Christmas Past, Present and Future

Christmas 2017 at the Tonnies' house.

"This is interesting. I just realized it's 3:00 AM on Christmas Eve and I'm blogging about viral holocaust.

Happy holidays from Kansas City!"

- Mac Tonnies, Posthuman Blues, December 24, 2004.


"Enjoy Xmas while we still have the oil-based infrastructure to transport useless crap to malls for overzealous shoppers to snatch up. It won't last."

- Mac Tonnies, Posthuman Blues, December 20, 2008.


"I wanted a Wicked Laser for Christmas, but I suppose I'll settle for an ion ray gun."

- Mac Tonnies, Posthuman Blues, January 8, 2006.

***

Well, the world may be going to hell in a tote-bag, but, happily, the year is almost over. Honestly, though, where would this blog be around the holidays if it weren't for Dana Tonnies and her Christmas trees? (Thanks again, D.)

Last year's theme was a Blue Christmas; this year's theme is plaid... and next year? Well, hopefully, not a "post-apocalyptic" Christmas... although, as a theme, it's not half-bad. All you'd have to do is spray-paint the tree matte-black. Kind of like the trees in California about now. (Sorry about that folks.)

Anyway, cynics tend to get a lot more cynical around the December holidays. In our defense, it might be all those Xmas-related pop tunes which are played non-stop in department stores for weeks before the fact... you know, prompting consumers to spend all that money (they don't have)... and/or provoking the occasional brain hemorrhage...

Mac wasn't exactly a raging fan of the holiday... well, except for the gift part. And, as any reader of Posthuman Blues would know, he loved getting those! Below the jump are some more Xmas quotes from Mac.

Meanwhile, today's the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year; the good news being that, by tomorrow, the days will begin to get longer... just in time for Xmas and the New Year. And, my wish? May we all have happier holidays than we think we will! ;-)

"Join the Adventure" (Updated February 19, 2018)

An image from a 2004 encounter near San Diego between two
Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets and an unknown object.
Photo by U.S Department of Defense.

"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."

- Excerpt from the NY Times article: Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.

"Join the Adventure"
The original Bigelow Aerospace logo.

"His signature quirk, however, is an obsession with space that extends beyond his business interests. In addition to the $100million Bigelow has already put into Bigelow Aerospace (and the $400million more he has promised), he has doled out millions to fund research into alien abductions and UFO sightings. He’s done some of the work himself, personally interviewing hundreds of people who claim to have had extraterrestrial encounters. In fact, one of the main reasons he’s so eager to get his stations launched is that he thinks they might provide a step toward making contact."

- A reference to Robert Bigelow from this Wired page.

***

Well, according to the Daily Galaxy, apparently SETI's Seth Shostak wasn't terribly impressed, but the latest bombshell regarding the Pentagon Defense Department's Secret UFO program has loads of other tongues wagging.

Similar to the CIA's unexpected confession in January of 2016, it seems the Defense Department had - and, possibly, has - its own covert UFO investigation in existence: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

I think the most intriguing aspect of the story is the involvement (and investment) of Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, a man who, among other things, claims to be an experiencer. Mac admitted having "his eye" on Bigelow in 2004, and judging by a few PB posts, seemed to admire him.

There are a number of recent articles regarding the Pentagon's disclosure... here are a few:
Newsweek's WE MAY NOT BE ALONE,’ FORMER PENTAGON UFO OFFICIAL SAYS ABOUT EVIDENCE OF ALIEN LIFE; Live Scence's Do You Want to Believe? Government UFO Search Never Stopped; the BBC's Pentagon ran secret multi-million dollar UFO programme; The Times' follow-up On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program, and, lastly the Huffington Post which may have been the first to break the story.

As luck would have it, however, there's more end-of-the-year news...