Thursday, February 27, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
An article in the February 17/24 New Yorker by Adam Gopnik [Bigger Than Phil: When Did Faith Start to Fade?] deals with Atheism and Faith, about God, of course.
But some of writer Gopnik’s observations apply to the UFO topic, which is rife with believers and atheists (skeptics). It also allows the entry of ignorance to the matter.
Readers here know that UFO mavens consist of rabid believers and equally rabid skeptics. (I’ve dealt with this a number of times, as you know.)
What is disturbing is the raft of ignorant people and their ignorant contributions to the UFO topic, mine included, I’m sorry to write.
New Yorker writer Gopnik notes that “polemicists…[work] not to persuade but to stiffen the spines of their supporters and irritate the stomach linings of their enemies.” [Page 107]
This is obvious in the UFO contributions that clutter the internet.
But lately we’re stunned that our friends at The Anomalist, who generously acknowledge my meager efforts, have taken to lauding material that is magnificently obtuse, when Gopnik tells his readers this: “Argos, the hundred-eyed watchman might have had more sight than other giants, but he didn’t have sharper sight.” [Page 108]
That is, Anomalist seeks out the fringe, with little or no discernment for the quality, or lack thereof, of what they promote. Why? Nescience.
Gopnik offers that “The difficulty, as always with the popular chronicles of ideas, is not that ideas don’t matter; it’s that we too readily skip over the question of how they come to matter. What seeded the ground is the historian’s easy question; what made the ground receive the seed is the hard one.” [Page 108]
If atheists [UFO non-believers] underestimate the fudginess in [UFO] faith, [UFO] believers underestimate the soupiness of [UFO] doubt. [Page 110]
About Christianity ,which mimics the vicissitudes of UFO faith, Gopnik writes, “Christian rites were mocked among the Romans for their vulgarity long before they were denounced for the absurdity.” [Page 110]
This applies to “ufology” also, the skeptics adopting the Roman stance.
Gopnok cites author John Updike who wrote that “The power of materialist science to explain everything … seems to be inarguable and the principle glory of the modern mind. On the other hand …illusions composes the basic substance of our existence, and religion [UFO belief], in its many forms, attempts to address, organize, and placate these.” [Page 111]
In the theological/religious universe, atheism seems to have a foothold. And in the UFO universe, skepticism hopes to gain a foothold and may have already.
And while newbies in academia misunderstand the belief/atheistic divide, such UFO advisory groups, as The Anomalist, often misunderstand the UFO landscape.
The Anomalist noted that I think UFOs are on a downhill run and about to go belly up. Anomalist pooh-poohed my view with an aside about how many old UFO sightings still need reclamation and study.
That’s true, and I’ve listed many of the classic cases here that seem to contain elements that could lead to an understanding of the UFO phenomenon.
But the Anomalist editors – not Patrick Huyghe! – are relative UFO newbies. They, unlike CDA or me, haven’t been around during the UFO heyday, when flying saucer sightings were vibrant and arresting.
Today’s UFO sightings and reports are poor examples of what was.
And today’s commentary about UFOs are so much poorer than the writing and excitement during the early modern years of UFOs or flying saucers, evidenced by a comparison of the early UFO books and magazine articles to today’s UFO effluvia.
UFO writer Nick Redfern knows this and writes as a bona fide historian of the UFO lore, new and old.
But others, that get recognized as relevant, are anything but.
And the UFO faithful get swamped by the UFO atheists because as Gopnik sees it (about religion and the belief in or not in God), “True rationalists are as rare in life as actual deconstructionists are in university English departments …” [Page 109]
No one deconstructs UFOs, not even those that The Anomalist lauds.
The field of UFO study is awash in nescience, even by those who think they are above and beyond the epithet.
Friday, February 21, 2014
In the April 1976 Official UFO magazine, on Page 24 ff. appears an article by Raymond Fowler about crashed UFOs and bodies.
Besides the notorious Kingman, Arizona “crash” there’s a report of a crashed saucer at Mattydale, a suburb of Syracuse, New York; the report given to Fowler by a Mr. And Mrs. Marsden.
The incident happened between October 1953 and May 1954, given to Fowler in 1967.
An object about 20 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, exuding phosphorescent lights of several colors, which illuminated “quite a few men walking around the object and examining it. Some were uniformed and some were not. One man had what appeared to be a large press camera…and was taking pictures.” [Page 25]
Fowler then recounts the Kingman incident (of 1953) by an AEC project engineer, Fritz A. Werner, who was asked to help in the investigation of a crashed, super-secret Air Force vehicle:
The crashed, unknown object was allegedly studied by Mr. Werner and others; Werner providing an affidavit in which he said he glanced a “dead body of a four-foot human-like creature…The skin on its face was dark brown.” Werner was cautioned not to divulge what he had seen.
