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IMC Hamilton Journalists Document Aerosol Spraying Of Hamilton-Area Skies

important information for your health and safety. please read carefully and take the time to review all of the source material.

Heavy Aerosol Spraying Activity Over Hamilton Area Documented by IMC Hamilton Journalists

By Lysander Zimmerman, Stephanie Holliday, and Arthur Zimmerman, PhD, P.Eng.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

What are in "chemtrails"?

1. Aluminum and Global Cooling
2. Barium and the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)
3. A Biological Warfare Agenda?

An IMC Hamilton Activist's Personal Observations

Video Documentation

What can Citizens do?

Links to Further Reading


[Note: all hypertext links are provided as source material, background information, definitions, pictures and further reading.]

Since January, Indymedia Hamilton journalists and contributors have been documenting the creation of artificial cloud formations over the Halton area. Almost daily, planes can be observed lacing the skies with what initially resemble normal jet contrails [examples here], but linger and slowly diffuse into a layer of cirrus cloud formations and finally finish as a lingering haze. This atmospheric mist then appears to act as a blanket reflecting, diffracting and refracting incoming solar radiation occasionally causing abnormal rainbow-like rings to form around the sun and the moon.

The question that begs an answer is this: are these artificial cloud formations caused by normal jet exhaust? The answer is simultaneously yes and no.



http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/Willthomas/chempics/vegas.jpg

The phenomenon known to avid sky watchers as "chemtrails" has been gaining recognition over the past few years as information circulates the Internet. A quick search of the term "contrails" immediately leads to articles referring to abnormal types of jet exhaust inconsistent with the physics of condensed ice-crystals formed when hot exhaust meets the cool and humid air of the upper atmosphere. Although cirrus clouds can form from common aircraft exhaust under certain atmospheric conditions, studies of chemtrails done in the U.S. and Canada have confirmed the formation of cloud-making "contrails" at less than one-third of the minimum 70% humidity required to generate condensed ice-crystal trails. Further documented evidence of this unusual "contrail" formation includes irregular flight patterns, X-markings, grid patterns, curving trails, U-shaped trails, and contrail saturated skies. Additionally, the confirmation of high levels of toxic metals found in precipitation samples from areas subjected to heavy chemtrail activity, point towards a much more complex global operation than mere civilian air traffic.

What are "chemtrails" if they are not merely ice crystals?

Sifting through the wealth of chemtrail information on the Internet to discover well-sourced data and concrete facts is a time consuming task. Amidst speculation, conjecture and disinformation ample proof exists that something is being released over nearly the entire planet. Several books have been published on the topic with the most well known, Probing the Chemtrail Conundrum, authored by investigative journalist Will Thomas. In this well-researched book, he details sightings and case studies from around the world, and relates instances where solid samples have been analyzed for their chemical makeup. The yielded results, together with evidence of joint military-corporate projects, have been answered by three main theories on the objectives of aerial chemical spraying.


1. Aluminum and Global Cooling

It is now an undisputed scientific fact that global warming is a man-made reality, that it is accelerating, and that it poses a major threat to our planet. The urgency to reduce global warming, for the short term, is one possible explanation for chemtrails. The details are clearly outlined in U.S. Patent #5,003,186, Stratospheric Welsbach seeding for reduction of global warming, issued to the Hughes Aircraft Company (a conglomerate now called Hughes Electronics defense operations which is wholly owned by General Motors). As described in the introduction "One proposed solution to the problem of global warming involves the seeding of the atmosphere with metallic particles." The patent explains how tiny particles of aluminum oxide and other reflective materials would be added to the fuel of jet airliners and emitted from the jet exhaust. Other aluminum oxide chemtrails can be formed using a powder contrail generation device [to view patent click on "images" - requires QuickTime] originally developed for the U.S. Navy in 1975.

While greenhouse gases accumulate and get trapped in the atmosphere, the Welsbach materials and heavy metals released reflect one to two per cent of incoming sunlight by converting "blackbody radiation emitted by the earth [into] heat energy that may be reradiated out into space". Simultaneously, a small percentage of incoming solar radiation is reflected away from the earth's surface "thereby reducing global warming."

Computer simulations done by Ken Caldeira with the Atmospheric Science Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) calculated that aerosol spraying over 85 per cent of the planet would slow down global warming, yet in the long term would increase global warming by allowing atmospheric carbon dioxide to double within the next fifty years. Caldeira's abstract states that "to counteract anthropogenic climate change, several schemes have been proposed to diminish solar radiation incident on Earth's surface. These geoengineering schemes could reverse global annual mean warming; however, it is unclear to what extent they would mitigate regional and seasonal climate change ... no previous study has directly addressed this issue."

Although Caldeira recommends a curtailing of greenhouse gas emissions as "the most prudent and least risky option to mitigate global warming", one can rationally hypothesize on the possibility that powerful petroleum companies and defense contractors, such as General Motors (Hughes Electronics), have lobbied for the implementation of the geoengineering project in order to continue burning fossil fuels. Could this be why Edward Teller, the founder of LLNL (a research institute contracted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the defense and oil industries), submitted a paper entitled Global Warming and the Ice Ages: Prospects for Physics-Based Modulation of Global Change to the 1997 International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies, which calls for the implementation of the geoengineering project? Teller's report emphasizes the economic implications of imposing limitations, such as the Kyoto Protocol, on fossil-fired energy production. He notes how much cheaper it would be to lace the skies with light-scattering particles.

According to Will Thomas, in addition to generating profits for the U.S. military-industrial complex, insurance companies would save billions of dollars in profits from the mitigation of anthropogenic climate heating.

Can this type of aerosol spraying be dangerous?

http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/Willthomas/chempics/willraid.jpg

It should come as no surprise that releasing metallic particles into the atmosphere will produce adverse human health effects. In a 50 square mile area where months of spraying had taken place, residents of Espanola, Ontario experienced high rates of severe headaches, chronic joint pain, dizziness, sudden extreme fatigue, acute asthma attacks, feverless "flu-like" symptoms and loss of short term memory. Samples of rainwater analyzed in labs found reflective quartz particles and levels of aluminum five times higher than the maximum permissible levels under Ontario's Health and Safety Standards.

