in response ...

Interesting developments and postulations indeed. Tell me more about calabi yau. I haven't heard of this discipline.

Where are you situated at present? Where are these boxes being delivered to? (I would also ask where are they being delivered from, but assume that isn't yet known.) Are you on campus in UK or have you returned to the US? If a similar operation is being begun this side of the atlantic, this could be the beginnings of a second round of soft cells. Either a single replication of experiment 31, or else one of many second generation repeat projects. We must keep alert.
As for locating Dan, I suggest you look underground. In the cellar, or on the ground floor at least.

I await Epstein's opinions on using softness to access other dimensions.

Multi-dimensional crochet & campus deliveries

hmmm.... The crochet/yoga angle is an interesting one. Perhaps the yogic prep is key to the outcomes of the hook. Maybe the exercise is no mere pre-stitch warm up, this flexing could be flexing fibres, not muscles, a la don genaro, allowing the practitioners to tap into other realms/dimensions [possibly one of the curled up dimension thought to be universally hidden in calabi-yau shapes], which allows them to execute crochet manouveres otherwise impossible. in short, they may be knitting in more than 3 dimensions, but we 3-D dwellers may not be able to see it. Perhaps this is why you struggled to understand the finely woven structures of your dutch associate.



For my part here, I have been trying to find and/or contact Dan Stairs. I feel he may hold information which may help unravel this whole mystery. Campus-based investigations have led me to discover the daily deliveries of large cardboard boxes, which seem suspiciously light for their size when one observes the delivery men carrying them. Enquiries with the receptionist allowed me to learn that such deliveries are 'for the Knitting Society'. I did not possess sufficient front to begin opening the boxes there and then, so cannot confirm their specific content, but the lightness of the boxes suggest woollen thread [or perhaps pre-knitted structures , possibly to be joined together into yet larger structures] and the amount of them being delivered daily implies a large-scale operation. I shall keep my eyes and ears peeled for possible evidence of their purpose.



The thought now occurs to me that the point of the softness could be exactly that - it is not rigid, but flexible; possibly flexible enough to be bent into space dimensions beyond our familiar 3. Perhaps the soft michigan group are attempting to [or even successfullly] building a new softer world in a new dimension which the average joe is not aware of. I must confer with Epstein on this matter. I am sure Stairs could also shed light on this were he to be found, but would he be willing?



Mr. Marbles

Nobody Home

Radio 4 news item morning of I think Friday 26 June:
A man call Dan Kilby(?), working for US federal govt dept on replanning cities due to INCREASES IN EMPTY HOUSES. He is from Clint, Michigan. Cities being replanned/worked on included Cleveland Ohio, Baltimore, and Detroit. Methods included removing empty houses to increase garden space between houses. This was/is a major project (major enough to warrant item and interview on UK radio). It began under the bush administration, and now Obama is also using Dan to continue this work.
The question that occurs to me though, is where have all the people gone?? Or were these houses built but never occupied? In which case who got the sums wrong on population numbers etc, in these housing companies? Are there more people than we might think living in airstreams and teepees on the borders and the slabs? How many people live in soft michigan? Or in the waters of lake superior?

I don't know if a connection exists between the two Dans. Probably not,I feel.

You are right to pick up on the auburn hair dye receipts. Is the Melody/Melissa/Melinda/Belinda puzzle a case of two real people and two pseudonyms? Or three real people and one pseudonym? Or some other combination? What's real and what is pretend...?

I am currently researching postings concerning the michelson morley model.

Casebook Retrieval

I recently retrieved my main casebook which had been idly left at Kingsbury PI's place a few days earlier. It contains observations and suppositions relevant to the case hitherto untouched on.

note 1: The redhead girl in the CCTV footage identified by one of the Boston tech crew as Melody Nelson could she be one of the duo known as 'Melinda Packett'? I recall receipts for auburn hair colour being found at their bay area residence? Sounds like one of those coincidences I don't believe in.

