Some of the UFO cases that made Mac's UFO News during the month of March 2013.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Friday, 29 March 2013
Spacing Out! Ep. 43 - Is Mars still habitable? (Video)
Published on 29 Mar 2013 openmindstv
Special thanks to guest co-host Marlee Bonnette for filling in for Maureen this week.
UFO News Links For Friday 29th March 2013
New UFO Image Available Online – French Tribune
White House Can’t Afford Its Shapeshifting Alien Reptile Guards
The Will Smith Effect: UFOs and Hollywood – Yahoo! UK
Pond Circles Form Over Frozen Pond
No hoax: Strange lights over Battle Ground identified – The Columbian
The Scharnhorst Effect Claims We've Got The Speed Of Light Wrong
UFO expert to lecture at Central Library – Mississauga
The universe is a lot older than we thought
Meet a martian on your way to Mars at Our Dynamic Earth alien invasion – STV
Huge “Blazing Orb” Appears Over Russian City, Causes Alarm
The search for another Earth – Space.com
Peaceful Movie Aliens: 15 Visitors That Proved No Threat to Mankind – Moviefone
Unknown Object Videotaped over Mexico
By UFO Casebook
Originally published on Mar 10, 2013 by James Rickman
(Editor's Notes: The poster calls this "amazing footage." I don't know about that, but it is very interesting.
The daylight footage shows what mostly appears as an oval-shaped object. At first it is seen in the skies as it slowly descends and lands or crashes behind a mountain.
We had to work with the video quite a bit to enhance and stabilize it. Because it was so shaky, even the editing process only helped to a point.
FBI vault UFO memo makes CNN News (Video)
Published on 28 Mar 2013
Your Need to Know - The RAND Corporation (Video)
Published on 28 Mar 2013 By openmindstv
George Kocher of the RAND Corporation, published this document in November of 1968, a few months after the University of Colorado completed it's Condon Report. The RAND Corp document is broken into five different essays, Historical Aspects, Astronomical Aspects, The Character of Reports, Phenomenological Aspects, and How to Proceed and Why. These essays explore the types of reports and sightings, how they are categorized, and a list of hypotheses that exist surrounding the phenomenon. The document also provides an example of a detailed UFO report form developed by the University of Colorado's study group.
Man claims on Australian TV That U.S. worked with ETs
Australian news morning show, Sunrise, interviewed a man who claims that he had worked with extraterrestrials on a US base in the 60s. The ex-military man, Charles Hall, calls these beings “Tall Whites,” because of their appearance, and says the military had let them take up temporary residence near Nellis Air Force base in Nevada. He has written about his experiences in five volumes of a series he calls, Millennial Hospitality.
Hall has been asked to do several talks and book signings throughout Australia in the month of April.
Drawing of “Tall White” aliens. (Credit: Charles Hall)
Hall says he eventually also came into contact with the grey aliens that crashed at Roswell, and some human looking aliens with 24 teeth, he calls the Nordics. According to Hall, these interactions spanned the two year period he was stationed at the base.
For more on Hall, visit his website at: millennialhospitality.com
Prospective London UFO museum seeks crowd funding
A few industrious Londoners say they don’t want to have to travel thousands of miles to visit a UFO museum, so they are going to build one in their hometown, and they are hoping crowd funding will help pay for it.
London UFO Museum postcard
The group says they are people of “sound mind,” which is great because they are taking on quite a task. They claim they have already found potential places to rent, have acquired materials from a former UFO museum, and are ready to open up as soon as they are able to require more materials.
The group definitely has some impressive graphic and audio/visual ability. They have created some neat UFO goodies, such as T-shirts, postcards, and tote bags, all with some nifty UFO graphics. If you participate in sponsoring the project, depending on the level you choose, you can get some of these UFO goodies sent to you. There is also a well produced video with some interviews of Londoners discussing UFOs and their thoughts on the potential UFO museum.
The group is trying to raise nearly one million dollars to open their museum, and they have a long way to go. At their crowd funding site on Indeigogo, they have only raised a bit more than $50. Their website also does not appear to be working anymore, so they may have given up. However, there is still 12 days to go, and If you live in the U.K., or anywhere in western Europe, and you want a UFO museum nearby, rush over to Indiegogo and donate.
UFO Movie News Round Up
By
Robbie Graham
‘Independence Day’ sequels confirmed, story details revealed
ID Forever Part I and ID Forever Part II will see aliens from
original movie return for second
invasion.
