UFO

An unidentified flying object, or UFO, is any real or apparent flying object which cannot be identified by the observer and which remains unidentified after investigation. The term flying saucer is also sometimes used.

Reports of unusual aerial phenomena date back to ancient times (see Ancient astronaut theories)[citation needed], but reports of UFO sightings started becoming more common after the first widely publicized United States sighting in 1947. Many tens of thousands of UFO reports have since been made worldwide.[citation needed] Many more sightings, however, may remain unreported due to fear of public ridicule because of the social stigma surrounding the subject of UFOs[citation needed] and because most nations lack any officially sanctioned authority to receive and evaluate UFO reports.

Once a UFO is identified as a known object (for example an aircraft or weather balloon), it ceases to be classified as a UFO and is reclassified as an identified object.

Unusual aerial phenomena have been reported throughout history. Many of these phenomena were undoubtedly astronomical in nature: comets, bright meteors, one or more of the five planets which can be seen with the naked eye, planetary conjunctions, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds. Other historical reports seem to defy prosaic explanation, but assessing such accounts is difficult at best, since the information in an historical document may be insufficient, inaccurate, or embellished enough to make an informed evaluation difficult.
* On September 24, 1235, General Kuj– Yoritsune and his army observed unidentified globes of light flying in erratic patterns in the night sky near Kyoto, Japan. The general’s advisers told him not to worry — it was merely the wind causing the stars to sway.
* On April 14, 1561 the skies over Nuremberg, Germany were reportedly filled with a multitude of objects seemingly engaged in an aerial battle. Small spheres and discs were said to emerge from large cylinders.

Whatever their actual cause, such sightings were usually treated as supernatural portents, angels, and other religious omens. Some contemporary investigators believe them to be the ancient equivalent of modern UFO reports. Art historian Daniela Giordano cites many Medieval-era paintings, frescoes, tapestries and other items that depict unusual aerial objects; she admits many of these paintings are difficult to interpret, but cites some that depict airborne saucer and domed-saucer shapes that are often strikingly similar to UFO reports from later centuries.
First modern reports

Before the terms “flying saucer” and “UFO” were coined in the late 1940s, there were a number of reports of strange, unidentified aerial phenomena. These reports date from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century. They include:

* In July, 1868, The investigators of this phenomenon define the first modern documented sighting as having happened in Copiapo city, Chile.[6]
* On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that local farmer John Martin had reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying “at wonderful speed.” He compared its size when overhead to that of a “large saucer”. [7]
* Reports of “mystery airships” appeared in American newspapers in 1887 and 1896-7, and another wave of sightings occurred in 1909-12 in New England, Europe, and New Zealand.
* On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet. Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached beneath the cloud layer, then changed course and “soared” above the clouds, departing directly away from the earth after 2 to 3 minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns
* An unusual phenomenon on November 17, 1882 was observed by astronomer Edward Walter Maunder of the Greenwich Royal Observatory and some other European astronomers. Numerous sighting reports were written up in Nature and other scientific journals. Maunder in The Observatory reported “a strange celestial visitor” that was “disc-shaped,” “torpedo-shaped,” “spindle-shaped,” or “just like a Zeppelin” dirigible (as he described it in 1916). It was much brighter than the concurrent auroral displays, had well-defined edges and was opaque in the center, whitish or greenish-white, about 30 degrees long and 3 degrees wide, and moved steadily across the northern sky in less than 2 minutes from east to west. Maunder said it was very different in characteristics from a meteor fireball or any aurora he had ever seen. Nonetheless, Maunder (and some other astronomers) thought it was probably related to the huge auroral magnetic sunspot storm occurring at the same time; Maunder called it an “auroral beam.” [10]
* The so-called Fátima incident or “The Miracle of the Sun,” witnessed by tens of thousands in Fátima, Portugal on October 13, 1917.
* On 5 August 1926, while traveling in the Humboldt Mountains of Tibet’s Kokonor region, Nicholas Roerich reported that members of his expedition saw–high in the sky, above an eagle they had been watching–“something big and shiny reflecting sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed” (from his travel diary Altai-Himalaya, published 1929). While Roerich does not say what he thought the object might have been, surrounding passages discuss Theosophical accounts of ancient civilizations and their technology.[11]
* In both the European and Japanese aerial theatres during World War II, “Foo-fighters” (balls of light and other shapes that followed aircraft) were reported by both Allied and Axis pilots.
* On February 25, 1942, the U.S. Army detected unidentified aircraft both visually and on radar over the Los Angeles, California region. The craft stayed aloft despite taking at least 20 minutes worth of flak from ground batteries. The origins of the aircraft were never identified. The incident later became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, or the West coast air raid.
* In 1946, there were over 2000 reports of unidentified aircraft in the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece, then referred to as “Russian hail,” and later as “ghost rockets,” because it was thought that these mysterious objects were Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2 rockets. This was subsequently shown not to be the case, and the phenomenon remains unexplained. Over 200 were tracked on radar and deemed to be “real physical objects” by the Swedish military. A significant fraction of the remainder was thought to be misidentification of natural phenomena, such as meteors.

