From: Dave Walsh 
Subject: Nua Blather: The Glasshouse Effect
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 18:29:18 +0000
To: updates@globalserve.net
*******************************************************************
NUA BLATHER  NUA BLATHER NUA BLATHER
Weekly free email of Dogma Destruction,
Forteana and High Weirdness
By Daev Walsh   Email: blather@nua.ie
Web: http://www.nua.ie/blather/
*******************************************************************
February 13th 1998  Published By:  Nua Limited  Vol 1. No. 40
*******************************************************************
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCAST
Before we drag on the wellies and wade into another pool of Blather,
let me bring your wonderous attention to the fire exits, and the new
Blather-Blabber-Chat: A web based discussion board for Blather
subscribers to chew the fat, spit the gravel and feel the tarmacadam.
It's available at http://www.nua.ie/blather/blabber/
SIGHTINGS OF SOMETHING
The rather clammy and smelly paged 'Sightings'
(http://www.rapide.co.uk/sight.htm) magazine has in this issue (Vol.
2 Issue 9) an article by one Dermot Butler of IUFORA (Should really
be IUFOPRA, The Irish UFO & Paranormal Research Association),
entitled 'The Wicklow Hotspot', a watered down version of his 'Irish
Case Files Update'
(http://www.digiserve.com/ufoinfo/iufopra/files.shtml).
To be utterly pernickety, 'Sightings' habit of randomly littering
their publication with irrelevant photographs of unidentified
flying objects and wizened grays is less than useful. This is
especially true in the Irish article, as none of the UFOs mentioned
were photographed. The article is a meander through the various
reports from the county of Wicklow, into which the urban sprawl of
Dublin reaches. Unfortunately, it's neither long enough or in-depth
enough to attempt serious analysis of each case. It does however,
give one the impression of that Wicklow is a 'window' area. I don't
dispute this, but it should be noticed that County Wicklow covers an
area of 782 sq. miles (2025 sq. km). Wexford is also mentioned and if
one doesn't cut off the 'window' at the exact county border with
Dublin, but permit it run to the edge of the Dublin mountains where
they sweep down to the city, we have a larger area altogether.
Another Irish UFO group, ICUFOS
(http://freespace.virgin.net/ic.ufos/) mentioned in this column many
times before, claim window areas in Roscommon and Bantry, West Cork.
Blather is rather concerned about this. If this little republic of
ours (http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/factbook/ei.htm)
develops any more UFO windows, the damn things will start
overlapping, possibly causing what I propose to label 'The Paranormal
Greenhouse Effect'. If this motion is carried, I might as well
claim to be the first sinner in the glasshouse to start flinging
sceptical lumps of Wicklow granite.
A LETTER FROM SWEDEN
In light of my still-not-having-got my talons on the Roscommon
documents (http://www.nua.ie/blather/archives/issue1no38.html), Hugh
O'Connor in New South Wales, Australia
(http://www.mpx.com.au/~hugho/index.html) has come up with some
interesting Swedish correspondence regarding the Saab Gripen. The
identity of the correspondent has been kept from me, for obvious
reasons.
        '. . . all the  testflights concerning the plane's performance or
        it's technical devices  are still done by the testpilots from
        SAAB. Some of them are employed by British Aerospace originally,
        but rented out to SAAB if they have  anything to do with the
        Gripen or the 2000.
        'The testpilot, who flew the very first Gripen and the prototype
        of the 2000, happens to be the father of a friend of mine and
        through him I know most of the pilots and the going ons around
        those planes. I haven't asked, but if there had been a deadly
        accident with two  testpilots killed, #### would have surely
        talked about it.
        If not him, #####, the guy from England who's been visiting me
        last week, had been  working on the plane till end of 97, he
        talked to high ranked SAAB  people only on Friday, but he didn't
        mention anything either.  They were surely not testing the plane
        or its performance when they came down.
        'And the Americans must know about the technical things inside it
        already, because a lot of them have been in Linkping all of last
        year and everybody was very hush-hush about the purpose of their
        visit, so it  was not for the commercial planes they came. . .
        'Linkping is such a small place in some ways, if i go to my
        favourite bar, half the people there are from SAAB and the other
        half either from Ericsson or university. . .
        'On Saturday night the guys who would have been sent to make
        inquiries  about the crash from the company were all there.  ..
        at least the ones I know, but they were in good spirits and
        planes coming down usually makes  them gloomy and hectic.'
        So -- we're left none the wiser, really. Blather has emailed
        Saab, and may yet go as far as to phone them.
CANS OF CAECILIANS, KETTLES OF RED HERRINGS
There were plenty of interesting responses to last week's
'Subjectiveness Trap'
(http://www.nua.ie/blather/archives/issue1no39.html).
Todd Pellman quite justifiably makes a point:
        'It seems to me that in your discussion of SETI in the previous
        Blather you made a mistake as to the motivating assumption of
        SETI. It is not "If there are other technologically advanced
        cultures, then it is likely that they will be transmitting
        certain radio signals," but instead that "If we receive certain
        radio signals, then it is most likely due to a technologically
        advanced culture."  Pointing out that intelligent life may exist
        without the use of such technology in no way weakens the
        assertion that evidence of such technology implies intelligent
>>> Continued to next message
--- FMail 1.22
---------------