A petition signed by over 550 Espanola residents was brought before Canadian Parliament on November 18th, 1998 demanding an end to aerial spraying by "commercial or military aircraft, foreign or domestic." When the Canadian Ministry of Defense finally replied, their answer was "it's not us".

In addition to producing adverse health effects in humans, stratospheric aerosol seeding could have an unknown devastating effect on the climate. Even initial proponents of geoengineering the earth's climate, such as Ken Caldeira, warn of the environmental risks involved. For example, enhanced stratospheric cooling could contribute to the destruction of stratospheric ozone, which protects us from solar and cosmic radiation. Furthermore, the placing of aerosols in the atmosphere could have additional adverse impacts on stratospheric chemistry that could lead to failure of the geoengineering system, thus subjecting the earth to extremely rapid heating - potentially causing a run-away greenhouse effect.


http://w3.nrl.navy.mil/projects/haarp/images/ohdc.jpg

2. Barium and the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)

Some chemtrail researchers believe that there are multiple concomitant aerosol scattering programs presently being executed. In addition to the geoengineering global cooling program, an experimental electromagnetic weapon with alarming multi-purposes and global range, inspired by Nikola Tesla's experiments with electrical energy, is being tested out of Alaska. The aims of the HAARP project are to perfect a "reverse radio-telescope" that could be used to:

  • disrupt electronic communications over an extremely large area, while keeping the military's own communication systems working
  • to act as an electromagnetic pulse weapon capable of overloading and disabling electric circuits
  • to provide radar that can scan beyond the horizon
  • to act as an earth probing tool to locate oil and mineral reserves
  • to conduct electricity through the atmosphere without wires
  • to create nuclear-sized explosions without residual radiation
  • to disrupt human mental processes through pulsed radio-frequency radiation over large geographical areas
  • to modify and control weather patterns.

The link between HAARP and chemtrail activity was established after the confirmation of barium contaminated rainwater and snow samples collected after observed aerial sprayings. Since one of the key patents for the HAARP technology, U.S. Patent #4,686,605, proposes the "release of large clouds of barium" to enhance its performance, it is believed that HAARP is now up and running on a global scale.

To understand the link between chemtrails, geoengineering and HAARP, it is important to note that the owner of the HAARP technology patent and the contractor that built the HAARP facility is APTI (ARCO Power Technologies Incorporated), a subsidiary of the Atlantic Richmond Company - one of the largest oil companies in the world. In 1994, APTI was sold to one of the largest intelligence contractors in the world, Raytheon E-systems, which is a subsidiary of one of the world's largest defense contractors, the Raytheon Company. In the fall of 1997, Raytheon successfully merged with the above-mentioned owner of the geoengineering Welbach patent, Hughes Electronics, making the new Raytheon Company the owner of both the global cooling technology and of the HAARP technology.

Are aluminum and barium (a toxic substance in all its chemical compounds) being released over large parts of the globe to further U.S. military agendas and to fatten the pockets of General Motors shareholders? The general public must demand answers.


3. A Biological Warfare Agenda?

http://www.guerrillanews.com/images/newswire/biowarrior.jpg

The final of the three theories surrounding what Will Thomas refers to as the chemtrail conundrum is even more sinister in nature. Some people claim to have confirmed the presence of biological agents in precipitation samples. Since the detection of illegal aerial spraying operations and the allegedly related illnesses, fear has been spreading over the possibility that we are secretly being subjected to either aerial immunizations, bio-warfare testing, or immune system depressants such as ethylene dibromide and other harmful bio-agents (as part of a larger population control and reduction agenda).

In an article entitled The CIA and the West Nile Virus - What New Viruses, Vaccines and "Chemtrails" Have in Common, Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz discusses how American and African peoples were exposed to deadly chemical and biological agents by the American government with the goal of population control and depopulation. He points out that the CIA and the U.S. Navy, working in tandem with the Army, have used unwitting military personnel and civilian populations for germ warfare "experiments" or outright biological attacks.

Many of these revelations have come from the work of the 1975 Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities [PDF document], chaired by Senator Frank Church from Idaho. One such program uncovered by the Committee involving a CIA biological and chemical weapons project with the participation of 86 colleges and universities was named NKNAOMI (sister project to the MKULTRA mind control experiments). The CIA was found by the committee to be involved in illegally storing and testing biological weapons including the development of a micro-dart that felt like a mosquito bite while delivering toxins including infectious biological agents. Horowitz claims that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that if one digs deeper a global genocide program, in the name of "public health" and "national security", is being implemented.

Horowitz claims that the "genocide program" is known as the "Russian biological cocktail" in military circles, and it involves the incapacitation and elimination of excess or targeted populations using the delivery of combinations of biological and chemical agents (i.e. co-factors). This makes diagnosis and treatment of these multiple simultaneous exposures/intoxications/infections difficult, if not impossible. Could a lethal co-factor to biological or chemical agents reportedly found in chemtrail samples, such as ethylene dibromide, be a vaccine with dangerous side-effects?

The US and Canada have already stockpiled hundreds of millions of smallpox vaccines. Both governments, using the 9-11 disaster as pretence, have already enacted "anti-terrorist" legislations that call for forcible vaccination under the threat of internment. Ashcroft has called for mass inoculations by next year. Only the na?ve will not see that all this comes immediately after anthrax mailings now revealed to have come from a U.S. military lab.

Based on his three years of chemtrail research, Thomas believes that chemtrails do not contain biological agents given that "bio-attacks are conducted at low level and never in daylight, in order to avoid ultraviolet sterilization". However, eyewitness reports show that not all aerial sprayings occur in the daytime. Some people, including two of the authors of this report, describe seeing jets flying low and in formation, leaving behind persistent reflective "contrails" visible to the naked eye in moonlight and in the pink-orange glow of urban light pollution. Therefore, the biological aerosol possibility, as disturbing as it is, remains until every one of the exact objectives for the aerial spraying are positively confirmed.

Would governments endanger our lives and sacrifice innocent people with such impunity?

The historical precedents for such secret chemical and biological assaults on large populations abound. In 1977, the U.S. Military admitted to carrying out hundreds of open-air chemical and bio-warfare tests over American and Canadian populaces. Among the most well known incidents was the release of the serratia marcescens bacterial agent over San Francisco in1950, causing an outbreak of pneumonia-like illnesses and resulting in the death of at least one person. The Church Committee documented numerous similar covert tests that have been carried out with other biological agents and chemical compounds.




