Going quiet for a while

I have just received demoralizing news.

I can't go into specifics just yet, other than it's one of the greatest existential crises one can face short of death. Consequently, I don't feel much like writing and besides it's tough to do that on a laptop while in fetal position and cocooned with blankets. Sorry for that less-than-flattering depiction, but that's how things are.

Besides, the things I'd write would be beyond negative and I know nobody needs that right now (not that they ever really did before.) I'm in despair. I'm terrified. Cut loose and lost and nowhere to go. I have daymares of horrific scenarios: I am once more marooned in a row of cubicles with others as we spend 50 hours of our week trying to sell widgets. Not that they know anything's wrong...overfed, vacuous, and eyes glued to their smartphones believing their suburban surroundings to be nothing short of paradisaical.

For me it's a dystopian nexus.


Sounds like complaining no doubt in this "do what you have to do" world. I can see that, but it's also difficult for many to understand how certain milieus can be utterly debilitating to personalities like mine.

I'm supposed to try to relax at this time. I'm not sure that I can. I have great new books to read, like Rudy Rucker's Transreal Trilogy and Greg Egan's Permutation City, but I can't concentrate enough to get through a page. So I put it down. Then a sort of paralysis sets in, leading to exhaustion, then sleep. Then I wake up and the whole terrified/despondent loop kicks in again and I can barely go out and function in the world.

Anyway, I'll be quiet for a while. Just not feeling up to blogging. How long will I be gone? Can't say for sure. I hope not too long but...these days you never know.


Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Female android impresses

Once again I'm teaching a class on transhumanism and robotics.

How much longer I get to do that is up for debate, but let's table that for now.

Today I showed the class Ex Machina. Naturally they were a bit disturbed by it as any sentient being should be. A few of them afterward clung to the idea that "we're nowhere near an 'Ava' level of things right now" or that "it could never really happen."

That's when I had to show the article on Jia Jia.

Jia Jia is an android in Singapore. She is one of the most human-like robots I've ever seen. Seriously. There's video of her at the link that you really need to check out. There's something very David Cronenberg about it all, yet it's fascinating to watch. Jia Jia is capable of holding a simple conversation while giving corresponding facial expressions. No one's being totally forthcoming as to what applications a Jia Jia would have, apart from the statement that "in 5-10 years there will be a lot of applications for robotics in China."

In a preliminary role, I could see such a female android acting as a concierge or desk attendant at a high end hotel. There would be a certain charm in that, especially in Asia where the large cities have always seemed like they exist somewhere twenty minutes in the future.

Maybe Jia Jia could also make it as a comedian.


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Neurology Gangnam style

Image from Discover magazine online.


While I'm not sure just how much this advances neurology, I saw the headline and couldn't resist.

Chinese researchers have discovered characteristic patterns of brain activity associated Gangnam Style.

The reference is of course to 2012's one-hit-wonder "Gangnam Style" by K-pop legend, Psy. You may have thought his 15 minutes have long since evaporated, but that could never truly be. Because science.

In case you must be reminded, here's the song.

Now it's stuck in your head. Not part of the experiment, but let's press on.

In said experiment, 15 volunteers listened to the song and a "light music control," a piano composition called "A Comme Amour." The results? As per the article:

"Chen et al. say that Gangnam Style was associated with “significantly increased fMRI BOLD signals in the bilateral superior temporal cortices, left cerebellum, left putamen and right thalamus cortex”. They conclude that these results reveal something about the mechanisms for the “Gangnam Style-induced” positive emotional response. But I don’t."

Sorry. The "I" there in that quote is the writer of Neuroskeptic for Discover magazine. The article's author goes on to say that the results of the study are debatable as the response may be due to the test subjects' likely familiarity with "Gangnam Style" over the other piece. There were also objections to the volunteers being subjected to a PET scan, which involves the injection of a radioactive tracer dye which is suspected of increasing someone's likelihood of cancer.

