I am Kerry Burgess. This is what I think.
If this is the first blog-post by me you're reading then you are galactically uninformed.
This Is What I Think.
Saturday, March 07, 2026
Today is 03/07/2026
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/07/2026 01:41 AM
There is a point to this note.
As happens often in my notes such as this note, I am crafting and assembling information based on a vague notion that has formed in my mind that caused me to begin this note. Not even I know as I write this sentence precisely the content of this note
During this hour, looked through the title page on Tubi and I decided to view again the 2008 "Jumpers"
Seen it before, intriguing story, the starring character ruins it for me. Another starring character is portrayed by the actor Samuel L. Jackson and he always delivers a quality performance in his roles I have seen. I have made blog-posts before about the 2008 "Jumpers". Have not viewed it in a very long time from now.
This title is intriguing to me tonight because of the computer-game Icarus, noted here by me in the past couple days.
Icarus becomes tedious after a while because of the distances involved. I like the vast playability area of the map. Their solution for travel, other than running the character, is with tame animals. I can't get into that process and have ignored it
While back, discovered a modification "pak" that allows instant teleportation of the character to anyplace on the massive map.
I would have abandoned the game if not for that teleportation "mod". Feels like cheating but again, I would have simply quit the game if not for that add-on feature.
With Thursday's new update for the game, that third-party teleportation feature has become incompatible with the new features. Both still work, best I can tell, just not at the same time.
The third-party developer has been updating it every week, after the Icarus develops release their weekly updates for the game, but as of this writing, there is no update to the mod after the newest game update
Where this all leads to
Only after abandoning my search of the third-party modification, did I begin the video for "Jumpers" and I became consciously aware of the similarities with that teleportation mod.
This has caused me to think of branching-reality again
In his backstory at the beginning of the video, he is crashing into trees while trying to figure out how to control his newly discovered power.
I paused the video in the early scenes just as he makes his escape from antagonist portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson.
I continue to feel this note is leading somewhere, not completely certain where that will be. I am trying to make the progress of the content of this page consistent with the cognitive process in my mind as I view more of the video
I was still living in that tiny apartment in downtown Seattle - across the street from the Space Needle - at the time of debut of the 2008 "Jumpers"
My blog here was almost 3 years old at that same time.
3 years.
If someone had told me I would still be working on this over 20 years later I would have - I don't know what I would have said.
Not sure right now when I first viewed it. Maybe year 2011. It's in my notes, haven't reviewed it yet
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/07/2026 02:09 AM
So then I did start looking back through my notes, before resuming the video again
It was this part that grabbed by my attention, a detail consistent with another topic that I have referenced several times lately, a detail in that 2008 movie completely lost to my conscious mind until I read it again just moments ago:
[excerpt]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489099/quotes
IMDb
Memorable quotes for
Jumper (2008)
Griffin: You're not a hero David, you're a jumper. You don't save the girl.
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 03:59 AM Pacific Time USA Thursday 02 August 2012
[excerpt ends]
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/07/2026 02:12 AM
Now I am trying to recall that specific location I referred to in these notes
This is also consistent with my comments earlier about branching-reality
by me, Kerry Burgess, posted here on my blog, 08/02/2012
[titled by me:] I don't know. Maybe I need to stop worrying so much about the time-traveler effect. Maybe I just need to flow with it.
Not care that my counter-paradox effect causes my thoughts.
Only after running the numbers for today did I start thinking to look up that post I made and that is referenced below. I had no conscious idea about the time stamp of that post. I was surprised to see the time stamp is exactly 3 years ago.
That got me thinking about the exact steps I went through to arrive at that observation today. It started with feeling compelled to read the lyrics from The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go." A short while later I thought I almost made a teleportation jump literally and then I made the blog post announcing same. Then I started running the numbers for today.
