The first X - Files

Rob Waugh

DID German fighter pilot Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, popularly known as the Red Baron, really shoot down a flying saucer over the battlefields of World War I? And did an “Angel” really save the lives of British troops? Bizarrely, a team of British intelligence officers was assigned to investigate weird sightings in the skies during World War I -- becoming the precursor of Unidentified Flying Object investigators both real and fictional.

Most of us think of UFOs and mysterious sightings in the sky as a modern phenomenon -- but “phantom airships” became a huge panic in the early years of the 20th century and regularly featured in newspapers.
By the time of World War I, a more scientific approach was needed.
A predecessor to MI5, Military Observation Department Five (MO5), under the control of a Lieutenant-Colonel Kell, was assigned the task of classifying sightings in the air. Amid the panic about enemy airships, it was a military necessity to weed out “phantom airships” from real aircraft sightings.

Nigel Watson, author of UFOs of the First World War, says, “It can be regarded as the first ever official guide to studying UFO reports long before the Central Intelligence Agency or any other organisation got with the subject when ‘flying saucer’ sightings were all the rage after World War II. During World War I there were numerous reports of mysterious lights and objects moving about in the skies. These were studied by the Assistant Director of Military Aeronautics, a post held by Lieutenant-Colonel WS Brancker, and the Department of Military Training; and Brancker and Kell can be regarded as the first Mulder and Scully who studied the flow of UFO-type reports that flowed into their offices.”

The reports sent to Brancker and Kell sound eerily like today’s UFO sightings -- and came amid widespread panic not only about enemy airships but also more mysterious sightings. A 1914 telegram from the Chief Constable of Lancashire said, “Large red light seen at 8.45 pm today passing over Runcorn Bridge Arches. Immediately afterwards, an explosion was heard in Widnes and Runcorn.”
The guidelines set out by the war office helped MO5 officers categorise sightings as of natural origin -- or as something more mysterious.

Various legends about extraterrestrials were circulated during World War I -- of which the most astonishing (and implausible) was that the Red Baron shot down a UFO. After the war, fellow pilots claimed Baron von Richtofen shot down a flying saucer-type craft, from which two inhabitants fled. Fellow German pilot Peter Waitzrick said that the fighters saw an aircraft like an upside down saucer. “We were terrified because we’d never seen anything like it before. The Baron immediately opened fire and the thing went down like a rock, shearing off tree limbs as it crashed into the woods. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Baron shot down some kind of spacecraft from another planet and those little guys who ran off into the woods were space aliens of some kind,” he said.

But the story is highly dubious, given that Waitzrick didn’t share his story until 80 years after the event, and chose to do so in the US tabloid, Weekly World News.

UFO fans claim that aliens may have “abducted” people from the battlefields of World War I during the Gallipoli campaign. Witnesses claimed to have seen British soldiers marching towards Hill 60 at Sulva Bay in Turkey on 21 August 1915 -- before being snatched up by a “solid-looking” cloud.
A statement from a supposed eyewitness published in 1965 said, “When they arrived at this cloud, they marched straight into it with no hesitation, but no one ever came out to fight. About an hour later, this cloud very unobtrusively lifted off the ground until it joined other similar clouds, then they all moved away northwards.”

It seems likely, however, that this is a hoax. Documents released after the Armistice suggest that 180 bodies found behind enemy lines are those of the “missing soldiers” -- and the story of the cloud is a myth.
An “Angel” which many British soldiers credited with saving their lives in one of the first, brutal battles of World War I has been seized on by UFO fans as evidence of extraterrestrials… Many soldiers credited the strange apparitions with saving their lives -- and the story became a staple of parish magazines.
The battle had been one of the first in which the British faced the Germans -- and despite retreating, only 1,600 lives were lost. Decades later, the debate still rages -- some attributing the “Angel” to a short story from the Evening Standard, others to British intelligence.

Popular author Arthur Machen claimed that this legend was created by his fictional The Bowmen story published in The Evening News on 29 September 1914. In it, British soldiers call on St George for aid and are helped by ghostly bowmen from the Battle of Agincourt. One fact that lends weight to this theory is that few reports of the incident exist before Machen’s story.
Nigel Watson says, “Even today the legend is swathed in controversy. Theories about it range from it being a myth based on Machen’s story, the product of hallucinations due to stress and exhaustion, real angelic visitations, ghosts, swamp gas, airships or alien UFOs projecting or shaping themselves to the expectations of the witnesses.”

Back in April 2010, Britain released hundreds of previously secret “UFO files”, including a letter saying that Winston Churchill had ordered a 50-year cover-up of a wartime encounter between a UFO and a military pilot. The files, published by the National Archives, span decades and contain scores of witness accounts, sketches and classified briefing notes documenting mysterious sightings across Britain.
One Ministry of Defense note refers to a 1999 letter stating that a Royal Air Force plane returning from a mission in Europe during World War II was “approached by a metallic UFO”. The unidentified author of the letter said his grandfather attended a wartime meeting between Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower, during which the two expressed concern over the incident and “decided to keep it secret”.
The Ministry of Defense subsequently investigated the case but found no written record of the incident, the files say. In a 1999 note, the ministry said it “does not have any expertise or role in respect of ‘UFO/flying saucer’ matters or to the question of the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life forms, about which it remains totally open-minded”.

Britain has been slowly releasing long-classified files related to sightings of mysterious craft in the skies above its cities, compiled and investigated by the Ministry of Defense over past decades. Some cases subsequently received rational explanations, such as meteors burning up in the atmosphere, but many are unsolved.
One memo, dated 1997, contains reports of “sonic booms” and a mysterious plane crash in northern England. No wreckage was found in an ensuing search by the police and rescue teams.
Another incident refers to sightings of a “black triangular UFO” over the home of the shadow home secretary in Kent in the late 1990s. An investigation showed no breach of security.

