The View from Number 80

It is an interesting mix of subject matter in this issue but still (mostly) on the odd side - ranging from ghosts to cropcircles. The first item however is  serious. How many times do you click your mouse on a session at the computer? I am sure many of us get into the hundreds during spates of crazed internet surfing or (sorry for mentioning it) work on spreadsheets or word processors. Now there is a website where a single mouse click can do some good out of all proportion to the time or effort involved. How about a single click to donate food to the world's hungry? This is the idea behind The Hunger Site. When you visit this site and click on the Donate Free Food button the scheme's sponsors make a donation of food to the United Nations World Food Programme. The amount is small, perhaps a couple of cups of some staple food (the quantity varies according to the current number of sponsors) but it adds up - between June 1999 and January 2000 34 million visitors donated over 4000 tons of food. This is no con - please check the site out for yourself and then add it to your favorites/bookmarks. You can only donate once each day but make the Hunger Site your first point of call when you get on the net.

Update - links to The Hunger Site and its bretheren are on the  home page

 UFO ESP?

This next site is about a hoary old subject that just won't go away - UFO's. Let me say at once that I would be thrilled if any  verifiable proof could be offered as to the reality of the so-called phenomenon - apart from misidentification of mundane objects and outright hoaxes - but so far nothing has met any reasonable standards of evidence. (As the mantra runs "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.") The British UFO Research Association  are some people who have put a great deal of effort into the investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena and their sober, well-presented site makes for interesting reading. They do not advocate any particular theory. One interesting slant is the Anamnesis Project which seems to give up on the idea of UFO's as objects "out there" in the real world as a "simplistic observation". The new thinking would be that sightings are percipient related. This sounds to me like "all in the mind" which is certainly more likely than aliens. So far this seems not unreasonable - until you read the findings regarding percipients. "In fact they are very intelligent and artistically motivated people, who, in almost every case, possess moderate to strong E.S.P. faculties." It is at this point I have a problem with explaining one unproven phenomenon by referring to another. I can't help but feel this is not the way forward. As Arthur C. Clarke once noted the best thing for UFO's is a few years of benign neglect.....

 Cored Rectum

Staying with what some would call the "paranormal" this next site, winner of a 1998 UKWeb award, is a joy to look at and a highly entertaining read. Circlemakers is the home of those characters who brighten up the tedium of our monocultural fields of grain with the odd Mandelbrot Set. Yes, these are the people who make the crop circles beloved by tabloid newspapers and New Age loonies alike......or so they would have us believe. A look at the comments page shows that many people are unconvinced. They point out that the Circlemakers couldn't have made ALL the circles so WHO made the the rest (cue X-Files theme.) Also much suspicion is engendered by the site's banner ad for jobs with the MI5 security service. One correspondent seems to think this proves the whole site is a government misinformation ploy. But hold on - surely the MI5 ad is too much of a giveaway? Ah but maybe they just want you to think that.....and so on. You see how this site can get to you. Make sure you look at Exhibit A - a great collection of photos including Top of the Crops 1999. Well worth a visit Circlemakers even have a Beginner's Guide so that you get started making your own circles. Back to the comments page and I leave the final word with the attractively named correspondent Cored Rectum " Do you mutilate cattle as well?"

 Boo!

At least you know where you are with the website of the International Ghost Hunters Society run by Dr Dave Oester and Rev. Sharon Gill. The Society, whose somewhat puzzling mascot is a Corgi dog called Boo-Boo emblazoned on the home page, consists of Ghost Researchers, Ghost Hunters and Ghost Believers.  They say of themselves "The IGHS was the first ghost society to declare and to prove by substantial photographic evidence that cemeteries are haunted. Traditional ghost hunters have claimed that cemeteries are not haunted. The IGHS is progressive and modern. We do not endorse Ouija Boards or Seances, but rely upon scientific tools to measure paranormal events. The IGHS documents the spirits of the dead that are haunting sites today as orbs, ectoplasmic vapor and as vortices. The IGHS believes that ghosts are everywhere!" 

This is a well laid out site very definitely aimed at the uncritical. The page of Free Ghost Photos is less convincing evidence of life after death and more evidence of many folk's ineptitude with a camera. If these are truly ghost photos then my own holiday snaps are positively spook-ridden. It doesn't stop at photos - there are also Electronic Voice Phenomena - which is "a process whereby the voice or voices of the dead are embedded onto magnetic recording tape by a process that we do not understand." (Apparently this is different from just playing old Buddy Holly or Elvis albums.) The Ghost Hunters have helpfully made available lots of sound files of "the dead" although the one I downloaded sounded like someone breaking wind into a galvanised bucket - it certainly gave me a new idea of the afterlife. The commercial side of the Ghost world is well represented with a list of Haunted Bed and Breakfast Inns, some great looking T-shirts and the IGHS Home Study Course. This last covers a range of subjects such as Understanding Orbs, Ectoplasm and Vortices and the Psychology of Earthbound Spirits. Should you wish to go for a diploma the course is an unghostly $149.95 - surely a bargain......

 Lilliputian Essays

This last site Language Miniatures  is an absolute gem. It consists of 36 (at present) short essays on  various aspects of language. If titles such as "Curiouser and Curiouser - The language world Alice blunders into", "We Call that Symbol '@' she said - What do you think she called it?" and my favorite "The Eskimos' 100 Words for Snow - Why everybody seems to know this 'fact' " sound interesting then this is the site to visit. No fancy graphics, shockwave etc. but succinct, informative nuggets that leave you wanting more - excellent. William Z Shetter  - thankyou.

 Evolve Fish at   is a wonderful collection of T shirts, stickers, and badges poking a little gentle and not so gentle fun at the more rabid of the fundamentalist anti-evolution fraternity. Even if you don't agree with them (I do) the folks at EvolveFish certainly have a far better sense of humor than their targets! Highly recommended. (and yes - I bought a T shirt.)

  Quotes

"God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world."  Francis Bacon

"That INCLUDES religion, Francis."  Ross W Sargent 

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