The Blaisdell Blog

  A recent article in The Monitor about how we are changing our view of the evolution of man through new and better information reminded me of my part in original research in man’s journey from primitive hominids to modern humans. Several years ago, I took part in the Genographic Project sponsored by National Geographic.   For a modest sum I was sent a kit to collect skin cells from the inside of my cheek.   These cells allowed me to learn the path my ancestors took in their long journey from past to present.   They also allowed the Genographic Project to add my DNA to its bank of information on the human species.   I am now a part of original research, and I know a little more about my story. Of course, there are some things that are obvious to anyone even casually aware of modern anthropology.   We know that all humans evolved in Africa starting 2.5 million years ago with Homo sapiens appearing some 200,000 years ago amidst dramatic climatic changes...

 The Constitution is our anchor of stability in a turbulent world!   We can withstand a bad President and a petulant Congress (for the short term, at least) because our Constitution both guides and limits.   If someone asked me to provide proof of a loving God, I would simply ask them how else so many geniuses in the matter of human governance could have been clustered together in the right time and place to create both our country and the means to govern it.    Our founding fathers had the vision to devise a way to not only govern themselves, but govern a country that they could not imagine, yet believed would prevail. The constitution of the United States is like a good parent.   It has allowed us to grow up as we have grown older, with the result that the United States of America is the oldest living democracy in the world.   The miracle of this document is that it lives, breathes and moves with the times.   The three branches of our govern...

  As it turns out, it isn’t Nuclear Winter or Global Warming that we need to worry about.   It isn’t alligators in the sewer, monsters under the bed or even the dreaded twi-night doubleheader that should rob us of sleep.   Mother Nature appears to be warming up something brand new in her bullpen of unanticipated worldwide changes.   The world’s magnetic field is weakening at rapidly accelerating rates.   The Earth is preparing to reverse its magnetic poles.               Let’s start with the fact that all astral bodies have a magnetic field.   The sun has magnetic poles and they flip on a regular eleven year cycle.   [See my blog: The Sun is Switching Polarity published on 8-18-2013.]   Second, let’s point out that the Earth has switched this polarity many times before.   There have been no mass extinctions or calling up of demons during any of these times.   No space aliens...

  I love my neighbors.   But let’s suppose I don’t.   Let’s suppose that my neighbor and I have a genuine dislike for each other.   What is more, I want the three feet lying on the far side of my fence that is currently part of his yard.   Hatred, envy, greed all come together in my mind, and I hatch a plan to get rid of that neighbor.   I decide to accuse that neighbor of pedophilia.   I spread the word that he is a pedophile.   I put up flyers to that effect.   I then call the police and accuse him of pedophilia.   When the police ask me what evidence I have of that serious charge I tell them it is their job to find the evidence.   My job is simply to make the accusation.   I want his house and computers searched.   I want him arrested and interrogated.   I want him brought to court.   When I am told that they need more than just my say-so, I tell them that I heard he was a pedophile.   Who said it? ...

  On the night of February 21, 1944, a Norwegian named Knut (please pronounce the “K”—it is not a silent letter) Haukelid and two of his friends approached the Ferry Hydro docked on the shore of Lake Tinnsjå in Telemark, Norway.   Tinnsjå is one of the largest and deepest lakes in Europe.   Knut and his recruits needed the deepest lake in Norway, because they needed to sink the Hydro in the deepest water they could find.   These men, working late in the night, planted over eight kilograms of plastic explosives in the boats keel, and armed it with two hand wound alarm clocks.   Shortly after midnight, just as the Hydro moved over the deepest water in Lake Tinnsjå, an explosion tore through the hull and sunk the boat, sending its cargo the bottom.   Knut Haukelid watched the ship go down with tears in his eyes.   There had been Norwegian nationals on that boat; and he could not warn even one of them.   Because there was also a shipment of hea...