Saucer news olds

The files include descriptions of flying
saucers like these (computer illustration)

Big news the other day:
New Zealand releases UFO government files

Journalists are all "Secret Military Files!!!" as if the involvement of the Air Force lent some verisimiltude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative. Only in the small print do we read that the Air Force merely logged and archived the reports, lacking the resources to test their plausibility, or the sanity and sobriety of the reporters, or the existence of non-ET-related explanations.

Also the BBC's computer illustration needs more photoshopped monkeys with guns.

UPDATED from Changi Airport Transit Lounge: Bonus 3D photograph.

What more convincing evidence could there be? Also.

The Chinese Envoy was here

Last time we slagged off the Crafar farming family it received a good reaction, so let's see what happens with an update!

Readers will recall that the farms were up for sale, owing to the Crafars' inability to run a dairying operation without maltreating animals and polluting public waterways, and to the resulting cascade of court actions and bankruptcies. Now a couple of Government Minnysters have decided to accept advice from the Overseas Investment Office and turn down the favoured bid from a Chinese consortium* to buy the farms.

On the one hand, it did not help the bidders' cause when the local business-woman they chose as their agent to guide the deal through the corrupt and tenebreous labyrinth of the NZ legal system turned out to be an undischarged bankrupt herself. Eyebrows were further raised when it emerged that another of her companies had already bought four other Crafar farms without proper sign-off (intending to apply for retrospective approval and present the court with a fait accompli); the Serious Fraud Office is looking into that deal. Not to mention this can't-make-it-up business:

Ms Wang will reappear in the Auckland District Court on September 9 to face Companies Act charges brought by the Economic Development Ministry relating to Dynasty. She denies charges of failing to keep proper records, failing to provide information to the liquidator and leaving the country without telling the liquidator. [...]
Ms Wang did not appear in court. Her lawyer, Paul Sills, told the court that he would take a minimum of three weeks to prepare as his client was frequently out of the country.

Good Character Test: FAIL.

On the other hand, one of the money people actually funding the whole bid is a certain Jack Chen, currently resident in NZ rather than in China where his business activities were excessively murky even by their standards. And Mr Chen is a close business business partner of various National Party stalwarts, e.g. ex-Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, going as far as providing her with a place of residence. So there was going to be butthurt whether the Ministers accepted the bid or rejected it.

It is almost as if NZ and China are both divided into the massively wealthy and everyone else; and while the poor in both sides are expected to invest their loyalty in their separate countries, and to distrust and fear the poor from any other country, the elite recognise only wealth and status.

* The China Jin Hui Mining Corporation, changing its name to Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings.

Merry Crossmass from Mrs Cat

One of her ex's visited this morning and left in a cloud of ginger fur.
Merry Christmas my arse!

Green finned demon take me down

Rupert T. Gould:

It is not generally known (and I do not state it as a fact) that certain American citizens* possess the ability to quit their bodies for a short period, and to travel about in the form of fire-flies for the purpose of assaulting their neighbours.

After the last decade of US politics, there is very little that can surprise me any more.

However, some people maintain that the Berbelangs (a.k.a. Balbalans, Aswangs, Kik-kik, etc.) were not a race of shape-shifting skin-walking entrail-eating sorcerors with a penchant for contrarian logic, but merely a caste or niche as a "socially sanctioned Other" -- simultaneously despised and feared - into which Filipinos were forced if they were socially unacceptable for reasons of physical or mental deformity:

From her description of the "bal-balan," including the two she herself saw, it seems clear that the label is often popularly affixed to poor, diseased, perhaps mentally disturbed individuals, disturbingly all too similar to many contemporary American homeless. Such unfortunates are popularly regarded as witches, both feared for their supposed magical powers and patronized as healers and midwives. [...] At first glance, I simply thought that diseased, mentally disturbed homeless elderly poor peasants in the Philippines get more or less arbitrarily identified by their superstitious neighbors with the "berbalang," "balbalan," or "aswang" of traditional folklore, the way their counterparts in Europe were regarded as "witches." However, a few allusions in Ms. Cabel's letter suggest that we may rather be dealing
with a pariah social or ethnic group, perhaps roughly comparable to European Gypsies, Indian "Untouchables," or the "eta" or "burakumin" of Japan.