I remember that on 31 July 2012 I walked by the location that dream makes me think of. I first noticed it *after* I had the dream and it was a place I know for certain I had never been before. I walked by there last time and I was carrying that "Jumper" DVD in a bag. I was wondering again as I walked by there about why I would have seen such recognizable details in a dream and that sleeping dream seemed to be prescient, as were other details in that local area. When I walked by there on the 31st, I started thinking that maybe it was some place I had seen - will see - just before I make my time-traveler jump to the past. I walked by there last time and thoughts about when my time-travel jump would actually occur relative to this present time was probably one topic farthest from my mind.
I noted the red digital numbers on the billboard nearby read 82 degrees. I noted that because I was actually looking at the time and that was because I had started mentally tracking the amount of time elapsed between my round trips passing that billboard with the clock and temperature gauge on it.
82 degrees.
February 11th.
[excerpt ends - by me, Kerry Burgess, posted here on my blog, 08/02/2012]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-82
STS-82
From Wikipedia
STS-82 was the 22nd flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery and the 82nd mission of the Space Shuttle program. It was NASA's second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, during which Discovery's crew repaired and upgraded the telescope's scientific instruments, increasing its research capabilities. Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 11, 1997, returning to Earth on February 21, 1997,
From 8/2/2012 ( ) To 3/7/2026 ( Today , Saturday ) is 4965 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 6/7/1979 ( ) is 4965 days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_McClain
Anne McClain
From Wikipedia
Anne Charlotte McClain (born June 7, 1979) is a colonel in the United States Army, engineer, and a NASA astronaut. Her call sign, "Annimal", dates back to her rugby career; she also uses the call sign in her Twitter handle, AstroAnnimal.
McClain is an avid rugby player who has played in the Women's Premiership, the top level of the sport in England, and for the United States women's national rugby union team, known as the Women's Eagles. While her U.S. Army commitments thwarted her international career in rugby and prevented her participation in the 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup, she participated at that level for a decade interrupted only by her deployment to Iraq, and credits the sport for her success in becoming an astronaut.
Following her studies, McClain qualified as a Bell OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot.
pluribus_s1e9-2025_00h-53m-11s
pluribus_s1e9-2025_00h-55m-01s
Self-made man
From Wikipedia
A self-made man is a person whose success is of their own making.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, has been described as the greatest exemplar of the self-made man. Inspired by Franklin's autobiography, Frederick Douglass developed the concept of the self-made man in a series of lectures that spanned decades starting in 1879.
Originally, the term referred to an individual who arises from a poor or otherwise disadvantaged background to eminence in financial, political or other areas by nurturing qualities, such as perseverance and diligence, as opposed to achieving these goals through inherited fortune, family connections, or other privileges.
seahawk_rast_4
https://electro-mechanicalsystems.curtisswright.com/indal/products/helicopter-securing-and-traversing/rast
Curtiss-Wright
Recovery Assist, Secure and Traverse System (RAST)
Navies around the world rely on Curtiss-Wright's Indal RAST (Recovery Assist, Secure and Traverse) system to support ship borne helicopter operations. RAST conducts the securing, maneuvering and traversing tasks with a single Rapid Securing Device (RSD) that is never disconnected from the helicopter while it is on deck. RAST is able to accommodate a wide range of helicopters, even in the most demanding marine environments up to sea state six.
The typical operation of the Indal RAST system begins with the pilot making a normal approach to the flight deck and establishing a hover. The messenger cable is lowered to the deck and is manually connected to the main recovery assist tethering cable, which is then hauled up to the helicopter and automatically locked into the main RAST probe. During a period of quiescence in the ship's motion, the pilot requests the LSO to apply tension to the recovery assist cable. This tension produces a strong centering effect to stabilize the hover and directs the helicopter toward the designated landing area, as the pilot slowly flies the craft down. Immediately upon touchdown, the LSO closes the RSD's arresting beams securing the helicopter probe. The aircraft is ready to be aligned and traversed into the hangar.
by me, Kerry Burgess, 01/20/2025
Somewhere I wrote about the early months of 1985.
We left the shipyards for our first journey to our permanent homeport in Charleston, South Carolina
The North Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras was not only very stormy but also very, very cold outside.