TABLE: DOCUMENTED CHEMTRAIL ACTIVITY

CountryUnited NationsNATO MemberNATO Partner
United Statesyesyes
Canadayesyes
United Kingdomyesyes
Franceyesyes
Germanyyesyes
Netherlandsyesyes
Italyyesyes
Swedenyesnoyes
Croatiayesnoyes
Australiayesnono
Mexicoyesnono
New Zealandyesnono
Haitiyesnono

Source: Chemtrail Central's FAQ page .

Click to go back to the text or read more about global chemtrail reports.


An IMC Hamilton Activist's Personal Observations

by Lysander Zimmerman, LAMZ@sympatico.ca

In October of last year I started becoming aware of a chronic bronchial congestion that still persists today. After submitting sputum samples to my doctor on two occasions and receiving negative results for typical bronchial microorganisms, I began to question the cause of my persistent illness. During the weeks to follow my father and I also began noticing bizarre cloud formations and we recalled an article that we had previously read about mysterious "chemtrails".

Initially, we were skeptical of the chemtrail theories, but that all changed one afternoon in late January when I emerged from my grandparents' home to see a perfectly linear cloud formation stretching across the entire sky. As I scanned the sky for a plane, I was astounded to see an aerial spraying operation taking place with some 6 or 7 jets in participation. Each plane was leaving a long thin dense white trail behind that would not dissipate. I was familiar with the existence of jet condensation trails but I had never witnessed anything like that before. Over a period of an hour or so, the trails slowly widened before transforming into cirrus-like cloud formations. After several hours, the sky was blanketed with a thin haze, accompanied by cirrocumulus-like waves, a cirrostratus-like blanket and cirrus-like wisps. Although these cloud types are perfectly natural, I was amazed that I had just witnessed a cloud manufacturing operation.

From then on I began documenting these operations on film and I have accumulated over 2 hours of video clips. Seeing as the sprayings have been occurring just about daily, I committed myself to capturing at least 1 out of every 3 incidents on video, with the exception of heavy chemtrail activity, which I always videotape.

Over the past 5 months of monitoring this activity, my father and I believe to have identified certain trends resulting from the operations:

  1. Most of these large high-flying white jet planes we witness making "chemtrails" appear to originate from the United States - flying North and Northwest from over Lake Ontario.
  2. Multiple jets take part in these operations forming all sorts of cloud patterns including grids, X-shapes, multiple parallel lines, and curved trails (including U-shapes). However, the majority of sprayings randomly blanket the sky without any set formations.
  3. The planes can be observed making lasting chemtrails in the same sky as others simply leaving behind rapidly-dissipating contrails.
  4. The heaviest spraying operations appear to take place in the early morning just before and after sunrise and continue all day.
  5. Other heavy sprayings take place above naturally existing cloud covers. The "chemtrails" and "chemclouds" can be seen in breaks in the natural cloud cover.
  6. Some operations take place at night or during the early morning hours. The planes are much lower and can be heard passing over repeatedly. On at least 4 occasions, my family has been kept awake as planes passed over our house every 5 to 10 minutes for about an hour. One night in May at about midnight, my father and I watched as two "chemjets" flew overhead in perfect tandem, leaving behind the long trails barely visible in the glow of the urban lights below. A couple of weeks ago, my father and grandparents witnessed a plane leave a chemtrail underneath the full moon on a cloudless night. Later on, the jets could be heard flying back and forth across the sky.
  7. The haze produced by the chemtrails refracts light, occasionally producing rainbow-like rings around the sun and moon. The "chemclouds" seem much more reflective than natural clouds at night.
  • The skies have recently been covered by this white haze. Is this the same white haze that Teller says will remain in the sky for five years at a time as it is compounded by continuous aerial scattering operations?

Furthermore, we have collected solid samples on three occasions - each time after a precipitation subsequent to the aerial sprayings. A heavy cover of silver-brown powder -- sometimes a very fine fibrous deposit - is most visible on neighbourhood automobiles.

Could these strange particles be the cause of my congestion?





Video of Chemtrails Over the Hamilton Area

[Dial-up versions of these clips will be available later this week, however it might be difficult to see important detail.]

No. 1: A Cloud Manufacturing Operation

Broadband QuickTime Video -- download here.

This clip was taken around the middle of February. Notice the irregular flight patterns and the number of planes seeding the sky with an unidentified aerosol.


No. 2: Contrails Versus Chemtrails

Broadband RealVideo -- download here or stream here

This clip shows clearly, in the same sky, the difference between a regular contrail and a chemtrail.


No. 3: Ring of Refracted Light

Broadband QuickTime Video -- download here

During a heavy "sprayday", a ring of refracted light formed around the sun. It resembles a faint rainbow.


No. 4: A Cirrocumulus-like "Chemblanket"

Broadband RealVideo -- download here or stream here

This is one of the heaviest blanketing of the sky that I recorded on video. It is still hard for me to believe that this is artificial, even though formations similar to this formed from jet "contrails" in front of my very eyes on many occasions.


No. 5: Solid Samples Collected After a Light Rainfall.

Broadband RealVideo -- download here or stream here

Several of my neighbours complained that they had never seen their cars so dirty after a rainfall. Many people were out washing their cars that day.



What can Citizens do?

Citizens who want to live in a democracy must be active and vigilant: they must be active to keep it working. This means questioning everything the government does with the people's tax money. This is called: ACCOUNTABILITY.

To trust wholly the government is to be na?ve and totally ignorant of history. Therefore, it is important that citizens who love freedom and democracy keep informed and that they inform others. People have a right to know if the government acts in their interests or if it works totally for corporate interests. If the public health and safety is being in any way compromised in the name of the loosely used and abused notions of "national security" or "economic growth", citizens have a moral right and a moral duty to demand honest answers. If these answers are not forthcoming, then citizens must organize to defend their rights to health and safety and to defend the health and safety of future generations.

Some suggestions of what individual citizens can do...

