In Reply

A fine Archimedian postulation. I would point out that, after settling, the lake’s water level would not actually rise from addition of submerged buildings, as rivers outflowing from the lake act as an ‘overflow valve’ – a bath constantly gaining water from the rain tap will reach the natural level of its overflow and then, no matter how many objects are placed in the bath, after further settling, the same level will be maintained. However, looking at the whole system, the floor will be that much deeper in water as a result of objects in the bath. ie. Sea levels would rise.

You are right that the 'wich' equals 'wick'. It also equals 'witch' as in wicker man (or wicca man). I have visited the wicca stronghold of Summerisle in the past, and feel that the activities of groups being investigated in this case are not in any way reminiscent of the strange activities there. As such I favour the wick hypothesis you identify. The same wick technique is used for draining the reservoirs of the human ear (wax removal). My map of the ear in my caseroom demonstrates this potentiality. I have never experienced the method, but I understand that a short hollow wick is inserted into the ear canal and is then lit at the other end. The wick and flame act as a parafin lamp, with the wax of the ear being the fuel reservoir, which is sucked along the wick.

I believe the technique is usually used as a means of emptying the ear of wax, rather than as a means of utilising a fuel source in order to achieve lighting, but in dark conditions, it could be used to read in the dark. It would presumably require a sufficiently long wick to hang down below eye level, for this purpose. I have heard various urban myth stories of reverse osmosis principles being used to extract water from a substance, for example as a means of distilling spirit or as a means of concentrating birch sap to achieve birch syrup (or in america, maple). I think that is a different principle from the wick.

So, where, if your supposition is correct, is the water stored once syphoned to Detroit by wick? Perhaps, if Droitwich itself can be taken as an example semiologically at least, it is stored in a vast salt reserve under Detroit? The salt could absorb the water, trapping it below ground. Perhaps the collapse of the US motor industry has been caused by the resultant brine from this project flooding up and rusting the steel lying in motor city storerooms ready for cutting into car shapes. Perhaps wool has been planned to replace steel in a wave of new industrial development. All just thoughts.

I returned to the warehouse last night and developed further use of energy arcs, achieved through a number of kung-fu style poses and stances. I also developed a shrinking technique, scaling up or down ones surroundings by will power imposed upon ones field of vision.

The Detroit Wick

Droitwich could be some kind of conflation of Detroit and something else. I suspect this purely because the location of Detroit is within the geogrphical boundaries of the heart of the investigation.

The Detroit witch? The Detroit Wick ('wick' being how i believe 'wich' is pronounced) could be some sort of device for draining a great lake by wicking away its water content to somewhere else (in Detroit?), thus allowing the water level to remain at the same height even as large scale habituations are sunk beneath the surface, combatting the physically obvious sign of water displacement which would otherwise surely give the game away.

But then, Lone Wolf, our UK-based agent, has mentioned esoteric drawings and scans of some nature, which may perhaps explain the role of Droitwich better than we could imagine.

Why Droitwich?

Why Droitwitch, I have been wondering? Is it at all related to the UK location? Is it an allusion to an equivalent location in the US? Why the Droit Witch? Could it be related to salt, or transmitters?

The town is situated on massive deposits of salt, and salt has been extracted there since ancient times. The natural Droitwich brine contains 2 1/2 lb of salt per gallon - ten times stronger than sea water and only rivalled by the Dead Sea[1].

Near Droitwich there is the central longwave broadcasting facility of the UK (Wychbold BBC transmitter), which is also used for transmissions in the medium wave range, Droitwich transmitting station. It was sited near Droitwich because the huge block of underground salt provided a good ground earth and increased signal strength (as related by Mr. Humphreys, Chief Engineer for many years).

In which case, it is reasonable to assume that the US homologue of Droitwich is in Utah – Salt Lake City. But what does this tell us?

Basement/Lake

In reference to recent basement work regarding the monk and the band:

The basement has long been a stronghold of the underculture… As one investigator suggests, one place the ‘underground’ will naturally hide is in the actual underground. The underground stream, a below-ground flow of water, has long been a symbol of secret cultures, knowledge or traditions. The esoteric strands of crypto-religious and crypto-anthropologic study such as the nasorean / templar / celtic Christian traditions are one example. This example also, as with our case, supposedly utilised the literal underground, taking cover in catacombs under the temple of herod, for example, and leaving fish symbols on the walls. Our crossed knitting needles and 4 lakes found by ‘Epps’ in catacombs in South America, are comparable to this.

The basement, however, is no river, it is a lake. It is no tunnel, it is a cave. An enclave - a slab of crumbling concrete rather than a tarmac road. It leads nowhere geographically, but it persists. (On a four dimensional drawing of course, it would be a tunnel, a road, a river – spanning along the time axis as long as it persists to exist.)

If the basement is the cave / lake / cracking carpark, then the tunnel / river / road must be highway 61.

I have long been associated with an individual, a filmmaker of some avant-garde standing, working on a film treatment for a literal translation film version of the song Desolation Row. The film, as yet unfilmed I believe, is to be a veritable nighttime circus of characters. Einstein will have his electric violin; Ophelia will have her sad red light. The blind commissioner will be on the tightrope with a hand in his pants… The main dilemma of the film will be who is in and who is out of Desolation row. Who peeks into the place, and who mails postcards out of it?

As a row, ie. a street of dwelling houses, it is part cave, part tunnel. A basement that can be reached by tunnels - populated with the same characters as fill the covers of Monk’s and the Band’s 68 subterranean works. The circus is in town…

See also, the laughing lady – perhaps she ventured into the basement in Neil Young’s backpack, as he lay there with the full moon in his eyes, dreaming of replacement after the gold rush, and hoping what his friend said had been a lie. His friend could be Dean Stockwell, the spirit guide of Sam Beckett. The thing he said could be: ‘the gold rush is over; the gold is all gone’. Dean lived on the neighbouring ranch in the same canyon as Neil, and wrote the film screenplay of After the Goldrush, for which Neil wrote the soundtrack. The ‘band fair blowing’ in Neil’s head could be the Band, playing in Neil’s basement.

All just thoughts… Perhaps irrelevant to this particular case.

Boston Mass Recital

Using washroom-based channelling techniques I have accessed some of the words of the song (do the) boston mass… There is a mama cass rhyme in there. And long strings of seemingly random rhymery, eg. ‘I’d light a fire if I had a match / I’d dress as a pirate if I had a patch / I’d throw a ball if I could catch / I’d lay an egg if I could hatch / I’d open a window if I had a latch / I’d build a roof if I could thatch…’; and ‘you’re gonna have to stand up when you land on your ass / you’re gonna have to ham it up when the’ve canned all the laughs / you’re gonna need a candle when they’ve turned off the gas / you’re gonna need a pratfall when they’ve banned all the gaffs…’ . Pretty inane stuff and devoid of much relevant meaning, it would seem. Perhaps I am channelling the wrong song…

In Reply

You forget one vital thing. With a poetry competition, I supposed that release of material was immediately subsequent to penning/recording. However, not so with basement tapes. They were indeed recorded in 68. Release occurred years later.