Modern UFO era

The post World War II UFO phase in the United States began with a reported sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947 while flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, Washington. He reported seeing nine brilliantly bright objects flying across the face of Rainier towards nearby Mount Adams at “an incredible speed”, which he calculated as at least 1200 miles per hour by timing their travel between Rainier and Adams. His sighting subsequently received significant media and public attention. Arnold would later say they “flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” and also said they were “flat like a pie pan”, “shaped like saucers,” and “half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. …they looked like a big flat disk.” (One, however, he would describe later as being almost crescent-shaped.) Arnold’s reported descriptions caught the media’s and the public’s fancy and gave rise to the terms flying saucer and flying disk.

Arnold’s sighting was followed in the next few weeks by hundreds of other reported sightings, mostly in the U.S., but in other countries as well. Perhaps the most significant of these was a United Airlines crew sighting of nine more disc-like objects over Idaho on the evening of July 4. At the time, this sighting was even more widely reported than Arnold’s and lent considerable credence to Arnold’s report. For the next few days most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new “flying saucers” or “flying discs.” Starting with official debunkery that began the night of July 8 with the Roswell UFO incident, reports rapidly tapered off, ending the first big U.S. UFO wave.

The scope of the 1947 U.S. UFO wave was unknown for two decades: the U.S. Air Force investigated several dozen of the reports, but there was no centralized registry for claimed UFO encounters. Over several years in the 1960s, American UFO researcher Ted Bloecher[12] (aided by physicist James E. McDonald) discovered 853 flying disc sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state save Montana. This was more UFO reports for 1947 than most researchers ever suspected. Some of these stories were poorly documented or fragmentary, but Bloecher argued that about 250 of the more detailed reports (such as those made by pilots or scientists, multiple eyewitnesses, or backed by photos) made a persuasive case for a genuine mystery.

Starting July 9, Army Air Force intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, secretly began a formal investigation into the best sightings, which included Arnold’s and the United crew’s. The FBI was told that intelligence was using “all of its scientists” to determine whether or not “such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur.” Furthermore, the research was “being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon,” or that “they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled.” (Maccabee, 5) Three weeks later they concluded that, “This ‘flying saucer’ situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around.”[13] A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached the same conclusion, that “the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious,” that there were objects in the shape of a disc, metallic in appearance, and as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by “extreme rates of climb [and] maneuverability,” general lack of noise, absence of trail, occasional formation flying, and “evasive” behavior “when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar,” suggesting either manual, automatic, or remote control. It was thus recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up to investigate the phenomenon.[14] This led to the creation of the Air Force’s Project Sign at the end of 1947, which became Project Grudge at the end of 1948, and then Project Blue Book in 1952. Blue Book closed down in 1970, ending the official Air Force UFO investigations.
Use of “UFO” instead of “flying saucer” was first suggested in 1952 by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book, who felt that “flying saucer” did not reflect the diversity of the sightings. Ruppelt suggested that “UFO” should be pronounced as a word — “you-foe”. However it is generally pronounced by forming each letter: “U.F.O.” His term was quickly adopted by the Air Force, which also briefly used “UFOB” circa 1954. (See next paragraph.) Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book in his memoir, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956), also the first book to use the term.[15]

Air Force Regulation 200-2, issued in 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object (UFOB) as “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object.” The regulation also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a “possible threat to the security of the United States” and “to determine technical aspects involved.” Furthermore, Air Force personnel were directed not to discuss unexplained cases with the press.[16]

