RE: President Trump’s statement that he is going to order the UFO/UAP, NHI information held by the government to be released.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that UAPs/UFOs and NHI are real and, have been or are currently present, here on and around Earth, and in our Solar System.
Frankly, from what I understand to the be the history of this issue, and the current architecture of knowledge about this issue, I don’t think that the President—based on past history, or any President, for that matter—will truly get anywhere.
First off, what President Trump has said is a general statement of intent.
Lets see if he actually issues a very detailed Executive Order embodying that intent—timelines, specific categories of information listed, specific agencies, organizations, individuals, and locations named.
Next, consider that it is reported that several Presidents have tried–and failed–to get the information they wanted about the UFO/UAP, NHI phenomenon, reportedly on the basis that they did not have a “need to know” this information.
(You might also remember that several attempts to get legislation through Congress to get some of this information released were either stopped cold, or passed, but in such a gutted form that it is ineffective.)
Then, there is where such information is likely located—and, as I understand it, that is practically everywhere.
It appears that there is apparently no central authority which has complete knowledge of and control over this issue.
Instead, bits and pieces are held by the Military, by the CIA and perhaps by other intelligence agencies, by the Energy Department, and also by private companies and contractors, all of which have a very long history of being unwilling to cough up this information (see, for instance, the Wilson Memo) but, instead, of conducting a generation’s long and thorough disinformation campaign to cover it up, to convince the public and potential researchers that to investigate this issue is to stray into job and reputation killing “tin foil hat” territory, with NDEs and their massive threatened legal penalties for any insider even thinking of leaking information.
And remember, if some countries and organizations (and, it is not only us here in the U.S. where a race to get this information and technology is taking place, other participants in this race are reportedly Russia, China, and who knows what other countries and organizations) do have downed Alien craft, which they have been studying, if they have made some progress in reverse engineering Alien technology, such power would very likely give it’s holder virtually unlimited wealth and commanding–and perhaps pretty permanent–mastery over the world.
Those are the stakes involved, and what appears to be the system which President Trump–which any President–is up against, and why I think that President Trump will essentially get nowhere.
P.S. What we might get is some form of apparent compliance, a few dribs and drabs of information, a couple better images, and some vague statements, but not the real and complete deal, in the famous phrase of John Ehrlichman a “modified limited hangout.”
That was a very long but well written expansion of
No matter what is released I still believe and “they” will never tell us the truth. It is a vast conspiracy.
P.S.S.–President Trump started off his statement by saying that, first, he wanted this UFO information to be “identified,” and, thus, agencies and organizations can simply throw up a million excuses for why they are unable to “identify” and to find this information—i.e. “we never received such information in the first place,” “we had it at one time, but now we can’t find it,” “we looked but, it’s not where it should be–in the proper file drawer or under the proper title, so, it’s effectively lost,” or, “we found the right file folder but, it’s empty,” “we had it, but when the specified Federal records retention deadline passed, as per routine, we shredded that paperwork,” etc, etc.
P.S.S.2–Just exactly who decides if a President has a “need to know,” and where does that gate keeping official get his authority do so, sufficient to override the command of a President?
I Got Dem Ol’ Disclosure Blues Again Mama!
Snow,
Your argument rests on there being actual downed spacecraft that have been recovered by governments. My counter to this is that for any alien species to visit earth, they have to have solved faster than light travel. Maybe by finding how to combine QM with GR, making stable wormholes, etc….my point is that if they have such knowledge/technology, I find it highly improbable they they would be so incompetent to experience multiple crashes with their craft once they are here.
A perhaps slightly more likely scenario is that they are here and in contact with various governments and those governments/aliens wish to keep such contacts secret from the general population. Again, moving into tinfoil hat area. Do they favor the Russians over the US? Arab states over Europe? So many holes in all of this.
From the world of astronomy two papers released a few days apart got my attention. Both summarized well by Phys.org. One regards the Hubble tension – the discrepancy in the expansion rate of the universe if one uses data from the early universe or if one uses data from the late universe. Various methods have emerged to measure these values and there was some thought that subtle differences in assumptions, calibration techniques, etc. might be responsible. In other words, there was some “hope” that the Hubble tension would melt away.
The most comprehensive attempt to reconcile these different methods was a conference held in late 2025 and the results were recently released. The Hubble tension isn’t going anywhere.
Importantly, the new value sharpens the discrepancy with early-universe predictions, corresponding to a tension of more than five standard deviations. Rather than reducing the disagreement, the improved precision confirms that it remains statistically significant.
The mystery remains.
The other involves something that oddly came up on this blog once upon a time – wide orbiting binary stars. Stars orbiting one another around their common center of mass is very common. The ones that are very far apart provide a way to investigate gravity when it is very weak. This is important because it is here that some have proposed that a modification of Newton’s laws might offer a better explanation than dark matter for some of the gravitational anomalies observed in the universe. Here is the Phys.org summary:
I think it’s good, and is the real motivation of this post. I’ve seen some references to the paper that are sensationalistic and stupidly wrong – feel free to ignore them. They imply that the paper reached some definitive conclusions about modified gravity – it doesn’t. The article I posted to gets it right.
The paper is about a new technique to measure the rotation speeds of these stars. As one could imagine, making that measurement is really tricky. The angle of the system, relative to the observer (us), will play an important roll. What this new technique will do is greatly expand the sample size of the wide orbiting binaries we can study. The following statement is spot on, yet doesn’t appear in other summaries I’ve seen.
The pilot study indicates that a decisive result is expected once much larger samples are available, and studies are already underway by Chae and his collaborators to build such samples. Thus, a time is approaching when the world shall know definitely whether wide binaries obey Kepler’s laws or not, through accurate 3D velocities of wide binaries.
Chae stresses, “It is a matter of time for the world to know for sure whether wide binaries obey Newton or a nonstandard paradigm such as modified Newtonian dynamics by Moti Milgrom.”
Sorry for the long post. I tried to make it shorter but failed.
Neo, have you seen the video of Alysa Liu’s skating at the Olympics? I am so impressed by her dance/ movement, and I can’t describe why it seems different, and wonderful. I would be interested in hearing your informed opinion, as I have come to appreciate the art of dance to some extent from the videos and comments that you have presented over the years.
Very interesting article on the Mexican War, the anniversary of which Trump has apparently celebrated, which is not exactly politically correct. (Via realcleardefense)
I think I commented on this aspect of things before, but why assume that any more advanced intelligence does not include it’s percentage of fools, the unlucky, the fumble fingered, or an unqualified pilot who might have gotten his job because his uncle Harry had some pull, is perfect in it’s execution of each and every thing, never makes mistakes, never has to deal with equipment which might be limited in some way, inferior, badly designed, or even worn out?
I can conceive of, for instance, the equivalent of some cash-strapped and/or just plain old cheap intergalactic university, civilization, governmental authority, or even interested private individual sending an expedition to study Earth, and equipping it with the cheapest, and possibly used equipment it could afford, which would give it’s operatives a reasonable chance of getting the job done.
Then, there is also the view, held by some, that those Alien vehicles which have been reportedly found intact were, in fact, “donations”; their pilots landing them, and just walking away.
These vehicles some sort of test, a nasty, deliberately unsolvable puzzle, or perhaps even a little help for us humans.
Cap’n Rusty— I gotta admit it would take a strong Alien to stand up to the “Indian Love Call” and not run away screaming.