Grandma death, grandma time, old laughing lady. Yes – many names but I think one person. I managed to avoid running down a sweet highschool girl called Jena though. If such a sweet highschool there had been standing nearby, I would maybe have hit grandma death…

In answer to your earlier question – she didn’t stitch the bag herself. I believe it was purchased in a shop owned by a middle agent who imported goods from a producer, possibly with one or more further middle agent handler/importer between the shop owner and the producer. As with branching drug dealerships, this can make the producer very hard to trace… Perhaps it was made in Boston or, as Lone Wolf has suggested to me, Droitwich itself.

Nb. I assume the monk was toying with the French resistance roots of much dance music. A great comparison there. 68 both.

Down In The Basement

Did you ask the woman where she learnt the stitching technique? If you see her again, I suggest you try to glean if she ever spent any time in the vicinity of Droitwich. I take it that this is a wholly different lady to the old laughing elk you met in the road last week (the image of such a scene in my head makes me think of 'Grandma Death' from the film Donnie Darko). Old ladies are often wise beyond expectation and the insights possible from such sources should never be underestimated. Allow me now to recount what was gleaned from another Old Hand from the labs...

The evening with Dr. Epstein (in which he explained to me the guilt-free method of donut theft) yielded the following unexpected discovery of sorts. As the jazz music filtered through the post-dinner chat, there had been metion of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes and the mistaken belief was held that they were redcorded in 1968. An hour or so later, a copy of Thelonious Monk's Underground was noticed on the table, copyright information showing an original relase date of 1968.

The artwork on Monk's record depicts the artist in an underground bunker, a basement of sorts. In this basement, Monk is at his piano surrounded by assorted objects thus: cheese, grapes, guns, a haybucket, several wine bottles and glasses and a gestapo officer tied to a wooden chair. In the background (the image has a strong sense of depth) is a woman holding a rifle, staring at the viewer from a distance. Monk also sports a gun, strapped to his back out the way of his hands for freedom on the keyboard yet in easy reach should he decide he requires it's use. A detonator connected to a string of explosives lies at his feet in the foreground and Viva La France is grafittied on one of the walls [above the nazi]. The image is rendered in dark earthy hues and has a natural textural quality to it.

Now, i happen to know the Dylan record fairly well and am familiar with its sleeve art. The two are very similar. The artist is also situated in a basement with his instrument of choice (in Dylan's case a mandolin, being played in the manner of a fiddle). Earthy tones, seemingly random objects and characters abound. There is also a man in military dress similar to Monk's Gestapo prisoner. A woman also stares at the viewer from the back of the picture.

Working on the assumption that both records were recorded and released in the same year, it struck me that these two pieces of work were a further example of two people having the same idea, separately, but at the same time. However, upon returning home and checking my copy of the Dylan record, I discovered that it was in fact released in 1975 and so would not seem to be the evidence I initially supposed. One further thing did strike me about the two covers - both artists are wearing wool - Monk a fine suit and Dylan in a striped cardigan reminiscent of South American patterns and colouring.

Now, I am not for a 16th note suggesting that these two seminal musicians were involved in the beginnings of the soft-core group, but I have a hunch that there may be some significance in all this similarity and mistaken belief. If the softcore group have been in hiding for the last 3 years, where have they been? Based on the insights gained from these record sleeves, I have a strong suspicion that when the group went 'underground' they did so literally and have been living subterraneously since 2005. Given their suspected plan of trying to submerge a city, or even a state, it seems likely that they would possess the means to hide themselves underground also, something mentioned as a possiblity with regard to the stateline existence you hypothesized recently.

Of course this theory would have so much more weight to it if the two records in question had been released in the same year.

Notes from kojak asa400

At approximately 7am today I was contacted in a dream by the wife of James Long. She was wanting information on his disappearance. I gave no information, as I have none.

Later, on the way to the day job today, I saw a fine example of the Droitwich Fix – sweet lady waiting in the post office with glimmering silver and green purse – I comment on it, and she shows me – it’s made with old drinks can ringpulls, threaded together with green twine. I have a belt made of ringpulls too, she says. Heavy duty stiching technique – utilising second-generational-usage scrap metal to create a chainmail-style ‘fabric’. Very effective. I have become aware through theorising of an opposite principle to the Droitwich Fix. I found its name yesterday but it has slipped from my mind. More information on this when it returns.

Nb. Once on a visit to the outer rim isles (North Uist, from which St Kilda can be seen hazily out in the void, and then on to South Uist), I became aware of the ancient hand symbol supposedly of Jesus. On the catholic southern island, a stone statue of the mother and child shows the infant raising said salute: First and index finger raised, other fingers down – identical to the peace sign but with fingers together rather than apart. Yesterday I discovered the reason for this hand signal. Jesus had given up waiting on a bus, set off on foot, and was waving to passing vehicles while still holding his busfare in his hand…

For myself, the bus caught up with me some time later, and left me at desired beach location, along with two young campers, without charging me the fare.

I now recall part of the name of the anti-Droitwich Fix. It is the [something] itch. I suppose it may include the throwing away of something still of use. It is also the making and pushing of something with no actual use, its intended use being a mere charade. This would be a tactic well used by the Minnesota marketing people. It is a classic technique in the development of money generation and population-regimentation/control through the mid-20th century: must-have products, with a swift decline in any notion of what the product actually does. Often the product will do something, but not what they tell you it does. A classic result of the meeting between the marketers and the early obfuscationists…

In Reply

This is a lot to digest. I will take one thing at a time, if I can slow my excited mind enough to do so. First item: mass singer. I have operated on the assumption she was purely a dream guide, and was nonrationally working on the basis that she is Sadsack. However, as I have said before, who knows whether I dreamt of her then awoke to the morning light cat noises, or met her, then fell asleep and dreamt of the cat. In which case perhaps you are right, and she is a real UK operative.

The Religious Studies student theory has much going for it – the RS/Mass link in particular. I’m now working on the basis that you’re correct. I haven’t seen her again since dispite several nights frequenting the usual bars. She may resurface when I least expect it.

Second Item: Droitwich Fix. This is a central tenet of self-sufficiency. For every item its use. Throw nothing away! There is no ‘throw away’. Tin cans planted under apple trees to improve the yield. Old sewage outflow pipe rescued from the sea for a chimney. I am sure the inner handicraft core will be well aware of this from years of living on the edge; on the border. I feel the term probably refers both to this and also to the heavy duty stitch. It is a perfect name the soft core would choose for such a ‘fix stitch’.

