I am finding it difficult to blog about such things as the new cellphone or piece of technology on the block, or which politician has screwed up the most, especially by today, at the end of the week.  Which is not to say that I don’t blog about all those things and more, I do, in fact that’s pretty much the majority of what I do.  But, difficult it is.  Difficult it is when the world is spinning and you’re in for the ride, whether you like it or not.  

Summers are hot down here in Southern California, energy bills are high, gas prices are high, food prices are high, and work is ever more prevalent (for some reason that seems to be the case, and here I was thinking I was on summer vacation).  And then there are the little things.

I’ve come home for summer, home being Southern California, school being somewhere else.  When Fall comes around I don’t know which university I’ll be attending or where (I’m in the process of transferring) so that’s always stressful, figuring out such.  But now that I’ve come home from three years in the Northern part of California, there’s a lot of stuff one has to get used to, like the heat.

The heat doesn’t play well on my laptop.  Without proper airflow in our upstairs office area from two nearby adjacent rooms, the office area heats up quite nicely, which makes the little cooling pad underneath my laptop (a Dell 9300, notorious for it’s overheating) pretty pitiful in the wake of all the heat accumulating in the innards of my laptop.  All this overheating causes my computer performance to come to a crawl, which is probably not a good thing because it means my CPU is being physically damaged.  On top of all that nonsense, my laptop screen has this thick white vertical stripe right in the middle of it, which I am sure is due to the wiring on the inside melting due to the overheating of the screen.  Never had to deal with all this up North…

Then there’s work, getting by the heat in a heated life, taking care of needful and needless tasks.  Summer school classes at the local community college should not be left out of my whining loop.

There are things one wants to do, there are things one needs to do, and then there are things one is told to believe need to be done.  The latter of which I am find myself digging my way into, a grave I’m sure most people are digging for themselves, no doubt.

Above all else, the overwhelming degree to which ideas and thoughts swim through my mind, if not flood its entire canvas is by far, distracting.  In one instance I will have excitedly exercised the precepts of thought to form a concise, accurate, and damn good opinion or theory only to have my mind washed over by new thoughts and ideas by the next day.  Leaving myself a new canvas to plunder.  Aye…

I must concede that blogging anything of substances by one’s self is terribly difficult.  The rigors of the physical world on my time and space are too numerous to account for, and together they diminish the capacity for which I have to blog.  Nevertheless I must carry on such a torch when the realm of being allows.

 It’s not that McCain is a boogie man, but, ideologically, many conceptual tendencies of his are inept at best, whether this is by a fault of his own or that of his advisers, it’s no way to lead a country.  This brings up a pertinent point many Americans leave by the way-side when they stand before the all-measurable ballot.

When casting votes, Americans mark the candidate to which they most relate to either emotionally, physically, culturally, or religiously.  Many Americans forget that that it is none of these ‘things’ which end up affecting their daily life, rather it is the sum measure of a man’s ideological stance(s) that define the direction of this country.  While thought processes may be affected by a man’s emotional, physical, cultural, or religious stances the sum measure is only the resultant policy.  It should be, if a citizen agrees with the plurality of the ideological sentiments of a certain candidate then they should cast their singular vote for that candidate they most agree with, not who they would “like to have a beer with.”

This brings me to the “mostly for…” proposition.  There is without a doubt a majority of Americans who do not agree entirely with the chosen candidates of the Democratic, Republican, or some other extraneous political party, yet by some decree of illogical behaviour they will vote for that candidate no matter the consequences (ahem…).  In November I will not vote along party lines, I will not vote along religious lines, or along culture definitions.  I will cast my vote solely with the candidate who best purports the virtues of the law (understood) and specifically the Constitution (written), and such a candidate who has made decisions with the best interest of the American People in forethought.

That candidate is not John McCain.  I would ask that those of you who read this, take care in how you exercises the sovereign continuing right of the country to exist by your vote.

On this historic day, the Democratic Party of these United States of America has chosen an African-American to lead their party and our country in what will be our future.  Senator Barack Hussein Obama, a man of Black and White blood, a man of various cultures and identities, a man who seeks to lead not just one party or a particular sect of our country rather choosing to lead all Americans - is the presumptive Presidential Nominee for the Democratic Party.