Snow on Pine, 4:22 pm:
Good points! Kinda funny, too.
Made me wonder about Anthropomorphization.
Maybe we should add “extra-terrestrial beings ” to this definition’s list:
“Anthropomorphizing means attributing human qualities to non-human things — such as objects, animals, or phenomena.”
Snow on Pine, about your comment @ 4:22 pm …
Good points! Kinda funny, too.
Made me wonder about Anthropomorphization.
Maybe we should add “extra-terrestrial beings ” to this definition’s list:
“Anthropomorphizing means attributing human qualities to non-human things — such as objects, animals, or phenomena.”
…
They could also be rogue or defective AI robots.
Om “No matter what is released I still believe and “they” will never tell us the truth. It is a vast conspiracy.”
Ok, that’s not unusual to think. But I’m wondering where this exact quote is from.
A movie?
RE: The very harmful effects of marijuana, especially on the young.
States, here and there, are legalizing marijuana, and recently President Trump even loosened some restrictions on it.
However, several times over the years I have written here about how–contrary to what it’s advocates argue about marijuana’s relative harmlessness and it’s benefits–there was what I saw as good evidence that the early, and especially the heavy use of marijuana results in a subsequent increase in serious psychiatric problems, and according to the several decades long longitudinal Canadian Dunedain study of some 1,200 people who were meticulously followed and periodically examined over 25 years, that study also found, on average, an irreversible reduction in 8 I.Q points.
Now comes new evidence from a major longitudinal study which reviewed the records of almost half a million subjects over a period of ten or more years, and which found that adolescent marijuana users faced a doubling of the risk of serious psychiatric problems—psychosis, and bipolar disorder among them—by young adulthood.*
I’ve been on this beat since 6th grade when one evening I saw a UFO with other neighborhood kids and the next morning it was reported in the local paper.
I don’t have the answers, but I don’t believe it boils down to any scenario of Michael Rennie and Gort showing up near the UN à la “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, as many on both sides of the question tend to argue.
This is a very strange phenomenon or collection of phenomena which lacks clear boundaries. It’s been going on a long time. Roswell was not the beginning.
I don’t think UFOs fit current categories. I think we’re still in the data collection phase. I resist premature closure.
______________________
Michael Rennie was ill
The day the Earth stood still
But he told us where to stand.
Trump’s Truth Social posts only directs DOW and others to “begin the process…” I doubt those expecting definitive proof of whatever one believes will be satisfied by the newest press release if the bureaucracy ever manages to finish it. The mystery shall continue.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
Jerry Pournelle theorized that Roswell was caused by a plane crashing with an atom bomb, the crew’s bodies being severely shrunk by the fire, and the Air Force running with it rather than admitting that a plane carrying an atom bomb had crashed.
Good thing the government collected every scrap of the Roswell debris, whatever it was, took it somewhere and it has never been available for public inspection since.
Whatever else might be true, the US government is playing some sort of game with UFOs.
Trust no one!
I’m late to today’s comments.
Regarding the supposed necessity of aliens needing ” Faster than light travel abilities ” to arrive at Earth.
I honestly do not see why that would be necessary if you take into account some combination of the following:
1. Multigenerational travel in large ships over decades or hundreds of years . Basically a species migration.
2. ” Island hopping”. Ort cloud to interplanetary objects to alien Ort cloud over decades or centuries. ( Again multigenerational migration.)
3. Natural or technological longevity. Lobsters here on Earth can live hundreds of years. Why would we rule out all possiblity that aliens have that ability?
4. Natural or artificial hibernation.
Numbers 3 and 4 could be a mixture of natural and tech enhancement..
Jon baker:
Well said. There are many possibilities.
Ray Kurzweil offers the possibility that with AI and robotics we could develop robot probes which could travel the galaxy at fast, but sub-light speed. These probes could locate resources in space and build more robot probes.
Lather, rinse, repeat until the whole galaxy is explored. At 1/10th the speed of light it would only take a couple million years or so.
And then there is this binary star system that is estimated to have passed within our Oort cloud approximately 70,000 years ago.
Jon baker, your comment at 8:58 pm has merit. But consider the implications. Your #1 suggests star colonization over decades or centuries. If there is advanced life out there, then a galaxy billions of years old should be chock full of life by now – literally every habitable star system habitated. That is the crux of the Fermi paradox. It keeps me awake at night.
Mike Plaiss:
If AI progresses as quickly as it seems it might, my revised version of the Fermi paradox — is where are the AIs?
AI is much more adaptable to the rigors of space than we biologicals.
Ah, the good old Neophile party game of “Aliens among us, or not?”
It’s as if I was never away!
Greetings to everyone, and I hope you all have been well.
My tumor operation was completely successful, but recovery will take awhile.
Nerves near the surgery area were “bruised” by the procedure, and I have some palsy of the left face, which affects my “good” eye (the reading lens that replaced a cataract).
Makes it hard to concentrate on print for very long.
I’ve started catching up on the news very slowly, but since we haven’t declared WW3, Minnesota hasn’t seceded, and California hasn’t fallen into the ocean (not for lack of trying), I won’t be in too big a hurry to keep up with things for awhile.
Best wishes to everyone.
Bless you, AesopFan!
I wasn’t too worried, but I worried a bit.
Speaking of. I once heard a tale told by someone who claimed to actually be in the room when the Fermi paradox came into existence. His story went like this. A handful of scientists were in a lab working – including Fermi. There’s a lot of downtime in a lab, and they were discussing UFOs, aliens, etc. Fermi, however, was busy with something. Someone asked him what he thought. He disengaged, thought about it for all of about ten seconds, shook his head and said, “If there was anyone out there they’d be here already.” He then went back to work.
No one had any idea what the hell he was talking about, until they started to think about it more deeply. Then they realized it had taken him seconds to grasp what it took them days, weeks, months to figure out – after he’d led them in the proper direction.
Maybe an apocryphal story, but those are sometimes the best stories.
My tumor operation was completely successful…
So glad to hear. Welcome back!
AesopFan, glad to hear that your operation was successful!
However, here is an interesting video with something for everyone – sports, history, geology, physics, and space travel!
The hostess is a little “gung ho” but that’s the video business these days.
I did see that Sweden set up a sting for cheating Canadian curlers, but haven’t followed the outcome.
Every four years, people lose their minds over one Olympic sport. They make fun of it! But the more I learned about it, the more obsessed I got… and I realized that all these people making fun? They’re getting this totally wrong. This is the coolest Olympic sport by far. The sport I’m talking about is… CURLING.
From stones so unique they all have to come from one tiny island, to a tech doping scandal nobody wants to talk about. It’s a game with strategy so complicated it’s called “chess on ice”. And a physics mystery that’s gone unsolved for over a century that could one day help us design robots for space. And that’s just the start…
Trust me, you don’t know enough about Curling…YET. So I’m going to take you onto the ice at the Olympic Trials… to show you what everyone’s missing and why Curling is the Olympic sport you should be watching.
Chapters
00:00 What’s the most fascinating sport at the Winter Olympics?
01:40 How do you play curling?
02:57 Why are curling stones so crazy?
04:46 Why is curling chess on ice?
05:48 Why do they sweep in curling?
08:18 What is Broomgate?
10:11 How do curling stones defy physics?
11:58 What is the science of rubbing?
15:16 Why do people make fun of curling?
15:56 🙂
Thanks everyone, it is good to be somewhat functional again.
