Alexander Weygers' Flying Discopter

Alexander Weyger patented his Discopter in 1944 (US2377835), though he began designing a flying disc vehicle some 20 years earlier.  Although some of the materials linked to in this article heap esteem on him for his many laudable achievements, Weyger was not the first to design a flying disc vehicle, nor was he the first to patent one.

In fact, the Discopter is exactly what its name implies: A disc-shaped helicopter.  It is certainly possible that even trained airmen could have mistaken the Discopter for a classic, "flying saucer" UFO, especially at a distance.  It is also probable that some, authentic photos may be pictures of an actual Discopter in flight.

However, rotating blades make more than a slight hum (trust me) and helicopters do not leave residual traces of radiation, nor do they change color; reach speeds in excess of... well, helicopters; morph into various shapes; or exhibit any other signs of genuinely, unexplained aerial phenomena.  Besides, the Discopter was never mass produced and, even if the military had a fleet of them, you can see a helicopter's rotary blades with the naked eye, as well as in most videos and photos.

Still, Alexander Weyger's contributions to the fields of engineering and ufology, in general -- as well as many others -- are respectable.  And he, himself, quite fascinating!

© The Weirding, 2019

The Dead Kennedys - Government Flu

The Dead Kennedys album, In God We Trust, Inc., and their "B-Side" follow-up, Plastic Surgery Disasters, kickstarted the PMRC, as well as MTV music videos advocating for teenage rebellion, ushering in both bands like (specifically) Twisted Sister and the decade of hair metal which followed.

Political luminaries'... wives just weren't gonna take it. Ahem. And Tennessee not only hosted the 1980s' PMRC Hearings, but the raving lunacy of Kefauver, the housewives' hysteria surrounding Deepthroat, and the Goddamned Scopes Monkey Trial!

Great place to live. And the people... 

Where the PMRC failed, the Satanic Panic of the era prevailed in disallaying the obvious wrong-headedness of questioning political Authority. And killed a lot of people.

Government Flu details the coming age of "Chemtrails" poisonings the US Government "legalized" in 1997 -- only 45 years after the US military decided to do it anyway. This methodology is termed "Gain of Function research and The OddBlog delights in reporting on the many, many, many cases of such activity.

 

But this post is about the PMRC and the Satanic Panic bands like the Dead Kennedys played an unwitting role in. Dee Snider, former lead singer of Twisted Sister, even testified at the PMRC hearing, as did Bob Denver and Frank Zappa. The PMRC hearings were ushered in by PMRC founder, Tipper Gore, and overseen by her then husband and future (now former) Vice-President, Al Gore.

© The Weirding, 2019

France to Return Mummified Heads

First requested in the 1980s, France has decided to return 15 mummified heads of Maori warriors to New Zealand, where they will be sent to the appropriate tribes for burial. The heads were taken as trophies and collectors' items in the 18^th- and 19^th-Centuries by explorers. Some say Maori may have been killed for their tattoos in these collections.

In 2007, a city council voted to return one head, but the decision was later overturned. The bill was almost unanimously backed by authorities this time around. The heads have been on display in various museums throughout France.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Jesus' Face Revealed?

Experts have painstakingly recreated what may be the face of Jesus, working from the controversial Shroud of Turin. The image on the Shroud was "lifted" by computer and a 3D model of the face was created. Ray Downing, president of Studio Macbeth will reveal more on the History Channel special, The Real Face of Jesus, airing next week.

Many believe the Shroud of Turin to be an elaborate hoax, perpetrated by a clever artist in Medieval times, though all attempts to duplicate it have failed. Others believe it shows the image of Jesus Christ, and was wrapped about his face after his death. Even Church officials admit there is no way to know for certain. The Shroud of Turin will be displayed to the public for the first time in 10 years, from April 10^th to May 23^rd.

Some argue that no relics related to Jesus have ever been found (suggesting that Jesus was actually a legend/mythological figure, not a real man), but that may be erroneous; the Knights Templar claimed to protect pieces of the cross, the Holy Grail, and other Christian artifacts, as did other people, organizations, and governments. In fact, everything from pieces of wood to toenails were touted as having belonged to Christ and were sold throughout the world during the Medieval period. 

Almost none of these were actually Jesus' effects, but a recent discovery on a small island off of Madeira may lend credence to some of the Knights Templars' claims.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Jersey Cops Demand Venus de Milo Sculpture Clothed

A mother and her two children sculpted a replica of Venus de Milo's famous nude from snow in their front yard. Though many passersby praised their creativity and skill, one good Christian neighbor complained to police who told Eliza Gonzalez and her children they must either cover the work or destroy it. Gonzalez complied by dressing it up with a bikini top and sarong, but noted she thought that "objectified and sexualized" it even more.

