Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Published on Feb 25, 2013 by Charles Lamour
The submitter states:
This is an extraordinary night for UFOs over Vancouver on Monday February 25, 2013. I noticed this object initially with my naked eye just hovering; then started slowly to move downtown Vancouver about 1000 feet up.
It was orange/ amber in color and strobing its own light but very dim. There was noise as it traveled from southwest to northeast unlike what I said. The video is 6 minutes long as it travels very slowly. It is not a not a chinese lantern either.
This was an amazing sighting because I saw it with the naked eye, but was too dim to capture with video.
The crazy thing is that minutes later I captured 2 more videos of 2 more higher up traveling the same direction.
An alien invasion is headed our way. While it's the stuff of sci-fi books, movies, TV series and hi-tech video games, what if Earth suddenly faced a real threat from out-of-this-world invaders?
How would the human race survive an encounter with an unknown civilization from another world? Even President Ronald Reagan, speaking at the United Nations in 1988, suggested that the countries of Earth would unite over an impending confrontation with an invading species from outer space. Watch President Reagan's 'alien threat' moment at the United Nations.
The Science Channel is about to unleash a month-long series of special programs all aimed at trying to answer the provocative question that Mankind has always wondered about: "Are We Alone?"
Beginning March 5, four world premiere episodes will feature scientists hunting for alien life, including how humans may respond to a scenario of ETs coming to Earth.
"One idea is that these aliens have left their home world and they're out looking around," according to Hakeem Oluseyi, professor of physics and space sciences at Florida Institute of Technology.
Oluseyi is featured in the Science Channel's first two episodes of "Are We Alone?" in which an alien invasion and its aftermath are depicted. He told The Huffington Post that an alien civilization that has embarked on a very long journey from their world to ours may do it for one of two reasons.
"One reason is they had to leave their home world. The recent Russian meteorite taught us that in order for a species to continue indefinitely into the future, it must develop the ability to leave its home planet. Planets and stars are temporary physical entities and there's a small window of time for any individual planetary surface to harbor life."
Oluseyi suggests the other reason why ETs may come here is because "they're just like us. What I mean by that is that they are intelligent -- they want to find other life and civilizations -- and that would be worth the cost. I think something like that would be a very well planned event." Watch this trailer for the Science Channel's 'Are We Alone?'
If contact with an alien species is not that far off -- be they invaders or not -- how does Oluseyi think Earthlings will be affected?
"The only thing I can compare it with is an event like 9-11, where suddenly everything stopped and nothing was ever going to be the same again. At that point, you go through a lot of feelings.
"On the other hand, you have a sense of fear of the unknown where you know tomorrow's different, but it all depends on how those moments unfold."
The outer space visitors will land on the Science Channel March 5 in "Alien Encounters: The Invasion." The following week will offer "Alien Encounters: The Offspring."
Then, on March 19 and 26, "Aliens: The Definitive Guide" will explore what science has rapidly begun to learn about potential life beyond our planet on possible Earth-like exoplanets.
Check your local television listings and the Science Channel for more information.
There was a time, many decades ago, at which the UFO enigma was generally taken more seriously, and treated less like a mere subject of interest to a popular audience. This was due mostly to the fact that the presence of such technology, despite the fact that agencies like the U.S. Air Force often worked to conceal whether certain aspects of the ongoing mystery were ever revealed to the public, nonetheless represented something that could present national security risks in the Americas. In turn, these same existential threats would have had to be applied on a worldwide scale, if the UFO phenomenon had ever proven, conclusively, to be anything but a secret terrestrial technology being employed by various superpowers here on Earth. However, as the history of ufology has shown over time, no definite proof of an extraterrestrial component to the UFO enigma has ever surfaced, despite there being some evidence to support this as a theory.