Today he probably gave one of the greatest speeches ever in American history (so far he has given two others in what has been a year long Presidential Primary Race).  He clearly outlined where he wanted to take this country.  What he said is what he said, and what he said is buoyed by he’s done through out his life.  Republicans would have you believe that what Obama says on stage somehow doesn’t match up with what he does off the stage, what he says off the stage, or the people he knows off the stage.  Republicans would have you believe that Sen. Obama can talk the talk but he can’t walk the walk.  The fact is, Sen. Obama is walking the walk and has been since he first started his public service career.

We can’t know if, in the future, Sen. Obama will perform actions and carry out deeds contrary to what he has delivered to us in his speeches during the campaign season, and through his legislative and judicial career starting in Illinois.  Republicans, however, would have you believe that we can know, that we do know.  However, throughout all their pickings, they only ever seem to be grasping at straws.  They attacked his Pastor, Rev. Wright, ignoring the fact that hundreds of thousands of Pastors across the country produce sentiment from the pulpit equal to or greater in hatefulness then those sentiments purported by Rev. Wright, with millions of Americans not leaving the pews rather choosing to ignore those specific hateful sentiments.  Republicans attacked Sen.  Obama’s wife for stating that she was, for the first time in her life, proud of America, completely ignoring the faces of prejudice colored people, including myself, have gone through over the years and still stand up to every single day.  She didn’t say she wasn’t proud of firefighters, police officers, and the fighting men and women of our Armed Forces.  Those precious few, are Heroes among 300 million Americans.  We are all proud of our Heroes they are the greatest, most courageous, Citizens of our Country, but they are not the Country.  America is the majority, America is you, me, and the neighbors.  Heroes are singular, iconic, precious - they are not countries.  Finally they greatest kick I get is when they mention that Obama has a liberal voting record, completely ignoring the fact that his “liberalness” is “calculated” via the number of times he votes within party lines.  This is no way to measure what a man thinks.  Liberalism is an idea not a voting record.  It’s fine to point out the fact that he voted with his Democratic colleagues a majority of the time, just like it’s fair to point out that Sen. McCain voted with his friends in the Bush Administration 100%-95% of the time, but that’s not what they go about pointing out.

Sen. Obama wants to make Healthcare affordable to those who cannot afford it, and free to those who are children (or elderly?).   Sen. McCain says that’s liberal, when he himself claims to want to make Healthcare affordable.   This sort of “cow dung” Sen. McCain flies around will get him far with the “dumb uneducated vote” but it’s not what Americans want to see in their President.  Some would argue that Sen. Obama would want to subsidize Healthcare to make it affordable, Sen. McCain on the other hand would want to make Healthcare affordable through regulation - to which I would remind the opposition, regulation is not free, and can be as costly as subsidization.  Today Sen. McCain also gave a speech in which he lambasted every policy point of Sen. Obama’s.  Unfortunately for Sen. McCain he doesn’t have a single sound policy point himself.

On the economy, McCain said he would need to learn more about it (which is why I can’t really write more about such because you can’t argue with somebody who doesn’t know anything). 

On the Iraq War, McCain mistakenly thinks that we are winning peace in that country because of the surge of troops.  In fact, and as the the Military points out in their own briefings, we are winning peace in Iraq because of a surge of free money we are handing out to the citizenry of Iraq.  As soon as the policy for the surge was undertaken another policy for a different kind of surge was undertaken as well.  When more boots hit the ground in Iraq, so to did more money, not for our troops, but for contracts, bribes, and fraud - the Arab way (in which case it’s not really any of the above, it’s just how they do business).  More troops on the ground allowed for more face time between Military Officers and local Tribesman to work out deals to halt the violence.  Most of the time these deals would involve the handover of money by the U.S. to the local tribesman to ensure that his people stayed in check and off the streets shooting Americans.  This was not some brilliant military strategy devised my the Vietnam Veteran turned Senator, John McCain.  It was the realization of the U.S. Army has to how business is done in the Middle East.