In Canada, the Department of National Defence has dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across Canada. In addition to conducting investigations into crop circles in Duhamel, Alberta, it still identifies the Falcon Lake incident in Manitoba and the Shag Harbour incident in Nova Scotia as “unsolved”
UFOs in popular culture

Beginning in the 1950s, UFO-related spiritual sects, sometimes referred to as contactee cults, began to appear. Most often the members of these sects rallied around a central individual, who claimed to either have made personal contact with space-beings, or claimed to be in telepathic contact with them. Prominent among such individuals was George Adamski, who claimed to have met a tall, blond-haired Venusian named “Orthon,” who came to warn us about the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Adamski was widely dismissed, but an Adamski Foundation still exists, publishing and selling Adamski’s writings. At least two of these sects developed a substantial number of adherents, most notably The Aetherius Society, founded by British mystic George King in 1956, and the Unarius Foundation, established by “Ernest L.” and Ruth Norman in 1954. A standard theme of the alleged messages from outer-space beings to these cults was a warning about the dangers of nuclear proliferation. More recent groups organized around an extraterrestrial theme include Ummo, Heaven’s Gate, The Raëlian Movement, and the Ashtar Galactic Command. Many of the early UFO sects, as well as later ones, share a tendency to incorporate ideas from both Christianity and various eastern religions, “hybridizing” these with ideas pertaining to extraterrestrials and their benevolent concern with the people of Earth.

The notion of contactee cults gained a new twist during the 1980s, primarily in the USA, with the publication of books by Whitley Strieber (beginning with Communion) and Jacques Vallee (Passport to Magonia). Strieber, a horror writer, felt that aliens were visiting him and were responsible for “missing time” during which he was subjected to strange experiments by “grey aliens”. This newer, darker model can be seen in the subsequent wave of “alien abduction” literature, and in the background mythos of The X Files and many other TV series.

However, even in the alien abduction literature, motives of the aliens run the gamut from hostile to benevolent. For example, researcher David Jacobs believes we are undergoing a form of stealth invasion through genetic assimilation. The theme of genetic manipulation (though not necessarily an invasion) is also strongly reflected in the writings of Budd Hopkins. The late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack (1929-2004) believed that the aliens’ ethical bearing was to take a role as “tough love” gurus trying to impart wisdom. James Harder says abductees predominantly report positive interactions with aliens, most of whom have benevolent intentions and express concern about human survival.

An interesting 1970s-era development was a renewal and broadening of ideas associating UFOs with supernatural or preternatural subjects such as occultism, cryptozoology, and parapsychology. Some 1950s contactee cultists had incorporated various religious and occult ideas into their beliefs about UFOs, but in the 1970s this was repeated on a considerably larger scale. Many participants in the New Age movement came to believe in alien contact, both through mediumistic channeling and through literal, physical contact. A prominent spokesperson for this trend was actress Shirley MacLaine, especially in her book and miniseries, Out On a Limb. The 1970s saw the publication of many New Age books in which ideas about UFOs and extraterrestrials figured prominently.

Another key development in 1970s UFO folklore came with the publication of Erich von Däniken’s book Chariots of the Gods. The book argued that aliens have been visiting Earth for thousands of years, which he used to explain UFO-like images from various archaeological sources as well as unsolved mysteries. Such ideas were not exactly new. For example, earlier in his career, astronomer Carl Sagan in Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966) had similarly argued that aliens could have been visiting the Earth sporadically for millions of years. “Ancient astronauts” proposals inspired numerous imitators, sequels, and fictional adaptations, including one book (Barry Downing’s The Bible and Flying Saucers) which interprets miraculous aerial phenomena in the Bible as records of alien contact. Many of these interpretations posit that aliens have been guiding human evolution, an idea taken up earlier by the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

UFOs constitute a widespread international cultural phenomenon of the last half-century. Folklorist Thomas E. Bullard writes, “UFOs have invaded modern consciousness in overwhelming force, and endless streams of books, magazine articles, tabloid covers, movies, TV shows, cartoons, advertisements, greeting cards, toys, T-shirts, even alien-head salt and pepper shakers, attest to the popularity of this phenomenon.” Gallup polls rank UFOs near the top of lists for subjects of widespread recognition. In 1973, a survey found that 95 percent of the public reported having heard of UFOs, whereas only 92 percent had heard of US President Gerald Ford in a 1977 poll taken just nine months after he left the White House. (Bullard, 141) A 1996 Gallup poll reported that 71 percent of the United States population believed that the government was covering up information regarding UFOs. A 2002 Roper poll for the Sci Fi channel found similar results, but with more people believing UFOs were extraterrestrial craft. In that latest poll, 56 percent thought UFOs were real craft and 48 percent that aliens had visited the Earth. Again, about 70 percent felt the government was not sharing everything it knew about UFOs or extraterrestrial life.

