Friday 24 August 2012

Ufo News Links For Friday 24th August 2012

 
Watch this space as close encounters may occur – China.org.cn

A Different Perspective: MJ-12: Beating the Dead Horse

Mars rover Curiosity sends pics of strange white light, dots on horizon creating UFO buzz – India TV

UFOs - scientific research: "Communion" - Whitley Strieber's original book

China to probe black holes, search for aliens – Register

Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...: Penthouse And The End Of The World

Secret Wiltshire military establishment will not be investigating UFO sightings – This is Bath

Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology: Spain: Humanoids or Religious Phenomena?

UFO Caught On Camera In Valley – KMPH Fox 26

Spaceports: Sending astronauts to explore underground?

Talk Of UFOs On Mars Sparked By Curious Photos From Curiosity Rover – Huffington Post

Google Street View Tours Mexico's Mayan Ruins, Adds Panoramic Views Of Ancient City (PHOTOS)

Small Sphere Enters Moving Vehicle.

UFO spotted over Huntingdon last week – Hunts Post

Larry King Talks UFOs With Tom DeLonge, James Fox

Drake equation: How many alien civilizations exist? – BBC

Those Socorro-like UFOs -- again

Kepler space telescope adds 41 planets to its lengthening list – NBC News

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived

Tucson MUFON meeting draws UFO believers – Examiner

Sanderson and Keel Discuss[ed] UAOs and ITF,

Curiosity expected to boost Martian science worldwide – The Voice of Russia

Air Traffic Control, UFOs and the FOIA

Giant Rock the Movie – Melodika

UK to halt UFO investigations – TODAYonline

Earth scientists get extraterrestrial today – Jackson Hole News & Guide

Would human-alien or human-supernatural marriages be recognized under US law? – io9

Communicating with Aliens through DNA – Scientific American

Expedition Hopes To Uncover Clues To Ghost Rockets/UFOs Seen Over Sweden (Video)

By Scott Waring
 
In 2012 UFO-Sweden will head out on an expedition to investigate a UFO-phenomena that has been seen throughout Sweden for decades.
The Expedition is scheduled to take place this autumn in a lake deep in the forests of northern Sweden. Coming along on the trip will be a professional diving team, and over one ton of equipment including boats, cameras, a side scanning sonar and metal detectors. A documentary team will be following the investigation and are in the production of a film that will be released 2013.

Orb Triangle UFO Over Lake Eerie (Video)

 
Published on 17 Aug 2012 by

Michael Lee Hill records another amazing UFO appearance over Lake Eerie. This orb triangle appearance took place on August 9, 2012.

Triangle UFO Squadron 'Collides' in California Sky (Video)


A strange video posted to YouTube catches a UFO squadron in a triangular formation seemingly colliding into each other in the night skies over a California city. What is it?

The video was taken from a busy street in an unidentified town as strangers get together to marvel at what is taking place overhead. Naturally, some of them use some salty language. But that's to be expected when confronted with an unfamiliar sight.


Why city dwellers can't figure out what's hovering noiselessly in the sky is a major question. What's up there that they've never seen before?

What they're looking at are bright, steady lights which move back and forth among each other, some seeming to collide, as one passerby comments. They are obviously not helicopters or planes and if they were parachutes, it would be a very dangerous maneuver.

This UFO sighting is notable because of the reactions by the witnesses. Whatever it is hovering above, and which slowly winks out, is an unfamiliar sight. Presumably, people in a busy California town have seen all kinds of objects flying in the sky, day and night. So, what is it?
 

UFO Spotted over Avebury Crop Circle (Video)


A video on YouTube manages to capture two paranormal phenomena by filming a UFO zooming over the sky above a crop circle in Avebury, England.

The video was made in the clear light of daytime as a group of curiosity seekers explores a recent crop circle made in the area. The man filming the unidentified flying object video at first doesn't realize he's captured anything on camera.

But the posted video clearly shows a white orb flashing on and off at an irregular rate. Suddenly, it zooms away.


The object is definitely not an airplane and it's probably not a celestial body as it appears to be moving and suddenly disappears. The UFO sighting causes excitement in the group, proving that everyone there saw it as well.