Humanity will fight back using anti-gravity technology recovered from the aliens.
Bill Pullman to reprise his role as President Whitmore. Will Smith not returning.
Director Roland Emmerich has confirmed that not one, but two sequels to his iconic 1996 alien invasion movie Independence Day are now in active development. ID Forever Part I and ID Forever Part II will take place roughly 20 years after the original, when a distress call sent by the first wave of aliens finally brings reinforcements to Earth.
“The humans knew that one day the aliens would come back,” Emmerich tells Entertainment Weekly, “and they know that the only way you can really travel in space is through wormholes. So for the aliens, it could take two or three weeks, but for us that’s 20 or 25 years.”
Apparently, Emmerich has been busy working with an art department on the look of his new ID world. “It’s a changed world,” he says. “It’s like parallel history. [Humans] have harnessed all this alien technology. We don’t know how to duplicate it because it’s organically-grown technology, but we know how to take an antigravity device and put it in a human airplane.”
Fans of the original movie may be disappointed to learn that Will Smith will not be returning as Captain Steven Hiller for either of the sequels, although Bill Pullman has already confirmed that he will reprise his role as President Whitmore.
Emmerich tells EW that his new ID films will revolve around a younger cast of characters, which will include Captain Hiller’s (Smith’s) stepson, Dylan (originally played by Ross Bagley). The director also says that his first sequel will end on a cliffhanger: “The first one ends on a little success, but only enough to give the humans hope. And then in the second one they free themselves again [from the aliens].”
The scripts for both sequels are being written by James Vanderbilt of the famous Vanderbilt family – the seventh richest family in history. James’ grandfather was Donald C. Platten, the former Chairman and Chief Executive of Chemical Bank – once the third largest bank in the United States.
No release dates have yet been set for the Independence Day sequels, though 2015 and 2016 seem likely.
----------------
Mac: Original I.D. trailer...
'Ender's Game': first poster for epic alien invasion movie
Summit
Entertainment
has released the first poster for Ender's Game, the hotly anticipated
big screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s bestselling sci-fi
novel...
The film – which stars Asa Butterfield,
Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, and Viola Davis
– hits theaters and IMAX on November 1. It’s plot reads as follows:
“In the near future, a hostile alien race called the Formics have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer.
Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite. Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult challenges and simulations, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.”
“In the near future, a hostile alien race called the Formics have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer.
Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite. Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult challenges and simulations, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he’s trained by Mazer Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race.”
A Circle of High Strangeness
By Nick Redfern
Reports of strange phenomena absolutely abound throughout the English county of Staffordshire – which happens to be where I spent my childhood. But there is one place in Staffordshire that seems to attract a great deal more than its fair share of such activity. Its name is deeply familiar to one and all throughout the area as Castle Ring. Located near to the village of Cannock Wood, Castle Ring is an Iron Age structure commonly known as a Hill Fort. It is 801 feet above sea level, and it main ditch and bank enclosure is fourteen feet high and, at its widest point, 853 feet across.
It has to be admitted that very little is known about the mysterious and long-forgotten people who built Castle Ring, except to say that they were already in residence at the time of the Roman invasion of A.D. 43 and remained there until approximately A.D. 50. Some suggest that the initial foundations of Castle Ring may even have been laid as early as 500 B.C. Moreover, historians suggest that the creators of Castle Ring might have represented a powerful body of people that held firm sway over certain other parts of Staffordshire, as well as significant portions of both Shropshire and Cheshire at the time in question.
While its enigmatic builders exited our world millennia ago, and left us with very little solid knowledge of who they were or what they actually represented, Castle Ring can claim to play host to far stranger entities, as I will now demonstrate.
On May 1, 2004, Alec Williams was driving passed the car-park that sits at the base of Castle Ring when he witnessed a hair-covered, man-like entity lumber across the road and into the trees. A shocked Williams stated that the sighting lasted barely a few seconds, but that he was able to make out its amazing form: “It was about seven feet tall, with short, shiny, dark brown hair, a large head and had eyes that glowed bright red.” Interestingly, Williams stated that as he slowed his vehicle down, he witnessed something akin to a camera flash coming from the depths of the woods and heard a cry that he described as “someone going ‘Hoo.’”