Ethically dubious, yes. I'd also argue that exposing human test subjects to possibly repeating plays of "Gangnam Style" is rather inhumane in and of itself.

Naturally there is question as to just how useful any of this will be. Only further scientific jurisprudence will tell. I've long been a supporter of all kinds of research as you never know down the road what information will be useful. I'm trying to keep that same optimism here, but...yeah. It's tough. But there is at least one shining ray of hope offered by this study.

If Psy can be brought back for a university study, might we also revive William Hung?


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Woman dies from infection resistant to all 26 US antibiotics

We like to think we are smarter than disease.

Or at least we know ways to prevent it.

While we may be constantly improving at the latter, I worry about the former. Nature has a way of adapting and microorganisms seem especially tenacious and resilient. To combat infections of these "bugs," we have been rather reliant on antibiotics and with good reason. They work. Long term use of these drugs has, however, made microbial life more and more resistant. Which makes the following news particularly scary.

A woman in Nevada has died from an infection that was resistant to all 26 American antibiotics. You can read the full report from the CDC here.

The Nevada woman, in her 70s, had been previously hospitalized in India after breaking her leg which led to an infection in her hip. None of the 26 antibiotics in the US inventory were effective against this infection. Later testing of the bacteria that killed her showed fosfomycin to be somewhat effective, but that antibiotic is not approved in the U.S. to treat that type of infection. This hapless woman was kept in quarantine while in the U.S. hospital and there are zero signs that the super-resistant bacteria that caused the infection has spread. That might sound like good news, and it is, but Sarah Zhang at The Atlantic explains why we should still be worried:

"The danger isn’t just that a single pan-resistant bacteria emerges and terrorizes the world. It’s that pan-resistant bacteria can keep emerging independently. The nightmare might go away, only to come back somewhere else."

When first read this news, I had an odd chain of reactions. My initial response was as a germaphobe. I don't even like touching the handles of public washrooms. The idea that germs completely resistant to all antibiotics can just pop up is enough to make me want to swim in hand sanitizer (although such products may be contributing to the problem in their own way.) Then a snide side of me rather liked the kick this gives to human complacency. We like to think we have reason and rectitude on our side. We're clever. We're special. We can figure our way out of most anything. Yeah. Well, maybe not this time.

Then again, this is something of a relief. Worried about your job? Your finances? Living in tyranny? Well good news! A fast-spreading, untreatable pandemic might end all your anxieties for you.


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Chase Danner 5: Castaways on Zaslone

No, this has nothing to do with John Carter. The picture is meant as inspiration and tone-setting. If it’s your pic and you want it removed, let me know.

WHEN WE LAST SAW…

CHASE, PLEX, and their newfound “frenemy,” Princess ARDELIA began their escape from the central fortress of the Trindando. Chase managed to disarm the reptilian guards through a dazzling display of swordsmanship…but there would be more soldiers on their way to reckon with. If they were going to make their move, it had to be now…

Out the window they went. Using the “rope line” Ardelia and Plex formed from tablecloths, curtains, bedsheets, and any other linen not nailed down in the stateroom, they began to repel down the rounded side of the stone fortress. As he pushed away from the wall with legs, again and again and again, Chase began to sense something strange on his skin and in his head. The air seemed to crackle with an energy.

“Funny,” Chase said as his nose sniffed. “Do you feel that electrical sensation? I smell something like ozone, too.”

“Yes,” Ardelia said. “And it’s not a good thing.”

The beautiful green woman released her grip on the cloth line and dropped to a hard roof. From there she sprang to the street below and landed with a bound. Chase and Plex followed in her movements and hit street level as well. That’s when the first laser blast hit, sending dirt, rock, and yes Chase and Plex, up into the air.

“They’re shooting at us!” Chase said, picking himself up from the ground.

“Indeed,” Plex said. “And for what reason? I daresay they don’t even know us.”

