Welcome to my blog! This is a personal blog which will feature scientific and paranormal news, along with anything else I find interesting at the time.
Stanton also touches upon the MJ-12 documents, skeptics, how he got into ufology in the first place, and whether or not he misses rival Phil Klass! All this and a very special and touching tribute to Albert Bourne. Don't miss this one.
It's a long one, but it's well worth the time and not one any UFO enthusiast(or debunker) should miss.
You can stream it on-line at either of the links below:
Just prior to Albert Bourne's passing, there was an interesting article put up on the Book of THoTH front page.
Written by the same author as "UFOs a Modern Phenomenon? Think again" Michael Bourne this time goes through Irish folklore and makes a case that the faeries that lived in the "Otherworld" were the resident's best explanation for the UFO phenomenon at the time in his article "Tuatha De Danann - Ancient Aliens?"
Obviously, a common theme around here and elsewhere, and Mike makes an interesting case for the common cause for some common European mythology and our modern UFO incidents.
I mentioned at the time that I thought I'd seen the pictures that were presented on other blogs before and forums before, and it seems as though I was right. They've been out there for a while, and in all likelihood they're fakes as apparently the pictures, minus the UFOs, have been floating around cyberspace since before the O'Hare incident.
Why someone's taken the time to add those back into a clearly legitimate event such as this press event makes me wonder. Perhaps they're the hoaxers? Whatever happened there, the fairly popular blog out there claiming to have been at the event which has those pictures in the middle of their wrap-up seems pretty suspect right about now in my opinion.
After following up on the National Press Club event about UFOs from last week, it seems as though there was at least some coverage, and perhaps even some new information that came out of it. In the clip featured here, you can get an idea of what the press conference was about, and how it happened.
Looking around the 'net, I have to admit that I'm surprised at how many people are still talking about this event. Not only that, but so many blogs and sites have comments from people saying "I never thought that there was a chance that UFOs were real, but now I have to stop and think about it." I guess that's more than anyone could hope for from such an event.
It also seems like people are suggesting that there were some new pictures of the O'Hare UFO incident featured, one of which is below.
I actually thought I'd seen that before, but perhaps I'm mistaken.
The mocking continues for many out there, however. In the clip below, the CNN correspondent seems like he's really trying to cover the subject in a professional manner when the anchor, who honestly seems a little on the air-head side, giggles and says that when she thinks of people who believe in UFOs she thinks of freaks.
Not exactly professional, but, just the fact that CNN had the Larry King Live special, and then covered the NPC event speaks volumes to where the UFO enigma seems to have gone over the past few years. It's not a "career killer" anymore, like it used to be, for a news person to speak about in a serious matter.
After reading some of the testimony, parts really stand out in my mind, and I'll try to hit on the highlights of the discussion and comments from most of the attendees below.
I was glad to see Fife Symington, the former Governor of Arizona, apologize for his mockery of the Phoenix lights previously when he was the current Governor. For those who don't remember, he called a press conference claiming that he solved the mystery, and then presented a man in an alien costume. To set the record straight, he now claims that not only did he make serious inquiries into the event, but that he was also an eye witness. He's not making fun of it anymore, and he claims to be upset by the insinuation of the local Air Force that all he saw were flares. He called it a "silly explanation."
An interesting point was made by Roy Bower, a pilot from the UK. He claims to have seen two UFOs while flying a passenger jet. The UFOs were observed by passengers and another plane as well, and he says a radar hit may have been recorded as well. His point was that in the UK there's a system for reporting such incidents, and they are investigated. He was surprised to hear that the O'Hare incident seems to have never been investigated, and he feels that had that happened in the UK it would have been handled differently. He called it his "duty" to report what he saw in the sky, and says he's faced no ridicule for doing so. He urged pilots from the US to report what they see and what they've seen, and not let the FAA obstruct a real investigation into it.
Rodrigo Bravo Garrido followed that up by saying that in Chile, where he has investigated UFOs for the military, there's also a system for investigating UFOs. He made the point that he feels there can be dangerous consequences for an unknown object in the skies hovering around airplanes. He cited the case of a 737 coming into an airport to land, only to find that a "large white light surrounded by green and red" was in its way. The pilot had to make a steep turn in order to avoid a collision.