  • Look at the skies (night and day) and document all sightings of chemtrails (video and pictures). Send your observations to an email list (Chemtrails Over Canada or Chemtrail Tracking USA) and to the Ministry of the Environment and confront the elected officials in your localities to demand honest answers.
  • Document any health problems. Inform the family doctor of anything unusual concerning your health.
  • Inform others. Ask them to document sightings and heath problems as well.
  • Contact your local "experts" on pollution. Have them do the sampling and testing.
  • Gather your own samples of dust, fibers and water. Have them tested at the University. Demand also that the government does the testing of your samples and demand that they divulge these tests to the public. If you're not satisfied demand that independent labs do the testing.
  • Join your local environmental group and organize conferences and information sessions. Keep in touch with activist groups doing the same research into pollution and into chemtrails. Contact Green Peace and ask them what they are doing about chemtrails.
  • Contact the local district labour councils and get them involved.
  • Get the churches and church groups to do their share for the environment.
  • Boycott corporations who fund the chemtrail operations. Bad P.R. will cost them.
  • Be skeptical of the corporate media's coverage of chemtrails.
  • Ask many questions of scientists who may be working for the state or for corporations.
  • Ask many questions of government officials who will try to convince you with their "trust us" line into being vaccinated. Do your own research. Defend your rights to refuse anything that may affect you health in the long term. Demand the right to breathe fresh air and enjoy blue skies.
  • Above all stay optimistic: people power will prevail.



Links to further reading:

Information on Natural Cloud Cover:

www.larc.nasa.gov/edu_act/class_cloud_type.html

seaborg.nmu.edu/clouds/types.html

HAARP:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html

www.haarp.net

www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12342

Global Warming:

guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,355070,00.html

ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-17-03.asp

Chemtrails:

Contrails Mystify, Sicken Americans

The truth about those strange chemical trails in the sky

CHEMTRAILS CONFIRMED

www.chemtrailcentral.com

www.clydelewis.com/invest/contrails<

www.rense.com/politics6/chemdatapage.html

www.carnicom.com/contrails.htm

www.chemtrailcentral.com/report.shtml

www.moonbowmedia.com/ei/ct/exempt.htm

www.tetrahedron.org/articles/health_risks/Contrail_Controversy_2.html

www.centrexnews.com/chemtrails

Against Chemtrail Theories:
users.erols.com/igoddard/contrail.htm

users.erols.com/igoddard/contral2.htm

www.tetrahedron.org/articles/health_risks/Contrail_Controversy.html

Further Reading on General Motors and the History of Corporate America:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm

reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_11.htm

www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=405

http://www.business-humanrights.org/Companies-WW2.htm

homepage: homepage: http://hamilton.indymedia.org

great article folks! 25.Jun.2002 10:20

deva

i have been seeing the same patterns here in portland. . .long lingering trails that fill the sky, which slowly spread out and turn into cloud cover. . .rainbow rings around the sun and moon. . .it is obvious that it is not just the normal jet contrails, as there was never anything like this a couple decades ago. . .

i have also noticed days when many people seem to be feeling vaguely ill, but there is no local info here currently that i know of that correlates it with the spraying. . .this is a very subjective observation and general air quality fluctuations, temperature, etc could also play a part

this is an excellent article with lots of links and covering lots o ground. . .great job hamilton imc. . .thanks for posting it to the portland site

deva

Stop! 25.Jun.2002 10:59

Tired of seeing IMC spiral into the abyss!

I see this crap up here, and I despair about the future of Indymedia. IMC-Hamilton and IMC-Portland have been transformed into forums for disciples of Art Bell, Mike Ruppert, and other conspiracy hucksters. Whatever happened to doing solid, grassroots reports from our communities? Why in the HELL is IMC-Portland doing the "chemtrails" thing? Why aren't people in Portland putting a halt to this nonsense?

There are enough terrible problems on this tattered planet of ours without having to invent new paranoid conspiracies about secret government chemical-spraying operations.

Enough!

Tired of documented evidence I guess then?!? 25.Jun.2002 12:51

LZ LAMZ@sympatico.ca

Read the links....if this is nonesense, then I guess that the guys at Livermore who patented the technology are just kidding around!! And I guess the alarm over Global Warming is also nonesense eh??

READ THE LINKS! LOOK AT THE WHITE SKIES! COUNT THE NUMBER OF DAYS OUT OF THE MONTH THAT YOU ACTUALLY SEE CLEAR BLUE LIKE IT *SHOULD BE*.

Which Abyss? 25.Jun.2002 14:53

J.I.

"Whatever happened to doing solid, grassroots reports from our communities?"

This is doccumented localy by IMC Hamilton journalists themselves, as well as local citizens, tick brain! I'm sorry that "grassroots reports from our communities" don't always suit the elitist tendencies of David Cornheads like yourself. Perhapse we should just let you decide what is and is and what isn't grassroots journalism. You can be our minister of propaganda, and keep us all safe from "crazy conspiracy theories". Your first duty will be to censor reality its self. Good luck, mein Furher.

Right On! 25.Jun.2002 15:30

Dale's Dead-Bug

Kewl! But you forgot to mention the Trilateral Commission's, the Freemasons', and William Jefferson Clinton's involvemnt!

dear Tired of seeing . . ., Dale's Dead-Bug 25.Jun.2002 15:54

you need a wake(look)-up call

lay off the knee-jerk comments until you've actually examined the evidence, and really looked at the blue skies above you. Chemtrail evidence is FAR BETTER, MORE SCIENTIFICALLY AND VOLUMINOUSLY DOCUMENTED (happens every day right above your head) than any type of 'UFO' phenomena.

Best site (also listed above) for convincing evidence is probably Clifford Carnicom's:
 http://www.carnicom.com/contrails.htm

At this site, scroll down the left-hand side menu until you find the links "Normal Contrails 1, 2, 3".

then, find the links entitled "Megasprayer".

finally, try watching your hometown skies for a few days.

after you have done this, come back here and try making snide remarks about "waste of IMC space" and "little green men flying silver discs".

my reasons for saying stop 25.Jun.2002 16:54

an organizer

It's not that I don't think this stuff (or 60-70% of the stuff currently taking up Indymedia space with "conspiracy" theory stuff) is not true, it's that I don't really care.

I want to see stuff that we can actually deal with, or organize against. Chemtrails, gov't conspiracies, and all are pretty bad, I'm sure, but what the hell are we going to do about them? If everything is some secret gov't conspiracy, then why bother organizing/protesting/challenging the system at all?