“No, I mean how?” Chase asked. “All I’ve seen them carry are swords and spears. They’re not supposed to have weapons that…”

And that’s when he saw it: a laser cannon turret atop the fortified wall swiveling toward their direction.

“Run!” Ardelia barked.

The cannon fired once again and both Chase and Plex did as Ardelia said. They managed to clear the minimum safe radius from the blast. Many Trindando ran as well in the streets and marketplaces, their governors seeming to give no care for their safety as they continued to blast away with the laser cannon.

“That sensation you had?” Ardelia asked Chase as they ran. “It was the cannons charging. Come on!”

Ardelia turned a corner and down a narrow pathway between two buildings. She found an iron grate in the ground and lifted it free from its place. Heaving it aside, she jumped into the ensuing dark hole.

“Sir, should we trust where she’s taking us?” Plex asked.

A third laser blast boomed into the street and many Trindando shrieked.

“Do we have a choice?” Chase asked.

He followed Ardelia into the dark.

Soon all three were making their way through a dim subterranean tunnel of hewn rock.

“This city is ancient,” Ardelia said without looking at either of them. “The Trindando have tunnels down here that they’ve long since forgotten about. A few were built by their rulers as a means of escape should calamity strike. Others for conveyance that would offer shelter from the heat of Zaslone. And others still with purposes and locations long since forgotten. Except to my father, King Corloss. Our people have mapped many of these catacombs right under the scaly noses of the Trindando. That’s how I came to be a…guest of theirs.”

“I don’t follow,” Chase said.

They kept walking and the light grew dimmer. Chase found himself struggling to still see Ardelia’s facial expressions due to her deep green skin tone in the growing darkness.

“For all their faults, the Trindando have a rich and fascinating culture,” she said. “I study archaeology and history at university. I wanted to see the ancient structures of their city for myself, maybe even get to examine their fabled artwork. For my intellectual curiosity, I was rewarded with an ambush from a Trindando patrol.”

“But it’s so refreshing to find someone risking themselves for mental expansion,” Plex said. “For all we know, it’s outlawed by now in the galaxy.”

The rocky, crumbly ground soon became structured in a cobblestone pattern. Chase looked about and saw that the tunnel displayed all the hallmarks of masonry and design, like a passageway in a castle.

“Yes, I suppose we’re all fugitives now,” Ardelia said. “But I am going home and that has value in and of itself. Tell me, Chase Danner. This ‘Allegiant’ you spoke of. Would you not consider working out a peace with it so that you might go home again as well?”

Chase gritted his teeth.

“And live under the boot heel of that scumbag Monarch? Never,” he said.

 An archway came into sight ahead and beyond it a staircase that turned downward.

“Never,” Ardelia mocked. “Such an absolute word.”

“Quiet!” Chase hushed.

He drew the sword that he purloined from the soldier back at the fortress.

“Something moved ahead of us…”

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Reflections

Heartbreak is one of the worst experiences of human existence. So why not animate it?

Artist Morgan Gruer has done just that. And it's magnificent.

Rendered in watercolor, the two minute animation (embedded above for your convenience) is fluid, never seeming to stop for too long as the subject floats...and sometimes nearly drowns...within the waves of each emotion. At times in the piece, reality seems to bend. She sees her former love and reaches out, but of course he is no longer there. She catches instead wisps of multicolored smoke.

How often have we done that in the wake of such events? You can truly sense that the subject is weighed down by these emotions, myrmidon to them for the time and with no end in sight. The music accentuates all this as well, hitting you (explosively at times) with each breaking wave of anguish and grief. I'm reminded in a sense of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion." Nothing makes sense anymore, everything is a funhouse distortion of what it once was, the center of the universe has fallen away and we're left wandering to find a new one. If we're lucky, that is.

Depressing? I guess, but you know I'm all about that. It's real. It's not romantic. It's unlikely to give you any real sense of comfort. That is unless you count the sensation that you'll know you're not alone in experiencing these moments. I certainly count that as a plus.

