CDs of the Ancient? Or Alien LPs?

What are they? Where did they come from? Who made them? WHat do they do?

The story of the Dropa Stone: In 1938, an archeological expedition was sent to investigate a secluded area of the Baian-Kara-Ula Mountains on the border that divides China and Tibet. The group discovered a series of caves at the summit of the mountains. The caves contained a large collection of graves and the walls were decorated with drawings of people with elongated heads together with images of the sun, moon, and stars.  The archeologists uncovered the graves and discovered the remains of ancient beings.  The skeletons were a little more than three feet tall, with abnormally large skulls. Inside of the tombs a collection of stone disks were recovered. The disks were almost twelve inches in diameter, with a hole in the center.  The objects had a groove on the surface of the disk and spiraled outwards from the center hole forming a double spiral. Closer inspection showed that the grooves were actually a line of small carvings or signs.

The disks were labeled the Dropa Stones. Subsequent investigations have found a total of 716 Dropa Stones in the Baian-Kara-Ula Mountain caves.  The Dropa Stones were sent to a variety of scholars for investigation.  One of them, Professor Tsum Um Nui of the Beijing Academy for Ancient Studies, found that the spiral grooves were actually a line of characters written in an unknown language. In 1962, he announced that he had managed to translate the language. For a long time, the Peking Academy of Prehistory forbade the professor from publishing anything about the Dropa Stones. However, after many years of debate he published his hypothesis.

Tsum Um Nui claims that an alien spacecraft crashed in the Bayan Har Shan region 12,000 years ago. The occupants were aliens called Dropa or Dzopa.  The Dropa could not repair their craft, so they tried to adapt to the conditions on Earth. Meanwhile, the local Ham tribesmen hunted down and killed most of the aliens. Supposedly, the aliens had intermarried with the locals, making identification of the origins of the skeletons more difficult. Many people have challenged these claims and Tsum Um Nui was forced to resign from the Beijing Academy.  The Dropa Stones have been disappearing all over the world and are not available for public viewing at any museum.  However, pictures of the artifacts do exist.

Perseid Meteors Tonight: If You Can't Watch, You Can Listen

The 2011 Perseid meteor show will be largely masked tonight - the peak night of the year - thanks to a gorgeous full moon. But if you're into meteors and spacial things that go "glow" in the night - take heart. While you may not be able to see but only the brightest of meteorites falling through our atmosphere this year, you can still hear them What?! Yes - hear them.  Distant FM radio signals tend bounce off the streaks of hot, ionized gas the meteors leave in their wakes as speed through our atmosphere, meaning if you take a small FM radio with you when you head outdoors to catch a glimpse of the showers, you may not see some of them, but when a snippet of a distant song comes across your radio speaker or a "ping" can be heard where you normally wouldn't be hearing a FM station, then you will know a meteorite just streaked across the moon-filled sky even though you didn't see it. I would recommend tuning to a station a couple of hundred miles or more away from you - one you don't normally get, and make certain it is the only station on that frequency in your area. You might hear a ping instead of the actual station - and that makes it all the cooler because it sounds like -- well, like spacey stuff out of a science-fiction movie. It sounds like this. In fact, that is it! It is better if you listen with headphones. See what you can learn from a radio guy?

A FEW FACTS
The meteors are bits of debris that comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle casts off when it approaches the sun, warms, and begins shedding its dust and gas. The shower gets its name from the constellation Perseus, which appears to be the point in the sky from which the shower originates. Swift-Tuttle returns once every 130 years. But each August, Earth's orbit takes it through the debris cloud Swift-Tuttle leaves behind. Over the last five years, the number of meteors one could expect to see in an hour under dark skies has ranged from 93 in 2007 to 173 in 2009. But, like this year, 2009's display was tempered by a nearly full moon.