Hashish

Hashish is a preparation of cannabis composed of the compressed trichomes collected from the Cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients as cannabis (but in higher concentrations) and produces the same psychoactive effects. Hashish is solid, of varying hardness and pliability, and will soften under heat. Its colour can vary from green, black, reddish brown, or most commonly light to dark brown. It is consumed in much the same way as Cannabis buds, often being smoked in joints mixed with tobacco or Cannabis buds, or in smoking pipes, or vapourized. It can also be eaten or used as an ingredient of food (baked into cookies or cakes, or added to stews and chocolate). History It is believed that hash first originated from Central Europe, as this region was among the first to be populated by the Cannabis plant, which may have originated in the Alps[citation needed]. Traditionally C. sativa subsp. indica has been cultivated for production of hashish[citation needed]. Others speculate that it might have first been introduced in what is currently Swiss areas of Central Europe, at first being made by rolling dried marijuana plant material over carpets and collecting the resin glands (and extraneous material) falling into the pile[1] Hash quickly spread around the world after the Arabs began to gather and trade it[citation needed]. Production of hash later spread to the Middle East (Lebanon), and from there to North Africa (most prominently Algeria, though in post-colonial times Moroccan production has dominated) and then South Asia (mostly in India and Pakistan). The word assassin derives from Arabic word Hashshashin, the medieval Shia Islamic sect of militants founded by Hassan-i-Sabah in North of Iran. They were said to have been inspired to commit murder under the influence of hashish. The legend of hashish-eating hit men began with a vague mention by Marco Polo, and greatly embellished by 19th century French and American writers, fascinated by orientalism and eager to present hashish as a drug menace. The legend gained great popularity especially by Charles Baudelaire in his Artificial Paradises of 1857. Others argue that the term could have been created due to political reasons, in order to discredit the sect[citation needed] (also noted is the arguments of those who insist that the term ‘Hashashin’ refers to those who were followers of Hassan-i-Sabah). It has also been suggested that if hashish were in fact consumed, it had been adulterated with stronger materials, the effects of hashish being well-known and easily recognisable at that time and place Consumption of hashish saw a dramatic increase in the 20th century, becoming a popular pastime in Europe and America, gaining prominence in the hippie scene[citation needed]. Hashish levels declined significantly in the United States starting in the 1980s for several reasons, including the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Mostly the decline was due to a huge jump in price and quality of imported marijuana [citation needed]. This helped increase the popularity of marijuana use in North America, and encouraged new growing methods such as growing marijuana indoors Hashish is made from tetrahydrocannabinol-rich glandular hairs known as trichomes, as well as varying amounts of Cannabis flower and leaf fragments. The flowers of a mature female plant contain the most trichomes, though trichomes also occur on other parts of the plant. Certain strains of Cannabis are cultivated specifically for their ability to produce large quantities of trichomes, and are thus called hash plants. The resin reservoirs of the trichomes (sometimes erroneously called pollen) are separated from the plant via various methods. The resulting concentrate is formed into blocks of hashish, which can be easily stored and transported. Alternatively, the powder consisting of uncompressed, dry trichomes is often referred to as kief instead of hashish. Mechanical separation methods use physical action to remove the trichomes from the plant. Sieving over a fine screen is a vital part of most methods. The plants may be sifted by hand or in motorized tumblers. Hash made in this way is sometimes called dry sift. Finger hash is produced by rolling the ripe trichome-covered flowers of the plant between the fingers and collecting the resin that sticks to the fingers. Trichomes and resins can also be collected passively through cleaning of scissors that have been used to cut the plant, or containers like a kief-box used to store it. Ice water separation is a more modern mechanical separation method which submerges the plant in ice and water and stirs the mixture. Trichomes are broken off the plant as the ice moves, while the low temperature make the trichomes more brittle so they break off easily. The waste plant matter, detached trichomes, and water are separated by filtering through a series of increasingly fine screens. Kits are commercially available which provide a series of filter screens meant to fit inside standard bucket sizes. Hash made in this way is sometimes called ice hash, or bubble hash. Chemical separation methods generally use a solvent to dissolve the desirable resins in the plant while not dissolving undesirable components. The solid plant material is then filtered out of the solution and discarded. The solvent may then be evaporated, leaving behind the desirable resins. As THC is fat-soluble, it also dissolves in butter, which can then be used for cooking (see hash cookies and Alice B. Toklas brownies). The product of chemical separations is more commonly referred to as honey oil, hash oil, or just oil Quality The main factors affecting quality are potency and purity. Different Cannabis plants will produce resins with unique chemical profiles that vary in potency. The manufacturing process may, to some degree, introduce less desirable materials such as tiny pieces of leaf matter or even purposefully added adulterants; these reduce the purity of the hash. The ?9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of hashish usually ranges from 15%-20%, and that of hash oil from 30%-40%.[3] Fresh hashish of good quality is soft and pliable and becomes progressively harder and less potent as it oxidizes (Levine 1944). Hash is generally said to be black, brown or blonde. There is also hashish of greenish or reddish hue. A green tinge may indicate that the hashish is impure, which has been cut with low-quality leaf or contains high quantities of chlorophyll. A yellow tint can indicate presence of cannabis pollen, which has a sandy color. Low quality forms of hash often contain adulterants used as cutting agents added to exaggerate the value of hash through increasing the volume or including other cheaper drugs.