45 Half-Written Blog Post Themes from June and July

"Out There Bear"

Every once in a while I make a list of things I intend to write about but haven't gotten to. Below is a list of things I have actually written about since June but have not taken time to polish. They are simply sitting in the queue for finishing work.

While making this list I recognized one of the flaws in my approach to blogging. I simply have too many interests and Ennyman's Territory has simply become a mashup or repository of sorts. I'm fairly certain that this is the wrong approach for blogging. That is, if you want a real following, it is helpful to have a single theme. 

So, here is a list of blog posts or explorations I've started recently. I just checked my stats and see that I have over 1800 drafts in my backlog. If you see something here you'd like to see me complete, leave a comment or send me a note.

The Transition from a Republic to a Nation of Caesars (History)
Balzac as Prometheus  (Literature)

Heidegger on Time and Being  (Philosophy)Who Are You?    (Philosophy/Psychology)

Let There Be Light! (Physics)

Poetry Busker Molly Ovenden (The Arts)

Can We Save Our Malls? (Society/Culture)

Can We Separate the Art from the Artist? (The Arts)

The Road to Serfdom (Economics)

Cate Blanchett as Tar (The Arts)

Cassandra, The Misunderstood Genius from Italy’s Northern Alps (Fiction)

Reflections on a Line from Bob Dylan’s Mississippi (Dylan/Philosophy)

An Anecdote from the Russian Revolution (History)

Consciousness, Phenomenology and Dreams   (Philosophy)

How to Get Your Board Game Published     (Entrepreneurialism)

PTSD Isn’t Just For Soldiers   (Mental Health)

Oppenheimer: The Movie    (The Arts)

Midnight In Paris        (The Arts)

The Girl on the Train    (The Arts)

The First Seven Minutes of The Godfather    (The Arts)

The Evolution of McLuhan’s Global Village    (Contemporary Culture)

Writing Prompts Courtesy ChatGPT    (Writing)

Polarity Management: Power vs. Goodness    (Psychology)

Stephen Kinzer’s The True Flag

Jacques Ellul on the Benefits and Dangers of Police Power    (Sociology)

The Disease of Conceit        (Ethics)

Springer Spaniels     (My first oil painting)

Housing Matters, But Let’s Be Real    (Sociology and Government)

An Example of How Worry Can Be Good    (Psychology)

My Own Version of You: Dylan’s Frankenstein Story    

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Cicero on Old Age

The Deceitfulness of the Heart

The $195,000 Tiny House in Duluth

Things I Have Learned from Sixteen Years of Blogging

Make a Game of It

UFO’s: What’s Really Happening Out There?

The Hundred Page Machine Learning Book

The One True Measure

Lights, Camera, Excellence: The Unforgettable Performances of Hollywood's Top 5 Actors

Who Was Philip of Macedon?

Oh Demon Alcohol

Why Is It So Hard to Fire Bad Teachers?

The MC Escher Exhibition in Florence

The National Debt: A Bigger Crisis Than Climate Change?

An Italian Love Poem Courtesy the Bard

* * * 

Miscellaneous Thoughts Regarding Recent Stories About UFOs and Congress

Photo credit: ennyman

I was talking with a friend who told me about the recent congressional hearings regarding UFOs. He seemed surprised I did not know about it. I replied that there is a lot happening in the world, so no one can't follow everything.

Then he began pressing me to say where I stand regarding the existence of UFOs in general and whether I believe they come from outer space.

The topic interests me, and I know people who have personally had inexplicable experiences, sightings that can't be reasonably explained, but I've tended to remain noncommittal. Alas. The notion is intriguing but I honestly don't yet know where I stand.

My position on a lot of things is to remain neutral until I can either wholly accept it or whole-heartedly reject it. In other words, until that time I am leaving it on the shelf titled "I'm not really sure."

There are plenty of issues sitting dormant on that shelf. Until I find time to investigate an issue in greater depth, I just let sleeping dogs lie.

Here are a couple stories about what happened in Congress. Stick around to read my follow up thoughts below.