Too much time laying around in bed is not good for the body!
At least you had Curling to watch, which is nice.
By the way, no sarcasm, I love Curling.
Mike Plais,
Perhaps intelligent life that is theoretically capable of deep space travel is very rare to begin with.
Perhaps even civilizations of intelligent life that are theoretically capable of deep space travel rarely live up to their potential. ( We should have colonies on Mars by now . )
The distances are so great few even try seriously to get beyond their own solar system. Who wants to get on a ship that will never reach its destination in your lifetime?
We are on a spiral arm of the galaxy. Perhaps there is a lot more going on nearer the main part of the galaxy.
Some people will not like this comment, but here goes . “Maybe It’s just the way God designed it. “
AesopFan,
Good to hear everything went well. Best wishes for your continued recovery.
Re Aliens:
Accepting that we are the only ‘intelligent’ form of life in the universe is terrifying!
So glad that your procedure was successful and that you are back, AesopFan! You are one of my favorite commenters here.
Mike P. – “some have proposed that a modification of Newton’s laws might offer a better explanation than dark matter for some of the gravitational anomalies observed in the universe”
No problem, we can modify Newton’s laws. But don’t you dare question Global Warming (TM), The Science Is Settled!!
Molly- “Accepting that we are the only ‘intelligent’ form of life in the universe is terrifying!”
Either we are, or we aren’t. Either possibility is daunting. Your use of scare quotes around “intelligent” remind me of the t-shirt, “Beam me up Scotty, there is no intelligent life on this planet”.
AesopFan:
Thankful that your surgery was successful, and praying for a complete and speedy recovery.
Now, on to watch that curling video!
Let’s see if I got this straight – intelligent life on a distant planet light years away in one of a billion galaxies, set their sights on Earth as the only planet out of a million billion planets worth visiting, and then upon arrival in a very advanced spacecraft capable of traveling light years in about ten minutes, were immediately detected because the alien in charge of the stealth button took a nap.
What are some of the hypothesized benefits of being able to reverse engineer Alien craft?
First, obviously, a likely vastly increased ability to
travel thorough space and/or perhaps time, throughout or Solar System, and beyond to other solar systems.
Then, as part of this, access to a source of enormous–and perhaps unlimited and essentially free—power.
(One scientific estimate calculated for the power requirements needed by just one UAP, which was observed by multiple sensors, to drop from 80,000 feet–from the edge of space–to a dead stop at sea level, in 7/10th of a second, was that the energy necessary to accomplish this maneuver was equal to the entire power consumption of the city of New York for one full year.)
Just imagine the disruptive and/or transformative power of just this one technological breakthrough, if it were to be introduced into our economy and civilization—power generation and distribution systems, the petroleum industry, the automotive and all of it’s allied industries (a considerable fraction of our entire economy right there), aircraft manufacturing and transportation systems, current space systems, etc.–all industries and interests which can be guaranteed to fight—tooth and nail—to prevent this disruptive technological breakthrough from being introduced, and making everything that they have built up over the decades, in place, their current plants and equipment, essentially junk, obsolete overnight.
Do you think that the tendency of all of these entrenched interests and industries would be to fight against massive, revolutionary change, or to adapt to it?
I’d say that most of them, perhaps a large majority of them, were likely to want to fight–to hold on to what they have and know–rather that to make all of the very hard decisions and to take the steps it would likely take to adapt.
So glad you’re on the mend, AesopFan!
@James Sisco: Let’s see if I got this straight – intelligent life on a distant planet light years away in one of a billion galaxies, set their sights on Earth as the only planet out of a million billion planets worth visiting, and then upon arrival in a very advanced spacecraft capable of traveling light years in about ten minutes, were immediately detected because the alien in charge of the stealth button took a nap.
Cite? I don’t know of anyone saying or implying that.
Straw man.
The UFO/UAP/NHI phenomenon as a textbook illustration of the application of Disinformation
Ya gotta admit that some of the more devilish elements within the government—admittedly with a lot of help from the shall we say more “colorful” denizens of the “UFO Community” themselves–have done a bang up job of confusing the issue, of sowing dissension, and making this issue radioactive; Roswell, Rendlesham Forrest, TicTacs, and Go Fast, thousands of trails leading off into cul de sacs, theories going every which way, disputed meetings, a sprinkling of con men and nut jobs, books and TV shows to be hyped and sold, mysterious documents appear which may or may not be authentic, flamboyant characters, dozens of supposed Alien races, a UFO landing at an Air Force base–the film of which has disappeared, Men in Black, books, movies, and TV series which seem to disclose bits and pieces of the truth (see, for instance, “Close Encounters” and “Independence Day”) it’s Demons, its Angels, they’re entities from another dimension, they’ve just arrived, they’ve always been here, they’ve long ago “monkeyed” with our DNA, they’re the “culture heroes” behind the rise of every ancient human civilization, Alien bases or visitation remnants on the Moon, covered up by NASA, statements by apparently sincere people, high government officials and Astronauts, who should be in the know, but with no actual Alien technology or bodies to present to back them up, rumors of a Presidential agreement decades ago with Aliens which they immediately broke, and in which we humans got the short end of the stick, etc., etc., etc.
And of course Snow ‘s fervent hopes and dreams are just a mote of non-disinformation awash in that vast tornado of disinformation. But how to tell them apart?
An immense global corrupt conspiracy, yes, that is what he is fighting.
According to the linked story in the “Globe and Mail” Alabama’s GDP per capita now exceeds that of the average for Canada’s ten provinces.*
Warren Smith on his “Secret Scholars Society” YT channel has posted an outstanding 10m clip from the very recent Raymond Ibrahim-Peter Boghossian interview on immigration, where the cameraman stormed off the set in protest.
Smith got marginalized or not rehired at a school where he taught critical thinking to teens and the creative use of video-making.
Smith sure specialises in exposing woke and SWJs ignorance, poor thought, and hypocrisy. Well done, Warren! And well, worth your time.
PS Raymond Ibrahim on YT is hosting a livestream this mid-afternoon on the entire Woke Cameraman protest incident. It ough5a be good! And viewable later online, I’m sure if you miss it.
I have a suspicion the woke cameraman is either autistic or unable to ponder the relationship between acts and consequences.
AesopFan, so glad to hear your surgery went well, and best wishes for continued recovery!
Perhaps even civilizations of intelligent life that are theoretically capable of deep space travel rarely live up to their potential. ( We should have colonies on Mars by now . )
The strongest counterargument to this is that homo sapiens have only been around for the last roughly 1/10,000th of the Earth’s existence. For most of those 300,000 years or so, until the last few hundred years, advances in technology were very modest. Since then, progress has exploded.
So let’s assume it take a few billion years for advanced life forms to arise, and then another million or so before they reach the point of technological take-off. Once you accept that there may be intelligent life out there somewhere, then it’s probably in many places, and the odds are that in some of those places it emerged thousands or even millions of years before we did (barely an instant in cosmological time). Even if they took off just 1000 Earth years before we did, and progressed 1 percent per Earth year, they’d be something like 20,000 times more advanced than us. So it’s not hard to believe they’d be capable of finding us and traveling to us, or at least communicating with us.
The flip side of that is that if they have not, then maybe there really is nothing else out there. Or maybe they haven’t bothered, because they have better things to do, such as interact with others closer to them.