A willing ignorance toward art, culture, science, and general knowledge and education cannot be tolerated, even if it is in the name of religion. The Constitution gives us the right to religious freedom, but also the right to personal freedoms, and the two should not cancel-out one another; the neighbor should not have the right to oppress others based on his/her religious or moral convictions. How do I know this Good Neighbor was a Christian? Well, I don't - s/he could just as well have been a Muslim; I know it was one of these religions - one associated with the Judaeo-Christian mythology - because this is America and that's how those people work!

It is certainly no more inappropriate for children to see this piece than it is for them to be ashamed of the human body. There is no denying this is a work of art - not just because it is the recreation of a world-famous piece of art - and the family should have the right to display it as it was intended without fear of reprisal or censorship.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Bigfoot Asserts First Amendment Rights

A self-proclaimed, unlicensed, New Hampshire-based "performance artist" who was ejected from a state park for dressing as Bigfoot has complained to state authorities that his First Amendment (free speech) rights were violated.

According to the letter, one Jonathan Doyle says he and several others - some of whom were also in Bigfoot costumes - were ejected from a state park in Jaffrey even though they were on lesser-used trails and were not bothering other visitors. The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union Foundation is working with Doyle on the matter. Officials say the letter, which was sent to the state parks department, has been forwarded to the state attorney general's office.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Picasso Sketchbook Stolen from Paris Museum

A sketchbook containing over 30 drawings by Pablo Picasso was stolen from a Paris museum sometime between Monday and noon, Tuesday. The museum was closed but for one private viewing on Tuesday. The sketchbook was borne in an unlocked glass display and is valued at nearly $11 million. Museum officials have declined comment on the matter.

The Picasso museum is set to close for renovations over the next two years. It contains thousands of the artist's works. Pablo Picasso is most famous for the Cubism movement he pioneered, though his work spanned several periods. He is widely considered the most prominent artist of the 20^th-Century. Pablo Picasso died in 1973.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Lego My Christ

A church in Sweden unveiled a 6' statue based on the popular image of Jesus Christ which parishioners had fashioned out of Lego blocks. The statue took 40 people, 18 months, and 30,000 Lego blocks to create. About 400 people showed up to the Protestant church to view the unveiling.

The statue was based on Danish sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen's, Christus, which is on display in Copenhagen. The outside of the statue is made entirely of white bricks, though the inner blocks are of all different colors.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Chattanoogans Find Art Repulsive, Seek Censoring

Ah, Tennessee... is there anymore wretched, inbred, corrupt a place in all America?  Not for my money, and my money goes to pay for shit exactly like this:

City Councilman, Jack Benson, is looking into ways to charge one Chaya Anavi with anything he can to "make an example of her" and her "frightening and grotesque" art display.  Anavi told authorities she is developing an art project on her lawn which includes the dismembered parts of mannequins in various states of what appear to be gruesome deaths.  One mannequin has a corncob in its mouth which some dumb, fucking hillbilly said is meant to portray a vibrator (The Chattanoogan - ever intrepid -- explained parenthetically, sexual toy).

Anavi insisted she was within her 1^st Amendment rights and the display was no different than a nativity scene or the like; The Weirding concurs.  But Tennessee does not give a goddamn about such things as "civil rights" or "personal freedoms" and actively seeks to overturn them at all times.

The city is hoping to bring charges of littering and creating a public disturbance against the artist, who has been cited to city court next Thursday, January 29^th.  Follow the link cited and check out pic #5, which could technically be construed as "littering," but only if TN officials are willing to do the same to everyone with washing machines and cars on bricks in their yards.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Graffiti Wall Vandalized

A 30'-long wall in Wadebridge Cornwall was erected to give local graffiti artists a place to show off their work. The construction materials and labor was donated by local businesses and not taxpayers. But at least one taxpayer was unaware of this.

Someone snuck into the area and vandalized the wall with the notice, "I PAID MY TAX AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY WALL!!..."

Now it appears taxpayer money will have to be spent on investigating the crime and covering the remark.

The interesting thing is that, while some people find it silly to cover this graffiti, others note there is a difference between graffiti and vandalism, which has sparked interesting linguistic debates. However, all of the townspeople were given the opportunity to discuss their feelings on the project prior to construction, leading Sergeant Robin Moorcroft, who came up with the idea in the first place, to label the vandal a "coward."

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Huge Roman Statue Found

A massive, carved statue of Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was found at an archaeological site in Turkey.