It's interesting that these two strange occurrences happen together. Crop circles have never been fully explained and the people in this video seem to be true believers who got much more than they bargained for. Here's the video:

XCOM: Enemy Unknown "Last Stand" E3 2012 Trailer (Video)

Xcom: Enemy Unknown

Published on 4 Jun 2012 by
 
Humankind faces an unknown alien threat, and the only thing that stands in the way of annihilation is the top secret XCOM Project. Can these operatives turn the tide of battle, or will it be our last stand?


Xcom: Enemy Unknown is due for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC next month.

Multiple witnesses spot a strange UFO above Dos Palos, CA (Video)


A strange UFO was spotted by several witnesses above Dos Palos, California in early July 2012.
One witness managed to record the object on video for more than ten minutes. From this video, the aerial object appears to be a metallic-looking, sphere-shaped object with long, shimmery strands suspended below this sphere. Local Fox affiliate KMPH explored the possibility that this UFO was simply a weather balloon, but scientists from the National Weather Service said they “haven’t seen a weather balloon that looks like that ever.”
KMPH also sought the opinion of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding this UFO, but the FAA did not return the station’s calls.

Here is the news story KMPH aired about the UFO over Dos Palos:

  
And here is the witness video:

The (bad) science of Mars movies (Video)

By Robbie Graham
 
With NASA's Curiosity rover being all, well, curious on Mars right now, io9 has posted a generally quite cool video feature examining the "bad science" of three of Hollywood's Mars movies: Total Recall (1990), Mission to Mars (2000) and Red Planet (2000).

io9 refers to the above titles as "the worst Mars movies ever," which any Mars movie connoisseur knows not to be true. While the original Total Recall is no 2001: A Space Odyssey or Alien, in Hollywood's extensive historical Mars mission log, it's a shining beacon of artistry -- the Godfather of Mars flicks, if you will.

Anyway, here's the video...

UFOs: A Mixed Bag Of Theories




For most people, any mention of UFOs inevitably conjures up imagery of spaceships from other worlds, and alien abductions. However, the theory that UFOs originate in far-away galaxies is simply that – a theory. In reality, numerous suggestions have been made to explain the UFO presence that has, for decades, fascinated generations of saucer-seekers everywhere. Indeed, the fact of the matter is that, like it or not, we’re still very much in the dark when it comes to understanding the true nature of what it is that is amongst us, and which, for so long, has interacted with us. Let’s take a look at those theories…
One of the most thought-provoking theories offered in an attempt to provide an explanation for aspects of the UFO presence on our world suggests that the aliens are, actually, a very ancient and advanced body of people, closely related to the Human Race, who have lived alongside us in secret – possibly deep underground – for countless millennia. Granted, it’s a highly controversial theory, but it’s one I delved into deeply just a few days ago right here. Moving on…
U.S. military files demonstrate that only two years after pilot Kenneth Arnold’s now-legendary sighting of multiple UFOs over the Cascade Mountains, Washington State on June 24, 1947, the U.S, Department of Commerce was focused on determining if some UFOs were evidence of ball-lightning. A technical report that was prepared on behalf of the Air Force’s UFO research body, Project Grudge, in 1949, detailed the findings of the DoC’s Weather Bureau in relation to ball lightning.