In a case filed in 1995, the captain of a plane approaching Manchester’s airport reported a near-miss with an “unidentified object” and a witness on the ground separately provided a sketch showing a UFO “20 times the size of a football field” An inquiry failed to indentify the object, the memo said.
Buried deep among meticulous sketches and ministry memos, some files refer to curious episodes in Britain’s history. During the Cold War, it sent fighter jets to intercept Soviet aircraft as often as 200 times a year, one document from the ministry showed. The note, filed in 1996, said mystery sightings picked up on radar during the Cold War were invariably proved to be Soviet anti-submarine or long-range reconnaissance planes. “Prior to the demise of the former Soviet Union, aircraft were scrambled some 200 times annually to intercept and investigate uncorrelated tracks penetrating the UK air defence region from the north,” it said.

Winnipegger details Canada's most famous UFO sightings

DOUG LUNNEY

The 1947 UFO incident in Roswell, New Mexico is the most famous of its kind, but Chris Rutkowski believes there are more compelling cases that have happened in Canada — they just haven't received the same attention because they happened north of the U.S. border.

Rutkowski, a Winnipegger who has researched UFOs since the 1970s, spent a few months studying UFO crashes in Canada. He was surprised to find "more than a dozen well-witnessed and well-documented examples of odd or unexpected objects apparently descending from the sky and landing or crashing on Canadian soil."

An example of a UFO crash that Chris Rutkowski considers more compelling than Roswell is from Wallaston Lake, Sask., where this fragment from a “space vehicle” was found and taken to the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa.

Rutkowski, who listed the incidents on his blog (uforum.blogspot.ca), defined the crashes as anything unexplained that was witnessed to have fallen from the sky and didn't fly away.

"Certainly the Roswell one is the most famous one, but the purpose of this report was to show that there are many such cases not just around the world, but here in Canada," Rutkowski, research co-ordinator for UFOlogy Research of Manitoba, said Thursday. "To find more than a dozen, I think that's pretty interesting.

"Roswell has such a tremendous machine behind it to promote it ... it's taken on a mythology of its own. The fact is we actually have better cases, it's just that we're not Roswell."

The only Canadian example that received its share of attention globally happened in Shag Harbour off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1967, Rutkowski said, adding it's sometimes called "Canada's Roswell."

"This classic case is actually a bit better than Roswell, because a number of official documents have been located suggesting something really happened, unlike Roswell," he wrote in his report.

A glowing disc-shaped object was witnessed to have been flying over the harbour before it crashed into the water about 200 feet from shore, then floated for a moment. RCMP were called to the scene and attempts were made to reach the object, thought to be a crashed plane.

However, they failed to reach it before it sunk into the ocean, leaving a thick yellow foam.

Another example Rutkowski considers more compelling than Roswell is from Wallaston Lake, Sask., where a fragment from a "space vehicle" was found and taken to the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. One of the pages of RCMP documents is titled: "U.F.O. Found in Northern Saskatchewan."

Manitoba had an incident in 1792 in Thicket Portage "when something fell to earth that sounded like it was a massive jelly, according to explorer David Thompson," Rutkowski said.

The brilliant object broke into many luminous pieces after hitting the river ice, Thompson noted in his diary. When he went to see the hole in the ice the object should have made, there was no sign of impact.

"If he says that happened, we can be fairly sure that it actually did happen," Rutkowski said, noting Thompson was a respected explorer who wrote extensively about his discoveries in Manitoba.

The most famous Manitoba UFO case happened in May 1967 at Falcon Lake. Stephen Michalak claimed he witnessed a UFO land and take off again while prospecting in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, but this incident isn't included in Rutkowski's report as it wasn't considered a crash.

Unlike the U.S., records of UFO incidents in Canada are easy to obtain, Rutkowski said.

"In Canada, there's a tremendous amount of information that's been available since the 1940s on objects seen in the sky and crashing," he said.

"It's good that we have relative open access to information."

"It Defies Language!" by Greg Bishop

ANDREW W. GRIFFIN

BOOK REVIEW: It Defies Language! Essays on UFOs and Other Weirdness by Greg Bishop (Excluded Middle Press) 2016

My first true encounter with the work of writer, researcher, blogger, fringe-culture historian, radio host and Ufologist Greg Bishop was via his excellent 2005 book Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth, which I reviewed at the time for a Louisiana newspaper.

What impressed me most that was despite Bishop’s obvious interest in the topic of UFOs and related “high weirdness,” he was willing to do the yeoman’s work and produce a book that exposed a lot of the rumors out there about a New Mexico physicist – Paul Bennewitz – who urgently believed an alien invasion was imminent and that an underground base near the town of Dulce, N.M. (read our review of Greg Valdez’s Dulce Base here) was already populated with sinister aliens.

And yet, in Project Beta, we learn it was all a government disinformation campaign to get Bennewitz off the trail of down-to-earth technology (the strange lights over Albuquerque) being tested at nearby Kirtland Air Force Base. Sad thing is, the experience left Bennewitz a paranoid and broken man, and committed to a mental institution.

So, upon learning about Bishop’s latest UFO-tinged book project, It Defies Language!, I knew I would be of great interest to me, since it featured a bunch of his posts from the defunct UFOMystic.com website (2006-2011), one that was prominently linked here at Red Dirt Report, and also featured work by our friend Nick Redfern, prolific author and regular at Mysterious Universe.

Broken up into nine chapters, It Defies Language! starts off in the introduction with Bishop straight-up saying, “Some people build model railroads.Others collect stamps or bottlecaps. I write and think about UFOs.” And I can relate to that to a certain extent.

I can also relate to Bishop’s approach to the topic that he is not necessarily a “nuts-and-bolts” UFO guy, that there is likely a metaphysical angle to the phenomenon, noting "there is no real, verifiable evidence that UFOs and apparent associated beings come from other planets."