Next up, Wilfried De Brouwe, a retired Major General of the Belgian Air Force, added to the conversation by saying that investigating UFOs is no easy task. He talked about a "UFO wave" over eastern Belgium when he was in active service which included "a majestic triangular craft with a span of approximately 120 feet, powerful beaming spot lights, moving very slowly without making any significant noise but, in several cases, accelerating to very high speeds" which was witnessed by hundreds of people. That was followed up by hundreds of possible sightings over the next year of UFOs. While the local Air Force attempted to make contact by scrambling jets multiple times, they were ultimately unsuccessful.
Former Chief of Accidents and Investigations for the FAA, John Callahan, then followed with a personal story and an interesting discussion he claims took place with the CIA during the Reagan administration. He told the story of a Japanese cargo plane that was shadowed and "chased" by a UFO over Alaska. The pilot and the crew stated that they saw it with their own eyes and it was about four times the size of a 747. When he received the information, he not only received the radar information, but also the discussion amongst the crew inside of the plane and all of the related data. He found that the radar confirmed what the crew was saying, and so they relayed the data to a scientific staff from the FAA and CIA members. At the end of the briefing he claims that the CIA confiscated all of the data for their people to analyze, and when he suggested that they tell people about the incident, one of the CIA guys told him, "No way, if we were to tell the American public there are UFO's they would panic."
I hate the idea that one of the reasons incidents like this are withheld is because of fear of people's reactions, but, that's been discussed at length recently here.
After that, other pilots continued to tell their stories before Charles Halt told his. He is a retired US Air Force Colonel who was stationed in the UK in 1980 when he witnessed lights in the woods outside of his base, and found some interesting effects from what he witnessed. Shortly after finding three 1 1/2" indentations in the ground, he, and others, witnessed a "bright red/orange oval object with a black center" which he thought looked like an eye. There were broken branches and mild radiation present, and when they approached it "it receded and silently broke into five white lights which quickly vanished." They stepped out of the woods and watched the lights change shape and then several other objects approached. One of them "sent down a concentrated beam near our feet" while another object "sent down beams into the weapons storage area." This incident went on for about an hour while they had trouble communicating using their radios the entire time. He finished his statement by saying that he's sure what he saw was under intelligent control.
Another military incident was relayed by Parvis Jafari, a retired general of the Iranian Air Force. He told a story of a UFO event in which he personally piloted a fighter jet in which he attempted to intercept and engage a UFO. He described it as an "intense red, green, orange and blue light so bright that I was not able to see its body." He locked onto it with radar and says that it had a signature equivalent with a 707 tanker. Shortly thereafter, four objects broke off of the main one. He claims to have attempted to launch a heat seeking missile, fearing he was under attack. Not only did his missile instrumentation go out when he attempted, but he says that whenever the objects came close to him his weapons jammed and his radio communication went out. There was physical evidence also, as one of the objects landed in the sand and left a mark.
James Penniston, formerly of the United States Air Force, then told his personal story about the now infamous Rendlesham incident. His story is actually much like that of Charles Halt. He said that when he went into the forest to investigate what he thought was a downed aircraft he actually found a "ilhouetted triangular craft about 9 feet long by 6.5 feet high..." He also reported problems with his radio as he got close to it, also reported bright lights "swirling" around the outside. He reported that he felt like the air around him was electrified, and that he felt it in his hair and clothes. Interestingly, the team then took the time to attempt a full investigation of the craft. They took photographs, took notebook entries and studied symbols on the side of the craft which were approximately three inches high, and went two and a half feet across the outside. The largest was a triangle in the middle, and the rest were pictorial in design. After 45 minutes the craft lights brightened and it took off at a speed which he called "impossible" and disappeared. All of the photos came back to them overexposed.
At the event he had his actual original log book with the drawings of the symbols on it, but I haven't seen any pictures of that around the 'net. If anyone knows where they might be, I'd love to take a peek.