The rare weather phenomenon, the DoC said, was “spherical, roughly globular, egg-shaped, or pear-shaped; many times with projecting streamers; or flame-like irregular ‘masses of light.’ Luminous in appearance, described in individual cases by different colors but mostly reported as deep red and often as glaring white.”
Almost half a century after the DoC’s studies, it was announced that after years of secretly investigating UFOs, the British Ministry of Defense had come to the conclusion that aliens were not visiting our planet. The MoD’s assertions were revealed within the pages of a formerly-classified document that had been commissioned in 1996 and that was completed in February 2000.
Titled the Condign Report, the 465-page document demonstrated how British air defence experts had decided that UFO sightings were the result of “natural but relatively rare and not completely understood phenomena” – such as plasmas. Significantly, said the MoD, close proximity to those same plasmas might provoke bizarre visionary-style experiences in the witnesses.
Now on to secret weapons: In the summer of 1947, FBI files declassified under the terms of the U.S. Government’s Freedom of Information Act reveal, one Special Agent S.W. Reynolds of the FBI spoke to a lieutenant-colonel with Air Force Intelligence who was of the opinion that “flying discs, were, in fact, a very highly classified experiment of the Army or Navy.” He may not have been wrong. For decades, tales have circulated to the effect that military agencies have been secretly building flying saucer-style craft.
FBI files of 1957 refer to a 1944 sighting at a military base in Germany of an unusual craft described as being “75 to 100 yards in diameter, and about 14 feet high, consisting of dark gray stationary top and bottom sections” – a classic flying saucer, in other words. Similarly, a 1957 British Air Ministry report, classified Secret at the time, stated: “A review by the Daily Worker newspaper of a book recently published on German wartime weapons contained references to a German flying saucer which was flown at a speed of 1,250 mph to a height of 40,000 feet.”
 

Let’s now take a look at the late John Keel’s so-called Window-Areas – specific places on our planet that may allow strange entities that co-exist alongside us, in other realms or dimensions, to enter our world via what, today, we might term wormholes. This is an issue elaborated upon and echoed by Marie D. Jones, whose book PSIence, extensively researches the issue of wormholes:
“Traveling through a wormhole would not, as many people might think, mean going faster than the speed of light. In fact, wormholes don’t require light speed at all. It is the time that it takes to travel through the hole that gives the impression of faster-than-light travel. All you really need is a black hole and a white hole and you have your own personal Stargate. The black hole serves as the entry point, and the white hole, the exit.”
Thus, in this particular scenario, the so-called “aliens” from afar are actually our very near-neighbors. Rather than being a star-system away, they’re just a dimension away!
Then there’s my 2010 book Final Events, which looked at the controversial work of a think-tank-type group in the U.S. Government that spent decades secretly studying the UFO phenomenon and came to the conclusion that the mystery had its origins not in the stars but in the depths of Hell. In other words, it was the group’s conclusion that the UFO conundrum has nothing less than fully-fledged demonic origins.
 

Let’s not forget, too, the theory that what many assume to be aliens in our midst might actually be time-travelers from a future far ahead of us, and where the world, and the Human Race, are in deep and dire trouble. The result: the last vestiges of our kind travel back to our time, ingeniously present themselves as extraterrestrials to camouflage their true identities, and – in the process – harvest massive amounts of present-day-era eggs, sperm and DNA to try and reboot the waning Human Race of the future.
So, what does all this tell us? Well, first and foremost, it demonstrates that not only do theories abound for what UFOs may be, but that those same theories are as wildly different as they are deeply controversial. But, there’s another important factor: many of these theories – secret weapons, ball-lightning, mind-altering plasmas, and demonic entities – have been addressed not just by UFO researchers, but by government agencies, too.
There is sometimes a tendency to assume that if government departments, intelligence agencies, and military think-tanks are studying UFO reports and classifying their findings, then “they” must have all the answers. What if, however, just like the UFO research community, governments have a lot of data, a massive amount of reports and testimony, and perhaps even recovered wreckage and bodies, but that’s all they have?
That one agency says “ball-lightning,” another cries “Demons!” a third claims ”It’s plasmas” and a fourth concludes “secret-weapons,” suggests confusion may reign within government just about as much as it does in our research community.
Just because officialdom – like us – knows something strange is afoot in our skies, it doesn’t automatically mean it knows – or can prove – the true origins of the phenomenon. The sheer scale of deeply different theories that exist to try and resolve what UFOs might represent shows one thing and one thing only: Sixty-five years after Kenneth Arnold’s famous encounter in the Cascade Mountains, Washington State, USA, we really haven’t learned, or resolved, much at all concerning what UFOs are. Arguably, that may well apply to governments, too.