Anyway, Bishop jumps around with the posts, but even though it isn’t necessarily chronological, we get insight into the intellectually honest process he undertakes when it comes to tackling the difficult subject of UFOs and related phenomena and even fellow UFO researchers who aren’t always as honest about their objectives as they should be, some even covertly working for the US government to sidetrack researchers. It happens.

Being an obsessive fan of the David Lynch TV show Twin Peaks (1990-91), which will be rebooted for Showtime next year, I was interested in one 2007 UFOMystic post Bishop includes titled “David Lynch, Twin Peaks, and UFOs (and the Government).” In the post he notes that an unnamed source told a friend of his, Miles Lewis, that Lynch created his “Agent Dale Cooper” character based on someone who worked in the government, someone he simply calls “Agent Cooper.”* (EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Lewis informed this writer that "To clarify (for the record) no source told me (SMiles Lewis) any such thing, I simply passed along an anonymous article alleging these things." - 3:26 p.m. June 6, 2016)

Notes Bishop: “However, from what I understand, under this ‘Agent Cooper’s” urging, Lynch infused certain codes and secret messages pertaining to different things he had learned from ‘Agent Cooper’ – and they are scattered throughout the series.”

Don S. Davis as Maj. Garland Briggs - UFO seeker - in Twin Peaks. (Lynch/Frost Productions)

It is true that Twin Peaks features a rather esoteric storyline where Air Force Maj. Garland Briggs (Don S. Davis) works, in a classified manner, with “deep space monitoring” and also for the infamous Project Blue Book, where the Air Force was allegedly looking into UFO sightings between 1952 and 1969. But the real purpose, Bishop is told, is “to test to the general public’s perception and reaction to UFO reports and sightings, and to use the data gleaned from this study as a mean to maximize the effectiveness of using such UFO stories to manipulate the population.”

In another 2007 post, Bishop delves into the aforementioned subject of “underground bases.” What is their purpose? What is hidden there? Was there a “firefight” between US soldier and “alien humanoids” at an underground base in Dulce, N.M. as claimed by one Philip Schneider? And was Schneider “killed for talking about alien bases”? He goes into that, as well as the issue of cattle mutilations, the 1950's "contactee" movement, crop circles, and even a bit on “alien writing.” It is that subject where Bishop, in talking about the "alien symbol" research of the late Dr. Mario Pazzaglini, also notes that “one of the earliest concrete examples of what was purported to be extra-human communication was channeled by medium Edward Kelley, and his boss, Elizabethan astrologer and all-around magician John Dee, from 1582-1589.”

Like those who come across alleged alien “symbols” following an encounter, it was Dee who said the “Enochian” symbols he received from an "angel," dictated through medium Kelley. Is there a connection between the 400-plus year old findings of Dee and the symbols being discussed today? Bishop is of the opinion that this "as-yet unknown, non-human intelligence or consciousness that interacts with us from time-to-time" has likely been around for a very long time.

Bishop has a smart and easy-to-understand style that will appeal to both serious UFO researchers and those with, perhaps, simply a passing interest in the topic. For Bishop, putting this online essay collection together was a labor of love, for someone who has a passion for investigating the unknown.

Regardless, in It Defies Language!, there is plenty of thoughtful - and even humorous and lighthearted - information to sink your teeth and your mind into.

Have fun! 

UFO Fraudsters viral video debunked

Barrie Barber & Jim Otte

An astrophysicist and a UFO investigator in Ohio have debunked a YouTube video that purports to show an angular object floating as a UFO near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The video, posted by a website called Secureteam 10, went viral this weekend with nearly 800,000 views as of Tuesday afternoon since it was posted Saturday. A narrator claims the video was shot by an unidentified Dayton area couple last week near Wright-Patterson. The video was played on the Fox News Channel and picked by by media outlets from England to Australia this weekend.

Joesph Childers, an astronomy educator at Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, wasn’t a true believer of the video.

“Not even myth-busters time,” he said in an interview. “It’s garbage.”

Thomas Wertman, a UFO investigator in Cleveland and Ohio state director of the Mutual UFO Network, also doubts the video’s authenticity, and said someone is making money from the advertising each time it’s viewed.

“I don’t know how much. I know it’s more than me because I’m a volunteer,” he said.

The website, which does not reveal its name or address or the original source of the video, did not respond to a request for an interview Tuesday.

A base spokeswoman said Tuesday that Wright-Patterson was not involved in any activities that would contribute to the activity purportedly seen in the video.

Wright-Patterson has long disavowed any connection to UFOs or aliens hidden on base, once home to the former Project Blue Book which investigated more than 12,600 reported UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969 around the world.

In 1985, Wright-Patterson issued a statement that said the Air Force concluded Project Blue Book showed no UFO sighting was a threat to national security, demonstrated technology beyond present-day sciences, and no evidence indicated extraterrestrial vehicles.

“Periodically, it is erroneously stated that the remains of extraterrestrial visitors are or have been stored at Wright-Patterson AFB,” the statement concluded. “There are not now, nor ever have been, any extraterrestrial visitors or equipment on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.”

The truth of UFOs was hushed-up decades ago

By Sabir Hussain

CHENNAI: On January 7, 1610 while observing the four moons of Jupiter, Galileo found out that they were showing a very anti-Vatican attitude. Instead of going round the Earth as the Vatican had decreed, they were going around Jupiter. Today the same audacity is shown by UFOs. On the one side we have the American government telling the world UFOs do not exist, and on the other side we have UFOs appearing all over the world and violating sensitive air space over nuclear missile bases, nuclear power plants, air force bases and governmental buildings. They appear and disappear out of military and civilian radars, playing cat and mouse game with Air force jets like 1976 Tehran, 1980 Peru and 1989-90 Belgium, all authenticated by eye witness and radar evidence. In 1947 while the American government was decreeing UFOs are not real, 3-star General Nathan Twining who later became chief of Air Force writes a secret memo to a 2-star General stating: The phenomenon reported is something real, not visionary or fictitious and describes the objects as metallic or light reflecting circular or elliptical with a flat bottom and doomed top.

