Suit Up, Space Cadets!

On at least two occasions, Donald Trump has called for the formation of a manned fleet of military space cadets to protect deep-space commerce in the form of mining and other similar activities.

The US Congress has also called for the formation of a similar branch of the military - a Space Command - for the purposes of both protection of commerce and mounting rescue operations.

Recently, Joseph P. Farrell speculated that this mandate sounds an awful lot like the US Coast Guard, which has nearly identical mandates within the nation's territorial waters, and that adding a line or two about space would easily expand the service into low Earth orbit and beyond.

In the past couple of months, "official" video and reports have "leaked" out of the Pentagon concerning an incident with the USS Nimitz carrier group that involved UFOs, USOs and at least a week or two of observations and engagement.

Trump Calls For Space Force
House Panel Votes To Split Air Force Into Space Command
Joseph P. Farrell Speculates On Space Guard
USS Nimitz UFO Encounter
Pentagon Paper Confirms UFO Encounter

There are a number of significant issues and assumptions in play here, not the least of which are are propulsion, navigation and communication.

None of this is feasible with currently available rocket launches and chemical propellants on orbit (e.g. cryo, hypergolic, etc.). The expense, speed of launch preparations and their delicacy relating to weather, launch windows and the like, make this technology untenable for quick response to situations.

Even Musk's SpaceX Falcon requires several days turn-around - in theory, as it's never been tested at this rate of launches. Even so, at the moment NASA doesn't have a (public) functioning manned space capacity, nor does it allow Musk's fueling process for manned flight. Musk uses cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen that are loaded minutes before launch, when humans would already be atop the rocket. NASA policy forbids fueling while astronauts are on-board.

Even if the quick-launch capacity exists, it would require the ability to orbit some number of military personnel, presumably more than 3-7 armed individuals with ammo, gear and supplies for a multi-year operation (see navigation below), with sufficient fuel for whatever destination is the target and the return journey, all with a minimal 10% safety margin.

Plus, these individuals will need to stay fit in optimum fighting condition during the journey, which assumes some kind of artificial gravity, such as a spinning cylinder, which has never been built or tried outside of paper calculations and sci-fi novels.

Current Newtonian navigation means that pirates could take over a mining facility on an asteroid and be there literally for years while the Cavalry plots a circuitous intercept orbit that could take over a decade to reach the facility (see intercept orbit for comet 67P and Rosetta mission).

New Horizons, the fastest craft ever (publicly) flown by humanity, took 13 months to reach Jupiter at conjunction with an optimal flight path, and even then, it didn't carry sufficient fuel to slow itself into orbit.

The only way for a police force to be any deterrent is for it to be able to react within hours, not years.

It is completely unthinkable to have fleets of manned craft standing by for decades at strategic points throughout the Solar System. Stationing just four equidistant outposts in Mars' orbit, the asteroid belt and Jupiter's orbit (12 total), fully manned, armed and supplied using current technology is impossible. Maintaining seven personnel on the ISS just 350 kilometers above Earth is a major undertaking, much less 12 stations scattered across the Solar System with minimally 10 personnel each, requiring constant resupply with food, water, oxygen, and other necessities, with the ability to reach the stations within a year for each resupply mission is absolutely out of the question, not to mention re-crewing on rotation.

The supply lines are extremely long and vulnerable, susceptible to the very pirates this system is supposed to guard against. Furthermore, the orbital parameters (ephemera) are constantly changing, with optimal configurations being very rare - on the order of years to decades and even centuries apart.

Supply ships would have to be launched years in advance on a regular schedule with constantly changing ephemera, and if any disaster were to occur, the entire operation would shut down for several years of internal reviews and Congressional investigations, stranding a minimum of 120 personnel in deep space.

Then there's the communication issue. Speed-of-light comms make any kind of centralized command structure pointless. With round-trip radio time varying from several seconds (Moon) to hours, and sometimes even impossible due to orbital configuration (e.g. when Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth), there must be some kind of "subspace" comm link for even a small fraction of the distance beyond the Moon's orbit.

Radio signals between Earth and Jupiter take anywhere from 33 minutes to 53 minutes one way, depending on whether the planets are at conjunction or opposition. If Jupiter is behind the Sun, which it is for a week or so each year, then radio links are impossible without relay satellites posted at 90-degree angles to Earth in its orbit, much like the Stereo A and B solar observatories. In any case, round-trip comms take an hour to two hours, plus consultation time at each end. Add to that the comm time between mining facilities in the asteroid belt and the nearest Space Guard outpost and the formulation of an attack plan.

The outposts could be autonomous in their decision making, but that could easily become politically sensitive, depending on the flag of attacking marauders. This could lead to Earth-bound wars if military actions are not cleared with central commands and the usual diplomatic procedures are not followed.

Any one of these issues renders a Space Guard untenable, and even farcical if not outright deadly, but all three combined are deal-killers.

Imagine a radio response to the Vesta mining facility that arrives hours after the panic button is pushed, with the reply giving instructions to "hold on while we design and construct as super-fast rescue mission that will arrive in six and a half years, assuming no catastrophes," IF orbital configurations between Earth and Vesta are optimal!

Even if the launch capacity is 'off-the-shelf,' there's still training, gearing up, acceleration, deceleration, orbit insertion, landing operations, deployment, and all in the hopes that every variable is precisely predictable and execution is flawless.

Frankly, any group of space pirates worth their salt could invade a facility, operate it for at least a couple of years, and be long gone, hiding anywhere in the vast gulf of space, and that assumes they don't just land, kill everyone, take the ready inventory and leave again in a matter of hours. With a proper plan, these pirates could hit every mining operation in the asteroid belt and vanish before Earth even mounts a military response.

All of this can only mean that exotic forms of propulsion, navigation and communication already exist in order for a Space Guard to be worth even considering, much less implementing. All three considerations must be reliably and cheaply solved for response within hours, even if the emergency occurs when the facility is at opposition to Earth behind the Sun. And every operation must pass political and diplomatic muster before it can be initiated to avoid horrific repercussions back on the home planet.

Given the time it has taken to (maybe) get Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump to a table in Singapore, one doesn't have tremendous faith in the speed of diplomatic solutions.