Shortly thereafter Nick Pope gave his accounts of what he knows. In case you don't know, Book of THoTH did a DVD interview with him which you can purchase here from Amazon. He was formerly with the British Ministry of Defense, and he certainly seems to know exactly what he's talking about.
To end the conference, Oscar Santa Maria Huertas presented his experience as a retired pilot of the Peruvian Air Force. His tale should be a cautionary tale as to the futility of attempting to attack a UFO(as the US military found out when they thought they were shooting at Japanese planes). His unit commander witnessed what they called a "balloon" which was in restricted airspace and refused to communicate or leave the area. The decision was made to take it down, and despite firing sixty-four 30mm shells, at it his "wall of fire" didn't do a thing. He feels as though the shots that were direct hits were actually absorbed by the UFO. He chased it for a while, locked onto it a few times, but was never able to get another shot at it. He did get within 300 feet of it, and described it as "30 feet in diameter. It was an enamelled, cream-colored dome, with a wide, circular, metallic base. It had no engines, no exhausts, no windows, no wings or antennae. It lacked all the typical aircraft components, with no visible propulsion system."
At the end of all of that, I still find it interesting that so many people poke fun at the UFO enigma. No matter what it is, no matter who has seen UFOs, no matter what anyone says, there's something going on, and it would be a major injustice not to take the time to make a legitimate study of the enigma.
I haven't seen too much info on the National Press Club event from Monday yet, but I haven't been anywhere near a computer, TV or even newspaper for the most part this week. If there's been a lot more reported than what I know, I'd love to hear about it.
After taking a quick look around, I see that a couple of people have written about it, and Reuters picked up the story, as did PhysOrg, at least. While it doesn't look like there was much "new" information for those who know about the UFO enigma, it's nice to see that there was some positive, non-mocking information presented by the types of people that will probably carry some weight with the average person.
From what I've seen, it seems like they mostly called for more government investigations(which might nor might not do anything at all even if carried out), pulled out the 9/11-national-security-card, and told their own stories. Certainly nothing ground breaking there, but, progress is progress, I guess.
Seems like the search for the truth probably isn't going to go too much faster than the slow pace it seems to be going at right now, however, just being forward moving is pretty good right now, I think, seeing as how that hasn't always been the case.
The question has me thinking quite a bit lately. It started out when I got involved a bit in Paul and Mac's discussion on contact, and what it's ramifications would be, and it's continuing now with the recent Larry King show on UFOs and the upcoming event at the National Press Club.
It's actually quite an interesting time to be keeping an eye on UFOs and the public reaction recently. O'Hare really seemed to open a lot of eyes, and got mainstream press that wasn't purely mocking. As little as it seemed at the time, it really looks like a step forward now. Of course, recently, Dennis Kucinich was asked about his sighting during a "debate" for democratic nominee for President, which only served to keep the ball rolling it seems.
Momentum seems to be gaining now, even though I was prepared to be completely and totally offended by the Larry King special. To be clear, I haven't actually seen it yet, but I've read the transcript available here. It seems to have been a fairly level headed discussion, on national TV, to a large audience. I almost feel like I'm suddenly in a parallel world here. Have we actually gotten to the point where it's not taboo to discuss this?
From what I've seen lately, I'll stick with my previous thoughts on whether or not we're ready. Some people are, some probably aren't, but it's time to understand what's going on around us. Of course, disclosure and contact are different, but I think they'd likely have similar results.
Imagine all of the world's governments coming forward with what they know and what they don't know. Would we suddenly realize an alien presence among us? Would we be forced to accept cryptoterrestrials right here on our planet? Perhaps we still wouldn't know what, exactly, we were dealing with, but we'd understand that there was something legitimate going on that we had to study. Any one of those would certainly open up a new dialogue amongst all of us.
It seems to me that we must be reaching some sort of a critical point in the study of UFOs. Whether that's "disclosure" or whether that's the opening of legitimate scientific study I'm not sure, but I'll take either one at this point.
