In this episode, we talk about big money being offered up by film producers for evidence of UFOs or extraterrestrials, and, of course, we talk about the upcoming International UFO Congress on this episode of Spacing Out!
Last year, the Science Channel devoted the month of March to exploring the question, “Are we alone?” And the channel plans to do the same thing this year.
In March, the Science Channel’s “Are We Alone?” month will feature new content, rather than repeating the same programming from last year. The Hollywood Reporter explains, “The lineup will include new episodes of Alien Encounters, examining what would happen if aliens invaded Earth, as well as the new special, Aliens: The Definitive Guide, which Science Channel calls an ‘Encyclopedia Galactica of non-Earth life forms.’ Other programming includes specials centering on the planets Mars and Venus.”
Explaining why the Science Channel is reprising its alien-themed month, Debbie Adler Myers, executive vice president and general manager of the channel said, “‘Are We Alone?’ month was a big hit for Science Channel last March. We invited viewers to join the search for extraterrestrial life, and it’s clear that everyone enjoys programming of an alien kind.”
The “Are We Alone?” programming begins March 5 on the Science Channel.
Madrid, Spain
Originally published on Feb 18, 2013 by tudor520055
The submitter's comments:
While supervisors were filming a demo video at a construction site, they happened upon this amazing disc-shaped UFO in the sky.(Editor's Note: What we are seeing appears to be a classic shaped metallic UFO with a bottom and smaller top.
The video was quite shaky, so we took some of that out, and added a close-up enhancement at the end.
Mac: This object is very similar to a ufo that featured on Mac's UFO News on Tuesday, 8 May 2012:
Originally published on Feb 19, 2013 by TheRtoF
Incredible UFO in New York
(Editor's Note: The submitter of this video has posted no information about the file. They indicate they received it from an anonymous source, and may have not been provided with much detail.
What we see is a disc-shaped UFO of a gray color moving across a wintry sky, allegedly somewhere over New York. The object moves slowly from right to left, and from a distance appears at first to be a small plane.
But, a closer look disproves this. It is definitely disc-shaped, and we have added a close-up at the end of the original.
If there is one thing more than any other that I like about the Flying Saucer era of the late 1940s and the early to mid 1950s, it’s the sheer wacky nature of some of the stories that surfaced during that long gone time. Indeed, they are of a caliber (and sometimes of a lack of caliber!) that we just don’t see today. The following is a classic example, and which, just maybe, does indeed have a degree, or nugget, of truth to it. Who knows?
It’s a very strange story that I suspect most people within Ufology will never even have heard of. But, it’s undeniably fascinating, and filled with tales of the FBI, clandestine sources and informants, Soviet secrets, mysterious “controlled clouds,” dead worms (yes, really) and much more. I have been delving into it for quite some time now, but have gone about just as far as I can – unless, that is, anyone reading this knows more…
To briefly summarize the approximately twenty pages I now have on the affair, it goes like this: During the first week of July 1947, FBI agents based out of the Los Angeles, California office were busy investigating a story of very odd proportions. It all started when the Los Angeles Herald Examiner newspaper received a letter a couple of days earlier that told a highly unusual story. In fact, it sounds like the sort of thing that would have had pride of place in the pages of Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories magazine! Except, this was no tale of science-fiction-style proportions. Nope: it was all true. Allegedly it was, anyway.
The letter-writer stated they had been exposed to a sensational story that led them to believe “flying discs” originated with none other than the Soviet military. So the tale goes, the teller of the tale - who conveniently elected to omit including his or her name – claimed to have then recently met in the “Los Angeles harbor” an “officer aboard a Russian tanker.” After the initial meeting the two met for dinner, over which the Russian asked “where he could sell 18 polar beat pelts which he had received for very dangerous work.”
The mysterious Russian told our equally mysterious letter-writer that the Soviets had been dabbling in some very fringe-like areas of research, and which was connected with that aforementioned “very dangerous work.” That same research involved “experiments with controlled radioactive clouds in the Arctic, where birds, animals and even worms were killed.”
On top of that, the experiments also supposedly involved “atom-powered planes resembling the flying saucers” that controlled the movements of the clouds. The highly talkative (maybe suspiciously too talkative) Russian said that the saucer-planes were barely a couple of feet thick, had “a kidney-shaped outline” and lacked any propellers. As for the pilot, the commie officer assured his US contact that “the pilot lies on his stomach and is artificially cooled against the heat by air friction.”
The letter to the Examiner expanded further: “The outer surface [of the aircraft] is highly polished. Both upper and lower surfaces are convex, like a giant lens. The lifting force is an entirely different principle found about 10 years ago among unpublished papers of a Russian chemist. Energy is only required for climbing, but no energy is needed for support when the airplane goes along the earth’s gravitational contour lines.”
How, exactly, did the Russian officer know all of this? Well, so the wild tale goes, he had personally been “assigned to go over the routes of a radioactive cloud near Lake Baikal and pick up dead animals. They loaded a few small animals and directed the cloud over them.”
