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Atavachron View Drop Down

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Posted: January 23 2014 at 19:44

You steampunk, you.

Dean

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Posted: January 23 2014 at 19:35

"Cunning that these gentlemen temporal adventurers wouldst sojourn in the reverse chronological fourth dimension to construct contraptions that are lighter than the very air we breath by the use of the extant technology of the day. Contraptions we might add that not only defy the laws of gravity but can be propelled in a forward commotion using the power of ones very own legs to turn rotating oars fixed in the form of a crucifix that we must apparently call a 'propellage' for its similarity in design with that of an Ironclad warship (as was witnessed upon Mississippi waterways some six and forty years earlier by reporters from the most reputable news journals). We can only conclude from this that they were indeed in the thrall of hobgoblins. In investigating this further we employed a detective from the Pinkerton agency, from his report he said that Mr Thomas Edison speculates that such a flying machine could be possibly constructed by the use of impermeable sacks containing some elementary gas for buoyancy, when the detective espied daguerreotype facsimile drawings of a flying ship invented by a Professor Jacques Charles of France from a full century previous Mr Edision did become agitated and crimson of face, curtly he bid the detective good day and summarily ejected him from the workshop. Later we contacted Detective W. Murdoch of the Toronto constabulary who had recently interviewed a Serbian immigrate Mr Nikola Tesla. In his telegraphic communication Mr Murdoch suspects that the balloon and air-screw (which we understand is 'propellage' in the Canadian vernacular) is an impractical solution given the propulsive power that can be obtained using a bicycle for an engine, however his suggestion that it is a manipulation of electricity and magnetics leads us to conjecture he has spent too much time in the company of Mr Tesla. Recalling the 'Crash at Crush' incident we suspected that if not publicised as such for public entertainment then some nefariously sanctioned conspiratorial skulduggery was being enacted. Being reminded of the circumstances regarding the assassination of President Garfield that rocked the nation five and ten years yonder we believe that certain details that have been withheld by the State Department could be related to other inexplicable phenomena in a chain of consequence of unbelievable magnitude to defy any reasoned conjecture of coincidence and chance. Mindful of the need to avoid bring the watchful gaze of the Department of Surreptitious Activities upon ourselves we endeavoured to contact an operative whose code name was alleged to be 'Profound Oesophagus' who claimed to have aural evidence recorded on several of Mr Edison's cylindrical waxes of conversations between [in his words] 'a personage in high office' and persons unknown. Armed with the knowledge that such information was purported to exist, forthwith we sent a clandestine enquiry to Mr. M. Holmes of the British civil service via one of our sympathetic associates, he in turn passed the matter over to his younger brother Sherlock, an amateur investigator of some considerable reputation, who (by way of a mutual acquaintance) contacted the renowned gentleman scientist Mr C. Babbage. Using the mathematical skills of Lord Byron's daughter Ada of Lovelace, Mr Babbage set his analytical engine to solving the problem. We await his results."

Edited by Dean - January 24 2014 at 04:17

What?

Galactic Melt View Drop Down

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Posted: January 23 2014 at 19:05

After all this time I finally started reading "Communion" by Whitley Strieber. Chilling to say the least....

dr wu23

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Posted: January 23 2014 at 18:22

Toaster Mantis wrote:

Time to resurrect an old thread, as I've been reading up on the precursor of the post-WW2 UFO phenomenon: The mystery airships seen in North America during the late 19th century before the historical record documents any actual dirigibles being operated there. (though a few had been built in Europe at the time) Some were attributed to Martians, others to foreign powers or mystery inventors straight out of a Jules Verne novel. Curious how those UFOs taking the form of physical nuts-and-bolts vehicles always are just one step ahead of "real life" cutting edge technology... cross-ref. the "ghost rockets" seen in Sweden between the end of WW2 and the first flying saucer sightings in 1947.

It's likely most of the airship stories were hoaxes or "tall tales", one attempt has been made at explaining how a Jules Verne-style mystery inventor could have been active at the time... but frankly I think if such an airship had existed at the time, the evidence would have been uncovered since the materials and equipment required to construct and operate it were so expensive that journalists investigating the airship sightings would have been able to track down the suspiciously specific orders of the necessary parts from mysterious customers. As is often the case Magonia has an interesting article on the cultural history and sociology-related aspects of the entire affair as well as the similar mystery airships seen the following decade in Britain and Denmark.

The mystery airships of the late 19th century makes for interesting reading. I suppose it could all be hoaxing but some how....I wonder.

Early steampunk time travelers...?