Congress implies UFOs have non-human origins. (The Hill)

"In Congress, where legislation is drafted, debated and enacted, clear and concise definitions are of paramount importance. As military aircrews increasingly encounter unidentified flying objects (UFOs), lawmakers recently made several striking revisions to the definition of “UFO.” Key among them: The explosive implication that some UFOs have non-human origins."
https://thehill.com/opinion/3610916-congress-implies-ufos-have-non-human-origins/

Congress Admits UFOs Not ‘Man-Made,’ Says ‘Threats’ Increasing ‘Exponentially’ (Vice.com)

"The new budget for America’s intelligence services directs the Pentagon to focus its UFO investigation on those objects that it can't identify."

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3adadb/congress-admits-ufos-not-man-made-says-threats-increasing-exponentially

Congress sounds really concerned about unidentified aerial phenomenon

Many UFO sightings remain 'nonattributed' to human technology, according to a Senate report. (Popular Science)
"Over the past few years, Congress has slowly admitted that it is just as confused as the rest of us about the numerous unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) incidents reported by reliable US military and government personnel."

https://www.popsci.com/technology/congress-unidentified-aerial-phenomenon-concerns/?taid=6307a87c6450cd000157ab5d&utm_campaign=trueanthem_AI&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=popularscience

* * * 

Now it may be true that there are aliens studying life on earth, but if we chose to rule that out, what are people seeing and experiencing?

My wife's uncle was an architect who designed cockpits on top secret aircraft projects for the government. One such project was the Harrier jet, which ascends vertically before zooming off. As you can imagine, this works well when you have no runway or very limited space to take off. 

He told me that when they were testing the Harrier, especially at night, every time it was flown there were phone calls from people who claimed they has seen a UFO.  The Defense Department denied these reports, 

Am I saying that all these sightings have a natural rather than supernatural explanation? Not necessarily. 

* * * 

The conversation with my friend took an interesting and unusual turn. You know the expression life imitates art? Here's an interesting "What if?"  Do you remember the H.G Wells story War of the Worlds? (Orson Welles re-enacted it on the radio and terrified a lot of people on the East Coast. Tom Cruise was also in a film version more recently.)

"Do you remember how the Martians were defeated?" he asked. 

"Yes," I said. "It was a virus." 

So, what if the U.S. and China were working together to develop a virus that would spread quickly and easily to be used against an invading alien army? What if this virus accidentally escaped and killed millions worldwide unintentionally? But what if an alien assault like War of the Worlds actually happened in our lifetimes and this virus wiped out every alien that left its spacecraft? Would Fauci became the Time magazine Man of the Year for saving mankind?

Oh well, just noodling the implications of this breaking UFO news. Is this a setup for another Wag the Dog scenario? What are your thoughts? Are UFOs alien spacecraft from other planets or galaxies? I'd love to hear your comments.

From Roswell With Love: Do Aliens Hold the Key to World Peace?

Photo by Dan LeFebvre on Unsplash

BOOK REVIEW
From Roswell With Love

This summer a UFO frenzy hit the news when more than a million people signed up to storm Area 51, the secretive military base in the Nevada desert. The scheduled date for "They Can't Stop All Of Us" was in September. It ended up being a party celebrating all things alien, and not a mass trespassing.  You can read the July Time magazine story about this, which includes additional links to related stories, including this link to info about the annual Roswell U.F.O. Festival.

As is readily apparent by the quantity of people who signed up or indicated interest to this Facebook event (more than 2 million), fascination with UFOs in general, and Roswell specifically, has never really subsided.

One of the reasons for much of the drama around Roswell has to do with the reality that the government's lack of transparency regarding some of the events that occurred in this area shortly after the war. The testing of new, top secret aircraft and other things did not go entirely unnoticed, and we all know how wild our imaginations are when unrestrained.

FROM ROSWELL WITH LOVE

The title of Bill Rebane's sci fi novel From Roswell With Love appears to be an intentional take-off on Ian Fleming's From Russia With Love. With his love of film and Hollywood background, Rebane reaches for a story big in scope. Here's a little background on the author, followed by a review of the book.

Born in Latvia, 1937, he and his family fled their home in Latvia when the Red Army rolled West in 1944. The Rebanes settled in West Germany after the war. Like most who grew up in Eastern Europe, Rebane spoke several languages. Estonian and Latvian, his parent's tongues, as well as German and Russian. Only eight years old when the war ended he eventually learned English by watching television in Hamburg. He came to the States from Germany in 1952, eventually creating a career for himself in the movie business.

