What We Can’t See Can’t Hurt Us

In a recent interview with Good magazine online, noted futurist Ray Kurzweil spoke of nanotechnology and it’s wildest applications. He noted that virtual reality in the near future could be given a tremendous boost through the use of nanotechnology. Instead of utilising some kind of device (ie; a bulbous headset as seen in many Hollywood science-fiction films), “nanobots” could be directly injected into the brain, fooling the neurons into believing that the recipient was indeed travelling to some exotic locale, when in reality, their physical being was still in the comfort of their own home, slothing in their favourite armchair clutching a beer.

Whilst this all sounds like something lifted straight from the mind of Philip K. Dick, the rise of nanotechnology since the 1980s has been profound. It has scared many and, reluctant to applaud this seemingly wonderous scientific advancement, have been vocal critics of the lack of oversight and non-existant research into the potential hazards of the technology. For nanotech concerns the study of materials on such a mindbogglingly small scale (in comparison, on the nanoscale, one nanometre is one billionth of a metre – or the size of a marble to that of the Earth) that the established properties of said materials begin to get fuzzy. For example, at such a scale where gravity is no longer relevant and where molecules can be manipulated into self-assembly, it would seem obtuse to not give serious consideration to all possible risks. But instead, the pursuit of the control of matter on the atomic scale and creation of nano-machines has proceded unfettered, appearing to be lead by the ironic assertion that what we can’t see can’t hurt us.

It is believed that nanotech will one day render us all immortal, our bodies cursing with miniature robots repairing the inevitable decay of species. It has been reported (although, to this author’s knowledge, not substantiated) that certain corporations are already using nanobots, in particular, European food processors. Nanobots were reportedly added to processed foods, acting to preserve food in packaging for far longer periods than what is currently achievable. However, since the naked eye cannot see these nanobots, where do they go once the package of food is opened and consumed. Can they feasibly find new material in the garbage bin and begin to reassemble into a new machine with a new modus operandi? Considering the ramifications of interaction between nanomaterials and biomaterials are unknown, it seems pertinent to examine these issues before we are faced with strange biological, ecological and environmental dilemmas.


by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)

Atlantis and the Giant Serpent

Two ridiculous stories appeared on the internet last week. The first involved supposed photographic evidence of a giant serpent making its way down a river in Borneo. For some time, locals in the region of the Baleh River had dispersed stories of a shape-shifting serpent existing beneath the surface of the water. Named ‘Nabau’, it was a terrifying snake one hundred feet long, bearing a dragon’s head with seven nostrils! The photograph, supposedly taken by a disaster team monitoring flood regions, caused much panic among the local villagers.

The photograph below appeared on the Mail Online website – special mention must be paid to the individual who thought it necessary to insert a large red circle around the creature in question. Thanks for that – I doubt myself and countless others would have been able to discern the serpent without it! The photograph is obviously a fake – even someone without a background in graphics could reach that conclusion.



The second story revolved around the supposed discovery of Atlantis buried under the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of northwest Africa. Keen observers on Google Earth reported the ‘amazing’ discovery of what seemed to be an ancient grid of a city – the location of which was identified by many excited amateur and professional archaeologists as one of the possible locations of Atlantis, citing descriptions from Greek philosopher Plato amongst others. But what they failed to address was Plato’s vivid description of the mythical city, described in writings as being circular and residing beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar).

According to legend, Atlantis was a wonder of the ancient world, carved from the rock of the land in a formation of concentric circles. The size of the city was comparable to the scale of modern-day London. Access to the different levels of the city could only be achieved by traversing a waterway that spiralled inwards to the residences of the ruling elite. This prevented any successful invasion of the city as the circular formation and high walls leading up from the river surface provided an insurmountable defence. This description is a long way from the rectangular grid depicted in the Google Earth images.



In their book, When The Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis, authors Rand and Rose Flem-Ath present a strong argument that Atlantis is in fact buried beneath the ice of Antarctica – the geographical features of lesser Antarctica being a possible match to the few descriptions of Atlantis in ancient writings. Needless to say, there was some disappointment expressed when Google Earth finally revealed that the supposed ‘grid’ of the ‘underwater city’ was merely an artefact of sonar imaging used to create the underwater maps.

by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)

No Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

Last week, the Orange County online news service - www.ocregister.com - posted an image of the end of a rainbow. This rarely-seen sight was captured by one Jason Erdkamp, a resident of Lake Forest, as he was driving in northeast Orange County in Southern California. Unfortunately for Mr Erdkamp, there was no pot of gold lying on the highway.

There was a flurry of activity on the website following the post, with many questioning the validity of the image. Photoshop was discussed, prompting science writer/editor Gary Robbins to gather some professional opinions. He consulted with noted photographers, a graphic designer and meteorologists who all agreed the photograph had not been manipulated.

