Ft. Irwin stands in for Iraq

At the Army base in the Mojave Desert, emigre actors and Hollywood sets help prepare U.S. soldiers for the life and warfare they are about to encounter.
 
An actor pushes a cart into the street at Medina Wasl, a Ft. Irwin model of an Iraqi village where U.S. soldiers get training.

Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
A soldier glides past an arched gateway at Medina Wasl with the city mosque in the background. The village, assembled at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin in the Mojave Desert, is used to prepare U.S. troops for duty in Iraq.
  
 James Sullivan: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
Makeup is applied to actor James Sullivan, left, who portrays a soldier injured in an explosion as part of a training exercise at Medina Wasl.

Read more »

Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley’s Universe today.

The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type “unthinkable” terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. (See this article for more on the series.)

Sable wrote of his experiences: “Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then ‘discovered’ the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.

Read more here: Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts – SFScope – Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror

- LOWFI:

The League of Western Fortean Intermediatists:

• LOWFI Guest Editorial for February – Government Files, Police Helicopters and Wind Turbines: The Incredible Story of Britain’s Latest UFO Flap by Nick Pope
• Welcome to the League of Western Fortean Intermediatists (L.O.W.F.I.): You may already be a member! By Skylaire Alfvegren

Plus our other Bureau Chiefs are already introducing themselves and starting the dialogue …

• Arizona L.O.W.F.I
  Arizona’s Anomalous Activities Assessed with Thomas Cosgrove
  • La Dama de Azul
  • THUNDERBIRDS
  • Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
• SoCal L.O.W.F.I
  The League of Western Fortean Intermediatists with Skylaire Alfvegren
  • LOWFI seeks Nixon’s spirit… are you up for a trip?
  • Fortean societies have existed before, but…
• NorCal L.O.W.F.I
  Northern California’s Untamed Weirdness with Adam Gorightly
  • Restructuring LOWFI as Arizona Bay
  • A Funnel Cloud Formed near this Obelisk, outside of MercedStrange Craft
  • In The NorCal Skies (And Other Ruminations)
• Nevada L.O.W.F.I
  … Anomalous Nevada Tales … with Jarret Keene
  • The Weeping Virgin of Las Vegas
• New Mexico L.O.W.F.I
  Tales of New Mexico’s stranger side… Lesley Gunter
  • What I didn’t see
  • Little Grey BEINGS seen on High School Property in Dulce
  • Reviewing the Skin-Walker
• Oregon L.O.W.F.I
  Oregon’s oddities reviewed in a new light with Regan Lee
  • The Oregon Coast and the Navy: Responsible for Some UFO Events?
  • High Strangeness Bigfoot: The Ghost in Conser Lake
  • McMinnville UFO Festival (and free download!)
• Texas L.O.W.F.I
  Tales of High Texan Strangeness with SMiles Lewis
  
  • Flashback: Guide to Para Texas
  • Texas Bigfoot Conference – September 26th, 2009
  • High Texan Tales
• Washington L.O.W.F.I
  Washington’s weirdest tales waxed wisely with Andy Colvin
  • L.O.W.F.I. doppelganger alert

Schwarzenegger: I Would Like To Be President!

Schwarzenegger’s Green Challenge , California Governor Says He’ll Stick To Environmental Plans, Despite Economic Crisis – CBS News

During the UFO waves of the 1940s and ’50s a new type of peculiar, possibly extraterrestrial or covert machine was mentioned, and often sighted in the murky oceans of the world. The USO, or Unidentified Submarine Object, just like the flying saucers and mystery airships of before, had begun to cause panic.

Were alien life forms monitoring our shores with their advanced technology and preparing for possible attack, or was the government conducting clandestine operations beneath the surface ? Or was another country secretly invading and spying on us ?

LAist: Weird Los Angeles: Weirdness In The Waters

 

Tent cities have sprung up outside Los Angeles as people lose their homes in the mortgage crisis.

Tent cities spring up in LA