Today when people easily tend to dismiss the UFO phenomenon as pseudoscience and myth, what they do not realise is, their present day mindset is the intended result of the successful and efficient implementation of the recommendations of a CIA sponsored meeting in 1953 under the chairmanship of well known Caltech Physicist H P  Robertson.

The panel comprised of eminent scientists who gathered around with only one purpose in mind, How to scientifically and systematically reduce people’s interest in UFOs. After four days of meetings they made the following classified recommendations; Creation of a broad based educational programmes, aimed to deny and debunk the UFO phenomenon to the public as well as the media (Indian media must note this).  Television programmes, motion pictures and articles both in the newspaper and books should be used covertly as a tool for controlling public perception and act as a mouth piece for Government policy and propaganda in ridiculing UFOs.

Public interest, involvement and enthusiasm for UFOs must be strongly discouraged using the expertise of marketing experts, psychologists, amateur astronomers and even Disney cartoons.

Nathan Twining

The panel proposed making documentary type motion pictures and TV programmes in which all kinds of misleading and false explanations were to be given to authentic UFO sightings and these films must be shown in high schools, colleges, business clubs and other public gathering.

A good example was the two-hour CBS special programme hosted by the famous and trusted Walter Cronkite, titled UFO — Friend, Foe or Fantasy where the UFO phenomenon was debunked with false and misleading claims like there was no radar or photographic evidence to support the physical reality of the UFOs.  Civilian UFO research groups formed by scientists and former military officers must be watched and monitored at all times, while intelligence operatives must ensure, that the facts about UFOs be kept from leading scientists and researchers through a campaign of disinformation. Astronomer and UFO researcher Allen Hynek remarked, the panel’s greatest achievement was it made the subject of UFOs scientifically unrespectable.

How does Sabir Hussain living in 2016 know what a 3-star general wrote to a 2-star general in 1947 or the highly classified conclusions of the CIA sponsored Robertson panel in 1953?

To know that we must travel back to the night of Saturday, June 17, 1972, a security guard seeing some mysterious happenings in the office of the Democratic National Committee headquarters, in the Watergate office complex in Washington DC, did the only thing a man in his position must do, call the police…

(The writer is the Director of INSETS-Indian Society for Extraterrestrial Studies and author of Accidental Apocalypse )

Mac's UFO News - Series 4

Mr Robert D Miles - Producer of Fastwalkers and UFO Chronicles (Mac's UFO News / Season 4 Episode 3) 
Published on 1 Jun 2016

Robert D Miles - Live Interview
Mr Miles Is a Filmmaker, Screenwriter and Author and probably best know for producing the U.F.O. Chronicles and Fastwalkers series. Robert has also produced numerous films for television, full-length feature films and documentaries, and hundreds of television commercials, many of which he wrote and directed. Mr. Miles has also authored several excellent books such as Safespace and Lycandroids and more recently moved into publishing.

 

Mac's UFO News - February 2016 (Season 4 Episode 2) 
Published on 1 Mar 2016

This month on Mac's UFO News: Steve Johnson UFO and Sci Fi Author / The 2016 International UFO Congress / Mr Stanton Friedman / The UFO Truth Magazine / Police Officers view massive craft / Manchester UFO Hot Spot / UFO Sightings for February 2016 / The Phoenix Incident / UFO's In The News / David Duchovny does not believe / Astronaut's having fun.

Mac's UFO News - January 2016 (Season 4 Episode 1) 
Published on 29 Jan 2016

This month on Mac's UFO News: Mr. Philip Mantle, The Flying Disk Press and UFO's Over Poland / Element 115 / British Astronaut Tim Peake on life in our Solar System / Hillary Clinton on UFO Disclosure / The 4th UFO Truth Magazine International Conference / Mr. Gary Heseltine appeals to serving and retired British Police Officers / UFO Sightings for January / Independence Day 2 and a cast sneak peak + Global release dates / Jason Mcclellan, Rogue Planet and UFO Modpod / UFO's In the news.

UFO Lecture - Robert Orel Dean (Cosmic Top Secret) Season 4 Special Edition

Published on 11 Feb 2016

Robert Orel Dean retired from the U.S. Army as a Command Sergeant Major with "cosmic top secret" clearance after a 28-year career. He has appeared on radio programs, TV documentaries and at conferences discussing the subject of UFOs and the government cover up of alien visitations to Earth. Dean claims to have viewed a classified government document called "The Assessment" that allegedly discussed threats posed by alien activity on Earth.

Steve Johnson UFO and Sci Fi Author - Mercury Rapids

Steve Johnson's interest in UFOs began in his childhood, when his brother handed him a picture book on the subject. Already a fan of science fiction, he would maintain his interest in unidentified flying objects through to adulthood.

Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson wrote a book, titled Mercury Rapids. It is a science fiction adventure, heavily influenced by UFO lore. Two sequels followed, The Thoth Imperative and The Mountains Of Tomorrow. MERCURY RAPIDS is a science-fiction trilogy. Steve's website also features articles on UFOs, the paranormal and conspiracies, as well as TV, book and film reviews and original screenplays.

  

After attending the Great British UFO Show in Leeds in 2005, which was organised by former UFO Magazine editor, Russell Callaghan, Steve wrote a review for his website. Russell contacted Steve and asked if he would like to join the team for a new print magazine called UFO DATA Magazine.

The magazine ran for fourteen issues until closing in 2008. Mr Johnson contributed many articles for UFO DATA and also worked alongside Russell, Philip Mantle and Michael Buckley in producing the magazine.

Philip Mantle later contacted Steve and asked if he could write for a new print magazine called UFO Matrix. Steve wrote a new column for the first few issues, but personal matters forced him to step away. 

