It’s a “man bites dog” matter: an equine carried by a human.
The list just keeps getting longer.
According to the linked tally, a high level officer, and eight other scientists, or people working on classified research at/associated with aerospace research at the Air Force Research Lab or its allied organizations, have–in the last nine months–either gone missing, or “committed suicide.”*
Perhaps the pressure of such high level jobs is just too much. But, it seems like a worrying pattern to me.
Moreover, if the Israelis or we can try to stymie the research efforts of our enemies by “eliminating” scientists working for Iran on nuclear weapons or missiles, what says Iran or some other enemy of the U.S. can’t do the same against our scientists working on aspects of our national defense?
@Snow on Pine:According to the linked tally, a high level officer, and eight other scientists, or people working on classified research at/associated with aerospace research at the Air Force Research Lab or its allied organizations, have–in the last nine months–either gone missing, or “committed suicide.
I followed your link and it’s a shark summer grab bag of random people who died or disappeared for all kinds of reasons, and they were counted if something in their background kinda-sorta sounded spacey or defensey. Narrative seems to have originated with the Daily Mail (sensationalism from that source? knock me over with a feather).
For example, you’ve got one of the victims of the Brown mass shooting in there, a guy who killed his wife and himself, an astronomer killed by a low-life criminal, and an administrative assistant who worked at LANL last seen walking along a highway in the afternoon. I know lots of people at LANL and other such places, and if anything happens to me no doubt I will end up on this list, but it will have nothing to do with Iran and nothing to do with space or defense.
Listening to the NASA pre-launch press conference. It seems everything is a go for tomorrow.
Snow on Pine–That is quite a list!
Vance thinks UFOs are demonic
The files have yet to be publicly released. Mr. Vance said his initial interest in them has faded as other priorities take center stage.
“When I came in, I was obsessed with the UFO files, and then you start getting really busy worrying about the economy and national security and things like that,” Mr. Vance said.
He said he has already attempted to arrange a visit to Area 51 in Nevada and a separate trip to New Mexico, only to be sidelined each time by scheduling conflicts — but he vowed to follow through.
“Anybody who is curious about this, I am more curious than anybody,” he said. “I have three years at the very tippy top of the classification. I am going to get to the bottom of it.”
Assuming he’s being quoted accurately, and was not being facetious or ironic–he was laughing when he said it on the video I saw–“demons” are in my opinion a more scientifically plausible explanation than interstellar visitors.
We don’t know much about demons and their capabilities or intentions, but we do know a lot about interstellar distances and the kinds of energies and times needed to cross them. Every UFO encounter being an interstellar visitor would require such a rewrite of physical laws that you might as well be talking about the reality of demons while you are at it.
That’s a very good comment from Niketas:
We don’t know much about demons and their capabilities or intentions, but we do know a lot about interstellar distances and the kinds of energies and times needed to cross them. Every UFO encounter being an interstellar visitor would require such a rewrite of physical laws that you might as well be talking about the reality of demons while you are at it.
Somewhere I saw a brief comment to the same effect: We aren’t going anywhere.
@Niketas Choniates: Every UFO encounter being an interstellar visitor would require such a rewrite of physical laws that you might as well be talking about the reality of demons while you are at it.
Too late! We’ve already done that at least once. Quantum physics, compared to earlier understandings, was such a rewrite of physical laws we might as well be talking about the reality of demons. See Richard Feynman on “The Double-Slit Experiment.”
I don’t know what goes on with UFOs or the possibilities of interstellar travel, but I find it laughable that our primate species, only 60-odd million years evolved from tree shrews, has physical reality so locked down to equate such speculation to beliefs in demons.
Meanwhile Sabine Hossenfelder’s latest YouTube takes seriously some of the recent UFO/UAP stuff, though not beliefs in interdimensional beings nor advocacy of Avi Loeb.
She correctly emphasizes the spinelessness, however understandable, of scientists in addressing UFOs/UAPs. Which IMO has held up progress in the field considerably.
There is a genuine mystery here. However, it’s tricky territory. Snow on Pine’s link catalogued eight interesting scientists/engineers but only one, as Niketas Choniates pointed out, was involved with UFOs/UAPs.