Werner was supposedly assigned to Project Blue Book later on, but Fowler wasn’t able to confirm that but was able to determine that Werner had some actual bona fides and was a credible source, who had a diary of his activity at Kingman.
(Fowler also mentions, in his piece, a Dr. Eric Wang, who figures in the memory metal that Anthony Bragalia found was studied by Battelle and NASA, and was said to come from the Roswell crash.)
So, what is the exact connection to Roswell that the Roswell Team sees? Or are their touted slides from another incident in the 1947-1953 time-frame?
Nick Redfern sees the sign that appears in the controversial photos as a possible clue to tell us where and when (perhaps) the pictures were snapped.
More to come?
RR
Thursday, February 20, 2014
If you found a treasure or the cross that Jesus was crucified on, wouldn’t you show it to your family first, before going to the media and/or the public?
Of course, if you’re a normal person.
That the Roswell Investigation Team is holding its slide information from the UFO community, its “family,” irks, and not just me.
Shouldn’t the Roswellians provide, at least, an overview of what they have found in their slides discovery?
(Personally, I don’t give a fig about the slides; they might clarify the Roswell incident but won’t resolve the UFO mystery, a phenomenon above and beyond Roswell.)
And then let me ask, did the Roswell Team run a background check on the “businessman” who possesses the slides or his sister, who allegedly found them?
That should be an important part of their investigation.
The lack of transparency in this whole slides episode is troubling.
And saying that the Team will provide their findings when “they are good and ready” adds smug insult to injury.
Why do these fellows get to call the shots, because the stumbled upon the slides?
I don’t think so.
Roswell belongs to the UFO community, not just a few frat boys, some of whom have questionable cachet as UFO cognoscenti sees it.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Many of you have questions about the situation with the so-called Roswell Slide(s).
Here’s what I know…
The Team doesn’t have its ducks in a row.
They know that the Kodachrome film was extant in 1947 and the photo(s) taken with it were probably taken in that time-frame, but they can’t prove that.
They also don’t know who took the photo(s); they have a guess, but that’s all they have.
They don’t know where the film was taken – locale. They think it’s near Roswell but that is a guess also.
They have no idea what the photo(s) show….a “body” apparently, but there is no way to determine what kind of body – real or simulated, or ???
The Team is trying to put together a scenario but they have no access to first-hand participants.
They have a Chicago guy who got the slides from his sister who found them in a trunk during and estate sale.
The possessor has no connection to the slides – direct or indirect. He’s just a guy hoping to capitalize on the things, hyped by Tom Carey as Roswell in nature.
Tom Carey is intrigued because he’s a Roswellian and wants to resolve that incident.
Don Schmitt wants to capitalize monetarily I think.
David Rudiak is a Roswell fanatic. He’s obsessed with Roswell and needs to keep scratching that itch.
Anthony Bragalia wants to be a UFO notable. He desires cachet and fame as a “ufologist” which I don’t get. Having UFO notoriety is anathema to persons who value dignity and common sense.
Chris Rutkowski is almost involved but a silent partner, one who should get out before his inestimable credibility is shot to hell by the Slides farce.
Kevin Randle wanted to clear up his beleaguered Roswell credibility but snookered that by playing fast and loose with the Slides story, nailed by Paul Kimball for prevaricating the issue.
So that’s where we are: the Slides will get a public airing this year, sometime, somehow.
But it will be akin to the Alien Autopsy film, in content and denouement; that is, it will end up being one more ufological joke that besmirches all involved.
RR
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Objective UFO buffs have got to see that the UFO era is over, dead, finito, extinct.
Yes, some strange things are still seen in the sky but, for all practical purposes, UFOs as a viable topic of interest or phenomenon in need of study are so over…
Those hoping or wishing that the so-called Roswell slides will rejuvenate Roswell or UFOs are going to be sorely disappointed.
There might be a blip of interest when the Roswell slides are made public but it will only be a blip.
The slides are already compromised. They were said to be taken by a geologist who happened, with his colleagues, upon an accident or Army operation which displayed an entity of unearthly demeanor.
Now it’s said the slides show a body in a building.
The slide story, like all UFO stories, has become fuzzy.
The Roswell Investigation Team is keeping their knowledge of the slides to themselves, hoping to capitalize on them with books, magazine articles, even a movie.
But really that Team is really hoping to gain some notoriety and fame, cementing their long-time efforts to make something tangible, worthwhile, of UFOs and especially Roswell.
The public doesn’t care. News media doesn’t care. The governments of the Earth don’t care.
Yes, there might be a mild stir, if the slides are marketed sensationally, but they, like UFOs, will subside into a fringe footnote, only to be debated by the last of the UFO obsessives.
UFOs are as dead as dead can be, only seeming alive because a few UFO mavens, like us, keep providing CPR, when we know, down deep, that UFOs have had their day.
RR
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