I don't know if anyone keeps up with the Electric Universe folks, but the models of Birkeland Currents - counter-rotating cylinders of plasma in an electro-magnetic field - sound amazingly like the Nazi Bell described in Farrell's books, and they have both repulsive and attractive forces (so-called anti-gravity) depending on charge and spin. Additionally, Birkeland currents are scalable from lab bench to trans-galactic, and could theoretically be produced using the solar wind (plasma) as "fuel," given the ability to generate a sufficiently strong magnetic field. Top speeds would be significant fractions of the speed of light, with both acceleration and deceleration capabilities by simply reversing the polarity of the current.

Navigation is related to the drive problem, since Newtonian orbits rely on gravitational "wells" and inertia. With a Birkeland Drive (I claim copyright), gravitational considerations are irrelevant and line-of-sight flight paths are easy to achieve, sheering months to years off a flight plan.

As for comms, quantum entanglement and computing allow for instantaneous connections between devices at cosmic scales, meaning time and distance are meaningless. Data entered into one terminal are instantaneously relayed to the other. This would include navigational data, as well as live audio and video, meaning any operation is in constant, real-time communication with central command, and ground operations can be monitored in real time, as well (think Aliens here).

Given the increasing tempo of "official" acknowledgements of UFOs, and the Congressional mandates and Presidential calls for a Space Guard, we could be in for some fun in the near future. The recent "leaks" of incidents aboard the US carrier Nimitz involving multiple UFOs and USOs observed and engaged over a period of weeks is a tacit admission that exotic craft and propulsion exist in the real world.

The "official" descriptions said the craft were "tic-tac" shaped, had no visible external form of propulsion, and could hover, accelerate and maneuver at extremely high speeds. In addition, they were said to interact with "something" in the ocean, implying that they are operational in any external environment, such as water, air or space.

It would seem that we are being conditioned, albeit slowly, to accept that not only is there some "entity" that is not "us" operating exotic technology in the real world, but that the conditioning is concurrent with the call for establishing some kind of "space command" that militarizes space for any number of reasons, as outlined by Farrell's Coast Guard comparison.

In this scenario, "we" already possess the same capabilities that "they" do, and in order to jump-start commercial operations within the Solar System, "we" must make public both the existence of "pirates," but also the ability to defend against them.

In other words, get your popcorn ready, the main attraction is about to begin.

A Journey To Babel

There are two stories that fascinate me.  One is Noah's Ark and the other is the Tower of Babel.  They exist in nearly every single culture, tradition and myth on Earth, across vast spans of time, and on every inhabited continent (Antarctica has yet to yield its secrets).

The Ark story has been pretty much beaten to death, with tales of folks running up and down Mount Arat for a century looking for boats.  Boring.

But Babel...now there's a fun tale.  What exactly is going on here?  And why is it that so many cultures throughout our history record a similar event with similar circumstances at more or less the same time.  In each case, it is a single event, not multiple ones.  And in every case, the gods get worried about how far and how fast humans are progressing and decide to do something about it.

In every case, Man did not sin or do anything wrong, he simply had reached a point where he posed a direct challenge to the gods.  As Joseph Farrell says, it was a political, not ethical decision on the part of the gods to come down and stir things up.

Perhaps it would be instructive at this point to look at a couple of the stories.  Wikipedia starts us off:

The Tower of Babel (Hebrew: מגדל בבל‎ Migdal Bavel Arabic: برج بابل‎ Borj Baabel) forms the focus of a story told in the Book of Genesis of the Bible.[1] According to the story, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar (Hebrew: שנער‎), where they resolved to build a city with a tower "whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."
God came down to see what they did and said: "They are one people and have one language, and nothing will be withheld from them which they purpose to do." "Come, let us go down and confound their speech." And so God scattered them upon the face of the Earth, and confused their languages, so that they would not be able to return to each other, and they left off building the city, which was called Babel "because God there confounded the language of all the Earth".

The Sumerians have a similar tale involving the construction of a tower, the gods Enki and Enlil, and the confusion of languages.  The Sumerian word babel means "gateway of god(s)" or quite literally "stargate", while in Hebrew, it is similar in sound to the verb "to confound".

There are similar myths in various African cultures.  The Maya have a version that is nearly identical to the Biblical telling, except that it involves those pesky Giants who keep showing up in the old tales and myths:

After Creation and the Great Flood, there were Giants running around the Earth.  However, they weren't receiving enough sunlight, so they built a tower to reach the Sun.  This act angered the sky gods who destroyed the tower and confused the languages, scattering the people across the Earth.

The Aztecs, South Pacific islanders, Mongols, and many other cultures preserve this story in some form.  Most involve the people of Earth 'speaking the same language', which allows them to work together to 'build a tower' that will either allow them to reach the realms of the gods, or conversely, preserve the knowledge already received by having reached the realm of the gods or given by a renegade god (Enki, Prometheus, etc.).

The Hindu version is particularly interesting, as it combines the symbol of the Tree of Knowledge with the Tower/Babel myth:

There grew in the center of the earth the wonderful 'world tree,' or 'knowledge tree.' It was so tall that it reached almost to heaven.  It said in    its heart, 'I shall hold my head in heaven and spread my branches over all the earth, and gather all men together under my shadow and protect them, and prevent them from separating.' But Brahma, to punish the pride of the tree, cut off its branches and cast them down on the earth, when they sprang up as wata trees, and made differences of belief and speech and customs to prevail on the earth, to disperse men upon the surface.

So, let's dissect this story a bit.  First of all, the language thing.  There is no evidence in the historical record of Mankind ever having used a single language, right?  Or is there?  Even today, if you look around, there is one Universal Language that spans countries, cultures and time.  That language is mathematics.  All of our vaunted technology is based on some kind of mathematical discovery.  Radio waves, lasers, computers, even such mundane things as alternating current, convection ovens and headphones, are all mathematics brought into our physical world.

As Galileo Galilei said, “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.”  And don't we use mathematics to reach orbit and the other planets?  In other words, isn't mathematics a single language that allows us to reach the realm of the gods?

Well, not really, because mathematics is split into many different types and disciplines.  There's algebra and calculus and physics, and so forth.  In other words, our language of math has been 'confused' or 'confounded'.  And what is the Holy Grail of science but the Grand Unified Theory (GUT), which should unite all forms of mathematics under a single, elegant set of formulae.