Open Your Mind: Skepticism and Preconception in Paranormal Studies




Nine times out of ten, when I’m approached by somebody about my interest in subjects like ufology and the supernatural, I can expect a fairly typical response: “Oh, so you’re a believer, huh?” While I obviously believe there is something going on out there when it pertains to UFOs, or any other variety of so-called “paranormal” or unexplained occurrence, I certainly don’t conform to the general sorts of time-tested preconceptions that exist with regard to most strange phenomena.
I had a nice exchange about this during a recent appearance on the popular online program “Spacing Out!” with Maureen Elsberry and Jason McClellen of Open Minds. Jason had asked me what evidence I’ve found, in my own UFO research, that may seem to support the presence of extraterrestrial visitation. I had to admit that, while I’ve found some intriguing instances of something clandestine and truly incredible in the various accounts I’ve come across, I can’t say with honesty that any of these show us, without question, that we’re dealing with alien visitors. My hosts graciously accepted my skepticism, even praising the cautious approach I had maintained (which, arguably, the folks at Open Minds have built a fine reputation for doing in this field in recent years).
However, not everyone seems to willing to accept a careful, skeptical approach when it comes to such things; in truth, there seems to be a general trend in most spheres of phenomenology that precludes any honest (and therefore sound) judgement at all, unless the information in a given instance fits someone’s rather narrow ideological viewpoint.

Indeed, while a majority of UFO reports seem to indicate that there could be some otherworldly presence in our midst, in recent years I have begun to shy away from the supposition that UFOs must be equated with some presumed extraterrestrial intelligence. While I am continually amazed at the sorts of reactions that this gets, I have nonetheless managed to find what I like to call “reasoned skeptics” out there who, like myself, try not to commit themselves to belief in anything without the proper factual data to support it first.
I had a very nice email exchange recently with blogger Haley Stevens of the Hayley is a Ghost blog, whose work, in my opinion, exemplifies this sort of reasoned skepticism. “I try my hardest to remain objective in my research,” Hayley told me. “I balance somewhere between the skeptical non-believers and the believers. But I get thought of as an evil skeptic by believers, and a bad skeptic by the skeptics for giving paranormal subjects even an moment of my time, so it’s wonderful when people appreciate my approach to paranormal phenomena.” Indeed, when one doesn’t commit to some sort of belief, it often seems that those around us project their own preconceptions onto us, and make us what they want to see or hear… could it be that these sorts of folks do the very same thing with strange phenomena in general?



My colleague Scotty Roberts of Intrepid Magazine also tried to tackle the issue recently, writing for the Intrepid Magazine Blog. In a piece titled, “The Politics of the Paranormal,” Scotty recounted a recent situation where rather harsh preconceptions of the sort I’m outlining here led to outright dismissal of one of our current projects:
“Just today, I learned that a high ranking official of a national ufological organization – of which I am a member in good standing – offhandedly dismissed with a backhanded brandish, the Paradigm Symposium and the cumulative decades of study represented by it’s cadre of iconic researchers and authors. “We don’t need to be associated with their ‘goblins, ghouls and 2012-ers.’”
He goes on to explain the obvious problems with this kind of intellectual skullduggery:
“That single phrase embodies the ignorantly dismissive view indicative of the stunted expansion of philosophy and thought innate to those who eschew any brand of rationalism beyond the boundaries of what is accepted within the sphere of their doctrine. Thusly belying a certain religious train of thinking that permeates their mission, despite representing a field that is already anathema to the sciences and academia with which they seemingly wish to position themselves. Holding to immovable reasoning and concrete modes of traditional methodology has left them bereft of the wonder and exuberance of exploration and discovery. The politic of personality and private posture has eroded, for them, the soul of the brilliant universe and its veritable cornucopia of possibilities.”
Indeed, it is a shame how often very unfounded and rather unfair attitudes, espoused by those who may feel they’ve reached the apex of intellectual growth, actually only work to stifle our progression forward with research of the known universe. Arguably, we would do better to come to no conclusions at all, rather than to commit ourselves to the truly unknown in an absence of anything to justify it; and thus, commit ourselves also to a kind of proverbial blindness that disallows creative thought of any kind.
When it comes to study of the strange and unusual, in the absence of certainty, we may indeed do better to come to no conclusions at all!