[4]. Such forms usually possess a low potency and may have a strangeness in taste and feel. The adulterants in the hash may range from waste material from the Cannabis plant to products such as soap (hence the name soap bar).[5] The low quality may lead one to smoke more to get the same effect, and may increase the adverse effects done to the lungs. Because hashish, particularly in Northern Europe, is often adulterated, some people have started boiling their hash in water for a few minutes and then drying it before smoking. This is thought to remove all water-soluble adulterants while the psychoactive cannabinols remain intact as the temperature isn’t sufficient to destroy them and they aren’t soluble in water. Production Hashish is traditionally produced in desert conditions and is almost never produced in the tropics. It is traditionally found in a belt extending from North Africa to North India and into Central Asia [citation needed]. The primary hash-producing countries are Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Morocco, Egypt, and India[citation needed]. Charas and gardaa are the primary products. Much of the hash available is high quality, although some adulterated product is available, easily identifiable by its relatively low prices. Charas, a substance that is hand-rubbed directly from the Cannabis plant, is generally produced in Nepal and India. Users report that charas generally produces a more trippy, “up” high due to the plants being mostly Sativa[citation needed]. Pollen or “blonde hash”, often from Morocco and the Netherlands, tends to produce both cerebral and narcotic sleepy highs, depending on the Cannabis strain used to produce it[citation needed]. A visitor to the Rif mountains and the town of Ketama in Morocco in Dec 1976 described the production of hashish. Workers rubbed the leaves of the Cannabis plant over fine muslin fabric. In unheated huts, each worker had his hands and arms inside a regular one hundredweight (50Kg) plastic fertiliser bag containing twigs and leaves of the cannabis. In the mouth of the bag was a plastic washing-up bowl. Stretched over the bowl was a sheet of “zero-zero” grade muslin. The worker rubbed the leaves of the cannabis plant over the muslin, resulting in a fine powder ending up in the bowl. When 100 grams of the powder was collected it was then wrapped in more fine muslin, put onto a heated metal plate, and rolled down with a bottle. This process produces a slightly sticky solid brown mass in the form of a square slab, around half the size of a paper-back book and about 1/2 centimetre thick. This block would be wrapped in cellophane. Sellers of this Moroccan hashish pointed to the imprint of the muslin on the surface of the block, and declared it proof that the product was “zero-zero”, the top quality. In Afghanistan there is a method of making hash that resembles charas. First, Cannabis resin is placed on a large heated mortar, then the resin is threshed with a heavy object. The result is a very gooey, sticky black hash. This method is mostly used in villages around the Hindu Kush mountain region[citation needed]. Hash is also produced now in the deserts of Northern Mexico however the demand for it and thus amount produced is insignificant compared to that for “fresh” Mexican marijuana, especially into the lucrative United States markets Hashish was always the variety of preference in Europe (although this preference is slowly changing towards the buds of the plant) , and was widely available in North Africa and parts of Asia. It is less popular in the US and other producing nations. Hashish is more compact than marijuana, it keeps better, and is easier to smuggle than marijuana. When it has been smuggled by amateurs (as a lot still is), it often suffers from longish periods of bad storage (eg left in hot cars), so the quality can vary considerably. Older hashish can easily be recognised as it is hard and has no smell. (Heating with a lighter is a common test). By the 1990s, the popularity of marijuana in the developed world was increasing, as more (and stronger) versions were being grown. The Cannabis Cup held every year in Amsterdam attempts to evaluate the quality of the latest varieties – however, being a judge only requires that you pay for your ticket. In France and the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, this is known as Maroc (Maroc meaning Morocco in French). In Spain it is called Costo, and Chocolate. In the United Kingdom, it is variously known as brown (also a name for heroin in some parts of the UK), hash, resin, solid, and block. Older names include shit and dope. In the Netherlands, this is called Maroc, Lieb (Lebanon) or, from quality zero being best to secundeira being worst: triple zero, zero zero, super primaira, primaira, secundeira. In Brazil, it is commonly called haxa. Also, there is a branch of nearly white powder hash (pollen or kief hash) that is the result of not stamping the raw material for the more common compressed hashish. Soft hash is usually dark brown to black in colour and goes under the name black in France, squidgey or soft black (named due to the colour and properties of the hash) in the UK. The very potent Paki Black is so named because it originates in Pakistan. Soft, dark hash in the Netherlands is normally referred to as Afghan. Popular Kashmiri brands are Citral and Fungus. Hashish use is experiencing a resurgence in parts of North America (especially the Pacific Northwest) with the popularity and commercial availability of ice-water extraction kits Preparation and methods of use Like ordinary Cannabis preparations, hashish is usually smoked, though it can also be eaten or vapourized. Hash is often crumbled into tiny pieces or formed into shapes to obtain maximum surface area when burning. Hash can be smoked in most implements used for cannabis smoking, sometimes a pipe screen is used. Often hash is mixed with tobacco, Cannabis, or another herb. Heat may be used to bond the hash to the other smokeable substance. This mixture can be rolled up into a cigarette or smoked in a pipe. A piece of hash may be ignited by cigarette coals or other means and placed inside a container. The smoke that collects inside can then be inhaled. Dabous or Khabour (stick in Arabic) is a North African technique. Bottle tokes or BT’s is a similar method found in Canada and also in Russia. Hash can be placed on very hot pieces of metal and the resulting smoke inhaled. Hot knives is a method that involves heating up knives on a stove and then crushing a little ball of the hash between them and inhaling the released smoke with a straw. Hash cones is a method where a piece of hash is attached to metal wire and then heated.

