Happy New Year!

A very happy New Year to all HPANWO Readers, HPANWO TV viewers, HPANWO Radio listeners and readers of my fiction on Ben's Bookcase. Thank you for all your interest and support over this most remarkable, most exciting and sometimes most stressful twelve months. Please tune in to the HPANWO Radio review of the year on the 2nd of January http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/programme-219-podcast-2016-review-of.html. Make a note in your diary of the various HPANWO-esque events coming up next year for instance: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/helen-duncan-event-january-2017.html and: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/ben-emlyn-jones-at-east-anglia-ufo.html and: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/ben-emlyn-jones-live-at-ufo-truth-2017.html. Remember, the boffins in Greenwich are adding a "leap-second" to the last minute of 31st of December 2016 to align the clocks with the natural rotation of the Earth, so this New Year's night at midnight 23.59:59 will turn to a unique 23:59:60 before becoming the usual 00:00:00. Whatever you choose to do with your extra second, I hope it's worth it. Watch the HPANWO space for more to come in 2017.

Car Ghost Photo

(photo credit: Mercury Press/Harper Kurtz. Reproduced in accordance with copyright guidelines on fair use)

It seems I am in a skeptic-bashing mood at the moment. Therefore I'm going to address a skeptic analysis of a supposed ghost photograph that was taken back in July. The photo is a selfie made by a thirteen your old girl called Harper Kurtz. It is a sunny day and the shot is well-lit; it's also on a fast exposure setting because you can see her hair in detail even though it's blowing around in the wind. She's sitting in the front passenger seat of a car and her mother, Melissa Kurtz, is driving beside her out of frame to her left (It's a left-hand drive car because they're in Florida USA). The camera Harper is using is her mother's and you can see it is being held in both her hands, reflected in the lenses of her sunglasses. Behind her can clearly be seen what looks like a human head. It has a very thin face with a narrow pointed chin. Its skin is pallid and its hair is light brown and curly. It has a high forehead. It has been described as looking like a small boy and to me it does; perhaps a boy who is black or of mixed race. His head is in the position you would expect if he were sitting in the back seat behind Harper. It appears he is holding two fingers up in front of his chin palm backwards; an inverted victory sign which is not an abusive gesture in North America as it is in Britain. The head is slightly out of focus to the same degree as the whole back seat area is; which is to be expected seeing as the principle object of the photo is Harper's face which is within a foot or two of the lens. The lighting is the same for the boy's head as it is for Harper's. Unfortunately the head is obscured by Harper's hair and the headrest of her seat. However this should all be impossible anyway because Harper and her mother say they were alone in the car. They never discovered the anomaly for a whole month because Melissa hadn't got round to studying the contents of her camera. When she saw the image in question she published it on social media and the press ran a story. It turned out that there are some curious additional facts surrounding this mystery. The day the photo was taken was the first anniversary of a major road traffic accident on the same stretch of road. Melissa could find the details, but she believes a child died in the incident. If this is the ghost of the victim he might have been drawn to Harper to warn her because, as you can see, she didn't have her seatbelt on. There is also a history of paranormal activity in the family centred on Harper. This is not the first ghost photo she has taken. From the very start her life has been tinged with fate. Melissa's brother had been engaged to be married to a woman named Harper while Melissa was pregnant with her daughter. Yet the couple were killed in a car accident and Melissa named her daughter after her deceased sister-in-law to be. Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3934176/He-came-warn-wear-seatbelts-Mother-shocked-discover-GHOST-boy-sitting-seat-car-thinks-appeared-daughter-safe.html.

Several paranormal investigators have examined the photo and passed it as genuine. However one of them disagrees, Mick West of Metabunk.org, a good old fashioned pre-Facebook nostalgic internet forum that describes itself as: "...dedicated to the art and pastime of honest, polite, scientific investigating and debunking." I'd have thought "investigating" would have been enough if your goal was to be scientific. Mr West thinks that the photo is not of a real ghost. Nevertheless even he admits that this image would very difficult indeed to fake. The layering would have to be exactly right and this would be close to impossible seeing as Harper's hair was obscuring it. As you can see, every strand of the girl's hair is in front of the object behind her. The lighting effects are exactly right too, as is the focus. This also is a good reason to believe the Solway Firth Spaceman photo, see: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/solway-firth-spaceman.html; you can see that all of Elizabeth's hair is in front of the white-suited entity. An example of a badly layered fake ghost photo is this one, also of a ghost in a car, see: http://www.skeptic.com/insight/double-exposure-in-the-back-seat/; notice how the "ghost's" collar overlaps the door frame slightly? We see nothing like that in Harper's photo. Mr West instead thinks that Melissa and her daughter are lying or mistaken about them being alone in the car and they actually did have a real living boy in the back seat, probably one of Harper's school chums. It was about a month before they even noticed the anomaly so they may have forgotten the details of the day in question. West says it's more likely they concocted a lie because they're both unlikely to have conflated the same error (This, as an aside, contradicts the standard skeptic explanation for the Mandela effect, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/ive-got-mandela-effect.html). The problem here is that the boy in question might well recognize himself in the media and come forward. There would be an incentive because no doubt he'd become a five-minute sensation himself. Melissa and Harper do profess to recall what they were doing that day, driving to a beauty pageant where Harper was competing. Mr West says he has worked all this out using Occam's razor, a problem solving method that states you should always address the most likely explanation first, the one that involves the fewest additional assumptions. He has therefore assigned the possibilities in order of likeliness:

