Home » Open thread 6/27/22

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Open thread 6/27/22 — 20 Comments

  1. Supreme Court rules in favor of the praying high school football coach. Argued by Paul Clement, another victory for the appellate lawyer who wins cases and gets sent away from his law firm.

  2. Really interesting video, and I watched the whole thing, which I seldom do, being video-averse in general. The argument that modern English is Norse with additions from the other sources, rather than Germanic, is fairly convincing to me. I read, I think in a book I own about English, that English soldiers from Danelaw areas of England who were posted to Iceland in WWII were able to converse effectively with Icelanders within a few days. Many of the words were very similar, and as this video indicates, the basic grammatical structure is similar.

    In any case I thank the Vikings for stripping English of its inflections and making its grammar so much easier than other languages.

  3. Over the course of the last few years two former federal employees–Lou Elizondo, former head of the DOD’s ATIP program, and Chris Mellon, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence–have been in the forefront of getting information on UFOs and the reality and seriousness of their existence into public consciousness, and to the attention of Congress.

    Elizondo has been the more public face of this effort, with his TV appearances and especially the interviews in which he slowly dropped key pieces of information to flesh out the subject, and while Mellon has written several incisive articles, his forte appears to be working behind the scenes, using his government contacts to get key information to Congress.

    Now, they have apparently been joined by a third individual, scientist Travis S. Taylor.

    Dr. Taylor has a very impressive CV which includes several degrees–a doctorate in optical science and engineering, a master’s degree in physics, a master’s degree in aerospace engineering, a master’s degree in astronomy, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. *

    According to his Wiki listing he has been doing research for the Federal government since the age of 17, straight out of high school, when he started his career by working on directed energy weapons systems at Redstone Arsenal, and he has worked for DOD and NASA for almost 20 years.

    In addition to technical publications he has written several science fiction novels which, it seems to me, are indications of how he views the subject of UFOs and Aliens.

    He has also been a high profile member of the research team on the History Channel’s series “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”

    Just recently it was revealed that he was the “Chief Scientist” responsible for putting together the recent UAP Task Force Report to Congress and, like Elizondo, he seems to be leaving his own breadcrumbs.

    So, for instance, in the recent interview below he pointed out that the most significant finding in that Report was the fact that–after three years spent on analysis–only one of the 144 UFO cases they looked at was able to be identified.

    He also pointed out that, in many of these 144 government witness generated cases, they not only had trained eyewitness testimony, but also many additional types of sensor readings of the same UAP.

    Taylor also revealed that some of these UAPs had a very hot center surrounded by a cooler outer layer—in some cases sensors registering their hot center temperatures being at between the 1,200 degree Fahrenheit melting point of Aluminum and the 2,600 degree Fahrenheit melting point of Steel. **

    Yeah, those are drones alright.

    * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_S._Taylor

    ** See a series of short interview clips from this June 24th interview with George Knapp on this website at https://www.mysterywire.com/video/mw-interview-with-dr-travis-taylor/7710566/

  4. Snow on Pine,

    Thank you very much

    This could be nothing,

    or it could be everything.

  5. So why has Russia not been kicked out of the UN??
    If Nazi Germany was still around along its leader, Hitler, would it too be in the UN?

    The UN is a joke; it’s a country club for diplomats, and who or what the diplomats represent is irrelevant.
    A Russian diplomat speaks and everybody in the Security Council or General Assembly sits quietly and politely while he explains why its OK to invade another nation and kill thousands of civilians.
    What F’n BS.
    And afterwards they all go to some cocktail party and chat it up with their fellow diplomats.

    Why the USA is part of that sick joke of an organization truly escapes me. And what’s really disgusting is that the American taxpayer forks over about $11 BILLION a year to support that corrupt institution.
    You could easily establish about 20 ( 30? 40?) charter schools in the worst inner cities of the USA for $11 billion.

    Russia is a member of the security council, one of 5 permanent members of that council .Russia was installed as a permanent member of the UN in 1945 when the UN was founded.
    The ruler of Russia at that time was FDR’s good pal, Uncle Joe Stalin. Uncle Joe was responsible for the deaths of anywhere from 20 million to 50 million USSR citizens.
    No need to mention the Holomodor; we all know about that, don’t we?
    They might as well have included Germany and the upper hierarchy of Hitler’s govt as a permanent member in 1945 (if they had not been hanged at war’s end).

  6. Snow on Pine:

    And it could be Unexplained or Unexplainable or Unfalsifiable.

    The melting point of titanium is 3034 degrees F. Nobody would ever use titanium in a flying object. Oops, we’ve done that since the 1960s.

  7. Not many 20 minute videos are packed with so much to learn about.
    Some years ago I was asked what I was most thankful for (besides good health, friends, etc) and it took me a while to come up with my answer.
    It was to be born into the English language.
    It is the lingua franca of today – with all that comes with that – and virtually all of science is available only in English.
    And I always tell my daughters that as I age and head downhill (I’m 68), the one thing that keeps improving is my vocabulary and usage of the language.

  8. This is a delightful video and having learned a bit of German living in Germany for three years many years ago I remember the placement of parts of speech were different however many of the words shared common roots with English. I I understood it, the old Chaucer English was really similar to German at that time. Thank you Neo.