I would much rather see more info about local protests, campaigns, struggles...but it seems that PDX Indymedia has been taken over by "Bush knew XYZ", "Chemtrails", and other probably important, probably true, but still fairly irrelevant stuff. I say taken over, because it seems that the majority of newswire posts fit into this vague category, and that they often become features.

This stuff is important, I guess, but I have to admit that I am WAY less interested in this stuff, and Indymedia in general these days because of it.

My $.02

Chemtrails? Poppycock! 25.Jun.2002 18:08

Darren Keast darren@skinny.com

A 30 000 feet flying jet leaves a long, white contrail (condensation trail) lingering behind it on the horizon. Rather than dissipating, the trail floats intact, crossed by a perpendicular flying jet's contrail. The X pattern formed by the two trails is repeated by other jets, turning the once clear sky into a blue and fluffy white patchwork.

An increasingly vocal sky-watcher fringe declares this everyday occurrence as a massive broad daylight military action, a widespread spraying operation. They claim these contrails aren't just made up of water crystals. Maybe it's an inoculation program, a large-scale test, or an open attack on the world's citizens!

'Chemtrails' are said to contain 'ethylene dibromide' (toxic additive to JP-8 jet fuel); 'Pseudomonas fluorescens' (a bacteria used by the military for bio-remediation; known to cause respiratory illness and blood infections); unidentified substances used to seed cirrus clouds for weather modification; Anthrax; E. coli; even elements of nanotechnology. Theorists claim after days of heavy activity over particular urban areas, clinics will report epidemic levels of patients with flu-like symptoms, upper respiratory problems, and other illnesses.

The domestic bio-warfare connection was given the most validity after former Lycos 'Entertainment News Service' reporter William Thomas wrote an article series about contrails that occasionally dripped down to earth in cobweb-like strands. Thomas said he and a medical expert collected samples of a 'brown, gel-like substance' that splattered over the sides of two aluminium structures in separate states and had them tested at an 'EPA'-licensed facility.

The lab discovered 'Pseudomona flourescens', 'Enterobacter cloacae', and 'Serratia marcescens', one of the 'simulants' the 'London Telegraph' reported the British 'Ministry of Defence' sprayed from a ship over Dorset's population during the 1970s. Bio-warfare proponents are bolstered by Dr. Leonard Cole (Rutgers University), who testified before the US Senate about army vulnerability testing staged between 1949-1969 (and still today at Salt Lake City's 'Dugway Proving Ground'). Agents released 'simulants' later found to be toxic from cars' exhaust pipes, wind-powered suitcases, boats, and even light-bulbs thrown New York City subway cars' tracks to test domestic vulnerability to bio-chemical warfare attacks. With proven records of populace testing behind 'Clouds of Secrecy', what's to cast doubt on contemporary high altitude spraying claims?

Lack of evidence for one. No chemtrail conspiracy proponent has released documented lab tests of the trails' composition. Thomas still hasn't published his 'EPA' lab test results anywhere. A 'New Mexico' newspaper interviewer quoted him saying he would do so if offered grants large enough to launch proper investigations. More questionable still is his chemtrail remedy pills business. Cole isn't aware of any modern jet plane testing and considers it unlikely the military would test at such heights: results would be difficult to track over such wide areas. The aviation science underlying claims is also problematic, according to marine turbine engineer Jay Reynolds, the most notable chemtrail debunker: "If you pass almost any chemical through a gas turbine engine, the combustion temperature is like 2000 degrees. Nothing survives: it's an incinerator."

Thomas has alluded to Air Force weather modification projects and the infamous 'HAARP'. But NASA's 'Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project' (AEAP) determined heavy contrail activity over a New England commercial flight path is responsible for 2% more cloudiness than normal.

The chemtrail community mirrors the UFOlogy underworld before 'The X-Files': explanatory reports are shared on message boards and poorly designed web-sites; believers continually cross-cite their work whilst including scant outside research. Debunkers are dismissed as government agents. Before missiles are aimed at unmarked jets, let's hope lab results are handy!

You are One Mixed Up Organizer 25.Jun.2002 18:27

J.I.

You at 11:00 am - "There are enough terrible problems on this tattered planet of ours without having to invent new paranoid conspiracies about secret government chemical-spraying operations"

You 6 hours later - "PDX Indymedia has been taken over by "Bush knew XYZ", "Chemtrails", and other probably important, probably true, but still fairly irrelevant stuff"

O.K., so let's ignore the fact that you are arguing all over the place and contradicting yourself ("its all invented nonsense, no, its probably true, but I don't care"). Let's focus on your statement that you personally don't care so therefor it shouldn't be acceptable to post on Portland Indymedia.

First of all, where do you, *especialy* an organizer, get the hubris to go around telling people around the globe that things that happen in their communities, that are making them *ill*, that are effecting them in frightening ways they desperately want to understand, that they should just shut up and take their "conspiracy theories" elsewhere, because there problems are unworthy of your high and lofty media outlets!? What kind of a pompous prick would say such things!? So let's get this straight, if you had your way at an indymedia collective, and one of these communities came to you asking for your help, you would say, "get lost"!? If the US government had not admitted to spraying Columbia with carcinogenic and birth defect inducing crop killing toxins, you would say it's not important? If the US had not admitted to using agent orange in Vietnam, you would say that's not important? I don't know what your "organizing", but someone with your influence should be a lot more responsible about what they say.

Poppycock? Poppycock! 25.Jun.2002 18:40

J.I.

"A 30 000 feet flying jet leaves a long, white contrail (condensation trail) lingering blah, blah, blah, blah, etc..."

That's quite a hot air baloon you've got going there. Hate to pop it, but how do you explain the appearance of chemtrails during the period after 9/11 when all commercial aircraft were grounded. There are other needles that could pop you "poppycock" theory, but you can find them by actualy ((gasp!)) reading the article above. Read, *before* you shoot your mouth off about something you read once on a "debunking" site. Thank you.

Just to clarify for J.I. 25.Jun.2002 21:09

an organizer

I only posted the one comment, not the first "Stop" comment. So please don't accuse me of inconsistency, unless you see some in the one post.

If folks in this community are concerned about and organizing around chemtrails, I would probably help out.