At around the same time, Steve was approached by Dionne Rose, a movie producer based in London, and a contract was agreed for him to write the screenplay for a movie about a real-life alien abduction called A70. Unfortunately, creative differences intervened and the project eventually went elsewhere.

No longer writing or actively participating in the UFO field, Steve still has an interest in the subject and his articles can still be found on his website www.mercuryrapids.co.uk

All books were published by iUniverse and are available on line.

No such thing as aliens? X-Files star David Duchovny says the truth ISN'T out there

DAVID Duchovny, best known for his leading role as FBI agent Fox Mulder, has revealed he does not believe in aliens.

David Duchovny has revealed he doesn't trust people to be able to keep aliens secret

The actor returns to the screen next week in a new series of the X-Files alongside Gillian Anderson, who will reprise her role as Agent Dana Scully M.D.

But it appears the extra terrestrial antics of the cult sci-fi show have not rubbed off on the 55-year-old.

He said: “I’ve never known anybody, not one person, to keep a secret.

The cult sci-fi hit has not managed to convince the 55-year-old about extra terrestrials

“You come home from work and you go: ‘Honey I’ve got to tell you something, but you’ve got to promise not to tell anybody.

“They’re here, I saw an alien today' and she’s like: ‘I won’t tell anybody’ and she is then straight on the phone with her mom.”

“I find it hard to believe that they’re keeping aliens from us because it’s pretty juicy.

It’s not the first time Duchovny suggested we will not be having any close encounters of a third kind any time soon.

When asked last year if researching UFOs for his role had made him believe in flying saucers, he said: “No and never."

He added: "I remember I used to try to answer my fan mail because there wasn't much of it, and they would bring it to me. There were stories that people would tell me about being abducted.

"They would just make me sad. I thought that these people had issues that they had to deal with."

Ancient Alien Life On Mars? Evidence In Deepest Basins Points To Ancient Martian Life

Did alien life exist on Mars in the distant past? A new study reveals evidence that might help answer this question.

Evidence for Martian lakes was discovered in some of Mars's deepest basins and will continue to be examined this coming summer. (Photo : Twitter/NASA)

New findings from researchers at the Planetary Science Institute reveal that some of the deepest basins on Mars were formed by groundwater circulation underneath a massive tectonic rift zone that was found along the sides of some of the solar system's largest volcanic plateaus approximately three billion years ago. These basins were likely gradually covered by lava and water lakes stemming from subsurface pressurized sources over the course of hundreds of millions of years and point to the possibility of Mars harboring life in the past.

"The temperature ranges, presence of liquid water, and nutrient availability, which characterize known habitable environments on Earth, have higher chances of forming on Mars in areas of long-lived water and volcanic processes," Alexis Rodriguez, lead author of the paper, said in a press release. "Existing salt deposits and sedimentary structures of possible emplacement within Martian paleo-lakes are of particular astrobiological importance when looking for past habitable areas on Mars."

(Photo : Planetary Science Institute) The photo above shows the floor (top) of a basin where ancient shallow lakes might have formed as well as the floor (bottom) of a Martian high mountain lake in the Tibetan plateau. All of the arrows identify ridges that bear similarity to each other and surround the basin’s floor.

"This is particularly true if the discharge of early Mars groundwater, perhaps liked to hydrothermal systems that were active for billions of years, contributed to the formation of the paleo-lakes, as it is proposed in this investigation," he added.

The discovery of these paleo-lake sites on Mars brings up many new questions, especially considering that Mars' cold and thin atmosphere would produce ponded water that would be much different than the Earth's in terms of behavior.

"In this research we propose a Tibetan region where high mountain lakes show unique sets of landforms that might explain some basin interior features in the studied region of Mars," Rodriguez said.

Further research, which will be conducted in collaboration with the Chinese government, will explore this Tibetan region in order to uncover their potential to act as local astrobiological analog sites; this research will be conducted during the summer of 2016.

Did aliens cause this volcano to erupt? Bizarre video sparks UFO rumours among sky-watchers

The strange disc-shaped objects are seen whizzing past Colima Volcano in Mexico, just as it erupts

Were aliens behind the sudden explosive activity of this volcano?

Conspiracy theorists say this intriguing video footage shows a cigar-shaped UFO flying past the mouth of the Colima Volcano in Mexico just as it erupts.

The strange, thin disc is seen passing quickly through the sky just as smoke and lava begins to spew from the top of the mountain.

It appears to pass through or behind the smouldering magma before exiting through the other side and continuing to fly off.

The mysterious footage has sent UFO hunters into a spin.

Ufologist Scott C. Waring believes it shows an alien spacecraft performing a pick-up or drop off at an extra-terrestrial hideaway deep within the volcanic chamber.

"The UFO passes over and through the lava shot up from the mouth of the volcano," he wrote.

"As it gets above the mouth there is a bust of light and all goes black. The UFO then flies away.

"I believe that as the UFO went over the mouth, it transported someone or something to or from the underground base below the volcano."

If conspiracy theorists are to be believed, cigar-shaped UFOs are on something of a tour of Earth at the moment.

Watch cluster of UFOs flying in unison over Moscow in video declared AUTHENTIC by experts

The film - shot in Russia's capital at the end of last month - shows four unidentified lights hovering and swooping above the city in what looks like synchronised flying

Astonishing video footage of what looks like a cluster of UFOs flying in unison over Moscow has been declared authentic by experts.

The film - shot in Russia's capital at the end of last month - shows four unidentified lights hovering and swooping above the city in what looks like synchronised flying.

Mysterious: Experts declare UFO footage authentic

Thousands of people have now viewed the images across the county, which seem to show the objects moving at great speed and then hovering in formation.

The man who filmed the Close Encounters-style spectacle, named only as Timur in local media, explained: "There were four balls of light. A red one to the left, two white ones in the middle and a less bright one to the right."

He added: "Sometimes the one on the right would disappear and come back. All together, they made the geometric shape of a rhombus."