So far, the statue's head, right arm, and lower legs have been uncovered high in the mountains in Southern Turkey, at the site of the ancient city, Sagalassos. It was housed in the largest room of the Roman baths, called the frigidarium - a room with a cool pool for bathers following their hot baths. The statue was partially destroyed by an earthquake in ancient times and archaeologists have been working the frigidarium for over a decade.

Previously discovered statue ruins include Faustina the Elder and Hadrian. The room is thought to have housed sculptures of the Antonine Dynasty which ruled during the Second Century AD.

Source: BBC

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Performance Artist Noted

Hillary Carlip found her first discarded grocery list at 15. To her, it was an inspired insight into someone else's life -- someone she had never met nor would likely ever know if she did. 

So she made him up!

Carlip got so good at creating entire characters from the discarded grocery lists she collects that she took them to the stage, where she would walk across it, reciting the lists in character. She then wrote a book, for which she assembled wardrobe and enlisted the help of a make-up artist friend, and illustrated it with pictures of herself as the characters. A la Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers contained essays and other errata, which further developed the characters -- one even had an eHarmony profile which Carlip says gets responses to this day.

She is now in talks to bring her act to TV.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

The Importance of What Has Come Before

This excellent, if lengthy, article from the BBC details the restoration of what remains of the ancient art of Bamiyan.

In 2001, the Taleban destroyed the ancient Buddha statues which had guarded the Silk Road and its travelers since Roman Times. Lucky for the rest of us, much of the art inside the caves surrounding what remains still exists and a team of artists and historians from around the world are attempting to restore them.

The interesting thing (aside from the fact that they have discovered the paints used contain oils, which means the technique did not originate in Europe during the Renaissance) is that they are basing much of their work on a guidebook to Afghanistan, written by one Nancy Dupree, a world traveler.

I often bring you stories which are, at best, tangentially-related to the Unknown. I have said time and again that the intention of The OddBlog is to be an actual resource - not a guide - to the paranormal. Since the very definition of what we are dealing with here is beyond our ken, we truly do not know what is, or will become, applicable to the research.

Yes, many of the stories are here just for amusement, but even in these we are given some insight into such fields as Psychology and Sociology... and, too often, the effects of drugs/alcohol on the human mind. All of these disciplines are very close to the fields of Parapsychology, Ufology, and Cryptozoology - the three, major fields to which this department is dedicated - and you really never know when something you absorbed (read, saw, heard, experienced, et.al.) will be that bridging point that will lead you to conclusion(s) - or at least bring you closer.

Let me illustrate this - brilliantly, in my estimation - with a reminder of this little gem:

If there are any regular readers still around from last summer, they may recall when TAPS investigated the Hellfire Caves and caught an EVP they could not identify. Serendipitously, I had been reading a rather old library book entitled A Dictionary of Ghost Lore, in which an entry for "bogies" appeared. I believe I identified what was said in the EVP caught specifically based on that entry! This led to a revived discussion of ghastly categorizations - something I consider extremely important for the Parapsychological discipline for obvious reasons.

I am excited that our little pixel-park is finally starting to receive a little more attention as late and would love if more of you would comment with your own thoughts on the subjects - and I do not mean to belittle your intelligence by beating a dead horse - but The OddBlog was always developed to be a full-fledged resource for researchers of the paranormal and the Unknown, and while we stray from the topics somewhat frequently, this is part of the reason I work on the tags so often.

So any suggestions, additions, or anything else anyone has to offer are always welcome and greatly appreciated. No matter how "outlandish" it may seem, no matter how "outdated," you never know when that information may become crucial, nor why.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Goodwill Gets $40l Painting

An anonymous donor left a cache of low-rent goodies at the Goodwill store in Easton, MD back in March - including a painting of a Parisian street scene. When the workers noticed it, they set it aside. The store manager Googled it when she returned from vacation and found that it was apparently an authentic painting by none other than 19th-Century artist, Edouard-Leon Cortes.

Cortes was a famous, French Impressionist painter who was born in 1882 and attended Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He came to be known for his Parisian street scenes. While he was appreciated as an artist during his time, the largest collector of his work (who also bid on the painting at auction, but lost) noted his importance has only recently come to light.

The painting was shipped to Sotheby's and deemed authentic. An anonymous bidder purchased it for $40,000. The money went to the Goodwill.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Lost Vivaldi Symphony Performed

A harpsichordist with a passion for rare music tracked down Vivaldi's Argippo, originally composed for the Czech capital and premiered in 1730.

The opera disappeared after that and Ondrej Macek had only a copy of the opening night's program to go by.  However, he traced the original orchestra's movements to Germany.  There, he found an anonymous music collection by various composers, and Argippo was among them.  Since only ²/₃ of the score had survived the centuries, Macek used arias from Vivaldi's other works to finish the work.