Thus, the extraterrestrial idea has been largely ridiculed, especially in recent years, by science writers who, after decades of evidence that remains in the category of being “non-proof”, fail to be amazed at the offerings of the UFO community. But this, in truth, is nothing new; in fact, there were popular authors decades ago who, as journalists, seemed to straddle the fence in terms of their interests in subjects like UFOs, often diving into the depths of abject, presumptuous debunking if the circumstances deemed necessary… and among such writers, one had actually become best known for his popular titles that took a more casual approach to the unexplained. Spanning the years between childhood and my teenage years, I was often very interested in the UFO subject, in addition to other extraordinary claims pertaining to strange, unexplained phenomenon. One individual whose work consistently dealt with such subjects of interest as Bigfoot, ghosts and ancient astronauts was Daniel Cohen, a Chicago native who obtained a journalism degree in Illinois, and went on to become an editor at “one of the large circulation science magazines in New York” (likely Science Digest), according to the author biography featured in a book that will be the present focus of this post: Myths of the Space Age: A Skeptic’s Inquiry Into the Pseudo-Scientific World of Today. But why, one might ask, do I choose to provide commentary on a decades old book like this (the Tower mass market paperback edition gives no publication date, although it was likely penned around 1968)? My reasoning here is that, while UFOs have become easily relegated to being a watercooler subject in the modern era, existing (supposedly) within an age of digital CGI manipulations and a host of other technologies that enable hoaxing more readily, it is interesting to go back to a time when the UFO mystery was still considered a matter or some importance, and look at the ways that “scientific” thought sought to either explain, or substantiate various phenomenon. The overall consensus: not much has changed in the past fifty years or so. “In a book about belief, I think it is best for an author to lay his own prejudices on the table at once,” Cohen begins in the book’s first chapter, “so that the reader can take them into account in evaluating what follows. I am a skeptic.” And indeed, much like the modern skeptic, Cohen proceeded to bash an belittle the information often cited as credible proof of the existence of such things as astrology, ESP, past lives, and yes, my particular favorite, flying saucers. Granted, Cohen’s skeptical approach is often very reasonable, and shows that his is a mind well acquainted with the subject matter (he did, after all, author a number of other books that seemed far less scathing with the presentation, and to be fair, I personally recall hearing Cohen say, during a radio appearance I participated in where he was being interviewed years ago, that he considered himself largely to be “a folklorist,” and that his occasional “serious” treatment of occult subjects should be viewed as such.
Within the pages of Myths of the Space Age, there is far less friendly (nor folky) banter about ancient astronauts or spacemen; here, Cohen goes after the subject and, at times, raises some interesting questions regarding the research of previous investigators. In one notable instance, Cohen goes after a famous 1959 sighting from New Guinea, detailed in Jacques Vallee’s book Anatomy of a Phenomenon, which Cohen had previously reviewed, claiming that there was a lack of evidence documenting the encounter. Interestingly, this would finally lead to the author being sent a copy of a statement from one of the witnesses, which he also dismissed:
“The present writer complained of this lack of documentation in a review he wrote of Vallee’s book, and was assured by saucer enthusiiasts that there was “lots of documentation.” But no one could seem to remember where it was. Finally he was sent what was supposed to be a copy of a letter written by the Reverend Gill himself, which stated that he did see what he said he saw, and he couldn’t understand it any better than the next fellow, and he certainly wished someone would explain it someday. This is hardly adequate proof. But to the true believer it is enough–and he usually settles for much less.”
Arguably, Cohen is right in this instance: it’s a shame that no better documentation could be afforded him in such an otherwise compelling story. And in other words, nobody’s word can be taken unto itself, and at face value. The merit of any individual–whether a reverend, or home-wrecker–should be taken as gospel truth. Toward the end of the chapter where Cohen focuses on UFOs is where we begin to see, yet again, a number of the popular skeptical preconceptions existent today, which debunkers often use in attempts at derailing the claims of UFO witnesses. “It is difficult to grasp that large numbers of honest and intelligent people can be mistaken about what they see,” Cohen writes of the usual defense for witnesses. He then goes on to say that, “Perhaps in the end it will turn out that at least a small number of unexplained sightings have been caused by some as yet unknown natural phenomena, but unless the quality of reported sightings improves radically, the case for extraterrestrial spaceships looks weak.” Again, while it was widely accepted at the time among ufologists that some varieties of unexplained phenomenon could be extraterrestrial, it often seems, even today, that when a “debunker” comes along, they think that merely arming themselves with an argument stating that, “it ain’t aliens” does enough to disprove flying saucer reports. The gaping hole left in the argument, of course, is that UFOs could be a lot of things without having to be extraterrestrial; and that merely arguing against an ET hypothesis does not “solve,” or for that matter, present any plausible, skeptical “solution” to the UFO mystery.
Interestingly, one of the main writers Cohen criticized, as mentioned earlier, was Jacques Vallee, who would later go on to write in book like Confrontations that he felt an ET hypothesis was lacking in terms of covering all the details existent within UFO research. At times, others such as J. Allen Hynek had also questioned the ET angle to studying UFOs, along with a host of other conventional approaches to UFO research. In other words, if UFOs, for instance, were in large part eyewitness reports of as-yet unidentified government craft, then the casual skeptic who argues against evidence of ETs piloting such craft does little to disprove the existence of UFOs in the broader sense. Indeed, looking at the “skeptical” treatment of the UFO subject many decades ago (and this coming from a writer, yours truly, who also takes a largely skeptical, but reasonable approach to UFO research) shows that while the debunker of yesteryear was eager to remove the possibility of alien intervention of any kind, this was most often done in complete lack of acknowledgement for the remaining UFO problem. Whatever the phenomenon was that went on to be reported by government employees, pilots, generals, scientists, and an entire plethora of other individuals who, according to Cohen, must have been incapable of producing the sorts of “quality reported sightings” needed for a conclusive determination, is anyone’s guess. And having allowed a few decades to span since then, while I would agree that quality reporting is still a necessity, by now maybe we could also argue that the Roswells and Rendleshams of our day would suffer less criticism from both sides if a more reasonable, all-inclusive brand of skepticism were employed in their study, rather than merely debating whether UFOs are alien or not.
