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UFOs Past and Present; or, What You See Isn't Always What You Get

4/6/2014

19 Comments

 
This morning I went outside to enjoy the beautiful spring weather, and I looked up into the brilliant blue sky. The sun was shining, and there wasn’t a cloud around. What should I see streaking across the empyrean but a flying saucer! It appeared to be metallic silver, round, with what seemed to be a horizontal disc around the center of the round globule. It hovered for a few seconds before streaking across the sky. Was this an alien spacecraft? Of course not; I knew immediately was it really was.
A few seconds after this, more flying saucers started to appear in the sky, popping into view one by one. With the sun behind me, they reflected the solar light brilliantly and looked for all the world like invading alien armada.

But as they grew closer, the horizontal discs started to move up and down, and shortly the beaks and tail feathers were visible. Yes, it was a flock of seagulls. The birds’ silver and white feathers reflect sunlight beautifully, so when conditions are just right—a sunny, cloudless day—and the birds are soaring opposite the sun far enough where no tree or building mark their size or distance, they take on the appearance of the stereotypical UFO. Their gray feathers and white feathers blend into an illusion of a silver craft reflecting white sections in sunlight.

I knew what they were the moment I saw the illusion because I had experienced it before. Almost two decades ago I saw this illusion for the first time. Back then, I was really into UFOs and space aliens, and I was quite excited to have seen what I thought was an alien spacecraft. That excitement last for about the ninety seconds it took the bird to glide down from the sky to the parking lot where I was standing.

What this taught me back then was that our expectations and mental models govern how we interpret ambiguous stimuli. A splotch of gray and white in the sky can look like a 1950s flying saucer if that’s what your mind primes you to see. That’s another reason that eyewitness testimony can’t automatically be trusted.

Imagine, though, if the birds had been flying away from me instead of toward me. They would have looked like flying saucers that sped off into the sky and vanished. For someone unfamiliar with the appearance of seagulls in the sky (they usually don’t venture to my area of Albany, preferring the river), this would have been a dramatic UFO sighting.

Speaking of UFOs, you’ll remember that last year I discussed the claim made by Jacques Vallée in Passport to Magonia (1969), Jacques Vallée and Chris Aubeck in Wonders in the Sky (2009), and Philip Coppens in The Ancient Alien Question (2011) that Charlemagne passed legislation against UFOs, derived from the Rosicrucian novel Comte de Grabalis (1670) by the Abbé de Villars, their only source for this information. In the novel, the Abbé writes that medieval people believed that there were wondrous ships that flew across the air, populated by weather-wizards. “The Emperors believed it as well; and this ridiculous chimera went so far that the wise Charlemagne, and after him Louis the Débonnaire, imposed grievous penalties upon all these supposed Tyrants of the Air. You may see an account of this in the first chapter of the Capitularies of these two Emperors” (Discourse V, sec. 127-128, anonymous 1913 trans.).

Obviously, I don’t take the word of the Comte de Graalis for anything, but it is the origin of Vallée’s Passport to Magonia, since Magonia is the name of the kingdom of the weather-wizards (Agobard, Contra Insulsam Vulgi Opinionem de Grandine et Tonitruis 1-2). Vallée almost certainly learned of this from the explanatory notes in most editions of Comte de Grabalis, but this is getting away from the story.

So, I looked up Charlemagne’s law, the Admonitio generalis cap. 65 (repeated by Louis), and translated the relevant line in which he forbids weather-wizards. At the time, my concern was to show that the law said nothing about aliens, flying ships, or sky kingdoms so I didn’t concern myself too much with the niceties of translating some of the more confusing words, particularly obligatores, literally “binders.” But in translating the complete law for my book of fringe history texts, I have to deal with such problems. Here, then, is the correct translation, to which I have added the references to the Bible verses cited therein:
Again we have in the law of the Lord the command: “do not practice soothsaying or divination” (Lev. 19:26); and in Deuteronomy: “there shall not be found among you any that uses divination, or an observer of dreams and omens”; and also: “let no one among you be a wizard, nor an enchanter, nor a consulter with familiar spirits” (Deut. 18:10-11). Therefore, we enjoin that there shall be neither prognosticators and spell-casters, nor weather-magicians or amulet-binders, and that wherever they are found they must either be reformed or condemned. Again, with regard to the trees, rocks, or springs where some fools make lights or conduct other observances, we command that wherever it is found this most wicked custom, detestable to God, must be removed and destroyed.
As I pointed out before, this is a far cry from the Abbé de Villars’s claim that Charlemagne specifically legislated against flying sky wizards, though in theory flying sky wizards are subsumed in the broader category of “weather-magicians”—even though almost all of these were itinerant (and earthbound) charlatans who promised rain in exchange for cash. But since a 1670 novel linked the law to Magonia, fringe historians have accepted the connection without question.

