Friday, 24 February 2012
The International UFO Congress is in Town (Phoenix, AZ) thru Feb. 26, 2012. (Video)
By Scott Waring
"FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ (CBS5) -
If you're looking for something fun, not to mention out of this world, you're invited to attend this year's international UFO congress.Whether or not you believe there's life out there, these folks are in town to plead their case. "You have this whole group of people who are here you get to socialize. You get to share ideas, you get to hear stories. It's a great place to come and soak it all in," said event organizer Jason McClellan.
First contact... or the start of World War III? Amateur cameraman captures stunning glowing cloud in the skies over Russia
Not so long ago, an enormous fiery cloud in the skies above Russia could only mean one thing: The beginning of something very very bad indeed.
At the height of the Cold War, a vision like this would set off screams of terror and mass panic, rather than the soft gasps of wonder and awe-struck conversation that can be heard in the YouTube clip of this spectacular phenomenon.
But it's not the
end of the world, nor is it the beginning of a fine friendship with alien
neighbours.
Footage of the
glowing circular formation - which hit YouTube yesterday - is one of the most
stunning examples of a 'lenticular cloud'.
For obvious
reasons, these rare cloud formations are also known as 'UFO clouds' - because of
their spooky resemblance to the space ships we are all expecting to imminently
arrive in the skies above us.
Sci-fi films as
far back as Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) - and more recently
Independence Day (1996) - have depicted aliens camouflaging their craft in
boiling cloud formations.
Captured just at
the right moment, when the sun is directly striking the bottom of the cloud -
and light is refracted through the top of the cloud - it gives an amazing
two-tone effect.
Lenticular clouds
are usually formed by moist air rising over a mountain or range of mountains,
forming standing waves of clouds as the air descends again.
The clouds are
usually formed perpendicular to the
direction of the airflow, and are usually avoided by aircraft pilots because of
the turbulence associated with them.
Bright colors (called Irisation) are sometimes
seen along the edge of lenticular clouds. These clouds have also been known to form in
cases where a mountain does not exist, but rather as the result of shear winds
created by a front.
Convention attendees talk of UFOs, spiritual leader
By Bob Mcclay
FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. -- The Valley is a Capitol for UFOs this weekend.
No, a flying saucer hasn't landed here. But many people who believe in UFOs, and other interesting things, have.
"We are hosting the 2012 International UFO Congress," says Maureen Ellsbury with Open Minds Productions. "It's actually the largest annual UFO Congress in the world, full of speakers, vendors, and other events."
It's happening now through Sunday at the Fort McDowell Resort and Casino.
Ellsbury says the event features several speakers.
"[Wednesday] we had someone talking about cattle mutilations, crop circles, and abductees," says Ellsbury. "We have a General from Chile coming to talk about their government's official UFO agency."
One of the speakers will be UFO author Stan Romanek. He used to be skeptic about UFO's. That changed in 2001, when he thought a police helicopter shined a light on his truck...in the middle of the afternoon.
"I rolled down my window and looked up and said...wait a minute! There's no helicopter sounds," says Romanek. "And as I drove through the intersection, all of these people had panicked looks on their faces. I look up and there's this huge 40-foot diameter sphere above my car, following me down the road."
"I was in the middle of Lakewood, Colorado, during rush hour, when a UFO beamed my van in front of thousands of people," Romanek says. The UFO disappeared after flying over a park, where several people photographed what happened. Romanek says the pictures gained national attention, and even were shown on the TV show "Entertainment Tonight."
It isn't just UFOs that are being featured at this convention. There were a variety of booths touting exercise equipment, videos and more.
Then we came to the "Share International" booth, where we met Meryl Tihanyi. She is here from New York to talk about something spiritual.
"The Spiritual Hierarchy of this planet is headed by a great teacher who goes by the name Maitreya," says Tahani. "He comes as the world teacher. He's not here to start a world religion, or do anything like that. He's simply here to teach and to guide us."
Tahani claims that Jesus was one of Maitreya's disciples. She says Maitreya lives in London right now, and has done 52 TV interviews without revealing his identity.
She claims we will all meet him soon.
"At some point there will be what's called the Day of Declaration, where Maitreya will come out into the public and everyone will know who he is," says Tihanyi. "There's a very special event that will take place, but there's no date and time for that. That's something that Mitraya will know when that is the right time."
Tahani insists that Maitreya is not the AntiChrist, and she believes that these events will take place within our lifetime.
Stan Romanek doesn't know anything about that. He's at the convention to spread his own beliefs...about UFOs.
"I just want people to understand that this is the real deal," says Romanek. "It's time, and we have the right to know. This is the most important thing in the history of mankind, to know that we are not alone."
Those “MIB” Letters
By Nick Redfern
Although my 2006 book, On the Trail of the Saucers Spies, focuses primarily on the way in which government agencies have secretly kept tabs, opened files, and kept careful, clandestine watch of the UFO research community for decades, the book also includes a chapter on the notorious Men in Black – or MIB, as they have become known.
Well, now it seems that the MIB are back. In a fashion, at least…
Only a few days ago, the media reported that Jon Stewart, of The Daily Show, and Stephen Colbert, of The Colbert Report, were both the recipients of letters threatening biological attacks against dozens of U.S. senators.
Disturbingly, two senators did receive letters in the mail containing an ominous white, powdery substance. But, fortunately, in both cases it turned out to be harmless.
The Senate’s Sergeant at Arms, Terrance Gainer, stated that the unknown mailer “…indicated that additional letters containing a powdery substance will be arriving at more Senate offices and that some of these letters may contain actual harmful material.”
Well, let’s all hope that doesn’t happen. But, here’s something that many – particularly within the media – have overlooked.
The sender did not, of course, use his or her real name when mailing the letters to Stewart, Colbert or to the senators in question.
Rather, the Oregon-postmarked letters were signed “The MIB.”
Now, for the media and most people, “MIB” doesn’t mean a great deal – which is why, I suspect, this aspect of the matter has not received a great deal of comment in the mainstream.
But…”Men in Black,” as a term, does provoke a great deal of imagery – pretty much all of it relative to sinister, black-garbed characters with evil agendas.
It looks to me that whoever the letter-writer is, they have specifically chosen to adopt the guise of the MIB for effect.
Might the sender be some deranged nut in the field of UFO studies? I certainly hope not, as such a revelation would most certainly, and inevitably, cast a black shadow over all of us.
But, by using the far less familiar “MIB” instead of the far more familiar “Men in Black,” this seems to suggest they are knowledgeable of MIB and UFO lore.
I suggest that we have not heard the end of this aspect of the story, and I would also suggest that soon enough the MIB issue might become a part of the FBI’s investigation.
Might that same investigation involve officialdom checking into the backgrounds and activities of Oregon-based UFO researchers?
I would not rule out such a possibility.
As my On the Trail of the Saucer Spies demonstrates, UFO researchers have been watched – for numerous reasons – for years. And why should the 21st Century be any different?