By Tim Binnall
JFK and UFOs, artificial intelligence, and the Kent State Shootings were among the fascinating topics explored his past week on Coast to Coast AM. And, here at the C2C website, we told you about an octopus seemingly having a nightmare, a 'rat boy' donated to an Indiana museum, and a shooting brought about by a fight over a Hot Pocket. Check out our round-up of highlights from the past week ... In Coast You Missed It.
The government's suspected cover-up of the UFO phenomenon was explored on Coast to Coast AM this past week in a pair of programs which looked at the topic from decidedly different angles. First, on Monday night's show, researcher Robert D. Morningstar posited that President John F. Kennedy's attempt to get to the bottom of the proverbial flying saucer mystery led to nefarious intelligence forces orchestrating his assassination. Then, on Tuesday night's program, disclosure activist Stephen Bassett talked about the latest efforts to pry UFO secrets from the government and suggested that major Congressional hearings in the not-too-distant future could ultimately lead to the president revealing that 'we are not alone.'
This past week researchers released a remarkable video of an octopus seemingly waking up from a nightmare. Captured during a month-long study of the creature's sleep habits, the intriguing footage shows the cephalopod go from being pressed against the glass of its enclosure in a state of slumber to suddenly lurching to life and scurrying away as if it were trying to escape a predator. According to the scientists who documented the strange behavior, including instances wherein it deployed its defense mechanism of spraying ink into the water, the octopus subsequently "just got up like nothing had happened" seconds later, leading to the theory that the peculiar incidents were the result of the animal having a nightmare.
The infamous Kent State Shootings of 1970 were revisited on Saturday night's program by journalist Robert Giles, who shared a first-person account of that fateful day from his perspective as the managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal at the time of the event. He recalled how there had been simmering tension on the campus prior to the showdown between student protestors and the National Guard which ultimately resulted in four people being killed and nine others wounded. Giles also recounted how surprising the shooting had been, since many individuals on site at the time did not even believe that the National Guardsman actually had live ammunition in their guns.
A pair of peculiar stories centered around mysterious deliveries made the news this past week, beginning with a library in California which received a book that was a staggering 96 years overdue. Staff at the St. Helena Public Library were left scratching their heads when a man casually dropped off the long-lost tome that they only later discovered had been checked out in 1927. In an even stranger case that came to light later in the week, a museum in Indiana was mailed a package containing a bizarre figurine with an animal's head and a humanoid body. Dubbed the "Richmond Rat Boy" in honor of the the city where the Wayne County Historical Museum is located, the very weird doll is believed to have been something of a circus attraction around a century ago.
Alternative intelligence was a hot topic of conversation this past week on C2C with two shows devoted to the emerging technology which has taken hold of the zeitgeist in recent months. On Sunday night's program, Brian Roemmele discussed how AI could be beneficial to human consciousness and mused that it can create connections which may otherwise be imperceptible to people, including within the realm of science and medicine. This idea was echoed by author Matthew James Bailey on Wednesday night's program as he argued that by working in tandem with AI, the human race might unlock an array of new skills and insights.
The weirdest story of the week came by way of Kentucky, where a dispute over a Hot Pocket led to one man in jail and another with a bullet in his backside. The almost unfathomable incident unfolded when Clifton E. Williams discovered that his unnamed roommate had eaten the last of their microwavable snacks. Outraged by the perceived disrespect, police say that he first instigated a brawl that only broke up when the roommate fled their apartment. Not quite finished being furious, Williams then allegedly chased after him with a gun and actually shot him in his posterior, which led to the hangry man being arrested and his no-doubt-former roommate needing medical attention.
Coast Insiders can check out all this week's shows as well as the last seven years of C2C programs in our enormous archive. Not a Coast Insider yet? Sign up today.