Just over one year later, on June 8, 2005 to be precise, in an article titled Hunt For Dark Forces at Chase Monument, Chase Post newspaper journalist Sarah Taylor reported that “paranormal investigators are set to swoop on one of the area’s oldest monuments to find out what dark forces lie beneath it.” As the newspaper noted, “a team of real-life ghost-busters” had determined that the area of Gentleshaw that surrounds Castle Ring lay upon what was described as a “psychic fault.” Certainly, the whole area surrounding Castle Ring has been a hotbed of weird activity for years – and not all of it revolves around weird beasts.
For example, commenting on the mountain of strange activity at the Ring, Sue Penton – of Paranormal Awakening, a group affiliated to the Association for Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena – said: “There have been reports of strange music being heard up there. It is such a high place there have been lots of UFO sightings there, too.”
The comments of Sue Penton were echoed by Graham Allen, then of the Etchinghill, Rugeley-based Staffordshire UFO Group: “Obviously, Castle Ring is the highest point on the Chase which makes it a good place for UFO spotting. There have been numerous incidents of UFOs, which could be because you are more likely to see something from a high point.”
Graham Allen elaborated to the press on what he knew about the mysteries of Castle Ring: “There have been reports of something landing there in the 1960s. From a research point of view there are a high number of reports around ancient sites. One argument could be that ancient sites have been located there because of the incidents of UFOs and natural phenomenon. There could be locations where there could be magnetic influences in the ground which have been attributed to earth lights.”
Moreover, relatively close to Castle Ring is an old, disused windmill, which, it is widely believed by local folklorists, was built upon nothing less than an ancient, pagan burial ground. Ghosts of the miller’s children, who allegedly suffocated in a flour silo, are said to haunt the mill to this day, and legend tells of a strange black, humanoid figure that manifested just before the tragedy occurred. Could this perhaps have been the very same, dark figure that Alec Williams saw near Castle Ring in 2004?
Equally as strange are the reports that come from the nearby village of Cannock Wood – from which Castle Ring lies in a northwest direction – of a ghostly nun reported seen in the vicinity of an ancient well where water was once dutifully gathered by local villagers.
In September 2005, local media reported that the aforementioned Paranormal Awakening investigation group had recently completed a nighttime investigation of Castle Ring in an attempt to chronicle the strange activity that had been reported there for years. It was an investigation that proved to be immensely profitable.
A spokesperson for the group said, after the experience was completed: “The Cannock Chase local authorities were kind enough to give permission for PA to conduct its research. Indeed, we are extremely grateful to them for being so open-minded as to allow us to conduct our research at this historical and most important monument. The group’s results are stunning and have created yet more questions than we have answers. We appear to have obtained a very strange mix of UFO and genuine paranormal activity.”
As for the specific nature of that activity, this was made public midway through February 2006. The Chase Post elaborated on the revelations: “A paranormal investigations group say they have evidence of strange, dancing lights and ghostly figures at the area’s most ancient monument.” On one tape, said the Post, one of the group’s members is heard to exclaim: “Tell me that isn’t a big black shape walking towards me.” The Post added that: “A mystery make voice responds, ‘There is!’”
Lest we forget, large, walking, dark shapes and strange lights were both staple parts of Alec Williams’ May 2004 Bigfoot-like sighting at Castle Ring, too. But the story is far from over. In a future article I’ll highlight the most recent reports of high strangeness at Castle Ring, which are as creepy as they are monstrous…
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Open Minds UFO Radio with Alejandro Rojas is back!
Open Minds UFO Radio with Alejandro Rojas is back! I've added a
linked Blog Talk Radio Player to the Open Minds podcast on the side bar of Mac's UFO News. Enjoy!
Jason McClellan has informed me that the old format (video) will not be returning.
New episodes every Monday at 3:00 p.m. PST.
NEXT EPISODE: 4/1/13 – Guest TBA
The side bar player will archive the most recent shows so don't worry if you miss it live!
Info on this weeks show:
Joan Bird is the author of a new book titled Montana UFOs and Extraterrestrials. This book critically examines famous UFO events in Montana, including reported contact with extraterrestrials. It draws on recently declassified government documents, historic reports, and first-hand interviews.
Joan holds a Ph.D. in zoology, and worked as a freelance nature interpretation writer. She is now a columnist for Crone Magazine. She is a long time member of the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and will also share her unique perspectives on UFO disclosure and the connections between consciousness and Ufology.