So this gets to the question of the obligatores, translated above as “amulet-binders.” It’s an obscure term, and one I wasn’t familiar with since I’m not a medievalist and this seems to be a primarily medieval usage. After doing a great deal of research, I discovered that it refers to people who tied magical amulets to their bodies to drive away evil, an ancient practice popular among the Romans but one condemned by the Church from Late Antiquity onward as superstition and/or demonic. The bindings, or ligatures, gave rise to the name of the practitioners of this type of folk magic.

I thought it would be a good idea to check my translation against any other translations of the same law to check to see if I am reading some of the more obscure parts correctly. The fools making lights (luminaria, literally: lamps) seemed a bit weird to me. Of course there is no ready English translation of the whole of the law. Most translate only the last sentence, if that. The most commonly given English translation is that of Margaret Deanesly in Methuen’s History of Medieval and Modern Europe (1931), but she was no help. Deanesly apparently didn’t recognize the word obligatores either; she simply skipped it in her translation, along with everything between “weather-magicians” and “trees.”

This is another reason primary sources are important to consult in the original. I’ve found similar problems time and again. When I translated the famous French science fiction novella The Xipéhuz, I noticed that some of the published English translations simply omitted terms the translator didn’t understand. One translation refused to list Ecbatana among the ancient cities of the world, presumably because the translator didn’t know what it was. Most also chose to translate another phrase as “the year one thousand” even though the story took place in the year 22,649 of the characters’ calendar; the translators didn’t recognize the religious reference to the Millennium, even though in context it was obvious: “It was the Millennium for these young tribal peoples, the death knell of the end of the world….” How would “the year one thousand” work there?

As for the making or doing of lights—that one has no consensus either. Deansely gave the phrase as “where fools are wont to carry lights,” but the Latin verb faciunt doesn’t usually have the sense of “to carry.” James Bentley, in Restless Bones (1985) gives this as “where idiots are in the habit of carrying lights,” but there is nothing about habits or carrying in the Latin. In European Paganism (2018) Ken Dowden gives the line more literally “where some stupid people do lights.” It should be obvious that the line--ubi aliqui stulti luminaria … faciunt—refers to some kind of pagan ceremony involving lamps, torches, or other lights. But the wording just sounds weird however I try to translate it. Taken literally, it could say “where some fools make lamps,” “where some fools do lights,” “where some fools acquire lamps,” etc.

I decided to go with “make lights” because of the parallel texts Dowden provides from earlier condemnations of paganism. In the sixth century Martin of Braga in De correctione rusticorum 16 condemned “lighting candles at rocks and at trees and at springs and at crossroads” (ad petras et ad arbores et ad fontes et per trivia cereolos incendere), almost exactly the same as Charlemagne’s list of condemned places. After 442 the Second Council of Arles (a book, not an actual council) similarly condemned in canon 23 the “faithless [who] light torches or venerate trees, springs, or rocks” (infideles aut faculas accenderint aut arbores fontesve vel saxa venerantur). To this we can add a sermon of St. Eligius from before 659 CE that actually uses the term luminaria faciant (Vita Eligii 2.16), though the English translator decided to leave that part out! [Update: See below on luminaria as gods.] Therefore, on these parallels, it seems clear that “carry” isn’t warranted as the verb in Charlemagne’s law. Also: These condemnations weren’t very effective, were they?

[Update: From McNamara's translation of the Vita Eligii in Head's Medieval Hagiography (2001), I see that she takes the luminaria to be gods.
So, that's fun: Did Charlemagne condemn lighting torches or the idea that gods were in the rocks? This requires more thought, apparently. But see my comments below for why I feel that McNamara's translation is wrong.]