We had to stand there not only as the helicopter landed on that tiny flight-deck, but also remain beside the helicopter wheels until instructed to remove the chains and chock binding it to the flight deck
I was out there on that flight-deck countless times during my assignment to USS Taylor FFG-50, US Navy, and that was many times I was out there.
100624-N-7638K-042 .jpg - from internet
040309-N-4374S-014 .jpg - from internet
040309-N-4374S-009 .jpg - from internet
20161116_131149 - me, Kerry Burgess, year 1985 - liberty port: Nassau Bahamas
ffg 8 070815 .jpg - from internet
295094_3422478593894_1446330337_n .jpg - from internet
120720-N-ZE938-005 .jpg - from internet
130820-N-LN619-083 .jpg - from internet
From 2/13/1947 ( ) To 5/18/1985 ( ) is 13974 days
13974 = 6987 + 6987
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 12/19/1984 ( from my official enlisted US Navy documents: as Kerry Wayne Burgess the undesignated E-3 Seaman US Navy I reported for permanent duty aboard USS Taylor FFG-50, US Navy, departing 02/11/1986 (to begin formal classroom US Navy FC/A curriculum of training) as FC3 Kerry Wayne Burgess, US Navy ) is 6987 days
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/radio-address-the-nation-armed-forces-day-and-defense-spending
The American Presidency Project
RONALD REAGAN
40th President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Radio Address to the Nation on Armed Forces Day and Defense Spending
May 18, 1985
My fellow Americans:
Not too long ago one of our Ambassadors visited an American armored cavalry regiment stationed on the NATO line in Germany. As he returned to his helicopter, he was followed by a young 19-year-old trooper. The trooper asked him if he could get a message to the President. Well, the Ambassador said that sometimes getting messages to the President was part of his job. And the young trooper then said, "Will you tell him we're proud to be here, and we ain't scared of nothin."
Well, not long ago the Ambassador was in Washington and told me the sequel to that incident. I'd repeated a story in a talk that was carried on our Voice of America radio program, and there in that base in Germany the young trooper heard the broadcast and knew that I'd received his message. His commanding officer said that he ran down the company street yelling: "The system works! The system works!"
Well, the system does work, but not just because Ambassadors can get messages from a 19-year-old trooper to the President. Our system this way of life we call democracy and freedom really works because of the dedicated Americans like that GI in Germany, who've always been willing to defend our way of life from foreign aggressors from those who do not love freedom and seek to destroy it.
1947-02-13_1-1
excerpts
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-commencement-exercises-seton-hall-university-south-orange-new-jersey
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
40th President of the United States: 1981 ‐ 1989
Address at Commencement Exercises at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey
May 21, 1983
Ronald Reagan: Because this graduation year is so similar to that one of 50 and 51 years ago, in the depths of that Great Depression, I remember, diploma in hand, going back to my summer job that I'd had for 7 years, lifeguarding on a river beach out there in Illinois. And I remember all—you didn't think of career, listening to those announcements I mentioned a little while ago on the radio—all you thought about was how, how when the beach closes this fall, where do I go? What job is there?
And I was fortunate. A man who had survived the Great Depression until then, and was doing well out in the business world, gave me some advice. He said, "Look, I could tell you that maybe I could speak to someone and they might give you a job. But," he said, "they'd only do it because of me." And then he said, "They wouldn't have a particular interest in you." He said, "May I tell you that even in the depths of this depression," and so I will say to you even in the depths of this recession, there are people out there who know that the future is going to depend on taking young people into whatever their undertaking is and starting them out so that—whether it's business, industry, or whatever it might be—it will continue on.
"Now," he said, "a salesman has to knock on a lot of doors before he makes a sale. So," he said, "if you will make up your mind what line of work you want to be in, what industry, what business, whatever it is, profession or other," he said, "and then start knocking on doors, eventually you'll come to one of those men or women who feels that way. And all you have to do-don't ask for the particular job you want; tell them you'll take any job in that industry or that business, whatever it may be, because you believe in it and its future and you'll take your chances on progressing from there."