Sounds a lot like the story of Babel, the fracturing of languages, and a current effort to restore what was lost to men.  And mathematics does indeed allow us to reach the realm of the gods, of that there is no doubt.  So if we are able to find the Holy Grail of the GUT, isn't it true that 'nothing would be withheld from us that we purpose to do'?

Nikola Tesla summed up the confusion of the Great Language quite nicely, "Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality."  This implies that if we can get our language straight, we can do 'anything we propose to do,' including engineer reality itself, as Tesla was attempting to do.

Now what about the 'tower'?  Folks have proposed dozens of locations and structures.  Alexander the Great destroyed the giant ziggurat of Babylon called Etemenanki.  But I think that if we accept that the One Language is/was mathematics, then the tower may have a completely different interpretation.

In Western culture, there are basically two main structures associated with towers: one is a place of worship, and the other is a university.  We can dispense with the first, since it preserves myth and superstition and keeps us afraid of obtaining the realm of the gods.  The other, however, is about preserving and advancing knowledge, and particularly the sciences, logic and philosophy, which are founded on the One Language, and indeed seek to obtain the realm of the gods.

Therefore, couldn't the Tower of Babel have been an enormous university or library?  After all, the great structures of the ancient world, such as the Library at Alexandria, were devoted to preserving and advancing knowledge.  The great universities of Europe are all dominated by large towers, and in fact the towers are emblematic of the universities.

Across the planet today, people are building taller and taller towers as signs of wealth and scientific prowess.  Towers have always been symbols of achievement, and they require lots of precise mathematical calculation to erect safely.  Many towers, such as the pyramids all over the Earth, not only required precise math to build, they encode all kinds of mathematical equations, formulae and constants in their structures.

Richard Hoagland's theories concerning Cydonia on Mars posit monumental structures built on profound mathematical knowledge that is embedded in the design and relationships of structures on that planet.

Thus, we can now tell the Tower of Babel story in a slightly different way.  Mankind had amassed a great amount of knowledge that either allowed or was on the verge of allowing him to reach the heavens, and perhaps even begin to engineer the fabric of space/time itself.  God-like powers, in other words.  The gods, a race of extraterrestrial, technologically advanced beings, were alarmed at Mankind's rapid growth that threatened their hegemony over the heavens and their exulted rank as gods.

So they took the decision to pop down and destroy the great university/library where all this knowledge was stored and substitute false or misleading science and mathematics that would prevent Mankind from obtaining god-like power.  This sent people off in a hundred wrong directions unable to work together because their mathematics were confused and fractured.

A perfect example of this, if you believe the official story, is the Mars Climate Orbiter - a multi-million dollar spacecraft lost because one set of scientists was using metric measurements, while another was using Imperial standard.

This ensured the supremacy of the gods and kept Mankind out of the rarefied realms.  As Farrell said, it was a political decision, not one based on evil doings or moral corruption.  Thus, the Yahweh character now appears to be more insecure than all-powerful.

All of this brings up two rather profound questions.

The first is, would destroying towers today have the same effect on human culture: scattering, confusing, causing dissension?  For that, we must thoroughly examine what has happened to our individual and collective psyches since the 9/11 attacks.  It sure seems that the destruction of the Twin Towers has scattered and confused humanity, pitting us against each other rather than focusing on concerted effort to advance the species.  Could the perpetrators of that crime have taken a page from ancient myth?

The other question that arises is, if the gods got nervous the first time humans endeavored to reach the heavens through stargates and took severe action to prevent it, could they do it again?  If/when we start getting too close to god-like abilities, will some external force come down and stir the pot again?  If so, could the rise in UFO sightings in the past 70 years have something to do with that?  And will we humans be able to stop it this time?

And much more to the point, from the perspective of the Big Picture, are humans ready to obtain that kind of power?  After all, we seem incapable of solving some of the most mundane problems with our species.  It hardly seems advisable to let us go mucking around with the very fabric of space/time, much less carrying our errors into the cosmos.

Sure, the Babel incident was done to humanity to keep it unable to enter the heavens, but was that decision made because we threatened the hegemony of the gods, or because we threatened the peace of the Universe?

Looking around, I'd guess the latter.

The Doors Of Perception

It is estimated that our Milky Way galaxy contains roughly 300 billion stars.  Further estimates are that the Universe contains roughly 170 billion galaxies, some with far more than a trillion stars in them.

Over the past two decades, a combination of techniques and studies have so far found 925 planets in 713 systems (presumably excluding ours) in a bubble centered on Earth roughly 300 light years in diameter.  Considering the Milky Way is 250,000 light years across, that's a tiny fraction of one galaxy out of 170 billion.  I won't post any links.  You can verify the numbers easily enough.

There are a lot of estimates out there, but the median guess is that there are a couple of billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone, meaning roughly the same size, water/oxygen environment, Goldielocks Zone, etc.  Just 20 years ago, we could put any number here, but using statistical reasoning (take it for what you will), we now have a fairly reasonable assurance of some kind of validity.

A number of years ago, a fellow by the name of Drake came up with a back-of-the-envelope equation as a talking point for a symposium.  The idea was to somehow quantify the idea of possible life in the Universe.  Some of the variables were fairly well agreed upon, others were just plucked from the air, but no matter how you sliced it, you got a pretty big number for an answer.

This led to the Fermi Paradox.  You have probably heard of Enrico Fermi in high school physics, but you may not know his paradox:

• The Sun is a young star. There are billions of stars in the galaxy that are billions of years older;
•  Some of these stars likely have Earth-like planets[2] which, if the Earth is typical, may develop intelligent life;
•  Presumably some of these civilizations will develop interstellar travel, a technology Earth is investigating even now;
•  At any practical pace of interstellar travel, the galaxy can be completely colonized in a few tens of millions of years.

In other words, why aren't we up to our Blessed Assurances in extra-terrestrials?  Another question that arises is how likely is it that Earth is a colony of some other civilization?

Aye, there's the rub.

Without empirical data, i.e. some 'authority' offering us plebes indisputable 'proof' that we are not alone, then we cannot reasonably say without a doubt that we are not alone.  However, given the statistical estimates based on observation that fall out of the data we have, it is unreasonable to assume that we are alone.  We have found life in virtually every possible habitat on Earth, so why wouldn't life take to pretty much every habitat we observe in the Universe?

There is a growing minority that believes some combination of the following:

• the Universe is teeming with life;
• we are a legacy of some other civilization;
• we are being visited by other civilizations;
• we are actively engaged in contact with other civilizations.

