Geeking Out

I haven't been blogging here much because when not maintaining my other blogs I've been taking advantage of the very short Edmonton summer. Now that the fall chill is starting to creep in, I'll probably be around more often.

This week I've been reading and watching ancient astronaut stuff for a future series of posts at Swallowing the Camel. I was bummed out that the History Channel is kind of rehabilitating Erich von Daniken's shredded reputation with this inane series called Ancient Aliens, and I think it's borderline racist to suggest that the cultures of ancient Mesoamerica, Africa, Mesopotamia, etc., couldn't possibly construct things like temples and time-keeping devices all on their own.

Another thing I've been doing this week is re-examining the Rendlesham Forest incident. This is arguably the most famous UFO event in British history, and it has always struck me as a strong case because it involved multiple military witnesses who recorded their observations in real time. I still think something odd was spotted, but I learned that the most spectacular aspect of the case (Staff Sgt. James Penniston's close-up examination of a landed craft with strange markings engraved on its surface) didn't actually happen. Penniston's orginal report, which you can read here, mentioned nothing about a landed craft at all. He added that bit later. And for some reason, his two fellow witnesses refuse to call him on his bullshit. Very disappointing.

On the less geeky side, I've been reading Peter Lance's Triple Cross and Jung's Red Book. But then I get geeky again by watching Rozen Maiden before bed.