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/07/2026 02:39 AM
So it was year 2012 when I first viewed "Jumper"
Still trying to recall where I purchased that DVD. Must have been a grocery story I walked to.
That would have been those years after I left downtown Seattle and moved out to the suburb city Renton and the section called Highlands.
That was when I began to notice similarity details to the 2008 "The Day the Earth Stood Still", only because I was already there when I first viewed that video, years after its debut, the content details I was completely unaware of.
The similarity details are completely rational and any rational person would agree with my analysis of those details. Especially because I don't care if it's true.
I do not care and have never cared about any of those people, real or fictional. I don't care about that movie. I don't care about those places. I don't care if you agree with me or not, whoever you are.
by me, Kerry Burgess: H.V.O.M at 11:30 PM Friday, December 31, 2010
I still have not figured out the how and why I "remember" being at the wooded summit of Stampede Pass that is a dirt road through the woods up there. I can still visualize that detail but there is still just no way by conscious memory can reconcile that visualization. I did have have an automobile that I would have driven up there until several years before I would have gone up there. [did not have a vehicle I would have used for travel to there] I have these memories of 1998 where I was looking at the place a lot while I was still in South Carolina, before I would have even know what that place was, and I think those memories are real. I think my memories of living in that last apartment are real. That was all part of a the undercover identity that was being established regardless of whether I used it or not. There was one day in 1998 when I just suddenly appeared and in my mind that artificial identity was my true identity and that was the identity I assumed.
IMDb
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Quotes
Cole Sear: I see dead people.
Malcolm Crowe: In your dreams?
Malcolm Crowe: Dead people like, in graves? In coffins?
Cole Sear: Walking around like regular people. They don't know they're dead.
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/07/2026 03:11 AM
... cognitive process
And then moments later, perfectly framed, perfectly consistent with past occurrences when I make comments and then resume the video to view a completely forgettable scene from many years ago:
jumper-2008_00h-26m-38s
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/07/2026 03:15 AM
Time-traveler effect
Time-traveler variables
Counter-paradox effect
dark-matter_s1e8-2024_00h-36m-01s
dark-matter_s1e8-2024_00h-36m-02s
jumper-2008_00h-30m-40s
From 10/3/2018 ( ) To 3/7/2026 ( ) is 2712 days
2712 = 1356 + 1356
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 7/20/1969 ( USA Apollo 11 landing ) is 1356 days
DSC01291
DSC01297
DSC01298
DSC01299
DSC01312
DSC01335
DSC01340
DSC01341
DSC01346
DSC01348
1988-05-14_1
jumper-2008_00h-40m-22s
jumper-2008_00h-45m-51s
DSC02366
From 12/18/2024 ( ) To 3/7/2026 ( ) is 444 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 1/20/1967 ( ) is 444 days
1967-01-20_1-1
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/006947706700500102
We were fellow mortals, nought beside?
- Robert Browning
by me, Kerry Burgess, 12/08/2023 ~ 03:24 AM
I wrote once somewhere long ago that anything never alive can not ever be considered as 'dead'
https://www.poetry.com/poem/30347/evelyn-hope
Evelyn Hope
Robert Browning 1812 - 1889
- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 04:57 AM Pacific-timezone USA Saturday 03/07/2026
Today is 03/07/2026
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/06/2026 4:58 PM
Not For Merit.
by me, Kerry Burgess, 03/06/2026 7:41 PM
The same velocity as light.
by me, Kerry Burgess, posted on the internet by me: January 27, 2017 8:55 am
SIMMONS
Need I remind you, Dr Jackson, of the dangers that we're trying to defend Earth against.
DANIEL
Oh, could you? Go slow.
CARTER
General, I believe that using the device caused an atmospheric weather anomaly big enough to destroy the civilisation on 636.
DANIEL
You do?
SIMMONS
That wasn't in your report.
[excerpt ends - by me, Kerry Burgess, posted on the internet by me: January 27, 2017 8:55 am]
Markwayne Mullin
From Wikipedia
On March 5, 2026, President Donald Trump nominated Mullin as the secretary of homeland security to replace Kristi Noem.