One witty reader on the website made the comment that the lack of a pot of shiny gold meant that the photograph actually depicted the beginning of the rainbow. This, of course, is a convenient excuse for those treacherous leprechauns.


by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)

(Source: http://www.ocregister.com)

Close Encounters of the First Kind

The UFO research community has been buzzing after what appear to be two incredible sightings in the last few weeks. Among the myriad encounters that are reported nearly every day across the globe, these two events have prompted many to ask if we, the inhabitants of this planet, are on the verge of a major revelation regarding the UFO phenomenon. Yet there are others who yet again ask for substantial proof of these events (such as a clear photograph or video footage) other than the verbal testimony of eyewitnesses.

Just over a week ago, it was reported that a group of eight Chinese fire-fighters observed an object in Liu Pan Shui City for over an hour. The strange craft was filmed by one of the group and a still frame from the footage was released (see above). Similar craft have been observed in the past and described as “diamond UFO’s” – two rotating cones joined at the base and flashing a range of colours. Twenty minutes of footage was shown to staff at the Liu Pan Shui meteorological bureau. They were at a loss to explain the craft. The footage was then handed to government astronomical departments for further examination.

Many would consider the relegation of the footage to a government body as being the last time it would ever be seen. However, unlike their counterparts in the west, the Chinese media and government are more open to the possibility of alien visitation and regard the UFO phenomenon as fact, not fiction. Many in the UFO community are confident that the footage will soon be made available to the general public.

The other incident occurred in Saudi Arabia, and was reportedly witnessed by millions of people. On the evening of January 7th, a loud noise was heard in the sky and a bright object was observed, east of the capital Riyadh. Locals in the region said they heard an explosion and felt a tremor, indicating the object had crashed to Earth. Many stated it was nothing more than a satellite or meteor, yet others claiming to have seen meteors in the past, disagreed. It was reported that the object was a blue green colour and was discarding what seemed to be laser beams as it moved across the sky.

Again, the incident received no attention from the western media, but the usually conservative Saudi press has given the event much coverage. Many witnesses to the incident feared for their lives and began to pray – such was the magnitude of the sighting. The Saudi government has not released any information regarding the object or its supposed crash, but have reportedly sealed off the area where it was believed to have gone down. Many pictures have surfaced (such as the one below) but have done little to quiet the sceptics due to the camera focus problems that inevitably cloud the UFO issue.



by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)

(Source: http://www.allnewsweb.com)

Selling Your Soul On The Internet

This is Natalie Dylan (a pseudonym). She is a 22 year-old college student who is auctioning her virginity online. That’s right folks – she is selling her hymen to the highest bidder. She sees this as a business opportunity – originally the idea was to pay for a masters degree in Women’s Affairs (yes, you heard right), but since the auction began in July last year, other doors have opened for this enterprising young whore (I mean, lady).

Ms Dylan first rose to infamy last September when she appeared on the misogynistic Howard Stern radio show in the US. So far, the auction has had over 10,000 responses, with bidding reaching US$3.8 million! An unidentified Australian businessman is the leading bidmeister. With that kind of money, who needs a college degree? With the offer to write a book and a possible movie deal in the works (please, nooooo!), Ms Dylan has not set an end date to her auction. Of course not – ya gotta milk it for all it’s worth.

Nat explained she is willing to undergo lie detector tests and gynaecological exams to prove that what she is selling is the real article. She says that she has been approached by all manner of weirdos and lonely guys – from men actually seeking a relationship (which is not on the table – it’s a strictly one-night affair) to others who are excessively graphic in their descriptions of what they would like to do to this young flower should they win the auction. Ms Dylan said the idea came to mind after her own sister paid for her degree by working for a time in a brothel.

Some might find this genius – but it sets a dangerous precedent. I mean, what is next on the horizon? Taboos are no longer taboo, sacred acts no longer sacred, and human dignity is being stripped to the bone without anyone even realising it. But, for fear it may leave me behind, I too am hopping on the ol’ gravy train. So you’ll excuse me while I go list my scrotum on Ebay.

by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)

(Source: http://ninemsn.com.au)

Dropa – Fact or Fiction?

In 1937, a Chinese archaeologist named Chi Pu Tei discovered strange cave burial sites in the Baian-Kara-Ula mountain range, located in the borderland between China and Tibet. The skeletons found were roughly 4 feet tall, and displayed heads which were considerably larger than their slender frames. In each of the 716 graves, Chi Pu Tei found a stone disk approximately a foot in diameter and almost an inch thick. Chi Pu Tei published his findings stating that the burial sites were made by mountain gorillas and that the disks were placed there by later cultures. Chi Pu Tei was rightfully ridiculed by the Chinese archaeological community for this absurd claim.

