said the storm — arriving on the last shopping weekend before Christmas — is “perhaps the biggest we’ve seen in several years.”

Indeed, this has been monstrous. Hardly a winter wonderland, Asheville, North Carolina, has been blanketed in more than a foot of snow in some locations, although accumulation stopped along with precipitation early this morning in most parts of the region. Nonetheless, hundreds of cars (or possibly more) have been reported stranded on large patches of interstate heading into the metro, with people calling into local talk radio stations reporting the fear expressed by families huddled in immobile cars for warmth. Altogether, as of 10:00 AM this morning, more than 120,000 people in the area were said to be without power.

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