1. There was a boy in the car and Melissa and Harper lied about it.

2. There was a boy in the car and Melissa and Harper forgot about him.

3. There was no boy in the car and the image is of something else blowing around in the back seat.

4. It is a fake photo.

5. There was no boy in the car and it's a photo of something truly supernatural.

The problem with number three is that the object really looks like a boy's head. The answer could be that it's just a coincidence and it looks to me like a boy's head through pareidolia. However that brings up the coincidence fallacies that I've discussed before, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/pan-pareidolia.html. Unlike most skeptics, Mick West appears to have an awareness of this obstacle. In fact he admits: "This possibility is more complex because it requires us to image something that precisely forms into the shapes we see in the photo, something that resembles a human head and two fingers. Something that seems to have the correct three dimensional shape and the skin tone." However he saves the real ghost explanation for last, number five. This is because he considers this the least likely explanation in accordance with Occam's razor. This is one of the big concerns I have with Occam's razor that I've also addressed elsewhere, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/skeptics-who-are-they-why-are-they.html. West has composed his little hierarchy of plausibility unilaterally. He has deduced for himself what he considers to be more or less likely completely on his own terms and this is a mistake. In the background links I give the example of a radio. If it stops working, try changing the batteries before you open it up and stick a screwdriver into its innards because flat batteries are the most common cause of a radio not working. However you have to know how the radio works in the first place to make that judgement. West simply says this about Possibility number five: "That requires us to introduce something incredibly complex and entirely new world of science: life-after-death with spirits returning to walk the earth..." That's a highly subjective statement to make. We don't know how many spirits there are walking the earth or how often they make themselves visible to the living and photographic film. Until we have exact proportions we can't assign the possibility a place in the league table of likelihoods. To understand those proportions there needs to be a congress of opinion between various experts in the field and that has never taken place. That being said though, by skeptic standards, West's article is a very good effort. However I still think this case is probably a real ghost photograph. Incidentally, Mr West has made an extra interesting discovery that the other investigators missed. The ghost photo is one of a series that are on the same film chip and the one before was taken just a second or two earlier. Originally it appeared there was no sign of anything unusual, but Mr West has noticed that you can see what looks like the boy's shoulder in it. Source: https://www.metabunk.org/explaining-the-ghost-boy-in-the-back-seat-photo-with-occams-razor.t8156/.

See here for background: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/long-lost-ufo-photo-conclusion.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ghost-to-ghost-am.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-end-of-parapsychology.html.

Richard Dawkins- Patronizing Git 2

A while ago I wrote an article entitled Richard Dawkins- Patronizing Git!, see: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/richard-dawkins-patronizing-git.html. Well, he's done it again! In a recording of a recent live stage performance he made with Sam Harris, Dawkins describes himself as an "elitist". He then makes the fair point that there's nothing wrong with being an elitist in some circumstances. If you're going into hospital for surgery you'd ideally want an elite surgeon to treat you. If you're taking a flight on an aeroplane then an elite pilot would make you feel much safer. That's only natural. However then he laments that people discard that principle when it comes to vital political decisions. He issues the usual portents of the Trumpocalypse by saying: "When you want a president of the most powerful country in the world you take almost no precautions at all." He then wheels out the Remoaner cliches about Brexit being a "catastrophe!" and says the decision on whether Britain should leave the EU "is a much too complicated and sophisticated question to be decided by idiots like me... and like the British people." Despite his rather transparent modesty-signalling I doubt if Dawkins really sees himself on the same level as most other British people. He calls David Cameron a "moron" for proposing a referendum on the EU... but not for anything else he has done. I personally count it as one of the few moves Cameron ever made that I consider admirable. Dawkins says plebiscites shouldn't be allowed for anything more crucial than fox-hunting. He then breaks his own skeptic rules by treating anecdotes as evidence, cherry-picked anecdotes too, for the reasons given by people who voted Leave: "It's nice to have a change!" "I prefer the old blue passport!" This is a gross misrepresentation of the mass of Leave-voters. And the reason "What is the EU?" was Googled has nothing to do with people not knowing what the EU is. It is just part of the usual symptoms of internet trending. Source: https://youtu.be/SYhtW-K90zY?t=50m49s. See here for more details: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/brexit-is-back.html and: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/us-presidential-election-2016.html. His words chillingly echo Henry Kissinger just before he overturned an election in Chile: "This is far too important for the people to decide."

It never occurs to Richard Dawkins that the people who voted for Brexit and those who voted Donald Trump for president are largely mature adults who made their decision for perfectly rational reasons. I've covered both issues in great detail in the links above. Like many atheo-skeptics Dawkins has a very patriarchal attitude to politics. He has enormous confidence in the legitimacy of big daddy government stepping in to control people's lives. To him we're just children who need to be told what to do because it's for our own good, as he sees it. There are many other examples of this in the atheo-skeptico-humanist community, see: https://youtu.be/kT6LAfDybKU?t=1h18m1s and: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/nurse-sacked-for-praying.html. Atheo-skeptico-humanists continuously profess a belief in "free speech!" "freedom of thought!" and "human rights!", but their actions do not match their words. When it comes to dictatorship they are really AOK with it so long as the government is dictating what they want. By the way, there has been an update since I wrote my first Richard Dawkins- Patronizing Git! article. Dawkins has indeed needed the services of the John Radcliffe Hospital because early in the year he suffered a stroke, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/richard-dawkins-has-stroke.html. He was rushed to the JRH Emergency Department by South Central Ambulance Service, was diagnosed by the neurological X-ray radiologists and then kept in the Neurosciences ward in the new West Wing. The Hospital Portering Service was involved at every stage of this process. I hoped that would make him think twice before belittling people. Unfortunately it has not.

See here for additional background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/god-delusion-by-richard-dawkins.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/richard-dawkins-mba-criminal.html.

And: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/an-open-letter-to-richard-dawkins.html.

The Larry Warren Controversy- Part 1

I first met Larry Warren in 2008 when he was a speaker at the Now That's Weird conference, see: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/now-thats-weird-conference-2008.html. My tent got waterlogged so he offered to rent a collapsible cot and let me sleep on the floor of his hotel room. This offer was doubly touching because at the time he had heard about my legendary ability to snore. I've always got on well with Larry. He is a flawed hero however, and he's always the first to admit it. Due to trauma he has suffered, he has issues to do with his mental health and his ability to relate to other people. Sometimes he is his own worst enemy; and he has already had a big lecture about that from somebody else, so there's no need for me to go into details. However, who doesn't have some damaged goods on their shelves? In this last year a massive storm of controversy has blown up around Larry Warren that is rapidly becoming one of the biggest Truth mobs I've ever seen (See the background links below for other examples). This campaign against Larry is highly organized and dedicated to the point of fanaticism. It is led by a former friend of his that I'll call "Wilks". Wilks is the same person who recently attacked me by bringing up my discharge from hospital portering, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/is-ben-emlyn-jones-happy-slapper.html. Since its initial launch in the aftermath of the Scottish UFO and Paranormal Conference the troubles simmered down on the surface, yet they have recently erupted anew following Larry's rejection by the last person I would have expected, Peter Robbins. Peter left a short message on his Facebook page, as composed as he always is, explaining that he was breaking contact with his co-author of Left at East Gate. Since then Wilks has published more material that they claim is evidence of Larry's misdeeds, most notably that he traded counterfeit photographs and artwork. Larry denies this and has responded to these accusations on HPANWO Radio, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/programme-197-podcast-larry-warren.html. It is remarkable and significant that Peter has joined the ranks of those distancing themselves from Larry. I like and respect Peter a lot too and I don't wish to judge him. Right now I'm just very sad that one of the closest, most long term and productive partnerships in UFOlogy has come to an end. Peter's action and Wilks' publication has led to more people doing the same this week, including several people I otherwise admire a lot.