Jimmy–Then, of course there is also the “Great Filter” idea i.e. civilizations arise around a star, and pass through a possible number of filtering events–massive tectonic/volcanic activity, an extinction level event meteorite strike, nuclear war, ecological collapse, nanotechnology run wild, a world-wide pandemic, population collapse, they create a homicidal AI, etc., .etc.–each one of which could possibly destroy that civilization, or at least degrade it’s technological capabilities to such a great extent that it is just fighting for mere survival, and uninterested in, or incapable of leaving their home planet/solar system and traveling outward.
So, over geological time a myriad of civilizations arise, but most never make it past all the various possible filters, and of those that do, perhaps only a few, or maybe only one is currently active in our area of the Milky Way, and potentially interested in us humans.
Unicorns are exempt from time, including geologic time 4500 years (human civilizations) versus 4.5 billion years (age of the Earth). That is what geologic time means. Let it sink in, and stop wasting your time on Earth.
those are the variables of the drake equation, which we can’t reasonably calculate,
maybe there are thousands of habitable planets, maybe only a few, such was the premise of interstellar
in the star trek canon, vulcan is a planet that went some nuclear conflict, about a thousand years before us, this was expanded in the greater lore,
in the original episode, the omega glory, the enterprise came across a planet that
had not fared as well, after a war between analogs of the US and China, apparently they had reverted to a Bronza age culture, because of the skins they wore, on other planets, the Roman Empire had advanced to the modernity of the 1060s, on yet other, they had adopted Prohibition Chicago or Nazi Germany
there is very little hard data to sustain any particular conjecture, whether there is a civilization at our scale of development, or below or above, as well as their disposition toward other life forms, will they be like the Vulcans or more like the creatures from Independence Day or the Daleks
the figment that stanton friedman and co, proferred with the Majestic 12 fraud was entertaining (inspired MIB the X filea and Dark Skies,) about long standing alien contact, the project Blue book stories were less so,
RIP Bill Mazeroski. MLB channel showing game seven of the 1960 World Series as I write. Watching it is like opening a time capsule. Men in the crowd mostly wearing ties. Maris, Mantle, Berra the three through five hitters for the Yankees – Yogi playing LF which I never knew he did. Clemente in the lineup for the Pirates. Wow.
Easy to see why they didn’t need a pitch clock. After the pitch the batters don’t leave the box, and the pitchers don’t leave the mound, and this is game seven!
It occurred to me that this game is being played just 21 years after Lou Gehrig’s last game. Many in the crowd would have remembered him well. Time marches on.
Snow @6:57 yesterday:
Re:”The very harmful effects of marijuana, especially on the young” …
Yes, the much higher levels of THC plus the multitude of contaminates — known & unknown — has made its use a risk worse than many people believe. Really, much worse than decades ago.
I’m sad that Trump has succumbed to bad advice (IMO) by reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug, “which would allow for greater access and research into its medical uses”, and ease burdens on the marijuana retail industry.
I wish there was another way to increase research, if useful.
But easing “burdens” on the cannabis industry doesn’t matter to me if we can’t curb the overuse by the most vulnerable, especially the young with developing brains.
I acknowledge the “Alcohol is as bad or worse” argument (– without fully agreeing).
But 1) the alcohol ship has sailed, and 2) alcohol is more regulated as far as contamination.
Also but not less important:
I do believe that more brain rot of young Americans is an intentional thing by certain groups who lust for power through control.
Indoctrination (– via public schools & “higher ed) and zombies are huge venues for brain rot, and thus control.
Yeah, it’s been on my mind.
Distressing!
Sigh… I got busy making dinner & missed the edit window. Wanted to add:
VWe need fairer penalties, consistently applied. And penalties should include honest education about the brain and body’s negative impacts!!
Before they become zombies.
I’m glad you’re back, Aesop!
“Chess on ice”… haha. Whoever wrote/said that doesn’t know much about chess.
AesopFan:
I get curling mixed up with caber tossing! Thanks for reminding me.
I used to go to the Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco to meet with Whole Earth friends for fish and chips. There was a giant caber hanging from the ceiling.
We called it Odd Sundays. We met on Sundays which fell on odd dates. We did our best to be odd.
The House of Windsor has an admirable Teflon quality that has enabled it to survive constitutional crises from the abdication of Edward VIII to the death of Princess Diana. But the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor may yet prove to be the downfall of the monarchy and the British establishment which it props up….
– – – – – – – – – – – –
And…Welcome back AF….
Mike P.: Game 7 of the 1960 WS was a dramatic, action-packed game with 19 total runs scored – and was played in 2 hours 36 minutes elapsed time! Not only because the batters and pitchers were faster but because the ball was *put in play*. There were a total of only 5 walks for both teams and *no* strikeouts for either side. If you look up the game at baseball-reference.com you can see there were only a handful of at-bats that went more than 4 or 5 pitches. Very different from the way the game is played today. Maybe also fewer commercials:). There were also 7 pitching changes, 5 of them mid-inning.
AesopFan:
Wonderful news!
RE: Aliens and Assumptions
The problem is, we have no examples but ourselves and our histories, motives, viewpoints, and actions–aided by the myriad of Aliens, their civilizations and backgrounds, their viewpoints, motives, and actions, conjured up by an army of science fiction writers–as the materials out of which to create some idea/estimate about what Aliens might be like, what they might value, what their capabilities might be, and how they might act–and particularly how they might act with regard to us humans.
So, until we actually encounter an Alien and get to study and hopefully to interact with one–and that long term and in depth–all we humans can do is speculate.
Is there some officer or officers tasked with thinking about how to deal with Aliens?
One wonders if–and hopes that–somewhere in our government, there is a very thick notebook with alternative, carefully thought out scenarios for dealing with a a whole variety of different types of Aliens, and doing so in different situations.
Nah! That would be too logical, too forethinking for our government.
Nah, it would be an immense black hole of money; enough to make a Somali blush.
I recently read a science fiction story which did have one officer–not a particularly spectacular, talented, or happy Captain, if I recall–who had been given the duty to have custody of, know where such a rather dusty binder full of options was kept, ready to deal with Aliens if they should show up, and my guess is that may actually be the best we can hope for the actual situation to be.
P.S.–I have a vague memory of reading that, sometime in the past, the government did actually commission a (RAND Corporation?) study about the options the government might have, how it should approach the situation, if an Alien did actually show up.
Marlene–Yeah, I really can’t understand–of course, I can understand that there is a lot of money involved–how, given the growing cautionary medical evidence (reminds me of how the evidence for the harmfulness of Tobacco was treated) plus the practical evidence in terms of car accidents and traffic stops for bad driving involving marijuana–people in power are still all for allowing marijuana use to become more widespread and prevalent in our society, especially among young people.
Alcohol is bad enough, why legalize another intoxicant, and one which increasingly seems to have other harmful effects on various aspects of human biology, and on brain development and functions as well?
It seems as if there is a growing epidemic of stupidity/willful blindness which is spreading to all sorts of areas of public policy and governance.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
RE: President Trump’s statement that he is going to order the UFO/UAP, NHI information held by the government to be released.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that UAPs/UFOs and NHI are real and, have been or are currently present, here on and around Earth, and in our Solar System.
Frankly, from what I understand to the be the history of this issue, and the current architecture of knowledge about this issue, I don’t think that the President—based on past history, or any President, for that matter—will truly get anywhere.
First off, what President Trump has said is a general statement of intent.
