Random Thoughts

Rusty wrote:Finished Hart of Dixie!

Good show

UltimateMarvel wrote:Yep! Definitely gonna check those out.

Happy New Year to you guys!

WyldeMan wrote:Dave just dropped two more brand new specials on Netflix. I know what I'm watching now.

‘Look at That Thing!’ U.S. Navy Jet Encounters Unknown Object

A video shows an encounter between a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet and an unknown object. It was released by the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. By Courtesy of U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE on Publish Date December 16, 2017. Photo by Courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense. Watch in Times

WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.

The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena. Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space.

On CBS’s “60 Minutes” in May, Mr. Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that U.F.O.s have visited Earth.

Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, has had a longtime interest in space phenomena. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times

Working with Mr. Bigelow’s Las Vegas-based company, the program produced documents that describe sightings of aircraft that seemed to move at very high velocities with no visible signs of propulsion, or that hovered with no apparent means of lift.

Officials with the program have also studied videos of encounters between unknown objects and American military aircraft — including one released in August of a whitish oval object, about the size of a commercial plane, chased by two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Nimitz off the coast of San Diego in 2004.

Mr. Reid, who retired from Congress this year, said he was proud of the program. “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” Mr. Reid said in a recent interview in Nevada. “I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”

Two other former senators and top members of a defense spending subcommittee — Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, and Daniel K. Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat — also supported the program. Mr. Stevens died in 2010, and Mr. Inouye in 2012.

While not addressing the merits of the program, Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at M.I.T., cautioned that not knowing the origin of an object does not mean that it is from another planet or galaxy. “When people claim to observe truly unusual phenomena, sometimes it’s worth investigating seriously,” she said. But, she added, “what people sometimes don’t get about science is that we often have phenomena that remain unexplained.”

A video shows a 2004 encounter near San Diego between two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets and an unknown object. It was released by the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. By Courtesy of U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE on Publish Date December 16, 2017. Photo by U.S Department of Defense.

James E. Oberg, a former NASA space shuttle engineer and the author of 10 books on spaceflight who often debunks U.F.O. sightings, was also doubtful. “There are plenty of prosaic events and human perceptual traits that can account for these stories,” Mr. Oberg said. “Lots of people are active in the air and don’t want others to know about it. They are happy to lurk unrecognized in the noise, or even to stir it up as camouflage.”

Still, Mr. Oberg said he welcomed research. “There could well be a pearl there,” he said.

In response to questions from The Times, Pentagon officials this month acknowledged the existence of the program, which began as part of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Officials insisted that the effort had ended after five years, in 2012.

“It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding, and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change,” a Pentagon spokesman, Thomas Crosson, said in an email, referring to the Department of Defense.

But Mr. Elizondo said the only thing that had ended was the effort’s government funding, which dried up in 2012. From then on, Mr. Elizondo said in an interview, he worked with officials from the Navy and the C.I.A. He continued to work out of his Pentagon office until this past October, when he resigned to protest what he characterized as excessive secrecy and internal opposition.

“Why aren’t we spending more time and effort on this issue?” Mr. Elizondo wrote in a resignation letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Photo

Pentagon officials say the program ended in 2012, five years after it was created, but the official who led it said that only the government funding had ended then.

Mr. Elizondo said that the effort continued and that he had a successor, whom he declined to name.

U.F.O.s have been repeatedly investigated over the decades in the United States, including by the American military. In 1947, the Air Force began a series of studies that investigated more than 12,000 claimed U.F.O. sightings before it was officially ended in 1969. The project, which included a study code-named Project Blue Book, started in 1952, concluded that most sightings involved stars, clouds, conventional aircraft or spy planes, although 701 remained unexplained.

Robert C. Seamans Jr., the secretary of the Air Force at the time, said in a memorandum announcing the end of Project Blue Book that it “no longer can be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science.”

Mr. Reid said his interest in U.F.O.s came from Mr. Bigelow. In 2007, Mr. Reid said in the interview, Mr. Bigelow told him that an official with the Defense Intelligence Agency had approached him wanting to visit Mr. Bigelow’s ranch in Utah, where he conducted research.

Mr. Reid said he met with agency officials shortly after his meeting with Mr. Bigelow and learned that they wanted to start a research program on U.F.O.s. Mr. Reid then summoned Mr. Stevens and Mr. Inouye to a secure room in the Capitol.

“I had talked to John Glenn a number of years before,” Mr. Reid said, referring to the astronaut and former senator from Ohio, who died in 2016. Mr. Glenn, Mr. Reid said, had told him he thought that the federal government should be looking seriously into U.F.O.s, and should be talking to military service members, particularly pilots, who had reported seeing aircraft they could not identify or explain.

