Yesterday my wife and I decided to take a partial day trip to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, roughly a one hour drive from our home.  It was a hot and muggy day in the Washington, DC area yesterday but we decided we needed an outing and were willing to brave the heat and humidity.  Even though I have lived in this area for more than four decades I had never visited Harpers Ferry.  It turned out to be a very interesting visit.  

The National Park Service is doing a great job of presenting the different facets of Harpers Ferry history to the public.  This very small town is located where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet.  The states of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia come together at the river banks.  We walked from West Virginia to Maryland and back over one of the bridges.  The history of the town involves George Washington deciding to build a US armory at Harpers Ferry, the operation of factories where innovations were developed that helped spark the industrial revolution,  includes the role of the Armory in the Lewis and Clark expedition, the fight for civil rights for African-Americans highlighted by the rebellion led by John Brown and civil war battles led by famous generals.  There were two other elements of Harpers Ferry history that were extremely interesting to me.  

The first of the two elements relates to Harpers Ferry's role as a transportation center during the early development stage of our nation.  On the Virginia and West Virginia side of the rivers the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad was developed in direct competition with the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal.  The remnants of multiple eras of train tracks and railroad river bridges are in full view of the observer.  As economic circumstances changed the railroads were rerouted and expanded to meet the need.  The Park Service has maps of the how the railroads were routed through the area during the Civil War.  There are remains of other tracks and bridges from later eras.  You can see how the railroad infrastructure changed over a span of 150 years by walking around the town and observation points.  One can also get a picture of the competition between canals and railroads that existed in that period.  In addition to the C&O Canal there is also a Shenandoah Canal that was part of the local transportation infrastructure.  One of the lessons of Harpers Ferry is one of long term competition between infrastructure investments.  In this case the railroads won and the canals lost, but even in losing the canals developed a market share of hauling certain commodities through the area, until floods created so much damage to the canals that they weren't worth repairing and putting back into service.  

The second of the two elements relates to the disappearance of infrastructure over time.  The Battle of Harpers Ferry took place in 1862.  Much of the Armory and many of the surrounding buildings were destroyed in the battle.  During the past 150 years part of the site has been built over by the railroads to support developing economic needs.  Some of the structure that survived the battle has been removed for safety reasons or salvage.  Natural disasters (floods in this case) have destroyed some of the old infrastructure and nature has covered most of the old foundations.  Archaeologists have uncovered the foundations of many of the original Armory buildings but left them underground to protect them.  This has all happened over only 150 years.  When we travel to other parts of the world and see infrastructure remains that are 500, 1000 or almost 5000 years old we should be amazed that there is anything left for us to see.  

Harpers Ferry is a very interesting place.  It is worth visiting if you are ever in the Washington DC area or its western suburbs.  

TPM

You may have noticed a section of this website titled, Cruising Around the World - One Culture at a Time, http://thepurplemuse.com/id35.html.  My wife and I have taken a number of cruises on four different cruise lines and literally cruised completely around the world.  We are currently scheduled to spend three weeks cruising in the North and Baltic Seas this summer.  My wife follows the happenings in the cruise industry via http://www.cruisecritic.com/community/?src=nav.  The Forums provide great information from fellow cruisers on future, current and past cruises on a wide range of subject matter. 

Currently, we have friends sailing on the Viking Star, http://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/ships/viking-star/index.html.  The Viking Star is the lead ship of the Viking Star class of cruise ships, and the first ocean going ship operated by Viking Ocean Cruises, a division of Viking Cruises.  Our friends boarded the ship in Istanbul about five weeks ago for a 50 day European cruise.  They knew they would be on the inaugural cruise of a brand new ocean going ship owned by a company that previously operated river cruises in in Europe, Russia, Asia and Egypt.  They expected to encounter some issues in the early days of the cruise that would be quickly resolved.  They expected an experienced cruise company that prides itself on its reputation for good service to meet their expectations over the 50 days of the cruise.  Unfortunately, they expected wrong! 

My wife has been following the commentary from our friends and other cruisers that signed up for the first 50 days on www.cruisecritic.com.  We have also received emails from our friends with more details on the issues and problems they have encountered.  Viking Ocean Cruises was not prepared to operate the Viking Star on the day the ship left Istanbul at a level of service that meets the most basic expectations of very experienced cruisers like our friends and many of the others that signed up for the first 50 days.  The management response to many of the issues that have been identified has been laughable.  To be fair the reports we are getting advise us that the overall level of service is improving but there continue to be problems that shouldn't occur.  Viking launched this service when they weren't ready for it.  They didn't go through the normal shake-down process that major cruise lines use for new ships.  It is also clear that many of the crew were inexperienced in ocean cruising and/or received poor management direction.  The level of dissatisfaction among the 50 day cruisers continues to build since the company is unable or unwilling to fix all of its problems.  The cruisers have even developed a slogan for describing the company response, or lack thereof, to its issues - It's the Viking way! 

