John Weiskopf

What a Great New Year’s Eve Gift!  Joseph Fraundorfer, a close friend, sent this out today, December 31, 2009. It is a short video of a water droplet falling into water at 2,000 frames per second.

You won’t believe what you see. I am constantly in awe (with a spiritual reverence) at the beauty of our world, i.e.  the mathematics, the architecture of simplest life that is all around us, everywhere. Today’s technology allows us to see the simplest things in our world (our universe) such as a water drop. It is the place where science and poetry and mathematics and spirituality merge; it is at the very heart of our universe.  My gift to you is to share what Joe gave to me. Please take a look and marvel. http://www.flixxy.com/water-drop.htm

Last night, Judy and I saw AVATAR in 3D. This film is a milestone in cinema. Though I have no words to adequately describe my experience, I will try here. Great art changes the person who experiences it, or the group who experiences the art collectively by seeing, reading, hearing or feeling a new art form. It changes how you view the world, how you feel about the world, what you think about it. It hands you a vision, a freshness that asks you: NOT “Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear” BUT, “Can you see what I see? Can you hear what I hear? Can you think what I think?”

In historical terms, AVATAR will rank up there with pivotal cinematic thresholds, the first film ever made, first “talkie” sound film,  first FX film, first color film, first film with digital CGI technology … you get the picture. But AVATAR is far more than that. It has a depth and resonance so crucial to the times in which we live, when we are on the brink of possible worldwide extinction and forced to ask profoundly significant questions, the answers to which will affect our survival and connections in the universe.

AVATAR in 3D allows you to live in this incredible visceral and sensory world that is spiritual, ties to indigenous peoples and profoundly interconnected nature that we in the 21st Century have lost, and to a new philosophy of life that unifies people and nature (in the broadest sense of the word). It is a blend of a revolutionary cinematic technology and ancient spiritual wisdom passed on over thousands of years from indigenous cultures (Maya, Hopi, Lakota Sioux, Aborigines, Inca, Navajo…) who have left a wealth of information about how the very soul of this massive universe works, how EVERYTHING on the most basic level is connected. This is not just a mythical, “feely-good” sentimental concept dreamt up by New Agers, but a series profound revelations discovered by Pulitzer-Prize and Nobel Prize winning scientists over the last two decades, much of which has been made as a result of Hubble, the complete mapping of human DNA, and other milestones of scientific discovery, not to mention the spiritual leaders of the planet who have been “preaching” this unifying premise for years.

AVATAR’s story is at times predictable, but that predictability is more a product of the very laws of human behavior proven by thousands of years of wars and conflict, and the struggle of a people to protect the most significant things which those people consider to be far great than themselves.

The alien characters in AVATAR, who live in the world Pandora, each have radiant dots on their faces. The dots look like stars. Each character has a different star mapping, yet they are united by the stars that are part of who they are, just as we are an integral part of the night sky and stars that shine above us, whether we are aware of it or not.

All of the recent activity, discussions and the current release of government classified UFO sightings by England, France and many other countries, prompted me to review an official report, which I made to a UFO reporting agency on November 30, 1994 regarding a UFO, which I spotted (about seven days before) 15 years ago on November 24, 1994, while traveling East at 6:45 a.m. on Route 60 in a somewhat rural area on my way to skydive at Perris Valley Skydive Center in Riverside, California.

Unbeknown to me, there were a rash of UFO sightings that were reported during this time period in the United States, Russia, Canada, Mexico, and the Ukraine. You can click on the link just below, where it says UFO REPORT to read the official report.

UFO REPORT: LISTE D’OBSERVATIONS DE PHENOMENES.

–John M. Weiskopf

NASA’s newest spacecraft is currently perched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Santa Barbara, Calif. It is scheduled to roar into space at dawn on Dec. 11, at 6:09:33 a.m. PST (9:09:33 a.m. EST), on a short journey to its final Earth-circling orbit 525 kilometers (326 miles) overhead.

“We can help protect our Earth by learning more about the diversity of potentially hazardous asteroids and comets,” said Amy Mainzer, deputy project scientist for the mission at JPL.

The farthest of the mission’s targets are powerful galaxies that are either churning out loads of new stars or dominated by voracious black holes. These galaxies are shrouded in dust, and often can’t be seen in visible light. WISE will expose millions, and may even find the most energetic, or luminous, galaxy in the universe.

