November 2024 – Everydave Life

I read a lot of books that I enjoy and many that might me stop and think. Few make me stop in places and think “Wow! Mind blown!” but Imminent by Luis Elizondo is one those few.

And why wouldn’t it? The government having a top secret panel of psychics who’ve had their sixth sense enhanced and nurtured, used to the point of finding terrorists? That’s merely a side dish to what he tells of. Science having the ability to teleport things… but right now, only molecular, tiny things like single atoms? Still only a tiny tip of the iceberg. Admissions by highly trained, highly regarded governmental officials admitting that Brian Clarke seems correct? Turn that page!

You might remember that in the last book I reviewed here, But What If We’re Wrong, I noted that it included something of a debate between highly-regarded physicists (and oddly, Big Bang Theory guests) Neil Degrasse Tyson and Brian Clarke over how good our current scientific knowledge is. Tyson seemed to suggest we can understand everything right now, we’re mentally all-knowing. Clarke believes we still don’t understand many things. Even gravity might not exist as we think it does. Well, Imminent says many highly placed scientists are in his court, because we have evidence of our “laws” of physics being “broken” routinely. But not by us earthlings.

Craft that break the laws of physics… or else, a few minds he references suggest ones which conform to theories of physics, but in ways we can’t begin to fathom. Vehicles that would require approximately ten times the capacity of the entire power grid of the U.S. to run. Ones which can find and utilize wormholes to travel in time. Hydrogen fusion for energy. It’s beyond my understanding of science, but maybe I shouldn’t be upset with myself. It seems beyond the understanding of science of our most brilliant scientists.

Imminent is basically two books in one – one, the mind-blowing part, looking at things that we seem to have confirmation of regarding extraterrestrials and UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or what used to be referred to as UFOs) and their extraordinary capabilities here on Earth. The other part, dull in places but informative, details some of the extraordinary bureaucratic red-tape in place trying to prevent the public… and even some U.S. presidents (sorry W, Barack)… from finding out the truth. About things like extraordinary capabilities we know are being demonstrated right here, like craft that can fly five times faster than our fastest fighter jets… and then stop on a dime. Or make a 90-degree turn without slowing at all or banking. Apparently it would take a “blackbird” jet 100 or more miles to arc from due north to due east. These things can do it in 100 feet or less. Or drop right into the ocean from upper levels of the atmosphere, not make any waves and continue “flying” at thousands of MPH under the water. Those types of maneuvers, if even possible, would cause any aircraft we constructed to disintegrate into a myriad of debris and kill any human, or other animal inside. But these aren’t human, are they? Decorated high-ranking military and Pentagon officials have testified before Congress about recovering “beyond next generation” craft and “non-human biologics inside.” Craft that can penetrate “no fly zones” with the greatest of ease, and disappear if confronted. And ones which are seemingly obsessed with our nuclear capabilities, and testing to see if they can activate or deactivate them from above. And yes, if you have the time and patience, Luis even gives you some links to government papers to find online and try to make sense of, but which say exactly that.

Such things sound like science fiction of the cheap pulp variety no less. But the claims are coming from people who should know. Elizondo himself was the head of a Pentagon study looking at the issue of UAPs and highly-placed within the Department of Defense. Those qualifications are verifiable. The Department of Defense verify his credentials. Equally believable, are people like Chris Mellon, a former Deputy Secretary of Defense and the late senator Harry Reid, and others with similar credentials who fully back Elizondo’s claims. Elizondo eventually quit the Pentagon in order to be able to speak more publicly about the issue and has been largely responsible for the military eventually allowing release of the now-famous “Tic Tac” and Gimbal videos the navy took of UAPs that were tailing and at times seemingly menacing their ships and jets off both coasts, verifying them to be authentic.

To say Elizondo is frustrated is an under-statement. He says what he can disclose in the book is only a fraction of what he’s come across in his Pentagon work and he’s scared… not of personal ramifcations to himself, even when UAPS have crashed his BBQ parties. But he is scared as hell of anything, known or unknown that can best us that easily scientifically and can come and go anywhere they please with impunity, including over our weapons facilities, pose a major national threat to security. He likens it to Pearl Harbor, where the Japanese planes were seen on radar, but the technicians thought it was nothing – either a bad “read” or maybe their own friendly planes up and out to see the sunrise that they weren’t aware of. He doesn’t want people to be caught unaware this time.

Not all seem to agree, not surprisingly. Ever since the famous “Roswell Incident” of 1947, the American military and government has done its best to downplay the various sightings and occurrences and discredit those who report them. The tide is slowly turning, but there are many within the walls of Congress and the Pentagon who are doing their best to hold back the tide, according to him. It’s fascinating yet dull at the same time reading about the hoops he and his colleagues have had to jump through to try and retrieve even the scantest of documents and bits of evidence of , as a certain TV show used to say, knowing “the truth is out there”… already. It’s just hidden in camouflage. It’s also a little confusing trying to keep track of so many acronyms and abbreviations. We know “CIA” and “FBI” for instance, but “OUSD”, “AATIP”, “NRO”, “SASC”… the list is endless.