Lets see if he actually issues a very detailed Executive Order embodying that intent—timelines, specific categories of information listed, specific agencies, organizations, individuals, and locations named.
Next, consider that it is reported that several Presidents have tried–and failed–to get the information they wanted about the UFO/UAP, NHI phenomenon, reportedly on the basis that they did not have a “need to know” this information.
(You might also remember that several attempts to get legislation through Congress to get some of this information released were either stopped cold, or passed, but in such a gutted form that it is ineffective.)
Then, there is where such information is likely located—and, as I understand it, that is practically everywhere.
It appears that there is apparently no central authority which has complete knowledge of and control over this issue.
Instead, bits and pieces are held by the Military, by the CIA and perhaps by other intelligence agencies, by the Energy Department, and also by private companies and contractors, all of which have a very long history of being unwilling to cough up this information (see, for instance, the Wilson Memo) but, instead, of conducting a generation’s long and thorough disinformation campaign to cover it up, to convince the public and potential researchers that to investigate this issue is to stray into job and reputation killing “tin foil hat” territory, with NDEs and their massive threatened legal penalties for any insider even thinking of leaking information.
And remember, if some countries and organizations (and, it is not only us here in the U.S. where a race to get this information and technology is taking place, other participants in this race are reportedly Russia, China, and who knows what other countries and organizations) do have downed Alien craft, which they have been studying, if they have made some progress in reverse engineering Alien technology, such power would very likely give it’s holder virtually unlimited wealth and commanding–and perhaps pretty permanent–mastery over the world.
Those are the stakes involved, and what appears to be the system which President Trump–which any President–is up against, and why I think that President Trump will essentially get nowhere.
P.S. What we might get is some form of apparent compliance, a few dribs and drabs of information, a couple better images, and some vague statements, but not the real and complete deal, in the famous phrase of John Ehrlichman a “modified limited hangout.”
That was a very long but well written expansion of
P.S.S.–President Trump started off his statement by saying that, first, he wanted this UFO information to be “identified,” and, thus, agencies and organizations can simply throw up a million excuses for why they are unable to “identify” and to find this information—i.e. “we never received such information in the first place,” “we had it at one time, but now we can’t find it,” “we looked but, it’s not where it should be–in the proper file drawer or under the proper title, so, it’s effectively lost,” or, “we found the right file folder but, it’s empty,” “we had it, but when the specified Federal records retention deadline passed, as per routine, we shredded that paperwork,” etc, etc.
P.S.S.2–Just exactly who decides if a President has a “need to know,” and where does that gate keeping official get his authority do so, sufficient to override the command of a President?
I Got Dem Ol’ Disclosure Blues Again Mama!
Snow,
Your argument rests on there being actual downed spacecraft that have been recovered by governments. My counter to this is that for any alien species to visit earth, they have to have solved faster than light travel. Maybe by finding how to combine QM with GR, making stable wormholes, etc….my point is that if they have such knowledge/technology, I find it highly improbable they they would be so incompetent to experience multiple crashes with their craft once they are here.
A perhaps slightly more likely scenario is that they are here and in contact with various governments and those governments/aliens wish to keep such contacts secret from the general population. Again, moving into tinfoil hat area. Do they favor the Russians over the US? Arab states over Europe? So many holes in all of this.
From the world of astronomy two papers released a few days apart got my attention. Both summarized well by Phys.org. One regards the Hubble tension – the discrepancy in the expansion rate of the universe if one uses data from the early universe or if one uses data from the late universe. Various methods have emerged to measure these values and there was some thought that subtle differences in assumptions, calibration techniques, etc. might be responsible. In other words, there was some “hope” that the Hubble tension would melt away.
The most comprehensive attempt to reconcile these different methods was a conference held in late 2025 and the results were recently released. The Hubble tension isn’t going anywhere.
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-cosmologists-collaborate-sharpen-hubble-constant.html
The mystery remains.
The other involves something that oddly came up on this blog once upon a time – wide orbiting binary stars. Stars orbiting one another around their common center of mass is very common. The ones that are very far apart provide a way to investigate gravity when it is very weak. This is important because it is here that some have proposed that a modification of Newton’s laws might offer a better explanation than dark matter for some of the gravitational anomalies observed in the universe. Here is the Phys.org summary:
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-3d-method-accurately-gravity-wide.html
I think it’s good, and is the real motivation of this post. I’ve seen some references to the paper that are sensationalistic and stupidly wrong – feel free to ignore them. They imply that the paper reached some definitive conclusions about modified gravity – it doesn’t. The article I posted to gets it right.
The paper is about a new technique to measure the rotation speeds of these stars. As one could imagine, making that measurement is really tricky. The angle of the system, relative to the observer (us), will play an important roll. What this new technique will do is greatly expand the sample size of the wide orbiting binaries we can study. The following statement is spot on, yet doesn’t appear in other summaries I’ve seen.
Sorry for the long post. I tried to make it shorter but failed.
Neo, have you seen the video of Alysa Liu’s skating at the Olympics? I am so impressed by her dance/ movement, and I can’t describe why it seems different, and wonderful. I would be interested in hearing your informed opinion, as I have come to appreciate the art of dance to some extent from the videos and comments that you have presented over the years.
Very interesting article on the Mexican War, the anniversary of which Trump has apparently celebrated, which is not exactly politically correct. (Via realcleardefense)
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/trump-is-right-about-the-mexican-american-war/
physicsguy–
I think I commented on this aspect of things before, but why assume that any more advanced intelligence does not include it’s percentage of fools, the unlucky, the fumble fingered, or an unqualified pilot who might have gotten his job because his uncle Harry had some pull, is perfect in it’s execution of each and every thing, never makes mistakes, never has to deal with equipment which might be limited in some way, inferior, badly designed, or even worn out?
I can conceive of, for instance, the equivalent of some cash-strapped and/or just plain old cheap intergalactic university, civilization, governmental authority, or even interested private individual sending an expedition to study Earth, and equipping it with the cheapest, and possibly used equipment it could afford, which would give it’s operatives a reasonable chance of getting the job done.
Then, there is also the view, held by some, that those Alien vehicles which have been reportedly found intact were, in fact, “donations”; their pilots landing them, and just walking away.
These vehicles some sort of test, a nasty, deliberately unsolvable puzzle, or perhaps even a little help for us humans.
Our only defense! (I couldn’t resist)
Cap’n Rusty— I gotta admit it would take a strong Alien to stand up to the “Indian Love Call” and not run away screaming.
Snow on Pine, 4:22 pm:
Good points! Kinda funny, too.
Made me wonder about Anthropomorphization.
Maybe we should add “extra-terrestrial beings ” to this definition’s list:
“Anthropomorphizing means attributing human qualities to non-human things — such as objects, animals, or phenomena.”
Snow on Pine, about your comment @ 4:22 pm …
Good points! Kinda funny, too.
Made me wonder about Anthropomorphization.
Maybe we should add “extra-terrestrial beings ” to this definition’s list:
“Anthropomorphizing means attributing human qualities to non-human things — such as objects, animals, or phenomena.”
…
They could also be rogue or defective AI robots.
Om “No matter what is released I still believe and “they” will never tell us the truth. It is a vast conspiracy.”
Ok, that’s not unusual to think. But I’m wondering where this exact quote is from.
A movie?
RE: The very harmful effects of marijuana, especially on the young.