And he dismissed some critics' claims that the lights could be a reflection of lights on the ground.

Timur explained: "I’ve been living in the district for two years, and have never seen anything like that before."

Now Russian UFO expert Vadim Chernobrov has confirmed that he believes the footage is genuine.

He explained: "The lights cannot be explained as either an atmospheric or a cosmic image.

"The chance of it being some sort of mirage is also impossible due to the precise geometric shape the objects have formed."

Chernobrov added: "Some have said they could look like Chinese lanterns but I would dismiss this possibility because of the movements and speed of the objects."

UK X-Files: Top-secret UFO docs which could 'prove aliens exist' may be released in DAYS

CONFIDENTIAL government reports into UFO sightings - dubbed the "British X-Files" - could be made publicly available within DAYS.

The long-awaited boost for alien hunters follows years of campaigning by the British disclosure movement, who want all world Governments to release all their alien files.

UFO researchers, backed by a House of Lords peer, have been fighting for the release of 18 top secret Ministry of Defence (MoD) files about UFO sightings from more than 30 years ago.

The Government faced claims of a cover-up from conspiracy theorists when their release was stalled at the end of 2013.

Some investigators claim the files could provide key evidence of extra-terrestrial life visiting the UK and of specific information about famous controversial sightings such as the Rendlesham Forest incident - a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and the alleged landing of one or more craft in Suffolk in late December 1980.

Lord Black of Brentwood, who asked the Government for an update through a Parliamentary question last summer, was assured the files would be released by the MoD to the National Archives by March this year.

Alien hunters are confident these records could prove if extra-terrestrial life actually exists, as these were the most secretive files held in the private offices of various Cabinet ministers.

Although the files are being released to the National Archives, it is not yet clear when they will be available for public inspection.

This is because the archive organisation can set its own release date.

In his Parliamentary question, Lord Black asked: "What is the latest estimate of when the 18 files will be passed to the National Archives, and then released to the public."

Defence Minister Earl Howe replied: "The latest estimate of when the 18 files will be delivered to the National Archives is before March 2016.

"The National Archives will make the necessary judgement about when they release these files to the public."

A number of older UFO files held by the UK government have already been released, including details of sightings by officials and police.

Nick Pope, who used to investigate the existence of UFOs for the MoD, said the files should contain some fascinating sightings.

However, referring to what is often called the most famous UFO claim in history - sparked by claims an alien spaceship crashed in New Mexico, US, in 1947 - Mr Pope added the soon-to-be-released files are probably not a "UK Roswell-style UFO in a hangar style cover up".

When the release of the files were stalled in 2014, which the MoD blamed on "additional processing requirements", Mr Pope sympathised with alien researchers.

He said at the time: "This massive delay will have conspiracy theorists up in arms. It looks like the MoD is stalling.

"The suspicion will be that there's a bombshell in these files and that the Ministry does not know how to handle it.

"I can understand why conspiracy theorists will be angry and suspicious."

Mr Pope worked at the MoD for 21 years, but was specifically assigned to investigate UFOs for a three-year period.

He said: "Having worked on the MoD's UFO project I'm sorry to say that we don't have any crashed spaceships hidden away in some RAF hangar, as some believe, but we do have some fascinating and unexplained cases in our files."

The 'Redlesham Forest incident', which is alleged to have taken place near RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1980, saw US Airman First Class John Burroughs, who was stationed there, exposed to radiation after a mystery "UFO visitation".

He has since won damages from the American military, but still wants answers about what happened and hopes they will be in the new files.

Pat Frascogna, his lawyer, said: "We know there is information contained in these MoD files about the Rendlesham Forest incident because the MoD clearly indicated so in responding to a Freedom of Information request by John Burroughs last year."

100 reported UFO sightings in Minnesota every year, local group says

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - TV shows like "The X-Files" have explored the possibility of UFOs. And while there have been reported sightings all over the world, some say they continue to land right in Minnesota.

A local UFO group said there are about 100 reported sightings a year in the state. Although nearly 90 percent turn out to be something like a meteor or a plane, the others remain a mystery.

“In general, we've had a steady stream of sightings for decades,” Bill McNeff, Chief Investigator for the Minnesota chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, said. “I think the general public should be fascinated by the possibility of life from other plants from other star systems.”

Last month, the CIA released a picture of an unidentified flying object over Minneapolis in 1960 from its own so-called "X-files" – a group of UFO documents declassified in 1978.

McNeff said he investigated a claim by a Prior Lake couple who saw a reddish-orange glowing sphere about 6-feet wide hovering over a swamp behind their condo last fall – “As it rose up, it emitted two other red-orange spheres that were smaller. They were one and a half feet in diameter. These three objects flew in formation until they were out of sight."

Minnesota sheriff's deputy reports UFO sighting

But the most famous UFO sighting in Minnesota was a close encounter between a Marshall County Sheriff's deputy and a beam of light outside the town of Stephen back in 1979. Val Johnson said it came right at him, shattering his windshield and bending the antennae on his patrol car 90 degrees.

Johnson woke up 39 minutes later with burns around his eyes. And the clock on his dashboard and watch had both stopped for 14 minutes – “There was a lot of physical evidence, and it was a law officer. A respected law officer,” McNeff said.

It even inspired several scenes on the latest season of the "Fargo" TV show. Whether you believe UFOs are real or not, they seem to be more mainstream than ever.

REVEALED: Britain's capital for alien UFO sightings

MANCHESTER is Britain’s UFO capital, with flying saucers spotted above the city every fortnight.

Sightings over the city in the past year include mystery craft, five metallic objects in a triangle formation and a “red green ball flying at great speed”.

According to the Mutual UFO Network (Mufon) there are 23 UFOs spotted in Greater Manchester every year.

Footage taken by a witness in Tameside last year showed an “unusual” spacecraft streaming through the air.

The witness said: “The object made very rapid movements and went at speeds no other aircraft can go.”