IN FLAMES

Pictures and Bio taken from www.inflames.com

It was the year 1990, Jesper decided to take leave of the band Ceremonial Oath, that he was currently in, together with Anders Fridén and Anders Iwers (Tiamat)

He wanted to make music in a different direction, and he teamed up with Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström to form IN FLAMES. The gang made a demo and shipped it off to Wrong Again records in order to get a record-deal, which they did. The owner of the company enjoyed the music so much that he immediately gave them a deal over the phone, as they rang him up one night. The next day, they sat down and wrote the album Lunar Strain, which was released some time later, and became a big underground success. They had some “in and out members” , and borrowed some from different bands. People that have been a part of IN FLAMES since the beginning, are Mikael Stanne and Anders Jivarp (Dark Tranquillity), Anders Iwers (Tiamat), Henke Forss (Dawn), Daniel Erlandsson (Eucharist, Arch Enemy), and a few more. The band then released a mini-CD called Subterranean, that became the “breaker” for IN FLAMES, in terms of getting out off the underground scene, that is, and led them to get a license deal with German company Nuclear Blast for the next record, and they have been there since then. After some time, the boys were getting tired of constantly borrowing people in order to make a record, or do a decent live show, and they asked Anders Fridén and Björn Gelotte to join the band, on vocals and drums, and they accepted. IN FLAMES were for the first time a band with a real line up.

They recorded and released yet another record . The Jester Race, which became a huge success, worldwide, and the band started to get some fantastic attention all over Europe, and in Japan, where they were licensed to Toy´s Factory. They went on a festival tour together with Samael, Grip inc. And Kreator – this was the first big thing that happened to them, but definitely not the last. Some gigs here and there over the next year, led to both Johan and Glenn feeling that they had to make a choice where their priorities were , and sadly, they choose not be a part of IN FLAMES any more. They both announced, unexpectedly after the recording of Whoracle, that they were leaving, and Björn, Jesper and Anders were left with a finished record and half a band.