States, here and there, are legalizing marijuana, and recently President Trump even loosened some restrictions on it.
However, several times over the years I have written here about how–contrary to what it’s advocates argue about marijuana’s relative harmlessness and it’s benefits–there was what I saw as good evidence that the early, and especially the heavy use of marijuana results in a subsequent increase in serious psychiatric problems, and according to the several decades long longitudinal Canadian Dunedain study of some 1,200 people who were meticulously followed and periodically examined over 25 years, that study also found, on average, an irreversible reduction in 8 I.Q points.
Now comes new evidence from a major longitudinal study which reviewed the records of almost half a million subjects over a period of ten or more years, and which found that adolescent marijuana users faced a doubling of the risk of serious psychiatric problems—psychosis, and bipolar disorder among them—by young adulthood.*
* See https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-adolescent-cannabis-linked-psychotic-bipolar.html
Re: UFOs / UAPs
I’ve been on this beat since 6th grade when one evening I saw a UFO with other neighborhood kids and the next morning it was reported in the local paper.
I don’t have the answers, but I don’t believe it boils down to any scenario of Michael Rennie and Gort showing up near the UN à la “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, as many on both sides of the question tend to argue.
This is a very strange phenomenon or collection of phenomena which lacks clear boundaries. It’s been going on a long time. Roswell was not the beginning.
I don’t think UFOs fit current categories. I think we’re still in the data collection phase. I resist premature closure.
______________________
Michael Rennie was ill
The day the Earth stood still
But he told us where to stand.
–Intro, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSSlYwVEMSM
Trump’s Truth Social posts only directs DOW and others to “begin the process…” I doubt those expecting definitive proof of whatever one believes will be satisfied by the newest press release if the bureaucracy ever manages to finish it. The mystery shall continue.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116100300268316472
Pretty obvious that it’s a “vast conspiracy”.
Also very likely that the aliens themselves are in on it.
(Why would they even want to come out of the closet, as it were? What’s in it for them?)
File under: “Release the Aliens File! All of them! NOW!
+ Bonus…
And from the “Warmth of Collectivism” File, this here’s a scream (on several levels!)…
“Jim Snow 2.0: Mamdani Requires Snow-Shovel Volunteers Show Two Forms Of ID, Social Security Card”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jim-snow-20-mamdani-requires-snow-shovel-volunteers-show-two-forms-id-and-social-security
“We need paid back whatever they committed ICE” – Somali women demand reparations – Video
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2026/02/we-need-paid-back-whatever-they.html
Jerry Pournelle theorized that Roswell was caused by a plane crashing with an atom bomb, the crew’s bodies being severely shrunk by the fire, and the Air Force running with it rather than admitting that a plane carrying an atom bomb had crashed.
https://gscotthuggins.com/2017/09/09/a-memory-of-jerry/
Mary Catelli:
Good thing the government collected every scrap of the Roswell debris, whatever it was, took it somewhere and it has never been available for public inspection since.
Whatever else might be true, the US government is playing some sort of game with UFOs.
Trust no one!
I’m late to today’s comments.
Regarding the supposed necessity of aliens needing ” Faster than light travel abilities ” to arrive at Earth.
I honestly do not see why that would be necessary if you take into account some combination of the following:
1. Multigenerational travel in large ships over decades or hundreds of years . Basically a species migration.
2. ” Island hopping”. Ort cloud to interplanetary objects to alien Ort cloud over decades or centuries. ( Again multigenerational migration.)
3. Natural or technological longevity. Lobsters here on Earth can live hundreds of years. Why would we rule out all possiblity that aliens have that ability?
4. Natural or artificial hibernation.
Numbers 3 and 4 could be a mixture of natural and tech enhancement..
Jon baker:
Well said. There are many possibilities.
Ray Kurzweil offers the possibility that with AI and robotics we could develop robot probes which could travel the galaxy at fast, but sub-light speed. These probes could locate resources in space and build more robot probes.
Lather, rinse, repeat until the whole galaxy is explored. At 1/10th the speed of light it would only take a couple million years or so.
And then there is this binary star system that is estimated to have passed within our Oort cloud approximately 70,000 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholz%27s_Star
Jon baker, your comment at 8:58 pm has merit. But consider the implications. Your #1 suggests star colonization over decades or centuries. If there is advanced life out there, then a galaxy billions of years old should be chock full of life by now – literally every habitable star system habitated. That is the crux of the Fermi paradox. It keeps me awake at night.
Mike Plaiss:
If AI progresses as quickly as it seems it might, my revised version of the Fermi paradox — is where are the AIs?
AI is much more adaptable to the rigors of space than we biologicals.
Ah, the good old Neophile party game of “Aliens among us, or not?”
It’s as if I was never away!
Greetings to everyone, and I hope you all have been well.
My tumor operation was completely successful, but recovery will take awhile.
Nerves near the surgery area were “bruised” by the procedure, and I have some palsy of the left face, which affects my “good” eye (the reading lens that replaced a cataract).
Makes it hard to concentrate on print for very long.
I’ve started catching up on the news very slowly, but since we haven’t declared WW3, Minnesota hasn’t seceded, and California hasn’t fallen into the ocean (not for lack of trying), I won’t be in too big a hurry to keep up with things for awhile.
Best wishes to everyone.
Bless you, AesopFan!
I wasn’t too worried, but I worried a bit.
Speaking of. I once heard a tale told by someone who claimed to actually be in the room when the Fermi paradox came into existence. His story went like this. A handful of scientists were in a lab working – including Fermi. There’s a lot of downtime in a lab, and they were discussing UFOs, aliens, etc. Fermi, however, was busy with something. Someone asked him what he thought. He disengaged, thought about it for all of about ten seconds, shook his head and said, “If there was anyone out there they’d be here already.” He then went back to work.
No one had any idea what the hell he was talking about, until they started to think about it more deeply. Then they realized it had taken him seconds to grasp what it took them days, weeks, months to figure out – after he’d led them in the proper direction.
Maybe an apocryphal story, but those are sometimes the best stories.
My tumor operation was completely successful…
So glad to hear. Welcome back!
AesopFan, glad to hear that your operation was successful!
However, here is an interesting video with something for everyone – sports, history, geology, physics, and space travel!
The hostess is a little “gung ho” but that’s the video business these days.
I did see that Sweden set up a sting for cheating Canadian curlers, but haven’t followed the outcome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p60I9LNHNxg
Every four years, people lose their minds over one Olympic sport. They make fun of it! But the more I learned about it, the more obsessed I got… and I realized that all these people making fun? They’re getting this totally wrong. This is the coolest Olympic sport by far. The sport I’m talking about is… CURLING.
From stones so unique they all have to come from one tiny island, to a tech doping scandal nobody wants to talk about. It’s a game with strategy so complicated it’s called “chess on ice”. And a physics mystery that’s gone unsolved for over a century that could one day help us design robots for space. And that’s just the start…
Trust me, you don’t know enough about Curling…YET. So I’m going to take you onto the ice at the Olympic Trials… to show you what everyone’s missing and why Curling is the Olympic sport you should be watching.
Chapters
00:00 What’s the most fascinating sport at the Winter Olympics?
01:40 How do you play curling?
02:57 Why are curling stones so crazy?
04:46 Why is curling chess on ice?
05:48 Why do they sweep in curling?
08:18 What is Broomgate?
10:11 How do curling stones defy physics?
11:58 What is the science of rubbing?