Argippo was performed for the first time in 278 years March 2^nd in Prague.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Spongebob's Watchful Eye

Spongebob Squarepants now has his squishy, watchful eye all over Colorado's Pike National Forest, thanks to vandals who adorned an abandoned, historic building's chimney with his likeness.

The US Forest Service is now searching for the cats what done it. They apparently used four different colored paints and spent no small amount of time and effort on the endeavor. Representatives say it is just the latest in an increase in vandalism in the area.

It will cost several thousand dollars to remove the image from the historic cabin's chimney. The cabin was used as a base for forest rangers until it was abandoned in the 1930s.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Lice for Art's Sake

Seven German artists in an Israeli museum have willingly contracted lice and intend to live with the parasites for the duration of the installment.

While they denied any association to Nazism (as in Jews being viewed as "parasites"), they acknowledged the some might make this assumption. In fact, the artists took proposals from around the world and turned to The Bible and other sources for inspiration before deciding on the lice.

The idea is to examine the relation between host and parasite. As one participant put it, "The idea is that we live in the museum as their guests, and at the same time we are hosting lice on our heads."

The Museum of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv has hosted several avant-garde displays these past years. One, entitled Sleeper, had the artist dressed as a bear, roaming the museum. The film won the Turner Prize.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Afghan Painting Predates History

In 2001, Taleban terrorists (that's repetitive) completely destroyed two 6^th-Century statues of Buddha at Bamiyan. In a strange twist of fate, behind the statues were cave complexes where the monks who built them once lived. There, French scientists have discovered paintings made possibly from walnuts and poppy seeds, which prove that oil painting techniques were being employed there some six centuries before the technique was known in the West.

A team from the European Synchotron Radiation Facility studied paintings found in 12 of the caves, and believe these may be the oldest known oil paintings in the world. The devotional wall paintings depict Buddha in colorful robes. It is theorized the work may have been carried out by itinerant artists traveling the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between China and the West.

There are discussions to reconstruct the destroyed Bamiyan Buddha statues, but everyone agrees it will be a monumental task.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Bigfoot Returns to Chiropractor

Sasquatch Sam was kidnapped in January of 2007 and had his feet sawn off.

Sasquatch Sam was a wood-carved statue that set outside Dr. Tom Payne's Chiropractic clinic for five years. Since his disappearance, the clinic has been Bigfoot-less. So the marketing department of Washington's very own Pemco Insurance decided to create a contest to replace him.

Three chainsaw artists entered and when the sawdust cleared, 58-year old Charlie Hubbard won the judges over with his 9'-tall, smiling Sasquatch. Hubbard used to fell trees for a living, then switched to his new line of work following a heart attack.

The Pemco Insurance Company added Roadside Chainsaw Woodcarver to their current advertising campaign, "Just Like You," which also features such archetypes as Ponytailed Software Geek, Smug Hybrid Driver, and Super-Long Coffee Orderer.

And chiropractor, Tom Payne, got himself a new Sasquatch statue. He is thinking of forming a new contest for residents to help him name the giant.

The original 8', 400-lb. Sasquatch Sam was stolen by a man and adolescent male who then lopped-off Sam's 16" feet. While police believe the reasoning behind this was to avoid being captured (huh? - how does that... why would... wha-at?), and the two never gave a motive even though they admitted committing the crime, it seems obvious to me that they wanted to create fake footprints.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Was Moses ON DOPE!?

An Israeli professor of cognitive psychology has forwarded the theory that Moses may have been under the influence of hallucinogens when he saw the burning bush and received the Ten Commandments atop Mt. Sinai.

Benny Shanon mentioned his own psychedelic experiences, taken as part of religious ceremonies, which led to religious-based hallucinations and allowed him to "see sound."  He also noted that the use of psychedelics in religious ceremonies is a time-honored tradition in many religions around the world.  In fact, concoctions made from the bark of the acacia tree, oft-mentioned in The Bible, have hallucinogenic effects comparable to those of ayahuasca, an hallucinogen still in use in religious ceremonies in the Amazon.

Like the acacia, ayahuasca is a plant with hallucinogenic properties.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Mt. Sinai is listed as "E 101st St, New York, NY 10029, USA" because Israel's current borders are rightfully unrecognized by the entire world outside of the US MIC (and Israel).  This may be the address of AIPAC/religious -backed, legal representatives.  Mt. Sinai absolutely never existed in North America; it is located in disputed areas in the Middle East.  I just had to include this to point-out the incredible overreach of the US military industrial complex (operating in this case under the name Google, Ltd.) and its continued terrorist activities.  That is fucking crazy. - 2018