From 7/26/1977 ( ) To 1/27/2017 ( ) is 14430 days
14430 = 7215 + 7215
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 8/4/1985 ( ) is 7215 days
From 7/26/1977 ( ) To 7/31/2018 ( ) is 14980 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 11/7/2006 ( ) is 14980 days
From 7/26/1977 ( ) To 7/11/1997 ( premiere USA film "Contact" ) is 7290 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 10/18/1985 ( premiere USA film "The Quiet Earth" ) is 7290 days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markwayne_Mullin
Markwayne Mullin
From Wikipedia
Markwayne Mullin (born July 26, 1977) is an American politician and businessman who has served as the junior United States senator from Oklahoma since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in a special election in 2022 to serve the remainder of Jim Inhofe's term.
He graduated from Stilwell High School in Stilwell, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district
From Wikipedia
Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district is one of five United States congressional districts in Oklahoma and covers approximately one-fourth of the state in the east.
1977-07-26_1-1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markwayne_Mullin
2017-01-27_1-1
2006-11-07_18
facebook_james-webb-telescope_07-31-2018_1
the-quiet-earth-1985_00h-10m-03s
the-quiet-earth-1985_00h-10m-05s
the-quiet-earth-1985_00h-10m-08s
24548191_120317602652 .jpg - from internet
Find A Grave
J Wayne Burgess
APR. 9, 1946
AUG. 4, 1985
Morrison Cemetery
Morrison, Noble County, Oklahoma, USA
the-quiet-earth-1985_00h-10m-19s
DSC08167
DSC08168
contact-1997_02h-03m-04s - Contact (1997)
2026-03-06_1-1
contact-1997_02h-06m-07s - Contact (1997)
pluribus_s1e1-2025_00h-01m-27s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Homeland_Security
United States Secretary of Homeland Security
From Wikipedia
On March 5, 2026, President Donald Trump nominated Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to replace Kristi Noem for the position, saying he expects him to begin serving on March 31.
From 11/21/1905 ( "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy-Content?" by Albert Einstein is published by Annalen der Physik ) To 3/5/2026 ( ) is 43934 days
43934 = 21967 + 21967
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 12/24/2025 ( ) is 21967 days
From 5/14/1990 ( departing as enlisted US Navy Fire Controlman Petty Officer Second Class (FC2)(E-5) Kerry Wayne Burgess my Honorable Discharge from US Navy active service ) To 3/5/2026 ( ) is 13079 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 8/24/2001 ( premiere USA film "Ghosts of Mars" AND the Microsoft antitrust proceedings ) is 13079 days
From 10/3/1978 ( "The Stand" by Stephen King, author - original version ) To 3/5/2026 ( ) is 17320 days
17320 = 8660 + 8660
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 7/19/1989 ( by me, Kerry Burgess, legacy reference: the United Airlines Flight 232 crash in Sioux City Iowa ) is 8660 days
From 9/3/1960 ( ) To 3/5/2026 ( ) is 23924 days
23924 = 11962 + 11962
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 8/3/1998 ( "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy ) is 11962 days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Chica_o_El_Mundo
La Chica o El Mundo
From Wikipedia
"La Chica o El Mundo" is the ninth episode and first season finale of the American post-apocalyptic science fiction television series Pluribus. The episode was written by executive producers Alison Tatlock and Gordon Smith, and directed by Smith. It was released on Apple TV on December 24, 2025.
The series is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and follows author Carol Sturka, who is one of only thirteen people in the world immune to the effects of "the Joining", resulting from an extraterrestrial virus that had transformed the world's human population into a peaceful and content hive mind (the "Others"). In the episode, Manousos finally reaches Albuquerque, leaving Carol to debate whether to help him in making a plan to destroy the Others.
The episode received critical acclaim, with critics praising the scenes between Carol and Manousos, the performances and the cliffhanger.