But I don't think they are. And do not mistake posting stuff on Indymedia (or elsewhere) for organizing.

an organizer =/= tired of seeing indymedia fall into the abyss

cheers

re: organizer 25.Jun.2002 22:21

deva

ok. . .just so this is clear, i am speaking as my own person and this is not an 'official' editorial group statement.

someone from Hamilton took lots of time to produce a clear, well written and personally researched article on a subject that they feel is important

that IS what indymedia is about. . .i saw the article, and made a feature out of it. . .

indymedia is a community resource. . .if you want to see other stories besides the one put up there, write em

there are only a few people making the center column features. . .we depend on people in the community to post the news of the community to the newswire, and from that we make featured stories. . .the newswire is the heart of indymedia

i agree that there should be more local content on important local issues. . .it is up to you, and all the other you's to write it, research it, cover it

it is up to you and all the other activist organizations to get their issues covered on the site. . .for example, every action, bill, speaking event etc that is organized by people could have an indymedia story as part of organizing the event. . .

in otherwords, you write about it, it will become a center column feature

editorial group will turn any independently written story, generally of local relevence, that is published on the newswire, and turn it into a center column feature.

indymedia is what the activist community makes it. . .

cheers,
deva

It's About Time! 26.Jun.2002 12:27

George Trinkaus teslapress@aol.com

Thank you Portland Indymedia!
Why has this in-your-face issue been taboo in all other left, progressive circles? If the populace is being chemically attacked by high-altitude, unidentified aircraft, is this not an overriding political issue? Yet the Alliance has been mute, and that other local "progressive" medium, KBOO, has also chosen to be silent. Incredible! KBOO did one little segment on the subject that I know of, a brief interview with a local group called Look Up. By way of introduction, the host, Alan Graff, evidently embarrassed, felt it necessary to apologize for treating such a "conspiritorial" subject. I guess it's politically incorrect. One wonders why certain phenomena are rendered discussible as issues while others are dismissed. What are the criteria? Are they waiting for certification by AP or NBC, by The Nation or Z, before they dare make a move.
One little criticism of the Ontario Indymedia piece you had the courage to run: HAARP is not Tesla. The misleading subtitle of Nick Bagich well-known book on HAARP is "Advances in Tesla Technology." But please don't blame this on Nikola Tesla. HAARP is shortwave; Tesla is low frequency. Also, Tesla says the Hertzian concept of the ionosphere is bunk.

George Trinkaus
author, "Tesla: The Lost Inventions"
www.tesla-ebooks.com
 http://hometown.aol.com/teslapress

It's About Time! 26.Jun.2002 12:36

George Trinkaus teslapress@aol.com

Thank you Portland Indymedia!
Why has this in-your-face issue been taboo in all other left, progressive circles? If the populace is being chemically attacked by high-altitude, unidentified aircraft, is this not an overriding political issue? Yet the Alliance has been mute, and that other local "progressive" medium, KBOO, has also chosen to be silent. Incredible! KBOO did one little segment on the subject that I know of, a brief interview with a local group called Look Up. By way of introduction, the host, Alan Graff, evidently embarrassed, felt it necessary to apologize for treating such a "conspiritorial" subject. I guess it's politically incorrect. One wonders why certain phenomena are rendered discussible as issues while others are dismissed. What are the criteria? Are they waiting for certification by AP or NBC, by The Nation or Z, before they dare make a move.
One little criticism of the Ontario Indymedia piece you had the courage to run: HAARP is not Tesla. The misleading subtitle of Nick Bagich well-known book on HAARP is "Advances in Tesla Technology." But please don't blame this on Nikola Tesla. HAARP is shortwave; Tesla is low frequency. Also, Tesla says the Hertzian concept of the ionosphere is bunk.

George Trinkaus
author, "Tesla: The Lost Inventions"
www.tesla-ebooks.com
 http://hometown.aol.com/teslapress

It's about time to quit. 26.Jun.2002 18:26

Chemtrails are nutty.

Chemtrails are about as legitimate as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. Sure, it's a sexy idea - secret government plot to poison the population, etc. etc. etc... but just because somebody's conspiracy theory meshes with an anti-government or anti-corporate agenda doesn't make it so.

I watched the video, and saw pictures of contrails. Whoopie! Wow, big evidence there, y'all...

Meanwhile the overinflated picture of criss-crossing contrails on the front page has been run through a purple filter to give it a more "chemical" quality. The stuff about the CIA spreading the West Nile Virus is pure nonesense as well.

All we have here is a paranoid nut at IMC-Hamilton (well, three of them, I guess) who are intent upon spamming every newswire in the IMC network with this looney stuff. And IMC-Portland once again shows its lack of critical faculties by publishing it. I wish you'd retract the "feature status" of this article. But I'm sure you'll just attack me as "part of the conspiracy".

Sigh.


Apology To Organizer 27.Jun.2002 12:37

J.I.

I'm sorry for my assumption that you were the previous poster. The missunderstanding arose from their title "Stop!", and your title, "my reasons for saying stop", which was posted after my response to "Stop!".

It's About Time To Open Your Fuckn' Eyes 27.Jun.2002 12:47

J.I.

Hey, I really loved your response to the article! So devoid of meaningful content, yet so rich in baseless slander. An absolute masterpiece of ignorance! The way you attack without the need for cumberson evidence is truely heroic. I envy your grand insignifigance.

re: Chemtrails are nutty 27.Jun.2002 13:15

deva

sorry to see you have such a negative attitude about people who would post this as a feature. . .nobody would think you 'are part of the conspiracy'. . .that is a rather insulting really. . .

indeed sigh

i understand you might think that a certain story is nutty, however, you can find countless cases in history where many people thought something was nutty that later turned out to be true

the majority of people around the country would think many of the stories on indymedia that you think are not nutty, are nutty. . .

chemtrails are not nutty. . .exactly what causes them is open to interpretation, but that they exist is quite clear. . .don't know how old you are, but 20 years ago, there was nothing like these trails that grow larger as time passes and turn a clear sky into a cloudy one. i've watched this happen here is portland. . .watch for a couple weeks and you will see it

this is some new phenomena. . .20 years ago i never saw this sort of thing. . .what is it? don't know

Earth First Journal and other publications have written articles on Chemtrails. . .

hamilton folks did their own research and wrote an excellent article. . .this is independent reporting. . .independent of the oppressive attitude of others who want to decide what is okay to write about. . .yikes. . .

indymedia is for people to write about the stories that are important to them. . .give up your ideas of censorship. . .rather go out and cover the stories that are important to you. . .

indymedia is about empowering people to cover what is important and relevent to them, not about telling them what is okay to write about. . .

i would love to see more solid local coverage of portland events. . .that is up to people and organizations around the area to do. . .

cheers
deva

What Happened to &quot;Objectivity&quot;? 27.Jun.2002 13:48

Sam Rose samuel.rose@NOSPAMvoyager.net

It seems that everytime someone presents a story of this nature these days, that it is attacked as a ridiculous conspiracy theory,and that anyone who would spend time investigating or even discussing it should be regarded as a loon with no credibility.