Luis Elizondo, who led the Pentagon effort to investigate U.F.O.s until October. He resigned to protest what he characterized as excessive secrecy and internal opposition to the program. Credit Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times

The sightings were not often reported up the military’s chain of command, Mr. Reid said, because service members were afraid they would be laughed at or stigmatized.

The meeting with Mr. Stevens and Mr. Inouye, Mr. Reid said, “was one of the easiest meetings I ever had.”

He added, “Ted Stevens said, ‘I’ve been waiting to do this since I was in the Air Force.’” (The Alaska senator had been a pilot in the Army’s air force, flying transport missions over China during World War II.)

During the meeting, Mr. Reid said, Mr. Stevens recounted being tailed by a strange aircraft with no known origin, which he said had followed his plane for miles.

None of the three senators wanted a public debate on the Senate floor about the funding for the program, Mr. Reid said. “This was so-called black money,” he said. “Stevens knows about it, Inouye knows about it. But that was it, and that’s how we wanted it.” Mr. Reid was referring to the Pentagon budget for classified programs.

Robert Bigelow, a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid, received most of the money allocated for the Pentagon program. On CBS’s “60 Minutes” in May, Mr. Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that U.F.O.s have visited Earth. Credit Isaac Brekken for The New York Times

Contracts obtained by The Times show a congressional appropriation of just under $22 million beginning in late 2008 through 2011. The money was used for management of the program, research and assessments of the threat posed by the objects.

The funding went to Mr. Bigelow’s company, Bigelow Aerospace, which hired subcontractors and solicited research for the program.

Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft.

“We’re sort of in the position of what would happen if you gave Leonardo da Vinci a garage-door opener,” said Harold E. Puthoff, an engineer who has conducted research on extrasensory perception for the C.I.A. and later worked as a contractor for the program. “First of all, he’d try to figure out what is this plastic stuff. He wouldn’t know anything about the electromagnetic signals involved or its function.”

The program collected video and audio recordings of reported U.F.O. incidents, including footage from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet showing an aircraft surrounded by some kind of glowing aura traveling at high speed and rotating as it moves. The Navy pilots can be heard trying to understand what they are seeing. “There’s a whole fleet of them,” one exclaims. Defense officials declined to release the location and date of the incident.

“Internationally, we are the most backward country in the world on this issue,” Mr. Bigelow said in an interview. “Our scientists are scared of being ostracized, and our media is scared of the stigma. China and Russia are much more open and work on this with huge organizations within their countries. Smaller countries like Belgium, France, England and South American countries like Chile are more open, too. They are proactive and willing to discuss this topic, rather than being held back by a juvenile taboo.”

By 2009, Mr. Reid decided that the program had made such extraordinary discoveries that he argued for heightened security to protect it. “Much progress has been made with the identification of several highly sensitive, unconventional aerospace-related findings,” Mr. Reid said in a letter to William Lynn III, a deputy defense secretary at the time, requesting that it be designated a “restricted special access program” limited to a few listed officials.

A 2009 Pentagon briefing summary of the program prepared by its director at the time asserted that “what was considered science fiction is now science fact,” and that the United States was incapable of defending itself against some of the technologies discovered. Mr. Reid’s request for the special designation was denied.

Mr. Elizondo, in his resignation letter of Oct. 4, said there was a need for more serious attention to “the many accounts from the Navy and other services of unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and displaying beyond-next-generation capabilities.” He expressed his frustration with the limitations placed on the program, telling Mr. Mattis that “there remains a vital need to ascertain capability and intent of these phenomena for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation.”

Mr. Elizondo has now joined Mr. Puthoff and another former Defense Department official, Christopher K. Mellon, who was a deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, in a new commercial venture called To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science. They are speaking publicly about their efforts as their venture aims to raise money for research into U.F.O.s.

In the interview, Mr. Elizondo said he and his government colleagues had determined that the phenomena they had studied did not seem to originate from any country. “That fact is not something any government or institution should classify in order to keep secret from the people,” he said.

For his part, Mr. Reid said he did not know where the objects had come from. “If anyone says they have the answers now, they’re fooling themselves,” he said. “We do not know.”

But, he said, “we have to start someplace.”

UltimateMarvel wrote:Aliens? I don't believe in that shit. But it's a smart way to get free money. lol

Detectorists, never seen or heard of it.

joey con carne wrote:

With the legalization of marijuana in California, Mike Tyson is ready to do a different kind of boxing — hot boxing, perhaps. The boxing icon and occasional actor broke ground last week to build a 40-acre marijuana farm.