1960-09-03_1-1
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/book-review-senator-john-f-kennedy-deterrent-or-defense-bh-lidell-hart-the-saturday-review
by me, Kerry Burgess - - posted by H.V.O.M - 12:24 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Monday 04 January 2016
I know I wrote about that in my journal in recent years. What I have been wondering about in recent days is about how specific I was in my notes. I remember this like yesterday. The part I remember clearly is that after I sent the email I was certain that a black van was going to show up and haul me away somewhere. So what did I do? I went to take a shower and I remember shaving my face. I remember that because I haven't used a razor to shave my face since the year 2005. After they secretly drugged me and after I was hospitalized so long I have never used a shaving razor on my face.
And so I was thinking the past couple days: maybe a black van did show up and haul me off somewhere.
The reason I do not recall that detail? Well, no witnesses for one. No co-conspirators for another.
But see, that's fascinating to me. I remember details that are compelling to me about the fantastic details I blog about. I have noted here in my blog many times that the more fantastic details I blog about are just thoughts in my mind. I write about how I have no actual memory of the more fantastic details that I write about. My memory seems to be just about dates and events. I remember a date on the calendar and an event associated with it. That's it. I have memories of the 1990s but what does that mean really? Those memories I have are what I guess are safe memories. In this GOTCHA age of NO FED LIVES MATTER there is a time and place for what I recall.
The Stand - complete edition, by Stephen King
(from internet transcript)
excerpt, Chapter 13
Rage struck him with all the unexpectedness of a sweet surprise. He was up, and then he had hold of Deitz’s lapels, and he was shaking him back and forth. From the corner of his eye he saw startled movement behind the double-paned glass. Dimly, muffled by distance and soundproofed walls, he heard a hooter go off.
“What did you people do?” he shouted. “What did you do? What in Christ’s name did you do?”
“Mr. Redman—”
“Huh? What the fuck did you people do?”
The door hissed open. Three large men in olive-drab uniforms stepped in. They were all wearing nose-filters.
Deitz looked over at them and snapped, “Get the hell out of here!”
The three men looked uncertain.
“Our orders—”
“Get out of here and that’s an order!”
They retreated. Deitz sat calmly on the bed. His lapels were rumpled and his hair had tumbled over his forehead. That was all. He was looking at Stu calmly, even compassionately. For a wild moment Stu considered ripping his nose-filter out, and then he remembered Geraldo, what a stupid name for a guinea pig. Dull despair struck him like cold water. He sat down.
“Christ in a sidecar,” he muttered.
“Listen to me,” Deitz said. “I’m not responsible for you being here. Neither is Denninger, or the nurses who come in to take your blood pressure. If there was a responsible party it was Campion, but you can’t lay it all on him, either. He ran, but under the circumstances, you or I might have run, too. It was a technical slipup that allowed him to run. The situation exists. We are trying to cope with it, all of us. But that doesn’t make us responsible.”
“Then who is?”
“Nobody,” Deitz said, and smiled. “On this one the responsibility spreads in so many directions that it’s invisible. It was an accident. It could have happened in any number of other ways.”
“Some accident,” Stu said, his voice nearly a whisper. “What about the others? Hap and Hank Carmichael and Lila Bruett? Their boy Luke? Monty Sullivan—”
“Classified,” Deitz said. “Going to shake me some more? If it will make you feel better, shake away.”
Stu said nothing, but the way he was looking at Deitz made Deitz suddenly look down and begin to fiddle with the creases of his pants.
“They’re alive,” he said, “and you may see them in time.”
“What about Arnette?”
“Quarantined.”
“Who’s dead there?”
“Nobody.”
“You’re lying.”
“Sorry you think so.”
“When do I get out of here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Classified?” Stu asked bitterly.
“No, just unknown. You don’t seem to have this disease. We want to know why you don’t have it. Then we’re home free.”
“Can I get a shave? I itch.”
Deitz smiled. “If you’ll allow Denninger to start running his tests again, I’ll get an orderly in to shave you right now.”
“I can handle it. I’ve been doing it since I was fifteen.”
Deitz shook his head firmly. “I think not.”