WALL STREET: RIP OFF AMERICA

For those that may not have a clue, Wall Street is not your buddy. Oh sure, in years past Wall Street represented at least a little part of the Great American Dream. But rest assured, today's stock market(s) is not your Daddy's stock market. Greed, power-hunger, monopoly grabbing insiders have degraded the markets with enough inside trading, misleading assessment and tightly controlled leadership to make the open market little more than a playground for the elite and their buddies who are getting filthy rich at the expense of the average speculator. This is not an empty accusation. There is a horrifying game taking place below radar that is nothing more than complete and total manipulation of the open market and chances are slim that an average investor will weather the tricks, deceit and lies being fed to the media designed to influence investors into putting their money in a market that is programmed to rise and fall at the whims of these insiders. They get rich, you get poor and as they gain more control and power, you are headed down a road you should not be on. Times have changed, and so, apparently, has the honor among financial markets. Invest in yourself - not in the market. This little piece of advise you can trust - and hopefully take to the bank!

The Mysterious Disappearance of Ambrose Bierce

Following the recent airing of the season three premiere episode of the Ancient Aliens TV Series, "Aliens in the Old West", I have received a great deal of correspondence from fans of the program wanting to know more about adventurer and writer Ambrose Bierce and the strange story surrounding his mysterious disappearance in 1913 America. While I have included a section on Bierce in my latest book release (Ancient Aliens of the Americas) for those of you who want a more detailed look, I thought I would provide a link about the incident for those of you who want just the "short of it" - the bottom line to this great American mystery.
http://loganhawkes.com/ambrose.htm

My New Book Trailer - Ancient Aliens of the Americas

Not Your Daddy's Cap...But It Works!

I'm dating myself here, but how could a guy my age not jump at the chance to relive those Golden Years of adolescence by catching the new Captain America:First Avenger summer blockbuster? Or will the new movie release be a summer bust?

I grabbed the chance on opening weekend and was a little disappointed - not in the movie necessarily but in the turn out at the box office. I admit I watched the film at an odd hour, meaning not the peak time for movie goers to line up at the theater. None-the-less, I couldn't help notice that by and large those assembled for the screening were "older" - not your typical young crowd that the Marvel super hero movies seem to attract, making me wonder if the Cap - my all time favorite super hero as a kid - just isn't as popular anymore with the young crowd, not like Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) or Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) or even DC's Batman (Christian Bale) or, for Heaven's sake, evil hero The Joker (the late Heath Ledger).

What's the world coming to? Admittedly, American patriotism is not exactly at an all time high (thanx to the idiots in American politics - and I do mean all of them), plus this new Cap movie is actually a period piece set in the early 1940s. Still, in a day when Superman is denouncing his U.S. citizenship to appeal to an apparent "New World Order" crowd and in the latest X-Men movie the characters are getting younger instead of older (I assume to impress the younger crowd), one must wonder what has gone wrong to dampen the enthusiasm for America's greatest hero of all time? Am I just that old and outdated?

I must be. Most of the other theater patrons were older (like me) and the crowd was rather sparse to say the least. That's not to say the other screenings weren't packed. Maybe the movie will do well by the end of the weekend when the final box office numbers come in. Still, it has me worried. I caught the movie at an early release party on Wednesday night - in spite of being "under the weather" - yet I still enjoyed the movie greatly.

It doesn't help that the film is being released a week after the final Potter thriller and a week before Spielberg's Cowboys & Aliens - a tough sandwich when you're in the middle. And Marvel didn't give the movie as much promotional play as they typically do, like for the recent Thor flick and X-Men First Class.  Add to that the difficultly of trying to make a quality movie about such a dynamic super hero and it makes the chances for a successful Captain America film difficult at best.

For what it's worth, the producers did a pretty good job with the film and it was well worth the ticket price to see my favorite shield-wielder in action. If you miss it you will have missed a good flick - nuff said.

GOOD OL' BOYS? I THINK NOT!