I've had several messages from people asking me where I stand. One said: "Get off the fence! You've been presented with evidence that you have ignored..." This is uncanny because it matches almost to the letter a statement that was posted to me... or should I say posted at me... a few years ago on the anti-Darren Perks drug-den that used to be the original UK exopolitics Facebook group. In fact I've been presented with no evidence against Larry Warren at all. The word presented implies a respectful gift of ideas. I have had a package hurled contemptuously into my face supposedly containing evidence. However the package is wrapped in a parcel of lies, threats, insults and moral blackmail. There is only one response I ever give to that kind of correspondence; I return the parcel to sender with a note enclosed depicting a raised middle finger and a strident "fuck you!" Like all other Truth mobs, this one appears to be built not on rational discussion, but on the aggressive and magnetic bombastic power of its leader. Wilks is apparently writing a book about Larry... Well move over, Jenny Randles! UFO's that Never Were is about to lose its pole position as the most pointless UFO book ever written. It's amazing how much work can be done by a Truth mob; if only the people involved would direct that energy into something creative. My own position is simple; I've seen no reason at all to denounce Larry as a fake UFO whistleblower. I understand why he's a difficult man to get along with sometimes; you should have seen the argument we had about 9/11! But a heart of gold beats beneath that volatile exterior. Actually right now I'm far more interested in the prospects of willing Disclosure happening very soon, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/ufo-disclosure-2016-what-about-trump.html. Now wouldn't that put things into perspective!?
See here for the next part: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/is-larry-warren-fraud-part-2.html.

See here for background: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/truth-mobbed-again.html.

And: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/programme-167-podcast-shill-special.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-shill-squad-2-ben-fellows.html.

Ben Emlyn-Jones on the Kev Baker Show 14

I have been interviewed again on the Kev Baker Show (aka MrGlasgowTruther) on Truth Frequency Radio, see here for the podcast: https://truthfrequencyradio.com/the-kev-baker-show-69341.

And here for the illustrated YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXQNcwbNoKs.

Subjects discussed include: Max Spiers coroner's inquest begins at last, pyramids in Antarctica, new Rendlesham witness and much much more.

See here for my previous appearance on the Kev Baker Show: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/ben-emlyn-jones-on-kev-baker-show-13.html.

Day of Death

Monday the 19th of December 2016 will go down in history as one of the most dramatic and tragic days in recent years. In Berlin a man hijacked a juggernaut and drove it at high speed into a crowd of people shopping at a Christmas market. Twelve consumers were killed and forty-eight injured. (As terrible as that is I can't help wondering why the casualty rate was so much lower than the attack in Nice, France a few months ago, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/programme-201-podcast-nick-kollerstrom.html.) The lorry had a Polish number-plate and the driver is believed to have been killed before somebody else took the wheel. There is a man in custody, but the police are not sure if he is the killer, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38374470. There was also a shoot-out at an Islamic centre in Zurich, Switzerland, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38377878. Then the Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot and killed in Ankara, Turkey. Ironically the murderer was a diplomatic security policeman. The ambassador Andrei Karlov was giving a speech at an art gallery when a man approached him and shot him in the back. He was taken to hospital, but could not be saved. The assassin was named as Mevlut Mert Altintas. He stood at the microphone which Karlov had been using and made a speech about alleged Russian atrocities against Aleppo in Syria. He did not drop his weapon and continued to wave it around as he ranted, so his colleagues had no choice but to shoot him dead as well. It's chilling to think that this event is so very similar to one that happened a hundred and two years ago in Sarajevo, Bosnia in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was shot dead by Gavrilo Princip of the Black Hand Serbian nationalist group. This event triggered the most terrible human conflict in history, at least in purely military terms; see links below. How will Russia respond to this? And who was therefore really behind the Karlov assassination? What makes all this bloodshed even more symbolic is that this day was also when the US Electoral College confirmed Donald Trump as the new president of the United States. Trump appears to be a peacemaker who will ally the USA with Russia and end the "war on terror", but there is still a month left to go before he is inaugurated. Until then the incumbent Barack Obama is still holding the reins and has a window of opportunity to make mischief. What on earth is going to happen now?

See here for background: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/president-trump.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/world-war-i-centenary.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/you-really-dont-like-russia-do-you.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/will-russia-be-blamed-for-jihadists.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/putin-did-it.html.

St Helena Airport- First Military Flight

A Royal Air Force C130 Hercules transport aircraft has landed at St Helena Airport. This is the first military flight to touch down on the new airstrip, the eighteenth aircraft to call since the airport was finished in September 2015; and it flew south from the RAF base on Ascension Island. The St Helena Government has released a brief statement, see: http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/c130j-hercules-aircraft-to-arrive-this-sunday/. It is no secret that the airport on the remote island will be used for defence purposes. The United Kingdom goes to a lot of effort to protect its overseas territories in the south Atlantic region which are all over it. There is St Helena and its neighbours, the British Antarctic Territory and the Falkland Island Dependency. There is no doubt that the airport on St Helena will be taken into account by those planning the perennial strategy to protect the Falkland Islands from Argentina following its invasion and occupation of the islands in 1982, ended by the Falklands conflict. The RAF were on a research and development mission this time, but active maritime aerial patrols will eventually come and go from St Helena. The situation with the Falkland Islands is a strange one which I've covered before. I suspect British enthusiasm for its distant outpost has little to do with any sentimentality over the rights and desires of the Falklander people. It is more likely motivated by a concern over natural resources or even the activity of extraterrestrials, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/jack-of-antarctic-rip.html, http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/real-zombies-2015.html and: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/bezerk-2.html. Interestingly the following blog post about the military landing written by a St Helena resident mentions that there are "conspiracy theorists" on the island. They say: "The sight of such an iconic aircraft on St Helena will no doubt be fuel for the military conspiracy theorists. I remember first hearing opinions voiced at local public information meetings ten years ago that this airport was being built for the military..." See: https://whatthesaintsdidnext.com/2016/12/18/raf-c-130-hercules-first-military-flight-lands-at-st-helena-airport/. Interestingly the crew of the Hercules aircraft have been told not to speak to the media while they're on St Helena. This means elements of their mission are classified.

See here for additional background: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/programme-212-podcast-st-helena-airport.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/tasers-on-st-helena.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/st-helena-airport-opens.html.