(Pt. 2, coming soon)

What a novel concept, letting the people decide their own destiny.  Self-determination after all is the sovereign, unwritten, right of any lands occupied by the U.S.  For example, territories like Guam can join the Union or part ways with this Union of States by an overwhelming vote of its people.  Similarly, nations with whom the United States of America establishes Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) with, have the sovereign right to restrict, amend, or deny any and/or all terms of the agreement.

Al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric leader in Iraq (based in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq and leader of the militant anti-government Mahdi Army) advocates for a national referendum on the what the status of U.S. forces in Iraq should be.  The current approach by both the U.S. and Iraq is to negotiate out the terms of a SOFA, which does not require the approval of any elected “body,” rather only the approval of the Executive Branches of the respective governments.  The negotiations should be wrapping up before the end of the year, as that is also the time when the UN mandate approving of the Coalition troop presence in Iraq ends.

It seems that al-Sadr, who is rumored to be studying to become an Ayatollah, is fairly well versed in how Democracy works.  In what is sure to be every laymen’s honest opinion, giving the Iraqi people the right to choose whether or not the U.S. continues its troops presence in Iraq is the right thing to do.  However, you’d probably be forming that opinion without regard to how Iraqi’s form theirs.

Muslims - in general - wherein they exist in Islamic countries, form their opinions off what their respective clerics tell them to think.  And after clashing with U.S. troops for the better part of the last two to three years, Al-Sadr, his Mahdi Army, and Iranian watered roots would be right their to tell the people how they should vote on that referendum.  For Al-Sadr, a national referendum on the U.S. troop presence is a win-win situation.  By advocating for it, he looks to be embracing the Democratic process, and embracing “western” ideology.  At the same time the outcome of that referendum would be swayed by which ever direction his voice carries the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who listen to him.  In the end, he would rid Iraq of its U.S. presence, effectivelyeliminating the last threat to his power.  He then could easily overrun the Iraqi Government as he has proven to be able to do in Basra.  Finally turning Iraq in another Clerical, Ayatollah, run state like Iran.  Sounds like the next few years will be exciting and tumultuous with al-Sadr around…

In what has become a never ending story for me, I now finish.  Though as it is, I like investigating, it’s a hobby.

The Omega Figure

The omega figure on the pictured side of the UFO seems to obscure the true detail of the surface(s).  This may be it’s ultimate goal, or a nice side effect of some other origin.  Whatever the case may be, it is not coincidental.

There is not much more one could write about this, having studied aircraft for the last three years I have never seen a “signature” of sorts on the underside of an aircraft.  It is most likely coincidence and an amalgam of various surfaces interacting together in the way they do, and on the other end it is purposefully hiding something.  There are similarities between this UFO’s omega marking and other UFO’s spotted across the globe, but that doesn’t lend credence to this UFO’s existence, rather it inserts skepticsm and mystery to the realitve existence of this craft.

The omega feature is by far the most mysterious and striking feature of this UFO (it can be seen in any one of the number of figures posted herein).

Conclusions

When I first approached this case, I didn’t start with some conclusion that it was something I’d seen before.  It very clearly was not something I had seen before.  I also knew that in the end I would not be able to determine what this plane was, what it’s designation was, or where it came from.  One simply and obviously could not do that with the information provided.

Which begs the question, is it real to begin with?  The goal of this four part exposition was to analyze what one can observe.  You can make your own conclusion as to whether it is real or not.  My own answer is, there is not enough information to determine anything extensively about this UFO, including whether the photo in and of itself is real or not. We can simply point out the crafts definite characteristics.

This case has been taken up by the famed Steve Douglass, and while I find his article brash and a sample of poor investigating it may be worth the read.  There are some conclusions he makes which an investigator should never make.  The boiling point for me was when he conducts his image analysis.  He showed us an example how what a similar fake photo would look like, but I would like to see the same image analysis done to the created photo and compare that to the UFO photo, this baseline testing is simple stuff… really.  If his greatest achievment was debunking this photo as a fake, then he must think it’s pretty easy, because only and idiot of unmatched caliber would think that photo is real.  I would love to go through every point he tries to make and posit a counter point, but I’ve already done 4 parts to this saga and it’s time to end.

(Note: My grammar is lack-luster at best, and times I may refer to the UFO as the aircraft.  This is not a dissertation and I don’t get paid so I’m not going to treat it as such, I hope you bear with me nevertheless).