I hate to be a critic on the Fourth of July weekend, but it never ceases to amaze me that we think, for even a moment, that we are free Americans because we follow one candidate or another, or one party or another. Like lambs led to slaughter, we buy into the great military-industrial complex bull shit and pretend that our party, our candidate, is the one that will lead us back to real freedom, while all the time they are passing Patriot Acts and limiting our freedoms and wholesaling our individual rights as if we don't have enough sense to realize they are working for their own nefarious designs. We the People are treated as monkeys who will buy into any rhetoric and accept any weak campaign designed to take us farther down the road of self destruction. As a true blood American, I encourage everyone to stand up and question those in power, make them accountable for their deeds, and judge them with common sense and good reasoning and demand they keep the power of government where it belongs, WE THE PEOPLE. Happy Fourth of July. Let's get back to basics and stop these political wars and insane religious campaigns!

Radio From A Nuke Bomb Shelter

The current fire tragedy near Los Alamos reminds me of the days of the 2000 fire that burned across the National Lab. I was working for KBAC Radio Free Santa Fe at the time, but my first radio gig in New Mexico was with a station in Los Alamos not far from the front gate of Los Alamos National Lab. It was an amazing experience and the most unique station I ever worked. It was located beneath the ground in a bonafide nuclear bomb shelter - no kidding! Stored in the closets were rations for survival and I will never forget the big yellow handle on the wall, a device you could turn by hand and circulate the stale air in the bomb shelter with fresh, filtered air from above. I doubt the shelter-station studio could have survived an actual direct nuclear hit, but it did survive the Sierra Grande fire in 2000. The station was subsequently sold to Clear Channel, where I worked for sister station KBAC. But Los Alamos radio will forever go down in my book as the most unusual and freaky station I ever worked. But there were a few others...

By the way, I certainly had some interesting guests while working there, including brilliant and leading scientists and black-suited government agents ... not to mention the DOD investigator that paid me a strange visit. But that's a story for another time...

Mysterious Crystal Cave of Mexico

Mysterious, alluring and deadly, there’s a natural cave in Northern Mexico hidden from the casual observer, buried deep beneath a silver mine and threatened by the industry that uncovered it. And should it one day (soon) disappear, destroyed by human intrusion, its loss will be monumental, the destruction of a place so rare and magnificent that it could hold a magnitude of secrets about the Earth and how it was formed – and what it looked like hundreds of thousands of years ago before man ever walked the planet. Known simply as the Crystal Cave, or Cueva de los Cristales, this geologic wonder represents a milestone of discovery, a cave of gigantic crystals that reach from floor to ceiling filling the chamber with an otherworldly appearance and where the environment is so hot and humid that those brave enough to venture into its perplexing structure run the risk of never leaving. READ THE STORY

The Mystery of Ancient Tiahuanaco

There is a strange and very ancient city in the Andean Mountains near Lake Titicaca, a place of mystery, a ruin site full of relics of unknown origin and of unknown age. Tiahuanaco is a city from out distant past, but no one seems to know just how distant. Archeologists tell us the ruins are full of controversy, difficult to date and even harder to explain. Some speculate the old city may be much older than we imagine, perhaps a hold over from another era, from a time before we believe time began.   CONNECT HERE

Cherokee Brothers and Sisters All...

A short list of some famous tsilagi...Wes Studi, Kevin Costner,Val Kilmer, Johnny Depp, Burt Reynolds, James Garner, Chuck Norris, James Earl Jones, Lou Diamond Philips, David Carradine, Jonas Brothers, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)  & daughter Liv Tyler, Nokie Edwards (The Ventures), John Phillips (The Mamas and the Papas), Jimmy Griffin of Bread (band), Eartha Kitt, Tim McGraw, Bill McGrath, Billy Ray Cyrus & Miley Cyrus, Anita Bryant, Megan Fox, Elvis Presley, Carmen Electra, Rita Coolidge, Tina Turner,
Tiffany(singer), Scott Stapp, Loretta Lynn & Crystal Gayle(singing sisters), Sam Bradford(Heisman Trophy Winner), Cher, Jack Dempsey, Janeane Garofalo, Johnny Bench, Park Owens(baseball)
Cherokee Parks(basketball) ... and others. Check it out

Chasing Rabbit Trails...