The data released by Mufon, a US company dedicated to reporting UFO sightings, follows another viewing in nearby Stockport in March last year.

A witness said: “I noticed a strange light that looked like a cylinder. After maybe 30 seconds it vanished at such speed I couldn’t tell which direction it went in.”

Earlier this month a stunned motorist spoke out after seeing a mysterious black object in the sky above Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.

Taxi driver Paul Douglas filmed a UFO floating near Salford Quays in July last year.

THE SCOTTISH UFO & PARANORMAL CONFERENCE (June 25th)

I'd like to inform you of the biggest paranormal event to occur in Scotland this year, The Scottish UFO & Paranormal Conference 2016. This will be occurring at the Debates Chamber, Glasgow University, 32 University Avenue, Glasgow, Scotland, G12 8Q on Saturday June 25th between 10:00am and 8:00pm.

We have a terrific line up of speakers for this year's conference,
Roland Watson, 'A Paranormal History of Nessie'
Alyson Dunlop, 'Demons & Dark Places'
Ron Halliday, 'UFO Scotland'
Malcolm Robinson, 'Poltergeists, The Best Cases'
Charmaine Fraser, 'The UK Wildman, Is There A British Bigfoot'?
Gordon Rutter, 'Mushrooms, Myths & Magic'
Larry Warren & Peter Robbins, 'The Rendlesham Forest Mystery'
The event will be hosted by well know Bonnybridge UFO Councillor, Billy Buchanan and is sponsored by Phenomena Magazine.

Tickets Priced just £10 for the full day (a bargain) are available from me. Send cheque or postal order made payable to, SPI Scotland and send to,

Scottish UFO & Paranormal Conference (2016)
Flat 5, Unicorn House,
Croft Road,
Hastings,
East Sussex,
England,
TN34 3HE.

If you only go to one conference this year, this is the one.
Best wishes. Malcolm Robinson.

A pair of police officer brothers spot 'UFOs' hovering in the sky while on their way to work

A pair of police officer brothers claim to have spotted 'UFOs' hovering in the sky on their way to work.
PCSO Simon Ives, 42, said he was walking to a bus stop, in Collier Row, Essex, when he saw an alien spaceship.
Even more miraculously, minutes after Simon had finished rubbing his eyes in disbelief, his brother then got in touch to say he had spotted another UFO while driving down the M11.

PCSO Simon Ives took this picture of what he believes to be a UFO after spotting it in the sky above Essex

Simon said: 'I was on my way to work when I saw an object about the size of a football field with three bright orange lights hanging in the sky.
'It waited in a stationary position for about six to eight minutes before moving west over my head.
'It was absolutely incredible and I cannot explain what it was.
'There was another member of the public standing near me so I called him over and he shouted, 'Oh my god.'

'I can safely say it wasn't a plane because from tip to tail it was far too big.
'I am into astronomy and what I saw was very unusual.'
The father of one, who spotted the object at 5.18am last Friday, said: 'What was really weird was my brother sent me a text a few minutes later to say he'd seen the same object.'
Jonathan Ives, 35, a Metropolitan policeman, who lives in Romford with his wife Sarah, added: 'I told him, 'You've got to be joking me.'
'I know it wasn't a commercial object.

Mr Ives claimed the alleged UFO, pictured, was about the size of a football field with three bright orange lights

'It could have been a dark, military project or possibly something from outside this world.
'I am definitely open-minded to the idea of there being life outside our own planet.'
Simon, who has served in the Met for 15 years, said: 'This isn't the first time I've seen a UFO. In 2011 in Leytonstone I saw something similar that I can't explain.
'I also set up a paranormal group a few years ago to investigate ghost sightings in haunted houses.
'We didn't find any definitive evidence of ghosts but it was still quite frightening.'

Four new elements were added to the periodic table

Every single science textbook in the world is now out of date after four new elements were added to the periodic table, finally completing the seventh row.

Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 were added at the very end of 2015, marking the first time new atoms have been added to the table since 2011.



The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) deemed that there was sufficient evidence provided by the researchers to claim the discovery of the four new elements. It approved the new elements on December 30.

Element 113, which has a temporary working name of ununtrium and a symbol Uut, was discovered by a Japanese team at the Riken Institute.

Elements 115, 117, and 118, which have the temporary working names of ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium respectively, were discovered by Russian and American researchers.

Kosuke Morita, the leader of the Riken team, smiles as he points to a board displaying the new atomic element 113 during a press conference in Wako, Saitama prefecture on December 31, 2015.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
Kosuke Morita, the leader of the Riken team, smiles as he points to a board displaying the new atomic element 113 during a press conference in Wako, Saitama prefecture on December 31, 2015.
The new elements, which are all man-made, fill out the seventh row of the periodic table, where elements are ranked according to their atomic number - the number of protons in their nucleus.

"The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row," Professor Jan Reedijk, president of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC, said in a press release.

"IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalizing names and symbols for these elements temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118)" said Professor Jan Reedijk, President of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC.

New elements can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist.

The proposed names and two-letter symbols will be presented for public review for five months after which the IUPAC will make a final decision.

Education giant Pearson said that it would make any changes to its textbooks.

"We regularly review our course materials and textbooks to ensure they are up to date, and any changes that need to be made will be done at the appropriate moment to ensure the best learning outcomes for schools and students," a spokesperson for the company told CNBC.

Space and Alien Snowfest

Unidentified flying objects. They’re one of the most mysterious phenomena on Earth, or off. Are they extraterrestrial spacecraft? Secret government plane tests? If you’ve ever wondered about the truth behind UFOs, you may be in luck.

The Space and Alien Snowfest ufology conference is coming to Big Bear Feb. 5-7. The conference features special guests George Noory and producer Tom Danheiser of the Coast to Coast AM radio show, along with Jason Martell, Mike Bara and Linda Moulton Howe, who have each appeared on the History Channel show “Ancient Aliens.” Other guests include ufologists Stanton Friedman, Micah Hanks, Richard Dolan and Chase Kloetzke.