The first premise I find hard to resist.  Everything we have observed about life on Earth argues that the Universe produces life as a normal function of its existence.  Given the umpteen trillion possibilities that we can reasonably assume to exist, we cannot possibly be the only result achieved.  Whether all results have the ability to recognize each other, much less contact each other, remains to be seen.  After all, we are still debating whether we are the only sentient beings on Earth.  India just recently declared dolphins non-human persons and chimpanzees can learn and manipulate human language.  We can't even agree on what constitutes intelligence.

The second point is a bit more contentious.  There is a growing body of evidence that human civilization is a legacy of some past advanced society.  Even if we dismiss myths such as Atlantis, there are still profound questions about the genesis of monolithic structures that predate anything approaching recorded history.  There are hundreds of submerged structures, roads and cities all over the planet that exhibit advanced architecture and are obviously part of some earlier time when the Earth's coastlines were radically different.

There is also the mystery of our DNA.  A large chunk of our genome is referred to as 'junk DNA', but a significant number of researchers question that designation.  Others speculate that it serves some as yet unknown purpose.  Still others say that it encodes data from a more ancient civilization waiting for us to discover how to read it.  Much of this involves belief, which still requires a leap of faith.  In other words, there is no surety, at least on the level of 'generally accepted' reality.

The third proposition is that we are being visited by other civilizations.  Here we step firmly into the UFO argument.  I think it is unreasonable to deny that there is a phenomenon called UFOs.  I personally have had three experiences with aerial events that I still cannot explain with 'normal' means.  There are also a great many respected and intelligent people who have witnessed these things, from astronauts to beat cops, and are presumably sober and professional in their descriptions.

Furthermore, the observed behavior of many UFO sightings show some kind of intelligent control, since they seem to do things and go places that exhibit premeditation and reaction to environmental conditions.  Whether they are man-made, powered by ETs, or just dolphin technology remains to be seen.  Too many of the reported sightings of beings inside the objects smack of religious delusions for my tastes.

I must conclude that they exist and that many of the phenomena exhibit intelligent control, but I reserve judgement on who or what that intelligence might be.

The final proposition is the most controversial: that some groups on Earth are not only in contact with, but are actively involved with extra-terrestrial societies.  It would seem that the former Canadian Defense Minister believes this to be true.  One assumes that he is a sober and reasonable man based on his title, but I also apply the "Weiner Filter" to any and all public officials.

From von Danekin to Linda Mouton Howe to Richard Hoagland, lots of people speculate on this particular idea, and (in the case of Hoagland) present a lot of evidence worth pursuing, to boot.  Yes, the evidence warrants further investigation, but it is a bit premature to dive head-first into the "contact" camp without some evidence that meets 'reasonable doubt' tests.

What we can reasonably conclude is that there is a large and growing body of evidence that the Universe is full of life and likely other civilizations.  We can also see plenty of evidence throughout the solar system that appears to be manufactured architecture, even massive spacecraft, that deserve much greater investigation, and not just swept off the table as 'tricks of light and shadow'.  Far too much of it cannot be explained by generally accepted phenomena and methods.

There is a huge body of research on ancient myths and legends across hundreds of human societies that show remarkable similarities despite the common belief that far-flung humans had no contact in ancient times.  Wallace Thornhill, Joseph Campbell and Joseph Farrell have, among many others, presented compelling arguments linking ancient myths to real phenomena.

What it comes down to is that we must approach these ideas with open minds.  That doesn't mean unqualified acceptance, as is expected with religious beliefs, but sober and thoughtful consideration of the facts, and support of those efforts that seek to prove or disprove the conclusions.

Among those who believe that ancient human societies had no contact with each other, they posit that the distances and natural barriers between societies was greater than the technology of the time could overcome.  Thus, they were unable to exchange ideas across great distances, such as the Pacific Ocean.

In the same way, those who argue that Earth cannot be in contact with other civilizations because of the vast distances and natural barriers that exist between star systems.  Cosmological Pacific Oceans, if you will.

Yet, there are petroglyphs in California that bear ancient Chinese symbols.  There are ancient Chinese records that show drawings of prickly pear cacti.  There are Egyptian mummies that test positive for cocaine, and pyramids in Central and South America.  There are symbols, such as the swastika, that span ages and continents.  Obviously, there is an error somewhere in our currently 'accepted' history.  It is thus reasonable to assume that if there are other civilizations, that we could have had contact at any point in our history, and the knowledge has been lost, hidden or suppressed for whatever reasons, and certainly undiscovered.

And that is the point.  Clear thinking means that we may come to conclusions based on the evidence at hand.  In fact, we must make conclusions in order to function with any amount of effectiveness.  However, we must be open to new evidence, even if it contradicts what we have already concluded, no matter how seemingly fantastic it is compared to what we previously believed.  All knowledge is open to new evidence, otherwise there is no use to calling ourselves 'thinking' beings.

Nor can we even call ourselves alive.

As J.B.S. Haldane famously said, "Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose."

Dog Days Of August

MUSIC UP AND OVER

THE SCENE: We establish with aerials of a remote Swiss chalet.  It is obviously the possession of someone(s) with extreme and old wealth.  The camera flies across a vast ravine and enters through a set of French doors into...

INTERIOR SWISS CHALET: A richly appointed Euro-style sitting room, all walnut and leather with animal heads mounted tastefully around the walls.

There are a number of MEN sitting in a rough circle.  They are obviously well-to-do gentlemen, with a smattering of military types.

The CAMERA peds up from shoulder height to move across their heads until a set of wooden double doors are filling the frame.  Just as the camera settles on the shot, the doors burst open and STANLEY MOTSS is standing dead center, one hand on his hip, the other holding a Yorkshire terrier.  BED MUSIC

MOTSS: Gentlemen, you're pissing on my product.

A BEAT

GEORGE C. SCOTT: Mr. Motss.  We were wondering if you'd show up.

MOTSS: (enters room, doors shut) Don't give me that crap.  You knew when I had the idea sitting on my toilet this morning.  Let's dispense with the bullshit, shall we?

PATRICK STEWART: How may we help you, Mr. Motss?

MOTSS: (puts dog on a large coffee table) You know damn well what I'm doing here.  You killed my product.  I believe we had an agreement?

SCOTT: You have to understand the 'fog of war...'