15:16 Why do people make fun of curling?
15:56 🙂
Thanks everyone, it is good to be somewhat functional again.
Too much time laying around in bed is not good for the body!
At least you had Curling to watch, which is nice.
By the way, no sarcasm, I love Curling.
Mike Plais,
Perhaps intelligent life that is theoretically capable of deep space travel is very rare to begin with.
Perhaps even civilizations of intelligent life that are theoretically capable of deep space travel rarely live up to their potential. ( We should have colonies on Mars by now . )
The distances are so great few even try seriously to get beyond their own solar system. Who wants to get on a ship that will never reach its destination in your lifetime?
We are on a spiral arm of the galaxy. Perhaps there is a lot more going on nearer the main part of the galaxy.
Some people will not like this comment, but here goes . “Maybe It’s just the way God designed it. “
AesopFan,
Good to hear everything went well. Best wishes for your continued recovery.
Re Aliens:
Accepting that we are the only ‘intelligent’ form of life in the universe is terrifying!
So glad that your procedure was successful and that you are back, AesopFan! You are one of my favorite commenters here.
Mike P. – “some have proposed that a modification of Newton’s laws might offer a better explanation than dark matter for some of the gravitational anomalies observed in the universe”
No problem, we can modify Newton’s laws. But don’t you dare question Global Warming (TM), The Science Is Settled!!
Molly- “Accepting that we are the only ‘intelligent’ form of life in the universe is terrifying!”
Either we are, or we aren’t. Either possibility is daunting. Your use of scare quotes around “intelligent” remind me of the t-shirt, “Beam me up Scotty, there is no intelligent life on this planet”.
AesopFan:
Thankful that your surgery was successful, and praying for a complete and speedy recovery.
Now, on to watch that curling video!
Let’s see if I got this straight – intelligent life on a distant planet light years away in one of a billion galaxies, set their sights on Earth as the only planet out of a million billion planets worth visiting, and then upon arrival in a very advanced spacecraft capable of traveling light years in about ten minutes, were immediately detected because the alien in charge of the stealth button took a nap.
What are some of the hypothesized benefits of being able to reverse engineer Alien craft?
First, obviously, a likely vastly increased ability to
travel thorough space and/or perhaps time, throughout or Solar System, and beyond to other solar systems.
Then, as part of this, access to a source of enormous–and perhaps unlimited and essentially free—power.
(One scientific estimate calculated for the power requirements needed by just one UAP, which was observed by multiple sensors, to drop from 80,000 feet–from the edge of space–to a dead stop at sea level, in 7/10th of a second, was that the energy necessary to accomplish this maneuver was equal to the entire power consumption of the city of New York for one full year.)
Just imagine the disruptive and/or transformative power of just this one technological breakthrough, if it were to be introduced into our economy and civilization—power generation and distribution systems, the petroleum industry, the automotive and all of it’s allied industries (a considerable fraction of our entire economy right there), aircraft manufacturing and transportation systems, current space systems, etc.–all industries and interests which can be guaranteed to fight—tooth and nail—to prevent this disruptive technological breakthrough from being introduced, and making everything that they have built up over the decades, in place, their current plants and equipment, essentially junk, obsolete overnight.
Do you think that the tendency of all of these entrenched interests and industries would be to fight against massive, revolutionary change, or to adapt to it?
I’d say that most of them, perhaps a large majority of them, were likely to want to fight–to hold on to what they have and know–rather that to make all of the very hard decisions and to take the steps it would likely take to adapt.
So glad you’re on the mend, AesopFan!
@James Sisco: Let’s see if I got this straight – intelligent life on a distant planet light years away in one of a billion galaxies, set their sights on Earth as the only planet out of a million billion planets worth visiting, and then upon arrival in a very advanced spacecraft capable of traveling light years in about ten minutes, were immediately detected because the alien in charge of the stealth button took a nap.
Cite? I don’t know of anyone saying or implying that.
Straw man.
The UFO/UAP/NHI phenomenon as a textbook illustration of the application of Disinformation
Ya gotta admit that some of the more devilish elements within the government—admittedly with a lot of help from the shall we say more “colorful” denizens of the “UFO Community” themselves–have done a bang up job of confusing the issue, of sowing dissension, and making this issue radioactive; Roswell, Rendlesham Forrest, TicTacs, and Go Fast, thousands of trails leading off into cul de sacs, theories going every which way, disputed meetings, a sprinkling of con men and nut jobs, books and TV shows to be hyped and sold, mysterious documents appear which may or may not be authentic, flamboyant characters, dozens of supposed Alien races, a UFO landing at an Air Force base–the film of which has disappeared, Men in Black, books, movies, and TV series which seem to disclose bits and pieces of the truth (see, for instance, “Close Encounters” and “Independence Day”) it’s Demons, its Angels, they’re entities from another dimension, they’ve just arrived, they’ve always been here, they’ve long ago “monkeyed” with our DNA, they’re the “culture heroes” behind the rise of every ancient human civilization, Alien bases or visitation remnants on the Moon, covered up by NASA, statements by apparently sincere people, high government officials and Astronauts, who should be in the know, but with no actual Alien technology or bodies to present to back them up, rumors of a Presidential agreement decades ago with Aliens which they immediately broke, and in which we humans got the short end of the stick, etc., etc., etc.
And of course Snow ‘s fervent hopes and dreams are just a mote of non-disinformation awash in that vast tornado of disinformation. But how to tell them apart?
An immense global corrupt conspiracy, yes, that is what he is fighting.
According to the linked story in the “Globe and Mail” Alabama’s GDP per capita now exceeds that of the average for Canada’s ten provinces.*
* See https://x.com/ByronYork/status/2025030608578126045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2025030608578126045%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F776956%2F
Warren Smith on his “Secret Scholars Society” YT channel has posted an outstanding 10m clip from the very recent Raymond Ibrahim-Peter Boghossian interview on immigration, where the cameraman stormed off the set in protest.
“Triggered Cameraman CONFRONTS Peter Boghossian Live On Stage Over Immigration” Warren Smith – Secret Scholar Society https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZQJmsSA1Lc
Smith got marginalized or not rehired at a school where he taught critical thinking to teens and the creative use of video-making.
Smith sure specialises in exposing woke and SWJs ignorance, poor thought, and hypocrisy. Well done, Warren! And well, worth your time.
PS Raymond Ibrahim on YT is hosting a livestream this mid-afternoon on the entire Woke Cameraman protest incident. It ough5a be good! And viewable later online, I’m sure if you miss it.
I have a suspicion the woke cameraman is either autistic or unable to ponder the relationship between acts and consequences.
AesopFan, so glad to hear your surgery went well, and best wishes for continued recovery!
Perhaps even civilizations of intelligent life that are theoretically capable of deep space travel rarely live up to their potential. ( We should have colonies on Mars by now . )
The strongest counterargument to this is that homo sapiens have only been around for the last roughly 1/10,000th of the Earth’s existence. For most of those 300,000 years or so, until the last few hundred years, advances in technology were very modest. Since then, progress has exploded.
So let’s assume it take a few billion years for advanced life forms to arise, and then another million or so before they reach the point of technological take-off. Once you accept that there may be intelligent life out there somewhere, then it’s probably in many places, and the odds are that in some of those places it emerged thousands or even millions of years before we did (barely an instant in cosmological time). Even if they took off just 1000 Earth years before we did, and progressed 1 percent per Earth year, they’d be something like 20,000 times more advanced than us. So it’s not hard to believe they’d be capable of finding us and traveling to us, or at least communicating with us.