The caves themselves had the appearance of being ‘carved’ from the mountain, according to Chi Pu Tei. The walls were squared and glazed and were more akin to an underground system of interlinking tunnels. The disks, upon closer inspection, were inscribed with a strange, unknown writing. In 1962, Chinese scientist Professor Tsum Um Nui managed to partially decode the inscriptions, telling a wild tale of an alien spacecraft that had crashed to Earth. Many of the occupants were hunted and killed by local tribes because of their strange appearance, and with no means to re-build their craft, were stranded on our planet. Indeed, an old Chinese legend describes a race of small, yellow-skinned humanoids, with large heads and slender, frail bodies. Their supposed descendants live in the area of the Baian-Kara-Ula and are of very small stature, encompassing none of the features associated with the Chinese, Mongols or Tibetans.

In 1947, Dr Karyl Robin-Evans travelled through Tibet bound for the “mysterious land of the Dropa”. He met with the Dalai Lama and eventually found the tribe, who were indeed small in stature and of strange appearance. He conversed with a language teacher of the Dropa who told him the same story of an alien race being stranded on Earth. Apparently they had been here roughly 12,000 years ago on an exploration mission, and that another craft had crashed here around 1014AD. Robin-Evans took a photograph of the supposed Dropa leaders (see below) but this seems to be the ONLY photo of this race of people in existence.



Russian scientist W. Saitsew published a paper in 1968 which raised the interest of extraterrestrial visitors in our past. Much of the information published was from the work done by Professor Tsum Um Nui, but included information of the make-up of the stone disks, which had large metallic traces such as cobalt. When the disks were placed on an oscillator, they produced a vibratory hum that suggested the flow of energy. The centre hole in the disks was cut with such precision that it defied explanation, considering the disks were aged at around 12,000 years.

In 1974, Austrian engineer Ernst Wegener was able to photograph two of the disks being displayed in the Banpo Museum in Xian. The museum curator could tell Wegener nothing of the disks, and when Hartwig Hausdorf visited the museum twenty years later, the disks had disappeared. Wegener’s photos are published all over the internet, but their quality is poor, having been taken with an old Polaroid camera. No inscriptions are visible, and while they are as they had been described in the past, the photos are hardly proof of anything.

For this is the problem with the story of the ‘Dropa Stones’ and the small skeletons supposedly found in the mountains of the Baian-Kara-Ula – the lack of proof. It is highly unlikely that Dr Karyl Robin-Evans trekked into Tibet and took only ONE photograph of this mysterious race of people supposedly descended from extra-terrestrials. There might be a logical reason for this, but it escapes this author. The other ‘facts’ of the case are suspect as well – for instance the reported transcription by Tsum Um Nui and the details regarding the properties of the disks. The complete lack of evidence to support a discovery of this magnitude lends credence to the idea that this is all an elaborate hoax. A number of photos have surfaced on the internet claiming to be the skeletal or mummified remains of the Dropa ‘aliens’, but most are proven fakes or from another location on the planet, passed off as ‘Dropa’. And where are the 716 stone disks supposedly discovered by Chi Pu Tei in 1937? Were subsequent expeditions undertaken to recover any disks or skeletal remains that were left behind? It’s a great story, but is it anything more than that…?

Of course, a discovery like this would invariably draw the attention of the world’s governments and it is quite possible that the entire discovery has been quashed. Perhaps the evidence is locked away deep underground in a top secret installation – deemed far too unsettling for the minds of the average person….

by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)

The Nazca Lines

High on an arid plateau in Peru, some 300 figures and geometric shapes are etched into the sand. The Nazca desert, south of Lima, is home to one of the most enduring mysteries of South America. Commonly called the Nazca Lines, these impressive ancient artworks were first discovered when commercial airplanes began to fly over the region. They cover an area that stretches over 400 square miles and their creation has been the subject of many weird and wonderful theories.

Perhaps the most famous of the Nazca Lines is the so-called “Astronaut” (see below). First discovered in 1982, it has led to the notion that these designs were created by an extraterrestrial intelligence. Other figures include animals and birds, a weird figure with two hands (one with five fingers and the other with four), symbols, and various objects. The creations are attributed to the Nazca people who dwelt in the region some 2,000 years ago and mysteriously disappeared 500 years later. Yet it has been impossible to accurately estimate the actual age of the Lines.

For the Nazca desert retains conditions that have preserved the massive artworks over what could amount to many thousands of years. Annual rainfall is nominal, and the surface of the plateau is stony and flat – preventing disturbance to the Lines by wind. It is only now, after much exploration by modern man and the tourist attraction the region has become, are the Nazca Lines of Peru beginning to deteriorate.

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

For more on the Nazca Lines of Peru, visit: http://www.crystalinks.com/nazca406.html

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