“Life In The So-Called Space Age”
I walk the track,
I don’t look back.
Negative biofeedback.
Was that a macaque?!?
Birds in the trees.
Ache in my knees.
Where is the breeze?
Oh look, ascomycetes!
Sweat on my brow.
Where am I now?
Anyhow,
I continue somehow.
The trails of my past.
Nostalgia unsurpassed.
I don’t do this half-assed.
Macca’s, at long last!
A refreshing frozen coke.
For me: bespoke!
Joy it does evoke.
That walk was no joke!
Landing is Sydney was surreal: the smoke from the fires reduced visibility so the usual see-for-miles vista from a few kilometres up was dirtied by a hazy fog.
There’s a slight smell of smoke, and I’ve seen a few people wearing masks. Buts it’s not so bad at street level.
You can see some protesters outside the QVB, to the left of the statue. The queen herself has been adorned with a rudimentary gas mask that was attached by a protestor. They were of course protesting the climate deniers running this country (who were alas voted for) but tourists looking for Christmas bargains mostly ignored them.
The trip had been awful. Endless, boring and hungry since the food they offered me was inedible. I didn’t sleep a second and mostly played my GBA. Every year it gets harder and Australia seems farther away.
Customs and the airport was speedy though, and while my room wasn’t ready due to the early hour my hotel was nice enough to provide me with a changing room to shower. Then I hit the streets of Sydney.
The light rail through the CBD is now running. I’ll try it one day, but not this trip. The shops are decked out for Christmas and it’s hard getting my mind used to the fact I’m here before Christmas Day rather than after as usual. It was still early when I took the above shot; the crowds massively increased later in the day.
I hit my usual spots, ate my usual foods, discovered again that postcards have become scarcer as they have everywhere. I’m sure the ones I bought yesterday were from stands that haven’t been restocked in a decade.
It was warm before lunch but a cool change blew in later in the day. I was staggering by about 3 and grabbed some dinner before retiring around 4 pm. It’s now 4 am and I’m mostly (?) rested, but the jet lag is real.
Off to Newcastle by train today. I read The Hawkesbury region has been badly burned. Will I see evidence on my journey?
Back in 2004 sailors on the USS Nimitz that was at the time doing training exercises reported sightings of UFOs. This is not highly unusual: there is a rich history of UFO sightings by fighter pilots and near military assets. What makes this encounter strange is that it was recorded, and you can watch it yourself:
This video was leaked by a sailor many years after and the incident became part of an effort by interested parties to obtain more UFO information from the Navy.
You may have heard of one of the results of such efforts: the Navy has now legitimized UFO sighting reporting, and personnel are encouraged to come forward rather than keep silent in fear of recrimination.
It’s also led to other videos being released, which last month the Navy confirmed as unidentified. Quite literally, these videos show UFOs.
This is the so-called ‘gimbal’ UFO. Watch it rotate at the end:
And here is footage of the ‘go fast’ UFO, which as with all these others was filmed by fighter pilots:
When the news that the navy had changed its tack on UFO reports emerged earlier this year there were a few pilots coming forward with astonishing stories of sightings, and the official admission a few weeks ago that yes, navy pilots have seen (and recorded) UFOs will likely lead to more pilots speaking out. It seems, after 70 years, the military is finally acknowledging strange things in the sky.
But what are they? As I’ve said here before I absolutely believe in extraterrestrial life, but I find it hard to accept living beings making interstellar journeys. The vastness of space also makes finding other civilizations no easy task. So the odds seem stacked against them being alien or from parts unknown. I’d love to be wrong though.
For now I’ll accept the navy definition. These are unidentified. This simply means we don’t (yet) know what they are, not that we claim them to be anything specific 🙂