I'll certainly be keeping my eyes open over the next few days to see what comes out of the upcoming National Press Club event. It seems like if there's ever going to be something of importance come out of such a gathering, it's going to be this one(and certainly not Hoagland's). There actually seems to be some sort of momentum gathering in this regard, and I, for one, hope it continues.
It seems that practically everyone knows about the Kucinich UFO "debate" question by now. I put "debate" in quotes because, as Mac Tonnies said, only here in the US does that pathetic display count as a debate. But, that's not the point, and I'll save that rant for a moment when I'm feeling more like arguing politics.
If you haven't seen it, here it is below:
For now, I'd like to stick to the reasoning behind the question, and the fallout from it. There's quite a few people out there basically giving the old "any publicity is good publicity" line on what it's going to mean for UFOs and the mainstream.
Generally, I can't disagree with that. There's going to be some people who realize that the UFO enigma is real for the first time after hearing that a presidential candidate saw a UFO and they'll go on to tell others, etc. I think Paul Kimball made some good points on the subject.
However, the way the question was asked, the forum it was asked in, and the way that Russert jumped in with stats of his own reeks of political sabotage. Now, lets not harbor any illusions that Kucinich was going to the White House for anything other than a visit. He wasn't, and he isn't. My own belief is that it's mostly because he's too decent and honest to be a politician, and we like our politicians slick and sleazy around these parts, but that's another post for another day.
So, why do I think Kucinich was asked that at this point? Because we're getting down to the "traditional" presidential race time. The final year is when the "real" candidates separate themselves and move on, and the rest fall back and drop out to make way for them.
I think, basically, Kucinich was the slowest prey in the herd. Russert took him down with the easiest way to make him seem like a wacko possible. He brought up UFOs. You can't believe in UFOs, or anything else for that matter beyond what your publicist tells you is OK, in the two party system. It's a joke, it's broken, but, once again, arguing the two party system is another debate for another day.
I was actually proud of the way Kucinich handled himself. He didn't lie, he said he saw it, and he deftly pointed out that it was an unidentified object in the air, not an alien mothership. I imagine that subtle point was lost on about 80% of americans, but that's not his fault. He tried to explain, and get in a shot at Bush at the same time, but he was basically shouted down by Russert, who interjected himself into Kucinich's time with stats.
My question at this point was, and still is, what is the "moderator" doing with stats of his own that he's throwing out there while a candidate is trying to talk? When Hillary Clinton throws out a stat about health care does Russert have the latest polls ready to throw back in her face? I mean, the poor guy only had 30 seconds to try to explain why he's not crazy to begin with, trying to talk over a suddenly rowdy crowd as well as the moderator doesn't help.
The guy was thrown under the bus in an effort to try to get him to drop out of the race, I believe.
I'm sure most people really don't care. Like I said, he wasn't going to win anyway, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who thinks he would. However, it was a political cheap shot and one that Russert should be ashamed of.
Like him or not, Kucinich actually brings a lot of knowledge, outside the box thinking, and political experience to the debates. He's not afraid to talk about subjects that other candidates won't touch, and he's honest and willing to talk real life. I think that's something that we should all demand more of in our politicians and is particularly necessary in these phony staged events called debates.
In the end, will this help people understand the UFO enigma? Maybe. Probably not. A few more people might begin to realize that there's something going on, but it's more likely to stir up dissent and mocking from those who can't believe and won't think about it. I sincerely hope something good comes from this, but it probably killed one presidential run dead in its tracks, possibly killed one political career, and even managed to make a mockery of what was already a shameful "debate" system in my mind.
Much like most of the rest of them, his story seems to confirm the legend of an unknown flying craft coming down containing multiple dead unknown creatures, and at least one live being.
At this point, I'll be the first to admit that the witness pool is tainted and probably unsalvageable. However, the fact that so many people continue to come out with basically the same intertwining story, despite the fact that they might lose their pensions for it, or suffer in some other way, seems to speak to the fact that they at least believe that they're doing the right thing by coming out with what they say they remember.