For more information on Joan and her book, visit: Montana UFOs and Extraterrestrials by Joan Bird - Riverbend Publishing - Helena, Montana.
About Open Minds UFO Radio
Going beyond the
basics… Interviews and discussions with UFO researchers, authors, witnesses,
scientists, and others to talk in-depth about issues related to this very real
phenomenon. We bring together some of the best minds from multiple disciplines,
so that we may put our heads together to try to gain insight into this enigmatic
issue.Host, Alejandro Rojas, has been a UFO investigator/researcher for many years. He served for several years as the Director of Public Education for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). This international organization has hundreds of certified investigators looking into the thousands of reports they receive on a yearly basis. Alejandro has worked with ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC, the History Channel, Discovery Channel, CNN, and many more. He has also been interviewed around the world, including several appearances on Coast to Coast AM.
Five Former Members Of Congress Participating In Alien Disclosure Hearing
Published on 26 Feb 2013
The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race will attempt to accomplish what the Congress has failed to do for forty-five years - seek out the facts surrounding the most important issue of this or any other time.
For this reason the motto for the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure is "If the Congress will not do its job, the people will."
This event will be live streamed to the world via the Internet in at least four and possibly five languages. Furthermore, the entire hearing will be filmed as the basis for a forthcoming documentary - Truth Embargo.
The title of this film is fitting as the goal of the Citizen Hearing is nothing less than the end of the extraterrestrial truth embargo this year. The world's people have waited long enough.
Find Out More Here: http://www.citizenshearing.org/
Citizen Hearing Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/CitizenHe...
Paradigm Research Group: http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/
Kidnapped by Aliens: The Pilot Who Vanished During Close Encounter
On the night of October 21, 1978 Frederick Valentich radioed into air traffic control in Melborne with some strange news. An unidentified metallic craft was toying with his Cessna as he flew over the Bass Strait en route to King’s Island. No one ever saw him or his aircraft again.
It all happened during the largest wave of UFO sightings Australia had ever seen. Over fifty reports were uncovered from the area of Valentich’s disappearance on that day alone. Some reported classic cigar-shaped craft while others saw a “starfish-shaped” object with lights that looked like “silver rain.” Electronic interferance was noted in a number of these reports.Some witnesses even said they saw a “green light” shadowing Valentich’s aircraft on the night in question (take note of that for later).
Valentich left a looming legacy of his final moments with a this bizzare yet compelling radio transmission:
19:06:14 DSJ [Valentich]: Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand?
FS [Flight Services; Robey]: Delta Sierra Juliet, no known traffic.
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, I am, seems to be a large aircraft below five thousand.
19:06:44 FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, What type of aircraft is it?
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, I cannot affirm, it is four bright, and it seems to me like landing lights.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:07:31 DSJ: Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet, the aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, and it is a large aircraft, confirmed?
DSJ: Er-unknown, due to the speed it’s travelling, is there any air force aircraft in the vicinity?
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, no known aircraft in the vicinity.
19:08:18 DSJ: Melbourne, it’s approaching now from due east towards me.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:08:41 DSJ: (open microphone for two seconds.)
19:08:48 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, it seems to me that he’s playing some sort of game, he’s flying over me two, three times at speeds I could not identify.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what is your actual level?
DSJ: My level is four and a half thousand, four five zero zero.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet and you confirm you cannot identify the aircraft?
DSJ: Affirmative.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, stand by.
19:09:27 DSJ: Melbourne, Delta Sierra Juliet, it’s not an aircraft it is (open microphone for two seconds).
19:09:42 FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, can you describe the – er – aircraft?
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, as it’s flying past it’s a long shape (open microphone for three seconds) cannot identify more than it has such speed (open microphone for three seconds). It’s before me right now Melbourne.
19:10 FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger and how large would the – er – object be?
19:10:19 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, Melbourne, it seems like it’s chasing me. What I’m doing right now is orbiting and the thing is just orbiting on top of me also. It’s got a green light [emphasis mine] and sort of metallic like, it’s all shiny on the outside.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet
19:10:46 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet (open microphone for three seconds) It’s just vanished.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:11:00 DSJ: Melbourne, would you know what kind of aircraft I’ve got? Is it a military aircraft?
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, Confirm the – er - aircraft just vanished.
DSJ: Say again.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, is the aircraft still with you?
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet; it’s (open microphone for two seconds) now approaching from the south-west.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet
19:11:50 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, the engine is rough-idling. I’ve got it set at twenty three twenty-four and the thing is (coughing).