The following bullets summarize yesterday’s findings:

• Observed: The UFO does not match, with certainty, any aircraft in existence
• Observed: Two booms projecting out of the nose of the UFO
• Theorized: That this UFO is about the size of your average airliner
• Theorized: The UFO was flying at observable altitudes because of engine failure

Procedo…

We’ll now take a look at Figure 2 - B, reproduced above.  The arrows point to a certain “necking” feature of this UFO.  With the original color, however, it is clear that this necking feature is due to a yellowish-hue marking the UFO.  When pictures are taken, the computer determines where the colors should go.  Blacks are easier to decipher their placement, but as you go down the color spectrum, the computer has a harder time “drawing the lines.”  This would seem to to be why there are two yellow blobs on each side of the ‘necked’ nose, as blue and yellow are not far enough apart on the color spectrum to be  fully resolved by a computer.  (It might also persuade you further if you looked at the full screen picture, just click the image above)

However, even with the yellowish blob to fill in the sides of the nose, from nose to wing tip, there is not one straight continuous physical structure.  In fact it is clearly evident that, in every photo enhancement available, this craft’s outer perimeter does in fact exhibit curve-like qualities.  Similar, enough, to mimic the curve like qualities of an SR-71.

Digression: Scotland UFO, 2002

Some have compared this UFO to the UFO spotted over Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom in 2002.  However not a single feature on either aircraft match up except for the unmistakable “omega” figure in the center of the UFO.  The figure below shows the two side by side.

The Scotland UFO, however, simply cannot be our UFO because if you look at A in the figure above, the corresponding marks are different colors (white does not become yellow, no matter what) and slightly different proportional placements along the aircraft.  Furthermore, the Scotland UFO does not exhibit the characteristic notch in the rear, seen at C.  The only telling resemblance is the similarity between the odd ”omega” features seen on both crafts, as well as the telling ”glowing blob” pointed out at B.  There are also several oddities associated with the Scotland UFO that do not appear in our story.  Taking a look at the original photo, the Scotland UFO appears to be flying at least 200-500 ft. off the ground, in front of someones house, at a perfectly vertical - right bank, and over a heavily populated city.  Also the, the pixelation of the photo seems to indicate that it cannot be a true digital picture from a digital camera, unless it was the crappiest digital camera ever made.  Furthermore a digital camera of that quality would not be able to take a clear picture of a fast moving object at such close proximity.  The foreground houses are all completely back, but somehow the part of the craft shown to the camera is nice and lit up, highly unlikely.  Finally the UFO over Scotland is about the size of the houses and trees in the background, meaning it’s not very big and we’ve already determined our UFO to be as large as, if not larger, then a 747.

And Coming Back Around Now

The final sets of photo enhancements will deal with the “omega” figure, and the coloration variance.

In the above Figure 3 you can see the coloration variation through out the UFO. Due to the fact that the yellow necking blobs are not against a black background, they cannot be preserved in this coloration process, so make sure you keep them in the back of your mind as being there.

Color - Stronger and Sharper

With this image coupled with the other enhancements we can observe that the left side of the UFO is clearer then the right side (the left boom is better defined then the right and the left side of the aircraft is better ”lined” then the right side which is more fuzzy).  We can see in this photo that the  colors on the left outer most edges of the UFO are ”stronger” then those on the right side, however the middle has a different variation.  Rather then being stronger to the left of the observed center line of the UFO the colors exhibit a “bar” like quality.  To the right of the center line the colors appear more “fuzzy.” (The important part of all of this is that more light equals stronger sharper colors and objects) 

I’m sure if someone knew something about orbital dynamics, light scattering, and 3D aircraft ‘placement’ they could deduce where the Sun was in the sky, and therein the time of day.  This is important because the photographer claims he was fishing, he also claims that he sees aircraft passing overhead all the time in the morning when he goes to fish.  Assuming this is like any other “day” of fishing it would be in the morning and further corroborate the story.