I think it's more than coincidental, and more than people hearing stories and believing that they remember the same thing, that keeps this story coming back over and over again. I think we are at a point in time where many of these people are coming out with what they know because they know it might be their last chance.
I guess at this point, Roswell is likely to go down as one of those stories that people will bicker about forever. Until proof is shown otherwise, I think I'll continue to come down on the side of something unknown to the local military having crashed in the desert.
"The Hunt for the Skinwalker," for those who don't know, is a book about a Utah ranch that seems to have almost every paranormal occurrence all at once, and the scientists who have and are trying to study it. The book's written by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp, with Kelleher being a PhD scientist who took the lead on the study of the ranch.
The research was funded by the National Institute for Discovery Science, a scientific organization set up to scientifically study phenomena which would probably otherwise go unexplored by the scientific community.
The book gives excellent background of the area and the history behind the phenomenon in that location. The bizarre phenomenon there seems to go back at least 15 generations in Ute history, and for all we know might have been going on long before that. In short, in Native American lore the phenomenon is attributed to "skinwalkers" who are witches who use their power for evil. This ranch is said to be "in the path of the skinwalkers" and, therefore, the members of the local tribe will not step foot on the property for any reason.
Having asked many people I know who are familiar with the skinwalker phenomenon whether it's real or not, I can report that almost to a person, each came back to me with stories and legitimate fear for their own lives. Many people who have attempted to research skinwalkers have terrifying tales which scared them off of the notion of any legitimate research.
The nature of the occurrences on this particular property take the shape of everything from frightening poltergeist behavior, to telepathic communications, to UFOs of almost every variety reported from around the world, to Bigfoot, bulletproof animals including an extremely large wolf, to cattle mutilations, and even unknown creatures stalking the grounds.
The former residents of the ranch regularly ran into some of the strangest encounters I've ever heard of. For example, one of the most common occurrences was an orange "window" which would open up in full view of the house, up in the sky. Once, while watching the window, a resident of the ranch saw what looked to him like another sky through the window. Shortly thereafter a triangular shaped craft flew through from the other "sky" into the sky over Utah.
This seems to speak to the possibility that this ranch is located in an area where cross over from other dimensions or travel through a wormhole might be a reality. Many, if not all, of the other phenomena might possibly be explained by that as well, as strange as it seems. However, much of the happenings on the ranch seem to fall along the trickster motif; occasionally seemingly random occurrences with no obvious motive. That doesn't mean the motive doesn't make sense to whatever does it, but it's hard to come up with a reason why, for instance, a 75 pound post digger would disappear from a job site and show up later in a tree.
One of the more interesting points which I think was made in the book is the obvious intelligence of the behavior of what is often called an "entity" in the book. When the NIDS team showed up on the ranch at first, the occurrences were in full swing and happening regularly. They came in with a central command trailer, high tech equipment and people stalking the grounds on regular rounds. It was not exactly a low key operation, and it seems to have been obvious to the "entity" that it was being stalked. Almost at once, the occurrences dropped to near zero, with just hints of activity and strange phenomena here and there. While the research team certainly witnessed some things which they can not explain in everyday terms, they were mostly unable to come out of their experience with lasting proof of what happened. In most cases, it seems like that's because whatever was going on there simply didn't want to be filmed or caught on camera.
All in all, I found the book to be a fascinating read which did not disappoint from my previous stance that if they book lived up to the hype it might just help solve the mystery behind much of the paranormal. With such a wide range of happenings in one place it would seem unlikely that they aren't tied in together in some fashion. How is probably up to the likes of the Vallee's of the world to explain(who is on the board of the NIDS), but maybe the answers are closer now than they were before the NIDS spent over a year at the ranch in Utah. If you're interested in attempting to explain bits and pieces of the paranormal I'd certainly recommend making this book a part of that research.
There's an interesting "new" UFO video making the rounds:
I only say "new" because even though the case has been known and discussed for over 50 years now, this is the first time I've ever seen this footage. I have yet to see a good explanation of why it suddenly surfaced now, which makes me believe it's a new recreation of the event, unfortunately.