  9. I’m still on a Shakespeare kick and wondering how his plays sounded in his time to his audiences. There are more than a few issues involved.

    This led me to “Original Pronunciation” or “OP”. Researchers have worked out how the English of Shakespeare’s time (1564-1616) was pronounced and it is different from how Shakespearean actors perform his work today. Interestingly, it’s not just different — it doesn’t sound aristocratic.
    _____________________________________

    In Shakespeare’s day, the English accent sounded something more like a funky combo of Irish, Scottish, and Southern American accents.

    https://nosweatshakespeare.com/blog/shakespeares-original-pronunciation/
    _____________________________________

    The link contains a humorous imagined conversation between Shakespeare’s Queen Elizabeth and today’s Queen Elizabeth using their respective pronunciations.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fvmcnRhTP8

    To my American ears OP English is easier to hear, though it is four centuries older.

  10. Thanks, huxley, that was fun. Much of OP does sounds more “American,” which is consistent with British migration here before the current “aristocratic” English accent was spread through the English public schools (which we would call elite private schools).

  11. The first thing that caught my eye was the astonishing craftmanship of the helmet shown.

    I too find the argument that modern English is a member of the Scandinavian languages to be persuasive.

    Snow on Pine,

    No other explanation fits the observed phenomena nearly as well as alien observers. First Contact is best done gradually, so as to lessen the shock for species still laboring under the illusion that they are alone.

    JohnTyler,

    “So why has Russia not been kicked out of the UN??”

    It suits the geopolitical interests of the great majority of the member States to have the Security Council power structure divided between the US, Russia and China. As the UK’s and France’s interests generally align with the US, the Security Council consists of three coequal branches, ensuring that power cannot permanently reside with one faction.

    The UN diplomats are figureheads who do the bidding of their governments. In foreign policy Biden, Xi, Putin, Johnson and Macron call the shots for those governments.

    “Porter: Who makes the decisions?

    Carter : Well, a committee would make the decision in this case…

    Porter : One man… you go high enough you always come to one man… who?” dialog from “Payback” 1999 American neo-noir action thriller film, remake of “Point Blank” starring Lee Marvin

  12. There is an interesting trilogy, set in Olde England.

    It’s “alternate history”, and supposes what might have happened if the Norse Religion had had priests and a dynamic proselytizing mechanism as Christianity had. It’s fiction, of course, but it is set inside actual events, some of which took place in that time frame.

    The first book:

    The Hammer and the Cross
    by Harry Harrison
    https://www.amazon.com/Hammer-Cross-Harry-Harrison/dp/0812523482
    865 A.D. Warring kings rule over the British Isles, but the Church rules over the kings, threatening all who oppose them with damnation. Only the dreaded Vikings of Scandinavia do not fear the priests.

    Shef, the bastard son of a Norse raider and a captive English lady, is torn by divided loyalties and driven by strange visions that seem to come from Odin himself. A smith and warrior, he alone dares to imagine new weapons and tactics with which to carve out a kingdom–and launch an all-out war between….The Hammer and the Cross.

    —–
    I found the trilogy pretty good. And it pushes you to look into the history of that time frame a bit, just out of curiosity. This was the time of one of the more well-known pre-Norman British kings, Alfred the Great.

  13. I listened to the video. One word really struck me. Liz I said “aboot” and Liz II said “about”. I had a History Prof from I believe VA that said “aboot”.

  14. Watched more two videos by the same guy. One was the contribution of Norman (and somewhat regular) French on English. The other was on speaking Scots. Learned that the Scots and the Irish pronounce “Gaelic” differently.

  15. I believe he has his Vikings mixed up. The real change in English came about by the Normans, who were of course descendents of Vikings. The French speaking Normans combined with the Germanic English produce our middle English. But the second major change in English occurred after the 14 century with the vowel shift. That is why Chauser’s english is so much different than Shakespeare’s english.

  16. @JohnTylerSo why has Russia not been kicked out of the UN??

    The entire purpose of the UN was to give the great powers a forum to settle THEIR differences without war. It’s a Realpolitik thing, not a morality or legitimacy thing. Churchill laid this out well in his The Second World War.

    Any and every powerful nation must be in it, and this is more true the more evil it is. Otherwise it’s pointless. Kicking any of the great powers out would negate purpose of forming the UN.

    That’s why the 5 permanent members of the Security Council can veto anything the UN does, because if the UN acts against the interests of one of those powers then it’s back to war between great powers to settle the question. If the great powers don’t see eye to eye the UN does nothing, by design.

    If Nazi Germany was still around along its leader, Hitler, would it too be in the UN?

    The United Nations was what the Allies called themselves in WWII and they were fighting Nazi Germany, so no. Neither Germany was admitted until 1973 (both were admitted the same day).

    The 5 permanent Security Council members are essentially the WWII victory parade: China, Russia, France, Britain, the United States. Ukraine incidentally always had its own seat in the UN even in the Soviet times because the Soviet Union thought it was unfair for Canada and Australia and New Zealand to be members along with Britain.

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