It must be nice to be a fringe writer and never have to actually deal with the problems of primary sources or the concept of context. As far as they are concerned, Charlemagne was condemning ancient astronauts’ flying space vehicles because some seventeenth century French cleric said so in a novel.
19 Comments
KIF
4/6/2014 08:26:47 am

Michael Persinger, Gyslaine F. Lafrenière, "Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events" (Nelson-Hall, 1977)

Reply
PaulN. link
4/6/2014 10:01:53 am

Regarding the luminaries, several examples come to mind. The first is the original Jack-O-Lantern from the Celtic festival of Samhain]\; in which a large turnip is hollowed out, and candle placed inside. As in modern Halloween. the turnip has been replaced by pumpkin, since it is easier to hollow out, and is much larger than most turnips. Another aspect would be the illumination of sacred and otherwise special places. These could either be by lantern, candle , or bonfires. These illuminations could be considered as sacred or celebratory {as in the original intent for Independence Day). Also, the use of votive candles as memorial offerings at scenes of violent or accidental tragedies, is something that has become very popular over the last thirty years.
These are just some simple musings, but they could lead you to what you are looking for.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
4/6/2014 10:34:18 am

I certainly read the text that way. I think that Jo Ann McNamara (translator in the Head text and also at the Internet History Sourcebook) is wrong to see the luminaria as gods (lesser figurative Latin sense of "luminaries") since the grammar of the Vita Eligii requires there to be a direct object: "nullus Christianus ad fana vel ad petras aut ad fontes vel ad arbores aut ad cellos vel per trivia luminaria faciat, aut vota reddere praesumat." "No Christian should either make lights or presume to give devotions to the temples or to the rocks or to the fountains or to the trees or to the corners, or at the crossroads." Her translation is grammatically impossible: "No Christian should make or render any devotion to the gods of the trivium, where three roads meet, to the fanes or the rocks, or springs or groves or corners." "Vota" is very clearly not the object of "faciat." So I'm going to say that "making lights" is the right phrase and, yes, refers to the pagan ceremonies.

Reply
Thorne
4/6/2014 10:05:04 am

Regarding the <i>luminaria</i>, what came to my mind while reading this was Christmas tree lights. Could they have been referring to the pagan practices which were eventually appropriated as a Christian custom?

Reply
J.A.D
4/6/2014 08:18:33 pm

The ideas of the Druids that Julius Caesar thought he understood,
are the ideas Edward I waged war against in Wales, when hapless
young Edward II was a mere child, all the ethereal sprites & spirits
who dance about in the mists at dawn are covered by this law code.
Charlemagne's code had church divines familiar with its nuances!!!!!

Reply
J.A.D
4/6/2014 08:12:38 pm

A SKY FULL OF GHOSTS is the 4th episode of COSMOS,
it builds on Bruno & Newton, and introduces us to Herschel,
Keep in mind its subsuming the timeslot AMERICAN DAD had,
FOX has aimed the brunt of its own middlebrow intellect at the
art and act of creating a tv series aimed at all statistical ten
year old geniuses inside our population, the episode charms
and enchants. It also struck again at Young Earth Creationism
by saying why starlight travels as long as it does, and how we
knows its age. Ufology long ago created the classifications that
are supposed to separate the known phenomenon from the much
rarer unknown, whether it be "swamp gas" or ball lightning or even
Venus on the horizon or humble seagulls. Thusly 99.99% of the
sightings in a given year can be placed into a category. Jason is
looking at the art of pattern recognition, as once did Einstein and
Herschel. Its the fluke, the exception to the rules, that separates
out Whitley Strieber's ideas from Jason's, I say, and not a quarrel
about the science behind us and this all. COSMOS rules this!!!!
.

Reply
J.A.D
4/6/2014 09:33:07 pm

Brannan Braga is one of the driving tele~drama geniuses behind
this 4th MAGNUS OPUS, which i am reading as a shot across
the metaphoric bow of Senator Rick's ongoing & rolling Iowa 2016
bandwagon. We even have the sections about how very small the "Young Earth" universe has to be if they and God are way more
consistent that were all the highly complicated and internally contradicting medieval minds who did not at all have the focus of
Augustine or Aquinas. COSMOS, baring the animation about
poor Robert Hooke that looks worse than the way Olivier's stage
make-up portrayed Richard III, is still living up to Carl Sagan's
legacy in a positive way as it explains some of the odds behind
Drake's Equation, the metaphoric door for a sapience on a world
other than ours has not been closed at all. Indeed we see more
and more the true & known vastness of our own universe and small
glimpses into other universes. I hope Neil deGrasse Tyson held an
actual copy of Newton's FIRST EDITION Principial in his hands, in
episode three, but if he also held actual pages penned by either
Halley or Newton, that is a rare honor given what any modern human
hand does to most ancient centuries old paper! The series has been
rewarding in its small details, but most culturally puzzling in others.
Newton's animation implies a vintage Enlightenment Don + prig,
but the clenched fist feels very wrong, he'd be more exasperated
than angry, he knew as he argued with Hooke, he was really at
the time arguing with John Dee and his ideas via the Great Earl of
Cork, hence all that is not even Descartes in its logic or the lack
of the same. Twas a "Harry Potter" world he lived in, he's like the
casting for Harry in his own way, without an identifying facial scar,
I am being reflective as i feel i am keeping open a familiar & very
speculative doorway that does not humiliate Bruno further or even
Christiaan Huygens, but builds on William Herschel's ghosts & title.

