What's all this about Volcanic Ash???
Some of you on this board might be caught off guard by all the posts here regarding volcanic ash. How exactly did I come to work with this weird, exotic stuff?
Well, just so we have it on record and right out in public, I'll tell you. Several years ago I began a sort of study to find out if there was a mineral powder that could be added to epoxy to create a useful putty. It's foolish to pay epoxy prices for mineral powder diluants. Think of it as a sort of high-grade "Bondo." Eventually I found that fly ash, a byproduct of coal burning, was an outstanding material for this purpose. But until I came upon fly ash, I had bags and bags of mineral powders in my basement. I have a friend who works at System Three epoxy near Seattle; he even gave me some tech-grade mineral powder additives.
Once when I was at Wal-Mart, I came upon this:
A product called
Spill Magic. Believe it or not, I bought it not to absorb spills, but to mix with epoxy! Freakish, I know...
Frankly I can't remember how it worked out as far as adding to epoxy goes, as I settled on fly ash soon enough.
Some time passed, and I became interested in the dermals business, late in 2004. As I've detailed elsewhere, I built a wood box to contain these mineral powders and soils for testing. After I tested fly ash, I began to test the other mineral powders in my basement to see what would happen when cement casting compounds were poured over them. Indeed, I made a test cast using Spill Magic.
I obtained rather spectacular desiccation ridges in this cast. This would have been about March or April 2005. But by this time I had run out of Spill Magic, I went back to Wal-Mart for more, but they were out.
Eventually it occurred to me to simply figure out what the stuff actually was. Looking on the ingredients we see this:
I see now that a search for "CAS#93763-70-3" comes up with perlite, but I must have googled the text instead, as googling "amorphous aluminum silicate" gives this website as the first hit, at least today:
http://www.reade.com/Products/Minerals-and-Ores/Pumice-Powder-(Amorphous-aluminum-silicate).html
Pumice! Yeah, I didn't have to buy Spill Magic--I could just get some pumice! I can't remember what I did next: I'm sure I searched the Internet for a source of pumice in Seattle. Eventually I found Seattle Pottery Supply. My memory is that they told me that they labeled their pumice as "volcanic ash."
In retrospect, it all makes sense, as Spill Magic works its magic because it is an effective DESICCANT.
Some time ago, on Bigfoot Forums, I began to interact with Melissa regarding casting artifacts. At the time, I rather naively thought she wanted to duplicate what tests I had been doing. Thus, I publicly suggested she obtain some volcanic ash at a pottery supply store for testing. She did not do so, and instead obtained Tricalcium Phosphate, a product I had never tested and one totally different chemically than pumice, which is mostly oxides of silicon and aluminium (IUPAC spelling all the way, baby). She further asserted, publicly, that Tricalcium Phosphate is "full of iron," an egregious error, and one that exposed her rather pathological ignorance of basic chemistry.
At this point I could see the battle was lost--that I would never be able to meaningfully direct her to reproduce these tests.
I stood by and watched as Melissa began a series of ever-more escalating claims about what she claimed I "had told her to do." I suspected at this time that Melissa was lying, as I had no recollection of "saying" many of these things I was alleged to have said.
Unfortunately, I had also deleted most of my "PM" mail through Bigfoot Forums, so I had no way to prove that I never said the things she claimed I said.
Over the last several months I witnessed Melissa make ever-more exaggerated claims, many of which implied that I was lying about where I got my volcanic ash. The implication was that I had obtained volcanic ash from Mount St. Helens, an illegal act, according to her.
I suspected that if I remained silent on the matter Melissa's hubris would eventually get the better of her, and she would eventually make a mistake. This is part of the reason why Dana and I obtained the bag of volcanic ash from Seattle Pottery Supply and saved the receipt. I waited for Melissa to "cross the line."
Indeed, she eventually did "cross the line" and publicly claimed on this board that I was lying about where I had obtained my volcanic ash. This is a demonstrably false claim, as my receipt posted here proves. Thus, Melissa's claim amounts to libel and defamation.
I see that Melissa's libelous actions are currently being discussed on BFF:
http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=16440&st=300#
Being that Melissa placed her call(s) to Seatte Pottery Supply at a time when they had plenty of volcanic ash in stock, her claims are either gross distortions or flat-out lies.
If it were up to me, libel and defamation would get one banned from this forum, but this is not my decision to make. At this point, I view Melissa as essentially a libelous troll, and I may simply have to resort to the "block" function, as I rather enjoy posting my Bigfoot-related musings here and plan to continue to do so.
At this point I suspect that Melissa's credibility as a "Bigfoot researcher" may be finished, but I could be wrong. As in most fringe sciences, the "debunkers" and "scoftics" are the most reviled by the advocates, and over-the-top attacks by the advocates are the norm. The personalized, attack-dog mentality we see here directed at Dr. Wroblewski and myself is an old, old theme in fringe science. It's clear to me now why Melissa only provides the
subtext of phone call conversations she
claims to have made instead of provides transcripts with her conversant's full name.
The implication that I had done something underhanded was even too much for advocate Rick Noll, as he posted this comment on Bigfoot Forums in what he claims is his last post:
"A case in point is my working relationship with Matt Crowley. It has been my pleasure to work with such an individual who strived to do everything in his power the right way. Did he make mistakes? Sure, as does everyone… but did he do anything underhanded? In my opinion no! Many times I watched as he questioned and worked the issues and I thought… ah ha! Here we go. He is going to try this or that now... Sneak this one by… But he didn’t and really surprised me in always doing the right thing."
Melissa might have better luck over in the UFO field, as that is a venue where anonymous sources and hearsay are the order of the day. Perhaps she could turn her attentions toward Kal Korff and defend the honor of Billy Meier.
I fully expected to be treated like how I saw Greg Long treated when I came out with the "casting artifact" business. Strangely, this did not happen. Even Chilcutt didn't counter attack me, and in fact the last time I spoke to him on the phone I rather enjoyed the conversation. I ended up chatting with him for about 45 minutes. Chilcutt reminds me in many ways of my father, who taught law at the University of Montana for many years. Personally I get along with all these guys, and continue to have fruitfull exchanges with Chris Murphy, Daniel Perez, and Roger Knights. I like Jeff Meldrum, as he has treated me most fairly. It's clear I disagree with these people about various things, but they, like me, are capable of being civil and polite.
No, the only persons who have treated me like Greg Long was treated post right here on this board, LAL and Melissa.
Yes, truth be told, I've been waiting months for the day Melissa's libelous claims and gross distortions would be called out, and here it is. I think I'll go out and buy some diet Moutain Dew and watch the UFC tonight to celebrate...
...and declared "we can't say anything about her report."