People should not be afraid of conspiracy theories. They should approach them the way that they approach every other theory. Simply try to remain objective, and weigh the evidence with your best judgement. Observe, formulate a hypothesis, test it, repeat.

Our government has even gone so far as to call some of these questioning theories "dangerous." My response to them and all others who feel the need to quell these questions without even looking into the evidence is this: There is less danger to people in the specualtion of what a
government might be up to, than in the verifiable record of what they
have actaully done.


What about &quot;cloud-seeding&quot;? 27.Jun.2002 16:38

David Hunter

I'm glad to see this piece, because I've had a funny feeling about all the rain we've been getting out East (I live in Massachusetts). I know that nature can be unpredictable, but I thought it was strange that after the terrible drought conditions we were experiencing a few months ago that fairly suddenly we were getting rainstorms, almost like clockwork, that have already brought the water table up in many places to where it should be. Naturally I was grateful, but I also did wonder if maybe the government wasn't using technological means to compensate for drought conditions. Of course, this is a wacky "conspiracy theory" - like Watergate, Iran-Contra and the stealing of the 2000 election - so I have been suitably reticent about my suspicions. But the timing is interesting: just recently the EPA has finally admitted the human role in global warming, and we've all gotten to see Bush & Co.s utterly brainless, inconsistent and sell-out handling of the matter. It would have been very, very bad PR for this administration of oil gangsters if the drought had occurred the way we'd all been expecting it to a few months ago.
But consider that you can already read in mainstream publications about proposals to counter global warming by artificial means, like sprinkling iron oxides over stretches of ocean to promote CO2-absorbing algae, which is so fucking stupid it beggars the imagination. I guess they consider ANYTHING preferable to conservation. But it shows that they are thinking along these lines already, so what is to prevent them from experimenting on the atmosphere?
But I'm struck by a curious omission on your part: why no mention of "cloud-seeding" for rain, which has been done since the 1950s? It would explain the emission of particulates, which form the nuclei of raindrops. (One big environmental problem never discussed, by the way, is the way sulfur and nitrogen hazes may prevent rain-formation by making the air a colloid so that rain-formation can't occur.)
I'd be curious to see if this "chemtrail" phenomenon has been observed more often in the western part of the continent than the east, given the west-to-east direction of prevailing winds. It would help to support the hypothesis.
As for the "organizer" who says "let's forget the big stuff, we can't do anything about it anyway". maybe he or she is just a very TIRED organizer who has been fighting the system so long that he or she has become disheartened and mentally confused. If so, "organizer", take a break for a while so you can be refreshed, instead of slapping down something that could be of critical importance to us all.

chemtrails -an ominous reality 27.Jun.2002 19:23

ospreyphire ospreyphire@yahoo.com

Chemtrails are indeed a serious, and ominous reality.
And, as the article presents, this government has a
history of conducting chemical and biological 'exper-
ments" on both US citizens, and peoples of the world.
While traveling these past few months, from Mexico to
the Pacific NW, chemtrails are evident throughout much
of the skies, on many days across this region.In eastern
Oregon's and WA's remote wildlands, and small towns, there have
been many repeated days when the skies are criss-crossed
and patterned with chemtrail lines from horizon to
horizon. These merge, turning once blue sunny skies
into gray-white haze. Additionally, as this issue has
been receiving more public awareness, many of the
chemtrail plumes are being left piecemeal--apparently
turned off and on to avoid leaving long visually
noticeable trails, instead leaving unconnected dash
type trails. (again this is more evidence that the
trails are not emerging from "engine exhaust" but
from spray devices added to the planes' tail and/or
wings.) But, what to do?? Merely arguing about whether they exist or not, or hollering about them --will not in itself stop the trails. It'll take citizen activists actions, a full on campaign, and perhaps lawsuits on the military for failing to conduct the required NEPA analysis and disclosures for such a project. Given the likely and potential adverse impacts to not only humans--but to numerous species and natural ecosystems, it would be unconceivable for environmental groups/activists -as well as social activists not to further investigate and then take action on this issue. (of course the military denies it is even occurring, so this will take irrefutable evidence, and a large alliance of organizations and individuals to bring this to an end--in court and in the streets! !Basta!--what are we waiting for, anyway??...

Chemtrail Feature gone from Portland? 29.Jun.2002 06:21

LZ LAMZ@sympatico.ca

Ant reason why I can no longer find the feature on your site?

Never mind...I found it, but...... 01.Jul.2002 11:44

LZ LAMZ@sympatico.ca

I found the feature here:

 http://portland.indymedia.org/archive/features/2002/06/2002-06.html#4142

But why aren't any features after June 15 available on the "older features" page?

The Gandhian approach to exposing chemtrails! 01.Jul.2002 11:53

gandhi

"First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win."

- Gandhi

Points to REMEMBER before attacking theories 02.Jul.2002 21:50

history speaks + follow the money

FIRST POINT: FOLLOW THE MONEY!!

-- abnormal types of jet exhaust inconsistent with the physics of condensed ice-crystals formed when hot exhaust meets the cool and humid air of the upper atmosphere. Although cirrus clouds can form from common aircraft exhaust under certain atmospheric conditions, studies of chemtrails done in the U.S. and Canada have confirmed the formation of cloud-making "contrails" at less than one-third of the minimum 70% humidity required to generate condensed ice-crystal trails. [links provided in article above]

-- Further documented evidence of this unusual "contrail" formation includes irregular flight patterns, X-markings, grid patterns, curving trails, U-shaped trails, and contrail saturated skies. [links provided in article above]


-- Patents for the geo-engineering and HAARP projects exist and are owned by the oil-dependent conglomerate (including links to the oil, intelligence and defense industries) General Motors (a company that worked hand-in-hand with the rise of German fascism).