Luckily they were good friends with Peter Iwers and Niklas Engelin, who both happened to play bass and guitar, and they filled in at the end of the recordings, to do a mini-tour with Dimmu Borgir. This worked out fine and the two gentlemen were asked to stay in the band permanently, and so they did. Together the group continued onto a successful tour in Europeand an amazing week in Japan, where they did their first two shows. Japan welcomed the Swedes with warm arms, and they had an amazing experience. As they return to Sweden, Niklas leaves the band, due to some different opinions, and the fact that he wanted to focus on Gardenian, his other band. This is the biggest turning point for IN FLAMES, as they decide to switch Björn from drums to guitar, (being a guitar player originally), and recruit Daniel Svensson ( Sacrilige) on Drums. This works out wonderful, and they record COLONY, the biggest success so far.

The Colonization takes them around the world, to Europe, USA and Japan, and this tour is an amazing experience for IN FLAMES, that finally receives the attention they´ve been waiting for. As they play full houses almost everywhere, the party goes on for a few months, and the response is excellent all over the world.

In August of 2000, after a few years of successful touring , the release of Clayman is a fact, after spending 3 months in the studio. This record spins off really well, and the sales are overwhelming and it knocks out the previous record sales in a few months.

After doing festivals with Dream Theater, Slipknot, Testament, Methods of mayhem, etc, a world tour was to expect. In Flames aimed for Japan and Europe, which was squeezed in between 2 American tours. This was the same round as last year, only this time bigger places, more people and more material. In Japan, Jesper received an award from BURRN! As the number 1 songwriter of the year. The tours were a huge success once again. Peter Iwers did not join them on all of these tours as he had a new arrival back home, that he stayed home with instead, a baby girl, but he joined in for the Scandinavian and Japan dates, and was temporarily replaced by Dick Löwgren from Armageddon for the other tours. In the year 2000, approximately 150 shows were performed by In Flames , and then a well deserved vacation was taken by the members. 2001, Peter is back and the band does a few single shows in Sweden, including a headline gig in Gothenburg, which was featured in 4 television channels, and aired live on the radio.

Charts this year were very high, including 4 in Japan, both group and record, 3 in Canada´s greatest metal mag- Brave words and Bloody Knuckles, 1 in Metal Maniacs, and 17 on the official Swedish charts, to name a few.

A video is shot for Only for the Weak, and the band went on a mini tour in Europe, where they played 13 shows in front of 20 000 people, needless to say, it was a huge success.

Next: summer festivals, including Wacken Open Air, Rock Machina to name a few, then the release of a live album : The Tokyo Showdown, in August, before heading over to the US for another tour.

What next? well, another record was made, this time at a new location with a new producer: Dug-Out studios with Daniel Bergstrand. The band wanted to go elsewhere and try on a different studio and producer. Reroute To Remain was produced, and the the result was amazing. More touring, headline spins, support spins were done. Including raveling with the likes of Slipknot, Mudvayne, Soulfly and Slayer, that gave them the possibility to share their music with a different audience! Two headline spins in the US, one in Europe, festivals, including replacing Linkin park at Sweden’s biggest festival: Hultsfred.

The day after that show they were offered to do a support slot for Metallica in Madrid, which was a huge success, playing in front of 30.000 people, making it the biggest show so far , that was not a festival.

The making of soundtrack to your escape started in may 2003 when they rented a small house in Denmark to do pre-production. The idea to do this came very natural as they had started working like this on the last record, but this time they wanted to go even further away from Sweden, to prevent any kinds of distractions. The result was 11 songs, and then two more followed as they went into another recording process, although this time they moved all their gear and Daniel Bergstrands studio equipment into a larger house in Denmark to do the recording ina much more relaxed atmosphere. Only the druns where recorded at Dug-Out as the previous record, but the producers were the same: Daniel Bergstrand and Örjan Örnkloo.. which brings us up to date, where a large tour is on it´s way, taking the band once again all over the world, trying to spread the In Flames word around !

Today´s line-up is:
Björn Gelotte – Guitars
Daniel Svensson – Drums
Peter Iwers – Bassguitar
Jesper Strömblad – Guitars
Anders Fridén – Vocals