I await diagrams, images and drawings.

Droitwich Fix

Enlightening wool knowledge there. I now wonder how wool knows which way is inside and which way is outside, and thus which way its heat transferring properties are to be implemented.One thing I forgot to mention - my initial suspicion regarding the girl you came across singing about 'Boston Mass' was that she was Costa, possibly on a recreuitment drive in the UK, or else meeting a connection there and filling in time playing solo spots as some kind of coded call to arms to any UK followers she may have.

However, in light of the BSS Ca-nad/lafon-ian tour, it seems unlikely she would be in the UK sans band, unless she was undertaking some low-key gig practice to work on her solo performance skills prior to the tour dates. It is entirely possible that she is no longer in the band, having trained them to function autonomously, though possbly still receiving her instruction from afar.

Another explanation as to the identity of the Boston Mass singer is that she is the religious studies student who had assocations with Costa in the '90s. She was known to be UK-based (at least during her studies) so would no doubt have acquaintances there- people who could provide her with shelter and find her work if needed. The fact she sings of some kind of 'mass' suggests that she is/was religiously minded, possibly abandoning Christianity or whatever her denomination was, in favour of some more fringe-based belief system. I certainly don't think she is connected to the religious right dogsquad, but I may be wrong.

Perhaps she is in the UK to locate contacts in the Droitwich reason (the theory was mentioned to this investigator that the 'Droitwich Fix' is a specialist stitching method used for heavy-duty repair work when a woven object's lifespan seems othewise at an end. A variation of this theory is that the term 'Droitwich Fix' refers to using an otherwise impaired object to serve a function different to that it was originally designed for - ie. using an old hat which no longer fits the owner's head as a tea-cosy, or fashioning a steel-bodied guitar from a broken oil drum (something this investigator has personally seen evidence of). Such things could be examples of the Droitwich Fix.

Either way, this theory, as put to this investigator, identifies the Droitwich Fix as a method of extreme object salvage when all other hope seems lost - something out on the edge of the repair/reuse/recycle culture which has been subordinated and marginalised by modern capitalism and its constant promise of shiny new goods to those who subscribe to its culture.

Home Knit?

Astute indeed. Is there a place for llama knit bobble hats in summertime? This investigator knows the double use of woollens as both warming and cooling aids – just like leather or antifreeze, the fibres (or the gaps between them) have a dual quality for both extremes of temperature - keeping warmth in when cold outside, but also cooling when hot outside. I believe wool does this partly by allowing moisture out, thus utilising the cooling effect of latent heat of evaporation. Far better than moisture-trapping synthetics… There may be a market for woollens in California for this reason.

This investigator’s back is burnt, but not as badly burnt as it would have been without frequent use of light blue ethnic cotton shirt. I do like the term ‘ethnic’. All of us are ethnic, hence it implies humanity as opposed to artificial, made by a genuine human being as opposed to a machine… Perhaps even made by a genuine free-feeling alive human being as opposed to a factory slave drone… Maybe some sweat, but not shop sweat… maybe some dollar changed hands, but hopefully some donation made to an orphanage or something. A new village well, that’s not owned by coca cola… I wonder if the road south is a case of the hippies going home, back to the canyons, back to Lake Tahoe?

Festival Circuitry

This investigator took the weekend off the case to indulge in some much overdue sunshine of impressive intensity and only now has he picked up the impending development in the case, ie. the immediacy with which BSS are 'touring' from Canada to California.

This strikes me as pertinent for the following reasons - we have already established that festivals and musical touring circuits are ideal ways to move people and goods around the continent in a fairly undetected way. We also know Costa is either in BSS or has close links with them. This suggests to me that Costa may use a BSS tour as a means to achieve her own ends, with or without the band's complicity (she is a known Obfuscationist, remember, and as such would have no problem hiding her true intentions while being close to the band).

The band may even be a front to hide less universally accepted operations, such as the promotion of wool-based lifestyles or products of closed-loop synthesis, with promotional methods possibly adapted from those used by the Minnesota thinktank (I recall Costa being quoted in a marketing journal from years ago, which suggests she either worked in marketing or pretended to work in marketing to gain knowledge of their obfuscatory techniques [i strongly suspect the latter]).

It seems to me that the BSS tour is likely a smokescreen to transport a portion of the Michigan operation (people or products) down to California for some purpose, or perhaps to collect something from the southern state to bring back north. The California connection cannot be ignored - Searly's act of philanthropy at the Reno Steak-n-Cake suggests the California route has been active for sometime, and Melinda Packett is registered to a Bay Area address.

The California connection could well be a base or stop-off point for managing the South American connections - this investigator for one is definitely aware that products made from llama wool are readily available in the fields designated for corporate-sponsored rock festivals, though how popular such things prove to be in the california heat, this northerly located investigator cannot confirm.

Addendum to case notes

Why do you think De Leon and Vandeloo headed South straight after their research trip to Nova Scotia? It is obvious now. After investigating the flotilla project in the Nova Scotia boating scene they made straight for the ‘long float’ material source – Mexican chinchilla.

Nota bene, coming tour dates for BSS:
3 Jul 2009 / Rothbury Festival / Rothbury, Michigan
4 Jul 2009 / 80/35 Festival / Des Moines, Iowa
11 Jul 2009 / Harbourfront Centre / Toronto, Ontario
26 Jul 2009 / Wanderlust Festival / Lake Tahoe, California

This is no coincidence. Within a month they travel from Michigan to Toronto to Lake Tahoe itself, California. The roadsters are returning home…We must act fast.

Old Laughing Lady

Our Boston man’s dispatches fit perfectly – road trips either cease or go more underground in 2005. The theory of Costa’s low key festival circuitry is 99.7% likely, I feel. Slipping back into the fog when the band ‘make it’. Chinchilla fabric – a ‘hold-all’ term capable of containing the natural and the synthetic without revealing whether one or the other or else ‘wool mix’ combination.

The speed adjuster controls of a good mixer double turntable set up are indeed a potential means of achieving a variety of beat frequencies from waveform interference.
In the city squat this investigator abandoned overnight recently, such a two turntable set-up was included among the original paraphernalia present. The investigator recalls the fullsome sound of such interference some years previous. I have recently been researching non-electric wind-up turntables (originally called grammaphones, due to their frequent presence in the upper year social rooms of grammar schools, where 15 year olds would listen to swing, ragtime and early jazz). Standard grammaphones would have an analogue variable speed control. Later machines would have an analogue 3 way control between 78, 45 and 33. What I could do with is something capable of going lower – say 22. That way I could do the ’45 played at 33 speed’ trick on 33s, and listen to a whole album at ‘mong-out’ speed. I know of no modern manufacturer of wind-up, non-electric grammaphones. There may be one.