The conference will include panel and audience discussions, as well as presentations from the various guests. The Space and Alien Snowfest will take place at the Big Bear Lake Convention Center at 42900 Big Bear Blvd., Big Bear Lake. Tickets for the whole weekend are $209, or single day tickets are available for $99. Visit www.aliensnowfest.com for more information. Call 909-648-5776 for tickets.

Aliens invade — in an exhibit

Inside the city's GardenWalk center, in the suite formerly occupied by Tommy Bahama, is a new walk-through exhibition called "Encounters: U.F.O. Experience," which organizers call a beginner's course to ufology — the study of visual records and other alleged evidence of unidentified flying objects — that will appeal to both children and adults.

"This is a 101 on UFOs," said Brian Bouquet, a San Juan Capistrano resident who curated the content and created the storyline.

The exhibition, which opened Jan. 1 and is tentatively scheduled to run through May 31, features galleries containing replicas of artifacts related to ufology, as well as videos and informative text, all in about 3,800 square feet.


A vampire squid is among the various alien specimens on display. (Kevin Chang / Weekend)

After passing the entrance, which is highlighted with a replica E.T. from the 1982 classic film, patrons go into a gallery dedicated to the "ancient aliens" hypothesis, which theorized that extraterrestrials visited Earth and influenced early humanity.

Inside, viewers can learn about the mysterious Moai statues on Easter Island, the Nazca Lines in Peru and Pumapunku in Bolivia, where precisely cut stones held together without any mortar has some theorizing that advanced alien technology served as an aid in the construction.


Alien specimens align a wall at the "Encounters: U.F.O. Experience" exhibit. (Kevin Chang / Weekend)

"We don't have even modern cranes that can lift the heavy rocks into those positions," Bouquet said.

The second room, which Bouquet considers the "Area 51 military room," brings viewers into the modern era of ufology, beginning in the 1940s to the 1950s. During that time, the term "flying saucers" came into the general lexicon, and government entities like the military began paying attention to reports of UFO sightings.

Among the displays is information about the Roswell, N.M., incident of 1947 when, some believe, the U.S. military recovered a crashed alien spacecraft and bodies. Replicas of the Roswell Daily Record are among the artifacts, and the different classifications of alien encounters and UFO sightings are described.


News articles of Roswell, New Mexico from 1947. (Kevin Chang / Weekend)

Around the corner is the "sightings gallery," where a video plays UFO eyewitness testimonies. Another video shows footage of spacecrafts and asks viewers to determine if what they are seeing could be real or is a known hoax.

And, particularly for kids, Bouquet said, is the alien body whose "guts" can be touched.

The gallery also includes a room where guests can listen with headphones to real 911 calls — 82 in total — from people reporting UFOs.

The final room is dubbed the "abduction gallery," meant to look like the inside of an alien mothership. It holds preserved species inside jars and attempts to explain ufology from the 1970s to the present day, including some tie-ins to pop culture.

Getting into the abduction gallery involves going past the door marked "Do not enter: Alien autopsy occurring" and walking through a small tunnel where a fog machine offers an eerie feel. The tunnel, Bouquet said, is meant to re-create the feeling of abductees who report seeing a white light and feeling disoriented.

Before exiting the exhibition, viewers can take pictures next to a menacing alien from the "Alien" films.

An "escape room" experience, themed as fleeing from an alien abduction, is expected to open in the coming weeks. It will have a separate admission fee.

"Encounters: U.F.O. Experience" came to Anaheim after runs in Arizona and South Carolina. About 1,000 people have seen it so far in Orange County, and nearly 40,000 viewed it during its three-week run in Arizona, Bouquet said.

*

IF YOU GO

What: "Encounters: U.F.O. Experience"

Where: Anaheim GardenWalk, Suite 132, 321 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim

When: 2 to 9 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays through Thursdays; noon to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Closed Mondays.

Cost: $12 for adults, $8 for children. Children under 8 are free. Audio guides are $2. The exhibition is offering a limited-time Groupon special: two adults for $14.

Information: ufoexhibition.com or (310) 902-5461.

Tim Peake says aliens are REAL and there's 'high chance' of humans discovering extraterrestrial life

08:51, 15 JAN 2016 UPDATED 10:15, 15 JAN 2016 The Mirror
BY JASPER HAMILL
Major Tim says he's confident that we're not alone in the universe and makes an astonishing prediction


It's life Tim, but not as we know it: Peake is a 'firm believer' in extraterrestrial life

Astronaut Tim Peake is set to join a handful of British astronauts who have performed a space walk.

But the Chichester-born spaceman has said that his incredible journey is just one small step in a longer mission which could eventually result in humans discovering life on another planet.

Peake said he was confident scientists would soon crack the "big question" of whether we are alone in the universe.

"There is a high chance we will soon discover there was - or is - life in our solar system," the 43-year-old told Mirror Online.

"I would be very surprised if there wasn't life elsewhere in the universe."

However, the astronaut said he didn't expect little green men to suddenly pop up from the craters of the Red Planet.

"Single cell life forms might be found on Mars," he continued.

Tim also suggested extraterrestrial organisms might be found on the moons of Saturn or Jupiter, some of which are thought to hide vast oceans of water.

He said: "Wherever there is water, there is the possibility of life."

On December 15, the former military test pilot blasted off on a mission to the International Space Station, leaving his wife and two sons back on Earth.

Speaking from Kazakhstan, Tim said his decision to fly into space was "not taken lightly" and had prompted "serious discussions" with his wife.

"There is risk involved and it's not easy," he confessed.

"In the last year, we've seen supply vehicles which haven't made it into orbit.

"It would be unnatural if my family weren't worried about me going into space, but they are very supportive."

In less than a fortnight, Tim will blast off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket to begin his six-month stay on the International Space Station .