Assuming this is the case, it would seem that there is frequent movement of personnel connected to this whole saga from north to south and east to west. The group seem to have connection in all corners of the continent and also south of the border. Vandeloo and De Leon seem to have moved around more than most people we are aware of in the case - Florida, Baton Rouge, Mexico, Wisconsin, probably Maine. I definitely think these guys are researchers/couriers with major connections moving across the landscape on a constant basis, probably running along differenty routes to the cargo cult already identified. I'm still not sure if they were truly soft core group or if they were government plants.

This moving around would facilitate posting correspondance from all over the US, allowing the group to never use the same address twice, appearing ubiquitous and without an operational centre. This is an organisation structured according to donut law. perhaps they themselves extend around the circumference of the planet and Searly could be anywhere. This is a classic obfuscationist technique, favoured by RC Christian as we have already seen.

One more thing: Dan Stairs. His name sounds so similar to 'downstairs'; it makes me think of basements. I think he could be a good lead. I shall investigate his presence in the Ohio region; preliminary enquiries show he has been spotted in the East Cleveland area.

The Nebraska Connection

So many elements have recently been attached to the case that this investigator is wondering where exactly he should be focussing his energies. Should I concentrate on closed-loop systems or be looking underground? Should I be looking for leads relating to Stairs' activities in Ohio or be trying identify large areas in the Detroit region with the potential for large-scale liquid storage/absorption? Should I be looking south of the border or walking the statelines? there are so many angles to this case that a 3D rendering of it would be one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever undertaken by man; up there with the Georgia Guidestones or a planet-sized particle acceleration donut. Perhaps Searly already knows how the case will end and is building such a 3D case model in his bungalow on the outskirts of Boston?

With regard to your planet-sized nut theory, I do not know how feasible this is, or what the capabilities could be, but it strikes me now that perhaps donut law applies to Black Cat. Remember, this was an experiment with an unidentified central location - perhaps this central point is as invisible and non-physical as the centre of a donut and as such may never be found. Perhaps it is, as one investigator suggested, actually in space, and therefore 'empty' by common standards.

Last night, while listening to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska LP, I picked up on the following points in the song Highway Patrolman, which I feel echo elements of our case...

The song tells the story of two brothers from Ohio and involves a scene where the patrolman of the title chases a suspect in a Buick through Michigan, deliberately allowing it to escape over the Canadian border as it is being driven by his brother.
Hearing this sequence of events unfold in the song immediately made me think of the case: The chased Buick and activity in Michigan and Ohio having particular resonance, along with an escape over the Canadian borderline.

This brings to my mind the idea that perhaps Searly was 'allowed' to 'disappear' intentionally by at least one individual or some small splinter group within the larger operational group. This would imply different members of the group had/have different agendas. The most likely explanation for this is, as suspected, that both an independent group and the military were working in the same area of operation; either working to the same aim but with a different agenda, or working in a similar field with different aims.

I am leaning toward the idea that either the military started the operation, recruiting help from academia circles who, somewhere along the way, began to use the operation for different ends to the military's intention, or the Michigan craft club started proceedings which the military subsequently became aware of and infiltrated for their own purposes. Of course, the two groups could have had the same idea independently at the same time. Perhaps this is the case and Project31 is related to the Black Cat experiment[s] in this way.

As explained here, the Nebraska LP is actually made from the Boss' own 4-track home recordings rather than been done in a studio. Such an approach ties in with Costa's recroding methods, as heard on the mixtapes so far discovered. The song is set in the '60s but was actually written and released in the early '80s, which would have been an influential period for members of the Michigan soft-core, many of them being in the adolesence at this point. More details of the song's content can be found here. As explained here, the song was used as the basis for the film 'The Indian Runner' released in 1991, again a likely period of influence for Project 31 members.

Springsteen hails from New Jersey, which falls within the bounds of our theorised North-eastern donut of activity and is a likely candidate to have had influence on members of the Michigan group at a critical period prior to the project's beginnings. With Neil Young being from Canada and Dylan from Duluth, it would seem that we are looking in the right area, musically speaking. Even Monk hails from North Carolina, which borders on the South-eastern edge of our theorised donut of activity. I'm sure even this great jazz pianist has held a harmonica to his lips on occasion.

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.