-U.S. Patent #5,003,186 (Stratospheric Welsbach seeding for reduction of global warming issued to Hughes Aircraft [GM])
-U.S. Patent #3,899,144 (powder contrail generator issued to the U.S. Navy)
-U.S. Patent #4,686,605 (Method and apparatus for altering a region in the earth's atmosphere, ionosphere, and/or magnetosphere issued to APTI [linked to Raytheon, in turn linked to GM].

-- General Motors quit the Global Warming Lobby group -- essentially admitting to the existence of anthropogenic climate change -- but continues to lobby against any cut-back in greenhouse gas emissions. They want to pursue "technology-based solutions to the climate question".  http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=247

-- Edward Teller, the founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (a research institute linked to the U.S. Department of Energy, the defense industry and the oil industry) pushed for the geo-engineering program at the Planetary Emergencies Summit in 1997 ( http://www.rense.com/general18/scatteringEdTellerwithnotes.pdf).
More here:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/01/15/archive/main264362.shtml

-- Scientists working under him, such as ken Caldeira, have done computer modeling ( http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/cccm/govindas02.pdf) on the potential effects of such a project.

-- There are NUMEROUS examples throughout the 20th century of the U.S. carrying out insane and illegal covert projects.  http://www.counterpunch.org/germwar.html and  http://www.guerrillanews.com/sci-tech/doc209.html. The Church Committee findings are of the outmost importance in establishing this historical record of military-corporate-government conspiracies.

This is monopoly capitalism. This is globalization. This is the rise of global corporate fascism. This is what G.H.W. Bush termed "The New World Order".

This is what we are up against. Let us not delude ourselves nor cower in its face.
Points to REMEMBER before attacking theories
Points to REMEMBER before attacking theories

FOLLOW THE MONEY!! 02.Jul.2002 22:02

history speaks + follow the money

follow the money!!
FOLLOW THE MONEY!!
FOLLOW THE MONEY!!

Keep following! 02.Jul.2002 22:03

history speaks + follow the money

Keep following!
Keep following!

Keep going! 02.Jul.2002 22:05

history speaks + follow the money

Keep going!
Keep going!

Almost here!! 02.Jul.2002 22:14

history speaks + follow the money

Almost here!!
Almost here!!

Not quite! 02.Jul.2002 22:16

history speaks + follow the money

Not quite!
Not quite!

Here ya go! One end of the money web! 02.Jul.2002 22:23

history speaks + follow the money

Here ya go! One end of the money web!
Here ya go! One end of the money web!

Oops, forgot one....an important one!! 02.Jul.2002 22:24

history speaks + follow the money

Oops, forgot one....an important one!!
Oops, forgot one....an important one!!

What, am I the only skeptic here? 17.Jul.2002 10:34

Pam

Ummm... Why is it that the tens of thousands of meteorologists and atmospheric scientists around the US and Canada have never whispered a word about your supposed "spraying"?

Wouldn't it follow that people whose job it is to study the weather and atmosphere on a daily basis would - oh, I don't know - NOTICE a vast global conspiracy to lace the atmosphere with solar radiation-blocking chemicals? Or are they part of the conspiracy as well?

Oh, by the way... The next time you go outside with your cameras to film this long-promised (but never delivered) "smoking gun" video, you might consider giving us a close-up of one of these airplanes. I mean, since they're part of a top-secret government conspiracy, it might be enlightening to see the large tanks of chemicals capable of spraying their nefarious cargo over hundreds of square miles. I suggest a nice telephoto lens and a tripod.

Of course, if you do that, you might simply find that your supposed "black jets" are in fact civilian and military aircraft spewing jet exhaust into the sub-zero stratosphere, leaving a trail of ice crystals that seed cirrus cloud formation.

Call me crazy.

IF CHEMTRAILS ARE CRAZY, LOOK UP...ANY BLUE? 07.Dec.2002 21:19

aGENT oRANGE

Is the ongoing, rigorously documented chemtrail
phenomenom a government conspiracy? So what if it is?

When I look up into the sky above PDX on the eastside I see several distinct lines
running more or less parallel to one and other all the way across the horizon. Plenty
of reading and some critical thinking of my own tell me that these are not the
contrails that my grandfather saw. Those trails only last 20 minutes, under the best
of circumstances, according to the latest edition of the Encyclepedia of Climate and
Weather. The trails I have been observing today linger hours longer than can be
explained by available models of natural airplane-catalysed condensation. So why
has my weatherman, the Federal Avaition Administration, the US Air Force, and the
State of Oregon failed to clarify to it's undoubtebly inquisitive public just what exactly
is causing these particular trails?

One answer is that nothing is out of the ordinary and I have been spending way too
much time on the net, that I and many others including elected officials should be
placed in a bin labeled "looney, keep clear".

The other answer is that myself, other dedicated researchers and concerned
citizens are not mistaken, there is in fact a phenomenological basis for what we are
seeing other than naturally occurring condensation and all of the above mentioned
institutions are, well, lying.

Can you guess which one is correct?

What I am trying to say is that the long haraunges condemning conspiracies as
heretical to the lefty cause have completely dismissed that some documented,
actual conpiracies are in fact knowable. As far as I can tell, the chemtrail
phenomenon as stated meets the definition of a knowable government conspiracy
to deceive the public through disinformation, stonewalling and omission. I do not
believe that I have come to this conclusion as a result of faulty or "conspiratorial
thinking". I have come to this conclusion after carefully reading the arguments for
and against the phenomenom, as well as close, skeptical analysis of the available
data and my own perceptions.

For those concerned that any admission of the left that conspiracies exist and are
ongoing will suddenly transmute our brains to mush, quiet your fears. Looking at
data and precident is the way that leftists have come to the conclusion that: large
military budget=predictable, frequent (or continuous) war. The solution is not to stop
thinking critcally and start thinking "conspiratorially", the solution is to look at more
data from more sources, all the while checking the rigorousness of the sources to
make sure you have not gone crazy.

And if the sky is blue, that is exactly what you should call it.