@huxley:Quantum physics, compared to earlier understandings, was such a rewrite of physical laws
Might seem that way to someone who’s only read about quantum mechanics, but it was not as much of a rewrite as popularizations would have it, that’s why we also write Hamiltonians for quantum systems.
There’s nothing in quantum physics that changes the mechanics of interstellar travel, so not much point in appealing to it. Quantum mechanics is an incalculably small modification to the physics of celestial bodies, even thought it was a very large one to the physics of atoms and subatomic particles.
find it laughable that our primate species, only 60-odd million years evolved from tree shrews, has physical reality so locked down
It might be if it weren’t for telescopes. But sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and if some get to assume undiscovered physics to allow interstellar alien visitors then others can assume undiscovered physics to allow demons. The interstellar alien visitors are just assumed to have whatever mysterious physical powers are needed to explain what people say they saw, and those who believe in demons are equally justified (or equally not justified) in doing the same.
I am not a materialist, and my opinion about UFOs is the same as Vance’s, which, from the quoted context, seems to be sincere. I don’t base my opinion on any scientific or logical analysis, but it seems to make some sense of the phenomena, and is more satisfying to me than endless speculation which is never resolved.
I am interested in what Vance will say, when and if he “gets to the bottom of it,” but I’m not lying awake at night puzzling over the issue.
Richard Illyes posted this link a couple of days ago, and I was totally enchanted with the music constructed by Suno, and video made with Grok and LipSync Video*.
It seems to be a heartfelt farewell to departing friends — until you look at the third-world video clips interspersed with the very cute British singer “Amelia”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EivAMcxuIZc
“Sun All Year Round – Remigration Farewell (Amelia Meme Song) – Ironic goodbye to immigrants returning home for sun, culture, kin. Amelia stays, advocating roots. No hate, just homeland for all.”
I looked for more information on the Amelia Phenomenon and found some background, from Bill Whittle somewhat surprisingly to me; I haven’t been keeping up with his channels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EivAMcxuIZc
“We Are All Amelias Now — Jan 21, 2026
So often in the darkest hours of a nation’s history, an unknown figure appears to rally a declining civilization and return it to its natural greatness — Joan of Arc being a notable example. But Joan of Arc was REAL. Is it possible, in the digital age, that such a hero could be VIRTUAL?”
Bill plays the “original” Amelia video, which was created as a response to the UK government’s heavy-handed pushing of a video game intended to propagandize players into the currently preferred state of animosity to everything traditionally British. Charlie is the avatar for the target audience; his girlfriend, Amelia, is supposedly radicalizing him by standing up for their country and its now-offensive values which are “misinformation” that must be defeated.
So of course Amelia became the counter-cultural hero of the game.
(How wild is that flipping of the 1970s era!)
Very much like Archie Bunker becoming a fan favorite when he was supposed to be the bad example in “All in the Family.”
Another more geeky source. Watching the game graphics makes me a bit nauseous, but maybe it’s the choice of clips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLnMCzitupM
“How Gamers just Destroyed the UK Government – Jan 17, 2026
You may have heard about how the UK gov released a propaganda game called “Pathways”, well, here’s how it went for them (spoiler alert, it backfired and they’re seething).
”
It’s possible to find a plethora of Amelia videos from almost every European country, plus America, Australia, and Japan.
I wonder if we just hit a tipping point, and are going to slide into a preference cascade that might actually topple the Woke regimes?
Sarah Hoyt, in a post about election fraud, posits that Democrats in the US are actually only about 25% of the real electorate. As with communist nations and other tyrannies, and in “1984,” the secret of the regime’s success is that its opponents think they are the minority, or even just single individuals, rather than outnumbering the regime supporters.
Once you realize the ratios are reversed, things look … different.
*One of our sons and his family are experimenting with Suno and have created several really nice songs; but no videos yet. The user inputs lyrics and picks a music genre; the program “polishes” the wording and creates the score, with vocalist and band. You can even specify solo only, or lead singer with backup chorus. The next level is recording snippets of your own voice and having the soloist sound like you. It’s kind of spooky.
CNN – You are a Failing Network with record-low viewership – Give Scott Jennings his own show!! (Videos)
“Shoot low Sheriff, he’s riding a Shetland.”
From the movie “Little Big Man.”
Cuteness overdose.
It’s a “man bites dog” matter: an equine carried by a human.
The list just keeps getting longer.
