Artificial intelligences have been enlisted in the search for extraterrestrial life, SETI, because A.I. doesn't think like us. At least it wouldn't if AI was sentient. Recent developments in SETI, an unconvential field of inquiry with more of a basis in faith, has taken many different left turns at Albuquerque rather than embracing the bog-standard conventional wisdom from the past 50 years. What are they doing? Well that's for Sarah Scoles to reveal in her fascinating essay. Perhaps as a tease, Adam Mann wonders Is The Sun A Node In A Gigantic Alien Space Internet? Scientists scanned the skies to check for ET utilizing gravitational lensing to share alien nudes and trolling on alt.planet.zetareticuli returning a compelling conclusion. The latter two activities are based on the assumption ET is "like us" but consider Kevin Kelly's '12 Assumptions For Extraterrestrial Life' and jibe well with the aforementioned maverick approaches, except with aliens engaged in their own SETI programs. From Mark Frauenfelder to Christopher Palin at The Debrief, with apologies to Charles Fort, one starts looking for aliens starting anywhere. Yet having a clue for the best 'anywhere' to begin can be helpful. These Are The Top 5 Places And Times Humanity Is Likely To Discover Extraterrestrial Life. And much like the funhouse mirror always says, "It's later than you think!" (CS)

Here's a bit of fun from The Observer whereupon they conflate the hypothetical evolution of future Homo sapiens with the entities witnessed from the banks of the Pascagoula River in 1973. Despite the queer sketches of the aliens, Charles Hickson's hypnotic testimony insisting the aliens were people just makes such an argument markedly provocative. (CS)

Who needs Einstein's relativity for time dilation when merely being dead can do the trick? Turns out that Dr. Linda Kramer died back in 2001 only to be surprised it wasn't 2006 upon her return. Joe Harker did the legwork for a full account of Dr. Kramer's experience, but leaves it vague if dying on the toilet contributed anything to the visions. Aligning at an oblique angle on the topic, Shannon Taggart spent a score of years photographing mediums at Lily Dale and found more questions than answers over that period. Join Jacqui Palumbo's encounter with A Photographer Who Spent Twenty Years Documenting Seánces while communining with the dead for a fascinating insight on mediumship and this curious upstate New York community. (CS)

This 2016 still image may have more going for it than first appears. John Greenewald notes several intriguing things about a "new" "leaked" photo sprung upon us by Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp. John gives first credit for this news to Josh Boswell and Chris Sharps' Metallic-looking Orb is Seen Flying Over Iraqi City of Mosul in 2016 - First Ever Publicly Revealed UFO Footage Taken by US Spy Plane in a Conflict Zone - As Expert Warns of 'Significant Risk' to Troops Overseas. Boswell and Sharp set the story in a wider context with almost as many illustrations as words in their title. Mick West and the Metabunkers (not a music group) are having at the photo at Mosul "Sphere." Corbell and Knapp ended their inaugural Weaponized podcast with this example of "Things to Come." The relevant portion starts around the 1:12:30 mark of the 1:18:34 All Roads Lead to UFOs Episode #1. (WM)

There is a fine line between mind and spirit and we're exploring that liminal space, starting with the topic of hearing voices. What's interesting is how the experience boils down to perception. What one person views as a sign of impending insanity, another will view as messages from their ancestors—fear vs comfort. Lucid dreaming, that state of awareness that one is dreaming, can also be impacted in a similar manner. Psychology Today presents Waking Up in the Dream: An Interview with Andrew Holecek, a foremost authority on the subject. Holocek is also an author and humanitarian, and he believes lucid dreaming is the key to cleansing our own perception, i.e. experiencing all things with greater lucidity. And of course, not everyone will view that through a positive lens. (CM)

Michael Ryan's interview with Terry Mantell about his grandfather's tragic January 7, 1948, death of Thomas Mantell quickly teaches us much more about Captain Mantell's record prior to that day's events. And the following discussion about the contradictions in "official" versions and Terry's later discoveries about the deadly encounter may make you ask if this, like Roswell perhaps, is a UFO "Case NOT Closed." Mental Floss Editor-in-Chief Erin McCarthy writes about another early UFO mystery in Albert Einstein's Letter About UFOs. Was the famously curious Einstein just having a "bad day" when in the wake of the July 1952 "DC National" sightings he was asked if "saucers" were ET? The enigmas get stranger and more current, as Nick Redfern has More on the Matter of Bob Lazar, "Containers" and Stolen Souls: A Sinister Saga of UFOs and Demons. From Betty and Barney Hill to Lazar and Ray Boeche, Nick charts a truly frightening course whose destination is—unthinkable. And speaking of Lazar's Area 51 stories, we arrive at the present and The Enduring Mystery of an Aggressive FBI Raid Near Area 51. Did Area 51 blogger Joerg Arnu get too close to some Truth? And as writer Lucas Ropek says, "Arnu doesn't believe in little green men"! (WM)

Yes, the site has been unreachable since Saturday night. There was a problem with our server on GoDaddy. We have not been able to post during the interim, so you have not missed any posts. We will be slowly catching up. We would like to thank all those who reached out to us with their concerns and disappointment at not being able to reach a site they have followed for years..or decades. We are glad to be back!