Approx 40 min ago, this investigator was on a bumpy old-tarmac / dirt track road, a regular tourist walker route towards the base camp of a large mound of highland mountain, when rounding a puddled corner there was an elderly lady, of short height, blocking said road, arms waving in air. I came to an easy halt among the puddles. She held a walking stick – Walking stick in one hand, wrinkled healthy-looking complexion, vibrant face, wavy white hair, with a look of eccentricity and foreignness to her. I walk over to her, sidestepping between puddles on this barmy hot day. In what I think is the broken English of an northern/eastern European accent, she asks for a lift, in upfront, confident terms. I reverse to give her a puddle free access route to passenger side of the vehicle, though she heads towards driver’s side at first – a giveaway of one used to left-hand drive cars. I run her towards a village restaurant – she has been up in the foothills, and is parched and hungry – overheating. I half understand her side of the sparse but friendly conversation. Just before reaching destination, she reveals that she is a tourist from Oregon.

But where are you from originally, I ask. I expect her to be German, for example. She says she is originally from Canada – that is the accent, she explains. West Coast? I ask. Yes, the west.The strange appearance in the road of this elk convinces me I have something to learn from the encounter relevant to the case. A Canadian, with an accent I could have sworn was European, who lives now in Oregon. I suspect that she is the Old Laughing Lady, who can be seen in many mythic sources including the cover of Neil Young’s After the Goldrush album. This album is about the exodus of the hip culture from the US west, or the passing of that culture into hiding.

On the cover image, the red Indian laughing lady is moving in the opposite direction to Neil, however the overlapping alignment between them on the ‘great shot’ makes it appear that she is actually riding in Neil’s backpack (and so actually going in the same direction as Neil, but facing backwards – like a rear gunner). With every movement I feel an opposite flow probably occurs, as per Newton’s third law. So, if this Canadian woman went from Canada to the US, she is the reverse of the movin’ up country hippies who went to Vancouver to avoid nam. Just like Neil, in fact, who travelled from his roots in Canada to the US west.

Long Floats

The reference material sent on Closed Loop fibres revealed a detail which may be of note regarding the fibrous aspects of the case. See mention of a special fabric as follows...

Cinchilla: A cotton, wool, and even synthetic fabric of sateen or twill construction with extra fillings for long floats.

This is a fabric which can be made from natural and synthesised sources and bears a cutely disguising name. Note the talk of 'long floats'. Combining this with the name of the fibre suggests to me a Flotilla, something highly pertinent to this case. Perhaps the Michigan crew were looking at shipping/manufacturing such a fibre for use in their various operations. Perhaps your novel simultaneous spinning experiments are something akin to this manufacturing process, though may need some kind of modification or change of variables to get the desired results.

Are you aware that certain models of turntable favoured by audiophiles and disc jockeys have a pitch adjustment facility which allows, by means of a slider, many (14) speeds of rotation. It enables music to be played between the notes of conventional key structure, similar to the effect of de-tuning an instrument, but on a song-wide scale. I hypothesize that perhaps an unorthodox rotational speed could create some kind of resonance between the two spin sources, allowing for a qualitative change in results. This could operate as some kind of vibrational/resonant cipher - find the right combination of rotational speeds in the two sources and information may be gleaned from the beat notes of the resulting cross-rhythm like some kind of low frequency morse code.

With regard to working out some kind of timeline of 'disappearances', Perhaps Costa's mid-90's 'disappearance' was her dropping out of the state education system to form a band (possibly an early guise of Broken Social Scene), with the interim years spent touring the low-level festival circuit until the band's profile was raised enough to force her to return to the overground. As previously noted, the festival circuit can be a great way to fall of the radar should one wish to do so. Though, as a known Obfuscationist, she could easily disappear and yet be active at the same time, most likely under a pseudonym. Happy said the mixtape couple stopped visiting circa 2005. He doesn't recall when they first began appearing on campus, but says he became aware of them a couple of years into his studies, around summer 1995. I do not know how this fits with your theories.

RE: Donut Law

You ask if it would be theft to eat a donut while moving upwards to counter the motion of it falling into your stomach. Einstein does indeed claim all motion to be relative. A discussion with Dr. Epstein at dinner the other night (only now do I notice the similarity to the name Einstein) illustrated this idea to me further. Only a person in freefall (moving at the same speed as gravity) is truly motionless against the backdrop of spacetime. So, eating the donut while falling from a great height would be the only way I know of eating someone else's donut with a clear conscience. Of course, this could prove medically disasterous unless the eater-with-conscience was equipped with some sort of parachute-easque apparatus to aid the fall. I'm not sure where stealing one of your MIT boys' donuts in an anti-grav chamber stands in respect to the law.

Your non-linear defense has merit but such laws only apply to a single viewpoint. In Borges' The House of Asterion, the number 14 is used to signify infinity. In a courtroom you have twelve jourors along with the prosecution and defense, which totals 14. Perhaps this number is of cosmic significance - the first integer above some sort of cosmic threshold. [one number beyond the unlucky 13, which is perhaps the tipping point. Thought of as unlucky in folklore but actually just unpredicatable, giving results which fall either side of this cosmic threshold.] So, maybe with 14 viewpoints, we actually have infinite viewpoints, thus non-linear may be inapplicable as evidence.

I do not know if this helps with the case.

Radio Silence Broken

Consider the prolonged radio silence now broken. I have been catching up on the non-case aspects of my life since returning from Boston. Also, feraing they may be investigating us, i thought laying low on communications may force them to operate less covertly and come closer to us. This would appear not to have been the case, at least from my perspective, and we still appear to be working 'under the radar' so to speak.

Allow me to clarify my position on Ethan/Evan, for I fear I may have given a false impression of his significance (ot lack thereof): I was in Croatia based on a tipoff from one of Safelight's photojournalism associates, who had told me something unique and unknown was occuring there (details of which I cannot discuss at the time, though can confirm they are irrelevant to the Searly case). E was unimportant then and is likely so now; I mention him purely because he is the only Wisconsin kid I have met in person and may have been able to unwittingly pass on information of the local subculture, wooly or otherwise. Why he was alone I did not determine, which is why he stands out in my memory - as a detective I have a natural tendency for the unresolved to stick in my mind like a thorn. It is only with hindsight that he seems possibly significant, though I am not investing much in that 'theory'. Croatia does not seem to have any connection to the Searly case, though any coastal region can perhaps not be fully discounted without satisfactory evidence to the contrary.

Btw: Congratulations on your sporting achievement, though it is a shame there was no photo finish - I hate to see a good photo oppotunity go to waste. I picture you with dark locks streaming behind you in the wind as your opponent drifts gradually behind with cheeks puffing and eyes popping in exaperation, camera panning to record your victory against blurred backdrop of black n white treeline in distance. Perhaps a member of EPPS was there to capture it.

