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Explorers of ideas are no enemy of science

By DAN HODDINOTT

I had an opportunity a little while ago to indulge in some speculative conversation with Giorgio Tsoukalos, producer of the Ancient Aliens TV series, on the topic of why it might be that evidence of advanced prehistoric civilizations is systemically dismissed by traditional scientists, educators and social engineers.

Giorgio Tsoukalos, left, and I

WE MIGHT BE ALIENS: Or we might not. Here I am discussing the possibilities with Giorgio Tsoukalos of Ancient Aliens fame.

Note that I didn’t say evidence of alien intervention in human history. We were talking about physical, not interpretative, evidence — in particular, precisely engineered megaliths of staggering proportion, many with astronomical reference points and exhibiting similar building styles wherever they’re found around the world. In spite of his in-show enthusiasm and the Internet memes that might lead you to believe Tsoukalos always arrives at the same conclusion — “aliens did it” — he expressed confidence that early humans likely carried out the work, under the tutelage of advanced instructors, whomever that might be.

We see eye to eye on some points and have differing viewpoints on others. Nevertheless, I found his insight refreshing, in part I’m sure because in him I see a fellow traveler predisposed to welcoming for consideration ideas that don’t check first with authority before flexing their wings. On the matter of whether extraterrestrial intervention might figure into ages-old mysteries that modern science has no tools to solve, I would defer to his insight — the perspective of one having immersed himself in practical research on the subject — over pronouncements made by an obedient believer in some official orthodoxy. Unlike those wont to toe official lines, the impression he left with me during our conversation at the “George Noory Live” event in Toronto is that he has little regard for merely being right, preferring instead to be correct in contributing to the body of human knowledge.

That is a position I can respect. It creates an environment where ideas can live or die by their own merits, not because they were propped up by conventional expectation or snuffed out by well-armed thought police. Continue reading

A new magical journey begins

By DAN HODDINOTT

Already ressurrecting myself from the exhaustion of keeping up with the breakneck pace of hopefuls trying to hang onto or get a sip from the cup of power afforded by municipal politics, I’m gearing up now for what to me is the better pursuit: the main stage at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall.

Main stage, Carnegie Hall

BEAUTIFUL, STORIED Carnegie Hall is calling. I’ll be there on March 29, performing as part of the Toronto-based Newchoir ensemble.

I have no personal interest in municipal politics. But as a journalist I’ve been compelled since campaign season opened in January to devote large blocks of time to chronicling the comings and goings of quite a large field of persons to whom it matters greatly, and also of those impacted by the characteristics some of the races have taken on. Pleasing some of the people some of the time is not a 9-to-5 pursuit. The clock does keep running well past closing time.

The streaking comet that is Oct. 27 cannot pass early enough. Looking back at the personal life allowed to lapse while my attention has been thus occupied, I note the number of performance opportunities of the artistic kind — my first love — having passed me by. I assure you, the votes will scarcely have been counted before I will have changed costume. Continue reading

From sea to shining sea

By DAN HODDINOTT

When visiting Los Angeles, they tell you, start at Venice Beach. I agree, the Pacific Ocean is as good a place as any to begin your tour. Or, better yet, to start a memorable journey. You never know where those westerlies will move you once you have turned your face away from their caress and feel them press like a firm hand upon your back.

Let go. You might just wind up anywhere.

Many a panorama glimpsed will make you gasp, especially those met unexpectedly as you round a bend in the road: mountains (sandstone, granite or cloaked in woods) rising impossibly high before you, valleys (desert or fertile) sweeping seemingly from sky to sky, relying on the mountains on either side to tell them where to stop.

You’ll wind your way through grimacing canyons, towering walls made grotesquely beautiful by the scars they still bear from the greater will of passing glaciers from long ago. You’ll encounter monuments in rock-strewn hills, some of them left behind by purposeless process, others hewn out of solid rock by the stronger will of human imagination. And in the cities, towns, farms and pastures met along the way one can see testament to human conquering, dreams and destiny — or at least fruitful occupation. Continue reading

Foreword to a conversation

By DAN HODDINOTT

I’ve come a long way from riding ice pans during spring breakup, and then from standing on the side of the road, as a teenager, thumbing a ride with whomever had the goodwill, the curiosity or the desire for company with a wind-whipped, rain-soaked, long-haired restless soul who had just started to recalculate the dimensions and boundaries of the world that had been handed to him. Since then, I’ve set sail in seafaring ships and inboard skiffs, ridden jet planes and jalopies, parachutes and pairs of boots, motorcycles and lawn mowers, elevators and elephants, fast cars and magic carpets — always headed somewhere, in whatever direction the ride was going before our paths intersected. Not to discount the lift of wind and wave, which has, in the meantime, also kept me in touch with my place in the grander scheme of things, and has served as a faithful gauge to measure just how far I’ve come.

If I’ve gone anywhere at all.

Brig Bay point or San Francisco: you still need a jacket in June. Bonne Bay or Big Sur: a cold wind still presses itself against the slope of the gallant hills. Bide Arm, Sapling Ridge or St. George: I can point out a whole array of wholesome people leading contented lives that resonate with the meaning they’ve found in whatever form the story of a coming savior has reached them. Continue reading

Setting the Twitter bird free

By DAN HODDINOTT

Saying it in 140 characters (or fewer) is a pretty good gimmick. As one for whom headline writing is an occupational mainstay, you’d expect a medium in which terse delivery is the only way would be my medium of choice.

Bravo for succinct communication, I say! Just the same, boo on a medium that can be both refreshingly terse and tediously cutesy at the same time.

Bravo for empowerment of the people to speak! Boo on those very people who use up their time at the podium with a litany of mindless drivel. Continue reading