[extropy-chat] Origin of The Sourcebook Project [Part 2 of 2]
Terry W. Colvin
fortean1 at mindspring.com
Sun Dec 26 21:46:12 UTC 2004
[[continued...]]
*The Media*
The results of contacts with talk radio, TV programs, and newspapers have
been disappointing. Since 1990 I have rejected all invitations for
interviews and media events. The major factors in keeping the media at
arm's length are their tendency to distort facts and not allow my review
before publication or airing. Invitations from major publishers to write
books on anomalies are now routinely turned down but usually for a different
reason: It is more profitable and satisfying to self-publish and be able to
control the format, content, and market-longevity of my books.
*Mainstream Science*
Early on, I hoped that experts in various disciplines would be interested
in providing information or at least comments on drafts of material before
publication. This interface was never established. Of course, a scientist's
time is valuable and I cannot be considered a '"colleague"'! The Sourcebook
Project is hardly part of the scientific community. There have been a few
individual exceptions, but the reaction of mainstream science has been
mainly via book reviews (generally favorable) and occasional references
to my books in the journals. Some scientists do purchase books from the
Project, including even some Nobelists. Generally speaking, though
mainstream scientists are not good customers, despite the good reviews
and several selections by book clubs.
Some General Observations
Who, then, does buy enough books to keep the Sourcebook Project in the
black? Tests with ads and mailing lists indicate that it is not the
Forteans, the creationists, the UFO crowd, the cryptozoologists, the
parapsychologists, the Velikovskians, subscribers to *Fate*, or mainstream
scientists. In fact, as Henry Bauer indicated in the recent *JSE* editorial
(Bauer, 2001), it is not members of the SSE either. My theory is that each
of the groups mentioned contains only a few "general-anomalists"; that is,
individuals whose interests are much broader than those of the group they
are associated with. The Sourcebook Project has tapped this dispersed
population and is thus able to survive.
It may be of interest to SSE members that only about 2% of them are on my
mailing list, which length-wise is somewhat larger than the SSE membership
list. This surprisingly small figure is also typical of members of Fortean
groups, in fact, of *all* the specialty groups mentioned in the previous
paragraph.
Despite its charter, I believe the SSE is composed mainly of several small
groups of specialists, with only a few generalists. That this may be so can
be seen by comparing the subject matter in the Tables of Contents of several
issues of the *JSE* with the topics listed in the Appendix. I see a wide
disconnect between the two lists of topics. But it may be that those
submitting articles to the *JSE* are not typical of the membership-as-a-whole.
I don't know.
Many of my customers also come from the general population of people with
scientific training and interest, but who are not in academia or members of
the specialty groups mentioned above. Medical doctors and engineers are
perhaps the most prominent in this regard.
Over the years, the archeology books offered by the Sourcebook Project have
sold the best; those on parapsychology, the worst. In contrast, articles
with a slant toward parapsychology are frequent in the *JSE* while archeology
articles are nearly nonexistent.
I have also noticed that scientists who specialize (and most do) will readily
admit that anomalies exist in their fields of endeavor. In fact, they
sometimes take pains to point out anomalies that I somehow missed in my
literature research. However, these same scientists are often reluctant to
admit that *all* other branches of science also exhibit anomalies. A
scientist who admits the possibility that Nessie lives will not doubt the
reality of the expanding universe. A scientist favorable to UFOs will not
question neo-Darwinism.
Scientists, like everyone else, prefer a broad, stable frame of reference,
one without too many unknowns and uncertainties. But the Sourcebook Project
claims that thousands of anomalies pervade all fields of knowledge. This
assertion may be a little too unsettling to many.
Conclusions
The long hours spent in the dusty library stacks have proven intellectually
rewarding to me. I intentionally avoid theorizing about what I have found
over the past 40 years, for that would taint the objectivity of my continuing
search. I claim only that there are a lot of anomalies out there, and that
there are many more that I have not yet added to my collection. Every week
the science journals bring new mysteries into my ken. I collect them like a
philatelist does stamps. For every anomaly I have to remove from my album
as having been explained, two new ones arrive to take its place with the
next delivery of mail.
