and if they want to believe, truth isn't going to get in the way.
"UFO cover used by government to ‘hide a lot of things,’ former NASA agent says"
To accept the idea of visitors from other solar systems is to disbelieve the basis of physics as we know and practice it.
Sure the government hints at the existence of "UFOs" ... and I've no doubt UFOs exist - UFO being an acronym for "Unidentified Flying Object"
"Hey! What's that flying around up there?" "I don't know" ... is a UFO. Even if it's actually your neighbor's kid playing with a drone.
One good region to see UFOs is between Tonopah, Nevada and Edwards AFB ... the valleys along Death Valley. Lots of strange unidentified stuff buzzing around through there.
Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, et al are all science fiction. If you see a UFO, someone somewhere - Peking, Moscow, DC - already knows about it. And they're from Planet Earth.
I don't really have any at the moment - at least none I can put into a coherent ramble.
It is Flag Day however - and Trump's birthday, and the Army's birthday.
And "Arrest Your Favorite Protestor Day" if the all the speculation of NoKings proves true. Even in a little town with a population of 5000 not far from here ...
To say nothing of what may happen in the Middle East between the time I write this and the time you read it.
Possible Canadian, 1930: A man in a crowded bar needed to defecate but couldn't find a bathroom, so he went upstairs and used a hole in the floor. Returning, he found everyone had gone except the bartender, who was cowering behind the bar. When the man asked what had happened, the bartender replied, 'Where were you when the shit hit the fan?'
"I doubt anyone has read less poetry than me. Like jazz, I just don’t get it. Both seem to be exercises in how to make something simple, complex for no reason at all."
Maybe not reading it - but ...
Tear it open let it bleed Scream the truth I can’t concede Burn the lies consume the ash Rise again from the devil’s wrath
* * * * * * *
Rusted walls closing in too tight Echoes scream in the dead of night Cursed by the weight of what I’ve done Falling deeper nowhere to run
* * * * * * *
Shadows creeping whisper my name Chains of despair drag me deep Underneath where no light can creep
"Newsom quickly condemned the move as a “blatant abuse of power” that puts the nation on a path to authoritarianism ... California may be first, but it clearly won’t end here,” the governor said. “Other states are next. Democracy is next.”"
The Democrats are screaming the same old song about Trump destroying democracy.
Good. I hope he succeeds. It's among the reasons I voted for him.
I get so tired of hearing that.
The US is not a democracy, it's a constitutional republic. I believe it was Justice Scalia that reaffirmed that the Constitution is not a living document, it's a legal contract. Democracy - particularly the Democrats version - needs to be flushed away along with the rest of the crap they continually spout off.
Franklin (maybe): "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch". Our Constitution allows the lamb to be armed.
Foreign troops waving foreign flags on US soil? There's an answer to that. Legal with long historical precedent. And it's what the Marines do.
But I'm probably preaching to the choir with this group ...
Every once in a while, rarely planned, never expected, and usually off the back trails further out than what most consider back trails, I'll come across a surprise.
This pan, deep up a canyon in the Owyhee Mountains, was found hanging on the wall of an old miner's cabin. The cabin was still mostly in good shape - not really habitable anymore, but worthy of shelter if caught in a storm.
I don't know what I was thinking taking a vehicle up that "road" - brush cutting, rut filling, tree moving ... Well, yes I do ("I wonder what's up here?") ... but I might have needed that cabin for shelter.
As far as I know, the pan is still there.
Over the past 45 years or so wandering in places a thinking person normally wouldn't go, I've collected a few of these surprises - some I can prove such as this, some perhaps subject to an aging memory.
The few certain things I've learned of these findings is that 1) it's no use taking someone with me with the purpose of finding "something", 2) I will find nothing if that is my intent, and 3) it is not uncommon for me to not find "it" again if I try to return.
I should be ashamed having read so little of so few poets and nothing at all of so many more. they've spent their lives writing words just for the likes of me and I barely know but a few. I should be ashamed to do what I do like I'm the only one who has ever done it when it's mostly been done already and better and oftener before. I should be ashamed and burn my notebooks and break my pencils and read what's already been written and what's being written now. But I am reading what's being written now this minute by me and some others here and there when I can and when I want. I should be ashamed of thinking about quitting. someone somewhere might someday read what I wrote yesterday or today and think about writing what they have to say in their own way and another link gets added to the chain and another chapter is added to the story. I should be ashamed for doing so little. But I'm not.
There's something about this photo I've always liked. It was taken in 2013 and something inside back then inspired me to play with color settings on one of my image processors. I liked what I had come up then with so I re-did the processing here some 12 years later.
Original image: NEF to TIF to zero-compression JPG, no further processing other than scaling.
The original NEF image was taken under natural daylight, has pixel size of 7370/4916, was translated to TIF with ProPhoto color, then scaled with no further processing to 800/534 JPG with zero-compression and print resolution of 300px/in.
But I go further ... and y'all get to experience the joy of pretending you're in an art gallery, examining works of "fine art" exploring variations in hue, saturation, and a bonus example image of edge detection.
Or not ...
The same conversions and scaling were used as in the original print with the addition of adjusting hue and saturation. No mixture of hues was utilized; color filters were RED, YEL, GRN, CYN, BLU, and MAG. Saturation levels for each color were 0% or 100%.
Only RED:
Only RED
The RED only appears more orange than red and appears over-emphasized when other colors are removed.
Only YEL:
Only YEL
On the other hand, while YEL-only is mostly emphasized on the edges, the color is not as over-whelming as RED-only.
All colors except RED and YEL:
RED, YEL both at 0%
Other than a small hint of green grass through a gap in the machinery, it appears to be a black&white image.
All set to 0% saturation:
All saturation levels at 0%
With all colors set to 0% saturation, the image appears fully B&W
No adjustments to saturation or hue; conversion of ORIG to Gray-scale (B&W)
Color Conversion to Gray-Scale (B&W)
At this scale, it's hard to differentiate between the last three, but there are subtle differences between the 0-saturation image and the gray-scale image. Differences in the conversion algorithms but subtle enough to not be noticeable at first glance of a scaled image.
Just for grins, I applied a basic EdgeDetect filter:
Shall we say "avant garde"?
There you have it. The original is OK as is, but I believe my preference is B&W.