Looking forward to more from Morgan Gruer.



Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Closer to transhumanism

While 2016 was pretty much a dumpster fire, it did bring us closer to a posthuman future.

An article from Gizmodo (link at end of this post) lists out a few developments to support that argument. For your convenience, I've picked at a few points that I found to be of most interest:

-Implant connects humans to the earth's electromagnetic field. Big deal, you might say. While admittedly the practical  applications of such a cybernetic interface are not yet readily apparent, it does give the host an additional sense. Who knows what we might one day be able to do with it? I mean, you'd always know when you're facing north.

- The artificial pancreas. If you or someone you love is afflicted with diabetes, then this is a big deal. It's a wireless external device that monitors blood sugar level and regulates insulin. 

-Brain implant allows paralyzed man to feel again. More than that, the sensation came through a cybernetic arm, an arm controlled by a different implant in the man's mind. This new implant that allows touch replicates the sensory feedback loop.

I'm going to let something drop here. I'm working on a very short book of essays that should be out by mid-May. These essays are about how science fiction and the real world intersect and how we engage new developments with science fiction understanding. For example, I'm finding more and more people coming to an understanding of transhumanism in this manner. "Oh, like Terminator and Robocop" they say to me. I always caution that it's a gentler and more nuanced reality, but in essence the concept is correct.

Cyberhumans are only going to become more common and I think people are starting to wake up to it.  Devices like the ones in the article are no longer mere handsels. They're delivering the goods. My hope is that we can move beyond just repairing what has gone wrong to improving what we already have.

Or replace it altogether.

http://gizmodo.com/how-we-got-closer-to-our-cyberhuman-future-in-2016-1790384043

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Film review--The Omega Man

I finally saw this over the holiday break.

Dr. Robert Neville (played by Charlton Heston) is the last man on Earth.
He served in the Army as a doctor when a biological weapon got loose and brought a plague upon the world. While most everyone else died, Neville survived by the self-injection of an experimental vaccine. Others who survived became deformed mutants, unable to stand sunlight and possessed of an insatiable need to kill. A few of these mutants have banded together, calling themselves "The Family." They believe that science and technology are what brought humanity to its ruin and the last vestiges of it must be rooted out. Neville, surviving in his fortified New York townhouse that runs on its own electric generators, has become symbolic of all The Family hates and they vow to destroy him.

This is one of three films based on the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The book sets vampires up as the antagonists and they remain so in the Vincent Price adaptation, Last Man on Earth. For the Will Smith vehicle I Am Legend, it was zombies, natch, because they're all the rage and Hollywood is never slow to cash in on a trend for sake of flackery. For Omega Man, it was all very different.

And that's something that I liked about this film. It had an original interpretation of the source text. That's refreshing when an adaptation has already been done. I also really dug director Boris Sagal's take on the "end of the world as we know it" aesthetic. In this doomsday, New York City is not destroyed. It is simply...empty. Sure, things are weather-beaten or in disarray in a few places, but it's mostly as if everybody got up and left. Everybody except Chuck Heston, that is.

In a certain sense though, Heston might have been the weak spot of the film. He's a great actor, true, regardless of whatever I might think of his politics. My problem is that his character tackles everything with manly man machismo. Obviously you're not going to get anything less from Chuck and it is indeed fun to see him machine gun and hand grenade the mutants. The problem for me is that we don't get to see him as someone examining the true loneliness, the alienation, and the inevitable despair that being "the omega man" should inevitably bring. That aside, it's funny to see him in the empty movie theater and watching the film Woodstock without sneering or openly deriding the hippies as they cavort on screen. He doesn't have to.

Lastly, another strength of this film is that it shuns any kind of optimistic ending. Genre films were more likely to take a chance on such "ring of truth" endings during the 1970s. Just look at Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes, and Silent Running. I miss that.

