It is quite understandable Obama would want to move into the Big House on “Plantation America” and put all the uppity white folks in their place just like Reconstruction all over again, but it is equally understandable the white trash Bill and Hillary are lusting for the very same thing. Caucasian or Negro slaves are slaves; and whether Obama or the Clintons, just like Bush both lust for Mexican slaves as well. However, as I have written in the past I can certainly see Bill sitting on the wide veranda of the family manse dressed in his white King Cotton suit smoking a cigar and sipping mint juleps, but my image of such a scene has Hillary out there in the fields leather whip in hand as the overseer whoppin’ slaves, leaving it to Bill to sell the cotton though his greatest skill is that of a feather merchant.

But enough of politicians and the corruption and lust for power common to this bottom feeding species, I have bigger fish to fry; and much more to my taste in the mysterious world of science and the paranormal, things that pique my interest far more than the mendacity and duplicity, the outright hypocrisy and disingenuousness of scoundrels pandering for office surrounding us like a foul odor.

It is nothing short of astounding, the marvels on the drawing boards across the world for magnificent, futuristic telescopes and radio equipment to scan the heavens. And from the heavens peering inward scientists and physicists are continuing in their work to understand the minutest particles of atoms. But a good portion of my life was devoted to understanding metals, how to mold and machine them into the required shapes. Over the years I learned the properties of all the various metals, the various alloys, the proper means to cast, shape, heat treat and work them for designated uses whether utilitarian or exotic.

As a tool and die maker an understanding of metallurgy, the properties of the elements and their transitional forms during the various processes of heating, cooling, and working was essential, as was a mastery of all the many machine tools essential to the profession along with the various methods of welding and foundry techniques. So when my curiosity is aroused to ask how the ancients discovered iron, I not only bring my academic credentials and qualifications to bear on the question but a very formidable background in metal-working, not something the usual academic would have in their favor.

For inquiring minds tracing the origins of things can be a stimulating exercise. But such searching for beginnings can be frustrating. It is generally accepted the transition from hunting/gathering to methodical and sustainable agriculture began some 10,000 years ago, but this is difficult to nail down. The same difficulty is met in attempting to determine the first use of metals. We are familiar with tags like Bronze Age and Iron Age, but as with agriculture pinning these down and trying to decipher transitions from one to another can be quite confusing and the thousands of books written on these subjects often serve to obfuscate rather than illuminate, which is only to be expected when facts are scant resulting in an abundance of theories and speculations.

Taking a thought from Poe I have pondered over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, but I also keep up with the various sciences and the latest investigations and discoveries. However, harking back to forgotten lore I still want to know many things that seem to be veiled by the passage of time, things like how were agriculture and iron discovered? While intriguing to investigate, it does become quite tiresome reading what amounts to the rehashing of many theories and much speculation about these things without any certain knowledge of the facts. But the available facts concerning agriculture and various metals while titillating do not answer the fundamental questions of origins which are generally relegated to educated guesswork.

Some take the view that planting sustainable crops and the discovery of various metals were “lucky accidents.” But like the constellations as a “star map” such lucky accidents simply do not happen. And some things like the constellations, the Sphinx, the great pyramids of Giza, and Nazca lines, the Mayan Calendar and various “zodiacs” declare something more than merely the native intelligence of past humankind; the evidence declares there is something else at work in such things.

Various mythologies offer tantalizing hints concerning the origins of many things, the Bible for example in Genesis chapter four mentions several items, and during the Exodus we read God put it in the hearts of certain people to know how to do things essential in constructing the Tabernacle. But however some of these things came about, I know a human ancestor in the far distant past did not see those constellations in the sky, I know some ancient did not suddenly decide to save certain seeds and plant a field of wheat, I know some ancient didn’t suddenly realize how to make a super-hot fire and melt the iron out of ore and shape it. These things happened, but in my opinion they could not have happened without superior, call it “supernatural” intelligence guiding ancient people, and God putting it in their hearts to know these things is just one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is the Vegans in “Contact” sharing their superior intelligence with earthlings. In sum, I don’t know how these things happened, but I know “in my bones” they did not come about by human intelligence or lucky accidents.

Those throughout history noted for being “gifted,” those like Newton, Einstein, Michelangelo and Da Vinci, the great philosophers, artists, and scientists of humankind are not to be explained apart from their “intuition.” Their abilities in many cases cannot be explained on the basis of what we call “genius” alone. There has to be something more to it than this, something more than the lucky accidents that have accounted for some of the marvels resulting, something that transcends such lucky accidents or even the hard work leading to some marvelous discoveries and inventions, none of which would be possible without the “discovery” and development of agriculture and iron.

It is difficult in the extreme to believe a chain of lucky accidents resulted in our unique solar system and our unique earth with its unique moon, that lucky accidents account for the demise of the dinosaurs and everything like the little bear’s porridge being “just right” for our species. “Alien Nation” and other such SciFi would have extraterrestrials mingling with humans, and there is always the suggestion of Atlantis or other past civilizations somehow imparting their knowledge to a future, fledgling civilization. But mythologies and SciFi have generally allowed room for superior malignant intelligences as well; and for good reason. Even if one indulges in the most improbable themes of SciFi there is the matter of good and evil ever before us and an accounting of such a thing must be given consideration. For this very reason in most mythologies there is latitude for both angels and demons.

As to the matter of life in its various manifestations, Dr. J. Craig Venter and his work with extremophiles, microbes that live in the most extreme of environments, has caused him to be awed by the capacity of these organisms to survive. “Given the wealth of biological and metabolic templates that nature has invented over nearly four billion years of evolutionary tinkering, scientists say, any sane program to synthesize new life forms must go hand in hand with a sustained sampling of the old. ‘My view is that we know less than 1 percent of what’s out there in the biological universe,’ Dr. Venter said.”

And small wonder, since scientists have yet to discover all the secrets of a single, living cell. It remains my contention there can be no “theory of everything” until we know exactly what life and death are. The efforts being made in the area of synthetic life are proving to be most interesting in peeling back the layers surrounding the mystery of life only to find more layers yet, much like particle research and astronomy seeming infinite in both mystery and diversity. But what those like Dr. Venter are discovering is that life can be manifest in extremely hostile environments. This would seem to advocate for life on other planets in the universe, but intelligent life in our form, ah, that is a whole different matter. Still, not knowing what life is advocates for superior intelligence existing “somewhere,” and the inexplicable mysteries right here on our own planet remain without an explanation apart from some kind of superior intelligence beyond that of our species.

In the meantime, I can’t do much if anything about what world leaders are doing to us and our planet. So, you may understand why I would far rather devote my time to speculation about the mysteries of our earth, our solar system and universe. I can’t do much about these either, but at least I feel my time and energy are better spent in this fashion.