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what are your intentions?
DSJ: My intentions are – ah – to go to King Island – ah – Melbourne. That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again (open microphone for two seconds). It is hovering and (open microphone for one second) it’s not an aircraft.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:12:28 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet. Melbourne (open microphone for seventeen seconds).
These final seventeen seconds of open transmission revealed only a “metallic, scraping sound” on the Melbourne Service Unit’s tape recording. Despite analysis by a former NASA researcher and the Royal Melbourne Institue of Technology, these sounds remain a mystery.
Roy Manifold’s Photograph
Many theories have come forward regarding Frederick’s fate. Some suggest suicide (although he was by all accounts a content man), others a faked death to collect on life insurance (yeah, like I’ve never heard that one before), and of course others that he was disintegrated or abducted by the UFO.Frederick’s father, Guido Valentino, actually found some consolation in the abduction theory after his son’s out-of-this-world disappearance. According to the AP, “He hoped his son had been taken by a UFO and had not crashed. ‘The fact that they have found no trace of him presents a possibility that UFOs could have been there.’”
The final piece of this puzzle is the photograph taken by Roy Manifold. He had set up a timelapse camera to capture the sunset off the coast, but found something strange when developed. There appeared to be an unexplained object with an “exhaust cloud” in one of his pictures. According to Roy, these were taken just 20 minutes before Valentich’s last transmission. Experts at an Arizona-based UFO organization analyzed the photos and concluded that the object must be moving at 200 mph, or hovering stationary while the clouds zoomed past at that speed (an equally puzzling feat). Below is an enhanced version of the original photograph, provided for your scrutiny.
Could this be the UFO that kidnapped Frederick Valentich?
Anomaly in Manifold’s photo enhanced
UFO News Links For Tuesday 26th March 2013
‘Fire ball’ UFO sighting reported outside Houston – KSAT San Antonio
Sky Watcher Films Glowing UFO Disappearing Over Area 51 [VIDEO] | Who Forted? Magazine
Revelation: The world’s first UFO entertainment simulation – Gamasutra
Todd Michael Visits The NM UFO/ Paranormal Forum – Is it all True Series #273 | Truth Seeker Forum
Buzz Aldrin sees humans on Mars by 2035 – The Sheboygan Press
The Scoutmaster's Tale
Disc-Shaped Object Found Moving Over Sydney Skies – IBTimes India
Glowing Orbs Hovering Over New Zealand's West Coast
Mars’ watery past – Times of Malta
Life Could Have Thrived on Mars, but Did It? – Science Now
FBI comes clean on 1950 UFO sighting memo from Washington D.C. chief
By: Jack Dennis
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has come clean on a 63 year old memo from the head of their Washington D.C. office pertaining to UFO sightings.
The memo was associated to a story relayed to four FBI from a third party reporting that an Air Force investigator had reported three “flying saucers” were recovered in New Mexico.
“They [the saucers] were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter,” the memo states. “Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only three feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture.”
“Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed fliers and test pilots.”
In an FBI release on March 24, 2013, the Bureau indicates the story is the single most popular file in their various records released under the Freedom of Information Act.
“Over the past two years, this file has been viewed nearly a million times,” the release stated.
The file is a single page memo from March 22, 1950 from Washington D.C. field office lead Guy Hottel.
Hottel, who died in 1990, addressed the memo to Director J. Edgar Hoover, which was protocol for all FBI memos. The memo was recorded and indexed soon after.
The informant claimed that the saucers had been found because the government’s “high-powered radar” in the area had interfered with “the controlling mechanism of the saucers.”
The memo ends with “[n]o further evaluation was attempted” concerning the matter by the FBI agent.
The FBI said that when their Vault released this information in April 2011, “some media outlets noticed the Hottel memo and erroneously reported that the FBI had posted proof of a UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico and the recovery of wreckage and alien corpses.”
The FBI says they have only occasionally been involved with any investigations of UFO and extraterrestrials sightings, and this particular memo is not new. It was first released publicly in the late 1970s.
There is no connection to the infamous events of July 1947 in Roswell, the FBI says “Hottel memo is dated nearly three years after” that.
“For a few years after the Roswell incident, Director Hoover did order his agents—at the request of the Air Force—to verify any UFO sightings. That practice ended in July 1950, four months after the Hottel memo, suggesting that our Washington Field Office didn’t think enough of that flying saucer story to look into it.”