The problem with researching ancient history for a new book is that so many trails lead to more trails - which lead to more trails. If the esteemed H.G. Wells would have shared his time machine with us, how much easier would it have been to collect the information I need in a much more efficient manner? One setting on the dial and 'ZAP', I could be in the place in time I needed to go, perhaps ancient Mesa Verde or Tikal or Tiahuanaco. But then, one would need to survive those trips back to ancient times, and survival in those days was certainly no certainty. Back to the research library I'm afraid. Sheesh - I need a clone...

Guest Appearance on Mancow Muller National Radio Show

Looks like I will be a guest on the Mancow Muller Radio Show later this month. If you're an early bird you can catch the show live Friday, June 17, 6 a.m. Central Time. The Mancow Show is syndicated to over 200 radio station nationwide, so about 12 million of you will be able to listen in. We'll be talking about historical close encounters of the 1800s, so check it out if you get the chance.  Visit the show site

Food of the Gods...

The saving grace to the summer season for me is fresh shrimp ceviche, Quintana Roo style! While living on Isla Mujeres some years back, I survived on ceviche, fresh corn tortillas, caribean lobster tails grilled on an open fire at the rented beach house and Superior beer - plus lots of habenero chile, lime juice and tequila. My favorite however was the frozen lime slush drink served at a drink bar right on the zocalo - the perfect start to the day and welcome respite from the searing sun during the peak of summer. I miss those days - I miss that Island!  Visit My Isla

Oh for the Woe of Summer

Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.    -- Sydney Smith

Watching the X-Men Movie reminded me...

I'm not getting any younger. Seemed like a couple of years back Professor X and Magneto were old guys. Now they seem so young! Of course, the new movie (out today) is one of those "origin" movies - and I knew that going into it. But it was still weird watching young actors play the main roles - enough so that it makes you feel old even if you're not. Weird...

It was a full moon night in a historical Texas coastal town and Carla and I were anxious to check our new lens and cinematic features on our Canon XF, so a walk through an old graveyard seemed a perfect way to do it. Or view in on YouTube

So you made it...

As promised (and as encouraged by some of you - and you know who you are), this is my new "personal" blog. It's my place to be both serious and frivolous, focused and abstract, so kick off your shoes, let your hair down, and hang for a bit, and for crying out loud, register for the blog and start commenting. If I'm going to do this, then live up to your part, at least until I get the hang of it and go blitz-oid over the pages with random thoughts and Little known facts about whatever comes to my mind. This could be dangerous!

I should say, up front and personal - in your face - this blog is a shameless example of self exposure, for the shameless people that work in marketing say it is absolutely imperative that I am social networking "social" - whatever the zing that means. So Hip Hop and Away blog rollers, starting commenting, make us some lies, tell me what you want to see here - videos? audio files? Photos? Book reviews? Tales of misadventures and treasure hunts? I could go on... but now it's your turn. Blog, damn it.

My New Release

Fresh off the presses, Close Encounters of the Old West, a novel, is at book stores and at Amazon.com right now! If you're into history the way it could have been (or the way it was a we just don't realize it), you'll enjoy this story that combines the Old West with science fiction, a touch of horror, Native American legend, action and a lot of fun.

The story centers around Cherokee half-breed Jonah "Ten Killer" Montana, recruited by a dying American President to investigate the mysterious and the strange of an ever-expanding nation. Consider it the X-Files of the Old West, an encounter with an neafrious alien species, and a dark conspiracies of world domination and enslavement of the human race rolled into one.

With the aid Molly Langtry, a liberated rancher's daughter who can shoot and still remain a lady, and with the mystical counsel of Jonah's full-blood Cherokee grandfather, a Keeper of Legends and Lore, and an American inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, young Jonah sets out to save the world. Chocked full of historical references and 'real' historical figures, the novel is based upon actual and published accounts of Old West strange sightings in the sky and close encounters of the third kind. Discover history the way it may have been in this story, and enjoy a comprehensive appendix highlighting actual published reports from newspaper and magazines of the 1800s, and an appendix of words and phrases of the Cherokee language. Check it out today at http://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-West-Logan-Hawkes/dp/1461089859/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307070872&sr=1-6