“WISE can see these dusty objects so far away that we will be looking back in time 10 billion years, when galaxies were forming,” said Peter Eisenhardt, the mission’s project scientist at JPL. “By scanning the entire sky, we’ll learn just how extreme this galaxy formation process can get.”

On December 9, 2009, NASA will launch a remarkable satellite called W.I.S.E. (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) to map the entire sky. This project has been years in the making, and is on the cutting-edge of astronomical research. In 2003, geneticists and researchers announced the complete mapping of the entire human genome, the consequences of which were and will be enormous. The fruits of this December 9, 2009 launch of W.I.S.E. will be of equal significance. We are living in the most exciting time imaginable, not just because of the daily political & social wranglings for power and meaning around the globe, in the “light of the Mayan Prophecies and other prophecies,” but also, and in many ways more significantly, because of the incredible advances in science from digital technologies to human biology to astronomical discoveries of our origins and dark matter of the universe. We can only stand in awe at what is unfolding before us. And we are part of it.

These are old photos of my family and extended family. I marvel at history, the faces which stare out at us from years past. I am grateful.

L. to R. My Grandmother Marie Magdalene Wallmark, Uncle Arthur Wallmark, and my mother Marie E. "Dolly" Wallmark (3 years old). Circa 1925.

My Grandmother Marie Magdalene Montgomery (tallest, center in white) with her mother and father, and her brothers and sisters Mabel & Nellie. Circa 1916.

My Mother Marie E. "Dolly" Wallmark (baby) with her grandmother Annie Soper. Circa 1922.

Mom at 23 years-old at a five-year employee award telephone company luncheon at Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. Mom is sitting in the 2nd row of women on right, the 5th woman from the front wearing a large black hat. Circa 1945.

On Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. I did an author talk/book signing for my novel THE ASCENDANCY at the Barnes & Noble in Ellicott City, Maryland. One of the attendees was Gina Brillante, the daughter of my close childhood-teen friend from College Park, Frannie Brillante. His daughter Gina is a writer. She has been writing poems, short stories, essays and novels since she was eight years old. Below is the poem which she wrote during my author talk at the Barnes & Noble booksigning event. Gina gave me permission to share it with you. Please take a look. You will not be sorry. Machu Picchu

Just a heads up. This morning, I did a 52 minute radio interview with Adam Avery on Frederick’s WFMD. It was a great interview. It is syndicated through the Clear Channel Network.

John at WFMD

I found Adam Avery to be the epitome of a good interviewer and a great host. Thank you, Adam! He asked me questions about my novel THE ASCENDANCY, the trilogy, the screenplays that I have written and currently writing, how I got started in writing, the film on elder abuse that I produced & directed, my family, and more. It was an incredible experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity. If you want to hear the interview, please go to WFMD to Adam Avery’s “Seniors Talk Radio.” Click on this link. The show will air Sunday, November 15 at 8 p.m.

Hi All! I do a series of book signings in Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia for my novel THE ASCENDANCY between November 10 – 21. I will be doing signings at Barnes & Nobles, two high schools, and possibly one university, that is still in the works. There will also be a 30 – 60 minute syndicated radio interview, and some newspaper coverage. This is the poster for one of the events. If you know people in the Rockville, Gaithersburg, Derwood, Montgomery County area of Maryland or the Ellicott City, Baltimore area, please let them know. THE ASCENDANCY deals with the whole 2012 concerns that people are concerned about. I spent ten years of travel and research to write the book which deals with 2012, and the volatile times in which we live.

THE ASCENDANCY. 

I will be giving author talk/book signing events at four locations in November. November 13, Friday: meet and talk with AP Literature, Honors, Journalism students at Paint Branch High School, Montgomery County, Silver Spring, Md. . November 13, Friday: Barnes & Noble, Gaithersburg, Maryland (Washington Center), 7 – 8:30 p.m.  November 16, Monday: Author talk at my alumni St, John’s College Prep High School in Washington D.C. on Military Road. Will speak with the De La Salle honors students in 10th – 12th grades. November 17, Tuesday: Barnes & Noble, Ellicott City, Maryland, 6 – 7:30 p.m. Author talk/Book Signing.

Please come to one of the events! You’ll find it fascinating.  -John