Such apologists are TYPICAL LIBERALS.

... people notice their presence by their shrill and birdlike sounds and "quacking". They say the Bal-balan is known as "kik-kik" in Basilan and- an -offensive fishy body odor and salivating mouth easily detects one. It is also said that several "kik-kik", while practicing their traditions have opted to go to school and are enrolled in some schools and colleges in Zamboanga and nearby provinces.

Fish-odour syndrome,** or the Innsmouth Look? You be the judge!

But what's this?

Somebody told me that Hilary Clinton had visited the Berbalang in the Philippines on one of her tours several years ago. Maybe it wasn't the berbalangs, but they were described as small, fragile, sickly, drooling people who were being persecuted by the local government and not allowed in school after there had beeen some kind of protest. ***

OMFSM the allies of the Deep Ones go all the way to the top.

* Gould does admit in a footnote that "American citizens" might not be a complete description of the status of Filipinos at the time he was writing.

** Disappointingly, no-one is promoting a homeopathic or alt-med cure for Trimethylaminuria.

*** Not able to verify this story.

Misusing time travel #74

Ancient humans interbred with us

I can see what we get out of the deal, but what was the attraction for the ancient humans? Perhaps they were drunk.

Merry Jesusbirthday Mr Ratzinger!

Perhaps 2011 will be the year when the atheists and liberals and secular humanists will stop forcing priests to fuck children.

The following Sloka, which, as you have not heard, I will now proceed to relate

Melting landscape karst limestone
Red dust trousers once were clean
Potholes felt in every bone
Hairpin bends have turned me green
Counting down each milestone
All day spent on Route 13.

Somehow it is not as iconic as Highway 66.

Lies and Liars (H/T to AL Franken)

A story that is rapidly receding in the NZ rear vision mirror, explains what happened with the Hobbit movie.
It seems that Peter Jackson  was kind of loose with the truth.

SIR PETER JACKSON, OCT 1
The Hobbit is being punished with a boycott which is endangering thousands of New Zealand jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign income, for no good reason.
SIR PETER JACKSON, OCT 18
There is no connection between the blacklist (and it's eventual retraction), and the choice of production base for The Hobbit. What Warners requires for The Hobbit is the certainty of a stable employment environment.

So he lied to the public and when a spontaneous march of worried film technicians occurred in Wellington 3 days after the Oct 18 email, he said nothing other than more union bashing.

Interestingly the email was obtained under the Freedom of Information act. The release was later than is proscribed by the rules in these matters and coincides with the Prime Minister and the Minister involved (Gerry "the Despoiler" Brownlee) being on holiday and unable to be contacted.
This story will disappear without trace and the everedge New Zilder will still blame the Film Actors Union.

All of Christmas in one shiny box

Folks, you know how difficult it is at Christmas time with everyone wanting different presents? Well who else but your friends at Riddled Enterprises to put the fun back into "Iffun you don't get me one of them Leech farms, don't call me your relative again".  Because this year's stocking filler of choice and delight is the Riddled Enterprises Leech farm and Training Centre. Imagine the fun and excitement as your own Leech Army "reduces the Terror Threat" in your neighbourhood or neighborhood as the case may be. Imagine the thrill of competing for food sources with your friends. Each cell of the "Leech-o-Matic has an electro-trainer attached and those little guys and/or gals love to learn!!

The Bullshit Raid of Cooley

1. The discovery of the P00P.
2. Spying the P00P, a Monk forgets his Vows and is tempted into the Sin of Covetousness.
3. The Stealing of the P00P.

Evidently there is still much about Lao culture that I do not yet understand.

P.S. I for one would be more careful with the P00P, for when it is angered it is terrible in its wrath.