Reply
THAN WERE (small typo LINE SIX)
4/6/2014 09:53:07 pm

"that were" is confusing and not
grammatical. my apology! (J.A.D)

Principial = PRINCIPIA (J.A.D)
4/6/2014 09:56:23 pm

do pardon my early morning
sleepless night Freudian slip

J.A.D
4/6/2014 09:43:48 pm

An Era in Hollywood is over, new news just now says
at the age of 93 we now have Mickey Rooney joining
Judy Garland up in the vast aether of the firmament...
Variety has this story in full, in its completeness, i think.

We indeed have our customs and laws, those of CHARLES
THE GREAT had a 800s Latin sweep past those of Napoleon's
more recent 1800s code, their definitions for witchcraft were still
thriving inside the most "STAR CHAMBER" framework of 1600s
English Common Law. How else do we all explain Salem in 1692
other than Cotton Mather's peers sometimes were tradition bound?

Reply
((((drumrolls))))
4/6/2014 09:46:20 pm

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Brannon_Braga

Reply
J.A.D
4/6/2014 10:15:54 pm

[Update: From McNamara's translation of the Vita Eligii in Head's Medieval Hagiography (2001), I see that she takes the luminaria to be gods. So, that's fun: Did Charlemagne condemn lighting torches or the idea that gods were in the rocks? This requires more thought, apparently. But see my comments below for why I feel that McNamara's translation is wrong.]

if i be more Puritan than was transcendental Nate Hawthorne,
if i be aware of who Margaret Fuller was, and when she passes
away, I presume BOTH things thusly are illegal, as is the alarm
evidenced in the courtier/knyghts of Conqueror William in the long
Bayeaux Tapestry. to forsooth unrest on Earth because the heavens
are in a disorder is to prophesy, to opine on 1758 as didst Halley
is to be Enlightened and of the Age of Science. I am inside 2016
and read these new COSMOS episodes as a broadsheet against
Rick Santorum. A most Enlightened Alliance, in tandem we have
Monsieur Seth MacF + all~wise Brannan B who as Trek's own Irving Thalberg is more long lived but as influential, I expect 5% to
be clipped from Senator Rick's column and handed to a more Mitt
person come Iowa in early 2016!!! Duckies, this aids a Libertarian
like Rand Paul equally well as it does Gentleman Mitt's heir today!
Seth MacF hath a political clout inside the FOX empire vast, and
connected or wired! Again, this is my own humble opine on this!!!

Reply
J.A.D
4/6/2014 10:32:03 pm

What we all gained by this decision by FOX to its chosen few,
PBS squandered by its bowing down to a German's take on
Rome & Carthage during the time of Cato the censor, onward...


These are the credits for the Holodeck episode where Stephen
Hawking manifests his wise charm, discretion + acting ability!
Do scroll down to Rick Berman's and Brannan Braga's names!!!


http://stng.36el.com/st-tng/episodes/credits/252.html

[lead credits]

STAR TREK The Next Generation
cc
Starring
Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker

Also Starring
Levar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data

Created by Gene Roddenberry

[end credits]
To be continued ...