The facility, called Tyson Ranch will be located in the desert in California City, 60 miles southwest of Death Valley. According to The Blast, 20 acres of the land will be used to cultivate cannabis and “will allow master growers to have maximum control of their environment.”

An avid advocate of the medicinal and healing attributes of marijuana, Tyson’s farm will also have a Tyson Cultivation School which will teach growers the latest methods in cannabis production. Tyson Holistic will run the ranch and will focus on treatment for men and women who have suffered from psychological ailments during military service.

In addition to the school and the facilities to grow pot, the ranch will essentially be a resort and include an edible factory, premium “glamping” campgrounds and cabins as well as an amphitheater. The farm has all the necessities for attendees to have a high-quality vacation.

Looks like Tyson is on his way to getting lots of green…in more ways than one.

The passage of Proposition 64 in November 2016 legalized the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana for adults. California will be the biggest state to legalize. Despite the proposition passing by 57 percent, it still remains controversial in some quarters, and governments are not fully behind the movement.

Recreational use of pot may be legal, but there are still plenty of restrictions. You can’t smoke it in public or within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center when children are present. And like alcohol, you can’t smoke and drive. Local governments have the authority to make their own rules governing use.

joey con carne wrote:Good for him. Damn, that's gonna be a lotta marijuana.

Speaking of Mike Tyson, I was watching Youtube video compilations of his earlier fights. God damn, he was awesome.

In advance of next week’s annual tech-palooza CES, Roku announced plans to roll out new voice functionality, enabling the company to keep pace with Amazon and Google as the tech industry and TV stakeholders place big bets on voice recognition.

The Roku Entertainment Assistant, along with expanded home entertainment licensing under the banner of Roku Connect, will hit the market this fall. Investors sent Roku shares, already riding high since last September’s IPO, up another 6% on the news, to $53.30. Since going public, shares have soared 122%, compared with 7% for the S&P 500, as Wall Street has embraced the underdog story of an independent tech company more than holding its own against deep-pocketed rivals.

Hardware licensing has become an important source of revenue for the company. Roku said Magnavox is becoming the ninth TV manufacturer to license its discovery technology, meaning that one of every five smart TVs sold in the U.S. features a Roku user interface.

While Roku’s video streaming devices already enable users to give verbal commands, the new system, which will be integrated into software, will enable wireless connections and integrated voice functionality, including of audio. Users of the new setup, the company said, will be able to say, “Hey Roku, play jazz in the living room,” and a smart soundbar using Roku Connect will play it even if the TV is off.

Licensing of Roku Connect, as with the smart-TV interface, will be an increasing objective for the company. The company plans to further detail the new initiatives during a press conference on Monday, the first day of CES, which runs through Jan. 11 in Las Vegas.

“We’ve always focused on making it incredibly simple for consumers to find and enjoy streaming entertainment on their TVs, and with an expanded Roku ecosystem, consumers will be able to add great sound to their TVs and audio around the whole home in a modern way,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood.

The added features will enable Roku to keep pace with heavily promoted offerings such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa, which are also expanding into a range of newer smart-home frontiers.

joey con carne wrote:God damn snow. Will be picking up a snowblower. I can't do this shit anymore.

Rusty wrote:

joey con carne wrote:God damn snow. Will be picking up a snowblower. I can't do this shit anymore.

I spent the day with a fan on

WyldeMan wrote:

Rusty wrote:

joey con carne wrote:God damn snow. Will be picking up a snowblower. I can't do this shit anymore.

I spent the day with a fan on

I worked in my garage in shorts cause it was a warm 42 degrees F.

Tyger wrote:I still come on the regular, just don’t always have something to say

joey con carne wrote:God damn snow. Will be picking up a snowblower. I can't do this shit anymore.

WyldeMan wrote:I was just curious after FB dropped out without a word and with such little activity I figured everybody had had enough of my shit.

Tyger wrote:I still come on the regular, just don’t always have something to say

Rusty wrote:

Tyger wrote:I still come on the regular, just don’t always have something to say

Same. I'm here daily, but none of the shows I'm watching are current, so there's not much to add to active topics.

Rusty wrote:Haha programming VCR's. Can't remember the number of times I'd set it to record something late at night/early morning, but still wake up in time just to be sure it was recording

Or be recording something, go out, only to find out that half way through someone came home and changed the channel

Tyger wrote:Hahahahaha I used to like that show too

Tyger wrote:I don't know why, but I thought Tom Arnold was the costar on Thunder, but I haven't looked it up before today

Residents and visitors in Hawaii have been recalling the shock of a false missile alarm, with many saying they thought they were going to die.