Anomaly-collecting is obviously not science, for it assiduously eschews
theories and the testing of theories. As I see it, the value of the
Sourcebook Project to science is in its long lists of potential research
areas. These lists demonstrate that science is far from complete. The
Handbooks and Catalogs have the potential to stimulate the progress of
science---and that is good. The more anomalies that are recognized,
researched, and explained, the more accurate is our picture of the universe.
Appendix: A Few Selected Anomalies
ARCHEOLOGY
1. The "pit bands" of the Andes. The pits are about a meter deep and
arranged regularly in bands about 24 meters wide. The bands run along
the ridges for miles.
2. The stone meanders and labyrinths of the western U.S.
3. Boulders with triangular holes. Called "Viking mooring stones," there
are hundreds in northeastern U.S.
4. Hundreds of large precision-crafted stone spheres in Costa Rica. These
are near-perfect spheres made of hard granite!
5. The East Bay and Point Reyes walls, California. Builders and purpose
unknown.
6. Incan stone masonry. Interlocking, precision-fitted, multi-ton stones,
some with many corners.
7. Ancient Baalbek's massive, dressed Monolith, in Lebanon. (Weight:
1,100 tons)
8. The enigmatic stone blocks at Tiahuanaco (Bolivia) and at least one Inca
site. These are huge, geometrically complex, fashioned out of hard rock, and
seem to have no discernible purpose.
9. Scotland's ancient vitrified stone forts. (How did they melt granite?)
10. Enigmatic structures within the Great Pyramid. Examples: so-called air
passage with secret door, sand-filled cavities, layered granite beams in
King's Chamber, the mysterious sliding plugs, and several more really
perplexing structures.
11. Ancient skeletons in North America with Caucasoid features, such as
Kennewick Man, and others less-famous.
12. Trans-oceanic, pre-Columbian diffusion of plants and their products.
Examples: maize to India, cocaine to Egyptian pharaohs, cotton, pineapples,
and many more.
13. The Nazca lines, Santa Valley geoglyphs, and the huge Candelabra of the
Andes---the latter visible from far out at sea!
14. Near-global existence of the cup-and-ring motif in old petroglyphs.
15. The ability of the ancient Egyptians to fashion narrow-necked, hollow
vases out of obdurate granite with only copper tools. Also relevant, the
precisely made, polished, multi-ton granite slabs in the Great Pyramid.
16. Mysterious Olmec origin. Their articles display apparent Chinese
symbols and cultural characteristics.
17. Miniature buildings at some Maya sites and miniature subterranean
tunnels (i.e., much too small for normal humans)!
18. The famed Baghdad battery.
19. The ancient Greek analog "computer."
ASTRONOMY
1. Anomalous split of angular momentum between the sun and the planets.
Most of it is in the planets.
2. Comet flare-ups far from sun. (Only supposed to happen close to sun.)
3. Historical record of bright objects appearing close to the sun. (Vulcan,
the intramercurial planet.)
4. Mercury's puzzling high eccentricity, inclination, and its unexpected and
offset magnetic field.
5. Anomalous transits of Jupiter by the Galilean satellites. Double shadows
thrown on Jupiter; "hot" shadows, dark transits.
6. Lunar concentrations of mass (mascons), magnetism (magcons), radioactivity
(radcons).
7. Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs). (Flares, color changes, obscurations,
etc.)
8. Martian surface asymmetry. Half the planet is highly elevated; half, low.
9. Magnetic stripes on Mars.
10. Globular-cluster enigmas. (Great age, non-participation in galaxy motion,
etc.)
11. Anomalous accelerating expansion of universe.
12. Anomalous precession of DI Herculis. (Challenges Einstein)
13. Quantized redshifts. Puts expanding-universe paradigm at risk.
14. Source of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
15. Absence of antimatter in universe. Should be as common as normal matter.
16. Anomalous rotation of galaxies implies existence of so-called "dark matter."
17. Discordant redshifts. Some objects, seeming physically connected, have
radically different redshifts. (Halton Arp's heresy!)