Back to the CCS

I've been accused of being a "fascist!" so much lately, for example see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/trystan-swale-and-my-perceived-racism.html. However I'm a great believer in universal free speech and I'm willing to engage with any political idea and any of the people who promote them. In fact last night I attended a leftist meeting. In May 2015 I was very impressed by the Oxford Communist Corresponding Society because they were the only organization in the city willing to discuss the notorious Roswell Slides, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/oxford-communists-and-aliens.html. This time the event took place in the function room of The Mitre, an ancient hotel in the heart of Oxford. The discussion was about the collapse of the political centre left across the world in the last few years. The centre left is what the group called "the kinder face of capitalism"; the idea that the capitalist system, to use their terminology, can be run in a watered down and more humane way. It has recently declined enormously in almost every country. This can be seen in the collapse of parties like the PvdA in the Netherlands, the failure of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in the USA, and Francois Hollande in France; and the fall of the Greek monopoly of the PASOK party. In Britain's case the Labour Party has not collapsed, but it has shifted abruptly and radically to the left with the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, see background articles below. The right has rushed into the vacuum left behind, such as Geert Wilders' Freedom Party in the Netherlands, UKIP; and Donald Trump of course. I pointed out a very perceptive observation made by the palaeo-conservative journalist Peter Hitchens, that the New Labour project has been adopted so incredibly seamlessly by Cameron's Conservative Party that there is no longer any need to associate it with Labour. The last few New Labour die-hards like Tony Blair will probably eventually split and form their own party, or simply become liberal Tories. I also mentioned something that I've brought up on HPANWO many times, that I understand the emotional appeal of politicians like Corbyn, Trump and Bernie Sanders. They're just so much more exciting! Mainstream politics is inherently dull. As I've said before, it is geared towards maintaining a status quo which means it riles against revolutionary change; this is essentially a very monotonous position to hold. "It's just another day at the office" said one of the other people when he described what it would have been like if Hillary had won the US presidency. Trump, Corbyn and Sanders are clearly in politics for idealistic reasons and to have people like that in such a prominent position is thrilling. Supporting them is an adventure. It was a good meeting and the members are genial people who were very welcoming and respectful to me. I had a good conversation with Edmund Griffiths who spoke at the Roswell Slides event. We discussed the outcome of the Slides fiasco, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/my-last-word-on-roswell-slides.html. Also he said something interesting about Michael Shermer, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/michael-shermer-update.html. It was wrong of Shermer to regard his personal paranormal experience as more valid than others. His was a fairly minor encounter compared to those reported by many other people which he has rejected. Unlike Ed, I do think there is some objective reality to the supernatural, but I totally agree with his analysis of Shermer. Either explain away the evidence for these experiences, your own and others; or accept the evidence as real. You can't have it both ways. I see Ed has written a book. I'll have to get a copy; regular readers will know how much I love analyzing skeptic literature, see: http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/index.html.

See here for background: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/jeremy-corbyns-seat-to-be-abolished.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/president-trump.html.

And: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/programme-210-podcast-us-presidential.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/hypernormalisation.html.

Colin's Elbow in the Ribs

Colin Snuggs is a pianist and skeptic from Dover, Kent who was once a long-time contributor to the HPANWO Forum, see link column, where he went under the username "Beetzart". I banned him a few months ago for one reason and one reason alone: his conduct. He will deny it and claim I banned him for being a skeptic, but that's rubbish. One of his last forum posts was: "I know full well that you refuse to be told what to write but how about you broaden your scope a little. Why not look into the civil wars in South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen? Oh I suppose there are no UFOs there or crop circles. You narrow minded fool." This was the last straw in a long series of escalating insults and attacks he made on me and other forum members. Since then he has rejoined under a number of sock-puppet accounts, but he's such a bad actor it takes me no time at all to spot him. What's more he sometimes tries to post comments on my articles. He has his own website called "Colin's Elbow" where he posts about what he calls "woo woo", a skeptic nickname for all things non-skeptic. He talks about thing like: "perhaps Google is a front company for aliens.  Gathering information and surveying the planet.  Totally absurd I know.  I will make it clear I don’t accept ideas as fact without compelling evidence but I don’t mind hypothesis.  People make a living out of telling people what they want to hear no matter how ridiculous it is, like saying the Queen is a reptilian shape shifter or religious nuts." See: http://www.colinsnuggs.co.uk/. I found him very frustrating to talk to because I would try to reply to him in a rational manner and he would just descend into rhetoric, refusing to answer my points and then claim he had proven me wrong! Now I find that he has started a new YouTube channel that seems to be dedicated to lampooning and disparaging this humble author, see: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuDPoTdYyRiqkfGYjC-uFnQ. I'm tempted to lie and say that the embarrassing photo in the avatar is photoshopped, but it's not. It's a still from a joke video I made many years ago, now deleted, when I was active on the official David Icke forum. It was traditional there to celebrate the publication of one of David's new books by making images of ourselves based on the famous I Am Me- I Am Free cover, see: https://www.davidickestore.com/en-gb/product/i-am-me-i-am-free-by-david-icke/. The name "Roid Freedom" comes from a Facebook group Colin and I used to belong to called "Everybody Loves David Icke" and its perennial witticism was that David Icke apparently suffers from haemorrhoids.  

Colin's attitude towards me is very strange. It's obvious he dislikes me intensely and considers my work on HPANWO foolish and contemptible. There are people I feel the same way about, although I don't feel the animosity towards Colin that he does towards me. However, when I do I tend to avoid them, keep them away from me and only even discuss them for therapeutic reasons, for example see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/centaur.html. Yet Colin's antipathy for me has inspired some sort of morbid obsession. For instance, in this video he makes it clear he is still lurking on the HPANWO Forum, one from which he has been permanently banned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRY46WIv9ks. He also carried out a live vigil in the run up to my skeptic talk at New Horizons St Annes, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EYKXwSA2g0 (See here for a recording of it: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/skeptics-who-are-they-why-are-they.html). Some of his spoofs are quite artistic, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lGaNnw8vqw. I am honestly confused over this. Should I feel insulted or flattered? I don't think Colin is a malicious man. We used to get on alright in the early days. It's obvious that I give his life meaning and that's good to know. In fact if it wasn't for me, what would he do with himself? He is driven to arms by his opposition to me. Maybe he's not completely pathological. He does have other interests that are helping him break his addiction. For instance he is a keen piano player; in fact one of his forum nicknames was "the Dover Liberace". He also likes football and supports Dover Athletic FC. So I wish him well. Maybe in a few years he will have got me out of his system and when somebody asks about me he will say: "Ben?... Ben who?"