According to the linked tally, a high level officer, and eight other scientists, or people working on classified research at/associated with aerospace research at the Air Force Research Lab or its allied organizations, have–in the last nine months–either gone missing, or “committed suicide.”*
Perhaps the pressure of such high level jobs is just too much. But, it seems like a worrying pattern to me.
Moreover, if the Israelis or we can try to stymie the research efforts of our enemies by “eliminating” scientists working for Iran on nuclear weapons or missiles, what says Iran or some other enemy of the U.S. can’t do the same against our scientists working on aspects of our national defense?
* See https://amgreatness.com/2026/03/30/something-dark-is-going-on-nine-top-level-scientists-die-or-go-missing-in-past-year/
@Snow on Pine:According to the linked tally, a high level officer, and eight other scientists, or people working on classified research at/associated with aerospace research at the Air Force Research Lab or its allied organizations, have–in the last nine months–either gone missing, or “committed suicide.
I followed your link and it’s a shark summer grab bag of random people who died or disappeared for all kinds of reasons, and they were counted if something in their background kinda-sorta sounded spacey or defensey. Narrative seems to have originated with the Daily Mail (sensationalism from that source? knock me over with a feather).
For example, you’ve got one of the victims of the Brown mass shooting in there, a guy who killed his wife and himself, an astronomer killed by a low-life criminal, and an administrative assistant who worked at LANL last seen walking along a highway in the afternoon. I know lots of people at LANL and other such places, and if anything happens to me no doubt I will end up on this list, but it will have nothing to do with Iran and nothing to do with space or defense.
Listening to the NASA pre-launch press conference. It seems everything is a go for tomorrow.
Snow on Pine–That is quite a list!
Vance thinks UFOs are demonic
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/mar/30/forget-little-green-men-jd-vance-expects-ufo-files-show-demons-not/
@Selfy:Vance thinks UFOs are demonic
Assuming he’s being quoted accurately, and was not being facetious or ironic–he was laughing when he said it on the video I saw–“demons” are in my opinion a more scientifically plausible explanation than interstellar visitors.
We don’t know much about demons and their capabilities or intentions, but we do know a lot about interstellar distances and the kinds of energies and times needed to cross them. Every UFO encounter being an interstellar visitor would require such a rewrite of physical laws that you might as well be talking about the reality of demons while you are at it.
That’s a very good comment from Niketas:
We don’t know much about demons and their capabilities or intentions, but we do know a lot about interstellar distances and the kinds of energies and times needed to cross them. Every UFO encounter being an interstellar visitor would require such a rewrite of physical laws that you might as well be talking about the reality of demons while you are at it.
Follow up by reading this classic 2011 blog post from UC San Diego physicist Tom Murphy: https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/10/why-not-space/
Somewhere I saw a brief comment to the same effect: We aren’t going anywhere.
@Niketas Choniates: Every UFO encounter being an interstellar visitor would require such a rewrite of physical laws that you might as well be talking about the reality of demons while you are at it.
Too late! We’ve already done that at least once. Quantum physics, compared to earlier understandings, was such a rewrite of physical laws we might as well be talking about the reality of demons. See Richard Feynman on “The Double-Slit Experiment.”
I don’t know what goes on with UFOs or the possibilities of interstellar travel, but I find it laughable that our primate species, only 60-odd million years evolved from tree shrews, has physical reality so locked down to equate such speculation to beliefs in demons.
Meanwhile Sabine Hossenfelder’s latest YouTube takes seriously some of the recent UFO/UAP stuff, though not beliefs in interdimensional beings nor advocacy of Avi Loeb.
–Sabine Hossenfelder, “More Evidence for UAPs! Scientists Afraid to Speak Out”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYVxRHk258g
She correctly emphasizes the spinelessness, however understandable, of scientists in addressing UFOs/UAPs. Which IMO has held up progress in the field considerably.
There is a genuine mystery here. However, it’s tricky territory. Snow on Pine’s link catalogued eight interesting scientists/engineers but only one, as Niketas Choniates pointed out, was involved with UFOs/UAPs.
@huxley:Quantum physics, compared to earlier understandings, was such a rewrite of physical laws
Might seem that way to someone who’s only read about quantum mechanics, but it was not as much of a rewrite as popularizations would have it, that’s why we also write Hamiltonians for quantum systems.