Aliens, black-op style government programs… and Blink 182 to boot (you’ll have to read it to see how they fit in!).If you were a fan of The X-files or are remotely interested in what the chances are there is life – intelligent, advanced life at that – beyond our little blue ball in the galaxy, Imminent is a book you should check out. It’s going to change the way you view the universe and our place in it… imminent-ly.

Once again I have a topic suggested via a writing prompt by John, over at The Sound of One Hand Typing. He actually has several good ideas this time out, so if time allows I may get to another in a day or two. But for today, a simple topic that oddly enough, my sweetie and I were just talking about last night : when shopping, do you buy “name” brands or generic/store ones (or a combination of both, John adds)? Luckily, she and I agree… and are in disagreement with most of her family. For us, it’s “go generic, unless there’s a really good reason not to.” I’d say about 80% to 90% of what we buy at grocery stores (that is branded, produce for example, isn’t … lettuce is lettuce!) is one of their own brands or other generic ones. That does leave about 10 or 20% of the time of course where we stick to the instantly-recognizable names. This is in contrast to her sister and brother-in-law, with whom we share a house. Good people, but ones who typically only want the brands seen advertised on national TV.

My reasoning is two-fold, but it boils down to money. We’re far from rich, so savings add up. Looking at our regular supermarket’s website, I see example after example… as I do when I’m picking out items at the store. Store brand frozen French fries, $3.09 for a two pound bag; Ore-ida brand $4.65… with a coupon. A small can of tomato sauce that we seem to end up using in half our menus… store brand, 50 cents, Hunts 70. A glass jar of seasoned pasta sauce, $2.48 for theirs, $3.10 for Classico in an equally nice glass jar. A case of 12 cans of lemon-lime pop, $4.64 for store brand vs $7.13 for it in Sprite. And on and on. Now, thankfully, 62 cents on the pasta sauce, for instance won’t break us. But, we already spend a lot on groceries and household needs; we’d be spending a lot more if we relied on the “names”. Those 62 cents there, 20 cents there, two bucks over there… together they add up. Yet many, like the relatives, insist on Land O’ Lakes butter or Hellman’s mayonnaise. It makes little sense to me. Her mom won’t use any pain killer not specifically named “Tylenol”. She just won’t believe that 500 mg of acetaminophen is the same whether the pill container says “Great Value” or “Tylenol.” Which brings me to point #2 – the Blind Taste Test.

It might be a different can of worms… or at least tomato sauce… if we noticed a difference and the national brands outshone and out-tasted the others. But they rarely do… particularly in things that aren’t the main components of a meal. Is a piece of toast made with store butter discernibly worse-tasting than one using Land O’Lakes? I rather doubt it. In fact, there are a few odd examples where we find we like the cheaper, store brand better. My sweetie, likes her lemon-lime pops (or “sodas” as most Texans call them), thankfully low-sugar ones, and finds she actually prefers the store brand. Likewise, we both find the store-bagged bread fresher and tastier than a couple of the more expensive brands which might be seen advertised in a copy of a food magazine.

Little wonder there aren’t many differences – supermarket chains rarely if ever actually manufacture their own non-perishable foods. They don’t have tomato canneries, or grow their own coffee, so chances are their products are coming off the same lines in factories run by Hunts. Or Ragu. Or Kleenex or Scott for the paper products and so on. When I worked in photography, way back when dinosaurs roamed freely and film was the medium used to record images, I quickly learned there were only really five companies that made color film. Period. End of story. No stores were making their own, but you sure could buy Sears film, or Walmart’s or Woolco or Black’s (in Canada, probably there were American camera store chains doing the same here). I had a collection of over 200 empty film canisters, each different from all the others. Each film in fact had a little identifier code along the edge of the negatives, so we, printing the pictures, could easily tell what film it really was, and adjust the printer correctly. That was important because Fuji for instance, had a different color balance than Agfa, which was different again than 3M, so to get good results, the printer had to be set accordingly film by film. The same was true with the batteries we sold – not too many people out there making AA alkalines beyond Eveready and Duracell for instance, but there sure are a lot of names on batteries sold in different stores.

But all that said, the obvious answer to the question has to be to try them and stick with what you like. For all our penny-pitching, there are exceptions to our rule, as there are any rules. A few things we find it really is worth digging deep for. My sweetie loves her cheap pop, for example but really, really likes Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, so we’ll pay the little extra to get that instead of a store variety. And while I won’t pay for name brand garbage bags – they’re garbage bags after all. They end up in the garbage! – I will happily spring for Dawn dish detergent. It works. We’ve tried lookalike store versions, which I suspect are actually made by Dawn’s manufacturer… but they’re diluted to near water. The store brand of them might be half the price of the name one, but if we use three or four times more to get the dishes clean… you do the math.

I guess the bottom line is a simple philosophy : it pays to be smart with your money. But life is too short to deny yourself a little luxury once every now and again.

Month: November 2024

Paging Fox Mulder : The Truth Is In Here, According To Elizondo

The Great Supermarket Debate