See here for more information: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/michael-shermer-update.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/andrew-copson-at-greenwich-sitp.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/sally-morgan-skeptic-fail.html.

Helen Duncan Event- January 2017

Following the success of the Helen Duncan Convention last year, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/ben-emlyn-jones-at-helen-duncan.html, there will be another On Saturday January the 14th next year. The venue is the Langthwaite Business Centre, Langthwaite Road, South Kirkby, West Yorkshire. It will feature a live talk by Helen's granddaughter Margaret Hahn. Hopefully there will be some news about the new hope of a pardon, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/helen-duncan-pardon-breakthrough.html. See here for a HPANWO Radio interview with Margaret: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/programme-144-podcast-margaret-hahn.html.

See here for background: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/ben-emlyn-jones-live-as-assap-seriously.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/helen-duncan-wartime-psychic-jailed.html.

Is HPANWO "Fake News"?

Several newspaper websites have released lists of supposed "fake news" websites. This is so viewers will know to avoid them and stick to the real news, the truthful news like the BBC, CNN, The Sun etc. The list includes Infowars, Truth Frequency Radio, Disclose TV and Breitbart... I must say I'm a bit disappointed HPANWO doesn't get a mention. Of course there is such a thing as fake conspiratorial news outlets. Recently I have mentioned Sorcha Faal, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/french-astronaut-ufo-witness-warns-earth.html. But of course the aim of the entire fake news scandal is to confuse and distort the news seeker's perception and discourage them from examining information from non-mainstream sources. They have been particularly targeting commercial outfits. It's important to understand the far more subtle methods of censorship that are most commonly used nowadays. They no longer simply ban things; that's far too blunt. Instead they put out the notion that something is disreputable and psychology does the rest. A while ago I wrote about a banned book I have but it was a dishonest title; it was never literally outlawed. The publisher voluntarily recalled all the copies and pulped them, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/ive-got-banned-book.html. In the same way nobody has banned Breitbart; however Kellogg's has announced that they will no longer be advertising on the Breitbart website because they didn't want their brand associated with that publication. As a result Breitbart have lost a major revenue source. If it spreads they might have to shut down due to lack of funds. And not a single law need be passed. Another method censors use nowadays is to declare a source's content as "hate speech". I myself have been falsely accused of that, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/trystan-swale-and-my-perceived-racism.html. Hate speech is defined by the dictionary as: "Speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of attributes such as gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, disability, or sexual orientation. It includes speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which incites violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected individual or group, or because it disparages or intimidates a protected individual or group." Yet some very influential commentators have described obviously benign statements like: "White people are not evil" or: "Women earn as money much as men" as hate speech. Most people are concerned about censorship, but do you really think we're going to see bonfires of books in the streets and guitarists having their fingers broken? It will never again be as obvious and crude as that. Modern censorship works by manipulating the mass psychology and cultural trends and norms of society. Its methods are devised by the world's greatest experts in psychological warfare and as a result we'll have to work harder to beat it, not least inside our own heads.

See here for background: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/programme-199-podcast-neil-sanders.html.

And: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/programme-214-podcast-trial-of-thomas.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/jason-wilson-on-cultural-marxism.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/rob-brotherton-and-psychology-of.html.

Reading the Ramey Memo- a New Hope

In July of 1947 an artefact from an extraterrestrial civilization came to grief on the Earth's surface and was secretly salvaged by the government. In order to shut down media interest in the issue, the authorities released a fake news story, a piece of disinformation. In one of the famous newspaper photographs of pieces of a weather balloon that the official story said caused all the panic, there is a vital clue to the deception that was not spotted for over fifty years. In the media spot in question we see Gen. Roger Ramey of the 8th Army Air Force and his assistant Col. Thomas Dubose holding pieces of the balsawood and aluminium foil that Maj. Jesse Marcel, a highly trained and experienced intelligence officer, somehow mistook for a flying saucer. Ramey is holding a piece of paper in his hand with some text on it made by a typewriter or telex machine. He was probably carrying it around with him because he was in the middle of a busy day dealing with the fallout from the Roswell Incident and had forgotten to put it down... or perhaps it was a manifestation of subconscious guilt on his part. Because the memo is so far away from the camera and the resolution of the newsprint limited, the text is illegible. It is also partly obscured by a crease in the paper and Gen. Ramey's hand. However in 2001 a research called David Rudiak claimed to have deciphered the writing using a de-blur computer system. He says it is a message from Hoyt Vandenberg who was the contemporary Director of Central Intelligence and later named as part of "Majestic 12". Not every word can be recovered, but Rudiak has interpreted it as follows:

"URGENT- HQAAF (headquarters Army Air Force), WASHINGTON. 8 JUL 1947. VANDENBERG. FROM: HQ 8TH AAF.

SUB: ROSWELL.

(1) FWAAF ACKNOWLEDGES THAT A "DISK" IS NEXT NEW FIND WEST OF THE CORDON. AT LOCATION WAS A WRECK NEAR OPERATION AT THE IN ADDITION... "POD"... AIRFOIL...

(2) ..."RANCH" AND THE VICTIMS OF THE WRECK YOU FORWARDED TO THE TEAM AT FORT WORTH, TEX.

(3) ...AVIATORS IN THE "DISK" THEY WILL SHIP FOR A1-8TH ARMY AMU (Air Materiel Unit), AAF.

(4) ...BY B29-ST (a Boeing B29 aircraft) OR C47. WRIGHT AF (Wright Field AAF) ASSESS AIRFOIL AT ROSWELL. ASSURE. ASSIST FLY-OUT  ABOUT...

(5) ...THAT CIC (commander-in-chief) /TEAM SAID THIS MISSTATE MEANING OF STORY AND THINK NOON. SAID...

(6) LATE TODAY NEXT SENT OUT PR... OF WEATHER BALLOONS WOULD TAKE/WORK...

(7) IF PHOTOS USED AND LAND DEM/RAWIN CREWS. BETTER IF THEY ADD...

TOP SECRET."  

According to Rudiak, there is a lot of uncertainty over some parts of this interpretation; other parts are much more likely to have been decoded accurately. Source: http://roswellproof.homestead.com/.