Speaking of EPPS, it is good to have this new lead courtesy of Lone Wolf's dream and your 'chance' meeting at the Cumberland Club. The question now begs, why would someone from as far away as Edinburgh be covering the catacombs of Peru? Some journalistic project perhaps, or something more sinister? If Contact B is well known as being someone who takes 'some great shots' he could be an in demand go-to guy for such specialist projects. I believe, based on recent revelations, that Contact B warrants further investigation. Perhaps you can find the missing catacomb images.

I will attempt to answer your further questions post haste.

Relocation

Prolongued radio silence leads me to believe that our agents in rural yorks and (recently) Boston have entered a new realm of investigative depth. Perhaps the net is drawing in. Perhaps they are drawing the net in. A dragnet an ocean wide, for the big fish. I must reveal that last night, I aided the hurried removal from a city squat of my and another agent’s stuff. We left the place with the filth of years of decay – strange rusting gas pipes that light up like some oil refinery display. Cupboards with broken hinges, full of green and brown stubby bottles of cheap lager, some still half full from strange forgotten nights. On leaving, this was all visible at the surface, after several days (or has it been months?) of it being hidden by our temporary presence – Orange throes (or throws? – a query for Kingsbury PI to answer) and purple wall hangings were pulled up from damp furniture to make haversacks for swift transport of file notes; audiocassettes; dictaphones; emergency garlic cloves.

From 2am or whatever hour it was, I slept on the carpet – the damp from accumulating winters of discontent made the sofas and mattresses an unattractive prospect. A sudden and bright start at dawn. Vehicle pulls up at the door, and away. Key hidden in usual place for future users of this facility, future victims of this squalor. The driver is alert; ready; a true getaway man. A safe pair of hands. I close my eyes and sleep the early morning away. Wake on a B-road from dreaming of a cat scraping at my windows. Or was it the other way round? Did I wake to a cat scraping the window from dreaming of a B-road. I may never know…

Closed Loops

The whitsun sun is warming the light sea breeze… A number of investigators are Out of Office. My own anglepoise lab is vacated. My mind turns once more to conversations with Sam Ting, Gershon Goldhaber, Martin Perl, and others in the old quark team. Once a wildcat, always a wildcat, as they say. People often ask me: ‘what’s happening at CERN?’ ‘What’s going on since the big switch flick?’ I tell them go research. Meantimes, I sit on seafront, eying for brown ion pipes and other usable objects recycled in that sea out there. That was meant to be brown iron pipe – an ion pipe is something altogether different, more of use to Sam and the MIT boys. Cornetto wrappers in bins are testament to the changing seasons. Still light enough to spin wool (and vinyl) at 11pm now, with a clear sky.

An old face from Edinburgh turned up at the weekend, up with Edinburgh Kayak Group, with his latest belle in tow. I need to give some thought to superstring theory. I believe the theory views all particles as ‘closed loops’ – circular strings of energy – thin donuts. There is also a theory among cosmologists that, 4 or 5 dimensionally speaking, the universe is donut shaped. If both theory is correct, the smallest and the largest are then identical – the universe and the particle. And naturally from this, one can suppose that the universe could be a donut particle in a larger universe, and that each donut particle could itself be a donut universe of its own.

All this talk is getting me hungry.

The Big Fox

I believe I know who / what EPPS is. I have met him (or rather a member of the group) without knowing it. EPPS is none other than the Edinburgh Photographic and Photojournalistic Society, a covert branch of IPPS, the International Photographic and Photojournalistic Society (also sometimes referred to as the International Photo-Press Society). Bells rang when I first investigated the online works of Contact B, met in the Cumberland Club. It included stuff that could only be considered journalistic – including images of war graves and international conference attendees.

The Cumberland Club, I now realise, is the base of the EPPS. Contact B may even be the very same member who took photographic images while exploring the catacombs of Peru. He certainly will be aware of the images taken, with a personal interest due to his own great lakes background. I believe his allusion to an urban fox he has located, of which he refuses to tell the authorities the location, can only be code. An urban fox is a perfect symbol for an underground fugitive living undetected within a city, like so many of the individuals involved in this investigation.

Certainly, Contact B (B for Brian EPPS, perhaps), does also photograph real urban foxes, however I am now certain that he and I were thrown together on that fateful night for reasons other than the discussion of actual ‘foxes’. Rather, it was understood that the fox in question was a ‘big fish’ in our investigations.

I feel sure from our investigator’s earlier contact with EPPS that they must also be following the case closely. They may know more than ourselves. They may even be in contact with the group/s or individuals involved, possibly in a partisan, non-neutral way. Certainly, my Brian EPPS was insistant the cover of the BIG FOX in question was on no account to be blown.

I must return to the Cumberland Club…

Timeline

Timeline has now been produced, ranging from formation of the earth through the pre-cambrian, the cambrian, the pleistocene, the age of atlantis, into the dawning of the age of aquarius, to current modern times, taking in the construction of the water-weathered sphinx and the great pyramids, calanais and stonehenge, the guidestones, and the assumed beginning of construction of soft Michigan. Also taking in Ronald Searly’s poetry competition and the often forgotten ‘bin-fire’ incident, of 1982, at which the probably teenage Searly claimed no involvement in said bin-fire. An incident in which I have great interest.

The main new lead I have from laying out known knowns upon an axis of time, is as follows:
In the mid nineties, a Canadian Religious Studies student went from North America to the UK, and there left a map of the great lakes seemingly questioning the location of ‘Keegan and Rosta’ (Regan and Costa). Previously we had surmised that this implied a disappearance of Regan and Costa at that time (in advance of the main soft core disappearance around 2005).

However, it was not until 2004 that material was released by Broken Social Scene, which we know to have been penned by Costa. Three theories could explain this. Either, Costa disappeared in the 90’s, but her material was in the hands of the Toronto music scene before then, later being released by BSS, or Costa disappeared in the 90’s but nonetheless disseminated material to BSS after her disappearance, OR Costa did not ‘disappear’ in the nineties at all. On this third theory, which I favour, the following scenario is possible:

The Canadian RS student, possibly already acquainted with Costa (and Regan) directly or indirectly, is seeking out Costa and Regan, in the UK. She travels there specifically to find them. Whether she succeeds or not is unclear. Costa, possibly with Regan, possibly also with the Canadian RS student, returns to Michigan, and is involved in ensuing road trip activity as part of the beginnings of the soft Michigan project. Costa is also involved with the Toronto music scene directly or indirectly, in years/months directly leading up to the 2004 release of her material by BSS. It is then not until 2005 that Costa becomes untraceable, either from retreating into Soft Michigan, or else from going ‘underground’ to evade various groups, eg. military Project 31 operatives.