Color - What Each One Means

The reason behind why each part of the aircraft is colored differently is important.  The blues represent the outer most portions of the UFO, there are five points of significance: the nose, the two wingtips, and the two “bumps” on each side of the notch.  The purples represent where the region between the original red in the photo (which can be seen in Figure 2, above) and the blue meet (that being blue and red make purple).  The purple also gives us an indication that the surfaces they obscure are slanted.  Take your hand for example and hold it level, palm facing the ground and assume the middle of your hand (the palm) were red.  Also, just one more small thing, assume that your eye is a CCD and your world is expressed in pixels.  Now take a psychedelic trip with me and imagine that blue light were to hit the tip of your fingers from directly above.  The light will not significantly wrap around your fingers and reach the red at your palm, but if you tilt your hand so that the palm remains where it is and the finger tips move close to the blue light, you will notice that the light does scatter more and more towards the red.  Therefore, because there is this transfusion of color light as the surface of the hand travels, we can readily assume that the surface of the plane travels in the same way.

Using this slant hypothesis we are able to assume that the black is the closest part of the UFO to the ground, everything expressed outwards from the black is faring towards the sky.  However, we are unable to observe if the wings are “Valkyrie” style (delta wings, wing tips down) or v-tail/hybrid.  That being said, barring any new developments with v-tail/hybrid designs (of which no non-classified designs exist, to my knowledge), this UFO bears a striking resemblance to the XB-70.

This brings us to the “omega” feature which seems to obstruct our ability to observe the shape of what we can presume to be the underside of this UFO.  Very interesting indeed…

(Pt. 4, [it’s like it never ends] “Omega” Feature & Conclusions tomorrow or after the weekend)

Yesterday we fished through the the fishing story behind - how, where, and why - this picture of an unidentified flying object was taken.  All-in-all the story matches up with reality.  On to the photograph…

For the purposes of this exposition we used (and when I say we, I mean me) IRIS Photography Software that is primarily designed for and used for Astronomical Photographs.  There are some very interesting aspects of the UFO photograph, but before we go over them we need to wade through the sea of aircraft that already exist and compare them to this photograph.  Also we will use the term UFO to describe the mystery aircraft, this being, that UFO does not stand for alien craft, rather Unidentified Flying Object.

As a last note, if you believe me to be wrong on any of the points I’ve made, feel free to email me, with evidence I would be happy to change what’s written here.

Existing Planes

F-35, F-22, F-18, F-16 (including the F-16XL), F-15, F-14 - all these aircraft do not fit the profile for this UFO.  The forward fuselage is longer and further from the supposed engine intake area of this UFO.  Furthermore the rear end, everything past the “nose” portion of the UFO, is too wide to be any F-# aircraft in existence.  Finally, small fighter aircraft flying at altitudes where contrails form (above 26,000 to 28,000) are not as observable as a 747.  Therein, it’s more then likely this UFO is bigger then a fighter jet.

The SAAB 35, Draken, while having the delta shape and extended nose section, similar to the UFO, the rear end on the Draken sticks out because of its engine - the UFO does not exhibit this characteristic.  The SR-71 is big enough to be spotted, as is, however its profile does not match very well.  The SR-71 has a slightly extended rear end, and the nose section of the SR-71 is about the same size, in length, as the delta wing section (each section takes up the forward and rear half of the aircraft, respectively); the UFO’s rear section is a bit bigger then the nose section.  As for the rear end of the SAAB 35 and SR-71, the UFO has a sizeable notch in its rear.  Overall, though, a varient of the SR-71 would most likely fit the UFO’s profile, as a rear notch and bigger engines are more modern productions.

MiGs are also a possibility but like the F-# aircraft they are not comparably wide enough and the wings of the modern MiGs start where the pilot sits, which could not be the case for the UFO.  Chinese aircraft are another possibility, but with the lack of data on Chinese aircraft, especially their experimental regime, one cannot make side-by-side comparisons.   That being the case, in general, Chinese fighters exhibit a delta wing configuration where the wing begins well after the pilot’s seat, some (like the J-10) have smaller canards, and multiple (but smaller) engines.

If anything, among existing aircraft from the Super-Nations of the present-day, a variant of the SR-71 or some experimental Chinese aircraft are likely candidates for the UFO (keeping in mind there is no reason to believe the Chinese would be piloting the UFO, rather like the U.S. did with the MiGs, it would have been captured/stolen/rebuilt by the U.S. and, again like the MiGs, housed at Area-51).

