Something's in the air...

This past weekend we celebrated the Fourth of July in the United States. Like so many others on Saturday, my family and I were on the beach watching fireworks when my mother pointed out three orange glowing orbs in the sky. I watched them intently for several minutes as they hovered and quickly dismissed them. We had seen similar Chinese lanterns last year.

But something else has been happening. My stat counter over the past few days has been off the charts, and every visitor to this blog has come searching for two things, Puma Punku, and Ancient Aliens.

And then I saw this...they all describe yellow/orange orbs in the same direction we saw ours on July 4th.

July 4th UFO comments chime in from 14 states

And then...this crop circle was reported on July 5. Crop Circle activity in general has been very high recently.

The Mayan Motif Returns to Silbury Hill


Have no idea what it all is or what it mean, but I can tell you with absolute certainty, there is something in the air.

Images John Montgomery/Steve Alexander Copyright 2009

George Washington was our Luke Skywalker

So I'm hanging out with my little guy who is obsessed with Star Wars, trying to explain Independence Day to him, when I realized that George Washington was Luke Skywalker...fighting for freedom from the control of an Empire, the odds stacked against him, armed with little else than deeply held convictions about what is good and just in this world.

Independence day quote:

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” George Wasgington

Two great Independence Day reads:

Green Balloons for the Iran!

The latest: Iranian cleric calls for the execution of "rioters," Mousavi vows to continue fight, satellites confiscated in Iran, Internet connections at a crawl in Tehran…

From Huffpost Iranian Uprising Live Blog: 8:36 AM ET -- Green balloons. The Mousavi camp called for people worldwide to release green balloons today in a show of support, but green trash bags work too if you're in a bind.

Or, you can help Iranians and the environment by sending up virtual balloons instead! News of Michael Jackson's death is flooding twitter, making it difficult for the opposition to organize. If you blog or tweet, please take some time today to help keep the voice of the opposition strong.

The Facebook/Twitter Revolution

UPDATE: Live-blogging the Uprising on Huffington Post.

The Facebook/Twitter Revolution. That's what it is being called. What John Adams would have thought of this!

"The Revolution," Mr. Adams once said, "was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution." John Adams, second President of the United States.

My thoughts today are with a small band of rebels, the Loyal Nine as they were first called. It was a movement that spread like fire throughout the thirteen original colonies. They are the reason for the flag pole you see on every town green, and the primary catalyst for a Revolution that would be heard and felt around the world. I am speaking of course of the Sons of Liberty. It is hard not to think of them when looking at the images coming out of Iran this week. And to think of how many people in this country don't vote if the weather is bad on election day. *Sigh.*


My thoughts today are with those acting as the brave voice of change in Iran.

Photo #1: Protesters questioning the validity of the recent Iranian election. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

Photo #2: Fires burn in Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Monday, June 15, 2009. (AP Photo)

Photo #3: A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi shouts slogans during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. (OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)

Puma Punku: The Door of the Cougar

Of all the compelling images in the History Channel’s special Ancient Aliens, the ones that haunt me most are of Puma Punku, a temple complex located in Tiwanaku, Bolivia, 13,000 feet up on a barren plateau in the Andes. Puma Punku means, “The Door of the Cougar.” It rose 56 feet, swallowed an area of 164 feet squared, and was constructed of monoliths weighing anywhere from 200 to 450 tons. Constructed 17,000 years ago by an ancient culture with no access to lumber and before the invention of the wheel

Even more remarkable, the granite used to build Puma Punku is impossibly hard, and yet somehow straight channels measuring only 1 cm deep were carved—perfectly proportioned from start to finish—amongst equi-distant holes drilled into the hardest granite found on earth using ancient tools. The monoliths themselves were cut with such precision that when stacked, they fit together like a puzzle—a remarkable feet of engineering even by today’s standards.

Archaeologists remain mystified as to how Puma Punku was built. Paleocontact theorists, however, have a few ideas of their own..

Dry rub or marinade? Prehistoric BBQ Pit Discovered.

Imagine trying to pit roast that? Turns out prehistoric humans knew how to "super size" their meals. At a site called Pavlov VI in the Czech Republic, archaeologists have uncovered a kitchen dating to 29,000 B.C. where Woolly Mammoths were roasted "luau-style underground."

From the Discovery News article written by Jennifer Viegas:

It's unclear if seafood was added to create a surf-and-turf meal, but multiple decorated shells were unearthed. Many showed signs of cut marks, along with red and black coloration. The scientists additionally found numerous stone tools, such as spatulas, blades and saws, which they suggest were good for carving mammoths.

Click here for the prehistoric bbq slide show and here for the full story at Discovery News.

Photo: Woolly mammoth replica in a museum exhibit in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Jonathan Blair/Corbis

Holy Time-drain Batman!

See that? It's my day going right down the Facebook drain. And I've barely begun over at Goodreads and Jaket Flap. Just thinking about Twitter makes me shake...

What I did not do today was work on my synopsis for TREASURE. No synopsis means four query packets remain in a holding pattern on my desk and we all know you can't get an agent unless you query the agent first. So my question is this...the publishing industry is one that values this kind of connectivity, but is the value of blogging, Facebooking, Myspacing, Jacket Flapping and (eee gads) Twittering worth the time we loose doing the actual writing?

What do you think?