In October this year a short article was published on a UFO skeptic blog claiming there was now a new chance to de-blur even more of the Ramey Memo using a technique developed by NASA called Video Image Stabilization And Registration- "VISAR". This is today used by the police and government agencies to interpret shaky and fuzzy images from CCTV and mobile phone cameras etc, see: https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/TOP8-58. The author claims that David Rudiak is not interested in using this method and hints that Rudiak doesn't want the Ramey Memo decoded any further because it would prove his original study wrong and reveal that the Memo is not really about aliens and UFO's at Roswell. This is an assumption of Rudiak's motives on the part of the authors, and is it fair? David Rudiak has regularly made himself available for outreach projects. Perhaps the reason for his reticence was the way he was manipulated by the "Roswell Slides" promoters into stating that the placard in the museum cabinet was unreadable and then making people falsely denounce him as a fool or collaborator, see here for details: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/ufo-disclosure-2015-roswell-slides.html. Why doesn't the blog author get somebody else to interpret the Ramey Memo using VISAR; there is a version of the software on open source? Could it be because this skeptic author does not want more information revealed that does support the real UFO explanation for Roswell? Also some people in the comments section say that VISAR wouldn't work for an image like the Ramey Memo photo anyway. Source: http://ufocon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/another-missed-opportunity-to-decipher.html. (What's more Rudiak did reply in the comments to this article, see: http://ufocon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/david-rudiak-responds-but.html?m=0) There is a physical limit on how far a very fuzzy image can be interpreted before it just becomes an exercise in pulling imaginary shapes out of random patterns by pareidolia. This was certainly the case with the photograph of the Roswell slide sent to Rudiak that was not published. It's possible that with the Ramey Memo that limit has already been reached by David Rudiak's initial study. Therefore we will never be certain about the true nature of the Ramey Memo... unless it is declassified during the ET Disclosure process that hopefully lies in the near future.

See here for more information: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/ufo-disclosure-2016-stephen-bassett.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/area-51-extension.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/cosmic-whistleblowers-review.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/happy-world-disclosure-day.html.

Ben Emlyn-Jones on Raconteurs News 2

I have been interviewed on the Raconteurs News show with Andy Young and Jason Holmes, see: https://raconteursnews.com/episode-95-ben-emlyn-jones/, and: https://www.spreaker.com/user/raconteursnews/raconteurs-news-episode-95-with-ben-emly (includes a download option).

Subjects discussed include: my new book Roswell Rising, the background to my research, HPANWO Radio being on Autonomous Media and much much more.

See here for my previous appearance on Raconteurs News: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/ben-emlyn-jones-on-raconteurs-news.html.

Brexit is Back!

...But for how long? The government is currently appealing against "the People's Challenge" lawsuit that won a high court ruling in an attempt to force the government to consult parliament over the referendum result in which the Vote Leave side won. The new hearing is an attempt to overturn Mzzzzzzzz Gina Miller and her devious cohorts, see here for essential background: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/brexit-betrayed.html. However in the meantime parliament has taken the bull by the horns in what is probably a very wise move. They've carried out a pre-emptive vote on Brexit. It was passed by a huge majority. It was a double vote that involved a compromise to get the Labour MP's on board, but there's no doubt Commons members are pretty much against this new twist in the EU-leaving tale and are ready to support the referendum decision. If the government lose their high court appeal, the parliamentary vote in itself may not be enough because it was only a substantive motion; the ruling may demand a full "Article 50 Act", which will cause another few months' delay, but this vote is a useful gauge of parliament's opinion which means the People's Challenge have merely interrupted an inevitable outcome. Source: https://www.rt.com/uk/369545-uk-parliament-article-50-vote/. Among those who voted against the motion are a few predictable names: David Lammy, MP for Tottenham; a nasty little tyrant who initiated the whole "second referendum" farce, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/brexit-awaits.html. So does this mean it will now be plain sailing all the way towards British independence from the EU?... Not a chance! This is just another battle won. The forces opposed to Brexit will double back and regroup. There are already signs that they have other tricks up their sleeve; probably something connected to the Scottish veto, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38250740. I've said it before and I'll say it again; there is only one solution to this crisis: let Scotland repeat their independence referendum taking into account the EU situation. This is not over yet and we must remain alert until the day the Article 50 process is complete.

See here for more background: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/kenneth-clarke-admits-no-brexit.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/brexit-backlash-begins.html.

And: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/programme-193-podcast-eu-referendum.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/brexit-reality.html.

Interviewed by Students

I've been interviewed by a trio of students from a university in south Wales who are working on an article for a magazine. I received a letter from one of them a couple of weeks ago:

"Hi, Ben. I am a third year university student and at the moment a group of us are working on a magazine publication. I was doing some research and came across your website HPANWO, and am very interested to learn more. I want to understand what you do and why you do it. I think you would make a very interesting subject for an article in the magazine."

As you know, I'm very wary of talking to the media, for example see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/bbc-conspiracy-road-trip-ufos.html. However a university magazine is not a problem. So we made arrangements and I met them today. We were in a busy cafe in a shopping centre, but there was nowhere else we could really go. It was a bit noisy, but we managed to have a good conversation. There were three of them, two women and one man, all fairly young. They were polite and friendly and stressed that they weren't there to argue, just to gather my own statements. The man recorded our conversation and took some photographs of the scene. I gave them copies of my first and third books, Evan's Land and Roswell Rising, see: http://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/roswell-rising-is-here.html. (The new edition of my second novel Rockall is available free online: http://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/rockall-chapter-1.html.) They focused on what they saw as my support for Donald Trump in the recent US presidential election. However I explained to them that it was not really support in the literal sense. Yes, if I were American I would have voted for Trump, but this is part of a far bigger subject, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/conspiracy-theorists-finally-proved.html. We discussed UFO Disclosure, the Bilderberg Group, free energy, Kevin Annett, starseeds, indigo children, and much much more. It only took about three quarters of an hour and it was interesting to talk to them. I wish them well in their studies and look forward to seeing the magazine when it is published in the New Year. 

