Post by meldrew on Jan 13, 2011 12:35:25 GMT 1
devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com
January 11th, 2011 09:34am
Someday, the pipeline will run dry
by Billy Cox
Is Saudi Arabia contemplating its survival by including a UFO discussion in its "Innovations" summit?/CREDIT: reformation.org
So, like, what’s up with Saudi Arabia?
In 2006, the House of Saud shelled out who knows how much to attract world-class business, tech, political and intellectual luminaries to an international summit called the Global Competiveness Forum; they injected it with steroids by nailing Bill Gates as the headliner. Last year, former UK prime minister Tony Blair topped the marquee.
On Jan. 22-25, this opportunity-hunting expedition into the 21st century will enter its fifth year in Riyadh when power hitters like the chairmen of Walt Disney International, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and China’s First Eastern Development join the CEOs of Rolls-Royce, Alcoa, Putnam Investments, and OneSun Energy — to name just a few — for a powwow called “Innovations as a Means to Competitiveness.” If you haven’t already paid your $4,000 early-registration fee, tough nuts. Now it’ll cost you $5,000. And the GCS is anticipating 800 attendees a day.
But yo — what’s this? On 1/23 there’s an hour and 15-minute program called “Learning From Outer Space.” Check out the lineup: progressive physicist Michio Kaku and UFO investigators Jacques Vallee, Nick Pope, and Stan Friedman. “When they contacted me about it a few months ago, I said ‘I have to tell you I’m Jewish,’” Friedman recalls with a chuckle, “and they said, ‘That won’t be a problem.’”
Like most regular mortals, Friedman hadn’t heard of this event before, either. But from his home in New Brunswick, Canada, the author of Flying Saucers and Science — among other things — commends the Saudis for paying more than lip service to an “Innovations” summit.
“Our perceptions of what is feasible are shaped by what we know can be done, but my mantra has always been that progress comes from doing things differently in an unpredictable way,” says the nuclear physicist. “For instance, what’s this nonsense about restricting ourselves to chemical rockets? Come on. I worked on fission and fusion rockets in the Sixties.
“Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers can operate for 18 years without refueling; it changed warfare forever. An advanced civilization with just a 100-year head start on us would have figured that out because that’s what fuels the stars.”
But to push it to the next level, Friedman says, science “has to make a list of things UFOs can do that we can’t do. We can’t back up in mid-flight. We can’t make instant right-angle turns. We can’t fly silently, for the most part, and get around sonic booms. But if a craft can interact with its surroundings, you can get around all those problems.”
Astonishing, the idea of Saudi Arabia being more inquisitive than the British Royal Society in the vision department. Friedman calls it “such a puzzle” to be included on a card “with a list of who’s who in the international business world.”
On the other hand, maybe the GCF’s intention to “expose a lot of people to the different paths to be taken to new ideas” isn’t so mysterious at all, Friedman says. “Maybe they think there’s something better than oil.”
No doubt, the Kingdom has the money to find out.
January 11th, 2011 09:34am
Someday, the pipeline will run dry
by Billy Cox
Is Saudi Arabia contemplating its survival by including a UFO discussion in its "Innovations" summit?/CREDIT: reformation.org
So, like, what’s up with Saudi Arabia?
In 2006, the House of Saud shelled out who knows how much to attract world-class business, tech, political and intellectual luminaries to an international summit called the Global Competiveness Forum; they injected it with steroids by nailing Bill Gates as the headliner. Last year, former UK prime minister Tony Blair topped the marquee.
On Jan. 22-25, this opportunity-hunting expedition into the 21st century will enter its fifth year in Riyadh when power hitters like the chairmen of Walt Disney International, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and China’s First Eastern Development join the CEOs of Rolls-Royce, Alcoa, Putnam Investments, and OneSun Energy — to name just a few — for a powwow called “Innovations as a Means to Competitiveness.” If you haven’t already paid your $4,000 early-registration fee, tough nuts. Now it’ll cost you $5,000. And the GCS is anticipating 800 attendees a day.
But yo — what’s this? On 1/23 there’s an hour and 15-minute program called “Learning From Outer Space.” Check out the lineup: progressive physicist Michio Kaku and UFO investigators Jacques Vallee, Nick Pope, and Stan Friedman. “When they contacted me about it a few months ago, I said ‘I have to tell you I’m Jewish,’” Friedman recalls with a chuckle, “and they said, ‘That won’t be a problem.’”
Like most regular mortals, Friedman hadn’t heard of this event before, either. But from his home in New Brunswick, Canada, the author of Flying Saucers and Science — among other things — commends the Saudis for paying more than lip service to an “Innovations” summit.
“Our perceptions of what is feasible are shaped by what we know can be done, but my mantra has always been that progress comes from doing things differently in an unpredictable way,” says the nuclear physicist. “For instance, what’s this nonsense about restricting ourselves to chemical rockets? Come on. I worked on fission and fusion rockets in the Sixties.
“Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers can operate for 18 years without refueling; it changed warfare forever. An advanced civilization with just a 100-year head start on us would have figured that out because that’s what fuels the stars.”
But to push it to the next level, Friedman says, science “has to make a list of things UFOs can do that we can’t do. We can’t back up in mid-flight. We can’t make instant right-angle turns. We can’t fly silently, for the most part, and get around sonic booms. But if a craft can interact with its surroundings, you can get around all those problems.”
Astonishing, the idea of Saudi Arabia being more inquisitive than the British Royal Society in the vision department. Friedman calls it “such a puzzle” to be included on a card “with a list of who’s who in the international business world.”
On the other hand, maybe the GCF’s intention to “expose a lot of people to the different paths to be taken to new ideas” isn’t so mysterious at all, Friedman says. “Maybe they think there’s something better than oil.”
No doubt, the Kingdom has the money to find out.