One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin

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Posted: January 23 2014 at 05:40

In-te-res-ting. Reminds me that I've just written a review for GoodReads of a book from the 1960s, which analyzes UFO sightings from which poorly understood or hitherto unknown natural phenomena might account for them. It's Mysterious Fires and Lights by Vincent Gaddis if you're curious.

"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook

Dean

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Posted: January 22 2014 at 05:57

In more recent news:

Ball Lightning Caught On Camera By Scientists For The First Time

What?

Toaster Mantis View Drop Down

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Posted: January 22 2014 at 05:54

Time to resurrect an old thread, as I've been reading up on the precursor of the post-WW2 UFO phenomenon: The mystery airships seen in North America during the late 19th century before the historical record documents any actual dirigibles being operated there. (though a few had been built in Europe at the time) Some were attributed to Martians, others to foreign powers or mystery inventors straight out of a Jules Verne novel. Curious how those UFOs taking the form of physical nuts-and-bolts vehicles always are just one step ahead of "real life" cutting edge technology... cross-ref. the "ghost rockets" seen in Sweden between the end of WW2 and the first flying saucer sightings in 1947.

It's likely most of the airship stories were hoaxes or "tall tales", one attempt has been made at explaining how a Jules Verne-style mystery inventor could have been active at the time... but frankly I think if such an airship had existed at the time, the evidence would have been uncovered since the materials and equipment required to construct and operate it were so expensive that journalists investigating the airship sightings would have been able to track down the suspiciously specific orders of the necessary parts from mysterious customers. As is often the case Magonia has an interesting article on the cultural history and sociology-related aspects of the entire affair as well as the similar mystery airships seen the following decade in Britain and Denmark.

Edited by Toaster Mantis - January 23 2014 at 07:06

"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook

dr wu23

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Posted: January 11 2014 at 09:57

Atavachron wrote:

what about Project UFO; it was a not-very-good X-Files precursor based on the real-life air force investigation "Project Bluebook".

Must have missed that one though I recall watching one called 'Dark Skies' that was pretty good.

One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin

Atavachron View Drop Down

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Posted: January 09 2014 at 19:46

what about Project UFO; it was a not-very-good X-Files precursor based on the real-life air force investigation "Project Bluebook".

dr wu23

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Posted: January 09 2014 at 08:09

Toaster Mantis wrote:

dr wu23 wrote:

Toaster Mantis wrote:

This thread is starting to feel like a bad X-Files episode.

There's no thing as a bad X-Files episode....some are just better than others.

I dunno, I've always found X-Files rather hit-and-miss... except the 2nd, 3rd and to a lesser extent the 4th season which happen to be some of my favourite genre television ever. It probably doesn't help that the writers never really could agree on where to take the "myth arc", with even more of the rejected ideas eventually turning up in Millennium.

Hmm....that's a good point but I did like Millenium and wished it had stayed on the air a little longer.

A bit off topic being the 'ufo thread' , but did you ever watch 'Fringe'?

Edited by dr wu23 - January 09 2014 at 08:13

One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin

Toaster Mantis View Drop Down

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Posted: January 09 2014 at 03:24

dr wu23 wrote:

Toaster Mantis wrote:

This thread is starting to feel like a bad X-Files episode.

There's no thing as a bad X-Files episode....some are just better than others.

"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook

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Posted: January 09 2014 at 03:19

I believe in things that are unidentified.

Atavachron View Drop Down

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Posted: January 09 2014 at 02:17

President's Men a great one, The Parallax View too

Dean

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Posted: January 09 2014 at 02:01

Atavachron wrote:

Dean wrote:

Saw it back in the day and promptly forgot about it, another around that time was Capricorn One, that too was pretty laughable but the conspiracy theory that inspired it persists despite all the evidence to the contrary.

The difference is Cap 1 was a terrific conspiracy thriller, one of the best of its day.

So, we like different films. The other conspiracy thrillers of its day were All The Presidents Men, The China Syndrome and Three Days Of The Condor...

What?

dr wu23

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Posted: January 08 2014 at 22:07

Toaster Mantis wrote:

This thread is starting to feel like a bad X-Files episode.

There's no thing as a bad X-Files episode....some are just better than others.

One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin

Atavachron View Drop Down

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Posted: January 08 2014 at 20:38

The difference is Cap 1 was a terrific conspiracy thriller, one of the best of its day.

Toaster Mantis View Drop Down

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Posted: January 08 2014 at 16:18

I didn't know until very recently that fans of obscure prog rock are ten times more likely than the average citizen to believe in ancient aliens, but it does not surprise me at all.

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON HAWKWIND

"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook

Equality 7-2521 View Drop Down

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