UFO Characteristics

Keeping in mind those aircraft we just mentioned, look for the characteristics mentioned above, and how they don’t match.

All images here are cropped, rotated 90 degrees to the right, tilted - perspectivly - to compensate for the aircraft’s supposed climb, and blown up by a factor of around ten using a bicubic interpolation from the original photograph.  Each image has a “figure” label; the second figure is in keeping with the original coloring of the photograph, albeit ten times larger.

Figure 1 shows us the UFO with the edges bled and sharpened, meaning the edges are all exaggerated but continuous.  The striking elements of the photograph are pointed out with the red arrow(s).  At Figure 1 - A, and highlighted in red to make it more visible, we see two protruding booms, projecting out of the nose of the aircraft.  Most experimental aircraft have these projections for taking measurements, most operational aircraft have smaller versions and usually one one boom out the nose.  The F-117 has multiple protruding booms, but but they are much smaller.  It is important to note that NASA recently conducteda supersonic test that used a large extended boom to combat supersonic shockwaves.  However, as one can see in Figure 1 there are two booms, which would seem to defeat the supersonic boom-combatant stance, but that being said I’m no expert on supersonic flow theory, so two may be better then one and we can’t rule that out.

We also can’t rule out that these projections could be coincidentally parallel “artifacts” in the photo.  I don’t find this too likely as no other parts of the UFO depict any sort of artifacts (or any other parts of the photo on the whole), and these two booms also seem to sharpen to a point, which is traditional nose-boom design.  Finally these two booms do appear in Figure 2 below, with original color, but they are not as clear.

Keeping with Figure 1 and 2, we can also observe, as the arrows point in Figure 1 - B, that the UFO does not have symmetrical contrails (about the traditional y-axis).  Contrails can either form off of lifting surfaces or from engine exhaust, I do not believe they can form off of a vertical tail surface.  It is unlikely that the thicker center contrail is due to any surface of the plane, we can decidedly conclude that it is due to engine exhaust.  The right contrail is thinner then the central contrail; if we were to assume that it was due to a surface of the plane, then it would beg the question why isn’t their a similar thinner contrail on the symmetrically opposed left side.  We can readily assume that the aircraft is symmetrical, and that because there is no contrail on the left side the right side contrail cannot be due to a surface of the aircraft.

The only other option being that it is due to engine exhaust, as well, which would place the symmetrically opposed left side engine - offline.  This can lead us to our first general theory: this UFO was flying at visible low altitudes because it could not maintain higher altitudes with only 2 out of a 3 engines, and to maintain the stability of the craft the thrust of the symmetrically opposed engine, to that of the offline engine, was throttled down.

(Pt. 3 to come tomorrow…)

**COMMENT REGISTRATION OPEN**

So, I was perusing through the Danger Room, when I happened upon a link to an article over at Ares talking about this mysterious aircraft spotted over Northern California.  I was like, ‘here we go again with those mysterious aircraft,’ but I thought I’d give it a try since, after all, it was Danger Room linking to the article.  Unbeknownst to me the aircraft is pretty damn mysterious looking…

Background

The first thing to do is completely forget about the aircraft and concentrate on the story.  If this is a hoax, it most likely will be in the not too well thought out story of how, where, and why the picture was taken.

The story goes that a person by the alias of Mackbolin posted an article with one image attached to LiveLeak(a media sharing site).  Initially one is under the impression that Mackbolin took the picture.  However, this is unlikely because as you read through the article you will notice that at the end it states:

source and references:

MUFON submitter 10539

There are not too many people that will source and reference their own first hand account, so we will have to assume that Mackbolin is cross posting this account from another place on the Internets.  An examination of the source shows that persona 10539 submitted the account to MUFON, which is the Mutual UFO Network.  I’ve contacted, via email, the State Director for their Northern California Division and have yet to get a response in order to confirm that there is indeed a submission from submitter 10539.  Furthermore a cursory scan through their ill-implemented (or my ill-ability to apply the right service) reporting database does not show that there was a submission on April 24th, 2008, or any other date within a months time-frame, that resembles Mackbolin’s posted account.

