Earthquakes Rock Oklahoma

Over the past couple of years, earthquake frequency and strength have risen in Oklahoma, a state most wouldn't equate with such tectonic activity. In fact, 2010/11 has been the most active so far, and just days ago the Sooner State saw its strongest yet--at nearly 6 points. I've blogged about this increased activity before and postulated whether it could be a precursor to another event along the New Madrid fault, a potentially dangerous scenario for those cities along the Mississippi River. But in Oklahoma, the Meers Fault has been active as well, and one wonders if it isn't becoming something with which Oklahomans will have to deal with in the future. Records of seismic activity in Oklahoma are less than 100 years old, so in a geological sense we're quite ignorant as to what might be "normal" for this region. Is this a new threat emerging or a cyclical activity that will subside with time?  We'll have to wait and see.

The Yellow Brick Road Goes On

Kansas, long made famous for the strangely colored roadway leading to an even more bizarre colored city, recently was host to another kind of event.  It was, some might say, equally strange.   OZUFO explored in Lawrence, Kansas not only the idea of UFO's but various other aspects related to how people interpret them, how society views them, and the possibility of disclosure, but mostly on censorship (formal and informal) of the topic itself. Everything from the nudge and wink news caster recounting a story to the threat of bodily harm to those who experienced strange events was explored.

Despite recent White House assurances to the contrary, there is still the possibility that the truth remains hidden behind a curtain with perceptions controlled by levers  and knobs of censorship and disinformation.   The truth spills out in tiny drops and leaves a trail leading back to larger possibilities. The 'secret NASA' long thought to be a product of fevered cold war imaginations and UFO hysteria has now been recognized as truth.  Other leaks and clues have likewise been - quietly - released officially providing legitimacy for some wild theories: Operation Paperclip and the psychic operations experiments of the military  just two examples.

Where is the modern version of a dogged Toto who will pull aside the curtain once and for all?   Who, most importantly, will we find standing there as the manipulator of reality?

(Stone) Giants Among Men

Many of us are familiar with the Nazca lines of Peru or the chalk giants of England, but lesser known--and closer to home--is the Penokee Figure of Graham County, Kansas.

Resting atop a hill above the Solomon River Valley, the Penokee Man (or Indian as he is sometimes referred) is comprised of more than 100 stones ranging from 6 inchest to more than a foot wide. The figure's entire dimensions exceed 57 feet in length and over 30 feet wide.

No one knows exactly who built it or how old it is precisely. An 1879 examination by a Harvard paleontologist likened it to other giant stone figures found throughout the northern plains regions, including human-like figures and the famous medicine wheels.