However, the case is legitimate, I believe. In July of 1952 these lights were reported all over the eastern seaboard, along with pictures being taken of them flying over the Capitol. Apparently, around the time the pictures were taken, Andrews Air Force Base reported an "orange orb" hovering over the base. During the same night, and other times during the same week, dozens if not hundreds of UFOs were sighted all around the US and elsewhere in the world. In fact, the incident over the Washington DC was apparently witnessed by, at least, hundreds of people.
In fact, the sighting over the Capitol even made the front page of the Washington Post the next morning:
No reasonable explanation has ever been put forward that I've seen, and whether or not the video turns out to be real, the case is certainly an interesting one.
Regan Lee, of the Orange Orb Blog, has recently posted a short front page article on Book of THoTH. Her article "What Is A Real UFO?" is a basic explanation of the term. Unfortunately, the term really is misused on a daily basis. It's always been one of my pet peeves, so I'm glad to see someone else taking up the cause! Good job Regan.
The Paul Kimball interview on the Book of THoTH podcast is now up and available. The podcast area where you can download or stream it can be accessed at the link below:
In this one Paul talks about his new documentary, "The Best Evidence" which everyone on every side of the UFO fence is raving about right now from what I can tell. He also discusses how he feels the state of UFO research stands right now, his umbrage with the term "UFOlogy", his relationship with Stanton Friedman, Alfred Lehmberg, and much more. Jeremy really did a terrific job putting together a great interview here.
I'll certainly be getting a bit more into this one in my next post(s).
Book of THoTH articles have really been piling up on me here, but there's been a couple of really great exclusive articles this week that I think deserve some attention.
For those who aren't familiar with it, here's the intro that Mr. Pope has written for his article:
On 30 and 31 March 1993 there was a series of UFO sightings in the UK involving over a hundred witnesses. Many of these were police officers and military personnel. The UFO also flew directly over two RAF bases. What follows is the extraordinary story of what has been dubbed The British UFO Mystery.
Overview
The first sighting took place on 30 March at around 8.30pm in Somerset. This was followed by a sighting at 9pm in the Quantock Hills. The witness was a police officer who, together with a group of scouts, had seen a craft that he described as looking "like two Concordes flying side by side and joined together". The reports came in thick and fast and when I arrived at work the following morning I received a steady stream of reports ........
...... It was soon clear that I had a major UFO event on my hands. One of the most interesting reports came from a member of the public in Rugely, Staffordshire, who reported a UFO that he estimated as being 200 metres in diameter. He and other family members told me how they had chased the object in their car and got extremely close to it, believing it had landed in a nearby field. When they got there a few seconds later, there was nothing to be seen. Many of the descriptions related to a triangular-shaped craft or of the lights perceived as being on the underside of such a craft. Indeed, in an apparent coincidence these sighting occurred three years to the very day after the famous wave of sightings in Belgium that had led to F-16 fighters being scrambled to intercept a UFO being tracked on radar.
Mr. Pope will be featured in at least one upcoming DVD from Michael Bourne and the Book of THoTH, so I think that we can all look forward to more information from him in the future.
Interestingly, recent tests in the UK and the USA have shown intriguing results which seem to confirm the possibility of the ability to send and receive signals using only the human brain.
They were then taken to separate rooms and wired up to EEG machines, which detect activity in certain parts of the brain.When in these rooms, the subjects were exposed to the sounds of rhythmic drumming to bring their levels of consciousness to a similar state. Whilst in this state, random light flashes were beamed at the "sender". This triggered activity in the visual cortex of the brain (the area which activates with signals from the eye). Their startling discovery was that the visual cortex in the "receiver" also responded in a similar fashion, despite them not being exposed to any light flashes.
These are certainly fascinating results, and they should bear further looking into since they passed peer review and have been published in upstanding scientific journals.
THoTH promises an update to the article with findings from a recent related study in Italy, so keep an eye out for that one!