“Finally, the Hottel memo does not prove the existence of UFOs; it is simply a second- or third-hand claim that we never investigated,” explained the FBI release. “Some people believe the memo repeats a hoax that was circulating at that time, but the Bureau’s files have no information to verify that theory.”
Disney and NASA to explore “Goldilocks” planet in new 3D IMAX film
By
Robbie Graham
IMAX Corporation and Walt Disney
Studios today announced an agreement to produce and
distribute a new epic 3D documentary from veteran IMAX director Toni
Myers.
IMAX and Disney previously have worked together on the distribution of a number of high-profile films, including Fantasia 2000 and the recent Oz The Great and Powerful, although this marks the first collaboration between the two companies in a production capacity.
Produced in cooperation with NASA, the upcoming space-themed documentary, which is still untitled, will use IMAX's extremely high-resolution photography and videography to offer "breathtaking, illuminating views of our home planet from space, exploring the astonishing changes that have occurred on Earth in just the past several decades."
The film will also explore "mankind's future on and off the planet... while also travelling light-years to other star systems to ponder the possibilities of 'Goldilocks,' an Earth-like planet." The film is expected to be released in 2015.
IMAX and Disney previously have worked together on the distribution of a number of high-profile films, including Fantasia 2000 and the recent Oz The Great and Powerful, although this marks the first collaboration between the two companies in a production capacity.
Produced in cooperation with NASA, the upcoming space-themed documentary, which is still untitled, will use IMAX's extremely high-resolution photography and videography to offer "breathtaking, illuminating views of our home planet from space, exploring the astonishing changes that have occurred on Earth in just the past several decades."
The film will also explore "mankind's future on and off the planet... while also travelling light-years to other star systems to ponder the possibilities of 'Goldilocks,' an Earth-like planet." The film is expected to be released in 2015.
 |
| Ward Kimball's
artwork for Mars and Beyond (1957) |
The documentaries -- Man in
Space (1955), Man and the Moon (1955), and Mars
and Beyond (1957) -- were directed by the legendary Disney animator Ward
Kimball, who, in his later life, claimed to have been involved in the
production of a Disney documentary in the mid-1950s that was backed by the US
Air Force and which was intended to acclimate the public to the reality of the
UFO phenomenon and alien visitation.
Disappointingly, the Air Force eventually decided to pull the plug on the documentary, which, according to Kimball, was set to feature real UFO footage provided by the military.
NASA also has a history of assisting
filmmakers on alien-themed productions. In 1982, NASA helped Steven Spielberg
with his classic alien contact movie E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, offering
the filmmaker advice on how scientists would likely respond in the event of a
real alien contact scenario. This collaboration shaped sections of the movie,
including the scene when NASA personnel enter a sealed-off suburban home in
search of E.T.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy also asked
NASA what sort of planet E.T. might call home. The space agency came up with a
“little green planet” populated by “little mushroom farmers.” E.T.’s biology
reflected this scenario, said Kennedy – the friendly space creature being
“closer to a plant than a biological human being.”
Curiously, NASA also lent its cooperation to the Disney movie Mission to Mars (2000), in which astronauts discover the remnants of an ancient civilisation on the red planet and make contact with one of its alien survivors – although NASA was keen to point out during the end credits that its cooperation and assistance “[did] not reflect an endorsement of the contents of the film.”
On Writing: Publishing, Strangeness, and the Scrutinizing Mind
By Micah Hanks
“You know, we should write a book together!” We’ve all said it so many times, and while there are about three colleagues (no wait, four of them) with whom I really do hope to co-author books on strange phenomena, it seems that the regular conference attenders, lecturers, bloggers, and bibliophiles alike toss the statement around far more often.
Until the advent of the digital age, the book was once the epitome of the serious researcher’s collected findings. It was not uncommon back in the day for really, really good books to sometimes take years to write, while collaborations with other researchers as I outlined above could take close to a decade of combined reports and observations. As evidenced by the correspondences of late Fortean scholars John Keel and Ivan Sanderson, the two had similarly planned to co-author something, though this would-be odd tome of esoterica never made it past the planning stages. We can only imagine what a Keel and Sanderson collaboration might have ended up being like.