18. Meteorite distribution anomalies. Concentrations in Antarctica and on
Australia's Nullarbor plain. The "Iron Alley" in U.S., etc.
19. Antarctic meteorites differ markedly from those picked up elsewhere.
20. Meteors seen at altitudes so high that there should not be enough
air-friction to make them visible.
BIOLOGY
1. Avian feather-pattern-generation mechanisms not understood. Also applies
to colorful seashells, butterflies, and other patterned organisms.
2. Inherited callosities in birds, such as the Ostrich.
3. Physiological convergence of Arctic and Antarctic birds, especially the
alcids. They look alike but are not closely related.
4. Brood-parasitism anomalies, as in mimicry of appearance and voice by
nestlings.
5. Unknown mechanism of inheritance of instincts. How is migratory
information passed on genetically to young birds traveling without parents?
(Example: the bronzed cuckoos of Australasia)
6. Avian "courts" and executions.
7. Unique, complex respiratory system of birds completely unlike any
suggested ancestors.
8. Avian homing and navigation feats. Examples: homing pigeons and Arctic
Terns.
9. Disturbed human behavior correlated with sun and moon.
10. Human intelligence correlated with birth-order and season of birth.
11. Anomalously large number of breaths and heartbeats per human lifetime as
compared with other mammals.
12. Rapid, quantized growth spurts in human children.
13. Lack of biochemical value in human sleep.
14. Human mitochondria vastly different from those in other mammals.
15. Immortality of cancer cells.
16. Higher cancer incidence correlated with greater organism complexity. Why?
17. Fetal-graft enigma. Why does immune system not reject fetus?
18. Presence of much subcutaneous fat in humans as in many marine mammals.
(The aquatic-ape theory.)
19. Experimental lack of memory traces. How is information stored in brain?
20. Human navigation sense. Human homing experiments.
21. Human diving reflex and, contradictorily, drowning proneness.
22. Parasite manipulation of human behavior. (Same for other mammals, birds,
etc.)
23. Limits on the variability of domestic animals. No new species in breeding
experiments. A big Darwin worry.
24. The puzzle of flavor aversion, especially in rats.
25. Deliberate use of medicinal plants by non-human mammals and birds.
26. Survival of the thylacine (marsupial wolf). (Some pretty good data here.)
27. Inheritance of the behavioral effects of rotation in rats.
28. Plants mimicking other plants even though they lack eyes. (Example: some
mistletoes.)
29. Fishlike lures evolved and used by mussels, snapping turtles, and other
species.
30. Worldwide synchronous flowering of bamboos.
31. Selfish DNA (or genes or viruses or proteins): the ultimate parasites.
32. Interplant communication ("tree-talk," for example), especially via
airborne chemical signals.
33. Directed-mutation experiments.
34. Unknown cause of the Cambrian explosion of new life bauplans; (i.e.; new
phyla).
GEOLOGY
1. Controverted source of deep-focus earthquakes.
2. How are concretions formed? They exist in bizarre shapes in untold
numbers.
3. The surprising existence of life at great depths in the earth's crust;
that is, in the crevicular domain.
4. Unexplained origin of dolomite, some limestones, methane-hydrate deposits,
and several other types of sedimentary rocks. The dolomite problem has
bothered geologists for 100 years!
5. Coal anomalies. (Examples: anomalous fossils, frequent absence of plant
fossils and vegetable structure, coal beds 50 feet thick and more present over
wide geographical areas, and many more).
6. Cyclothems and rhythmites. Repetitious strata, sometimes hundreds of
thousands of layers.
7. Polystrate fossils, especially vertical tree fossils penetrating millions
of years (supposedly) of deposits, as at the Joggins formation in Canada.