Spacing Out! recaps day one of the International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills Arizona. They interview Ben Hansen from SyFy's Fact or Faked about night vision equipment and some mysterious footage he filmed by Skinwalker Ranch. Ben has a tent set-up with Night Optics USA, a Bushnell company, in the vendor room. They will be at the event through Sunday for people to test out their night vision gear and will be hosting a special free night vision UFO skywatch on Friday March 1, 2013 at the event.
Astrobiologists searching for life elsewhere in the universe use the current understanding of life to target their search. Small, rocky, Earth-like worlds are considered more likely to be hospitable to life as we know it. But scientists have only recently been able to detect these smaller planets thanks to newer tools like the Kepler space telescope.
Studying the atmospheres of these rocky worlds would help to better determine if they could support life. Because oxygen is so important to life on Earth, detecting oxygen on an alien planet would be an exciting indicator that life could potentially exist there. Unfortunately, current telescopes are not sensitive enough to analyze the atmospheres of these small rocky planets. But massive telescopes currently being constructed will be able to see such atmospheres, and perhaps detect oxygen on an alien world.
Artist’s impression of the E-ELT. (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada)
According to NewScientist.com, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will be one of these giant telescopes. The European Southern Observatory explains that the E-ELT will be “the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world and will gather 13 times more light than the largest optical telescopes existing today.”
But as NewScientist.com explains, detecting oxygen on one of these planets is still going to be a long shot because “an exoplanet has to pass in front of its star many times to gather enough data to say for sure whether oxygen is present. Depending on the planet’s orbit and the size of its star, that could take between 4 and 400 years.”
The E-ELT is projected to begin operating in the next decade.
Released in cinemas last week, Escape from Planet Earth has
received generally negative reviews from critics, scoring a measly 27% on RottenTomatoes.com
at the time of writing. The children’s film -- which sees aliens escape from
Area 51 -- has so far grossedapproximately $23 million against its $40 million
budget.
In one of its more positive write-ups,
The
Hollywood Reporter’s Stephen Farber describes Escape from Planet Earth as
“Passable animated entertainment” that is “stronger on humor than
adventure.”
The
Wrap’s Alonso Duralde was less kind, noting
that “The kids in the theater with me never mustered a single laugh or gasp of
excitement” and calling the film “a black hole of
entertainment.”
Laramey Legel of Film.com
is even more to the point with his observation that the film “Has it all for
people looking for nothing.” Ouch.
Megan Fox to star in
‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’
Michael Bay has announced via his website
that he will reunite with Megan Fox for his upcoming alien-flavoredTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
There's no word yet on who Fox will play, but it seems almost certain she’ll
take the role of reporter April O'Neil.
The good news is that Bay will not be
directing TMNT, only producing it. The bad news is that the director is to be
Jonathan Liebesman, who delivered the filmic abortions Battle Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans. In case readers
still care, the film will begin shooting in April and is currently scheduled for
release on May 16, 2014.
‘Ben 10’ movie gets a
writer
It was announced in 2011 that producer Joel Silver was working
to bring Cartoon Network’s Ben 10 to the big screen.
The project has been developing ever since, and now The
Hollywood Reporter has it that Ryan Engle has been
hired to rewrite the screenplay (which was previously drafted by Albert
Torres).
The kids’ TV series is about a boy, Ben
Tennyson, who discovers a strange wrist watch that allows him to transforms into
10 different aliens with super powers.
Engle is best known for his work
on the forthcoming video game adaptation
Rampage.
Expect a 2014
release.
‘The Host’: new
trailer
The latest trailer for the up-coming
body-snatching alien teen flick The Host...
J.J. Abrams to make
‘Half-Life’ and ‘Portal’ movies?
Big
screen versions of the Half-Life and Portal video games may be on
the horizon. Polygon
reports that Gabe Newell – managing director of game company Valve – joined
director J.J. Abrams on stage at the recent DICE Summit where the pair dropped
hints that they are to team up creatively.
"There's an idea we have for a game that we'd
like to work with Valve on," said Abrams, who recently signed-up
to helm the new Star Wars movie for Disney and LucasFilm.