Stu smiled dryly at him. “Afraid I might cut my own throat?”
“Let’s just say—”
Stu interrupted him with a series of harsh, dry coughs. He bent over with the force of them.
The effect on Deitz was galvanic. He was up off the bed like a shot and across to the airlock with his feet seeming not to touch the floor at all. Then he was fumbling in his pocket for the square key and ramming it into the slot.
“Don’t bother,” Stu said mildly. “I was faking.”
Deitz turned to him slowly. Now his face had changed. His lips were thinned with anger, his eyes staring. “You were what?”
“Faking,” Stu said. His smile broadened.
Deitz took two uncertain steps toward him. His fists closed, opened, then closed again. “But why? Why would you want to do something like that?”
“Sorry,” Stu said, smiling. “That’s classified.”
“You shit sonofabitch,” Deitz said with soft wonder.
“Go on. Go on out and tell them they can do their tests.”
He slept better that night than he had since they had brought him here. And he had an extremely vivid dream. He had always dreamed a great deal—his wife had complained about him thrashing and muttering in his sleep—but he had never had a dream like this.
He was standing on a country road, at the precise place where the black hottop gave up to bone-white dirt. A blazing summer sun shone down. On both sides of the road there was green corn, and it stretched away endlessly. There was a sign, but it was dusty and he couldn’t read it. There was the sound of crows, harsh and far away. Closer by, someone was playing an acoustic guitar, fingerpicking it. Vic Palfrey had been a picker, and it was a fine sound.
This is where I ought to get to, Stu thought dimly. Yeah, this is the place, all right.
What was that tune? “Beautiful Zion”? “The Fields of My Father’s Home”? “Sweet Bye and Bye”? Some hymn he remembered from his childhood, something he associated with full immersion and picnic lunches. But he couldn’t remember which one.
Then the music stopped. A cloud came over the sun. He began to be afraid. He began to feel that there was something terrible, something worse than plague, fire, or earthquake. Something was in the corn and it was watching him. Something dark was in the corn.
He looked, and saw two burning red eyes far back in the shadows, far back in the corn. Those eyes filled him with the paralyzed, hopeless horror that the hen feels for the weasel. Him, he thought. The man with no face. Oh dear God. Oh dear God no.
Then the dream was fading and he awoke with feelings of disquiet, dislocation, and relief. He went to the bathroom and then to his window. He looked out at the moon. He went back to bed but it was an hour before he got back to sleep. All that corn, he thought sleepily. Must have been Iowa or Nebraska, maybe northern Kansas. But he had never been in any of those places in his life.
Rainbow Six (1998) - Tom Clancy
(from internet transcript)
excerpt, CHAPTER 24
Insofar as there was a god, it was Nature. From his office windows, he could see out over the plains of Kansas, the swaying young wheat… it was so beautiful. Almost enough to bring tears to his eyes. Nature. She could be cruel to individuals, but individuals didn't matter. Despite all the warnings, humankind hadn't learned that.
Well, learn it they would, the way Nature taught all Her lessons. The hard way.
excerpts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_special_relativity
History of special relativity
From Wikipedia
The history of special relativity consists of many theoretical results and empirical findings obtained by Albert A. Michelson, Hendrik Lorentz, Henri Poincaré and others. It culminated in the theory of special relativity proposed by Albert Einstein and subsequent work of Max Planck, Hermann Minkowski and others.
Aether and electrodynamics of moving bodies
Search for the aether
Regarding the relative motion and the mutual influence of matter and aether, there were two theories, neither entirely satisfactory. One was developed by Fresnel (and subsequently Lorentz). This model (stationary aether theory) supposed that light propagates as a transverse wave and aether is partially dragged with a certain coefficient by matter. Based on this assumption, Fresnel was able to explain the aberration of light and many optical phenomena.
The other hypothesis was proposed by George Gabriel Stokes, who stated in 1845 that the aether was fully dragged by matter (later this view was also shared by Hertz). In this model the aether might be (by analogy with pine pitch) rigid for fast objects and fluid for slower objects. Thus the Earth could move through it fairly freely, but it would be rigid enough to transport light.