How would you feel if you received a written invitation from the cruise line to a special dinner celebrating the christening of the Viking Star in Bergen, Norway on May 17?  You would probably be very happy to accept, get dressed up for a formal dinner and show up on time at the meeting location on the ship and be ready to board a bus to the dinner location.  How would you feel, after waiting an hour or so at the meeting location, to listen to the cruise director make an announcement to all of the 50 day cruisers that they are no longer invited to dinner!  The dinner invitation was rescinded!  And no explanation was provided as to what happened!  This happened to our friends and the other 50 day cruisers yesterday!  Unbelievable, but unfortunately very true.  How could any company screw up this badly?  Is Viking trying to set a record for angriest cruise customers based purely on service failures and inept management?  This story is absolutely true.

It is very clear that Viking's senior management is not a customer friendly group.  They have been working hard to market the Viking Star and sister ships to follow.  However, as word of their service failures becomes known through the cruise community I believe they will have a tough time achieving their business plan objectives.  People willing to pay a premium for a great cruise experience will not put up with continuing service problems.  Viking needs to get its act together quickly.  Otherwise, "its the Viking way" will be come the global standard in the ocean cruise industry for low quality premium service. 

TPM

A few months ago I was ordering some books from Amazon when I noticed a relatively new (published in 2012)  book by legendary author Erich von Daniken.  It has been many years since I had read one of von Daniken's books so I decided to add Odyssey of the Gods - The History of Extraterrestrial Contact in Ancient Greece to my cart.  Von Daniken states in the  final chapter that he wrote Odyssey of the Gods several years before it was published.

After a slow start the book became extremely interesting.  Von Daniken begins with a discussion and analysis of the ancient Greek story Argonautica, Jason, the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece.  Is this story mythology or does it contain some elements of history?  Since there is no absolute certainty of the route Jason and the Argonauts took on their quest, there is no way to determine how much of the story may be true.  Von Daniken makes the case that this very ancient story and other ancient Greek stories have elements of truth and that the Gods of mythology were extraterrestrials.  Von Daniken is well known for his views on this subject and he makes a reasonable but unproven case to support his views. 

The highlight of the book is Von Daniken's analysis of Plato's story of Atlantis.  I didn't remember, or maybe I never knew, that the Greek story of Atlantis actually originated from Egypt.  Von Daniken explains how the story of Atlantis became learned ancient history by the Greeks.  Von Daniken's makes an extensive effort to demonstrate that the legendary Troy is not the same site as Atlantis, a position advocated by Eberhard Zangger.  Von Daniken lists many of sites that other researchers have postulated as being the site of the legendary Atlantis.  Von Daniken doesn't advocate for any particular site as being Atlantis other than making the case that Atlantis was west of the Strait of Gibraltar (Pillars of Hercules), the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, as stated by Plato.  Von Danikien believes that Atlantis existed around 9,000 BC, as stated by Plato, as learned by the Greeks from the Egyptians. 

One of the most interesting parts of the entire book is von Daniken's discussion of a special metal used in Atlantis called orichalcum.  Orichalcum is discussed in Plato's writings.  Von Daniken compares orichalcum to a copper/gold/silver alloy found in artifacts of pre-Inca, pre-Columbian South America culture.  Subject matter experts have determined that the smelting and metals mixing process needed to produce these artifacts has never been surpassed to this day.  Are the South American alloys and orichalcum the same metal?  Did pre-Inca cultures interact with Atlantis?  Is it the same culture? 

History provides us tantalizing clues about our past.  But the evidence trail is incomplete.  Is mythology history?  What were the Gods?  Maybe, we will be able to answer these questions sometime in the future after obtaining a better understanding of our past. 

TPM

Yesterday's (March 7) Washington Post includes an opinion article on the Op-Ed page authored by Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, US Senator from Massachusetts and Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, Mayor of New York City.  The title of the article in the newspaper is "A new agenda from prosperity".  The title of the same article on-line is "How to revive the American Dream."  You can read the article on the Washington Post web site, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-revive-the-american-dream/2015/05/06/a583c94c-f323-11e4-b2f3-af5479e6bbdd_story.html.  Most political analysts consider Warren and de Blasio to be on the far left of the political spectrum.  They are true liberal progressives. 

Warren and de Blasio state that everything was going fine with the US economy and the middle class until the early 1980s when the US implemented trickle-down economics, which included tax cuts for those at the top, and deregulated Wall Street.  They state that the rich have gotten richer and "the rest of America - 90 percent of Americans - got nothing."  It should be noted that they don't attack President Reagan or even mention his name in the article, but the period they are discussing was when Reagan was in office.  The authors state "Government policies matter and can make a difference", which is true.  The authors list nine fundamental policy changes they would make to rebuild the US middle class.  They finish their piece stating "It is time to be bold.  The American Dream depends on it." 