I must however check dates suggested by recent Boston contacts including Zac Happy. Did anybody disappear in the 90’s? Melody? When did Zac say the travelling mix-tape couple stopped coming by? When did he say the road trip activity began?

Wool and Vinyl...

...simultaneously spinning natural and synthetic materials wool and vinyl - simultaneously spinning natural and synthetic materials.

Both. I have, partly to understand more clearly what we are dealing with here, begun spinning natural and synthetic materials simultaneously, in something approaching what I suspect was behind the report dug up by Kingsbury PI. The natural material I chose was unwashed and uncarded highland-grown white sheepswool. The synthetic was medium-density black vinyl, sourced from Ullapool area junior highland games indoor sales area, specifically N Young’s first solo album, and the seminal Warhorse album, both picked up for £2 a hank, along with More soundtrack original-ish pressing, early Queen, and ‘Taste’ (Rory Gallagher’s band). There was also a wealth of prog, in particular Yes albums, which I left. Said highland games included 1 male senior event (over 21 yr old dads), for which I narrowly ensured no photo-finish was required.
The spin-source I chose for closed loop natural material spinning was an Ashford dark-rosewood wheel fitted with jumbo flier for greater width flexibility. Foot-Action operated. The spin source for closed loop (if indeed a spiral-groove 45 counts as closed loop, as opposed to the rare continuous-play closed groove discs) was a black turntable circa 1995, I forget the manufacturer. Powered by mains electricity.

Both spins were started near-simultaneously, without any CERN-style hiccups. Spin was allowed to continued for some time (1-2 hours). The bobbin filled quickly with approx 4mm width off-white coarse wool cordage, and was emptied and refilled once. Apparatus were then shut down, again close to simultaneously. The scaremongers’ fears of adverse reactions between the two mediums producing an uncontrollable chain reaction of spin, were this time at least unfounded.
I recall while working with Sam Ting at MIT, the same feeling of quiet achievement quickly giving way to the desire just to get on with the next test…

The next process in this case was the dyeing of the natural spun material. For this I chose mixed lichens from the lichen repository out back of the facility building, along with solar-distilled and re-acidified streamwater, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and onion skins. After bringing to critical point temperature in heating chamber, I added the first skein of post-spin material, and reduced heat to low. Second skein was then added. The hue began a deep magenta from the lichens, then after a night cooling in the chamber, turning to a rusty orange. The material is now airing naturally on a medium to high humidity external sill. I will use said material soon and pass on further findings and conclusions.

Donut Law

A donut is indeed the perfect closed loop. We seem to be looking microscopic and macro-scopic at the same time. Closed loop Boston Mass on large scale, and molecular closed loop technology in fabrics, on small scale. Perhaps doing the same job and utilising the same physical processes at both levels? Party size and king size donuts, but what about the middle ground?

Would it be theft to eat a donut but moving oneself upwards slowly while eating, such that donut stays in same place? Plus, how does donut law allow for earth’s spin, earth’s orbital movement, galactic spin, even tectonic drift – Einstein claims all motion to be relative. Over a long enough timescale there is no measurable absolute spatial position, even relative, in relation to, say, a location on the planet. Of course it is one purpose of such monuments as the pyramids, stone circles, the guidestones even, that they are markers trying to give an absolute position. As absolute markers on this planet they naturally ‘track’ the wider movements, the seasons, the precession of the equinoxes, etc.

If I was in court I would claim donut theft is impossible as the donut is already in non-linear, even non-euclidean, motion. By moving a donut further one could be attempting to put it back where it came from…

Rain Curtain

Absolutely.

The ‘west-side’ style W-sign as taught by Evan/Ethan (the guy to the left of frame I assume) is inherently important to the case. The northern states have that looming proximity to ‘otherness’ lacked by the more central localities. While the southern states; texas, NM, Ca, have a sunny Mexican other pervading their psyche, the boundary fringe to the north is saturated by something altogether more mysterious – the encroaching rain-curtain of the North – the mist, the winter darkness, the blue-grey sky over the wheatfields that comes along in September like something out of Van Gogh – You can read it in the faces of those northern border-watchers. Like they can hear the static of the rain and know that if they wanted to they could tune right into it…

Why Croatia? Was Evan/Ethan just travelling through, or there for some reason? Was he an important figure, or just a neutral carrier of Wisconsin information for you? The festival circuit would be a good place to recruit strangers for some cause. Just as the circus scene was (/is?) a haven for runaways, fugitives, and those seeking cheap travel and adventure, so the festival circuit is a means for the same old longhaired guys you might see loitering on the dodgem boards to travel discretely and undetected from town to town, country to country, selling falafels and day-glo jester’s hats to teenagers, or screwing together highhats and setting up mic stands. Was Ethan part of this scene? Why was he alone?

Ethan/Evan

This massless gravity you describe could well be the phenomenon the term 'Boston Mass' refers to. The concept of an empty centre and the idea of something that exists, but isn't seen are both applicable to the case. Also, A donut could be described as a closed loop. I now presume that Boston may operate as a hollow centre for (at least some of) the operations. This would explain why evidence of Searly has been found in the surroundings of Boston, but the man himself is not there. The ring of habituations arcing from Nova Scotia to Wisconsin should be examined in more detail. This would extend north through Canada and down to the mid-Eastern states.

Incidentally, while working a case at the request of Bob Palindrome in Croatia back in 2006 i met a guy called Evan (or maybe Ethan, details are sketchy) from Wisconsin, a happy-go-lucky type. I was gathering evidence of a music festival which was relatively unknown at the time and attracted maybe less than a thousand young European revellers. Two things struck me about Ethan the evening I met him at an open-air bayside restaurant, one - he was the only American at the festival I had met, two - he appeared to be there completely on his own - quite unusual for a foreign festival-goer. He possibly wasn't even attending the festival, just happened to be in the vicinity.

His behaviour was described by some people in the group I was shadowing as 'friendly', while others referred to it as 'annoying'. Being a tolerant man, these attributes eventually led to him spending quite a lot of time talking to me. He did strike me as an interesting character, slightly out of step with the rest of the crowd. I remember eating grilled tuna steak while he told some elaborate tale of how he came to be there, involving mis-dated work contracts and holiday leave, but I fail to recall the details. In fact, all I remember concretely is him teaching myself and Kingsbury PI the vogue-ish hand sign which accompanied the territorial phrase 'Wisconsin Baby!' favoured by the local youth there. See attached picture for reference.

I have no further memory of anything Ethan told me, as it did not seem pertinent to the case I was working back then. Had I been handed the Searly case earlier, I could have used this opportunity to ask 'Ethan' of the local wool subculture. Such misfortune can only be attributed to poor aim by the arrow of time.