But in the modern day, the accessibility and general availability of knowledge via not just the information found on the web, but also the communication pathways it has opened up have begun to change the way research of all kinds is done. Arguably, this is a good thing, as in my own personal experience, it has seemed to help researchers who come from different areas of interest or academic backgrounds to discover common ground more easily. Thus, there is a bridging of several gaps between not just unrelated fields within study of the strange and unusual, but also between skeptics and the more pragmatic Fortean researchers, as well as laymen writers and journalists and academics. But how will this newfound connectivity influence the publication of books and other materials that deal with the unexplained?
My colleague Scott Alan Roberts and I, while sharing mutual interests, come from very different backgrounds when it comes to the research we do; this, in part, is what helped us decide to launch the Paradigm Symposium event, which seeks purposely to draw experts from very different disciplines and bring them all together in one place to share ideas and present their findings. Scotty, for one, hails from a theological background, having attended seminary in twenties, in addition to working professionally as a family counselor. From an early age, he had been fascinated–if not overtly drawn–to the story of the biblical Moses, which led to his introduction to ancient mysteries and studies of humanity’s ancient history. Thus, with his book The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim, Scotty explored the ancient history of humankind as it relates to the suppositions of modern “ancient alien theories,” though in my opinion, in a very much more scholarly fashion than many popular writers who have broached the subject.
“What if the old spiritualities and religions weren’t just legends?” Roberts asks. “What if there was something living and breathing beneath the surface; a tangible interlinking of theology and spirituality, science and myth, inter-dimensionality and cold, hard fact?” For all we know, What Scotty outlines here very well may be the case. We simply don’t know.
My own approach, rather that seeking to understand mysteries such as UFOs through studying ancient history, has more to do with looking at today’s science, and perhaps more importantly, where those trends are headed with regard to science of the future, and filtering the study of people’s alleged sightings of strange unidentified aircraft through the window of technology. Ideally, emerging science of the coming decades, as we continue to advance our understanding of science and the universe around us at an almost greater than exponential rate, will lead to new technological applications within the next two decades, in my mind, that will be instrumental in determining, once and for all, whether there is anything to the ongoing mystery of UFOs.
While our approaches seem fundamentally different (perhaps even opposing, from the perspective of some), Scotty and I find that we have much in common. We’re both open minded, but inherently skeptical thinkers, and people who question everything with a healthy dose of scrutiny. Each of us, coming from religious upbringings, questions his own faith, and the actual physical laws that dictate who we are, and how humankind came to exist in this universe. We are sometimes troubled, like any researcher may be, at what the facts may dictate, and often, as with my book The UFO Singularity and Scotty’s follow up, The Secret History of the Reptilians, neither of us take at face value the notion of an ongoing interaction between humankind and our supposed interstellar alien kindred. With my own book, I look very critically at the alien abduction enigma, while Scotty goes after the obvious flaws in logic presented by the likes of conspiracy theorist David Icke, Zecharia Sitchin, and others.
Hence, when we began discussing the co-authorship of an eventual book, the first idea that came to mind wasn’t a lineage of human-alien interaction, nor any speculative endeavor as to how our Reptilian alien overlords may have harnessed intergalactic travel using post-singularity alien nanotech. Instead, we resolved that our best mutual contribution to the world of Fortean publications would be a book that looks at the great schism, as well as the common ground that exists between open minded believers, and their skeptical “opponents” on the opposite extreme.
In many instances, Scotty and I have often wondered why “the great debate” really still exists the way it does. After all, in our experience, there seems to be far more common ground between the two sides, at times, than either would care to admit. In other words, in a world where argument and hotly debated facts and opinions riddle our prime-time television networks, there are indeed ”moderates” out there, comprised of academic scientists and laymen, dreamers and doubters, open-minded wonderers and skeptical thinkers, and so forth, who are willing to be open to possibilities, but nonetheless questioning in their approach.
One fine instance of this that has come along in recent weeks is a Media Guide to Skepticism my colleague Sharon Hill of Doubtful News has taken the time to compile and author. Her purpose, as stated at her website, is to “provide a clear, easy-to-read guide about the “Skeptical” viewpoint as subscribed to by many who might call themselves Skeptics or critical thinkers; to distinguish practical Skepticism from the popular use of the phrase “I’m skeptical,” and from those who claim to be “skeptics” regarding some well-established conclusion (such as climate change).”