MOTSS: Do I have to waste my precious time with brass mouthpieces here?  I created SEAL 6!  You told me I had the picture rights, residuals and two sequels.  I'm just a little miffed, if I may use such strong language?  I'm already in production!  I've got crews shooting in Morocco with Dolph Lundgren right now.  Before I can even post, you've killed 'em all!  Hell, we've got action figures in development.  How can I sell dead heroes?  You can't sell dead heroes!  Nobody wants a dead hero!

CHRISTOPHER LEE:  It was unavoidable, Mr. Motss.  Pakistan was threatening to open our little cage.  The damage that could cause...

MOTSS:  I could've gotten an Oscar here!  You've shot down my dream!  Now I have to start from scratch again.

SCOTT:  We'll be happy to arrange a posthumous Oscar.

MOTSS: Threats don't interest me.  Now about my career.

LEE:  How much, Mr. Motts?

MOTSS:  This?  This isn't about money.  Do I look like I need money?  I got an Armani and I'm holding a hairy damn dog.  Trust me, I don't need money.  There's a bigger picture here.

LEE: Precisely, Mr. Motss.  One even bigger than your own.  All of our careers are at stake.  Things have gotten into the wild, and not just about your SEALs.  We are...anxious about the future, and your mantle decorations do not advance The Goal.

MOTSS: Don't lecture me about Big Pictures.  My bio-pic on Che Guevara set the bar for Big Picture!  I created Madonna for you!  I AM Big Picture!

VOICE: Mr. Motss...

(Cut to wide of massive fireplace, a la Citizen Kane.  A LONE FIGURE stands to one side, framed by roaring flames.  The camera trucks in to a tight shot of the back of his head.  He turns to reveal...JAMES MASON.)

MASON:...it seems subtlty eludes one such as yourself.  Allow me to be blunt.

(Cut to wide as he crosses to oppose MOTSS)

MASON:  Your SEALs were fine work.  We used the bios that you created, even releasing one of the photos you made for your characters.  We appreciate the quality and depth of your efforts.  But, the issue at hand is that we are losing control.  We had expected the...masses...to react differently.  We're afraid that our timing may have been off.

MOTSS:  And that's a reason to kill my best work?  I even killed bin Laden for the sixth time, and people bought it.  You saw the YouTube videos of the boneheads dancing in the street.  And the burial at sea?  That was genius, baby, genius!


MASON:  There is no denying your talent, Mr. Motss.  Our relationship has been mutually beneficial, as I'm sure you will agree.

MOTSS:  All the way up until you scrambled my Oscar hopes.  I had the speach written and everything.  I even hear Chevy Chase is hosting next year.  You can't possi...

SCOTT:  This fruitcake is raining on the parade.  I'd love to commit his suicide.

MASON: Gentlemen, please.

LEE:  You see, Mr. Motss, where one door closes, another opens.  We have another, much larger project for you.

STEWART:  We want an alien invasion.

MOTSS:  Sci-fi?  I like it.  Always wanted to do a space opera.  Who gets creature design?  Do I get ILM?

STEWART:  We've already set up most of it.  You've got a comet, an asteroid and two planets to work with.  You will have some license, but you must adhere closely to the outline.  We need a creature that is menacing, but not unbelievable. No forehead appliques or cheerleader outfits.  The...masses...must be sufficiently frightened and distracted that they cling to us like a bad smell.

MASON:  Mr. Scott will brief you shortly on Project Blue Beam.

SCOTT:  Do I have to work with this...this man?


MOTSS:  Blue Beam?  What's Blue Beam?  I need some real toys here, and your giving me ray guns?

MASON:  It will allow you to project 3D images directly on to the atmosphere simultaneously worldwide.  Each person will hear the audio inside their heads through a signal from every cellphone tower across the globe.

MOTSS:  I'm liking it.  Got a kind of Goldfinger-y feel to it.  So, what's the upshot?  What do you want?  And what about my Oscar?

LEE:  We need the entire world to be frightened to death.  It must appear that a deadly virus has been released by an alien force to eradicate Mankind.  Only we will have the cure, so they must come to us.

MOTSS:  Wicked.  Sort of Star Trek meets War of the Worlds.  We'll need some serious talent.  This won't be a job for Tom Cruise.

STEWART:  Precisely, Mr. Motss.

MOTSS:  Got any flying stuff?  I'm betting all those sightings are probably yours, right?  But they look so 50s.  Don't you have something a little more, I don't know, Maserati?

MASON:  Mr. Scott, would you please illuminate our guest?

SCOTT: (grumbles) We have faster-than-light craft.  Fifth generation.  The largest will hold 100 men.  It'll get you to Mars and back in 20 minutes.

MOTSS:  I'm getting a picture here.  Comet passes near Earth.  Media hype stirs up pre-arrival anxiety.  It's revealed to be an alien craft.  I'm thinking Godzilla-running in the streets kinda shots.  The inhabitants drop in to claim Earth as their own.  Humans must surrender or be annihilated.  We can do the alien broadcasts from Mars.  Frame it right and no one will know the difference.  How's the lighting there?

MASON:  I believe you have the Big Picture, Mr. Motss.

MOTSS: Can I use Obama?  He's not looking too busy these days.  He and Woody hit the links just the other day.

LEE:  All our operatives are at your disposal.  We'd like you to use Putin, as well.  We want him built up into a global leader.

MOTSS:  Got it.  Perfect.  I'll do a James Bond-coming out of the water shirtless kinda thing.  The women and queens will go ga-ga over it!  I'll have them eating out of my hands!  Love his accent.

STEWART:  Be careful, Mr. Motss.  We need extreme caution at this point.  This is our biggest weapon.  We can't afford to let this one get away...like the SEALs.

MOTSS:  I'm still sensitive about my SEALs...please.  I almost started believing them myself!  Now that's talent,baby!  I'll need a little religious fanaticism to pull this off.  Who do you have?

STEWART:  We've already set up Rick Perry for you.  He's on-board with the program.

MOTSS:  Him?  He's such a pretty-boy.  Don't you have someone a little rougher?

LEE:  Trust us, Mr. Motss.  We've been at this for a long time.

MOTSS:  Ok, but at the first sign of trouble, I'm bailing on Perry.  Don't trust the guy.  What about budget?  I need some serious juice for this one.

STEWART:  You will have everything you need.