"We're super excited about that,"
Newell added, "and we also want to
talk about making movies, either a 'Portal' movie or a 'Half-Life' movie... What we are
actually doing here, we are recapitulating a series of conversations going on.
We reached the point that we decided to do more than
talk."
The first Half-Life game was released in 1998
and follows a theoretical physicist, Gordon Freeman, who opens a dimensional
rift between a New Mexico research facility and a world of alien monsters called
Xen.
Portal, meanwhile,
is a spinoff of Half-Life
released in 2007. In it, a test subject named Chell is forced to navigate a
rival research company's laboratories armed with a device that can open portals
through space.
There are a number of intriguing disclosures contained in one of the batches of declassified British Government files on UFOs that surfaced in 2012. Among them are the notable (and lengthy) references to, and papers on, certain people within the UK-based UFO research field who had been secretly watched by officialdom. In some cases, they were watched for a very long time and by more than one agency or arm of the British Government. Interestingly, the “saucer spying” was undertaken by agencies outside of the Ministry of Defense. Yet, we have, for years, been led to believe that the MoD is the only agency that plays a meaningful role in the UFO issue when it comes to the British Government. Governments distorting and hiding the facts? Really? Surely not?! And should we be surprised to learn that other UK departments, beyond the MoD, are also implicated in the UFO puzzle? No, of course we shouldn’t be surprised! In fact, nothing should surprise us when it comes to official secrecy and saucers in the sky. The National Archive summarizes the information – and the relevant now-declassified, official files which I’m talking about - in the following fashion: “File DEFE 24/1984/1 (p294) contains a 1996 Parliamentary Question from Martin Redmond MP asking on how many occasions MI6 and GCHQ have monitored UFO investigations. This was interpreted to mean ‘have the agencies been keeping watch on UFOlogists.’ A background briefing says ‘neither agency in fact undertakes such activity, though GCHQ cannot rule out the possibility’ they had monitored ‘in other contexts individuals who have made a study of UFOs’. The MP was told the government do not comment on the intelligence and security agencies (p298).
“File DEFE 24/1987/1 (p262-65) reveals that in 1997 Special Branch took an interest in a UFOlogist who became obsessed with rumours of a secret UFO facility beneath RAF Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire. The base had become known as the British equivalent of the secret US military airbase ‘Area 51′ among conspiracy theorists. An internal note said ‘Special Branch…do not believe he poses a specific threat to security, but they are alert to the risk that others may use him as a conduit for their activities.’” Well, since the summary very conveniently fails to note the names of the people in question, it’s up to me to tell you who they were (and who they still are!).
Back in 1997, Robin Cole, of Cheltenham, England – the home to GCHQ (the Government Communications Headquarters) – wrote a fascinating and unique report on the agency’s involvement in the UFO phenomenon. And, for those who may not be aware of it, GCHQ is the UK equivalent of the US National Security Agency. After Cole’s report was published, he was visited by two representatives of the UK’s Special Branch, who wanted to “have a chat.” And since the pair made the mistake (a somewhat disastrous mistake, from their perspective) of announcing their visit in advance (via an early morning phone-call), Robin had the quick sense to clandestinely set up an audio-tape-recorder in his living-room. So, when the pair arrived and reeled off their questions to the fairly alarmed UFO researcher, Robin duly captured the entire conversation for posterity and without their knowledge. Much of the question-and-answer session with Robin (which, I should stress, was very cordial and not at all like what one would expect from the likes of the dreaded Men in Black) revolved around Special Branch’s deep interest in a Welsh UFO researcher named Matthew Williams – who just happens to be the “UFOlogist who became obsessed” with Royal Air Force Rudloe Manor, as referenced by the National Archives above.
I wrote extensively about the very (and I do mean VERY) weird saga of Robin and Matt in my 2006 book, On the Trail of the Saucer Spies, including the intricacies of the Special Branch/GCHQ angle as it related to the dynamic duo. I also told the whole story in the book of what is now just starting to surface via the UK Freedom of Information Act, more than half a decade later. The Cole/Williams story is an extremely strange one. It’s filled to the conspiratorial brim with tales of phone and house surveillance, possibly illegal entry into a private residence and the “acquisition” (or, as most of us understand the term, “stealing”) of certain photos of certain places, the Royal Air Force’s Provost and Security Services, and much, much more. At the time that On the Trail of the Saucer Spies was published, certain people in Ufology scoffed at my words and said it was utterly laughable to think that Special Branch and GCHQ might be involved in watching Matt and Robin, or indeed any players in late-1990s UK Ufology. I’m very pleased to see that seven years after On the Trail of the Saucer Spies was written, the files finally demonstrate the story was correct. Ufology is being watched…
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