More Pyramids in Antarctica

HPANWO has many times addressed the possibility that what are thought of as natural structures on Earth, and even other planets, are in fact artificial; see background links below for examples. One of the most unlikely places where such objects might be found is Antarctica, but they have and I've written about it before, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/pyramids-in-antarctica.html. Now another of these pyramids has been found on the south polar continent. Naturally the skeptics have struck back. At first they said that the source of the information, the Third Phase of the Moon YouTube channel, has doctored the image. Third Phase is not the most reliable source in my view, but this doesn't mean every single word they say is false. Anyway this is not true. The pyramidal object can be found on Google Earth at the grid coordinates: 79 degrees 58' 39.2" S - 81 degrees 57' 32.2" W. So the skeptics then raised the bar in typical fashion and claimed that it's just a mountain; a nunatak to be precise. This is a mountain on land covered by an ice cap that is tall enough to stick through above it. However if it is a natural mountain its shape is extraordinarily regular. These do not line up with the cardinal points, but I wonder if it happens to be 19.47 degrees off. The reason for this is because it is a geometric constant generated by placing a tetrahedron inside a sphere with all points touching the edge. If one point on the pole then the others will touch at the opposite parallel of 19.47. This seems to be a location of particular activity on the Earth. It is the latitude of Hawaii, the planet's biggest volcano, and the Great Bend of the river Nile. A coincidence? Then look at other planets. It's also the latitude of Olympus Mon on Mars, Mars' biggest volcano and the largest known volcano in the solar system. It's also the latitude of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter and the Great Dark Spot on Neptune. The tower of coincidences it getting very tall and wobbly. The cry of coincidence could also be used to explain why this "mountain" has four ridges completely straight and square to each other. In fact it looks exactly the same shape as the pyramids in Egypt. Sure, you can see that there are some irregularities; this is obvious in the shadow it casts, but that looks to be caused by the mound of snow on its northern flank. It is also clearly old and somewhat eroded. Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3960052/Is-PYRAMID-Antarctic-Bizarre-theory-claims-alien-base-hidden-huge-triangular-structure.html.

The Third Phase video suggests this is why the Secretary of State John Kerry took a trip to Antarctica. There is no reason to suggest it had anything to do with this pyramid, in my view; yet there are still other questions over it that I might be able to cover in the future. The skeptics say that pyramidal mountains are common like the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Bulandstindur in Iceland. They are allegedly natural formations that are pyramidal. Really? Take a look at them: https://www.britannica.com/place/Matterhorn-mountain-Europe and:   https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@64.696267,-14.4082426,2025m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en. As I've said before, if you're going to play the coincidence card you must first declare a statistical ceiling above which your hypothesis can be falsified; and you must explain why, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/pan-pareidolia.html. Therefore the skeptics are being far more irrational than Third Phase ever is in their craziest moments. Source: http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/the-truth-about-the-mysterious-pyramid-discovered-in-antarctica/. If this is indeed an artificial structure in the middle of the frozen wastes of Antarctica then who... or what... built it? There's no need to put it immediately down to extraterrestrials, like Third Phase does, but this is a possibility. It could be made by human beings from earth, but then it would have to be extremely old. There is a lot of controversy about how old the Antarctic ice cap is. Some say it formed millions of years ago when continental drift pushed the continent over the South Pole. The general idea is that the east Antarctic ice cap is permanent. It formed about forty-five million years ago and has never melted, even during the warmest periods of climate change. This is millions of years before humans evolved from apes. Yet the west Antarctic sheet is transient. It comes and goes depending on how hot or cold global temperatures are. The pyramid is in the Ellsworth Mountains in west Antarctica so it could have been built the last time that area was free of ice. I don't know when that was, but there could have been a prehistoric civilization capable of building something like that back then. Maybe it also had the knowledge that led to the Piri Reis map on which you can see Antarctica marked without the ice, see: http://old.world-mysteries.com/sar_1.htm. The only way to find out is to send an expedition to visit the pyramid. Adventures to Antarctica are not like going on holiday to the Costa del Sol. It takes a lot of money, expertise in survival and permission from the authorities governing the place under the Antarctic Treaty. The last of those three is probably the most difficult challenge. As I've said before, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/jack-of-antarctic-rip.html, there are many many secrets in Antarctica of all kinds. Still, if anybody has the cash and gets the go-ahead, let me know because I want to come with you!

See here for more information: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/underwater-pyramid-found-at-azores.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/mystery-object-spotted-on-moon.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/strange-new-discoveries-in-egypt.html.

And: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/skeptics-in-pub-18808.html.

Awakening of 12 Strands Premiere

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed the film maker Sandra Daroy on HPANWO Radio, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/programme-213-podcast-sandra-daroy.html. She directed the Bases Project Film Festival Award™ nominated short The Walk-in Case and has now just completed her feature-length drama Awakening of 12 Strands. The film will hold its official premiere on Saturday the 17th of December at 12:30 PM. The venue is The Black Swan Hotel, 25/26 Market Place, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 1JQ. £10 entry, plus a complementary drink. Formal dress please. Please do get there if you can. I've seen a preview and it's a very good film that discusses MilAbs, alien abduction, targeted individuals, UFO Disclosure, mind control, spirituality and all associated subjects. See you there!
Edit: CANCELLED

See here for more background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/bases-2015.html.

Word of the Year- "Post-Truth"

Every year the Oxford English Dictionary publishes a new edition of its established list of English vocabulary with a number of neologisms, emergent words that have just been thought up. Last year these included: "selfie" and "to twerk". (I've predicted that the word "roswell" will one day be added as a common noun, see: http://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/ben-emlyn-jones-on-bases-talks.html. I've also invented my own word: "to dvark". This is a tone of voice and style of speech sometimes used by hostile skeptics when they debate non-skeptics, especially on the internet, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/skeptics-who-are-they-why-are-they.html.) This year's neologisms come mostly from the world's current unusual political landscape: "Brexiteer", "alt-right" and "woke"-as an adjective. Another predictable addition is "coulrophobia"- a fear of clowns, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/creep-clowns-return.html. However, the Dictionary always awards one neologism with the title "Word of the Year" and for 2016 it has chosen "post-truth". This word has been used for a long time before being given an official reference; it was probably coined in the early 1990's. It is defined by the OED as: "Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." That's not a very good definition. We already have plenty of others terms for that meaning: "propaganda", "rhetoric", "public relations"; or, if I'm in a cynical mood, "politics in general". Based on news stories about this, the definition has been influenced by "Remoaners" and those "butthurt" people dreading the "Trumpocalypse" (Will those three words get a mention next year? I've heard them all and I didn't make them up). It implies that the people of Britain and the United States of America have lost the capacity for reasoned thought and so they do things that are totally against their best interest, like voting to Leave the democratic paradise of the European Union or failing to elect the "First Woman President!" who longs for peace in the Middle East, funds and arms the feminist utopia of Saudi Arabia and has worked so tirelessly to jail her own husband for his sexual predations... My sarcasm will not be lost on you; and it is appropriate because there's no other way to express how misanthropic the lower levels of the authorities and their lackeys have become towards the common people. You can always trust The Guardian to reveal the new left's sordid thought processes, see: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/15/post-truth-named-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries.