MOTSS:  Right!  Well, let's get on with it.  I've got a million ideas and I need to get them on paper fast!  Where can I work?

MASON: Mr. Scott will show you to your quarters and brief you.

SCOTT:  I feel like Nixon in China.  I'll try to restrain myself.  This way, Mr. Motss.  And don't forget your damn dog.

MOTSS:  Oh, that thing?  I just rented him for effect.  He's yours.  I hate dogs.  By the way, have you done any stage work?  You have a great voice for...I don't know, a general or something.

SCOTT:  I am a general, you dolt.

MOTSS:  I knew it!  What's your sign?

(They exit)

LEE:  I feel a bit uneasy about this one.  Events are moving much faster than we anticipated.

STEWART:  This alien invasion has been planned for decades.  George Lucas and Ridley Scott have been softening the targets for years.  Our polls show people are ready for this.

MASON: Gentlemen, we have only one concern.  We must keep a tight grip on this.  The usual leaks can't be tolerated.  If anyone becomes a problem, they are to be liquidated in the usual manner as fast as possible.  Understood?

(Cut to wide as all the heads are nodding thoughtfully...then cut to a figure who has sat silently in the back of the room until now)

CLAUDE RAINS:  This could be the dawn of a new day...

(MUSIC SWELLS/FADE TO BLACK)

Where To Mister?

UPDATE: Four words...I told you so.

It's getting pretty exciting, isn't it?  I mean, what with gold nearly hitting $1700 and the Dow shedding 500+, the SnP going neggies, and Drudge hyperventilating.  And Spider Man is now a half-breed homo.  hahahaha! Sometimes, the game is better from the nose-bleed section.  You get a lot more context this way.

So where to from here?  You're probably thinking that was the Big Finale, right?  Well, as they used to say on Monty Python...Waaaaiiiittt for iiiiiittttt...


They're not out of arrows yet.  Oh, sure the monetary thing is all used up and the CONgressional mid-season replacement is already tired out.  The wars are peetering out and Qaddafi is laughing his ass off about now.  One of the Big Guys from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is now in charge of OPEC.  Afghanistan and Iraq are getting out of hand, and there's serious mission creep into Pakistan (can you say "Cambodia").  So what can they possibly pull out of their blessed assurances to distract the entire world from the decline and fall of the American Empire.

Ah...that's the fun part.

If you're a webbot fan, then you already know about SpaceGoat Farts.

You can smell it already.  They're priming the pumps.  They've been holding this one for decades as the Ace in the Hole.

You can see it in the photos that Dawn is sending back from Vesta.  Gee, there's that word, Dawn.  Whenever you hear that word from Olympus, you should immediately take notice.  Anyway, the photos are clearly showing artificial what-nots all over the place.  There's some really funky stuff there, and they're only feeding the pix onesies and twosies, because they want to let it sink in and time the whole thing just right.

 Don't have to listen to me, just go look at them.  Don't listen to 'experts' and 'authorities,' you have perfectly good eyes.  Trust them.  Believe me, if I can see it, you can.

The next clue is the BBC sportscaster that saw a massive flying saucer over Hartsfordshire, England.  He got to the station and was sputtering for an hour about it.  That's just the latest, but it's been going on for a while, with more and more brazen appearances.  Scan YouTube or look up the Norway spiral.  That ain't Venus reflecting off of swamp gas during a full moon, there.

One that floored me was the headline, "Saltwater flowing on Mars."  What slayed me is that they take credit for just discovering this, but if you search 'Mars seeps.' you'll find out that REAL scientists have been hollering about this for well over a decade, with exhaustive studies, maps, theories, and lots more.  There's thousands of these things all around the equator of the planet!  And NASA just 'discovered' them?  C'mon.  Pull the other one.

Of course, we're still sending a multi-billion dollar rover to a dry hole, but that's another story...

The point of all this is, and I'm about to make a prediction here, and I'm usually pretty good at it, is that they are about to 'discover' something in space that will be so huge as to make all the economic stuff at home look bland and uninteresting.

I can just FEEL it.  They've just about got all the pieces in place.  This won't be another Clinton meteorite.  This won't be some 'fringers' jumping up and down about out-of-focus pictures.  Thsi will be something that makes every human being on Earth drop what they're doing and look up.

Maybe it has something to do with Comet Elenin, which would otherwise be so boring as to not even warrant a headline.  So why all the fear-mongering?

Maybe it will be a combination of revelations that many of us have known for years, but which the 'elites' have consistently denied, a la Face on Mars.

Maybe it will be a combination of things, or a huge armada of spaceships that decent upon the cities of Earth and announce their presence.

Whatever it will be, I can guarantee you that the real story will be far different from the porn-a-ganda that will suffuse every media outlet on the planet.

It won't be long.  Maybe a couple of months or so, but the tide is rising.  I see it in a thousand different places.  And the key is the coming collapse of everything.  They have to have us on our knees begging for a savior, before they can trot out their package deal.

Hegelian Dialectic.

Will it work?  The $1 quintillion question, that.  A lot of people are awake or waking up, so they need to kick it into gear.  Will the Awakers be enough to turn the tables on their best laid plans?  I certainly hope so.

At any rate, the time is coming, and fast.  It's like watching Kasparov manipulating the board and getting the trap set before springing it on his hapless victim.  It's fun to watch, but there's still that element of 'unknown' that keeps the popcorn a-poppin'.

Watch any and all headlines that have to do with space, planets, comets, the Sun, and UFOs.  See if you don't start seeing a pattern in them, like I do.  Grab a beer and a bong and saddle up.  The show is about to begin!


It's the Dawn of a New Day...

Running Around In [Crop] Circles

About a month ago, Indonesia got its very first home-grown crop circle. It's located near Yogyakarta, not far from Mount Merapi, recently famous for blowing its top.

The design is pretty basic, but it has raised quite a fuss, with heated discussions still underway.

There were reports of a UFO a couple of days after it appeared. A man was struck by lightning and killed when he climbed to the top of a hill to photograph it. One of the first people to see it swears that the morning dew on the tops of the rice was undisturbed. The Air Force and Nuclear Agency were called in to investigate, and both declared it 'safe.' Crowds of onlookers brought a mini-boom to the area as vendors sprang up to sell everything from bottled water to souvenirs.