Empty Centre

The paradox of the doughnut and the pie that you raise cuts to the very heart of this case so far. The empty central space of the doughnut is the virtual centre of the object’s gravity, yet is massless, and in effect gravity-less. It is the eye of the rotating storm. Imagine a hollow planet. If you reach the exact centre, you could float in the perfect equilibrium of opposing pulls from every direction. It is like the donkey who starves to death unable to decide which of two identical bails of hay to eat from.

I feel Searly has conducted, or is conducting, or plans to conduct, the perfect crime. He has rotated the object, but as you so aptly ask, was it a doughnut or a pie?

Nb. A doughnut can be rotated in various ways without conducting larceny. I could provide diagrams. It can be spun as a coin is spun, rather than as a flying saucer spins. However this requires finding said doughnut balancing on its edge, or else possibly hung on a string. Alternately it could be rotated about a point on its edge, or about any point containing doughnut dough.

I feel it was definitely a nut that Searly was/is spinning. The coastal ring around the great lakes themselves form a doughnut ring around a central emptiness (water as the void area).

There is a definite theme of space and non-space developing – groups trying to dwell outwith normal space. The gaps in the jumper that you correctly identify – the source of its strength and power, yet an absence. It is the air in the wool, not the wool itself, that is of importance.

Donut or Pie?

Indeed you are as insightful and correct as ever. The snooker or pool hall is a breeding ground for low level hoodlums and criminal activity. Something to do with providing men too young to drink a place to hang out and smoke, I have always thought. In fact, if such premises were to keep a signing-in book, it would read as a veritable who's who of minor street criminals. Such activity, left unchecked, could easily develop into capers such as bank robberies and grand larceny.

Incidentally, the charge of larceny contains some interestingly subtle clauses, for example (this is a classic example taken from an old law book which resides in my library)

'...the thief must not only gain dominion over the property he must move it from its original position. The slightest movement, a hair's breadth, is sufficient. However, the entirety of the property must be moved. As one commentator noted critically this requirement is the difference between rotating a doughnut (larceny) and rotating a pie (not larceny), as all of the donut is moved through rotation while the pie's exact center remains in the same place when rotated.'

This leads me to ask the following metaphorical question - is Searly rotating a donut or a pie? I have been digging into his past for clues and have theorised the following: Searly grew up in the NE corner of America, most likely Milwaukee of Pennsylvania (going by teenage poetry submissions). Both of these locations border on the Great Lakes; either side, in fact. Searly probably gained knowledge of the lakeshores and surrounding areas through family picnics and camping trips during his childhood.

My guess is that his father was a military man who favoured the outdoors and tried to pass this prediliction on to his son. Military fathers are known for their strictness and desire to see their offspring suceed along pre-determined paths. My guess is that Searly went to University in line with his parents wishes, but once away from their immediate presence, he began to drift into fringe circles and most likely dropped out to pursue his own aims, but kept in contact with academic social circles. Became involved in some kind of political network and oversaw operations involving fabric experiments in some capacity, either for the government or an independent subversive group. His knowledge of the local area and the Great Lakes soon made him a great asset to, and central figure in, the group.

His role would seem to be more strategic than operational, possibly becoming so after the incident with the Buick in Maine causing a scare that he may have gone too 'overground' and was in danger of being discovered. Since then, he appears to be more or less invisible, yet is present in everything. He is like the air pockets between the fibres of a chunky home-knit.This of course, is all just my own speculation based on a re-examination of my early case notes in light of post-Boston revelations. It should also be noted here that I failed to locate the Bungalow registered to Searly on the SE edge of Boston, so am no closer to revealing what he is building in there.

A sporting Parable

Our investigator’s recent snooker analogy speaks volumes. I knew when I saw his calling card ID image (thin moustache, trilby, mean gaze, fingers ready to snap at the bar staff, but not for drinks – for answers…) that he was well acquainted with the smoky green baize world of snooker halls. My own experiences from Denver to Duluth and from Stirling to Saltburn are enough to know the worth of the snooker hall as a breeding ground for rumour, off-the-record conjecture, and discourse with unknown strangers, associates, hoods, old boys, local figures, crooks… The balls chime like bells and then vanish. The cannon, the swerve… The amount of investigator’s notes written in blue chalk is testament to the worth of the pool hall. I once got into a frame of doubles with Johnny the Shark. Gone was the hard man image – at the table he was a pussy cat – all talk. Sweet talk at that.

I recall one snooker hall incident – struggling to see the table through clouds of cigar smoke, I went to the wrong table. Setup was roughly as remembered – reds opened but not fully – most still in a huddle behind the pink like nervous sheep. Cue ball up top resting somewhere near the D. No clear lines for a pot. I went to play a nestle shot into the pack, nice and gentle – leave it sitting in amongst those infantrymen. Up steps a stranger. I’m bent down by now lining up. Cigar haze too, remember. ‘Yunno Jack’, the stranger says, ‘I say we spring it Saturday next.’ I glance up at said stranger. ‘I say not,’ I tell him, in a gravely voice. ‘Never do on a Saturday night what you can throw on a Friday. Twice the recovery time, see.’ Stranger looks at the balls. I have a change of heart, play the ball glancing off corner red to return back up top again. Get lucky – it settles behind the brown nice and tight. I walk back into the fog. Find my double rum, and then find my table. Play the same shot all cocky on my own green, only mess it up this time and sink the white in the corner hole. My associate laughs. It’s always more rewarding impressing strangers anyway. Friends already know what you can do.

A week later I read the paper to see the local bank got hit for a few rows of noughts on a Friday evening. I feel proud to have masterminded it, but don’t hand myself in.

In Reply

I have been working on oh-five as main soft core disappearance. But according to RS student someone disappeared before oh-five.

It’s a game of two halves. The rich seam of analogy and parable contained in the annals of sports punditry is unsurpassed. For those of you watching in black and white, the brown is the ball behind the blue…

Brave Man in Pink Tie Dye

It is a brave man who wears pink tie-dye in full view. Circa 1994 would be around the time that the soft-core group is believed to have risen to prominence, increasing in stature for a few years before the 1998 disapearances. Perhaps you have previously been closer to the Michigan set than you dare to realise. Perhaps not - the same idea independently manifesting in two separate places at the same time has already been discussed as being possible. Your talk of a swerveball reminds me of your description of the whorling lines witnessed in your dream. Why is is that sporting metaphors are so widely applicable? Searly, as a sports fan, must know more than most about this.

Angel Tee

In reference to microwaving clothing. It is actually an old technique, but for other purposes. I have done this already, circa 1994. As a setting method for heat-setting dye for creation from thin white tee of the ‘angel tee’ – tye dyed rose-pink a la Melissa George soap character Angel.

