The Aliens are Coming! The Aliens are Coming!

Cults are bad.

An estimated 20,000 New Age believers say that a mountain in France is home to aliens who will rescue them from an apocalypse and have started to flock to the foot of Pic de Bugarach. The group, being referred to as "esoterics" believe that the world as we know it will end on December 21st, 2012. They also believe that the unique mountain is home to a race of aliens that will emerge to rescue the humans and transport them to a new civilization.

Pic de Bugarach has long been famous because rock samples taken from its peak are actually older than points measured at lower elevation. Scientists say that is because when the 1,230 meter mountain erupted its peak flipped upside down before crashing back down upon the mountain's base. The mountain is said to have played a role in inspiring everything from Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth," to Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

The BBC says that the French government is concerned about mass suicides taking place and that there have been reports of strange rituals taking place there. Other rumors surrounding the mountain include that both Israel's Mossad and Nazis have both preformed "mysterious" exavation digs there. Over 100,000 people are expected to flock there before the Dec. 21 date.

"The apocalypse we believe in is the end of a certain world and the beginning of another," one of the New Age pilgrims going only by the name "Jean," tells the paper. "A new spiritual world. The year 2012 is the end of a cycle of suffering. Bugarach is one of the major chakras of the earth, a place devoted to welcoming the energies of tomorrow."

Eerieely enough, this perticular group reminds this writer of a famous cult called the "Heaven's Gate" where its followers killed themselves, believing that aliens would also rescue them from danger. Personally, I think the whole thing is silly. The world is not going to end in December and aliens would not save you anyways. Remember those end-of-the-world prophecies last year? Yeah, those didn't happen. Somehow, I don't think this one will either. To read the whole thing and watch the video, click here.


One writer for Yahoo has his own opinion. 

I want to talk about this article for several reasons. Not only does the reader detect some serious sarcasm and maybe some anger going on, but the article states some interesting opinions about swearing. Perticularly the F-word.

According to this one article, Garrett High School in Indiana expelled Austin Carroll for using swear words in a tweet outside of school. While I would repeat the transcribed tweet for you here, I feel as if I shouldn't as I have clearly stated that no swearing or profanity shall pass on this blog. Even if the words are beeped/dotted/stared/blocked out. But since I feel as if this is a good article to make a point on, I'll link you to the article to decide for yourselves and I will rant here.

According to the article in one New York magazine, the F word is ""Its grammatical versatility cannot be topped: You can use it as noun, verb, adverb, adjective, or interjection, not to mention in any mood whatsoever, from exultation to rage.""

This is something that I find somewhat offensive. Why? Because I simply hate swearing and believe that not only does it make you sound stupid (when you use it all the time; after all, it is meant to be a strong word. If you use it all the time then it is not so special when you use it when something bad happens), but that it is unneeded except in strong cases. Its things like that that our society uses to justify the use of swear words in everyday, mundane conversations.

I actually took the liberty of looking up the word on Dictionary.com and found that it can indeed be used as a verb (used with or without object), a noun, or an interjection. So by the way, according to Dictionary.com, you cannot use it as an adverb or an adjective. Sorry to burst your bubble.

 In definition (this actually reminds me of the day when my sixth grade teacher made us all look up the word, "retard" because she wanted to prove a point about how we shouldn't call people that) it generally has something to do with sex or is used as an expression of strong disgust or anger.

In terms of mood? I believe that the word is not fit for "any mood whatsoever". Since when is it okay for me to use it when I'm happy? I can understand if something horrible happened, but in everyday conversations, swear words should not be needed.

Anyways, here's the article if you want to read it for yourselves. And feel free to disagree or agree with me.

Crazy Pilots too now?
A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas was forced to fly to Texas after the pilot apparently went crazy, or "became incoherent and had to be subdued". Flight 191 which had departed from John F. Kennedy International Airport at 7:28 a.m., had to fly instead to Amarillo because of what the airline called "a medical situation involving the captain."

According to CBSNewYork.com citing a federal official, the co-pilot became concerned and "convinced the captain to leave the cockpit and then locked him out." After the captain "started pounding on the cockpit door," he was subdued by an off-duty NYPD officer and an off-duty pilot. The plane landed at 11:11 a.m. in Amarillo, JetBlue said.

Apparently now the FBI is involved. And passengers said that the captian "raced inside an airliner screaming obscenities and shouting about threats from al-Qaida and bombs aboard the aircraft." "He "went to a restroom, then emerged, shouting, 'Iraq, al-Qaida, terrorism, we're all going down," the paper reported."

The pilot's name is unknown and was taken to a local medical facility. Maybe, he was just really excited about going to Las Vegas and got high early? Okay probably not, I don't think pilots are allowed to do that in between flights. You can read and watch the videos here.

Sincerely,
Sareh