Speculation falls into two camps, of course. One is the man-made/natural theory, and the other is aliens. Being highly superstitious people, both sides see omens regardless of which side of the fence they sit on.

I pointed out to anyone who cared to listen that if it is a 'real' crop circle, then the pattern will still be seen when the next crop is planted, as the plants within the affected areas will grow slightly differently. As far as any other speculation, I am squarely on the side of 'don't know.'

I do know that any sighting of UFOs since World War 2 are highly suspect. The Nazis were feverishly working on a project called Die Glocke, which involved advanced hyperdimensional physics and things like field propulsion, which if perfected, could certainly produce the flight characteristics of UFOs. Given 60 years of development by Russian and American programs, headed initially by Nazi scientists, I can easily imagine craft in use today which are far in advance of any 'public' space programs.

I have personally had three qute unusual sightings, the most recent of which was the middle of last year, and which I wrote up here on the Far Side. What I observed were quite real, and I was careful to note factht the events were very curious, I have no idea what technology generated them.

Do I believe in aliens? Well, I think Carl Sagan summed it up best in 'Contact': If there's no other life out there, then it's sure a huge waste of space. On the other hand, I have never met an alien. I have talked extensively with 'abductees,' though. I have seen the scars and felt the 'implants' and listened to the stories with an open mind, but I have heard nothing that just screamed extra-terestrial. One or two folks said they had implants removed and tested, with very unusual results, but they couldn't produce copies of the results nor could they name a doctor or lab technician with whom I could discuss the matter.

The problem is that there is entirely too much faith involved. That's one of the reasons I reject religion. They expect me to take wild stories on faith that defy any logic or reason, not the mention that the Book itself says I can get all the bennies for free, so why pay someone to go middleman for me?

The metaphor I used not too long ago was, I KNOW the sky is blue. I know WHY the sky is blue. I know that, given the physics, it can only BE blue. Now you want me to take on faith that it's green, and deny what reason and empiricism tell me is true?

Generally, people think they have me cornered when I say that I have strong reason to think there are ruins and artifacts throughout the Solar System of some previous, advanced civilization. So I MUST believe in aliens. Why? One doesn't follow the other necessarily. Nor does it require any faith.

I can look at and analyze photos with my own eyes, applying my own tools and techniques as a professional. I can duplicate calculations and observations and critically examine arguments. I can SEE buildings and structures. I can DEDUCE non-geological features. I can OBSERVE phenomena for myself. None of it REQUIRES aliens at all. It can all be explained through very human means, even if it requires radically changing our perspectives. Without conclusive evidence of alien presence on or around Earth, I am prone to think that humans themselves are capable of creating, or having created at sone time in the past, the very technology that can create UFOs and crop circles and archologies on other planets within our Solar System.

The work of some top-flight minds using empirical evidence leads to some amazing, though not necessarily alien conclusions.

Back to the topic of crop circles, I can envision certain geo-magnetic processes that could produce such formations. I can envision certain advanced technologies, albeit secret, that could do the same thing.

None of the crop circles I have looked at show anything uniquely 'alien.' The designs, methodology and even the interpretations all have decidedly Earth-bound connections. I do think that a lot of them are not formed by a bunch of drunk collage kids with ropes and boards, but do involve someone showing off some hi-tech toys that are currently in orbit around the Earth. Perhaps they are test-runs, along with things like the Norway Spiral and its cousin, the China Spiral, for Project Blue Beam.

I have seen chemtrails and I know for a fact they are nothing like contrails. I have seen UFOs and I know for a fact they are not 'open' technology. I have studied crop circles and I know they show nothing that is distinctly 'alien.' I have spent years studying photos from spacecraft and I am convinced that archologies exist on other planets and moons in our Solar System.

I am not, however, convinced that any of it proves the presence of 'alien' species in or around Earth. Logic demands that we take the least-speculative approach to unexplained phenomena.

However, consider this an open invitation to any alien species reading this blog: if your intentions are peaceful, then you are welcome to hang out at my place anytime and discuss the merits of hyperdimensional versus relativistic physics.

I'll keep the light on for you.

An Article of Faith

It finally happened. But first, a little background.

I have spent my entire life entranced and bewitched by the Cosmos. I have absorbed volumes of books, spent hours at the telescope and chose Astrophysics as my science elective at university (got As). I have followed the spece programs of various nations with intense interest. I can tell you the average orbital distances of all the planets in our Solar System, and give you the running count of extra-solar planets, as well as descriptions of the more unusual ones. I can name most of the moons by planet and give you the orbital period for many of the objects that float around in our cosmic neighborhood.

So when it happened, one might say I was ready.

Of particular interest to me has always been extraterrestrial life. Certainly, as Carl Sagan and the Drake Equation have noted, the likelihood of other civilizations existing at some point in history is quite high. As Sagan aptly noted, if there wasn't, it would be a colossal waste of space. And so, I have spent hours pouring over fuzzy photos and shaky videos, trying to formulate an opinion on the subject of UFOs. Why was it no one could get a clear shot of one, or if they did, it looked faked to me. Having spent 35 years creating video, film and photos, as well as being pretty darned good with PhotoShop, I think I can spot most fakes, no matter how good they are.

So when it happened, I was mentally prepared.

I had spent hours thinking about what I would do if I ever saw a UFO. I had read many witness accounts and was familiar with what they lacked, primarily due to the excitement and/or fear of the witness. I had thought about various ways to tell size, distance and elevation using an assortment of imaginary scenarios. I had planned in my head a series of tests that I would perform if the opportunity ever came, so that I could report accurately and scientifically, without hysterical interjections.

So when it happened, I simply began checking off the mental list.

Now, Indonesia, and especially Jakarta, does not have a lot of air traffic. Being the capital, the airspace is jealously guarded, and being a relatively poor country, there aren't a lot of private aircraft around. In the three years I have been here, I could list on one hand the number of helicopters I have seen, and even living fairly close to the international airport, there isn't a lot of commercial traffic, either. When I hear or see aircraft, it is a notable event, given that at home, I would probably see a year's worth of Indonesian traffic in a day or two. Additionally, the airport is in far west Jakarta and at the time it happened, I was in far east Jakarta, well away from any commercial interference. Furthermore, having spent a great number of hours in private and commercial craft, including many hours in helicopters, I am quite familiar with their capabilities. Thanks to some former Vietnam pilots, I have been given especially deep insights into helicopters, not always enjoyable.