Executive Producer Rick Berman

[closing credits]

Co-Producer Wendy Neuss

Story Editor Brannon Braga

Story Editor Rene' Echevarria

Co-Stars
Richard Gilbert-Hill Bosus
Stephen James Carver Tayar

Casting By Junie Lowry-Johnson, C.S.A.
Ron Surma

Music By Jay Chattaway
Main Title Theme By Jerry Goldsmith
Alexander Courage

Director of Photography Jonathan West
Production Designer Richard D. James
Editor Steve Tucker

Unit Production Manager Brad Yacobian
First Assistant Director Adele G. Simmons
Second Assistant Director Arlene Fukai

Costume Designer Robert Blackman
Set Decorator Jim Mees

Visual Effects Dan Curry
Visual Effects Supervisor David Stipes
Post Production Supervisor Wendy Knoller

Supervising Editor John P. Farrell
Senior Illustrator /
Technical Consultant Rick Sternbach
Scenic Art Supervisor /
Technical Consultant Michael Okuda

Make-Up Designed And Supervised By Michael Westmore

Art Director Andy Neskoromny
Set Designer Gary Speckman
Visual Effects Coordinator David Takemura
Original Set Design Herman Zimmerman
Original Starfleet Uniforms William Ware Theiss

Script Supervisor Cosmo Genovese
Special Effects Dick Brownfield
Property Master Alan Sims
Construction Coordinator Al Smutko
Scenic Artist Alan Kobayashi

Hair Designer Joy Zapata
Make-Up Artists Gerald Quist
June Abston Haymore
Hair Stylists Patti Miller
Josee Normand
Wardrobe Supervisor Carol Kunz

Sound Mixer Alan Bernard, C.A.S.
Chief Lighting Technician R.D. Knox
First Company Grip Steve Gausche
Key Costumers David Powell
Matt Hoffman

Music Editor Gerry Sackman
Supervising Sound Editor Mace Matiosian
Sound Editors Miguel Rivera
Masanobu Tomita
Guy Tsujimoto
Ruth Adelman
Post Production Sound By Modern Sound

Production Coordinator Diane Overdiek
Post Production Coordinator Dawn Hernandez
Visual Effects Associate Edward L. Williams
Production Associate Kim Fitzgerald

Casting Executive Helen Mossler, C.S.A.
Pre-Production Associate Lolita Fatjo
Stunt Coordinator Dennis Madalone
Science Consultant Naren Shankar
Filmed with Panavision(R) Lenses and Cameras

Special Visual Effects By Industrial Light & Magic
A division of Lucasfilm, Ltd.
Motion Control Photography By Image "G"
Video Optical Effects By Digital Magic
Special Video Compositing CIS Hollywood
Editing Facilities Unitel Video


The persons and events in this program
are fictitious. Any similarity to actual
persons or events is unintentional.
(c) MCMXCIII
By PARAMOUNT PICTURES
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This motion picture is protected under the
laws of the United States and other countries.
Unauthorized duplication, distribution or
exhibition may result in civil liability and
criminal prosecution.
STAR TREK(R) and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION(R)
are registered trademarks of
Paramount Pictures registered in the
United States Patent and Trademark Office.
* DD SURROUND TM
--
Roger Noe noe@cs.uiuc.edu
Department of Computer Science 40:06:39 N. 88:13:41 W.
University of Illinois (217) 244-6173
Urbana, IL 61801 USA

"If any of our dealers sold cars the way Motorola sells computers, they'd
be out of business."--head of Greater Cleveland Auto Dealers Association

J.A.D
4/6/2014 10:39:25 pm

[production number: 252 stardate: 46982.1]
[opening credits]

"Descent"

Guest Stars
John Neville [Isaac Newton]
Jim Norton [Albert Einstein]
Natalija Nogulich [Admiral Nechayev]
Brian J. Cousins [Crosis]
And
Professor Stephen Hawking as Himself

Co-Producer Ronald D. Moore
Line Producer Merri D. Howard
Producer Peter Lauritson
Supervising Producer David Livingston
Co-Executive Producer Jeri Taylor
Executive Producer Michael Piller
Teleplay By Ronald D. Moore
Story By Jeri Taylor
Directed By Alexander Singer

[lead credits]

STAR TREK The Next Generation
cc
Starring
Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker

Also Starring
Levar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data

Created by Gene Roddenberry

[end credits]
To be continued ...

Executive Producer Rick Berman

[closing credits]