The Warren, de Blasio piece is an article, not a book, or a long form presentation.  There is no way to review the entire history of post World War II US and global economics in a article.  But the authors leave out some fairly big issues like the stagflation that was dominating the US economy in the late 1970s that called for new approaches to economic policy and the massive US federal debt and projected long term liabilities and how globalization of the world economy developed and accelerated under President Clinton.  Their leader, President Obama, is championing a new trade deal with Asia which could advance globalization even further. 

The authors make a couple of points that are correct.  The financial industry deregulation of the early 1980s has proven to be a mistake.  There is far too much concentration in the industry and our nation would be better off if we broke up the biggest of the big banks.  They also make the point that "Education is still the best ticket to the middle class", which is absolutely true. 

Many of the policy changes they recommend require the US government to spend more money.  Millionaires and billionaires are designated by the authors to "pay their fair share" despite the fact that they already pay the vast majority of income taxes collected by the government today.  They also want to punish business bad guys like multinational corporations and oil companies.  There is no indication from the authors that they advocate any kind of balanced approach to revenue and spending or willingness to make fundamental changes in entitlements to eliminate much of our nations unfunded liabilities.  They just want to wave a magic government wand to make the American Dream come true for everyone by spending taxpayer funds. 

Warren and de Blasio did a good job of presenting a summary of the liberal progressive view of US economic policy.  It is very simplistic and ignores a lot of critical history and our current circumstances, the reality of globalization and our national debt as two examples.  If they want to bring independent thinkers into their camp they need to deal with fundamentals first and then discuss "real change."  They will never make the American Dream come true for anyone by simply restating their talking points. 

TPM

I just finished reading Richard M. Dolan's 2014 book, UFOs for the 21st Century Mind - A Fresh Guide to an Ancient Mystery.  Without a doubt this is the best book I have ever read on the subject of UFOs.  I have not read a lot of books on this extremely interesting topic but this one is head and shoulders above all the others in my library.  I highly recommend this book to anyone that has any interest in this topic. 

You may be thinking "Why does he like this book so much?" or "I don't believe in UFOs because they don't exist and therefore reading a book about UFOs is a waste of my time!"  The reason I like this book so much is that Mr. Dolan discusses all the issues concerning UFOs in a very analytical, questioning manner.  He addresses the complete situation in sufficient depth to be meaningful without overdoing any particular topic.  He addresses all the different aspects of the UFO debate including the possibility of ancient visitations, modern era events, government secrecy, contact and abduction, and related topics such as multidimensional space and exploring consciousness.  There are many examples provided for each topic he addresses and he provides references to other researchers work for more depth on each topic.  For those that are believers or just interested in the topic this is an excellent overview of the topic with meaningful depth.  However, if you believe this topic is complete nonsense I suggest you attempt to keep an open mind and read Mr. Dolan's book.  

You may be asking what do I believe since I am advocating that people read this book.  I believe there are simply too many legitimate reports from highly qualified people over a long period of time to ignore.  If only one of the reports is fact than some form of alien spacecraft or being has visited our planet and the reported history of the world is fundamentally changed.  I believe that the odds of at least one of the reports being legitimate is extremely high.  There some reports that are discussed in this book and other books that have an extremely high probability of being legitimate because of the people involved. 

However, Mr. Dolan, and other investigators, make the case that the US government has hidden its knowledge and involvement with aliens and UFOs for over 60 years behind a national security firewall while funding a huge black program dedicated to this subject.  It is extremely hard to believe that the US government can keep its involvement with aliens and UFOs a secret since thousands of individuals would have been involved in the program for over six decades.  Not one person with definitive knowledge and applicable documents has provided solid documentation to a researcher after all of this time?  How can that be?  This is my quandary. 

Mr. Dolan, despite writing an excellent book, and the many other researchers in the field have failed to provide indisputable evidence despite the thousands of events that have occurred.  Where is the indisputable evidence?  The other possibility, regarding reports of alien spacecraft, is that people are seeing advanced US aircraft that use propulsion technology that has been developed under black programs and is far more advanced than anything being used by conventional military forces.  One has to admit that this is a possibility and that some of the technology may have its origins in Nazi Germany during World War II.  One can make guesses or develop theories all night long about this topic. 

The people that provided legitimate reports saw or experienced something real.  Not all reports are legitimate.  What did the people see?  What did they experience?  I wish I knew for sure, but I don't.  Read Mr. Dolan's book if you want to learn more. 

TPM