With Angel, said tee was only ever part showing – a sleeve hem here under thin blue denim shirt – a neck line there under a lacy vee neck. For myself I recall said garment worn during five-a-side, uncovered. Possibly on the very occasion of a certain Wolds reporter’s deep-in-own half swerveball strike placing itself in net behind me, aghast. I know not now where the garment lies. Possibly in a dusty drawer of a parents’ house. But that ball travelling slow motion past me will forever be on my conscience… Some things even sleep cannot erase.

E.P.P.S.

Further sifting of my communications has brought to my attention your theory of existing on the stateline as a means to evade the law. It is out of the box yet obvious all the same. A fantastic theory which could, if achieving a certain threshold density, exist as a self-sustaining organism, or culture, akin to yeast in the demijohn of a home winemaker. This is something worth investigating, but given their lack of discovery, the likelihood is that such communities, if they exist at all, must do so in destinations remote from urban or other densely populated areas. Of course, living subterraneanly would allow one to evade the law by vertiginous means.

Heard from Lone Wolf, who has also been pursuing dream-based investigations. I quote; "Had a dream the other night about someone named Epps. Thought it was someone already mentioned in the case, but the Epps surname was an acronym." There could be mileage in this.

Also in the mail was the white window envelope of dubious postage. Who knows how long it has been sitting there in the hallway corner, slightly raised by the curled corner of the straw mat? Its contents tie in with recent revelations. The idea of that which isn't, or is barely seen yet is still there, is at the foundation of our investigation. One thing I forgot to mention about Dan Stairs' proposal is that he was proposing fibres which would allow for the owner to re-model them at will by the means of easily achievable conditions: take your t-shirt, stick it in the microwave for a minute then mould it into a bowl to eat your soup from; wash it out, soak it in warm water and mould it into a pair of sandals. Think of the implications if such attributes could be achieved on an architectural scale.

Fabrics of the Future

Back From Boston. Arriveded home to discover a package from Kingsbury PI amongst my mail. It contains a document entitled Fabrics Of The Future, which is explained in her accompanying letter as relating to a current Phd proposal by a student called Dan Stairs.

Whilst I was away, Kingsbury PI attended a public viewing of a design competition featuring a selection of Phd research proposal posters. It was here, her letter explains, that she found the document I mention, given as a handout to accompany one of the posters on display. Allow me now to relay a few excerpts for your consideration...

Fabrics of the Future
Dan Stairs (Ohio University)

This practice-led project explores ways of using sustainable textile fibres. Through creative experiments with newly developed natural fibres and closed-loop synthetics, to produce solutions to sustainable textile 'products'.

Aims
To examine eco-design theory, exploring emerging ideas about the life-cycle of textile 'products'.
To design and develop innovative textile 'products', using ecologically and environmentally sustainable fibres.
To research closed-loop production methods.
To disseminate findings in academic and manufacturing environments.

Methodology
...Practical experiment to explore the results of findings and test theories in the area of study, which will lead to realising new paradigms in the field of textile design.

Now, let's examine this; note the opening gambit - 'a practice-led project'. This means actually carrying out what is being examined, not just reseraching it. Stairs is planning on acting out whatever it is he is 'studying'. Next sentence speaks of 'creative experiments'. More action for 'research' purposes of dubious nature. Look at the aims and other ambiguous terms jump out; 'eco-design' 'closed-loop production methods' - what are these? eco-design sounds like designing ecological systems to me and 'closed loop production' is a perfect descriptor for the private network of individuals, who seem to exist outside of normal social circles and communication channels, that we are dealing with.

Note the final aim - 'to disseminate findings in academic and manufacturing environments'. Is this not exactly what Project 31 could be described as doing? the talk of a 'new paradigm' sounds ominous. Why would one want ecologically sustainable fibres for any other reason than creating an environment which would be sustainable with the current natural one? One other thing of note is the use of inverted commas with every mention of 'products'. That is sheer ambiguity - a classic Obfuscationist trait.

Unless I am being paranoid and overcompensating for failing to sight Searly in Boston, this would seem to a good insight into the closed loop soft core network. It would seem that Dan Stairs is an Obfuscationist and a part of the Cargo Corps who has secured funding for the operation under the guise of academic research. The alternative view is that he is a government plant and is monitoring academic reserch in the textile field on behalf of the military. As of writing I am unsure but my gut is leaning toward to former. I was hoping for at least a days rest now I am home, but can't shake the imperative to research Stairs.

Walk The Line

Funambulist? Obfuscationist? I don’t see much difference. Your outside-the-box theory of Boston Mass being a gravitational concept is too good not to be true. It may be other things too, but I certainly thing it is an attractive, and possibly also repulsive, force associated with Boston – a focal point already in our investigations. I will examine my flow map of the states later and ponder the significant centre of activity in the Boston area in light of this new insight. My quark work back at MIT in the seventies may be of use here. I might contact some of the old faces in the kipper tie brigade. Time for more coffee machine coffee, I feel.

One further idea I forgot to pass on earlier. I have the theory that a road trip route may have followed as closely as possible the boundaries of states. By travelling along boundaries, one remains ‘nowhere’, constantly able to evade all state troopers and state laws. This would appeal to a group wishing to remain hidden, and fits with the needlework notion of sewing along hems and borders. Perhaps even a static community may have been established on state borders. Don’t just cross the stateline to evade pursuit – stay on the stateline to evade pursuit from all sides… Walk the line like Johnny Cash.

Mister state trooper please don’t stop me… I recall that the crypto-geographers who I spoke to about the nazca lines were researching linear settlement patterns. This would be a prime example… a linear network settlement in no location.

Boston (Gravitational) Mass

Interesting. Perhaps the leads I failed to find in Boston will come to you from your local Joni. It seems fitting that as soon as I leave the town, a possibly significant reference to it shows up elsewhere. It bears hallmarks of the Obfuscationist modus operandi; You look right, there's nothing there; you look left and they tell you to look right again.

I was unaware of the Boston Mass and now wonder if this is some kind of religious (or quasi-religious) festival or a celebration of something large in physical scale or scale of production. Or rather, even, Boston Mass is some kind of condition providing gravity through mass to attract all things. Perhaps due to Boston Mass, all things must gravitate toward [or from] Boston.

Your mention of the album title Songs To A Seagull causes me to recall the French artist and funambulist Philippe Petit who, while crossing an illegally rigged highwire between NYC's World Trade Centre towers in the '70s, paused to lie back on his 3/4" cable hundreds of metres above the Earth's surface and carry out a dialogue with a seagull circling a few tens of feet above him. It strikes me now that perhaps Searly is in a metaphorically similar position and is, as such, untouchable by the man of average means. Perhaps we will have to wait for him to cross the threshold at the time of his choosing and once again become accessible in a more general capacity.