UFOs and Time Travel

[Polterwurst]

one would 'lose' a reputation whereas a screw can be 'loose' as opposed to 'tight'. Really sorry if it's a typo but I kinda guess you prefer to be exact?

Oh. Ahhhh... I worked that in intentionally. Yeah. Just in case someone thinks I'm a native speaker and only pretending. Honestly. I wouldn't want to loosen my reputation.

I like Leslie as a guest on the show but now I've read her book, my admiration for her has increased even more. She is what the field needs - someone who checks her facts and is not calling for any 'disclosure' which would entail agencies and governments admitting lying. She is calling for a fresh scientific look at a genuine mystery without putting any names on what may be causing what is to me a most obvious scientific conundrum (great word).

Just what I thought when I read the book and listened to her on the show. She could have made like most of the other members of the media and shrugged it off, when she saw the evidence (COMETA in her case). "Don't write about it, or you'll be writing kooky stuff for the rest of your life while your collegues make fun of you." Instead she was like "How the hell can something this big be just ignored? I've got to write about it." Outstanding woman. Btw., is she married? Just kidding.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages?.......tri-lingual.
What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?.......bi-lingual.

What do call someone who speaks 1 language?...............English.

Ahhh, Polter....your reputation (at least in my eyes) is of someone who speaks a second language notably better than it's average native speakers do. I know so many people who have English as a 2nd language but not too many of those can comfortably 'get' humour in English as you do. I find the ability to understand humour the best indicator of how comfortably someone can use a language.
People can learn languages 'parrot' fashion to a high standard but that in no way guarantees them understanding the humour!

RE Leslie Kean - yes, she is bright enough to see how damaging a public interest in this field can be to a career and reputation and despite that she chose to investigate. This marks her out as a true journalist, as a torch-bearer, as someone genuinely concerned for the objective truth and a great counterbalance to the institutional secrecy the USA has wrapped itself in since the 1950's. Perhaps one day, if the secrecy ends, she will win a retrospective Pulitzer for her work. Deservedly so in my eyes.

 

[Polterwurst]

Thanks again. But...believe me, it's just the written language. You don't want to hear the speaking part. It zounds zumsink like zis.

Nowadays, I read mostly english books and listen to english-speaking podcasts. For example, I read Leslie Kean's book in the original language. I don't think it's even been translated into german.

Wait... there's an idea. I'll write to some german publishers, if I may translate it for them. Wow. Maybe there's a career ahead that gets me out of my less than exciting office job...

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I had a friend from Kaiserslautern (spelled correctly?) who had lived in Iran, Nigeria and my hometown of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Sadly he died of a heart condition at 38 but anyway, he was so bilingual as to be able to speak with my accent or a local German one. He actually worked as a translator of scientific literature and he said it was the most boring job he'd ever had!!

I am very surprised that Leslie's book is not in Deutsche because it is in Bulgarian - saw the cover of the edition from her on Facebook! So, if it's in Bulgarian, surely it's in German?

Endshuldigung bitte, vie komme ich am besten zum krankenhuas?

(haha no google translator used, it's about all I remember from 2 compulsory years of german at school. it's a shame too because i was really good, it's just that back then it was pretty uncool for boys to be taking languages at school which is really silly looking back. In fact, in the navy, i took a 'modern languages aptitude test' MLAT for short, in which i scored really high - you get banded for which languages our MOD will teach you according to ability and i was recommended for russian, arabic, anything, but i left before doing a course. shame really.)

 

[Polterwurst]

I am very surprised that Leslie's book is not in Deutsche because it is in Bulgarian - saw the cover of the edition from her on Facebook! So, if it's in Bulgarian, surely it's in German?

Yeah, you're right. Just found it on Amazon.de. Damn, someone beat me to it. And there I was dreaming of a bright and prosperous future as a translator of UFO books.

But it would still be better than my office job. The trick would be, though, not have to translate books that you find boring but books you're really interested in.

I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. At least he seems to have gotten around in his much too short life. You know, I really believe that consciousness does not get lost. Make of that what you will.

Kaiserslautern is spelled correctly, you seem to have quite a grasp of languages. I had french and spanish, too, but english has always been my most extensively studied language. Tried russian once, too, but unfortunately didn't follow it up. It's a lot more difficult when you have to learn a totally different way of writing (I think arabic is even more difficult), and if you don't learn it as a kid it's near impossible.

So. Huh. How do we make it back on topic.... Time travel and foreign languages... well, I wonder if there's gonna be one world language in the future or if different languages will survive.... wow, how's that for a transition....

 

[Goggs Mackay]

It's called Mandarin!

 

[Polterwurst]

LOL Yeah, next time a UFO lands in my backyard and those little guys disembark, I'll try my two sentences of chinese on them. Wait ... didn't that polish guy in Canada try that already? Maybe that's when they thought, "he's on to us, let's get the hell out of here!"

EDIT: That was the Falcon Lake incident of course. I just found this episode of Unsolved Mysteries where you can watch Stefan Michalak recounting the incident himself. Great stuff. I love to get these first hand accounts. Seems that he didn't try chinese though.

The whole idea of him seing this thing and concluding it must be something by the Americans or the Russians seems to me at least an indication that it wasn't too alien-looking but might have been something more along the lines of future technology.