The flip side of that is that if they have not, then maybe there really is nothing else out there. Or maybe they haven’t bothered, because they have better things to do, such as interact with others closer to them.
Jimmy–Then, of course there is also the “Great Filter” idea i.e. civilizations arise around a star, and pass through a possible number of filtering events–massive tectonic/volcanic activity, an extinction level event meteorite strike, nuclear war, ecological collapse, nanotechnology run wild, a world-wide pandemic, population collapse, they create a homicidal AI, etc., .etc.–each one of which could possibly destroy that civilization, or at least degrade it’s technological capabilities to such a great extent that it is just fighting for mere survival, and uninterested in, or incapable of leaving their home planet/solar system and traveling outward.
So, over geological time a myriad of civilizations arise, but most never make it past all the various possible filters, and of those that do, perhaps only a few, or maybe only one is currently active in our area of the Milky Way, and potentially interested in us humans.
Unicorns are exempt from time, including geologic time 4500 years (human civilizations) versus 4.5 billion years (age of the Earth). That is what geologic time means. Let it sink in, and stop wasting your time on Earth.
those are the variables of the drake equation, which we can’t reasonably calculate,
maybe there are thousands of habitable planets, maybe only a few, such was the premise of interstellar
in the star trek canon, vulcan is a planet that went some nuclear conflict, about a thousand years before us, this was expanded in the greater lore,
in the original episode, the omega glory, the enterprise came across a planet that
had not fared as well, after a war between analogs of the US and China, apparently they had reverted to a Bronza age culture, because of the skins they wore, on other planets, the Roman Empire had advanced to the modernity of the 1060s, on yet other, they had adopted Prohibition Chicago or Nazi Germany
there is very little hard data to sustain any particular conjecture, whether there is a civilization at our scale of development, or below or above, as well as their disposition toward other life forms, will they be like the Vulcans or more like the creatures from Independence Day or the Daleks
the figment that stanton friedman and co, proferred with the Majestic 12 fraud was entertaining (inspired MIB the X filea and Dark Skies,) about long standing alien contact, the project Blue book stories were less so,
RIP Bill Mazeroski. MLB channel showing game seven of the 1960 World Series as I write. Watching it is like opening a time capsule. Men in the crowd mostly wearing ties. Maris, Mantle, Berra the three through five hitters for the Yankees – Yogi playing LF which I never knew he did. Clemente in the lineup for the Pirates. Wow.
Easy to see why they didn’t need a pitch clock. After the pitch the batters don’t leave the box, and the pitchers don’t leave the mound, and this is game seven!
It occurred to me that this game is being played just 21 years after Lou Gehrig’s last game. Many in the crowd would have remembered him well. Time marches on.
Snow @6:57 yesterday:
Re:”The very harmful effects of marijuana, especially on the young” …
Yes, the much higher levels of THC plus the multitude of contaminates — known & unknown — has made its use a risk worse than many people believe. Really, much worse than decades ago.
I’m sad that Trump has succumbed to bad advice (IMO) by reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug, “which would allow for greater access and research into its medical uses”, and ease burdens on the marijuana retail industry.
I wish there was another way to increase research, if useful.
But easing “burdens” on the cannabis industry doesn’t matter to me if we can’t curb the overuse by the most vulnerable, especially the young with developing brains.
I acknowledge the “Alcohol is as bad or worse” argument (– without fully agreeing).
But 1) the alcohol ship has sailed, and 2) alcohol is more regulated as far as contamination.
Also but not less important:
I do believe that more brain rot of young Americans is an intentional thing by certain groups who lust for power through control.
Indoctrination (– via public schools & “higher ed) and zombies are huge venues for brain rot, and thus control.
Yeah, it’s been on my mind.
Distressing!
Sigh… I got busy making dinner & missed the edit window. Wanted to add:
VWe need fairer penalties, consistently applied. And penalties should include honest education about the brain and body’s negative impacts!!
Before they become zombies.
I’m glad you’re back, Aesop!
“Chess on ice”… haha. Whoever wrote/said that doesn’t know much about chess.
AesopFan:
I get curling mixed up with caber tossing! Thanks for reminding me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caber_toss
I used to go to the Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco to meet with Whole Earth friends for fish and chips. There was a giant caber hanging from the ceiling.
We called it Odd Sundays. We met on Sundays which fell on odd dates. We did our best to be odd.
Odd?
Ever tried buzkashi…?
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Speaking of unusual pastimes….
“The [British] establishment has been rocked before. Epstein is an existential threat”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2026/02/22/the-establishment-has-been-rocked-before-epstein-is-an-existential-threat/
Opening graf:
– – – – – – – – – – – –
And…Welcome back AF….
Mike P.: Game 7 of the 1960 WS was a dramatic, action-packed game with 19 total runs scored – and was played in 2 hours 36 minutes elapsed time! Not only because the batters and pitchers were faster but because the ball was *put in play*. There were a total of only 5 walks for both teams and *no* strikeouts for either side. If you look up the game at baseball-reference.com you can see there were only a handful of at-bats that went more than 4 or 5 pitches. Very different from the way the game is played today. Maybe also fewer commercials:). There were also 7 pitching changes, 5 of them mid-inning.
AesopFan:
Wonderful news!
RE: Aliens and Assumptions
The problem is, we have no examples but ourselves and our histories, motives, viewpoints, and actions–aided by the myriad of Aliens, their civilizations and backgrounds, their viewpoints, motives, and actions, conjured up by an army of science fiction writers–as the materials out of which to create some idea/estimate about what Aliens might be like, what they might value, what their capabilities might be, and how they might act–and particularly how they might act with regard to us humans.
So, until we actually encounter an Alien and get to study and hopefully to interact with one–and that long term and in depth–all we humans can do is speculate.
Is there some officer or officers tasked with thinking about how to deal with Aliens?
One wonders if–and hopes that–somewhere in our government, there is a very thick notebook with alternative, carefully thought out scenarios for dealing with a a whole variety of different types of Aliens, and doing so in different situations.
Nah! That would be too logical, too forethinking for our government.
Nah, it would be an immense black hole of money; enough to make a Somali blush.
I recently read a science fiction story which did have one officer–not a particularly spectacular, talented, or happy Captain, if I recall–who had been given the duty to have custody of, know where such a rather dusty binder full of options was kept, ready to deal with Aliens if they should show up, and my guess is that may actually be the best we can hope for the actual situation to be.
P.S.–I have a vague memory of reading that, sometime in the past, the government did actually commission a (RAND Corporation?) study about the options the government might have, how it should approach the situation, if an Alien did actually show up.
Marlene–Yeah, I really can’t understand–of course, I can understand that there is a lot of money involved–how, given the growing cautionary medical evidence (reminds me of how the evidence for the harmfulness of Tobacco was treated) plus the practical evidence in terms of car accidents and traffic stops for bad driving involving marijuana–people in power are still all for allowing marijuana use to become more widespread and prevalent in our society, especially among young people.
Alcohol is bad enough, why legalize another intoxicant, and one which increasingly seems to have other harmful effects on various aspects of human biology, and on brain development and functions as well?
It seems as if there is a growing epidemic of stupidity/willful blindness which is spreading to all sorts of areas of public policy and governance.