Immediately, I know there are many out there whose tongues want to race to the back of their mouths and choke themselves merely after seeing the words “skeptic” written at a popular paranormal blog… though I ask you to keep in mind that this is being written by a popular paranormal writer, and one who, upon reading Sharon’s thesis on reasonable, moderate and logic-oriented skepticism, found that he agreed with her on nearly every point she expresses.
Within the context of Sharon’s guide, in addition to talking about what her brand of skepticism actually is, she also takes time to outline, in precise terms, what it isn’t just as well. ”
True skeptics, she writes, aren’t cynics, nor are they simply “disbelievers.” Nor is every skeptic an atheist, an attitude worn more like a badge by many in popular circles that call themselves skeptics. And a skeptic, while questioning the facts, won’t dismiss science or other information that is less convenient to their own ideals or beliefs (which we would call a “denialist” here). Sharon writes:
“The ‘Skeptic’ is often seen as the ‘debunker,’ the ‘downer’, or the ‘balloon buster’. It may appear that way for those who are very attached to certain concepts to which Skepticism is being applied, such as existence of ghosts, Bigfoot or UFOs. Skeptics aren’t skeptical of everything, either. In classical Greek Skepticism, the individual did not commit to stating ‘knowledge’; everything was doubted, there was no certainty. That is not a popular stance today. When we speak of modern Skepticism, we are talking about those who seek the conclusion best supported by current evidence and reason.”Returning again to my own work, when I spoke this year at the 2013 International UFO Congress, I was very surprised at how warmly I was welcomed by the crowd, despite being perhaps the only speaker all weekend who stood up before the crowd and said, “I have seen no proof, to date, that UFOs represent alien spacecraft from other worlds.” There was one gentleman who, later in the weekend, approached me to say my presentation (and my book, which he admitted to having only thumbed through) lacked content altogether, and that there was “simply no reason to speak about the subject outside the context of extraterrestrials before an audience like this.” I must admit to being a bit amazed at a statement like this; while we certainly have some compelling evidence that some UFO phenomenon could be extraterrestrial technology, I must again state that there is a big difference between “evidence” and “proof.” As Sharon states above, a good researcher has to look at the evidence, and attempt to draw conclusions that are best supported by this evidence, as well as a discerning ability to reason. To me UFOs could thus be a lot of different things, and maybe there’s room for ETs in there someplace just as well. But I can’t prove that… no matter how badly my heart wants it to be true
With regard to the discussion with the gentleman I discussed above, I finally agreed to send him copies of my books, free of charge, so that he could at least take my positions more thoroughly into consideration… while he (respectfully, no less) advised that I simply hadn’t drawn the same extraterrestrial component from the equation because I “haven’t been at it as long” as he. To each his own, but we left the discussion as new friends, rather than a pair of ideologues merely intent on clashing.
So what does all this mean, and what does it have to do with modern publishing regarding unexplained phenomenon and fringe topics? Quite simply, it is this: while blogs and online media have fought their way into the exchange of ideas, books will still remain (for some time, at least) perhaps the chief way of expressing the totality of one’s viewpoints, or the collected summation of a few. And while some view it as an ongoing argument, what I’m beginning to see out there is, at least in appearance, a greater number of “believers” and “skeptics” who are willing to work together, share ideas, and allow their work to influence one another.
Yes, at times there is (and I would maintain that there must be) a place for reasonable speculation–even in the absence of facts–because only in this way, at times, can theories and hypotheses be formulated, tests and experiments be designed, and final, scientific truths be discerned about various phenomenon. On the other extreme, paranormal researchers might do well to take a few steps back, and look at the bigger picture of what the call their worldview, and ask how much of it is truly substantiated by facts; perhaps one reason we’ve seen so little of this over the last few decades is because, sadly, much of what I discuss about publishing and books also influences people’s reasons for selling them: a controversial subject will sell much better than a bold (and even, at times, a boring) truth. And hence, albeit not maliciously, some researchers may quite easily delude themselves into believing certain things they’ve dedicated years and years of their lives to. It’s hard to step off the block once you’re so high up, and yes, it might hurt your book sales.
But in the coming years, I’ll be eager to see what kinds of books will begin to appear in the Fortean markets that deal less with conventional approaches to the unexplained, and have more to do instead with new, innovative approaches to studying strange phenomenon; perhaps in a less biased way that in years past, and while a bit more skeptical, this approach could at once lend itself to opening even more exciting possibilities than ever before.
In fact, this sounds so exciting, I may just have to write a book about it.
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