During this experiment, said the Soviet officer, “a violent storm blew the cloud far north into the tundra, but before it dissipated it destroyed all life on its way.” As for the cloud itself, it could be “controlled from land, from a plane or from a robot-piloted leader.”
“As I understand,” said the person who got the FBI’s attention, “the control is based on electro-magnetic waves and the cloud has two components: The carrier and the killer.”
And, aside from getting a few brief mentions in other newspapers that quickly picked up on the Examiner’s article (such as the Milwaukee Sentinel) that’s where things pretty much end. Truth, fiction, Soviet disinformation, a bizarre hoax or something else? Who knows? But, it’s an undeniably entertaining saga. After all, how could it not be?
Indeed, for a writer like me, it’s filled with the kinds of bizarre and almost cloak-and-dagger-type ingredients I thrive on: (A) a mysterious Russian informant; (B) what sounds like Soviet research mirroring certain aspects of Wilhelm Reich’s cloud-busting technology; (C) the FBI’s G-Men chasing down the strange truth; (D) weird and futuristic Soviet aircraft; (E) animals dead under unusual circumstances; (F) a mysterious “Russian chemist;” and, of course, not forgetting, (G) that “dangerous work” and a stash of ”18 polar bear pelts!!”
Nearly every day, videos, photos and eyewitness accounts of UFOs pop up on the Internet.
Some are hoaxes. Some are quirks in the weather. Some sightings are never explained and forevermore remain UFOs.
The photo above, taken by Hannah McRoberts on Vancouver Island in British Columbia in 1981, is considered one of the most credible UFO pictures.
Still, never has there been widely accepted positive proof of an extraterrestrial spacecraft, though there are those who believe various government agencies around the world have conspired to hide the truth.
Now, however, if someone can prove otherwise, they will be $100,000 richer.
Filmmaker James Fox will make this announcement as part of the promotion for his upcoming movie The 701, inspired by the Air Force's two-decade UFO study, Project Blue Book.
The massive study into 12,618 UFO sightings, which ended in 1969, was able to explain away all but 701 of these sightings.
Fox, who previously directed Out of the Blue (2002) and I Know What I Saw (2009), will reveal the $100K challenge at the 22nd International UFO Congress (IUFOC), which begins Feb. 27, in Fountain Hills, Ariz.
"One of the aspects that sets our film apart is the producers' commitment to bringing forth never-before-seen evidence. As part of this effort, we're offering a $100,000 reward for the best proof that some UFOs are alien spacecraft," Fox told The Huffington Post exclusively.
"This material can be in the form of a photograph, video or film footage or debris from an alleged crash site. But it must be able to withstand scientific scrutiny by our chosen panel.
"Our intent is not to create another television UFO documentary, but to produce a feature film for worldwide theatrical release -- 'The 701' -- the most compelling film ever produced on UFOs," Fox said.
"701 is the number the government doesn't want you to know about. The U.S. Air Force had a serious problem, starting in the late 1940s. Technological devices were invading our airspace with total impunity. Glinting, metallic discs, which could accelerate and maneuver in ways hard to imagine, were being seen in incredible numbers by reliable witnesses. Many of them were pilots."
Fox, one of the co-stars of National Geographic's Chasing UFOs, will be sharing the IUFOC podium over the five-day event with former nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman; ex-FBI Special Agent (and host of the Syfy Channel's Fact, or Faked) Ben Hansen; skeptical research scientist Ben McGee; former UK Ministry of Defense officer Nick Pope; and regression therapist Barbara Lamb, among others, presenting a compelling variety of topics, including:
Ancient Astronauts and Technologies
Physics of Space Travel
A New Look At The Cosmos
ET/Human Hybrids
Close Encounters of The 4th Kind: ET Contact
Watch IUFOC's Jason McClellan and Syfy Channel's Ben Hansen talk about a planned night vision skywatch at the upcoming International UFO Congress:
Congress co-organizers Jason McClellan and Maureen Elsberry host "Spacing Out," a weekly web series that explores UFOs, outer space and the search for extraterrestrial life.
McClellan says the IUFOC, now in its 22nd year, fights to maintain credibility, a not-so-easy task given how many people regard the search for extraterrestrial life.
"Putting aside the giggle factor often associated with UFOs, people can come here and share their stories, experiences and personal viewpoints without being ridiculed," McClellan told HuffPost.
An interesting daily conference activity invites people to attend special experiencer sessions, led by licensed therapists, and which is closed to all press and media.
"It's a place where people can go and share their experiences," said Elsberry. "If they think they've had an experience, whether it be an abduction or any type of close encounter, they can tell it to a professional and share it with other people -- anybody can go and share their story. People can try and find some answers to what they're experiencing. Honestly, for many people, that's the main reason they come to the conference."
Once the $100,000 UFO challenge is announced, it's expected that many people will submit items they feel are credible contenders for the reward. On the other hand, the ease by which UFO photos can be made these days may account for many of the entries.
The image above is an enlargement from the main picture at the top of the story. Could this be a candidate for a $100,000 payoff? Let the contest begin.