The official definition of "post-truth" also goes against the literal formation of the word. "Post-truth" is a compound word and the prefix "post" indicates a past situation that no longer applies to the present. Other examples are "post-war": a period of time after a war has ended; and "post-mortem": something relating to somebody after they have died. So a more empirical definition of "post-truth" refers to a time when truth used to exist in the past and no longer does. It could be applied to describe the marketing and advertising industry after the revolution caused by Edward L Bernays. He stopped trying to persuade customers that they should buy his product by addressing them with a rational argument; treating them as beings capable of logical decisions. Instead he used psychological trickery to manipulate them into buying his product by appealing to their subconscious urges, see: https://vimeo.com/82688215. This Word of the Year neologism is usually used in conjunction with "politics" usually as "post-truth politics", but has there ever been a time when politics has been "truth"? So therefore can there realistically be a resulting "post" situation? God, I wish so much that George Orwell were still alive. Main source: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016.

See here for more information: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/was-orwell-mediocre.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/brexit-reality.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/president-trump.html.

"Why do Women never Date Nice Guys?"

I've received an angst-ridden letter from somebody whose name I won't divulge, but I'll call him "Eric". It goes: "Hi Ben, I wonder if you could tell me the answer to something that's really bothering me. Why do women never date nice guys? I'm a nice guy and continuously single. I'd really like to have a girlfriend, but women are not interested in me. They just get hot for complete arseholes..." I won't repeat the rest of his email because it's too painful to read. The reason it's painful is because it resonates with so much of my own youthful torment. Eric is uncannily similar to me, or at least how I used to be. My memories of that period of my life are still distasteful to recall. I don't know how old Eric is, but I get the impression he is much younger than I am, possibly still a teenager. Of all the correspondence I receive from readers, listeners and viewers from the world of HPANWO, I never thought I'd be dropped into the role of agony aunt. This has come at a bad time for me because my own relationship of eight years ended a few weeks ago. Still, I composed a reply to him:

Hi Eric.

Thanks for writing and I'm sorry you're finding the world of dating and romance so frustrating. I know exactly how you feel, more so than almost any other person I've come across. Coming to terms with your predicament will mean facing up to some very unpalatable facts and also this will mean you will need to be tough and not lose hope. I too am a nice guy, or "beta male" to use the more fitting terminology and have had the identical problem. The first thing you must do is avoid feeling envious and bitter at the men who are more successful with women than you are. They are not "arseholes"... well, not all of them are. They are simply "alpha males". Being an alpha male is not a bad thing or character flaw. It is simply who they are, just like being a beta male is who we are. Alpha males can become good men if they succeed at their own challenges; this usually involves avoiding being arseholes! By that I mean channelling their natural egotism and aggression into a positive force. They can be great leaders, sportsmen, warriors, explorers and adventurers (not that you have to be an alpha male to do these things; it just means you possess an inherent advantage). The majority of women are naturally more attracted to men like that because they are more masculine. That's life I'm afraid. You can't change that and it would be wrong to even if you could. It's important not to feel angry at these women; they are only doing what comes naturally. The second thing you must do is not give up on being yourself. I bet anything your friends have at some point told you: "Eric, you've got to stop being so nice!" That's what my friends did to me and I believed them. I tried to stop being nice and that was a huge mistake. It didn't work. It did more than just not work; it turned me into a monster. I had to go back to being a nice guy again and when I did it was a huge relief. You cannot go against the fundamental nature of your being and if you try you will destroy yourself. I'm glad I came through that terrible period of my life because I then realized the good news. At the beginning of your email you wrote: "Why do women never date nice guys?" but it would be more accurate to ask: Why do women date nice guys much less. Women are not just components of a uniform whole; they are all individuals, just like men, who have different needs and desires at different phases of their lives. Once I found a way to accept myself and be at peace with my niceness, I discovered that some women actually do date nice guys. A minority, sure, but they are definitely there; and sooner of later you will come across one who will be attracted to you. She will probably be quite a lot older than you. Somebody who has been through the high-speed helter-skelter of youth, but has now become calmer and mellower as she has matured. She will be more understanding and accepting of what you have to offer her, things that the men she knew previously could not give her: tenderness, respect, intimacy, caring, companionship and; yes love. She might have children around your own age, but that doesn't matter. She may still want to settle down with you and maybe even become a wife and mother again. You can still be a good stepfather to her existing children even if you are not much older, or even younger, than they are. I'm not saying that this is the one answer to your life. It's just what I have discovered through my own experience. You've asked me for my advice and I've given it to you. It could turn out that the solution you find is totally different to the one I've suggested here. Either way I wish you luck; and also, more importantly, I wish you strength.

Best wishes.

Ben

I hope that helps him. I feel uncomfortable getting involved in matters like that. After all I'm not a trained counsellor, but what he wrote to me really moved me. He sounds like a decent young man and I hope he finds happiness; hopefully with somebody else, but, even more importantly, with himself.

After I read the letter out on HPANWO Radio, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/programme-213-podcast-sandra-daroy.html, somebody else wrote to me about it; I'll call her "Liz". She said: "I think that women will go for either an alpha or a beta male if their income and lifestyle permits, ie £75,000+ per year. The real reason why that kid can't get girls is the increased level of brainwashing in women. They now only go for corporate whore slave men in Mercedes lol. Remember the mind controllers worked out that they couldn't mind control men as easily as they didn't try new things. Women however do, plus the controllers said if you threaten the kids the women will do anything... You should send him Mark Passio's last talk on the unholy feminine ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65GNSDDnh_8. Xx." I'm not sure I agree that women are easier to mind control than men, but I respect Mark Passio. It's amusing to talk to a woman who is even more of a radical anti-feminist than me. It's wonderful that more and more women are turning away from feminism. If anything they can usually sniff it out long before men do. Because they're allowed to see a side of it men are not, they can understand feminism better; with its false promises, warped worldview, its incitements to acts of brutality, its glorification of injustice. All the most prominent men's rights activists are women, like Alison Tieman, Dr Tara Palmatier, Janet Bloomfield, Suzanne Venker. In fact if you're a man and you attend a men's rights gathering, such as a screening of Cassie Jaye's The Red Pill, see: http://theredpillmovie.com/, you may feel like you're invading a female space! Because of the dominance of feminism in society, it has failed to realize something very important: a young man is a very fragile thing. Society treats them as unbreakable rubber balls that you can just throw against the wall as often as you like, but they're not. I hope Eric will not be thrown anywhere.

See here for more information: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/grimlys.html.

And: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/gone-to-seed.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/adx-files-38-women-in-ufology.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/a-friend-to-all.html.