The Story

The story goes that “I,” or 10539, was “fishing on Lake Trinity,” Trinity County, California, United States of America on April 24th, 2008.  10539 has fished at this Lake before and has heard airliners fly over the lake:

“…when an airliner flies over this lake, I hear it long before I can see it.”

On this day of fishing, 3 things happen to 10539.  First he feels a quick warming feeling through out his exposed skin.  Secondly he feels the oncoming presence of an aircraft engine, stating that he felt it before he heard it.  Finally he hears and sees the exhaust trail at the same time of an overhead aircraft.  While he may have embellished when he said that his skin may have been warmed by a “microwave beam,” 10539’s overall experience, as Bill Sweetman’s spotter friend (Sweetman is over at Ares) points out, is akin to what somebody feels when the body tells them they should “look up.”

As for the fishing, as Bill Sweetman points out (after I asked :), the Forest Service says there is good trout in the waters at Lake Trinity during the spring time, and it operates under a unrestricted season, meaning you only need a generic fishing license.  Finally the weather for that day, April 24th, was cool enough at altitude for contrails to have formed.

For the most part, this story doesn’t seem to be a hoax.  There are few other details that stick out but they aren’t unlike situations I personally have found myself in.

• 10539 was using a Sony Digital Camera with 10x zoom
• The batteries on the camera were close to dead
• Only 4 pictures taken
• 10539 has seen aircraft fly out of Nellis AFB
• The supposed aircraft was purportedly flying on a Southeast vector

Grammar & What Not

Grammar is something to look at as well.  Certain phrases may give us a clue into 10539’s age for he says, ”I read the disk.”  This is an old fashioned way of talking about a camera memory card, a more current phrasing would read, “I loaded the camera’s memory card into the computer.”  10539 also uses the phrase, “I packed up and sped home asap.”  (Really… who uses the word sped anymore, is it even a word?).  The last phrase coupled with the fact that he thinks his sudden skin warmth may be due to a microwave beam point to 10539 as being paranoid, which progressively worsens with age (or lack of social interaction).  Sentence structure is also poor, and comma usage is fervent.

All these grammatical signs point to 10539 being at least 35 and maybe as old as 50.  After all he was able to download a picture to his computer, and was somehow able to re-size it to a standardized 640 x 480.

With what we have, there is no basis for ruling out this case simply due to the story behind the photo, alone.  The account does add up, the location is relevant, the reporting method is established, and there aren’t any inconsistencies with account (meaning it follows from beginning to end).  Now, we can talk about planes.

(Continued… Pt. 2 we have analysis of the picture itself)

At what point is enough trash too much trash.  Tourists are canceling reservations and shortening stays in Naples because the stench from the trash is overwhelming, fires are erupting through out trash piles across the town not only spontaneously but also as residents attempt, in futility, to burn the trash, and CNN reports that the U.S. Navy has sent for chemical and biological testing of on-base water supplies to see if whether or not the piling trash has also effected the drinking water.  The U.S. Navy has in Naples about 1,200 service members and their families, and there is a NATO contingent based in a Neapolitan suburb who would also be wanting to see the results of that water test.

The water testing comes as cheese from the Naples region has been found to have higher then acceptable levels of toxins in it, probably due to the fact that residents are taking their trash and dumping it in the countryside.  Barges are taking trash out of Naples and sailing it to Germany for processing, but this only seems to make a dent in a very large problem.

The piling trash is due to collectors refusing to pick up trash citing that the landfills are full.  Only a few problems rise out of this tremendously stupid argument.  First, landfills don’t get full unless they’re hundreds of feet high; correct reprocessing of plastics and other recyclables (no matter the fact that recycling doesn’t help the environment) can lead to a decrease in overall garbage volume defeating the “landfills are full” argument.  Secondly, there does exist an Armed force in Italy, that, last I checked, does take orders no matter what they are.  Why doesn’t the government order the military to service the trash needs of the city?  Lastly, an organization, such as the trash collectors of Naples (whatever their official name may or may not be) don’t just come up with idiotic arguments because they believe them to be true.  The fact is, organizations use idiotic arguments as a facade to what is really going on.  The question is what is really going on with the trash collectors?