Overall, a great look at the end of the world...and no dogs get harmed.



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Chase Danner 4: A Princess of Zaslone

No, there are no Orion slave girls in this story. Just a transparent stand-in. If you own this pic, let me know.

When we last saw...

The renegades CHASE and PLEX, marooned on the prehistoric planet Zaslone, were taken prisoner by the lizard people, the Trindando. R'kaxath, Lord of the Trindando, is intrigued with these visitors from the stars. He has them confined to a stateroom in the stronghold...where Chase meets the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.

"That's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," Chase declared in a soft, breathy gasp.

The woman reclining on the couch slinked upward onto her elbow and fixed her ebony eyes on Chase.

"Why thank you," she said in a sonorous voice, like it was channeled through a musical instrument.

Chase stammered, scratched his head, shuffled his feet, and looked around the room.

"You didn't think you were speaking out loud, did you?" Plex asked.

"And thank you for underscoring the embarrassment," Chase told him.

Dark black hair fell over the goddess' green skin. And what skin there was. All of it was on display, every delicate curve save for her modesty shielded by what looked like padded plate armor.

"Neither of you are from around here, are you?" she asked. "How did you run afoul of R'kaxath?"

"All we did was show up here," Chase said. "We picked quite a planet to crash on."

"In all fairness sir, we didn't exactly pick it," Plex said.

The sultry woman looked the pair over once more. 

"I am Adelia," she said. "Princess of the Ukeo. R'kaxath is holding me here as leverage against my father, King Corloss."

Chase might have caught her name but he wasn't sure. All he knew was he could not stop drinking in her voluptuous, green body. That is until she cleared her throat and shrugged her beauteous shoulders as if to ask "Well??"

"Oh I'm Chase Danner," Chase said at last. "This is Plex. We're fugitives, my lady. Fugitives from The Allegiant."

"I don't know what an Allegiant is, but what do you say we get out of here, Chase Danner?" Adelia asked.

Chase began removing his red tunic.

"Darlin' I thought you'd never ask," he said.

"I meant escape from this city," Adelia said, verbally tossing cold water onto Chase's pulsing groin.

"Oh."

"Now that there're three of us, our odds are better," Adelia said.

Moments later, a Trindando guard entered the stateroom to deliver the three a midday meal. He got a roundhouse kick from Chase instead. The guard fell to the floor, his tray of victuals spilled all about his torso and face. Chase kicked him in the head to render him unconscious and then purloined the lizard man's sword. Just in time as more Trindando troops arrived to investigate the clatter and commotion.

"We have company," Chase called out to his companions old and new.

"Hold them," Adelia responded. "We need but a few moments more."

Plex and Adelia worked to connect curtains to a tablecloth and any other linen in the stateroom in order to form a single line. At the same time, swords clashed with clangs and strikes as Chase fought the Trindando. Chase's athletic prowess allowed him to hold his own against the greater strength of the reptoids until with a mighty swing he disarmed both of his enemies of their own blades...leaving them open for the kill. 

"Go," Chase bellowed to them, holding them at the point of his sword. "Before I abandon my compunctions."

Growling and snarling, the Trindando turned and bounded back down the stairs. Chase went to Plex and the newly met princess who at last completed the ropey cloth line.

"They're going to be back soon. With friends," Chase told them.

"Then we must we do this fast," Adelia said.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Chilean UFO video causes stir

Photo from The Huffington Post.


Leslie Kean is someone in UFO research who deserves every bit of respect there is.

She is a journalist who first came to Ufology by investigating the Kecksburg case and has since written the fine book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record. So when she writes or speaks on all matters UFO, I listen. Recently, she published an article in The Huffington Post about a "Groundbreaking UFO video" from Chile. You can read the many details of the case at the link, but here is a synopsis.