This was not a private craft, commercial jet or helicopter.

My sightline was particularly clear. I was on the fourth-floor roof of an office with an unobstructed view 270 degrees around. There were no nimbus or cumulus clouds, and some high cirrus clouds, but they did not obscure the view. The time was 7 p.m. sharp on Friday, July 9, 2010. The sun had set about one hour before and the air quality was fair with no heat distortions. Jupiter was about 30 degrees above the western horizon, giving me a clear directional indication and elevation guide. It was a new moon, so there were no other particularly bright lights in the night sky. There are no tall buildings but one radio tower in the immediate area, but instead of being a hinderance, the tower came in handy.

When it happened, I had a clear view with known objects that gave me direction, distance and elevation.

I was between classes and had a minute to go up to the roof and take a short break to clear my head. As was my habit, I walked to the edge and leaned on the parapet while looking out over the landscape. I looked at Jupiter for a moment. As I scanned the horizon, a movement caught my eye to the north-northwest. I didn't pay particular attention to it until it made a rather abrupt move, rising straight up a significant distance, halting and then slowly drifting towards the north before stopping again.

I looked closely at it. I could perceive a dark object with a row of lights down the side that looked like car headlights, but they were changing brightness and color. They would change all together, with various ones getting bright, others dimming and colors shifting. After a moment or two, they would change again. They were shining directly out, not down, up or in any particular direction, as far as I could tell from my perspective. It moved again, this time sharply to the west, stopping, then drifting down and to the west again. It was not a jet of any kind. Helicopters cannot make moves as sharp and fast as this object was making, and it was also remaining perfectly level in the process. There was no swaying or swerving.

As I watched it, I grew aware of what I was seeing. I began to make measurements. Within a minute or so, it moved behind the radio tower, so I knew it was more than one kilometer away. That meant, but the angular size, that it was about 20 meters long and at least 2 meters thick. The black on black made it difficult to see the exact dimentions, but the lights gave me a clue to the length. At this point, it was approximately 20 degrees off the horizon, comparing with Jupiter further west.

At this point, it made another jump diagonally south and up, a span of about 10 degrees, in less than a second and stopped again. There was no sound from the object, as of engines whining or laboring. Even at the estimated distance, I should have heard something to make a move like that possible. As far as I could tell, it moved only across my field of view. I didn't detect any motion toward or away from me. I started to watch the light patterns, trying to detect any rhythm or correspondence with motion, but there didn't seem to be any connection, and the pattern seemed fairly random.

It was slowly drifting around, staying within a confined part of the sky. Judging by nearby objects, it was either about a kilometer away, or immense to appear the size that it did at greater distances. I continued to watch it for five minutes or so. It lazily drifted around, interrupting with incredibly fast jumps up, down and diagonally across the field of view. In order to get more information, I moved from one spot on the roof to another about six meters south. Using parallax and triangulation, I estimate that the object was about one and a half kilometers away, thus giving me approximate dimensions. I also got a pretty good idea over what landmarks it was hovering, so later I could check to see if there was anything in that area that would account for this thing.

It was getting close to time for me to leave, but I was having a hard time pulling myself away. I was slowly moving toward the door when the object simply vanished. It's hard to say whether I took my eyes off of it or not. As I think back on it, I have tried to determine if it moved incredibly fast directly away from me, folded into another dimension or just turned off the lights. The latter seems the most reasonable. At no time did I ever hear a sound from the direction of the object. When I got to my class, I related the story and two students mentioned a series of recent sightings in central and south Jakarta, including multiple objects at the same time and, as one student said, a 'mother ship.'

The next day, and several times since then, in both daylight and nighttime, I have looked at that the area closely from the same vantage point. Other than the radio tower, there are no tall buildings, no power lines, no objects at all over three stories tall. There are no tall objects in the background or mountains that could be mistaken for closer objects. Asking around the area, there were no promotions, fairs or other events that might have had some kind of areal display. There is one building about ten stories tall with a construction crane that is significantly further west of the radio tower, and so is well removed from the area of the sighting and could not explain what I saw.

I have listened to the tales of old sea-dogs, who on a long night at sea are sitting on deck and watching the amazing display of stars in a part of Earth where there is no pollution or lights or other interference. They have told me tales of watching the lights dance, the craft flying around the ship, sitting at the radar and tracking them. They have related tales of not one or two, but dozens of objects doing what I saw, for hours. They have used words like, "playful," "sinister" and "curious" to describe them. With a conspiratorial twinkle in their eyes, they say there's no way those are from around here.

I have read Filer's Files, watched breathless Fox specials, seen episodes of In Search Of…, and looked at endless photos and videos from around the world. I have heard very serious folks relate tales of abductions, injections and implants. I have patiently read Whitley Streiber and Erich von Daniken. I have reasoned and debated. Pondered and hypothesized. I have wished, hoped and wondered.

What happened that night a couple of weeks ago is similar in every aspect to hundreds of reports. The rapid and impossible maneuvers, the blinking lights and the surmised dimensions match dozens of accounts.

So the obvious question at this point is, "So do you believe now?" As if this issue could be reduced to some faith-based mysticism.

Do I believe in UFOs? Of course! Anyone who has spent more than a couple of hours reading up on the topic would have to believe in them. It's not a matter of faith, but of fact. There are sightings of aerial phenomena that cannot be explained.

Do I believe in aliens? Can't answer that one. Not enough evidence, or as Data might say on Star Trek, "Insufficient data, sir."

Do I think UFOs come from other planets? Well, what I saw certainly looked like a device, not swamp gas reflecting Venus. I could even anthropomorphize and say that it seemed to move with purpose, but I am only speculating. If it was a craft or device, it certainly moved like none I am familiar with in reading Jane's.

What I am prepared to stipulate is that what I saw was real, to me. I had no co-witnesses, so I cannot speak to its objective existence. If it was a craft or device, it moved like no other I have every heard of, nor did it make any sound that I could hear. It's origin and fate are unknown and I can only speculate. One thing I am sure of is that the characteristics of my sighting match the details of many others I have read or heard about.

Do I believe?

I believe I'll have another round and ponder some more.

[I would like to thank my colleague George Ure over at UrbanSurvival for his kind endorsement and glowing praise. A special welcome to any readers who have joined up thanks to George. Sampai jumpa!]