Even a Ponzi scheme makes money for the early participants. The endgame is that the "value" of the currency must be maintained by "mining" operations---which require electric power to run computers. Eventually, the required growth in "mining" cannot be supported and the enterprise collapses.

I've seen the value histories over time. They look like seismographs.

This is disappointing. Crypto isn't worth the paper it's not printed on.

The Russians have never succumbed to the panicky thinking about nuclear weapons. They have thought long and hard about how this works and are justifiably convinced that no Western power would escalate to strategic weapons for the sake of tactical goals.

In this event, the only danger is the UK deciding to jab the bear.

Helicopter flying in fog over mountains? The only mystery is that the two other helicopters did not also hit a mountainside.

Agreed. Helicopter ride + fog + mountains = end of the line. Once the fog is there, you have no safe way to find a place to land.

It's very simple. If Project Blue Beam were real, there would be real evidence. But arguments from "possibility" are just wishful thinking. An attempt to convert "could be" into "is," when nobody has the slightest idea what the terms of possibility are.

There's nothing to believe here. You seem to think that the world runs on belief, when the rest of us accept that it runs on knowledge. Where is this "reality"?

This is happening throughout Africa. African nations are getting more than tired and offended by the U.S. diplomatic bullying, naked bribery, and cultural pressure to accept perversion, which the African's abhor. They welcome the Russians, for example, who only want to do business and have no interest in meddling with their internal politics or culture.

Where is the justice in it working any other way when employed? (If you want to be the sole creator and copyright your work to sell directly freelance, then you have a monopoly on your work. You just have to be willing to do that.)

Again, you have the problem in basic logic, so common on this page. The onus is on those who assert the existence of something. I have seen nothing to suggest there is any such thing. It is like you are demanding for me to prove that unicorns or Leprechauns don't exist. Speculation is not evidence. Scientific ignorance is not an excuse for speculation. Believing "it must be so," is nothing more than wishful thinking.

I have a background in large-scale optics and inventions along this line, so I have an informed understanding of requirements. Ever heard of the Brocken Spectre?

I'm familiar with fast talkers (and can be one, myself). Since she didn't have much of substance to relate, speed assumes the appearance of knowledge. Mostly, she was hitting all the conspiracy buttons, which are suppositional package deals. A decidedly mixed bag.

Any artist (or creator) for hire is always subject to his work being used not according to his wishes, or repurposed, or revised by others. Someone who builds a house for hire gets no say in what becomes of the house after it is turned over to its owners. You need to readjust your conception of what is right and wrong when free trade is involved. And have more confidence in the originality of creators.

I guess you imagine that civilization is possible without large-scale manufactures or transportation and that we can all get along with the town's blacksmith and Dobbin. (I love horses, but they don't deliver furniture.) Good luck with that. Cities have always been the locus for employment, when there are few alternatives.

Whatever is wrong with Boeing is NOT the fault of the union. And cities are as necessary as agriculture, without which we would not have "civilization." My point stands: the faults are on the heads of the people, not on the nature of the institution.

I agree, especially if and when the work on the patent has been performed outside of scheduled hours. It is especially galling when some outside entity becomes aware of the patent and tries to approach the company for the purpose of collaboration on a realization---and the company doesn't even call them back. And then lets the patents lapse. I am contemplating the publication of all my other invention-related work, simply because I don't believe in hiding my light under a bushel.

Sorry, but this is a stream of pure B.S. There is nothing to "Project Blue Beam" or HAARP causing the solar flare effects. Lots of urban superstition from people who don't know beans about optics or radio waves. For them (as Arthur C. Clarke predicted), advanced technology is magic...and can do anything magical. It's a pity that this also stimulates delusions of grandeur, "understanding" things they really know nothing about.

She talks fast because the actual information content is low.

Like he said, if you create for hire, your product belongs to your employer. Otherwise, what are they paying for? Even technical products can be patented by your employer.

That's a new one on me. I can see that "ostensible" would have a "for show" aspect, but I understood it mostly to be for the sake of a "cover story." As in, "Ostensibly, he works as a freelance writer, but in reality..." I will look it up.

They are. I worked under the engineering and technical union at the Boeing Company. It's formation was urged by CEO T. A. Wilson. It defends the contract under which we work and negotiates the process by which employees are rated, promoted, discharged, or laid-off.

Any corruption can be dealt with decisively by the members...if they are so inclined. It was ruled for over a decade by a despotic Executive Director (a hired hand) who essentially bribed the union leadership to give him free rein, so long as he arranged to have their union work done by paid staff and approved their unionizing travel junkets. He was widely hated by the members at large. Eventually, a group of us organized a massive internal political effort to gain control of the Board of Directors and fire him. Union politics have no equal for being vile. It took us about 6 years and several thousand dollars out of our pockets to accomplish this. His minions threatened a maneuver to reinstall him, but the word quickly trickled up from the ground troops that any such effort would be met by a massive decertification effort. The idea was dropped like a hot potato. He was gone like a used bedsheet.

But the point is: it can be done if people are determined to do it. I was greatly disappointed by members who were nominally honest and conservative, who bitterly complained about the corruption and toadying. I would ask them if they would run for Council Representative to change the governance balance. "What? Me? I don't want anything to do with it." And thus, the moaners and bitchers deserve their fates along with the sheep.

Every complaint against unions can be made against municipal governments. But do we argue, therefore, we should have no cities? What kind of union you have is determined ENTIRELY by the will and wisdom of the members. As an institution, it is a valuable aspect of freedom of association.

Perhaps you mean "ostentatiously." I'm for that. I used to wear a steel ring embossed with crosses---but replaced that with a tungsten wedding ring when I got married. I'm of divided mind when it comes to display. It puts me in mind of Christ's criticism of the Pharisees.

Been there, done that. "The Land Unknown" (1957), except it invokes volcanically-heated valleys. Otherwise, try the novel "Projekt Saucer III: Genesis" (1980) by W. A. Harbinson, which involves UFO-flying Nazis. Are you aware of the microbial life found in the deep under-ice Lake Vostok?

So what? There are other accounts, all the same. You prove that any of it is wrong. I also pointed to the 1978 book that has photos of the dry valleys and lakes that Byrd mentioned, by an on-the-spot photographer who was seemingly unhindered by dire prohibitions on where to go. Byrd's claim was true---but only so far as it went. The dry valleys are bleak and cold, and not very representative of the ice sheet that is the rest of the continent.

My skepticism is directed toward those who claim they want to know, yet do absolutely nothing to confirm or refute the geographic reality, and insist on wallowing in their mythology and imaginary powerlessness. There are research stations across the continent. They publish research. No one resorts to them for information. This is just another branch of the Flat Earth know-nothingism.

Thanks. This goes together with the fan-boy adulation of Adolf Hitler that is sometimes also expressed. (Those who don't say Hitler was either a Jew or a Jewish stooge.) No Islam required. Just good, old-fashioned anti-Semitism.

Since you are talking about matters that aren't in reality, I have to think you are insane.

Did I mention the Smithsonian? I don't recall doing so. And the existing data speaks for itself. Plenty of people have been to Antarctica. The Byrd claim is overblown; the dry valleys have been known ever since. Plenty of photos. Cold as hell.