The Italian Government says that criminal entities have infested the trash collectors and are instigating their insurrection.  While there is no way to confirm that, it does seem plausible, if the trash collectors aren’t acting with criminal backing, then it just makes them look that much more idiotic.

Update:Reading the short-term history on this, it does seem that the criminal Camorra entity has taken over the waste-management industry.  It seems that the Italian government, with all its Army, Police, governmental-like qualities can’t stop the criminals from occupying the basic service regimes of which the Italian people pay taxes in order for the government to take on such basic services.

The Italian example here is a perfect reason against the fundamental Republican economics of “let the people handle it.”  Obviously the people aren’t handling it, they’ve given it up to the other end of governance which is criminality.  In fact the people have protested against the government, even violently, halting the construction of new incinerators and the opening of new landfills.  The “people” cite the health risks such new measures would pose of the populace near such incinerators and landfills.

While the people have a point, they somehow forget to mention the health risk associated with not containing the trash, like the leaking of toxins into the basic food supply.  Furthermore it’s not out of the question that the people who protest are not goaded or even bought into the process of protesting by Camorra, who would have a lot to loose if the government starting taking care of the trash.  What makes these peoples protesting against government action so ironic is that it is well documented that Camorra, through it’s waste-management line of companies, have taken in toxic waste from other parts of Italy and dumped them into river(s) in Campania (Province where Naples is located).  This dumping of toxic waste has led to clusters of cancer sprouting up through out Campania.

Far reaching lessons can be learned from the trash escapades of Naples, Italy.  The criminal control over basic services can cripple a nation.  What the people need to understand is that they need to demand the basic services owed to them from the government and the government needs to combat against the false rapprochement of services offered by seemingly well-to-do organizations.  Examples would include Hamas providing food, electricity, and health-care for Gazans as well as certain militias providing electricity for citizens in Iraq.

Who knew you could write so much about trash.

When the President of the United States has to go to another country to talk politics, it’s downright disgusting.  This week we saw the H.V. President of these United States of America stand before the elected Knesset-body of Israel and denounce “negotiating with terrorists and radicals.”  The President went on to claim that such efforts at negotiations ultimately result in an appeasement policy similar to the one Western Europe used with Nazi Germany.  A few things are wrapped up in the H.V. President’s speech.

Appeasement vs. Negotiations

First he misconstrues the term “negotiations” to be synonymous with “appeasement.”  However, 99% of the rest of the population *should* understand that negotiations at the very least involve talking to an adversarial party.  At most, negotiations entail talking with the adversary with the explicit task of making demands and giving ground on certain issues, a give and take, if you will.  Appeasement, on the other hand, involves only giving into the demands of the aggressor, whereby talking and discussion may or may not take place.  Two entirely different terms, and anybody with a dictionary and a brain can realize the difference.

Democrats

H.V. President’s speech also dealt with the fact that America should not negotiate with “terrorists orradicals.”  Lumping the two into the same statement, shows the idiocy of the President.  Terrorist may also be radicals, but radicals may not be terrorists.  Which is too bad for the President and his administration because they’ve already undertaken negotiations with radical regimes around the world, some of which supported terrorism.  The H.V. President must, therefore, be attacking certain Democrats who have openly stated and undertaken similarly actions to those taken by the current President’s regime.  Unless of course we are to ascertain that he is not attacking Democrats in which case he is then attacking his own policies, which would only further prove he is a complete bumbling idiot.

But let’s assume he is attacking Democrats who have undertaken certain policies similar to that of the H.V. President.  For example former H.V. President Jimmy Carter, who openly spoke with an exiled Hamas leader.  Carters actions were opposed by Israel and the U.S.  Israel went so far as to refuse to provide security for the former President while he stayed and toured in Israel.  Another example of who the H.V. President attacked would be H.E. Senator Barack Obama.  Obama openly supports direct, face-to-face, talks with our adversaries, but not with leaders of terrorist organizations.  The current President, however, has maintained that low-level talks amongst non-significant, politically appointed, State Department officials and our advesaries will achieve peace and stability around the world.  A dumb-ass policy by the sound of it.