Seems the O'Hare UFO story isn't going anywhere yet. A guest opinion article from a Florida news source has reignited the debate. I guess at this point there's really nothing to discuss until we wait to see what evidence comes out. The most likely source seems like it's going to be Dan Aykroyd, but it might not be coming real soon, just "sometime this year". Seems like everyone will just have to wait a while and see what happens. At the very least there do seem to be many credible witnesses, but any sufficient video and/or photographic evidence has been disturbingly lacking thus far, from what I've seen.
I've been personally interested in the Skinwalker Ranch case for a while now, and posted about it before. If the stories are true, and I will admit that to my knowledge there hasn't been enough proof put out to completely convince me, the ranch in Utah may be the center of a phenomenon which could shed light on a lot of the paranormal world.
The occurrences there speak to a wide range of paranormal happenings from UFOs to orbs to cattle mutilation to spontaneous combustion to multiple dimensions to possessions and everything in between. I'm still trying to sit down and read the book, but in the meantime I found a great article on it with a bunch of excerpts and stories from the book.
While browsing around today I found a gallery of the 15 best UFO photos of 2006. Have a look and see what you think. If you have any that you think are better, send me the file or a link.
One of her best points also made me laugh, then shake my head. How true...
Beyond that, for ufology to be a cult there would need to be a belief system that everyone followed. Anyone who is a member of ufo updates would quickly realize that ufologists agree on almost nothing.
Stanton Friedman has posted a very thorough and exhaustive critique of a recent National Geographic documentary which seemingly attempted to debunk the happenings of Roswell. As he puts it they "abided by the 4 basic rules of debunkdom":
1. Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up.
2. What the public doesn’t know, I won’t tell them.
3. If you can’t attack the data, attack the people.
4. Do your research by proclamation, no investigation is required.
I never saw the National Geographic documentary on Roswell, and I certainly won't waste my time with it after reading this.
The Denver Post, a paper which I happen to read quite regularly and have since I was a little kid, actually carried a fairly balanced article on MUFON. Well, at least it wasn't openly mocking, which, I guess is better than most.
There's one more big UFO story that seems to be getting a lot of attention the last day or two, as well. The Phoenix Lights, apparently, made a comeback recently(video included). Once again, the official explanation from the military is flares, but it seems like most of the locals don't agree. While they don't look exactly the same, to me at least, as last time, they do look anomalous. It should be interesting to see if there are as many witnesses and different views from different angles as last time as the story develops and people come forward.
There's an article making the rounds from the Santiago Times. It claims that during the Tenth International Ufology Conference, organized by the Chile’s Ufology Investigation Group, military photos and videos of UFOs were presented. There was also a presentation from Rodrigo Bravo, Captain of the Army’s Fifth Division, who talked about military encounters with UFOs. While I haven't seen any of the photos or videos, if the story's true and they make it onto the 'net at some point, they're probably going to be worth a thorough look.
UFO Digest has a rather strange, but interesting, article on an Indonesian UFO sighting with a possible UFO "base" as well. From there it takes a bit of a twist from the average UFO story by attempting to tie together big cat/panther sightings and UFO sightings.
There's been another twist in the Chicago O'Hare airport UFO story. Apparently none other than Dan Aykroyd is claiming to have exclusive photos and video footage in his possession, and says he'll be releasing it all at some point this year. I guess we're all caught up in the instant information age where we expect instant gratification when a story hits the news, but it looks like we'll have to wait to pass judgment on this one.
Karl Wolfe, states that while he was in the Air Force he was shown photos of the moon taken by the Lunar Orbiter, before the Apollo landing, which clearly displayed artificial structures. Mr. Wolfe had a top-secret clearance and worked with tactical air command at Langley AFB in Virginia. He claims that in the photos he saw towers, spherical buildings, large things that were similar to radar dishes and some structures that were half a mile in size.
According to only one document I could find, it was reported in March of 1996 that NASA scientists and engineers participating in the Moon and Mars exploration met in front of the Washington National Press Club to discuss their findings. Although they spoke cautiously, they announced that man-made structures and objects were discovered on the Moon. The article goes on to say that there is evidence of lost cities on the Moon. An unnamed mission control specialist is quoted as saying, “Our guys observed ruins of the Lunar cities, transparent pyramids, domes, and God knows what else, which are currently hidden deep inside the NASA safes, and felt like Robinson Crusoe when he suddenly came across prints of bare feet on the sand of the desert island.”
