Uncon = Fortean Times Unconvention
Def: A weekend of a series of weird lectures, usually in London.
I've been to a few and, by and large, enjoyed them. As you can imagine with such a diffuse subject area much good stuff is mixed up with a load of rubbish.
Favourite lectures of mine include:
Col. John Blasford-Snell's trip to Nepal to track down a mysterious colony of elephants that display mammoth-like features. (He found them too.....great photographs)
A lecture on the record that the Voyager probes carried with them, with sounds and images. Did you know the 'Greetings From the People of Earth' speech was narrated by Kurt Waldheim? Anyone who knows anything about his past in the thirties and forties will realise he may not have been the ideal choice....
The Scareship Sightings in Britain pre WW1. Interesting how an emerging technology of the period was allegedly observed. Mostly zeppelins and balloons displaying searchlights. Weird.
Anything by the guitar playing, gun club member Church of Wales biker and science-fiction author Rev. Lionel Fanthorpe. The Oak Island Money-Pit lecture left a real impression on me! A total star, and I'm not at all religious......He always ends his sessions on a song. Crypto-jazz, if you like.
On the other hand, we have in the pits:
'The Green Children of Woolpit'. just don't ask. Green alien members who infiltrated the royal family in the 14th century? Oh come on, got a book to sell have we? :?
'Forbidden Archaeology'. I shall not mention the name of the author, but he should have been drowned in a bucket for the rubbish he was spouting there in the hall. I almost walked out! Dinosaur footprints alongside mans, evidence of man in the Cambrian...etc....etc.... I really pity those who bought his book. He actually tried to convince us there is a global conspiracy of museum curators and archaeologists who deliberately 'cover-up' finds of an anomalous or out-of-context setting. I worked as an archaeologist for a number of years and I can honestly say that not once did a shadowy USAF Major come poking around my finds tray to vet what I had found. Mind you, I could be lying.....:x
Anything by Graham Hancock. :x :x :x :x
Feng Shui. What a load of $&%$*%$!!!!! I did not know what it was before the lecture. Now I know, unfortunately. I fell asleep in the lecture though this have had something to do with getting hammered the night before. :sleeping:
There are many, many more and I can only remember a few. I would recommend going to an Uncon. Just don't expect to leave with answers, merely puzzled...........