There’s nothing in quantum physics that changes the mechanics of interstellar travel, so not much point in appealing to it. Quantum mechanics is an incalculably small modification to the physics of celestial bodies, even thought it was a very large one to the physics of atoms and subatomic particles.
find it laughable that our primate species, only 60-odd million years evolved from tree shrews, has physical reality so locked down
It might be if it weren’t for telescopes. But sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and if some get to assume undiscovered physics to allow interstellar alien visitors then others can assume undiscovered physics to allow demons. The interstellar alien visitors are just assumed to have whatever mysterious physical powers are needed to explain what people say they saw, and those who believe in demons are equally justified (or equally not justified) in doing the same.
I am not a materialist, and my opinion about UFOs is the same as Vance’s, which, from the quoted context, seems to be sincere. I don’t base my opinion on any scientific or logical analysis, but it seems to make some sense of the phenomena, and is more satisfying to me than endless speculation which is never resolved.
I am interested in what Vance will say, when and if he “gets to the bottom of it,” but I’m not lying awake at night puzzling over the issue.
I found this comment thread at LI about direct election of U.S. senators interesting. The commenter “Millhouse” reminds me a bit of Niketas, though the latter seems to be more conservative.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/03/no-kings-protesters-explanation-of-low-black-turnout-triggers-outrage/#comment-1745323
Richard Illyes posted this link a couple of days ago, and I was totally enchanted with the music constructed by Suno, and video made with Grok and LipSync Video*.
It seems to be a heartfelt farewell to departing friends — until you look at the third-world video clips interspersed with the very cute British singer “Amelia”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EivAMcxuIZc
“Sun All Year Round – Remigration Farewell (Amelia Meme Song) – Ironic goodbye to immigrants returning home for sun, culture, kin. Amelia stays, advocating roots. No hate, just homeland for all.”
I looked for more information on the Amelia Phenomenon and found some background, from Bill Whittle somewhat surprisingly to me; I haven’t been keeping up with his channels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EivAMcxuIZc
“We Are All Amelias Now — Jan 21, 2026
So often in the darkest hours of a nation’s history, an unknown figure appears to rally a declining civilization and return it to its natural greatness — Joan of Arc being a notable example. But Joan of Arc was REAL. Is it possible, in the digital age, that such a hero could be VIRTUAL?”
Bill plays the “original” Amelia video, which was created as a response to the UK government’s heavy-handed pushing of a video game intended to propagandize players into the currently preferred state of animosity to everything traditionally British. Charlie is the avatar for the target audience; his girlfriend, Amelia, is supposedly radicalizing him by standing up for their country and its now-offensive values which are “misinformation” that must be defeated.
So of course Amelia became the counter-cultural hero of the game.
(How wild is that flipping of the 1970s era!)
Very much like Archie Bunker becoming a fan favorite when he was supposed to be the bad example in “All in the Family.”
Another more geeky source. Watching the game graphics makes me a bit nauseous, but maybe it’s the choice of clips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLnMCzitupM
“How Gamers just Destroyed the UK Government – Jan 17, 2026
You may have heard about how the UK gov released a propaganda game called “Pathways”, well, here’s how it went for them (spoiler alert, it backfired and they’re seething).
”
It’s possible to find a plethora of Amelia videos from almost every European country, plus America, Australia, and Japan.
I wonder if we just hit a tipping point, and are going to slide into a preference cascade that might actually topple the Woke regimes?
Sarah Hoyt, in a post about election fraud, posits that Democrats in the US are actually only about 25% of the real electorate. As with communist nations and other tyrannies, and in “1984,” the secret of the regime’s success is that its opponents think they are the minority, or even just single individuals, rather than outnumbering the regime supporters.
Once you realize the ratios are reversed, things look … different.
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2026/03/11/hold-on-2/
*One of our sons and his family are experimenting with Suno and have created several really nice songs; but no videos yet. The user inputs lyrics and picks a music genre; the program “polishes” the wording and creates the score, with vocalist and band. You can even specify solo only, or lead singer with backup chorus. The next level is recording snippets of your own voice and having the soloist sound like you. It’s kind of spooky.
CNN – You are a Failing Network with record-low viewership – Give Scott Jennings his own show!! (Videos)
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2026/04/cnn-you-are-failing-network-with-record.html