COOKIE PHOTO COMPETITION – WINNER ANNOUNCED!

The Cookie Photo Competition has now closed and the winner has been drawn from the ‘Barrel of Grit’. The lucky winner of a free GritFX T-Shirt of their choosing is:

DIANA - WORD NERD #1420
(pictured above with her son)

Diana can choose any T-Shirt from the entire GritFX range, and is not limited to David Cook designs.

The staff at GritFX would like to thank all those Word Nerds who bought a David Cook inspired T-Shirt and sent in the cool photos of themselves wearing the Tees. Most photos were taken at the Idol Tour concerts and many featured Word Nerds with David himself! You can check out all the photos here: http://www.chq.com.au/cook_gallery/cook_photos.html

GritFX will be running competitions every few months. A new comp will begin in October and details will be posted shortly on this Blog.

by Manz

"GritFighter" is now showing at The GritHouse

"GritFighter" is a short film by GritFLIX... where Manz - "Warrior Bitch" - battles the entire GritFX staff!
The trailer can be viewed to the side of the blog –>

Visit The GritHouse and subscribe today!

The Morgellons Enigma

In 2002, Mary Leitao – a former electron microscopist and immunohistochemist – noticed sores on her two year-old son’s lip. The child complained of ‘bugs’, and when Leitao examined the sores she discovered small red, black, blue and white fibres. Leitao took her son to numerous doctors who could find no evidence of any disease or allergy. After consulting one pediatrician at Johns Hopkins, he recommended Leitao would benefit from psychiatric evaluation.

Indeed, this is the stance of nearly the entire medical community, who view the ‘disease’ mostly as a form of delusional parasitosis. Yet, sufferers of ‘Morgellons Disease’ (a name chosen by Leitao) tell a different story. In some cases the symptoms may in all likelihood be delusional on the part of the victim, or involving Munchausen’s by proxy in the case of adults with ‘afflicted’ children, but the majority of Morgellons patients are definitely not crazy.

Mary Leitao and her husband Edward were convinced that their son was suffering from “something unknown” and set up the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF) in 2002. Morgellons symptoms include sensations of insects crawling beneath the skin, skin rashes and legions that do not heal, muscle and joint pain, cognitive disfunction and the aforementioned fibres that appear beneath the skin and can be extracted from the sores.
Forensic examination of the fibres found no match to any known fibre in the FBI’s database.

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) refused to acknowledge the existence of Morgellons as a new disease, the MRF began an online petition that was eventually sent to members of Congress. In 2006, the CDC created a task force to investigate the Morgellons enigma and in 2008, the CDC enlisted the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the American Academy of Dermatology to assist with the investigation. This, of course, would leave sufferers and conspiracists with little or no confidence in the investigation finding a prompt and satisfactory resolution.

For there are many theories regarding Morgellons. Personnel at Tulsa Police Crime Lab who studied the fibres from a Morgellons patient, stated that the fibres were not manmade and did not come from a plant, adding it may be some byproduct of a biological organism. Others theorise regarding pollutants and pesticides, others regarding military bioweapons and still others on the subject of alien experimentation. Another theory gaining some credence is to do with nanotechnology. Whilst this relatively new technology is certainly incredible, its application in our society has gone forth with little or no study into its potential risks. Only one thing is certain – the symptoms of Morgellons are real and widespread across the United States, and to a lesser degree in Europe and even Australia. In addition to the sores and fibres, sufferers complain of difficulty walking and even a sagging mouth when speaking. It is by all accounts a living hell.

by Max Drake

(Max is a freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)

Montauk, SAGE & The Monster

Controversy has ranged in many circles during the past week regarding a strange creature that washed ashore on Montauk Beach, Long Island. The creature, which appears to have a “beak”, has been written off by many and salivated over by conspiracists. Some say the “creature” is merely a dog with its snout bitten off and its hair eroded after some time in the water. Others argue it is a product of the continuing projects run by the US Military at the infamous Camp Hero on Montauk Point.

The Montauk Project has long been held by conspiracy theorists as the continuation of the Philadelphia Experiment – that disastrous 1943 project, the intention of which was to render the USS Eldridge invisible. Myths abound regarding the 1943 incident, said to have resulted in men being ‘fused’ into the hull of the ship as it entered hyperspace, and two men being transported to the year 1983 where they found themselves at Montauk AFB on Long Island. This was all documented in an 80’s film titled, imaginatively enough, The Philadelphia Experiment.

It is reported that the project was moved to Montauk, where a massive underground installation was built to house personnel and equipment. Originally, The Montauk Project was based at Brookhaven National Laboratory, but was moved due to the fact that, at the time, the nearby Camp Hero was one of the only locations that still had a functioning SAGE radar – considered essential to the project. SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) was used by NORAD as an automated control system to track and intercept enemy aircraft. Operating from the 1950’s to the 1980’s, its manufacture was directed by MIT and IBM, leading to the latter’s domination of the computer industry in years to come. SAGE sites were erected near urban cities without residents even knowing what they were. The sites, traditionally, were massive concrete blocks housing four stories of equipment and the largest computer ever built – the AN/FSQ-7. The system was so advanced in its day that it could send automated instructions to an aircraft’s autopilot redirecting the craft to engage an enemy.

But what was the purpose of the Montauk Project and the SAGE installation at Camp Hero? It depends on what you are willing to accept. Anything from time travel to subliminal redirection of human thought via the SAGE radar. Most importantly, it was said to be a continuation of the electromagnetic shielding technique so disastrously attempted in 1943. But how could a base be built underground in the 1950’s and just how do personnel get into the facility without being seen?

Camp Hero was officially closed in 1969 and donated as a ‘wildlife refuge/park’, although, technically, the Montauk AFB remained in operation until 1987. Some state it was a provision of the land donation that ‘everything under the surface’ would remain the property of the United States Air Force. The fact that the SAGE installation has not been demolished is testament to some that the site remains operational. It apparently has underwater access and is still fenced off from the public. There have been reports of government officials and military personnel warning stray hikers to keep clear of certain areas.

But back to the monster….
It’s very possible that this ‘creature’ is nothing more than a freak of nature discarded by its human owners as defective. It’s also very possible that it was ejected through a wormhole from a parallel dimension – a freaky alternate world where Rottweilers have beaks and hooves and humans have ears on their shoulders. Now that is something you’d want to keep from the public.

by Max Drake


(Max Drake is a freelance designer for GritFX. Max has an interest in all things weird and will have regular posts on this blog.)

For more conspiratorial outrageousness, visit www.rense.com