8. Oriented lakes (Alaska) and the famed Carolina bays, the latter present in
hundreds of thousands---all oriented. A meteor storm?
9. Cookie-cutter holes and resulting giant divots. Surprising number of these.
10. Several examples of devastated areas, especially in Brazilian jungle,
suggesting *recent* Tunguska-like impacts.
11. The missing crater associated with the immense deposit of Australites
(tektites). Given the extent and quantity of these tektites, there should be
an immense, 700,000-year-old crater somewhere.
12. The famous mima mounds. Present in incredible numbers. How created?
Some say "pocket gophers"!
13. Giant expansion-and-contraction polygons in soils. Hard-to-explain
longrange order.
14. "Missing" strata at Grand Canyon and associated anomalies of formation.
15. Ancient, *uneroded*, elevated plains. Why no erosion over the eons?
GEOPHYSICS
1. Ball lightning in its many guises.
2. Luminous bubbles in the atmosphere. Too many observations to dismiss
offhand.
3. Earthquake lights. Abundant observations, especially from Japan.
Mechanism uncertain.
4. Cold, ground-level flames and lights. (Will-o'-wisps) Not really
explained completely.
5. Marine light wheels. One of the great unexplained phenomena. (Hundreds
of sound observations)
6. White water or milky seas. Here, too, we have hundreds of good
observations.
7. Shadow bands during solar eclipses. Many anomalous appearances; for
example, giant bands, colored bands, bands moving in the wrong direction.
8. Conical hail, bizarrely shaped hail. These objects are reproduced and
fall by the millions. The creative mechanism is unknown.
9. Hydrometeors. Some are from aircraft but others seem to be
extraterrestrial.
10. Brontides and mistpouffers. Examples: Barisal guns, Lake Seneca guns,
etc. Some are due to small methane-hydrate blowouts, particularly those in
North Sea.
11. Sound of the aurora. Sounds from high-altitude meteors. Both species are
thought to be electrophonic sounds. Also, some people "hear" radar pulses!
12. Rainbows with offset white arcs. They defy optical theory.
13. Offset solar halos and anomalous arcs. Also unexplained.
14. Sea seiches and "death waves." These are *not* tsunamis.
15. Transient all-sky brightenings. Good observations. Some are probably
meteoric, others are unexplained.
16. Mountain-top glows, such as the famed Andes Lights. Often associated
with seismic activity.
17. Luminous cores of some tornadoes. Probably related to the electrical
effects of some strong tornadoes, as in burning and dehydration along paths.
PSYCHOLOGY
1. The break-off phenomenon experienced by pilots.
2. Why do we need to sleep and dream?
3. Mathematical, calendar, and musical savants.
4. Genius correlated with mental illness!
5. Eidetic imagery. Usually lost in adulthood, but can sometimes be restored
by hypnosis.
6. Exceptional and photographic memories.
7. Synaesthesia. Comes in many forms. Usually numbers or words and
rendered in different colors.
8. Results of reincarnation research. Many examples from India of accurate
memories of past lives, birthmark phenomena, etc. Can't really dismiss
completely.
9. Hypnosis and its effect on color blindness.
10. Death and the "birthday phenomenon."
11. Phantom-limb phenomena. Many anomalies here.
12. Stigmata.
13. Blister-raising and skin-writing via hypnosis.
14. The Princeton experiments in psychokinesis.
References
Bauer, H. (2001). Editorial. *Journal of Scientific Exploration*, 15, 297-298.
Corliss, W. R. (1960). *Propulsion Systems for Space Flight*. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Corliss, W. R. (1965). *Space Probes and Planetary Exploration*. New York:
Van Nostrand.
Corliss, W. R. (1967). *Scientific Satellites*. Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office.
Corliss, W. R. (1972). *The Interplanetary Pioneers (3 vols.). Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.
Seaborg, G. T., & Corliss, W. R. (1971). *Man and Atom*, New York: Dutton.
--
“Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress.” Copyright 1992, Frank Rice
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
Alternate: < fortean1 at msn.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB *
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