Albert A. Michelson (1881) tried to measure the relative motion of the Earth and aether (the "aether-wind"), as it was expected in Fresnel's theory, by using an interferometer. He could not determine any relative motion, so he interpreted the result as a confirmation of the thesis of Stokes. However, Lorentz (1886) showed Michelson's calculations were wrong and that he had overestimated the accuracy of the measurement. This, together with the large margin of error, made the result of Michelson's experiment inconclusive. In addition, Lorentz showed that Stokes' completely dragged aether led to contradictory consequences, and therefore he supported an aether theory similar to Fresnel's. To check Fresnel's theory again, Michelson and Edward W. Morley (1886) performed a repetition of the Fizeau experiment. Fresnel's dragging coefficient was confirmed very exactly on that occasion, and Michelson was now of the opinion that Fresnel's stationary aether theory was correct. To clarify the situation, Michelson and Morley (1887) repeated Michelson's 1881 experiment, and they substantially increased the accuracy of the measurement. However, this now famous Michelson–Morley experiment again yielded a negative result: no motion of the apparatus through the aether was detected (although the Earth's velocity differs by 60 km/s in the northern winter compared to the summer). So the physicists were confronted with two seemingly contradictory experiments: the 1886 experiment as an apparent confirmation of Fresnel's stationary aether, and the 1887 experiment as an apparent confirmation of Stokes' completely dragged aether.
1905-09-27_1-1
https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/E_mc2/e_mc2.pdf
1905-09-27_1-2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence
1905-11-21_1-1
https://www.edn.com/einstein-paper-outlines-mass-energy-equivalence-november-21-1905/
Rainbow Six (1998) - Tom Clancy
(from internet transcript)
excerpt, Chapter 34
"What do you think of killing people, Dmitriy?" Killgore asked then.
"That depends on who they are. There are many people who deserve to die for one reason or another. But Western culture has this strange notion that taking life is almost always wrong-you Americans cannot even kill your criminals, murderers and such, without jumping through hoops, as you say here. I find that very curious."
"What about crimes against Nature?" Killgore said, staring off into the distance.
"I do not understand."
"Well, things that hurt the whole planet, killing off whole living species, polluting the land and the sea. What about that?"
"Kirk, that is also a barbaric act, and it should be punished severely. But how do you identify the criminals? Is it the industrialist who gives the order and makes the profit from it? Or is it the worker who takes his wages and does what he is told?"
"What did they say at Nuremberg?" Killgore said next.
"The war-crimes trial, you mean? It was decided that following orders is not a defense." Not a concept he'd been taught to consider in the KGB Academy, where he'd learned that the State Was Always Right.
"Right," the epidemiologist agreed. "But you know. nobody ever went after Harry Truman for bombing Hiroshima."
Because he won, you fool, Popov didn't reply. "Do you ask if this was a crime? No, it was not, because he ended a greater evil, and the sacrifice of those people was necessary to restore the peace."
"What about saving the planet?"
"I do not understand."
"If the planet was dying, what would one have to do-what would be right to do, to save it?"
This discussion had all the ideological and philosophical purity of a classroom discussion of the Marxist dialectic at Moscow State University-and about as much relevance to the real world. Kill the whole planet? That was not possible. A full-blown nuclear war, yes, maybe that could have such an effect, but that was no longer possible. The world had changed, and America was the nation that had made it happen. Didn't these two druids see the wonder of that? More than once, the world had been close to loosing nuclear weapons, but today that was a thing of the past.
"I have never considered that question, my friends."
"We have," Maclean responded. "Dmitriy, there are people and forces at work today that could easily kill off everything here. Somebody has to stop that from happening, but how do you do it?"
"You do not mean simply political action, do you?" the former KGB spook observed.
"No, it's too late for that, and not enough people would listen anyway." Killgore turned his horse to the right and the others followed. "I'm afraid you have to take more drastic measures."
- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 12:21 AM Pacific-timezone USA Saturday 03/07/2026
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