Are these stories really true? I certainly don't know, but I've always thought it was strange that we abandoned the idea of putting bases on the moon shortly after visiting for what really amounts to no apparent reason. At this point I wouldn't bet all my money on the existence of ancient cities on the moon, but I wouldn't bet against it either, as far out as it seems. If you take ancient Indian texts about vimanas and Native American stories of the Second World at all literally, you have to consider the possibility that either man, or visitors, harnessed the power of flight long ago.
Image taken from http://ufoevidence.conforums.com/index.cgi
Part two of the story of the Missouri man who claims to have part of a UFO is now up. I wrote about part one a few days ago.
Part two covers the inevitable, and frustrating, part of these stories. The man claims to have taken it to many labs, gotten private confirmation of it not being of earth origin, and then been unable to get the labs to say so publicly. Unfortunately, names of people he spoke to at the labs are not given up, as I would have certainly followed up on this one seeing as how I spent years working at one of the labs mentioned. They also make some pretty hefty claims about the object, namely "White said the object heats and cools rapidly. It picks up radio signals – AM and FM. And, during a UFO convention in Nevada, it disabled the electronics in a casino’s hotel safe – three times."
However, what you're left with in the end is an interesting story, and the picture above. If the object is truly anomalous, I certainly hope he's able to get some kind of scientific evidence.
Also on the UFO front, there's an interesting story about a Missouri man who claims to have an artifact from a UFO. In short, the man was driving when he saw a UFO which he says then ejected something that landed just over a hill from where he was. He walked over the hill, followed the trail it left in the earth, collected it, and has had it ever since. This is part one of the story, and while there's no picture of the artifact, I think part two will be worth reading.
Over at Book of THoTH Mr. Bourne, aka. THoTH, has posted a very interesting article along with photographs of an unknown flying object which he took while out with his fiancee on the 16th. The pictures and the story seem to be quite anomalous, leading him to believe that perhaps he snapped off some legitimate unknown craft photos with some military crafts in the vicinity. You can check out the article along with the pictures right here.
Also, please don't forget that the book competition ends in just over a week, so if you want to see your articles in print, make sure you finish them up and submit them by the end of the month!
About.com's paranormal area has an interesting article on the far side of the moon, commonly misidentified as the "dark side" of the moon, and the possibility of current or previous inhabitants. Beginning with the reason we only see one side of the moon, the article rehashes many of the various anomalies and secrets about the far side.
When we look up at the Moon, we always see the same side. This peculiarity results because the Moon rotates just once for every orbit it makes around the Earth. The Moon is slightly lopsided, so over millions of years, gravitational forces have slowed its rotation so that the one side always faces our planet.
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To bolster this claim, authors at such websites as Alien Presence on the Moon, site the words of Milton William Cooper, allegedly a former intelligence officer with the US Navy. In a 1989 press release from Cooper (again allegedly), he swears under oath that he was privy to information that the US government has knowledge of alien craft visiting Earth. “LUNA is the alien base on the far side of the Moon,” the release states. “It was seen and filmed by the Apollo Astronauts. A base, a mining operation using very large machines, and the very large alien craft described in sighting reports as MOTHER SHIPS exist there.”
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The UFO Casebook website says there are actual NASA and military photos of the bases on the far side of the Moon. “There is a HUGE alien moon base complex on the far side of the moon,” the website says. “This sounds silly but it is true and we have solid proof… straight from the military. In 1994, the US Navy sent a satellite called Clementine to the moon to image it for two months. During that time, the satellite took 1.8 million images. Out of those images, 170,000 images were made available to the public. The rest were classified. Classified moon craters?”
As the article states, the only way to really know what's on the far side of the moon is to get full access to pictures that are taken. As NASA prepares to return astronauts to the moon, including taking samples from the far side, here's hoping that everyone gets full access to what they find there.