The incident caught on video occurred in November of 2014. The crew of of a Chilean Navy helicopter sighted the unknown aerial object while on a routine patrol flight. Two ground bases were notified of the object, but neither base could detect the UFO on radar. Additionally, the object could not be detected on the helicopter's own radar. To make things even more weird, the object twice ejected a trail of gas or water while it was filmed by the helicopter's infrared camera (see pic above).

This video was turned over to the CEFAA, the office of the Chilean government that investigates UFOs. Yes, they really have such an official agency. Other South American nations have them as well as they have long been open about UFO phenomena. The CEFAA, along with the Chilean armed forces, undertook a prolonged study of just what was on that infrared video. Given the origin of the footage, a hoax could be ruled out with a fair amount of confidence. Planes, drones, space debris, weather anomalies, and weather balloons were all considered.

Such explanations ended up falling short according to the investigators.

"...“the great majority of committee members agreed to call the subject in question a UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) due to the number of highly researched reasons that it was unanimously agreed could not explain it.” said General Ricardo Bermudez of the CEFAA.

Certainly makes one take notice. A national government spends years and resources on an investigation and determines that the object is inexplicable by any known means. Should be "groundbreaking" indeed. The real deal at last. My heart rate increased. My stomach juices began to crepitate. An actual UFO.

Wellllll.....not so fast.

Mick West at Metabunk.org has a strong explanation. 

There were two different commercial airliners in the area of this sighting. As West writes:

"Based on analysis by @Trailblazer, @Trailspotter, myself, and others, There are likely TWO planes involved IB6830 and LA330. The plane that initially seems to fit best is LA330, a two engined A320, which was reported to be climbing through 20,000 feet at that exact visual position at 14:01:39. It was actually 65 miles away, not 35-50. This explain [sic] why it was not seen on radar (the actual plane was on radar, just not where they thought it was)."

The site also features copious and painstaking analysis that demonstrates why the IR video footage looks the way it does. It is suspect that after years of analysis by trained experts no one thought to check commercial air traffic in the area. Then again, if the distance and the altitude were misunderstood from beginning, everything else that is extrapolated from those points would be false as well. A simple mistake anybody could make given the circumstances.

And after watching the video I'd also have to wonder why a true UFO (I mean in the pop culture "alien" sense) would leave a fossil fuel contrail, but that's just me.

Expect this one to be debated for a while to come, but if were a pressed to make a ten dollar bet, I'd put five bucks on West's explanation, two dollars on a genuine UFO, and keep the other three so I could get a latte.

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

The dark side of Belle Epoque

I am a sucker for most things weird and art is no exception.

A recent article at the BBC (see link at the end of this post) made me aware of just how surreal and bizarre the art of the late 19th Century could be. Quite like the article's introduction, I typically associate the period's art with the paintings of Monet, Cezanne, and Renoir. I associate these works with a certain brightness and bouyance (Thomas Kinkade my ass. Monet was the "painter of light.") 

But it was also the time of Munch's "The Scream" and the erotic and Dionysian illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, an illustrator who did work for writer Oscar Wilde. The article also introduced me to James Ensor, whose "The Intrigue" is above. The masked grotesques symbolize the malicious intents disguised in human social gatherings.

Naturally I love the depiction,

The dark and turbulent art was a response as all art is a response. The writer of the article argues said response was more toward internal rather than external anxieties. Which in an odd way heartened me. As we head into dark times (dark-er perhaps), I am at least eager to see what art comes from it. It promises to be every bit as weird and surreal while full of expressionist themes of pain, unease, and displacement, wandering masses bereft of any emoluments.

Particularly over the next four years.

Read much more at the article: 

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161207-the-dark-side-of-the-belle-epoque

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When police see UFOs

If you're the artist or owner of the pic above, comment if you want credit or the pic taken down.

This really will be a UFO post, so bear with me.

I used to be a volunteer for a police department. During that service, I came to see that sometimes stereotypes exist because there are kernels of truth to them. Police officers do indeed tend to be purely logical and factual, almost to a fault. And while many are amiable and quick with a joke, they often have a low saturation point for nonsense.

