October 29, 2023 - I'm still suffering from writer's block. I've been staring at my computer screen for hours this morning, unable to think of anything to write about. I also spent about an hour filling up my MP3 player with podcasts, but the process of filling up my MP3 player and listening to all those podcasts has become so routine that it provides nothing for me to comment upon. So, all I can write about at the moment is that I have nothing to write about. Sorry.
October 25, 2023 - While driving home from the gym yesterday, I finished listening to CD #12 in the 12-CD audio book version of "American Sherlock."
It's a very interesting book, but I probably should have read it instead of listening to it. It's filled with details I would have liked to underline and re-read.
The book is about Edward Oscar Heinrich, who was one of America's first forensic scientists and one of the first "expert witnesses" to appear in U.S. courts. In the early 1900s, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of many new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. He is credited with solving at least 2,000 cases during this 40-year career.
But, mistakes were also made. At least one person was executed based upon Heinrich's evidence and later turned out to be innocent. However, that was a time when most evidence was eye-witness evidence, and there are countless examples of eye-witness testimony that were totally wrong, much of which led to the imprisonment and even executions of innocent people.
It's an interesting book, but I recommend reading it, not listening to it.
October 24, 2023 - A few days ago, some podcast I was listening to mentioned a podcast I had never heard of before. The new podcast is titled "Disclosed: UFO Files." A podcast about UFOs? It seemed like it should be interesting, so I downloaded a few episodes. The web site contains 1,000 episodes, and they appear to generate 10 episodes per day, but the total number is always 1,000. Each episode is from 1½ to 3½ hours long, but there is no cast or host. And the episode description is always the same:
Disclosed UFO Files – Keep up with the latest in the world of UFO & UAP. Make sense out of the confusion and unravel the mystery once and for all.I had a hard time making sense of the podcasts, and I would just delete them after a few minutes. Then, two days ago, I decided I needed to analyze them. So, I downloaded 30 recent episodes and tried listening to each one in its entirety. I don't think I managed to get all they way through any of the episodes, but I think I figured out what they are all about: They're a collection of audio files about flying saucers, a collection that includes everything from congressional testimony to talks at UFO conferences.
During the talks, the term MUFON kept coming up. I looked the term up this morning and found a website that seems to explain everything. The term MUFON stands for "Mutual UFO Network." Their web site says,
MUFON Scientifically Studying the UFO/UAP Phenomena for the Betterment of Humanity Since 1969Wikipedia says:
The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is a US-based non-profit organization composed of civilian volunteers who study reported UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest organizations of its kind, claiming more than 4,000 members worldwide with chapters and representatives in more than 43 countries and all 50 states. The organization has been criticized for its focus on pseudoscience, and critics say its investigators fail to use the scientific method.And their podcasts appear to be an attempt to convince the world that there is enough evidence to show that UFOs are real and that the government is trying to hide "the truth" from the American public. And "the truth," according to MUFON is that UFOs are either real visitors from alien worlds and the government is trying to hide that fact from it citizens, or UFOs are experimental U.S. military vehicles and the government it trying to keep them secret by denying their existence and claiming that all the sightings are from confused people who have no idea of what they actually saw - or imagined they saw.
In reality, it appears that the government is trying the get people to use the term "UAP" instead of "UFO" because what people are seeing does NOT appear to be any kind of "object." The term Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon" therefore seems more appropriate. A phenomenon is
a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.Mysterious moving lights in the sky appear real. They've been photographed many times for many years. As long as their cause remains unknown, people will have theories about them. Hopefully, with all the recent advances in technology which provides most people with a camera and recorder that they carry about with them 24 hours a day, we'll be getting more information about UAPs which everyone can study and analyze.
October 22, 2023 - These are definitely unusual times. My daily routine has always included watching the Evening News on NBC. But now the news is all about the Israel-Hamas conflict, a subject that is of no interest to me whatsoever.
I'm still very interested in when Donald Trump will be thrown in jail. He's currently involved in pre-trial hearings about his various attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. On Friday, Trump was fined $5,000 for posting an attack upon one of the court staffers, claiming she was a girlfriend of New York Senator Chuck Schumer. And three of Trump's lawyers have already pleaded guilty to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump's actual trial is not scheduled until March, and he'll undoubtedly spend a lot of time between now and then trying to postpone the trial date for months or years.
There isn't much else to write about this morning.