The alert of an incoming ballistic missile was sent wrongly on Saturday morning by an emergency system worker.

Victims of the ordeal spoke of hysteria and panicked evacuations.

The false alarm sparked recriminations, with state officials apologising and President Donald Trump's response called into question.

Why was the alert sent?

It was a mistake by an employee at Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency (EMA) who "pushed the wrong button" during procedures that occur during the handover of a shift.

The message was reportedly sent despite an onscreen prompt requesting confirmation.

Mobile phone users received the message at 08:07 (18:07 GMT): "Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill."

The alert was corrected by email 18 minutes later but there was no follow-up mobile text for 38 minutes, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports.

The alert system is in place because of the potential proximity of Hawaii to North Korean missiles.

So how did people react?

For some it was panic, a dash to a protective bathtub or hiding under manholes, contemplating what could be their last moments. For others, a resigned acceptance, thinking that staring at the beauty of Hawaii was not a bad way to go.

Hassan Deen, a student at Hawaii Pacific University, told the BBC the alert sparked a frenzy and he was locked for 47 minutes with 29 other students in a room with rubbish bins.

Emma Hine, who is visiting Hawaii from the UK, told the BBC: "It was one of the worst experiences because I actually thought we were going to die. I've got a daughter - Chloe - back home in the UK and I thought 'I'm not going to get a chance to say goodbye'. Everyone was genuinely terrified."

Her son, Lewis, a disability campaigner, suffered a seizure due to stress.

Marathon runner Lucja Leonard said she had heard of children being "pushed into drainpipes to get them protected".

"We all just huddled together and just thought - well, you know - if this is going to be the end I guess we're in a beautiful place, doing something we love but - God - it was pretty scary."

The false alarm also threw golfers at the PGA Tour's Sony Open at the Waialae Country Club into panic.

Steve Wheatcroft said "everyone is freaking out", although Justin Thomas was more laid back, saying: "I sat on my couch and opened up the sliding door and watched TV and listened to music. I was like, if it's my time, it's my time."

What are the recriminations?

Hawaii state officials were profusely apologetic.

Governor David Ige said: "I am sorry for the pain and confusion it caused. I, too, am extremely upset about this."

A federal investigation has started in the state and officials said they would work to ensure such a false alarm never happened again.

Vern Miyagi, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, also apologised for the "inadvertent mistake" but said the threat was still there.

"If this comes out, you're going to have only 12 to 13 minutes of warning before the actual event and please take this to heart," he said.

The apologies didn't satisfy some. Democratic House Representative Tulsi Gabbard said: "Everyone in America needs to understand that if you had to go through this, you would be as angry as I am."

Brigette Namata, a television reporter in Honolulu, said it was "mind-boggling that we have officials here, we have state workers that are in charge of our public safety and a huge, egregious, mistake like this happened".

Has anything already been done to fix this?

One of the problems was that the alert system did not allow for a correction to be sent quickly to mobiles.

State officials said a "cancellation template" would be created to address the problem, the New York Times reported .

Two people are also now required to sign off the issuing of an alert, it said.

State lawmakers are going to hold a hearing next Friday.

Is the president under fire?

Unsurprisingly, his critics have rounded on him for his perceived lack of response or comment.

Former defence department employee under President Barack Obama, Patrick Granfield, said "thank God the President was playing golf".

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis tweeted that the scare is "on YOU Mr Trump... Shame on your hate filled self".

Mr Trump's supporters have equally unsurprisingly defended him, pointing the blame at Hawaii and its Democratic government.

YourVoice America host Bill Mitchell tweeted: "So some dummy in Hawaii accidentally pushes the wrong button when Trump is playing golf and suddenly, 'Trump plays golf while we are under nuclear attack!' is the headline? I mean, c'mon."

The White House simply said Mr Trump had been briefed about the incident and called the alert "purely a state exercise".

His only tweet after the incident on Saturday was a general diatribe against "Fake News" and the "Mainstream Media", while on Sunday he addressed immigration and the economy.

Why was Hawaii already on edge?

North Korea's missile and nuclear programme is seen as a growing threat to America. Hawaii is one of the US states closest to North Korea.

In September Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test.

Last month, the Star-Advertiser reported that a missile launched from North Korea could strike Hawaii within 20 minutes of launch.

So Hawaii has reintroduced Cold War-era warning sirens . During a test last month, it was reported that 93% of them worked properly, although some could hardly be heard and 12 played the ambulance siren.