Co-Producer Wendy Neuss

Story Editor Brannon Braga

Story Editor Rene' Echevarria

Co-Stars
Richard Gilbert-Hill Bosus
Stephen James Carver Tayar

Reply
Mike Titus Pullio
4/7/2014 01:31:45 am

Jason,

Great story. We all have ones where we see something that looks very strange in the sky and then after some perspective or movement, it is easily identifiable. I once saw what looked exactly like a flying disc over my house when I was 16. I was looking up at this time because my cousin who was an A6 pilot for the Navy (opps..aviator) was flying to an air show in my home town. The sun hit the wings just right as he turned in circles over the town (his mom and dad lived right next door to us). After he turned it was obviously a small aircraft. I was also very lucky a few years ago to see a small metorite fly right over my head at night when I was walking my dog. a small glowing mass (still hot enough to be glowing red and orange but not blue) flew in a linear path a few hundred feet above me. At least it looked like a few hundred feet...I lost it over some homes and had no idea on the impact spot. Maybe it was a bottle rocket but I doubt it. The point being it was unidentified but so what. My father in law was deputy in charge of the Rome Air Development Lab at Griffiss AFB in Rome NY (it was a SAC base back in the cold war with a squadron of B-52s with nukes ready to take down the USSR. There was and still is a research lab there for radar systems. One day in 1990 long after he retired we were driving to Baron Von Stubon's grave site for something to do and as we drove over the Mohawk valley at the top is an FAA radar dome used today. It was originally an AFB development test site. My father in law said matter of factly that this was where in 1970 at night when he was running an test he saw a UFO. I was shocked, this guy is the most rational engineer you could meet...he said he said a strange light in the valley over the base. The next day he asked a friend in the tower if any aircraft were landing at that time, he was told no and there was no radar signature. Now before one runs and gets this on Ancient Aliens, I asked him what he thought it was. He said he didn't know but it sure wasn't alien, after all if they are trying not to be seen why would they be flashing lights...ha ha. As he said it could have been a reflection of the moon or a planet on the cloud cover, ground lights could be reflecting who knows...it was by definition a UFO but that doesn't mean it was lgm.

Reply
Hanoch link
4/8/2014 01:12:08 am

b"h

Nice work Jason on digging into original sources.

One night some years ago I was relaxing on the roof-top patio of my apartment in a city near the Mediterranean Sea, and I noticed a V formation of dim reddish lights traveling across the sky. "Very Strange!" I thought. If they were distant they would be traveling quite fast. But as I continued to observe, I discovered that it was a nearby formation of whitish colored large sea birds, illuminated by the reddish sodium vapor city lights below them. I wouldn't know if flying at night is common for such birds, but perhaps they were just on an "evening stroll" enjoying the city lights. I also saw the widely observed January 24, 1992 sighting in Israel. It too was very strange and it was widely reported as a UFO. It looked to me like it probably was a reentering satellite made of rare metals like titanium, thus it was showering sparks as it slowly reentered the earth's atmosphere. Nevertheless, I am convinced that humans have observed many anomalous events that are beyond prosaic explanation. When I was about thirteen a basketball-sized luminous white sphere suddenely appeared on the floor between me and my sister who was sitting about six feet away. The sphere rolled away and disappeared through a metal ventilation grate in the floor a few feet away.

Keep up the good work.

Reply
J.A.D
4/12/2014 07:58:49 am

i've been at several blogs and websites, and one of the coolest
mission statements is from John Hawks, he has a blog without
comments but the science is cutting edge and top notch. enjoy!
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/hawks/about.html Jason does let us
opine on, and he tends to like a degree of controversy. sometimes
i opine at the OnlineBigBrother site that is run by Simon & Dawg,
its charm is that people are not often self-censoring. Jason has a
strong EGO and he almost is as protean as any of Ayn Rand's
heroes, I respect his decision calls quite often, I know that anyone
who tries to write a book that is an adequate answer to any of his
books is going to have to spend ten or one hundred times as many
hours on basic research & they most likely will be half as insightful.

Reply
J.A.D
4/12/2014 08:09:05 am

lets face it, i know i am clearly not
a Young or New Earth Creationist
and feel we live on a planet that is
gracefully wearing its billions of years
quite well, however it did occur to lil
ole moi that the E.Ts are under the
same basic rules in terms of space
travel & what it would take to colonize
any other solar system, we know that
for there to be a healthy genetic diversity
a colony needs to have added members
from an ongoing string of arrivals or at least
a given size to begin with that is healthy.
Greenland is said to have died out due to
the lack of a comfortable genome diversity,
Roanoke became a big mystery later on. In
light of the two threads here about wandering
Carthaginians, i was re-reading this blog post!

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/space/effective-size-starship-smith-2014.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/deep/how-many-people-does-it-take-to-colonize-another-star-system-16654747?click=pp

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/genomics/ancient/callaway-2014-ghost-populations.html

Reply
terry the censor
3/22/2015 11:58:43 am

> European Paganism (2018) Ken Dowden

2018?

Reply

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          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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