Billy Cox reports on a November Scientific Coalition for UAP (sorry, Billy!) Studies (SCU) presentation to NATO. What will become of SCU's outreach is unclear, but it's a positive step. Billy also references another intriguing new development, as Christopher Sharp headlines Project Titan Approved By San Marino: UFOs Set To Be Discussed At United Nations For First Time Since 1978. Here there's a broader appeal for cooperation than even the outstandingly significant strategic threat motive. But focusing upon U.S. interests, Popular Science contributor Kelsey D. Atherton considers Is the Truth out There? Decoding the Pentagon's Latest UFO Report.. Atherton's decryption displays the usual historical bobbles, simplifications, and positive emphases one has come to expect, and won't disquiet those in his audience desirous of a "pat" summary. (WM)

We are deeply saddened to bring our readers news of the passing of Aaron Dabba, author of the Esoterx blog, at age 50. Aaron leaves behind a wife and teenage son, and a legacy of intelligent strangeness that only a brilliant mind such as his could produce. We take heart in the knowledge that his blog will remain live, featuring past work, some unfinished pieces, and perhaps most important to Aaron's legacy, the written works of his 14-year-old son as he develops his own writing skills. We extend our deepest sympathies to Aaron's family and friends. Rest in Peace, Aaron. May the Afterlife hold the same elements of the absurd that you held dear in your research. (CM)

Micah Hanks highlights elements within the tardy public Annual Report that particularly mainstream journalism hasn't noted. They speak variously to what may be in the "classified" report and conditions behind the late appearance of what we so far have gotten. John Greenewald announces The Black Vault's AAWSAP/AATIP and Post 2017 UAP/UFO Timeline Project. This is an ambitious attempt to make sense out of the events (and contradictions) surrounding the current UFO/UAP situation. Released early in the process, this is sure to become an important aid/resource locator to those of us trying to understand and help others as well. It helps some that Marik von Rennenkampff reduces all the noise down to 10 Reasons to Take UFOs Seriously. In the process, von Rennenkampff gives us another useful source for historical reference. And someone who reduces all the noise to some basics is the subject of Devarrick Turner's 'Something is in Our Airspace': Rep. Tim Burchett Explains Why He's So Obsessed with UFOs. Surely, Burchett's been perhaps the most vocal critic of government UFO tomfoolery, but to this reader his reasons generally seem logic-based and "good trouble." (WM)

It 'appears' there's a sale for 'single quotes' in the 'UK', or perhaps Julia Banim and Gabriella Ferlita's editor are conveying snark for a kooky claim by an American ghost hunter. In this case a film about a haunting appears to have caught a real ghost on film, or did they? In other news we have a red-blooded American, Tim "Brass Ones" Binnall, writing about a spook sighted in Northam, Devon. While Tim has the gory details, the 'Ghost Soldier' Filmed At War Memorial In England video is really, really good. Sticking with our pal Tim, dig the piece on Unsettling Paranormal Activity Causes Cops In South Africa To Abandon Police Station. What kind of activity, you may ask? Only of the spookiest sort, true believers! (CS)

Don Ho wasn't the only man fascinated by tiny bubbles. Long before he was a twinkle in his pappy's eye, Leonardo da Vinci noted some queer behavior of bubbles in water. Rather than merely floating up, some are known to dance, and the behavior eluded scientists and Becky Ferreira... at least until now! Speaking of artists, The Oldest Styles of Art Were Creative Abstracts, and Probably Not Made By Us. Mind you Paul Pettitt's conceit isn't that the artists weren't human, in fact they were quite human, but just not as we would know them, underscoring a basic desire for self-expression. We just wonder if paleolithic critics, upon apprehending these pieces, thought, "Pfft, my kid could do that" as well. Other times art remains inscrutable regardless of the number of attempts to understand them. Yet again a Researcher Discovers Unknown History Behind The Voynich Manuscript, The World's Most Mysterious Text. This never happened before, right? At least this time it appears Nicole Vassell reckons this latest development adds a wrinkle to the enduring mystery and its origins. (CS)

Toxoplasmosis gondii is known to make humans more reckless, and it appears to have the same effect on the ancestor of man's best friend as well. While such findings are important for wildlife management, consider how risky behavior may drive evolution and how maybe a chimp not washing its hands after touching cat poop may have been the source for our genesis. Love cats? You're probably going to love artificial intelligences too considering how a Neuroscientist Warns That Current Generation AIs Are Sociopaths. Just the other day I said, "Alexa, play some Nickelback" and she told me to kill myself. At first I thought she was being critical of my musical tastes, but Victor Tangermann caught wind of a critique from Michael Graziano arguing how artificial intelligences may not realize there's another consciousness on the other side of their screen, making for a complicated situation. (CS)