Which is all the more reason why I find UFO sightings relayed by cops to be worthy of attention. In recent days, I have read over a few cases that involved police officers. Links are at the end of the post.

-Of immediate interest is of course the case of Lonnie Zamora of Socorro, New Mexico. While in pursuit of a speeder in 1964, state trooper Zamora spotted a silver, egg-shaped craft on tripod legs. What's more, Zamora reports seeing child-sized people outside the craft. Upon seeing Zamora in his patrol car, these small occupants got back into the craft and took off with a roar and tongues of flame. The case was investigated by the military, the FBI, and Dr. J. Allen Hynek. Tremendous physical evidence was collected including tripod marks in the ground, burnt desert scrub, and soil fused into glass. The case has never been satisfactorily explained and Zamora's testimony remains among the best.

-In January of 2000, several residents in my home state of Illinois sighted an enormous triangular UFO. One witness, viewing the object from the side, described it as looking like a "flying building." At least four of these witnesses were police officers from different downstate communities. They pursued the UFO, keeping in contact with one another via radio, thus producing record of the whole encounter. The silent craft was, as is typical of triangle sightings, witnessed performing extraordinary aerial maneuvers. Again, this sighting has never been fully explained, although as with other triangle cases, I suspect it's a classified military aircraft. The area of the sighting is between two Air Force bases.

-Then there is what has come to be known as "The Cosford UFO Incident." I was fully unaware of it until perusing Nick Pope's website. He in fact was one of the investigators on the U.K. case. Anyway, over a series of days in 1993, multiple witnesses reported sightings of yet another triangular UFO over an RAF base. The witnesses, including several military police, described seeing a craft resembling "two Concordes flying side-by-side and joined together." What's interesting is that according to the MoD report quoted at Pope's site, it was admitted that "an unidentified aircraft of unknown origin" penetrated secure airspace.

Fascinating stuff...and all of it reported by professional, trained observers. This is not to say that police can't be mistaken about what they see. They can. That being said, these accounts should decimate the prevailing opinion that seems to state that UFOs are only seen by the half-witted.

Now I need to watch that police chase scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

http://www.ufocasebook.com/Zamora.html

http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case277.htm

http://www.nickpope.net/cosford-incident.htm

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Why I will miss President Obama

Regardless of the outcome of last year's election, I was going to miss President Obama. 

For a few shining moments there, it was cool to be smart. Barack Obama is an intellect, running counter to decades of "folksy" executives. Many is the time during an election where I would see a poll asking "Which candidate would you most want to have a beer with?" My answer? 

I don't care.

I don't want to have a beer with my leadership. I want to be in awe of them. I want to be able to say, "No wonder they are in that position. They are the smartest person in the room." And that's how I saw Obama.

Part of it was his demeanor. I have always been in awe of the calm, "no drama" presence he coolly exuded. It should be noted that he did so while both he and his family were subjected to  the vilest, most racist epithets that I have ever personally seen directed against a leader. And he never once took to Twitter about it.  

Imagine that.

He also understood that this nation does not exist in a vacuum. Ignorance, arrogance, and saber rattling make for bad foreign policy. Obama knew this. He worked to show a respect towards other peoples and nations that had been sorely lacking from previous administrations. 

That inclusive thinking was not relegated solely to the international stage, either. President Obama is a civil rights champion. He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act and nominated two women to the Supreme Court. He stood up for the rights of LGBT, immigrants, and others.

Oh and if you think this was done at the expense of the economy, think again. Check the numbers of when he took office compared to now. I could go on about his accomplishments but it would take too long. You're smart. You can work the Google machine.

None of this is to say that President Obama is perfect or didn't commit his share of flubs (Syria for one). He is human. Compared to the other presidents of my lifetime however, he's the best in my eyes. I hope one day we will see his like again.

But it will be a while.

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