SPRING HAS SPRUNG

In southern Arizona yesterday it reached 90 degrees in Phoenix accompanied with a Haboob (that is just a fancy word for dust storm.) It looks like they are going in that area of Arizona from Winter, second highest temperature average for a winter in recorded history, directly to Summer. Luckily, here in Prescott at 5,100 feet in elevation it is cooler year-round compared to Phoenix and Tucson.

That being the case, Summer travel is probably on everyone's plate and planning for vacations is probably being actively considered in your home. Where are you going this summer? Are you going to travel to a nearby U.S. National Park? I bet many of you are.

That is why I am really pushing myself to finish my latest non-fiction travel book, "Petrified Forest-Painted Desert, Land Frozen In Time." The Petrified Forest National Park, including the Painted Desert, is not far away from where I live. It is located in the northeast corner of Arizona, near the Four Corners (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah) and near the New Mexico border. It is a stark, mysterious, eerily quiet and desolate region of the U.S. that has a lush and verdant history where dinosaurs once roamed. It is dry with a tortured rough landscape that 200 million years ago was once covered in green vegetation, numerous wet-climate plant and animal species, and a network of rivers and streams. But no more, it is dry with dangerous summer heat and a sky that can explode in active thunderstorms.

I am finishing this travel book covering this National Park at a rapid pace. I should have it published and up for download from Kindle, Nook and Apple in a week or two. I will also put together a video that I shot along with all of the photography I produced for this new book.

There are 58 National Park in the National Park Service system. There is probably one near you or within a days' drive of your location. Millions of people from around the worldvisit these parks each year. The beauty and fascination of visiting one of these parks will give you and your children memories to last a lifetime.

Think about visiting one of these parks this year. Put one of these treasures on this years' bucket list of things to do.

I have included a Wikipedia link below for a list of these parks and their location. I have also listed the two websites where I will put direct links to purchase my new book, "Petrified Forest..."

Whatever you do have a fun and safe upcoming vacation season. Live a little, enjoy life and your environment. This life we are now living is not a dress rehearsal. It's the real deal, make the most of it. bye for now.

Frederick Fichman
www.frederickfichman.com
www.roadies.us
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_parks_of_the_United_States

Extraordinary Claims

Impossible as it may seem, broadcast television has just stepped up its game a notch or two with the updated version now on Fox of Carl Sagan's, "Cosmos." Produced by Carl's widow, Ann Druyan, and hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson (American astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, New York) "Cosmos" revisits the popular Astronomy series of 30 years ago. The computer graphics and production elements have been updated. But the heart of the series and enthusiasm that Carl showed for his subject matter shines through.

For me, as a writer of the Science Fiction genre, it is a joy and pleasure to see this series. But I must admit a little sadness at not seeing Carl with his distinctive gestures and that wonderful captivating voice. He had a way of making the complicated uncomplicated. And no more so than his oft-said phrase, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." He applied it to many facets of his communication with us the mere mortals of this earth but he applied that phrase most specifically when it came to UFO sightings and claims of close encounters of the third kind, contact.

And so it is this week with the wild conspiracy claims and theories of what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that we should apply this same law of extraordinary claims. As of this writing, the wreckage, plane, crew and passengers have not been found. Some of the wilder claims I heard this morning was that it was hit by a meteor. Another doozy was that it was sucked up into the belly of a UFO mothership to be transported to another planet. Another beauty was that it was hijacked, the passengers were disembarked and the Boeing 777 is going to be refitted as a bomber aimed at Los Angeles or New York,

Okay all you doomsdayers, prove it. Where is the evidence? Of course, there is none to this point as to what actually happened to this ill-fated plane.

Like Carl said, and like the actual originator of the "Extraordinary" quote,  (Marcello Truzzi, On the Extraordinary: An Attempt at Clarification, Zetetic Scholar, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 11, 1978,) said...where's the evidence
?
Maybe there is a lesson for life in all of this...when someone gives you an absolute statement ask them to prove it with hard evidence and not just a gut feeling. Maybe that is why the Law is based on evidence so that wild claims don't punish the innocent and leave the rest of us blind and stupid.

Anyway, I don't like to rant-off like that too often, so I appreciate your patience and indulgence.

And I would also like to encourage you to check out my new "The SETI Trilogy" anthology, 3 books for the price of 2, either on Kindle or Nook or Apple iBooks. To get direct links go to my website: www.frederickfichman.com.

This is what the cover looks like:

By the way, Spring is officially here so great weather is just around the corner. bye for now.

Fred F

btw: Also around the corner, first release of a new novel now In-Work:

"COSMOS" and "THE SETI TRILOGY"

 

 

 

WATCH and then speculate on WHAT IF..."The SETI Trilogy" available on Kindle, Nook, and Apple iBooks, priced one book free.

 

 

http://www.frederickfichman.com

 

"The SETI Trilogy" Book Trailer Video

MORE....I've just posted up to YouTube a 40-second video book trailer for "The SETI Trilogy."  Check it out...kinda interesting with a direct connection to the storyline for my just completed third book in the saga, "SETI, Conception." Both books available on Kindle, Nook and iBooks.

Here's the link for the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khndzT9qBts

Send feedback, tell me what you think, tnx.

 

 

 

FF