While still in his early 20's he brought to Hollywood a new technology for producing a 360-degree filming using a single camera. (They were previously using 16 cameras shooting out like spokes from a wheel axle.) This made him a millionaire. Once you get let the movie bug bite you it's hard to shake it.

In the 1960's Rebane moved his family to Central Wisconsin where he transformed 200-acres into his own movie studio where he wrote, produced and directed campy horror films like The Giant Spider Invasion. A stroke in 1989 forced him to close the studio, and for a time his family lived in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. (UP)

Knowing Mr. Rebane's backstory helped me see From Roswell With Love in a different light. The chapters are short, each one designed to move the story forward. In fact, as I read the 248-page novel, it had the feel of being written to be produced as a film. (He has directed 10 feature length films.) And sure enough, on the copyright page it states that the story was originally written as a screenplay in 2002.

The setting for much of the story is a Bed & Breakfast in the Upper Peninsula. A mysterious stranger arrives in the dead of winter, not your usual season for visitors to this remote area. Then again, Arturo Smith is not your usual guest either.

Author/director Bill Rebane

As the title suggests, the novel attempts to unravel the backstory on what really happened at Roswell, what the government has concealed from the public and what it really means for planet earth.  It's no secret that our country has more than its share of secrets. Can there be more to the UFO crash of 1947 than our government's claim that it was "just a weather balloon"? Though "thoroughly debunked" there's still a conviction among many that something real has been covered up. Bill Rebane sets about toward giving us a glimpse of what really happened, based on facts obtained from government sources and the International Starlight Society.

It was a fun read. You can see how Rebane's personal experience living in the Upper Peninsula contributed to the story line. As you can imagine, if you want a story to have suspense, why not have the future of humanity to be what's at stake. Can we, as a race, change our ways?

Disclaimer: The book is self-published with a fair quantity of typos and editing errors. I myself found the story to be a page turner and an enjoyable story. Some readers will be put off by the lack of editing but I can honestly say that if you accept this shortcoming and overlook it, the book is an easy, engaging read. 

From Roswell With Love claims to be based on facts obtained from Government sources and members of the International Starlight Society. The author has simply attempted to connect some dots.

Related Links
From Roswell with Love at Amazon.com
Campy Horror-Flick Producer Director Bill Rebane Did It His Way
Industry Veterans Bill Rebane and Robert Wilhelm III in Superior to Shoot First Episode of Masters of Valor

A Few Chirps and a Tweet

If the advent of the Internet can be compared to the A-Bomb, with what do we compare Web 2.0 applications like Twitter?

Since joining the Twitter network last year I have to pause now and then to take a reading. What is really going on here?

Many people are fascinated with trying to make comprehensible things that are incomprehensible. This obsessive curiosity is the driver behind archeologists seeking to comprehend forgotten cultures, efforts to understand hieroglyphics, magic, mysteries of nature, astronomical wonders, UFOs, psychological phenomena and the abundant natural wonders of our world.

Social media is likewise a somewhat foreign culture, and many people participate in it simply out of a natural curiosity. What is happening here?

It recently struck me that many Facebookers and Tweeters are a little like folks who bought a citizen band radio as part of the CB Radio craze in the 70’s, popularize in part by films like Convoy and Smoky and the Bandit. The pop media puts these things on the map and everyone wants to see what the buzz is all about.

The reality is, Twitter can be a powerful tool, especially for writers, journalists and information driven occupations. But the 140 character box with the question, “What are you doing?” makes it seem more like a toy than a tool.

I am reminded of my first 512Ke Mac. The mouse was a novelty, the box seemed like cheap plastic. Yet it was an incredibly powerful tool, even before it had a hard drive. So, at first blush you may not think much of the Twitter scene, but it has its place, just as CB Radios have had theirs. Truckers continued to use them for decades after the public craze subsided, though new technologies like cell phones have diminished their use somewhat.

In short, Twitter will probably continue long after the buzz subsides... if, or when... or whatever. In case you missed it, here's a pretty cool ABC News story which aired last month.

Tweet.